Adrian was not feeling well this morning and we were quite worried to see him so lethargic. He even asked for Calpol but vomited it out together with the water that Alison gave him. He however did agree to go for breakfast but didn’t eat anything apart from a pinch of bread.

After breakfast a South African family approached us to enquire where we were from after seeing the T shirts we were wearing. It turned out that they have families in Malaysia who have been persuading them to make a visit. They were told that language would be a problem but as they speak English we pacified their concern. We promised them that we will contact them when we get to South Africa.

We had breakfast at the restaurant on the top floor and had a magnificent view of the Suez Canal; at least the start of it and just in time to catch the last two vessels going on the north bound convoy.

I knew that I had to get the breakfast stuff from Tuah, and I did that as soon as I got up as I was dying for a cup of coffee anyway. Alison was still complaining about mosquitoes and Adrian having been bitten.

At breakfast this morning Alison ordered an extra English breakfast at a cost of 17EGP. It was huge with sausages, bacon (beef of course) and scrambled eggs and money well spent. Then Alison wanted to try updating the website which I readily agreed and Adrain and I went looking around at the shops.

It was Christmas day when we approached Dahab but it was far from our minds as we needed somewhere to sleep, and badly too after the near incident of going into the ditch on our way. The entrance to Dahab town was very well lit with dual carriageway and even had Christmas decoration on the trunks of the date palms.

We forgot it was Christmas Eve in our effort to get everything packed up and get to an ATM that works. As it turned out the first ATM we went to worked with the Maybank card I was using. It must have been the time difference that caused all the confusion last night with all the machines.

Although was up quite early after a good nights sleep I couldn’t do anything without my glasses. I had no idea where they were and knowing that I have another 4 pairs in the box in the car it didn’t worry me to lose one pair after 8 months of travelling. What frightened me though was the fact that I couldn’t read the computer screen like I used to do without my glasses on.

I was up pretty early wanting to ease my bowels. It was my first experience with the shovel and I managed it ok, having first made sure no one was about. That was when I noticed the tyres had been weed upon and I spotted paw prints; don’t know if it was wild dogs or wolves.

After what had happened between the landlord’s kid and Adrian yesterday we decided that we should leave immediately when we were ready and have our breakfast either by an internet café or on the road.

Last night was pretty cold without heating in the room but local dishes served as buffet and the hot water made up for it.  Although there was only one chicken dish cooked with the rice the rest of the dishes were some sort of vegetables cooked in all sort of different ways. Whatever it was the taste was good and I even had a second helping. So we decided to eat in again tonight and made our bookings.

This morning I thought we should have got ourselves a new sleeping bag as the ones we are using feels warned out and rather thin. Last night the temperature didn’t go below 12C and we felt cold in the sleeping bag. After packing up we thought we could make use of the facilities in the pool area and stopped by.

As I needed to go on the computer before leaving Amman to get some messages through regarding the flat, Alison had partially packed the car by the time I was ready, of course as usual after I shouted at her for disturbing me by asking unnecessary questions. While checking out I could hear her complaining to the receptionist for disfiguring our passports.

Last night Alison had the opportunity to cook and we had rice, (real rice for a change) with Berber omelet and boil in a bag sardines. This morning at breakfast we had soft boiled eggs in so many weeks, I can’t remember when we had them last.

I slept quite well, last night although there were continuous noises coming from the kitchen below. Alison of course being a light sleeper was awake at 1330hrs till the early hours of the morning when I woke up. Adrian and Alison ad our own cereal for breakfast while I ordered meat slices on and a glass of cay.

Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, should bring some excitement to us. But the hotel certainly didn’t and at USD 60 it was a shame for the tourism ministry of Syria. I found used underwear under the bed; water was seeping through some crevices and wet the floor of the bathroom.

This morning as expected Alison was complaining about her leg muscle aching, but I didn’t take too much notice of it. She could climb on the back of Tuah to stow the milk away, so I guess she would survive.

Wow! what a surprise this morning, we actually had boiled eggs at breakfast. Adrian had fun time trying to take the shell off the eggs, but he had one whole egg without the yolk as he dropped it while too busy minding others business.

Of course there was hot water in the morning contrary to what Alison said about testing the water at 3am and found no hot water then. I tested it at 1100 pm before going to bed and found the water hot, so I was quite confident there was hot water on tap.

As no breakfast was provided we had our own cereals in the lounge area of the hotel, and as they don’t serve food it was OK for us to do that. I had to rummage through the boxes on Tuah’s roof in search of the discs I bought for the Garmin and while at it Alison asked me to look for a makeup, neither of which was found.

This morning while going for breakfast we met Mr. Zuhair Abdullah who is with the Iraqi embassy and family on holiday in Alanya. We had an interesting conversation regarding Iraq, the late Saddam Hussein, USA and the economy in general.

Today we really took our time and didn’t leave the hotel until 1100hrs which was unusual. This was partly because I knew that the next stop for lunch was to be Side, a recommended village to be visited and not too far on our way to the east of Antalya. I even took my time driving there not knowing what to expect.

I suggested that we stay an extra night in Antalya as we had been rushing through Turkey the last few days. Aliosn readily agreed as she wanted to organise Adrian's and her clothes. immediately after breakfast she got the box of clothes up to the room and started tranfering clothes from the box to the small duffle bag she was using and vice versa.

Pamukkale meaning "Cotton Castle" in Turkish derived its name from the chalk precipitated at the rate of 0.55 kgs per second from the hot springs which contains large amount of hydrogen carbonate and calcium.

I stayed awake after a nap until about 03000hrs to catch up on the journal, otherwise I would never do it. When I woke up at 0800hrs I was a bit groggy but satisfied that I had done my duties. I had to make a decision as usual, on what to do and where to go and decided on Kadifekale as our next stop.

Today we started late from Canak hotel as we certainly took our time savoring the suite that we had and was on our way at 1045hrs. We had to stop for fuel and because of the amount Tuah gulped we were given 6 glasses with compliments from Shell, and they were quality ones too.

I woke up to glorious sunshine that the weather was forecast to be. After breakfast, which we took our time on, we spent some time looking over the other buildings onto the Dardanelles at the ships that were passing through.