Ethiopia
From Amman, the capital of Jordan, we flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia via Bahrain and Kuwait City. It felt like a whirlwind all night tour of Middle Eastern cities. The Bahrain airport was quite modern, and even had a Chili's. We watched two old men in white robes and turbans eat chicken wings at 2 a.m.
Once in Addis Ababa, we took a taxi to our chosen hotel, the Baro. It was damp, dim, and smelly. The plumbing leaked and the bed was crooked. It was eight dollars. Despite all of this, we were thrilled, because all of these things meant that we were back in Africa!
Laurie had been to Ethiopia before, and she said that it had come a long way in the last 10 years. I could see for myself that Ethiopia was much wealthier than the places we had been in West Africa, but it was still Africa. We spent a few days in Addis to get our bearings before boarding a bus to begin a circuit of the northern cities. Our first stop was the town of Bahir Dar.
The North
On the way to Bahir Dar, our bus hit a donkey. There was a nearby market and a lot of pedestrian traffic on the road. Many people were walking, herding livestock, and riding in carriages on the roads. As our bus swerved and weaved its way around the huge number of people, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before something bad happened. The bus crew got out to pay for the killed animal (as we later learned is the common practice), and many of the passengers were mingling around with the many people walking on the road. I decided to go take a look for myself since there was a large crowd around the dead donkey. I walked up to the spot, and soon found that everyone had stopped looking at the donkey and was now staring at me. Most of these people were from the countryside and rarely saw a "ferengi" as we were referred to. They formed a circle around me and pointed and gawked at me as if I was a dead donkey on the side of the road. So I got back on the bus.
Bahir Dar is a relaxed town on the edge of Lake Tana which is the source of the Nile River. We arrived at our hotel and quickly met some other travelers who were interested in sharing a van to visit the nearby Blue Nile Falls and a boat to explore the lake. The next morning we saw the falls. The land and the rolling hills nearby were all green from the recent rainy season, a small herd of cows roamed in the green field, and a huge beautiful rainbow arched over the wide falls. We climbed down a path that led through the green landscape to the bottom of the falls where we could feel the mist in our faces. It was like a paradise from a fantasy world. And then, a nearby soldier let me hold his AK-47. Awesome!
That afternoon we all got on a boat to travel out to some of the islands in the lake. On the islands were old Orthodox Christian monasteries. Most were Octagonal and the insides were covered in colorful paintings. The priests wore brown and white robes and carried oversized crosses. At the end of the day we drifted over to the point where the lake becomes the river. Since we saw the end of the Nile earlier on our trip, we felt like the circle was now complete.
Next we went a few hours north to the city of Gondar, and the other tourists that we had met in Bahir Dar came with us. An old castle sits in the middle of town. While exploring the ruins, several Ethiopian families were on the grounds celebrating graduation day. Every family had at least one person wearing a cap and gown with them. Several times people approached us and asked if we could take a photo. We thought they wanted us to take a photo of their whole family for them, but it turned out that they wanted us to be in the photo with them. I guess they will hang their graduation photo on their wall, with them wearing their cap and gown standing next to some random white people.
From Gondar we took a bus north with the hope of reaching Aksum (or Axum) in one day. However, we got stuck in the town of Shire because we arrived too late to make our connection. The friendly people on the bus helped us get the info we needed and get our bags from the top, even though it had started to rain hard. Our guidebook said that if you get stuck in Shire, you should go to a specific hotel near the bus station and ask for room number 7 because it is the best room in town. We went there and they were very excited to see us. They took us to room 7 before we could even ask, and said, "This is room 7." The next morning we returned to the bus station (actually a very large mud pit with some busses in it) and found a ride to Aksum.
Aksum is in the far north of Ethiopia, near Eritrea. It is known as the former capital of the Axumite kingdom which ruled all of the nearby lands around 1,000 years ago. They erected large stelae which look similar to obelisks, and many of them are still standing. We also explored some of the nearby tombs in which old kings were buried. Supposedly the Ark of the Covenant is in a nearby church, but only one priest is ever allowed in. When he dies, another is appointed as his replacement. Thus we didn't get to verify its existence, nor melt like wax upon looking at it like in Indiana Jones.
Our next destination was Lalibela, perhaps the crown jewel and most visited of Ethiopia's attractions. From Aksum we decided to fly to Lalibela. Flights were cheap, and the alternative was 3 days on a bus. When we arrived at the airport, they gave us our boarding passes, but they were blank. Fortunately they let us on the plane anyway, but we had left our confidence at the airport.
Lalibela is the home of about 15 churches, all over a thousand years old, which have been carved out of rock. Some of them were carved straight down into the ground, while others were formed from the side of a cliff. An intricate series of pathways leads between all of them, forming maze-like catacombs. We found a hotel and set off to explore. A loud musical ceremony was taking place at one of the churches, and we stood in the corner and watched as about 30 priests sang, chanted, played the drums, and carried large crosses and a huge bible in a circle around the small church.
On other days in Lalibela we would take long walks into the surrounding countryside. The town was built on the side of a large valley, and the views were amazing. The rainy season had just passed, and the surrounding mountains were all green and lush. We climbed up a path above the town and passed local people carrying grain and firewood towards town. We went through villages where the children ran after us. Many of them asked for pens, candy, or to take their photo, but most just wanted to watch us go by. Some of the teenage children asked for our address so they could write to us. Most of the towns were made from huts of mud or wood with straw roofs. They would be surrounded by fields, usually partitioned with short stone walls. Cows, goats, sheep, and chickens ran freely around the villages. Although rustic and simple, the scenery was amazing.
From Lalibela, we had to make our way back to Addis Ababa. We knew it would take us two days and that we would need to spend the night in Dessie. We took a 5:00 a.m. minibus to a nearby town where we hoped to catch another bus to Dessie, but it never came because it was a holiday. By 8:00 a.m. we were stuck in this small town surrounding an intersection of dirt roads. We hung out with some other travelers we had found that were in the same situation, and eventually decided to try to hitch a ride. Most of the trucks passing through had been offering rides (for a price), so we knew it was a possibility. A local teenage boy was also being very friendly and suggested that we do this, or risk getting stuck for the night like another couple we had just met. The man had said, "I always see in the movies how people get stuck in the middle of nowhere, and now it has happened to me!" We then finally found a truck to Dessie after lunch. It was the beer truck, and along the way all of the people in each town we passed through were very excited to see us. The scenery was great as we weaved through mountain roads listening to Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey on the truck crew's mp3 player. We made it to Dessie after dark and left the next morning before sunrise. It was another all day ride to Addis Ababa, but we finally made it. We found a pretty good hotel and ate lots of Ethiopian food.
Ethiopia has perhaps the most unique food in the world. It centers around Injera, a spongy and thin pancake-like bread that is used to hold on to the rest of the food, usually meat or vegetables in various sauces. Ethiopian food is eaten with the hands. You rip off a piece of the large Injera pancake off and use it to scoop up the other stuff. It's very tasty, and the sauces range from spicy to sweet.
The South
Other than Lalibela, the main attraction of Ethiopia is the isolated and untouched tribal villages in the Omo Valley far in the south of the country. Public transportation is limited, and the roads are difficult, so we decided to hire a car with some other travelers for a 10 day journey through the parks and villages of the tribal area.
Our first day was spent mostly driving, but on the morning of our second day we visited a fish market. Hundreds of small boats were parked along a large lake and the people milled about selling and buying fish, untangling their nets, and shooing away the very large storks that wanted in on the catch.
Over the next few days we stopped at various villages belonging to different tribal groups. Some of the tribes have become integrated with the rest of Ethiopian society, some have partially done so, and some have not at all.
First we saw the Dorze people. Some wear modern clothes, but all live in very tall huts made from bamboo and the large leaves of the enset (false banana) tree. The huts are built so tall because over the years the termites eat them. A single hut can last over 100 years. They use the old huts for kitchens and storage. A local boy showed us a tall new hut with a very short one next to it. He said the short one was his grandfather's and was 90 years old, and was now the kitchen.
The next day for lunch we stopped at a small restaurant on the side of the road in a very small town. We were strolling around the town when a stream of people carrying firewood was crossing through. They were truly fascinated by us. Several woman kept touching Laurie's hair, and another pulled on my arm hairs. We tried to take their pictures but they quickly ducked away from our cameras, and a few ran away. They had never seen cameras or white people before. We showed them the images on the small screens on our cameras and they were amazed. They kept looking into the lenses with curiosity. Some become very brave and wanted their photos made, while others were still scared. We finally said our goodbyes and waved as we drove off.
We visited a series of tribal markets over the next couple of days. First were the markets of the Bani and Hamer people. Some of the people were used to tourists being around, but some were not and were curious about us and our cameras. The markets took place in open areas where local people brought their goods to sell dressed in their colorful traditional clothing. They sold mostly food and grain, but also coffee, jewelry, livestock, chickens, and clothes. We even saw people selling strange liquids that were carried in containers made from the whole skin of a goat. The leg parts of the skins were used as handles and straps, and the head part was where the liquid was poured in and out of the container.
