The Middle East - Egypt: The place of much sand!

Hey again,

When you first arrive in Cairo you'll notice one thing and one thing only... the traffic! The reason this is the only thing you notice is because you spend your entire encounter with it trying not to die! Here are some friendly government initiatives that have been put in place to help control the unstoppable flood water that is Cairo's driving population:

• A drivers license is not really required though you may be asked to show one to a police officer. This is because you could easily buy a counterfeit license anywhere in Egypt thus making the use of them totally redundant, however a police officer may ask you for one so that upon failure to show it, he can hit you up for a bribe! Classic!

• At many busy intersections (many that already have traffic lights) the Egyptian government does something very odd... they provide a man in a uniform with gloves and a whistle to play a game of 'What's the time Mr Wolf?'. All Egyptian drivers must enjoy this game immensely as they all start to creep into the intersection as soon as the guy with the whistle turns his back, then all of a sudden he turns around and they all stop! I think the aim of the game is to try and sneak through the intersection while the lights are red and the guy with the whistle isn't looking... there must be a prize for the person who successfully does it the most because that's all they seem to do in Cairo!

• There are no lane markings anywhere on the roads, this makes it much easier for trucks and vans to fit into gaps that in any other country even a motorcycle would think twice about squeezing into.

• Vehicle registration is also another formality they don't bother with in Egypt, as I'm sure you could just bribe your way through the process anyway. This means there are some absolutely unimaginable contraptions driving around on the roads. Not that you'd ever want to spend too much money on your car, not when you are likely to have four or five minor collisions per day. And you certainly wouldn't bother washing it! Perhaps installing a giant rubber ring somewhat akin to a dodgem car would prove a better use of ones money.

• In most countries around the world holding the steering wheel at 10 and 2 is considered the safest way to drive. In Cairo you have one hand at 2 and the other hand on the horn! It's also acceptable to have one hand on the horn and the other hand flashing your headlights and one hand on the steering wheel... wait a minute, I'm not sure how... urgh my head hurts.

• The kerb on most streets in Egypt is about 1.5 feet high, I guess this is to prevent drivers from mistaking the pedestrian footpath for an unusually clear lane! It's not like pedestrians have right of way anyway!

After navigating our way through the traffic to our hotel, witnessing only one accident, we spent the afternoon relaxing and walking around down-town Cairo. The point of our first day was to swap tour leaders and meet the new people who would be joining us for the remaining two weeks of the tour. We had dinner together that night where I had stuffed pigeon, I'm not sure if it was any good as I couldn't find any meat on the damn thing!!

The next week of the tour was pretty much devoted to visiting many of the ancient Egyptian sites we are all so familiar with, all the way from Cairo down to Aswan and back up to Luxor:

• The Pyramids (Ancient Wonder) and Sphinx at Giza
• The Egyptian Museum
• Abu Simbel (requiring a police escorted convoy at 3:30am in the morning)
  
• Philae Temple
• Temple of Komombo (seen from the outside)
• The Temple of Karnak
• Colossus of Memnon
• The Valley of the Kings
• The Temple of Luxor (seen from the outside)
• Luxor Museum (containing the Luxor Cache)
  
• Hatchepsut's Mortuary Temple
• Ramsees III Mortuary Temple

Jeremy and Jo on the Pyramids

The Sphinx

Spices at the markets in Aswan.

Abu Simbel

Philae Temple

Hieroglyphics at Philae Temple.

Hatchepsut's Mortuary Temple

Amazing colour detail at Hatchepsut's Mortuary Temple.

Ramsees III Mortuary Temple.

