BIT OF BADO

TRAVELOGUE

In Amman, I managed to get my shorts and sneakers repaired by the same guy - on different dates. He tried to refuse money for the shorts but I pressed it on him.

For my trip to Akaba, Jordan I managed to get a seat in the top, front of a double decker bus. My philosophy is that 'until you ask, you don't know'. Believe me, this was not my assigned seat.

Although I had caught a bus bound for Akaba (from Amman), my plan was to get off near the turn off to Wadi Rum. It is confusing to me that a major tourist area like Wadi Rum doesn't have it's own bus going there - or a station there to take people onto it but I've learned that travel in this part of the world is tricky at best. My plan was just to hitchhike or something. But, if you've been reading this blog for long you will know that Logan's plans don't always (well, rarely) work out as he thought they would. It turns out that the bus would not stop. Hence, I had to drive past Wadi Rum and go an hour more to reach Akaba - which meant I'd have to backtrack the same distance. Joy. On the way to Akaba, they had a 'military checkpoint'. They checked other people's ID's and my passport. We had to run all of our bags through an xray machine. The laptop and kindle gave their x-ray machine some difficulty. Rather than making me open my bag, they just asked what was in it. I said "Two lap tops and dirty clothing!" It was close enough for them. "You are welcome." they said. Within 5-10 minutes total, we were off. Note, they didn't xray my satchel. After we had left the checkpoint, I discretely asked another passenger why they had it. Apparently, Akaba is 'strategic'. Brings back memories of Lawrence of Arabia.

When I got off what I thought was a very long bus ride in Akaba, I was literally surrounded by six taxi cab drivers trying to get me into their cab. Someone else had told me it was only 1 KM to the bus station. As I set off walking there, I was literally followed by all of the cab drivers. When people do this, it makes me very upset. I must have said "Please stop following me." ten times or more. Sometimes, the only thing to get rid of them is asking other people how you can get police aid. Note, this is not always a good move because you may just need these people later. Use it as a last resort only.

Tourism in Jordan without your own big "Adam truck", a pain in the ass. It is debatable whether it is really worth it.

The cab drivers also spoke to the bus guys. I suspect they were trying to tell the bus drivers not to take me anywhere as I was 'their fare'. Eventually, I discovered that one of the buses that had said it wasn't the right one to take was indeed one that went by - but not to - Wadi Rum. I said 'fuck it' and got on that bus.

I got dropped off literally at a deserted crossroads in the middle of the desert.

You know the phrase "I'd rather be lucky than good"? It applies to me. Literally, less than twenty seconds after I got dropped off, a car full of Germans pulled up. They asked where I was headed and after I responded, they kindly offered me a lift. I got my gear in the trunk and squeezed in. There was Daniel (he is thin and tall), Thomas (who we called "David Hasselhoff" - or maybe it was just me), Diena (lady who didn't talk much) and their leader and tour guide Jonas. In addition to a few other languages, Jonas also spoke fluent Arabic.

I couldn't have planned or asked for better companions.

So I went to Wadi Rum. Our hosts were the Al Zalabeh tribe of Bedouin (in Arabic, Bado).

We hung out at Wadi Rum. Although I wasn't able to play backgammon with the Bedouin It was neat. I made some videos that the slow and shitty internet in Egypt may or may not let me upload - I will try.

We slept in the desert for one night. I literally got to spend 9/11 this year in a Bedouin camp.

The next day, we toured around in the truck with our driver Moohmmd (his spelling). I did get to see a lot of different rocks and walk through a lot of sand. Each place we stopped at that had something special, our guide wanted to hang out for a long time. Fortunately, my traveling companions had some place they needed to be. After the first "I can't believe we're still here" times went by, they just started setting out to the truck earlier than Moohmmd was expecting to go. After he discovered they weren't holding with any shenanigans, the journey went a lot faster. The total trip time was say five hours. I didn't think that any of the stops at the 'look what I have for sale, please have some tea' Bedouin tents were really necessary - or at least not for more than a couple minutes. I think you could do the place in 3-4 hours if you knew where you were going.

