Egypt and Jordan

Article

Travel can be a full–time job. While trying to maximize my time in each location, I end up compromising updates to my website. Each update tends to arrive a bit late. I am writing from Damascus, Syria, where I feel like I resonate with an excerpt from a guidebook:

“Legend has it that on a journey from Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed cast his gaze from the mountainside onto Damascus but refused to enter the city because he wanted to enter paradise only once—when he died.”

This place is incredible…I feel so at home here. Granted, I only arrived yesterday evening. But I have received none of the hassles from Egypt with minimal congestion, and endearing friendliness. And the Old City is spectacular. I see several tourists, but it is still charming. The food is even better than I expected.

I thought this article was about Egypt and Jordan?

Right. So let me attempt to briefly summarize them.

Egypt

In short, I liked it better than I expected. I arrived in Egypt with my fists drawn—ready for a fight with touts, liars and scoundrels. I did receive a bit of hassles from bad guys, but it was not as bad as all the stories I’ve heard. And surprisingly, my worst hassles were in Aswan, then Luxor, THEN Cairo. I expected the opposite. Many people in Cairo were so friendly. And Luxor was not so bad either.

“Immense” Luxor

I enjoyed Luxor and was totally unprepared for how incredibly huge the monuments would be. I kept saying to myself, “I’m never going to use the word ‘immense’ again in my life.”

Yet, as immense as everything was, it was still not large enough to conquer mortality. And this fact left the larger impression on me. For as enduring as the monuments are, they are still just the stuff of this Earth. Humans try so hard (at such a great cost to human life!) to “live” forever, yet all our attempts are futile without placing our trust in the Eternal.

Luxor, you’re big. But you’re still crumbing.

Buzzing Cairo

Life in Cairo is a whir. Everyone and everything is in motion. Yet, there is a warm friendliness to the motion…something I find lacking in almost all other major cities. It seems that people are all running at break–neck speed, but they can still take time to sit and have tea with you. I found myself surprised that I was really enjoying the big city.

Still, every day spent in Cairo seemed to wear away at my soul. I am a mountain man, not a city slicker. Cairo seems to be the New York of the Middle East. I thrive in creative, collaborative environments, but the constant press of human, animal and machine mingled with cigarette smoke (everywhere) in unfathomably confined spaces really took it’s toll on me. Many wonderful people I met in Cairo insisted that I stay…that I continue Arabic and get a job. And knowing that people make the place, they we’re tempting me. But inside I now know I could never live in Cairo unless by Divine providence!

I also learned a valuable lesson a little too late in Cairo…establish your primary artist contacts and develop those first, then see sights. My time in Cairo seemed very inefficient. By the time I left, I was trying to establish connections, but the short notice did not allow for personal visits. I left quite disappointed with myself.

However, the time wasn’t entirely lost. The highlight was a visit with Khodeir Mosied Alborsaidi, one of the foremost traditional calligraphers in the world. For the Arabic nerds reading this, he was the one that wrote the cover calligraphy of the Hans Wehr dictionary (though I would say it’s a sad implementation of his work by whoever designed it). His studio has such an enormous amount of work, one could spend years viewing and analyzing everything. Khodeir even wrote a very touching note in my journal.

Conversation was also the highlight of my time in Cairo. Eslam, my host in Dokki who allowed me to stay with him for several days, offered a wealth of incredible feedback and perspective on the Middle East. My last day in Cairo was also priceless, as I spent the time with Adham and his friends, who graciously took me on a personal tour of the city. But more important than the tour was the rich conversations about religion, culture and true submission to God.

Was that Sinai?

