We left Dahab in the morning and made our way to Nuweiba to catch the ferry back to Jordan and luckily this time the customs officials were awake and everything went to plan, so we made it to Aqaba in the early afternoon, spending a couple of hours looking round and then getting an early night.

The following day we left Aqaba and headed to Wadi Rum, we met up with our guide Zidane and then headed out into the desert on a jeep safari.  The scenery is was stunning, ranging from deserts and sand dunes to mountains.  Towards the end of the evening we arrived at a bedouin camp were we were spending the night and climbed up onto a small ridge to see the sunset which was amazing with all the different colours changing as the sun came down.  We then spent an enjoyable evening playing cards in the tent before hitting the sack and then we were up again bright and early at 5:30 to see the sunrise which was even better than the sunset.  Wadi Rum has been one of my favourite places on the whole trip and I cant wait to get my pictures onto the screen as they are some of the best shots I have taken.

From Wadi Rum we headed towards the Syrian border and found a place to bush camp so that we could cross over early in the morning.  All was going well untill just before we went to bed a man comes over to tell us to watch out for all the scorpians and snakes as there are lots around here, he then pulled out a gun and said dont worry, if you have any problems give him a shout while waving his gun around and then stumbling off into the distance.  Needless to say that none of us had the best nights sleep we have ever had!

As we all woke up early we had breakfast and gave Paul his birthday presents before heading off to the border to enter Syria again, the border was painless and we then had about a 45 min drive to get to Bosra, where there were some ruins which were a bit crap to be honest, except that they did have quite a good amphitheatre.  From there we headed back up to Damascus.  The lads spent the afternoon chilling at the campsite and the girls went into town to get their hair done!  In the evening we all headed into the city and had a great meal out to celebrate Pauls 22nd birthday.

We all headed off early the next morning for our daytrip to Lebanon and Beirut.  It took us quite a while to get accross the border and then about a 2 hour drive to get to the ruins at Balbaek which were great.  After lunch in Balbaek we had another 2 hour drive to get us to Beirut.  Beirut is a very modern city and has a very western feel to it, however, there are still a lot of buildings that have bomb damage and bullet holes from the civil war.  There is also a small section of the city which has been sealed off due to the assination of the president which happened by a 400lb bomb going off in February, the damage is incredible.  When we arrived in Beirut we had a couple of hours to walk around and see the place before we headed back to Damascus, not getting back until about midnight.

In the morning we left Damascus and headed to Palmyre which has some of the best ruins we have seen so far on the trip.  While we were getting lunch in Palmyre a newspaper reporter came up to us and interviewed us for an article and took pictures of us by the truck (not sure which paper it was though), but I have been scanning the local papers and we have not appeared yet.  Not too sure what the article was about either as the reporter did not speak much English, so it was either about our journey and views on Syria or it could have been an article on Vallerie who was wearing her Hesbollah t-shirt which she got in Lebanon yesterday!  After lunch we spent the rest of the day looking at the ruins and toombs before heading off into the desert for a bush camp.

We packed away our camp in the morning and headed to Aleppo in the north which was our last stop in Syria.  Aleppo is the second largest city in the country and has a very western feel to it.  We arrived in Aleppo in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day chilling out before going out for another birthday meal, this time for Valerie who was celebrating her 27th birthday.  We had a great night eating in a great Italian restaurant which serves the best food I have eaten outside of Italy.

At 9 the next morning we headed off for a tour of the city, seeing the main mosque which is closed to the public at the moment as they are just finishing off the rebuilding of it, and it looks great.  We also saw the souk which is one of the best ones I have seen and had a look at the citadel which towers over the city and gives great panoramic views.  The rest of the day was spent chilling out and watching films as we had cable in the hotel (luxury after so long with Arabic TV).

We left at 5 the next morning as we had a very long 2 day drive into Turkey and around the Med coast to Olympos, breaking up the journey by camping by the sea half way.  Before we got to Olympos we stopped at some old ruins in the hills called Termessos which were stunning, just left there in between the trees for you to wander over.  We arrived in Olympos at about 5 the following afternoon and spent a great night at Kadirs Top Tree House which is where we were staying (I can highly recommend this place to anybody who finds themselves there).  Olympos is a stunning part of Turkey, the coast line is beautiful and they have old ruins which lead down to one of the nicest beaches I have seen.  I spent the following day chilling out on the beach which was fantastic.

Our next port of call after Olympos was Saklikent Gorge which was also fantastic, the gorge is 18km long and has a river running through it.  We arrived there at about 3 and then went tubing which is where you get a big rubber ring and a paddle and then hurl yourself into the fast flowing river and make your way down stream getting absolutely soaked in the process, stopping along the way to cover yourself from head to toe in clay.  Because the river water comes down from the mountains it is also extremly cold!  We had a great night there and me and Joe got up early to walk into the gorge.  The river covers the full width of the gorge, so to get along it you have to wade through the freezing cold river and clamber up waterfalls - absolutely brillaint fun.

We left Saklikent yesterday morning and came upto Oludinez which is quite a touristy place on the coast.  We spent a couple of hours on the beach and I came into town to watch the FA Cup Final.  Unfortunately it went to extra time and penalties, so I ended up drinking more than I had planned to, still never mind.  When I got back to the camp another overland truck had turned up so we spent a very good night last night getting hammered.  Today I am taking it easy recovering, I also managed to find a bar doing Full English Breakfast - my first one in nearly 4 months!

Tomorrow we carry on up the coast eventually getting to Istanbul on the 26th where I will write another update.

We left Dahab early and spent the next 2 days driving to Aswan in the south of Egypt, breaking the journey up by spending the night in Safaga on the Red Sea coast.  The journey took a long time as all tourist traffic has to travel in convoys between the major cities which is supposed to help combat the terroism here.  A suicide bomber and 2 masked gunmen attacking in Cairo a couple of days before we arrived proving they still have a bit of work to do!

Aswan is one of the prettiest places on the Nile, mainly because there are several islands here and a few hills/mountains which look quite impressive.  We arrived in the late afternoon so just went out for a bit of dinner before getting an early night as we were all knackered (it is amazing how tired you get sitting in the truck doing nothing)!  We had a choice of getting up at 3am to catch a bus down to Abu Simbel, stopping at the High Dam on the way back, but I wanted to spend the time in Aswan so decided not to go, Joanna and Valery were the only ones keen enough to get up for the 3am start!  I spent the morning going around the Nubian museum which was very impressive, showing lots of ancient Numbian (Southern Egyptian) artifacts, meeting up with Martin and Paul for lunch and a few beers on the Nile.  In the afternoon we went off shopping in the bazar, followed by a few beers watching the sun set from the Old Cateract hotel (made famous by Agatha Cristies Death on the Nile).  In the evening we caught a private ferry over to a Nubian restaurant on one of the islands.

The following day we left Aswan at 9am and boarded our own Felucca (small sailing boat) which was our transport up to Kom Ombo (about 45km north).  This was fantastic and turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip, sailing or rather drifting up the Nile all day playing cards, drinking beer and watching the world go by - we even stopped for a little swim along the way.  In the evening we just mored up to the side of the river back and camped out on the deck of the boat while the crew cooked us up one of the best meals we have had on the trip on just one little burner.

