Everyone loves a good boat trip, relaxing on the deck as the wind catches the sails pulling your Felucca down the Nile. No concerns and no worries, all you need to do is bond with your fellow passengers, and take in the sights and sounds of your experience. Trouble free, right?

We opted for the Felucca trip that most people with a bit of time in Egypt opt to do, three days and two nights aboard a boat, from Luxor to Aswan. The boat would take us as far as Edfu where we would join other Felucca passengers for a trip to The Edfu Temple and then to the Temple of Kom Ombo before arriving in Luxor.

In Aswan, every second Nubian offers us a trip on his (or his uncle’s, cousin’s, brother’s or neighbour’s) boat and so we have no problem negotiating a cheap price. We’re down to 85LE (Egyptian Pounds) per person for the trip before we meet Captain Jack.

Captain Jack Sparrow as he prefers to call himself is another breed of salesman, his pitch is smooth, he offers service unrivalled by his competitors, he tells us about the dodgy business practices of other Felucca captains and he wins our trust quickly. We take a trip out to see his Felucca and see what differentiates it from everyone else. His promises start at the useful end of the spectrum: a bigger boat to ensure everyone has room, soft pillows for a mattress and enough blankets to ensure everyone is warm. He goes on further, utensils to enjoy the amazing food he and his staff will cook, a music player so we can party into the night and my favourite of all cups with handles so we don’t burn our hands holding glasses.

Captain Jack tops off his pitch by showing his book of references, of course we ignore it 99% of the time, these are hand written, but still we have a good feeling so we decide to take the Felucca journey with him – everyone that is except for my sister, she’s indifferent to his sales pitch and says there’s no point in paying the premium he commands (an extra $4 USD per person). We’re not stupid though, we meet with him the following morning and give him half the money upfront and tell him at the end of the journey, as long as we get everything that he promised, we’ll be paying the remainder on completion of the trip.

When it comes to the day of the Felucca trip, I fall incredibly sick, fever, sore throat, cough and a runny nose. We call Captain Jack to tell him we can’t make it. He’s understanding and says he’ll be back the following day and that we can go then. When Brawy (the guy we met in Alexandria’s Castle) finds out, he’s devastated and concerned, sharing some family secrets for curing me. Next thing you know, my sister is feeding me garlic until my stomach burns, my father is feeding me lemon until my eyes water and when I have the strength to eat, the waiter of the restaurant where my dad gets rice is incredibly concerned about me, someone he’s only seen once.

The following day I’m feeling good as new and we’re ready to embark on our Felucca trip of a lifetime…

Legend has it that the name Abu Simbel comes from the name of a young boy who used to run tours through the temples, similar to Slum Dog Millionaire. Although it only seems to remind me of The Fifth Element.

In order to reach the temples, we need to organise a trip from Aswan, several hours south through the desert, 20km north of Sudan. After much negotiation, our hotel offers us a cheap car for the trip and so begins the hilarity that is Egypt’s world famous customer service.

We’re up at 4am for the trip, and find out at 4:45 that our car is actually a bus and our seats are the foldout sort in the centre aisle, the bus is completely packed and everyone is cramped.

We take off still half asleep, having protested and having no car available. We stop with a group of buses on the outskirts of the city, waiting for other buses to arrive. It seems that we have to travel in a convoy, irrespective of who you organise your trip with, you all still arrive at Abu Simbel at the same time. Some soldiers outside spin some rhetoric about it being better for our safety…

Several hours later, the sun rises over the desert reveals the desert through which we’ve been driving, the desert lies in every direction. The remoteness of the temples explains why it was dormant for so long.

The Great Temple at Abu Simbel took over twenty years to build, dedicated to three gods (Amun, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah) with special guest appearances by the pharaoh himself (Pharaohs are gods too).,

At the entrance to the temple lies this gem of a sign, NO PHOTO INSIDE THE TEMPLE…

… of course that doesn’t stop me (and countless others) from taking photos.

Too bad though, an unexpected Egyptian pops up and tells me I must leave and go to the police. I ignore him and take more pictures when he’s not looking.

The tour continues with:

The Nefertari temple at Abu Simbel.

Monument to Aswan Dam, built by the Soviets and Egyptians, the plaque goes on about the friendship between Arabs and Soviets.

