Petra

I am sitting in Aqaba now, after having spent 3 days in Petra. Petra was amazing. It was the ancient Nabatean capital and competes with Angkor Wat and Machu Pichu for the title of “Greatest Lost City”. After the Nabateans abandoned it, it was inhabhited by local Bedouin tribes for nearly 2000 years before being rediscovered by the western world in 1812 by the Swiss explorer Jean Louis (“Ibrahim”) Burckhardt.

Petra is situated in and around a valley, the mountains around it are a great red colour and are smooth. They look like they are dripping because the wind has carved out the sandstone.

The “Siq”, the entrance to Petra is nearly as dramatic as the city itself, it is a narrow gorge with walls up to 200 m high. At the end of the Siq is the Treasury, a huge tomb carved into the rock. Due to it's protected location, with high cliffs all around, it is very well preserved. The first glimpse of the Treasury from the Siq is magical and leaves you wondering what else you will see in Petra.

Although the ruins may be great, one of the best parts of Petra is the hiking and nature. It is a very beautiful area and there are many climbs you can do, usually finishing with spectacular views. My favourite hikes were the one to the Ancient City Centre via the High Place of Sacrifice and the one up to the Monastery. The hike to the Ancient City Centre passed many tombs and rocks with candy swirls of colour that looked as if they were painted. The High Place of Sacrifice had great views and also a few cats who kept jumping onto my lap. The hike to the Monastery passes through dripping, wind-carved valleys and finishes at the Monastery, the second most famous sight in Petra. The monastery is similar in design to the Treasury, although less detailed and far bigger. It g down through the hills to Isreal and the Palestinean Territories.

is really is massive. If you climb an extra 10 minutes you will reach some spectacular viewpoints lookin

Some other good things in Petra were... The Royal Tombs, The Ancient City center, looking down over the cliff to the Treasury beneath you, the staircase up to the Treasury viewpoint, the tea stall that charged the normal price of half a dinar for tea rather than the 2 dinar they charge elsewhere, the ancient pottery shards littering the ground and the lizards running around.

Some of the bad things... “Want a Donkey?”, “Tea, coffee?”, “You want to ride a camel?”, “ I make you good price” etc.

We had been planning to head to Syria after Jordan, although they're having a bit of a revolution at the moment so we decided it was best to head into Egypt instead. We have met lots of Egyptians telling its safe now and there is no need to worry. We took the 1 AM ferry to Nuweiba from Aqaba (I wonder if they could have thought up a more inconvienient time?) and took a minibus to Dahab from there. Dahab is famed as a backpacker beach hangout and it also has some great coral reefs. Our hotel is cheap and we found a good restaurant serving up Egyptian specialities. In the back of the restaurant there is a wall covered in photos of people eating their food, there is also a sign reading “If you want your photo on the wall, you must have our food in the photo and you must pay us 100 US$. Unless you are a beautiful woman, in which case you can put up your photo for free.”

Tomorrow, I hope to do some snorkelling, and some serious R n' R in preperation for the infamous scams and touts in the rest of Egypt.

Just a few pics from Petra, words to follow.

Here are some photos destined for my parents' blog that ended up on mine by accident.

 Us in the Siq.

 First glimpse of the Treasury.

The Treasury

There are many donkeys at Petra.

Enjoying a rest after a big climb.

Enjoying the view.

Playing with the kittens.

Going for a climb.

Sam, be careful!

Desert patrol

Tea in a cave.

A peek at the Treasury from the Siq.

Aqaba and more

We spent another 3 days in Aqaba, snorkeling and relaxing. We went to the reefs every day. I saw about 10 scorpion fish, they are white and red striped with huge spikes and are very poisonous. I also saw Moray eels (very poisonous as well), cornet fish, rays, and many, many more species. The coral was so beautiful. Near our hotel was a shop with what looked like assorted chocolates. We bought a bag of them in all different shapes and colours. When we tried them that evening we learnt that they were all exactly the same, low quality chocolate with peanuts.

We took a bus to Wadi Rum and managed to get a couple of tents in the backyard of a restaurant. Wadi Rum is very much aimed to package tours, it is hard to do economically. In case you're wondering what Wadi Rum is, it's a desert with sandstone mountains coming out of the sand.  It is where "Lawrence Of Arabia" was filmed. Anyway, the scenery was amazing, and the mountains were humbling. We went for a short hike that evening and had a picnic supper of bread, cheese, peanut butter and our peanut chocolates.

Today we took a bus to Petra. The ticket man tried to charge us extra for our luggage but after so long in India we knew how to deal with him. We are planning to spend 3 days in Petra and I can't wait. It is supposed to rain tomorrow although it looks like it will be nice after that.

The beach from where we snorkelled

Local handicraft made using coloured sand.

