Other Countries:  Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey & Greece, More Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

Day 687: Monday, August 1, 2016

I was up at 5:30am this morning since at 6am I had a one-hour camel ride scheduled. We needed to do it this early to beat the heat. Once the sun rises it gets really hot pretty quickly. My guide simply walked alongside the camel as I rode. Of course we were just walking and not running but the camel was surprisingly smooth going. There was no saddle sore like with a horse. I got to explore more of the sand dunes than I had the day prior on foot.

My ride back to civilization did not arrive until the scheduled time of 11am so I had plenty of time for a great breakfast and relaxing by the pool in the morning. Once back at my car about noon I drove about 45 minutes to Wadi Bani Khalid which is a great oasis in the desert. It is a creek that starts in a ravine that you can hike into from a parking lot at the opening of the ravine. From a large, palm tree lined pool ideal for swimming it is only about a 15 minute walk into the ravine along the creek to where you can’t go any further. Along the creek are several great swimming holes, some very shallow and others quite deep where you can dive in off of the cliff walls. It was great fun with the cool water so welcomed as a retreat from the intense heat of the desert. It is a location that travel brochures are made of.

After the wonderful diversion of Wadi Bani Khalid it was back in the car to make the drive to Nizwa, Oman which was my destination for the night. Driving to Nizwa I saw some really interest terrain. It looked like mountain peaks were all around me but on a miniature scale. The “peaks” were only about 200 to 300 feet high. It was like an optical illusion. I have never seen anything quite like that. About an hour out of Nizwa I encountered a huge dust storm that was reminiscent of my days living in Phoenix, Arizona. It came out of nowhere and made driving nearly impossible. After about 20 minutes the storm moved off into the distance and it was clear sailing again into Nizwa. After finding a hotel I went in search of dinner and found myself in the heart of the ancient city and surrounded by a beautiful bazaar. I walked round taking several photos and taking in the atmosphere before giving up on finding food and heading back to the hotel where I ate Chinese food in my room from the room service menu.

Getting familiar with my ride.

My camel ride through the sand dunes.

The perfect swimming hole in a desert oasis!

I swam in this creek for over an hour. Absolute heaven.

A beautiful palm at Wadi Bani Khalid oasis.

From a distance they look like mountains…

… in reality they are only a couple hundred feet high.

Old Town Nizwa at night in front of an antiques shop.

Day 688: Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Today I drove back to Muscat which was not that long of a drive from Nizwa so I arrived early. I checked in at my spacious apartment and then I went to the supermarket to get some food. Back at the apartment hotel I stayed in the room all day just enjoying the nice accommodations after some days of less than luxurious ones.

Day 689: Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Before heading to the airport for my flight to Bahrain I did some sightseeing in Muscat. There really isn’t much to see but I did walk along the long waterfront and window shopped in the bazaar. Trying to get back to the car rental location at the airport turned out to be quite a challenge due to a road closure and traffic jam but I finally made it and still had time to grab lunch before getting a ride to the terminal building.   The flight to Bahrain was uneventful.

It was dark by the time I arrived in Bahrain. I got my rental car and drove to my hotel. The first place I entered told me I was at the wrong place. I was surprised though to see 2 nightclubs in the first floor of the hotel and they were pretty lively places. I didn’t expect that in Bahrain for some reason. My hotel, with basically the same name as the one I already stopped at was just a few blocks away. It also had a lively nightclub.

I got checked in and my room was extremely nice. It was so nice I did not want to leave the room but being hungry I went out to find some food. About 2 kilometers away I found a very interesting street in that it was lined on both sides with Western restaurant chains. I spotted a Johnny Rockets and the image of a chocolate milkshake jumped into my head and I headed inside without hesitation, a big smile of anticipation on my face.

I sat down and a menu was brought over. I still had a huge smile on my face and warmth of familiarity in my stomach.   Upon opening the menu my jaw dropped and the smile was gone. Could a hamburger and a milkshake really cost $20 USD? OMG. But my desire for a milkshake was strong. I ordered and tried not to think any more about the price.

Jump to Other Countries: More Oman, Qatar, Turkey & Greece, More Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

Day 690: Thursday, August 4, 2016

Having a rental car today, after checking out I drove to the southern end of Bahrain where it is basically just desert. Driving back north to Manama I took an inland route and found all the oil and natural gas fields where the country’s wealth must come from. There were above-ground pipes running in all directions looking much like a bowl of spaghetti.

Near Manama there are a few touristic sites so I hit those on my way back into the city. It was pushing dusk when I got to the historic castle but managed to see it before dark. Back at the airport I boarded my flight to Qatar at 9:00pm and arrived in Doha about 10:00pm.

Again it was straight to my hotel and a good night’s sleep.

