Putting up some shots I took at Petra over 2 days.
I will have another post with a couple of Petra by candlelight photos.
Text to follow. Insh’allah.
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SAND!
Sandstorm blowing through Cairo.
The wind comes from the south and brings heat and sand. Lots of sand.
These photos were taken around noon. That isn’t morning or late afternoon glow..
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Phew. Back from Jordan
The ultra short version:
Jordan really made me miss my motorcycle. LOTS of nice mountain roads.
Everyone in Jordan complains about how crowded the country is. Coming from Egypt, it looks pretty spacious to me…
Everyone in Jordan complains about the crazy traffic in Amman. We just laughed.
Petra is truly fabulous. The work that went into it is amazing. We did the candle-lit walk to “the treasury” one night. Gorgeous.
Wadi Rum (one of the desert areas where “Lawrence of Arabia” hung out) was fun to see.
Aqaba: seaside town. Umm. It _is_ near the sea…
Jarash. Greek/Roman ruins north of Amman. Fairly large and well preserved ruins.
Jordan is more expensive than Egypt. [but then again, most places are]
Jordan is more green than Egypt. [but then again..]
Stores in Jordan have a much wider array of imported items than Egyptian stores [groceries, electronics etc] Though they ain’t cheap.
Jordinian wines are much better than Egyptian wines [but then again, that isn’t saying much]
With a few exceptions, I didn’t feel like the folks involved in the tourist trade in Jordan were trying to squeeze every last dime out of me, unlike many places in Egypt.
It is a beautiful country. Lush[1] green hills in the north. Rocky and sandy desert in the east and south.
I could see living in Jordan for a spell.
[1] Lush in a hilly-semi-rocky-soil-Mediterranean-compared-to-egypt sorta way. Not lush in a Pacific Northwet sorta way.
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Off to Jordan
We are going to spend a few days in Jordan.
We are flying to Amman, then busing/taxi-ing to Petra for 3 nights.
Then off to a jeep/camel/hike trip in Wadi Rum for a couple of nights.
Then the Dead Sea for a day or so.
Then back to Amman for a day or so.
So, at least we have an excuse for a week or so for not updating the blogs 🙂
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An ordinary day
So today, I worked from the apartment as usual.
Then I hoofed over to Mohandaseen for a talk at the Egyptian Exploration Society held at the British Council entitled Old Kingdom Settlement at Giza; Recent Excavation of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project.
What caught my eye about it was the presenter’s name was Ana Tavares.
It was one of the better organized and more interesting (to a layman) talks I have been to since we have been here. (We usually attend 2 or 3 a month. We try for more, but.. There are so many every week. A sample listing. )
Anyway, the talk was about the worker village under excavation and their finding. Truly fascinating stuff.
After the lecture I walked about 5 minutes to the Cairo Jazz Club. Had a pizza and listened to a 4 piece classical and latin jazz band. They were one of those groups that really seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was a lot of fun.
Then headed home.
But we needed milk for coffee for tomorrow morning and we had a bunch of clothes at the makwagi [“ironing man”. The old school makwagi uses a foot iron heated over hot coals. Our modern makwagi uses a plain old electric iron]
But it was after midnight. Well, malesh! [no problem]
Walk up the Corniche along the Nile, stop at the “supermarket” (open 24 hours) for a kilo of milk.
Then stop at the makwagi. He was still there pressing clothes (this is a VERY late night culture). Paid him the equivalent of US$3.85 and carried home two arm loads of freshly pressed linen clothes. [he apologized because his delivery boy had already gone home]
Just an ordinary day in Cairo.
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Gaza sewage deaths
I read this news story today.
What is sadest about it is, is that I met a gentleman here in Cairo that was working on sewage treatment projects in Gaza (and elsewhere in Palestine). Until Hammas won an election and all US based foreign aid was cut off.
They had to abandon the project.
Aint politics grand.
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Egypt Today
For an enlightening read on Egyptian politics, take a look here.
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The Citadel
The Citadel is a walled compound built on the hills on the outskirts of Cairo.
It started out as a small pavilion built in the early 800’s.
It was fortified and made into a fortress and royal city by Salah Al Din (aka “Saladin”) in the late 1700s 1100s [Thank you Kelley]
More details and history can be found here.
We visited with a group of the ALI (Arabic Learning Institute). The guide is a professor of Islamic Art. She has an astounding knowledge of the history of architecture and art in the Islamic world, and Cairo in particular.
We usually jump at the chance to go on one of her tours.
We toured all the mosques and other buildings, in chronological order, inside the Citadel. Some guide books play down the citadel as uninspiring and even a waste of time with all the other things to see in Cairo. I can see that if you were to go to the Citadel without a guide, or at least a good guide book.
Our guide greatly enriched our experience.
I took just a handful of shots. Flash is not allowed inside most of the buildings, so not alot of the shots came out. Here they are.
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Lisa has arrived
She says “hi” to all our cow-orkers.
She can’t WAIT to get back to work.
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Differences between Qatar and Egypt.
- Clean.
They get rain there. And they have money. So buildings and cars are new and kept clean. No trash on the streets.
- Few Taxis
Very few taxis, compared to Egypt. Much more money, most people own cars. We asked our hotel to call us a taxi and they said it would be a 30 minute wait. They suggested walking out to the traffic circle to try to flag one down. We had to wait 10 minutes for taxi to even go by! And that one was occupied. This is quite a bit of culture shock after spending time in Cairo, where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a taxi.
- Labor is imported
The labor force is imported. Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Phillipino etc. L
- Everybody speaks english
Lots of English spoken. I could see it being difficult to learn Arabic living in Doha.
- MONEY!!!!!!
Lot’s of money. Bentleys, Mercedes Benz, high end SUVs.
- No pedestrians
I didn’t even realize this until the 2nd or 3rd day when I saw someone trying to cross the street. It then occured to me that he was the first pedestrian I had seen. Everybody drives.