Another late entry… In July I headed to Turkey for 6 days on an ANZAC pilgrimage. After arriving in Istanbul early in the morning I managed to find a 5 hour bus ride to Eceabat, a small town on the Gallipoli Peninsula. After checking into my hotel I discovered I had not missed the Gallipoli tour for the day (which I had planned to do the next day) so after a quick shower I jumped onto the bus to visit the ANZAC battlefields. The tour went for about 5 hours and whilst not overly informative it gave me a good recce [View Full Entry]

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For the first time in six months all the Australians had the weekend off together so we decided to make the most of the opportunity and headed to Damascus. I was expecting Damascus to be very similar to Cairo, but found it to be substantially cleaner and quieter. I only visited central Damascus but it was a great place to visit and get around, much more modern and moderate then I expected from the Axis of Evil. The first night was spent enjoying ourselves at an expatriates ball, which luckily just happened to be on that night. A little bit of [View Full Entry]

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Despite my best intentions I haven’t been able to keep the site as up to date as I would have liked so this entry is a little bit outdated. Back in April I spent a week on the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia. It is an absolutely amazing place and every day was spent snorkelling or diving around the islands. Mass tourism is slowly making its way to the islands, but there is still a chance to enjoy the simple life. The snorkelling around the islands is awesome and all locations are easily accessible by the local boats. All the photos were [View Full Entry]

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After spending 9 days in Egypt seeing the sights I headed to the Red Sea for 7 days of diving from Sharm El Sheikh. After reading about the dive sites in the Red Sea I was keen to check them out and get a few more dives under my belt. I also hadn’t done much diving with my new regulator and it was time to experiment and get used to it. Over the next 7 days I managed to fit in 2-3 dives everyday. The weather held all week except for one uncomfortable day which sent a few people of the [View Full Entry]

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After a few short trips I finally got a decent break and headed to Egypt for just over two weeks. The plan was to take a 7 day tour of Egypt, spend a few days in Alexandria and finish off diving in Sharm El Sheikh. I spent the first day by myself in Cairo before the tour kicked off and I got my first glimpse of the mighty Nile, though its dirty water and floating rubbish takes a bit off its reputation. I managed to find the Egyptian Museum and after a good two hours I finally wandered out despite not [View Full Entry]

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With Australia Day celebrations approaching in Jerusalem, I decided to take a few days off beforehand to tour the Holy Land. A few mates ended up being free as well so we piled into a hire car and headed down to Jerusalem. After a few textbook road trip moments (the highlight being driving through snow without snow chains and proving the car had ABS) we finally made it to Jerusalem. We even managed to fit in a quick snowball fight, much to the amusement of some Indian UN peacekeepers in the area. With two days free Dean, Corey and I headed [View Full Entry]

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With only a few days off since I started working in Lebanon I jumped at the opportunity to get away when five days became available over New Years. It was either that or sit around Tyre wondering what DVD to watch next. A mate of mine had been living in Spain for a while so I thought I might try out a siesta or two. As always, my best laid plans were useless as Batchy and Lynette had plans to travel through Italy at the time…so off to Italy I headed. I arrived in Rome after a 3am flight from Beirut [View Full Entry]

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