Saturday, May 2, 2009

Spring Break: Lebanon

This is a continuation of the last blog post. Sorry for the delay in these posts, but I’ve had a pretty busy week in terms of schoolwork.

ANYWAY

On April 15th my friends and I left Amman to travel to Beirut, Lebanon. We checked into the airport, exchanged our Jordanian Dinars for Lebanese Lira (1500LL=$1US), and had a marvelous lunch of Pizza Hut at the airport before the flight on Royal Jordanian. The flight was only about an hour long, and really wasn’t bad at all. The reason we flew from Amman to Beirut and didn’t take the overland route is because the overland route is either through Israel or Syria. You can’t get into Lebanon from Israel, and the Syrians make it especially difficult for Americans without visas to pass through their border by harassing them and purposefully delaying them so that most Americans hoping to go to Syria are either turned away for not having visa or lose several hours. If you want to avoid this trouble at the border, you need a Syrian visa, which would me require mailing my passport to their consulate in the US and having it mailed back me in Egypt before I left for the trip. In case you haven’t heard, Syria and the US are not on the best of terms.



My parents were a little hesitant about me visiting Lebanon, and most people that read the news will understand why. In 2006 Israel fought a war against the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, and this war include Israel bombing parts of Lebanon’s largest city and capital, Beirut. In May of 2008, Hezbollah took over parts of the city traditionally not under their control, and blockaded the road to the airport. This is the same airport we would be flying into. There haven’t been any terrorist attacks in Lebanon since a few terrorist attacks in Tripoli in July 2008, and many people feel that the country is incredibly stable right now due to a new power-sharing agreement within the government.

Anyway, when we landed in Beirut, we were picked up by a driver that worked for my friend Jessica’s extended family in Lebanon. We would be staying in an apartment that this family owned but was not currently using, and would also be driven to our various destinations in Lebanon by employees working for this family. On our way from the airport, I noticed that there were heavily armed soldiers on many street corners, including some with armored vehicles, which reminded me of Cairo. We also saw these banners that were found on almost every billboard on the main highway leading from the airport:


That would be a Hezbollah banner. The crossed out words are “your Lebanon,” “our Lebanon,” “their Lebanon,” and it just says “Lebanon” in the center. The text to the left literally says “the one homeland for all of its sons.”

From the airport we went to the apartment in the outskirts of Beirut that we would be staying in for the next few days, and I have to say it was probably the nicest apartment I will ever stay in. From the balcony, there was an amazing view of the surrounding hills.



After settling in our apartment, the first place we visited was the American University in Beirut. AUB used to be a study abroad option at my school, but it has been suspended since the 2006 war with Israel. When we visited, I was very jealous that AUB had a nice view of the Mediterranean, a good amount of greenery, and was located in the heart of Beirut.




However, if I had the option to study abroad at AUB and did so, I don’t think I would’ve learned much Arabic at all or as much about Arab culture. Beirut doesn’t feel too much like an Arab city like Cairo does, which was noticeable right away, and explains why Beirut is called “The Paris of the East.” While the primary language of Lebanon is Arabic, most people speak English and French very well, and French appears on signs as much as Arabic to the point that it feels you’re in a European city. The US dollar is also almost as widely accepted as Lebanese Lira, and most places will tell you how much you owe in both currencies. The people in Beirut dress much more liberally, as Lebanon is 40% Christian, and even the Muslim population seems to dress much more liberally than they do in Egypt. Alcohol and bars are found with ease in Beirut, and it is known for its nightlife. In terms of geography, Lebanon was a lot greener than Egypt, and it rained a few times while we were there, not something I’m used to from living in Egypt. Mountains were also almost always visible, and it’s possible to go skiing up in the snowy peaks of these mountains and then to drive a few hours to be on beaches with palm trees.

After visiting AUB, we went to the place where my friend Jessica’s extended family lived, which is the former French Embassy. More or less a mansion complete with tennis courts, inground pool, and automated driveway gate, we met her extended family and their friends there, who took us to a Lebanese restaurant. This Lebanese meal would be our first of many, and it provided enough food to completely fill everyone and then some. First, hors d’oeuvres and pita bread to eat them with were brought out, such as hummus and tabouli, which is finely chopped parsley, scallion, tomatoes, and other herbs. Then, slightly more substantial dishes and some meats came out, and the bread was refilled every time it was emptied. While we were all more or less full at this point, then the actual meat dishes came out, which we couldn’t finish. After dinner we went to a couple of Lebanese bars, where I got to try the Lebanese beer, Almaza. It was pretty good, although relatively heavy. All of the bars we visited were in an area called Gemayze, which contains streets filled with bars, all relatively small but very nice on the inside.


