Blogs from Middle East - page 865

Our flight from Cairo to Istanbul was easy and we enjoyed Egypt Air except that I think it was the most turbulent we have ever encountered! The airport in Istanbul was mobbed with incoming visitors but was fairly efficient. It already felt like a different world! Getting from the airport into the tourist part of the city proved easy also using the super efficient tram system there. I have to say, everywhere we have been in Asia (Bali excluded because most natives there don't travel around the Island), the Middle East, and Eastern Europe has really great public tranportation which most people use extensively. In most of these places they just don't have the kind of traffic congestion we are so accustomed to where we come from (USA - East and West coasts). We were really ... read more

Day 42 We left Crete on Thursday morning by ferry back to Piraeus. *forgiveme...there aremanychallengesonthiskeyboard...likethe spacebardoesn\tworkandthingsarenotasthey arelabelledorusuallyare !as youcan see(. That took 7 hours.Then a fivehour wait forthe midnight ferry to Samos.wehad a cabin//pretty basic but managed to sleepabout8 hours The triplasterd14hours\the last four ofwiich we couldseeTurkeythrough the heat haze.Then another 2 hours toKadasiamdhalfan hour by mini bus away fromtheEurotouristcentre tothislovely regionalmarkettownnear the ancientsite ofEpesus.Sorry. this is deplorable and Ican\t fixit eventhough Itry.try again tomorrow.ephesuswasfantastic.... read more

So then we got on the gulet, which is apparently the name of the type of boat in the picture. It has two masts, but nowadays it is pretty much exclusively sailed under diesel power. We slept on the gulet for three nights. On the first night we slept on the highest deck and had a really good view of the Milky Way. The next night the captain said we'd be going over open sea from 5 to 9 in the morning, and it would be reasonably calm. Luckily we intuited that the crew's idea of reasonably calm and ours might differ, and we chose to sleep on one of the lowest open deck (its way to hot to sleep in the actual cabins). Reasonably calm did in fact involve a great deal of pitching, but ... read more

As Orit (my girlfriend) isn't a cyclist, this isn't a bike trip. However, of course I do my best to keep on good shape also along this hike-and-bus tour - which leads sometimes to rediculous situations. When we climbed to beautiful Sumela Monestary, near Trabzon, I TAFARTI - ıe ran up and down in front of Orit (who walked in a regular pace). The other tourists (most of them intern, Turkeysh, tourists, BTW), where very ammused, and asked me wether I'm a sportman. 'Merely as a hobby', I answered. On the day after we hiked to a Tea Garden, on a steep hill in Rize - and I TAFARTI again. Well, now, as it was within a town, all the locals where watching at me amazed from the balconies. Orit claimed that I run just like ... read more

Hey there! Well we arrived in Bangkok safe and sound after a 16 hour flight , we did stop at Bahrain for about 4 hours first which was surreal at 5am in the morning, there was a singing reindeer head in the airport belting out classic Elvis Presley songs! It was even more weird when the eyes and antlers started moving as well, I was staring at it for ages thinking god I’m truly jet lagged! When we eventually boarded the plane I slipped into a mini coma as soon as my bum hit the seat, I awoke when I drooled on my arm, classy I know lol! Craig then informed me that shortly after take off a fight had erupted between 4 passengers! Apparently it was really heated and they were throwing fists at each ... read more