career break

Stranded in Penang after a side trip to Singapore

December 19, 2012 Malaysia Singapore Travel Tips

We’re on our way to Thailand, and have been for about a month.  The problem is that we keep getting distracted with other interesting places along the way and our side trip to Singapore was no exception.  With mixed reviews about Singapore – some rave about it while others deplore how Westernized the city has become – we decided to check it out for ourselves and are we ever glad that we did.

With a population of just over 5 million sprawled over 710 square kilometres squeezed onto an island, Singapore is the capital of the country by the same name which is comprised of 63 islands of varying sizes. Singapore is sandwiched between Malaysia to the north and Indonesia to the south. We travelled from Kuching to Singapore by air on a very cheap AirAsia flight (about $60 CAD each). But the savings ended there, as we knew they would, having been forewarned that Singapore is a very expensive city to visit.

This probably wasn’t the place to decide we have had enough of hostel living, but that’s how we felt so we stepped up our accommodations a notch and we splurged on a room in the Hotel Re, a 4 star boutique hotel decked out in a 70’s retro theme.  For reasons unknown to us, we were upgraded to a deluxe room with city views on the 10th floor.  Our room was large by any standard, but especially so for Singapore, not to mention the modern and spacious ensuite bathroom. Maybe we’ve been living in hostels for too long, but we loved everything about this room and enjoyed every minute of our stay there: the wall-to-wall windows overlooking the city, the complimentary snacks and drinks that were refilled each day, the cotton slippers and robes, a modern 42 inch flat screen TV with English channels, good quality linens and pillows on the beds.  Heck, we even had our own night table and lamp – we were living it up here in Singapore.  Located on the edge of Chinatown, within a ten minute walk to the Metro station, and a two minute walk to the bus stop, it was easy to get around on foot or with public transportation.

Singapore is renowned for its urban sprawl and is often criticized for the resulting loss of primary rainforest so we were impressed to see so much green space every where we went.  The 183-acre Botanic Garden was a surprising oasis of both manicured gardens and wild rainforest  located in the heart of the city.  Within the Garden, The National Orchid Garden is home to the world’s largest collection of orchids, many of which were in bloom this time of year.  Imagine, we actually saw flowers in bloom for a change!  This free public garden is a popular place to go for a run or just a meander.  The entrance fee to the Orchid Garden is $5 SGD ($1 SGD = $0.80CAD) and is probably the best bargain in town.  If you ever find yourself in Singapore, go visit this garden – you won’t  be disappointed.  Our only regret was that we didn’t have more time to explore. We spent 6-7 hours there, and barely scratched the surface.

During December, Orchard Road, a world renowned shopping Mecca that attracts thousands of visitors each year, is lit up with a dazzling display of Christmas lights.  The street  has been declared to have the “World’s Best Holiday Lights” by Frommer’s, and to be one of  “The Top Ten Christmas Markets of the World” by Lonely Planet, well-deserved accolades in our opinion. It’s best to visit after 7:00 pm when the lights go on!

Throughout our three days, we wandered through the various neighbourhoods like Chinatown and Little India, visited temples and mosques, and learned about the rich cultural history of this fascinating city.  It is indeed very Westernized in many ways, but this was something we enjoyed, feeling more at home here than we have anywhere else in a while.  For example, we stumbled upon a grocery store that reminded us of the Waitrose chain we shopped at in the UK last summer; it even carried that brand of products.  It was just so comforting to see products and food that we recognized for a change. What can I say, we’ve been travelling a long time, and sometimes we miss what is familiar.

 

The cleanliness throughout the city was notable too and understandable when we later learned there are stiff penalties for littering – $500 SGD – strictly enforced.  Imagine, education and strong deterrents work!  We also noticed there was absolutely no graffiti anywhere, not even in the Metro stations.   The city’s recent prosperity and dense urbanization has resulted in some pretty incredible architecture, yet the city felt spacious and uncrowded, unlike other large urban centres we have been to lately.

In short, we loved Singapore and could even imagine ourselves living there for a while.  It was definitely a worthwhile side trip.

The island of Penang was our final stop before heading to Thailand.  Georgetown had been described as a must-see city with its rich colonial heritage and architecture to match.  Besides, we could get our Thai Visa from the Thai Consulate in Penang so we could kill two birds with one stone (see travel tip below).  We booked a couple of nights at the lovely Hotel Penaga located right on the edge of the historic district and a few nights at the 4 star Flamingo on the Beach hotel which was located close to Feringgi Beach, another popular destination.  Still not in the mood for hostel living, we’re living it up a bit (and enjoying every second I might add) with these nicer hotel choices.

Hotel Penaga – One of the nicest places we’ve stayed in a while!

Views from our 8th floor room at the Flamingo on the Beach resort.

Georgetown had its charm but we found ourselves wondering what all the fuss was about.  Maybe we’ve seen too much of Malaysia because honestly, this city didn’t look much different from the other places we’ve seen already.  Every town in Malaysia has a “Little India” and a  “Chinatown” as well as temples, mosques, and colonial buildings, reminders of its past history as a British colony.

Perhaps our enthusiasm for Penang was hampered because we were distracted, and increasingly frustrated trying to figure out where to go in Thailand.  Our plan was to find a nice, cheap little place on a quiet beach where we could sit tight for a month or so.  But it was not to be.  This is high season in Thailand, and Christmas is probably the worse time to visit.  It seemed everything was booked solid, and what was available, was ridiculously overpriced for what you got.  Not to mention how crowded everything was going to be.  Our lovely beach fantasy was quickly swept out to sea!  Now what?

We spent a lot of time researching our options but we kept coming up with nothing.  It turns out this is the most popular time to visit Thailand, and this year in particular, Thailand is experiencing a surge in tourism.  That’s great for Thailand, but not so good for us.  This is definitely one of the down sides of not planning ahead – sometimes, especially during peak times, you can find yourself shit out of luck.  Finally, we decided we would skip the beaches for now and head up to Chiang Mai in the north where we would look for an apartment.  We both want to settle down in one place for a month or two to take a break from travelling and to spend some time focusing on a couple of projects we have in mind.

Once our destination was decided, all we needed to do was book our train tickets to Bangkok and away we could go.  Naively, we thought we could purchase our tickets a day or two ahead which is generally true but not in high season.  When we arrived at the ticket office, the lady practically laughed at us – the train was booked solid for the next two weeks! So how were we going to get to Thailand?  Back to our hotel for more research, and a request to the hotel to stay another day to give us time to sort out our transportation.

We had two options – bus or plane and in the end we opted for both.  The bus trip would take more than two days including two overnight bus rides.  And there were no direct flights either.  The best we could find (and it wasn’t cheap) was with a 10 hour stop-over in Bangkok.  So we decided to fly direct to Bangkok (1.5 hours) and then take the overnight bus from Bangkok (9 hours).  With our transportation figured out, we enjoyed our final day in Penang hanging out by the pool and the beach.  Thailand, here we come!

Travel Tip: Getting a Thai Visa while in Penang is super easy. You will need your passport, two standard passport photos, a photocopy of your passport and 110 ringgits (about $35 CAD).  No need to fill out the Visa application form in advance as they will give you one when to complete when you arrive.  You can even get your passport photos (20 ringgits for 4 photos) and have your passport photocopied (2 ringgits) from the guy working out of his car turned office  just outside the Consulate gates.  Or you can go to the Komtar shopping complex in Georgetown and get your passport photos and photocopy there (12 ringgits for 4 photos).  But be sure to have enough money with you as the Consulate is located in a suburban area where there are no ATM machines.

The Royal Thai Consulate is located in the suburbs at:  1 Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahma which is a little out of the way but it is still easily accessible by bus.  Take bus 101 in either direction (from Georgetown to Feringgi Beach, or vice versa) and get off at the corner of Jalan Burma and Jalan Cantonment.  Tell the bus driver you are going to the Thai Consulate – just about everybody knows where it is.  If you need money, get it from one of the many ATMs in this area as there are no ATMs near the Consulate.

It’s a pleasant 20 minute walk along Jalan Cantonment to Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahma where you turn right and then left at the first street.  The Consulate is on the right hand side of the street, opposite a school.  The roads are well signed, but the Consulate isn’t.  Just follow these directions and you should find it without too much trouble.  Of course, you can just take a taxi which will probably cost about 25 ringgits each way.  But it’s much cheaper by bus – only 1.40 ringgit each way.  Or you might get lucky like we did when we asked a guy how to get to the Consulate from where the bus deposited us on Jalan Burma and he gave us a drive there.