I think the only thing that really could have been improved was the midday meal. We got taken to a fairly horrible grocery store and told to buy food for our meal. They really didn't have any good picnic food and certainly no picnic baskets. Personally, I'd have had that as one (bad) option or for an additional charge, you can have Bedouin cooking at one of the tents. I inquired about this and was told flatly "There are not enough women." I asked if Bedouin men cooked and was told they do. It was a confusing answer. At Jonas' urging I let the question drop. I suspect it is some sort of cultural thing that is getting in the way of them making a good profit and outsiders to get to experience more of the culture through food.

The Bedouin were extremely polite, courteous and good hosts. Unfortunately, the silence of the desert was nice but a bit too boring with no internet. Adam, please stop rolling your eyes. I did enjoy it but I couldn't have taken too much of it. The Bedouin did have some crazy (literally, I believe) English 'perma traveling' lady in her fifties or so. She had joined the Bedouin camp somehow (possibly without their permission) and was working there to get a free place to live, much like I did in Georgia. When I first met her, she literally had a bit of froth on one side of her mouth. It set the tone for all of my dealings with her. My host, Eghab said "Perhaps I will kill her in five days." I replied "Five days is too long." One of us was joking.

When I discovered that my new traveling companions were going back to Akaba - and that I'd had enough rocks and sand to last me I jumped at the chance to go with them.

They dropped me at the border to Israel then drove off to return their rented car. I took the long walk across the deserted border outpost by myself - little knowing the pain that awaited me.



JORDAN

Bottled water is available everywhere and is fairly cheap.

Jordans are very educated - many of them speak English.

According to a nice lady I met named Kathrin, women traveling alone in Jorden have no problems.

The Jordan dinar is at a fixed rate with the USD. $1.4 USD = 1 JOD. Because the rate is fixed, it tells me that it would be worth less than a rat meat taco outside of Jordan - get it changed earlier rather than later.



AMMAN JORDAN

Amman's old town is one of those that would take a day or two for getting the layout of as well as seeing everything they've got. They have a fortress on top of a hill as well as a Roman theater. I went to see the theater because that was not made on top of a fucking tall hill.



TRAVELERS TIPS

Always take a business card for whatever restaurant you are offered. You can always throw them out later. Not taking a business card may mean you are unable to easily find that restaurant again.

Lie to customs inspectors habitually, especially if you can use the disclaimer "I misunderstood your (horrible) English. The customs inspectors are wanting a neat, pat answer to their questions, not the truth. Always make it sound as though you have a set - somewhat tight - schedule and rare interested in sticking to it. This is what the majority of people have and it's what they're expecting. Give them what they expect.

Although it has been stated numerous times in different places, it bears repeating again - if yo are wanting to visit a lot of the middle east, do NOT get an Israel stamp on your passport. In fact, if you are crossing that border, Egypt will also offer to stamp other pieces of paper. Yes, you get to fill out at least part of another form but it is that or spend a bunch of money and time to get a new passport. Always remember to ask for this!

Long shirts and pants are not just for modesty. Unless you enjoy feeling hordes of very persistent flies walking around on your arms and legs, wear long sleeves and long pants. Really.



TRAVELER'S LORE

Jonas (the multi-lingual German guy) had done a lot of traveling in various ways recently. He assured me that traveling through Israel would be very preferable to taking the ship from Akaba to Newava I had originally envisioned. Fortunately, I listened to him. What happened later (see narrative) made this information very useful. By much shorter, I am meaning over half of a day with various inexplicable delays and such. The one to two hour times given on the schedule are what we call a 'lie'.



PHILOSOPHY

When did we move from a culture of people who spoke to each other into that of slaves for the television?

What the hell are people thinking with cell phones? When ever they have a loud ring tone that goes off seemingly forever? This is because they need to look at the phone prior to answering it - as if they are not going to answer it. We all know they're going to. They're stalling. They are hoping that somehow everyone else will break into spontaneous dance at their sucky song and make the person with the cell phone the new king or queen of the moment. That is what they hope will happen. Everyone else forced to listen to their music thinks they are an inconsiderate dick with shitty taste in music.



BEDOUIN CUSTOMS

When you are in a Bedouin camp enjoying their hospitality, if you put down your coffee it means that you want something from them and they will give it to you. This is usually used as a means for the right young man to ask for a daughter's hand in marriage. I'm not sure what else it could be used for but I'm betting they don't serve coffee lightly. Lots and lots of tea seems more common.

