Arab News will be your guide to the hottest destinations and events in the Middle East that will stun you beyond belief. Our first destination is to the Emirate capital, Abu Dhabi.
SHANGHAI: Fed up after waiting in vain to get train tickets home for the lunar new year, migrant worker Chen Weiwei became China’s latest Internet sensation, standing unclothed except for his gray jockey shorts and socks, after he stripped and shouted in protest.
Chen’s frustrations are shared by tens of millions of other Chinese.
JEDDAH: The number of people traveling between Saudi Arabia and Egypt has declined by 50 percent since the start of anti-government demonstrations in Egypt on Jan. 25, according to travel and tourism sources.
Munnar hill station in the southern state of Kerala has been identified as the second best holiday destination by the Massachusetts-based travel guide and research website TripAdvisor.
PATTAYA, Thailand: The days of R&R; on Thailand’s famous Pattaya beach could be numbered.
The eastern city, a magnet for foreign tourists seeking sun, sea, watersports and racy nightlife, is under siege by both man and the forces of nature. One of Asia’s most popular beaches is being eaten away at a rate of nearly two meters a year. Thai scientists say sea currents and impacts of the city’s booming development have intensified coastal erosion.
A book on Saudi Arabia authored by Indian journalist Muzaffar Ahmed has won Kerala's top honor — the Sahitya Academy Award. The book, a travelogue, highlights the life and culture of Saudis in different parts of the Kingdom, especially Bedouins who live in the desert.
The Saudi Arabian Airlines flight out of Riyadh to Sharm El-Sheikh must be one of the world’s most mesmerizing. Flying no higher than 4,000 feet, the 70 seat Embraer aircraft traveled over the Najd (Highland) Plateau above a desert dotted by green, circular farms, sandstone homesteads and stone-walled camel enclosures, while vehicle tracks snaked out through the sand and into infinity.
From Luxor, upper Egypt’s tourist magnet, Aswan is less than a 3-hour drive; nevertheless, the two are worlds apart. While visiting Luxor often revolves around time and whether there is enough of it to visit.
Travel, they say, broadens your mind. I am not sure if it really does, but it is certainly an experience in itself. If local delicacies in Dhaka play havoc with your delicate digestive system, seasoned travelers often will tell you that it is part of the experience and you must not moan and groan excessively about it.
When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown. Those aren’t just the lyrics to Petula Clark’s classic song, but also sound advice for those in New York City — whether a businessman in town for work, a local wanting to be in the center of the hip scene, or a tourist looking for something, well, less touristy; there’s no finer place for sure – especially with a brand new W Hotel to make you forget all your troubles.
In a new frame of hobbies and obsessions, young Saudi men are spending a fortune to customize their rides and make them stand out. Taking a leaf out of the popular TV show produced by MTV “Pimp My Ride”
It was water and trade that put Saudi Arabia’s dusty green and fertile Qatif region on the map. Testified by archaeological digs that have unearthed primitive Stone Age tools and cooking utensils, the land surrounding the modern day city of Qatif has been inhabited since at least 5,000 BC.
Redang Island, which is about 45 flying minutes from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is touted as an unspoiled tropical island. The ferry from Merang jetty, a coastal town in Terannganu state, took 90 minutes to reach Redang Island. From the cluster of islands off Terannganu coast, it is one of the bigger ones. Surrounded by pristine azure waters, the island is blessed with surreal beaches, lush forest canopy and amazing dive sites.
Nonmembers can now get pampered at the Equestrian Club & Spa. Set amid beautifully landscaped gardens on Jeddah’s Corniche, the Park Hyatt Jeddah — Marina, Club and Spa — located within the Al Hamra District at the Equestrian Club of Jeddah, is a hidden paradise waiting to be discovered.
TAIPEI: Taiwan's capital, once a litter-strewn, concrete shantytown, has become a crowded but convenient mix of museums, monuments and high-end eateries from the world’s second tallest building to the scenic slopes of an urban mountain range.
