there are 3 pages of photos so click next at the bottom of page to look " here's a newsflash: contrary to what the US state department may wish the world to think, syria is not populated by terrorists, zealots and other boogeyman. in fact, syrians are among the most friendly and hospitable people in the world, and most visitors to their country end up developing lifelong infatuation with its gentle charms" - guidebook as you can see from our photos, syria is amazing, seriously. from the second we got there, we couldnt stop taking photos, and commenting back and forth [View Full Entry]

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we left dahab and took a busride up to the gulf of aquaba, which is where egypt,israel and jordan meet. we took a ferry from egypt to jordan and then another few hour bus ride to wadi musa. this is the closest town to petra, the ancient nabatean city. we chose probably the HOTTEST day to go check out these scorching ruins, well city built into the rocks. its better known for being the spot for the film indiana jones and the last crusade. it was all very facinating but all the walking/hiking in 40 degree weather made it all a [View Full Entry]

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there are 50 photos on this one! make sure you scroll and click next, there are three pages to look at !! Dahab, we're sad to leave you but the time has come. We had some good times and horrible times but they were memorable just the same. We will miss you and all the people that are a couple degrees off. Kims dive instructor summed up dahab with this line "the worlds self-check in mental institution" and we say this with the best of intentions, the people were interesting and fun. We will miss the wind, the begging one eyed [View Full Entry]

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After Luxor we arrived 5 hrs later by bus to the red sea coast, in Hurghada. we arrived at night, so we didn't get a chance to peek at the famed waters until morning, when we woke up and took a look on our balcony. wow! if expectations were ever met, this was it! gorgeous crystal clear tourquoise waters were spread out on the horizon. the end of february is still a little early for full fleged beaching, but nonetheless the tourist were there. the entire coastline is bought up by 4/5 star hotels/resteraunts/bars, so there isnt a public beach, unfortunatly. [View Full Entry]

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Luxor is a beautiful city that straddles the Nile in southern, or “upper” Egypt. We spent nine days there, mostly because we had such a comfortable hotel room, and saw the sights at a much slower than average pace, which the hotel staff constantly made fun of us for. Most of the tourists there are on package tours and come to the city on cruise ships from Cairo, so it was a little difficult for us being independent travelers and not having a guide or bus, just our trusty lonely planet and our feet to get us around. Luxor is [View Full Entry]

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After camping in the white desert, we took the bus a few hours southwest to another oasis called Dakhla. apparantly there has only been one day of rain in the last 14 years, one of the many interesting facts our guide "desert fox" told us. we usually never have guides or sign up for tours, one of the many luxuries (or not) you have to opt out on when travelling on a budget. but you cant stay at anwar hotel ( which is where we ended up ) with out desert fox planning a day out for you. and he's practiced. [View Full Entry]

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There are four main oasis's in the Western Desert on route from Cairo (lower egypt) and Luxor (upper egypt) with everything from hotsprings, white sand, black sand deserts, date, fig, and olive trees to ancient mud and brick cities. It sounds much better than it actually was! We took a bus from Cairo five hours south to the Bahariah Oasis. Immediately after getting off the bus, we found ourselves surrounded with touts, hotel owners and staff who come to the bus to get people into their hotels. Most travellers hate these guys with a passion because they're SO pushy. But we [View Full Entry]

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The biggest city and the capitol of modern Egypt was a breath of fresh air when we stepped off the plane after a long trip from Bombay. (But we did enjoy our five hour layover checking out the Kuwait airport.) After bargaining with a few taxi drivers we scored a ride into downtown, where the cheap hotels are concentrated. Our first impressions of Egypt were super good, the landscape and weather here are kind of like Palm Springs in California, warm in the day, dry air, and cold at night. And we noticed it was way cleaner than India, and much [View Full Entry]

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There are two pages, so scroll and hit next. The two names for this city are totally interchangeable, it was originally named mumbai, but the british renamed it bombay. officially they have changed the name back to the original, but none of this is really important, its just funny b/c you go from one name to the next in a sentence. whatever its called it was like a slice of pie getting off the 30 hr train from kolkata (formerly calcutta....you know the story now) to this hybrid city of west meets east, new york meets india. you can obtain all [View Full Entry]

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there are two pages of photos We spent most of our time in calcutta working with the sisters of charity, mother teresa organization. wow, does this lady have a story. pretty much all i knew about her is that the world respected and loved her and she did good things for people. literally. coming here educated me on her lifes passion and work, jesus and the poor. when these two loves collide, amazing things happen. Brief history. she was a catholic nun working in a school as a teacher in 1940's. she would see the devastating lives of the impoverished on [View Full Entry]

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