Odds 'n' ends

Random thoughts, factoids and observations, in no particular order

Security: A mixed bag. Metal detectors are located just inside the entrance of every hotel. Some also have conveyor belt baggage checks. However, the metal detectors ring an alarm with every person who passes through, and no one reacts. In other words, they’re apparently all for show. Guests can also walk around the metal detectors, without any consequences. Throughout Egypt, the “tourism police” are stationed behind metal plates, maybe three feet high, with a little square cut-out; if the soldier ducks down, he can see through the cut-out. It seemed pretty obvious, however, that the bad guys could just aim for the soldier’s head.

Although we didn’t experience it ourselves, we’re told that tourists who go to Abu Simbel by bus are required to be part of a convoy, escorted by some kind of security personnel. In Jordan, soldiers were present outside every embassy and we were told not to take any photos. The American embassy in Amman is like a fortress, guarded by both Jordanian military and U.S. Marines.

I never once worried about my safety.

Call to prayer: Five times a day, starting around 4:30 a.m. The exact times depend on the position of the sun. Very elaborate undertaking, involving washing, prostrating (halfway and then all the way down on knees), shoulder-to-shoulder in the mosque. The majority of Muslims seem to be quite devout.

Mark on forehead: Many men have callouses in the middle of their foreheads from bowing their heads during prayer. Not the prettiest look, but a sign of great devotion.

Ps and Ds: There are none in the Egyptian language, so they have difficulty pronouncing words like “pounds” (bounds) and “duck” (buck).

Cell phones: Everywhere. They ring constantly. They look particularly incongruous when used by covered women.

Directionally challenged: Upper Egypt is the south, represented by the lotus, and Lower Egypt is the north, represented by the papyrus. All because the Nile flows north.

Smoking: They all do it. We forget what it’s like to dine in a restaurant that still allows smoking. Ashtrays on every table.

Most common phrase: "I wonder where I put my ...." Karen and I decided our ship really will come in if we can invent some kind of organizational tool that would enable us to remember where we put our battery charger, flashlight, deodorant, socks, sleeping sack, money converter, etc. etc. The list is endless and we spent an inordinate amount of time searching our luggage for STUFF.

Celebration: When Egypt beat Algeria in the soccer game, some celebrants lit cans of insect spray (instead of hairspray, as kids do at home on Halloween). Seemed awfully dangerous.

Mummy tummy: AKA Pharoah’s Revenge. Everyone had at least a little bout; immediately cured by Antinel, the local version of Immodium.

Animals: Donkeys are true beasts of burden and outnumber both water buffalo and camels. It sure is exciting to see camels wandering both the streets and the desert.

Egyptian traffic: Is it possible it’s worse than Hanoi? Maybe. Perhaps the main difference is that in Egypt, people drive cars rather than motorbikes. No apparent lanes, no streetlights, no cops, no rules. Traffic jams include cars, trucks, buses, camels, donkeys. People cross the street wherever they want; in fact, they also cross the “freeways.” If they want to catch a bus, they just stand in the street and wait for a minivan, side door open, to slow down. I don’t know how they know where the minivan is going. The majority of cars are little more than heaps. Headlights are not used. When we asked Ussama why, he said, “What do you need headlights for?” Gas costs 20 cents/gallon; the country produces enough for its own needs and does not rely on any imported oil.

Jordanian traffic: Orderly, with traffic lights that are observed. Lanes exist and are observed. Headlights are used. Cars are new and in working order.

Pollution/trash: Egypt is horribly polluted; I imagine it’s like China. Although we were told the heavy smog was due to farmers burning rice hulls, I suspect it’s like that all the time. Smokestacks were belching black stuff into the air. And there’s no trash pickup, so the banks of the Nile are akin to a dump. Sometimes we saw people picking through trash; other times animals were feeding there.

Children: A baby is born every 10 seconds in Cairo. Children are everywhere, frequently waving at the tourists, or begging.

Baksheesh: Hands out for tips in Egypt. You even have to pay to go to the bathroom.

