Simon Buckby was a London-based BBC and Financial Times journalist, among other things, before running communications consultancies. He has travelled to well over 100 countries, and recently moved from Hong Kong to Dubai.
Arabia is opening up. There are brand new cities, world class heritage sites, desert camps with dune bashing, mountain trekking in the great mountains, and scuba diving in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Above all, you get insights into a part of the world crucial to global stability and yet so misunderstood and so feared in the West.
Saudi Arabia feels like a final frontier. Apart from the two million Muslim pilgrims who go to Mecca every year, very few foreigners have been able to enter the country for decades. Yet, suddenly, we are not only allowed, we are being actively encouraged, and we get the warmest of welcomes. But just because we can now go, why should we? And what would we see when we get there?
In this woefully under-visited state, there is the tech capital of India at Bengaluru plus several heritage centres with palaces and temples of competing ancient kingdoms. In addition, there are coffee plantations, tiger reserves and uncrowded beaches.
There is plenty to see and do in the UAE beyond the big-ticket attractions of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. There are beaches, deserts and mountains, with fabulous resorts all over. There are mosques and forts to investigate, arts and culture to explore, and sports galore to play and to watch.
Tamil Nadu is beyond the tourist circuits of India, with unique local culture, cuisine and temples, colonial legacy, churches and forts, hectic street life, crowded beaches on the Bay of Bengal coast, cool hill stations in the Western Ghats, and the uniqueness of the southern tip of the sub-Continent.
Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, is one of the weirdest places on the face of the earth, and that alone makes this trip outstanding. Plus, there are excellent natural wonders and decent big ticket heritage sites. Above, this is a chance to peep behind the iron curtain of one of the most isolated countries in the world.
Vast urban areas of sky-high architecture and smart-city innovation make Guangdong one of the best places to understand what is happening in China today and see what much of the world might look like tomorrow. All this has been built on the foundations of a unique history, so as well as the future you can also visit the past in villages, fortresses and temples dating back thousands of years.
Unlike other countries on the Arabian Peninsula, Oman can feel more like a traditional holiday destination, with easily accessible natural beauty (for driving and hiking in the wadis and mountains, along with dune bashing in the desert), important heritage sites (especially forts and watchtowers), as well as beaches, diving and high-end resorts.
Come to find unique ethnic culture, stunning mountain ranges, Christian monasteries, freely available alcohol, and – despite its existential fragility – peace and security. Then leave with a greater understanding of the scars of war and the prospect of an independent Kurdish country.
The enduring legacy of the World Cup – both the modernisation and the controversy – spatchcocked onto a quiet conservative Islamic culture, makes for an intriguing retreat. It’s not hard to have a fun long weekend in Doha, but nor would you be struggling for things to do if you stayed for a week or more.
