The start of the long trip

Jordan

Sunday 21 September

Arrived back at Dahab, said goodbye and headed up to Nuweiba for the slow boat to Aqaba in Jordon - our 2nd country. We got through the long and tedious customs (but luckily, being female we have a special queue of our own!) and got on the boat at 12 midday. We sat on our little green patch of deck (the fast boat took 3 hours and was $45 whereas this was $30). The boat left the port 4 hours later!!! the journey was quite lopsided as the hundreds of Arabs decided to park themselves near us and just stare fascinated at us for the whole trip???? I had my head down at one stage and an empty bottle was thrown at me to get my attention to look over the side. And sure enough there was about 20 dolphins cheerfully jumping with the boat's direction - tremendous. The Arabs got as much excitement out of our whoops of WOW every few seconds. It was fantastic! We got in late and got a taxi to the Petra Hotel where we bedded on the roof.
Monday 22 September

Went for a walk down to the beach where we met Kamel - a local boy. We had tea (they all ask you to sit and have teas) and met some of his friends. One (rather ugly god bless him) had a Belgian girlfriend and had asked a friend to translate and write a love letter to her which he asked Aisling to read out loud. Andrea and myself were nearly crying trying to stop bursting laughter as Ais read I really miss you touch, I kiss everything that you touched...I love your body, you're sexy body, I want to make love to your body again..... I cried after I talked to you on the phone...... and similar stuff but all incorrect grammar and spelling. All the while he was smiling and saying "it is good yes?" It was hard. He then took us out in his glass-bottomed boat and we glimpsed the mostly dead coral of Aqaba/Eilat Bay where huge tankers were stationed in the middle of the bay (and some in graveyards at the bottom of he shallow bay). Kamel then took us to the tourist Bedouin village and the local castle which we explored by lighter-light. At one stage while Kamel was hovering over a hole in the deep dark tower he nearly feel when the bats flew out at him - we, being ever brave, ran shrieking..... leaving him there. Having recovered we went to his friend's souvenir shop.. Mohamed a very educated young lad who taught us Backgammon and about Bedouin antiques... Ais got her head shaved again in the local barbers and then that night we went back for a sing-song in the Bedouin camp. The young cotton-woollen 6 month old camel befriended us but managed to push over Aisling by prodding her with his head in her stomach and she took two wobbly steps backwards and collapsed on her bum and looked like a 4 year old about to cry. Needless to say Andrea and myself cracked up laughing. A VERY GOOD DAY

Got an early bus to the desert based WADI RUM. We organised a jeep for 7 of us - a Dutch couple, us 3, Beth, the American back from working in Pakistan and a Jap. Our driver was a smiley Bedouin and made us tea in a make-shift fires every time we stopped. We climbed the rock bridge (me shaking at the top but I loved climbing), trekked up the red sand dune (every difficult on the legs) and played there for a while, saw Laurence of Arabia's house in the desert, his well and then watched the sun set over the desert on the rocks while our guide hummed a traditional song, we sang Danny Boy and Beth shouted new York, New York. 13km back through the darkened desert to rest on the roof under the stars again - only 1 shooter this time. A few of our old friends arrived from Dahab and we chatted again.

Got to Petra and stayed at the Musa Spring Hotel. Went to Petra - highly priced but worth every penny/piastre. After the long 2 km walk through the rocks we saw what everyone knows about Petra - the treasury appearing through the crack in the narrow Siq. Wonderful in the afternoon light. We hiked up to the High Place of Sacrifice, viewed the whole panorama and made our way down the back of the hill. The cliffs, caves and everything have fantastic colours - all natural yellow/rusty red/blue...... whose curves due to faults make a superb natural interior decor for the caves/homes/temples carved out in the rock-face. I can't describe in words how amazing it was - MY FAVOURITE PLACE SO FAR - by a long shot!!! We got back to the hotel and feasted on a buffet and watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with it's views (incorrectly shown) of Petra which has been playing every night in the hotel for the last 4 years.

