Dubai was an interesting contrast to the image of the Middle East we’d drawn up during our travels in Egypt and Jordan. It’s bright, loud and brash! It seemed like the only thing to do in Dubai was shop – and so we did!
K and I hit the Gold Souk and picked up some souvenirs, we went to the beach to look at the Burj, walked along the Creek and watched the dhows being unloaded, went shopping again, and then it was pretty much time to go back to the airport and head home.
What an experience!
Filed under UAE
Our last stop on the Footsteps of Alexander tour is Amman, with a day trip out to the Greco-Roman ruins at Jerash. Jerash is gorgeous – Corinthian columns, Ionic columns, a restored amphitheatre, a huge oval plaza, temples, fountains… and it’s huge!
The Artemis temple was amazing – some of the columns are still extant and didn’t even fall in the earthquakes that took out much of the city.
In Amman we hit the mall! Just like home, but bigger and more lights. All the same stuff – clothes, shoes, accessories. Then it was time to pack up and hit the airport. Last small drama – they decided that we’d got the wrong kind of visa on entry, and took our passports away for an hour while they tried to sort it out. So we were trapped in limbo waiting, watching the clock tick over to boarding time! We managed to get everything back just in time – I’m so glad we got to the airport a bit early!
It was hard to say goodbye to our tour group. We’d spent 2 1/2 weeks in each others’ pockets and had become friends.
Filed under Jordan
Jordan is really cold compared to Egypt. I guess it’s that far further north and that far further inland, but the jacket doesn’t come off very often! The frost on the ground is so thick it looks like it’s been snowing!
Today we visited Shaubak Castle, a Crusader fortification on a cliff. We were supposed to go to Kerak Castle, but the road was closed due to fog and ice, so Shaubak it was! At least there weren’t many other tourists around.
The second stop on our itinerary for the day was Dana, a 200-year old village. There haven’t been many improvements here – the people live in rustic cave-like buildings with electricity cords strung between them. There’s a handcrafts shop here which helps people stay in the village they grew up in.
Next was Madaba, incidentally, where our Jordanian tour leader was born. We visited the church with the amazing mosaic map floor. There was a documentary crew in there filming the mosaic floor as well!
Filed under Jordan
Petra is amazing. There’s no two ways about it!
The way in through the siq is gorgeous – the tiny pathway through rock rent apart by tectonic forces. There are remnants of the old Roman road, but so much of it has been affected by the shifting sands and further excavation that the levels are very different, even from when my grandma visited it 30 years ago! There’s plants clinging to every crack in the rock, from creepers to full-sized fig trees!
The first sight of the Treasury is completely unexpected. How fabulous!
There are lots of other sights to see, although a lot of people don’t get past the big courtyard in front of the Treasury. We visited temples and a Byzantine church with mosaics still existing on the floor.
Back at the hotel, some of us had our first experience of a Turkish bath. The steam room was so hot that it seared the paint off my glasses! Then came the scrub, and bowls of water being thrown around to rinse off, then a massage and body lotion. Then a soak in the spa to really finish off the ultimate relaxation.
Filed under Jordan
Today we visited the desert and Wadi Rum, which is lovely – huge sandstone and granite mountains. This is where parts of Lawrence of Arabia was filmed, so that’s very cool. We visited Lawrence’s Spring – a freshwater spring coming out of bare rock – and a cave with early Bedouin painting/graffiti.
The Bedouin theme continued with sage tea taken in a Bedouin tent, before we headed off to our hotel near Petra.
Filed under Jordan
The ferry ride across the Red Sea to Aqaba in Jordan was pretty uneventful, especially since there’d been a ferry that sank doing the same crossing a few weeks beforehand. I’m starting to think our transport is a bit jinxed!
Aqaba is a bit of a blur to me. We only stayed one night, and I spent most of my time trying to find out what was happening politically – the Australian consulate in Amman had closed due to terrorism threats and the Australian DFAT warning had gone up to “Reconsider your need to travel”. I was pretty freaked out by this, and was trying to contact home to see whether the tour would continue.
Things calmed down pretty quickly, but it definitely put a damper on my first few days in Jordan!
Filed under Jordan
We boarded our bus and headed our past the Suez Canal to the Sinai.
Our destination was St Catherine, the tiny town at the foot of Mt Sinai, which we were to climb to see the sunrise.
