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Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India

quando se fala no rio ganges todo mundo (pelo menos eu) sempre pensei em varanasi. em varanasi eles cremam os mortos. mas o lugar mais propicio para se banhar no ganges eh em haridwar. haridwar fica a algumas centenas de km antes de varanasi e a agua eh consideravelmente mais limpa, mas o mais importante eh foi la q vishnu deixou cair alguma coisa... tornando o lugar muito propicio. eh tb mais organizado, eles desviam um canal do rio para facilitar as coisas.

quando eu cheguei la imediatamente mudei de ideia quanto a passar a noite na cidade. hahaha. dei uma olhada nas pessoas se banhando e fui para rishikesh. voltei 2 dias depois para acompanhar a cerimonia ao por do sol. teoricamente a cerimonia eh mesma q acontece em varanasi (e q eu nao tinha gostado), mas a daqui eu gostei. ela foi rapidinha menos de 10 minutos, tinha uns autofalantes tocando musica e numa parte com milhares cantando junto foi bem bonito. depois eles jogam uns barquinhos com petalas de flores e velas no rio. o unico problema eh q com o rio agitado os barquinhos afundavam em menos de 10 segundos.

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Lilongwe, Malawi

A very long session at the post office was the order of our time in Lilongwe.  We were all trying to post home Malawi chairs along with other souvenirs, and it took hours!!  The lady behind the counter didn't seem to know how to deal with all these people, so just went even slower!

Once we finally had sorted out the posting, we managed to find time for some shopping and then wandered back to the campsite.  I was on cooking duty tonight, so spent the whole night slaving over the fire while the others got to sit in the bar and watch the Olympics.

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Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang

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Kyoto, Kinki, Japan

More rain overnight, and as we set out in the morning a slight breeze was blowing, which was a welcome relief from the heat. It was still hot though, and we were once again sweating by the time we got down to the bus stop to catch the bus to Kiyomizudera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyomizu-dera). After we arrived there at about 10am the crowds were already massing, and about half way up the steep narrow street leading to the temple I began to wonder whether it was going to be worth the effort.

I could not have been more wrong. This shrine is beyond amazing. Set on the side of a hill, the scale and the imposing stance of the buildings, painted in bright red against the greenery of the mountain behind it was absolutely staggering. To add to this, there were so many different buildings and structures in the grounds, and from each one the views back over Kyoto were absolutely stunning. This place made Ginkakuji which we visited yesterday seem like an absolute dump, even though the guidebooks praise the views from the Ginkakuji mountainside.

Without lingering too long in any particular area, and making our way through each of the pavilions, and onto the walking trail up the side of the mountain, this shrine took up nearly 3 hours, which amazed us. Thoroughly satisfied, but pretty much all templed out, we hopped on another bus and made our way back to the centre of Kyoto's southern Higashima shopping district, which is about 8 blocks from our hotel.

We gave the girls a treat when we came across a McDonalds, as they hadn't seen a chicken nugget since leaving Australia, and they had been good enough to put up with being dragged half way across Kyoto in the heat. Happy meals are identical in japan and Australia, only the Japanese version seemed hotter and fresher.

We continued on to the Nishiki market (http://www.bento.com/phgal-kyotomarket.html), which is apparently famous for it's eclectic variety of foods. Basically it was just one massively long covered alley, which consisted of small market traders on each side, 90% of which dealt in a variety of fish, lightly killed and smoked/fried/battered/crumbed/skewered/shrinkwrapped or bludgeoned, and all of which smelt equally as bad. Basically if you were to open a bait freezer at your local fishing tackle shop, and leave it open for a few days with the power off and a gas heater running nearby you would have some idea of what these markets smelt like. Needless to say we pushed through the crowds and got the hell out of there. It was a shame because there was some tasty looking deep fried looking stuff on sticks, but I sure as hell wasn't stopping to buy it and try to eat it when the shops either side were dealing in whole shrinkwrapped snapper heads and smoked mystery fish.

So out for coffees at a nice little americanised cafe, before heading back to our Hotel for a rest. Before leaving the hotel, Charlotte, while attempting to put something in the bin, trips over the chair in the room and takes the second of her spectacular dives for the trip. No fire extinguisher this time, but this time she landed on a double adapter sticking out of a powerpoint on the desk. The nett result is that Charlotte now has a massive scratch down the bridge of her nose and under her eye, and the Gimmond hotel have one completely shattered powerpoint. It still works, but the plastic surrounnding the powerpoint is in about 50 pieces.

Later on after the girls had a sleep we decided to head out for some lunch/dinner. I convinced Veronica that since we had been to the little 24hr place a few doors down for the last couple of meals, that we should go to the shop a few blocks up the road that I had seen. A few blocks turned into about 8, but we eventually got there, got our tickets and found a seat. Customers were already sitting there with no food, which was already a bad sign, and instead of water they served iced tea, which was neither iced or good. 2 strikes for this restaurant already, and about 20 minutes later our meals came out. Quite good quality, although not quite as good as the place near our hotel, plus they don't serve kids meals, so there was no option of 180 yen sausages and potato wedges like at the other restaurant. Strike 3. I bought chicken nugget type things for the girls, but they didn't like them so we ended up eating them. All in all the restaurant was ok, but nothing in comparison to the other one, which is about 1km closer to the hotel.

