Hi everyone!
When last I wrote we had just seen all the sights of Pharonic Egypt in Luxor and Aswan. From there we transported forward about 2000 years (and still to only 330 BC or so) and visited the Siwa Oasis in the middle of the Great Sea of Sand near the Egyptian/Libyan border. In Siwa, there is a famous Oracle that Alexander the Great reportedly visited to ask whether he was truly the descendant of God. Alexander also founded the city of...what else...Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. Siwa, although a town of no more than 2000 people (and at least 4000 donkeys), also played host to Cleopatra (who apparently bathed in a cold spring nearby). More recently, the city has been inhabited by Bedouins. One incredible sight was the the "mud fort" built in the middle of the town...it's quite large and was literally washed away by the last torrential downpour. As you climb the fort sight you can see the remaning walls and windows made of quite solid dry mud...but looking misformed as it had melted into it's current form. Very cool. The other wonderful thing about Siwa was the view from the top of this fort...you could actually look out on all sides and see a (for the most part) green circle of vegetation and palm trees where the "oasis" exists. Outside of this circle was a great white and blue colored salt lake on one side, sand as far as the eye could see and dark mountains in the distance set off with a very blue sky.
From Siwa, we stopped off in Alexandria - where we wandered around the city lost (using our "guide" book to find two bars/restaurants that had been closed for some time), but got to enjoy a truly non-touristic Egyptian experience - mostly because there's nothing to do in the city. While we sat at a beachside cafe, Deanna did make the sighting of the trip - a women in full cloak and veil (completely covered) cavorting in the water with her friends (who were more liberally dressed in full cloak and head-scarf). Deanna claims that she actually dived underwater and came out with full outfit intact...what a different way of life.
From Alexandria, we made a very long, very difficult trek to the Sinai peninsula. First, we bought tickets on the train - so didn't actually have seats. Instead we squatted in the area between cars and were able to do an exhaustive survey of the different techniques of lighting cigarettes, inhaling, blowing out the smoke, etc... I may write a paper when I get back. From there, we caught a bus that let us on the vehicle, drove two blocks, and then waited two hours before leaving. We had our passports checked at least 5 times, our tickets checked 4 times (separate from passport checks), and arrived four hours behind schedule. And then we got to wake up at 2:30 am to hike up Mt. Sinai.
The climb starts at St. Katherine's Monastery...where THE burning bush is reputed to be (we couldn't verify given it was Sunday and the monastery was closed to visitors). We hiked two hours up the "easy camel path" to view sunrise from the place where Moses received the ten commandments from God. It wasn't "easy" by any means, especially as we were so tired - but it was easier than the way down (which are named the "Steps of Repentance" - perhaps for those who climb them). These "steps" were more like rock-climbing holds in some places and by the time we came down, I had a whole new appreciation for Moses carrying down two heavy stone tablets with the commandments (or if you are to believe the Simpson's version - only losing one tablet of the "15 commandments" on the way down). Side note: the flies in St. Katherine's have to be the worst I've ever experienced.
From St. Katherine's, we traveled to Dahab on the east coast of the Sinai peninsula. This is supposed to be one of if not the best scuba spots in the world. I wouldn't know as I don't dive, but we did go snorkeling in the appropriately named "Blue Hole" and it was pretty spectacular. As you swim from the shallow reef, the water all of a sudden drops from 5 meters (or so) to 100 meters deep. It's also called the blue hole because divers have died here in the past being sucked in by going "a little bit deeper".
From Dahab, it was time to take a boat ferry to Jordan...and unbelievably, the travel day was worse than our trip to the Sinai. This 3-hour trip turned into 8+ hours with a 3 1/2 hour departure delay and then the least organized exit from the boat (it took over an hour to get off the boat once it docked). One very cool thing about this ride however, is that as you leave Egypt the portion of the Red Sea you journey through is where Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia sit within 50km of coastline.
