So, it has been awhile since I've had the chance to sit down on the internet, but I shall tell you the most I can about our Syrian experience in my allotted time.

We arrived in Damascus on Friday after what was absolutely the most chaotic airport check in experience ever. There were people everywhere getting randomly shifted or just shifting themselves from vaguely definable queues. It's pretty clear that there not worried about the new liquid rules here either, despite the signs, since our giant drink bottles kept getting waved through. Pretty funny. Nevertheless, Mary and Jess were waiting for us when we got out and it was very exciting to see them both!! We made plans to meet up later and the rest of use jumped in the ICARDA shuttle into town.

My first impressions of Damascus were that it was a pretty ordinary place and that I'd never seen a city made up of so much concrete with so little of anything else. All along the road in to town families were having picnics amongst the litter and the few pine trees that lined the highway. We got to our incredibly dodgy hotel, booked by ICARDA, with a view of lovely ageing concrete buildings. While we waited for Mary and Jess we went and had drinks in the Cham Palace, then Mary took us all off to a fantastic restaurant in the old city. We spend the next couple of days actually exploring Damascus, and I have to say that, despite first impressions, its actually quite a nice place. It has quite a spectacular backdrop set into the craggy hills, and it's actually very trendy in many respects. The old city is really lovely, especially its Souqs, and the Ummayad mosque is absolutely magnificent. Jess and I had a really interesting time there (after we put on our Da Vinci Code brown monk outfits). Its courtyard is quite spectacular, but the most interesting thing to see was all of the Iranian pilgirms visiting the Shrine of Hussein and the tomb of John the Baptist.It's hard to explain, but the pilgrims weep and chant against these tombs, and the weeping, prayers and chants echo through the halls in a haunting kind of way. It was also really interesting to see them conduct a sort of service in the mosque - the prayers and verses and responses all chanted, echoing throughout the mosque.

On our last day in Damascus we went down to Bosra to see its old basalt city and its amazingly preserved amphitheatre. Getting there and away was a bit of a drama as we were using standard Syrian transport and couldn't speak any arabic, but we were lucky that, once we got on the bus to Bosra we met up with a group of foreign students studying arabic in Damascus and we were able to travel around with them. We had a great lunch in a "restaurant" out the back of someone's house and a good time looking around the ruins.

On Tuesday we decided to head to Deir Mar Musa, a combined catholic/orthodox monastary in the South of Syria. The monastary is made up of both nuns and monks, and is the last functioning desert monastary in Syria. We caught the bus to the nearest town, where they arranged a lift for us out into the desert and to the monastary. When we got there, in the middle of day and its terrible heat, we had to climp 1.5km up a steep slope with our bags to the monastary. It was pretty amazing, but a very hot climb. We were shown to the dark all female dorm where we were able to sleep the night. We basically had to crawl in because all the doors are three foot high. Then we went down to lunch. The monastary provides for who ever wishes to come, and we had a graet lunch of rice, fava beans, vegetable soup and yoghurt with a few tourists and some local syrians who ha come for a picnic. This was a massive family of about seventeen people, who spent lots of time talking to us in arabic, giving us chips and coke, and ultimately taking pictures of us on their mobile phones. We took pictures of them and it was all very jovial. They wanted to take us home to Homs, but we declined. It was so hilarious, because we just started hearing these mobile phone noises and realised people were standing behind us to get their photo taken near us. Then they just took pictures up close. Very amusing.

That night we went to meditation and to mass in their thirteenth century church, which was really interesting as his homily related both to revelation and comments on that days primaries and comments made by Hillary Clinton on Iran (he gave us a trancated english summary). We then ate an insane amount of goats cheese and tomato and went to bed. It was horribly uncomfortable, made worse by the fact that a midnight some girl let loose with several blood curdling screams which terrified us. We still don't know what it was about but we think a cat jumped on her, as one also jumped on Jess in the middle of the night. Very tired in the morning, I hit my head not less then six times on the stone doors. I still have a very sore spot!!

Very much looking forward to a shower in Aleppo, we successfully negotiated the system of taxis, service taxis and buses required to get to Aleppo, Our taki driver in Homs was so excited to have Aussies in the car he yelled out to all his friends "Australia, Australia" as we drove along.

