A few clips taken with the digital camera. 1. How to safely mount a camel. Erin getting up on the beast. 2. Call to prayer. If you have never heard it, it is somewhat haunting. It can ne heard 5 times a day from wherever you are. This was taken from our hotel balcony in Selcuk, Turkey 3. Erin makes a friend. Petting a lamb in Samandag, Turkey. [View Full Entry]

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The now familiar bus trip to Antalya from Iskederun was 14 hours long. Along the way, I contacted a hotel that was located within Antalya's old walled city, based on a recommendation from our Lonely Planet guide book. The owner of the Frankfurt Hotel spoke very good English and even agreed to let us check in upon our arrival in Antalya. The bus finally pulled into the Otogar at 8:30. As we got off to collect our luggage, the sun was shining brightly and stung our eyes, the way it does when you've been at work all night and are heading [View Full Entry]

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We left Palmyra as scheduled and headed for the village of Al Husn, about 225 km from Palmyra in the western part of the country. The village itself has nothing much to offer but is dominated by the Krak des Chevalier, likely the world's largest and most intact Crusader Fortress. It was built in the 12th century and has had a succession of tenants who added onto it; however it was only ever captured once. During the drive we got to know our new friends Laurent and Anne a bit better. By consulting both our travel guides, and having taken advice [View Full Entry]

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After picking up our Mazda 3 at the Europcar rental office, we navigated out of Aleppo with the help of Michel, a distant relative of mine. He had kindly volunteered to help us find our way to the highway at which point he also agreed to have us dump him at the bus stop to find his way back. This gesture combined with the fact it was Friday morning (Fridays are like Sundays in Muslim countries) made our departure a breeze. As we drove south past Hama and Homs, we were struck by the amount of garbage that was along the [View Full Entry]

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We caught a 5 PM bus from Antalya to Iskenderun, a Turkish city near the Syrian border. The bus ride was 12 hours long and winded its way through mountain roads now familiar to us (see "The longest Mile"). This time we had a better chance to see the precipice that the road teetered upon from the comfort of a luxury coach bus. Turkish buses have a cabin crew, 2 drivers and a steward who serves drinks and snacks. As night fell, the full moon reflected off the Mediterranean ocean in a shimmer of light, adding to the abyss effect we [View Full Entry]

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On Friday we left Selcuk and headed to the coastal resort town of Bodrum. On the way there the chain on my bike popped off again. I managed to get it back on the sprocket only to have it come off again 40 km later, it was quite obvious that the chain lacked the proper tension and needed adjusting. While pulled over at a fuel station contemplating our next move, Kemal approached us and asked if we needed help. As it turns out, Kemal owns "Shoe Zone" in Didim (about 15 minutes away) and has a buddy who has a motorcycle [View Full Entry]

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We woke up quite early on Tuesday in order to make our 7:00 ferry from Istanbul to Bandirma. Ali met us outside the police house at 5:45 in order to escort us to the dock. We got onto the ship and settled in for the 2 hour sailing across the Sea of Marmara. We had set Canakkale as our destination for the evening. Canakkale is only a few km from the ancient city of Troy and was the setting for a movie bearing the same name. In fact the horse built for that movie is displayed in the town centre. We [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Ankara we had a spectacular day of riding through the mountains on our way to Istanbul. The air was cool and the scenery spectacular. We ran into a couple on a tandem bicycle who were from Argentina and were travelling around the world. They were also headed to Istanbul and had just come from Syria. We decided to go as far as Izmit, a city about 100 km from Istanbul. When we arrived, we were in no mood to search for the hotel, so when we passed a police station with the usual machine gun toting cop guarding the [View Full Entry]

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We left Osmaniye after exchanging gifts with our hosts there. I had almost enough gear to put together a full Turkish police uniform. The ride to Cappadoccia was much less strenuous than the previous day's one. The secondary highway we rode on took us through plains from which we could see some stunning snow capped mountain ranges and through a succession of villages that still looked like they would have 80-100 years ago, except for the cars. In one of these villages, a farmer was leading 3 cows across the town centre and had to take evasive action with the herd [View Full Entry]

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We left Goreme at about 9:00 for our first day of solo riding with the Turkish capital of Ankara as our destination. The ride itself was pretty unremarkable, a few stretches of scenery, but mostly farmland. We crossed a few patches of rain about half way through, but it did not last more than 10 minutes in total. At one point, being low on fuel, we ventured into a village in search of a service station. At one quasi deserted intersection, I asked the only man in sight if he knew where we could find fuel. I accomplished by pointing at [View Full Entry]

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