South Africa’s Mother City – Cape Town
We flew to Johannesburg (Jo’burg) from Dar Es Salaam and arrived at 11am. Then we waited for about 10 hours at the Jo’burg airport before flying to Cape Town. Why would we do that? Because we wanted to save $200. It seemed to make sense at the time to book the cheaper but later flight, but because Eug was feeling under the weather when we flew out of Dar, the 10 hour wait turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. We tried for 2 standbys to get on the earlier flights, but both flights were full. Eug sucked it up and we finally made to Cape Town at 11pm. We were lucky to get a very good deal on this brand new serviced apartment hotel in the city, so we happily crashed in this comfortable modern one bedroom pad as soon as we checked in. Eug recovered quickly after just one day and did I mention there was a washing machine?! We found heaven again. Although this time heaven ruined our white t-shirts because we used super hot water to make sure we don’t have any more bed bugs Eug inherited from one of the hostels we stayed at earlier. Argh.
Early next morning we got a call from Ken (our USAID friend in Tanzania)’s friend Raymond who invited us over for dinner that night. We were very pleasantly surprised as it was only our first day in a new country and we already had an invite! Raymond is a Mauritius born Chinese and he moved to Cape Town about 15 years ago. He has a beautiful family, amazing kids. They were all great hosts, and Raymond’s a fantastic cook. We ended up going to his house twice for dinner, the first time he made abalone with chicken and Chinese mushrooms (soooo good!), and the second time he had a Braai (South African barbeque). There was T-Bone steak, warthog sausages, pork chops, and delicious fish that melts in your mouth. They even had karaoke! Eug and I couldn’t be thankful enough for Raymond and his family’s generosity and hospitality. We had a really great time hanging out with them.
We spent the first two days walking around the city. Even though it’s winter here, the weather was just perfect. It’s like those sunny autumn days in Vancouver, the air crisp and the sun warm. We paid a very interesting visit to the District Six Museum. The host Noor who gave us a tour in the museum was born and raised in District Six himself before it was declared as a “white” area under the Group Areas Act in 1966. Noor personally experienced apartheid and told us the compelling story of his life. It was a tragic story but he was optimistic and uplifting. He showed us where he used to live on the map inside the museum and he showed us pictures of his house before it was bulldozed over. We also walked around Bo-Kaap, the Muslim quarter where there were brightly painted houses; Long street where we were told that during the World Cup, it was the most happening street with tons of people in the bars and restaurants; and the newly developed V&A Waterfront, where we watched the third Twilight (woo!) and Eug admitted it was the best of the three so far. That was pretty awesome.
There’s a mountain in the city called Table Mountain in the Table Mountain National Park. It’s called Table Mountain because the top of the mountain is flat. And the flat part is often covered by a dense white low cloud that locals call “the table cloth”. We could see this from the balcony of our 7th floor apartment behind the neighbouring buildings. We walked about an hour to Table Mountain from our apartment and we took a cable car up to the peak. There are also various routes you can take to hike up the mountain, but since we already hiked Kilimanjaro, we thought we would take it slow here. At 1088m at the peak, it’s the ultimate viewpoint over the city and it’s absolutely breathtaking.
We rented a Kia Picanto for the rest of our stay in Cape Town. It was not a very powerful car but it did its job of taking us around. It was Eug’s first time driving on the other side of the road, and also his first time shifting gears with his left hand. He did become really good at it after the first day, but it was funny to see the windshield wiper going up whenever he wanted to signal a turn, and almost immediately I’d hear a “sh*t”. We drove around the coast down to Boulders Beach to see the penguin colony. The penguins were really cute. They wobble around feebly like they are about to pk any minute. We drove south to Cape of Good Hope which is supposedly the most southern point of Africa but really it’s the most southwesterly point. We drove back up along the Atlantic coast and we couldn’t stop being wowed every five minutes by how beautiful the view was, especially on Chapman’s Peak Drive. We both agreed it’s probably the most beautiful road we’ve ever been on. We had to pull over a few times to fully absorb the scenery and take pictures. We also checked out Camps Bay, a wealthy residential area with an amazing sea view. There are a few nice restaurants there too. One of our guest house hosts recommended us to go to a steak house in the area, and it’s here that I had the best steak ever. And Eug had the biggest portion of ribs ever. We were both laughing when the ribs came, even the table next to us was laughing at the gi-normous sized dish. Though the next day we were both feeling the effect of meat overload.
Cape Town is an amazing city with a lot to offer. It’s got the mountain, the water, good food, really good wine, excellent choices of accommodation, and amazing nature and landscape. You can surf, hike, and see penguins all in one day. We are really enjoying this place so far.
The Allure of Tanzania
After our outstanding Safari experience, the 5 of us flew to Zanzibar to relax on the beach for another 5 days. Zanzibar is an island just off the coast of mainland Tanzania. It’s surrounded by the beautiful waters of the Indian Ocean, an ocean none of us had ever taken a dip in.
Zanzibar itself has an interesting history as it once was a powerful city-state made rich by supplying slaves, gold and ivory to other parts of the world. Traders from Persia, Arabia and Portugal all once ruled here. The trade from Islamic countries left its mark on Zanzibar’s religious makeup as the majority of its inhabitants are Muslim. However the Tanzanians have added their own personal flair, as their Islamic clothing (headscarves and such) is far more colourful and lively than those we saw in the Middle East.
Activity wise the time spent was uneventful which was pretty sweet. Di and I realized it was the first time on our travels where we could just sit around, read and nap by the ocean. Relaxing on a white sand beach with my parents and sis was a great way to finish off our little family vacation. The Indian Ocean is spectacular, and hopefully we’ll return to its waters in the Maldives or somewhere like that before our year is up.