The Temple of Karnak

We were luckily able to break the week up with a 2.5 day Felucca cruise up the Nile from Aswan to Komombo. Which was such a relaxing experience we didn't think we were going to be able to get off the boat when the time came. On our second evening on the Felucca we visited a small town named Durow, which is very close to the Nile. This was one of my favourite places in Egypt simply because the people there weren't used to seeing tourists and they weren't trying to scam us for money. The town has grown up around an old camel market where Sudanese camel traders stop on their way up to Cairo and beyond. We were lucky on the day we were there as a new herd of camels (they were actually dromedaries but for ease of understanding I'm calling them camels) had just arrived and was being processed. It's really quite amusing to watch the camels as they have all been "hobbled" to prevent them from moving too quickly. This involved strapping the bottom third of their leg (Camels have 2 knees) to the middle third using a leather belt! Then they just seem to run around as usual on three legs! not quite sure if it really does anything to slow them down though.

Our Felucca

Relaxing on the Felucca

The camel market at Durow.

The people in the town were really friendly as well, especially the kids who just wanted to meet us and play with us and pose for photos. They didn't even ask for a pen! (I'll explain later). Jo and I were invited to sit and have tea/coffee with some of the Sudanese camel traders, one of whom was missing an eye. We also had ourselves a glass of fresh sugar cane juice, they literally feed a 2 metre long stick into the machine and out comes a glass of cold sugar juice! it costs 1 Egyptian Pound (AUD $0.20). We even picked up a bit of camel meat to have with dinner that night as we were all keen to give it a try... tastes a bit like mutton, I think?

An Egyptian boy at the camel markets.

After enjoying all the famous ancient Egyptian sites, ticking off a few childhood dreams, sneaking a few photo's in places we weren't meant to take them, getting into an extra tomb we hadn't paid for (suckers) and being thoroughly sick of all the tourists and trash salesmen. We high-tailed it away from the Nile and headed for Alexandria!

Alexandria was quite a different place from the other parts of Egypt, as there are more young adults around due to the University and the 'Library of Alexandria' newly built to hold over 8 million books (currently only possessing around 500 000 books) the shelves look mighty bare!! But still an impressive building. We visited the catacombs which were quite cool but a little odd, they seemed more like a cult head quarters than a burial place for 300 people. Another reason to visit Alexandria is for the fabled 'Lighthouse of Alexandria', it was one of the 'Seven Ancient Wonders of the World' and the 5th ancient wonder that Jo and I have seen on our travels. They also do some of the best seafood in the world and for the best price as well!

Fishing boats at Alexandria

What remains of the Lighthouse at Alexandria

Sunset in Alexandria

From Alexandria we set of for the oasis at Siwa, very close to the Libyan border (that was a long bus ride). While here we did a few cool things like sand boarding (the same as snow boarding but on sand), swam in some thermal pools , visited the 'Mountain of the Dead' an ancient Roman burial site. The whole mountain is littered with human bones that have been scattered by animals, erosion and grave robbers (one of the girls on our tour fell down part of it and broke her ankle... ouch!!). We also visited the site of the famous oracle of Siwa (visited by Alexander the Great) and had dinner with a local Bedouin family. Most of this was done on the back of a push bike. Siwa is a bit more conservative and a little bit more rural than other parts of Egypt we'd seen. They ride a hell of a lot more donkeys and motorbikes with nearly all 4WD's belonging to tourist related companies. Women here aren't treated with as much respect as other parts of Egypt. Local women are expected to cover their entire faces with a shroud (not even showing their eyes) and some of the women on our tour would be completely ignored if they asked a question of a local man in a shop or the street.

View of the oasis at Siwa from Mountain of the Dead

Bike riding in the Siwa Oasis

Bike riding in the Siwa Oasis

From Siwa we jumped into some jeeps and 4WD'd through the desert for about 8 hours across the desert in a small convoy to reach Bahariya. We stayed one night there then set off again for the White Desert, but not before driving through the Black Desert. A really long and bumpy day, though we did catch one of the best sunsets we'd seen on any of our travels! The landscape was just so alien with all the rock formations and the sun was massive and glowing red!!

Amazing scenery in the Western Desert.

Watching sunset in the Western Desert

Sunset in the Western Desert.