Family is the most important thing to the bado. A large family is considered to be a 'strong family'.

Before modern times, goats and camels were the wealth of the tribe.

The best thing about being a bado is respect and honesty.

I had asked our bado host Eghab 'What is the one thing I should tell others about the bado?' After some careful thought he replied "In fifty years, there will be no bado living in tents. The culture is disappearing." I believe this is a sad thing. Most of the bado encampments you can go to today are just for tourists. If the bado way of life interests you, see it while you can.

In the village of 1000 Bedouin near Wadi Rum, about 90 of them make their living through tourism.



OTHER TID BITS OF INFORMATION PICKED UP

Mohammed the Prophet is from Saudi Arabia.



GERMANY

According to Jonas, if you'd like to get a strong impression of Germany, visit Berlin. Lots of people have immigrated to and become part of the community.



COSTS

Taxi from Akaba to Wadi Rum direct, 40-50 JOD

The sandals I'd had the guys buy me in Georgia had really started to tear up my feet. I've decided to put them into semi retirement as 'shower sandals' because many of the showers I've gone to are just that fucking scary. I purchased new sandals in Amman - they started at 17 JOD, I bargained down to 12 JOD.

Lunch - hummus, irba (I forgot what that is), falafel and water, 3.5 JOD

Mailing two of my note books to Jana (yes, Jana you should expect a package from Jordan) - 14.3 JOD. Registered is 15.3 JOD but they couldn't explain to me what that was and I needed a return address in Jordan which I didn't have.

Tea on Jordanian bus (which they forgot to collect and I forgot to pay), .4 JOD.

Taxi from Akaba to Israel: 4 JD

Taxi from Israel border crossing at Jordan to the border crossing into Egypt, 50 sheckles (ILS).

Keefta (head wrap), 8 JOD

At Bedouin camp, three 1.5 liter bottles of water, 1 JOD. Good price indeed. Drink lots.

Israel: 50 ILS to drive across Israel between Jordan and Egypt in a cab. 101 ILS to leave the country. I've often wondered - if you can't come up with the money to leave the country, do they force you to become a citizen?

LEAVE TURKEY, ARRIVE JORDAN

LEAVING ISTANBUL

For the fairly nominal fee of 10 TRY, a shuttle bus to the airport was arranged for me by the hotel staff. The shuttle buses go to ten or more different hotels/hostels and pick up people. You need to schedule them in advance. My plane leaves at 14:30 hrs, hence I scheduled myself to get on the 10:30 hrs bus. I figured that would give me a good four and a half hours. Some other stupid and whiny tourists had apparently not thought to schedule that far ahead. They were vigorously complaining about anything from the numerous tops to be made to critiquing the driving. There is no wonder that people get fed up with tourists. Eventually, the drivers assistant (the guy whose job it is to yell at the driver) told the tourist "This is a shuttle, not private!" I noticed that despite the passenger making noises about getting out and getting a taxi, they never did.

I don't think they made their plane. It took me over four hours to work my way through two different sets of security checks, border checkpoints, baggage and such. A lot of standing in lines. My actual waiting time for the plane, excluding a small meal, was about thirty seconds. I can't stress enough the need to give yourself a lot more time than you think you're going to need.

For those interested in such things, my main bag weighs in at 15.7 KG. I think that the weight is down from 20 KG when it got robbed last.

I like the way foreign airlines do their boarding and such a lot better than the way American ones do. There is none of that fake pomp and circumstance of American airports. "We'd like to invite all of our platinum members to board at this time." And they don't have people who need extra time to board before others. The door just opens and people get on in their own speed. It is faster and with less bullshit.

The aircraft was old enough that it had been built with ashtrays in the armrests. They played light, slow and (to me) annoying music. People who decided to really push the bounds of what they could get on with 'carry on' attempted to fill the overhead bins with shit. Out of apathy, I'd not bothered to check out the duty free shop. Although I've got nothing against taking a 'puddle jumper' in the future I would like to avoid any more use of large aircraft.