After we left Zanzibar we went to Dar Es Salaam for a day before Andrea and my parents were to leave. There we met up with a friend of my dad’s who ended up being one of the most interesting guys we’ve talked to so far on this trip. He worked for the US government and took us into the US Embassy where he had the biggest office (George W. Bush stole it when he was in town). For years he has been working in a lot of different countries in Africa and Asia for USAID (US Agency for International Development) and thus had some pretty crazy stories. After my family left for home Di and I actually stayed at his house for a couple days where we were able to learn about US foreign policy and their aid programs all over the world. It was also pretty cool to hear about the foreign policies of other powers (such as China) in this region. He had keen insight as to why many countries in this region are mired in poverty, struggle and war. It’s been easy to debate these topics with other people on our travels but to really get information and thoughts from someone whose job it is to deal with these issues was really educational.
We met someone in Israel who told us we were making a mistake by not visiting the other countries of East Africa, namely Uganda and Rwanda, especially to track the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas in the jungle. Others told us that getting close to these amazing beasts after searching for them in the wild on foot was an experience that was really hard to top. So with our Lonely Planet East Africa and our Skpe account we tried to organize said track by calling those countries to get a permit. Unfortunately only 50 or so of these passes are sold per day at 500 US dollars each, and they are reserved up to 2 years in advance. So no, there weren’t any last minute cancellations to open up 2 free permits for us. The recent tragic bombing in Kampala, Uganda (July 12, 2010) that killed over 70 people didn’t inspire much confidence either so we decided to return to at a later date in our lives.
For those looking for a 2-3 week vacation that envelops adventure, animals and relaxation Tanzania is a perfect destination. Kilimanjaro will challenge you, the safari will amaze you, and Zanzibar will rejuvenate you. Personally I’m kind of happy that they didn’t have any gorilla permits for us to buy, because that means that one day we’ll have to return to this part of the world. In addition to seeing gorillas there’s still a lot left for us to do here, including contributing time to helping the people. There are plentiful volunteer opportunities, and in the future we plan to come back to do some humanitarian work. East Africa has huge public health issues to deal with, especially with regards to HIV/AIDS and malaria. We met volunteers from all over the world here doing their part and we hope to as well.
Our friend from USAID is quite confident that even with the problems that afflict the region, East Africa is on the up and up, especially Tanzania. His 4 year service term was supposed to be up a couple of years ago, but he has decided to stay and I can see why. There is an undeniable allure in this country, whether it be the stomp of the elephant, the turquoise of the ocean, the melting snows of Kilimanjaro, or the smiles of its people. There is a beauty and simplicity here that’s taken hold of us, leaving us no option but to return.
Hakuna Matata!
We met up with Eug’s parents at the Kilimanjaro airport after six tough days of endless hiking without showering. Besides the fact that it was very nice to see them again for the first time in 5 months, it was a great relief as well. We could be like kids again enjoying a family vacation without having to worry about looking into accommodations and planning out daily itineraries. We could just sit back and relax for the next 10 days; 5 days on the Safari and 5 days in Zanzibar! Woo!
The Safari was seriously awesome. An Australian traveler we met in Syria told us it would be as if you were in the Lion King movie, and she was absolutely right. We went for 4 of the so called ‘Game Drives’ where our Safari guide drove us around in the different national parks in a big safari jeep to look out for animals. The roof of the jeep extended up so we could stick our heads out to get a clear view of the animals. And when I say animals, I don’t mean just any animals, I’m talking about leopards, cheetahs, lions and their cubs, and countless herds of elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, gazelles, buffalos, hippos, etc. etc. Every sighting was jaw dropping until we got tired of seeing them for the 100th time (sorry gazelles, there’s just too many of you).
We did game drives in three national parks: Ngorongoro Crater, The Serengeti, and Lake Manyara. The crater in Ngorongoro was really cool and we saw a rhino there, but the Serengeti was bigger and that’s where we were able to spot the hard-to-find leopard and cheetahs. Lake Manyara is known for bird life, so we saw tons of pelicans and flamingos. Our favourite was seeing the lion cubs walking right by our jeep. As you can see from the picture above, they were adorable and they completely ignored us. I think the animals were all very accustomed to the Safari jeeps. We were like ghosts to them. We also saw a female lion’s attempt to make a kill. Lions do have a lot of patience when it comes to hunting; she waited for a good 45 mins before she decided to make her move. Up to then she was slowly creeping in the tall savannah grasses, poised in the “ready to strike” posture. The suspense was killing all of us. When she did attack it was over in about 3 seconds and the gazelle she was targeting got away. Though we’ve seen it a million times on TV, witnessing a hunt this close has a completely different effect on you.
Another highlight of the Safari was we somehow got upgraded to a very nice hotel for 2 of the 4 nights! The other hotels Eug’s parents booked were already really nice, but this one was out of this world. We were told by our driver only 2 hours before we were to check in that there was a change to our hotel because there was a problem with the original one (which was supposed to be a gorgeous luxury camp). We had no choice so we were expecting something worse. But it turned out to be the Kempinski Bilila Serengeti, the nicest hotel we have ever stayed at! Eug found out that the promotional rate for the hotel was $700/night, I couldn’t even imagine what the regular price would be. Since we didn’t have to pay anything extra, we got a great deal. And what a treat it was after hiking Kilimanjaro! The hotel was right in Serengeti National Park, so we saw zebras from our bathroom window on the first night. In front of the hotel there is a natural watering hole, and elephants drop by regularly as they traverse the savannah looking for a drink. We were told by the staff that the morning of our check in, they sighted 45 elephants right by the hotel. It was a truly beautiful hotel and we were unbelievably lucky to spend 2 nights there.
