our initial plan was to stay for one night in aqaba, and head north towards turkey. but enticed by the diving school on our doorstep and highly recommended by fellow travellers, we stayed back for a day and (ash) completed padi open water qualification. the red sea
is amazingly clear full of bright colourful corals and exciting marine life. the highlight was swimming with a sea turtle that had wandered towards shallow waters.
this delay allowed us to spend more time with our friends from the ferry, claire and leon. this enterprising couple from netherlands have been on the road for 6 months on their landrover miles. it was very inspiring meeting them, and learning what it really meant to be on a road trip. they had a mattress on their rooftop, on which they camped wherever possible, cooked most of their meals and were able to fix anything that went wrong with their vehicle. checkout their website http://www.milestogo.nl/. moving quickly through the rest of jordan and syria (with a
night halt at hama), we reached the surprisingly modern town of diyarbaker in turkey. this was only to be a night halt but we met some really friendly kurdish businessmen, who invited us to their carpet shop and chatted for hours over tea. one of them had been to india and enjoyed recounting his experiences there. the best part was they knew from the start that we were not going to buy anything, and yet they remained hospitable as ever, keen to make friends and not customers.
our next halt was van, where we had an amazing drive along the van lake and a visit to the akdamar island (10th century armenian church) was refreshing. in van we stayed at hotel bayram, the owner of which, mr rashat, was very friendly.
he was delighted as we were the first indians to stay there and treated us like vip’s. he even made sure breakfast was available for us at 6am, as we wanted to leave early to cross the turkey-iran border.
our last impression of turkey was the majestic snow capped mt ararat, which we passed as we drove through the border town of degubayazit. fantastic!
is amazingly clear full of bright colourful corals and exciting marine life. the highlight was swimming with a sea turtle that had wandered towards shallow waters.this delay allowed us to spend more time with our friends from the ferry, claire and leon. this enterprising couple from netherlands have been on the road for 6 months on their landrover miles. it was very inspiring meeting them, and learning what it really meant to be on a road trip. they had a mattress on their rooftop, on which they camped wherever possible, cooked most of their meals and were able to fix anything that went wrong with their vehicle. checkout their website http://www.milestogo.nl/. moving quickly through the rest of jordan and syria (with a
night halt at hama), we reached the surprisingly modern town of diyarbaker in turkey. this was only to be a night halt but we met some really friendly kurdish businessmen, who invited us to their carpet shop and chatted for hours over tea. one of them had been to india and enjoyed recounting his experiences there. the best part was they knew from the start that we were not going to buy anything, and yet they remained hospitable as ever, keen to make friends and not customers.our next halt was van, where we had an amazing drive along the van lake and a visit to the akdamar island (10th century armenian church) was refreshing. in van we stayed at hotel bayram, the owner of which, mr rashat, was very friendly.
he was delighted as we were the first indians to stay there and treated us like vip’s. he even made sure breakfast was available for us at 6am, as we wanted to leave early to cross the turkey-iran border.our last impression of turkey was the majestic snow capped mt ararat, which we passed as we drove through the border town of degubayazit. fantastic!
near the border we met a swedish group driving ambulances from sweden to india for donation. they were very friendly as well and keen to help us in obtaining pakistan visa. but despite several attempts throu
gh their travel agent in islamabad and pakistan embassy in tehran, we were unable to obtain a visa to pakistan. our next few days were spent in talking to various shipping companies based in iran and uae, to find a sea route to india. but as all our options were slowly closing it became more apparent that we will have to fly the last leg of our journey home...
gh their travel agent in islamabad and pakistan embassy in tehran, we were unable to obtain a visa to pakistan. our next few days were spent in talking to various shipping companies based in iran and uae, to find a sea route to india. but as all our options were slowly closing it became more apparent that we will have to fly the last leg of our journey home...
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