Getting Oriented

The trip/flight to Bangkok was an experience in itself- the demographics on the flight from Istanbul to Doha Qatar were quite middle eastern, you could count the whities on one hand. Qatar Airways a.k.a Air Qatar a.k.a Air Guitar was very good, they had current on demand movies to pause/FF/Rew (I watched 4) and for an airline the food was very good. We spent the night in the Doha airport, 8 hours of quality sleep...kidding. We had to walk to the airplane across the runway and the only way to describe it was steamy, I couldn't help but think that the troops only a couple hundred miles away had to deal with that on a daily basis. We even had to wait for military aircraft take off and land before we could take off. The view from the plane was mostly sand and massive development, Doha is one of the world's richest due to its oil and natural gas finds. Bangkok is four hours ahead of Turkey so were a little out of sync again. We arrived at around 7:30 p.m.- customs was a breeze and it was raining like crazy. It is the rainy season here, we usually have some good weather and then some extreme down pours that only last a little while. We found the hostel that was recommended by the New Zealand couple we met in Istanbul, it was a nice jungle oasis in the middle of a big city. Since it is the low season we were able to get in without reservations. Our first few days were spent getting oriented and re-grouping from our last 3 weeks on the go. We had our laundry done, downloaded our photos to DVD to send home, and melica got a foot massage. We walked around some of the sights and markets. We purchased a southeast Asia guidebook and are trying to map out a direction to head. We took a few rides in the Tuk-tuks (Tuk-tuk your money) 3-wheeled taxis, with no set rates or meters-They had a little scam going on but we just played along. They said for 20 baht (around 60 cents) they would take you around to each of the attractions- but what they didn't tell you was that they will also take you to a tailor shop to sell you a custom suit, a jewelry shop, and a travel agent...we saw all of these and a standing Buddha and a sitting Buddha and after we didn't buy anything and him not getting his commission the guy had enough and so had we, we were out 60 cents and were able to see a little more of the city. Our second day was more of the same with a trip to China town area - Hello Kitty, plastic crap and sandals everywhere, on to Khoa san Rd. - the backpackers Headquarters looking for info. Bangkok is a city always on the move, busy and exhaust filled with new smells and sights around every corner. It is also a city of great contrast you can get off the super clean metro filled with business men and women, walk through a huge mall like you would find in the USA and go out on the street and find an elderly toothless blind couple singing Karaoke for money, stray dogs, and sex tourists (Older white dudes with younger Thai women that are paid to be with them)
Needless to say 3 nights in Bangkok was enough. We headed out by train the next morning to Sawankhalok, nothing really in this town but it was close to where we wanted to be the next day. We quickly found a hotel (maybe the only one in town)$8 with a TV, not bad and much better for our budget. We watched the Olympics and headed out for some grub. All of the TVs around town were tuned to the Olympics to root for their boxer and table tennis athletes.
The next day we took the early bus to Sukothai- The first capital of Thailand and full of old ruins. Here we rented cruiser bikes called "Charming Turbos" - Charming-yes, Turbo-no. But what do you expect for a dollar for the day. We cruised around looking at old ruins and bumped into some Thai school kids that were on a field trip-they were also on bikes and would say "Hi, what is your name?" "Where you come from?" "My name is____" They must have been trying their recently learned English- Later while sitting and taking a break from the sun the kids surrounded us again and chatted it up for about a half an hour. The topics ranged from counting to the Olympic events. One kid even did back flips to impress us. A nice change from the bustle of Bangkok. We turboed around most of the day dodging heavy down pours and checking out Buddhas and Temples or Wats as they call them. It can be kind of confusing as you say. "Wat is that?" or "There are Wats of Wats here."

We spoke to the manager of the guesthouse we are staying in and he confirmed that there was no public transportation to the local National Parks. We rented a scooter and headed out to one about 40km away. The ride was good, we dodged people, cows, stray dogs, chickens and even a snake throughout the day all while repeating to myself, stay on the left. The Thais drive on the left hand side of the road and isn't bad on the open road but intersections take a while to get used to. Most of the driving was done on paved elevated roads that looked over rice and corn field in seas of green. We made it to the national park and started trekking up the hill in the jungle. We saw tons of crazy insects, snakes and birds but no big wildlife. The hike was about 3 hours and didn't see another person except for at the top and the bottom of the hike. It was shaded most of the way, hot and humid and there was no breeze. We were literally dripping with sweat by the time we reached the top camp area and after a break and some snacks we were ready to head down, the caretaker said we should head hike higher for a better view point and it was worth it. It overlooked a cliff and the entire valley. We headed down- Melica twisted her ankle a bit but it is doing better now. More cruising the country side and back for some dinner and relaxing...our plan is to keep heading to the north of Thailand tomorrow. Sorry for the delay on the pictures. Enjoy!