Alas I have to wind up, but suffice it to say that I am currently in Palmyra in the middle of a horrendous dust storm. The others are in the ruins and I am going to meet them for a shorter time as unfortunately, I may have either had a cold in Damascus, or just terrible allergies to all the dust, but I've now got a very bad case of laryngitis and this is the third day on which I have been totally mute!!! Not really a highlight - we spend our wedding anniversary in a sort of dodgy hotel, with me unable to talk in the middle of a rather apocalyptic looking scene. Oh well, I hope my voice does eventually come back, it would be nice to communicate other than by han d gestures in the midst of all this amazing stuff. It's hard not being able to share your thoughts We're heading back into Damascus today, after a lot of driving around and to Jordan tomorrow. Will be somewhat happy to leave Jenny and Fraser behind, but Jess and I have been excellent travelling comanions and have been having a really good time. Aside from this, we haven't been sick at all (Rohan and Jeff were while we were away), and have been REALLY enjoying our culinary adventures. It's been a major highlight - some of the food here is just really great.

I'll pick this up later, hope you are all well. I'm off to the temple of Bel.

Well, I know it's only been 24 hours, but what a 24 hours it has been!!

As noted, last night we went to see the whirling dervishes at the Auditorium Hall in Islamic Cairo, thanks to the french professor we met yesterday. It was amazing, really great!! They played traditional instruments (many drums) and the dancers, some in white, some in black and some in bright coloured outfits with layers of impressively patterned skirts performed incredible whirling feats. As you can imagine, Rohan was totally blown away (as were the rest of us, but Ro's eyes were shining like a crazy man!!), not knowing what to expect, and he's got some amazing photos. The performance was free, which was a surprise to us - but I'll return to this point later when I tell you about Mohammed.

I should note that on the way the traffic was so crazy that we may as well have walked. Rohan and I were piled into the front seat, and it's probably just as well we were going at 2kph because we got slightly rear-ended (it was the impatience of the traffic jam that actually caused the prang)- but this was in fact of no real consequence to anyone despite the distinctive sound of a light breaking somewhere. The driver just got out, checked out the minor damage and drove off again. All in a days taxi driving I suppose. Once we got there we faced the major challenge of actually remembering where to go, but luckily we eventually got there with a bit of assistance after having gone round in a bit of a confused circle. By then we were then worried about being late, but as it happened we were perfectly on time and there were five seats just waiting for us all in a row. It all added to the experience really!!

So, in the end, it was a great ending to a great day. As we trundled off to our rooms last night Fraser said a number of times that it was one of the most interesting days of his life and that he never thought that he would see and experience so many new things in one day.

Today, Rohan, Fraser, Jenny and Jeff were (and still are currently) meeting up with their Egyptian contact and touring the fava bean markets. It sounded reasonably interesting, but I decided that there were probably better ways to spend my day. I think I made a good decision, because it has been another fascinating day. In so many ways it is disappointing to have to leave tomorrow as we've only begun to scratch the surface of this incredibly multilayered, varied and complex city - so much history, culture, chaos and such lively, interesting people.

Anyway, as I was saying, rather than looking at fava beans, instead I decided to take a trip out to Coptic Cairo. I left Rohan and Jeff to go for a walk around Zamalek, and Jenny and Fraser in the hotel, and jumped in a taxi with quite a chatty driver who took me to Coptic Cairo via Cairo's large and rather impressive aquaduct - a remnant from the days when the Nile was a mighty flowing river in this area ( a little hard to imagine now), but now just part of the urban sprawl of Cairo. Coptic Cairo was a bit of a maze even though it's a pretty small area, and there is a massive amount of restoration going on. The churches were really interesting - quite a contrast to the mosques with their extensive iconography. I met a Canadian girl called Jessica who was also travelling on her own and we had quite a pleasant time chatting and wandering around.

Oh, I also saw them defleecing and cutting up a lamb suspended from a tree which had evidently been bled to death. Yes, so that was rather interesting...I was rather glad not to have been early for that one!!

