I can't believe we are travelling together again

Gallery: Kamari - Santorini

bernadette_tony-travelling — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:31:00 GMT

Journal Entry Days 36-39

bernadette_tony-travelling — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:28:00 GMT

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DAY 36

Time flys when you are having fun. Here we are again leaving a perfectly good bed etc.. at 6am on holidays.

The ferry leaves at 7.25am and arrives at Santorini at approx 3.30pm.

After paying 2 euros for a giant sized doughnut from a man selling bread quite close to

Of course we chose what we thought was the most comfortable outside spot with shelter, and maybe a breeze as well.

Unfortunately when the sun came out and the weather warmed up a couple of hours in, our spot turned into a SAUNA. And of course by this stage all other spots were taken.

My GOD!!! 8 hours on a ferry is a really long time, I even got the cards out for Tony and I to play UNO.

We stopped at 3 other islands on the way (see photos) Paros, Naxos and Ious, to pick up and drop off passengers.

We have no accom booked and are hoping that people will race up to us when we get off the boat offering us all sorts of special deals.

What absolute chaos when you get off the boat! The port area is quite some way from the main town etc. (ie. Not really accessible by foot with loads of luggage)

Yes, there are lots of accom places at the port but they are all putting their own cut (quite a large one) on top of the hotel prices.

We were then approached by a guy who had family run hotel. He asked us what we wanted to pay, offered us a balcony, air con, transport, breakfast, and introduced us to his mother and brother. What more could we want?? He bundled us and our luggage into his van along with some other ‘lost tourists’.

It turned out that we were quite a way out of town, our balcony looked out on to the owner’s back garden, oh! And breakfast was a hard boiled egg, some cordial and bread. However, as the photos show it was lovely and the owner was terrific. We hired a scooter for 12 euros per day and off we went (minus helmets for change) to explore.

Riding along the beach next to our hotel there were several restaurants, but some were closed and others near deserted except for staff. High season is still a few weeks away.

We found a really nice place for dinner and the greek waiter spoke better german t han English (that’s another story). The food was good and he gave us a 2^nd carafe of red wine for free!!

DAY 37

This is my kind of holiday. Get up when you are ready, take your time getting ready, a relaxing breakfast, and then plan the day (or what’s left of it, as Tony would say!)

We spent most of the day (as per photos) exploring Fira, which is the capital of Santorini.

There are lots of winding stone paths with shops and (more wealthy than us) tourists looking and shopping (see photos)

We did a big walk down large, wide stone steps to the old port. The major issue or difficulty here is dodging the donkey droppings which are plentiful! Unfortunately (unlike Petra) there is nobody running around with a shovel etc. This situation made it more dangerous than usual for accident prone Bernadette and I nearly slipped a few times (see photos)

We took the cable car back up to the top and continued our wandering.

I forgot to mention lunch. We had sword fish which was expensive and quite dry. The restaurants at the top of Fira are expensive and not always good quality. People only go there for the view which is amazing (as per photos)

DAY 38

Another beautiful day in paradise! How is everyone back in Australia? Or even more specifically in cold old Melbourne or even England??

Back to my holiday! We headed off to Oia today, it was a magnificent ride and we took photos along the way (see latest photos). I have out done myself in Santorini (152 in 2 days).

Oia is more and then even more blue and white with more shops and more restaurants. What more could a woman want?? Hopefully you will all see from the photos how absolutely beautiful this place really is.

I don’t think I would ever get tired of the views. Again, though prices are aimed at more well off tourists than us. They have a huge amount of cruise ships stopping at Santorini every day.

Back to Perissa Beach where all the restaurants are along the beach front with the black sand.

Still, a lot of these restaurants are deserted until summer. There are restaurant owners etc. painting, repairing and generally getting ready for the summer influx. I hope for their sakes it all happens this year.

We had really good bbq whole red snapper and a carafe of local red wine. We have noted a trick that all the restaurants seem to use here in relation to bread. They put the bread in a basket on your table and you eat it presuming it is complimentary with your meal. Then when the bill comes, you have actually been charged for it. Very sneaky!! So it is an ‘opt out’ situation rather than an ‘opt in’.

DAY 39

Our last day in Santorini! Breakfast on the balcony and then off to Kamali Beach with lots more of that unbelievable black sand.

The black sand is more course than your usual yellow sand but just as hot and difficult to walk on.

Kamali is very much your resort town with lots of hotels looking over the water and restaurants. There are lots of umbrellas and deck chairs on the sand which people can order food and drinks from (at a price of course)

There are also some bathers laying on the beach topless (don’t get excited). Why is it that the people who go topless are the ones who should most definitely keep their tops on????

