One More Day in Amman

Yesterday I loafed around Amman to have a quiet moment for myself and I think that I succeeded pretty well. I already mentioned that I'd visited the Roman amphitheater and afterward I spent a record 5 hours in an internet cafe finishing up old posts, doing some online banking, and ordering a netbook from Dell. Erika can bring it to me in May when she visits. It's a good thing to have because it allows one to email frequently enough to use CouchSurfing.org, a social networking website where you can find people who have an unnatural interest in letting strangers sleep for free at their homes and to share stories and information. It's a great way to get closer to the real local culture and to make friends, also to save money. That would be most useful in an expensive place like Greece. Note that Greece is only really expensive relative to all the cheap places that I'm going like Syria.

Anyways, after the blogging I went out and got a great Bedouin dinner of lamb cooked in camel milk and served over rice. It's called mensaf. It came with a fresh salad of tomato, cabbage, and parsley with no dressing as is common in the middle east. Usually a squirt of lemon juice is added to bring out the flavor of the vegetables. After that I went back to the hostel to continue reading my book, Flaubert in Egypt, and made some real progress. Eventually couple American girls (Abby and Jenny) interrupted me and invited me to go with them the next day to visit Madaba, Mt Nebo, and some hot spring. I've already seen the first two, but it was hazy on Nebo last time, the whole trip was to be under $11 per person, and I liked the sound of swimming so I reluctantly agreed.

First we went to Mt Nebo, where Moses died after seeing the holy land. He wasn't allowed to go there himself as punishment for breaking the first set of tablets, but I still don't know what happened to the second set. Oh yea, there were in the Ark of the Covenant right? I learned that from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The picture is of the 3 of us trying to roll a fortified door of the old monastery on the site. They're building a spiffy new church there too, but it's not completed. Other than that the only thing there was a hazy view towards Israel and a very strange sculptured tribute to Moses called the Christiological Symbol.

Next stop was Madaba. I didn't care for the mosaics there the first time, so I just picked up some lunch to go and we eventually continued on to the hot springs. They were located near the dead sea and there was a rather spectacular drive down a canyon to reach them. Once we got there I was very annoyed to find out that it cost another $14 to enter the springs and I did not have the optin of sitting it out because you paid at a checkpoint on the road. Oh well. The springs were really great. Hot but not too hot and a huge waterfall dropping on your head. I had a good time talking with Abby and Jenny, but when we got back to the Hostel I declined to go with them to Jerash tomorrow. I don't really want to spend the money to see some OK roman ruins and I want to move on to Syria to meet up with my friend Min. So, tomorrow morning I'm headed out there and we'll see what I find.

For dinner I went back to the fantastic felafel place from the other day, Hashem. They've got pictures on the wall from the many times that the royal family has eaten there and it's considered the best in the city for that kind of food. I should mention that the royal family here is greatly beloved and pictures of the king and prince are absolutely everywhere. Part of the love comes from the general prosperity of the country, and part of it comes from the fact that the royal family created a lasting constitution in the 50s and led the elections of political parties and a representative government in the 90s. They also have banned the Islamists from running for power and have reaffirmed peace treaties with Israel and the US, despite losing the West Bank to Israel in some war a while back. The efforts have paid off for the people of Jordan. The people also love Queen Rania, a serious hottie, and last night someone struck up a conversation with me on the street about how much they admired her. Back to the food. The dish is felafel, a mixture of ground chickpeas, fried into balls. Served on the side is a salad of raw tomatoes and sweet onions garnished with mint. Also I was given hummus, pita, and some sugary tea to wash it all down. Very filling and only $2.

Road to Damascus

Hello again. Today I'm writing from the capitol of Jordan, the hilly city of Amman. It's home to half (2.2 million) of Jordan's entire population and is pretty darn urban as you might guess. Actually I quite like it and I've found a cheap hostel to stay at for just $7 per night, but that comes with breakfast, free Internet access, and it a lot less loud and crowded than my last place in Wadi Musa where I shard a room with 9 other people and had a single toilet/shower. Compounding the problems, some of the backpackers were very obnoxious and would do their cooking in the bedroom, make an unholy mess, and talk loudly while everyone else was sleeping. I'm talking about some Israeli guys... they're famed as being the worst nationality with which to share a room. Of course if you run into a solo Israeli they'll prove to be fun and respectful. Shalom.

