Showing posts with label Travel Diary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel Diary. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

TRAVEL DIARY - trip to Middle East



In 2010, my 12-year-old daughter and I backpacked through Egypt, Israel, and Jordan. It was a dream come true for me, and a large part of her homeschooling for that year. We spent the entire year preparing for the trip - getting into shape, studying ancient history, geography, languages, and math. After our trip, I immediately blogged about each day to ensure I wouldn't forget any small details and to log all of our photos.

Two years later, I published it into a travel memoir. This book is available on Amazon for FREE for Kindle Unlimited, or it can be purchased & downloaded for $2.99

If you choose to read from the blog, it would be easiest to click from BLOG ARCHIVES for JULY 2016 (to your right) and scroll down for each day in order - DAY 1, DAY 2, DAY 3, etc. Or, you can click TRAVEL DIARY from the box above and scroll down and read in order. For some reason, DAY 8 is not in place, so you'll have to hunt for it in the mix.


My motivation to take the trip started here, on the blog post, BOOTS & BACKPACKS
And my other post, HOW TO CRAM 18 DAYS INTO A BACKPACK



If you're contemplating a trip like this, I am ALWAYS happy to share ideas and tips on keeping this trip safe and affordable.







Monday, July 4, 2016

DAY 1 & 2 - From Houston to Cairo


Checking our backpacks, and for the umpteenth time making sure I had our passports, we departed for our 3 hour drive to Houston at around 10 am Saturday morning. The day had finally arrived! Alan and the puppy dropped us off, we hugged tightly and waved good-bye.

Waiting at the George Bush International Airport. Our first flight was with Continental Airlines. We departed at 6:50 pm and lost about 8 hours due to a new time zone somewhere over the ocean.


The morning greeted us early along the coastline of Greenland.



About to land at Frankfurt, Germany for our connecting flight. It felt good stepping on land after that 10 hour flight, and I was surprised that we stepped outdoors onto a platform of stairs. The air was cold and windy, and we caught a shuttle bus to the main airport.


Found this interesting vending machine while using the bathroom at Frankfurt International. Mini toothbrushes that you chew to clean your teeth!


Short on time, and not wanting to exchange money for the Euro, we had a quick lunch at McDonald's using our Visa card. Then a dash for our gate and checking in for our boarding passes.

We were actually pretty impressed with Egyptair, considering I had read conflicting reports about the Egyptian airlines. Mainly complaints about how rickety the airlines is, not to mention a friend who had just returned and said his plane was leaking oil and nearly did a nose dive over the Mediterranean! Before our plane took off on the runway, I caught a few phrases on the intercom in Arabic. What stood out was the word, Jihad! A passenger was reading the Qu'ran a few seats behind us. About an hour into our flight, we were served dinner. Their salmon dinner with rice was very delicious! Actually, the best ever.
Wow, in 5 hours, we would be landing in Egypt! Really hasn't sunk in yet. Interestingly, the same guy was still reading the Qur'an when our plane landed.


Wow, Cairo! We arrived and I became overwhelmed with what I was to do next! I needed to get our entry Visa's, exchange money, find our driver to take us to our hostel, so many things and wondering if we were going in the right direction.
Following the lead of my fellow passengers, I stood in line to pay our fees (in USD) for entry Visa's. No problems there. Then I found an ATM machine and to my relief, I had options in English. It wanted to know how much LE - pounds I wanted to withdraw. I selected 500, thinking it was a lot, but in reality I had only withdrawn about $90 USD.


We found our driver holding our names on a cardboard sign. He greeted us, and led us to his car in the parking lot. We tossed our backpacks into his trunk and searched for a seatbelt while in the backseat. Couldn't find one and held on for dear life as our driver sped off. We soon learned that there were no road rules. 3-4 cars would crowd together in a "two lane" road. Honking and cutting in front of one another. No speed limits, no traffic lights and no right of way for pedestrians! With shock we watched people cross and dash across the highways, cars beeping horns, people on bikes cutting and darting across the traffic. It was a zig zag mess! A few times I had to hold my eyes closed as our driver stepped on the gas, speeding past cars while the brake lights of the cars in front of us appeared. Miraculously we arrived at our destination with white knuckles and rattled nerves.