This was pretty much the last activity on our itinerary and the next two days were spent getting back to Cairo. We finished up our tour by partying it up at a club our tour leader assured us was a really great place... it turned out to be a TGI Fridays!!! (our English friends should get that one) But finally having some western food after 3 weeks was heaven... plus they had a dance floor and alcohol which usually equals a party in anyone's language! It was sad to say goodbye to Mo (our tour leader) and all the great people we'd met on tour, but that's what travelling is all about!

After the tour Mo helped us organise transport and accommodation in Dahab on the Red Sea. We didn't do a lot that week... I'm pretty sure the most productive thing we managed to do was write out a bunch of postcards, read our books and work on our tans! One of our new friends from the tour was also in Dahab learning how to dive for the week so we ended up having dinner with him and his diving buddy/ies every night. which was great!

P.S. We also watched England get knocked out of the European cup... shame.

Chillin' in Dahab

Now it was time to head back to Cairo for one night and some last minute shopping before jetting off to Bangkok!

Classic Quotes & Cheeky Egyptians

I was greeted in Aswan by a 10 year old boy who was riding past me on a donkey. He said to me "Hello beautiful money"!! Cheeky git!

Another classic quote from the Bazaar's is "Let me help you spend your money"

Pretty much every other kid in Egypt (those familiar with tourists) knows that if you are cute enough you can usually get something out of them. If you weren't asked directly for money (Baksheesh), then the alternative usually went something like this "Hello. Hello. Hello pen? Hello pen? Hello. Hello pen?" Pen could also be easily interchanged with the word "Sweet". Come to think of it none of the kids ever asked for paper? I guess they had plenty :P

On a couple of occasions we came across the odd Egyptian who wasn't quite as genuine as we might have liked. Feel free to replace 'came across' with 'caught out'. On one occasion Jo and I were at a small 'corner-store' stocking up on some juice for our felucca trip. Jo, having learnt the Arabic writing for the numbers 1-10, worked out which cartons of juice would be the best value. However whilst paying, the guy behind the counter suddenly charged us twice the price we were expecting! This took us by surprise so we asked him if the price on the shelf was the right price? He says somewhat sheepishly "Oh, you read Arabic". DAMN STRAIGHT WE DO!!!
This was just in a supermarket!!! Always gotta watch your back!

This next one happened to one of the guys on our tour (Rey). Rey was approached by a small boy probably about 6-7 years old who asked him for money. When Rey refused, the boy asked if he'd buy him a coke instead (all in very broken English). To this Rey agreed and took the boy to a shop and bought him a coke. This particular coke was in a glass bottle with a normal bottle top. The boy didn't want one like this he wanted the big one with a plastic cap. However Rey said no bought him the glass bottle and had the shop owner pop the cap for him, when this happened the kid got really upset. Apparently he planned to sell the coke back to the shop owner after we'd gone at a fraction of the price... they certainly start them young in Egypt!

The Middle East - Jordan and the Sinai. Yallah! Yallah!

Sorry everyone these next 2 posts are likely to be quite long... but I'll do my best to make it brief!

In the Middle East Jo and I decided it would just be so much easier to do it on a tour, this way we wouldn't have to worry about getting our own transport, finding accommodation and viciously having to haggle for everything we bought. But this was our first real tour (if you don't count those quick 3 days around the North of Scotland) and we weren't sure what to expect really.

The tour was to begin in Amman the capital of Jordan, but before the tour was to commence Jo and I had to see a couple of sites that weren't included in the tours itinerary. Apart from just walking around the city we spent one day hiring a taxi to take us around to different sites like the church and mosaic of Madaba, Mount Nebo (where Moses allegedly died) and the baptism site of Jesus by John the Baptist on the River Jordan, known as 'Bethany beyond the Jordan'.

Amman

View from Mt Nebo, of the Promised Land that God showed to Moses. Back in the day when it wasn't so hazy you could see all the way to Jericho and Jerusalem.