After the full on assault on my wallet that is Petra, it was time to move on to greener pastures. Min decided to go his ow way and I got a private taxi with Patrick and a rare Indian traveler named Pusan. First stop was Shobak Castle, built by the crusaders in the 12th century and eventually sacked by Saladin, famed Muslim warrior king. It was pretty ruined despite its very long history of use by Muslim forces. The most interesting feature was an escape tunnel that snaked very far down through the earth to emerge at the bast of the hill that the castle was built upon. I don't have any pictures of it, but it was dangerously steep and slippery going down and thankfully 2 of the 3 of us had headlamps.

The next stop was Karak Castle, built around the same time by the crusader king Baldwin I and famed for having one very cruel Frenchmen running it. He would not just throw his enemies off the fortifications to roll down the stony hill but would also have their heads protected by a wooden box so that they could not be knocked out before feeling every bump on the way down. Saladin was famed for showing mercy to his captured enemy leaders, but this guy was deservedly put to death. The castle itself was built on top the foundations of an ancient citadel that successfuly defended itself from the biblical armies of Israel. After that siege the Israelis went north where King David sacked Amman and had many of the residents burned alive in brick ovens. Anyways, the castle today is in decent shape to get an idea of what it would have looked like. The three of us made friends with some kids that should have probably been in school that day and took some pictures.

It was pretty cold in the morning at the higher elevations of Wadi Musa, but it was getting quite hot when we approached the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea. It's very salty as you probably know and supports no wildlife at all. It's fed by the river Jordan but that water is under increasing demand so maybe the sea will eventually dry up when it's totally cut of from its water supply. People go there because the minerals in the water are supposedly good for your skin, but also because it's so much fun to swim in. Your body is super buoyant in the salty water and you float higher than normal in it. It feels like magic laying back and having you hands, feet, and shoulders all above water without any effort. A lot of older people in the water floundered for their balance in a comical manner as you don't really sit in the water as much as on top of it. After that we showered and got back on the road.

We stopped in the town of Madaba, famed for its mosaics, but I wasn't very impressed by their size of quality so we quickly moved on to drop us off at our hostel(s) in Amman. The hostel that I checked into (the Mansour) is mostly populated by Japanese backpackers it seems and has a very extensive manga library that I'm sure not to look at. I spent the night and the next day, today Tuesday the 23rd, I'm just wandering around town relaxing, checking out the Roman amphitheater, blogging, and having some quiet time away from other travelers. I'm also looking into ordering a netbook that my sister could bring me in May as there is free wifi everywhere and I'd like to do more blogging in a convenient manner. Also, a lot of people do what's called couch surfing and it's much easier if you have a laptop to frequently access email from. Couchsurfing.org is a website where you can meet people around the world that offer to let you crash on their couch for several days for free. It's a great thing because it gets you closer access to the real culture of that country unlike staying at a hostel filled with foreigners and also you can save a few bucks. One of my friends, David, stayed at a Bedouin's home in Wadi Musa and found that the owner lets half a dozen people stay at his house at a time for entertainment. Maybe I should offer up my couch when I come home?

Anyways, this town is great. It's got loads of shops, the cheapest internet cafes I've seen yet ($1 /hour) and the fastest computes, and my hostel is right next to a very nice fallafel restaurant that I enjoyed lunch at for $1.50. It was great too, and I'll try to get some pics later as I'm sure to come back.

Lost in Time

Today I experienced Jordan's single greatest attraction (Petra) and I'm left in awe as is everyone who comes here. Petra is ancient city that was the home to wealthy merchants who controlled the frankincense trade and carved elaborate temples and homes out of the sandstone cliffs that snake through the local topography. The city thrived for over 1000 years and in its history was attacked by Alexander the Great and his Greek forces in 300 BC, the Romans in 300 AD, and eventually a great earthquake in 500 AD that destroyed half the city and precipitated its abandonment. It was rediscovered by the West in 1810 when some Swiss explorer, disguised as an Arab, ran across it and publicised its mysteries.

