The Big O.E

Home Sweet Home

catherine_and_james — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:22:00 GMT

Things that struck us about New Zealand:

- how clean the toilets are! Westfield Albany's toilets are like a palace!

- how easy it is to do things! ASB is the most wonderful bank on the planet.

- you can just buy a car! Pay money, get a car.

- everything is so green. Really, the grass is actually greener.

- you can rent a flat. Just pay money, move in. No paperwork, passports, ID, letters from embassies...

- New Zealanders have a unique accent that is less attractive the stronger it gets.

- we understand the secret shopping code of brands. Sounds weird, but it is wonderful to be able to buy the exact right bread straight away, without having to read the labels on the back of every different brand to find out what's in it first.

It was brilliant seeing friends and family again. Our road trip took us from all the Kerrs in Auckland to Napier (our soon to be home). We managed to do a tiki tour, stay with friends and squeeze in a job interview for Catherine. Took a bit of a mindshift to answer education-type questions. But the interview was quite fun. We spent the night in Picton, then headed to Christchurch to see Ruth and Steve in their new house, Paul and Amy with their new dog in their new house, and Julia and Hayden in their new flat. Good times catching up. Down to Oamaru to see Stu, and pick up warm winter clothes for the chilly south. Then on to Invercargill to see friends, workmates and all the new babies that did not exist when we left two years ago.

We did the long haul to Hokitika, and stopped for a delicious meal of pies and chocolate bars in Haast. We were greeted by proper West Coast rain and all the Stobies. After a few days relaxing, we drove up to Nelson to see grandparents. We stopped for a night in Wellington (more new babies) and came to our new home town of Napier. It was great to have a couple of days before James started work just to explore the town and make the mindshift from travelling to staying.

And we are so looking forward to staying in one place after almost two years on the move, living out of back packs in 21 different countries on 5 continents!

Lots of love

Catherine and James

Camping in a tropical paradise

catherine_and_james — Thu, 9 Oct 2008 09:22:00 GMT

Imagine watching the sun set over a picture postcard lagoon, then waking up to the lapping of waves on a perfect tropical white sand beach, complete with coconut palms leaning precariously out over the lagoon. Welcome to camping on the French Polynesian island of Moorea. With accommodation prices in French Polynesia as steep as those in Europe, our new tent more than paid for itself during our short stay on Moorea. Sure the resorts have hot water, restaurants, fancy bungalows, air conditioning and you don't get woken up by the insomniac roosters at 4.15am, but camping was dead cheap and we had one of the best sunset view points on the island.

After a midnight arrival from New York we didn't accomplish much on our first day in French Polynesia apart from getting the ferry over to Moorea, pitching our tent and finding some food. Not that you felt like doing much else, as all the locals else was so laid back.

The next day we headed out diving in search of Moorea's pointy toothed residents. Immediately upon entering the water it was apparent why Moorea has a reputation for shark diving. They were everywhere. First of all Black tip reef sharks and deeper in the dive Grey reef sharks cruised back and forth from all directions. Having only ever encountered a few small sharks on our previous diving trips in other countries, it was pretty exhilarating and more than made up for the disappointing condition of the coral reef. From sharks we moved onto turtles for our next dive, encountering three at various points during the dive, including one which was curled up in a cave having a sleep, but emerged to see off the nosey divers as we swam past.

After diving we slept, ate fresh pineapple, chatted to the other travellers, swam and lay in the sun. After the last three months of catering and gardening on the Isle of wight, then charging around London and New York, it was nice to not have to do anything for once.

Except then I remembered that my genetics prevent me from just doing nothing. So the next morning I was up early again to go diving. This time I spent half an hour amazed how a pair of bulky 2.5 metre Lemon sharks can effortlessly glide away from a group of furiously kicking divers without appearing to move a muscle. Very impressive. Also impressive was Catherine's resolve to go for a run early in the morning "before it got hot". 8am was not early enough evidently, as after half an hour Catherine was on the verge of melting.

More sleeping, sun, swimming, coconuts, chatting, sunsets...... and pineapples. Mmmmmmmm pineapples.

As we were due to fly out early the next day we ventured back to Tahiti for our final night and treated ourselves to some fancy accommodation complete with a mouth watering feast of white tuna sashimi with a zingy sauce for the last dinner of our epic OE.

London to New York

catherine_and_james — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:21:00 GMT

Our last time in London for a while, so we crammed in as much as we could! We spent some time with the Bennetts in Putney and our friends in Wapping. Their baby John has grown up so much since we met him as a six month old, and now he's walking and talking - it makes us realise how long we've been away!

We went to the show Stomp with my cousin Dean. Pretty impressive rhythms and dancing. And we went to a West End production of the Lion King. The costumes and set were just stunning! I loved seeing how they portrayed the wildebeest stampede on stage. But I wasn't that impressed with the dancing - they had obviously cast singers. But we both really enjoyed the show.

We said goodbye to familiar England and headed over to the United States. And it was so different to what I'd expected! New York is such a buzzing city and we had a marvellous time there! It may have had something to do with the fact that we were on our way home, so our budget was much more flexible. And it might have been because our luggage allowance doubled on the flights, which meant we could buy two bags full of stuff, after two years of no proper shopping...

We came away from New York absolutely loaded up with a new tent, new shoes, clothes and make up (we spent a fair amount of time at Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch). I had a ball!

We were so lucky to be staying with Tim, who we met while we were working on the Isle of Wight. His parents are friends with the Sheldons, and he came with them to dinner one night. He must have liked our cooking or something as he invited us to stay at his apartment on the Lower East Side in New York (very cool). When we arrived, a bit jet laggy, he took us out for the night in his newly adopted city. The views from his apartment were spectacular - from the Brooklyn Bridge to the skyscrapers in the city.

He hailed a yellow cab like a pro and we went to eat the best burgers and fries in the city (at least, he assured us they were). We never would have found it tucked away at the back of the lobby of a very swanky hotel. We went out for cocktails on the top of a skyscraper. It was a bit chilly outside, so they had red dressing gowns for people to wrap up in. It was all very Sex and The City. Cocktails on the roof looking out over the city lights. And did I mention that the Empire State Building was all lit up right next door? It felt like we were inside a movie!

The next day, Tim flew out to Paris. As you do when you're an international consultant. So we had his apartment to ourselves! I couldn't resist checking his wardrobe - at least 50 expensive shirts all drycleaned and hanging in plastic. When his laundry basket is full, he just dumps it in the lobby, and when he comes home, it's all cleaned, pressed, wrapped and hanging in the wardrobe.

We went shopping at the whole foods 'supermarket'. They sell everything from goji berries to agave nectar, to ostrich eggs. And lots of pre-prepared food for travellers like us, and americans who no longer cook for themselves.

James was walking home on Broadway, and heard a New Zealand accent. Who should be there but Kate Lindsay from Southland Boys' High School in Invercargill?! So Kate and Matt came for a drink at 'our' apartment, and we went out for dinner with them the next evening. It was so cool and unexpected to see Kiwis we knew.

Something different we ate was called a Knisch. It's a Jewish thing, kind of like a stuffed potato with cheese and mince.

