March 2010 Archives

It started some time in June 2009, I had already been on the road for three months when my dad suggested to join me for a few weeks. My older sister (Dasha) was also looking to join us for some time. Dad wanted to travel somewhere in Europe, Dasha didn't want to go somewhere she'd been before. We eventually decided on Turkey and Egypt via Northern Cyprus and Southern Cyprus as we didn't have time for Syria and Jordan.

My dad flew in from Australia, I flew in from Latvia three hours later. Dasha joined us four days later.

Was it tough to travel together with family? Sure, we had fights. We had different styles of travelling, my dad was comfortable with just chilling out and relaxing all day. My sister does research on countries before she arrives, plans out a full itinerary that involves seeing EVERYTHING and sleeping on buses between destinations. I tend to just wing it and not rush anything, I love meeting people and discovering things that can't be put in any highlight itineraries, a chance encounter at a restaurant, seeing how people live their daily lives, the sort of things that are mundane back home, but fascinating when you travel.

The secret to making travel with family work, or for that matter, travelling with friends of differing mindsets is always compromise and being able to put yourself in their shoes. Dad would never offer a suggestion for something he wanted to do, but I found out quickly how much he loved boats and being taken around places. Guess what, in the trip we took no less than five boat trips (day trips, ferries and a felucca trip).

My dad had stepped so far out of his comfort zone, my sister and I convinced him to stay in hostel type accommodation, he once couchsurfed with us at Dasha's friend's place in Ankara, Turkey. He rode on ATVs (quadbikes), motorcycles, camels and horses.

He would hike with us for hours in Turkey, sleep on a felucca boat in Egypt, pull silly faces all the time and never complain about what we were doing.

My dad would always be keen to meet new people and always had them laughing and having fun. They always told us how much they loved my dad "Mr Alex", but my sister and I didn't pay any attention at the time, we just thought it normal to have a dad that's so easy going and who can make friends with so many people so easily.

My dad is a bigger IT geek than me, we always caught him using the internet, logging onto his workstation.

My dad's workstation was named Osiris, after the Egyptian god, any time he saw a carving or a statue of Osiris, his eyes would light up and he would make us take a photo of him. Dad, here's to you and Osiris.

Dad, I loved travelling with you so much and I want everyone in the world to see just how cool you are.

Never was dad prouder than when talking about the accomplishments of my sister and myself and you could tell how much he loved travelling with us, even if it wasn't in the style that he was accustomed to.

A lot of us take our family for granted and think we could never travel with them. My suggestion, do it, you'll get so much out of it.

Dad, you're my Alexander the Great and I love you so much. I can't wait to see you and travel with you again. My dad is my biggest blog fan (he always comments with the name ak).

How do your family travel stories compare? Do you enjoy travelling with your family? Would you travel with your parents?

Part two of my top 100 travel photos, this collection involves Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam (an amazing island with lots of beaches that's fun to explore on motorbike). The second set of photos comes from Phnom Penh in Cambodia, where I was pickpocketed and robbed of my wallet, credit card and money. Please add your feedback in the comments section.

6. South Beach, Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

While exploring the Island, we found a beach with crystal clear waters and palm trees all around. The water is shallow and the sand is white, the food is cheap and the people so friendly and hospitable. There were five of us on the entire beach at the whole time, something that you can't say about the big Thai beaches and islands.

7. Restaurant, Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

A small restaurant overlooking the water, right next to the pier where the fishermen sell their days catch. Featuring Phu Quoc's cheap and famous seafood, a definite favourite of Vietnamese and travellers alike.

8. Sunset, Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

I happened to be travelling the island with a photographer, we were riding through the island on the way home as the sun started to set. They say there are really only two good times to take photos, sunrise and sunset. We were passing the tree and lake on the side of the road, Bao noticed it and was already of his motorbike with camera in hand before I even realised what was going on. With him, I learned a lot about photography and composing amazing shots.

