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In
Sept of 2005, I backpacked from Cairo to Istanbul over
a 4 week period. I started my trip on Aug 31, 2005 flying from
London to Cairo. While In Cairo I stayed at the Dahab Guesthouse,
( a very filthy little place, recommended by the Lonely Planet
as a hip oasis to meet other travelers) I did a few day trips
to the pyramids at Giza and checked out the Cairo Museum, the
Islamic section of Cairo and the areas around the Citadel.
I was constantly harassed and cheated for most of my time in
Cairo, I am in no hurry to go back. I did take a small trips
to the remote ruins at Saqquara and the “bent” pyramids
in Dashur, which were pretty awesome sites. The two sites were
devoid of con-men and hustlers. When I made it to Dashur, home
of the second largest pyramid in Egypt, I was the only one
on the entire site. I was able to explore the whole places
with no hassles. I took a very nice sleeper night train down
to Aswan and then got a bus out to ruins Abu Simbol, which
is located in the very far south of Egypt, close to the Sudanese
boarder. The site itself was pretty amazing, but the fact that
it was completely moved and rebuilt in the 1970’s definitely
made it seem a bit artificial.
After
spending some time in Aswan town, I took another night train
up to Luxor and visited a bunch of the big sites including,
Valley of the Queens and Kings, and the Karnac and Luxor temples.
I then caught an internal Egyptian Air flight over to Sharm
el Sheik. I could have taken a local Egyptian bus 22 hours
to Sharm, but I opted for the 1.5 hour direct flight. The only
problem with the flight was having to deal with all the corrupt
taxi drivers that prey on tourists at Sharm el Sheik airport.
I eventually made my way up to Dahab, a very relaxing backpacker
beach resort. While I was there I climbed Mt Sinai for sunrise.
A few days later I took a taxi up to Nuweiba, an ugly place,
to catch the ferry over to Jordan. After waiting for 8 hours
in the terminal we were instructed to board the ferry that
took us to Jordan, which only took about 1.5 hours Upon arriving
in Jordan I made my way up to Petra, roughly 2 hour taxi ride
from the port. I suppose that I could have taken a bus, but
the busses leave in the morning and I arrived a night, plus
the taxi was only around 20 USD. Petra was definitely one of
the most amazing places I have ever been. I spent 4 days hiking
and climbing all around the area, watching sunset from several
different places up high. The best view was from Jebel Umm
al’ Amr.
After Petra I headed up to Dana nature reserve, a place hyped
up by the Lonely Planet as the best kept secret in Jordan.
It turned out to be less than amazing and a real pain in the
ass to get to. I then took a local bus to Amman, Jordan where
I caught a taxi up to Damascus, Syria. The journey took about
6 hours total with a 2 hours delay at the Jordan Syria boarder.
Syria
was a pretty interesting place, a big change from the rest
of the areas I had been so far. American products are ,for
the most part, banned from Syria. Coke and Pepsi ads don’t
fill every street like the do in Egypt and Jordan, instead
adds for Syrian imitations hang from every billboard. I spent
a few days in Damascus, then when out to Palmyra, then back
to Hama and finally up to Alepo. Getting around Syria was pretty
easy and cheap, the people were very helpful and I never had
any problems. The ancient souqs of Damascus are some of the
best I have every visited.
Next
I made the long journey from Alepo to Groeme, Turkey in the
heart of Cappadocia. It involved getting a shared taxi from
Alepo to Anatakya, the catching a local bus to Adana, then
getting another bus to Goreme, the entire mission took me about
22 hours, but was very worth it. Cappadocia was amazing. I
spent about 4 days chilling out cruising around the area, taking
a few day tours to see some of the underground cities and mountain
top monasteries located around the area.
Finally
I took a 12 hour bus ride from Goreme to Istanbul, arriving
around 7pm. The busses in Turkey are very modern and easy to
understand. I stayed in Istanbul for about 5 days, doing a
day trip out to the World War 1 battle grounds in Gallipoli.
Then came back to London on Oct. 2
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