Middle East

Late May to early June 2012, my dad got a fellowship to study terrorism in Israel. My mom and I decided to meet him there a few days before his fellowship ended, and then the three of us travelled around Israel for a little over a week then joined a tour of Egypt and Jordan. 

Israel tip: Read up on customs questions to get into Israel. They ask for a lot of details about your trip to make sure you don't have any bad intentions.

4 June - We arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday 

After a terrifying taxi ride (stay tuned, terrifying taxi rides are a theme throughout this trip until the very last one to the airport in Israel in July), we got to our hotel right on the Mediterranean. 

5 June - Lunch at Bellini with complementary bellinis 

Then my mom and I accidentally slept for three hours...

6 June - My mom and I went on a free Old Jaffa city walking tour. While going through a flea market (started in 1920 by immigrants who couldn't bring money into the country, so they brought things to sell), I saw these statues of a monkey riding a banana and a velociraptor, which I loved: 

We saw Andromeda's rock, where Perseus saved her from the sea monster in Greek mythology: 

 On the walking tour, we also saw the Jerusalem gate, St. Peter's Church, the Egyptian gate to Jaffa (4000 years old), the Artist colony, the Ilana Goor Museum, and the Jaffa port.

There's a saying in Israel: Party in Tel Aviv, work in Haifa, and pray in Jerusalem.

7 June - Dad drove us from Tel Aviv to Biet Lehem Nin Glile. We saw the Baha'i Temple and Gardens, which were beautiful: 

Israel tip: Double check when things are open. We had to return to the Baha'i Temple and Gardens a second day because it wasn't completely open the first day we went. 

Our hotel was a B&B called Neve Hagar, which was lovely. Our room was a converted stable, and the owner and his son would talk to us for hours every night about Israel, the U.S., and anything else. This is when I found out that Israelis have mandatory military service (three years for men, two for women) right out of high school. 

8 June - Caesarea Underwater Archaeological Park at Herod's Submerged Port of Caesarea: my first time SCUBA diving!

We also saw the Roman aqueducts and the Bird Mosaic, which was in the center of a large mansion built in the 6th-7th century that was burned down during the Arab conquest in 640CE. 

9 June - Ginosaur Museum with the mystery of the ancient boat, Mt. of Beatitudes, and Zipport (an ancient town that I loved because there was a house of Dionysus, my favorite Greek god). We ended the day with a iCandle-lit dinner! 

10 June - Archery lesson at Neve Hagar: 

And back to the Baha'i gardens to see the inner gardens. Then we drove to Jerusalem, where we gladly gave back the rental car (it's stressful driving over there!). 

10 June - Archaeological tour in the Israel Museum (including the Dead Sea Scrolls). Then we watched The Night Spectacular at the Tower of David, which really was spectacular. The Jerusalem Festival of Light was going on, so the lights in the rest of the city were gorgeous: 

12 June - Private tour of Old Jerusalem and the Mt. of Olives. We started in the Armenian Quarter and saw the King David Statue, Coenaculum Hall (the room of the Last Supper), and one of King David's tombs (with separate prayer sections for men and women). Then we moved to the Jewish Quarter and saw Hurva Square, the Western Wall (the Wailing Wall), the Small Wailing Wall, where people also put letters, and the Austrian Hospice. Then the Muslim Quarter, where we walked the Via Dolorosa (with the stations of the cross) and saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We entered the Christian Quarter and had lunch, followed by a dessert of knafe, which is an amazing dessert of sweet goat cheese:

At the Mt. of Olives, we saw the Church of Paternoster (where Jesus taught his disciples "The Lord's Prayer" so they have it in many different languages, including several in Braille, covering the walls), the Dominus Flevit chapel (where Jesus wept over the fate of Jerusalem), and Jewish cemeteries, where it is said the first people will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment: 

Then we saw the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, the Garden of Gethsemane (where Jesus prayed before his arrest) outside the Church of All Nations, and the Tomb of the Virgin (where the Greek Orthodox church says Mary is buried. Dinner at Mike's Bar after the tour, where we had Kosher beef nachos, which meant there was no cheese (nachos without cheese?) and non dairy sour cream:

Israel tip: Some religious sites are strict about clothing, particularly for girls. Being covered up by American standards may still not be as covered up as they would like.