We were actually fortunate the whole time we were here. It’s rare to spot a leopard or a cheetah, and we saw both very close to our jeep. It’s almost impossible to comprehend the beauty and the power of these large cats when you gaze upon them. Though we only saw one leopard and one cheetah (with 2 small hidden cubs) we saw a lot of lions. At one point as I mentioned earlier we were surrounded by a bunch of cute cubs as the whole huge pride walked right by our jeep. Seeing them 6 feet away allowed us to really experience their grace and magnificence. Watching a lioness hunt was extremely powerful and memorable. At one point there was a huge herd of elephants to our right, another big herd of giraffes to our left, and an innumerable number of zebras and wildebeests in front of us. It’s no wonder the safaris of Africa are among people’s list of dream vacations; to be able to witness the rhythm of nature in all its glory is magical. It’s the Circle of Life, And it Moves us All. (Eug had to throw in the Lion King/Elton John reference).
If you want to see some pictures of the animals we saw on our safari, click on the flickr icon on the right.
The Roof of Africa
50 feet in front of us I could see a cluster of LED headlamps, only now they weren’t steadily moving forward in a row; they were excitedly moving in random directions. Next I saw the flash of a camera, and it was then that I knew we had almost made it. The sun had not yet risen, but the colour had started to emanate from the horizon. We stumbled 20 feet closer and as I looked to my left at Di she started to cry. A few more steps and Andrea’s eyes began to water, and finally the tears started to well up in my eyes as we approached the sign. There it was in front of us: “Congratulations You Are Now At Uhuru Peak, Tanzania, 5895 m”. At 6:10 am, we made it to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, the roof of Africa.
7 days earlier Andrea came to meet us so that we could climb the highest peak on the continent. The next morning we were assembled at our hotel with our fellow climbers. There were 12 in total and we would all be attempting to summit through the Machame route; one that took 6 days or more and was known to be the most scenic. There was a girl from Kazakhstan who would be Andrea’s tent mate, a couple of economists from Yale (one with a PhD and the other one with a masters), a young medical doctor studying in the UK (who said he would be the first person from his home country of Mauritius to summit if he made it), a French couple who had met and lived in Shanghai (fluent in Mandarin) and were on their honeymoon, and 3 Americans, one who worked for Oprah and was in Tanzania for a month volunteering, one who was a marathon runner and another who was a web guy. With this group we set out to conquer the tallest mountain in Africa.
The first day was fairly easy, although it was a muddy 6 hour hike through the misty rainforest and since we were amidst the clouds the entire time it was rather muggy. That night Di reached a brand new milestone; it was her first time to ever sleep in a tent! The next day we managed to break the clouds and get our first peek at the summit and the famous residual snows atop Kilimanjaro. The third day we maxed out at an altitude of 4630m to facilitate our acclimatization before descending back to 3950m to camp for the night. Some members of the group started to feel signs of altitude sickness, mainly in the form of throbbing headaches. Fortunately the 3 of us were still feeling fine. As we ventured higher, the landscape underwent a gradual change into a semi desert which was quite striking. The fourth day was where things started to get interesting as 8 of us continued on while the remaining 4 stayed back to acclimatize for an extra day. We underwent a steep climb up the Barranco Wall early in the morning and about 6 hours later we arrived at the base camp at 4550m. Heading up the Wall gave us the opportunity to witness the magnificent spectacle of the landscape beyond the clouds. The sun was radiating and we were all in awe of how gorgeous the view was. We rested for a couple of hours before having dinner, after which we went back to bed for another couple hours in preparation for our summit attempt which would begin at midnight.
At 11:30 pm we had our preparatory meal of chocolate biscuits and hot tea. All the girls had headaches and slight fevers, and though I wasn’t feeling great I was definitely in better shape. We put on all the layers we had and at exactly midnight everyone assembled outside. We had our exceptional guides Festo and Meshuko give us (Di, Andrea, the Kazakh and I) a final briefing and motivational high fives, and then off we went. As we started our ascent there was a continuous line of at least 50 headlamps slowly snaking its way up the mountain. Over time the gap between the headlamps increased as the slower groups started to falter and the faster ones broke away from the pack. By around 3 in the morning, the climb became exceptionally strenuous; each step up the steep slope required more and more effort as the air became extremely cold and thin. Even sipping water for a span of 2 seconds required 5 seconds of heavy breathing just to recuperate. At one point the guide told us to glance at the moon and the night sky was unlike anything I had ever seen. The sliver of a warm yellow glow of a crescent resembled a smiley face and it was surrounded by millions of stars. They appeared so close in proximity to us that I imagined if I had a butterfly net I could just take a swing and capture a star. I really wanted to take a photograph but getting the camera out would have been far too demanding, so I did my best to take a mental imprint before I dropped my eyesight back to the ground to watch my feet slowly inch forward in a zombie-like state. At 5 in the morning we finally made it to Stella point (5685m) where we were given some warm sweet tea carried in a thermos by one of the guides. After a short rest we made our final one hour push towards the peak, walking on the summit glacier. At this stage most of us could barely walk in a straight line as the altitude was disturbing our equilibrium. Every few minutes I was feeling the need to throw-up and the guide wanted me to down a Red Bull to induce vomiting, which was theoretically supposed to make me feel better. It’s interesting how Kili guides and bartenders both agree that Red Bull stimulates puking. I was certain I didn’t want to go that route and just kept pushing on. After an hour of what seemed like drunken stumbling in the cold while gasping for air, we made it to the summit! We were one of the first groups there and the experience was truly indescribable. It was such an exhausting journey that to finally reach the top was exhilarating and emotionally overwhelming. We were all overcome with happiness and relief that we had finally arrived. I can fully admit that it was for all of us (not just us 3 but every single person we talked to) the most physically challenging thing we had ever done. After 20 minutes of enjoying our accomplishment we started our 23 km descent to a camp located at 3100m. As we descended we were able to watch one of the most magnificent sunrises of our lives. Unfortunately the rising sun also let us see the other climbers who were still on the ascent. Some were vomiting everywhere; others looked as though their eyes were in the backs of their heads as their guides basically carried them up. It was not a pretty sight (though I’m sure we weren’t so pretty either, especially with our constantly running noses). By the time it was the late afternoon, we reached our last campsite with tired knees, burning thighs and exhausted calves. We had been hiking for a total of 14 hours with only a slight break in-between to grab some lunch. However, the return to normal oxygen levels gave our brains enough energy to allow us to soak in what we had done.
