TravelStream™ news feed for member purplefrog on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/purplefrog en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:58:27 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147777560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147777560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147777560/tpod.html Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:58:27 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Hama, Syria

Hama is a typically rural town set on the banks of the Orontes River. The locals were extremely hospitable, friendly and very laidback. It has a lovely little market area with fruit and veg, deli stuff and fresh meat and fish. We discovered fresh local white cherries here and ate kilos of them, delicious. The fruit sellers also had large trays of what looked to us like unripe mulberries but we later discovered, when we got to Turkey, that they are white mulberries and taste lovely, like a normal mulberry but sweeter. Also on display was the most wonderful array of offal and sheeps heads, fantastic to see the butcher's fridges filled with these woolless, hairless sheep heads but if you didn't fancy mutton you could always choose a goat head although these come complete with horns and hair. The meat here is killed fresh every day, partly for religious reasons and partly because of lack of large refrigerated areas, and is done by the local butchers not by a large conglomerate and then distributed as it is in the west.

So we spent a few days wandering around this relatively quiet place buying local food and soaking up the atmosphere. Taking walks along the river banks which are graced by these massive wooden water wheels, maybe 30m in diameter that have been part of the towns waterway for centuries. You can imagine it being quite peaceful sitting in the park watching the endless rotation of a giant wooden water wheel but let me tell you the sound is like a strangled constant groaning as the wet wooden parts of the wheels mechanics work to turn it and it is extremely loud. Especially if you're lucky enough to get a sneaky but slightly dangerous tour around the nooks and crannys of the wheels by the caretakers. Sliding past a wall of slippery wet rock on a ledge about a food wide while behind you the wheel is spinning and below you the water is gushing through a confined flow channel to increase it's force so it can turn the immense weight of the wheel, all the while being held onto by a little Arabic man saying "careful, careful" or at least that's what I'm guessing he was saying as he didn't speak any English.

It was a cool experience even though we couldn't ask them too many questions about the wheels in our limited Arabic English combination but it was a great place to be on a hot day anyway.

We managed one sightseeing venture from Hama and that was to the Crusader castle of Crac des Chevalier. Largely constructed in the 12th Century it was never breached when the armies of Islam invaded, the remaining Crusaders of which there were only about 200, simply gave up the castle after a month under seige even though they had supplies to last them many months. They were on the retreat by then, Jerusalem was lost and they were pretty much the last outpost.

The castle itself is in a remarkable state of preservation, you can still walk through it and along it's imposing ramparts and imagine it was still occupied. It is the ultimate in fortress building of the time, perched on top of a hill with the most amazing views of the surrounding countryside which at this time of the year is green and absolutely beautiful.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147516380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147516380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147516380/tpod.html Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:42:03 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Palmyra, Syria

The bus trip through the desert to Palmyra was as unspectacular as any bus trip and quite boring, just the odd irrigated olive plantation to bring a touch of dusty greyish green to the otherwise dusty landscape.

Palmyra town itself is an oasis in the desert landscape with date and olive plantations surrounding it. The ruins of the ancient Roman city rise from the sands and spread over an area of about 50ha.

Built in the 2nd Century AD, the city was constructed of pink sandstone and in the hours of sunrise and sunset they seem to glow with an inner light all of their own.

We arrived and first visited the ruins on Friday afternoon, which is the weekend here, and it was choked with people so we figured to get the best out of the site with no people we were going to have to get up the next morning at sunrise. Not actually as difficult as it sounds seeing as we've been consistently woken at about 4.30 every morning to the pre dawn prayer call for the past 2 and a half months now.

So rise we did to clear skies and the most beautiful light with the rising sun over the date palms of Palmyra town. After snapping away to get the best of the light we climbed the rocky hill behind the ruins perched atop which sits an Arabic citadel, Qa'alat ibn Maan.

We picked up a stalker from the point we left the ruined city and he followed us all the way to the top of the hill. Trying to blend into the landscape and hide behind the occasional rock, working on the principal, if I can't see them, they can't see me. We tried to feed him some of our bread but he wasn't interested in the slightest. WOOF WOOF!! He got bored once we'd reached the top and hightailed it back to his patch of territory to stalk some more tourists in the hope of tasty morsels no doubt!!

