Mountain or Sea View??

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Hey all, trying my best once again to update everyone on the happenings of my little journey.

For those that were on my Gecko's tour and are pedantic (which I recall is no-one except for myself), I apologize for my last entry, as some of the events were depicted in an incorrect chronology - best think of my blog as something along the lines of "inspired by actual events..."

Anyhow, I last left off as I was rushing to change hotels for the upteenth time to meet my Intrepid group across the other side of town. My taxi driver let me off at the Ramses Square, in itself a large roundabout, and with my trusty Lonely Planet Guide, I found my way to the Victoria Hotel (talk about being a tourist - backpack in front, backpack on back, guidebook in hand). This hotel, as the guidebook says, is a great hotel for the price, despite its location - which is quite honesty terrible.

Anyhow, I check in, and as i enter the lift, a woman chases me, who happens to be my tour leader, and tells me the group is meeting an hour early than scheduled - which means NOW!! This was to be a glimpse of what so far, has been a pattern of the tour so far, that is, unexpected changes in plan. For most of us hardy travellers, this goes hand in hand with travelling, but as I will reveal in too short a time, this sort of chaos may be too much for some.

Anyway, my group turns out to be quite different from the awesome Team Habibi which had just parted ways. For one, I was to become the second youngest in my group, as there are three people over 50. I would be one of three Australians, and I would be sharing my room with a tutu (see previous blogs for an explanation of tutu). Hmmmm, this will make for an interesting trip......

So here's my group in summary:

1) Bev & Lee (short for Hillary) - two sisters originally from NZ, both grandparents, hilariously funny, well travelled, always have brandy on hand.

2) Jim & Marie - brother and sister combo from Canada, talk to each other like they're on the Gilmore Girls

3) Justin - Music teacher originally from Australia, now teaching at an International School in India, exceedingly biting wit, tutu

4) Margaret - from Brisbane, asks a LOT of questions......

5) Andy & Sharon - Brit couple, drinking buddies, down to earth travellers

6) Alison (aka 'Alli' or 'Alia') - our tour leader, super-enthusiastic Aussie from Benalla, new to Intrepid, always laughing

Well, given the little time i have to write this blog, once again, a succinct summary of what's been happening to date will have to suffice.

Started off in Cairo, and the tour met at 12.00pm on the tour start date and after the usual run through of all things administrative, we headed off to Coptic Cairo after grabbing a bite to eat at a local shwerma place. Met by our enthusiastic local guide, we sped through a quick visit to some of the oldest mosques and chapels in Cairo, and a great lesson on Islam. Some of the history of these places were a bit lost on myself, and it was a hot day, so after trudging around - my concentration was quite poor.

Next day, we left early to set off for Mount Sinai, arriving at St Catherine's around noon. In the searing heat of the afternoon, some of us trekked up, whilst others took a camel ride. It was great, not only for getting to know my fellow tourmates, but also to stretch the legs and get some exercise which I haven't done in a while. After an arduous climb to the summit, we were met with breathtaking views over the valley. Finding our way down proved difficult as the sky moved from twilight to complete darkness. After completing the 14km round trip - we settled back for a nice dinner and hit the sack early, weary from our very long day.

Early next morning, we made our official visit to St Catherine's Church, home of the Burning Bush, where we were swamped by Russian tourists on their massive coaches. There wasn't much to see, but it would be our first encounter with Brit Nick and his partner Sam - who we were to bump into at odd locations throughout our trip. Back from St Cath's we headed off to Nuweiba, on the Red Sea Coast for some well deserved R&R.

Not much to be said for the next two days really, except that I ate, and slept and sunbaked, and ate, and drank fruit cocktails, and drank beer, and sunbaked more and slept and maybe read a book. All this, however, was situated at a fairly isolated little beach camp & sleeping in little reed huts. Life here is really too hard.....

