South Africa, part 1

On the plane to South Africa (ZA), we both had mixed feelings. On the one hand, we were excited to be seeing a new country (not to mention leaving Madagascar), but on the other hand we were apprehensive about the high levels of violence that so many fellow travelers had warned us about. In light of that, we decided to skip Johannesburg, which is renown for being extremely violent, and head straight to Pretoria. We were quite bemused when they showed us our rental: a like-new VW Citi model that hasn't been produced in the States in about 25 years, yet it remains one of the most popular cars in ZA due to its low cost. The rental company inexplicably had no maps for us so we got completely lost but managed to eventually get to Pretoria. As we drove around the 'posh' suburb of Hatfield looking for a hostel, we were struck by a few things. There was not a single car parked on the street and all of these nice looking houses were surrounded by gnarly security fences. As we would soon find out, cars were hidden away for good reason. When we tried to leave our car outside the fence for just a few minutes as put our things away, we learned that our particular model was the most frequently stolen car in the country and good thieves could steal it in as little as fifteen seconds. Speaking of the hostel, it was the first of a long line of wonderful places at which we stayed in ZA. Our bedroom was decorated with designer furniture and we enjoyed some wonderful breakfasts.

We met some cool people at the hostel, including one local who kept saying a word we'd never heard before, lekker, which sounds like 'blackened' and is Afrikaans for 'awesome'. We also met a German guy who was doing his Ph.D. on the history of HIV Health Policy in ZA, which is very bizarre. Apparently the health minister was some sort of quack and convinced the president that the threat AIDS has been completely overblown and that traditional cures like lemon and garlic are just as effective as anti-retroviral drugs. These attitudes have completely derailed prevention efforts and ZA has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. We hit the town that night and found ourselves surrounded by college students, as Pretoria is a big university town. Although we had a good time, we were struck by the blatant segregation; all the workers were Black while nearly all the revelers were White, and none of the groups were mixed. We speculated that this was how America must hav felt in the 50s.

We spent one day shopping at several malls to buy a replacement camera and binoculars. With our new toys in tow, we headed to the nearby Lion Park, where we got to feed ostriches and giraffes and even pet some lion cubs. Despite being fairly young, we were repeatly warned to be careful and to protect our feet, as the cubs like to gnaw on shoes and even toes. Although we only had about five minutes with them, it was a great experience. We also went on a game drive through an area where about 80 lions roam wild. As we were creeping along, one of the massive males came right up next to our car, scaring us half to death. He leisurely walked by us and then plopped down right behind our car in the middle of the road. Unfortunately, we listened to the electronics salesman who said we didn't need an extra lithium battery, and so didn't have a replacement when our battery ran out just as he approached the car...doh! We had of course grown accustomed to losing pictures but we made sure to return the next day to get another battery.

We headed north and took an unanticipated detour to the Sudwala caves, home to some fascinating rock formations including oned that looked like a giant claw and a horse's profile. Our guide brought us to an area called the 'Amphitheatre' because it has great acoustics, and then turned off the lights. We found it disorienting to be in total darkness where we couldn't even detect the movement of our hands right in front of our faces. After the caves we coasted in to Sabie, which is known for its adventure sports. One day we went tubing down a river, which was like rafting except we had individual tubes. Our guide was great and we had a blast getting tipped over in the rapids and going down a natural waterslide sans tubes. The following day we tried abseiling (basically the opposite of rock climbing) down a canyon next to a waterfall. That first step backwards over the cliff was one of the scariest things we've ever done. At the end of the rope, we dropped into a freezing cold river. Jason went first and was mesmerized by the view of Priti abseiling, so decided to go again so we could take picture. But alas, by the time we got back to the top, the guide had dismantled the equipment. That night we hung out with a local who took us to one of the local bars, where, in between harassments from the locals, he told us how he was a contestant in some sort of survivor-type game in which he had to bike 10K kms for 2 million Rand ($250K). In retrospect, he was probably pulling a fast one (we bought a couple of his homemade sculptures), but were satisfied because at least we finally learned the rules of cricket and rugby. A more genuine companion we met in Sabie was Isis, the hostel manager's Boer Bull, who kept climbing into our beds. This means our two favorite dogs in the world share the same name. Also, Priti decided that she has t have one and fortunately there are breeders in the States.

After Sabie, we ventured to Kruger National Park for five days of safaris. The accomodations were excellent and we saw tons of wildlife. For those who have not been on safaris, there is an almost rabid fascination with seeing the 'Big 5', which is the buffalo, elephant, black rhinoceros, leopard, and lion. On the first few days, we saw dozens of buffalos and elephants. We saw several black rhinos as well but hadn't seen any cats. For some reason, our first two campsites did not offer night drives, but fortunately our third camp did. On the night drive we spotted a cat in the distance and the guide said it was likely a leopard due to its size. As we approached closer, it turned out to be a lion cub that had been separated from its mother and was emitting distress calls. Our guide explained how in all likelihood this cub sadly would get eaten by hyenas because it had been abandoned. But, lo and behold, further along the road we found the mother, emitting her own distress calls, along with two other lionesses and three other cubs, meaning there would be a happy reunion that night. Unfortunately, despite awaking at dawn five day in a row (no kidding), we missed the elusive leopard, which wasn't too surprising since they are rare and spend most of their time up in trees. Besides the Big 5, we saw tons of other animals including hyenas, hippos, eagles, zebras, wildebeasts, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, springboks, kudus, giraffes, ostriches, wild bucks, genets, and kingfishers to name some. Overall, it was an amazing experience and what is nice about Kruger is that it is relatively affordable and it is all self-drive, with the option for guided drives as well.

We headed back to Sabie, stopping along the way to see the Blyde River Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world (after the Grand Canyon and Fish River Canyon in Namibia). Some of the great sites along the panorama route of the canyon included Bourke's Luck Potholes, which is an impressive expanse of rock pool formations. Another spot was called the 'Three Rondavels' due to its similarity to the conical huts found in the local villages. Finally, we stopped at a place called 'God's Window' which, with a name like that, we expected to be much more impressive. That night, after reuniting with Isis, we went to a restaurant where Jason got to continue his culinary adventures by trying warthog casserole, which was ok.

Our next stop was a town almost no one has heard of called Kestell, which is nestled along the Lestotho border and the Northern Drakensburg mountain range. The town itself is just a blip but the place we stayed, Karma Backpackrs, was magnificent, essentially a B&B at a backpacker price. FYI, for anyone traveling to ZA, they have these local budget accommodation guides that we used exclusively to find hostels, although some of them were also listed in our LP guidebook. The owner Vera Ann, was like the cool grandmother everyone wishes they had. For breakfast each morning, we could try any of her dozens homemade jams (Watermelon & Rosewater and Brandy, Plum & Walnut were our favorites). She also had some great pets, including a cat named 'dog.' During the days, we went on some hikes. First, we attempted to hike along the famous Amphtitheater but were thwarted by the weather, so we didn't get to climb the rope ladder which was needed to reach the summit. Despite the weather, we were treated to some spectacular views. We spent the evenings chatting with Vera Ann and her husband, and learned more about the precarious political situation in ZA and how many people are trying to get away due to the increasing violence. They also speculated that the 2010 World Cup will have to be moved to the back-up site (Australia) because they are so behind schedule. On our way out of Kestell, we stopped for another day of hiking at Royal Natal NP.