We awoke with the sunrise which was stunning and sailed for a further hour or so to Kom Ombo which is the site of a large temple on the banks of the Nile and had a look around before meeting up with the truck again and heading further up the river to Luxor.  We arrived at about midday, so grabbed some lunch and then went to see Karnak temple which is incredible, ancient ruins which are in extremely good condition, but it is the scale of them that blows you away, one room had about 130 odd columns in it supporting a roof of solid stone, each one of these columns had a diameter of probably about 10 feet - the photographs will not do it justice I am sure.

We were staying at Rezeiky camping, which is a little campsite in the centre of the city, but the rooms were very good and cheap so we all upgraded, it also had a great little swimming poool which is a rare thing in these parts (on our budget atleast), so spent the rest of the day swimming and cooling off from the huge temperatures you get in the Middle East and especially Egypt.  We were all up early the following day to cross the river and get our next mode of transport (the donkey) to the Valley of the Kings where Tutankhamens toomb was discovered, along with 67 other Pharohs.  We crossed and then I met up with my mighty steed for the half hour journey to the valley, donkeys being surprisingly comfortable and fairly fast considering the weight mine had to carry!  We saw 3 toombs, (cant remember which ones off hand) all were very large and dug into the side of mountains, each one being carved and painted with images and hieroglyphics.  The day was excellent, definately being made by the varying characters of donkey, Martin's being the most entertaining by being damn fast and for having an eye for the lady donkeys, resulting in one lady donkey kicking him and Martin in the process - Hilarious. The following day I spent strolling around Luxor which is ok as cities go, but nothing special and relaxing by the pool.

We left very early the next morning as we had an extremely long drive upto Cairo, ariving at midnight at the hotel.  On the fourth of May we set off for a tour of Sakkara, Mephis and the pyramids at Gizza.  We started at Sakkara which is where the first stone structure on earth was built, dating back to 2700BC (yes you guessed it, a pyramid), along with a couple of toombs of noble men which had really detailed carvings on and which were painted, not bad considering they were between 4 and 5000 years old.  From there we headed off to Memphis a few kilometres away which was the capital of Egypt a long long time ago, not much remains of it, but there are a few statues, one of Ramases II which was absolutly huge.  After lunch though was the highlight of the day and the trip - the great pyramids at Giza.  They are a lot closer to the city than you expect, but can still be seen while you are coming out of Cairo looming over the top of modern day buildings.  As you aproach the first one (the largest one) they seem smaller than you expect, until you get a bit closer and realise that each step is about 5 feet tall and the people at the base of it seem like ants.  We took a few photoes and then made our way inside.  You start walking up a long steep slope and just keep going and going and going, 67 metres up into the center where there is a burial chamber.  It is not elaborately carved or painted, it is just the scale of it and the accoustics inside the toomb which makes it so impressive, it blew me away.  When we came out of the pyramid we drove upto a view point to take pictures of all 3 pyramids and then headed down to the bottom of the valley to see the Sphynx.  This is much smaller than you expect, yet it still looks impressive with the pyramids as a back drop.  When we left it was back to the hotel to get ready for our big night out - Joannas birthday (23 today).

We started out fairly early to find a few beers (surprisingly difficult in the middle east) and then went to a nice restaurant for a meal.  We then headed off to the Hilton hotel to hit their bar and then nightclub, what a great night, finally rolling back into bed at about 5ish.  The next morning we were up at 9 to have a tour of the Cairo museum, the museum was pretty good, but there are not many labels in English plus I had a stonking hangover.  The main things to see here though are the treasures found in Tutankhamens toomb, the highlight of which is his famous mask and sarcofagus.  The rest of my time in Cairo was spent recovering in my hotel room unfortunately.

We left Cairo on the Friday and drove to Mount Sinai were we were going to climb the mountain to see the sunrise the following morning (Mount Sinai being where moses received the ten commandments) before seeing St Catherines monastery (home of the burning bush).  To reach the sumit of Mount Sinai we had to get up at 3 in the morning for the 2 hour climb, only Vallerie and Joanna could actually manage this as it was bloody freezing and nobody wanted to get out of bed!  After the boys had a lie in and leisurly start to the day we headed off to St Catherines monastery which is a famous monastery located in the foothills of Mount Sinai and is beautiful.

When finished at the monastery we all headed off to drive back to Dahab which is one of everybodies favourite places on the trip.  We were not scheduled to come back, but we managed to make up some time and made a group decission to spend our extra days here, great news for me as you may remember that I was burnt to a crisp last time I was here and could not manage to go snorkling.  We arrived at about midday and headed down the local for a mega burger and beer and then went down to the beach to start snorkling.  There is a reef just along from the hotel and it is amazing, crystal clear water and loads of tropical fish swimming about, completely unfazed by us humans.  In the evening we went back to Tata's bar for a very enjoyable night.

I am finally up to date now (sorry for the long delay) and am upto today (8th May).  We caught a jeep ride to a dive site called the Blue Hole this morning which is incredible, we spent the whole day swimming around what seemed like a giant tropical fish tank, complete with giant tropical fish, millions of them.  Martin managed to get an underwater camera, so will hopefully be able to put some pictures of it up when I get back.

It is our last night in Egypt tonight before catching the ferry back to Jordan tomorrow, followed by Syria, Lebanon and then back to Turkey where most of the rest of the trip will be spent before quickly driving back through Europe.

We left Damascus early the next morning and headed to the Dead Sea in Jordan which is the lowest point on earth at 400 metres below sea level.  We got there just before lunch and spent the next few hours bobbing around like corks and topping up our tans.  The Dead Sea is very salty which makes it easy to float, you can lay in the water and read a newpaper and if you float in a standing position the water line only comes upto the top of your belly!  Very Weird.  It is also very slimey and the water has the consistency of baby oil, but it stings/burns you when you get out, so you have to have a shower straight away.  We left the Dead Sea at about 4 and headed off to our hotel in Wadi Mousa which is the town next to Petra were the famous caves are that have been carved out of the rock.  We had a slight delay on the way though as Prue reversed into a mercedes and we had to wait for an hour for the police to turn up and then sort out the insurance and fines, so we did not make it to our hotel until 10ish.  The following day we had to ourselves, so we had a late start and headed into town for lunch, but there was not much there apart from a few restaurants, hotels and supermarkets, so we came back up to the hotel and spent the afternoon watching Laurence of Arabia and Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, which were both filmed in Jordan, Indiana Jones being filmed at Petra down the road.

At 8 the next morning we headed into Petra which was stunning.  You enter the site through a high canyon which stretches for over a kilometre, but is only about 4 to 5 metres wide.  As you get to the end of the canyon the main treasury building opens up in front of you which is an incredible site.  From there you can walk around the whole site and take a mountain path which gives stunning views of the valley and all the other caves.  If you would like to see some pictures of us in Petra check out Martin's website at http://imageevent.com/poz123 and select The Trip.... Turkey, Syria & Jordan1 album.  After leaving Petra we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day in the pool before finding a cool English pub in the town at Petra where we proceeded to spend the best part of the night.

