Post: #1

I'm considering a two month romp around the Middle East.

Not looking to run tons of game (maybe a bit), more going on a little adventure solo.

I'm Western and white, so obviously I don't want to go anywhere to sketchy.

Mainly interested in getting an AirBnb in a town type area, walking around and learning about the culture, meeting people, eating some different foods. Wouldn't mind a camel ride, seeing the pyramids, etc. I always make friends everywhere so I'm sure I'd find some cool contacts.

Monthly spend is around $1500 a month and I'd like to keep it like that, minus flight costs. I'd imagine it won't cost a ton.

Places of interest that came up were:

Cairo, Egypt
Amman, Jordan
Istanbul, Turkey (not exactly the true middle East, but you get me)

If things get too weird, could always pack up and head to Tbilisi or Yeveran where it's a bit more European.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Cities, routes, ideas are all welcome.

Even if we're talking some weird, super out there type of place. I'm becoming more and more interested in places like that after exploring the Caucuses.

Will be sure to post data sheets on everywhere I go.

Post: #2

You listed Cairo twice.

Check out Beirut, Lebanon. Must visit

Post: #3

(04-23-2019 10:14 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  You listed Cairo twice.

Check out Beirut, Lebanon. Must visit

How is the cost of living there? Heard it's a huge ass party place.

Post: #4

Cairo is north africa area not middle east

Post: #5

Beirut will be the most expensive of the bunch. But also the best. Food is also great. But less of a cultural shock here as its both christian and muslim and westernized a bit in terms of education.

Its pretty expensive to go out if youre going to the top places. You can do it on the cheap(er) though. Also i think accomodation here will also be more expensive than Cairo and Amman.
Its gonna eat away at your budget.

Post: #6

(04-23-2019 04:12 PM)Beirut Wrote:  Beirut will be the most expensive of the bunch. But also the best. Food is also great. But less of a cultural shock here as its both christian and muslim and westernized a bit in terms of education.

Its pretty expensive to go out if youre going to the top places. You can do it on the cheap(er) though. Also i think accomodation here will also be more expensive than Cairo and Amman.
Its gonna eat away at your budget.

It seems worth popping in for a few days (and dope for partying) but I'm not exactly looking to be on the precipice of Westernization while exploring out there.

Post: #7

(04-23-2019 10:14 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Check out Beirut, Lebanon. Must visit

I would have loved to have visited Beruit in the 1960's, when it was "The Paris Of The Middle East."

Lebanese women can be smoking hot, although they tend to wear a bit too much makeup.

Post: #8

(04-23-2019 06:01 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

(04-23-2019 10:14 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Check out Beirut, Lebanon. Must visit

I would have loved to have visited Beruit in the 1960's, when it was "The Paris Of The Middle East."

Lebanese women can be smoking hot, although they tend to wear a bit too much makeup.

It's still the Paris of the Middle East if you're in Gemayzeh, Ashrafiyeh, Raoucheh, Hamra.

Beirut would be my #1 choice

#2 would be Cairo, stay in Zamalek, Mohandisseen, Dokki, Garden City, or Maadi. A mess, but amazing and you have to see the pyramids.

#3 would be Erbil, Iraq. US and EU citizens can enter through Erbil or Sulymaniyah for 30 days visa free. It's safe!! I saw many Airbnb choices in Erbil, stay near Ankawa, it's the Christian neighborhood and where the bars and clubs are. Do not take a road trip out of the Kurdish region, though. Many direct flights to Erbil from Turkey, the gulf, even Europe.

#4 would be Istanbul, very pleasant historic and liberal city

#5 Would be Amman, with a trip to Jerash and Petra.

#6 would be Dubai and Abu Dhabi, it's almost all new glitz but stay in Deira in Dubai for a more exotic environment
If you've been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, not much reason to go to Qatar, Kuwait, or Bahrain.

Post: #9

(04-24-2019 06:04 AM)Sp5 Wrote:  

(04-23-2019 06:01 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

(04-23-2019 10:14 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Check out Beirut, Lebanon. Must visit

I would have loved to have visited Beruit in the 1960's, when it was "The Paris Of The Middle East."

Lebanese women can be smoking hot, although they tend to wear a bit too much makeup.

It's still the Paris of the Middle East if you're in Gemayzeh, Ashrafiyeh, Raoucheh, Hamra.

Beirut would be my #1 choice

#2 would be Cairo, stay in Zamalek, Mohandisseen, Dokki, Garden City, or Maadi. A mess, but amazing and you have to see the pyramids.

