Dubai airport

Well Egypt and Jordan are both behind me now, I'm even in a different time zone. Simon has left to go experience the country and I'm waiting 6 hours for my connecting flight to Beijing, guess I'm all alone now, time for another adventure let the good times roll.

Until I reach the orient, I'm out.

Mandz

Petra and Wadi Rum

well haven't I been slack, actually it got to do with us changing plans in Jordan. Originally our plan was to spend one night in Aqaba this turned into 5 days. It's one of those things really, you got to be spontaneous whilst travelling I say. So anyway, I can't remember what my last blog was all about, but I think I told you all about our epic journey via ferry from Egypt to Jordan. Well our new friend Osama offered to take us to Petra on the Monday and then to Wadi Rum to experience some real Bedoiun cooking. However our plan to leave early 8pm became a 11.30am departure, this was because of a few factors:

1. The three of us were out late the night before like getting back to the hotel at midnightish (I can't remember it's actually Thursday now).

2. We were checking our of Darna 'HELL' Hotel, and move into the Classic Hotel which was a thousand times better; hot water, soft beds instead of wood with a mattress protector, TV (at the best of times) and it was in the middle of the city.

3. We had to go shopping in the market places for Chicken, Vegetables and the staple food over here PITA bread, to take to the Bedoiun to cook for us. Now this was an experience in itself, buying chicken pretty much from the street and then having the guy hack it up into pieces for us..umm..interesting.

So finally we made it off on our journey, toward Petra, about 3 hours later we made it to this amazing ancient city of the Nabeteans. Petra is even more amazing second time around and was also fantastic that the temp. was great just and surprisingly not too many tourists floating about. Then having coffee almost at the end of the Petra area was awesome watching the sun flicking lights of colour of the canyons, it was beautiful. From here we headed back south along the Desert Higway toward Wadi Rum, now before I tell the next part of the story I want to make sure our parents know that we are fine and felt almost 100% safe most of the time.
So it's dusk, well it's dark enough that you should have your lights on while driving, but at this very pinacle point of time we learn the car we are in hasn't actually got lights apart from high beam, which is blinding every driver on the otherside of the road. So everytime a car is approaching us Osama turns the light off and drives in the flippin dark, I don't know how but I managed to have clean underpants at the end of this journey. Yes it was an unexpected adventure, one I could probably live with not having again. Having arrived safely at the Bedoiun camp area they began to prepare our food and then cook it in the ground, it was about 8pm when we got there and it takes about 1.5 - 2 hours to cook, can you guess what time we had dinner? It was about 11pm, it was different eating under the open night sky with a full moon, but without sounding corny it was magically. I kinda felt a little like Lawerance of Arabia, it was special and I say when you go to Jordan you must experience, see it for yourself.

well without overloading you all, I'm going to wrap up this particular post and begin on the next one.

Peace Out,

Mandz

Heading to Petra and Wadi Rum

Today we're heading to Petra and then Wadi Rum. Our new friend Osama is taking us, which means saving on transport, because that costs a fortune and we are going to have a local taking us through who speaks the language.

I also bought a new camera last night at a bargain price. It was sucky not having a camera for a week darn you Red Sea - everyone just note when a camera says it's water proof it might not be Red Sea proof. Lesson learnt.

Well I'm sure I'll have photos up shortly after our adventure, so keep an eye out for them.

Until then, take it easy

Mandz

G'day from Jordan

So after an eventful 15 hours we've made it to Jordan. Actually let me rephrase that, after a tedious 15 hours we've made it to Jordan. We arrived at the Ferry port and purchased our tickets at 10.30am as per the lovely tour guides instructions, and then the fun begins! Our Ferry was due to leave at 2pm that afternoon, we figure waiting three hours itsn't to hard since we've faced lengthy travel times already and we now fully understand Egpytian time (add about 1 - 1.5 hours to anything planned or told to you). So it's 1.30pm, Praise the Lord they are ushering us onto the bus that takes us from the departure area to the ferry, only to get all aboard and then the bus just stops working, for crying out loud, my butt is sore from sitting on these awful timber plank seats, we are motioned off the bus and we have no idea what the heck is going on because no one speaks english and Simon and I don't speak arabic. But alas I meet a knight in shinning armour by the name of Osama, who speak good english and is Jordanian, who informs us that the ferry is broken down and that they need to fix it before we go grrr!!! So anyway we end up chatting to Osama, about the general stuff that people talk about, family, Australia, life, dreams etc it proves to be a bonding moment, then at 6pm we are finally ushered back onto the buses, and driven to the ferry. But the ferry doesn't offically leave until 10.30pm, twelve hours after our arrival to the port. We are on the slow ferry, which means it'll take about 4 hours to get to Aqaba, Jordan. So Simon, Osama and I settle in for the trip, we share some dinner and then it's snooze time.  We finally arrive into Jordan at 3.30am about 10 hours later then we had expected, thank God I started talking to Osama because he rang our hotel and told them what was going on and that we would be late (just not this late), he even came along with us to the hotel in the taxi. We did manage to get into our hotel and grab a few zzz's, just in time for a fun filled day in Aqaba. Today Osama is going to take us out for dinner the Jordanian way YAY great food is install for us. But right now I'm planning to grab a deck chair, sit by the pool which is right across the road from the beautiful Red Sea and read a little of Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Until you hear from me again, Peace Out