We will be catching our fast ferry to Crete this afternoon and arriving at 7.35pm. Yet again we are hoping for good accommodation to come to us when we arrive at the port.

Gallery: Perissa Beach - Santorini

bernadette_tony-travelling — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:28:00 GMT

Gallery: Oia - Santorini

bernadette_tony-travelling — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Gallery: Fira - Santorini

bernadette_tony-travelling — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:08:00 GMT

Gallery: Our Hotel - Santorini

bernadette_tony-travelling — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:00:00 GMT

Gallery: Sailing to Santorini

bernadette_tony-travelling — Fri, 8 May 2009 17:16:00 GMT

Gallery: Athens

bernadette_tony-travelling — Fri, 8 May 2009 17:09:00 GMT

Gallery: istanbul

bernadette_tony-travelling — Fri, 8 May 2009 17:02:00 GMT

Journal Entry Days 33-35

bernadette_tony-travelling — Fri, 8 May 2009 02:19:00 GMT

DAY 33

Ended up having the best pancakes that a small touristy town in Turkey could possibly scrape together for dinner last night and more of that fantastic apple tea.

The weather is still beautiful, sunny and with just a hint of a cool breeze. What more could you want?

Our final group meal together was lunch at a 475 year old restaurant which has been in the one family for 5 generations. It was a typical, very traditional Turkish restaurant and we had this really unusual ravioli dish with a yoghurt and tomato sauce.

I am however saving the best news til last! We had wine at lunch. It was home made wine by the family who owned the restaurant. Wonderful red wine!! Wine that has not passed my lips for 4 weeks but who’s counting????

After our lovely lunch, it was on to the bus for 4 hours of road travel 4-8pm, 2 hours of waiting at the train station til 10pm, 9 hours of sleepless overnight train travel, 30 min of ferry travel and 20 min walking to the hotel before breakfast. Who ever said that holidays are not always fun!!

DAY 34

Oh yes, this is also when we found out that the travel agent had out the wrong end date of our tour on the paperwork. This meant that our Istanbul accom was booked and paid for the night before we arrived We thought that we had 2 nights and 2 days in Istanbul but as it turns out we have 1 day and 1 night. We even missed breakfast this morning that we had paid for and as we are leaving at 5.45 am tomorrow, we will miss paid for breakfast then as well

I guess things could be worse!

We have had a great days walking and exploring Istanbul. The Blue Mosque is not to be missed, the tulips which apparently were big in Turkey way before Holland are spectacular. The grand bazaar is also fantastic (check out the photos)

Istanbul is a great city and has everything you could possibly want. It is busy in a good way and it has more of a European feel to it than middle eastern or asian countries we had previously visited. The waterfront is very unusual (see photos) with huge rocks bundled together instead of sand where people perch with their picnic watching the ships go by.

There are people selling jewellery and sunglasses as well as people charging people to use air rifles and pistols to shoot cans and balloons off the rocks for fun! (see photos) I personally thought that this was a very bizarre situation.

This next comment is for my Aunty Margot. ‘You would go absolutely crazy!’ There are entire streets of market areas totally dedicated to CRAFT STUFF. Ribbons, trim, elastic, cottons, buttons, sequins,etc.. You don’t know where to start ! It’s like the home sewer’s heaven on earth. You could lose yourself for a couple of days and not even realise until you were hungry.

Got to go to bed now, it’s a 5am start in the morning and I am already behind in sleep from last night’s train episode.

DAY 35

Well, after catching the 6am shuttle from the hotel to the airport, we are on the plane off to Athens and then the Greek Islands!

The plane flight was only an hour or so and went very quickly especially because they served breakfast to amuse us.

The local bus from the airport at 3 euro was very tedious due to extremely heavy traffic. The bus actually terminated prior to our destination and we were directed to the train station to continue our journey. This confused the hell out of most of the passengers because we were mostly tourists and unfamiliar with the language and the surroundings.

We eventually made our way to the Hotel Zeuss, which is a dodgy hostel in Monastriki.

When I booked this hostel, it never occurred to me to check regarding stairs etc. I will next time!

We carried our luggage up 4 flights of stairs!!! Don’t even ask why we have lots of luggage?? We just do!

Athens was terrific. There is the old, the new, and the very traditional all so close to each other.

The Athens flea market is close to the square where there was a band playing for donations (see photos)

One street off the square leads to all the expensive, high class shopping and eateries; another leads to the local crafts; another local touristy cafes; add the odd historical monument or church etc. and you have a place with something for everyone.