• Qatar Airways on expansion course
• flydubai starts operating to Abha
• ME aviation sector wins accolades
• Texan festival at Hotel Al Khozama
Khartoum wouldn’t strike anyone as a sought-after destination. However, this doesn’t mean that the Sudanese capital is totally barren. There are some exotic and unexpected attractions to be seen.
Here I have to declare two biases. First, to be honest I am, it seems, culturally disadvantaged. I like gauges and switches and little knobs that rotate to increase or decrease volume or airflow. And, I love analog gauges. Second, I like dinosaurs. So, to be inserted into a five-liter V8 2011 Jaguar XJ and be sung the praises of the new game-boy instrument panel.
Seven thousand rose trees, 90 rose farms and ideal conditions for roses to bloom — this is Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar’s rosy picture. From the third week of March until mid-May, about 90 farms in the highlands turn pink.
Rewind twenty-five years. Driving down the one main street in any Gulf city and you find yourself in another era entirely. Twenty-five years ago, there was no McDonald’s. We didn’t have Zara or Mango to buy our clothes.
Taking South Korea's own bullet train, we reached Gyeongju after a three-hour journey from Seoul. Enhanced by its distinct identity, Gyeongju is a magnetic tourist destination in eastern South Korea. Numerous low mountains, outliers of the Taebaek Mountains, are scattered throughout the city.
"Djibouti! What is there to see?" “To start with there is the famous Lac Assal with its moon-like salt terrain, the twin islands of Moucha and Maskali, nicknamed the little African Caribbean, the distinctive architecture of the capital’s famous European Quarter, and if all of this is not enough for you, there is the one-of-a-kind experience of snorkeling with whale sharks!”
This was the typical mini-dialogue I had with my friends whenever I mentioned that I was heading to Djibouti for the weekend.
Two young South Africans have pedaled their way to Saudi Arabia to perform this year’s Haj. Nathim Cairncross, 28, and Imtiyaz Ahmad Haron, 25, both from Cape Town, said on arrival at the Saudi border before reaching Tabuk that they felt happy they were fulfilling their dream of performing Haj. “Pedaling our way to the Kingdom from Cape Town was a grueling experience. We wanted to travel this way so that we are prepared to experience the rigors of performing the pilgrimage,” Cairncross, a town planner by profession, told Arab News over the telephone on Monday night.
Seeing the Kaaba was ‘incredible,’ says South African who came on bicycle
It was 6 p.m. on the day of Eid Al-Fitr when we left Jeddah for Jazan en route to Farasan Island. Our three-day itinerary included: a voyage to Farasan Island which was located 50 km off the coast of Jazan and a guided tour to Abha in Asir region.
Arriving in Seoul, which Koreans call the soul of Asia, from Jeddah (via Dubai) was an experience, which provided the cultural contrast between the two cities. The difference can be sensed from the moment you drive from the new Incheon International Airport to the hotel and then to the city center. Beautiful roads with lots of greenery on either side and a strong sense of civic sense are tempting enough to go about the city and its surrounding areas. A striking feature of their personal hygiene is that bottles of mouthwash are kept for use at all major restaurants.
MOJAVE, California: Virgin Galactic’s space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo achieved its first solo glide flight Sunday, marking another step in the company’s eventual plans to fly paying passengers. SpaceShipTwo was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released over the Mojave Desert.
It has to be said: this is a lovely little car. The Volvo S60 has been around for the best part of a decade now; and originally dented, if not broke, the mold of “boring” Volvos that looked as if they were designed by a hod-carrier with a housebrick-fixation. Not a company much given to producing suspiciously same “all new” models every year, the reflective safety-obsessed chaps at Volvo have finally got round to improving what was already a very good medium-sized car.
An amalgam of spices, women in colorful saris, busy streets with a hundred rickshaws and a thousand passersby, heavily decorated temple towers and an exuberant frankincense smell filling the air. This is most probably the picture our minds conjure whenever India is mentioned. However, the Indian Subcontinent is huge, and each part of it offers a unique and peculiar travel experience. Goa is no different.
