A Girl Solo In Arabia

As a young traveler making my way through the Middle East and Northern Africa, I once had dreams of recreating Sir Richard Burton's famous Journey to Mecca, where he posed as a devout Muslim and became the second white man to enter Mecca. The journey was arduous: he actually circumcised himself to avoid detection. I gave it a go myself, but got as far as Cairo before I abandoned my Hajj, plopped myself down at a food court in the Cairo Four Seasons Hotel and treated myself to a $5 pint of beer and a huge hot fudge sundae.

Richard Burton and Carolyn McIntyre are made of sterner stuff than me. McIntyre is not trying to undertake the Hajj, but instead is recreating the epic journey of Islamic scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta. She will travel from Tangiers and travel through 46 countries on three continents, traveling from Morocco to China before she's done. And, of course, she's been blogging the whole thing. Here's a passage from her latest entry...

Standing at the 10th century Qinnesrin Gate, one of the most beautiful and intact of Aleppo, I was listening to an old blind man who was being teased by passing schoolboys, roar at them hoping they’d fail every exam in the coming term, when a young and very earnest-looking woman approached me. She was dressed from head to foot in black; long black coat and black hijab. I did not understand what she wanted as she pulled out a book from her bag and showed me pages of Arabic script - it transpired that she wanted me to know that just because she and other Syrian women might wear hijab and dress traditionally, it did not mean they were uneducated.

Her blog, Girl Solo in Arabia, is a must read. It is just beautifully written, full of the vivid pleasures and small cruelties that I remember so well from my time in the Middle East.

Girl Solo In Arabia [Carolyn McIntyre's Site]