Places Been, Sights Seen

  
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Date

Content
20/10/1999 - 27/10/1999 Visiting sights and finding my feet in Istanbul (Turkey)
28/10/1999 - 28/10/1999 Sinop
29/10/1999 - 29/10/1999 Ordu, to Trabzon
30/10/1999 - 30/10/1999 Sumela
31/10/1999 - 31/10/1999 Trabzon, to Erzurum
1/11/1999 - 1/11/1999 Erzurum
2/11/1999 - 2/11/1999 Pasinler hot springs, Hasankale
3/11/1999 - 4/11/1999 Sivas
4/11/1999 - 5/11/1999 Kayseri
6/11/1999 - 6/11/1999 Nigde: Eski Gümüsler monastery
7/11/1999 - 8/11/1999 Göreme: Ihlara, Pigeon and Rose Valleys, Derinkuyu
9/11/1999 - 10/11/1999 back to Istanbul (collect Iran visa)
11/11/1999 - 12/11/1999 Across sea of Marmara; Bursa
13/11/1999 - 13/11/1999 Arrive Selçuk. Visit Ephesus
14/11/1999 - 14/11/1999 Aphrodisias (day trip)
15/11/1999 - 15/11/1999 Didyma, Miletus, Priene (day trip)
16/11/1999 - 16/11/1999 Arrive Antalya
17/11/1999 - 17/11/1999 Side, Aspendos (day trip)
18/11/1999 - 18/11/1999 Termessus (day trip)
19/11/1999 - 19/11/1999 To Konya
20/11/1999 - 20/11/1999 To Mardin: Deir el Zaferan, to Urfa
21/11/1999 - 21/11/1999 Harran (day trip from Urfa); overnight to Antakya
22/11/1999 - 22/11/1999 Antakya to Aleppo (Syria)
23/11/1999 - 25/11/1999 Aleppo & Environs
26/11/1999 - 26/11/1999 Arrive Amman (Jordan)
27/11/1999 - 27/11/1999 Suweimeh - Dead Sea
28/11/1999 - 29/11/1999 Petra
30/11/1999 - 30/11/1999 Aqaba
1/12/1999 - 2/12/1999 Wadi Rum, back to Aqaba
3/12/1999 - 3/12/1999 Kerak, Irak
4/12/1999 - 4/12/1999 Amman
5/12/1999 - 5/12/1999 to Damascus (Syria)
7/12/1999 - 7/12/1999 Ma'alula (day trip from Damascus)
8/12/1999 - 8/12/1999 To Palmyra
9/12/1999 - 9/12/1999 Palmyra, to Tartus
10/12/1999 - 10/12/1999 Crac Des Chevaliers, Arwad, Tartus
11/12/1999 - 11/12/1999 Safita, Qalaat Al Marqab (day trip from Tartus)
12/12/1999 - 12/12/1999 To Tripoli (Lebanon)
13/12/1999 - 13/12/1999 Baalbek via Beirut (day trip from Tripoli)
14/12/1999 - 14/12/1999 B'charré, Les Cèdres (day trip from Tripoli)
15/12/1999 - 15/12/1999 Byblos (daytrip from Tripoli); then to Epta'a (Syria) via Tartus & Damascus
16/12/1999 - 16/12/1999 Epta'a
21/12/1999 - 21/12/1999 To Mua Arba'a & a visit to the ruins at Bosra
22/12/1999 - 22/12/1999 Back to Amman (Jordan) to apply for Oman visa, on to Aqaba
23/12/1999 - 26/12/1999 Wadi Rum desert and village
27/12/1999 - 27/12/1999 Aqaba; collect Oman visa in Amman
29/12/1999 - 1/1/2000 To Ras Shitan, Sinai (Egypt)
31/12/1999 - 31/12/1999 Mount Sinai (day trip)
4/1/2000 - 4/1/2000 To Amman (Jordan)
5/1/2000 - 5/1/2000 Petra with Nicki (day trip from Amman)
6/1/2000 - 10/1/2000 To Wadi Rum for Eid Al-Fitr
10/1/2000 - 10/1/2000 To Amman
11/1/2000 - 11/1/2000 Fly to Muscat (Oman) from Amman
12/1/2000 - 12/1/2000 Visit Mutrah and Muscat
13/1/2000 - 13/1/2000 12 hour bus to Salalah in southern Oman
14/1/2000 - 14/1/2000 Visit beaches, a holy man's tomb, and come close to the Yemen border, take overnight bus back to Muscat
15/1/2000 - 15/1/2000 Muscat: chasing ways to get a visa for UAE fast in order to take boat to Iran. Give up.
