Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United-Arab-Emirates & Yemen

UAE - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!)

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include:

* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken

"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times

Oman UAE & Arabian Peninsula (Multi Country Guide)

Discover Oman, UAE, and the Arabian Peninsula

Sneak (legally) into the dunes of Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter and experience all that's romantic about the desert.
Look beyond Dubai to the rest of the UAE - count the camels on the sublime desert drive from Sharjah to Kalba.
Hike where fragrant rosewater is produced from the pink roses of Oman's Jebel Akhdar.
Discover the secret to eternal life - and what make Suqutra the Galapagos Islands of the Middle East.

In This Guide:

More off-the-beaten-track UAE info than any other guide
Special Haj feature tells the ultimate traveler's tale
Dedicated Expats chapter packed with tips on living in another culture
The only guide with independent reviews of everything you need to know about Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar

Time Out Dubai: Abu Dhabi and the UAE (Time Out Guides)

Dubai Complete Residents' Guide

Motoring with Mohammed: Journeys to Yemen and the Red Sea

In 1978 Eric Hansen found himself shipwrecked on a desert island in the Red Sea. When goat smugglers offered him safe passage to Yemen, he buried seven years' worth of travel journals deep in the sand and took his place alongside the animals on a leaky boat bound for a country that he'd never planned to visit.

As he tells of the turbulent seas that stranded him on the island and of his efforts to retrieve his buried journals when he returned to Yemen ten years later, Hansen enthralls us with a portrait -- uncannily sympathetic and wildly offbeat -- of this forgotten corner of the Middle East. With a host of extraordinary characters from his guide, Mohammed, ever on the lookout for one more sheep to squeeze into the back seat of his car, to madcap expatriates and Eritrean gun runners- and with landscapes that include cities of dreamlike architectural splendor, endless sand dunes, and terrifying mountain passes, Hansen reveals the indelible allure of a land steeped in custom, conflicts old and new, and uncommon beauty.

Lonely Planet Dubai Encounter

What Will Your Dubai Encounter Be?

...skiing on the world's first indoor black run
...commissioning a special gold ring at a market price
...spending hours doing nothing at a Jumeirah beach resort
...kicking back with a beer, a sea breeze and a view of the Gulf at sunset
...reclining on cushions and smoking sheesha
...clearing your head in the Arabian desert

Discover Twice the City in Half the Time...

...navigate easily with a fully indexed street map plus detailed neighborhood maps
...local authors share their passion for the very best in shopping, dining, clubbing and relaxing
...take the hassle out of daily planning with unique thematic itineraries
go straight to the source: foodie tips from Gordon Ramsay's sommelier, shopping hints from a boutique owner

Yemen (Bradt Travel Guide)

Abu Dhabi Complete Residents' Guide

The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in the Hadhramaut (Modern Library Paperbacks)

In 1934, a 42-year-old Englishwoman named Freya Stark arrived in the British-governed Protectorate of Aden on a singular mission: to locate the fabled, long-lost city of Shabwa.

Located on the high Hadramaut plateau in what is now Yemen, Shabwa was renowned in antiquity as the source of frankincense. Little visited even then, it was also thought to be a particularly forbidding place; Genesis mentions it as the "enclosure of death," and the Roman geographer Pliny reported that it contained 60 great temples and wealth beyond measure. That was good enough for Stark, who, having not long before made a difficult passage across the badlands of Iran, thrived on improbable adventures. And so, by burro and whatever mechanical conveyances she could find, she ascended the high mountains into a world that was sometimes perilous, but that also sometimes approached fairy-tale dimensions, as when, climbing the Hadramaut, she writes, "The path kept high and open, until gradually the valley clefts narrowed again upon us, and shut us in walls whose luxuriant green made a romantic landscape of the kind usually only invented in pictures."

Stark never reached Shabwa; laid low by measles, she had to be evacuated from territory overrun in any event by warring religious factions and gangs of bandits. Though cut short, her time in the Yemeni highlands yielded this superb travel narrative, full of uncommon vistas and milieus (harems, bazaars, and Bedouin camps among them). Anyone who values tales of adventure well told will find Stark's body of work--and this book in particular--to be full of treasures. --Gregory McNamee

In 1934, famed British traveler Freya Stark sailed down the Red Sea, alighting in Aden, located at the tip of the Arabian peninsula. From this backwater outpost, Stark set forth on what was to be her most unforgettable adventure: Following the ancient frankincense routes of the Hadhramaut Valley, the most fertile in Arabia, she sought to be the first Westerner to locate and document the lost city of Shabwa. Chronicling her journey through the towns and encampments of the Hadhramaut, The Southern Gates of Arabia is a tale alive with sheikhs and sultans, tragedy and triumph. Although the claim to discovering Shabwa would not ultimately be Stark's, The Southern Gates of Arabia, a bestseller upon its original publication, remains a classic in the literature of travel. This edition includes a new Introduction by Jane Fletcher Geniesse, Stark's biographer.

Kuwait Complete Residents' Guide

Overflowing with facts and fuss-free advice, the Kuwait Explorer is the ultimate guidebook for residents, short-term visitors, business people and tourists. The Kuwait Explorer is packed with page after page of information, advice and insider knowledge, as well as an impressive selection of full-colour photographs and satellite maps. Produced by a resident team of researchers, writers and photographers, the Kuwait Explorer is the ultimate insider guide to getting things done and living life to the full in Kuwait. Relocating to Kuwait from visas and areas to setting up home; Living and working education, health, money, hobbies and activities; Shopping the owdown on the best streets, malls and souks; Going Out find the poshest restaurants and liveliest cafes; Maps detailed city maps and a country overview map; Exploring Kuwait covering the city and further afield, plus daytrips and weekend breaks.