Archive for Traveling
September 14, 2008 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Learning through Foreign Cultures, Traveling, China News
Despite my doubts whether Beijing would pull off a successful Olympics and the controversy over free press, human rights, the Opening Ceremony, and other issues, in my opinion, China hosted an amazing Olympics. The skies were blue, there were large tracks of greenery, the Olympic Green was very attractive, traffic was not a problem, the volunteers were helpful and spoke English, security was present (most of the time, until you hear my friend’s story) but not imposing, the city was clean (almost sterile), the new subway is sleek and modern, and people were friendly and helpful. Everything was very well done, with a few exceptions. Visitors who didn’t speak Chinese were still at a loss when trying to communicate with taxi drivers and average folk. The buses shuttling spectators between venues were overcrowded and no one knew how else to get between venues. But my biggest complaint is the re-sale ticket market. There were a few scalped tickets available but nothing to justify the many half (or more) empty events. Where were all the other tickets? Where were the tickets to the Water Cube? Nonetheless, those who know Beijing, I believe, were all similarly impressed with how well Beijing pulled off the Olympics.
Unfortunately, those changes were not lasting. Despite the fact that the Paralympics are currently going on, the skies have already greyed over, the pollution has returned, and the streets are jammed again. Some of the changes will remain, though: the renovated airport (now one of the largest in the world), the modern, extensive subway lines, the unique venues of the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, and Beijingers pride in having hosted such an unrivaled Olympic games.
If you’re curious for more insight into China and reading the blogs of China-based expats isn’t enough for you, also check out NBC’s lessons in Chinese Culture 101. I can’t say I wholly agree with the portrayal, as many are far from complete and give only positive snippets of Chinese culture, but what makes them interesting is NBC’s take on Chinese culture.
I expect that with the upcoming election, China’s continued phenomenal growth, the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the 2010 Guangzhou Pan Asia games, and everything else, we’ll continue to hear a lot about and from China.
August 4, 2008 at 8:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Learning through Foreign Cultures, Traveling, Peace Through Tourism, China News
The Beijing 2008 Olympics will start in 4 days!!
As of this morning, my plane tickets to Beijing are bought and in hand! I have a place to stay and the promise of Olympics Games’ tickets. Beijing Olympics, here I come!!!
I’ll be in Beijing from the evening of August 14th to the morning of August 19th if anyone wants to meet up. Yay!!!!
July 10, 2008 at 6:25 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Traveling
On more than one occasion I’ve been asked: “How do I get from the airport into downtown Shanghai?” While a simple Google search reveals ample suggestions, I will list the options for traveling from the airport to Shanghai and point to my preferred method (taxi).
From Pudong International Airport
1) The Best Way — Take a taxi. Go straight out of the airport, find the taxi queue, stand in it, then show the manager where you want to go. Have your hotel or destination address written in Chinese and English! It’ll cost about CNY160 ($24); make sure the driver turns on the meter.
2) The Most Expensive Way — Arrange ahead of time to have a car & driver (or minivan/bus if there are a lot of you with luggage) pick you up at the airport. Roughly $100 for a car. Similarly, organizing a private guided tour usually means the tour guide, car, and driver will pick you up at the airport.
3) The Cheapest Way — Take one of the airport buses. They range from CNY18-20 ($3) per person, depending on where you’re going. After you get off the bus, unless you’re familiar with the city or very adept at reading Chinese maps, you’ll need to hail a cab and let the driver take you to your final destination. Again, you’ll need the address in Chinese.
#1 - Between Pudong Int’l & Hongqiao Domestic Airports
#2 - Jing’an Temple
#3 - Xujiahui, last: Galaxy Hotel (Gubei/Hongqiao) (and others)
#4 - Hongkou Football Stadium (and others)
#5 - Pudong, Middle Yan’an Road, Shanghai (main) Railway Station
#6 - Many stops including Shimen Rd, Huashan Rd, ending at Zhongshan Park
#7 - Shanghai South Railway Station
Most buses run until 9pm.
4) The Most Exciting Way — Unless you consider the terror of riding a cab into downtown Shanghai during rush hour a thrill, the most exciting way to travel from the airport is to take the Maglev. This highspeed train (270mph) costs CNY50-100 ($7.50-15) per person and takes you to Longyang Subway station. From there you will need to grab a cab or transfer to Subway Line 2 and get off at the stop nearest your hotel. When you get off the subway at either Longyang (Pudong) or elsewhere, you’ll need to take a taxi to your hotel. Make sure you have the address in Chinese!