While the markets were colorful and interesting, we soon discovered that the crazy part of our trip was about to begin.
We made it to the farthest point south on our journey where we visited a village of the Mursi people. The Mursi are like no other and their society is nearly untouched by the outside world. Until about 50 years ago, they did not even know they were in Ethiopia. These are not simple village people. They are warriors, they are fierce, and they are intense. The four of us and our driver teamed up with another tour group to form a small caravan to enter the protected park land where they live. (The tour guides and drivers do not like to go alone into the Mursi area.) At the entrance we picked up a scout, basically a man with an AK-47 who comes along for everyone's protection. When we arrived at the small Mursi village, we saw the Mursi people, and many of them had guns. A woman in our group said, "Is this a good idea? They have guns!" Our guide responded, "It's OK, so do we." We got out of the cars and came face to face with the Mursi. The women have pierced their lower lips and over the years allowed them to stretch out to the point where they can fit a plate made of hard clay into the hole. Some of them can be 8 or so inches in diameter. Many do the same with their ears, but others wear large cow horns from their ears, also. They decorate themselves with jewelry made from whatever random objects they can find such as bottle caps and beads. They aggressively wanted us to take their photo in exchange for the hefty sum of five birr per photo per person. We were unable to take random candid shots because of this, or else we would quickly owe huge sums of money to everyone. So we were put into the awkward position of being surrounded and outnumbered by the Mursi people pulling at our elbows and pinching our backs demanding that we take their photo. They would also rub their hands in our hair and point at our strange clothes. We were just as much of an oddity to them as they were to us. During these interactions we couldn't help but recall the random stories our guide had told us. Several years ago, the Mursi traded a number of their cows for AK-47s. They then used the guns to steal back their cows. The nearby Ari tribe has a population of over 60,000, but is understandably terrified of the 6,000 Mursi. They build their huts in such a way so that you have to crawl into them, so that if they don’t want you in their home they can more easily attack you with an axe. After about half an hour of photo taking and becoming lifelong friends, we got back in our cars and drove away really fast.
After that crazy experience, we thought we had seen everything. But more mind blowing tribal activities were to come. The next day we visited the Hamer tribe. We went to one of their markets which was nice, but similar to some we had already seen. The Hamer wear skirts made of animal skins and put a richly dyed red mud in their hair. They adorn themselves with shells, beads, and bottle caps.
Soon we were invited to a very special Hamer Bull Jumping ceremony. We had been told a little about it before the trip. A young man must become worthy of a bride and initiated into manhood by jumping over a row of cows. What everyone failed to mention, however, was that this "bull jumping" part of the ceremony was only at the very end. We soon learned that, in the first and longest part of the ceremony, the men use sticks to beat the young women. And we would be invited to watch.
We were taken to an area where there was an open dirt field. Some Hamer people were milling about, and our local guide told us that soon a group of women would arrive. Sure enough, around a hill came about 20 women singing and chanting while they jogged in unison towards us and the surrounding villagers. When they arrived, the women went into the nearby bush and pulled out thin sticks. They then presented the sticks to the designated man. For each stick, the man must whip the woman with it while the woman holds up her arms and jumps and chants in a dancing motion. The whipping is hard and loud, and the women were soon bleeding. Several other women were carrying around containers of butter and fat, and rubbed it on the women who were to be beaten. Many of the women show scars of previous beatings. The scars are a sign of nobility, experience, and power. The women want the scars, and thus they present themselves to be beaten. The women who are beaten are from the family of the young man who would later jump over the bulls. The ceremony was an initiation for both the men and women. After a session of beatings, the women would gather in a circle and sing and chant for awhile, and then another round begins. The women went back into the brush to grab more sticks, and it started all over again. This went on for several hours, and we stood there and watched with our mouths agape.
Finally they told us it was time to watch the guy jump over the bulls. We went to another clearing. The women performed more chanting and dancing, and then another round of beating took place. Finally, a small herd of cows came in with several men prodding them into a small circle. The young man who was to jump, along with some other men, was performing tribal rituals over to one side. Then, the bulls were nearly ready. The young man took off his clothes and stood in the middle of the large crowd while everyone stared at him. Many other men held the bulls in position while the rest of the crowd gathered in a circle. Finally the guy ran and jumped up onto the back of the first bull and ran across the row of them, placing a foot on each bull. When he got to the end he turned around and did it again. Supposedly he had to do it a certain number of times without falling or he would be beaten like the women. However, he did it perfectly and everyone cheered. Soon he would marry one of the freshly scarred women that his parents had chosen for him.
The next day we visited the Dassenech tribe, who live in an area of land that is mostly desolate. We crossed a small river in a very wobbly canoe made from a hollowed out tree trunk that was not straight. Then we walked for 15 minutes through a desert-like landscape to reach their village. They live in houses that look like small domes. They are made of sheet metal supported by sticks, and the whole village has a fence of thorns surrounding it. There was very little vegetation nearby. All of the women wore jewelry made from bottle caps and trash. The whole scene looked like it had come from Mad Max.
From that point we headed back north for several days. We visited the Ari tribe which was fairly tame in comparison to the others we had seen, but very friendly. They wear western clothes and live in round mud huts. Our visit was filled with young children following us down the road, holding our hands and waving to us. This was a general theme in Ethiopia - all of the children love to follow the ferengi and wave.
We also went to a Konso village built on a hillside surrounded by beautiful terraced farmlands. These people are known for building their houses and villages out of stone. The inside of the villages consist of narrow alleyways formed from the stone walls of the houses. When a Konso king dies, his dead body is set on display in his home for everyone to see for 9 years, 9 months, 9 days, 9 hours, and 9 minutes. We were taken to the king's home. Fortunately (or unfortunately) no king had died within the last 9 years and so forth, so we did not get to see his body. We did, however, see where they made tea from the leaves of coffee plants. They sell the beans because they are so valuable but drink coffee-tea.
Once back in Addis Ababa we had a few days to relax. We visited a coffee shop with some of the best coffee in the world. Since coffee originally came from Ethiopia, these people take it very seriously. Different flavors come from different regions, very much like wine in France.
Ethiopia is one of our favorite places that we’ve been so far. I hope you can tell from what we’ve written that we had an amazing time in this beautiful, friendly, and diverse country. I’d highly recommend it to everyone.
Petra, Jordan
We crossed the border from Israel into Jordan and split a taxi with an Israeli couple who were also headed to Petra. We arrived rather quickly because our taxi driver topped out at 120 miles per hour on the highway despite our constant pleading to slow down. We made our way to a guesthouse and found that they had an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner every night for five dollars! It was quite social and we met a lot of other travelers, including a couple from Ireland who is traveling the world for two years. They made us look like wimps! The next day we all went to the ruins.
Petra is the premier archeological site in Jordan. The entrance is a long, narrow, and tall slot canyon formed of orange and red rock. After walking through this canyon for about 20 minutes, we finally caught a glimpse of a huge building carved into the rock in an open area ahead. This is the exact place where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed. However, in our journey the Nazis were not chasing us and there were no booby traps. But we did find even more buildings carved into the rock after that first one. We spent two days exploring all of them and climbing to the top of various cliff-top viewpoints. Some of them overlooked the rift valley and the Dead Sea, while others offered views of the sunset casting orange light onto the ruins.
Finally it was back to the guesthouse for more buffet dinners. Photos coming soon!
Israel
From Egypt we crossed the border by land into Israel after taking a bus north from Dahab. We were temporarily held up at the border because we had Syrian stamps in our passport. We were told to wait in a special area until we could see the head guy in his intimidating uniform. We had heard this might happen, but the rumored "interrogation" never occurred. They just wanted some extra biographical information such as our phone number and grandfathers' names. After describing our trip though the Middle East and Africa to the man, he said "Wow, I should do this!" So the whole incident ended up not being bad at all. There were a few other travelers with us in this predicament, and we all ended up at the same hostel since we had missed the busses to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem for the day.
Since we are later going to India, one of our goals in Israel was to get an Indian visa. We went to Tel Aviv and discovered that, naturally, the Indian visa application process has been outsourced. We had been told it would take 4 days, but then the guy said it would take 3 weeks. We weren't planning on spending that much time in Israel, but these things happen. This is why we don't have a schedule, itinerary, plane tickets, or a general clue as to what we're doing next.
Tel Aviv was expensive, modern, and lacked a lot of sights for tourists, so we went to Jerusalem for about 5 days. We saw the Western Wall, which was really fascinating, especially since we were there on a holiday when all of the Hassidic Jews were out. We also saw the church of the Holy Sepulture which is basically built on top of the rocky outcrop where Jesus was crucified and then entombed. We also wandered through the old town as well as the modern and quaint new town of Jerusalem. It was surprising to us how touristy Jerusalem could be. Most of the tourists seemed to be American, and many of them were school groups, church groups, or (most often) Jewish high school student groups. We also discovered that many of the people who live in town speak perfect American English with a New York accent.