We had made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro. All 3 of us had made it to the summit of Kilimanjaro. The victory would not have been as complete if even 1 of us didn’t summit. Being up there has been the most memorable experience on this trip so far; and there are no 2 girls I would have rather shared it with than Di and Andrea. Andrea was always at the front of the group plugging along, never asking for a break and constantly encouraging us. And Kili was Di’s first real camping/hiking trip, how many can claim that? Obviously I’m unbelievably proud of them. Now, who’s up for Everest?
On a Lighter Note
A one hour bus ride took us from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. We noticed right away the atmosphere here was much more relaxed and secular. There is a nice long stretch of beach with hotels, bars, and restaurants just across the street. On the beach, you can see bocce being played everywhere, girls in bikinis, and guys working out by the muscle park doing sit ups and chin ups (“hunka hunka!” Oops did I say that out loud?). It was a drastic change of scenery from the old city of Jerusalem indeed. We weren’t able to book a hotel beforehand, so while the boys sat in the ice cream shop by the beach with our backpacks, Christine and I walked around probably the entire 5 mile radius to look for accommodations. It was the high season so all the reasonable midrange accommodations were fully booked. We finally found a decent hotel by the beach called the Savoy, a treat for us after walking in the 35C heat for almost 2 hours! They only have double rooms, so in order to save some money, Eug shared a double room with Tai (a cool guy from New Zealand we met in Wadi Rum and ran into in Jerusalem again), and I shared a room with Christine. The room was minimalistic modern but very small. I was laughing my head off when we walked into the room and saw two tiny single beds pushed together with barely any room on the sides to separate them. It was a romantic night for Eug and Tai.
Our other travel mate Tim, a young medical doctor from London, rented a car in Tel Aviv and the five of us were able to get around Israel fairly easily in the comfortable Kia. We chilled by the beach for the rest of the day with some beers as Tim kept pointing out all the ‘stacked’ guys on the beach. Thanks for noticing Tim! We went out that night to grab more drinks until 3am. It felt pretty good to have a night life again. We were given some great recommendations for Tel Aviv from the Jewish American couple we shared 5 bottles of wine with in Essaouira 4 months ago. The next day we visited Jaffa, and drove north to Nazareth. Christine has a lawyer friend from Toronto there and we met up with her and her 2 cute kids. Nazareth is Jesus’ hometown (even though he was born in Bethlehem) but he was unsuccessful as a prophet here. The largest Church in the Middle East is the Basilica of Annunciation in the centre of town. It is where Catholics believe the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was preggo. We found the church to be an eye-sore, but it had some cool mosaics of different interpretations of saintly figures from different countries of the world including China. And there was a statue figure representation of Virgin Mary from Taiwan! We stayed in Nazareth for the night to hang with Christine’s friend while Tai and Tim headed towards the Galilee to do some hiking. They came to pick us up the next afternoon and we went for a winery tour at the Golan Heights winery. The Israeli side of the Golan Heights is completely different than the Syrian side, which as you might remember from a previous blog post is destroyed, demilitarized and under UN rule. There are nice residential areas, farms, vineyards, and wineries on the Israeli side of the fence. We couldn’t believe it was the same Golan Heights. That night Tim suffered the England loss to Germany in the World Cup. We were able to cheer him up with some decent Chinese food right by our hostel in Haifa, owned and run by some Hongers. They had been living there for 35 years! We wondered how they got there in the first place. Too bad we didn’t get a chance to find out. In Haifa, we visited the immaculate Baha’i Gardens and we learned a bit about the Baha’i faith from the free one hour tour of this multi-tiered sloped garden. They are one of the world’s youngest religions and they originated from Ali-Muhammed in Iran. There are about between 5 and 6 million Baha’i worldwide who believe in the equality and unity of all religions, and each member must perform a pilgrimage to the Baha’i Gardens at least once in their life, walking the 1400 steps up to the top of the garden. I guess it didn’t count for us since we walked down, not up.
