Archive for January, 2008
January 30, 2008 at 10:26 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Visas-on-Arrival at Dar Es Salaam Airport
When Andrew and I arrived at Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) airport, the first thing we had to do was get visas (on arrival). A visa agent helped us through filling out the forms, etc. All-in-all it was a very quick and painless process, except for handing over the US$100. Americans and Irish pay $100; all other Europeans pay $50. The visas are very pretty and even have our picture on them, taken by webcam at the desk. I guess we would have waited longer if we had gotten visas ahead of time because the line of people waiting for the immigration stamp was very long.
Getting to Zanzibar
Our flight arrived into Dar at 2:30pm making it highly unlikely we’d catch the last fast ferry (4:15pm) to Zanzibar so we opted to fly. We were hand-held through the process of booking air tickets, which was surprisingly quick and efficient for Africa (in my opinion). Just 2hours after we’d arrived and $171 later ($100 for the visa, $71 for the plane ticket) we were on a Precision Air flight out to Zanzibar. That means by 5pm we were on Zanzibar Island looking for a taxi to take us into town. We shared a $10 taxi with a couple from the airport to Stone Town. We were a bit nervous about having the driver follow us around looking for hotels because all drivers on Zanzibar get commission for bringing guests to hotels, which means we can’t negotiate a lower price.
Stone Town
We ended up at Baghani House Hotel, recommended by LP East Africa. We managed to negotiate down to $65 for the cheaper downstairs room. It was a nice, though very dark, ensuite room with Zanzibari furnishings, air-con, safe, and minifridge. The next morning we’d find out it came with a wonderful fresh fruit breakfast, a welcome change to the bread and cheese breakfasts we’d had for the past 3 weeks in Egypt and Jordan.
After settling in, we went looking for a place to exchange money or as they’re called in Tanzania, Bureau de Change. Many things can and should be paid for in US$ such as hotels, but local currency is required for food, drinks, internet, etc. Money exchange rates range from $1= 1000 to 1160Tanzania Shillings so it makes sense to shop around for the best rates. Rates for US$ depend on which notes are being exchanged with $100 and $50 notes getting the best rate. (The best rate I found was in Arusha $1=1164 when exchanging a $100 note).
In the morning we went looking for malarone anti-malaria tablets and a wonderfully kind local man took us running all over town to find a pharmacy that carried them. We found more than one pharmacy that had them but most were charging upwards of $6.78 per tablet. So I decided to not to buy any. (I continued looking through Tanzania and Nairobi and even with bargaining, never found them below $5/tablet. In the end, it was good I didn’t spend the money on them because one of the other passengers on the safari had extras and since Andrew left early he also gave me his extras). 
Zanzibar is one of the Spice Islands from the time when Arab traders controlled the Indian Ocean. Therefore you find spices for sale everywhere; there are also ’spice tours’ offered, which will take you to the spice plantations to see what spice look like when they grow. Zanzibar was also one of the main places from which slaves were exported; a church now stands on the ground of the Old Slave Market in Zanzibar Town. As a result of the Arab traders, most of the island is Sunni Muslim and almost all of the girls wear head coverings. This is distinct from other Arab countries where only women above the age of 12 (I think) have to have their head covered.
Nungwi
Having explored Stone Town on our quest for malarone, we signed up and paid $6each to take the 1pm shuttle-van out to the north shore beaches: Nungwi and Kendwa. We’d planned to go to Kendwa but after looking into accommodation around there we found our 1st choice places were filled; it also felt too quiet for us. We opted to try Nungwi, the supposed party beach, though I can’t say we we ever found any party. After shopping around a few hotels at Nungwi, we ended up at another LP recommendation: Amaan Bungalows. At this place we paid $50/night for an ensuite, fan only room. The room was fine but didn’t have a sea view, in fact, it was about a 5min walk to the beach, which we had to find in front of another hotel. That night we ate at the restaurant at Amaan, which turned out be awful: it had bad service, mediocre food and was very overpriced.
