We’ll the departure day had to come eventually. 17th of August – 20 hours of flying across the world to experience things we’ve only seen on TV and read in books. And what an experience it has been so far…
Adelaide to KL was a brilliant flight. Flew Malaysia Airlines and had delicious food, decent(ish) coffee and even a few cheeky beers. Tim and I played the inflight entertainment gizmo for ages, engaging in a best of 17 game of pong. Our row consisting myself, Matty and Timbo and a young couple from Melbourne also played 7 rounds of Trivia for 3 hours to pass the time. Basically this is the standard of a good flight…
Now for the standard of a shit flight. We learnt in Adelaide that we were to fly from KL to Cairo via Air Egypt instead of Malaysia. We didn’t have any qualms about this as Malaysia is the carrier for Egypt. We just didn’t want to lose our bags…
Anyway, we boarded what was supposed to be an 11 and a half hour flight. Now being used to creature comforts, we expected comfortable seats, good staff, air con and TVs’. Nothing. Shit seats, shit hostess’ 25 degree cabin temperatures and no TVs’. We tried to sleep, but it would have been more comfortable sleeping on a pile of carrots. Mixed with nails. Matt tried to ask for water 3 times before he actually received it - an hour later. We attempted to sleep, but with backbreaking seats and 25 degree cabin temperature we had next to none. We arrived in Cairo at 4.57am and walked through customs by purchasing $15 visas from shifty banks. We entered the arrival hall. No bags. Nothing topped off with bad English speaking ‘helpers’. At the time they had no idea if our bags were even in orbit of the planet. Tim was dead set about to break somebody’s spine. All we could do was lodge a claim and what for a ‘call’ from the airport to say when/if our bags would arrive.
Its been 6 days and 66.66666% of our bags have arrived. Matt and Timbo’s are here in Cairo, whereas mine is somewhere within the realms of earth, perhaps closer to Narnia. On Thursday we spent a solid 14 hours in the airport being fucked around by ridiculous ‘staff’ employed by Egypt Air. We waited around in burger king for four hours alone before we went on a quest to find our bags. Inevitably we had to receive special permission to venture into the depths of the Egypt Air luggage store where the two lads found their bags. Obviously I was pretty gutted, a 6 month journey and my first stop I lose my bag. We’ve ventured to the airport 4 out of 6 days so far so I’m a bit over it…with any luck, Egypt Air will accidently send my bag to cairo -_-
We have recently transferred accommodation too. Moving from downtown in a $6 hostel, to our tour hotel which is 4 stars or something. Whilst it’s lovely having the creature comforts around, by general consensus I and the other two members of our circus miss the Dahab Youth Hostel. There we met some amazing people. Seriously Amazing. Amazing X100. On the first day we met a group of Christian workers who (long story short) are travelling the world assisting the less fortunate. In particular we started hanging out with a large Croatian/Australian guy named Ivan. Possibly one of the funniest most welcoming, awesome people on the planet. Within 20 minutes of chatting with the big fella, he asked if he could bunk with us. Of course being awesome blokes we accepted. Bad move…haha. Nah not really, Ivan showed us around Cairo on the first day, helping us suss out our luggage problem. He told us good cheap places to eat and even took us to a free Ramadan feast which we frequented after that. We also started hanging out with another of the Christian workers, Darko. Darko was from Bosnia & Herzegovina and is one awesome bloke. One night we just sat out on the balcony just chatting with him about life for about 3 hours just sharing stories on girls, awkward situations and shit like that. Its nice people like that - that make adjusting to life on the ‘road’ so much easier. On our 2nd last night in the hostel, we also started chatting with an English dude, Charlie. Fucking. Top. Bloke. Sat out on the balcony for four hours chatting about cricket. The next night we went found a bar and smashed beers and chatted more cricket and shit like that. Whilst we will probably meet hundreds of people these 3 guys get a massive mention for being the first dudes we befriended on our trip.
