Singapore Stop Over

To be honest, I was against this idea. I honestly thought that it would be better if we just bit the bullet & went straight home. However...I have to admit, I think J1 definitely had a moment of genious when he booked us a couple of nights here in Singapore before the final leg of the journey. After hours & hours of waiting to fly, in both Amman & Dubai, as well as the sardine-like compression of flying with Emirates whose planes seemed to be designed especially for midgets, we needed a break. (I would like to be positive about this airline, but in all honesty...I cant! I would Soooooooooooooooooooooo like to get on my little bandwagon about aircraft space allocations & the contradiction between the 'safety' video & the reality of whether some of us could actually carry them out in the pitiful space provided...........but I will spare you!!!! ) All I will say is that heaven is being able to stretch ones limbs & lie horizontal! What we had been COMPLETELY ignorant of, was that our stopover was timed to coincide perfectly with Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations! This has meant that the shops in all the mega malls are predominantly closed (not necessarily a bad thing) & there have been amazing decorations, fireworks & celebrations instead. Our hotel treated all us visitors to a Lion & dragon dance show, which was amazing. It set us up with high spirits as we braved the high humidity & ventured forth to the impressive Asian Civilizations Museum. A great place to spend a few hours. We have also managed to see 'The Narnia Exhibition' which, being just very big kids at heart...we thoroughly enjoyed!!!! We feel relatively refreshed to now embrace the next part of the trip home. Here we come.....

Over...already????

It is hard to believe that the trip we have had in the planning for the past year & a half, has finally come to an end. It still, after all these weeks & adventures, feels somewhat surreal, to have actually visited these places that ever since childhood, have held such exotic fascination for both of us. Would we have changed anything? Overall, we have been very pleased with our itinerary planning. The only change we would make, in hindsight, is to reduce our time in Abu Simbel & have at least one night in Alexandria. We didn't get to the far flung desert oasis of Siwa, but feel we haven't really missed out, having visited a few of the other oases. The guides we booked, mainly through Casual Cairo Detours were excellent & we were also happy with White Desert Tours & Nour El Nil Dahibeyas. It wasn't a cheap trip, but we enjoyed the variety of accommodation & ways with which we travelled. In Jordan we actually travelled with On The Go Tours, which was unusual for us, as I tend to be rather scathing about tour companies. However, this was a small group & we thankfully got on well with the other couple...the delightful Jenny & Mike from London. We were happy with the itinerary & I was happy to leave all the organizing up to someone else!!!! Our guide was more like a friend showing us around her home country instead of a guide with clients. We truly valued that difference. In fact, the surprising treat has been getting to know our guides & through them a glimpse into their real lives in these very real places. The question we have been asked a few times has been...did we have a camel ride? The short answer is "No", but did have a very romantic camel trek into the Sahara 20 years ago in Tunisia, just to see the sunset! At that time we were highly suspicious that we just might be pregnant with our first child. This proved to be a correct assumption. Now, as we finish this first big 'childless' trip since that time, we are so happy to still enjoy each others company just as much as we did back then & look forward VERY much to seeing our grown up children on our return. Thanks for keeping us company on this trip & I hope that we have encouraged...at least some of you....to venture to Egypt & Jordan yourselves sometime! Cheers.

mad about mosaics in madaba

Well...guess what? We began with another freezing morning and numb body parts as we walked around the streets of Madaba. This town was a large Christian town in the Roman and Byzantine periods and then disappeared under the sands of time. If it had not been for a second group of Christians being exiled here to Madaba in the 1890's there would have remained some 12 Churches and homes hidden under the ground. We were fortunate enough to explore some of the discovered mosaics. Special views included the famous map of the Holy land in mosaic form. There were earlier mosaics that actually showed faces and animal forms. A special one was of a dancer (?Salome) dancing with a naked man. Many of the mosaics were covered in dust and J2 wanted to get out the vacuum cleaner and clean them up!!! The other thing that Madaba does is replica mosaics with a college for mosaicists. The hotel is even called the Mosaic City Hotel. We met the uncle of Julia Sawahlia (a British actress in many films) and J2 got to try out a hand made, Bedouin style dress in the shop. The time ended with a late lunch, warming cup of tea and the opportunity to say goodbye to Jamila. Her parting gift was to take us on another walk to the best bakery in town. There is a tradition that after Friday Mosque the locals will go and eat a special dessert. This is layered pastry,(or was it sponge?), filled with a mozarella like cheese, covered in honey syrup, chopped pistachios and cooked. Sounds weird but it was so good we had seconds. It was straight out of the oven, the best way to eat it. Great way to say goodbye.