Got up early and met up with the other Aussie guys, Tim (originally met on the train from Cairo and ever since), Grant and Skip, Beth and Kate. We climbed up to the high monastery and sat in the shade by a cave (similar to the caves in the Flintstones) and laughed - a great time. After 2 hours we made our way down through the colonnaded street, other temples etc... and the amphitheatre of course. Tired, and having nearly lost Andrea, we got on the Jet bus to Amman. Stayed in the FILTHY Veniys hotel full of cockroaches - one which I found in my boot the next morning (after tying it so I was in agony for 3 minutes (seemed like 1 hour) The big mxxxthxxxxer was about the size of my index finger and wriggled.

Went to check out the Farah Hotel - the best - like the Hilton on comparison. We went to Jerash - fantastic ruins that day, then treated my nerves to McDs and then found the Irish Bar - guess what - had a few and returned home to our lovely hotel.

Andrea was a bit ill so Ais and myself went to change our flights and get a letter of recommendation from he Irish Consulate for a visa into Syria. Had beautiful chicken schwermas and visited the fruit and veg soup to stock up on good fruit to revive us. That night it rained - while we were on the roof - we got saturated - first time it has rained since we have been here.

Went to the Syrian embassy, went to the huge Roman amphitheatre, and browsed. Treated ourselves to the cinema - "My best friends Wedding".

Got our visas. Went to Madaba - famous for mosaics for the day. We also visited Mt. Nebo with a view into Israel and over the Dead Sea, and the tomb of Moses.

Had a local and very cheap brunch and left for the Dead Sea. It was so weird - you could stand out of you depth and you just could not sink. So we played for a bit - stingy eyes. We collected the famous black mud from the bottom - with the help of a few locals and then donned the black stuff, took a few snaps of us black from head to toes except for the eyes, let it dry and then washed it off - Our whole skin was soft as a baby's bum... Met a few people that night - out for something to eat and a cup of tea.

Found a cyber cafe in Amman, Books@cafe and uploaded the diary. When I returned to the hotel many hours later it had been a lazy day, and it continued so. We phoned home and got an update on the Presidential situation and goings-on in Ireland...among other gossip.

As Israel was celebrating Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) we had another easy day in Amman.

Ooops - slept late again - becoming a habit. Got to the Abdali bus station at 1.30pm to found out that the buses only went to the King Hussein Border crossing in the mornings. So after refusing exorbitant taxi offers for about 5 JD each we finally found the service taxi area and got into a hugely overcrowded white taxi which raced us over the steep mountain roads to the border for 1.5 JD. Getting the actual stamp out of Jordan on our passports took a while as the security guy decided that since the bus was waiting for us it would be an opportune time to phone a friend and gossip, sit back in the seat grinning your white teeth at the 3 girls, the passports queuing themselves to the side. So the bus pulled off without us. We eventually got a stamp out after having to go to the bank to get change. NOTE: Everywhere in the Middle East shops etc. do NOT have change. They are of the mentality that if you don’t have change then it is your tough luck, you should take your money and business elsewhere - bizarre. So we got the bus through no-mans-land in the Jordanian Valley which is just as you would imagine. The barren desert stretches out on either side and if you strain hard enough you can make out the little huts with the soldiers on guard on either side of the straight road. On the other side you immediately see the different culture and lifestyle of the Israelis. There are women workers everywhere (probably a relative observation considering it has been a rare sight in the last month). We got a taxi in to Jerusalem with a friend whose flat we are staying in. That evening we all went to the local supermarket and generally acted like kids let loose with a shopping trolley - so many things to choose from!

