Cairo day 3 and home

The second day in Cairo was fun, too. We went to the Egyptian Museum. It was established by the Egyptian government in 1835. The ground floor covers the history of ancient Egypt. Upstairs on the first floor are tons of smaller items from Egyptian history. On the second floor there is also the coffins, mask, and other treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamen. The museum was really amazing, but the only problem was my stomachache. I often had to sit down if there was a bench near where our guide, Michael, was explaining something. Oh, well. We spent around 2 hours exploring the Egyptian Museum, when we needed 2 months :)

After the Egyptian Museum we went to the Papyrus (paper) shop, which was a shop explaining how the ancient Egyptians made their paper. It also had some murals on the paper for sale, but they were expensive. We weren't allowed to take pictures there, but Mom snuck in a few. Two of my favorites were a cat and a winged goddess, both of which you can see in the picture. There were a lot of replicas of them, but I liked these best. That cat I liked best for really no apparent reason. I liked that particular winged goddess because it was the most colorful of the other ones. All of them were really nice.

The rest of the time out I had to stay and sit in the bus because of my stomach. But I was happy and Mom didn't have to worry so all was well. We went back to the hotel with something to look forward to, though. We were going on a cruise ship for dinner on the Nile! It started at 9:30 ad continued until around midnight or so. It was great! The food was good, although Mom and I had to stay away from some stuff. As Dad keeps lecturing me: " Boil it, peel it, or forget it." My stomach stopped hurting in the time that we were at the hotel, and it never came back. Yay! Anyway, back to the cruise... there were two entertainers there. One was a beautiful blond bellydancer, and the other was a man that twirled around for a long time.

The next day we woke up at 6:45 am went on another 14-hour ride back home, and we got back to the house at around midnight (again). It felt so good to be back home. And now here I am, writing this post!

Have a good day, my adoring fans! :) (heehee)

Travel and day 2 in Egypt

Hello, I am back from my 4-day tour trip in Egypt with Mom! It was really cool there, even though I did get sick the first night there :( Day 1 was spent traveling on a bus from Tel Aviv to Cairo for 14 hours. The place I got sick at was the really filthy place they stopped for dinner at. And I ate the food there and as a result got a bad 4-day stomachache.

The second day was a lot of fun! Mom and I went on a tour on our trip. It was nice having the guide take care of everything for you. We went to see Memphis (Memphis, Egypt- not Memphis Tennessee.), the 3 pyramids of Giza (!) and the Sphinx.

Memphis was OK, being only a museum-like place with lots of statues of stuff evacuated from the pyramids. There was a really huge statue of King Ramses II, (as you can see in the picture) with the false beard and traditional headdress and everything.

Next we went to the pyramids! Yay! There are 3 pyramids, the biggest one being Khufu. The next-biggest is Khafre, and the smallest is Menkaure. I have always wanted to see the pyramids. Heck, I have always wanted to see Egypt, the land of the cat-worshipers! You know, when you first see the pyramids you think "Oh, it's just a pile of rubble. Who cares?" But you're wrong. That "pile of rubble" has about 2 million (one million in the case of Menkaure) limestone blocks, each weighing about 1/2 to 1 ton. The pyramids were all built in around 20 years, by 100,000 slaves each. The pyramids are so cool, when you see-them even from a distance, it is "wow". And then we saw the Guardian.

The Sphinx has always been thought to be the "guardian" of the pyramids. I think they're right. It was carved out of a single limestone block left over from the building of Khufu, the Sphinx is a marvelous creature with the body of a lying lion and King Ramses II 's face. It has been on silent watch for millenniums.

I bought something that day, too! Our tour stopped off at a carpet school, where children go to learn how to make carpets for 3-4 hours per day. And I bought a little wool carpet! It is of a river, and on the far bank is a man sitting on some red sand with his camels. The sky is orange, and it has white tassels on the top and bottom. It came with a miniature carpet-for free-picturing a river with a hut on the far side, also with white tassels that I am going to give to a friend. It cost me $10 US dollars. I had $6 US dollars left.

