by Matthew Allison | May 30, 2023 | Middle East
May 2023: After two prior trips to Iraq, where I had explored Kurdistan and the southern marshes with the Marsh Arab Madan people, I was eager to experience central Iraq. I only had a few days due to a layover on my way to Nepal for a two-week trek in the Mustang...
by Matthew Allison | Sep 18, 2022 | Middle East
I admit that the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country ruled by sheikhs, isn’t my favorite in the Gulf compared to Oman, Saudi Arabia, or Yemen. There’s an undeniable sense of decadence and superficiality that never really appealed to me. For years, I struggled to...
by Matthew Allison | Sep 17, 2022 | Middle East
Qatar, a peninsula shaped country juts out from Saudi Arabia, is an oil rich kingdom in the Persian Gulf. it was the starting point for two-week trip to Pakistan and Taliban controlled Afghanistan as well as Dubai and Bahrain. To get to Qatar, it was difficult...
by Matthew Allison | Sep 17, 2022 | Middle East
Bahrain a group of islands with a land mass slightly larger than Singapore, is one of the smallest countries in the world and the smallest country in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain, a country largely prosperous not due to its immense oil supplies but because of its crude...
by Matthew Allison | Dec 30, 2018 | Asia, Middle East
December 2018: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was top of my list for years but virtually impossible to visit for tourists. Saudi Arabia the founding nation of Islam and home of the holiest city in Islam, Mecca was set on eliminating any foreign influence that could...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 10, 2018 | Africa, Asia, Middle East
November 2018: As part of a larger North Africa trip, my friend Richard and I visited Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai is technically in Asia, even though it is part of Egypt, which is in North Africa. The Sinai is a vast mountainous desert where the Bible...