After the meal we walked outside we realised it was now pouring rain. Very pleasant temperature wise, but not great when you have two tired girls, one of which refuses to walk under her own steam. So we walk/run back to the hotel and are dripping wet by the time we get there. Bit of a laugh though.

Stated in for the rest of the night, and packed ready for our early morning trip to hiroshima tomorrow.

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Hiroshima, Chugoku, Japan

Checked out of the Gimmond Hotel, and caught the subway to Kyoto train station, and got on the 7:50am super-express Shinkansen bound for Hiroshima, which headed through Osaka, Kobe (famous for the beef), Himeji (which we will be coming back to in a week or so) and a few other smaller towns. Overall it was just short of a 2 hour trip. Not real pleasant, as it was pretty much fully booked.
 
When we arrived in Hiroshima station we followed the World Friendship Centre guidelines and took a tram (or "street-car" as they are known here) from the station, through the peace park, and got off at a stop a few blocks from the hotel. Walked the rest of the way and found the friendship centre with no worries. It is basically an old Japanese house which has been converted into lodging for about 4 different rooms. We have the entire bottom floor to ourselves, including the only air conditioner in the place, and basically we have 2 rooms joined into one. The only other guy on the ground floor with us is some poor British bastard who is sleeping on a mat in the kitchen because the place is overbooked. He didn't sound real happy about it when I asked him about it either. The friendship centre is run by a couple of american hippies pushing the anti-nuclear love-each-other hug-the-dasies message. But they seem nice enough. For americans. Actually Im half convinced they are half nuts, as they are running this place on a 2 year volunteer tenure, all because they think they are making a difference to the anti-nuke effort. To confirm my suspicions that they are slightly nuts, when we got there our rooms weren't quite made up, so we asked if there was a coffee shop nearby, possibly with a park for the girls. Instead of telling us where one was, the woman showed us the way to a park a few blocks away, and then said that she would bring coffee down to us! Veronica and I looked at each other in disbelief (it was still 30 degrees outside) but couldnt really say no. She asked how Veronica had her coffee, and Veronica said white with 2, her first response was "2 what?". Then, unsurprisingly we had to explain that white mean't with milk. So off we trekked to the park, and 10 minutes later the poor guy came walking down with the coffee, a jug of milk, sugers, cutlery and biscuits on a tray. The woman had sent her poor husband out in the heat to carry the coffee tray several blocks to us. A lovely gesture though that we just would not have got had we stayed at a hotel.

After we got back we decided to go for a walk to the peace park, which was about 1km away. One thing we were told by our hosts, which we noticed was very true while walking to the peace park, was that since the bomb, the rebuild of Hiroshima has included a massive number of parks, and treelined nature walks and childrens play areas. Almost every block had a kids play area and a shady area with some kind of historical item, such as a small shrine or stone lantern etc. Playgrounds were a sight we havent seen too much of in Japan thus far.

Finally made it to the peace park, which is a very pretty place, and it wasn't too crowded. The peace park, apart from the museums, contains a huge fountain at one end, and then in a single line, an archway, and 100m or so further on is the eternal flame of peace, which will reportedly be extinguished when the last nuclear weapon on earth is destroyed. Unlikely. Following the same line across the river is the Hiroshima "dome", which is the only building still standing after the bomb was dropped. It is a very effective photo opportunity to look through the dome, and through the flame, to see the dome in the background. It was a photo I had to queue up for, and even then I had to get a bit forceful when clueless idiots would simply walk around and stand in front of the camera. Im lucky they didnt understand the phrase "punch in the back of the head" because I said it often enough. Eventually we got the shot and moved on.

We crossed over the "T" bridge beside the dome, which is, unsurprisingly, a large T shaped bridge which connects the peace park peninsula to the land on the other side of the 2 rivers which flank it. This bridge was apparently the target for the Atomic Bomb dropped by the Enola Gay, as it was large enough to be easily identifiable from the air. How the A Bomb dome withstood the blast is a mystery, as it is about 50m from the bridge.

After the dome we continued onto the shopping centres on the other side of the river, which are basically entire city blocks simply blocked to vehicle access. The Hiroshimites really know how to shop. We trekked through them for what was literally hours, and then decided that since we'd walked that far that we could continue north to Hiroshima Castle. Another stupid idea. Basically we got there, and were underwhelmed and tired so we didn't bother paying the admission price to see it, and we turned around and trekked back. Caught the tram again back to the hotel. All up we probably walked about 8km or more. And that doesnt count the walking that we did while in Kyoto to get to the station.

Back in the hippie refuge we went next door for okinomiyaki, which is basically a giant pile of barbequed stuff, all thrown together with bbq sauce, cooked by a short overworked japanese lady, who obviously spends her entire life behind the hotplate. I think she had her whole family slaving away in there, and the shop felt like we were intruding in her house, but we were made very welcome, we walked in and her son got us glasses of water. Very nice food, and ultra cheap (massive servings for 550 yen, or $5.50 each) but once is enough. Couldnt eat it every day like the Osakans do. Might go to the tempura restaurant down the road tomorrow for dinner.

Heading to Miyajima in the morning, and from all weather accounts it will be pouring rain. If it is too bad we will come back and do the island again in one of the free days at the end of the trip, as it is something I really want to take my time and enjoy.

