Old Friends and Ancient Ruins
Trip Start
Jan 07, 2009
1
20
22
Trip End
Dec 18, 2009
Cairo, Egypt
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Great Pyramid
INTERESTING FACTS- The Great Pyramid is built to face true North. It is at the exact center of the Earth’s land mass meaning its east-west axis corresponds to the longest land parallel across the Earth. The Pyramids height and circumference result in the number PI accurate to six digits. The perimeter of all sides is 36,524 inches, and the total number of days in a year today is calculated at 365.24. The average height of land above sea level is 5,449 inches, also the exact height of the pyramid! Finally the Great Pyramid is bowed along all its sides. This radius, invisible to the naked eye, is equal to the radius of the curvature of the Earth!THIS IS HOW CHEAP WE ARE – We ate “koshri” for 10 straight meals b/c it was 1 dollar and you were full after; we skipped the buffet at the Dead Sea to snack on PB sandwiches with the flies outside; We convinced Joe and D to share a room with 2 twin beds to save a few bucks on our last night in Cairo.
TYPICAL IN THIS REGION – Touts and street people ruder and more annoying than we have
and would ever see!; The sacred month of Ramadan; the Muslim religion; mosques; ancient temples; Arabic food including Koshri, falafels and schwarma; donkey carts; lots of camels; sheesha; no alcohol; heat (my god, the heat).
EGYPT, JORDAN and DUBAI
Beautiful city of Jordan
Following a quick turnaround in Nairobi, we awoke at 1:30 am for an early 4 am departure to Amman Jordan. We travelled with Egypt Air and our flight included a stopover for six hours in Cairo Egypt. A stellar airline, it was not, however, upon arriving in Cairo we were informed that it was company policy to provide a hotel room for those waiting more than 5 hours for a connecting flight. So to our surprise we were whisked away to the Fairmont Cairo, close to the airport. It was pretty funny to us, showing up in clothes soiled with African dust and sweat to one of the fanciest hotels in the country! We laughed about it, demanded a breakfast be included despite the late hour, and also insisted we get internet for free! We squeezed every last amenity out of them. Following a shower and quick sleep we continued on to Amman Jordan on full stomachs.Arriving in Amman was just like any other airport where we had no idea how to get to our hotel, how much it would cost, what currency we needed etc. Usually we have faith that we’ll figure something out and true to form, we were approached by a kindly Canadian gentleman who noticed the Canadian badges on our bags. It turns out that this man’s daughter, who was from Vancouver, was visiting him in Jordan for a week. He worked at the airport there. Eventually, we all piled into his rental car and he drove us to our hotel free of charge. Boy I’ll tell ya, those Canadians are alllllll right!
As we approached the hotel, questioning if it was the right one, the first things we saw were Joe and Darienne’s beautiful welcoming faces through the lobby door. For those of you that don’t
Dinner with group!
know, Joe is Chad’s cousin and coworker, and he and his girlfriend Darienne (D) are close friends of Chad and Steph’s in Vancouver. It was a joyful reunion made even better by the stash of Canadian goods smuggled in their bags! The treats included: Vancouver Granville Island’s best beer, our favourite Cobs apricot bread (commonly referred to as ‘The Bread’), brie cheese (mangled but good), and one BRAND NEW CAMERA!!!!! To top off the reunion, it turns out Joe and D also met a nice Canadian at the airport who then drove them to the hotel for free! Crazy Canucks.A short aside here…when our camera was stolen in Africa, we knew that Joe and D would be meeting us in Egypt so we emailed them instructions to buy us the newer model of our stolen camera. And they came through for us! So in total we were only without a camera for a few days.
A funny moment epitomizing our decline in all things civilized was illustrated when Joe posed the question, “How about these rooms?” Excitedly we exclaimed, “Ya, can you believe how nice these are?!” and at the same time Darienne noted, “These rooms are terrible, dirty, and have no hot water.” Over the next couple of weeks however, they would begin to see things through our eyes and soon realized that clean sheets and a door that closes are things to celebrate.
