Petra – Jordan

 

Travel Post

2008 – Thailand, Middle East and Europe Trip

This trip was the year after I created my Facebook account but I was only posting up limited material at that time and I don’t keep a diary. Fortunately, I was able to locate all of the group emails in my old email account.

Flew directly into Bangkok, Thailand from Sydney, Australia and took a pre-paid taxi with others to a town square in the city which I was advised was close to the hostel I would be staying at but when I arrived and after finding a cold Milo (drink) vendor, I wasn’t that close to the hostel at all, so I took a cab to the hostel to meet up with my friends that had arrived a couple of days before me. Saw so many 7 eleven stores on the way from the airport to the hostel, the most I have ever seen in a city so far.

Sent: Tuesday 26 August 2008

Subject: Thailand

Hi all

Sorry, I haven’t emailed anyone yet on this trip so here is a short run down so far of what I have been up to.

My Jetstar flight was ok a little longer than I expected but still was fine and the optional upgrade to have the entertainment pack was worth it, I watch a few bad movies as well as some bad TV shows.

Met up with the others at the hostel in Bangkok around 9pm and headed straight out for a couple of beers which went down great.

The next day we headed to the floating markets, bridge over River Kwai and the tiger temple, which was the highlight for me. I will post up photos on my Facebook site in a couple of days after I work out how to upload photos on the net with my new camera.

After that we headed to Phuket for a couple of days rest and relaxation at a very nice 5 star resort and it had a swim up pool bar and two massive pools and we all took advantage of these facts. The next day was taken up by having a swim, getting sun burnt and doing some shopping, eating, drinking and more drinking.

We are now back in Bangkok and am going to visit the grand palace which the others kindly waited for me to see with them then very early tonight Andy and I will be off to Egypt to begin that stage of…..the amazing race 🙂

PS If I have not included people that should be reading this email, please forward on and tell me who I should also send it to.

That’s all for now.

In Bangkok, we went to The Grand Palace, Khaosan Road, Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Arun, Wat Saket, Wat Pho, Golden Buddha and MBK Centre. We hired a cab for the day and went to the Tiger Temple and Bridge over River Kwai along with visiting the cemetery which is close by. He was a friendly cab driver and wanted us to visit his brother’s store to buy clothes and take us to the airport the day after but we declined. One night we were out and came across a bar that wasn’t too busy and had some foreigners in it and it looked ok so we got some beers and sat down. Within 30 mins there were a lot of young boys hanging around the older foreign men at the bar. Didn’t think much of that as you see a lot of kids running around everywhere selling stuff but then they were one by one taken somewhere with the foreign men and that’s when we figured it out that the bar we were in was not the bar we thought it was and we were all disgusted and immediately left. Bangkok is a busy, sprawling city with so much to do, see, eat and do that you will be consumed by it if you don’t leave and check out other places in Thailand. I can see why a lot of travellers come here and stay for a long time but for me it’s a city that I would rather transit through then stay for longer than a few days.

We got all organised the night before our flight to Phuket, double checked the flight time so we went out to a few bars. In the morning we were getting ready, I was in the shower and I hear a friend shout out “We have to leave now as the flight time is actually our arrival time”. I very quickly then had to get out of the shower halfway through, get changed, pack and get in the cab for the airport. Thankfully we made the flight but I was hungry as I had to skip the free breakfast at the hostel so was the first time I had ever purchased food on a flight, some overpriced donut thing but it was nice.

In Phuket we went to an island close to Phi Phi Island, made famous by the film The Beach, relaxed on the many beaches near Phuket, went to a few bars in the town and Patong beach, looked at the night markets and ended up at one bar run by some lady boys and played Jenga with them for quite a while.