After an uneventful night further south along the Drakensburgs, we headed for the Wild Coast. Our first stop was supposed to be Port St. Johns. However, after hearing another traveler report a recent string of hold-ups at the hostels we were on guard and when we arrived it was so sketchy that we just turned back around. It was so bad that we were afraid to eat lunch in the restaurant for fear our car would be gone before we returned. Thus, after a full day of driving, we had another few hour to get to Coffee Bay, which is known to have a hippy vibe. Generally, we have not liked such spots, but in Coffee Bay it was relaxed and good-natured fun. Jason joined a group on a day hike along the cliffs and to Mapuzzi cave, which was the foullest smelling cave he'd ever been in. He also partook in some cliff jumping into a river since the ocean was too choppy to jump into. Another day we lounged at the beach and played some beach volleyball, and Jason took advantage of some free surf lessons. He even managed to stay on the board...once... for about five seconds. One evening, we reluctantly joined a 'cultural' tour to the local village. The food was not too good and the homemade beer was worse. After dinner, the locals put on a dance show before asking us to join them. It was a bit uncomfortable for us because the females, aged eight to fifteen, all were topless and our guide kept saying "shake that body" in a very dirtbaggish way. And shook their bodies they did, to a rhythm created on makeshift percussion instruments handled by the village elders. After the girls finished, the boys gave their routine, which in contrast was them just shuffling along in a big circle.

Inclement weather arrived on the coast, so we decided to head back inland to Hogsback, which had been recommended by a few other people. It has made a name for mostly due to Tolkien having spent some of his childhood there and thus apparently finding inspiration from the surrounding countryside in creating Middle Earth. Nearly every business in town had some reference to the Hobbitt in its name (our hostel was called Away with the Fairies). As we hiked through the misty mountains past stunning waterfalls, we understood how people could make the connection.

After Hogsback, we went to Addo Elephant NP for an afternoon of game drives, before heading back to the coast to Storms River. Loyal readers of the blog may recall that Jason wanted to do the Nevis bungy jump in NZ but passed it up when he found out there was a taller on in ZA. Well, this was it, all 216 meters of it. As he walked along the bridge, the adrenaline began to build the jump itself was a rush unlike any other. The only disappointment was that the workers did not allow him to soak in the fear by standing on the edge, as they started counting down almost immediately. They claimed that if they didn't then too many people would back out.

Buzzing with adrenaline, we headed to yet another NP, Tsitsikamma, where Jason continued his natural high by going on one of the toughest and most amazing hikes he's ever been on, the Otter Trail. The barely existent trail followed the ragged cliffs and every 200 meters or so the scenery changed. Parts of the trail involved bouldering while other parts he was hunched over going through forest tunnels. He saw only a few other hikers and some wild animals along the way, and at the end there was a spectacular waterfall. Meanwhile, Priti had a relaxing day on the beach enjoying a book while listening to the waves crashing the shore.

We continued down the coast along the Garden Route to Plettenberg Bay, known by the locals as 'Plett.' We found another awesome place to stay, about 6 kms outside of town that had a great deck with a superb view of the city and the bay. In the mornings we could see dozens of dolphins swimming up the coast. For the first time in awhile, we enjoyed the cuisine, including kingclip (a fish we'd never tried) and for the first time during our entire trip, good Mexican food (chicken burritos). We would have never even bothered trying it as we had long ago given up hope of finding good Mexcian food, but the owner of the roadside stall was friends with the hostel owner so we gave him the benefit of the doubt. Plett is pretty touristy so there was plenty to do. We went to a glorified zoo called 'Monkeyland', and we posted some of those pics in the Madagascar entry. We continued our wildlife tour by visiting another wild cat park where we got to pet a cheetah...seeing all these cats reminded Jason of Billy and Simone back in Omaha. We also went on a nice hike along the coast in Robberg NP.

On our way out of town, we decided to buy a tent because it seemed as if Namibia (our next destination) was going to be very expensive. So, we headed north through the Karoo, a vast desolate desert, to a place called Graff-Reinet, a Dutch colonial town which had lots of aesthetically pleasing historical buildings.

Since we didn't have much time to spare, we dropped off our stuff and explored the Valley of Desolation, which reminded us a lot of Arizona with its red rock formations. While we were gone, the owners of the hostel kindly booked us reservations at one of the local game restaurants, and we feasted on kudu and ostrich (our favorite). He also showed us around his members only club and shared some of the history of the town.

Our final stop before crossing over to Namibia was Augrabies NP, near Upington. We stayed at a campsite nearby and hung out with some locals under a mesmerizing sunset. We'd already logged tons of kms over the past few days so we had a pretty quiet evening on Jason's birthday. Although the falls weren't that spectacular because the water was relatively low, the park itself was beautiful. On a hike through the park there were multi-colored lizards on the rocks that were pretty interesting as well as dassies, which look like beavers but their closest genetic relatives are elephants. Stay tuned for the Namibia update along with the rest of ZA (we never did find out why they abbreviate it ZA rather than SA).

Madagascar

Parlez-vouz francais? If your answer to this question is no, you might want to reconsider visiting Madagascar, as there is very little English spoken there and thus very difficult.

That was the original opening line to this blog entry, and so we will try to be as objective as we can, but as most of you know, we were robbed on our 3rd day there. This obviously soured our perspective of the country and we have very little to recommend about it. Even before we were robbed, we had not really been enjoying it. It started with a rude awakening at the airport when we had to pay $85 for our visas, by far the most expensive yet. The hotels in Tana (short for Antananarivo) the capital city were pretty expensive, even though the one we stayed at was basically full of prostitutes (we didn’t realize this until we returned on our way out). From Tana, we took an uncomfortable nine-hour taxi-brousse (minivan) ride to Fianar, where we hired a driver for 5 days to take us south to Tolear, on the coast. We were both a little sketchy that the guy wouldn’t let us pay in American dollars because we were carrying much more than normal since we worried whether our ATM cards would work (especially after our experience in Jerusalem)…mistake number one That night, we got barely any sleep because the rude French tourists staying in the rooms across the hall kept us up most of the night.