Citadel
Our trip in Jordan and Egypt was another one we had booked earlier with an overland travel company called “Imaginative Traveller”. The entire trip was to last 14 days and include all the famous sites from Petra to the Pyramids. Amman Jordan was the first city on our trip. The city is very old with beautiful white, low profile buildings. The city is clean and as the population is 40% Christian and about 50% Muslim, it was a shining example of the two religions living in harmony. Truly, Amman had some of the nicest people we had met on our trip so far. They were not so concerned with selling things or ripping us off, instead they would actually show interest in our country and chat for 10 minutes or so for no reason other than to be friendly. How refreshing! Unfortunately the same would not be said for Egypt.Our tour actually began during the Muslim month of Ramadan. During this time Muslims fast from sun-up to sun-down. The fast is from food, water, smoking, and thoughts of the opposite sex. Most are very devout and the month is full of nightly celebrations as they all break their fast together. Muslims also pray five times a day starting at 4:30 am. Their ‘call to prayer”, from a crackly megaphone, reverberates throughout the cities at 4:30 am every single day (and four other times throughout the day) and at the beginning of our trip it was pretty cool to wake up to that haunting call. That didn’t last. Personally if we were woken up every day at 4:30 am to a loudspeaker, the temperature was in the 40’s, no beer or other alcohol was permitted, and we weren’t allowed to eat until the sun went down…well, lets’ just say we wouldn’t be very pleasant to be around to say the least. During this time we, as a group, had to take a few extra precautions such as not eating or drinking anything in front of locals during the day, and sticking to the tourist hotels until sundown.
As mentioned the heat in Jordan really picked up and daily the temperature was in the 40’s.
Two donkies riding two camels
Our Canadian skin melted like butter, but smelled worse I guess. Our city tour of Amman included a Roman amphitheatre, ancient citadel ruins that housed the actual Dead Sea Scrolls, and Roman ruins in Jerash that are some of the best preserved Roman ruins in the world. The Dead Sea Scrolls that we saw were under surprisingly little security and fanfare considering their reputation, so it was very interesting to see them in such an environment. Our city tour ended that evening with a delicious traditional Jordinian supper at a local restaurant. Our group of 20 or so enjoyed getting to know each other over dinner and later we all had a good laugh at everyone who tried Shisha. Shisha is what the locals smoke out of huge water pipes. We know what you’re all thinking, but it’s not like that. They fill the ‘bongs’ with dried fruit and a tiny pit of tobacco. It is apparently much smoother and easier to inhale than a cigarette. Also the dried fruit comes in many flavours and our guide chose apple mint for us to start. It was ok but not something to do everyday…frankly we just thought it looked cool. 
Floating in Dead Sea
Our trip moved pretty fast and the next day it was off to some religious sites and the Dead Sea. We stopped at Mount Nebo, a place on the top of a mountain where there was a memorial to Moses. The mountain is where he is said to have climbed at the age of 120 to look out over all the lands just before dying. From this mountain you can clearly see the exact spot on the River Jordan where it is said that Jesus was baptized. It is one thing to read these stories in the bible and quite interesting to actually see these places close up. From here we continued onto the Dead Sea itself. The Dead Sea has 30% salinity, compared to a regular ocean that has 3-4% salinity. We jumped in the water and were amazed at how buoyant we actually were. It was impossible to sink and actually even hard to roll over. We had a fun time lounging in the water, got some cool pictures and then were covered in the local ‘healing mud’ (it might have been pure crude oil, we’re not sure) that burned our skin until we washed it off. While the rest of the group entered a nearby resort for an expensive buffet, we brought Joe and D to the dark side and opted for ‘free’ peanut butter and jam sandwiches by the resort’s pool.
