Blogs from Middle East - page 1005

Hello friends, family and other people with spare time. As shown by those of you who track dates, it has been quite a while since I have made a blog entry. My sincere apologies. Unfortunatly I have lost my camera right before setting out on my trip. While I am in process of buying another, I have been able to take some shots of some trips. So I hope these will start to give an idea of what life is like here. As I begin to think of how to describe this area, I am baffled as to of where to start. This being my first time over seas, where should I start? The food, ahh yes, and the drinks. The food is quite good! What is great about Dubai is that it is a very ... read more

A rolling landscape of golden hillsides, rocky ridges and tall, green cypresses was flying past my window in streaks of sheer beauty. It was another lovely day, but I couldn’t really remember the last time it hadn’t been. My bus was filled with several interesting people, all of us bound for the ruined city of Aphrodisias, about an hour from Pamukkale. When we boarded the bus that morning our driver had informed us that there was not going to be a guide and that our ‘tour’ only included transportation to and from Aphrodisias - Not being overly fond of tours, I was very happy about that. We had been on the road for nearly an hour when, across a lovely green valley, I spotted an ancient wall of huge stone blocks. Behind the wall I could ... read more

Hi all, sorry for the long gap, but life here is a lot more fun and have certainly had a lot more work to do... but in a good way. I'm still working on the 08 budget for the Al Bustan, something which I would not even have layed eyes on in The Palace. The trust factor here is fantastic. Had a couple of mates over the other week from South Molle. Pierre & Caroline were on their way home with a stop over in Dubai so we had a great 2 days frantically roaming around Dubai & AD. A huge fan of The Burj Al Arab hotel, just another level up again from the Palace but in a different, modern way. Stunning none the less. Keep in touch all, see ya. Scott... read more

Slowly the bus rattled its way to the north. The rough dirt road from Fethiye, on the Mediterranean coast, penetrated the rugged countryside of Turkey’s ‘Inner Aegean’ region. The ribbon-like road hung precariously on the edge of sparsely forested mountainsides, which afforded sweeping views of the surrounding terrain. From time to time we descended into lush, green valleys where we found tiny hamlets, seemingly forgotten in the sands of time. We stopped in one of those tiny towns and took a long break in the shade beneath an ancient tree at the makeshift otogar. I sat and ate a snack that I had purchased from one of the street vendors as I watched the day to day life of rural Turkey unfold before my eyes. With the exception of the old bus I had arrived on ... read more

Welcome back blog readers, I've just got back from a short fishing trip on Lake Eğıdır... It was hıghly unsuccessful, but lots of fun none the less! The lads and I are currently based ın Eğıdır ın the Turkısh lake dıstrıct. We're stayıng ın a great lıttle Pensıon wıth a rooftop balcony bar and 500 ml beers for 2.50 YTL (1 YTL: $1 NZD). The vıew ıs spectacular! Prıor to Eğıdır we were ın Selçhuk (5 hours bus rıde away) where we took ın the ruıns at Ephesus. Ephesus are apparently the best preserved ruıns from the Roman era, and were awesome to look at. Whıle we were ın Selçhuk we stayed at the Kıwı Pensıon, whıch was very hospıtable especıally because they had a pool (many hours were spent coolıng off ın the pool). They ... read more