Egypt and Jordan

I will do my best to capture Egypt and Jordan on paper. Our first day in Cairo we had a couple of hours to kill before our tour started so we caught a taxi and headed for the Citadel (a large castle used to protect the Muslims form invading crusaders). Jessica was a little anxious then apprehensive when our taxi driver demonstrated driving in Cairo. My narrow American mind tried to comprehend how 22 million people could get around a city with no signals, lane markers cross walks, and cars parked in the street. I quickly saw order appear from chaos. It was Darwinian. The better drivers, taxi drivers, efficiently weaved in and out of the slower cars while the large buses used their girth to force other cars to move and people darted to and fro in between everything. Divers use a series of flashing lights, horns, and slurs of Arabic to tell their intentions and current felling to other drivers. It is a language unto itself. On more than one occasion our taxi driver translated for us that the car next to us said "welcome to Egypt, where are you from?"
This was the start of Egyptian hospitality. Sometimes it is lost or hidden behind hastening and haggling but it is there. They want to welcome you to their county and hear where you are from. All Egyptians have a sense of humor and the better shop owners can get you to laugh in front of there stone with a quick one liner. Some of the best were:

1. "Where are you from? -America- "Welcome to Alaska!" ( I debunked this one by telling them I was from Alaska)
2. "Can I help you spend your money?" - No I already have a wife-
3. "How many camels for your wife? -Jessica replied "as many stars as there are in the sky" (she is a witty as an Egyptian) but he replied "deal!"

We saw the pyramids. I thought they would be in the middle of nowhere. But, they are just on the outskirts of Cairo. If you look one direction you view the Pyramids with desert in the background, If you look in the opposite direction you see a contrasting view of the city in the background.
From Cairo we trained to Aswan (12 hours south on the Nile river). We went to Philae Temple and bussed the following day to Sun Temple monuments at Abu Simbel. The temples are sometimes breathtaking sometimes boring, generally the more temples you see in a day the more boring they become. It was, however, always impressive to see how well preserved the hieroglyphics were. We then had dinner in a Nubian home.
The Nubians are Egyptians also but live in the South and are decidedly More African than their Arabic countrymen in Cairo. They have their own spoken language. The majority of them have been displaced by the building of the high dam on the Nile flooding their homes and fields. Egypt gave them some worthless land in the middle of the desert so most have moved into Aswan. It appears similar to what we did to the Native Americans.
We sailed Feluccas for two days down the Nile toward Luxor. Jessica convinced me to ride in a hot air balloon with her over Luxor. We rode donkeys to the valley of the kings. The donkeys were much worse than the camels. They are uncomfortable and my donkey was slow. Jessica's donkey was an undercover thoroughbred, able to gallop at a moments notice. My donkey spent his time looking for grass to eat and shade to stop in. Jessica's was looking for the Kentucky derby. Luxor is a city of half a million with ninety percent of the population employed in tourism. They have the best hecklers and hagglers in the world.
We were supposed to take a two hour ferry ride across the Red Sea to Dahab but since it was not running we took a 20 hour bus ride instead. Still quicker than the 40 years it took the Israelites to get from Egypt to Cannon. Dahab was a breath of fresh air. Situated on the Sinai Peninsula it is a haven for sun seekers and divers. We spent four days diving snorkeling and drinking cheep milk shakes. We enjoyed trying to mail a package of souvenirs back to the US. They wanted to charge us $150 for a 6 pound box. Later, after declining to mail the box, we were informed by one of the dive masters that it was more likely than not that the package would never reach the states, that it would just disappear.
We left the bulk of our 20 person tour as six of us continued on to Jordan.
In Jordan we spent one day in the port city of Aqaba, not much to do there, and then went to Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum was made famous by Lawrence of Arabia, who lived in a cave there during his stint. The desert is painted with pink and purple sand which makes for great sunsets. We then went to Petra. Petra is a sight to see. It stands on it's own as a famous landmark but it was Hollywood-ized in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The next day we drove on to the Dead Sea and Mt. Nebo.
The Dead Sea, while it was a short one hour visit will be ingrained in my memory forever. not only is it the lowest place on earth (1378 feet below sea level), it is more than 8 times salter than the ocean, I tasted it to be sure. The buoyancy difference is dramatic. You can float with your head, feet, and hands out of the water at the same time with no difficulty. Drowning would be almost imposable.