Aleppo: butchers, tailors and soap makers

We parted company today with Lise and headed north towards Aleppo, the last major city in Syria prior to the Turkish border. Like Damascus, Aleppo has an intricate Old City, one in whose alleys you could lose yourself and probably not find the way out for a good few days. However, unlike Damascus, something here is amiss. We did not feel the same kind of atmosphere as we did in Damascus, nor did we feel content to just merely wander around. Maybe it’s just getting to be too much of the same thing over and over again. However, I really think that there was something special about Damascus that no other town can compare with and it’s something that you have to experience for yourself.

Aleppo, however, is not without its merits. Its Old City is filled never ending souqs that go on for kilometers. These are seldom touristy. Rather, they are filled with all the goods that the locals might desire. There seems to be a kind of logic to most markets like these, whether it would be in Hanoi, in Cairo or here in Aleppo. Generally speaking if you want a given product, you go to a given area. So, like in Hanoi where you would find a street filled with stores selling rope, here too you will find an area of the souq selling such goods. A different section will be selling cloth, toys, spices and whatever else you can think of. However, sometimes this logic seems to go astray, especially when you see a carcass of a cow with all its innards hanging in a window, right next to a tailor shop on one side and a soap store on the other.

Other than that, Aleppo is just a large city, with the usual mosques, Christian quarters, citadels etc. I think am more than ready for something new, something different and I hope that the Cappadocia region of Turkey will provide the needed variety. Tomorrow at 4:30am we’re off to Antakya and from there hoping to catch a bus on to Cappadocia, so the next posts should be either from there or from the Turkish coast.

read more...

Syria: The country of crooked trees

The border guards did in fact permit. Aside for making us pay yet another $56US for the visa, the whole process took approximately 20 minutes with our taxi driver doing most the talking. So much for the embassies in Canada assuring us that it was impossible to obtain visas at the border. Had I known, I would have saved myself the $60 courier fees to Ottawa, the $73 visa and the $10 in photos. That being said, we did hear about Americans waiting for anywhere between 4 to 12 hours to obtain their visas at the border. I guess sometimes it pays to simply smile and nod and be Canadian.

After all the border formalities, we headed to Homs, our pit stop for the next few days and our next Couch Surfing experience. We had “surfed” a night in Damascus with Sam, whose hospitality by all accounts seemed to surpass his means. A couple nights prior to staying with him he had 11 Couch Surfers sleeping in his bedroom. It goes to show, however, that one does need three guest rooms and fancy apartments to open one’s doors to others. In this particular case all that was needed was a small bit of floor space and a mattress.

That being said, we are not hosted by Lise and her husband Ayoub in a very pleasant flat with a beautiful garden on the outskirts of Homs. Lise is originally from France and Ayoub from Morocco. She is now working in Homs teaching French and on our first night was also hosting four others (Belgians, French, Tunisian and Moroccan) all of whom were currently on a study break from their Arabic studies in Cairo.

The afternoon we spent with an excursion to Crac des Chevaliers, an impressive Crusader fortress just west of Homs. As impressive as it was, I might be getting a bit jaded by all the citadels and fortresses, as it seemed as just yet another massive stone construction.


The evening however, was spent in fantastic company over an absolutely amazing dinner. All eight of us headed out to town with Ayoub leading the way to an adorable restaurant. Once there all menus were set aside as Ayoub started discussions with the waiter, both of whom seemed to be bouncing suggestions off one another and the latter madly scribbling on a notepad. This discourse was only briefly interrupted by what seemed like indignation on Ayoub's part when one of the girls inquired about ordering some French cheese as an appetizer. After again inquiring with all of us whether we wanted a Syrian meal or French one, Ayoub recommenced his ordering and finished it all off with some creative negotiations as to the final price for our meal.

The food was absolutely delicious. We had been getting a bit tired of meet and bread which seemed to be staples here. Most of the meals we had ordered were simply that – no sauces, no vegetables – just meat and bread. As we found out the trick is to order many appetizers, various salads, vegetables etc and one meat dish (which is usually just grilled meat) to go with all those appetizers. The “main meals” as they appear on the menus, do not really work very well on their own.

To finish of the evening you should have seen all eight of us piling into a little taxi, and I do mean LITTLE. It was quite the sight: five girls in the back, three guys in the front passenger seat, and the driver desperately trying to operate the stick shift. For now you will have to take my word for it, but I did manage to film a short clip from the inside of the vehicle and if I ever have a really good internet connection to upload videos, I’ll do my best to add it to the website.

Our second day in Homs was spent with an excursion out to Palmyra. The City of Palms, or Todmor, as it is known in Arabic, dates back to about the 18th century BC. However, it did not become a major hub on the trade routes between Asia and the Mediterranean until the Romans around the 1st century BC. In essence it is an oasis town in the middle of a vast desert: 150 km of desert to its west, 200 km of desert to its east and nothing but desert to its north and south. Once the Romans established their base there, Palmyra prospered and vast temples, agoras, and camps were built. The city unfortunately fell into decline around the 6th century AD and was all but destroyed by an earthquake in 1089. What remains now is sufficient to provided the visitor with an inkling of the splendor that must have existed there two thousand years ago.

However, as magical a place as it must once have been, and as acclaimed as it still is, Palmyra proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Maybe it’s the same as with the various citadels and maybe I simply have seen too many Roman columns to fully appreciate them. For me Palmyra left less of an impression than the town of Jerash in Jordan. By no means am I saying that I regretted the two hour side trip into the Syrian desert. However, I will not rave about it and if someone is pressed for time, needing to pick their destinations wisely, then my recommendation would be to skip Palmyra and on route to Amman stop in Jerash for a couple hours.

One thing that has come out of all these side trips is the realization that Syria is a country of crooked trees. I do not know why nor do I understand the how, but it seems that all trees in Syria are slanted in the easterly direction. Some only by a few degrees, however, others are at more than a 30 degree angle. It is an odd sight to be driving along the highway with a bit of a forest to the side in which every single tree is slanted in the same direction. It’s almost as if there was an unrelenting wind blowing from the coast and these trees were too weak to withstand it. There is, however, one exception. Syria is a massive olive producer and we drove through hectares of olive tree plantations. Seemingly these olive trees are immune to these winds as every single olive tree we passed grew perfectly straight, or as straight as one would expect them to be. Go figure.

read more...

