Reviews (25)

Best travel book I've read
The author has written an engaging, entertaining, beautifully discriptive book of Yemen.I visited Sana'a about 15 years ago and his book really hits the mark.I particularly enjoy how Mr. Hansen captures the culture and attitudes of the Yemen.He knows that that that culture is 180 degrees from Western culture and he treats Yemeni religion, customs and attitudes with respect and openness - yet does not patronize as do many other travel books.
Yemen, Beneath the Veil
I second the views of several reviewers that this is one of the best travel books they've ever read.Hansen takes us through Yemen as if we were riding (or sailing) with him.I never gave much thought to or knew much about Yemen but, thanks to Hansen, I have a new and positive view of it.His willingness to get out and experience many facets of this country enriches his descriptions.His good humor and sensitivity to its people are gratifying. But this is more than just a travelogue.Hansen's quest for his buried notebooks is a compelling story in itself.That plot and this venue combine to make this an irresistible and meritorious book. I look forward to reading more from this intrepid and gifted writer.

Perhaps, one of the best travel books I have ever read.
Having read literally hundreds of travelogues, I must say this is simply one of the finest I have ever run into. Eric's experiences are unusually wonderful, and his writing is magical. His focus on the Yemeni people and their lives and experiences make this book far more engaging than travelogues that focus on personal experiences, interpretations or places visited and described.
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Subjects:  1. (Eric K.)    2. Asia - China    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Description    5. Description and travel    6. Essays & Travelogues    7. Hansen, Eric    8. Special Interest - Adventure    9. Travel    10. Travel - General    11. Yemen    12. Journeys    13. Red Sea    14. Travel / Adventure    15. Travel writing   

Reviews (4)

Believe the hype!
My '5 stars' are for Dubai. I'm one of the authors and lived in the UAE for almost 8 years. I guess we do believe the hype, because we've lived it. Dubai is an extraordinary city, the country offers one of the best lifestyles in the world, and the Emirati people - Dubai locals in particular - are incredibly dynamic, funny, laidback, hospitable and tolerant. Having travelled all over the world (to over 50 countries) and recently moved to Europe, Dubai remains one of my favorite cities.
Mediocre
Of all the LP books I've read (probably 30 or 40), this is my least favorite.The authors seem to be working way too hard to sound hip and cool and impress their readers to produce an interesting book for travel addicts.Perhaps they've just been into Dubai a bit too long and have bought into the hype...

Interesting facts and figures
This books brings a good overview of the city (although I haven't been there yet) with nice quick tips and facts that usually go unoticed on other travel books.
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Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel Guides    5. Travel & holiday guides    6. United Arab Emirates   

Reviews (2)

Useful book
I bought this "Time Out" Book along with "Lonely Planet" copy of Dubai. I found the "Time Out" issue to be very informative with suggestions of hotels, nightlife bar/club, restaurants, entertainment for kids and adults, maps and cultural life. I couldn't put the book down since it covered alot of interesting short reads. I reccommend this book as a start for a quickie read and to take along with you as a guide when you visit Dubai. I thought it was worth the buy and there is very little guide books of Dubai. Also, the "Lonely Planet" book covers the sameinformation as "Time Out" but less interesting but focus more of History,tourist sites, and culture.

Time out Dubai
This is a good short guide to Dubai and the UAE, especially for first time visitors.the information is accurate and uptodate,especially considering how rapidly Dubai is changing. The warning about driving is more than accurate as the accident rate is very high and lethal. Most fees and entry costs are accurate. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Dubai (United Arab Emirates)    2. Dubayy (United Arab Emirates : Emirate)    3. Guidebooks    4. Middle East - General    5. Museums, Tours, Points of Interest    6. Travel    7. Travel - General    8. United Arab Emirates    9. Travel & holiday guides    10. Travel / Middle East / General   

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel Guides    5. Travel & holiday guides    6. United Arab Emirates   

Editorial Review

In 1934, a 42-year-old Englishwoman named Freya Stark arrived in the British-governed Protectorate of Aden on a singular mission: to locate the fabled, long-lost city of Shabwa.Read more