We did a lot of sightseeing - the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Site, Wall St (there is a statue of a bull on the corner :)

James' favourite was the Chrysler building. It is a pretty spectacular building. It's art deco, and we're going to live in the art deco capital of little old NZ. I wonder if any of Napier's buildings will be comparable? We ate soup and crackers in the food hall, which isn't as bad as it sounds. We visited Trump Tower, which was actually playing "New York, New York" and it was just as excessive as we'd expected. Chilling in Central Park was relaxing.

My favourite shop was Tiffany's, with all it's diamonds, sparkles and doormen. I was surprised the staff actually spoke to us in our daggy travelling clothes. But we played the game too, and pretended like we might possibly be interested in buying something. They had the massive diamond that Audrey Hepburn wore in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" on display.

Another memorable shop was the Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store. They had half naked models on the door posing for polaroid photographs with customers. It was like walking into a nightclub that had lots of clothes on display. It was almost dark, and had blaring bassy music, and there were people employed to stand on the floor and dance and greet customers!! We window shopped our way down 5th avenue. We couldn't believe the M&M building (3 floors of M&Ms and related merchandise - what the?) We saw the most expensive advertising space ever with all the billboards at Time Square, and we were even interviewed by Fox news (some quiz about American politics. The presenter made jokes about Flight of the Conchords). There were more Starbucks stores than MacDonald's restaurants, with one Starbucks about every 50 metres.

The subway and restaurants had massive seats, but there were not as many obese people as I was expecting after watching "Supersize Me". But Tim said that New York is not the typical US city. A bit like Cannes in France methinks...

End of Another Chapter

catherine_and_james — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:40:00 GMT

Our UK summer is at an end... not that they really have a 'summer' in the UK. But eleven weeks later, our work at Kings Manor is over. We'll miss the beautiful Isle of Wight, the free flowing wine, top quality meat and organic vegetables. And the gorgeous dogs, and the new donkeys (long story).

Highlights of the last few weeks are definitely:

Sophie's 21st birthday party. 120 people, a marquee and a Titanic theme. Delicious appetizers, a starter (smoked salmon) and a main course (beef fillet no less) and a dessert all done by Catherine and James Kerr. Quite an achievement I'd say. Especially when it was followed two days later with

Susie's 50th birthday party. 135 people in the same marquee. And amazing food once again by us, now proven mass caterers. James deserves special mention for managing to bbq 15 cuts of butterfly lamb to perfection.

Getting free range donkeys. Susie asked for one, and was presented with Cappucino, her son Trevor, and Cappucino is expecting another baby donkey soon! They are so cute and just wander all round the property. Trevor comes to say hello everytime you open the door.

Luke and Annie coming to stay. I didn't realise how much I missed having friends around until these guys came - it was wonderful!

My cousin Dean coming to stay. There's nothing like family :)

Seventeen hours until we're on the road again - wohoo!

Back to Work

catherine_and_james — Sat, 2 Aug 2008 03:33:00 GMT

Back in England it took at least a week to get back into the habit of flushing the toilet paper down the toilet.

And it just seemed so cold - not real summer! But it was nice to be able to do stuff without sweating all day.

We had a super stressful start to work - got an email at Athens airport telling James about a job opportunity in Napier. So full steam ahead investigating forestry industry and employment options in NZ remotely. Sending CV and covering letter to people, getting in touch with old referees. Deciding that no job was worth living in Tokoroa for. Nelson tugging at our heart strings because of family connections and happy memories. Maybe next time. Because after weeks of agonising, we've decided to come back to Napier. How weird that I'll be a North Islander for a bit!

But it's all very exciting too. And emotionally charged. You've no idea what a huge mental upheaval we've had in the last few weeks. Our whole perspective on the world seems to have changed. Our main occupation will not be intrepid backpacking for much longer. We are going to settle down to a real job - shock horror!! But it will be SOOOO nice to have some money again. Being poor wears super thin super quickly.

So we've used the few minutes of intermittent internet here to look at what cars cost in NZ these days, and to look at Napier on google maps. Neither of us have really spent much time there, but we remember the whole art deco thing, Pania of the Reef, the vineyards and the sunshine.

The work here has slipped into the same pattern as last year, but I think we're coping better with it. 25 people for dinner? No worries. Three courses or four? Most of our time is spent picking raspberries, preparing veges, washing dishes and supermarket shopping. And on sunny days, doing the gardening. James has cleared stacks of trees from around a pond in the garden and it's looking pretty good.

Some weeks are very busy, with lots of mouths to feed. Cowes week (an international sailing regatta) saw 14 people in the house who all required full cooked breakfasts at 7.30am and three course dinners at 8pm. Those were long days!

One thing I don't recommend though - trying to watch NZ in the Olympics from another country! It's impossible. The BBC even switched to another event just as the rowing twins were about to get their gold medals!

We also just booked our flights home - via New York and Tahiti! It really helps having another trip to look forward to. I'm so excited about the shopping in NYC and James starts smiling when we talk about the diving we'll do in Tahiti. Only five more weeks of earning money till we hit the road again :)

Oh, and James has put lots of pretty pictures from our travels on the web. You can see them by clicking here

http://picasaweb.google.com/cat.and.james

Enjoy!

Gallery: Turkey

catherine_and_james — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:47:00 GMT

Athens

catherine_and_james — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 03:29:00 GMT

What a view to arrive to. The streets buzzing with people dining al fresco and the Acropolis lit up under floodlights overhead. Now to find somewhere cheap to stay... yeah right. At 10pm after a day of travel we didn't really have a lot of choice or energy. Our options were the youth hostel's smelly basement dungeon dorm or the twin private room that hadn't been cleaned since the last Olympics were in town. The private room had a window so it won and we broke out our sleep sacks and tried to get some sleep before our big day exploring Athens.

We tried to get up early to beat the swarm of tourist coaches to the Acropolis, but it was already seething with people by the time we arrived. To make matters worse, every single structure on the Acropolis hill was covered in scaffold. Not a single block remained of the temple of Nike, the museum was closed as everything was being transferred to the new one in the town and to top it off, England still has the Elgin marbles. Yes, the Parthenon is pretty cool but once again we reflected on how lucky we were at Palmyra.

Like the Roman forum in Rome, the old Greek and Roman forums at the base of the Acropolis hill took a fair amount of imagination to bring to life. The huge exception being the Stoa of Attalos which has been completely rebuilt and houses an air conditioned museum inside. As it was over 40 degrees outside we spent much longer lingering over shattered pots and plates so we could enjoy a reprieve from the heat.

It was way too hot to do much exploring after lunch so we siestaed in our scabby filth room, our tummies full of yummy dolmades and chicken salad. It took until 4pm until it was safe to venture outside to explore again.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus was pretty cool. Firstly there were no tourists. Secondly its massive columns are very impressive. But the coolest thing about it was the column that had toppled over and separated into bits. It was like a giant row of massive fluted Lifesaver mints leaning against each other in a row (see photo).

So up close we weren't impressed by the Acropolis. However from a distance, it was a different story. We climbed the neighbouring Hill of Nymphs (didn't see any nymphs though) at sunset and the view across the city to the Acropolis was much more impressive.