Food Glorious Food

One of the things we both take pleasure in is eating...& it is a skill we have been exercising with enthusiasm since arriving in Jordan. Whilst in Petra, we had the opportunity to learn how to cook some Jordanian dishes, so, as you can imagine, we happily donned aprons & got stuck in! It was fabulous fun & we enjoyed the company of the other couple who were learning as well. It was quite a festive atmosphere as we sat down together to eat the results of our efforts! As well as a traditional Lentil Soup (also known as 'Poor man's meal'), we cooked 4 meze dishes. Two of these were cold; babaganouj & fatoosh, and two hot; lamb stuffed toasted pitas & a tomato & pine nut sauce. As meze come before every main course, we have been comparing our efforts with those dished up to us at restaurants since. We have yet to find a fatoosh rival, our babaganouj was as good as a well respected restaurant here in Madaba serves up, and our lamb toasties.....no one else comes close!!!!!! Our main dish was chicken cooked with onion, potato & tomato. Added to the flavour is a combination of 7 different spices.(Nothing like KFC!) We have had another version of the same dish, but not quite as tasty! One of the big things Jordanian cooks value is freshness. Even the chicken is as fresh as it can be. The birds are alive in the shop when the cook comes in, chooses which bird/s are wanted, then they are slaughtered, plucked & quartered right then & there, before they are taken away to become something delicious! A bit of an eye opener to us! Our guide, Jamilla has also introduced us to a few taste sensations, including a falafel wrap, doused with a dollop of chilli, salad & of all things...chips! GREAT snack for lunch! As our last meal together, she took us to a restaurant in a restored ottoman building. The atmosphere was charming with a huge log fire roaring away. When the meze arrived, there were so many that we questioned whether we'd have room left for mains, it was all so delicious. However, when the main dish arrived & it happened to be chicken....it didn't take long for us to recognize, that ours was very obviously superior!!!!

Salt & Mud

Today our destination was the Dead Sea! Enroute we stopped for a quick glimpse at another HUGE Crusader castle (well, what remained of it) at Karak. Then it was all about the salt! Our first surprise was how big the Dead sea is. We met it at the southern end & drove up to a more northerly part. It was incredible to think we were 400 metres BELOW sea level, the lowest point on earth. GULP! Since we will never go to the highest point on earth...we think one outta two aint bad!! It was fascinating to stop & see the crystalized salt forming at the edge of the water. Our driver picked up a piece for our closer inspection & to our surprise, found it very much like coral, & hollow in the centre. Across the water we could make out kibbutzes in Israel, Jericho & in the far distance, little specks we took to be Jerusalem! We were booked to spend the afternoon in a spa resort...which, believe me, sounds more impressive than it was! It had claim on a small 'bay' of Dead Sea coast line & that was all we needed. I was determined to go in even though there was a cool wind blowing. Although a little cool to start with, it was quite pleasant once in. Bobbing like a cork is quite an amusing pastime...I felt like I had invisible inflatable floaties underneath me. I had no problem rolling over sideways but moving into a sitting position from lying flat required some maneuvering!! There were trays of Dead Sea mud to try, so we slapped as much on as we could before freezing in the wind! I'm not sure how long we should have left it on before rinsing off, but the increasing coolness of the wind encouraged us to return to the water pretty soon after slathering!! Salt water has the ability to highlight scratches & abrasions one never knew one had & it STINGS! This didn't deter from the pleasure of being here & the whole whacky experience!