Reviews (4)

Fascinating Tale of a Time of Adventure, Lost Forever
I found this book absolutely fascinating as it described a time, only 70-odd years ago, when there truly were unexplored reaches, where legend and history still co-existed, and where a culturally sensitive and aware, and properly respectful traveler could find peaceful and fulfilling adventure.This book is even more interesting now, given the changes in the Middle East in the past ten years.Can one imagine making the same kind of journey in Yemen now?Of course not; it would almost be suicide.That time has long since been destroyed, everything about this book but its pure physical setting gone, so this memoir is even more poignant and compelling.
existentialist trek through Hadhramaut
Trekking over the desolate, rocky plateau that lies between the coast and the interior valleys of Hadhramaut, Freya Stark travelled in 1935 with a group of Bedu and a government slave-soldier.The area has been known as Aden Protectorate,the Qu'aiti State of Shihr and Makalla, South Arabia, the People's Democratic Republic of South Yemen, and is now part of united Yemen.She visited several of the interior towns, almost never seen by Europeans at that time (though the RAF did maintain a presence), and has written beautiful descriptions of the unusual physical environment as well as a kind and sympathetic treatment of the people she met.She talked in Arabic with the ladies of the harim as well as with the rulers, scholars, and ordinary men of the communities.Stark aimed to travel to Shabwa, a long-lost ancient city much further in the interior of the Arabian peninsula, to an area then contested between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.Illness prevented her from doing so.This book then, is an account of her curtailed trip.She was evacuated by airplane from the interior, lucky to be alive.I always like travellers who respect the people they visit and who do not condescend.Freya Stark is certainly among them.For a travel book that describes a time long gone and a place still far from the beaten track-do you know many people who have been to Shibam, Makalla, Tarim, or al Qatn ?---you cannot do much better.You might use it as a guide as to how you could get along with people of a very different culture to your own---step number one, don't try to force them to adhere to your value system. a woman adept at cross-cultural encounters
As a Christian worker in China, I had first-hand opportunity to see how we "foreigners" interacted cross-culturally. (Usually, the most successful of us were those who were not on a Mission from God.) Having seen people badly suited to live abroad and admiring those who were very able to do so, the joy of this book by Freya Stark was reading about a woman operating cross-culturally with a world-class ability to encounter persons with a much different backround than her own. Her sheer delight in her Bedouin companions is vicariously enjoyable.Read more

Subjects:  1. Description And Travel    2. Essays & Travelogues    3. History    4. History: World    5. Middle East - General    6. Middle East - History    7. Travel - General    8. Arabian peninsula    9. Classic travel writing    10. History / Middle East    11. Yemen   

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. ASIA    5. Asian / Middle Eastern history    6. Cultural studies    7. Places & peoples: general interest    8. Yemen   

Features

• Folded Map

Subjects:  1. Maps    2. Maps & Road Atlases    3. Middle East - General    4. Travel    5. Travel - Foreign    6. Bahrain    7. Qatar    8. Travel / Middle East / General    9. Travel / road maps & atlases    10. United Arab Emirates   

Reviews (4)

inaccurate and chilly
oman is the most exciting place i have
horribly outdated
This is the worst, most outdated guidebook I've ever come across. For the budget traveler, it is absolutely useless. The so-called "best hotel on the corniche" in Muscat turned out to be a dingy, roach-infested dive. The maps for Oman are minuscule,poorly drawn, and lack detail. The entire history of Oman is condensed into five pages. Don't waste your money on this guide. Oman is a very easy country to travel in, and you hardly need this guidebook. This is the sort of guidebook you find yourself leaving behind at your hotel. If Duabi is your destination, go with the newer "Dubai" guide. Pity, though, that Lonely Planet charges you the same price for a city guidebook as they do for a two-country guidebook.

amazing
this book has everything u need 2 know on the emirates, oman and their relationship as neighbouring countries ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign   

Subjects:  1. Middle East    2. Sports & Outdoor Recreation    3. TRAVEL & HOLIDAY    4. ASIA   

