Wanderlust Heaven!

My trip out to Giza to see the Pyramids and Sphinx was a little bumpy.  I had hoped to get the driver to come early in the morning – I’d heard that the tickets to enter the Great Pyramid of Khufu/Cheops were capped at 150 and sold out fast, so I wanted to get there in time.  But the driver didn’t show until nearly 8…and then, en route, he doubled back to the hotel to pick up 2 more customers.  Pyramid entry wasn’t looking promising.  Oh well.

The driver turned out to be an excellent guy named Said, and my two fellow passengers were Carol and Rachel from the UK.  Serious shutterbugs…I felt like a minimalist next to them.  Said’s favorite saying, in response to every single annoyance that arose, was ‘welcome to Egypt.’  It got progressively funnier as the day went on.  You had to be there.

The ride to Giza is about 20 minutes, about 13 km.  Not particularly scenic, just dusty boring inner-city ‘burbs.  Then you get a peek at one of the Pyramids through the buildings, and in a couple more minutes you’re facing the Sphinx and the 3 Pyramids straight on.  They’re right in the middle of the unappealing suburb of Giza…but when they were built, this was pure desert.  And in fact, the actual town is really just on one side of the edifices – there’s still desert round the remainder.

Nothing you read, no pictures you see can truly prepare you for the majesty of these classic designs.  They’re both larger and more compact than you’d envisioned…they’re pretty beat up yet incredibly resilient after 3500 years…and looking at them, you’re pretty sure we couldn’t build one of these babies today.  Of course, those were very different days and the pharaohs had access to slave labor…but I do believe some secrets have been lost.  Cue up Erich von Daniken’s “Chariots of the Gods,” please…

Spent nearly 3 hours tramping around the Giza Plateau.  First saw the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the biggest (by a hair).  The façade is quite worn, the blocks are jagged in most places but the quality of the construction and the engineering come through loud and clear.  Had to ask around, but found the ticket booth selling tickets to go inside the chamber, and they weren’t sold out.  Not too sure how accurate my guidebook info is…the surcharge is about US$17 and for me it was a no-brainer.  Walked inside, there’s soon a ramp you need to climb, not that hard but the ceiling is low.  Some more walking, stooped over, and you’re pretty soon in the burial chamber, the sarcophagus is still there (at least the huge stone outer one, the other sections are elsewhere), and the room smells like ancient days.  Hard to describe this.  Very quiet inside (there was only one other tourist in there, incredibly – outside there were squillions).  Not much airflow either…you just stand there, looking at the huge ceiling blocks and sarcophagus, sweating.  Somewhat spiritual.  Spent 15 minutes hanging out, when I heard voices coming toward us it was time to go.  See ya, Cheops.

Saw the other two Pyramids after that – Khafre’s is nearly the size of his daddy Khufu’s (Cheops’s), and Menkaure’s, which is smaller.  Both impressive.  Khafre’s still has a section of the original white limestone casing at the very top, originally these Pyramids were all encased in this material and they must have gleamed like quartz in the sunshine.  Would have loved to have seen that.  As it is, the Pyramids were startling sights and in no way a letdown, despite my fairly high expectations.

The Sphinx.  A bit smaller than I imagined – perhaps 25-30 meters?  Also, I would have liked to have seen the nose – do any of you know where it is?  Perhaps buried with Alexander somewhere?  Anyway, the Sphinx sits in front of the Pyramids and ‘guards’ them nicely.  Another classic sight.  Many writers have described it with far more skill than I ever could, so I’ll just leave it at that and drop in a few shots:

There’s also a “Solar Barque Museum,” with a reconstructed barge that transported the dead pharaoh’s corpse for parade and burial.  They buried the boat next to the Pyramid and it was eventually found.  Pretty impressive.

Egypt’s typical culture was very much in evidence all day long.  By this I mean, of course, baksheesh.  Every security guard was on the make – and there were randoms hanging outside the Pyramids that would grab you and show you good panoramic shots, and pose you for those stupid tourist pics you always see.  And, of course, they’d want a ‘tip.’  It’s hard to fully resist them – you’d need a pretty strong carapace and sense of utter cynicism about your fellow man.  I’m well-developed in those areas and have little trouble saying no – still, the Egyptians are masters at scrounging handouts and even I’m susceptible now and then.  Carol and Rachel were visibly perturbed and I think it got to them a bit.

Besides the Pyramids of Giza, there are numerous others scattered around the north, some significantly older than those in Giza, which are the most well-known.  Our little tour included a look at other prominent pyramids, so off we went.  En route, we passed a newish KFC standing just outside the Pyramids gate.  Classic.  Then Said steered us to a pricey lunch spot…I’m sure he got a cut of that.  At least they had beer.

After that, we visited Saqqara, a few km outside town.  There’s a great little museum built to honor Imhotep, an ancient engineer often credited with designing the early pyramids and many other structures.  And there’s King Zoser’s famous Step Pyramid, built, as the name suggests, in steps.  It’s supposedly the oldest stone monument in the world, but I wonder how they define that fairly broad term…

And wasn’t Zoser the evil spirit Rick Moranis kept babbling about when he was possessed in “Ghostbusters”?

Then we drove a few more km to Dahshur, to check out two more classic pyramids.  First, the Red Pyramid, reddish stone, natch.  This was the oldest true pyramid, and the lessons learned from building the Bent Pyramid (hold your horses) were leveraged for this one.  Went inside (for free) with the ladies – fairly brutal downhill ramp to start, then some easy stairs and we were in the burial chamber.  Similar to the Great Pyramid in many ways.  Strong stink of ammonia in this one – I guess they’re trying to dispel an even worse smell??

Next, to the Bent Pyramid. So named because they started building at a steep slope, greater than 50 degrees, and when they saw it becoming unstable, they dialed it down to 43 degrees.  So in the middle, the slope declines and it looks quite cool.  The Red Pyramid, built soon afterward, is entirely 43 degrees.  So there.

Good lesson in pyramid-building and design, to be sure.  I’d probably read tons about this topic over the years, but it was usually in one ear and out the other.

We also saw the Black Pyramid in the distance, this one is in pretty bad shape.  We didn’t linger long, we wanted to stop in Memphis, the ancient capital nearby, and see the small museum and statues there.  The major attraction of once-proud, now nearly vanished Memphis is a massive reclining statue of Ramses II.  Absolutely enormous – reminded me of the reclining Buddha in Bangkok’s Wat Pho.  And also Samarkand’s coffin of the Prophet Daniel (still growing, mind you).  I’ve seen a lot of reclining figures in my day – including myself after a long day in the deserts…

That was it for the day – we’d seen a lot and were happy with the tour.  Said was a lot of laughs all day and we gave him a good tip.  The lessons of Egypt are not being lost on us.

I’ve taken so many pictures that my camera counter (the “odometer” of the camera, if you will) turned over.  I’ve only had the camera for a year and a half.  Fast.

Went to Felfela Restaurant near my hotel that night for dinner.  It’s a classic old Cairo place, decent food but great atmosphere.  And very cold beer.  Important after tramping around the sights all day long.