On the 23rd April we left Wadi Mousa and headed down to Aquaba were we were catching the evening ferry to Egypt.  This turned into a bit of an eventful day.  We got to Aquaba no problem and spent a few enjoyable hours strolling round and having a few beers.  At 5 we headed to the ferry port to catch the 8pm ferry - this is where it all started to go wrong!  The ferry did not board until 9:30 and then we all sat there in dock until 11.40pm when we finally left on the 3 hour journey to Nuweiba in Egypt.  We arrived at 2.30am and got oursleves stamped into the country, but all the officials that we needed to stamp the truck in had gone home for the night, so we had to sleep on the truck until 9am when the officals came back to the port!  We finally left the port at about 10ish and drove for a couple of hours to get to Dahab which is a beach resort on the Red Sea coast, arriving about 10 hours late! We spent the next few hours asleep in the hotel and then met up for dinner at about 7 in a cool bar which looked like a pirate ship from the outside.  It was happy hour so we made good use of it.  We spent the rest of the night in there drinking, playing pool and then danced the night away in the small club at the back of the bar, eventually hitting the sack at about 3 - what a fantastic night.

Yesterday I was up early and went along to one of the great beach side bars for a full english breakfast and a cup of english tea - beautiful (proper food again).  From there I headed up the beach and found a sunlounger with my name on it for the rest of the morning before meeting the others for lunch.  Because it was quite windy though I did not realise how red I was going until it was too late - shocking pink would be an understatement and I dont think I have ever been this sore in my life!  The rest of the day was spent rubbing in aftersun and swearing quite loudly!

I am a bit gutted, because the others have gone to a place called the Blue Hole today which is a coral reef just down the coast to go diving, but I am in too much pain so have come to the internet cafe to stay out the sun. The Red Sea reefs will have to wait for my next visit, which will hopefully be on the way back up so fingers crossed I can go then.  I did do a bit of snorkling yesterday before the sunburn, but it was away from the reef, so I only saw a few fish.

Tomorrow we head down to Aswan and Abu Simbel before making our way up the Nile to Luxor, Cairo and the pyramids which I cant wait for.

Internet should be all over the place in Egypt, so I will try and get a couple of updates going in the next week or so.

We left Tabriz early so that we could get to Dogubayazit (border town in Turkey) early and allow spare time incase we had any problems at the border.  As it happened we sailed straight through the border in less than an hour and were in Turkey before lunch.  We were staying at Murat camping in Dogubayazit which is high up in the mountains (6000 feet), just below the snow line so it was bloody cold!  We arrived and put up our tents for the first time since India and then climbed up the mountain a few hundred feet to see the Ishak Pasa Palace which has great views of the mountains and Dogubayazit below and then came back down to the bar and restaurant for our first beers in 10 days.  By the evening we were a bit tipsy and joined in the local Kurdish dancing which seemed to have been invented by a drunk man, so we fitted right in!

We left in the morning, getting a fantastic view of Mount Arrarat which is where Noah's Ark is supposed to have landed after the great flood.  It was a  2 day drive to Goreme which is in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey.  The drive was great and we passed through some stunning scenery, including thick snow covered mountains with drifts higher than the truck, bush camping overnight to break up the journey.

We arrived in Goreme the following day where we met up with Martin and Vallery again.  Goreme is a beautiful little town with lots of nice bars and restaurants, so we had a very nice chilled out afternoon before being picked up to go to a large restaurant which is built inside a cave, we payed 18US$ to get as much food and drink as you can consume and procedded to do our best to make up for the 10 dry days in Iran.  We were entertained by a belly dancer and some other traditional dancing before they turned the rest of it into a disco.  By the time they closed we were all pretty drunk, we got a lift back into town and spent several happy hours dancing the night away in Fatboys which was the local disco.

The following day was spent just chilling out and getting our breath back which we need to do every so often.  On Thursday (14th April) we had a guide for the day (Osgur) to take us around the Cappadocia region of Turkey which is stunning, the landscape is covered with tall natural rock spires which have a large stone on the top which looks a bit surreal, the insides of these have been carved out to make houses and churches etc.  When it rains and then heats up they all start smoking, so they have been dubbed fairy chimneys by the locals.  In the afternoon we had a couple of hour trek through the valleys which was great fun, but a bit painfull on the legs.

We were up at 5 the next morning to go on a hot air balloon flight to see the region from the air and to see the sun come up.  It was amazing, I took over a hundred pictures and it was very difficult thinning these down to 35 or so.  We had a great flight for about an hour and a half and then landed in the middle of a field when we then had breakfast of beer and cake (not bad for 7:30 in the morning)!  When we got back to the hotel we loaded up the truck and headed for Aleppo in Syria, the drive took all day and we arrived at about 7 after yet another easy border crossing.  On the way down to the border we bumped into another Dragoman truck coming the other way who were doing UK to UK via Northern Africa and Egypt so we both stopped on opposite sides of the motorway for a quick chat.

We only stopped in Aleppo for the night as we will be back here on the way back through Syria.  We all went out for a nice meal and had an early night as we had another long day tomorrow.  We left Aleppo early and drove all morning to get to Crac Des Chevaliers (castle of knights) which is supposed to be one of the best castles in the world.  It was very good, but I would not say that it is one of the best.  It was a holiday weekend though and was crawling with screaming school kids who all wanted to get photo's taken with us - it was just like being back in India (famous again).

From the Crac we drove for the rest of the afternoon and arrived in Damascus at about 7 where we will be spending 1 day before heading down to Jordan.  We put up our tents and then hired a minibus to get kebabs and beer and drive up into the hills to see Damascus lit up below us - stunning.  Today we had a nice easy Sunday morning before coming into Damascus for a look around and an internet session which is where I am now.  We are taking it easy today though as we will be coming back to Damascus for a couple of days on the way back up.

Tomorrow we leave for Jordan where we will see Petra before heading into Egypt for a good couple of weeks which should be great.

I will try to post another update in a week or so.

I have managed to find a descent internet connection in Iran, so I can update you all sooner than I thought you lucky people!

After posting my last entry in Mumbai I went back to the hotel and found that Claire had upgraded to a snazy hotel around the corner from ours, which just happened to have a fantastic roof top bar overlooking the Mumbai skyline, India Gate and the sea, so me, Claire and Joanna spent a very enjoyable 6 hours topping up our tans and our alcohol contents before heading into town and Leopolds bar/restaurant to meet up with the others for our final meal in India. A great night was had by all. The following morning at 8 we caught a couple of cabs to the airport to catch our flight out of India. We said our goodbyes to Claire and checked out of India for our Iran Air flight to Tehran.

We had quite a good four and a half hour flight and touched down in Tehran at about 5, customs was no problem and we breezed into Iran. We met up with Prue at arrivals who is our new driver and leader through Iran until we meet up with Martin again in Goreme in Turkey. She is Australian and has been doing this for about 4 years, so she knows her stuff.

From the airport we caught a couple of taxis to the hotel, which I thought were having a race, but now that I have been here a while I realise that everybody drives like that! My first impressions of Iran could not be more opposite to what I expected and what you hear in the media. Tehran is a very modern and western city, all the roads are good, they have modern cars and clean streets with descent shops and flashing neon signs. All the women are wearing head scarfs and chadors, but they are showing a lot of hair and are wearing lots of different colours, not completely covered in black like we were told.

