I’ve got to admit. Three things Parisians do better than anyone else in the world: everyone dresses in style – hair, garments, and shoes; men and women in general seem more in touch with their senses, emotions, and fine arts; lastly, restaurants, waiters, bakeries, and consumers – the whole food industry – in its taste, presentation, and mechanics all come together as one splendid delivery. Even the simplest pastries had me chewing, pausing, and looking to the heavens to ponder how delightful a simple pleasure could be…in a completely new way! Anybody who has been to Paris will understand. Eating in Paris is an exercise of the mind and a festival for the stomach…I’m thinking colorful balloons, small kites, and dancing penguins.

We accidentally simulated a brilliant local lifestyle by renting a room in La Defense, buying our supplies from the local grocer and doing the daily bakery shop breakfast routine. Strolling through town with Nadine, we slowly got the hang of things. Many friends said traveling with a baby would be difficult…and they were right! The main learning is to exercise patience and teamwork, level your expectations, pack a smart day bag, and plan at a high level where you want to go and what you want to achieve for the day.

Here’s the checklist of what we did…so tourist-snobby of us!

• La Defence
• Versailles
• Louvre
• Eiffel tower
• Notre dame
• Arch du triumph
• San Michele Latin quarter
• Opera
• St. Germain

As soon as we arrived, my cousin Banan’s husband Mahmoud Malakani greeted us in our room with a fresh baguette, fruits, and a morning tour through the neighborhood to get acquainted with the local amenities….

The rest is memories…will write more next time..

Got to run!

We just left Brunei…for good. (Sad face.) My work contract is over. Time went by so fast, the last year especially. I spent four years of my life on that island: I came as a bachelor, got married, and started a family with my first child in Brunei. Yes, we made some amazing friends, immersed ourselves in the intriguing culture, made a lot of mistakes, and learned more than a few lifelong lessons that we will never forget. Now, 5 days before her first birthday, Nadine accompanies us as we leave Brunei on our way back to the US.

But first…we’re going to Europe! The plan is to land in Paris in a few days and hit Spain and Italy as our main attractions. We may touch Southern France and Portugal along the way, all depending on logistics. That’s our high level plan – the details we leave up to our good friend, Serendipity.

Thanks to our world-famous, authentically-bearded Norwegian backpacking coach, David Gullhav, we have come to terms with what we’re going to call this experiment. I’ve been practicing my alibi in front of the mirror every day to make sure I get it right: “We’re going on a trip through Southern Europe for a few months until something stops us- money, health, or an opportunity.” I want to say backpacking, but a bit more refined with proper baby travel gear, etc. I will be interviewing for a job and taking care of some family business along the way. It’s a spiritual journey of sorts- something I’ve wanted to do all my life. I figured why rush to move back to the ‘burbs? Eventually we’ll settle down, accumulate nice worldly things and enter the rat race again in my beloved, industrious, insatiable land. Oh how I love and hate you, America. Looking back at it, living in Southeast Asia has changed me forever. Let’s see what Southern Europe has in store for us. I can’t wait. Got any travel tips for us? Let me hear them in the comments below.

These 3 things changed my life forever; the 1st relates to business, the 2nd to self, and the 3rd to family.

Click the link above for details.

Yep, and click the link above for details as well.

You guessed it. You know what to do.

Click the links above to access the content for each section. Let me know what you think by posting comments below. I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed writing it. Happy new year! 2011 will be awesome, trust me.

Noura and I traveled all around Southeast Asia trekking Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand for nearly 2 months. I learned a lot of life lessons from backpacking and met people from all over the world that truly touched me.

Those were some of the best days of my life with Noura. I never knew how adventurous she is! Notwithstanding stereotypes aside, my Syrian friends in Brunei were pretty impressed that she had the aptitude and athletic prowess to backpack with me. She’s definitely a guy’s type of girl.

If you missed it, you can catch all of my backpacking adventures organized here.

What blessings are you thankful for this year?

Dirtiest border patrol I have ever dealt with. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot in Vietnam.

Here is my travel diary experience entering Vietnam through Lao Bao…

I got the full show. First, the immigration guy sneezed on my passport. Then he “accidentally” dropped my passport (3 times). Then after picking it up, he snorted mucus up his nose and hocked his throat while giving my passport a dirty look and looked me up and down like a 2 cent hooker. Then he picked his nose while flicking through my passport pages with the same dirty finger. I was like a rare game in lucky hands and I was treated like shit.