Phuket, as well as Bangkok are nice places, besides all the “over tourism” establishments that they have here. One thing that really got to me was when you are just relaxing on the beach or walking down the road you will get so many people asking if you want to buy a hat, a coconut, have a massage, read the newspaper etc that it gets frustrating as you are there to chill out. All in all though, Thailand has so many spectacular places to go to with friendly hospitable people, and the A$ to the Thai Baht exchange rate, you will want to stay for a long time. Chang, Singha and Phuket beers were my favourites to drink in Thailand.

Sent: Monday 8 September 2008

Subject: Egypt 1

Well it’s me again, sorry bout not emailing earlier but since we left Alexandria in the north of Egypt we have been on the on the go tour from which started in Cairo on 30 Aug and we are now in Luxor after seeing a lot of temples, sand dunes, being on a 2 night felucca sailing on the Nile and being on a 15 hour overnight train ride and not in a sleeper.

The tour has been great so far and tomorrow we will be traveling to Dahab overnight on a bus for 9 hours but the next day we will be going snorkelling and generally having a lazy day.

The hotels that we have stayed in so far are ok. They say that they are 5 star but they are more like 3 star and some are more like motels or fancy cabin accommodation but it’s better than the floor of an airport.

It’s very hot here every day, it’s been like 40 degree and it only rains five days per year but the Nile is quite amazing and 92% of the population live on the Nile.

Bye.

Upon arrival into Cairo airport, just after immigration and before picking up our luggage, we were asked by some guys if we had accommodation, which we didn’t as we like to play it by ear and we were pressured into coming with them to sort that out and also how to get into the city from the airport. We said to them that we were going to sort that out ourselves but they insisted so we went with them. They really wanted us to stay at a resort just outside of the city near the pyramids but our plans were to go to Alexandria first then to meet our tour at a resort in the same area they wanted us to go. The main guy, behind the desk didn’t understand why we wanted to go to Alexandria because most tourists don’t go there and the conversation wasn’t going anywhere so I told him thanks but we will sort it out and just got up and left. When we were just outside of his office he said he could get one of his guys to drop us off at the main train station by car quicker than it was to get a cab there so we reluctantly agreed. He wanted $US dollars only and not even the local currency (Egyptian pounds) and we didn’t have any of either, just A$ and only A$15 between us so he got out his calculator and said ok. Got into the main train station early in the morning and waited for our train to Alexandria.

When waiting for the train at Cairo to go to Alexandria, an older local man wanted to see my ticket, so I showed him it and he took me by the hand and led me to a spot on the platform and put out his hand wanting money and pointed to the ticket and pointed to the ground. Eventually we figured it out and he wanted money to show me where the door was going to open that was closest to my seat, so I had to pay him (loose change) for not doing much at all, a good way to make some money if you don’t have much. Upon arriving into Alexandria and not being able to find an atm anywhere, we set out looking for a café or restaurant that was open for breakfast and a pee as I was busting. There is a photo of me waiting in Alexandria for some place to open as I hadn’t yet worked out how to use the public pay toilets in Egypt yet and I didn’t have any Egyptian pounds, small enough notes, on me yet.

Was difficult to find some accommodation in Alexandria, that wasn’t part of a resort, which were all outside of the city, as this is where most tourists go to and just relax by the pool and drink cocktails all the time when they are in Egypt and not see anything else besides to the pyramids. I like to explore and get off the beaten track. Ended up staying in a families upstairs quarters, looking back it was similar to what we what we have now with Airbnb. Was right on the main road overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and in a great location to base ourselves. The way business is conducted in Egypt is on commission and whenever we were out looking around we would always get men coming up and asking if we wanted to buy something from them. After a full day of looking around and being constantly asked to buy stuff that eventually I caved in a purchased a hat from someone and Andy purchased a t-shirt. Then we went to a alcohol store, which are very few and far between, I’m guessing due to the majority religion in Egypt and we wanted to see how the commission based system worked in Egypt, so we purchased our beers, walked around the corner, then double backed and watch the guy who brought us into the store go in then return with instant cash in the hand. Where I’m from, people who do these types of jobs get paid either at the end of the day or week in cash or into their bank accounts.

