The team of 3 (Pete, Brendan and Manoj) are still eating their way through Istanbul. After an epic seafood meal last night (Balik quvec - seafood casserole) Manoj and Brendan have to sneak white bread and sweets cos Pete insists they are just fillers and of no nutritional value! Our tactic today when we passed a Baklava store was for Manoj to distract Pete whilst Brendan ran in and did the deed. The Turkish delight was to die for and in the end even Pete weakened.
After breakfast we headed to Aya Sofya which was only a 5 min walk up the cobbled streets of "old town" from our hotel. Manoj had promised to light a candle for Jim's wife so we split up and covered every inch of the massive buidling in search of a candle. The huge spans of vaulted ceilings, 36m diameter dome in the center and acres of slab marble floors was impressive to say the least. When we finally regrouped we came to the realisation that since converting the premises to Islamic faith perhaps it was no longer possible to light a candle. Pete suggested we could set fire to something but after close scutiny from the security guards we decided against it! Sorry Jimbo we tried!
After our confession session we jumped on the red double decker for a look around the city. Note to self - when it is sub-zero and you're sitting on the top of an opened air bus don't forget some warm clothes - we all needed to be chipped off the seats when the tour finished 2 hours later. However the skies were clear and we got a good look around including the bridge that links the continents of Asia and Europe, the remains of the walls that once protected the ancient city and the many fisherman trying their luck on the Bosphorous.
After the bus tour we defrosted with a coffee and headed to another seafood restaurant this time under a Galata bridge. We enjoyed a lazy lunch as the ferries raced back and forth in front of us. We then legged it back to the hotel in time for Manoj to grab a cab to the airport - he returns to his family in Doha tonight. Big thanks for Manoj for his efforts in getting the team this far with a smooth trip through the borders of Saudi, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Appreciate it mate. From Pete: Manoj smoothed the way in many potentially difficult situations. He fits in everywhere and speaking Arabic saved our behinds from being shamefully abused, many times. Sans castrol oil. You're a legend.
Tomorrow both Pete and Brendan are looking forward to getting on the road - enough of this hotel / restaurant lifestyle - we're ready to rough it! Our next stop will be a very fitting one for the Kiwi and Aussie as we'll be stopping at Galipoli to pay a little respect. We may be out of internet range for a while as we head up through Bulgaria and Serbia but hope to be in Budapest in 2 days time.
Ancient site of Ugarit, just north of Lattakia.
Fish restaurant below the bridge where the guys were fishing. Welcome! Welcome! (Editor's note: Pick the newbie...)
Pete in Green Village compound at 03:30, fully loaded.
Cockpit of the Discovery with no less than 3 different GPS devices.
KSA, Hufhuf
Small town past Hufhuf, where we saw one of the best desert camping shops. Everything you could want and cheap as chips.
Crossing a railway line.
Cooking Pete's egg sandwich.
Pete washing down the sandwich with some tea. Filling up the car was sweet - 40 litres of diesel came to 8 Saudi Riyals or 1.60 GB Pounds.
Saudi is not all desert. There were loads of oases and some freshwater lakes as it rained recently.
Hotel in Turayf, KSA. Outside temperature: -2 Celsius. Price for a twin room for 2 persons 200 Saudi Riyals, which is about 40 GB Pounds.
One of the desert pools of freshwater.
GPS showing an elevation of minus 345 m as we descend towards the Dead Sea coast.