We watched the sand being whipped up into a dusty haze on the desert plains surrounding the village by a really strong wind obscuring our view but as the sun warmed up the ground and the air over the next few hours the wind subsided and we sat on the hilltop, ate a picnic breakfast and waited for the castle man to arrive and open the gates so we could have a look inside.

Palmyra itself was important as an outpost for first the Green and then the Roman Empire against the possible invading armies of Empires to the East. It was an important stop on the silk and spice trade routes through the region. It's most fascinating icon is that of Queen Zenobia, an ambitious woman who claimed descent from Cleopatra. She was accused of having a hand in the suspicious death of her husband, then ruler of the City. She assumed leadership on behalf of her underage son and Palmyra prospered under her rule. She led successful military campaigns as far as Egypt and set her forces on route to Rome only to be soundly beaten and have her victor burn the city to the ground.

There are stories of her being paraded through the streets of Rome bound in chains of gold and the finest robes but history has not recorded the details of her demise and it is is now not known how she died.

We moved on from Palmyra after 2 days heading for the Orontes River which runs from south to North and provides the water which feeds the agriculture in this valley.

We caught one of the local buses as opposed to the 'luxury buses' which have air con and a man that brings you water and sweets. It's the only bus trip we've taken so far where I felt really uncomfortable. There were huge military exercises being conducted in the area, I counted no less than 80 tanks and consequently there were lots of soldiers on the move. A couple of young soldiers got on the bus a short distance from Palmyra and they pretty much hassled me to talk to them the whole way to Homs, the final destination of the bus. I wasn't sitting near Tramp and just ignored them, not even acknowledging them as they were saying things that weren't very pleasant. Not very nice when you can't retaliate in their own language, again making me wish I could speak more Arabic.

Anyway arriving in Homs we discovered we had to make our way to another bus station on the other side of town to get a mini bus on to Hama, our destination. So the locals pretty much threw us on this really old battered blue bus; back packs still on our backs, to the amusement of the folk already on the bus.

It's funny how you just put your trust in other people to get you to where you need to go. There was a young Lebanese girl on the bus who spoke some English and she made sure we bought the right tickets and paid the right amount for them. Tramp was chatting to the guy next to him the whole way in English, the man in Arabic, but again they seemed to understand what each other was talking about. We can understand more Arabic now as well which does make things a hell of a lot easier.

We eventually arrived in Hama after what seemed like the longest and most frustrating day we'd had so far.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147353300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147353300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147353300/tpod.html Fri, 19 May 2006 09:56:26 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Damascus, Syria

Damascus, the oldest inhabited city in the world, is a city of souqs, wonderful architecture, restored Damascene houses and the most beautiful of mosques, the Umayyad Mosque.

The Old City is like wandering through a meandering maze of medieval alleys that don't seem to have changed in thousands of years and are lined with cubby hole shops selling everything conceivably possible from paper bags to antiques to spices and car parts.

The Souq al Hamidiyya is the main entrance to the Old City but wandering just a little bit off this tourist trap allows you to see honeycombs of alleyways that lead deeper into the Souq area. There are whole streets dedicated to selling one thing, ie the hardware street, the spice street, the cloth street etc.

When you reach the end of Souq al Hamidiyya hopefully still in possession of all your money which is continually being sought by the persistent shop owners you come upon the magnificent and holy Umayyad Mosque. Second only to Mecca and Medina in importance to the Islamic world.

There has been a site of worship here since the 9th Century BC and is mentioned in the Book of Kings, (Old Testament) when the Aramaens built a temple to their god Hadad here. It went on to become associated with the Roman god Jupiter and was replaced with a Christian Bascilica dedicated to John the Baptist with the coming of Christianity to Rome. When the Muslims took over Damascus the 2 religions worshipped side by side on this site for about 70 years. After this time it was decreed by the ruler of the time to build a mosque without equal to reinforce Damscus' importance as the power centre of the region.

The golden mosaics that line the marble paved courtyard are spectacularly beautiful and you can only imagine the richness of what it must have once looked like. It is an extremely peaceful place to visit and odd in the sense that the main prayer hall inside the mosque still contains the Shrine of John the Baptist and the tallest minaret (one of three) is called the Minaret of Jesus as this is where Christ is supposed to reappear on Earth on Judgement Day.

