slow dirty town

slow computers... they are actually 100 year old turtles... now thats slow.....
men that are sleazier than the sleazest man you have every met,
dirty.... that even after a shower you still dont feel clean in this desert town they call Cairo.
PRYAMIDS YESTERDAY AND FOR ONCE WE HOSED THE CAMEL ONWER! but David gave way too much bachsheesh!!!!! David decided he wanted to hose himself for a change... oh and he paid 10 pounds (egyptian) for a bottle of water... should have paid 2!
We came we saw we wanna leave now.... where is the beach?

Visas and a new country

I can write this now as everything is cool, Parents no need to freak out! OK?! oh and Clarky also!
We were in Ankara for a reason.
To see about visas for Syria and Jordan as we were thinking about driving there.
But sense, fear, sanity, maybe it was the call of the greek sun gods, all the terrorist warnings, the fact we were all over eating kebabs.... not sure which got the better of us and we decided to drive to Greece and fly instead.
So here we are all sitting like nerds in front of computer screens in Athens.
Booked on a (return) flight to Cario on the 27th May to hang there for a while. Ticket is vaild for 12months but we prob come back in 2 months. It looks as if it may be a base for us for maybe 2 months so we may have an address where you can send us vegemite! We are going to sight see and scuba in Dahab or Sharmulshak? do day trips or more from here our own little pad, cool huh! And yes we promise to stay away from the towel heads (sand diggers) and any bombs!

Ankara and the RAKI

Belielve me, if you love Ouzo, drink Raki. Otherwise its the most disgusting thing i have ever been forced to drink in my life. (even worse than cod liver oil, Dad!) I have never liked aniseed or black jellybeans. Yucky!
But anyway we met up with our new friend that we met in Assos - Murat. A 20 something Turk who is very wordly as his mum is a diplomat. Very cool guy. He took us to a place where the locals eat great food and drink mad amounts of Raki. You get a bottle of it with your meal; and it is only drunk with a little water. It would be rude to drink it with coke or as a shot.
So! do as the romans.... we polished it off with the lame ass boys tipping theirs into a peice of bread and into the ice bucket while Murat was at the dunny! maybe they were not so silly!

A mission thwarted

From here we decided to drive along the coast to a port called Tasucu. Where we were hoping to get a car ferry boat to Cyprus. Drive across to the Greek side then another ferry from there to Egypt. As there is still arguments over Turkey Cyprus and Greek Cyprus; no one was wanting to be very helpful fom either end. How two countries own one peice of land and still bitch is beyond me. So that plan was laid to rest.

Tree Houses

We went to Olympus down in the south of Turkey where we stayed in tree houses! It was well cool. If you wanna see I think the address is www.olympostreehouses.com I think... Will check it later. Here we met some crazy cats and got very drunk one night; its all Bennos fault. Very seedy!
The beach is amazing very pebbly. Our crew (and the new additions)- Kylie, Gareth, Kylie and Dougie- went sea khaking around the bay area saw some caves and sea stuff. It was great!
If you ever go to Turkey you must go to this place; and I am pretty sure that Benno and Mikey will still be there! They are 2 aussies who have been working there for 4 years and just basically get drunk everynight with the new backpackers they pull in foreigners, Turks no matter what!.
that's the business!

Cappodocia and the last Hamam!

ok this one is supposed to go after Olympos but for some reason its here and I cant move it little begga! oh yeah I have had extereme RSI for the last week that is why there has been no update for a little while. If you must know what the RSI is from; its sea khaking when we were in Olympus. get your minds out of the gutter and back to the blog please!
This place is amazing; the only way to describe it is that its something out of a star wars movie! As per usual photos do it no justice.
We stayed in a great place in Goreme, called the Pheonix hotel; the best and cleanest in the whole of Turkey and i think the only one with a shower screen but yet still not right with the hot water.
We caught up with Kylie, Gareth*, Kylie and Dougie Which was awsome.
We went on a Fez tour with them around Goreme seeing where the pigeons hang out?!, the underground city 8 levels!, a massive gorge (that is one the photos of Dave and I), long but easy walk, fish lunch YYUUMM!! Fairy chimneys. Was a great day.
After they left we had our last Hamam; where we got one of the guys at the hotel to drive us to and get them to go hard on us! so I made sure they did not beat up my left arm. I believe I heard many squeeks coming out of David and I beleive that we all walked away satisfied but bruised!
*who was a little under the weather from the Turkish night!
We hope to catch thse guys in Egypt at some stage.

Water Vs. Petrol

Here is one for all of you who complain about the price of fuel..... and water!
All over Turkey; no matter whether you are in the sticks or in a major city the cost is around $2.60 per Litre!!!!!! Oh yeah that killed us! About $120 to fill up around 400 km. to a tank. We did around 4,000 km on our tour.
Yet the price of water is the complete opposite...
1.5 Litres is around 35 CENTS! or 90 cents for 5 litres!
Word up Aussie land...... someone, somewhere, is Hosing us! At least we are not getting hosed like the Turks on the fuel (even if we think we are).

