We packed our bags and we left on our journey towards Amman. The next stop was madaba, a small city that is known for their beautiful mosaics. We drove along the kings highway though the countryside of Jordan. Jordan is a very mountainous county so this road is very windy and continuously went up and down and through canyons. Aside from the few villages we passes, the landscape is mostly barren and rocky desert. On our way we stopped at two crusader castles. The first was called Shobak castle, which we only visited from the outside because the tour guide said that the next castle was exactly the same, just that it was much more intact. So we drive a bit further to reach the present day town of Kerak, and visited the kerak crusader castle ... read more

Today we made our way from our Bedouin desert camp to Petra. The night in the desert was not the most comfortable, but it wasn't bad. Mike was afraid That scorpions would get in our tent (apparently 1 girl in our group saw a scorpion in the camp).   The tent that we were sleeping in wasn't super hot in the morning (the desert gets much cooler- about 25 degrees- at night) when we were rudely awaken by some Jordanian girl scouts having breakfast at 6am. We slept in a mosquito net although the night was pretty windy so there weren't really any around. After breakfast we began the drive to Petra where we would spend the next 2 nights. The highways here are really nice, fast and smooth and every vehicle kept to its proper ... read more

July 18 I'm writing this journal entry for a day that I don't really want to remember. But still for our memories it must be documented! We woke up casually and the plan was to go snorkeling in the red sea. I (elysia) tried to go snorkeling the day before with another girl from the group, but I got as far as the reef and I saw huge sea urchin and a huge fat fish and I got scared and swam back to shore (which was actually quite far away). For those who don't know, im afraid of things under the water. Usually if i can see them (snorkeling) and the tide is high so i don't have to rub up against it, i'm okay (it helps if mike is there too)  but the tide was ... read more

Today was mostly a travel day. We departed Cairo and journeyed to st. Katherine which is in the middle of the Sinai peninsula. We passed through a tunnel going under the suez canal which is essentially the connection between the continent of africa and asia. Politically though its still a part of africa but its not on the same continental shelf ( our guide was adamant that sinai is a part of egypt not asia!) The sinai peninsula was occupied not too long ago by israel  ( in the 1970s Israel signed sinai over to Egypt through the camp David treaty) and even to this day they are wanting to take it back. In the desert I saw monuments of tanks and israeli monuments. We stopped at a rest stop along the way and it was ... read more

The day started very early and we rolled out of our beds at 4:30 am to take a luxurious hot air balloon ride over Luxor. Only 5 of us wanted to spend the extra $ to do this trip so we were our own. A guy from the balloon company picked us  and we walked to a boat which took us across the Nile to luxor's west bank. We were hoping to be in the balloon to see the sunrise but unfortunately the ride was a bit delayed because the winds were too strong. Fortunately an hour later we were clears to go and we were soaring high above the city. On one side of us there was the desert and the desert mountains where the valley of he kings was. You could see a lot ... read more