The next day we were up bright and early and, the clean, efficient Athenian metro network had us at the airport in perfect time for our flight. However this didn't matter as our plane was still sitting on the tarmac on the other side of the continent. So we had nine hours stuck in Athens airport, listening to whining kids, eating nasty airport food, cursing temperamental internet booths and reading boring airport magazines before we finally got off the ground. When we started travelling 18 months ago, we might have been annoyed or even angry at this kind of delay. Call us cynical, but these days we almost half expect it. Anyway, how could we let such a trivial matter ruin the end to what has been an amazing trip around the countries of the eastern Mediterranean?

Andio, Gule gule and M'a Ssalama!

Greek Island Hopping

catherine_and_james — Thu, 3 Jul 2008 03:27:00 GMT

All we wanted was a gorgeous Greek island that wasn't swamped with tourists in July. A tall order, but we had it on good authority that Amorgos was the place to go. However, just getting there from Turkey proved to be quite the journey in itself. The first leg involved getting from Fethyie to Rhodes where hopefully someone could give us some decent information on ferries. Unfortunately we missed the weekly direct ferry by a day we took a three hour bus trip to Marmaris to catch the hydrofoil to Rhodes.

When we got to Rhodes we found out that we had also missed the weekly direct Rhodes-Amorgos ferry by a day. So we decided to spend the night in Rhodes before heading to Syros the next evening where we could catch another ferry to Amorgos. The walled medieval old town of Rhodes (the largest in the world) is a pretty nice place to be stuck for the night really. We managed to get a beautiful room in the centre of town and had a seriously good Italian dinner (it was the best food since France two months ago!!) The next day, after exploring the maze of quaint cobbled streets and battlements we set sail on leg two to Syros.

A gaggle of very keen hoteliers swooped on us as we disembarked in Syros at 3 am. Three in the morning! Business must be tough. We spent two uneventful but comfortable days on Syros, chilling out, waiting for our ferry and hoping that all the efffort to get there was worth it.

Right from the start the signs were encourgaing. A floodlit, postcard perfect, blue domed Greek orthodox church greeted us as we pulled into Amorgos' main port of Katapola in the middle of the night. After a day on the beach to recover from the crazy late night ferries and the hours on noisy, windy decks with continual smoke, we hired a scooter and set off to explore the island.

Our first stop, and for me the real highlight of Amorgos, was the Chozoviotissa Monastery. Perched in the middle of a sheer cliff face 300m above the sea, the stark white building is the centre of attention in an amazingly dramatic location. Despite being 5 stories high, having two chapels and once housing over 100 monks, the building is less than 5 metres across from cliff face to outer wall at its widest point.

At the foot of the cliff below the monastery was the tiny but gorgeous beach of Agia Anna. With crystal clear water and its own tiny whitewashed church it made for an idyllic lunch stop. Think picture postcard Greek Island - this is where they take those pictures. It actually exists! Equally picturesque was the classic wreck of the freighter Olympia that had been washed onto the beach in a small cove on the opposite side of the island.

Away from the cliffs and beaches our camera didn't get much of a rest either. Tiny white and blue churches dotted the landscape all over the place, many of them seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Completely whitewashed, overlooked by windmills, full of wonderful cafes and tavernas, free from traffic, the village of Chora was gorgeous. Walking through the maze of old cobbled streets, past all the blue shuttered houses, blooming boganvillea vines, gossiping locals and sleepy cats, I was thinking that it was a good thing that we had a big memory card in the camera. Another day we took a scooter and headed to the northern end of the island to the villages of Thorlia and Lagkada which were also beautiful and devoid of tourists. In fact considering that it was peak tourist season there were hardly any around at all apart from in the sort of resorty town of Aigeali.

And how could I forget the food! Greek yoghurt topped with Greek honey in Chora... soooo good! Seafood spaghetti on the beach at sunset in Katapola... yum! Chunky Greek salads topped with wild oregano and lashings of local olive oil... mate! Fresh fish! Even the gyros (Greek doner kebab) were really tasty backpacker sustenance and great for the budget at less than 2 euro.

The effort required to get to Amorgos was definitely worth it. Like Olympos in Turkey, we could have easily stayed for longer. It was so beautiful, relaxed and reasonably priced (for Europe anyway). However, with a flight out of Athens in two days time, the Acropolis was waiting for us at the end of our fifth and final Greek ferry trip.

Olympos and Blue Cruise

catherine_and_james — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:26:00 GMT

After five weeks of full on travelling it was time to put our feet up, chill out and recharge for a bit. A cute wee hut nestled in the middle of an orange orchard, in Olympos on Turkey's south coast sounded like just the ticket. So, uncharacteristically for us, our itinerary for the next four days involved getting up mid morning, breakfast, lazing on the gorgeous beach, lunch, snoozing for most of the afternoon, back to the beach, dinner and bed. There was an ancient ruined city... we didn't get around to exploring it. There were walking tracks to beautiful view points... we couldn't be bothered. The nightlife down the road was awesome... or so we were told. We did manage to pluck up the motivation to visit the nearby eternal flames of Chimera. The stuff of myth and legend, flames have spontaneously burnt out of the rocks here for thousands of years. The Greeks believed it to be the breath of a hybrid goat/lion/dragon monster. Scientists say it is a natural methane gas seep. We like the Greek explanation, so we'll go with that. In any case, a dozen fires burning straight out of the rock at night was a surreal sight.

Tucked away from the world with our beach and hut in the orchard, Olympos was so nice and chilled out that we could have stayed there for ages. The opportunity of jumping on a four day cruise around the coast with sunken cities and the home of Father Christmas sounded too good to pass up though.

Unfortunately old Saint Nick must have decided to escape the 40 degree heat and was with the elves at the North Pole when we dropped into Demre to start our cruise. Even so, the town of Demre was the place where the legend of the gift giving saint began. The sunken city of Kekova across the water from Demre was quite cool, but the isolated and vehicle-less town of Simena nearby was just beautiful. Perched over the water, topped by a medieval castle, full of blooming boganvillea vines and surrounded by ancient Lycian tombs, it was a great place to sit down and enjoy a bowl of fresh home made peach ice-cream.

Food on board the boat followed the same pattern that it had for the past three weeks. Breakfast was especially predictable. Olives, mild, salty soft white cheese, tomato and cucumber, bread, egg and obligatory cay (tea). It's served in a tiny little 'tulip' glass on a little silver plate. There are always two sugar cubes, and it's always too strong and bitter. And you always burn your fingers, even when you hold the glass at the very top. But that's what you do in Turkey.

The next two days on the boat pretty much consisted of swimming in secluded bays, snoozing on deck, eating, and cruising the azure Med. On our third day we pulled into Butterfly Valley and relished the opportunity to stretch our legs on dry land. The walk up to the waterfall at the head of the valley, through a sea of pink oleander flowers and clouds of butterflies was pretty nice too.

