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Blogs by Rolf Richardson
Arabia 10/24/2019 1:19:18 AM
Much has changed since the early 1960s, when my flying days took me regularly to what might loosely be described as Arabia. There was Bahrain, an outpost of the old Indian raj, its currency still in Rupees; Dubai, scratching a living smuggling gold to India; Doha, where we furtively sank our beers in strict TT-land; Abu Dhabi, which no one had heard of and we had problems finding.
Now Arabia is home to the world's most ostentatious display of wealth and a popular tourist destination, but one country is still missing from my bucket list and that's the biggest of them all, Saudi Arabia. If you want to do business there, no problem, but if you simply want to visit, as a tourist, until recently they would not grant you a visa.
But things are changing. Last year women were allowed to drive a car and now there is talk of a tourist drive. But even if they let me in, Saudi's most interesting tourist site would be off limits, because only those of the faith are allowed within the holy grounds of Mecca.
As I shall never be able to visit Mecca, maybe I should ask HM the Queen, as head of the Church of England, to order a tit-for-tat: only those of the Christian faith should d be allowed within our holy city of Canterbury.
