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Published: April 7th 2008
Greetings!!!!
Well we finally left Luxor on an overnight 16 hour bus up the Red Sea coast, crossing the Suez canal and down the Sinai Penninsular to Sharm El Sheikh. Not exactly luxurious but hey it got us there eventually!
Sharm as the locals call it is basically Las Vegas by the Red Sea - an inexplicable metropolis emerging from the surrounding desert. Although in Sharm's case once you have seen the water it is a bit more understandable why we are all there! The weather was beautiful and warm and Sharm is much less dusty than the rest of Egypt. We stayed in a cosmopolitan hotel filled with Russian mafia types with their dyed blonde girlfriends (seriously!), overweight poms and the odd kraut.
We went straight into a couple of shore dives at Shark's Bay (no sharks!) Unfortunately Leah had come down with a pretty serious bout of bronchitis in Luxor and was benched for the diving portion of our adventure but she reports that the snorkelling was pretty awesome!
Evan spent the next two days boat diving the Red Sea - including the amazing Ras Mohammed National Park.
Trying to board the dive boat
was typical Egyptian disorganised chaos. Thousands of tourists trying to board two boats at a time from the small jetty. Sharm had been the victim of a terrorist bombing in 2005 and the approach to the jetty included security guards, x-ray machines and metal detectors (truly useless when trying to load hundreds of steel dive tanks.) Suddenly with thousands milling around there was a loud explosion. Tourists diving everywhere, police with guns drawn, absolute chaos. All due to a blow out on a dive tank trolley wheel. It was hillarious!
The water was unbelievably clear and the diving was amazing - turtles, caves, swim throughs and teaming with fish. The coral was a bit bleached but some
of the most incredible underwater seascapes ever dived in.
Ev's Travel Tip: On the proper use of olive oil - Since Leah was laid up ill I was on the dive boat by myself and naturally attracted the attention of many young ladies. One attractive Lithuanian in a string bikini seemed to be offering me a bottle of olive oil. Fool that I am, I rejectected the offer because I'm on a diet. It subsequently became apparent that young Lithuanians need help basting themselves in olive oil, to return home to the Baltic States with an all over tan. In future if offered olive oil - always accept. Nights were spent tackling the equally cosmopolitan hotel buffet with its shocking array of preserved vegetables and goulash style offal stews. Yummmm. But the Russians seemed to like it...
We had a "big night out"at Na'ama Bay - the broad range of restaurants on offer meant that Ev was able to settle on a Thai-Chinese combined place and proceed on a non-Islamic "pork a thon"!! Seriously he had it every way you can...
Finally decided to call it quits on Egypt
(Leah was cleared for travel after a late night visit and injections of anti inflammatory and anti biotic drugs) and headed to Jordan.
We caught the bus from Sharm to Nuweiba from where the 'fast' ferry daily takes people to Aqaba in Jordan. The highlight was driving through the Sinai mountains which are strange and eerily textured.
The downside was that when we were trying to leave Egypt we were faced with the true horror of the competence of the Egyptian immigration services. When coming through Cairo Airport - although Leah had bought a visa - the immigration official had failed to stamp her passport! We were now trying to leave a country that there was no evidence we had officially entered!!
At least an hour sitting in the Police Chief's office at the port getting our passports faxed back and forth from HQ for clearance to depart. Bit nervewracking!!! But finally we got the precious exit stamp!
The ferry (hours late) was enormous and packed full of Egyptians trying to enter Jordan's southern special economic zone. Another logistical nightmare that involved us handing over our passports and then waiting for at least an hour at
Jordan immigration to get them back again.
Finally arrived in Aqaba at about 11pm (should have been there at 4) and had to walk half the city 'looking for a room at the inn'. With a bed finally secured and desperately hungry we hit the streets and the jackpot when Ev found a bottle shop selling Jordanian Firewater (Whiskey) and Petra Beer (8%!!) Even better we found the best kebab restaurant in town and got truly drunk and stuffed full of lamb and tabbouleh!
Kebab count rising....
