We made it to Baku. Which for those Geographically challenged among you is the capital of Azerbaijan (approximately. 1.6 million), and a port city on the Caspian sea. We have come overland from Georgia, which we entered from Turkey, a little over a week and a half a go.
Before we even got out of Turkey the rains came. As we were waiting in line to get out of Turkey it started, and didn't let off until we were a good 200km into Azerbaijan.
Getting out of Turkey turned out to be more difficult than getting in. The customs papers caused a stir. As soon as they tried entering our data in their computers the system crashed. So they tried it on all the different computers they had, still the same result. For some reason their program didn't like our data! In the end they just did it by hand, and we were finally out. Then, the fun started.
First, they weren't quite sure what to do with us at the passport control as he had to make sure that we didn't need a visa, luckily, his data and our matched. So then he stamped it and let us go. Takes only 1 line to write, but 45 minutes to live through! In the meanwhile, a lot of irate, Geogians are trying to get their papers in the window, and pushing, poor Cecilia aside. Finally the guy inside, yells at them to stop it. Oh, and I forgot to mention there was only one guy working.
Well, that taken care of then the customs stuff. The guy asked a couple of cursory questions before filling out a piece of paper per bike and putting a stamp on it. Then it was off to another counter, where again, 1 guy was filling out papers. Cecilia (always send a small, poor, little blond, to do this stuff; read on) goes and stands there, just waiting. People are standing 3 deep and 8 wide at this counter, with one hapless official working. To make it more interesting it took him around 8-10 minutes per vehicle!
Anyway after standing there around 45 minutes, finally, the people behind were starting to reach the counter, and those already there, made sure that they did not push past Cecilia. It almost got into a pushing contest. The guys at the counter then, started to fight to see who could help Cecilia fill out the documentation! One person standing in line spoke some German, so it worked out pretty good. She got the paperwork filled out, got to the counter, and when everything was ready, she came and got me to sign my name. As I walked in everyone parted to let me through to the counter, where I duly signed my name to three documents!
Patients, persistence, and more patience, and a short blond girl, all help.
After this we were in Georgia.
Georgia, turns out to be very "rustic", or more properly, rural. As soon as we got into the country, we passed a small village, with cows lying in the middle of the road. The traffic roaring by as if running a slalom race. It was really fascinating to watch, which car would hit which cow. Luckily, everyone survived, that day at least in Georgia. (Forgot to mention the unlucky cow, in a tunnel just before the border in Turkey. She was hit straight on by a bus!).
There were no towns, only small villages all over Georgia, with decaying building everywhere. It was as if you had taken a time machine and gone back maybe 80 years or so. People selling fruits and vegetables on the side of the road, life unfolding in the middle of the street. The interest that the bikes created was amazing. I though that we were slowly immune to this! Everyone, from little children to the men standing around would beckon to us to stop, or yell and wave. We waved back and rolled on. It isn't a lot of fun to stop while it is pouring down, not to mention riding in a strange country, dodging, potholes, and live animals, and the occasional native.
We rode along a river valley from an hour or so before deciding to find a camping spot for the night, and sure enough one came up. Next to the river was a sawmill and a small house, and further on a nice flat area where the river made a curve. I checked it out, and as soon as I stopped, people came out of the sawmill to have a look. As I was 500 meters a way they send two kids out to check on me. I rode back to where the men where standing and made it clear what I wanted, they gestured that I could stay at the house, which I politely declined. They then made it clear that it was no problem camping in the spot I gestured to. So that is exactly what we did. As we were setting up, the whole posse showed up and stood watching us. Cecilia trying to communicate while I set the tent up. It was a lot of fun.
After getting the tent up we all sat down and tried to communicate. Which, surprisingly enough went very well. Everyone had a great time. We were then left alone for a while to enjoy the wonderful panorama of the river and valley in the distance as it slowly getting dark. It had stopped raining and was only drizzling slightly so it was bearable to be outside.
After 30 minutes the whole posse shows up again, this time bearing food and drink.
Home made wine, accompanied by potato wedges, some green "stuff" (ajapsandali), and some soup (khashi, garlic and tripe soup). I declined the wine, but heartedly ate the potatoes and the green stuff. In short other the matron showed up. It turns out that the gentlemen were all her sons, and the kids her grandsons. They were in charge of the sawmill, which is a family business, apparently, as they all worked there.
While the two gentlemen drank the wine we got our Russian dictionary and our Georgia book out and had grand time trying to explain who we were, and what we were doing.
They were very curios and asked a lot of questions, about us, about where we lived, work, travel etc. Really, really, nice, and they drank the whole 2 liter bottle of wine! Teaching us a few words of Georgian along the way. Gaumarjos! (Cheers).
Eventually as it got dark, everyone left, but only after we promised to come for tea in the morning. Which we did, and met the rest of the crew working in the sawmill.
We then continued on, over a pass at around 2000 meters. Everywhere we traveled, the same response from people, yelling, waving and running out into the street. The towns were all very dreary, although the country side is beautiful. Forest, hills, valleys, mountains. No large cities or industry. The roads, are horrible, and barely passable.
Perfect terrain for our GS, although to be hones, we could do with half the weight. Of course, as bad as the roads were, the other drivers, were still passing us right and left, sometimes two abreast, with on coming traffic. But, for old Africa hands like us this is tame (see our entry on Egypt, Morocco, et al at www.fernweh.ch). Now, if that wasn't enough, the rains, set in, in earnest. So now, we have a whole cornucopia of hazards to avoid. Potholes, as in POTHOLES, road waves, rocks, gravel, mud, missing asphalt, cows, dogs, sheep, a river running down the middle of the road. Ah, what fun. But the country is beautiful.
Our next stop was at a tourist attraction at Vardiza, a cave city situated above a river. It was deserted as we got there, other than a car load of aid workers. You know you are off the beaten path when the only other tourist you see are foreign aid workers! It was raining so we set up camp next to the entrance and made dinner rather than climb up to the caves. It had been a long day. The following day we decided to skip the caves, as they wanted to charge us double the posted price, and we declined. So off it was towards Tbilisi. The road went along some beautiful tea growing region, and there were castles and abandoned fortresses everywhere you looked. If I had to pick a nick name for Georgia, it would be "Land of Castles". We did manage to stop and photograph one or two. Did I mention it was raining?
In broad strokes, we rode along the Acharistskali river valley over the pass. Then over to Akhalkalaki and eventually back along the Mtkvari River valley to Mtskheta where we spent another soaking night high in the hills above the river. But not before having to fix a flat tire. After a short rest stop as we pulled away Cecilia's back tire was flat. So we stopped and started getting it off. Of course a couple of gentlemen nearby came over to have a look. Two cars passing also stopped and in the end I had an audience of 8 people watching me change the tire. When they got tired of watching they also lent a hand. The tire had a hole in the carcass and this had punctured the tube, so I decided to mount the new tire we had been carrying around since we left Switzerland. This is a knobby tire which we had planned to use in Africa, but had yet to see action. I had hoped to use the tires we had until Mongolia, as the knobbies don't last all that long. I am hoping for around 7000km. We shall see. One problem while mounting the tire, was that it wouldn't seat properly. We deflated it twice, used soap and water, all to no avail. So, I left it that way, hoping that when it was on the bike and rolling it would seat properly. This is something I had done on a number of times, and had to date always worked with the rear tire, and only once did it not work, but with a front tire. We then continued, lots of green, forests, and fields, and water everywhere to our chosen camping spot.
The following day we continued (in the rain) towards Sighnaghi, which has a great wall fortification and sits up on the hill with a great view of the plains beyond. We had a quick look, a couple of pictures, a round of the town, and then back down to a nice little spot by the river where we camped for the night, still in the rain of course.
By the following day we had had enough of the rain, we had now been soaking wet for the past 4 days, more or less, and it was time to move on. So we headed for the border at Lagodekhi. Which we barely managed due to all the flooding. The road when through kilometers of flooded villages. For long stretches the road was also underwater, sometimes almost half a meter deep. In a couple of places, another centimeter, and we would have to turn around. Cecilia's bike did flood once but made it to the other side, where after checking everything and getting the water out of the air box we continued. In all it was almost 3km of flooded roads that we had managed to pass, with much care, and quite a bit of traffic, creating large waves, which made it even more challenging.
At the border, we got into a protracted discussion with the customs guy. Apparently, all the help Cecilia hat gotten coming in didn't help, the exit point had been wrongly entered in the form. We were in the "wrong" place. Actually, we were in the right place, but the form was wrong. No dice, not even crocodile tears helped! It was pouring down rain, and the guy, even though he professed to wanting to help us, just kept saying that there was nothing he could do. We discussed it for a while longer, until finally admitting defeat and heading out in the rain again. Since we didn't want to go back the same way as we were afraid that we might end up getting stuck somewhere, so we headed north to Kvareli. This decision, at least in the beginning didn't look like a good idea. A few kilometers down the road, we had to go through a town that was completely under water. A river was running through the street, and there wasn't any other way around. A bridge was 3/4 destroyed, but we squeezed through, and luckily it only lasted until we were out of town, where the road turned into the hills. So we breathed a sigh of relief and continued. The ride was great as it wound along the right side of a wide valley, which we then crossed to get to the correct side where we then headed south and the "red bridge" border, which was the one noted on our customs documents.