Wadi Rum

Lunch. Notice the sheep hanging in the background

Jordan - Amman to Aqaba

Well, India is finished, now we are in Jordan. We spent a few days in Amman, the capital, and did a day trip to a few places including the Dead Sea. You can read about all this on my parents blog. We took a 4 hour bus ride to Aqaba, a coastal town popular with Jordanian and Saudi tourists. It would have been a great bus ride if it were not for the way people would smoke on the bus without even opening the window. At one point we stopped for a smoke break and the man in front of us light a cigarette and smoked it on the bus! It was disgusting.

Aqaba is famous for it's coral reefs, and today we rented snorkels and went to check it out. The reefs were beautiful, in all sorts of shapes and colours and easy to access from the shore. We saw all sorts of marine life, including, jellyfish, clownfish, stonefish, sea cucumbers, and many other very colourful types of fish. We also saw the wreck of a ship that has been turned into an artificial reef. The water was a nice temperature although the beach was nice too when you were ready for a break. There was also a shallow reef plateau and when you swam over it the coral and the fish were just inches away from your face, it was amazing.

Last few days in India

Our next couple of days in Varanasi were uneventful and we spent most of the time wandering along the ghats. There were lots of hawkers along the ghats, including a man who tried to sell us a parrot in a tiny cage so that we could release and get good karma. It was probably trained to return to him. I also got a massage. The masseur told me 10 rupees for a shoulder massage, of course he kept going and it was impossible to get away, before I knew it I was pinned to the ground getting a back massage. I did eventually get away at which point he demanded 50 rupees, we laughed and gave him 20. Another thing we did was go on a row boat along the Ganges at 6 am to see the sunrise.

We left Varanasi early in the morning and went to Lucknow on the train. We had mutton kebab at a very famous restaurant and saw the Residency, where the siege of Lucknow took place in 1857. The ruins were in a nice park and it was a relaxing place to be.

We left Lucknow that same afternoon and took a sleeper train to Rishikesh. Rishikesh is in the Himalayan foothills and is the global yoga capital. I was sick the whole time so I mostly stayed in bed, but the hills were lovely even though the whole town stunk of incense. There was also a pedestrian suspension bridge but everybody with a motorbike just drove across really fast honking their horns to warn you to get out of their way, it was really obnoxious.

From Rishikesh we took a sleeper train to Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple.

The Golden Temple is the holiest place for Sikhs and attracts huge numbers of pilgrims from around the globe. The Temple itself is not very big. You could just about fit a basketball court inside. It is in the middle of a holy pool with a bridge leading to it. The walkway surrounding the pool, and the substantial buildings around the walkway are made of marble, and combined with the gold on the temple, the effect is blinding. The entire upper half of the Temple is plated in pure gold. I read that the very small central dome alone has 750 kilos of gold! One feature in Sikh temples is the communal kitchen, where everyone sits together on the floor and are served a free meal by volunteers. The kitchens are not for feeding the poor but to bring people together, a man I met said he comes once a month. The kitchen at the Golden Temple can serve up to 100,000 people on weekends. We went on a weekend and the place was crammed, there were people chopping, washing, cooking and serving everywhere. Not only was it a good experience, but the food was delicious too! There were two very spicy curries and a sweet warm rice pudding with coconut.

The inside of the temple is very gold, even the ceiling fans! There was a group of men chanting, and the focal point of the whole thing was the original copy of the Sikh holy book, kept shrouded and guarded over by the head priest. It is a very beautiful place and is not to be missed.

Agra and Varanasi

Well, we did it, we've seen the Taj Mahal.

Our train to Agra arrived at 10:30 pm and we had a room and were falling asleep by midnight. The next morning we woke up at 5 am to see the Taj at sunrise. It turns out that it does not open until 6:30am and the sun does not rise until 7:00 this time of year (how was I supposed to know that its winter when its 25 degrees Celsius) so we sat and had breakfast at a nearby restaurant waiting for the Taj to open. When it was finally open we bought our tickets (750 rupees for foreign tourists and 20 rupees for Indians, under 15 years, free no matter what nationality.) We went inside through the tight security behind a tough looking Russian guy wearing his matching patterned “Om” pyjamas. On my first glimpse of the Taj, I have to say, I was awestruck. It is bigger than you'd think and it really is one of, if not the most beautiful building in the world. The marble is surprisingly still white and the marble inlay with pictures of flowers and verses from the Qu'ran is just icing on the cake. It was especially nice at sunrise. It is incredibly symmetrical; in fact when they built the mosque beside it they built another identical building on the other side that serves no purpose other than symmetry. On the Taj platform everyone was wearing these funny little red booties, including my parents. I saw the ugliest bird ever, sitting on the most beautiful building. The bird was huge and when I took its picture it hooped off and swooped down right over my head, it was quite frightening. The Taj was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his favourite wife, Mumtaz, Shah Jahan is buried inside as well. The Taj is definitely one of my highlights of India.