After 30 minutes of questioning about my intention to have kids and other communist trivia, a group of immigration officers started to form. First they made me smile for about half an hour to see if my picture matched that of my passport’s. My mouth got sore smiling and that has never happened to me. I mean this was a smart and creative way of torture, I was thinking. How smart of them – I could never really report this because they did not give me evidence to substantiate any significant wrong doings. It was just baseless humiliation. Then I thought, who do I report this to? I’m in there country. Technically, they can do anything they want to. I had put Vietnam on the map as a tourist destination and I was going to support their economy and this is how they treat me as a first impression?

By this time, I’m aggravated and wanted to turn back to Laos. For several hours, I was the entertainment of 7 lonely officers touting and squinting at me as if I was an alien from another planet.

After running out of jokes, the immigration officers came up with another torture idea. They made me sign a billion blank papers to hopefully prove I forged the signature on my passport. This was insane and retarded. Cooperating with a smile, I did so. Then I was asked to show 3 other forms of ID and they were still not convinced. In the end, the accused me of counterfeiting my passport.

After pleasing like a peasant and showing them my wedding pictures, I was able to slide by after hours of appeal. I bet they enjoyed seeing an American suffer and beg. That was probably the whole point of this saga.

But even then it wasn’t over. In agonizing pain, after being painstakingly convinced my papers were all in order…the officers turned their backs to me and spent 1 hour serving all the locals that had just walked up to the immigration counter. This whole while I stood in attention, in the cold, waiting. Even our bus driver tried to intercede but he was sharply reprimanded to get the hell out of the building with the carefree whisk of Hitler’s hand.

Now that we’ve crossed the border, I’m thinking what Americans did here during the war had a deeper impact than I had thought. I’ve got tons of Vietnamese friends in Houston. I’ve never seen anything like this from them towards me. What was happening here: can someone give me an explanation?

Now here are 10 things backpacking taught me:

#1 Live a compact life to be flexible to change and opportunities. It also helps you keep a clean head and rid yourself of futile worldliness.

#2 Be yourself: You shouldn’t worry about being different. You are beautiful within. Really, you are! People love it when you are yourself.

#3 Don’t be scared to experiment: Explore! Yes, go for the uncharted territory. The world is full of beautiful wonders and you have nothing to lose.

#4 Humanity is all basically the same: People all over the world have the same base tendencies. No matter what language and what color, we’re all the same. God put us on earth as one family.

#5 Don’t plan too far ahead: Just don’t trouble yourself. Plans always change and you should be ready for that moment with good humor because it will happen.

#6 Life needs a companion: It was beautiful being married and having a true friend accompany me. For survival and for love, you need another person with you at all times at best.

#7 Be safe: Yes, do take emergency supplies and survival gear. You never know when you will need it, so don’t skimp on it. Be adventurous and skimp but not on the wrong things!

#8 One dollar goes a long way: Be thankful. I never knew how poor people live. In the US, people are very spoiled. I am a bit more thankful for everything now.

#9 Muslims are everywhere: It’s a great passport to have, a Muslim identity. You are greeted and treated with respect all over the world, except in the US or Europe.

#10 Work is optional: Getting a job and keeping a stable job is not the most important thing in the world. One of our jobs is to make sure we are happy on the inside and spiritually whole. Attend to yourself and take time off to do what you want to do. Work can wait!

What? OK! So we caught a train to On Nut station with the store owner and went to the grocery store there setting out to buy ingredients to make Tom Ka Khai, Green Curry Coconut Chicken, and Pineapple Fried Rice.

I cannot describe how we turned a bookshop with a coffee stand into a full service kitchen! ….It’s like the Thai cook gained the ultimate pleasure seeing me trance into gastronomical ecstasy…

We bought an electric wok and stirred up fish oil and mushroom soy sauce like as if it was Chinese New Years all over again. I cannot describe the extent of hospitality and humor with which Thai people approach life. Cooking and eating and serving people brought this shop pure joy – I felt like my mother or sister was in the kitchen, asking me what I think of the food and if I wanted more.

“Basim! Where’s your spoon? Come taste this, mate” the chef frequently beckoned. It’s like the Thai cook gained the ultimate pleasure seeing me trance into gastronomical ecstasy. I was in pure heaven today and I will never forget the friendship that was built today and the generosity we received. Indescribable and unpredictable, that’s why I love Thailand.

Maybe it’s because people want good luck and to live a long life to enjoy worldly things. Maybe people create large things to make themselves insignificant and invisible? Is it for them to hide beneath? Why would man dedicate himself to create such large structure in the name of a God king with a body and spirit much like their own? What do you think?