Lebanon: The country of surprises

With our itinerary being on constant flux we found ourselves with sufficient time to make a side-trip into Lebanon. The only hesitation was the lack of both a Lebanese visa and the Syrian re-entry visa. Well, sometimes you just have to go into the unknown and it proved that aside for being a bit expensive (Syrian departure tax, Lebanese visa, Lebanese departure tax, Syrian Visa), there was nothing really to worry about.

Lebanon proved to be yet another surprise. Firstly, it’s insanely expensive (comparatively speaking to all other Middle Eastern countries). Secondly, it’s mountainous (they have numerous ski resorts and at least based on the postcards, seem to have more snow than our local Vancouver mountains). Thirdly, it is green (the coastal mountains are covered in a carpet of lush green trees). Fourthly, it (at least Beirut) is quite wealthy (for every 10 cars, two will be BMWs, two will be Mercedes, two will be Porsches and then the rest will be a mixture of Lexus, Land Rover, Hyundais etc . oh and throw in your occasional Jaguar, Ferrari, Lamborghinis and Hummer). Beirut is the place where everyone comes to party - it is a city of glitz, glamour, restaurants, and beach clubs. However, it is also a city whose outskirts are comprised of some of the most deprived Palestinian refugee camps of all, and its crowded slums provide a breeding ground for Hezbollah fighters. As such, as the Lonely Planet puts it, Beirut is a city that is crowded and ancient, beautiful and blighted, hot and heady, home to Prada and Palestine. It is many things at once.

We paid $30US for a miserable room in the cheapest hostel in town. We paid $5US for a burger and $20US for a relatively crappy dinner. We saw more gorgeous cars in the course of a couple of days here than I have in probably an entire year in Vancouver. I saw a purse for sale for $1800US (it wasn’t even nice), the ugliest suit for about $2500US and a dress for $3800US. [I probably showing more of my ignorance since most of those things were likely some super fancy brand names that cost six times as much at home.] Nevertheless, it is not something that I was expecting to find here. In Dubai: yes, most definitely. In Lebanon: no.

To give you some perspective on this apparent wealth: a new BMW X6 costs approximately $60,000US; 80 square meter apartment (not in the best part of Beirut) costs approximately $2,000,000US (1 square meter costs $25,000US); rent for an apartment in Beirut will cost approximately $500US per month (if you share it with 4 other people); average salary is approximately $500US per month; an individual with a masters in nursing (maybe their degrees work differently here), responsible for the ICU wing in the Beirut hospital and working 12 hours per day, 6 days per week was paid $800US per month. Instead, that individual now runs a hostel but has absolutely no explanation how people in Beirut can afford the expensive cars, apartments, clothing and food. Beirut was once called the Paris of the east and it still seems to aspire to that status, but at what costs to its people?

From Beirut we made a road trip up to the Jeita Grotto. It is in the running to become one of the new seven natural wonders of the world and deservedly so. It’s comprised of two interconnected limestone caves spanning an overall length of nearly 9 km. The lower grotto can only be visited by boat since it channels an underground river that provides fresh drinking water to more than a million Lebanese. The upper grotto, which was not discovered until 1958, houses the world’s largest stalactite and is comprised of a series of chambers, the largest of which peaks at a height of 120 meters. All of this equates to a jaw dropping sight or the setting of a sci-fi movie. Unfortunately, you will have to take my word for it or else look it up online since pictures were prohibited.

From there it was on to Byblos with more ruins (slightly disappointing), back to Beirut and on the next day off to Tripoli.

Triopoli was a mess. Although the guidebooks make it seem like it’s a city filled with Souqs, mosques, citadels etc. it was a far cry from Damascus and even Beirut. We managed to meander our way through all of the key areas in about an hour with eight more hours left to the day and the Lebanese mountains beckoning. The main problem was transportation. Minibuses leave for the mountains on a semi-regular basis until about 4pm and we found ourselves wishing to head up there around 3pm. As such, the getting there was not an issue, but the coming back would be. We decided to risk it anyways and it proved well worth the chance.

The bus climbed a winding road high into the mountains, leaving the coast far below. We ended up in a little town at the foot of Lebanon’s highest peak and were informed by the bus driver that the last bus back to Tripoli would be at 6pm. Happy to hear this news we decided to explore the town a little, soak in the views, and eat a delicious dinner in a quaint mountain chalet. Unfortunately on our way back to meet the bus we were informed that the last bus to Tripoli left at 3:30pm and a taxi would cost us $40US (a figure we were unwilling to pay).

So we started walking. After some time we were picked up by two young guys who were only traveling about 2km in our direction. However, they informed us of a town on the cross-roads to Beirut and Tripoli to which it might be easier to hitch a ride. Within a minute of getting out of their car we were picked up by a great Lebanese gentleman who had spent 3 years in Australia and gladly dropped us off at Kosba. From there a $4 taxi brought us back to downtown Tripoli by 7pm.

Even if it had been just the drive up into those mountains, with the huge valleys stretching far below us, and the snow covered mountain peaks above us, the excursion would have been well worth it.

Tomorrow morning it’s back off to Syria – border guards permitting.

read more...

"Some cities oust or smother their past. Damascus lives in hers." - Colin Thubron

Legend has it that on a journey from Mecca the Prophet Mohammed cast his gaze upon Damascus but refused to enter the city because he wanted to enter paradise only once – when he died. It might be a bit of an overstatement to compare Damascus to paradise but there is some indefinable element to it that makes that story ring with truth.

Damascus has so far been one of our greatest surprises. We expected it to be yet another city with lots of great things written about it, but all coming down to the same thing: 4.6 million people in a city that would have some history but simultaneously be like all other capitals around the world. Such expectations could not have been further from the truth.