At this point, you’re probably wondering why we stayed there and paid so much if everything was so below par. To be honest, Amaan was the best value for money we found of any place we looked at along the north shore. I’ve decided Zanzibar is not a place to go if you’re looking for value, because there is none. Zanzibar, like all of Tanzania is not cheap, and by Asian standards its very expensive. The cheapest meal I had on Zanzibar, a vegetarian curry, was 6000TSh, just under $6. That was in Stone Town which had cheaper meals than at the beach. In fact, eating at the beach was so expensive we only paid for 1 meal per day, lucky breakfast was included!
This is not to say that the beach itself isn’t nice; it’s absolutely gorgeous with some very white sand and radiantly clear blue water. But when you’re lying on the beach persistent salespeople, even some dressed in the characteristic red Masaai blankets, keep trying to get you to look at their wares. This does not make for a very relaxing beach experience. The internet is also rather overpriced and slow on Zanzibar. Myself and these other two American girls kept comparing Zanzibar to Thailand and decided that Thailand is all around a better value and just a better beach destination largely because there’s less hassle and better value. While I enjoyed Zanzibar and am glad I went, I’m certainly in no hurry to go back (as evidenced by the fact that I went to the beach on the mainland during my extra week rather than going with friends to Zanzibar again).
To occupy our days on the beach and distract ourselves from the stress of trying to deal with canceled trips in Kenya, Andrew went sport fishing with some guys from South Africa. During his 6hours of fishing he caught a Dorado, but it jumped off the hook. I instead opted for a 1hour massage, which cost $15 (perhaps the most value priced of anything on the island, aside from the local beer).
Returning to Dar Es Salaam
We again to took a shared van back to Stone Town; however this time it cost us 8000TSh/person. They dropped us off at the ferry terminal where we bought tickets for the overnight Seagull ferry (not listed in LP, but actually newer and nicer than the cheaper Flying Horse, which is listed). We paid $25 for a VIP class ticket. They let us store our bags in the ticket office while we went to eat dinner, a nice perk. The ferry departed at 10pm and arrived 6am. This is a bit curious as most of the ferries take 1.5hours so you have to wonder how they manage to take 8hours on the overnight route. On what little sleep we got, we bargained a taxi driver down from 20,000TSh to 10,000TSh to take us to the airport for our flight to Nairobi where we’d start our safari.
Pictures from Zanzibar
January 28, 2008 at 12:11 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Learning through Foreign Cultures, Traveling
Hotel Voucher
My flight schedule on Qatar Airways had me flying from Amman, Jordan to Doha, Qatar (Qatar Airways’ hub), a layover there for 13hours, and then on to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Having read online other people’s uncertainty as to their long layovers in Qatar, I called the Qatar Airways office in the US and asked them what to do with my layover. They told me with my fare, I’d have to pay $100 for a hotel room. Granted, that’s cheaper than most hotels in Qatar but still more than I wanted to pay for just over 8hours in a hotel.
So we thought we’d check Andrew’s fare. He spent 20-30min on hold with the Qatar Airways office in the US (as did I but I had the patience to wait ‘to speak with a representative’) before giving up and deciding to ask in Cairo. The Cairo office told him he was entitled to a free hotel room but that when he got to Amman he needed to pick up a voucher. From Jordan, he called the Amman office to ask about said voucher and they said, what are you talking about? Their English was a bit limited, but finally they told him, just wait till you get to Doha airport, they will take care of you there.
When we checked-in in Amman, we asked for our bags to be checked to Doha, so that we could pick them up and take them to the hotel with us. Initially the guy forgot to do that, so he checked us all the way to Dar Es Salaam and then had to go back and reverse that to gives us boarding passes and luggage just for Doha. Somehow this created a problem. When we arrived in Doha airport and Andrew asked for his hotel room, the clerk seemed very annoyed. He kept asking us, ‘where is your boarding pass to Dar?’ Well, we don’t have it, we only got checked through to Doha. The clerk did not like this and it seemed to cause him a lot of extra work. Nonetheless, he managed to sort Andrew’s hotel room. But even more amazingly, I, yes that’s right on my ‘youth fare,’ I was entitled to a hotel room for free as well as transfers and meals!! So much for the accuracy of the information provided by the Qatar Airways office in the US.
For people wondering about your own stopovers in Doha with Qatar Airways, normally layovers of more than 7hours are entitled to hotel vouchers provided by the airline. If you’re really nervous about it, call the local office and ask whether your fare is entitled to a free hotel room, but take whatever answer you are given with a grain of salt, as I was provided incorrect information. If for some reason you’re not entitled, or your layover is less than 7 hours, another option is the Qatar Airways Orxy Lounge, which must be booked in advance and carries an associated usage fee.
