AndysAdventures

We've been traveling through the Middle East for almost 3 months now, we've seen desert. We've seen vast expanses of sand and rock. We've visited remote castles and isolated villages. They've been interesting, enjoyable, but none really compare to the spectacular scenery of Egypt's Western Desert. It was already midday before the coach dropped us off in Bawiti, the biggest town in Baharia Oasis (yes, the oases are big enough to have multiple villages in them!), so by the time we'd met the other tourists and the local drivers who would take us into the desert in two 4x4s and stopped for 'bedouin lunch' it was getting fairly late in the afternoon and we weren't too inspired. However the road soon took us far away from other people, to where hours pass with just sand and ... read more

Over the past couple of months many people have warned us about Cairo - "If you think this place is dirty then just wait till you get to Cairo" "Don't worry, the traffic is FAR worse than this in Cairo" "Oh the shopkeepers are way worse than this in Cairo, this is nothing"... Over-dramatic much? True, some streets stink of rotting food and have gutters full of rubbish, but the main streets and public squares are generally pretty well maintained I'd say you don't have to watch your step like in some places we've been, overall on a par with other cities we've seen in the Middle East. And we've not feared for our lives in cars in the same way we have in other cities either, perhaps we've been lucky with drivers I don't know. ... read more

For people following my blogs from home, you'll have to forgive me for not blogging about Israel yet (we spent 2 weeks there in the end, twice as long as intended). The reason is simply not making the time to blog whilst there, and wanting to blog about the last few days now instead. You'll have to wait to hear about Israel. So we crossed into Egypt at the Taba border crossing (at the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea) early in the morning 4 days ago. The border was easy enough, although it did give us an immediate impression of what the phrase "typical Egyptian 'efficiency'" means! They were OK really, I think they just have a different pace of life, and don't have the typical Western impatience. We chose to wait almost ... read more

Wow, so I haven't blogged for about 3 weeks, where did I leave off? Ah yes, going down to Petra. Well, getting there was easy and comfortable enough on the bus, but as with any bus station in this part of the world the moment you step off the bus a hoard of taxi drivers descend on anyone who looks like a tourist. Fortunately in Petra it was the quiet season, so there were too many taxis and not enough customers, which meant with a little persistent bargaining it was simple to get a cheap fare. "Where you go? Valentine Inn? 5 dinar!" - "No, 1.5 dinar." - "3 Dinar, good price!" - "No, 1.5 dinar or no deal." ...we walk away, shortly to have him follow us and pull up next to us... "OK, 2 ... read more

Tonight will be our 5th night in Jordan. We had a really good new year in a restaurant/bar/club in Lebanon, then after saying our goodbyes to our new Lebanese friends we traveled north into Syria to see Qala'at al Hosn, aka Krak des Chevaliers, before cutting back down to Jordan. That's a slightly convoluted route to get here from Lebanon but it was well worth the detour. We got a room in a hotel with a balcony overlooking the crusader castle, amazing view, and an impressively intact castle that we spent hours exploring in the morning. There was a small town spread over the hillside below the castle which didn't look very attractive at first, but in one evening walking around one man refused to let us pay for bread, another gave us free wine and ... read more

Compared to UK, driving in the Middle East is an interesting experience, to say the least. Military checkpoints, dodgy roads and dodgier drivers were a few of the challenges, but for the most part it was a really fun few days. Here are my favourite memories from our week with a hire car in Syria... * After collecting the car in the city centre of Aleppo (without a decent city-map), aiming for any road out of the city that is vaguely in the right direction and hoping it's the right one (it wasn't). * Trying to match town names, roads and distances on the occasional road signs in English (at least they had some, phew!) to those on the maps using a combination of guesswork, a compass, and pot luck. (It was difficult to find accurate ... read more

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I lost posted anything but we've been so busy! I'll try and remember what we've been up to and note the highlights... After getting back from South Lebanon we took advantage of having a car and went driving around the Chouf Mountains and visited the Chouf Cedar Reserve - a nature reserve to mainly protect the ancient cedar trees that Lebanon is famous for, some up to 3000 years old and it's the only place in the world this particular species is found. We hoped to do some hiking there but it's not allowed in winter because of the bad weather and risk of damaging the saplings, although at the time it hadn't even snowed at all there, but never mind. Instead we went for a drive through ... read more

So David and I went to the south of Lebanon this weekend, with Fouad and our Lebanese friend Ali. We required permits to go into this part of Lebanon because it is the area that borders Israel. Israel and Lebanon have had a turbulent history from the day Israel was created, which I'm sure you can google if you wish to know more. Israeli forces have occupied parts of Lebanon since 1978, only withdrawing fully in 2000 due to Hezbollah's resistance. I say fully, but actually there is a small part of South Lebanon, including a village, that is still occupied, as it has been since Israel invaded the Golan Heights (Syrian) in 1967. This continued occupation of Lebanese territory, and the persistent threat along the border, is why Hezbollah still exists, and why the UN ... read more

We've had another quite chilled out, not-very active day today in Beirut. We've been around most of the sight in the city I think, and been shown around mosques by Muslim friends who could really explain what things meant and how people use them day-to-day. We're getting to know the city now, when to pop out for Zaatar (thyme) or Jebneh (cheese) Manooshit (sandwiches, if you say it quickly it doesn't sound so bad!), where to go to refill the mineral water, which roads to walk down to grab a taxi easily, which roads to NOT walk down to avoid being beeped at by every other car driving past which will inevitably be a taxi trying to pick you up. We're adept at crossing roads now, we even sometimes manage the local nonchalance of strolling across ... read more

Beirut Well, where to start? We arrived in Beirut on Sunday night, dropped our bags off at Fouad's flat and immediately went out to a bar and had a lock in with his friends and the bar owners. In fact we've done that several times this week at a couple of other bars too, Fouad seems to know everyone! Or rather, everyone seems to know everyone. But it's been really fun and Lebanese people are all very friendly and chatty and want to know where we're from and what we are doing here and have we been to this place or that place oh and by the way have you met so-and-so come on I'll introduce you... We spent a couple of days dotting around Lebanon in a hired car (Fouad drove, I'm really not up ... read more