Since then a small town, Wadi Musa, has sprung up on the cliffs above the site to handle the masses of tourists who come here to see the city. It should be mentioned that it gained a lot of notoriety after it was used in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as the site of the holy grail. I checked into the only hostel in town with dorm accommodations, everything else in Jordan is unaffordable, and found it to be a well managed place. They have several 9+ bed rooms for about $7 per night and offer free shuttle service to Petra, packs fairly cheap lunch boxes to take, and offers a very nice dinner for $6 that served buffet style. That's cheaper than anything else in town, and they are the only place serving beer, so it's a no brainer to stay there and catch the evening showing of the aforementioned movie whose poster is prominently displayed all over town.

I went to the site with my new-ish friends Min from S. Korea and Patrick from Texas. We had spent the better part of the previous evening discussing Americas many triumphs and failing and Min told us more of S. Korea. The three of us actually met several days previously when we shared a van and happened to run into each other once more. It's a common thing on the backpacker trail. Anyways, at the site we found Petra to be very expensive... $45 for one day and it's scheduled top go up to $75 at the end of the year. That's pretty harsh, but what can we do? Petra rocks.

After a winding walk down into the canyon and into the hordes of other tourists we reached the first site and arguably the best: the treasury. It's called that because there's some dumb rumor of treasure hidden in the carvings that got a lot of it shot up by Bedouins looking for it to fall out, but other than some holes it's pretty spectacular and it's also the place used in the movie.

After that we hiked out to see more carved temples, went up narrow stone stairs high onto one of the plateaus overlooking the ruined city, and at the peak ran into my friend from the other day, David, who got separated from us when he went off to pursue a couch surfing connection. Instead of staying at the hostel he stayed withe a Bedouin family that takes in several backpackers at a time for entertainment and doesn't charge anything. I've got to try that some time in Syria. After that we took some pictures, lunched on pita bread, cheese, and fruit, and talked a lot. The hike back to the entrance was hot and then we rode the free shuttle back to the hostel in time to get a rare hot shower (they only turn on the gas 3 hours a day) and afterwards I ran out to write this.

The plan for tomorrow is to share a minibus with Min and Pat, and to ride to Amman, stopping at a dozen sites along the way, so that we can wrap up Jordan quickly and get on to Syria where everything is much cheaper. I'll try to spend some real down time there and soak up as much of that country as I can stand.

Sunburnt and Loving It

There's not a bird to be seen in Dahab thanks to the legions of cats. They wake you up in the morning with their yammering, smoke sheesha with you sitting in your lap, and see you off to bed as you trip over them. Not a one of them is an 'egyptian' sphinx cat though... just a bunch of mongrels like all the rest of the denzians of the beach. The first day in Dahab I took it easy blogging, eating, and drinking. There was hasheesh too, but I've sworn off of it... it makes me queezy since you must take it with cigarettes. Oh, also when I woke up that morning it was to the sound of a girl in my dorm puking. Lovely. When I came back that afternoon she was still there so I inquired into her doings and found that she had not in fact been drinking but had instead contracted some kind of illness so I went out and got some food and medicine for her. I also started working on a new song, Island in the Sun, and it's coming along pretty well. I finished up the evening at a Chinese restaurant with several S. Korean backpackers who told me all about their mandatory military service, the possibly impending war with the north, china's plant to annex the north, and many more benign subjects. After that it was sheesha, cards, and bedtime.

The second day out I decided that I'd be more productive so in the morning I practiced my song some more and then went out to lay in the sun. There's a bar down the street from the hostel that will let you lay on their beach chairs for free (they offered a menu but I declined). I guess that there's got to be a free beach hangout because the competition at this so called 'backpacker's paradice' is feirce. The main strip along the water is about half a mile long and the beach side is lined with restaurants featuring bedouin style seating. That's where you lay against pillows and the tables are low to the ground... within cat reach. The other side of the street features shops selling shirts, masks, aroatic herbs, diving lessons, ATMs, bars, and the kitchens for the aformentioned restaurants. Nowhere is there open sand, but it's possible to step into the water from many of the restaurants. The town is crawling with lazy backpackers, guided tour groups, independant divers waddling down the street in full gear, older holliday makers from the UK, and of course cats. I thought there were just too many gringos. The touts in the town thought there were not enough however and they came from all angles to steer yu into their shops. They'd grab you by the wrist and tell you about their fresh fish, block your way to show you a shirt, and generally were pests.