Also got a few shots of the Nile in Cairo before sunset:

The rest of my Egypt trip (ex-Sinai) loomed.  My India side-trip kicked off December 1, so I had about 10 days remaining before then.  Issue:  I had to be back in Cairo in a bit less than a week to hand over my passport to the Indian Embassy and get my visa, so in reality I only had 6 days to cover the Nile Basin.  A bit quick – but by no means impossible, or unprecendented.  After all, 90% of people have a week or so for this.  So I’d already bought my air ticket to the southernmost town of Abu Simbel, and from there I’d head to Aswan, then to Luxor, and finally back to Cairo.  Tight, but the distances aren’t huge (except for the initial Cairo-Abu Simbel flight), so I’d manage OK.

The Abu Simbel flight was at 7 a.m., necessitating a grim early morning vignette.  And the airport’s domestic terminal was chaotic – I wasn’t happy.  You’d think that by now Egypt would have figured this gig out.  The package tours were just blasting through, accompanied by these Gizan-sized wagons of hard-cased luggage.  Higher than fucking Pyramids, really.  With scenes like these, sometimes flying is harder than taking a bus or train – at least those systems tend to be more relaxed and organized.  And people who take buses and trains are generally more practical – they don’t carry as much luggage, they’re less fussy, etc.  My kind of peeps.

As I was waiting for my flight to be called, I looked at the electronic departures screen and saw that there was a computer virus warning message on it.  Classic.  And no one seemed to be doing anything to fix it.  Only in Egypt…well, let’s say only in Africa.  When you see shit like that, you wonder about other systems in the airport – the air traffic control system, the plane’s on-board systems…

Had a layover in Aswan’s airport.  Much calmer and nicer than Cairo’s, naturally.  Just a few destinations, and it’s a newish, fairly sizeable building.  Used my time to make my future hotel bookings – I’d be tight for time, and given how many tourists I was seeing, I was a bit nervous about being relegated to the dreg accoms unless I planned ahead.  My Jordanian SIM card served me well – it lasted precisely as long as I needed it to, then died.  I made a note to pick up an Egyptian SIM.

I was getting edgy by the time they called my Abu Simbel flight.  Watching package tourists shop for worthless trinkets does not make my day.

I realized that by this point I’d been traveling solely in new places for the past six months, since I’d gotten to Mongolia in May.  One of the longest such stretches in my life, and a relatively demanding experience.  When you’re in new places, you’re compelled to do the sight-seeing and experience everything there is on offer – when you’re in favored, familiar places, you don’t have those challenges (anymore).  I tend to like to mix it up, but the way it’s worked out, I’m on a new-country run.  India will break that up, for a couple weeks, then it’s back to Egypt (Sinai) and over to Israel, a country I’ve spent the grand total of 3 days in long ago.

As I grabbed my pack and walked to the plane, I noticed a guard spitting on the floor, then using his shoes to ‘wipe’ it.  Charming.  Well, good to get a bit of training before heading back to India, anyway.

Sat next to a Japanese-Hawaiian woman on my flight – very pleasant.  She’s a real estate agent, made a killing for years and years but now things are obviously pretty slow, even in Hawaii.  Was married to an American, who passed away, now she’s traveling with some friends and seeing how she likes it.  We talked Japan for a while – we both miss the food, of course.

Got to Abu Simbel, which is a small village, just 5,000 or so people.  It’s famous for two temples, the Great Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor.  Both are stunning, with huge statues of the pharaoh and his wife Nefertari.  They were painstakingly moved when the Aswan High Dam was built in the 60s – the waters rose and threatened many sites, many of which were moved/saved.  Some weren’t and are now under the new Lake Nasser, the world’s largest manmade lake.

Checked into the decent Abu Simbel Tourist Village.  Met two cool Aussies girls also staying there, Emma and Dominica, and we wound up hanging out for the next couple days.

The three of us walked for a while and got to the temple site.  Nice, green little village, and laid-back people.  I was happy I’d decided to come all the way down here, and to spend a night as well.  I’d been moving around pretty fast in Jordan and when I got to Egypt, and was feeling a bit tired as a result.

The temples were spectacular and imposing – check them out:

They used to sit aside the Nile, now they’re situated near the lake.  They reminded me of nothing so much as the huge statues of the Lords of Gondor in the Lord of the Rings’s first book, “The Fellowship of the Ring.”  And, in fact, Ramses II put these statues up to warn the Nubians and other potential invaders not to mess with his kingdom.  So there.

Went to the ‘Sound & Light Show” that night at the temples.  Kitschy, but you gotta see one of these while in Egypt, many of the monuments (including the Giza structures) have one of these.  There’s a broadcast narrator and graphics projected onto the statues/hills.  Started out in high cheese overdrive (“I am Ramses and I have waited here in the sand for you to come”), then settled down into a meld of history and architectural design.  Worth the loot, I’d say.

Met the lasses at Eskaleh, a hotel/resto near ours that’s owned by a well-known Nubian musician.  I’d tried to book a room there, but it was sold out.  I resolved to at least see it and have a meal there, so there we were.  Had a few beers, chatted with Dominica and Emma (who were curious about the Sound & Light Show), and ate the very tasty Nubian food.  Nubians, I’ve come to learn, are quite good-natured and relaxed.  Hard to imagine them threatening Egypt’s southern borders.  I guess we all have it in us…

We had another early bell the next morning –  a 6 a.m. bus to Aswan.  Thrilling.  I was average a 6 a.m.’er every 2^nd day, and am not generally a morning person.  I can handle 8 a.m., but 6 a.m. is like the Twilight Zone for me.  Still, I always get up and am usually as on top of things as anyone else at that hour.

In the middle of the night I heard a repetitive noise – was it bad plumbing, or was it an angry mob come for us?  Not quite as startling as my cobra dream in Petra, but worth getting out of bed and investigating.  Sure enough, the toilet was running a bit.  I went back to bed, happy I wouldn’t have to pull out my Leatherman and defend the Aussies from a snarling mob of locals…

Buses in the Nile Valley that carry tourists must travel in a police convoy, so there are set times and routes.  Not that big a deal – these were put in place a few years ago in response to some terrorist incidents.  And you hardly see the cops – they race right off and the buses can’t keep up with ‘em.  The issue for me is that the timing of the convoys is well-known, and if an organized terror outfit got its act together, we’d be sitting ducks.  I’d rather be a bit more elusive and travel at random times.  Just stick a couple guards on the bus, and maybe have periodic checkpoints – the convoy system seems creaky to me.

Got on the bus, fell asleep pretty soon.  Was happy that my jury-rigged Nile tour was actually coming together nicely, and that the India visa bit was completely screwing it up.  Now, that visa had better come through, or I’ll really be tortured.

Pit stop – had some sort of meat sandwich (salami-esque), and some chay.  Guys were already sitting round having a sheesha, at 7 a.m. or so.  Classic.

Caught up on some podcasts, including Groove Salad from NPR.  One of my favorites.  They played a track by a group called Kickbong – I liked it a lot, and I like the name a lot more.

Got into Aswan in under 3 hours.  Got off the bus in the town center, the girls came with me to the Hotel Hathor – they were heading north that same night, and they left their bags in my room while we checked out Aswan and did a felucca (sailboat) tour.