I didn't take this picture, I just found it online

The next day we drove to a town called Byblos on the Mediterranean Coast, which is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the World since its founding around 5000 BC. We spent most of our time in Byblos at a Frankish Crusader castle that was also located next to some Roman ruins. Interestingly enough, some parts of the Crusader castle were made with the Roman ruins. The area was absolutely beautiful, and it had an amazing view of the surrounding hill villages and the Mediterranean.






After visiting Byblos it started to pour, and we got a lunch that also consisted of a huge amount of Lebanese food, almost identical to the meal of the previous night. After lunch we visited two Maronite churches in the mountains (Maronites are Lebanese Christians that are actually associated with the Roman Catholic Church). Driving through the mountains in the rain and fog was not a sight I expected to see in the Middle East, and it reminded me of footage I’ve seen from South America more than anything. That night, we more or less had snacks for dinner, and went out to Gemayze again.

The next day we went up high into the mountains to see the famous Cedars of Lebanon. The Cedar of Lebanon is found as a symbol everywhere in the country, most notably their flag.



I didn’t know that the Cedars grew so high in the mountains, so we were driving for a couple hours just to get to the top of some of immensely high mountains. Eventually, we started to see snow on the side of the road, and soon enough, there was snow everywhere. At the top of the mountain, snow covered everything, and it was actually snowing at the time. I also saw some ski schools and a small ski lift, which made me wish we planned to go skiing, since I would have loved to say I went skiing in Lebanon. However, I was only wearing a track jacket, jeans, and sneakers, so I was ill prepared for the snow enough as it was. We found the Cedar Forest, and walked around in the snow without a footpath. The trees and forest were absolutely beautiful, although by the end I was wet and freezing.






After we got out of the snowy area, we ate a lunch consisting of dough covered in cheese, kind of resembling pizza. We also visited the museum of the Lebanese American poet and artist Khalil Gibran. I hadn’t heard of him before this visit, but I still found the museum, which was mostly an art museum, interesting.


View as we descended the mountain


After we descended the mountain, we traveled to Tripoli in North Lebanon. There were even more soldiers and armored vehicles in Tripoli, probably due to the fighting there last year. The only location in Tripoli we visited was its massive 12th century Crusader Castle, which was a lot of fun to explore as there were many corridors that just seemed to go on and on. Since it was a Friday (the Muslim holy day), most stores and other locations in Tripoli were closed, so we returned to Beirut after we left the Castle. We didn’t really do anything that night except for eating snacks while enjoying American movies on the TV in the apartment.





The next day started by visiting Saida, which is south of Beirut. As we drove through South Beirut, we saw more Hezbollah banners, as the area is known as a Hezbollah support base. However, after a short drive we were in Saida, where we visited its Crusader Castle actually located right on the Mediterranean Sea. There, we explored the castle and got to see how blue the Mediterranean was.




After visiting Saida’s markets and buying some souvenirs, I was surprised that we were traveling even further south. Our driver told us we were going to visit the Roman ruins in a city called Tyre, which I remembered was pretty far south in Lebanon. For those that don’t know, South Lebanon is more or less Hezbollah controlled, so I knew I was in for an interesting experience. If I recall, the exact moment I knew we were entering South Lebanon was when we passed a large Lebanese army checkpoint that had to check all of our passports, which is something I hadn’t seen until then. After we left this checkpoint, we immediately began noticing Hezbollah support signs everywhere.


All of those yellow flags you see are Hezbollah flags.


This is a poster commemorating three famous dead members of Hezbollah. The top one in the glasses is Subhi al-Tufayli, the first secretary-general, killed by an Israeli air strike in 1992. The bottom one with the hat is Imad Mughniyeh, who was one of the most notorious terrorists alive until being killed by a car bomb in 2008 and had a $5 million bounty on his head. I don’t know who the guy on the right is.


