Days 114-117: Dubai

After finding out that we weren't going to be able to make it to India, we started looking at flights to decide where we were heading next. We were thinking Thailand, but it ended up being much cheaper to fly to Dubai and then take a differnt airline from Dubai to Bangkok; so we ended up in Dubai.


Dubai is very spread out and not very pedestrian friendly. There is one metro line, but getting anywhere from the metro stations takes about 30-40 minutes of walking.  Aside from interesting buildings and a nice beach there isn't a whole lot to do in Dubai. We visited the Emirates Mall and saw the indoor ski slope, saw some tall buildings, stopped by the famous sail hotel and spent a day reading on the beach.

The mall was decked out for Christmas.

Indoor ski slope.

We're guessing most of these people have never experienced real snow.

Hotel on the beach (not ours).

Famous sail hotel. Look familiar Greg and Molly?

Tallest building in the world.

Sunset on the beach.

We had a nice Christmas Eve at the Dubai airport and enjoyed a traditional Christmas Eve dinner of sausages and Guinness. After a two hour delay, our flight took off at 1am leaving us just enough time to catch our connection in Bahrain to Bangkok.

A ninja sneaking up on Stephanie? The Grim Reaper? An example of no personal space while waiting to check in for our flight. While there were several other seats available, this lady decided she should sit on the arm of the chair I was sitting in and lean on me from time to time.

Christmas Eve at the Dubai airport.

Three nights were more than enough in Dubai. We are ready to say good-bye to Dubai and head to Bangkok.

Merry Christmas!

While walking through Bethlehem we found the perfect picture for this year's Christmas card.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Love, Todd & Stephanie

Suggestions, please!

We are getting ready to head to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc. and are in the process of figuring out what route to take and cities to visit. If you have any suggestions, please share. Thanks!

Days 109-113: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem & Bethlehem

Our first morning in Tel Aviv we woke up early to head to the Indian Embassy to attempt to get an Indian visa. (We attempted to get the visa in Cairo but arrived at noon to find out that they could only accept paperwork between 9:30 and 11:30. Also we had read on the internet that it would take three days to process and we weren't going to be in Cairo that long.) We arrived at the embassy, to be told that we needed to go down the street to a travel agency for tourist visas. Apparently India has outsourced their visas, which we find a little ironic. At the travel agency they said it would take at least two weeks to process! So, we will not be going to India any time soon.


The weather was beautiful and there weren't a lot of sights to see in Tel Aviv so we decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing. We took a nice long walk along the beach and then settled into some beach chairs for day of reading and people watching.

The next day we caught a bus and headed to Jerusalem. A friend of Todd's has a brother-in-law living in Jerusalem and they welcomed us into their home. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Chris and Kate and their adorable little girl, Esther. We spent our first day in Jerusalem wandering around the old city. It was the start of Shabbat so it was a cool time to see the Western Wall. We also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Dome of the Rock. Behind the Western Wall.

The Western Wall

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Stone of the Anointing.

The next day we headed to the West Bank to visit Bethlehem. We had thought about spending a night in Bethlehem but we couldn't get a room. I guess that's typical for this time of year... Walking around the West Bank was interesting; I was surpised by how tall the walls surrounding it were. We walked along Manger St and went to Manger Square. Then we visited the Church of the Nativity. Under the altar, in the Grotto of the Nativity, there is a star marking the spot that some say is the actually spot Jesus was born. The door to the grotto was very small and there was no form of a line, just lots of people trying to push their way to the entrance. We waited in the cluster for a while but after a fight almost broke out (which included one guy yelling, "this aint your house" to another guy) we decided to pass. Next we went to the Milk Grotto Chapel, which was much more peaceful. Legend has it that Mary and Joseph stopped here to feed Jesus during their flight to Egypt, and a drop of milk touched the red rock causing it to turn white. Getting out of the West Bank was not as quick as getting in. On the way in, we showed our passport and walked straight through the police check point. On the way out, the line was long and once again many people did not care about the concept of forming a line. After almost an hour we finally made it to the other side.

View of Jerusalem on our walk to Bethlehem.

Church of the Nativity

People trying to get into the Grotto of the Nativity.

Front door of the Church of the Nativity. It is called the door of humility.