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Barcelona, Spain and Canary Islands

YO EL REY!!! (or "I the King!", which is how I felt after riding the cable car up Montjuic, the mountain over Barcelona, yesterday!)

Yesterday, after taking my sister for a ride on the carousel and going to the Aquarium (which was frikkin awesome) we rode the cable car over the Barcelona harbor to Montjuic. At the aquarium, we saw the first submarine ever built, which was made by a Spanish inventor in the 1880s. It was made of wood and a little metal. I also learned that people have sometimes been afraid to explore the sea because the English used to tell people they had Krakens in their channel. And we saw a fish I have never seen before called a sunfish, (or Bot in Spanish), which look prehistoric because it looked like it had been ripped in half.

The cable car was so cool- it went 300 feet over the harbor! At first, I was freaked out because it looked a little old and I thought it could fall, but after I rode it, I was like "I DID IT". Then, after some ice cream, we walked past the Olympic swimming pool, which has a great view of the city, and went to the Joan Miro museum. He was a famous artist who was born Barcelona and lived in Majorca. He made all sorts of designs, on pieces of paper, on cardboard, and sometimes he did random stuff, like sculptures out of umbrellas and soccer balls. My favorite thing at the museum was a giant Lego table full of white legos. I tried to make the Eiffel Tower. Other people had made the leaning tower of Pisa and my dad made the tower in Dubai. I wish I had that many Legos at home!

Then we rode another cable car up to the old military castle. There were big guns, and swords, and shields - everything! The president of Catalonia was tortured there in the 1940s, so it was used not so long ago. Scary. But the coolest thing was a piece a paper that had all the names and signatures of all the kings and queens of Spain going back to 874 AD. Only one of the queens could not sign it - Joanna the crazy, who was queen for 56 years but could never rule. Some kings just signed it "Rex", but I liked the one that said "YO EL REY!", in huge letters, which means "I THE KING!".

On the way down, we found the best slide I have ever been on - it was like 50 feet down and super fast. I fell face first in the dust once. It said "Only six years and up", but Lu rode it and almost went face first but Dad caught her! We loved it! Even mom went down. Then we went to see a huge fountain that lit up in different colors and kept changing and kind of dancing. You could see the whole city lit up.

Today, we are going to find out how to rent bikes that the city has everywhere. There is new program in Barcelona where they put 3000 red bikes in places all over the city to encourage people to ride bikes to reduce cars on the road and stop global warming. It is only 1 Euro a week to use the bikes and you can leave them any of the places in the city, but you need a special card. Dad and I are going to find it.

That is all for now. On our next post, more about Barcelona!

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Selcuk, Izmir, Turkey

Today was the worst day of my trip!!! What a shit shit shit shit day! Details to follow.

I woke up at 630 am and took off for the bus station at 715. I found a bus leaving for Izmir at 830 which was fine as I didnt have to wait around for too long. I arrived in Izmir at 11 am and then took a van to Selchuk which was about an hour away. When I arrived in Selchuk I went looking for the ANZ Guesthouse as it was recommended to me. After I checked in, I went to chack out some of the main sights of the twon. I had a few hours to waste as I was planning on going to Ephesus at 4 pm when the sun wasnt as strong. I didnt expect to be able to se the ruins in Ephesus today as I thoiught they would be a few hours away from Selchuk. I was glad to find out that they were only 3 kms away. This was perfect as it meant that I could leave tomorrow and save another day. The first place I went to in Selchuk was ST John Basilica which was built in the 6th century.  This is where disaster struck. My camera friggin broke and it was my fault. I was using the self timer and placed it on a wall so I could be in the photo. I thought the wind was a bit powerul so I just stayed by my camera to  make sure it wouldnt fall off. It seemed like it was ok. After the picture was taken, I ran to my camera just in case the wind was about to blow it off and I must have jinxed myself as that is what exactly happened. The camera fell 6 feet and hit the rock pavement. The camera looks perfectly fine but the lens will no longer extract properly. When you turn the camera on, it makes the sound of a fax machine when someone puts a fax through. I am more mad about myself for taking such a stupid chance! I shouldnt have taken that picture given that I knew the risks. I guess we all have our stupid moments.    However, it gets worse. I somehow managed to lose my camera case after this incident. I dont know if I left it at the Basilica while trying to fix my camera or whether I dropped it on my way back to the hostel. Inside my camera case I had about 40 Liras (about 35 Cdn dollars) and a memory card with all my Africa pictures. Luckily I backed up all my photos on a DVD and a memory stick. So it could have been worse. I also had a piece of paper with the email addresses of the Rwandan kids I met in Kinigi. However, I do have their physical address in my notebook so I could still contact them after my trip (as I promised).

I retraced all of my steps to see if I could find my camera case but I didnt. If I forgot it at the Basilica, there was no way I was going to get it back as there were beggars everywhere trying to sell fake coins to tourists. If they saw the camera case and found money in it, I definitely would not get it back. I guess Christmas may have come early for some people.  

At 4 pm, I still decided to go to the ruins in Ephesus even though I was in a bad mood. I thought about how spoiled I sounded. Here I was on a great trip that most people would love to do and I was crying (not literally) over a camera. I thought about all the locals I met ýn Afrýca and how stupýd ýt was for me to be pýssed off over thýs. It just seemed wrong.  I just tried to suck it up sooner rather than later but it wasnt easy, admýttedly. I would have rather had someone steal the camera than me break it. At least I could have then said to myself that it was out of my control.

