rock city

I just visited Petra, Jordan and was really blown away. It is basically a whole city carved into these beautifully colored mountain walls. Amazing! I def recommend!

the walkway (20min walk through towering cliffs) that takes you to the city Petra.

The Treasury is the first really cool building you come to while walking through Petra. It is the most decorative and elaborate in the whole complex (as well as the most famous).

the most famous shot of the Treasury...made famous by the movie "Indiana Jones and the last crusader" (the theme song was on repeat in my head the whole time i was in Petra!)

a temple complex....many of these buildings were built as tombs for the dead or as banquet/assembly halls. It was basically a whole city built into the side of the mountains! how cool!

is this kid old enough to drive? i think not!

temples

i thought this was cool

another temple

the only free standing temple/building in the complex.... all the others were carved in the sides of cliffs.

i love how people look so funny on donkeys...their feet almost scrape the ground! I laugh every time I see someone riding one and the donkey struggling with the overweight people! so funny and cute!

the monastery...we had to climb to the top of the mountain to see it. i think it was the largest and most impressive temple in the whole of Petra. It was soooo huge, I look like an ant in it!

i love donkeys! this picture looks like it could have been taken from biblical times?

the colors on the rock just blew me away....red, blueish, yellow, orange, brown, black & white!

the Treasury in a different light (right as we were leaving)

mt. sinai, egypt

So today a nice friend of mine showed me how to make all my pictures smaller so that it wouldnt take hours to upload pictures on my blog (would have been good to know 5months ago!) So, I would hope my blogs and pictures will improve from now on.

Anyway, while I was staying in Dahab, Egypt I did more than just lay on the beach....I climbed a mountain! Two girls that I met in Dahab and I decided to take the challenge and climb the mountain for the sunrise. We had to leave Dahab at 11pm and drive 2 hours to the base of the mountain(but not before going through 3 security checkpoints who proceeded to shine lights in our eyes to wake us up for passport checks-couldnt they see we were western??) We then were given a "guide" (aka leader) that was to lead us up the 7496ft mountain in the dark. Im glad Jen gave me a mini flashlight before I left or I would have had real problems (it was already tough avoiding the pointy rocks in my flip flops). Anyway, the hike was interesting bc we had no idea where we were going, all we could see was the camel poop and rocks on the trail and in the distance a string of flashlights weaving up the mountain. It took us 3 hours to finally reach the top(we had some stragglers we had to wait for) We found a huge boulder to chill on and watch the sunrise. It probably was just like any other sunrise but I thought it was much more special bc of mt. sinai's symbolism. It was where Moses received the ten commandments from God. And the thing I think makes it more special is that it is a religious site not only for Christians, but for Jews and Muslims too.

one of the many camels that would sneak up on us and basically run us over on the trail. they sure didnt care who or what was in their way!

a little shop along the hike up the mountain. thats our guide in the pink shirt lighting up a cigarette...and he wasn't even winded! thats one tough cookie!

waiting for the sunrise...it was sooo cold on the top!


the beginning of the sunrise, "here comes the sun"

the outline of the mountains

cool huh?

......no words

the church on the top of the mountain

the rock cliffs were so amazing and it was so cool to look down the mountain and see all the stuff we passed by in the dark.

this is where everyone was sitting during the sunrise

a typical Egyptian man

a little house and garden in the middle of the mountains

a rock arch on the steep but "faster" way down the mountain

can you see it? "I spy a camel"

St. Katherine's Monastery at the base of Mt. Sinai

bell tower in st. katherines

this is supposed to be the "burning bush"??? I thought I'd touch it just in case? ps. if you were just wondering why my pants look like im wearing a diper in the front...its because they were gna make me pay to rent clothes to "cover" my knees so i just sagged them until they got uncomfortable and let me in. hahaha

walk like an egyptian!

So I have left Egypt (currently in Jordan) but have finally found a sec to kinda update everyone on my travels in Egypt. I flew into Luxor and then went to Cairo (for the great pyramids) and then to the Sinai Peninsula to relax for 6days in the great chill town of Dahab! It was a very interesting country and totally diff from any place I've been to thus far.(prob doesnt top my list but had its good features).Sorry about not writing much but when I get home (mid July) I'll elaborate more.

here it is.....the FAMOUS Nile River. but please dont swim in it bc its infested with worms that will eventually work their way to your eyes and thus affect your vision. needless to say i just stuck my big toe in.

the souq (aka shopping area) in Luxor. the men working at the shops would do absolutely everything to try to entice you into their shops...i found it sooo amusing! :)

Luxor temple, in the middle of luxor. the Muslims built a mosque right int he middle of the temple and the Romans defaced the temple too, painting christian biblical scenes on the walls of the temples thus trying to make it into a church.