It was absolutely freezing at St Catherine. It had dropped to zero degrees Celcius by the time we arrived at 6pm! The rooms in the guesthouse weren’t heated, so we piled on the blankets (thank goodness there weren’t many people in each dorm so we could nab the spare blankets!) and layered our clothes multiple times when the time came to set out for the climb. I ended up wearing:
Even with all that, it was icy on the mountain!
We were told that there would be camels to transport us part of the way up if we wanted, but by the time we got there, they’d all been taken. I was a bit anxious about this, since I’m not the best mountain-climber! We kept climbing slowly though, and managed to snag an early returning camel for a lift for half an hour or so. Even with that help, it was really hard going after three hours of climbing! By the time we got to the Steps of Repentance, I was dead, and avowed my intention to stop. After ten minutes of rest, though, I managed to keep going, and met the others at the peak, just in time for dawn!
Daybreak was gorgeous, but with hundreds of people all perched on the top of the mountain it wasn’t really the spiritual experience people talk about. Nevertheless, it was an experience I was glad I managed.
The walk downhill was much easier on the legs, but very slippery. Now that we could see, it was a pretty impressive climb!
After leaving St Catherine, our last trip was on the bus to the port of Nuweiba to catch the ferry to Jordan. Goodbye Egypt, and goodbye to Hamam, our fabulous tour leader!
Filed under Egypt
We stopped in Cairo for one more night before heading off to the Sinai and Jordan. That morning we awoke to frantic messages and texts from home – apparently there had been a bus crash on the road to Alexandria yesterday and some Australian tourists had been involved. Our families were understandably very concerned to make sure we were all okay!
On our last day in Cairo we spent more time in Khan el Khalili, having tea and shisha in El Fishawi. Not many shops were open, as it was the holidays, but we still managed to pick up a few things 😉
Filed under Egypt
In Alexandria we stayed in a big hotel right on the beach! The view from our balcony was the Mediterranean… and the multi-lane highway right in front of it!
Apparently Alexandria was founded when Alexander the Great convinced the high priest at Memphis to crown him pharaoh of Egypt. Quite a persuasive guy, once presumes! While here we started by visiting the National Alexandria Museum which is housed in the building that used to be the US Consulate.
The Catacombs were next – a deep underground tomb like a reversed tower. The people took picnics down to have celebrations with their dead relatives, which was pretty spooky.
Another big attraction in Aexandria is the Fort. Supposedly using stone from the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, it’s an awesomely restored edifice. We walked around the bay along the beach to get to it – and there were heaps if kitty cats enjoying the sun (and the fishing).
The Cecil Hotel was another attraction – where Noel Coward and his cronies used to write. Very civilised.
We ate very well in Alexandria – fabulous seafood chosen live at the shop across the road, and prepared as you like it, and where I first experienced sahlab (yummy drink/dessert that’s kind of like milky custard/rice pudding with coconut, crushed nuts and dried fruit on top) and the ubiquitous sheep’s testicles! I didn’t order this by the way – one of the girls was feeling adventurous, but we all had a taste!
The Eid celebration took place while we were in Alexandria, which meant that a lot of people were buying animals to butcher and feast on. It was a bit strange to see people cutting a sheep’s throat on the side of the road before loading it into the boot of their sedan to drive home with!
Filed under Egypt
We caught the train back up to Cairo – on my birthday!We celebrated by going to lunch at the Columbo Cafe and having fruit juice mocktails (this one is a mint and lemon juice – so refreshing!)
The Egyptian Museum was our next stop for the day. There was just so much stuff here, it got really overwhelming. We look at the Tut Ankh Amon exhibit, the Jewellery Room, the Tombs of Tanis and Ankhenaten. Most of us didn’t bother going to the Mummy Room – there are lots of mummies throughout the rest of the museum, so we didn’t think it was worth paying extra to see more! We stocked up on tacky souvenirs in the gift shop (not the cheapest, but they had some good stuff).
Dinner was a “5-Star Extravaganza”! We had dinner on another cruise boat on the Nile: one that just does a loop for a couple of hours from the Cairo docks for lunch/dinner cruises. The buffet wasn’t anything special compared to the other meals we had, but the desserts were much more expansive! The entertainment was great though – the usual show of a Sufi dancer, solo bellydancer, a small group of male dancers, and the bellydancer joined them before inviting the audience to come up and dance. Because it was my b’day, I was invited up to have a shimmy or two, which was fun.
On our way back to the hotel we saw some of the contrasts of Cairo: on one side there was a wedding party, and on the other a cow was being strapped to the back of a car!
Filed under Egypt
Two Weeks Away 