Covered in Dead Sea Mud
After this we had some extra time while the fat cats ate their hearts content inside, so we decided to hold time trials down the water slide. We would all run full speed and dive headfirst or feet first down the slide while being timed. Steph won the overall competition with a time of 9.53 seconds, using the Skeleton technique (head first) and Joe came in second with a time of 9.69 using the Luge technique (feet first). Good times. On the move again, we headed to the town of Wadi Musa, next to the world famous ruins of Petra. Petra’s ruins are most famous in our country for being in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. We knew little about Petra upon arriving but our guide was great and taught us a lot. The famous building façade in the Last Crusade was actually The Treasury building for their civilization.
The famous Treasury, as in Indiana Jones
The ruins themselves are over 300 square kilometers and include The Place of High Sacrifice on a mountain top, and even more impressive carvings into the rock. Some of the facades are twice as big as the Treasury and stretch back up to 50 metres in the cliffs. We spent the day in the scorching heat exploring as many of the ruins as we could, dodging camels and donkeys along the way. That night we continued on to a Bedouin Camp. Bedouins are an ancient desert nomadic tribe with reduced numbers today. We arrived at camp exhausted and late. Late for our camel ride that is. As the bus stopped, we were whisked onto the backs of these beasts.
Two donkies riding two camels
They lurched forward before standing upright abruptly, almost sending us over the front! We rode the camels in the desert for about an hour before finally ending our activities for the day. In the middle of the ride, the camel handlers suddenly stopped and started chugging orange Fanta, signaling the end of the daily fast, and we waited as they went through their nightly rituals. That evening we had a traditional roast of meat, cooked in the ground all day and uncovered just minutes before eating. The locals then performed a type of dance, everyone tried a bit of Shisha again, and then we were all of to bed…finally.
The famous Treasury, as in Indiana Jones
As we stated earlier, this trip was jam packed with options. The next morning there was a jeep ride starting at sunrise through the desert dunes. We opted out of this and chose instead to sleep in and rely on Joe and D’s pictures since they still had the energy to get up and go. The rest of the day was devoted to driving to the Jordan side of the Red Sea to a town called Acaba. The town was modern and had some cool markets but most importantly it was the location of the ferry that would take us over the border into Egypt the next day. Since most of our group was pretty tired, we all decided to lounge by the pool for the evening and our wonderful guide Jaime arranged for us to get great ‘happy hour’ rates on beers…only this feisty American tour leader could talk a Muslim man into 2-for-1 beers! Known by the nickname “Mish-misha”, everywhere we went people called out her name and ran into the streets to greet her. She was awesome. Early the next morning we all lined up at the ferry port to clear customs and board the boat. We waited for the 10 o’clock ferry until around 12 when we finally departed (typical, according to Jamie). The Egyptian government tries to do immigration on the ferry and it was quite entertaining to watch. Egypt is yet another country that does not understand the concept of forming a line. So our entertainment for the boat ride was to watch all the jockeying for position between the locals at the customs desk. Our guide again took the bull by the horns and wedged herself in the front of the line ensuring we had a smoother time with things. It is crazy how much pushing and shoving happens in these ‘lines’ considering that when they are done they have to sit back down and wait until the entire boat clears customs anyways… Jamie somehow got us through the mayhem of ridiculous disorderly screaming crowds, and through the security (if you can call it that) in minutes.
Thank's Uncle Terry and Aunt Susan!
So we finally arrived in Egypt, at the border city of Dahab. Dahab was probably the nicest Egyptian city we would see. It was fairly small, and a bit touristy but had great restaurants and was right on the Red Sea. That night Joe and D and ourselves all enjoyed an amazing seafood dinner thanks to our generous Uncle Terry and Aunt Susan (Joe’s parents)! Treating ourselves to a nice dinner had not happened since our days with Maureen and Don in South Africa.One of the highlights of our trip in Egypt was snorkeling in the Red Sea. In the immediate area just outside of Dahab is the world famous ‘Blue Hole’.