Got a cab from the train station to the hotel in Giza near where our tour was going to start. Negotiated the price beforehand and the driver was ok with it and took us but the whole way he was going on and on about his family doesn’t have much money and he wouldn’t be able to afford feeding them if he took fares like ours. Man he was pushy so I gave him a little bit more just to shut him up, just keep going on and on. The hotel was so great and it was hot out so we hit the pool till about dinner/drink time then straight after. In the morning we hung out at the pool and again, then walked to our hotel about 1 km down the road. Was so hot walking to the hotel where we meeting the tour that as soon as we arrived, we hit the pool again. In Luxor, we stopped to have lunch at a KFC where all the staff are blind except for a few. This was run by a local charity and tourists are encouraged to eat here. Whilst felucca sailing for a couple of nights, most people got “the runs” and so did I and the guide would always set up the make-shift toilet and it got used a lot. I believe I got the runs from eating the fresh fruit at the hotel in Giza before we left on the tour as my body was telling me I needed some nutrients but my head was telling me not to as all the locally grown fresh produce is grown close to the Nile and it is used by many people doing pretty much everything in and on it. We finished the sailing very early in the morning at first light and I know why that was because the port that we stopped at had so much rubbish floating in the river at that point and if we were to see that in the light of day we would have been repulsed

Sent: Tuesday 9 September 2008

Subject: Re: Egypt 2

Hello it’s me again

I’m still in Egypt. I had some problems with my email last time I was on the net so that’s why I’ve been a little quiet. I’m actually in Dahab at the moment, on the red sea and it is a touristy snorkelling\diving city so have been kicking back at the pool and the beach every day. The coach ride from Luxor to Dahab was a killer, it was 18 hours of fun and we had a police escort take our bus along with 100 other coaches. It was impressive to see so many buses in one place but damn was it a long trip. Anyway, tomorrow people will be going to Mount Sinai but I will be drinking at the pool bar from let’s say 11 am waiting for the others to get back. I skipped the Mount Sinai walk as it is 7km 2 ½ hour night trek. Seeing as though Andy and I will be trekking into Petra, Jordan, 17 km, in the next couple of days, we gave it a miss.

Well that’s about it, chat soon.

When we were staying at our hotel in Dahab, some of us were still happy to kick on at the hotel drinking after dinner and it was still hot (is always hot in Egypt) so we decided to hit the pool even though it was closed. After 15 mins or so a hotel staff member told us to get out but we all weren’t finished swimming so they offered an alternative to swim in the sea as they had a jetty and would have someone supervise us for an hour then that would be it. We had to sign waivers to cover them as we had and were drinking, so we signed our lives away and had a great swim. We could see the oil plantations burning excess oil blasting away in the distance over in Saudi Arabia, across the Gulf of Aqaba that was an attention-grabbing site to behold. Went snorkeling in Dahab the following day and we told by the locals to stay away from the coral as they kept on saying if we were Russian they would ban us because supposedly Russian tourists flock here and mistreat the coral and it is being ruined and soon there will be nothing left to look at and the regions tourism will be no longer. One thing that really stood out for me besides the truly magnificent pyramids and monuments, was that the service at restaurants, bars, cafes etc in Egypt was really bad and it would take a long time get anything ordered and then arrive, that most times you would be waiting for 30 mins to an hour for your meal or drink, even after asking how the order was going and watching as the waiters would go back to the bar and just chat amongst themselves. Egypt is also a country that doesn’t have many McDonald’s compared to other countries that I had been to previously, maybe due to the religion of the majority here, as beef is not consumed a lot and KFC is the dominate American fast food chain. It seemed to me that all the cab drivers in Egypt insist on telling you that they are available by constantly beeping the horn at you until you acknowledge that you know that they are there and tell them to move on as you don’t require a taxi at the moment. After multiple days of beeping, you get pretty sick of it.

