Sunday April 23, 2006 – Arabian Nights

Following a frustratingly slow Hertz rental car experience, we had our rental car for the hour and half Arabic only radio drive to the Wadi Rum desert (desert where Lawrence of Arabia spent quite a bit of time and where the movie was filmed). Our tan four dour tape decked Citroen was a significant step down from the Hummer, but she served us well. Jordan Tracks met us at the Visitor’s Center of Wadi Rum, and we shortly thereafter found ourselves coupled up with our camels and guide (Saleem) for our overnighter in the desert.

If you have never ridden a camel before (and we hadn’t), they actually are more comfortable than riding a horse. Our guidebook accurately stated, “nothing can compare to the gentle hypnotic swaying and soft shuffle of riding camelback in the open desert.” The whole getting up and getting down is always a little awkward as “they get up from sitting with a bronco-style triple jerk back-forward-back, and if you are not

holding on as soon as your bottom hits the saddle, you’re liable to end up in the dust.” While this bronco style triple jerk is going on, the camels are moaning and groaning the whole time…you really can’t help but laugh about the whole situation.

Our mini camel caravan loped through the desert for about three hours with opportunities to stop for photos and run up sand dunes. Throughout the three hour journey, I couldn’t help but
notice that my boney butt was not enjoying the ride as much as the previous day in Petra. Light was shed on my camel chafe situation when Saleem took the saddles off for lunch. In watching "C’s" saddle being removed…one camel blanket, two camel blankets, three camel blankets, four camel blankets. Count Dracula only got up to two camel blankets on my saddle. Chef Saleem pulled out canned tuna fish, pitas, sour cream, and cheese…and we were thinking “how are we going to force this down.” Surprisingly it made for a pretty tasty lunch – I’m sure three hours on a camel might have helped.

Lunch was followed by a rest in the shade for the heat of midday to pass. Our camel journey carried on for another few hours, until we reached camp. The camp, nestled against a huge rock mountain, included a couple Bedouin tents, a fire pit, a little cinderblock block kitchen, and as indicated by Jordan Tracks, a “proper toilet.” “C’s” careful water rationing for the day in anticipation of this “proper toilet” was for not, as the toilet consisted of two feet placeholders and a hole in the ground. Ten other tourist rolled in as well from either horseback riding or 4x4ing for a great chicken dinner followed by Arabic singing from our various guides. At one point, I strolled out away from the light and noise of camp, laid in the sand, and gazed up at the countless stars…all you could hear was the wind blowing sand across the desert.

Here's a photo from the 3 hour drive back to Amman on Monday afternoon...no road trip to Iraq for us.

For those of you who haven't gotten your fill of photos yet, here's all the digital taken on the trip:

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Saturday April 22, 2005 – Our Day In Petra

In lieu of galloping through the Siq (canyon leading to the Treasury) Indiana Jones style, we settled for a 15 minute horseback stroll to the beginning of the canyon. Although it was a little difficult waking up at 6:15 in the morning, the metaphorical worm, was arriving at the Treasury without another tourist in sight. After strolling for about 20 minutes though this very narrow canyon, you round one last corner and there is the breathtaking Treasury.

There was however a cleaning guy who was doing his best to get in our photos (actually just working comically unaware of us tourists not wanting his bucket in the photo).

After soaking in the beauty of the carved temple, we settled on our plan of attack for all of the major sites in Petra (there are something like 800 tombs and buildings). We mounted some trusty steeds to do most of the work on the steep hike up to the High Place of Sacrifice. “C” and I were bestowed donkeys while “I,” being a pretty big guy was told, “you get this mule” – always good for the ego. C’s overzealous mounting attempt, left us all laughing, as she somehow managed to fling herself over the saddle and on to the donkey’s neck/shoulders. You could tell that the donkey was thinking… “hmm, this is a new one,” but seemed ready to go. This put the Jordanian donkey/mule wrangler in an awkward position, trying to help without touching a non-cloaked, nape of the neck showing Westerner. After determining this method wasn’t working he shared in the laughs and helped Cathy down. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a donkey before, well at least in my adult life, and those little guys are workhorses. It was quite a balancing act for both donkeys and humans while they skittered up countless steps and slippery rock on cruise control. “I” had to make a few stops along the journey because upon inquiry to the donkey/mule wrangler, “mule bad.” Upon reaching the top, we were awarded amazing views all over Petra.

We visited several tombs, buildings, and the Roman amphitheater before stopping for our lunch break. We then all boarded donkey #2 for the very long uphill trek to view the Monastery, which was followed by Bedouin tea in an old Petra tomb.

Our day was topped off with a third beast of burden (fourth for “I”) and an early evening last look at the Treasury. Camels, while we’re on the subject, are such an odd creature - big wavy lips, skinny long legs, weird faces, getting up in stages (back legs up, front legs up), and making horrible moans and camel growls during the entire up and down process.