I think I visited Sinai. I mean, it was on my itinerary. But I moved in and out so fast, the memory is already fading. Take a look at my route:

Wednesday

• 11:00am: Depart Cairo by bus
  This was supposed to be 7 hour bus ride, but we arrived 3 hours late
• 9:00pm: Arrive in al–Malga (town near Mt. Sinai)
  I got out of the bus with another couple who were booked in St. Katherine’s monastery guesthouse (at the base of Mt. Sinai) so we could share a taxi. Arriving after everything was closed, we were treated like anything BUT guests. While trying to work out passport issues, the couple (growing weary by the moment) was not permitted to eat their food (growing cold) until everything was worked out. I also was not permitted to buy even snack food for the longest time for the same reasons. I had a very poor meal on the bus and really needed a solid meal before climbing the mountain. They finally let me buy a few things.
• 10:45pm: Began climbing Mt. Sinai
  I didn’t want to stay in a hotel just for a few hours, so I had decided to begin climbing the mountain when I would arrive. (I knew this would require me to haul my whole pack up and down the mountain, but it wasn’t any heavier than the pack up Rainier.) However, I didn’t expect to start so late! But ironically, it was a priceless experience. Imagine climbing Mt. Sinai BY YOURSELF in the almost full moon light in silence. It was an experience I will never forget.

Thursday

• 12:00am: Summit Mt. Sinai
• 4:00am: Awake to pilgrims singing and making commotion.
• 5:00am: Pray in the masjid on the mountain
• 7:00am: Descend the mountain
  This, quite unlike my experience going up, was a cattle drive. Bleh.
• 8:30am: Begin to look for transport to Nuweiba
  My primary goal was to find transport to Nuweiba because I needed to catch the ferry to Aqaba the same day. Transport in Sinai, unfortunately, is unlike the rest of Egypt and Sudan. It’s just tourists. So finding someone to give me a lift other than a private taxi (read: $$) was tough.
• 10:00am: Bus to Dahab
  I ended up hitching a ride with a group from Dahab (on the way to Nuweiba) and became engrossed in conversation with a “secular zionist Israeli”. Not realizing I wanted to get to Nuweiba asap, the driver suddenly told me to get out and find a car going the opposite direction to Nuweiba. Tragedy struck when this happened, but I’ll mention that below.
• 1:00pm: Book a ticket on the 3pm ferry to Aqaba, Jordan
• 3:00pm: Uh, was that supposed to be a 3pm ferry?
• 4:00pm: ABMarine doesn’t really stress timeliness
• 5:00pm: Hey, the “fast” ferry is moving.
• 6:00pm: Was that supposed to be a 1 hour ferry?
• 8:00pm: Arrive in Aqaba, Jordan and take taxi to Petra
• 10:45pm: Arrive in Petra, begin searching for hotel
• 11:00pm: Check–in to hotel

So in exactly 36 hours, I traveled from Cairo, climbed Mt. Sinai, spent the night, traveled to Nuweiba, took the ferry to Aqaba, Jordan, a taxi to Petra, and checked into a hotel there.

Sad News

The tragedy I mention above involved my journal. In the flurry of activity getting out of the bus, I left my treasured journal in the door of the bus. It contained some priceless perspectives of my friends along the way, and it really opened up doors for me with so many people. I am currently trying to locate a person in Dahab who can go to the bus stop to look for the journal. I think I’ll buy another in Damascus, but the time put into the first one will be lacking.

Jordan

My time in Jordan was short. Most of my time was spent hiking in and around Petra. Most people recommend visiting the park in two days instead of one, so that’s what I did. I spent the Sabbath on my second day hiking in the surrounding mountains. And the mountains are stunning! They reminded me of Moab, Utah with the variety of strange shapes and forms. I would sit for awhile on a shaded ledge and just gaze. Sometimes the only way through a canyon would be to climb through a little cave! I think I found that day more incredible than the prior day looking at monuments. I also ran into a few simple tombs and found evidence of human activity, but it was more amazing to me because I felt like I was the archaeologist discovering it for the first time, rather than with hordes of crowds. It was just me, a bunch of food and water, the scriptures, and my uke.

Amman

Intending to only pass through the city, I felt like I was more productive here in 12 hours than my entire week in Egypt! I met artists, visited a couple galleries, had valuable conversation, watched a film screening, ate some good food, and even saw some Roman ruins! But the most amazing discovery I found in Amman was at the “House of Artists” (Dar al–Fanun) where I found my dream library. I would seriously consider flying to Amman again JUST to visit that library and read. Thousands of rare and out of print books on Islamic art and calligraphy were free for the reading.

I hope to update the website sometime around November 1st with an article on Syria, but check for Facebook and Twitter updates before then.

Submitted by paul on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 11:52am.