Sent: Tuesday 16 September 2008

Subject: Jordan/Germany

Well we finally made it to Germany after two days of basically waiting around the hotel, gym, pool and beach in Jordan and Egypt as we had a 8 pm ferry ride from Jordan-Egypt, then a seven hour bus ride back to Cairo where we arrived at our hotel at 5 am, then had a flight Cairo-Cologne that departed 2 am the following day. Am a little tired but is good to be back in a country that has an abundance of beer and has “normal” food as in breads and yogurt etc.

Jordan was amazing and Petra was the highlight for me. I kind of miss the 30 degree plus high temps of Jordan and Egypt as it is now like 20 degrees in Cologne.

The internet cafe that I am at now won’t let me upload photos so will endeavour to do so as soon as I can. I have a few good ones of the treasury building in Petra.

Hope all is well with you all and Larry I hope you are enjoying the Canadian hostel in Cairo and that you are coping with not having Andy and I there 🙂

Till next time its good bye from me for now.

Josh.

After leaving our Egypt tour, we started the Jordan part of the tour which we had organised through Intrepid beforehand, there were only three people who did this as the others went back to Cairo. There were two staff members for every person, which was pretty funny. We were dropped off at the port in Taba, Egypt and took a short ferry ride to the town of Aqaba, Jordan passing close by Eilat, Israel. The film that they were playing on the ferry was You don’t mess with the Zohan, which was a strange choice if you have ever seen it. The first thing we did in Jordan was eat some takeaway as we were all hungry. Jordan is an ally with the US and there are so many American fast food outlets here so we decided to have Popeye’s as Andy and myself had never had it before. It was ok, similar to KFC except a little bit oilier and has a biscuit, which should be called a sour dough roll as a biscuit is usually sweet. After that was Wadi Rum where we checked out the massive sand dunes and mountains and where they filmed Lawrence of Arabia. Stayed at a Bedouin camp and smoked some shisha (which I am not a fan of) and ate lamb, sung and danced with the family.

Next up was visiting Petra for two days. The first day we walked down at night and watched a performance at the base of the treasury building then after that we celebrated our Texan friend’s birthday at a restaurant. The following day was a long day going back down to the treasury building and beyond exploring as much as we could.

After a spectacular couple of days at Petra, we took a long drive back to Egypt from Petra, we would be asked at the checkpoints if any of us were in the US military, which we were not but they ask this as I found at later that in the past, some US military personnel were arriving into the country under their personal passport and not their government passport and not declaring that they are in the military.

Took the ferry back to Egypt and this time going through customs took a long time for me because someone mixed up our passports and let my friend though on my passport and I was the last to go through and they only had my friend’s passport left which wasn’t me so they were going on saying that I had no passport and was illegally attempting to come into the country even though I had a visa pre-approved stamped in my passport so I was not understanding what they meant by all this as I only found out when I finally made it out through customs with the Egyptian guide about the mix up. The drive back to Cairo was overnight and painful as we were stopping a lot at checkpoints and for slower cars. Our Texan friend took a couple of sleeping pills which worked but when we came up to the checkpoints, they would always want to see who was in the vehicle so we would wake him up and he wasn’t really with us. Looking back, it was funny but it took longer to get through the checkpoints as the guards would look closely at him and ask what’s wrong with him. Spent one day looking around Cairo again then we said goodbye to our friend and went to the airport for our Cologne flight. We arrived at about midnight and there were so many people just hanging out at the airport, the most I have ever seen, more than in Istanbul that we couldn’t really understand why this was so, maybe they were looking to sell things, I don’t know.

There are so many pyramids and temples to see in Egypt that you get overexposed to them and they start to blend in to each other but the highlights for me were the Valley of the Kings, the Pyramids in Giza, the Sphinx, Aswan, Dahab, Abu Simbel Temples, Luxor and the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu and sailing down the Nile.

Cologne is a pleasant city with the typical old town square with many museums and cathedrals mixed in with the modern German flare, that you can definitely be entertained here or live, as I found it a friendly and easy city to get around, even for the second time visiting.

