Happy 2008 to everyone! Well, it's still a little early, even in Singapore, but what the heck. I'm currently in Jordan at the moment, where I'll be spending New Year's Eve - it's a pretty boring city to be honest. We went to about ONE sight and that was it. Plus it's expensive too! So it's not looking like an exciting start to a New Year for me. ;p

Anyway, looking back at this time last year, I'd just returned from trip to the US, and was too jetlagged to stay up to count down. It might be a similar case this year though, cos we got up at 6am, so that we could catch the bus to cross the border - i always feels like a sense of acheivement to cross the border somehow though.... =)

So here's wishing everyone a great 2008 ahead!

Labels: Travel

Gosh, I miss the super high-speed connections in Turkey with no filters. It seems that for some reason, Syria also has the same annoying filters that blocks Facebook and even Youtube! (Youtube!!!) Of course I can see why, cos more than once I have walked by cubicles with users surfing pictures of scantily-dressed women, bordering on the edge of pornography pretty much.

Otherwise, everything else has been pretty alright. I'm currently in the city of Hama, Syria - will be spending a few more days in Syria (i'm losing count of the days already) before going to Jordan (last stop) and I'll be flying back to London on the 5th of January.

And of course, here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! I wanted to say this yesterday, but the internet cafe we were at yesterday had TWO blackouts while we were there, and got us pretty annoyed so we left. But as I always say, there're twelve days of Christmas, so it's never too late.

Oh, and if you were expecting a X'mas card from me but haven't received it yet, it could be one of the two reasons below:
1. The Turkish/Iranian post is really slow (i think that's quite true)
2. Kenny didn't affix enough postage when he sent the cards in Iran. It was supposed to be IR4000, but he only put stamps for IR1000, which was the going rates of postcards (noone told me cards were different from postcards!!)

I hope I don't return to Cambridge to find my pigeon hole full of returned cards (then again, they have to return it to the UK, so they might as well send it... ;p)

Labels: Travel

It's now 7.30pm, we're in Erzurum now, waiting for a bus to Mardin which is due to leave at 9pm. It's -10 degres celsius (yes, minus), hence we're slacking in an internet cafe killing time. It means I get to catch up with my anime (bless whoever created Youtube!), and I also get to "connect to the world"!

I keep forgetting to bring my card reader in my daypack, so I haven't been able to upload an photos yet, but I will soon enough. :)

Anyhow, I thought I'd say something about the Turkish keyboard... There's a post at on Wikipedia about the Turkish keyboard. But basically, the main difference is that they have TWO "I"s on the keyboard, one with a dot and one without. So they look like : "I,ı" and "İ,i".

It's quite confusing, cos when I want to type a capital I, I need to look for the I without the dot, and a small i, I have to look for i with the dot. To solve the problem, I've managed to change the keyboard layout to a US keyboard... ;p

Also, there're FIVE additional characters: ç (or C with a pubic hair, as Keng Rui calls it) ş (s with pubic hair - hmm.. this sounds a little wrong), ğ, ü and ö.

And unlike the Iranian computers, the Turkish ones don't have annoying filters which block sites like Facebook (!!!! - imagine days without Facebook!!!), and are pretty fast - though most cafes tend to be a little smokey... :(

For now, I shall go watch some more anime... hehe...

Labels: Travel, Turkiye

After spending about 6 hours out in sub-zero temperatures, 5 cups of tea, a ride in a police car & a stop at a military checkpoint (or rather IN a military checkpoint), and plenty of luck, we have finally arrived in the city of Kars at 1800m elevation. Insha'Allah as they say.

There are two words that I will commit to memory after the series of events that happened today Bayram - which means festival in Turkish and Tuzluca a village in the Iğdır Province.

The Blow by Blow Account
After crossing the border to Turkiye from Iran last evening, we hitched on a ride (for YTL5 though) to the town of Iğdır. This guy who was on the same ride with us suggested we go to his hotel, which we did, and found out we had a pretty shite room, which was freezing cold (it was some minus 4 degrees outside, and felt quite the same in our room even with a TINY radiator on).

We awoke and set off just before 8am to find a desolate town. Asking whether there was a minibus to Kars (our destination), we soon found out there wasn't any today, and everyone was muttering the word Bayram (pronounced Buy-rahm). We soon found out what Bayram was because we saw lots of cows and sheep being transported on lorries and also lots of people were walking around with knives and some were cutting up the animal in their front yard - Eid ul-Adha or Hari Raya Haji as we know it - which is a sacrifice festival in case you don't know.

Of course, because Keng Rui and I are now "experienced" hitch-hikers, we thought we'd hitch-hike to Kars, since that was pretty much our only option (unless we were to pay some 150 YTL for a taxi of course). After standing on the main road for about an hour or so, we managed to hitch a ride to Tuzluca, a town on the way to Kars in this army officer's car. (our Turkish is fairly good now we thinks... ;p)

At Tuzluca, we were dropped at this junction which leads off to Kars in one direction. And it is at this junction that we were destined to spend the next 4 hours or so in the freezing cold (about -2 degrees). During this four hours, we were kept company by a bunch of boys (aged probably 10-19 years old). We were even brought two cups of tea by this auntie (bless her) and given sweets by the kids. We were also taken in the village centre where we were told would have more chance of a ride (otostop - Turkish for hitch-hike), but to no avail (avada yok - no cars). Basically, we had everything except a ride, because it was Bayram and noone was out...