ЗА ДОЛГИЕ ГОДЫ СОВМЕСТНОГО ТРУДА ВЫКОВАЛАСЬ И ЗАКАЛИЛАСЬ АРАБО-СОВЕТСКАЯ ДРУЖБА,НЕ УСТРУПАЮЩАЯ ПО СВОЕЙ ПРОЧНОСТИ САМОЙ ВЫСОТНОЙ АСУАНСКОЙ ПЛОТИНЕ – Гамаль Абдел Насер (Gamal Abdel Nasser)

The fun part of the trip starts when we get to the dam. Half the people on the bus paid for the long tour, including a stop at the dam, the other half paid to go to Abu Simbel and back. The bus driver stops the bus outside and demands an entrance fee from everyone on the bus. Half the bus refuses to pay (ourselves included). The driver tells us we must get off the bus. We refuse, it’s hot out and we don’t want to spend our trip waiting for other people to have a tour. So begins the tensest standoff since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After much swearing (in Arabic) by the bus driver, we offer the bus driver to get off and wait for him, if he pays each of us baksheesh, this does not help his rage.

Eventually we get off and let him take the guests on the dam tour. Next stop, Philae temple.

Philae Temple, temple complex and the holiest site for Isis worshippers.

The temples are in varying states of restoration, in order to get to the temple you must negotiate for a boat trip out to the island as it’s not included in the ticket price.

Negotiations start at 20 Egyptian pounds each, but we band together and get the return trip for 5 pounds. As we’re leaving, I overhear an Indian guy negotiating his way to 4 pounds. Negotiate like an Indian!

At the end of our trip, our hotel manager gives us some weak explanation as to how we misunderstood car to mean car and not bus (apparently in Egypt anything smaller than a full coach is a car), we don’t really care at this point, we’ve had a blast.

After getting into Aswan, waking up to good Egyptian coffee and finding a hotel for the night, we take a ferry across the Nile to visit a Nubian Village.

Nubia is a historic region in Africa, located in Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan. One of Africa’s oldest civilisations, Nubian history dates back to 5000BC. Incorporating parts of Ancient Egyptian culture, such as Pyramid building, Nubians have at times had control over all of Egypt, having conquered it from the Assyrians and Egyptians.

What better place to start a tour of a village than the local school. The kids who show us around are absolutely amazing and so incredibly friendly to boot.

One can only help but wonder what they teach in Nubian schools. Lucky for us, we’re able to go into a classroom, find out they have English lessons and find this absolute gem of a poster:

Modal Verbs “Possibilites”

1. Definitely: The plane will crash.
2. Probably: The plane may crash.
3. Possibly: The plane might crash.
4. Definitely not: The plane won’t crash.

The tour of the village continues after our English lesson.

In Nubian villages, people are incredibly social. There is no dining room, all eating occurs outside. If anyone comes past while the family is eating, they are invited to join in the meal.

If there is a baby in the village, a big party is thrown and streamers are hung in front of the door of the house as in the picture.

Cute Nubian kids can and do PARTY!

The typical house is made from mud bricks, in a similar tradition to many Tibetan houses, though few are as beautifully painted as this one or the following one.

While one can look down on Nubian villages and consider them basic due to the lack of amenities. It is worth wandering in one as Nubians are so incredibly proud to meet strangers and make friends of them. They’re also proud of their heritage and will tell you they’re from Nubia, not Egypt. Read more about Nubian culture.

The lighthouse has long since been destroyed, its ruins used in part to build the Citadel of Qaitbay (The Castle of Alexandria) and it’s here that a couple of jokes leads to a friendship that highlights the essence of Egyptian culture.

“Hey, where are you from?” asks one of the Arab guys we’ve seen taking photos in the castle. “Egypt”, I reply jokingly. This sets the entire group off laughing. “Well Mr. Egypt, can we take a photo?”.

Who are we to refuse? We take turns posing for photos and tour the entire castle together, laughing and joking the whole time.

The gang are from all over, Brawy, Zanun and Food Captain are from a small town between Cairo and Alexandria. Samra is from Kuwait and is amazed when he finds that yes, we know where it is and can point it out on a map. Muhammed is from Saudi Arabia and develops a crush on my sister.

