The Sehrineau'ss Blog on RealTravel

Winnipeg journal: Last but not least

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:15:07 GMT

Our last stop in our round the world odyssey was the closest to home, Winnipeg. While Winnipeg couldn't quite compete with the sights, climate or atmosphere of some of our other destinations it did have our good friends Dan and Javita, along with their adorable 5-month-old daughter Gwen. Dan is an RCMP officer and was working night shifts but we quite enjoyed our stay there, relaxing amidst the red river.

Sydney journal: Sydney

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:48:56 GMT

Last but not least on our fantastic 8 month trip, Australia is our final continent. Landing at Sydney, we met our friends Geoff and Sarah at the airport. They've been living in Oz for 3 years now and have a beautiful place bordering right on Manly beach, one of Sydney's most celebrated. Once again we were lucky enough to have some good friends show us around and discover a city like the locals do.

Sydney is truly blessed with natural beauty. There are so many bays, coves and beaches in the area that waterfront property is everywhere, as are great beaches and surf culture. The city has ...

Brisbane journal: The Estonian connection

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:42:41 GMT

Our last Australian stop was Brisbane, where we visited our friend Aivo. Aivo was a friend of ours who we met during our year in Estonia, and he has since moved to Brisbane. He's got a great place overlooking the hills in Brisbane, complete with pool, sauna and a whirlpool.

We also reunited with Justin and Leah, 2 Australian friends of Aivo that we met in Estonia back in the day. We were there for a long weekend, so basically we spent most of our time there heading from restaurant to bar and then back to Aivo's, where he hosted one of his famous sauna parties. Apparently there are ...

Byron Bay journal: Exploring Oz

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:38:32 GMT

To see the Australian countryside for a few days, we rented a car and headed to the area south of Brisbane, about 800 kms north of Sydney.

First we visited a couple of National Parks, Natural Arch was a parking lot park (meaning you can park and see the entire park in 1 hour) with an interesting waterfall that punches through the rock into a cave below.

After that we went to Mount Warning, a beautiful park set in a subtropical rainforest. Keeping our eyes peeled for wild koalas and platypus (we saw none) we hiked for 4 hours and made it to the summit, the most distinctive peak in ...

Perhentian Kecil journal: Back to Malaysia for one more beach

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:16:08 GMT

Having encountered bad weather on the Andaman coast and with little interest in visiting any other islands on Thailand's gulf coast we decided to go back to Malaysia.

The Perhentian islands are close to the Thai border on the gulf coast. After an overnight train from Koh Tao we arrived at Long beach on Perhentian Kecil (little island).

The diving in the area was great, the atmosphere relaxed (with malaysia being muslim alcohol was limited and expensive), and the beach was fantastic. Unfortunately we couldn't stay as long as we'd wished as Paul came down with a flu, prompting a ...

Ko Tao journal: Asia's diving capital

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:51:49 GMT

After spending some time in the west coast of Thailand, we decided to head to the east coast to try and find some better weather. Ko Tao is known as the diving capital of Thailand, more people get certified here than anywhere else in the world except for Cairns, Australia.

Paul's brother Andres decided he wasn't going to dive so the first few days were spent taking snorkel tours around the island, sunning, playing cards and enjoying the relaxing restaurants by the beaches. The snorkelling was pretty good considering the number of people that visit the reefs every day, usually that kind ...

Krabi journal: A candidate for most beautiful beach

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:44:37 GMT

Back on the mainland we headed to Railay beach, near the city of Krabi.

Railay is a peninsula inaccessable by road because of the massive limestone cliffs separating the beaches from the mainland. The cliffs and rocks in the area make it Thailands rock climbing capital. There are 3 beaches in close proximity to one another, Railay East, Railay West and Phra Nang.

Phra Nang may be the most beautiful beach we've seen, with huge limestone stalactites framing one end of the beach and beautiful stone formations jutting out of the water in the bay. Luckily a 5 star resort taking up the ...

Ko Phi Phi Don journal: Stormy weather in paradise

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:39:30 GMT

Ko Phi Phi was the first destination we visited after being joined by Paul's brother Andres in Bangkok.

Getting to Ko Phi Phi was quite the adventure. It required a 2 hour ferry ride from the mainland, on the day we left the winds were quite high with rough seas. About an hour into the very bumpy ferry ride the staff informed everyone to get their life jackets on, and that we were turning around immediately. Apparently the boat wasn't handling the conditions very well. So while the staff tried to balance the boat by moving people and luggage from side to side we just quietly tried to ...