Anyways, so I layed on the beach and along came Jowen to nap in the shade at the same spot, and Brandy showed up to work on her tan too. After some time, and some beers, we thought it was time to do some snorkeling so we went back to her hostel and worked out a trip to the nearby 'blue hole' dive location, a few miles up the coast. For $6 each we got a taxi that waited for us to finish, the snorkel gear, and off we went. It was a really dusty and windy ride up. We found the spot to be a very deep patch of waterright off the beach that was roughly hole shaped and certainly very blue. I only snorkeled for 20 minutes because the water was a little cold and the feirce wind upon getting out had me shaking for the next 3 hours before we left even though I was dry in minutes. The time was east to pass in one of the many restaurants loated at the otherwise very baren patch of coast and there were more camels than cars patrolng the road. I think that some of the tour groups use them to get back to town.

On the ride home we shared our cab with 3 egyptians serving in the military and we agreed to meet them later on for dinner. I talked the sick room mate for a while and then headed out to neet up. Jowen, Brandy, and I enjoyed their company very much and we swapped stories, took pictures, and laughed more than normal. They were a lively bunch and were headed out that night to return to Cairo. Their plan was to drive to Sharm al-Sheik 2 hours away, dance until 6 am (no drinking of course) and then to drive 7 hours back to Cairo. Tough guys. I declined their offer to take me with them and instead went to bed.

The next day (Friday the 19th) was a long travel day. I decided that I was done with the beach (the sunburn helped) and that it was time to head to Jordan and to meet a new crowd. I met some people on the ride out to the ferry... a few independent backpackers, a mother/son traveling pair, and after a LONG day of waiting around finally made it to Jordan around 6pm. I went to a hotel in Aquaba and shared the cab ride with the mother, her young son, and a man named David that I'd swear I've met somewhere. Some cabbies had a fist fight as they argued over who would take us to town and we went with a 3rd man. The city was nice... small but very clean, well built, and more expensive than Egypt. I shared a room with David and the next morning he and I set out to reach Wadi Musa near Petra.

The drive out was scenic, but otherwise an uneventful one. I played a few songs for the people at the bus stop and David and I got some free tea and a lot of interested looks out of it. I had played for people the day before too and I find that I rather enjoy it. I just need to learn some more songs now, but I've got Island in the Sun down cold. There's a hostel with a dorm here for just $7 per night which is the cheapest I've heard of in Jordan but stings after I got used to $4 in Egypt. At the hostel I ran into another American, Patrick, that I rode to the ferry with yesterday and we walked around Wadi Musa, played a game of pool, and we're going to meet up later for some drinks. Speaking of which, I'd better get going to that.

Sand on the Beach

The last time that I wrote you I was in the very hot and dusty city of Luxor, a couple hundred miles south of Cairo. I got a haircut right after and was shocked that the barber employed a method using fingers and string to pull all the hair out of my ears. I never thought I had an ear hair problem so maybe he was punishing me for something. In retrospect, I thought that Luxor was pretty sweet... cheap hostels, cheap food, and lots of side trips to choose from. I could have done a boat trip still but the raging heat drove me away to Cairo on the night train. I splurged for the sleeper cabin and arrived in Cairo rested and ready to tour with determination.

The first stop was at the Australian Hostel that I had stayed at before and would leave my bags with them. I recognized Mustafa at the front desk and after he joked about selling my bags (all the hostel operators make this tasteless joke) I set off for the Pyramids of Giza, the most famous landmark in Egypt and the only survivor of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. That's what I read at least, but isn't the Great Wall one of them? Whatever. I met several people along the way there since I took public transit and one of them,a high school teacher named Ackmed, followed me all the way there since his school was a few blocks away.

I'd heard good reviews of the camel tours of the Pyramids and determined that while it's sure to be expensive, it would probably enhance the experience and I was right on both accounts. The camel merchant that I was recommended to wanted $200 for a 3 hour tour and I got him down to $65 for a 2 hour tour. I feel like I might have been able to fight about it longer, but I wanted to catch the afternoon bus out of Cairo and I was out of time so I surrendered my wallet, chose a camel, and got my hump on ;) It came with a guide of course and he took me not only around the pyramids but also to a few scenic view points and knew where to take all the campy tourist photos for best effect. I knew the Pyramids were going to be large, but I was still blown away by the scale of them. Truly humbling. I saw the Sphinx too and it was pretty diminutive by comparison.