It was a good decision to go to Ephesus. The owner of the hostel drove me and 2 American guys (Roqi and Matthew) to the ruins. Both of the guys were teaching English in Istanbul and had a lot of interesting things to say about their experience. It helped me forget about my camera breaking which I told the guys about.  They were nice enough guys and offered to take photos with their cameras and just send them to me later on. I was good with that. By the way, the ruins were outstanding. Some of the best I have seen on this trip.

At 7 pm we got a lift back to our hostel. I re-traced my steps one more time to see if I could find my camera case. It was a waste of time. I asked myself what did I do on this trip to deserve this. Then I thought perhaps something bad had to happen to me before something really good had to happen. Time will tell. I wýll stýck wýth thýs attýtude.

When I got back to the hostel I took a shower and headed to a small local hole in the wall to get something to eat. I decided to leave Selchuk tomorrow. I saw everything I wanted to see in one day. Besides, staying here would have meant thinking about my camera (or rather how stupid I was for taking such an unreasonable risk) more than I should.

Dino Vagabond

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Methven, South Island, New Zealand

Da ich in den letzten drei Wochen fast jeden Tag gearbeitet habe und
ich am Wochenende nicht arbeiten muss, habe ich spontan entschlossen
mich den anderen aus meinem Hostel anzuschliessen und ueber das
Wochenende Skifahren zu gehen.

Am Samstagmorgen um 9 Uhr war Abfahrt. Malia und Kim sind mit Rodrigos
Schrottkarre mitgefahren und Nicolle, Lena und ich sind mit Karens Auto
gefahren. Nach einer Stunde gab es schon den ersten Zwischenstopp an
der Cookiefactory. Es waere besser gewesen wenn wir nicht
gefruehtstueckt haetten. Mmmmmhhhhhh waren die frischgebackenen Cookies
lecker!!!! Um 11 Uhr sind wir dann in Methven angekommen und dann
ging's erst mal zum Skiverleih, denn wir als Backpacker hatten ja alle
keine Skiklamotten. Witzigerweise gehoert der Skiverleih einem
Oesterreicher und seine Angestellte ist auch Oesterreicherin =).
Nachmittags machten wir uns dann auf zur MTV Snow Jam in der Naehe von
Methven. Das Konzert war umsonst, dafuer waren uns aber auch alle Bands
unbekannt. Zuerst mussten wir allerdings eine halbe Stunde einen total
matschigen Weg entlanglaufen, aber Backpacker haben ja matschfeste
Schuhe! Dort war es dann echt cool, eine riesige Leinwand und im
Hintergrund
die schneebedeckten Berge, einfach eine geniale Szenerie! Dann kamen
ein paar durchnittsmaessige Bands und dann kam aber OPSHOP, das ist
einen neuseelaendische Band, die sind soooo toll. Ihr muesst euch auf
YouTube das Lied Maybe oder One Day anhoeren, sooo schoen! Und nach
OPSHOP kam Donavan Frankenreiter, ein Australier der etwa im Stil Jack
Johnsons singt, als auch ganz toll! Wir konnten leider nicht bis zum
Schluss des Konzerts bleiben, denn eigentlich ging es bis 21.30. Uns
war aber schon um 18.30 so kalt, dass wir wieder zum Hostel nach
Methven zurueck sind. So einfach wie wir uns das vorgestellt hatten,
war das allerdings nicht, denn auf dem Weg vom Parkplatz auf die
Strasse zurueck ist der Reifen von Karens Auto platt geworden weil wir
in einen Nagel gefahren sind. So eine Scheisse!

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Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An

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Hard, Austria

Arrived at Friedrichshafen yesterday - albeit almost two hours late thanks to an unscheduled stop in Frankfurt where my Ryanair flight dropped off some spare parts.

This is what you have to expect with Ryanair - it's a country bus in the air. Seating is first in best served and do not expect any special service.

So, if Ryanair needs to drop off some spare parts for one of its plane at Frankfurt airport, do not expect to be told about it beforehand - only when you're in mid flight and unable to leave the plane.

The delay meant I missed the tail end of a wonderful balmy day on the shores of Lake Constance.

By the time we were on the autoroute, driving to my brother's place at Hard, storm clouds were gathering above and we got into the house just as the first downpour came.

Hard is a small town of about 12,000 residents on the eastern shores of Lake Constance and in Austria's westernmost province of Voralberg.

It is about a 10-minute drive from Bregenz, the capital of Voralberg, is well-know for its international festival in July and August, particularly for its opera performances on a floating stage on the lake.

This and last year - they put on Tosca and for the next two festivals it will be Aida. The festival program also includes another opera in the big festival hall, plays and concerts.

Hard itself is quite rural and there are still farm buildings in the middle of town. It is known for attractions such as its big skateboard and bicycle rink and lakeshore baths.

A small stream runs through the town and widens into a small canal at the edge of town, where there is a lock and a small pool with railings to hold on to and pebbles at the bottom said to be good for your feet to wade through.

