Unlike the multitude of books and articles on Europe, very little is available to the average reader about the Middle East other than what's newsworthy regarding the war with Iran. There are no writers like Rick Steves (whose excellent travel articles appear regularly in this paper) with tips on the life, culture, and natural wonders of that part of the world.

As you might imagine, there are some really good beaches on the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf, but no one is eager to get in the water. Why, you ask? Because they have more than their share of the world's sharks in those waters. In fact, sharks are so common that in order to let you swim there are places where they have built concrete walls about 75 feet into the ocean, with another wall about 100 to 150 feet connected to these walls at a right angle.........

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