When you arrive at the Consulate, you will be asked to sign in at the guard desk where they check that you have everything you need for your application.  You are then directed to another wicket where you are given the blank application form.  After completing the form, you submit it along with your passport, photos, passport copy and the fee.  You are given a receipt and told to return at 3:30 in the afternoon at which time you simply line up and collect your passport which now has a 60-day single entry Thai Tourist Visa pasted into it.  Note that you cannot get a multiple entry visa from this Consulate.

If you’re applying for anything other than a tourist visa, you may want to  verify that it is possible at this Consulate as our experience is limited to getting a tourist visa only.

A pseudo jungle experience in Borneo

November 27, 2012 Malaysia

After spending five days in the Peruvian jungle a few years ago, we thought we were prepared for the jungles of Borneo.  With visions of wild orangutans, herds of pygmy elephants and troops of proboscis monkeys dancing in our heads, we made our way to the Kinabatangan Nature Lodge where we planned to spend 3 days and 2 nights exploring this natural wonderland. The area has been touted as a must see attraction so understandably our expectations were set quite high.  We were prepared to suffer through unbearable heat and humidity, attacks of tenacious mosquitoes and whatever other discomforts nature sent our way with hopes of being rewarded with seeing some amazing wildlife in their natural habitat.

The first thing we noticed when we took the small motor boat across the river to the Lodge was how close it was to other homes and lodges. It was anything but remote. The Lodge itself was very comfortable, in fact far more comfortable than we had expected. Our private cabin with ensuite bathroom would put many of our recent hostel stays to shame.Tasty meals were served up in the communal dining room; they even had wifi available although it was pretty slow. We were definitely not roughing it on this jungle journey.

Our program included four river boat excursions, two night walks and one three hour trek through the jungle.  It was a full schedule, and I found it a challenge to keep up as I was still sick with what I was sure was another throat infection.  On each outing we saw lots of monkeys, mainly long tailed macaques and proboscis monkeys.  It didn’t take us long to spot the monkeys as we cruised down the river.  The rustling of leaves in the branches was a sure indication monkeys were about.  I loved watching them leap through the trees fearlessly as they raced from one tree to the next.  Often they just sat quietly in the tree branches, grooming each other meticulously.

Long tailed macaque staring at us from the riverbank.

Proboscis mother and child getting ready to leap to another tree.

During one of our outings, we saw a mother/offspring pair of wild Orangutans chomping away on fruit in a tree high above us.  But the highlight for me was seeing a newborn long tailed macaque; it was still wet from its birth.  We witnessed its tentative first steps along the branches, with mama watching close by.

Wild Orangutan “toddler”.

Newborn long tailed macaque.

Baby long tailed macaque with its mother.

Typical pose of a proboscis monkey.

There were a few bird sightings along the river, the most impressive being the Hornbill.  There were lots of eagles, colourful kingfishers, and we even saw an owl at the start of one of our night walks.  The night walks were rather disappointing as there wasn’t much to see in spite of our best efforts to walk quietly.  We saw a few birds sleeping on low branches which was something I had never seen before, a few insects and a frog.  That’s it.  During our three hour jungle trek where we traipsed through mud as high as our rubber boots, we saw nothing, not a single form a life.  It was a complete bust.    And no, we did not see the pygmy elephants either.  Apparently they were somewhere upstream, about 70 km away.  All in all, it was a rather disappointing experience in terms of the minimal wildlife we saw.

Male Hornbill eating berries in a tree.

Male and female Hornbills.  Can you see the difference?

Kingfisher seen during our night walk.

Both the rainforest and its inhabitants have been severely affected by human activity.  The rainforest itself is second generation meaning it had previously been razed by humans. There are signs of Palm Oil plantations everywhere, encroaching more and more on this natural habitat.  What was once a vast forested region, is now a forest corridor along the Kinabatangan River, connecting the coastal mangrove swamps with the upland forests.  At least the area is now protected under the Wildlife Conservation Enactment which went into effect in 1997.  Hopefully as the forest regenerates itself, its inhabitants will have the chance to flourish once again.

Video:  Monkeying around in Borneo
 

Meeting the man of the forest in Borneo

November 27, 2012 Malaysia

After exploring the underwater world off the coast of Borneo for three days, we were ready to discover the natural wonders of the jungle.  Our first stop was the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre where orphaned Orangutans are rescued and then nurtured to maturity in a 23 sq km protected area at the edge of the Kabili Sepilok Forest Reserve.  Each year many adult organ utans are killed because of illegal logging and deforestation activities, leaving their young offspring to die.  Others have been illegally caught and kept as pets.  Today, there are about 25 young orphaned oOrangutans living at the centre in addition to those living freely in the reserve. The centre is open to tourists who visit during the twice daily feeding times in order to catch a glimpse of these adorable creatures.

It was an easy 4.5 hour bus ride from Semporna to Sepilok Junction where the bus deposited us on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. We had been told it was a 3 km walk to our hostel (Sepilok Jungle Resort) which was next to the Centre, but if we were lucky, a car might offer us a lift for a few ringgits.  Luck was definitely on our side that morning.  Not only did the torrential rain stop as soon as we were dropped off, but a car approached us within minutes to offer us a ride.

We had two nights booked at the Sepilok Jungle Resort which allowed us a full day to visit the Centre and the nearby Rainforest Discovery Centre.  After reading mixed reviews about this resort, we were pleasantly surprised with our very spacious, comfortable room tucked amidst a lovely, tropical garden setting.  It turns out we were staying at the more posh end of the resort with prices to match.  The other end offers up basic, hostel-like accommodations at more reasonable rates.  At $50 CAD per night for a large double room with ensuite, we were paying about double the rate of our other accommodations in Malaysia.  But it was worth every penny!  The hotel restaurant served up tasty, reasonably priced meals too.  There was a very inviting pool which unfortunately we didn’t have time to use.

By the time we arrived at the resort, I was feeling sick again.  My sore throat had returned with a vengeance and my energy was very low.  I pushed myself since we only had the one day to visit the Orangutans and I didn’t want to miss it because of a stupid cold.  The Centre cannot guarantee that visitors will see Orangutans because they really are living in the wild and may or may not choose to visit the feeding platform for some free bananas.  The day of our visit, they were out in full force, including a huge male who rarely comes to the platform.  Apparently, he’s looking for a mate, so he has been showing up about once a month lately.  In the afternoon, another male, much smaller than the one we saw in the morning, found himself a female to his liking, and mated her right there and then as we all watched in amazement.

Before the feedings began, I had a close encounter with a group of long tailed macaque monkeys.  After walking ahead beyond the feeding platform towards the exit, a dozen or so monkeys appeared on the railings about a hundred feet away from me.  I was alone and to my astonishment, they all started walking towards me, pausing and staring at me with as much curiosity towards me as I had for them.  I got a little nervous when a large male stopped beside me and glared with piercing eyes, baring his teeth like he meant business.  There was really nowhere for me to go because I was surrounded by them, so I carefully avoided eye contact and stood still to let him pass; after all, these monkeys are wild and have been known to be aggressive, especially if they feel threatened.  I got some great video footage which you can see at the end of this post.

In between feedings, we walked to the Rainforest Discovery Centre  about a kilometre away. While this environmental education centre is geared towards teachers and students, it is open to everyone. Their mission is to create public awareness and appreciation for the importance of conserving forests, as well as the sustainable use of forest resources. Arriving in the middle of the day, when it was stinking hot guaranteed we would see no animals.  They were all taking a siesta which we should have done too.  The only animal we saw was a long tailed squirrel, which looked exactly like a squirrel in Canada, except it had a long tail.  Even though we didn’t see any wildlife or birds or flowers for that matter, we did enjoy the 300 m long canopy walkway, which was 25 m above the forest floor, giving us a great perspective of the rainforest from above. There is a vast network of many kilometres of well kept trails throughout the rainforest too. The dense forest canopy kept us surprisingly dry when it poured rain a few times during our visit.

The highlight of our day were the Orangutans, which we saw again at the afternoon feeding back at the Rehabilitation Centre.  These endangered apes only live in Borneo and Sumatra so it was a real thrill to see them up close like we did.  Their numbers are declining because their habitat has decreased rapidly, mainly because of the conversion of large areas of the tropical forest to palm oil plantations.  Everywhere we went, we saw miles and miles of these plantations, visible reminders of the shrinking forest.  Sharing 96.4 % of our DNA, it’s not surprising that these apes act so human-like and are so endearing to us.  These gentle primates are highly intelligent and have the ability to reason and think.  In Malay, Orangutan means “man of the forest”, a fitting name, don’t you think?