How Bazaar

(Thursday August 14th 2008)

We arrived at the bus station at around 7:00 a.m. the bus ride was decent, as good as any sleep on a bus- I also hadn't showered in 4 days (swimming counts doesn't it?) The bus service was good as well, ice cream served and drink service during the drive. There was a free transport to a center square and we took it. We were hungry and groggy. The city first came off as any big city busy-dirty-and hot. We found a hostel with dorm beds for around 10 euro or 20 YTL, not a bad place but they only had room for one night and decided to take it. We stashed our bags and like always took off on foot to see the city. The skyline of Istanbul is great with a Mosque or another tower in any direction you look, there is also the Bosphorous with is the main waterway that separates the European side of Istanbul and the Asian. Our first stop was the basilica cistern, it was a huge underground area of columns and was originally constructed in 565 to hold the water for the city, it was a great underground escape from the heat. The basilica is now only filled with a couple of feet of water and acts as a koi pond a nice unexpected place. We visited two Mosques-huge buildings with amazing work. Melica had to wear a scarf to cover her head. The Iranian president was also there that day so police were everywhere and it was a little chaotic all around town. We headed back to our hostel, 5 times throughout the day there is a call to prayer that bellows from each of the mosque towers, it is pretty crazy to hear and a good 5 am wake up call. That evening we were a little more refreshed and headed out to see the town in the evening, there was a busy walking street where we dined on Kebabs that didn't look too dodgie and got a delicious assortment of Baklava and some almond honey cake that was great. Back at the hostel we met a great couple Andrew and Rachael (http://www.spokeabout.com/) from New Zealand (again) they are on a year and half or more bike trip going all over. They had some great info for our next leg and we could have picked their brains for a long time. They estimate they have already covered 30,000 km by bike...it makes our trip look a little less adventurous. We headed off to our next hostel early the next morning, a little more run down place but OK. We dropped off our bags and went hiking again. We first stopped at the Grand Bazaar, not exactly what I expected but tons of small shops selling rugs, antiques, trinkets, handmade items, clothing etc. All of the owners sit outside of their shops trying to lure you in- usually in poor English- or an odd combination of English words, such as- "Yes please, thank you". It was the same all over town and in the hot sun we fell for it twice to get a break and some A/C- We didn't end up buying anything but an experience. Our last day in Istanbul was spent looking at the spice market and taking a ferry over to the Asian side of Istanbul. Which isn't that much different but we got to see a lot from the boat and we were trying to kill time before our 7:00 p.m flight. Istanbul was a great city with a lot of character, but it was now time to move on to real Asia.

Audio & Video of Call to Prayer

Blue Cruisin' Turkey

We arrived in Turkey with an uneventful ferry ride and quick trip through passport control and a 15 Euro "tourist tax" We quickly caught a bus to Fethiye- a smaller town down the coast. Bus rides are a little different in Turkey, we stopped for a bus wash on more than one occasion during our stay in Turkey, an employee of the bus also went down the isle of the bus and poured lemon alcohol water into peoples hands and they rubbed it on their face and hands...a little different. Our first impression of Turkey was that the people were very helpful and nice. We found a decent hostel close to the port. Our main goal in going to this town was to go on a gullet cruise or "blue cruise" so we stashed our bags and went searching that afternoon. Many of the places we went to were booked out for weeks, luckily we found one that left on Sunday (2 days away), we decided to have dinner and discuss it. The cost was above our budget but we decided to go for it. YOLO...you only live once. The cruise was fully inclusive so it wasn't actually too bad once you think about it. We went back to the travel agency and booked. That gave us a day to kill and explore the area. We mostly just walked to some ruins that were carved into the hillside and checked out the local beaches. We were stoked for Sunday, and showed up for the cruise around 10. Two boats were leaving that day so there was a mix of people waiting around. The staff were actually yelling at each other and we were hoping that they hadn't over booked. The real reason was that they had to split up some groups to make everyone fit on the boats. They tried to match the best groups I guess...booze cruise vs. relaxed. Our names were called with another couple and we headed to the boat. We were shown to our cabins, small bunk and a lower double bed a small shower and toilet. They were nice and rustic- all wood. There were already 8 passengers on the boat and the four of us made 12. There was a Dutch family of four, an Italian couple, a Turkish couple, a New Zealand couple around our age that we hung out with most of the time. Their names were Marc and Claire and we had a great time chatting throughout the trip and made some contacts for later on in our journey. It ended up to be a really great mix of people, in comparison the other boat that left that day was full of 6 fun kiwis and 6 high maintenance Brits. Our cruise was off to an ominous start as the boat wouldn't start and the management and crew were yelling at each other. Finally about 1:00 the boat started and we pushed off. The staff consisted of an old surly captain missing 3 1/2 fingers and two younger crew, one sailor and a cook...both nice and hard workers. Without going into a lot of detail for the 4 days and 3 nights of the cruise the general schedule was to anchor in a clear blue bay and dive off the boat, swim, snorkel, relax, read, nap, and eat (repeat). We had great meals, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and a BBQ dinner. All traditional Turkish meals. It was like a big mixed family everyone ate together and had some interesting chats. Backgammon, the national board game of Turkey was played all the time. There were small boats that came around and offered crepes, ice cream and watersports such as "ride my banana" as one touted, basically being pulled behind a boat on inflatables. We worked our way down the coast stopping at a few small villages, one was water access only which was pretty cool we also went over the "sunken city" which was ruins of an ancient city that due to earthquakes was under water. Our sleeping options were to sleep in a hot stuffy cabin or find a spot anywhere else on the boat. There were plenty of padded areas to relax. We ended up sleeping on the roof with the Dutch family. It was amazing. There was very little light pollution and we slept great watching the meteor showers. All of the days meshed together but it ended up being a very sweet experience. All good things must come to an an end. On Wednesday the 13th we took our last few swims and had a good lunch, said our goodbyes and hit the ground running again. We were bused to the backpacker haven of Olympos and the tree-house bungalows. We fly out of Istanbul on Saturday so we didn't have much of a choice but to take an overnight bus that night and get to Istanbul early. It is a huge city and we wanted time to see it. We are currently in Istanbul/Constantinople and will blog about our time here soon. Just a side note...the Turkey sandwiches are great. Thai food by Sunday.

