Photos from Syria

Syria

nd so we had our first Syrian bus experience. Needless to say, we can't read the bus signs or much on the bus ticket because it is all in Arabic script. At least the time and seat numbers were in Latin numbers. Martin said it was interesting watching them fill out the ticket - writing part of it in Arabic from right to left and the rest of it (the part we could understand) from left to right.

Pouneh happened to be on our bus. She was heading back to Damascus and will be flying from there back to Cairo.

The land seems fairly flat here, the soil much redder than Turkey. We noted many rock/marble quarries and the silvery green leaves of olive trees.

Syria has a population of 17 million, 90% of whom are Arabs

Archeological Dig (Apaema)

. (I was also told that there are 20 million Syrians living outside the country!) The remaining 10% consist of Bedouins, Amernians and Turks. We were surprised to see so many people here with red, red hair, fair skin and freckles. I was under the misconception that all Syrians are dark complexioned.

The President of Syria is Basher al-Assad who inherited the post from his father. We've seen their photos frequently here, even though we've only been in Syria for two days! Al-Assad is western educated (he's an opthamologist) and there are high hopes for him being able to bring Syria into the modern age. If the technology is an indication (e.g., computers, ATMs - we saw one being installed), he's well on his way.

One of the questions we had to answer when filling out our visa applications for Syria was whether or not we'd even been to Israel or planned to go there. Syria has tense relations with Israel, mainly due to Israel's presence in the Golan Heights and Syria's resistance in keeping Hezzbollah in check. Israel is not popular with most Muslim countries; it is often best to ask that your passport not be stamped if you go into Israel, particularly if you think you may be going to any Muslim countries in the near future.

Beduoin Tent

Hama, located about two and a half hours south of Aleppo, is the third largest city in the country and, purportedly, one of the most attractive. Located on the Orontes River, it is famous for its "norias" or huge wooden water wheels used for irrigating farmland via a series of aqueducts. They norias make a horrendous sound - "mournful groaning" as our guidebook called it; to me to sounded a some strange exotic musical wind instrument or a huge creaking wooden door. Martin said it sounded like "wood on wood". He has no imagination!

There are many beautiful parks along the river's edge (though the gates of most were locked when we were there for some reason) with lots of trees and flowers: roses, zinnias, marigolds, calla lilies and rhododendrons. These areas look like wonderful places for families to come on a weekend (weekends are Fridays and Saturdays here); Mom and Dad can watch the children from the park benches and there are plenty of playgrounds for the children. The only thing spoiling it all is all the garbage - and the river is polluted and smells of sewage. We've certainly seen more garbage by the roadsides here than in Turkey.

Steam wind Photos from Congo

Photos from Congo

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The holes in the metal were rusty. Don't worry

Welcome To Congo Travaling In Photos Mzungu in the Mist

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Mzungu in the Mist

Photos from Congo

Mzungu in the Mist

,  The Jungle, Congo - The Dem. Repub.C... It was a dark and early start to the day, but that did not seem to dampen anyones spirits, we were off to see the gorillas!

We took the truck to the border, and walked the dusty and barbed wire path through no mans land to what the sign had told us was Zaire. But this is no longer the case, we were now entering the Democratic Republic of Congo. After our passports were stamped, we left the crumbly customs office with gunshot wounds and headed for the park permit office
,We were soon surrounded by familiar waving and smiling children, this time demanding "where's my pen". We were however un-equipped with the appropriate stationery so tried to listen intently to the long uncomprehensable lecture from the park warden instead. Finally we were bundled into trucks, which seemed to be the only automated transport in the country, on what was barely a road and headed for the hills.

Along the way we passed by happy smiling villages, mountains, perfect volcanoes and lush jungles shrouded in a thick mist. At last we all felt we were really somewhere very different with no signs of modern life and mother nature taking control of this far away world.