Getting away from Arabic food was also nice. It's good, but after several months of the same old thing, it gets old. In Jerusalem we ate lots of bagels and "toast" (a toasted bagel with pizza-like toppings). We also ate lots of Halva, a nutty dry paste-like substance with a very sweet flavor.
From Jerusalem we went north to Haifa. All of the cheap hotels were booked, and a nice woman at a hotel recommended a woman who rented rooms out in her house. That night we chatted with the woman's husband about what life is like in Israel. Everyone is on edge. It's a very modern, developed, and expensive country, but every few years something really bad happens. Heavily armed security forces are everywhere. People work several jobs and save up lots of money. Everyone seems to have an escape plan. Not everyone agrees with the government policies, but it is their home and they want the best for themselves and their country. It was an interesting experience to hear all of this from a man who has lived in Israel his entire life.
Haifa ended up being a nice town, but there weren't a lot of sights to see. Next, we went north to Akko, a mostly Muslim town with an old castle-like town center. We found the only hostel in town - an open-air back porch with 20 bunk beds. It was way overpriced and decrepit, but we had no choice. All of the other travelers that came in after us had the same skeeved-out reaction. It ended up being a good situation though because we ended up having fun with some other travelers. We explored the town, ate more Halva, and even went to the beach with all of the locals.
Our next destination was the Sea of Galilee. It seemed more like a beach resort than a holy site. The entire area was swarmed with Israeli tourists. Hotels lined the shores and the small rocky beaches were crowded. Boats for hire took people out on the lake for water skiing (walking on water?) and other lake activities. The weather was nice and we rented bikes for a day to ride around the lake. One of our guidebooks said that it would be an easy four hour ride, while the other said that it was difficult and would take two days. Luckily for us, we failed to read either book before heading out. Along the way, we stopped at the Church of the Multiplication of Fishes and Loaves where Jesus performed that particular miracle, and also saw a few other historic and religious places. We had lunch and swam at a great beach on the opposite side of the lake before making the long journey back. It took us twelve hours in the end and we were thoroughly exhausted.
We then rented a car for a few days and drove north into the Golan Heights. We stopped at several national parks with beautiful scenery, including Nimrod's Castle, which overlooks the entire region. We drove past several small villages on our way towards the road that veers along the border with Syria. Ruins of old Israeli tanks dot the landscape, and off in the distance we could see a large Syrian flag. From this angle it looked ominous, but we remembered our time there and how friendly and welcoming the people were.
Our Indian visa was still not ready, so we went back to Jerusalem for awhile and explored more of the city. We stayed in a hostel with a group of students on a mission trip, a girl who said she was traveling along the path of Jesus, and a Jewish guy who lived in the West Bank who believed that if more Jews lived there, the government would be less likely to remove them. Needless to say, we were caught in the middle of some very interesting religious conversations.
Next we went to the Dead Sea and Masada. Before dipping into the water, we visited a nearby national park (Ein Geddi) where we swam in waterfalls and hiked along the rugged terrain. That afternoon we put on our swimsuits and took the plunge. We were told not to spend more than 20 minutes in the Dead Sea or it would begin to irritate our skin, but the irritation started right away. Despite this, swimming there was an amazing experience. I did not have to tread water, or even keep my hands and feet in the water to stay afloat. The next day we climbed to the top of Masada, and ancient fortress made famous by a group of Jews who committed suicide instead of surrendering to the Romans. The town and fortress sit on top of a small plateau overlooking the Dead Sea with near vertical cliffs on all sides. Instead of taking the cable car, we opted to climb to the fortress on the "Snake Trail" which contains a series of switchbacks weaving their way to the top. We were hot and sweaty, and a group of Chinese tourists who had taken the cable car took our picture when we reached the top.
We were back in Jerusalem again for a few days before collecting our Indian visas from Tel Aviv, and then on we went to our next stop: Jordan.
Egypt: Pyramids and Heat
We deboarded the cruise in Alexandria, Egypt, and made our way to Cairo where we met Laurie's parents for a two week Nile adventure. I've always been fascinated with ancient Egyptian stuff, so it was a great experience for us to visit the Pyramids and other temples and tombs. We spent our first few days in Cairo where we wandered through the markets and mosques of the Islamic Quarter, ate some great meals at amazing restaurants on the Nile river, and played chicken with oncoming traffic. Cairo is perhaps the most chaotic city in the world, and our taxi drivers didn't disappoint. One driver even offered Laurie's father a cigarette with one hand while holding the other hand on his horn. We saw the pyramids, and they seemed even larger in person than in any photo. We also went into various old mosques and other sights from the middle ages, but that was "only A.D. stuff" according to Laurie's mother. Sometimes it could be difficult to put 5000 years of history into perspective while dodging traffic.
From Cairo we took the overnight sleeper train to Aswan, a smaller town in the southern part of Egypt on the Nile. We took the small ferry boat to Elephantine island which is home to some Nubian villages, and it was a great opportunity to see how the local population lives.
The next morning we boarded a boat for a three day cruise along the Nile to Luxor. We were well fed (always a good thing), and made stops at Kom Ombo and Edfu temples along the way. The best part was getting to lounge on the roof-top deck next to the pool while admiring the scenery of the Nile. The land is very surreal. Next to the river are palm trees, lush fields of crops, and small villages. After a few hundred yards from the river the desert begins, and then there is nothing but sand for miles.
Once in Luxor we explored the Luxor temple and the larger Karnak temple, both very interesting and typical examples of Egyptian architecture. We also ventured over to the other side of the river to check out the Valleys of the Kings and Queens along with other temples. We finally managed to get Laurie's parents on top of some camels as well, although the experience proved to be a little painful to our backsides. One evening we boarded a small felucca (a typical Egyptian sailboat with a triangular sail) for a sunset cruise.
Then it was back to Cairo for another three days. We made our way to the Citadel to see the large mosque with silver domes and the other sights. Coptic Cairo was our next destination where we visited some old Coptic Christian churches. Finally, on our last day in Cairo we took a taxi out into the suburbs to see the camel market at Birqash. This was definately the highlight of Cairo (other than the pyramids, perhaps). There were thousands of camels, and men were herding them in every direction or carrying them away in pickup trucks. Impromptu auctions seemed to happen where people would make purchases and then a man with a bucket of paint would write something on the side of a camel before bringing the next one out for display. We managed to get some great photos despite nearly being stampeded and carefully dodging a lot of camel poop. Unfortunately we didn't buy one.
Laurie's parents flew home, but we continued on to the Sinai peninsula. Our first stop was the town of Katreen near the base of Mount Sinai and St. Katherine's Monastery. We stayed at a small Bedouin camp and met some other travelers who had hiked the mountain the night before, starting at 2:00 a.m. Supposedly this was the best time so that you avoid the heat and see the sunset. We had planned to hike up, but this new twist added much drama. We decided to go for it, and made it to the top about half an hour before sunrise. The scenery was stunning. The surrounding mountains were oddly shaped and various shades of red and brown - it was like a scene from another planet. Hiking down was much faster, and we got to see more of the land this time since our hike up was in the dark. At the end we saw the monastery and the famous burning bush (not still burning). It has a "No Smoking" sign on it.
Next we took a shared taxi through the other-worldly desert to the coastal town of Dahab on the Red Sea. The brown mountains plunge into crystal clear water, and on the edge is the small backpacker-oriented town with cheap hotels and non-Egyptian restaurants. It doesn't feel like Egypt at all, but it was fun and relaxing. You can step into the water, put your mask on, and see thousands of colorful fish and coral. It was the most pristine underwater environment we've ever seen. The Red Sea should be renamed, because it is anything but red.
Family Time
After Syria it was time for a vacation from our year-long vacation. We flew to Rome to meet my (Bryan's) parents for a relaxing week aboard a Mediterranean cruise through southern Italy, the Greek Isles, and the coast of Turkey. We ate, lounged by the pool, ate, saw live shows, relaxed in the hot tub, wandered through small European towns, ate, played mini-golf, and ate. Hopefully we regained some of our lost weight from our travels! The cruise was a lot of fun and we enjoyed seeing family along with old ruins of past civilizations and intricate small towns on Greek Islands. My parents also replenished us with some much needed supplies for our trip: new socks. And seriously, the midnight buffet is just as good when it is your sixth meal of the day.
Syria
During our time in Turkey we ran into a number of travelers that had recently come out of Syria, and they had only good things to say. In America you hear about the government policies of Syria, but nothing about what it’s like to actually live in or visit the country. We decided to venture south from Turkey with a little bit of trepidation and caution. However, once we arrived in Syria we were just plain blown away by the absolute friendliness of the local people. They were so friendly that they would stop whatever they were doing to say "welcome" to us, even, and especially, when they found out we were American. People would stop us on the street or in shops just to say hello, have a chat, and offer us some tea. And they weren't even trying to sell us anything! On multiple occasions we found ourselves walking down the road and someone would stop their car to say "welcome" and wave at us before driving away.