13 June - Antiquity Sifting Project in Mount Zurim National Park. Islamic leadership of the Temple Mount illegally excavated the entrances of Soloman's Stable. A student stopped the excavations and eventually was allowed to sift through the countless tons of debris from the long-populated site: 

Usually one coin is found each day, and we found some mosaic pieces, bone, pottery, and other interesting pieces. 

14 June - Terrifying taxi to the airport to fly through Turkey to Cairo, Egypt. I have to admit, we thought it looked a lot like Lubbock when we first got to Cairo. Dry and dusty and spread out. On our way to our hotel, our driver told us a little about Egypt: only primary school is mandatory; kids learn a foreign language in middle school, two foreign languages in high school, and can take a third in college; there are very few traffic rules in Egypt (for example, the lanes seemed to be more suggestions than anything else), no traffic lights, but very few accidents because traffic is always so bad that drivers rarely get up to speed (though there are no speed limits); men have compulsory military service out of high school (1, 2, or 3 years, depending on their education, which makes some men want to study really hard). We checked in with our GAdventures tour group: 13 of us total, including 9 Australians and one British lady who lives in Houston. Our tour guide, Mikel, took us to dinner and pointed out all the Shisha (hookah), which we found out is available at almost every restaurant or cafe in Egypt. 

15 June - The Egyptian Museum (no pictures allowed): lotus and papyrus flowers popular in ancient (and modern, actually) Egypt; a scribe statue inside the museum is on the 200 Egyptian pound note; the head statue of King Chephren, builder of the 2nd pyramid, is on the 10 Egyptian pound note; Ank is the key of life; the god of the afterlife crosses his arms, which is why so man kings have statues of themselves with their arms crossed; royal names in hieroglyphs were inside a cartouche (oval); papyrus paper scrolls still preserved with ink after thousands of years; Tomb of King Tut. Then the part I was most looking forward to, the Great Pyramids:

There were three main ones then three smaller ones for queens where we went. 

Some officials got us in the right position for some really great pictures but then bugged us about tips, which was fine since they were really good pictures, but locals in tourist sites being aggressive about tips is not unusual, unfortunately. 

Egypt tip: Some of the locals can be pushy about being tipped for anything, even giving directions. If you decide to tip and they still hassle you, just be firm and walk away.

Handstand picture with the pyramid! 

Camel ride by the pyramids! 

The guy who lead my camel took some great pictures and told me my camel's name is Susu. 

Family picture! 

Then the Sphynx, which has the power of a lion and the wisdom of man. 

Egypt tip: The camel rides to the pyramids can be a little expensive, but just do it. You know you want to. Bring a camera and tip your camel handler.

16 June - Overnight train to Aswan. Mom, Dad, Mikel, and I went to the Temple of Isis, built in 250BCE. Isis was the Egyptian goddess of motherhood, music, beauty, and love. Her husband, Osiris, was a god of the afterlife. Their son, Horus, was a sky god. 

The whole group had a great dinner at a Nubian house on Elephantine Island. 

Egypt tip: Don't drink the tap water! Even brush your teeth with bottled water, and try to avoid anything cooked in tap water. I think our group got sick from eating vegetables boiled in tap water.

17 June - I was horribly sick all day (the rest of the group started getting sick pretty soon afterward), so our visit to Abu Sembel was largely wasted on me, but looking back at it, it's a very impressive site: 

18 June - I really started noticing how pushy some of the locals can be about getting tips. I already knew that I couldn't really look at anything in any type of shop or glance at people selling things anywhere without getting bombarded by people trying to bargain and to get you to buy from them, but I hadn't noticed how badly people wanted tips until this day. 