Paris journal: First up, Paris

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:51:28 GMT

Katherine and I decided to start our trip by following our stomachs, and that means Paris ! It's the only place on this trip we've visited before and a good way to ease into things.

So, the first thing we discovered in Paris was that the World Cup of Rugby was going on. Apparently this only happens every 4 years and for Rugby nations this is a BIG deal. The whole city is overrun with posters and fans from New Zealand , Australia etc. It may come as a surprise to many of you that France is a Rugby nation, but it is, in a big way. So we arrived just in time for the France/England ...

Chiang Mai journal: Back in Thailand

Mon, 05 May 2008 02:47:52 GMT

After 3 months touring around the rest of SE Asia we found ourselves back in Thailand. Coming from Luang Prabang in Laos took 3 days; 2 lovely, relaxing days on a slow boat down the Mekong river and then another day by bus. Eventually we made it to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand's tourist juggernaut.

Chiang Mai is many people's favorite city in Thailand. A lot more laid back than Bangkok (to be fair it's way way smaller) and full of ancient temples it also probably holds the record for most internet cafes and massage parlors per square kilometer. What draws a lot of tourists to Chiang Mai ...

Luang Prabang journal: La vie en repose

Sun, 04 May 2008 07:46:42 GMT

Luang Prabang is Laos' primary tourist attraction, a world heritage city set in rolling green hills, sandwiched between 2 rivers and full of ancient temples and french colonial architecture.

The city is quite laid back and a lovely place to spend a few days while getting cheap massages and browsing the big tourist night market. Every morning at dawn the many monks of Luang Prabang roam the streets looking for alms, asking for food donations as they are not allowed to buy and cook food for themselves. This tradition was probably once peaceful but with tons of tourists trying to get their ...

Vang Vieng journal: The Backpacker Capital of Laos

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:58:15 GMT

After Champasak, we took a number of buses covering over 700km and ended up in Vang Vieng, the backpacker capital of Laos. Vang Vieng is set on the Mekong and is lined with breathtaking limestone cliffs. It also is home to a huge backpacker culture, a lot of drinking, drugs and strangely enough: continous Friends* episodes in many of the bars.

The thing to do in Vang Vieng is go tubing. For the lily-livered, this means you sit in an inner tube and laze down the Mekong (perhaps the world's best Lazy River). For an added challenge, there are bars approximately every 50 meters serving ...

Don Det journal: One of 4000 islands...

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:17:27 GMT

After beautiful Angkor, we decided to get out of Cambodia before the start of Khmer New Year. So far, we have managed to celebrate New Year in a variety of ways: International New Year (Dec 31st) in Delhi, Chinese New Year (Feb 6th) in Bangkok, Balinese New Year (Mar 7th) locked in our hotel in Ubud and now Khmer (Cambodian) New year (Apr 13-16th). We were soon informed that it is a tri-country new years as Laos, Thailand AND Cambodia all celebrate the new year at the same time. Many things shut down for the new year, so we decided to head to Don Det, a chilled out little island with not ...

Siem Reap journal: Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:17:07 GMT

After visiting the capital Phnom Penh we headed straight for Cambodia's megawatt attraction, the temples of Angkor.

Siem Reap is a provincial town close to Angkor that has blown up due to a massive influx of tourists in the last 10 years. The town itself is quite cute with great restaurants and quaint french colonial architecture which appeal to the tourists.

Just a few kilometers away from Siem Reap are the temples of Angkor. Most of the temples were built between 700 and 1200 years ago, when Angkor was at the center of a vast empire and the city boasted up to a million ...

Phnom Penh journal: Cambodia

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:06:35 GMT

After having completed our excellent Indonesian adventures we travelled via Kuala Lumpur to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.

Cambodia is visibly poorer than it's neighbor Thailand, having gone through a very rough stretch in the 70's and 80's. The Vietnam war was fought partially on Cambodian ground and of course Pol Pot's awful regime instigated a genocide and left behind millions of landmines that still takes limbs and eyes today.

However sad its history and despite rampant corruption, Cambodia is picking up the pieces and making a recovery. Phnom Penh is full of life, tourists ...

