Turkey was such a relaxing stop for us. A real slow-down of the hectic pace we had been on since we hit the Middle East a few weeks back. After nearly 3 months of traveling we both had set our eyes on home, and looked forward to our last stop: The Greek Islands. We had originally planned to leave Greece on June 6th...but our plans changed just as we left Turkey. My brother Shaun (Jess' new brother-in-law) has ben holding down the fort with our business...but after some exciting developments over the past few week we got an urgent message from [View Full Entry]

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After three days in Istanbul we knew we were going to like Turkey. We booked a 4 day voyage on a gület.. the small wooden yachts that domınate the southern Turkish coast. The Turkish transportation system is amazing, big comfortable buses take you to all corners of the country...and there are literally hundreds of companies to choose from. We asked about the government owned trains and we kept getting the same answer: "never on time and not safe!". We took an over-night bus from Istanbul to Finicke, which is on the southern coast. The 15 hour bus ride may seem long, [View Full Entry]

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We were really disappointed to have to leave Jordan because it was such a warm and wonderful country -- but it is also the last flight we take before our flight home to Oregon. We stayed the night in the Amman airport as our flight for Istanbul was at 3:00am. We basically sat around playing rummy and catching up on our reading....but it gave us a chance to put together a game plan for the Turkish capital city. Jessica had the Lonely Planet out and read about all the different neighborhoods...and found a great sounding hotel near all the sights (Sides [View Full Entry]

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As I write this I can't believe that we only spent four days in Jordan...we got so much done, saw so much, and had such a great time. We are FOR SURE headed back to this travel destination gem. We threw some extra days into Jordan when we shortened our time in Egypt. We had only expected these two Middle East stops to be quick, but we both agreed that Jordan deserves (and will someday get) much more time from us. Originally our only goal for Jordan was to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World: Petra. Petra got [View Full Entry]

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Our quick stay in Cario was a contrast of emotions. On one hand we saw the most amazing sites and had a great time with a new friend...but on the other hand we had some awful experiences and we were happy/thankful to leave and head to Jordan (where we had an awesome time!). Every stop on this trip has been amazing, but in the quick moving style of our trip in and out of Cario we got the worst of the worst when it came to people we bumped into (remember, we had had zero sleep the night before in Nairobi, [View Full Entry]

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As a child you hear the name Zanzibar and you think of the exotic spice islands of the Indian Ocean...beautiful beaches.....(but you have to say Zanzibar with more of a whisper in your voice...like Zaaannnzibarrrr....did you put a whisper in your voice? Try again...... I wish you had some cymbals to crash after that...anyway, you get my point.). Now a-days you hear that many people are making Zanzibar a honeymoon destination because of all of the beaches and culture. Our expectations going in were very high..... ....so we started our journey to Zanzibar back in Arusha, Tanzania. After finishing the negotiations [View Full Entry]

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Nairobi, Kenya was described as a very scary place in all of the travel books, but we found it to be easy to navigate and the people helpful. Tourists still seemed to be scarce due to the low season and the politcal unrest (which was mainly to the west of Nairobi and is on hold)...which we found to be very helpful in negotiating prices. We arrived from the paradise of the Seychelle Islands expecting a huge let-down, but Kenya and Tanzania have been wonderfully amazing. We got to Nairobi in late afternoon just to see a bright orange sunset over the [View Full Entry]

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Seychelles has always been on my list of places to go since I did a report on the smallest member of the United Nations in 10th grade. These amazing islands were uninhabited until British ships began blockading slave ships from Eastern Africa and dropping the freed slaves on the islands that they call the Garden of Eden. There are also stories (truth and legend) that pirates left numerous buried treasures on the island... Though we didn't find any gold these islands did not disappoint. We arrived with no hotel plans - we found out that is a HUGE no, no in [View Full Entry]

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Dubia sits right on the Persian Gulf and we had to fly right over southern Pakistan and right up to the edge of Iran to get there from Delhi. As I looked out the window of the flight it was dry, hot desert for as far as I could see. As we started to land in Dubai we were in what looked like a sand-storm...we couldn't see for more than 1/4 mile from all the sand and dust in the air. What we arrived to was the picture of a modern city with every comfort and luxery that one could ever [View Full Entry]

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Jessica's background as a Roseburg girl paid off as she out-did the official paid guides and spotted the tigers in the the Indian National Park of Ranthambhore. Jaipur was interesting, but we were ready for a place where there was no pressure to shop, no constant barrage of street vendors and touts. We enjoyed our time in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, but on a trip to India you need to arrange time away from the urban areas. Our trip to Ranthambore National Park was very interesting...the road was in terrible shape and the 200 km (160 miles) took us about 5 [View Full Entry]

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