On last Friday Nick and me finally started. We had bought food for six days, two types of bread, oats, raisins, dried apricot, cookies, spread cheese, jam, and honey. We left some luggage at the guest house, packed all nessesary cloth, Nick's tent, the sleeping bag, and a new bought wolly hat. Our first night we sleept in the tent near the lowest shelter which is a mosque at 3050m. It was not to cold and the next morning we freshly started climbing to the next shelter. The next and also final shelter is at 4100m which is quite high already. We tried to find a place to put up our tent on the way, but there was no good location, everything to steep. So we sleept the second night at 4100m already. That was to ... read more

When I arrived in Tehran it was on a Friday. On a Friday there is not much going to happen in Iran. Everything is closed. Still I managed to change some money with an obscure person approaching me on the street. My plans where to go to mount Damavand in the Alborz mountains north of Tehran. It's the highest mountain of Iran (5671m) and I thought it should be a good training for the treking in Karakorum or Himalaya. So I went straight on from the western bus terminal to the eastern bus terminal in Tehran (which is not to difficult, just get the city bus along the street all the way east) and took the bus to Reine, a small village located at Damavand (2200m). Here I explored all the conditions for climbing Damavand, incuding ... read more

A town with this charming name was going to be my last one in Turkey. But there's some story connected to it. It all started when I was walking from the train station in Erzurum to the bus terminal. After some time two men were walking by my side and started talking to me in english. They were students at the university in Erzurum and they wanted to fetch a friend from the bus station. I told them, I was looking for a bus to Tehran (Tachran as they say in Turkey) and they offered to help me. This is always a good thing, because as a foreigner you are running around the different bus counters for some time until you find the right one and you never understand where people are sending you to. There ... read more

As soon as I was back from the wonderlands of Capadocia to face the world of visa buissnes once more I was ill. So I did not go to visit the chinese embassy but I laid down in my bed in grim old Otel Fuar and ate mashed apple and banana with oats. After two days I'm now feeling better and I hope to reach Iran next week.... read more

Further inquieries showed (re-met some friends of buissnes;-) that I should rather try to apply for the chinese and the pakistanian visa in Ankara. It is just a 6 hour bus ride, so today I visited all the embassies in Ankara including the german one. Yes, I had to get two letters of recommendation from my own embassy! A letter of recommendation approves that I am a good guy who should be issued a visa as fast as possible. At the german embassy I could experience what the gateway to Germany in Turkey looks like. Very difficult to get in, many people waiting affirming that they have all the required documents this time, trying to make the guy behind the bars notice them. There were also some ( but comparably small) obstacles for me: No camera ... read more