Istanbul

Trip Start May 28, 2006

162

Trip End May 17, 2007

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Flag of Turkey Istanbul, Turkey
Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Our last train journey for a while - 20 hours from Bucharest across Bulgaria to the Gateway to the Orient. Not as easy as some of the other journeys - turns out the poorer the country the more stringent the border controls (Bulgaria's entry and exit bureaucracy being particularly extensive!). Entering Turkey at 4am (hours late) was also particularly memorable - especially as most of us passengers spent the first 20mins queueing in the wrong place for our visas (the guy at the duty free counter was v.bemused by our repeated requests!).

Blue Mosque at sunset

Spent the last two days doing a bit of sightseeing, but mainly sorting stuff out for our epic trip across the 'Stans which starts tomorrow.

Haircut Istanbul style

One highly entertaining episode was watching Jim get a haircut - ear cleaning, nasal hair trimming and ear hair singeing with a cigarette lighter were thrown in for free - have a look at the photos.

Leaving for Kathmandu!

We leave early tomorrow morning. Not sure how often we'll be able to update you - we'll do our best, but it doesn't sound as if many of the places we're going cater for tourists (apparently fewer than 100 foreigners a year make it through the border from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan!) so internet cafes may thin on the ground.

Bye for now!