At the Airport, Amman
It seems Qatar Airways has changed terminals at Amman airport; my confirmation told me Terminal N, the international terminal, however Qatar now goes out of Terminal 1. When we walked in Terminal 1 of Amman airport, we were immediately security screened for the 2nd time already (the first time being on the approach, when they checked our car). Then looking for the check-in desk, all I saw was a mass group of people and no signs indicating where Qatar Airways was, making me wonder if it was back in the other terminal. No, the sign was just too small for me to see and that mass of people were all waiting to check-in for Qatar Airways. There was no semblance of order or indication of lines. About three different lines were all heading toward the same counter. It was wholly inefficient. Eventually we got to the check-in desk, where the guy screwed up our check-in.
Then we had to go through another security check, the 3rd and final one. Both the 2nd and 3rd times, I tried to walk through like normal; however, I was waved off to ‘ladies inspection.’ Discrimination!, I thought. No, just respecting the privacy of women in Islamic countries. Well, the reason for this separation is because they have the walk-through metal detectors which are set to beep regardless of whether you’re carrying metal, therefore everyone has to be patted down. And of course, women pat down women and men men. This seems rather ineffective and inefficient. I believe it’d work much better to just use the metal detectors as they’re intended. Ah well…it makes for a good story, I guess.
On the plane from Amman to Doha
On the flight from Amman to Doha, Andrew and I constituted 2-3rds of the white people and I was definitely the only white female. Besides us, the flight was about 20% Indian (and or Pakistani or Sri Lankan) and the rest was roughly evenly split between Arabs and Chinese (which explains the chaos at check-in). There seemed to be a big group of (predominantly) female Chinese tourists traveling together, while the Chinese men on the flight, I guessed to be laborers in Jordan returning home for Chinese New Year. This was an interesting speculation for me as I’d heard of Chinese workers in Africa and also the Gulf States importing a lot of Asian workers but I didn’t know Jordan did.
As the flight became full, only the row of seats in front of us was left empty. Then a half dozen Arab men, tall, robed, turban-topped, and bearded, came and sat down in front of us. They looked like they could have been the leaders of the Mujahadeen. Andrew and I looked at each other both thinking whaaaat?!? About half way through the flight a couple of the men stand up, figure out which way Mecca is as we’re probably flying directly over it and start chanting their prayers. All of the men take turns standing and kneeling to do their prayers. I’m thinking: does this often happen on these flights? and what are the Chinese people thinking of this?
As if this wasn’t enough for one flight, there was more excitement to come. The time after the captain announces we’re on our initial descent into whereever and after the flight attendants have finished everything and sat down but before we’ve actually landed, is supposed to be quiet time when you remain in your seat. However an impatient Chinese woman doesn’t think so. She jumps up, pulls down the overhead bin and starts pulling her luggage out as if she’s late to catch her flight to Shanghai that doesn’t leave for another 6hours. A flight attendant responds and practically has to drag the woman back down into her seat in time for landing.
The conditions of air travel in foreign and exotic destinations never failed to entertain.
Doha, Qatar
On the 30 or 40minute drive from the airport to the hotel, we passed more American chain eateries than Andrew and I’d seen in the past 3weeks, let alone in any 1country outside of the US. In Egypt we saw KFC, Hardy’s, McDonald’s and we ate at Pizza Hut and Sbarro. In Jordan I didn’t see any. By contrast, in a half hour car ride through Doha we saw everything ranging from Arby’s to Krispy Kreme to Chili’s. What a change.
Speaking of contrasts, after nearly 3weeks of seeing only handfuls of other westerners (tourists) in these Middle Eastern countries, I don’t know what could have shocked us more than for the very white Polish youth soccer team to come walking into the hotel. Meanwhile, Saudis with their red and black head coverings sat around the hotel.