6th of October City: A new city just outside Cairo that commemorates Egypt's military success at the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. I thought it commemorates Nell’s birthday. It’s very affluent and is home to several universities. It’s the only place in Egypt I saw nice cars.

Our hotels: Grand Pyramids, Giza; Ra (Nile boat); Zoser, Giza (much nicer than the Grand Pyramids); Morganland, Mt. Sinai; Gulden Tulip, Amman (apparently part of a chain); Amra Palace, Petra; Days Inn, Amman (much nicer than any Days Inn in the U.S.)

Eid: A celebration kind of like Thanksgiving, from Nov. 27-30. Lots of sheep for sale and slaughter.

Jordan: A quiet house in a noisy neighborhood. Our guide, Majdi, loves his country and his king, and presented a nice picture of his homeland. It’s at the intersection of Africa, Europe and Asia, and actually is located in Asia. A country of 6 million, it’s known for, among other things, excellent medical care and strong education. The so-called Amman Message preaches tolerance and the kingdom has good relations with its neighbors in the Middle East. Quite westernized and a good deal more expensive than Egypt. Its wealth, however, does not come from oil, although Amman is home to many Arabs from Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing states. Ten minutes from Israel; 15 minutes from Saudi Arabia.

Names: Issa (Jesus) and Mousa (Moses) are the most common Muslim names. True Muslims recognize three prophets – Jesus, Moses and Mohammed. Jihad means hard work or extra effort, in addition to holy war.

Water: Majdi said the principal conflict of the Middle East is over water, not territory. In Jordan, due to a severe water shortage, there are three plans to boost supplies. The Two Seas Channel will connect the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, a desalination plant is in the works in Aqaba, and a giant aquifer at Disi holds enough water to meet the country’s needs for the next 100 years. At present, water is pumped to big tanks atop buildings in Amman once a week; on the roofs, you can see the tanks, solar panels to heat the water, and satellite dishes.

Books: Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence; The Arab Revolution, author unknown; Married to a Bedouin, Marguerite van Geldermalsen.

Our Peregrine group

We had a terrific group and fortunately were compatible traveling companions. We started with nine and picked up a few more along the way:

Clive and Nicky Speakman, Brisbane, Australia. He's a retired family law lawyer and Nicky, also retired, worked for him. The Americans loved the Australian sense of humor.

Keven Trottier, Quebec. The youngest and most energetic of our group, he's an actuary for an insurance firm. Quiet and reserved, he surprised us a few times with breakdancing, dressing like an Arab and a truly evil laugh.

Sue and Shenandoah Knipe, a mother-daughter team from Camano Island, Washington. Sue's a librarian who seemed to be often shopping, and Shenon' works at the post office, and collects SAND. Bags of it.

Rita Gilmore and Ken Strong, Greenbrae, CA. Both lawyers in San Francisco, although Rita's retired, and longtime friends of Nancy. Rita's high on my list of funniest people in the world.

Karen Wold, Novato, CA. My traveling buddy and friend of 25 years. Since we've now seen three of the world's wonders, we're aiming to visit the other four, once we figure out what they are.

Veronika Ong, Vancouver, B.C., joined us about halfway through. She's a retired nurse -- ICU, burn unit and surgical. Traveling has got to be easier.

Nick Koas, Baltimore. Nick is senior vice president of Mercy Hospital, in charge of lots of stuff, including marketing and PR. He also joined us in Jordan and was headed to Israel with Claudia and Veronika.

Nancy McCarthy, Kentfield, CA. I may have to give up my newspaper job and pursue this travel writing for a living, once I figure out how to upload pictures, label them and put them in the right place...

Last of the antiquities

Saturday, Nov. 21 – Although I’ve kind of had enough of temples, tombs and other antiquities, Jerash opened yet another window to olden times. Unlike Petra, which was cut and chiseled from rock, Jerash was built of limestone and marble. In fact, it’s a pretty good example of Roman architecture, complete with a couple of coliseums, temples to Zeus and Artemis, many, many arches and even more Corinthian columns. Despite my expectation of boring, I found myself impressed — again.