Our next stop is at a jungle lodge on the Kinitabangan River where we will spend three days and 2 nights exploring the wildlife along the river banks and into the jungle interior.  We hope to see Orangutans in the wild as well as the funny looking proboscis monkeys. If we’re lucky, we might even spot a pygmy elephant.

Video:  The Man of the Jungle and a Troop of Macaques
 

Playing with sharks and turtles in the Celebes Sea

November 22, 2012 Malaysia

Sipadan Island is reputed to be one of the best diving spots in the world, some even say it is one of the top three, but as we found out, it can be hit or miss during monsoon season.  When we learned that Sipadan Island is in the center of the richest marine habitat in the world, the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin, teaming with more than 3000 species of fish and hundreds of coral species, we weren’t going to let a little rain get in the way of our fun. Besides, people usually book months in advance to secure a diving spot because there is a strictly enforced daily diving limit of 120 people on Sipadan Island. This government imposed regulation is in place to protect this fragile eco-system.  When we managed to snag a couple of dive spots at the last minute, we decided to go for it.

But first we had to get there. Sipadan Island is the only oceanic island in Malaysia, rising 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the seabed, located in the Celebes Sea off the east coast of Sabah, about 600 km from Kota Kinabalu. There are two ways to get there – by road or by air.  Almost immediately, I regretted our decision to travel by bus.  We thought the bus would give us a chance to see some of the countryside. I didn’t anticipate getting car sick as the bus rocked from side to side as we twisted our way through the mountains. It took 11 hours to reach Semporna during which time I slept most of the way thanks to Gravol. Again, our trusty medicine bag to the rescue.

We stayed overnight in Semporna at the Sipadan Inn, a very comfortable and clean hotel with excellent air conditioning.  Early the next morning, as we were kitted up with our dive gear, we met Denise, a fellow Canadian who had booked the same package as us: 1 day diving at Sipadan Island and a 2 day/2 night diving package at Mabul Island for a total of 9 dives in 3 days – a lot for us.  We  booked our package through Sipidan.com and we think we got good value for our money.

It takes one hour by boat to reach Sipadan Island.  The island itself is very much what you would imagine a remote, tropical island to be – powder white sandy beach, turquoise waters, palm trees swaying ever so gently in the breeze.  Simply stunning.  After each dive, we had a break on the island, but we were restricted to one specific area, no exploring allowed.

In spite of the poor visibility, the sea served up a vast array of strange and wonderful looking creatures and plants. There were lots of white tipped sharks, huge green and hawksbill turtles, and loads of other colourful fish we had never seen before.  The corals were spectacular, not so much in their colours, but in their size and shapes.

For me the most amazing experience happened near the end of the second dive when we came across a massive school of Jackfish; there must have been thousands of them.  As I casually swam along side them, they would shift their patterns to encircle me and before I knew it, I was in the middle of them, everywhere I looked there was a thick wall of Jackfish. Simply amazing.  The most unusual fish we saw were the Bumphead parrotfish which  is the largest species of parrotfish.   These fish were big, about 4 feet long, and up to 100 pounds in weight.  Their large, protruding  teeth gave them a rather menacing appearance which kept me at a safe distance.

After our three dives at Sipadan, we were dropped off at Mabul Island, 20 km away, where we would spend the next two nights at our “resort”.  This small island has been a fishing village since the 1970s, but more recently it has become popular to divers, mainly because of its proximity to Sipadan.  Several resorts, ranging from bare bone to luxury, along with a large village of locals are all crammed onto this 20-hectare piece of land that sits just 2–3 meters above sea level.

My heart sank as we climbed out of our boat onto the deck of our resort.  I knew we had opted for budget accommodations, but this was really basic, and frankly, quite grim.  Our resort was really nothing more than a long, rectangular wooden structure on stilts overhanging the water.  At one end was three long tables with plastic patio chairs where we ate all our meals and hung out, and at the other end was the kitchen, shared bathroom and staff quarters.  In between, about 10 small rooms lined both sides of the building.  Each room had a window and was equipped with a bed, a table and a fan.  This really did give us an opportunity to see what it was like to live as the locals live.  It was okay for a couple of nights, but I wouldn’t have wanted to live here for a few months like the instructors do.

Entrance to our resort from the island.

Inside view of the resort looking towards the kitchen. 

Island living:  It was common to see young children, under five years of age,
butt naked, paddling around in little dugout canoes.  The sea was their playground.

At over $1,000 p/p per night, these luxury bungalows
on the water were way out of our league.
What a sharp contrast to how the locals live.

Beautiful sunsets were free for all to enjoy!

As we have discovered, it is often the people that make the experience and this place was no exception.  We met the dive instructors – Ann and Gary, a couple originally from the UK, and Matt who was from Slovenia.  All three had just arrived a few days earlier and were still getting oriented.  Mohammed was the resident dive master who knew the outlying waters like the back of his hand.  Alex was another instructor who was on his way out after doing a three month stint.  There was only one other guest, Jenny, an older Asian woman from Spain.  And of course, there was the staff who worked hard to keep the place spotlessly clean, and to prepare our meals and snacks.

Our dives were varied, but most were shallow, less than 20 metres.  I saw underwater wrecks for the first time as well as some man made reefs which are underwater structures that are made out of wood, rope, tires, and whatever else is available, and which over time become transformed into lovely reefs with lots of plants and fish.  Most of this diving was macro, where we saw smaller things.  Up until now, it was the big things that excited me, like sharks and turtles, but soon I was appreciating the smaller things too.  The visibility was quite poor most of the time, around 10 metres, which made some of the wreck diving downright eerie.

Each day it rained, often really hard, and usually when we were heading out for a dive which was rather miserable and not much fun at all.  But it never lasted very long and soon the seas would calm down and the sun would be shining again.  The rain cooled things off a bit which was quite welcome in the unbearable heat and humidity.  We practically lived in our swim suits so it didn’t really matter if we got wet from the rain.  I think the worst part of diving in the rainy season was the low visibility. Other than that, it was great.

Video:  Diving in Borneo

We ended our diving excursion back on land with a final night at the Sipadan Inn where Denise was staying as well.  Ann and Gary had a couple of days off, so they came back with us. As we were getting ourselves organized to go out for dinner in the hotel lobby, a man approached us to tell us about his menu that night.  His makeshift kitchen was set up in front of a bar a couple of doors down. We had already decided to eat Indian food, but this guy was pretty convincing, and it didn’t take more than a taste of his home fries, to capture my vote. Besides, the bar where we would eat his dinner served beer and the Indian restaurant didn’t, so it was seafood for us that night, and what a feast we had.  A couple of plates of complimentary sushi were served as starters, followed by a set menu that included the best grilled squid I have ever had, delectable scampi, and several fillets of fish, all nicely de-boned and grilled to perfection.  It was a fitting end to a fun diving excursion.

Before dinner, Denise (center) and Ann (right) were finishing up the final
review of material for the Advanced course that Denise
successfully completed while on Mabul Island.  Way to go Denise! 

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch the 7:30 am bus to Sandakan where a jungle adventure awaited us.

A new low in Israel

November 11, 2012 Israel Middle East

During our week in Jerusalem, we squeezed in a couple of day trips that we organized ourselves using public transportation which is very easy to use, affordable, reliable and comfortable.  We spent half a day exploring the ruins of Masada which is Israel’s most popular paid tourist attraction, we indulged in an afternoon floating 423 metres below sea level in the Dead Sea, and we ventured over  the border to Palestine to spend a few hours exploring Bethlehem.

Masada is an ancient fortification on top of  an isolated rock plateau on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea.  This is the place where 960 Jewish extremists known as the Sicarii committed mass suicide after being holed up here for months under seige by the troops of the Roman Empire.  This all happened shortly after the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE.

When we arrived at about 9:30 in the morning, it was already close to 40C making the decision to walk up the mountain or take the cable car an easy one to make. The air-conditioned cable car whisked us to the top in just five minutes giving us lots of time to explore this impressive archaeological site on the mountain top.  The audio guide that we purchased in addition to our entrance fee tickets was one of the best we have ever heard and well worth the extra cost.  As we walked through the ruins, the narrator explained what each area was, as well as provided a captivating history lesson.

Aside from the infamous seige and mass suicide, I knew very little about this site.  According to the 1st century Jewish Roman historian, Josephus Flavius, Masada was fortified by Herod the Great between 37 and 31 BCE as a refuge for himself in the event of a revolt.   We saw the remains of the two grand palaces at opposite ends of the hill top, Roman bath houses, the synogogue built by the rebels, the elaborate water system including huge cisterns, and many storerooms.  There was enough water and food stored on this hill top fortress to support an army for many months, even years.  So why did the Jews commit suicide?