After our driver arrived, we headed to Ranomafana National Park. Upon our arrival, we gasped in disgust as we had to both pay $15 to enter the park and then an additional $20 for our compulsory guide, who spoke barely any English. The only interesting part of our $50 hike was seeing some red-fronted brown lemurs and catching a glimpse of the rare golden brown lemur. As we returned to our vehicle, we met Jose, who lives in Portland after marrying a Peace Corps volunteer several years ago. Jose was excited to meet Americans because he is still learning English and he had been back in Madagascar for several months to oversee some family property. When we got to Manja hotel, we opted for the much cheaper bungalow, despite the windows having no coverings…mistake number two. After putting our stuff away, Jose showed us the dam that had been destroyed in a recent flood. We crossed the makeshift footbridge and had some tasty homemade sweets, a sweet pasty mixture of banana and coconut served in a banana leaf. He then took us to the village and we had fun entertaining the village kids by taking their pictures. That evening Jose, who also works as a guide, took us on a night walk where we saw several species of chameleons and marveled at how they changed colors right before our eyes. Jose informed us that most of the time, they change colors not to camouflage but to communicate. As Jason was returning from the toilet, he had to stumble through the dark because the outdoor light had been mysteriously turned off. As we hung out in our room, we looked through our pictures and even thought about transferring them to the laptop but alas we didn’t…mistake number three. As we prepared for bed, Priti mentioned whether we should keep the windows closed but it was very hot and humid and the room had no fan, so Jason insisted we keep the windows open…mistake number four. Our final mistake was that we left some of our stuff near the open window, including Priti’s backpack and the laptop. Around three AM we heard some men outside of our room making a ruckus, and he even got out of bed to check our stuff and then closed the window after verifying the laptop was still there.

The next morning we awoke and with horror realized that the burglars had in fact taken Priti’s backpack, which unfortunately had more valuables in it than everything else combined, including our camera and, even more importantly, our memory card with all of our pictures from Israel and Jordan. Also Priti’s money belt which contained all those dollars we had stocked up on…doh! We frantically looked around in hopes that it was some kind of bad dream but alas it was gone. Jose returned and inexplicably took some pictures of us freaking out. The thieves at least were considerate enough to dump her passport and credit card near the hotel; it would have been that much worse had we had to replace those too.

There was no police force in Ranomafana, but the incompetent Gendarme took our statements, and also one from the security guard, who actually saw the thieves getting away but didn’t think to tell anyone about it until the next morning! We stuck around town for the longest three days of our lives as we waited in vain for any leads to materialize. They had an internet place so we were able to contact our insurance company. Incredibly, the computers had been donated by USAID yet we had to pay double the rate of the locals! Then we find out on day three that our guide had been busted before for robbing tourists in the same manner as we had been! Why did it take them three days to interview him?! Then they told us they couldn’t search his house because they didn’t have a warrant. Looking back, it made sense that he was involved, as he saw us putting our valuables in Priti’s backpack during our day hike. After this we became convinced it was an inside job. One of the guys investigating was brothers with the hotel owner and seemed just a bit too happy doing his job. The hotel graciously (wink-wink) allowed us to stay there for free until things were resolved. We contemplated just staying there until our departure three weeks hence, but couldn’t stomach the place anymore. At the internet place, we decided to buy a cell phone because it was pretty cheap. We found out later that even this schmuck ripped us off as all of the introductory credits had been used up. During our ordeal, Jose was very nice and we were thankful for his support.

We decided at that point to just return to Fianar since the room was cheap and we wanted to minimize our expenditures. When we got back we returned to the place where we had booked our ‘tour.’ Thankfully we had only paid half up front but we wanted to get the rest back (minus the cost of the first day). Of course the guy had left and so we couldn’t get any of our money back, but we got them to give us a day tour. On the tour we saw some amazing scenery and went on a hike (guided of course) to see groups of ring-tailed lemurs, which were pretty entertaining. The pictures posted were actually from South Africa (ZA), so in retrospect we had absolutely no reason to even be in Madagascar, considering it was our most expensive flight and we could’ve just seen lemurs in ZA…oh well. The final part of our day trip was to a local winery and we were amazed at how awful the wine was…basically cough syrup. We stared in amazement as a group of French tourists bought several bottles, and we concluded they must have been drunk.

We spent most of the next ten days in our hotel room, leaving once a day for a meal. At one of the places, Jason got to try roasted bat, which was just ok (the wings had the consistency of seaweed). One afternoon, Jason went out and met a local guy, who again wanted to practice his English, and told Jason about some music festival that was happening that afternoon. After an hour, they stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Incredibly, this guy ordered a meal (not even a cheap one) and had no money to pay for it! Disgusted, Jason refused to pay for him and the owner took the guy’s ID card as collateral until he returned to settle his bill. And it turns out there was no concert that day, but the following week. We both returned to the Chinese restaurant a couple days later for some tasty fried noodles and zebu (beef), and recounted the experience with the owner. He informed us he had no intention of keeping the guy’s ID, but simply wanted him to own up to his mistake first. Not much else happened, although we went out to one of the local clubs and enjoyed some of the local music. The one thing the Malagasys do have is good music, and Jason even purchased a couple CDs by one of the local artists, ‘Firmin.’

Before returning to Tana, we contacted the gendarme and learned that three more robberies had occurred at the same hotel since we had left…unbelievable. By that point, we were just counting down the days and we only had three left in Tana. Before we left, we went to the lemur park, and saw nine different types of lemurs, including the beautiful sifakas and the tiny mouse lemurs, the smallest mammals in the world. At the airport, they would not accept any local currency so we got stuck some ariary/francs. Bizarrely, their currency is double-valued, meaning that each note is printed with two values on it. With the ariary worth five times as much as the franc (e.g., a 1000 ariary note also has 5000 francs printed on it), we speculated it was just another way to rip off tourists. We purchased a couple stamps and came to the realization that even the post office in Ranomafana had tried to rip us off. Save for Jose, pretty much everyone we met tried to screw us in one way or another. As Woody Allen once said, “comedy equals tragedy plus time.” But, writing about it two months after the fact, we still fail to see the humor in this particular instance. Up until the robbery, we had been pretty careful, but unfortunately one bout of carelessness is all it takes. Our guards were on high alert as our next destination was South Africa, one of the most notorious countries for tourists being victimized.

Israel and Jordan

Israel

Like Laos, neither Israel nor Jordan were on our original itinerary, but for those who don’t follow world news closely, Kenya was in political turmoil after a disputed election in the last week of 2007. Tragically, over 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Moreover, Indian businesses and homes were specifically being targeted since the ‘winner’ of the election had close ties to the Indian community. Ironically, when we were deciding where to travel in Africa, we figured Kenya would be a pretty good choice since it had been one of the most stable countries of the last fifty years. Fortunately for Kenya, albeit too late for the far too many victims, the parties compromised and formed some sort of coalition between the two parties.

Thus, we decided to continue our explorations of the Middle East. Some readers may find our decision to visit Israel due to ‘safety concerns’ a bit odd given the millennia of political turmoil there, and we weren’t too sure ourselves but ultimately we were glad with our choice. Before departing from Egypt, we went through a somewhat laborious process to have them stamp a separate exit card so that we could avoid the Israeli stamp stigma. Continuing with the political turmoil theme, to explain, the only countries in the Middle East that recognize Israel as a country are Jordan, Egypt and Turkey. Therefore, anyone who has any evidence of having visited Israel—not just an Israeli stamp but even an exit stamp at any of the border crossings from neighboring countries—will be denied entrance into any other country in the conflicted region. Since we’d just gotten our passports before this trip, we figured we might want to visit Syria and Lebanon within the next ten years, hence the effort to avoid the stamp (again, some may wonder why bother and the recent escalation of violence in Beirut makes it increasingly unlikely we’d choose to go there within the next decade).. Sometimes border officials aren’t accommodating of such requests but the Egyptians granted our request. So far so good. Upon arriving on the Israeli side, we were ordered to empty all of our bags to have them completely searched by the Israeli immigration officials. They even dumped all of our camera batteries out, causing us much annoyance over the next several weeks as our camera kept dying due to having a mix of charged and non-charged batteries. As anyone who has been to Israel knows, this is standard operating procedure, but for us this was the first time and so quite entertaining. Jason even tried to take a picture but was denied. After determining we were not a threat, they let us through. When Jason approached the next window, he explained to the post-pubescent immigration official that he was traveling onward to Syria and then before he could react she stamped his passport…doh! When he exclaimed, “but I told you I’m going to Syria” she just shrugged and feigned an apology. Apparently, this is not uncommon as Israelis are insulted (understandably) by the policies of their neighbors so take it upon themselves (inexplicably) to keep visitors away. Had we really been going to Syria, Jason would have had to ‘lose’ his passport and acquire a new one, as other travelers we’d met had been forced to do. Priti then very explicitly stated she didn’t want her passport stamped.