The remainder of the day, our last, was free and we wandered around Amman a little, getting a flavor of the city. Seems like any other big city, although certainly quite different from Cairo. On the way to Jerash, we drove through a neighborhood that is basically the Palestinian ghetto, home to about 150,000 displaced Palestinians who believe they’ll be able to return to their homeland at some point. I’m thinking it’s going to be a long wait.

Can't tread water in the Dead Sea

Friday, Nov. 20 -- Several in the group took a dip in the Dead Sea today. Maybe taking a dip isn't the right description -- it was more like bobbing like a cork. It's hard to swim because you're so buoyant. I just lay on my back and floated. Some folks were getting mud baths since the mud apparently has magic powers. Lots of eastern Europeans visit, looking for a cure for various skin diseases, including psoriasis.

The Dead Sea is about the size of Lake Tahoe and is some seven times saltier than any other body of water in the world. It's also the lowest point on earth, 400 meters below sea level, and is shared by Jordan, Israel and Palestine, which we could see across the water. No boats allowed for security reasons. In fact, the road to the Dead Sea is the only road in Jordan with military checkpoints, although we weren't stopped anywhere. Its southern shore is pretty ugly, with potash and magnesium oxide plants abutting acre after acre of tomato and eggplant farms. But the farther north one travels, the prettier it gets. As pretty as it can be without any trees, that is. We were at Amman Beach, which boasts a Crowne Plaza, Marriott and the Kampinski Dead Sea Spa, where we "swam."

We also visited Shoback Castle, an imposing edifice built by the Crusaders around 1100 BC, and the Dana nature reserve, now protected by the government as a safe place for a variety of birds, butterflies, animals (hyena, porcupine) flowers and trees.

World Cup update

Algeria defeated Egypt, 1-0, to move on to the next step in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. After the match, held in Kartoum, Sudan, some Algerians apparently attacked some Egyptian fans, so Egypt has now recalled its ambassador to Algeria. Algeria sent 48 planes to Sudan to fly its citizens home. Really, it's just a game...

Indiana Jones territory

Thursday, Nov. 19 -- It somehow seems too bad that Petra is best known as the location of an Indiana Jones movie, since it is so much more than that. Again, very much like Canyonlands in Utah, with a long gorge, the Siq, winding for about a half mile between two very, very tall and close red walls. You twist around through this area, gasping at the beauty every time you come around a turn, and then you hit the Treasury, a structure actually carved into the red rock. It's quite breathtaking, with Corinthian columns, a broken pediment, statues of various goddesses and decorations including wine glasses and roses. Petra actually was an ancient city populated by the Nabateans, who were traders. Oversized water cisterns that were too large to support the local population are believed to have accommodated travelers and their camels; therefore Petra is thought to have been on a route used by traders in spices and other goods. The Jordanians had to re-do the water system after 1963, when a group of French tourists were killed in a flash flood, just like they have in Utah.

The ancient city also accommodated tombs, storefronts, "apartment" residences, and high on a hill, a monastery. We climbed the 780 steps to the top, where we had a panoramic view of Jordan and Israel, including the Negev, which I've often read about but never had any idea of its location. It's pretty barren out there, but the view was awesome.

Throughout the old city, camels, horses and donkeys are available for transport, as well as horse-drawn carriages. The "road" is built of enormous cobblestones, so it's a pretty bumpy ride. Desperate for some exercise, we opted to walk.

If you've ever heard of the book "Married to a Bedouin," the author and her son have a little "shop" in Petra, one of about a hundred where they sell various trinkets, and her book. She wasn't there the day we visited, but her son was. It was another glorious day, and a little more tiring since we walked about five miles and did a little hike.