In 72 CE, the Roman army established camps at the base of Masada (the remains of which are clearly visible to this day), laid siege to it and built a circumvallation wall. They then constructed a rampart of thousands of tons of stones and beaten earth against the western approaches of the fortress and, in the spring of the year 74 CE, moved a battering ram up the ramp and breached the wall of the fortress. On the eve of their capture after a 3 year siege, Josephus dramatically recounts the story told to him by two surviving women. The zealots – almost one thousand men, women and children – led by Eleazar ben Ya’ir, decided to burn the fortress and end their own lives, rather than be taken alive by the Romans.

View from the East side where the cliffs are 400 m high.

Dead Sea in the distance.

Massive store houses held years’ worth of provisions.

Ramp on the Western side built by the Romans.

Remains of one of the Roman camps where thousands of
soldiers lived while the city lay under siege. 

At the base of the mountain there is also a museum, admission to which is included with the audio guide. Although the museum is rather unique in that it provides a theatrical re-enactment of the siege of Masada along with a few artefacts, I didn’t find it offered much value.  If you’re short on time, it could easily be skipped.

View of cable car from the top.  We decided to walk down – a thirty minute
descent that wasn’t too hard but it was extremely hot. 

After a full morning at Masada, our next stop was the Dead Sea, earth’s lowest elevation on land, and thus our “new low” in Israel. People have been coming to the Dead Sea for millennia to avail themselves of the therapeutic effects of the water and air in this region.  There are many beautiful resorts all along the Dead Sea, but we decided to visit it on a budget and go to a public beach instead.  Besides, we thought we’d just have a quick dip to see what all the fuss was about, and then head back to Jerusalem.  Little did we know that we would float in the Sea for several hours, even luxuriating in a natural mud bath which left our skin feeling as soft as a baby (although rather stinky I might add), before returning to Jerusalem at sundown.

So, do you really float in the Dead Sea?  Yes, like a cork!  It felt like you had a life preserver on making it very difficult to swim properly.  The water is so salty (8.6 times saltier than the ocean) that you must use extreme caution not to get any water in your eyes.  After losing my balance, I splashed a mere drop or two of water into my eyes causing extreme pain, and forcing me to seek relief with a rinse of fresh water.  Floating around effortlessly in the calm water was so relaxing, we could have spent many more hours there.

Video:  Floating in the Dead Sea

Our final excursion was a visit to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.  In my fertile imagination, I had conjured up a place that looked like a country village with sandy streets where donkeys and oxen were still used for transport.  Instead, we were dropped off on a busy thoroughfare in the middle of this city with a population of about 25,000 people, of whom the majority are Muslim, but it also has one of the largest Palestinian Christian communities.  Located on the central West Bank, just south of Jerusalem, it has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority since 1995.

Bethlehem’s economy is tourist driven, and the main attraction that brings in throngs of tourists each year, peaking during the Christmas season, is of course the place where Jesus was born.  The Church of the Nativity stands in the center of the city — a part of the Manger Square — over a grotto or cave called the Holy Crypt, where Jesus supposedly was born.  We had been duly warned that there would be hordes of tourists and long lines to enter the Holy Crypt, and sure enough, the tour groups were out in full force.  Luckily, people who were not in  tours were allowed to avoid the long lines altogether and enter through the exit, two at a time.  We again saw people venerating this site by kneeling down and kissing the stone upon which the manger supposedly laid.

Manger Square

Around the corner from the church on a street of the same name, is the Milk Grotto where the Holy Family took refuge on their flight to Egypt.  Legend has it that Mary stopped to breastfeed Jesus here, and when she spilt some milk it turned the stone of this cave a “white stone” color.

We had our own little miracle on the road from Bethlehem when we stumbled upon a Starbucks. Our mouths salivated at the thought of a good cup of coffee, something we haven’t had for months, but our hopes were dashed when we realized the coffee shop we were staring at was called Stars and Bucks.  They still made a damn fine cup of coffee, quite possibly the best we’ve had in the Middle East, and a delicious milk shake concoction of ice cream, fresh fruit, nuts and dried fruits which we thoroughly enjoyed after our coffee.

While we were in Bethlehem, we walked to the wall that divides Israel and Palestine. At 8 metres in height, the concrete, graffiti painted wall is a formidable presence.

When returning by bus from Palestine to Jerusalem (Israel), we passed through one check point where our passports were examined carefully.  The Palestinian woman who sat beside me on the bus expressed clear disdain for the guards manning the checkpoint.  She told me in her limited English that I should tell all my friends at home what trouble the Israelis were causing the Palestinian people as exemplified by the border crossing we were passing through.

I must admit that I am quite ignorant about the complex political situation in this region and it is something I will research more fully as our short visit to Israel has certainly piqued my interest.  My one regret during our visit was that we did not take a guided tour that may have given us some insight into both the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives of the complex issues that impact their daily lives.

A visit to the Holy Land

November 6, 2012 Israel Middle East

Jerusalem is a holy city to three major religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and is one of the oldest cities in the world.   It is the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual center of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE, the third-holiest city in Islam (next to Mecca and Medina)  and it is also home to a number of significant and ancient Christian landmarks.  You don’t have to be religious to appreciate the intriguing history of this city.

We stayed at Abraham’s Hostel, one of the best hostels we have stayed in so far in our journey around the globe, even though we had to spend the week in a 4-bed dorm because it was booked solid.  This is also the largest hostel we have been in with close to 300 beds.  This place was designed with the international traveller in mind offering many on-site services like a functional, well equipped kitchen, self-service laundry machines, a bar complete with happy hour, separate tv room with large screen tv, a tour operator, not to mention the daily tours and events on offer.  The hostel attracts a diverse clientèle from young backpackers to small families to older folks like us.  There’s room for everyone in this clean, modern, purpose-built hostel.

Even though I am no longer religious, I do have a pretty good knowledge of the bible from my Jehovah’s Witness upbringing.  I must admit that when we arrived in Jerusalem, I was immediately filled with a sense of awe and wonder that I was actually in a place that held so much historical significance. Mind you, it does take some imagination to connect the stories in the bible with the modern day locations of where bible events were supposed to have taken place.   For instance, the bible says Jesus was killed on the Hill of Calvary and buried in a tomb close by. Well, today, you can visit Jesus’ supposed place of death and burial which is claimed to be inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, apparently the most holy Christian place on earth.

We spent the week visiting as many sites as we could both within the city and a few side-trips beyond.  Here’s some of the highlights of what we saw in Jerusalem this week.

Old City

Just 15 minutes walk from our hostel, we went to the Old City several times throughout the week.  On the first visit, we joined a walking tour which gave us a good overview of the four main quarters: Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian.  The Old City has a large local population of mixed religions in each quarter.  The winding streets and narrow alleyways are clogged with homes, shops, tourists and locals.

The Old City is home to several sites of significant religious importance: the Temple Mount and its Western Wall for Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims.

Both the Temple Mount and the Western Wall filled me with an overwhelming sense of awe because of all the history that has occurred on these sites.  The Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, was much smaller than I had imagined it to be.  Divided by gender, two thirds of the wall is reserved for men, and one third for women.  This is where people of all faiths come to pray, often quite passionately.  One morning, we spent about an hour, sitting on our respective sides, watching those around us.  I found it to be a very emotional, moving experience as I watched people pray so intensely and with such conviction, some even crying out their supplications to their God.  The rock wall was riddled with tiny pieces of paper with prayers, stuffed into every crack.

Today, the Dome of the Rock sits in the middle of the Temple Mount which is where Solomon’s Temple used to be, as well as the rebuilt Temple from Jesus’ day.  Tourists are permitted to go to the Temple Mount during limited hours, which means there is always a long line-up, usually over an hour long.  As much as we hate line-ups, I’m glad we didn’t miss this opportunity to visit the Temple Mount.  Non-Muslims are not permitted in the mosque, which is the third most holy mosque in the world for Muslims (behind Mecca and Medina) but it was still interesting to walk around the site, which was much larger that I expected.

The Church of the Holy Selpuchre is venerated as the site of the Hill of Calvary where Jesus was killed, and it is said to also contain the place where Jesus was buried (the Sepulchre).  Many pilgrims travel from afar to visit this important Christian site.  The church was incredibly crowded with long line ups to the most holy places within.

Between all these holy sites, there are alleyways and winding narrow streets that are full of shops selling everything imaginable, especially religious icons.  You can tell which quarter you are in by the merchandise in the shops.

