Mellifluous reader –
I’m pleased to bring you the second of two installments recounting the more salient exploits of my weeks spent traveling outside of Cairo. This entry’s a bit long, so bear with me.
A friend from my study abroad program and I, having traveled from Cairo up to Amman, Jordan together, decided to head up to Syria in tandem so we could team up, watch for traps, etc. Joking aside, I do admit to some initial apprehension at the prospect of going to Damascus, being that Syria has been considered a state sponsor of terrorism since 1979, and has been on the U.S. State Department’s travel warning list for years. However, several friends who have lived in Syria assured me of my safety, and explained that the only tangible result of strained U.S. relations with Syria is that it takes longer for Americans to cross the border. Strolling along the streets of Damascus, they said, felt safer than walking around some U.S. cities.
Undaunted, then, my friend and I left Amman at 6:00AM in a cab bound for the Syrian border. We reached the border after an hour, and it took us only fifteen minutes to leave the Jordanian side, allowing for time at the border to pay the “exit tax” (which should be more accurately called the “foreigner tax”). We got to the Syrian side at about 8:00AM, in plenty of time to begin the farce reserved for any American who attempts to enter Syria without arranging a visa ahead of time. We had to fill out several forms detailing exactly where in Syria we would be visiting, hotel addresses, the amount of time we expected to be in Syria, our reasons for visiting, etc. We then handed these forms to the border guards, along with our passports and student IDs. Now the fun could begin: U.S. citizens who apply for a tourist visa at the Syrian border can expect to wait a minimum of three hours before they receive word that their request has been approved. That was how long my friend and I ended up having to wait. We were lucky. I have heard of people waiting as long as twelve hours for visa approval (despite the wait, I’ve never heard of anyone having their request denied). We flagged down a cab bound for Damascus at noon.
The border madness was the least pleasant part of my Syrian experience; even so, it wasn’t that bad. Overall, I would rate my travels in Syria at 9 out of a possible 10. Syria is absolutely gorgeous, and it’s far north enough that the weather is pleasant even in the summer. Riding buses through the countryside is a treat because Syrian topography is surprisingly green. It even rained one afternoon during a bus ride from Hama down to Damascus. As far as touristy things go, the mosques and markets (souqs) are of course beautiful and have been around for hundreds of years. After two or three mosques, though, I was sort of mosque-d out and ready to see something different (those of you who have traveled in Europe may have experienced similar fatigue with regard to castles).
By far, the best part of the Syrian leg of my travels was spending three days in Aleppo, a city of about three million in the northeast. It’s fairly close to the Turkish border, so the atmosphere has a distinctly European feel to it: narrow cobblestone passageways, verdant trellises, Victorian street lamps, old churches in the Christian quarter, etc. We had fantastic food for surprisingly little money, surrounded by stone walls covered in ivy. The first night there, I indulged my raw meat fetish by eating kibbeh nayyeh, a dish of raw lamb meat and spices, to be spread on crackers (or, in our case, pita chunks). I also discovered what’s called krem thoum (garlic cream) in Arabic. As the name suggests, it’s essentially a cream base with loads of garlic, in addition to some lemon and salt, to be used as a pita dip. I have since found a restaurant in Cairo which serves it, and I’m putting away about half of my monthly stipend to finance my new krem thoum habit.
The most culturally intriguing thing about Syria is that several long-lasting, powerful civilizations of the ancient Near East successively claimed for themselves the land comprising modern-day Syria. An hour spent walking in Old Damascus or Aleppo reveals Roman, Christian, and Islamic architectural and artistic influences layered one atop the other. This unique diversity has continued into the modern period. One of my favorite examples of this is the presence of shop signs and street markers written in both Arabic and Armenian in the Christian quarter. During the Armenian genocide in the 1910s, thousands of refugees fled to Syria and other countries, leading to the presence of a large Christian-Armenian population in Damascus and elsewhere. The bilingual signs stand as a reminder of this, one example among many of the linguistic and cultural coexistence which has characterized Syria for literally thousands of years.
Thus ended my two and one half weeks of travel in the region. I took a bus straight from Damascus down to Aqaba, a 12-hour ordeal which was matched only by the frustration of having to wait twelve more hours at the Aqaba port before the ferry left for Nuweiba, Egypt. When the police began to load the ferry, the thousands of tired, hungry masses (who had also been waiting half the day) began to scatter like animals and run amok. I knew I was not in Kansas anymore when the cops took out their blackjacks and started threatening bodily harm if people didn’t chill out. I would only recommend the experience of taking this ferry if you want to see the sociology of a developing country at its worst; otherwise, grab a plane from Damascus or Istanbul back to Cairo. Once in Nuweiba, I boarded another bus bound for Cairo, where I arrived safe and sound three weeks ago.
