jordan, the wrap up

our comments and observations of jordan:

• jordanian people are kind, warm, generous, and honest people.
• the most common greeting in jordan is "you are welcome to jordan!"
• jordanian people approach tourists to simply chat - they are not selling anything, nor getting paid a commission, nor begging for money…really quite refreshing
• compared to egypt, jordan seems to be more conservative and traditional. outside of amman and the surrounding area, the country has a somewhat "rural" feel.
• the natural landscape of jordan is stunning and beautiful. the rock, sand, and lunar landscapes seem almost other-worldly.
• jordan is lacking in public transportation systems. limited mini van transport is the most common mode of country transportation, which still gave us a fair amount of challenges.
• we slept in a tent on the roof in the capitol city…for only one night…
• jordan has delicious peaches, olives, and yoghurt…of course, not all combined
• how much hummus and felafel can we eat? loads…luckily, we love it!
• compared to egypt, english is not as widely spoken in jordan. it does seem that almost everyone knows how to say "hello and welcome!"
• jordanians are civilized drivers. they yield to pedestrians and don't honk near as much as the rest of the world.
• jordan has less beggars than the rest of the world also - during our entire stay we were only approached by a couple.
• masks aren't produced in jordan. we searched far and wide and were disappointed to be unable to add a jordanian mask to our collection.
• it's still a shisha and tea culture…just with fewer local women partaking
• things in jordan cost somewhat more than in egypt, but are still affordable to the western tourist.

what things cost in jordan:

• the ferry from egypt to jordan to cross the border $16.00
• double ensuite room at the mariam hotel in madaba $42.00
• a two day pass to petra $37.00
• admission to mt. nebo $1.40
• admission to amman beach $17.00
• a mud bath at amman beach $3.50
• a hired cab for the day in madaba $43.00
• a three-hour mini van ride from wadi musa to amman $5.60
• apple shisha $1.15
• internet usage at a café $2.25 per hour
• mint tea $0.75
• large bottled water $0.50
• large bottled water at petra $2.80
• 12 oz diet coke $0.50
• fresh squeezed orange juice $1.00
• felafel sandwich from a street vendor $0.35
• hummus $0.75
• fuul $0.75
• a casual jordanian dinner for two $9.00
• shwarma sandwich with french fries and salad $1.75
• a large chicken kabob $3.50
• one kilo of mixed fruits $1.00
• a local bedouin scarf $5.60
• silver earrings $17.00
• an evil eye ornament $4.20
• postcard $0.35
• postage to the usa $1.40

what's next?
.....???.............

mt nebo, bethany and the dead sea

i guess you could consider our journey to madaba something of a religious pilgrimage. throughout the last 8 months, we've made our way around the world discovering numerous buddhist and hindu places of pilgrimage. however, we have seen relatively few christian places of importance. a couple of weeks ago we climbed mt. sinai and watched sunrise at the site where god gave moses the ten commandments... since then, we have gotten more excited about the part of the world we are in and what we can see here. that trip to sinai has even inspired us to consider visiting israel to visit jeruslaem, bethlehem and nazareth. a few days ago, though, we got to see some very important christian and jewish sites right here in jordan.
our day started with a visit to the top of mt. nebo and the moses memorial church. here, at mt. nebo, is where god showed moses the promised land and also the area where moses died at the age of 120. in addition to it's religious significance, it also provided us with an amazing view of the jordan river valley, the dead sea and, of course, israel (the promised land...). afterwards we made our way down into the jordan river valley to visit the site of john the baptist's missionary at bethany-beyond-the-jordan. bethany is most importantly known as the site of jesus' baptism, but is also considered the site where the prophet elijah ascended into heaven. it was a special place and we felt very humbled to be there. after our two religious stops, we got do something dramatically less spiritual when we went to amman beach on the shore of the dead sea. we got to float in the salt laden waters, feeling more buoyant than ever - a very awkward experience. afterwards, we covered ourselves in the mineral rich mud of the dead sea and let it work it's magic. after a few more hours lounging poolside and absorbing the unique sunlight of the area (below 400 meters sea level, the area around the dead sea receives less uv rays than anywhere on earth...) we headed back to madaba where we continued the pampering with steaming, jacuzzi, scrubbing and massage at the madaba turkish bath. all in all, the day proved to be one of the most spiritually significant and one of the most enjoyable of our 8 months of travel. david