9. Monkeys at Wat Phnom, Phom Penh, Cambodia

Coming out of a temple in Cambodia, I see a mother monkey with her baby. Animals and children are great subjects for photos, a baby monkey, that's a no brainer. I started snapping away. The monkey's were barely a metre away from me. The flash startled the mum, she defensively ran up to me and bit me as soon as I snapped the photo. I didn't get rabies, but I stood back a little further the next time I was taking photos of monkeys.

10. Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Some photos are repeated hundreds of times. Any tourist destination will have every place captured from every different angle and available on flickr before you even set off. The trick with these places is to set up the shot so that the crowds aren't visible. If you show up in the early morning or late afternoon or when the weather looks like it could get worse, you can get the shot. Sometimes you can just pretend you work there and move everyone out of the shot, if you act with enough authority, people will move.

The photos for this post and more like it are found in the photo galleries for Phu Quoc, Phnom Penh and the Royal Palace.

Luxor turns out to be a huge area to explore and worth at least three days to cover it all. In the Valley of the Kings, where the Kings and Nobles of Egypt from 16th-11th century b.c. were buried, including the most famous of all Tutankhamun (Tutankhamen), your ticket gets you into three of the 63 currently discovered tombs, but if you're my sister, you'll have snuck into many of them anyway, while no one is looking.

Other sites worth visiting are the Valley of the Queens (photos are not allowed in either valley), Deir el-Medina, the village that was home to the artisans who worked on the Valley of the Kings.

In the village lies a tomb for a worker's family:

A temple to Hathor in Deir el-Medina, built later on.

After Deir el-Medina, there's also Luxor Temple:

and Hatchepsut (or Hatshepsut, the only female Pharaoh) Temple:

There's also the Temple of Karnak, made famous in the movie "The Mummy Returns".

Something that most people don't take note about is the amazing plethora of colours that are found in Egypt. Walking around the markets, whether it be the fruits of a grocer, the vegetables of a felafel dealer or the spices, knick-knacks and clothes of a salesman. The vivid colours amaze and impress.

The final shot, a late evening sunset in Luxor over the River Nile.

March 19th, 2009 - The day it all began. This time, last year at 21 years of age, I had just quit my job. I'd saved $20k AUD, quit my job, packed my things, bid farewell to my friends and family and was on a plane from Sydney to Vietnam. I started my trip having never travelled outside of the Western World, in my first few days I was ripped off countless times and pick-pocketed shortly after.

None of that mattered though, on my first outing from my over-priced hotel, I had barely walked several steps and was offered narcotics only to return to my room in a panic thinking I should go home and that I was way over my head. Who would have known that mere months later, I'd be avoiding a situation where some people were trying to set me up with heroin, and that I'd handle the situation without really worrying about it.

My trip, one year after it began, is now officially over. In that time, I have:

• Visited 25 countries: Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia, Abkhazia, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Northern Cyprus, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Germany, USA and Canada.
• Travelled through 5 continents: Oceania, Asia, Europe, Africa, North America.
• Taken 6 flights: Sydney - Saigon, Luang Prabang - Hanoi, Riga - Istanbul, Larnaca - Cairo, Tel Aviv - Hamburg, Frankfurt - Las Vegas
• Shot 14,000+ photos.
• Made countless friends and experienced even more adventures.

In the coming days, there will be some big changes happening. The past few weeks, I have been creating and optimising a new design for the blog. I will finish off the journey from Egypt to Canada and I will write more about some of the people I have met and how they changed my life.

I will also share with you a collection of my favourite photos and the stories behind them.

Thank you all for your support and well wishes. I will stay in Vancouver, Canada until I am ready to start my next trip in one or two years. I have plans to travel from the North of Yukon to the South of Patagonia overland and also to drive the entirity of Russia, photo-documenting the journey and some of the lesser known places.

I am in the process of writing a draft of a book and would love to hear what you want to read about most.