Friday April 21, 2005 – “Not that There’s Anything Wrong with That”

We were joined on this weekend’s big adventure to Jordan by one of C’s colleagues Ian (“I”); which made for an extremely fun trip. As mentioned in previous entries, “I” travels all of the time, so he pretty much can upgrade just about anything when he travels– flights, cars…and the vehicle of choice for this weekend was a Hummer H2. As you can probably imagine, our four ton vehicle, with whities in it got quite a bit of attention in our southerly trek through small villages. People would gaze into it hoping to see, I don’t know, Arnold maybe, kids would run along side of it, locals would pose for pictures using it as a backdrop.

So after arriving at 11ish, we barreled down the curvy two lane King’s Highway from the Queen Alia Airport in Amman stopping at Madaba, Wadi Mujib, and Karak Castle en route to Petra. A church in Madaba houses the oldest known map of the Middle East (2^nd half of the 6^th Century) and it is entirely mosaiced. Wadi Mujib is dubbed as Jordan’s Grand Canyon and has a depth of 1,200 meters and 4 km across in some parts.

Unfortunately, it did not share the reddish color of the Grand Canyon, but still very impressive. The last stop before rolling into Petra about 7PM was Karak Castle an extensive 860 year old Crusader fortress. And unlike

the U.S., you could scramble up walls, peer over ledges, crawl down into collapsed rooms… We polished off the evening, after checking into our hotel, with a hearty meal readying ourselves for the 12 straight hours in Petra Saturday morning.

Some of the interesting Middle Eastern customs from our guidebook that we were obliged to be aware of included:

• “walking around with wet hair is – for some reason – an indication that you’ve just had sex.”
• “the nape of the neck is considered particularly erotic and so is best covered…”
• As you can probably guess over the course of a couple days we joked with “C” quite a bit about these two.

• “Western men who break this code (wearing shorts) give roughly the same impression that they would wandering around Bournemouth or Baltimore in their underpants."
• Respecting local customs, left “I” and I in long pants over the 85 degree weekend.

• “Although public displays of affection between men and women are not acceptable behavior, cheek kissing, eye gazing, and hand holding between same sex friends in public is normal and completely sociably acceptable…"
• We did share quite a bit of jokes about spooning, walking hand in hand in Petra, and snuggling because of this one. It was quite unusual for us to see “straight” men in these villages holding hands (fingers intermeshed) and our favorite...locals sitting, holding one set of hands in front with the other arm around the back, hands interlocked, in a half embrace. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” – Seinfeld reference :^)

• “Beckoning with your palm up has cutesy and overtly sexual connotations."
• We had a few laughs at “I’s” expense as he often unintentionally beckoned people to cross the street while driving with his palm up – getting quite a few odd looks.

Sunday April 16, 2006 - Middle Eastern Bong Easter Celebration

On Sunday, following a visit by the Easter bunny, “C” and I headed northwest about an hour and a half to Polis. I had hyped this place up after reading extensively about it over the past couple months, and the town wasn’t nearly as nice as expected. We did find an amazing secluded 5 star seaside resort called Anassa. Following our oooing and awing, we made a little detour to the Bath’s of Aphrodite – a place where she “supposedly” bathed back in the day.









We rolled back into Limassol about 8PM and picked up Ian for dinner at a “new to us” Lebanese restaurant. We knew we had found a good restaurant when we walked into Lebanese music accompanied by a few people smoking a hookah. “C” and I ordered the Lebanese meze for two and again were met with an onslaught of food – the photo is of just the cold appetizers. We had to laugh at the absurd amount of food that came – it was delicious.

After ordering dessert, we were all tempted by the thought of sharing a hookah. We ordered one full of strawberry flavored what we were told was just molasses…”no tobacco.” I cut myself off after a few puffs of the quite tasty smooth strawberry goodness, leaving Ian and “C’ to take up my slack on the giant Middle Eastern bong. Hookah + Lebanese coffee + two bottles of wine + dessert made for the end of the perfect evening…until the next morning. Ian and “C” both rolled into work the next morning a little worse for wear. And after a little Wikipedia research, us hookah virgins were able to blame the less than peppy morning on the truckload of strawberry flavored tobacco from our little friend the night before. But it was agreed, however, that we would do it again in a heartbeat – it really made for a great time.

Saturday April 15, 2006 - Persona non Grata

After a lazy morning, we headed out to Pissouri (local small oceanside village). We enjoyed the sunny drive and ate lunch at the Columbia Resort. I’ve become pretty much a regular at the rental car place. Upon arriving back in Limassol, we met up with C’s colleague Ian, whom has been in Cyprus this past week. Ian, who “love’s miniature golf,” was thrilled when we suggested playing a round at our small little local course. These Eurosized miniature courses are smaller and made of plywood covered in artificial turf. Consequently, the rules state not to stand on the green unless it is impossible to reach your ball from outside – it took a little getting used to. After a frustratingly enjoyable 18 holes, I was the reigning champion.

