Most people know Petra from the famous "Treasury" monument, but the site is much larger than that single monument. I spent three days hiking the place and still didn't see everything.

I was in Amman for two days and was struck by the incredible sprawl this city has. It is also quite hilly, which in most places means you can't see the horizon. This makes it seem like the rolling landscape lasts forever.

Baalbek is one of the best preserved ancient Roman sites in the entire world. It is located in Lebanon which is currently suffering hyperinflation of its currency. I spent three days here exploring the ruins as well as the city itself. It was an incredible experience.

My favorite part of Riyadh is the historical museum, which is connected to the old Saudi palace. There is a lot of interesting history here that I never learned about in school.

Al Ula was a minor capital of the same civilization that built Petra. The area, and Saudi Arabia itself, is quite new to tourism. Unlike Petra, where you can hike the entire site unaccompanied, every interesting site in Al Ula requires a booking and many times a guide. In most cases, the hassle was worth the unique beauty of this area.

Doha is a really cool city. Everything of interest is close by and it is very walkable. I was there during Ramadan, when the city is empty during the day and comes alive at night. It was a very cool experience.

I arrived in Kuwait without a visa, in similar fashion to every other location I'd been to so far. I other places I would spend a few minutes in line before someone in passport control asked me a could questions the provided a visa-on-arrival on the spot. Kuwait was a bit different. I went through passport control and was then told I was in the wrong line and needed to go wait in another line in a different area of the airport. I then had to fill out a paper identification form and use an old-school copier to xerox my passport. Then another line to acquire the visa and one final line at passport control.

Manama feels like a city that has successfully melded the future and the past. It has some beautiful old districts as well as some cool skyscrapers, including one with windmills on its facade.

Jebel Shams is said to be the "Grand Canyon of the Middle East". I'd say it lives up to it's name. It's more mountainous than the Grand Canyon and a bit less red. I would argue that due to its mountainous structure it's even more impressive than the Grand Canyon.