From Hongqiao Domestic (and in some cases international) Airport
1) The Best Way — Take a taxi. Supposedly the taxi queue at Hongqiao airport has been cut drastically: a waiting time of up to 3 hours has now been reduced to 10minutes (20 during rush hour). Depending on where in the city you’re going, the taxi should be less than CNY50 ($7.30). Have your destination written in Chinese.
2) The Most Expensive Way — If you’re in a hurry and can’t wait in the taxi queue, no matter how long it is, call ahead to have a car and driver pick you up. It’ll cost you about $70.
3) The Cheapest Way — Take the public bus. CNY4-30 depending on which bus you take. After you get off the bus, unless you’re familiar with the city or very adept at reading Chinese maps, you’ll need to hail a cab and let the driver take you to your final destination. Again, you’ll need the address in Chinese.
#1 - Pudong Airport
#2 - North Shaanxi Road
#806 - Shanghai Jiaotong University, Xujiahui, and more
#807 - Jinshajiang Rd, Meichuan Rd (and others)
#925 - W. Zhongshan Rd, Jiangsu Rd, N. Shaanxi Rd, N. Chongqing Rd, People’s Square
#938 - Xujiahui area, ending in Pudong
#941 - Hongxu Rd (Gubei), Zhongshan Park, Shanghai Railway Station
Bottom line is, regardless of which airport you come into or which method you plan to take, make sure you have your destination written in Chinese characters; you never know what might happen. Taxis are readily affordable, but drivers can’t read or speak English, so make sure you can show them something in Chinese. If it’s a small hotel or a hard to find place, have the phone number as well so the driver can call if he’s lost.
February 17, 2008 at 4:15 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Learning through Foreign Cultures, Traveling, Peace Through Tourism
In the past 3months, I have eaten more bread than I have in years. I started out in Chile and Argentina, 2countries that eat a lot of bread, meat, and cheese. Then I went on to Egypt and Jordan both of which eat a lot pita bread with cheese. Then on to East Africa where the staple breakfast is toast with either jam or egg on it. Living in rice-eating China, I’d forgotten that bread is the world’s staple. The majority of the world, aside from East and South Asia eat bread. I think I’m ready to go back to eating rice.
There should be direct flights between Asia and South America. With the increasing amount of cross-continent travel (I met a number of Chinese in Argentina and many South Americans live in China) and the large trade volume between the 2 continents (notably Brazil and Japan), I believe a direct flight is necessary. Perhaps Air China, JAL, Cathay Pacific, or LAN Chile should think about offering that service. Here are some examples of current inconvenient routings: Shanghai-Beijing-Los Angeles-Santiago, Chile; Beijing-Amsterdam-some random islands-Guayquil-Quito, Ecuador; Hong Kong-Kuala Lampur-Cape Town-Buenos Aires-Ushuaia, Argentina.
Having now traveled to all 7continents, I can say Europe and South America are my favorite. (This probably leads you to the question of why do I live in China? and leads me to the goal of living Buenos Aires after I’ve accomplished all I intend to in China.) I love Europe for its history, architecture, and progressive, forward-looking ideas. I love South America for its contemporary culture, particularly its music and dance, and the color and vibrancy of the culture as well as the people’s relaxed nature. South America’s natural scenery from high, snow-covered mountains to sun-baked beaches is also amazing. The United States, Mexico, and Asia, in my opinion, have the best food. Asia also has an unrivaled entrepreneurial spirit, which at times I love and other times I hate, but is certainly to be admired.
I’m very proud to have accomplished my goal of traveling to all 7continets, even a year earlier than my deadline! 90 days, 29 blog entries, and 18 flights later I’ve returned to where I started from, Shanghai. Concluding a major trip like this can be challenging but trying to sum it up is proving to be even more difficult. I saw some amazing places, met some great people, found some countries that I might like to live in and some that I wouldn’t dare live in, and learned some things that can only be understood through traveling. While I won’t be going traveling again for a long time, I’ll always be a traveler, whether that’s through my memories and photographs, through other people’s stories and photos, or far into the future when the opportunity is right again. I hope you have enjoyed the stories and pictures from my travels over the past months and I welcome you to continue reading my blog as I transition back into blogging about China, as well as tourism and business within this most populous nation on earth.
P.S. Before I leave the topic of traveling, let me again post my alphabetical list of countries visited (original post 10-23-2006) to see how I’m doing now.