It was going on 10 pm and we were amazed at how many people were walking the sidewalks. It was like the city never slept. Our driver led us to the Yacoubian building and we took a rickety old elevator to the 4th floor.
After checking in with our confirmed reservations, I paid the desk attendant and he led us to our private suite. I was surprised he led us to the 2nd floor away from the office. With pride, he unlocked an old door to a sitting room that sported a suite of private rooms. He gushed that we had the place to ourselves. Each private suite was named after an American President! Our room was named after Obama! The one next to us was named for Clinton. We went into our Obama suite and noticed we had 2 single beds, a table and lamp, and a bathroom. Handing us our room key, our desk clerk closed the door.
I was disappointed. It felt very isolating being on the 2nd floor of this old building. Not what I had in mind. I wanted to be around other people. Too tired to think about it any further, I quickly inspected our locks, slid on the door chain and it fell apart in my hand! I tried to fix it as best as I could, then located a plug-in for my laptop. I knew my husband Alan would be concerned if he didn't hear from us soon, so I needed to let him know we had ARRIVED!
We threw ourselves over the bed exhausted. I didn't want to sleep with the lights off so I left the bathroom light on, with the door cracked. While lying in bed that night, the magnatude of what we were about to do started to sink in. We were a long, long ways from home! I had this idea (crazy?) that I was going to backpack our way into Israel! So many months of planning and I was about to find out if I had done my homework or not. Do I really want to flunk the test so far away from home??
With a sinking realization, I knew that without a doubt, I was going to have to keep my wits with me at all times. It wouldn't have been so bad were it for myself, but the responsibility of my daughter, and the trust of my husband's faith in my judgement, would have to keep my mind sharp with common sense! I had to comfort myself in the realization that I was embarking on a leap of faith and answered prayer!

DAY 3 - Museum and Mummies!

I tossed and turned into the wee hours of the morning, grabbing a few hours of sleep at the most. I kept checking my laptop that I had left running to see the time. Earlier I had made a conscious decision to not do any trip reports while on the road. Most of my updates would be among friends and family on Facebook. Over the past few months, I had received emails and visits to my blog by Egyptian and Israeli people. These people were strangers to me.

It was after 8am and I was impatient to start our day! I started to explore our room. I opened the shutters to our bedroom window and felt chills. On our 2nd floor loft facing a dark alley, there was food and wrapper debris. Someone had once climbed the sloping walls and torn staircase right below our window eating and possibly sleeping? Examining the latch on our shutters, I realized how easily someone could have slipped into our room. It gave me the creeps, and I made a decision right then that we would NOT stay another night in that room!

Rummaging Pamela up from her bed, I reminded her that we were in CAIRO, EGYPT! No time for sleep, we came here to EXPLORE! We dressed, brushed our teeth with bottled water, and packed our bags. I told Pamela we were MOVING to another room. We climbed the two flights of stairs to the office of our hostel and greeted the morning desk attendant. I explained that we wanted another room and he was very accomodating. He apologised as he showed us our new room that was right down the hall from the front desk. We would be sharing a double bed, and even though the room had a shower, we would have to share a toilet with other backpacking guests in the 4th floor hostel. Knowing that the front desk was operated 24 hours, and that others were staying on the same floor, I told him that our room was PERFECT!!

We excitedly dumped our packs on the bed, and I plugged in my laptop to update facebook and email home. We then walked outside our room into a hallway of deli sized tables and chairs laden with lacey Arabic tablecloths. We were being served a complimentary breakfast of hot tea, a mini loaf of bread, butter, jam, an orange, and a variety of cheeses.

After we ate, we talked with our desk clerk about a ride to the pyramids. He explained that we should go EARLY in the morning as already the day was going to be too hot! It was already going on 10 am.

We agreed to go the next day and decided that today, we'd walk to the museum! Asking for a map and directions we headed down the flight of stairs onto the street of Talaat Harb.