Further into the Old City are two more architectural wonders, the Khan As'ad Pasha a massive building used to house the merchants and their caravans who would come to Damascus to sell their wares in the Souq. Massive and beautiful with 8 domes arranged around a central dome open to the sky to let the light in. Gorgeous painted decorations adorn the surface of some of the domes, the others have deteriorated over time. The Khan is now used to house exhibitions and we saw a French photography exhibition on display here.

The next is Azem Palace, a stunning 17th Century example of Damascene architecture with the distinctive and unique striped layering of black basalt against white limestone or sandstone. The palace is set around a central courtyard with tranquil fountains and gardens and the rooms are restored gems of carved wood panelling, intricately painted ceilings and suptuous furnishings. This was the residence of the governing Azem family for about 300 years.

The National Museum in Damascus was well worth the day to visit. A collection of objects from the major archeological sites of the country including Greek, Roman and most interestingly for us from the Mesopotamian cities on the Euphrates River. We'd never seen these sorts of artefacts before and found it incredibly interesting especially when references to the Egyptian civilisation were appearing in the form of hieroglyphic cartouches depicting the names of Pharoh's and references to Egyptian Gods. The Egyptian Museum is a mish mash of artefacts and the Egyptian's don't seem to know an awful lot about their history, this museum portrayed a very well documented history of the Mesopotamian peoples which existed during the same era.

Beautiful early Islamic blue and turquoise glazed tiles, fine pottery and a collection of decorated Koran's are also on display and were fascinating to look at.

Damascus is a place to wander aimlessly for days and shop for curious things, a wonderful place.

We also managed a day trip to the Southern town of Bosra to visit the incredible black basalt citadel that graces the town. The most unusual thing about this structure, apart from it's extraordinary state of preservation, is the 15,000 seat full intact, central Roman theatre.

Built in the 2nd Century as a freestanding structure it was subsequently fortified in the 6th Century and again in the 11th and 12th Centuries, during the time of the Crusades. It is the most complete example of a Roman Theatre still intact and an awesome Castle that looks just as it would have back then.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147014120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147014120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147014120/tpod.html Wed, 17 May 2006 07:40:56 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Amman, Jordan

Well on our way to the bus station in Wadi Mousa we ran into a guy we'd met yesterday who was driving to Amman (to see if he could obtain an Iraqi visa) and he offered to drop us off at Dana Village our next stop on his way.

Wadi Dana is the highlight of this Nature Reserve and the ancient village constructed in the 15th century clings to the side of the steep valley overlooking it's entire length. This is a place predominantly for hiking but unfortunately Tramp has been having some problems with a sore knee/leg so we were unable to do any walking here except a stroll through the terraced spring fed gardens owned and tended by the villagers.

Our luck continued though and we managed to get a lift to Amman with a German couple who work there and were in Dana for their weekend. They returned to Amman along the remainder of the King's Highway which has awesome scenery. I never expected Jordan to be so mountainous but the vastness of Wadi Mujib changed this perception. It is a gorge which pretty much slashes the country in half and is 1km deep and 4km wide. It takes 30 minutes to drive through it from one side to the other. The scenery is very spectacular. We were so lucky to get a ride as it is more difficult to get public transport on this road than the other two main highways.

Arriving in Amman, Andy and Francesca dropped us off in Jebel Amman a modern suburb of Western Amman and we found a western style cafe/bar to sit and have a meal and some real coffee until we were to meet the Sydney couple we'd met in Wadi Rum a few days earlier.

Jill and Peter had very kindly given us their phone number together with an offer to come and stay with them when we reached Amman and we jumped at the chance of being in a real house with a proper bed. They fed and looked after us so well for 2 days, our clothes haven't been this clean for 2 months and we are eternally grateful!!!

We didn't see an awful lot in Amman as we weren't here for very long but we did visit the Roman City of Jerash 50kms to the North. An impressive site dating from the 3rd century, partly preserved, partly in ruins with a wonderful 80m long oval shaped Plaza lined with columns and two acoustically perfect theatres, one seating 5000 and the other 1600 patrons. These two theatres are utilised every year in the Jerash Festival showcasing international acts that come here to perform amongst the ruins.