Christine left us at the end of our Israel leg after one more night of drinks on the beach in Tel Aviv until the wee hours, sob sob… We couldn’t believe how fast the 2 weeks with her went by. Thanks for joining us Christine! It’s been awesome having you around. We had a blast with Tai and Tim as well. After Christine left the 4 of us crossed the border back into Egypt where Tim then proceeded to go onto Cairo. The remaining 3 of us went to Dahab, a laid-back diver’s town on the Red Sea. There we did a couple days of diving (that’s us up there!) and just loafing, it was exciting to be able to dive again! We saw a giant turtle, some lionfish, a big school of barracuda, eels, octopus, and of course the cute Nemo! The coral gardens were absolutely gorgeous and there was an astonishing variety of marine life. Now we know why the Red Sea is so famous around the world for Scuba. We both really liked Dahab and its chilled out vibe (unlike its crass and in-your-face neighbour Sharm El-Sheikh) and hope to return. We are currently waiting to fly to Cairo tonight, where we will be meeting with Andrea (Eug’s sister) to continue on to Tanzania. We’ll be on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in two days! Woo Woo!
As I finish this entry I realize by flipping through the pages of our very worn-out Middle East Lonely Planet that we’ve visited all the countries in this book except for Iraq! And we’ve pretty much been to all the photographed places in the ‘Middle East Highlights’ section in the front pages. It’s been an incredible 4 months in this part of the world. We’ve learned so much more about the history, the religions, the cities, the landscapes and best of all, the people. Just as Lonely Planet describes “it’s the people of the region who will leave the most lasting impression”. We really did lose count of the number of tea invitations we’ve received. They are warm and hospitable and always around to help if you seem lost. We’ve also met a lot of interesting travelers here. I can’t be thankful enough to have had the opportunity to travel through this region, and I’m glad I got to share this with Eug. And in turn through this blog, I’m glad we could share it with all of you
The Holy Cities of Israel and the Palestinian Territories
We took 3 short tours: one around old Jerusalem with a conservative Jewish guide, one around Nazareth with a Christian guide, and one around Bethlehem in the West Bank with a Palestinian Muslim. The result was three very different viewpoints on pretty much the same topics. I think you’d be hard pressed to find another area with so much to dispute about; be it history, land, or religion. We knew this coming here, and hearing so many different stories from even just secular travelers we were looking forward to forming our own opinions.
We started our time in Jerusalem, arguably the holiest city on Earth. According to the Jews, the foundation stone of the world is at the Temple Mount, an open plaza on the Biblical Mt Moriah. Abraham also offered his son Isaac to God here, and it is where of the ‘Holy of Holies’ lies. The Muslims also find the Temple Mount very sacred as it is where Mohammed ascended to heaven to be with Allah (this spot now covered by the gold-plated Dome of the Rock, pictured above and Jerusalem’s most iconic building). After Mecca and Medina this city is the 3rd holiest in Islam. Just a few minutes’ walk away from the Temple Mount you will find the Christian quarter of the old city where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is. Christians around the world believe this is where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Can you imagine the religious fervour brought about by these few sites?
To the Jews the Western Wall (or wailing wall, named because the Jews used to cry here as this was all that was left of their scared temple that was destroyed by the Ottomans) is their holiest spot to come to pray. Many leave wishes in the wall on slips of paper as they supposedly have a higher chance of being answered. Soldiers in military garb, civilians in jeans and T’s, and orthodox Jews all dressed in black with matching hats and curly hair continually line the wall, facing it in prayer.
At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre you see Christians crying, overwhelmed by the supposed site of the crucifixion. Just outside Jerusalem is Bethlehem, which, as we all know from our Christmas carols is where Jesus was born. Here at the Church of Nativity a star marks the spot of Christ’s birth in a manger. As we descended the stairs to the spot a bunch of Christian pilgrims around us broke into holy song. They all proceeded to prostrate themselves and continually kiss this star while another guy in their group was reading the bible very monotonously in a trance like state. I actually started to feel uncomfortable, as I was unable to make up my mind as to if this scene was beautiful or a little scary. Behind these guys there were what seemed to be a group of new age hippies, dreads and all, meditating like they were Buddhists (with the legs crossed, soles facing up, and hands gently resting on knees with fingers pointing up) trying to soak in the religious energy.
I’m sure if we could have entered the Muslim holy sites we would have also witnessed something similar, with worshippers really being overwhelmed by the religious significance of where they were.
Being non-religious myself, I couldn’t get into the heavy atmosphere surrounding me. The thing I found by far the most moving in this city was the ‘security wall’ built around it. I won’t get into the politics of the situation, but basically a large wall was built to separate the West Bank where the Palestinians live and Jerusalem. In the West Bank there are many Palestinian refugee camps as well as new Jewish (and hotly contested) settlements. Seeing a new wall built in this day and age was extremely powerful and unfortunately very sad. You’d think that at this point of human development we’d be building bridges, and that walls would be a thing of the past. We were able to have a conversation with a headmaster of an elementary school we met in a square, and it really was quite sobering to hear what little hope he had for himself, his students, or Palestine.
As you walk around the old city of Jerusalem you’ll be passed by devout Muslims rushing to the Al-Aqsa mosque after their call to prayer. You’ll walk beside Christians following the path Jesus walked to his crucifixion, carrying heavy crosses on their back as well as they try to emulate the experience. And you’ll see Jews standing and rocking back and forth as they face the Western Wall praying to God, waiting for their Messiah. You take this in and you realize why this small city grabs so many of the world’s headlines. Even though you hear all the stories on the news as to why there’s conflict, you need to be here to really witness everything yourself to gain your own perspective. Don’t just buy the media’s version of events, as the exact same story can be reported as something completely different by Fox News, CNN, Al Jazeera News and CCTV. Come here and talk to people of all different faiths (including atheism), all different races, and all different backgrounds, including other worldly travelers. You’ll be drawn into the conversation that encompasses war, religion, politics, and history. Though the discussions can be hotly contested and turbulent, in the end you’ll be happy you were a participant, even if you were just a listener.
