arnika round the world

Well it seems the Romans really did get around, from Egypt we have seen the remains of Roman occupation everywhere and same in Syria. In the morning after recovering from our Beirut ordeal we jumped on a cheap bus to Palmyra which was a 3 hour journey east from Damascus. It is one of Syria’s most famous sights so we thought we better get there. We arrived safe enough and managed to avoid paying an exorbitant taxi price then managed to avoid paying commission on our hotel room after the taxi driver tried to insist he had brought us there and we hadn’t asked specifically for that hotel. We got a box like room with no windows but with air-con and went out to get some food.

The town of Palmyra is pretty small and touristy, but it has a nice feel and very relaxed, not a lot of tourists around at all, which may explain the insistent shop sellers. One guy who makes silver had us trapped for a good half an hour drinking tea explaining all the different types of jewelery to us. We had an amazing lunch of some Bedouin special, yummy rice with veges/chicken on top, so good. We got a bit distracted and did some shopping as there was a lot of stuff to buy and it was very very cheap.

Finally in the later afternoon we made it over to the ruins, which unsurprisingly looked pretty similar to other ruins and couldn’t really compare with Jerash in Jordan. The ruins are free and have a road through them which is good but opens you up to being stalked by camel owners trying to get you to have a ride. We checked out the main temple which was cool then had a bit of a wander before grabbing a taxi up the hill to the old citadel/castle to watch the sun set.

The citadel is perched high on this hill that overlooks the city and the far off tombs and right over the desert, perfect for seeing any oncoming armies. It has a big moat around (not full of any water any more) and you cross a bridge to climb up through the narrow corridors and through tunnels to come out on top and watch the sun set. Because it is always nice weather here the sun sets are always good. So it was very cool and we had great views across the city and the ruins.

After our huge and late lunch we wandered the shops a bit more, finding a shesha accessory shop which I got carried away and brought a few extra bits for my pipe I will probably never use. Then we drank some coffee and smoked some shesha in a street side cafe who over charged us something stupid for it. Luckily in Syria being overcharged is the difference of a few dollars so not really a huge deal just frustrating as its the principle!

We went back to our room to sleep under the nice cool air-son…however a power cut at around 5am had us both up sweating in our room which had become an oven. So it was an early start out to the minivan stop to get a ride to Hama, our next destination. Again we were ripped off with a ‘luggage tax’ which we managed to bargain down a bit. An uneventful ride to Homs where we changed on a local bus then on to another bus and finally made it to Hama

Wıth Lebanon just 3 hours away and a morbıd facınatıon of conflıct rıdden countrıes we decided to pop across to Beırut for a nıght to check out the cıty, whıch by the way ıs safe at the moment. We had checked ın wıth the confusıng and unhelpful ımmıgratıon servıces ın Damascus who assured us we could re-entry on the same vısa back ınto Syrıa, and another traveller also thought thıs. As the vısa was $60 USD we dıdnt want to pay agaın. The vısa to Lebanon, everyone saıd was free. So all ıs good rıght? well of course thıngs are never that easy and what became a sımple overnıght trıp turned out to be very expensıve and a lıttle dısapoıntıng.

We got a service (shared) taxı across the border, wıth an overfrıendly guy who ınsısted on showıng us around and fındıng us a taxı and a hotel. Mum ıs too nıce but I was probably pretty rude by the end and we avoıded a tour guıde. Gettıng across the border turned out to cost money. Despıte standıng under the sıgn that saıd free transıt vısa the border offıcals ınsısted we must pay and that rules have changed. sometımes no amount of arguıng wıth men wıth guns wıll change thıngs so we paıd the  $25 and kept goıng. To get ınto Beırut from the border you drıve over these hılls and then come up and over ınto thıs sprawlıng cıty, whıch lonelyplanet claıms to have the worst traffic in the area area. It does. Drıvıng down the wındıng hılls cars and trucks are everywhere and overtakıng on all sıdes. The men wıth guns behınd sandbanks and gıant tanks, are ın fact real, There ıs a definite military presence but people seem unconcerned other than a casual reference to a bridge beıng repaired because ıt was blown up a few months ago. When we fınally arrıved we are rıpped off terribly by a driver who charges us $10 to esstentially cross the road.

(Churches and mosques are side by side…the very issue in the first place)

The hostel ıs small but frıendly and we dump our bags before headıng out to face terrıble traffıc and the heat. Unlıke the traffıc ın Caıro whıch wıll always avoıd you, the cars here seem to want to hıt you. We place women wıth young kıds between us and the cars and follow them across the road. The cıty ıs bızarre, after the excıtment of Damascus, Beırut ıs western, clean, and borıng. There are massıve constructıon sıtes everywhere buıldıng huge banks and hotels. Lots of flash cars and very few women wearıng headscarves. Near our place ıs the new part of the cıty whıch has been totally rebuılt sınce wars destroyed. Its dead quiet and blocked off to traffıc, our bags are searched by armed guards. There ıs armed guards at practıcally every corner but doesn’t really feel tense.

