•  Baghdad- He metions the people are Khafajah Arabs, who are powerful and violent. Apparently there is no save passage through this area with out their help and/or approval. However on page 74, He calls Baghdad the “Abode of Peace”. Call me crazy but a land filled with violent people does not seem to be a home of peace. Even though its very beautiful, but home of peace seems to stretch it if the earlier statements are to be believed.
• Wasit- This city has the best people, orchards and fruit trees. The incident with the snake at the grave site was very interesting. Was there any reason, religious or otherwise for that?
• al-Basrah- A metropolitan city, but has lots of area, with palm trees and fruit gardens. The people of this city are very generous, no one feels lonely around them. Has a nice mosque.
• al-Ubulla- Was a great city is not now. I was wondering if he knew that before he went or if it was a surprise to him. He mentioned that the people of this area row standing up and it reminded me of the gondolas in Italy.
• Abbadan- everyone gives alms to the poor. I didn’t understand this part of the story “I entertained the idea of spending the rest of my life in the service of this sheikh, but I was dissuaded from it by the pertinacity of my spirit.” What does he mean? That he had to continue his quest or that he thinks eventually he would get to strong willed or bored?

I found it interesting the he likes to travel of places that he has already been. It reminds me of a family that goes to the same water park in the dells every summer, even if their on their way to somewhere else.

• Tustar- Another large and beautiful city, it also has large markets. He mentioned that Tustar had strange attractions and I couldn’t help but think of all the weird things one can find when road tripping across America. I kinda doubt that the ancient Middle East had the same kind of attractions that we do today, but its interesting. I wonder what they considered “strange attractions”.

I’ve noticed that he tends to get sick a lot. I know that their medicine is kind of poor compared to todays medicine, but he is always get struck down with a fever.  He mentions people often get a fever because of the hot weather. I was wondering if this was maybe heat stroke or something similar?

• Idhaj- This part really confused me. When they first arrive he wants to see the Sultan, but when the Sultan’s son dies, he does not want to go pay his respects. Also, Ibn Battutah said that “ My associates have no knowledge of either music or dancing.” How is this possible? I thought that earlier in the story he might have mentioned one or the other. None the less, how could you not have any knowledge of music or dancing? I can’t dance to save my life, but I wouldn’t say that I have no knowledge of dancing. To me that implies that they wouldn’t even know what the two are.
• Firuzan- A small town with nice streams trees and orchards.  Ibn Battutah account of the funeral, where all the town went out with the deceased and were singing “merry songs” reminded me of the song Finnigan’s Wake. Ibn Battutah were properly horrified by these peoples actions, as I’m sure many people were when they first heard the song. (if they could understand it).
• Ceylon- was full of people who were in a great state of infidelity but still took good care of the poor people. I am curious to know what IB considers to be infidelity and if because of this he judges the people of Ceylon harshly.