Desert magic

Wednesday, Nov. 18 -- If the trip ended today, I think we'd all still be happy. Yesterday and today were perfect days, spent in the company of the Bedouin. We overnighted at a camp in Wadi Rum, perhaps best known as the locale where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. What a glorious place! Much like Canyonlands in Utah, just not as red. Towering mountains surround a huge valley (wadi means dry riverbed), sand dunes sweep up the sides of sheer walls, sparse vegetation, gorgeous sunset and sunrise, the night sky filled with stars. And let's not forget the camels. Although it was only about a 10-minute ride, I can add the camel as a mode of transportation to my list. The little Bedouin who led us through the desert was about seven years old, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

We started out in open 4-wheel-drive jeeps and bounced across the sand til we came to the camp. Unlike the Egyptian Bedouins, who are much disliked by their host country, the Jordanian Bedouins are treated well here. Our host, Mohammed, led us to our "rooms," which were individual partitions in big tents. There were about 25 of us, and we all had tea in a large separate tent, sitting on floor mats. Some of us, including yours truly, Karen and Ken, also partook of sheesha, a very mild tobacco, apple-flavored in this case, smoked through a water pipe. No choking, coughing or any of the other reactions associated with smoking by non-smokers. It actually was quite pleasant, altho I understand it's addictive. Dinner was cooked in the ground, on a three-tiered kind of tray that they pulled up from hot coals. Very nice -- chicken, zucchini, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and of course the always present bread with hummus. It was quite wonderful.

So dark that the stars just jumped out at us, the night was supposed to offer a spectacle of shooting stars, but we didn't see any. It was cloudy part of the time, and quite cold. Stepping out of the tent this morning, I was greeted by complete silence. I mean, complete silence. No birds, no dogs, no electrical generator, no toilets flushing, no wind blowing. It was both eerie and quite wonderful. We spent the morning walking and doing a little climbing on those walls, visiting a place called Lawrence Spring, where a little water filled a natural well, watching wild camels wander by. Did I mention one of the cars broke down? This seems to be part of life in the desert. No angry reactions this time.

The Bedouins were wonderful; their English is good, they sang for us, posed for pictures, told us about their lives (the main guy owns 14 camels and two homes, although one's a tent, and has two girlfriends). He offered four camels and two women to Clive in exchange for his beauteous wife, Nicky. Although they live literally in the middle of nowhere, their lives have been transformed by the internet. They own computers, have internet access, e-mail addresses and web sites. Mohammed said the virtual world has dramatically changed their lives.

We had spent the earlier part of the day in Aqaba, the Jordanian port where we arrived. We could look across the water at Israel, 10 minutes away, and the Saudi Arabian border is just a 15 minute drive. Majdi, our Jordanian guide, spent a great deal of time briefing (probably the wrong word) us about Jordanian history, the king, its 27 universities, the Arab revolution against the Turks and the aquifer that's large enough to meet the country's water needs for the next hundred years. I won't bore you.

Did I mention our driver is name Jihad??!!

Moses was here

Monday, Nov. 16 -- Keven from Canada is the only one of our pathetic group who got up at 1 a.m. to climb Mt. Sinai. He made it! The rest of us chose to go to the base of the mountain later, paying a visit to St. Catherine's Monastery, where the supposed burning bush is growing like wildfire, no pun intended. It looks mighty healthy. There's apparently some controversy over whether Moses really received the Ten Commandments at Sinai; there's archeological evidence the deed was actually done in Saudi Arabia. Who knows?

Anyway, the monastery is in Bedouin territory. They're unpopular with the Egyptians, who consider them gangsters and drug dealers. For awhile, they apparently were bringing drugs into the country by cutting into their camels' humps, carving out the fat and filling the empty space with heroin. Nice, huh? Mostly we just noticed that they have incredibly bad teeth. No clue what a toothbrush is.

We drove to Nuweiba, where we parted ways with Ussama, our fabulous guide, and waited in a truly disgusting ferry terminal for about three hours for the boat to take us to Jordan. The 3 p.m. ferry finally left at 5, but we're told that's a timely departure here.

The difference between Egypt and Jordan is like night and day. Egypt has 80 million people, Jordan has 6 million. Cairo is home to 25 million, Aqaba has a population of 80,000. Jordan is clean, Egypt is dirty. They have road rules here that they actually follow. The cars are new and shiny. There's no apparent chaos. Liquor stores are open for business. Across the Gulf of Aqaba, we can see Israel and Saudi Arabia, neither very far away.

