The good news is that we are now a lovely golden brown colour (with tan-lines 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 Scotland.... The biggest thing to happen to us since our last update was the arrival of our old pal Jac (aka the 'Gravy Train') [View Full Entry]

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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 with abundant natural resources - we saw fields in every shade of green, much more vivid than back home - but alas prone to cyclical drought, which is a [View Full Entry]

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I wonder if this naming-the-beer-after-the-city 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 Piccola Roma (Little Rome), is essentially a result of Mussolini's grand plan to create a second Roman Empire in Africa.....but WWII scuppered that. The city is known for its diverse architectural styl [View Full Entry]

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You go all the way to Yemen and you don't even get kidnapped - we didn't get a sniff - talk about being short-changed, 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 watch the reaction of fellow travellers and locals from throughout the Middle East when we told them we were heading to the home of the Queen of Sheba, Frankinscence and to [View Full Entry]

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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 rip-off 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 back! Anyways, if there's one way to experience Egypt, its got to be via the Nile - its a real cracker. We set sail from Aswan (where our [View Full Entry]

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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 ceramic-hob kinda gal at heart! Besides, moustaches don't float my boat...... Wadi Rum is Lawrence of Arabia country - it was from this neck of the woods [View Full Entry]

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D'you like the look of our swish hotel? Thought I'd push the boat out and treat wee Jules to some 5-star 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 Hezbollah-dominated suburbs in the southside; if you'd been hibernating you'd never know that Israel and Hezbollah had had a right square go. There are loadsa UN troops kicking about though, choppers regularly flying by and [View Full Entry]

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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 blue-eyed 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 afforded us some quality time with 'Nice' - not the most catchy of names but nevertheless a rather appropriate moniker for such a fine specimen - without doubt one of the highlights [View Full Entry]

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The burning question was, how would Efes the best-preserved 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 Wonders of the World). Most of the wifes out there will recognise chapter 13 from their wedding day but here's a wee reminder for the blokes: "Love is patient, love is kind. [View Full Entry]

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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 cut-throat razor, wielded by a turkish barber, but much worse was yet to come....... Istanbul was our kinda place: cakes, çay (tea) cats, cinema and cracking fitbaw......throw in the ostentatious Blue Mosque, the eerie 5am Muezzin calls to prayer and the historic Aya Sofya and you've got a heady mix. Mind you, we weren't roy keane on the half-time break when watchin Miami Vice at the movies..... The Galatasaray fans certainly weren't [View Full Entry]

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