After a successful train ride out of Varanasi, we passed just over a week in Southern India in the state of Goa. We had high hopes of enjoying some good times relaxing on the beach, but within the first days of arriving, Jono came down with a severe eye disease, and by the next day, had passed it on to Amanda. Needless to say, we both spent the entire week inside our hotel room (as it was highly contagious!) recovering. In fact, we only left the hotel to make the one hour taxi ride to the hospital to get it checked out. When our time in Goa came to an end, we headed over to Mumbai, where we passed a few more days (still recuperating) and then we were in the air once again.
We landed in Amman, Jordan, and were excited to be spending the next leg of our journey in the middle east. Upon arriving we were blown away by the beauty of the desert that surrounded us on every side. It was truly breathtaking. When we arrived in the city, we found our hostel for the next few days, and started to figure out what to do. Our first stop was to Jebel al-Qal'a (Citadel Hill), that is comprised of ancient Roman ruins, such as Umayyad palace, and the Temple of Hercules. It also has the Jordan Archaeological Museum, which is home to several specimens of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The next day we made our way out into the city again, this time hitting up the Roman Theatre which was an impressive amphitheater, built between 169 AD and 177 AD by Markus Aurelius. We arrived back to the hostel early and spent some time hanging out with our new friends there. Around nine that night, we were greeted by Mike, Amanda's older brother, who flew into Amman that evening. He would be spending the next 2 weeks traveling through the middle east with us.
Even with (or especially because of) all the excitement of having Mike around, we didn't slow down for a minute. The next day after his arrival, the three of us took the hour bus ride north to the ancient city of Jerash, one of the most dramatic and explorable Roman cities in the Middle East. We spent our time wandering around enjoying the ruins. We were also able to catch a reenactment of some of the Romans military tactics, as well as a few well choreographed gladiator fights and a real chariot race. Once we felt as though we had done all we could in Jerash, we hopped into a cab that took us to the ancient castle of Ajloun, which was built during the crusades in the year 1184. Again, we explored, and we found that we quite enjoyed the small castle. After that, we jumped back on the bus headed back to Amman, and were soon preparing ourselves for the next day.
We woke early the next morning, and were soon on the bus again, this time heading for the city of Madaba. We arrived by noon, and an hour or so later we had set ourselves up with a taxi driver who would show us the three main sights around Madaba. The first of these was Bethany and the Jordan river, where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. We walked along the water, and even went into the river. We also had a great view of Israel (and Jericho in the distance), which was only a few feet away on the other side of the river. The second sight of the day was the Dead Sea. We spent an hour swimming... well, more like floting in the Dead Sea, which happens to be the lowest land area on earth, and the second saltiest water in the entire world!. It was so salty that you couldn't even swim, only float around! Our third and final sight of the day was Mont Nebo, the mountain where Moses looked over the holy land. We made it to the mountain, however, we were too late to enter the sanctuary that is on top of the mountain (there never seems to be enough time!!).
The next morning we were on the road again (yes, we are always on the road!), this time heading down the King's highway towards Jordan's most spectacular attraction. Along the way we stopped at Wadi Mujib, (a.k.a. the Grand Canyon of Jordan). We then arrived at the crusader castle of Karak. From there we made it to the city of Wadi Musa (Moses Valley in Arabic), the closest city to the ancient ghost city of Petra, which we would be exploring over the next two days.
The next morning we woke up extra early, so that we could get a full day in at the rose city of Petra. We began our day by journeying through the Siq, a narrow canyon walkway which lead to the most incredible and stunning structure in all of Petra, the Treasury. Listed as one of the new wonders of the world, the Treaury was designed to impress, and it has been doing so for more than 2000 years. The thing that makes this UNESCO site so unique is that most of the buildings and tombs in this Ancient Nabataean city were constructed, in fact, about ninety percent of them were carved out of the rock itself. We spent almost 12 hours wandering around, climbing and exploring Petra. We had seen two of the main sights, the Treasury and the Monastery, as well as many other smaller, but just as exciting places.
Although our feet were tired from the day before, we got up early again and once again found ourselves surrounded by the beauty of Petra. Again we wandered, climbed and were in awe of this ancient masterpiece. We made it up to the High Place of Sacrifice (no, they didn't sacrifice Amanda!) and also got a great view of the Treasury from above. That night Jono and Mike made it back to see Petra at night, where the Siq to the Treasury were lit by over 1500 candles (beautiful!). Amanda however, didn't make it, due to poor shoes which gave her blisters after two days of climbing.
Not to slow things down in any way, the next morning we were up with the sun, and on the 6:30 bus to Wadi Rum, (the stretch of desert made famous by Lawrence of Arabia. When we got to the desert, we jumped into a 4x4 jeep, which drove us across the desert, stopping at various interesting places, such as huge sand dunes, rock bridges, and desert canyons. We saw the most beautiful sunset in the desert, and after the sun went down, we made our way to the camp. As we finished dinner, we decided that instead of sleeping in the tents that were provided for us, we would sleep under the stars of the desert sky. It was a beautiful night, and we were thankful that no desert snakes or scorpions got to us.
