The Lovely People

On this trip, I have experienced so much generosity and kindness of the local people. I had the honor to interact with some of them or just observe them from afar. In both Egypt and Jordan, I appreciated the constant greetings from locals, the never ending inquiry of where I was from and the outburst of joy if the guess was right, the funny sales pitch in the bazaar, the "marriage proposals" in the offer of an entire jewelry shop or a herd of camels, and everyone eager to help me find my way should I display the least amount of "lost" expression during my wandering. I most admired how people would always smile or laugh out loud although they seemed to have so little worldly possessions.

Here are some of the people that crossed my path:

Hoda - our guide in Cairo and Giza. She is studying Chinese and wants to be more competitive in the job market since there are lots of Chinese tourists in Egypt nowadays. She's going to Beijing to study Chinese for a few months this year and is hoping to find a job for the 2008 summer Olympics. In the photo, she's pinning up my headdress before we go into the Al Alzar mosque, Islamic Cairo.
In front of a cotton shop in Islamic Cairo - The contrast of the huge pack of cotton and the old man got my attention.
The boy on the Aswan ferry to the Elephantine Island. His mother cooked us the delicious Nubian lunch.

The boy that sells the ayish in the Khan al Khalili bazaar. I was initially just taking a photo of the ayish since I don't usually see bread sold this way. He came up and asked me to take a picture of him.

Our fearless leader Daniel and our Nubian guide JJ's two nieces in front of JJ's house in the Nubian village, Aswan. Daniel's Muslim name is Mustafa. The two girls were so excited to see him. They yelled out "Mustafa! Mustafa" and jumped into his arms as soon as they spotted him. It was adorable to see them play.

On the felucca sail from Aswan to Luxor, this is Mohamed, our felucca captain who took care of Julee during her accident. He did not talk much but he did so much to help us. When we climbed the country roads up hill in order to get from the Nile to the Nubian village hospital, I was not tall enough to hold Julee's arm upward since Daniel was carrying her. Mohamed took over and did not leave Julee for a second until we boarded the taxi to Luxor.

Luxor, in front of the Colossi of Memnon. I asked Alex to take a picture of me. This old man walked by and said "Can I take the picture with you?" He's looking straight at me in this photo. :)
Luxor, before the donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings. Here are the grandpa and granddaughter who led our donkey ride up the mountain. After the ride, I gave all my Starburst candies in my day pack to this little girl.
Luxor in the papyrus factory, the owner was explaining and demonstrating how papyrus paper was made from scratch.
The little girl from the papyrus factory. Mount Sinai at the last 750 step tea house. I think this is the owner of the cat that followed us all the way to the summit.
Our guide of the Mount Sinai "mountaineering" event. This is the man that's climbed Mount Sinai 3 times a week for twenty years. He's such a mountain cat himself! - And that's my favorite cat in Egypt in his arm.

These are the daredevils in Petra who came rushing down the slope where Julee and I were sitting to take a break. We dragged ourselves up and hurried out of their way. The first donkey almost slipped and fell. They disappeared in no time, leaving only dust behind from the donkey kicks. We were lucky we did not get run over! The singing girl in Petra on the way to the Monastery. (You can't really see her in this picture. She is at the end of the wavy road on the donkey.) As we climbed the rocky steps towards the highest point in Petra, we heard this beautiful song coming from above. Then at the corner of the road, the girl appeared. She was sitting on a donkey with both her hands holding a big red rock. She continued to sing even though she saw us. The mountain echoed and made her voice linger. As she passed me, she paused and gave me this shy smile. I smiled back at her. She came so fast and disappeared even faster. I was almost in a daze. I really regret not telling her she has a wonderful voice.
The beautiful little girl selling handmade jewelry with her mom on the mountain trail to the Monastery, Petra. She has such long dark eye lashes. We all believe that she will break so many hearts when she grows up.
The Bedouins setting up our tents and making us tea when we first arrived at the Wadi Rum camp. They are such courteous people. They prepared everything for dinner and set up the table full of food. They waited till all of us had taken our full plate and almost devoured everything before they went to serve themselves. At bed time, they came into the sleeping tent, asked each of us if we had enough blanket and made sure all our needs were met.

