Nivi's Adventures

Monday, November 20, 2006

Back in Cairo

So we finally made it back to Cairo and had a few more sights before having to part ways with the gang...

THE PAPYRUS MUSEUM

A lady showing us how papyrus is made


PERFUMERIE
This is kinda funny. Hani had told us that we were going to a really good perfumerie but most of the people I spoke to thought, 'yeah, it'll be cool to have a look-see, but I won't actually buy anything.' Oh how wrong we were! There were some really nice ones and almost everyone ended up buying at least one perfume!

You can just make out the perfume dude to the left of centre. He's been around for a while but back in the day, he climbed up to the top of the great pyramid in Giza in 7 minutes!

Sampling the wares. (And I managed to catch Lisa having one of her giggling fits!)

The beautiful bottles


HANGING CHURCH
Unfortunately I don't really know too much about this Coptic church (I kinda tagged along with Lorraine, Craig and Peter on this one). Research on the internet however seems to suggest it got its name because part of the church used to hang over the road below. Also the palm trees in the garden have been there since Jesus' time which is pretty cool when you think about it!





CEMETARY
On our way back from the hanging church, we came across this cemetary which was very surreal. It was so weird to see crosses on tombs with the writing in Arabic. Very trippy and also one of the most beautiful cemetaries I've ever been in







MOSQUE
We visited The Mosque of Sultan Hassan which was huge and exquisitely beautiful. It's considered to be Cairo's finest example of early Mamluk architecture and often regarded as the finest ancient mosque in Cairo.







This is a zoomed in view of the circle bit in the previous photo. Amazing how much detail there is considering how far off the ground it is!




GENERAL SIGHTS

I spose you've got to get your timber home one way or another...

And your miscellaneous sacks of stuff!

A shot that captures part of the mayhem that is Cairo

Drinks on the last night

Irish Jones (R) thanking Hani (L) for being such an awesome tour guide!

Me, Hani and Vasi, Hani holding the card we got him


The end of the tour was finally upon us and we left Cairo the next day :( Egypt & Jordan was an absolutely unforgettable holiday and I'm glad that I experienced it with some of my oldest and dearest friends - I'm sure we'll reminisce about it for many years to come!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Wadi Rum

The next part of the tour was spending a night in a bedouin camp in Wadi Rum, in the Jordanian desert. We took 4x4s out there and generally had a grand old time by the campfire. Slept under the stars for the first time in a long time which was wicked too :)

Racing across the desert

Following Ibrahim (our tour guide for Jordan) to see...

Some cave paintings! (they look a little like Fido Dido to me tho...)

A group photo. Umm sorry I think my camera lens needs a bit of a clean


Sunset in the desert, ah



Some people just never get sick of climbing stuff!

I can say that again...

Chilling out

Some people did camel rides the following morning, so here are the camels ready for action!

And there they go...

Friday, November 17, 2006

Petra

To be frank, I'd not heard too much about Petra before coming on this trip, well apart from that it had featured in one of the Indiana Jones' movies...

According to Wikipedia, Petra was the capital city of the Nabataeans, Arabic-speaking Semites, and the centre of their caravan trade. Petra's really amazing, surrounded by rocks, you would never imagine a city to be in its midst.

Apparently it was the ability of the Nabateans to control the water supply that led to the rise of the desert city. The area was prone to flash floods but the Nabateans controlled these floods by the use of dams, cisterns and water conduits, meaning water was available even during periods of drought.


The first entrance bit (we rode horses down this part)

This tree is literally growing out of rock! The sandstone is porous so absorbs water which the roots extract from the stone.


Heading into Petra - you'd never think there would be a city in there eh?

Look like an elephant to you?

The first glimpse of the Treasury

Pretty big huh?

Some random security guard, with a cool uniform. Check the cigarette in hand...


Tombs cut into the rock - all over...

The amphitheatre. Paul & I climbed up to the top (the nose-bleed seats) and Bex & Johnny performed for us - the accoustics weren't too bad...

More tombs

Funky rock formations...

Which we needed to pose in. Obviously.

The only time I will ever post photos from inside ladies toilets on the internet. They are the coolest loos I've ever been in!

More tombs

The Monastery - if I remember our tour guide correctly, just the (little) dome bit on the very top is 8m.

You can maybe appreciate the size with this photo. This is me in the doorway bit from the photo above.

These guys must have decided it was time to have some R&R

Goats!

Climbed up to the top of the Sacrificial High Place - you can just see a columny thing (used in sacrificial rituals) just left of the middle of the photo.

Loving the sun :)

And how high up we were!

And of course the amazing colours of Petra's rocks!