#3 would be Erbil, Iraq. US and EU citizens can enter through Erbil or Sulymaniyah for 30 days visa free. It's safe!! I saw many Airbnb choices in Erbil, stay near Ankawa, it's the Christian neighborhood and where the bars and clubs are. Do not take a road trip out of the Kurdish region, though. Many direct flights to Erbil from Turkey, the gulf, even Europe.

#4 would be Istanbul, very pleasant historic and liberal city

#5 Would be Amman, with a trip to Jerash and Petra.

#6 would be Dubai and Abu Dhabi, it's almost all new glitz but stay in Deira in Dubai for a more exotic environment
If you've been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, not much reason to go to Qatar, Kuwait, or Bahrain.

Hey Sp5, amongst your 5 picks which of them have you got action in? Especially curious about #2, #3 and #5. You sound like someone who knows their way around the ME.

Post: #10

Cairo will host the africa cup soon . so i guess its gonna be slightly more expensive than usual days

Post: #11

Hey I’ve spent a fair bit of time in the Middle East, so feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

To start off with, I would give the following pieces of advice:
Learn some Arabic, preferably the local dialect of the country you’re going to. People in the region have a very low expectation for foreigners speaking Arabic, so even a little bit will be greatly appreciated and open up a few doors.

Don’t just limit yourself to the capitals of these countries. Beirut for example is very Westernized and you might not get a very Middle Eastern feel from it, while Cairo is massive and chaotic and a lot of times it gives people a bad impression of the country as a whole. In general, off-the-beaten-path excursions are safer in the Middle East than in other third word countries (such as Latin America for example), so you can go to 2nd and 3rd tier cities even as a clueless tourist and you should be alright.

Don’t think Egypt is just about pyramids or pharaonic stuff. The Islamic architecture in Cairo is every bit as impressive as the stuff from Ancient Egypt. Sites not to be missed are al-Azhar, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, the Madrassa of Sultan Hassan and the Islamic Art Museum. One cool thing is that many of these monuments are submerged in the middle of the modern, bustling city, take a bit of effort to find, and are not super touristy. Get Caroline William’s book “Islamic Monuments in Cairo” and try to follow some of the walks in the book. The process of looking for and discovering these places will be an adventure in itself.

For some crazy cultural experiences, check out the belly dancing clubs frequented by locals (not the ones aimed at tourists). You’ll see some chubby women shaking their stuff, horny Egyptian men raining cash upon them, and hear some strange carnivalesque music from another world.

For specific country recommendations:
Egypt
- Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel. You can take a boat-ride up the Nile between these sights, highly-recommended.
- Siwa. An oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert close to Libya.
- Alexandria. Has a lot of old-world charm, very European feel from the colonial era when Alexandria was full of Greeks, Italians and English.
- Beaches. Egypt has some of the best beaches in the Middle East. Go to Dahab for the hippy backpacker experience or Nuweiba to camp on pristine beaches.

Lebanon
- If you’re trying to do Lebanon on a budget, the best place to stay in Beirut is the Saifi Institute. It’s a hostal / language school / Lebanese restaurant / bar. The Lebanese girls who frequent the rooftop bar are probably more down-to-earth and open to meeting foreigners than in Beirut’s more chic, upscale venues.
- Byblos (Jbeil in Arabic). Charming coastal village, pleasant place to walk around on a Saturday afternoon.
- Baalbek. Impressive Roman ruins, makes you realize just how vast the Roman Empire was that they were building massive temples in the Middle East.
- Beiteddine, for the beautiful palace, and then Deir al-Qamar, for a very traditional Lebanese village
- Tyre (Sur in Arabic). Best beaches in Lebanon are here.
- For a really off-the-wall experience, go to Hezbollah’s Museum of the Resistance, which celebrates its guerrilla war against Israel. It’s in a remote area and hard to get to, but totally worth it.

Jordan
- Make sure you see Petra and camp out in the desert in Wadi Rum

Turkey
- In Istanbul, don’t get stuck in the Sultanahmet district the whole time. Stay in Cihangir or Beyoglu near Istiklal street and make sure you check out the bar scene in Kadikoy on the Asian side.
- Check out Izmir for one of Turkey’s more open-minded cities. Great place to be in the summer. And Cappadocia for a surreal landscape and churches carved into caves.

Then one surprising country omission from your list is Morocco. Out of all the countries in the Middle East, I think Morocco is the one most likely to give you the classic “Middle Eastern” experience of old, labyrinthine cities, the smells and spices of the bazaar, the traditional clothing, the whole exotic deal – while at the same time it’s slower-paced and a bit easier to navigate as a tourist.

