Never knowingly taking the shorter route

Hujambo!

I’m in Kenya - just one border away from Tanzania, where I’ll be spending most of next year. I am also over the equator for the first time, so I guess I’m upside down now.
My last couple of days in Cairo were interesting, it was the end of the Muslim Hajj and everyone was in party mood. It was even busier and noisier than before. I did, however, get to go and see a big bunch of coptic churches that had a fair few flions in them, which was good.

So I flew out on Kenya Airlines. They were pretty good, the food was reasonable and I would definatly recommend them for anyone wanting to come to Kenya or Tanzani (ie to see me, because I’m great). The flight did, however, stop off in Sudan (though I didn’t have to change) so I have now visited Sudan too. Though I only was it out of a window.

In Kenya I am staying with a friend of my mum’s that she knows through the Monthers’ Union. They are a very nice family and have treated me really well. They rent a house just outside Nairobi and have their family house further into the countryside. They are opposite anetional park and apparently I might be woken up at night my lions roaring. We saw a monkey coming out of it today.

So my first impression of Kenya is that its a lot greener than I thought, and it certainly does not seem any poorer than some parts of Cambodia.

Yesterday I went out on an errand with Job and we had to wait in a fairly poor part for a while and a big bunch of children cane up to me facinated, and slightly scared, by me. The all enjoyed touching my hair and wanted me to tell them a story, even though they could not really understand it. That was fun. And unlike Cambodia, they didn’t want money off me.

So, I’m having fun. Its going to be a very different Christmas, but it should be fun.

I have also managed to upload all my photos. Sorry about the lag. Might even get round to titling and tagging them at some point.

Hello, one and all. I’m in Egypt. I’ve seen Cairo and the pyramids, Aswan, Luxor and the valley of the kings and now I’m in Dahab.

Egypt is a funny country - pretty much all of the people live in Cairo, and all the towns are pretty much straight down the Nile. There is a lot of tourism here, unsurprisingly, but the country does still seem very Arab - its not that rare to see people setting up a prayer mat wherever they are for their daily prayer, or on a Friday from having entire side streets and half the train station being filled with massive prayer mats.

The pyramids were pretty impressive, I’d put them on a par with the great wall, really, and the other stuff was all really interesting (we went to a tomb in the valley of the kings that was hidden away so you had to climb and stuff to get there, which was fun). I wanted to take a felucca up the Nile for a few days, but there really wasn’t time.

Dahab is different, though, it feels a lot more western - its pretty much a town for relaxing and diving, and its a lot quieter than the other places in Egypt I’ve been.

Anyway, having lots of fun - the Egyptians are all complaining that its winter here and really cold and wearing sheepskin jackets - it probably gets to about 15 degrees centigrade at night! I’m heading up Mount Sinai tonight to see the sunrise tomorrow, then heading back to Cairo on Tuesday, then to Nairobi on Thursday night for a Kenyan Christmas. Looking forward to it all.

Erm, so yea, its been over a month since I wrote.  I kept meaning too, but it just didn’t happen.  Ok, so what have I done?

I was on Phi Phi, as I said.  Its a really nice place.  I went diving and had a lot of fun.  However, rather than following the rest of the french guys up to the north of the country I decided to go pack to Koh Phangan, because I met some really nice Thai people, eho invited me to stay with them in their bar, and I though that this would be an interesting thing to do.  So, for the best part of the last month I’ve been staying at the Bamboo tattoo bar and tattoo/piercing parlour.  I attempted to get a visa to India so I could go off and spend a few weeks there, but the travel agent messed everything up and I ended up renewing my visa a few times and finally not being able to get the India visa due to time restraints (when the travel agent assured me it would be quick).  I was pretty annoyed about that, but I have enjoyed the extra time in Thailand.

So, oh Koh Phangan I’ve been to several different moon parties, seen the children that live in the bar become monks for three days (everyone from their school did), met loads of thai people, been invited into loads of their homes, met loads of other travellers, seen loads of beaches that people don’t go to, been in the mountains, witnessed Thai people not knowing how to use knife and fork (they use knife and spoon, so meat presents a difficulty if not cut up) and many more.  I will probably write a summary of SE asia soon.

Now I’m in Bangkok about to head off to Egypt tonight.  Hopefully I’ll blog more from there.