Wanderlust: 11/01/2009

In Transit

The last week in Egypt was spent in Dahab, on the Gulf of Aquaba in the Red Sea getting our Advanced Open Water Scuba Diving certificates. Dahab is a great backpackers town that caters to people on vacation trying to relax. It was a blessing for us to stay put for a couple of days and the scuba diving was some of the best in the world. We then headed back to crazy Cairo (where we still needed a local to be our human shield for us to cross the street) to see the Egyptian Museum. We flew back to Istanbul yesterday and are taking off to Nepal this afternoon to trek the Annapurna Circuit. Hope all is well on the home front. Please look for another update in December.

In Transit - Photos

Kahn-al Khalili Market in Cairo

Egyptian Museum

Bread Delivery Guy

Smoking Shisha (flavored tobacco) in a Huka with our Dive Instructor, Marsen

The Blue Hole Dive Site, Red Sea

Sunrise Over Saudi Arabia

Our hotel in Dahab, Egypt

Jordan

Jordan was a breath of fresh air after Egypt. As much as we enjoyed Egypt, it seemed like Jordanian people were not trying to take advantage of us quite as often, and the countryside was much cleaner and more modern. Our first stop in Jordan was Petra. Lonely Planet said to not even consider going from St. Catherine`s to Petra in a day. Seemed like that was silly, since the distance was not more than 120 miles... we took it as a challenge. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The 7 AM taxi from St. Catherine took some persuasion to get at the cost we wanted. The guy we negotiated with stuffed us in his truck then took us to another guy and another car, circa 1960, for the ride. We picked up the spare tire and were off to Nuwiba via 3 tourist checkpoints to catch the ferry across the Red Sea to Jordan. The 1 o'clock ferry left at the crack of 4:30. Once landing at the Jordan port, we spent a good half hour wandering through large shipping crates to find the arrivals gate to receive our taken passports (Insha'Allah). Then a group of six of us found a taxi to take us to Wadi Mesa (Petra). It was nearly midnight by the time the taxi arrived after making a couple of stops in the wide-open desert to make us all get out of the car and look at the stars\smoke break. Talk about feeling insecure, "here, get out of the taxi in the middle of nowhere." Yes, its dark, you are in the Middle East and there is not even a street lamp. No problem. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the morning we walked to the place that words can not do justice: Petra. The ancient Nuwibian people carved massive tombs into the beautiful red sandstone walls. It is most famous by us layman as being the set of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The 100-foot high buildings tower over people, we had to do a mantle move (hands above head and thrusting body up) to get into the beautiful Monastery. This is a must do for everyone - check out our photos when we finally get them posted, we should have gotten a couple of good ones out of the 200+ photos taken.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Our next adventure was taken with our new friends, Annette and Warren from Breckenridge, Colorado to Wadi Rum. The village of Wadi Rum was located in a sand-filled valley with towering sandstone walls to the east and west of town and became famous by it being Lawrence of Arabia's stomping ground. It was a great place to spend a couple of days climbing. Beautiful patina faces, similar to Nevada's Red Rocks, except not as many bolts or anchors, and a much more adventurous feel (two rescue helicopters were needed the week before our arrival, and we heard that it did not go so well). We were able to get on the rock a couple of days for rock climbing and Bedouin route trekking. Also, we joined a nice British group (Haden, Rachel, and David) up the route Inferno. It felt like we were back in Vegas during Thanksgiving, especially when rappelling in the dark.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Going against the recommendation of the locals, we took the camel trek (5 hr) rather than a camel ride (1 hr) on the last day at Wadi Rum. I got a nice, petite, white, female camel named Bebe, Braden got a bigger, fairly mild-mannered, male named Alba, and our guide, Omar, got an ill-tempered, untrained camel who wouldn't sit so Omar had to jump off of him. Omar was a 12-year old, funny, friendly Bedouin who already had a smokers cough. However, he used that to his advantage to have a baritone voice and serenaded us all the way back to camp with Jordanian pop music. Omar thought he was hysterical when he repeatedly covered his face, except for his eyes, with his Bedouin scarf and made shooting motions at us with his hands yelling that he was a terrorist. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Our camel ride included four stops. The first to Bedouin inscriptions on the rock, the second to see Kasilli canyon, the third to hike a sand dune, and the fourth to look for Omar's dropped lighter. After 5 hours we realized what the locals were warning about. I was so saddle sore the next day that I couldn't sit on the bed and my underwear stuck to chafe sores on my butt. Check, camel ride off of the bucket list.

Jordan - Photos

Petera!

The Siq and Treasury - Think Indian Jones!