In Jordan, we went straight to Petra. For those of you unfamiliar with Petra, it's the part in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where they ride through the "Valley of the Crescent Moon" and then come upon the structure where the Holy Grail is kept. You walk from the visitor center through this narrow ravine cut between two high rock faces and then the face of the Tomb (called the Treasury) just towers in front of you. In this trip so far, it's the single most impressive sight for me...for those of you who ever get the chance to come to Jordan, it's absolutely incredible.
Tomorrow, we leave Amman (the capital of Jordan) to cross the border into Israel and spend three or four days in Jerusalem. I'm very excited and hoping we don't get hassled at the border because of our Syrian visas.
Best to everyone!
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Friday, June 17, 2005
06/17/2005: Into the Middle East!
Hi everyone -
When last I wrote, we were leaving Mumbai in India for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Sadly up until one week before we left India, I still had no idea where Dubai was on a map. I sincerely believe that after this trip I will have gained the geographical knowledge equivalent to the average 6th grader.
There was a massive change moving from the backwaters of India to one of the most modern cities in the world. The first thing we noticed was how wide the streets were and how CLEAN the place was - something in very short supply anywhere in India. The other thing I noticed was the diversity - there were many, many types of people including Africans, Arabs (wearing full "sheikh" gear I've only seen on TV when Bush visits his friends the Saudi royal family), Indians, and many, many Asians as well. It seems that Dubai does not have enough people to do all the work, so they import labor and intellect from all over the world. It's ultra-modern with amazing buildings, brand new busses, huge mega-malls, and skyscrapers all separated by patches of desert. Everything is the biggest, best, or first. For instance, they are building a map of the world in the sea of the shore to join a huge apartment, shopping, office complex being built around a fake harbor on reclaimed land. We passed the world's largest flag and the construction site of the largest indoor snow/ski park. Just because they can. One of Deanna's friends took us out for a night and we found it to be much swankier than anyplace else we've been on the trip so far - tons of nice bars, nightclubs, lounges, top-end restaurants - all full of ex-pats living it up. It made me think of LA actually...
One fun experience was our trip to the Burj al-Arab - as they call it "the world's first 7-star hotel". Technically it's classified as a5-star deluxe, but many magazines have named the place the best hotel in the world and with a personal butler for each suite I can believe it. If you've seen the picture of the hotel, it looks like the sail of a ship standing in front of the sea - except this sail is taller than the Eiffel Tower and changes colors as you watch. Deanna and I - wanting to see the hotel and arrive in style - took a public bus and got out in front of the hotel...at least our vehicle was bigger than most of the limos that drop guests off. We walked up to the very friendly security attendant. He (very nicely) asked if we were hotel guests when it was painfully clear we were not. The showed us the"visitors" guide showing the guidelines to entering the hotel. First, you have to make a reservation at least one day in advance (to visit the place). Second, you have to guarantee that you'll spend $50 per person on food or drink at any of the eating/drinking establishments in the hotel. Finally (the death knell for me) was the dress code. No sandals, tennis shoes, shorts, T-shirts...basically the only clothes I own at this point. We thanked him for his help and assured him that next time we were in Dubai we would stay as guests.
From Dubai, we flew to Cairo. Not nearly as modern or over the top as Dubai, it's still a very fun place with great food (shwarma - meatgrilled on a spit...yum), horrible traffic (we've seen more accidents here than the rest of the trip combined) and amazing sights. In addition to seeing the oldest monument in the world (Pyramid of Zoser -3100 BC - over 5,000 years old!), the incredible pyramids at Giza (and the highly claustrophobic climb inside), the Sphinx, the blackened, shrunken mummies that still have hair in the Egypt museum, and an entire city built to house the dead - Cairo is a vibrant city with tons going on.