For a small town it has a lot of pubs or 'gasthaus' as they are called here. Hard must have about 10 of them - five in the middle of town within only 100m of each other.

One of the most impressive pubs is Gasthaus Krone - probably the most standout buildings in town with a gabled roof and very colourful facade in typical Austrian style, advertising a beer garden in the back.

Yet for all is pubs the town is remarkably quiet and when I went to bed, making it an early night, there was hardly a sound to be heard. Either the pub across the street had no business or very quiet patrons.

I woke up this morning to gray skies and managed to catch the latest Olympic news on BBC One - another gold to Britain, which is in front of Australia in the medal tally. I had to go online to find out how Australia was doing.

Later Chris and I went to the market in Hard - a number of stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables in season. We bought some freshly picked raspberries and strawberries plus some Gravenstein apples which my brother likes. At the same place they also sold home made apple juice - wonderfully fresh without any artificial sweeteners or colouring.

At another stall, selling Italian cheese and cured meat, we bought some prosciutto and a bottle of pinot grigio, which we'll try tonight.

It's my turn to cook dinner and I'll be doing my travel recipe of chicken breast with garlic and lemon rind wrapped in prosciutto.

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Galilee, Israel

Though I continue to optimistically set my alarm for the neighborhood of 10AM, Nina and I don't seem to be very good about the whole "now it's time to get out of bed" thing.

Tuesday was no exception to this rule, as we made a long comfortable morning stretch on in room 308 at the Harmony. The only problem was my desire to get our bags packed and pick up our rental car before the traffic kept us from reaching the Galilee before sunset.

Eventually, rational thinking defeated our sleepy tendendencies and we packed our things so that we could make one last run to the Mahane Yehuda and stock up before leaving town. After a very nice coffee and snack with our friends at Mizrahi, we set out on specific missions in the market.

I in charge of fruit and breads while Nina would handle a quick stop to pick up a "few spices". Not surprisingly, by the time I returned to the stall, our trusty spice salesman, Mordechai was in the process of a thinly veiled  flirtation and full press sales job with my lady. I watched in amusement as he continued to wow her with sniffs from the piles of colorful spices stacked up around the shop and I could only chuckle when she walked out with a large bag full of spices and mixes that would make even my mom drool.

"I think I over spent" says Nina.
"How much?" ask I
"a lot" She says
"How much?" ask I

"Over 200 Shekels"

Considering that this is about $70, I would say that Mordechai won!

Stocked with spices and smelling like "Cumin Beings", we scooted back to the Harmony and went to pick up our rental, a "Micra", which was probably small enough to fit in one of Nina's larger purses.

More concerned about the stayingpower than the horsepower, I reluctantly started her up as we made our way into the Jerusalem traffic and toward the Judean Hills. Though the maps seem quite clear on how to meet up with route 1 East, we had a hell of a time finding our way out of the city... but finally wound our way past a few arab villages and onto the highway.

Following the downward path toward the Jordan River Valley, we descended into the West Bank and watched as the desert once again took us over.

Turning Northward somewhere near Jericho, we put the Micra to the Metal and Shot northward as the Jordanian border loomed a few kilometers to the right. After about an hour, we reached the northern border of the West Bank (aka the Green Line) and came to a standard checkpoint. After a few questions from the guard we were asked to pull over and were soon made to empty the entire car, open every door and run all our belongings through the machines.

I was a little annoyed at first...but by the end of the process, I think we both appreciated the experience...so far the only non standard security display we have witnessed.

Driving for another 45 minutes, we finally hit the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee, or the Kinneret as the locals call it, and caught route 92 along the Eastern shore to our new home at Kibbutz Ein Gev. Quickly checking in, we dropped off our things and ran down to the beach to catch a magical sunset over these Holy shores.

In the morning, we fired up the Micra and sling shot her up the steep hills of the Golan heights. Once on level ground, we found the Yehudia nature reserve and stowed the Micra in a tiny dirt parking spot. With the ranger's strong advice, we packed up 4 large bottles of water and set out onto the plateau.    

For the first hour, we trudged along the marked path as it took us through arid fields and abondoned Syrian villages. Shortly, the path began to turn downward and we suddenly came upon a lush wadi that wound straight into the heart of a deep canyon. The dense green fauna and bright red flowers clashed brightly against the dry yellow deck and we obediently followed the red marks on the rocks as it took us into the thick of the Golani jungle. Winding our way deeper into the canyon, we fought off wild branches and hop scotched our way over the rocks that provided dry footing through the shallow stream below us.

Eventually, the water picked up steam and gathered itself into a tiny waterfall that dumped directly into a system of two large natural swimming holes dubbed the "Hexagon Pools" based on the large rocks of that shape which line the pools. We sat and watched as groups of Israelis jumped of the impressive cliffs and splashed around in the first pool. 

Sensing a calmer vibe at the next pool, we climbed up the mountain and found the path leading to a much less crowded but equally beautiful pool. With cold water waiting before us, we stripped down to our bathing garments and quickly jumped into the cold and refreshing pool. It was a nice sensation, especially considering the intense heat. We lingered for a while, just dog paddling in the middle of the surprisingly deep water world we had found. 

After getting out of the water, we allowed the sun  to do it's work and were both fairly dry in a matter of minutes. Packing up our things, we set back up the face of the canyon and found the path markers above the pool.

