Jordan (Days 6-7)

4/8/08
The day started early with a 6am wakeup call. I guess compared to the third year medical school schedule that isn’t bad at all. On surgery, I would have checked the labs, rounded on all my patients and written my notes by then. We drove about an hour to Petra. Before we arrived our guide took us up to the hills surrounding the site. Even with him pointing out the site, I couldn’t see the city. He also pointed out Mt. Aaron where there is a mosque on the peak as well as Little Petra. After arrival at the park entrance, we walked back toward the city. The entrance is a small “siq” which can’t be more than five to ten feet wide. It seemed like about a one kilometer walk back into the city. There was incredible stone work. There was an aquaduct carved in both sides of the walls to bring water down into the city. There were also clay pipes. The multi-colored red sand stone was impressive. The first building you see upon entering the city is what is called the Treasury. It was huge and the carvings were detailed. It exceeded my expectations. Several parts of it had been damaged in the past century by people using it for target practice. At some point, I believe this area was inhabited by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. There were many other structures, including a large theatre. I think they said it would seat close to five thousand. After leaving Petra, we drove to Amman, which I believe was Rabbath-ammon in the Bible, going through the land of the Moabites and the Ammonites.

You can see a picture of the treasury in Petra in an earlier post.
Picture 1: Donkey and buggy riding through narrow pathway out of Petra.

Picture 2: Building carved in hillside.


4/9/08
This morning we left for Madaba, the Biblical town of Medeba, south of Amman where we visited the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George. There was a mosaic map there, which I believe was from the Byzantine era. It showed the earliest known map of the Holy Land. From there we went up to Mt. Nebo, were we had an amazing view of the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and Israel. I think we could also see Jericho and Gilead from there. On this mountain many years ago, God showed Moses the promised land. Leaving the mountain, we headed toward Israel and made our crossing of the Jordan River at the Allenby Bridge. Security was tight. They x-rayed my bags, asked questions, and sent me through one of those air sampling machines. Driving into Israel and toward Netanya, we must have driven through some of the West Bank, because we had to pass multiple security checkpoints. Israeli soldiers with machine guns were common as were military lookouts. After dinner at the hotel, I headed out to walk along the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. Several military planes and helicopters passed low overhead. I wondered if they were heading to Gaza or if they were just on routine patrol.

Picture 1: Using cut stone to create mosaic.

Picture 2: Standing on Mt. Nebo with Dead Sea over my right shoulder. Directly behind me is the Jordan Valley and River. Beyond that is Israel. Over my left shoulder would be Jericho.

Picture 3: Mediterranean Sea at sunset.

Egypt (Day 5)

4/7/08
Wake-up call was at 12:30am and coffee was served at 1am. At 1:30am we arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai and I hopped on my camel. It was a single hump camel. I rode it in the pitch black for about two or three hours up the mountain. We were supposed to have Bedouin guides, but they rarely checked in on us. Even though the path was about six feet wide, the camels always seemed to walk about six inches from the edge of the path. I was sure it was going to trip and go off the cliff. In the pitch black, they did remarkable well. There seemed to be no way for me to get comfortable in the saddle. Every half mile or so, we would come across small shops selling batteries, tea, coffee, or cokes. As a small amount of sun appeared, the barren landscape became more visible. After riding the camel for quite a ways, I hopped off and began to hike the last 750 steps to the peak. There were some people in front of me in terrible shape. Even though they tried to warn people that it was a tough climb, there were people up there who had no business being there. I had to run around a few people to make it up peak for sunrise, but did make it. There was a little bit of haze but the view was still incredible. The walk down was nice because I could finally see what I was riding by earlier. After a quick breakfast at the hotel we drove up to St. Catherine Monastery, what I was told was the oldest monastery in the world (built somewhere around 300AD). The day before we had been sold tickets to tour the place, but that morning we were informed that in fact they were closed due to the celebration of a feast. Our guides explained that because it was on Greek Orthodox Church territory, they didn’t really have much say in the matter. In the end, the monastery people let us see the courtyards and the burning bush. The tourists loved the bush, but I am not sure that it would have survived the past couple thousand years. We didn’t get to see the chapel. The wilderness in Sinai is incredibly desolate. Maybe I understand a little bit better why the Israelites weren't so content to hang out there. Leaving there we continued on to the Gulf of Aqaba where we boarded a catamaran for a trip across to Aqaba, considered by many to be Ezion Geber, the seaport of King Solomon. Unfortunately, there was so much luggage on board that we couldn’t access the upper deck and therefore had to make the crossing inside. At one point I was able to sneak outside. From the boat, we could see Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. When we arrived, I was able to see some huge tankers and cruise ships. That night I walked down to the Gulf of Aqaba, the northern part of the Red Sea. I walked through the water, but it did not part for me.