Aswan from the hotel roof:

The world’s coolest McDonald’s is in Aswan, right on the Nile.  We had a bite there before getting going with the boat – Dominica wowed me with her fries and sundae mix – hadn’t seen that before.  Apparently it’s big in Oz, but I don’t recall seeing it.

We all had to buy onward train tickets.  They needed theirs for that night, I had to buy a ticket on to Luxor, and then on to Cairo.  Went to the train station, a bit of a hike.  Waited in line…the system went down.  Ugh.  Resolved to return later.

Walked the Cornice, along the Nile, and eventually chose a felucca operator.  Got a nice low price, high supply and low demand it seems.  We chose a boat operated by two youngsters, Opus and Mohammed, who were huge fun and very Nubian in their attitude about life.  Opus played Bob Marley for us on his handphone, he handed out Cleopatra brand cigarettes, and we had a brilliant 2 hour ride around Elephantine Island.  These felucca rides on the Nile are terrific value – all local labor, no petrol etc., so the cost bar is very low.  We did our 2 hour tour for barely over US$10 for the 3 of us.  Yowza.

At one point we sailed by a Nilometer, used to measure the river’s size when it swelled.  Higher measurements generally meant better harvests…and higher taxes.

Returned to the train station.  System again down.  We were not happy – the girls had to go in a couple hours, and I wanted to stay a couple days ahead of the game.  Went for some kushary, an Egyptian snack – pasta, a bit of meat, god knows what else is in there.  Not too bad.  Much like frathouse food.  Well, a bit better than that.

Went back to my hotel – the girls got their packs and headed off, again, for the train station, determined to just board their train even without a ticket.  I assume it went well for them.

I checked emails, got a local SIM card, then went for my personal 3^rd try for tickets.  There was a near-skirmish in line, my presence seemed to divide the locals into ‘be nice to the foreigner!’ and ‘what foreigner?’ factions.  I elbowed my way in and got my tickets, finally.  The joys of independent travel.  There is some joy in this, actually, but it all comes at the end of the process – it’s hard to feel elated when you’re way back in one of these lines.  I know from yoga class that you’re supposed to relax within the pose, but I’ve always found that hard.

So I relax at the end – often with a cold beer in my hand.  Found Emy Café, where the more grizzled felucca captains tend to hang, drinking.  They had coldish Stellas and I had a couple.  Fuck, I’d earned ‘em.  Or am I merely self-enabling?

Exchanged texts with brother-in-law Dave.  His son, my nephew Jacob, had just told him that Grandma Cooki (my mom, passed away) lives too far away to visit.  Hmm.  That made me think, and made my eyes water.  I love this kid – I really think he gets it.  Now I just need to make a trip to Boston to meet my new niece – I feel guilty about not seeing her yet.

Emma and Dominica had regaled me with tales of how the local men had harassed them on the street, on buses, etc.  Egyptian men aren’t exactly renowned for their reticence and class – they’re repressed Muslims, for the most part, in a country of women wearing hijabs and sometimes chadors/burquas, and they act out on female tourists in sometimes ugly ways.  And I got a first-hand look at what they meant:  when I was walking with the two of them, I heard endless shouts of ‘hey Casanova’ and ‘lucky man has two’ and ‘how many camels for the two?’  I got sick of it myself and told a few guys to keep their mouths shut.  The sad thing is that adult men lead the way, their sons observe and parrot them.

My second day in Aswan, I hired a cab for a few hours and hit the major sites.  First, the Isis Temple on Philae Island.  Nice enough site – much still intact.  Bit of a hassle getting to the island, you buy the entry ticket on the mainland, but that doesn’t include the boat ride so you need to dicker with the cheating boatmen for that.  I got a decent price but would have preferred to just have it included in the admission.

Next, saw the Aswan High Dam.  The sun sparkled and danced on the Nile as we drove to the dam.  The structure itself is seemingly pretty basic – the wall is not that high, the technology basic as far as I can tell.  But the effect is major – on one side you have the Nile flowing and looking normal.  On the other – Lake Nasser, several times wider than the river and quite impressive.  Not easy to show this with photos, though.

Next, the Unfinished Obelisk.  This would have been Egypt’s largest single piece of stone, but while they were carving it out of the ground a flaw was detected, and they abandoned it.

Finally, saw the Nubian Museum.  This was a terrific place, with loads of history, well-labelled exhibits, and a good vibe.  Why can’t the Egyptian Museum in Cairo be half this good?  I learned a lot in 90 minutes and came away impressed with the role of Nubia in history.

In this museum they had a graphic of the Temple of Dendur, which would have been submerged by Lake Nasser.  The Egyptians donated (or sold) it to the NY Met Museum.  I went to a holiday party in NYC in the early 90s and it was held in the very room at the Met that housed the Temple of Dendur.  Small world.

I wonder how Nubians today feel about how the lake’s covered much of their ancestral homeland.  I suppose there are many benefits from having the water, but sometimes people are funny about land – it really tugs at the heartstrings.

Walked back to my hotel.  Saw a beautiful mosque on the way, no idea what it’s called but it’s striking:

Had dinner that night at a local haunt, El-Masry.  A local kid showed me where it was, and when I offered him a tip he wouldn’t take it!  Now that was impressive.

Had a grilled pigeon – pretty good, a lot like squab.  Not that meaty, but not that pricey either.  And the accompanying dishes were excellent and very filling.  I’m not starving over here.

Walked back to the hotel.  Saw some commotion on the main drag a ways up.  Kept walking, but at one point some local guys asked me to stop.  Turned out there was a bag lying in the street, and the bomb squad (or just regular cops with nicer duds) were working on it.  A young guy named Yahir who spoke English told me what was happening.  I noticed that all the action was within a few meters of my hotel.  Terrific, my passport, computer, etc. were all up there.  But it all got resolved in a few minutes and then the crowds dispersed.

Had enjoyed waking up at a normal hour that morning, but the next was another early one.  Had a 6 a.m. train to Luxor, historic Thebes.  Managed to get up, felt pretty woozy but was getting used to this drill by now.  Caught a cab to the train station and found my seat.

Uneventful ride to Luxor.  Got off the train around 9 a.m., looked at my map and walked toward my booked hotel.  A fellow came up and told me that he was the son of the owner.  I was suspicious – Luxor is known for lying touts.  He could have been legit, in any event I kept walking towards my hotel, the Oasis.  He kept up with me.  At one point we were joined by another fellow, who started talking about Princess Hotel.  Torture.  Then the ‘son’ said that the Oasis only had a dorm bed for that night, afterward I could get my own room.  Whoah, Nelly.  That did it.  I had booked a single room, the owner had confirmed it, and now I knew I was getting the good tout-bad tout routine.  What a simple yet sophisticated operation, though – I’ll bet that most tourists fall for this one, you’re pretty tired when you get off the train and the ‘son’ is fairly credible, at least for a while.  I told them to fuck off or I’d get the tourist police, and I kept walking to the Oasis.  Got there and told the owner what had happened – happens every day, he said.  To be fair, he had told me on the phone to just proceed from the station to the hotel – I guess that was his way of warning me about the tout scams, but I think he should figure out a better method.