Once we checked in we got introduced to our new truck (Claudia) and headed out for our first Iranian meal. Meat at last! We found this great little restaurant in a basement, which was traditionally decorated and served only typical Iranian food. We started out with tea, followed by bread and salad, then kebabs with rice, all washed down with lots more tea and a yoghurt/water drink. Little did I realise that I would be having exactly the same meal for the next 10 days.  Virtually every restaurant you go to does not have a menu, they just have meat (beef), chicken or lamb kebab - take your pick! To finish off we ordered a Sheesha which is a water pipe which you smoke flavoured tobaco through. I am not a smoker but I thought while in Rome, so I had a few puffs and it was actually quite nice - it is very fruity and there are lots of different flavours to choose from, it is not like smoking at all.

In the morning we left early and started our 6 hour drive to Esfahan. The scenery is stunning, mainly desert scrubland with  lots of small mountains as backdrops and behind them even larger mountains with snow capped peaks, for the rest of our time in Iran we are never out of sight of mountains and stunning scenery, once again completely different from what I expected. We arrived in Esfahan and had lunch next to the hotel, we ordered chicken and chips, but he was having trouble with our Farsi and he turned up with a whole roast chicken on a plate with 5 plastic forks sticking out of it, no plates, bread or knifes for us! From there we headed into the Emam Khomeini Square which is the second largest square in the world behind Tianamen Square. What a fantastic place, at one end is one of the most stunning buildings I have ever seen (Emam Mosque) which is huge and is covered in ornate blue tiles, there is also another mosque, a palace and a huge shopping bazar and in between all of this are great little shops.

Our first port of call though was Aladdins carpet shop were we met our guide for the next three days Saied Mesbah. If anybody has seen Carlito's Way he looks just like Al Pacino in that film! We had tea in his shop which was our base whenever we were in the town, we could lounge around, help ourselves to tea and use his computer to conect to the internet - it was a home from home. The day we arrived in Esfahan was the last day of the No Ruz holiday which is the Iranian New Year. It is tradional on that day for all families to get together and have a picnic somewhere, so there were literally thousands of families sitting out on any spare patch of grass. After tea we left Saied's shop and he drove us down to the river in his small car (what a squeeze with 6 people - not much room in the back was there Pru!). Esfahan is famed for its beautiful bridges which span the Zayandeh River and rightly so. From the river Saied drove us out to meet his family and we spent the next few hours sitting around with his family drinking tea and then joining in games of volleyball and dodge ball. To finish the evening it is traditional to build a fire about 3 feet in diameter and get the flames a few feet high and then for everybody to jump over it!  You will all be pleased to know I made it through without harm.  What a great start to our Iranian trip.

The next day Saied picked us up from our hotel and we spent the day going to all the sights in Esfahan (bridges, Armenian church and museum, war cemetary for the Iran v Iraq war, pigeon tower then lunch, tea in the famous tea house in one of the arches of the 33 bridge, fire mountain, the shaking minarets and finishing up out of town at a view point looking out to the mountains and back to the city - stunning). From there we went back to Aladdins for some tea and then got take away pizza (it is taking over the world) and headed back to the hotel. It was by far the best day of the trip so far.

The following day (Monday 4th April) we had a late start and then Saied gave us a tour of the famous bazar and I did some shopping, buying some ceramics and a Sheesha (water pipe). In the afternoon we spent a very nice few hours being shown and told the history of Iranian carpets in Saied's shop. Prue, Joanna and Paul made purchases and if I had more money to spend I would have done too as they were beautiful, trouble was I fell in love with one that cost 900US$ - typical! While we were shopping Saied got a call from one of his friends asking him round for dinner, he said he couldn't because he was looking after 5 foreigners, but we got invited too, so we ended up at Saied's friend's house spending several hours listening to them playing music and dancing while they fed us. What a great bunch. We got back to the hotel at about 1.30 and had to say goodbye to Saied. Saied was one of the friendliest and nicest people I have ever met, treating us like one of his own family. A truely great bloke, who helped us all have the best 3 days of our trip so far. If you are ever in Esfahan, go to Aladdin's carpet shop in Eman Khomeini Square and look him up.

The next day we left early and drove down to Shiraz, which had a hard act to follow. We were all pretty tired though, so just had a bite to eat and headed off to bed. I had a very easy day on the 6th getting up late and spending a few hours on the slowest internet connection known to man and having a little stroll around the town. In the evning we went to a great restaurant for one of the best meals we have had so far. Shiraz was OK, but there was not a lot to see there and we were all knackered, so I did not get the most out of it.

On the 7th we drove to Yadz to see the towers of Silence which is where the Zoroastrian's used to place their dead and let the vultures eat them. It was a bit of a strange place which had a lot of deserted huts and weird vents to let air get into the houses. It looked like a set from Star Wars. Once we had seen these we headed back into town and saw a couple of other sites, namely the fire temple (temple with an eternal flame in) and a mosque which we could climb to the top of and get great views of the city and the mountains. From there we had arranged to meet in a tea house at 7 which has been converted from an old bath house, but it was a bugger to find and we all eventually made it there by 8.30 - me and Martin only made it because we were latched onto by a local teacher that knew the way! We ate there and then went back to the hotel via another really cool tea house which was in a hotel where we had another Sheesha (this is turning into a bit of a habit) - even Claudia has one on board now!

We left early again the next morning for the two day drive upto Tabriz which is where I am now. The journey was broken up after covering 1000km in the first day by staying in a hotel in a town called Zanjan. Tabriz seems OK, but we are getting close to the border with Turkey and it is starting to get bloody cold. It is also the aniversary of somebodies death (cant remember who), so all the shops are shut.  Tomorrow we hit turkey and can once again get some lager - lovely.

Iran has been fantastic, it is a very relaxed and beautiful place and I would recomend it to anybody. I would definately like to come back one day.

We have a 3 day drive to get to Goreme in Turkey where we are spending a few days, so I will try to do another update then. Sorry if its a bit of a long one!

If you would like to see some pics from my trip from Delhi to the present time check out the following website:-

http://imageevent.com/poz123  You will require a password to see the pics, which is PIRATE.

This is Martin's website who is on the trip and he is posting pictures up as we go, so keep checking it out for the rest of the trip.

I am on a really bad computer at the moment, which keeps dropping its connection, so I do not want to write a mammoth update and loose it.  I will do it when I get to Goreme in Turkey in about 4 to 5 days which will hopefully back to normal.

Iran is one of the best countries I have been to and Esfahen is one of my favourite cities in the world.  Dont judge Iran by the stories you hear in the media, it is completely the opposite to what you expect.  Great place, except for the lack of beer!

We left Mount Abu early to start our 2 day drive to Mandu, it was a long hot drive day and that night we bush camped after covering about half the distance.  As we started setting up our camp a guy comes over and stares at us for about 30 mins and then leaves, so we thought that we had got away with it for the night, however, 15 mins later he returns with most of the village who form a circle around the truck and stare at us all night.  It is still difficult to get used to the constant fasination they have with us.  After a while they started talking to us (at least the ones that could speak English) and we had a great laugh.  We even arranged them all for a group picture!

