Slovenia (08/13/2016 - 08/19/2016)

The last time I was in this part of the world it was still called Yugoslavia, and so the only thing I was really expecting to find was a good pljeskavica, a spiced patty which I so fondly remember eating as a child. Indeed 28 years later, I found it, as well as much much more.

Slovenia was not a place I had intended to visit, but fate and fortune had brought me here for work and I took the opportunity to discover all that this hidden gem had to offer.  As sadly much of my travels as of late, I did the typical tourist itinerary of Lake Bled (famous for an island in the middle with a church, and a castle overlooking the cliffs), the port town of Piran (which used to be part of Italy, as Trieste was once part of Slovenia), and the numerous caves and castles (including Predjama Castle, which was built into a cliff face, and thanks to a hidden tunnel, remarkably resilient to prolonged sieges).  A nice off-the-beaten path surprise was visiting Triglavski Narodni Park, and the summit of Mangart, the third highest mountain in Slovenia at ~2,700 m - really, some of the nicest driving and mountain scenery I've ever seen.

There is a lot going for Slovenia - high level of education and research, clean environment, small population, beautiful landscapes, rich history, and the lowest GINI coefficient in the OECD (arguably, the world).  Oh yes, and the food and wine.  Slovenia has been making wine since before the time of the Romans, and amongst a few traditions they've preserved is the aging of wine in large ceramic pots buried in the earth and the making of 'orange wine', which an amber coloured wine resulting from leaving the skins of green grapes attached, as in the same case with red wine. The food was amazing - very fresh, locally sourced, creative, and flavourful.

Overall, a wonderful surprise and look forward to returning again soon.


Ljubljana

Lake Bled

Postojna Caves and Predjama Castle

Piran

Triglavski Narodni Park

 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (06/07/2016 - 06/11/2016)

I wasn't sure what to expect when I found out I had to attend a meeting in Dubai - I've heard all sorts of descriptions ranging from the more positive, such as 'Singapore of the Desert', 'Vegas of the Middle East',  or 'Expat Heaven', to the much less flattering 'soulless', 'plastic', and 'where foreign workers go to die'.  To be honest, it's a bit of all of that.

It is impressive, though - the Dubaians anticipated an end to oil early and invested heavily into turning their emirate into a key business, transit, and tourist hub in the Middle East.  Its central location makes it a natural global hub, being almost equidistant to the far reaches of the Earth (e.g. much easier to hold an emerging markets conference there than in Singapore where it takes 25+ hours to get to from Latin America).

Not having much time to explore surroundings, I did what most typical tourists do - eat lots of food, go up the Burj Khalifa, look at the various other architectural 'experiments', visit a few malls, and spend a day in the desert.

The added twist to this was having the opportunity to do this during the Holy Month of Ramadan, which did highlight that despite the modern veneer that Dubai presented the world, it was still a conservative country that respected its cultural roots.  You do get fined for eating and drinking in public during daylight hours as it provides additional stress to those observing -- however, they also understood that not all can or want to observe the fast, and so special areas were curtained off from the public to allow those to eat and drink out of public view. An interesting fact is that most who observe the fast in the Middle East actually gain weight during Ramadan while that may sound counter-intuitive, all it takes is one iftar to understand why!

One thing I did see much of, however, were the native Dubaians themselves, who comprise only 15% of the population. Not once did I have the chance to interact with one during my time there (or at least to my knowledge) - perhaps next time.