Ok, so it been more than a little while since we chatted, what can I say?….sorry. I’d finished hanging out in the land of Tito and headed back up to Berlin to run my favorite Europe trip, Berlin – Venice. Great great trip, only too fast as always. How can you see everything in 7 amazing locations (6 countries) in 15days? Madness. I had a nice crew..nick-named the “the knitting club” as honestly 4 of them were older ladies and the one young guy thought when he walked into our first group meeting that it couldn’t be an intrepid group, it must be a knitting club. In any event the trip went well for everyone except one of the older ladies who was caught out by how physical holidaying in Europe is. Its strange but it can be really exhausting, harder than travelling in Indochina. there’s no nice minivan waiting out the front of the hotels to drive you to the next location, its all by public transport and she found the pace too hectic. I felt really awful for her, but it’s the nature of Intrepid travel. We all managed to have a good time and strangely there were no new knitted jumpers at the end of it.

My last trip in Europe for this season was down through the Baltics again, not my most favorite trip but im getting really familiar with it and I had an ok crew. We had an amazing last night on the trip that involved hitting the underground music dance/rave scene in Berlin. I’m seriously in love with this city. There we are in some dark hidden club dancing to depeche mode on 2 separate dance floors, all the other people are dressed same, which involved black everything with big boots, lots of leather and copious amounts of buckles…it was hilarious. I of cause was wearing a bright orange T-Shirt and I blended straight in.

After finishing in Europe I spent a week hanging out in the comfy and cheap hotel on the outskirts of Berlin, again I had a great week, it really forced me to try my extremely limited German on the poor unsuspecting locals in the village I was in, I had a great time.

Then…..Cairo!
I’ve got a couple of days off before starting my 1st trip, touching down in Cairo was a blast, I had flash backs to the 1st time I was here, 15years ago, my 1st adult foray out of Kiwidom, boy did I ever go through some severe culture shock. Now it reminds me of Bangkok. The noise, the heat, the driving, the craziness etc. I had to laugh when my taxi driver asked where my hotel was, I said I didn’t know but it was near the Sheraton, he replied ‘oh, your hotel and the Sheraton same, same?” Now, this was a language I can understand. The phrase Same, Same (but different) is the ultimate catch phrase throughout SE Asia, it felt like coming home 

From here im going to combine the telling of the 2 trips I lead through this region into 1 or we’ll be here until Christmas (yeah, yeah I know that ain’t that far away either)

The Middle East was sensational, I have learnt so much it make my head hurt, damn im conversant on the lives of Moses, Mohammed and Jesus. I know the difference between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and I know how many Crusades there were (at a push I could even give you dates and which countries led them).

I didn’t go and see the pyramids (saw them 15 years ago, and its crazy, busy, too touristy and ultimately I pain in the butt to visit), but I did revisit the Cairo Museum for the 3rd time. It’s amazing there is so much stuff just kinda lying around. You end up walking past all these objects without a 2nd glance that you know in any other museum they would be the centre piece. King Tutankhamum’s exhibit is outstanding, the jewelry is captivating, you end up just staring at it for hours.

So out of Cairo and a long drive to Mt Sinai, we cross the Suez canal by tunnel which is naturally boring, so both times I convinced my drivers to stop somewhere we could take photos, watching cargo ships cruise through the desert is pretty damn amazing. You should check out the story of The Great Bitter Lakes Association’ which was formed by the 14 cargo ships trapped in the canal after the 6 day war, for 8 years. The Association had their own yacht club, the own postal stamps and during the 1968/9 Olympics they had their own games…very funny.
So we arrive at Mt Sinai and we’re to climb to the summit…dammit! I didn’t climb this damn thing when I was travelling here 15 years ago and I still don’t want to climb the damn thing now. There’s 3 ways up. 1) walk, 7kms each way with 750 steps at the end. 2) ride a camel for the 7kms up, walk up the 750 steps and then walk all the way down. 3) take the 3750 Steps of Redemption. Yep, all those options are my version of hell.

