http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Dom-n-Joms-Big-Trip/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Dom n Joms Big Trip en-us Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:44:53 +0000 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:44:53 +0000 It's all over The Big Trip has finally come to an end and I'm now back in sunny Scotland brass monkeys. Here's some snaps from the last six weeks.... http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Glasgow/blog-213316.html Mzungu is the Swahili word for white person which East African urchins joyfully shout whenever they catch sight of a western traveller hence I've felt like a minor celebrity ever since setting foot in the Pearl of Africa Winston Churchill's moniker for Uganda. Uganda is just how I'd invisaged 'Africa' since childhood lush green vegetation everywhere brown roads that disintegrate into quagm http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Rwanda/Ville-de-Kigali/Kigali/blog-206654.html Sod's Law You spend two painfully boring weeks in smelly Delhi applying for visas for the Stans......and then poor Jom gets sick in our first port of call Tashkent Uzbekistan and we have to fly home to sunny Scotland within a week of leaving India The vagaries of travel in exotic climes eh Still when your heart is only beating a paltry 38 times a minute and the local Doc is adamant you f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-200767.html So after two weeks of R R in Glasgow and London it was time to get back to the 'real world' of global travel and become reacquainted with smelly Delhi. I was last here nearly 10 years ago but very little has changed in Pahar Ganj the de facto traveller ghetto although the begging lepers have moved to another colony something to do with police and big sticks me thinks and there are sligh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/New-Delhi/blog-182987.html Ten days in the Hong of the Kong is enough to send you doolally. We took care of some administrative tasks on arrival i.e. I had to apply for a new passport set us back a cool 150 notes as the current one was all out of blank pages to accommodate those bigstickyvisas that every country we're visiting wants to give you. Recently I'd been specifically requesting that immigration officials do http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-164112.html Western Australia WA was an itch that we just had to scratch I'd spent some time in Perth back in 1999 and we'd both stayed in Darwin during our trip to Ozland ten years ago but we'd never 'joined the dots'....so it was time to pop back to the antipodes for the roadtrip of a lifetime. Unfortunately this means we've had to jetison Japan from the Big Trip a tough decision but it was just http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Darwin/blog-154341.html Borneo the third largest island in the world was all about the wildlife and the diving....so we'll let the pics do most of the talking.... Orang Utans man of the forest in Malay are only found in Malaysian and Indonesian rainforests and are famous for their long arms and reddishbrown hair and for being dead brainy they were recently 'proven' to be the most intelligent of all the prima http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-149151.html The Philippines certainly packs a punch when it comes to natural wonders spectacular beaches beautiful mountains awesome volcanos stunning lakes superb diving and colourful aquatic life d'you see that whale shark to your right so we didn't need much armtwisting to persuade us to linger for over five weeks our longest stay in any country so far and sample the local delights.... The http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Boracay/blog-141700.html Burma still wears its traditional longyi a sheet of cloth sewn into a cylindrical shape and worn around the waist running to the feet even as its neighbours abandon their sari and sarong for diesel jeans and miniskirts. Refreshingly its holy men are revered more than Becks or Bono and you can't buy a McDs use a moby or check your email without growing a beard.....but where else can you get t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/Yangon/blog-132923.html Here's a selection of bonus snaps courtesy of Jac enjoy..... http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-133852.html The good news is that we are now a lovely golden brown colour with tanlines as well the bad news is that you guys are no doubt still pasty white after all the gales fog rain and snow bad karma we say Hopefully you've only got to suffer it for another couple of months or so for the London folks anyways. Besides don't get tooo jealous sure we'll fade to grey after a week back in sunny Sc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-122995.html Aye it's been a wee while since we updated you on our latest shenanigans we had to put in some serious bronzing hours so we stopped dazzling our fellow beach bums so a verrry belated Merry Chrimbo and Happy New Year. Anyways time to shatter the idea that Ethiopia is only famous for Bob Geldoff famine and sick jokes. Historically known as Abyssinia Ethiopia is a very fertile country wit http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ethiopia/Addis-Ababa-Region/Addis-Ababa/blog-116386.html I wonder if this namingthebeerafterthecity malarkey would catch on at home I'll have three bottles of Glasgow please perhaps not but it certainly makes life easier for thirsty travellers like us we've got enough to contend with like tackling extortionate airport taxi cartels and getting our paws on dollars in a bankrupt country without a single ATM.....Asmara formerly known as Picco http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Eritrea/West/Asmara/blog-107173.html You go all the way to Yemen and you don't even get kidnapped we didn't get a sniff talk about being shortchanged could have dined out on that tale for decades......Supposedly the tribal perpetrators treat their 'guests' hospitably it's a protest against the government rather than anything personal but Jom wasn't too keen on going without a macchiato for a fortnight.....It was funny to wa http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Yemen/Sanaa/blog-106588.html Don't be fooled by this beautiful sunrise we awoke to whilst cruising down the Nile on our felucca Egypt could be a royal pain in the ass and is ripoff central for the majority of unsuspecting tourists haggling over the price of a bottle of water every day was a real david hasslehoff and marked a new low in our experience of travelling......lets just say we ain't in any rush to head backAnywa http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-102710.html It was over a sunrise breakfast in Wadi Rum that I was faced with my first big dilemma of the trip to accept the invitation to become a Bedoweeeeen woman and shack up with our Bedouin cook in the desert for the rest of my days or carry on with Dom to Egypt......a verrry tough call I know but in the end I couldn't face slaving away over that fire every day I'm a ceramichob kinda gal at heart http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/South/Wadi-Rum/blog-100453.html D'you like the look of our swish hotel Thought I'd push the boat out and treat wee Jules to some 5star luxury the gaping holes were good for catching the sea breeze during the balmy nights....Most buildings in Beirut are pocked from the long civil war of the 70s and 80s but there's surprisingly scarce evidence of the recent conflict unless you venture into the Hezbollahdominated suburbs in the http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Beirut/blog-97851.html Public health is soooo last year smoking is the new thing on everyone's lips though a strawberry nargileh beats Big n Hairys every time......d'you think there'd be a demand for this in Maryhill Perhaps not.....We bumped into this magnificent blueeyed boy adorning a keyboard in a Sony shop in Hama the owner had just closed for the evening but after much window banging he finally relented and http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/South/Damascus/blog-97133.html The burning question was how would Efes the bestpreserved classical city in the eastern Med compare to Efes the local mick jagger Answer depends how much of a drooth you have...... Ephesus was an important centre for early Christianity it was here that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians and had a wee barney with the local artisans whose livelihood depended on the Temple of Artemis one of the 7 ancient http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-95470.html Do I look a tad apprehensive Or perhaps in need of a change of knickers Suffice to say I was just about to have my first date with a cutthroat razor wielded by a turkish barber but much worse was yet to come.......Istanbul was our kinda place cakes ay tea cats cinema and cracking fitbaw......throw in the ostentatious Blue Mosque the eerie 5am Muezzin calls to prayer and the historic Ay http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-92279.html