Disqus - Latest Comments for laradunston

Re: Eco Tourism in the Middle East: Iran

laradunston — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:43:12 -0000

Camel meat is delicious - yes, Maurice is right, a little gamey, but can be incredibly succulent if done well - it's served throughout the Arabian Peninsula countries at weddings and Eid feasts. I'm normally based in Dubai but I'm in Australia at the moment and it's featuring on the menu here a lot - after all the Australians export a lot of camels to the Middle East.

I've just discovered your blog by accident as I was looking for an update on an eco-tourism project in Iran and somehow arrived here. Great blog! I'll link to it from my own.

I'd love to know where the photo is... as a travel writer I should probably know, but I don't... I haven't been to Iran yet but I'm going in 2009 so I'll definitely be trying out these companies.

Re: Oh, Man! First Thoughts On Oman.

laradunston — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 03:29:55 -0000

Every country on the Arabian Peninsula is actually very different to the next. Bahrain and Qatar are completely different to each other. They in turn are very different to Oman and the UAE. And Yemen, and Kuwait... and as for Saudi...

But one thing they all have in common is their great coffee, you're right. It's the flavour - the cardomon and cloves - rather than the strength that makes it special. And the coffee ritual itself.

Hey Gary, just letting you know I did a post on To Haggle or Not to Haggle and quoted you: http://cooltravelguide.blogspot.com/2009/01/to-...

And I included my favorite sales guy (actually, the owner of the store!) from Muttrah Souq.

And it's odd you had bad internet problems in Dubai... we've lived there for 11 years and the only time we really had problems was the few times the cable out at sea was severed and we lost internet for several days. That happened recently - India lost it too - but I understood it was fixed now. I'm in Australia at the moment, where the whole internet access thing is woeful - the UAE is way ahead of them here. Enjoy!
Lara

Re: First Thoughts on Egypt

laradunston — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:47:32 -0000

Hard to tell whether you actually enjoyed Cairo or not, Gary. I've been a few times and absolutely love it, but I love Alex even more - it's a very special city with very special people. You must read some of Ahdaf Souief (not sure if the spelling is right) while you're in Egypt and do try and get to Luxor and Aswan too.

There are actually guest workers in Egypt - a lot of wealthy families have Indian and Sri Lankan maids and nannies for instance - just not as many as in the Gulf, but of course they don't need them in Egypt because of the massive population. And while it appears very different to the Gulf countries - and of course each of those are different again to eachother - there are close ties between them. I have a lot of friends in the UAE who have Egyptian mothers and Emirati fathers and have been going back and forth between the countries for 20 or 30 years or however long, so there's a lot of giving and taking between the countries. It's all interesting stuff, isn't it? Especially when you get to meet the locals - hopefully you're doing that. Enjoy!

Re: Pull a chair up to the fire -- the Irish Fireside that is

laradunston — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:31:08 -0000

Oh, you wrote this?! I almost bought a copy actually, however, I was travelling (as usual) and already had an extra bag of books and not a single place to put it. It looked fabulous. I'm going to have to get it when I 'settle down' next. I love this series - Angela's book also.

Thanks for stopping by Cool Travel Guide. I'm going to explore your blog now!

Re: Blog Love to Cool Travel Guide

laradunston — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:12:54 -0000

Hey there! Thanks for the shout out, yourself! I totally dig your site - very cool! I dipped into it the other night and loved what I read. If I didn't have a deadline tonight - and another tomorrow (ugh!) I'd spend more time. But I'm also going to subscribe and I'll also be doing another post on travel blogs soon and will be writing about you and your gorgeous wife and your priority: freedom. We completely relate - my husband and I have been two years on the road now with no fixed address. It's wonderful but tiring. Catch you soon!

Re: New Northern Liberties Tea Shop

laradunston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:07:23 -0000

This place looks very cool indeed. I've been travelling a lot recently - Dubai, Cyprus, Crete, Turkey - and in each country they do tea and coffee so differently... I've been thinking about how cool it would be to have a tea room-cum-coffee shop focused on serving up teas and coffees from around the world, nothing fancy, don't need no tea or coffee sommelier or anything, just focused on serving tea/coffee the way they do locally, everywhere from India to Morocco, Argentina to Turkey, you name it... none of that starbucks crap... what do you think?

Re: New Northern Liberties Tea Shop

laradunston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:08:47 -0000

Cool pic of the sugar cubes by the way!

Re: Site Updates!

laradunston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:39:01 -0000

I absolutely love the header image!

Re: New York From the 6 Train

laradunston — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:23:22 -0000

Haven't been to New York in about 15 years! Long overdue for a visit, I think, although it's certainly not at the top of my list.

Got your message in response to my tweet re travel blogs and have finally added you to my blogroll - sorry for the delay - so busy writing. But I don't see you have a blogroll anywhere? Am I not looking hard enough?

Re: All Venice Needs is a Ferris Wheel

laradunston — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:57:27 -0000

I've just finished a story on the same topic actually. We were there last month - not by choice, work of course. I hate it in August, and try to avoid visiting there in the summer if I can at all help it for the very reason you've given, that it is a theme park. As Austin says above, there are lots of ways to get off the beaten track and go local, and surprisingly you don't have to go far to do it. We once rented an apartment there and it was wonderful - we were shopping at the market every day, buying wonderful fresh seafood to cook, doing as the locals do and taking our empty water bottles to fill with vino at our local wine shop - it was fab! Highly recommend it!

lara dunstons last blog post..Top 10 things to buy in Dubai, pt 2

Re: National Travel Writing Month: NaTraWriMo

laradunston — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 02:54:34 -0000

Oh dear, is that why all my editors have been saying August was their worst month ever, that their in boxes have been flooded with pitches? :)

lara dunstons last blog post..Top 10 things to buy in Dubai, pt 2

Re: Goreme Valley, Cappadocia

laradunston — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:47:31 -0000

As Priya says, these certainly are otherworldly. Stunning images - love the top one in particular. Loved our time in Goreme.

I've finally added you to my blogroll, too - so sorry it took so long, flat out finishing some books with little time for blogging.