I am here at the Killing Fields, remnants of the genocide of the 1970s where an estimated 1.5 million people died here under the bloody hands of the Pol Pot regime. This is too much to take in.

People were brainwashed that they had a mental disease called “thinking too much” and that they should release themselves to the free will of Angka, the supreme authority of the land. People were told that God had died and Angka would now sustain their needs. Educated countrymen were summoned forward for their skills in order to rebuild the nation…only to find out they would be the first to be massacred.

It turned out there was not enough fuel, time, or precious ammunition to deal with the thousands of citizens every day that needed to be evacuated from the cities to the countrysides to concentration camps to be murdered. Hateful human torture agents were trained and manufactured as quick as victims were being exterminated who would turn against their own people killing their families and friends for the lords of the land.

Somber, sad, stoic, sedated, sorrowful: this is Cambodian mood. In their Khmer eyes a million untold stories of the past.

Stripped of every intention of creativity, people mean business here. Differentiation is important because goods and services are plentiful and redundant. But people move so quick here, emotions and details don’t seem to matter in this big city. It’s name recognition and putting products in your face that sells.

In Laos, I noticed men mostly sit around and do nothing. Here in Vietnam, women work as hard as men do and even more. It’s like the whole society is working 24/7. It’s crazy like that!

Some parts of the city (non-central districts) are gray with smog, noisy with rattles of machinery, honking horns, yelling workers, and buzzing with 18-wheelers steamrolling the gravel all day long in the haze of pollution and randomness. The entire society looks converted into factory workers – the kids, taxi drivers, women and men all look like construction workers plowing in the industry. Manufacturing of steel pipes, fittings, cranes, and automotive parts – this is what surrounds you as you enter the big city.

Once you get to the heart of Ho Chi Minh, it’s completely different and highly modernized. All over though I must say people are very sincere and mean good intentions. We have met some on the nicest people during our travels here.

Motorbikes, overcrowded, and power lines running into each other. That’s Saigon for you with 8 million people bursting at the seams of this bustling capital city. Busy as hell is the name of the game here!

Government touches everything and processes are very serial, hierarchial, heavily bureaucratic, and corrupt of course. The common distribution of wealth idea does not work based on the buddy systems I have seen – people revert to bribes and having good contacts to get things done and from what I have noticed, that makes lower class people even more disadvantaged. Socialism is hard to implement with even distribution and minimal defects.

On the bright side making sustenance Men, women, and children here have convinced me that the Vietnamese are people of strong will, hard work, and relentless determination. They will make the impossible happen; if you just watch people you can catch their energy in their hustle and flow. People in Southwern Vietnam are very business-minded always trying to make an extra buck or two. As soon as your pockets give, smiles dissolve and the predator’s eyes lock-and-load on the next target. These soldiers have the soujurn swagger of a famished fighter on a battlefield fighting for a pinch of life. The energy is infectious. A bit like the ambitious “can do” bug you get by visiting New York City and seeing small people in a big city get by.

Wheeling it to Danang to get a visa extension. There better not be rain there or I’m going to kick somebody fat and ugly. Come ye Sun!

Oh yeah, no more temples. What a scam. I feel like they’ve built all these temples in Southeast Asia to boost tourism and steal backpackers’ lunch money. Nobody’s even using them for religious purposes – common folks never visit them. They’re even reconstructed without regard to the original structures. I rather watch the Discovery channel for high quality footage than riding a boat and hiking for 3 hours each. There’s just way too many to see and not enough time!

By far, Mr. Hung’s foodstall (near the river) is the best place to eat hands down. You can enjoy the best food here in all of Vietnam.

This is the most touristy town yet. But it is a good touristy town because the shopping, food, and people were great. We got some fake Lacostes, mini North Face backpacks, and some perfectly cut tailored shirts and pants for $10 a pop and we’re talking fabric and service with high quality. The party’s at Phuong 1 on 7 Tran Phu street.

It’s been a lively stint but I think 2 days is enough damage because shopping is the biggest pull here. As Lonely Planet jabs, all of a sudden backpackers after Hoi An are looking spiffy with their collared shirts and custom-made trousers. Now I look less like Gandhi and more like a tourist again. Mom, you’d be proud of me if you saw me right now.

Nha Trang! On a 12 hour sleeper bus, here we come…

People are genuinely happy here. Just today we found throngs of people picnicing on the beach eating rice and chicken for 50 cents and poking jokes with friends laughing from the tonsols of their throats. Are they happy? These people have absolutely nothing – no iPods, no cars, and no fancy clothes. They’re just roughing it and it seems from their outlook on life, they’re living a “good” life with friends, work, and family.

