I’ve joined a new blogging group for the month of December. You’ll still be hearing all about my knitting and crafts, but through the lens of my past year. It’s important as one year closes to reflect on what was accomplished, and learned, and experienced over the past 12 months. This begins the “BEST OF 2009 BLOG CHALLENGE”
This summer I went on the trip of a lifetime. A friend (who will be known as Captain) and I met up in England, and flew to Amman where we started our tour of Jordan and Egypt. We decided to tour the Middle East on a whim, a decision made when Swine Flu was rampant in Mexico (our planned destination), and travel plans needed to change quickly. Visiting the desert in the summer is not everyone’s idea of fun. We did need to have siestas to avoid the 45 C heat of the midday sun
Amman, seen from the citadel
We saw Amman, a busy modern city, and then saw Jerash a city with the most amazing Roman Ruins!
Jerash, Roman Ruins
Jordan is famous for Petra, the city carved from rock by the ancient Nabatean people. We spent a day exploring Petra, and I would like to go back to see more of the sights. We met friendly bedouin people who sold us trinkets and gave us tea. If you go to Petra, be sure you go on the “Petra By Night” tour, and let all the noisy tourists walk far ahead of you. The silence and stillness of the smooth walled canyon is magical.
With stars above, and ancient stones beneath lit only by candles, you forget that you are moments away from a busy world. Time stands still. You want to walk towards the end of the canyon, to see the large carved facades that are so famous, but you don’t want to really get to the end of the canyon as it is also a magical part of the experience. Captain and I took this tour, but the rest of our group decided against it. Their loss!
Also in Jordan, we floated in the Dead sea (an absolutely amazing experience!) It’s what I imagine being in a “jolly jumper” would feel like….you can’t touch the bottom, no matter how hard you try
Dead Sea Float
We also camped overnight in the Wadi Rum desert under the stars.
It was so hot in the desert that I stayed with several group members and knit in the shade of an overhang all afternoon. As the sun set, we all sat together and watched the sky and sand as the colours changed. The reds faded to purples, the stars came out, and in the distance we could hear our dinner being prepared back at the camp, cooked in an underground oven.
Eating the best food we’d had in Jordan among happy tourists, fun tour guides and a very friendly sheikh was certainly memorable. I didn’t want to sleep that night because the sky was too beautiful. Deserts are places where you can certainly feel how small you are in a big world, like a single grain of sand or a single point of light in the vastness of the universe. It is a place of beauty-a different beauty than I’ve experienced at home.
Crossing from Jordan to Egypt, we camped on the beach at the Red Sea and I experienced snorkeling for the first time. It is a mindblowing experience, just like what I imagine swimming in a fish tank would be like.
taken with a friend's underwater digital camera
We then climbed Mt. Sinai to see the sun set. Captain convinced me that climbing the “stairs” is the only way to get to the top (riding a camel, or walking the camel track would be cheating). The views from the top of the mountain were stunning, and it was finally cold enough to wear a long sleeved shirt!
Egypt in general was less friendly than Jordan, perhaps because we were in busy cities, or because Captain and I were traveling on our own. We never felt unsafe, but just generally more harassed and hassled. We explored Cairo (must sees: islamic markets-watch out for crazy mosque tours…we ended up on the roof without much warning at all!, coptic churches, museum of antiquities–mummies are worth the price of admission, but you can’t bring your camera inside the museum, they do a bag scan like at airports). We got good at bartering for water and taxi fare, and found out that the subway is clean and very reliable and that there are two train cars reserved for women!
We went to Giza to see the pyramids which were colossal, but crowded with tourist busses, and tourist police who want you to pose all over the place for photos. I went inside a pyramid-Captain was too claustrophobic to make the trip inside. If you go to the pyramids, be sure to get the taxi to drop you off at the tourist entrance, NOT with the “camel mafia” at the “alternate entrance”. They are very very pushy everywhere, wanting you to buy trinkets and overpriced drinks.
We took a train to Aswan, and a car to Abu Simbel (near Sudan). The temples there had to be moved when the Aswan High Dam was put in. It was a great UNESCO effort to relocate such amazing buildings and the hills they were carved into.
After our car trip and through a great deal of luck and chance we ended up meeting and becoming friends with Captain Hamada and his brother Ali, captain and crew of the felucca Flower 2 (look for them near the Aswan Moon restaurant on the corniche).
Their boat is bedecked in Jamaican flags (and maybe Canadian ones too if the package I sent ever arrived). We took several short trips with them, and later signed on for a 4 day adventure that brought us down the Nile to Edfu. We experienced such delights as bathing in the Nile (hanging on to a rope on the end of the boat so we didn’t get swept away with the current–we did lose a bar of soap!), making tea and cooking and cleaning (there is quite a ritual to keeping the boat tidy).
We slept on deck under the stars, we swam when it got too hot, sailed with the wind, or drifted with the current. Captain got her name because of her excellent skills as a captain…she learned VERY fast. The two downfalls of felucca travel are
- it is slow, but at this point on our trip we needed some slow days….I had lots of time to work on my sock.
- there are no bathroom facilities….so we got used to finding trees and plants to use as a toilet shelter (harder than you might think!)
Captain Ali, and Flower 2 at the shore near Edfu
socks I made for Captain to commemorate our wonderful trip. Photo links to blog post about the socks.
Our last few days included seeing the sights of Luxor (Luxor Temple, Karnak, and Valley of the Kings)
Karnak
It is amazing to wander in those ruins and feel the spirit there. The scale of the pillars and statues is hard to describe, and I imagine how hard it must have been to build it and carve it with limited access to tools and technology. There must have been an amazing abundance of slave labour! Be warned about food in Luxor…stay away from anything involving mayonnaise! There are some good English food shops that keep mayo in a cooler…trust them, and them alone (or suffer the consequences).
At the end of the trip I had finished one sock. I turned the heel in the Wadi Rum, and knit the leg of the sock on the Nile felucca. Talk about a good reason for second sock syndrome. I’m waiting for an equally exciting time to cast on for the second sock…don’t want it to be jealous of the first one!
I highly recommend a trip to Egypt and Jordan. Captain and I have blogged in more detail on the following site, and I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have–ask away!
I first encountered this drink while in Cairo last summer. It brings back good memories. I’m planting mint on my balcony, so I’ll be able to make this drink all summer.
I think a squirrel transplanted that bulb from another garden…
For some reason, the black beans (from the same package as before) are dyeing this wool a light purple. I’m going to keep it in the bean water for a while longer, and maybe it will pick up more colour. Maybe I’ll add some alum. Maybe I’ll end up dipping it in ammonia. Maybe I’ll need to break out the kool-aid to give it more colour in the end. Who knows.