At no time during our stay in Damascus did we ever feel that it was a capital city nor that it had 4.6 million inhabitants. All that we were surrounded by was the history. Mark Twain once wrote: “Go back as far as you will into the vague past, there was always a Damascus… She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies… To Damascus, years are only moments, decades are only flitting trifles of time. She measures time, not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise, and prosper and crumble to ruin. She is a type of immortality.” Damascus vies for the title of the world’s oldest continually inhabited city and with every step you take you can feel her age and a kind of grace that comes with it. Maybe this grace has seeped into the people as well because so far, the Syrians have been the nicest most hospitable people we’ve ever met.

To give you a bit of an understanding of what we mean by history take for example the hotel we were staying in. This was located outside the Old Town but was nevertheless housed in a 600 year old building.

The Old City itself is a network of tiny alleyways, only some of which are miraculously navigable by these little narrow cars others are barely wide enough for two people to pass one another. Along these alleys are ancient buildings many constructed with what looked like a mud and straw mixture. Some of these buildings are crumbling while life still goes on inside the, many are sagging with age, others look as majestic as they have for centuries.

We put the guidebooks away and simply got lost in these little turns, trying to discover little corners, courtyards, mosques and churches and to simply soak in the atmosphere. There was nothing better - well, maybe with the exception of the absolutely amazing ice cream. Take my word for it – there is nothing that even remotely compares in Vancouver. This one ice cream shop on their main souk street, has lineups out the front door and they are well deserved. Their scrumptious ice creams are made with sahlab (a tapioca-root flavoured drink) and are topped with crushed pistachio nuts. If I had to survive on one thing for the rest of my life, this might have to be it.

But on the other hand, there were the hot chocolate filled croissants that came straight from the oven. Those might give the ice cream a run for its money. And then the pancakes, the lamb dishes, the fresh orange juice, the pastries …. Oh the list just keeps on going. We only spent two days in Damascus but that was enough for the food to make a wonderful impression on us.
Overall we did not in fact do much or see much while in Damascus. We simply roamed. However, I could have easily kept on roaming that city for another 7 days and not have gotten bored.
I won’t bore you, however, with an ongoing description of this amazing city. I will let the photos speak for themselves.


*NOTE: Pictures coming soon.

read more...

Jordan – Lucky Number 50?

I have officially confirmed that Egyptian time really does run at a different rate than everywhere else. But before I go on to explain what I mean by that, did I mention I virtually came face to face with a barracuda while snorkeling? I was following a puffer fish and some other fish down below me. A quick glance to the sides and I was going to continue onwards but ended up doing a double take as a meter to my left was the nice long, skinny body of a barracuda with the saw-like teeth glistening in the penetrating sunlight. As far as I knew barracudas wouldn’t attack unless provoked and it did seem to be minding its own business, but knowing my own ineptitude with fins, I immediately pictured myself trying to swim away from it, hitting it with my fin and having it gnaw on my ankles. Thankfully reality wasn’t as bad as my overactive imagination but it sure made for a highlight of that snorkeling excursion.

Now as to Egyptian time. Our plans were to make it from Dahab, Egypt to Petra, Jordan. The trip would have several segments. Firstly, we would have to take a bus from Dahab to Nuweiba at 10:30am (approximately 75km). Secondly, from Nuweiba a fast ferry was to leave at 3:30 and take us the approximate 80km to Aqaba, Jordan. From there a taxi would take us the remaining 120km to Petra. The ferry was to take 1 hour. Looking at those times and distances one would expect us to be in Petra by 7pm at the latest. Well, we arrived around 11:30pm.

The trip started with the original bus being about 40 minutes late. When we arrived in Nuweiba we were informed that the ferry (which cost and insane $80US) would be leaving at 2:30pm. 3:30pm rolled around and the ferry still had not arrived in the port. However, at 4pm we were told that it had arrived and we started going through the 3 or 4 border controls. By 4:30 we were on the ferry ready to leave but apparently the crew must have been wrapping up its siesta. The ferry finally started moving at 6:30pm – don’t even ask why. Next, the journey didn’t take 1 hour, but rather 2 hours. I truly don’t know what distinguished it from the “slow” ferry which according to our guide takes 2.5 hours to reach Aqaba. After all the customs we were ready to catch our taxi at 9:45pm (we managed to lose an hour to the time change). Thankfully the taxi driver was Jordanian and the Egyptian time schedule didn’t apply to him. He informed us that the drive to Petra would take us anywhere between 2 and 2.5 hours but managed to get us to our hotel in 1 hour 45 minutes. We were exhausted but had not done a single thing all day long.

Now on to Petra. Maybe I’m ignorant about the Middle East and its history, but I was until quite recently under the impression that the ruins at Petra are essentially that one temple carved into the cliff and that’s it. The last thing I was expecting was an entire city with hundreds of such tombs and churches. If you want a quick idea of how big the site is keep in mind that we spent nearly 12 hours wandering through it and still did not see everything.

Petra was established around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabateans and was a key trade center. Despite having been inhabited by the Nabateans and later the Romans, it somehow became forgotten by the Western world until in 1812 the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt accidentally stumbled across it after nearly a millennium. (He also accidentally stumbled across Abu Simbel a year later.) The city is primarily cut out of rock – at least the tombs and the monastery, meaning that most of the “buildings” are cut out of one solid piece of mountain. This rose-red city half as old as time is truly one of the must-sees.

We got up bright and early and headed to the site for 7am to beat the major tour groups. The entrance to the site is through a Siq – a canyon like fissure that continues for a kilometer or two (think Antelope Canyon in Arizona but much bigger). At the end of this Siq you emerge right in front of the Treasury (the building featured in Indiana Jones). To our surprise there was almost no one there. We snapped a bunch of photos and continued on along the Façade of Tombs towards the huge 7000 seat theater only to return back to the Treasury half an hour later to snap more photos (different light).

After that it was an up-down-up-down-up-down that went on all day. Another example of my ignorance: I had assumed most of this area would be relatively flat. Well , it isn’t!