Afterwards I decided that it was time to check out Cairo's remarkably efficient metro system. I jumped on, it was pretty crowded but generally good - quicker than a taxi. Didn't see any other tourists (or westerners generally) on there at all though, clearly not the preferred mode of transport - but pretty good value for 20 cents in my opinion!! Still, it was quite comfortable, after successfully changing trains and generally negotiating the metro system to my great relief I jumped out by the Opera house on Zamalek. I wandered around looking for the entrance and saw a half open gate. As I was wondering whether I could go in, a fellow with a massive smile laughed and said it was ok to go in. As it turns out, he was one of the directors of Cairo's Cultural Institute, which is based in the same complex as the opera house. We chatted as we walked towards the opera house, and he was extremely pleased to hear of our enthusiasm from the whirling dervishes performance. He invited me into their Office and, swallowing back the skepticism and reservation that always accompanies an approach by an unknown male to a single female (slightly warranted, but Anna he is very keen to meet you) I followed him through the Cultural Institute Building (there were people everywhere), to his Office (which also contained about five other staff). There we all had a cup of tea and a chat and they began to tell me all about their activities, which are incredibly varied and extensive. They didn't have anything to eat, which clearly concerned them trying to be hospitable they offered me half a cucumber out of a drawer somewhere. I declined explaining that I had already eaten (not true as I was starving as it was getting near to 2.30).

It was pretty clear from their office, their website and their publications that they really are passionate about what they do. It turns out the whirling dervish performance we had seen was funded by them because they were concerned that cultural activities cost too much to be accessible to normal people, and we had a really interesting discussion about the origins and support of the performance. Such an amazing coincidence!! They had a whole range of programmes, sponsoring music, art exhibitions, theatre, opera and more. I met a budding young singer, and have got a cd of a Yemeni lute player, tape and many other bits and pieces to take home. Mohammed than took me on a private tour of the opera house (otherwise not accessible), where they were preparing quite a dramatic set for a performance of swan lake. It turns out that the opera house was a gift from the Japanese, who fused all of Egypt's principal architectural traditions and essentially made the building in a shape that Mirror's the sphynx, even though it's principal features are square lines, columns and moderate domes. It was really quite remarkable and I was so impressed. He then also showed me a Tunisian art exhibition, and Cairo's music library. Then he hailed me a taxi, and I returned to the hotel and a had a shower before desperately going in search of yet another cheese sandwich. As I left I kept reflecting on the remarkable cultural diversity of this city, and the way it all mixes together to make it such a uniquely fascinating place.

So, yet another interesting day! Now I'm just waiting to hear from the workers. It's nearly 6 and I have no idea when they'll be back. Might be time for a nap...!!!

Well, the long and the short of it is that I am having a fantastic time in Cairo. We're all really well and it has just been amazing.

But back to the beginning: We had no trouble meeting Jenny and Fraser (Rohan's work colleague and her husband) at Sydney airport. As we checked in, the Etihad rep said that they had overbooked the flight and asked whether we would be prepared to leave the following day. If we chose that option she said that they would fly us first/business class to Cairo on Monday and put us up in a four star hotel in Sydney with $300 spending money in the meantine. While that all sounded great (Great!!), we really wanted to leave that day so we declined. Who really needs a sky bed anyway!?! Unfortunately the first leg of the flight to Abu Dhabi was delayed due to bad weather. This was a bit of a concern as we only had a one hour connection in Abu Dhabi for our flight to Cairo and we were particularly worried about the transfer of our baggage. Luckily the flight waited for us all, but unfortunately Jenny's baggage (and a few others) was left in Abu Dhabi. While we waited around for the baggage issue to be sorted out (it was around 3am), we had started talking again to a girl (Jenny2) we met on the plane who was trying to take a taxi all the way out to Giza on her own. In the end, we arranged for her to get a lift with us, so all five of us piled into the four seater car, Jenny2 and I squished into the front seat, which was interesting as the car was manual and the driver and I had some quite amusing exchanges as he tried to change the gears. Anyway, we all zoomed off to our hotel in Zamalek, where we promptly showered and got a few hours of much desired sleep.

