Panoramic Update
elyobo — Thu, 26/03/2009 - 10:53pm
Hanging out by the sea in Dahab, I realised that I've barely posted news of my travels at all on this trip. Perhaps it was because I was largely travelling alone last time, so I felt a manic impulse to communicate with the outside world. Perhaps I'm more jaded and less excited this time around. I'm not entirely sure. Anyhow, I'll try to seize upon the moments when the urge to write comes upon me and get something down in future.
This post I've got something a little different for you all. I've been pasting together panoramic photos, which convey the overall impression of a place better in some cases. Sometimes a single image captures everything with the small details, and sometimes you need a bigger shot to capture the overall awesome affect. Check out these panoramas below, and look beneath there for further updates on what we've been up to.
Note that the image files are generally large, ranging from about 1MB to 4MB. You can see a thumbnail image for each below, or click the "Preview" link to see a larger one. To get the full size version, right click on the "Download" link and select "Save Link As..." under Firefox ("Save Target As..." for those poor bastards still using IE), then view them once downloaded.
Four colossi of Ramses II guard the entrance to his temple in Abu Simbel, Egypt.
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The Pyramids of Giza, Menkuara, Khafre and Khufu from left to right, Cairo, Egypt.
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The Pyramids of Giza, Khufu on the left and Khafre on the right. Cairo, Egypt.
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Hatshepsut's Temple, Luxor, Egypt. Hatshepsut was the only female pharoah of ancient Egypt.
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Minapin Glacier, with Mt Rakaposhi on the right, seen from near the Rakaposhi base camp. Minapin, Pakistan, May 2007.
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Damn, there were quite a few of them. You'll notice that there are a few sneaking in there from the last trip that I never got around to updating as well. So, you may be wondering after all of that what we've been up to lately. You'll have noticed that a few of those panoramas are from a place called Siwa, the most remote of Egypt's desert Oasis (although not so remote as it once was). Siwa has probably been the high point of the last few weeks, a pleasant and relaxing place to hang out and escape from the hassle of the Nile river valley, with the hordes of river cruise tourists and the parasitic touts that feed off them. The river boat tourists are a different breed from the cheap backpacker style travellers, but many Egyptians are unfortunately unable to distinguish between the two, which makes Aswan and Luxor somewhat more stressful places to travel. Backpackers are not so interested in purchasing loads of souvenirs to take home (after all, we have to carry the damn things for months), while the river boat folks are much more inclined that way. Nonetheless, you'll be hassled almost every step you take in these places.
Siwa, on the other hand, is not on many (if any) tours. While beautiful, it takes a full day of travel to get here from Alexandria; more than 500km, most of which is in flat, featureless desert, as Siwa sits on the edge of the big dunes. Without the crowds of tourists, the lifestyle is less altered to cater to tourist needs, and the people are far more friendly and laid back. So, coming for a couple of days, we ended up staying a week. We took an overnight trip out into the big dunes of the Sahara, stopping to swim in a couple of oasis (one cold and salty, one hot and slightly sulphuric). We took snowboards to the top of big dunes and tried to get to the bottom; if you have the opportunity to do this in the future, remember that, like snow, sand is much harder when you hit it at high speeds... We took bikes and cycled down dirt roads out to small pools and old temples, nestled amidst the palms. In the early evening, we went out to the Al Mazhar hot pool, to drink cold karkade as we relaxed in the soothing water. In the afternoons, we explored Shali, the old mud fortress-city in the centre of Siwa, or sat drinking coffee and playing scrabble in the Siwan cafes.
Definitely the sort of place one could relax in for a long time. However, other places beckoned as well. We spent more time than we could really justify in Alexandria, largely due to the presence of decent coffee and fancy bakeries, offering the best chocolate croissants I've ever encountered. The average Alexandian day started with me running down stairs to the bakery next doot, picking up said croissant, quickly down the road to the cafe to grab take away coffee, then back up to the hotel above to consume the goodies in the morning sun. We did visit a few of the local sites, including the revamped Biblioteca Alexandria, but there's not all that much in the way of ancient stuff there. Just walking along the corniche, admiring the Med, eating koshary and coffee drinking.
We quickly blitzed back through Cairo, dropping in on the Ibn Tulun mosque and some others in the old Islamic area. Cairo is more hassle than we're really up for, so we continued onwards and have now landed in Dahab, back on the Gulf of Aqaba, where we first arrived in Egypt. It's a little bit strange here... Like Nuweiba to the north, but much more developed, and less laid back. On the other hand, Nuweiba is basically a tourist ghost town, and there are still plenty here in Dahab, and it's only going to get busier as the summer heat begins to kick in.
Our travel plans from here involve a quick dash through Jordan (which is not as cheap as one might hope, or as the guide books had led us to expect) and up to the border with Syria. We don't have visas, due to the (annoying/stupid) policy they have of requiring you to apply at the Embassy in your country of residence, but we're hoping to get through at the border anyway. Even the Syrian embassies tend to recommend this, and it seems a common strategy, so we shall see how it works out. Insha'Allah, as the locals are fond of saying. Once inside, we'll brave the bureaucracy and try to extend the visa and convert it to multiple entry, so as to allow us to transit back through Syria after side trips to Lebanon and Turkey.