16/1/2000 - 16/1/2000 Fly to Tehran (Iran), changing planes in Dubai
17/1/2000 - 23/1/2000 In Tehran city and area: visit embassies (visas), museums, bazaar, Darband
24/1/2000 - 26/1/2000 Trip to Esfahan with the Jafferi family
27/1/2000 - 27/1/2000 Tehran:embassies, 1 year old birthday party
28/1/2000 - 28/1/2000 Fly to Shiraz
29/1/2000 - 29/1/2000 Museums, tombs, gardens and the Shiraz bazaar
30/1/2000 - 30/1/2000 Day trip to Nagsh e Rostam, Persepolis and Pasargadae
31/1/2000 - 31/1/2000 Day trip to Firuz Abad, overnight bus to Kerman
1/2/2000 - 1/2/2000 To Bam: visit the ancient walled city (Arg e Bam)
2/2/2000 - 3/2/2000 To Kerman
3/2/2000 - 5/2/2000 Yazd, to Esfahan again
6/2/2000 - 6/2/2000 Esfahan, bus to Tehran
7/2/2000 - 12/2/2000 In Tehran: Embassies galore, parties, fake eyelashes, and the post office
13/2/2000 - 13/2/2000 Train (first of the whole trip!) to Mashhad overnight
14/2/2000 - 14/2/2000 Mashhad
15/2/2000 - 15/2/2000 To Sarakhs by bus, cross on foot to Saraghs (Turkmenistan), taxi to Ashgabat
16/2/2000 - 16/2/2000 Ashgabat
17/2/2000 - 17/2/2000 Tolkuchka Bazaar near Ashgabat; night train to Mary
18/2/2000 - 18/2/2000 Day trip to Merv/Bairam Ali from Mary, overnight to Charjou (aka Turkmenabat)
19/2/2000 - 19/2/2000 Charjou; train to Bukhara (Uzbekistan)
20/2/2000 - 21/2/2000 Medressehs, mosques, bazaars
22/2/2000 - 22/2/2000 To Urgench
23/2/2000 - 23/2/2000 Day trip to Khiva; overnight bus to Samarkand
24/2/2000 - 26/2/2000 Samarkand
25/2/2000 - 25/2/2000 Day trip to Shakrisabz
26/2/2000 - 29/2/2000 Tashkent
29/2/2000 - 29/2/2000 To Kokand
1/3/2000 - 1/3/2000 Kokand; to Ferghana
2/3/2000 - 2/3/2000 Day trip to Margilan
3/3/2000 - 3/3/2000 Day trip to Shakhimardan
4/3/2000 - 6/3/2000 By bus to Osh (Kyrgyzstan) via Andijan
6/3/2000 - 6/3/2000 18 hour journey to Bishkek by private car
7/3/2000 - 8/3/2000 Bishkek
8/3/2000 - 12/3/2000 Karakol and environs
10/3/2000 - 10/3/2000 Visit Jeti Oghuz
11/3/2000 - 11/3/2000 Trek to Altyn Arashan
12/3/2000 - 12/3/2000 Back to Karakol; bus overnight to Bishkek
13/3/2000 - 13/3/2000 Collect Chinese visa; bus overnight to Shymkent (Kazakstan)
14/3/2000 - 14/3/2000 To Turkistan
15/3/2000 - 15/3/2000 Train to Almaty
16/3/2000 - 18/3/2000 Almaty
18/3/2000 - 18/3/2000 Visit Medeu; China-bound night train
19/3/2000 - 19/3/2000 In the train
20/3/2000 - 20/3/2000 Arrive _rümqi (China!!)
21/3/2000 - 23/3/2000 Night train eastward for 35 hours
23/3/2000 - 23/3/2000 Arrive Lanzhou; night train to Xi'an
24/3/2000 - 26/3/2000 Xi'an and around: Terracotta Warriors, Museums, Pagodas, Great Mosque
26/3/2000 - 27/3/2000 Night Train to Beijing
28/3/2000 - 28/3/2000 Meet Nicki. Visit Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, very strange foods night market
29/3/2000 - 29/3/2000 Mao's Mausoleum, Nujie Mosque
30/3/2000 - 30/3/2000 Train to Datong
31/3/2000 - 1/4/2000 Hanging Monastery and Yungan Buddhist Caves; overnight train back to Beijing.
