| |
| Who are we | >> Diary << | Alex Diari | Photos | Project | Answers | Videos | Questionnaire | Itinerary | Sponsors | Other travellers | Collaborate | Contact |
Diary This is Jan's diary. If you want to receive this diary by mail, write your mail on the contact form.
‹ Previous (05/01/2008) MONTH Next (2008-03-05)› ‹ Previous (2008-01-14 - Sudan) COUNTRY Next (2008-02-23 - Jordan)› Egypt Aswan (see on map) 05/02/2008: When I arrived Aswan, at noon, I ran to greet Alexandra and immediately after went towards the port, to initiate the formalities to take the car. The policemen of the entry were for a good while refusing to let me enter and afterwards it was difficult to find the officer of customs, but finally I located him and made the papers (paying about 70 euros) to continue the formalities with the traffic police the following day. I have spent the afternoon with Alexandra, Michael, Stephania, small Maria, and David and Maria, two Spanish that were traveling doing hitchhiking going by public transportation to Sudan. 9 months ago they left from Cantabria and, apart from our histories, explaining the adventures of many other travellers, remembering mutually that our journeys did not have too much of extraordinary, we were only a few more of the thousands of travellers that go over the world. The day after (yesterday) in the morning I went towards the traffic police where they delivered me some forms and I bought some seals (they made me pay more than the value indicated on them) and after i had to go to look for an engineer that had to check that the number of chassis of my vehicle coincided with the number of the carnet de passages. The engineer was doing revisions for cars in a levelled area, the lights, the brakes, checking that the engine worked correctly... I had feared when going to the port,that the engineer wanted to check the state of my car and could not accept it due to the problem of the stárter and the alternator, since the civil servant of customs had explained to me that if the engineer discovered that my car did not work, he would not make me the papers. Anyway, as he waited and they passed the hours, my fear kept being replaced by a deep bad humour, although I could not become annoyed with anybody, for the engineer was working all the while, revising the endless queues of cars that they did not decrease. I could only become annoyed with the corrupt and bureaucratic Egyptian system. Anyway, in the end, after four hours waiting, the engineer finished the work, caught a taxi towards the port, checked the number of the chassis in a minute and returned to the traffic police. There, despite being near two I continued,left with an egyptian to buy an insurance, carrying out more paperwork until they assigned a registration number to me. I returned to the centre, to the insurance company that there was in front of the hotel, and I asked an insurance for the car, but when they said the price (about 70 euros), my annoyance from the morning increased again, and more when they showed a listing of prices where interpreting the numbers in Arab, I deduced that if i were Egyptian i would pay only about 20 euros for the insurance. well enraged I directed towards the tourist police that there were nearby to denounce the fact, but the police did not pay me too much attention and only they translated me the last description of the listing, that it detailed that the tourists had to pay 70 euros independently of the vehicle that they had. I was annoyed as a gorilla, the foreign travellers drive much better than the Egyptians, but have to pay a much more expensive insurance, was completely unfair. The only justification was that the díesel in Egypt costs only 0,09€/litre, but that did not have anything to do with the insurance. Anyway i could not make anything to change it and I ended up paying the amount that they asked for. In any case, not only I was annoyed with the bureaucracy and Egyptian corruption. At night I talked with a local boy, Amgad, that complained that the government of Hosni Mubarak was dictatorial and mafioso, without democracy nor freedom of speech not even of press, with many journalists and politicians captured for expressing opinions publicly. When asking which government would prefer if there were choices, he answered me that he would want an Islamic government, as a majority of the Egyptians, and this is probably the motif that the United States continue defending a dictator, without imposing its idealised democracy. Today in the morning I have returned to the traffic police with the paper of the insurance, and after paying some other rates and waiting for another hour and a half, finally they have delivered me a sort of drivers licence and a registration with Egyptian numbers (the number 32), with which I have been able to direct myself to the port to release the car that had been kidnapped by the bureaucracy and Egyptian corruption for 13 days (the ransom had costed about 250 €, including the 13 days of hotel and the train thicket). The problem has been that without stárter I have had to ask three policemen to push the autocaravan, but finally I have pulled it and I have gone towards the hotel where Alexandra waited very happy to see her home again, and we have left towards the outskirts of Aswan,a levelled area up on the Nile, where Michael and Stephania waited for us to enjoy a couple of days of absolute rest. 06/02/2008:
Yesterday really it was a day of absolute rest, while Alexandra cleaned the autocaravan, I laid down under a palm tree to dream and to remember that at last we had finished the 13 days of torture without the car. At night, when means was half awake, a cargo ship approached and anchored near the place where we had parked. After presenting each other and conversing for a while, the men invited us to dine a delicious goulash on the boat and so we sat in the oily engine room. Today, I have decided to dismantle the stárter to see whether i managed to fix it. With the help of Michael, I have cleaned it, we have fixed the magnets that danced (using a brilliant idea of Michael) and we have installed it on again. But it kept not working. We have dismantled it and gotten on two or three more times, although with identical result. Finally another cargo ship came, the mechanic has approached, the noise that he heard made him know which the problem of the stárter was, he has cleaned the entry of the stárter with gasoline and he has installed it again. He has asked me to pull the car and surprisingly has worked. It seems that the main problem was the dirt that did not make it go well. In the afternoon I have relaxed talking with Michael and also with Mafi and Omar the captain and the mechanic of the cargo ship that had anchored yesterday in the night. In the end, already by night, talking around a small fire, Mafi has asked whether it would be easy to travel to Europe, and after commenting that he could hardly enter, we have realised that all the difficulties that we had had to enter in Egypt, were in fact few compared with all the difficulties that the Egyptians have to enter Europe. Anyway, Egypt in theory should be interested in receiving tourists and should facilitate more the things; however Europe is not very interested in receiving to more immigrants. 07/02/2008:
The problems of the car have continued. i thought that with the operation of yesterday the stárter would work, but this morning the engine has not wanted to start and Michael has had me to drag us to start it off. So, we have followed the course towards the north, without stárter, without alternator and with the battery unloading. And in the end, after about a hundred kilometres and right in the middle of the town Edfu, my engine has stopped. For luck, Michael still continued with us to help us if it was necessary and has pulled us up to a service on the side of the road. The service did not seem a service, but a very efficient boy has dismantled the stárter, has burst a part with a screwdriver, has dirtied it inside of instead of cleaning it, has welded the burst part, has gotten on the stárter and has asked me to try it. And surprisingly, the engine has been started off. The process for the alternator has been more or less similar. And after about four hours and of about 15 paid euro we have continued the road. At night, it has however arrived the turn of the car of Michael. We have gone out from the main road and parked in a small road to pass the night. But a group of boys and men has informed us about not being able to sleep there, because through the path passed cars. Then Michael has tried to start off his car but some electrical problem has prevented him from doing it. The boys and men pushed so that we could go out of the path and at the end Michael parked on a levelled area about 50 meters of pushing the car. I have gone to look for a torch from my car to do light through the path, but in returning running on the side of the van of Michael I have fallen in a hole. It seemed that the end of the fall never finished but finally arriving on the ankles i was full of mud and water me. I had fallen in a channel of 3 or 4 meters of depth, with almost vertical walls. For luck, the Egyptians have been able to stretch a hand for me and pulled me out. Then I have returned in front of the car of Michael, illuminating the path up to the levelled area. While Michael discovered where the electrical problem was, I cleaned my legs and changed the trousers. We have dined in his car and next have been invited to take the tea and to eat some biscuits in one of the homes in front the levelled area, proving once again that the Egyptian hospitality does not have at all to do with the vendors of the touristic alleys or with the bureaucracy of the country. Luxor (see on map) 08/02/2008:
Today in the morning we have said goodbye for some days to Michael, Stephanie and small Maria, its been already some weeks that she has learned to say my name and she always calls me when she sees me. They went towards Cairo, circulating on the White desert road and we have arrived up to Luxor, one of the biggest touristic destinations of Egypt, because here it is found the Valley of the Kings (where they had been many of the pharaohs buried) and many temples, among these, the enormous temple of Karnak. We have initiated our tour visiting the colossi of Memnon, some enormous statues of 18 meters of height, but they have been eroded quite a lot. Next we have visited the temple of Deir Al-Medina and the beginning of the stony Valley of the Kings from outside. Mid-morning we have crossed to the East side, where in the middle of the town is found the temple with the same name, with a mosque built inside. And finally, we have bought the ticket at noon and entered the immense complex of temples of Karnak, built throughout a millennium. I should write again how has "surprised" me, especially describing the colossal and numerous columns of the room Hypostyle, although after the visit to Abu Simbel, it seems that nothing can be compared with it any longer. 09/02/2008: Yesterday at dusk we wanted to start to go towards Cairo, but a police control stopped us and reported us that we should wait till the day after in the morning, because we could not pass without escort. Annoyed we returned to the other edge, covering about 20 kilometres, to take the road of the west, but another police control prevented us from crossing. Finally we decided to camp next to the control, although at midnight, an educated officer from the touristic police came to bother informing us that the day after we could add ourselves to the convoy of 8 am on the other side of the town. And like this we have made it. After waiting for some endless twenty minutes, it has arrived a rank of about 30 or 40 buses, mini-buses and taxis with tourists, escorted in front by a pick-up of the police full of armed staff. We have added ourselves in the middle of the parade, but all the Egyptians were driving madly and so they have kept going in front of us, remaining at the end of a total of 200 vehicles forming the convoy. All the cars in contrary direction were stopped by more police officers. in every intersection, there were compatriots armed supervising that no passer-by or car entered the roadway. The fields of sugar cane from which it could go off against the tourists with relative easiness, were planted at distance up to 50 or 100 meters from the road. Naturally we have wondered why so we have been reading that in the nineties disturbances between the police and the radical Islamists who populate the area were going on with the result of different dead tourists, and safety was necessary,. Since then, there have not stopped being the convoys, in spite of the relative calm on the road, although it is also true that the last mortal attack against a touristic facility in Egypt took place only two years ago. In any case, the police seemed to take their work very seriously. After about 70 kilometres advancing very fast, the group has been divided and we have added ourselves to the small group that followed towards the north, but after a hundred kilometres more, the convoy has threaded a secondary road and finally have been in front of a temple that we did not want to visit. We have stayed at the entry informing the policemen that we wanted to go to Cairo, but they have asked us for patience to organise an escort for us alone. But as the time passed and the escort did not arrive we have left with the policemen screaming behind, although to the following police control few kilometres in front we have stopped and finally our escort has arrived. The covered pick-up of the police has gone behind us, making the sirens shout when some lorry did not let us advance with sufficient comfort. But after twenty kilometres we have arrived to a new police control where they have retained us explaining to us that the new escort had not arrived yet. We have explained to them that we wanted to arrive today to Cairo and after few minutes we have left the control again. Anyway, another pick-up of the police has caught us from behind and followed us up to the following police control, where we have initiated a new discussion and again left the control. Finally, the police authorities have understood that we had haste, and to the following control already waited us two limousines of the police, one of which has been situated behind and the other one in front of us doing the sirens all the while to make the way among the traffic of the big city of Asyut (it seems to be, the most dangerous of the Islamic cities). The people looked us amazed, and we felt in a certain way some presidents, in spite of that also a little inconvenienced for this not requested service, a service that for sure was much costlier than the 250 € paid to enter Egypt with car. After about 50 kilometres, with different limousines of the police being inserted,we have been escorted again by the pick-ups, have missed again some police control because the escort did not arrive on time, and finally, at the level of Minya the escorts have disappeared and we have been able to cross the following controls without too many problems. Anyway, it has become dark at about 250 kilometres before arriving to Cairo and we have spent the night in the parking place of a small city. Cairo (see on map) 13/02/2008:
Today in the morning, Michael, Stephania and the nice small Maria have said goodbye definitely to us. We had shared almost two months with them and they had converted in some real colleagues of the journey, helping each other mutually when it was necessary, maintaining interesting conversations, knowing together countries and inhabitants... It is a pity that we will not establish in Europe until after we travell through all Asia and America and that will not be able to visit them until then. We will miss them. Michael and Stephania had arrived to Cairo two days ago after the road of the White desert . In the morning they got in touch with me and I gave them the GPS coordinates of the home of Tarek, the Egyptian who had lodged me the first time in Cairo and who offered us his enormous hospitality again. Anyway, they did not arrive until the night due to problems to unify the nomenclature of the coordinates. They were tired of the journey and of the search and remained completely disconcerted when Tarek offered them the same hospitality as to us, offering us a delicious dinner in his home. When returning to the autocaravans, Michael asked me with interest: - How does Couchsurfing work? I answered him that in couchsurfing not all the world was as hospitable as Tarek and that that rather depended on the Egyptian or Arab culture, but that in any case, it was very interesting to join and to know people and other travellers. In fact, throughout our journey, very few people have appeared as hospitable with us as Tarek and his second wife Asser. We had found families who in spite of absolute poverty offered us all what they had. But Tarek enjoys a very good economic situation and I find paradoxically his hospitality still more surprising, because until now I had not found "rich" people that through couchsurfing lodged so many travellers in their home and insisted of always paying any drinks or foods that they consumed in his home. Really, after four days of enjoying his hospitality I felt that we were abusing, but when we talked with him, he thanked us for our presence and that he wants us to feel part of his most appreciated friends and that would feel defrauded if we did not accept all what he can offer us. An example of the magnificent hospitality of Tarek we find from the first night we arrived in Cairo. That night, Egypt played the end of the African soccer cup, against Cameroon, and together with two other couples of Americans that Tarek was also lodging hr invited us to a café to see the match. Secretly, I cheered up Cameroon, for Etoo plays for Barça, the team that I like, even then it was a great luck that Egypt gained, for afterwards the party was magnificent. Tarek loaded the boys in his car and Asser the girls in her car and immediately after we added ourselves to the parade of hundreds of cars that went towards the town centre to celebrate the victory. The drivers made sound the horns (more that never), there were crazy boys that threw blazes using sprays, there were also girls singing rhymes, some motorcyclists that showed their skills, and all this show without drinking almost anything of alcohol. Anyway, Tarek broke the rules and he bought us some beers and to finish rounding it off he invited us to dine some delights of the Egyptian cuisine. The truth is that we will miss Tarek and Asser when we say goodbye to them, as to Michael, stephanie and Maria, and in the same way that I will miss Alexandra, because this night, finally she has decided to buy a plane ticket to Italy and Romania to visit her family. I will wait for her in Turkey, with desires of being together again, for even if sometimes her nervous attacks take me out of hinge, Alexandra is lately much more soothed. Alexandra had always said that she did not like Africa and maybe from now on she will show more interest in the countries that we will visit and the people that we will know. In any case, taking advantage her leaving soon and tomorrow being Valentínes day, I have put on tonight the ring of gold that Alexandra had given me and that i had taken off during her last nervous brake down from the end of year in Addis Ababa. Specifically, in Cairo, Alexandra has been shown interested of visiting together the commercial neighbourhood of downtown, the Islamic neighbourhood and the touristic market of Khan Al-Khalili, and the Coptic neighbourhood, where they are raised different, churches that date from the beginnings of Christianity, one of which, it is said that it is built on the crypt where it was given refuge to Maria, to Joséf and to the Child Jesus running away from the killing of babies that was ordered to the king Herodes. Visiting the churches it has surprised me to observe the numerous inscriptions in Greek, but it has still surprised me more afterwards to observe Christian inscriptions in Arab on crosses in the cemetery. And there, while Alexandra made the photo of a tomb I have exclaimed with naturalness: - Alex, watch with the dead! she was about to faint for fright, and it is because the Romanians are incredibly superstitious. 16/02/2008:
The day before yesterday, the wind had cleaned the pollution of Cairo and from the neighbourhood where Tarek lives,we could observe thrilled the enormous pyramids that got up at the other tip of the large city, on the stony set of Giza. And at last, after a couple of days in which I have been a little with fever, today we have gone to visit. When approaching, the greatness of the pyramids appearing arrogant among the buildings of the neighbourhood of Giza surprised us again . And, the difficulty of its construction, which in the case of the pyramid of Cheops (the biggest) piling up blocks of stone of about 2,5 tons for a height of 146 meters, has continued surprising me once in the enclosure. One may not miss that there are people that believe that the pyramids were built by extraterrestrial, angels or, even demons. In any case the current height of the pyramid of Cheops is 9 meters less, due to the utilisation of some stones for building parts of Cairo. After visiting the Sphinx outside a fence, which has disappointed me a little, perhaps because i imagined it bigger, we have kept walking for the sand of the desert, observing as the pyramids remained behind us, cutting the enormous metropolis of Cairo, while in front of us, near the horizon, other pyramids were distinguished old of about 4 or 5 millennia, but more small and not so visited. 19/02/2008:
The same Saturday returning from the visit of the pyramids I observed with despair that the light of the battery went on again. The alternator had stopped working another time. This time, I myself dismantled it with the intention of fixing it. But the problem was more severe than the previous time and I saw myself obliged to taking it to a specialist. But in Egypt, the mechanics do holiday on Sunday instead of Fridays, and even if I and the driver of Tarek looked through all Cairo for some open service, we had to wait for Monday. But on Monday in the morning, Alexandra had the flight towards Italy, so, instead of taking her towards the airport, it was Tareks driver who took her. Anyway, while we went towards the airport, we received a call informing us about the flight being delayed two days because of some heavy snowstorms in Greece (where the flight did scale). So, we both keep enjoying the hospitality of Tarek, retained two more days in Cairo, for in my case, until Monday I did not have the alternator with a new part at night fixed and as Tuesday got it on today in the morning the engine has not wanted to start. I have waited all the day to which it arrived for a mechanic, that in a moment it has discovered that a cable behind the engine had been disconnected. Apart from trying to solve the mechanical problems, these days we have continued closed at the house of Tarek, without too many desires of keeping discovering the interesting city, and simply leaving to pass connected to Internet (sometimes working), playing on-line to the poker with Asser, or playing the Xbox with Tarek, especially to some games of careers of cars, which are very real, for Tarek has pedals and steering wheel. Anyway, for the nights we also keep having while to converse with Tarek or Asser, which were very open Muslims, even if Asser tried multiple times of convincing indirectly Alexandra to be converted. On the other hand, Tarek had passed all the previous weekend with its first woman, with whom it also has children (Asser has two daughters). As he turned Monday over, Tarek told me that its two women do not behave very well, but that they have of accepting the situation because the legislation and the Muslim religion allow its double marriage. Anyway, he passes more time with its second woman, mainly for he being almost always lodging people of couchsurfing and being more open to receive them. --- Today to the night I have interviewed to Tarek that Jacket that is causing a very negative impact in the world opined that the main problem of the world is the current policy. Waiting that to the next choices the gain the democrats, although it should change the society to change the policies deeply. Tarek tries to help favour this change lodging people of different cultures and exchanging realities. The main challenge of Egypt will be the withdrawal of the current president that has been to the power the last 24 years and the changes that it will entail. The solution would be the democracy, perhaps although the country is not prepared for this. Tarek tries to collaborate individually the Egyptian economics helping do to grow. Tarek is considered happy because it is found with people of all the world and for the family that it has. It would be happier losing 10 kg and being healthier. The secret of the happiness is the connection with God. Dahab (see on map) 22/02/2008:
After leaving Alexandra in the airport, I started to drive towards the Suez channel, with the intention of making the utmost use of the last available days of visa going to Sinaí, for i felt that i had not enjoyed Egypt enough, with too many bureaucratic and mechanical problems. I felt like seeing the Suez, but when arriving i got disappointed, for there was tens of military quartering that protected the accesses to the channel, besides, the channel was crossed through a tunnel instead of a bridge. Even then, after looking a while through the edge for this, I finally found a small road that went to the channel and then started to enjoy the show, observing tens of boats of great tonnage that seemed to sail through the middle of the desert. When arriving to the edge of the channel I surprised myself of the great width, in spite of that probably not enough so that two boats could circulate, because at all times the boats circulated in a single direction (from North to South). After the visit to the channel, I started to border the gulf of Suez (in the Red Sea) with intention of arriving to the monastery of Saint Catherina and perhaps rising in the dawn to the mount Sinai. But sleep came to me, due to the so many nights conversing (or playing the Xbox) with Tarek and his other guests, and at eight I already went to bed not to wake up until the following day after eleven hours. The monastery of Saint Catherina, at the foot of the Mount Sinai, has been a place of pilgrimage since the 4th century, when a Roman empress built a chapel next to a burned bush which they thought was the bush through which God had talked to Moses. The mount Sinai is worshiped also so much by Jews, Christians as Muslims, because the tradition says that Moses received the boards with the ten Rules in the highness of the mountain. Linking the monastery of Saint Catherina with the top of the Mount Sinai, there are the 3750 steps of the stairs of the regret, cut into the rock by a monk as form of penitence. the monk had to have done a very great sin (nobody knows which), in any case for sure that God forgave him. Although i did not have intention of going up to the mount Sinaí, because on two days the visa of Egypt expired and i wanted to reach early Dahab to change money, I started to go up the stairs of the regret, from which a magnificent show was enjoyed, with the monastery at the bottom of the valley surrounded by stony mountains. I kept going up without having taken water nor money, even then, when I half on the path towards the top I thought "what the hell," I have just "gone up"!. But above, apart from a much more spectacular landscape, I found a thirst of a thousand demons, luckily, I found Moses that offered me water. Close to the top there are different stops for tourists, but when asking for water to a salesman, he only wanted to offer a sealed bottle that i could not pay. Annoyed I exclaimed out loud: - Is this the Egyptian hospitality? Then another man (of the shop number 2) appeared and offered me a glass of delicious water from a fountain of the mountain and next a hot tea. While I recovered in his shop, one of the 7 that populate the Sinai, he presented himself with the name of Mussa (Moses in Arab), explaining to me that he was Bedouin, specifically of the family Jabaliyya. Although he also explained that there are 7 more families of Bedouins spilled out