The highlight of the day came that afternoon though, when Catherine and I ran off the side of a 1700m high mountain on a tandem paraglide at Oludinez. What a rush! We were both a bit nervous standing on top of the ridge at the take off site looking down over the sparkling blue mediterranean way below us. 'Just keep running until I say stop,' my pilot told me. Soon my feet left the ground and it plunged away below me as we started racing over the tree tops. This is like being in a helicopter I thought initially, but quickly decided that it was much better. Instead of a noisy engine, the only sound was the wind in my ears as we cruised along a sheer mountain ridge. My pilot and I circled up to over 2000m on the thermals watching Catherine and the other paragliders take off, before heading out towards Oludeniz (the blue lagoon known as the dead sea in turkish). Despite it sounding very peaceful, I was so nervous about dropping the camera that it took me about 10 minutes to pluck up the courage to get it out without fear of giving it a 1km freefall. As soon as I was really starting to relax though, my pilot suggested that it would be fun to do some 'tricks'. What he really meant is that we would break into an ever tightening death spiral, that would leave my stomach floating miles above me and put me on the verge of blacking out. Catherine's pilot had the same idea and she screamed so loudly that the other people on our boat who were on the other side of the bay could hear her. We were still shaking and pumped full of adrenaline for hours afterwards, but I so want to do it again. It was fantastic!

Awesome location, awesome weather, awesome fun... just plain awesome really. A fitting climax to three brilliant weeks in Turkey.

Selcuk and Pamukkale

catherine_and_james — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:24:00 GMT

By the time we arrived in Selcuk, we'd spent 21 of the last 40 hours on busses. And we still love each other :) Even though our bus activities had deteriorated as far as making wordfinds for each other to ease the boredom... The best food in this part of the world is pide (like pizza) and the best kind is lahmacun, which is minced meat, onions, tomatoes and spices on a super thin base.

We decided not to pay an extra $5 for air conditioning at our guest house. First thing the next morning, we paid the $5. It was 35 degrees in the middle of the night. It was actually too hot to do stuff in the middle of the day, so we got into the habit of early mornings, early lunches and a siesta until we could venture out again.

We hired bikes to get to Efes, better known as Ephesus. We arrived before 9am, thankfully, because bang on 9 the tour busses arrived. The ruins were pretty cool, but not a patch on Palmyra, and they were just flooded with tourists. We arrived home in time to shower all the sweat away and lie low for the hot part of the day.

Next stop was the tiny wee village of Pamukkale. What a choice place to stop! There were literally no tourists in this place. It's famous for the incredible pure white calcified terraces filled with stunning turquoise water. So all the package tourists have a wee stop and continue on their way. Which means accommodation here is authentic, cheap and good! We wandered round the town and ate doner kebabs and turkish ice cream (which reminds me of frozen instant pudding - an acquired taste).

We walked up to the terraces at 4pm - just as the tour busses were leaving. We got to see Borat's brother too - remember that lime green thong? Well, his brother (who else would actually wear one of those things?) had a bright blue one up his bottom, and he proudly displayed his near nakedness for all to see. You have to walk on the calcium with bare feet and it feels like chalk. And it was just wonderful to be in cool water in the searing heat. The higher up you go, the warmer the water is, and you can just lie on the calcium with the water running around you.

There is also a curious natural pool over old Roman ruins - a bit like a sunken city. But it cost $20 to go in. Being cheeky kiwis we managed a half price discount as there was only an hour till closing time - fantastic!! The clear water bubbled up and looked like Berocca bubbles on your skin and you had to swim around the ancient Roman columns in the water. Wicked.

We watched the sunset reflecting off the whiteness and came home to a romantic dinner by the pool - as there were only the two of us in the whole village!

Gallipoli

catherine_and_james — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:17:00 GMT

James: Beautiful and sobering would be the words that I would use to sum up our visit to the WWI Gallipoli battle grounds.

Despite having experienced 27 ANZAC days, I didn't know the full meaning and the significance of what what happened on the Gallipoli penninsula in 1915. Just the numbers are scary enough. Over a million Allied and Turkish troops involved. Half of them killed or injured. 300 kilometres of trenches dug by the ANZACs in 7 months. Average area of land held by ANZAC forces: about one square kilometre!

It all started because the British and French needed to secure an ice free port to hook up with their Russian ally in the East. There were plenty of these in the Black Sea, but with the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) teamed up with Germany, they couldn't get through the Dardanelles and Bosphoros from the Mediterranen to use them. When a naval assalt failed, it was decided that the only way to get through was to capture Istanbul and make the Ottomans surrender. The plan was to land on the Gallipoli penninsula in the early morning and capture its highest and most strategic point, Chunuk Bair, in time for breakfast. Then cut off the penninsula and secure the penninsula by lunch. From there the allies would race north in time to capture Istanbul before dinner. Hmmmm... optimistic.

Catherine: After walking our packs through a very quiet Istanbul at 6am, and a long bus ride to Eceabat, we arrived at a hostel called Crowded House, which serves Vegemite at breakfast. Guess where the tourists come from in this part of the world!

After six hours on a bus, I wasn't really keen to go straight on to another bus for a six hour tour of Gelibolu (better known as Gallipoli). It was only the promise of a packed lunch that lured me on. So we jumped straight on another bus, with an annoying tour guide, an assortment of antipodeans and the crappiest packed lunches I have ever seen! I am not good without food even after four hours. Which is why we ALWAYS carry food with us. Except when a packed lunch is included. Doh! Add in a super early morning in an awful cheap hostel with no fans, bus snacks for breakfast and six hours trapped on a bus in 40 degree heat - you can imagine what a picture of goodwill and serenity I was by 1pm when confronted with hot, squashed white bread with a sliver of spam and an everything-artificial-including-the-sugar drink for 'lunch'. James must have thought I was slightly grumpy as he forced me to eat the spam...

James: We started at Brighton Beach, a broad, gently sloping stretch of coast line, where the ANZACs were supposed to land in the wee hours of the 25^th of April. For one reason or another, the landing took place just to the north in a tiny cove that appeared to be the steepest and most difficult piece of coast line to secure for miles. After ANZAC cove we stopped in at some of the neatly tended cemeteries dotted along the coast line. Today it is a beautiful setting. Flowers bloom along the placid shore of the Aegean Sea. The lush green slopes rise steeply away from the sea towards the spine of the pennisula.

We headed up onto the ridge and walked through no man's land between the old Turkish and ANZAC front lines. In places the opposing trenches were only 8 metres apart! In the summer heat dehydration and dysentry were rife. Even in under these conditions and at such close quarters apparently there were still some light hearted moments. The Ozzies built a pitch and played cricket just back from the front line and the ANZAC and Turkish troops would lob food across the front lines to each other. The ANZACs apparently loved the opportunity to tuck into something other than salty bully beef and rock hard biscuits. Although the Turks deemed the ANZAC food inedible and threw it back!

Catherine: Thank goodness there was a guy selling nuts and raisins. Actual unprocessed food! I began feeling human again and marvelled at this amazing place we'd come to. It was tricky to imagine such a gorgeous coastline as a muddy, diseased killing field. Ugh. And you can totally see why so many people got killed. The Turks could just pick off all the invading Anzacs as they struggled to get up the hill. Not a very clever military campaign.

