Damascus, Syrian capital, is the oldest city on earth (7000 years,well done!) - well actually city that is continuously habited that is. But hang on, fellow Syrian city Aleppo claims to be the oldest city too! I am getting serious deja vu here: Nottingham has three "oldest pubs in England": one being the oldest pub, the other the oldest (yawn) tavern, etc, etc. Now if the people in Egypt and Jordan can be termed friendly, the Syrians take the piss. Relative latecomers to George's evil axis, if you catch their stare you are in for it. Half an hour later you [View Full Entry]

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Wadi Rum, Jordan. Famous for the Arab Revolt, Lawrence of Arabia and all things Bedouin. As we walked though the wilderness, there was a perfect silence, a sense of timelessness until my mobile went off with a text from JordTelecom inviting me to phone friends and family back home for special rates in the evening. As we arrived back in the small village, there was a large gathering of arab guys shouting and waving their hands in the air. According to one of the "Bedu" a non local entrepreneur was trying to divert the tourists to his new visitors centre and [View Full Entry]

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Diving.  What I came to Dahab for.  Haven't done it for almost 2 years and what a gap.  (See the pictures).  Met a great group of people which added to the fun (mostly English and a couple of very funny Germans).  Our dive guide was shivering after coming out of yesterday's dive: "Summer's over", he declared.  The temperature hit 43 yesterday. Did the infamous Blue Hole - many people have thrown a seven here including a Russian diver last week.  The surrounding area is littered with gravestones of dead divers.  We didn't "do" the Blue Hole in [View Full Entry]

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There is a quaint old English saying that I haven't heard since high school. It goes: "I am going to kick seven shades of shit out of you". It wasn't until I started working for the health service that I discovered that there are seven shades if shit - nurses have a detailed chart with pictures showing the quality, texture, etc. of each 'shade'. Known with affection as the poo chart, it played a central role in conversation during my last visit to Cairo. Every morning at breakfast, the first topic of discussion was where you were riding on the [View Full Entry]

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Istanbul is the city that has, er 16 million people. There is so much to see here, it is ridiculous. Capital of the eastern Roman empire, Ottoman empire, etc. The old bit has all of the museums, etc and has a distinctly Arab feel (although one suspects that it is ramped up for the tourists). The new part, across the river, is all funky shops, bars, cinemas and cafes and you could be mıstaken for thinkıng that you were in any western city in the world. This is a good place to be stuck - because I am. I am tryıng [View Full Entry]

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Got a ferry from Kos town to Bodrum, Turkey except when we arrived we discovered that it was not actually Bodrum, but somewhere nearby and there was a 'free' coach to Bodrum via some leather warehouses having a 'one day only sale', etc. You know the scam. Bodders was yet another seaside resort and I am a little bored of that sorta thing at the moment, so I decided to get out as soon as possible and head to Selçuk and see the ancient Roman town of Ephesus. Saint Paul preached here and he pissed them off so much wıth all [View Full Entry]

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Why don't we do it in the Rhode Now in Rhodes Town, got there by ferry last night. I never knew about this place - it is bloody great! In case you have never seen it, it is an ancient port town with a walled city and lots of winding streets, etc. It is in great nick, though I would compare the ambience to Florence and it pisses all over York. In the new town, there are the usual touristy bars, which actually made a change and I was able to sup some CIDER, gas with some Brits and get off [View Full Entry]

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Well, I got as far as Karpathos - 60 miles and then we anchored in a secluded bay miles away from anywhere.  That night, the winds set in and lasted for 3 days, so we were stuck.  All there was nearby was some ruins from an ancient port, one old guy (it took half an hour of charades to establish that his name was "John"), his missus, five goats, two cats ("gato"), a well and a fig tree.  Good job that there was plenty of booze on board.  After three days of that (at which point, I was ready to hammer [View Full Entry]

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Went windsurfing today - felt like a spaz and then something clicked - i.e. how  to *actually do it*.   Only 5 mins b4 they called me back in. The plan *was* to take a ferry to the island of Karpathia.  As I was headiing toward the Info office, I spotted a red ensign [British sailing flag] on a yacht in the harbour.  I thought I might pop in say hello and see if I could scrounge a lift.  No lift, but I ended up drinking loadsa beers before making my excuses.  On the way off "yacht 1", spotted another Britmoblie making its [View Full Entry]

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Slipping down the Gorge When I first thought of this trip, the presupposition went something like: "Hey, I reckon I could get from Blighty to Oz without ever seeing an airport". Less than 2 weeks in and I have taken three flights. Bollocks to that idea then. Currently in Crete, caught up with The Folks, Sim, X and little Niamh who were taking in a week here. That was a nice thing all round and it was all possible thanks to the marvel that is SMS. Package tour land here. The Greeks are all very congenial except, for some reason, the [View Full Entry]

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