We got up again Monday morning, and went for a wander around Zamalek (an island in the middle of the Nile river), which is quite picturesque with its tree lined streets and fading colonial facades. After lunch, we walked over to the Egyptian museum and got a guide to show us around. It really was very interesting, and actually just looking at some of the everyday items from 5000 years ago (such as a stone lemon juicer) was just as fascinating as looking at the museum's famous pieces. We walked back again, having had a very healthy introduction to Cairo's completely insane traffic.

On Tuesday we got up really early to head off to the Pyramids. It was just amazing to round the corner and see the tops of these giant pyramids rising up over the suburbs of Giza. I've seen pictures of the pyramids hundreds of times, but in real life they really are magnificent and it doesn't matter how many times you've seen it on paper. So imposing - and such a perfect pyramid shape!! It was incredibly hot and humid - even more so crawling into one of the pyramids, which was quite a cramped experience!! In the afternoon Rohan and I wandered around Zamalek again, taking some time to look in the shops. I've seen the most opulent furnishing fabrics, I'd love to take some home but they'd weigh a tonne!!

Today was definitely the highlight of the trip so far. We took a trip out to Islamic Cairo, which was just fascinating. We started off at the Citadel, which is the largest Citadel in the world, and walked around there for ages, taking in the views of Cairo (well as far as you can see before the pollution blocks out the horizon, which isn't really that far!) and wandering through the mosque of Mohammed Ali, which is one of the most striking buildings in the Citadel. There were lots of groups of schoolgirls who wanted to practice their english ("hello! what is your name?"), each in turn, and have their photos taken. All the boys were a bit more shy, happy just to yell out "Welcome to Egypt" (along with most males generally). Then we walked down from the Citadel to the Madrassa of Sultan Hassan, a mosque built in 1362 and really quite impressive.

We then proceeded to walk up through the streets of Islamic Cairo, including the street of tentmakers, towards Khan el Kalili, and then further up towards the walls of the old city. It's really hard to explain why just wandering the streets here is just such a great experience, but the combination of the people, the energy, all the shopfronts and the amazing old buildings made it an incredibly memorable day. At one point this fellow came up to us and said we really must go and see the whirling dervishes tonight, and walked us to the hall where they perform. We assumed it was someone who has then going to take us to his shop, but he turned out to be the French language lecturer at the University of Cairo who has spend seven years studying at the Sorbonne in Paris (his three brothers were also lecturers at the university, in english, law and agricultural engineering). He gave us his card, but he was just keen for conversation and took us to meet a very well known friend of his who practices herbal medicine it what is without doubt the most incredible spice and herb shop I've ever seen. There we were invited to smell and taste an amazing succession of freshly ground spices - so enticing! Then he walked with us to Khan el Kalili, chatting happily all the way, sometimes in French, sometimes in English. Just one of those quintessential unexpected travel experiences really!!

So all in all I have to say that I am really enjoying Cairo. It's just such an amazing city and so much more than I expected. The downside of course is the terrible pollution (which is really, really awful), but on the whole I find it very enjoyable to wander around. Zamalek is pretty quiet at night, so we've been sleeping well.

Off to see the whirling dirvishes tonight!!

So, I am now three weeks away from having to hand the first essay for my Masters. It relates to the possibilities of global or regional regulation of international transboundary air pollution in Asia and it's quite an interesting topic on the whole. Having a study leave day today, I spent the morning reading about the state of the environment and projections for the future and, consequently, started feeling somewhat despondent.

As a result, this afternoon I decided to go in search of encouragement. Since I now have internet at home, I decided I would see what sort of inspiration I could find there. But where to start? Well, I thought about it and decided that, if anything, surely a Russian proverb or saying could provide some kind of encouragement. Russian authors always seem to have some kind of interesting meditation on life.

So, after contemplating the advantages of being Russian when it comes to finding a literary outlet for one's despondency, I typed "russian proverb" into the search engine, and the first thing I found was "You cannot break through a wall with your forehead". My first thought was that this was somewhat self-evident, but I decided to pursue it further...and I'm still going to have to pursue it becase, while doing so, I came across this quote from Dostoyevsky (conveniently, a Russian)which brought me back to my orginal problem:

"My younger brother asked forgiveness of the birds: it may seem absurd, but it is right nonetheless, for everything, like the ocean, flows and comes into contact with everything else: touch it in one place and it reverberates at the other end of the world".