In and earlier post you can see me by one of the camels.
Picture 1: Here is one of the camels we rode pat of the way up Mt. Sinai.

PIcture 2: Sunrise on Mt. Sinai.

Picture 3: St. Catherine Monastery with what I believe is the lower part Mt. Sinai in background.

Picture 4: "burning bush"

PIcture 5: Standing Gulf of Aqaba (Nortern Red Sea).

Egypt (Days 3-4)

4/5/08
Waking up exhausted, I head off for a quick breakfast. It was then on the tour bus. We visited the pyramids and sphinx on the West Side of the Nile. I guess they are on the West side, because Egyptians bury people on the side that the sun goes down. I was amazed at the size of the pyramids. I believe Cheops, the tallest, was originally 496 feet. I knew they were big, but not that big. I was also impressed with the amount of tourist there. They were everywhere. During the morning we had our first “pre-arranged” shopping stop. Our guide would tell us not to buy from street vendors and instead buy from the shop of his choosing. However, I got the distinct feeling that the places we stopped gave our guide a nice cut of the profits from our visit. We weren’t given too much time at any shopping place either which meant that we couldn’t really bargain much. Anyway, I bought a simple painting on papyrus. In the afternoon, we visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There was a phenomenal amount of stuff there. I was surprised that they weren’t doing a better job of preserving what they had there. The crowds were huge. King Tutankhamen’s stuff was impressive; gold and more gold. There was no shortage of mummies either. On the way back to the hotel we made another shopping stop. It was over the Nile River and back to the hotel.

Picture 1: Standing in front of Cheops, the tallest of the pyramids.


4/6/08
I had no problem sleeping during the night. We left Cairo early for Sinai, the peninsula in Eastern Egypt. The desert on the way out was very dry and barren. We crossed under the Suez Canal in a tunnel. We could see the big ships passing along the waterway. We stopped at what is believed to be Marah (springs of Moses) and the oasis of Elim. We could see the Gulf of Suez before heading toward Rephidim and Mt. Sinai/Horeb. There were quite a few Bedouins along the way. We arrived at the base of Mt. Sinai and had a quick dinner before catching a few hours of sleep. The hotel was primitive.

Picture 1: Marah, which was surrounded by desert.

Picture 2: Hotel near base of Mt. Sinai. It is not Mt. Sinai the background.

Getting There (Days 1-2)

4/3/08 I didn’t get to bed until 3am because I was up packing and getting last minute stuff together. After eating a late breakfast with Dr. and Mrs. Yamamoto, they dropped me off at the airport. It was off to Chicago on a Boeing 777 at 1pm. During my seven hour layover, the Kisers picked me up and we went over to Bible Truth Publishers for dinner and a tour. I was impressed with the place and grateful for the chance to visit with people during my layover. Then it was off to Amman, Jordan on an Airbus A340. If I remember correctly, it was close to a 15 hour flight. I was surprised that in addition to the usual flight tracking, they also kept track of where Kaaba was relative to the plane. There was also a travel prayer in Arabic. We arrived in Amman at 6:30pm the following day.

4/4/08 A scheduled one and a half hour layover in Amman turned into a three hour delay. They never really told us what was going on. I was worried to because that meant I would get into Cairo, Egypt pretty late. I was already concerned about getting in at 8:15pm. I wasn’t sure that my ride would stick around to take me to the hotel. The guy in the seat next to me, a refugee from Ramallah, was actually supposed to stay at the same hotel and offered to let me go with his driver. As it turns out, my ride was there when I got in a close to 11am. He already had my visa and we were back at the hotel, Intercontinental Pyramids, by mid-night. It had been 30 hours since I left my apartment in Dallas. Cairo is huge and the drivers are crazy. People just drive where they can fit and sometimes can’t fit. A quick little dinner and then I tried to sleep. However, it was 5pm Dallas time, so I tossed and turned for five or six hours.

Trip Log Plans

I am going to attempt to post my daily notes from my trip to Egypt, Jordan, and then Israel. Hopefully, I can include a few pictures from each day. If you notice errors in the notes (other than grammar), please feel free to let me know.

Back from Trip

I just arrived back in Dallas a few hours ago, but am still wide awake. It might take a day or two to adjust to the eight hour time change. The trip was great. I am quite worried. I purchased a new memory card for my camera before leaving on the trip. It contains about 1000 or so photos, including 99% of the Israel portion of my trip. For some reason, my computer is not wanting to read the card. Hopefully this is something that can be resolved tomorrow.

Here are a few photos from the Egypt and Jordan portion of the trip. The first two are near Cairo at the pyramids and sphinx. The next one is of one of the camels I rode on my hike up Mt. Sinai. The last one is of Petra.