It was a surreal feeling to see the monuments for Australia and New Zealand - after months on the road, the only NZ type things we've seen are a few notices in Asia saying NZ sponsored this temple or this school, and the (fantastic) war memorial in London. And here we were in Eastern Europe with an enormous statue commemorating our soldiers. And the coolest thing was all the different nationalities visiting the site. There were Turkish families visiting the NZ monument, Koreans at the Australian one, and Kiwis at the Turkish one.

I felt so lucky that we were able to visit this place. And I'm so happy that Kiwis and Turks who visit today are remembering a war rather than fighting in one. Peace.

James: From Chunuk Bair the view over the green pennisula to the Dardanelles and the Aegean was amazing. No doubt the view was totally different when after months of fighting New Zealand troops finally succeeded in capturing this key strategic position from the Turks. This sucess, the greatest in the campaign, was short lived though. Two nights later, British troops who had relieved the Kiwi forces at Chunuk Bair were over run by determined Turkish counter attack. From a military point of view basically the entire campaign was a disaster.

In fact the most successful aspect of the Gallipoli campaign was the withdrawal. Using dummy soldiers, time delayed rifle fire and the cover of darkness, tens of thousands of ANZAC, French, Canadian, Indian and British troops were evacuated from multiple sites without the loss of a single life.

Lest we forget.

Istanbul

catherine_and_james — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:12:00 GMT

Ok, so I have some ground to make up here! This is my impression of Istanbul six weeks after we were there, written from my comfy bed in an English manor house. Luckily, the geek in me kept a diary during our travels, so at least some of it will be authentic "of the moment" thoughts!

The first thing that struck me after we crossed from Asia to Europe on the ferry (incidentally, Istanbul is the only city in the world that straddles two continents) was that Turkey really is a secular country. After weeks of staunchly Islamic countries, we were bemused to see women without head scarves. And I found myself tut tutting at tourists daring to expose their shoulders and calves - only to find that they were locals!! Six weeks in Muslim countries and I had turned into a conservative grandmother wearing high necked shirts and keeping all skin covered at all times. Three days in Istanbul and I was back into t-shirts and 3/4 pants. It took another two weeks for my brain to adjust back into the mindset that bikinis are acceptable swim wear though!!

Turkey shares borders with Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. So many different influences - a fascinating mix. So we both expected Turkey's biggest city to be an interesting place. And it truly was. Nowhere in all our travels had we seen such a mixture of people. Sitting in the gardens outside the mosque of Aya Sofia there were Russians, Turks, Brits, Gypsies, Kiwis, Iranians, Japanese, French, Poles and Italians - just to name a few. This has got to be tourism at its best - people from all over the world, with different cultures, languages and religions, all coming together to admire the same impressive mosque and share in the history of another country. Perhaps this will be the path to world peace?!

Istanbul was also the place we said goodbye to the group we travelled with from Cairo. Goodbye English speakers, hello independent travel on a budget. We found a bed in a semi-clean room in the centre of the old town. No fan though. Quite a challenge to sleep in an oven. It must have been 38 degrees in our room at night. We drank huge 5 litre bottles of water in 24 hours.

As a goodbye thing, we had dinner over the sea and were treated to an amazing sunset (the one you can see here). Then we took our group leader Sakai to a bar in the new town. What a pumping atmosphere on a Friday night! Thousands of people out for a good time filled the streets. And those streets had a distinct European flavour to them, with Starbucks, H&M, fairy lights and clean, flat paving stones on the ground. We managed to find the bar Sakai wanted, have a token drink, and then we left him there with gay abandon (that's a pun).

In between siestas, we did lots of sweaty walking in the old town, window shopping (is it window shopping when the shops don't have windows?) We visited the Spice Bazaar and the Grand Bazaar, which is an entire city of covered markets and it's got to be where the Middle East goes to buy diamonds. Speaking of diamonds, we went to Topkapi Palace and saw a few that rivalled the Crown jewels in London. Unbelievable treasures - like a solid gold sofa/throne completely encrusted with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls. I think that one came from India and there were amazing gems from Persia (now Iran) as well.

James' favourite thing was the 'ekmek balik salata' for 3 lira. It's basically a barbecued fresh fish sandwich drenched in lemon juice. And you eat it under a bridge while the fishermen dangle their lines into the sea. You watch the ferries crossing and we even saw little dolphins playing and stealing the fish off the fishermens' lines before they had a chance to reel the fish in! Not a bad meal for three NZ dollars.

My favourite Turkish delight (ha ha) were the super sweet, sticky, tiny little pretty pastries covered in nuts and honey. A few of those babies with a little cup of Turkish coffee - mm mm!

It's cool to live in a cave

catherine_and_james — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:56:00 GMT

Wow, what a difference a few metres can make. Crossing from Syria into Turkey is like stepping into another world. Bam! Everything is cleaner and newer. The dress code is much more relaxed. The fields of crops are more uniform. Call to prayer at 4:30 in the morning is much more discrete. The ever present pictures of the country's leader virtually disappear. And us Kiwis don't need to stuff around with visas - on ya Helen.

Our first stop was Antakya. Known as Antioch back in the day, it had a reputation as Rome's most depraved outpost. These days the place seems like a pretty wholesome rural Turkish town, partly thanks to St. Peter who took it upon himself to save its citizens from eternal damnation. As practising Christianity was more likely to get you killed than saved in his day, he gathered his congregation in a cave on the outskirts of town. Today this is the oldest surving church in the world... or rather it was. After almost two thousand years the ceiling of the cave recently came crashing down. Bugger.

Living in caves is all the rage further north in Cappadocia too. But with thousands of kilometres of underground tunnels there are always different bits to show the tourists when some other bits collapse. We visited one of the many underground cities at Derinkuyu that covers four square kilometres and is linked to another underground city nine kilometres away! With ventilation and communication shafts, rolling stone doors to seal off parts of the city from intruders, stables, kitchens and churches, these were great fun to explore but were bit chilly at 13 degrees (we had been used to 35 after all).

The sheer walls of the beautiful Ihlara Gorge nearby were also riddled with troglodyte churches, although most had suffered the same fate as St Peter's over the years. Even so, just the walk along the stream amongst willows, poplars, pistachio bushes and wild flowers felt great after weeks in the desert.

The troglodytes really hit the jack pot in the surreal 'fairy chimney' valleys around Goreme. Formed by the rapid erosion of a soft volcanic rock called tuf, the fairy chimneys come in an assortment of shapes and sizes from cones to mushrooms and everything in between (no prizes for guessing what male appendage they are shaped like in Love Valley). Because the fairy chimneys are made of soft rock they are easy to hollow out into houses. The end result is Goreme, a wonderfully laid back town punctuated all over the place by cute fairy chimney houses and hotels. Walking down the streets you half expect little hobbits to pop out out of the nearest door in the rock.

We had an awesome time on quad bikes one afternoon as we set out to explore the neighbouring valleys. In fact, winding along narrow dirt tracks, over ridges, down into valleys, through tunnels and streams brought out quite the speed demon in Catherine. To top off the tour we finished on a ridge top at sunset with local wine and cheese.

