4:00 AM "Call to Prayer"

As the Lonely Planet guidebook states: "The call to prayer quickly becomes the soundtrack for any Middle East adventure." Lindsay and I had our first experience with a call to prayer when we first arrived in Istanbul, Turkey. We arrived in Istanbul around 6:00 pm and after a few hours of wandering we retired to our cute little hotel in old town right near "The Blue Mosque." That night we slept with the window open to take advantage of the cool breeze that was coming off the bosphorus. This was a great idea until a cat came through the window in the middle of the night and jumped on my bed almost giving me a heart attack..:) After getting over the cat incident we fell back asleep but were woken up at 4:00 am to the sound of a man singing in Arabic as loud as he could into a speaker system; it was the first "call to prayer" of the morning. For those who have never experienced a call to prayer it is quite fascinating. At various times throughout the day the Mosques will have someone go to a microphone and sing a religious song that is blasted through loud speakers throughout the entire city or village. The songs, although loud, are quite beautiful and really give you the feeling that you are in a place so far removed from anything you consider "familiar." This 4:00 am call to prayer in Istanbul was the perfect "welcome" for me and Lindsay and sitting in our little hotel listening to it in awe will be a memory we will always cherish.

The Magical Islands of San Blas:

Off the Eastern Coast of Panama lies a collection of Islands called San Blas . This little known stretch of land is home to the fascinating and friendly Kuna Indians. They live in wooden huts and make their living mostly from fishing, farming, etc. This area is only accessible via a small prop plane from Panama City (that topic is for another blog post)that flies from village to village dropping off supplies, etc. Lindsay and I stayed with a Kuna Family on their little island retreat called Yandup. Our accommodation consisted off a wooden hut with a bed and mosquito net. Everyday our Kuna guide "Leo" would load us up in a wooden canoe with a motor and take us to some of the most beautiful and remote islands in the world. Each small island is owned by a certain Kuna family and lucky for us our friend/guide Leo had already arranged for us to hang out on these islands. Leo would drop us off on an island and then Lindsay and I would simply go find the best "spot" to lay out our towels and hang out. The sand was white, the water crystal clear and the coral reef spectacular! I have really never felt so removed from the world as I did laying around the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama!

The Long Trek Home...

When you are young and backpacking your way across the world "logistics" becomes an art. You figure out how to get from point-a to point-b and everywhere in-between. However, when coming home from our Middle East/Northern Africa trek Lindsay and I forgot that art. Our schedule to get from Morocco to home (Salt Lake City) turned out to be a logistical nightmare that left us so tired and worn out that we were on the verge of insanity! The objective was this: get from the desert Moroccan city of Marrakech to our studio apartment in SLC as cheap and quick as possible. This involved trains, sleeping in airports and the worst flight pattern ever. Here is how the journey ended up:

Marrakech->Tangier->Madrid->Frankfurt->New York->Los Angeles->Salt Lake City

This trip started after a long and hot day exploring Marrakesh. We boarded a very hot and crowded night train headed north. The next morning we woke up in the fantastic whitewashed city of Tangier (made famous by the Bourne Ultimatum movie). We spent most of the day exploring the city and in the afternoon we took a short flight to Madrid. Once in Madrid we took the Metro to the center of the city and just spent the rest of the night taking in the sights and sounds of that beautiful European metropolis. At around midnight we took the metro back to the airport and slept that night on the cold, dirty and very hard airport floor. The next morning we boarded flight 1 to Frankfurt, then flight 2 to New York, then flight 3 to Los Angeles and finally flight 4 to Salt Lake City. 2 Days, 9 time zones and 3 nights without a bed later we found ourselves home. (in case you are wondering, we booked the flights with skymiles which meant we had to take whatever they gave us). Although we loved the adventure this last leg of our trip left us so exhausted we could barely stand, oh, did I mention that we did this entire trip home carrying our backpacks?...ouch!

River Of Dreams

While backpacking through Thailand in 2006 Lindsay and I spent some time in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai. This city is in the northern mountains of Thailand and is surrounded by mountains, lush forests, and amazing villages. One day we were taken to an area called "Chiang Dao", this is the northern most area of Chiang Mai and is famous for beautiful mountains, valleys and streams. On the way back we were offered a "river ride" from a small Thai boy. The "ride" consisted of a raft which was made from large bamboo sticks and twine. The young Thai boy (about 11) simply guided us along this river using a large stick that he would occasionally stick into the river bottom to guide the raft. This raft ride ended up being one of the most surreal and special travel moments we have ever had. We knew it was going to be a good ride when I stood up to help steer the raft and fell through two bamboo sticks and had to be helped out by the young boy. Joking aside, we drifted down this beautiful river in the mountains of Thailand and watched the afternoon turn into late evening. Occasionally we would drift by farmers working in the field, old women casting their nets into the stream and young Thai children who would swim up to our raft with huge smiles! This glimpse of Thai life was priceless, it was so real, so far away from the highways, cities and other travel destinations. We will never forget drifting along that beautiful river watching evening settle and catching a glimpse of what life in Chiang Mai, Thailand is all about.

Shoes, Wallet, Coffee and Friendship.

By the time Lindsay and I made it to Damascus, Syria we were beat. We had been traveling for well over a week and had just arrived on a night train from Aleppo, Syria. My little "puma trainers" were simply not doing the trick so I needed to get a new pair of shoes. That night while walking the streets near our hotel we found a shop that was open. The owner sat politely and welcomed us with a very happy "welcome to my shop." I purchased some shoes and a wallet and after some brief conversation went on to our hostel. Our last night in Damascus we wandered by this shop again and the minute the shop owner saw us he gave us a huge smile, a big wave and a "please come in my friends." He invited us into his shop and made us a cup of coffee/tea which is true Middle East hospitality. We sat there for about 2 hours just discussing family, friendship, politics, etc. He had us call his kids on the cell phone so that they could "talk to Americans." We found out that he is working 2 jobs to support his wife and 5 kids. His brother (a police officer) was also there to share in the conversation. I will never forget as this man (speaking the best English he could) tried to explain to us that it is the U.S/Syrian governments that don't like each other but that Syrians "love Americans." For us this night was the perfect ending to an AMAZING experience in the country of Syria. What we found there were the nicest, sweetest people we have ever meet. We are taught to believe that the Syria is full of terrorist & extremest but for Lindsay and I it is full of friends; including this man and his little shop in the middle of Damascus.