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philbox
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Jun 27, 2005, 1:25 PM
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Hi from Singapore airport. We left Brisbane at 3pm on Monday arvo. We arrived at Singapore airport about 5 minutes ago at around 10pm local time. We spend about 2.5 hours here and then fly on to Istanbul.
This TR will be like my travel blog, hope yas don`t mind.
Gotta go, see yas.
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tattooed_climber
Jun 27, 2005, 1:34 PM
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SWEET!!!!!!!!!!where ya all planning to go dude?
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philbox
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Jun 29, 2005, 3:29 PM
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Hi from downtown Istanbul. I could not log ın yesterday due to havıng troubles wıth the Turkısh keyboards. I could not work out the difference between an i and some other strange letter that looks lıke an i but wıthout the dot on top.
Yeah well after travelling from Oz via Singapore and being on the plane for about 17 hours plus stopovers at Singapore and Dubai for a total elapsed time of nearly 24 hours we finally got to Turkey.
We are heading to Israel next via Frankfurt and then back to London and then on to Paris and the north of France. We then fly home via the US but we only do a short stopover on US soil.
The trıp is a workıng educational holiday for all the staff from an adventure educational facility that İ am on the board of. We are researching battlefields that Australian soldiers were ınvolved in.
We are heading out to Gallipoli in the Dardenelles on the Mediterranean coast tomorrow.
gots ta go now.
see yas.
Phıl...
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tattooed_climber
Jul 1, 2005, 7:09 AM
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freaky.....dotless i's....or should i say " ı's "
best wishes on your trip again....
ok, which is it? a pilgrimage, or educational? or with some pleasure (aka bailing on your friends and going climbing)....last trip you were such a desprate whore you were bouldering brass stair railings..... :roll:
hope ya find what your looking for..
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climbsomething
Jul 1, 2005, 8:19 AM
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Scroll scroll scroll... what, no southwestern U.S.?
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yedaki
Jul 1, 2005, 1:11 PM
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In reply to: We are heading to Israel next via Frankfurt
From Istanbul to Israël, that I understand. But via Frankfurt?!?
And THEN back to Londen? :?:
Saving up airmiles?
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rickrock77
Jul 1, 2005, 2:55 PM
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Sounds like an awesome trip.
Only one thing could make it better,,,
Will we get any climbing trip reports?
Sure there are numerous boulder problems around these places..
Come on Phil, just do one boulder, and name it, "Vegimite".
:lol:
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gearcog
Jul 1, 2005, 3:26 PM
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I am in full support of the blog concept - but may be more enjoyable and less scroll-ific if you use a free blog site like: http://www.blogger.com
and then post teasers here....much easier to upload pics etc.
just an idea
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canrocker
Jul 2, 2005, 10:20 PM
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Two words: lucky bastard.
Have fun!
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coldclimb
Jul 3, 2005, 7:37 AM
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In reply to: We are heading to Israel next via Frankfurt and then back to London and then on to Paris and the north of France. We then fly home via the US but we only do a short stopover on US soil. The trıp is a workıng educational holiday for all the staff from an adventure educational facility that İ am on the board of. We are researching battlefields that Australian soldiers were ınvolved in.
Too bad you Aussies didn't invade Alaska. :wink: :lol: Enjoy your trip Phil, and get some good pics!
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philbox
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Jul 3, 2005, 5:51 PM
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Hi from downtown Jerusalem.
We are actually on an educational trip researching battles that the ANZACZ (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) were involved in. Today we are learning of the pivotal role that the Australian Light Horse played in WW1 to capture the territory that would ultimately become the modern state of Israel.
Tomorrow we head down to Beer Sheba to see the site of the charge of the Australian Light horse Brigade to capture that city from the Turks.
Heh heh, today, really early this morning I snuck in some bouldering on the old city walls. Yup, I got the pictures, I`m trying to get some bouldering pics wherever I go.
I`ll hafta learn about blogs.
Gotta go, London and Paris in a few days.
Phil...
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melekzek
Jul 3, 2005, 8:37 PM
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ooops, i just saw this thread. I would have given you names of some contact people if you have time for climbing while you were in turkey. pm me next time, and i can hook you up.
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philbox
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Jul 4, 2005, 6:55 PM
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I looked around in Turkey for an indoor climbing gym or some sort of shop at least but not speaking the language was quite unsuccessful. Thanks for the offer melekzek, Turkey was an awesome place to visit and somewhere I would feel very comfortable visitting again.