Dead Sea – the funnest place ever!!
Being in the Dead Sea is probably one of the most fun things in the world. The salinity of the Dead Sea is 31% which is about 9 times higher than the ocean; as a result everything is very buoyant. I was looking forward to floating around in the water because I could never stay afloat by sitting and extending my legs out like most Europeans you see on the Mediterranean. And Eug planned to take Christine and I to a spa by the Dead Sea, which we found out later wasn’t just any spa, it was the Zara Spa at the Movenpick, justifiably renowned as one of the best in the Middle East. It was quite a treat after a few nights of two star hotel stays and camping out in the desert.
We drove our trusty but not so powerful Toyota Yaris from Aqaba to the Dead Sea in three hours on the Dead Sea highway. The landscape turned from all desert to a body of smooth oily blue water. It kind of resembled the road in Hawaii without the tides, and Israel was just on the opposite shore. The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on earth at 408m below sea level, and when we passed by the marker on the highway that indicated we were below sea level I started to get excited. We were ecstatic when we saw the Movenpick sign emerging on the side of the highway. We first went to the private beach at the back of the hotel and self administered a mud wrap by covering ourselves with mud from a big clay pot next to the water. The Dead Sea mud contains high concentrations of minerals including calcium and magnesium, which have health-giving properties. It was funny seeing everyone patting and rubbing mud on themselves. It reminded me of Mystique in X-men but in mud colour. Even Eug got into it. He covered his face with mud too which Christine and I didn’t dare to. Then we all jumped into the Dead Sea. It’s so amusing when you just can’t sink in water! The very first thing I tried was extending my legs out and sitting in the water like the Europeans. I could finally do it! We also tried to stand straight holding a pencil dive pose but it was impossible to hold that position for long. We ended up bouncing awkwardly sideways back to a floating position, kind of like that inflatable toy with a weight in the bottom that keeps reverting to its starting position after you punch it. We also tried sitting crossed legged, which was fairly easy to do. Christine and I tried some synchronized swimming poses, but it turned out Eug was the best at that (jk). I tried the Bikram airplane pose, super fun. I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing the whole time. If you haven’t been to the Dead Sea yet, you must! It is 3 million years old but it has shrunk by 30% in recent years, about half a meter per year which means it’s disappearing. I must give credit to Christine for being a real trooper. She had all kinds of wounds on her body from the days before but she sucked it all up and spent as much time in the salty water as we did and had a blast too. It must’ve stung like hell for her. One of the life guards (not sure why they were there since you couldn’t possibly drown in the Dead Sea) even called her to the side at the end and bandaged up her wounds. We then tried all the spa pools. There were three indoor Dead Sea pools, one aqua-pressure pool, foot-massage pool, and one gorgeous infinity pool with a view of the sunset. We spent about 4 hours in the spa altogether, it was a relaxing haven.
We headed back to Amman after the Dead Sea spa. Christine’s friend hooked us up with a pimp suite at a very reasonable rate, which wrapped up our Jordan journey very nicely. She decided to stay in Amman for one more day to hang out with her friend and meet us in Israel the next day. So Christine’s story continues. Thankfully Eug and I had a very boring border crossing to Israel (we were told we would have trouble since we had Syrian and Lebanese stamps in our passport) compared to Christine’s. The next day, we were waiting for her at our hospice in Jerusalem when we received an email from her saying ‘You guys go ahead and don’t wait around for me; they evacuated the entire border crossing building, it might take awhile’. I thought ‘uh oh… that doesn’t sound good’. Because when we were in Aqaba, a Taiwanese mom restaurant owner told us that three Taiwanese boys were scared out of their minds when they couldn’t tell the custom officer what was in one of the bags their friend asked them to bring back for him. The next thing you know, they blew up the bag without trying to find out what was inside. When Christine finally made her way to us, we found out that they evacuated the building because of the purse her friend gave her in Amman. It was a Thomas Wylde purse with tons of studded metal skull heads. I guess the border security people couldn’t identify what they were looking at through the x-ray machine, so they called Christine in after evacuating and questioned her for awhile. Luckily they didn’t blow up her purse.
Christine should really write a book about her 2 week adventure with us. I hope it’ll be smooth sailing for her from now on.
Our poor friend Christine
Christine arrived in Amman, Jordan on a long, 2 day connecting flight from Vancouver ready to spend 2 weeks with us on our adventure. I think she’s regretting coming already.
The first place the 3 of us went to was Jerash, an old Roman town about an hour north of Amman. Though the ruins are quite nice, I think Di and I are pretty happy that they are the last ones we’ll see on this trip as collectively we’ve seen more than 15. Anyways, in the Roman theatre the last step, about one inch high, is of different height than the rest of the steps. Christine missed this as we were coming down, resulting in her falling and rolling on the ground on her first day here. Her knee and hand were quite scraped up but after she got up and dusted herself off we were all able to laugh as it honestly looked pretty funny. It was a really slow fall and roll, so she called it her slow-motion-fail.
The next morning we rented a car really early and drove to Petra, the ancient rose-red city that is the highlight of anyone’s trip to Jordan. The Nabataeans, who built it, were an Arab tribe who settled in the region and were able to generate massive wealth through controlling the lucrative trade routes of the desert caravans. They also had control of water supplies through innovative hydraulic engineering, creating an artificial oasis that only added to their prosperity. This wealth enabled them to cut this beautiful city out of rock, a city that is now on everyone’s list of “places you must see before you die”. This was my second time here, and this time was equally as fascinating, if not better than the last. The only thing that was worse was the preposterous entrance fee which is currently 33 JD (about 50 USD) but will be rising to 50 JD (70 USD) in November of this year. I think since they’ve been voted on that ridiculous list of “The New 7 Wonders” they’ve raised the prices significantly.