A: Austria (Republic of Austria), Argentina (Argentine Republic)
B: Brazil (Federative Republic of Brazil), Bahamas (Commonwealth of The Bahamas)
C: China (PRC), Czech Republic, Canada, Croatia (Republic of Croatia), Chile (Republic of Chile), Cambodia (Kingdom of Cambodia), Columbia (Republic of Colombia), Costa Rica (Republic of Costa Rica)
D: Denmark (Kingdom of Denmark)
E: Estonia (Republic of Estonia), Egypt (Arab Republic of Egypt)
F: France (French Republic), Finland (Republic of Finland)
G: Greece (Hellenic Republic), Guatemala (Republic of Guatemala), Germany (Federal Republic of Germany)
H: Hungary (Republic of Hungary), Hong Kong (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the PRC)
I: Italy (Italian Republic)
J: Jamaica, Jordan (Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan)
K: Kenya (Republic of Kenya)
L: Laos (Lao People’s Democratic Republic)
M: Mexico (United Mexican States), Malaysia, Monaco (Principality of Monaco), Macau (Macao Special Administrative Region of the PRC)
N: New Zealand, Norway (Kingdom of Norway)
O:
P: Portugal (Portuguese Republic), Poland (Republic of Poland), Panama (Republic of Panama)
Q: Qatar (State of Qatar)
R: Russia (Russian Federation)
S: Singapore (Republic of Singapore), Spain (Kingdom of Spain), Slovakia (Slovak Republic), Sweden (Kingdom of Sweden)
T: Taiwan (Republic of China), Thailand (Kingdom of Thailand), Turkey (Republic of Turkey), Tanzania (United Republic of Tanzania)
U: United States (USA), United Kingdom (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
V: Vatican City (State of the Vatican City)
W:
X:
Y:
Z:
Guess I need another trip through the Middle East and Africa to finish off O (Oman), W (Western Sahara), Y (Yemen), & Z (Zaire or Zimbabwe). That will just have to wait…
February 13, 2008 at 11:55 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Tourism, Learning through Foreign Cultures, Traveling
Nairobi, Kenya
Getting off the plane in Nairobi (yes, I know, I’ll get to Tanzania in a bit) we were greeted with just perfect weather–Egypt and Jordan were too cold, Zanzibar was just a little too hot and humid, but the temperature in Nairobi was perfect. We had a very pleasant flight experience with Kenya Airways and most likely due to the turbulent situation in Kenya the flight had many extra seats so we got plenty of room. The Kenya visa process was also very quick and painless and a lot cheaper than Tanzania’s, only $50 this time. A bit nervous about being in Kenya, we opted for a taxi hired within the airport to take us to our hotel, Kivi Milimani, for 1200Kenya Shillings, about $18.
The hotel had beautiful grounds and a swimming pool. Each room had a private balcony. Despite all the worry about being in Kenya, I went out for a wander and to buy some water. In Nairobi I found nothing to indicate there was so much violence going on in other parts of the country. The Kenyans I met were mostly all very genuine and helpful. Except for the violence that’s shattered the country and the reputation Nairobi has for theft (”Nairobbery”), Nairobi seems like it would be a very nice city–it has a lot of potential.
Intrepid’s Overland trip Serengeti Trail into Tanzania
That night we met our guide and group to start our 8day/7night safari into Tanzania. The following morning we left bright and early, like we’d do every day of this trip. Our transport for the next week would be a large custom designed Bedford truck that would carry essentially everything we needed for a week: food, cooking equipment, tents, sleeping bag, etc. First thing in the morning, our guide taught us how to store everything in our personal lockers by first unpacking everything from our bags and then laying it flat in the space. All 19passengers plus guide, cook, and driver and everyone’s stuff had to be stored away and carted around in this truck for the whole week. While it wasn’t uncomfortable, I’d say this big of vehicle is less than ideal for a safari. We were sure bounced and shaken and covered in dust/dirt all across Tanzania. With the rerouting of the itinerary due to the situation in Kenya our 8day/7night safari was really more like 3days of safari and 4days of a lot of driving to and from the Serengeti.
Serengeti, Oldupai Gorge, and Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Driving into the Serengeti the first day we saw countless grazing animals in the pastures on either side of the road: zebra, giraffes, gazelles, impalas. It was a great start! That afternoon we went to the Oldupai gorge, one of sites of ancient man in the Great Rift Valley. We learned about different species of humans that had passed through the area millions of years ago and the particularly noted discovery of human footprints that had been preserved for over 3million years in volcanic ash (think Pompeii). It was very neat to be in the place where humans might have developed from their ape-like ancestors. I’ve always found this topic very intriguing, particularly as a result of reading the Earth’s Children’s Series.
