Whenever someone visits us in Abu Dhabi, I try to get them to a local soccer match. As I have noted before. For one, it’s free. Also, the crowd will be overwhelmingly Emirati, and the way that crowd reacts is a revelation, too, to visitors who typically spend their days in crowds of expatriates. Which […]

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This is a very Dubai story. An appeal to people with more money than common sense, people who believe wretched excess is the only kind worth pursuing. The kind of people who like to live in Dubai. For sale on Dubai’s leading retail website: One Airbus A340 jumbo jet, capable of carrying more than 300 […]

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The topic of passports comes up fairly often in the UAE, probably because about 90 percent of everyone here is a citizen of a country that is not the United Arab Emirates. You live here long enough, and you begin to notice and appreciate a strong passport. United States and United Kingdom passports are, at […]

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I am fascinated by the Volvo Ocean Race. The sailing, certainly, and the people, but also the geography. What other sports event teaches you about … Point Nemo?

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The American colt California Chrome has landed in Dubai ahead of his first race on foreign soil — the $10 million Dubai World Cup next weekend. It seems possible the decision by Chrome’s owners to run the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Santa Anita Derby at Dubai’s Meydan Racecourse could translate into […]

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Bhutan is a small, rarely visited country on the eastern end of the Himalayas. North of India, south of Tibet, middle of nowhere. And it probably is neither unkind nor unfair to suggest that a couple of weeks ago, Bhutan was best known, globally, for being the country ranked 209th — and last — in […]

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On the whole, I am proud of Americans in the UAE. The thought struck me again over the weekend, while dealing with players and coaches in the Emirates American Football League. The league is justly proud that the majority of its players (57 percent) come from somewhere other than the U.S., and includes participants from […]

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I got an email the other day from the L.A. Galaxy media department. “Postgame notes: L.A. Galaxy 2, Chicago Fire 0 – March 6, 2015” The Galaxy season opener, and a victory for the defending Major League Soccer champions. And it was then that I realized …

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I am fascinated by this topic. How do commercial airliners get from Point A to Point B when the shortest route takes them over politically unstable/openly hostile points C and D? They take evasive action. That’s how. For Etihad Airways, over the weekend, flying from Cyprus to Abu Dhabi apparently looked like this. And why […]

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So, on Cyprus Day 6, we headed back to Larnaca and the country’s “big” airport. Larnaca seems a world away from Limassol, but it is barely 60 miles. As the day developed, the temperatures moved into the high 60s. After overnight lows of about 52. A strong sun overhead, the placid Mediterranean Sea, dark blue […]

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