Walking outside of our hostel of the famous Yacoubian building. Pamela and I did our best to not draw attention. Wearing long skirts, sleeves, scarves, and sunglasses, we walked briskly down the sidewalk, taking in the sights and sounds. I had been warned of the culture shock, but didn't experience it that bad. Perhaps it was so much advance research, videos, and talking to fellow backpackers. What I wasn't prepared for though was the pollution, and poverty to the extent that I looked into some shops and alleys and shuddered. Hanging onto each other's arm, we walked into the direction of the museum. Crossing the street became a game. Find others waiting to cross, stand on the side (away from the cars) and WALK FAST when they walk. If anyone gets hit by a car, it will be them first, as we were on the other side! Sounds cold, but it helped us build our bravery to do this on our own later. We were taking baby steps! Little did I know that a week later, I'd be sitting in a hostel in Israel, talking with a Mennonite girl who said she felt EMPOWERED after visiting Cairo, Egypt! We both laughed about how we felt we could do ANYTHING after learning how to cross the street!




The museum! How I had dreamed of going there someday! After passing through heavy security, and a bag check, we were in the gated property of the museum! I needed more Egyptian currency to pay for our tickets and was pointed to an exchange bank at the 2nd floor of the building. After we got our money, we decided to take a snack break first. The day was already sweltering and we were THIRSTY!


We climbed a flight of stairs to a small snackbar and got some cokes and chips, sitting by an open window to enjoy the breeze. Then we people watched. Busloads of tourists from every country poured onto the property and filtered into the snackbar. We took our time enjoying our cokes.




NO CAMERAS allowed in the museum. In fact, after passing through heavy security, a woman sits at a booth and holds out her hands. Everyone is required to hand over their camera! The lady was distracted with another customer and I slipped past her. There was NO WAY I was going to hand her my camera. I'd be honest this time and not take pictures! (I cheated in Israel at another museum!)

All I can say is that the museum was everything I had expected and then some! Of course, I was warned in advance that the Egyptians are not very good at indexing and identifying their antiquities for the public, so it would be best to hire a guide to assist at the museum. I decided to wing it myself, as Pamela and I had read and watched countless books and video's on ancient Egypt!

We spent almost 5 hours exploring each massive room, climbing the huge staircases to yet another wing of amazing antiquities. Some of my favorite rooms were the dolls. Hundreds of wooden dolls on wooden ships, portraying the ancient sailors. These dolls really gave a glimpse into the culture, clothing, and occupations of these Egyptians. We stared in wonder at King Tutankhamun's treasures, the jewels, and the pottery.

Although we were exhausted, we paid extra to see the mummies. We entered a glass room and solemnly stared down at the descendants of Ramses, and Queen Hatshepsut. Earlier that month, Pamela and I had viewed many videos with compelling evidence that Hatshepsuit might very well be Moses's stepmom. We read about the lives of these former kings and royalty, and how they lived and died.

After the mummies, we were ready to go.

Now to cross the street again into the maze of traffic and find our way to our hostel. We walked along the sidewalks, peering into the shops. A women's clothing store drew our attention and we walked in. Several women in burka's were shopping. Pamela and I were impressed with the clothes hanging from the racks. Beautifully embroidered tunics, long flowing skirts, silky longsleeved blouses. Pamela tried on a denim skirt but it was too long and I talked her out of buying it for later adjustment. Our backpacks were too heavy as it was!


For lunch, we wanted to try out the Mc Donald's nearby our hostel. This was something we had been looking forward to doing! We wanted to see if the food tasted the same wherever we traveled. In Germany, everything tasted the same at home, except for the Fanta orange soda. It tasted almost watered down.

In Cairo, we ordered big macs, fries, cokes, and a strawberry sundae. Everything tasted the same, except for the ice cream! I took a few bites and didn't like mine. Couldn't put my finger on why. Just wasn't like at home.

After we arrived back to our room, we decided to take a break! Pamela and I took turns logging onto our emails and we skyped with Alan through the video. Talk about free long distance phone calls. I turned the laptop around so Alan could see our room. It was the evening for us, but early in the morning for Alan.


Pamela protested as she felt tired, but I insisted we were going to hail a cab for Khan el Khalili! This is the ancient market place that closely resembles medieval times. It was also the place where a terrorist attack had taken place a few years back. But I felt safe with all the tourist police around. Arab nation or not, the Egyptians do NOT condone terrorism. Were it not for tourism, the Egyptian economy would crumble.