Finally, if anyone is in Vancouver in the next year or so, drop me a message ivan AT adventureivan.com so we can meet up and share some stories and so I can show you some of the city.

After a long day of sightseeing and given that Christmas is only days away, we decide that it's time to splurge and take a more expensive room. Although the tourist information office has zero information on hotels, one guy who was visiting happened to be from Cairo and always in Luxor for business, giving his verdict on every hotel in Luxor, including the Hilton, Mövenpick and Old Winter Palace (where diplomats and rich businessmen choose to stay).

Sunset over The River Nile in Luxor, Egypt.

Tractor in front of Luxor Temple

Nubian man with his donkeys, fetching water for his family to use.

Christmas isn't generally celebrated in Luxor, there's a few guys dressed as Santa Claus, though only to draw more business. There is no commercialism or the barrage of advertisements we face back home to buy presents for every man and his dog.

For the first time in many years, my Christmas is spent with family at an amazing restaurant, sharing our experiences and talking about the past few weeks together.

We manage to bump into Susan and Wilson from the felucca and make plans to explore more of Luxor together.

After the felucca trip, we end up back in Aswan looking to leave to Luxor (or Marsa Alam for some diving), while visiting Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples along the way. The tourist office tells us this is not possible, the trains leave in the evening and the buses have already left in the morning.

Me: So it’s not possible to get from here to Kom Ombo?

Tourist Office: No.

Me: How do the locals travel?

Tourist Office: There’s a microbus stop.

Me: How do we get there?

Tourist Office: Tourists aren’t allowed on local transport.

Me: Why?

Tourist Office: You don’t speak Arabic, it’s dangerous.

Me: My Arabic is very good, how do we get there?

Tourist Office: By taxi

…

Eventually we find directions to the place and take a taxi to the microbus station, to find that the Kom Ombo microbus is leaving and it’s full. We end up waiting a total of six minutes for the next one to fill up and get from Aswan to Kom Ombo for a total of 3LE (60 cents US).

As we get off the bus at Kom Ombo, we spot the minibus carrying our Felucca friends, Susan and Wilson, tell them about how ridiculously cheap it is to travel as a local and head off towards the temple. We spot some police officers relaxing and leave our bags with them as we hop in a tuk-tuk for the drive to the temple.

Kom Ombo Temple: Built in 180BC, is actually two temples in one. One is dedicated to the gods Sobek, Hathor and Khonsu while the other is dedicated to variations of Horus.

As is usual fare in these temples, there are always closed sections to them, however if you stand around long enough, a guard will unlock the door, show you around and ask for baksheesh afterwards.

After returning to our bags, the policemen decide that they will handle our journey to Edfu and call their senior officer for the duty. When the ranking officer arrives, they pull over a minibus and speak with the driver who takes us to the microbus stop free of charge. From there we get on a microbus bound for Edfu for four pounds (80 cents).

Edfu Temple: Built in 237 BC and is the largest temple dedicated to Horus and Hathor.

Inside Edfu Temple.

After visiting Edfu temple, we stumble upon difficulties in trying to get to Marsa Alam, the driver who is taking us to the microbus stop for Marsa Alam is confused and takes us in the wrong direction, losing out forty minutes in the process. We end up missing the last microbus to Marsa Alam by five minutes and sit around in hopes of more people arriving to make the trip. After an hour, we realise no one else is coming and so hop on a train for Luxor.

We find that the price to Luxor is 6LE ($1.20 USD) each and that tickets are purchased from the conductors on board. When they come to check our tickets, they tell us the price is 15LE each. My sister, thinking quickly gives them the correct price we were quoted smiles and tells them it’s correct, they don’t bother her any more about paying the higher price.

We arrive at Luxor by train in the evening, for a small fraction of the price that any taxi driver offered and far less than the Felucca captains make the trip out to be.

The following day, I’m recovered as good as new thanks to garlic and lemon and we head down for our boat trip… only there’s been a change of plans. Captain Jack is not around, instead it’s Captain Muhammad, the boat is smaller, we take off an hour late and there are more people than the boat can fit.