Snorkelling the Red Sea
The Blue Hole is full of amazing sea creatures and coral reefs but its distinguishing feature is the enormous underwater cliff edges that plummet hundreds of metres straight down into the abyss. Snorkeling out over the reef and then suddenly having the entire ocean floor disappear below you is an awesome experience. The water was crystal clear and we enjoyed the entire day at the Red Sea going in and out of the water. To end the day we toured around Dahab again looking at shops and then boarded our bus to travel to St.Catherines and Mt. Sinai.To ensure we reached the summit of Mount Sinai by sunrise, we were forced to drag ourselves out of bed at a sickening 1am.
Early morning and camel bums
The path up was exciting but extremely crowded, and we spend much of the time trying to dodge camels that came trotting down the mountain and appeared out of the pitch blackness within inches of us. The groaning call of the camel mixed with the darkness and dust of the climb was a surreal experience, almost like a crazy dream. We mounted the final 750 steps to the spot where it is believed that Moses received the 10 commandments from God, and were rewarded with a spectacular sunrise. With no rest for the weary, we soon found ourselves clambering down the “steps of repentance” to famous St. Catherines Monastery, the site of burning bush. Also held at St.Catherine’s Monastery is a unique artifact.
Top of Mount Sinai
Our version of the story our guide explained to us is that Catherine was a young woman who, after a vivid dream, began to preach Christianity in a strict Muslim society. Eventually, she was sentenced to death on a torture wheel that tore limbs from the victim, now referred to as a Catherine Wheel. Apparently, the wheel inexplicably exploded, scattering her remains. Several hundred years later, legend has it that an arm was discovered in perfect condition near the present day monastery that was believed to be her arm! They say that this arm is deep in the monastery, beyond the prying eyes of the public, still in perfect condition… We arrived in Cairo later that night, to a hotel rated one of the best in Cairo in the 70’s…apparently it had not been cleaned or upkept ever since. A bit of arguing and room swaping eventually lead to a reluctant satisfaction with our rooms…AC that worked, but sheets that had been recently slept in by hotel staff( with dirty face implants on the pillows to prove it!) Thank god for our sleep sheets.
Great Pyramids and Great People
What should have been the highlight of the entire trip, even the year, awaited the following morning. The Great Pyramids of Giza. Exceeding our wildest expectations, the Pyramids were colossal and impressive as only they could be. Rising up from the desert, and dwarfing the chaotic city of Cairo built around them, the Pyramids were everything we thought they would be. Unfortunately, we had a guide that was determined to ruin all of that for us. His insane views, distorted knowledge, and impatient attitude as he whisked us through the ruins in order to get us to his friend’s nearby shop infuriated and annoyed us, but the beauty of the pyramids could not be corrupted.
Spinx
We vowed to return. The afternoon contained an equally frustrating speed walk through The Egyptian Museum, one of the world’s greatest. This museum is said to take thousands of hours to appreciate, and we had three. The incredible display of King Tut’s tomb treasures were definitely the highlight. All other King’s tombs were long ago raided by grave robbers, but King Tut’s tomb was discovered untouched, revealing unimaginable riches, now on display. After a day like this, one can only imagine collapsing in a bed for a good night’s sleep, but alas, we boarded a train for an overnight journey south. This marked the merging of two groups and the devastating replacement our guide, Jamie, with a quieter and less enthusiastic one. Arriving in Aswan mid morning, we were able to relax on the hotel’s rooftop pool and visit the cities scorching bazaars. On a mission to find beer in this muslim society, we walked several blocks searching for the alleged unmarked basement liquor store to no avail. Within meters of our hotel, we heard a shopkeeper yell out “spices, postcards, coca-cola” and then in a whispered voice, “beer?” We did a double take, looked at eachother, and veered back to his shop. He pulled us into a tiny store room, secured the door, and pulled two warm beers from under a pile of goat skins. After he offered 20 camels for Stephanie, Chad considered his options, but lucky for Stephanie, returned to the hotel with both beer and wife. Apparently the camels weren’t the caliber that he expected.