After a couple days doing nothing, we left Nuweiba and boarded the ferry to travel across to Aqaba, Jordan. The whole process of waiting for the ferry and boarding and waiting for immigration messing around with our passports was truly infuriating. The process being a complete farce. For a ferry that was due to leave at somewhere between 2-3pm (which in itself gives you an idea of how strictly they run to time), we finally left port somewhere closer to 6pm and eventually reached Aqaba around 7.30pm. So that day we spent around about 6 hours simply waiting. At least it wasn't as bad as some of the other stories we had heard about this ferry crossing (eg reaching Aqaba at 12.30am next morning).

Aqaba was really just an overnight stop, and craving a trashy meal, Jim and I headed off to McDonald's to satisfy our stomach, fulfilling the task to eat at McDonald's at least once in each country I've visited.

Leaving Aqaba next morning, we headed off to Wadi Rum, where Lawrence of Arabia wrote his book "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom", and also the site of movie about the author. Wadi Rum is provides another amazing landscape, with mud red sand, and mountains jutting out through the floor, all surrounded my a mystical haze that makes the place seem otherworldly (i don't think that's even a word). Driven around by our Bedouin guides in 4wds, we once again spend a night camping in the desert under the stars. It is also the site where we named our group "Team Tea Pot", so-called from the mysterious herb that is found in the local Bedouin tea - which may have something to do with getting the giggles and the munchies.

Leaving Wadi Rum, we drove off for Petra. OMG!! Petra is simply another amazing place!! You may remember seeing Indiana Jones ride through the As-Siq, then laying his eyes on the Treasury in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Petra, the city carved from rose colored rock, is a place to behold. A site important to trade routes and the ancient Silk Road, it has influences from the Nabateans, the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians and was more recently inhabited by the Bedouins. With trails leading all over the place and tombs and caves to explore, once again, it cannot be described in words. Worthy of being one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. I spent two days trekking around here, which was probably enough to see the sites, but the chance to spend hours on end, watching the world below from one of the high places within Petra, is one that I would take up again in a heartbeat.

Curiously, I did run into Kara, one of my Gecko's tourmates - and it was good to catch up about the happenings of Team Habibi in the days after I abandoned them in Cairo.

Leaving Petra, we made our way to Madaba, with a quick visit to the Kerak Castle (an old Crusader Fort, situated on the King's Highway) and the Dead Sea. Floating in the Dead Sea is just one of those things you have to do before you die, it's just sooo eerie. Just don't get any water in your eyes/mouth/on cuts - you WILL be punished (just think of the salt content being 20 times greater than that of regular sea water)!! We also visited Mount Nebo just before reaching Madaba, the site where Moses saw the Promised Land, and reputedly also the place of his death and burial. Wasn't really much to see here, although the church does have some quite nice mosaics.

I don't really have anything to say about Madaba and Amman. They are both quite westernised cities, and I really didn't care for seeing more mosaics. The Citadel in Amman was mildly interesting, and the Jordainian Archeaological Museum more so, but even then - it didn't really peak my enthusiasm. I spent more time in and around the pool in my hotel than seeing the sites.

After two nights in Madaba, we left for Syria via Jerash. Jerash is the site of probably one of the best preserved provincial Roman towns in the world. Only 25% of the site has been excavated (according to our guide), and it's remarkable to see what a city would have looked like during Roman times. Everything from the colonnaded streets, to the hippodrome, to the temples and gates and theatre are remarkably intact despite the earthquakes that occur in Jordan every 90 or so years. We only spent a few hours here, and would have like to have been able to explore the rubble at my own pace, but our drivers only had a limited time to get us to Syria & Damascus.......

Sorry about the quick run down, as there are more stories to tell and so little time that it will have to wait till I get back. The aforementioned really is the 'tourist' account, and not the stories of a 'traveller' - the details of which will have to be saved for another day......

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Comments

[Steph]

You went to Petra? Despite you being 10 years older than me, I still maintain the right to be jealous of your completing a dream of mine before me! I'm glad it lived up the hype, and hopefully it will continue not to disappoint when I drag you to go there again so you can show it off to me, and, in typical crazy tourist spirit, do an Indiana Jones-esque tumble through the streets. In the meantime, have fun with the other teapotters! steph xooo (cause you know I'm all about the hugs)