The Chill Factor

Canvas tents offer little in the way of insulation during Jordanian winter....in the desert. Sleeping with 4 layers of clothing on, 2 pairs of socks & 5 thick blankets, I was as snug as a bug until nature required that I remove myself from hibernation! Arctic is the word that comes to mind. But, oh, how beautiful the early morning sun was over the red cliffs of Wadi Rum. Breakfast was around the camp fire in the main tent, where we gratefully began by wrapping numb fingers around cups of sage tea. Our guide, Jamilla, started making us a special type of toasted sandwich; pita bread lined inside with olive oil & a sprinkling of dukka, then placed to toast on both sides over hot coals. Scrumptious! It was a cosy little group that tucked into these, seated on low cushions, stunning rugs all over the floor and the fire absorbing our total attention! All good things must come to an end & any vestige of warmth was just about to. Our journey back to civilization was on the back of an open topped jeep! MAJOR CHILL FACTOR! The scenery was stunning & included patches of last nights frost! We drove through the area where the Peter O'Toole movie of Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. Jamilla's father was in the film...one of the casts of thousands, & not even he can find himself on the movie!! Despite the cold, we were in awe of the beauty around us...but were very, VERY happy to get into our lovely warm van at the rendezvous point!

In the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia

This afternoon we left Petra to go to Wadi Rum. This is a large nature reserve in JOrdan where we were to stay in a campsite run by local bedouins. The trip was interspersed with a number of stops to highlight some of the sights. Heading into a landscape of sandy plains with large mountains layered around these flat areas led to Lawrence (of Arabia!)falling in love with this location. He even had his face sculpted in the local stone, had a stone house built and had a spring named after him. He is highly respected in this region. We even saw the seven pillars of wisdom that he used to name his book and the real pillars were very impressive. We spent the next few minutes trying to work out what were the seven intellectual pillars of wisdom... still not sure! The next stop was one that the ancient Nabateans used, as their caravans made their way through the area. They would stop here to refill their water supply & they would write messages on the rocks for the next caravan due to come through. Some of those pictograph messages still remain. The camel drawings were identifiable but personally there could be a debate that they were really dinosaurs! The campsite we are staying in tonight, is made up of several small tents with small beds and hopefully plenty of blankets. It is located close to some large rocks that we cliimbed to sit and watch the sunset. What colours! It is cold at night here and the sky is completely full of stars. In the large central tent a fire burns to welcome us. Dinner was superb in this environment. Lentil soup, salads, rice and chicken cooked with vegetables. Sounds so dull.... but it was very nice. So far we would have to say that food in Jordan is a step above that found in Egypt. And tonight it is followed by chestnuts roasted on the open fire!!!

Petra by the secret way

Another cold day awaited us as we left the Hotel at 0700 hours. It was really challenging to be ready that early, but we did it. Rather than going the usual route through the siq (canyon) we went over the mountains and we climbed the rocks and small waterways. The landscape in the early morning light was lit in a golden glow and the rocks were luminescent at times. The secret way led off where there were no others around. It would have been impossible to do without a guide to find the way. The path eventually led up to a high altar site where open air sacrifices were made. It was then that J1 was befriended by a cat, obviously trying to protect him from being the victim to be sacrificed. by the Nabateans. A cat followed J1 for a while & afterwards pleaded with him for more attention. For some reason J1 has attracted cats everywhere he has been in Jordan. We are wondering what strange power he has....! After a trek down we ended up in the main region of the tombs and wandered back up past the treasury, which again, took our breath away. Then it was through the siq and to the hotel. This was our final venture into Petra and it was a highlight of the trip.

In the footsteps of Indiana Jones

Today was a chance to visit in daylight one of the new seven wonders of the world. We started early with a 2 km walk through a gorge some 30-50metres high and only 2-3 metres wide at times. The path winds its way down through a number of tombs, carved niches with gods, a pipeline system to collect water and brightly colored sandstones. The light reflecting off it all was spectacular. Then came the famous turn with the treasury building becoming visible. Wow. It is better in real life than on the Indiana Jones film. We passed the treasury and then discovered a second smaller gorge which led to an amazing landscape of hundreds of tombs cut into the rock face, some of them even bigger and more spectacular than the treasury building. The sandstone was colored in reds, oranges, whites, yellows, blacks and greys. There was no need for paint here. The path led us past many bedouin people trying to sell anything and everything. J2 met a Kiwi woman who had married a bedouin and lived on one of the caves in this valley. They have now been moved out (except 6 or so famiies). We went on a secret back path and met one of the few remaining people living in the region. He gladly made sage tea for us and we sat and shared the silence. This left us charged for a climb up some 860 steps to another royal tomb called the monastery. The degree of difficulty in the climb is at times significant with rampaging donkeys being led or running past us. The views from the climb up some 750meters onto the Jordan valley and beyond were spectacular. Then it was all back the same path to lead back home. Quite a special place and the size of it was surprising. We were both staggered by the degree of building of rock cut tombs, the immense range of colours and the size of the site. It deserves it's claim as a new member of the seven wonders of the world.

