13 octobre 2009
fin du blog
Bonjour,
petit message pour annoncer la fin de ce blog. Durant mon voyage, il m'etait difficile de poster des photos regulierement sur le blog, et ma plume n'est clairement pas assez bonne pour faire vivre ce blog sans images.
Je suis, pour info, de retour en Australie, mais jusqu'au 31 oct seulement. Ce sera alors un retour a Paris definitif (sic). Donc ce blog n'a plus vraiment lieu d'etre.
Pour les photos, je n'ai pas arrete d'en prendre. Vous les trouverez sur mon profile facebook si cela vous interesse.
Merci en tout cas de m'avoir suivit et a tres bientot,
Ziad
27 juillet 2009
Pictures of Jordan
See you soon :)
Ziad
23 juillet 2009
Welcome to Jordan
Travel to the past. Last may, after one week in Israel, I spent more than 3 weeks in this wonderful country. People were absolutely lovely, and everyone said to tourists : Welcome to Jordan. Was wonderful.
It was great to live some days with Ramy and his family. And I met wonderful people like Abu Samir, Hazim, Veerle B and S, Irene, Margaret, Bill etc... Thanks for everything.
It is a wonderful country because you spending great time in the desert, in the red sea, in the dead sea, in Petra, in great city, in Valley full of wildlife, and you can skydive as well.
Anyway, I stop talking and add some pics...when I ll have a good connexion, sorry
Enjoy and see ya
x
05 juillet 2009
I'm back...
Hey,
sorry for this long delay... After Jordan I spent time in Paris with my family, in Europe with friends and in Algeria with 10 times more family. It was a very busy time. But this is not an excuse. I am really sorry for this long long silence.
I am actually in London for 2 more days and I promise to come back here very soon with pictures from Jordan, Europe and Algeria.
I hope every reader of this blog is fine and will keep following this story.
Talk to you soon,
Cheers,
Ziad
13 mai 2009
Pictures of Israel and Palestine
Hi...
first, I want to apologize for my english. I read back my older post... It is bad !! Sascha, Warwick, I m begging you for your help !!!!
Anyway... as promise, please found some pictures of Israel and Palestine....
After 3 hours in the border, I was really lucky to meet Leia and Etienne. They are absolutely great people. (Good to keep smiling even when something bad happen ;)
I went directly to Jerusalem after that. The old city is amazing, crazy, full of tourists and pilgrims. Great time, to sleep on a roof of the old city and to walk between all this crazy people with machine guns or praying all the day... There is a lot of pics of Al Aqsa mosquee for different reasons. First, it's really a beautiful place, full of life. Second, it was really hard to go in, so I took a lot of shots (I lied and had to say that I am a good muslim...hmm hmm). Finally, since I am young, a picture of this mosquee is on the wall of my parent's place. It was good to touch it after all these years.
But you can also see some pics of the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcre...
That's enough for the Holy places... because more important, as I said in the previous post, was my time in the occupied Palestine. Awesome people, even if they're living in an open sky jail:
Too hard for me to show how these people were kind and lovely with just pictures. You have to live it...
I saw a danse spectacle organize by a germano-french association of culture and met Samir, Delia, Mathieu, Kader... great people from Palestine and elsewhere. I travel after a little in Israel with Samir and Leia (Haifa and Akko aka Saint Jean d'Acre).
By the way... I am still in Jordan, where I discover that an asshole stole me more than 4000 euro on internet.
Anyway, I am fine and still smiling. Thanks again to reading my blog and see you soon,
Ziad
06 mai 2009
Israel and occupied Palestine
Hey,
I hope you are all ok. I am fine and I send a post today with no picture. I am back in Jordan after one week in Israel and Palestine. It was really nice... To walk in the old city of Jerusalem or Saint-Jean d'Acre is an amazing experience. Spending time in Al Aqsa mosquee (third holy place for muslim) and go directly after to the western Wall, through the church of the Holy sepulcure was quiet interesting.
Conclusion: I m glad and proud to believe... in ATHEISM !!!
Damn, religious people are just mad (This is my Point of View... if you don't like it, I don't care ;) )
For the story, I take a bus from Irbid (north of Jordan) to Tel Aviv. But for security reason, I spend more than 3 hours in the border. A french passport is good, but with my face and my name, that's not enough. Anyway, they were polite and kind, and I m not complaining. But the bus didn't wait for me, and I found myself alone in the border with no shekkel (israel money) and no idea how to found my way. Fortunately, I met two great french people: Leia and Etienne. They're both living at Ramallah. Leia is working for emergency architects (architectes de l'urgence) and Etienne is doing his master on GeoPolitic. They invited me in Ramallah and it was a great experience.
The contrast is amazing and real. I mean that you have to pass a awful and shame wall between Israel and occupied Palestine. But after this check point, I was surprise by the people. They are not angry or upset about other. But smiling, kind, kidding and sharing everything. They didn't care about the fact that I wasn't Muslim (Some people in Israel stopped talking to me at the second when they understand that I am not Jewsh).
A lot of association are working in Ramallah. I ve found an muscial association in the old city of Ramallah (AL KAMANDJÂTI Association). They are awesome. There is also the french and german cultural centre whom organized a lot of events (it was a dance festival at the time of my travel).
Bref, it was a great experience, and don't hesitate to ask me more if you want more information. For example. they are looking for music teachers if you're up to !
I will post some pics next time... Unfortunately, I had to leave. To cross the wall again. Like an animal... walking through small fence. With military people screaming at you if you don't understand what they said (on hebrew). It was hard... and it was easy for me. Some palestinians have to do it every day, and they can spent more than 3hours per day just to pass this check point. But they are lucky, most of them cannot pass this border, because they don't have the green card.