HUGE fallen head from Abu Simbul
Yet another ridiculously early morning ensued. The 4 hour drive to the famous ruins of Abu Simbel on the Sudanise border needed to be driven in a convoy of busses with armed guards and drawn curtains. Our meek guide comforted us with assurance that the machine-gun wielding officials were present in case of a breakdown, but we had our own ideas. Abu Simbel was yet another awe-inspiring temple, with an enormous façade of carvings. This enormous mountain is famous for being impeccably relocated in the 60’s when the damming of a nearby river threatened to cover the temple. It continued to astound us that these temples were created more than 3000 years ago.
Typical felucca on Nile
True to form, we staggered off the bus that evening, and with a small daypack, we boarded a traditional Egyptian Nile sail boat called a felucca, that would be our home for the next 16 hours. We floated down the Nile river, with gorgeous views of both city and rural areas. At our first stop, we were informed that a dip in the Nile was allowed. So we jumped at the chance and waded into the murky waters, we being Chad, Steph, and Darienne. While in the Nile we noticed everyone reading their guidebooks, which we were later told said, “Whatever you do, do not swim in the Nile due to pollution and risk of waterborne illnesses.” Ooops.
For supper that night, we dined at a local Nubian village residence. We returned to our boat expecting to sleep under the stars while drifting down the Nile. However, instead we kept the boats docked and slept there on the bank of a small village, wedged between numerous other boats…not quite what we expected. As we drifted off to sleep one of our companions muttered concerns over reflective eyes noticed in the adjacent boats. Ignoring this we all fell asleep.
Did somebody say RAT???
The next morning, two people from our boat were missing. Over breakfast we asked what their fate might have been, and our guide informed us that a freaking rat had climbed aboard in the night and decided to gnaw on the unfortunate honeymooning couple at the head of the boat. Fortunately, the man took the bite on his thumb, sparing his pregnant wife from rabies concerns. The pair would spend the duration of the week in and out of various non-English speaking hospitals in Egypt, receiving numerous injections…what a honeymoon!
Donkey's
Abandoning the ill-fated felucca, our crew headed to Luxor, spending the day at various gorgeous, equally ancient, ruins and temples along the way. The remaining attraction was the Valley of the Kings where the extravagant tombs of many Egyptian kings were hidden. The condition and detail of the elaborately carved and colored walls of the tombs was beautiful. Most were found hundreds of years ago and raided of all artifacts, however, the aforementioned tomb of King Tut was discovered relatively recently, completely untouched. Though most artifacts are now at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the tomb still houses the mummified remains of King Tut himself and his elaborate outer coffin. To see a mummified human body from 3000 years ago, was haunting. From the itinerary, we expected a nostalgic entry to the valley on the backs of noble steeds.
This is my noble steed?
Steph’s concerns with the state of the tiny emaciated donkeys started upon first glance, but escalated with each passing minute that we spent teetering on top of them. They were small, probably no more that 150 kg each, and in very poor body condition. One large guy in our group probably weighed over 100kg himself. It was very wrong and Stephanie didn’t hesitate to give the tour leader a piece of her mind afterwards. Unfortunatly, this is the absolute tip of the iceberg in terms of the animal suffering that occurs in these countries.The touts (vendors, beggars) in Egypt were the worst that we have experienced anywhere in the world (including the most recent India and Southeast Asia), but nowhere were they worse than in Luxor. They threw their goods onto our heads or shoulders and then demanded money, they followed us for blocks, they yelled angrily at us when we said no. Displaying any sort of interest in an item and then not buying it invited even worse attention. Once, a guy even followed us to dinner, and tried to re-order our meals in Arabic to include him! When Chad told him to go away, he yelled “you go away, this is my country!” (Chad replied…”gladly!”)
Sweaty, dusty and exhausted, we again piled onto the dimly lit and dirty overnight train back to Cairo. We arrived, slightly less than rested, at around noon the following day, and returned to the rustic Indiana Hotel. We had a few drinks that night to send off most of the group members.
