Suitcase and World: February 2007

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Goodbyes.

I hate goodbyes.

Our last night in Madaba. We had dinner at King Shaurma - no one wanted anything fancier. We all huddled around tables in the upstairs eating area. We talked and laughed as we had throughout the trip - I would soon miss the stories that everyone had to tell and the sound of the laughter. In fact, I laughed so much on my last few days in Jordan, that I returned home with laryngitis!



On our way out, we said goodbye to the guy that had been shawarmas for us all day. I never knew his name but he was so kind to us.



It was too early to head back to the hotel so Daniel suggested we go down the block to the Ayola Cafe for drinks, sheesha, etc. More talking and laughing - it was something that came naturally to this group and I think it's why I enjoyed being with them so much. From our first meeting in Cairo, I knew there was a never going to be a dull or quiet moment!

Daniel snapped this last photo of the group.

From left to right. Daniel, Bridget, me, Alex, Sandy, Dora, Lei, Laura and Zdena.


Back at the hotel, Daniel made the hotel to airport taxi arrangements for everyone so we had one less thing to worry about.

The group then gathered in the lobby for one last game of Kings and Asses and more talking and laughing. Daniel, Zdena and I watched as the others played.



Then it came time to say goodbye to everyone. We all gave each other big hugs and well wishes. It was a very bittersweet moment - I tried not to cry but I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I walked back to our room.

Interlude. Lei.



Before we decided to go on this trip together, Lei and I were pretty much strangers. Although we work in the same company and our professional paths had crossed a few times, we didn't know anything about each other. But we had something in common that's this insatiable desire to travel the globe. We took the chance on each other and I'm so glad we did. Looking back on the trip, I realize that so much of the fun that I had was because of Lei.

Nothing like spending 24x7 for nearly three weeks to get to know someone. So, here's my impressions of Lei....and I did give her fair warning that I would be posting this up!

Jerash.

Our last afternoon in Jordan would be spent exploring Jerash.



After we got back to the hotel from our trip to St. George's Basilica, we cleaned up a bit and met back in the lobby for our ride to Jerash. Kirsten was not coming with us as her flight home was leaving mid afternoon. As we stood on the front steps of the hotel, we each gave her a big hug and wished her a safe trip. It was a tearful goodbye, especially for Laura - the two had grown so close together on the trip that they had already made plans for Kirsten to visit Laura in New Zealand. For the rest of us, it was just sad to know that we would all soon be going our separate ways.

Madaba - the Mosaic Map.

Today is our last full day in Jordan and it began as all the other mornings had, with a simple breakfast of ayish, cheese, egg and tea. We had the morning on our own. Bridget, Laura and Kirsten went to visit Bethany - a site along the River Jordan where it is believed that John the Baptist baptized Jesus Christ. Daniel, Alex, Sandy, Dora, Lei and I went off to explore Madaba. Zdena decided to go her own way.

The six of us retraced the steps that Daniel had laid out for us the previous night. Our first stop was Greek Orthodox Basilica of St. George. The church was built 1896 A.D. over the remains of a Byzantine church.




Friday, February 16, 2007

Day 16. Comes to a close - Madaba.

From Mount Nebo, we continued north on the Kings Highway, eventually arriving into Madaba. A seemingly quiet town, Madaba was a good place to unwind after a hectic day of travel.

Compared to the other places we had stayed at along the way, the hotel in Madaba felt like a 5 star hotel to us - Lei and had large room with cable TV (with English channels) and a hair dryer which came in handy for both Lei and I. ....and best of all, there were three beds - one to pile our stuff on, one right next to the window and the other right next to a full length radiator. Take a guess who took which bed to sleep in!

Day 16. Mount Nebo.

We drove from the Dead Sea, up through the surrounding mountains, to arrive at Mount Nebo.



According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Mount Nebo is where Moses viewed the promised land that God was giving to the Hebrews. Sadly, Moses was forbidden by God to ever set foot on it.

"I will give it to your descendants; I have let you see with your eyes, but you shall not go over there." (Deuteronomy 34:1-4)

Day 16. The Dead Sea.



From Karak, we continued north on the Kings Highway, motoring under menacing skies. I kept hoping that the skies would clear up as it would truly be disappointing to spend time at the Dead Sea under dark clouds.

Day 16. Dana Nature Reserve and Karak Castle.

On Day 16 we left Wadi Musa and headed north on the Kings Highway. Our final destination for the day would be Madaba but we would be stopping at various points along the way.