After much searching we found a travel agent and organised things for our island travels.

After a picnic of sorts in our room of bread, ham, strawberries, plus a couple of gin & tonics each, we prepared for another 5am start.

Journal Entry Days 30-32

bernadette_tony-travelling — Sun, 3 May 2009 22:34:00 GMT

DAY 30 A full day of bus travel, so far fantastic scenery but no opportunities for photos. The weather changed as we travelled sun and 20deg to rain and 17deg and raining and back to sun again. The town we finished our day in was called Nidge. Not a tourist town, but a nice enough town with plenty of shops and even a market winding through several streets selling clothes, fruit/veg and other miscellaneous goods. At the end of the main shopping streets you could see the snow covered mountains in the distance. The locals wander about doing their shopping and stopping for a chat here and there. We went to this place for dinner with the group which from the outside etc. looked just like a diner you would find in a small country town. The menu with pictures up in lights above the counter and laminex tables etc. but they had made fancy fabric slip covers for the chairs to add some pretend ‘class’. The food, however and the service and the price was excellent!! The Turkish bread came out hot and plenty of it, then salad also plentiful both complimentary with the ordered main meals. By the time we got to main, I was hardly needing any more food. Fantastic, would highly recommend it if I could remember the name, and if I thought anyone reading this would be heading to the same town in turkey. DAY 32 Rob’s birthday!!!! Breakfast buffet and cereal!!!great start for the day. On the bus for our tour day on the way to Goreme through the Cappadoccia region. First stop a church in a cave as per photos. Second stop, an underground city 100m down. Bowed out of that one, being that far underground with several tour groups potentially blocking the escape route worried me a little. Bought some earrings and a bag while everyone else was underground . There were plenty of touristy stalls with local people frantically trying to sell you jewellery or hand made traditional Turkish dolls for 2-3 TL (approx.$2-$3 AUD) It was also a beautiful sunny day to enjoy being above ground. Our next stop was a national park with a river. There was a restaurant (of sorts) with some tables actually on the river (see photos). The food here was also good (bread, salad, soup, main and oranges for 7TL approx $7 AUD, great value and a really nice spot. After lunch we headed towards Goreme, our final destination and stopped to enjoy the view at several strategic places along the way. Goreme is known for it’s cave houses which have been around for many years (see photos) The landscape here is incredible and some hotels etc. have actually been built into cave dwellings. Many locals still live in these cave houses which look quite strange dotted amongst the hills (again, see photos) The town is very touristy !!!!! It is almost like a ski resort town. Quite small and consists mostly of tour operators, bus companies, hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. The other similarity is PRICE!!! Everything seems to be almost twice the usual price. The really unfortunate thing is that we are here for 2 ½ days. The largest stay in any one place on the tour! Nothing to do and everything twice the price. Due to the large and quite late lunch we had just nuts and fruit etc. for a snack dinner. We lashed out and at the insistence of the dodgiest looking Turkish man and his mate, purchased some wine (I stress untasted) off the shelf. Both men laughed hysterically as we were making the purchase , insisting it was GOOD!! That should have been our tip off that this was trouble. One of the guys had only one tooth showing in front, so his belly laugh as we were leaving was very funny and yet quietly disturbing all at the same time. Unfortunately they had good reason to laugh, the wine was turpentine!! DAY 33 After falling over outside the hotel last night ( yes I know! I forgot to mention that in yesterday’s journal) I was unable to take part in the 2 hour hike this morning (and yes, I did really want to do the hike!) We had lunch at this fantastic pide place. You get this massive pide with assorted stuff on top for 5-6 TL which is quite good for tourist town. The afternoon (as per photos) was a fantastic 2 hour quad bike ride through the valleys (see photos) This was finished off with a cup of complimentary apple tea at a Turkish lady’s house. Jess< Tony and I found a place prepared to do pancakes at dinner time because all we wanted was dessert and it was terrific.