Luxor temple at night.

the outside of one of the tombs in the valley of the kings. we werent allowed to take pictures inside but the inside of the temples were amazing. pictures are just covering the whole tomb and its all in color and perfectly preserve. they used precious stones to make the color and then covered the paintings with bee's wax to preserve them. how intuitive!

the inside of my taxi in Cairo. from the moment I arrived, I knew I wanted to leave. It was so polluted, had very very very crazy drivers and very very creepy men. YUCK!

I have a lot of pictures like these (its the cost of traveling alone) so i thought it was time to include one in my blog. this is taken on the balcony of my hotel room in cairo.

The "money" shot! My camel's name was Mickey Mouse (yeah right!- i think George suits him better?) The pyramids were cool but the fact that the city of Cairo basically comes right up to the pyramids kinda ruins the whole atmosphere(plus there was a pizza hut right across from the pyramids....do you think Pharaohs like pizza?)

desert anyone?

there are police checkpoints just like these all throughout egypt. its a good thing bc it protects the tourist but it also makes traveling in Egypt long and tiresome. however, it is a bit funny bc you have all these young guys just lounging around until a car magically appears from the desert and then they act all official "checking" passports.

one view of the walkway in dahab, egypt. it was such a great chilled out city...totally different than the rest of Egypt which is very strict and conservative.

there are tons of cats in egypt and this was a typical situation at any dinner. this pic was right before the kitten jumped on my table and stole a piece of my pita bread. it was so cute that i didnt mind. but it was funny that with every dinner came a water spray bottle to shoo the cats away!

the view of part of the Funny Mummy restaurant in Dahab...i practically lived there and became a local for a week with all the workers. It was such a chill place. Fire twirling shows at nite and really cool nice people to talk to all day and night. (plus really good food)

I went snorkeling in the Red Sea at a place called Blue Hole. It was an awesome place to snorkel and dive bc the reef was right off the beach(rocks) and its a weird phenomenon bc reef is surrounding this crater like hole that dips down hundreds of feet for some reason (no one really knows?)

dubai, UAE aka. construction city

So, on my way from Kathmandu to Egypt I had a day layover in Dubai, UAE. I was actually really excited to get to see the world famous Dubai but was immediately let down after touring around for a hour. First off, the hype is way over rated! Everything is under construction! (they are currently building 7,000 sky scrappers!) There is no history to the city because most of the natives are basically Bedouins that have roamed he desert for years and years. All the cool things that will eventually make Dubai interesting are not built yet. Plus the traffic is a nightmare (maybe worse than the states) and the heat is even worse. When I was there it was 39degrees celsius (102F) with a humidity of 70%. Needless to say I've never felt such extreme heat! (on top of that, I wasn't even there during their hot months. I guess it can get as hot as 52C or 125F!!!!! yikes!) Anyway, this hasn't been my favorite place since traveling.

the ski slope inside a mall which has every single store from around the world. I saw, h&m, forever 21, zara (european), abercrombie, marble slab...the list goes on and on.

peering in to the ski slope...who'd ever thought? skiing in the middle of the desert?

the outside view of the indoor ski slope

this is the land view of the "world" island they are currently building. they are basically building islands that will take the shape of the countries of the earth. when it will be done it will be so big that it can be seen from space. i guess the rich are really interested in the idea of owning thier own country that a guy bought the "UK" island for $40million dollars! insane!

thought it was funny that one of the gas stations was named "chicago beach"! a gallon of gas in the UAE cost about $2.00-for some reason i thought it would cost less????

this hotel is the worlds only 7star hotel. each room has their own reception counter so not waiting in lines and each room has their own butlier! there is a helicopter landing site and a floating rooftop restaurant/bar! I guess the luxury suite costs $9,0000per night (I guess ill never be staying there ever!)

what will soon be the worlds tallest building and will always be the worlds tallest building bc they built it so if anyone else built a taller building that they could add on to the top to always make it the worlds tallest building....yep they are crazy over there!

construction, construction, construction and more construction