On our final day in Jordan, Jill was kind enough to drive us to Mt Nebo and down to the Dead Sea.

Mount Nebo is the place where Moses is said to have looked out over the Promised Land after the pilgrimmage through the Desert from Egypt. After his death he was buried in this area but the exact site remains unknown. The exisitng church was built in the 6th century and it's floors and walls are covered with beautifully preserved mosaics. It is a tranquil place with a lookout point affording views across the Dead Sea Valley all the way to Jerusalem, on a clear day which we weren't lucky enough to get.

Back in the car and on to the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea. At 400m below sea level and with Jordan's rivers being predominantly dammed and used for irrigation purposes the Dead Sea is literally dying. It's water level drops significantly every year, by approximately 1m. Access to the water is via man made "beaches" which are attached to holiday resorts. And swimming in it ... well even Tramp who simply can't float normally was bobbing around like a cork. The water feels oily on your skin due to the exceptionally high mineral content and you must rinse off with fresh water immediately.

Voted by Tramp as our most bizarre experience of the trip so far.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147087140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147087140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1147087140/tpod.html Wed, 17 May 2006 07:39:49 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Damascus, Syria

After arriving back in Amman from our drive down to the Red Sea, Jill drove us through the more affluent suburbs of Amman, past the American Embassy (complete with armoured car and about a million heavily armed guards) and through the booming new areas which have gone from Bedouin fields and encampments to high rise apartment blocks by the thousand in the past 3 years.

Predominantly funded by incoming Iraqi's, these mass building developments are having a profound effect on the local economy of the city. Prices are rising due to the temporary influx of wealth but nomral Jordanians aren't seeing their wages increase and therefore are finding it harder to maintain their current lifestyles. Jordan is not a cheap country to travel in unless you are very careful with the pennies either.

So Jill left us at the bus station, we said our goodbyes and waited for our service taxi to Damascus to find 2 more people to fill it before setting off. Fortunately for us we only had to wait about 20 minutes before another couple came along. Neither them nor the driver spoke a word of English but it's surprising how much you can understand when you're speaking with someone in a completely different language.

The man was Jordanian and his wife Libyan and wearing the full black abeya with only eyes visible. She was very friendly and we spent most of the trip gesticulating and tsk tsking about how fast the driver was going and whether we'd actually make it to Damascus alive.

Average speed for the trip was 150km/h and we were pulled over for speeding about 45 minutes out of Amman. Not sure how but the driver seemed to talk his way out of it and we were quickly on our way again. The Jordanian border officials didn't take too kindly to the stash of Red Bull, Soft drinks and boxes of lollies the Syrian driver had in every conceivable space in the car and were seemed to be convinced that he was hiding something else along with these goods. They made us all get out of the car and wait while they searched the car. After about 25 minutes of standing on the side of the road wishing we could understand what was being said and having to be content with making up our own sequence of events we were on our way again.

Through the Syrian border without a hassle really apart from the fact that we were entering on the expiry date of our visa which seemed to concern the guy a little. We continued on to Damascus very nearly having a head on collision with a truck at a section of road that had been closed off with absolutely no warning. Thanks to our very own Syrian Michel Schumacher we emerged unscathed!! This got the Libyan woman tsk tsking and telling the driver clearly what she thought of his driving. He didn't seem inclined to take any notice of her though, just continued as before.

Arriving in Damascus, the first person we spoke with, just a random guy on the street, offered us any help we may have needed whilst staying there and this was to be a typical Syrian trait.

While all the countries we have travelled through have been Arab nations they are all distinctly different. It's so easy for the media fed Western countries to lump all Arabic nations and people's under one banner.

The Egyptian's are aggressively entrepeneaurial and seeming shameless in the extents they will go to to part you from your money and while outwardly friendly you're never sure if they're genuine.

The Jordanians are fiercely patriotic, love their King and are genuinely friendly and hospitable while still trying to part you from your money.