After those first initial sights we proceeded on a 45 minute hike up countless stairs to the Holy Place of Sacrifice. (Did I mention that my leg muscles were completely locked up from the hike up Mount Sinai and that by this point I was hating stairs?). From the top the view was stunning with the Royal Tombs directly below us and the entire Petra valley at our feet. From the top it was down again past more tombs (some of which in Renaissance style despite having been built in the 1st century AD).

Back in the main valley we stopped for a short snack, some cold water and commenced yet another 45 minute hike up stairs to the top of another hill with a Crusader fort on it (did I say I hated stairs). Again, fantastic views from up top.

Next, after we had returned to the bottom, it was time to head up to El Deir, or as its referred to in English, the Monestary. This entailed yet another pleasant hike up in excess of 800 steps but it was well worth every single aching muscle. It is truly the most impressive building in Petra and the views when you hike up some more steps (did I say I was really hating stairs by now) were equally breathtaking. Although it was described as the “View of the End of the World” I felt like I had all of Jordan at my feet.

From there back down, then back up to see the Royal Tombs, then back down and then finally out. 11 hours and 30 minutes after having entered Petra, we finally excited and exhausted headed back to our hotel for a desperately needed shower and dinner.

From Petra it was off to Amman where we’re couch surfing with Jeff. Amman is a cleaner, friendlier and less chaotic La Paz. It’s a city of hills (apparently there’s 7 of them), very densely populated creating a vision of endless sea of multi-story apartment buildings.

Today we hired a taxi and first went to visit Jerash, one of the best preserved Roman cities, where we got to experience gladiator fights and a chariot race and then it was off to swim (or rather float) in the Dead Sea. It’s even difficult to lower your legs from a floating position and if you try to swim on your stomach, you first have to flip onto your back before you can set your feet down.

Tomorrow it’s off to Damascus and after that hopefully to Lebanon (luck permitting). With Jordan being my 50th, I hope the luck holds. We only have a single entry visa into Syria, and a side trip into Lebanon would require two entries into Syria. We’ll see how it goes, but our itinerary is most definitely in constant flux.

read more...

Expenses

The two questions I get asked most often after one of these trips is (a) how in the world can I afford to travel for so long and (b) how much did a trip like this cost. The answer to (a) - i.e. on a shoestring budget to a certain extent answers (b). But for those of you form whom such an answer is too vague, I'm following an example set by a lawschool classmate and will provide you with a per-country breakdown as the trip proceeds.

The charts you will find below will break the costs down into the main categories of accommodations, transportation, sightseeing, food and miscellaneous. Sometimes some extra categories are added in to take into account such things as scuba diving in the Red Sea. My general goal is to keep the budget to about $50 CAD per day - sometimes that's easier than at other times. What makes such a budget even remotely possible is the fact that I’m not buying much in terms of souvenirs nor do I drink much. The PPPD is the per person per day rate.

Holland - 4 Days	$34	PPPD
Transportation	$8	$2
Food	$71	$18
Accommodations	$0	$0
Sights	$51	$13
Miscellaneous	$7	$2

Note:Accommodations for our stay in Amsterdam were generously provided by Agnes and transportation by Robert. Without those two benefits our budget in Amsterdam would have been much higher.

Egypt - 9 Days	$59	PPPD
Transportation	$110	$12
Food	$125	$14
Accommodations	$20	$2
Sights	$63	$7
Scuba & Photo	$182	$20
Miscellaneous	$31	$3

Note:The accommodation expeses account for only 2 nights spent in a hotel. The rest of our Egypt stay was spent Couchsurfing with Nader. The transportation costs are incredibly high due to the $80US ferry ride from Nuweiba to Aqaba. The miscellaneous category also includes a $15US entry visa.

Jordan - 3 Days	$78	PPPD
Transportation	$90	$30
Food	$18	$6
Accommodations	$36	$12
Sights	$90	$30
Miscellaneous	$2	$0.50

Note:Accommodations again account for only one night since two were spent Couchsurfing. This brought down our food hosts since thanks to the hospitality of our host we didn't have to buy any food on our last day in Jordan (although we did have a very filling meal with drinks the day before for about $2 per person). Transportation costs are quite high since we rented a private taxi to take us to Jerash and the Dead Sea as are the sight seeing costs which include the 33JD (nearly $50) entry fee for Petra. Jordan has proved to be the most expensive country to date.

Syria - 5 Days	$38	PPPD
Transportation	$36	$7
Food	$36	$7
Accommodations	$21	$4
Sights	$8	$2
Miscellaneous	$90	$18

Note:Accommodation costs once again account for only two nights spent in hostels since we were hosted by Sam in Damascus for one night and Lise in Homs for two. The miscellaneous costs are extremely high given the $11 departure tax (which we had to pay twice) and the $56US visa. They do not include the visa costs we had incurred prior to leaving Canada (somewhere in the excess of $100CAD). If not for all the border expenses, Syria has been the cheapest country by far.

Lebanon - 3 Days	$47	PPPD
Transportation	$27	$9
Food	$48	$16
Accommodations	$33	$11
Sights	$16	$5
Miscellaneous	$17	$6

Note:Accommodations and food were quite expensive in Lebanon. In Beirut, a bed on a rooftop patio with 6 others cost $8US per person. The miscellaneous expenses include a $16 visa.

Turkey - 15 Days	$62	PPPD
Transportation	$307	$21
Food	$225	$15
Accommodations	$135	$9
Sights	$155	$10
Miscellaneous	$107	$7

Note:Turkey proved to be more expensive than expected but there are several reasons for that. To start, it's the first country where I've actually purchased souvenirs. They don't account for much, but they nevertheless bump up the miscellaneous total. Secondly, we decided to rent a car. Between 3 of us and including the really expensive gas, and excessive transfer fee (since we were dropping it off in a different city) the car came out to about $180CAD per person for 5 days. It was definitely pricier than if we had traveled by bus, but we got to see much more in the short period of time and don't regret the rental. Thirdly, entry costs were relatively high. Most museums and sights charged between 15-20TL ($10-15CAD) even for just a tiny little museum. On the other hand, accommodation costs are again quite low. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, we surfed for 3 nights, but more importantly, most of our bus rides were long distance night rights that eliminated the need for accommodations.