So, as I read about the damage our industrialised (and industrialising) world does to the natural environment in the knowledge that as an Australian I have either the first or second highest per capita carbon emissions (I can't remember which), I think about how my lifestlye affects everything else in a world of ecological interdependence.

But to ask forgiveness? Well that seems too much...not because I have a theoretical objection to it, but only because it seems to hypocritical to do so when your country continues on as is (as we pretty much do in Australia).

Sometimes I feel like the concept of being an "australian" is a bit redundant...the world's problems just seem too big for national identity to matter. I guess it's a global equity issue in the end.

But otherwise everything else seems to be going well!!

Well, we're back! We had a great time in Vietnam. The two weeks seem to have flown by and it was all so crazy there was no time to e-mail, let alone add to this blog. It's nice to come back for a rest!! We spent a week doing the touristy thing in South and Central Vietnam (Saigon, Hoi An, Hue), and then another week in Hanoi and around with our friends Adam and Katherine who are currently teaching in the UN International School there. It was great to be able to see Hanoi through the eyes of people living there, and getting around by motorbike with the other 2.5 million motorbike owners in Hanoi gave a good but scary insight into the crazy traffic.

I'll write more about it soon, but for now it's off to bed...the inevitable effects of jetlag of course!!

So it’s nearly time. We leave for Vietnam at 6.20am tomorrow with a 6 hour stopover in Sydney. Pretty exciting!!! Not looking forward to packing tonight though, and fingers crossed we have no problems obtaining our visa at the airport when we get there. Yay, off to Vietnam!!!

So, what will we be leaving behind? Well, things here in Adelaide have been quite lively of recent. The last few weeks we have had both the Fringe and...(sense of anticipation building) the World Police and Fire Games!!! My friend Kylee and I went to the opening ceremony last weekend because her husband Darren was a volunteer, and it was really quite amusing (I never thought I would be so entertained by something like that!). The opening ceremony is something of a take off of the Olympic opening ceremony. All the teams from around the world (60 countries I think) march in and around with their flags etc, there’s music (choir boys and rogue traders), speeches by “digniataries” and the lighting of the torch. In the course of the ceremony, I learnt that Spanish firemen and policemen can really dance and that South African firemen and policemen can really REALLY dance. Wish I had had my camera actually!

So, on the whole it was a fun night out. It’s great just to roam the city at the moment, with all the foreign visitors, street acts here for the fringe (I love watching them, so entertaining!!)…and all the 8000 plus firemen from all over the world too!! It’s pretty funny actually, but it’s a good time to be in the city. Everything else has been extremely busy, but generally good.

Hopefully my next post will be from Vietnam :0)! Did I mention that I'm excited!?!

Ok, I know it's February but, on reflection (prompted by an e-mail), the best thing about Christmas in Adelaide is catching up with good friends. Jod just send me this photo of Coralie, Anne, Jodi and I today (taken on Boxing Day in North Adelaide), so I thought I'd post this photo for the record:)! Vic, if only Sweden wasn't so far away!?!?!

Anna (also in Sweden!), I have tried to follow your instructions, but for some reason, I can't enlarge it!! However, small steps....

Also, on the subject of Sweden, I don't know if there is some kind of transferable karma-ish/ do unto others as you would have them to unto your sister rule, but this morning (on the way to work) I spent quite some time chatting to and helping a Swedish girl I met in the parklands find her way around Adelaide....went out of my way to help her on the basis of her Swedishness!! Hmmm. Still, we had a lovely chat about Sweden and Adelaide as we walked along though!!

Well I now realise that it's been over a month since I last posted something on my blog ("last posted"!?!?! Who am I kidding, I've only done one, or two if you count the first!). It's not because I'm disinterested (you all know I love to write!), it's because I was hoping to work out the photo thing first.