Crac des Chevaliers

catherine_and_james — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:31:00 GMT

Crac des Chevaliers is a Crusader castle. And being in Syria it doesn't get overly many tourists. Which is great because you can wander round the place almost by yourself. Until the Scouts show up! I think I remember the Syrian Scouts more than the castle - all dressed in light blue shirts with their navy scarves. Very interesting that boys and girls were together!! Even if the girls did sit behind the boys at lunch time. And the women leaders didn't wear head scarves! Horror! But, as I later realised, things are much more progressive in the cities. Women even wear jeans. But they're still very modest, covering wrists to ankles. But it's lovely to see everyone looking like people and not floating black sacks...

Anyhoo, the castle was impressive. It was so huge and well supplied that they say 5,000 knights could hole up in there for five years if they were attacked. The kitchen alone was as big as three school halls. And each round oven was five metres diameter. Big.

We climbed up to the top tower and almost got blown away with the wind. Fantastic views - just what you'd expect from a castle that was never captured. I wish they would organise someone to clean up all the rubbish though. And spray some Round Up on the gorse growing out of the walls before the roots make them all crumble down.

Unfortunately, I drank coke for the rest of that day. I know it's a hideous acidic concoction, but it has a way of killing nasty tummy bugs you get when travelling. And I find you can survive on the sugar, caffeine and electrolytes in there while your tummy sorts itself out.

Another long bus ride and we arrived in Aleppo. Not in the desert any more. Actual trees. Our hotel transfer was the most memorable one yet. A tiny little truck, like a Suzuki Super Carry, showed up and we loaded our bags into the wire cage and waited for the taxis. But it turned out the wee wire cage was it. For 13 people and their bags. Serious disbelief. But the others started climbing in, and before I could think it through, the wire door was padlocked shut, I was standing half hunched over, squished in against many bodies and we were moving down the road. In complete darkness, just able to see a sliver of road out the bottom of the plastic cover. Unbelievable. An experience never to be forgotten or repeated. I felt like we were being rounded up and taken to a concentration camp.

Happily, Aleppo the city is much nicer than it's hotel transfers. It was my favourite place in Syria. Bustling covered souk, amazing Citadel castle, lots of yummy street food - sweet corn, pop corn, extra sweet Raro cordial, cheese toasties. James and I went for dinner at a cafe and watched the celebrations for a graduation at the citadel - Syrian music, dancers with swords and all the proud parents dressed up and walking through the crowds. But we spent so long watching that by the time we tried to get home, the doors of the souk had been locked! Thank goodness for Sebastian, who pointed us in another direction, and the old guy on the inside who opened the door to our desperate banging.

For our last day in Syria, I went to another hammam with five other girls from our group. Just after we had paid, a very large, very curvy woman wearing nothing but lime green undies came out and told us, in Arabic, to take off our clothes. Right there in reception! A little disconcerting on a hot day, but I did get very clean!

Our last evening in Syria was spent at the Baron Hotel - the very same one that Agatha Christie used to write in. It's super retro, and I think very little has changed since Agatha was there. Groovy!

Middle East Musings

catherine_and_james — Sun, 8 Jun 2008 03:45:00 GMT

I started writing about Petra so many times and just found that it was way too hard to explain. It's an amazing site and I think we'll just try and put on some photos to show you what we mean! Same goes for the vast desert landscape at Wadi Rum. It was the first proper sand dunes streching as far as you can imagine desert that I had been in. It was hard work walking up to the top of a scorching red sand dune in the desert sun, but it was totally worth it to be able to scream down the other side! And I was so proud of climbing monkey styles up a rock face in bare feet to get to the top of a "bridge" between two cliffs. I promise to get that photo on as soon as it gets sent to us.

Tourism in Jordan is completely controlled by the government. Independent travel is practically impossible. So I'm really glad we chose to do it with Intrepid. Once we moved out of Egypt, the numbers of travellers dwindled smaller and smaller. By the time we hit Syria there was virtually no one left. The ruins of Palmyra are probably the most spectacular in the world, and they have a grand total of 8,000 visitors a year. Compare this with Petra's 200,000 odd or the Eiffel Tower's tens of millions. It's sure off the beaten track. Even facebook is banned in Syria because the CIA own part of it. Apparently.

And now here's a test for you. What common English words are these? Woodgeg. Humbrgr. Creep frouit.

Found on a menu in Madabar, Jordan. I'll tell you what they were actually supposed to mean in my next blog. Talking about food, how I would love to eat a carrot. Or some broccoli. Even a green bean. But veges need water and here there is none. So more flat bread and meat (no sauce. Just hunks of meat. Eugh). Breakfast is the saddest meal of all. Flat bread. Hard boiled egg. Plain yoghurt. Strong, bitter black tea. Delicious. Not!

I so enjoyed bobbing around in the Dead Sea too. I lay on my tummy and propped my head on my hands with my feet up. No wonder they told stories about Jesus walking on water. It's totally possible. I got all muddied up too (James was too chicken). The mud was slick like oil and we got a pic of our group all blackened up doing the haka. I reckon it's the first time Jordan has seen that! And the mud works even better than sun block. Once I was all rinsed off (quite an effort) I jumped in the swimming pool and almost drowned. In the normal un-salty water I just felt so super heavy like I was always sinking. No more bobbing around like a cork. But on the upside, no more super-extremely salty mouthfuls of burning poison either.

Arriving in Syria was quite a shock. I wasn't prepared for the change - not quite second world to third world, but close enough. Which is a good thing because I reckon less developed = more exciting. Not to mention better value! My favourite Syrian city was Aleppo. Talk about covered markets. Damascus think that they have the longest in the world, and Aleppo think they have. I'm inclined to go with Aleppo on that one.

And all along the way of this Middle Eastern adventure, James and I have been quietly plotting our next moves. We're going to explore a bit of Turkey down towards Olympos, and then Greek Island hop up to Athens. Then we're back off to the pretty wee Isle of Wight for a few months work to save for the next big adventure - South America.

Oh, and I almost forgot to tell yo about my new favourite doll - Fulla. It's actually Barbie, but the Middle East Muslim version. I so would have bought her if I didn't have to carry all my worldly posessions on my back... Fulla comes in a black head scarf. Truly. So her hair is all covered in the box, and they've made her eyes brown too. Not sure if they changed her hair colour (because it's hidden under the scarf of course) but one Fulla comes with "inside clothes". I guess all little girls like dressing Barbie and brushing her hair. But if you're a little Muslim girl, then you have to make sure Fulla is not in the presence of any men when you do. I didn't see a Ken doll, but I bet he would be called Mohammed. Or Abdulla Ishmael :)

Salaam Syria

catherine_and_james — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 02:19:00 GMT

They reckon that people have been living in Damascus continually for over 8000 years. That's more than eleven times longer than there has been people living in New Zealand!

After Jordan, Damascus was a bit chaotic which took us a bit by surprise. Being less developed than its southern neighbour it is also cheaper, which was great for our budget.

Our first stop was the Umayyad Mosque, apparently the third most important mosque in the world, and the most important one that non-muslims can get into. Inside Iranian Shiite Muslim women were crying over the shrine of Hussain (grandchild of the Prophet Mohammed) and people of all religons were taking a peak through the green glass windows of the shrine of John the Baptist. Even the non-religous types were catered for with huge glittering gold mosaics on the exterior of the mosque outshining any we had seen previously.