Besides that, this was our day on the felucca (sailboat) on the Nile! 

The ride was extremely pleasant most of the day (except when we were stopped and the air was still and hot). We stopped to go swimming in the frigid waters of the Nile, and we even saw some camels on the banks of the river. 

We slept on the feluccas (7 people on each one, two total) that night, which was fine and mostly comfortable, except for the swarms of bugs.
Egypt tip: Particularly in the summer, be prepared for the hot sun and the bugs with proper clothing and sprays.

19 June - Kom Ombo temple, built 300-200BCE, to the gods Horus (falcon god) and Sobek (crocodile god). The Greeks built it, and many other temples to Egyptian gods, to show they wanted to be friends with the Egyptians. Then we went to the temple at Itfu to Horus, which was the most preserved temple in Egypt, built by the Greeks in 250BCE (remember, Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris). Then we went to Luxor. 

20 June - My parents and I woke up at some horrible hour to go on our first ever hot air balloon ride! It was about half an hour and went over the West Bank. There were about 25 people in just our balloon and probably 6 or 7 balloons total.

Then we met the others at 6:30am for a 45 minute donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings. My donkey was named William. 

At this point, my parents and I counted all the modes of transportation we had used/were using on this trip: hot air balloon, donkey, boats, bus, train, truck, and a few more. We visited the Valley of the Kings (no pictures allowed) and saw the toms of King Rameses IV, IX, and I. The colors inside were beautiful and surprisingly preserved. The colors were natural: black from coal, red from British red stones, etc. Rameses V and VI built their tombs over and behind King Tut's tomb in disrespect, which is why Tut's was the only one that wasn't robbed.

Egypt tip: Watch your belongings carefully and don't be afraid to remove yourself from uncomfortable situations. 

The locals selling in the Valley of the Kings were particularly aggressive, kicking, asking inappropriate questions, and even some inappropriate touching. It's kind of sad because the country depends on tourism so much, and tourism has been down so much because of the political instability, but it's times like that that make me not want to recommend other people to go to Egypt, as beautiful and historic as it may be. That day we also saw the Temple for Queen Hatshepsut and the only remaining statues of the Temple of Memnon. My parents and I went for drinks later that afternoon to the famous and lovely Winter Palace Hotel. Another overnight train back to Cairo. 

21 June - Security guard assigned to us all day, which made some of the guys in our group very happy because the guard was carrying a gun. We think he was with us because of how close we were to the first Egyptian democratic election results. We went to a citadel built in the 12th century by Saladan and saw the Mohamed Ali Pasha mosque from 1801 and the Mohamed Ibn Qalaun Egyptian mosque from the 14th century. 

22 June - Pass under the Suez Canal into the Asian part of Egypt to a beach resort in Nuweiba. By the end of the trip, I'd have gone in the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile River, the Red Sea, and the Dead Sea. 

23 June - I figured out it was nice to be able to walk around barefoot EVERYWHERE at the resort. My first time snorkeling! My first time in a kayak. An adventure combining the two and trying to retrieve a snorkel mask from several meters under the water. Goodbye dinner for Mikel, who was handing us over to our new tour guide in Jordan the next day.

24 June - Ferry to Jordan. On board, the election results of the Egyptian presidency was announced. Cheers erupted throughout the ferry when the Muslim Brotherhood candidate was announced as the winner. There was hugging and clapping and shouting. The vote was 48.3% to 51.7%, with only 1 million votes separating the winner and loser: 

Welcome to Aqaba, Jordan, and our new tour guide, Ayman! In contrast to Egypt, there were stoplights and clean streets, and vendors who stopped you to talk and get to know you, not just as a way to get you to buy from them. The capital city, Amman, has 2.2 million people, a lot considering the country has only 6.2 million total. King Abdullah II, who went to school in the U.S. runs the kingdom with his wife, Queen Rania, who went to high school with Ayman. I went with them this time to watch the soccer match (England vs. Italy), and it was long and late, and no one scored, so I went home before overtime...but I did watch the game! 