Sent: Sunday 21 September 2008

Subject: A few more countries down

Hi again all

Well I’m in Warsaw, Poland, again and have a hangover from a rather large birthday party for a friend of ours, was a good party and many people where in a small apartment, I had fun.

Well Andy and I tried to get to the Somme in France but were unable as we didn’t have enough time and to get there from any other place other than Paris and you don’t have a car it is almost impossible, so we ended up eating McDonald’s then had a couple of quiet Desperado’s instead.

Since leaving Cologne and departing for Warsaw from near Paris, I somehow spent far too much money (very strange as I have been buying food from the supermarket and not drinking as much because I was preparing for Warsaw, probably due to the exchange rate) as transport and accommodation is expensive in northern France.

Anyway, at the moment it is raining and I’m watching Basia and Andy eating McDonald’s, whilst I’m attempting to upload photos to Facebook but it’s not working for some reason, maybe because the keyboard is all in Polish and I am a little rusty, we will never know.

Today we are off to Lublin, Poland for two days then back to Warsaw, then it’s off to Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria for about a month where it is said that I could if I wanted to buy a wife in the Ukraine. I may look into this once there are report back my findings, watch this space.

Well that’s really about it for now, hope everyone is doing well.

Cheers.

Before getting to the Somme, well a town close to it, we stayed in Lille for a couple of days, exploring around the charming town square, palaces and gardens. Was a quite city but after the middle east, anywhere was quieter, and we needed the break as our next destination, Poland would be busy.

Sent: Wednesday 1 October 2008

Subject: Ukraine

Well hello there, sorry about not updating you earlier on my adventures but have been away from the internet for a while and have had a few things going on since my last email.

The Kiev airport, that took a long time to get through compared to other airports that I have been but ok as the first thing we did was get a beer after we got through. The Ukrainians had a quick pass through unlike the rest of European passport holders.

Kiev, well let’s just say you can buy a wife and many women would be keen on it but they would only marry you for your money and your passport then divorce you, not what I would say would be the best situation. I made dinner and yes, I had chicken kiev in Kiev and they were ok but not as good as the Australia version, which is always the way.

Since Kiev Andy and I have been to a few cities in Ukraine which I cannot pronounce but have seen a couple of nice fortresses and met a few nice people but the main thing that has been difficult for us is the language as we don’t know any Russian and not many if any people speak English and has been hard for us to travel around and even to purchase food as most of the supermarket’s are very small and it is almost back to the old times where you have to ask for the product instead of picking it up off the shelf.

Well tomorrow we will head to Romania which we are looking forward to people speaking English and heading to Transylvania to see Dracula’s castle.

Till next time.

Kiev, Ukraine is a huge city with so much Russian influence that it’s difficult to find anyone over 30 years old that speaks English. We went to the tourist information place at the main train station and asked for an English city map, which we were given but all the street signs are in Cyrillic (Russian alphabet), so the map ended up being useless. Eventually we finally made it to our accommodation which was some English guy’s large apartment which he and his Ukrainian wife were running. Didn’t feel like a hostel at all but was passable I guess. One of the days that we spent in Kiev, he took us on a walking tour of the old town (Maidan Nezalezhnosti and Khreshchatyk) including the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the Golden Gate, St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, the Motherland Monument along with the Museum of the Great Patriotic War National Museum of the History of Ukraine in WWII and the People’s Friendship Arch. One of the nights, he also took us all out on a bar/nightclub crawl and that was a heap of fun and managed to get to sleep at around 5 am. As the guy’s bedroom was the living room, no-one could get in there pretty much the entire next day so we ended up just walking around checking out places like Bridge Park and attempting to order at restaurants, which wasn’t going very well, not knowing any Russian. This is a bridge in Kiev where newly wedded couples come to add a locked lock to the bridge for good luck in their marriage. Saw many couples on their wedding day going around the city getting their photos taken at all the famous landmarks in the city. The Kiev metro was really cheap, ran very well and had massive underground stations. Had an opportunity to visit Chernobyl with the others from the hostel but we decided not to, maybe next time. As soon as we went outside of Kiev, virtually no-one spoke English and it was very difficult to get train tickets, directions or order meals. At one town along the way to Chernivtsi, we went to get some food for dinner at the closest store and take back to the hostel, but the store was an old fashioned grocery store where you asked the grocer to get your items over the counter, I mean everything. We could not speak Russian, they couldn’t speak English, so we just purchased things that were known world-wide, so Snickers and Mars bars became our meals. The store didn’t even have a calculator to add up the total amount of the goods, they had an abacus. Made friends with a German guy from the hostel and travelled with him for a couple of days to the border of Romania. He was funny and mixed up a large bag and drank his own strong version of a White Russian every day we were with him. A highlight from this region for me was the Khotyn Fortress in Chernivtsi a remarkable castle and well preserved and maintained. Had our tour guide a dog that followed us around for a few hours. We gave him some chocolate and some left over Ukrainian cookies that we didn’t want as they tasted awful, he didn’t really eat them so they must have been bad. Ukraine is not known for its beer but more for its vodka drinking culture. I do drink vodka but when I did have a beer my favourite was Obolon.