This was the helicopter that we saw on Anzac Day, which picked up Prince Charles. 

This is for Becks cause she wanted to see Prince Charles! 

here is old Prince charles and check the dude with the really long legs! 

David had to show you his new shoes! from 1700 feet and still smelly! 

Number one baby! D after paraglyding! 

L to R Acey, Katy, Kylie, Gareth, Andrew and David 

Hand, Katy, Acey and Daveo at Troy 

Me and Handy wearing the navy helmets 

This was the eve of Anzac Day on the Gallipoli Peninsula 

On a walk in Cappadocia 

This is us at Pamakale! 

Bathing and Diving

Feithe was really nice we found a good Hamam- a turkish bath where everyone sits\lays on a large hot marble "plate"- steam for a while then they come in and scrub you down wash you and your hair. İ have never felt so clean! get a massage after- where they cracked my back for me! So much better. They seem scared to go hard on the woman so İ really had to tell them its ok to massage me hard. İ cant stand a soft fluffy massage.
Met a couple Kylie (Aus) and Garath (SA) who we will catch up with here in Kaş they are doing a boat cruise at the moment.
İ did my first scuba dive yesterday it was amazing the first half i was really scared and the second half i figured that it was cool. İnstructor said İ did awsome for a first timer they were ımpressed. Big ups for me!!! İ am not feeling 100% today so that is why i am here, and not on the boat with everyone else doing my tests. Everyone else is doing the nitrox course. İf you know Scuba you know what İ speak of, İf you dont im not explaining it. So in 5 days or less İ will have my PADI open water certificate. We are talking of going to hang in Egypt for a while to scuba down there and maybe there İ will make my advance course.

Şelçuk and Epheses

Great town and a lovely very clean hostel. This is where D got hosed on the coins. Epheses is amazing another place photos do no justice to. But got some nice shots anyway.
Here we found a very young naive Kiwi guy who loved getting hosed... he was on a backpackers budget- but paying 50 Lira (50 aussıe) for a hostel room in İstanbul, eating at (sort of) expensive resturaunts; we were used to 10 Lıra meals ıncluding tip! He did worse than D he paid 75 lira for 2 coins.. that made D feel heaps better! This guy, we decıded actually brought his own hose with him!

Touts, hot water and the best meal ever... well so far in Turkey

Man these guys are everywhere and they are really persıstent. When we rolled into Pammukale Daveo was driving he says İ have to pull over some guy on a bike is yelling at me! and İ dont know why. Then İ realised and said "its a tout for a motel just ignore him" but it was too late! stuck there for 10 mıns or so then they follwed us up the hill we couldnt get away. We eventually had to go to one of the places just to get rid of the guy. But we made our own way and found a lovely place that didnt hassle us to stay there. Apart from the fact that most places say they have hot water you have to time when to have a shower its all solar and gravity fed. İf the person next door to you is closer to the hot water service they get it even if you were in there first! İ had the best meal here at the Melrose Hotel good home cooking...mmmmmmm the others may dısagree but İ loved it.

The car ferry @ Çanakale

Ok so all saıd and done after Anzac Day, we decıded to head down the coast and maybe stay at Aessos a small fıshing village. We are all suffering from lack of sleep but really want to push on. We take the car ferry across from Ecabat to Çanakale. The boys were driving, we drove off the ferry the van got stuck on the edge of the ferry İ am looking out the back window telling the boys the car is leaking .... something.... and alot of it! We stop the van and 6 coppers come over and wont let us drive the van any further than where it is in the middle of the road. İts punched a hole in the fuel tank. Great! A mechanic is called and we beleive we are about to hosed again. Girls decıde that its 4.30 in the arvo and who knows how long this will take so we go in search of a cheap pensyıon. Boys go with the van to mechanics. Eventually, (everywhere was booked out wıth blimin Aussies`Who would have thought?!) we find a hotel that is reasonably priced, but right in the clubbing district oh well it was only for one nıght! Searching for the boys now we go back to where the van once was; the same 6 coppers are there not doing much. So we try to communicate with them to find the mechanics shop. As the boys are not answering there mobiles!!! Eventually we got thru to them and they made it back to us safely at around 9.30. We didnt get completly hosed which was nice for a change. oh yeah... we slept straıght thru the club which was pumping out the beats when we went to bed. 24 or so hours with no sleep makes for tired travellers.

Getting Hosed

İf you are wondering what getting hosed is , İts when you get done over with paying too much for something like a shoe shine should have cost Handy 2 lira ıt cost him 15.50 instead, with these stoopid 500 cent notes. They did a really bad job. At the St. John Basillica fake coins which Daveo thought was was real hhhmmm..... good to have storıes to tell.

more on the pılot

İ forgot to tell you the last bit that happened... As they took off for theır last pick up as they flew over us the pılot tipped the copter towards us well it was very close - (20m it was very close) away from us gave us the double thumbs up making us whoop and lovin it and probably scaring the crap out of the 2 female passengers! That made our day!