The Book of Kell

In Dahab we met so many people coming from Israel with tales of Jerusalem that we became jealous, and decided that we too must visit the Holy City. So on our suprise visit, we encountered many suprises. First, Islrael is more expensive than the states are. This was an unpleasant suprise. The rest were good ones though. First, the soldiers there are both male and female. This was Diane's favorite part. These lady's were intense, long Panteen-Provee hair and machine guns! Second, wearing shorts is no biggie, which is key in hot weather. And my personal favorite is that you can see David's tomb, the Wailing Wall, the Church of the Sepulcher, Mary's birth place, and the Dome of the Rock all before it's time for lunch. In other words, the sites in Jerusalem are packed like a can of sardines. From there our goal was Petra, so we crossed over to Amman in Jordan and headed south (but not before licking the Dead Sea-- they tell you not to for good reason, it tastes really bad. We just can't help purposefully disregarding the warnings though).
Petra gets its own paragraph, because it is the most special place we've ever been. Naturally the landscape is stunning, full of red sandstone which has been sculpted into impressive mountains and canyons. But it is the facades carved right out of the rock that makes this place like no other. Walking through the park is very exciting because you never know what you will see around the next corner, but there is always something amazing. There is no easy way to describe how impressive these large structures are. So instead we will include a picture and tell you to take our word for it, Petra's fame does not exaggerate. From there we stayed overnight in Wadi Rum, which is the desert once inhabited by Lawrence of Arabia. This place was also very beautiful, but we recommend finishing with Petra, because nothing can compare.
Now we have returned to Cairo and are resting up for our next big adventure: the Egyptian Oasis!

We have been chillin' in the little beach town called Dahab for the last week. Everybody (well almost everybody, we've met a few total jerks-- okay one total jerk jewelry sales man, thought he had us but he didn't) seems very relaxed here. Not a lot of hassle, great food, beautiful beach and mountains. But best of all is their diving! We did four dives here, but the most amazing is the infamous Blue Hole. The Blue Hole gets its reputation for the regular diving related deaths that occur there, but we were assured that this almost always happens to silly Russians, free divers, and technical divers. AKA those that have been drinking, those that go with no air, and those that go deeper than any man before. We had no such problems on our excursion.
The dive starts with a wall of coral, wich extends to the sea floor some 130 meters below. We stayed above 25 m, accompanied by one very friendly and curious flute fish (imagine a flute with fins and eyes, and there you have it). We finished by entering the Blue Hole (imagine a hole that is blue, and there you have it). The water is warm inside the Hole, and therefore has a wide variety of corals and fish and snorkelers that get in your way alike. This by far was our favorite dive, simply breathtaking views of how vast the underwater world can be.
Dahab is also a great place from which to take a day's adventure to Mt. Sinai (wherest theest teneth commandmenteths werest struckethed) and the ancient St. Catherine's. We climbed Mt. Sinai at night, with hundreds of religious pilgrims, watched sunrise from the peak, and descended to St. Catherine's (known for it's burning bush and Byzantine art). My favorite part was the monks who police the church at St. Catherine's. They just looked so ready, willing, and able to smack any picture-takers upside the head. Diane likes that we actually made it to the top, believe it or not without a bump or scrape to show. We are both very proud of ourselves for ditching our "required" and "all inclusive" "guide" (who incidentally turned up later demanding money for his lack of services-- if only he had known us better, we never pay for unsolicited services). We also met some great fellow travelers along the way.

We are off to a new destination tomorrow, to be disclosed in our next installment. HA!

From Aswan, the grueling police escorted three hour ride to Abu Simbel turned out to be well worth it. Ramses' temple is....ginormous. The colossi are only an introduction to the interior temple, which of course, we were not permitted to photograph. Take our word for it: it's big, and impressive. That was pretty much it for us in Aswan. From there we made the mistake of heading back north to Edfu for its well-known Temple of Horus. The temple is interesting. The town is not. It seems that by far and large most tourist only stay for the day. This is where we miss-stepped. The only accomodation we could find was dirtier than dirty, and we were followed everywhere by small-time and big-time scam artists alike. We fled Edfu the following day, and made it to the tranquil Marsa Alam for our first dive of the trip. We consider Marsa Alam our vacation from vacation. No scam artists, no hussle and bustle. Just the sea and the beach. The diving was warm, and bright, and there was something to look at in every direction. We are now inhabiting Hurghada, and tomorrow we embark on our first boat dive of the trip!

We've spent the past few days in Luxor, famous for the Valley of the Kings, infamous for its ridiculous tourist hussle (this is a grave understatement, but no need to go into the unpleasant details of what can only be described as aggressive and even purposefully disrespectful attitude). Started our visit here with a nice relaxing float down the tranquil Nile. Spent our days climbing through the Valley of the King and Queens (hot hot hot), Valley of the Nobles, and Dendera, to name a few. All along the plea for Baksheesh (tip solicitations) has been like an evil smelly monkey on our backs. Something to note, the well-known sites here are not overrated by any means, but those that are uderrated are drastically so, specifically the Workmen's Village. The tombs here are very small, but the paintings are exquisite (we could not photograph it, but we strongly suggest following this link http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/inherkhaut.htm, my favorite is the cat slaying the snake scene).

Self-realization of the day: our lust for jewelry is hardly in control. The farther away from Cairo we get, the more unique the craftmanship.

We leave for Aswan tonight. Luxor is hot, Aswan is hotter than hot.

Knowledge gained over the past two days:
1) Am capable of jumping out of moving taxi when prices are spontaneously inflated
2) Have learned that toying with self-proclaimed "tour guides" can be highly enjoyable
3) There are an awful lot of "doctors" and "teachers" in this city (Who knew?)

We went to Islamic Cairo and have never felt so conspicous. As we stepped out of the taxi, a "guide" latched on to us. It took time but we gave him the slip. Smooth move on our part, as soon as we got rid of him we stepped into the souvenir hussle. After a five hour snooze we watched the pyramids in surreal neon rainbow colors, otherwise known as the infamous Sound and Light Show! Met a Bedouin man, Omar, who took us through the village to meet his family and turned out to be a genuine person, though it took time for our skeptisism to dissipate. He owns a stable of dancing Arabian Horses which we had the pleasure of riding today. Dude, they totally dance.