Nearing Tbilisi I had a flat tire, luckily I ended up stopping just in front of a tire repair place! I got everything off and the guy there fixed all the tubes that I needed fixing (in total, three). The reason for the flat was the same as Cecilia's two days previously, the carcass had a hole in it. I showed it to the guy at the shop, and he cut me a piece of fire hose to use as a patch between the hole and the tube. So I re-mounted the tire and the fixed tube, and we took off again. Four hours later, while going through some small town, I heard a loud bang, and suddenly the bikes back end started dancing around, and I was lucky to keep the bike upright. Sure, enough the tube had blown, and I had another flat tire! So we set to work getting this fixed. Of course everyone within sight was there almost by the time I got the bike stopped.
Everyone was very helpful, and in the end, I ended up almost just directing while they did all the work, and got all dirty in the process. We got the tire on, a new tube and everything mounted, cheered on by everyone who couldn't reach in and give a helping hand. Getting the tire on the bike, gave everyone who had not helped a chance, so they literally lifted the bike so that I could get the tire back on. We also had the same problem with this tire, as I had had with Cecilia's. It wouldn't seat properly, so we just mounted it and continued.
We couldn't find a decent camping, and ended up just driving around, we even toyed with the idea of heading into Tbilisi, but ended up turning around, as we couldn't get motivated enough to look for a hotel, in the dark, in a strange city! As we were debating the best of the bad spots we had noticed a police car stopped, and we both went oooh, no, now what? But the policeman, was just curious, and even spoke some German, so after we explained what we were doing, he suggested going a couple of kilometers up the road where there was a "Turkish camping", whatever that is. Well, that, turned out to be a TIR parking, a place where truckers parked for the night, and it had toilets, a small cafe and lots of watch dogs. We explained to the guy there what we wanted and he said no problem, and showed us a spot at the back of the compound. It turned out to be pretty noisy, but passable, with the plus that we were able to cook in the shower building which no-one used. We were dead, it had been a really long day, with lots of emotional ups and downs. Cecilia nevertheless cooked a wonderful dinner and after a nice warm tea we were almost cheerful as we went to bed.
In the morning, we got up and had a nice breakfast in the shower building and got ready to leave. The camping turned out to be free, as they didn't want any money. Fine with us, and he cheerfully told us to come back on our way home! So we waved goodbye and headed for Azerbaijan. Which we then reached in short order. Red Bridge, was pretty quiet. We drove up, showed our papers, and the other than a momentary scare, due to the date on the Azerbaijani visa, which the Georgian, official assumed to be the validity date, when in actuality it was the date that the visa was issued. As soon as this was cleared up we could leave. Great, only took around 15 minutes.
Now for Azerbaijan. At the control point, we stopped behind the cars and waited. Waited some more. They were letting in a car every 10 minutes or so! Of course, someone in a turbo Mercedes would just drive by and cut in, shutting off traffic until they let him in. As we were sitting there watching the show, a money changer came by and we changed our remaining Georgian Lari to the Azerbaijani Manat, for our 23 lari we got 50,000 manat! He also said to just drive to the front of the gate, and started directing traffic around us so that we could get out and move to the gate. He then proceeded to talk to the military guards at the gate, and presently one came over and asked for our passports. With these in had, he took off and presently came back and and waved us inside.
Great, we were now at customs, and as usual this is where the problems always start. Maybe we should be doing this with a bicycle? To make a long story short, ok, shorter. It took 2.5 hours in total to get out of Georgia and into Azerbaijan. The majority of time, 2 hours was spent at customs in Azerbaijan. Cecilia was shuffled back and forth, and there was a lot of problems with the language. In the end the result was we got into the country with our 15 day visa, no problem. The motorcycles, were only awarded a 3 day transit visa. So the end result is that we have to be out on the 8th of July! The problem is that as a tourist, with your own transportation, customs requires a deposit of 10,000$ per bike, and unfortunately after counting our loose change we just couldn't come up with it. Well, actually it is even more complicated. You can only leave the deposit if you come back out the same way, otherwise you probably won't be allowed to leave, and loose your deposit? As we weren't coming back this way, this was out for us, and we would not have left such a deposit anyway! Leaving the only alternative, a transit visa for three days.
So now we were in Azerbaijan! This makes the 14th country so far this trip. First thing we noticed, it is relative prosperous, and there is much more "color" than in Georgia. This is something, which we later realized is due to the fact that in Georgia, there was nearly no advertisement. As soon as you hit Azerbaijan, there are billboards and signs for all the usual stuff. This had been missing in Georgia, so you only saw the drab buildings, which Azerbaijan also has, but they at least have some "promotional" color! Additionaly the roads are much better, and there is a lot of building and construction going on. So next to the economic basket case which is Georgia, Azerbaijan stands out as a progressive and prosperous country. The people are incredible, again. I am starting to run our of adjectives to describe all the interest and friendliness that all the people show us as we travel around. The Azerbaijanis nearly run us over to talk to us at traffic lights or on the road. Very dangerous, but incredible curious and friendly.
The road towards Baku, goes straight through the center of the country, which is totally flat, flanked by mountain ranges right and left. This is the bread basket of the country, pretty boring, but at least we were making headway. Only when we go into towns, or away from the main roads, are you reminded of the roads in Georgia. If anything in places it is worse here, as they are re-routing some of the main roads while working on them, and you are forced to go through some very adventurous ground. (Have I mentioned lately, that it was still raining!). After a few hours in Azerbaijan, we finally hit some dry weather. The rain stopped, and we could see clear weather in the distance. Great, finally.
We rode as far as we could, and shortly before it got dark, we got lucky and found a hotel. Lucky, while we were actually on the wrong road. This one also heads to Baku, but is slower than the main road, and has less traffic, so why there was a hotel here was not quite clear. Nevertheless, there was one, and I negociated a price of 20manat (new manat = 100,000 old manat). And we moved into a nice large room in an old barrack building, which had been converted to a hotel. Perfectly passable. We spread all our stuff around to try and dry some of it, making a huge mess in the process.
The following day we headed to Baku, now only a 150km away. Baku, turned out to be a busy metropolis, with all the usual amenities, and noise, traffic and confusion. We are starting to be really adverse to going into cities. Something which we always have dreaded. We rode around, trying to make sense of the maps which we had, the most detailed being the city map in the Lonely Planet, Georgia, Armenia & Azerbaijan. A book, you should avoid like the plague. We have been and continue to be big fans of the series, but this one is horrible. The data is worse than useless and just plain badly written and researched.
As we were trying to find a hotel, a cab driver stopped and asked us if he could help. We explained, and in short order he offered to show us to the hotel, which he then did, for no remuneration. Great. The hotel didn't turn out to be what we had wanted to we headed to another one but, the gesture was wonderful. In the end we settled for a relative expensive but well located hotel near the port, which had great parking for the bikes. This is something which I probably have mentioned before, but I am going to do it again. Whenever we stay in a hotel, I am very, very reluctant to stay anywhere, where the bikes have to be parked on the street. Only on a couple of occasions have I done this, and I try to avoid it. This means that the hotels which we stay in have to accommodate this, and those that can are usually a bit dearer than your run of the mill flop house. Which, would suit us fine, but not my bikes.
So that brings us to the end of this opus. We are going to try and get on the ferry tomorrow morning. Today we checked out the ferry port, so we know now where it is, no thanks to the LP which has it wrong. We weren't able to get tickets in advance as there was no-one at the ticket counter there. The information was that they would be back in an hour, and we didn't feel like waiting. So we will head out early in the morning and hope for the best.
As a last word, we certainly would like to come back to Georgia, and spend much, much more time there exploring the country and its people. The same for Azerbaijan, but only when they change their convoluted customs regulations. I can easily imagine spending a month or two just crusing around the country. Oh, well, next time.
Turkmenistan awaits.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Trabzon, Turkey
Well, this blog entry sees us in Trabzon, Turkey. In a day or so we should be going across the border into Georgia.
Here we are also doing a major update to our web pages (finally), so make sure you check out www.fernweh.ch
The update covers our time in North Africa, and includes everything we have done up to Turkey, so we hope you enjoy it.
Now to this blog:
After a little over two weeks, we managed to get all our visas (with the exception of Kazahkstan, which we will get in Tashkehnt). I spent an extra couple of days polishing up the last few pages to our web site and we took of.
Not only did we manage to take care of the Visas, but somewhere in there we did a lot of work on the bikes. Including, inserting a heli-coil one week, taking it out and modifying it the following week. Replacing the front brake lever piston, and the left front fork seal on Cecilias bike. What it all meant is that we could take off with the bikes in pretty good condition.
Of course we also had plenty of time to catch up on a lot of movies which we had missed. So relaxed and rested we were looking forward to what the road had to offer.
Early Monday morning we headed to the Black Sea coast (why is it called the Black Sea?). The first night we made it to a town called Amasra, which turned out to be a very nice, relaxing, laid back resort town. For us it was just amazing how green everything was. One hour out of Ankara, and we hit the hills, with forests as far as the eye could see. It was so green we were almost blinded. The contrast is just incredible, to what we had been experiencing for the past 6 months or so.
After spending a night in Amasra, we headed to Sinop, where we found a little camping spot just outside of town. Sinop also turns out to be resort town, with plenty of beaches. It sits on a peninsula, so it has beaches on both sides, pretty cool.
After Sinop, we continued onwards, unfortunately it stopped being so nice. Up to Sinop, the road had been very small, and went up and down mountains, as it hugged the coastline as much as possible. There were few towns and everything was pretty rural. After Sinop, it changed the coastline wasn't as nice anymore, and the towns, larger and "grittier". It probably didn't help that there is a lot of construction going on, on the road along the coast. Lots of heavy traffic, dust, gravel, and more dust. We looked like two fugitives from Mad Max, when we arrived at Besikduzu near Trabzon. You could hardly tell my jacket was red! We were too tired to really bother and took the first hotel we found. A couple of kebabs and bed.
