Marsa Alam

We were looking forward to meeting up with my friend Si from England on the Red Sea coast, he was flying in for a week's holiday of diving, catching up and taking advantage of our 'all inclusive rehydration package' hotel booking. After all, scuba diving and catching up is thirsty business.

We planned to make an early start as we had about 300km to travel and it was a good job we did as today of all days was when our travel karma points must have ran dry. We were at the bus station for 8 a.m. with 9 hours to play with before Si's arrival. We were told that the 8.30 bus had been cancelled and we'd have to wait until 10. As e had a bus to catch from Qeft at 11 a.m. we were keen to get moving, but as it was only 40 minutes away the 10 o'clock bus would still be ok for us. However this bus didn't show up until 11.30 and by 11.45 it had broken down and we stranded on the side of the road, so nearly 4 hours down and we had only moved 30km. We managed to flag down a truck that took us to Qeft. Once in Qeft we realised ( no surprise) that we had missed the bus and the next bus wasn't until at 6 p.m. We asked the shared taxi (battered old 7 seater Peugeot) drivers to take us but we were told that they weren't allowed to take foreigners as we couldn't travel without the police convoy, "Problems for people like you with the police man" we were told. They suggested taking a 'special' taxi, a taxi as we know it i.e. unshared, but even these guys weren't keen on taking us foreigners through the many check points outside of convoy hours.

Eventually after a lot of talking and whispers in policemen's ears we were ushered into a car. Following all the involvement with the police and our awareness of breaking the convoy rules we wanted to check with the driver that the agreed price hadn't changed. "Still same price, 100 Egyptian pounds?" "Yes, yes" the driver said. But as each police check point involved some chit chat/explaination from our driver he constantly demanded some "Baksheesh" or tip. We were just relieved to be hurtling towards the coast. And that wonderful 180km drive through the sandstone formation in the desert only cost us (including baksheesh) $26!

We still had 65km to travel along the coast and it was already 4.15, we had 40 minutes to meet Si at the airport. We chartered another 'special' taxi and sped down the coast road and we became habitualised very quickly to the car's speed limit warning bleeper. We made it to the airport in time to surprise Si and we were soon in our hotel for a week of bliss, relaxation, scuba diving and queueing for the 'free' bar with the pale Europeans and the thristy Russians.

Luxor

About 200km north of Aswan is the modern city of Luxor, site of the 4000 year old city of Thebes, the one time capital of the ancient empire. As we expected this area is peppered with temples, obelisks, statues and of course the famous tombs.

We visited the beautiful mountainous desert landscape that is the Valley of the Kings. Over 60 underground tombs, mainly for the pharaohs, with beautifully carved and painted walls can be found here. It's quite a spectacular site, but one which must be stored in the memory of observers as no photography is allowed in any of the tombs. We witnessed one couple being lead out of one tomb by a 'security' guard for flashing. Holding the offending camera, obvioulsy keen to claim his percentage of the heafty fine for such a crime, the guard frog marched them off and were never seen again....

Fearing an extension of her work day, our guide dissauded us from visiting the most famous of the tombs here, the one belonging to Tutankhamun. "It's quite a walk from here, you need another expensive ticket and it's not very good." Thankfully we had seen King Tut's impressive treasure room in the Cairo museam which included photos for the empty tomb.

Like most people we had heard of the pyramids of Giza and of the Valley of the Kings but we hadn't heard of the stunning temple complex of Karnak, only 2km the centre of Luxor. In its prime it was the most important place of worship in Egypt and it main structure the Temple of Amun was considered to be the largest religious building ever build. A marvellous mini sphinx-lined path leads you into the Great Hall a 6000 sq-metre garden of 134 massive papyrus shaped carved stone pillars, a truely awesome sight. We found this place very difficult to leave, maybe one of the greatest sights we had seen in Egypt.