One problem we have run into is the incredible amount of bureaucracy in this area. We went to the Syrian Embassy to get a visa...a bit of a daunting experience in the first place as one of the gentlemen we had the pleasure of working with clearly did not like Americans. They told us that they would issue us a visa, but only if we were "Egyptian residents" as they were only set-up to service Egyptians. We, of course, assumed we would not be visiting Syria until they told us we could become "residents" by visiting Egyptian immigration and paying $4! A bit confused, but wanting to check it out, we went to the incredibly large, confusing, and mostly Arabic signed Egyptian immigration office to join about four-hundred other confused people there for a multitude of reasons. From window 38, we were told we needed an application, which we got, filled out, went to window 14 only to be told we needed to pay at window 43 before we could come back to window 14 and that we needed photocopies of our passport which we could get outside the building and then wait at least one hour to get processed. Three hours, endless frustration, and many, many questions later we had our 6-month "touristic residence" stamps. Of course, at that point, the Syrian embassy was closed for the weekend (here Thursday and Friday) and we would have to wait until Sunday. We did eventually get a 2-week visa to visit Syria for the extremely low price of 660 Egyptian pounds ($120) which I'm sure has the added "F America" tax.
From Cairo, we took an overnight train (for once a fairly nice experience) to Aswan in Upper Egypt (which is southern Egypt but the "upper" Nile hence "upper Egypt"). From there, we had the pleasure of getting up at 3AM to join a bus convoy (apparently there have been problems with tourists being attacked in the distant past) to Abu Simbel near the Sudan border. Abu Simbel is simply incredible. There's four huge sitting statues (100 ft tall) of Ramses II in front of his temple and the hieroglyphics and carvings on the walls are simply amazing. As Deanna said, it's almost surreal how big and well-preserved these pieces are...like Vegas but for real. The negative part of the trip was the 3AM wake-up and seeing countless (otherwise educated) people posing like idiots in the "Walk like an Egyptian" pose. A great way to absorb the single most impressive sight in Egypt.
In Aswan, we got to experience the downside of Egypt a bit more. First was a horrendous experience just trying to get a towel from the front desk at our "hotel". We asked once and were told that they would be available after 5pm. We asked at 5pm, and someone was sent up with 2-rolls of toilet paper. We asked before we went to dinner, when we came back from dinner and were told 5-minutes. Two hours later, I went down to the desk and was told where they got towels was "closed". The next morning, we asked for towels and were told "we'll try". That afternoon, they brought up...lo and behold...two more rolls of toilet paper. Sigh. At least no one asked for a tip.
We're now in Luxor, home of the Valley of Kings, Queens, and Karnak Temple which we're looking forward to very much. So far, we've only seen the mummification museum where we got to see all the instruments used to scrape out the brain and jars to keep the organs when they've been removed from the body. But the highlight of the museum has to be the mummified cat on display - really creepy but very cool.
We may be visiting a desert Oasis and then going to the Sinai peninsula to follow in Moses footsteps and perhaps do some diving in the Red Sea.
Hope everyone is well. I've uploaded all of the India pictures on the ofoto site in case you have a few hours to pass instead of working.
When last I wrote, we were leaving Mumbai in India for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Sadly up until one week before we left India, I still had no idea where Dubai was on a map. I sincerely believe that after this trip I will have gained the geographical knowledge equivalent to the average 6th grader.
There was a massive change moving from the backwaters of India to one of the most modern cities in the world. The first thing we noticed was how wide the streets were and how CLEAN the place was - something in very short supply anywhere in India. The other thing I noticed was the diversity - there were many, many types of people including Africans, Arabs (wearing full "sheikh" gear I've only seen on TV when Bush visits his friends the Saudi royal family), Indians, and many, many Asians as well. It seems that Dubai does not have enough people to do all the work, so they import labor and intellect from all over the world. It's ultra-modern with amazing buildings, brand new busses, huge mega-malls, and skyscrapers all separated by patches of desert. Everything is the biggest, best, or first. For instance, they are building a map of the world in the sea of the shore to join a huge apartment, shopping, office complex being built around a fake harbor on reclaimed land. We passed the world's largest flag and the construction site of the largest indoor snow/ski park. Just because they can. One of Deanna's friends took us out for a night and we found it to be much swankier than anyplace else we've been on the trip so far - tons of nice bars, nightclubs, lounges, top-end restaurants - all full of ex-pats living it up. It made me think of LA actually...