When we leave the castle to find my dad, the guys tells us their story. It’s the first time they’ve managed to find time off together, they don’t have enough for a hotel and they don’t need one. They are out partying and enjoying life, they spent two days in Cairo and are now in Alexandria before Samra and Muhammad leave the country. They haven’t slept at all yet!

We talk about the differences between Arab and Western culture; these guys were brought up with the utmost respect for their parents. Every morning, they kiss their parents and tell them how much they love them. Prior to going anywhere, they ask their parents permission. This is how it’s been for centuries and they don’t want life any other way.

Our conversation leads to lunch, lunch leads to tea, tea to dominoes, games and more photos. Egyptian hospitality dictates that one must always look after their guests. The problem is, so does ours. The guys consider us guests in their country, we consider them guests for lunch, so we spend some time taking turns justifying why we should pay for the food.

Tea and dominoes with (L-R) Dasha,  Zanun, Brawy, Food Captain, myself and Mr Dad.

At the end of the day, when everyone is too tired to stay awake and the guys still have a long drive ahead of them, we call it a night.

For the rest of our time in Egypt, we keep in touch with our new friends as Brawy makes sure to call every day and check-up on how we are. He considers it his utmost duty to ensure we have a great time in his homeland, Egypt.

We opt for a taxi to and from the hotel. We meet our driver, a humble guy by the name of Farouk who seems almost shy and just eager to please. Farouk tells us throughout the day just how much he loves travellers, especially Australians and shows us some of the gifts other Australian tourists have given him.

We’re driving along the highway, it’s two lanes wide but there are four (and at times five) lanes of traffic. Rules are more of a guideline and we stop on a bridge so we can get out and take photos against the backdrop The River Nile.

Dad, myself and sister (and fellow travel blogger) Dasha with the Nile in the background, cheap apartments with great views while illegally stopped on a bridge in Cairo. Tourists get away with anything in Egypt!

As we’re getting close to the pyramids, Farouk asks us if we’d like a free coffee. The saving of 40 cents is too tempting, we take him up on the offer.

We get our free coffees, but they lead us to a shop where the sales people try and sell us Papyrus artwork. The demonstration of how they do they go from Papyrus plant to finished product is interesting to watch. Farouk was sneaky in getting us into a shop where he makes commissions on the sale. We let it slide.

We get to the site of the pyramids and Farouk takes us to a tour agency that can organise horse and camel tours to the pyramids. We hear the selling points:

1. It’s very hot outside.
2. It’s a long way to walk (twelve kilometres).
3. You’re only at the pyramids once, may as well splurge.

We haggle for fifteen minutes, on several occasions pretending to walk away, and are offered a semi reasonable price. We take a quick bathroom break, and while looking for the bathroom, we end up on the roof of the building and see the pyramids barely 500m from the office. We laugh at the ridiculousness. We return to the group, tell them our discovery and renegotiate a lower price.

Camel and horse tour of the Egyptian Pyramids at Giza. For those that have never ridden a camel before, I assure you, it will be a once in a lifetime experience. It is incredibly uncomfortable, feels unstable and yet the strange authentic-ness we associate between camels, desserts and the Pyramids means that it won’t ever put the camels out of business.

Yes, that is the Sphinx. No, you can’t see the huge crowd that you have to battle through  to get the photo. Yes, it seems that most of the tourists at the pyramids are Russian.

After seeing the Pyramids, Farouk offers us to visit a museum, for free (warning bells go off, but we ignore them). The museum is really a perfume shop, and although the Egyptian perfumes really do smell amazing, we don’t make any purchases on the grounds of being tricked into visiting.

On the way back to our hotel, Farouk asks us if we had a good day. We can’t really complain, we had fun and we tell him this. Farouk tells us that we can tip him if we want, but it’s not an obligation. We thank him for his suggestion, we have no intention of tipping him for taking us to shops where he was hoping to make a commission on sales.

We arrive at our hotel, once again,

Farouk asks “You have a good time?”

Our reply “Yes Farouk we have a good time!”

Farouk asks “I do a good job yes?”

Our reply “No major complaints, though we’re not fans of surprise shopping.”

Farouk mentions “If you like today, you can give me a tip. It’s optional but appreciated.”