visiting petra

we're in jordan and we wasted no time making our way to the town of wadi musa, located outside of the ancient city of petra. for those of you that are indian jones fans, this is the huge temple complex that was used as the backdrop for 'the last crusade.' a few years before that, about 2000, it was the home to the nabataean empire. if you are like me and have never heard of the nabataeans, they were major middlemen in the arabic spice route and made fortunes of money in the frankincense, myrrh and indian spices - real old school, biblical stuff… as our guidebook explains, they bought all of the goods as they entered petra, sold the traders new camel caravans and then resold the spices to others who transported everything on through sinai and then to alexandria where it was loaded onto boats and headed to europe. anyways, they made a fortune in the process and in turn created some of the most amazing temples, tombs and amphitheaters with their wealth - all carved right into and out of the steep red sandstone cliffs of the valley they settled. we bought a two day pass to see the ruins spread throughout the valley. however, we were feeling rather energetic and managed to see most of the major sites today including the treasury, the main building carved right into a massive cliff, and the monastery, an even larger building carved into the mountains. they were both awesome and the 800 stairs to the top of the valley to see the monastery rewarded us with excellent views of the ancient city below.

after 8 hours of hiking, we rewarded ourselves with a few falafel sandwiches, some local yogurt and the best peaches i have ever tasted (sorry georgia). we’re resting and relaxing tonight while gearing up for another day in the valley - tomorrow a climb to the 'high place of sacrifice' - i think the name says it all…

david

egypt, the wrap up

our comments and observations of egypt:

• egyptians are kind, helpful, smiling, and happy people.
• egyptians are welcoming. a most common greeting is "welcome to egypt!"
• the pyramids and ancient sights of egypt are definitely some of the best we've seen on the trip. they are astounding sights that we will not soon forget.
• a huge percentage of tourists in egypt are on package tours. as independent travelers we were definitely a part of the minority.
• egyptian men are rather forward and a bit too flirtatious for my taste. even though i dressed conservatively and was accompanied by two men (one being my husband), i still received an inappropriate amount of unwanted male attention. i can only imagine the amount of headache female travelers must deal with when traveling to egypt on their own…
• i'm over the leering…
• hassles, hustles, and scams…they say egypt is full of them. we actually weren't hassled nearly as much as we expected. the worst we dealt with were obnoxious souvenir touts with their "do you know how much?" - which was actually kind of amusing at times. thankfully, we traveled the country without being hustled or scammed…of course, we didn't start traveling yesterday.
• we quickly realized that many numbers are displayed primarily in arabic and not in roman numerals. needless to say, we gave ourselves a crash course on reading arabic numbers so we could simply ride the bus or decipher signs.
• the mcarabia: lamb patties with tomatoes, cucumbers, and tahini sauce on a pita bread - another unique mcdonalds menu item.
• the food in egypt is delicious! i was thrilled to finally have so many raw fruits and vegetables readily available. prior to egypt, i was craving salad in a mean way.
• egyptians smoke as if they are exempt from lung cancer. shisha and tea seems to be a part of daily (or all day) culture. shisha = water pipe with flavored tobacco such as apple, mango, peach, lemon, or honey - actually quite nice and relaxing on occasion.
• we love the call to prayer! to us it sounds magical and beautiful.
• many egyptian buildings lack a proper roof. it appears that additional floors are a plan for the future - perhaps for new wives?
• with egyptian wages being very low, many workers depend on the baksheesh (tip) as a vital component of their income. unfortunately, it often seemed that people wanted a baksheesh for doing…nothing. rather annoying at times.
• with a lack of fixed pricing, signage, and price lists, egypt is another country that tends to "tax" foreign tourists almost constantly. a pound here, a pound there, its easy to feel that your constantly being overcharged. we learned to accept it and deal with it without letting it ruin our day. steep admission fees are the biggest expense for travelers to egypt - and even with the foreign "tax", it still remains affordable to the western traveler.

what things cost in egypt:

• a triple ensuite a/c room at the tutotel hotel in luxor $31.00
• the 9 hr. overnight tourist train from cairo to luxor $60.00
• a short ride on the cairo metro $0.20
• a 9hr. hour bus from cairo to dahab $17.00
• a city bus to the giza pyramids $0.40
• admission to the giza plateau $10.00
• photos with a camel in giza $4.00
• admission to the egyptian museum $10.00
• additional museum fee to see the royal mummies $14.00
• admission to luxor temple $8.00
• a hired cab for the day in luxor $30.00
• mt. sinai excursion $20.00
• mint tea at a local café $0.60
• shisha with apple tobacco $1.00
• turkish coffee $0.80
• a large bottled water $0.40
• a bottle of stella beer $2.25
• 12 oz diet coke $0.50
• large shwarma sandwich $1.75
• hummus dip $0.40
• felafel sandwich $0.30
• fuul in pita $0.20
• stuffed grape leaves $2.50
• a large salad with feta cheese $2.25
• half-chicken dinner with salad and rice $5.00
• a large selection of mezze for 3 people $12.00
• a nice seafood dinner for 3 in Alexandria $40.00
• a cotton scarf $2.00
• shell earrings $2.00
• the egypt mask $7.00
• postcard $0.20
• postage to the usa $0.55

what's next?