From a town in southern Turkey we took a series of short bus and taxi rides to the border of Syria. The border crossing was designed for cars, but that didn't stop us from stamping out of Turkey at the toll-booth-like immigration point and then starting off down the road towards the Syrian check-in. Unfortunately we found out that it was a long 3km walk in the heat, but within 2 minutes of our hike through the no-man's land, a truck driver took pity on us and offered us a ride. We climbed up into his cab with all of our bags and found out that he was from Poland and spoke 6 languages. English wasn't really one of them, but he was very friendly and dropped us off a few minutes later at the appropriate Syrian immigration office.
The official line from the Syrian government is that you need a visa beforehand to enter the country (for $130 each with a required letter of recommendation from the embassy). However, we had heard from other travelers that you can just show up and get it at the border after a long wait. We approached the desk, handed over our passports, and then the man sent us to a back room after finding out that we didn't have a visa. Once in the back, we communicated with an older man in a military uniform with a series of hand gestures and simple English words. He helped us fill out some forms, make copies of our passports, and then told us to wait while they faxed our info to Damascus. We had heard that this process could take several hours and may require multiple bribes. We ended up waiting about 5 hours, but the bribe was never necessary. The man was very friendly, and in the end we only paid $16 each for our visas. We were in!
We found a shared taxi to take us to Aleppo, a large city in the north and our first destination. The taxi ride was scary, as everyone in Syria drives like a maniac at top speed. That didn't stop our driver from pulling over for a pit stop for tea. In Aleppo we found the budget hotel neighborhood amongst a series of narrow streets full of tire shops and auto mechanics. We spent our time wandering through the large and picturesque souq, the old narrow alleyways, and the huge citadel in the center of town. Everywhere we went we heard "you are welcome in Syria" from shopkeepers and random people on the street. At one point we went into a restaurant looking for dinner. We asked to see a menu, and the next thing we knew, the guy had taken us back into the kitchen of the restaurant and was pulling the lids off of large pots to show us what they were making. It turned out to be too expensive, so we went to a place down the street which was really good. We ate there for several nights and then one night tried the place next door. They promptly told us that they didn't have anything and sent us back to the first restaurant, so we just ate there for almost all of our dinners.
One day when wandering through the large souq, everything was much more quiet than normal. Then, one of the shopkeepers called us into his stall excitedly saying "Obama! Obama!" We went in and they were all watching Obama, who was in Cairo giving his speech to the Muslim world. He was speaking directly to the people living in Islamic countries, and they were definitely listening. The speech was dubbed over in Arabic, so we couldn't understand what was being said, but we asked many of them what they thought of Obama. Many of them said he was good, and many were still undecided. They were all very clear about their feelings about Bush, however. One man said that he didn't like America's government because every eight years it is a different government. Despite this, they held absolutely no ill will towards us as Americans. They have very little control over their own government, and are hesitant to discuss it in public. They very quickly and easily separate the government of a country from the people that live there. This is something that I think Americans have more trouble doing. Perhaps this is because we have direct control over our government, and so it is a representative of us as a population. Many other populations in the world are not nearly as lucky.
After Aleppo we visited Latakia, a small town on the coast. Finding a hotel proved to be difficult, but once settled we discovered we had satellite TV and air-conditioning! Latakia has a number of "American Style" restaurants in the aptly named "American Quarter" part of town. These restaurants allowed us to get away from the middle eastern food that we were starting to grow tired of (it had now been over 5 weeks since arriving in Istanbul). We had come to this town to visit a nearby crusade-era fortress known as Salah ad-Din (named for Saladin, the guy who took Jerusalem back from the Christians). To get there, we took a minibus to a nearby town and then were planning to walk or take a taxi the remaining 7km. We wanted to walk because the taxis generally proved to be suicidal and the surrounding scenery was very beautiful. After walking for almost half an hour, a nice man in a pickup truck gestured for us to hop in to the back, so we did. He only took us half way, but then another man offered us a ride the rest of the way. They didn't ask for money, they just wanted to know where we were from, say "welcome" and offer us some tea. (These people drink a lot of tea.) Once at the castle, we were surrounded by amazing views and spectacular ruins. The castle was built at a high point overlooking the junction of two high canyons, and a third canyon, several hundred feet deep, was carved by hand hundreds of years ago to create a type of "island" for the fortress. We stayed for several hours, walked most of the way back, and then a taxi driver offered us a ride back to town for free. Amazing!
Next we went further south down the coast to Tartus, another small port town. We took a day trip to the Krak de Cheveliers, another crusader fortress perched on a hilltop overlooking the wide valley below. The scenery was amazing and the castle was interesting. This was our third large castle so far in Syria, and I can officially say that these people didn't hold anything back when it came to building castles in this part of the world. In order to get to the castle, we had to take a bus that was bigger than a minivan but smaller than a normal coach bus. It was totally decked out on the inside with fancy tassels, decorative trinkets, fancy felt window treatments, and other tacky decorations. It was like riding in an old horse-drawn carriage.
Our next stop was the inland city of Hama, known for its very large and old water wheels once used for irrigation. Some of them were over 120 feet tall and they all made a loud creaking noise as they rotated. Hama also had an old town that we explored, where the buildings were all made of old stone and formed quaint little streets. We also became fast friends with the owners of a family-run baklava shop who sold the good stuff by the kilo.
Our plan was to take a day trip from Hama out to Serjilla, one of the "dead cities" so named because it is essentially a 1500 year old ghost town. We took a bus to the town of Al Ma'ara and had planned to find a bus to Serjilla, but there was a weekly market taking place in the town so we stopped for awhile to check it out. The locals were packed into a few smaller streets selling their produce and wares, and everyone wanted to say hello to us. I took a man's photo and he seemed very proud of this. He ran over to another man and excitedly pointed his finger at my camera. Eventually we tried to find the bus to Serjilla but couldn't, so a nice man and his nephew gave us a ride. They seemed to be very fascinated by us and asked us all sorts of questions about America. We made it to Serjilla and found the old abandoned town. The buildings were made of stone and most were still standing amid the bleak landscape. The scene was eerie but also very beautiful. When we started to return to Al Ma'ara, another nice man insisted on giving us a ride on his motorbike. While we usually avoid motorbikes in foreign countries, we made an exception this time because there was hardly any traffic on the country road. However, about half way back to town the bike ran out of gas. The man apologized and drove back to a nearby group of buildings while we walked on, but he soon came back and took us the rest of the way. We wanted to pay him something, but he really would not take any money, so we basically had to force it into his pocket. He thanked us profusely before driving off.
Once back in Al Ma'ara, we wanted to get some drinks before returning to Hama in time for lunch. We stumbled into a small grocery shop and, of course, were greeted with a "welcome". The man was so happy to learn we were from America that he gave us free sodas and insisted that we sit and chat for awhile. He sat us behind the small counter in the front of the shop because there was no where else to sit. Over the next half hour, various customers came in and I had to help pull random products from the shelves behind the counter and then deposit the money into the drawer in the desk. The shopkeeper spoke decent English, but it wasn't that great, so our conversation suffered a little, but he was so genuinely nice that we stayed a little longer. A customer bought some Tang, and I tried to explain to him that Tang came from NASA, but his bad English and my inability to doodle a decent space shuttle led to him calling his friend to come over to the shop and help translate. His friend was an insurance agent at a nearby shop and spoke excellent English. He managed to fill in the gaps in our conversation before he had to go back to work (after another round of free sodas). Then the shopkeeper invited us to his house for lunch, and so we accepted. But first we saw that he sold shampoo, and we knew we needed some so we decided to buy it from him. He wanted us to take it for free, and was strongly insisting before I pulled the money out of my wallet and put it in his cash drawer which I had been sitting in front of for the last hour anyway.
He closed his shop and led us a few blocks up the street to his house, which was actually an apartment in a short but fairly modern building. His wife and one year old child were there to greet us, and I saw her quickly run into the back room with her head uncovered before she came out to officially greet us, this time with only her face showing. Most women in Syria dress fairly conservatively, wearing all black with their heads covered. Others will keep their heads and skin covered, but wearing a variety of colorful robes, while some even wear western style jeans and shirts with head coverings. However, in their own homes among family and friends women can wear whatever they like. The shops in the various souqs sell colorful dresses, many of them somewhat scandalous looking. Lingerie and underwear line the windows of most of these women's clothing shops as well.
The shopkeeper's wife served us fresh squeezed orange juice, Tabuleh, and an egg and tomato dish. The food was very good and we talked even more about America (they had lots of questions), the recession, family life, and our adventures in Syria. They asked how long we had been married (2.5 years) and if we had any children. When we told them that we didn't have kids, they were very confused. The wife told Laurie to go to a fertility clinic. We tried to explain to them that we would probably have kids later and that most couples in America usually wait a few years, but they just didn't understand. Many marriages are arranged in Syria, and even the ones that aren't still need family approval. The shopkeeper was close to 40, but his wife was about 25. Most women don't work, but instead stay at home with the children.