In the morning we were back in the 4x4 and heading out of the desert to the Red Sea-side city of Aqaba. Here we proceeded to get our ferry tickets for that evening, as we would be taking the late ferry out of Jordan and into Africa. To pass the day away, we relaxed and swam along the coast of the Red Sea. We didn't do any snorkeling (it is said to have the second best snorkeling and diving in the world after the Great Barrier) because we planned to do that first thing in Egypt. The day passed slowly, and finally, at midnight, we were on the ferry, leaving with fond memories of Jordan, and looking forward to what would lay ahead for us in Egypt!
We arrived in Egypt after a late night ferry trip across the Red Sea. From the ferry port, we taxied it down to the beautiful beach destination of Dahab. We spent our day in Dahab laying around the beach, as well as snorkeling in the Red Sea. We were able to see some incredible things while snorkeling, including lion fish, clown fish, stunning corals and anemones. That night, instead of catching up on some much needed sleep, we chose to drive two hours out of Dahab to the Mount Sinai (the biblical mountain where moses met God, heard from the burning bush, and received the Ten Commandments). We arrived there at 2 am and we started to make our way up the mountain. It was a cold and long journey up, but after a few hours we were at the top and we were able to see one of the most beautiful sunrises ever, over the distant range of mountains. On our way down, we stopped at St. Catharine's Monastery, where we saw a large bush which is believed to be the same type of bush that Moses would have encountered on the mountain (but no, it wasn't burning).
We arrived back in Dahab by noon, and spent the rest of the day in the same fashion as the day before. We enjoyed the beach, and snorkeled until we couldn't snorkel any more. That evening, we caught the late night bus out of Dahab, heading towards the Egyptian capital of Cairo. It was a long way (about 10 hours), but we were so exhausted from the previous few nights without any sleep, that we slept through the entire bus ride!
We arrived in Cairo early the next morning, and dropped our bags off at the train station. We picked up our tickets for the night train to Aswan and than headed out to explore Cairo.
Our first stop was at the Egyptian Museum, where we were able to see the worlds largest display of Egyptian artifacts. The museum housed some truly amazing pieces, including mummies of various pharaohs (and their animals), burial urns, statues, ancient artifacts, jewelry, and, what we found to be most impressive, King Tut's burial mask. We spent a few hours in the museum, but as our time was limited, we had to move on. We hopped on the subway to get to our next stop, which was an area called Giza, to see the Sphinx and the Pyramids. As soon as we arrived we were blown away by the sights that were before us. The Sphinx and the Pyramids, being thousands of years old, were right next to us and we could even touch them! We got our photos, and Jono and Mike even made their way inside one of the Pyramids (and even into the stone burial pit). We hung around at a local restaurant overlooking the Pyramids to watch the sound and light show that is put on every night. It was a bit cheesy (it was also in German which didn't help) but the Pyramids looked great all lit up!
It was back on the road for us that night, as we boarded the night 12 hour night train headed for Aswan, which is in the south of Egypt. We arrived by noon the next morning and were thrilled to have a place to lay our heads and drop our bags. We spent the day riding up and down the Nile on a felucca, as well as taking in the sights and tastes of Aswan. We headed to sleep early that night, only to be woken earlier than ever desired. At 3 am our hotel gave us our wake up call, and half an hour later we were in a mini bus, in a convoy, headed for the site of Abu Simbel. About three hours later we arrived at our destination (along with a thousand other people who were a part of our convoy!). We had made it to the ancient sight of Abu Simbel, a breathtaking temple made by Ramses, which was not far from the border of Egypt and Sudan. The temples were spectacular on the outside, and just as great on the inside. The hieroglyphs were well preserved, and the only downfall was that we couldn't take any photos inside. From Abu Simbel, we traveled back to Aswan, and spent the rest of the day resting and enjoying ourselves. That night we jumped on the train again, this time only for three hours, and made our way north to the city of Luxor. Here we spent the night, and the rest of the following day. Although we were short on time and didn't get to see everything (Luxor is home to both the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, where the kings and queens of the past were buried), we decided to explore Luxor's Eastern Bank. However, we were able to check out the impressive Temple of Karnak as well as the Luxor Temple. We were even able to see the Luxor Temple lit up at night before we headed back on the road. That night we took the night bus back to Cairo, as we all had to catch our flights out of Egypt the following evening. We arrived in Cairo and were so exhausted from the weeks adventures, that we rented a hotel room for the afternoon and caught up on a few hours of sleep!!! After we felt rested enough, we went out for a final dinner together, and than it was off to the airport. We parted ways here, as Mike was flying back to Canada, and we were flying further into the heart of Africa.