The other passengers though are great fun, Marco and Linda are a couple from Montreal, Wilson and Susan are brother and sister, grew up in San Francisco and live in Hong Kong and New York respectively. We laugh and joke the whole time, ultimately it’s the company you’re with and not the conditions you’re in that dictate how good a time you’ll have.

We stop sailing a few hours later, the mattresses aren’t on the boat, there aren’t enough blankets, there’s not enough space for everyone to sleep comfortably, camels spend the whole night growling and in the morning we wake up to find the boat has beached and will take several hours to move.

We decide to cut our losses, explain to the captain that we’re not continuing with the trip since we didn’t get what we were promised. He snaps, he starts swearing, threatening to fight me and tells us the police will arrest us. Also there’s not enough space in the transport and a taxi will cost four times what we paid for the felucca trip.

After diffusing the situation, we take a share car back to Aswan and decide to set off on our own trip to Luxor.

Everyone loves a good boat trip, relaxing on the deck as the wind catches the sails pulling your Felucca down the Nile. No concerns and no worries, all you need to do is bond with your fellow passengers, and take in the sights and sounds of your experience. Trouble free, right?

We opted for the Felucca trip that most people with a bit of time in Egypt opt to do, three days and two nights aboard a boat, from Luxor to Aswan. The boat would take us as far as Edfu where we would join other Felucca passengers for a trip to The Edfu Temple and then to the Temple of Kom Ombo before arriving in Luxor.

In Aswan, every second Nubian offers us a trip on his (or his uncle’s, cousin’s, brother’s or neighbour’s) boat and so we have no problem negotiating a cheap price. We’re down to 85LE (Egyptian Pounds) per person for the trip before we meet Captain Jack.

Captain Jack Sparrow as he prefers to call himself is another breed of salesman, his pitch is smooth, he offers service unrivalled by his competitors, he tells us about the dodgy business practices of other Felucca captains and he wins our trust quickly. We take a trip out to see his Felucca and see what differentiates it from everyone else. His promises start at the useful end of the spectrum: a bigger boat to ensure everyone has room, soft pillows for a mattress and enough blankets to ensure everyone is warm. He goes on further, utensils to enjoy the amazing food he and his staff will cook, a music player so we can party into the night and my favourite of all cups with handles so we don’t burn our hands holding glasses.

Captain Jack tops off his pitch by showing his book of references, of course we ignore it 99% of the time, these are hand written, but still we have a good feeling so we decide to take the Felucca journey with him – everyone that is except for my sister, she’s indifferent to his sales pitch and says there’s no point in paying the premium he commands (an extra $4 USD per person). We’re not stupid though, we meet with him the following morning and give him half the money upfront and tell him at the end of the journey, as long as we get everything that he promised, we’ll be paying the remainder on completion of the trip.

When it comes to the day of the Felucca trip, I fall incredibly sick, fever, sore throat, cough and a runny nose. We call Captain Jack to tell him we can’t make it. He’s understanding and says he’ll be back the following day and that we can go then. When Brawy (the guy we met in Alexandria’s Castle) finds out, he’s devastated and concerned, sharing some family secrets for curing me. Next thing you know, my sister is feeding me garlic until my stomach burns, my father is feeding me lemon until my eyes water and when I have the strength to eat, the waiter of the restaurant where my dad gets rice is incredibly concerned about me, someone he’s only seen once.

The following day I’m feeling good as new and we’re ready to embark on our Felucca trip of a lifetime…

Our main reason for the trip to Aswan was to see Abu Simbel, two MASSIVE temples carved into a mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II. In the ‘60s, the temples were cut up into pieces (30 tons at most), moved uphill and reassembled so as to prevent their flooding at the completion of the Aswan Dam. The amount of work and money ($80 million USD) was unprecedented and involved the cooperation between a team from all over the world. The temples were reassembled in their original orientation so that twice a year, every year, the sun can reach the very back of the temple of Ramesses.

