Archive for the ‘travels’ Category
Monday, February 19th, 2007
In the weeks before throwing myself into another one of my less-than-advisably unthought out trips, I manage to do a small amount of pre-trip purchasing. Mostly hygenic products of the mini sized variety, but the one item at the top of my list is always a roll of duct tape or two.
Take this advice to heart. Never leave home without it! Infact, my roll is always attached to my day pack because it has saved my life a number of times (eg- fixed a sinking boat in Cambodia, taped a snoring man’s mouth shut in a European hostel). For some reason, I managed to get laughed at for thinking I might need it. Well, here are 5 good uses for tape when abroad.
make things hang
A wet towel can be a travelers worst nightmare. With some quick tears of tape from the roll, you can hang it out overnight, and if you are lucky enough, over a heater.
make things close
Ever man-handled a packet of biscuits so badly you have to eat all the contents, causing terrible constipation and cursed those deliciously delicate wafers whilst on the squatter? With tape, no fear! You can seal it all!
make things work
Adaptors are useful, but always annoying since they can be so huge. African power plugs are not famous for their load bearing design. Tape to the rescue.
make things stay
Ever checked into a hostel where they advertise onsuites, just to find that the bathroom has no roof and practically falls onto the bed? Whats more, there’s no door, just a flapping piece of fabric as a privacy guard.
make things waterproof
Oh the hassle of shaving without a bowl of water. I’ve seen a couple of neat ideas out there, like filling a frisbee or the bottom half of a coke bottle with water, but the best solution is always a taped solution. Make sure the sink is dry before applying the seal.
Of course there are a hunder and one different uses in that 4m of rolled up goodness. Think repairing backpacks, waterproofing torn shoes, and binding hostages. Yes, believe it or not, my beloved roll was once confiscated at Sydney Airport because it was a terrorist threat. Good thing they didn’t find that metal knife which came with my meal.
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Sunday, January 21st, 2007
Returning back to Egypt has been nothing short of insane. On the bus trip from Taba to Cairo, we had to switch buses at the Suez canal since the vehicle was not registered for the mainland. Our new driver must have been on speed or something - he was the most maniacal driver I have ever been in a vehicle with. In single lane, with two way traffic, he was pretty happy to drive at 160km/h weaving in and out of the lane to overtake, and many times coming pretty close to the oncoming trucks. Then he decides to turn off the lights!!! I was nearly in tears! At least we arrived back safely.
For my birthday, we went back to the pyramids which was a great way to spend the day. For a birthday lunch, we had Pizza Hut, with a view of course!
Today we’ve been running around visiting Coptic Cairo, including convents, churches and a synagogue. We found our way to the oldest part of the city, Islamic Cairo. We entered some impressive mosques, and even climbed up some 100m tall minarets! It was terrifying, to reach the topmost ledge I had to climb up a rickety metal frame which was howling with the wind and moving everywhere. Here’s proof!
It’s home time tomorrow. Kind of looking forward to it, and going for a surf.
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Friday, January 19th, 2007
The Galilee has heaps of Churches and pretty towns which we visited. Crazy churches, like bright pink Mosque-esque doll house churches built by the Greek Orthodox community adorned by an army of peacocks running around in the courtyard. We saw a couple of the Christian sites, like the “Town of Jesus” and passed the place where he did some miracles or so.
Onto some more modern (built on some ancient) history, we visited the old city of Acco which is famouse for being a living museum. And it really is. Imagined being taken back in time to a port town of Arabs living in tiny alley-ways, back in the late 1800s. It is quite amazing, really! The city is also known for having been the place of an unforgiving prison and was the home to many extremist Jewish freedom fighters who were determined to establish the state of Israel. One of it’s first prisoners was Ze’ev Jabotinsky, a leader for a number of political ideologies which are fascinating. Members of the Etzel (National Military Organisation) staged a daring escape to free many prisoners during the time of the British Mandate. Many escaped, many more Arab prisoners escaped, and some were caught. Those caught were hanged at the gallows, which can still be seen in a harrowing executioners room with noose still hanging.
Creepy.
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Friday, January 19th, 2007
With a car, we were able to see lots of generally unseen sites - public transport can be hard to match up with timetables and sites etc. We based ourselves in Tiberias, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (or Kinneret) and set out on lots of great trips.