This is a banner with Hezbollah flags on it on the way to Tyre. The guy on the left is Hassan Nasrallah, the current leader of Hezbollah who has his picture everywhere in Tyre and South Lebanon. The guy on the right is Nabih Berri, the current Lebanese Speaker of Parliament and the head of the Shi’a Amal movement. The text says “with unity builds the homelands.”

After a while we passed a large UN checkpoint, and from then on UN trucks, and armored vehicles were found everywhere. UN forces have been in Lebanon in some form or another for decades apparently, but seem to be concentrated in the South. It was a little odd being around UN forces, all wearing their trademark blue helmets and berets with different countries inscribed on their uniforms. After arriving in Tyre, the first place we visited was some Roman ruins, which were located right on the Mediterranean and had a nice colonnade walk to the sea with an original mosaic path.


Then we visited Cana, which is where Jesus is said to have performed his first miracle of turning water into wine. It was located on a hill that gave some beautiful views of the surrounding area.




We then visited more Roman ruins in Tyre, which are some of the best in the World. The ruins had a massive hippodrome, or racetrack.



And it also had a massive arch.




After this we went and had lunch in a resort’s restaurant, which began with someone checking our car for bombs as we drove into the parking lot. When we got into the parking lot though, we noticed that there were several UN trucks outside with “UN Observer Group Lebanon” on the license plate. When we went inside to eat another large lunch consisting of various Lebanese dishes, we noticed that a large number of French UN soldiers were sitting at the next table.



After that, we drove back to Beirut, and had the same night as the previous one.

The next day was a Sunday, which we believed to be Maronite Easter Sunday. We thought this meant that everything would be closed and we wouldn’t have a driver, so we decided to just walk around Beirut and would have to rely on cabs. We didn’t have a good experience with this though, as the first cabbie we hired had a strong resemblance to Jabba the Hutt and tried to rip us off. After the bad ride, we walked along the Mediterranean until we came to Beirut’s Pigeon Rocks and hung out there for a while.




We then walked around more and ate lunch at a small chain we frequent in Cairo, Euro Deli. Interestingly, it only has locations in Cairo, Beirut, Montreal, and Tokyo. After this, we walked around Beirut some more in search of souvenirs, but most stores were closed. While we thought this day was Maronite Easter, it turned out to just be a regular Sunday, as Easter was the previous Sunday. We then hired a cab to take us to a restaurant, which was also a bad experience as the cabbie refused to leave us alone until we paid him his price, and attracted the attention of several bystanders in the process. This made me miss cabs in Cairo, where you pay what you think is appropriate at the end of the ride and usually walk away when the driver demands more. We ate at a quiet Italian restaurant for dinner, and had a low-key night.


Random Beirut Picture

The next day we would be flying out at night, so we wanted to spend our last day in Lebanon just relaxing at a beach. After a while, we found a nice public beach located along a rocky cove. It was very rocky there, not sandy, but there were some rocks large enough to lay on, which resulted in me getting some pretty bad sunburn. The swimming and laying in the sun was all very nice until I sliced my foot open on a rock in the water. We left soon after this, as the cut was really bad and required some immediate treatment. However, I was fine enough to not go to the hospital and to catch my flight later that night. We were back in Cairo by 11:00 that night after about an hour flight and an hour cab ride from the airport, and resumed classes the next day.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Spring Break: Jordan

Well I’m back from quite the spring break adventure to Jordan and Lebanon, and I’ll probably tell about the trip in segments since I was away for 10 days and have a lot of pictures and stories to share. I’ll try to be concise and post a lot of pictures, and won’t go into too much detail about any of the historical sites I visited.


The trip began in Jordan, the oddly-shaped country to the South of Syria, East of Israel, West of Iraq, and North of Saudi Arabia. Despite its location, it’s one of the most stable countries in the Middle East and is pretty Western-friendly. We had three options to get to Jordan from Cairo

1. Flying- Too expensive and would put us in Amman first, which would make visiting Petra less convenient.
2. Taking an 8 hour bus ride to Taba and from there, taking a half hour cab ride through Israel to Jordan- Unfortunately, an Israeli stamp on your passport bars you from entering Lebanon (and 7 other Arab countries), so this was not an option.
3. Taking 9 hour bus ride to Nuwebia on the Red Sea and taking a 1-2 hour ferry ride to Aqaba, Jordan- This is what we chose as it was the only relatively option that allowed us to bypass Israel.