After enjoying the best falafel we’ve ever tasted, we boarded a bus to Tel Aviv, after having our bags checked again before entering the bus station, a process we never quite got used to in our short time there. The buses in Israel are incredibly efficient which was a nice change of pace, but with that satisfaction came the discomfort of being surrounded by teenagers armed with automatic rifles, as all Israelis have to serve two years in their army after graduating from high school. We found many of these kids to be quite rude but quickly learned to just get out of their way. Upon arriving in Tel Aviv (on time!) we were shocked to find out that the cheapest lodging in the city was a whopping $65 per night. Having just come from Egypt (and India before that), this was unbelievably expensive. But, we accepted the inevitable and just tried to not think about how the Israel Sheckel has appreciated dramatically against the pathetic US dollar.

We both found Tel Aviv to be one of the hippest cities we’ve visited. The people are very stylishly dressed and there were plenty of good restaurants and places to get our groove on. Seeing all the hipsters so well-dressed led us to ditch some of our drab travel garb and fit into some brand new blue jeans (gasp)! It felt so good to finally re-connect our butts with some comfortable denim and look good doing it too! As has been the case pretty much everywhere, the cabbies were total scammers, and one took us in a big circle, despite having a computerized mapping device on the dashboard. But at least the place he took us too had a great DJ, playing everything from Israeli rock to American R&B.
Jason spent the following day checking out the uninspiring museum, which was basically an introduction to Jewish living, but quickly found the music library where he stocked up on names of classic Klezmer musicians. Mazel tov! Meanwhile, Priti spent the day hanging out at the Mediterranean Sea.

After a couple days, we made the quick dash to Jerusalem. The bus dropped us off right outside the Old City at the Damscus Gate. We found a place inside the Muslim Quarter and explored the narrow winding corridors that have enchanted religious adherents for millennia. Three of the largest religions in the world—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—consider this city one of the holiest in the world. In one day of walking, we saw the Western Wall, the last remaining section of the 2nd Temple that was destroyed by the Romans, and the Via Dolorosa, where Jesus carried the cross on his way to being crucified, again by those dastardly Romans. We learned on a tour that the Western Wall is so revered by Judaism not because it’s the only remaining portion of the Temple, but an underground section of the wall is the closest point Jews can get to the place where God supposedly created the world, the foundation stone or the ‘holiest of the holies’. We also tried to visit the golden Dome of the Rock, the 3rd holiest site in Islam (after Mecca and Medina), but were repeatedly denied because we weren’t Muslims and it had been absurdly closed off to the public since Ariel Sharon visited it in the early noughties. Being an atheist, Jason had mixed feelings about the over-religiosity of the city, but even for us secularists, there are few if any places in the world that have had a greater impact on the history of western civilization than Jerusalem. Each time he saw signs for Mt. Zion, he began to hum Bob Marley’s Iron, Lion, Zion or the Melodians’ Rivers of Babylon. One evening we enjoyed a Jewish folk dance show.

As we walked around one evening, we could not find an ATM machine that would accept our card, so for the first time on the trip, we used our back-up card, only to have it retained by the ATM machine! By that point, it was quite comical because we had almost no money left and suspected we had no way of getting money. But thankfully we managed to find an ATM machine that accepted our primary card, and when we contacted our bank, it turns out the card had expired…the day before we tried to use it! We arranged to have a replacement card sent to Cairo and pick it up on our way out.

After a few days of exploration we rented a car and took a day trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. Masada is an ancient fortress that is another Jewish pilgrimage site due to its historical importance. The fort sits atop a huge mountain and back in the day the only way to reach it was via a steep 3 hour hike but now they have a cable car installed that zips tourists (like us) up in a couple minutes. When Romans were about to sack the fort, the Jewish soldiers committed mass suicide rather than face enslavement by their captors. Movie? After Masada we headed to the Dead Sea, which is the lowest sea in the world and has such a high salinity that no living organisms can survive there. What’s even better is that the buoyancy of the water is so positive that it’s like having a life jacket. We got some great pictures of Jason reclining in the water but of course those were stolen along with our camera. :(

Our next stop was Tiberias, near the Golan Heights, a disputed swath of land that the Syrians claim is rightly theirs. Despite insane petrol prices of nearly $8/gallon, we again rented a car. We tried to do a day hike in one of the national parks but, much to our annoyance, were denied because apparently 1 pm was too late to begin any of their hikes. The next day we headed to Haifa and visited the immaculate Bahai gardens, which are not surprisingly one of the holiest sites of that religion. We couldn’t resist telling the volunteers about how we were featured in their national newsletter for having our wedding pictures taken in front of the Bahai temple in Wilmette, Illinois. The Bihai faith is very embracing of all religions, and adherents do not have to renounce their own faiths to become members. Although their philosophy played a small role in our choice, it was mostly its beauty and location near Lake Michigan. Back in Tiberius, we were hailed by this little old lady who didn’t speak a word of English, but somehow managed to get us to escort her to the bus station. Despite being just down the road, it took us nearly an hour to get there, and on the way she made us stop at the two-sheckel store so she could buy us gifts! Our plan was to have falafel on our final evening in Israel, but we fortuitously stopped at the ‘best shop in town’, according to the other patrons and had these delectable lamb sandwiches and of course the accompanying side salads of grilled eggplant, coleslaw, and peppers. Yum!

Jordan

After stopping for another sandwich, we hopped on a bus to the Jordanian border. The crossing was mostly forgettable except for the incredibly annoying bus driver of the bus we were mandated to take 100 meters(!) to cross the border. Since we weren’t returning, we were short on sheckels, and the guy made a huge deal about it before we gave him a dollar to shut him up. We took a taxi to Irbid, a small city in northern Jordan. We only stayed a night, but had a great chicken swarma dinner and sweets afterwards, and met some very nice locals. We saw skinned sheep heads in some of the store windows but we couldn’t muster the courage to sample this particular local cuisine. The next morning we ventured to Jerash, which is famous for spectacular Roman ruins which unfortunately aren’t very interesting to talk about sans pictures. Since we had our bags with us, we left them at a restaurant and then returned to have a fabulous buffet lunch with lots of scrumptious spreads to go with the fresh pita.

