Turkey Tips

Turkey shocked us by how expensive it was, or at least by how cheap it wasn't. Here are the rough costs of our journey through Turkey:-

Tulip Guesthouse, Istanbul, dorm bed per night - 15YTL (inc breakfast and internet)
Meal in Istanbul - Kebab on the street - 5YTL
Entrance to Topkapi Palace - 20YTL
Entrance to Blue Mosque - free
Kumpir in Ortakoy - 8YTL
Bus from Istanbul to Canakkale - 40YTL (7 hours, at least it was a club class bus!)
Konak Hotel, Canakkale - double room per night - 40YTL (inc breakfast)
Kebab in Canakkale - 3YTL, plate kebab 12YTL
Beer from shop - 3.5YTL each
Minibus to Troy - 4YTL
Troy entrance ticket - 15YTL
Bus from Canakkale to Izmir - 35YTL (7 hours)
Bus from Izmir to Selcuk - 7YTL (1hour)
Boomerang Hostel, Selcuk - per person per night - 15YTL (inc breakfast and transfer to Ephesus)
Entry fee for Ephesus - 20YTL
Meal in Selcuk - kebab - 5YTL
Bus from Selcuk to Goreme (Capadoccia) - 50YTL (13 hours)
Emres Cave Hostel, Goreme - dorm bed per night - 8YTL (with free internet)
Bus from Goreme to Kayseri - 5YTL (1 hour)
Bus from Kayseri to Antakya - 25YTL (12 hours)
Bus from Antakya to Aleppo - 10YTL (3 hours, plus delay at Turkish-Syrian border)

Approx daily costs per person - 40YTL ($25USD or 18GBP)

Four Seasons of Snobbery

I picked up a copy of the Four Seasons hotel group complimentary magazine in a guest house the other day. Expecting to find at least a couple of intersting articles I was bitterly disappointed to find just a vacuous whos-who of the rich list. Who dines where, what they wear and how they get there - "If you don't fly private jets it can be difficult to get seats together"!!!!

The tips for travellers section was perhaps the most amusing (and shocking, in equal measures!) - no mention of visas, travellers cheques or mosquito repellent here, the most important items were deemed to be:
"Cairo - Must pack - For men: Lacoste karkis and Valentino jackets. For women: Armani jeans, Dior handbags, D+G tops and Plein Sud dresses.
Chiang Mai - Don't forget! - non-black Prada and Gucci.

It was all very fun having a dig at their total ignorance and misuderstanding of whats happening in the real world or their total disregard for cultures that have been around a lot longer than the latest fashion designer - "Avoid revealing dresses in conservative Syria" - is spat out from the page on getting from Amman to Beirut (of course no one would actually stop in Syria, or in fact explore Jordan or Lebanon further than their capitals). However, it is really shocking that these people for whom Cartier means more than Kabul and Dior more than Darfur really exist. Iw ould love to lock them all up in a room together dressed in clothes from primark and with a stack of broadsheets and copies of The Economist to browse through! The more society favours people like Gok One and Paris Hilton the more and more morally destitute our world is going to become!

The cost of Prague to Istanbul

OK, I know its taken a while but here is the first useful post on this blog, the one that tells you just how much money you would need to get from Prague (or indeed Norwich) to Istanbul overland.

Norwich to Prague
Bus from Norwich to Stansted Airport (in lieu of a lift from a close family member) - 20GBP
Flight with Easyjet STN-PRG - 27GBP
Prague 90min transport ticket - 1GBP
Subtotal - 48GBP per person

Hungary
Train from Prague to Budapest (online special) - 550Kc (approx 18GBP)
East Side Hostel, Budapest - dorm bed per night - 5Euro (approx 4.4GBP)
Beers in the nice pub on the same street - a couple of quid
Self catering in the supermarket (bread, cheese, crisps, beer, noodles) - about 3GBP
Entrance to the Szecheyni thermal baths - 3200Hf (about 10GBP)
Train from Budapest to Szeged - 2800Hf (almost 9GBP)
Small train from Szeged to Subotica - just a couple of quid.
Subtotal - 55GBP (includes 2 nights in Budapest) per person

Serbia
Shared taxi from Subotica to Novi Sad - 800SD per person (roughly 7.5GBP)
Downtown Hostel, Novi Sad - dorm bed per night - 10Euro (9GBP)
Shopping (pasta and ayvar sauce) - about 1GBP
Train from Novi Sad to Belgrade - 210SD each minus 20% discount for group of 2 - 370SD (less than 2GBP per pax)
Food in Belgrade (Borek, bread and pate, crisps, 2 beers) - under 3GBP
Night train from Belgrade to Sofia - 2000SD (just under 20GBP)
Subtotal - 42GBP per person

Bulgaria
Sofia to Plovdiv train - 9leva (4GBP)
Food (crisps, yoghurt) - 3leva (1.5GBP)
Plovdiv to Istanbul bus - 40Leva (17GBP)
Visa for Turkey (certain nationalities only, British yes, Czechs no) - 20USD (14GBP)
Subtotal - 23GBP per person

Grand Total - 120GBP per person (plus the Turkish visa if you need it), plus the 48GBP per person cost of getting from Norwich to Prague.