We had a look around the Pyramids today also. Absolutely fantastic, although Matt did fear for his life at one stage. Basically at the great pyramid, there are a lot of scammers. One suss character approached young, naïve Matthew James and wrapped a headscarf around his head. This suss character who I will name for the sake of the story Habib. Anyway, Habib wrapped this headscarf on Matty’s head and yelled ‘free photo’. Obviously we knew it was a shitty deal, so we thought ‘yeah, we’ll get the photo and then just bail’. We’ll it didn’t exactly turn out like that. What happened is Matt somehow ended up on a camel for the ‘free photo’ whilst Tim and I went up onto a rock to get a good vantage point to get the happy snap. Habib then proceeds to smack the camel which gets up and under the guidance of Habib and some other shit bloke, Matt is taken behind a massive rock away from us and the main tourist section. I bailed because a man was rubbing me with a stick, whilst Tim stood there and did some rubbing of his own. In the meantime, Habib and shit bloke begin to heckle Matt, grabbing at his pockets demanding him for money. Luckily Matt had bugger all in his pockets and nothing was stolen but said ‘I’ll get off and get money off my friends’ which was fair. Now because I was still weirded out by the stick rubbing man, I was off chilling in Mordor and managed to score a pretty good seat for today’s entertainment. What proceeded to happen was Matt and Tim walked off toward me, closely pursued by Habib, Shit Bloke and Stick Man. In the middle of the tourist section of Giza Pyramids a shouting match between the two sides broke out. Habib and his convoy of shit demanding Matt for money in their loudest voice. Matty and T-slice giving as good as they got. After about two minutes of solid abuse from both parties the boys walked off and the battle seemed to diminish. Now if we are to learn anything from that it is whilst the sights may be amazing and awe inspiring, never trust anybody who works or has any connection with camels.
Anyway, this was week 1 of everything and already so much amazing and shit stuff has happened, but I and we are having an amazing time. Will keep you updated with our adventures and hopefully Matt or Big Time Timmy Jim can sneak in a blog or two along the way.
Wherever, Whenever
Chad Xx.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
1 Week, but who's counting?
Hey Guys,
Well the title has lead you astray. Its not exactly one week til we leave, its just 6 days! Believe it or not but we're out of here in less than 144 hours. On that note, we (I) have decided to make a blog, so that instead of emailing our legions of followers one by one, they can all see what we're upto just by following here...
Now, i'm not going to profess any major knowledge on the skills of writing blogs, so be nice.
With 6 days to go it makes you think quite a bit. I'm not sure Matty and Tim are the same, but it makes you think about life a bit more. Not like a philosophical way, but the person you are right now. The person who gets up, showers, eats & drinks everyday. The life we know, or at least have known, is about to be left behind. Its a bit of a scary thought really, we live in a pretty sheltered environment here in good old Adelaide and now we're about to set off by ourselves on a wonderful mystical tour of discovery. I suppose everyone would face a moment like this in their lives, unless they are completely gay (Deon). Because none of us have done to this, its just been making me think about cultures, languages, different customs and about a world - even worlds - I know nothing about.
Anyway, for those who would like to know a bit more info about the trip - here goes.
Myself and young Matthew's tickets are for 6 months. 17th of August, til the 6th Of February, whilst Timmy has planned a different time frame, i'm sure his tickets are for something similar. Flying out of Adelaide to Cairo to embark on 25 days of Egyptian culture. Many things contributed to our choice of Egypt. My facination with aliens and how they built the pyriamids before the Egyptians did, Tims utter captivation with the arabic culture and architechture And Matt's religious oddysey all led to a common ground in which to set about. From here we fly to Morocco to set about in a completely foreign culture. They say to get to grips with Morocco, you need to have a basic understanding of French and or Moroccan Arabic. Now for most, that would be difficult, but Tim has taken it upon himself and has acctually been taking French lessons for the the past four months. Parlez Vous Francias? he asks....:S Why Morocco? Culturaly it is just so different to Australia. We want to be a part of something so diverse and as far from Australia to enjoy, to learn, to appreciate and embark on a world we have only read about in books and on the net.
Europe will follow, and so will more details when we decide on them...