I know... this is for security reasons....and I am not joking, this is a good reason. But it is still shame !!!
By the way, I ve met some wonderful Jewsh people in Israel as well. Specially at Haifa and Saint Jean d'Acre. Moshi, Ester, it was great to meet you.
See ya,
Ziad
30 avril 2009
Dubai
Hey people and welcome
today we gonna talk about Dubai. It was my stop after Australia for 2 nights.
I wanted to visit my cousin Hakim whom worked sometimes at Dubai, unfortunately, he wasn't here when I was. And the hostel was so bloody expensive, I decided to rent and sleep in a car :)
Dubai is a weird place, but I ve met really great people, from Afghanistan for example. They offer me a awesome tea just after the friday pray.
Or these students from Saudi Arabia. I smoked the water pipe with them, talking women, politic and religion. It was a great time...
I was impressed by the contrast of this country. Religion was everywhere and visible, specially with the women full on black. But they spent thousand of dollars in Louis Vuitton and Rolex stores. They are going to the swimming pool fully dress, and they walk close to western girl with beautiful (personnal judgement) skirt. By respect, I didn't want to take pictures of these people, I have only one example:
It's of course a country of entertainment: desert safari, snowboarding, sandboarding... was fun for sure :)
Desert... so sad that I didn't found a place for a skydive jump above the desert... The landsacpe is just amazingly beautiful and peaceful. It was just one of the best time in my life to sit in the warm sand, watching the sunset...
This is also a country with beautiful women. Sometimes you have to use your imagination, when you can see only the eyes, but sometimes you can really see cute visage.
A land of contrast and colors !
It was really great... but no more than two days. Too superficial... an arabic Las Vegas. I was happy to meet these genuine people from Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, but I was happy to leave this country for Jordan.
Please found some other pics of this trip. For example, with this beautiful prayer on the newspaper (directly one the swine flu news).
That's it for Dubai.
Talk to you soon,
Ziad
27 avril 2009
Perth & Exmouth
Hey,
how are you going ? I am actually in Jordan, in a city called Irbid (north). I am with my friend Rami and his family. This country looks fantastic...
But I will talk after last week. I went with Cameron to Perth first. We were two days in this great city, living with Jeff Hansen. This guy is working for Sea Sheperds. An environmental organization who tried to stop the whaling by the Japanese. He was on the boat, fighting the japanese floar on the antartical sea. Lot of great story, and have a look if you are interested:
www.seasheperd.org
Back to Perth with pictures of the city, the party and some girls I ve met:
We went to Exmouth after that. We stopped on the way to Coral bay and Turquoi bay. Not really good, even if snorkelling on the rift at Turquoi bay was fun. Oh by the way, easy to talk with women when you have a big.... camera
Beautiful... no ?? I m not talking about these two chicks, but about the 2 next pictures... a lovely magic time for me :
At Exmouth, we had after that two days on a boat to do some scuba diving in the Ningaloo reef (no as good as Sipadan) and a amazing snorkelling with a Whale Shark. That was FABULOUS. More than 45 min with this 7meters kindly fish.... was awesome !!
I know, I ve got big lips... (don't try to understand this joke). After that, fishing, barbecue, party on the backpacker and back to Melbourne for only one night.
I went after to Dubai...it will be for the next post
A bientot,
Ziad
25 avril 2009
Sydney
Hey mate,
back to the past with my bad english about my life. After Malaysia, I went directly to Sydney. I ve planned a week end first with my friend Erik, for good fun, a flight above the city and to say good-bye properly. Unfortunately and fortunately (I'll explain soon), he cancelled for personnal reasons.
So I went alone but I have two awesome friends in Sydney (King Cross): Karim and Yacine
And we spent ten days of fun, soccer, rafting, beach (swim is definitively good for the hang over) and party. Thanks to Karim and Yacine of course, but also to Yannick, Andrea and Sarah. It was amazing... So, no time at all for proper landscape pictures. No pics at all of the Harbour brige or the opera house. Just party pictures...
Pics of Cinderella (P/J). I've met her the first night. My friend Erik wasn't here, that gave me more opportunities to meet other peoples :)
Andrea and I in his show-room (his family own a brand of coffee: Di Lorrenzo). Best expresso ever...
And of course, to increase all this fun: 2 skydive jumps from a skyvan at 14000 feet. Between the blue mountains and the ocean, great!
That's it for Sydney. Just after, I went straight away to Perth and Exmouth with my flat mate Cameron...
The story soon, but a little pic to start...
See you soon,
Ziad
24 avril 2009
Malaysia (part III)
Back to internet, but from Dubai airport now. I have two hours to wait to have my car for a couple of days.
After Bako National Park, I left my lovely friend Magalie to travel alone to the top north west of the Sarawak to a town called Sematan.
I was the only tourist in this town, where everyone was absolutely lovely. It was impossible to swim, unfortunately because of the Jellyfish. Thousands of Jellyfish, and this number increases each year. An other effect of the Global warming. Anyway, I ve met a fisherman on his way back and I spent the day and night with his family. Was fantastic. He wanted to bring me fishing and visiting some turtles island, but I had to leave the day after to took my plane from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur.
After this great sunrise, direction Kuala Lumpur, with the famous Petronas towers. Busy city but great fun in the backpacker with Daniel from Canada, Rebecca from Ireland and Jie from Malayisa.
End of this long post about Malayisa. It was absolutely fantastic, and if you never thought to visit this country, I hope this post will help to change your mind.
Just after KL, I went directly to Sydney for ten days with Yacine, Karim, Yannick and Andrea. Was aweosme as well...but it will be for the next post.
See ya...