Waikabubak journal: Sumba

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:02:16 GMT

Getting to Sumba required yet another long voyage, this time 26 hours on ferries from Flores. Luckily we managed to snag benches we could lie on overnight as the one ferry a week that goes to Sumba was completely packed with livestock, goods and of course people.

Sumba is an island that does not receive a lot of tourists. An Irishman we met living there reckons it gets more anthropologists visiting than tourists. It's a mystery to us how it has remained so isolated as the island (like all the ones we've seen in Indonesia) is stunning, and its people have an incredible and vibrant ...

Labuanbajo journal: Komodo National Park

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:34:11 GMT

After the Gili Islands our next destination was theisland of Flores and it's famed neighbor the KomodoIslands. To get to Flores required taking a boat, car,car, bus, ferry, bus, minibus and ferry across severalislands. Add to that the numerous touts trying toconvince us our tickets weren't valid so we'd pay themsome money and ferries and buses that left hoursbehind schedule it was quite the odyssey! However 38hours after departing we finally arrived in LabuanBajo, the western port on Flores.

The area around Labuan Bajo is stunning, with verdantgreen hills arching out of the sea and the ...

Ubud journal: Ubud

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Our next stop in Bali was its cultural capital Ubud. It is famed for artists of all kinds, painters, dancers, carvers, chefs etc. As a tiny village set among verdant rice fields and ancient temples, it has developed a huge tourist industry over the years.

Maybe it was because there was a yoga conference in town but Ubud seems to have a very high influx of rich hippie tourists and expats, artist types with lots of money for lattes and designer clothes. Anyone who has read 'Eat, Pray, Love' recently knows it as the setting of the "Love" part of the book. We were trying to come up ...

Seminyak journal: Bali

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:33:52 GMT

After Malysia it was off to Indonesia, with the first stop being where else but the fabled island of Bali! Indonesia is a huge country comprised of over 14000 islands, each with its own character. There's no way our 30-day visa was going to even allow us to scratch the surface of the country. We knew we had left the orderly conduct of Malaysia when the Balinese customs official gave us his personal phone number at the airport to use if we wanted to "extend" our visa.

Bali is an ancient hindu island in a mostly muslim country. It is one of the only hindu bastions left outside ...

Sandakan journal: Jungles, rivers and Orangutans

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:58:52 GMT

Our jungle adventures haven't quite ended yet in Borneo. Getting to Sabah, the eastern province of Malaysian Borneo, we decided to start with a 3-day organized trip up the Kinabatangan River. The Kinabatangan is the largest river in Sabah, and has one of the largest concentrations of fauna in the world. Our tour operator Uncle Tan's has a camp located on the floodplains of the river, an hour along the river from the closest paved road. With it being the wet season much of the jungle was immersed in water and the camp was as well, luckily it's built up on pylons to account for the annual ...

Niah journal: Going spleunking

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:03:05 GMT

We hadn't had enough of Borneo's natural splendors yet, so we decided to go to Niah Caves National Park. We saw this park featured in one of the episodes of the BBC documentary "Planet Earth" and knew we had to visit!

Niah is one of the largest caves in the world, it has an estimated quarter million bats and half a million swiftlets (also a type of bird). It is also famous for being one of the major sources of swiflet nests, which are a very expensive delicacy in Chinese cuisine used to make the famous bird nests soup. The nests are made of swiflet spit, we haven't had a chance to try ...

Bario journal: The Kelabit Highlands

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:38:58 GMT

Next up in Borneo were the remote Kelabit highlands, a more off the beaten path destination. This is a tiny indigenous community (only 7000 people in the world speak Kelabit) deep in the jungles of Borneo. To get there we took a 1 hour flight on a small airplane, a bumpy 12 seater to be precise, to the Kelabit "capital" of Bario.

At the Bario airstrip we were greeted by a few homestay owners, and we decided to go with a nice woman named Nancy. Since there are very few restaurants in town, actually we're not sure there are any at all, staying in Bario means accommodation at someone's ...

Bangkok journal: Bangkok

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 01:23:59 GMT

Our southeast asian odyssey started in Bangkok. While there we stayed with our good friends Oli and Anna (Oli was emcee at our wedding). They had just moved to Bangkok a few months before as Oli got a great job offer working in the travel and airline industry. We stayed in their fantastic condo and made liberal use of their pool, sauna and gym in their building.

So where to begin in Bangkok? We ended up staying there 8 days, and had a fantastic time. Quite simply, it's one of our favorite cities in the world. The Thai people are incredibly friendly and helpful, there was always someone ...