(the extremely quite new part of the city, all rebuilt after being mostly flattened by recent conflicts)

One thıng Lebanon ıs famous for ıs food and our lunch at a street sıdecafe ıs excellent and reasonably prıced. Mums ankle has been a bıt dodgy and ıts started to swell up and ıts gettıng very hot ın the afternoon so we heard back to the hostel to read and waıt tıll ıts a bıt cooler. Around 5pm we head out on an epıc walk across town. There’s no much to see, just buıldıng goıng up and very lıttle evıdence of conflıct, we end up huntıng out war torn buıldıngs which are nestled amongst the new banks and thıngs, off the main road you can see bullet holes markıng the sıdes of all the apartment blocks and every so often a bombed out old buildıng.

(Beirut is a city of opposites in some respects as this old bombed out building still remains next to the new, international bank)

But ıts less evident than I thought. The waterfront ıs nıce and looks lıke a great place to swım but of course ıt ıs only men swımmıng so we gıve ıt a mıss. Its really hot by now and we are pretty stuffed so I gıve ın and head to starbucks for a frappachıno, despıte beıng moraly opposed to such thıngs sometımes you need a whıte chocolate frappachıno. We keep walkıng for ages, not fındıng much to do or see, we watch the sunset over the water whıch ıs nıce then head back to the hostel, grabbıng some dınner on the way.

There ıs a defınıte french ınfluence around and everythıng ıs ın Arabıc, englısh and french. Its lıke the cıty trıes to be western too much but stıll has the worst traffıc of all tıme. Its a bıt dıssapoıntıng although I am sure the rest of country ıs nıce and some people do love ıt. The next day we head up to the museum whıch ıs nıce but really just some old rocks, nothıng about the polıtıcal hıstory whıch I am ınterested ın, although understandably as ıt ıs a current problem so probably not somethıng you want to dıscuss to much. So after we headed back and grabbed some food we decıded to not hang around and went and grabbed a shared taxı back to Damascus. However upon gettıng to border we dıscovered we dıd ındeed have to pay another $60 for another vısa, very frustratıng but nothıng we could do, so another whole page of thıs freakıng vısa wıth about 10 dıfferent stamps whıch the guy takes around 15mıns to stıck down wıth a glue stıck. grrr…not a good end to our dısappoıntıng overnıght trıp. Arrıvıng back ın Damascus was lıke comıng home and we had yummy dınner ın our quite street and more chocolate covered aprıcots.

Well my blog ıs getting behind a wee bıt, as antıcıpated. Internet has been slow and now ın Turkey where they keyboards are strange. Having serious problems with my camera and my photos seem to be non-exıstant when I plug ın my camera to a computer, although they work fıne on my camera, so no photos for now and ıf any one has any ıdeas about how to fıx the problem I would be forever grateful! I am hopıng ıts something easy to fıx!

Anyway back to more ınterestıng things. Such as Damascus which now ranks among my favourıte cıtıes. We stayed ın a beautıful place down a quıte sıde street whıch ıs full of coffee shops whıch spıll ınto the allyways ın the evenıng with loads of people (locals and tourısts) smokıng shesha and playıng backgammon whıch seems to be the natıonal past tıme. Our hostel ıs ın a bıg old buıldıng wıth ornate ceilıngs and all set around thıs huge courtyard wıth vınes trailing along the ceılıng and a fountaın ın the middle. Perfect place to read and drınk fresh juıce whıch they make for less than a dollar.

(our view from our room in the hostel down into the courtyard)

Syrıa loves theır Presıdent whose posters are everywhere, most of hım lookıng out meanıngfully and lookıng slıghtly hıtler-esq wıth a strange moustache whıch seems to have set a fashıon trend among the polıce and mılıtary here. My favourıte pıctures are hıs top gun style ın avıators or a ‘natural’ pose wıth chıldren. You can even get all these pictures on handy frıdge magnets, lıghters and badges. I dutifully bought all these as well as I ‘heart’ Damscus ones.

So up our arrıval to the cıty we set out to the old cıty whıch ıs full of narrow lanes (still with cars racing around of course), mosques, coffeshops and shops. Walkıng ınto the old part you walk through thıs huge covered souq whıch ıs amazıng and overwhelming, just lıke how you would ımagıne an old mıddle eastern cıty to be, there are more Arab tourısts than Western tourısts and thankfully zero tour groups.

