tour of Qatar

[malkin]

I'd live in the Middle East, just let me know how to dress, live and teach me some intro vocab & i'm there.

That's pretty much what I was thinking, until I learned more about it.
I'm ok with the clothing customs, but transportation, legal system, economics, and the weather--both the high temperatures and casual descriptions of sand storms--which sounded to me like some medieval description of torment--pretty much dampened my enthusiasm for the middle east.

[crazycanuck]

Oh oops, I meant those bits as well Malkin. It's part of the package & you grin n bear it (although you really want to thwack someone!). It goes for all countries, english or non english speaking.

[malkin]

For me the sandstorms-days without seeing the sun because of wind full of sand--well, dealing with them would probably require considerably more alcohol consumption than local custom would tolerate!

[Koronin]

I wouldn't mind visiting one or two of the muslem countries (Saudi Arbia and Egypt most specifically). My husband was in Saudi during the first Gulf war. Well he was actually in Spain with the KC-10s, but when they would take supplies in and out of Suadi part of the time he would go. It's actually one of the few countries he was in that he actually saw any part of outside of the base. He's told me that a couple of the women who were actually stationed in Saudi had wanted to go into town so several of the guys including him who were not there for very long and didn't really have anything to do agreed to accompany them. The rules they had were that the women had to be accompanied by the same number of men and of course being military they all had to wear their hats while out. However, the women did not have to wear anything else that was not part of their uniform and the local women did not all wear viels. My guess is by the time my husband was in Saudi that they had loosened up some of the rules a bit.
Also I'd thought it would be cool to go to the F1 race in Bahrain, but of course with the unrest over there and the postponement of that race, it's just not a good time to even consider that.

(The place my husband most wants to take me is Spain. He spent about a year there during the first Gulf war and loved it. He not only road his bike a good bit while there, but got to ride many times with a group of locals who enjoyed having the US military guys who wanted to ride ride with them.)