After another hour, we approached the parking lot and finally spotted the micra resting next to a similarly sized tree (well...a bush might be more accurate). We quickly started the car and cranked up the AC...basking in the artificial yet wonderful cool breeze.

Heading down the mountain, we drove west along the top of the Lake for a while before heading up into the Galilean hills for lunch at "Vered Ha Galil". Inside the inn's rustic main lodge, we tore into a huge basket of Southern Fried Chicken and freshly baked bread. Within minutes, I could feel my tired body starting to recover from the day's work.

To end the day, we drove back to Ein Gev and spent the early evening relaxing in the warm but refreshing waters of the Kinneret. After a long dip, we pulled a couple of chairs into shallows and watched the sun set as the water lapped at our feet.

What a great spot.




  

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Samarkand, Uzbekistan

I arrive into Tashkent's Xaloqaro aiport by the early morning Uzbekistan Airlines flight from Delhi. The view from the top is stunning with craggy mountain tops, snowcaps, flowing valleys, unending mountain ranges (creating a magical wave effect in the morning sun) and green pastures. The sky is clear, the sun is bright and the air is clean.

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Rome, Lazio, Italy

Rome was my final destination. I arrived there at 11 p.m. I was worried that I could catch a metro to my hostel. On the train, I met an middle-aged Asian from U.S. and talked with him, but as soon as the train arrived, I rushed out and ran to the metro station with some coins in my hand to buy a ticket quickly. As a result, I could make the last train, but if I missed it, I might walk to the hostel, because I didn't have much money and know how much was the taxi fare to my hostel, neither.

In the next morning, I went to Vatican, the thirtieth country I had visited. On my way, I dropped by a money exchange, but they took an incredibly high commission. I remembered I was also taken a high commission in Venice, too. I thought they should have shown their commission rate at front. In Piazza di San Pietro, there was a long waiting line to pass throgh the security gate for St. Peter's Basilika. I was stopped at the gate, because I was wearing shortpants. They told me to lower my pants to hide my knees. After I passed the gate, I raised my pants again and entered the basilica. Then I was warned again to lower the pants. The basilica was huge, but I don't like gorgeous religious buildings so much, because they have nothing to do with religious devotion, although tourists may be interested in them as architectures.

After I walked out of Vatican, I visited Trevi Fountain. To put it exactly, the nearest tourist attraction I knew happened to be Trevi. I passed by Castel Sant Angelo. I had seen the castle in the movie Roman Holiday, but I didn't remember at that time. In Piazza Navona, I stopped by a souvenir shop to check where I should have visited. LP guide didn't have a lot of picutures. So that was a good way to know where was attractive. Near the Piazza, I found Pantheon. It must have been an important building, but not important building for me. After five minite walk from there, I finally arrived Trevi Fountain!! It was larger and more impressive than I imagined. It was so hot that I put my legs into the fountain like kids did, which was forbidden and so I was warned. Then I left a coin and left. After that I walked for a while and reached Piazza Spagna. It was allowed to wash hands and legs in the boat-shaped fountain and to drink water. On Spanish Steps, I took a rest for a minute, but nobody asked me to be a model... Then I walked to Piazz de Popolo and ate lunch at a open-air cafe beyond the square. The service was terrible and, additionaly, they took cover charge.

The next destination was the Colosseum, which was the icon of Rome. I didn't mean to borrow an audioguide handset, but because I took a fast line, I had to do. The ruin was marvelous, but I thought I didn't need the audioguide. After walking around the ruin, all of a sudden, I got a trouble. I realized my wallet was missing from my poket. I looked for it for a while and luckily found it, but I thought I should have been more careful. Next, I visited Roman Forum whose entrace was quite difficult to find, because everybody dropped by there after visiting the Colosseum. The forum was OK, but I was aready tired of ruins at that time.

When I went back to the hostel, I was hungry. So I went shopping in the close supermarket and tried to cook in the kitchen, but I couldn't find pans there... Flankly speaking, in general, European Backpackers hostels were more inconvenient than Oceanian ones. There were no washing machines and driers, no TV lounge, and no fully equipped kitchens in European hostels and that was usual. Or was that because I stayed in cheap hostels? I felt I would never come back to Europe with a backpack again.

The next day was the last day in Rome. Once again, I checked all the places I should have visited and remembered the Mouth of Truth. I looked for it on my map, but I couldn't find it. Actually, it is situated in Santa Maria in Cosmedin. However, nobody wouldn't have visited the church without it. In the church, two Korean girls approached me and asked me to take a picture in front of the mouth shutter. I coundn't take a good picture of them, but they took a perfect picture of me. Anyway, I left the church and headed for Musei Capitorini, which was the oldest museum in the world. At the entrace, I found the price was raised to 8 euros. I didn't know what it housed, but it looked boring. So I left there. At the back of the museum, I found a fountain to take a rest. There were a lot of people putting their legs in the fountain and so I immersed my legs, too. It was very comfortable, but, suddenly, all the others left the fountain. I understood why, as a policeman approached and warned me. In fact, the fountain was a part of Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I was not interested in these kind of monuments, but I decided to take a walk around the building for a minute, because I had nothing else to do. While I was travelling around Australia, I saw a lot of war remembrances like that. I guessed it cost a lot to maintain the grand building, but they must be important to make us remember war experiences. After a short rest and a simple meal on a rock beyond the next street, I tried Piazza della Repubblica, because it was close to the train station where I catch a train to Leonardo da Vinci Airport. It was beautiful, and probably more beautiful at night, but I was too tired to stay there even a minute.