All of the service workers we encountered on the airplane and at the hotel seemed to be imported from other Asian countries. There were Filipinos, Indians, Koreans, Sri Lankans, you name it, that nationality was probably represented. The only place that seemed to have mostly locals employed was at the airport, perhaps for security reasons(?). Andrew and I were aware that countries like Qatar and UAE sought cheap labor from abroad but we had no idea it was on this kind of massive scale. It was like a mini United Nations with all those people working together, using English as the medium of communication. The only other situation I’ve seen like this is mega cruise ships such as Celebrity.
All in all what little I saw of Doha made it seem very liveable and very comfortable, though perhaps that’s just in comparison to Egypt and Jordan.
January 26, 2008 at 1:32 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Leaving Petra, we drove along the King’s Highway north through Jordan to Karak Castle, an old fort used by the Crusaders to recapture the Holy Land during the Middle Ages. It was a strategic location as the castle was probably only about 80km from Jerusalem.
After Karak Castle, we saw Lot’s wife. This biblical story is now immortalized in a rock pillar on a cliff high above the Dead Sea. For lunch, we went to a Dead Sea resort and took a dip in that most salty of bodies of water. In fact, it’s not totally dead as 2 species of bacteria and 1 species of algae live in the water. The Dead Sea is also famous for its beauty products and I succumed and bought some.
Next we went to Mount Nebo, where Moses died just after bringing the Israelites to the Promised Land. Then we finished our drive, ending in Madaba, a suburb of Jordan’s capital, Amman.
Madaba is famous for its Byzantine Mosaics, particularly the ancient map of the area including Jerusalem. Not to let you down, we did see what’s left of this Mosaic in the St. George Church, commonly referred to as the Map Church. Besides that we saw a number of other mosaics, including other Byzantine and even earlier Roman ones in the Archaeological Park in Madaba as well as more modern ones in the church.
We concluded our trip with dinner to a nicer restaurant, which had live music. In fact, the music was lively enough to even get some people into the dancing spirit. So the final night, though not involving any alcohol (contrary to Intrepid tradition) was still good fun with festive music and dancing.
Departure day, we had sandwiches again from our favorite sandwich shop in Madaba, Ayola Cafe before heading to the airport, for what would be a very interesting and probably very memorable experience. Pictures from Jordan (again)
January 24, 2008 at 1:13 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism
During the 2-plus hour drive from Wadi Rum to Petra, the weather got extreme: fog so dense the driver couldn’t even see the edge of the road way and then finally: snow. We drove past snow for a long time before descending down into the valley of Wadi Musa, the location of Petra.
Despite the overcast skies, continuing fog, and occasional drizzle we weren’t going to let the day go to waste when we were at one of the highlights of the trip: Petra. We walked through that seemingly endless canyon, known in Indiana Jones as the Crescent Moon, which is a fictional name, by the way. We admired natural scenery, stone facades, aqueducts, and the old Roman road before finally arriving at the treasure: The Treasury. Hidden by the high walls of the narrow Siq (canyon), just a sliver of The Treasure shows through to create a feeling of awe, wonderment, and mystery, before the canyon opens up to reveal the whole stunningly-carved facade of The Treasury. After admiring this couple thousand year-old work of art for some time, we continued on to see the old Roman Theater, the Winged Lion Temple (archaeological digs conducted by Brown University), and the Street of Facades as well as facades of other Nabatean tombs. Andrew and I looked around the museum and saw some lovely mosaics as the clouds settled in indicating to us it was time to get out of there.
We made a quick walk out of the extensive property that is Petra and went to the Cave Bar. This place was also carved into the red sandstone in ancient times but has since been converted to a bar and provided me with my first alcoholic drink in two weeks. Egypt and Jordan, both being Islamic countries, frown on alcohol consumption and therefore it is rarely found in stores, hotels, or restaurants. Being a big tourist destination, though, Petra had a couple of bars and Andrew and I particularly enjoyed the novelty of this one.
The next day we continued on what seemed like our marathon through Petra as we climbed up to the High Place of Sacrifice and down the back side of the mountain passing numerous other non-notable sites. Again following the yellow brick road, I mean the Roman road, we walked along the Colonnaded Street, passed under the the Temenos Gate, and climbed sandstone rocks to get to The Monastery. The facade of The Monastery is very similar to that of The Treasury except without the clever concealment provided by the canyon. Neither are accurate names; in fact, both were originally tombs but later explorers named them according to what they believed. The Treasury got its name because the explorers thought there was treasure hidden behind the facade, but of course there wasn’t since it was carved into solid rock and the The Monastery got its name because of Christian carvings and inscriptions on the walls, which would have occurred much later.