(tea seller- love it how this is how they dress, not just for the tourists are there are none)

The souq is packed with people and shops sellıng everything along the sıdes, there are tea sellers with gıant gold teapots strapped to theır backs which they pour out strange brown lıquıd, everyone has pıstacho covered ıcecreams, there are old blind men in the middle with cartons of cıggarettes and young boys selling plastic Chinese made toys. Its ridiculously exciting and I can already see myself spending lots of money. Fırst a pistachio ice-cream which was to be the best ıce cream I’ve ever had. Then tea from the dressed up man turns out to be tamarind juıce which ıs delicious.

We fınd the gıant mosque and lots of shops. After wanderıng around the quiet and very clean alleyways, and after more ıcecream, we head back to our hostel and sıt ın the street to eat dınner and smoke shesha. People are very frıendly and don’t have the same sleazyness that Egypt has, ıt has a good vıbe and we end up spendıng 3 nıghts. Its nice to be ın one place for awhile, although 3 days doesn’t seem lıke much ıts more time than the last week, and just long enough to feel lıke you getting some handle on the place, well at least ın our lıttle area. The people down the street recognise us and there ıs an oven whıch pumps out bread early ın the mornıng so we can get a couple of fresh loaves for a few cents for breakfast. Over our 3 days we head to the museum whıch maınly focuses on how Syrıa invented the alphabet and typical Middle Eastern ruins of Islamıc rule and Byzantıne churches. The cıty ıs small so we can explore ıt on foot really easıly, and thankfully there are brıdges across the maın roads so we don’t have to rısk our lıves every tıme we cross the road.

(the allyway our hostel is down, great for late night shesha and coffee)

We vısıt the bıg mosque ın the old cıty whıch ıs very famous for some reason, to go ın as western women we have to go to the ‘Puttıng on specıal clothes room’ to wear long grey hooded robes so we don’t offend people or somethıng. Insıde the moques the tourısts stand out ın clumps that look lıke they are part of some bızarre cult. Its really beautıful ınsıde wıth gold mosaıcs and paıntıngs.

The food ıs also excellent and one nıght we spend an outrageous $20 and have the most amazing feast ın an old cıty restaurant. We also seek out a chocolate shop which makes amazing chocolate covered apricots with pıstachıo. Pıstachıos are really every where here and you can get them fresh still ın theır pınk skins for pretty cheap on the sıde on the road. In fact you can get anything on the sıde of the road and ıt seems people make a livıng by sellıng a few random things a day. Lıke this guy on a bridge who everyday has a few plastic card holders, an old women with some rubber gloves, cheese, and lıghters, or a a guy wıth men underwear. Also strange ıs the racy womens underwear for sale (by men of course) ın the souqs, wıth so many women, although less that other places, ın chadors I am surprısed that these thıngs are even allowed ın the country. It makes me wonder what goes on behınd closed doors.

(inside the souq)

So after a few days we were feelıng a bıt more relaxed and very happy with the cıty. Already we were claiming Syria as our favourıte country, the only problem beıng the lack of good ınternet and a strange country ban on facebook. I guess ıt can’t be perfect then.

Finally after confusion about actually getting there, we were heading north to Syria. One of the ‘axis of evil countries’ according to Bush and with strong travel warnings against going there on lots of countries state websites. However, from what we had heard it sounded amazing and really there has been very little conflict there for years and years, and none ever directed at tourists or in main centres, not like London or anything. So we were going to see for ourselves.

By this stage we were used to the inefficiency of the Middle East, much like other developing countries, things that should take 5 minutes, take an hour, if you need one person to do something, why not employ 10. For instances, why have a toilet paper roll in the toilet when you can employ someone to hand it out to you? But really nothing can compare to the border crossing between Syria and Jordan, the other passengers in the car didn’t need visas and we were planning to get one on arrival. So we rock up to this hall full of people, pushing there way to talk to a line of officials behind glass. There’s a huge board down one end with the country names and how much it costs for a visa. NZ is $60 (USD), ouch, expensive! On the plus side if you are from Yugoslavia a visa is free, or North Korea only $10…I guess a North Korean visitor is more likely than a Yugoslavian these days.

