Videos of Palistinians throwing rocks and bottles about four blocks from my second Jerusalem hotel was a rude awakening on Monday. I've never discounted the political situation, but I kept hearing phrases like 'longest period of sustained peace in recent memory' and I think I fooled my self a little. It's not going to deter me. If suicide bombers start going off again, I have a feeling Janeen will strongly encourage me to find another destination.
As promised in my last post, here are some more details about my plans for visiting Egypt and Jordan. On Sunday the 23rd of May, I'm going to leave Jerusalem on an early morning bus for Eilat, Israel's southernmost town, on the Gulf of Aqaba, a gulf off the Red Sea. The next morning, I am going to take a cab to the border with Jordan, then once in Jordan, take a cab to Wadi Rum, a desert hamlet of Lawrence of Arabia fame. I hope to do some hiking that day or possibly a camel trek. The next day, the 25th, I am going to the famed ruins of Petra. Anyone who has seen the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has seen Petra. It is that building at the end that is carved into the side of a mountain.
The next day, I will take a cab from my hotel in Wadi Rum to Aqaba, Jordan, where I will catch a fast ferry to Nuweiba, Egypt. This ferry has a decent website, but I have heard lots of stories about it's timetable being unreliable. Worst case scenario would be that I would have to go back to Eilat and the cross to Egypt going through Southern Israel. Assuming the ferry goes as planned, I will catch an afternoon bus to the Egyptian resort town of Dahab. The following morning, I will take the hotel's shuttle to the town of St. Cathrine's in the middle of the Sinai Peninsula. In St. Cathrine's I am going to see the monastery of the same name, and then climb Mount Sinai of 10 Commandments and Burning Bush fame for what I hope will be a spectacular round of sunset photos. After a night a the Bedouin Camp in St. Cathrine's, I'll take the hotel shuttle back to my hotel in Dahab for a restful day on the beach. The next morning, I'll head back to Isreal by bus via the border crossing at Taba, Egypt. The following morning, May 30th, I fly from Eilat to Ben-Gurion Airport, and then home via Philadelphia, arriving back on Memorial Day in the afternoon, jet-legged, exhausted and I hope enlightened.
In my next post (Hopefully next weekend) I'm going to lay out my plans for the week I'll have a rental car, another adventure I'm sure.
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