One fun experience was our trip to the Burj al-Arab - as they call it "the world's first 7-star hotel". Technically it's classified as a5-star deluxe, but many magazines have named the place the best hotel in the world and with a personal butler for each suite I can believe it. If you've seen the picture of the hotel, it looks like the sail of a ship standing in front of the sea - except this sail is taller than the Eiffel Tower and changes colors as you watch. Deanna and I - wanting to see the hotel and arrive in style - took a public bus and got out in front of the hotel...at least our vehicle was bigger than most of the limos that drop guests off. We walked up to the very friendly security attendant. He (very nicely) asked if we were hotel guests when it was painfully clear we were not. The showed us the"visitors" guide showing the guidelines to entering the hotel. First, you have to make a reservation at least one day in advance (to visit the place). Second, you have to guarantee that you'll spend $50 per person on food or drink at any of the eating/drinking establishments in the hotel. Finally (the death knell for me) was the dress code. No sandals, tennis shoes, shorts, T-shirts...basically the only clothes I own at this point. We thanked him for his help and assured him that next time we were in Dubai we would stay as guests.
From Dubai, we flew to Cairo. Not nearly as modern or over the top as Dubai, it's still a very fun place with great food (shwarma - meatgrilled on a spit...yum), horrible traffic (we've seen more accidents here than the rest of the trip combined) and amazing sights. In addition to seeing the oldest monument in the world (Pyramid of Zoser -3100 BC - over 5,000 years old!), the incredible pyramids at Giza (and the highly claustrophobic climb inside), the Sphinx, the blackened, shrunken mummies that still have hair in the Egypt museum, and an entire city built to house the dead - Cairo is a vibrant city with tons going on.
One problem we have run into is the incredible amount of bureaucracy in this area. We went to the Syrian Embassy to get a visa...a bit of a daunting experience in the first place as one of the gentlemen we had the pleasure of working with clearly did not like Americans. They told us that they would issue us a visa, but only if we were "Egyptian residents" as they were only set-up to service Egyptians. We, of course, assumed we would not be visiting Syria until they told us we could become "residents" by visiting Egyptian immigration and paying $4! A bit confused, but wanting to check it out, we went to the incredibly large, confusing, and mostly Arabic signed Egyptian immigration office to join about four-hundred other confused people there for a multitude of reasons. From window 38, we were told we needed an application, which we got, filled out, went to window 14 only to be told we needed to pay at window 43 before we could come back to window 14 and that we needed photocopies of our passport which we could get outside the building and then wait at least one hour to get processed. Three hours, endless frustration, and many, many questions later we had our 6-month "touristic residence" stamps. Of course, at that point, the Syrian embassy was closed for the weekend (here Thursday and Friday) and we would have to wait until Sunday. We did eventually get a 2-week visa to visit Syria for the extremely low price of 660 Egyptian pounds ($120) which I'm sure has the added "F America" tax.
From Cairo, we took an overnight train (for once a fairly nice experience) to Aswan in Upper Egypt (which is southern Egypt but the "upper" Nile hence "upper Egypt"). From there, we had the pleasure of getting up at 3AM to join a bus convoy (apparently there have been problems with tourists being attacked in the distant past) to Abu Simbel near the Sudan border. Abu Simbel is simply incredible. There's four huge sitting statues (100 ft tall) of Ramses II in front of his temple and the hieroglyphics and carvings on the walls are simply amazing. As Deanna said, it's almost surreal how big and well-preserved these pieces are...like Vegas but for real. The negative part of the trip was the 3AM wake-up and seeing countless (otherwise educated) people posing like idiots in the "Walk like an Egyptian" pose. A great way to absorb the single most impressive sight in Egypt.
In Aswan, we got to experience the downside of Egypt a bit more. First was a horrendous experience just trying to get a towel from the front desk at our "hotel". We asked once and were told that they would be available after 5pm. We asked at 5pm, and someone was sent up with 2-rolls of toilet paper. We asked before we went to dinner, when we came back from dinner and were told 5-minutes. Two hours later, I went down to the desk and was told where they got towels was "closed". The next morning, we asked for towels and were told "we'll try". That afternoon, they brought up...lo and behold...two more rolls of toilet paper. Sigh. At least no one asked for a tip.
