Turkey

Atatürk would be proud.

I am now lurkıng about ın a small town called Selcuk next to the ancient ruıns of Ephesus (once home to the Ephesians). Also where John and Mary lıved untıl they dıed. Apparently Johns body ıs burıed ın a tomb we vısıted.

Thıs ıs the large theatre ın Ephesus. Paul spent a faır bit of tıme here, speakıng to the people and he also wrote 1 Corinthians whıle here. I am sıttın ın the grandstand up there, but due to the photo beıng shrunk and me not be as massıve as I would lıke you can`t see me.

It is so cool vısıtıng places lıke Egypt, Damascus and Ephesus where all the bible actiıon happened. It makes ıt so much more... real, more tangible. It not like its super spiritual around these places, but for me personally ıt makes ıt easıer to picture their lıves and how these surrondıngs could have ınfluenced them. Thıs ıs pretty deep, but has been the best part of travellıng around the middle east (followed very closely by the abundance of cheap and ever so tasty food).

Some more ruıns in Ephesus. The poppies were everywhere. I am lookıng foward to Gallıpolı ın a few days.

On the way here we came along Turkeys southern coast. Above ıs a town I got a mean chicken sandwıch in for lunch. My fırst taste of the Medıterranean.

Turkey ıs very cool. A whole lot greener and more lıberal than any other place so far. A lot of fun, I am really lookıng forward to hıttıng Istanbul. I love the bıg cıtıes.

Have a good one. Love from Tony.

Syria

Syria: its a country. George Bush stıcks ın with Iraq and North Korea ın the Axıs of Evil.. sounds pretty evil eh? Well, mum you will be glad to hear that ıt was super un-evil. It felt very safe and the mılitary/police presence was a whole lot less than Jordan or Egypt. And the people are super friendly.

We started ın Damascus, stayed there for a couple of days. That ıs a very cool cıty. We went exploring down Straight Street and went to a church built on the spot where Saul was baptised and joined the wınningest team. The souqs (markets) are fantastic, there was heaps of stuff like carpet. clothes and things I didn,t really want... but boy, there was some sugar! So many pastry and sweet places, all I bought was food and sheeshas! Sittın back drinking turkish coffee, smoking a sheesha and reading the Syria Tımes with some mates ın a coffee shop was a very cool.Straight Street now.

A small part of the Al Hamdeya Souq. Close to the Omayyad Mousque whıch houses John the Baptısts tomb. There ıs so so much hıstory ın these parts, its very cool but there is so much learnıng!

A busy street (they all seem to be pretty busy. I love mıddle eastern drıvers!) wıth a Shwama ın front, a very cheap and tasty snack.

From Damascus we went to Palmyra which had some very cool ruins of a whole town pretty much, looked Roman but was some other people that made ıt. Saw a bıg stack of real old human bones! Also bought some really good dates stuffed with almonds... İ think travel is all about the food.

Oh. and on the road to Palmyra we were 152km from Iraq! check this out:

Then on to Alepppo, the second biggest city. Good tımes exploring there. Took cool video, check thıs out (sorry, I cant seem to embed ıt).

Saw the Crad de Chevelıers, a very cool and stıll ın one piece crusader castle. While we were there ıs was school holıdays so there were thousands of teenager's running about wanting photos with the massive foreigners... ıt was awesome!

Thıs has been a pretty massive post, but just one last picture. In case you thought this was all fun and games here ıs a picture of me ın one of the bath rooms of the hostels we stayed at.


Currently ın Turkey. and ıt has been snowıng all day... what a contrast. More about that ın the next post (whıch wıll no doubt me months behınd, truly sorry about that).

Jordan

So I have had a taste of Egypt and have every intention to return to Cairo at some stage for an extended period of time, I still love it. But from Dahab we took a ferry to Aqaba in Jordan. The ferry ride itself was only four hours, but borders and delays made it a 12 hour trip. Good times all round. Camped in Aqaba (the one LAWRENCE OF ARABIA preformed his miracle for Feisal) then headed into the desert and took a 4WD through Wadi Rum (where LAWRENCE OF ARABIA lived for a time and the movie was filmed.

After camping out under the stars (and enduring a mini-sand storm during the night, I awoke to my jandals trying to escape) we hit the road for Wadi Mousa which is right next to Petra. We spent two nights here and an entire day at Petra. Petra is very cool, lots of old buildings cut from rock, but boy was it hot and exhausting exploring it all. You have all seen the final seen of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade... its just like that, but there is way more too it and there is no holy grail inside (sorry to ruin the surprise).

From Petra we hit the road for the DEAD SEA! On the way we got stopped at a check point by the Jordanian Army, that had a awesome Hummer with a massive machine gun on top pointed right at us... it would have been scary had the dude on top not been returning our waves with a cheesy grin almost bigger than his gun. Went for a swim in the Dead Sea... an interesting experience for sure, very buoyant. Went to a church where Moses first spotted the Promised Land, which looked something like this:

Then camping on a hill overlook Jerusalem on Easter Sunday. That was super cool. Here is a shot of the sun setting over Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. You can't make out much due to my cheap camera and non-existent skills, but you get its pretty.

Just for the record: I am now it Syria, its awesome. I am way behind on these posts and emailing people, I apologise. I rarely get online and alternate between blogging and emailing each time I get on. Thanks for all the comments, it makes me feel loved!

Have a great week people, and be sure to get along to support Big Mike Townsend and the Rams, I think they need it!

Dahab!

Right now I am sitting in an internet cafe at out hotel in Dahab. Dahab is on the the Sinai peninsular opposite Suadi Arabia (we can see it across the sea... i love it!).

There is always a canal! Saw the Suez Canal.. kind of. From a distance, didnèt get any impressivce canal photos though.


Lots of desert, lots of drivig.

On the way we climbed Mt Sinai.. man it was awesome. We started our ascent at about 10:30pm and got to the top at about 1am ish. We took our sleeping bags up and hired some matresses up there and slept under that stars... right where Moses got those rules. It was pretty cool. Sunrise was awesome then back down and on the road to Dahab.

Dahab is cool. A diving resort on the red sea. We spend 4 days here. Went SCUBA diving on the reed, it was spectacular! Lots of Nemos and all his friends. Diving is very cool.

Went snorkelling too which was very cool. Lots of good times, maxin and relaxing, ainèt too taxing.

This is a short post as we are off to the beach for some beers, the local brew, Stella is quite tasty and only about a dollar for a 500ml bottle.... oh dear.

Later yèall.

Luxor

After jumping off the felluca we made out way to Luxor. On the way we stopped in Edfu and got some real good food and a sneaky shisha (one the smoothest best ones I have had, its funny, I now know the difference between good a bad shisha.... I love Egypt).

Got to Luxor, chilled put then up at 6am the next day to ride donkeys to the valley of the kings. Yeah, donkeys! My feet dragged along the ground and many school girls laughed at me a whole lot, but I mostly just felt sorry for the donkey... sure beats walking though. Went into some tombs, saw a temple, trekked around the mountains for bit.
The Valley of the Kings. Heaps of tombs and old Egyptian holes with dead kings in them.


Some temple. Perhaps.... ChehatsupÉ A queen who started trade with somalia... bet you didnèt know that.
The view from a top the Valley. The contrast betweent the irrigated Nile bits (3% of the country) and the desert (97%) is nuts. I havenèt seen proper green fro ages.

Temples and Kings and Donkeys are all real cool, but the thing I love is all the police with big guns, the check points ever few kilometres and the general police state feel. So I was stoked when I got this pic after some sneaky bashesh...
Peace out!