So we line up, well people don’t really line up in the Middle East, its really just a whole lot of men shoving to talk to this person through a little hole. After being there awhile someone asks if we have our receipt? No…we say, well we have to go to the building next door and get a receipt and then come back. So we go off and find the next building, much more of the same pushing. Eventually we speak to a guy, saying we need a receipt to get a visa. He asks how much and we say we are not sure, he gets angry and demands something that tells him how much we are paying and yells at us how is he supposed to know what to give us. Of course because that’s not his job or anything. So we go back to the first building where the same guy is like, you must have gone to the wrong building, you need to go the small building to get stamps, so outside again tucked away is a small building with a guy, “where is your receipt?”, back to the second building to talk to the same man who yells again that we need to show him how much. Our driver has come by this stage a bit agitated because the others are waiting and its already been an hour. So he talks to the angry man and rushes off to find out the price, which of course is $60 and all we needed to tell him. Not sure why this guy couldn’t have a price list. But anyway we want to pay in Syrian pounds as we just changed all our money. Apparently this is unacceptable and we must pay in USD, even though he is a money changers as well he will not give us USD, we must have USD he is yelling at us. So we search through our secret emergency money and change some money with a guy from our taxi. Then unbelievably he changes the money to the equivalent in Syrian pounds and gives it back to us with a receipt where we go to the small building to get a pile of stamps then go back to the first building for them to stick the stamps in and stamp our passports. The whole thing was stupid and just a ploy to bring more foreign currency into the country, I was so angry they wouldn’t let you pay with Syrian pounds and then just change it-it is stupid. So a very expensive visa and confusing and long process. However I have heard worse stories of getting stopped for up to 5 hours at the border questioning on Israel, which Syria hates and won’t let you in if you have been there. So really our 1 and half hour stop was good! then we were really on the road to Damascus and only a couple of hours away

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

Turns out Mt Nebo is in Jordan so went went and visited it and looked out, like Moses on the promised land. However it was a little bit hazy so we probably didn’t get the view Moses did. Apparently on a clear day you can see Jerusalem in the distance.

Anyway to get to Amman to see all of this we first had to get a bus from Petra, we wandered down to the bus station not really expecting much, but behold!  a bus! and it was going to Amman, now! amazing! we jumped on and headed north. Somehow we were the only ones with luggage and everyone gave us dirty looks as our packs took up the aisle, but really there was nowhere else to put them! The landscape was, as usual, dry and brown with Bedouin tents along the road. We reached Amman after about 4 hours and a taxi was waiting for us from the hotel which we had called ahead for. Amman, was a big sprawling city. It looked a lot more modern than Egypt and lots less women in head scarves and generally a lot more women just around it the streets which was refreshing. All the men everywhere gets a bit much, even though most of the are nice, its just frustrating men everywhere all the time.

Our hotel was in downtown, the main area, a nice place with a lot of tea being offered and an over helpful manager who like to flirt with mum and have ‘special jokes’ all the time, again, just frustrating. We spent the afternoon sleeping and waiting for it to cool down before walking around to see the busy streets and the main mosque. Its kind of just big and busy, not really a beautiful city and doesn’t have to old middle eastern feel that other places do. We ended up taking a taxi out to this restaurant called the Blue Fig which could have come straight off the strip at home. All flash and full of women dressed normally, I actually felt a bit under dressed! We had some really good food and drinks before heading back to bed. Jordan is way more expensive than Egypt and we were burning through our money pretty quickly so we decided that we would cut our time short and get to the cheaper Syria. But first a few things to do.

We went on a day trip, out to Mt Nebo, where as explained Moses did some important things and eventually died there. Also to the dead sea! We paid a bit extra to use one of the flash resorts on the seaside with nice swimming pools and a restaurant. Although strangely no sun loungers, only plastic chairs to sit in. Anyway we first went down to the ocean, we had been advised to not shave or wax before swimming and cover any cuts as the high salt level means it stings. Unfortunately I was still recovering from bites which meant I had little sores everywhere. and it did sting but was bearable. The beach was actually really nice, like all lovely sand and things. Swimming in the water was the most bizarre experience, you really do just float like a cork.

You cant stand that easily because your legs just float to the surface and when you do go upright you just sort of bob at armpit level. It is really the most bizarre thing ever, and the water kind of feels thick and oily. So me and mum spent a bit of time laughing at ourselves and other tourists as we all tried to sink ourselves and float around and get photos. It was really weird and very cool and only when we went swimming in the proper swimming pools did I realise how much you do float in the dead sea as I jumped in expecting to keep floating but would keep sinking. There were mainly lots of non-western tourists from Iran and Saudi around so of course all men swimming in speedos while a handful of women in the water, some in full burkahs. After we had had enough we headed back into Amman for the night, had a nap and some more falafel…getting a little bit sick of falafel now!

The next day we had arranged a taxi to take us all the way to Damascus (so we thought) via a Roman ruins called Jerash. We got to Jerash all right with our taxi driver who spoke no english. Driving there was nice because we went through some areas that were actually green! amazing after weeks of desert!

So we spent about 3 hours wandering around this ridiculously impressive ruins, which I will put photos up of when I can! The ruins are of the whole centre of this town still with the amphitheatres and the town centre in this big circle with pillars up. Along the pillard streets there is still the original stones on the ground where you can see the groves worn into then from all the horse carriages, very very cool. There was just heaps of stuff to look at and easy to image the city back in the day. Apparently 90% of the city still needs to be excavated. So yeah it was just really impressive!