At about 10 they all left and went back to their village to celebrate the start of Holi (which is the festival to mark the start of spring).  We awoke at about 6 to find a few locals outside our tents playing drums and singing to us.  We gave them a clap and then they left and we did not see them again (very surreal at 6 in the morning!).  As we were up now we left early to cover the distance to Mandu.  After about 8km we came across our first road block.  Because of Holi the locals had been up drinking all night and it seems to be a tradition to get lots of rocks and string them across the road to make a barrier and then you have to pay a toll and they clear the rocks away and let you through. 

We got to the first one and there were about 10 teenagers all carrying big sticks obviously well and truly plastered.  Martin got out the truck and tried to move the stones, but the teenagers kept getting bigger stones and sticking them under the wheels, they were also threatening to bash him with their sticks and throw big rocks at the truck windows.  It was getting quite heated, so we all piled out and had to guard the wheels and get the truck through.  It got the adrenalin pumping early in the day!  A main tradition of Holi is that they get lots of coloured powder and throw it at you and then cover you in water, so if you get caught outside the truck you will come back bright pink or green in no time at all!  Martin the driver got covered and the other martin got loads of powder thrown at his head so one side was pink and one was green!

Anyway we got past the first one and low and behold about 5km down the road another road block, we must of gone past about 25 during the course of the day - it was a very long day!  Most of the roadblocks where OK, manned by small kids, it only got a little bit scary when you got the drunk and stoned teenagers.  Another incident occurreed when we were almost at Mandu.  It was one of the last roadblocks and it was manned by the drunken teenagers, we managed to get through, but as we did the road was blocked by a convoy of new Tuc Tucs and Claire accidentaly hit one, which caused a bit of a heated argument.  After a few rupees were exchanged we were on our way again.  Both Claire and Martin deserved their beer that night, they were fantastic.

Mandu is an old town that has lots of deserted castles and palaces.  The town is set in some stunning scenery, including a huge gorge which would look great after the monsoon when it turns green again.  We had a tour around the ruins in the morning and then started our long journey to Ellora.  Holi was still going on, so there were lots more road blocks, but it was all small kids today, so it was fairly easy to get through them all.  We finally made Ellora at about 9pm and then had a quick bite to eat in the restaurant and hit the sack as we were all very tired after a tough few days driving.

In the morning we went to see the caves at Ellora, there are 26 in all and they are all carved out the side of a hill, they are more like buildings than caves with columns and seperate rooms, temples and houses, very much what I think Petra will be like which we see later on the trip in Jordan.  The caves were built over a long period starting from about 200AD.  At about midday we left Ellora and headed for Ajanto which is another set of caves which are even earlier and were built around 200BC, these were slightly different to the ones at Ellor as they had a lot of paintings in side.

We got there early at about 3, but were not seeing the caves until the morning, so we spent the rest of the day chilling out.  We were bush camping again with great views down towards the caves.  On the way to the bush camp we picked up a local chef who cooked us some traditional snacks to have with our beer and then he cooked this great dinner for us of rice and currey.  We had a great night that night too trying to finish all our alcohol before we got to Mumbai.  We partied hard into the night.  We awoke in the morning to a great sunrise and breakfast cooked by our chef.  From the bush camp we treked down to the caves which took about 30 mins.  The caves were OK, but I preferred the ones at Ellora as a lot of the paintings have gone and there are lots of barriers up so you can not get near to the paintings to get a good look.

We left Ajanta at about 12 and started our 2 day drive to Mumbai (Bombay) which is our last port of call in India.  We got well over half way and bush camped for the night.  The following morning we headed into Mumbai.  Mumbai is the most western city I have seen in India and it is great to see the sea again as most of India has been very dry.  In the evening we all went out for a good few drinks and a bite to eat.

We woke up this morning and me, Claire and Joanna went for a walk to see the Harbour and India Gate and then went for breakfast (almost a fryup) sausages, fried eggs and toast - yum.  In the restaurant last night they also had beef on the menu which is against the religion and illegal in India, but amazingly none of us fancied it, so we are going to have to wait to we get to Iran to get some proper meat again.

Today is our last day in India and at lunch time tomorrow we fly out to Tehran (capital of Iran).  Martin the trip leader and Valery (the American) could not get visa's for Iran, so they are flying to Turkey tonight and will meet us in Goreme in Turkey in about 10 days.  We are also loosing Claire who is the co-driver and has been excellent throughout and is the best driver I have seen.  It is such a shame to loose her as she has been my favourite drinking partner for the trip and gets on so well with everybody in the team.  Claire has to stay in India and drive the truck back upto Kathmandu by herself.

Therefore there are only 4 of us flying to Iran and we will meet up with Pru at Tehran airport with our new truck and she will lead the trip to Turkey until we meet up with the others again.  We are all going out for a slap up meal tonight to give Claire a good send off and then we have to leave early in the morning to get to the airport in time.

I will try to update the journal again in a week or so.

We left Delhi early in the morning at about 6ish and headed upto The Pakistan border near Amritsar.  We arrived there at about 4:30 just in time to see the ceremony of them closing the border which they do everyday.  This ceremony goes on for about an hour and consists of a lot of guards dressed up in silly outfits marching up and down outside the border gate.  All of the marching was copied from Monty Pythons Ministry of Silly Walks though, which was hillarious.  On each side of the border they have built large grandstands, which hold about 500 people on each side, as the guards march each side's fans cheer on there respective marchers and sings chants, very much like a football match.  When they finally finish the gates are slammed shut and everybody marches off home!

From the border we headed back into Amritsar which was about 20 mins away, we arrived at about 6:30 and after checking into the hotel we caught cycle rickshaws the 6km into town.  The ride into town and back again was entertainment enough, as you get into town you have to go up a big hill, (which you have to walk up because the cycle rickshaw man cant cycle up it with us on it), but then you have a long stretch of downhill the other side which has a roundabout at the bottom - I dont know if he had brakes, but we did not slow down and we had to all lean into the corner to stop it flipping over!  As we were getting closer to the centre we suddenly veered accross a very busy dual carriageway with no warning, cutting up cars and sending several cars, cows and motorbikes swerving all over the road to avoid us!  Anyway, we finally made it safe and sound with white knuckles to see the Golden Temple.  Because we got there late it was dark, but I think this was the best time to see it, you approach the temple, which is set in the middle of a man made lake and it is just a big glow of gold with lights shinning all over it - stunning.  Amritsar is a bit of a crazy town, but it was very relaxing and peaceful inside.  The journey back to the hotel was just as eventful - I was sharing a rickshaw with Claire and the driver was not paying much attention as he was chatting to another driver, he hit the curb and Claire fell out of the rickshaw! - She was OK but for a graze and a big bruise though.

In the morning we set off on a 2 day drive to Bikaner, bush camping at just over halfway.  We arrived at about 2pm and went around the fort and the town, but it is not one of the best forts and the town is very similar to the others, so there was nothing that special here.  We left Bikaner at about 5 and headed off to the 'world famous' rat temple.  This is where people beleive that people are reicarnated as rats, so the temple is crawling with them, they are worshipped and fed here.  It was a very weird place to be.