Mount of Olives and Garden of Gesthemane

When I read that the olive trees in the Garden of Gesthemane are over 2,000 years old, I really wanted to visit this garden at the base of the Mount of Olives, to walk amongst the trees that would have supposedly witnessed the fervent prayers of Jesus and his disciples the night before his death.  Today you can walk around the perimeter of the garden, but not amongst the trees which are safely secured behind a fence.  Of course, not everybody agrees that this is the actual garden where Jesus  prayed before his death, nor do all experts agree that the trees are 2,000 years old.  Again, it takes some imagination, and I suppose some faith, to believe these locations match the bible stories.

View of the Old City from the Mount of Olives

The Yad Vashem (Holocaust) Museum 

We spent a full day at the Yad Vashem Museum which was profoundly moving as we walked through the history of the Jewish nation, from bible times to modern times, with an emphasis of course on the Holocaust.  Within this broader historical context, it was possible to understand how deeply rooted anti-Semitism has been over the centuries and it helped me to understand how such hatred as well as apathy played a role in causing humanity to fail to help the plight of the Jews during the Second World War.  The museum is housed in a beautiful building in a peaceful, garden like setting, offering a place for quiet reflection after visiting the museum.

Israel Museum

The Israel Museum is the largest in all of Israel and is home to the most extensive collection of biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world.  A uniquely designed monument called the Shrine of the Book, houses the Dead Sea Scrolls along with artefacts discovered at Masada.  Next to the Shrine is the Model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, before it was destroyed in 70 CE.  The scaled model was amazing, a large reconstruction of the topography and the architectural character of the city as it would have been during Jesus’ day.

Food, food, food

The Mahane Yehuda Market was just around the corner from our hostel, making it an easy stop on our way home after each day of sightseeing.  It was here we enjoyed delicious bagels, reminding us of those from the Bagel Shop in Ottawa, the best baklava we’ve ever had, as well as cheese, olives and fruits and vegetables.  We cooked our own food most nights and haven’t eaten so well in quite some time.

Each Friday evening at sunset, our hostel hosts the Shabbat meal where everyone pitches in to help with the preparation and clean up afterwards.  Before the meal, candles are lit and a blessing is recited over the wine.  There is another blessing recited over two loaves of challah (bread).  Then everyone digs in.  This was our first Shabbat experience, one that we enjoyed very much.

During our week, we made a couple of side trips venturing into the West Bank and Palestine using public transportation which I will tell you about in the next post. But first we must fly to our next destination – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  We’re leaving around 2:00 this afternoon and we’re expected to arrive tomorrow at 1:00 pm.  See you there!

A piece of paradise in Dahab, Egypt

October 23, 2012 Egypt Middle East

It was love at first sight.  The aquamarine waters, the gentle sea breeze, and the cloudless skies were the perfect setting for the cozy hotel we booked ourselves into at the last minute ten days ago.  We’d love to stay another month but it’s going into high season and everything is booked, not to mention the fact that we’re already well into the 15-day grace period permitted on our Tourist Visa.

Dahab is a small town located about 80 km northeast of Sharm el-Sheikh, which is a larger, popular resort city with a population of 35,000.  We flew into the airport outside of Sharm el-Sheikh from Cairo and didn’t so much as set foot there.  Instead, we loaded our gear into our pre-arranged taxi and headed straight for Dahab.  We weren’t interested in staying at one of the monolithic, all inclusive resorts that attract hordes of European and Russian tourists.

From what we had read, Dahab sounded more our style.  It used to be a Bedouin fishing village, but is now a tourist town, reportedly offering some of the best diving, snorkelling and windsurfing in the world.  The number of dive shops is staggering, with over 50 dive centres competing for your business.  There is plenty to do in this piece of paradise, or you can easily do nothing at all, whatever suits your fancy.

There is a paved boardwalk that extends over three kilometres connecting the three main areas around Dahab:  Masbat, which includes the bedouin village Asalah, in the north where we are staying; Mashraba, south of Masbat which is more touristy with lots of hotels, restaurants and shops; and Medina  in the southwest where there are a few large chain hotels near the Laguna area, famous for its excellent shallow-water windsurfing.  The boardwalk has offered us a perfect running route early in the morning before the heat sets in.  At night, it is aglow from the exotic looking lanterns and tiny christmas lights shining from all the restaurants lining the pathway.

We’ve been staying at the El Primo Hotel, a small nine room establishment overlooking the sea in the popular area called Eel Garden, about a ten minute walk from the centre of town.  Emily, the young German owner, exudes warmth and hospitality making her guests feel comfortable and at home from the moment we arrived.  Our room is bright, colourful and cheerful, a nice change from the bleak, grim places we’ve been in lately.     Each room is air conditioned, with private ensuite  and a balcony overlooking the sea, with the faint outline of the hills of Saudi Arabia in the distance.  A hearty breakfast is included too.  The price is a little steep compared to what we have been paying in Egypt, 300 EGP per night (about $50 CAD).  Even though we’re paying more than we usually do, we think we’re getting good value for our money.  This place is spotless, comfortable, the perfect place to chill by the sea.

View from our balcony.  

The days have blended into each other in a blur of restful bliss.  We haven’t really done too much of anything to be honest.  Sure, we snorkel almost every day, sometimes for hours at a time as the entire coastline is one amazing coral reef, teaming with a variety of colourful fish and gorgeous coral.  By mid afternoon, the sea is as flat as a pancake making it the perfect time to head into the refreshing waters.  In the heat of the day, it is best to retire to our air conditioned room for a siesta, or relax in the bedouin style area by the edge of the water, letting the gentle sea breeze cool us off.  This place has inspired me to start writing a book and that has kept me busy each day as I can barely keep up with the words that are just spilling out of me.  Who knows if anything will come of this project, but since I have always wanted to write a book, it feels good to be fulfilling this lifelong dream for once and for all.

It hasn’t been completely perfect as both Chris and I have each had a bout of stomach upset, the most severe we’ve experienced since beginning our travels.  It is difficult to pinpoint just exactly what has made us sick as we are eating in the same restaurants, usually the same food, and we got sick on different days.  Just as well, so we could take care of each other as it really knocked us off our feet for a couple of days each.  Now that we’re feeling better, we’ll eat at the restaurant at our hotel which dishes up lovely, Egyptian cuisine that we know we can trust.

When you’re staying in one place for a while, you start to notice things that you might otherwise overlook.  For instance, we’ve noticed a lot of Russian women here, with young blond children and babies, but very few men.  Apparently, there has been something of a Russian invasion in recent years, with Russians buying up much of the prime real estate around town.  The women are deposited here with their children, for what purpose one can only surmise or speculate, and the men are back home somewhere in Russia.  Sadly, these local Russians have made something of a reputation for themselves with their scantily dressed women, and naked babies that defecate wherever they wish, making them unwelcome in most establishments, including our own hotel.   The other thing that is noticeable is that there are very few local Egyptian women around.  Either they are all at home out of tourists’ sight, or they are somewhere else.  I have no idea.

We’re feeling better now, and getting ready to move on in a couple of days.  We’ll be travelling to Petra, Jordan via bus and ferry on Thursday. 

In spite of the sign we saw camels and horses
walking along the boardwalk everyday. 

An incident at the Giza pyramids

October 16, 2012 Egypt Middle East

As tensions flared, erupting into riots and demonstrations in Tehrir Square on Friday afternoon, we witnessed an incident at the pyramids in Giza that caught us off guard and made us realize how quickly situations can escalate and how important it is to stay alert to your surroundings and to avoid large gatherings of any kind.  I’ll tell you more about what happened later, but first let me share with you how we managed to have the most amazing experience at the most touristy attraction in Egypt.

There are 93 pyramids in Egypt, the three most famous being those in Giza, which is now a suburb of Cairo.  I had read about how there are condos and fast food restaurants right next to the pyramids so I guess I was expecting the worse.  It really isn’t as bad as that sounds as there is still a good buffer of desert around the site.

These are probably the most visited pyramids, maybe even the most visited tourist site in all of Egypt.  It is also a magnet for pushy Egyptians looking to make a buck off or rip off (depending on your perspective) tourists by hawking their cheap souvenirs, camel rides, horseback rides, as well as guide services.  When people talk about going to Giza, they often talk about their negative experience getting hassled and hustled which seems to overshadow the visit to the pyramids themselves. For this reason, many guide books recommend taking an organized tour so that you are somewhat buffered by these tenacious hawkers.

But we hate going in large tour groups and so did our new friend Felippe, a fellow long term traveller from Chile who we met at our hostel.  One evening, we talked about our respective plans to do the pyramids independently.  Felippe went the day before us and when we saw him that night, he looked exhausted and disappointed with what had transpired earlier.  “I am Chilean”, he said, “I should be able to deal with these hustlers, because Chile is full of them! But they got me, they got me good!”  He then shared his story with us.