Back to the taxi we realised after awhile we were actually driving back to Amman, not to Damascus so a bit of confusion with the driver and eventually realised we were being put in a service taxi (a shared taxi which leave when full) to go to Damascus, not quite what had been promised but you just roll with things sometimes. We waited around for about 2 hours before we eventually took off heading north to Damascus!

Petra, for those of you who don’t know is Jordan’s most famous landmark, one of the new 7 wonders of the world and features in the 3rd Indiana Jones movie -possibly the greatest film of all time. So it was definitely on my must see list when coming to this part of the world. The famous sight, the treasury, is actually just one part of the whole ancient city of Petra, there’s also the ruins of temples, monasteries, old roads, tombs and lots of other stuff. Its very, very old being the capital of an important area way back in the 6th century BC, so lots of things have been reduced to rubble but you can still make out the old streets and some things are remarkably still well preserved. It was discovered in 1812 by a Wwiss guy which must have been a pretty sweet find.

While you can spend up to 3 days there we just opted for one which turned out to be a good move, it all is pretty amazing but to be honest, after awhile all ruins look the same, especially in the Middle Eastern sun.

We got dropped off at the site and paid our expensive $40 entrance fee (Jordan seems to have abolished student prices since the Lonely Planet was written). To get into the city you walk for about 20minutes through this huge rock crevice where you can see all the rock patterns along the way, its very cool, and nice and cool. The rock face on either side of you goes up way high and its peaceful apart from the horse and carriages which you hire.

Eventually after what seems like ages you reach the end and see the treasury from between the rock walls, its really cool to see, and in the morning the sun is shining just on the front of it. Unlike Indiana Jones there’s nothing inside it, just a room used to store things in. By the time we arrived the crowds were building up so we took some photos and headed out into the sun to explore the rest of the site. You have to fight off camel and horse owners trying to get you to pay for a ride, of course being the stubborn travellers that we are, it didn’t matter if we are dying from heat exhaustion there is no way would pay for that!

We got to see most of the site in our one day, not everything but it was enough, there is ruins of the old theatre and this column-lined streets with steps going up to the old main temple. There are still wells and water channels in place, its really interesting and would have been amazing back in the day. We walked right up into the hills, to see the monastery, equally as impressive as the treasury, but probably less famous because its a damn hard walk in the hot sun up these steps.  We finally made it and got amazing views of the surrounding area and the monastery, which is just like the treasury, a big façade carved into the rock with nothing inside.

We took some photos and headed back down for the long walk to the entrance. By this time it was around 3pm and we had been there for 6 hours, and it was hot and we were so tired we were actually forced to stop and buy coke, which I am usually morally opposed to. But coke has never really tasted so good! It was really hard walking all the way back to the entrance, I think if it had taken any longer I would have died, or been forced to take a camel.

Finally after leaving we collapsed on some steps and rehydrated with juice and water and waited for the American guys who we were sharing a taxi with. Getting back to the hotel and having a shower was awesome, me and mum both got some sort of heat rash on our legs and were pretty exhausted after a full 7 hours waking in the sun. But it was amazing and I was thankful we had a tv in our room with 300 channels and at least 4 of them in english- I watched Oprah and it was awesome. We had a really nice tea at a little place on the side on the road, yummy hummus, bread, salad and falafel. It was cool in the evening and the mosques were playing in the background, a good end to a good, but tiring day!

We had tried to find information about the bus leaving for Amman, the capital the next day, but all we could find out is that the bus leaved in the morning, when full, sometimes, maybe….hmmm, and the internet was down over the whole country so not easy to get information about what we were doing the next day but just hoped something would turn up, inshallah as they say.

Going back to Dahab I wasn’t keen on another 9 hour bus and because we were short on time we decided to fly to Sharm which is only an hour from Dahab. We got a taxi in the morning and almost missed the flight because flights to Sharm for some reason leave from a separate terminal which is impossible to get to and true to Egyptian style no-one will give us any information. But we made it and flew over the red mountainous expanse to Sharm-El-Sheik, a resort tourism spot. We were going to wait the 4 hours for the bus to get to Dahab but ended up in a taxi which was pretty cheap to take us the whole way. The taxi driver actually convinced us to let him take us and offered a price, however upon getting there he decided he wanted an extra, very large tip. A bit of arguing before our hotel guy came out and got rid of him.

The hotel ended up giving us separate double rooms for the same price because there were no rooms left with 2 beds, so we had nice flash rooms all to ourselves. Again in Dahab we spent the rest of the day and the following day lying around eating and reading with the occasional swim. Nice after the madness of Cairo.