Before getting there though, we did take a break at Jasons Cape, having a quick look at Jason's Church. That is, as in Jason and the Argonauts. Across the road is a quaint little cafe, where we had a couple of cokes right on the beach, with the church in the background. As the weather was pretty overcast, it was pretty cool, when a ray of the sun would hit the church giving it a very heavenly aura. Not really tourist place, even if there is a desolated campground next to the church.
The next day it rained in the morning, but since we had decided to only go to Trabzon in order to take care of some last minute details before leaving Turkey, sure enough a couple of hours later it stopped, and we took off.
Trabzon, turns out to be a very busy, hecktic, port city, with lots of one-way street, and like a number of other Turkish towns, built on hills and valleys. We nevertheless managed to find a decent hotel with suitable parking for our motorcycles, and settled it. We proceeded to take care of a few things, and then spent some time catching up on the e-mails, and updating our web pages. Check them out at www.fernweh.ch and that is it for now. Next time you will hear from us should be Georgia.
Cheers
Here we are also doing a major update to our web pages (finally), so make sure you check out www.fernweh.ch
The update covers our time in North Africa, and includes everything we have done up to Turkey, so we hope you enjoy it.
Now to this blog:
After a little over two weeks, we managed to get all our visas (with the exception of Kazahkstan, which we will get in Tashkehnt). I spent an extra couple of days polishing up the last few pages to our web site and we took of.
Not only did we manage to take care of the Visas, but somewhere in there we did a lot of work on the bikes. Including, inserting a heli-coil one week, taking it out and modifying it the following week. Replacing the front brake lever piston, and the left front fork seal on Cecilias bike. What it all meant is that we could take off with the bikes in pretty good condition.
Of course we also had plenty of time to catch up on a lot of movies which we had missed. So relaxed and rested we were looking forward to what the road had to offer.
Early Monday morning we headed to the Black Sea coast (why is it called the Black Sea?). The first night we made it to a town called Amasra, which turned out to be a very nice, relaxing, laid back resort town. For us it was just amazing how green everything was. One hour out of Ankara, and we hit the hills, with forests as far as the eye could see. It was so green we were almost blinded. The contrast is just incredible, to what we had been experiencing for the past 6 months or so.
After spending a night in Amasra, we headed to Sinop, where we found a little camping spot just outside of town. Sinop also turns out to be resort town, with plenty of beaches. It sits on a peninsula, so it has beaches on both sides, pretty cool.
After Sinop, we continued onwards, unfortunately it stopped being so nice. Up to Sinop, the road had been very small, and went up and down mountains, as it hugged the coastline as much as possible. There were few towns and everything was pretty rural. After Sinop, it changed the coastline wasn't as nice anymore, and the towns, larger and "grittier". It probably didn't help that there is a lot of construction going on, on the road along the coast. Lots of heavy traffic, dust, gravel, and more dust. We looked like two fugitives from Mad Max, when we arrived at Besikduzu near Trabzon. You could hardly tell my jacket was red! We were too tired to really bother and took the first hotel we found. A couple of kebabs and bed.
Before getting there though, we did take a break at Jasons Cape, having a quick look at Jason's Church. That is, as in Jason and the Argonauts. Across the road is a quaint little cafe, where we had a couple of cokes right on the beach, with the church in the background. As the weather was pretty overcast, it was pretty cool, when a ray of the sun would hit the church giving it a very heavenly aura. Not really tourist place, even if there is a desolated campground next to the church.
The next day it rained in the morning, but since we had decided to only go to Trabzon in order to take care of some last minute details before leaving Turkey, sure enough a couple of hours later it stopped, and we took off.
Trabzon, turns out to be a very busy, hecktic, port city, with lots of one-way street, and like a number of other Turkish towns, built on hills and valleys. We nevertheless managed to find a decent hotel with suitable parking for our motorcycles, and settled it. We proceeded to take care of a few things, and then spent some time catching up on the e-mails, and updating our web pages. Check them out at www.fernweh.ch and that is it for now. Next time you will hear from us should be Georgia.
Cheers
Monday, June 12, 2006
Ankara, Turkey
Well, a couple of weeks have already rolled by, and this update finds us in Ankara, busy trying to get all the paperwork necessary to head East.
To catch up. After leaving Damascus we headed to Krac Du Chevalier a little north west of Damascus. This is one of the best preserved castles in the region. It is on top of a mountain (ok, hill for us Swiss), and is visible for miles around. The whole area where it stands is hill after hill, and there is no straight way to get to this place. It always seemed that there was another hill to go around or over on the way there. The roads all very small and pretty dangerous, but we made it ok. The ride was a lot of fun, plenty of curves (obviously) and not too much traffic. Around every corner another beautiful panorama of small towns clustered on the sides of hills, with orchards and small farms taking the rest of the space.
At the Krac Du Chevalier we saw our Swiss friends Manuela and Francesco again, we parked next to their van and saw them waving at us from the top of the castle. We set up camp and went to have a look ourselves. It was definitely the most interesting castle I can recall having seen. You were allowed to walk everywhere, and there was a lot to see. Plenty of hidden nooks and crannies. We first walked around the outer walls, checked out the Turkish baths (bring a flashlight, as there are no lights). One passage goes down three stories or so and just dead ends into a closed tunnel. Later we speculated that maybe the dungeons where down here. Afterwards we entered the inner fortifications and walked along the inside wall, checking out the storage area with their oil storage jars still visible in the floor. Finally after two hours or peering around corners and shining our flashlights into every dark niche we could find we went to the top ramparts and enjoyed the view from the towers. Spectacular, towards the north east you could see the Mediterranean. Below, you could see far into the plains and you had a good view all around. No wonder this castle has never been conquered, by force at least. The outer walls had been breached, but the inner castle held, until the attacker used guile to overcome the defenders. He faked a message from their compatriots on the coast to surrender, and were given safe passage to the coast!
Back at the campground, Francesco and Manuela had gone shopping and bought some meat for grilling. So that is exactly what we did. After we had finished the manager came over and he and Francesco fired up a water pipe by our campfire. An excellent finish to the day.
The following morning we headed towards Hama, where there are Roman era water wheels, which are supposed to be very interesting.
As soon as we came down from the mountain, the heat hit us. Our computers both showed 49C (in the shade!), for you on the wrong side of the pond this translates to 120F! I cannot recall ever being anywhere where it was this hot. It was actually, cooler with my visor down on my helmet, rather than letting the outside air in! By the time we hit Hama we were all really tired, and looking for any shade we could find. We though that it was hot in Aswan or Libya where we previously had 43C-44C, and yes there is a difference in the extra few degrees. Anyway, we decided that we would find a cheap hotel and get out of our traveling clothes and cool off before doing any sightseeing. Luckily there were three hotels (all listed in our guidebooks, as reasonable) nearby, so I went and checked two of them out. The hotel Riad won the contest by being the friendliest (talk to Abdullah), not to mention giving us the best rate. We parked the bikes in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the hotel, unpacked everything, and spent the next few hours re-hydrating and relaxing in the hotel. It is really amazing, the moment you got out of the sun into the hotel the temperature dropped what seemed like 20C (actually only 10). Manuela actually caught a cold!
Later in the early evening, sufıcıently recovered, we headed the couple of hundred meters to the park where the water wheel(s) where. The park was pretty packed, no real surprise with this heat. It was shady and there was plenty of water all around so it was very cool. The wheel(s) themselves were really fascinating. It is large around 20 meters or so, and is very noisy. It moves water from the river to an aqueduct which supplied water to the town, and it is still operational! Another one across the way wasn't turning, but the one was enough. There are apparently quite a large number of these things here. We watched it go around and around for a while, and interestingly enough, it sometime almost stopped before getting going again. I guess the water flow varied. We found it so interesting that we decided to go and see a couple of others nearby, so we walked 2km along the river to another area where there were a couple of these things still running. These were only decorative and were hidden behind a row of riverside restaurants. We went in and had a quick look, without buying anything (the waiter hovering nearby). Here there is one large one like the one in the central park, but additionally there are two smaller ones next to it. All together they made quite a racket, and an impression. The pieces of the aqueduct can still be seen, and when you consider they have been around nearly 2000 years it is pretty impressive. What interested us the most is the fact that they made of wood, and they can be modified to carry more or less water by adding additional "scoops". Francesco and I speculated that, the central log on which the wheels turn, doesn't wear down because it is constantly wet. Maybe, maybe not.
We spent the following day just lounging about the hotel and doing the odd errand or two, before heading off to the north and the Sal-adin castle, while Francesco and Manuela waited for a phone call and an appointment to see someone in Allepo. So we said our goodbyes and agreed that we would probably see each other again in Ankara. We headed towards Latakia and got to the castle fairly early, had lunch and decided to continue to the border. We didn't bother seeing the castle from the inside. We did however have a good look from across the way where there is a great vantage point. The castle is pretty much gone, and only the grounds are clearly visible, parts of some buildings stand but not very much. The most impressive thing was the needle where two lanes have been carved into the mountain leaving the wall of the castle separate from the other side. (pictures will be posted soon..).
