Photos

A selection of our photos have been put online at flickr.

There's 200 out of the 1275 (1.79 GB) photos that we took over the 3 weeks. If for any reason you want a high quality version of one of the photos, send us an email and we'll send it on to you.

There's still a few more stories that we'd like to put online, hopefully we'll get around to that in the next week or so.

Jerash to the Dead Sea

Went further north of Amman for the morning to visit the Roman ruins at Jerash (or Gerash). Jerash is a surprising find for most people as it contains some of the most complete ruins of provincial Roman towns. The only “downside” to Jerash, is that it’s been heavily restored, meaning that many of the buildings (temples, theatres, chariot racing tracks etc.) contain many pieces that have been remade recently. This definitely decreased the ‘authenticity’ of the experience – though it was impressive never-the-less.

Whilst we were visiting the larger of two theatres (which is still in use, particularly during the Jerash Festival) we were entertained by a pipe band, consisting of ex-army members. Since they were dressed in a military style uniform, they seemed less comical than the pre-show entertainment at the Pyramids “Sound and Light” show. The drummer did however, play the side drum “snare-side up”.

Another highlight in Jerash was the temple of Artimis. This temple featured columns that were designed to sway in the wind and during the many earthquakes which caused the devastation of the site. You could feel the columns sway if you placed your fingers in the cracks between the pieces of the columns.

After farewelling some members of our tour group (who were continuing north into Syria), we jumped back onto the bus to visit the dead sea (about 1/2 an hour South of Amman). The Dead Sea appears to be quite the holiday destination – we visited the “Dead Sea Spa Resort”, but saw numerous other resorts being constructed as we drove along the shore-line. We were treated to “the best buffet in Jordan” – salads, hommus, grilled fish, roast … a dessert table that was endless – which we thoroughly enjoyed before heading out to the sea. (We wanted to properly test the bouancy claims!)

Walking out of the air conditioned restaurant, the first thing that we noticed was that it was extremely hot. Much hotter that we’d ever felt, even in the south of Egypt. After a quick dip in the pools of the resort, we tip-toed down to the Dead Sea (we’d forgotten to pack thongs, and the walking on the concrete and stony beach was unbearably hot). Walking into the sea felt quite “oily” and dense – it was much harder to walk in calf deep water than usual. Floating in the water was amazing; in shallow water, it was impossible to sit down – you’re bottom could not touch the sea floor, you had to float. In deep water, you could float upright, shoulders just sticking out of the water with little to know effort (except the effort required to stop you floating on your back). There was absolutely know need to tread water.

(Just in case you want to know, the water tastes particularly horrible. Even a small amount in your mouth makes you wish you’d never came, and slight splashes in your eyes results in an intense burning sensation.)

We spent a fair bit of time floating in the sea, and covering up in its mud (which is said to be good for skin – there are a number of companies that sell skin care products with “Dead Sea Minerals”) we showered off and had a quick swim in the normal pools – just to be reminded of what normal water felt like.

In the evening, we went out for dinner with the bulk of the remainder of our group, for a meal at a local restaurant. It was a very local restaurant – no menu (not even in Arabic), and when asked what they served the best English speaker from the staff replied “Hommus”. Of course, we asked what else was on the menu, to which he replied “Hommus”. We quickly gathered that the meal would consist of a variety of dips, falafel, bread and pickled and fresh vegetables. Our group of 6 was well fed and watered for JD 4, ~ AUD 8.

(Anita and I ate there for the next two nights for JD 2, as we couldn’t see any other sit down restaurants in the area.)

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Almost home

Just about to board for our final flight from KL-Brisbane.

Had lots of good flights, though a fun experience at Cairo airport. We landed on an Egypt Air flight at the shiny, clean, organised terminal 1. However, our Malaysia Air flight was departing at terminal 2, a world of difference. Chaos, dirty and most of all, no running water in the toilets.

Surivived our journey however, we'll post some stories from our last few days after we get home.

Karak Castle, Church of the Map & Mt Nebo

(We need to leave for Amman Airport in 20 minutes, so we’ll try to be brief.)

We spent the morning exploring the ruins of Karak Castle – a castle with a long history particularly thorugh the period of the Crusades. It was amazing to just wander through the ruins of this building and ‘feel’ the history. It was particularly interesting to see the slit windows used by archers as well as a number of catapult shots that were lying around the castle.