Today we went and saw where the Australian Light Horse troops galloped across the plain towards Beer Sheba and as it turned out took the town and secured water for their horses.
We walked down onto the plain that they rode across and tried to imagine what it was like with all those horses and men riding through the gun fire. We also stopped off at the Australian war memorial cemetry in Beer Sheba.
Some of the epitaphs on the tomb stones were quite moving. I felt a chill crawl up my spine and raise the hackles on the back of my neck realising that young guys from Oz are buried here.
All the cemetries we visited here in Israel and in Gallipoli all feel leike a peaceful little piece of Oz.
As we are driving from place to place there is an awful lot of military activity, lotsa checkpoints to contain the Palestinians. They are preparing to evacuate some of the settlements around Gaza and they are expecting trouble. I don`t particularly want to be around then.
Heaps of limestone to boulder on in the countryside but not much in the way of cliffs.
Time to go, see yas, we go to the Sea of Gallilee tomorrow and also to have a swim in the Dead Sea which is something I`m really looking forward to.
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booger
Jul 5, 2005, 11:05 AM
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Phil, will you be in Paris on Friday? Bunch of us are headed to Fontainebleau. Happy to pick you up on the way if you'd like to boulder a bit... send me a pm and I'll give you my mobile #! 8^)
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philbox
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Jul 7, 2005, 5:44 PM
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In other news terrorists tried to blow Phil up but fortunately for the world he was running late for the London Underground.
Just before Phil was about to descend into the depths of the Underground network a whole mass of people surged out of the hole in the ground.
Heaps of fire engines descended on the area and police and ambulances started screaming up the street. Chaotic scenes were enacted before our correspondences eyes.
Our group tried to board a bus but all the milling crowd that surged out of the Underground was attempting to do the same and so we were prevented from bussing to our destination which was rather fortunate as it later transpired that buses were also targeted.
One of the group asked a copper and his sidekick if it would be safe to try to get on a bus but we were advised to stay on our own hoofs for the present time.
All the tourist attractions were closed but the museum of our choice The Imperial War Museum was in fact open so we amused ourselves there for the day.
More later.
Phil...
P.S. I have no idea what day it is so haven`t a clue which day I will be in Paris. Thanks heaps for the offer girldrifter but I will probably have to pass on it as I have to stay with the group.
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rickrock77
Jul 8, 2005, 1:13 AM
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Stay safe over there.
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gblauer
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Jul 8, 2005, 1:18 AM
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Phil,
Stay safe.
Gail
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philbox
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Jul 18, 2005, 12:59 AM
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Hey I`m back in Oz now. The trip back from around the other side of the world was a bear. Pretty much sitting in a plane for more than 30 hours gets a bit wearing after a while.
Highlights of the trip are flying over the tip of southern Greenland and seeing ice bergs and snow for the first time.
The French countryside is just sooo lush. Paris is breathtakingly beautiful. Jerusalem is soooo old. Bouldering on the old wall around Jerusalem is fun but has to be done in a covert fashion. I spied out lotsa routes up that wall. Dunno if the locals would apreciate me taking to it with a drill though. Swimming in the Dead Sea was a trippy buzz, where else can you stand up in the water with most of your chest out of the water and your feet don`t touch the bottom.
Navigating around Lille in France should best be left to the experts i/e gimme the map and I`ll get us there to the hotel in under 2 hours from the outskirts of town. The Notre Dame Church in Amiens is just too beautiful for words as is the Sacre Coure on Mont Matre in Paris as well as just about every other building in Paris.
The official language of inner London should be changed to Arabic as there aren`t that many poms left. We were hankering to hear an English voice amongst the population in London but there were soooo many Arabic speaking people there we were left scratching our heads whether we were in the right country, the landmarks told us we were in Pommy land but the voices we heard left us in doubt of our sanity. London is indeed a very multi cultural city. A little daunting to our simple expectations I guess, it`s all good though, I think?
Belgium is an extremely friendly place. Actually the French were pretty friendly too. I would go back to Turkey in a heartbeat. They were great.
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pinktricam
Jul 23, 2005, 11:01 PM
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Thanks for the reports phil...glad you made it home safe and in one piece. What a memorable trip it must have been.
Cheers!
Eric
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