Bulgaria - 4 Days	$25	PPPD
Transportation	$33	$8
Food	$37	$9
Accommodations	$9	$2
Sights	$1	$0.20
Miscellaneous	$20	$5

Note: Bulgaria so far has been the cheapest country of all. Food was incredibly inexpensive; sightseeing costs were virtually non-existent since most of its beauty was natural; accommodations were only for one night since two were spent with amazing hosts in Veliko Tarnovo. If you subtract the $20 I spent on a necklace from the miscellaneous costs, the daily total comes out to about $20.

Romania - 4 Days	$52	PPPD
Transportation	$98	$25
Food	$59	$15
Accommodations	$46	$12
Sights	$8	$2
Miscellaneous	$0	$0

Note: Romania was again a relatively cheap country. Our costs were brought up by the fact that we again rented a vehicle for 3 days which constitutes the largest portion of our transport expenses. However, the transport also includes a relatively expensive ($40 CAD) overnight train from Bucharest to Belgrade. Food was relatively inexpensive considering that we splurged on a large meal with wine and still paid less than $15 per person. Accommodations were relatively pricier than in some of the earlier countries (one night we spent with Couchsurfing hosts in Bucharest). Sightseeing costs are greatly reduced with a student card.

Serbia - 2 Days	$41	PPPD
Transportation	$30	$15
Food	$51	$25
Accommodations	$0	$0
Sights	$0	$0
Miscellaneous	$0	$0

Note: We spent only two days in Belgrade surfing Ray's couch. As such there were no accommodation costs or any other extraneous costs since we just roamed the city. Food ended up comprising the largest part of our total, but keep in mind that we splurged on an opera box with what was to be live opera music, a three course meal and a couple bottles of wine. Other than that, $25 of the transportation costs accounts for our bus to Sarajevo.

Bosnia - 4 Days	$59	PPPD
Transportation	$44	$11
Food	$54	$14
Accommodations	$59	$15
Sights	$39	$10
Miscellaneous	$39	$10

Note: Bosnia was gorgeous and well worth seeing. However, the one thing that wasn't worth a penny was the tour that we took in Mostar (refer to the blog for more details). The $38.00 could have been spent in a much better way. Aside for that accommodation costs have now gone up and tend to range around the 12.50 Euro per night (aside for Sarajevo where we couchsurfed). Miscellaneous costs are comprised of some baggage fees on buses and yet another souvenir purchase. Minus the unfortunate tour and the souvenir the daily total would have been $41.

Montenegro - 3 Days	$42	PPPD
Transportation	$32	$11
Food	$41	$14
Accommodations	$51	$17
Sights	$2	$1
Miscellaneous	$0	$0

Note: Montenegro was the first country we have been to with the Euro. As such everything automatically becomes more expensive. However, we managed to keep costs down due to a number of factors. Firstly, we didn't move around much. We kept Kotor as our base and did little day trips out of it. This reduced our transportation costs. Secondly, the accommodations we found had access to a kitchen and having gotten tired of restaurant food, we did most of our cooking thereby decreasing our food expenses. I think we may have eaten one meal out. Had we been eating all our meals at the restaurants, our total spending would have gone up drastically.

Croatia - 11 Days	$48	PPPD
Transportation	$124	$11
Food	$216	$20
Accommodations	$140	$13
Sights	$37	$4
Miscellaneous	$7	$1

Note: Croatia was the first country where we did absolutely no couchsurfing. Accommodations varied from place to place. Most of the time we were approached by various people at the train stations and/or ports offering us rooms for rent. Generally in those situations you are able to negotiate a reasonable price. The most expensive turned out to be the dorm room in the hostel in Zagreb. Food turned out to be surprisingly pricy considering that we did a decent amount of cooking ourselves, both in terms of breakfasts and dinners. Sightseeing costs would have been significantly higher but for the use of the student card (both the Dubrovnik walls and the Plitvice Lakes offered substantial discounts).

Slovenia - 5 Days	$65	PPPD
Transportation	$154	$31
Food	$80	$16
Accommodations	$0	$0
Sights	$75	$15
Miscellaneous	$16	$3

Note: Slovenia was our second country with the Euro. In contrast to Croatia, every single night in Slovenia was spent with Couchsurfing hosts. First we were hosted by Andrej in Ljubljana and then by Florjan near Lake Bled. Transportation expenses are quite significant since they include a three day car rental (along with parking and gas that enabled us to cover virtually the entire country), as well as an international train ticket that took us back via Zagreb to Budapest. Unlike in Romania and Turkey where the car rental costs got split between three of us, there were now only two of us to share the costs. Food costs are also relatively low given that in the mornings at Lake Bled we were very well fed due to our hosts amazing hospitality and other than that, we somehow seemed to require only one meal per day. Sightseeing includes our visit to the Caves and my Canyoning Excursion in Bovec. Had we not rented the car, our expenses would have been much lower, but then we would not have seen as much as we did.

Hungary - 6 Days	$46	PPPD
Transportation	$82	$14
Food	$96	$16
Accommodations	$33	$6
Sights	$19	$3
Miscellaneous	$46	$7

Note: In Hungary we were again quite lucky tracking down contacts through Couchsurfing. We stayed with Tomasz in Pecs for two nights and I also stayed in Eger with Nandor. The largest chunk of the transportation expenses is by 15 hour train journey from Eger to Lviv (which totals 12,395 Forint). Food was quite pricy in Budapest but once again we had somehow switched to eating virtually one meal a day. The steep food/drink prices became quite obvious once I made it to Eger and could get a good meal with a beer for under 1000 Forint. The Miscellaneous costs include a trip to the opera to see Don Giovani and an evening spent in the Hungarian baths/spa.

read more...

Camel ride for $50US?