That night we bush camped again on the way to Jaisalmer which is out in the desert quite close to the Pakistan border. This is a lovely town which is very relaxed compared to some in India, it has a really nice fort.  That evening we went to a great restaurant which was perched on a hill overlooking the town and the fort, which glowed in the sunset.

I had a nice easy start to the following morning, which was good as we were off on a camel safari at 3.  The camels turned up and I was given my trusty steed Larlala, who turned out to be the slowest camel in the history of the world, which was good in a way because it hurt like hell when they ran!  We treked out into the desert for about 3 hours and stopped in the middle of nowhere.  The local guides then cooked us some traditonal food af Dal, Curry and Chipatti and then we all sat around a camp fire while they sang us some songs, including the camel safari song which the corus consisted of Dal, Chipatti, Camel Safari - quite catchy really!  We then sang them some English songs, not sure these went down to well though.

We slept out under the stars and then headed back the next morning.  We arrived back at the hotel at around 12 and I spent the rest of the day having cold showers and lying face down on the bed - ouch!

We headed to Jodphur in the morning, not before we had push started the truck though as the battery had gone flat - a good bit of morning exercise!  We arrived in Jodphur at about 4 and stayed on this fantastic stud farm/ranch, the horses where georgeous and there were lots of peacocks, goats and dogs strolling around.  We headed into Jodphur the following morning and went upto the fort, which is the best fort I have seen so far, it is huge and is set high up above the town.  You get stunning views of the town, where all the houses are painted blue, which looks great set against the desert.  As you stroll around you get a really good audio tour explaining the history and the different parts of the fort.

Towards the end if the tour I went to see a palmist/astrologer.  I told him my name, date, place and time of birth and he spent the next 5 minutes telling me about my personality which was all spot on and very specific.  He also told me that I had had a carear change about 6 months ago - which I did and he said that I will have other changes in my carear at 34 and 45 and that they will all be good moves, especially at 45.  I am going to live a long life well past my eighties and the only health problem I will have is high blood pressure between 55-60 and if I get it treated I will be fine, but if not I will have a heart attack!  I am also going to have a big commitment in my relationship at 30 and that was all he said about my love life - so I will keep you posted if any of it comes true.

In the afternoon we headed into the centre and went shopping around the market which was great and sold all sorts of things, including lots of spices and coloured dies.  Jodphur has been one of my favourite cities so far and I would highly recomend it to anybody that finds themselves in this part of the world.

We left Jodphur the following morning and drove all day to get to Mount Abu which is where I am now.  Mount Abu is great, it is a town on top of a small mountain, so is a lot cooler than the desert (26 yesterday as apposed to 35 in the desert).  The town is a bit like a holiday resort and has loads of palm trees and is very relaxed.  We all went out for a nice meal last night and polished off a lot of Vodka, so I am taking it easy today to get my breath back ready for Iran.

We head to Mandu tomorrow and then onto the caves at Ellora and Ajanta before getting to Mumbai (Bombay) on the 29th.  We then fly to Iran on April Fools day!

I will updat the journal again in Mumbai.

If anybody would like to see some pictures of the first section of our trip which was from Kathmandu to Delhi you can check out David's website at:-

http://dsberhenke.home.comcast.net/India_Nepal_2005/India_Nepal_2005.htm.

I will be putting more pictures of my own on www.keithos.com when I get back in July.

From Pushkar we had about a 3 hour drive upto Jaipur which is known as the pink city because all of the buildings within the orignal city walls are painted the same colour (more terracotta than pink though)!  We drove straight into the centre and met up with our guide Eugene who showed us around the city palace museum which consisted of 4 parts, arts, weapons, crafts and textiles.  From there we headed around the corner to an obseravtory which was built in the 1700's.  There were a number of very large contraptions to tell a lot of things from the sun, time, date, astronomical predictions etc...  This included the largest sun dial in the world which is accurate to within 2 seconds.

After the observatory we left Jaipur and headed out to Eugene's farm which is about an hour away where we are camping for the night.  Eugene had a cook come in prepare some tradional Indian food for us and I can safely say that goat is delicious!  This was our last night camping with the original team as several of the group are leaving in Delhi, so when we were in Jaipur we bought all the ingredients to make a punch.  2 bottles of Vodka, 2 bottles of Bacardi, 4 litres of mixed fruit juice and 4 litres of Sprite plus a load of fruit is a great recipe if anybody wants to give it a go.  We managed to finish the punch off by about 3 and had a great night, one of the highlights of which was Joanna and Valery modelling Michaels chain-mail bra!

In the morning we left late due to hangovers and headed back towards Jaipur to see Amber which was the capital before Jaipur was built.  It is a huge fortress with palaces, mosques and apartments which has not been used since Jaipur was built.  It is a very steep climb upto the entrance and as we were all feeling a bit jaded we hired jeeps to take us to the top!

That night we stayed in the Latchmi Villas hotel in Jaipur and we headed into town to watch a bollywood movie in the largest cinema in India.  The film was much better than I thought it would be and is one of the biggest hits they have had in a long time.  The film was in Hindi, so we had to make our own story up as we went along.  The title of the film was Unfaithful though, so we had a bit of a head start.  One of the highlights of the evening was finding a McDonalds next to the cinema, our first western food for 3 weeks and it tasted lovely.  I love curry, but was great to have a change.

The following morning we left Jaipur and headed to Delhi which is the end of the trip for Michael, Dave, Leslie and Bryan.  Is a shame that they are leaving as we all get on well.  We have picked up 2 new people, Paul who is a 21 year old Australian from Perth and Martin who is 38 and is from Northampton, both seem really cool and will fit into the team nicely.

So far the driving in India has not been too bad, nothing like I expected, atleast that was the case until we drove into Delhi, crazy stuff!  We went to see the Red Fort and then onto Raj Ghat, which is where Mahatma Ghandi was cremated.  Just walking around Delhi though is madness as there are so many people (nearly 14 million to be precise).

We are staying in the Hotel Good Times in Delhi and we have certainly had some as it has a rooftop bar with really cheap beer (660ml bottles of kingfisher for 90p).  Today is our last day here and we leave at 6 in the morning to go to Amritsar to see the Golden temple and then to the Pakistan border to see them close the border where they have grandstand seats as it is such a rediculous ceremony  (if you have seen Michael Palin's Himalaya series then you know what I am talking about).  From there we head down to Bikaner which is where they have the rat temple and then into the desert for a 2 day camel safari with some local tribesmen, so that should be great fun.

I am not sure when I will next have acceess to the internet, but will hopefully put up another post in a week or so.

When we were in Bharatpur we went to Keolandeo National Park (not sure if I spelt that right).  The park is famous for its birds, but also has monkeys, turtles and deer.  We hired bikes to cycle around the park which was really nice, except that the bikes where a bit dodgy to say the least, no brakes and the chain came off a couple of times!

In the morning we left early to drive to Rathambore National Park.  It was an all day drive and it was a very hot day, so we were very pleased when we arrived at the hotel to find a swimming pool, which is a rare thing in India.  That evening we had some local Rajastan people come and do some tradional dances for us, but I think we actually did more dancing than they did.

