After a few days in transit between Jordan and Japan, I arrived at Narita Monday afternoon. Stupidly I forgot about all the info/directions about getting to Turka's house in Tokyo, I got into a taxi from the airport (which I thought was what I had to do) anyway, $300 later I turned up at "Hotel Turka" (Shona's Uncle Anthony who lives in Tokyo, is called Turka) and I was welcomed by the Smol Boys and Kathleen. We later had dinner at a nice little restaurant near Turka's place where they had eaten the night before. I had a really yummy lunch-box [View Full Entry]

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The day after the wedding, we checked out of the hotel around noon, and we all very tired and hungover, so we went to Books@Cafe for lunch/afternoon tea and sat there eating and resting for a while, before heading back to Hotel Liwan for a long long sleep! We were supposed to go out with Chris' friend Fadi that night, but we didn't hear back from him, so we just had dinner with John, Colleen and Eimear at Grenadier's, then went back to bed because we were all still tired and lazy. The next day we went to the Dead Sea [View Full Entry]

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Today's the day we went off to Israel. Chris' dad, John dropped us off at the Eilat border, and I got questioned at security because of my surname, as they thought it sounded a bit suspiscious or whatever! Was a bit scary at the time and I was really weirded out as to why they wanted to know the first names of my Nonno and Nonna!! But anyway, not long after we got through and got in a taxi that took us to the bus station where we were going to catch a 5 hour long bus to Jerusalem. The bus [View Full Entry]

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Today we got up (early once again, quite a remarkable effort for me I must say. Dad, I think you would agree!) We left to go to Petra for the day. And what a day this one turned out to be!!! Petra is an amazing place, if anyone ever has the chance to go there...I strongly suggest it. But be prepared for long walks, many stairs, hot sun and the Bedouins! We started off by getting to the Treasury, then decided to walk up to the High Point of Sacrifice. After many water and rest stops along the way, we made [View Full Entry]

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We started off the day by doing some Souk shopping in Damascus. It is quite a long and big Souk there, so was really quite cool. I didn't end up buying anything because we were quite rushed, and I wasn't in the mood to go shopping as I was starting to get a little sick. So we left Damascus and headed off in the bus for a few more hours crossing the boreder back into Jordan and went to the Amman airport where we flew back to Aqaba. John had arrived in Jordan by this time, and picked us all up [View Full Entry]

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As per usual, we got off to an early start and hopped in the bus and headed for the Citadel in Masyaf. Same same, was huge and old and full of ghosts (probably). Then we left and kept on driving, until we got to the Krak Des Chevaliers. Not sure if you know what it is, but it is (yet another castle) however, is a crusader fortress and has been described as probably the best preserved castle in the world. Though for some reason, I'm pretty sure nearly every castle we visited said that same thing. Anyway, it still is quite [View Full Entry]

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We flew into the town of Aleppo in Syria, meeting up with Colleen and Eimear at their hotel, really quite beautiful I must say, (alot of the places we stayed at were very nice and cheap! I have photos will add later). Brendan's luggage was lost along the way, and to this day was not found again. And since he had just got into Amman the night before, it was ALL of his luggage!! Poor boy. Luckily he didn't freak out or anything, he actually took it really well. We went to the Citadel in Aleppo which is a medieval castle [View Full Entry]

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After still only a few hours sleep in Amman, we woke up and headed off to Chris' parents place in Aqaba (about 3 hours out of Amman, on the coast). Was quite a lazy/uneventful day (as you can imagine after everything that we had been up to), we arrived in Aqaba, and went to the old house of the Gabriel's, then to their new apartment, had a bit of a few hours nap then went and got some dinner in town at a place called Ali Baba's. Then went up to a rooftop bar called Sea View Cafe, met Chris' friend [View Full Entry]

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Ok, have some time to sit and write. Well obviously on Saturday the 20th of June I got on the plane in Brisbane, then a 7 hour flight to Singapore, then a futher 7 hours to Abu Dhabi. At this point in time (plus time differences) I had no idea what day or time it was, but Chris and I arrived at Abu Dhabi and were picked up by his father who lives in Dubai. We drove to Dubai and went to sleep as it was early hours of the morning, then woke up only 3 hours later to get some [View Full Entry]

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Hey Everyone, Just a quick hello to let you all know I'm fine and still alive. Having a blast over here!! Been all over the place, and just got back from a couple of days in Jerusalem!! Very cool and interesting I must say! We are back in Amman now, and will be til we leave. I leave here on Saturday, and have a few (13 hours) to kill whilst in Abu Dhabi airport, so I will try and fill you all in with all my adventures then. And then I'm off to Tokyo and Beijing for a few days each. [View Full Entry]

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