Mum & Dad on the Sheesha!

:) need I say more :)

6 nights in Cairo

Mum and Dad's second week here had us off to Cairo. What an amazing place it was. We all dream of seeing the pyramids one day up close and to have that become a reality was such an amazing experience. We saw Mummy's in the Egyption Museum, the Pyramids at Giza, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, spent a day roaming around the City of the Dead. On top of that, we ate the most amazing food! This is a short video of about 4 other videos we took on the trip. It starts outside the gates of Old Cairo, moves onto the top of a mosque in the City of the Dead (features on the 1 pound note), then Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx and finishes with the Step Pyramid and ruins surrounding it. Some pics will also be posted as part of the 'Mum and Dad visits Dubai' stories :)

Oh, and we searched for Walk Like An Egyption for the background song, but couldn't find it. We used a song which is barely, remotely suitable given that we were in Africa...Enjoy!

Mum and Dad!! Woo hoo!!

Mum and Dad arrived on 26th October, fresh from the gong! They came carrying loads of goodies from home including gravox, vegemite, camp maple syrup and a few other things you can't get (or we haven't found!!) over here in Dubai. They brought us multiple packs of each to keep us going for a while.

After a brief transit stop at Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok - thanks Google), they arrived on our doorstep at home early on a Wednesday morning. We left them to recover while we headed off to work.

There were big big big big hugs all around and they were so happy to see Quyen's belly - huge belly. They were still in recovery mode on the Thursday. Then we were on holidays to chill out with them. The first outing was a Friday Brunch at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

I have mentioned before about the spectacular brunches in this part of the world and what a treat they are. When finished gobbling and bubbling we heading up to the rooftop to the 360 bar. We grabbed a sheesha pipe and some cocktails and chilled listening to the DJ (no Eagles or Abba, sorry Dad).
The pics tell the story better.
Stay tuned for more adventures with Mum and Dad.

Istanbul - Part V - Sultan Ahmed Mosque

This is also known as the blue mosque and is the only mosque with six minarets in Turkey. There are more than 20,000 tiles inside and the stained glass detail is amazing! Enjoy the pics!

Istanbul - Part IV - Basilica Cistern

This was an amazing place and a highlight of the trip. The Basilica Cistern knocked our socks off. The detail in architecture and the sheer size was awesome. We got there at 8am and had the place to ourselves for the first 15mins.

Istanbul - Part III - The food!

Istanbul - Part II - The trip from the air

Dubai!


Crater on the coast of Iran


Construction of waterways in UAE


Mountains over Iran

Coming into Istanbul

Istanbul - Part I

We headed off to Istanbul to take advantage of the Eid Al Fitr long weekend in October. It is the public holiday time to mark the end of Ramadan - the month of fasting for Muslims. Four nights in an amazing city! So many people, yet surprisingly clean - and all very friendly. The food was amazing. We expected things to be a little cheaper there - they were surprisingly inline with Aussie prices. There were a few local hideouts in long and skinny alley ways that we managed to find some decent priced meals though.

Our hotel was....interesting.... we changed rooms after the first night for a number of reasons - the most important being that the two single beds were bolted to the floor two metres apart. Not happy with that one. Eventually it sorted out, the new room was a suite and offered views of the Bosphorus. The rooftop also offered some good views.

The city of Istanbul is spread over two continents which we thoughts was pretty cool. Here we were walking along the Bosphorus Straight on the Europe side, looking straight over to the Asia side! Cool! We jump on the public ferry over to Asia and explored that area. It was much more quiet and seemingly less crowded in the streets.

The mosques were amazing, the artwork inside was one of the highlights of the trip. However, THE highlight was the Basilica Cistern built in 532AD. It was used to store water for the Great Palace and the surrounding buildings underneath the town square. It is 65m wide and 143m long, supported by 336 columns arranged in 12 rows. (thanks Lonely Planet!) There are two columns that have upside down Medusa heads at the bottom of them.

(lowlight - 3hr delay at airport getting there, 9hr delay coming back - don't fly Onur Air)