Spring Break!

Hey everyone! This is the first of a series of posts on my spring break vacation. I'm out and about for the next 10 or so days with two guy friends of mine, Michael and Clark. In between lots of eating, sleeping and quite possibly some drinking, we'll see parts of Jordan and Israel! Here's our rough itinerary:

March 29th (Thursday): Leave Cairo at 10:15 pm for Taaba/Elat/Aqaba (border zone centered around the southernmost part of Israel)

March 30th and 31st: Petra, Jordan! We'll be seeing the ancient city as well as recuperating from the polluted air of Cairo.

April 1-4: Tel Aviv, Israel! I expect lots of time on the beach, not a lot of moving, and lots of time re-acclimating to western cultural norms (holy crap, bikinis!). Here's hoping the Mediteranean will be warmer than it was in January (when it very strongly resembled the North Atlantic in terms of temperature)

April 5-9: Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine! Plans are a little shaky, but there will definitely be a religous component. I'm hoping to see Bethlehem and definitely do Easter Mass in the city.

April 10: Boogie back to Cairo for the start of classes!

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Anyway, as I'm sure all of you have astutely noted, its March 31st right now, so obvious this itinerary is already in progress. I'm going to start from the 29th and work my way up to the present. There'll be a little overlap with the yet to exist Alexandria post, but I feel like the information is necessary to properly appreciate the marathon nature of our trip to Petra. Clark and Michael, you see, had a relatively leisurely Thursday, with plenty of time to get ready for the bus that night, but I started the day in Alexandria at the tail end of the fencing competition with a 20 page paper to finish and a bus to catch in another city! I'd spent almost whole night before up, working on the aforementioned paper (curse you, Government and Politics of Egypt!), and after about two hours of accidental sleep (literally zonked out while taking what was supposed to be a short break from the paper), had to get up, work some more, and pack for a 2 pm train to Cairo. The train, by the way, was really really nice - I'm frankly impressed. Of course, my only other train experience is the line from Detroit to Chicago, which is not a paragon of high class transportation. They had decent food, though, and comfortable seats, so I can't complain. I got back in Cairo at 4:30 and back to the dorm by 5:00. I spent the next three hours finishing the paper, which got done at about 8:30. Hurried packing got me downstairs by 9:05, in time to catch the taxi to the bus station. We sat through traffic for a half hour, and then got on the 10:15 bus (which I think left closer to 11) to Taaba.

Things were pretty uneventful for a while after that - we spent all night driving across the Sinai. The bus was too bumpy and brightly lit to really allow for sleeping, so I spent most of the time reading junk fantasy. I also caught bits of an Egyptian movie (don't even ask me what it was about, as I haven't a clue), and then they showed us Speed. Speed, incidentally, is even worse than I remembered it being, and whereas before, it was bad but awesome, now its more just kind of campy. Also, you can totally tell it was filmed in the 90s. I never though I'd look back at the 90s and think that was dated. I guess I'm getting old.

Anyway, we got to Taaba at about 6 am, whereupon we began our arduous journey across the two borders (Egypt - Israel, then Israel-Jordan). Unfortunately, the first of these borders took us more than three hours to cross; first, we had to deal with indolent Egyptian security (there were probably 10 officials at the crossing, one of whom was working whilst the others drank tea, chatted and generally sat around doing nothing while the entire bus attempted to get stamped to leave the country); then, we had to deal with the Israelis, who were very nice, professional and speedy, but had to deal with literally 1000 Russians who were trying to cross the border ahead of us. By the time we left the intricate mazes of buildings, barbed wire, fences and gates that constitutes the border (cold peace for the win!), it was almost 10:00. Our bus in Jordan, incidentally, was supposed to leave at 9:30. Good thing we didn't pay in advance.