Royal Tombs

Texting

Female Donkey

High Alter of Sacrifice

The Monastery

Wadi Rum

Camel Spider

Inferno Tower

Rapping Down in the Dark - Just like in Red Rocks

Meaghan's Camel Bebe

Tea in a Bedouin Goat-Hair Tent

Canyoneering

Aerobic Pictographs

Egypt: Insha'Allah

Egypt is a trip! "Insha'Allah" or "God Willing" is the mantra. Taking a taxi, crossing the street, riding a camel. Insha'Allah, Insha'Allah, Insha'Allah. Our first stop here, Cairo, is the loudest and wildest city that either of us have experienced. We heard that the common conception of rules (especially road rules) are that they are only discussed as punch lines in jokes. There is a country-wide drive to enforce one road rule: do not drive into oncoming traffic. We haven't noticed much compliance with that or any other rule.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------On our first full day in Cairo, we took the suggestion of our pension owner and old friend Marshall and hired a personal taxi driver for the day to see the pyramids. First stop was the grand daddy of all pyramids: the Giza Pyramids. The air was slightly smoggy and the pyramids and sphinx were so surreal, that it was almost like looking at them on TV. The pyramids and the sphinx were grand and meticulously built. It is amazing they look similar to how they did 4,000 years ago. The only difference is that the shiny limestone facade has been eroded from the facing and 18 feet of the tallest, Great Pyramid, has been lost from wind erosion. The next stop on our pyramid quest was the Saqqara Pyramids to see the oldest pyramid: the Step Pyramid. Then we headed off to Dashur, where there were no other tourists about since it is about 30 miles from Giza . Here we descended into the huge Red Pyramid. This included hiking about four stories up the outside of the pyramid, paying a random guy baksheesh to turn on the lights, then squatting to a height of about 3 feet to fit into the passageway and hiking down about 10 stories beneath the ground to the depths of the pyramid, which opened up to a tight, tall room with a tiered ceiling. It was dark, damp, and about 100 degrees F in the eerie depths of the pyramid. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next day we took a locals bus to St. Catherine`s located on the Sinai Peninsula. It was suppose to be a comfy, air-conditioned, fast bus. It was not. Oversold by 20 people hanging out in the aisle for nine hours with no air conditioning, a broken seat, and being yelled at a regular intervals by the mean bus driver for opening the windows, trying to leave the bus during gas fill-ups and people sneaking a quick smoke at the back of the bus. To top off the day, I was also suffering from terrible pains in my quadriceps from the trek into the pyramid the day before. We felt more like hostages than passengers, but hay, we lived through it and we have a good story, Insha'Allah.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------St. Catherine was a small village with a nice Bedouin camp and yummy cheap food. After a couple days in Egypt it became normal to see Bedouin people riding camels down the street. Every night we would get a 5 E Pound ($1) Kosheri - rice, noodles, red sauce, hot sauce, fried onions. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We woke up at 2 AM to walk to the St. Catherine Monastery and hike Mt. Sinai for the sun rise. St. Catherine is famous in the three monotheistic religions (Christian, Jewish, Islam) for it being the place where: a) Catherine was carried to the mountain by angles after being tortured and beheaded for her faith in Alexandria, b) Moses received his 10 commandments, and c) the descendant of the original burning bush is living for all of us tourists to touch and get poked by its holy thorns. Since my knowledge in the history of religion is meager, at best, I kept having to ask Braden, with his numerous years of Catholic school what it all means. For our hike to Mt. Sinai, we had to hire a Bedouin guide to lead us up the stepped trail in the dark. Muha, our guide, was a sour 17-year old, that was on a mission to pass everyone on the trail (about 400 tourists, 100 guides, and 100 camels that night). His technique to get tourists to squeeze to the right was to imitate a gargling camel. It worked like a charm. At the top, we watched the brilliant red sun rise over the rugged mountains at 5:30 AM. On the hike down we stepped down all 3750 steps of repentance - signifying that every step is to repent for a sin. Braden commented that I may need to do the hike at least one more time. After a visit to the monastery at the bottom of the hill we slept for the rest of the day.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Other Egypt idiosyncrasies include the money. At times, places do not accept the Egyptian Pound and only take Euros or US dollars. Generally, we have to be very keen on the amount of change received - Braden had to ask three times for correct change at the Giza Pyramid ticket office as the lady started giving him change of a 50 fil note (20 cents) rather than 50 pound note (20 dollars) . Often, the price of an item varies to how suave the store owner thinks you are. All the time, you have to dicker, dicker, dicker. Insha'Allah.