We continued south to Petra, which is one of, if not, the most amazing thing we’ve seen on this trip. It truly has to be seen to be appreciated and although it can conceivably be seen in one day, we recommend taking at least two days to explore it. It was built by an ancient civilization called the Nabataeans in the 3rd century and archeologists believe it was abandoned after a large earthquake. The town of Wadi Musa is unfortunately a tourist trap but we met a cool German named Marco with whom we spent the day exploring the ruins. We awoke early enough to avoid most of the large tour groups and so got to experience the Siq—a stunning two kilometer fissure that serves as the entrance to Petra—in relative solitude. As we came out of the Siq, we caught glimpses of the truly awesome treasury, which is a two-story building adorned with columns yet carved directly into the sandstone. During our explorations we passed dozens of temples and tombs and the rock formations appeared as if they were painted on. He also went on many cool hikes; one in particular was enjoyable, although the three of us eventually got completely off the trail and had to turn around. We met some of the locals who still live in the area and dig for artifacts like old Roman coins. Unfortunately this means that many of the tombs have become outdoor toilets. The next day we hiked all the way to the other end to see the amazing monastery, which was on par with the treasury in terms of the shear-amazement factor. And thankfully the locals left this one clean.

We spent a couple days relaxing in Aqaba, on the other side of the Red Sea. There we met a Spanish woman who had been working in Afghanistan for the past year. Although we admired her courage, we questioned how people could put themselves at such great risk, particularly after we heard how she was basically on house arrest for months months at a time when security the risks were too high. Our plans of taking a ferry back to Egypt were foiled by the weather and so another travel adventure began. In the station, we met two more Americans who were working in Palestine and we split a cab to the Israeli border. Due to their place of employment, the two women had been forced to wait hours at previous border crossings as the Israelis did background checks. Finding that silly, before we left them Jason asked one of the officials how long it would take. Although she looked none too happy with his inquiry, ten minutes later they had their passports and we were on our way. They were both very appreciative of Jason’s special powers. The cabbie of course ripped us off and we had to pay another Israeli exit fee, despite being there for less than thirty minutes.

After some intensive negotiations, we hired a minibus back to Cairo and visited our old familiar spots, including Abu Tareq for some tasty koshary and the patisserie for some delectable sweets. The next day, we went on a wild goose chase to recover Priti’s ATM card, which our bank had sent to a local bank. We also had to find medication for Jason as he had contracted some type of ringworm, most likely from walking the beaches in Goa. Although we had to check four different pharmacies, we managed to find it, and the full dosage was less than $2! Thus ended our time in the Middle East.

Egypt

The plane from New Delhi took about eight hours and we had a brief stopover in Doha, Qatar. And when we say brief we mean it; as we exited the airplane our connecting flight was announcing last call! We arrived at the Cairo International airport sans a Lonely Planet guide book. Given our recent experiences, we mistakenly thought it would be an interesting experiment to just wing it. We also had not had time to make any reservation so we pretty much had no idea where to go from the airport, consider it LP's revenge after Jason's disparaging remarks in previous posts. Our bewildered looks must have made us an easy target because several hotel touts hounded us and we finally gave in to one who showed us a brochure and quoted us what seemed a reasonable rate. Of course, he then took us to a different hotel that was a dump and we told him to take us to the one on the brochure. When we arrived, the hotel informed us the tout had lied about the price and also had lied about including the transfer from the airport. After arguing with him for much too long, we finally paid him half of what he wanted and told the hotel ‘manager’ to pony up the rest since he was trying to convince us we should just pay him. We planned to check out of the hotel the next day, but our plans were sidetracked by a three-hour tour sales speech from the ‘manager’ from the previous night. We don’t know why we let him waste our time and by the time we checked the other hotel, it was booked up, so we begrudgingly returned to the New Palace Hotel. Although he stuck around for a couple days, the ‘manager’ eventually disappeared from the hotel once he realized we were not going to book a tour through him. In all likelihood, he was a tour agent tout in cahoots with the taxi driver to completely scam us by overcharging us for a tour. When we came to this conclusion, we decided we’d ‘forget’ to return the old guide book they had loaned us.

Despite these initial hassles, we were excited to start a new adventure. Cairo is a city that is one of the most visited in the world because of its ancient history, but it is also a bustling modern metropolis of close to 40 million people. The downtown area, where we were stayed, is lined with cafes where the male locals hang out smoking sheesha (flavored tobacco) out of houkas and drinking unfiltered black tea with lots of sugar (we would later marvel when one Egyptian added five heeping spoonfuls into his cup). The prevalence of smoking amongst males is a staggering 95% and for those like us who loathe 2nd hand tobacco smoke, we just had to grin and bear it. And, although we’ve been exposed to some awful traffic on our travels, Cairo’s was the worst yet because for the first time, as pedestrians, we worried about staying alive as we crossed the street at crosswalks since drivers ignored red lights, pedestrians, and sometimes even sped up as pedestrians crossed. We were thankful but surprised that we didn’t see anyone hit by cars. On the flip side, Cairo is a very safe city and we never felt worried about our safety other than when we had to cross the street. We also enjoyed the music emanating from the cafes and we grew to love Arab music during our six weeks in the Middle East. Finally, we marveled at how ‘clean’ Cairo was, which is a good example of how subjective our perceptions can be; having just arrived from India, the filthiest country in the world, Egypt seemed clean to us, when nearly everyone else remarked how dirty it was. We quickly dove into the local cuisine, and feasted on fresh shwarmas and yummy eggplant. Although the food was pretty good, we couldn’t help but compare it to one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago, Pita Inn. However, the sweets were absolutely delicious, even tastier than in India, and we returned to one of the local pastry shops every night to sample the various culinary treats.

During our time in Egypt, we were inundated with visual and aural expressions of the Islamic faith. One day we explored an area called Old Cairo, where it seemed as if there was an ancient Mosque on every single block. Each morning at about 5 am, the amplified sound of the muezzin asking the faithful to attend prayers at the mosque. Earplugs were thus a necessity for sleep. Friday is their holy day and almost everything, except stores and public transportation, were closed. Plus, since Muslims pray five times a day, we heard the prayers often and since there are so many mosques, at times the city was so loud we wished we could have walked with earplugs. All of the local televisions stop broadcasting during prayer times as well. We visited the Citadel, an ancient fortress that contained an incredibly mosque, a war museum, and great views of the city. Since it was a clear day, we could see the Pyramids even though they were about 10 miles away. In the mosque, it was fascinating to see the faithful embarking in their prayers while hordes of tourists (like us) snapped photographs. The war museum was massive, which is not surprising given Egypt’s long and war-filled history. What was surprising is the way it seemed to glorify war. And, like many of the tourist activities, the movement within the museum was highly controlled by the government, and we had to go through the entire thing in order to get to the exit (i.e., we couldn’t turn around)!