Mandz

So this Chapter is finishing...

You know whenever I travel I manage to met some amazing people, it's probably one of the reason I love travelling so much. It's also hard to describe to people the experiences I've had because in all honesty there are no words thats can describe what takes place. Tomorrow we leve Egypt but there is something that will continue to resinate within me for a long time to come, I don't what it is but there is something. I've enjoyed all the history that I've learnt and visiting all these amazing places but more to that I've loved meeting some amazing people. For instance mohammed from the store we bought our papyrus from, I think it was such a privilage to be able to seat in his store for a number of hours just chatting, and then having him play photographer, just thinking about him and his smile brings such joy to me, and then there's Edward, such a free spirit quite literally going whereever his heart desires and having an adventure. Next is Allira, a Brisbane girl who's been working in London and now is travelling around Europe, it's continues to baffle me how I manage to met people from Brisbane all the way on the other side of world, and it's like we just click right at the moment, as if we've been like long friends, I guess God works in mysterious ways really, because this has happened before and no doubt it will happen again, and last but not least there is Ahmed my Big Brother. I don't even know where to begin in regards to this friendship because it's so unique, but I can say that I've made a life long friend in him. Ahmed has a heart that is so geniue and caring, and I can only hope that more people in the world would get to met someone like him, because if they did I think the western world would perceive the Islam nations in a very different light at least I can only hope as much.

So on a different note, Dahab has been just amazing and relaxing. Sleeping in, snorkeling, swimming, eating dinner along the Red sea, it's been a tough holiday so far... but alas someones got to do it, so why not me? I think I really will miss Egypt, it's like I've just scratched the surface of this fantastic country and now it's time to go. One of the great things is I can always come back shaa allah.

Until I'm in Jordan take care friends,

Mandz.

Mount Sinai

I'm sitting beneath a canopy of stars almost at the top on Mt Sinai, can I say that it's amazing! I wasn't really expecting this. The climb is really tough, I made it about a third of the way and then my knee gave out (darn knee), so I rode a camel for the remainder of the way up and that was rather special, I'm growing somewhat fond if camels I think I might need to invest in one when get home, sorry Rupert I might be changing my mode of transport. The walk down was rather intense and required a lot of concentration, I slipped a few times and thought this is it I'm going down but I saved myself YAY. It was a big day we left at 11pm to drive out to Sinai and then started the climb at 12am, we reached the summit at 4am, then waited until 5.30 for the sun to rise and it was worth every minute of pain and being tired, at least I can say I've down it. I'm planning to relax now I think I earned it, and then it's out to dinner along the Red Sea.

Until then, keep it real,
Mandz

Dahab

Dahab a city by the sea, it pretty much is the Great Barrier Reef of Egypt. We arrived late yesterday afternoon, so we arrived to a small coastal city in full swing, we were straving so first thing was food, I had this great fish thing (I plan to eat a lot of seafood here). Following dinner, Allira and I (Allira and Tanya are two girls we've befriended) decided we wanted our own snorkel set so we could do some snorkelling, we managed to haggle a them down from 250LE to 50LE, so we were very proud of ourselves. Todays agenda looks like, Snorkelling, then lunch, a bit of shopping, a nap, go for a walk through the town. I've got a early morning or late night depending how you look at it. We leave for Mout Sinai at 11pm, it takes three hours to get there from here, then it's a 2-3 hours hike up in the dark to watch the sunset, I'm really looking forward to this, it's one of the things I really wanted to do, maybe I'll come down with my own 10 commandments. I just hope it's not all super spiritual up there because we've told a lot of pilgrims go up there, but I'll let you all know how it goes.

Until then, I'm going swimming..

Mandz out.