The Syrians are incredibly welcoming and friendly and in our experience less likely to try and rip you off and they seem to love Australia and Australians, "Syria is your home" is a common phrase from them when you say you love being in their country.

The Jordanians are a very classist society, evident in the fact that they will not lower themselves to perform menial tasks like washing cars, gardening and the like. They will employ Egyptians or Filipino's or Sri Lankan's for these jobs.

With regard to appearance the Syrian's are also much fairer of face. There are more blondes and redheads with paler skin pigmentation than we had previously come across. Seemingly this is even more evident on the Mediterranean coastal towns of Lattakia and Tartus.

So all in all, we'd have to say that Syria has been so far our favourite country to travel in on this trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1146668400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1146668400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1146668400/tpod.html Mon, 15 May 2006 11:24:01 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Petra, Jordan

On the move again today to that fabled city that conjures up more mystical and fantastic imaginations than perhaps any other in the Middle East, the Nabatean city of Petra.

The road there is the beginning of the King's Highway, the most pituresque of the three North to South running highways in Jordan. Climbing up mountains dotted with small fields and Bedouin camps, wondering how on earth they make an existence from these small rocky fields and their goats. Resilient doesn't even begin to describe it.

Arriving in Wadi Mousa, the village is nestled at the top of the valley and leads down to the gates of Petra. You walk down a beautiful coloured rock natural canyon that seems to go on forever before finally getting the first glimpse of the iconic image of Petra, Al Khazneh or the Treasury. There is no other way to describe it other than absolutely breathtaking. So breathtaking you can just sit and look at it, the beautiful rose colour of the sandstone rock changing with the light. The quality and beauty of the carving is a thing to be marvelled at.

As you continue through the site the area is dotted with more Royal Tombs, a theatre, colonnaded street, temples and caves that were used for anything from stables to storerooms.

The sheer size of the site is impressive, you could quite easily spend a week here wandering through the hills dotted with caves and rock cut facades. Unfortunately we only have 2 days so we must make the most of the time we have here.

We managed a couple of climbs to the High Places of Sacrifice and to the Monastery, a punishing 800 step climb high up the mountain but rewarded by a fabulous view of the surrounding area.

We hired a couple of young Bedouin guys to take us on their donkeys up to Little Petra, a ride of a couple of hours up a steep deserted gorge to the rock cut village, supposedly inhabited 9,000 years ago.

For the sheer beauty of this place, it takes the prize for the highlight of the ancient monuments we have visited so far.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1146322680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1146322680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1146322680/tpod.html Thu, 11 May 2006 11:44:44 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Wadi Rum, Jordan

Well lucky us, again we happen to be travelling on a Friday, so this generally means not as many people of the public transport. A quick trip by bus up the coast to Nuweiba where we began the laborious process of buying tickets for and boarding the "fast" ferry to Aqaba, Jordan.

First the ticket office was about 1 km from the port entrance outside the compound itself so once we'd found it an purchased our tickets it was through Egyptian immigration and waiting on hard plastic seats, concrete floor, stray cats style departure lounge for 2 hours. Once we were finally aboard the ferry it can't actually leave until everyone's documents are in order and with a boat filled with Egyptians going to Jordan to work this took forever. For a boat trip that's supposed to take only 1 hour we finally arrived in Aqaba 3 and a half hours later. Now you may think that everyone would just get off the boat and be on their way but this is the Middle East and things are never that simple!!

There was only one exit from the ferry down a narrow flight of stairs and off on a rickety gangway so with no control this would have been a disaster. So, small groups of about 20 people were let off at a time. The way it was going this was going to take hours so when some random tour leader called out "Sri Lanka Group", I said "Yep, that's us" and pushed through the crowd which magically opened up before us to let us through, one guy looked at us disbelievingly and pointed saying "Sri Lanka??" But hey it worked and we got off the boat quick smart before the rest of the Sri Lanka group appeared.

We'd arranged for a taxi to take us directly to Waid Rum (1 hour away) and arrived there in the dark to a hot meal and a small tent with 2 mattresses courtesy of Wadi Rum Guest House, the only place to stay in Rum Village.

