James and Karen

Our African odyssey had reached an end and so it was with one last long look back at this wonderful continent that we boarded the plane at Johannesburg international airport for our flight home. But the fun wasn't over yet as we had 36 hours in Hong Kong on the way home. Can you say shopping? All we have actually done with our 36 hours in Hong Kong is shop and sleep. At the risk of adding more to our already overweight luggage, we found it neccessary to replace the clothes that had served us so well over the last four months. With shopping list in hand, we hit the streets of this neon-lit, commercial mecca. All I can say is that they don't bargain like they do in Africa! There was slight culture shock in ... read more

After travelling through Muslim countries and countries where dress was fairly conservative, Karen commented as she left the hotel room in shorts and a singlet top that she felt quite underdressed. Two seconds later, we spotted a man walking to the restaurant wearing nothing but speedos and flip flops. And that set the tone for our second Vic Falls stay - laid back and completely comfortable. We were a bit apprehensive about coming back. I mean, we weren't sure if there would be water this time around. As the plane landed at Livingstone airport, we tried to spot the spray of the Falls but were unsuccesful. We jumped on the transfer to the Zambezi Sun hotel (doing it in style this time!!) and were soon kicking back in our air conditioned room. We didn't stay there ... read more

Whenever we had an icy cold shower or no shower at all, or got leg cramps from using squat toilets, James and I would say just one word: ‘Jumeirah’. The hotel was intended to be our little slice of luxury on this trip. It turned out to be a massive wedge of indulgence! We left our hostel and headed for the airport (reason: free pickup by the hotel only available from the airport, and it was cheaper to get a taxi to the airport than to the hotel). Once there we met our driver who loaded our gear into our transfer car, a top of the line Mercedes van. We sat quite happily on our leather seats, adjusted our headrests and started reading the complimentary newspapers. It took us about 30 minutes to get to our ... read more

With the sun shining and the camel hire centre behind us we headed down the valley towards the coast and Dahab, with the road weaving between dramatic mountains the whole way. The parts of the Sinai peninsula that we saw on this trip were really spectacular, definately on the list of "Places to Come Back To" as I would love to explore it all a bit more. So we rolled into Dahab. Dahab is certainly a tourist town, being right on the edge of a branch of the Red Sea, and very popular with divers. The coral reefs are directly off shore and offer dramatic sites and features to see and explore. You may also have heard of Dahab when it was the site of a bomb blast in April this year. A bomb went off ... read more

After leaving the laid back felucca, we spent 11 hours in Luxor, showering and shopping. From Luxor we jumped aboard the train to Cairo. The train took about 9 hours to reach Cairo, during which we discovered that toilets on Egyptian trains take a lot of courage to use. I was not that brave... Once in Cairo we got into vegetative travel mode - the state of mind where you are so tired from travelling that you just want to sit in your room and stare at the wall for a while. We did this for about an hour or two before feeling slightly rejuvenated. We hit the internet cafe, felafel stand and then the amazing Alfa Mart (Western style supermarket that sells tiny packs of WeetBix for $5). Later that evening we visited the Khan ... read more

We were quite bummed to leave Luxor, particularly as we had to leave it at 6am. However, our destination held the promise of amazing temples and the start of our felucca ride so we were happy to be up at such a delightfully early hour. The reason for this departure time is that everyone has to travel in a convoy of buses. I don't understand the point as it is meant to be for our safety but what better to target than 20 bus loads of tourists with only one police car to protect them. Not that we had to worry about that for long as most of the bus drivers assumed that 'convoy' meant 'race' and soon sped off at various rates. By the time we were out of Luxor we were well and truly ... read more