Our next stop was a delicious sandwich and juice bar across from St George Church, or The Church of the Map. ] The church here is built atop the remains of an ancient (6th Century AD) church*, that featured a large mosaic map of the ‘holy land’. The map is allegedly quite acurate, and has been used by archeologists to find the ruins of many historical sites. The map used to be 100 sq m in area, but due to damage from the construction of the current church, only a small portion of that remains. *The reason for building a new church on top of an ancient one is due to an order from a Muslim ruler that Christians may only build there churches on existing church sites.

Unfortunately shortly after visiting this site (and enjoying a felafel sandwhich) A came down with a rather nasty stomach bug and missed the spectacular view from Mt Nebo – the alleged site where Moses died.

The short walk up Mount Nebo for D and the rest of the group was rewarded by a spectacular view of the Jordan Valley (including the Dead Sea, Betany ‘beyond the Jordan’, Jericho and into the West Bank)and also another beautiful mosiac floor.

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After visiting this site, it was into the bus again for a ride into Amman and the Hillside Hotel, our home for the last few nights.

A’s stomach cramps were quite bad, and after dinner we had a house call from a local Amman doctor. A short consultation and a few injections later and we were a whole JD 10 (~ AUD 20) poorer. Following the injections, A felt much better and has been able to enjoy the rest of our trip (less the nasty taste the antibiotics leave in her mouth).

A day at Petra

We spent the whole day exploring the ancient, rose-red city of Petra. Although called a 'city', it is a collection of tombs (or monumental tombs) rather than a city for the living.

Petra is entered via a 1.2km long canyon (or siq), parts of which still contain the paved roman road. For the length of the siq, an ancient water chanel (or sometimes a water pipe) can be seen. This water channel (which can be seen all throughout the city) was part of a complex system which the Nabateans used to ensure water supplies. For the beginning of our tour, we were accompanied by a retired member of the Jordanian parliment, who gave interesting stories about how government projects for building dams and irrigation systems regularly were built on top of ancient Nabatean dams and water pipelines.

After the long walk through the siq, we spied through the rocks to see the Treasury, arguably Petra's most famous facade. Although known as the 'Treasury', it has never contained any money or treasures. However, the bedouins had believed for many years that the treasures of the Pharoah's were stored in the vase/goblet thing on the second story of the facade.

Surprisingly, the facade is all that there is to be seen in the Treasury. Inside are three small, bare rooms – but not the vast decorations or sarcophogi of the Egyptian tombs.

After admiring the impressive Treasury facade we got to the main business of the day – the first of two climbs. After declining the many offers for "ferrari, 4wd, taxi donkeys" we began our walk up to the high place of sacrifice. The views from the top of the ~700 step climb were spectacular, being able to see over much of Petra, Wadi Musa and a Bedouin village. The Bedouin village is a new settlement where the people who had been inhabiting Petra were relocated to when it become a UNESCO (world heritage) listed site. The high place itself was not particularly interesting, just a flat area with a altar and a some sort of large bowl (which we are standing in front of in the picture).

A was sacrificed by our guide, and then we trotted down the other side of the hill for lunch.

After lunch, A joined a small group who slowly walked out of Petra via the royal tombs*, whilst D began the second climb to the Monastery. Although this climb was a little longer, it was much easier than the first. Upon reaching the top, we were treated to the impressive Monastery accompanied by the sounds of traditional Bedouin music from within the chamber. (The Monastery claims it's name from being a refuge for Christian monks during times of Roman persecution.)

*A's ankle was not coping well with the terrain of Petra continously rolling as we descended from our first climb.

Our climb was completed with a short walk to a look out where we could see over the valleys into the west bank of the Jordan River.

During this time, A and her small group sat in front of the Treasury and contemplated how uncomfortably camel's got up and down and admired the changing colours of the Treasury with the setting of the sun.

(PS had yummy ice cream to finish the day)

Aqaba to Wadi Rum

We spent the morning in Aqaba. A decided to have the morning off whilst D went with a portion of our new group to go snorkelling at the Royal Jordan Diving Club. The club was a little way out of town, past the port where we had arrived the day before. The reef there was quite small, but since D had only snorkelled once before it was quite nice with its variety of fish and corals. D also managed to catch two 'bag fish'.