Trivandrum journal: A beach, a city, a palace, and the end of the road

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:29:15 GMT

This entry is actually going to sum up a few different places we headed to after the backwaters.

First up after Allepey we went to Varkala beach. Varkala is a standard beachtown which could be anywhere in the world, which suited us fine for a couple of days. There was a nice cliff framing the beach, and the seafood there was excellent. The waves were also huge, making body surfing the sport of choice while we were there.

Next up was the city of Trivandrum (aka Thiruvananthapuram). Trivandrum is the capital of Kerala and has a great hindu temple (no entry to non-hindus but we toured ...

Alleppey journal: The backwaters

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:46:07 GMT

Kerala's biggest tourist draw are the famous backwaters. Hundreds of kilometers of riverways and canals wind their way near the coast and life revolves around them. With houses, rice paddies and jungle bordering the waterways it makes for quite the scenic journey. Most travellers come and rent a palatial houseboat for a night where they cruise the waterways and have fresh seafood cooked for them.

Being a bit budget shy after our recent cooking course we decided to take the public ferry from Kottayam to Allepey for 25 cents each as our introduction to the backwaters. The 3 hour tour was ...

Munnar journal: There's tea in them hills!

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:26:07 GMT

Munnar is a british "hill station". Nestled high in the hills, it is a nice escape from the heat and humidity of the sweltering coast. The drive there winds its way up narrow roads past jungle landscapes and a cliff plunge is never far away.

Munnar is also prime tea growing country. Having never seen tea plantations before it was beautiful to see the rolling hills carpeted in a thick green carpet.

We visited a national park while there, Eravikulam. Getting there was half the fun. We rode the local public transport, a tiny crowded jeep. So crowded that people were hanging off the ...

Todupulai journal: Time to cook!

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:25:59 GMT

One of our goals in travelling to India was to take a cooking course. In Kerala we found a 4 day course being offered in vegetarian Keralan cuisine. We decided to splurge and take the course, which was being offered in the pretty much untouristed town of Thoduphuza (Todupulai), an hour away from Cochin.

Our host was Haritha farms, owned by the generous and welcoming Mathews family. The farm is organic and contains a little bit of everything, coconuts, jackfruit, ginger, turmeric and just about every spice imaginable. Not really being 5-star resort type travellers, we knew we’d love the ...

Cochin journal: Tropical India

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 06:06:18 GMT

Before this trip started we knew we wanted to visit two major destinations in and around India. Rajasthan was one, and at the beginning of the trip we were pretty sure Nepal was the other. However the cold nights in Rajasthan made us reconsider our plan to head into the snowy mountains and sleep in hotels with no heating.

Instead we were intrigued by the south. After debating between the states of Goa and Kerala we decided on Kerala, as it sounded more interesting and varied to us than Goa which is synonymous with beaches and partying. Kerala is in the very south of India on the Atlantic ...

Udaipur journal: Lakeside luxury

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:36:29 GMT

Udaipur is a gorgeous, classy city centered on lake Pichola. Many people profess it to be the most beautiful spot in India, and it's very popular with honeymooners. It kind of reminded us of Venice around the lake itself, although there are no canals and Udaipur (unlike Venice) is very much full of non-Disneyfied life. The city was the cleanest we've encountered, with fewer cows, spiffier buildings, first class hotels and restaurants, and the shopping is great. It is very touristy but for some reason it still exudes charm and is a lovely place to stay.

We'd been blitzing through ...

Ranakpur journal: The Jain temple

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:51:42 GMT

We decided to break up the long journey from Jodhpur to Udaipur to make a pit stop in Ranakpur. Ranakpur contains one of the greatest Jain temples in India. Jain temples are usually the most intricately carved in India, and that is really saying something! This one is particularily special because of its size and layout. Inside the temple there are over 1444 columns, and no two are alike. The grounds are quite special as well, they are nestled in a chain of hills in a lush tropical setting, with other smaller Jain temples dotting the landscape.

The Jains were quite accomodating and we ...

Jaisalmer journal: Desert city, desert safari

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:28:56 GMT

From Pushkar we headed to the Thar desert on a night bus. We'd never seen a bus like this before, as the above the seats were cabins lined with bunks, we even got a double! Unfortunately night buses really aren't that comfortable, as the driver speeds along bad roads at 100+km and occasionally hits speedbumps which propel the bus into the air like the General Lee.