He took the metro to the Giza station and then grabbed a taxi for the short ride to the Pyramids.  With plans to visit two other pyramid sites that day, he arranged for the taxi to wait for him. Instead of going to the entrance where you purchase your entry ticket, he was deposited on a side street where he was quickly accosted by tour operators and guides.  They told him all kinds of lies like you can’t visit the pyramids alone, it’s too far to walk so you need to hire a camel or horse, you need a guide, etc. etc.  He was duped into buying a “package” that included his entrance fee, a camel ride and a guide.  At 80 Euros, but he knew it was too much, but he felt trapped.  The whole experience left a bad taste in his mouth, although he was really happy to get his photo on a camel with the pyramids in the background – we all joked that it was one expensive photo.  He subsequently had some problems with his taxi driver who wanted to charge him more than the agreed price.  He ended up going to just one other site before calling it a day, completely exhausted and fed up with the whole hassle of it all.  It just wasn’t worth it.

So what were we going to do?  After much debate, we decided we would try it on our own as well, feeling a little bit more prepared with the knowledge of what happened to Felippe.  We figured we have been dealing with these hawkers for three weeks now, surely we could handle this.  Felippe had misgivings and gravely wished us the best of luck.  I promised him I would write our tale in the blog so he would know how it turned out – good or bad.  Here is our story.

Before I continue, I should warn you that you’ll need some time to read this tale as I do go on a bit.  I hope you don’t mind.  Maybe go and get a cup of coffee or tea, or go to the bathroom now, because this is probably one of my longest written posts to date.  Or you can just skip to the bottom to see the photos.  But I do hope you take the time to read our story as it was quite an experience to go through and maybe we can help others who, like us, want to see the pyramids on their own terms and not be held hostage by an organized tour, or worse, by the army of hawkers that have taken over the site.

As I mentioned in the last post, we unexpectedly had to leave our hostel on Friday morning, the morning we were planning to visit the pyramids.  We had already booked our flight to Dahab for Saturday morning, so we had to go to the pyramids that day, no matter what.  Our original plan was to take the metro and bus avoiding any taxi hassle. We did some research so we knew what bus number we needed.  I suspected the bus numbers might only be in Arabic, so I carefully wrote down the Arabic numbers (0-9) in my note book as reference.  The only thing I wasn’t sure about was if the numbers were to be read left to right or right to left.  We’d have to figure that out on the fly.

But all that changed when we switched hotels that morning. We flagged down a taxi in front of our hostel, and amazingly our taxi driver took us to our new hotel using the meter, directly and quickly.  Wow, a taxi driver you can trust.  Imagine that!  He didn’t speak a word of English so at the hotel, we had the desk clerk tell him to take us to the Giza Pyramids by meter.  He agreed so off we went.  We felt relaxed, confident that we had found perhaps the only honest taxi driver in Cairo.  What a nice feeling to be able to sit back and let our guard down because we didn’t have to worry about being scammed by our taxi driver. Then I noticed he passed the bridge that had a sign to the Giza pyramids.  Hmmmm…..that was weird.  Well, maybe there was more than one way to get there.  But as we were heading straight back downtown from where we had originally come, I started to get suspicious.  Remember our driver speaks no English, so it’s not like we could ask him where the hell he was going.  Finally, he pulls up to the “Pyramisio Hotel” which is nowhere close to the pyramids and points to it as if this is where we had asked to go.  Bullshit.  He knew we wanted to go to the pyramids.  This is such a classic taxi scam – taking you to the wrong address – I couldn’t believe this guy did this.  Well, there goes his tip!  Chris used his mad, firm voice and motioned with his hands that we want to go to the pyramids in Giza not this damn hotel.  Ohhh, he looked all surprised, as if to say, you mean THE pyramids.  So now our guard was back up and we were mad which actually served us well for what came next.

Our taxi was immediately accosted as we entered the road that lead to the entrance gate.  It is not uncommon for these unscrupulous characters to jump right into your cab, or block your passageway.  At the first onslaught, we locked our car doors, rolled up our windows, and yelled out of the front windows “La, la, la” (no, no, no) in really angry voices, and we motioned to our taxi driver not to stop, to keep going straight ahead.  I think we scared the shit out of him.  Then the next wave came up to us, and a guy with a bunch of horses tried to block our way, well we yelled even louder to everybody to get out of our way, and for our taxi driver to keep driving.  Amazingly, they cleared out and we proceeded to the gate.  We congratulated ourselves for getting to the ticket entrance relatively unscathed.  Our fare cost us 70 EGP (about $12 CAD) which included the ride to the hotel in the suburbs and the unnecessary detour to the Pyramisio Hotel which we figured cost us an extra 20 pounds.  Still, not too bad when you consider our hostel offered to arrange a car and driver to take us there and back for five times that amount (350 EGP).

Now that we had our tickets (60 EGP site entrance and 30 EGP tomb entrance each), we knew we would have to deal with another onslaught as soon as we passed through the entrance gate.  We had a simple strategy.  Ignore them.  Speak not a single word to them.  No smiles, no eye contact, act as if they did not exist.  This might seem extreme and pretty rude and really it is under normal circumstances.  But these were not normal circumstances.  You have to understand that these people will harass you for an hour if you let them, they just won’t leave you alone until they have worn you down so badly that you give in and buy something just to get rid of them.

Amazingly, our strategy worked.  I’m telling you, this was not for the faint of heart.  You had to be as ruthless as they were.  But after a couple of minutes trying to engage us, and being met with a wall of silence and a glazed over look that did not even acknowledge their presence, they quickly gave up and moved on to easier prey.

Now we could focus on the reason for being here.  The pyramids.  The first thing I noticed was how massive they were.  Up close, you can see how the stones were laid in perfect alignment and it boggles the mind as to how this was accomplished over 5,000 years ago.  There are three main pyramids and three smaller ones.

  • The most famous Pyramid in Egypt is the Great Pyramid of Khufu.  It is the biggest, tallest and most intact, and the only remaining one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  Until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, this Pyramid was the tallest building on earth, originally measuring 146.5 m high. Today it measures 137 m in height, the missing 9m were stolen by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century to build houses and mosques in Cairo.  The four sides face the four cardinal points precisely angled at 52 degrees. It contains around 1,300,000 blocks ranging in weight from 2.5 to 15 tons each.  It’s square base has sides measuring 230 m and covers 13 acres!  Like I said, it is huge.
  • Khafre’s Pyramid (the middle one) appears larger than the Great Pyramid but is is merely an illusion because it stands on a higher part of the plateau.  Today it is 134.5m tall (originally 136m) with sides equalling 214.5m, a surface area of 11 acres and an angle of 53 degrees.
  • The smallest of the three main pyramids was built by Khafre’s son, Menkaure.  It is relatively tiny, just 65.5m tall (today 62m), with sides equalling 105m angled at 51.3 degrees.  Unlike the other two pyramids which were constructed entirely of limestone, the first 15m of this one was built from pink granite which came all the way from Aswan.
  • The three small pyramids next to the Menkaure Pyramid are believed to have been built for Menkaure’s wife and children.
  • The Great Sphinx is probably one of the most recognizable constructions in history.  It was sculpted from soft sandstone and would probably have disappeared long ago if it hadn’t been buried in sand for so many long periods in its history.  The body is 60m long and 20m tall. It faces the rising sun and was so revered that a temple was built in front of it.

We walked around each of the pyramids getting a good, close view of each side.  Then we headed out into the desert where the tour buses were taking the tourists to see the pyramids from afar.  We continued to walk further into the desert, maybe half a kilometre from the pyramids, stopping on a hilltop that offered a magnificent view. Here I sat for over an hour marvelling at the panorama of these magnificent, iconic structures. I was completely alone (Chris was off taking photos). It was so peaceful far away from the crowds – no vendors, no tourists, just me and the pyramids.  The hot sun seared my back, but I felt cool and comfortable on the breezy hilltop.

At 11:30, the city of Cairo erupted into a symphony of prayer; it was time for the noon prayers which are broadcast over loud speakers from every mosque in the city.  I was surprised I could hear it in the distance.  It was as if the city was singing.  Here I was in one of the most touristic sites in Egypt enjoying complete solitude as I soaked in the magnificent view and atmosphere.  Nothing short of magical.  (Sorry Felippe, I’m sure you didn’t want to hear this!)