And of course we visited the pyramids of Giza, the only of the seven ancient wonders that are still standing, on a guided day trip along with the ancient city of Memphis and the necropolis of Saqqara. The pyramids, three large and six small, were an amazing sight surrounded by tourists, locals, and camels for hire. Our guide helped us take some hilarious pics, and this one's for all those readers who remember the 80s. We entered the tunnel of one of the large pyramids which was dark, narrow, and stiflingly humid. Two people could barely pass one another and we had to stay hunched over the entire time, save for a brief reprieve in the middle. The people coming out were panting as we were going in and at one point it got so dark and claustrophobic that Priti started turning around but Jason supported her through this exposure therapy process (for professionals only–hah!). After the difficult descent, we reached the center where there was an empty tomb; a bit anti-climactic but still interesting to see. Saqqara is 5000 years old, was originally one huge cemetery, and the tombs are lined with sunrays. Many of the limestones of the tombs were taken to build homes and Mosques in Old Cairo about 4500-5000 years ago and it was sad to see the top of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara was missing its top due to the long-gone thieves. We learned from our guide that statues usually have the left foot forward which means to follow your heart and if they had hands across their chest, this indicated death.

Then we were off to the Egyptian museum, which is so massive that it would take months to see every artifact on display. In addition to its shear size, the place is always jam packed with large tour groups, which make it difficult to maneuver around. Instead, we spent one frenetic afternoon hitting the highlights, including the sarcophagi and death mask of King Tut, which were made out of pure gold. At the Egyptian museum we learned that people were buried with animals for a variety of reasons: as food so they would not starve in the afterlife, as sacrifices to various Gods, and of course as companions (Jason decided he’s taking his cats Billy and Simone with him into the afterlife). Jason bought an extra ticket to see the mummy room, which contains nine bodies and is not for the faint of heart. It was amazing how well-preserved the bodies were and a few of them even still had their hair. The only annoying aspect was that he wasn’t allowed to bring in his camera, even though just about every other person was taking pictures with their cell phones. Afterwards, we walked along the Nile River and enjoyed the view of the many boats.

That evening, a local Egyptian named Khaled helped us change our flight to Kenya (we are no longer going there due to the recent violence). Afterwards, he invited us to tea, smoke sheesa and watch the African Cup match between Egypt and Kenya. Priti was the only woman in the entire café and Egypt won! This was followed by the best food in Cairo called Koshary which is a mix of lentils, pasta, fried onions, and spices. Delicious!!! We found the Egypt had some of the nicest people we’ve met on our trip but at the same time there are a lot of jerks who are always trying to scam tourists. We could list a dozen examples but we’ll just leave it at that.

The next day, we traversed five hours west by bus to Bahariyya Oasis, a haven of green in the middle of the desert. This area was filled with palm trees and Bedouin culture. The desert in Egypt is barren outside of the oases. Nothing grows – no trees, no shrubs, not even weeds. The contrast between an oasis which has palm trees and water to the Egyptian desert is extreme. Tucson, Arizona seems like the Northwest US in comparison to the desert in Egypt! On a 4WD tour, we saw the Salt Lake which has the run-off of agriculture water but there is so much salt in the ground that the water foams at the edge. In the vicinity, Pyramid Mountain is a natural mountain that looks just like one of the pyramids near Cairo. It is famous for dinosaur fossils found there in the early 20th century. Nearby, we found full skeletal remains of a cow. The desert is deadly! Then we went to a camel farm where one of the camels stuck her head over the stone wall and wanted to be petted the entire time. Camels are so cool! The tour guide told us that often, the camel man will feed his camel marijuana so they remain dazed and chill. Maybe that’s why Jason’s camel kept chewing and eating in Jaiselmer, India. Hmmm, makes sense now. We proceeded to Crystal Mountain which was entirely made of quartz crystal rocks. Due to being protected land, we couldn’t pick up any of the crystals although Priti imagined making thousands and thousands of pieces of jewelry from the crystal stones. (Alas, no crystal necklaces as gifts for those at home). It was not that spectacular in the sense of how it looked from afar until you got close to each sparking piece and observed the way the light was reflected on the mountain.

The highlight of the tour, indeed one of the highlights of the entire trip thus far, was the White Desert which is called Sahra al-Beida. This place felt like another planet. Blinding white rock formations were everywhere and came in myriad shapes, some of which were familiar, such as animal profiles and massive mushrooms. They were shaped by wind erosion and were surreal. At sunset the sky was alit and pink and the silhouettes of the white rock formations became even more spectacular. The sand around the white formations, littered with sparkling quartz, gives the landscape the feeling of snow with the sunlight beaming on it eerily at times.

After camping in the desert under the star filled sky, we awoke early the next morning and adventured to the Black Desert. It was wild to see the desert transformed from white to black. The Black desert was formed over a millennia as wind eroded the mountains and spread a fine black powder over the ground. It ended with a small, black volcano shaped mountain, part of a fault that runs through Bahariyya Oasis. We also went to Gebel az-Zuqaq which is a mountain known for red, yellow, and orange streaks in the limestone rock base. It was pretty cool and we took plenty of pictures of all the things that we saw on this excursion. Although we camped in the desert, for those itching to go to Egypt, it can all be seen in a day.

We met some cool people on the 4WD adventure. Christine, a Canadian who currently has been living in Taiwan for three years as an English teacher, shared a story about ghost wives. When a family member loses a young daughter who has not been married, they leave money on the street or something of value like a watch or jewelry. The man who picks it up is then obligated to marry the ghost wife and she even becomes the first wife if he is already married! He has no choice in the matter or else he will be haunted by the female ghost. His family and the ghost wife’s family have an actual wedding ceremony and party. Shangwei, Christine’s Taiwanese boyfriend, refuses to pick anything up from the street. Anyways, Taiwanese people think that the ghost wife and the man who picks up the item of value are somehow linked spiritually and that is why the man is obligated to marry the ghost bride. Linda, a fellow American who has worked in radio with Tavis Smiley and Air America, was recently in India and shared that she became spiritual while in India. She is one of many people who have told us that they found spirituality while in India. She described being in a silent ashram in Northern India and could not speak to anyone, not even her roommate, for 10 days and how during the day, the silent meditation was in a room full of other people. She described being at peace with herself since her ten days of silence. It was hard to imagine being silent for that duration of time. Unfortunately, they left after the first day and our camping companions were a French couple who were just about the least friendly people we’ve met.

After our couple of days in the desert, we started our tour of temples in Egypt. The first stop was the city of Aswan after a miserably long overnight train ride sans reclining seats, even though they were considered first class. (How we missed the trains of India with berths.) Aswan is Egypt’s southernmost city and unlike Cairo, which was having its coldest desert winter in decades, Aswan was warm, toasty, and picturesque with feluccas (traditional Egyptian sailboats) scattered on the Nile River. In ancient times, the city was the crossroads of caravans and a gateway to Africa. Immediately after arriving at our hotel, we were ushered to start the tour of Aswan. Despite how hurried our tour guide seemed, we waited 40 minutes for the van driver. We soon learned that if it was about the tour guide’s or driver’s time, then we should hurry but otherwise, most of the tour guides didn’t care if tourists had to wait. Hence, the tour started an hour later although the tour people kept saying “two minutes” while everyone in the van grumbled. Although we were supposed to visit the High Dam, we were told, due to shortage of time (!), that we would have to see the High Dam tomorrow and today only had time for Temple of Isis at Philae. From the tour guide: Philae means friends or couples. The original island on which the temple of Isis stands became flooded after the Egyptian government opened the High Dam. So then, they moved the entire temple and reconstructed it from 1972-1980! Originally it was built during Alexander the Great era (around 326 BC).