Gallery: Turkey

bernadette_tony-travelling — Sun, 3 May 2009 01:20:00 GMT

Journal Entry Days 27-29

bernadette_tony-travelling — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:10:00 GMT

DAY 27 Local restaurant for dinner on the mountain last night was fantastic. Just as well because we didn’t have any choices, only one restaurant there!! The food was good and the host made us feel like we were visiting with friends instead of at a restaurant. They did the very best charcoal chicken! Now to today, the castle ‘Krak des Chevaliers’ was amazing and the guide really knew his stuff. You really need to have a guide for these things to get the most out of your visit. The photos show different angles and areas of the castle and hopefully they are self explanatory. There was a rush at the bus terminal and we were left with only 5 minutes to get and eat lunch plus a loo stop. On our way to Aleppo the scenery was ever changing: many different shades of green, windblown trees which actually look like they are close to laying down; rows upon rows of olive trees; small towns with unfinished houses surrounded by rubble piled high; makeshift tents on the outskirts of town where people eat, sleep and wash. Aleppo looks amazing, a bustling large city and an older market area. The market (souk) area carries fruit, veg, bread and camel meat as the photos show. The market in Damascus did not appear to cover these items. Tony was over dips and pita bread, so we ducked out of the group dinner thing and found food at a sanky looking hotel called Ramsis. We shared a Caesar salad, and a smoked salmon pizza plus pineapple juice for 525 Syrian pounds ($15- AUD). It was almost silver service and we were even given complimentary bread and DIPS! There was even a violinist playing for the guests. At one stage he started playing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (I am not sure about the spelling ) I couldn’t help thinking about the small orchestra in the Titanic movie which kept playing as the ship sank. This thought (thank God) was not indicative of the food at this hotel. Dinner was good and we bought an ice cream on the way home for dessert. Wait for it!! 3 scoops of various flavours in a cone for 15 Syrian pounds (approx 45c AUD). I know where I am going tomorrow, mind you just because it’s easy on the purse, doesn’t mean that it is easy on the hips! DAY 28 The citadel, museum etc are closed on Tuesdays and I am not sure why at this stage. We spent the day pottering around the shops and looking for somewhere good to eat. In the main city we saw rows of small shops selling olives, olive oil, and spices. It seemed that there would be a full street of shoe shops, then a full street of sewing machine shops, then a full street of furniture shops. The streets were relatively clean but also very easy to get lost. We found a lovely place for lunch as per photo which served excellent food at very reasonable prices. The souk (market) was fantastic and seemed to go on forever and ever with rows of jewellers, rows of material, rows of clothes and everything in between. Check out the photos of all on offer and check out how narrow the aisles are. People walk huge wooden barrows laden with bread, fruit & veg etc; people ride motor bikes; cars & trucks drive down the centre and just beep their horn to make pedestrians get out of the way. It is a crazy place and you really need to have your wits about you. Mind you some poor old guy needed more than his wits when I decided to be helpful. I had been walking behind this little old man pushing a huge barrow. He was quite frail and stooped and he had this large paper wrapper attached to his shoe and I hade been watching it for some time. I decided to be useful and stand on the wrapper to free it from his shoe. The only problem was that it was really stuck and it took quite an effort to remove, and during this process I nearly toppled this poor old man to the ground. He most surely wondered what the hell was going on. Maybe I should try not to be helpful?? DAY 29 Achmed was our tour guide today for the souk and the citadel still in Alleppo. He was the best, and the tour brought everything to life. There are photos of the guide and the many views from the top of the souk and the citadel. The photos show the old side of Aleppo and the new side. It sounds like there is a lot of competition between Damascus and Aleppo for the business city of Syria. Achmed is written up in the Lonely Planet guide and he is very proud. He tests everyone and gives them ‘bon bons’ as he calls the lollies. He has lots of amusing stories and continually calls us with ‘come! Come! Snapping his fingers like a ring master. We finished the tour and found ourselves at the fruit and veg area, see photos where there ere permanent stands and even some selling their beans etc. from mats on the ground. We were watching the hustle and bustle of the produce sellers when quite suddenly everyone gathered all their wares and started running in all different directions dropping food etc. in their haste to get away. It was like an air raid siren had gone off, quite bizarre! We can only summise that the police were coming and thy did not have appropriate permits?? We took a taxi trip across the border to Antakya in Turkey because there were no buses available today. It was fairly uneventful, thank god! A full day of travelling tomorrow on a bus with a couple of stops for food etc. then few days of hiking.

Journal Entry Day 26

bernadette_tony-travelling — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:52:00 GMT

FIRST OF ALL BEFORE I GET ON WITH DAY 26, WHERE ARE MY COMMENTS & MESSAGES????

DAY 26

Now back to the journal, I am sitting outside the café which charged and fed us one thing last night and charged a different price today on their menu (cheaper). They are supposed to give the Intrepid groups a special deal but instead they charge us more because they think that they will get away with it.

The joys of travel!!

Anyhow, I am sitting outside the café drinking the orange juice which was 150 Syrian pounds last night and 100 Syrian pounds today watching the world go by, mostly on motor bike.

