Here’s some new photos from Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Israel and Jordan:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabiolacaraza/sets/72157604192059930/
Are You Happy Now Sharon Riel?
March 22, 2008 at 3:05 am (Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Jordan, Photos, Tanzania)
Three Countries, Three Arguments
March 21, 2008 at 1:41 pm (Egypt, Israel, Jordan)
Wadi Musa to Cairo via Eilat and Taba – March 7
Up early again and out the door by 7am. We took a mini-bus to Aqaba and then a cab to the Israeli border. Fab argued with the driver who said the crossing was 20km away. Fab said it was 8km. It ended up being 12km. On the way to the border, the cab driver told us that there had been trouble in Jerusalem. According to him, a Palestinian man had opened fire in a Jewish seminary, killing eight and wounding another thirty eight. We had missed the event by one day.
We crossed the Jordanian border, a process that involved Fab getting sexually harassed by a customs agent who made her take off her shawl and lift up her shirt to show her stomach. When I tried to intervene, I was told to take my bag back to the car and get inside. Asshole.
We got into Israel without any problems. After clearing customs, we grabbed a ride into Eilat in a taxi and got dropped off at the bus station. The meter read 19 sheckels, but the driver demanded we pay him twenty nine – three for the pickup and seven for our bags. I called him dishonest and accused him of cheating us. He denied it and called us greedy. Sometimes traveling just isn’t worth the hassle.
From there, we grabbed a local bus to the Egyptian border, paid the exhorbent Israeli exit fee and entered Egypt. We walked from the border crossing to the Taba bus station in order to catch the 12:30 bus back to Cairo. We were told that the 12:30 bus was “broken” and that the next bus was at 4:30. There were mini-buses leaving earlier, but they cost more and are usually much more hassle. We decided to wait.
After an hour of sitting on the curb in the desert heat, a local man approached us and asked if we wanted to share a mini-bus with him for the same price as the bus. I initially said no, knowing that the mini-bus would end up being a headache, but he sweetened the deal saying that we would leave immediately and that there would be no stops. Since Fab and I didn’t feel like waiting for another three hours, we agreed.
The mini-bus stopped everywhere picking up people and packages. Eventually, the bus stopped and we were told that we had to switch to another mini-bus. Fab lost her patience and screamed at the driver, her Spanish accent getting stronger with every passing word. Arab men do not like being yelled at by women, a fact confirmed by the veins popping out of the driver’s neck. He refused to respond to Fabiola and instead deferred to me. I just shrugged my shoulders and pointed to Fabiola. Sorry, man. You deal with it. To make things worse, the driver told us that we were not going to be dropped off in central Cairo, like we were told, but instead at a subway stop on the outskirts of the city. Fabiola’s yelling was now accompanied by wild arm gestures. When the mini-bus finally got back on the road, I gave her a high five. She had made me proud.
We got into Cairo late after spending close to an hour on the subway. If we had waited for the bus, we probably would have arrived at the same time. Oh well, at least we were back in a familiar environment.
Petra
March 21, 2008 at 1:40 pm (Jordan)
Wadi Musa / Petra – March 6
We got up before dawn and headed down to the main entrance of Petra, the infamous Nabataean hidden rose-stone city. Fab and I bought our tickets and walked down the 1.2km defile known as the Siq. Guards in hokey period costumes stood near the entrance, smiling and posing for pictures with moronic Western tourists. Giddy German senior citizens rode by on horses and camels and a gay American couple bickered over how to take a proper picture.
We followed the snaking crevice until we came to Al-Khazneh, also known as the Treasury and popularized by “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade”, which is, not surprisingly, the most popular film in Wadi Musa. The facade was as impressive as it looks in photographs and alot bigger. We spent some time taking in the splendid natural environment before walking off down the colonnaded streets in search of the rest of the city’s highlights. In particular, I liked the Street of Facades and Royal Tombs. What I didn’t like was that touts with donkeys were allowed to roam around the site, pestering everyone they passed. I also didn’t like that the site was filled with merchants selling the same shitty tourist tat, including a group of Bedouin women that sat around smoking hashish and drinking tea.
After spending half a day around the main area, Fab and I climbed up a winding rock cut stair case to see the out-of-the-way Al-Deir, also known as the Monastery. Equally impressive to the Treasury, Al-Deir is bigger in size and perched upon a hill top that provides stunning views of the surrounding desert. Fab and I lunched in the shade on hummus, sardines and crackers while trying to fend of a hungry flock of goats who had eyes for our food.
We walked back down the hill later in the afternoon and took our time making our way back to the Siq. The sun had been strong during the day and we felt a little wiped out. All those early mornings and long days were beginning to catch up with us. While we sat in the shade in front of the Treasury, right before exiting the site, we made the decision that we would skip Wadi Rum and head back to Cairo. Jordan too was expensive and we were fast running out of money. It didn’t help that I had my pocket picked at some point during the day.
Long Day Through the Desert
March 21, 2008 at 1:07 pm (Israel, Jordan)
Jerusalem to Wadi Musa – March 5
We got on a bus bound for Eilat at seven in the morning. For some reason, I couldn’t sleep on the way there, which was okay because it meant that I got to see the Dead Sea during the day along with the surrounding desert landscape. We got off the bus in Eilat, had a couple of hot dogs, and then grabbed a cab to the Jordanian border. Once there, we walked across and haggled for a cab ride into nearby Aqaba, where we could catch a mini-bus north to Wadi Musa, the town surrounding Petra.
We waited in the hot sun for two hours for the mini-bus to depart. Local Bedouin men, their heads covered in checkered red scarves, filed in and out of the back of the van with goods they needed transported. Other Bedouins piled into other mini-buses headed south to the protected desert area of Wadi Rum, familiar to the West as the location for the film ”Lawrence of Arabia”. By the time the bus pulled out of the station, Fab and I were cranky and getting on each other’s nerves. Luckily, the ride was short.
We took a look at a few hotels before deciding on one that overlooked the valley leading out to Petra. We watched the sunset, a brilliant mix of crimson and orange, behind the bulbous mountains out on the horizon. Fab and I chatted for the rest of night with a man from Peru, Pedro, and his Australian wife, Jan. By the time we went to bed, our heads were filled with Pedro’s crazy travel stories, we had a place to stay in Lima and a notebook full of potential costs in the country.