Legend has it that the name Abu Simbel comes from the name of a young boy who used to run tours through the temples, similar to Slum Dog Millionaire. Although it only seems to remind me of The Fifth Element.

In order to reach the temples, we need to organise a trip from Aswan, several hours south through the desert, 20km north of Sudan. After much negotiation, our hotel offers us a cheap car for the trip and so begins the hilarity that is Egypt’s world famous customer service.

We’re up at 4am for the trip, and find out at 4:45 that our car is actually a bus and our seats are the foldout sort in the centre aisle, the bus is completely packed and everyone is cramped.

We take off still half asleep, having protested and having no car available. We stop with a group of buses on the outskirts of the city, waiting for other buses to arrive. It seems that we have to travel in a convoy, irrespective of who you organise your trip with, you all still arrive at Abu Simbel at the same time. Some soldiers outside spin some rhetoric about it being better for our safety…

Several hours later, the sun rises over the desert reveals the desert through which we’ve been driving, the desert lies in every direction. The remoteness of the temples explains why it was dormant for so long.

The Great Temple at Abu Simbel took over twenty years to build, dedicated to three gods (Amun, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah) with special guest appearances by the pharaoh himself (Pharaohs are gods too).,

At the entrance to the temple lies this gem of a sign, NO PHOTO INSIDE THE TEMPLE…

… of course that doesn’t stop me (and countless others) from taking photos.

Too bad though, an unexpected Egyptian pops up and tells me I must leave and go to the police. I ignore him and take more pictures when he’s not looking.

The tour continues with:

The Nefertari temple at Abu Simbel.

Monument to Aswan Dam, built by the Soviets and Egyptians, the plaque goes on about the friendship between Arabs and Soviets.

ЗА ДОЛГИЕ ГОДЫ СОВМЕСТНОГО ТРУДА ВЫКОВАЛАСЬ И ЗАКАЛИЛАСЬ АРАБО-СОВЕТСКАЯ ДРУЖБА,НЕ УСТРУПАЮЩАЯ ПО СВОЕЙ ПРОЧНОСТИ САМОЙ ВЫСОТНОЙ АСУАНСКОЙ ПЛОТИНЕ – Гамаль Абдел Насер (Gamal Abdel Nasser)

The fun part of the trip starts when we get to the dam. Half the people on the bus paid for the long tour, including a stop at the dam, the other half paid to go to Abu Simbel and back. The bus driver stops the bus outside and demands an entrance fee from everyone on the bus. Half the bus refuses to pay (ourselves included). The driver tells us we must get off the bus. We refuse, it’s hot out and we don’t want to spend our trip waiting for other people to have a tour. So begins the tensest standoff since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After much swearing (in Arabic) by the bus driver, we offer the bus driver to get off and wait for him, if he pays each of us baksheesh, this does not help his rage.

Eventually we get off and let him take the guests on the dam tour. Next stop, Philae temple.

Philae Temple, temple complex and the holiest site for Isis worshippers.

The temples are in varying states of restoration, in order to get to the temple you must negotiate for a boat trip out to the island as it’s not included in the ticket price.

Negotiations start at 20 Egyptian pounds each, but we band together and get the return trip for 5 pounds. As we’re leaving, I overhear an Indian guy negotiating his way to 4 pounds. Negotiate like an Indian!

At the end of our trip, our hotel manager gives us some weak explanation as to how we misunderstood car to mean car and not bus (apparently in Egypt anything smaller than a full coach is a car), we don’t really care at this point, we’ve had a blast.

What’s the secret to getting a bad night’s sleep you ask? How about a fourteen hour, all stations train trip from north to south Egypt (Alexandria to Aswan by train)? You can sleep through that? How about being in a smoking carriage the entire way? Still think you can sleep through that? How about if all of the other passengers are insomniacs who listen to music on their phones, chat and smoke the entire trip? If you can sleep through ALL of that, congratulations: You are a seasoned traveller!

