So I am home. After what some may consider a long trip, and others a short one. I counted 30 passes through immigration in 12 countries on 4 continents. I had a fantastic time, but I am a bit tired of traveling (for now). I sort of got to the point where everything started blending together. I found that my incremental enjoyment for each new place was becoming quite low, and that I really wanted to have a bit more stability in my life. Once I came to this realization, I booked a ticket back to the states. Oddly enough - [View Full Entry]

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I got back into Thailand, and met up with Nat. We immediately ventured forth to the Cambodia border. The magic casino bus Getting to Siam Reap turned out to be quite the adventure. First off, Nat wanted to take the "Casino Bus". Gambling is quite illegal in Thailand. Fortunately for the hard core, Cambodia (the SE Asian equivalent of the Wild West) is only a few short hours away. The big casinos run a shuttle bus from several locations in Bangkok to the border for practiaclly nothing. The only trick is that these buses are pseudo illegal. I think. In any [View Full Entry]

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Just passing through, really. I had a brief stop-over in Dhoa on my way to Bangkok. To be honest, this entry is mostly just to give me "credit" for another country. Qatar airways is apparently one of the few "5-star" airlines in the world. Whatever that means... I had a decent time with them. I got a cheap flight from Istanbul, which for some reason included a hotel stay in Doha. Our flight was randomly delayed for an hour in Istanbul, but I didn't care because my connecting flight to BKK wasn't until the next day. I was supposed to stay [View Full Entry]

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So this entry is sort of a grab-bag of stories from the last two weeks. It turns out that internet access in Europe isn't quite as cheap as in other places of the world. I am currently sitting in a cafe, using Pugner's laptop with a wireless connection. Technology is nice sometimes. Doctor Dinner in Istanbul So how do you freel about the whole pharamacutical industry bribing doctors with gifts and expensive dinners and what not, in hopes of the doctors perscribing more of their drugs? Pretty sleezy, eh? Totally opposed? Me too. Until. Always an until. The world is never [View Full Entry]

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Still in progress - place holder for pictures [View Full Entry]

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First off, a bit of history. Cyprus was a Brittish colony up through the mid sixties, when it became independent. Of course, the island has loads of history, but modern day Cyprus is basically ethnically split between the Greeks and the Turks, with the turks mostly in the North of the island, and the Greeks mostly in the South. I don't know all of the details, but apparently in 1974 the Greeks did something that the Turks didn't like so much. The Turkish government sent in the troops, and basically took over half the island. The troops are still there today. [View Full Entry]

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Pugner and I carefully weighed each word of the first travel agent who tried to set us up with a package tour. We cross checked all of the prices. We were dilligent. Then we checked our email, got tired, and bought the first package that the internet cafe guy (who possibly wasn't even a travel agent) mentioned to us. Without checking anything. We ended up with a cheap flight to the Capadocia region, which is famous for wacky geological formations and underground cities. The area has been inhabited for a long time by people wishing to basically be left alone. People [View Full Entry]

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So I met up with the (in)famous Erik Pugner in a dorm room of a hostel in Istanbul. After having not seen each other for almost a year, his greeting was a simple "hey", followed by a "hey" in response. That's what I love about guy friends - no matter how long you are appart, you can just instantaneously resume. I loved Istanbul from the get-go. It is a beautiful city, with water everywhere. It is big. Very big, but it doesn't feel like the teeming capital cities that I have visited in the past. Not mentioning cities by name or [View Full Entry]

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I finally got myself out of Thailand... It was really hard to leave that place. I changed my flight. Twice. The last time, was really interesting - I got all the way to the check-in counter, and changed my mind. I am not getting on that plane. I declared to no one in particular... Anyway, because I changed my flight so many times, I only ended up with two days in Egypt. I definitely did not spend nearly enough time there. My first day there was exhausting. I took a red-eye flight from Bangkok to arrive at 5:30 AM local time. [View Full Entry]

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First off - sorry to the readers. This journal entry has taken me a long time to start. I also realize that many ofthe pictures will not really mesh with the words. The pictures will present a mostly rosy world, while the words will reflect how I actually felt. This entry is growing quite large. I'd suggest taking it in small chunks. Phuket with the gals After an "easy" journey, I arrived in Phuket from Koh Phi Phi. In this case, "easy" menas an 8 hour over-night ferry ride, followed by a 3 hour wait at some random travel agency, followed [View Full Entry]

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