Copper Canyon and Surrounds

  Los Mochis,Alamos,Creel,Copper Canyon,Chihuahua, Mexico 

Leaving Baja California, we catch a ferry over to the Mexican mainland, to take the famous Copper Canyon train ride, which links the Pacific Coast with Mexico's central mountain plateau. We've guessed that the ferry journey should take about 6 hours. Yes, it seems difficult to get a straight answer here. We asked 5 different ferry employees how long it should take, and got various answers from 4-8 hours, so we've taken 6 as being the average.

Despite the great scenery whilst leaving Baja California, and the fantastic sunset a few hours into the sail, it would have been quite a boring ride, if it we´re not for the fact that we got chatting to a nice American couple along the way. They also happened to be crossing the sea, to embark upon the same railroad adventure. 

We finally arrive to the Mexican mainland, and to the town of Los Mochis, the starting point for the train

01 Ferry from La Paz to Los Mochis

. But rather than rush, and start the journey the next morning, we decide to spend a day visiting Alamos, a nearby beautiful colonial town, which is untouched by tourism, well untouched until we got there:-). The following day we make our way to the station, to start our journey.

There aren't many train services in Mexico, but when they do have one, they don't have timetables, as we soon learn, they have ideal schedules. This means, so we are told, that ideally the train would operate to the times on the leaflet, but in reality they are always late, sometimes by a few hours. Still, the Copper Canyon line is an amazing piece of engineering achievement. 

Baja California Tijuana,Ensenada,Sta Rosalia,Loreto,Cabo StLucas, La Paz, Mexico

Baja California

  Tijuana,Ensenada,Sta Rosalia,Loreto,Cabo StLucas, La Paz, MexicoWe jump on the southbound tram in San Diego, and pass through the city's suburbs. 
We could clearly see the Mexican town of Tijuana in front of us, with a huge Mexican flag flying in the distance. This seemed weird. Here we are travelling on an American tram system, through the suburbs of a typical Amercian city, although from the tram window, we are staring at a very different city and culture, spread over a hill, in the distance.

We get of the tram at the last stop, which also happens to be the border. 
There is a pedestrian bridge which takes you up and over the wall which separates the two countries. From the pedestrian bridge we could see both San Diego and Tijuana, both very different places, separated by two huge walls and a 10 metre no-mans-land

01 Taking the tram in San Diego to Mexican Border

. It's fascinating, as normally you have to spend hours on a plane to travel between two very different cultures, and here we're going to cross that divide by foot, and in minutes.
The border is really relaxed in the US-Mexico direction, but really strict the other way. In fact, you just walk through some turnstyles and that´s it, you´re in Mexico, no checks, nothing! 
We even had to go and search for Mexican passport control to get our entry stamp, so that we don't get into trouble on the way out. After enquiring about the entry stamp from about 6 different border officials and getting a different answer each time, we eventually found the right place, though they seemed inconvenienced at the fact we interrupted them watching something on the television :)

Us: "Can we get an entry stamp please",
Border official "What do you need one for?"
Us "Um, cos we're entering your country, it's not that an unusual request is it?"
Border official "How long are you here for?"
Us "probably 4-6 weeks?"

Los Angeles, United States

LOS ANGELES

  Los Angeles, United States 

Arriving to the civilization of LA, after spending the last month in the laid back Pacific, was a shock to the system, to say the least.

The urban sprawl of the LA metropolis, which we could see from the plane, just seemed to go on forever, in every direction.

At the airport, we jump into a shuttle bus to take us to our hostel destination. Where? Hollywood of course!

When we arrive at the hostel, the shuttle fare is 32 Dollars, we hand the driver a 50 Dollar bill, and he seriously asks us if we want change! Of course we bloody well do mate, we´re not leaving you an 18 dollar tip, just for doing your job!

01 Marc in Hollywood Blvd

Tipping is well out of control here in the States. I mean, we don´t mind tipping in a restaurant if the service has been good. But when bartenders expect a dollar for every bottle of beer they open, and there´s even a tipping box in the Internet Cafe. What´s this about hey? "Sir, your computers have been performing really well today, so here´s a tip for them, so you can go out and buy them all a strawberry milkshake!". We think it´s out of control, that´s OOC!