From here we headed to the border, and spend a while looking for a cheap hotel or camping. The tourist season hadn't really started so most of the places where closed, and those that were open wanted too much money. So we decided to go into Turkey. This was an un-usual decision for us since we usually like to go across borders early in the morning and not late in the afternoon (it was 17:00 already). The border post on both sides was virtually deserted, and all the paperwork was handled quickly and very easily, both getting out and in. Before we knew it we were in Turkey! We decided to head to the only campground we were aware of in Adana, which was another 280km away! The ride turned out to be excruciatingly long. First we were delayed by road building projects, apparently they are building a new "super-highway" towards the border. After that we had a flat just before sundown. I quickly got this fixed, but as soon as we got started again, and headed up over the mountains towards the coast the wind hit us really hard. The next 2 hours or so, we were constantly battling a very strong and gusting wind as we made our way over the mountains in the twighlight of early evening. As we looked out over the plains we caught sight of fires burning everywhere as they were burning the fields after having harvested. In the dark it looked like something out of Dantes Inferno. Very impressive. Luckily we didn't have to drive through any of the smoke.
The area near the coast is very industrialized and had lots of heavy traffic, so we headed for the Toll road. This at least gave us a nice clear road and a lot less traffic. In Adana, we spent an hour looking for the camping. No-one we asked had heard of one, and we just couldn't find it, so around midnight we gave up and headed for a cheap hotel. We pretty much took the first one we found (ok, second one, the first wanted 60USD, the second, 40TKY around 32USD), and went straight to bed. The bikes, were parked on the sidewalk in front of the hotel watched over by the staff. In the morning, everything was still there, and we got going pretty early. I got a pretty good surprise as I paid. Apparently the room went for 25TKY not the 40TKY the other person had wanted the night before. This is the first time that they have charged me less than agreed upon. The room wasn't worth more anyway!
We headed out of town in the direction of Ankara. On the way we were stopped by the police, for no apparent reason. They (3 of them) talked excitedly among themselves, before coming over and posing for a picture in front of our bikes, after which they let us go. Pretty funny actually. My bike was giving me problems, leaking oil all over the bottom part of my left leg. So we decided to go to Aksaray where there was a very nice camping and it wasn't too far away. There I let the bike cool off before trying to tighten the engine stud which has been loose since Morocco. Unfortunately afterwards, I started the engine and oil was still dripping out. We then decided to stay an extra day and I would try and fix the thing permanently by inserting the heli-coil which we had gotten from home back in Egypt. As it was late, we decided to do the work in the morning and enjoy the rest of the day relaxing in this very nice camping, which happened to be totally deserted. It even had a kitchen area with gas stoves for cooking, what luxury.
The next morning, I took the cylinder apart and quickly determined that the problem was the gasket. The cylinder gasket had blown and was the cause of the oil leak, the engine stud was still loose, so I decided to try and remove it, to see if I could do the heli-coil here. Once I got it out, I found that part of the threads were stripped, so I decided to skip the heli-coil and just clean up the threads, as I figured I would need a new stud before doing a heli-coil. I put the whole thing together and the oil leak problem was gone, the valve issue resulting from the loose stud would have to be solved in Ankara. The next day we made it to Ankara without any further problems. Ankara is a large city, build partly on and between hills. We spent a fustrating couple of hours looking for accommodations. First, the camping which we knew about was no longer open. An alternative wasn't very appealing as it had no showers and didn't look very secure. So we headed back into town to find a tourist office, which turned out to be more difficult than predicted, in the end we tried a couple of hotels and settled for the most reasonable one, with a good spot for parking the bikes.
The following day (Friday) we started the visa quest, as we wanted to get something started before the weekend. First up was the Azerbaijan consulate. Here we found out that we needed a "recommendation" from our embassy and we had to pay 40USD per person at a local bank. So off we went. In order to speed it up we decided to take taxis this first day as we didn't really want to waste the time looking for everything ourselves. This really turned out to be a good (if expensive) idea. In the end we managed everything fairly quickly, unfortunately the embassies close at 12:00 so we would have to return on Monday to submit our paperwork. We rewarded ourselves with a movie and some fast food, and bought some detailed maps, so that we could find our own way around town. On Saturday we decided to go by the embassy on the off chance that they might be open, unfortunately they weren't. It wasn't a total loss as we spent the next couple of hours riding around getting to know the area and finding other embassies which we would need.
The rest of the weekend, was spent relaxing and watching some more movies, as well as preparing for the coming week, by doing some last minute research. Early on Monday we submitted our paperwork and were told to return to pick up our passports (with visa) on Wednesday. A complete report of the visa quest will be posted on our "main" pages soon. The rest of the week was spent pretty much between embassies, internet, movie theaters, shops and hotel (updating the www.fernweh.ch pages).
More coming soon...
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Damascus, Syria
Well, after a week's vacation in Irbid, we finally hit the road. But first, in Irbid, we spend the whole week going from our hotel to the internet cafe, to a fast food joint and back to the hotel. The whole week! Despite this gargantuan effort, we (I) still haven't finished updating the web pages. Although, I did find some new programs to play with, downloaded some more neat stuff for Celestia, etc. Back to the story.
On our last day in Irbid, we got a mail from our friends Manuela and Francesco who had just picked up their passports, fresh from Switzerland with a shiny new visa for Syria. Since we were still here they decided to come up from Amman and spend the night in Irbid, so that we could cross the border together on the following day. When they showed up we had a nice drink in the cafe on the ground floor of the hotel, and made plans for the following day.
In the morning we packed up and had a great audience while doing so. After a while they got bold enough to ask us for a picture. So they took turns and took pictures with us in front of the bikes. After a while they got even bolder and asked for just a picture with Cecilia, so they took turns standing next to Cecilia and taking pictures of each other. I almost died laughing, all good fun. Then, when they all had a picture with the little blond girl, they all took of en-mass. We had a good laugh about that later.
Eventually, we all got on the road and headed for the little used border at Ar Ramtha. The Jordan side was nearly empty, we just drove in, they checked the carnets, and sent us further on. At the next stop, Cecilia went in and got the paperwork done in less than 20 minutes; passport stamped, exit tax paid 5JD/per person and another 5JD/per vehicle. This took care of our last JDs, as we had just changed our remaining JD to Syrian at a rate of 71.65 Syrian to 1 JD (in case anyone is interested, the rate is the same in Damascus). After that, the carnets got the proper stamps and we were off. On the Syrian side, there weren't any more people than on the Jordanian, but the paperwork was a bit more complicated. The entry form had to be filled in duplicate, and the passports processed. In all this took around 30 minutes. Then it was off to customs for the Carnets. Here it got more complicated and expensive. First, you had to buy insurance, which for the bikes cost 40 USD (payable in foreign currency only!) and also pay road tax which was 7 USD a bike. Luckily the bikes run on petrol, because our friends also had to pay a hefty diesel tax. After that the carnets got stamped and the papers processed. ( A full report on www.fernweh.ch soon!) After 40 minutes (more) we were in Syria. It seems we had chosen the hottest day of the year to do this as we measured 44.6C on our computers.
Once in Syria we rode past the first town and stopped at the first shade we found, the empty parking lot of an amusement park! As soon as we go into Syria we noticed that it is a lot more like we were used to in Egypt, Libya or Morocco, and less like Jordan or Tunisia which are both fairly well developed. Anyway, as soon as we parked, the people minding the gate at the amusement park came over and invited us inside, which we politely declined as we had a picnic planned. While sitting there having a wonderful picnic nearly every car that passed would honk and yell "hello welcome" and continue. Really great. They were all very interested in our motorbikes, something that Manuela and Francesco had not really gotten used to yet. People always wave, stare and often nearly get into accidents by watching us instead of the road. One of the things that very often happens, is someone would pass us, slow down and let us pass them, and then pass us again. The second time around they would have their camera out or their mobile phone and take a picture of us as they passed us.
After the picnic we headed to Damascus and a campground there. The road was pretty straight (we avoided the highway and took the "old" road), but would go through all the little towns on the way, and they were all fascinating. Lots and lots of potholes, and speed bumps which are completely invisible until you are on the other side (minus some luggage and a helmet maybe!). To the left the Golan Heights seemed to have snow on them, even though as I mentioned previously it was very hot down on the plains where we were.
Nearing Damascus we were more and more reminded of Cairo, lots of traffic, noise, heat, confusion and more heat. With a few wrong turns and a small sightseeing tour we found the camping, which turned out to be a real haven, a bit noisy but excellent camping, with a heafty european price tag. Oh, well, it is still cheaper than a hotel.
We settled down for the night, cooked some dinner together with Francesco and Manuela (they cooked, we ate), and enjoyed the cooler night air.
The following day we had a leisurely breakfast before heading into town in a taxi, no-one wanted to drive in this mess. We had all survived Cairo and weren't eager for a repetition. The first order of business was cashing some American Express travelers checks, as Manuela and Francesco needed money. The main bank said no, they couldn't cash American Express Travelers checks because of the embargo the U.S. had placed on Syria. So we decided to try the Amex office in town. Guess what, American Express Syria, would not cash their own checks. Unbelievable. We where all completely speechless, oh, well. The next stop an ATM machine, where they managed to get some money. After that we headed for the Souks and Old town.
The souks are something really spectacular. A high ceiling encloses the whole area with shops on either sides selling everything imaginable. What struck us the most, not just in the souks but in Damascus in general is how "real" it all is. There is little external influence so everything here is "natural" for a lack of a better description. There is little if any tourism, and everyone is very open and friendly, even more than the Egyptians who all (to a man) would say "Hello you are Welcome", hey why not, they (the egyptians) know that foreigners pay double what the locals pay, right! The Syrians are much more natural and less annoying, making it a truly enjoyable place to just walk around and enjoy the sights and sounds.
