I've traveled through the Middle East- Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey. In my 20's (I was 24-25 when I did this. 10 years ago now), and I'm glad I did because now would be a nightmare post plandemic.
Here's a few things you should understand if you haven't been there-
The Middle East is not like South East Asia. Specifically Pakistan, India, Afghanistan). These guys are very different in culture, language, general appearance, food, history etc.
Iranians and Arabs speak a different language. Iranians speak Farsi (various dialects within). Arabs speak Arabic.
An Arab in Syria can barely understand an Arab in Saudi Arabia. Lebanon and Syria are similar in many ways.
Turks speak Turkish. It's different from Arab and Iranian languages
Turkey, Lebanon and Iran IMO are unbelievably beautiful countries as are their women. In some places it's like travelling in time. Feminine, nurturing and find it a duty to serve their men. It's NOT like what you think it is.
For example in Iran it is impossible to walk around an entire day as a tourist and not get invited to someones house for dinner and an educational session about their country and history. They are extremely patriotic. One thing I noticed right away was during gatherings, the women will cook the side dishes, the men the main dish (bbq of some sort) and the women will the clean up after the men and allow the men to speak in one part of the house and the women will chat and gossip or whatever in another. While cleaning up they serve the men tea. Eventually everyone gathers for dancing and sweets like cakes etc. The heat in Iran is dry in the south and extremely humid in the north close to the Caspian Sea.
No one wheres the "hijab" (head scarf) in their homes. I never experienced any of them doing so. I went to a lot of houses and saved a ton of money on hotel costs. The women are quite chatty and curious. Very intelligent people. The younger generation (30 and under) are highly educated. Massive sums of people there speak English and French as second languages.
Arabs are more "starey". The will stare and it's just the way they are lol. Very hospitable as well. Gulf Arabs love guns. They have a lot of them. The average person is what we would consider upper middle class here. The streets are clean and crime is low. Obviously, they don't fuck around. They love spending time outdoors as much as they can. The heat is dry in Saudi Arabia.
Lebanon is beautiful but a mess. No real government at that time and still the same I believe but none the less. I don't know what's in the water there but it's like every 3rd woman is a 10. No obese people walking around even though the food is seemingly extremely fattening (as told to us by "doctors" here) yet I never witnessed a "wal mart" type (Except in Qatar and UAE). In Lebanon you'll be hard pressed to find someone that doesn't speak French. That nice French not that Quebec weirdo French. It's extremely attractive on the women lol
Iran and Turkey have the greatest food I've ever tried in my life. I can't even describe it. The freshness and lack of "gmo" taste if you can call it that is just something else. We simply don't have that here. Something in the soil over there.
I didn't particularly enjoy my time in Qatar and UAE. There isn't much history and it's like a giant Americanized "downtown" lol. However, the people are fantastic. This is the only place in the Middle East I experienced obese people lol.
Turkey is incredible. It is like being in historical Europe/Middle East at the same time. Churches and Mosques that are thousands of years old and still standing. Fantastic architecture.
The bad stuff-
Governments are terrible but not as bad as they used to be.
Lots of secret police everywhere and I mean everywhere. Everyone knows about them. Not even sure why they call them secret police.
Some places are extremely poor and it's mostly due to some sort of race or ethnicity issue. Complicated stuff that goes wayyyy back. Hundreds of years in many cases.
Here's what I learned about their culture vs ours int the west
They're going to SURVIVE- They DO NOT tolerate globohomo shit. This isn't to say they don't have their little areas. They do in all those places. But it is isolated and never ever allowed to move out or into the mainstream. There's absolutely no negotiating that. From everyday people to hardliners. They like to act like they are liberal to foreigners but they aren't lol. They find it disgusting how we cater to them in the west. Curious about why and what benefit it gives us. None of course.
They are a lot like us. The Muslims and Christians of the Middle East are similar culturally. They hold generally the same traditional views on family, marriage and society. They do NOT want the shit we deal with here
Did I find the shit media is constantly yapping about? Not really. Do they hate Americans? I would say it's the opposite.
Father is German so I get to have a German passport if you're wondering how I traveled through there.
Lebanon was once a playground for the rich. One of the few places you could ski and play at the beach in the same day.
My father was over there in the early seventies invited by some friends he met in London and often tells the story of arriving, going up into the mountains and finding them all listiening to The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fiingers only several days after release in the UK
Funny you mention that. In Tehran you can go skiing in May in Mount Tochal and biking in shorts and t shirt the same day down the mountain. They have world class ski resorts there and a lot of the pros won't even talk about it. It's like a hidden secret they wanna keep to themselves.
There is a mountain there for the life of me I can't remember the name but there is a church at the top and you have to travel hours and hours on foot to get up there. No other way to it. But once you get up, it is apparently cleansing like you wouldn't believe. My buddy who traveled with me to Lebanon (Lebanese guy) does it every time he goes back. His great, great grandfather was one of the builders.
Good post- nice to hear some reality about countries that get heavy news-filters.