tomorrow we'll take a one hour bus to the port town of nuweiba, then a one hour ferry across the red sea to aqaba, jordan. we'll see you in the middle east!

onward!

alina

climbing mt. sinai

after nearly 8 months of visiting countless buddhist and hindu religious sites we finally are pilgrims ourselves. our trip to the summit of mt. sinai, where moses received the ten commandments from god, began at 11:30pm when we left the confines of our guesthouse and set out on a two hour bus ride through the sinai peninsula to the monastery of st. catherine's at the base of the 3000 meter mountain. our group of 12 met up with a bedouin guide, whose job it was to see that we safely made it to the top of the mountain before sunrise, roughly 4 hours in our future… at that point, we should have realized that the hike to the summit would be far more difficult than the guidebooks led on. in fact, the 6-kilometer (roughly 3 mile) hike to the summit, capped off with a climb up 750 steep stone stairs, was by far the most physically challenging thing that we have done in all of our travels. the somewhat steep, gravel and rock switchbacks seemed never-ending in the middle of the night. and when we did finally reach the base of the stone stairway, we were long done wondering if the trip was worth all of the effort. however, perhaps through divine intervention, we persevered and found ourselves amid a few hundred other pilgrims at the summit of mt. sinai roughly an hour before sunrise. as we vied for a place to sit among the crowd, we were treated to a spectacular sunrise. as the sky brightened, we saw just how far up 3000 meters really is. the rugged dessert mountains and the sand valleys below seemed almost unearthly from such a vantage point. shortly after sunrise, the crowds dispersed and we were left with a few moments of solitude to pray and give thanks for all of the blessings we have and for all of the experiences of our 8 months adventuring around the earth.
our descent back down the steep stairs and never-ending switchbacks was somewhat less grueling, but challenging none-the-less. we ended our hike, where it began, at the greek orthodox monastery of st. catherine's. the chapel at st. catherine's is one of the oldest surviving christian sites in the world and it is home to what is regarded as the burning bush where god spoke to moses. the beautifully maintained gardens and walkways made for a nice end to our long night of climbing. after re-boarding the bus back to dahab, our group of 12, alina and i included, quickly fell to sleep. we made it back to the jasmine guesthouse in time for breakfast, a shower and a long afternoon in the confines of our air conditioned room catching up on missed sleep and resting our tired legs. david

from alexandria to dahab

after three full days of touring luxor, we took an overnight train back to cairo then another 2 hour train north to the seaside city of alexandria. founded by alexander the great, its the site of one of the ancient wonders of the world, the pharos lighthouse. we really didn't do much in the city, besides relax in the cooler temperatures, enjoy the mediterranean views, and gorge ourselves on fantastic fresh seafood - it made for a nice few days. we returned to cairo for only one night, to see jason off to the airport. bye jason…we had a blast hanging out! after jason's departure david and i boarded a 9 hour bus headed to the sinai peninsula - which is where we are now, in the resort town of dahab. we've been enjoying the relaxed vibe from our beach-front room overlooking the red sea. the rugged coastline of saudi arabia seems so near in the distance across the water. tonight we're taking an excursion, or pilgrimage we might say to mount sinai and the monastery of st catherine. we leave at 11pm…we'll keep you posted.

alina

the egypt mask

king tutankhamun ruled egypt for 9 years during the 14th century bc. the tomb of the pharaoh was discovered by an english archeologist in 1922 and is known as one of the most famous tombs in the valley of the kings because of the priceless collection of pharaonic treasures that were buried with the mummy.

the original death mask, on exhibition at the cairo egyptian museum, is made of solid gold and weighs 11kg. the mask is an idealized portrait of the young pharaoh and covered the head of the mummy, where it laid inside a series of three sarcophagi. seeing the original death mask and the tutankhamun galleries at the egyptian museum was definitely a highlight during our visit. this is the mask from egypt. it is the pharaoh tutankhamun.

alina