I can't believe it

Was just surfing the web looking for flights to Mongolia and pulling my hair out thinking of ways to circumvent China's visa rules (i needed a double entry - i figured i'd tell them i was visiting Hong Kong/Korea where i'd go by train to Mongolia instead, come back to Beijing and then continue down the railroads across the Himalayas to Tibet). It sounded like a great trip - except for the Chinese visa, and the costs of the flight to Ulaan Bataar. Which was like 1200 SGD. I then checked Malaysia airlines - 404 dollars to Beijing, not bad, but id have to spend a day at Peking international playing terminal man. Which i really wouldnt mind - for 300 dollars since the Air China flight to ULN tomorrow was still a shocking 500 dollars. Anyways i reminded myself of that time i slept at Agra Fort train station - sweet dreams with cockroaches running around the dusty, sticky concrete floor pasted in decades of split chai. Peking was going to be a breeze - that was, until i found out, taking the virtual tour of the airport, that the passport control (along with the veterinary inspectors) were right outside after you exited the aircraft, and the way to the transfers area involved an immigration check, ticket check, health check etc etc (in that order, as specified, no, kindly reminded).

So that leaves the 1200 SGD option of the (notoriously late) Air China flight to ULN, with a one hour transit in Beijing. Definitely not a good plan, and at that price i wasn't going to play around. I went back to the Malaysia airlines website. Bored. Played around, tried flying to Jeddah, Buenos Aires etc etc. And then i clicked Istanbul - a magical name, the 70s Istanbul-Cairo hippie trail comes instantly to mind, the pudding shop, the blue mosque, cheap Istanbul fleapits. And the price - 700 SGD to IST. I almost fell off my chair. With all the plus pluses it was still a 1800 return trip, much more bang for my buck than 1300 a pop to Mongolia. I clicked, entered my data and clicked. The MAS website lagged. My mom called - hey have you checkd out Qatar Airways? I googled. 1400 dollars return. I saved 400 dollars because MAS had some problems with their website. Thanks MAS for the lag, though i was really looking forward to flying with my national carrier for the first time, but nevertheless, WOO HOO! Turkey here i come!

Thinking of overlanding to Cairo, the famous Istandul-Cairo route (and back) but there is just the small problem of Israel being most inconveniently between Jordan and Egypt, last time i checked my map. I will either have to swim, or go via the Saudi Arabian desert - which im sure is pretty tough too. But the good thing, small distances in the Middle East as opposed to China/India. And the best part yet - i'm going! Oh God this is amazing. Just a day ago i was shit bored thinking of ways to get my Chinese visa permits and how dreary the whole China big smokey industrial city idea of an adventure was. I don't think i'm gonna sleep tonight - it's 3 now and i'm too happy. (and i have a class tomorrow morning).