And there you have it! I’ve omitted a lot from this account, so specific questions are always welcome. Next week, we’ll have more updates on coursework, Cairo, and other such madness.
Salaam,
K
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Travels, Part I: The Sinai and Jordan
Most Patient and Abiding Reader –
Some of you may be wondering why I have so conspicuously fallen off the grid in recent days, after having promised an absence of no longer than two weeks. That, friends, is a story in and of itself, involving hours of haggling with landlords and internet companies, only to discover that the previous occupant (who helped us move in) had left several hundred pounds worth of unpaid invoices, hence the lack of internet service to our apartment. The occupant has since fled to the U.S. and denied any responsibility. It’s not enough money to make calling the embassy and revoking his visa worth the hassle; but it is enough to stoke the fires of hatred and loathing. Luckily, though, the landlord has agreed to pay half the invoices, so that’s a plus. As soon as we pay our half, he’ll tell the company to turn our internet service back on.
Diatribe over. Now to what you’ve all been waiting for, I’m sure, which is: stories from the Sinai/Jordan/Syria excursion! Having six weeks off between summer and fall classes was a great excuse to leave Cairo and see other climes. This post constitutes the first of a two-parter, due to the sheer volume of stories accumulated over the two and a half weeks of travel.
My roommate, another guy in our study abroad program, and I started off with a seven-hour bus ride to Saint Catherine, a tourist spot in the southern Sinai Peninsula known for sights relating to Egypt’s Christian heritage. Of especial prominence is St. Catherine’s monastery, built at the foot of Mount Sinai (where Moses supposedly saw the Burning Bush) by the order of the Emperor Justinian between 527 and 565. It’s an art historian’s paradise: mosaics, oil paintings, paintings on wax, fine sacerdotal ornaments, marbles, enamels, chalices, reliquaries…..and, of course, one of the largest and most important collection of illuminated manuscripts in the world (the Vatican has the largest). The collection consists of some 4,500 volumes in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Slavic, Syriac, Georgian and other languages. We also hiked Mt. Sinai in time to see the sunset, then slept overnight on the peak to watch the sunrise. Pictures will be posted, I promise.
From there we moved on to Nuweiba, a smallish port town on the southeastern Sinai coast. The nice thing about Nuweiba is that it’s pretty dead around the time we went (beginning of August). After a few intense days getting to and seeing St. Catherine, we were ready for low key vacation time, which is exactly what we got in Nuweiba. The three of us ran into two great guys from England, who accompanied us to St. Catherine and Nuweiba. The five of us stayed in Nuweiba at Soft Beach, a cheap yet fantastic hostel which I highly recommend to anyone. We basically ate, took naps, hung out in shaded outdoor sitting areas by the beach, and went snorkeling for three days straight. A day or two more and it would have gotten boring; but as it was, the amount of time we spent there was a perfect recharge. We also enjoyed meeting and hanging out with a married couple who had moved to Nuweiba at the beginning of this year. They were living in Humbolt County, California before that, working as “medical growers” for eight years. The husband’s goal? “I want to teach the Bedouin what I know about growing.” The couple owns and operates a pizza joint called “The ‘Baked’ House” (their sign even has the quotation marks around the word “baked”). Now that’s what I call a development project.
So phase one of the trip ended well, as we said goodbye to Nuweiba and boarded the ferry bound for Aqaba, Jordan. For anyone taking a ferry between these two cities, I would definitely recommend paying the extra ten dollars for the faster ferry; more on this in Part II. The boat ride was uneventful, and upon arriving in Jordan, we secured entry visas, shed our two Brits, and took a cab to Petra with two Canadian girls we picked up in the Aqaba port who were impressed with our Arabic (ha!) and our apparent ability to haggle and to navigate our way through the Middle East. We stayed in Petra for two nights at the Valentine Hotel, which, despite its name, doesn’t rent rooms by the hour. I had already been to Petra, Amman, and pretty much every other thing there is to see in Jordan, so I basically hung around by myself for a day, thinking deep thoughts.
Amman was just as uneventful: we stayed there for one night, taking enough time to walk around the city and see the Roman Amphitheater, situated right smack dab in the middle of downtown Jordan. We also ate at the Hashem Restaurant, an inexpensive hummus and falafel joint which became famous when King Abdullah ate there some years back, attempting to show solidarity with the average Jordanian citizen.
