WTF Tuesday

Ok,admittedly this article is less shocking than other WTF Tuesday posts, but it's approaching Ramadan and most Saudis are leaving the country soon so it's the best I got:

Article on the Booming Beauty Industry in Riyadh

My favorite quotes:

Sheikh Mohammad al-Habadan, a religious commentator, recently suggested that women should show nothing more than one eye in public. Revealing both, he said, could still promote lascivious thoughts.

Some beauty salons ... display stickers pointing out the dangers of damnation associated with plucking eyebrows

This article does bring up some interesting discussions about the lives of women in Saudi society. For more, I recommend Girls of Riyadh, a true story following the lives of four upper-class Riyadhi girls. A quick read, and very intriguing. Buy it on your Kindle!

WTF Tuesday

I don't know what is wrong with Gulf, or the Emirati media, but Tuesday just seems to be the day for the oddest stories:

WTF Tuesday

Millennial-Style Travel

I'm in the process of perfecting my weekend getaway planning:

Sunday: Determine Destination

Monday: Book Cheap Round-Trip Ticket

Tuesday: Book Hostel for Thursday Night

Wednesday: Download Relevant Lonely Planet Guide (via KindleDX)

Thursday: Depart, Read LP En Route, Figure Out the Rest on Arrival

Saturday: Return to Dubai

Sunday: Repeat

This weekend: ATHENS, the birthplace of democracy!

Hagia Sophia

Inside and Out. This building was big.

Ibn Ibn Battuta Visits Dubai

The blog link below is to a post by a fellow Gtown alum and Middle East ex-pat, Ibn Ibn Battuta. IIB lives in Morocco but has traveled all over the region. This post is of his day-long layover in Dubai. It is a bit factually inaccurate and generalizes too much, but I enjoy seeing other people's perspective on the city I call home:

IBN IBN BATTUTA'S POST

The Constant Vacuumer

We spent part of one morning in Istanbul checking out the intricacies of the interior tiling of the Blue Mosque (pictures coming soon). It is the largest mosque I've ever been in, and the entire carpeted floor is vacuumed five times a day. The only catch is that it takes hours to vacuum due to its size. So this one poor guy's life's work is to continuously vacuum the Blue Mosque. Let this be his tribute:

Istanbul Spice Market

Sometimes I wish cameras could capture smells...