There are entire families consisting of mum, dad, and several children travelling together on one motor bike and not a helmet for anyone??

There are numerous dodgy looking hotels in the street but still a quiet street in relation to many other tourist spots.

We went back to the magnificent roman ruins this morning for a guided tour. It was absolutely amazing. I know Tony always calls me a philistine because of my lack of interest in culture (ie. Museums, galleries etc.) but these ruins were very special and the excellent guide made it all come to life. NB: This is a special note to Gary Blakey “this doesn’t mean that you can rabbit on about the Romans to me when I come back”. Also, special apology for the excess of photos covering the ruins but they are especially for ‘gaggy’!

The ruins are one of my highlights so far, unfortunately the food today at this café is definitely not.

I have uploaded (rather Tony has uploaded, not that I can’t do it!) photos of the main centre of town here in Palmyra where the locals are going about their business. A woman came to me on the street here holding her baby out and asking for money, but apart from that it was pretty much people doing their shopping and having a chat.

There are other photos of people in our group on our very small bus which we travelled in for 3-4 hours. One of the group said where do we connect up with the real bus? I had to sadly inform him that for today, this is the real bus!!

Other photos are of hills, a castle and greenery which is krac des Chevaliers, and the view from our quaint hotel on top of the hill. I have to say I am not looking forward to the ‘edge of your seat’ bus ride down the mountain as the bus teeters over the edge near the castle.

Tonight, dinner is a buffet in the only place to eat on the mountain, so who knows what that will be like?? It is always a worry when there is no competition.

Tomorrow we walk to the castle and then a new bus to Aleppo (still in Syria).

PS: I almost forgot! There is a photo included in today’s batch which is of a sign post showing the way and distance to Iraq on our travels today. Scary huh???

Journal Entry Days 23-25

bernadette_tony-travelling — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:34:00 GMT

DAY 23

I thought that I lost a day but I was confused (how unusual??)

Up at 6am and ready to leave Jordan for Syria by taxis.

We managed to squeeze 12 people and all their luggage into 3 ordinary taxis & I mean SQUEEZE for the 3 hour journey ahead.

The border crossing is in sections and you need to pay tax here, get your passport stamped there, get your passport stamped again, and fill out the blue card , get that stamped, get your luggage checked, then your passport again.

Finally, we arrive in Damascus, the oldest, continually inhabited capital city in the world.

It is much larger and busier than I imagined.

Our international taxis which we caught in Jordan can not take us to the hotel so we have to stop just outside the city and get into local taxis from there.

There were several local taxis where we stopped and the drivers were basically surrounding us and some were even hanging in the windows of the taxis screaming for our business. There was mass confusion and how we all managed to get to the hotel, and with our luggage I will never know.

The hotel was quite old and interesting and in the middle of everything. We do however have wireless internet in our room YEA!!!

The traffic and driving is almost as crazy as Cairo (if that is at all possible??)

Dinner was at a local recommended restaurant with lentil soup, pita bread, hommus, etc. and fantastic salads.

DAY 24

Today is the Sabbath (Friday) and it is like our Sunday. Damascus is almost deserted until late afternoon.

Families walk together late in the day after church, dressed in their ‘Sunday best’

Most of the market stalls are closed and all of the outside shops including take away food.

We did find a fantastic restaurant for the group to do dinner with great food and loads of history and atmosphere (see photos)

DAY 25

A much busier day today than yesterday. People working, shopping and just out and about in general.

The market or souk is amazing, there are streets and alley ways leading off all the main market aisles which seem to go forever.

You can buy everything from soap powder to wedding dresses and all things in between.

There is an amazing ice cream shop included in the photos where they just slap the vanilla ice cream in a huge pile almost directly on the bench. It is sold very quickly.

The spices, lollies, dried fruit etc. are piled high in large open containers (again in the photos)

We had the best and cheapest lunch! 5 mini, fresh, homemade pizzas for a total of $1.80 Australian. They were delicious!

After lunch we took a 3 hour public bus ride to Palmyra (a touristy town famous for roman ruins)

An expensive, not particularly exciting set menu dinner at a nearby restaurant and then back to the weird, cave bar downstairs at our hotel (see photos)

Gallery: Syria

bernadette_tony-travelling — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:06:00 GMT

Gallery: Jordan

bernadette_tony-travelling — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:49:00 GMT

Journal Entry Days 20-23

bernadette_tony-travelling — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:40:00 GMT

DAY 20

Back to ‘Petra’ for another 4 hour hike to a ‘monastry’ high on the hill. Why can’t they carve these important monuments at ground level?

