Desert Kingdoms

We are at the end of our tour now. In Aqaba. Where do I start? Re: Brents message - we were very aware of what was going on around us. To be honest we were much much more aware then anyone out of the country would have been. We had a local guide who was constantly receiving news messages on his phone. The thing that frustrated us the most is that from watching CNN and BBC it seems the western world is so deceived by the media. But we won't go into that now...the FBI might be reading ;)
So, Jordon is lovely. I think we would both agree that we enjoyed our time in Syria more. The people are much friendlier, honest, interesting. We spent 8 days in Syria and only 4 in Jordon....Jordon is HOT and much more touristy. Amman wasn't anything special although I could safely say it's the San Francisco of the Middle East (it’s a city over 19 hills) after Amman we went to the Dead Sea which was the highlight!! Really, it's 30% salt compared to 3% in any regular sea and it's 470metres below sea level. Pretty incredible. Its way better than any day spa I’ve ever experienced. The mud is pure mineral. Israel was only a stone throw across the sea. The next day (yesterday) we went to Petra for the day. Pretty magnificent stuff! Pretty amazing colours in the rocks and whole city carved out of the sandstones. AMAZING!
Last night we stayed in a 'Bedouin camp' in the middle of the desert. We sat around the camp fire with the locals telling us their secrets of the desert. Wow! (Not really it was just a tourist camp in the desert. Nothing too special) but we DID see the biggest shooting star ever. It looked like a plane was falling out of the sky, right in front of us. Eek!
Now in Aqaba. We are HANGING out to leave. We can't swim in this 'beach/port' city right on the red sea and it's over 40degrees today. Looking soo forward to sailing with my family for a week in Croatia. Hoping to be more "regular" too.
Lachie is much better then last time I wrote but the bug knocked him truly for six! He had cold sores and ulcers. Poor thing. But he was still able to participate in everything. I was the one that was dragging my feet the last few days. We are pretty over touring...

A 'cute' looking building in Amman

Getting some serious 'ring sting' in the Dead Sea

Beautiful, enchanting, hot, incredible Petra


On top of a hill in the middle of the day in the middle of summer in Petra. Just before this picture was taken I saw a beautiful little black and purple hummingbird!

Camel trek with some Bedouins

Dusk at our camp in the Jordon dessert

Are you Damascus??

We are back in Damascus. Off to Jordon tomorrow. Lachie has been really really sick. Hopefully he's on the mend now and healthy for our trip to Jordon.I would definitely recommend Syria to anyone. Besides all the wars surrounding this country it is a surprisingly beautiful, safe, happy, interesting, old, peaceful country. We have enjoyed our time here so much.Only 6 more days and then sailing in Croatia! Very excited!

In the crazy, bullet-riddled, pistachio ice-cream selling souk. What an intense atmosphere.

Sal not enjoying the local customs

Aleppo Citadel

45 hot degrees!

With our Syrian tour group -Bashar, Devina, Francois & Valerie at Crac de Chevalier

This lion is really old, they found it in the desert, lets climb all over it!

Beautiful landscape

Amazing Roman ruins in Palmyra

Desert sunsets....

Dusk in Damascus

So hot right now!

Oh my goodness! Gasping for breath! The heat! We are in the middle of the dessert. We are drinking lots of fruit shakes, water, hard boiled eggs (general breakfast EVERYWHERE we’ve been) we are really doing some amazing things. Yesterday we went to some 2000year old tombs, an ancient city so well in tact. And climbed to the top of a hill with a citadel on it and watched the sunset over the dessert. I really love the dessert. The heat. The dense quietness. It seems so mysterious. Today we spent the day traditional Syrian style. Swimming in a 5 star hotels pool, eating westerner’s food (cheese burger). Tomorrow we are back to Damascus for another 2 days before heading to Jordon (Amman). Damascus is SO close to Lebanon. I’ve been feeling really disturbed at how one sided the English media is. CNN and BBC are all for Israel and think that Lebanon is full of terrorists. In Syria I’m aware of how untrue that is and feel so grateful that my eyes are open to the truth. It’s made me realise how important it is to know both sides of the story. To not fall for the hype of the media.
Only 1 minute and then my new Syrian friend is going to introduce me to another of his friends who sells pretty bracelets. Then we can pick up our laundry. It’s the first time in over a month that we haven't had to sit in the bath tub and scrub our clothes clean! Yay!
Salam Malikomb.