We spent two days walking around the souks, soaking in the sights and sounds (not to mention the smells). Cecilia and Francesco together with Manuela spent a couple of hours purchasing some copper serving plates. In the end they got the price down more than 60% from the opening bid and they bought 4 plates. 1 for us and three of varying sizes for them. They already offered to take our plate back to Switzerland for us as we could not have carried it. Our first souvenier on this trip!
On our second night in town we enjoyed an excellent dinner in the Old Town of Damascus, at the restaurant Jabri House. The eating area is in a large courtyard with a fountain and tons of fans. They also have a patio and it is frequented mostly by locals. The food is excellent and served very quickly. I recommend the "House Chicken" which is heavenly. Oh, and it is all very reasonably priced. For 4 people we spent 800 Syrian Pounds around 18Sfr. Including a water pipe which Francesco had to enjoy by himself as no-one else smoked. By the way, that is another thing that is endemic, everywhere you go there are restaurants or cafe's where waterpipes are smoked (nearly always by men only). Nevertheless it was a very enjoyable evening. Another quick tip, if anyone ever comes this way, make sure you plan to spend at least one evening wandering around the old town, it is really delightful with lots of little alleys, and byways. A bit touristy (when I said that there were few if any tourists, I meant West European tourists, as there are quite a bit "local" arabian/mid-eastern tourists), but well worth it. At night the heat is tolerable and the people are all out, not to mention the lighting which gives the whole town a little of the 1001 Nights feel.
Now it is time to move on, we are headed out in the morning, we will be going northwards, and what awaits us no-one knows.
On our last day in Irbid, we got a mail from our friends Manuela and Francesco who had just picked up their passports, fresh from Switzerland with a shiny new visa for Syria. Since we were still here they decided to come up from Amman and spend the night in Irbid, so that we could cross the border together on the following day. When they showed up we had a nice drink in the cafe on the ground floor of the hotel, and made plans for the following day.
In the morning we packed up and had a great audience while doing so. After a while they got bold enough to ask us for a picture. So they took turns and took pictures with us in front of the bikes. After a while they got even bolder and asked for just a picture with Cecilia, so they took turns standing next to Cecilia and taking pictures of each other. I almost died laughing, all good fun. Then, when they all had a picture with the little blond girl, they all took of en-mass. We had a good laugh about that later.
Eventually, we all got on the road and headed for the little used border at Ar Ramtha. The Jordan side was nearly empty, we just drove in, they checked the carnets, and sent us further on. At the next stop, Cecilia went in and got the paperwork done in less than 20 minutes; passport stamped, exit tax paid 5JD/per person and another 5JD/per vehicle. This took care of our last JDs, as we had just changed our remaining JD to Syrian at a rate of 71.65 Syrian to 1 JD (in case anyone is interested, the rate is the same in Damascus). After that, the carnets got the proper stamps and we were off. On the Syrian side, there weren't any more people than on the Jordanian, but the paperwork was a bit more complicated. The entry form had to be filled in duplicate, and the passports processed. In all this took around 30 minutes. Then it was off to customs for the Carnets. Here it got more complicated and expensive. First, you had to buy insurance, which for the bikes cost 40 USD (payable in foreign currency only!) and also pay road tax which was 7 USD a bike. Luckily the bikes run on petrol, because our friends also had to pay a hefty diesel tax. After that the carnets got stamped and the papers processed. ( A full report on www.fernweh.ch soon!) After 40 minutes (more) we were in Syria. It seems we had chosen the hottest day of the year to do this as we measured 44.6C on our computers.
Once in Syria we rode past the first town and stopped at the first shade we found, the empty parking lot of an amusement park! As soon as we go into Syria we noticed that it is a lot more like we were used to in Egypt, Libya or Morocco, and less like Jordan or Tunisia which are both fairly well developed. Anyway, as soon as we parked, the people minding the gate at the amusement park came over and invited us inside, which we politely declined as we had a picnic planned. While sitting there having a wonderful picnic nearly every car that passed would honk and yell "hello welcome" and continue. Really great. They were all very interested in our motorbikes, something that Manuela and Francesco had not really gotten used to yet. People always wave, stare and often nearly get into accidents by watching us instead of the road. One of the things that very often happens, is someone would pass us, slow down and let us pass them, and then pass us again. The second time around they would have their camera out or their mobile phone and take a picture of us as they passed us.
After the picnic we headed to Damascus and a campground there. The road was pretty straight (we avoided the highway and took the "old" road), but would go through all the little towns on the way, and they were all fascinating. Lots and lots of potholes, and speed bumps which are completely invisible until you are on the other side (minus some luggage and a helmet maybe!). To the left the Golan Heights seemed to have snow on them, even though as I mentioned previously it was very hot down on the plains where we were.
Nearing Damascus we were more and more reminded of Cairo, lots of traffic, noise, heat, confusion and more heat. With a few wrong turns and a small sightseeing tour we found the camping, which turned out to be a real haven, a bit noisy but excellent camping, with a heafty european price tag. Oh, well, it is still cheaper than a hotel.
We settled down for the night, cooked some dinner together with Francesco and Manuela (they cooked, we ate), and enjoyed the cooler night air.
The following day we had a leisurely breakfast before heading into town in a taxi, no-one wanted to drive in this mess. We had all survived Cairo and weren't eager for a repetition. The first order of business was cashing some American Express travelers checks, as Manuela and Francesco needed money. The main bank said no, they couldn't cash American Express Travelers checks because of the embargo the U.S. had placed on Syria. So we decided to try the Amex office in town. Guess what, American Express Syria, would not cash their own checks. Unbelievable. We where all completely speechless, oh, well. The next stop an ATM machine, where they managed to get some money. After that we headed for the Souks and Old town.
The souks are something really spectacular. A high ceiling encloses the whole area with shops on either sides selling everything imaginable. What struck us the most, not just in the souks but in Damascus in general is how "real" it all is. There is little external influence so everything here is "natural" for a lack of a better description. There is little if any tourism, and everyone is very open and friendly, even more than the Egyptians who all (to a man) would say "Hello you are Welcome", hey why not, they (the egyptians) know that foreigners pay double what the locals pay, right! The Syrians are much more natural and less annoying, making it a truly enjoyable place to just walk around and enjoy the sights and sounds.
We spent two days walking around the souks, soaking in the sights and sounds (not to mention the smells). Cecilia and Francesco together with Manuela spent a couple of hours purchasing some copper serving plates. In the end they got the price down more than 60% from the opening bid and they bought 4 plates. 1 for us and three of varying sizes for them. They already offered to take our plate back to Switzerland for us as we could not have carried it. Our first souvenier on this trip!
On our second night in town we enjoyed an excellent dinner in the Old Town of Damascus, at the restaurant Jabri House. The eating area is in a large courtyard with a fountain and tons of fans. They also have a patio and it is frequented mostly by locals. The food is excellent and served very quickly. I recommend the "House Chicken" which is heavenly. Oh, and it is all very reasonably priced. For 4 people we spent 800 Syrian Pounds around 18Sfr. Including a water pipe which Francesco had to enjoy by himself as no-one else smoked. By the way, that is another thing that is endemic, everywhere you go there are restaurants or cafe's where waterpipes are smoked (nearly always by men only). Nevertheless it was a very enjoyable evening. Another quick tip, if anyone ever comes this way, make sure you plan to spend at least one evening wandering around the old town, it is really delightful with lots of little alleys, and byways. A bit touristy (when I said that there were few if any tourists, I meant West European tourists, as there are quite a bit "local" arabian/mid-eastern tourists), but well worth it. At night the heat is tolerable and the people are all out, not to mention the lighting which gives the whole town a little of the 1001 Nights feel.
Now it is time to move on, we are headed out in the morning, we will be going northwards, and what awaits us no-one knows.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Irbid, Jordan
Manuela, Cecilia and Francesco on the beach in Aqaba
Well, it has been quite a few weeks (almost) since the last update. Since our wonderful time on the beach we have been very busy with a couple of Jordan's better known sights, such as:
Well, it has been quite a few weeks (almost) since the last update. Since our wonderful time on the beach we have been very busy with a couple of Jordan's better known sights, such as:
Campground in Wadi Rum with view of some of the mountains and ravines.Wadi Rum:
Wonderful, extraterrestrial landscape. Which explains why they filmed part of Mission to Mars here, not to mention Lawrence of Arabia. We spent a few days here hiking and climbing around the some of the rock formations nearby.
Campfire at Bedouin camp near PetraPetra:
A pre-historic town carved out of ravines, valleys and mountains. Famous for the "Treasury" which is shown in nearly all documentation of the city, and also in films like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".
A pre-historic town carved out of ravines, valleys and mountains. Famous for the "Treasury" which is shown in nearly all documentation of the city, and also in films like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".
Amman Beach; Camping on the Dead Sea!
Dead Sea (Amman Beach):
The only "real" public beach on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. Known for water you can't sink in, and of course those "beauty treatment" mud baths.
Exploring Wadi RumAfter leaving Aqaba the road headed into the hills with a vengeance, first real curves and hills we have had since Morocco. As soon as you turn off the main north / south highway to Amman and head to Wadi Rum, the scenery really begins. A little like monument valley in the USA (see nearly every cowboy movie ever made), or maybe the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu NP) in Australia (not in any cowboy movie that I am aware of), and partly Grand Canyon (USA), or Karijini (Australia). The rock formations in the distance with the sand was really amazing, and just got better and better the further we rode towards Wadi Rum.