After the pyramids I raced back to the hostel to get my bags so I could catch the afternoon bus out of town but Cairo has horrific traffic and we were too slow. It's just as well, there was more to do in Cairo. I met an older man at the hostel that I knew from last week. Last week, he was suffering from Dysentery and could not go on any tours. It turns out that he spent the whole week holed up in the Hostel and saw nothing more than the Pyramids. That sucks for him, but a few days ago I picked up medication for Dysentery (Cipro) and I'm determined that if I get sick I'll be prepared, and until then I'll continue on eating and drinking all the local weirdness without fear. I also met Minna at the hostel and we set off to walk around 'Islamic Cairo' to see the market and mosques.

We sampled several drink stands on the walk to our destination and most of them were very nasty. The first tasted like muddy wheat grass and was poured from a large glass carafe strapped to a man's chest. The second drink was brown, cold, and very sweet... like a brown sugar smoothie. Not too bad but who knows what any of this stuff is called ;) Finally we got where we were headed and the mosques were great indeed. They were all free to enter and we ignored the guards asking for baksheesk (tips). The nearby market was overflowing with tourists and I was dragged towards several shops by aggressive touts. It's all part of the experience I suppose. Afterwards we ate and I got back to the hostel to retire early for my 7 AM bus ride.

The bus from Cairo to Dahab takes 9 hours, stopped only once for a bathroom break, and crossed some of the most inhospitable terrain I have ever seen. We basically followed the coast around the Sinai peninsula and had water on one side and craggy cliffs on the other. The mountains of Sinai are where Moses received the 10 commandments and are home to Bedouin nomads and not much else. As far as I could tell, not a tree or blade of grass has ever lived there and it made the deserts of Southern California look positively hospitable. I really thought it looked like the mountains on mars. Eventually we got to the fabled beach town of Dahab at 4 in the afternoon and I went to the Bishi Bishi Village hostel that Jowen was staying at. The rest of the crew got held up in a different town when all the ferries for the week were canceled for high winds. Anyways, Jowen, a new girl named Brandy, and I ate a fantastic seafood dinner that we had to persistently guard from a dozen very aggressive cats (one dinner guest's face was brutally attacked by several cats in front of us) and we drank the night away. Now it's the next morning and it looks like we're going to lounge by the beach, I'll work on a new song, and we'll find some way to spend the night. Next time I'll describe the town in more detail. Until then, stay safe from cats!

Blog like an Egyptian

I never know whether to write these journal entries as a rundown of each day or just the highlights of the time that's passed since I last wrote. From now on, I'm going to claim that the purpose of this blog/journal is for me to be able to look back on the details of these obscenely decadent days, and in the future to smile to myself. To that end I'm going to try and include a summary of each individual day and to mention the highs, the lows, and everything that's fit for publishing... and even some of that which is not.

I purchased a one-way ticket to Cairo and set off early on Tuesday the 9th from SFO. There were delays and a lot of running to get on departing connections but I (and even my luggage) made it to Cairo at 5:00 on Wednesday night. I took a bus downtown and caught a cab to the 'Australia Hostel' with was certainly not affiliated with any Australians as far as I could tell but was clean, cheap ($9 per night), and had plenty of people to talk to. I tried my first Egyptian meal at an upscale looking Koshery next door to the hostel. Koshery is what the locals consider fast food and they only serve one dish... its a heaping plate of small noodles, rice, and fried lentils/chickpeas mixed together with a bowl of tomato pasta sauce to pour over top. Not bad, very filling, and a good value at $1.50. I went to my room afterward, met my soon to be more important friend Jowen Yeo, and crashed in a fit of jet lag and mental exhaustion.