That night Andrew and I had one of our biggest indulgences of this part of the trip: ice cream at the Movenpick Hotel. It was scrumptious.
Pictures from Jordan
January 22, 2008 at 1:08 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Arriving off the Red Sea ferry in Aqaba, Jordan was rather uncoordinated and somewhat chaotic. There was a question of whether to get a group visa, which is free, or individual visas. The caveat of a group visa is that the group must go to Petra, which we were, and must hire horses there, which we weren’t. Despite all the confusion, we still got to our hotel much earlier than expected; normally the ferry is significantly delayed, which the leader prepared us for, but ours was on time.
Aqaba was unexciting and the next morning we left during a drizzle for the desert conservation area of Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum has desert sandstone rock scenery very similar the western United States, even like Arizona. Unique to Rum, though, are sites associated with Lawrence of Arabia, such as Lawrence’s Spring and House. We also saw Thamodian petroglyphs, similar to those you’d see in Arizona deserts and sand dunes and the Um Fourth Bridge, which Andrew quite daringly (in Toffler’s opinion) climbed. Throughout the day it drizzled on and off, only to turn to very cold rain by night fall. And what were our accommodations for that night? Bedouin tents. Yes, that’s right, we camped out in wet sandy tents with the nomadic tribespeople. These weren’t just any nomadic tribespeople, they were cellphone-toting, Toyota-driving Bedouins. They told us they hadn’t seen weather like that for 15-20years.
So then it was little surprise when we woke up the next morning and it was…still raining. We wanted to hurry up and get out of the cold and wet, but little did we know… Pictures from Jordan
January 20, 2008 at 9:35 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Another early morning start had us passing the Suez Canal in the morning and to the middle of the Sinai peninsula by
lunch time. In the afternoon we were climbing Mount Sinai. Being the masochist that I am, I opted for the 3,750 Steps of Repentance. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. In fact if its possible for me to ever have the least bit of enjoyment in hiking, this was it, perhaps because the climb was primarily stairs, and the atmosphere dry and cold. Mt. Sinai tops out at 2,285m where Moses supposedly received the 10 Commandments from God. We watched the sun set over the Sinai mountains, which, while not all that spectacular, was quite meaningful. Then we had a precarious walk down in the moonlit night and I rolled my left ankle a little, but certainly enough to renew my dislike of hiking.
The next morning we returned to visit St. Katherine Monastery, built around the descendant bush of the supposedly original Burning Bush. However the monastery is closed on all Greek Orthodox holidays and the day we happened to be there was apparently Epiphany.
After the disappointment over the closed monastery we drove to the town of Nuweiba to buy a few snacks and supplies before the restful part of the trip: laying on the (very cold) beach of the Red Sea for 2days. Our accommodation consisted of beach front property and individual grass huts, each with a small mattress and mosquito net inside. We had the whole place to ourselves and while the place would have been wonderful in spring or fall, in the middle of Egypt coldest winter in 40years, it was just cold. At night I managed to keep warm because the hut blocked the wind and my sleeping bag was warm. While the weather was not ideal, the relaxation and extra sleep was certainly necessary after many very early mornings and poor nights sleep earlier in the trip. The time has also allowed me to catch up on this blog and to contemplate the next few weeks with regard to the Kenya situation and what to do in the weeks immediately after that when I return to China.
