Middle East Revisited

The Middle East is simply a great region, at least some places. Few places so close to Europe are so "Uneuropean" and few places give you the opportunity to turn back time 4000 years. Apart from the creation of mankind in present-day Ethiopia, the Middle East is the cradle of civilization in any respect.

Unfortunately, the Middle East also suffers from shitloads of group tourists. In particular Egypt is popular, and these days, the touristy parts of the country has converted into making a living entirely from tourism. Not good, as this converts all merchants into blood-sucking leeches with the single aim to get as much money from tourism as possible. It's hard to blame them for utilizing this easy way of living, but it sure has changed the society to the worse. From being very pleasant regions in 1998 and 2003, Luxor and Aswan have now converted into a survival exercise. It's hard not to get angry when merchant No. 1,000 that day tries to push you into his cousins shop. The Egyptian hassle simply converts the traveller int a person I don't want to be. Spending half the day fighting away stupid idiots is just not the right way of travelling.

However, fortunately there are idiot-free places, and in particular Alexandria and the rest of the north coast are just as great and virgin as ever. Suddenly, just a couple of hours from Cairo, people treats you like a welcome guest and a friend, and suddenly all the overcharging comes to an end. Just another proof that you should go for the untouristed parts of the world - preferably the ones which the media have doomed "terrorist nests". Places like Yemen, Afghanistan and Iran don't get any tourists at all and, consequently, these countries are much, much better for te traveller than the harrasment in Egypt. Sad but true.

The rest of the Middle East suffers from tourist over dose to a much lesser extent and a place like Kuwait is nothing short of a friendly pearl. A very expensive pearl, but you can easily use a few days running along in between the taal buildings and its population of white-clad Arabs and the Indian and Pakistani immigrant workers. All very friendly.

The Emirates are a bit similar, apart from the fact that Dubai has turned into the biggest shopping archade on the planet. Everything in Dubai is extreme, spanning from the immense Burj Khalifa to the Gold Souq where zillions worth of gold is on display. Even the sporting arrangements are amazing, in particular the Dubai World Cup, the most fashionable horse race on earth. Here, horses from anywhere fight for millions of dollarsand at night-time, the great show ends with an amazing set of fireworks and a small, intimate concert with stars like Elton John and Santana - experienced from a five-meter distance. Not bad at all!