We ended up taking a taxi across the city of Elat (this, of course being the Israeli name for Taaba, even though the 'cities' are about three kilometers away from one another), to the Jordanian border (at that point, the city becomes Aqaba, despite even less distance across the border between them). All the while, we marvelled at "being in the west:" all of us were very impressed by the efficiency and professionalism of the security, as well as the immediate and noticeable presence of women. This may be a part of the male psyche only, as there are certainly women in Egypt, but, well, conservative dress has a fair number of downsides. The limited number of Israeli women we saw weren't exactly dressed provocatively, but it still stuck in our minds (so it wasn't just me!). It does, however, occur to me that this bias may be largely because of the cute 20 something year old who stamped our passports.

Fortunately, when we got to the Jordanian border, we discovered that this new professionalism wasn't exclusive to Israel (though the female border agents were). The Jordanian authorities also comported themselves professionally - they didn't even ogle the girls who accompanied us across the border (they happened to be headed to Petra too), which is a lot more than can be said for the Egyptians. Its amazing the difference you can see when the government's employees A care about their jobs, B care about their country and its image and C have pride in themselves. In fact, the Jordanians have been almost uniformly impressive in their comportment, whether or not they're employed by the state. The police, are of course, courteous, the shopkeepers, mercantile but not pushy, the park staff, professional, and the restaurateers, prompt and genuinely interested in providing service. (I should note, by the way, that this account is heavily colored by Clark and Michael's fairly intense dislike of many aspects of Egypt at this point - although I also noticed the difference, they are both far more aggressive in asserting it.)

Anyway, we caught a taxi for the two hour ride to Petra (since we'd already missed the aforementioned bus) and got into the city around 2 pm (ish, because we had to change our watches by an hour so i'm not surely what time was what around this period). We dropped our stuff off in our rooms and then went and got food at this fantastic restaurant creatively called "Restaurant Arabya." I had the mixed grill, hommus and taboule, and almost died of happiness, it was so good. The hommus in particular was great, especially since what passes for it in Egypt is neither hommous nor good. It was also great having tabouleh again, as it is also not very common in Egypt. The meat, as well, was delicious (though the beef was a little tough), and the kofta in particular was probably the best i've ever had. It was so good that we went back to the same restaurant tonight (more on that later).

After food, we went downhill into the city (I think the habitated part is called Wadi Rum - spring of the Romans), where we saw a cultural event going on in celebration of Petra. You all may or may not be aware, but there's a UN sponsored (I think its UN sponsored) competition to find a new 7 wonders of the world for us earthlings to properly enjoy. Again, for those of you with a rather more normal interest in history are unaware, 6 of the 7 wonders Herodotus (?) first listed have since been destroyed by a combination of earthquakes, fires, raping and pillaging and other calamaties. This leaves only the Pyramids of Giza, which I'm happy to say I've seen (finally!). Anyway, since they want new famous things for everyone to visit, they've got this competition going to get 7 new ones. They're pretty serious about it too; I don't think even the Pyramids themselves have a guaranteed slot. There's something like 49 locations/thingies nominated right now, and whichever ones get enough votes will be permanently enshrined on a tablet somewhere (probably in New York). As far as I'm concerned, its a combination of America's Next Top Model and Survivor - "Earth's Next Top Wonders!" (I wonder what they do to the losing contestants? "You're off the continent?" Maybe they just bomb them). Anyway, the Jordanian government, desiring both to not be bombed and also to make a lot of money for hosting a world wonder, is doing a series of these events to promote Petra and get people to vote online in its favor. In this case, they had a relatively well known Jordanian singer (well known in Jordan, anyway), doing a bunch of songs in front of a pretty big crowd of people. She was quite talented and the music sounded really good. I kind of wanted to dance, but it wasn't really the right setting.

