http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ConMel/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from ConMel en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:50:46 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:50:46 +0000 On the ride from Sarp the TurkeyGeorgia frontier to Batumi the first major city in Georgia the word 'Ramshackle' kept springing to mind. I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to mean I've often heard it in reference to a football team i.e. Despite their ramshackle defence Cyprus still managed to stuff Ireland 52. Surveying the Georgian countryside from the marshrutka window it struck http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Georgia/West/Svaneti/blog-291597.html In the 1960's and 70's a generation of Western travellers crossed the Middle East from Europe to India in search of adventure cheap drugs and often spirituality. In the Mysterious East many of them believed they could escape the daily grind of the rat race for a simpler less material world. Today many continue the search heading for places like Pune and Auroville to 'find themselves'. How http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/blog-284743.html First full day back in Turkey. After settling into the hotel I head to the Post Office to send off a couple of postcards.I join a queue when the old man behind the counter screams at me HAVE A SEAT'Shit' I think Erzurum is not gonna be a friendly place. When my turn comes I go up to the counter and buy two stamps. The old guy screams WHERE FROMAfter replying and sticking the stamps t http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Eastern-Anatolia/Erzurum/blog-285435.html I was walking around the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul when I got the idea to come to Syria. The bazaar gave me memories of Tabriz in Iran not because of any similarities but because of the glaring differences the mass of tourists the relatively dour Turks and the hardsell. My original plan had been to potter gradually along Turkey's Black Sea coast and on to Georgia. However leaving the bazaar http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/Aleppo/blog-254825.html August 2003On my first trip interailing around Europe I wound up in Barcelona with a friend wondering where to head next. Why not MoroccoWe made our way south via Madrid and landed in Algerciros early in the morning for the ferry to Tangier. On the ferry we met two English guys sent by God or Jesus or both to Africa. For how long they didn't know. What did they have A bicycle frame a fron http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/blog-188317.html Here's some pictures of the big occassion....... http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-56614.html Ah Turkey That whole 'East meets West' thing We arrived in Istanbul after a sleepless night journey from Plovdiv and immediately settled into our hostel in Sultanahmet the backpacker centre. A UNESCO World Heritage Sight Sultanahmet caters for all things touristy though it's a little pricy in certain areas most noticably beer.Our first port of call was Istanbul's biggest attraction the http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Cappadocia/blog-16609.html I flew from Port Blair to Calcutta thus ending 8 and a half months of solid overlanding. Arrival was a bit of a shock at first after the peace of the Andamans the chaos of Sudder Street was overwhelming. With my flight home booked for 17 days I had no intention of hanging around Calcutta and had bought my train ticket to Varanasi already set to leave that night. So I dropped my camer http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-49741.html In the Bay of Bengal around 1000km east of the subcontinent there lies a chain of islands an archipelago if you will which is currently being inhabited by a group of people who look out of place in this part of the world. These strange beings have been seen running virtually naked along tropical beaches floating face down in the water while sporting some curious head wear and inhaling lar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Andaman-and-Nicobar-Islands/blog-47072.html Indians love to dance. It was the third time it had happened on this trip a van by the side of the road pumping out the Hindi pop music with about 50 Indians beside it dancing away.......the first two times I had to be dragged into the crowd but here in Hampi I knew better and with Niall went straight into the circle and gave them 2 minutes of our best moves before strolling away as le http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-41111.html Having spent a strange Christmas alone in Mumbai I met my girlfriend at the airport after a break of 4 months strange that she could jump on a plane and get here in 8 hours after it had taken me 6 months to get this far. Naturally the beard and longish hair had to go which was fine by me. We planned a quiet New Year's further down the west coast and got a night train south........ Wh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Goa/blog-36821.html Three huge bangs on the door awake me from my slumbers. I peel my eyelids open just enough to see that it's still dark outside. The purpose of todays task comes rushing into my head and the trial begins the Devil on my right shoulder whispering Go on go back to sleep it's 6am You don't have to get up now you can always do it tomorrow while the Angel on my left shoulder is saying You k http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Madhya-Pradesh/Indore/blog-31530.html For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to jump in head first by visiting Indiarsquos lsquoGolden Trianglersquo of Delhi Agra and Jaipur first. I arrived in Delhi just after midnight to find an earily deserted Paharganj where a bomb had exploded in the main bazaar just a few days before my arrival. I was ready for a showdown. Therersquos so much hype associated with arriv http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/blog-28773.html Visas Hassle. No doubt. So it was I found myself in Rawalpindi the twin city of Pakistan's capital Islamabad. Quite possibly two of the most unattractive cities in Asia for very different reasons. 'Pindi is a jampacked noisy dirty city with absolutely nothing to do. But it has the cheap hotels. That's why people go there. Islamabad is a 'new planned' city in other words a hellh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Punjab/blog-24194.html I arrived in Gilgit the capital of Pakistan Northern Areas full of good feelings about the country and its wonderful people. Pakistan had not disapointed so far but I was sure that the mountainous north which I had heard so much about would be a let down. First night in the hotel I met Michael Chitral and James Shiraz the only Irishmen I had met since Sarajevo. We were all keen to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/Northern-Areas/blog-23726.html So I found myself on the train tearing through the heart of Pakistan before sunset on the first day we began to leave the desert and when I woke up the next morning the land was lush green we were in Pakistani Punjab Gazing out the window I saw buffallo heads bobbing on the rivers while brightly coloured women patrolled the monsoon drenched fields. For the veteran traveller to the r http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/North-West-Frontier-Province/blog-21417.html Or make that Baluchistan. And it had all been going so well.I had made an abrupt exit from Tehran on the night bus to Shiraz a 14 hour slog on an old 60's Mercedes bus. I had come to Shiraz primarily to visit the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis and believe me it was worth the slog. Normally I'm underwhelmed by these kind of sights for instance I thought the Coloseum was crap. But http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/West/Esfahan/blog-20562.html There was no way around it. I was never going to find an Irish bar in Iran. In fact I was never going to find an Iranian bar in Iran. With alcohol strictly off the menu I was having serious doubts about the capacity for 'having fun' in Iran. I had arrived in Tabriz the first major city after the Turkish border in midafternoon an hour and a half ahead of Turkey. The border crossing had b http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Iran/North/Tehran/blog-18896.html Well after our rest in Goreme we finally managed to pull ourselves away and plunge into Turkeys least visited region SouthEast Anatolia aka Kurdestan. The area is overwhelmingly Kurdish with a couple of noticable Arab pockets as you'll see. Turkish is spoken rarely here as with English.Our first port of call was Mt. Nemrut the image of which currently dominates the front of all the Tur http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Southeastern-Anatolia/blog-17609.html Ok so my search for an Irish bar between Istanbul and Calcutta finally began in Rome where you can buy a pint of Guinness in the main square for 6 EURO. I didn't do that or much else having 'been there done that' all before we spent our one full day relaxing by the campsite swimming pool and our nights battling the ants in the tent. We left for Ancona by train a surprising journey w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/blog-14720.html