http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/russ/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from russ en-us Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:44:25 +0000 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:44:25 +0000 A month in Thailand zoomed by without any hickups twas really nice to finally get to spend some quality time with Steph and enjoy some easy travelling. Thailand really is set up well for tourists just wanting to escape for a while and relax eat good cheap food and get a taste for a differant culture. perfect place to start or finish a trip I reckon and if you're considering going it definately http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-206060.html This blog is well over due almost a year actually but I've decided to finish it off anyway to sort of wrap up my travel diary... I've probably got 34 entries left to go before my life got back to normal at the start of this year. Here I pick up where I left off with Steph in Thailand we did a quick trip north from Chang Mai to a little hippie town called Pai to relax and try out our elephant w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Pai/blog-204034.html after all that beach time we thought we better get into a bit of the Thai culture and head up North to see some temples and do some other cool stuff. lucky for us a good friend of mine Joy volunteered her family to host us while we were up in Chang Mai so we were made feel very much at home when we showed up and ended up staying the better part of a week with them which was fantastic. we got to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-111726.html yahooo Steph made it to Thailand a couple of weeks ago so we shot straight down to an Island in the South called Koh Pah Ngan to put our feet up and work on our tans. it was magic. we rented a scooterA.K.A Pete the pusser and hooned around till we found a cute little bungalow on the west side of the island which was right on the beach and had sweet sunset views for us to enjoy everynight from th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-110359.html after the Taj Mahal I did a bit of a whirlwind tour of a few cities in Rajasthan with Bon Stevie and another Geezer called Steve we'd picked up before I had to leave them to it and go and catch my flight outahere. I wouldn't be writing this entry just yet however I've just got back from the airport where I was very sympathetically told at the Bangladesh Air counter that your ticket says yo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/blog-105139.html I woke up the other morning and realised that I'd fallen victim to the legendary Delhi Belly and there was no escaping it I got slammed It was one of the worst days of my life by far that evil sickness violently purging every last drop of energy out of my system until I had nothing left to give. The next day was better though and by the day after that I was flying high again so I went down http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-104178.html There truely are some amazing things to see in this country. after fleeing the mountains I went over to Amritsar which is a city in the Punjab Province near the border with Pakistan. Amazing Sikh templethe famed Golden Temple and wierd flaglowering ceremony at the Wagah border which was the most effort and commotion I'd ever seen over a couple of flags being pulled down in my life but it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/Amritsar/blog-104163.html When I missed my flight to India the other day I quickly set my self a goal that was to not miss any more flights before the end of this trip. and then when I missed my second flight to India the very next day I realised that maybe I shouldn't be setting myself such high and unrealistic goals while on Holiday so have chilled out somewhat and am proud to say say that 3rd time lucky I finally m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/New-Delhi/blog-102085.html a few days in Cairo isn't really enough but in saying that 10days to try and cover Egypt and your having a laugh. this country deserves atleast a month it's cheap but still come with plenty of coin so you can do everything. And don't come during Rammadan if you like eating because it's pretty much impossible to get a meal here during the day. the guys are very intense so I wouldn't reccomend http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-101847.html by far the clearest water I have ever snorkled in and the coral and fish were amazing too Dahab is a little Diving town on the coast of the Sinai region up in the north of Egypt perfectly set up for relaxing and exploring the magical underwater world of the Red Sea. We stayed for a few days and just read books snorkled and treated ourselves to the cheap quality food you find in all the restau http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Sinai/Dahab/blog-98110.html I dont understand how Jordan can be so poor and yet have one of the strongest currencies in the world. the Jordinian Dinar is almost worth as much as the British pound and they loooove getting you to hand over more of them than you need to. there's no real structure to the public transport so getting around is quite a mission. for example there might be a bus going from A to B but it doesn't http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/blog-97908.html Jerusalem is a very spiritual place where religions from all around the world meet and share a common interest in the holy land. you sense a wierd tension in the air and some people even fall into what they call Jerusalem Syndrome where they get overwelmed by the spritualness of the place and find their whole life adopts a new direction inline with their calling from God. I loved it. not only http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/Jerusalem-District/Jerusalem/blog-96944.html wow Israel is something else. I don't think I've ever been to a place where everywhere you go has got so much history and the people are so well schooled about it. I'm glad the war with Lebanon has come to an end and life is back to normal for most because I've met some amazing people and been showed around places that a month ago I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do. The people here are rea http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/blog-95112.html now this is a special place a volcanic region sort of in the middle of Turkey and land has been sculptured over the years by layers of fallen volcanic ash and rock and valleys where the waters have eroded it. truely an amazing place and I think my favorite part of Turkey that I got to see. I also met some really cool people there which made it even better so I went out on a high note for sure http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-93868.html heading further down the West coast I got to a place called Selcuk which has some old Roman ruins near by in EfesEphesus. they were great and I haven't been to Rome yet so it was nice to get a taste for Roman Architecture. then I cut across through the centre of the country to a place called Pamukkale which was fantastic they have something in the ground that causes a white sulphur deposit to http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-93352.html Turkey is the first Muslim country that I've been to and so far I like it. I think they've still got a bit of work to do before they'll be a part of the EU but there are a lot of cool things to do and see here for sure. 2weeks wasn't nearly enough time for a decent look around but I saw quite a lot and got out of there with out buying a carpet so I did allright. I started off with a few days in http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-93253.html A couple of days in LA with Dawson then an extended weekend in London with the old crew and I'm on my way to Turkey got up to some good ol boys fun in L.A. with a big day at Magic Mountain theme park followed by a night on the GoKarts... Cheers for all the hook ups Paul Timmy and Jime dropped me off at LAX and next stop was smokers reunion in London hooohoooooooo massive night with Paul http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/blog-90212.html So I got to catch up w305th Paul Dawson T305m Patersk305n and J305mena my old roomate from Argent305na wh305ch was fantas305t305c. Paul put us up 305n h305s hotel 305n the valley LA then we rented a car and shot off down to Mex305co for a b305t of a road tr305p wh305ch 305s always good t305mes. got to meet Pauly's new g305rly Amber too wh http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/blog-88974.html Brasil ten points the people are fantastic. Really funny and good fun and totally helpfull too. I found it hard to understand their colourful Portugese but scraped through with my Spanish and the various international hand signals that have never let me down. and aside from the wonderfull people the country is beautiful food is greatvery important and there is a great atmosphere most place http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/blog-87665.html well I left Argentina with a bang I tagged along with Joaquin and his Football team up to Santa Fe for the weekend where they had a couple of games lined up for Sunday against other social teams they'd met on the internet... what a riot we all crashed at Joaco's parents Quintafarmy sort of holiday home and pretty much drank non stop from as soon as we got there untill it was time to get up an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Santa-Fe/blog-85818.html