Tales from the Land of the Pyramids - Mt Sinai in Egypt

I've been very lazy about putting the rest of my albums

together from my Egypt and Jordan trip. I thought I would

share some tales from where my mum and I traveled from

Cairo to Mt. Sinai in September.

The snapshot above was taken from the mini van on the way to

Mt. Sinai. Quite a desolate area. During the time, there had been

some Europeans who had been kidnapped in Egypt and the Egyptian

government had decided all Americans and Brits needed tourism

police escorts. Mind you, the Europeans kidnapped were extremely

far from the normal tourist route near the Sudanese border. My mom

and I have never been on a tour where we've been outnumbered by our

escorts...We took a very small tour and it happened to be that we were

the only ones to continue to Jordan and Mt. Sinai was one of the stops

along the way.

I think a lot of people don't realize the lengths that the Egyptian
government tries to protect the tourism industry there as it is
most definitely their main source of revenue. It's tough when your
country is 95% desert and they only have enough oil for themselves -

not enough to export. I thought one of the most fascinating facts

about the Nile River is that it's the only river in the world to run from

the South to the North instead of the other way around. This is why

the South of Egypt is called Upper Egypt and the North of Egypt is called

Lower Egypt - it follows the direction of the Nile River rather than North

or South on a political map.

So there were we were, the two of us with a driver, a guide, and

a tourism police escort...

On the way, I asked the driver to stop when I saw this lovely

camel by the side of the road. We opened the van door and I

was able to catch a shot as he was heading away. Mind you,

this was before I actually got on a camel in Jordan which

scared the living daylights out my mom and I. A story for a

later post... Some things are better admired from afar or

through a lens or ridden in an open area...

When we reached our hotel in the middle of the mountains,

there was a nice bedouin tent set up by it.

Of course, complete with a souvenir shop.

I, for one, would never complain about

shopping.

What really amused me was when I peaked inside the tent.

In the corner was a full computer and fan all wired up. You

would never be able to tell from the outside of the tent that

there was anything electronic, much less a computer with a

connection to the internet inside. This is what I call, modern

Bedouin living.

At night, the place transformed into

a wonderful place for a party.

Isn't the inside cool?

We had tea to boot.

Here's my mom outside with our very

nice guide in front of the fire.

But the party was definitely inside the tent and let me tell

you, if you ever travel - it's the Brazilians who are always

the life of the party.

They even got all dressed up to party.

After the exciting night, we turned in and made it

to a monastery called St. Catherines in the middle

of the mountains.

Of course I couldn't stop taking photos of the camels...

But I did find this man to be very clever. He was building a stone

structure and they obviously don't have stone or tile cutters there.

So he improvised by dribbling water onto the stone

as he was cutting so it wouldn't crack as he drilled.

And this is where the famed burning bush that

Moses spoke to - within St. Catherine's monastery.

You see everyone trying to touch it there.

Anyhow, the New Year is upon us and I hope

this has inspired some of you to travel or have

and adventure this coming year!

Happy New Year and be safe!

I will be returning next monday on January 5, 2009.

Jordan ~ The Roman City of Jerash

I'm usually terrible about going through my photos

right after a trip. I decided to share with you one of

the favorite sites I saw in Jordan.

It's a little known site and city called Jerash. It's an

ancient Roman city that has been partially rebuilt using

the original stones from the city. Half of Jerash is the

old Roman city and the other half is "New" Jerash where

all of its citizens live.

As always, there was renovation work being done, but it

didn't take away from the grandness of the grand gate

of the old city.

As it had been a rainy and stormy day, it was lucky that

the rain started to clear just as we arrived. Stormy weather

always make for dramatic pictures. It's my favorite kind of

weather to take photos in - right after the clearing of a storm.

The full circle of columns is quite an awesome sight.

Hear the sun is peaking out.

Blue skies always make a beautiful backdrop. This is the

stage of a small Roman theater. The acoustics of this

place are amazing.

Here's a closer look at that stone work.

