Tunisia!

Flying from Cyprus to Senegal, we make another tech stop along the way, this time in Tunisia! I have to admit I wondered about the propriety of this given the assassination just last Wednesday of Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid, and the resulting strike Friday that shut down the capital city, Tunis, including its airport. But it turns out we are using an airport near Monastir, about 150 miles south of Tunis, and the area appears sparsely populated ( though our flight crew says there are lovely beach resorts here to which they often ferry U.K. vacationers).

Anyway, that's me in Tunisia, and a better shot of the mountains off in the distance. On to Senegal!

 

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Beirut

We did a day trip to Beirut from Cyprus. The plane wasn't permitted to overnight in Lebanon, but they could fly us in and out the same day, so we had what Debb calls a "taste" of Beirut. It's a large city on the Mediterranean Sea, once called the Paris of the Middle East. What we saw was a city that had been absolutely devastated by their civil war and is rebuilding.

Older buildings that haven't been razed are bombed out and are just hollow shells. In fact their central sculpture in the Plaza of the Martyrs has bullet holes riddling it, and has purposefully been left that way.

Most of the buildings are brand new and look it. They've developed a thriving downtown district with stores you would find in Paris, London, New York or Beverly Hills.

The other thing you can't miss is the soldiers on every street corner. Our guide was evasive about the reason for so much "security" so I'm left to imagine.

Nonetheless, there's a miles-long pedestrian promenade along the Mediterranean and lots of people out enjoying the beautiful day. It's a place we would come back and visit, in less unsettling times.

 

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Cyprus!

We land in Cyprus this afternoon and drive about an hour to our hotel. But not without stopping for a beer -- "brewed on the island of Cyprus". It's interesting to be in Europe now after our journey through Asia and the Middle East -- even if only for a day before flying to Beirut tomorrow.

We're staying at another Four Seasons in Limassol, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Neither of us has ever seen the Mediterranean Sea, and we definitely approve!

 

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Censorship in the Kingdom?

I'm posting this from Cyprus. While in Saudi Arabia I did have a bit of trouble posting to the blog. Some posts would upload partway and then freeze and fail. After a couple of tries most went, but the "What to wear with a black abaya" post wouldn't go until, mysteriously, I deleted a sentence referring to a news report of a woman in Jeddah sentenced to ten lashes last month for driving a car. Our Stanford faculty on this trip, one of whom was the former ambassador to Pakistan, said it was quite likely that the Saudis employ software to screen Internet traffic for certain words or phrases. All I know is that Debb couldn't get on Pinterest either.

 

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Camels!

On our way to the airport in Riyadh, we stop by the camel mart, where you go if you want to buy a camel. Prices range from about US$1000 for a baby camel (which we had for lunch) to $35,000 for a prize female camel who can live 30 years and produce lots of babies. We saw white camels, black camels and brown ones. All seemed good-tempered and none of them spat on me as I had feared.

Now we're on the plane off to Cyprus!

 

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Women in Saudi Arabia

David attended a meeting at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority yesterday afternoon which turned out to be a pitch for foreign investment. The group included one woman and she was treated the same as the men. From what our guides have told us and also from our interactions with the Saudis we met yesterday, the culture is slowly changing. The science and technology school we visited yesterday is co-ed. Our guide said his four daughters wanted to learn how to drive and he plans to take them outside the city and teach them (he understood they might need to know how to drive in an emergency or if they travel outside the country). One of the men David met joked with him and said he would be spending his vacation in Dubai where he could drink, gamble and check out the pretty women. Two of our three guides didn't care if we wore abayas or not - the other would have been offended.

Of course, our guide (above) also told us that he's fallen in love with another woman and if he can convince her father that he can take care of her, he'll take a second wife (which means he'll need to keep two households as he can't just bring her home like a puppy). He's waiting to tell his first wife about his plan after he's sealed the deal. Both the men and women on our bus were shocked, to say the least.

I wouldn't want to live in this culture but I also think change is slowly coming. Wearing an abaya for only a day was fun but I'm sure it would grow old (and uncomfortable when the temperature climbed to 100 in the summer). I'm disappointed that I've not had the opportunity to speak with any women while in Saudi Arabia - I've barely seen any women! Still, this is the first country we've visited that I would like to spend more time in. I wonder if I'll find Cyprus and Lebanon as fascinating.

David did meet three women in Al Ula who work in the oil and gas industry and live in a town on the Red Sea. One was Canadian, one Argentinian and one was from Italy. They too wore abayas but told David that they are treated well and with respect and enjoy living here.

 

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Kids everywhere are adorable

I met a family as we were leaving Mada'in Saleh who were absolutely adorable. The father was fascinated and amazed to meet a group of Americans who had come all the way to see this site. His twins kept hiding behind his legs but eventually joined their older sister and dad to pose for me. Look at those soulful eyes and that expression that says "I'm not really sure about all this."

 

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