Tomorrow afternoon we take the ferry across to Jordan… Pictures from Egypt
January 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
Luxor, known in earlier times as Thebes, is across the river from the famous burial sites of Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. But this will have to wait until the next day…
The afternoon that we arrived in Luxor, we had a local guide take us to Karnak Temple, regarded as one of the best and most impressive Pharaonic monuments after the Pyramids at Giza. More hieroglyphs, more statues, 2 obelisks, and more structures higher than you can fathom since they’re 5000years old, but perhaps the highlight was running around the scarab. The scarab is the beetle-like creature that the Ancient Egyptians believed brought good luck and so is frequently depicted in carvings and paintings. At the Karnak Temple, there is a pedestal-mounted scarab which the guide told us to run around: once for health, 3times for money, 5times from marriage, and 7times for kids. Guess how many times I ran around…Well, I wanted to achieve more than just one of those but I faced the dilemma of how to determine which I was running for, so in the end I just ran 3times: money. According to Andrew, money can buy all the rest. Well I don’t know if I want to buy a marriage…
The following day it was off to the west bank, not the Israel-Palestine one, but the west bank of the Nile where the Valley of the Kings is located. We took a boat across the river and stopped at the the Colossi at Memnon, two very large and very broken ancient statues, before getting on donkeys. Yes, that’s right, donkeys. Everything from conventional forms of transportation (cars and trains) to traditional forms of transportation (felucca) to animals forms (camels and now donkeys) have been used on this trip. After about an hour on the donkey climbing up the mountainside we walked the rest of the way down into the Valley of the Kings. The Valley was used as the burial place for Pharaohs after the Ancient Egyptians realized that the Pyramids were not very secure and actually were very likely to be robbed within even a few years of completion. Since the new tombs were built into a mountainside, access was more difficult with the entrance at times being completely hidden, hence why King Tut’s tomb was still intact when it was discovered in the early 20th Century.
At the Valley of the Kings we went into the burial tombs of Ramses I, III, and IV where we saw every square inch of walls and ceilings covered in paintings & hieroglyphs. Particularly notable was the difference in styles and decorations between the tombs, some with stories expressed primarily in pictures and others with stories told in hieroglyphs.
After Valley of the Kings we went to Habu Temple which still had colorful paintings on the columns and ceilings depicting pharaohs and gods. After seeing these creations of the Ancient Egyptians in honor of their Pharaoh Kings and deities, I’ve decided they had too much time on their hands… but I’ve also decided the massive scale of the monument building is far more impressive (especially considering this was 3000-5000years ago) than their paintings. The paintings while fun to look at and speculate at their meanings are actually very 1-dimensional and very flat, much like a child would draw.
When I was younger, I used to be very interested in Ancient Egypt and knew many of the gods’ names and functions and the symbolic meaning of a few hieroglyphs. While much of that has since faded from my memory, some random bits of knowledge did come back when seeing these monuments. Its truly amazing to be here seeing these colossal monuments which are among the oldest and most famous in history and especially the sole surviving Wonder of the Ancient World.
For lunch we went to our local guide’s house, the second time we’d been invited into the local’s house and again it was a special treat. We sat on the floor around a low table to eat probably the best and most varied meal of the entire trip so far. (Egyptian food has gotten quite repetitive with rather dry and flavorless meat, bread, and rice.) After lunch our guide wrote our names in both Arabic and hieroglyphs, which was good fun as we got to laugh at each other names and see how much (or little) they reflected the person. Following that we learned a little more about life in ancient Egypt as we went to a papyrus studio to see the process of making paper out of papyrus.
That night we took the overnight train back to Cairo and after one last day in Cairo we went out to the Sinai peninsula. Pictures from Egypt
January 18, 2008 at 11:34 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
After the overnight train from Cairo, which was very comfortable in 2 person private compartments, we arrived late into Aswan. Arrival afternoon we were met our guide who took us on a boat down the Nile and provided us with a home cooked traditional Nubian lunch, one of many wonderful home cooked meals we’d have on this trip. While eating lunch we cruised past Elephantine Island and saw hieroglyphs carved into the rocks. Later in the afternoon we took a camel ride to view the monastery of St. Simeon.
The morning, or perhaps I should say, the night of my birthday we got up at 3am to join the police convoy (a means to protect tourist vehicles from terrorist ambushes in the desert) for the 3hour drive to Abu Simbel. Aside from the Pyramids, Abu Simbel is perhaps one of the most famous and recognizable symbols of Egypt. Abu Simbel consists of 4 giant carved figures of Ramses II, a temple behind this imposing entrance and the temple of Nefertari, itself with 6 giant carved figures. This was one of my favorite sites of the trip 
. Abu Simbel is actually only 40km north of Sudan and was intended to scare the Nubian Africans into submission when it was built in the 13th Century BC. It was cut into large blocks and then moved piece-by-piece to higher ground during the building of the Aswan High Dam which otherwise would have submerged this amazing temple underwater.