After listening to some of the great music (arabic music in general has a great beat and great melody, which is my preferred combination), we wandered down to Petra proper and bought ourselves some entry tickets. Fortunately, they've got a great deal where you can buy a two day pass for 26 Jordanian Dinars (JD). Since a one day pass is 21 JD, it made perfect sense to spend the extra 5 JD to be able to spend a few hours in the park yesterday in addition to a full day today. (For the record, 1 JD is about 1.5 USD, so Jordan is not exactly Egypt in terms of prices. Ah well, 'tis the price of having an awesome vacation). The park is mostly a giant rocky/ravine filled mountainy area surrounded by a flat plain on one side and rolling hills on the Wadi Rum side. We wanderd through said hills for a while and saw some outlying tombs. We also spent some time on the road to Petra, which drives straight into the mountains down an old canyon (more description later). By about 6 pm though, we were all really tired though, so we headed back to the hostel.

The first order of business upon returning to the hostel was one heck of a shower. All of us were feeling grimy, me especially so since I didn't get the chance to shower thursday thanks to the aforementioned paper and Alexandrianess. While waiting for the hot water to appear (they turn the boiler off during the day), we all took a "half hour" nap, which turned into more like four hours. I woke up just long enough to bathe and then crash back into bed, where I stayed until 10 am this morning. I only woke up once, at around 5 am, and after the call to pray completed, I was out like a light again.

Today, after getting ourselves together, grabbing some food at the hostel (not unlike the breakfast we had in the desert), we went downhill again into the ancient city of Petra. As we had much more time today, we were able to more fully explore the surroundings. The outer hills I mentioned earlier are suprisingly green and are lined with what appear to be ancient terraces; it looked a little bit like Ireland actually, excepting only the vibrancy of the color. Ireland is almost universally a rich, elegant emerald green, from the wide valleys to the rolling hills. Even in the truly rocky areas, any gap in the stone that's wider than about a quarter inch is host to an entire ecosystem of flowing plants and emerald leaves. Here, the green is a much lighter color, faded by sun and weathered by sand. The plantlife's grip on the land seems to be tenuous, almost fleeting (though in reality all of the plants seem to be quite hardy and unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon). There are a few trees of the deciduous variety, and a bunch of juniper plants, which I would call trees even though i'm pretty sure that they're actually bushes when properly trimmed (the gardeners among the readership will know, i'm sure).

As you work your way into the park, and towards the city itself, the rolling hills are quickly replaced by bare rock outcroppings. Looking forward, you see that the rock outcroppings themselves form what I'd loosely term a broad, wide mountain cluster which is heavily broken up by water erosion. The road into the park actually follows an old floodchannel (apparently this area is prone to flash floods in the place of proper rain) that is a magnified version of the channels that have been carved into almost every part of the soft sandstone range. As I said re: the flash floods, apparently, when it rains, it pours (if only for a short while), and the water tears into the rock like a hot knife through soft cheese as it barrels its way down the various channels and riverbeds. Petra itself is actually placed into one such floodchannel, but its inhabitants were smart enough to attend to the issue of millions of gallons of unchecked water before choosing to settle there. Rather than be carried away like so much chaff every few weeks or months, they build an elaborate network of dams across all of the minor canyons leading towards their city. (At this point, almost all of the engineering is Roman, though the Nabateans preceded them and the Byzantines followed them as inhabitants). They left only one, very wide and deep canyon unblocked, which they paved and use as the primary road into the city. The floodchannel/road I mentioned earlier leads directly to this one. The junction of these two channels is of course dammed (so that the flood water will not turn the road into a river), but it is easy to surmount today thanks to a combination of centuries of sand on the protected side of the damn, and Jordanian ingenuity (bridges and causeways) on the unprotected side.

As you enter the city road proper, you are struck almost immediately by two things. First, as you look at remains of the gate (at the head of the road) carved into the steep canyon walls, you can't help but be impressed at the ingenuity of the city's inhabitants in choosing and preparing this site for habitation. Secondly, the beauty of the rock itself is really something to see. The basic reddish brown stone is laced with bands of minerals that reflect every color of the rainbow; in some areas, you see whites and yellows, in others, blues and purples, and in still others, coppers and blacks. Tenacious plants rooted in the narrow channels cut into the rock provide shots of green, further adding to the visual interest. To go back to the human aspects of the route, as you walk down the road, across ancient roman cobblestones, you see the remains of small aqueducts carefully carved into the side of the rock. Remember those dammed side ravines? These meticulously leveled channels are supplied by a succession of these smaller dams as they wind down the slope towards the city. In a few places, there's actually still watern in reserve cisterns and the like - one gets the impression that with some care, the entire network could be re-established. It won't be, naturally, as this would hurt the bottled water industry and damage the historical artifactness of the construction, but its neat to see all the same.