Meteora/Athens and the Island of Rhodes

The last few days have been a blur after Olympus we took an early morning train, transferred 2 buses and found ourselves in a place called Meteora near the town of Kalambaka. It is a strange landscape of Rock pillars that are just in this one small area. As early as the 11th century they were hideways for monks. Now there are monestaries on top of the rocks, packed with German tourist, where monks and nuns will sell you postcards and trinkets. We found a camping spot near a bus stop- it was nice with showers and a swimming pool...and a view of the meteoras (from the word meteoros "suspended in air") It was hot, we were pretty beat, so we cruised the town, took a swim and planned for the monestaries for the next day. We took the 9:00 am bus up to the Monestaries and when we got on the bus it was pretty full, only a few seats were available and guess who had an open seat? Pablo, from the top of Mount Olympus. We laughed at the coincidence and visited 3 of the monestaries with Pablo. When/if we get all of our photos uploaded you will have to find pablo...he is wearing a white shirt and red hat. The Monestaries were quite amazing, built right into/onto the rocks-the views were great and the was some nice old stuff to look at. After parting ways with Pablo again we visited the James bond monestary-it was a little more secluded than the rest.

There wasn't much else going on in the town so we decided to take the night bus to Athens- This saved us from the cost of a hotel or camping and got us into Athens bright and early. Not the best sleep we've ever had but we made it. All of the travelers we have talked to stated how much they disliked Athens saying it was too big, poluted, ugly and expensive (the most expensive EU capital). We didn't know how long to spend, but our time and funds for Greece were drawing to a close so we headed to the port to find our about ferries to the isles. We found out that a ferry to Rhodes left that evening at 6:00, another overnighter. We decided that 11 hours was enough to see Athens and we could re-coupe on the island. We got the tickets, stored our bags and headed to the Acropolis. We were there just as it opened at 8 and a line had already formed. We checked out the Parthenon and more old stuff. It was pretty cool to see all the things you only see photos of and learn about in history class.

When we left around 10:30 the place was packed- the cruise ships had just let out and the place was crazy. Our ticket to the Acropolis gave us entry to a few more ruins and monuments so we checked some of those out as well. We also met up with a greek guy named Vassillios or Billy. We met him through the website called couchsurfing.com (check it out) The site connects travelers to people who will allow you to stay at their place, or in this case meet for a drink and get some local knowlege and to meet new people. We met up with Bill and had a much needed break with cold drinks. It was now 36 degrees C (around 100) and humid, together with the night bus- I'm sure Billy thought we were wrecks. Meeting with Bill was good, he had just finished his last tests to become a doctor and was using couchsurfing to meet new people and work on his English. We talked for a while and then he showed us around some more sites, it was a nice way to spend the afternoon with a local. We said our goodbyes and headed to the port. We were exhausted- we had economy class which meant "find a place to sleep" other people must have gotten there pretty early and know the routine because by the time we left port all of the lounges and couches and decent floor areas had been taken up by sleeping bags and bodies. We found ourselves in airline type seats and crashed. I slept pretty decently and woke up around dawn. We made 2 stops on our way and got to see a few other islands from the boat. We pulled into Rhodes around 10...a 15 or so hour boat ride. We settled on of the first pensions we came to- a nice old lady with clean rooms and a good location in the old town of Rhodes. We spent the rest of the day exploring the town. We really liked the town as it is enclosed by massive rock walls and some parts an old moat, like a mideaval castle but for a city. There are only a few entrances and you can wander for hours on the cobblestone streets- or if you are like Melica and me you can wander for hours looking for your hotel.

