Day 25 - 29: We crossed into Turkey without too much hassle - although we are realising that buying visas, using the carnet for the first time and general customs checks takes it's time. We were very held up on the motorway into Istanbul due to roadworks and a car accident. We got lost in the centre (we should have used the GPS!) and although a few hours later than planned, eventually met up with our great friend Pete Clasen in a restaurant on the Golden Horn. We dined with Pete and the wife of the Consul General who was tragically killed in the bombing of the British Consulate 18 months ago - she has bravely decided to stay on in Istanbul, a city she loves despite the tragic circumstances.

Istanbul, geographically split between Europe and Asia, strikes us as a vibrant, complex city, where history and conflict are integral foundations of a melting pot of religions and cultures. Pete has also stayed on in Istanbul to make a multi-lingual documentary about the historic area in which he has recently bought a beautiful old house in need of complete restoration. Building work is still going on but he is transforming it from literally a shell into an amazing Turkish town house. We stayed in the house, and spent a great few days in Istanbul - a great cosmopolitan city which we grew to love. Biggles was left outside Pete's house in the slightly run down area of Fener/Balat guarded by little boys...who seemed to take Rich's instruction to look after the car to mean use it as a toy: jumping up and down on the roof, tearing off the aerial and bending the windscreen wipers!! We couldn't get too angry with these tykes as 'boys will be boys' and no great damage was really done.

During our time in Istanbul we soaked up the atmosphere of the city - visited the incredible sites of Aya Sofya, the Blue Mosque and took a great boat trip up the Bosphorous (in parts more like the French Riviera than Turkey). We got lost in the covered markets, joined locals smoking hubba bubba pipes in alleyways, and visited the famous Haman Turkish baths. Since Pete's house doesn't have hot water connected yet it was great to wash off all the grime. The bath included lying on a hot marble slab then being washed and battered by sweaty fat Turks - for the ladies it meant being pummelled by a woman with the droopiest boobs I have ever seen or imagined - literally they came down below her waist!! A rather strange but great fun experience.

Through Pete, who speaks fluent Turkish and who seems to know all the cool places to go, we went to trendy bars in Beloglu, a great jazz club and to some very good restaurants. We met some great people - film makers, artists, photographers, musicians and writers - a great International set of Pete's friends. Our final night was spent in the bar at the Hotel Londres where Hemmingway stayed (Rich managed to have his third gin martini of his "Around the World in 80 Martinis" quest - the best one to date!) with the artists of the 2005 Istanbul Art Bianale and stumbled back at 4am. We seemed to eat and drink like Sultans and enjoyed revelling in the trendy party atmosphere of this cool city and blew a healthy chunk of our budget on simply enjoying ourselves - it'll have to be more camping from now on! Thanks to Pete for putting us up and looking forward to seeing the documentary.

Whilst in Istanbul we found a useful Land Rover dealer and spare parts specialist - since we have driven over 3000 miles Rich took the opportunity of undertaking a service with the help of a very experienced mechanic who has worked on LR's for over 50 years. We fitted a new fuel lift pump (carrying the old one as a spare), rotated the tyres and spares around, changed the fuel filter and fixed the blown fuses of the spare battery after leaving the cool box on all night (hopefully we've now learnt our lesson). Rich also picked up some more spare clutch parts for our ever-growing spares box. (If any overlanders are passing through Istanbul we recommend Erkin Automotive on Nobethane Cad Tel (0212) 527 10 98 - Talk to Zelei, Cali or Serdar)