That afternoon after leaving our very generous hosts we found a public minivan to take us back to Hama. Most of the busses in Syria are either minivans or short microbuses. This particular minivan had a huge stack of sweet dessert rolls in the front seat. Some local men were taking their baked goods from their bakery to a shop in Hama, and the public bus seemed the best and cheapest way to get them there I guess.
After Hama we made the trip out into the desert to the town of Palmyra. As we got even further from the coast the land became very bleak and dry. There was nothing to see for miles, only sand and rolling dunes. Eventually we arrived in Palmyra, a town which sits outside of some spectacular Roman ruins in the desert. We spent the next few days exploring the ruins, which consisted of a long row of old columns with arches, an old temple, and a really intimidating castle upon a nearby hilltop. While exploring the ruins, various locals were around to take people for rides on their camels and horses. One of the camels had a baby camel following it around, and despite the fact that it was already over 6 feet tall, it was very cute. It was only 3 months old, and his mother had won many camel races in her day (at least according to the owner). In the town we also ate lots of Mafa, a local Bedouin dish made of rice, meat, raisins, nuts, and some exotic spices.
Our final stop in Syria was the capital, Damascus. Supposedly it is the oldest inhabited capital city in the world. When we arrived in Damascus we hopped on board a local minivan to take us into the center of town to our hotel, and we found ourselves weaving through narrow alleyways and wide crazy boulevards with insane traffic. Unfortunately, we spent our first few days recovering from some food poisoning (perhaps the Mafa in Palmyra?) and took things nice and easy. We ate lots of watermelon and baklava to recover. Once we were back in shape we explored the large souq, the old palace, various khans (old trading houses), and the large mosque. The mosque had a huge courtyard full of locals hanging out and chatting while kids ran around playing. The inside of the mosque was also large, and divided between a men's and women's section. However, the division was not very obvious, and I soon found myself being politely but firmly ushered out of the women's section as I followed Laurie randomly on our stroll through the praying area. We then sat outside in the courtyard as the sun was getting low. As usual, everyone wanted to chat with us and offer us tea. Some older men sat down next to us and excitedly wanted to know all about America and about us.
Since we had been a little sick, we decided to forgo the self-imposed limits we had placed on our food budget and treat ourselves to some fine dining experiences. Syria is the best place to do this not just because the food is good, but because everything is very cheap. We ate several meals at various old riad style houses which had been turned into restaurants. They consisted of a large central courtyard surrounded by rooms with fancy decor. We would order our entrees and soon find the waiters bringing us a ton of food that we didn't order, all on the house. Every meal seemed to consist of free desert, usually a plate full of watermelon. One restaurant in particular brought us watermelon, a bowl full of cherries, and a plate full of pastries that ended up being more food that we had actually ordered. The most we ever paid was the equivalent of eight U.S. dollars for the both of us to eat huge meals in a very fancy place.
We were sad to leave Syria. It turned out to be one of the best places we have ever been. It's dirt cheap, the food is great, the sights are terrific, and the people are some of the most friendly we have ever met. I almost hope the travel warnings stay in place, so that it will remain our little secret.
Turkey Has Everything
Our intention was to post an update for each place we visited in Turkey, but we soon realized that we were having so much fun and keeping ourselves so busy that any attempt to stay connected with the rest of the world fell by the wayside. In other words, Turkey has so much to offer that we highly recommend everyone should look into a very long extended vacation here. Turkey has history that dates back thousands of years, a fascinating Middle Eastern and European culture, and spectacular and unique landscapes that can only be found in this region of the world. Oh, and there's the stunning Mediterranean coast, too.
Istanbul
Thirty minutes after arriving in the Middle East, I (Bryan) left our "Middle East" guidebook on the Istanbul subway on our way from the airport to the city center. Without a map and only from memory, we managed to make our way to the same hostel that we stayed at on a trip to Istanbul in 2005. It was still there, and they had some beds for us. We decided four years ago that Istanbul was one of our favorite places, and this time around it didn't disappoint either, despite the lost guidebook, resulting hunt for an English book store, a case of food poisoning, and a long trip to the relocated Egyptian embassy ("You no need visa! America is number one!"). We wandered into the Blue Mosque at night and saw it as the locals do. Then we meandered through the Grand Bazaar, the more interesting Spice Bazaar, and the even more interesting local shopping areas between the two. We went into "The New Mosque" in Emininou which was built in the 1600's before wandering up into Taksim to grab some Baklava and a big bowl of chocolate mousse. We spent a day to travel up the Bosphorus on the ferry to a few suburban areas and visited a fish market and various scenic views of the city.
Pamukkale
From Istanbul we ventured south on a bus that felt more like an airplane. A steward served us drinks and cake in our comfortable seats while we admired the mountainous scenery and small villages of the Turkish countryside. (This type of bus would become the norm for our travels in Turkey.) We arrived in Pamukkale fairly late at night and found a nice but cheap hotel. Rather, they found us. It seems to be the Turkish way that no tourist may stray off by themselves for too long without a Turkish chaperon to point them in the right direction. At first this can be annoying, but once we learned to differentiate between the "salesmen" and the honest do-gooder citizens, we just went with the flow.
The next day we went up the hill to the site that is Pamukkale and Hieropolis. A natural spring rich in calcium and other minerals has poured water down the side of the hill for thousands of years creating a surreal scene of travertine pools made from smooth white calcium. Each pool spills into the next and the water is clear and blue. We had been told that most of the pools were now empty (due to a lack of water), but we were still impressed. On top of the pools, ruins of the ancient town of Hieropolis dominate the hilltop. We found rows of columns and a huge ancient stadium, at the top of which were amazing views across the valley.
The Lycean Way
Had we not lost our "Middle East" guidebook and replaced it with an even thicker "Turkey" guidebook, we never would have learned about a three-day hike along the Mediterranean coast known as the Lycean Way. From Pamukkale we took another cake-filled bus to Fethiye on the coast and found a nice guesthouse with a great view overlooking the harbor. That night I slipped in the bathroom and smacked my foot into the wall, breaking a few of my toes. At least I think they were broken, and the next day we were planning to do a 3-day hike. The next morning my toes were blue, but I could walk, so we followed the instructions in our book and found our little minibus to a very small nearby town on the coast named Kabak which would be the start of our hike. Once there, we found the trail which went up the side of the steep mountains overlooking a small crystal clear cove. A few small buildings could be seen near the beach, and we ended up staying at a brand new "hotel" on the beach. It had just opened the week before, and they told us we were some of the first customers. Since this was a fairly remote place, it was more of a campground and not so much a hotel. They had small bamboo structures for the guests, but each contained a very comfortable bed with nice blankets. Dinner and breakfast were included, and we ate dinner and sat around the campfire with a small group of other guests from various places. There were two older women from Denmark, a man from Germany, and another group of German men cruising along the coast in their sailboat. The food at dinner was amazing, and breakfast the next morning was equally as good. We swam in the clear water of the Mediterranean and looked up at the mountains in between lounging on the beach and wandering through the nearby forest. However, we had to eventually leave this hidden paradise and continue our hike back towards Fethiye. We passed through a few small towns with amazing views of the sea. The locals mainly farm their land and produce honey from the large number of beehives nearby. Since it was spring, the wildflowers in the mountains were in full bloom, and the scenery was spectacular. Later we reached the next town where we stayed at another guesthouse that fed us dinner and breakfast. Since we were closer to civilization, this place was more luxurious with a pool and air conditioning. Finally on our last day we hiked up and over a ridge with an amazing view of Oludinez, a town on the coast surrounded by mountains with a unique beach that extended out on a peninsula into a small bay.
The Blue Cruise
At the end of our hike we ended up back in Fethiye just in time to hop on a Gulet for a four day cruise along the coast. The cheesy "Blue Cruise" name comes from the clear blue waters that are found along the coast. Our boat was a modern representation of an old Gulet sailing ship, and it had 8 cabins. There were 9 passengers and 3 crewmen, which was a perfect size for a fun and relaxing trip from Fethiye to a town named Olympos down the coast. Over the next few days we anchored in various scenic swimming holes, saw small towns and ruins along the coast, and at one point swam into a large cave with bats. The crew kept us well fed. We were so relaxed that we didn't want to leave, but when we did we found ourselves in Olympos, a place with a dramatic cliff-lined beach, ancient ruins, and guesthouses known for their tree houses and home made food.
Cappadocia
Our next stop was Cappadocia, a region in central Turkey with a unique mountainous landscape. Various rock formations stick up out of the ground, and long ago the local people carved their homes out of the rocks. The resulting "fairy chimneys" as they are called dot the landscape. We found a hotel that had been carved out of the rocks, and our hotel room was inside a cave. We spent the next few days hiking through the area, discovering various carved-out rocks that had been transformed into small cities, churches, and homes. One day we went down the road to a huge underground city that was used as a hiding place against invaders. Apparently over 10,000 people could live in this place - it was truly amazing. Later that day we visited a castle carved from the highest rock in the area, and then hiked down through the valley back to our town amidst the fairy chimneys.