In America, we want more, more, more. Here, they have less, less, less and it’s working for them. All I remember from America is stress from work, stress from bills at home, stress from traffic, and stress struggling against the wake of mainstream being a Muslim. For me it’s truly more relaxing living here in Southeast Asia where you can be yourself and live a simpler life within a more wholistic society that possesses a balanced and blended value system.

I will upload past journal entries since the beginning of January along with pictures as soon as I get proper www in this country. Facebook is banned in Vietnam by the Viet Kong. Yes, they still exist and they stole my lunch money! Just kidding man.

I am now slurping like a slob word-class glass noodles for under a buck – living like a king. These food stalls really work the magic into these simple epicurean creations. Women just love cooking here. It brings them joy to stir up a storm and feed you and just wait for your reaction. People don’t speak much here, but you can feel their passion and their love for others. And you can taste it in the cooking. It’s flame-broiled love straight from the grill to your belly.

I never knew the power of fried rice. It must be the MSG or something but the rice or garlic or ginger or something in these dishes are rocket-powered. just bursting with fountains of flavors I have never quite tasted. Packed into a simple grain of rice, the people of Laos are able to do wonders in the kitchen.

Amazing it is the more you remove from your life the more powerful you become.

Like soldiers these trees stand in attention by the thousands on these picture-perfect hills. Implanted on the banks of the river you can spot feather-fragile huts fringed on cheap wood and hope from above. Lower in the shallow waters men poach the gentle passing stream for the catch of the day. People have a strong connection with nature here in Laos and rely on God’s primitive resources to afford daily sustenance. It’s a humbling life whose reigns are never in your hands. When a farmer or fisherman realizes his fate is not exactly in his control, this is called subjugation to God; he attains a calm and balanced temperament- something burnt out in the hearts of citizens making a living in the big city.

When goods and services are sold for more than what consumers are willing to pay, the market adjusts itself to accommodate; in a nutshell, an economic devaluation occurs.

The parallel that I am drawing is when the world gets to be too much to bear and you are consistently giving it your best, you have to get away and control your worldly desires. Turn away from life’s demands to “collecting things” and society’s imposed fear of poverty and get back to the basics. You can enhance your spirit by traveling to achieve a holistic self again – your equilibrium must not be neglected. Enjoy the childish things in life and do what makes you feel special again, even if it is foolish. This is what I learned today.

The monks here remind me of the tenets of Islam that preach simplicity, humility, and living every day as if it were our last. Traveling is like death because you take barely anything with you when you move on.

Later in the day. On a motorbike on the bumpiest and curviest road straight out of hell with a beautiful view of heaven right outside the window. Just barely swerved past a cow on the road. OK, I’ll write later when it’s less life threatening!

At sunset we went biking through the rustic villages around the 25,000 populated small town. This was by far one of the best ways to reach into the countryside and see the way people were living in this albeit slightly tourist-infested heaven. Kids were smiling, cows were grazing, and dads were sipping tea of course while the women tilled away at the fields.

Main attractions here include kayaking and tubing during the day and biking & meeting crazy drunks and Bob Marley look-a-likes at night. We met this one dude from Sweden working as a bartender who had decided to start working at Sabaidee Restaurant because he had 2 weeks left in his vacation. Inspiring!

This is a place for stoned hippies and shirtless soul seekers walking barefoot around town. Everybody is so high here, it’s not even funny. It’s a town stuck in the 1960s with a great outdoor culture.

I think we’re going to move on tomorrow. Heading North, captain.

So you might ask why the hell are you doing all these Western things in the middle of the Orient?

I must admit – day 2 of the trip and I’m at a coffee shop watching TV and having greasy pizza. Yes, even backpackers miss home sometimes. Around travel days, your full day is shot being lazy and coping with being human. You have to rest to be energized for the rest of your travels.

Travel mix up. The reason for this rush is I told the lady at Air Asia to book me to Vietnam and she booked me to Vientiane, Laos! We changed our whole travel plans but I think our plan B is going to work; just a lot of rushing through the first sites because I’m on a visa pinch.

Ok, enough depressing news – here’s an unrelated picture riding around in the city. There are tons of motorbikes here!

People are very peaceful and surrendering, warm and welcoming, and speak in voices quieter than pin-drops. We had some good spring roles here, curries, and noodle soup. We’re taking a bus tomorrow to visit some interesting sites.

