NEW YEARS EVE 2003, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
(Mike's Place, almost walking into security guard at U.S. Embassy)
JANUARY 2003, EIN GEDI, ISRAEL
(technical hikes, news about the bus station bombs, watching the fighter planes on terrain-hugging flight along the border)
JANUARY 2003, MITZPE RAMON, THE NEGEV DESERT, ISRAEL
(10km hike into the heart of the world's largest crater)
2 DAYS LATER, MITZPE RAMON
(terrorist infiltration)
JANUARY 2003, EILAT
(meeting Ari, the Oz fanatic, hearing about the IDF service craziness, looking for boat crew work, meeting the electrician from the UK, UN weapons inspectors on holiday)
JANUARY 2003, JORDAN
(exit fee from Israel, no visa fee to Jordan, breakfast with the customs officers, Wadi Rum, Wadi Musa, the Hotel Valentine, the Bedouins at Petra, etc.)
JANUARY 2003, BACK IN TEL AVIV
(meeting up with Aviva, visiting the school in Old Jaffa, hearing about the mass exodus)
FEBRUARY 2003, ISTANBUL, TURKEY
(Grant, Alistair, the girls from Athens, Turkish riot police, transvestite knife-fight, Taksim nightclubs and defusing tense situations)
FEBRUARY 2003, BURSA, TURKEY
(Koza Han, hospitality like crazy, everyone's a football player)
FEBRUARY 2003, SELCUK, TURKEY
(The Outback Pension, night fishing with the boys, George's Impala, thunderstorms and the creekside BBQ)
FEBRUARY 2003, ANTALYA, TURKEY
(Meeting Birat, the Godfather of Antalya, learning Turkish and drinking seki, Mustapha and the bloodstained chair)
FEBRUARY 2003, LAKE EIGIDIR, TURKEY
(the commando school, streets run red with blood on Navruz, my trek into the mountains, no luck getting lunch at the village)
FEBRUARY 2003, GOREME, TURKEY
(Meet Yoda, hear Yoda's story..., take a pass on the horses, crazy climbing, Yoda introduces me to Shunya, the circus, the knives, the hawks, the husband caravaning camels to Trabzon, and The Story Of Kalmykia, more Karavansari)
FEBRUARY 2003, ANKARA, TURKEY
(Embassy scramble, Turkmenistan gets scarier, I go bowling)
FEBRUARY 2003, TRABZON, TURKEY
(Getting sneered at by Niketown employees, staying in the monastary and doing the book switcheroo)
FEBRUARY 2003, THE GEORGIAN BORDER
(Entering a former Soviet republic, getting shaken down for bribe money)
FEBRUARY 2003, BATUMI, GEORGIA
(The old resort town with its cultural institutions, Jenny From The Block, The Sputnik Hotel)
MARCH 2003, NIGHT TRAIN TO TBILISI
(Aggressive hospitality becomes more ominous when it wears a badge)
MARCH 2003, TBILISI
(Europe's Last Frontier, Irish Pubs on Akhuledian Kucha, Lincoln Mitchell subverts the political process, Russian TV, meet Tomi - Tomi's story and the future of Japanese tourists)
MARCH 2003, UPLITSIKHE & GORI
(The Joseph Stalin Museum, Tamerlane sacks another cliff city, I talk to a dog at the train station, the locals take pity)
MARCH 2003, KAZBEGI
(The Georgia Military Highway, humping pigs, Luisa's house and assault by overfeeding, Ghia becomes annoying and then downright disposable, running around the Trans-Caucausus Pipeline, contraband smugglers on the border, snowball fights, the Estonian commandos at the OSCE compound, the Abkhazia conflict, my climb up to the monastary and onwards, almost freezing to death from windchill)
MARCH 2003, SEKI, AZERBAIJAN
(Staying in a Karavansari)
MARCH 2003, BAKU, AZERBAIJAN
(Oil Boom, the McDonald's story, biscuits and gravy and the Fisherman's Wharf, tearing up and replanting flowerbeds, the depressed Teletubby and his photographer, UNHCR vehicles and walking wounded at the philharmonia)
MARCH 2003, FLIGHT FROM AZERBAIJAN TO TASHKENT
(Meet Bob Reed - Bob's story, the Tupolev, Astana airport, kinapped in Yemen, carjacked in Tbilisi - twice, the murder next door, buying a house in Baku)
MARCH 2003, TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN
(Taxi wars, nowhere to stay, Khussnidin saves the day but fails to save my soul, the oldest Quran and the stupid tourists who missed it, the metro station with the cosmosnauts, political opposition gets to stay at insane asylum)
MARCH 2003, SAMARKAND, UZBEKISTAN
(History lesson, Timur and Ulughbek, meet up with Tomi, sneaking into the necropolis, The Registan and its cops, how to stay in Central Asia for almost nothing, President Chimp goes to war)
MARCH 2003, BUKHARA, UZBEKISTAN
(More dissidents, everyone wants to move to Canada, The Ark, Nargiza, the synagogue, I can't log on to CNN.com)
MARCH 2003, URGENCH/KHIVA, UZBEKISTAN
(Confused hosts, most exotic place I've ever been)
MARCH 2003, THE BUS RIDE BACK TO TASHKENT
(or how I went to Turkmenistan for 10 minutes accidentally)
MARCH 2003, ANDIJAN-OSH, UZBEKISTAN/KYRGYZSTAN
(No road to Bishkek, Tomi writes me about bandits near Torugart, I fly, meet human rights activist, 'chop here with crash axe')
APRIL 2003, BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN
(suddenly I have a fixed address... and a place to be monday thru friday, 9-5, TsUM, The Central Asia Times, Fatboys, The Pub, Coalition Airbase Ganci & the Russian base at Kant, Nargiza, Svetia, et. al., Bishkek: The Town Without Pity)
APRIL 2003, ALA-ARCHA, KYRGYZSTAN
(Why I'll never make midget pachinko jokes ever again)
APRIL 2003, BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN
(Learning Russian, Samat and Norlan, Sofia and Bram, Judy comes for a visit)
MAY 2003, SAMSEE GORGE, KYRGYZSTAN
(Celestial Horesback-riding)
MAY 2003, BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN
(The Global Village Team shows up, I hear about the bombing at Mike's Place)