On airplanes in America, the 'snack' you get on a two and a half hour flight like this one is a choice of peanuts or pretzels on the nicer airlines. The worse ones just throw a bag of peanuts at you. On Jordan airlines, I had the best meal I'd ever had on a plane. With wine.

As a side note, when I was a kid, I never heard about anyone with an allergy to peanuts. Actually, no food allergies at all. I'm wondering if the species is weakening? With the advances in medical science, loads of people are alive today who wouldn't have been years ago. "And very proud we are of all of them." - The Big Lebowski.



ARRIVAL IN AMMAN

Anyway, we eventually landed in Jordan. Due to my research, I had 20 JOD ready for the visa when the guard asked. He smiled at that. I had read that a taxi from the airport into town is a fixed rate of 20 JOD to get into town. The taxi driver seemed very disappointed that I knew that. He even tried to rip me off for more once we got to town but smiling and being extremely firm got the rate to just 20 JOD. I did have to raise my voice to do it though.

I made my way to the hotel. For common areas, there are several different room and a roof but the bedroom is noisy, hot and stuffy with three beds. Not a great place but it is the top rated one in this city. I'm glad that didn't go with a lower one, I suppose. As an example, you are not suppose to throw toilet paper into the toilet. This wasn't really an issue for me because what hey, there was no toilet paper. A careful examination of a sign on the door showed that they wanted two cups of water poured into the toilet. That made sense because the toilet (unlike the previous day) simply would not flush. So, I poured in not two but many cups of water. A wet and angry big turd mocked me in it's resistance. I fled the bathroom leaving it to be someone else's problem. I hope it didn't escape and kill anyone.

Another example is that the noise on the street sounds like the New York Stock Exchange with the addition of annoying music and blaring car horns. Before this, the nosiest city I had been in was Batumi, Georgia. This place makes it look like a ghost town.

Though I've heard other parts of the city are pristine, the part I am in is lacking quite a lot of the garbage cans and street cleaners it should have. There is more street trash lying around but less graffiti than in Prague.

After getting settled in I ended up hanging out with a guy named Dominique and we went to a coffee shop. We ended up talking to a tour guide (who had no interest in taking us for a tour - he specializes in Israeli tourists) for 45 minutes. It was very nice. Afterward, we ended up chatting with Misbah, an Indian here for work on the roof until one or two in the morning.

Some very good news here however. The people here are not as grasping as those I'd come across in Turkey. Here, they seem happy to give me a business card in case I need them. One taxi driver cruising by said "Do you need a taxi?" When I responded in the negative, he replied "Welcome to Jordan sir!" and drove away.

I am getting to use my little Arabic again after years of disuse. There are a lot of foreigners who are here to learn Arabic I've noticed.

If I keep my wits about me and don't start thinking 1 JOD = 1 USD (1 USD = .7 JOD) the part of the city I am in looks very affordable to me. [Yes, it is odd to be in a country whose money is more valuable than the US.] I might stick around here for a couple days to stomp around, till I get bored. Everyone is wanting to get me on tours but the staff of the hotel/hostel isn't really pushing it hard.

I've heard that it should cost between 5-10 JOD to mail off my two books to Jana. I'm hoping that I can get those mailed off tomorrow (Saturday). Friday, it turns out, is the holy day. This means that some of the businesses - including the post office - are closed for the day.

I did manage to go visit the local Colosseum.



The tourism police - very friendly and helpful. I got the opportunity to sit around and chat with them. They also help guard the monuments.



TRAVELERS LORE

Egypt - have a lot of very small notes/change for baksheesh (expected bribe or tip) as it will be asked for literally anything and everything. You need to have money to give them. For the tip, you can give literally the smallest note/coin you have.



COSTS

Shesha, 2 JOD (remember how it was triple that price or more in Georgia? I knew it would be cheaper later).

Coffee, 1 JOD

Tea, 1 JOD

Water - 250 ML, .5 JOD

Entry to Roman Colosseum, 1 JOD

WORDS OF WISDOM

My mentor, Adam, pictured with his tough travel truck


In this blog, I'm going to be putting in some of the words of wisdom I got from Adam on travel. Adam is running a hostel (well, two) in Ukraine and has been traveling for decades. after meeting him and discovering the depths of the mans knowledge on many things, I decided to make him into my traveling mentor. With good graces, he has put up with this and answered many questions. He has even attempted to put new knowledge into my brain which is never an easy task.