Come to think of it, I should have spent less days in Rome and more days in Naples. There were a lot of attractions in Rome, but they were all within walking distance. On the other hand, The attractions of Naples were scattered in the suburbs.

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Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Graduation was a lot of fun, got a lot of pictures, ate some good food, played Flip Cup which was a cool game..and our team totally crushed Claudio's team it was embarrassing.Then we went to Monkey Bar which was closed on a Friday night??? then walked up to Aqua in the rain, and I had a great time I got a bunch of dancing in with the ladies..had a really good time, which translates to me being tremendously sore tomorrow. Our Van leaves at 11am for the airport...im so not ready to leave. Its been such an amazing experience, Im so happy I came on this trip...the perfect storm or the black swan as my boy Rafa says..which is deep. Im truly going to miss everyone and not sure how Im going to handle going back to the real world. I will try to post some pics tomorrow morning.

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Hue, Vietnam

Hue, Vietnam

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Copenhagen, Zealand, Denmark

When I first arrived in Copenhagen, I was overwhelmed by the luggage I had packed and failed to remember that I have to carry it all. Almost a total of 120 lbs in my two bags was a little hard to balance going through the airport. It was quite exciting getting a stamp in my passport from Copenhagen. I waited by the spot where kristen and Elin said to meet for about a half hour getting a little worried they forgot me. Then I saw that they had a star bucks in the airport and I knew where to find kristen. I found me way over a trio of familiar faces and hugs in the foreign place. Never has it felt so warm to see someone I know! From there the girls were very helpful in getting my luggage on a cart finally and strolling on down to the train station. Riding the train from Denmark to Sweden there is a tunnel that goes under the water. It was weird having my ears pop on a train. Once we set foot in the land of Swede's Elin's Aunt was there to greet us with a friendly face. She took us and our baggage of stuff back to her apartment in Malmo. In her apartment we were abe to relax a while, I showered myself clean, and then began our journey of trying new tastes in Sweden for lunch. We learned how to shave cheese properly, much of Swedish food comes in tubes and that Remoulade is kind of like mayonnaise. We spend the evening attending the Malmo festival where we say an array of music and food. First we started on the outside of town and made our way more and more into the city, where I learned that it is the 3rd largest city in Sweden. For dinner that evening the 3 foreigners tried Langos for the first time, most came with kaviar, so I stuck to the dessert lango. This was a lot like an elephant ear with strawberries and whip cream. We made our way to a huge concert in the center of town where the band , Millencolin, was performing. The music had a good beat, and kristen and I wanted to join the mosh pit to see how close we could get to the front. After pushing and shoving through the crowd and receiving many mean looks we were surprisingly disappointed with the mosh pit action, hardly anyone was jumping or dancing. We were all beat just a few minutes later and made the hour and a half long drive back to Elin's home in Horby. It was a lonely drive for Elin cause all three of her guests were asleep the whole ride. This concluded my first day in Sweden, where the biggest difference we learned from Swedes to Americans is that we'll say hello to someone on the street when we make eye contact. This is unheard of in Sweden.

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Yarkand, China

We met up in Fubar at 9.00am for a fry up outside the Chini Bagh Hotel in Kashgar. This is the old Caravan Cafe site, and was going to be my last taste of Western food for a week. From now on it was going to be Laghman (pulled noodles) and other local food. After a good feed we made our way to the bus station. At the bus stations in Xinjiang there are usually plenty of long distance taxis whose prices are negotiable. Chris negotiated with one guy until we got a good price of about 300Y. From Kashgar to Yarkand is about 200km.

It took us a surprisingly long time to get out of the cultivated area around Kashgar. These cities on the Silk road around the Takla Makan are frequently called Oasis cities/towns, which makes you think of a place with just a few square km's of palm trees. When we left Kashgar we must have gone about 50km's before we hit the desert. Calling our driver would be an understatement. He proved to be one of those who couldn't resist overtaking even when it was apparent there was never enough room. Our journey was rather hairraising to say the least. There were a couple of checkpoints outside Kashgar but they were pretty lax to say the least, made up of part-time militia types dressed in a mixture of uniform and casual clothes.

We didn't see so much true desert on this leg, most of the intervening country would be best described as scrubland, with none of the classic sand dunes you so often see in photos of the Takla Makan.

We made it to Yarkand in about 2 and a half hours. Yarkand's very much a modern Chinese town these days with big wide boulevards and lots of characterless concrete buildings. This was one of my biggest dissapointments about the trip, the term Silk Road captures the romance and riches of these once mysterious remote desert cities, yet now the Chinese have pushed these massive boulevards through them, destroying much of the old towns and their city walls, and replacing them with their usual drab concrete blocks.

We asked the taxi driver to stop at the Shache Binguan, this being apparently the only hotel in town that accepted foreigners. We entered the building he dropped us at, but were refused entry by the staff, who pointed down the road. We marched down the road in the direction pointed and found another hotel that agreed to take us. I don't know if the actual hotel we were dropped at was the Shache Binguan and our information was wrong, or the taxi driver got it wrong. Price for a room at the hotel was 120Y.