Aswan

We took a wonderful overnight sleeper train from Cairo to the Nile hugging southern city of Aswan. From here the amazing ruins of Abu Simbel were only a few hours away. To help with tourist safety certain destinations can only be reached via a police convoy. These convoys leave at specific times during the day. The morning convoy to Abu Simbel left at 4 a.m. which meant a 2.45 a.m. wake up call for us! Certainly the pressure was on for this to be a good day and we weren't dissapointed. The 2 rock-cut temples with 20m tall colossal statues guarding the entrances certainly were a treat for tired eyes. The fine carvings in side the temples took our minds off the stiffling heat. After an hour and a half we were back on the minibus to join the convoy back to Aswan. So it was a 6 hour round trip to spend 90 minutes at the ruin site, which doesn't sound that great on paper, but was well worth it especially to see pink painted police watch towers at the check points in the middle of the desert.

Giza pyramids, Sakkara, Memphis

After much waiting and much anticipation we saw the pyramids. Along with the Taj Mahal and Uluru, it was probably the most iconic wonder either of us had seen and is accompanied with a slightly unreal feeling, one that makes you look back over your shoulder over and over again to make sure you're actually there in person.

We had very low expectations, not so much of the pyramids themselves but more of the experience. We'd heard tales of massively overcrowded sights, pushing to get into the pyramids themselves, touts literally shoving their goods into your arms. We were prepared for a constant battle with touts and tourist but were very happily surprised. The area is huge - we actually got around with the car instead of by foot - and even the most cramped quarters (inside the third pyramid), people were thoughtful and non-pushy. Seeing the the burial chamber inside the pyramid was a lot of fun and it was great to poke around the few rooms down there. Our guide leaded us around, providing constant information littered with names we no longer remember and keeping some of the touts away or at least better behaved. The sphinx was excellent to see in person. Really, the whole experience was a lot of fun.

We did a quick trip to Sakkara, a burial ground prestigious before the Valley of the Kings. Not much remains, but it was nice to see the National Geographic episode about the area and have a little noodle around, seeing the 'step pyramid'.

We finished off our trip with a visit to Memphis, the old capital of the kingdom chosen because it was in the middle of upper and lower Egypt and thus a great central base for the pharohs. While there was very little there, we checked out the incredible statue of Ramses II which was apparently unearthed when they dug the parking lot.

Siwa

We took a 9 hr detour through the desert, close to the Libyan border to the oasis town of Siwa. With plently of date palms and fresh water springs Siwa offers a great insight into mid-desert life, with donkey carts being the main mode of transport. With its fair share of Greco-Roman ruins and its abundance of mosquitos it has to take your mind off the strict conservative muslim ethics that the town's map asks you to respect.

Alexandria

And so onto the historic city of Alex, established in 332 BC by Alexandra the Great. Although nothing much remains of its glorious past (including one of the ancient wonders, the lighthouse of Paros) it has some impressive catacombs, regal colonial buildings, historic coffee shops and the oldest, noisiest tram system we've ever seen. We also stumbled upon a small scale fish market full of charactures more than willing to have their photos taken, even the crab man!

Suez

We hadn't planned to stay in Suez, but after a 7 hr bus trip we were ready for a break. Amazingly, our talented 'egg man' at the hotel in Dahab was on our bus and very kindly arranged for us to meet a childhood friend of his who not only found us a decent hotel but also took us out for dinner, showed us around some local businesses and took us to the famous Suez Canal. It was quite surreal seeing these huge cargo ships apparently 'floating' through the desert. It was one of those really fun days on the road that is simultaneously totally random and entirely fun. It has also induced a number of kushari cravings.

Egypt - Dahab

After bidding James farewell (well, until we visit him in February, anyway) we took the ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba, Egypt. A quick minibus ride and we were in Dahab, a place we'd planned to visit overnight but ended up staying for 3 days. Ah, it was a little slice of heaven in the part of a trip that has been, shall we say, culinarily limited. Suddenly we were surrounded by pubs, seaside bars, gourmet burger joints and several Thai restaurants (and good ones, I might add). It was a very welcome treat. We mostly ate, drank and planned the rest of our trip.

Aqaba

We spent our last few days together in the relatively relaxed city of Aqaba drinking at the local mock-English pub and doing four fabulous dives. The diving there is great - the dive sites only take a few minutes to drive to and are all shore dives which are much, much more relaxing (these were my first shore dives and I loved missing out on all the anxiety of the last minute rush that always happens on boat dives). The water was lovely and warm, the coral was bright and beautiful, the fish were great and we saw our first underwater tank! It was wonderful to get back into diving again and both Phil and I are really looking forward to jumping back in the water in Egypt when we meet up with Si.