Sent: Saturday 4 October 2008

Subject: Romania 1

Hi all

We finally made it to Romania and we have been in a small village called Suceava in the north near the Ukraine border for the past 3 days looking at old 15th century monasteries and fortresses and basically relaxing.

The border crossing from Ukraine-Romanian was the strangest that I have experienced so far. We had to get off our bus about 1km from the border and walk (we thought that it was going over the border then dropping us off) then we walked through the car lanes with the other cars and got our passports stamped that way. The border guard in Ukraine was very interested in all my stamps and looked at every one which took a while as I have a fair amount now (not bragging).

So far in Romania I have noticed that many more people speak English here, which helps me a lot and that it has very fertile land for crops and livestock and also has many churches and monasteries.

Next up is a town called Sighisoara then it’s off to Brasov .

That’s me to now, keep it real and I’ll chat soon.

Josh.

Bucharest is a large city and felt a little grimy for a capital city to me and it didn’t have much there that I was interested in except for the Palace of the Parliament which is the second largest building in the world, after the Pentagon in the US. Herastrau Park and Cismigiu Garden were worth seeing though but we were warned about big packs of dogs running around the city. We didn’t see much of that but there were probably more than you would usually see.

Besides Bucharest, Romania was a big surprise for me as it has so many beautiful towns and villages dotted all over the place and the people were really friendly and hospitable. They had just entered the European Union (EU) then, so that may have had something to do with their attitude and also the old German machinery I saw that the locals were using. We were joking that since they entered the EU, Germany were giving them some hand-me-downs.

I definitely recommend going to Romania for great examples of preserved buildings and architecture. My favourite beer in Romania was Timisoara, which not only was the best tasting for but it could also be purchased in a 2 litre bottle, perfect for those long days travelling. My second favourite was followed closely by Ciucas.

Sent: Thursday 9 October 2008

Subject: Romania 2

Hi from Bulgaria

Have just arrived in Veliko Tarnovo from a 6 hour train ride from Bucharest Romania. We plan on staying here in a pretty good hostel for two nights then head to Sofia for another two nights then head back to Bucharest for our flight to Berlin (love Berlin) with German Wings.

We only spent one night in Bucharest as we had heard from other travellers that it wasn’t a nice city and that there were packs of dogs running the streets. So far this hasn’t been true but I guess it hasn’t been the nicest city that i have been to in Europe. We will be back to Bucharest in a few days’ time for a flight.