The Kurdish Region
From Cappadocia we ventured to southeastern Turkey, which is dominated by the Kurdish people. Our first stop was the city of Diyarbakir, a large town with an imposing ancient wall and narrow alleyways. As we walked through the town, the people were extremely friendly and social. They wanted to know where we were from and where we had traveled. They were very proud of their Kurdish heritage, and constantly asked us to take their photos. We also ate lots of baklava and watermelon.
Next we hopped on a bus to the small town of Hasenkeyf along the Tigris river. Here the river has carved out some cliffs along one side of it, and the town and the ruins of an old fortress sit within and above the cliff. We ate a lunch of grilled fish at a small restaurant that had tables and lounging platforms sticking up out of the shallow water of the riverbank. Then we climbed the cliffs to see the ruins and the amazing view over the valley. Supposedly this town and many others nearby are soon going to be flooded by the construction of a new dam. The locals are protesting the construction, but in the meantime no new investments are being made in the town and the population is slowly decreasing. This would probably explain the overpriced crummy hotel that we had to stay in, the only one in town. Despite this the town was very scenic and worth the visit.
Next we took another short bus ride to Mardin, a town sitting on the top of a hill at the edge of a mountain range overlooking the desert. All of the buildings, including the scenic mosques and bazaar, trickled down the side of the hill. It was a nice place to wander around and relax.
Finally, our last stop was in Sanliurfa (or Urfa as the locals call it), a fairly large city with great restaurants, a large bazaar, and a lot of nice public parks. It became a regular event for us to purchase some of the local baklava after exploring the town. On one of our days here we took a day trip to Harran, the home town of Abraham from the Old Testament. Harran claims to be the oldest inhabited town in the world (but we would later visit several other places that also claim to be). Harran had ruins of an old fortress alongside many "beehive" conical shaped homes that the locals have lived in for centuries.
After a month in Turkey, it was time to leave. We at some great food, met some very nice Turks, and saw places that can't be found anywhere else. Next we headed south into Syria.
Estonia and Riga
I have to admit, I would have been hard pressed to be able to find Estonia on a map before we found the cheap Baltic Air tickets through Riga. However, once we started to do a little research on it, we became very excited. Estonia is a small mostly rural country, with only about 1.5 million people.
From Tartu (where Laurie visited the dentist), our plan was to visit Lahema National Park on the northern coast. We had to take a bus through Tallinn, the capital to get there, but when we arrived in the Tallinn bus station, they told us that there were no buses to Lahema. We then discovered that there was another bus station which would have the bus we wanted, and so we made our way there on the city tram. Various people noticed that we were travelers (it's hard not to with our big backpacks), and made sure that we were going in the right direction. An older couple sold us some extra tickets at a discounted price, and another girl made sure we got off at the right stop. Once we arrived at the other bus station, we couldn't find any buses going to Lahema, so we asked a random bus driver where to go. He very nicely told us that we had to go back to the first bus station, which we had just come from. He was so nice that he was very insistent on telling us how to get there on the tram, and then followed us to the tram to make sure we went the right way. At that point we had already given up though, and decided to just call it a failure and stay in Tallinn. But the man was being so nice that we almost let him put us on the tram. He didn't speak English very well, so we couldn't tell him that we were just going to stay, so we ended up sneaking away from him and running off in the opposite direction.
So we stayed in Tallinn, and found a nice little "backpackers hostel" with some bunk beds and a kitchen. It was a cozy little place, so we stayed. Then we explored the city for a few hours. Tallinn has a fascinating old city center surrounded by castle walls and dozens of huge old churches. On the top of the hill in the center, the views look across the town to see the red tile roofs, church tops, and modern skyscrapers in the background.
The food in the Baltics consists of cold weather favorites such as boiled potatoes, meat dumplings, fried bread, fried potatoes, potatoes stuffed with cheese and meat, vegetable dumplings, potato dumplings, and some very interesting yogurt-like drinks.
On one of our days in Tallinn we took the train out to Paldiski, a nearby town with stunning cliff top views overlooking the Baltic sea. The town was a former Soviet military base, and the ruins of various bunkers and gun emplacements can be seen along the streets of the town and the coastline. Most of the buildings in the town are genericly rectangular, and the whole place has an eerie communist feel to it. However, now there are huge parking lots full of Hyundai cars, as the nearby port is being used to ship in cars for the rest of Eastern Europe.
From Tallinn we took a bus (and a ferry) to Kuresaare, a small town (but large for Estonia) on the island of Saaremaa. Saaremaa was totally off limits during the Soviet years to anyone that didn't already live there, so the town remained mostly undeveloped. The people farm the land and raise sheep and cattle, and windmills were heavily used until just recently. Now part of the island near Kuresaare is known as a popular beach resort area, but being April it was still much too cold to swim. We arrived at the tourist information center where we were told we would get information about staying in nearby Bed and Breakfasts, but it was closed because it was still the "low season" and not open every day of the week. We ventured off on our own, saw a sign for a guesthouse, and headed that way. It looked like any other house and we rang the doorbell. We then noticed it was wired to the house next door and a woman came running out. We asked if she had rooms, and she gave us a price. We hesitated slightly and the price dropped very quickly. We decided to stay, and it was obvious that we were the first guests of the season. The woman ran around the house turning on the power, heat, and hot water for us. We ended up having the whole house to ourselves, complete with a full kitchen, a sauna (awesome!), and Estonian cable television (not awesome!).
We spent the next day exploring the town. There was an old castle with a moat full of ducks, a quaint old town, a beach, and a fish market with some crazy good homemade smoked salmon. We bought quite a lot of it along with some other food and made the most of our kitchen at dinner. Afterward we went around town even more, as the sun doesn't set this far north until well after ten, and it is not even the peak of summer yet.
The next day we rented a car. It has been over ten years since I drove a stick shift, but the car mechanic which doubled as a car rental agency did not have any automatics. Rather, he only had one car and it was a stick shift. We also tried to rent a car from the little old lady who owned the strip club which doubled as a car rental agency, but she didn't have any automatics either (and they were more expensive). I was a little nervous, not just about driving the stick shift, but also about driving in a foreign country. We went for it anyway, and it turned out to be a great day. We saw some amazing and rugged coastline, windmills, very old churches, beatiful farmland, and several foxes. We had another load of smoked salmon for dinner back at the house.
Riga
Finally we left and made our way south to Riga, the capital of Latvia. We had visited a few small towns in Latvia before heading up to Estonia, but saved Riga for last since we had plane tickets leaving from here. Riga is a bustling city with a fairly expansive city center and lots of history. We found a cheap place to stay at the "Riga Student Hostel" which seemed to have more older people than students, but it was very clean and modern.
When we explored the city, we really enjoyed the old cobble-stone streets, the winding park with a moat-like stream around the town, and the numerous public squares with large cathedrals overlooking them. We couldn't help but think that this city (and the others in the Baltics) was just as ornate and historical as many of the other cities in Western Europe. If it weren't for the Soviet history, I can't help but think that they would be just as famous to tourists. On that note, we visited the Museum of Occupation which highlights the Soviet, then Nazi, and then Soviet occupations of the Baltic region. The experience was very moving, and needless to say the people of these countries are now extremely happy to be living in free countries (and part of the EU).
Even though we visited this part of the world because of a last minute decision involving some cheap plane tickets, we are very glad we did. They proved to be interesting and rewarding, and I would highly recommend this part of the world to anyone.
Next: off to Istanbul....
A Slight Detour
We are now in Estonia. The last time we posted we were in Africa, and you're probably wondering how we got here. So are we.
We had decided during our time in Mali to head on to the Middle East, which was the next region we planned to visit on our rough itinerary. Africa is amazing, but it is also quite exhausting and slightly more expensive than we originally planned, so we made the tough decision to move on. While looking at plane tickets out of Bamako, we found that the cheapest flights were to Paris or Dubai, and so we opted for Paris. We also found some really cheap tickets from Paris to Istanbul on Air Baltic that passed through Riga. (Don't feel bad, we had to look it up, too.) Riga, the capital of Latvia, is right in the middle of the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). The layover would have been overnight, and so we figured that if we had to spend a night, we might as well stay for a few weeks.
We bought our tickets to Paris, leaving Bamako at 3:30 in the morning in early April. We had a connection to make in Casablanca, but our flight was late and we literally ran through the Casablanca airport to catch our flight to Paris. I have to give credit to Royal Air Maroc, because our bags made it on to our connecting flight as well.
Once in Paris, we were about to book the flights to Riga and then Istanbul, but they were now slightly more expensive. A little last minute research revealed that we could just take a few trains across Europe from Paris to the Baltics for the same price. We would not only get to see a little bit more of Europe on the way, but also give the Baltics a crucial few weeks to warm up a bit, since April in Estonia is like February everywhere else.
