6-10 June 2023 I have been looking for places that are exotic and exciting to visit, but not too far away. Many places are still trouble spots. These hot spots are still too hot – I want to try to…
11 June 2023 After staying a night at Madaba, I drove to Petra the next morning. The land turned browner and more hostile. Even the sky looks unhappy; covering the sky from end to end with murky grey. Petra is…
I soon left Petra in the rear-view mirror and drove south toward Wadi Rum. The enjoyment continued, the roads wound around the hillsides and hilltops, surrounded by rocky mountains and valleys, shaped by the elements over countless millenniums to look…
An hour away from Wadi Rum is the Red Sea. I have read about Moses parting the Red Sea, so I wanted to see it. I mean the sea, not the parting. I drove past downtown Aqaba and headed to…
I want no bloodshed, but we should learn lessons from the past. I wanted to see bullet holes, not blood. After Jordan, my next destination was Lebanon. Going via Syria would have been the shortest and cheapest, but it could…
From Beirut, I would make a second-day trip, this time to Baalbek, 85 km away. Having gone through the stomach-churning ride in the local mini bus yesterday, I decided to hire a taxi this time. He was equally suicidal, but…
24-29 June 2023 After Jordan and Lebanon, I am ready for the 3rd country on this trip. Larnaca At midnight, after a 40-minute flight, I landed in Larnaca, Cyprus. I did not realize I was coming to Europe, having just…
30 June – 1 July 2023 After more than a week’s European holiday in Cyprus, I flew to Casablanca, Morocco, a city that became well-known for a classic war and romantic movie of the same name. I happened to arrive…
From Casablanca, I took a train to go south to Marrakech, one of the top tourist destinations in the world. It was only a two-and-a-half-hour ride. As the train approached Marrakech, the landscape outside the widows appeared undulating and pinkish.…
5-6 July 2023 From inland Marakech, I now took a bus westward toward the coast to Essaouira, about 2 hours away. In Marrakech, the heat was scorching. Just 2 hours away, Essaouira was semi-arid and sunny but chilly; the wind…
7-8 July 2023 From Essaouira in the south, I finally made it to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. Unlike the names of Marrakech and Casablanca, Rabat did not sound so familiar to me before I planned to come. A distance of…
8-9 July 2023 From Rabat, I then explored the northern part of the country, starting with Fez. Every major city in Morocco seems to have an old market or old souk, where they have been buying and selling from ancestral…
10 July 2023 While at Fes, I made a side trip to Meknes, just an hour away. Some of the well-known attractions were Lahdim Square, Bab Mansour, Medina, the Royal Palaces, the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, and numerous old city…
12 July 2023 From Fes, I rode in a bus to go further north, to Chefchaouen. I headed straight to the medina. If blue is your favorite color, this will be your dream world. After days of the earthy red-hot…
13-14 July 2023 Africa sounds like a different and remote world. Yet, my next Moroccan destination Tangier, in North Africa, can see Spain, which is in Europe, on a clear day. I sat down to dinner at a small restaurant…