My first full day in Cairo was a good one.

above: kids in the carpet school.

Mom

Hi! I'm so happy, my mom is finally here! Apparently she got in around 5:00 or 6:00am. I cannot wait until I can show her around! The 2 or so nights that she is going to stay here she is going to stay in my room. Then we are going to Egypt together!

Well, at least Dad and I got the window fixed...oh. I didn't tell you about the window, did I? Well, when Dad and I got home from the trip to Jordan my door had blown shut because I left the window open. So I propped open the door. But the door of the window kept slamming shut because of the wind that was blowing in through the living-room window. It slammed shut and I opened it, it slammed shut and I opened it, it slammed shut and I opened it... and then it broke! Ack! The reason the window hadn't broken while we were away was because my door had blown shut.

So on Monday, Dad and I went to get the window fixed. Dad had knocked the rest of the glass out earlier, so he just took the door of the window off the other part of the window (only the door's glass broke) and we just carried it into town. We just asked around for a guy that did glass in town. The first person we talked to didn't really help, but with another person's help we found Mr. Parrot's. He said it would be an hour or so so we went and did some stuff, and when we came back he said it would be 5 minutes. So we waited 5 minutes, and we (amazingly) got the window home without breaking it!

Well, I'd better go, we're going to the beach soon.
Bye!

Amman, Jerash, and home

The last stop on our trip was Amman (uh-mon). Amman was very crowded. There were shops lining the streets in every direction (at least in downtown Amman, which was where our hotel was), and people everywhere! We stayed in the Palace Hotel, which was a pretty nice hotel. Our room had satellite T.V, air conditioner, and a balcony that overlooked one of the main streets in Amman. From that balcony we watched a guy that was trying to get a taxi, but he couldn't get one. One time he got one to stop but then these two women just walked up and grabbed the taxi from him, even though he had been the one to pull it over. He was a very patient guy, waiting and waiting for a taxi that would take him. 'Cause every time he got one to pull over, he would speak something into the front window and the taxi would just take off immediately. He was nicely dressed, too, and we couldn't see anything wrong with him at all. Eventually he got fed up and walked away. Poor guy.

The first thing we did after getting our room was go to the Citadel. The Hill of the Citadel in the middle of Amman was occupied as early as the Neolithic period, and fortified during the Bronze Age (1800 BC). We visited the Palace including the Dome, and the museum. It was really interesting, but we didn't stay there long since we wanted to look around Amman a bit, not to mention getting dinner somewhere. Luckily we had our handy Lonely Planet Guidebook to the Middle East with us.

We found out that if you're looking for a shoe store there will be 5 blocks of shoe stores, and if you're looking for wallpaper store there will be 3 blocks of wallpaper stores, but if you're looking for a resturant in Amman you won't find any! Isn't that freaky?

But we did find a great fruit drink stand where for a little less than 1JD, you could get a fresh-squeezed fruit drink. They were really good, and the man at the stand was really nice. People in Jordan are so sweet, Dad said that he "had never been in a country where people were as friendly as in Jordan." Dad has traveled so much, that's really something, ain't it?

Our second day in Jordan we went to Jerash (Jer-ah-sh). Jerash is known for the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa, which is where we went. Recent excavations show that Jerash was inhabited during the Bronze and Iron Ages. If you want to know more about the places we went to in Jerash and get a map of Jerash go to this link:

http://www.atlastours.net/jordan/jerash_map.html

We went to multiple places in Jerosh, such as The Temple of
Artemis, Hadrian's Arch, the museum, and lots more. I'm sorta getting tired of visiting old ruins, you know? It's like "ugh, not again" after a while. Although it is still pretty cool at the start.

The next day we finally started the long bus ride home. It was so nice to have the whole house to ourselves again, and I could just relax and do whatever I wanted again...the trip was fun, but I'm ready to be home again. :)

Sorry

Sorry, guys, but my Google account didn't work out. Now I am going to go and get an account with Gallery, but be prepared to wait a couple days. I really am sorry. I hope it works this time! :)
Have a good day.