We had a fabulous time with James and are missing him loads!!

Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum is billed as Jordan's second biggest tourist attraction and was described as 'gobsmacking' by a tourist we ran into. While I'm not sure I'd go so far as to crack out 'gobsmacking' it is cool and very beautiful. Not only does it have its fair share of great sand dunes but it also has some beautiful rock formations and some great rock inscriptions. We spent an afternoon rambling around in an ancient 4wd (that makes Big Red look like a sleek new machine) checking out the sights and even climbing to the top of dune until we were dropped off at a local 'Bedouin' camp. The Bedouin are a nomadic desert people who have typically survived by herding goats and camels in the desert but now many of them make their money from the tourism. Our camp was brand new - built just 3 day earlier - with basic and comfortable accommodation, especially considering we were in a desert. We got a yummy chicken and potato dinner cooked in a Bedouin oven - a pit dug into the ground and covered with coals and soil.

Petra

Petra, what can you say? It's as amazing as you think it's going to be and so much more. Seeing the Treasury peaking out from between the canyon walls was a thrill each and everytime we approached (made better by gently humming the Indiana Jones theme song).

Petra was built in the 3rd century AD by the Nabateans who carved palaces, temples, tombs, storerooms and stables into the sandstone. And they did an incredible job. What struck all of us was not only how beautiful the site is - and it is incredibly stunning - but also how big it is. We ended up walking about 5km from the start of the Siq (canyon) to the immense Monastery at the other end. Along the way we checked out loads of palaces, churches (built later), tombs, and the colonnaded street. We climbed up all of the grueling stone steps in the intense heat of the day to see the beautiful and huge Monastery which looks more or less like the Treasury but on a bigger scale without some of the finer detail. And, at the end of the day, we walked back through the valleys and past the ruins, enjoying each one for a second (or third) time; it's a place that I think I would never get tired of.

Karak

Karak is one of the many Crusader castles built in the 12th century between Aqaba and Turkey. It is the centerpiece of an otherwise friendly, dusty little town. The castle itself is pretty well preserved or reconstructed, with loads of so-called jail cells and an amazing amount of stables. We mere escorted around by an enthusiastic young police officer-cum-guide who showed us the 'VIP jail cell' and the various dining rooms. After our tour and a bit of poking around on our own, we all sat down and enjoyed the view and the swifts darting around after insects.

Madaba, Dead Sea

After a few days in Amman it was nice to escape to the little town of Madaba, home to Jordan's most famous mosaic, which is saying something given the number of mosaics in this part of the world. The mosaic is known as the earliest map of Palestine. It was created in 560 AD and has 157 lables in Greek showing all of the major biblical sites of the Middle East from Egypt to Palestine. Though not that much of it remains, it used to be about 20m long and 6m wide.

We used Madaba as a base for a day trip to Mt Nebo where Moses supposedly saw the Promised Land. We caught a taxi right to the top and spent a few minutes looking at the surrounding area sandwiched between groups of religious pilgrims.

A real highlight of our trip through Jordan was our visit to the Dead Sea. Now, on paper I don't think it sounds like much: hyper-salinated water that makes you float. But there is something unnatural and very fun about the whole experience. It feels a bit more like what I imagine zero-gravity would be like than swimming. We spent about an hour bobbing around super-buyonantly watching other tourists coat themselves with the local black tar-like mud. The only downside of the experience was accidentally getting a few drops of water in the mouth; it tasted like burning.

Jordan - Amman

Amman is the 'modern' capital of Jordan and where we met James for our two week Jordanian adventure. While Amman won't win any beauty prizes it was a nice enough place to spend a few days. Besides having two (two!) places that serve sweet, delicious beer, Amman is also home to a few cultural sites.

We hiked up the hot, endless steps to the citadel which not only had some excellent ruins but also gave great views of the city. As an extra bonus, we also got to listen to the awesome sounds of an Arabic bagpipe band and saw some of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

We also visited the local Roman theater that was built in the 2nd century AD.