Our guide quoted Laurence of Arabia – "Wadi Rum is vast, echoing and godlike". At Wadi Rum (wadi is the arabic word for valley) we piled into the trays of a few old LandCruiser Utes to travel through a Bedouin village and then into the open, sandy spaces of the wadi. We stopped at a spring, rumoured to be where Moses struck the rock (though there are many springs throughout the middle east that are attributed to this). At this point we also saw some ancient inscriptions on the rocks – written in an early arabic/semetic script. Next stop was a cool canyon where we were shown some ancient Petra-glyphs, not unlike the cave drawings in central Australia. Our final stop on this trip was at a natural landbride. We climbed the rock here, and that's where the above photo was taken. Whilst we were up the top of this rock, A's hat blew off onto a nearby ledge. It didn't take long however, for our 14 year old driver to scoot back down the rock and retrieve it for A – quite embarassing since it took our group a good 10-15 minutes to climb.

For our evening's entertainment, we entered the Nabatean city of Petra for a candle-light extravaganza. We walked the 1.2 k siq (the natural canyon leading into Petra) along a candle-lit path, trying to admire both the candles and the starry sky without tripping on the roman road. After quite a long walk, we were finally in front of the treasury, which was surrounded by hundreds of tea lights. We were treated to traditional bedouin music and dancing (though the dancing looks like it had only been choreographed moments before the performance), mint tea and the stiffling smell of cigarette smoke. The music was quite interesting, though we forgot to take the iRiver to record it, the sounds of the 'flute' like instrument echoing between the rocks was rather haunting. Unfortunately the moon was almost new, and thus the treasury building was not well lit so our photos are rather artistic.

Across to Jordan

In the itinerary the event reads – "We travel across to Aqaba by Hydrofoil.", in reality it was a little more painful than that.

From the safety of our bus we saw madness, even before we entered the terminal. Our local guide was sent forth from the safety of our air conditioned bus to negotiate the first stage of customs – entry into the port grounds. We feared for our lives, having seen the chaos that is called a 'queue' form before us, however we were quite calmly escorted into the port.

Once inside we breifly took our seats as our local guide ventured towards the customs officials in order to begin the process of having our passports checked for departure. One-by-one we were pushed to the front of the line (much to the frustration of some very vocal men) to have our passports examined and stamped.

Then came the painful wait…

We were taken to the 'departure lounge' (a bunch of wooden benches in a large tin shed) to wait for the bus to take us to the ferry. We were there for around 1 hour, though the time passed quickly for D as he took the opportunity to amuse some of the local children and A watched a mother feed her 5 kids with the staple diet for the day, cheese triangles and flat bread.

Once the buses arrived (to shuttle passengers from the departure lounge to the ferry) the passengers rushed to 'queue' to ensure a seat on the bus. The rushing didn't achieve much, as the guards just closed the gate – once again causing much frustration. Eventually we managed to board a bus and arrived at the ferry.

However, the fun continued once we were in the cargo hold of the ferry, as once again we queued for a fair while, before being allowed to enter the passenger part of the ferry. However, the ferry's crew had a fair bit more control over the passengers (probably because they only came 1 bus load at a time) and although the wait was long and hot, we eventually made it into a seat. A was busting for the toilet by this time – but she'll save that story for later.

After a short ride across the Red Sea (~45mins) we arrived in Aqaba, but unloading this ferry was just as painful as loading it. When we were waiting for the buses, we waited a while before trying to get on the bus, however we needed to get off this ferry quickly, and so joined the queue/huddle at the exit the moment the ferry docked. It was a little like the passengers on the bottom of the Titanic – once again the doors were closed on us as we waited in a tight bundle for almost an hour to be let off the ferry. During this time the air conditioning was turned off, and the wait became even longer as we were surrounded by crying infants and anxious parents.

Once on the other side, we were greeted by the smiling face of Kamel who was to be our local guide for the rest of the trip. The passage through customs was quite smooth (except for some mangoes confiscated from our Tour Leader) and we settled down for the night in an Hotel in Aqaba where we meet the rest of our group for our tour through Jordan.

Mt Sinai

Has it been about a week since we've had a chance to post anything here? We haven't had access to affordable Internet since leaving Cairo (in Wadi Musa there was access at the hotel for JD 3/hr ~ $6 – at this place we're paying JD 0.75 hr), so we'll try to fill in a few stories now.