Petra

We went from Wadi Rum to Petra on Sunday the 14th. Wow, almost a week from when we started! We got up at 6am Monday morning (ugh...) and caught a cab to the visitor center in Petra. Did you know that Petra is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World? And I was about to find out why.

At the visitor center we got Dad's 2-day (mine was free) ticket, put on sunscreen, and started walking. There was a 800-meter downhill walk to the entrance of the Siq (See-q). If you didn't want to walk, though, you could ride a horse down to the entrance, but down to the entrance only. If you were really feeling lazy, though, you could take a horse and carriage all the way through the Siq, but it looked bouncy and uncomfortable. Dad and I took neither. We were planning to ride the horses to the entrance on the second day, but we decided not to even go on the second day. Finally we got to the entrance of the Siq.

Maybe I should give you a little history of Petra. Petra is located in the country of Jordan in the Middle East. It was inhabited around 2300 years ago, before the common era, by the Nabataeans. The Nabataeans were very advanced, having a water system compete with pipes, and monuments that were carved out of the rock, and so much more! Petra was also an important junction for the silk, spice and other trade routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. But they were conquered by the Romans and others, and they died out. (Why do the great ancient peoples always have to die out?!)

Anyway, we eventually got to the entrance of the Siq. The Siq is a narrow gorge that is over 1 kilometer long, which has 80-metre-high cliffs on either side of it. At some point you can see on the left hand side of the siq a water channel. It used to be covered, but long ago floods washed away the cover stones. Also around that point the road started to become paved in places. The paving wasn't bad considering it was first done around 2300 years ago. Just as we began wondering when the Siq was going to end, we saw the entrance to a huge clearing. And on the wall opposite the opening was the kind of thing that just takes your breath away-it was called The Treasury (look at picture). Remember that this was built in the 3rd century BC. Technology was very primitive back then, yet they still found tools to build this!

Dad and I walked around for eight hours-whew! We went all over, to the Monastery, to the museum, to all sorts of places. It was so fun! And, guess what? I rode on a camel on the way back! It was so cool, even though my legs got sore. I am so totally going to badger Mom to let us ride camels in Egypt! Petra was really cool. Our hotel room was...well, lets just say it would've been nice if everything didn't break down in it. The TV didn't work so they brought a new one in, there was no handle on the bathroom door, the fan didn't work, and the bed collapsed when Dad sat on it! Also, at 5:00 am we were awoken by the call to prayer, which is 5 times a day in Muslim countries. It was so beautiful, there was the one main voice chanting and then a chorus of other, softer, voices that "sounded like angels", Dad said. The next day we took a bus to Amman.

Wadi Rum

So, after we spent our 4 days in Sinai we continued on to Wadi Rum (Wah-dee Rum). Wadi Rum is a protected area of 720 square kilometers where you can go hiking, camping, and a multitude of other cool activities. It is the largest Wadi in Jordan. There are people living in Wadi Rum, Bedouin tribes in their goat-hair tents. The name Rum probably comes from a Aramaic root meaning 'high' or 'elevated'. Quite right, too. Millenniums ago Wadi Rum was probably a vast area of rock and sandstone stretching up very high off the ground. But over the years the wind has eroded the rock down until, today, Wadi Rum is a sandy desert with only rock formations here and there. And all the sand on the ground (and there is a lot of sand) is the sand that was eroded from the rocks all those centuries ago. And it's still eroding even as I type this! You know, in a 40 or 50 years, there will be nothing left of the great rock formations towering over the plains in Jordan.

We drove to Wadi Rum in a taxi, looked at the visitor center, and then went to meet a person Dad had contacted named Seleem (Sell-eem). The men there wear clothing that consists of long white pants with a long white... dress, sort of over the pants. They also wear a khafias, which is a traditional Arabic head-wrapping, I can't really describe it.

