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The day after we dropped off the van, the Toyota garage rang Toon in Palmyra. Bad news: aside from whatever problem was causing the engine to overheat, Vyv needed a new cylinder block. With a quick band-aid solution, they suspected Toon might be able to drive a few thousand kilometers on the old cylinder block. Considering a new cylinder block would cost 100,000 Syrian Dinars (ouch!), he decided to take the risk. They said that the van wouldn’t be ready for two more days, mostly because of the shortened working ours imposed by Ramadan. We kept our fingers crossed and waited.
After leaving the Krak des Chevaliers, we noticed Vyv’s engine was really starting to heat up. (Btw, Vyv is the name for the van since her license plate contains the letters VYV). We pulled over and tried to cool it down, but to no avail. The closest town was Homs, only a few kilometers away. We made it to Homs, maintaining a steady rpm, where she could get checked out by a mechanic in the morning.
After a fantastic week in Jordan, our northerly heading would take us into Syria. We weren’t sure how the border crossing would go because Syria’s official policy is that you are required to have obtained a visa from your home country prior to arriving. For obvious reasons, we didn’t have one. Word of mouth told us they might issue visas at the border; a risk we were willing to take. The risk paid off. The crossing went as smoothly as can be hoped for. We made it through with the van and were even able to stop at duty free for some much desired alcoholic beverages (very elusive during Ramadan). Next stop: Damascus.
We are in Syria now. Behind the immigration desk was a sign,
“Welcome to Syria. Syria is a land of history and cintioruity.”
Huh?
We slept in a nearby town called Madaba, an ancient town with a large Christian population and an impressive collection of Byzantine mosaics. The following morning we wandered around Madaba exploring and purchasing snacks for our afternoon to come at the beach. We were prepared as we hopped into the van and began the descent down to the Dead Sea, starting at 1,800 feet in Madaba and ending at 1,300 feet below sea level.
We had our first glimpse of the Dead Sea the previous day as we drove along the Dead Sea Highway to visit Wadi Mujib. It is surreal. You can actually see the water evaporating as it leaves a hazy glow, blurring the line between Sea and sky. There’s barely a whisper of wind rippling the surface and there are no signs of life, neither in the turquoise waters nor along its shores. The Dead Sea is, in fact, dead.
After leaving Dana, our next destination in Jordan was the Dead Sea. En route we passed another nature reserve, Wadi Mujib. Not to be missed, we pulled over and decided to hike what must be the most expensive hike, per kilometre, in the world, costing us a whopping 12 JD ($18 CAD) for what was only about 2 km. It was one of those times where you justify the cost by saying, “when else are we going to be here?”. We forked up the cash to start the hike at around 3:45 pm, only to be told that the office closes at 4, meaning we probably could have hiked for free. (cue the sad wah wah trumpet sound). Hakuna matata. As soon as we started the hike there were no regrets.
Jordan is full of natural wonders as well as archaeological wonders. It’s nice to see that Jordan is making an effort to preserve and conserve both. Desert ecosystem spans the country. We’ve seen many deserts now and it still never ceases to amaze me how diverse each desert can be. It’s not all just sand and rocks. Having exhausted ourselves in the ancient lost city of Petra, we wanted to get back to nature by visiting the less-frequented nature reserve of Dana.
Dana is a hidden gem, tucked away in a spectacular valley just off of the King’s Highway. The town itself is tiny: one narrow street lined with old, half-deserted rock homes and a few relatively modernized guest houses. Families of hee-hawing donkeys and stray dogs rule the street. We found a great little guesthouse, Tower Hotel, with, oddly enough, lovely Filipino staff and a Jordinian manager who knew but one phrase: “Welcome to Jordan.” Tired and weary as our legs were from walking 20+ km around Petra the day before, we couldn’t resist the allure of the valley staring back at us from the guesthouse rooftop. We had to get out and hike it.
With the remaining hours of the day quickly fading away, we limited our hike to a small loop around a Bedouin campsite on the other side of the valley. I am at a loss for words on how to describe this hike and this valley. It was like a cross between Meteora, in Greece, and the Sierra Nevada, in Spain. I inadvertently found myself continuously saying ‘wow’ out loud as I was dumbfounded by the scenery of the walk which was further enhanced with every passing moment by the setting sun. Here are some photos. I hope they do an adequate job describing the ‘wow’.
Our destination after Cairo was a seaside town, called Dahab, for some solitude away from the truck, rest and relaxation. Dahab is a chilled out town on the Red Sea, catering to backpackers and holiday goers. There are so many tourists here that in spite of it being Ramadan, the restaurants and shops are all still mostly open. The restaurants line the shore, where you can relax on oversized cushions, sip a cool beverage, dine on fresh seafood and smoke a shisha. Dahab is notorious for it’s top-notch snorkeling and diving. Our decision to not dive with Mike and Sarah in Thailand has been eating away at us ever since we said our goodbyes. But since we can now reasonably budget for the last couple months of our travels, we were able to scrounge up the funds to take our PADI Open Water Course in Dahab to become certified scuba divers.
We got our first glimpse of ancient Egyptian edifices on the ferry from Sudan, as we passed the magnificent Abu Simbel, beautifully lit up, at night. Between Aswan and Luxor (upper Egypt), we have expanded our repertoire by visiting Kom Ombo Temple, Edfu Temple, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Workers, Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple — all constructed during the Middle and New Kingdoms.
Eloquent
exaggeration
August 18th, 2010
Tags: Lonely Planet, Sudan
Posted in Funny, Quotes | No Comments »
Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2009 states this about the Nile confulence in Khartoum:
Arabian poets call it the ‘longest kiss in history’ — which, admittedly, sounds much nicer than ‘confluence’ and does more to convey the import of this river collision. The pale-silt-carrying White Nile, rushing up from Uganda, and the soily Blue Nile, on its way west from Ethiopia, get it on in Khartoum — meeting, flirting for a stretch (their coloured waters flowing together but still visibly separate) before entwining for a monotone future together, watering farmers and pharaohs all the way through Egypt. Take a ferry to rural Tuti Island, in the middle of the city, and look back on the liquid love story.
Our impression was a little different. Haha.
