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MIDDLE EAST

  • VISITING PETRA IN JORDAN

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    Conall Charleton

    I left Kuwait early this morning and got another bargain flight with Jazeera Airways, again don’t know how many times I can stress the importance of being flexible and patient. It’s always beneficial to search around in order to get amazing last minute deals. We are now about half way to Petra, we, I mean…

  • FIRST TIME IN SAUDI ARABIA

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    Conall Charleton

    The past 24 hours have been chaotic for a number of reasons. We arrived in Riyadh yesterday evening and met our driver right at the arrivals exit. We spent a few days in Muscat, in Oman, and we then spent a couple of hours in Dubai International Airport, where we shopped around, ate a lot,…

  • GOING TO THE WORLD CUP IN QATAR

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    Conall Charleton

    I had been planning my trip to Qatar for quite a while leading up to the first winter World Cup in Qatar in November/December 2022. I was living in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia at the time and me and my friend Omar decided that we would make the short trip, go to a few games…

  • STUCK AT BAHRAIN AIRPORT

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    Conall Charleton

    summer 2017 “Are you coming to Bahrain as a tourist? “Yes, I want to do some sightseeing over the next few days.” He flicks through my passport like Inspector Gadget. He notices the Iranian visa and gawks closely as if he had just solved a puzzle. “What exactly where you doing in Iran?” “I went…

  • THE BACKDOOR INTO YEMEN

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    Conall Charleton

    “Just wait here a bit longer!” It’s already been an hour and a half since my attempt at trying to enter Yemen, accompanied by my driver. Everything is so easy on paper, the easy way to Yemen, go to Socotra Island, a Yemini tropical island close to Somalia, everything sorted, visas, documents, etc by the…

  • 1ST TIME IN DUBAI

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    Conall Charleton

    February 2014 A millionaires paradise, or so it seems, as I observe the impressive skyline, and the expensive cars on the outskirts of the Persian Gulf, on a warm February afternoon. The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, is in clear view, somewhat deep into the Middle Eastern sky. I continue to wonder how it…

  • MY 1ST MUSLIM WEDDING

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    Conall Charleton

    JULY 2017 I love the Middle East. It’s one of my favorite parts of the world, not just for the amazing architecture, modern cities, amazing mosques, and delicious food, mostly down to the kind Arab hospitality, like no other anywhere else in the world . I first visited Dubai in 2014, and luckily I’ve been…

  • STUCK BETWEEN JORDAN + ISRAEL

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    Conall Charleton

    STUCK IN NO MAN’S LAND BETWEEN ISRAEL AND JORDAN WRITTEN IN AUGUST 2017 “So what were you doing there?” he looks startled now. “I already told you, I went there as a tourist” dazed and confused and unsure why he keeps asking me the same questions over and over again. “But no tourists go to…