After our day of laziness we got on a minibus to take us up the coast to the town of Nuweiba where we would catch the ferry across to Jordan. The process it took to get the 2 hour ferry was totally ridiculous, but what can you really expect from Egypt? On the minibus heading the same way were two American guys I had meet on a minibus tour in Aswan about 10 days so it was kind of random to see them again. So together we tried to get on this ferry.

First we got tickets after walking to the wrong place, so back to buy the most expensive tickets ever at $80USD, which was totally stupid but you have to do these things sometime. So we go through some sort of customs, walk around some docking yard for ages, no signs or anything. Eventually we find an office stamping our passports and get on a bus on the ferry. We probably get on the ferry at 12.30 but don’t end up leaving until around 5pm, we just had to sit and wait while the whole thing filled up and they were ready to leave. It was pretty frustrating. Eventually we got going and made it across to Jordan where there was a special bus for foreigners waiting to take us to do passport stuff. We were the only foreigners so the bus only took us leaving the hundreds of other passengers behind. Kind of strange. They had taken our passports on the boat so we waited (getting good at that by now)  in some sort of arrivals lounge which was only half built until we got our passports back with a free visa and exited out in some back alleyway climbing over rubble to be greeted (read accosted) by taxi drivers. But this stage it was about 7pm and we hadn’t eaten all day. We negotiated a taxi to take us the hour and half to Petra for 35JD (about $70), however after driving onto the town area another taxi driver who spoke english turned up and told us our driver didn’t want to take us and he would take us for 40JD, the whole thing was a bit strange and I am sure they were scamming us but it was late and we were tired so we got in the taxi, just wanting to get there. The driver turned out to be pretty nice and drove us around different hotels until we got a nice place with a tv in our room! Bliss….so we all grabbed some food from down the road and finally got to bed at 11pm, 13 hours after leaving Dahab, for a journey that should have really taken 4 hours!

Jordan is much more expensive than Egypt, about double the price so we need to be careful with money! But I think I needed to get out of Egypt as I was getting a bit cynical and pissed off with people!

I had another night in Dahab before heading back to Cairo to meet Mum, it was also Brian’s last night so we meet up and watched a bit of fightclub at one of the bars then both headed to bed as we were shattered from the climb the night before. I said goodbye in the morning as he headed off to Jordan and I jumped on a 9 hour bus ride back to Cairo. So ended our group, great to have good people to travel with but time to go separate ways and move into the next part of my trip with my lovely mother.

I didn’t arrive in Cairo till late at night, and mum didn’t fly in till 3am so I saw her briefly when she got in but soon fell asleep enjoying my first night with air-conditioning. Our hostel is on the 5th floor of this big old building with the most old school elevator of all time, literally straight from the 18th century, I cannot believe how it keeps going, but a you can see its very cool looking. It just goes straight up the middle of the stair well, crazy times

(our amazingly old but still working hostel lift)

That morning we headed off to do what everyone does in Egypt, go see the Pyramids! We took the metro half way then ended up in a taxi with possibly the only driver in Cairo who didn’t know where the pyramids were, a lot of asking questions and suddenly, there they were! The pyramids are actually in Cairo, like in the city, not in some huge dessert in the middle of nowhere, so out from being apartment buildings and hotels the points of them stick out in a kind of surreal way.

We somehow managed to come in a back entrance avoiding getting scammed by anyone, I had heard of people ending up paying stupid amounts for guides and camels but all we had to pay was the relatively cheap entrance fee. It was hot, but not as hot as Aswan or the Luxor and they were amazing, more amazing than some monuments which are a bit disappointing in real life. We could climb up a bit of the way on the big one then wandered around the are looking at the 2 smaller ones and the sphinx, luckily it wasn’t too busy which was nice. We spent a couple of hours taking the required cheesy photos and being amazed at the enormity of them. They really were very cool.

Afterward we wandered around the streets a bit more grabbing some bread straight out of the oven then the most dangerous taxi ride ever with a driver intent on crashing his car. Luckily we made it and after a break from the heat at our hotel we walked down to see the Egyptian museum, which unlike the Pyramids, was busy-very very busy. But definitely worth seeing. All the empty tombs from Luxor had their contents here in the museum and the coolest of all, everything from king tut’s tomb including the famous death mask made from gold. It was all really amazing to see the detail and effort put into burying kings and royalty. The mummy goes inside about 4 different coffins then another 5 different box things, then inside a huge tomb with lots of stuff, gold and pots and tables and everything else you can think of. Very interesting and things are amazingly well preserved.

The other things were cool, lots of old old old things from all around the place, eventually it gets all similar, you know just another 2000 year old mummy, so we headed back home then out for a quick bite to eat, nice and cheap-around $2.50 for huge plates of falafel, bread, eggplant and salads. We then jumped in a taxi to see the Islamic area and market which I saw on my first time in the city. We wandered around the stalls almost getting talked into to buying plastic pyramids with glitter, but just couldn’t do it. Its really nice in the evening as lots of people are out and its nice and cool.

