Non of this sounds great.
I think when that Evergreen vessel got grounded in the Suez canal they wanted almost a billion dollars in compensation and basically held the ship and its crews hostage. That tells you a lot about their government. I know they eventually worked things out but it tells you the mentality of Middle Eastern governments.
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If you want progressive, safe and impressive ruins in the ME then go to Jordan. Amazing country.
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Actually Israel is probably the most progressive in terms of the Middle East. Otherwise almost every country there has a 14th century mentality.
If you’re LGBT don’t even think about going near there.
On a list of the most progressive countries in the ME, Jordan and Israel would be at the top. Homosexuality is legal in Jordan just not public displays so that’s saying something for an Arab country. They also celebrate Christian and Muslim holidays.
I will be going to both later this year. Been to Jordan several times and Jerusalem is only a 2 hr. ride from Amman.
Israel is VERY gay friendly.
Racially though …
I understand the local pricing, it’s just fair. But the preferential pricing for all the rich Arabs is something racially motivated. Kinda preferential pricing for Muslims…
Middle East is VERY tribal. You can see that they don’t necessarily treat Muslims better either. Look at Dubai, they treat laborers from Indonesia very badly. I think Arab superiority is kinda beaten into them for over 1000 years.
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They don’t give a single fuck about Uyghur concentration camps in China either, but they are willing to go to war with Israel over Palestine (and get their asses whipped each time lol). Though I guess the latter is driven not so much by Arab brotherhood as by antisemitism. Hatred is always a stronger motivation.
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I was surprised by this actually. Apparently, Tel Aviv has a big gay scene and community.
I haven’t considered Jordan before, I’ll look into it.
Petra is in Jordan which is very popular. I know ppl who’ve been there.
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Happens lots of places. In Thailand I could usually get around it because I worked at a local university. At the national palace museum in Taipei, I had to pay the foreigner price even though I’ve paid Taiwan taxes for a year 
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The ME is definitely very tribal. Racial superiority and nationalism are pretty common across rhe world. I’ve never been to Japan, but I hear they are pretty serious about it. The Chinese definitely are. White people have a reputation for this as well, but Europe is probably safe to travel.
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Dont forget the money from oil sales and the cheap shit they buy from China
Petra looks cool. If your lifelong dream is to see the pyramids, that will be difficult in Jordan unless you get high up with a good pair of binoculars.
When I lived in KSA almost went to Petra’s sister city, but then some visitors to the site were gunned down so I decided to give it a pass!
I recall they were Algerian Muslims with French passports, but this just says French nationals. Anyways, Jordan is almost certainly the safer choice!
I’ve been a few times and still see new things. It’s a huge site. I rode a donkey to the top and got this view of the Treasury.
There’s also a well preserved ancient Roman/Greek city called Jerash that’s pretty cool.
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From my understanding, the easiest way for Egypt is to take a package tour to resorts like Hurghada, and from there take organized tours to Giza/Saqqara, Luxor, etc. Independent travel is more troublesome due to quite aggressive environment, hustlers, police, etc… Anyway, I am currently exploring the latter option .
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“Petra is in Jordan which is very popular. I know ppl who’ve been there.”
Petra is definitely cool, but if looking from historical point of view, there is no comparison between a Nabatean kingdom that existed during a relatively recent period of antiquity (around 300 - 0 BC) and thousands of years of civilization of Egypt, where civilization started before 3000 BC. Just different levels of magnitude on a historical scale, and for me the prerogative is to see the remains of this kind of “ancient”…
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