Jordan

...we flew from Luxor to Amman, via Cairo, it took us nearly an entire day...and then we had a 3 hour drive from Amman to Petra.  The benefits of doing a tour is that we had a lovely driver and car to take us there :-)

Jordan is amazing - westernized (cars drive in their own lanes and signals are used to change lanes) - very different from Egypt.

There's a VW commercial in the UK, it's for the Golf, the entire ad is about people showing you cars and saying 'see - just like a golf' but of course it's not actually a golf they were showing you.  This is what Glen and I think of Petra, don't get me wrong the scenery is amazing and climbing the mountains was tirinng but worth it.  However, on the way up the mountain on the second day our guide kept saying -- see just like stairs, let me be clear, they were not stairs but slopes or rock faces!  Here's an example...

Does this look like stairs to you???

That said the climbs were totally worth it -- here's us on the top of the mountain on day one, behind us is the monastary.  You could of course hire a donkey to take you up the mountain, but I felt sorry for them so there was no way I was getting on one...

To enter Petra, you have to walk through the Siq, which is a crack in a giant rock -- about 20 ft wide or so -- and very long (at least 1km if not more) but when you get to the end of the Siq you come upon the treasury, which is a facade carved into the rocks over 3500 years ago, these are essentially tombs and chambers to have an annual party to remember the dea.  Here's a pic as you get to the end of the Siq...

The people in the front give you an idea of size.  On the second day we climbed over the Siq to look down on the treasury from above, we got an amazing picture of Glen and I, considering we climbed for 2 hours and started at 6:30am! Unfortunately after a long day of climbing and exploring we sat down on a bench to rest and recover and lefts Glen's camera there when we moved on...so those pictures are now with the dishonest person who took the camera -- they could have at least left the memory card!  Will try to re-create with photoshop!

After 2 days in Petra we drove took the scenic route to the dead sea, exploring the Jordanian country side and amazing views as we went.  The dead sea is the lowest place on earth as a result, you drive down into this 'valley'.  It's weird because there's no mountain, kind of like near the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario, all of a sudden the height of the land drops.

The dead sea was neat, Glen who can't float anywhere had no trouble floating in the dead sea.  And of course we applied the mud from the sea floor which is supposed to be amazing for your skin. 

From the dead sea we drove to Madaba, which is a town near the airport (we had an 8:30am flight back to London!).  On the way we stopped at Mount Nebo -- which is where Moses received the 10 comandments.  Glen took this picture of me -- he's going to add me carrying a stone and would like your input into what the commandments should be for me!  Creativity please :-)

My last thoughts -- go to Jordan -- it's amazing, Petra was the best part of the trip.  Don't get me wrong, Egypt was good, but I'd go back to Jordan in a heartbeat to continue exploring the country.  It's absolutely beautiful.

Our next trip is Paris for the weekend at the end of April...

Egypt and Jordan -- Easter 2010

Well - just finishing up my 2 weeks of holidays.  Sadly will have to go back to work tomorrow morning :-(
But I can't really complain - Glen and I had a fabulous 10 days in Egypt and Jordan.  So -- to the trip...

Cairo
I think if I did the trip again, I would skip Cairo.  Don't get me wrong, seeing the great pyramid close up was amazing -- it doesn't look that big and then you get up close and the you realize one layer of the stones is taller than you.  We had an amazing photo taken straight up the pyramid with Glen standing on one of the stones, unfortunately, it was on Glen's camera, which we accidentally left on a bench outside Petra and had vanished when we remembered and treid to fetch it.

But back to Cairo, we saw the step pyramid, the great pyramids and the egyptian museum and coptic Cairo (which is the Christian area) and also the mosque of Mohammad Ali.  But the overriding impression I'm left with for Cairo, is the 28 million people that live and work there, and everyone of them has a car.  It's just sooooo many people, add to that that I was sick (combination of dehydration and something I ate) on the last day really made me think I could have skipped the city.

Luxor
What a refreshing change from Cairo, a 10 minute drive takes 10 minutes instead of an hour.  While this was the worst 'hotel' of the trip it did have one amazing redeeming feature, the roof top view of the nile.

We took a sleeper train from Cairo to Luxor, which took 11 hours, my first sleeper train and the experience was much better than I expected.  Very comfortable beds :-)  After arriving in Luxor at 7:30am, a quick shower and change and we were off out to see Karnak Temple, an amazing complex which was built from the inside out by a million different Kings and Queens.  From there it was back to the hotel for a nap and a dip in the pool, which was absolutely freezing! It genuinely was just a quick dip!

Later that evening we went to visit Luxor temple, we waited until evening because it's all lit up...

After a good nights sleep we left the hotel early the next morning to visit the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and the temple of Queen Hapshetsut.  We paid the extra money to visit the tomb of Tut Ank Hamun, we missed the mummy room at the Egyptian museum in Cairo because I was sick so this was our last opportunity to see a mymmy! The colours and pictures in the tomb were amazing, especially when you realize they're 3500 years old - crazy!  No cameras allowed in the Valley's though...

That's it for Egypt, the next morning we flew to Jordan, which I tell you all about tomorrow...