Three hours drive there, 3hours at the temples, and then 3hours drive back toward Aswan already seemed like a full day, but then we stopped at Philae Temple, located on a island in the middle of Nile River. This temple, like Abu Simbel, was moved to higher ground during the construction of the Dam. This temple is remarkable not only for its original carvings but also for the Roman and later Napoleonic-era and even later British graffiti on it.
Late in the afternoon, and amazed that I was still awake, I went to the Nubian Museum in Aswan. The museum is incredibly well-done with everything explained and labeled in English; its devoted to preserving the history and culture of the Nubian people since many of their dwellings were lost under water during the building of the Dam.
The following day we set sail on a felucca, a traditional Egyptian sailing vessel, moving downriver toward Luxor. However, the prevailing wind blows south, back toward Aswan, so in a full day of sailing we only made it about 1/3 of the way to Luxor because of needing to zigzag down the river. While hard work for the crew, it was a relaxing day of watching the Nile banks glide by for the rest of us.
January 17, 2008 at 9:25 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
After spending 3days in Miami living the non-foreign, non-challenging American life, I was ready to get to a foreign country again and check off my 7th Continent. It was time to begin the second half of my 3-month trip, the organized group trip part, the Africa part. However, Lufthansa had other ideas. A problem with the plane caused Lufthansa to delay the flight 24hours making many people including me quite nervous and upset.
Finally arriving in Cairo 24hours after planned and without my cousin (who had arrived on time), I had to figure out how to get into the city from the airport by myself. I decided I was better off trying my luck with a fellow passenger than with the numerous touts to get into town. So I approached an American-looking guy (baseball cap gave it away) since he didn’t seem to have a pre-arranged pick-up and asked if he wanted to share a taxi into town. Well, in fact, he did have someone picking him up; his friends were coming in a private car. This Cuban-American guy had lived in Cairo for about a year-and-a-half working for the American University of Cairo bookstore and so, not surprisingly had friends willing to pick him up at the airport. What was perhaps surprising is that his Egyptians friends were most obliging in taking me into town and searching around to find my hotel. What was interesting about this guy and quite apt given my non-interest in living in the US, is both of us moved out of the States directly after college having gotten fed up with people, life, and politics in the US.
Shortly after arriving at the hotel and getting settled in, I met the Australian tour leader for our Intrepid Pyramids to Petra trip (ESW) and then went to dinner with the whole group. The group consists of 1 New Zealander girl, 3 Argentine girls, 3 Aussie girls, and an Aussie mother and son. Soon there after, the long travel time set in and I called it a night.
The next day we were up early and after breakfast included with the hotel we jumped on the subway to take us out to Giza and the Pyramids. We saw the Three Great Pyramids and I commemorated my arrival on my 7th Continent! The Great Pyramids were just the introduction to the awesome monumentalism and masterful building of the ancient Egyptians. Andrew and I opted to go into the Solar Boat Museum. The Boat was supposed to carry ancient pharaohs into the afterlife. I didn’t think the Boat museum was worth the entrance. The entrance into the Second Pyramid was worth it though. We followed the low, cramped, steep path deep into the pyramid where it opened into the spacious burial chamber. Nearby the Great Pyramids is the Sphinx with its lion’s body and man’s head and is great fun to photograph.
As if all of this weren’t enough in one day, we headed back into Cairo to visit the Museum of Antiquities. With our guide we moved very quickly through the highlights of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt. Forget about all of that, what I really wanted to see is the Tutankhamen rooms. Gold, ivory, precious and semi-precious stones, intricately carved wood, jewelry galore, its absolutely stunning. There was a temporary exhibition of King Tut’s tomb in LA a few years ago that just gave me a hint of the splendor but to see it all together in the Museum in Cairo complete with the gold face mask and the sarcophagi is beyond words. Its unimaginable how much work and extremely valuable raw materials went into making decorative pieces to be buried underground with an unimportant dead child-King.
That night we took an overnight train to Aswan but would return to Cairo 5days later. Our 1 day back in Cairo, a few of us went to the Citadel, a fortified hilltop in Cairo which contains 2 mosques, old Sultanate palaces, a few museums, and offers great views of the city. I really enjoyed this for the opportunity to go into mosques in an Islamic country. Mosques, while not nearly as splendid and visibly appealing as Catholic or Orthodox churches, usually have very nice detailing work along the columns, ceilings, and minarets, and are very spacious inside for the devout to kneel in prayer.
