Four Months Down - Highlights and Lessons Learned

Walk like an Egyptian

Wow. It's been a busy month here in the Middle East. We've stayed at 16 different hotels over the last 30 days and have seen so many sights and sounds that it's hard to keep up. We are so behind on our web posts but hope to catch-up mid-December as we have a week of relaxation booked between Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt and Abu Dhabi.

Currently we're in Cairo and have just spent an amazing day at the Pyramids of Giza. My mom met us here in Cairo two days ago and so far have been having a great time. Tonight we're catching an overnight train to Aswan where we'll tour Abu Simbel then catch a Nile Cruise boat for a trip up to Luxor.

In the coming weeks we'll be posting pictures writing about our experiences at the following:
- Hanging out at the Moevenpick Dead Sea
- Our Spa Day at the Dead Sea
- Holy sites of Jordan including Bethany by the Jordan (Jesus' Baptism Site), - -  - Mt. Nebo, St. George's Church in Madaba
- Petra
- Wadi Rum - A desert camp-out
- Making Sand Art in Jordan
- Climbing Mt. Sinai at Sunrise
- Chilling out in Dahab, Egypt
- The Pyramids of Giza


Lessons Learned from Month Four
1. Be very careful when buying anything from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. We bought a really fancy Turkish Lamp from the Bazaar and found out later that we paid too much. It was a tough lesson learned and now wouldn't recommend buying anything from the Grand Bazaar as the rent there is so high that shops need to charge more.
2. Climbing Mt. Sinai in the early morning hours may not be worth it. It was very crowded, it felt like I spent more time in line than hiking. I wouldn't do it again.
3. Make sure you know exactly what day trips/excursions are included when booking a guided tour as some brochures lead you to assume that by taking you to a site that the entrance costs are included. We found ourselves spending too much money on things we thought were included in our guided tour. Things that other tour companies did include for a similar cost.
4. When travelling through the Middle East it's a good idea to carry small currency notes as conveniently nowhere seems to have change and it will always work out in the sellers favor. We ended up not buying things because the shopkeeper told us no change. 




Highlights of Month Four
Dave - I think it's a toss-up between Wadi Rum and Petra. Wadi Rum was such an amazing natural place, so solitary and grand in scale, I loved it. Petra was equally amazing but from a man-made perspective. The best part of it was we had this natural wonder to ourselves.

Pamela - Also Wadi Rum and Petra :-) Wadi Rum, just a spectacular peacefull desert of natural rocks and cliffs set amongst sand dunes, where you feel so secluded from the rest of the world. Watching the camels cross the sand as the sun was setting in the background was just amazing to watch from atop the cliffs right by our bedouin camp where we camped out the night in the utter silence of the desert. Petra was amazing in another way, to just try and take in the views and understand a little bit of how these people created and lived in this ancient city carved from the rocks and canyons surrounding it. It creates a respect for how civilised the city was, and to see the blend of the different cultures and religions that influenced it.

Lowlights of Month Four
Dave - I wasn't a big fan of all the bus trips in Turkey. I also wasn't the fan of the town of Alexandria, Egypt. Traffic was a disaster....we spent most of the day in the car.

Pamela - Haha, just as Dave felt...Too many long days in buses in Turkey. It was great to see so much of Turkey, but in such a short amount of time, I felt a little like we were living on a bus for a while. AND the traffic in Cairo and Alexandria. We did a day trip to Alexandria, and we spent far more time in the car in shocking traffic than we did seeing any sights. Not to mention hitting two other cars along the way, and the arguments our driver got into with the other people, even when we were at fault! Not good.


So that's it, another month down. This next month we'll be travelling throughout Egypt then to Abu Dhabi and then finally to America for Christmas with our family and friends in Los Angeles. Thanks so much for reading, we really appreciate it. Two days ago we got our 10,000th hit on our website.

Cheers for Now -

Pamela and Dave