Thursday we took an early morning bus all the way to the north tip of the island-there is a small istmus connecting a sandy beach to a little mountain. It was pretty windy there so it is a haven for kite surfurs and wind surfers. We watched them for a couple of hours and headed back down the coast. We stopped off in Lindos for the day and just chilled at the beach. The place was what you'd expect from a greek island town-white houses, red roofs, blue green water and ancient ruin/castle perched on the hill above. We came back to Rhodes city sunburned and tired. We got our ferry tickets to Turkey and enjoyed our last meal of food in greece...I had the stuffed peppers and tomatoes and Melica had stuffed eggplant. A pretty nice relaxing time in Rhodes and a good time overall in Greece. I guess here are a few parting thoughts on Greece and on the trip in general. The national sport of Greece may be beach pickle ball. Greeks do not know distances or directions-many times we were told it is close or on the right and the exact opposite was true and we went on an odessy to find it. Europe/Greece is expensive and I am glad to be moving on to a new currency the sand squibie. I also have finally stopped looking for my cell phone to see what time it is. Today is Turkey day and boy am I hungry...

Mount Olympus

Things are good here...some sore muscles but doing great. Our adventures have continued with the hike to the top of Mount Olympus. Friday night we stayed in the small town of Litichoro and got up early, before it got too hot and we had a quite a hike in front of us. We looked into some options for hiking and staying on the mountain. One option was to take a taxi to a mid point and begin hiking from there, or you can hike directly from Lithoro where we stayed all the way to the top. The taxi was 23 euros, which is about 35 dollars. We decided to be adventerous and hike it. The hike was an amazing trek with view of the sea and it followed a crystal clear creek all the way to the midway starting point. We will try to get some photos up shortly. The hike gained significant elevation. If you have ever hiked around tubbs hill in CDA it was like that for 5 hours. We made it 12 km by noon had a packed lunch and kept on heading up. We were both pretty beat, as we neared the refuge it must have been apparent and other hikers pointed the refuge out to us and told us we were almost there. We returned the favor to hikers on the way down. We got to "Refuge A" a total of 18km by about 3:30 . We had already reserved bunks at refuge C, another 2.5 hour hike, we had the receptionist cancel those reservations and we called it a day. We made a good choice. The refuge was perched on a rock out cropping over looking the valley and straight up at the peaks of Olympus. We lounged around on the outside patio for the rest of the afternoon. We met a nice Chilean guy named Pablo and ended hiking with him the rest of the trip. We were in bed by 8, for an early morning hike. We were one of the first groups up and began hiking around 7.

Wild Greek Mountain Goat...tasty

We happened upon some small wild mountain goats. They weren't too scared-and I got some good photos. Pablo met up with us at this point and we hiked together to the top. It got pretty chilly and windy but the views were amazing. The first point was Skala, but it wasn't the highest. Up to this point it had just been hiking, we were now scrambling over some more technical areas and more was at stake. Zues was good to us and we made it to Mytikas the highest point 2918 meters. (I think about 9200 feet)

The path we took zigzaged

up the middle of this valley

We signed the guest book and took the obligatory self timer photo (with pablo) and the greek flag. The view from the top was amazing the clouds were moving fast below us and then they opened up a view of the valley and sea. What a cool spot! We didn't spend too much time at the top and scrambled down to the starting point of prionia...about a 5 hour hike, but all down hill. Here we could do the 12 km hike or hitchhike to the village. It was Saturday and there were plenty of day hikers, it took us about 40 minutes and we were picked up by a nice Hungarian family on vacation. Hitching isn't bad especially when it saves you that much walking. We got to the village picked up our bag that was stored there and got a camping spot near the sea. A dip in the sea felt great after that long journey. We spent the night there and woke up pretty early. We are now in Kalambaka near Meteora...there are monastaries here that are perched up on large rocks. They were made famous in the 1981 James Bond film "For your eyes only"...google it. We will explore it tomorrow and post photos. It is pretty hot here, i'm sure over 90...things are good. I don't think we can keep up the pace we are going and looking forward to some down time in the Greek Islands or Turkey. More later.

Mt Olympus from afar