Then one final piece of advice. If you go to the Middle East with the expectation that you’re going to have a relaxing vacation with the typical tourist amenities, you’re inevitably going to be disappointed.

You have to appreciate the Middle East for what it is, and what it is is a gritty, raw place where traditional modes of living and thinking still survive to the present day. You’ll meet people whose personalities are not shaped by the standardized molds of mass media and public education, as in the West. Real characters with their own eccentric beliefs. On the same street or at the same café, you can talk to someone whose head is still in the Middle Ages, another guy who’s still stuck in the 1960’s (including in the way he dresses), and then a young guy who’s up to speed on the latest Netflix series. In the same day, you can hang out with Islamic clerics talking about crazy miracles they witnessed, old degenerates drinking beer in clandestine bars, and beautiful women who seem 100% Westernized until a classic Arabic song comes on, whereupon their inner belly dancer will break out and you’ll see some sultry dance moves.

In short, you should go to the Middle East for the people and experiences, and less for the sights.

Post: #12

(04-29-2019 11:35 AM)RoadTo100 Wrote:  

(04-24-2019 06:04 AM)Sp5 Wrote:  

(04-23-2019 06:01 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

(04-23-2019 10:14 AM)CleanSlate Wrote:  Check out Beirut, Lebanon. Must visit

I would have loved to have visited Beruit in the 1960's, when it was "The Paris Of The Middle East."

Lebanese women can be smoking hot, although they tend to wear a bit too much makeup.

It's still the Paris of the Middle East if you're in Gemayzeh, Ashrafiyeh, Raoucheh, Hamra.

Beirut would be my #1 choice

#2 would be Cairo, stay in Zamalek, Mohandisseen, Dokki, Garden City, or Maadi. A mess, but amazing and you have to see the pyramids.

#3 would be Erbil, Iraq. US and EU citizens can enter through Erbil or Sulymaniyah for 30 days visa free. It's safe!! I saw many Airbnb choices in Erbil, stay near Ankawa, it's the Christian neighborhood and where the bars and clubs are. Do not take a road trip out of the Kurdish region, though. Many direct flights to Erbil from Turkey, the gulf, even Europe.

#4 would be Istanbul, very pleasant historic and liberal city

#5 Would be Amman, with a trip to Jerash and Petra.

#6 would be Dubai and Abu Dhabi, it's almost all new glitz but stay in Deira in Dubai for a more exotic environment
If you've been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, not much reason to go to Qatar, Kuwait, or Bahrain.

Hey Sp5, amongst your 5 picks which of them have you got action in? Especially curious about #2, #3 and #5. You sound like someone who knows their way around the ME.

I dated a 32 year old Egyptian virgin in Cairo - 25 years younger than me. Badoo. She was ready to get naked and get me off, everything but. When I broke it off (she was clingy and jealous, texting all the time), she said she'd fuck me, but I didn't want to do that because I was otherwise tired of her.

I also dated a 38 yo Nubian virgin who was very attractive, but the logistics were too tough to get together. The bawab's wife interrogated her the one time I took her to my apartment for a visit. She worked late hours far away from my place.

Of course, whether these women really were virgins is questionable - Egypt is the world leader in hymen restoration surgery.

The whole idea of women who have FGM turns me off, and about 90% of Egyptian women are mutilated, so I couldn't see them as LTR prospects.

Besides that, I banged a Kenyan I met through Badoo and a couple of Filipinas I met through daygame (yes there are a quite a few in Cairo, domestics and office functionaries.)

Erbil never got lucky, it's possible but only among the foreigners there or really really in secret with great logistics (apartment not hotel). Kurds are known for honor killings. Maybe among the Arab girls who are migrants from the rest of Iraq or Syria you could have some luck. Foreign girls are English teachers and aid workers from the West, and a few Ethiopians and Filipinas (yes, again)

Amman I brought a woman so never tried, there's a separate thread by a guy who wrote a lot about the scene there.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are filled with desperate domestics, shopgirls, and office functionaries from other places - Filipinas, Africans, Malaysians

One thing I've noticed is that more women in Egypt, Dubai, Jordan, Morocco etc are now putting their own pictures in their Badoo, Tinder profiles. In the recent past, most would have stock photos of actresses or singers.

Post: #13

I have been considering this myself for the fall/winter.. I think Pakistan or Iran are next on my list just to explore the countrys not for game. I will hire a tour guide for this(if my visa is approved) Then I would like to live in a ME city for 3 months (a liberal ME city with decent weather with cute girls that are open to foreigners) and try to bang some of the locals.