I've traveled quite a bit, but not to any of the areas you mentioned here. Regarding the food: everywhere, absolutely everywhere the food is better than the US. From England to Ecuador, Chile to China, Israel, Italy and Indonesia the cheap street food tastes fresh, and the average hole-in-the-wall restaurant has amazing flavors. Just a few steps off the tourist paths, and you're practically guaranteed sumptuous fare.
It's not that you can't get good food here, but you have to really work to find it or shop at insanely expensive stores if you make it yourself. Good local fare is possible all over the US, but it's rarely front-and-center, and your average restaurant here serves cardboard compared to average restaurants in most other countries. In other countries even things that look like hurried convenience-food road stops will often bake their own bread and have food that was cooked just for you rather than deep-frozen, nuked and hot-plated to bleach any flavor. And then you have things like iron supplements in the flour and the near-impossibility of buying raw milk or artisanal prosciutto.
I am a patriot, and love BBQ, home cooking and grandma's recipes, and tons of other great things about our nation, but every time I eat at a restaurant overseas, I find new reasons to despise the FDA for what they've done to our food. A lot of people here have no idea what they're missing.
I've been to Europe as well. Eastern Europe is especially better tasting food than here at home lol. You're absolutely right. Canada has the same food as us for produce in many cases. I would argue ours tastes even better than theirs but you are absolutely right. We are 100% being robbed.
I had feta cheese in France, Iran, Lebanon and Greece. I can tell you with 100% certainty.I will never have that type of joy in food in my life ever again in North America. Not until the FDA is demolished at least. They have destroyed our soil, animals and air.
The closest we can get is Mexico. They are still sane when it comes to what food is to human beings.
I'd just like to add that I've had similar experiences to the OP. I while back I cycled solo across Japan, China, N Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and back to Saigon, Vietnam where I stayed for some time writing educational papers. Laos is basically one road and I met many other touring cyclists travelling in the opposite direction doing much longer trips. Time after time they said Iran was the most surprising country, if not the most interesting because their expectations were completely different to their experiences. Iran was the most westernised Arab country in the 70's before the fall of the king. Magazine articles have women in bathing suits and they were far more liberal and middle of the road than many would recognise today.
Incredible. I wanted to bike through eastern Europe but never got the chance. That sounds amazing.
I wish we all could have had that experience. I made friends with an Iranian bartender in Germany about 7 years ago. I didn't expect him to like me. He was incredibly nice which blew me away. He was intelligent beyond my previously programmed expectations. It made me want to visit Iran. Thanks for sharing your memories with us.
You're welcome, fren. It's a shame the world has gone to such shit. The food alone would make me go back there if the plandemic wasn't being played.
It can be a little harder going to Egypt as a female! Sexual assaults and rapes are high over there. In my opinion, some of their cultures can also allow them to treat females and also sometimes tourist males badly. *Although, most Egyptian tourist police seem to HATE crime on tourists - they will most likely beat the perpetrators up.
Egypt is definitely different. I didn't spend much time there but even back then crime was rampant. Definitely wouldn't go there asa solo female. But Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey no proble. Especially Iran. They really left quite an impression on me. Absolutely nothing like what the media says.
Are you active or former MIL?
Nah just a young man who wanted to travel and was sick of the government and media telling me what the world was like. All of it being a lie.
I'm curious, did you travel by yourself?
For the most part ya. I met a Lebanese friend of mine from uni in Lebanon and spent most of my travels their with him and his family. But other then that yea alone. I met a lot of Americans there though. A lot of Americans have parents (father's specifically) who have or were born in different countries (Europe specifically. Germany, Italy, France) and these countries allow these father's children the ability to get a passport.
There are a ton of American tourists using German passports in Iran believe it or not.
When I was in college, I read a book called Guests of the Shiek. Book written in the 1950s by the wife of an anthropologist who spent two years in Iraq with him and she basically agreed to live as the Iraqi women did so she was able to get a perspective her husband could not since it is a segregated society as you mention. A lot of what you describe above is the similar.
One thing I remember was a passage where she asked the women wouldn't they want to live a more western lifestyle where men/women co-habitate. The women stared at her and asked 'Why would we want to do that?' It was an interesting observation. The women were quite happy with the arrangement the way it was and the attitude was 'why mess it up?' Granted, it is what you are born into but there are many ways to live a life. Did some women get treated like crap? Absolutely. But don't think they don't have their own ways of dealing with it behind the scenes and the author cited an instance where the women went to the shiek with complaints about a man to basically say 'deal with him, or life is not going to be fun around here'.
Is it a system I would want to live in? No, but I don't think it is as bad as it is made out to be either.
Yea Iraq is a strange one. It is different than the other Arab countries. They have a lot of tribalism there and different cultures within the country. Very interesting though
I wish I could travel the world. But I don't have enough savings and I need to get through college first lol
I had just finished uni and decided I had to travel. It was well worth it. Of course this was before jab passes and such and people were just different back then and it was only 10 years ago. One of the best times of my life. I hope you get to experience it as well.
Fucking good post! ♥️
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