As we made our way towards the exit where we would see the infamous Sphinx, we became aware of a sudden change in our surroundings.  People were talking loudly in excited voices and there was tension in the air.  We looked around to see what could be the reason when a truck came barrelling towards us, the driver and passengers screaming at the top of their lungs.  As it passed, I turned to see a man lying on the back of the truck, his chest bloody red.  What the hell was that all about, we wondered.  Maybe someone fell off a camel or horse, I speculated.  But then, cars and horses with their carriages all started to turn around and come back up the hill.  We stopped in our tracks about half way down the hill, realizing something was terribly wrong at the bottom, about a couple of hundred feet ahead of us.  A police truck was lying overturned on its side, and a small car sat in ruins next to it.  What happened?  Was it a bomb? An accident? A terrorist attack? Another truck came screaming by, this one with two bodies on the back.  Were they injured or dead?  Without understanding the language, we had no idea what was going on.  Locals were running down the hill, some in tears, a large crowd gathering near the overturned vehicles.  There was screaming and yelling and as the crowd swelled, the noise escalated.  This was no place for us, so we quickly turned around and headed to safer ground where we could exit through the entrance.

As we left the area, we saw two police trucks arrive, full of police men.  Further on, we saw some police men getting kitted up in riot gear.  We still don’t know what happened as there was nothing reported on the news.  I must admit it shook me up a little.  This incident occurred suddenly and it was easy to see how one could find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It was a good reminder to be cautious and aware of one’s surroundings at all times.

We made our way back to our hotel via mini bus which we flagged down on the main road and metro for a total cost of 4 EGP, about 60 cents CAD.  Total cost for the day:  254 EGP or about $42 CAD.  What a great day visiting one of the greatest sites in the world!

Are you curious about how we are doing after one year of travel? I’ve written all about it – how we’re getting along, how we’re managing our money, what our plans are for the future and what are some of the biggest challenges facing us right now.  Read “Checking in at 12 months” located in the Travel Diary widget on the column to the left.  

 

Exploring Cairo, old and new

October 14, 2012 Egypt Middle East

With only three days at our disposal, we limited our explorations to the downtown core of Cairo and focused on a few of the most interesting and important sites.  We used the metro system when we ventured a little further afar and found it to be a reliable, safe, cheap and fast way to get around. One metro trip costs 1 EGP, or about 15 cents CAD.  The underground system is comparable to any similar system we have used in other cities with one very noticeable difference.  Each station has signs along the platform that say “Women Only”.   We puzzled over these signs and quickly learned what they meant when we entered a car full of women who cried out in unison – women, women.  Clearly, no men were allowed on the cars that stopped between the “Women Only” signs.  Ahhh, mystery solved!

During the day, the down town core is dirty, chaotic, and noisy with people busily going about their affairs.  But every night, the area is transformed into a festive, fun, almost carnival like atmosphere. At sunset, vendors start setting up stalls in the already crowded streets, selling everything imaginable.  The shops are illuminated like bright Christmas trees.  There are balloon vendors, and popcorn carts just like a country fair in Canada.  The people fill up the sidewalks, walking slowly from window display to window display, pausing to admire the goods.  The restaurants are abuzz with customers.  I loved walking around at night watching all the families going about their business.  We were never bothered or felt ill at ease.  People were friendly towards us, often saying “Welcome to Egypt” as we passed by. One night, we were approached by a young woman, a university student who was interviewing tourists to find out their experience in the down town area.  She wanted to know if we felt safe, if we were being harassed, etc.  We gladly answered her questions and she was so appreciative.  It did raise an interesting question though: where are all the tourists?  They are noticeably absent, yet we knew there are tourists around as we see busloads of them when we visit the tourist sites. I surmise they are probably cloistered away in their Western style hotels far away from the real Egyptian life. They are missing out on so much, in my opinion.

A papyrus paper making demonstration.

The Egyptian Museum

 The Egyptian Museum in down town Cairo is reputed to be have one of the best repositories of Egyptian antiquities in the world.  Now that we had visited the temples and tombs in Upper Egypt, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to view some of the treasures from that region, especially the infamous gold treasures from King Tut’s tomb.  They strictly enforced the “no camera” rule, so we have no photos to share.  But there are plenty on line if you are interested.

The museum is a relic in its own right, dating back to 1902.  The architecture is beautiful, with high ceilings and lofty spaces designed to showcase a plethora of antiquities.

The museum is filled to the rafters, yet apparently only a fraction of the 120,000 piece collection is on display.  Each item has been catalogued, yet most exhibits are not labelled which was frustrating at times. The labels that do exist, seemingly with no rhyme or reason, were small type-written notes on faded paper looking as old as the museum itself. All the display cases are the old-fashioned kind, the ones made of heavy wood with dusty glass shelves, relics of a bygone area.  Each cabinet is secured with a flimsy, rusted out lock. Many cabinets were simply secured with thin piece of twisted wire.  At least the treasures, including the stunning 11 kg solid gold death mask and the two innermost golden anthropoid coffins from King Tut’s tomb were segregated in a separate, highly secure room.  I found it quite incredible that the security was so minimal in a museum that housed such a vast collection of invaluable ancient artefacts.

The museum sure could use a good cleaning as most exhibits are buried under a thick layer of dust. Yet in spite of its tired, faded, old fashioned appearance, there was a charm to this unpretentious museum that made it a pleasure to explore.

The museum is vast; you could easily spend a day here if you had the stamina for it.  I personally get overloaded after about 3 hours in a museum.  After a couple of hours, we took a lunch break and then returned later in the afternoon for a couple more hours.  It was good to break it up this way and we had no problem re-entering the museum with our ticket.  We opted not to pay the extra 100 EGP per person to visit the Royal Mummies display.  They had plenty of other mummies on exhibit so I didn’t feel the need to see more.  Again, a quick google search will yield many photos of these mummies if you’re interested.

Old Cairo and the Coptic Museum

Old Cairo was known to the Greeks, Romans and early day Christians as Babylon, but this should not be confused with the Mesopotamian city of the same name.  This was the original fortified town around which the rest of the city grew.  It is now home to the Coptic community who form about 15 percent of Cairo’s population.  The “Copts” were one of the earliest peoples to adopt Christianity.

We found our way to this area by metro, our first venture using the underground system. Egyptians are very similar to South Americans in that they will give you directions even if they don’t have a clue where you are going.  They just want to be helpful. So it shouldn’t have surprised us when we were given wrong information, from the Information Desk no less.  After two wrong stops, we were finally directed to the correct station (Mari Girgiss in case you happen to be there) by a kind gentleman who took the initiative to help us out as we were puzzling over our map.  We knew we were in the right place by the groups of tourists milling about the streets.

To be honest, we had no intention of going to the Coptic Museum, but we were both desperate to use the bathroom and we knew the museum would have decent toilet facilities. Of course, after buying the admission ticket, we felt compelled to at least do a quick spin through.  Again, no cameras were allowed, so we have no photos to share.  This museum gives you an excellent idea as to what the interior of a 5th, 6th or 7th century church would have looked like.  The most prized collection is the “Nag Hammadi Codices”: 1,200 papyrus pages bound together as books – the earliest books with leather covers found to date.  These Coptic writings date to the 4th century and offer a rare insight to early Christianity.  We learned a lot about the early Coptic Christians and I was particularly interested to see how many of the practices and symbols from Egyptian mythology was adopted by those early day Christians, most notably the symbol that represented life to the Egyptians was transformed into a Coptic cross.

There are many churches, mosques and a synagogue clustered within the ancient walls of Old Cairo.  We followed alleyways (and the tour groups) to find our way around and explore these diverse religious centres. The whole area is steeped in history.  For example, the spring next to the Ben ‘Ezra Synagogue is supposedly where Mary stopped to wash Jesus, and where Pharoah’s daughter found baby Moses in the bullrushes.

The Citadel

On a hill overlooking Cairo sits the Saladin Citadel, a medieval Islamic fortification that has been well preserved to this day.  This complex houses the Mosque of Mohamed Ali, the Mosque of El-Nasser Mohamed, the Military Museum and the El-Gouhara Palace.

The location offered a fantastic view of Cairo which extended as far as they eye could see.  We could even see the Giza Pyramids in the far distance.

Many students of various ages were touring this site on the afternoon of our visit.  We were approached by a few groups who wanted to have their picture taken with us.  One group of female university students approached me while I was sitting on the Mosque floor just taking in the atmosphere.  One girl in particular spoke English quite fluently.  She approached me rather shyly and said hello.  She was very interested in where I came from and where I had been in Egypt and what I thought of her country.  There was no ulterior motive, she was genuinely interested in learning about me.  We have been engaged several times like this, usually by young people and it always leaves me with such a warm feeling.  These interchanges make me feel very welcome in this country.

