Salaam aleikum from Wadi Mousa, just outside Petra, Jordan! We have done a fair amount of traveling the past few days to get from Luxor all the way to Petra. In fact, I woke up at 3am this morning to commence said travel and am quite tired, so forgive me if I keep this a bit short.
But let me start where we left off, which was in Luxor. On Tuesday morning, we had a very early start to the morning in order to catch our balloon. Ha, I've never been able to say that before! We went up in a hot air balloon at sunrise in order to view the sites from above. Hot air balloon rides are, we found out, much cheaper in Egypt than they would be at home in the US, so we took advantage of that fact and really enjoyed it. And for anyone wondering, I did not fear for our safety. There was a large crew of Egyptian men who appear to do this quite regularly and have a good system set up. It was pretty impressive to see them work, actually, and there were several other balloons going up at the same time, too. Plus, our balloon captain (is that a real title?) looked a ton like President Obama, which provided us some harmless mirth, and for "breakfast," if you can call it that, they provided hot tea and twinkies. Twinkies on the Nile... classic. :) Anyway, during our ride, we had a fabulous bird's-eye view of the sunrise over the Nile (lovely!) and some of the sites, especially the temple of Hapshetsut, which we had walked through the day prior. This temple is carved out of the cliff face at the end of a valley, and is quite stunning both in person and from the air! Also in the area were some archaeological digs/restoration around some neat temples. I have some nifty pictures, but the internet here in Wadi Mousa is not so great, so I'll have to upload them all later... sorry for the lack of illustration! Pictures are always more fun. :)
We went back to the hotel for a bit and snatched a hour or two more of sleep, then set out to see the rest of what we had come to see in Luxor. We went to Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple. Luxor Temple was really neat, as it had been built up a bit during Roman times and had some Roman looking paintings right next to the purely Egyptian carvings... quite interesting. What really impressed us, though, was the temple at Karnak. First of all, the place is really expansive. For whatever reason, none of the pharaohs ever declared it "done" so it was added to over decades and dynasties by something like 30 pharaohs. Secondly, it had the coolest pillared courtyard ever. I think the number of pillars was 134. They were immense and imposing and created the feel of an ancient airy matrix where you might see some other tourists or you might see a shaven-headed priestess to the cat-goddess Bastet wandering through with an offering. So, so cool. Also, Jim also developed another technique to shoo away pesky would-be guides... he pretended to be the re-incarnation of a long-dead pharaoh and droned on about being one with the sun-god and how he remembered this temple from long ago, etc. Again, it was quite hilarious and totally weirded out the guy pursuing us, so he left. Success!
And that was the last of our official sight-seeing activities for a while as we traveled to the next place. That night, we took the overnight sleeper train back to Cairo. Once back in Cairo the next morning, we bought some more train tickets to get up to Alexandria. During that process, we met some fellow travelers - Alex and Caroline from Canada - who were wrapping up a year-long trip around the world. We had a very nice time with them discussing travels and adventures with them over tea/coffee in a cafe as we waited for the train we were all taking. We got up to Alexandria rather late due to train delays, so unfortunately we had to skip the catacombs we had planned on visiting. We did, however, wander along the shore of the Mediterranean as well as by the current Alexandria Library. I'm quite sure it looks nothing like the original, but it was fun to have gone by a place that is continuing the historical tradition of the ancient biblioteca.
That account brings us to today, when I got up at 3am so we could leave at 4am for an hour-long taxi ride to the airport. Our flight left just after 7am, so we arrived the requisite 2 hours early. If I may say so, though, the security at the airport was by far the easiest-going process that I have ever passed through for air travel (beside the balloon, of course :)) and most certainly did not require the full two hours. But we didn't mind... we like easy! We flew to Amman, arrived at the Queen Alia Airport, then took an airport bus into Amman, where we picked up a taxi to go to the main bus station, where we got on a small bus headed towards Wadi Mousa. Lots of traveling! The ride was probably 3-4 hours long across Jordan's vast desert. There is really nothing but empty desert in most of this country, as far as I have seen! It's really wild to drive through... kind of unreal. Also unreal was the sand storm that hit us! This was unlike anything I've experienced before. The wind was fiercely blowing so much sand and dust that at points I could not see cars in the opposite lane and the light from the sun was literally darkened in front of our eyes. Even with the window closed, dust was seeping into the bus and tinting our skin and clothes a sandy brown color. Sadly, the sand storm caused a huge and serious accident that we drove by. I'm not sure if they simply couldn't see due to the sand or if someone lost control, but there were 2 big busses, several cars, and what looked like a gas truck all smashed up in the middle of the road. I wouldn't be surprised if the crash was fatal for a driver or two, given the state of things. I was very grateful that we were protected from such a thing, but felt awful for those who had experienced it!
We finally arrived in Wadi Mousa to our hostel after 12-14 hours of travel. We rested for a little while, then had a fabulous dinner on the roof-top overlooking the mountains and valleys that lead to Petra, which we will see in only a matter of hours from now... how exciting! I can't wait to follow in "Junior's" footprints as we visit the Treasury and pretend to be Indiana Jones for a short while. :)
Again, I'm sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll try to post some when the internet works well so that you may better enjoy some of our trip with us! Thanks for reading!