The next day we visit the St Kath’s Monastery and the ‘burning bush’. Which as you all know is where Moses was told my God to free the Hebrews from Egypt. Of course the bush these days kinda looks like a 2000 year old weed. But there you have it, tick. Have seen Burning Bush. Afterwards we drive onto the coast of the Red Sea and to a place called Nuweiba. We get to hang out at the very relaxed, chilled beach camp. It would be wrong to call it a resort but its fab, nice reed cabins, mattress on the floor, mosquito nets and no electricity, but you do get the sea, the sand, the sun and a great view across the bay to Saudi Arabia. So after chilling here for a day we head off to Jordan.

We have to catch a ferry, which is notoriously late, runs on casual time blah blah blah. Hell, the 1st time I went there with 12 passengers behind me they told me the ferry was full. I argued I had tickets, they didn’t care….it was slightly worrying, eventually after a few phone calls a Tourist Policeman turns up, a few wheels of bureaucracy where greased with the help of Baksheesh, also known as Egyptian Pounds ($$) and we were able to get onboard 

So, Jordan…such a difference to Egypt. It’s clean organised, they follow a road code. It’s positively civilized. The people are really lovely, not nearly as pushy as the Egyptians and most speak a bit of English, all are well educated. (Jordan has the highest literacy rates in the ME). Their King is kinda cool too, he loves movies and has even had a walk on role in a Star Trek movie. (Grinning like a Cheshire cat the whole time) One of the Transformers movies was filmed partly in Jordan and he borrowed 36 army helicopters to help the film crew shift their gear.

We leave the next day for our desert 4-wheel drive safari. Way cool. Blating around the desert checking out cool rock formations and the sites of either DH Lawrence hang outs, and of course some of the sites are also where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. We spent the night at a Bedouin camp. (Bedouins are the nomadic Arabs you envision riding around the desert on camels and sleeping in Arab tents). I spent the 2 nights I was there sleeping outside, very cool…literally. Can be pretty damn cold in the desert. And weirdly, it rained the 2nd time I was there..rain in the desert!

The next day….Petra! yup, pretty damn pretty. Petra is in valleys/canyons and there is a look out over theses valley and you cant see anything of Petra, its pretty cool and its how Petra remained hidden for so long. Eventually though an explorer managed to find his way in and the rest is history. You wander through the main canyon and down to The Treasury which is very cool to see that classic picture of the Treasury through the gap in the canyon. Of course there are the usual 1000s of tourists but strangely while we were standing out front there was one of those extremely rare lulls in the crowd and suddenly there was no-one in the photo. Travel gods smiled on us for 1minute. The whole of Petra is quite big and there is more to see than just The Treasury, and of course all of them are up at least 400 steps (usually more like 1000). So the whole visit is a stair master work out, but well worth it.

From Petra we head to Madaba while making a few stops along the way. 1st) Kerak Castle, 1200m above sea level, uilt by the crusaders. 2nd) The Dead Sea, and 422m below sea level, of course everything its meant to be, bopping around in the salty waters is a must. I’ve never had trouble floating so it wasn’t that big a deal for me. 3rd) Mt Nebo, where Moses looked out upon The Promised Land, that was kinda cool, you can see Jericho and Bethlehem. Then finally Madaba and a quick visit to St George church and one of the famous mosaics this region is known for and they’re impressive. I even managed to buy one (it’s not often I indulge in souvenirs). The main activities from Madaba are to either visit the Jordan river where Jesus was baptized or ‘Jerash’ which is a roman ruins town…guess which one I choose….yup, so Jerash was really cool, love ruins. With a quick stop in Amman and viewing some of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Next day a border crossing into Syria, seriously how cool is that?! Syria! And before you know it we’re in Damascus, which claims to be the oldest permanently inhabited city in the world. “Nothing in man’s recorded history has happened that Damascus wasn’t around to hear of”. It’s a great city, so crazy and calm at the same time. There are fantastic markets (souqs) that seems to go for miles through tiny alleyways and when you look beyond the surface there are these fabulous Ottoman buildings that are made with one layer of limestone blocks the next with sandstone, which gives it a fantastic stripy affect, topped off with incredible domes overhead.