During our many visits to various temples, we learned a lot about the different gods of ancient Egypt and the mythology. One of the more entertaining stories involved an incestuous love between the brother and sister gods Osiris and Isis (goddess of beauty, love and magic). After they fell in love, their older brother became jealous and had a gold coffin made to fit Osiris. This older brother threw a party during which he offered the gold coffin to whoever fit in it. Of course, Osiris fit perfectly, was shut inside of it, and then his body was dismembered into fourteen pieces and discarded throughout Egypt. Isis, grieving over her lover/brother, used her magic to transform her body into a vulture and searched all over Egypt for him. And during that search she gave birth to their son Horus who is symbolized by a hawk due to her form as a vulture. She found 13 of the 14 pieces of Orisis’s body and wept over the very important missing body part, thus causing the flooding of the Nile River. The lost body part of the God Osiris was then symbolized by a giant obelisk, a phallic symbol which is found throughout Egypt.

After visiting the Temple of Isis, we walked through Aswan along the Nile River which flowed from South to North around beautiful boulders and small islands in the river. Because of the flow of the Nile, southern Egypt is referred to as ‘upper’ while northern Egypt is called ‘lower.’ We visited the old Fatimid Cemetery which had a collection of low, mud-brink buildings with domed roofs and mausoleums dating from the 9th century. This was followed by a wonderful riverside dinner and then a short visit to the Nubia Museum where we learned about Nubian culture.

We had to wake up at 4 am the next day so we went to bed fairly early. So far on this world-wind adventure, we often have opted to do things on our own if we can. In Egypt, however, to travel to specific sites you have to be part of a convoy, an armed police escort, whether you are part of a tour group or hire a private taxi to the site of interest. This was the government’s response to a bombing of a tourist bus near Aswan which resulted in many deaths and the decline of the tourist economy. So the 3:45 am wake-up call from the hotel was not by choice but due to the 4:30 am departure time of the convoy to travel a few hours to the site of Abu Simbel where the majestic temples of Ramses II and Hathor were located. It was dark in the morning and all the tour buses, minibuses, and private taxis lined up alongside the main road with a police escort sandwiching both ends. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to sleep in the minivan since the driver disregarded lane lines around curves and despite all the vehicles having the same destination, the driver would quickly and sharply pass tour buses and minivans. The only thing redeeming about the transportation was the spectacular desert sunrise, the second of half a dozen sunrises in Egypt we would see.

First, we went to the Temple of Ramses II, carved out of a mountain on the bank of the Nile River between 1274 and 1244, and rediscovered in the early 1800s when a Swiss explorer noticed a statues’ head sticking out of the sand in the Egyptian desert. Ramses II must have been a narcissist since as a Pharaoh, he deified himself and built this gigantic temple for himself and the ancient Egyptian gods Raharakhty, Amum, and Ptah. Ramses II had many, many wives and numerous children which often provoked the joke amongst Egyptian men when they tried to sell male tourists essential oils, that he would become like Ramses II. On the outside of the temple, there are four huge statues of Ramses II, three of which are completely intact. Inside the temple, there are more statues of the deified Pharaoh and Jason surreptitiously took a picture and was scolded by the ‘picture police’ who ignored the locals taking pictures with their mobile phones. The reliefs on the walls of the temple depict the pharaoh Ramses II in various battles, trampling over his enemies, and always victorious. At the back of the temple, the four gods sit on thrones and supposedly, every Feb 22 and Oct 22, the sunrise rays penetrate through the temple and illuminate the god of RaHarakhty, Amun, Ptah, and Ramses II. We were there about a week too early to see this phenomenon but we were told the place is an absolute zoo on those dates. Next we saw the Temple of Hathur which is next to the Temple of Ramses II. There was another ‘photo cop’ who seemed to target only foreign tourists but not the locals. This temple was magnificent and had statues of Ramses II’s Queen Nefertari and the gods Hathor (merciless god depicted as a cow) and Mut (god of Sky).

After seeing both of these temples, we waited for the entire convoy and headed back toward Aswan. At around noon, we went to the dock and boarded our felucca for a two night sailing adventure. We learned that the four Chinese people already on the boat had waited for three hours to start sailing, complained to their tour agency and received a partial refund. We tried to not let this alter our excitement about sailing yet we were assertive in terms of seeing the sights that were promised to us by the travel agent. First, we went to Kitchener Island on the Nile River. This island was a beautiful botanical garden with blooming bougainvilleas, roses, and other colorful flowers. It was peaceful walking around the island and watching the feluccas sail along the river. Later, we sailed around Elephantine Island which has a group of grey granite boulders that look like elephants bathing in the Nile River. On this island, we visited the ruins of Nebu from around 3000 BC which had temples, cemeteries, and a Nilometer which was used to measure the height of the Nile and to indicate if the harvest would be bountiful. The Nilometer affected the taxation system; the higher the river, the better the harvest and the higher the taxes on the merchants in ancient times.

After visiting those sites, we had some smooth sailing down the Nile and beheld this amazing sunset. We engaged with the sailors and fellow tourists, enjoying the breeze and the blue water of the Nile River. We slept overnight on the felucca and were relieved to not be woken up to the sound of the amplified voice of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. On our second day, we spent more time along the dock than sailing and in retrospect we would recommend doing only one night on the felucca and not the two nights like we did. On the felucca, Priti witnessed two more sunrises, making the total of sunrises seen in Egypt more than those seen in the last seven months of travels. Although Jason was annoyed about the lack of sailing on the second day, Priti enjoyed the sun and almost finished reading a four hundred page novel, Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (highly recommended reading).

During the day, one of the sailors anchored near his Nubian village and at his home, we had a milk coconut tea which was delicious. We walked around the village which has yellowish mud colored homes and the exterior walls are painted with domestic designs and of Egyptian men riding on donkeys, flowers, and other cultural images. At night, we were disappointed to anchor next to a cement set of stairs instead of an isolated sandy bank area of the river. This however enabled Jason to hang out with the felucca workers on shore and watch the Egypt win the African cup for the second time in a row and seventh time overall. Priti opted to stay on the boat despite being a football fan and knew Egypt had won once the honking of horns were heard from the vehicles of the nearby town. For the remainder of our time in Egypt, Jason would shout out the names of the two star players (Abutrika & Zidane) when he wanted to make a connection with the locals.

The following morning, after a fitful, cold night of sleep on the felucca, we woke up again at the crack of dawn and took a jeep to the ancient site of the Temple of Kom Ombo, which is along the Nile River but different from other temples because everything is doubled and perfectly symmetrical. In ancient times, this area of the Nile used to have crocodiles basking on the river banks and the temple has mummified crocs. After walking around and imagining ancient Egpyt, we headed to the parking lot where we were required by the Egyptian government to travel again by convoy to Edfu to see the Temple of Horus which is supposedly the most well-preserved one in Egypt. This temple was started in 327 BC and wasn’t completed until 57 BC by Cleopatra’s father. (And we thought construction in the USA was slow!)