We dropped off our stuff and then went for a look around town. We ventured into a Uighur restaurant where to our amazement, we found a young Uighur girl working there who spoke fluent english. After consuming our bowls of noodles she took us to the chief attraction in town, the blue tiled tomb of the famous wife of a local Khan from the Sixteenth Century. We imagined that the tomb would be several hundred years old befitting the age of the tomb but inside we found a plaque which states that the tomb was only built 20 years ago by the locals as a tribute which was a bit of a letdown.

We then ventured into the what was left of the old town, but there's basically just a few alleyways left and after a nosy poke into a few courtyards and a few snaps of the local kids who were following us and loudly demanding 'photo, photo', we were soon back to where we started outside our hotel. In Yarkand the sights and activities are pretty limited to say the least.

In the evening we found a restaurant that served dinner and had more noodles swallowed down with a good few beers. The conversation got round to the current political situation in Xianjiang and Tibet, and I noticed we getting hostile stares from a uniformed Han Chinese guy across at the next table, whereupon we decided it was time to call it a day and it was back to our hotel.

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Malmö, Sweden

The next day we slept in again as well, of course kristen is with us, and it was a very good day to rest and lay around the house. We packed our stuff getting ready for our trip to Stockholm the next day. Also preparing for the evening party ahead of us, our first Swedish cray fish party. At elin's dads's house where we stayed she described to us what happens at the party as well as what we do. She said there is a game we play that is a lot like baseball. It was raining too much that evening for us to play outside. The house she took us to for the party was a friend of her mom's. these people were world travelers and to Kristen and I, were the friendliest Swedes we had ever met so far. With birthday style hats and crayfish in hand we began to learn about the songs they sing in between eating as well. Most of them sang about taking shots of schnapps. When we began the party Lars, the host of the party, had to demonstrate to Noortje and I exactly how to at crayfish. He also explained that the way we were playing was almost a bit cheating because when he plays you take a shot of schnapps for every limb of the crayfish, so after about 4-5 fish you were to the floor. We only did it after every one crayfish. At this party we got our first taste of dining culture in Sweden. It is very common to eat and stay at the table for a couple more hours just talking as we move through coffee and dessert. So what I learned about myself at this party is that I can hold a lot more alcohol then Kristen can. The first one we tried was 40 proof and a little too strong for us. After that we stuck with the more girly hard alcohol.
Going to bed that night kristen and I were verrrrrrrrry giggly, she and I would laugh about anything. And as expected we stayed up until about 3:00 in the morning again! Elin said that when people go out to clubs and bars seriously they don't get home until 9 o clock in the morning the next day. AHH I couldn't imagine.

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Malmö, Skåne, Sweden

We slept in until 11:00am the next day where we sat around eating breakfast deciding where we should go today. Hmmm where should I spend my day in Sweden today. For breakfast it was very different then your normal bowl of cereal in the unites states. We had a type of bread that had a texture like pita bread. You butter it first then put sliced swiss cheese on it for a snack. We soon learned this is a very very very common food in Sweden. There are 6 aisles in the grocery devoted to bread and cheese. Elin asked me what my favorite thing to do was when visiting somewhere. I knew right away it was the beach for me. So it was decided we would spend the day in southeast Sweden, on the way visiting in old castle where HD bikers were meeting for a mid evil tournament. In 1499 Glimmingehus was built. It was so strange walking in the walls of such an old building that had such history. It was fun to imagine the people living there and how they looked and acted. In the bottom floor was the servants and kitchen staff all the way to the very top where balls were held. Kristen and I pretending we were dancing at the ball ourselves. The two most interesting things I found about the castle was the plumbing system and the defense system. There were so many hidden holes and cranies that were made to help ward off any enemies trying to get into the castle. There was a vent above the doorway of the castle that was made for pouring hot oil on top of enemies. The plumbing system was fascinating in the fact that there wasn't really any at all. The toilet consisted of a hole you sat on and the excrements just fell into the outside lawn area. Outside they were having a bikers meeting of Malmo where at least 80-100 Harley Davidson bikers were relaxing and preparing to watch the mid evil tournament. I felt like I had been thrown into the movie "A knight's Tale". After we left the castle we explored back roads trying to get to the beach. At the beach we strolled through little shops and fish stores. Then we hiked up a hill to a ancient site where the piece of land we were on was surrounded on all three sides of us. We all took a minute to sit down next to the hill to watch the surf bang against the rocks below us, enjoy the scenery of para sailers to our right and breathe the fresh Sweden ocean air! Oh yeah I tried smoked eel for the first time as we went back down to the beach town.

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Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

Dear all,

Our last blog entry from the slopes of Cardrona, Wanaka in New Zealand!

We drove here from Christchurch, a 5 hour drive, with lots of sheep along the way.

We have one more day of skiing left, it has been fantastic, great snow, lots of different trails and jumps (for Omer) and bright sunshine everyday.

We all decided we would love to live here and will miss the fantastic mountain views, lakes, our comfy apartment and the  laid back Kiwis.

We'll have a long trip back to Dubai, 18 hours on the plane, and will be back home on Thursday early morning.

Signing off (sadly),

Team Kaddouri.