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Nomadic Gravies - Daniel & Rozita Shortell

Daniel & Rozita Shortell

Countries We Are Visiting

Svalbard Spain United States of America Antarctica South Georgia Falkland Islands Bolivia Peru Ecuador Colombia Venezuela Guyana Suriname French Guiana Brazil Paraguay Uruguay Argentina Chile Greenland Canada United States of America United States of America Israel Jordan Cyprus Qatar United Arab Emirates Oman Yemen Saudia Arabia Iraq Afghanistan Turkmenistan Iran Syria Singapore China Mongolia Papua New Guinea Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Malaysia Tiawan Philippines Vietnam Cambodia Laos Thailand Burma Bangladesh Sri Lanka India Bhutan Nepal Pakistan Afghanistan Turkmenistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan Japan North Korea South Korea Russia Kazakhstan Russia Montenegro Portugal Azerbaijan Armenia Georgia Ukraine Moldova Belarus Romania Bulgaria Macedonia Serbia Bosonia & Herzegovina Turkey Greece Albania Croatia Hungary Slovakia Slovenia Malta Spain Portugal Spain France Italy Italy Austria Switzerland Belgium France Ireland United Kingdom Norway Sweden Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania Russia Poland Czech Republic Germany Denmark The Netherlands Iceland El Salvador Guatemala Panama Costa Rica Nicaragua Honduras Belize Mexico Trinidad & Tobago Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Haiti Jamaica The Bahamas Cuba Vanuatu Australia Solomon Islands Fiji New Caledonia New Zealand Eritrea Ethiopia Djibouti Somalia Kenya Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Madagascar Namibia Botswana South Africa Lesotho Swaziland Zimbabwe Mozambique Malawi Zambia Angola Democratic Repbulic of Congo Republic of Congo Gabon Equatorial Guinea Central African Republic Cameroon Nigeria Togo Ghana Burkina Fassu Cote d'Ivoire Liberia Sierra Leone Guinea Guinea Bissau The Gambia Senegal Mali Mauritania Niger Western Sahara Sudan Chad Egypt Libya Tunisia Morocco Algeria
Map Legend: 4%, 13 of 263 Territories
 Yellow 


AustraliaChinaEgyptFranceIndiaItalyJordanMalaysiaNepalSwitzerlandThailandTurkeyUnited States

High level view of the countries we plan to explore


Our lives are a compilation of the many experiences we have as we blaze our own unique trail through the continuum of time.These experiences define who we are, chisel our behaviours, and influence how we blend into the increasingly complex world around us. Our daily routines provide us with the comfort of stability, a known outcome, a rhythm to follow and a cage we grown to love and hate.

In the US, an intensely capitalistic society promotes a lifestyle of consumption and imbues in the masses a continued sense of deficiency unless we have the latest fashion worn by Paris Hilton or the latest iPod released by Apple Computers. These notions of consumerism reinforce our belief that the cage is our safe place and we should work harder to furnish it well with the latest trappings whether it is an expensive new car to better articulate our societal position, a healthier, greener lawn to compete with the neighbors, or a bigger house to store all the crap we have accumulated over the years. All the while, we often forget that we are only blessed with a limited amount of time and a diminishing amount of energy with which to experience the vast reaches beyond our cage. This may sound trite, however, its importance should be underscored as our uniquely human intellect and desire for knowledge and understanding cannot be satiated with a constant cycle of work, buy, sleep and eat. There must be something more… experiences that challenge our beliefs, expose our limitations, and enlighten our perspective. For us, this “something more” is travel.

With this in mind, we have set out to explore a small fraction of the many countries, languages, cultures, and lifestyles that permeate the globe. We are in search of adventure, knowledge and an experience that can further round our perspective of the world in which we live. With nothing more than 2 backpacks, 2 spongy minds and a host of technological gadgetry, we will travel ‘round the world for six+ months starting from our current home, Australia, and returning to our next home, USA.

So please, join us on our travels and let us know your thoughts as we roam around outside of our cage to experience life from just a few of the many different perspectives on this massive rock we call earth.

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Joined on: November 23rd 2007
Last Login: August 27th 2009

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Blogs & Travel Journals

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After asking around a bit, reading up on our travel book and gauging our time, we decided to make Fethiye the next stop in our Turkey tour. We caught a mid-morning dolmus out of Olympos and up to the local bus stop where we jumped onto another dolmus for the 5 hour ride up the Mediterranean to Fethiye. Once again, the ride was gorgeous, and, being well rested, we were able to sit back, relax and take in the scenery. The road curved along the coast revealing tiny coves, ruins mounted on craggy hills, and deep blue waters. Our arrival into [View Full Entry]

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1402 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 10th 2008 | 89 Views | [diary=291651]

Ships
mosaic floor at church in Kayakoy
Kayakoy

We boarded yet another night bus with the sort of enthusiasm typically reserved for a visit to the dentist. As we had come to expect, a clean cut, well dressed man happily served us refreshments upon take-off, and, promptly freshened the air inside the bus as we set off on our trip to Antalya. Meanwhile, the child seated behind us commenced her evening long complaint session, crying at every conceivable opportunity. Her caretakers, seemingly deaf and possessing absolutely zero parenting skills, did nothing to calm her or her flailing appendages which spent most of their time slamming into the [View Full Entry]