We left Cairo at an acceptable hour to drive through the Sinai Desert to Saint Catherine's (or Katherine's depending on the signage). The drive took about 8 hours, which meant a fair bit of sleeping as well as viewing some beautiful landscapes. We crossed beneath the Suez Canal a little way north of the City of Suez and we attempted to photograph some of the ships traversing the canal. However, we were a fair way away from the canal, so it looked like the large cargo ships were sailing through the desert. (Once again this machine has had the USB ports removed, so you'll have to wait until we get home before you can see pictures).

After crossing the Suez we followed a stretch of coastline which was under heavy development with many, many unfinished resorts. It seems that crazy Europeans can't get enough of the never ending summer in the Middle East, even though there's no surf at the beaches!

During the drive to Saint Catherine's we were expecting a couple of passport checks at the army/police road blocks along the way. (A road block generally consists of a slalom course through rows of 44 gal drums.) At the first of the more significant road blocks, the official entered our bus, but only because he wanted a copy of the paper. At the final road block, at the entrance to the Saint Catherine's Protectorate, we merely flashed our passports in the general direction of the guard and he seemed to be happy with that.

The Sinai desert was incredibly beautiful – particularly from the inside of an air conditioned mini-bus. It was quite unlike what we expected. Instead of the vast planes of sand and sand dunes, the Sinai is an extremely rocky/mountainy area, and a drive through it winds between the sheer cliffs. We stopped in an oasis called Wadi al-Fahrir (not sure of spelling, will check in the guide book later), which is the largest oasis in the Sinai. The oasis was full of palm trees, quite a stark contrast from the surrounding deserts.

After driving all day, we stayed the 'night' at Morgenland. However, the night was quite short as we had a 2am wake-up call for our climb up Mt Sinai!

Unforunately, D awoke with all the symptom's of Pharoah's Revenge and decided that it was best to give the forgo the three hour, toiletless climb a miss. So at 3am D sadly waved goodbye to A as she went to climb the peak alone (well, with our tour leader and the other member of our group).

**This Internet Cafe, although being very cheap is also very smoky. This entry will have to be continued later, when we can find somewhere where the air is clear.

…Continued

From Morgenland there was a short drive to the base of Mount Sinai where the bus left us to walk the short distance past Saint Catherine's Monastry to the 'base station', where Camel's can be hired to assist in the climb. After a difficultly communicated haggling session, all the climbers had their camels – for a reasonable LE 55 each.

After the awkward mounting of the camel, A sat back on her camel to watch the millions of stars (including a few of the shooting variety) as the camel did almost all the hard work. As we climbed higher, and higher, and higher A's relaxation turned to pain of falling off the edge, since the camel was not being lead and tended to walk on the very edge of the path. We arrived around 2 hours later at the bottom of the final ~750 steps, very sore and relieved to be finally off the camel. Our local Bedouin guide (who walked the whole way without breaking a sweat) grabbed A by the arm to start pulling her up the stairs, but was kind enough to stop every once in a while to let her breath. A reached the final tea-house at 5:30 – leaving about 1 hour to sit back and wait for the sun to rise.

The sunrise was spectacular, and many photo's were taken.

After waiting for the hoards to leave the mountain we made our way slowly back down the camel path. (For the ultra-keen there is another path, the ~3000 Steps of Penance.) A powered ahead of the other two groups members, almost getting herself lost at the bottom of the mountain.

The group safely returned for beakfast and the bus ride to the port city of Nueibaa.

Back in Cairo

We have just finished being "between tours". We farewelled our Nile tour buddies yesterday morning, just after we got off the sleeper train, and greeted some of our new tour group (actually, only 1 person – we'll meet one more at St Catherines and the bulk of the group in Aquaba) this evening.

Yesterday we ventured out to the Citadel in the Islamic part of Cairo. The citadel, as the name suggests, is a fortress and houses a number of Mosques, museums and palaces. The citadel also boasts an impressive view of Cairo. It is rumoured that you can see the pyramids on a clear day, however yesterday the smog was against us and we could only barely see the Cairo Tower. We popped into the very ornate Mosque of Mohummed Ali (not the boxer) which boasted many impressie domes, forest green, gold and alabaster interior and enough chandeliers to keep the most charasmatic muslim happy. In the court yard of the mosque there is a clock, which was given by the French in exchange for one of the Obelisks from Karnak Temple. Once again however, the Egyptians were foiled as the clock they recieved has never worked since they recieved it.