25 June - Wadi Rum (Rum Valley). Ayman told us that Jordan gets a lot of support from the West (particularly the U.S.) to stay calm in such a tense area. We took two pick ups with benches in the back to look around the desert:

We saw Bedouin inscriptions from 3000BCE. 7000 years ago, this desert was an ocean floor. Then some of us went on a longer truck tour to see some beautiful natural bridges: 

We also watched the sun set over the desert and saw a momma and baby camel:

We had a traditional Bedouin meal of lamb and chicken cooked underground. We went for a late night nature walk and roasted marshmallows in a campfire some of the guys started. I found out that s'mores are only an American snack (poor non Americans) when the Aussies all looked at me like I was crazy for talking about them until someone vouched for me. We slept in tents in a Bedouin camp. 

26 June - Tour of Little Petra and Nebatian temples carved along the King's Way highway. That night, we watched the "Royal Tour" of Jordan that King Abdullah hosted for the Discovery Channel, showing us around Jordan. 

27 June - Tour of Petra. So many welcome signs for all different cultures. One welcome sign is a carving of an elephant: 

We saw the Treasury building that is featured in the third Indiana Jones movie (which we watched the night before after the "Royal Tour"): 

One of our guys played the Indiana Jones theme song while we approached. It was built 8BCE-39CE, carved from the top down, like all of these buildings. It is now thought that the building was a Nabatean government building, a temple, and a tomb, all at different times. The Nabateans lived in simple caves but made their carved tombs beautiful. Some people stayed back, but I went on the first hike, up 840 two thousand year old steps to an overlook and the biggest monument in Petra, where a few of our guys took confused boy band pictures: 

The view from the top was nice, and we all ate lunch since we were starving, even though it was only 10:30am. I nearly died on the first hike, so I stayed out of the second one and went back to the hotel to get a Turkish bath with my mom, which was excellent! 

28 June - Mount Royal Castle, Kerak Castle, and Dead Sea day. The Dead Sea was incredible. 

Some of us painted ourselves with Dead Sea mud:

Egypt/Jordan (Dead Sea) tip: One girl in our group had a reaction to the mud and the sea water - possibly because of her sunburn - so test the waters a little bit so it doesn't feel like your skin is melting off your body.

The buoyancy made for some awesome pictures: 

You would be hard pressed to drown in it. I highly recommend the Dead Sea to anyone! It was kind of funny, though, how difficult it was to swim in a normal pool even after just a few minutes in the Dead Sea water. You mean you actually have to swim to hold yourself up in regular pools? 

Egypt/Jordan (Dead Sea) tip: Only stay in the water for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Get out, shower, maybe swim in a regular pool for a little bit, then jump back in for another 10 or 15 minutes.

29 June - There are pictures of King Abdullah and his family up all over the country:

Trip to Mt. Nebo, where Moses ended his tour, lived for 12 years, and possibly died. Some of us went that afternoon to Jerach, a well-preserved Roman city. We saw the hippodrome for the chariot races, the main streets, tons of columns, and several amphitheaters: 

It was incredibly hot, so our group lined up, if they had to, just to get a couple minutes of shade! 

That night, we had a farewell dinner for Ayman and said goodbye to the tour group!

30 June - Incredibly frustrating experience crossing into Israel from Jordan. Hanging out in Tel Aviv for the day. 
Israel/Jordan tip: Plan at least a full day (maybe two) to cross the boarder.

1 July - A taxi driver who acted like there were actually traffic laws in Israel on our way to the airport. We are incredibly appreciative to her. 

2 July - Back home in the U.S.! Straight to Subway and Mexican food. 

Comment below - Tell me about your favorite things in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. I need to know what to visit next time!