Some people have asked me why I need a traveling mentor. There are just a lot of skills that I don't have for very long term travel. Also, knowing how to get the most out of your travel time is hugely important.

I offered to edit out some of the things but Adam said he didn't care and I have put up many of his answers in their entirety.

The following is to address my concerns over the high cost of traveling (Adam's answer begins here):

Only you can decide the balance between travelling, spending money, and living abroad. I told you at the start.....There are plenty of places you can live very well on $40 a day... But its pretty hard to TRAVEL on $40 per day. Travel is not cheap.

Whats the point of travelling then?...Just to get somewhere cheap?
You can save yourself the bother and just do that once. Find a cheap place and go there...and live there.

Maybe you should forget travelling and just find somewhere to live? I dunno Logan...what are your priorities?
Travel?
Cheap living?
Saving money for medical uncertainty?

You can't do it all.

You can have the first 2 but then you have to have a marketable skill (like I had sailing) and even then you have to forgo the autonomy of destination... I sailed where the boats were going... not where I wanted to go necessarily.

As for medical issues...I don't see how you can reconcile travel and medical uncertainty on a budget, at some point you have to abandon one or the other.

You can sit in Batumi and decide:

Whats my cheapest option from here?
or
Whats my cheapest option to a specific place (Egypt)?
or
Whats the most the most interesting option from here?
or
Whats the most interesting option to a specific place?

Not much chance any of the 4 will coincide though.


OK, back to Travelling 101.

On average I'd say that Turkey goes from being 25% more expensive than Georgia, in the East to 100% more expensive west of Sani Urfa, to 300% more expensive in Istanbul and the Med coast.

Having said that though.....

You can live in any country cheap... But it won't be in any Capital or major tourist destination. You can get a hostel job in those places.... but its not much more money than a bed in most cases. Get a marketable skill... Teach English, find an internet job (translation, transcription, converstaional english lessons) but its a job and you have to commit time and resources to doing it.

Travel local class..travel in installments not long distances all at once. Like hitching, its easier to travel in 20 mile sections rather than try and snag one 500 mile lift.

You can go live in the boonies, eat like a local, live like a local...and life is about as exciting as the local's life... But its travelling.

Start to utilise CouchSurfing as an accommodation tool rather than as an introduction agency.

To really squeeze the most out of travelling you essentially have to innure yourself from concerns about visa expirations and such. Whats the worst that can happen if you overstay? Detention at the border for a few days? Not allowed back for a year? Small fine? I have returned several times illegally to Ukraine, overstayed my visa and paid a desultory fine, before I finally obtained a legal residency visa and the truck, which was only permitted in Ukraine for 8 weeks, had been here 11 months. So pick a country that is either corrupt (like Ukraine), simplistic (like Georgia), or petty (like Turkey) and deal with it when the time comes.

Like I wrote in the previous email....travel or settle somewhere cheap? Istanbul is expensive. Does that mean you should avoid it altogether? Then whats the point of travelling if you are gonna miss all the good stuff?

The idea is that you hole up for a few cheap months in Georgia so you can enjoy a few expensive weeks in west Turkey and Istanbul without decimating the budget.

You are in the wrong part of the world at the wrong time to be considering staying and working....except for Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Georgia, or the Balkans
Countries like Egypt and the rest of North Africa are a bust....too unstable to live, plan, or save for anything. Morocco would be ok....but you have to trek up into the Atlas mountains to live in the trekker community, not in Rabat or Casablanca.

Travelling the way you envisage is not backpacking....its a tough grind most of the time with no short cuts and no easy options.

Unless you can make a real income whilst you travel and not merely a subsistence....and even then its still a grind.

Dive Instructor
Hostel Manager
Tourism Professional
Tourist Guide
Experienced Sailboat Delivery Crew
English Teacher
Private Tutor
Online Translation
Online Transcription
Online Marketing
Online Back Office work

...or just pick a cheap place and hole up...in other words stay in Georgia.

Who owns the hostel in Batumi? They got any cash? If so I'd be convincing them to open a winter hostel in Guadari.....do a deal where they open it, you run it for the winter for 25% of the gross. Free accomodation, a fun winter, more experience, and a wedge of cash at the end.