The next day I business to take care of. I was our of visa pages in my passport and needed to visit the US embassy to obtain more. To that end, I wrote down the address and had a friendly worker at the hostel (Mustafa) translate it into Arabic and caught a cab to that part of town. Unfortunately the address that I had written and subsequently translated was incorrect because it didn't include the correct neighborhood name so my goose chase began. I set off at 8 and had until 11am before the embassy closed to US citizen business. After the cab dropped me off and signaled that my destination was somewhere, blocks ahead, cut off from him by construction I started walking and asked dozens of people where I should be going. The address was ambiguous because the simple street/number combination is insufficient here... there are many streets that share the same names, most are not lined up straight, and its really necessary to include nearly landmarks to position by. After searching in vain for 45 minutes and circling an area a smartly dressed young man named Hassan took pity on me and made it his mission to help me in any way possible. He walked with me an hour and a half asking various people where the address is referring to and after we ended up calling the embassy and getting a better address he rode across town on the metro with me and waited outside the building for 45 minutes for me to line up and complete the paperwork to get the pages. That was a Thursday and I was told that I could pick it up again on Sunday. Disappointing, but hey, I've got the time. Afterward I had lunch with Hassan and he insisted on paying, and he paid for several cokes along the way that he wrestled me me out of buying for him. We were having fun trying to understand each other and we shared our stories.

He's a 19 year old electrical engineering student, teaching math to highschoolers, and hoping to go to university in America some day. You see, he needs to become successful so as to win the hand of the girl that he likes. She's 18 and likes him too but in Egypt dating is kind of complicated for devout Muslims like my friend Hassan. They text furiously but cannot spend too much time together since she is escorted most places and they can only really be together when married. To get married he must have money, a flat in a good part of town, and must ask the parents for approval. He says that it will take him 6 years to get to that point and currently a 31 year old man is trying to get her parents approval as well. She says that she will wait for Hassan but the parents don't care for this plan. Who knows how this will turn out. More commonly, young Muslims will date but will never meet each others families until they are ready to marry. He told me many of the virtues of Islam and tried to consistently give to every beggar we passed and explained how Muhammad got his start. He also insisted halfway through the day that we should walk arm in arm as friends in Egypt do, and what could I do but indulge him? Wish I had a picture of that.

After lunch we visited the Egyptian Museum of Cairo and found it a bit dull. We retired to my hostel to play a couple songs on ukulele and he went home to sleep. Next on the list was getting a train ticket to Aswan for a few days later. I went to the station with a charismatic Irishman from the hostel, Gerard, and he convinced me that I should instead go to Luxor with him and Jowen and to return to Cairo later to get the passport. That seemed easy enough so that very night the three of us set off on an overnight train, picked up two more friends at the train station (Chilean-David and English-Rachel), and we played cards and drank non alcoholic beer late into the night. Alcohol is hard to come by in Muslim countries and honestly we only bought that beer because the drink cart went by, we got excited and bought 10, and then returned what we could after realizing our mistake. We got to know our local Coptic Christian cabin mates and they showed us their cross tattoos that they all get at 5 years old, shared their whole roast chickens, and sang some songs. Good times.

After the night on those very uncomfortable train seats we arrived in Luxor, a smaller town of maybe a million half way up Egypt's part of the Nile river. Cairo was a huge metropolis of 20 million and was a fairly impressive and interesting urban center. Luxor is a walking town and we hiked to the Bob Marley hostel where price negotiations failed and we opted instead for the Princess Hotel were we got a shared room for $4 per night per person. Bob Marley wanted $6 but we know someone who stayed there for $3. Spent the afternoon relaxing, drinking, found a crying french girl at an ATM and helped her get money from her family at Western Union, and sampled the local sheesha (hookah tobacco). Late in the afternoon Jowen, David, Rachel, and I took a cab to Karnak, said to be the greatest temple in all of Egypt, and the largest religious structure in the entire world. It was truly awesome, and the main hall with its papyrus shaped columns dwarfed my imagination. In its day the room would get a meter of water from the flooding of the Nile to complete its swamp theme. We spent the rest of the night getting to know each other and running up our bar tab on the roof of the hostel.

The next day (Saturday the 13th) we set off early to see the Valley of the Kings which has a very strict no cameras policy for no good reason. First we stopped at the Funerary Temple of Hatshepsut where picture were allowed and it was hot as hell at over 104F. Our only relief was the minibus's AC the the cool of the crypts in the Valley of the Kings. The original paint still adorns the walls of the crypts and they colors have hardly faded at all due to their inorganic ingredients. The tombs were spectacular and the variety and scale of the hieroglyphs and illustrations impressed me very much. The rest of the day was spent purchasing a ticket back to Cairo, and trying to fend off the crippling heat of the afternoon with beer and hummus.