Milk Grotto Chapel

Inside the Milk Grotto

Wall of the West Bank.

On Sunday, we headed back to the old city of Jerusalem and did the Ramparts Walk. The Ramparts Walk is a path that leads around the top of the walls of the old city. You aren't able to go all the way around because they have closed off the section that goes around the Temple Mount for security reasons. It was neat to see the city from the walls and there were also a couple of stops along the way. There was a Roman plaza that had been discovered beneath one of the gates that had some artifacts and a cave that had been used as a quarry for the stones of the Temple. There was also a large archeological site outside the Temple Mount. We also stopped back by the Western Wall since it was no longer Shabbat.

View from the top of the wall on the Ramparts Walk.

Inside the cave. One of the large rooms has been used by the Freemasons for meetings or ceremonies.

Todd in the men's section of the Western Wall

Cute, narrow street of the old city.

Damascus Gate into the old city.

Hanging out at home with sweet, little Esther.

We have had a great time in Israel and are very thankful for Chris and Kate and their great hospitality. Next we are headed back to Tel Aviv to catch a flight to Dubai.

Days 107-108; Dead Sea, Madaba Jordan, and a long trip across the border

We left Petra and headed to Madaba for our last night in Jordan and the last day of our tour. On the way we stopped at the Dead Sea for floating, Mount Nebo and St. George Church.

In the background, you can see the Dead Sea with Israel on the other side.

Our guide told us that this formation is called Lott's wife. After she turned to salt of course.

The Dead Sea is 6 times saltier than the oceans. You can see where the salt has formed on the rocks. Its surface is 1400 feet below sea level and its depth is another 1200 feet.

 Todd made it into the water, which was not really cold, but not really warm either.

It is like wearing a life preserver. It is impossible to sink in the salty water.

There is also a lot of mud on shore and some in our group decided to cover themselves before floating. Todd and Steph did not. Even though the mud was free.

Free mud.

This is about as far as Steph made it into the Dead Sea.

We then visited Mt. Nebo, which is the location where The Bible claims Moses was shown the Holy Land by God and it is where he is supposed to be buried. Moses, not God. 

It had a great view into the Jordan River Valley and Israel.

We then visited St. George, a Greek Orthodox Basillica. It is located in Madaba, which is well known for its mosaics. One of the oldest maps in the world is made of mosaics on the floor of St. George showing the Holy Lands. It has over two million pieces and dates from the 6th century.

There were several other mosaics in the church.

Another view of the church.

And from the outside.

For our last night together, the group went to a great restaurant. The food was delicious and there was a Christmas tree. There were a lot of Christmas decorations in Madaba. 

We left for Israel the next morning with a ride from the hotel to the King Hussein border crossing. Apparently our Jordanian guide, who had been great so far, did not konw that you could not exit from there with a group visa. We did not know that we had a group visa because we do not read Arabic. When we arrived at the crossing, and after our ride had left, we were told that we could not exit through that crossing without our group. The border guard kept saying, "Where is your group?" When told him that the rest of our group had left by the airport, we were told that we would have to go to the Sheikh Hussein border crossing, which was about an hour away. At this point, we only had 20 Jordanian dollars (JD) left which was what we needed to pay the "exit fee" of 8 JD each. The border guard told us the taxi ride to the other border would be 20 JD. We saw an ATM and intended to go get another 20JD but the guard had found us a ride with three other people, four if you count the driver and we were quickly ushered into the taxi. The woman in the back seat did not want Todd sitting next to her, so Steph got in first, with her husband on the other side, and Todd climbed in on Steph's lap. After driving for about 10 minutes, the driver pulled over and decided to move Todd into the front seat with some guy. So we drove uncomfortably for an hour to the next border. After Todd left the backseat, the lady was much happier and offered Steph the nuts she was eating. Once there, we had to get out of our car and get in a cab to go to the border crossing. Our first driver wanted 30 JDs, plus we had to pay the new cab 1JD for the 200 yard drive to the border. Eventually, the driver accepted that the border guard had told us it would be 20 JD and that we had no more money. So we got in the cab and rode 200 yards to the border. We then went inside the border office; however, only one of us could go in at a time as they did not allow luggage inside. After Todd found the exchange desk (no ATMs at this border), we got 17 JDs for 20 Euros that we had. So we each paid our 8 JDs for the border exit and got our stamps. We then had to get on a bus to drive across the "No Man's Land" to the Israeli border, which was about 500 yards. However, the bus cost 1.35 JD per person. We only had 1 JD by this time, actually 1.50 JD as Steph had found a 50 cent piece by then. The guy selling bus tickets, which is located in a completely different building than the exchange desk, told us we would have to get more money. As we were heading back to get more money, an older gentleman from the bus yelled and asked how much we needed because the bus was waiting for us and he did not want to wait any longer. He gave us 1 JD and the ticket seller accepted the 2.50 we had. So we rode the 500 meters to the Israeli border and went through Israeli customs with not much difficulty. Although they did make Steph empty her small backpack so they could look at the books we were carrying. So we are in Israel. We then have to take a cab from the border (no public buses there) to a small town where we catch a bus to another town and then catch another bus to Tel Aviv. Once we get to and out of the Tel Aviv bus station (the station is 7 floors, like a huge parking structure) we have about a 3-4km walk to our apartment. The bus station is not in the best area of town, but the walk was much nicer after a km or so. Anyway, after 4 cars and 3 buses, it was good to walk. We made it to our apartment at around 5:30 pm after starting at 9:00 am. Fortunately, Tel Aviv has a nice beach which we are close to, and the weather is good so we will be able to relax for a couple of days before heading to Jerusalem. Hopefully.   