The Golan Heights is a piece of mountainous terrain which was captured from the Syrians after their attempted attack on Israel in 1967. It was an important victory because the Syrian army would fire rockets to the Jewish farms below. I didn’t really understand how taking the area was so important from a military point of view until I saw it for myself. From the top of one of the mountains, I could see the plains of the Israeli territory all the way to the Kinneret, and in the other direction the Syrian towns in the plain below. Terrifying to think what a rocket could do from there.
Since this land has been trodden on for millenia, and settled by so many (different) people, I thought there would be SOOO much to see. There isn’t too much, however, mainly because the same areas keep getting resettled, and the old stuff is reused to help build the new. After all, the best way to increase an empire is to have the ones before it forgotten about. There is still some cool stuff to see, however. The largest site is Bet Shean, an enormous city which was once the height of the Roman empire in the region (Hey! It’s not even in the Golan -ed). It was very similar to many of the other sites seen in Turkey, but not so impressive. The bath-house remains were awesome though. Water would be boiled and the steam piped underneath the marble tiles to heat the floor and the air above it. I want one in my toilet with little romans fuelling it.
As we were walking through the ruins two enormous BOOMS went off, and we nearly peed our pants. Good thing it was only a couple of Israeli fighter jets breaking the speed of sound barrier creating sonic booms. The army is everywhere here, it’s cool. Broken down, rusted tanks half buried by the side of the highway, and armed soldiers trying to hitch rides home for the weekend made their presence felt.
How war has changed over 500 years. We visited the remains of a crusader castle, Belvoir, which means nice view in some extinct language called French or something. Nobody was there because it was impossible to get to, lucky we had a car and some Inspector Gadget guiding woman with a map. It reeeally does have a nice view, but it was a little foggy so we couldn’t see very much. The Mamluks, who were the Muslims to invade the area even found it tough to beat this castle. Eventually they did it, but left straight away so it is well preserved.
The Mamluks themselves built their own fortresses, and they can be found on the border with Syria. They are predictably located on the top of a mountain also with spectacular views. If you care for it, the structure was called Nimrod and was by far the most impressive fortress I’ve seen. I even managed to get lost in a secret tunnel which unexpectadly led to the moat and I was eaten by an alligator. Actually, moats in this area never contained any water since so much was needed and they were so high up. Instead, they were built really deep to impede a rush of would be attackers.
We also visited the Jewish military cemetery of Tel Chai, which was most moving because outside there was a memorial to a dozen Medics and First Aid Responders who had been killed in August by rockets fired into their town. A dozen photos, patriotic flags and a pile of rubble, including rocket debris was left as a memory of what occured.
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Thursday, January 18th, 2007
Hmm… My last update went a little tangential to what I intended to write on. Sorry. Here’s some stuff I’ve done.
We spent 10 days in Jerusalem in an apartment close to the old city, which gave us a great opportunity to see most of the lots and lots of sites in the city. The old city is split up into four ‘quarters’, named after the inhabitants of each: Jewish, Christian, Armenian and Muslim. Most of our days were spent walking up and down the windy, narrow and cobblestone paths which interlink the main sites. Religious monuments with intruiging histories and stories attract hundreds of pilgrims from all around the world. The most well known, the Dome of the Rock Mosque on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif) pokes out of the center of the city and it’s golden dome can be seen from all around. The site itself is extraordinary, with fascinating arabic calligraphies and architectures adorning the Mosque. The Arab markets stretch out from this center to East Jerusalem, separated by the Damascus gate and makes the world seem like I was in Cairo again. People everywhere, rubbish scattered on the ground and a strangely hospitable environment. This side of town is clearly treated as a second class citizen, and it would help if the Mayor of Jerusalem cared. It really could be lifted from slums.
The Jewish quarter is very new and renovated, as it was destroyed by the Jordanians when they pulled out from the 1967 war. There are Synagogues with histories which date back to the middle ages, and the area is just about a living museum. Orthodox Jews gather at the Western Wall (the Kotel) to pray as it is the closest remaining place to the once existing Temple of Solomon on the mount. Yeshivot, Beit Midrashim and other places of Jewish study are piled one upon each other, and one can tell from the piety of those people which live there.
Outside of the walls is the modern day Jerusalem - which shows the economic and thriving culture of Israel, though masking the many social problems in the society. Although, it’s hard to see if you don’t look for it. Most of my time was spent looking at the wonderful cake shops and getting fat!
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