http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/asitis/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from asitis en-us Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:43:34 +0000 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:43:34 +0000 After Palmyra we headed back westward to the town of Hama. Hama is known for its large norias or waterwheels. The norias were once used to raise water from the lowlying Orontes river into aqueducts that delivered the water to agricultural areas and gardens. The main attaction of Hama for us was as a jumping off point for sites in the region. We also enjoyed many cheap 1 tasty chicken shwarmas http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/North/blog-389339.html Syria exceeded our expections in all ways. Great food amazing sites good transportation cheap and the Syrians themselves were excellent hosts. Fair prices and honest tolerant people what a treat We travelled to Damascus from Amman on a cold dark and rainy day. Our passports were scrutinized carefully for Israeli stamps and Canadians get hammered with a 56USD charge for a 15 day visa at the http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/South/blog-391666.html There are three ways to get from Egypt to Jordan. As the two countries are not actually adjacent the traveller has to either make a short run across the southern tip of Israel or take one of two overpriced ferry options.Though potentially the cheapest of the options making the trip across Israel is not advised for anyone planning to travel on to Syria or Lebanon since neither of these countries http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/blog-385509.html Cairo was a trip what a huge city full of life and activity but after some great day trips it was once again time to hit the road. our destination Siwa Oasis. feeling the bite of not going to Libya a place where the most idyllic oases are said to exist i was determined to check out an oasis somewhere at least and in the western reaches of Egypt there were claims of the most beautiful oasis http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/blog-383028.html Thankfully Egypt is blessed with a mild winter climate making it a welcome break after those chilly nights in Tunisia. And other than a small strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea rain seems virtually unheard of in this country. Amazingly the population of Egypt is almost exclusively dependent on rains that fall thousands of kilometres and more than half a continent away for it's water supp http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/blog-381387.html As our roadtrip continued further south and again near the Algerian border the scenery became increasingly mountainous and dry. The towns of Mides and Tamerza are located in a particularly hilly area complete with some senic dry canyons. One of which was used for scenes in The English Patient. An abandoned walled mud town near Tamerza provided a scenic foreground for a palmeraie and rough mountai http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tunisia/Tataouine/blog-368401.html Having failed to receive our Iranian visas and recognizing that it was winter in most of the Middle East we did some serious rethinking of where to go from Bahrain. Originally we had planned to travel overland from Pakistan to Iran Turkey and from there to Syria Lebannon Jordan Egypt and across North Africa to Morocco.We also confirmed that overland travel in North Africa was going to be un http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tunisia/Tunis/blog-368387.html the first thing i need to do is warn you this blog is completely for my own entertainment. it has little to do with anything and a lot to do with nothing. so if you have nothing better to do ie you have washed your hair already clipped your toe nails taken out the garbage and there is nothing on the boob tube not even one of those humiliation shows then it may just be that you belong here w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-380248.html feeling satisfied that yes laura and i were not adequately informed archeological enthusiastes who would appreciate a pile of bricks for being more than just a pile of bricks these two laypersons woke up with the sun and skipped out of town. with moenjodaro at our backs we head out to the road in the hopes of finding some kind of ride. it quickly became apperant that we were a little early for t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/blog-355637.html Pakistan almost came off our list of places to visit. Especially since it seemed that India might declare war on Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks. In the end we did go but on a much shorter trip. And we were so happy we did.We entered Pakistan rather uneventfully at that infamous border crossing near Amritsar and got a cab to downtown Lahore.We stayed at this extremely friendly social hostel in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Pakistan/blog-368098.html Feeling exhausted again after a couple days in Amritsar we suffered the long obnoxious bus journey to Dharamsala. Long because it required many hours hard seats and a few transfers obnoxious because we travelled at the same time as the beginning of some kind of local university break. The result of this timing is that we shared the busrides with packs of loud cocky young men screaming in our http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Mcleod-Ganj/blog-363002.html Golden TempleAmritsar is home to the most holy Sikh site the Golden Temple. On first glance the people of Amritsar appear quite different from some other parts of India. They are taller broader and as you would expect Sikh's to be hairier.Unlike Rishikesh Amritsar attracts many more India tourists than foreigners so we found ourselves once again at the centre of a certain amount of staring a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/Amritsar/blog-353004.html Rishikesh calls itself the Yoga Capital of the World. It could well be true. There is a whole lotta yoga going on there.Like Varanasi Rishikesh is located along the banks of the Ganges River however that is about where the similarities end. Rishikesh is a quiet well as far as India goes clean laidback place where nearly everyone left us alone A welcome break after Rajasthan and another qu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttarakhand/Rishikesh/blog-350653.html Pushkar is another of india's holy cities. a lake in the desert perhaps not the only reason for being holy but a pretty good reason as far as a thirsty taveller is concerned. a proper holy town in india must be dry and vegetarian there is no alcohol or meat to be had here not even eggs...unless of course you eat at the mayor's resturaunt. not even the gods themselves can stop a wellconnected http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Pushkar/blog-350945.html JaipurAs we headed westward from Agra the scenery became increasingly desertlike. We arrived by bus in Jaipur a rather dusty crazy city on a hot afternoon.Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan with a population of 2 million that sprawls westward from the hills the border the town. Jaipur is known as the pink city for it's pinkpainted buildings in the old city area.We spent three days in Jaipu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/blog-350647.html Hey all here's a quick note to let you know what's up and wish you a happy 2009.Yes we are way behind on the blog. Lack of laptop and slowabsentexpensive internet opportunties are just some of the lame excuses we have.We left India on December 12th and spent a short but wonderful 10 days in Pakistan.We are both doing well. In fact putting back on some weight that we had both lost in the cours http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Bahrain/blog-355640.html Our stay in Delhi was longer than we had hoped. A weekend extra paperwork and the Diwali holiday created some delays in getting our Pakistan visas organized. In the meantime we both got sick with pollutionaggravated colds. Fevers and coughs includedExhausted and sick we passed much of our time hiding out from the city air in our tiny hotel room watching American movies and the BBC.Finally Pa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-343147.html Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in India. Located on the banks of the Ganges River it is one of the most auspicious places to be cremated for Hindus. It is also a place that Hindus come while they are still alive to bathe worship and bring their ill for healing.At first glance it would seem that Varanasi is a town built on scams. First a taxi driver took us to hotels that we didn't want t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-342867.html On our return from the Everest trek we spent a few days eating recovering sightseeing and having lots of hot showers back in Kathmandu.The city has a wellestablished backpacker quarter Thamel packed with restaurants and shops with everything a foreign tourist could desire from clothing to paintings brand name outdoor equipment to Mexican food. It's so much that you begin to wonder how so http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Kathmandu/blog-342863.html Somewhere along the way we realized that ideal trekking season was just beginning in Nepal so we decided to stretch our legs and wander up to Everest.From the Nepal side Everest is quite far away from the nearest road. We opted to flyin to Lukla from Kathmandu which cuts out a 10hour bus ride and several day hike up and down valleys through the forests.The Kathmandu airport experience is qui http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Gorak-Shep/blog-334860.html