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Hello all!       (–> Text übersetzen in Deutsch)

after doing some repairs in Dubai, the next exotic highlight of our world trip came closer: Oman. Located a bit at the far edge of the Arabic peninsula, Oman gave us a relaxed feeling. We found beautiful mountains and landscape plus nice beaches (that we often had to clean up when we arrived, …a lot of trash everywhere, to sad!). Beautiful was the number of dromedaries that you find in most parts of the country, running around free, at beaches, in mountains, in Wadis, on highways, everywhere. So cute and friendly they are (see pictures).

Different to e.g. Saudi-Arabia we did not meet many Omanis since there are not too many around on the streets. The country has a population of about 5 million people of which roughly 50% is migrants from India, Pakistan, Sudan. The Omanis are the ‘owner of things’ (mostly not be seen on the streets). The migrants are doing the work in shops and on the streets. So we mostly met migrants (what was pleasant too). It felt a bit like a two-class-society. The good thing about this demographical structure in Oman was that there are plenty of Indian and Pakistani restaurants (yummy again, like in Dubai).

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!

Since we had a flight back to Germany for Christmas celebrations in December 2022 our way did lead us to Dubai (in the ‘United Arabic Emirates’). Our expectations of Dubai were not very high, shopping malls and skyscrapers did not sound very appealing to us. But (once again) reality taught us not to judge to fast. This time we had plenty of time to experience Dubai in its (enormous) size. Imagine that it is circa 45 kilometers to cross Dubai, it’s so big. And as we learned there is no thing to do on the planet that you could not do in Dubai (on the ground, in the air, on the water and below). What impressed us was that they did build the whole city within 40 years out of nothing. That surely was the biggest project that the planet so far did see. What an initiative to build that city at a place where you have not even one resource available. They had to transport everything you need to build Dubai to Dubai: material, machines, people, know how, financials, order, rules, visions, everything! The city’s infrastructure is substantial: No one building was the same, each building was specially designed and just pretty to see. Dubai surely is a kind of artificial world, a bit like Las Vegas, but still impressive, definitely worth to visit. It is so much more than the shopping malls that we expected to see.

For us it was of biggest positive events to go into the ‘Indian quarters’ where the guest workers live (millions of them). There we got so much great Indian food, SOO good, so cheap and so filled up with flavor!

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!

What do you know about Saudi-Arabia? …Riyadh? Oil? OPEC? Osama? Prince XYZ? Muslim country?

We understood quickly that we did not know anything of relevance when it comes to Saudi-Arabia for us ‘on the ground’. As we already learned from Iran, Iraq and Kuwait the hospitality, openness and friendliness of the Arabs is extraordinary. For us it is hard to imagine that a stranger who meets you somewhere on the street could (honestly) invite you to a family celebration or to a dinner ‘right away’. And again: the best way to meet people is to put your truck to a water spring and begin filling your tank. No five minutes later a local shows up, very interested end enthusiastic, and get’s in touch. But important to mention is, that the Arabic hospitality is more than a duty from the times of the nomads, it is a positive belief. And a great way to get in touch.

Like you see it on television or on YouTube: we sat in a Saudi beduin tent, somewhere in the desert, surrounded by camels, having dinner and dates plus tea, ..and great conversations with people from a very different cultural context. So exciting! We never had a clue that travelling through the Arab world could be so enriching!

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!

After our visit of Iraq, Kuwait almost seems to be artificial: new city, new buildings, proper streets, everything modern, traffic organized, many shopping centers and other shopping location wherever you want. But still we are in the Arabic world. Very surprising how different it can be some kilometers away from Iraq/Basra: In Kuwait it feels like a totally different world, but built on the same foundation, and that is oil and Muslim religion (but obviously countries in a totally different state). We asked ourselves ‘how can it happen that two countries with that same setup are so different’? Obviously it depends on the focus of the government: one took care of aggression and war for decades (Iraq), the other (Kuwait) focused on using what was given (oil) while developing welfare and economy without loosing it’s Muslim roots and values.

Another thing that was obvious in Kuwait was: the Kuwaitis themself are not seen often at work. They are the owner of properties and companies. Very many foreign guest workers e.g. from India and Pakistan do the work on the ground, in the shops, in the streets, everywhere. Kuwaitis own, all others work. From a western perspective that feels a bit strange when there is no local been seen at work… 

Again: very enlightening to travel in the Arabic world…

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten

Hello all!

if one year before somebody would have tried to convince me to drive to Iraq I would have surely said ‘never – only over my dead body’!

But as we travelled through Iran we met several other travellers who convinced us that it is safe enough to tried it, surely you better do not go to the north where the IS still is active. So we crossed the border and visited Basra first. We had no expectation about what will happen in Iraq but it sounded exotic to go there. We were a group of 3 vehicles, our travel family got bigger 🙂

The circa 2 weeks in Iraq were very exiting and – again – very enlightening. But it also was stressful because we had to pass so many security checkpoint (where nobody speaks English, …so it always took a while to explain what we – the hack – do in Iraq). ‘You are tourists and want to go to Bagdad?’ They usually could not belief that this really was our plan. But with the help of a new Facebook friend from Iraq (F. from Bagdad) we could make it. It was just impressive to meet so many beautiful people and families. It needed a time to get used to the way they organize the get togethers with us (female and male often strictly separated) but it worked out very well. Even more than the Iranians the Iraqis liked to present themselves to us letting the world know ‘that we are not all terrorists’ (that’s what we heart several times). And again: a brought majority of people are just ordinary people. Too sad that the (jew) bad people make such a loud noise that you easily oversee that the people are just nice. And also it took a while to get used to our ‘security team’ that we got in each city (military that got the order to protect and help us). We felt a bit like superstars when our 3 vehicles were escorted by military cars, even if we were only going out for sightseeing.

It was so good to visit Basra, Bagdad and Karbala!

Best wishes from
Heike and Carsten