Petra is easily one of the coolest places I've ever been. It's enormous. At some parts it really feels like you are on a different planet. The colors of the rocks are amazing - like someone painted them in really cool pattern.  The buildings are so impressive also. Everything you'd expect to find in Roman-like temples is there, but it's all carved directly into the mountain. I took so many freaking pictures. Every time I walked by the treasury (the one on all the postcards), I couldn't help but take a picture.





I heard from someone I met in Luxor that there's a 125 year old man living in one of the caves behind Petra. Some of the Bedouins still live in the caves instead of in the village that the Jordanian government built. So the first day I was determined to find this guy. And after some haggling and a really painful camel ride, I got to see him. He's old. I didn't get to inspect his birth certificate, but he's a good looking 125. Bedouin diet here I come.





It was a long day of walking. Just to get to the first sight (the treasury), you have to walk for half a mile down the narrow siq. It's cool, but sometimes you just want to get to the sights.

I must have gotten the pimp cab from Aqaba to Petra. Full fur interiror including tiger head pillows. As one of the people put it "it looked the he killed many animals to decorate his car."

And for the 2 hour ride we listened to a Jordanian Pink Floyd cover band, Queen...and...Boyz II Men "I'll Make Love to You"!

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I left Dahab today for Nuweiba and eventually Petra by way of Aqaba. I heard from a 3 different people to never take the slow ferry. Even if I'm told that the fast ferry isn't running, I should just wait and not get on the slow ferry. One person I met waited on the slow ferry for 9 hours before it left. They wouldn't let him off and meanwhile, the fast ferry left, returned, and left again.
When I got to the ticket window, I asked for fast boat ticket. Not running, the sour Egyptian guy told me. I asked again. Same response. So I made him promise that it wasn't actually running. He said definitely not, only tomorrow. So I bought a ticket for the slow boat. I went to a cafe and saw a big group of elderly American-looking people. They were definitely not going to take the slow boat. So I asked them, and that had tickets to the fast boat!
So I went back to the ticket office and the same guy told me to buy the ticket on the fast boat. No apologies. While waiting for the boat, I met this Argentinian guy who was also going to change his ticket on the fast boat. After a few hours of waiting, we were told we could board the boat. The Argentinian guy asked a non-English speaking ticketer about the boat and started running towards the boat. He go on, I waited for the big American tour group.
He got on the slow boat. I saw him in Petra. I got to Aqaba at 6:00pm and Petra at 8:15pm. He got to Aqaba at 12:30am.
Never take the slow boat.

My search for Egyptian hip-hop has not been too successful. I'm not sure what the word for rap is in Arabic so I've started to ask for Egyptian Eminem or 50 Cent. Apparently they've made it to Egypt. Still I've gotten some good music. It's a little hit or miss especially since nearly every song has Habibi in it, and I don't speak much more Arabic than the word Habibi.
From what I can tell/gathered from the music shops is that there are a few big names in modern Egyptian music. There is definitely an underground scene with some hip hop, but it's all in Cairo.

Mohamed Mounir - Weily

New Red Hat...

I tore myself away from the sea and made it to Mt. Sinai, which was definitely high on my list of things to do...it's apparently high on everyone's list - at least the Monastery of St. Catherine. There were easily the same volume of tourists at the monastery as there were at the pyramids. Navigating the crowd was kind of miserable, but it was still something to check off the list

And the monastery supposedly houses the direct descendant of the burning bush, which was not at all as spiritual as I had thought.
My group then started the hike up Mount Sinai, which has a lot of freakin steps - 3700 "Steps of Repentance."

My group had a mix of young and older, but I am always amazed at the people who attempt these hikes on flip flops or Crocs. It makes me happy that I'm not travelling in a group because I can't imagine spending weeks or months with some of these characters. There was the one Polish woman who took forever to make it up, but as soon as we were on our way down all she wanted to do was "hurry up," "let's go."
The top is cold and windy, but the sunset is very pretty, and as soon as the stars come out, it's a pretty amazing place. The stars are so bright.

For the past 6 days I've been lost in the blissful calm of Dahab on the Red Sea. This place could not be more of an different than Cairo, Aswan, and Luxor. My room looks out onto the Red Sea.

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A few days ago while in Luxor I met a girl on one of my tours from Alaska. She was travelling alone and had been for a while. Assumptions about Alaska aside. A few hours after the tour I saw her walking down the main street in Luxor looking pretty miserable. Basically she had been harassed by her hotel manager to the point where she had to leave. In a different case, one girl told me that that the first night she was staying at a hostel the owner made it very clear that it "would be okay" if she slept in his room.
In Dahab, which is like a touch of heven compared to the rest of Egypt - not haggling, no constant "hello, yes, [insert random product] yes, hello." - I was at the super market and with some people and one girl got groped full on in the middle of a busy supermarket...being a woman traveller here seems pretty miserable.