During the 2 or 3days in the Serengeti we saw Vervet Monkeys, baboons, African Elephants (as opposed to Indian Elephants), rock hyrax, zebra, warthogs (think Pumba from The Lion King), hippos, ostrich, giraffes, impalas, Thompson and Grand Gazelles, lots and lots of wildebeest–the supposed backbone of the Serengeti, hartebeest, topi, waterbuck, African Buffalo, mongoose (think Timon from The Lion King), Spotted Hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, and of course, lions.
As if this wasn’t enough, after the Serengeti we descended down into the Ngorongoro Crater, a sunken caldera (my third of the trip), where we saw almost all of these animals again, though in much greater numbers and closer. Highlights of the Crater were seeing our 4th of the Big 5–black rhino, 3 adult and 1 baby rhino; and pink flamingos! The Ngorongoro Crater has to be one of the most spectacular places on land for sheer density and variety of large wildlife.
As part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Masaai tribespeople are allowed to live and heard their animals within the conservation area. We had the opportunity to visit one of their villages.
An unexpected delight of the safari part of the trip was the bird3-life which was very diverse in size, ranging from sparrows to ostrich, and very colorful including bright yellow and shiny turquoise. I had not expected such amazing birds in addition to all the large animals. The Serengeti is very mesmerizing and anyone could stare out at it for hours trying not to let their eyes trick them into seeing animals that are really only bushes. While I went to Tanzania with this picture in my head of very dry empty plains with one tree just off to the side and clear skies at sunset, that was not our experience. There were a lot of trees, even at times thick high brush, and lots of clouds and rain. It rained both nights we camped at Seronera (an area within the Serengeti) and even rained on one day. Apparently we were there at the start of the rainy season.
Tanzania Observations
Tanzanians are incredibly polite and friendly. Everyone greets you with a cheery ‘jambo’ or ‘hello.’ Greetings are very important in Tanzania, particularly Zanzibar. That’s one of my favorite things about Tanzania–that everyone shows so much courtesy and greets you. They also say ‘karibu,’ welcome, a lot and they truly mean it. Tanzanians are very open and welcoming.
Primary school in Tanzania is taught in Swahili but secondary and college-level education is conducted in English. Students in secondary school who are caught speaking Swahili outside of Swahili class are punished. Many people speak English in the country, though the actual level of spoken English varies greatly; still, I have to give credit to the education system. In fact, I was a bit surprised that the woman next to me on the 9hour bus ride who was buying 3 whole pineapples through the window and throwing her trash out the window spoke such good English. TIA!!! (This is Africa)
Tanzania was a lot more developed, though not in an industrial sense, more in an infrastructure sense, than I expected. It was not nearly as poor as I expected either. People seemed to be doing alright. Everyone, including many of the Masaai people, had cell phones.
What surprised me even more was how expensive Tanzania is! A night at a Serengeti lodge is $225/person full board. Its difficult to have meal in any restaurant for less than $5. Mangoes cost the same in Tanzania where they’re grown as they do in the US, $0.50/mango. There a 20%VAT at most places thereby increasing the cost. Tanzania basically throws all ideas of a cheap Africa out of the window.
Tanzania seems to buy everything from Asia. But not in the same sense that Asia is the world’s manufacturer for products shipped to the US. Tanzania seems to buy things meant for the Asian market. Everything from cars to boats to rice cookers had Chinese or Japanese writing on it. The ketchup was made in Malaysia. Tanzania seems to buy all of its cars, minibuses, and ferry boats used from Japan or Hong Kong as all have those countries characters on them.
Tanzania’s Influences
Everyone seems to have their hand in Africa. Everyone wants to ’save Africa.’ This is no less true in Tanzania. From the Dutch started health center in Mto Wa Mbu to the Lutheran Church doing developmental and social projects to the British Council with its Team Dreams to the Indians running all the hotels to the Chinese and their infrastructure building. I first noticed the influence of the Chinese and Indian from the Chinese Inns and Chinese and Indian restaurants scattered about. As I started exploring more, I found the others. And this is all just in northern and coastal Tanzania. (Seven to 10% of the country’s population is Lutheran.)
I wonder if all these varying influences are actually doing any good. Is Tanzania’s rather decent economic situation (by African standards) a result of, or in spite of, all of these groups having their hand in Tanzania? Are all these parties pulling Tanzania (and Africa) in different directions, leaving the country (and the Continent) without a cohesive plan for development? Or are these groups helping the people of Tanzania bring themselves out of poverty and raise their standard of living? Its hard to say, but Tanzania seems to be doing better than other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
——All pictures from Tanzania——-
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 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
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