Instead of going straight to Wadi Rum we decided to take a little ride around the area with a stop to Al Disah which is on the "other" side of the Wadi Rum (there is only 1 road going into the area, and at a fork, one goes to Wadi Rum and the other to Al Disah). Here we wanted to ride our motorcycles on a dried lake bed just after the town, which we had heard about from Ennio (an Italian MC rider) whom we had met back in Tunisia. We just rode off the road and onto a totally flat surface broken up in millions of almost even sized chunks in wonderfully strange patterns. After riding around on this for a while we exited back on the outskirts of Al Disah and headed to Wadi Rum. One thing we noticed is that there were a lot of "Bedouin" camps on this side also, and they looked pretty busy, with 4x4 going off in all directions.
We had agreeded to meet our Swiss friends Francesco and Manuela at the visitor center so we parked our bikes and had a look. The visitor center is right in front of the "Seven Pillars" named after the book of the same name by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and has an outstanding view over the whole area. The visitor center also has a nice restaurant and an informative display of geological and cultural information of the area. Eventually Manuela and Francesco showed up in their WV bus and we headed into the park (after paying the obligatory 2JD entrance fee). One is only allowed to drive to the end of the paved road in Wadi Rum, after that one has to arrange for a guide preferably from the visitor center, as they manage the booking for the guided tours in the area. In Wadi Rum we setup camp at the Wadi Rum Rest House which is just at the entrance to the town. Here there is a restaurant, and tent accommodation available. We pitched our own tent and our friends parked next to us at one end of the compound right below some wonderful climbing rocks.
The following day after being besieged by locals who wanted to know if we were interested in going to the desert and offering their services in this endeavor, we decided to head off on our own and explorer a canyon which lay just across from the town. Apparently there is a way to go from this side of the canyon to the other on some fairly easy "scrambling" paths. Unfortunately after a day of scrambling around and having a grand old time, we still hadn't found the proper way through, so we called it quits and headed back to camp. We were totally dead, the heat and the exertion of climbing up, down, around, through, over, under, in between all the rocks, canyons, boulders, ravines and valleys had really taken their toll. But we were elated, it had been a lot of fun, if sometimes a bit scary and fustrating not being able to find the right path.
Due to our efforts the previous day, we had decided to book a half day tour with the local guides (though the tourist office of course, this insures that the moneys is evenly distributed between the guides, and tribes in the area, and cuts down on the hassle and husselers in the area). We specifically wanted to see a couple of the rock bridges and some of the desert and then get dropped off at the exit of the canyon we had been trying to go trough the previous day. This should make it easier to find the way, and we would get to visit some of the sights along the way.
This turned out to be a brilliant idea, and the cost split between the four of us made it "fairly" reasonable. The guide took us into the desert and showed us the various rock bridges (Burhda Rock bridge in particular, was really stunning. Perched high up on the mountain, with a nice wide span). The rock engravings seemed bogus (to our untrained eyes), at least some of them were definitely fakes or recent, but the guide insisted they were all "real". On the way we stopped at "Lawrence's House", probably a misnomer, but nevertheless the spot commanded a very beautiful view of the entrance to various valleys and open desert on the other sides. If Lawrence really lived here he certainly picked a militarily strategic position. The "house" itself is just a crumbling wall in front of a rock formation. After 4 hours or so we were then dropped at the entrance (or exit) of the canyon, and the guide pointed in the general direction we had to take.
To no avail. Within 50 meters we were already "lost". Well, actually you are only lost if you care where you are, and we didn't, at least not really. We had water, and food, and we found a couple of waterholes in the ravines, so everything was peachy. An hour scrambling around, and Cecilia decided to do the logical thing, and that was to start from the beginning, and sure enough, she quickly found the start of the path. Independently, Francesco had found it too, by climbing a fairly difficult section and finding the path above where it started. So we were off.
The hike was pretty easy in the beginning, and went through some fantastic landscape, and whenever you weren't in a canyon, you had some stunning views of rock formations and the valleys, really fantastic. For me the most fun was the climbing and scrambling around. No ropes or gear necessary, only a couple of sections were really a bit tricky, the rest was just straight forward, but a lot of fun. We had a picknick underneath a huge boulder which had fallen and blocked the ravine, but which one could climb underneath to continue further. The day was even hotter than yesterday so a nice break in the shade was very welcomed. After two hours we emerged on a plateau where we could see where we had been yesterday. Only when we had made it down, could we see that, the previous day there had been no way we would have spotted the path! Very tired and happy we made it back to camp for a well deserved ice cream and a cool drink. What a day!
Leaving Wadi Rum :-(
Treasury, Petra (Francesco and Cecilia in the foreground left!)
We left Wadi Rum two days later after a day of rest and relaxation as well as taking care of some practical matters, and headed to Petra a short (100km) distance away. Once back on the main road to Amman, the road climbed very steeply and after the turn-off to the "Kings Highway" it ran along a high plateau, with excellent views towards the plains and Israel the distance. At one view point, we stopped and waited for Francesco and Manuela to catch up. As soon as we stopped, we were besieged by American tourists, wanting to know everything about us. I haven't had to speak this much English in a long time. They were very impressed with Cecilia riding her own bike! In short order Francesco and Manuela showed up and we continued to Petra. After spending a couple of hours looking for appropriate accommodations we settled for a "Bedouin" camp in the direction of Little Petra, just outside of Petra. There are two such camps here and one was twice as expensive as the other, so we of course chose the cheaper variant. Francesco then spent nearly and hour haggling with the guard and in the end negociated a further discount of 1JD per person (2 Sfr.), in the end it was still pretty expensive though.
The camp itself was deserted, we were the only guests, and it was very relaxing and quiet. The camp turned into a 1001 Nights Fantasy at night. When they turned the generator on, the hills glowed with a "thousand" points of light. They had placed lights in many of the holes in the rocks around the camp. Some in various colors, and the grounds themselves were also bathed in light. Very impressive. It turns out their main business is as a venue for tour groups to have a night in the desert with food and a show. Sure enough the manager showed up with a troupe of singers/dancers (all men) and they rehearsed for a show the following night. Very interesting, listening to them perform and being the only audience. As soon as they left, they turned the generator on and then the real light show started. It was totally dark, with only the light of the stars glowing in the sky, and then late, the moon came out, and the hills glowed with soft moonlight. Very beautiful. We slept very well, in the totally deserted and quiet "campground".
The next morning we made out way to the entrance to Petra in Wadi Musa. We got a three day pass and started to go in. First you are besieged by "Guides", horse riders offering a ride down to the entrance to the city gates (they can't go further) 200m further down, or horse / donkey carriages who can take you all the way into Petra (~1.4km in). Once into the city entrance, you have to watch out that they don't run into you as some go pretty fast through there with their carriages. At the city entrance proper, the road goes into a "ravine" which you then follow until you emerge at the plaza in front of the Treasury. The whole walk is surreal, they have carved a water channel along a wall, as well as niches, and even the remains of some figures (camels, a person leading camels), and when you look up you have sheer walls on either side, or you go through overhangs making it look like a tunnel in some places. Very impressive, and I didn't even mention the color, and coloration of the various rock strata. Depending on time of day and position of sun, it ranges from, light brown, to deep red or light pink. The first glimpse of the treasury is through nearly touching canyon walls. Hollywood couldn't have designed something like this. In the plaza itself there were quite a few people milling about and the usual touts selling jewelry and drinks etc., as well as touting, camel and donkey rides to the city proper (another 600m down). The Treasury itself isn't much inside, a huge room carved out of the mountain, but what I really found fascinating is the details on the columns and the entrance itself with the pillars. Additionally there are a couple of smallish side rooms, again everything carved out of the mountain.
After spending some time in the plaza just watching the tourists and marveling at the Treasury we continued further down the valley to where it opened up into an open area between the rock formations. Here on both sides are huge "buildings" carved out of the rocks. These are actually tombs of varying shape and sizes, carved into the mountains on both sides of the canyon. We then took a sharp left and climbed up the mountain to the left of the Coliseum and headed up to the High Place of Sacrifice. Half way up we stopped and had lunch on a nice rock outcrops giving us a stunning view of the valley below as well as of the tourist making their way up, huffing and puffing, or often sitting on a donkey being guided up the mountain. Just below the top there is a snack bar across from the 2 obelisk, near these "obelisk" my GPS reported that there was a Geocache, so we explained to Manuela and Francesco what that was, and all set off to try and find it. We did find it in the end, a brand new micro-cache, with no entries in the log. We made our entry and hid it back where we found it and continued up to the High Place of Sacrifice. Here there is a great view over the whole area. There is an altar and some niches here where apparently sacrifices were made (of what no-one is really sure). We had a good look around before walking down the mountain on the other side.
This side lead to the Lion fountain, and the Tomb of the Roman Soldier as well as a number of tombs and other structures, again don't imagine anything build out of the ground, rather everything carved straight out of the naked rock, incredible. Just the stairs going down where great, with 90 degree turns and a sheer face on the outside, you always had to watch your step. The lion fountain was a lion carved into the mountain, with a fountain at the bottom, and the most fascinating thing was the way they carved channels into the rock to guide the path of the water to cisterns or in this case a fountain. This is seen all over Petra, everywhere there are water management measures implemented. With the scarcity of water around here I am not surprised that when it did rain they would want to make the most of it.