We manage to get from the entrance of our hostel to our room tip free :)
The hostel is a bit rough around the edges, but in a perfect location, right opposite the Kodak Theatre, where they stage the Oscars.

After a day exploring the glitz and fame of Hollywood, which included seeing a few famous people and seeing Jim Hill get a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, we spend the next day in downtown LA

FRENCH POLYNESIA Tahiti, French Polynesia

FRENCH POLYNESIA

  Tahiti, French Polynesia 

A short two hour flight, and we reach our final South Pacific destination, Tahiti, the main island of French Polynesia.

Visiting Tahiti after being to Aitutaki is like driving a Lada, after test driving a Ferrari.

Just like it's cousin, New Caledonia, it suffers from ridiculously high prices, caused by an almost total dependance on imports from it's mother country France. Not only that, arriving late on Saturday on a Bank Holiday weekend means that everything, and we mean absolutely everything, is closed for the next 2 days.

Now, we have a choice here, we can pay a whopping 40 UK pounds a night for a box room in a basic guest house with shared bathroom, or we can take advantage of a low season offer at the Sofitel resort, for 75 UK pounds a night, including an all you can eat breakfast

01 View of Papeete

. We decided that the second option was much better value for money.

Everything is so expensive here that it just takes away your enthusiasm to do anything. So we mainly spend the days eating as much as we can force down ourselves, from the breakfast buffet, and the rest of the day relaxing by the pool.

COOK ISLANDS : AITUTAKI

,  Aitutaki, Cook Islandss if Rarotonga isn´t already fairly remote and isolated from the rest of the world, we decide to jump in a small 20 seater plane, and head off on an hour´s flight north, to an even smaller and more remote island, Aitutaki. The reason is, we've seen photos of this island and it really does look like paradise.

As we approach Aitutaki, we have a fantastic view over the small island, which is ringed by a long coral reef and encloses a huge crystal blue lagoon. We've never seen anything like it, it looks spectacular.

We arrive at the extremely small and laid back airport, where we are greeted by music from a colourful local band. As we transfer to our accommodation, a studio room overlooking the sea, we realise we really have landed somewhere quite special..

01 Taking the plane to Aitutaki

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People are just so relaxed and friendly on this island, and it's no wonder why, when you see all the natural beauty that surrounds them.

Our second day on the island, and we hire some bicycles to enable us to explore some of the island's villages and the other coast which faces the spectacular huge lagoon.

Our third day here is Patty's Birthday, so we decide to take a boat trip around the lagoon to go snorkeling, and to visit some of the small outlying islands which have formed along the coral reef at the outer edge of the lagoon.

On our tour, we are joined by three other couples, two of which are on their honeymoon. What a fantastic place to spend your honeymoon.

Rarotonga, Cook Islands

  Rarotonga, Cook Islands 

,Today is the day where we travel back in time, and get to live Saturday 22nd of April all over again. Our flight leaves Fiji at 18:30 on Saturday 22nd, and arrives in Rarotonga at 23:30 on Friday 21st, some 19 hours before we left. How weird is that hey? All explained by the phenomenon known as crossing the International Date Line, where one day begins and another one ends.

Just as well we get to live Saturday all over again, as we soon discover that absolutely everything is closed on a Sunday, here in laid back Rarotonga.

Rarotonga is the largest of the Cook Islands, a group of fairly isolated and sparsely populated islands in the South Pacific, with strong links to New Zealand. Most of the island´s supplies are imported from Kiwi-land and Air New Zealand are the only International airline to fly here

01 Kia Orana to Cook Islands!

. The islands even use the Kiwi dollar, though they do have their own very unusually shaped coins, one of which is triangular in shape, and a supposed nightmare for vending machines.

Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji

  Nadi, Viti Levu, Fiji 

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When we arrive in Fiji, the National rugby team are also about to arrive, so trying to squeeze past the hysterical masses and out to the car park to find our hostel pickup was a challenge, to say the least. Two hours later and after 3 phone calls to the hostel, our driver finally appears. Welcome to a concept known as Fiji Time, where everything is approximated to about the nearest 5 hours 

Fiji is ethnically split, almost 50/50, between the native Fijians and the Indians, who descended from the original plantation workers brought over by the British. It´s quite clear that the Indians dominate business, and run most of the shops, restaurants and hotels. Fijian fear of Indian domination has caused some tension over the years, and has led to various political problems and a few coups.

Welcome to Vanuatu!

  Port Vila, Vanuatu A short 1 hour plane ride in one of those dodgy small propeller planes and we're in the island of Vanuatu.
As we walk into passport control at Vanuatu's International Airport, we're greeted by a colourful local band welcoming us to this South Pacific Island. It feels like we've finally arrived back to somewhere exotic.

Vanuatu is in the unusual position of being a "shared" ex-colony. That's right, because it was settled by both British and French nationals, in the days of colonisation, an agreement was made to share the colony. This led to an unusual arrangement, with 2 education systems, 2 police forces and even 2 currencies operating side by side

NEW CALEDONIA

As we depart from Brisbane Airport, we are treated to a fantastic view of a spectacular sunset over the glitzy CBD of Brisbane. What a wonderful last memory of Australia.

So we say bye to the Anglo Saxon influenced wild capitalism of Australia, and hello to heavily French influenced New Caledonia, where job protectionism, high prices, anti-competitiveness and daily strikes, slap you in the face, the moment you step off the plane.

Our plane arrives at 10pm, but the last public bus from the airport departs at 6pm, despite the fact that only half the days flights have arrived by then. All this in the name of providing extra business to the greedy taxi drivers, who know they have you by the short and curlies, and charge a whopping 90 Euros, for the 45 minute ride into town

01 Bye Australia!

. We considered sleeping the night in the airport, but with about a billion mosquitoes present there, we decided against it. Eventually, we managed to get 2 seats in a shuttle with a tour company, for a "slightly" less rip off price of 27 Euros each.

When we arrive at the hostel, we are confronted with another French influenced phenomenon, limited opening hours. The hostel has a really handy reception, that opens from 7am-10am and 5pm-7pm daily. Luckily, we were warned, and booked ahead, eventually discovering our key pinned up on one of the notice boards.

New Caledonia The Isle of Pines

New Caledonia, with its lingering French influence, is great choice when deciding which islands to visit in the South Pacific.New Caledonia is a “sui generis” means kind/genus or unique in its characteristics. It is a third largest island in the Pacific Region after Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. It is located in southern Melanesia in the southwest Pacific.

Photos courtesy of Roadside Heritage

Highway 395 traveling through Mono and Inyo counties in California connects a region rich in history and beauty. TE funds awarded through Mono County funded a media and journalism class for youth to collect stories about Highway 395. These collected stories were archived by the Eastern Sierra Institute for Collaborative Education as the Roadside Heritage project, available online at http://www.roadsideheritage.org for free. Hear the stories of Paiute Indian travels, mining camps, wildlife migration, railroads, and many more. The project is a unique collaboration of scientists, technology experts, and school youth that transforms the driving experience along Highway 395.

Youth from an after school enrichment class interviewing railroad buff Jim Saylor at the Laws Railroad Museum.

West India Cities Travel

Gwalior
Gwalior is famous for its fort and Museums. The city is steeped in the splendour of its past. Gwalior became the cradle of great dynasties and each of them - Prathiharass, Tcmars and Kachwahas - have left indelible etchings of their rule in the city. The magnificent momentoes of a glorious past have been preserved with care, giving Gwalior an appeal unique and timeless. Places of interest are the Gwalior Fort - the city's most magnificent monument, Suraj Kund, Sas Ba hu Ki Mand ir- dedicated to Lord Vishnu, Tansen's tomb, Sun Temple and Museum. 

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