The road itself takes about 30 minutes to walk down (traveling at a relatively relaxed pace), and opens rather abruptly on the famous Treasury building of Petra (of Last Crusade and postcard fame). We were very suprised to run into it as soon as we did because our guide book had suggested an hour's walk; actually, on day one, we had gotten within 300 feet of the end of the road without realizing it, and turned around and headed back because we were tired. Had we gone a little further, we would have seen the massive columns of the building through the twists and turns of the canyon road. The building itself is amazingly massive - Its almost impossible to take a picture of someone and include a reasonable amount of it in the photo. It is also impressively well preserved. Many of the details on the columns and carvings are still visible. The interior is relatively plain - other than the beautiful colors in the rock, the rooms itself were mere blocks, and did not run very far back into the mountainside. I imagine this was for lighting purposes, as it gets very dark very fast when you move away from the entrance. Also, though in photos it appears to be completely excavated, in reality the foundations of the building are some 10 feet lower than the current ground level. As a result, many of the other buildings that once surrounded the "Treasury" are now mostly buried. A few have been excavated for the entertainment of tourists, but I think they are taking their time on the rest to do it properly. There appear to be no plans to lower the ground in that area back to its ancient level, however - they just dig down and put steps in where relevant.

After the Treasury, you wander down the ancient street into the city proper. On the outskirts, there are a series of large tombs, mostly Nabatean, which are quite impressive to see. These follow the outsides of the "valley" the city is in (basically, a very widened flat area in the canyon, though it appears to open out onto some low rolling hills on one side). Against the far (western) wall, and around the lower ridges that wind their way through the area, are smaller carved openings, which I imagine are houses from the old city. Most of the structures, however, are not carved but are instead built in the valley along a small network of roads. The main street tends to dominate, however, and that's where most of the remaining items of visual interest are. One exception to this rule is the huge roman amphitheatre carved into the rock on one 'side' of the city. Able to seat 4000, it is absolutely stunning and can be seen from almost half the city.

On the other side of the city, there are some tourist facilities and a small road that leads off into a small ravine. This ultimately develops into a path and a series of stairs (almost 1000 in total) leading up to an ancient monastery carved into the peak of one of the mountains. It is of a similar design to the treasury building, but somewhat more austere in its ornamentation. It too is surrounded by a variety of smaller room/buildings carved into the rock around it. If you walk some distance away from the monastery, you reach the edge of the peak area and are met with an incredible view of the mountains and the valley below. I like to think that on a clear day you could see north and west all the way to the Dead Sea itself.

After seeing the monastery, we made the long trek back to civilization. We were all starving by the time we got back, so we didn't stay too long in the tourist area (I did try to buy a Jordanian flag, as I try to collect a flag from every country I visit - eventually i'll have my own UN :). It turned out to be obscenely expensive though in the size I wanted, so I passed for now. Hmm, I just checked online and maybe it wasn't so expensive. Damn!. Anyway, we headed back to the hostel area and got food again at Restaurant Arabya. I had grilled chicken which was brilliantly tender and perfectly spiced, as well as tabouleh, parsleyah and fattoush, which were also fantastic. We finished dinner at around 7, and I've been busily typing away on the computer since then.

I'm going to bring this to a close now, both because the internet is somewhat expensive, and because Michael and Clark are headed down to a pub with some other AUCians. I think i'll join them. I'll be sure to report on the local beer. Rumor has it that "Petra" brand is crappy, but not all of the brands can be, right?