After a few days in Paris we got a cheap bus ticket to Amsterdam where we spent three days meandering through the canals, dodging bicycles and red-lighted buildings. Then we took a train through Germany, stopping for two nights in Wernigerode, a quaint town with a small castle on a hill. Then another train took us to Warsaw for another two nights, and then on to Vilnius.
At this point, cold weather was very exciting to us. Just the other day it was 113 degrees in Kayes, Mali. Vilnius was overcast and cold, but still beautiful. There is an old church on every single street, and the old cobble-stoned streets made for a great day of exploration. Then we headed west to the coast, to the Curonian Spit. A spit is like a peninsula, but skinnier. Once there we stayed in the small town of Nida, surrounded by pine forest and large sand dunes. We rented bikes for the day and rode out to the beach (much too cold to swim), the sand dunes, and around the forest. From Nida we went to central Lithuania to visit the Hill of Crosses, near Siuiliai. As the legend goes, people have been placing crosses on the small hill since the 16th century. Over the years, more and more crosses have been placed here, and during the Soviet years the local people kept up the tradition despite numerous attempts to destroy the hill by the Soviets. Now there are hundreds of thousands of crosses on the small hill even one by the Pope) and the sight is truly amazing.
From Lithuania we ventured north to Latvia, to the Gauja valley which is known as "the Alps of Latvia". It is not quite this mountainous, but still very nice. We visited a few small quaint towns before catching a train north to Estonia. (We're planning to return to Latvia after looping through Estonia since we're flying out of Riga.)
Now we are in Tartu, Estonia, a college town with a beautiful river, some old buildings, and a great dentist. Laurie lost a filling a few days ago, and we fortunately found a dental office. Despite Eastern Europe having the reputation of "a land forgotten by modern dentistry," the dentist was EU certified (as are all dentists in the Baltics), and they spoke English! They told Laurie that her filling was small and easy. I guess they are used to bigger problems. She was out of there in 20 minutes, and she even splurged for the $4 Novocaine.
We fly to Istanbul on the 4th of May, and will be looping through the rest of Estonia and more of Latvia for the next few weeks. We've also just put more photos up of Africa and our recent bolt through Europe.
Mali is Amazing
For the last four weeks we have been traveling through Mali, and it has made our list of one of the best countries we've ever been to. The people are friendly, the landscapes are beautiful, and the food is good. We have been able to immerse ourselves into the Malian culture and see the country in ways that we never would have imagined.
We crossed over the border from Senegal where there was a transportation strike. Our voyage was a bit rough, and when we got to the Mali side we found ourselves waiting to catch a sept-place to get to Kayes. The sept-place was only going to leave when it was full. However, we knew that no one was coming from Senegal due to the strike, so we decided to just buy all of the remaining seats in the car. There were already three men who had bought tickets and they had them in their hands. As we were getting into the car, the ticket man wouldn't give Laurie and I our tickets, though. I was worried about having proof that we had payed, and so I repeatedly asked him to give them to me. Finally, instead of handing me two tickets he gave me all of the remaining tickets for the car and said, "Here, go sell them yourself on the road then!" This is not what I had in mind, but now that I "owned" the car, the prospect of picking up more passengers and making a little money back seemed intriguing. The road to Kayes was good and smooth, but it went through the middle of nowhere, so we unfortunately did not come across any more potential passengers.
Kayes
Kayes is the hottest city on Earth. Not only is it in Africa, which by default makes it really frickin' hot, it is also surrounded by hills that are full of iron ore. In the summer the city literally bakes itself. Despite this heat it is quite scenic. The Senegal river flows through the middle, and the market is very large and active. When we arrived we had some trouble finding our no-longer-in-business hotel, so we stumbled into another one that had air conditioning, but at 22,000 CFA was more than we wanted to pay. We spent a few days resting and wandering through the market while enjoying fresh papaya and mangoes. Then we ran into Emily, a Peace Corp volunteer living in Kayes and she offered to let us stay at her place for a few days. She had a kitchen, so we went to the market and bought a bunch of food for dinner. Going through an African market with the intention of buying stuff is an entirely different experience than just looking around and taking some photos. We managed to make some good non-African-food meals and enjoyed the company of Emily and a few other Peace Corp folks while watching some American television shows on DVD. It was a nice escape from our immediate reality, and it made us realize that since our trip began we had been always vigilant and acutely aware of our surroundings. We needed a mental break, and homemade Mexican food with reality TV served that purpose well.
Emily also spoke the local language, and she taught us to say very important things such as, "You eat beans!", a powerful insult in the local language.
Segou
A very long bus ride took us from Kayes to Segou, a quiet but large town on the Niger river. We arrived at our chosen hotel just in time for Pizza Night. Every Toubab in town was there. The hotel had a brick pizza oven and was making them to order, so we couldn't say no. We spent four days in Segou, and there was a lot to see. On our first day, a Sunday, we explored the town. Most of the homes were made of square courtyards with mud walls, and smaller huts inside. Everyone was constantly going to and from the river with clothes to wash or food brought in from boats. The local kids started to follow us around town. Some would ask for money or candy, but most just wanted to have their picture taken and then see the photo on the screen of our cameras.
Every Monday in Segou is market day, and people from all around the region bring their produce, pottery, fresh meat and fish, plastic buckets, and other random things to sell to each other. It was quite the scene, as people flooded the streets and built temporary shelters in any available space they could find in the streets.
On our last day we took a boat ride to Kalabougou, a village about an hour up the river. The village is known for its pottery. Most of the residents have joined into a type of cooperative where all of the profits from the pottery sales go towards things in the village such as the school and the wells. Our guide took us into a few people's homes which was really fascinating. Once inside the wall that forms the courtyard of their homes, they all basically live outdoors. Everything is arranged in the courtyard, but they sleep in small structures. Most of the people in villages like this don't have electricity or running water. They must make multiple trips every day to the nearby wells. They showed us how they make the various pots and plates from clay, and paint them with natural dyes.
The only bad part about our time in Segou was that a goat was tied to a tree just outside of our hotel room door. It belonged to the family living in the house next door. All day and sometimes during the night it made its bleating noise, which was very annoying.
Djenne
Djenne is a small town built on an island in the Bani river. It is famous for being almost entirely made of mud, including the large mud mosque which is the largest mud building in the world. Many of the buildings are two and three stories tall, which is an engineering miracle since they are made of mud. Every year after the rainy season, the people of the town repair their homes with mud bricks and sludge from the river.
We arrived on a Thursday night and had some very good but overpriced pigeon for dinner at our hotel, "Le Campement". Like many hotels in Mali, they had a variety of rooms for every budget. You could sleep on the roof (actually very tempting because of the heat) or get a deluxe room with air-con and your own bathroom. We chose something in the middle for a reasonable 12,500 CFA. The next day we looked for a cheaper restaurant, but they were hard to come by. We went back to our old staples of fruit and bread from the market before finding a reasonably priced place to have lunch. We ended up eating almost every meal at this restaurant. This was surprising to us since Djenne is one of the premier tourist attractions of Mali, and the whole town only had three places to eat!
We spent the next few days exploring the amazing mud town and many of the surrounding villages. The local children, as usual, began to follow us everywhere we went. In one of the small towns nearby, some students proudly showed us their notebooks from class. They were learning about geography and had drawn maps of almost every country in the world. The younger kids would always try to grab our hands and walk with us along the streets.
Like Segou, Djenne has a huge Monday market, and this one was the biggest we had seen so far. Almost overnight the area in front of the mosque and the surrounding streets filled with people and their goods. We bought some of the largest mangoes we have ever seen for 50 CFA each from a man who was selling them out of the back of a truck. The truck was huge and full of mangoes, and another man was using a bucket to shovel them out.
Then we met up with man named Amadou who works for the Red Cross. He runs an organization that finds homes for orphans in Djenne, and he is also trying to raise money to build an orphanage. He showed us the location for the future building and told us about the plans. He even wants part of the orphanage to be an inexpensive hotel for tourists so that the project will be sustainable. Amadou invited us to his home to have tea and meet some of the children. The kids were excited and in a frenzy to meet us Toubabs, but after they left we had a chance to have a chat with Amadou and check out his house from the inside. The mud home was very interesting. The family spends most of their time in a small courtyard area the size of a normal room, but open to sky. A few smaller rooms went off to the side with beds and tables. A mud staircase went up to the roof, and a smaller 2nd story was built on top of the house. Inside the first room was a shelf with a dozen sets of 6 very nice matching pots that neatly stacked upon each other, and each having a different flower pattern. We found this interesting since they don't have a stove, but cook all of their food on these small metal charcoal holder things. Furniture was limited, even their TV sat on a chair.