Nevertheless, in brief summary, since I last wrote, we have been enjoying the aussie summer life and have taken a trip to the Eyre Peninsula with our friends Alice & Joe, and a couple of trips to Victor amongst other things. Each Victor trip has been accompanied by cold weather and rain, but we will persist!! We even managed to drag out the "kayaks" (aka floaty plastic things that look like a kayak) and swim on the weekend, despite the cool change arriving pretty much as we arrived. While we were there (and amidst the cool change) my cousin Andrew decided to take us all, and his kids out to the island on his "antique" boat, with an "antique" engine. The trip out was beautiful and even accompanied by dolphins, although the boat failed to start for the return trip (well, for quite sometime anyway). Still, it's hard to be perturbed about anything when you're sitting in a boat on the sea with family, friends and dogs (lack of food, warmth and shelter aside) and it gave a lot of cause for mirth, which is the main thing.

On the other hand, the EP trip involved beautiful weather, a lot of interesting touring around visiting places in SA I've never been (thanks to Joe and Alice!) and a trip to the Pt Lincoln Tunarama festival to watch people try and throw tuna (rather amusing really). So I will (WILL!) put some of those photos up (accompanied by relevant commentary) - I just need someone to help me ( might try the damsel in distress thing with Rohan: "oh I am so incompetent with machines, I need someone terribly clever to save me from a blogging disaster". Am pretty sure that that will go down well (seriously)!!

So, stay tuned for the photos...

Well, it’s been a busy few days. On Thursday, Anna left for Sweden and now everything seems very quiet Chez Higgins. It was sad to say goodbye, but exciting to think of all the fun things she will get to do and interesting people she will meet this year. Her empty room with all her stuff is a bit depressing (eight months seems like such a long time!), but on the bright side it is full of shoes which are unloved and abandoned (Hi Annie!!!!!!!!!). Of course, it’s a very difficult question of etiquette…but suffice it to say, they are unlikely to remain unloved for a whole 8 months, even though they are a couple of sizes too big!!!

On Friday (day) I caught up with Mary, a friend of mine who now works in Khartoum, Sudan. I haven’t seen her for over 18 months and it was great to see her again after all this time and hear more about life in Khartoum. Mary is always so wonderfully warm and optimistic about everything, I always leave with a smile on my face when we catch up! Such a shame she lives so far away!!

On Friday night, the rest of the fam headed down to Victor for the weekend. Mum had cooked up a massive dinner for our arrival – lucky us!! It’s so nice to be able to go down to Victor and just sit and look over the sea, read, relax and eat. We love it!

On Saturday, Rohan and I ran into some more friends, Kristen and Simon (ie “Simon the weatherman”), their parents and their kids having coffee at the newly renovated coffee place at the Whaler’s Inn. It was a beautiful sunny day and terrific to catch up (little Samantha is hilarious!!), although I’m really not sure about the whole coffee place…it’s a bit too snobby for my liking with all the sails and timberwork etc, but progress seems to march on at Victor, as much as I wish it were not so!!

On Saturday night, after a lovely walk around the victor harbour cliff tops with Rohan and Matt, Rohan and I went to McLaren Vale to have dinner with some friends who have recently purchased an incredibly picturesque vineyard well off the typical tourist routes there. We had wine and cheese on a hill overlooking the vineyard as the sun set over the miles and miles of hills and vines. So very beautiful, just perfect!!! Thanks to John and Sue for their wonderful hospitality in such a stunning location.

Sunday we spent back at Victor, where the weather was grey and cool, so we had no choice but to hit the Bav for coffee and cake (how unlucky for us!). It was nice to spend the time with mum, dad and matt (though missing Annie) and thankfully I was not forced to play scrabble, which I hate (too slow!!!). I hope it gets hot enough to swim at some point!!! We’ll hopefully head back next weekend and take our chances then, but the forecast is for a hot working week and another cold weekend. Not good…what are the odds of it raining every time we go to the beach in the middle of a drought!?!?!?!

Well, I have to say that I never thought I would ever (ever!) start a blog. I'm just not that technology literate. It took Anna moving to Sweden...and a lot of help from her and Matt! Big celebration when I learn to upload pictures!!!

Outcome remains to be seen...