Mum of course had to see the Nile so we headed down there to see if we could get on a felucca for a short cruise. The river was packed with disco part boats, full of Egyptians, sitting calmly with terrible arab pop blaring from speakers and flashing lights all over the boat, it was incredible that anyone would actually pay to go on one. We found a plain felucca with no lights and negotiated a 30 minute cruise which ended up meaning we crossed to the other side then came back again. It was weird, I guess there wasn’t really any wind so we couldn’t go anywhere, but it was really very strange and we pretty much got ripped off. But we saw the Nile!

So a huge day with mum and packed lots into one day, Cairo was as busy and dirty as I remembered but good to be around some real culture after Dahab….however once getting mum the next day we headed back to Dahab for a few nights before crossing to Jordan

Exodus 19:20 The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.

Mt Sinai is pretty important in terms of christian (and Jewish and Muslim) history, its where Moses received the 10 commandments so why not go check it out if you happen to be in the area. However I have watched a few things that convince me that the real Mt Sinai is actually in Saudi Arabia, however, I thought on the off chance it might be in Egypt and for a cool experience I should go climb it. Because of the heat and so you get to watch the sunrise trips to the mountain leave Dahab at 11pm, so you arrive to start the 3 hour climb by 2am. After the 2 hour drive there in a van really the last thing you feel like doing is going for a hike. I was so tired when we arrived I was slightly regretting the decision to come. Brian had come with me and there were also another 2 couples, one with a 10 year old kid in our group. Have the 10year old kid meant I couldn’t be soft and let him go faster than me! I mean he’s 10! So I toughened up and we began our climb.

Its actually not that hard just a big winding path up the mountain with lots of rest stops on the way selling overpriced water and chocolate bars. The Bedouin tribes live in the area who have some arrangement with the government so you must take a guide up with you. They all live in the area and look after camels which the whole way up they try to get you on, lots of people take a camel up to the top, but most walk it. Me and Brian lost our group and guide pretty quickly as they were a bit slow, which given the fact that is was 3am with your young child is not surprising. It was the night before the full moon so we didn’t need torches as the moon was so bright.

(one of the rest stops on the way up with the full moon coming out from behind a cliff)

When we started we were pretty much the only people walking which was amazingly quite and peaceful but after awhile the hordes of pilgrims and groups caught up with us and soon we were part of this mass making our way to the top of a mountain in the middle of the night. It was kind of funny when you thought about it.

About half way up a guy runs past me and Brian asking people along the way if anyone is a doctor, and then around the corner we come across a guy getting CPR on the ground. He is part of a Brazilian tour group we have been following up the mountain. They are all standing there watching, we wait to see what happens. He dies in front of us. The group are saying prayers in unison in Portuguese, it is quite possibly the weirdest, most surreal, awful thing I have ever seen. Standing under the moonlight on the side of mountain with Brazilians sounding like they are chanting, people are surprisingly calm and we begin to feel a bit voyeuristic, there’s nothing we can do so continue walking, a bit shaken and freaked out. The next day at the bottom of the hill there’s an ambulance but we don’t see or hear anything else about it, the Brazilians weren’t at the summit.

The last stretch to the summit is a killer, about 700 uneven rocky steps straight up. A slow and steady pace gets me there where I find Brian and we join the growing groups of people scattered around this church built on the top. Its dark and hard to see whats going on and cold, something I haven’t felt for awhile! We huddle in a doorway and hire a blanket from a kid for $2. We huddle together with this blanket, at 5am, on top of a mountain. Its weird. But I actually sleep well for a few hours until people start waking up and we watch the sunrise.

We hang around till most people have left and take in the view then head back down via a different path which is all steps. We take it pretty quickly and by the end my legs are jelly, its hot again and we are dirty, hungry and ridiculously exhausted. I can hardly think straight and we finally meet up with the rest of the group in a quick tour around St Kathrine’s Monastery that is at the bottom of the mountain. There is a Russian group on some sort of pilgrimage clearly paying a bit more attention to the significant churches and things inside the complex. But I am too tired to care, finally we are back in the minivan and back in Dahab. My hotel is kicking me out because they are full of french tour groups, luckily there’s a place across the road which I drag myself to and finally get some sleep for the afternoon.

An amazing experience and glad I did it, but so exhausting!

OK, so I know that I should probably be taking the opportunity in Egypt to immerse myself in amazing temples and tombs but too be honest, it gets a bit much, especially when you are in 40 degrees and fighting off touts and stupid tour groups in giant buses with no regard for any local customs at all….and I did see a lot of stuff already, so I didn’t feel too bad by cutting my time in Luxor to a minimum and heading off with the boys to Dahab which Lonely Planet called the Ko Samui of Egypt. Now having been to Ko Samui in Thailand, it sounded about 100 times better than putting up with another minibus tour.