Why must we suffer to get there?

It was pretty spectacular as you will see from the photos but I am very glad that we did the trek early in the day before the heat really hit!

Back to the room for ice cream, gin & tonic, and a ‘nanna nap’.

Off at 8am tomorrow morning for the ‘Dead Sea’ and some floating without floaties. Apparently, even Bernadette can float here.

We will test this theory tomorrow.

DAY 21

8AM on the bus ready to go. We were held up slightly while one of our group quickly left the bus to throw up.

Off we went to Karak Castle. The roads were very windy and the scenery did not change until quite high up when we actually saw our first glimpse of green for a while.

Mostly we see sand, sand and more sand with varying degrees of rocks added to the mix. Therefore when we see a bush or even a tree it is cause for great excitement.

Don’t get me wrong, this is an extremely interesting trip and as we have been travelling north from Cairo each town or region or country appears cleaner, more friendly, less pushy and more variety of food etc.

RANDOM INFO.

From late afternoon onwards in any of the middle eastern towns, there is not a woman in sight, either walking, in a shop, a restaurant or anywhere??

Back to the journal…… Yes we went to the ‘Dead Sea’ and yes Jess and Tony did float as per the photos to come but (for reasons which I don’t care to divulge here) I did not test the theory.

We then headed to our new hotel in Madaba (still Jordan) where we actually have free wireless internet, and a pool with water in it!!

The pool at the hotel in Cairo was empty.

Madaba is famous for mosaics and there is a lovely old greek orthodox church with original mosaics.

DAY 22 & 23 ( I missed a day somewhere but I am sure that you guys will not notice)

A nice leisurely day pottering around at the hotel and walking around town.

We are all off tomorrow morning at 8.30 am in 3 private taxis for 12 people with LUGGAGE!! For a 3 hour journey into Syria. Should be fun??

Journal Entry Days 15-19

bernadette_tony-travelling — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:13:00 GMT

DAY 16

Yeah!!! A bit of a sleep in this morning, we didn’t get up til 6.45am!!

Breakfast was actually included, so no further hassling with the sleazy, shifty restaurant owner.

We only had to drive 2 hours to our beach huts so that was good. I was even considering snorkelling until our tour leader scared the living daylights out of us with warnings of dangerous poison things in the water (cheery soul??)

We all decided that even if these dangerous creatures of the deep were on their way to some other country, they would put themselves out to come back for me.

The food at this place called Sawa camp on the Red Sea has been terrific, the weather warm and you can look across the sea to the lights of Saudi Arabia.

The group are starting to click a bit more now, but still not as good as the previous tour.

DAY 17

Another beautiful day in paradise. Nothing to do but walk along the beach until lunch is served.

We have to catch a ferry at 2pm to take us to Jordan. The last group to do our tour waited 9 hours for the ferry to arrive! And we complain about our transport system???

Luckily we only waited 2 hours before boarding. Mind you the ferry sat there until 5.30pm before actually taking off.

We all had our tickets and passports checked by 1,000 different people on our way to our seats. Many local people were pushed to the back of the queue behind us tourists. They were naturally no happy about this and certainly voiced this to the people in charge.

The ferry finally took off after a seemingly endless queue of Arabic men wandered passed by us to get their passports stamped.

They came around selling hamburgers and chicken which did not appear very tasty or healthy.

So as to avoid the long queue getting off the ferry, our leader encouraged us to go to the front of the boat and queue prior to docking. The officials at the front of the ferry obviously did not approve of this practice and herded us into another area while they allowed several other passengers to disembark first. There were plenty of officials and there was a lot of yelling and argueing from them and other passengers in Arabic. They seemed to treat the passengers like they were prisoners. We all sat quietly and moved when we were told.

We eventually got off the ferry, went through customs, had our bags checked again and showed our passports to another 35 people (slight exaggeration !!)

Hooray! A nice hotel even with ensuite and dinner at 11pm??

DAY 18

A nice lazy morning, a proper shower, even internet plus pita bread with jam for breakfast.

Aquaba is a seaside town for Jordanians and you can look across the water to Israel. It seems very close.

The streets of Aqaba were much, much cleaner than Egypt but the actual beach was littered with Jordanian holiday makers and their RUBBISH!

We left Aqaba at 12 by bus for Wadi Rum where we transferred to 4WD’s for our dessert safari.

3 hours of dessert rocks etc and we arrived at our camp, literally in the middle of nowhere!