So the trip with my three friends (Derek, Jessica, and Jessica) began on April 10th with a 9 hour (and 80LE/$14.28) bus ride from Cairo to Nuwebia on the Sinai Peninsula. We left on a 10:15 PM bus and did not arrive until around 8 AM on the 11th, and I got little sleep on the ride. Much like the overnight bus ride to Dahab at the very beginning of the semester, this bus ride also contained loud action movies, including Bruce Lee’s “Way of the Dragon” and a Stephen Segal movie.


Nuwebia: At least it had cool mountains around it.

Upon our arrival to Nuwebia, we bought out tickets for the ferry to Jordan, which cost a whopping $80 USD. We opted to take the “fast boat,” which was to leave at 1 PM over the $70 “slow boat,” which was to leave at 3 PM and is said to take a couple hours longer. After buying our tickets, we found a small and relaxed (slow service) restaurant for breakfast, as it really didn’t seem like there was much else to do in Nuwebia.


A ferry like the one we took from Nuwebia

After breakfast, we spent a few hours waiting in what can be described as a fly-ridden warehouse, where we were told that our ferry was delayed several times until we finally boarded at 3. We expected this however, as the ferry to Jordan is known for its tardiness and is a subject found in every guidebook. Ironically, the slow boat boarded before our boat did, and we did not actually leave until 4. On the positive side, the ferry was very nice (nicer than the ferry from Long Island to Connecticut), and I managed to catch up on some sleep on board. Our passports were taken at the beginning of the ride, and were given back with Jordanian visas in Aqaba.


On board the ferry. Picture taken from my friend Derek.

After 1-2 hours on board, we arrived in Aqaba, Jordan, collected our passports, and almost started a cabbie fight when we asked a horde of cab drivers to take us to the town outside of Petra, Wadi Musa, for the cheapest fare. The cab ride to Wadi Musa took 2 hours and went through some intense spans of desert, yet I could not take in the scenery since it was already dark. Upon our arrival to Wadi Musa, we checked into our budget hotel and crashed for the night. My room was very small, but it got the job done- although I could’ve done without the minaret right outside of the window that blasted the call to prayer right into the room. There’s nothing quite like being woken up at 5 AM to “ALLAHU AKBAR.”


Wadi Musa

We got up bright and early the next morning at 6 AM in order to have as much time as possible exploring Petra, the ancient Nabatean City with elaborate buildings carved right into canyon walls. It’s also featured in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” although I can’t remember exactly when or where. Before we went, I tried and initially failed to get some Jordan money (called Dinars), which is actually stronger than the US dollar and works out to 1.4 USD to the Dinar. Luckily, Jordanians don’t treat the Dinar as a dollar and a good meal at a restaurant was about 10-12 JD. Entrance to Petra cost 21 JD, or about $30, but was worth every cent.


The man on the right of this picture is the current king of Jordan, King Abdullah II, and the man on the left is his father and former king, Hussein. Pictures of King Abdullah II are found literally everywhere in Jordan (every business has his picture somewhere as do most major intersections), and I have to say he looks like a nice guy since he’s smiling in most of his pictures unlike President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt below.



Going into depth about Petra could get boring and still wouldn’t do it justice since there’s so much to see, so I’ll try to sum up its key attractions. The first part we walked through was the Siq, which had increasingly high canyon walls around the path and showed some impressive rock color banding.



After a short walk through the Siq, you come to Petra’s most famous site, the Treasury, carved into a solid rock face.



We then climbed up several different small hills and explored smaller caves and carvings, and got a great view of the surrounding area and Petra’s Amphitheater.




We also passed Petra’s Temple.



The next major site, the Monastery, was a pretty intense hike up a mountain, especially since it was pretty hot out, but it was worth it. We ate peeps inside since it was Easter.



After the Monastery, there’s several lookout points, all with interesting names, such as this one.




All offered excellent views of the surrounding areas though.



Having decided we had our fill of magnificent sights for the day, we hiked down the mountain, out of Petra, and returned to Wadi Musa. For dinner that night I had a delicious traditional Jordanian dish called Gallahyah, which consisted of chicken, tomatoes, and onions in a sauce and was eaten with pita bread. We called it an early night soon after, and prepared to leave for Amman the next day.

