Blogs from Middle East - page 1219

I finally have pictures. I decided to splurge on the hotel last night, paying $6 rather than $4 for a room with private shower and cable tv. There was a really loud noise emanating from a water pump which threatened to cause hearing problems, but the manager assured me it would be over before 7pm, so I head out to explore. I got back around 1am and the noise was still going on. I asked the guys at the reception to turn it off and they were like "oh, sure, yeah we'll do it right away", so I go back to my room... 10 minutes pass, nothing. Back downstairs to the reception: "what's up?" "oh, right", and someone gets up and goes to the electrical shed, so I figure maybe they were just dragging their heels ... read more

Aleppo, Syria. This is my 6th day in Syria. Spent the first couple days in the desert town of Deir Ez-Zur, in the eastern side of the country, with the Euphrates river running through the middle of town. I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly people are and how cheap everything is (comparing prices with Turkey, that is). People seeing me walking down the street would make me stop and drink tea with them, communicating with sign language and the few words of english they may know. Actually, the people on the street here seem to speak more english than their Turkish counterparts. The hotel I was staying in cost a whopping $4 for a single room (compare to the $10 I was paying in Turkey), had a really friendly manager, but no heating, which really ... read more

Greetings to my loyal following. The past few weeks have found me extremely lazy and/or too busy to sit down and blog. Now that I finally find time to do so I don't have any pictures with me (left them all in Istanbul), so this will be a boring blog without pictures (which means Beybora won't be reading it). Since I last blogged I have: Been to Cappadocia Cappadocia was awesome: Goreme, with deserted valleys full of phallic towers with houses and churches carved into them, trudging through knee-deep snow all day long, occassionally taking refuge in a cave (which, I may add, are surprisingly warm). Ihlara Valley, in striking contrast to the plain and barren surroundnig countryside, the walls of which are full of deserted monasteries with vandalized awe-inspiring frescoes and paintings. Those monks really ... read more

My first experience abroad has been so far undoubtedly, a success. So far, so good :) I get to teach in a highly respectable private school in Eskisehir, improve my teaching skills, make loads of friends and travel now and then to different parts of Turkey. What better treatment could I expect from life? :) I love smoking nargile, the one with apple flavour is my favourite, love playing backgammon, so popular here, though I still need to improve and so far am a rubbish player :((. This is a short entry, just posting some pictures. Enjoy!... read more

Arriving in the small town of Ilhara, we were dismayed to find that all but ones of the pensions were closed as the season had officially ended. Of course, the one that was open would have to be 1 kilometre back up the steep hill that the bus had just brought us down. We lugged the bags back up the hill until some boys on their way home from school came and took Lindas' from her for the steepest section. They seemed happy with the 10p each that I bestowed upon them. People come to Ilhara to see the Ilhara valley, which is fundamentally misnamed as it's not a valley at all. It is much more of a gorge, canyon or ravine consisting of a fissure in the earth 15 kilometres in length between the towns ... read more