Luxor is stuffed with sights.  My first day I spent an hour or so apiece at Luxor Temple and Karnak.  The former stands right in the town center, near the Nile, and is impressive.

An obelisk taken from this temple is the very one that stands at Place de la Concorde in Paris.  Good to know that, if for trivia’s sake alone.

I walked a ways and saw a guard sitting there.  He motioned me over, we had a chat.  Turns out he’s Christian – so was my taxi driver in Aswan at 5:30 a.m. that day.  Christians seem to live a secret life here, amongst the 90% Muslim population.  They seem a bit besieged and eager for foreign contacts.  Interesting.

Karnak is a bit of a hike, but is worth it.  And my timing was fortunate – I’d heard that the package tours descend on the place at 10:30 a.m. in droves, so I’d visited Luxor Temple first and tried to wait out the crowds.  Worked perfectly – they were mostly leaving/gone when I got there.  I’m usually not quite this structured in my approach to sight-seeing, but you may have noticed that I detest crowds…and Egypt may be the most touristy place I’ve ever been.  Seriously.

In its heyday Karnak was the largest religious structure in the world, and in one particular section, the many-columned Great Hypostyle Hall, you can fit St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s combined.  Or so they claim.  I didn’t love Karnak – it was huge, but not in great shape and, except for the columns in the Hypostyle, not that exquisite or visually compelling.  It was simply huge.  I much preferred Angkor, the Taj, or various other places I’ve been.

The cruise boats moored along the Cornice were endless – I think there were nearly 100, three abreast on the river.  Ugh.

Took a long nap, then had my first run in a few weeks.  Walking has kept me in decent shape, but I am feeling a bit soft and paunchy – the local food isn’t light.  While I was running, two cabbies didn’t get it, and offered me a ride.  And the schoolgirls got a kick out of seeing my sweaty large body lumber down the Cornice promenade.  I don’t mind being a spectacle, as long as I can break into a decent gallop…

Had dinner at a nice resto, Sofra, right near the Oasis.  They had a mezze platter and I had that.  Excellent.  Then managed to locate the Kings Head Pub, where I sat and had a few beers.  Pretty dead, but then again it was a Monday night.  It had been a long day and I was more than ready to head back to the hotel.

Broke down and signed up for the Luxor West Bank tour offered through my hotel.  The West Bank is a large area full of sights – the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, etc. etc.  Hard to get there, it’s over the river and a few km away.  And once there, the sights are so dispersed that you really need transport to make it doable.  So I went for the tour, but was worried about the quality.  I had generally had pretty good luck on these sorts of tours, but you never know.

I was pleasantly surprised.  The guide, Nana, was a cheeky, funny local woman who spoke good English and knew her stuff.  And there were only two other customers, from a hotel down the street – Greg and Sarah, two Aussies who’d been on the road for a year already.  Cool.  We had a large minivan all to ourselves, and the price was actually not bad – when you figured in the (included) entry fees, which were not low, we weren’t giving the tour that much extra.  Must be loads of competition for us tourists here…

First visited the famed Valley of the Kings, where there are 63 or so tombs, including the famous tomb of Tutankahmen, discovered by Carter in 1922.  We visited three other tombs, Nana’s three favorite (of those that were presently open), Ramses I, IV, and IX.  They all had superb murals…Ramses IV had a massive stone tomb…Ramses IX had depictions of prisoners tied up and beheaded, apparently grave robbers had desecrated his father’s tomb and he caught and punished them.  Interesting factoids along the way provided by Nana – a pharaoh generally began his tomb when he was enthroned, and construction ended when he died (or before, if it was completed).  So King Tut’s tomb (for which there is a hefty surcharge) isn’t that great, now – it’s pretty small.  When Carter found it, it was stuffed with awesome treasures – now, those are elsewhere and the tomb is apparently unimpressive.  I didn’t bother to go in – lots of Japanese queueing up, they want to spend a lot to do things like this – huge brand focus for Japanese and Koreans (and now, Chinese too).

We then drove a ways to the incredible Temple of Hatshepsut, she was a female pharaoh with a complicated family tale that I won’t recount here.  A classic edifice in a brilliant setting:

Then over to the Valley of the Queens, where we saw a couple tombs.  The guards, I should mention, were seriously on the baksheesh take and we all thought they put a dent in the experience.

Finally, over to the Colossi of Memnon, two massive statues that serve as the entranceway to the area.  Still in solid shape, quite imposing:

We drove by, but didn’t visit, the so-called Ramesseum, Ramses II’s memorial temple (but he seems to have temples everywhere along the Nile, from Abu Simbel up to Memphis).  This structure is now in poor shape, and has been for some time.  I believe that Shelley’s famous poem ‘Ozymandias,’ one of my favorites, was written about the Ramesseum – seeing it in ruins inspired Shelley to muse that no king’s power and creations can last forever.  Certainly Luxor in general gives one the feeling of insignificance – we’re just specks on the Planet Earth.  And it’s not a bad feeling to realize that.

Running joke:  Greg asked at one point, ‘Is Carter still alive?’ just after Nana mentioned that Carter found Tut’s tomb in 1922, and died very soon afterward (apparently the first 15 people to enter the tomb all died soon thereafter, perhaps from breathing the bad air down there).  For the rest of the day, we teased Greg about Carter still being alive.  Good fun.

The tour was definitely the way to see the West Bank.  Sites are spread out, and they also say that this is the very hottest place in Egypt.  I felt pretty hot myself, and this was late November.  I can’t imagine touring there in summer, even though the tourist count would be far lower.

Got back to the Oasis.  Did some computer stuff.  Somehow my iTunes library got ‘damaged,’ and the system created a new library file.  It didn’t seem to be missing any song, it was actually a bit larger in terms of size than the old file, but there were a few dodgy/corrupted songs that seemed to be duplicates.  Had to do some analysis and surgery to fix it up – took a while.  Hardest part is setting up the podcast subscriptions again – Apple really should make a library recovery easier.  But anyway, I don’t think I lost anything – and I think that all my music files are on my hard drive, the library file is actually an overlay and doesn’t itself have the songs within it.

Had dinner with Greg and Sarah.  They’re veggos, and knew of a place called Salt & Bread near the train station.  Dirt-cheap, and pretty good.  Had a nice oily moussaka and some fuul (fava spread), that filled me up.  We talked India for a while, they’re heading there fairly soon.  Then we walked off dinner by strolling down the souk road.  The first kilometer is very touristy and you get tortured by the vendors, after that it gets rougher and more local, and you don’t get bothered as much.  Still, we had a couple locals attach themselves to us and serve as a bit of a bother.

Went over to their hotel, not far from mine.  Obvious copycat place – I’m sure they’re into the toutscam game.  But…their roofdeck was far better than mine…it seemed a much more sociable place…and they played Marley non-stop while one of the employees rolled nonstop funny cigarettes.  Greg (after trying a few ciggies) dubbed him ‘Mohammed Marley’ and we all thought that was about the funniest thing we’d heard in ages.  I wonder why we kept laughing so much?