After checking out the site, we were again herded by convoy to Luxor. This time, due to the position of our vehicle, we could actually see the police escorts. We weren’t sure if traveling in a convoy actually makes tourists more or less of a target but since Eygpt started requiring convoys, there have been no attacks against tourists. By the time we reached Luxor, it was mid-afternoon and we were starving, ate an awful babbaganoush at the hotel, and headed to see the ancient Temple of Karnak through a pre-arranged tour. This place was huge and everything was on a gigantic scale. It was built and added to for 1500 years and one of the most important places of worship during ancient Egypt. Almost every Pharoah left their mark here. The temple contained an enormous hall, “The Great Hypostyle Hall,” with a forest of 134 unbelievably huge papyrus shaped stone columns. These stone columns are bigger than any we have ever seen. Although we didn’t try it, it would take half a dozen people to circle their hands around one column. There is a paved avenue of ram-headed sphinxes that at one time connected all the way to Luxor temple which is 3 km away. This temple also contains the tallest obelisk in Eygpt at almost 30 meters. Plus, there is a large stone statue of a scarab beetle and our tour guide explained that the scarab beetle is a sign of good luck and encouraged us to walk around it – once for good luck, three times for marriage and seven times for a first child. Inexplicably, we didn’t walk around it, so hopefully that doesn’t cause bad luck, the ruin of our marriage or a barren marriage.

The day was long and we were worn out. We fell asleep early and despite wearing earplugs, we were woken up at 5am to the blaring sound of the nearby mosque. The decibel level was absurdly loud and it sounded like someone was holding a megaphone in our ears. Another typical Eygptian morning and another Egyptian tour. This time we drove to the West Bank of the Nile River and passed by fields of sugarcane that were strikingly green in comparison to the desert, golden-brown barren mountains in the backdrop. Locals were riding Siwa-style transport which are donkey drawn wooden carts on wheels.

Our first destination was the Valley of the Kings which is a collection of more than sixty separate tombs of Kings built deep into the mountains. It is located in the desert valley where nothing grows and the former Kings hoped that no one would be able to find and steal the treasures buried in their tombs. Our ticket stupidly allowed us to choose only three of the tombs. Together we saw the Tomb of Tuthmosis III. We had to climb a steep staircase in a steep ravine and meandered through a series of passages at odd angles in order to reach the tomb. The walls were adorned with paintings, some of which resembled stick figures drawn by a five-year-old. Together we also visited Ramses III’s tomb. We then split up and Priti thought Ramses I wthe best whereas Jason thought the Ramses IV was the best, because the entire ceiling was beautifully painted, and reminded him of the Sistine Chapel. No pictures were allowed so we bought a set of photos from one of the vendors. Next was the site of Deir al-Bahri, which was an amazing series of terraces of the Temple of Hatshepsut (a powerful female pharaoh) rising out of the limestone cliffs of the mountains. We also visited some of the tombs of the non-royalty, which were not quite as impressive but were very well-preserved. In the evening, we went shopping which was rather annoying as the shop guys were relentless in their attempts to entice you into their stores. Priti bought some pendants as gifts and Jason bought a scrabe beetle ring that is supposed to bring good luck. Then we went to Luxor Temple at night which was all lit up and mesmerizing to behold.

We were pretty tired from all the traveling so we opted out of a 15 hour bus ride around the Sinai peninsula and took an overpriced boat across instead. On the boat, when it started raining, we realized Jason had left his rain gear in India…doh! No wonder his bags had been so much easier to pack up. Our first stop on Sinai was Hurghada, which is a glaring example of tourism run amok (and in Egypt that is saying a lot). Dozens of unfinished hotels littered the beaches and the coral reefs were in awful shape. We went on a few dives, which were the cheapest thus far ($35 for two plus lunch on the boat) but the dumb divemaster took us to a spot with a strong current going against us. We ended up getting stuck there for over a week because the ferry across the water got cancelled twice and doesn’t run everyday. At least we met some cool locals (who in reality were a quartet of conmen but spared us since we made it clear we weren’t going to buy anything) who showed us a good time at the local belly dancing club. We learned that Egypt is sort of the flip side of SE Asia, in that young male prostitutes hire themselves out to hordes of older European women. For some strange reason, the converter we normally used did not work in our hotel but another bulky (and heavy) converter that Jason had used while studying in Oxford, did work. This marked the last remaining unused item that we had brought with us on the trip, and Jason was mighty thankful that he hadn’t thrown it away.

Ten days later, we finally made it to Sharm El-Sheikh, which is uncannily similar to Vegas and became famous after a big terrorist attack there in 2002. Jason spent a night at the casino playing poker. Interestingly, not only was the game played with US $, but Egyptian pounds were not even usable at the casino. He was going good until a Russian mafia goon showed up with a huge diamond studded cross hanging around his neck and a wad of cash worth at least $10,000. It only took one expensive hand of being bullied by this thug for him to walk away from the table. Throughout our time in Sinai, almost all of the locals complained about the nouveau riche Russians because of their obnoxious drinking and disregard for the underwater environment. We wanted to go on another dive but when we showed up at the dive center in the morning, it was completely chaotic and they had no certifications to show they were qualified. Of course we had already paid part of it so rather than waste our entire day fighting with them to give it back, we went out on the boat to snorkel. The coral was superb but the water was freezing cold.

We left after a couple days to Dahab, another popular dive spot on the Red Sea but with a much cooler vibe. Jason did some of the best dives yet, including a deep dive down a narrow canyon called the Bells, due to the frequency with which inexperienced divers bang their tanks against the walls during the descent. He also took an excursion to the world-famous Thistlegorm wreck dive, a British casualty from WWII. The dives themselves were incredible, particularly the penetration dive, which involved swimming through the wreck past rows of jeeps, motorcycles, and guns. One room was so narrow that we could only swim through one at a time, and buoyancy control was essential as the clearance above and below was less than a meter. There was also one section where an air pocket had been created above the water, which was cool to see but Jason wisely left his regulator in rather than try to breathe the air. Unfortunately, everything other than the dives was a mess. They put us all on a boat but had nowhere to sleep so we all were sleep-deprived before the dive. Then, the waters were very turbulent and about 1/3 of the passengers got sick on the boat. Because it is one of the most popular dives sites in the world, there were many other boats as well. When we ascended after the first dive, we had to swim underneath another boat which was bobbing up and down with the waves, at times just barely missing the divers underneath. Getting out of the water onto the boat was a total nightmare and one poor woman actually vomited into her regulator (ewww). My dive buddy on the first dive, like many others, decided to forgo the 2nd dive, which was a shame because that was the penetration dive and by far the best. Thus, inexperienced divers should think twice about going to this dive site because it is pretty expensive and the groups are too big. Actually, it seemed like a recipe for disaster but thankfully everything went off without a hitch…this time.

With the extra few weeks we had by pushing back our Kenya flight, we decided to visit Israel and Jordan, so stay tuned.