Pictures From Plovdiv Bulgaria

Just Pictures...

The town of Old Plovdiv during dawn.

What 400 days on the road taught me

Having spent more than 400 days on the road, I am finally back in the comfort of my own home in Sydney, enjoying some much needed downtime, free of worries. Hence, I have been reflecting on my journey over the past year. From meeting new friends along the way to gaining new life experiences. These are the things that I have learnt:

The Misconception that Travelling is Expensive

Of the many people and friends I talk to, this is probably the most common topic that comes up time and time again. I often come across the question  "How can you afford to travel for so long?" and "Oh you must have saved a lot?". Although YES, this is often the case, the opposite is also possible. One can explore the world on a shoestring budget.

When I first planned this adventure, I was of the same mindset. However, once I started to budget properly, I soon realised you don't need a whole lot of money. It all depends on how you choose to travel. I have learnt many things along the way from fellow travellers. In one case, I met a guy who managed to travel on a budget of USD$10 a day!

Sure, while one can spend $200 a night indulging in 5 star luxury, on the other end of the scale one can also find a hostel bed in Cambodia for USD$2 per night. In Laos, you can get your own waterfront bungalow on the Mekong for USD$4-5 a night!

My own piece of the Mekong in Southern Laos for $5 a night!

Istanbul in Pictures

Just Pictures...

Hagia Sophia- The Christian church turned into a mosque.

What does Turkey have to offer?

Before arriving to Turkey, I read many articles on how nice Turkey was. Two things stuck out:

1. How nice and friendly Turkish people were.
2. Istanbul as being a must visit!

I must say, on both accounts I was left rather disappointed! Don't get me wrong, there are definitely MANY MANY nice Turkish people out there and I met many during my time in Turkey from the countless time I hitchhiked to a Turkish local from Istanbul I met in Cappadocia who chauffeured me around Cappadocia when he saw me walking between towns as he was also travelling around Cappadocia in between different towns.

However, walking through the bazaar and markets I was pestered by aggressive merchants which killed many of the experience and led me to some ill-feelings about Turkey. In one case, I had a merchant grabbing onto my hands and not letting go only to have profanity thrown his way! That said, my experience was probably spoilt by Iran and how high Iranian's set the benchmark for hospitality!

So my question is, what does Turkey really have to offer? Istanbul? Not really... Voted as the best travel destination in 2014 by Tripadvisor, I thought it was very much overrated. While being a beautiful city with some beautiful Mosque and history, I wouldn't pick it as my top reason to go Turkey! For me, the highlights were:

1. Cappadocia

From amazing rock formation that forms the valleys to rock castles, underground cities and cave churches dating from the early Christian communities. Cappadocia has plenty to both nature and history lovers.

Like most tourist, I decided to splurge a little and indulge myself on a hot balloon ride in Cappadocia to see the amazing rock formation that makes of the valleys and landscape of Cappadocia. However, the most enjoyable was probably hiking the various valleys around Cappadocia and rest assured, there are no shortage of valleys to hike! I ended up spending 1 week in Cappadocia alone!

Temminni Tepe viewed from the town of Urgup in Cappadocia 

The 3 day train from Tehran to Ankara

My journey to Turkey started with a scenic 3 day train ride from Tehran to Ankara costing around 60USD it was relative good value and passing through some amazing landscape. The trip consisted of:

1. Iranian train from Tehran to East side of Van Lake
2. The ferry across Van Lake
3. Transferring to the Turkish train on the western side of Van Lake towards Ankara

The 2nd class sleeper cabin on the Iran train.

Screw the media! 7 reasons to visit Iran!

I must admit, Iran was never originally on my planned list of places to travel when I first started out this trip. It wasn't until about 2+ months into my journey that I decided that I would go to Iran. Having read many news articles about Iran and how it is portrayed in western media, I was abit skeptical to visit such a place and question how safe it is really. However, meeting countless travellers who went through Iran, I didn't hear one bad thing about the place and the recurring theme being: The people

Having spent 5 or so weeks in Iran, I must say before visiting Iran, any conceptions you have of Iran from the media, you can pretty much throw out the window! Here are my top highlights of Iran.

1. The Friendliest People You'll Ever Meet!

Iran takes hospitality to a whole new level. Every corner you turn, you're likely to be greeted warmly by a friendly and curious local too eager to talk or offer help to you in any way they can.

Just arriving in Iran and haven't even reached my hostel and already greeted by friendly locals who wanted to strike up a conversation!

Border trouble in Turkmenistan!

My journey into Turkmenistan didn't start on a good note:

7am: Wake up and pack my bags
7.30am: Check out of guest house and breakfast
8am: Get ready to leave and head to the Nukus Uzbek-Turkmen border. Find out my bag missing from the reception! The receptionist makes a few calls and find out my bag mistakenly taken my a group of people heading to the Aral Sea! They send my bag on a taxi
9.30am: My bag finally arrived back at the hotel!
10am: Finally get to the border. After digging with my drug cabinet and checking my registration I'm out of Uzbekistan
10.20am: On the Turkmen side, meeting the customs I show them my passport and quoting my "Visa Number" for my transit visa which I picked up in Tashkent. Turkmen customs ask me "Do I have a guide waiting for me or a letter of invitation?". I told him I don't and was told I only needed to quote the visa number from the Turkmen embassy in Tashkent. He ask me to take a seat
11.30am: After waiting more than hour and some more back and forward talk, he finally issues me a transit visa. However, only gave me a 4 day transit visa instead of 5 days. :(
11.35am: After getting my visa, a thorough bag search of my contents is conducted and my laptop and hard drives are checked to make sure no "sensitive" are in my possession which took a good 30 or so minutes.
12.10pm: Thinking it was completed, I leave only to be turn back and asked to wait.
12.25pm: I go into a interrogation room to be asked more questions from my religion to questions about my links to ISIS....
1.15pm: I'm finally out of the embassy!

Although thorough, the Turkmen border control were quite pleasant to deal with and were quite helpful when I asked them questions about how to get to where I wanted to go and prices. With the lack of transport from the Nukus border on the Turkmen side, I was told I would need to walk to the nearest cross road from the border about 2km in and try hitch a ride after the cross road to Konye-Urgench.

Turkmen side of the border. Walking towards to closest crossroad.