Our reply “Thanks for the suggestion.”

All in all, a fun day as we headed to the Pyramids and had a taxi driver try and take us into his friends shops and buy things. If you want to avoid taxi drivers wasting your time in Cairo, tell them up front, you just want to go to the Pyramids and not make any stops along the way. Also, you can skip the horse and camel tour, though it is fun to do.

Cyprus was granted independence, it’s government was to comprise of both Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Independence was granted with two main prohibitions in the constitution:

• Enosis – Preferred choice of Greek Cypriots, favoured by 97% of the Greek Cypriot population, calling for the union of Cyprus with Greece as previously occurred in Crete.
• Taksim – Preferred choice of Turkish Cypriots, calling for the partition of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish portions.

In 1963, fighting broke out between the two communities in Nicosia and spread around the rest of the Island. The Turkish Cypriots say they were forced out of government, the Greeks say they left to start their own government.

Fighting continued and it was the Turkish Cypriots that suffered the most.

In 1974, the Cyprus National Guard launches a coup to overthrow the President Makarios III. Turkey orders an invasion of the Island, capturing 37% of the territory and agreeing to leave only after a settlement is reached.

The UN came in to act as a peace keeping force, recognising the Greek cypriot government as the government presiding over the island.

In 1983, the Turkish Cypriots unilaterally declared independence (as have Kosovo, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transnistria and East-Timor), proclaiming itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The country was immediately recognised by Turkey and the Government of Nakhichevan (exclave of Azerbaijan), however Azerbaijan (one of Turkey’s greatest allies) decided not to recognise the independence as that would prompt Cyprus into recognising Nagorno-Karabakh.

Since the global community recognises the government of Cyprus (Greek/Southern Cyprus) as the sole legitimate government over the entire island, Northern Cyprus is effectively under an embargo from the world:

• Turkish Cypriot addresses and phone numbers are not internationally recognisable, and all must go through Turkey.
• Turkish Cypriots have not competed in any Olympic Games or Commonwealth Games since 1963. It is not allowed for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to compete in the Olympic Games.
• All ports (airports and seaports) are closed to international travel. Only Turkey travels between these ports as Cyprus claims that the northern half is illegally occupied.
• Many countries do not recognise the passports of Northern Cyprus.

The border crossing at Ledra street in Cyprus, the Northern/Southern Cyprus border crossing.

On the Northern (Turkish) side, there is an immigration office (according to them, you are entering/exiting the country at that border crossing). On the Southern (Greek) side, you merely show your identification (according to them, the north is part of Cyprus and as such there’s no point having a land border crossing in the middle of the island).

Northern Side, looking at the green line.

United Nations building, conveniently located in the green zone, outside of the Greek and Turkish sides of the island.

Greek Cyprus side of the green line.

Nice name for a kids clothing store.

First order of business, sightseeing:

Church of Saint Lazarus. Lazarus was a follower of Jesus, who lived in Bethany (near Jerusalem). Jesus hears news that Lazarus is ill but decides to wait it out a couple of days before heading over.

By the time Jesus gets to Bethany, he finds that Lazarus has died and been in his tomb for four days. Martha, Lazarus' sister is upset that Jesus was too late to save her brother. Jesus replies "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die".

Jesus then proceeds to visit the tomb, has the stone rolled away and calls for Lazarus to come out from his tomb. Lazarus is miraculously alive again.

According to the legend, after the resurrection of Christ, there began in Judea, the persecution of the Christians; then Lazarus sought refuge in Cyprus, in ancient Kition (modern Larnaca), where he became the first bishop of Kition. Here he lived for about thirty years and here he was buried for the second and last time. Over his tomb there was erected, 1100 years ago, the magnificent Byzantine Church we see today.

Looking out from Larnaca Castle. Built in 1625 by the Ottomans, and located in the Turkish quarter opposite the mosque (pictured later). Originally used to defend the Turkish harbour, then converted to a prison. Acted as a German outpost in WWI.

Buyuk Kebir Cami

We head to the airport for our flight to Cairo, Egypt. The plane is delayed by twenty minutes and a storm breaks out. All hell breaks lose and for the next couple of hours, we contemplate the idea of having to spend a night at the airport.