Reviews (2)

A Cure for Leftist Lunacy Concerning Islam
About this book, Daniel Pipes wrote: In her mid-40s, a successful executive just placed in charge of Xerox's Color Solutions Business Unit, Quin had a taste for exotic travel that took her in late 1998 to Yemen with a group of eighteen other Western tourists. She and they had the misfortune to have their Land Cruisers driven directly into a war between the government and an Islamist outfit called the Aden Abyan Islamic Army (AAIA). The entire tourist group was taken hostage on December 28 and held for more than a day before Yemeni military forces attacked the AAIA, leading to the deaths of four tourists, two terrorists, and one soldier. Quin herself had a close brush with death, but the terrorist holding the gun in her back was hit before he could do damage to her; in an act of daring-do, she managed to pull from his still-live hands his AK-47, an act which left her a changed person. (The mild-mannered, liberal feminist admits that as she exultantly fought for the gun, she had a revelation: "So this is why men like war.")
How life changes in one AK-47 moment.
Quin has an appealing writing style and writes on issues of great import.They say you should write what you know, and write real characters.Quin does both.
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Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Kidnapping    6. Middle East - General    7. Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism    8. Terrorism    9. Travelers    10. United States    11. Women    12. Yemen    13. History / Middle East   

Subjects:  1. Africa    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel Guides    5. NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS    6. Travel / Africa    7. Yemen   

Features

• Illustrated

Subjects:  1. Asia - General    2. Middle East - General    3. Pictorials    4. Travel    5. Travel - General    6. History / Middle East    7. Places & peoples: general interest    8. Travel & holiday guides    9. YEMEN   

Reviews (4)

Qatar section terribly out of date
I bought this book to prepare for my relocation to Qatar (from Australia).
Great tips for Kuwait & Bahrain
I purchaed this book as was traveling extensively between Bahraina and Kuwait - and it was perfect for this. I found the information contained within to be very accurate, and useful in planning my trip.
Useful, but way out of date...
I bought this book for a recent business trip to Qatar, and was dissapointed to find quite a number of things that were very out of date.The phone system has been updated since publishing, and now all numbers are 7 instead of 6 digits.you can fix most by adding a 4 at the beginning of most listed numbers, or a 5 for cell phones.Also, some crucial info, like the address to the US Embassy, was wrong.The Embassy moved several years ago.I found most of the societal and historical info to be very handy in preparing for the trip, however, so it was worth it for that. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign   

Subjects:  1. Travel & holiday guides    2. United Arab Emirates   

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Travel    3. Travel - Foreign    4. Travel & holiday guides    5. Travel / Middle East / General    6. United Arab Emirates   

Reviews (2)

Who is Kathleen Guillaume?
I want to know more about the translator before buying the book.
Intimate study of the forms, styles and colours
This book is unlike other photographic books on Yemen, it oes not attempt to tell the whole story but rather examines in closeup the details that form the whole such as the styles, patterns and forms that together distinguish Yemen as a bridge between Arabia and Africa.Similary it looks at the way the Yemenis have sculpted their environment from houses to faces.Remarkable in its detail.This book keeps Yemen's secrets but exposes it's character. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Architecture    2. History    3. History - Specific Styles    4. International Architecture - Middle Eastern    5. Middle East - General    6. Middle East - History    7. Pictorial works    8. Travel    9. Yemen    10. Yemen (Republic)    11. History / General    12. Photography / Travel    13. Travel / road maps & atlases   

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Travel & holiday guides    3. United Arab Emirates    4. Places & peoples: general interest   

Subjects:  1. Travel    2. Oman    3. Travel & holiday guides    4. United Arab Emirates   

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. General    5. 05-1252,051252,1-4120-6341-8,1412063418,trafford publishing,My Year in Oman: An American Experience in Arabia During The War On Terror,matthew heines,romance,travel,adventure    6. Biography & Autobiography / General    7. Biography: general    8. Oman    9. Travel writing    10. Travel-General   

Subjects:  1. Middle East - General    2. Reference - General    3. Travel    4. Travel - Foreign