After the Citadel we attempted to walk to Khan el-Kalili, the oldest and largest Bazaar in Cairo. From the map in our guide book it appeared little over 1km away, though as we walked we found ourselves on an expressway which appeared to never end. In the end we managed to communicate with a Taxi driver our intended destination and got there – for a very inflated fare. Unfortunately we arrived at the bazaar at lunch time and so most of the shops were closed, we did manage to pick up something we'd been looking for. (We didn't get a recording though Andrew, sorry).

In the evening we taxied out to Giza to see the "Sound and Light" show at the Pyramids … in German*. Although both A and I have studied some german at school we are far from fluent and so just watched the light & lazer show. Even without an understandable commentary the show was impressive as we saw the pyramids bathed in many different colours and lazer lights drawing diagrams on both the pyramids and the small temple next to the sphinx. We were particularly impressed by the projection of faces onto the Sphinx, brining the statue completely to life (though when they decided at one point to illuminate just the eyes of the Sphinx it was a little spooky).

Today we've basically had a day off, a sleep in with some reading and journalling. We've officially started the next stage of our tour, having had dinner together we N (our tour leader) and the new member of our group. Tomorrow we have a 7 hour bus ride under the Suez Canal and across the Sinai to St Catherines before our very early (2am wake up) hike/camel ride up Mt Sinai.

Daniel

*We were aware that there was no english show on Sunday night, but decided to go regardless

Aswan and Abu Simbel

We arrived in Aswan quite late in the morning (10am). Having been warned about the extreme heat this far south, we though that we wouldn't be able to do anything until quite late in the afternoon/evening. However, we learnt that the Nubian Museum was airconditioned, so we squeezed 6 of the tour group into a taxi (station wagon taxis have a seat for 2/3 in the boot) and we went to the Museum. (The museum is very close to the Old Cataract Hotel – where Agatha Christie is rumoured to have written "Death on the Nile".)

The Museum was amazing – not only because it was an air conditioned, modern building – but unlike the Cairo Museum the exhibits were well layed out and clearly labelled. The museum had two sections – the first contained information and photographs from areas of Nubia that were flooded by Lake Nasser (the Aswan High Dam) and the second walked through the history of Nubia from pre-history until the present. There was also a fascinating exhibit showing how a number of the temples (namely Philae and Abu Simbel) were saved from Lake Nasser.

In the afternoon we relaxed on a Felucca ride. It was an incredibly good experience for LE 10 each. After saling past a few of the Islands we stopped of at a little 'beach' for a swim in the Nile. This was quite an eye-opener for the rest of the group – since the cold water made D scream like a little girl. As it was a Friday, there was a Nubian family swimming and it was great to watch the children and ladies playing in the water. We were told that it was quite rare for the older ladies to continue swimming when a group of tourists came, so we felt quite privelged to see them having fun with their children. Due to the high wind, our 1 hour felucca ride became 3 hours, as we had to slowly tack our way back against the wind.

The evening involved a trip to the ATM, internet cafe and Bazaar. Lots of fun was had haggling – though our concealed microphone didn't work (batteries went flat). Got a bargain T-Shirt and a few birthday gifts for ppl back home.

We got home rather late (we were the last back on board) and had a few hours sleep before waking at 3:30 to board the bus to Abu Simbel. We travelled in an armed convoy – though allegedly there has never been any trouble with tourists on the road. A very quick 3 hours later (A and D both slept quite well, despite the over zealous air conditioning) we were at the 'greatest' temple in all of Egypt (accordng to our guide). The temple is indeed impressive – not only because of the engineering feat of moving it to escape Lake Nasser – but also because of the giant statues of Ramses that you are greeted with. From the pictures on the inside of the temple you would think that Ramses was invincible (many of the scenes depict a giant Ramses crushing his many enemies underneath his feat) however, the head of the second statue of Ramses sits pathetically in the sand beneath the temple – the same way it has been since not long after Ramses death. We also visited the smaller temple dedicated to Ramses favourite wife (he had 90), Nefatari. Although this temple is dedicated to her – most of the statues and carvings depict Ramses, not Nefatari.

After another 3 hours back to Aswan, we checked out of the Melodie to catch the overnight train to Cairo where the first half of our tour ended.