Mick Molloy actually looks half fit.
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I’m about to go surfing in Eastern Samar. Curious to see it. Never been.
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Oh nice, I met an American guy who was travelling around the east coast, surfing also.
The land we just purchased is on a great surf beach in Gamay. Araw beach.
Samar is an interesting place, and the waray’s are the most neglected of people in Philippines.
Waray upay.
You are welcome to spend a night or two in our house in Mapanas as you travel, if you like.
Its a shame as we are back in Aus now.
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efa
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Been enjoying the low-key, more intimate ruins in Turkiye like Arykanda and particularly Sagalassos …
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Transitting through Nadi on the way home from the US.
Only away for 2 weeks but can’t wait to get back to Melbourne.
Some absolutely random photos of Chicago, Lakeside Speedway Kansas, El Paso, Toronto, Santa Monica & my Fiji Air seat
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Don’t know why I uploaded that laundromat photo 
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It’s a view we all know and it’s a necessity.
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Doing a Morocco TripaDeal soon, any handy hints.
Also best beer?
Don’t remember there being any really outstanding beers, to be honest. By far the most ubiquitous beer there was Heineken. Most of the Moroccan brands I tried were bog-ordinary, watery Corrs/Budweiser type beers. From memory, Casablanca Lager was probably the pick of the bunch, but it wasn’t a high bar. This was 10+ years ago though.
Tips? If your trip is like ours you’ll have an hour or two being shown around the Fes Medina, 45 minutes of which is stuck in one of the big rug stalls. If you get a free afternoon in Fes, offer your local guide some money (me, my wife, and a couple of girls from Sydney pooled 100 USD) to give you a proper, in-depth tour around the medina. He took us deep inside the medina (which is a very disorientating maze), to see parts that the tour groups don’t, and we got to eat and interact with the locals. He even drove us up a nearby hill afterwards (on the way back to the hotel), so we could take some sunset shots over Fes. It was one of the best afternoons I’ve had in my life.
The oldies on the tour, who preferred to spend the afternoon lounging by the hotel pool, were horrified at the thought of us going off alone with the guide. They thought we’d vanish without trace. How ridiculous… this guy had hit paydirt. He was likely about to take home more than his monthly wage in one afternoon. He was always going to look after us like royalty, and he did!
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Some decent beers there now.
My one big tip would be not to linger in Casablanca, very meh city and worthy of a day or two tops.
Get out and try and do a Sahara camping trip and yes definitely visit Marrakech and Fez.
Lots of decent beach resort areas if that’s your thing too. Have noticed in the last few visits that more and more luxury hotels going up
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Yes, indeed… agree 100%. There’s the Hassan II Mosque, and not much else besides. Our tour got into Casablanca late afternoon, spent the night there and was gone the following morning. That was PLENTY of time…
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Ohh, another thing is that Morocco is full of fat, pasty Poms who have fled the exorbitant prices in Spain
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Ugh… have they now gravitated there from the Costa Del Sol? Torremolinos is one of the worst places I have ever had the misfortunate of going to… the Brits at their absolute worst! Little more than a stretch of beachside restuarants and bars offering full English breakfasts and pie & a pint evening specials, inhabitated by obnoxious, fat, weather-beaten expat Brits in their boardshorts and bikins spending a few minutes away from their beach clubs. It was foul…
Hiking in Cappadocia be like this - spot shady cafe under fairy chimney, drink fresh squeezed pomegranate & orange juice, climb random ladder into 1000 year-old Byzantine church carved out of the rock, scramble around, admire frescoes. Christ on a hike …
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We had to postpone our trip to the south and western Türkiye this year sadly.. but have been viewing with much interest your travels. Great pics those btw. Just out of interest @Gnik are you doing your own thing, loose sort of travel plan in a set time? Or as part of a small tour?
Logistics for our self-guided Lycian Way hike were organised by local company Amber Travel (accom booking, luggage transfer, navigation). Otherwise all DIY.
HL itinerary FYI -
4 nights Istanbul
8 nights Lycian Way hike
3 nights Kas
Road trip with one way hire car from Kas to Kayseri Airport -
1 night Sagalassos
1 night Egirdir
2 nights Konya
2 nights Guzelyurt
4 nights Goreme
2 nights Istanbul
Edit - all accom, flights & hire car were pre-booked but maybe parts of the road trip could have been more spontaneous. We ended up shortening our time in Egirdir and adding a night to Konya.
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I’m in Cheng Mai, Thailand tomorrow. Any recommendations for things to do?
Are you using it as a base or staying there for a few days. We normally use it as a bit of a base to explore from but still plenty of markets, temples and sights of the old city to keep you interested enough. We’ve found bicycles are a great way to get around otherwise just walk and catch a scooter for a few bucks. Some great food in the old city. There are a lot of temples to see so you might get templed out like we do but I would recommend heading out to the Suthep temple and park area which has a funicular going up to it and is a pretty amazing complex with stunning views of the region
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