I've made it to Kathmandu - the flight yesterday was good - it was funny at Sing airport when I got to the departure gate as pretty much everyone was wearing trekking pants, boots and had a fancy North Face day pack on their back!! I sat next to a nice older couple from Sydney who are going trekking the Annapurna circuit.I got a window seat on the right side of the plane to see the mountains but unfortunately it was bit cloudy and we could only see a few snow covered peaks, but not clear enough to identify them or take photos - but I'm sure I'll get more than enough Himalayan views in the next month. Had a minor drama at the airport as my trekking company said they'd pick me up but nobody ... read more

We had an extremely brief stopover in Fiji...spending a grand total of 24 hours there!! The flight from LA to Fiji was memorable due to an extremely loud and annoying American guy sitting behind us who took a valium tablet and then proceded to down several beers to wash it down. He was sitting on the window seat but found the need to climb out every half hour or so to go get another beer (or in some cases 3) or go to the toilet, shaking our seats violently in the process and making heaps of noise. Then he just about passed out and was making really loud weird noises while everyone was trying to sleep. Anyway, we made it to Fiji and was picked up and taken to our Hotel which was right on the ... read more

Our flight arrived into Amsterdam 5 hours before our Dutch friends', JW and Tefke, who had joined us in Istanbul, so we headed into the city for a few hours. Joy visited the Anne Frank house, seeing where her family hid from the Nazi's during WW2. Meanwhile, Scott wandered around the canals trying a local beer or two. We spent a further few hours just meandering round the old part of Amsterdam - dodging hundreds of cyclists - and viewing the "nightlife". As we were in Holland, we had to sample the local cuisine (fries with mayonnaise!) before catching the train back to the airport. Met up with JW and Tefke and drove to their house, about an hour out of Amsterdam. After a dutch breakfast of poffertjes (little dutch pancakes...yum!!), had a great time being ... read more

Left Jordan and entered into GW Bush's "axis of evil", but apart from thousands of Hezbollah posters haven't seen much sign of evil!! After travelling the road to Damascas...thankfully not becoming blind in the process, we spent the afternoon exploring the maze of laneways in the old city. Damascas is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world and has some facinating places to see. We visited the mosque which is one of the top 5 most important to Muslims. Then we went to wander around the old palace, very modest but still cool. Wandered around the Christian quarter and it was interesting to see the change. All the women were wearing western clothes and it wasn't really crazy like the rest of the city. Plus there was the occassional bottle-o. Caught a cab ... read more

Joined our Kumuka tour group, boarded the 'truck' and left chaotic Cairo. Some interesting aspects of the drive to Mt Sinai include: * Smashed up tour bus and van - head on collision - not surprising as they drive like absolute maniacs (refer below). * Drove under the Suez Canal and saw ships floating through the desert (see piccie). * Stopped for a toilet break. Toilet was a mound of dirt beside the highway - for the girls as well! * Had a local bus overtake us with an oncoming van only 100 metres away (which had to swerve off the road to avoid the above happening again), only to stop about 1 minute down the road at a bus stop to let a guy off. Crazy. * Nearly had enough road kill for a mixed ... read more

Arrived in Aswan after an interesting trip on the train. Apparently it was first class but the seats weren't even bolted down properly. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel and after about 4 hrs of sleep, we were up at 3.00am to board the bus to Abu Simbel. All the buses leave at the same time and escorted by police. Our tour leader said it was for organisational reasons but our tour guide said it was because terrorists operate in southern Egypt. The bus did the 300km trip in about 2hrs 40mins. Lets just say they were going quite fast and it made us reach for our seatbelts! Anyway, we made it there and back safely. Abu Simbel is two massive temples which the Egyptians moved 55 metres up and 210m back before they flooded the ... read more