The first month of Trip to the East

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• Trip to the East - planning

So, the Trip to the East is well under way and only now am I finding the time to write up somethings on this travel blog.

The trip started on 25th September at about 8am at Tumuli near Stonehenge with my Ma, with Andy Carleton, his son Connor and Andy SD ( a couple of my old school friends) meeting us there to walk with us for a while and then wave farewell. 10.30am-ish we started the walk, going close by Stonehenge and then 16 miles further to Salisbury. Found lunch at a pub along the way where we met up with my brother David and his family. Then it was time to say goodbye to everyone and set off alone for the rest of the way to Salisbury.

Took a look-in at Salisbury Cathedral on the way and then to the Salisbury train station. Then train to Portsmouth Ferry to Le Havre, France and train to Paris. Followed by sleeper train to Vienna for a few hours look around.

Further changes of train took me on to Budapest, then Bucharest where I had another few hours look around. Then it was a change to another sleeper for the final leg into Turkey and onto Istanbul. This train ride from UK to Istanbul was following the route of the now-defunct Orient Express and was very enjoyable and confirmed my affection for this way of travelling.

I hadn't been to Istanbul for 25 years, so it was very pleasant to spend a few days there, enjoying the ambience and sights of this fascinating city that sits where Asia and Europe meet. Then it was out of the city by coach (past Ankara) to to the town of Goreme for the weird troglodyte area of Cappadocia. The best way to see this ancient town of underground dwellings, monasteries and churches is with a hot air balloon flight. So that is what I did - my first time suspended in a laundry basket a thousand feet above the fairy-chimney formations of lava rock.

Then it was out via Kayseri by sleeper train to Tehran, where I was stuck for several days waiting for a bank transfer of funds. No, Lonely Planet, you *cannot* use plastic cards to get cash here (I met a few travellers also caught out my this misinformation in the LP guide). Being there in Ramadan also added to the feeling of being imprisoned!

Then it was out of Tehran by train to Esfahan on 17th October. It's a great city that by Iranian legend is known as "half the world". A bit of an exaggeration, but nonetheless very beautiful with its mosques designed by the architect of the Taj Mahal, sweeping river with bridges etc.

Then it was down to Shiraz by bus for a couple of days and the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis that was sacked by Alexander the Less-than-impressive. Then up to the ancient mudbrick city of Yazd (visited by Marco Polo on his own 'trip to the east' holiday), and then down by croweded sleeper train to the Persian Gulf at Bandar Abbas for the last few days to relax and go to Hormuz island.

Just met an Iraqi refugee on the beach here, living rough. His son and wife killed by a bomb in Basra and he says he is "going crazy". Puts a very human perspective on the news reports. I wrote him a note of recommendation for immigration to Germany (where he has a house & job) or UK and gave him money for breakfast. Hope he survives.

The Pak earthquake was epicentred on Gilgit where I was planning to "overwinter". Iran is surprisingly well informed about news. Of course much of it is biased, but the unbiased variety puts most of our press to shame. Now Karimabad in Pak also sounds great from other travellers. It's in the Hunza valley of the Karakoram mountain range. This valley was the inspiration to the author of the 'Shangri La' book.

Today (30th October) it's a bus to the 2003-quake-shattered mudbrick citadel of Bam.

Some *serious* travelling now lies ahead of me!