By morning we were in Jaisalmer, in the middle of the desert and 60km from Pakistan. It's a fantastic golden city where everything is built in sandstone. The fort is also fully inhabited with thousands of people, the only ...

Jodhpur journal: The Blue City

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:27:03 GMT

Heading back from the western edge of Rajasthan to its center, we made our way to Jodhpur. Jodhpur was the the center of yet another mighty kingdom in Rajasthan, the Marwar dynasty.

It's known as the Blue city as many of the houses in the old city are painted blue, to keep houses cool and keep mosquitoes away. The old city is quite large with a magical feel to it, that is while rickshaws aren't missing you by inches in the narrow streets. At the center of town is Merangarh Fort. The sheer size, the architecture and the excellent museum exhibits (like the maharajas golden elephants seats) ...

Pushkar journal: 400 temples and a pond

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:41:13 GMT

Pushkar was next up on our agenda. It's a tiny Hindu holy town clustered around a lake (which is actually more like a pond). This tiny town has over 400 temples, and the lake is surrounded by ghats (quays) where pilgrims descend to wash in the holy waters and throw flower petals into as offerings.

Getting to Pushkar was quite the adventure. We took a bus from Jaipur to a city near Pushkar called Ajmer. About 10km outside of Ajmer the bus stopped and everyone had to get out. After asking around we figured out that there were riots in Ajmer and the city was closed, so we were pretty much ...

Jaipur journal: The rose city

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:14:39 GMT

To complete the "golden triangle" of Indian tourism, we visited Jaipur. Jaipur is known as the rose city since they painted the whole city pink in the 1800's for a visit from the Prince of Wales. Since then it's been law to maintain the colour throughout the walled old city.

The old city is laid out quite nicely, with broad straight streets lined with bazaars and classic Indian architecture. That said it is an Indian city of 2 million, which means the usual traffic chaos, noise, congestion and open sewers. In fact the touts in Jaipur seemed to be the most aggressive we've encountered ...

Agra journal: Freezing in India

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:39:20 GMT

First up after Delhi was Agra , the site of the Taj Mahal. We arrived and picked one of the cheap hotels with a requisite Taj view.

Agra is a pretty chaotic city, although we're not sure there are any other kind of Indian cities. Along with the usual cows, chickens, sheep etc. it also had pigs, water buffaloes, monkeys and parrots roaming around everywhere. Agra is blessed with a wealth of sites as it was the seat of the muslim Mughal empire for a couple of centuries. We had to wear all of our warm clothes as Agra was in the midst of a cold snap and it hit 0 at night! ...

Delhi Paharganj journal: New years in New Delhi

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:24:11 GMT

The Christmas season found us in Ethiopia. While Katherine spent a few days in be , a poor birthday indeed, Eric and Paul went to a bar on Christmas Eve and then everyone went to an expat potluck on Christmas Day. It felt quite un-Christmasy being 25 degrees and all, but it was nice to spend it with Eric. Our last few days in Ethiopia were spent doing a whole lot of nothing ... cooking meals, having coffee ceremonies with Eric's Ethiopian friends, going to a spa and shaking our heads over Benazir Bhutto's assasination (we were glued to Al-Jazeera for 2 days, Al-Jazeera is an excellent news ...

Lalibela journal: An overlooked wonder of the world

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 04:28:46 GMT

Our last stop on the "northern circuit" in Ethiopia was Lalibela. Lalibela is the historical highlight of Ethiopia, and one of the most fantastic sites in the world. In the 11th century it was the capital of the Ethiopian empire, and King Lalibela constructed 11 churches, all of them very close together. What makes the churches special is how they were constructed, they were carved straight out of the rocky mountains in the area. But they weren't carved out of the side of the mountain, that would have been too easy! Instead they carved straight down into the mountain. Now seeing these ...

Debark' journal: The Simien Mountains

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:28:55 GMT

We decided to go for a 2 day hike in Simien Mountains National Park. This is truly one of the most beautiful places we've been to. Ranging from 3000-4500m the park lines an escarpment, which drops abruptly over 1000m, creating a beautiful place with amazing views everywhere.

Now park regulations stipulated we needed a guide and a scout to accompany us. Since we were camping and the park is pretty remote we added a cook and a driver (with a 4x4) to our retinue as well. So there we were roughing it with our entire entourage, we felt a little foolish with so many people supporting us but it ...

