We left Yazd at 7am. Hassan has been telling me a bit about his life , he was born in India to Iranian parents and lived there until he came to Iran for his sisters wedding in 1979, he then got caught up in the revolution and was not allowed to return to India. A call up to the army followed and action in the Iran-Iraq war and a run in with a landmine. He then returned to the airforce after convalesence and finally was free to return to India in 1988. He married here and his wife wont go to India so he visits every year or two. I saw a dead wolf on the side of the road, its the first one I have seen outside of the zoo, Iran also has Asiatic Cheetahs. ... read more

Monday morning was madness but thanks to Ruthy was finally in the money and making an insane dash to the Oman's Seeb International Airport, its amazing what a cabbie will do for an extra $5. I am honestly amazed at the lack of compassion for my difficult circumstances from fellow westerner traveller and was disappointed at the middle aged Australian couple who went on and on about how there son got stuck in the Sudan for two weeks without money but offered me no help. Yet dozens of Arabs and Indians have shown the type of kindness that is unknown in western countries, Jill you hit the nail dead on the head, Australia aint what it used to be in regard to helping others. By 12.30 I was in Dubai and catching a cab back to ... read more

Had a great day today the guy in the Internet Cafe had my photo software on his machine and he has burned me copy of all my photo's which I will airmail home in the next week. It is bloody hot here today and the place I plan to visit tommorrow registered 43 degrees. So I aint looking forward to the trip down there. I went to the souk which was easily the best yet, I found heaps of presents for Ruthy, I was so excited about the perfume bottles I rang her and in 16 minutes we were on the phone decided to go to New Zealand early next year so I am happy with that. Anyway getting back to the souk there was an excellent range of quality goods although they are more expensive ... read more

About 99% of the cars on Sana a's roads would be sitting in a wrecking yard at Wingfield, I can not believe the heap I was in made it to the airport, again it was a scary half hour. Flew to Dubai and sat in the Irish Village bar for three hours talking to an English bloke who told me about the local Chinese prostitutes, he was a nice enough bloke, who had just spent about 5 weeks in Oz and was on the way home, he shouted me a Guinness which was might pleasing considering they were going for $12 a pop. My first impressions of Doha was the heat (40 degrees) quickly followed by all the buildings going up, it looks like a pretty nice town, but more on that later. I found the ... read more

Left for the airport monday morning the flight was meant to leave at 8am ofcourse it didnt but the 5 hour delay was not so bad because I met Japanese lad named Taka who I have been travelling with since. The service on the plane consisted of a mint and two glasses of water (flash back to Kyrgiz Air in 2004), so I didnt end up eating for 11 hours, strangely the plane flew over Sayun went all the way to a place called Al Gayda near the Omani border (see map below) dropped half the people off then picked up more and then flew to Sayun (Sayoon). Ended up being a long annoying flight, however as soon as the plane decended over Wadi Hadramawt the incredible scenery blew away any annoyance in second. The wadi ... read more