Evidently shaking the dust from your sandals is a useful skill - 25 & 26 April 2009

The Amman airport provides a welcome respite. We're able to get Starbucks and Cinnabon before our flight.

The flight is on a surprisingly nice airplance - basically the worst air service in the world is US Domestic (although that one experience with Iberia was pretty disappointing). They even let you use your cell phone on board the plane.

Having been "in-country" now for a couple of weeks the Cairo airport isn't as overwhelming this time and we're able to get a taxi to the Sheraton for 70 LE. The car is nice, but Jen describes it as Mr. Toad's wild ride.

The Sheraton, though, turns out to be a disappointment. We start off on a smoking floor and when we try to change are given attitude. Then, when trying to get internet, I'm told that it's 90 LE per day, but they have to send a guy up to set it up - and the guy won't give it to me for less than 200 LE. Overnight exactly 0 TV shows manage to download, and only 23% of our pictures manage to upload - so it's both slow and expensive.

Then, when I arrange the taxi to the airport I believe that it will cost 119 LE (which is admittedly stupid on my part, but hey, I'm sleep addled). Instead, it's 190 LE - and the guy seems put out that he's not getting a tip for charging me almost 3x what it cost to get from the airport to the hotel yesterday.

I'm so frustrated and angry that I let the taxi driver have it. SavedBySherpa is a family blog, so we won't print what was said here - but let's just say I won't be going back to Egypt any time soon.

At least we're done. We're moving on to London and Amsterdam, and then home.

Winding down - 24 April 2009

One thing I neglected to mention in the last post - I broke my camera at the Dead Sea. I eventually got it working again (you'll see some pics from London and Amsterdam) but nothing more from the Middle East.

Today we visited the church of St. George in Madaba, to see the famous map of the Holy Land. It's a little awkward, though, because the church is still in use and we have to wait for the congregants to finish before we all crowd in.

A sure sign that my heart's not really into this - my journal says "Donut shop is closed :("

From Madaba we move on into Amman on a bus. It's a cloudy, chilly day and I'm actually cold, which is shocking.

In Amman we visit the museum where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. I expected to geek out over them - much like the manuscripts and scrolls in the Coptic museum, but it just wasn't that compelling. Much like the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, there's just too much history crammed into too little space.

Dinner tonight was at a restaurant named Don Quixote, and consists of the same basic food we've been eating for the last two weeks, but it's GOOD which is frustrating. It's not that they don't know how to make good food here, it's just that we're not getting it.

Our group has a final farewell in the bar at the hotel. "Dinner of 2.5 beers and French Fries."

Tomorrow we head back to Cairo on our own.

If the tingle means it's working, what does the burning mean? 23 April 2009

Today we visited the Dead Sea. I've heard stories about it all my life, but was still surprised. The biggest surprise is that they still call this thing a sea. To me that implies water of some sort. This is more accurately described as the Dead Slurry.

You walk out into the sea until you can't touch, and then you just float. It's literally impossible to submerge yourself. The "water" is so dense that you can assume a skydiver's pose (belly on the water, arms and legs in the air) on it. There's some important advice, here, though:

Watre, indeed. That stuff burns!!! While assuming said skydiver pose I managed to get some slurry up my nose. And that's what we call an ender.

Interesting note: Along the way we passed this rock formation:

This is supposedly Lot's wife. Yep, this is the point where I start referring to our time in Egypt and Jordan as Vacation Bible School.

After the Dead Sea we visited Mount Nebo, also known as the mountain where Moses got his view of the promised land (but no entry, thanks to that pride issue). I'm intentionally not going to go into religion in this blog, but it's interesting to get our Muslim tour guide's perspective.

After Mount Nebo, it's time to shop. We're taken to a store where all of the goods are handcrafted by artisans - it doesn't take us long to figure out that we're not going to pay 200 Jordanian Dinar for a decorated ostrich egg. (I'll save you a trip to google - that's about $300 US). Stuff is so expensive that I just smirk at the salespeople. We've gone from Egypt, where everything is dirt cheap, to Jordan, where everything is more expensive than the US. At least it's good preparation for Europe.

Finally it's back to the hotel for yet another shower that floods the entire bathroom. Good times, good times...

I named the dog Indiana - 22 April 2009

Today we visited Petra proper. You're probably familiar with at least part of Petra if you've ever seen "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". I'm also told that it has a cameo in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" but since my friend who's a Transformers fanatic gave it at best middling reviews I haven't seen it yet. In case you don't remember, here's what you'll probably recognize:

The Indiana Jones writers took some liberties, though. I've always operated under the assumption that this was the only structure in the canyon. Turns out, though, that this is the treasury building, and that there was an entire civilization that lived down here (The Nabateans). It also turns out that there used to be a lot more relief work on this facade, including large decorative vases. There was a local legend, though, that the vases were filled with gold coins, so the locals took to shooting at them with guns.

Like every other civilization in the region, the Nabateans were eventually conquered by the Romans, who then installed an amphitheater, shown below:

To get to Petra you walk (or ride a horse) down a canyon. Along the way there are many structures carved out of the rock:

As well as rocks that look like animals:



You're probably wondering how a civilization managed to survive and thrive, given the desert conditions (well, unless you've read a lot of Dune). They were rigorous about gathering and keeping water. Throughout the canyons there are these channels, set up to direct any rain water to reservoirs:



There's also beautiful patterns in the sandstone:

Lest you think that it's all beautiful nature, realize that capitalism is alive an well even here. No word on whether Harrison Ford gets a cut of the proceeds:

A desert's an odd place to hear a song about a river - 21 April 2009

You'll notice in yesterday's picture that there's only a blanket separating the "rooms" at our camp. My journal notes: "At least half this group snores, and since there are only blankets separating us you can hear everyone. I join in and sleep surprisingly well." Jennifer was not as lucky.

Today's main activity was a 4x4 tour through Wadi Rum, including an extended tour that we paid 15 Jordanian Dollars for. It's money well spent.

This is a sort of oasis, where water gathers and trees grow. It is hidden from view, but would have been well known to caravans that crossed the desert (and 4x4s full of tourists). There was also a cave nearby where you could take shelter from the elements.



Pulling up to a rock arch in Wadi Rum:



Walking out onto the arch. We had to ask another group to move their 4x4s so that our photos weren't ruined.



After Wadi Rum we loaded onto the bus and moved on to "little" Petra. You won't recognize today's picture, but I promise there will be something more familiar tomorrow:



Evidently there's going to be some high-tone function tonight at little Petra, because there's a crowd of workers setting up tables and a sound system. The funny thing is that they're listening to Chattahoochee by Alan Jackson. Much like Jennifer, though, they don't seem to be enjoying it.