Next day we negotiated the unnecessarily complex 'mini bus' transport network from Aqaba to Ma'an and then to Wadi Musa (gateway to PETRA!!!)
The first night we headed on an excursion to "little Petra" to watch the sunset (while eating chicken kebabs and drinking bedouin tea) and got a taste of the amazing landscape. We got stuck with a Californian woman who was "woofing" her way around the world. Woofing is Working On Organic Farms. We could not wait for this hippy to woof off back to California!
Back at the town we went on a foraging expedition for picnic supplies and found some great stuff and Leah
kept getting free biscuits and cakes from all the shops! Blonde hair is very popular over here!
Up early for the big event. PETRA!! Unfortunately once we saw the sign for the Indiana Jones Souvineer Shop we couldnt get the theme song out of our heads and kept humming it as we walked the 1.2km siq (long canyon from the entrance to the facade). The canyon was dizzyingly high and darted in an angry zig zag through the landscape. Finally we came to the end and the first glimpse of "The Treasury" through the gap in the rocks was truly breathtaking.
The facade is huge and you cannot believe that the Nabataeans carved it out of the local iron filled rock. The rocks are coloured with an amazing palate and wherever the rock has been cut away different shades and stripes are revealed.
The valley is filled with caves cut into the cliffs and the facades of tombs and temples. Behind the facades are large square chambers cut into the cliffside but in essence there is little behind the front piece.
We walked the length of the valley and climbed to the most recommended "high place"
- the Monastery which takes roughly 45 mins. This is absolute must see. You follow a winding path of stairs up through a side valley while fat american tourists are ferried up by labouring donkeys (really dont want to come back as a donkey hey?) until you come out on a plateau with views back over Petra and a facade more amazing than the Treasury awaits you.
We sat in the shade and just looked at it for about an hour - having the first course of our picnic.
Then we did the whole thing again - following the valley back to the Treasury. The amazing thing is that every time you see the buildings at a different time the light makes it look completely different. In the morning the Treasury is golden and in the afternoon a glorious pink.
Da da da da, da da da, da da da da, da da da.....
The following day we got up early and caught a mini bus to the capital of Jordan - Amman. We arrived around mid day and checked into the great Palace Hotel (which our taxi driver couldnt find because they had taken the
sign down for cleaning!!) We did a walking tour of the city - including a Roman theatre and the temple of Hercules on the highest point of the city. Graeco Roman ruins are a change from pharonic and nabataens.
Today we got up early again for groovy little tour in a share taxi with a nice Canadian couple. We went to the town of Madaba which has churches with beautiful byzantine mosaics, then Mt Nebo which is the mountain from which Moses looked down and saw the promised land before dying and then the Baptism site - where John baptised Jesus on the banks of the Jordan river. Biblical 'pilgrimages' are big business tourism in Jordan which has many sites and products badged as authentic "Holy Land" including bottles of holy water from the Jordan river.
After all that serious grown up touring we then spent a few hours at the Amman Beach - the public resort for visiting the Dead Sea which has fresh water pools and showers for afterwards and you can even smoke a sheesha! It was a bit pricey at $20 Aust each but hey this was a once in a life time experience!
We headed straight to the beach and jumped into the water.
SOOOOOOO strange being in the salty salty Dead Sea. We literally couldnt sink. We bobbed like the proverbial corks - all ungainly and roly poly. You cannot easily control your direction and get flipped if you try and "swim"! We conducted the obligatory photo shoot and did silly shapes and goofed around and burned our tongues by licking our skin. The saltiness is intense.
So tonight is our last night in Jordan. Tomorrow we are heading to Damascus and are very excited. But before we go we will be having one more night out with Ev's OTHER favourite thing about Jordan - Petra Beer. This fine and delicous brew comes in two varieties - 8% and 10% alcohol!!! A spicy lamb kofta accompanied by local yoghurt and roasted onions served in fresh pita bread and washed down with 10% Petra Beer is a great night out in anyone's book.
Okay, well "Ma'a salema" (goodbye) till next time.
Love from Leah and Evan
Ev's Kebab count: 17
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