Petra by night

It was a cold evening as we set out, wrapped in as many layers as we could to go to Petra at night. This tour was something we had very little idea about what it involved but we were keen to get our first glimpse of this location. We walked some 2 km into Petra down a narrow trail that was uneven and at times covered in Roman cobblestones. The path was marked out by lines of small red lanterns on the ground with candles burning. It was quite mystical. We wound our way around a darkened landscape and moved through a gorge that seemed so high that we could only see a small section of the sky. The sky was inky black with a plethora of stars shining down on us. The silence at times was deafening. We eventually turned a corner to come out onto the famous "treasury" building. This was in fact a royal tomb. It was glowing in the many lanterns lit on the ground in front of it. We were directed to sit on some carpet with the other tourists and were entertained with musicians playing local traditional music. The Bedouins gave us a cup of tea with sage and sugar. Quite a different flavour from liptons! Although people could not be quiet as was requested, the total event was ethereal. Petra at night, with tombs all around was quite an event. The trip back was more difficult as it was all up hill. We managed it with no injuries!!

North to South

We awoke this morning to a cold, frosty, wintry day with the wind coming in from the north. Blue skies and sunshine do not mean warm weather here in January. We went off to the citadel of Amman, located on one of 7 hills. From this vantage point we got a fantastic view of old Amman. The citadel is also where the remains of the Temple to Hercules once was. Built by the Romans,the statue of Hercules standing some 15m tall, stood inside the temple. All that remains is a hand and fingers lying in the soil. The citadel was a fortress for many different civilizations and we walked through byzantine and ottoman ruins. There was a small archaeological museum there with a range of artifacts. One stunning ivory and inlaid ebony fountain was our choice of the piece of the museum. WE then travelled through the more prosperous areas of Amman, where the wealthy and foreign embassies are located. There is a lot of wealth here!!!! We even saw the Australian embassy. It only warranted one guard outside, unlike our American friends who seemed to have a whole army outside their embassy!!! We then started south to Mount Nebo where MOses is said to have brought the Israelites, seen Israel and then died. He is apparently buried on the mountain and this has been confirmed by the Vatican recently. So it must be true!!! This hill looked down onto a spring said to have been created by Moses with his staff. There were remains of Byzantine churches and some beautiful mosaics that we saw replicas of. Sadly the Church is under restoration and we couldn;t see the originals. Mt Nebo looks out on to Israel, the Dead Sea, and we saw Jericho and in the hazy distance could see Jerusalem and Bethlehem. We have both found it advantagious to have been brought up with bible stories, whilst in this area! After freezing to the point of numbness we moved on to have lunch where we tried the national dish of Jordan. This is mansaf (a lamb dish cooked in yoghurt and rice). Quite unusual flavour. We traveled onto see the new world heritage site where Byzantine ruined churches hid magnificent mosaics. These were exceptional and one cannot express enough admiration for the skills. However, we weren't seeing them in their original form. Oh no...the iconoclasts had got there first & sabotaged the work. What we see now is an example of how the iconoclasts rearranged images. Nearby was a tower with no entrance where a monk would sit and meditate. He could only communicate or leave the tower by means of a rope. This led us onwards to a Crusader Castle that we were not allowed entrance to. The tourist police officer decided it was too cold and he wanted to go home. Still it looked good perched on top of the hill. Finally we arrived in Petra. The challenge is to survive tonight when we head to the Petra under lights show. It is probably going to mean losing a few digits to frostbite but whatever!!!