After we met with Seleem, we got a guide to take us around. He was really nice. First we went to Laurence's spring and climbed a rock formation there. We climbed a couple other formations, too, that day. It was fun, even though it hurt our hands. Also, it was easy going up but hard getting down. After we went climbing in the paces we went to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful sunset.

We spent the night in a Bedouin tent with another couple. It was fun sleeping out in the desert. The next day Dad, the other couple, and I went around to some other places together. At one point the guide and the other man played an Arabic game together, as you can see in the picture. The couple were nice and I liked them. Around noon we (regretfully) left Wadi Rum and continued our trip to Petra.

I <3 the desert!

Sinai

Hi, I'm back from my trip! Dad and I got up early on Monday (was it only Monday? It seems like an age ago) and took the 26 bus and a train for around 3 hours and another bus for 2 hours out to where we would stay. By that time it was evening. We stayed the night at Orit's nephew's kibbutz which is called Kibbutz Lotan (ki-but-z, a kibbutz is a community of people who live and work together on some sort of a campus).


The next day we took a bus to near the border with Sinai. We then took a taxi to the border. We had three bags, two backpacks and one duffel bag. When we got to the Israel/Sinai (or Egypt, depending how you think about it) border there was no one there. I mean no one! Dad paid the border tax and we got our passports checked. Then we walked across the border into a building where dad got some Egyptian pounds ($5.75 USA dollars to a pound, 0.729 Israeli shekels to a pound). Then we asked the people there how much a taxi would be and they said around 200 Egyptian pounds ($35 to 40 US dollars) for a hour ride or so. Yikes! So we went instead and waited on the back steps of the building, and Dad checked the guide book for information, but found none. There was also a college guy there waiting for his friends to pick him up. Somehow or other we ended up with the guy, his friends, and us trying to get a shared taxi together. Dad and the guys bargained for a while, but finally we got a reasonable price for a shared taxi. After some time of waiting, we got in the taxi and left. It was about an hour's drive to the place where we were going.

<an old fort

When we arrived at our hotel, it was around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. There was some misunderstandings about the price of the room (I won't bore you by going into detail), but Dad and the manager finally agreed on the price. Our room was so cool, it is a suite with a big living room w/ a TV, a bedroom with a bed wide enough for 3 people that also had a TV, two bathrooms, and two balconies, one for the living room and one for the bedroom. There was a swimming pool there, and the beach outside.Over the course of 4 days, we did a lot of things.

We went snorkeling, which was my favorite. A quote from my diary: "Snorkeling was out of this world. In the water you moved along with sinuous grace, and it was slow there, as if in a dream. It was hard at first to get the hang of snorkeling, and the first time I got totally freaked out and almost went back to the room, but Dad coaxed me back in. At first the reef is dead from all the rubbish in the water and the water is shallow, but then slowly there is more color and suddenly the reef drops down into...caverns, almost, with a lot of fish." Most of the time it was low tide, and I hate low tide. But there was still a couple times where I really enjoyed myself.

The only bad thing with the time in Sinai was that I got these horrible stomachaches that woke me up in the middle of the night moaning. They weren't from the food, though. At first Dad was a little suspicious of the food because there aren't as many safety precautions as in the States. As Dad keeps reminding me "boil it, peel it, or forget it." Surprisingly, though, we didn't get sick from the food there, which was excellent. (Simon, you have a competitor!)

The time in Sinai was great, and I was sad to leave.

Trip

Hello, all! On Monday, Dad and I are going on a trip to Sinai and Jordan. We will go snorkeling in Sinai and we are going to visit Petra and Wadi Rem and be in the desert around Jordan-I can't wait! During a period of about 10 days, I probably won't be able to write anything, so don't forget about me, and check back in 10 days, there will be a lot to read! I'd better go pack, so bye!

Movies

Hi again! It's me. I know this isn't really significant in the big picture, but I want to tell you about it anyway.