Highlights of the day:

• Witnessing animists worshiping ancestors
• Getting served by 6-year old waitresses
• Finding 75% of people on motorbikes women
• Seeing French influence on a Thai-like country
• Meeting the most peaceful kind of people on Earth!

Other than that, it was an insane feeling floating on water. I tried to drown myself. This time, it didn’t work. Get this: after this altered beast moment, I bathed in a fresh water stream with a half cut open Pepsi 2-liter bottle and changed into a 3 piece suit to attend Nidal’s sister’s wedding. The day after: hitched a taxi ride across the border to Syria to witness at dawn the call to Eid prayer with family. What a way to go out and reunite with family. They must think I’m crazy.

The Dead Sea: another must visit if you have never been!

Today I spent my second day in Córdoba. I’m taking tons of pictures, video, audio recording. I don’t want to leave!!! This is like Syria with a different twist and also beautiful people. Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar I say with the same voice you do when you see this diversity. God gave them Islam and they took away our opportunity to display its vanity and sheer success. If you haven’t been to Córdoba, you really need to come at least once in your lifetime. The resemblance of culture, architecture, and food to the Middle East is quite striking – a real treat to witness the beautiful influence of our Islamic history.

I love life here. Everyone gets together to enjoy life. Girls and guys holding hands. People randomly dancing in the streets- outbursts of laughter from the heart. Groups of 4 and 6 and 8 friends walking around, saying jokes. Not too much American influence but it exists. The girls are so unprissy and easy to please and talk to. They ask you questions instead of being locked up and reserved. Waistlines all perfect. Classy dresses and style like JCrew and then a scarf or shawl. The girls are the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life, I can’t stress this enough. It’s as if God blessed every girl here with beauty…every single girl on the street from Sevilla to Spain is stunning. Girls with cinnamon skin, perfect waistlines, dark and enchanting eyes, passion in their voice, their addiction to smiling, their free and dancing spirits…even older women in their 40s are very classy, talk very expressively and courteously.

It seems everyone gets along here. Arab-like upbringing and family discipline. The dads I talked to are like they are young and happy enjoying life. They are so positive overall and the young and old, husband and wife, and elderly all roam the streets, dance, take interest in your conversation. Nobody I ever asked for directions showed me they were in a hurry. They touch you a lot when they’re talking to you. Call me weird but I like the close comfort zone labido – it reinforces trust when its with guys, and turns me on when girls do it. I’m like uh-huh I’m sorry, then I turn izquierda??

The little girls are so cute here. This one was fascinated with my camera. She was adorable! Kid teenager not much younger than me said de nada hombre when I said thank you. Respect is key. I treasured those words. I speakish Spanish nowv. Ok I tell you. I started out yedsterdays not knowing how the people. En…I was like in state of Chaos…I was not smiling, not talking, when I saw a beautiful girl (like every girl that passes) in my mute frustration I’m like beh beh beh like a caveman. The power of language is an amazing catalyst. So then I remembered what my friend advised and adopted a cute smile. It helps that I am happy and so I learned…smiling is required with everyone you talk to. I like feedback. Since I like it, people like receiving it and feel unattached and threatened when you don’t respond back frequently, when you don’t smile. People actually want you to talk to them! When I got that in my head, I tested it and it kept pinging back successfully. True I lost my bags first day but I was like screw it, think the positive side…I didn’t have to tout my luggage. I was negative yesterday in the beginning and saw negativity all around me. Then I judged negatively. Being negative is unfair to others and your perception. I conclude people have a right to your happiness.

I have found out a lot about life and myself while traveling. And yes, I am independent but u should have seen me yesterday. Traveling without conveniences is a true test. No bags, poor language, cold in shorts, no group, limited time. I was literally walking in circles for an hour before leaving the airport to the clutches of the city. I was waiting for a plan but that was never served. Then I busted out, got lost, got frustrated, I shut off my feeling of pain in feet, need to use restroom, need to eat voices to go into full lean and have fun exploring mode and my body responded positively.

I feel like I’m in an old black and white history book. The owner of this hostel is treating me like his son, he tells me where to go, what dishes have pork to avoid. He promised me a tour tomorrow morning just to chill. Ill probably pick up his dinner tab. Speaking of which, I lost myself writing. Its 3am I’m going to take a walk. I’m going to take an Arab Bath at this place tomorrow morning. I’m resting between my 6 hour walks here! Voy a regresar a Sevilla mañana. Still, indescribable. Spain is all that I fantasized and more…I am really in love…in love with gods wonders…in full stupor of how I choose to live elsewhere.

With lots of love…adios!