Day one Jordan

On arrival in Amman it was so cold, foggy, damp and bleak that we needed to purchase a hat and gloves to keep warm enough to survive. This was duly accomplished with a walk downtown. Enroute we discovered that Amman is cleaner than Egypt, buildings are completed here, there are road rules that seem to be adhered to and cars stopped for pedestrian crossings! This is a region where the 21st century has arrived!! The first full day of touring Jordan was to the north of the country where we saw two towns. The first is Jerash and the second was Um Qais. Jerash is the best preserved Roman town in Jordan and we were allowed to spend 3 to 4 hours there. Besides colonnaded streets, masive pillars, temples to Zeus and Artemis, three amphitheaters, a hippodrome and three Byzantine churches with in situ mosaic floors... we saw evidence of the Greek ruins below this town. Like many places here, there are layers upon layers of towns. A treat was seeing a troupe of Roman legionaries put through their battle paces. Gladiators fought to the sound track of...guess which movie! There was also a chariot race...although only one pair of horses seemed interested in racing. The display brought Ancient Rome back to life. We proceeded to Um Qais where another Roman city has begun to be uncovered from below an Ottoman town. The use of black basalt in building amphitheaters, roads and pillars was a new sight for us. The location was interesting because on the next hill we could see the occupied Golan Heights that now belong to Israel, the border with Syria and evidence of military attacks on Jordan by Israel in the 1970's. The sea of Galilee was just to the left and religious stories seemed to relate to everything we could see. Our guide is a local Jordanian woman who lives in Jerash and is passionate about her homeland and her family. She was particularly keen to pick the local "weeds" to take home to feed her son in law with. Dinner was in a local restaurant where even ambassadors come to eat. We were fed with home made bread, multiple mezze's and four meat dishes that were delicious. Jamila (our guide) was quite disparaging of Egyptian food and made the comment that other Arab nations produce far better cuisines. This meal was a good start to supporting her arguement.

Ma'a Salaam Cairo

It was our last day in Cairo & our first day without a guide to help us find our way! Time to brave up & tackle this city on our own!!!! We decided that we should have a go at traveling by Metro, and as there was a station not far away at Tahrir Square, we knew we could get some exercise in, take some photos of the square to prove to our son we had been there & then catch the metro south back to the Coptic Museum. It looked fairly simple on paper! We got off to a good start...not much traffic, beautiful embassy buildings, leafy trees....and then we realized we really should have turned left by now!!!! We got ourselves out of that predicament only to find ourselves in another. The police had barbed wire fencing up, stopping all traffic, both vehicular & pedestrian from proceeding up the street (towards Tahrir Square). This meant a DETOUR. Which means...another period of time when we got completely lost! Eventually we asked someone who set us in the right direction. We took photos of the square, went to the Metro...only to discovered the entrance doors bolted shut! Okaaaaaaay...we went to another entrance...same thing. We dodged traffic & went to a third entrance...same again! For some reason we were not meant to be getting on the metro at Sadat Station at that time!!!!!! We sought the Nile (easy) & followed it back to our hotel, where we were able to thaw out a little as the concierge showed us a few little directional tips! This time we headed for the other station & got there NO PROBLEMS! The metro car that we were in is not used to foreign visitors...especially female ones! I didn't feel any sense of danger or threat, but I was noticed!!!!! We found the Coptic museum without problem & obediently handed over our camera to the security guard! This is an impressive little museum but oh so dark. I wished I'd stashed my torch in my handbag! Beautiful frescoes, embroideries & carvings from the Coptic Monastries, filled the space. Up above exquisite wood carved ceilings, just begged me to snap my neck back & have a really good moment of admiration!! One of the delights was seeing a page from the book of Thomas, one of the Gnostic Gospels found at Nag hammadi, which, we discovered courtesy of a map...was very close to where we had been in Dendara & Abyddos...way back at the beginning of our trip. We are back in the hotel now... having survived going solo, and face the task of fitting everything into two suitcases! In sorting through our collected bits, we laid out all the entry tickets to museums & sites that we had seen over the past month. WOW! What a trip! We head to Jordan early tomorrow morning. For those of you who have shared this journey with us through our blogging...thank you...we aim to continue whilst in Jordan, but have yet to discover how reliable 3G & wifi coverage are. For now, Ma'a Salaam!