Before Bucharest, we went to Brasov the home of Vlad the Impaler at Bran Castle. Actually this is incorrect as told by Hollywood. Still it was a nice castle, maybe one of the better ones in Europe but it was raining the day we were there which was a dampener but got some good photos of the eerie mist on the surrounding mountains. Brasov was a pretty cool town and I would say it is the Krakow of Romania. We also went to Sighisoara for the day, it is the birthplace of Vlad but it was raining and it was also a Monday and all the museums etc are closed on this day, in Romania unfortunately.

Once again that’s all from me, catch ya again soon.

I liked how the Romanians copied the Americans and put the name of the town up in huge white writing on the mountainside that faced the city, just like the Hollywood sign. Bulgaria was similar to Romania in that they had great preserved buildings, monuments and monasteries’ but they felt a little underdeveloped, nothing wrong with that at all, just needed a bit of a spruce up every now and then. All in all, Bulgaria is a place you can assure to be astounded by its naturally beautiful landscape and noteworthy gothic architecture. My favourite beers in Bulgaria are Zagorka and Kamenitza.

Sent: Tuesday 21 October 2008

Subject: Berlin and Warsaw

It’s me again and I am now in Prague and it’s still a beautiful city even though it’s the fourth time that I have been here, I love it.

While in Berlin we took a brief walk around the city and checked out some of the highlights and was great but it was very cold and it also started to rain in the afternoon which cut our tour short but a couple of hours so we decided to go back to our hostel, which was the biggest hostel that I have been to so far, and drink some local beers and I ended up getting not one but two kebabs to eat that night and Andy was slightly impressed with this display of manliness.

Two days after we arrived in Berlin we took the express train to Warsaw, which departed in the best central train station that I have been in so far, and it took 6 hours which was just bearable.

In Warsaw we meet up with our polish friends again for a birthday party for Basia and that was pretty cool day and night.  It was a weekend full of drinking and not eating too much but was enjoyable.

Yesterday we took the train Warsaw-Prague which took 8 hours and we somehow had a cabin to ourselves most of the name and we managed to stretch out and actually able to sleep a little which was great.

Last night we went for a Chinese feed to bring back the good memories of Prague and we remembered about the way they do the menus at Chinese restaurants here so we ordered thinking we had ordered the way the locals did back in 2004 2005 but we ended up getting two main dishes. Let’s just say we didn’t finish the meals.

Today we are looking around Prague and tonight we will meet up with a mate from the hostel years in London, then I depart Prague for Berlin by train early in the morning then I start my budget airline journey back home to Australia, which I will update you on upon my return.

Cheers to you all for reading my travel adventures and I am looking forward to some hot weather back in Australia.

Josh.

Sent: Wednesday 29 October 2008

Subject: Budget flights back home

Hello to you all and I’m sad to say that this will be my last email on this exciting adventure as I am home now back in Australia after an interesting budget journey back home to Canberra, Australia. I have been home for about five days and since arriving in Australia on Friday I have had a 19 hour sleep marathon on Saturday and have had many Australian foods that I have missed over the past two months and one week of traveling and have also caught up with family and friends. I have really only just adjusted back into Australian time and the weather is becoming really hot and am looking forward to a great summer here.

I will choose to begin my budget journey home here. 5 am Wednesday I wake up from a five hour sleep at the travellers hostel in Prague after having a few or more beers at a local student pub with Andy and a mate from the Nev hostel days, hi Leigh, to find that a small group of French guys (18/19 year olds) have just got back to the hostel from a pub crawl and they wanted to talk about everything with me but I had to make it to my train that left at 6:30am so I said to them, “pub crawls are great but I have to take a shower and get out of here very soon so if you don’t mind please drink somewhere else besides next to the shower”, crazy French men. While walking to the train station I noticed that I was sneezing and I would find out later that this onset of a cold that would linger around for a number of days and that would hinder my budget journey home. I believe I got this cold due to my clothes that were hanging up next to the shower but on the inside (as there was no place to hang them up outside of the shower due to no locks and space and me thinking that the French guys would take them) fell in the pool of water that was left in the shower after I finished and was one by one putting them on, only my underpants and trousers hit the water but that was enough to make me think that this was not a good an omen of things to come.