Yesterday Dad and I went to a movie. The one that we really wanted to see was sold out, so we went to a different one called Vivere. It was about the meaning of life, and how all our fates intertwine in different ways. It was very moving, no trashy Hollywood thing, you know? I wish that you guys could see it, but it would never show in the states. In fact, the only reason that it is showing now is because it is the International Film Festival.

I know this is a really short post, but I wanted you to hear about this nonetheless.

Tel Aviv

Hello! Dad and I went to Tel Aviv (Tell-Ah- veev) yesterday! We went to the museum of the Diaspora (The time when the Jews were in Exile, being driven out of every country they tried to stay in.) at the university. It was really fascinating there, with old artifacts such as silver plates with etchings on them, and models of the different synagogues around the word, and so much more! I wish you guys could've been there to see it. We ate lunch in a cafeteria there and found out that the food was AWFUL!!!!!

After 5 hours in the museum (from 11:00 to 4:00 or so.) :P Dad remembered that he had forgotten his cell phone at home, and we were going to meet up with Orit, and were supposed to call her. So we got on a bus to go to the market where we were going to look for a pay phone to call Orit, and the funniest thing happened! Orit got on our bus! The chances of that happening are so slim, it's like running into a long-lost friend in the middle of New York City! And so we went on to the market. The market was amazing! There were tons of stalls on either side shouting out their wares, and all these people jostling you (the reason there were so many people was because yet another holiday was coming up). The street we were walking on was littered with trash and squashed fruits, and dirty water running down the middle- I still don't want to look at the bottom of my shoes! The smell there wasn't too nice, either. One minute you smelled fruits and flowers, and the next minute you smelled something rancid like poop!

After looking around, we went and ate dinner at this really cool stall that had these...thingys, I don't know how to describe them. The women that were selling the food looked like babushkas, grandmothers from Russia in dresses and aprons from the 1920s.
At first I thought the food there was pastries, but I was wrong. They were really this baked crusty bread crust that had a filling of either meat and onions, potatoes, or pumpkin. I got the meat because I hate most potatoes and only like pumpkin in pumpkin pie. It was so good, my mouth waters just typing this! They were very filling, and I ate only two for dinner. For dessert we had pomegranate juice (which is not sweet, mind you).

We also went to the craft market. There were so many things to look at, jewelry and paintings, clocks and towel hangers, things that I had no idea what they were... and they were all handmade, too!

I really like Tel Aviv.

The *New*, Environmentally-Friendly Rachael!

Hello! Sorry I haven't written in a while, I hope you guys haven't forgotten me! Dad and I are very busy these days, this is the first day I've gotten to do my schoolwork in a while!

On Monday I did a good deed! Dad and I decided to go and pick up trash in the woods for 4.5 hours or so (the first 3.5 hours we just lazed around, though. ) with a group of park rangers/conservative people. Like I said, we didn't start picking up trash until the last hour or so. Before that we went on a little tour of the campsite. It reminded me a lot of Colorado, which is where my dad used to live. In the picture you can see our little group. Towards the front is Roni (Row-nee), and in the red shirt behind Roni is me!

On our tour we saw these beautiful flowers, they were all silvery and stuff. Roni said that they were the first flowers of autumn. If you look closely at the picture, you will see that they bloom weirdly, like this: first, the first few rows at the bottom bloom first. Then the rows higher up bloom after the lower ones are dead. So it continues up the stalk. After all the flowers have bloomed and died, the fruit grows.

At the campsite there were two activities for the kids. One was where you took a pine cone and decorated it with stickers and feathers and then took some string and hung it up in a tree. The other one was where you took a sheet of paper that had the outlines of a mask of a roe deer. You color it, cut it out and bend it, and you have a mask! Sorta sounds like the torture sessions at school, huh? :) (Well, I like art class, but some people don't) I did the pine cone, and you can see it in the picture.

After a while Dad, Roni, another woman and I went to pick up trash. I'm happy because Dad's back didn't hurt even though he bent down some!

If you want to know more about the organization, look at the URL on the picture, or if you can't read it go to:

http://www.tevanaki.com