Alepo Shmepo

We are in Aleppo-Syria at the moment. I swear, the people here are crazy! The women especially are pretty much completely covering themselves in black; you can't even see their eyes. You’d think in this heat they'd all be nymphs dancing naked under water fountains!! The heat is very draining, especially with our tummy’s crying for toilets (i.e. we have tummy bugs)
all the same our impression of Syria so far:
the closest we'll probably ever get to Iraq
very old (the oldest inhabited cities in the world)
very safe (apparently the 4th safest country in the world!)
Very hectic (the men staring, the heat, the constant honking!)
Very interesting (lots of history-today we saw some sculptures that were 2000years b.c. old!!)
Very friendly happy people
our tour guide, a local, is keeping a close eye on what’s going on in Lebanon/Israel. He seems to think there is absolutely NOTHING to worry about. It’s all over TVs, everyone gathers around to watch. We have seen a few demonstrations. It just adds to the excitement!
Ciao!

On the boarder of chaos

We’ve just sat down on the computer after seeing a bunch of stuff in Arabic that we have no idea about. Yes, we a pretty close to all the stuff going on in Lebanon but we are ok and I’m sure we will remain to be ok. We’ll touch base as much as poss in the next 2 weeks of this tour. We meet our tour leader tonight so we'll know more then I’m sure. He’s a local guide which will be good!
As for our holiday....
We went on the Aussie pilgrimage to Gallipoli. It took 5 hours to get there and then 4 hours to see the whole place and then 5 hours back. Was a BIG day but worth it. Lachie really appreciated going. I appreciated all the cool stones on the beach...hehe.
The next morning at 4:30am we got a taxi to the airport and flew down the bottom of Turkey to Dalaman and then transferred to Fethyie where we sailed out for 3 1/2 blissful days of swimming, eating, sleeping, drinking, swimming, chilling, tanning, swimming and more swimming. The colour of the water is so deep, gorgeous aqua, turquoise. Warm. Very salty. We swam in a pirates cave. Jumped off a 4 storey cliff at the blue lagoon (I bruised my tailbone like you wouldn't believe but DID IT anyhow!) this is where that blue lagoon movie with Brooke Shields was filmed. We went to a 'disco' which consisted of a hut in the middle of nowhere and a dj. That was lots of fun.
And now...we are in Damascus-Syria. We finally made it to our hotel at 4:30am. Right now we are in the 'old city' which is 2000years old. Very quaint winding little passage ways everywhere. Very dusty and very hot. A dry heat though.
We head out of this city tomorrow. Not sure when we'll be in contact again...
ciao
Lac and Sal
xx

Turkışh Delıght

Yay! We are in Turkey and loving it here! As soon as we arrived after our hellish train trip (nevermind the deets we are alive!) we have been to all the mosques, palace, seen the 2^nd biggest diamond in the world, done a ton of shopping and walking and now just got back from the most therapeutic Turkish bath. Tomorrow morning at 630am we are heading out to see Gallipoli arriving back around 11pm and then catching a 7am plane to Dalaman and then transferıng to Fethiye where we sail for 3 nights 4 days to ölympöş and then fly to Syria for our next adventure. I don’t think we wall be ön email for a while so this is bon voyage for now.

Löve laç and şal

In Dolmabahçe Palace, Istanbul

THE fabulous Blue Mosque

Haghia Sophia Mosque

Down at the port, Istanbul

Looking over the spectacular Istanbul harbour

Sunflowers on the drive down to Gallipoli

Gallipoli, Turkey

Having an amazing time sailing around the Turkish coast

YIKES! Spot Lachie jumping off a VERY high cliff! I was just behind him...

A pirates cave...oooo...

BLISS