"Camel, camel, wrboad, wrboad", with an occasional correctly pronounced "wielblad" thrown into the mix being repeated over and over is not exactly what I associate with 2am. Add to that the fact that these shouts are coming from the Bedouins surrounding you as you try to climb a mountain in the pitch darkness.

Well, if there ever was self-imposed torture then this might qualify for it:

1. Don’t go to bed and on a last minute spur decision agree to be picked up at 11:10pm by a little minibus (i.e. a small cargo van) into which 15 people are squeezed, including their day packs.
2. Drive for just over 2 hours in this incredibly uncomfortable environment to be dropped off at the foot of a mountain just before 2am.
3. Follow a crowd of about 20 massive tour buses up a relatively narrow path that you’re not only sharing with the endless parade of people, but also an equally endless amount of camels which do not care where the step, whether it’d be rock or foot.
4. Hike up this path for anywhere between 1.5 hours to 2 hours and then commence an ascent of 750 steps to the summit.
5. Arrive at the summit at 4 am to already fine a crowd.
6. Perch yourself on a precarious rock, past all the normal platforms and ledges and overlooking a several hundred meter drop in order to have at least a decent view of the sunrise.
7. Remain perched on this cold rock in the chilly and windy mountain air for the next 1.5 hours awaiting the sun to rise.
8. Snap a few photos and then proceed to follow these 20+ busloads of people down 3750 steps to get to the base by around 7am.
9. Find yourself waiting in the rocky landscape for a further 2 hours awaiting the opening of the monastery doors.
10. At 9am find yourself sandwiched like a sardine as these 20+ busloads of people try to squeeze through a tine archway wide enough to fit one person so as to enter the equally small monastery.
11. Squeeze through the crowds to see what was “allegedly” the burning bush and what was “allegedly” the fountain from which Moses drank.
12. Return to the minibus (i.e.small cargo van) into which for the return journey only 14 people have to be squeezed.
13. Arrive back home 12 hours after your initial time of departure not having slept a wink.

Those 13 steps to a perfect receipt for self-imposed torture accurately surmise my most recent Mount Sinai excursion. However, it was not all bad. Truth be said, the self-imposed torture was well worth it. The view from up top was amazing as were some of the people we passed along the way.

Mount Sinai is believed to be the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. As such, it is an important pilgrimage location of sorts – at least for the hoards of tourists. It is 2285 meters high and the summit can indeed be reached by 3750 “steps of penitence”.
The Monastery of St. Catherine is located near the base of the mountain. The Monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and claims to be the oldest working Christian monastery in the world. The monastery was built by order of Emperor Justinian I between 527 and 565, enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush. There is in fact a bush inside the monastery with which everyone insists on posing and this is “allegedly” the original burning bush.

In the end the highlight was the walk up to the summit in the middle of the night with all the stars as guides. Far away from any civilization (minus the several hundred flashlights), the night sky was breathtaking. Everything from the Milky Way to the Big and Little Dippers, Casiopea, Scorpio and Orion (plus all the other constellations which I can’t recognize) were all clearly visible. Secondly watching the sun rise from the peak as two tour groups alternated singing religious hyms, first in Polish and then in Arabic. Finally, descending the Steps of Penitence. I must say I love running down stairs/steps – regardless of how many there are, so long as there are no slow-pokes in front of me. However, my knees are now protesting the 45 minute descent.

Tomorrow it is off by ferry to Aqaba and from there to Petra. Next we will be trying to reenact Indiana Jones - The Last Crusade.

read more...

The Red Sea & the Blue Hole

There truly cannot be another diving place like this. The entire coast is lined by coral reefs with an endless choice of dives. The dives we did off of the Mayan Riviera were pathetic in comparison. Maybe then we were simply unlucky and maybe a trip to Cozumel would have changed our opinion. However where we had been taken the coral seemed ravaged by storms, a mere skeleton of what it once used to be with a shortage of sea life.

Here on the other hand, our trip to the Blue Hole did not disappoint. The Blue Hole is a submarine pothole (a kind of cave), around 130m deep. there is a shallow opening around 6m deep, known as "the saddle", opening out to the sea and it is this opening that has the most sea life. For those experienced and qualified enough, or else too stupid to know better, there is also a 26m long tunnel, known as the arch, connecting the Blue Hole with the open sea. However this lies at a depth of 52m well beyond recreational diving limits and has been the cause of a number of deaths.


For us, our dives started with a trip to the Canyon where we got our Adventure Deep Dive certification descending down a narrow canyon to 30m. For the first time ever I had absolutely no issues with equalizing my ears, making the whole diving experience so much more enjoyable. We also got to see and swim after a baby turtle along with all the other fish that I won't bore you with.

From there it was on to the Blue Hole were our entry point was Bells, a deep crack in the reef enabling a vertical descent and at 26 m a swim through an arched passage way. From there it was a swim along an insanely gorgeous reef wall. I have never seen anything on such a scale. We were swimming at around 25m and the reef just continued downwards without end (apparently the drop off there goes in excess of 800m). It was a true highlight to finishing our dive there.

Other than that the rest of our stay in Dahab has been spent lazying around (at least for me) and sleeping of some bad strain of stomach flu in my dad's case. Tommorrow it's off to Nuweiba, from there a $70US ferry to Aqaba and what is currently looking like an expensive taxi ride to Petra (as the only buses leave in the mornings and early afternoon).

**Note: These fantastic underwater photos were taken by Rich Carey. Check out his Facebook profile or http://www.richardcareyphotos.com/ for more amazing pictures from the Dahab reefs, turtles, insane shark shots as well as your miscellaneous fish and reef shots.

read more...

Dahab & Diving

On the one hand Egyptian buses are a vast improvement over our local Greyhound buses. On the other hand, they are noisier than GM Place after the Canucks score a goal. Having been unable to secure a seat on any of the 10 daily flights to Sharm el Sheik, we were forced to take a night bus from Cairo to Dahab departing at 12:15am and arriving around 9:00 am. Most long distance buses that I have traveled on, whether in South America, Asia or here in Egypt, are far more luxurious than our counterparts in Canada. The seats lean back to virtually a lying position, often some also have foot rests that come up similarly to barknloungers thus making a long journey more comfortable than any plane ride. The downfall of these buses is their entertainment program which in this particular case was comprised of several loud calls to prayer, an Arabic movie played at full volume, 2012 played at full volume and some fantastic Arabic music that was blaring for a large majority of the journey. By the end of the ride I found the prayers quite soothing. Might have been a good idea to put the iPod or earplugs in the carry on luggage as opposed to in the main backpack that was stored underneath.

