Let's talk Burkas, shall we?

It's my last day in Munich...and I have kept it somewhat together about the omnipresent BURKAS in Munich. Alas, I can no longer keep my mouth shut.

I am puzzled.
I don't get them.
I don't understand them.
I remain confused.

Here is why...
The young generation parade around in their black burkas, wearing their veils in a sensual way, with THICK make-up that make the eyes tantalizing and sexual. Their feet are slipped into a beautiful pair of Miu Miu high heeled-sandals and gorgeous hennah designs entice and invite us to wonder what hides beneath the dark cloak.
In the past four days, I see them walk in and out of expensive department stores buying designer clothing as if the clothing were being given away.

So here is my question...
Isn't the purpose in the Muslim religion to wear burkas to maintain modesty?
Does it not say in the Qur’an (Allah’s word, stated by Mohammed)that women should cover their beauties? (perhaps meaning their legs, arms, hair and chests).
If so, where is THIS modest behaviour when you are raising other's curiosity by exuding sexual mystique, eyes adorned with thick lashes and black lined mascara and hues of eye shadow to draw in even a "mildly blind man"??

Glad I got that out of the way.

Here is my next observation...
My room faces an indoor courtyard and I can see a parallel hallway where patrons enter the room. To some extent when am typing away at my desk which faces the window and courtyard, I become the fish in the bowl.

That being said, I cannot tell you the number of unusual behaviours I have witnessed in the last little while. The Saudi men walk around in their white gowns in mid-afternoon, barefoot, pacing the hallway and staring at ME!

A few hours later, you can see two young men carrying huge baskets filled with walnuts, still walking in barefoot along the corridor until they knock on a room door.

At the breakfast table, where waiters are everywhere, these families sit at their table and have their Filipina housekeepers fetch their meals for the entire crew.

I won't tell you how many times, I have seen trails of sunflower seed shells all over the corridors.

The restaurant in the Sofitel, turned one of their dining halls into a Hallal friendly zone. One area of the cafe/bar, no longer serves liquor to accommodate these families.

Let's talk pool and spa...there are special times at which women can bathe freely and men can bathe freely and when men and women can ogle eachother.
So tonight, between 10pm and midnight, the pool was open to women only.
The Saudi women enter in their burkas, and disrobe in the shower stalls. When they enter the pool area, they have swim suits on, and thick cover ups. Layer after layer of clothing float in the pool.(Nothing like the stolen image above, from Google).
The lights at this spa pool are dimmed; the colour palette in the spa are chocolate, silver and light blue. It has a grotto feel to it...

Not far from the pool, there are groups of women who sit fully draped in their black burkas and chat away while checking on their daughters swimming. Younger than ten, they are seen wearing Western bathing suits. I am assuming that having reached puberty, they are clothed in layers like their mothers.
Hennah-like tattoos adorn their feet.

I entered the pool, and funny how I became the odd person out. I FELT as if I was naked. I swam around and wondered into a darker section of the pool, dim lit for ambiance sake. Upon my return, the Saudi lady asks me, what's on the other side?
I told her the pool continues in an S-design. "Don't you want to go?", I ask. She answers "I'm afraid".

I tell her to follow me and her kids jump for joy, all excited about their upcoming "adventure on the dark side of the pool"!!! This amused me. What would this same lady have said if she were walking down the streets of Amsterdam and two men asked her to join them for a threesome with endless pot...now THAT is scary in my world.
Mind you, other's might find that exhilarating!!!!

I also noticed, when I was in the sauna or steam room, they wouldn't enter. They would come in and step out shortly. Was it me or all their layers of clothing?
I was ready to call it a night. I grabbed my white spa robe and began making my way to the elevators. The women ALL leaned to the right to see me walk away and head to the lift. As I press the elevator button to head to my floor, I smile.
I guess roaming in a bathrobe, at some hotel, in Munich makes ME the ODD MAN OUT!

Gute nacht or should I be saying tossbiheena 'ala khayr?

Day four- Dachau Concentration camp

The locals prefer calling it a Memorial center...but the reality of it is,from the 30 people that came out today with Radius Tours, a concentration camp was more familiar a term.

