7 Must-Have Travel Tech Accessories
Once the most important travel tech was your film camera, a map, some cash and a compass. Now don't travel without a local SIM card, and a solar charger for your iPhone.
travel
Traveling Slow Benefits You, Local Communities and the Environment
Travelling slow is the opposite of In and Out for the Instagram picture. There are no bus tours or itineraries. Or "we did this" and "we did that". Travelling slow is a way of life, and it might change yours and others'.
Dancing to Connect programs demonstrate the power of dance, especially for youth
English is my primary language, but even if I didn’t speak some Arabic, Greek and French too, I’d still be multilingual. As a dancer, dance educator and choreographer, I have always believed that I speak the universal language. Movement is life. As living beings, we move even before making our presence known to the world. […]
The ‘original iPad’ – 1,200 years before Apple
Turkish archaeologists have unearthed what Discovery News calls the ‘Byzantine iPad.” Dated to the 9th century A.D., the wooden tool was found among a shipyard of roughly 37 ancient ships in Istanbul. The original ‘iPad’ measures roughly seven inches, except it’s thicker and made of wood, and comprises five overlaid carved rectangular panels coated with wax, Discovery reports. “Yenikapı is a phenomenon with its 37 […]
Artsy Dar Ben Gacem hotel awakens bygone Ottoman era in Tunis
To sleep at Dar Ben Gacem is to spend a night in a bygone era. Located deep in the warren of alleyways and vendors that make up Tunis’ labyrinthian medina, this newly renovated artsy boutique hotel offers a tasteful glimpse of Ottoman period architecture and art.
Desert Breath spirals on Red Sea remind us of troubled Egypt’s immense beauty
To many Egyptians, the desert is a hostile place: water is scarce, terror cells hide in its vast expanse, or land mines make crossing them a death trap. But the Desert Breath land art project near Hurghada on the Red Sea coast reminds us that Egypt, despite its many troubles, is a place of extraordinary beauty.
The Iconic VW Van in the Middle East
Volkswagen’s “hippie van” was the preferred mode of transportation for peace lovers during the 1960s, but Brazil is shutting down the last production line this year to meet rigorous new safety requirements. See our nostalgic photo tour of VW vans in the Middle East.
Ottoman Palaces Converted into Gorgeous Boutique Efendi Hotel
Uri Jeremias peered over the roof of his restaurant back in 2001 and fell in love with a large abandoned building. It wasn’t for sale, but the restaurateur persevered, and eventually converted the Ottoman era palace into a resplendent boutique hotel.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts to be World’s Largest
David Chipperfield Architects have designed a resplendent new building in fascinating, frustrating Morocco, which will house the The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts – the largest of its kind in the world.
Cairo’s Garbage Workers Built Seven Extraordinary Cave Churches
We already have great respect for the Zabbaleen in Garbage City, the minority Coptic Christians who make a living sorting through Cairo’s trash, and then we saw these extraordinary Cave Churches over on Amusing Planet.
The “Arabian Canal” is a Defunct Water Conduit in Dubai
In my last post I featured a photograph of an unused structure out in the desert near Dubai, a concrete amphitheatre. It turns out there was more to explore.
Shi Shaoping Depicts China’s Desert Scenes with Eggs
There is something so haunting about desert landscapes, and much as we love our own in the Middle East region, we are blown away by China’s desert scenes depicted through Shi Shaoping’s “The Eggs” art installation.
SIWA Oasis Near Libya to Get Solar from the Gulf
For outsiders, SIWA oasis in Egypt is a wonderful place to visit precisely because “civilization” has been so slow to arrive there. But for locals, the gift of a new 20MW solar energy plant will be received like a mountain of gold.
Fascinating, Frustrating Morocco: a Tour in Photos
Severed goat heads, bloody and besieged by flies, lay side-by-side on a butcher’s slab. A dozen lethal serpents, coiled and poised to strike, wove back and forth before a snake charmer in the Marrakech souk.
Policemen Kill Afghan Kids “Like Birds” While Fishing With Grenades
A group of Afghan policemen have been arrested after one of them killed a group of six boys while fishing with a rocket-propelled grenade, the New York Times reports. Three of them were related to the mayor of Drumbak village, where the incident took place.
Iraq’s Newly Protected Marshes a Huge Conservation Turnaround
We first learned about Nature Iraq’s conservation in a combat zone in 2010. Back then Iraq’s only conservation NGO seemed to receive little ministerial support; three years later and the Council of Ministries has approved the group’s push to protect the Mesopotamian Marshlands as the country’s first national park.
Ship With Black Bitumen Sinks off Oman’s Pristine Coast
A ship carrying thick black bitumen, the same stuff found in Canada’s tar sands, sank off the coast of Oman on Sunday and its contents are now floating on the Gulf of Oman – about 40km east of the capital Muscat.
Thank AirBnb for the Round Freedom Farm House in Egypt
The round Freedom Farm house in Egypt reminds us why a world without AirBnB’s (mostly) affordable nightly rentals around the globe would be so much less wonderful. And who will be the next administrative target? Couchsurfing? Will it be illegal to let a gal crash in your cave for less than 29 days?
Mars One Gets 80,000 Willing for One-way Mission to Mars
When the call went out Mars One might have expected a few dozen people would be willing to accept a suicide mission to a dead planet. Instead, they were overwhelmed with more than 80,000 applicants including at least a dozen from the Middle East.
AirBnB Rental Ruled Illegal – What it Means for the Middle East
From a €17 pad in Sharm Sheikh to a €61 room on Gaza Beach and a cave home in Israel, AirBnB is used widely across the Middle East, but the San Francisco-based startup ran into a glitch recently which could mean trouble for the rest of the world.
Chillout Cafe: Dubai’s First Ice Lounge Makes its Chilling Debut
Ice hotels are fairly commonplace in northern countries where temperatures regularly fall below freezing, but that didn’t stop the Sharaf Group from opening an ice lounge in the middle of the desert.
13 Radiant Photos to Honor Earth Day
It’s Earth Day, which means you will see at least 100 stories in your Facebook and Twitter feeds that will list the many ways that you can become a better earthly citizen. And most of them are valid. Yet I yearned to find a more meaningful way to honor the day, so this year I […]
Ali Barbour Cave Restaurant in Kenya Offers Flintstone Fine Dining
Eating at unique restaurants around the world is just one of the perks of a traveler’s life, but these experiences are always more fun when shared with our readers – especially when it involves subterranean spaces, that brought to mind these 700 year old cave homes in Iran. Thought to be up to 180,000 years […]
Hot Air Balloon Explosion in Egypt Claims 19 Lives
At 7am on Tuesday, a frightful explosion rocked Luxor, where ancient Egyptian antiquities draw scores of tourists each year. The blast that engulfed a hot air balloon in mid air was heard and felt several kilometers away. One Egyptian and 18 foreign tourists are said to have died and the Civil Aviation Minister told Reuters […]
English Cyclists Killed After Surviving Iran and Turkey
A surge of round-the-world cyclists have emerged in the last few years as touring gear has improved and borders have become more fluid (for certain passport holders.) Two South African men cycled to Mecca, and a pair of American women traveled the Silk Road to support trans-boundary conservation efforts. But these adventures are not without […]