http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/mattylee/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from mattylee en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:16:29 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:16:29 +0000 Preemptive SaffaIt was ten orsquoclock in the evening I was at home Irsquod had a beer or two. I was just watching an old TV show with a friend when the phone rang and I picked up to a very upfront South African man.After a few brief pleasantries he got straight to the business of my security briefing and proceeded to inform me of the myriad ways in which I was likely to get blackmailed http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Nigeria/Niger-Delta/blog-451489.html PrologueThe international airport outside of Abu Dhabi is in itself the perfect metaphor for that city. When I first arrived and my travel weary self emerged into that sparkling edifice a shimmering technicolour place that somehow resembles both a flowering lotus and a Turkish bath I remember thinking that I would need to dedicate some serious time to explore the building upon my departure. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/United-Arab-Emirates/Abu-Dhabi/blog-445384.html Where Am I NowAll good things must come to an end or so Irsquove heard. Personally I think this is bunk as good things just meld into less good things when yoursquore too lazy to do anything about it. Itrsquos all about making the best of where you are and what yoursquore doing and when it comes down to it knowing when to say ldquohey stop it Irsquom changing things uprdquo. T http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Seattle/blog-426817.html A Pleasant Way to Wake Up at 5amI woke up feeling the only way you can after an overnight bus ride with a crick in my back and a faint confusion over exactly how few hours I managed to sleep. Then I looked out of the window. A faint yellow light was just taking hold and everything still had that quiet and peaceful look that can only happen between the rise of the sun and the rise of all the peop http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-412077.html Sweeping Across Eastern EuropeI really do hate rushing through places but unfortunately that is what I had to do after leaving Budapest. My last day in Hungary was pretty much a blur I took a train out to a small town in the countryside that is supposed to remain true to the traditional Hungarian way of life and to my delight it did actually seem very authentic apart from the plethora of naff http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/East/Varna/blog-409276.html Bedless in BratislavaA lot of things in life require very careful planning without it you can often end up stuck out in the cold so to speak. Some people take this issue very seriously these are the people who wonrsquot leave home without a retinue of translators guides organizers and packmules all prepared to follow a predefined itinerary between prebooked hotels and preplanned activ http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/blog-374347.html Schnitzels and MuseumsI got off the train in the early hours of the morning well early for me. After leaving Valence it had been one long and boring train after another as I passed across France Germany and finally down into Switzerland the only highlight of which was the half hour I spent wandering the quiet streets in front of the Strasbourg train station. Strasbourg is probably a beautiful http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/Vienna-State/Vienna/blog-361690.html The Fastest Way to Cross the CountrysideI sat in my seat filled with excitement of the extremely overwhelming kind as they pulled in and out. I had heard of these majestic machines these gigantic contraptions that move as quietly as a mouse or to remove all hyperbole as quietly as tiptoeing elephants and drift as though they are flying over the land at speeds significantly faster than I hav http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Valence/blog-328411.html My First Three Experiences of France Perhaps it is fitting that my first three experiences of Paris all begin with the same letter or perhaps it just sounds more romantic if I say it that way. After all Paris is the city of romance. There have been all too many books movies anecdotes and sappy poems telling of the lure the charm or even the lust that this city creates in people particularly http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-309242.html The Worldrsquos Most Dependable Alarm ClockIsnrsquot it great to sleep in on the weekend To relax and loll around sleepily while you make up for all the early starts between Monday and Friday is something that we all like to do every now and then and when you are indulging yourself in a few extra winks the absolute last thing that you want to happen is for that pesky alarm clock to go off.Fo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-267372.html Busses and Weather Patterns The Weather God Phenomenon ExposedI may not be particularly striking I may not be inordinately tall I may not have superpowers or omnipresence but I am a weather god. I say this in all seriousness and I can prove it. Unfortunately I don't actually have the ability to control the weather it just sort of happens automatically and it's somehow linked with buses in Sc http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/blog-266389.html There is More to This Country. . .Where I come from it takes a good hour and a half driving in excess of the speed limit before you even come to the next piddling little village down the road and to get to the next ldquobigrdquo place takes another hour or so. Australia is the kind of place where you can drive for several hours on end and only find two places that are signposted enough to be http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-266359.html Welcome Home My Dear Convict SonIt felt as though Irsquod just spent nine hours in time machine when I emerged from the plane. I was pretty sure that I arrived in London significantly before leaving New York and as I was still operating on Tacoma time my internal clock was telling me that the sun really ought not to be up at midnight. I hadnrsquot slept on the plane of course who can fall as http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-266331.html Welcome to New YorkThey say that you canrsquot visit the USA without seeing New York and despite the fact that you very well could do such a thing it not being physically impossible or anything like that and also forgetting that a lot of US citizens never leave their home town anyway let alone visit New York I guess they never exactly ldquovisitrdquo the country though so they can be excu http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/blog-265938.html In the Words of Prince Humperdink Skip to the EndI apologise in advance for this journal is nothing of the sort. Consider it more along the lines of me trying to get some thoughts out of my head and onto paper albeit the electronic kind. For those of you who are actually interested in what I did while in the USA I have included a short description towards the end along with some decent photos. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/blog-255239.html Once Upon A TimeIn the year 1607 a fourteen year old girl named Arjumand Banu Begum became betrothed to Prince Khurrum third son of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. This alone would be a truly unremarkable story but thankfully there is a little more to tell. This is the story of how one man ruined it for the rest of us by setting the bar far too high.The princess became the third and most beloved wif http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-247741.html Wherersquos The Bloody ZooWhile I was on the train heading across the Indian continent Piscine Molitor Patel was telling me a thousand wonderful facts about the Pondicherry Zoo. Stories of exotic animals living happily in their synthetic enclosures while the young Indian boy ran amok around the area trying to collect as many religions as he possibly could were rolling around my mind as Paul an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Pondicherry/blog-247335.html The Long Drive to IsraelRight after the fourthousandth bikini clad goddess obliviously walked past us that day Paul and I decided that the time had come to leave the sunny shores of Goa. Somehow an entire week had disappeared on Palolem beach I dare not guess the reason in which we had seen very little done very few things been almost no places and had learnt absolutely nothing. Sure wersq http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/blog-234270.html Christmas Day in AurangabadSome people may have been wondering on Christmas Day whether there was a more perfect place to be celebrating Big Jrsquos BDay than where they were. Perhaps there was somewhere out there more fitting more appropriate and more enjoyable than their particular gathering. You see some of us are not lucky enough to be able to enjoy the comforts of home and family at Chr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Aurangabad/blog-234268.html Yoursquore Either a China Person or an India Person. . . SupposedlyIndia. . . that far off place that for one reason or another is stuck in the western mind as ldquoexoticrdquo ldquooverwhelmingrdquo ldquomagicalrdquo or even ldquoscaryrdquo. When talking to travelers young or old the word India is always countered with two types of story. The first ones are horror stories o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-234267.html