We arrived in Dahab shortly before 9:00am to be picked up by Nadar within a few minutes. I tracked Nadar down via the Couch Surfing website and if we were to exclude our “couch” stay with Agnes in Amsterdam, this was our first real introduction to couch surfing. Nadar has proved to be an amazing host. He has this very quaint little apartment 20 steps away from the dive center in which he works and another 40 steps away from the Red Sea.


He’s taken us with Juma, his Bedouin friend, on a camel safari off into the local mountains where we had a fantastic Bedouins dinner. Despite it being cooked over a fire, it by far surpassed much of the recent food we’ve been having in the restaurants. We were joined by 7 Belgians who were wrapping up their Dahab diving trip and got to listen to the Virtual Barber Shop (highly recommend for everyone to try to download it, but make sure to listen to it with headphones and your eyes closed), and play a variety of very entertaining games.


Dahab is an interesting little town. It’s a scuba diving mecca with several dozen dive shops mostly manned by Europeans and Australians: people that come here, do a few dives, then decide to stay for several months, get their full instructor certification and then several years later find themselves having a difficult time leaving. Truth be said there is not much of a beach here, but the waterfront is lined with amazing little open air restaurants with plenty of tanning chairs right along the water, so even if you don’t dive, there really isn’t much to complain about. The reason for the lack of beach is that the reef starts virtually right on shore. Most of the dives here are shore dives but there also is no shortage of boat dives.

So far we’ve got our first 2 dives done, one about 200 meters from where we are staying and the other a boat dive out of a 5 star resort. For some unknown reason I have insane problems equalizing, always had, and no matter what I do I can’t seem to rectify that. As a result the dives are a bit less enjoyable than they would normally be, but so far we’ve seen: Unicorn, Puffer, Glass, Cornet, Lion Fish, Regal Angelfish, Fusiliers, Indian Bird Russ, Goatfish, Red Sea Bannerfish, a Napolean (same somewhere underneath me as I was trying to equalize my ears) and the list goes on. Tomorrow it’s off for some deep see diving at the Canyon and Dahab’s famous Blue Hole.



PS: What has technology come to? I am writing this post while sitting in a little beach-side restaurant in the desert oasis town of Dahab while uploading all the photos taken over the last few days, checking emails and paying my bills.

PS: To anyone traveling, I highly recommend Couch Surfing: www.couchsurfing.com . It is a fantastic way of getting to know local people, and experiencing their cities/towns based on their recommendations as opposed to what might be written in a guide book.

PS: Rob – Thanks for recommending Hostel Bookers. We made use of that in Cairo.

read more...

A city in which my profession does not exist

Cairo is a city in which I would officially by unemployed. Despite 22 million inhabitants and nearly the same amount of cars, and what must also be a significant amount of accidents, there is absolutely no compensation for a person’s injuries. Car insurance simply covers the repair of the vehicle (so long as the accident isn’t your fault) and they will call the ambulance for you. Any losses you sustain, hardships you might experience and aches you will have are not compensated. It is one sure way of eliminating all those pesky, ambulance chasing lawyers. On the other, it really wouldn’t be hard to chase an ambulance in this city. We drove behind one for about 15 minutes as its lights flashed, signals wailed and it slowly inched through the congested traffic to cover maybe 100 meters in 10 minutes.

Our trip to Cairo was relatively uneventful, aside for the customs guard mixing up our Jordanian visa for an Egyptian one and letting us into the country without one. Only when we were leaving the airport and I inquired whether one was mandatory and whether we would have any problems exiting the country without one, an airport official managed to escort us back to customs where we were told to purchase the visa, had our passports re-stamped and were allowed to proceed.

Having arrived at nearly 3am, the chaos of this city was not initially apparent. But I knew what was awaiting us and was not disappointed. Over the last two days I’m sure my lifespan has been decreased by at least a year or two. You can feel the pollution on your eyes, in your nostrils; every breath you take is a mixture of exhaust, chemicals, and sand. Today it got so bad that we could barely see across the Nile and the panorama of Cairo that was to be visible from the Giza plateau was simply a grey blur.

Nevertheless Cairo is a must see city simply for the experience of it all, but I would not recommend for anyone to spend more than 2 days in it.

Yesterday we visited the islamic quarter with it's Kahn Al-Khalili Bazaar. This is a definite must see part of Cairo. While roaming all the various shops and stalls, we accidentally stumbled on some fantastic mosques and mausoleums and due to the relatively late hour had them virtually to ourselves, all lit up at night. It was a fantastic little surprise to come stumbling out of the taut filled alleys of the Khan Al-Khalili Bazaar and to walk into the huge rooms of the Mausoleum of an-Nasir Mohammed.

Aside for that we stopped by at the Egyptian Museum with in reality resembles more a large storage facility than a museum, but again is a must see when you come to Cairo.

Today it was the mandatory trip to the Giza plateau inclusive of a visit to a Papyrus museum and a stroll along the insanely polluted Nile. The pyramids, although a mandatory stop on any visit to Egypt, fail to live up to their wonder. This was my second time to them and again I was left feeling a bit disapointed. There is simply so much hype about them - all the information as to how they were build, how precisely all the stone was laid, how they are perfectly aligned with the various stars, how they might have secret chambers etc. Yet all you find when you show up in the desert is a KFC and Pizzu Hut facing the Sphinx and on a dusty plateau three giant rock piles with a few smaller ones strewn around them all surrounded by busloads of tourists and a nearly equivalent amount of tauts. Well, maybe describing them as a pile of rocks is a bit excessive but all I'm trying to say is that I would have been more impressed by a well filled National Geographic movie about them rather than their actual sight.

