Blogs from Middle East - page 999

Awake early we packed up everything rapidly as someone felt a drop of rain. There were no more, but it meant that we found the twee village of Safronbolu much earlier than we had planned. Very touristy with half wooden framed buildings and cobbled streets. Hardly any other visitors at this time of year. We had a coffee before leaving and retracing our route south for 30 or so miles before bearing eastwards. We followed deserted minor roads through beautiful scenery as we turned again southwards for Ankara. The motorway swept around the city which looked like a mass of concrete buildings punctuated by minarets thrusting skywards and of course countless blocks of concrete flats. In Turkey, unlike Romania, they are at least painted colourfully. We did not stop but drove on towards Arksaray and then ... read more

Woo-hoo party central. And I thought that Ramadan was all about being solemn etc. Ah-huh - not the Ramadan we saw. We arrived in Istanbul about 7;30pm. We managed to figure out the public transport and got ourselves to Sultanahmet - the main tourist area - by metro and tram. We hopped off the tram into a mad house! There were people everywhere. The pavements were packed full of people, adults and children, stalls selling food, drinks, jewelery and anything else you can imagine. It was particularly hard to move around with a backpack on and no idea where you were headed. But the feeling in the air was awesome. There was no agro as often accompanies a big event, rather everyone seemed happy to be moving around in the crush and enjoying themselves. We found ... read more

Jordan, ah the hilly, rough, hot, rocky, desolate country which is kind of stuck amongst Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq. Poor old place has plenty to deal with along its borders. Jordan has many goats, deserts and some ruins. I spent the first night in Aqaba, in the Gulf of Aqaba, but got out of there ASAP as it's all a bit too westernised for my liking. The motorway scenery out of there was all a hilly, rough, hot, rocky not to mention desolate road with plenty of trucks heading to Amman from the port. Every third truck or so would honk their horn and give a wave. Nice guys but the sound of honking does wear off. So I was biking to the desert- Wadi Rum and its Bedouin villages and camps. Wadi ... read more

A weekend getaway to Khor Fakkan, which is actually supposed to be a popular tourism spot in UAE, unfortunately tourism here is somewhat held back. The place is surrounded with huge mountains and attractive beaches and the most famous hotel here is the Oceanic, where we stayed. Its a best place to go snorkelling and jet skiing. Although I missed snorkelling but it was fun to watch my sister struggle in shallow water and brilliantly showing off to pose for the camera. It was also my first experience on the jet ski and I took everyone by surprise by riding it myself and controlling the bike well.... read more

Chelle finally made it diving in the UAE. Yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 4:30am she got up and headed off to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel to join a group of divers heading up to the Musandam peninsular in Oman. The trip was rather long. 2 hours in a bus and then another 2 hours on a Dhow. However the Dhow was lovely and Chelle spent her time on a sun lounger on the deck reading a book (one of the 22 that she brought from a charity book sale the day before :) The diving itself wasn't all that flash it has to be said. Poor old Chelle has dived in a few locations around the world and it appears that she has now become a bit of a dive snob. Anything less that ... read more