1/4/2000 - 4/4/2000 Around Beijing and to the Great Wall with Nicki Levy
5/4/2000 - 5/4/2000 Move to BCLU
6/4/2000 - 6/4/2000 Mandarin course begins
16/4/2000 - 16/4/2000 Visit Eastern Qing Tombs outside Beijing with Guy Ruben and friends
21/4/2000 - 21/4/2000 Return to Great Wall at Huang Hua (yellow flower), this time using public transport
23/4/2000 - 23/4/2000 Visit Tianjin for the day
30/4/2000 - 1/5/2000 Take 20-hour sleeper bus to Nanjing (eat dog en route)
1/5/2000 - 1/5/2000 Arrive Nanjing, get room at Nanjing University. Walk round parks and city for many hours
2/5/2000 - 2/5/2000 Visit Zi Shan (purple mountain), and see Sun Yatsen's impressive mausoleum and other tombs
3/5/2000 - 3/5/2000 Travel to Suzhou. Lots of difficulty finding a hotel because of the public holiday
4/5/2000 - 4/5/2000 Rent bicycle. Visit many gardens and pagodas in Suzhou
5/5/2000 - 5/5/2000 Cycle around the south of Suzhou and surrounding countryside.
6/5/2000 - 6/5/2000 More gardens, silk purchases etc in the city this time on foot. No seat on late night train back for first hour or two.
7/5/2000 - 7/5/2000 Arrive Beijing mid-afternoon, rather tired
27/5/2000 - 28/5/2000 Party at Great Wall at Simatai
31/5/2000 - 26/6/2000 Start teaching English Conversation class two evenings a week
2/6/2000 - 2/6/2000 Shown around Bei Da (Peking University) by Chinese friend studying there
3/6/2000 - 3/6/2000 Visit Bei Hai and Hou Hai parks in Beijing with Chinese friends
10/6/2000 - 10/6/2000 Go to international car festival in Beijing with Yang Ying
11/6/2000 - 11/6/2000 Visit Dali exhibition in Beijing
15/6/2000 - 16/6/2000 Night train to Qingdao
16/6/2000 - 18/6/2000 Weekend in Qingdao with Kath Jones (beach!). No sleeper beds available in train coming back
28/6/2000 - 28/6/2000 Chinese course ends. Take train no. 7 to Sichuan Province
29/6/2000 - 29/6/2000 On the train
30/6/2000 - 30/6/2000 Arrive Mianyang 5 am. Take bus to Jiuzhaigou (nine stockade gully) national park
1/7/2000 - 2/7/2000 Walking amid the stunning natural features of Jiuzhaigou
3/7/2000 - 3/7/2000 Take bus to Songpan. In Songpan meet Xiao Hong
4/7/2000 - 4/7/2000 Ride horse for 7 hours to Huang Long (yellow dragon) national park. Ouch.
5/7/2000 - 5/7/2000 Visit Huang Long on foot. No regrets about missing Pamukkale in Turkey now.
6/7/2000 - 6/7/2000 Ride back to Songpan. Getting better at this.
8/7/2000 - 11/7/2000 Bus to Chengdu (8 hours)
8/7/2000 - 8/7/2000 Visit Panda Breeding Reserve, eat Sichuan hotpot for lunch and famous xiao chi (snacks) for supper.
9/7/2000 - 9/7/2000 Rent bicycle to visit some of Chengdu's sights
10/7/2000 - 10/7/2000 Day-trip to Leshan, to see the world's biggest Buddha
11/7/2000 - 11/7/2000 Take tea at the 'city museum'. Bus to Chongqing
12/7/2000 - 12/7/2000 Around Chongqing. Get on the boat to go up the Yangtze.
13/7/2000 - 13/7/2000 On the Yangtze River
14/7/2000 - 14/7/2000 On the Yangtze River: pass through the famed 'Three Gorges' and take side trip to the 'Little 3 Gorges'
15/7/2000 - 15/7/2000 Boat gets to Yueyang early afternoon. Get early evening train to Guangzhou.
16/7/2000 - 16/7/2000 Arrive Guangzhou East station 4.15 am. Take 8.30 am fast train to Kowloon. Spend day in Hong Kong. Take evening Cathay Pacific flight to Sydney (Australia).
21/7/2000 - 21/7/2000 See Britten's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Opera House
22/7/2000 - 22/7/2000 Mary Byrne and Matt Warburton's wedding. What a dream.
1/8/2000 - 2/8/2000 Fly to London changing planes in Hong Kong
4/8/2000 - 4/8/2000 Wedding of Anna Adams and Piers Lello in London!