We also got to swim in the Dead Sea that afternoon too which was a fantastic experience! You couldn't have drowned if you'd tried! It's actually quite hard to keep your legs beneath you as all they want to do is float to the surface. This was fun for about an hour as for some reason your fingers don't appear to get pruney like in a regular bath (too much salt I suppose) But whatever you do, DON'T GET IT IN YOUR EYES!!! Oh and it tastes like Battery acid too :) I learned the taste one for myself but the eyes were courtesy of the guy swimming next to me and his very manly reaction to getting battery acid in his eyes... "ARRRGGH! *some words in Arabic, probably swear words*ARRRGGH!" In the end I didn't think it was wise to give it a try.

Jeremy chillin' in the Dead Sea

The next day we met up with our tour leader and all the others on the tour (8 including ourselves) and had an informative discussion about what we'd be doing in Jordan and the art of using squat toilets and how you can't flush toilet paper down any toilet in the Middle East, this took some of the newer travellers by surprise and slightly by disgust (not mentioning any names Rey!). The rest of this day however was free and Jo and I thought we'd head out to the ancient Roman ruins of Jerash... all I can say is they were probably some of the best preserved ruins I have seen in my travels, Ephesus was great and everything there was made of marble, but just the sheer size and number of columns still standing in Jerash was very impressive. The city itself also has a far more Hellenic design and architecture than other Roman cities we've visited like Pompeii and Ostia Antica, which are just made of small boring red bricks and laid out in grids.

Jerash

Jerash

After seeing everything we wanted to see in Amman we set off for Petra, one of the "New" 7 wonders of the world. If anyone remembers the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" then it's the temple that they are in when they find the holy grail, well really they only used the exterior of it for about 6 seconds in the film, but that is not the point. The particular temple used in the movie is known as 'The Treasury' but there is a very extensive network of similarly styled temples, caves and shrines for several kilometres through the valley. The Treasury happens to be the best preserved thanks to a gutter that was constructed above it to stop water running down the face of the building.

The group at The Treasury in Petra

The whole site is absolutely amazing, especially the seik (narrow river valley) than runs from the desert/town and leads into the valley where Petra is located. This was an excellent and natural form of defence against invading armies. At certain points we were able to climb up onto the clifftops and small peaks to get some spectacular views of the Petra Valley, one walk in particular took us through a very narrow seik and around the back of the main Petra valley where there were still many well preserved cave/temples carved into the rock walls. From there we were able to ascend a set of stairs that led to the cliff overlooking the Treasury (we did our best to be there in the morning while the sun was actually shining onto the Treasury) Simply brilliant!

The main seik leading into Petra.

Much narrower (and more fun to climb through!) seik leading into Petra.

View of Petra's Treasury from above.

Petra from above

Petra from above

The next main stop on our tour was a place called Wadi Rum, it's kind of like a desert National Park. Here we would be spending the day driving around in a Jeep seeing carvings and rock formations then staying overnight and camping under the stars. One of the highlights was sunset where some of us boys climbed up the nearby mountain (which due to the way the rock erodes makes for some very easy but exciting climbing) there we were able to watch the sun set over a huge piece of the Wadi... such a great view! Dinner that night was delicious too, cooked bedouin style, which basically means a big hole in the ground filled with hot coals then covered with sand! Really tasty... and only a little gritty :P

Joe enjoying tea at the bedouin camp.

Wadi Rum

Our next adventure was getting across from Jordan into Egypt on the ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba, it really shouldn't have been as hard as it was, but it's only hard when your tour guide has to put her foot down and refuse to put our bags in the storage container that has pools of urine in the bottom... for some reason the crew thought they were doing us a huge favour by allowing our group to place our bags underneath the stairwell, go figure! Maybe they were just a little nervous as the same boat was also carrying about 70 Egyptians who were being deported from Jordan that day.