It turned out to be more expensive than we first thought but there were a few reasons for this. Firstly, it was cold, and often raining, so hitch-hiking was not really possible. Secondly, we wanted to see a couple of places enroute (Monika had never been to Budapest and I wanted to see Norwichs sister city of Novi Sad). Also we wanted to visit the baths in Budapest. Finally, we had couple of beers as we knew we would not have the access to much good beer for the next 8 months or so!

viza do Sudanu

Tak jsme dneska dostali viza do Sudanu v Kahire, az nato co predvedl cesky konzul, tak to bylo bez problemu.
Cesky konzul mi odmitl dat dopis, ktery sudanska ambasada vyzaduje. Kazda jina ambasada napise dopis, jmeno, cislo pasu...a razitko s podpisem konzula. Kdyz tyhle dopisy ambasada nedava, tak napise dopis, ze takovyhle dopisy nedava, jako napr na anglicke ambasade clovek dostane dopis s razitkem za 30 liber, kde je receno, ze tyhle dopisy nedava. Dobry, to na sudansky ambasade staci.
Cesky konzul mi rekl, ze se se mnou nebude bavit (po telefonu z recepce) a zadny dopis mi nenapise. A ze pred dvema mesici tam taky nekdo byl zadat o tenhle dopis a taky jim ho nedal!! Bajecny pristup, vsichni tam postavali a rekli, ze jestli to rekl pan konzul , ze tak to bude. A ze razitko se jen tak nerozdava a stejne nechapou proc bych mela jezdit do Sudanu a ze viza si muzu udelat ve Vidni, ze pro cesky obcany neni mozny si vyrizovat viza v cizine!!!! Jedna takova mlada pani mi chtela pomoc a jediny co mi mohla orazitkovat, bylo potvrzeni mojeho podpisu z pasu za asi 15$ a ten zbytek jsem si tam dopsala sama, pan konzul o tom asi nevedel, na sudansky ambasade se jim to moc nelibilo, ale nakonec to proslo.
Tak takovyhle pristup me uplne sokoval, nejaky zakomplexovany konzul se se mnou nemini bavit, tak nechapu od ceho tady ta ambasada je, kazda jina ambasada se snazi pomoct svym obcanum, tak urcite ne ceska v Kahire!!!!

The Sudanese visa

So, after hearing all the scare stories we are relieved to finally have Sudanese visas safely entered in our passports. There is so much conficting information going around that we were wondering on Satruday night if we would have to fly to Ethiopia instead of going through the Sudan. Even people in Cairo were telling us that British passport holders have to wait three weeks, and then are generally rejected, or that they are no longer issuing visas after the ICC stuck their noses in.

The process was not without its troubles though. A successful application requires the application form in duplicate, with two passport photos, a copy of both the ID page of the passport and the page with the Egyptian visa and a letter of introduction from the applicants embassy. Oh and $100 in cash, clean bills only. Three of our fifty dollar bills were rejected for being dirty so we had to scrape together loose change, and borrow a stack of fives from Stepan, two of these were initially rejected as well, for being old, until a friendly Sudanese guy stepped in and convinced the cashier they were genuine.

This was not the main problem though. The main problem was obtained the letter of introduction from our embassies. Actually for me (Allan) it was no problem, roll up to the UK embassy, suffer a joke about my passport photo, go through security, explain the purpose of my visit, pay 240LE (Egyptian pounds, this is roughly 30GBP) and wait five minutes. For Monika it was not so easy. Unfortunately we have had many negative experiences recently with Czechs in positions of authority who have developed some sort of complex and are not able to be helpful at all. In fact, not only are they unhelpful but downright rude and unsympathetic as well. Sometimes it seems as if the Czech Republic is stuck in pre-1989 eastern Europe. Mr Ambassador basically told Monika that he would not give her the letter, that she should have arranged her Sudanese visa inVienna (?) and he doesn't know why anyone would want to visit Sudan anyway. No apologies, no "I wish I could help but..." just a flat refusal. And quite why he feels that he can advice someone over where they take their holidays I don't know. Of course this dialogue took place over the phone, he would not reduce himself to actually have to speak face to face with a simple vassal of his own country. I should add here that I have met and heard third hand of travellers from countries such as Canada, South Africa, Germany, Norway, Finland, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and Switzerland who have had no problem applying for the letter from their embassy, both here and in other situations where it is required (Pakistan visa applications for instance). No, he was just a pompous prick with a problem. As I said, experiences like this are becoming all too regular these days. Stepan, our Czech friend who lives in Dubai, had a week off work (as a steward for Emirates) and joined us to travel from the Sinai peninsular to Cairo. He had to hang around the various embassies with us yesterday, his last day of holidays. He recently wrote a formal letter of complaint to CSA (Czech Airlines) about the rudeness of the check-in staff. They replied, stating that "his complaint had no standing". What is that? Would any company from the West dare to use such language? He is not sure if he will ever go back to the Czech Republic to live, why would he, he lived in the US and Switzerland for two years each and has now been in Dunai almost 2 years, and is used to being treated as a human being. Every time he returns to the Czech Republis he becomes more and more depressed by the total lack not only of customer service but of humility and friendliness between the people. No-one minds being refused something, as long as they are refused with sympathy.

Luckily for us we found a loophole. The secretary of the ambassador, who was more sympathetic, told us all she could do was "legalise a signature". So we wrote a letter, in plain English, stating that Monika had visited the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Egypt in order to obtain a letter of introduction to support a Sudanese visa applciation. The secretary confirmed her signature with an official stamp. We are unsure whether the ambassador even knew about it. At the Sudanese embassy they were dubious but we convinced them of its legality.

So, by 12:30pm yesterday we had completed the application process and just had the agonising wait until 10am today to find out if we were successful. We were!