6/8/2000 - 6/8/2000 Birth of Samuel Tyler, my second nephew
17/8/2000 - 20/8/2000 Camping in the Peak District with some Cambridge pals
26/8/2000 - 29/8/2000 Visit to Lago Maggiore and Milan with Nicki Levy and Nick Playoust
16/9/2000 - 16/9/2000 Visit the Great Wall at Mutianyu, on school trip
1/10/2000 - 2/10/2000 Take train from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar (Mongolia)
4/10/2000 - 5/10/2000 Visit countryside in Töv province, including the Manzshiir Khiid monastery and Terelj
6/10/2000 - 6/10/2000 Get new Chinese visa, visit Gandan monastery and museums in UB
7/10/2000 - 7/10/2000 Take minibus to Kharkhorin through incredible scenery. Visit grounds of monastery built from ancient Karakorum. Meet some lovely Mongolians
8/10/2000 - 8/10/2000 Take minibus back to Ulaan Baatar, meeting Amanda Roberts on the bus
9/10/2000 - 9/10/2000 Fly back to Beijing (China)
20/10/2000 - 20/10/2000 School trip to Gugong (the ‘Forbidden City’) in Beijing
25/10/2000 - 25/10/2000 With classmates and teacher meet Tim and Chris in Tiananmen Square as they end their cycling journey across Siberia
30/10/2000 - 31/10/2000 First round of tests as part of my Chinese course
31/10/2000 - 5/11/2000 Visit Taishan, Qufu and Qingdao in Shandong Province, on a school trip
10/11/2000 - 10/11/2000 Take part in Chinese Central Television English chatshow; Amanda Roberts arrives on train from Ulaan Baatar for a 4-day holiday
11/11/2000 - 11/11/2000 Visit the Great Wall at Huanghua Cheng with Amanda and Eliko
12/11/2000 - 12/11/2000 Visit Summer Palace and a Beijing Opera show with Amanda
14/12/2000 - 14/12/2000 Fly to Sydney (Australia) via Hong Kong
15/12/2000 - 15/12/2000 With Keith Byrne take bus to Thredbo in the Snowy Mountains via Canberra
16/12/2000 - 16/12/2000 Walk near Dead Horse Gap; swim; but most importantly, celebrate Yvette and Andrew’s wedding at the top of a mountain in Thredbo!
17/12/2000 - 17/12/2000 Fly from Canberra back to Sydney; meet family and John Sheldon for lunch in the airport, fly back to Beijing (China) via Singapore
20/12/2000 - 21/12/2000 Second round of tests as part of my Chinese course
14/1/2001 - 14/1/2001 Sit Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi: public exam testing Chinese proficiency
16/1/2001 - 18/1/2001 Final course exams, 'graduation' formalities
20/1/2001 - 22/1/2001 Busy in Beijing with Michelle, Alexa and Pascal. Buy warm clothing, visith Forbidden Ciry, eat Peking Duck. Visit the Great Wall at Simatai, Tiantan Park, eat northern hotpot, see another 'Peking Opera for tourists' (not as good as first one), and go
23/1/2001 - 25/1/2001 Spend Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) in Harbin - experience our coldest weather ever, marvel at ice and snow sculptures. Entertained by Jing Yuan Yuan and her parents, with a big feast, firecrackers and jiaozi.
26/1/2001 - 27/1/2001 Xi'an. Terracotta Warriors are just as good second time round.
28/1/2001 - 28/1/2001 Longmen Buddhist Caves, visited from Luoyang.
29/1/2001 - 29/1/2001 Shaolin Temple, of 'fighting monks' martial arts fame
30/1/2001 - 31/1/2001 Kaifeng. Delightful!
31/1/2001 - 4/2/2001 Based in Shanghai. Visit Hangzhou for the day. Nick Playoust arrived on 3rd. Take 4.20 pm train on 4th to Lanzhou.
5/2/2001 - 5/2/2001 Arrive in Lanzhou in the evening.
7/2/2001 - 7/2/2001 Bus to Xiahe – full of Tibetan pilgrims!
8/2/2001 - 8/2/2001 Bus to Jianzha – visit Zha Xi Sang Bo’s former monastery
9/2/2001 - 9/2/2001 Bus to Xining (Qinghai Province)
10/2/2001 - 10/2/2001 Visit Khumbum Lamasery, meet Tibetan family on the way back. Take overnight bus to Zhangye from Xining.
11/2/2001 - 11/2/2001 Visit Zhangye’s long reclining Buddha, take bus to Jiayuguan, visit Jiayuguan’s desert fort
12/2/2001 - 12/2/2001 Bus to Dunhuang
13/2/2001 - 13/2/2001 Visit Mogao Caves
14/2/2001 - 14/2/2001 Bus to Hami (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region)
15/2/2001 - 15/2/2001 Hami, night bus to Turpan
17/2/2001 - 17/2/2001 To Urumqi
19/2/2001 - 19/2/2001 Overnight train to Kuqa
21/2/2001 - 21/2/2001 Early morning (3.30 am!) train to Kashgar
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