Dinner was already cooking underground for us oh! And just for good measure they brought their cat along to kill any small critters which might be lurking. I don’t know which concerned me more, the thought that critters might be lurking or the fact that we had a cat at camp which I am allergic to??

We all slept outside on mats under the stars with the cat and the critters until some of us got cold or sick or diarrohea. A fun night was had by all!

DAY 19

Tony was one of the unfortunate victims with food poisoning , and one of the group had to actually stop to get injections from hospital.

Our next stop was Petra where there is an ancient city carved out of stone.

Our rooms in Petra were not ready so we had to get straight back on the bus minus showers etc. for a 4 hour walking tour.

Thank god the weather has been kind to us along he way, oh and by the way I am so over public toilets in the middle east.

new journal entry 16th April

bernadette_tony-travelling — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:33:00 GMT

South Africa, Botswana and Zambia

Africa was fantastic, and in some ways exactly what we expected and in others not at all what we expected.

The tour people were lovely and extremely helpful. They were a couple in their mid to late sixties who had been doing the tours for Intrepid for a year or so.

Heaps of people told us that Joburg was a hole and yes it is. WE have since found out that Capetown is definitely the place to visit, with great scenery, great food and even shopping.

The best thing about Joburg is the Soweto tour. We were told that in Soweto there are three levels, top level, middles class level and low class level. The affluent black people live in the top class area and often have people from the low class level working for them. The middle class area have 4 x room houses with inside toilets etc and they call them match box houses. The low level houses are basically the shanties which only have 2 rooms , no toilets and no running water. The government have been promising housing for many years and there are many people on the waiting list. Seeing how these people live is incredible and you think to yourself how much luxury we currently live in.

I never understood why overseas tourists went on about how clean Australia was until I had been to Bali, South Africa and now even Egypt. There is rubbish absolutely everywhere, piled up on the side of the road and even in the water ways. Nobody seems to worry about the disposal of their rubbish.

There is a huge amount of violent crime in South Africa. The houses in Joburg are all surrounded with high wrought iron fences and strong gates. The houses which do not have the wrought iron, have masses of barbed wire. I think that South Africa has bought up all the barbed wire available. Even in the very poor areas where they barely have a shack, there is barbed wire surrounding them.

There are also lots of scams, you have to be so aware of where you are and looking after your belongings.

There are shopping malls everywhere now, even in Soweto.

There are also many people selling things at the robots (traffic lights). People will come to the car window selling clothes hangers, xmas lights and even large balls to play with and bows and arrows.

The traffic in Joburg is disgusting but now that I have been to Cairo, I don’t think there would be worse traffic in the entire world or worse drivers.

The food has been good but nothing exciting.

We met some lifelong friends I am sure on the Africa trip and we had a lot of fun. We were however expecting to get closer to the animals in Kruger than we did. Kenya definitely sounds like the best place to go for safaris for getting close to animals.

The tour is really good but the down fall can be that you don’t always get to stop when you want to for food or photos. The good thing is that you have lots of company when you want it and you are travelling with people who know the area etc.

I am sure that you will all be pleased to know that Tony and I are still happily married and have not even come close to killing each other yet.

By the way, for the people who are wondering about how a menopausal woman is coping with the heat, the weather has been quite mild, ( there is a God after all!!)

We are in Cairo now and I am even coping with the weather here.

I will leave this now because we are heading off for a walk before our next tour meeting. I hope everyone is well and happy working or studying in Australia while we are working hard at having a good time holidaying!!! (it’s a tough life but someone has to do it!)

DAY 12

We have arrived in Cairo after a wonderfully boring alcohol free flight with 2 x set movies and equally exciting food.

I usually take the front seat in all forms of transpotrt due to travel sickness, however in Cairo in the taxi, I am rethinking this strategy. Traffic and drivers here are the craziest I have ever seen. and the taxi driver seems to find it quite amusing seeing me jump and quickly reach for the seat belt as he is about to mow down 5 pedestrians in one foul swoop.

Cairo is smelly, dirty, dusty and yet very interesting all at the same time.

After a quick snooze and more breakfast in our fairly dodgy hotel we head out with Jess to see the sights.

Jess has already been accosted, and it would seem almost adopted by what I am now calling the ‘Egyptian mafia’. One guy meets you in the street while you are walking along, then he takes you to a very small shop where other men (the drivers) sit out side waiting for a job. We sit and chat to the first guy while waiting for the ‘top dog’ Tommy who does the negotiating and sweet talking. Jess has already been dealing with these people for the 2-3 days while she has been in Cairo on her own.

