The plan, formulated within the space of approximately 3 minutes, with my friend Paul, one afternoon over email is as follows - The flight leaves to Istanbul on 24th October at 6am from Luton.  The return flight departs from Sharm el Sheikh 10 days later on the 4th November...  And thats about the plan so far... Actually I tell a small lie there is a semblence of a plan which involves the following, Land in Istanbul on day 1, a train then departs day 2 (Sunday) to Aleppo, Syria at 8am arriving day 3 (at 14:17).  This train goes once a week, so if we miss it we have to go by bus which is actually quicker.  After this the current plan gets a bit hazy but a train departs from Damascus on Thursday, if its running, to Jordan and Amman (8am to 5pm, not sure if that is same day).  Before that train the plan would be to stay at the Barons hotel, frequented by Agatha Christie, T.E.Lawrence, Lindenberg, Roosvelt; visit the crusader forts and delve into one of the oldest cultures in the world through touring parts of Syria - with the exceptionof the border to the east for obvious reasons.

 

So if all goes to plan we'll be in Jordan Friday.  There we tread in the footsteps of Indianna jones and head to Petra. A bus ride then follows to the port of Aqaba, where hopefully there will be a boat to Egypt.  We then need to get to Sharm by bus from Nuweiba.  If all goes to plan then hopefully we'll meet some other friends in Sharm for a day of sun before flying back.

 

So far we have booked the flights and now the fun comes of booking trains, visas (every country we go to requires one) and hotels.  Some more blogs to folow on this trip I am sure!