Cyprus Hill

We landed in Cyprus in the afternoon.  The island is occupied by both Turkey and Greece and the green line divides the country between the two.  You have to have your passport stamped every time you cross over.  Upon arrival we noticed police in riot gear near our hotel.  Little did we know there was a local soccer game going on.  Our hotel was near a pub that supported The Hooligans.  When we got off the bus, I heard a cannon shot and of course I hit the deck.  But this is just custom if your team wins to shoot the cannon.  After a brief lunch and a group meeting, Natasha and I set off on foot and were immediately stopped by some locals at the Hooligan bar for some spirits.  We tried several drinks and headed off back to the hotel as we forgot to get Euros.  We then walked for a spell and realized we needed a cab.   We had the cab take us to the bus station.  What a nightmare - it was very difficult to find someone who spoke English and even harder to figure out the bus schedule.  After about 45 minutes of walking back and fourth, we figured out that we needed to go to the Turkish side of the island to go north.  Once we passed through immigration we realized that the Greek side was much nicer.  We found the correct bus station and realized it was closed.  So we headed back to the Greek side and had some dinner. 

      The next morning we walked through the “green zone” - this property is actually occupied by the U.N.  No pictures allowed.  We had to have our passports stamped again.  Shortly afterwards we boarded a 30 minute bus to the northern coast of the island.  We toured a castle along the coast and small boat harbour.  After a cool drink at a local watering hole with Bill, we then took a cab to the Buffavento Castle.  We then climbed for thirty minutes to reach the castle.  The views were incredible.  An interesting fact regarding this castle…it is one of the many castles still standing from the Crusade era.  It was built to help combat the Arab raiders.   We are in decent shape yet the altitude made the climb more difficult.  After climbing down the mountain we then went to the St. Hilarion Castle.  It is rumored that this castle actully inspired Disney for the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story.  Once again, the climb was tough.  This particular climb was a little tougher as we had to find things within the castle and the castle still had several climbs within its walls.   Compared to the pevious castle hill we climbed the views from this apex were fantastic.  You could actually see Nicosia from the top of this hill. 

After heading back to the city, we ran into our fellow travelers and decided to have drinks and lunch before we headed back to the hotel for check in.  I am sure it is needless to say, but the food was great, the beer was cold, and the hooka (apple flavored) was being passed several times around the table.    We then went back to the hotel for the checkin and a much needed shower.  After the shower we found out that were headed to Roma (Rome).

 

    “You can take back the things you give, but can’t take back the days you live” - Too Short

OH MAN! We love the Middle East

Upon arrival in Oman, one could not help, but notice the western influence on this country.  T.G.I.Fridays, McDonalds, KFC, and Hardees have all staked a huge claim on this place and they were all packed with customers.  We arrived at the Shang-Ri-La in the late evening and had some great Tapas style food and then hit the bed.  We had an early morning meeting and this time we were told we actually could rent a car.  And get this…a 4X4 was recommended.  We also were allowed to team up with others for an unlimited amount of scavenges.  We teamed up with Two Steps Ahead – James and Jeff.  We rented a nice Toyota Four Runner and hit the road to Nakhal Fort.  This fort seemed straight out of the movies and could not have been any cooler.  It showed how these pioneers did it back in the day. 

Mom and Dad - Recognize this?

Then the fun really began.  We headed to Bald Sayt, a village located in the middle of nowhere.  The map showed a solid red line for the road and then it changed to a dotted gray line.  Not sure what that really meant, we were on our way.  We were driving on the freeway and then all of a sudden, the pavement ended and gravel road began.  And not gravel as in old country road.  Gravel as in crushed rocks in the mountains.  We traveled for about an hour following another vehicle and Natasha thought we were lost until we ran across a milage marker outside of the town letting us know that we still had a long trip ahead of us.  The pictures do not provide justice of just how high we were in the mountains.  We found a nice spring along the way so we stopped to explore and stick our feet in.  A local there had just killed a snake.  People take full advantage of these water sources and have picnics and hikes with the family.  We continued on twisting and climbing and eventually stumbled on Bald Sayt.  How they got the materials to make this city in the middle of the mountains beats me.  The moutain climbed ended up taking much longer than we expected so we called it a night afterwards.