1 Sterling pound = approx. 5.3 Israeli shekel

$1 US Dollar = approx 3.42 Israeli shekel

We entered the Old City through the Jaffa Gate. We exchanged money after discovering that even in the Tourist Office they were on the brink of charging tourists to breathe, visited the Christian Information Centre and bought water and a roll and settled ourselves down in the Jewish Quarter. Many tour groups passed, mainly American Jews and the sounds of same trying out blowing the horns to announce the beginning of the Sabbath on a Friday night began to annoy us. We then strolled through the tourist souqs trying to find the famous buildings in between stalls and robes and jewellery etc. Eventually ending up at Damascus Gate - the most elaborate entrance to the Old City. Having seen a figure walking on high on the ramparts we decided that this would be the perfect way to oversee the city as we were getting lost all the time in the mazes of the souqs and the map in our guide book was not very reliable. Needless to say it took us 30 minutes to find the entrance - outside the gate - to the left - down to the gardens, under a suspicious looking bridge and down a narrow path. After paying for student price and Aisling squealing softly over the scuttling of a rat across her path - we made our way up to the high rampart walk along the top of the wall. From here one could see over the rooftops but it was still difficult and we had not enough knowledge of the area to recognise significant buildings - but the experience and view was fantastic. We walked around the Christian Quarter to the New Gate and then the Jaffa Gate. Descending and ascending again we passed the Armenian Quarter and ended up past the Jewish Quarter at the Zion Gate where the ramparts ended for tourists the rest is ‘under reconstruction” at the moment. We descended into another tour group of New York Jews, bought some postcards and discovered the Western or Wailing Wall about 100 metres in front of us. Many Jews were congregated and praying, swaying too and fro and we took the opportunity to go up to the wall in the women’s area and see the letters stuck into the wall. The section of wall is the only area that remains of the Jewish Temple originally built by Herod in 20BC, the area since has been conquered by the Christians and was built over by the Muslims. Now on top of the old Jewish Temple stands 3 mosques, 3rd only in importance to the Muslims to Mecca and Medina. The Dome of the Rock has a magnificent Gold dome which can be seen for miles around. the stone altar at which Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his only son is also at this site.

In the early afternoon we went outside the walls and overlooked the City of David, walked on by the Kidron Valley with the old tombs and started the hard trek up the Mount of Olives from where the sunset overlooking the walled Old City of Jerusalem is unmissable. We panted past and visited the All Nations Church and the Garden of Gethsemane (where Judas betrayed Jesus), passed the domed Church of Mary Magdalene, Pater Noster and Dominos Flevit. To the right stretching for ages is the desecrated Jewish cemetery (ruined by the Jordanians between the 1940s and 60s) where Rupert Murdoch is buried and also as seen in the end scene from the Shindler's List movie. We reached the top in a bad condition and plonked ourselves down on a wall above the tourist buses afraid of the effect of gravity on our light heads. It was cloudy which made the redness of the sunset over the rooftops amazing.
Tuesday 14 October

Got up late again! Found a baked potato place (hung over from drinking game the night before). Visited the Great Synagogue and on to the Monastery of the Cross and then through the parks to the Israel Museum. In this magnificent museum we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, on which is written the Judaism Torah which were uncovered in caves above the dead sea in 1948? We then got a guided tour around the Jewish area, learning the traditions, dress, manuscripts, culture etc. and on to the archaeological area of the museum which was fascinating. Result, sore heads from trying to intake so much history in such a short time.

Today is the first day of the Festival of Sukkot (or shelters), so the city closes at 2pm (like Christmas at home). We learned in the tour last night that this is to celebrate the harvest. In their nomadic days the Jews were able to pack up their homes which were made out of planks of wood and covered with palm leaves of some other natural substance and never totally blocked out the sky reminding the occupants that God is always above them (handy when they were being moved on from place to place by the Germans also). Replicas of these shelters are constructed all over the city for the festivities. As I type I can hear the groups clapping and singing and celebrating. In the Old City we wandered through the Christian Quarter. At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is where we saw the Tomb of Jesus Christ. However, this honourable visit was made humorous by a crazy woman who must have what is known as the ‘Jerusalem syndrome'. In times gone by people have been known to be so overawed with finally being in Jerusalem that they think themselves the Holy Virgin Mary, the next Messiah etc.. and camp up in the Mount of Olives and wait to have a tea party with God. Anyway this woman approached Andrea just as we were about to enter the tomb of Christ and planted a kiss on her cheek the stared at Aisling close up to her face. So the giggling began as she made her way down the queue kissing and hugging men and women with a happy smile on her face and sporadically raising her arms to heaven. She entered the tomb before us but did not go past the priest on the door, instead kissed his embarrassed face and tried to touch him all over. Kneeling dramatically before the shrine and wailed her prayers, as the 3 of us looked on in the cramped area (only fits 4 at a time). The she embarrassed and shocked more holy visitors. The church is an amazing array of shrines and stairways... most of what I saw I do not know the significance of; must get a book on the church alone/go to a library if we had paid for a guide it may have helped). Secreted in one corner behind a gate was an icon of the Virgin Mary. The whole area was dark though and we stood wondering what the Italian tour guide was saying and why all the elderly tourists were holding candles up to the icon. He told us and we experimented. We peered into the space, blocked only by the grille, and sure enough in the candlelight - the Virgin Mary was blinking!!! all I can say is we all saw it with our own eyes - at the same time we were seeing her blink over and over again - I will offer no explanations in case people start to get worried about us. Then we walked through the Via Doloroso (the stations of the cross!)