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First a word on pictures - I've been taking hundreds, but they're too big to upload so far. I know that's definitely the most interesting part of the trip, so I'm gonna try and get those up ASAP

So after and overnight train, I'm in Aswan. The overnight train was definitely an experience...If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to have the wind blow by your ass at 60mph, I recommend the train because the WC is just a hole in the floor. It was a pretty good ride though. I made some Egyptian friends looking for the bathroom (I went to another car accidentally) - we'll call them all Mohommed because I think that was half their names anyway. But it was a pretty fun conversation a lot of niceties and comparisons between NYC and Cairo because that was the limits of their English and my four words of Arabic.
In Aswan, I made it to my hotel, booked a tour to Abu Simbel - a big temple - and took the longest boat ride for the shortest distance ever. But at least I can check "take a Felluca ride" off my travel check list. It was pretty relaxing, which is definitely welcome after Cairo.
It's a little annoying to walk around knowing that everyone is trying to shake you down, but I guess you get used to it, but I keep hoping that the next person genuinely wants me to have a good impression of their city/country, then they ask for Bakshish.
Today I went to Elephantine Island (a small island with a 4000 year old village on it)

by Felluca...basically a slow ass sail boat

a woman followed me for a good three hundred feet just repeating "Bakshish, Bakshish." Bakshish for walking?

Bakshish, Bakshish Lady




So starting tomorrow, I'm going to begin asking for Bakshish. I mean I'm more rare in Egypt than Egyptians, so if people are expecting bakshsih just for me walking by them, shouldn't I be getting something in return?
Still the village was kind of cool. It's built completely interconnected and the alley ways are really tight, smelly, but interesting and different.

I tried to take a motor boat (after the Felluca took forever) to get to Aswan's West Bank to see a monestary/old tombs, but the 15, 11 and 9 year olds operating the motor boat (no joke) spun the motor on a rock, which ended the trip.

Tomorrow it's a 3:15am bus to Abu Simbel.

Last night a made it to - I think it's Shar ha'Shamayim synagogue. Which 2 days ago wad the site of an attempted bombing - just a crazy person who threw a gasoline canaster into the synagogue, but still not something I wanted to hear while in the city. When I went it was surrounded by Egyptian police who were pretty keen on me not taking a picture, so I had to be pretty discrete.
Today I made it to the Ben Ezra synagogue which was also surrounded by cards and no photo signs, but here I paid someone off to get one plus snuck a couple on my iPhone.

Then I tried to take the metro to Khan al-Khalili to see the Al-Azhar mosque, got really lost and found another(!) synagogue surrounded by police. This one looked pretty closed, and might have been the Maimonedies synagogue b/c the people at ben Ezra mentioned that the Maimonidies synagogue was being restored. But it was pretty exciting to stumble on a building with a Star of David in the "City of Minarets."

Tonight it's off to Aswan


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I think putting Tom Friedman in my links gives me rights to use his title, but maybe not, so lucky this is a private blog...
Anyway I'm onto my second day in Cairo. It's a very cool city. It's dirty, crowded and I'm pretty sure Arabic originated from a very angry people because it sounds like people are constantly yelling at each other - and they might be because I don't speak a word.
But onto more exciting things like sights! Today I booked a tour of the Pyramids, booked a train to Luxor/Aswan and went to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun.
The Mosque was awesome. It's HUGE. Like Tienanmen Square huge.

And I'm on my way.

Syrian Visa came through.
Hot my ticket. Turkish Airlines not Air Egypt. I'm a big fan of in-flight TVs.




I made it on the plane all carry-on.


The bags are smaller in person...

My flight stops in Turkey then on to Cairo. Should be in Cairo at 12:45pm local time.

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Al Franken's Supply Side Jesus:

If it wasn't for the embassy of Eritrea and the two weeks it took them to send my passport back to me without a visa(!), I'm pretty sure I would be in Cairo right now.
Instead, my passport is just chillin' in the Syrian Embassy for the foreseeable future because Washington DC doesn't know how to plow snow!

Photo courtesy of one Yonatan Zamir

What a great weeked...So many people were in NYC for Dani and Jon's Engagement.

The spread - courtesy of Evan and Kate










Friday night was an excellent impromptu Deis reunion. It was so great to see so many people semi-randomly living/gathering in NYC.
Sometimes things just click and this was definitely one of those times.
Great friends, great parties, great fun.



Scoring a point in Nerf basketball is apparently a huge deal and requires shirtless celebrating

MOMA



Picasso...not pretencious. Rest of the MOMA? Somewhat pretencious...

I got my passport back from the Eritrean Embassy. Kind of funny how quickly they were able to ship it back, but were unable get me the visa - which is supposed to take 5 days - in 10 days. It's alright. It doesn't look like I would make it to Eritrean anyway. So now my visa is headed to the Syrian Embassy. Hopefully they are more on top of their game and I get a visa, get my passport back, get my ticket, and start the trip!
I've been spending my time trying to finish the PADI online certification so I can scuba dive. I'm a little nervous that an online course is supposed to teach me the basics of staying underwater for extended periods of time, but I guess it works. I also hope the diving goes better than the first time I dove...November 2003 - Avi's Bachelor Cruise.