After the Citadel, Andrew and I went over to the Coptic Christian quarter, which was a huge relief from the noise and the constant in-your-face nature of the rest of Cairo. We wondered in and out of a few churches and I kept telling Andrew, if only we can find a Synagogue to go into we will have covered the 3 Abrahamic religions in one day. We just enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of this medieval part of town for a little while before heading back to the busy part of Cairo for some lunch.
After lunch, knowing that this was my last chance to shop in Egypt, I dragged Andrew along to the market, Khan al-Khalili. The market was a lively, busy place and much like you’d except for an Arabic bazaar, and would have been great fun if I wasn’t so tired and worn out by this time from the freezing cold overnight seater train. So I found what I was looking for, had another quick look around, and decided I’d had enough of Cairo.
In Cairo, and to a somewhat lesser extent across the rest of Egypt, everyone talks to you, whether they’re trying to sell you something or not, though most of the time they are. And they all ask the same question, ‘where are you from?’ After awhile the all of the friendliness of the chatty Egyptians just becomes exhausting, particularly the frequency and the repetition of the same question. It was amazing to me that soooo many people knew how to say ‘where are you from’ but then less than half half understood the response. This and bargaining for everything (like in China) are two overriding aspects of the tourists’ experience in Egypt.
Pictures from Egypt
January 13, 2008 at 12:52 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism
World renown for hot beaches, sexy bodies, and even sexier nights. Does Miami live up to its reputation? Yes.
Saturday night Isabel, her friend Jenna, some other friends showed me the South Beach, Miami Saturday night scene. We started at local Love-Hate, then went to the trendy and posh Delano pool-side bar, and finally on to dance-like-a-rockstar Cameo. Love-Hate was a good place to start the night except for the price of the drinks! I thought drinks on the cruise were expensive: $7.50 + 15%, but that’s to be expected on a cruise. At Love-Hate, they were even more expensive: $10 for vodka-redbull!! I almost fainted when I found out how pricey the drinks were. I wanted to return it. My friend said ‘that’s normal for South Beach.’ Oh jeez. Apparently you have to wealthy and hot to party in South Beach. As the night got later, think 1:30am, we moved on to the Bar at the Delano, one of the most famous and deluxe hotels in South Beach. The Delano was full of gorgeous people, 80% of whom Jenna speculated did not live in Miami. The thing to do at the Delano is get a ‘table’ though really more like a lounge-bed poolside. There were even people sitting at a table in the pool. I liked the scene and particularly the good people watching, but the friends had another idea: time to dance like crazy. And the two best places to do that are Mansion and Cameo. We ended up at Cameo and with a poundin’ dance floor and rockin’ music that’s just what we did. What surprised me about Cameo was how many (apparently straight) guys were actually dancing, I mean fully rockin’-out. I asked Isabel about it later and she said, hey Latinos love to dance.
Speaking of Latinos, Miami has to be the most bilingual city in the country. Almost all jobs, including lawyers, requires the applicant to be fluent in both Spanish and English.
Sunday we went back to South Beach to brunch at Lincoln Road and people watch along this pedestrianized shopping area. We also went to the beach and while it was much too cold for me to don a swimsuit, there certainly were other people tanning in bikinis. We had a good day hanging out in South Beach and I can certainly see the appeal though it’d take a big budget to truly do South Beach right.
Another highlight of my visit to Miami was seeing Viscaya. This waterfront mansion was built in the early 20th Century with
all the furnishing and decorations straight out of Europe. It is comparable to Hearst Castle in California or the Museum of Decorative Arts in Buenos Aires. It’s really spectacular and it seems I wasn’t the only one who thought so since when we were there, a girl was having her wedding photos taken. We also had a little Cuban food at Versailles on Calle Ocho, the heart of Cuban Miami. At this time though, it seems more generically Latin American including Mexican and Salvadorean restaurants.
The weather was perfect the whole time I was in Miami. Miami boasted blue skies with little white clouds and temperatures in the upper 70s with low humidity. It was great to see Isabel and catch up after more than a year. She was the most selfless and gracious host. Thanks for everything, Isabel!
Photos from Miami
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