in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Having noticed that through the surroundings there were different patches of snow, I asked whether it snowed a lot and he answered me that lately not and that the last great snowstorm had been in the 86, when 1m of snow piled up. Consequently, the mountain has very few reserves of water, insufficient to water the cypresses that are 500 years old and that mark the point where the prophet Elias listened to the voice of God. To finish, he told me that i was lucky to arrive to the top mid-morning, because normally, every night hundreds of tourists meet at the top to see the sunrise. And really it should be like this, because when I arrived in the midday to the new monastery with the intention of visiting it, this (unlike the morning) was completely deserted and a guard informed me that it was already closed. In Dahab, some touristic town on the coast of the gulf of Acaba (also on the Red Sea), the banks were already closed. Even then I went to the centre to do some shopping, but when parking, a boy approached me and commented me well stiff: - Here you cannot park. A new discussion was about to initiate when suddenly, the same boy exclaimed in Spanish: - It’s a joke! It was Antonio and his colleague Ana that had done a tour through Africa very similar to ours with a 4 x 4. In Addis Ababa, a couple of Dutch that we had found in the embassy of Sudan they had spoken them of our journey, commenting "I do not know how they have been able to cross Africa with an autocaravan". They also knew Arancha, another Spanish that we had found in Aswan and that after 9 years travelling returned to stabilise in Spain. In the evening i had dinner with them sharing the adventures of our travels and they also told to me that they had met Tim, the English motorcyclist that we had found in Angola. Today, while Antonio and Ana were going to do diving to discover new coralline treasures that grow about Dahab and in all the North of the Red Sea, I put my duck feet and my glasses and I have submerged on the beach in front of the people, from where a magnificent cliff full of corals, plants of unimaginable forms, fish of multiple colours, octopuses was revealed... It was an incredible show, but for bad luck, the water was very cold and before one hour I have had to go out trembling. At night I have returned to dine with Antonio and Ana, conversing on our adventures and about the difficult economics of the traveller always putting us in limit situations of life: when we do not want to pay to the corrupt police, or we look for free places to sleep, or where to eat... unlike the tourist, that when having the bounded holidays can solve any problem with a few $ or €. Jordan Aqaba (see on map) 23/02/2008: At the time of taking the boat towards Jordan I have lived again another of these limit situations because of the money. In the morning early I have paid 192 $ for the note of the boat of Nuweiba to Aqaba (Jordan), but when I was about to embark, after having passed me 4 hours in the port running to fix paperwork, the controllers have commented me that it had to pay 50 $ extra, because they had sold the note me for small car and mine was big. After discussing a good while, finally they have shown me that others todo-terreno they also paid the amount that me asked for. Anyway, although I did not have the reason, it did not want to pay and I have decided to keep tightening the rope. I have commented them that I had already used up me all the money and that it could not go out of the port to take with the card endorses because it already had the seal of exit of Egypt. That has confused them, but half after an hour of calls, asking them whether he could pay the note in Aqaba, they have finally told me that it could go to draw money out of the port of Nuweiba, escorted by a policeman. Naturally I have had to follow the current and to make see that it took money and pay afterwards the required amount with the money that it already had. With all that, the boat has gone out about fifteen minutes late for fault of mine, but little it has imported, for when reaching Aqaba after about three hours, our having had to be another hour locked up in the boat expecting them to finish televising a match of soccer. Petra (see on map) 24/02/2008: Today it has not been a good day. Yesterday to the night I knew a nice Belgian couple that traveled with a selfcaravan for the Orient Means and they gave me some good recommendations. Also today I have gone towards Petra, through a perfectly asphaltic road of three lanes, accompanied by two youngsters of Australia that he had known yesterday in the boat. Anyway, it has today not been a good day, my computer yesterday then spoiled again and, instead of visiting Petra, I have today had to stay in the car reinstalling all the Windows and losing a lot of work and some important information. For luck, he had made safety copies at home in Tarek in Cairo, and the situation was not so critical either. In any expensive, at night, one once all the programmes reinstalled I have started to write another time, all the lost journals. 26/02/2008:
Undoubtedly, Petra is the most extraordinary thing that I have seen until now, including two years Europe and Africa, and the previous journeys recurring to India and Latin America. At present Petra is included as one of the 7 great marvels of the world, anyway, I would situate in front of all of them for its greatness, for the beauty of its buildings, geology and landscapes, and for its history and antiquity. The beginnings of the history of Petra (it means stone in Greek) and of the Nabataeanos, its original inhabitants, is full of mysteries and gaps. Anyway, some studies situate the beginnings of this big city in the 6th century BC. In any case, the city bloomed in a stony and mountainous plateau thanks to the control of different commercial routes, but also thanks to the control that they had of the water, through dams and channels, that allowed them to cultivate the earth. During these prosperous centuries, the Nabataeanos and later the Greeks and Romans, sculpted marvelous tombs, similar to temples, in the walls of rock of the mountains. Anyway, little time afterwards Petra suffered a drastic declines, partially provoked, by the earthquake of the 363 that destroyed many buildings and damaged the vital system of management of the water, for the new commercial routes suggested by the Romans, but especially. Although the Nabataeanos believed with pre-Islamic Gods, coinciding with his declines, some precious tombs started to be used as churches. David and Maria that we had been in Aswan had informed me in a way to enter without paying the 26 € of the entry (cost for two days), but on the previous day I did not find the tracks that me had left. In any case, although I observed once to inside that it was very simple to enter for other sides without paying, I paid the note without resentment, because really it was worth. Yesterday I entered to Petra for the main entry, introducing me for the Siq, one throat produced by tectonic forces that separated 1207 meters of mountain among 3 at 12 meters among