On the 13th we left for Amman early in the morning, and took a 5 JD mini bus from a station that was more or less a parking lot. The bus ride took 3 hours, and wasn’t bad at all as we got to see some really nice stretches of desert between the cities. As we got closer to Amman, I immediately noticed the city was very hilly and had some very crooked streets, which reminded me of San Francisco. When we arrived, we took a cab from the bus station to our hotel, and I was incredibly surprised to see the cab had a fare meter inside. In Cairo (and Beirut as I found out later), none of the cabs have meters, and you kind of have to estimate how much to pay the driver. It was a very welcome change, as it meant that the cab drivers couldn’t complain and try to rip us off, which is a regular occurrence in Cairo.


We totally passed this sign on the way to Amman

The hotel we stayed at in Amman was quite nice and helped us book a tour for the next day, even if it continued the Middle Eastern tradition of not having shower curtains in budget hotel communal showers. As soon as we checked in, we left and had lunch at a restaurant that served only French fries. While we tried to find the restaurant, we walked up many staircases on the city’s hills, which made me think of Quebec. Being on top of any of the hills allowed you to see very far, which is not something found in Cairo, Washington, or New York.



After lunch we left and saw the city’s old ruins, which have both Umayyad (7th-8th Century Islamic Empire) and Byzantine origins. The ruins contained a small museum, which actually contained some samples of Dead Sea Scrolls.



Dead Sea Scroll


The ruins were also located on a hill, which allowed me to take some pretty good pictures of the city.




From the ruins I noticed that there was a massive flagpole off in the distance, and this flagpole is actually only the third tallest flagpole in the World.



We then descended the hill we were on to the Roman amphitheater below, which was much larger than the Roman Amphitheater in Alexandria. However, this one lacked the cool broadcasting effect that the one in Alexandria had.




That night we ate a restaurant called “The Blue Fig,” where I noticed that Jordan is much more westernized than Egypt. At this restaurant, none of the Jordanian women we saw were wearing headscarves, alcohol was easily available, and the menu was only in English. While these factors were probably dependent on social class, as it was a relatively nice restaurant, urban Jordanians on average appeared to be competent English-speakers with friendly attitudes towards westerners. It was also at this restaurant where I got the most western meal ever: a cheeseburger with fries served on a pizza.


Delicious.

The next day (April 14th) we embarked on a tour arranged by our hotel to visit several Biblical sites in Jordan. Our first stop was to a Jordanian town named Madaba, famous for its mosaics. A Greek Orthodox Church in the town contains a large 6th century Byzatine mosaic map of the Holy Land and Egypt, which was captioned in Greek but still had distinguishable locations. We then visited its mosaic museum, which contained several Umayyad and Byzantine mosaics.



The second site we visited was Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have died after he set sight on the Promised Land after wandering the desert for forty years. The mountain contained several monuments to Moses and a cool plaque showing you where certain locations in Israel were from where you were standing.




The third site we visited was the part of the Jordan River where St. John the Baptist is said to have baptized Jesus. The Jordan River is apparently the border between the Israel-controlled West Bank (Palestine) and Jordan, so the entire site is located amidst several military buildings and you are required to have a guide escort your tour group around so that you can’t wander into restricted territory. We knew we were getting close to the Jordan River when our phones messaged us with a “Welcome to Palestine!” message, and after a short shuttle ride and walk we reached the Jordan River, which was more like a muddy creek. Walking along the River, we soon reached the Baptism Site, which was marked by a small pavilion and didn’t have any less muddy water.



While the Baptism site was very interesting for its Biblical history, we then walked to what appeared to be a place for Israeli pilgrims to do the same thing we were doing, only from their side of the River. It was strange being separated from several Israeli soldiers and tourists by a River that was only about 20 feet wide.


Those people are in the West Bank

The next and final stop on our trip was to the Dead Sea, which met all expectations regarding its salt levels. Floating on your back was more or less all you could do in the sea, as getting so much a drop of the water in your eyes was very unpleasant and any water in your mouth created a bad taste that lasted for several minutes. It was also incredibly difficult to force yourself underwater, as you would immediately bob to the surface.



That night we went to another western-style restaurant where I got one of my main priorities in life: buffalo wings. Afterwards, we went to another restaurant/bar that had a very nice view of the surrounding area at night, and then went back to the hotel to get ready for Lebanon the next day. Post on that coming soon!