About a kilometre after you pass the entrance gates of Petra you hit the Siq. The canyon-like Siq is 1.2 km long, with walls up to 200 m high on either side. At parts the width of the path between the walls is only 2 metres. Technically it’s not a canyon as it’s a block that’s been ripped apart by tectonic forces. Either way it’s my favourite part of Petra and as you emerge from the darkness of its looming walls your first sight is the Treasury (pictured above), bathed in daylight and absolutely stunning. The treasury is Petra’s signature building, and seeing it as you come out of the Siq is Petra’s most ethereal experience. I actually enjoyed it more the second time because I knew what was coming and the anticipation of it approaching was pretty exciting, unlike my first time when I had no idea how long the Siq was or what was at the other end of it. Way at the other end of the city about a 2 hour hike away (over 800 steps uphill are involved) is the Monastery, Petra’s second most famous building. The Treasury was used in Indiana Jones and the Monastery was used most recently in Transformers 2. The plan was to walk from the Siq to the Monastery and back, admiring all the other amazing structures in between. Christine (a high powered lawyer in a famous downtown firm who is not used to walking) wanted to hire a donkey to cover the distance. Di and I did not want donkeys, so being the team player that Christine is she decided to try this crazy thing called hiking. Much to our delight she made it all the way to the Monastery! We stayed there for about an hour to take pictures, drink water, and rest before making our way back down. All in all, we were probably hiking for at least 5 hours. Unfortunately all this walking created a massive blister on the sole of Christine’s foot, and she decided not to tell us.
The next morning we drove down to Wadi Rum, a desert made famous by TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). I actually like it more than the Sahara due to its amazing landscape and colour. Here large sandstone and granite mountains emerge from the pinkish desert, with wide sandy valleys separating these pillars. It reminded me of the limestone islands of Asia (Halong Bay or Krabi or Palawan), except you replace the ocean with sand and the limestone islands with these sandstone ones. When we arrived, Bedouins met us and took us around in 4x4s for the day to different attractions in the desert. One of these attractions was a natural bridge that you could hike up to. The Bedouin guide told us to take off our sandals to walk as the slope was quite steep and would be better walked barefoot. Christine, though scared of heights, was a good sport and did exactly as she was asked (though deep down I’m pretty sure she wasn’t so thrilled about it). Unfortunately, the hill was a little rough and it cut open her blister. Imagine having an open blister on your foot while you’re in the sand-filled desert. Yes it would suck. She kept it together and that night we slept on mattresses underneath the countless stars with no tent in the middle of the desert. I actually really enjoyed it as it was warm (unlike the Sahara) and I decided to listen to old songs and reminisce (think R&B songs from the mid-late 90s, I think my haircut from Barbie in Kuwait got me in the mood) while all the other people were sleeping.
The next morning we awoke and drove to the town of Aqaba on the Red Sea. By this time Christine could barely walk as her blister was filled with sand (and looking pretty nasty if you ask me). So we went to a pharmacy where the pharmacist, a 250 pound dude, asked her to sit down so he could clean her wound before bandaging her. For the next 20 minutes, he was my new hero. First he told her to put her foot on his lap, and then he proceeded to tear off the tape that Christine had on covering her blister. She was in obvious pain while he was slowly peeling this off, and as she was gasping he looked up at her and told her to ”stop being such a baby”. Immediately I started to like this guy. After this he wiped the wound with iodine which elicited a larger pain response from her. Di ran over to hold her hand, and the pharmacist looked at Di disapprovingly and said “she’s not having a baby”. Awesome! He then proceeded to bandage everything up really nicely and when he was done he finally smiled and started to joke around. I would love to be able to be that stern with my patients in certain situations, but alas that would not fly in North America. After this Christine went back to the hotel to rest while Di and I did some spectacular snorkelling in the Red Sea.
Now we’re off to the Dead Sea before heading to Israel. Christine, who is walking with a significant limp, still has about 9 days left with us. Let’s see if we can keep the remaining parts of her body injury free.
A little something from home…
Our friend Christine brought a surprise for us from one of our best friends at home. Along with it came a little note:
Ahhhh, the life of the ex-pat wife
Our friend Christine was flying from Vancouver to meet us in Jordan on June 16th, which gave us just over 3 weeks to cover Syria and Lebanon before meeting her. However, since we ended up traveling with other people in these 2 countries we shared private cars instead of taking public transport. This allowed us to see 2 or 3 sights a day instead of one, effectively leaving us with too much time to cover these 2 countries. We could have stayed in Lebanon for a few more days to relax and party, but Beirut is pretty expensive so for the sake of our budget we decided to move on. Here we were, with about a week extra to kill before meeting our friend and we didn’t know where to go. We took a look at our map to see which countries were close by and there on the Gulf was our answer, Kuwait.
My aunt and uncle (pictured above) have been living in Kuwait for the past 7 years. My uncle works for Chevron and is one of many qualified and highly educated ex-pats running this tiny country. My aunt is a lady of leisure, pretty much like all of the other ex-pat wives here. I gave them an email, wondering if they would take in 2 poor, tired, and starving travelers. Much to the delight of Di and I (and our stomachs), they said yes. We hopped on a flight from Beirut to Kuwait city and about 2 hours later there was my aunt, waiting for us at the airport with a driver from the Hilton, sweet!