A Taste of Egypt

The time had come to not just enjoy tasting Egyptian food, but to learn how to cook it as well! Again, through Casual Cairo, we booked a cooking lesson with a local lady in her home. Pulling up outside a tall grey & dreary apartment block, we wondered what we were in for...and after climbing several flights of stairs (ohhhh my knees!), we were relieved to be allowed entrance into a warm & cheerful home. Vivienne is a tiny, beautiful woman over whom we towered, but thankfully, that didn't seem to upset her! She had a kitchen almost as small as ours, so we soon sorted ourselves out so that I would help with the hands on work, J1 would take photos & mel (our guide) would be scribe, taking down notes that were different to the printed recipes!! (This proved to be VITALLY important!) We began with the main dish, which is the Egyptian variation of Moussaka, which, being one of our families favorite dishes, we were interested to discover the differences. Once that was safely tucked away in the oven we moved onto the essential Egyptian dish...Babaghanouj, then salad, Egyptian rice and dessert. The dessert is another classic dish called Omaly, which is a variant of bread & butter pudding! Instead of bread though...we broke up great slabs of cooked flaky pastry! We tried very hard not to think about our arteries & cholesterol levels as we watched the oil, ghee,salt, cream & sugar get piled into the various dishes. Cooking was over before we knew it & after a refreshing cuppa, we loaded the food into the back of Tarek's car & went off to board a Falouka. We were going to dine in style, on the Nile as the sun set.......VERY cool experience...um, both literally & metaphorically!! The food was scrumptious & there was much more than we could polish off, so we gave the falouka captain some sustenance as well! Mel had thoughtfully brought some local beer & a thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all. Back on dry land, knowing it was our last day together with them, Tarek took us past a number of sites we had visited together. I have to say that Cairo is actually beautiful at night, vibrant & colorful. The dirt & rubbish isn't quite as obvious & with the street lights everything takes on a golden glow. It was the end of a perfect time together, so we bid both Tarek (who should win the Nobel Peace price for incredible driving) & Mel, Ma'a salaam.

Tahrir Square

Tahrir square is a small square in downtown Cairo with multiple roads intersecting through it. At one end lies the Egyptian Museum and the burnt out remains of a multi-storied office block that used to be the headquarters of the Egyptian Secret Police. January 25th 2010 was the date that the revolution occurred in Cairo and spread throughout Egypt. There remains a ramshackle tent city in the square covered with flags, writing, and protesting people. Overall this is where the people have died in clashes with the police and the military in the last year. In fact 28 died two weeks before we arrived. We were surprised by how small the square is. At night it comes alive with large stages set up, music blaring and people singing. On Fridays (Holy day) the police block off multiple roads with large barricades of barbed wire, and squads of military and police are seen everywhere. When discussing the events of TAhrir square and the revolution over the last few weeks with the locals, everyone has been so pleased by their revolution. They all express their hopes for a future with less corruption. One guide told us he had gone to Tahrir Square last January and taken his 10yo son to join in as it was a day history was made. Most Egyptians do not support the current protesters as they rightly point out that the elections have not even finished - let alone had time to see if things have changed. So we also walked out into Tahrir square and survived the experience!

Traditional Crafts

I had the pleasure of being taken to a couple of places today, where traditional crafts are being encouraged. The first stop was to see the production of stunning ceramic ware & tiles. A lot of the designs were traditional ones that we had seen in museum pieces, but were now being given an airing in a contemporary way. I would love to have bought some bowls, but the getting it home issue put a stopper on that! From there we went to a site where part of it is dedicated to the production of Mashrahbiyya screen work & inlaid wood, now being used for doors & decorative panelling. The other section was where the Egyptian variant of 'headlight' windows are produced. The lead is replaced by plasterwork, all meticulously cut out from a plaster slab, & recycled glass is glued to the back before being set in place with more plaster. The result is STUNNING! Our traditional crafts visit had Souk El Fustat as its last stop. This place SHOULD be a mecca for tourists. It is hassle/haggle free & the shops are filled with artisan products, all reasonably priced & with a good mix of contemporary revamping of old craft skills, as well as more traditional styles. I particularly fell in love with the Akmeem embroidery & was NOT happy that I had very little paper money left & so couldn't buy a piece! (Had HAD to buy a piece of Siwan beaded embroidery earlier in the day in a handcraft shop opposite the Gayer Anderson. REALLY struggling not being able to use master card!!!!!!) It is extremely distressing to see some of these shops already unmanned because there are no tourists here. This sort of place is IDEAL for foreigners to do their shopping, whilst still supporting small, homegrown craft industries. But without peope to buy the products, this Souk is doomed. Agonizing reality! I just HOPE that things pick up soon...and that some of you reading this, just may want to put Egypt on your travel plan, & shopping here...on that 'to do' list!!!!!!

