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Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum May 5th 2008

Beautiful Beautiful Wadi Rum: Wadi Rum (Arabic: وادي رم) is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southwest Jordan. It is the largest wadi in Jordan. This was my trip favorite. Possibly the most single beautiful location i've been to. Peaceful and untouched by the modern world (unlike Petra which was too touristy and commercialized in my opinion). If you like a vacation with adventure, where everything is not spoonfed to you, then i highly recommend over-nighting in a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum. Before I go on about thoughts on Wadi Rum, let me preface it with this. To enjoy Wadi Rum for its beauty, please consider these recommendations: A) Keep your party small (one or two ppl max; this is one of those cleansing experiences). B) Definitly overnight in the desert. ... read more
Sunrise hike in Wadi Rum desert
Sunrise Wadi Rum - Jebel Rum in background
Key Perth Green's hair got caught!

Middle East » United Arab Emirates » Dubai May 5th 2008

Dubai Visit - Introduction The Gulf Countries invoke an image of oil-rich, arid, desert countries populated by traditional, Muslim people. Mostly this image is true, but Dubai is an exception. It is NOT oil-rich and the society is the most cosmopolitan that I have seen, and the desert is enlivened not only by the short date palms but also by tall, chrome-and-glass skyscraper buildings which are tantamount to Prosperity. (Dubai is clean but not very green. I could not find a single tree more that 20 feet in height, whereas in India, trees more that 50-60 feet high are fairly common. The world’s tallest trees are, of course, the Redwood trees of California.) This prosperity is the result of the ruling Maktoum family’s unbroken bloodline of capable leaders. They had the vision and the ability ... read more

Middle East » Israel » Center District » Kfar Saba May 4th 2008

I love finding other English speaking bloggers in Israel. It's like a game of hide and seek and makes me feel slightly less crazy when something happens to me in this country and I look around and happen to be the old non-Hebrew speaking person on the planet at the moment. Saying this, I have my few favorites. What War Zone?? is this hilarious guy Benji Lovett's blog. I had the very interesting and somewhat stalkerish experience of getting to meet him at the Taglit Purim party held in Tel Aviv this year. Not only have I been following this guys blog for just about a year, but I actually got to meet him. I recognized him because everytime I log into his blog, I see his picture so that when the time actually came to ... read more
Tova
Amazing Bowl
Bushkill Falls

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra May 4th 2008

Boy was Day 5 a big day. This was the Petra day and our tour guide got us up rather nice and early so that we could get into Petra before all the crowds arrived. I have to say that if we were getting there before all the crowds I would hate to see what it would be like with crowds. We were staying in the Petra Palace hotel (yes that is right it was actually called the Petra Palace) which is just up the road from Petra. So bright and early in the morning we all got up and walked on down to the entrance to Petra. The walk to the beginning of Petra is approximatley 2km and it is possible to ride a horse or to even site behind a horse in a ... read more
The end of the Siq
The tour group in front of the treasury
Looking up at the treasury

Middle East » Israel » Tel Aviv District » Tel Aviv May 3rd 2008

I spent my Pesach break in London and Ireland. A bunch of my close friends are studying in London, so I stayed with them in their dorm near Kings Cross. They had been complaining about their dorm, because it's brand new but nothing quite works right, but it's like palace compared to my prison of a dorm room. It was really nice to see them again, but it was strange to be in London with them- I had planned on studying there for this semester up until late last summer. The day after I got there, their program took them to Brighton Beach, so I came along for the trip. Brighton Beach is beautiful. The pier is really fun and the whole town is just adorable. The first weekend I was in London, my friends and ... read more
Tower Bridge
Big Ben!
Afternoon Tea!

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra May 3rd 2008

On the road to Petra Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. The approach through a kilometer long, cool, and gloom chasm (or Siq) a long narrow gorge whose steeply rising sides all but obliterate the sun, provides a dramatic contrast with the magic to come. Suddenly the gorge opens into a natural square dominated by Petra's most famous monument, The Treasury (El-Khazneh), whose intricately carved facade glows in the dazzling sun. Make sure to visit the Khazneh in the morning around 9am (the way the morning sun hits the building is marvelous). The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time." In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site. Excavations have demonstrated that ... read more
Entry into the city of Petra - the Siq
More of the Siq (passageway to Petra)
More of the Siq (passageway to Petra)

Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum May 3rd 2008

We woke up this morning in our camp site at Wadi Rum. The night in Wadi Rum was really quite freezing and it is only because Dave is so warm and toasty that I actually managed to survive the night at all. Dave even said that he was a little cold in the tent. Dave and I had headed off to bed relatively early and it was only the following morning that we discovered that most of the brits had stayed up quite late the previous night drinking and being quite merry, and that some of them were feeling a little worse for wear that morning. We all had breakfast at the camp site and then packed up and hopped into our very old nissan patrols to do a little bit of wadi bashing. I have ... read more
The camp site
Chelle in the Wadi
Dave in the wadi

Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul May 2nd 2008

Crazy, I checked online after my tour yesterday and saw the riots in Istanbul made world news. I was about 10 minutes walking from that area. I always wanted to get tear gassed and I missed my chance, dammit!!! Well, after that I headed to the Grand Bazaar which was huge and was full of alleyways and I got so lost in it which was fine there was alot to look at but all of it was pretty touristy or junk so I didn't buy anything, I haggled on some items for fun, but nothing worth really getting. I mean don't get me wrong I love wearing fake Guci (notice they leave one of the c's out of Gucci) and other knock offs but just not my bag, baby... Afterwards I got a drink at a ... read more

Middle East » Cyprus » Limassol May 2nd 2008

Yesterday we did manage to get to a water park. Bill and Wayne did not join us, because they had been up late gambling and drinking the night before and were too tired. So, it was just the girls and the kids. We were a little unsure about the currency in Cyprus, as I don’t think they have totally thrown away their old currency in favour of the Euro. I had nothing to fear, the taxi’s and the water park both gave me prices in Euros right away. I even paid the admission to the park by Visa. The morning was beautiful. The sun was out and it was quite warm with a bit of a wind. The kids had a great time. It is an awesome waterpark. There is a wave pool, and several slides, ... read more

Middle East » Jordan » West » Al Karak May 2nd 2008

Today was a massive day. We joined our tour group in the morning at about 9am at the Shepherd Hotel in Amman. They had all only just arrived from the UK at about 2am. We were the only people doing a land only trip so we were in a pretty good state compared to all of them. There were about 14 people on the tour and only one other man so Dave was in women heaven. Unfortunately most of the ladies who were on the trip were a little only ( a group there as a 50th b'day present to themselves). We all hopped on a bus and then headed off towards the first stop of the day at Mt Nebo. Mt Nebo is supposedly the mountain where Moses died, within sight of the promised ... read more
The Popes cross at Mt Nebo
Mosaic Map Ruins at Madaba
The mosaic map of the world at Madaba




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