Dogon Country
A 200 kilometer long cliff cuts through southeastern Mali, and about 80 small villages can be found in and around the escarpment and the surrounding rock formations. The Dogon people fled to this area hundreds of years ago to escape the other ethnic groups, and now the area has become the main sight to see in Mali. Despite the growing number of tourists that come, the area has a truly authentic feel. Laurie and I both agreed that once the word gets out about how amazing this place is, The Dogon Country will soon become one of the top places to see in the world, right up there with the Pyramids of Egypt, Angkor, the Grand Canyon, Venice, and the Great Wall of China. I'm not exaggerating, it really is that amazing.
From Djenne we took a bus to Sevare, a crossroads town where we met up with Hassimi, our guide (recommended to us by Emily from Kayes). We decided to do a 4-day 3-night trek in and along the cliff to see some villages, and the next day Hassimi picked us up in his 1968 Peugeot Piece of Junk. It is very difficult and expensive to obtain what we would call a "normal" car in Mali, and besides, these old beaters add to the African atmosphere. Our first stop was a small village on top of a rocky hill at the end of a long dirt road through the middle of nowhere. We walked through town and saw the small mud and stone houses next to the hut-like granaries. Dogon men can have as many wives as they can afford to support. Each man has his own granary and fields where he grows millet for his family. Millet only grows during the rainy season, and so the men store the grain in the large granary for the rest of the year. Each woman also has her own granary and fields, but she grows other crops for year-round consumption such as tomatoes and onions. While the men farm much more, it is usually during the rainy season, and the women are responsible for most of the other domestic chores. The women definatly get the raw end of the deal in Dogon culture. The worst part is probably dealing with the water. The women must carry heavy buckets on their heads, usually a long way, while the men sit around and wait for the rains to start in July.
After the first village, we drove and then hiked down over the cliff to another village where we spent the night on the roof of a small campement on some thin mattresses. It was much cooler than being inside a clay building that has been warming itself all day in the sun. This first night it actually got quite cool as some light rains blew through. The nice people at the camp set up a bed for us inside the building so that we could come down if we got too cold. Unfortunately, none of them actually told us about that, so we spent the night shivering with one of the mattresses pulled on top of us for a blanket. Our guide laughed at us the next morning, but we didn't want to appear to be the wimpy Americans who couldn't handle the cold weather. It turned out to be a nice reprieve from the heat.
That next day we hiked to a town that was partly built up into an opening in the side of the cliff. The day after that we hiked up a ravine through the cliff and spent the night in a village that sat on a large rocky outcropping of the cliff. The views were amazing. On our last day we hiked down and out of the cliff through a narrow gorge that opened into a view of the cliff extending out to our right and the distant desert extending to the horizon. (Words can't do it justice, so check out the photos.) The best part was that each village was not a tourist attraction, but instead was an actual village where the people were going about their daily lives. Instead of the "human zoo" experience that we've had in other places, we felt more like guests in their homes, and almost an intrusion into their culture.
Mopti
Once we left Hassimi and the Dogons behind, we went to Mopti (which is very close to Sevare). Mopti lies on the Niger river, and we noticed many similarities to Segou. Boats were coming and going up and down the river, and there was a lot of activity. Parts of it had a dirty and modern feel, which was probably magnified even more since we had spent the last 4 days in small villages without electricity or water. We found a cool hotel, "Ye Pas De Probleme" which in French means "It's not a problem". We had a very clean and modern room, and the place even had a swimming pool. We ate lunch one day at the Bissap Cafe. Bissap is a delicious local drink made from hibiscus flowers and sugar. It is cooked down like tea until it is very thick and dark red, and it tastes like super-concentrated koolaid, but without the artificiality. Mopti was really a place for us to rest for a few days, and it served that purpose well.
Gao: Beyond Timbuktu
Everyone wants to go to Timbuktu so that they can say they went there. It's just in the name, really, that says that you went to the end of the world. It was a very hard decision, but we decided instead to go to Gao. Getting to Timbuktu is very expensive and time-consuming because the roads are horrible. We would have spent a lot of money and spent the night on the side of the road to get to a place that everyone said was not worth visiting. While Timbuktu may have been the grand Saharan caravan-port city in the past, apparently now it's just a few old mud buildings decaying the desert. It just wasn't worth it to go for one night, take a photo, and then come back the next day (as a few tour guides told us that was what most people did).
Gao is actually much further into the desert and down the Niger river than Timbuktu. However, it has a well paved road leading to it, and so most of Mali's major bus companies go there. The only bad part was that the bus ride was overnight. Sleeping on a bus is never fun, but we went for it anyway and it was well worth it. On our first day we arrived around five in the morning as the sun was rising. We checked out an old and grand hotel that must have been absolutely amazing in its day, but now is a total dump. We decided to go to a newer hotel that was further away from the middle of town instead. We slept some and then explored town.
Taureg, Songhai, and other nomadic people's temporary homes had been erected in many of the town's open areas. They come to Gao during the Harmattan, the seasonal winds that drive dust and sand into the air. It was fascinating to see these dome-like makeshift shelters around town, built in empty lots and sometimes in the middle of large but quiet intersections. These shelters, combined with the other mud brick and low built cement structures, gave the whole town had a dusty edge-of-the-desert feel. We had an early lunch at "The Source du Nord" which served us some terrific fish (Capitane) from the Niger river. It was soo good we went back for a second lunch a few hours later. We also explored the nearby market which contained a lot of different things. Boats from Nigeria, Niger, and other places along the Niger river made it this far up the river and deposited their goods. we had planned to hire a boat to take us out on the river, but since we were still tired from our overnight bus ride, we decided to wait until the next day. It was also a long walk back to our hotel at the edge of town, so we thought it would be a good idea to stay at the first old elegant-yet-crummy hotel in the middle of town.
The next morning our plan was to change hotels and then find a boat to go out on the river. But when we woke up and went outside, we were hit with the full onslaught of the Harmattan. Visibility was about one hundred feet. It looked like the fog of San Francisco, but more brown, and painful. The wind was strong and drove the sand into our skin like pins and needles. If we started to talk or breathe, it felt like someone had thrown a handful of dirt into our mouths. Almost immediately a nice guy we had met the day before approached us. He was an artist and wanted to know if he could show us his paintings, but at the time we were eating lunch and had given our standard answer of "later" to the numerous people who try to sell us things. This guy was persistent though, so at this point we really had no choice but to follow him to his shop a few blocks away, despite the sandstorm-like conditions. Looking back it was worth it just to walk for a little while in this weather, because the people who live in this region of the world deal with this all the time. As painful and uncomfortable as it was, I can now say that I saw the Harmattan first hand. We finally got to the guy's shop, which was also his house. It was somewhat new, and was a plain building with a few small square rooms. He showed us his interesting paintings and we bought one, and he also showed us his house. He was very happy to meet Americans. He was wearing a Barrack Obama pin on his shirt. He had a poster showcasing the recent election in America on his wall, with pictures of Obama, Biden, McCain, and Palin. It also had a picture of the Capital Building that was labeled "The White House" and small photos of every past American president. Next to this poster were several others, including a large poster of a nude white couple embracing in a way that was very close to porn, and a large poster of the French soccer player Zidane, famous for head-butting an opponent in the chest.
After returning to our hotel in the sandy wind we waited out the storm a while before packing up and catching a taxi to the other hotel. We again had lunch at the restaurant with good fish and then found a guide to take us out on the river to see the large "Dune Rose" sand dune. This time of year the Niger is very low, and we set off with our guide and our boat driver in a little wooden canoe-like boat. The boat man used a long pole to push the boat through the water, and it took us about an hour to get to the dune. Once there, we climbed to the top and saw the river below us and the desert to the other side. There were a few villages around the dune of the local Songhai people, one of the local ethnic groups that are semi-nomadic. Even though Gao is a fairly large town with some modern amenities, I found it hard to believe that people could live so far away from the rest of civilization and make a life for themselves. It hits you very quickly that life out here is very hard. In the Songhai language, the name for the Dune Rose is "Come Understand". It is a place where people come to pray and witness the desert. After 2 days in Gao we saw a lot, but it is still hard to understand the difficulties of life that these people deal with everyday.
The bus ride back to Mopti was long, but at least this time is was during the day. We were able to watch the desert roll by along with the occasional small village and odd rock formation. At one point in the middle of nowhere, a man wearing a blue robe and a yellow headwrap got off of the bus. He had a water bottle and a walking stick. As the bus drove away, he set out away from the road on foot into the desert, and we strained our eyes to see if there was some village off in the distance, but we saw nothing. Out here, "middle of nowhere" has an entirely new meaning.
Once in Mopti again we took the local bus to our hotel from the bus station. It was an old beat up thing with wooden benches in the back. I felt something rubbing my leg under the bench, but it was now dark and I couldn't see it. I reached my hand down and then something squawked. It turned out to be 3 live chickens that belonged to the man sitting next to me, and he laughed at me when I realized what it was. He got off of the bus before us carrying them away by the feet, flapping their wings and squawking as we drove off.
Now we are in Bamako getting some rest. We fly to Paris on Tuesday night, but more on our change of plans later....
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