From here it’s off to Dahab where the air will hopefully be a bit cleaner, the environment a bit more pleasant, the traffic a bit less exhausting and the water a bit clearer.

read more...

Amsterdam by Numbers

This entry is essentially Amsterdam by numbers and to start it off I must admit that I have miscounted. With a visit to Scheveningen the official grand total for all the Seas on this trip will be eight. I might have to include a footnote somewhere to add in the North Sea but I refuse to change the wed address or the title. The “Eight Seas” simply doesn’t have the same ring as seven. Why else would there only be seven wonders of the world or seven continents? I guess I could justify it since it's not officially on my route. That doesn't start until we get to Cairo and Amsterdam with all its neighboring attractions is simply a stopover.

As I said, this is Amsterdam by numbers so I won’t bore you guys with all the details of what we did today aside for quickly listing off the places that are worth a visit:

• Keukenhof Gardens: the world’s largest flower gardens where approximately 7,000,000 flower bulbs are planted every year
• Zaanse Schans: with its 400+ year old windmills and one of the earliest grocery stores (Dutch?)
• Scheveningen: fantastic beachside restaurants and lounges
  

Now to the numbers:

• Amsterdam has approximately 1.3 million inhabitants, 600,000 flower bulbs, 600,000 bikes, 150,000 bike thefts a year, 2,500 houseboats, 1,402 bars and cafes, 206 Van Goghs, 165 canals (15 more than Venice), 22 Rembrandts, 21 markets, 8 wooden drawbridges and six 17th and 18th century windmills
• If you thought crime (theft) was bad in Vancouver, think again. In 1999, the most audacious bicycle thief ever, Chiel van Zelst, confessed to stealing over 50,000 bikes since the 1980s.
• The narrowest house in the world is one meter wide and just a few centimeters bigger than its front door (Singel 7, Amsterdam).
• Holland is one of the smallest yet most densely populated countries. On 42,000 square kilometers there are approximately 16 million inhabitants or the equivalent of 482 people per square kilometer (taking into account all the water reservoirs).

For completeness sake, I'll also throw in a number of interesting facts:

• Raw herring is a great delicacy in Amsterdam (and a well deserved one). I wish I knew how many of these are eaten every year, but I don’t – so this last one is just an odd tidbit of information.
• The XXX which appears on all flags around Amsterdam, on sidewalks, official buildings and government stationary, is not a reference to the city's Red Light District. That is merely an unusal coincidence. In fact Amsterdam's coat of arms is three St. Andrew's crosses. St. Andrew was a fisherman who lived in the 1st century AD and was crussified on an X shaped cross. In 1505, when Amsterdam was a fishing town, the coat of arms was established as a symbol for the city itself and it also flew on all the ships registered to Amsterdam.

read more...

Amsterdam

Officially this would be my third time to Amsterdam. One could add to that an extra two days for the nice 9 hour long layovers I’ve had here in the past. I must say that it is one of my favorite cities in Europe in terms of its atmosphere and simply the feel of it. There’s nothing exceptional about it – aside for the canals. It is not an exotic destination, nor an insanely beautiful one. Yet nevertheless I really like it here.

We are staying here with Agnes, or rather for now we are staying in her apartment. She and Robert are due back from Poland later on tonight. They got this cute little place on a charming little street with essentially no car traffic about 20-30 minute walk from Vondelpark and the Rijksmuseum. That means that although it was really easy to get here from the airport, it’s a bit of walk to get anywhere and my feet can most definitely attest to that.

Last night, after arriving at around 4pm and after a short nap we walked from her place all the way past all the museums, on to Dam Square, through the Red Light District, meandering through some of the other canal streets, back through Vondelpark and managed to get back to the apartment by about 12:30am. Today, again rather than taking a tram we opted to walk to the Rijksmuseum, from there on to the floating flower market etc.

Day 2. Kilometer 32 (?) and counting (wish my iPhone could keep count of the mileage we’re walking).

Speaking of iPhones - when your hosts provide you with the wrong internet password walking around the city with the iPhone network page up is quite entertaining. Generally speaking there are at least 20 – 30 networks available. Unfortunately most people are smart enough to have them password connected. But there was a corner, about two blocks away from Agnes’ house, where we managed to get an open network. So we stood next to the pharmacy, typing off a few emails. Just wish that the iPhone could make some kind of noise/signal whenever it found such a network rather than having to check for them manually.

read more...

Packing

One would think that after 5 trips of this nature I would know how to pack and would know that packing lightly is essential. In prepping for this trip I read a friends post where she was getting ready for a one year round the world journey and intended to pack well under 20kg – just the essentials comprising of a couple shirts, two pairs of pants, two sets of shorts, one dress and skirt plus your usual socks, underwear and toiletries. On top of that she planned to take a tent, sleeping bag, mat, some books, electronics and a few other little things. Reading that post I thought to myself that I should follow her example and pack in a similar fashion. You can judge the result for yourself on the basis of the above photo (and that’s after some things were already removed). I somehow cannot manage to travel with only two or three pieces of clothing. Maybe next time round.

Other than the usual couple pairs of pants, I decided to pack a pair of jeans, for a cold evening or an evening out somewhere to a bar/club. Then came the capris and shorts along with a skirt followed by a windbreaker, a hoodie for the cold nights, two long sleeved sweatshirts, one long sleeved shirt, some t-shirts and then a number of tank tops for those excruciatingly hot days in the Middle East. For good measure I grabbed a few dress shirts to go with the nice jeans and hiking boots on the few occasions we might go out. My one item of luxury this time round is the hair straightener. We will have to see whether this will turn out worthwhile. Aside for that there’s the sleeping bag, towel, bathing suits, PJs, electronics (my camera/laptop bag on its own weighs approximately 7kg), guide books, reading material, umbrella, shoes and toiletries.

All in all the grand total is approximately as follows:

Day Pack/Camera Bag = 7kg
Main backpack = 16kg (maybe a tad bit more)

read more...