As I write this it's now Sunday afternoon and I'm at an internet cafe. Three of my group set off by bus to reach Dahab on the coast of the Red Sea for cooler weather and diving instruction. They plan to arrive on Monday afternoon and I'm going to meet up with them there on Monday or Tuesday. My other companion, Jowen, is flying there tomorrow. Tonight I'll take the sleeper train to Cairo and see the Pyramids in the morning, or possibly after I pick up my passport. Wish me speed in my journey.

Life comes full circle once more

Hello travel blog! Its been so long since I last wrote in you; a shame really. So much has happened and I need you to relax, have a cup of tea (its Egypt after all), and let me fill in the gaps in our collective experience.

It's been about 2 years since my trip to Central America. What a good time that was... I had my first solo travel experience, met so many fun and interesting people, and enjoyed the company of Sam and her family for the last couple weeks. Thinking back on it, it was the first hint at what what would become a minor obsession for me... getting back out on the road. Finally this year opportunity presented itself for me to chase that dragon once more. I think that I trembled a bit when it dawned on me that I had the time to take 6+ months off to persue this, but that was also because I was fired and it was a traumatic 30 seconds before this new plan dropped into my head. From then on it was a lot of hard work preparing for my aimless pilgrimage towards cheap kicks and also alot of heartbreak saying goodbye for now to my dear friends, coworkers, family, and to Samantha. I've been out a week so far (I'll get to that in a bit) but there is not a day that goes by that I don't fondly think of her, them, and all the great living that the lot of us enjoyed together for the last few years. LA has been very good to me and even though I tell so many Egyptians that I'm Canadian, I'm proud to be a Californian.

So then, that's all the sentimental stuff. I have more but I'll spare you the details. Let me now get into the tedious logistics of going on the road by ones self for 6+ months. I had to take care of paperwork, pick a destination, gather essential supplies, and say farewell to everyone I know (the hardest part). For the paperwork I got visas, inoculations against disease, a guide book, opened new checking accounts with favorable international ATM fees, dealt with taxes, and insured myself and my non operational car. That took quite a while to do, but picking the destination to start at was no cake walk either. My goal was to travel cheap, to go places that would run me into other wayward young folk, and that would make the most of the weather. In the end I decided that if I started in Egypt it would be warm enough that I would not need heavy clothes and that I could go north with the creeping spring weather, and would have me go through a variety of cheap locales such as Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Greece. After that summer will be upon Europe and I can decide what would be interesting and affordable. After that I could decide to summer in Eastern Europe and then in the Fall go to Asia, Australia, or anywhere else that sounds nice... assuming I don't get bored and wander home to replenish funds and relationships.

Packing a bag that you'll want to carry for a long time is no easy task. I don't want to devolve to listing everything, but I basically have enough clothes to last a week before laundering, have some reasonable entertainment (ipod and books), many toiletries including a years supply of contact lenses, and my ukulele. The last item there is a tad heavy but it reminds me of home, gives me something to work at and kill time waiting for buses and what not, and is a great conversation piece. After carrying all that fora week I've come to the conclusion that I took a few too many things but I'll just post them home tomorrow. No worries.

Saying goodbye has never been so hard to do. I love my friends in LA and felt like I had a good group of people that I could call on for any flavor of activity that I had in mind and I felt like I had an important function in their lives as an organizer and trusted ally. Hopefully I can drop back into that in the future and be happy with how it all turned out. Samantha is a more difficult problem for me to handle. I love that girl and her family but relationships are hard work and I wonder how I'll feel about us when I get home. I've found that since we parted I miss her dearly and wonder what's really best to do about it. Regardless, I'm gone for a long time, don't have the means to make something satisfying work at long distance and am of the experimental nature that says we should take some time apart from each other and see what we think when I return in the unforeseen future. I hope that she can enjoy the single life with pent up vigor and that she still thinks of me from time to time. Finally,saying goodbye to family was not as difficult as the rest because I know that they'll always be there for me and because my sister wants to come out and visit where ever I am in a couple months. That'll be great, and it would be a lot of fun too if her bf Rob could make it too... he's a amicable guy. I also got to stop by the homes of several relatives to reconnect before I left... I only wish that I had the time to see more of them. It was a pretty frantic rush to get on the road.

So that's the build up... let me get on to what's happened in the last week since I arrived in fabulous Egypt!