I wondered, at one point, whether Ramses II was the pharaoh during the Biblical Exodus?  The timing of his reign matches up pretty well…and somewhere it’s written that Ramses II died by drowning.  I saw his mummy in Cairo, but couldn’t tell how he died.  And he has had 3500 years to dry out…

Long, fun night.  Crashed around 2 a.m.  Got up a bit woozy the next day, my last in Luxor – that night I’d take an overnight train to Cairo.  Visited the Mummification Museum first – pretty good exhibits, they had a mummified baby croc, an adult croc, a baboon, and assorted other preserved living creatures.

Then went to the Luxor Museum, a superb place with tons of statues and other pieces from the West Bank.  Again, why can’t the Cairo museum be this good?

Before catching my train, went for another run – gotta get back into the habit.  Had a couple falafel sandwiches.  Showered, packed, and checked out.  The Oasis only costs about US$5 a night – quite the bargain.

Walked to the nearby train station.  I love it when the station is right in town.  Met some Brits – James and Rachel – who were on the same sleeper train.  Heard from them that our train was often late.  Then a market research guy came over to survey me, and he told me that the train would probably take 12, not 9 hours.  Uh-oh – I had to be in Cairo before 11 a.m. to drop off my passport.  The original arrival time was about 7 a.m., but if we were very late I’d be screwed.  Thankfully the train came only a few minutes late, and was largely on time throughout.  I wasn’t in the mood for more shenanigans – this visa had already tortured me thoroughly.

Meanwhile, the sleeping train, called the Abela, was excellent.  US$60, had my own cabin, very comfy, they served food, and the cabin fellow got me a couple Luxor Beers (5% alcohol) that helped get me right to sleep.  Very civilized all the way through.

I made some progress on my latest book, Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile.”  I rarely read potboilers like this, but it’s about time I tried one of her many books – and this one is topical.

Got into Cairo around 7:30 a.m.  Even had time to linger in Ramses I Train Station and buy a ticket for Alexandria for the ensuing morning.  Good to take care of that stuff right when you get into a train station – saves a trip there.  Caught a cab to my hotel, Pension Roma, a place I was looking forward to trying out – had heard great reviews.  Checked in – immediately loved the place, it’s a classic old building that’s well-maintained, and the rooms are stylish – a bit of class in the budget category.  Nice people who run it, too.  I mentioned that I had to walk over to the Indian Embassy for my visa – they said two things that worried me:

1 – there had been a terrible terrorist attack somewhere in India just now, and

2 – the Embassy was closed.

She knew little about #1, so I asked about #2.  The woman said it was Friday (Muslim Sabbath).  I said no, it’s Thursday – she apologized for her mistake.  Whew.  Then I got on the web and looked into the terror thing – and learned about the hideous attacks in Mumbai by gangs that had targeted numerous places where foreigners tend to congregate.  The Taj, the Oberoi, Leopold’s Café.  Just awful, I had tears in my eyes – how can people bring themselves to do things like this?

I resolved to stick to my plan to fly the next Monday, barring any further news.  Walked with a  heavy heart to the Embassy and submitted my passport.  That went smoothly enough.  Then returned to Roma to rest a bit.  Finished the Christie book – very good, although I came up with the murderers even before they actually killed anyone.  Maybe I should read more of these detective novels…

Had a slew of emails from family/friends asking me if I was in India yet.  I reassured them I was not.  I have a history of missing incidents like these by a matter of days.  Got a call from a friend in Mumbai, connected to the job opportunity I’m looking into in Mumbai, with his take on the incident.  That was helpful and reinforced my decision not to he hasty and not to cancel the trip or anything like that.

Tried to take my mind off the tragedy.  Took the Cairo Metro (pretty good, actually) over to Old Cairo, which mostly consists of a walled Coptic section with loads of churches and graveyards.  In one church there’s a cave/crypt where Jesus and his family supposedly took shelter from King Herod.  And there’s a synagogue, Ben Ezra, the oldest in Egypt, which has a few claims to fame.  First, it was (supposedly) where the prophet Jeremiah gathered the Jews when the Babylonians destroyed the first temple around 600 B.C.  Second, there’s a well/spring outside where (supposedly) the pharaoh’s daughter found the baby Moses in a basket in the reeds of the Nile.  Third, the Virgin Mary (supposedly) drew water from here to wash the baby Jesus.  The Nile used to run right here, now it’s 1.5 km away.

Also walked by the oldest mosque in Egypt, the Mosque of Amr ibn Al-As, he was the Muslim general who took Egypt in 642 A.D.  Huge place, just looked around for a bit.

Headed back to the hotel.  Saw a sign on the street for Timken Industries, a large industrial company owned/run by a classmate of mine, Tim Timken.  “Timken – Where You Turn.”  Pretty cool.

Got a call from brother-in-law Dave.  It’s Thanksgiving in the States, everyone’s getting together for the annual feed.  I hope they don’t waste any time worrying about me and my India trip.  I know Jews like to worry, we’re at a loss unless we have something to fret about…but I think everything will be just fine.  At least it will be when I accidentally discover the lost tomb of Alexander the Great this very weekend, in his namesake city of Alexandria, while eating a very large shawarma on the street.  Before I sign out, a very Happy Thanksgiving to those of you about to eat turkey.  Over and out.

Wound things up in Turkey.  Was looking forward to warmer weather ahead in Jordan – the chilly air was making me particularly lazy.  Hadn’t done an ounce of exercise in days, weeks even – and I was starting to get annoyed with myself.

Finished ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert.  This book was at the top of the bestseller lists a year or two ago – usually a strike against a book, but in this case it was not.  I half-expected it to be too chicky/whiny…but the author is quite talented and had terrific insights about the places she visited.  The integrating theme seemed a bit forced at the start, but she held things together nicely and what emerged was a thoughtful work about the joys and value of travel…and about how it can help free your tortured soul.  A great travel yarn, with a bit of spirituality thrown in for good measure.  Recommended.

Also started checking out my Jordan country guidebook – seems there’s a fair amount to see.  Not that surprising, given the antiquity of the place and its sites.  Hopefully two weeks will do the trick – given what’s going on these days, I might be facing a somewhat constrained timetable.  I might even need to start treating my country visits like normal people do their holidays…

My last act of tourism in Ankara was a quick trip to the wonderfully-named Museum of Anatolian Civilizations.  Some great stuff in there, including some tablets with the Legend of Gilgamesh and various items from around 5,000-7,000 B.C.  Anatolia is an ancient land and its treasures are manifest.

Didn’t know before visiting this museum that the Gilgamesh legend supposedly took place near Gaziantep.  Sounds like that city is missing a marketing pitch – at least a pitch to geeks who’ve heard of Gilgamesh.

Also was reminded of what a job the Mongols did on these lands – they wasted 80% of Anatolia, as well as smashing the Baghdad Caliphate and hastening the decline of the Muslim world.  That was back around 1250 A.D.  Hmm.

Saw a restaurant called Kebabistan.  Enticing, but I had some errands to do.  Had a rough time finding an internet café with a working printer – had to visit 3 joints to find one.  I had 3 e-tickets to print out for upcoming flights.  Finally took care of that, and was worn out from the experience.  Lay back in my hotel and started a new book, ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,’ by Junot Diaz.  Engrossing story about an obese Dominican immigrant who’s a role-playing/Dungeons & Dragons dork.  Diaz weaves in lots of Tolkien terms and references – funny to see Trujillo’s DR compared to Mordor.  So far, loving this book.