Gonder journal: Africa's Camelot

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:23:31 GMT

From Bahar Dar we took a 3 hour minibus ride to Gonder. The ride was uneventful other than the fact that the driver treated it a personal socializing and shopping trip, stopping every 10 minutes to either greet a friend or buy some qat for himself and the other passengers.

Gonder is known as Africa's Camelot, it was the seat of Ethiopian Royalty from the 16th to the early 19th century. The various kings built large impressive palaces and their courts were legendary throughout Northern Africa, Arabia and even Europe!

The various castle complexes really are quite interesting. They ...

Harar journal: Visiting the muslim heartland of Ethiopia

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:58:42 GMT

Harar is an ancient walled city, it was once famed throughout the muslim world as a bastion of muslim culture and learning. Inside its walls are over 80 mosques and 300 muslim shrines. Apparently it was closed off to all non-Muslims until Sir Richard Burton visited about 180 years ago.

Eric took a couple of days off work and the 3 of us hired a driver to take us there. The drive was 9 hours from Addis each way, and getting there was a feat in itself. Our poor 1985 Corolla kept on breaking down, whether due to overheating or at one point the brakes failed and needed to be ...

Addis Ababa journal: Ethiopia

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:11:51 GMT

So the next stop on our journey is Ethiopia, where we are going to visit Paul's brother Eric, who is working with the city hall in Addis Ababa for 5 months.

We almost had a major snag getting there, as the day before our flight to Addis we went to the Ethiopian airlines office in Cairo to confirm our flight. They had cancelled our reservation on the flight because they didn't have a phone # to contact us at (we're not travelling with a phone) and the flight we booked was now full. Fortunately there was a 2am flight the same day with some open seats so we took that instead!

Tel Aviv journal: Beaches and bars in the White City

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:13:37 GMT

We spent 3 days in Tel Aviv, enjoying the great beach there (even though it was "winter") and exploring the city. Tel Aviv sprouted as a northern suburb from Jaffa, the oldest port in the world. It soon overtook its ancient neighbor in size and importance.

Tel Aviv is really secular compared to much of Israel, with attractive people walking their dogs everywhere. They have a great bar and club scene. It's a really beautiful city, it reminded us of Toronto as it's comprised of several distinct residential neighborhoods with main commercial strips running through them. It's also protected ...

Jerusalem journal: Israeli hospitality

Sun, 02 Dec 2007 02:10:50 GMT

We need a special blog entry devoted to Israeli hospitality. In one day at the beach in Egypt we met friends that would host and escort us for 2 weeks in Israel. From Haifa to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem we've been spoiled with home cooked meals, escorted all over the country and gotten great insight into Israeli life, at least the Jewish side of it :)

We came back to Jerusalem like we promised our friend Koby. We were lucky to meet him at the right time as he just finished 4.5 years in the army and is about to embark on a round the world trip himself, a rite of passage for Israelis once they ...

Haifa journal: Holiday in Haifa

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 02:44:45 GMT

Haifa was a great break for us, a holiday from our holiday. Some people we met in the Sinai invited us to stay with them in Haifa. Eran and Idit were unbelievably generous in letting us stay with them and their cat (whose Hebrew name we've forgotten :). They have a nice apartment way up in the hills of Haifa overlooking the Mediterranean. So we spent the weekend with them and their friends, Ilia, Anat, Leon, Rubi and Tanja, eating, drinking and going on roadtrips.

As everyone was either a lawyer or an engineer it was easy to slip into our almost forgotten former life as young ...

Jerusalem journal: City of God

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 02:10:12 GMT

As most people know Jerusalem is very important to Christians, Jews and Muslims. Seeing the city in person is intense. The ancient passageways of the old city crawl with Christians reenacting the crucifixion, Orthodox Jews wailing at the last remaining wall of their 2000 year old temple and Muslims heading to the Dome of the Rock. The streets are really narrow, to get through you have to elbow your way through everyone while dodging the tiny tractors and carts hauling merchandise into the market (no cars can get into the old city)

What amazed us about the old city was how lived-in and ...

Amman journal: Jordan's capital

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:40:26 GMT

Amman is a nice, mostly modern city. It was really tiny before 1948, and has grown alot since, springing up around the remains of the ancient Roman city of Philadelphia. It was nice to be in a big city again, full of amenities and bursting markets.