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939 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 4 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 27th 2008 | 139 Views | [diary=291568]

Head in the clouds
Flowers
Olympos

Saban is 22 years old and just recently graduated with an English degree from a university in Tokat, Turkey. Outgoing, friendly, and eager to practice his English a bit, we bumped into this remarkable young lad in the spotless new bus station (which really felt more like an airport) in Keyseri. He approached us as we finalized our ticket, asking if we would like to hang out together to kill the 5 hours before the bus to Urfa left. We happily accepted his invitation for a rendezvous and settled on a cafeteria in the station to get a bite to eat [View Full Entry]

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2300 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 8 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 25th 2008 | 204 Views | [diary=291163]

Urfa girls
Waiting for the sun to set
Beehive

It has been about five months now and Rozy and I have experienced, discussed and analysed the many differences (both subtle and extreme) between the transport systems of 6 different countries. Our travels in Turkey bring us closest to some of the most economically developed countries in the world, and, one would probably expect a jump in the quality of the transport system given this proximity and other factors. Turkey’s transport system (specifically the bus system), much to our pleasant surprise, trumped all others we have experienced on this trip by a rather significant margin, and, o [View Full Entry]

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1912 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 34 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 19th 2008 | 229 Views | [diary=289171]

Contrast
rock formation
Woman making dolls

Rozy and I licked our mental wounds caused by a horrendous time in Egypt by taking turns being uber positive about our expectations of Turkey. This was a bold move as overplaying such a hand could result in unreachably high expectations, which, if unmet, could render the last portion of our travels a perceived failure. Throwing caution to the wind, we traded oddly pumped-up enthusiasm as if preparing for a workout with Richard Simmons. We touched down in Istanbul ready to receive Turkey in all its glory, but still subconsciously prepared to flinch at any indication of a scam as we [View Full Entry]

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1367 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 17 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 19th 2008 | 105 Views | [diary=288881]

Blue Mosque
Boys in the Blue Mosque
Shopping in the Grand Bazaar

So the plan was to make our way along the highly fragmented Egyptian transport network from Siwa to St. Katharine’s Monastery and Mount Sinai in far eastern Egypt. Three bus rides and a full day later, we arrived in Suez full of hope that we could catch the next bus out to St. Katharine’s in order to summit Mt. Sinai like our good friend Moses. Upon our arrival, I spoke to the ticket salesman (only after elbowing my way through a small crowd of people standing around the ticket booth) who informed me that I could purchase a ticket to Sinai [View Full Entry]

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3522 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 34 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: June 1st 2008 | 277 Views | [diary=278775]

Red Pyramid
Dan marvels at Saqqara
Rozy in the desert

Disconnected is one of many words that could be used to describe the Egyptian transport infrastructure (hopelessly inefficient is another good way of describing it). We were lucky to score a night train ticket out of Luxor and into Cairo although we had to pay extra to catch the train originating in Aswan (even though we were boarding in Luxor) as the train originating in Luxor had been sold out (makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?). Regardless, we were fit to say our goodbyes to Luxor and hustle our way to Siwa along what amounts to a big “L” shaped series of [View Full Entry]

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2406 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 46 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 29th 2008 | 418 Views | [diary=278415]

Fahim pouring tea
Rozy climbing up a dune
Shali

One would think that finding the central bus station for a city of 20 million people would be a relatively straightforward task, unfortunately in Cairo, nothing is straightforward. From our guidebook, we knew that the main bus station was called “Turgomen” and it was located near Ramses Square, however, the book stopped short of providing a precise address since “the bus station is prone to relocations”. Confused, Rozy and I mulled the idea of a roaming central bus station but couldn’t connect to the logic or reasoning behind it. Anyhow, we set off to find the elu [View Full Entry]

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1994 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 38 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 23rd 2008 | 589 Views | [diary=277614]

Square Columns
Beam of light
Luxor Temple

Arriving dead tired into any new city isn’t exactly the ideal situation…arriving dead tired in Cairo is simply a bad idea. After a long night in the airport in Mumbai, a 3.5 hour flight to Bahrain, a 2.5 hour layover in Bahrain and finally a 3 hour flight from Bahrain to Cairo, we arrived zombified and ready to find the nearest bed. Instead, we played the immigration game and got our first introduction to the Egyptian way of life…tacit knowledge reins supreme. In this instance, I queued for immigration checking as everyone else, however, when I reached the immigration offic [View Full Entry]

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2487 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 29 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 19th 2008 | 152 Views | [diary=277558]

The Khan
Dan inspecting tomb
Brass for sale at the Khan

Another comfy A/C bus delivered us back to Ahmedabad from Bhuj where we spent the majority of the next day in a stuffy little cubicle in an Internet café waiting for our next bus departure to Mumbai. Evening finally came and we prepared to board yet another (hopefully comfy) Volvo A/C sleeper bus, only, it didn’t arrive. Instead, about an hour and a half late, a crap-mobile of twisted metal (with no A/C) arrived to grudgingly drag us down to Mumbai. We had paid for an A/C sleeper bus and were given a non A/C bus, so naturally, it was time [View Full Entry]

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1177 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: May 14th 2008 | 377 Views | [diary=276331]

Evening view from our Cairo hostel
A Bwood dud
Just another bus station



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