We visit the Umayyad Mosque while in Damascus. This place is amazing. Not only its architecture but the 100s of Iranian and Iraqi Shiite Muslim pilgrims that visit this place daily. The building is huge and large portions of it are covered with a gold mosaic. It houses the head of John The Baptist (1 of 3 places that claim the same thing) and remains of many of the leaders of the Shiite movement. While we were there once a large group of pilgrims came in chanting and crying, beating their chests rhythmically. It was over whelming being in the same echoing room with them. There’s a small cuboid enclave in the wall where Muhammad’s grandson’s head was displayed, I tried to photograph it but there was always someone else’s head in the box. People just swarmed around the box and as soon as 1 head was getting out another would jump in, the whole time crying, howling or moaning. It’s hard to describe how extreme the whole situation is. All of this is going on but at no time do I think we were unwelcome. The whole Islamic religion is a lot more open and level headed than what we are generally led to believe. One of the favourite T-shirts I saw said “Don’t panic, I’m a Muslim!” Great! 

After Damascus we headed for Palmyra and another set of Roman ruins. Again fantastic, so huge I had so idea these places existed. It takes about 3hours to wander around them and everyone accepts they’ve only dug up 10% of what is out there. We also ake a wander around Bel Temple which as usual in this region started its life as a pagan temple, then Christian and then Muslim.

Onward on to Krak des Chevalier, now this is a castle! It commands on top of a hill taunting people to invade her. This is the castle that Richard the Lionheart saw took the design home to the UK. She’s big, she’s solid, she’s impressive and she aint gonna be taken. We get the coolest guide there too. He’s in his 70s and use to live in the castle when he was a kid, eventually of cause all the people were kicked out for the restoration project. He is a complete scholar and a gentleman. The whole place is like an adult adventure play ground, you cant help it but have fun, I swear kids would be bored but adults get how cool it is.

Next stop Aqaba, The 1st time I was there I was so sick I seriously considered crawling up the stairs to my room one day, bless the staff, one guy went home to his place to cook me food, so lovely. The next time I was there I walked into my room and saw the BIGGEST worm ive ever seen. I decided to be a chick about it and found the same guy to remove my unwanted guest and even his initially response was “no, I cant be…..oh, it’s not a snake”. It was huge! And it had dropped from the rotting ceiling above me. Definitely a drawback from staying in these very atmospheric ottoman houses. In any event Aqaba is ok, its got markets/souqs like Damascus and an impressive citadel to wander around.

And then that’s it, we head for Turkey again using International taxis, but this time there’s always an understanding that every passenger will carry/smuggle 2 cartons of ciggies for the drivers to resell in Turkey. Turkey is so different to everywhere else we’ve been, it way more European, silly though one of the 1st things you notice are there’s irrigations and crops growing and that the houses/apartment blocks are painted different colours rather than just being sandy-brown. The st stop is Antakya which has the best Roman mosaic museum anywhere. Very geeky, very cool

When then travel for the next couple of days eventually arriving in Cappadocia. Very very cool. This is the ultimate moonscape, covered in fairy chimneys, that people live in. its like being in smurfdom. Okay you probably need to find pictures of it to understand, until then just trust me. So the main activity in Cappadocia is hot air ballooning. And it was amazing, fantastic, unbelievable, blah blah, blah. We up for a 1 hour flight, we had to get up at some ridiculous time, but it’s so beautiful watching the balloons at sunrise. Ok, ok, ok ill stop blabbing on about it, but it was great.

Then before you know it we’re in Istanbul…oh except the 2nd time I lead this trip and I missed the damn train! Couldn’t believe it! I can navigate my way around Budapest station with 19platforms, trains changes platforms without prior notification, all of that I a miss a train im standing next in a station with only 4 bloody platforms.

In-between the trips I managed to pop down to Ephesus with another Europe leader, I love travelling with other leaders, its so relaxed after travelling with passengers. On my 1st trip I had some real worry-warts/complainers. I met up with Jenny and the 1st thing I had to confess was although it was my job to find accommodation I hadn’t done anything, her response ‘no worries, we’ll find something when we get there”, love it. Ephesus was good, I’d been there before years ago, but it was fun to go back. They’re great ruins some of the best id seen until id been to Jerash and Palmyra.

So eventually I finish up in the ME and im currently back in Indochina just for a couple of months of messy around/working. (compared to Europe and the ME this is easy!) I’ve great being here and actually knowing what the hell im doing.

Right im gonna shut up, sorry for going on for so long
Ax