The next day we set out to have some fun.  We had all agreed that we wanted to make it to the Wahiba Sand Dunes.  We asked around and found out about a village of bedouins who might be able to help us have some fun in the desert.  Right as we arrived at the dunes, a guy flagged us down wanting to show us the dunes (for a fee, of course).  We agreed and ended up having the time of ours lives.

He first took us through the sand dunes.  They are very dangerous and if you don’t make it up the dune (you have to gun it to the top), you run the risk of tumbling over or sinking in the dune.  Only after we finished did the guide tell us that he has seen many a tourist tumble in their rental cars attempting to ride the dunes.  All three of the guys attempted driving the dunes.  Jeff and David were experts….but it was so freaking scary.  At one point I wanted to get out and let the boys do their thing, but the sand was so hot that I couldn’t stand it.  I had to stay for the ride and closed my eyes and screamed the whole time.

The guide then took us on camel rides.  This was wild.  David almost fell off of his.

I also got a henna tatoo by a local lady.  We had a great day in Oman.

Our next stop…CYPRUS!

Sure, Why Not? Sri Lanka

 I THINK we landed in Columbo, Sri Lanka on Monday morning.  This was another leg where we could travel to other cities so we first went to the local train station and purchased tickets for a later train south to Galle.  We then set out to see a little bit of Columbo.  We went to a local market and bought some toys and then took them to a boys’ home.  It was holiday for them, so there were only a few boys there as most had gone home to their families.  Soon after we arrived, some other teams arrived and we all played cricket with the boys for some time.  It was great fun.

That early evening we took our train to Galle.  There were only third class tickets available which meant that it was mostly standing room only.  Plus it was the middle of rush hour so the train was packed.  EVERYONE stared at us the entire time.  We could not stop laughing because even if you stared back, they did not stop.  I, of course, started talking to some people and pretty soon the whole train became our friends.  We must have talked to a least 30 different people throughout our 2 ½ hour train ride.  Something very interesting…we went 2 ½ hours to the next major city and the train was packed the entire time.  These people live in other cities and take this 2 ½ hour train ride TO and FROM work every single day.  That’s five hours of travel time in one day.  That’s nuts and makes you appreciate your small 30 minute or 1 hour drive each way to work. 

Our hotel in Galle was located inside an old Dutch fort.  It is actually a vacation home owned by a couple in California.  It was a mansion and very cool..  Two local boys ran the hotel.  Anything you asked them, they responded "sure, why not?"  Can we get some orange juice?  Can we do some laundry here?  Did the Dutch build the fort?  The answer to every question we asked was "sure, why not?"  Too funny.  

The next moning our taxi picked us up bright and early and we headed to the Sinharaja Forest Reserve.  It rained on us the entire time we were in the forest.   We had a local teenage boy that lived in the surrounding village take us through the forest.  The first thing he warned us about were the leeches.  Natasha heard the word leech and the paranoia set in.  Before actually going into the rain forest, our guide rubbed salt all over our shoes and legs…but the salt was not enough.  I couldn’t believe that the guide was wearing flip flops!  He was continuously flicking off leeches from his legs and feets.  The salt was a minor deterance and the leeches were still all over our shoes and the guide helped us get them off evey few minutes or so.  Once we came to a waterfall that required crossing, Natasha refused to go any further.  (I am editing David’s blog and just have to comment that I could just see myself slipping and falling into the water that was infested with who knows what….there was no way I was doing that.) 

So we returned back to our vehicle and then went to Uda Walawa, the largest nature reserve in the country. We paid a guy with a 4x4 to take us through the 76,000 acre park. Within two minutes of entering the park, we had a female elephant come within 20 feet of the vehicle. Pretty cool!!! We also saw some crocodiles resting along the creeks, and other animals such as water buffalos, a rare wild cat, and tons of different exotic birds. 

The next day we headed back to Columbo to meet the group. We learned our next stop is OMAN!!!