We arrived at our first choice for dinner, an empty restaurant (literally all the tables were empty) since we were a good hour before Cypriot dinner time. Since we didn’t have a reservation, we were SOL. Stop number two, was the adjoining Italian restaurant where were again met with a sea of empty tables and the question, “Do you have a reservation?” Our persona non grata threesome was about to turn away, when apparently they just got a cancellation over the phone. Our meal was accompanied oddly by some multi-disk set of the greatest love songs of the 80’s and 90’s. It didn’t quite fit the restaurant, but we were enjoying guessing the upcoming song…“Time Love and Tenderness” , “Endless Love” , “The Greatest Love of All” … By the way , the restaurant didn’t fill up until we were on to dessert…an hour and a half later. We all had a joke over it being the perfect romantic high school first date – miniature golf followed by dinner. To top off the evening, we were invited by one of “C’s” Cypriot colleagues to go out for drinks at a bar called Drifter’s…which seemed quite American on the inside. It was a fun evening: lot’s of laughs, stories, and good music.

Check for a few photos added from Seattle a couple posts ago...

Cyprus’ Finest and The Great Pigeon Eradication

That “I Want to Shower After Sitting Here Feeling”
We have quite possibly found the best thing about Cyprus…Rio Cineplex #1. Our expectations were pretty much set at a concrete floor, torn screen, musty old gum covered carpet smell, and a “I want to take a shower after sitting here” feeling. Our minds were literally blown when we walked into the theater and saw widely spaced out comfy leather Lazy Boyesque love seats with bass speakers inside them. There was a large screen, great sound, and an intermission of all things. We were literally shocked at the amazing cinematic experience and have determined regardless of what is playing, that we’ll be regulars at all future screenings at Rio #1. By the way, we saw Munich, which puts Cyprus three months behind in movie releases.

Pigeon Nest Eradication
One of my very few pet peeves are pigeons...they’re nasty, make a constant cooing racket, and annoyingly make a whistling noise when they fly. My morning routine usually consisted of opening the balcony door quickly to scare off whoever had spent the night. Regardless of the amount of effort put into cleaning the tile balcony, the gleaming floor was always met with pigeon poop. The last straw in my crusade against my winged nemesis’s was when a polygamous male pigeon and two “lady” (term used loosely) pigeons permanently set up shop above our balcony. This equated into cooing all night and additional poop on the balcony.

Although I felt a wee bit guilty about sweeping their nest into a strategically placed trashcan, I’ve been able to sleep soundly with a clear conscience. My combat with the pigeons didn’t end with the home eradication, but after an extensive hardware store search I found pigeon spikes. After conquering the language barrier and borrowing “steps” from my 80 year old super, I began the six floors up on a rickety six foot ladder Maginot Line of pigeon defenses. The first battle was won Saturday morning when a pigeon aborted a landing attempt on the newly fortified balcony. I’m happy to say that after three days the balcony is still poop and roost free!

Catching Up

Well I’ve been back in Cyprus for over a week and have settled back into the “island lifestyle.” I apologize to all the loyal blog readers on the delay in getting a new post up, but I’m now back into the metaphorical blog saddle again. The quick (to prevent carpal tunnel for me and boring you to tears) three week catch up is as follows:

• London We hadn’t been back to London since spending a quarter there in college in 1998, and it was really a great trip. We spent a good chunk of time just wandering around soaking in the ol’ British ambience. London reminded us of a clean, polite New York City – West Village of New York City to be exact with all the low lying buildings. The highlights of the trip were probably soaking in what we’ve been lacking the most…culture (theater, museums, a wide variety of restaurants). We saw four discounted shows: We Will Rock You (Queen Musical), Blood Brothers, Night of the Iguana (starring Woody Harrelson), and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (starring Christian Slater). Tea at the Ritz was also extremely memorable…as we gorged ourselves on sandwiches (crusts cut off of course), pastries, desserts and two hefty silver pots of tea. I still haven’t been able to bring myself to drink tea with milk and sugar since.
• Seattle In our four days in Seattle, I made my reverending debut by performing the ceremony thanks to my online ordination at the lovely Modesto based Universal Life Church for our friend’s Traci and Mike’s wedding. They asked and I gladly accepted. I performed the ceremony up in front of about 150 people and it turned out quite well if I do say so myself. Surprisingly people came up to me afterwards telling me how wonderful the ceremony was, or how “it made me cry”, and you “don’t do this for a living…” I'm not quitting my day job or anything :^) but it was fun and an honor to do it.
  

• LA/NYC "C" headed back to Cyprus for work and I spent a week in California visiting family and friends, and then a couple nights in New York catching up with our great friends D and Justin in NYC.
  

Whew. Well that, very quickly got you back to us in Cyprus and I'll be sure to get some witty entertaining blogs up soon :^)