Discover the real Middle East, its dynamisme, its artistic scene, its handcraft and its people!

With nothing else than my taste for shopping and a few arabic words, I will tour the Middle-East for 4 months and will bring you at the heart of this mysterious region with some inspiring photos and stories and... a selection of unique objects sold by locals.

Yallah Bye promises you to show you what variety really means in the Middle-East: a day with Jordan's bedouins, a few days in the Yemeni mountains, a stay in the vertiginous world of the Emirates, a spin in the new luxury of Qatar, an immersion in the artistic and technophile Lebanon.

A selection of local items

Every 2 to 3 days, I will visit a new place where I will meet the locals and highlight their objects.

You will be able to buy a selection of local items (fashion, handcraft, everyday objects, design etc) with their own "stories": a word of the creator/seller, its cultural origin...

You'll have 2 to 3 days to order them. Then we'll move on to a new place and a new selection.

The objects will be send within two weeks.

At the end of this trip, I will publish a photo book gathering pictures of the places and the people met during 4 months, testimonies and photos of local objects. (You can see previous books I've done here)

Why I need you:

1. Yallah Bye wants to change your perception of Middle-Easy by highliting the diversity of its people and its objects. It's a human and social project. There will be no profit from the sell of the objects.

Yallah Bye will only exists thanks to financing.

2. Yallah Bye is a collaborative project. Its priority is put in contact the readers and the locals. That's why it's important that YOU could participate in funding the project, organizing it (share your tips, tell me what you want us to do) and most of all buying "souvenirs".

The website:

The website has just been launched in English and French! It's right here www.yallabye.eu The homepage will be dedicated to the last place visited with inspiring pictures, stories of the travel, people's testimony, miscalleneous, music and video... and the most awaited selection of local objects!

One page will be totally dedicated to you, my dears KissKissBankBankers: you will find the name, picture and description of every single donator.

"Yallah Bye": In modern Arabic, many young people say, "Yalla bye" when saying good-bye to each other. Useful when travelling right?

The team:

Aline, a.k.a. me,

2 years working in the start-up/Internet world, 4 months to travel, and back to work. That's how I like life. The way I see travelling: 1) go meet people, 2) take pictures, 3) share my adventures on my blogs, 4) edit a photo book. Well, you'll see with Yallah Bye :)

I will be helped by friends living in the region.

Charlotte, The Middle-East expert

Charlotte is a journalist living in the Middle-East. She lived 2 years and a half in Damas, Syria, and two years and a half in Sana'a, Yemen. She realized documentaries about Iran, Lebanon, Jordan etc and published a book about Yemen. Charlotte will be in the Yallah Bye team in Yemen and the Emirates.

Maëlle, the fashion enthusiast

After Los Angeles, Paris, Milan… Qatar! Maëlle works in fashion and luxury. For her, living in Qatar and working in the fashion industry just makes sense. She will open the door of Qatar's luxury world to us.