The two men from Philae Temple who offered me to take a snapshot of them.

The hat maker in the Citadel, Cairo.

The wedding at Aswan Coptic church. We were lucky to see the newly weds step out of the church. We were even luckier as another couple come in for the ceremony ten minutes later. Two weddings in the same night! When we walked back to the hotel, we noticed that the first couple we saw were celebrating their marriage right in the middle of the street. The groomsmen were dancing around them as they joined hands. There was a huge crowd of spectators. When people saw that I was trying to take pictures of the bride and groom, they made room for me and motioned for me to move into the circle. They then took a look from my camera and showed their approval for the photos.
South Theatre, in the Roman ruins at Jerash, Jordan. The three person band played for quite a while and the music was great! Sitting at the top of the theatre, built by the Romans 2000 years ago to seat over 3000 people, made it even better.

The camel ride to St. Simone Monastery, Aswan. I don't have a picture of the boy that made my camel go faster so I could feel the thrill. He also told me my camel's name, gave me his stick and asked me to raise it high while he took three pictures.
The guard in front of the Treasury, Petra. He's wearing traditional red and white Bedouin headdress and quite a few daggers are hanging from his uniform. He was fully aware that I was taking photos of him from afar but he tolerated me. I couldn't resist. It was too beautiful a moment to miss with him casting a tiny shadow in the massive pink rock of Petra.

Our guide Ahmed in Karnak Temple, Luxor. He's telling the story of Queen Hatshepsut. We also had lunch at his house the next day when we crossed to the West Bank, where his wife and sister-in-law cooked us one of the best meals in the entire trip. I bought my lapis cats from his brother's alabaster factory. After lunch, he explained to each of us what our name would spell out in hieroglyphics. I now wear the silver ring that has my name translated into hieroglyphics.
In Wadi Rum when our 4X4 got stuck, a Bedouin from a different camp stopped to help. He actually dropped off his guests first at his camp then came back for us. He pulled us out of the mud.

Chasing Sunset

Everywhere I go, I love the sunset. For several days, I kept missing it. Day 5 on the felucca I was convinced that there was no way I would miss it since this time I would not be indoors at all. You never know! Julee fell and we left the sailing trip and moved into a vehicle to Luxor. I had a peek through the taxi backseat for the sunset but it was hard to capture the moment in a moving vehicle in traffic race.

Through the taxi back window from Aswan to Luxor

Not until the second day in Luxor did I have my first chance to wait for sunset by the corniche along the Nile. I timed it and ran from our Nile bank cafe upstairs to the corniche to catch the perfect moment. Very soon I realized I ran out of battery and left my camera bag and extra battery with Julee at the Cafe. I am sure it was quite a scene to see this crazy Asian lady running up and down the stairs, holding a camera and frantically answering to all the felucca salesmen speaking Japanese to her and declining their offer. When I got my battery and ran back to my "perfect" spot, it was not too late and I was so happy.

Felucca docking at the bank of the Nile

Sailing by ...

The top of Mount Sinai is the highest spot where I have ever seen sunset. The sense of achievement when I finally arrived after two and half hours of constant coughing, running nose and heavy breathing was so overwhelming, for a second tears rushed to my eyes. That is a moment I will forever remember.

When we settled in at our beach camp in Nuweiba, some of us sat by the sea to relax while others played frisbee. The sun started to set over the mountain behind our camp. The sand, the sea, our huts, and even the red frisbee glowed with a golden sheen.

Here is the Ramses II colossus at Karnak Temple in Luxor sunset

I left our Wadi Rum desert campsite as I saw the red clouds gathering. After climbing up a sand dune, I stayed patiently for almost half an hour waiting for the sun to come out. Meanwhile I must have taken a few dozen pictures. I could not help it. Everywhere you look, Wadi Rum is mesmerizing. Pictures could never do justice to its breathtaking beauty. The sky, the rocks, and the sand changed colors every minute with the movement of the clouds. The sun, however, only came out for a brief second...