We're now in Luxor, home of the Valley of Kings, Queens, and Karnak Temple which we're looking forward to very much. So far, we've only seen the mummification museum where we got to see all the instruments used to scrape out the brain and jars to keep the organs when they've been removed from the body. But the highlight of the museum has to be the mummified cat on display - really creepy but very cool.
We may be visiting a desert Oasis and then going to the Sinai peninsula to follow in Moses footsteps and perhaps do some diving in the Red Sea.
Hope everyone is well. I've uploaded all of the India pictures on the ofoto site in case you have a few hours to pass instead of working.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
06/02/2005: Leaving India
Hi everyone -
Hope you are well. We're back in Mumbai (Bombay) for a few days before we fly out of here and head to Egypt. Deanna and I are both a bit sad to leave India but with the monsoon rains starting very soon and train tickets completely booked by all the Indian families traveling during school break, our original plan of heading north to the Himalayan region to pal around with the Sikhs and the Dalai Lama (Ladakh, Amritsar, McLeod-Ganj) was looking to involve over a week of actual time on buses and we just couldn't do it. Next time though...
When I last wrote, we were deep in Southern India. From Varkala, we traveled north to Kollam where we caught a boat through the backwaters of Kerala. While in Kollam, we were in an auto-rickshaw driving to the boat jetty when we were forced to stop for what looked like a parade - a parade of horrors that is! When Deanna and I looked more closely at the marchers, we saw a gentlemen pulling a large sled/chariot and seeming to be a bit "crazy" - the man was connected to the sled (as we found out later) by hooks through his skin. He was followed by several gentlemen walking on "shoes" which were a bed of nails. And following them were a line of marchers with their mouths open with both cheeks pierced with a thin wooden "spear". The finale really took the cake though - it was a man suspended from a wooden structure by hooks through the skin on his back...ouch. According to the Discovery special we happened to catch a few days later, it's a Hindu festival to show their devotion and apparently as some of the participants enter a trance they don't bleed and don't hurt.
After the excitement of the parade, the backwaters boatride was very relaxing indeed. Many people don't take the public boat - they hire a houseboat and just spend 2-3 days floating down the river lined with palm trees, small huts, and friendly local people going about their business. Having spent a LOT of time floating on boats in many places during this trip, we decided 8 hours on a boat was enough for us although I would have liked having a cooler of beer and a personal chef on-board. If you've never done this kind of trip however, Kerala is absolutely gorgeous (I'd have to say the most beautiful place in India) and is highly recommended.
In Kochi - which is a really great former Portugese fort city - we had a wonderful time. We went to see a performance of the local dance form- Kathakali - which I had very low expectations for but the demonstration beforehand was actually quite interesting. We also went to see a local martial arts demonstration. Deanna and I were the only guests and therefore sitting rather near the stage - a great view until they demonstrated a weapon which is best described as a hand-held whip of helicopter blades. I was trying not to flinch, but as safety tends to be a bit lax over here I admit I was nervous.
From Kerala, we headed northwards to Goa...stopping along the way in Mangalore to break up a very long bus journey. Nothing of note except that we went to see the new Star Wars movie. I should have suspected something was up because of the hand-drawn black marker signs advertising the theater, or when the driver dropped us off in front of an office complex rather than a theater...but it finally became apparent George Lucas wasn't getting any royalties when the movie came on and the film time-code was emblazoned across the top of the picture. Other than the poor sound, poor color, and the film time-code blocking our view - the movie was better than I thought it would be.
After another overnight bus, we reached Goa. Just in time to close it down...literally. In the three days we spent in Goa, all the beachshack restaurants closed one by one...our waiter actually asked "do you want another beer? we close until October after tonight". It was really sad to watch everyone board up as if a hurricane was coming- but I understood better when we got caught in the heavy rain (on a scooter no less) and the first truck that passed us completely deluged us in their tire-spray from ankles to eyes".
me: "Deanna...do you see the turnoff for the hotel?"