Last night in Turkey, after 6 weeks there.  Took a cab to the ritzy/international part of town, Kavaklidere.  En route saw Ataturk’s Mausoleum lit up – emblematic of Turkey and a nice memory of the place.

Walked around the district for a while.  Had a couple beers at Bar Gitanes, one of those places where they bring you snacks without asking – usually a very bad sign.  And there was a torch singer/synthesizer duo on stage – more bad news.  Still, I was thirsty and decided to hang out for a bit.  Tab wasn’t that ugly – about US$6-7 per beer.  There are stories about tourists getting monstrous bills at Turkish nightclubs – but those are the types of places where girls come and sit by you and ask for drinks.  If you ever find yourself stuck in that sort of place, be very sure to first ask the price of every single thing before they bring it to you.  A bottle of champagne can go for US$500, or more.

Wound up having dinner at Tapa Tapa Tapas, a – wait for it – Spanish-style place with perfectly respectable albondigas (meatballs) and other assorted snacks.  I guess I was sick of heavy Turkish food by that point…so opted for heavy Spanish food.  Do you think that you can get electronic shock therapy to help become a vegetarian?

Hit the sack early, for once.  Had to get up at 4:15 a.m. to head to the airport.  I was flying via Istanbul to Amman, Jordan, using frequent flyer miles.  Of course, that meant that I had to catch an ungodly early flight to Istanbul, then sit there for hours before connecting.  Oh well.  Obama was Pres-Elect and I had love in my heart.  Or something like that.

This was my first flight in ages – since August 18^th, a lifetime ago, when I’d flown from Tashkent to Kyiv.  Really, that does seem like the distant past.

Managed to get up and get to the Ankara airport, which was nice and calm at this hour.  Nothing like Tashkent’s unholy hell.  Ankara has 4-5 million souls but still seems half-deserted at times.  I don’t mind deserted airports, particularly early in the morning when the power of speech seems elusive.

Got to Istanbul.  Four-hour layover there.  Went pretty quickly.  Read the local English newspaper and Time Magazine – Obama galore.  And found a duty-free store which had my long-sought lightweight daypack, to replace the one I’ve been having stitched up for ages.  About 12 Euros – this one seems superior to my current model, which, to be fair, I bought a year and a half ago in Phnom Penh, and was never built for the uses I put it to.

So it was farewell to Turkey, a country I’d greatly enjoyed.  But it was also time to move on.  Had an easy flight to Amman, less than two hours.  Time to get into the Jordanian swing of things – which, at first, meant standing in a long line to get a visa stamp.  Slight torture, but I wasn’t in a real hurry.

Took a bus into the city.  Disembarked when told to – didn’t seem we were really in the city yet, it was pretty wide open, but this was apparently the closest point to downtown, where I’d be staying.  Flagged down a cab.  Major torture ensued.  The cabbie hadn’t heard of my hotel – which was prominently mentioned in my guidebook, so I’d assumed it would be popular and known to cabbies.  Nope.  I had the guidebook map and street name…but I guess they change street names often.  Later on, I’d realize that he was clueless – the street name hadn’t changed.

He did ask a bunch of other drivers, and people on the street, none of whom knew the place.  I asked him to use the Arabic name – not sure he did that, but anyway we were lost.  I finally had him drop me at the King Hussein Mosque, which looked pretty close to my hotel on my map.  Walked around – didn’t see the hotel.  Wandered into another hotel and asked if they’d heard of the Palace Hotel.  The guy at the desk was helpful – he knew it, and drew me a simple map.  Thanked him and walked off.  Came back a half-hour later, not having found it.  He giggled a bit, and had his bellhop show me the way.  Truth be told, it was well-hidden, inside an alleyway.  I tipped the bellhop and was finally able to relax.

I was starting to think that Turkey was Middle East Lite, and that I was now in the real deal.  Jury’s still out, but I just might be right about that.

The Palace Hotel was OK – mediocre rooms, but the price was right and it seemed to be a great place to join tours of nearby sites, one of my aims.  The guy at the front desk wasn’t that helpful – couldn’t answer any of my 5 initial questions, which spanned:

-getting a local SIM card

-seeing if they ran tours to Damascus, as I’d heard they did this

-signing up for a tour of Jerash and other nearby sites

-finding a good international medical center to get a yellow fever booster (more on this soon)

-finding the Indian Embassy to get an entry visa

He did tell me where I could find a beer, at the nearby Jordan Bar.  And near the bar was Hashem Restaurant, an alleyway place with great hummus and falafel.  So I started there…

After lubricating my liver, I felt a bit more relaxed.  A long day, though – from my 4:15 a.m. bell, through two flights and a long layover, concluding with the cab ride from hell.  Meant to go out that night – it was Saturday – but first needed a bit of rest.  Lay down at 7 p.m., set my alarm for 9 p.m.  And woke up the next morning at 7 a.m.  Oh well.  I sometimes do this – and I guess I needed it.  Missed a night out, but promised myself I’d make it up at some point.  New friend Brian (from Turkey adventures) had told me about a nightclub called Nai – wanted to check that out.

Had breakfast, then checked at the front desk about the local tour.  That seemed OK for the next day, so I decided to see Amman today.

The woman now at the front desk was very nice and quite helpful.  I shouldn’t rag too much on the nighttime guy, he was nice enough and also seemed highly devout – saw him praying a few times.  I also should have prayed – for him to answer at least a couple of my questions.  Ouch!

Followed the walking tour outlined in my guidebook – which sometimes results in lost hours and wasted time, but this tour was fairly easy to follow.  Along the way, I:

-had a ridiculously sweet dish called kanafa, at Habiba sweet shop in a small alley near Arab Bank

-walked around a well-preserved Roman Theater right in town

-checked out some cool photos of old Amman at a small museum at the Roman Theater – the city seemed a lot more relaxed and clean back then

-visited the hilltop Citadel, which besides having stupendous views of the city, and some decent ruins, also had the terrific National Archeological Museum which featured several bits of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and some 8,000+-year-old statues – the museum itself was small and modest, in a Western country this collection would be housed in a palace

I noticed early on that Amman has that smell in the air.  A bit like India, and the first time since I’d been in India…even Turkey didn’t have much of an aroma.  I kind of missed this, and I smiled when I made the connection.  Pattern recog, baby, that’s what it’s all about…

Took a cab over to semi-ritzy Abdoun Circle for a late lunch.  Found an Asian place called NoodAsia – hate the name, but it looked good and I went it.  Nearly the entire staff was Filipino – pretty funny.  I guess Pinoys know English and have a customer service mentality – two things the locals here lack.  So it made sense.

Had a temaki (hand roll) and some beef kway teoh noodles – both excellent.  Had really missed ‘real Asian food.’  Noodles, fish, soups – much lighter and healthier than the fare I’d been living on lately.  Good change of pace – not that I’d be keeping it up for long.

Had a few errands to run, per my list of 5 questions above.  First, wanted to see if I could get a yellow fever booster shot – India requires these if you’ve been in Africa, and I’d be in Egypt before flying to Mumbai in early December.  I got a yellow fever jab in Joburg back in January 1999, and they are rated for 10 years, so I’d probably be OK for this trip to India…but wanted to get ahead of the curve in case more trips followed.