Crowded car ride to the correct border.

Days 104-106: Jordan, Wadi Rum and Petra

From Dhahab, Egypt we headed to Jordan, but we had to pass through Eilat, Israel for about 10 minutes before we reached Jordan. The storms created huge waves at the Eilat border station, which is normally very calm.

 

The sea from the border post at Eilat.

Walking across the border from Israel into Jordan. The Israeli checkpoint was very thorough and asked a lot of questions. They also searched the bags of several of the Aussies and Kiwis in our group, but not ours. On the other hand, at the Jordan border there was no guard at the open gate and our guide had to go find one to stamp our passports.

On the way to Wadi Rum, we stopped at the ruins of a fortress in Aqaba. It was built by the Mamaluks in the 1200s and is in pretty good shape. We then headed into the desert at Wadi Rum for a night in a tent.

It was very windy in the desert. There were sandstorms and rainstorms during the night. It was only the second time it had rained here since the fall.

Sand storm at Wadi Rum.

Our tent camp in the desert. It was actually nice and our tent stayed dry although some others in our group had to change tents due to leaks.

It did not rain the next day and the prior rain made our day of driving in the desert much less dusty. Our group took three 4x4s into the desert.

Our 4x4s in Wadi Rum, riding in the back of a pickup.

In one of the canyons of Wadi Rum.

There were several Bedouin carvings back in the canyons.

One of our 4x4 drivers trying to go up a dune. That was as far as he went.

So our group hiked up the dune to the top of the rocks. Those are the 4x4s at the bottom of the dune on the right.  The dune was very high.

At the top.

Running down the dune. Much easier than going up, but still sandy.

After the tour of the desert, we drove to Petra, but stopped to hike to Shobak Castle, a Crusader fortress on the way. It was built in 1115 AD.

Crusader fortress from the bottom.

The next day we visited Petra. We started with a short horse ride. The ride and the horse were short.

Petra guards at the entrance.

Walking through the canyon (siq) of Petra. The location was begun in the 6th century BCE by the Nabataeans. It had a very extensive water system and served as an important trade route destination.

Through the canyon, or siq, you can begin to see the Treasury.

The Treasury, carved in the 1st century BCE, it includes elements from Greece, Rome and Egypt, which were all trading partners with the area.

In front of The Treasury.

Tombs carved into the rock.

An amphitheatre that could hold 3000 people.

We then climbed another km or so, and 800 steps, to The Monastary. 

The Monastary.

Excellent views from The Monastary area.

We then climed a little higher to what was labeled "The Best View in Petra."

More tombs carved in the colored rock.

And more tombs with steps.

After two nights in Petra, we then headed to the Dead Sea and our final destination in Jordan, Madaba.