Still working on it, but there are a few photos of Amman for now… Look in the photo gallery.

Turkey, our last frontier, well, not really. It is essentially the last country we will visit where we know no one and have a major language barrier. We spent an afternoon in Istanbul due to our long layover there before heading onward to Ankara, Turkey’s capital. Istanbul being fairly westernized in it’s own way, gave us a false sense of security. Ankara was an eye opener. Landed, got on the Havas shuttle bus to the city center, all no problem. Then we were told to get off the bus while I was completely passed out and still in Egypt “everyone is out to get something” mode. The LP said we would first be dropped off at the main bus station then the Havas main station in town, which is where we wanted to be. So this being the first stop, I wanted to clarify that we were actually in the city center. Didn’t want to get screwed with a huge cab bill. Then a nice lady tried to help us translate, which actually confused things further, but in the end it turns out they now stop at the city center first then the bus station. Okay onward with the taxi, a 5 second ride later we were at our hotel, all part of the cheaper way to travel plan at 11 PM in a strange city. 1 kilometer walk in broad daylight is fine, but really don’t want to be wondering around that late in the evening. Hotel staff spoke no english, and it did not improve with the morning staff. Walked around Ankara to see the sites and The DaVinci Code. We had to minimize our speech to “toilet” and “thank you”. Anything else we said would be lost and confused.

(BTW, that movie watching experience is a complete waste of time if you’ve read the book, since there was not much the movie could show us that we could not imagine from the fairly descriptive text. But then on the other hand, if you are part of the rare breed that hasn’t read the book, you can just watch the movie and not feel like you’ve missed out on much.)

We spent an hour in the huge bus station to figure out the variety of bus companies and their destinations (there is something like 75 counters). We got our tickets onward to Goreme (Cappadocia) for the next day and we were very excited to be well on our way. The conversations at each bus counter were basic, our destination city, “how much?” and “time?”. If they got that much we were estactic. This is the capital of Turkey! We were getting some flashbacks of Beijing.

The bus system though is super efficient and organized. While waiting for our bus, we watched the entire bus station clear out and another entire fleet file in for the next departure time. This happens about every half hour. There are as many bus gates as there are counters that service them. All the buses are big AC tour buses, so quite comfortable. Still nothing will compare to the ride from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

We switched to the service bus, a connecting minibus, at Nevsehir to go to Goreme. The vast expanse of the fairy chimneys here is just breathtaking. It has been well worth the wait and the effort to come here. We joined a couple of tours to see all the major sites, it’s the most economical and time efficient way to see the area. All the cave dwellings and valleys here have kept us quite busy for the last couple of days. Today we rented a car to try to see some of the more far off sites that the tour companies don’t go to. Unfortunately, the car we rented only got as far as Kaymakli, one of the underground cities, before we realized the steering is shot. So we only saw Kaymakli and turned back. By then Eddy was quite tired of the cave dwellings anyway, since he knocked his head several times on the low ceilings in our short visit there. Got our rental cost back and most of the gas money. So that was fine. BTW, here in Cappadocia, since it does cater to tourism, there is a lot more english spoken and understood.

In a couple of days we head out to Mt. Nemrut and Harran (beehive houses, just north of the Syrian border). We’ve joined a 3 day tour for this because the timing of the buses to these places would make it impossible for us to do on our own in such a short amount of time.

Now in Cairo, one of the few times that I’m actually glad to be in a large city. The touts and vendors throughout the rest of Egypt are extremely pushy and aggressive! They’re not too bad in Cairo, the folks in Cairo understand what no means. My biggest complaint about Egypt is the concept of Baksheesh out here. Baksheesh basicially translates into “tips for services rendered.” The Egyptian wants Baksheesh for everything.- i.e the restaurant worker that opens the restroom door, the elevator man taking you down to your floor (even though I can push the damn button myself!), you get the idea… It’s ridiculous!! But we’re not one’s to give in so easily - Baksheesh only if you earn it, not expect it.
Off to Turkey tomorrow.

Long day getting to Jordan.
Jeffrey’s Bay to Port Elizabeth, 1 hour drive.
P.E. to Johannesburg, 1 1/2 hr. flight. (4 hour layover in Jo’burg)
Johannesburg to Dubai, 8 hour flight. (9 hour layover in Dubai!)
Dubai to Amman, 4 hour flight.
We met up with our friend Morlene at Dubai airport. Morlene flew in from Hong Kong. Yvonne’s mom flew into Amman the next day.
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Although the majority of it’s citizens are Muslim, Jordan is officially a secular country, the country is not ruled under Islamic law. Women in Jordan have the right and privilege to vote and drive. The legal age to get married is 18 years old - the age is much younger in other Middle Eastern countries.
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There were several things that impressed me about Jordan. I did not see a single homeless person on the streets. The country for the most part is very clean, not too much litter scattered around (except for cigarettes butts). Clean public toilets i.e. restaurants etc… and the people were friendly and helpful - so nice to be in a country where people will help you out and not expect anything in return.
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We saw several historial sites in Jordan, most notably - Mt. Nebo (this is where Moses saw the “promised land”, Moses also died near Mt. Nebo), the Dead Sea and of course the famous ruins of Petra (very impressive we’ll post photos time permitting).
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Now we’re in Egypt and it’s been a rather frustrating trip for all of four of us. I promised myself I won’t get into a long exhausting rant about this place. To be brief, there’s always a “catch”, you get nickeled and dime for everything little thing out here. But I must say the sites we’ve seen so far have been quite impressive, it’s getting to these places that’s the frustrating part.
I’m glad that Morlene and Yvonne’s mom has been traveling with us, having additional company helps diffuse alot of tension and frustration.

A year ago on Monday we started our journey, we celebrated with a traditional South African stew (potjiekos) that Lindie cooked for us. The stew was made with ostrich neck meat and various veggies, dessert was a dish called “thirsty” pudding, mmmm delicious!!
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Last weekend we (Barry, myself and Yvonne) dropped off Lindie’s visiting brother at Port Elizabeth airport, Port Elizabeth is an hour’s drive from Jeffrey’s Bay. After we dropped of Lindie’s Brother, we spent the day checking out Port Elizabeth. Turns out there was a Mexican navy sailboat docked at Port Elizabeth. Visitors were allowed on the ship, so we climbed aboard this beautiful old sailboat and roamed around the deck. It was so nice to hear traditonal Mexican music on the overhead speaker and listening to the Mexican naval crew speaking Spanish. We could also smell Mexican food being cooked in the Galley - I know that smell of fresh tortillas and caldo de rez a mile away!! It made the three of us (hey three amigos) miss a bit of home, since these are sites, sounds and smells so familiar to us back home in L.A. Oh man what torture, I’m missing good Mexican food big time.
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Yesterday morning we dropped off Nino (the recently adopted stray minature pincher and the Bross’ new addition to the family) at the vets office to have his balls removed. When we found Nino we noticed he only had one nut hanging. We brought Nino to the vet last week for a checkup, necessary vaccinations and also pointed out the one nut to the vet. The vet informed us that one of Nino’s nuts is lodged inside his stomach and recommended neutering him, otherwise his lodged nut might someday get cancerous.
We picked up Nino after his surgery and he wasn’t talking (barking, yelping ,whining you know dog speak) to us - who could blame the poor fella, he wakes up and finds his balls and libedo gone. Sorry Nino it was for your own good, someday you’ll thank us. Well today Nino seems much happier we’re on speaking terms again.
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Tomorrow off to Amman, Jordan.