Even better if you have some online work to supplement your income. Spend the next few months getting on European and Russian online ski forums and promote the shit out of it. Same with the hostels in Tbilisi....and Russia, and Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. Summers in Batumi and winters in Guadari?....sounds like a plan...might do it myself.

This is where you come to understand that while the travelling life is a bed of roses.... it actually means sleeping on the thorns.


Logan's notes: The notes are still something I'm contemplating. It is easy to just read the words and say 'yes, OK, sure' - but I am working on getting more out of them than just that. In the common vernacular, I am working on 'taking these words to heart'. I feel very fortunate to have someone who is more than qualified to give an opinion share their advice with me. This is very valuable for me and I am grateful.



CURRENT PLANS

I'm going to start up the 'travel machine' on the first of September. My current thought on what to do is just go across the border into Turkey and start hitchhiking. I really don't care where I go within Turkey. I know the common way is to have a sign with your destination but in this case I am just going to see where I get taken. If I get to a place that doesn't have anywhere to stay or something, I'll just sleep rough and make my way to somewhere that has a place I can stay. I look at it as 'lets just see where this takes us'. I figure I have up to two months to kick around in Turkey. If it is too expensive and such I will start with more purpose making my way toward Cappadocia and eventually on to Istanbul. Those are two places I would really like to see. Anything else I get taken to and such is just a nifty extra.

Assuming I don't blow too much money in Turkey (and making the big assumption that I like it), on or around November first, I think I'm going to contemplate Jordan. The trip that Adam suggested may be very interesting indeed.

My emergency back up plan should I run out of money prior to getting to Egypt is either to get to Egypt (a cheap, dull part) or get to India (a cheap dull part) and sit on my ass till I regenerate some funds. If I am careful though I should be fine for having some interesting travel stuff.

We'll see what happens. I'm following an earlier piece of advice from Adam and keeping an eye out for opportunities.

[Note: Details about possible upcoming Jordan trip to be detailed in a later post.]

LOTS OF TRAVELER'S TIPS

WHAT'S UP

I had met up with a 'Turkish small businessman' - one of those guys who has a lot of different jobs with vague titles and not much time required at the office, if you know what I mean. He told me that four in five clubs here are stocked with prostitutes. A lot of people come in from Turkey for 'sex tourism'.

After two weeks (or so) I've managed to become a bit more of an authority on 'what's in the area around the hostel'. I realize that it would have taken Pete 'a half day and a bit of a wander' but I'm still pleased at being able to tell guests who come to the hostel what's around.

I've also gotten well known enough on the Turkish street that I can't go down it when I'm in a hurry - too many people to meet and greet, getting sucked into games of Backgammon, tea, etc. But I do find it quite a nice diversion.

Most of the guests here believe I own the place (the hostel, not the city) but I did have to work harder to convince a Turkish tourist Ekin (Nike backward - cool nickname) that yes, I indeed work here. Really. Now, give me your fucking passport. Anyway, he shared some interesting information on Jordan with me. (See Traveler's Lore). After we got over this initial speed bump, he was a wealth of information.

Since I am following the advice of my sensei Adam and staying put for a few months, most of the stuff I'm typing in is 'traveler's tips' rather than 'this is what happened to Logan'. This is as much for my records as your edification.

For those wondering 'so how are you doing with your spending'? It's a constant struggle. Fortunately, it can cost about the same to eat out as it can cooking my own food. Since they have no kitchen facilities here, that works out for me. In general, my costs are going about like this:

Breakfast - yogert (2.4 GEL)
Lunch - Bakery hamburgers. I buy two of them, take the toppings and meat from one, stick it on the other and pretend I am eating in the US. (2.6 GEL or so)
Dinner - I either eat a packet of noodles (1.5 GEL) or take people out to the white room for a huge feast (7 GEL, give or take) depending on how many people we have, my mood and so on.
Miscellaneous stuff like cigarettes at a buck (US) per pack, haircuts, replacement gear, medicine and all that also kick in.

I have been trying to keep to 20 GEL per day but find I often go up to 30 GEL per day. 30 GEL is till half my daily money allowance so that isn't too horrible but I'd like to get my spending to 1/3rd.

