http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/VictorT/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from VictorT en-us Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:50:57 +0000 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:50:57 +0000 Arriving on the 23rd in Dahab I spent the next 8 days there doing very little. I would spend the day either sitting on the beach sipping banana shake while reading snorkelling in some worldclass coral chatting it up with other travellers or laidback locals or lazily surf the internet. The evening were spent drinking and chatting with other people or watching movies at Tota the famou boatb http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Sinai/Dahab/blog-114869.html There is only a very early morning bus and a midafternoon one going to Amman from Damascus and I missed the early morning one so I had to negotiate a taxi. I found a indianbritish guy who was heading the same way so we teamed up and after an hour of waiting managed to get enough people to fill the cab. We made it quite quickly to the border where the driver greased our way through with a little http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/South/Petra/blog-114866.html Ah Syria. The mecca of the backpacker and the nemesis of our friend W. Everybody I met who went in the country raved about it so I was excited to finally get in. The day started badly though. In Antakya I was dropped by the bus' station servis van that takes you the bus station when it is on the outskirts of town in the middle of nowhere and I had to wait for 2 hours in a disgusting pit without http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/blog-114865.html Leaving Konya was as painful as getting in. I was determined to use that tram to get out of town but finding it took a long time even though it was only a few minutes walk away. I was told by the hotel guy that I had to take bus so I went to the bus stop in front of the hotel and tried to ask someone but no one could speak english or understand my broken turk until one man laughed at me and told http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Cappadocia/blog-114706.html The overnight bus from Istanbul was smooth sailing. I had heard of the good reputation of turkish bus companies and they certainly lived up to my expectations. Quality buses no hassle. I'd even say they're a bit boring. Anyway I got in Selcuk in early morning and quickly found my way to an ANZ hostel the first one I stumbled upon. I got a dorm bed for a good price after only a little bargaining http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Konya/blog-114705.html We arrived in Istanbul in early morning and were dropped somewhere in the biggest bus station I've ever seen and the most confusing. There's no central schedule there are about 180 companies all with their own offices and schedule and no one share the information. Crazy. We had some general direction to the hostel we wanted to go to but no guidebook. It was too early for money changing but we e http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-108314.html The train ride from Bucharest to Sofia was a blast. The 3 frenchies who shared the compartment with me had alcohol and a pack of card They showed me a new card game which was a blast and the night passed really fast. We were woken up at around 530AM and got off the train in one of the most confusing and beaten down train station I've seen in a long time. It seems that the train station's designe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-108313.html I had an empty train carriage all the way from Belgrade to Bucharest except at one small moment in the night when I woke up to find 2 Roma men on the bench in front of mine looking at me sleeping. I try not to believe those stories about gypies but they're a bit too common for me not to belive entirely in them and I know for sure that there are other empty carriages so I know that these men are n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Romania/blog-108312.html The bus driver seemed to be under the wierd impression that we liked to sleep under tropical climate so he made sure that the temperature in the bus wouldn't drop below 35C which made sleep not very comfortableimpossible. Fortunately after a few hours of this treatment someone managed to convince the driver that putting the temperature at sauna level was a bit excessive afterwhich a peaceful n http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Serbia/West/Belgrade/blog-108321.html I left Dubrovnik at 8 in the morning on the 12th on the way to Mostar. The granny I had been staying with asked me what were my plans and I foolishly told her what I was truly doing. On the bus I met Mic a friendly english guy whom had some interesting adventures in Croatia. We followed the coast for a while which was really amazing and then went inland. We didn't get stamped in and we never re http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bosnia-and-Herzegovina/East/Sarajevo/blog-108054.html This update will be real short mostly pictures. I just don't want to mix countries in my blogs but I stayed less than 24 hours in Croatia. But still Dubrovnik is quite an amazing city.I arrived in Dubrovnik after dark from Montenegro and after being assaulted by the grannies I picked the first one that lowered her price to something reasonable and followed her to a room which I shared with a jap http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Croatia/Dalmatia/Dubrovnik/blog-108053.html The overnight bus from Peja went without problem and I was dropped in Uclinje at 5AM in the bus station. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to stay as the sights in town didn't seem to be overwhelming. My question was answered for me by a bus heading northward that was leaving 3 minutes after my bus arrived. I hopped on it because it meant I could have 2 more hours of sleep and not spend hours trying t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Montenegro/Kotor/blog-108051.html At around 6AM the bus dropped us in Prishtina's bus station. I was quite happy to get out as after the ripoff we had gone through 2 hours earlier read the end of previous blog I hadn't been able to sleep because I was too angry. It was good to get out of the tense atmosphere. The plan for the day was to go to Prizren as a day trip. We first checked in at a guesthouse where we woke the receptioni http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Kosovo/blog-107158.html The overnight bus from Thessaloniki wasn't the most comfortable I've ever had. Midnight border crossing is not exactly the loveliest thing in the world as for some reason it seems that they always arrange the border to be at the perfect point to wake you up just when you were starting to have some real sleep. On the other hand the assistant conductor had to be one of the most beautiful woman I'v http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Albania/West/Tirana/blog-107157.html I lost a large part of my pictures for this update quite unfortunately but I manage to salvage some.MarcAndre and I took the train to Kalampaka from Athens the village close to the famous monasteries on pillars of Meteora early in the morning. It was an easy and painless 4 to 5 hours riding during which we saw some beautiful mountains and greek countryside scenery. We talked for most of the wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Thessaly/Meteora/blog-105835.html Ahh Europe. A big part of my trip was now over. I had been in Asia for 4 months and a half but it was time to move onThe BA flight to Athens was transitting through Heatrow so no liquidfood was allowed on board. Everything was going fine until they announced that the flight would be an hour late. This was stressing me out as I had a connection in Heatrow and I didn't exactly have a lot of time http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-105833.html We pulled by in Mumbai's Victoria Terminal now called Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus about 18 hours later than planned. I somehow lost the american guy in the train station. He stopped somewhere I think to buy something and I continued and after he was just lost in the crowd. I was surprised not to be hassled by anyone in the station. Few people took notice of me and no one tried to get me a cheap http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-100066.html Varanasi Benares or Kashi this is Hindu's holiest city. Whether you know it or not you've seen it before. It is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited city and was a contemporary of Sumer. It is mentioned in the Vega Hindu holy text as the city of temples and learning and it still seen that way nowadays. I was quite excited to be there and see for myself this bigger than life city.The http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-100065.html I managed to wake up at the earliest hour ever today 415AM which is nothing short of a miracle. I had arranged transport to Jhansi with the guesthouse owner's son so that I could catch the 530 bus to Khajuraho. The hotel seemed to be doing quite well because his car was one of the best I've seen in India 2006 Honda something... I'm not too good with cars but you don't see them around too much http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Madhya-Pradesh/Khajuraho/blog-100064.html It started like in a movie or nightmare. I had a train at 600AM and I woke up at 551AM with my bag halfundone and my hotel was a good 15 minutes walk from the train station. I packed my bag as fast as I could ran downstairs to pay for my room. The guy at checkin was busy with 2 customers so I just put 150Rs on the table and said I owe you 150Rs here it is and ran away. He tried to tell http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Madhya-Pradesh/Orchha/blog-100063.html