After spending some time watching not-so-good busking actors doing James Bond at Damascus Gate we wandered to the rooftops over the Dome of the Rock and overlooking the Jewish Wailing Wall where the ringleted and black-robed orthodox Jews were preparing for Yom Kippur. We tried Knaffel - a sweet sugary substance and pistachios on melted cheese (which is not to my taste) and returned home - ready for the 12 hour bus trip from Jerusalem to Cairo beginning at 7 am and costing, with visas, exit taxes, border taxes, entry visas etc. a whopping $107. Oh well, Israel is extremely expensive compared to the rest of the Middle East (on a par with Ireland) but is certainly worth it.
Thursday 16 October

Got up early and got the bus to Cairo - FUN!

Today Andrea and myself got up early from a restless and multi-bitten night and went to the amazing Egyptian museum in Cairo. We saw tombs, mummies, masks, statues............... WOW - what a rich past! Then the 3 of us got 3 local buses - for a 40km journey (costing 30p altogether - the joys of being mushed in between Egyptians on the minibus (BO heaven)) to Saqqara - where the step pyramids are resting - the precursors to the famous Giza pyramids. Got a few great snaps of village life - farmers, camels hauling palm leaves, cattle and little boys on donkeys! We're off to India, Bombay tonight - so 'stay tuned' as they say - elsewhere in the world!

Stage 2: brings us from Bombay through south east Asia.

Before I start      To quote the Bible - or The Lonely Planet:
India is not a place that you simply and clinically see; it's a total experience, an assault on the senses, a place that you'll never forget"
This is very true. India, so far has been hard work but extremely rewarding. Reports from people who have travelled here before were diverse; some absolutely hated it, some adored it and some only loved it after some time away.... We love the country, but we are outsiders - we have not sat in on or shared in the customs directly. We are experiencing India very much as an observer rather than actually taking part in the social behaviour (which mum will be glad to hear I am not yet spitting, snotting and shitting on the streets). India is tiring; simple tasks take a lot of time and pushing, buses and trains are cramped, the filth and squalor is appalling, everywhere is crowded, people are tiny and malnourished, limbless beggars and children surround you, the stench from the garbage, sewers and cowpats on the streets, the pollution, and constantly watching and holding tight to your belongings.

Still, after pointing out all these things, India is an incredible experience not to be missed. The customs and underlying culture and social behaviour of the race is fascinating and arouses much emotion. The journeys in actually getting things done and the atmosphere is more important than specifically seeing a specific site or place of interest. It is hard to describe here in words, and I do not have the benefit of a thesaurus, dictionary or brilliant descriptive writing skills but I shall try my best and hopefully get some photos unloaded when I get to a scanner. Here goes anyway!