Coptic Cairo

After visiting the mosques of the citadel in Islamic Cairo yesterday, it was only right to visit the churches of Coptic Cairo today. We began by looking at the remains of the Roman tower upon which the hanging church is built. This is the oldest region of Cairo and the Nile used to lapping at the door of the tower. This small, intimate Church had an atmosphere of antiquity, a pervasive sense of calm and a radiant glow from sunlight through the narrow windows in the roof(shaped like an upside down boat). The walls were lined with intricate, inlaid patterning of geometric designs and pictures of Saints including St Dominia and the 40 virgins!!!(there must be a good story behind this). A lot of the paintings were obviously very old and dated A.D. 18. Technically those dates didn't add up to historical information (i.e. St Paul and St Peter were not both old men at the same time at this particular date!!!) Coptic time lines are probably more circular than linear! Leaving Cedar and Sandalwood incense behind we moved on to the St George Church where we visited the cell that held St George as a captive to be tortured (allegedly). This site has many local Copts visiting who leave written prayers, and is popular with courting couples as a rendezvous location. This led to the cemetery where tombs were more like terraced housing estates. There was a Virgin Mary Church inside the complex where the Holy family drank water from the well and sheltered on their flight into Egypt. A painting in the crypt showed them en route past Giza! This flight is a pilgrimmage trail for many Copts.

Eccentric Englishmen and their whims

Englishmen of the Victorian era were renowned for their fascination in collecting things. John Gayer-Anderson from Suffolk was a good example. He was a British Army officer who was in Cairo and fell in love with Egypt. He began a collection of "bits and pieces" and in the 1930's incorporated it into two houses next to a Mosque. This was left as a bequest to the people of Egypt. In this collection there were some outstanding examples of mashrahiyya screens that were designed to allow to see out but prevent people seeing into them. Why? Well people were not allowed to see the women of the family. Some of the more quirky collections included a selection of birthing chairs for women in labour, broken ears, hands and beards from pharaonic statues, wooden clogs to walk to bath houses, wash basins, and exquisite mother of pearl inlaid chairs. This museum with no one theme held a surprise in each turn of the rabbit warren. The reproduction bust of Nefertiti was a good example.

Recycling and Religion

Our first destination today, was to Garbage city. This is where the garbage collectors of upper Egypt were moved by Nasser, & currently live AND work today. They collect the rubbish, sort & recycle it right in the area they live! Thankfully it is winter here & although there was an odour it was bearable. Apparently in summer, it is quite another story. These people are all Coptic Christians, & they manage to recycle 80% of the rubbish they collect, selling plastics & paper products back to big recycling factories. Even though they have this income, it is obvious that they live very poor lives. Through these piles of unsorted rubbish, bags of plastic bottles & bundles of cardboard we came out at the base of the rocky cliffs, to something quite special...a Coptic Church in a cave! This Church has its own miracle story & with tableaus from the bible adorning the cliff face it nestles under the sky & the rock! The main church seats 20,000 & is used only in summer. They have another cave church used in winter which seats 5,000. One of the deacons was very enthusiastic to give us the whole tsory of the church, & it was a delight to feel his passion, even though we understood very little of his english! It was an honour to see this seldom visited part of cairo life, & we were glad mel had put it on our day's grand plan!

Shoppers Paradise

In the "Islamic Area" of Cairo, there is more than beautiful Mosques, a cemetery where enough people now live to call it the 'city of the dead' and incredible views over the whole of cairo (if the smog lifts!!).....there is also a major opportunity to spend up BIG time! I began my spending spree in a place where, I am so exceptionally sad to say, we were the only tourists...the Tentmakers street. This is where men sit creating the most stunning cushion covers & quilts using the appliqué technique. Nirvana for textile oriented people! In every little stall I could have bought numerous items, it was so hard to restrain myself!! As it was I bought more cushion covers than I needed & managed to drag J1 into see one mans exhibition of work, from which we had a...gulp...more serious spend! These artisans are an endangered species & have recently been promoted by Australian Quilt artist, Jenny Bowker, who organized an exhibition of their best work in the UK. These men were so proud to have been involved in this exercise, & took every chance to show us newspaper clippings about their work. It was extremely agonizing to have so much CHOICE & & I know I will spend a few sleepless nights wondering whether I made the right decision!!! After a reviving drink & meze in a coffee shop in the nearby Khan il Khalili, I proceeded to check out the alabaster, brass & jewelry stores! It was a financially depleting day, but...oh my...so much FUN!!!!!