Right now I am eating a late breakfast and a cow just walked into the restaurant, it is sniffing the bags of the people beside us, just a note.

When we left the Taj we were immediately accosted by swarms of hawkers telling us all the benefits of owning a Taj snow globe and wondering why on earth we would not want to buy a magnet for the low price of 50 rupees. With one guy I tried the polite method, I said that I knew he was doing his job but we just wanted to be alone and if he could leave then that would be wonderful. He just kind of stood there not knowing what the heck just happened and then said bye and kind of wandered away confused.

That afternoon we went to Agra Fort. The fort was used by the Mughals and today is still mostly used by the army, however the impressive palace complex is open for all (who are willing to pay) to see. There was some really impressive sandstone carving and marble inlay and the historical significance was huge as well. One of the most interesting things to see was the tower where Shah Jahan was imprisoned in by his son for the last years of his life. It has a great view of the Taj.

On our second day in Agra we went on a day trip to Fatephur Sikri, an abandoned Mughal city. The palace complex is kind of eerie because of all the restoration work. It is as if the royals left last week and took all the furnishings, doors, widows, etc and left all the stone work and terraces as they were. It is not at all overgrown. There was also a huge mosque which was full of hawkers and there was a guy who would touch your head with a feather if you gave him 10 rupees. The whole place was very beautiful and worth the trip.

Varanasi

We are now in Varanasi, one of the holiest places in Hinduism and the holiest place to die. To die here is to achieve “Moksha” liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The old town is an insane tangle of “galis” tiny lanes and alleys too small for cars or rickshaws. The city’s focal points are the “ghats” steps leading down to the holy river Ganges. Varanasi` is very indiscreet, the rituals of life and death take place before your eyes. This is most obvious at Manikarnika ghat, the main burning ghat and the holiest place for a Hindu to be cremated. The ghat is surrounded by huge stacks of wood and on the ghat itself there are numerous fires where you can see people being cremated. Occasional you get a glimpse of a blackened leg or head and when they bring the bodies down and place them in the fire you get a whiff of burning flesh. It is an eerie place yet you still get the sense that it is a holy place and it was very spiritually enlightening and humbling.

Jaipur to Bundi

Well, I've fallen behind a bit on this blogging thing so I'll just kinda skim over the past few days. We spent a day and half in Jaipur, it's known as the “Pink City”, although it's only pink on the main streets of the old town. It's noisy and congested and at times you have swarms of 7 or 8 people asking, sometimes demanding, that you look in their shop, take their rickshaw etc. At one time there was a guy with his eyes bulging yelling desperately that we look in his shop, he was not just telling us about how good his products were but instead he was pretty much begging us to look. I would not have been surprised if he got down on his knees and begged us. Another trick they always used was to say “hey remember me?” I usually don't respond. Occasionally I thought “Oh yeah, you're that jerk from yesterday who wouldn't leave me alone”. Anyways the sights in Jaipur were interesting. My favourite was Janter Manter, a collection of giant astrological devices built for the Maharaja to determine calenders and horoscopes. The guides were a bit expensive so I just “coincidentally” stood next to groups of people with guides whenever I was wondering how things worked. That way we saved money and I only had to listen to guides droning on about boring things when I wanted to. My favourite restaurant in Jaipur was the Thali House, the thalis (literally “plate” ) are spicy and tasty and they keep refilling your plate, whether you ask them or not. In fact it became a running joke with the waiters and they would keep coming back to me with more and I would usually have to decline, although they often gave it to me anyways, I was always stuffed after a meal at the Thali House.

After Jaipur we went to Pushkar, I won't write about Pushkar because I have got lots o write about now but my parents did so check their blog.

From Pushkar we headed to Bundi, a very beutiful and historic city with few tourists, The palace was really cool with all sorts of very old murals and the fort on the top of the hill was great. The fort was abandoned and really overgrown, you felt like Indiana Jones hiking through the vines to another ancient palace where you could climb up the crumbling staircase to the top for magnificient views of the old city and palace down below. It was also fun to watch the monkeys living inside. The old city was fun to wander through and had lots of narrow lanes, bramhin blue houses and cows. Our hotel was in an old Haveli, had running hot water in the morning and the garden restaurant had a table right outside our door, it was nice to order as soon as you wake up and go have a shower while they're cooking it. The owner of the restaurant was really nice and his two year old twin boys where fun. Some other things we saw in Bundi were a large lake outside of town the “84 Pllared Cenotaph” which only had 80 pillars. After 2 and a half day in Bundi we headed off to Agra.