Luckily after such a busy day (which later required us to run around the Egyptian port of Nuweiba for 45 minuites looking in every building for the one that held our passports) we were able to head to our nearby beach resort where we would be relaxing for the next day and a half! while we were here Jo and I did a spot of scuba-diving in the Red Sea, basically just a 30-40 minute experience of diving where you don't have to learn anything except how to breath under water and you are taken around to see all the amazing fish! We saw so many types I didn't really know what any of them were called except for the Lion fish and the Clown fish that were swimming about one of the anemones . I was really amazed by how fearless the fish were, I was actually able to reach out and touch the clown fish and stick my finger in the Anemone (which felt funny), though I didn't try this with the lion fish... that could have ended badly :S

The next part of our adventure was visiting St Katherine's Monastery and climbing Mount Sinai, the one Moses climbed to receive the 10 commandments. Unfortunately the monastery is only open for 3 hours per day so when you do go its always packed with tourists! The importance of St Katherine's Monastery is that it was built to enclose the 'original' burning bush that spoke to Moses. You can definitely go in and see a bush though it appears to have completely recovered from the fire, but what is even funnier is that right next to the bush is a fire extinguisher!!! Just in case I guess!

Burning Bush and the fire extinguisher, just in case!

Well after our visit to the monastery we headed home and caught some Z's ready for our afternoon ascent of Mt Sinai in time to see the sunset. The walk was really easy and quite enjoyable, and a great view as well. Unfortunately the walk back down in the dark wasn't anywhere near as much fun :(

Walking up Mt Sinai

Sunset at Mt Sinai

Our next stop was Cairo where we'd be picking up a new guide and some extra people on the tour! It's time to see the real Egypt!!!

Sunny Santorini... not quite :(

With the second stage of our travels completed, we only had one major stage to go, the Middle East. But thankfully we had decided to take a week off and relax on the Greek island of Santorini before we started it. Santorini was a destination we very much wanted to visit but missed out on during our travels to Greece the year before. One of the best things about leaving Europe however was catching a flight that wasn't run by either Ryanair or Easyjet! This means lots of things, allow me to list them here for you:

1. When flying a "real" airline you are given an assigned seat (first time in 2 years). This means that during boarding people don't physically push you or try to sneak aboard ahead of their boarding call. They don't try and sprint past you on the tarmac or use their over sized hand luggage as an obstacle gauntlet (think along the lines of a Hollywood police chase; They are the criminal, I'm the cop and their over sized luggage is an innocent but precariously balanced wagon laden with fruits that are likely to explode spectacularly i.e. watermelons).

2. You are given free lollies before take off, to help you equalise the pressure in your ears.
   

3. You are then provided with a choice of beverages, FOR FREE, then served a meal also FOR FREE then provided with more drinks which are still FOR FREE!! Magic!

During the October months the high season of the island is very much over, some of the areas we visited like the black sand beaches on the east coast were so closed down they looked practically abandoned. This suited us though as accommodation was a bit cheaper and there are less tourists to get in the way! We really spent most of our time just wandering the streets and taking dozens of photographs as we rounded every corner, I think we were just delighted to see buildings and views that looked nothing like Eastern Europe!

View of Fira, the capital of the island

Around Fira

Around Fira

Around Fira

Around Fira

Red Sand Beach

We took a 3 hour walk up to the town of 'Oi' to watch the sunset (but it was too cloudy). We visited the red & black sand beaches and did our best to find the perfect shot of the Caldera. We ate some really good Gyros, some of the best I've had in Greece! Unfortunately we had to drink some rather unpleasant wines as we couldn't afford to buy the good stuff which sells for about 50 Euros per little bottle... It's only wine people! Get over it!

On the walk from Fira to Oi

On the walk from Fira to Oi

On the walk from Fira to Oi

On the walk from Fira to Oi

View down towards Oi

Oi at sunset

All in all it was a really relaxing week and Dina and George running the hostel were really friendly and helpful. It was the perfect relaxation before beginning our journey into a really foreign culture!