I met up with Jason, the American tour guide, with a Masters in History. He moved down here seven years ago to marry his lovely German bride. Enjoyed his insight, his delivery, his depth in detail story telling. It just seemed like it was far from being enough.

We took a train toward Dachau, followed by a short ten minute bus ride along a small winding road. We drove through a village, that since those early days of 1930s, had grown immensely. Quaint little shops, tall trees....it seems more slower paced than Munich. Right before the Dachau stop, Jason informs us that behind those barbed wires, are the still intact residences of what was once the SS officers. They look like white mansions, with red roof shingles and big bright windows.
Apparently, today, the government owns these properties. They are NOT open to visitors; governnment cars are stored on this particular property and the office space is used by government workers.

We get off the bus and begin our walk down this stoned pathway. Tall trees in contrast with the light gray grounds. To the right, wooden fencing to block off the center of this camp. To the left, the very first building that housed political activists, religious leaders (outspoken clergymen/priests, gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals....) who were in the wrong according to Nazi officials. Following that, we are told that Jews were brought in by the loads...and their predicament was more gruesome than the ones mentioned before.

We were able to see remnants of the train tracks which simplified the transportation of all these helpless individuals. Jason was explaining that once Hitler was elected as Chancelor (that is right ELECTED...see the power of a vote and its implication), it didn't take long before he chose this zone. This abandonned property since World War One had the right infrastructure for the purposes of the Nazi regime. The prisonners were brought here to work until exhaustion. Sometimes, there was actual work, and yet other times they were asked to dig a hole and fill it up....for the purpose of tiring out the individual, breaking him down, and ultimately stripping away his dignity and humilty.

Jason also mentioned that on all the panels along this camp the wording was carefully chosen to avoid people denying the stats. In essence, the numbers were greater than what is being diffused. Key words like "more than" were in constant usage.

We continued to walk along this narrow path and approached the famous iron black gates with the wording " Arbeit Macht Frei", meaning Freedom through work. Jason tells us that Dachau was the "Academy of Terror", the originator, role model and training ground for the vast order of brutality that spread over half of Europe in the wake of the Nazies, which ultimately ended in the Final Solution.

The actual barracks no longer exist. They did up until the fifties, but were later torn down. It appears once liberation by the American troops occured, the barracks were used by other political figures and over time, historians believed it wouldn't be a true representation of the actual setting during the second world war.
The cypress trees along each side still remain, tall and green. I found myself staring at them and thinking "YOU, tree, are a living thing...what must you have seen?"
I distanced myself from the group a little to walk along this path and stare at this empty stone filled section with numbered stone placks, once given to each barrack...and I bent down and ran my fingers through the tiny pebbles and thought about "the number of prisonners who dragged their feet during this horrid period."


None the less, they re-built one set of barracks showing the living space in 1930, 1938 and 1940. I did take a series of picture which I will show once am home. All this to say, that the room size was meant for fifty individuals...but by 1940, they were filling those same rooms with 250 boards on which to sleep. The casual dining tables, and stools no longer existed, as more prisonners were brought in. I won't even mention their bathroom facilities.

Our before last stop was the crematoriums. There were two and they were the originals. The first small one had two ovens and was not capable of burning more than one body at a time. This particular building was used before the war.
After the war, they built this huge building that provided the gaz chambers or showers, the waiting room while one undresses, the ovens which now was capable of burning three bodies at one time.
The most moving moment for me had to be the showers or gaz chambers. Low ceilings, shower heads, vents that brought in those gazes that killed the oxygen in the red blood cells. The lights were dim and there were too many tourists in that tiny space and I could just imagine what it must have been like for the prisonners awaiting their death.

There are three memorial set up where the barracks used to be. One is a Jewish Memorial with a burning sensation to the odd shape structure. A menorah stands at the tip and off-center. There is a Catholic prominent structure in the center and finally a Protestant Reconciliation building which houses religious services every week.

The tour ended in what used to be "THE KITCHEN". Now it hosts a museum and movie theatre that shows a documentary of the history of Dachau. I found it poignant, as at regular intervals, the commentator stoppped speaking as various gruesome images were being shown....a moment of silence if you will.