The excellent ruins of Jerash are about an hour North of Amman. Jerash is a huge and beautifully preserved site of a Roman city. All the usual 'ruined Roman city' sites of interest where here, the theatre, the forum, the (impressive) main gate, the nymphaeum (I wish fountains where still referred to as nymphaeums) and the many columned temples. Alas, most of the columns had succomed to their sesmic nemisis: the earthquake. Another impressive addition in Jerash was the hippodrome, but just as you're always in a whale-watching area out of season, we were here on the only day of the week that the reinactment of the chariot races weren't racing. Neither was the 'Gladiator' show showing which would have been hilarious.

We finished off the day by taking a trip up to the awesome Ajloun castle.

Oh, Glorious Urfa

The pilgrimage town of Sanliurfa, aka Glorious Urfa, is where the prophets Job and Abraham trod in biblical times. It is culturally smack-dab in the middle of the Turkey we've seen everywhere else and the Middle East that we're expecting. Here we've seen more than our fair share of men sporting huge moustaches and extremely baggy pants. We've also seen an increasing number of women in their chadors and a few with beautiful purple head scarves and curiously tatooed faces, reminisent of the ones that were all the rage in Ethiopia. While the number of tractors has not decreased, the number of horse-drawn carriages has skyrocketed, and we even spotted a few camels today. It is a facinating and friendly place to visit.

The first order of business today was to visit the town of Harran, about 50km south of Urfa towards the Syrian border. Harran is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns on Earth and home of some distinctive 'beehive' houses, the style of which dates back to the 3rd century BC (though the ones still standing in town are about 200 years old). They're excellent from the outside, but even better to take shelter in when a storm begins a-brewin', as we found out today.

Harran is also home to the first Crusader castle we've seen on this trip. While it's only partially intact, what remains is very cool and up to third world safety standards with enormous holes in the floor that could lead to a broken leg - or worse - if you weren't careful. Needless to say, while the castle and vistas were excellent we remained on high alert.

Back in Urfa we headed straight for the bazaar for a few hours of noodling around and scoping out photo opportunities. Happily, the Urfa bazaar was one of the happiest and friendliest bazaars we've encountered; vendors were more than happy to have us gawk and take pictures. At one point they swarmed us to take their photo. In the pigeon lane they were happy for us to enter the cages and even handle the merchandise! I really have no idea why they're so keen on selling live pigeson, though..

Nemrut Dagi: land of big stone heads

Now, really, who doesn't love a big, disembodied stone head? These really big heads, which have long since toppled off their bodies, were built by a pre-Roman king who believed that the gods presented were his relatives.

There are actually two sets of statues, one on the West side and the other on the East. In between is a 50 m artificial mountain of crushed rock believed to cover the king's tomb and perhaps that of up to three female relatives, but no one's dug in to check. Having on terrace on each side makes it handy for tours - you go up to 'ooh' and 'ahh' at the West side for sunset, then early the next morning you do the same thing on the East side. There are a few nice differences on the two sides, with the bodies still visible on the East side, and the heads retaining more detail on the West side.

Nemrut Dagi is one of Turkey's three most popular sights, after Istanbul and Cappadocia. After visiting, I can see why - there is something a little magical about the place, though the ruins are small and pretty 'what you see is what you get'. Or maybe that's the early dawn talking...

Cappadocia

We have been looking forward to seeing Cappadocia ever since we saw it on a postcard in Bulungula, Wild Coast, South Africa, in March at the very start of our trip. And when we finally arrived we were not disappointed. From the bus we could see the cave houses near Uchisar and the the fairy chimneys in Goreme, a landscape that is totally otherworldly.

The rock formations of Cappadocia are varied in their apperance, from fat and squat little houses to tall and phalic pillars to the drapery-like white rock on the sides of the canyons. It's the kind of landscape that takes a long time to get tired of looking at.

And in order to see it better, we decided to see it from the sky via a hot air balloon ride. Or a balloon flight as they call it here, but we all know it's really more of a ride than flight. It was the first time for both of us to go up in a hot air balloon (we were intending to go up in Tanzania but we decided to pass since we'd missed the migration) and it was absolutely fantastic. You float magically up off the ground and sweep into the sky in absolute silence except for the occasional blast of hot air. The the wind gently swept us from one valley to the next, with our expert pilot (?) taking us down into most of the valleys, just meters away from the formations. When we landed, we landed exactly on the trailer and were treated to a glass of the finest - and by 'finest' I mean 'cheapest' - champagne. It was lovely.