Had heard of the Al-Khalidi Medical Center, affiliated with Mass General, I believe.  Went there – found a doc who spoke English – but they didn’t have this vaccine in stock.  He wrote down another place, a hospital run by the Health Ministry, took a longcab ride over there.  Cabbie picked his gargantuan nose the entire time – for a moment I thought I was back in Brooklyn.  Resolved to give him exact change – wasn’t keen to get any bills or coins back from that hand.

The second hospital, Al-Bashir, was even less useful.  Total confusion…almost no English signs or speakers…no hope whatsoever.  Plus I wasted more than an hour finding the emergency room – seriously.  Only to be told by an English-speaking fellow there (I think he was ad administrator) that they didn’t have yellow fever vaccine.  Torture.  I bailed…and resolved to get the booster in Mumbai, where I’d at least have 1) support and 2) English at hand.

Very hard to get things done here in the Middle East.  And Jordan is relatively calm and organized.  Things seem to happen in slo mo.  I was starting to despair, but eventually I began getting traction.  I got a SIM card…I tracked down the Indian Embassy, near Amman’s First Circle (I think there are 7 traffic circles in Amman, these are major reference points…and remind me of Dante).  Had to visit this Embassy the following day to get going on my Indian entry visa.  I was hopeful this process would go smoothly and not be any approximation of my most recent visa nightmare, the Uzbekistan near-fiasco.

Also found an English newspaper, the Jordan times, and read that.  Was starting to settle into local life a bit more.

While walking around, an impish little boy tossed an empty cup at my feet.  Glanced off my shoe – no damage.  The father apologized profusely…I smiled and laughed, a real laugh.  Then I knew that I was starting to relax and not worry so much about vaccines and visas, two of the major pressure points in my life these days.

Did a bit of exercise in the hotel room.  Then walked over to the Jordan bar for a couple beers.  My routine was coming together – after the beer, went to the nearby alley for a couple excellent falafel sandwiches.  When I was just out of university, I used to make falafel (from mix, of course) because it was pretty tasty and super-cheap.  But the falafel over here is just unbeatable – and is still super-cheap.  I can’t get enough of it.  Also serves as a good meat substitute – its filling and has a texture which is semi-meaty.

Had an apple juice at the Palestine Juice Center, one of many fresh juice places around town.  They don’t seem to have pomegranates – too bad, those were one of Turkey’s best offerings.

Read about Obama picking Rahm Emmanuel as his chief of staff.  Not a popular pick here – his dad is an Israeli doctor and the Rahmster is not exactly neutral on Middle East politics.  We’ll see where this goes.

Next day, joined a small group from the hotel for a tour of Jerash and other sites.  Our driver was the humorous Yusuf; there was also Andres from Barcelona, Marcel from Holland, and Pascal from Quebec.  Pretty fun group – lots of busting going on.

First went to Umm Qais, a collection of ruins from where you can see the Sea of Gallillee/Lake Tiberias and the Golan Heights – impressive views

From there we drove to Ajlun Castle, built by the Crusaders in the Middle Ages.  Yusuf got pulled over en route and got a speeding ticket.  We felt bad for him, but were soon teasing him mercilessly.

Finally wound up in Jerash, one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the region.  A fair few tourists running around, but nothing like Ephesus in Turkey – and I dare say that Jerash was even more impressive, the spread was larger and the impression greater.

Throughout the day Marcel and I were hitting it off well – and it turned out that we had arrived in Amman the same night and had nearly the same itinerary planned.  So we decided to travel together for a while, till we either got sick of one another or our plans diverged.  Good to have a sidekick, and nice to be able to split travel costs.

Jordan is much cheaper than Turkey, primarily in transport – petrol seems somewhat cheaper, and there are a zillion taxis eager for business.  Not that much of a public transport system, but the taxis are really cheap and most people hire them to get around the country…which is quite small, much smaller than vast Turkey with its 10-hour bus rides.

After the day tour, took Marcel and Pascal to the Jordan Bar for a few beers.  Then Marcel and I went to Blue Fig, an expat/chi-chi café near Abdoun Circle.  Turns out Marcel was in Japan a few months back, and went to Takayama, one of my favorite spots in Japan.  He even hung out at Red Hill Pub, one of the bars I love most in the world.  Talk about a small world…

After dinner we walked to Abdoun Circle for a drink, and wound up in an ‘Arabic Nightclub’ called Deep Blue.  Again, one of those places where you sit down and they bring over snacks, unbidden.  But this place also had the girls coming over to you, bugging you for drinks.  Seemed most of the lasses were from Morocco – must be hard times over there.  We chatted with a few of the girls but didn’t buy them drinks – they didn’t seem to mind.  Final tab wasn’t cheap, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

I was a bit tired from the day, but Marcel was getting a second wind and seemed happy to have someone to drink with.  So we asked a cabbie to take us to a good place, and he drove out out to the posh Shmeisani ‘hood, where we went into another nightclub, I think called Oscar.  A veritable wall of Arabic sound, where we were ushered to a booth and plied with ‘free’ snacks.  I was somewhat apprehensive about a major-league rip-off in process…but the place turned out to be genuine and full of pretty cool locals who found us hilarious.  More Moroccan ladies came over – we danced with some of them – the crooner came over and sang to us – we spent a lot of loot.  Still, not that outrageous in the grand scheme of things.  And we had a great time – lots of drinks, cozying up to the ladies, and getting a reasonable sense of how Arabic guys with a bit of money have fun at night.  Hopefully I’ll have more of these nights before leaving the region…the fun here is much more undercover than even in Turkey, so you have to look for it and ask around.  But it is generally open to foreigners, as long as you don’t mind spending a bit and trying to fit in.  That’s me…

Got up way too early next next morning, with a solid hangover, and headed to the Indian Embassy to get my visa going.  Warning: torture up ahead.  I walked up to the desk and explained my situation…she reviewed my passport, noticing two Indian visas already in there…then told me that I’d need a formal invitation letter from the company in India, and a personal letter explaining my reason for the proposed trip.  Ugh.  I asked about a simple tourist visa – she said that wouldn’t work, as I already had two Indian visas recently.  I thought that was ridiculous – India’s a place with a huge amount of sites, and a few trips are needed to see the key places.  She agreed with me, but that was their policy – which in effect was, ‘who would be crazy enough to go back to India after one trip there?’  Classic.

Wouldn’t be that hard turning the invite letter around, but I’d now have to return to the Embassy twice more – for drop-off and pick-up.  And I was leaving Amman in a few hours, to head to Madaba.  I walked off in a crap mood, and reviewed my options.  Decided to get the two letters going – wrote the drafts at a computer at the hotel, and sent them off to the company in Mumbai.  Decided to return two mornings hence from Madaba to Amman, only an hour ride each way – not super-painful.  That should get things back on track.