Before coming back out on the right side of the Coliseum we stopped and did some "archeological" digging of our own; in the garbage heap. Apparently here for eons the inhabitants (30,000) dumped their garbage and as long as you don't bring a shovel, they don't mind you scavenging around for pot shards and other detria of various civilizations (Nabetean, Byzantine, and Roman). We did find a couple of interesting looking pot shards with patterns painted on them, probably only 100 years old if that, but hey, lots of fun anyway. We then sat in the Coliseum and were very impressed with the acoustics, I stood on center stage and did my best stand up comedy (quietly), they still heard me in the back and just shook their heads! So much for show biz.
So ended our first day in Petra. That night back at the camp, we had an excellent dinner of Roasted Chicken, and fruit salad for dessert, topped off by a lovely campfire. While eating and cleaning up we watched as a number of people were making preparations for tonight's party. And promptly at 21:00 a busload of tourists showed up. All the lights were turned off and they were lead along a path lit by brown bags filled with sand holding a candle. Once in the middle of the camp, the performers started singing an the lights went on. Everyone went ohhh, ahhh, they were very impressed, and rightly so, it was very well done. Then they all ran off to the buffet tent, guess that was to be expected. Their dinner consisted of lamb and chicken roasted on a fire, with potatoes straight from a larger fire in the middle of the tent. Once they finished eating, the show started. Our troop from last night, this time dressed in "traditional" white robes and some sporting a holster with a gun, started, singing and dancing. Some songs were accompanied by a drum and a flute, the rest were just chanting along to clapping hands. Very rhythmic and almost hypnotic. After the singing and dancing, our night watchman took the stage and played an instrument similar to a violin, with a single string, and a bow which he drew across the instrument while resting it on the ground. The sound similar to a cat being strangled. This he accompanied with what sounded like a chant. Later the campground manager showed up and played something like a Lute (a short round guitar, almost). Lots of fun and very interesting. After a couple of hours everything was over and everyone left and we were again alone in the dark. Excellent.
The second and third day in Petra were more of the same, but different. Lots more huge structures and tombs. On the second day we also spent a while finding another Geocache hidden above the police station in the middle of Petra proper. It was a lot of fun scrambling around the rocks and enjoying the view and the incredible architecture while looking for the cache. We found it eventually and spent the next 30 minutes just reading all the entries in the log and adding our own comment. Afterwards we headed to the Monastery on a mountain opposite of where we were. This turned out to be a huge, as in very large, building. The entrance is higher than a house. The plaza in front was all carved out of the mountain, incredible. Nearby we also enjoyed the view over towards Israel, 22km in the distance.
On the last day in Petra, we started by walking through the "Tunnel" next to the entrance to the city. There was a "guide" who tried stopping us from going this way, saying it is too dangerous and we weren't allowed to do it without a guide. A classic method to earn some business. We ignored him and continued. The walk led along a dried river bed, through canyon and ravines, in places so narrow that you had to walk sideways through them. This is probably the best canyon walk any of us have ever done! Towards the end there were then the signs of the Nabeteans who had carved funerary niches in the walls of the canyon more than 2000 years ago. Completely surreal. Not to mention the Water conservation measures they had taken on the canyon itself, by damming part of it, and redirecting other parts, very impressive. By now we were pretty worn out, with all the sights so the last day we quit fairly early (only 6 hours), and headed back to camp and relaxation. Our Swiss friends ate dinner with us and then left for Amman and we settled down for a nice little campfire with our friend the Fiddler who came over and made us Bedouin tea on our fire (which he had lit for us), and told us about being part of an Finnish archeological excavation on Mount Aaron back in 2000! Turns out our night watchman besides being a musician, is also an archeologist, and a Sheik (leader of local a Bedouin tribe). His wife and mother are in Lyon France, where his mother is being treated in the hospital (for what we couldn't quite figure out). Strange world...
The following day we headed north to the Dead Sea, where we spent a few days relaxing on the beach. We decided to skip the Dana nature reserve, which is another tourist draw in Jordan. As we neared the Dead Sea, from the southern end, we were immediately aware of an increased security presence. We were stopped 4 times by military checkpoints, between going down to the Dead Sea and the northern shore where the beach lay. This was the first time since Egypt that anyone was so interested in our Passports and where we were going; and I was just starting to get used to not being checked every 10km anymore! The first thing one (well, I) notices about the dead sea is that it is, well, dead. There are no boats on it, no fish in the shallows, there is nothing growing along the banks, no waves either for that matter. At the northern end there are the hotels, and beaches, further south there is nothing (besides military checkpoints). We set up camp, after waiting 2 hours for the previous occupants of our chosen spot to vacate it. And enjoyed a wonderful sundown over the hills of Jerusalem in the distance. The following day we started the day early by a nice float in the Dead Sea. The salt level in the Dead Sea is so high that you literally float, you can't sink. This makes swimming pretty difficult, getting your feet down a maneuver in it self. Floating in a certain position you will suddenly spin around. Lots of fun. The rest of our time here alternated between laying in the shade reading, floating in the sea, and just plain relaxing. Later in the afternoon our Swiss friends showed up from Amman, they had managed to take care of what they need to do and decided to come down and say hello.
The following day we left the Dead Sea, Manuela and Francesco heading back to Amman where they were going to wait for their paperwork for Syria to come through and we headed up the Jordan valley to Irbid. The Jordan valley is very similar to the Nile valley (surprise surprise), lots of military everywhere, particular in the northern end where we neared the Golan heights and Syria, no problems getting through, though once they wanted us to open our boxes. After explaining how much work that was they just waved us through. In Irbid, there is no camping so we found a fairly cheap hotel and asked about prices, negociated the price down to what we could afford to pay and confirmed that we could put our motorcycles in front of the entrance to the reception. Unfortunately when I went to get the bikes, the Tourist police wouldn't let me drive it down to in front of the reception (the road was blocked). Naturally I informed the hotel of this, and this then started a huge discussion between the hotel staff and the police. In the end we waited an hour for some other police to show up, they inspected the content of our boxes and luggage and then allowed us (reluctantly) to park where we wanted to. A real production, the hotel staff was very apologetic, if not apoplectic that the police was being so "difficult". We don't know what exactly the problem is, we have never had a problem with the Police, if anything the hotel will say we can't park somewhere. Nevertheless, Irbid turns out to be a great little town. It is a university town, no tourists anywhere to be seen. Too bad that they don't have a campground. Not much to "see" or do, but excellent to get a realistic feel for life in Jordan.
Next update coming after Syria, since apparently (according to our guide book) there isn't any Internet in Syria! Can that really be? We shall see.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Aqaba, Jordan
The first "real" blog entry:
We are now in Aqaba Jordan, we arrived from Nuweiba Egypt on Monday night after a very long day.
We started at 6:30 packing and getting everything ready. We got on the road and headed to the ferry terminal, which was a short 15 minutes ride away.
Standing in line for a while we got our tickets to Aqaba for a hefty 760 Egyptian Pounds. (37$ per person and 20$ per motorcycle, and an additional 100 Egyptian pounds as an exit tax)
For anyone headed this way, the ticket office is the building on the right as you face the entrance to the port. There are no signs in English! The office is only open in the morning, although unconfirmed reports say that it should be open as long as the ferries are in port. Also, note that the FAST ferry does NOT take vehicles so you are forced to go on the slow ferry if you have anything bigger than a bicycle.
After getting the tickets we parked our bikes near the entrance to the port and waited. There was a huge line of trucks parked here and one indicated we could park in front of the line so why not. An hour or so later (9:15am) we were approached by a tourist policeman who took all our paperwork and asked us to follow him into the port area. An so it began.
An hour and a half later everything was finished. Basically, the tourist police took care of everything for us, he returned the license and license plates, got the carnet de passage stamped, organized the exit document (?), we got our passports stamped out ourselves, and that was it. Sounds pretty simple, but we ended up following the policeman back and forth between half dozen various offices. The charges where minimal, it cost 40 Egyptian Pounds per carnet to get everything done, including copies apparently, or it might have been 40 pounds for the copies, we didn't quite get that clear.
With all our paperwork done, we were shuttled off to the departure lounge with the rest of the people who where to go on the ferry. We were the only "foreigners", or rather make that European foreigners, as a lot of the people waiting were Jordanian, or Kuwaiti, also foreigners.
Shortly thereafter we were told to go to the ferry. Once there, they made us wait (there were no other vehicles), until all the passengers where on board and then we rode the bikes into the ferry and parked on the third vehicle deck.
The ferry turned out to be an older Danish ferry, which still had the signs for Fredrikshavn exit on the door. All signs were in three languages, English, German, and danish, with a piece of paper written or printed in Arabic taped up next to the other signs.
It was now around 11:15am and we spent the rest of the time just sitting around and reading, the ferry ended up leaving at 15:00 (3pm), and got to Aqaba at 19:30 (7:30pm), for some unknown reason we weren't (everyone) allowed to disembark for a further 40 minutes. Also note that the Jordanian immigration officials will take your passport on the ferry and return it to you in Aqaba at the ferry terminal. In return for your passport you will get a stamped piece of paper with your name and passport number. The visa is free but is limited to 30 days (you have to ask explicitly) and can only be renewed in Aqaba. The normal visa costs 10JD (Jordanian Dinar), and can be extended anywhere in the country. If you require such a visa, tell the immigration officer when giving him your passport.