Sterling ! = 57.75 Indian Rupees

After an overnight flight from Cairo to Bombay and finding the Ex-Serviceman's coach we arrived in Colaba, the cheaper area of Bombay (locally - Mumbai). I still can't help thinking of the similarity of the word with Colombo but the reality could not be more far apart save for the grubby appearance. It was a race against all the other backpackers on the coach to get to the Salvation Army hostel first as accommodation as both relatively expensive and overbooked in Mumbai. We all pretended to be friends on the bus and everyone was asking everyone else for directions - do you know the way. None of us did - and I believe we were all being sincere cos everyone looked at each other as we descended. Then off orienteering in various directions each with the lonely planet page map open. Some were following pointed fingers, others trying to look for landmarks - what is bloody 66' and others looking for landmarks. Other were turning the page upside down - trying to figure to where the hell we were. The Lonely Planet is very much talked about and argued about by travellers. I still maintain that it is a good book and good kicstart to arriving in a country or town. If you want to get more adventurous from thee you are all free not to follow the Lonely Planet trail. If it were not for books like these then I would never had had the guts to travel. However I do agree that it is the bane of this type of book that ruins a great little discovery by travellers when it is printed on these pages That is life - where will we all be when all the new areas are used up and there are no little ' beaches/' left undiscovered - only familiar by word of mouth! Ah - well - there'll be virtual travel - and we can lock up the smells and noises as well as the pictures on our 18' monitor.

Sunday 19th October

Walking down Colaba Causeway introduced us to India. Shops cramp together and stalls sell everything from little-electric-tea-boilers-for-cups, to tiny cheese toasties. We checked in to the better priced, cleaner, less smelly ( it is a relative thing) and more spacious Volga hotel, set our bags down and headed off to the docks. At the huge Gate of India by the deluxe Taj Mahal Hotel we drank milkshakes and bought bananas and hopped on to the small boat to take us the 10km to Elephanta Island. Being and busy industrial port there were hundreds of huge tankers crowding the filthy muddy brown sea into which young boys were jumping and playing. Elephanta Island is like a Paradise Island, and very popular with families of a Sunday. We dined on rice and dahl and climbed the soft, stall-lined steps in 35 C and heavy 75% humidity, to the top to explore the temples carved into the rock and dedicated to the Hindu God Siva. We had a great time talking to families who approached us and it was great that people spoke English albeit sometimes in an indistinguishable tongue and women talked to us also. We watched them play cricket, and saw monkeys playfully racing after the balls. That night after 20 month, I met my sister who arrived from Sydney on her way home to Ireland. A few tears were shed and a few inquisitive glances given in our direction.
Monday 20th October

Today we managed to get our rail tickets to Varnasi thanks to the tourist quota ( about 10$ for 1500km) - a few seats that they set aside specifically for tourists on the otherwise booked 2 months in advance train. I sent a parcel to Ireland. This process is not as straight forward as that simple sentence. It was a disposable camera that I wanted to send back home. So we got to the GPO and asked which desk I should go to. Then I got moved to another ( the numbers and script are Hindi and therefore we get lost quite easily). I eventually found that the parcel wrappers were located across the road and not just outside the GPO. This is a procedure whereby all parcels must be wrapped and sewn in linen at special stalls ( probably to increase distribution of labour and increase employment and why not increase the difficulty in getting things done while they are at it). So, now there are 5 wooden stall-type things similar to bookies at the races and 5 men grinning up with stained teeth. Prices are fixed so that saves some hassle of finding the cheapest option, but they could not get over the disposable camera phenomenon. They decided it would break in the post so I took the thing apart to get at the film. The looks on their faces while I ripped open the camera was funny, they were all trying to get out of their seats to stop me as I was trying to tell them that it was OK - the camera could only be used once. So while one person places the film in a reinforced envelope and sewed thread around the perimeter and then sealed it is 8 places by burning a length of wax and fixing his stamp on it, the other guys were busily trying to put together the camera like little boys with an airfix set, the lens caused a lot of fascination. Back inside the GPO I went to the queue to get the thing weighed and put in parcel post. The guy then told me it would pass as a letter - so back to the letter queue to get it weighed and the price of the stamp - then another queue to buy stamps then had to find the post box for foreign letters ( again couldn't read the font). 45 minutes later I returned to the girls whose heads were firmly fixed to the table top, snoozing. That afternoon we went to the Hanging Gardens, Liz and Ais touched a snake I had the important job of taking photos so I could not be doing that kind of thing) and saw the Towers of Silence where the Parsians put their dead ( they hold water, air and fire as sacred) to be disposed of by vultures. That night we got in out of the squalor and filthy street and went to the cinema to see CONAIR followed by a trip to the station to get our luxury train.