D: "I can't see a thing with this water in my eyes!"
me: "me either" (gulp)
Good times.
Well...a farewell to India then. We're in Mumbai and outside of arranging our tickets (a bureaucratic, inefficient mess between Northwest, KLM, and Emirates Air), we're planning to eat good Indian food and watch one last Bollywood flick before we leave on June 5th.
Wishing everyone the best.
Hope you are well. We're back in Mumbai (Bombay) for a few days before we fly out of here and head to Egypt. Deanna and I are both a bit sad to leave India but with the monsoon rains starting very soon and train tickets completely booked by all the Indian families traveling during school break, our original plan of heading north to the Himalayan region to pal around with the Sikhs and the Dalai Lama (Ladakh, Amritsar, McLeod-Ganj) was looking to involve over a week of actual time on buses and we just couldn't do it. Next time though...
When I last wrote, we were deep in Southern India. From Varkala, we traveled north to Kollam where we caught a boat through the backwaters of Kerala. While in Kollam, we were in an auto-rickshaw driving to the boat jetty when we were forced to stop for what looked like a parade - a parade of horrors that is! When Deanna and I looked more closely at the marchers, we saw a gentlemen pulling a large sled/chariot and seeming to be a bit "crazy" - the man was connected to the sled (as we found out later) by hooks through his skin. He was followed by several gentlemen walking on "shoes" which were a bed of nails. And following them were a line of marchers with their mouths open with both cheeks pierced with a thin wooden "spear". The finale really took the cake though - it was a man suspended from a wooden structure by hooks through the skin on his back...ouch. According to the Discovery special we happened to catch a few days later, it's a Hindu festival to show their devotion and apparently as some of the participants enter a trance they don't bleed and don't hurt.
After the excitement of the parade, the backwaters boatride was very relaxing indeed. Many people don't take the public boat - they hire a houseboat and just spend 2-3 days floating down the river lined with palm trees, small huts, and friendly local people going about their business. Having spent a LOT of time floating on boats in many places during this trip, we decided 8 hours on a boat was enough for us although I would have liked having a cooler of beer and a personal chef on-board. If you've never done this kind of trip however, Kerala is absolutely gorgeous (I'd have to say the most beautiful place in India) and is highly recommended.
In Kochi - which is a really great former Portugese fort city - we had a wonderful time. We went to see a performance of the local dance form- Kathakali - which I had very low expectations for but the demonstration beforehand was actually quite interesting. We also went to see a local martial arts demonstration. Deanna and I were the only guests and therefore sitting rather near the stage - a great view until they demonstrated a weapon which is best described as a hand-held whip of helicopter blades. I was trying not to flinch, but as safety tends to be a bit lax over here I admit I was nervous.
From Kerala, we headed northwards to Goa...stopping along the way in Mangalore to break up a very long bus journey. Nothing of note except that we went to see the new Star Wars movie. I should have suspected something was up because of the hand-drawn black marker signs advertising the theater, or when the driver dropped us off in front of an office complex rather than a theater...but it finally became apparent George Lucas wasn't getting any royalties when the movie came on and the film time-code was emblazoned across the top of the picture. Other than the poor sound, poor color, and the film time-code blocking our view - the movie was better than I thought it would be.
After another overnight bus, we reached Goa. Just in time to close it down...literally. In the three days we spent in Goa, all the beachshack restaurants closed one by one...our waiter actually asked "do you want another beer? we close until October after tonight". It was really sad to watch everyone board up as if a hurricane was coming- but I understood better when we got caught in the heavy rain (on a scooter no less) and the first truck that passed us completely deluged us in their tire-spray from ankles to eyes".
me: "Deanna...do you see the turnoff for the hotel?"
D: "I can't see a thing with this water in my eyes!"
me: "me either" (gulp)
Good times.
Well...a farewell to India then. We're in Mumbai and outside of arranging our tickets (a bureaucratic, inefficient mess between Northwest, KLM, and Emirates Air), we're planning to eat good Indian food and watch one last Bollywood flick before we leave on June 5th.
Wishing everyone the best.
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