Our first stop was to be the Dana (pronounced DAH-nah) Nature Reserve. The Dana Nature Reserve contains a remarkable diversity of landscapes - ranging from wooded highlands to rocky slopes, and from gravel plains to dunes of sand and is home to about 600 species of plants, 37 species of mammals and 190 species of birds.

Interlude. Shop Signs.

I'm oddly fascinated by signs - road signs, shop signs, etc. Don't ask me why because I have no idea why. Anyway, as we toured Jordan, I found myself snapping away at the banners that were hung up outside shops. Soon enough, I discovered there was a pattern to them.

The common approach to Jordanian signs is 1) make them BIG relative to the structure they hang above and 2) put a picture on them that describes what the store sells. So, even if you don't speak a single word of Arabic, it's not hard to figure out that this shop is a butcher....

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Petra - The Monastery.

Today, we returned to Petra. Our destination was the Monastery - known as Ad-Deir in Arabic.

Our guide, the previous day, had suggested that we plan on returning to the Treasury around 9a to see it in the morning light. With that in mind, the group met downstairs for breakfast and headed out around 8:30 - it would take us about an hour to walk from the hotel to the Treasury.

By the time we arrived, it was around 9:30a and the Treasury had indeed taken on the red/orange light of early morning light - it was no longer red rose as we had seen it the afternoon before.



Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Wadi Rum.

It's Day 13. Our journey today would take us to the Wadi Rum.


The first time I heard the words "Wadi Rum" was on a Travel Channel show where then Prince (now King) Abdullah took travel correspondent Peter Greenberg on a tour of Jordan. They rode motorcycles through the Wadi Rum and spent time in a Bedouin camp.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Goodbye Egypt, Hello Jordan!

It's day 12 and we're headed for Aqaba, Jordan. Though I was excited about finally getting to Jordan, I was sad to be leaving Egypt. Really sad because I had such a wonderful time there - I would like to return some day.



Saturday, February 10, 2007

Interlude. Trekking fashion.

What can I say? When we started out in Cairo, we pretty much looked like your stereotypical tourist - street clothing with the cameras hung around our necks. By the time we got to Aswan and Cairo, we had started to morph into trekkers. Dressing to look "nice" was quickly tossed out the window in favor of comfort and practicality - hiking pants and fleece jackets soon became de rigeur.

Case in point about dressing for practicality. Lei at Nuweiba. She has on her black gym pants, rolled up to the knee. But because she needed pockets and her gym pants didn't have any, she unzipped the legs of her hiking pants and wore them as shorts over her gym pants. She has one sock on because she cut the bottom of her foot on the coral reef and wore the sock to protect the wound. Because she didn't want her sock to get dirty, she put her flip flops on. Not sure whose definition of beachwear this is but what a vision it made!



Days 10 and 11. Nuweiba

This is what awaited us at the end of Day 10 ! We had two days to do nothing, absolutely nothing but R-E-L-A-X and we couldn't get there soon enough!!



St. Catherine's.

It's day 10 and we're still in Sinai. We awoke at a reasonable hour. No mosque in sight so no prayer to call to interrupt sleep. Lei had left both heaters on all night so I woke up all sweaty! Ugh. A few minutes to clean up and we headed to the restaurant for breakfast. By now, we had all fallen into the routine - breakfast, check out, dump backpack next to van, pile into van.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Day 9. Sinai.

We woke up before the crack of dawn on Day 9, dropped our keys at the Front Desk, picked up our breakfast boxes (bread, cheese and jam, hardboiled eggs and fruit), grabbed our backpacks and waited outside for the mini-van to arrive. The packs were strapped to the luggage rack on top the van and we all piled inside for the 7 hour ride to Sinai. Lei had taken her Dramamine and put her sea bands on to ward off the nausea that she suffers when her motion sickness hits.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Interlude. Traffic in Cairo.

I'm a city girl at heart and I've been to LOTS of cities....many a place where traffic is utterly chaotic and even as a passenger in a vehicle, heart stopping. I have had my share of white knuckle rides, closed eyed rides, speeding taxi drivers, swerving vehicles, and rides that literally took away my breath. I have been in many cities where crossing streets were a challenge. But then, I went to Cairo and it has set a new benchmark on my list of cities for driving chaos.



Day 8. Back to Cairo.

Ugh. I had been dreading going back to Cairo and all its chaos. Compared to Cairo, the atmosphere of both Aswan and Luxor is relatively sedate and I was beginning to enjoy the slower pace of life.