The airline hands out food coupons to the value of $3 per person and between myself, my sister and my dad, we have $21 which we spend on a great dinner.

Eventually the storm stops and we take off, four hours later than we should have.

We checkout the sights of Nicosia:

The Classic Motorcycle Museum

Freedom Monument

National Struggle Museum

Caption reads: Georgiou Andreas

Born in 1937, Anarita.

Killed in the explosion of a bomb which he was about to throw at the British at Anarita on 30.10.1956

and St. John’s Cathedral before taking a bus to Larnaca.

For good measure, there’s also a cannon:

We drive down to Nicosia, the capital of Northern Cyprus and park the car. The owner’s are late to arrive, so we leave the keys with the valet and head out on a sightseeing tour of Nicosia.

Looking out from the city walls.

A community housing project.

From Guzelyurt, heading towards the north east tip of the country and the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas we make stops at various churches.

There is much upset and protest in Greek Cyprus over the destruction of many of the churches, the theft and sale of the icons and other religious artefacts from within the church.

Paraphrased from the adjacent sign:

Panagia Kanakaria Church, built in the Byzantine period, most likely late 5th or early 6th century. The church was destroyed by Arabian pirates in the 8th century and later rebuilt, only to be destroyed in an earthquake in the 12th century.
The church was rebuilt once more in the 14th century. It is guessed that the monastery was built later, most probably in the 18th century.

The monastery, dedicated to St. Andrew - who according to the bible was the first person called to priesthood by Jesus Christ - became a popular pilgrimage spot after the following miracle:

The shrine only became a popular sanctuary with the miracle of Maria Georgiou in 1895. 17 years after the disappearance of her son, she received a dream in answer to her unceasing petitions to St. Andrew, which instructed her to go from her native Cilicia to the neglected shrine of Apostolos Andreas at the tip of Karpas, Cyprus. On the boat over she explained her journey to fellow passengers and particularly excited the attention of a young travelling dervish. He asked Maria how she would identify her lost son, so she told him of the peculiar pair of birthmarks he bore on his shoulder and chest. The dervish threw off his woollen cloak to expose the same marks and fell on his knees before his mother.  - Source

Some of the damage we had seen on the churches in Northern Cyprus:

Graffiti on walls.

Churches stripped of all icons and wall murals. These aren't the original icons of the church.

Campfires lit in empty churches.  

On occasion, they would smell like someone had used them as a toilet.

This isn't however only something that's happened recently, there are plenty of examples of churches and cathedrals converted to mosques several hundred years ago.

In Famagusta, Saint Nicholas Cathedral was built in the 14th century AD. The Ottomans captured Famagusta in 1571 and converted the cathedral into a mosque, the Saint Sophia Mosque of Magusa and later renamed to Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque.

There's also the former St Sophia Cathedral in the Northern Cyprus part of Nicosia (Lefkosa), which was converted to Selimiye Mosque in 1570.

Inside the mosque, one interesting thing to note is that, in Islam, prayer always faces the Kaaba which is on an angle to the walls of the cathedral. Because of this, worshippers pray at an angle to the walls (you can see this by the run of the prayer rugs) as shown in the following photo:

It's also good time to mention that the largest cathedral in the world (at the time), Aya Sofia, in Constantinople (now Istanbul), was converted to a mosque of the same name at the order of Sultan Mehmed II, upon capturing the city. This was the cathedral where Cardinal Humbert, representing Pope Leo IX and Michael I Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other in 1054, setting off the Great Schism, the biggest split in Christianity where the Eastern Orthodox (Greek) Church and the Roman Catholic (Latin) Church separated and to this day have not reconciled.

Aya Sofia: Cathedral, Mosque, Museum.

In the Greek part of Nicosia, in Greek Cyprus (to distinguish it from Northern Cyprus), the icon museum contains an exhibition: "Hostages in Germany" (PDF), outlining how a police operation in Germany stopped the sale of looted icons from Northern Cyprus. The icons, however have yet to be returned to the Cyprus Orthodox Church.

Museum of Nature and Archaeology

Former palace of the Bishop of Morphou, the museum contains a collection of stuffed animals (reminding me of Kyrgyzstan) and archaeological finds. Altogether unimpressive, except for the sheep…

… with TWO HEADS.

