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An other marvel of this world I want to tell you about today is the Dead Sea, situating between Israel and Jordan. This salt lake is the deepest in the world, but the most interesting peculiarity of this place is that it's situating 422 m below the sea level! And if you look now at the map, you will notice that it is not so far from the Mediterranean sea. How is it possible, I asked myself? Probably it's because from both sides of the lake there are mountains protecting it from all the other world: winds, climatic changes. Imagine that not far from it there is a desert too!
These position of the Dead Sea makes it very interesting for travel. A visitor can pass relaxing days near the lake healing maybe his/ her rheumatism or arthritis or respiratory disorders, inspiring the aerosol of the minerals of the evaporating water and taking water and mud baths. Tourism is the main industry there, and Dead Sea hotels have very friendly staffs and home like atmosphere. Some of them are situated directly on the beach of the lake.
Staying in these hotels you can visit Jerusalem distant only one hour journey from there, or, riding a camel, reach one of the next oasises. Among the other activities you can climb the rocks or watch animals that live only in this area. There are many important sight-seeings in this zone too. It's enough to mention the Massada fortress where 1000 men, women and children prefered to die to avoid slavery in Roman Empire. As you see, Dead Sea promises us not only unforgettable vacation but good health too. Where do you find an other place like this?
There's a reason I haven't been blogging much these last few months - or rather, lots of reasons. Terry and I have been busy travelling, mainly through the Middle East - to Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon - on commissions for a number of magazines, and squeezing in some assignments at 'home' in the UAE in between. We continued to do a lot of writing for in-flight magazines, especially Gulf Air's Gulf Life and Jazeera Airways' J Magazine (as I told you last time I wrote one of these updates in October), mainly because the editors are so easy to work with, and the magazines are fun. In Gulf Life's November Heritage issue, we had a piece on Doha's stupendous Museum of Islamic Arts, and in the latest edition, December's Food issue, we've got a feature on our experience behind-the-scenes with Michelin-starred chef Pierre Gagnaire in his kitchen at Reflets, Dubai (which I blogged about here), and small pieces on Jordan's cupcake king and owner of Sugar Daddy, Fadi Jaber, Amman's heavenly mussabaha, hommous, foul and falafal place, Hashem, Kuwait's best burger joint, Slider Station (pictured), and Dubai's colossal sweet shop, Candylicious. In December's issue of J Magazine, we've got a feature on Kuwait's fabulous four women politicians and Aleppo's food biz family and their matriarch Dalal Touma, the woman behind one of the city's best restaurants, Zomorod. You'll also find Terry's lush images illustrating our stories and lots of our reviews of restaurants, cafes and shops in the magazine's Destination Guide. One of my reviews went up on i-escape, on Kangaroo Island's Southern Ocean Lodge (and you'll see a lot more of my reviews soon on the site on properties in Australia and Syria), while our review of Doha's Four Seasons hotel went up on Travel Intelligence. We've got a lot more pieces coming out in early 2010, everywhere from Asia's Connect to the Ritz Carlton magazine, and I'll let you know about those as they appear.
I've been silent for some time, I know. We've been on the road again in the Middle East on commissions for a few in-flight and travel magazines, and our pace has been hectic to say the least - from hiking and camping at Wadi Rum to floating and spa-ing at the Dead Sea, we've done it all these last 5-6 weeks. I've barely had time - or an internet connection - to blog or tweet, but Twitter has been far easier to update, so if you can't find me here, you can come and check in on what we're doing there: www.twitter.com/laradunston. We're leaving buzzing Beirut tonight and heading back to Dubai so I'll update you all from there. In the meantime, an image from Wadi Rum.
These position of the Dead Sea makes it very interesting for travel. A visitor can pass relaxing days near the lake healing maybe his/ her rheumatism or arthritis or respiratory disorders, inspiring the aerosol of the minerals of the evaporating water and taking water and mud baths. Tourism is the main industry there, and Dead Sea hotels have very friendly staffs and home like atmosphere. Some of them are situated directly on the beach of the lake. 