Anyway after an awkward shower and walking quickly to get on my train to berlin (it was 6 degrees in Prague at this time), a five hour train ride which I managed to sleep for half of it I made it and had a cabin to myself, I made it to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, got some food from the supermarket and made my connecting bus to Tegel airport with heaps of time to spare for my flight to Bangkok via Dusseldorf with AirBerlin, this flight was fine. They didn’t have individual TV screens but amble numbers of screens dotted around the plane which made for easy movie watching. On this flight I basically slept and ate and watched only one movie, the bank job, the whole time as I was waiting for the Jetstar flight Bangkok to Melbourne to take advantage of the upgrade that I had pre purchased concerning the entertainment package which is the best thing for budget airlines since the introduction of budget airlines.

Got into Bangkok at 10 am and waited around in the airport to 5 pm to get through customs for some duty free shopping and for my next flight with Jetstar which departed at 8 pm Thursday. Basically all I did at the airport was also sleep and eat as I managed to find a nice sleeping place on the second floor near some toilets which others were also doing. I looked around for a place to have a shower but no toilet block had one unlike Sydney airport so I changed my clothes, washed my face and cleaned my teeth and that was that. I found an ok Thai food joint and ate some Pad Thai for old times’ sake even at airport prices it was still nice. I was told that Bangkok is one of the top 10 duty free shopping airports in the world and it does deliver on the sheer number of shops that you can browse through and it was almost like a mall but if it is to make it into my top 10 it would have to have a roller coaster and/or swimming pool for me to really say that it was different or better than other big airports.

Bangkok to Melbourne was a great flight I watch three movies, along with listening to the whole new Coldplay album (which wasn’t that great except for the single viva la diva) and some Mr Bean shows. I stayed up the whole nine hours doing this as I had no one sitting beside me and I had a window seat so I put my feet up on the other seat and I used the other seats tray and when people walked by they just looked at me and I reckon that they were very jealous as the plane was pretty full but I didn’t care because I had two seats to myself and they were leather, that’s two to me none to them.

Making in through customs in Australia was a nightmare as I declared that I had food in my bags and all it was chocolate but I had to wait in the biggest line that I had seen in an airport since being caught up in the liquid bomb scare in Europe in mid-2006. I only had 45 mins to get through this line and make my other connecting flight with VirginBlue to Canberra and was getting anxious. I finally made it to the customs officer and he said to me “why did you wait in the line just for some chocolates you didn’t have to”. This made me furious as it said on the entry card ‘do you have any food items’ and chocolate is food, so I kindly told him that this crappy system has to be overhauled etc, so look out for any upcoming border security episodes for me as it did say that were filming the show and they had hidden cameras everywhere. I should also point out that I had a cold and I couldn’t get my ears to equalise since berlin and my head was aching since being at ground level and I was tired. If I am on the show it would be funny to see myself ranting on as i make fun of these kinds of people on the show.

Some good luck came out of my flight Melbourne to Canberra as the VirginBlue flight was virtually empty so they asked me along with 3 other people if we could sit at the emergency exit seats in case anything went wrong and to take advantage of the wider legroom and of course I said yes, I’m not an idiot. Once seated I partially listened to the crew on the emergency procedure technique then quickly fell asleep then as quick as you can say “holy sh!t batman” that plane is actually flying’ I was in Canberra and off to see my family and friends thus in turn concludes this adventure.

In summary: this trip has allowed me to see many places that I thought were out of reach to the budget traveller and seeing such ancient buildings and monuments is something that you all just have to experience, Rome is good but it’s got nothing on Egypt and Jordan.

Thailand, well what a great place for food, shopping, sun, beaches and being able to get up close to tigers.

Europe, mostly Eastern Europe, what can you say but what a continent, so much to see and do where do I start.

Thank you all for reading my travel journal and thank you to all those people who I have seen and chatted to along the way.

PS Snickers are the best chocolate bar in the world.