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Archive for March, 2008

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Istanbul.. not Constantinople

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Ah, Istanbul… We arrived in the late morning and were immediately enamored with this old, europe style, city. We had heard that the ‘men were aggressive’ and the ‘touts were intense’ but we learned that these types of comments are extremely subjective. Yes, there are guys standing outside restaurants and shops and they want your business, but compared to Egypt, India, or even many in SE Asia, it was very mild. And between the mass transit being fantastic and the city very walkable, we were able to stay in Istanbul for a 3 days and never consider taking a taxi.

We stayed in Sultanahmet in a nice hostel that offered free internet and free breakfast. We were offered complimentary apple tea at the first restaurant we visited and immediately fell in love with the hospitality of the Turkish people. We went on long walks to see the Blue Mosque and the ‘beautiful people’ in the trendy Beyoglu area. We watched the hundred or so fisherman on the bridge catching thousands of sardines as the ‘call to prayer’ sounded in the background, strolled through the ‘largest covered market in the world’ and ate fabulous treats in a nearby promenade.

Now off to Cappadocia!

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Sinai?… More like Si-Denied….

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

After we spent a day or so in Luxor, the plan was to travel by bus to Hurgada, take the ferry to Sharm El Shiek (in Sinai) and then travel to Dahab. Once in Dahab, we could hang on the beach, go snorkling, see supposed actual “Burning Bush”, climb Mt. Sinai, etc, etc… sounds fun, right? Wrong. Not meant to be I guess. We know that it’s not best to pay to far ahead when dealing with travel agents… the reason being that you may want to change your plan, or simply that you don’t want to pay too much up front before the quality of service has been proven. We generally don’t… ever. But the lure of this one was too much. The agent (which we highly DO NOT recommend) was Montasser. He was recommended in Lonely Planet so we decided to give it a try and let him plan our travels from Luxor to Dahab. The plan quickly started to go south when, after we fronted the money, we found out the ferry actually isn’t running. Weather was the reason. We checked the weather and it seemed fine so we were confused. When we arrived in Hurgada, we found out that the ferry had not been running for 2 weeks and would not run again for anther 3 weeks due to maintenance. We worked out an amount that we would refunded from Montasser. When contacting him, he was combative but eventually relented and said he would refund a certain amount. After more talk, he raised the amount he would refund to about 10% less than what we wanted. Better than nothing, though, so we agreed. The next problem was how to deliver the money as Montasser was in Aswan. In the end, after all was said and done, the money arrived via a friend of a friend and we had enough time to get to our flight to Turkey (that we booked ourselves 😉 ).

So… off to Istanbul!

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Up the Nile…

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
From Aswan, we took a two day cruise along the Nile to Luxor. The first evening, we sat on the boat and truly relaxed... there's nothing like relaxing next to a pool, reading a book on a warm Egyptian evening, while ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Down the Nile…

Friday, March 21st, 2008
We tried to take an over-night sleeper train (which is typical for tourists) to travel from Cairo down south to Aswan but unfortuneatly the two people ahead of us in line got the last remaining tickets. Instead, we took the day ... [Continue reading this entry]

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A great view from Pizza Hut

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
Cairo is an interesting city. Is is lively and modern. We spent some time strolling through its different areas and a little time in Islamic Cairo. We noticed that taxi drivers here are a little like the ones in India. ... [Continue reading this entry]

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A slick entry to Cairo

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
We left Tanzania and had a long trip to Cairo. We flew from Zanzibar to Dar Es Salaam, picked up more passengers and then flew to Adis Ababa (Ethiopia). Once there, we spent 3 hours in line to get a ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Zanzibar is hot, like, Africa hot

Monday, March 17th, 2008
Finally arrived in Zanzibar! Woohoo... With me hobbling around (knee still busted from the hike), we find our way around Stone Town, the old town of Zanzibar,dodging the brutal sun whenever possible . We checked out the sites and had ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Africa time…

Saturday, March 15th, 2008
After the trek, we decided to take a bus down to Dar Es Salaam and then a ferry over to Zanzibar for some fun in the sun, snorkling, R&R, etc. We arrived back from the trek around 10:30AM. Paul, the hike organizer, ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Climbing Kili….

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Mt. Kilimanjaro, at 5895 meters above sea level, is the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. The hike can take 6, 7, or 8 days depending on how much you want to spend (more days=more money), which route you take, ... [Continue reading this entry]

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Lazy days in Moshi

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
Moshi is a popular base town for travellers who are planning to hike Mt. Kilimanjaro, so we decided that it would be the place to stay.  However, as most tourists come and go quickly, it is not too touristy and there is ... [Continue reading this entry]

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