Travel restrictions I took a train down the Nile to Luxor from Cairo. To give some idea of the disparity between 'tourist' prices and ordinary prices for Egy...

Into Sinai I took the bus from Jerusalem back down to Eilat and stayed one more night in Israel before making my way over the border and into the Sinai regio...

Border Issues I headed to Israel from Aqaba in Jordan. I had been considering skipping it altogether, partly due to time constraints and partly because I jus...

Jordan: under the radar Jordan. What springs to mind? A tasty, crunchy, though somewhat difficult to eat breakfast cereal? A blonde who used to go out with Dw...

Safety doubts The Lebanon (why do we use 'The'? I'll drop it if you don't mind) is what is known as a political powder-keg. A beautiful country that finds it...

Hama: nailed on I had a short stop in Hama next. The town itself is pleasant enough, but I had stopped mainly as it made a convenient break on the way south....

Foreword This is a blog that I first wrote almost ten years ago - in late summer 2008, before the flood; before the Civil War that has engulfed the country a...

"If the earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital" - Napolean Bonaparte Foreword This trip took place in the late summer of 2008, three years ...