This Tommy is an interesting character, he has extremely good English, and has all the aussie slang and expressions down pat just for the tourists.

Once a price has been agreed on, a driver is summoned. I take my heart in my mouth yet again and brave the Cairo traffic.. The driver is very good and we check out the citadel, the papyrus factory, the jewellery factory and the Bazzaar, while the driver collects his commission etc. along the way.

At the end of the trip we are taken again to Tommy (top dog) who is at ‘the café’ by then smoking his water pipe and making more contacts with other prospective clients. We are given a mango juice each and treated to some more small talk in hopes of more business.

Tommy’s question is always ‘Are you happy?’ This is so he can happily take your money. WE make plans for the next day and off we go.

DAY 13

We go though the same slightly dodgy process all over again wondering if you change your mind, whether you might end up with a horses head in your bed.

We were wanting to go to Giza today to see the Pyramids and there is now another branch of the mafia introduced to the equation.

Apparantly there is someone we need to deal with at the pyramids who will give us an all inclusive price (the very best deal around) and if we are not happy or treated well, we must let Tommy know and he will take care of it (we think short for ‘get rid of him’).

A new driver is summoned for today’s trip, who is also very good and we are taken to the Giza branch of Tommy’s mafia.. The ‘top dog’ at Giza is very suspect and Tony and I really start to wonder what we have got ourselves involved in.

There is quite fierce negotiation at this juncture and it looks at times like we may even not do the pyramids. We finally head off on our camels (YES I SAID CAMELS for anyone who knows Bernadette’s camel story)

WE get to a makeshift gate where we pay an extra 60 EGP each to some very dodgy unofficial looking officials, who swipe our bags etc with a beeper thing just for effect.

The camel ride was for an hour or more and it was good fun, but you couldn’t help feeling that you were in the backyard of the pyramids without permission and that they had to move you through at a particular pace and route so as not to attract the wrong attention to themselves.

When back to the office/shop to see the Giza bloke Tony re negotiates an even cheaper price and we head back to Cairo with our driver.

We made no further plans with Tommy and the gang even after much urging and questioning regarding our movements and requirements for the next day.

DAY 14

I forgot to say that our bright spot for day13, was coming across KFC for the deaf. The perfect place for me!!! In the evening of the day 13. I found the lovely deaf guy at KFC the easiest, and nicest person to communicate with in all of Cairo.

Ok, back to day 14, which was a fairly quiet day. We caught a very dodgy looking taxi from our hotel to the museum for 20 EGP. I am actually surprised that the taxi made it, everything seemed to be falling off or apart, but at least we were not beholden to the Mafia anymore which was comforting.

No major incidents at the museum apart from Tony getting dragged back to the checkpoint for bringing his camera in and some other young woman making a very rude sign to the woman who was chasing people to hand over their cameras. She got away but Tony did not.

Our first meeting with the new Intrepid tour was 6pm at our hotel. We could see right from the start that it was going to be very different to the previous trip. The group dynamics were extremely different, the leader had not even done the trip before and the whole vibe was different.

We did however all go to dinner together just around the corner from ‘Tommy’s Café’ and the food was really, really good. It cost us 25GP total for all three of us which equals approx. $6.50 australian. You can’t complain about that but it did unfortunately make all other Egypt food seem really expensive after that.

DAY 15

Up and out at 6am, with a take away breakfast box from the hotel (I thought they said this was a holiday)

The breakfast box consisted of a piece of cake, 2 bread rolls, a hard boiled egg and some cheese in a huge cardboard cake box.

We had 6 hours in the mini van with a couple of short stops along the way just for the driver and guide to get their commission from the food, drink and gift vendors.

Mt Sinai is in the most remote and barren area I have ever experienced and the hotel had no competition. Consequently they changed the prices for food etc. at whim and were extremely ungracious about it to boot and the room was not much better.

The hike up Mt Sinai was the most amazing scenery I had ever seen. We went up hill for approx 3 hours and downhill in the dark for approx 2 hours. It was reasonably tough especially for a woman who has not done any exercise since the pneumonia in Feb/March, but I made it thanks to the ventolin and the tour leader who kept me chatting.

I did however (surprise surprise!!) manage to injure myself just after all the steep steps. I missed a very shallow easy step and went face down in the dirt and skinned my knew and hand. YES , there are pictures!!

Meanwhile Tony and Jess did the “3,750 stairs of repentance” (2285m) because boy do they need to repent!!! I climbed to the same height, I just took the long way around because I of course have absolutely no need for repentance.

We slept very well after this little expedition and some Baileys (for medicinal purposes only) of course.