The Rest of Romania

Hello again avid blog readers!

You may think that just because we've already arrived home you no longer need to come and read this blog any longer! WRONG!!! We still have nearly 7 weeks of unaccounted travels that we'd like to share with you :)

The story continues...

So we left Brasov for Sigisoara, this was probably one of my favourite places in Romania and Transylvania. The Lonely Planet guidebook (a.k.a. The Book of Lies) tells travellers to only bother coming to Sigisoara for a day as everything in town can be seen in as little as 3 hours. This may be the case if you only bother with the town centre, but if you are anything like us then you're going to need the better part of a day getting lost looking for 800 year old oak trees! Thankfully we did manage to find them, after a small scare about how deep into the Transylvanian forest you had to go before you came across a bear or a wolf. They were pretty impressive for trees and the forest walk back gave us a good opportunity to take some pictures of cool looking mushrooms... I wonder how many of them were magic?

How far before we come across bears...?

HUGE 800 year old oak trees.

Mushrooms!! - All mushrooms are edible, some only once! (We decided not to try!)

The centre of the old town was quite picturesque but gives you an odd feeling as apparently it is one of the last residentially inhabited citadels left in Europe, but they did have a rather cool and spooky graveyard, which satisfied my morbid desire to see Transylvania far better than Dracula's Castle! Down in the modern city was a great little restaurant that we went to on both of the nights we were there. The only trick is to make sure you request the smoking section so that you get to sit in the restaurant with everyone else. If you choose non-smoking then you are directed to a single table that has been placed right at the entrance of the restaurant and has been enclosed in glass walls (smoke-proof glass walls to be sure). This basically means that everyone who enters the restaurant gets a free freak-show! "Please do not tap on the glass, non-smokers may become agitated"

Sigisoara

Graveyard in Sigisoara

Our next destination in Transylvania was Sibiu, European cultural capital 2007, hooray! Not really sure why they received this particular honour, probably just because they joined the EU this year, though they did have quite a few pieces of installation art around the brand-spanking new town square. Including an enormous jelly fish that announces in a voice far to loud in relation to your proximity that you should come back when it's dark... creepy. Oh and I ate deep fried brains at one of the restaurants :S

Sibiu

Now we were at the end of our time in Romania and Eastern Europe and had to get to Bucharest to catch our flight to Athens. We didn't really leave any time to see Bucharest as many travellers had advised us not to bother and we were rather over European capitals by this stage. But it was still an interesting place, by interesting I mean bizarre!

12 hours of weirdness in Bucharest:

• There are apparently between 100 000 and 200 000 stray dogs in Bucharest, we saw a woman on the 4th floor of a building throwing chicken carcasses onto the main road for them, she didn't seem too concerned about what she hit in the process. (We later met a friend in Egypt who was chased by a pack of dogs in Bucharest and had to climb up onto a van to escape them, if only he'd dropped his hot dog, no pun intended)

• Our Hostel was above a strip club (nothing wrong there I know).

• We had to escort 3 Swedes, one of which was drunk, to restaurant that was about 10 mins walk from the hostel and that they insisted they needed to catch a taxi to reach (I think they didn't want to scuff their new shoes, or maybe they were worried about the dogs).

• We met a crazy, possibly possessed, hobo at the airport bus stop, who kept trying to tell me about Australia in 3 languages (one of which I think was English backwards) then he showed me a series of homoerotic images of Jean-Claude Van Damme until the bus came. When it did arrive he gave us a very friendly farewell where he stuck half his body in the bus doors and waved with both hands... then the bus doors closed and he was cut in half!!! Just kidding he wasn't actually cut in half but it definitely would have hurt.

• We also met a 28 year old guy on the bus who was catching his first plane, so cool, he was really nervous! Such a nice guy, it's a shame he was catching Easyjet :P

Well that's was it for Europe! Now just a quick stop in the Mediterranean before we hit the Middle East!