Alsalam alaykum! I have found it to be a little challenging to travel between the countries here. I think it is partially the result of us not allowing as much time to properly travel this region…we tried to pack 10 lbs of stuff here in a 5 lbs bag. Regardless, the lack of friendly borders between these countries consumes the most time when trying to travel between them. That being said, I love traveling this part of the world…so much history…so much culture…so many things that are completely unfamiliar to me.

We started in Cairo. Cairo was a cool 110 degrees…lovely weather to check out the great pyramids of Giza. I never have had that feeling before..the feeling like you are actually melting…but I most definitely felt like it that day. The heat sapped my endurance at the pyramids but not enough to appreciate these wonders of the world. We also went to the Egyptian Musuem and checked out the King Tut exhibit and actual mummies of 1,000 year old kings of ancient Egypt…very cool. We spent an afternoon in the Muslim Quarter at a very famous market called Khan Al Kalili and if you want to practice saying “No thank you” spend an afternoon there. We went to a cafe that was over 200 years old and partook in some of the local ‘Sheesha’. Sheesha, or as many of us Americans know it as a hooka, is extremeley prevalent thoroughout the Middle East. Here is a picture of me sampling the sheesha at a cafe older than the United States in the Muslim Quarter of Cairo:

Ryan Miller met back up with us and we left Cairo on a 9 hour overnight bus to the Red Sea Coast on the Sinai peninsula to a backpacker town called Dahab. Dahab is my kind of place; super laid back and cheap. The shoreline was lined with restaurants that featured scores of pillows instead of chairs where you could relax for hours and look out over the waves and the distant shores of Saudi Arabia.

Dahab and the Red Sea Coast is some sort of scuba diver’s Mecca as it features some of the world’s best diving. We decided to get our Advanced Diver rating. The best dive we went on was at Blue Hole:

From Dahab we had to somehow make it into Jordan to see the ancient city of Petra. It was tricky to figure out the connections but we put our best guess together and went with it. We took a minibus up to the town of Nuweiba (a port town in Egypt, 40E£) and caught the next ferry leaving to Jordan. The time at which the ferry was scheduled to embark was a mystery as no one seemed to know…but I think it was supposed to take off at 2:30pm. We waited and waited from 12:30 until 5:30pm. At 5:30pm we boarded the vessel and they took all of our passports for ‘visa processing’ and told us we would get them back once we cleared customs. It was a little nerve-racking for some but not for me and Jamie as there are probably 6,000 people in this world that have our passort numbers because we are forced to provide them everywhere. We finally made it to the port town of Aqaba, on the Jordan side, and proceeded to immigration. Three more hours of waiting and we were finally in a taxi speeding to Petra, another 2 hours away.

Petra is an ancient city that was discovered by a Swiss explored in 1812. Much of the details of the city of Petra are unknown but they know its origin was sometime before Christ. Many of you may recognize Petra from Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. The ancient city of Petra is where Indiana finds the Holy Grail. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

After Petra we wanted to cruise into the Promised Land. Getting from Egypt to Jordan was tricky but this connection was even worse. We were able to avoid the headache of trying to connect 4 different buses and a border crossing by splitting a taxi with an American couple we met at the hostel in Petra. On our way to the King Huessein bridge (the crossing between Jordan and Israel) we stopped to swim in the Dead Sea. The lowest point below sea level in the world at -984 feet below sea level. It is rumored you can’t get sunburned here because it is so low that it has its own atmosphere. It is wild to swim here because you literally float chest high. The salt content is amazing and it really burns your eyes or any open wound on your body. It produces giant chunks of salt and black mud…both of which are supposed to be very good for your skin.

After our brief stop at the Dead Sea we arrived at the Israeli border. The immigration authorities did not take too kindly to me and Jamie’s beards and split us up and interogated us for almost an hour asking us all kinds of pointless questions. All-in-all, it took us over 2 hours to get through Israeli immigration.

Once in Jerusalem we headed for the Old City where we were staying at a hostel, sleeping on roof overlooking the city. Coming from the desert climates of Egypt and Jordan, Jerusalem was like an oasis…cool, lush and green. The old city, the city of King David, was encompassed by a giant wall and by taking one look you instantly feel like this is a very special place. Jerusalem is hands down one of my favorite cities I have ever been to (next to New York). We planned on having 4 days in Jerusalem but we did not know about Shabat (Jewish Sabbath) and we were forced to cut our trip of the Holy City short. On Shabat (I hope I am spelling it right), every Saturday, the city and all its services completely shutdown. Therefore we had to leave a day and a half early to ensure we made it back to Cairo for our flight. We still were able to explore a lot of the Old City included the Muslim Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter, the Ethopian Quarter and the Christian Quarter. We also went to the Holy Sepulchre were Jesus`s body is debated to be housed.

An interesting thing happened while me and Jamie were trying to buy our bus tickets to Cairo. While we were walking to the bus station a Jewish man in street schools starting screaming at us. Quite confused for a moment, Jamie and I retreated backwards until the man stopped yelling at us and started screaming at other people in the crowd. Very shortly afterwards, the man walked to a van that was parked blocking the street and removed his bomb suit. He quickly put on his bomb suit and pulled out a cable and began walking towards a nearby bus stop. He then attached the opposite end of the cable to a bag that was alone on the ground at the bus stop. He began to pull the bag towards his van but the connection to cable wasn`t secure and the bag dropped to the ground 10 feet later. The man then began to walk back towards the bag to rehook it as another man ran from the crowd to claim the left-behind bag. False Alarm…but it was an interesting thing to observe.

Jerusalem is quite the city and highly encourage any of you to go experience it.

Our journey from Jerusalem back to Cairo was a hellish experience. Let`s just say they don`t make it easy for people coming from Israel. But that is a whole different story in itself….but I will let Jamie tell that one.

Peace from the Middle East (and hopefully in it).

Love you guys,

Ryan

Below are a few more of my favorite pictures from Egypt:

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