So a five hour bus ride with a whole lot of men and a few screaming babies, plus a constant stream of arabic pop I arrived in Hurghada at 1am. I was ridiculously thankful that my hostel in Luxor had called ahead and someone was waiting for me at the bus station. I don’t care if it was their cousin and they were getting commission, it was just so much easier than trying to fight with taxi drivers. There were no other tourists on the bus, which is pretty common for Egypt as it is actually pretty rare to see tourists outside of the major attractions, like I have said before it seems 99% of people come on package holidays.

In the morning I headed to the ferry where I meet up with the boys. True to Egypt bureaucracy I waiting in line to get on the ferry to find out I needed my ticket stamped at another office across the road. I am not sure why they couldn’t stamp it for me…but back across the road to get it stamped then back in the line. The ferry was across the sea up to Sharm, supposedly one hour but it took 2 and half on very rough water and at some point I thought my stomach might jump out of my mouth. Luckily I dont really get sea sick but you could see some people reaching for their sick bags. We arrived in Sharm to find a minibus transporting backpackers the one hour to Dahab, it was nice to have things work easily, even though you pay a higher price for it. So we piled our packs on the roof and drive across the Sinai peninsula to Dahab. Sceneray in the Sinai is limited to red rocky hills and red rocky flat bits, about 1 brown dying tree per sq kilometer it is hard to imagine anyone possibly living here. But they do, the Bedouin tribes have lived around parts of the Sinai for the last forever, moving around herds of camels and goats in tents. It made me appreciate NZ green mountains and plants.

We arrived in Dahab and it really was like Thailand, there was even a ‘Same Same but Different’ cafe (anyone who has been in Thailand knows about this). Really it is just a stretch of restaurants and beach camps along the water.

Lots of shops selling jewellery and hippy clothes and a sea front full of identical restuarants with standard backpacking food. Also to top it off a bar that played movies every night. Perfect. and it actually was, after 10 days or so fighting with touts and seeing temples, wearing long sleeves and eating falafel, it was nice to be somewhere like Dahab where all there was to do was lie on cushions by the water, read, smoke some shesha, eat seafood and go swimming.

(another tough day at the beach with Hugh and Brian)

The place is definitely not like real Egypt and I think you should only ever go at the end of an Egypt trip, its not like real travelling and there is no Egyptian culture really at all, plus the food is about 20 times as expensive, like normally a mango juice is 2 EL, where Dahab it is 15 EL, and instead of spending 5 EL of dinner, 40EL seems to be the standard. Luckily I was still in my never-that-hungry phase and one meal a day was good enough, so had a nice seafood meal a few times and lots of juice. Even though its expensive it is still not that bad when you convert it back. All the restaurant staff and hotel staff are all typically sleazy and try to be cool and impress tourists by being as less Egyptian as possible and pick up bizarre accents and phrases from tourists. Our hotel staff were total dickheads trying to be cool and swearing lots, very lame.

So we basically spent the days lying around doing nothing, watching movies in the evening and moving around a few different restaurants but always ending back up at the ‘local’. Me and Hugh went up the coast a little bit on a snorkelling trip to this place called Blue Hole which is amazing, most people go to Dahab to dive but snorkeling is good enough for me. Blue Hole is this part of the reef which drops around 600 meters so you are swimming above these giant underwater mountains which just go on forever, all the little fish and coral are around near the surface and you look down into the clear water to see massive schools of tiny fish and bigger fish in the darkeness below, it is truly amazing and I could have spent hours there. You can do some crazy deep diving which you go down through the hole to 60meters and along some tunnel and come out somewhere else, people die doing it and there are plaques dedicated those who don’t make it. It seems like pretty scary stuff and I was happy just to stick to the surface. So you can swim along the reef for a bit then around the outside of this big blue hole (hence the name). It was very very amazing. Its a bit of a circus around there with hundreds of camels and a whole lot of little beach side cafes, which are needed to shelter from the crazy heat which makes the ground impossible to walk on. We spent the afternoon there and meet up with some of the people from the felucca. People pretty much do the same circuit in Egypt so I often meet people more than once in different places.

Heading back to Dahab we found Brian asleep by the beach, grabbed some seafood for dinner to celebrate Hugh’s last night in Egypt and my exam results, which I did well in, actually really well, much better than I thought! My best mark was for the exam which I almost forgot so I am very happy with all of that. So uni is well and truly over for me, now all I have to do is graduate when I get home.

Me and Brian headed off later that night towards Mt Sinai because for some reason we thought it would be a great idea to go climb it in the middle of the night…