Besides the hot air balloon, we also did a few walks through a couple of canyons to get a better look at the formations and we visited the underground city in Kaymakli which was interesting in a clausterphobic kind of way. We were sandwiched between two tour buses, but everyone was friendly enough.

Safranbolu

The escape from Istanbul was especially sweet because our next stop was the lovely and incredibly friendly town of Safranbolu, famous for its large number of restored Ottoman houses. One of the perks of the town is that a lot of these houses have been converted into good value pensions and we got to stay in a ripper complete with a decorated ceiling, traditional niches and some of the best hospitality we've had in Turkey.

On our first night, we were escorted to a little restaunt in town by one of the women working at the pension. We walked through amazing little alleyways, up and down a valley, past mosques and fountains, always amazed by what we were seeing and quite confident that between the two of us we'd be able to make it back. And perhaps in the daylight this would have been the case, but after our yummy dinner the sun had well and truly gone down and we were stuck ambing through unfamiliar streets with the constrant refrain 'does this look familiar?'. The town appeared to be deserted; we hadn't seen anyone in ages. Eventually we bumped into a young guy who was getting picked up by his friend. We sheepishly pulled out the hotel's card and asked, mostly through gesticulation, if he could point us in the right direction. After a few words to his friend, they said 'please get in. We will take you there' and they did! For free! It is one of those amazing little situations that would surely never happen back home and really demonstrates the goodness of the people out here. Needless to say, we thanked them profusely.

Istanbul

We were both very excited about what Istanbul had to offer and worried about hitting one of Turkey's major tourist hotspots during Bayrami, the festival that celebrates the end of Ramadan and includes a sweets holiday. And we were right to fear it; the town was chock-a-block with international and Turkish tourists.

The sights in Istanbul were good. We checked out the amazing old basilica cistern which fed water to the city in the mid-500 AD and is gorgeous and a little eerie inside, even when it's packed with whispering tourists.

We were not particularly enthralled with Tokapi Palace, but dutifully walked around, weaving in between tour group and entering most of the rooms (except for the ones we couldn't squeeze in to). We paid the extra to enter the harem which was well worth the money because the rooms are beautiful and because tour groups don't bother to pay the extra.

Aya Sofya, built in the mid-500 AD, reigned as the greatest church in Christendom until the Conquest is 1453 when it was converted into a mosque. In 1935 the Ataturk changed it into a museum.

The interior is amazing, with a stunning domed ceiling that soars upwards. The ambiance of Aya Sofya is one of awed silence, with only muffled whispers exchanged between tourists and some slightly louder hissing of information from guides. Besides the gorgeous architecture, the mosaics that remain are amazingly beautiful, and the upper gallery that houses them gives some sense of the height and scale of the building.

Our last tourist stop was to the Blue Mosque, one of Istanbul's most famous and most photographed sights. Unfortunately the day we visited it was raining cats and dogs outside, so we were hustled in just before the closure for midday prayers with officials yelling 'Don't stop! Take off your shoes before you enter! Do not stop!' - an acrobatic feat, especially when you're squashed in with hunderds of other wet tourists with potentially eye-gouging umbrellas. Inside the mosque was very serene and nicely decorated. It was wonderful to see a living mosque, not just a historical relic/museum.

Because of the holidays, the Grand Bazaar was closed as was the interior of the Spice Bazaar. We made the horrible mistake of trying to visit the Spice Bazaar one of the days we were there and got squashed 'love parade' style between hundreds of locals, none of whom appeared to be moving.

In an attempt to escape, we stumbled upon Yeni Camii, another lovely mosque, and the Galata Bridge which is an area famous for its fish sandwiches. Phil bravely lined up and tried a sandwich that came complete with every bone in the fish; after a bit of picking he gave it up as lost cause. Still, it was great to see the fillets being cooked on the decorated boats as they violentely bobbed around in the waves.

We were more than happy to escape the 'bul which has its fair share of lovely people but a higher-than-average number of wankers.