Sphinx and Pyramid
The following day, a small group of us decided to return to the Great Pyramids for a more relaxing experience than we had encountered the first time. It was the right decision, and all anxieties we had over our first rushed and poorly guided visit melted away…literally, it was HOT! Seeing the pyramids this way, free to wander where our hearts desired and soak up the atmosphere, further elevated them to amongst the treasured highlights of our year. We left early the following morning, and boarded a flight to Dubai, where we would meet up with Joe and Darienne late that evening, as they had a different flight. Our Egypt Air flight was, again, lackluster, and at 2:30 pm we choked down the same boiled egg and boiled wiener that they served us on our last flight. Landing in Dubai airport was like landing in the future, given its comparison with the previous countries.
Burj al Arab
It was spotless and modern and we were able to easily find our way to the ‘futuristic’ metro line headed for town. We arrived at our clean, swanky digs hours before Joe and D. As Steph was not feeling well (due to the boiled wiener on the flight) Chad contacted our acquaintance, Conor, from our days in Cape Town South Africa. They went for a real burger at Burger King and discussed what to do and see in Dubai. Conor was an unbelievable help in planning our weekend in Dubai…little we know it wouldn’t stop there.The next two days in Dubai were packed with activities. On day one, we toured the Burj al Arab (7 Star Sail Hotel) in our grubby clothes, failing miserably to look the part of the ultra rich, and Conor took us to Wild Wadi waterpark with his more than generous discount where we shed ourselves of many layers of middle eastern grime. At Wild Wadi, powerful pumps power tubers up waterslides at an incredible rate! The rest of the first day were wasted on slides and in the wave pools, it was a great way to beat the 40+ heat.
Team Canada
Day two was spent in the Souks (local markets) for souvenirs of our travels. That night we arranged (again through Conor and his family) a discounted jeep safari into the sand dunes surrounding Dubai. Here 4x4’s throw us over the dunes and up the steep faces providing exhilarating entertainment for all of us. The extreme drive was followed by a traditional desert meal at a desert camp where Chad and Joe destroyed a tray of Arabian donuts while Steph and D got Henna tattoos, and we all met up for a Shisha before eating our fill of the Arabian buffet. In the meantime, in Dubai, we had made several visits to the Indian embassy to obtain our VISA’s for entry into India. We would later ask ourselves who, in their right mind, would fight this hard to get into this god forsaken country. The “72 hour VISA” posted widely on their website turned into an internal debacle over how many days constitute 72 hours… is it working hours? Daylight hours? Actual hour devoted to one VISA? The painful truth was, that amid in a 9 day battle of daily embassy visits, we begged, pleaded, cried and educated. Finally, outright defiance led to a refusal on our part to leave the office of the “vice” without passport and VISA in hand. At 3 o’clock on the 9th day, victory was ours. Little did we know that we would be condemned to utter defeat in India for the next 14 days
Joe and D stayed only 2 days in Dubai. “What”, you may ask, “did a cheaper than cheap couple like Chad and Steph do in absurdly expensive Dubai for 9 days?” Connor and his family saved Chad’s budget spreadsheet from sure disaster. The fun-loving Irish family took us in like we were one of their own. Upon hearing that Wild Wadi had cleaned off our “dirty backpacker” filth, Connor’s parents agreed to let us in, and they gave us the family experience we had been longing for for 9 months. They brought us to their sailing club for a steak dinner that we will remember in dreams for years to come, took us out on their boat, provided home cooked meals and made us feel at home. Chad’s competitive edge was further eroded when Connor mercilessly destroyed him in the nearby squash court, a defeat he vows to practice and avenge on Canadian soil at a later date. Those days for us were special, and it cannot be overstated how much their hospitality meant to us. As they are avid travelers, we would like to inform our friends and family that your addresses have been provided and we expect that you will return some Canadian hospitality to them for us!
With VISA’s finally in hand, tickets were hastily booked, and we landed in Mumbai, India less than 24 hours later…here we go.
![[11] Camel and Pyramids](http://images.travelpod.com/users/el_condor/thumbnail.asia_2005.1143747660.picture_032.jpg)
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