During the day, the place is full of tourists. At night, the suq becomes alive with local shoppers! I became quite good at hailing a cab. I asked first the price and gave up on asking for the meter. It's a well known fact that a cabbie could take advantage of a tourist by driving the long route while on meter. Since I didn't know my way, I'd just say how much I wanted to pay. 15, 20 Le, and usually they accepted. Of course, I checked with others on what the going rate was. If the cab driver changes their mind, AFTER the ride, just pay what was agreed, ignore their protests and walk away quickly!

Cab ride to market!

We saw a lot of stray animals while in the city. Didn't appear to be any animal ordinances.


At the market. I refrained from taking too many picures as we were trying not to draw attention to ourselves so late at night.



We found the famous El Fishawy cafe and ordered hot tea. This cafe has been opened non stop since the 1700's.




While at the cafe, we met an American couple and talked with them. I forget what state they were from, but they were very impressed with our trip and wished us well.



Mosque outside the market. The call of prayer happens 5 times a day over loud speakers throughout Egypt. Always a reminder to me that we are far, far away from home!




A man approached me offering a shoe shine. I refused and he became angry and muttered something about the shame of me wanting to walk with dirty shoes. Always someone approaching us to sell. Boxes of tissues, head scarves, necklaces. Everything's a mom and pop store here. No chain stores. Just people trying to carve out a living and so much competition! I became very good at saying, no.


After our cab ride home, we impulsively checked out the nearby bakery and admired the delicate cookies and pastries.

Pamela, holding the two cookies we purchased and agreed to share. We had a very long day and was very tired. Anxious to retreat to our room, check our emails and go to bed. Tomorrow would be the pyramids!

DAY 4 - Pyramids and a Bus Ticket!

It was Tuesday morning, March 9th. I felt rested and had a good night's sleep. Before retiring to bed the night before, I'd made prior arrangements with my hostel to hire a guide to take us to the pyramids. I didn't feel like wrestling with a cab driver. My guide would speak English, and cost 200 LE. Our agreement was for him to take us to the Giza pyramids, wait for us, then take us to the other pyramid Saqqara.

Pamela and I stepped out of our room before 7am to another complimentary breakfast of bread, cheese, fruit, jam, and this time orange juice to substitute tea. I noticed a guy sitting by the front desk and nodded to him. I was pretty sure he was our guide.

After we ate, our guide stood and introduced himself and we followed him out to the street and climbed into his car. Can't remember his name, but I learned he was married, had children in college, and his English wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I strained to understand him.

As typical of Egyptians he stepped on the gas pedal and I braced for a car crash. I once glanced over his shoulder and realized he was going over 100 miles an hour. I finally asked him WHAT the speed limit in Egypt was and he said, 90 miles an hour. In the city, 50.

That explained it.

To my shock, a motorcycle passed with a man, woman, and an infant on her lap.

I told our driver that more than half of Egypt would be in jail for traffic violations if this was in MY country. He laughed and got a kick out of my comments about his driving. I decided to lay off on the remarks before he started to show off his "driving abilities"...

First glimpse of the Nile...
I explained to my guide that I had a proposition. Instead of taking us to see the 2nd series of pyramids (Saqqara) I would be willing to pay him the full amount agreed, if we could substitute the rest of the day by him helping me run errands. I wanted to use his partial English and knowledge of the city to take us to the bus station so I could get our tickets to Taba, Egypt. We needed to be in Taba, the next day, to cross the border into Israel. He happily agreed.




A first glimpse of the pyramids! Our guide parked the car and said he'd wait for us and to take our time. Pamela and I walked behind the shops, and found our way to the gate and purchased our tickets. After we entered the gated area, the touting started! Boy was it bad! People coming up trying to sell us camel rides. One guy was really slick. He demanded I show him my ticket and said I needed to show it before I could go any further. Like a dummy, I handed him mine and then he led me to the Sphinx, even though I was protesting that I wanted to go to the pyramids.
It wasn't until I started to follow him in frustration that I caught on to what was going on. I yanked my ticket back from him and ignored his protests as I stomped off. After several more attempts of tricks and demands, I realized the only way to deal with them was to be very rude. Sad but true.
One guy approached and said, WELCOME! And shoved a gift into my hand. It looked like a head scarf. I shoved it back to him and he insisted it was for FREE. I kept handing it back and he refused to take it back. I finally layed it on the ground and walked off. Boy was I glad I did. I read later that this was another trick.
One mistake was paying a guy 1 LE just to take our picture with his camel. Even though we agreed on 1 LE, he got mad when I handed him the money. His friend said, MISS! MISS! No coins! Give me 20LE and I give you change back! MISS!! MISS!!! MISSSS!!!!!
I walked off. MISS!!! MISS!!! MIIIIISSSSSSSS!!!!!
How rude and annoying! We stomped off until their yells became distant and some poor other sucker got trapped in their line of vision.
Whew!