The site is quite a large one as you can see.

I just love the way the photo shows the storm in the

background with the shining bright in the foreground.

How's this for grandness. Pillars of a

temple built for one of the Roman gods.



At the base of one of those huge pillars is a spoon stuck in

it. The spoon is to illustrate that the pillars are free standing

without the use of mortar or other materials to adhese the

huge stones together. It's really amazing that it's all just a

balancing act! The spoon illustrates this because it shows

the movement in the pillars. As the pillars move, the spoon

moves as well.

This is the entrance to that grand temple with all of the columns.

It's a great entrance that frames the new city of Jerash.

Can you imagine that this used to be the main promenade

of this city? Imagine living in a bustling city of shops and

traders with this kind of grandeur.

This shows how wide the promenade was.

What I learned that was surprising about Jordan was

that their money is worth as much as the Euro. Imagine

my shock when exchanging my little American dollars.

I suppose my surprise came from the fact that Jordan

does not have huge industries and if you can believe,

the price of their gas (petrol) is more expensive than ours

is even though they import it from the neighboring Saudis.

This is the royal family of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Queen Rania and her family. They are an extremely good looking

family. Although the King is the ruling party, Jordan's queens have

traditionally been more famous starting with the last Queen of Jordan ~

Queen Noor. The royal family is immensely popular in Jordan and you

can see family photos of them everywhere. The king has followed in

his father's footsteps by trying to modernize Jordan to give a better life

to their people. More on the royal family of Jordan in the next installment

of my trip.

If you ever get the chance to visit

Jordan, Jerash is a must-see place.

Au Revoir ~ Journey to Egypt and Jordan with Mom

Petra is among the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Made famous by the movie "Indiana Jones and the Last

Crusade" where the last part of the movie was filmed.

I am very excited to embark on this journey with my mom.

It will be good mother and daughter bonding time as we

share a passion in travel. Any kind of travel. Oh our lists

are very long of the places we'd like to travel. I think in

terms of sheer number of countries, my mom probably has

me beat by double. But I'm working on it!

I'm ashamed and proud at the same time say that my mom

would outlast me on just about any adventure. Proof of this

really showed in our last trip together on a white knuckled

3 week 4x4 trip from China into, and around Tibet. The tour

guide literally said, "What's wrong with you, you're huffing

and puffing and your mom is already up the hill without a

sweat or even labored breathing."

I never really stopped to think about the fact that most moms

do not backpack with their children. My mom has done this

on multiple occasions with me. She's a real trooper and she's

not afraid of bugs while I am maniacally afraid of cockroaches...

and leeches...beatles...spideres....I think you get the picture.

Did you know that they have a night tour of Petra?

I have no idea if this is what it looks like but I will

let you know soon enough!

Somewhere as remote as Petra still has a Marriott built near it.

If I can have rooms and views like this, I'll take it any day.

Amazing views.

Hopefully, at the team you are reading this - I will be blissfully

shopping and haggling away at one of these Egyptian bazaars.

I've always been obsessed with pouches, bags

and envelopes and I'm no different when it comes

to travel. These are a great pair of metallic

envelopes available at Vivre.com.

A Giraffe looking passport cover by Lodis.

A metallic faux crocodile passport cover that

comes in gold and silver - also avilable from Lodis.

The passport cover on the left is by Kate Spade. I love how the

outside is metallic gold but the inside is magenta pink!

More colorful passport covers available from Vivre.com.

I personally own this passport cover by Anya Hindmarch.

For me, you have to take the passport out of the cover

anyways to hand to the customs agent. I thought this

one was so cute. The color is actually a very pale gold.

And for your business cards, how about

this fun orange number from Lodis?

Don't forget to visit Material Girls for the awesome

Contest that is going on. All 3 prizes are gorgeous

lamps from none other than Swank Lighting. This

is one contest and give away definitely worth winning!

The grand prize gets a choice of the above lamps in any

color. Check out the Contest rules and all of the prizes!

See you all in a couple of weeks!