Welcome to Egypt

After spemding time in the civilized and small Greek Islands arriving in Cairo was a bit of culture shock. The city is very old and dirty, garbage everywhere, and the traffic and noise is staggerring. We have not even considered attempting to cross a major road as traffic signals of any kind are non-existant and you really put your life at risk The tour company we hired has been excellent, they really do everything for you from airport pick up to meals and tours.

We spent the first 2 days in Cairo seeing the sights, pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, old Cairo, the Egyptian museum and of course the obligatory shopping bazaars, were they really do not like to hear no. Too bad for them! We then took the overnight train down to Aswan ( 14 hours in a sitting car - not great). What a difference Aswan is to Cairo, clean and green, right on the Nile, nice city. Which we would have known that sooner. So for 4 days and 3 nights we cruised the Nile and took in the ancient temples from Aswan to Luxor. The boat was excellent, met lots of interesting people from all over the world and our tour guide Marcos stayed with us the whole time. You could not have asked for a better guide, very personable and very knowledgable. So if you are planning on a visit start in Aswan or Luxor, much smaller cities and much more to see and easy to get around. The amount of tourists down here is staggering though, at one temple I counted 100 large tourist buses with more coming, and it is not even busy season yet. I cannot imagine what it will be like in a month. All the local people we encountered have been very freindly and welcoming to tourists. They always want to know where we are from and they always reply, Canada Dry!!

Back in Cairo today and then we have a 2 day desert trip, camping at an oasis for 1 night. Should be a fun experience. After that off to South Africa. Way too many pictures to post so here a few.

All the best

Don & Marlyn

Rhodes, Greece

Well here we are back in Greece for the last time, it kind of feels like coming home since we have been in Greece so long. Rhodes city is very busy with a lot of traffic and noise but at least we have a nice room, with english TV and actually catch up on news and watch a movie. The old fort and old town here is quite impressive and large but of course full of shops and tavernas of all kinds along with thousands of cruise ship people. Tommorrow we will take a boat trip up to Lindos for the day and see the Acropolis. The day after we will head up to Faliraki for a day at the beach. Here are some pictures of the fort and the town of Rhodes.

Bye for now Don and Marlyn

Turkey-The land of colour

Every colour you can imagine, orange, pink, red, purple and in every combination, this is how they paint their houses, buildings and even the mosques. It is quiet refreshing after the white and blue of Greece. The six am call to prayers is not quiet as refreshing.
We arrived in Turkey at a place called Marmaris, which just happens to be the largest tourist city in all of Turkey. Half the population of Britain and about the same number of Scandavaian are holidaying here. We started our stay in a Pension, which made us wonder what we were doing to offend the Gods this time. Soon figured out that the whole city is hotels and apartment hotel and moved. Now in a little apartment,where there is hot water(at least in the evenings).
We did a two day bus tour and got to see some of the real Turkey ... Ephesus, which are unbelievable ruins and Pammakale which are these white cliffs(looks like snow). Of course no pictures attached because we still have not figured that out. We met some wonderful people on the tour and had great fun with them at dinner and over a beer or two. You would need a lot more time than a week to see Turkey as it is a huge country. We found the people very freindly, more so than Greece and prices were definately more reasonable. Marmaris is pretty much shutting down for the winter so our timing was good, we are now back to Rhodes for a few days and then off to Egypt on Tuesday. Wish us luck.
Don and Marlyn

Crete - Continued

We left Matala and headed east having a fairly vague plan. We visited the archeoligical sites of Gortyna and Phaestos which were quite interesting although you need a guide or a book to know what you are looking at. After crossing numerous small mountains in our tiny little car we finally reched Mirtos and were not to impressed so we headed for Agios Nikolaus witht the promise of something better. We ended up Istron Bay Hotel, deciding to splurge on a swanky resort and in Marlyn's words and "Idyllic" location.Almost an all inclusive it was a nice treat compared to the crowded little pensions and the ace was packed. Pull it up on the internet, it is worth checking out. Today we drove up the east coast checking out some very nice places like Elounda, again up the incedibly narrow mountain roads ( only had to back up once and fortunately not on a curvy part ) and drove through Malia on the north coast. This place is miles and miles of beaches, and development, makes Mexico pale in comparison. All in all we would highly recommend Crete to anyone, tons to see and do, very reasonable and the nicest people in Greece so far. Now we are off to Rhodes.
Kalispera
Don + Marlyn

Crete the land of sun and wind

I thought working at Head Smashed In was windy,I take it back. Crete is beautiful and sunny, but we keep chasing our hats. We arrived in Iraklion which is a large port city, on thursday and stayed two nights...in Don's view two nights to many since our hotel room was at the end of a runway.
We rented a car and took off for Matala on the south coast. On the way we did stop at Gortyna, an archaeological site which was quite cool. Matala is a picturesque beach town surrounded by cliffs that are full of Roman burial caves. I was here at 19 and it was a kind of a trendy hippy hang out place back then and I think some of those people are still here hanging out. It is quite the tourist town...about ten bus loads of people arrived this morning and then all disappear by 5:00 pm. We are heading east tomorrow and will spend another three days on Crete then fly to Rhodes. All is well, we have not killed each other yet and that is a good sign from the gods.

Mykonos

We just finished a 3 day stay in Mykonos and blew our budget to hell. Rooms were easy to get right off the ferry with dozens of people offering everything from hostels to 5 star. We ended up paying 100 euros for 3 nights in a decent size quiet area room. Where they get you is on the food and drink and unfortunately no negotiating there. A rum and coke will run 8 to 10 euros. We eventually figured out to use the snack bars, good food and cheap beer. Mykonos is the party capital if you are under 25 but we noticed most of those kids only stay for a day anyway as it is so expensive. The town is an absolute maze and takes at least 3 days just to find your way around. The beaches are highly overrated and not having the warmest wether did not help. We met some nice "couples" mostly from Vancouver or London that were on there "honeymoon" although they were quite entertaining to hang around with and had lots of travel stories and advice for us.
Today we took the ferry down to Iraklion in Crete, the larget island. Not arrivng till dark the hotel we have is at the end of the airport runway but when we went for dinner we found out the whole city is built around the airport and harbour. Good planning. Dinner was great in a little local taverna with wine, good food and then they give you desert and raki gratis. ( Raki is like unleaded gasoline ), all for 24 euros.
We plan on renting a car tommorow and touring the island for a few days.
Updates soon.

Kalispera
Don + Marlyn