themselves. During this tour I have observed some interesting engravings in the walls that I have started to photograph, although the most surprising thing has been the vision at the end of the canyon, the magnificent and gigantic tomb sculpted in the wall in front, named the treasure. But following the tour through the valley that was opened in front mine more tombs, and every time more surprising appeared, with impressive natural drawings caused by the different colours of the rock. There were so many interesting things to observe and to photograph, which to the first day at 11 in the morning I already had to start to worry myself of the only 2 Gb that it had to store photos and the battery who was unloading. I kept walking through the mountain, without stopping admiring new tombs, or the enormous amphitheatre also excavated in the rock for the Romans. Further on, the tombs (or maybe homes) excavated in the stony walls turned simpler, but I started to observe, fragments of ceramics, spilled through the meadows confirming to me that the city really had to be big, even if at present the tombs are mainly preserved. The midday ago it started to be rained, and after little of giving refuge to me in a tomb, it started to hail of brave. In the middle of the storm a bearded man arrived and greñudo, completely soaked and trembling with cold, and getting on a donkey (although it insisted that it was a horse). The face of the man did not deserve me confidence, and less when it asked me about the ring of gold that took in the finger, while it undid different belts. I it looked it with tension, supervising that it did not take any dagger, but even if it did not take any, that was so good point decreased the storm, I was myself. I returned to the main levelled area, where there are the ruins of different Greek and Roman temples, and although still it rained, I added myself behind a group that was gone along the mountain straight. But seeing that the path was not too evident and that they were moved away quite a lot of the central area, I asked to the French leader if it could add me to its group, which, very nicely said me that yes. And it was a great luck, because we go above up to the summit of a mountain for some stairs of stone, enjoying more tombs and impressive sights, where there was a great infrastructure to sacrifice animals to the Gods, with pool to purify them and altar with way of funnel to collect the blood. Kept drizzling all the while, but half an hour before arriving to the people, started to pour with rain, arriving to the selfcaravan completely soaked. Today I have visited Petra again, but I have gone before where the Pequeña Petra finds, an enclave naturally protected through the mountains where he had deposited the money of the city and where there are also some interesting tombs, with the car at about 5 kilometres. Afterwards, I have walked up to above of another mountain where the building excavated at the biggest rock of all Petra, the monastery, in front of which the people seem incredibly small, is. Going towards the monastery, a Bedouin girl who sold pendants and stones has asked me for a bit of paper. Without having forgotten in a complete way the boring vendors of Egypt have chorus automatically "not", but she has replied to me that it was to turn a fire on. Then, more understanding, I have taken my bloc of notes and have pulled out a leaf. And immediately after, the girl, me this a compliment or gratitude that has kept me engraved to the memory: - Graces, I expect to compensate it to you in your wedding. When going down again, the girl has offered me a tea, and without the subject of the wedding coming out again, it has explained to me that it had never gone to the school and that its almost perfect English had learned it from the tourists. Unfortunately, mid-afternoon, after some occasional sunbeams it has started to drizzle again and tired to wet me have returned to the car. And it has been a good decision, because little before arriving it has poured with rain again. Amman (see on map) 28/02/2008:
At noon, after having been all the morning working and writing, I started myself off through a road that crossed above the careens of the mountains, sometimes with bald patches of snow next to the road. From time to time it crossed small people, quite modern, with all the covered women with veil and some even with burca; some men took elegant turbans of red and white cuadraditos. It has surprised the few controls of policeman in the road and the calmness and friendliness of the people, and not so much for me for the contrast of the previous countries, but because Jordan finds in the middle of some very troublesome countries: Iraq and Palestine and Israel. Anyway, what really surprised me more, was the great presence of garbage containers, which are completely non-existent in good part of Africa. At dusk I reached Karak, where there is an impressive dominant castle the villa, although, knowing that in Syria there are castles of the period of the much more interesting crusades not had intention of visiting it. Anyway, when approaching me to the entry, the guardian left me to enter without paying making use the last minutes before closing. And today, when going out of Karak with the intention of circulating through the motorway of the king that crosses a fantastic canyon (according to the guide), I have mistaken the path going 50 kilometres in vain, but in when proving again it I have found going down towards the Dead Sea and any longer I have not tried to move back another time. The Dead Sea or Sea of Salt (if it is translated of the Hebrew) finds the lowest dry terrestrial point of the world at 420 meters under the sea level and és. The sea is also one of the saltiest of the world, with 30% of salinity that is 9 times the salinity the Mediterranean Sea. Curiously, the valley where he finds the Dead Sea also is part of the same valley of the Rift, which we have crossed different times during our African stretch. On the other hand, the sea is not too big, with a maximum of 18 kilometres of width, which allows seeing at all times Palestine, in spite of the mist. In the south of the Sea there is a big plain with great saline and great cultivated extensions, but, the earth turns arid and mountainous more in the north. Near the end of the lake, there are some great touristic complexes and I have decided to park next to one of them to experiment on a therapeutic bath in the Dead Sea. To my around there was big clods of salt and minerals. Slowly I have gone to the hot water introducing and it thickens. As it advanced, the water kept creating visible and curious current filaments. And finally I have introduced myself to the water and surprise, although it already knew it, the sensation of floating almost above the surface was incredible. I have swum a little, and without too much effort I have advanced at great speed, almost blowing up above the waters. It is gripping, and the explanation, also because a litre of the water of the Dead Sea, instead of weighing 1 kg, 1,24kg weighs. 01/03/2008:
In Amman I had to meet a boy from couchsurfing.com but my telephone did not let me make calls and through Internet I could not locate him. Therefore, after situating myself on the map of the city, I went to park in the summit of one of the hills among which it extends Amman. From high up, near the citadel and with magnificent views on part of the city and close to the Roman amphitheatre, i had free wifi connection (it did not happen since Europe), so I remained closed inside the car all the afternoon after arriving to the Dead Sea and also the following day (yesterday). And surprisingly, after a year travelling through Africa, i was parked in the street, with the window open, with people walking on the side and without anybody upsetting me in any moment; I repeat: it seemed surprising to me. I was working and I also read the newspaper online, I listened to the radio and I looked at the television of my country. But I was also thinking whether i should visit for a couple of days Israel and Jerusalem. It had its risk, a very great risk, because if on the border with Jordan or Israel they printed some seal on my passport, it would be impossible to enter Syria. And powerless to cross Syria (not even logically Iraq), i could practically say good-bye to continue the journey towards Ásia. Syria does not accept the entry to anybody who has visited Israel, and I for example read the history of a boy who did not have a seal of Israel in the passport, but in the hostel of Damascus they discovered that his youth hostel card was sealed by a hostel in Jerusalem, communicated it to the police and immediately expelled him from the country. Anyway, Antonio and Ana that I had met in Dahab had assured me that, if i travelled without car, on the borders between Israel and Jordan they did not seal the passport. It was an important decision, on the other hand, without Alexandra seems that it is difficult for me to decide. Alexandra gets used to seeing only the negative aspects of the challenges and me the positive ones, but without her I have to analyse both aspects, making the decision still more difficult. Anyway, today in the morning I have gone to a bus agency that makes daily journeys to Jerusalem from Amman and for me it seemed so simple that I have decided to try tomorrow. Besides, i had contacted people from couchsurfing that could receive me in Jerusalem. And finally, i had also been able to get in touch with the boy of couchsurfing from Amman at the house of which i could leave the autocaravan put aside without problem. I have met with Thomas of French origin (the boy of couchsufing) and his wife of Chinese origin in a quite modern bookshop-bar and with people relatively snob. The owner of the site, friend of Thomas, is homosexual and as it seems he had many problems to open the business in the Jordanian Islamic society. Thomas was very interested in political subjects and immediately explained to me that the wealth of Jordan, despite not having too many oil resources, is encouraged in the stability of the country, attracting wealth and companies of the other Arab countries. The king of Jordan maintains a difficult balance between Israel and the Arab world, with some strong secret police that controls all that happens in the country. And is not an easy task, because 40 or 50% of the current inhabitants of Jordan are of Palestinian origin, emigrated during the creation of the state of Israel. Taking advantage of the wife of Thomas being of Chinese origin and her having a daughter from a previous marriage, I asked her about the policy of the only son in China. After explaining that she did not like it, she commented that the Chinese government helps economically to have a son, but if you have a second son you have to pay a fine of 5000 € (more the private hospital...). Anyway, if for luck you have twins the first time; the state helps you even more. At night, after parking in front of the house of Thomas, I have gone to a modern coffee of the neighbourhood to connect to Internet, which was full of youth, even attractive girls, dressing in a modern way, conversing animatedly around, celebrating some anniversaries... The only difference with Europe, was the smoke that there was in the atmosphere, provoked by the tens of water pipes that boys as well as girls were smoking. Israel - Palestina Jerusalem (see on map) 04/03/2008:
At 5:30 I left the autocaravan closed in the street, in front the house of Thomas, and I went in taxi towards the bus station, where after waiting for an hour I went up in a big bus where only there was another passenger going also to Israel. Although afterwards they were added more temporary, that confirmed the comment of Thomas that had assured me that between Israel and the Arab countries there is very few business and exchange, in spite of the closeness. When arriving to the Israeli part of the border of the Hussein Bridge, military youngsters with machine guns on shooting position and girls with bulletproof protection stopped the bus. While I was writing down these observations, a very severe officer went up on the bus and made me go down leaving the rest of passengers inside. After passing different detectors of metal and a strange machine that made air through my clothes, the officer with the machine-gun took me for questioning: why i went to Israel, who i knew, what had i done in Sudan, what i was writing in the bus... Surpassed the interrogation I added myself to the rest of the non Palestinian foreigners (these was another queue) and I delivered my passport to a girl of Ethiopian origin insisting that they did not print any seal for me, to be able to enter afterwards Syria. Most of the workers of the border were boys and very young girls ( probably doing the military service) and multiracial. I observed that my passport kept passing through different hands and whenever i could I addressed the person who had it and asked them: - You will not print me any seal, ok? Even then, they stuck an adhesive behind the passport that afterwards I had problems to take it off. While i waited, I conversed with an English that worked for an ONG helping the Palestinian people and he explained me very annoyed that, Israel and the governments that hold it are the only ones responsible for the conflict between Israel and Palestine. A part of the solution would be that the millions of Palestinian refugees could return to their lands and they were also compensated economically. Very probably an unacceptable proposal for the Israelis, and therefore, it seems that the conflict will continue for many more years. Later I have conversed with another also very critical cooperative with the Israel government. And finally I have talked with a Colombian girl who was going to visit a friend and to whom finally they have denied the entry. Meanwhile, the hours kept passing and, observing that the rest of foreigners kept passing, I asked: - What does it happen with my passport? And they always answered to me: - A moment, we are still processing your information. But finally, they called me for a second interview. I had to empty all my pockets and they closed me in a room with a corpulent boy in my back and an interviewer in front, and they