We were up at 5:30 the following morning to go on a jeep safari into the park, which is famous for its tigers, but unfortunately we did not manage to see any, we did see several deer, monkeys, antelopes and several different birds, including large numbers of peacocks.  The safari lasted about 3 hours and when we got back to the hotel we packed up our things and started our journey down to Udaiper.  It is a 2 day drive to Udaiper, so we stopped along the way and found a good spot to bush camp, it was tucked away off the road in a little stone mine, so we only had a couple of locals come over to watch us, which makes a nice change from the 50 to 60 we usually attract.

In the  morning we left at about 6:30 as we still had about 450km to cover, which takes a long time when you are in India, especially when you get lost or take the scenic route, we did both!  We spent several hours taking a shortcut through a lot of farmland driving on dirt tracks which was very interesting.  On the way we stopped at a small town to buy samosas for lunch and I think we pulled in the biggest crowd yet, easily over 100!.

We arrived at the Jarat Retreat just outside Udaipur at about 6, which is where we were staying for 2 nights, we were supposed to be camping, but a few of us upgraded to the lodges as they were stunning, huge rooms with great decor and the best bathrooms I have seen yet, in England the rooms would probably be close to 150 quid a night, but here in India they were only about a tenner - bargain.

On Monday (7th March) we took some tuc tucs (rickshaws) into the city to have a look around, it is a beautiful city and more relaxed than all of the others we have been to so far.  Udaiper is built alongside a huge lake, but unfortunately they have not had the monsoon rains for several years and the lake has been dry for over 6 years.  The James Bond film Octopussy was filmed here, so if any of you have seen that you will know what it is like.  The highlight of the city was the City Palace which has been turned into an absolutely huge museum showing the palace and the history of Udaiper.

Udaiper is sourounded by large hills/small mountains and in the evening we took tuc tucs upto the top of one of them to see the monsoon palace and the sunset.  The palace has stunning views of the city below and the sourounding hills.  We were supposed to go up there for the sunset and we almost did not go as it was cloudy all day, but just as we got to the top the clouds cleared and the sunset was stunning, the best one I have seen by far, the colours were amazing.  From there we all went back into the city and had a meal in a really great restaurant overlooking the summer and winter palaces which were lit up.

On Tuesday we left Udaiper to come upto Pushkar which is where I am now.  On the way we stopped off in a town called Chittograth (think that is spelt wrong too) where they have a huge fort at the top of a ridge (it is 6km long and 1km wide). We only had a couple of hours here, so we had a whistle stop tour to see the temples and towers.  We had some great views of the city and countryside from here too.  We then carried onto Pushkar and arrived at about 7 oclock.  We were all quite tired by this time, so were just going to pop out and get something to eat and get an early night, especially as Pushkar is a very holy place and alcohol is illegal!  When we got to the restaurant though the waiter said he could smuggle some beers in, but we would have to call them apple juice and keep the bottles hidden under the table!  One beer turned into several and then we went back to the hotel and met up with another overlanding group who were staying there and one thing led to another and we finally went to bed at 5 this morning.

Pushkar is a very nice and relaxed place, they have banned all motorised vehicles from the centre and the shop owners are not pushy or try to hassle you which makes a nice change, so it has been a nice easy day strolling round doing a bit of shopping and walking off the hangover.

Our next port of call is Jaiper for a couple of days and then onto Delhi where the first part of the trip is over and we loose some people and pick up a young Australian guy, which is a real shame as the group get on really well.

I will write another update in Delhi on Sunday.

We left Varanasi at 6 in the morning as we had a very long drive to the Panna Tiger Reserve (did not see any tigers though). The journey took about 14 hours to cover about 400km - the roads are schockingly bad, we were on a main highway and for about half the time it was just a big dirt track with huge potholes everywhere (just like the road to Dots if you know it!).

It was a great chance to see the real India though and to see how the people live. The scenery changes all the time, one minute you seem to be in Australia, then into Vietnam and another few miles down the road it resembles the English coutryside.

India is a very poor and dirty country, a lot of the people still live in simple little huts and do not have running water or toilet facilites and there is a lot of rubbish everywhere which is really disapointing as it can ruin some stunning scenery.  Electricty is starting to come through in most places now, but there are a lot of powercuts still.

Dispite this the people here are really friendly and are completely intrigued to see westerners drive through in this big white truck.  When we stop in small towns along the road to buy vegetables for dinner or some samosas for lunch it is the main excitment of the week for the locals, we often have a crowd of 50 or 60 people watching our every move which takes some getting used to and can be a bit scary at times as they can get very excited, especially when the girls get out of the truck in their shorts and low cut tops!

We only stayed at the Panna Tiger Reserve for the night and we left early the next morning to drive to the erotic temples of Khajuraho which are about 45 minutes away.  There are five large stone temples set in really nice gardens.  The temples have thousands of carvings on the outside, a lot of which are all the positions of the Kama Sutra and are quite grafic!

From there we caried on for about another 4 hours to the town of Orchha, which is an old town where there is a large fort and lots of deserted palaces, we just drove into the grounds of one of these and camped out by the river.  It was probably the best camping spot I have ever seen, it is just outside of the town and along the river, so with the moonlight it was stunning.  We sat there and had a camp fire and worked our way through several beers.

The following morning we ventured into the middle of the town to see the fort which was stunning, it was kept in very good condition and had great views over the countryside, river and the main town. As we left we went into town to get some samosas for breakfast and they had a very colourful market selling all of the brightly coloured dies for decoration, so we got lots of pictures.  In the centre of the town they have converted an old palace into a mosque which was very nice and a great place to get away from the hectic market.

We left Orchha at about 12 and drove upto Agra where we camped in the grounds of the Lorries hotel, which was very famous at one point, but has let itself get quite run down now.  The following morning we got up at 5:30 and took a rickshaw to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal which is incredible.  I thought that my expections may be to high and I would be disapointed, but as soon as you see it for the first time through the archway you can see why it is one of the seven wonders of the world.  The Taj Mahal is made entirely of marble and has very delicate inlays of other stones in intricate patterns which has to be seen to be beleived. We stayed there for about 2 hours to see it changing colour as the sun rose up and then we went to see Agra Fort (Red Fort).  This is a huge fort made out of sandstone and it has had lots of different bits added by different rullers over the years.  The best is a palace and mosque made by the same guy that did the Taj Mahal and it looked very similar with massive balconies looking out towards the Taj Mahal in the distance.

In the afternoon we went to a workshop where we could see how they made all the marble inlays for the Taj Mahal which is amazingly intricate and we also went to a jewelry store to see Black Indian Star Stones, which are jet black stones only found in India and when the sun shines on them there is a star that appears in the jem which looks stunning.

We left Agra this morning and headed to the deserted city of Fatepur Sikri which was built as the capital of the Mogul empire, but was deserted after 15 years as they moved to Lahore which is now in Pakistan.  There is a huge fortress, several palaces and mosques made of mainly sandstone and marble.  You got hasled a lot here from hawkers trying to sell you stuff and I did not feel to well, so I did not enjoy this that much.  We are now in Bharatpur which is about 1 and a half hours from Agra where we are going to the famous bird sanctury this afternoon.

I will write again soon.