Woops! We made eye contact. Better walk off quickly!






I snuck a pat, and the camel felt brittle. Not exactly a petting kind of animal....



Lots of tourist police everywhere.

Really nice standing up close and touching the pyramids. It costs extra to enter the pyramids but we were okay just seeing the outside.




Cairo off in the distance...







The camel photo that cost me 1 LE and a headache.




I couldn't stop staring at the pyramids...











Pamela got a lot of attention from girls her age. They were tickled to have their pictures taken with us and made a huge deal about taking mine as well. I hope I didn't break their camera! :D

What you see behind the pyramids...



Our drive to the bus station...





We arrived at the bus station and boy was I glad we brought our guide. Everything was in Arabic! After purchasing 2 tickets to Taba, Egypt, we happily headed back to the hostel. While driving, I asked our guide if he could suggest a good restaurant, as my daughter and I hadn't had any Egyptian cuisine yet. For the past few days we've barely been eating 2 meals a day, with very little appetite. Other than breakfast, we've mainly been snacking, other than the Mc Donald's meal we'd had the day before.
He suggested the Nile Cruise and said our hostel could arrange. I happily agreed!

The entrance to our hostel...

Shop next door...

Store next to hostel where we've been getting our snacks and bottled water.

Our hostel arranged for us to be picked up at 7pm for our cruise and we would be joining about 200 other tourists on the same boat.
Our driver appeared and I was pleased to see it was the same guy who had picked us up from the airport. This time I remembered his name. It was Wael. Or Waed... or Wa-something.
Either way :) He would be on the cruise with us, and to drive us back to our hostel. This time while he drove, we talked. His sister lived in California and he had never been to the states. He was in his mid twenties. A really nice guy with a lead foot and I braced for car crash! :D


Our boat. Lovely photo huh? I'm quite the photographer! (not!)


At our table, looking at the other tourists. We had a large group of people from India, and a large group from China. Thankfully a man who spoke English sat at our table (American), although his Arabic wife didn't speak English.


Our entertainment consisted of a swirling Dervish, belly dancer, and a band.

The Dervish poked fun at Pamela by imitating her folding arms and her irritation that she was getting unwanted attention! I was really glad he moved away as I was afraid she would do something to embarrass us both! Oh how she hates attention!



The dancer. My camera at this time was acting up, and I became concerned. I had dropped it earlier at the pyramds and had been wrestling with it since.

Our meal consisted of a buffet. While standing in line, I noticed the people from India were pushing and shoving to the point that I told Pamela to fill her her plate full ONCE, and to get dessert while we could and sit down. The food was okay, and the dessert interesting. I'm not too keen on Curry, never have been.
Although I appreciate India's custom to respect their elders, they made a point of taking every elderly person in their group to the front, shoving every one else to the side (even the elders of the other groups)... While this was going on, I kept thinking about those stampedes I had read about in India where people get killed in the temples.
Needless to say, after the cruise was over, a poor elderly Chinese woman was nearly trampled while leaving the boat. We sighed in relief when she finally was able to stand and limp off the ramp.

Before we went on the cruise, Pamela and I had 2 hours to kill, so we went shopping on Talaat Harb street. She selected the pink slacks, shirt, and I got a denim giba. Giba is arabic for skirt.



Glass bathroom in the ship.

My favorite part of the Nile Cruise was sitting on the top deck outside away from the noise and music. It was very restful sitting under the soft breeze of the Nile, watching the city slide by.



The Nile cruise was the perfect ending to our last day in Egypt. The next day we'd be crossing the border into Israel!
Author's note: Due to extreme jetlag, blurry vision, and plain laziness, I'm not going to stress over editing and correcting my grammar. Maybe one of these days!