What I relished even less was returning to the smog and pollution that enshrouds Cairo. Unfortunately, like many major cities in developing countries, Cairo is in bad need of air pollution controls. Add that to the fact that smoking is a popular habit among Egyptian men and you have just about the worse air you could possibly breathe.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Interlude. Food.

Okay, I confess. I ate like a pig on this trip and for a pittance!! Familiar food items like kabobs, felafel, shawarma, hummus, baba ghanouj and tabouleh were everywhere to be found, cheap as can be and ever so tasty. Ordinarily, I'm not fond of lamb but what I ate in Egypt was so wonderful, I've become a convert!

I also learned to appreciate labneh which is a yogurt based cheese that was often the spread in sandwiches and showed up at the breakfast table in Jordan.

Interlude. Laundry.



The thing about travelling with a backpack is there's not a whole lot of room for clothes - especially when you have to carry a sleeping bag as well.

Luxor. Lunch and a papyrus factory.

It's still Day 7. We're still in Luxor and it's lunchtime!!

From Habu Temple, we head to Ahmed's house for lunch for a home made meal. What a feast it was! There was so much yummy food, I didn't know where to start eating and I could barely finish everything that was out in front of me. Of all the dishes served, the lentil soup was divine - could've easily had another bowl with warm ayish to dip into it. Daniel and I devoured the dessert - simple triangles of fried phyllo drizzled with honey.

Luxor. An alabaster factory and Habu Temple.



Day 7 continues. After the Valley of the Kings, the next stop on the itinerary was for the group to visit Hisam's alabaster factory. Since I had already been at the factory earlier in the morning, I lolled around outside and chatted with some of the workers while everyone else went on the tour and made their purchases afterwards.

Luxor. Colossi at Memnon and the Valley of the Kings

Day 7. Our second morning in Luxor began with a walk down the corniche, heading towards the boat dock. There, we would meet with up Ahmed who would be our local guide for the day.

It was another glorious day - I'm liking the desert in winter :-)


Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Luxor. The grandeur of Karnak.



It's still Day 6. At 2pm, Lei and I met back up with the group. It was the first time that they had seen me since I fell on the felucca. From the looks on their faces, I think they were as glad to see us (in one piece) as we were to see them. Poor Kristen opted out of the trip to Karnak - she was in bed battling the "bug" that was going around.

The rest of us, along with Daniel, piled into a mini-van for the short ride to Karnak. Ahmed was our local guide for the day. Daniel got us our tickets....



.... and then left us in Ahmed's care.



Karnak is a complex of temples that comprises three separate temple enclosures and covers over 100 acres. Our tour would take us through the largest and grandest of these enclosures - the Precinct of Amun which is dedicated to the supreme god Amun who was the lord of all: king of the gods and patron of the pharaohs.

Entry into the Precint of Amun begins with a walk down the Processional Way which is flanked on both sides by ram-headed sphynxes.



A tiny statue of Ramses II sits between the forelegs of each sphynx.



At the end of the Processional Way is what is referred to as the First Pylon - a walled gateway that measures 113m wide and 43m high.



Beyond the First Pylon is the Forecourt. The Colossus of Ramses II, with a smaller statue of Queen Nefertari between his legs, stands in the Forecourt, positioned beside the vestibule to the Second Pylon.





Just beyond the Second Pylon lies the Great Hypostyle Hall.



The Hall was started by King Seti I (1313 - 1292 BC) and completed by his son, Ramses II (1292-1225 BC). The hall contains 134 columns - 14 line the processional avenue - each is 23m high and 15m in circumference. To this, Seti I and Ramses II added 122 smaller columns in two flanking wings. The smaller columns are 15m in height. At one time, these columns supported a roof with small clerestory windows. While the roof is gone, some of the windows remain.





The smaller columns have calyx capitals....



....and the larger columns, papyrus bud capitals.



The columns constructed by Seti I are decorated with raised reliefs; the columns constructed by Ramses II are decorated with sunken reliefs. The reliefs show the Kings making offerings to Theban deities, most notably Amun.



Wonder how the ancient Egyptians built 29m high columns without a crane? The theory is that the columns were built up in sections. To start, columns of a "manageable" height were placed into the ground. The spaces that separated the group of columns was filled in with sand to the height of the column sections. The process was repeated with each column section until the top was reached. Once the stone roof was placed on top, the sand was hauled away - essentially unearthing the columns. Pretty smart, huh?< Just beyond the Third Pylon is the 23m high, pink granite obelisk of Tuthmosis II.




Beyond the Fourth Pylon is yet another pink granite obelisk. This one stands 27m high and is significant because it belongs to Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to rule as pharoah.