What a great start to my journey, the first week has been fantastic.  I met up with the team on Monday morning at 10am who are all really cool.  There are 9 of us in all - Martin (Irish) and Clare (English) who are the leader and co-driver, the passengers are Joanna (English), Michael (Austrian), Valery (American), Dave (American), Leslie and Bryan (a Canadian couple) and me.  The truck can seat about 24 so we have plenty of room to spread out which is nice.  Joanna and Valery are the only people continuing after Delhi back to the UK and Clare will be leaving us in Mumbai, so we will hopefully get some more people join us in Delhi for the second leg.

We all get on really well and are having a lot of fun together.  After we had our inital meeting we had the rest of the day and night in Kathmandu and then were leaving the following morning.  Me, Michael, Dave and Joanna shared a taxi to Pashupatinath which is where all the cremations take place using the ghats on the side of the river.  We then walked to a large Stupa (type of temple) where we could see the Hymalayas from the roof.  From there we got another taxi to Patan and had a tour around Durbar square which was very interesting.

We went to a nice restaurant for lunch were they have a roof garden with great views of the rooftops of Kathmandu and the Hymalayas in the background. We had Dal (lentil soup), vegetable curry and rice, along with bread, usually chipati.  This is pretty much the staple diet in India and Nepal and will be my main sustenance while I am here.  Good job I like it.  We all met up again at 6 and went out for a meal and then to Sam's bar in Thamel (which I can recomend to anybody who goes to Kathmandu).  We had a great night and all got a bit drunk which was a good way to break the ice and kick start the trip.

We left the following morning with hangoves and drove to Sauraha which is the main town for access to the Royal Chitwan National Park.  The journey should have taken about 5 hours, but because of the trouble in Nepal with the Moaists there were several road blocks and security checkpoints to get through, 1 of which we were stuck at for over 4 hours!  It took us 14 hours to cover less than 200km.  The roads were also very rough in places, one stretch went on for 40km that was just made out of gravel and had huge potholes everywhere, so it was a bit of a rough ride!  On the way we also passed about 15 burnt out trucks which were still smouldering and later read in a newspaper that the Moaists had shot out the tyres and set them on fire to disrupt industry.  Inside the trucks there were over 60 water buffalo, which all died.  In addition they also opened fire on a military vehicle, but missed and hit a bus killing one and injuring 7, so we were very lucky to get through.

The Rhino Lodge in Sauraha was stunning, it was a really nice safari lodge on the banks of the river with the National Park on the other side.  We got up very early and took dugout canoes up the river and went trekking through the jungle where we saw crocodiles and monkeys up close.  When we got back to the lodge we went to see 2 elephants who we were then allowed to ride bare back into the river and wash them, it was so much fun as the elephants kept throwing us off into the river.  In the evening we took an elephant safari through the park, there were 4 of us on each elephant and we managed to get up really close to Rhino's (about 3 feet away).  Rhino's can hardly see, so they just think that there are elephants and do not move.  In the evening we had the Thari tribe come to the lodge and perform there local dances for us.

On the Thursday we had to drive to India - yippee.  The journey is for 204km, but because of the troubles it took us another 14 hours.  The roads were better and the sceney was stunning, but it was quite dangerous.  We got stopped in one small town for 3 hours and about a mile away you could here explosions and a gun battle and thee were helicopters flying off into the jungle firing into the trees.  About 10 minutes after the shootout stopped we were allowed to continue along the road straight through where they had just been shooting and along the road there were about 100 troops marching back to the town, so that was a bit worrying, but we made it to the Indian border at about 8pm and it was a very simple process to get another stamp in the passport.

Nepal was great, the scenery is stunning and the people are the friendliest I have come accross, which is especially surprising and nice as it is also one of the poorest countries in the world, the average income is only about 240US$ per year, so the poverty, especially in parts of Kathmandu is shockingly bad.

We crossed into India at about 9 after we had a final Nepalese meal at the border.  We drove for about 30 mins and then did our first bush camp, this is where we just pull off the road and pitch the tents on a piece of grass for the night, usually we would cook a meal and sit around having a few beers and a laugh, but we were all so knackered that we just put the tents up and hit the sack, especially as we had to be up at 5:30 in the morning for the long drive to Varanasi.

We all did not sleep that well as in India a lot of the temples play extremely loud music during the night to please the gods, it is so loud that it sounded as though you were in a disco, but the temple was about 500metres away!  Sleeping in India is going to take some getting used too I think.  We set off at about 6.30 and drove down to Varanasi which is the holiest town in India for Hindi people to come.  A lot of people come here to die and be cremated on the side of the Ganges.  The dead people are dipped into the river and then put in the middle of a lot of wood, a bit like a bonfire and then burnt and the ashes are swept into the river.

We had an early start on Saturday, up before dawn to go on a boat trip down the Ganges river to see the cremations, and just down stream from those all of the people washing themselves in the holy river, which is so dirty it is amazing.  It was stunning as we saw the sunrise and then the sun light up all the buildings, so I have a lot of pictures to put onto the site when I get back.  We then took a tour around Varanasi and saw some of the temples.  In the afternon we went to a silk emporium as Varanasi is very famous for making silk for sari's, bed covers, scalves and table clothes etc...  We had a demonstration of the different items and was shown how they were made which was very interesting. The items were beautiful and a lot cheaper than you would find anywhere else.

Well, sorry I drag on a bit, but am trying to get everyhing in.  I will try to put another post up during the week.

Well, I am finally here in Kathmandu, after an 11 hour flight with a stop off in Abu Dhabi.  I had a rranged for a pick up from the airport to take me to my hotel which was an experience.  The car was falling apart, the boot would not shut and there was more rust than paintwork.  The drive into Kathmandu from the airport showed the shocking poverty in here as well as the shocking driving and madness of an Asian city.

Went for a walk this morning around the city and went to Durbar square just trying to get over the culture shock and soak up some of the atmosphere.

I meet up with the team tomorrow and start the trip properly, so am looking forward to that.

Will post an update again soon.

Well, just a couple of days to my departure and I have finally bought all the things I need, have had all my vacinations (10 injections in all!) and should get my passport back from the Iranian embassy tomorrow with my last required visa, so am just about ready.  Just need to fit it all into the bag now and I am not well known for travelling light, so could be a bit of a squeeze!

My first step of the journey is to get to Kathmandu.  I have a Gulf Air flight out to Abu Dhabi in the UAE and then have 1 hour and 45mins to change to another plane to Kathmandu.  I arrive in Kathmandu at 17:30 on Saturday, so is a bit of a long journey.  I then have a day to myself and meet up with the team on Monday to start my journey back.

I hope to leave entries about once a week, so keep checking back regularily to see how I am getting on.

This is my new web journal for my Dragoman adventure in 2005.  I am using this while I am away as it is the easiest way to let you all know what I am getting upto and it will hopefully work a bit better than the Canvaskid website did while I have been away over the last few years.

I will be adding to this journal as often as possible, which will hopefully be about once a week.  I will also add a couple more entries before I go to let you know about my preperations.

Unfortunately I wont be able to add any pictures to my new site www.keithos.com while I am away, but will put them all on there when I get back.

I have been fairly busy lately trying to get all the visa's, vacinations and shopping for all the things I need to take and have been online a lot researching all of the places I will be seeing.

Anyway, keep on checking back.

Have fun and see you all soon.

Keithos
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