started another time to question me. They had fear that i wanted to meet with Palestinians or that i took some message of somebody from Sudan. Finally they made me wait a good while, during which they checked all the information that figured beside my name in Internet, and passing probably a total of 5 hours waiting, printed the seal of entry in Israel in a paper separated from the passport. So much safety on the border was probably owed to the new climbing of the Palestinian – Israeli conflict, in which, terrorists had thrown numerous home rockets from the territory of the Gaza Strip against different frontier cities of Israel, getting to kill some person, and in answer the Israelis had bombarded and killed tens of people, among them children and women. And to consequence also of this climbing in the conflict, in Jerusalem, walking through the former city, all walled, I found the majority of shops closed, as a protest of the Palestinians traders to the israelian killings. Jerusalem is considered a saint city for the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and amply disputed along the history, with crusades, wars, intifada... although traditionally the city has always been divided up into four areas or neighbourhoods: Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Armenian. I entered through the Muslim neighbourhood and next entered the Jewish one, after crossing a metal detector. There I found in front the wall of lamentations, a wall of stone that the pretty mosque of the dome of the rock formed part of a former Jewish sacred temple that was destroyed, and curiously now it is part of the wall that surrounds the place, that occupies the original situation of the Jewish shrine. Anyway, the Judaism considers that God moved its presence from the former shrine to the wall of the lamentations or named also the Western wall. And as i arrived , tens of Jews dressed in black and with caps (symbolising the aura, according to a friend from Israel) or hats of wing or of eccentric forms, read books groaning out loud facing the wall while, some with rhythmic and violent jumps, swayed ahead and behind. At night, Eli, a boy from couchsurfing received me and I had opportunity of living with a happy Israelí family. From his home, I connected myself to Internet and casually I read in the journal that the same day that was being finished, Israel had done a small military incursion to Gaza Strip killing about 60 people, including women and 8 children. I commented on the news to Eli, but he did not think it was bad, but natural, because in the journals of Israel in Internet they informed in a single line (which cost to find) that the army had killed the same number of people, but indicating that 90% were armed. When asking Eli if he believed normal the disproportion among the Palestinian dead men and the israelian, he commented me that yes, simply because Israel is more efficient militarily. And added that the Palestinian terrorists attack directly the population, however, the Israeli soldiers look for killing the terrorists, even if in the action they can kill children of the surroundings. Some not so convincing opinions under the concept of human justice or peace and I ended up thinking that other millions of opinions as this made more complicated the end of the conflict. In the same way that the conformism and consumerism of millions of families from the developed world, including me, are probably collaborating to the misery of the rest of the world. Even if always there are some good actions. For example, Eli was complaining that according to the Israeli law, the earth that is not cultivated loses the owner if another cultivates it, allowing some Israelis to gain the land of many Palestinians refugees that cannot return. Eli, in collaboration with some ONGs and other Palestinians helps plant trees in these lands so that the owners at present refugees do not lose it. On the other hand, I can seem very critical with Eli and other millions of Israelians, but that did not prevent me to make friendship with a magnificent boy who i could have as a real friend. The following day I returned to the old city and i did a long hike above the walls, without too much interest, and next I went up to the mosque of the Dome of the Rock, another sacred place, this time for the Muslims, because they consider that this is the point where the prophet Mohamed ascended to the sky, after his body was transported miraculously from Meca. In fact, the mosque of the Dome of the Rock is the third most saint, after those of Meca and Medina, and even, originally the Muslim prayers were done in this direction instead of Meca. It is not to miss then that exteriorly (it is not allowed to enter inside for the non Muslims) the mosque is wonderful, with some details of Islamic art as always surprising, as its big golden dome, which is visible from most parts of the city. Next, walking through small paved and steep alleys, some desert and another boiling of trades, generally destined to the tourists or pilgrims, I arrived to the church of the Sacred Sepulcra, a church worshiped by all the Christian confessions, believing that was erected on the hill where Jesus was crucifixed and where also he was buried. In the entry of the church there was a big slab of marble where they think that the body of Jesus was shrouded and where tens of believers crouched down to kiss it, to touch it and to lie down devoutly and passionately. Going up on some stairs there was situated a chapel in the point where they thought that Jesus was crucifixed, and, long queues were again waited to crouch down under the altar where the hole that sustained the cross is. And in another end of the church there were still more queues to enter in the small chapel where buried Jesus was (close to the other one). Asking, a monk he told me that the church was of the greco-orthodox confession, but afterwards I have read that the custody is of different confessions, not with few conflicts among them throughout its history. In the afternoon I met again with Eli, conversing animatedly and trying to convince me of the existence of telepathy and at night i went to see a match of básquet to the house of a friend of his, which will soon do a long journey through Latin-amèrica. And today in the morning I have left Jerusalem, I have crossed without any problem the Israelian and Jordanian border and have arrived to Amman where the autocaravan was still in the same place without anybody having touched it. --- I made use of my stay in Israel to take the pulse to the world with Eli, that gave an opinion that the main problem of the world are the human beings that are too egocentric. The solution would be conscience, the peace starts from the interior. In Israel the main problem is the endless war. The solution will be very late to appear. He tries to maintain friendship with all the parts. Eli is considered very happy. he does not need to worry for being happier. The secret of happiness is to be happy with what you have. ‹ Previous (05/01/2008) MONTH Next (2008-03-05)› ‹ Previous (2008-01-14 - Sudan) COUNTRY Next (2008-02-23 - Jordan)› |
|