Jump to Other Countries: More Oman, Bahrain, Turkey & Greece, More Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

Day 691: Friday, August 5, 2016

My flight is not until 3:30am on the 6^th so I stayed in my nice hotel room as late as possible today. I was able to extend my checkout to 2pm which was nice. Qatar is bigger than Bahrain. Once again I thought it would be a good idea to try to drive out of Doha city and see what the desert looked like. I really had the intention of driving the 100+ kilometers to the Saudi border but after about 35 kilometers realized what a useless idea that was. Once outside the city it really is just flat, dry land with nothing of interest to see. Upon making that conclusion I took the next exit from the highway and turned around.

Back in Doha I decided I should see the Bazaar. I have seen enough bazaars now to know what to expect but really I had nothing else to do and I still needed to kill time. The Bazaar in Doha had a new yet old style feel to it which did make it fun to walk around. It is not a large bazaar however and it did not take long. I did get some pictures which I like.

I stopped at a Chinese restaurant and had dinner about 6pm. From there I went to the airport where I would have to wait for 9 hours until my flight at 3:30am. Of course somehow I managed to pass the time and I caught my flight to Istanbul.

Jump to Other Countries: More Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, More Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

Day 692: Saturday, August 6, 2016

This morning I was on the plane at 3:00am for my flight to Istanbul. It was about a 4 hour flight arriving in Istanbul about 8:00am. About one hour out of Istanbul I looked at the flight path on the monitor in the seatback in front of me and Istanbul had come into sight. At that moment is when I realized my plane was going to the “wrong” airport. Istanbul has 2 airports; one on the European side and one on the Asian side. My hotel is near the one on the European side. Now I was going to have to figure out how to get from the one airport to the next.

Upon arrival things did not go well. The first problem was that my cell phone was totally dead (due to the long wait at the airport in Doha where there was nowhere to charge my phone). Having a dead phone meant I could not do any research on how to get to where I wanted to go. I went to the cellphone booth to get a SIM card but was told they were out of cards and to come back in 2 hours. Great!

Next thought was to get a rental car. I went to the rental car counters of which there were about 10. I asked the first one if they had a car available fully expecting a “yes” answer. But the answer was “no.” This continued until I had been to all the rental counters and there were no cars to be had. I went to the information counter and found there was a combination of 2 buses I could take to get me where I was going. I had not cash though so I had to get some. I couldn’t remember the exchange rate from 2 months ago when I was last in Turkey and having a dead phone I could not check it. Thus, when I found an ATM I did not know how much to take out and for some strange reason there were no exchange places with rates posted.

At that point an hour had past so I went back to the cell phone booth in hopes they now had cards. They did. They had to plug my phone in to their charger to get it to turn on and 15 minutes later my phone had a SIM card and I was connected but still I had the problem of no power.   The lady at the cell phone booth kindly checked the exchange rate and let me know so then it was back to the ATM.

From there I boarded the bus for the long trip to the European side of Istanbul. By the time I got to the other airport the hotel’s shuttle service had stopped so I had to grab a taxi to the hotel. I arrived at 1pm when I originally thought I would be there at 9am. Needless to say I was exhausted by this time and I took a long nap.

Days 693~702: Sun., August 7, 2016 ~ Tues., August 16, 2016

Traveling as I do I always try to spend as little money as possible. I rarely sleep in hotels opting instead for hostels with shared rooms and even camping on occasion. I often do not eat more than one or 2 meals a day. I never buy anything that can’t be consumed. So I need a vacation from time to time. In this case I took this time for a real vacation and had a great time in Turkey and Greece. I stayed in nice hotels, ate at nice restaurants, and lounged on the beaches of the Aegean Sea. I also took a break from writing my blog.

Jump to Other Countries: More Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey & Greece, Tajikistan

Day 703: Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Today I arrived back in Bishkek very early in the morning and got a cab back to the Sakura Guesthouse where I had left my bike and bags while I was on “vacation.” It felt strange to be back I had to hangout in the courtyard for about 4 hours before my room became available. I took the opportunity to wipe down my bike since it was covered in dirt and dust from 3 weeks of sitting in the parking garage.

I was anticipating Roy’s arrival tomorrow and basically just spent the day not doing much of anything.

Day 704: Thursday, August 18, 2016

Roy arrived today.  It was good to see him again.  The last time we were together was June 25 in Tbilisi, Georgia.  Needless to say we had a lot of catching up to do in addition to planning what we would do next.  Neither of us were interested in sitting around for long.

Day 705: Friday, August 19, 2016

Today we decided that we would first go for a trip around Issyk-Kul (lake) which is a huge lake to the east of Bishkek and is basically surrounded by mountains.  Planning to go back to Bishkek after circumnavigating the lake we lightened our loads so that we did not have a bag across the back of our bikes.
This meant that a good part of the day was spent reorganizing our bags.  In the end I was very happy with being able to alleviate myself of a lot of things that I don’t use that often and could certainly do without for 5 days.

Jump to Other Countries: More Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey & Greece, More Kyrgyzstan