The one we've been waiting for!

At last... our day to visit the Egyptian Museum had arrived. Mostafa (our guide) collected us from the hotel and took us past the protestors and their tent city in Tahrir Square before stopping at the entrance to the Museum. Our camera was forbidden today. So we were left with our eyes and J2's pencil to try and record/remember the sights we would encounter. There was a feast of visual splendor behind the pink facade of 19th Century building. Where to begin? Perhaps by saying that we soon realized this Museum required a guide, at least initially. For us it was the first four hours. Then we were able to fly solo. It wasn't as disorganized as we had been warned but it is a Museum waiting to be translocated to a new site in Giza currently under preparation. There are only over 150000 items to look at. The remaining 300000 items are in storage in the basement. The treasures of Tutankaten (as he was originally called before the high priests got to him and renamed him Tutankamun) were there in all their splendor. To see them was a privilege and overwhelming. A 13 kg gold mask is not something one encounters every day. There were many unusual items like his preserved raisins, beaded sandals, a camp bed, a folding umbrella but the highlight was the tomb jewelry. We met many old friends and finally got to see some of them in person mummified. For example Ramses II, Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis II and III, all believed to be Gods in life but the bodies left were very human. J1 had never seen coffins for Scarab beatles before. J2 had never seen wigs for the high priests in most bizarre hair styles. (Do not expect her to try these styles at home). After 6 hours, aching feet ruled that we had reached the time to depart. This had been a museum that we had heard so much about for so long and it was great to leave with a sense it was as good as we had hoped!

Alexandria

There were a number of reasons for us to visit Alexandria. Not the least of them is that J2 is reading a book on cleopatra and both of us are fans of Lyndsay Davis's "Marcus Didius Falco" books with one of the recent episodes set in ancient Alexandria. Leaving the hotel at 0800 to catch a train that arrived at 1200 meant that it was a half day excursion. We packed a lot in. This began with a Roman amphitheater discovered by accident in 1990 and then whirlwind tour of the brilliant Alexandrian Museum. One new finding was that each Pharaoh had a reserve head made during his life to make his death mask, and then to model all future statues of him, enabling the real Pharaoh to be off doing Pharaoh like things. this led to the catacombs past the largest pillar of granite in Egypt. The catacombs were discovered by the great archeologist Mr Donkey. He fell sadly through an unknown hole in the ground to his demise, but in the process opened up a forgotten world. This was a three tiered cemetery with a reception rotunda, a feasting area and carved tombs in the bedrock of sandstone. The wall carvings are unique in that the artisans used a blend of Greek, Roman and Egyptian designs. Anubis (the Egyptian jackal headed god of mummification) was seen in Roman legion armor, or with the tail of a snake. We saw evidence of the madness of Emperor Carricula who killed 20000 in one day because the locals had mocked him pretending to be Alexander the Great. This included all the horses who had participated in the chariot races presented for the Emperors entertainment. Then it was our great honor to visit the most incredible new Alexandria library built on the site of the ancient library. The design is so inspiring, and the interior a wonderful blend of art, space, light, books, computers that J1 and J2 wanted to go to University there. We even found a book on Australian literature, next to a section on Oscar Wilde! They intend to have some 8 million books, all of which will be digitalized for access through the world. This is where a librarian would be in heaven. This was followed by a trip to the site of the original Pharos lighthouse. It is now an old citadel (restored) that is about 50m tall (one third the height of the Pharos) and at the end of a narrow spit of land stretching out into the surging Mediterranean sea. By this stage, hypoglycemia had struck and we needed food. So off to a famous fish restaurant (yes, another famous one) and we had Grey mullet, prawns and mezzo platter that would feed Noah's ark! Rolling down the steps at the end of the meal we still had time for one more stop before our train. Our guide, Hany is a Copt and took us to the Coptic Cathedral of Alexandria. This is the site of where the first African church was located by St Mark after a miracle where he healed a local shoe repairer. They opened up the crypt for us to go down and see where the remains of St Marks head are located (having been retrieved from Venice). The day was complete of ... rain....yes, real rain in Alexandria.