The following morning we were greeted by the granduer that is Gebel Rum or Mount Rum. Rum Village lies in a valley (Wadi) surrounded by huge rock formations that are like really giant versions of the Olga's and they stretch for miles and miles to the Saudi Border and beyond with sand wadi's between them. We were lucky enough to get a glimpse of a small part of this awe inspiring place over the next 3 days from the back of a camel thanks to our young Bedouin guide, Salem.

Riding by day and camping in Bedouin goat hair tents in the desert by night under the silence of a million stars was fabulous. Total peace after the brain shattering constant noise of Egypt. TE Lawrence wrote extensively about the peace and tranquility of this place and for those of you who have seen the classic Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O'Toole Wadi Rum is every bit as dramatic as in the film and even more so.

Great food and continuing our education in Arabic from Salem was a fantastic way to spend 3 days but boy were we glad for a shower and a change of clothes by the time we arrived back in Rum Village on the third day.

Many Bedouin still live semi-traditional lives here. Goat hair tents are the norm and small herds of livestock and of course camels graze on the desert vegetation. Small camps were dotted around the entire region that we travelled through. A very special place full of special people.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1144681020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1144681020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1144681020/tpod.html Thu, 11 May 2006 11:27:53 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Dahab, Egypt

An uneventful afternoon and evening in Luxor spent organising the best and cheapest way to get to the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea paradise that is Dahab, found us deciding on the bus. Well, this turned out to be a 17 hour monstor of a bus trip, overnight, with not a wink of sleep.

I've mentioned many times of the Egyptian love of making the most noise they possibly can with their car horns but at night they thankfully refrain from this perpetually annoying habit, instead they use their headlights. They flash them at oncoming vehicles, drive without them down the wrong side of the road, talk to each other with their indicators and quite frankly are absolutely crazy.

We thought it a good idea to sit in the front seats and I swear it was like a roller coaster ride the entire way to Dahab, bumpy road, random and scary headlight activity and driving on the wrong side of the road led me to closing my eyes and wishing it was over already. Oh well, only 15 hours to go!!!

I reckon between Luxor and Dahab we passed through at least 10 police chekcpoints, complete with the occasional sniffer dog, checking for goodness knew what. Mostly though they are checking the Egyptians' Work Permits. The joys of living in a police state hey. Even though the Sinai Peninsula is Egyptian territory and governed by them, under the conditions established by the Israelis when it was handed back to Egypt under the Camp DAvid AGreement in 1982, other than local Bedouin tribes who inhabit the Sinai, all other Egyptians must have a job and a Permit to stay anywhere in Sinai. If they lose their job, they're out.

So after constantly interrupted bouts of dozing the sun eventually rose over the rugged, desolate desert mountainscape that is Sinai and we arrived in Dahab at about 10.30 am. The longest 17 hours of our lives so far I'm sure.
AFter finding a place to stay for the next few weeks and checking out a couple of dive centres, our main reason for coming here, we prepared to relax for a few days before starting 8 blissful days of awesome Red Sea diving.

Without going into a fanatical rave, the diving here was amazing, 90% shore diving where you spend your surface intervals relaxing in the Bedouin hushas (or huts) eating delicious food and soaking up the sun. Doesn't get much better than that really.

So we'd dive for a couple of days, have the odd day off and then dive for a few more, too hard I know!!!

And then on the evening of Monday 24th April paradise was shattered when 3 bombs were detonated in the centre of Dahab. We were at a friends house for dinner and as events unfolded over the course of the evening it was evident that the actions were highly pre organised as people in the UK knew more about what was happening that we did, as there was no TV or radio in the house we were in.

So for the next few days Dahab was a changed place. Largely deserted by the tourists that are it's lifeblood we saw it change from an idyllic seaside paradise to a divided community mourning for it's dead and wounded.

As much as we wanted to stay to continue to support the people who's lives will be affected by this needless act we must move on as our Syrian Visa's will expire on the 8th May so we must enter Syria by this date and we still have much to see in Jordan.

