Muscat is one of those names that seems to say “exotic city”. A place quite unlike Main Street USA. The name does not quite reach the level of Timbuktu or Samarkand, in terms of connoting images of Old World trade, and caravans and spices, but it’s not just another town with a souq. It did […]

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On the map, driving to Muscat looks straightforward. Get from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain, cross over into Oman, go through the Oman “border” post about 30 clicks inside the country … and make a right turn at Sohar. Eventually Muscat; can’t miss it. “On the map”, however, gave us no indication of possible delays […]

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As a sports editor, it is easy to wonder why various fields of endeavor cannot arrange their schedules so that they don’t overlap and dilute their audience — as well as the media recognition they might get that night or the next morning. Today, for instance, we had at least four events that could have […]

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Our seventh Thanksgiving celebration since moving to the UAE, and our most Emirati version yet. Yes, the actual holiday was yesterday, but I was pulling a desk shift in the office … and people in the UAE can’t be expected to know that the dinner should have gone on the day before. When you’re out […]

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I am going to make a sweeping statement. Nobody loves Guinness world records as does the UAE … and, specifically, the people of Dubai. Dubai has some legit, significant world records. Absolutely. Led by the world’s tallest building — a record regular folks have paid attention to, probably going back to the Tower of Babel. […]

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This is a very UAE thing. You do well in a major competition, especially a major soccer competition, and you can expect a little something to show the appreciation of the rulers. In this case, it was announced today that every player on the Al Ahli side, which reached the final of the Asian Champions […]

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Everyone who does a road trip of any significance knows … if at all possible, you want to return by a route different than the one you took for the first half. Not a lot longer, but a little longer is OK … because you don’t want to see the same stuff twice. Obviously. What […]

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(Above, the sunrise in Fujairah, over the Indian Ocean.) This is a pretty easy question to answer. If you live in the UAE and prefer to stay in-country for vacation … but want something not at all like home … where do you go? Fujairah. This is the emirate unlike the other six.

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Six years here, and we had not seen all seven of the emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. Which was a wasted opportunity. Because the UAE encompasses only 32,278 square miles (a little smaller than Maine, a bit bigger than South Carolina, which are 39th and 40th among the 50 U.S. states) we […]

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Lord help us, when guys with money meet new gadgets or souped-up vehicles or other unneeded things — well, yes, toys. And where better to stage a show dedicated to Toys for Big Boys than the UAE? OK, it probably should have been held in Dubai, which has a hard-earned reputation for wretched excess, but […]

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