There was a bit of confusion at the terminal, as we ended up going in the back way because we had vehicles. The person who met us at the door was the person responsible for selling us the compulsory vehicle insurance, and he then sent us up to see the police in order to get our passports before selling us the insurance. With a bit of a run-around we got them and the rest of the procedure was fairly painless. The cost for motorcycle insurance for 30 days is 21.50JD per bike, and an additional 11JD per bike for the handling of the Carnet de Passage. All in all much more efficient than anything we have encountered in North Africa with the exception of Morocco which was simpler, quicker and cheaper! (read about it in www.fernweh.ch)
The accommodations we were heading for was 3km south of the port (according to my GPS), unfortunately we got on the wrong road after getting out of the port area, and nearly ended up in Saudi Arabia which is just a few kilometers further down the road. There simply wasn't anywhere else to turn around!
Once on the right road, we found the accomodations and to our surprise there was a newer one right across the road. After a little haggling back and forth we settled for the new one as it turned out to be 4JD cheaper for a little room (we were to tired to camp, and the grounds of both places did not look very inviting). The cost was still seriously expensive for our tastes (16JD per night for a little room with bath and ac), considering we had paid the equivalent of 2.5JD in Egypt for similar accomodations (ok, no bath, but still). We unpacked and cooked some noodles on our front door step before crashing for the night. We don't quite know why but we were really dead. The day had been long and very tiring, although we had not really "done" much.
The next day we explored Aqaba, and to our surprise found it a totally charming "little" town. Very quiet, clean, and much more "westernized" than anything we had previously encountered. You are still in an Arabic country, but there is no hassel, no haggling, traffic is almost comprehendible (only the cabs like to split lanes). So for us it was a real nice change of pace.
We even found a very competent tourist office, with plenty of literature and valuable information both on Aqaba and Jordan in general.
The following day we decided to move down to the beach, where we had found out that there is "free" camping, in zones specially reserved for foreign tourists. Excellent. We also ran into a couple from Tessin (Switzerland) whom we had previously met in St. Katherina in the Sinai. We informed them of our plans, and they also joined us down at the beach.
Camping on the beach turned out to be heaven, with the exception of the wind. Ever since we had gotten here the wind had been blowing pretty fiercely. But once we go away from the campground we noticed how strong it really was, around 30-50kmh. The temperature around 37C feels really confortable with so much wind, but it is pretty cold to get in the water. Water temperature is 22C which is nice for anyone from Europe.
The beach is very busy with lots and lots of locals enjoying a brief outing and swim. Women by the way, get in the water fully clothed, not something you will see in Malibu. Also at night, women will never go to the restroom alone! They are always either escorted by a man or with other women.
Everybody fighting with the wind makes for some excellent entertainment, and every once in a while an empty can or bottle will literaly fly by our tent as we are sitting with out friends Manuela and Francesco (the couple from Tessin), discussing our experience in North Africa. In out in the water, nearly once an hour an un-accompanied blanket, plastic bag, or childrens blowup water toy flies by and is well on it's way to Saudi Arabia before anyone can do anything about it.
Tomorrow we head to Wadi Rum and the 7 pillars, we are looking forward to some quiet desert again, although we have really enjoyed Aqaba.
We are now in Aqaba Jordan, we arrived from Nuweiba Egypt on Monday night after a very long day.
We started at 6:30 packing and getting everything ready. We got on the road and headed to the ferry terminal, which was a short 15 minutes ride away.
Standing in line for a while we got our tickets to Aqaba for a hefty 760 Egyptian Pounds. (37$ per person and 20$ per motorcycle, and an additional 100 Egyptian pounds as an exit tax)
For anyone headed this way, the ticket office is the building on the right as you face the entrance to the port. There are no signs in English! The office is only open in the morning, although unconfirmed reports say that it should be open as long as the ferries are in port. Also, note that the FAST ferry does NOT take vehicles so you are forced to go on the slow ferry if you have anything bigger than a bicycle.
After getting the tickets we parked our bikes near the entrance to the port and waited. There was a huge line of trucks parked here and one indicated we could park in front of the line so why not. An hour or so later (9:15am) we were approached by a tourist policeman who took all our paperwork and asked us to follow him into the port area. An so it began.
An hour and a half later everything was finished. Basically, the tourist police took care of everything for us, he returned the license and license plates, got the carnet de passage stamped, organized the exit document (?), we got our passports stamped out ourselves, and that was it. Sounds pretty simple, but we ended up following the policeman back and forth between half dozen various offices. The charges where minimal, it cost 40 Egyptian Pounds per carnet to get everything done, including copies apparently, or it might have been 40 pounds for the copies, we didn't quite get that clear.
With all our paperwork done, we were shuttled off to the departure lounge with the rest of the people who where to go on the ferry. We were the only "foreigners", or rather make that European foreigners, as a lot of the people waiting were Jordanian, or Kuwaiti, also foreigners.
Shortly thereafter we were told to go to the ferry. Once there, they made us wait (there were no other vehicles), until all the passengers where on board and then we rode the bikes into the ferry and parked on the third vehicle deck.
The ferry turned out to be an older Danish ferry, which still had the signs for Fredrikshavn exit on the door. All signs were in three languages, English, German, and danish, with a piece of paper written or printed in Arabic taped up next to the other signs.
It was now around 11:15am and we spent the rest of the time just sitting around and reading, the ferry ended up leaving at 15:00 (3pm), and got to Aqaba at 19:30 (7:30pm), for some unknown reason we weren't (everyone) allowed to disembark for a further 40 minutes. Also note that the Jordanian immigration officials will take your passport on the ferry and return it to you in Aqaba at the ferry terminal. In return for your passport you will get a stamped piece of paper with your name and passport number. The visa is free but is limited to 30 days (you have to ask explicitly) and can only be renewed in Aqaba. The normal visa costs 10JD (Jordanian Dinar), and can be extended anywhere in the country. If you require such a visa, tell the immigration officer when giving him your passport.
There was a bit of confusion at the terminal, as we ended up going in the back way because we had vehicles. The person who met us at the door was the person responsible for selling us the compulsory vehicle insurance, and he then sent us up to see the police in order to get our passports before selling us the insurance. With a bit of a run-around we got them and the rest of the procedure was fairly painless. The cost for motorcycle insurance for 30 days is 21.50JD per bike, and an additional 11JD per bike for the handling of the Carnet de Passage. All in all much more efficient than anything we have encountered in North Africa with the exception of Morocco which was simpler, quicker and cheaper! (read about it in www.fernweh.ch)
The accommodations we were heading for was 3km south of the port (according to my GPS), unfortunately we got on the wrong road after getting out of the port area, and nearly ended up in Saudi Arabia which is just a few kilometers further down the road. There simply wasn't anywhere else to turn around!
Once on the right road, we found the accomodations and to our surprise there was a newer one right across the road. After a little haggling back and forth we settled for the new one as it turned out to be 4JD cheaper for a little room (we were to tired to camp, and the grounds of both places did not look very inviting). The cost was still seriously expensive for our tastes (16JD per night for a little room with bath and ac), considering we had paid the equivalent of 2.5JD in Egypt for similar accomodations (ok, no bath, but still). We unpacked and cooked some noodles on our front door step before crashing for the night. We don't quite know why but we were really dead. The day had been long and very tiring, although we had not really "done" much.
The next day we explored Aqaba, and to our surprise found it a totally charming "little" town. Very quiet, clean, and much more "westernized" than anything we had previously encountered. You are still in an Arabic country, but there is no hassel, no haggling, traffic is almost comprehendible (only the cabs like to split lanes). So for us it was a real nice change of pace.
We even found a very competent tourist office, with plenty of literature and valuable information both on Aqaba and Jordan in general.
The following day we decided to move down to the beach, where we had found out that there is "free" camping, in zones specially reserved for foreign tourists. Excellent. We also ran into a couple from Tessin (Switzerland) whom we had previously met in St. Katherina in the Sinai. We informed them of our plans, and they also joined us down at the beach.
Camping on the beach turned out to be heaven, with the exception of the wind. Ever since we had gotten here the wind had been blowing pretty fiercely. But once we go away from the campground we noticed how strong it really was, around 30-50kmh. The temperature around 37C feels really confortable with so much wind, but it is pretty cold to get in the water. Water temperature is 22C which is nice for anyone from Europe.
The beach is very busy with lots and lots of locals enjoying a brief outing and swim. Women by the way, get in the water fully clothed, not something you will see in Malibu. Also at night, women will never go to the restroom alone! They are always either escorted by a man or with other women.
Everybody fighting with the wind makes for some excellent entertainment, and every once in a while an empty can or bottle will literaly fly by our tent as we are sitting with out friends Manuela and Francesco (the couple from Tessin), discussing our experience in North Africa. In out in the water, nearly once an hour an un-accompanied blanket, plastic bag, or childrens blowup water toy flies by and is well on it's way to Saudi Arabia before anyone can do anything about it.
Tomorrow we head to Wadi Rum and the 7 pillars, we are looking forward to some quiet desert again, although we have really enjoyed Aqaba.
Some more pics
Morocco (El Jadida)
Guggenheim in Bilbao Spain
Our first camping spot on lake Constance in Germany.Much more pictures are available at www.fernweh.ch enjoy.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Introduction
Hello World.
This is going to be our quick and dirty method to publish our rantings on our travels as we make our way around the world, and comment on what we experience and how we did it. It is meant as an extension to our "normal" web site, which you can find at www.fernweh.ch unfortunately this doesn't get updated very frequently, so we have decided to start a blog and get our thoughts and experience up on the net as quick as possible.
This is going to be our quick and dirty method to publish our rantings on our travels as we make our way around the world, and comment on what we experience and how we did it. It is meant as an extension to our "normal" web site, which you can find at www.fernweh.ch unfortunately this doesn't get updated very frequently, so we have decided to start a blog and get our thoughts and experience up on the net as quick as possible.
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