But let me start where we left off, which was in Luxor. On Tuesday morning, we had a very early start to the morning in order to catch our balloon. Ha, I've never been able to say that before! We went up in a hot air balloon at sunrise in order to view the sites from above. Hot air balloon rides are, we found out, much cheaper in Egypt than they would be at home in the US, so we took advantage of that fact and really enjoyed it. And for anyone wondering, I did not fear for our safety. There was a large crew of Egyptian men who appear to do this quite regularly and have a good system set up. It was pretty impressive to see them work, actually, and there were several other balloons going up at the same time, too. Plus, our balloon captain (is that a real title?) looked a ton like President Obama, which provided us some harmless mirth, and for "breakfast," if you can call it that, they provided hot tea and twinkies. Twinkies on the Nile... classic. :) Anyway, during our ride, we had a fabulous bird's-eye view of the sunrise over the Nile (lovely!) and some of the sites, especially the temple of Hapshetsut, which we had walked through the day prior. This temple is carved out of the cliff face at the end of a valley, and is quite stunning both in person and from the air! Also in the area were some archaeological digs/restoration around some neat temples. I have some nifty pictures, but the internet here in Wadi Mousa is not so great, so I'll have to upload them all later... sorry for the lack of illustration! Pictures are always more fun. :)
We went back to the hotel for a bit and snatched a hour or two more of sleep, then set out to see the rest of what we had come to see in Luxor. We went to Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple. Luxor Temple was really neat, as it had been built up a bit during Roman times and had some Roman looking paintings right next to the purely Egyptian carvings... quite interesting. What really impressed us, though, was the temple at Karnak. First of all, the place is really expansive. For whatever reason, none of the pharaohs ever declared it "done" so it was added to over decades and dynasties by something like 30 pharaohs. Secondly, it had the coolest pillared courtyard ever. I think the number of pillars was 134. They were immense and imposing and created the feel of an ancient airy matrix where you might see some other tourists or you might see a shaven-headed priestess to the cat-goddess Bastet wandering through with an offering. So, so cool. Also, Jim also developed another technique to shoo away pesky would-be guides... he pretended to be the re-incarnation of a long-dead pharaoh and droned on about being one with the sun-god and how he remembered this temple from long ago, etc. Again, it was quite hilarious and totally weirded out the guy pursuing us, so he left. Success!
And that was the last of our official sight-seeing activities for a while as we traveled to the next place. That night, we took the overnight sleeper train back to Cairo. Once back in Cairo the next morning, we bought some more train tickets to get up to Alexandria. During that process, we met some fellow travelers - Alex and Caroline from Canada - who were wrapping up a year-long trip around the world. We had a very nice time with them discussing travels and adventures with them over tea/coffee in a cafe as we waited for the train we were all taking. We got up to Alexandria rather late due to train delays, so unfortunately we had to skip the catacombs we had planned on visiting. We did, however, wander along the shore of the Mediterranean as well as by the current Alexandria Library. I'm quite sure it looks nothing like the original, but it was fun to have gone by a place that is continuing the historical tradition of the ancient biblioteca.
That account brings us to today, when I got up at 3am so we could leave at 4am for an hour-long taxi ride to the airport. Our flight left just after 7am, so we arrived the requisite 2 hours early. If I may say so, though, the security at the airport was by far the easiest-going process that I have ever passed through for air travel (beside the balloon, of course :)) and most certainly did not require the full two hours. But we didn't mind... we like easy! We flew to Amman, arrived at the Queen Alia Airport, then took an airport bus into Amman, where we picked up a taxi to go to the main bus station, where we got on a small bus headed towards Wadi Mousa. Lots of traveling! The ride was probably 3-4 hours long across Jordan's vast desert. There is really nothing but empty desert in most of this country, as far as I have seen! It's really wild to drive through... kind of unreal. Also unreal was the sand storm that hit us! This was unlike anything I've experienced before. The wind was fiercely blowing so much sand and dust that at points I could not see cars in the opposite lane and the light from the sun was literally darkened in front of our eyes. Even with the window closed, dust was seeping into the bus and tinting our skin and clothes a sandy brown color. Sadly, the sand storm caused a huge and serious accident that we drove by. I'm not sure if they simply couldn't see due to the sand or if someone lost control, but there were 2 big busses, several cars, and what looked like a gas truck all smashed up in the middle of the road. I wouldn't be surprised if the crash was fatal for a driver or two, given the state of things. I was very grateful that we were protected from such a thing, but felt awful for those who had experienced it!
We finally arrived in Wadi Mousa to our hostel after 12-14 hours of travel. We rested for a little while, then had a fabulous dinner on the roof-top overlooking the mountains and valleys that lead to Petra, which we will see in only a matter of hours from now... how exciting! I can't wait to follow in "Junior's" footprints as we visit the Treasury and pretend to be Indiana Jones for a short while. :)
Again, I'm sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll try to post some when the internet works well so that you may better enjoy some of our trip with us! Thanks for reading!
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