It was serendipity that I should step into sunset when Alex and I decided to do some shopping before dinner. From our Petra Moon hotel we walked down the hill to the town center, and here it is for only thirty seconds.

1st day back to work & picture updates for the Trip

I have embarked on the painstaking work of updating pictures for the blog. I have taken about 1800 photos exhausting 3.5 GB of memory (which by the way was not enough for me). I worked two nights over jetlag and now I have 8 days updated. Time for bed. More to follow tomorrow...

Meanwhile coming back to work the first day invoked such deep depression. Wearing heels and a skirt for one thing was horrifying. I could barely walk straight as I got used to wearing flats and being dressed up like a bum. I guess backpackers are not meant to care about their appearances. For me all I wanted was a good hot shower and toilets that flush. I also could not get used to Julee not being 12 feet within my reach. People say you form or lose a habit in three weeks. In the past three weeks, I have formed the habit of looking out for/looking at/looking for Julee. I talked to her four times on the phone today, went to her office twice, she came visit me once, and we emailed each other 4 times. We were both depressed. I think it will take another three weeks to get over this "Julee-around-me"ship and be able to function like a normal person.

Oh well, back to reality now.

Focus on Egyptian and Jordanian Food

The food is so good on this trip. Sometimes I forget to take pictures before I dig in. By the time I realize 'oops, picture', the plate's already empty. Jordanian food is slightly better than Egyptian food to my taste buds.

Julee eating the pasta with meat in Cairo with really boring music in the background. We identified this restaurant by the 'red' chairs outdoors. I later went back to the 'red chair' place for a shawarma that was also heavenly. Another place next door recommended by Daniel was the 'purple chair' restaurant. Everything was cheap and tasty.

photo above 1-pasta w/ meat in Cairo; 2-beef tagen, Aswan; right 1: baked sweet potato from Khan al Khalili bazaar, Cairo

Ayish is everywhere both in Egypt and Jordan but I prefer the thinner ayish served warm at Jordanian restaurants; below: Mint tea at el Fishawy, Cairo

The Aswan eatery where we got ripped off for felafel's and pasta with meat dishes-We all felt really disturbed that we got charged 10 times more. We complained to the owner that we would pay the bill but we knew we got ripped off and we found him incredibly dishonest and rude to treat guests in SUCH a way. He already took our money but was obviously remorseful, he stuck a bottle of mineral water in our hands for each of us before we got out of the door.

Above 1- Koshri at Giza; 2-fresh lemonade and kakade, Luxor; 3-Bird's tongue soup (a type of pasta), part of the Nubian home made lunch on the ferry towards Elephantine Isl., Aswan; 4-Breakfast at Little Garden Hotel, Luxor. Abdul is making me a hot lemonade with honey to cure my cough and sore throat. He's such a sweetheart; 5-Veggie tagen, Luxor

The best deal - 7 flavored bread for 1 JD for our lunch picnic in Wadi Rum. Aqaba, Jordan

Left: My favorite meal: mixed grill in Aqaba, Jordan (5 JD =7 USD)


Our Wadi Rum camp kitchen in the ground. The big pot is sweet Bedouin tea, the small one is non-sweetened tea. Bread is baked in the ashes in our ground stove. :) Below: dinner plate and main course dug out from ground (chicken, potato and whole garlic)

Above 1-Nuweiba beach breakfast, banana pancake with honey;2 sweets (mostly baklava) in Petra; 3-King shawarma in Madaba was the best;

Above 1-tomato over rice, Petra, Jordan; 2-Mushroom soup, Petra; 3- Chicken Sawani, Madaba, Jordan (chicken with potatoes cooked in herbs, this dish is very good) 4-Luxor group dinner 5- Madaba group dinner, Good bye Kirsten!(Kirsten is leaving the next day...)