After getting into Aswan, waking up to good Egyptian coffee and finding a hotel for the night, we take a ferry across the Nile to visit a Nubian Village.

Nubia is a historic region in Africa, located in Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan. One of Africa’s oldest civilisations, Nubian history dates back to 5000BC. Incorporating parts of Ancient Egyptian culture, such as Pyramid building, Nubians have at times had control over all of Egypt, having conquered it from the Assyrians and Egyptians.

What better place to start a tour of a village than the local school. The kids who show us around are absolutely amazing and so incredibly friendly to boot.

One can only help but wonder what they teach in Nubian schools. Lucky for us, we’re able to go into a classroom, find out they have English lessons and find this absolute gem of a poster:

Modal Verbs “Possibilites”

1. Definitely: The plane will crash.
2. Probably: The plane may crash.
3. Possibly: The plane might crash.
4. Definitely not: The plane won’t crash.

The tour of the village continues after our English lesson.

In Nubian villages, people are incredibly social. There is no dining room, all eating occurs outside. If anyone comes past while the family is eating, they are invited to join in the meal.

If there is a baby in the village, a big party is thrown and streamers are hung in front of the door of the house as in the picture.

Cute Nubian kids can and do PARTY!

The typical house is made from mud bricks, in a similar tradition to many Tibetan houses, though few are as beautifully painted as this one or the following one.

While one can look down on Nubian villages and consider them basic due to the lack of amenities. It is worth wandering in one as Nubians are so incredibly proud to meet strangers and make friends of them. They’re also proud of their heritage and will tell you they’re from Nubia, not Egypt. Read more about Nubian culture.

We’re in Alexandria, a city or rich history founded by Alexander the Great and at the former site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; Pharos, the lighthouse of Alexandria.

The lighthouse has long since been destroyed, its ruins used in part to build the Citadel of Qaitbay (The Castle of Alexandria) and it’s here that a couple of jokes leads to a friendship that highlights the essence of Egyptian culture.

“Hey, where are you from?” asks one of the Arab guys we’ve seen taking photos in the castle. “Egypt”, I reply jokingly. This sets the entire group off laughing. “Well Mr. Egypt, can we take a photo?”.

Who are we to refuse? We take turns posing for photos and tour the entire castle together, laughing and joking the whole time.

The gang are from all over, Brawy, Zanun and Food Captain are from a small town between Cairo and Alexandria. Samra is from Kuwait and is amazed when he finds that yes, we know where it is and can point it out on a map. Muhammed is from Saudi Arabia and develops a crush on my sister.

When we leave the castle to find my dad, the guys tells us their story. It’s the first time they’ve managed to find time off together, they don’t have enough for a hotel and they don’t need one. They are out partying and enjoying life, they spent two days in Cairo and are now in Alexandria before Samra and Muhammad leave the country. They haven’t slept at all yet!

We talk about the differences between Arab and Western culture; these guys were brought up with the utmost respect for their parents. Every morning, they kiss their parents and tell them how much they love them. Prior to going anywhere, they ask their parents permission. This is how it’s been for centuries and they don’t want life any other way.

Our conversation leads to lunch, lunch leads to tea, tea to dominoes, games and more photos. Egyptian hospitality dictates that one must always look after their guests. The problem is, so does ours. The guys consider us guests in their country, we consider them guests for lunch, so we spend some time taking turns justifying why we should pay for the food.

Tea and dominoes with (L-R) Dasha,  Zanun, Brawy, Food Captain, myself and Mr Dad.

At the end of the day, when everyone is too tired to stay awake and the guys still have a long drive ahead of them, we call it a night.

For the rest of our time in Egypt, we keep in touch with our new friends as Brawy makes sure to call every day and check-up on how we are. He considers it his utmost duty to ensure we have a great time in his homeland, Egypt.