Ahmed guided us to a wall that was constructed by Hatshepsut but was deliberately defaced by Tuthmosis II. In the picture below, you can see that her image has been scratched out. Tuthmosis II also replaced her cartouches, which border the wall, with those of his father's and grandfather's names.



A short walk from the Obelisk of Hatshepsut lies the Sacred Lake. Next to the Sacred Lake is a giant scarab, dedicated by Amenophsis III to the God Khepri. The Egyptians believed that the Sun was pushed by a scarab on its daily crossing of the sky. It came to symbolize eternity. It is said that if you walk around the scarab one time, you will have good health, three times will give you wealth and seven times for love. It was too crowded so I didn't even go one round :-(



Lei and I managed to convince a guard (1 EG helped) to let us up onto a grandstand. From there, we took these shots of the complex.




On the way back through the complex, we came across this relief wall. I don't know what it's named but it's remarkable.




We retraced our steps back to the entrance and when we were all there, piled back into the mini-van and headed back into the hotel.

If Abu Simbel is awe inspiring and Philae breath taking then Karnak can only be described as being simply magnificent! It is a truly incredible sight and visiting it was definitely a highlight of my time in Egypt. Words and photos cannot do it justice - you have to be there to really appreciate its majesty and grandeur.

Here are Lei's reflections on her visit to Karnak.

Luxor. The morning after.

We're in Luxor. Day 6 began with Lei and I sleeping in. I think we both deserved it considering the events of the previous day. We soon rolled out of bed and got ready for the day which began with breakfast on the rooftop of Little Garden.

Monday, February 5, 2007

Day 5. Did not end as expected.

The lesson learned from this days'events is "Do not walk in socks on a slick boat deck."

I slipped and fell on the felucca. I don't remember some of the details of what took place so you'll need to read Lei's posting to fill in the gaps.

Day 5. Started out as expected.

The description of the itinerary for Day 5, reads "Morning we meet the felucca for a relaxing day of sailing on the Nile". We were to spend the night on the felucca - sleeping in the open, under the stars. Per Daniel's instructions, we all packed our daypacks accordingly - lots of warm clothing, flashlight, and of course, sleeping bag.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Downtime in Aswan.

It was sometime after noon when we arrived back to Aswan after spending the morning touring Abu Simbel and Philae.

The Temples at Abu Simbel and Philae.



Day 3 in Aswan began with Lei's alarm clock going off at 2:30a . No chance of hearing the daily call of prayer as we had to have an early wake up in order to meet up with the group (except for Daniel) at 3:30a.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Sick as a dog in Aswan.

My first day in Aswan was spent in bed - I was determined to shake off the flu so I could enjoy the rest of the tour. I got into bed and piled on as many layers as I could. The fever eventually broke and I was able to join the group for dinner in a restaurant located next to the Nile River. I had my first taste of a "real" Egyptian meal and it was wonderful - many more were to come!

From lower left, it's me, Bridget, Alex, Sandy (tilting her head), Kirsten, Dora in red, Laura, Daniel and Daniel.


Friday, February 2, 2007

To Aswan.

It was early evening on our second day in Egypt. We had spent the morning seeing the Great Pyramids and Sphynx on the Giza Plateau and the afternoon touring the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. A van arrived outside our Cairo hotel to take us to the Giza train station. It was my second time riding in a motorized vehicle in the dark and I quickly discovered that Cairo drivers do not turn on their headlights unless they think it's absolutely necessary e.g., to warn a pedestrian or another car that they're coming. As a result, you see a constant flash of headlights as you drive down the street. Apparently, they do this because they think it conserves battery life...which it does but at the cost of risking human lives. It's a bit warped logic, if you ask me!

The Giza Plateau and the Egyptian Antiquities Museum



I was awoken at around 5am by the sound of call to prayer blasting from a neighborhood mosque. Call to prayer was soon followed by the incessant sound of drivers honking their car horns. Then Lei's alarm clock went off. With all this noise, sleep was impossible so I crawled out of bed and got ready for the day. Lei and I headed downstairs for breakfast - had the usual fare and then met up with the group to begin our second full day in Cairo.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

First day in Cairo.



Our first full day in Cairo began with a call to prayer being blasted over the neighborhood mosque's loudspeakers. Lei was already stirring about and ready to start the day. I wanted a few more minutes of sleep and so I buried my head into the pillow and tried to catch a few more zzzzz's over the sound of the prayer which was REALLLLY loud. The constant sound of cars honking (something unique to Cairo) added to the cacophany of noise.