The first thing you notice here when you exit the airport is the heat, it is scorching. It was 50 degrees Celsius while we were there. 50 degrees! Supposedly this has been an abnormally hot summer though, usually it’s a balmy comfortable and cool 45 degrees, we were just unlucky.
The driver took us back to the Hilton where my aunt and uncle are living in one of the chalets (thankfully with an extra guest bedroom for us). The ride there was interesting as we were sitting with an American working for the White House who was en route to Iraq the next day. Not often do you hear someone in government telling you how badly their government has screwed up, but that was his view. I think his exact words were “We completely destroyed Iraq, and for what?” Though the car ride was only about 30 minutes it was interesting to say the least.
When we got to the Hilton, we were greeted by 2 fresh glasses of OJ at the check in counter before getting another ride to our chalet. Inside there was a room for us with fresh ironed sheets, plump white pillows, and A/C. My aunt then proceeded to make us some Chinese food. Not that we don’t like Middle Eastern food, but 3 and a half months without white rice or soy sauce has been giving me withdrawal symptoms. It hit the spot.
From that moment on, we spent the next week living the life of an ex-pat wife. It goes something like this: breakfast, meet friends for coffee, meet other friends for lunch, shop, maybe play bridge, meet husband for dinner, watch tv. I know that sounds hectic, but luckily you can usually squeeze in a nap or some time to read a book somewhere in that busy schedule.
As my aunt had a scale, we weighed ourselves. I won’t tell you how much Di weighed, but I dropped down to 139 pounds. One of my goals for the week was to gain back at least 5 of the 15 pounds I’d lost. They had a great gym at the hotel and we were going to be eating a lot so I was quite confident I could do it. My other goal for the week was to get a haircut as I hadn’t had one since I left Canada almost 4 months ago.
I was going to get a haircut in Syria, but one of the guys we were traveling with got one there. He emerged with a buzz cut after asking for a trim. That was motivation enough to not go to a Syrian barber. When I told my aunt I needed a cut, she said she knew someone who could do it and who wasn’t too expensive. There was a Toni & Guy salon here, but I decided to go with her suggestion instead as everything in Kuwait is super expensive and I was worried about the Toni & Guy price. Her suggested salon was in a mall with stores like Tiffany & Co, pretty high end, so that inspired some confidence. The stylist was a Filipino named Barbie, and I thought to myself with a name like that you’ve gotta be pretty good at cutting hair. He proceeded to first give me a wash which went smoothly, but once I got back in the chair it started to go downhill. He asked what I wanted, and since my hair looked like a mop top schlop I asked for a book of haircuts to show him. He gave me a picture book from 1993 with categories like “Business”, “Casual”, and “Party”. I tried my best to keep a straight face as I put the book down and just politely asked for a trim. I was hoping he didn’t give me the “business” look as I wasn’t auditioning for a part in the movie remake of Dallas or LA Law. Anyways, he cut my hair, giving me something really neat and tidy. After that he decided to blow dry it, giving me as much body as possible. I emerged from the chair biting my upper lip trying not to laugh as I thanked and paid him. My hair looked like it belonged to a Hong Kong pop star (more Andy Lau than the others), circa 1993…score. I walked down to Starbucks where Di and my aunt and uncle were waiting, only to be greeted by laughter. Even my quiet uncle made a remark that I had a bouncy pillow on the back of my head. I kinda liked it for the day, too bad I didn’t have a suede vest and light blue high-waisted tapered jeans with a tucked in baggy shirt to match.
There isn’t much to see in Kuwait. For sights we went to one small private museum and we checked out the Kuwait towers. It is a socially interesting place though. The malls look identical to ones you’d see in any nice suburb in the states, right down to the stadium seating cinemas and the 5 starbucks stores. However, not one Kuwaiti works in any of the stores. All of the service staff are either Filipino or Indian or Sri Lankan etc. In fact, it’s basically all expats that run this country, with more highly educated ones working in the oil companies (like my uncle) and the less educated doing all the service and cleaning jobs. Supposedly there are about 1 million “real Kuwaitis” and 2 million foreigners here to help the country run. Though many women wear burkas, that hasn’t been unlike many other Middle Eastern countries we’ve been to. The big difference is many of the men here are decked out in full Arab Gulf wear (the long white one piece tunics with the red and white head scarf held down on their heads with a black band).
A few months ago I wrote about the “curse of oil” as an observation of Libya. Here, it’s a lot more noticeable. Kuwait is a far richer country with (in relation to the small population) basically unlimited oil. When you go to the supermarkets the only product that is Kuwaiti is the fish, reeled in from the Gulf. Everything else, all the produce available, is imported from the rest of the world. Educated ex-pats come here in droves to collect a heavy pay check before going home, none I met want to stay. Other workers from poorer countries are treated badly but don’t really have a choice as they need to make a living.
Social issues aside, we had a great time here. Having a nice bed, clean laundry and fantastic meals daily does wonders for your energy levels. Hanging out with my aunt’s friends everyday, other ex-pat ladies of leisure, was super entertaining. Plus seeing my aunt and uncle was really nice, especially since it’s been a while since I’ve seen any family. They were great hosts and the week blew by. As my uncle is retiring and moving back to the States in a few months this will probably be the last chance we have to visit the Gulf for a while, unless I figure out a way to convince Di to be a high earning ex-pat out here. I have 7 months to achieve this before we return home; I’ll start learning bridge in the meantime to prepare myself for that lifestyle.
fromwonderintowonder 
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