After departing Singapore we headed into the night sky, climbing across the Indian Ocean towards the Middle East. We were on a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 - this 777 aircraft is as big as a Boeing 747 in overall length, yet has 2 engines less. Quite impressive when compared side by side.
We tracked towards Abu Dubai, passing over Pakistan, India and other countries.
Passing over India was a surreal experience, as i had never seen so much city lights and clutter of populations. Some of the cities were as big as Sydney, yet i saw many of this size stretching into the distance...so clearly alot of people down there... Last report around 1.8billion people live in India.
After we had flown for another 7hrs i recall we reached Abu Dubai, where we landed at 230am. This was quite surreal for me as yet again i saw a functioning airport that was not like .....Sydney which has overnight curfews.
So we got off the airplane and went had to wait in the departure lounge around 2hrs while it was refueled and other stuff done. I had never seen Arabic people before in such large numbers all wearing their local clothing for the harshness of the desert heat and as well this was my first view of their culture. Quite different to western world......
One thing that took me by surprise was they had a completely sealed off room for smokers to go at the airport to have a smoke in.. quite interesting.... as it was heavily used.
We don't see this kind of room for smokers in the western world at modern airports.
We then took off and climbed out of the airport and flew towards Turkey.
As we climbed out of the airport is on the coast and surrounded by desert ...... at 4am we had total fog all around the airport and up to about 1,000 ft. It was a most surreal vision again to see, as the fog was only over the airport....
As we flew higher and higher, i began to see more of the lights from the many cities in the Persian Gulf.
By day break we were crossing the Saudi Arabian border with Jordan and Israel as we skirted Iraqi airspace.
I was watching the tracking screen and recording various locations to prove i was there :)
In the distance we could the Mediterranean Sea and clearly visible was Libya with snow capped peaks on the mountains.
Down below i stared blankly towards Lebanon and wondered why there was so much violence down there...as it looked quite scenic...
We had a breakfast meal which was good as i was quite hungry. Been in economy section at the rear of the aircraft, i found it was a bit cramped... As im 190cm / 6'2 so..... i had a good view of other passengers and the interior.
We soon crossed the coast and went feet wet again and passed over Cyprus island which was quite big.
After a while we went feet dry and crossed into Turkey, where i shot my self portrait.
By now it was early morning around 7am and beginning to get cool........note the OAT reading of - 48 degrees....
A few mountains ranges with snow came into view stretching for many kilometres.
It was quite interesting to see so much snow... as i had only seen snow 2 times before in a small area of NSW.
As we flew over the southern half of Turkey our Boeing 777 was producing contrails and luckly for me as i was in the 3rd last row from tail, i was able to capture these contrails flowing past the tail on film as shown here -
Here is a photo i captured of the effect -
We landed at Istanbul airport at about 730am where it was borderline chilly being 4degs i recall but not overall cold.
We proceeded to go to Customs where i had a visa stamped to allow me to enter the country. We then left the airport - after seeing much security as at the time there had been terrorist attacks in Istanbul i recalled so the country was on a high security alert.
We then began the 5hr drive i recall to Gallipoli passing the many suburbs of Istanbul with a few glimpses of the large mosques in the horizon with their tall towers. This introduction to
Turkey was a eye opener to me - very busy, polluted and no planning controls.
I saw half built apartments just left to rot with poor concrete work and then next door entire rows of apartment buildings built with no thought of design or style.
It made me definitely appreciate life in Sydney as much better... and not to whine about what we see as minor issues.
There were many apartments i was soon to see on the drive...
The roads were generally ok but you had to be very alert driving.
I should point out all these photos im sharing online, were shot using a compact and medium quality digital camera and i shot many more photos using my SLR camera at the same time in most locations. Sadly all the film photos cant be shared yet, as after 6years i still haven't got around to developing my films.... such is life.
My next installment will cover my first day at Gallipoli and Anazac Cove..
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