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 type thing but with chicken (Mum, Dad, Prue, Sam and Shona would probably be the only ones who know what I'm talking about) And then we headed back home and then Turka came home late ... read more

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 ride was full and wasn't too bad, apart from this random guy sitting diagonally across from Shona and myself, and stared at us practically the WHOLE time. Even if we looked at him or made ... read more

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 from the airport in Aqaba, and we went out to dinner at Rover's (English Pub style in Aqaba). The next day Shona, Chris and Brendan all went diving, but I was feeling too ill and ... read more

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 in the city, and said to be one of the oldest and largest castles in the world. It was HUGE! And from the top, you could see for miles and miles. Stone building after stone ... read more

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 sightseeing done of Dubai before heading off to the airport again to fly into Amman (Jordan). Unfortunately it was really dusty and sandy, so the sights weren't THAT amazing, but still pretty damn cool!!! I ... read more