Footnote:  A map on the wall of the Egyptian Museum indicated a room that contained the famous Rosetta Stone.  This unique ancient artefact provides the key to our modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs because the stone contains inscriptions of the same text in three different scripts: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Ancient Greek.

We weren’t exactly sure what we were looking for, in terms of size or shape but surely something of such historical importance would be prominently displayed and well labelled.  We scoured the room and verified the map twice. There was nothing to indicate which stone was the Rosetta Stone if it was there at all.  One stone, tucked away in the far corner of the room, had three distinct scripts inscribed on it.  This stone was displayed in a an upright position, in a very shabby wood case that resembled the photo below.  Did we find the Rosetta Stone or was it just a replica?

File:Rosetta Stone.JPG

Photo of the Rosetta Stone courtesy of Wikipedia.

A subsequent internet search indicates the Rosetta Stone has been a prized possession of the British Museum since 1802.  Yet some on-line descriptions of the Egyptian Museum state the Rosetta Stone resides there.  The official site for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo says nothing about the Rosetta Stone, so my money is on the British Museum, but that doesn’t explain the stone we did see. That remains a mystery!

Bed bugs – a blessing in Cairo

October 13, 2012 Egypt Middle East

My stomach tightened into a knot as we entered into the train station at 4:30 on Monday morning and  I saw the train that would take us to Cairo.  It was old, dirty, and marred with  cracked and broken windows.  The first class coach was marginally better, at least it had air conditioning and large, reclining seats, although it was still pretty grimy and grungy.  But when compared to the second class coach, I’m glad we splurged and paid the extra $10 CAD (total price per ticket: $21 CAD) for first class.  Most tourists travel this route at night on the sleeper train which costs more ($60 CAD + depending on what type of seat you purchase) and I was beginning to see why.  In fact, the day train has only recently become available to tourists.  In the past, it was limited to Egyptians only.

We weren’t alone for long…it filled up
pretty quickly as we stopped in every village along the way. 

The train left on time and 14 hours later we arrived on schedule in Cairo.  Those fourteen hours were spent bumping and swaying slowly along a rickety old track that snaked through the Nile Valley, stopping in every town along the way.  So much for being on the express route! The scenery was consistent and quite beautiful – men and women along with the odd donkey or two, manually labouring in their lush fields of corn, sugar cane, and cabbage.  There are two growing seasons for all crops in the Nile Valley, except sugar cane which takes a year to grow.  It looked like it was harvest and planting time.  The rural landscape was interrupted now and then by small villages, larger towns and a few cities which all looked very much the same as the towns we have already visited.  Surprisingly, we travelled in relative comfort – we even had food and beverage service of which we availed ourselves, at least for drinks.  We declined on the food as the canteen area looked pretty sketchy. There were a few precarious moments, though, when the train and the tracks did not seem to align and I was certain we were goners.  But, we got there in one piece, which is all that really matters at the end of the day.

Sadly, garbage is everywhere.

Before I tell you about Cairo, just a word or two about our weekend in Aswan.  We stayed at the Keylany Hostel which had very good Trip Advisor reviews.  I don’t know if it was because we had been spoiled on the luxury boat for five days, but we found this hostel to be quite grungy even though our room was adequate with comfortable and clean beds, and a usable bathroom.  It had an archaic air conditioner that was noisy as hell but it worked reliably.  We spent three nights here in spite of the grim surroundings.  The town of Aswan came alive at night in the bazaar which was just around the corner from our hostel.  But walking through the market was an exercise of determination to avoid all the shopkeepers who were very obnoxious and persistent, often blocking our way to try to force us into their shop.  We’re getting really good at ignoring these pesky irritants.

View from the front door of our hostel one morning.

A feast for under $10.

Food was a challenge in Aswan.  Our breakfast at the hostel was better than we expected – real filtered coffee, fresh fruit juice, fruit salad, Egyptian pancakes with jam, and toast.  Finding food for the rest of the day was difficult.  On Friday, their holy day, everything was closed and we resigned ourselves to lunch at KFC – yes, they have KFC in Aswan.  With a recommendation from our hostel, we reluctantly ate dinner at a rather grimy looking local restaurant in the market.  The food turned out to be plentiful and tasty and very cheap (about $6 CAD) and most importantly, we didn’t get sick afterwards.  The next day we ate at another restaurant that apparently is a historic icon in Aswan (why our hostel didn’t recommend it in the first place is beyond me) and it was much better in every respect albeit more expensive by Egyptian standards (a mere $10 CAD for the entire meal).

Although we had had our fill of temples this past week, we had already arranged a visit to Abu Simbel through the tour agency in Luxor.  This meant a ridiculously early morning start on Sunday, getting picked up at 3:15 am, spending the next hour picking up other people from different hotels, and then travelling in a very cramped, uncomfortable mini bus for 3 hours in order to get to the site by about 7:15 am.  The site was incredibly impressive, and certainly worth the visit.  The fact that this site had been completely relocated to higher ground in the 60’s when the High Dam was built made it all the more extraordinary.  They literally moved a mountain.

It took a couple of days to get our bearings in Cairo, it is such a huge, chaotic city.  As the capital of Egypt, it is the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and its metropolitan area is ranked 11th in the world with a population of 17.5 million spread over 453 square kilometers.  This is the largest city we have visited so far.

We stayed in the Milano Hostel located right in the down town core.   We were a little intimidated at first as we ventured out to explore our neighbourhood.  Everywhere you looked, the streets were clogged with cars and people, day and night.  In every direction, there was a constant gridlock, often bringing traffic to a standstill.  I don’t know how anybody gets anywhere in a car.  It takes nerves of steel to cross a street, when the traffic is moving that is – you must boldly walk into traffic and trust they will yield to you.  But if you dare hesitate, they don’t give you a second chance and you’re left stranded in the middle of the street as they go around you.  For a while, I waited for a local to step foot into the oncoming traffic and then trailed closely behind.  But we quickly got the hang of it and soon we were walking into 5 lanes of oncoming traffic without breaking a sweat.

There were no signs of protests or unrest while we were in Cairo until Friday (more about that later).  Our hostel was a 15 minute walk from Tehrir Square where all the recent demonstrations have taken place, including the one on Friday.  We feel very safe and comfortable walking around this area day and night.  The shopkeepers don’t even hassle us as they seem more interested in serving their local clientèle than bothering with us tourists. I even went shopping and bought myself a dress without any problems whatsoever.

It’s been a bit of a rigmarole with our hostel.  In spite of their best intentions to make us feel welcome and comfortable, we had problems with this hostel right from the start.  First, nobody met us at the train station as promised.  They did, however, pay for our taxi from the train station to the hostel.  When we finally arrived late on Monday night, we were given a room facing a busy street which was extremely noisy.  Add to this, the ensuite bathroom was ridiculously small, so small in fact that the shower hung over the sink and toilet.  We weren’t quite sure where you were supposed to stand to take the shower.  You could literally sit on the toilet, brush your teeth into the sink and have a shower all at the same time.  Seeing as we were planning to stay in Cairo for a week, we complained, something we rarely do.  We insisted on a better room or we would be going elsewhere.  The next day we were given a new room that was still quite noisy but it had a half decent bathroom, and they offered us a better breakfast after Chris complained about that too.  I have to give them credit for trying to make us feel comfortable and for addressing our concerns.  On our third day, they offered us an even better room which we gladly accepted only to find it infested with bed bugs – something we discovered after we had moved all our stuff over and spent the afternoon napping.  We quickly moved back to our old room which was bug-free as far as we could see.  In spite of these issues, there were positive things about this hostel that made it worth staying – the beds were very comfortable, we had modern, quiet air conditioning, and it was clean.  And it goes without saying that the location was excellent – walking distance to the Egyptian Museum and metro, plenty of restaurants around, and lots of shopping.

Imagine, with all the places we have stayed, this is the first encounter with bed bugs and luckily we saw them before they saw us, or so we thought.

I thought this was the end of the story, but there is more.  When I woke up on Friday morning I was covered in bites, that’s right, bed bugs! That was the last straw.  We packed up our bags and we were out of there first thing in the morning.  We took a taxi to a southern suburb (Maadi), where we found a room at the Hotel Pearl, thanks to a recommendation by Steve, the manager at Roots Camp where we were diving a few weeks ago.

Ironically, this was the day riots and demonstrations broke out down town, apparently right near  our hostel.  If we had still been staying there, we would have walked right into all the commotion later that afternoon when we returned from our trip to the Giza Pyramids.  We avoided the entire down town situation thanks to a bad case of bed bugs, but we did have our own excitement at the pyramids in Giza that day which I’ll tell you about later.