Now we have to get used to dinar -- 1 dinar is worth about $1.40. We're at the Golden Tulip for the night and then to Wadi Rum, made famous by Lawrence of Arabia. We'll be camping in the desert, so I'm doubtful about internet access...

The photos above are Mt. Sinai and the burning bush. In the background of the boat picture is Saudi Arabia.

Suez and Sinai

Sunday, Nov. 15 -- Last full day in Egypt. We visited the oldest mosque in Cairo, which is also the oldest intact mosque in Africa, Ibn Tulun Mosque. It was mostly interesting because Ussama demonstrated how Muslims pray -- five times a day. They wash themselves first, then prostrate a couple of times, say a couple of different prayers, one from the Koran and one they make up. If you pray on time each of the five times, it's 27 times better than praying at the wrong time. Apparently they just made up that number because it means absolutely nothing. They face Mecca, of course, but I didn't know that in the mosque, they also have to be shoulder to shoulder. The prayers are called at a different time every day, depending on the position of the sun. This means that as the world turns (sounds like a soap opera), someone is praying every minute of the day.

Next door is the Gayer-Anderson Museum, notable as the location of "The Spy Who Loves Me." Full of Egyptian artifacts, very ornate, very interesting. I'm posting a picture of Karen, Rita and me, looking out from behind carved "windows" as Muslim women used to do. They can see out, but no one can see in. I believe this is the best picture of the girls from the entire trip.

That was it for Cairo. We had about an eight-hour bus ride, past the Suez Canal (we went under it through a tunnel), drove along the coast of the Red Sea, dotted with resorts and oil platforms and where dozens of ships waited to pass through the canal, and then through the Sinai, which is a mix of desert and mountains. The Egyptian flag was wrapped around the back of our bus, in honor of last night's victory over Algeria, so we were greeted with lots of happy honks and the equivalent of high fives along the way. We're now near the Monastery of St. Katherine, or Kathreine, as they spell it, which is at the base of Mt. Sinai. It's quite cold, believe it or not. Some of the more adventuresome are climbing Mt. Sinai tomorrow morning; the rest will get some sleep.

I want everyone to know this is being typed on an Arabic keyboard. Impressed?

Stranded in the Sahara -- or not

Saturday, Nov. 14 -- I joined folks from a couple of other tours for a visit to the Sahara. At least, that's what they call it; I think it just means "lots and lots of sand." Anyway, it was touted as a tour of the the desert and it kind of was, for awhile anyway. In our Land Cruiser, one of three, we drove past lots of mesas and plateaus, kind of like Utah except they were tan instead of red. Then we went offroad, on to the sand, where we slid and skittered and bounced over the top -- until one of the tires sank. We were stuck. The five passengers clambered out and it went from sort of OK and funny to a tiny bit worrisome but still funny for most of us. A nylon tow rope tied between our car and another snapped. The driver let the air out of the tires, and we sank deeper. The guides produced some metal runners, and they bent in half. We pushed, we rocked. Nothing worked. Looking in another direction, I noticed that the hood of the lead car was up. Dead battery. Uh oh. Meanwhile, several very very angry Aussies started screaming at the drivers, who of course couldn't understand a word they were saying. Finally, we pushed our car out of the sand. The dead battery traded with another car and everyone got going. Six furious Australians demanded to be taken back to Cairo.

The rest of us went on to a national park called Wadi El-Rayan, location of 40 million year old fosslized whales. Somehow, Egypt doesn't seem like a place whales would hang out, but apparently they once did. Our poor driver, who was feeling very put-upon, made us a fabulous lunch, including bar-b-qued chicken.

The whole country is in a state of high excitement -- tonight is the qualifying match for the World Cup. Egypt is playing Algeria and needs to win by three goals to qualify. The streets are filled with people waving flags, their faces are painted black and red, they're banging drums and passing cars, shouting, whistling. You'd think the 49ers were in the Super Bowl. Right now, Egypt leads 2-0. Check the paper to see who wins. If Egypt pulls it out, it'll be an upset and the streets will just go crazy. We've got our fingers crossed.

Egypt just won!! This is like Chicago on election day last year.