Following the stay in Guzelyurt, we stock up on fruit at the local market and head north. Along the way we see a sign marking an alternate route to one of the churches we want to visit. Thinking it’s no big deal, we decide to take the alternate route, leaving the nice sealed road for a dirt road.

The dirt road is reasonably flat at the start and proceeds to get rockier and less flat. After passing through a small stream and almost rolling backwards down a hill, we come across a group of hunters out with their beagles. They look out of their jeeps and are almost in awe when they see our ‘09 Ford Fiesta with barely 10cm of ground clearance. We honk and carry on, only to reach a dead end, a large ditch in the rocks that will do serious damage to our little rental.

Thinking we should turn back, we sit and wait as one of the hunters drives past us in his jeep, up and over the small roadblock. We make up our mind then and there to fill in the ditch, making a small bridge for the car to cross. So there we spend the next twenty minutes building the bridge, a great family bonding exercise.

The only thing left to do is to get in the car, say a prayer, hold our breaths and gun it over the bridge. The water, mud and rocks don’t do much damage to our little rental so we carry on with the trip and visit Kantara Castle high in the Kyrenia Mountain Range.

Kantara Castle was built by the Byzantines as a lookout post against raiding Arabs. The castle was used with other castles in Cyprus as a network of lookout/defence posts, the others being Kyrenia Castle, St. Hilarion Castle and Buffavento Castle (not visited)

Dasha (sister) and Dad are on donkey scouting duties from their respective windows while I focus on the road. Every few minutes Dad is telling me to slow down, his eyes can’t keep up with my driving and he swears to have seen the bushes shaking, indicating the presence of donkeys.

Our intrepid adventurer, yours truly is the first to spot him, only because the donkey is standing in the middle of the road, eating carrots that another driver is feeding him.

Mr Donkey goes crazy for all the fruit we feed him, and shows his appreciation by standing in front of the car, with orange juice dribbling down his donkey chin. Dasha closes the window and the juice leaves a trail.

Tree in a field, spotted while driving. Stopped the car in the middle of the road to take the shot.

Final stop for the evening, the ancient city of Salamis.

Salamis traces its roots back to the 11th century BC. The legend tells that the city was founded by Teucer, the son of King Telamon - who accompanied Jason as one of his Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece.

Teucer fought alongside his half-brother Ajax in the Trojan war against his cousins Hector and Paris, children of King Priam of Troy who is Teucer’s uncle. Teucer  was disowned by his father Telamon following Ajax’s suicide.

The Temple of Zeus in Salamis was built in the time of Teucer, however was improved during the Hellenistic period.

Read on to find how the shiny new fiesta went off-road and started making funny noises.

The car at the end of the trip.

Day one starts with a trip out to St Hilarion Castle aka Richard the Lionheart’s Castle aka any Walt Disney Castle. I drive, my sister navigates, my dad sleeps. We reach the castle without any major dramas, probably because it’s well sign posted.

Next stop, Bellapois Abbey. After half an hour of random directions, we realise we’re lost and decide to skip the abbey.

Next stop, Guzelyurt (Morphou), a friendly police man tells us there are only two hotels in the area. We stop next to an old man to ask for directions. He starts speaking Turkish. We ask how to get to a hotel, he keeps speaking Turkish, opens the door and gets in the car. He says the town he’s heading for, thinking I’m a taxi driver and proceeds to tell us a story… in Turkish. He’s very drunk.

We continue along the road with our drunk friend, and eventually drive past the hotel, when we stop to turn around, the man realises he’s not going any further, despite his protests… in Turkish. Gets out, steps into a big puddle and walks off… into the night.

The hotel is expensive, a short and uneventful drive later and we’re at the other hotel which is also expensive. We try and negotiate a cheaper price and the owner calls one of his staff to translate; Kyzl-Gul is from Turkmenistan and speaks Russian and most of the Turkic languages. She tells us his lowest price (higher than our highest price), we feign that we’re leaving. They offer us some pastries for the trip. We sit and share them with our new friend.

The conversation continues on for a couple of hours until we realise that we’re staying, Kyzl-Gul offers to give me an invitation letter to enter Turkmenistan. This makes me very happy.