Checking with my bank account (which is way too frankly honest) and taking when I last withdrew money and dividing by the number of days till I need more show my spending is actually about 45 GEL per day. Not good, but I had to blow a bunch of money on replacing my medicine and such. Not a thrilling happy thing but not unexpected either.

Bottom line, I'm working on doing better but I'm under the break even point and am saving money now. The question is 'how fast am I saving money'. I know what my goal is and I don't know if I'll get it for awhile.

For leisure, I am talking to people, drinking a bit of tea, water and juice, watching movies and TV on the tiny netbook screen and reading books on the Kindle. I figured the Kindle would come in handy eventually and now seems to be the time.

I haven't started contacting people via couch surfing to hang out with yet - keeping that for a 'later' thing as I'm still inundated with people coming to the hostel to stay.



SINGLE WOMEN TRAVELING ALONE

I talked to a girl who was traveling alone here and asked if she had any tips for other women traveling by themselves. Here is what she said:

a) Trust your instincts. If you're not comfortable (in a place, situation, etc) don't try to convince yourself to stay. Just go. Trust your instincts.

b) Avoid arriving late at night to a new destination. If you must, give someone a ring just to tell them where you are.

c) Don't dress stupidly (aka 'sexy' aka 'revealing skin'), especially at night.

[These are good pieces of advice and I thank her for them! Hopefully, we will get more people willing to travel solo. Traveling by yourself is such an interesting experience!]



TRAVELER'S LORE

I had found out about a Facebook page called 'Cairo Scholars'. It has links to the expat community in Egypt as well as places to stay and such. I decided to 'like' it because it is possible I will be 'wintering' in Egypt this year. It is always interesting what sort of resources people know about.

Ramadan is starting on the first of August. I do not at this time foresee being in Egypt (or any Arabic country) for that event. Although I have heard that it gets to be a lot of fun at night - many parties, casual feedings and such so it might not be a good thing that I miss it.

Getting to the Turkish border (and a nice beach) you can either take marshutka 101 or possibly 146. This goes to Sarpi, Georgia.

Jordan: Seeing Petra costs an amazing $70 US. For those too lazy to click on the link, that's where the climax of the third Indiana Jones movie took place. I know that inside is nothing but a couple square rooms - nothing cool. Hence, another way to say it is 'to get your picture taken in front of it is holy shit $70!' Even the Brits who like to charge outrageous fees in London for seeing things (Churchill's Bunker, Westminster Abbey, etc) don't go above 20 BPS (aka $31) for that crap. I was told about an adventurous tourist who snuck in there at 4-5 AM to avoid the security guards and such that would later be demanding money. In addition, it is advisable to have a receipt for your accommodation with you at all times or they charge you double price to see stuff. Robbery! Jordan itself is very expensive - I've been told equivalent to Switzerland. This tells me to keep the fuck out.

Turkey - try to bargain down the price of lodgings down by up to 40%. How much you can knock them down depends on how full they are and so on.

Turkey - check out Pamukkale (town). They have some unique hot springs and such there. It sounds good to me. I ws also advised to check out a hostel called 'Mustafa's Pension'.

Turkey - the two big bus lines are Metro and Pamukkale (named after the city).

Turkey - check out Bodrum. They have the largest under water archaeology museum in the world. Also, there is a hostel there. [Note - they have one hostel there and it has a really horrible rating. Reading the reviews on it somewhat dampens my will to go there. By somewhat I mean 'all the way'.]



COSTS

Indian food - kind of crappy (mostly bone with a little chicken hanging on it = kill the cook) - 10 GEL

Shorts - gaudy and very Georgian in fashion (I dislike the shorts a lot) - 10 GEL

Flip flops - Iraqli found me some good ones as the 9 GEL ones I had bought literally were pounded flat, had a hole through them and were about dead in a mere ten days - 17 GEL

Getting to Trabzan (Turkey) via a very nice bus with air conditioning and possibly a toilet (Turkish buses are nicer by a long shot than Georgian) - 20 GEL

A guest at the hostel was telling me about a forty minute boat ride along the coast you can get though I haven't gone and confirmed it - 5 GEL