Finally, around 2pm, these two guys came to us (after half the village had come and talked to us... seriously... they kept coming to meet us) and told the kids with us that maybe we should go to the Police for help since there was no point standing out there forever. So we walked with the kids to the police station.

At the police station, we were shown to this cafeteria where we were offered tea (it was our FIFTH cup of tea of the day btw...) and we got to use the much needed toilet (bursting bladders not very good in the cold). We waited for about 10-15 minutes before this officer came to us and told us to follow him. We got into the police van, and were told we would be taken to the next junction leading to Kars. And so here's our ride in a police van... Travelling in style indeed... ;p

We soon found out that this junction was also a military checkpoint. (In Turkey, the military are still fighting the PKK - Kurdish militants especially near the border areas, hence there are military checkpoints at strategic locations on the highways.) We were ushered into their guardroom where we sat chatting to this guy serving his "NS", while we were wondering if we will ever get to Kars. About 15 mins later, we found out that the guards outside inspecting the cars were actually helping us look out for an empty car that we could ride to Kars and there was one finally. (We didn't even have to do the hitching ourselves! how convenient... :) ).

So off we were in this little Opel to Kars, around 2.50pm, after spending 4 hours waiting at Tuzluca and then at the police station and the military checkpoint. When we got to Kars and checked in to our Hotel (Hotel Temel - A MILLION TIMES better than the one we had to put up with last night - nice and warm complete with our own ensuite facilities + TV), we could have counted ourselves as the luckiest people in Turkey today. What an incredible day it has been.

Right now, I'm safely tucked away in a corner of an internet cafe, while it's -6 degrees outside, after having a nice doner kebab and rice. This feeling is bliss and all I could ask for really... :)

[edit]Kenny is suffering from anime-watching withdrawal symptoms!!!!!!!!!!![/edit]

Labels: Travel, Turkiye

I've survived Iran! Am back in Turkiye for a couple of days before crossing over to Syria - so that we don't have to go through Iraq! Will write again soon.... :)

Labels: Travel

Some random facts about our travel....

-I've moved on to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country which I doubt many Singaporeans have/will ever visit.

-I was also reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran" in Tabriz too, a book i believe is still banned by the Iranian government.

-Keng Rui and I have started taking orders for the "Singapore is not in Japan" t-shirt. Order now, and for you, we will give special price. (a line widely touted by the shopkeepers)

-Interestingly, tourists are very much the attraction here in Iran. We are adorned with celebrity status and we get people coming up to us to take pictures and we are even offered free tea and biscuits.

-Iranians also like to practise talking to tourists in the few English words they know - which includes "Hello", "How are you?" and "Where are you from?". Though apparently, many don't know what to expect of the answers we give.

-(PS. to be fair, the Iranians are really friendly and helpful people. I doubt we'll find such hospitality in Singapore.... hehe)

-We are currently in Esfahan, where there is apparently an escaped convict, who has killed some 4 people in the city. As a result, there are now armed police/militia patrolling the streets.

-Because alcohol is not allowed (religious reasons), there is non-alcoholic beer available. These come in pineapple, strawberry, lemon, apple and black (whatever that is) flavours. I've tried one, it actually tastes beer-ish, without getting you drunk.

-We took our cheapest public bus ever. It costs IR (Iranian Rials) 200, which is S$0.02. That's the standard price for bus tickets in Tehran (capital city).

That's all the random facts I can think about for now... :)

Labels: Iran, Travel

It is day 7 of my trip in Turkiye, and it's been absolutely brilliant thus far - great fun and awesome food.

After 7 days, maybe I should write briefly about the things I've experienced so far in Turkiye.

1. WC
Toilets are really well sign-posted here - only thing is that hardly anyone of them is free-of-charge. You have to pay between 0.25 - 1 YTL (about S$0.30 - S$1.20) to go in and it's not like it's very special or clean either. You can even get a receipt I think cos there's a cash register.....

Also, gone are the days of seated toilet bowls - it's back to the good ole' days of squatting on flat land. No flush either - you fill a bailer at the side with water to flush the toilets.

2. Japan? Korea?
Due to the influx of Japanese and Korean tourists, and of course the lack of Singaporean travellers, we're ALWAYS asked if we are from Japan or Korea. And none of them seem to understand that Singapore is not a part of Japan or Korea (at least they don't think that Singapore is in China).

Also, foreigners are adorned with the best service and everyone in town comes to greet you when you eat in a Kebab saloon. They even call their friends to come to gawk look at us. And everyone tries to show you to different places - having a foreign friend is like having a trophy..

Though having said that, the locals here are really hospitable. We even got invited to a house for lunch which we didn't have to pay for, and got treated to free tea a couple of times (tea drinking is a HUGE culture here - we have at least 3 cups each day)

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I think this is as much as I can write on this Turkish keyboard. It's agonising typing on a foreign keyboard. For now, I shall be off to check my Facebook account, which I have noticed is FLOODING me with messages. Gule Gule!

PS. And photos will have to come at a much later time. There are some real nice shots though.... :)

Labels: Travel, Turkiye