However, these mosaics had nothing on the bling overload on the inside of the Roqiasch Shiite mosque down the road. Imagine if a bunch of Chavs decided to build a mosque in Las Vegas, add a few more sparkles and you'd be close to what this place was like. Bling bling!!

Iraq 152 km. That was one of the street signs we passed as we travelled from Damascus to the ruined city of Palmyra. Nice neighbours around these parts...

The 'Bride of the Desert', Palmyra, prospered as Petra declined. It prospered to the point where Palmyra's power hungry Queen Zenobia decided she could take on Rome. No prizes for guessing who came off second best. What remains today is one of the most extensive and amazing romanesque ruins in the world. And we had the place to ourselves! Without a word of a lie, there would have been no more than 20 other people at this amazing UNESCO world heritage site the entire morning we were there.

As with Jerash, the theatre had been totally rebuilt and it was really interesting to see how the back stage of a Roman style theatre worked. The focal point of the Palmyra ruins is the huge Temple of Bel - Palmyra's God of all Gods. The towering outer walls were in pretty good nick, but centuries of earthquakes meant that a lot of imagination was required to bring the interior to life. Linking the Temple of Bel, the baths, theatre, temples, shops and houses was a huge colonade lining the main street. Including the characteristic 'Tetrapylon' round-about, these structures give a great feel of what it would have been like to walk through the city in its heyday and were the highlight of the site for me.

With archaeological work continuing and bits of buildings sticking out of the ground everywhere, you get the feeling here more than anywhere else that we have been that there are many more treasures just waiting to be discovered just below the surface.

So much amazing history. So many incredible sights. But so few tourists! Courteousy of the USA's self-inflicted crappy relationship with Syria, virtually all western countries "advise against undertaking any unnecessary travel" to this country. But as a traveller, Egypt feels so much more dodgy than Syria. Sharing with fewer tourists was great by us, but apparently times are changing, so the days of having Palmyra to yourself might be numbered.

Floating around in the Dead Sea

catherine_and_james — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 02:11:00 GMT

Swimming in the Dead Sea (at more than 410m below sea level, the lowest point on the surface of the earth) is a totally bizarre experience. For a start, as you get in the water feels all oily on your skin. Wade in up to your chest and the water forces you up into a floating position. Normally I'm hopeless at floating without moving my arms or legs, but here it is a breeze. In fact if you lie on your stomach and arch your back you can float around in a yoga pose with your legs and arms out of the water! Or if you just want to relax and read a book, just lie back and go for it. It's like having an in built Lilo! Watch out if you're reading the newspaper though, because the wind catches it like a spinnaker. Next thing you know the life guard on the shore is yelling at you because you are being blown away towards Israel and the West Bank!

Catherine's favourite bit about the Dead Sea was the mud pack though. The mud here is jet black and they cover you from head to toe in it apart from around your eyes, so that you end up looking a bit like a seal in a bikini! Apparently its really good for your skin too, but the photos alone are worth it for the 3 JOD (NZ$6) it costs.

Get in quick though if you want to experience the Dead Sea before it's gone. Israel is taking too much water out of the Jordan river that fills it up, so it might be less than 50 years before it dries up for good. However the Israelis are on to the problem... sort of. Rather than taking the simple option of removing less water out of the river, instead they are thinking of building a huge, billion dollar canal from the Red Sea some 300 kilometres away... you do the math...

After rinsing ourselves off we stopped in at Mt Nebo, the spot where Moses finally spotted the promised land only to promptly drop down dead. Poor bugger.

Our next stop was the ruined Roman city of Jerash just north of the Jordanian capital of Amman. Apart from an obligatory but impressive triumphal arch, the highlight of this set of ruins was the perfectly restored theatre. After testing the impressive accoustics ourselves, we got to savour the rather bizarre sight of four Jordanian soldiers in full traditional costume marching around the theatre while they pumped out a sucession of Highland classics on their bagpipes!

Fantastic Petra

catherine_and_james — Sun, 1 Jun 2008 17:59:00 GMT

Recently voted one of the seven new wonders of the world, star location for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and one of my two non-negotiable 'must see' sights on our global trip, the Nabatean city of Petra had a lot to live up to. It certainly didn't disappoint.

That first tantalising glimpse of the Treasury through the narrow Siq was everything that I had hoped for. Cut in to, rather than out from, the sheer rose coloured cliff face, the carving has survived amazingly well over the past 2,000 years. The only real damage to the Treasury has been courtesy of the local Bedouin people. Believing that there was treasure hidden behind the numerous statues and urns on the exterior of the building, they peppered them with their rifles. Despite the 'Treasury' not giving up a cent to their hail of bullets, the name stuck.

Of course the city of Petra is much more than just one building, although most tour buses of fat Spaniards and Italians fortunately didn't seem to know this. As they waddled back up the Siq to their air conditioned coaches, we had most of the place to ourselves.

At Petra the horse mafia rule the roost. They're so cunning that they hold the King to ransom and force him to include the price of their terrible horse ride into the entry price to Petra. And when the King tried to change things, they threatened to blow up Petra with dynamite... long story.

Anyhow, back to the good stuff. As well as the Treasury, on our first visit, we headed up to the High Place of Sacrifice for a bit of an overview of the site. En route we passed a Roman amphitheatre carved out of the cliff face and tombs so numerous that most of them are just referred to as a number.

The skill of the carving is just half of the beauty of Petra though. The coloured sandstone cliffs that the buildings were carved from are equally impressive. Reds, yellows, white, browns, purples and blues. A single coloumn on the front of a tomb can seriously have a whole rainbow of colours in it. Elsewhere we saw all the tiny mulitcoloured layers in an ancient sand dune that was frozen in time, and that now forms part of a the facade of a tomb.

The next day we set out on an 'Adventure Walk' led by Sakai, one of the most intrepid travellers we've ever met (an extra large passport lasts him about two years before he runs out of pages). We started out early and headed down the old canal at the entrance to the Siq. After an hour or so of clambering over boulders, dodging snakes, spooking the local goat herds and meandering through blazes of pink oleander flowers, we arrived at an area littered with tombs that no one ever seems to get to. Unfortunately the local goat herds seem to like sleeping in these tombs, so when I went in for a closer look I came out totally covered in fleas! The colours of the sandstone on the temple of Sextinius Florentinius (what a great name eh!) were superb though.

After lunch we climbed the 783 steps up to the Monastry and were blown away all over again. While it is not as detailed as the Treasury, it is much bigger in scale and sits pride of place on its own plateau up the mountain. As if the building itself wasn't impressive enough, two of the local Bedouin men set about keeping everyone's hearts in their mouths by climbing on top of it and jumping from roof to roof 40 metres up!

After a brilliant day exploring the tombs we enjoyed a fantastic feast of traditional dishes including megluba and mezze. For a region that had a habit of serving us up a succesion of dishes that were all a bit same same, these were a tasty change.

Petra gets the double thumbs up!

PS: A brief history of Petra.

