The choices I was faced with at the top offer me either
- South London
- North London
- Gay London
14 years ago
Flatshare
The choices I was faced with at the top offer me either
Israel chronicles - Day 2 - 8 August (from the blogphone)
After this and chatting to a pretty autistic American jew (alright correct that to read 'being talked AT by a pretty autistic American Jew') we made our way down to the Wailing wall where we saw loads and loads of jews praying and being really communal. That was really humbling.
But by that time i was ravenous and couldn't hang around being humble, so the three of us went looking for food, but the Sabbath had started.
In judaism, the Sabbath means total rest. This means in the more orthodox cases that you can't even break bread cos that would constitute doing work!
So getting someone to cook us food was going to prove a little difficult in a country populated by Jews.
Luckily for us the archenemy was close at hand and we made a beeline for the Palestinian quarter of town where we picked up a pizza and sat on the terrace doing some of the most interesting people-watching i've ever done.
As the prayer time ended, streams of orthodox jews came streaming out of the square and made their way home past our restaurant. Armed soldiers and police lined the streets and me and Sam watched fascinated as the most beautiful Israeli girls (yes Israeli girls are absolutely stunning. ALL of them.) strolled past with these really strange looking guys with long sideburns and black suits and hats.
As they went past our restaurant we noticed a very odd thing. On the opposite side of the road was a Palestinian guy and he appeared to be shouting at the owner of the place we were eating at.
The owner appeared to shout back. Then we noticed that one or two of the jews would look at him and smile condescendingly.
It would seem that the Palestinian was taking the opportunity of the Sabbath to slag the Jews off straight to their faces! As it was the Sabbath i guess that jew-baiting was fair game as punching a mouthy Palestinian in the face probably constituted doing work so they knew they were safe!
After a short spot of night shooting with the Canon i rambled through the alleyways back to the Hebron hostel and wondered what this fascinating city still held in store.
Israel chronicles - Day 1 - 7 August (from the blogphone)
At the border at Taba you have to jump off and walk across on foot, then taxi to Eilat from the border (40 shekels)
Lots of hassle at the border becuase i have UAE and Kuwait stamps all over the place. Took about an hour and 50 questions to get through. Seemed like posturing really. Told the border guard i am not remotely interested in Middle Eastern politics. Initially not too hopeful about getting in as my passport has only 4 months left til it expires but it turned out they didn't really care much about that.
Met 2 travellers, Grainne and Sam who were coming from Cairo on a tour and were stoped at the border. Their bus left them there and continued driving to Jerusalem and i ended up in the same hostel dorm with them. Good old Lonely Planet!
Then went out for sushi. Cost about 26 pounds i think but am gonna blame the currency conversion newness rather than indulgence for that. Great Salmon Nigiri that melted on the tongue.
After that went down to the beachfront where there are loads of market stalls and cool stuff for sale and bought a beer in Three Monkeys where i noticed i kept falling asleep so went back to the Arava hostel and called it a night.
Whatever happened to the Dosaboys?
Check >>this<< out. Chances are he'll put me under and make me drive a crap vehicle across South America. Fingers crossed.
No sign of Nick though. Maybe he's killed himself.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
You know it's carnival season when... - Part 1
Footwear rebate
The reason for this is pretty obvious. Although they are crap, Kangaroos possess one feature that no other trainers possess.
They have a pocket sewn into the tongue just like a real Kangaroo. Sort of.
I never spend much money these days on trainers, just 20 quid of the local currency every 9 months or so when a hole appears in the bottom of the trainers I'm wearing at the time.
Today was hole day and, after attending the kids day at the Carnival Splash in Alexandra Palace (I'm performing tomorrow in case anyone is free)I realised that the air was starting to come through the sole so I took myself off to Oxford Street and bought the first pair of cheap trainers I could find in the sale rack, a pair of brown Dunlop Green flash for 15 English quid.
On taking my shoes off I remembered that this pair of holey trainers was a pair of Kangaroos given to me by HK last year in Madrid so I thought I had best check before I threw them away.
Turns out that over the last 9 months I have, wisely or not, stashed a total of 2 Euros and 20 cents in the tongue which was equivalent to having bought the trainers with like a 1 pound 50 discount! That's like 10%!
Trainer rebate! Result!
The Saudi morning whore train
I can't really see how they have the cheek to tell the rest of the world what to do when i have SEEN them on the plane to London ripping off all vestiges of religious shackledom and getting on miniskirts to party then going out on the town and paying for drinks and whores.
A friend of mine lives next to the pyramids and tells me that EVERY morning without fail, the Gulfies rock up and ride horses up and down the strip, spraying silly string and picking up whores after having spent the whole night partying.
Tomorrow morning I am going undercover to join them complete with a can of fake snow and silly string for what is essentially a real life fancy dress whores and Arabs party by the pyramids, during which time I have been promised the sight of Gulf Arabs humiliating themselves and paying for sex and booze.
Oh yes you gotta love it when they leave the religious high ground and fall into the gutter...
The sub-zero disco
As I can't properly swim, this was never really an issue, and this post is not about lounging about on the beach.
This post is about what was, in my books the worst bus ride ever.
I've been on some bloody awful journeys in my life, but this one really does take the gong of worst trip ever.
There was the 36 hour trip from Shanghai to Chengdu on a hard wooden seat in second class, in which I forgot to pack any food and ate pot noodles while surrounded by bemused Chinese.
There was the oven from Siwa to Alexandria followed by the bumpkin train to Cairo and even the 2 day bus and tractor ride through the jungle in Ghana, but this was the worst ride of the lot.
In all the other cases I was expecting it to be hell, and it was, but nothing could have prepared me for the East Delta bus from Cairo to Dahab.
I got on at 12 midnight, assuming that my sleep-anywhere mechanism was going to kick in shortly thereafter and I would wake up fresh and ready to go in Dahab.
Just as soon as the coach pulled out of Torgomon station in Cairo, the driver put on a movie. The plot of the movie seemed to revolve around loud arguments and gunshots, car chases and explosions along with an assortment of irrational high-pitched shouting matches and at that point I noticed that the bus was actually equipped with additional speakers all over the interior.
Noise I have no problem with and I have slept in gigs before, but the bus also had faulty air conditioning or at least the driver seemed to want to keep it switched to -10 to keep himself awake through the night.
By 4:30 the lights were still on and, with all my luggage in the hold I was sat in a T-shirt with my thighs up around my cheekbones shaking like a leaf.
Any time I tried to sleep, the actors would break into spontaneous arguing and there would be a pointless explosion until at 4:30 I just screamed.
The bus stopped shortly thereafter and I raced off for a piss and some warmth.
The rest of the journey didn't get any better, but on the way home I had to be grateful for the Egyptian entrepreneurial spirit.
Realising that East Delta was running this service to Cairo every day, the hotels in Dahab have put together their own minibus service to Cairo for the same price, which is only for tourists. The lights went off and no dumb music played and the driver was an absolute geezer too.
Oh yeah while in Dahab I climbed Mount Sinai with mini-Andy. Adventures to follow later.