You know, its hard leaving your family and friends though. As much as i'll miss my family and friends, and particular people more than mentionable, my pre-homesickness has been made a hell of a lot easier. I'm spending the next 6 months travelling with two of my greatest mates. Matty and Tim have grown up together and I penetrated their partnership when we became mates at school. Ever since our first chuckle, we've been hanging out week in week out and the fact that we know each other really well with help the idea of home, or homely traits not being that far away at all . God knows how solo travellers do it! Don't get me wrong, we all have peeve us off about each other, like when Tim picks his nose, and When Matty steals my favourite pair of jeans. But in all seriousness as humans we tend to focus on negatives, but as we've been mates for so long and throughout some....lets say...interesting situations ( Many situations have been the cause of beers) we'll stick together. For sure we'll more than likely get sick of each other at some stage, but you know we'll sort shit out and soldier on. We're a feckin Tripod!
So this is all for blog #1, hopefully the first of many. If you have any questions feel free to email us...chadschulte91@gmail.com
By for now.
Wherever, Whenever
Regards Chad Xx.
Well the title has lead you astray. Its not exactly one week til we leave, its just 6 days! Believe it or not but we're out of here in less than 144 hours. On that note, we (I) have decided to make a blog, so that instead of emailing our legions of followers one by one, they can all see what we're upto just by following here...
Now, i'm not going to profess any major knowledge on the skills of writing blogs, so be nice.
With 6 days to go it makes you think quite a bit. I'm not sure Matty and Tim are the same, but it makes you think about life a bit more. Not like a philosophical way, but the person you are right now. The person who gets up, showers, eats & drinks everyday. The life we know, or at least have known, is about to be left behind. Its a bit of a scary thought really, we live in a pretty sheltered environment here in good old Adelaide and now we're about to set off by ourselves on a wonderful mystical tour of discovery. I suppose everyone would face a moment like this in their lives, unless they are completely gay (Deon). Because none of us have done to this, its just been making me think about cultures, languages, different customs and about a world - even worlds - I know nothing about.
Anyway, for those who would like to know a bit more info about the trip - here goes.
Myself and young Matthew's tickets are for 6 months. 17th of August, til the 6th Of February, whilst Timmy has planned a different time frame, i'm sure his tickets are for something similar. Flying out of Adelaide to Cairo to embark on 25 days of Egyptian culture. Many things contributed to our choice of Egypt. My facination with aliens and how they built the pyriamids before the Egyptians did, Tims utter captivation with the arabic culture and architechture And Matt's religious oddysey all led to a common ground in which to set about. From here we fly to Morocco to set about in a completely foreign culture. They say to get to grips with Morocco, you need to have a basic understanding of French and or Moroccan Arabic. Now for most, that would be difficult, but Tim has taken it upon himself and has acctually been taking French lessons for the the past four months. Parlez Vous Francias? he asks....:S Why Morocco? Culturaly it is just so different to Australia. We want to be a part of something so diverse and as far from Australia to enjoy, to learn, to appreciate and embark on a world we have only read about in books and on the net.
Europe will follow, and so will more details when we decide on them...
You know, its hard leaving your family and friends though. As much as i'll miss my family and friends, and particular people more than mentionable, my pre-homesickness has been made a hell of a lot easier. I'm spending the next 6 months travelling with two of my greatest mates. Matty and Tim have grown up together and I penetrated their partnership when we became mates at school. Ever since our first chuckle, we've been hanging out week in week out and the fact that we know each other really well with help the idea of home, or homely traits not being that far away at all . God knows how solo travellers do it! Don't get me wrong, we all have peeve us off about each other, like when Tim picks his nose, and When Matty steals my favourite pair of jeans. But in all seriousness as humans we tend to focus on negatives, but as we've been mates for so long and throughout some....lets say...interesting situations ( Many situations have been the cause of beers) we'll stick together. For sure we'll more than likely get sick of each other at some stage, but you know we'll sort shit out and soldier on. We're a feckin Tripod!
So this is all for blog #1, hopefully the first of many. If you have any questions feel free to email us...chadschulte91@gmail.com
By for now.
Wherever, Whenever
Regards Chad Xx.
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