Petra florished for about two centuries during the 1st centuries BC and AD. It was one of several Nabatean cities that were important stops on the Silk Road bringing spices and silk from Asia to Europe. Petra grew rich because it controlled the local water supply, so the caravans had no choice but to stop at Petra where they were taxed for doing so. Just like Christ, the Romans were the downfall of Petra. Despite setting up in harmony with the Nabateans in Petra, they got greedy and started diverting the caravans through other routes to the north that were more profitable for them. With less caravans and less taxes, Petra declined and was virtually abandoned in the second century AD.

What remains today is mainly the necropolis of Petra (where they buried the dead). The more important the person the more impressive the tomb. The Treasury was the tomb of Petra's ruler at its peak around the time of Christ.

Into Jordan - Wadi Rum

catherine_and_james — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:16:00 GMT

After legging it up Mt Sinai it was great to chill out at our seaside camp at Nuweiba on the gulf of Aqaba the next day. The snorkelling was pretty nice with stacks of lionfish and morays hanging around. You know the diving is pretty second rate though when the only highlight of your dive is the dive master's ability to blow perfect bubble rings.

Jordan was our next stop. In order to get there without going through Israel, a ferry to Aqaba was our only choice. Notorious for running late, we sat on the wooden benches in the departure lounge (read: tin shed with no air con and splintered wooden benches) and hoped for the best. Unfortunately for us the ferry was well on its way to setting a new record as our 2pm departure ballooned out to 5pm, then 7pm, then 9pm. Finally we managed to get away over nine hours late and collapsed into bed at 3am in Aqaba!

Our trip into Wadi Rum the next day made up for the ferry though. Famous as the stomping ground of Lawrence of Arabia, the landscape is spectacular. Huge wind sculpted red sandstone escarpments rising out of the sandy wadi floor to a clear blue sky made for endless photo opportunities. And with hardly a tourist in sight, we had the place virtually to ourselves for the whole day! With our own real life Sheikh for a guide, we explored tight, windy canyons to find 2,000 year old Nabatean rock art, sipped super sweet herbal tea with the local Bedouins and raced down huge sand dunes. Climbing up onto the 20 metre high natural rock bridge was especially cool.

That night we camped out in the Wadi, dined on a bedouin hangi, were serenaded with Bedouin tunes and enticed the local desert foxes to our camp with our left overs. Even being being woken up by a symphony of snoring in the middle of the night had a silver lining. As Catherine and I relocated our matresses outside, we got to watch the landscape become illuminated as the moon rose into the clear night sky over the neighbouring escarpment.

Pyramids and Mt Sinai

catherine_and_james — Sun, 25 May 2008 23:14:00 GMT

How exciting! We got to see the pyramids in real life! And we marvelled at how they could possibly have been built, and how they have lasted thousands of years of sun and wind and sand. Just amazing. From the outside. Going inside is like crawling down a very steep hill, bent double in a tiny, dank, musty tunnel leading to a steam room created from tourist sweat and breathing. Ick! But I guess it's got to be done when you've come all this way :)

We arrived at the pyramids just after 8am, before all the horrid tour busses invaded and before lots of the horse/camel/souvenir touts had started work for the day. We were super lucky to have the Sphinx all to ourselves to explore. It's in the middle of the desert now, but the River Nile used to pass by in front of its feet.

After two hours in the heat, and many photos later, we taxied our way back in to central Cairo to see the Egyptian Museum. Super highlight of whole building = Tutankhamun's mask. Spectacular! Cannot believe it is thousands of years old - looks gleaming and shiny new. And all the jewellery is so similar to what we wear today (except they had tiny fingers and wrists back then). Gorgeous gold necklaces and bracelets, onyx, lapis lazuli and coral inlays. Unfortunately, to get to Tut's room, you have to wade through stacks of dusty, crammed in ruins and statues taken from the tombs, and hundreds of mummies. You know, just stacked on the shelves like books, right where you can touch them and breathe all over them, and the sun and air can get in. I don't like their chances of surviving the next 5,000 years...

Then it was Friday afternoon. Wow. Talk about lining the streets with hundreds of men bowing to Mecca. Right in the middle of the city footpaths. It was a bit surreal at first, and made me think of those born again Christian churches in America. All the peer pressure to get on your knees and pray. Later that evening, eating our felafel, hummous and kebabs at a wee street stall, we got to see the whole thing close up. The call to prayer sounded, and our waiter and the chef washed their hands and faces and walked out to the footpath just beside us, as did all the other men in the area. And for the next five minutes they were up and down, grinding their foreheads into the footpath and saying their prayers.

Who was missing?

No one important. You hardly see them anyway. Just those people covered head to foot in big black nylon sacks. All the mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. They sink back into the shadows. If there is one thing worse than being pressured to pray in the street, it is being forbidden from praying in the street while all the cool men do it.

The next day I chatted with a university educated Egyptian guy who has lots of contact with Western tourists about this whole exclusion and covering of women thing. The scary thing is, he thinks it's natural, and even necessary!!! Imagine, he said, if women were allowed to pray where men could see them. You have to bend forward, and kneel on the ground. And men couldn't possibly concentrate on their prayers if they could see a women kneeling at the same time. Of course not, silly me. It's the same 'logic' with covering hair/face/head/entire body in the street. Never mind that it's bloody hot without all the extra layers.

The next day, we started our Cairo to Istanbul trip with Intrepid. Huge thumbs up to them - what a wicked adventure! We're travelling with four other Kiwis, an Ozzie, two Canadians and three Brits. And our leader is worth a blog entry in his own right - a dreadlocked Australian hippy who has been overseas for twelve years, speaks 15 languages, and was made a Cambodian citizen by the King. As you do!

We went to Coptic Cairo to see Christian, Jewish and Islamic places of worship. And yes, I did enter the mosque through the crappy little women's side entrance, while James walked through the grand front door. And yes, I used my head scarf. And yes, I was covered from my wrists to my ankles. And yes, despite this, they gave me a big green druid sack dress with a hood to divert attention from my female body. And yes, I had to pay extra for the privilege of wearing it.

The next challenge was scaling the 4,000 (yes - four THOUSAND) steps to the top of Mount Sinai, where they say Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. I was knackered by the time we got to the first step. One girl opted to go up another path by donkey. Two others pulled out when they saw the steps. But they say that if you climb all the steps to the top, all your sins are forgiven. It was too good an opportunity to miss. So we ploughed on up. The 'steps' were ridiculous, uneven, enormous boulders. I lost two kilos after the first three thousand. The landscape was incredible. Sheer rocky cliffs for miles. Clear blue skies. Ah, the serenity.

At Elijah's Plateau, we saw the burning bush (where God spoke to Moses 2000 odd years ago.) Miraculously, it was still charred from where it had burned! James pointed out that it was a cypress that was a maximum 300 years old. No matter, we saw plenty of other bushes (including a blackberry vine at St Katherine's Monastery) that are all reputedly THE burning bush.

That morning, there had been 400(!) Russian tourists on top of the mountain for sunrise. So we were prepared to be sharing the summit. We arrived at the top of the mountain with pounding hearts in time to see a magnificent sunset. Not a soul but us. Bliss.