We made Amman a base for some daytrips around Jordan. We visited Jerash, site of some impressive Roman ruins, and Madaba, a city famed for its Byzantine mosaics. We also visited Mt Nebo, where Moses saw the promised land and where he died. Unfortunately the view Mt Nebo lacked promise due to fog.

We also met a fun group of travellers at ...

Petra journal: The city in Red

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:12:14 GMT

Our next stop was Jordan's greatest attraction, the ancient city of Petra. 2000 years ago the Nabatean civilization was at the crossroads of many great trade routes, and they found a beautiful location to carve a city straight out of the hills.

You enter the city via a narrow 1km rift in the rock, which suddenly opens up to the Treasury, one of the most beautiful buildings we've seen. Honestly just hiking in the hills around Petra is stunning, as the cliffs are all made of this amazing red sandstone. Add in a 2000 year old city and you have a great attraction. Really most of what is left ...

Wadi Rum journal: In the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 07:42:31 GMT

So we finally got out of Egypt. After sunning at Ras Shaitan we drove with some new Israeli friends to the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, entered Israel, had a guiness and a burger for dinner and then left our friends behind to cross into Jordan. It didn't take long since Israel only has about 10km of land sandwiched between Egypt and Jordan. In fact you can also see Saudi Arabia from this point so the 4 countries all stare at each other from a close vantage point here.

We were really able to let our guard down in Jordan after coming from Egypt. The streets are clean, you don't ...

Luxor journal: Exploring the pharoah's old digs

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 04:50:09 GMT

Halloween found us in Luxor. Katherine was going to go as a belly dancer and Paul as a mummy, but unfortunately no one here has any idea what halloween is.

Luxor is an neat place, it was the capital of ancient Egypt for 2000 years. It has 2 v. important temple ruins, and the whole west bank of the Nile is dotted with thousands of tombs, including the famous valley of the Kings where the pharoahs were buried once they realized that big triangular masses of rock are maybe not such an inconspicuous place to store your treasure when you die.

The temples were nice although not as well ...

Aswan journal: Temples, tombs, dams, cruises and more ...

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:18:17 GMT

We took the long 1100km journey from Alexandria to Aswan via a night train. Aswan is one of the southernmost cities on the Nile. It's more touristed than any place we've visited in Egypt to date, and there are definitely more touts trying to sell you things. It's a pretty city on the Nile with a developed Eastern side and a empty West bank dotted with ancient ruins. It's also really really hot (35+), and we didn't even come in the summer!

It's famous for the Aswan high dam, one of the biggest dams in the world. Due to the flooding caused by the dam many huge ancient temples were moved ...

Siwa journal: The desert Oasis

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 10:11:56 GMT

We took the long trip from Alexandria to Siwa, which is a desert oasis 300km from the closest town. Siwa was a closed society until about 1980, meaning no travel was allowed from the outside. Siwans have their own language and customs, and practice a very conservative branch of islam.

We arrived during their biggest festival of the year, which is celebrated during the full moon in October. To be honest the festival was a bit of a letdown, with lots of singing going on from the men but that was about it other than the young boys shooting their capguns at us.

The conservatism there ...

Cairo journal: Attempting to explore a city with 20 million people and 5000 years of history

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 11:03:24 GMT

Coming to Cairo from Paris was definitely like landing on a different planet.

First, the bad stuff. Cairo is overcrowded (20+ million live here), horribly polluted, full of hustlers trying to sell you stuff and no one seems to be able to give decent directions to anything you're trying to find.

That said, it's an amazing city. You can eat a great meal for 1 dollar, the locals are incredibly friendly (even the ones not selling you stuff), and oh yeah, it's got the pyramids, 600 years of being the center of the christian coptic world and 1300 years of being one of the ...

The World journal: Paul and Kapi's round the world jaunt

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:41:51 GMT

Well. this is it. After several years of talking we've decided to take the plunge and see the world. It was either now or never, or maybe during retirement, whichever comes first.

8 months, 15 (planned) countries, and countless (unplanned) adventures. See life's big questions answered: is Katherine only loud for North America or will the rest of the world need earplugs too? Will Paul's stomach survive India or will he have to trot out the Cipro yet again?

With jobs and apartments left behind, parental concerns calmed, needles injected and vaccines swallowed ... bring it on! Check ...