So it was goodbye to the blue waters of the Red Sea and hello to the deserts and dramatic scenery of Jordan.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1144395840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1144395840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1144395840/tpod.html Sun, 07 May 2006 10:43:57 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Kom Ombo, Egypt

Well after me finally recovering from my little bout of dodgy tummy we have booked a felucca for the next two days to sail down the Nile, northwards towards Luxor. The felucca is the traditional sailboat on the Nile and is only found in Egypt, it has a very shallow draft a very wide beam with a large sail attached to mast and boom. A very simple design but effective in catching every breath of wind available to it which is essential on the river where wind is never guaranteed.

So we met our Captains, Ali and Bedouway and set off, wind in our faces on Rose 2 our felucca. We opted to hire an entire felucca just for the two of us but most boats will carry between 8 and 15 people depending on how big they are of course. So for the next two days we have nothing to do but relax, decide whether to sleep in the sun or in the shade, read a book or gaze at the sleepy green water flowing by endlessly. Ali and Bedouway were both very friendly blokes, in their late thirties to early forties and both were single. They are Nubian, who have inhabited this area of Egypt since Pharonic times. When Lake Nassar was built, many thousands of Nubians were displaced from their villages and were relocated by the Egyptian government to Aswan and surrounding villages all the way up to Edfu, a couple of days sailing up the Nile. Like the Siwi people they have their own spoken language as well as speaking Arabic and are predominantly Muslim. Ali in particular spoke English quite well and was really keen to chat with us about all sorts of stuff from farming and fishing in Australia to what it was like for us living in different places in the world. He was a very intelligent guy and knowing that he will probably never leave Egypt, he uses the tourists that come on his boat as his education.

So idyllically sailing during the days, having food cooked for us and then sleeping on the deck of the boat by night was pretty hard to handle as you can imagine. We both had a go at sailing the felucca on the second day and we managed not to hit any river boats so that was definitely a good thing.

It was very hot with not much wind on the second day so we did the unthinkable and went for a dip in the Nile, mouth closed needless to say. Pulling up to sandy beaches at night the Captains, we were travelling with another felucca also, would light a small fire on the beach and get out their Nubian drums and play for a little while and sing, some traditional songs and some not so traditional ie She'll be Coming Down The Nile (round the mountain tune)which was fun.

I think the best part of the two days we spent on Rose 2 was the silence, no traffic with the never ending horns. But all good things come to an end and after a quick breakfast of sweet tea, boiled eggs and biscuits on the third morning we arrived at the town of Kom Ombo to depart our felucca, jump on a minibus and head back to Luxor with a couple of temple visits thrown in for good measure.

The first was at Kom Ombo itself and was dedicated to the crocodile headed God Sobek. They used to keep live crocodiles here in the temple pool and there are mummified crocodiles on display here also. The second was the Temple of Horus at Edfu, without a doubt the biggest and most imposing temple we have visited so far. Once again, a lot of the reliefs covering the walls have been defaced in early Christian times.

On the road, arrived back in Luxor early afternoon and sorted out our bus tickets for the next day to finally take us across to the coast and the glorious Red Sea at Dahab.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1143739920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1143739920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/purplefrog/egypt2006/1143739920/tpod.html Sun, 07 May 2006 10:15:28 -0400 Egypt to Turkey 2006 - Adventures of Ren and Tramp

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Aswan, Egypt

An uneventful week spent in Aswan, further down the Nile. We'd seen so many temples and tombs in Luxor that we just wanted no sightseeing whatsoever so spent our days reading, catching up on some writing and eating at the barge floating restaurants on the banks of the river oh and watching the gorgeous sunsets. Idyllic place really if you can set aside the incessant tooting of car horns that is constant in any Egyptian town. Watching the river traffic, motor boats, feluccas (sailboats) and the odd bit of rubbish float by was a nice way to relax for a few days. We stayed here a few days longer than originally planned due to me having a bit of a fever and tummy bug but I eventually came good after a few days. We spent a lot of time in the hotel over the time that I was sick as it is heating up more each day, and got chatting to the cleaning lady. She didn't speak much English but we established that she got paid 50pt(5p) per room and with about 20 rooms to clean averages at about 10 Egyptian Pounds per day or 1 English Pound. It's no wonder the generalised view that westeners and tourists are all rich permeates the culture here. Even though we would never consider ourselves to have a lot, when you really compare what someone actually earns you begin to get a different perspective on life here
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