Checked out of the hotel, and took a taxi with Marcel to Madaba, a small mellow town south of Amman that’s used often as a jumping-off point for the Dead Sea and other nearby sites.  Got to Madaba early afternoon…checked into the very accommodating Mariam Hotel, where it seems all foreigners stay, meet, and tour the area from.  Tracked down an awesome falafel shop and gorged.  Visited the local sights – a few nice churches and an ancient map of the region, done in mosaic form.  Thought about going for a swim in the hotel pool but it was too chilly.  Slept for two hours – visiting an Embassy has that effect on me.

Got up and checked emails.  The hotel had wireless, seemed there was nothing the hotel lacked.  It’s run by local Arab Christians – Madaba has lots of them and they’re great proprietors.  Saw that new friend Beril in Turkey commented on my recent blog post – and told me that in Van, in far east Turkey, locals killed 44 goats in honor of Obama being elected the U.S.A.’s 44^th president.  She also put the website with various Obama goat photos in her comment – you can see it in the comments section of my blogsite, check it out, the pics are something else.

Yesterday Marcel and I took the ‘big tour’ around the Madaba area with a few other tourists, Dutch (like Marcel) and Spanish.  The tour included:

-Mt. Nebo, from where Moses saw the Promised Land, then died.  Great views west to Israel…but a bit churchy for me.  I’m not here to see Christian sites, or Islamic ones for that matter – I’d rather see much older stuff.

-Bethany-Beyond-the Jordan – I know what I just wrote, but this was actually pretty interesting, it’s supposedly the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus.  They only found the site a few years ago.  It’s on the Jordan River, which is a pretty sad sight, at least right here – no more than a few meters across.  The river has shifted over the years, and the baptism site is now mostly dry, with biblical flies swarming you.  For me the highlight was seeing Israel just a few meters away – there’s also a similar site on the Israel side, we waved to the tourists over there.  Felt like I could jump over the Jordan and land in Israel – full of bullets, of course.  I won’t get to Israel for another 6 weeks or so…but it will be worth the wait, I’m sure.

-Driving down the Dead Sea Highway, we passed some massive resorts – the Movenpik, the Marriott, and a couple others.  Nice, but not that exciting.  Good refuge, methinks.

-The Dead Sea.  Hugely entertaining.  We swam at ‘Amman Beach,’ a public section of the sea.  Cousin Mikey had emailed me earlier, telling me not to pee before getting into the salty water – he’d done that and suffered.  I took his advice, and had even deferred shaving my face and getting a haircut.  Swimming in the Dead Sea is perhaps a cliché, but incredibly odd and fun anyway.  I felt like I was in NASA weightlessness training – after getting to waist depth, you start to bob up slightly, and eventually you need to lay on your back – half your body remains above the water, and there you are.  I felt like a little kid and kicked around for at least 45 minutes.  A bit of water got in my mouth and it felt like I’d had 10 margaritas.

Avoided getting a mudpack there – many tourists went in for one, but it looked like a pain to me.  I did have a nice buffet lunch, though – I needed to get the salty taste out of my mouth.

-Final stop:  the Dead Sea Panorama, a hilltop overlooking the sea with a decent little museum with descriptions and exhibits from the area.

Was fairly tired after the long day, but also in a state of minor exhilaration from the ‘swim.’

Checked email and noticed that the India visa request letter had already come back – found a web café and printed it out.  Got a haircut.  Booked a taxi to take me back to Amman, to again visit the Indian Embassy.  Met Marcel for some local beers, and for dinner.  Relaxed and watched the dismal economic news on the BBC.  Just when you’re in a good mood from what you’ve done all day, the news of the world is there to set you straight…

Got up early today and went to the Indian Embassy in Amman.  My cabbie was a warm guy who laughed a lot, barely spoke English, and often patted my shoulder and hand.  Got to the Embassy, while it was raining, right at 9 a.m.  Went up to the gate – it was still closed.  Checked my watch – just past 9.  Then I saw a notice on the gate – ‘Guru Nanak Birthday – 13/11/08 – Embassy Closed.’  No fucking way.  I know about Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion – certainly worthy of a holiday, but I was in India the past two Novembers and never heard a peep about this holiday, and now could not believe it was biting me in the ass.  I’d expressly come back to Amman for my visa, and was now, again, being denied.  Now I was really angry.

But what could I do?  I finally decided, fuming in the cab back to Madaba, to blow off any further attempt in Amman and just wait till I got to Cairo to get this going.  It would be a bit tight, and I’d need to have Mumbai touch base with the Cairo Embassy to ensure 1) no holidays/surprises upcoming and 2) opening hours matched my sked.  I simply refused to consider two more trips to Amman, from farther south in Jordan – too time-consuming and costly.  I am the king at making lemonade out of lemons…we’ll have to see if I can keep doing so.

Oh well.  I already knew that India’s not a user-friendly place.  It’s just that I’ve always gotten Indian visas rather easily – granted, travel agents in accommodating places like Bangkok or the States took care of the torture for me.  Talk about good value – going to Embassies yourself is really just not worth it, if you can at all avoid it.  Here, in the Middle East, you can’t avoid it.

My cabbie tried to cheer my up on the ride back to Madaba.  All the while I was working through the timing implications on my Treo, finally coming up with a workable timetable for shifting from Jordan to Cairo and going to the Indian Embassy there.  Feels like I’m starting work already…

Got back to the hotel.  Checked out.  Collected Marcel, then we got in a cab that would take us south, to the village of Dana, visa a few sites on the way.  First, we stopped at Mukawir, King Herod’s castle where his step-daugher Salome danced for him and asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter.  Granted.  Here’s the dance floor:

Mukawir has a history like Masada’s – the Jews held out here in 72 A.D. until the Romans built a ramp (you can see the rubble on the west side of the hill – but not much left) and took the hilltop.  And the cave photo above is of one of several caves below the castle, one of these is where they beheaded John the Baptist.  Gnarly.

Next, heading south on the King’s Highway, the Grand Canyon of Jordan, Wadi Mujib – fairly impressive sight.  The river flowing through the wadi has been dammed, and the river now barely flows to the Dead Sea – which, as we saw at twilight, has shrunken dramatically at the south end and is a deeply depressing sight.  Aral Sea, anyone.

After that, visited Karak Castle, built by the Crusaders.  Large and impressive.  Taken by Saladdin and his boys in the 12th century.

Finally, just as the sun was setting, we got to the southern end of the Dead Sea, and visited Lot’s Cave, where we and his two daughters fled after the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah, and his wife’s conversion to a salt shaker.  Recall the biblical tale:  his two daughters got him drunk and screwed him, and his line was thus able to continue.  I really should pick up an Old Testament, there are some crazy stories in there.

We had a fair walk up the hill to the cave.  It was now past 5 p.m. and the place was closed/empty – Marcel and I skirted a ‘closed’ sign and went up to the cave, which was fairly cool – nothing inside, of course, but it felt historic and ancient.  Had to see this place while in the neighborhood.  It was pitch black as we made our way back down to our taxi – good little adventure to end the day.  Lot himself would have been proud…

Saw the full moon as we drove another 45 minutes to the village of Dana, from where I sit and write this entry.  My hotel, the aptly named Dana Hotel, is a solid little place where I’ll spend just one night before moving on to famed Petra tomorrow.  Look for some great photos in next week’s entry – Petra is one of the world’s most photogenic places, even when the camera-wielder is yours truly.  Over and out.