11 months of travel, 4 minutes of video

We’ve been back home for a while now, and are back into an everyday routine. Having both found employment, there are no immediate plans for another multi-month trip, but we do find ourselves constantly looking back on the last year with no regrets and memories which will surely last our lifetime. Its been an amazing journey and we are glad we were able to share all our stories and photos with all of our followers through our blog.

We have compiled some of our experiences backpacking Asia, the Middle East and Europe into a 4 minute video. We hope you enjoy it.

originally published Jan 16,2011

From Sea to Sky in the Sinai

When it came time for us to leave Jerusalem, our money was running low and we needed to get to Egypt as soon as possible. This would not be as easy as we imagined for it was a Saturday, the day of the Jewish Sabath. This creates a few problems for two people hoping to get from point A to B on the holy Jewish day. The normal government buses were not running and we were forced to detour to Tel Aviv in order to get the first bus down to the border town of Eilat. We luckily arrived at the shared taxi’s to Tel Aviv at the right moment just as two young Norweigns were negotiating a fare so we joined them. It took almost the entire day of waiting around and transport hopping to get to Eilat but around 10 at night we were able to cross the border.

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Bedouin for a Day in Wadi Rum

We were up before the sun for the 4th time this week and met the only tourist bus bound for the vast National Park of Wadi Rum, at 615am. Our final stop was at the visitors center just inside the park boundaries where guides are to meet their tourists on arrival.

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Day Hikes to Ancient Sites in Petra

As we navigated the darkness by the warm glow of candles down the never-ending siq towards the treasury, I couldn’t think of a more fitting ending to our time spent at one of the greatest sites our world has to offer, Petra.

Rewind a few days earlier…

We arrived in Wadi Musa on a small minibus a few hours after leaving Amman passing by road signs pointing in the direction of Saudi Arabia and Iraq helping to remind us we were certainly a long way from home. We were surprised to arrive at what we thought would be a small village but instead, was a good sized bustling town. We were met at the station by the charismatic owner of Sabaa Hotel, Ibraham, who promptly drove us up the hill to his guesthouse which would be our base over the next few days. Ibraham and his English wife Gail were full of advice and suggestions for how we should go about tackling the massive site of Petra. We decided to wait until the following morning to make the journey down the hill.

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Been Through the Desert…

After some debate Lianna and I were signed up to join another couple on a camel trek into the Thar Desert outside of Jaisalmer. Sometimes in relationships, compromises must be made and this was one of those times. Lianna agreed to 2 nights provided she had a tent to sleep in instead of being exposed at night to the desert wildlife (spiders and scorpion she wants to add) so after paying a little extra for her requirement was arranged and we were off.

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From Blue to Gold

Leaving from Udaipur to Jaisalmer, we broke the journey up with a quick stopover in Rajasthan’s second largest city, Jodhpur.

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Idling in Pushkar

After the chaos and hassle of Agra and Jaipur, Pushkar comes as a breath of well needed fresh air. Most know it for the carnival style camel fair each fall, but Pushkar is also an important pilgrimage place for locals who come to bathe in the holy lake. When we arrived we were surprised to see that there was no such holy lake and only a holy puddle left! This years monsoon was poor and thus the lake had dried up.

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