We’re in Uzbekistan and it’s true that we are all millionaires here! That’s because a million Uzbekistan som equals about $80 US. For newcomers, doing the numbers can be tough when you are going through a wad of bills to pay for your $9 lunch. It’s a lot of zeros!
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This week, we are in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We had a few false starts! We arrived with no place to stay thanks to an AWOL Airbnb host, and spent our first night in a hotel room that smelled like…ick. The next day, we showed up for a design workshop that turned out to be 1200 miles away in Dubai. It’s been smoggy, hot, and humid.
Jeddah isn’t what most would consider a tourist destination, and yet there has been a lot here for us, including some things that we maybe didn’t expect.
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If there is one thing I’ve learned in my travels, it’s that I should ask questions before I assume I have answers. A lot of what we think we know about the world is untrue, part true, or out of context. Although the whole truth about anything is beyond our reach, I wanted to know more about Saudi Arabia. So far, the people are warm and friendly, the landscape is dramatic, and the region is full of history.
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Qatar’s desert is mysterious and austere. It’s also home to some incredible art. We spent yesterday with our guide, Abdelziz, seeing some of it in the northern part of the country. We left our hotel early but not early enough to avoid the heat. This turned out to be a good thing because, for me, the heat was an important part of the experience.
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We’re in Doha, the capital of Qatar! In some ways, Doha is like Dubai — a flashy skyline along the waterfront, hot and humid, men in white, women in black (also tank tops and shorts). But Doha feels different, more openly connected to its Bedouin roots than Dubai. There are camels in the center of the city!
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Most of us associate Dubai with grand opulence, and there’s that! But there is more to Dubai than Gucci and crazy architecture. San Miguel friend and co-conspirator, Susan, and I arrived in Dubai two nights ago. Why Dubai? I have wanted to visit the Arabian Peninsula, called “West Asia,” because it’s an important piece of the global human puzzle and the world’s oil-based political economy. Susan said, “not on my to-do list but that sounds fascinating, let’s go!”.
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If you’ve been reading my posts for a while or have ever spent more than 15 minutes with me, you probably know I’ve been working on a book. It’s published!
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Aurora Books in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is six months old next week, and wow, it’s been delightful in ways I never expected. Some people think I’m pursuing my life’s dream. Actually, I never dreamed of being in retail. But I love books and San Miguel needed a place to buy new English language books (like Tunisia and Vietnam!). I hoped opening a bookstore would be a way of serving my new community.
Well! It turns out the community is serving the bookstore. Here are a few of gifts San Miguel has given Aurora Books (with suggested reading 🙂 ):
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