Despite these fun stops, my goal was to move as quickly through Jordan as possible, since it’s a bit more expensive and I really wanted to spend my money in Syria. Which I did. Which is the subject of Part II of this amazing adventure. So you’ll want to stay tuned for next week’s post.
Salaam,
K
Some of you may be wondering why I have so conspicuously fallen off the grid in recent days, after having promised an absence of no longer than two weeks. That, friends, is a story in and of itself, involving hours of haggling with landlords and internet companies, only to discover that the previous occupant (who helped us move in) had left several hundred pounds worth of unpaid invoices, hence the lack of internet service to our apartment. The occupant has since fled to the U.S. and denied any responsibility. It’s not enough money to make calling the embassy and revoking his visa worth the hassle; but it is enough to stoke the fires of hatred and loathing. Luckily, though, the landlord has agreed to pay half the invoices, so that’s a plus. As soon as we pay our half, he’ll tell the company to turn our internet service back on.
Diatribe over. Now to what you’ve all been waiting for, I’m sure, which is: stories from the Sinai/Jordan/Syria excursion! Having six weeks off between summer and fall classes was a great excuse to leave Cairo and see other climes. This post constitutes the first of a two-parter, due to the sheer volume of stories accumulated over the two and a half weeks of travel.
My roommate, another guy in our study abroad program, and I started off with a seven-hour bus ride to Saint Catherine, a tourist spot in the southern Sinai Peninsula known for sights relating to Egypt’s Christian heritage. Of especial prominence is St. Catherine’s monastery, built at the foot of Mount Sinai (where Moses supposedly saw the Burning Bush) by the order of the Emperor Justinian between 527 and 565. It’s an art historian’s paradise: mosaics, oil paintings, paintings on wax, fine sacerdotal ornaments, marbles, enamels, chalices, reliquaries…..and, of course, one of the largest and most important collection of illuminated manuscripts in the world (the Vatican has the largest). The collection consists of some 4,500 volumes in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Slavic, Syriac, Georgian and other languages. We also hiked Mt. Sinai in time to see the sunset, then slept overnight on the peak to watch the sunrise. Pictures will be posted, I promise.
From there we moved on to Nuweiba, a smallish port town on the southeastern Sinai coast. The nice thing about Nuweiba is that it’s pretty dead around the time we went (beginning of August). After a few intense days getting to and seeing St. Catherine, we were ready for low key vacation time, which is exactly what we got in Nuweiba. The three of us ran into two great guys from England, who accompanied us to St. Catherine and Nuweiba. The five of us stayed in Nuweiba at Soft Beach, a cheap yet fantastic hostel which I highly recommend to anyone. We basically ate, took naps, hung out in shaded outdoor sitting areas by the beach, and went snorkeling for three days straight. A day or two more and it would have gotten boring; but as it was, the amount of time we spent there was a perfect recharge. We also enjoyed meeting and hanging out with a married couple who had moved to Nuweiba at the beginning of this year. They were living in Humbolt County, California before that, working as “medical growers” for eight years. The husband’s goal? “I want to teach the Bedouin what I know about growing.” The couple owns and operates a pizza joint called “The ‘Baked’ House” (their sign even has the quotation marks around the word “baked”). Now that’s what I call a development project.
So phase one of the trip ended well, as we said goodbye to Nuweiba and boarded the ferry bound for Aqaba, Jordan. For anyone taking a ferry between these two cities, I would definitely recommend paying the extra ten dollars for the faster ferry; more on this in Part II. The boat ride was uneventful, and upon arriving in Jordan, we secured entry visas, shed our two Brits, and took a cab to Petra with two Canadian girls we picked up in the Aqaba port who were impressed with our Arabic (ha!) and our apparent ability to haggle and to navigate our way through the Middle East. We stayed in Petra for two nights at the Valentine Hotel, which, despite its name, doesn’t rent rooms by the hour. I had already been to Petra, Amman, and pretty much every other thing there is to see in Jordan, so I basically hung around by myself for a day, thinking deep thoughts.
Amman was just as uneventful: we stayed there for one night, taking enough time to walk around the city and see the Roman Amphitheater, situated right smack dab in the middle of downtown Jordan. We also ate at the Hashem Restaurant, an inexpensive hummus and falafel joint which became famous when King Abdullah ate there some years back, attempting to show solidarity with the average Jordanian citizen.
Despite these fun stops, my goal was to move as quickly through Jordan as possible, since it’s a bit more expensive and I really wanted to spend my money in Syria. Which I did. Which is the subject of Part II of this amazing adventure. So you’ll want to stay tuned for next week’s post.
Salaam,
K
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