ROD INTERVIEWS ROD….ON EGYPT & JORDAN
The Bear Creek Chronicle recently caught up with our Contributing Editor, Rod Reynolds, upon his return with wife Dee from their trip to Egypt and Jordan. Upon arrival in Cairo, they joined 32 others on a tour directed by Tauck World Discovery. Following is what little we could glean from their most recent adventures.
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Q. Welcome back. You don’t look as if you’re suffering from jet lag.
A. Then why does the clock say it’s 8:00 PM and I have the urge to go out and take a picture of a camel?
Q. Let’s start with your flight over. With all the recent publicity about airport security, what was your experience? Did you encounter the new full-body scans?
A. No. If they had the equipment, they didn’t bother. With all us old people the equipment would only have resulted in a “Still Life” study.
Q. You are suffering jet lag, aren’t you? What about your impression of Cairo.
A. An enormous city with a lot of trash about, probably why so many people ignore the sidewalks and walk in the streets, which are already choked with vehicles, both motorized and animal driven. Actually we spent little time in the city except to go to the Cairo Museum, which has an amazing collection of antiquities on display. There will be a new museum, which hopefully will enable them to realize the enormous potential with the material they have stored away.
Q. What about security? Did you feel safe?
A. The government required that there be an armed guard on our coach and while walking with the local tour guide. We always felt perfectly safe ― didn’t have to rescue the guard at any time. Our problem was with the shopkeepers.
Q. How do you mean?
A. The people in both Egypt and Jordan are very friendly, but the shopkeepers, of which there are thousands, will not take no for an answer. They expect you to keep bargaining until you finally give in and buy. For example, one shopkeeper followed Dee about 100 yards from his shop to our bus, coming down $10 dollars on his price every 50 feet.
Q. Did she finally buy?
A. Yes, but her strategy was all wrong. She should have gone to a bus parked another 100 yards away which would have brought the price down at least another 50%.
Q. Of course, you visited the Pyramids and Sphinx. Were they as awesome as advertised?
A. If you must use the word awesome, the answer would still be “yes.” We went back at night for their Sound and Light show. Seeing the Pyramids lit up at night is an experience of a lifetime, but otherwise the show was way off Broadway without popcorn.
Q. So, what is there beside the Pyramids and Sphinx? Is that the highpoint of the tour?
A. Far from it. It is mind-boggling how much the ancient Egyptians built and achieved, much of which is still to be discovered and/or dug up. We’re talking about several thousand years, but with all the time and effort to quarry, transport and carve enormous blocks of stone, it’s amazing they still had time to plant crops, wage wars, poison pharaohs, make sacrifices to the Sun God, plus whatever other gods needed to be conjured up at the time ― all of this throughout the 600 mile stretch of the Nile River below what is now the Aswan Dam.
Q. Speaking of the Aswan Dam, I assume you visited it.
A. Yes. It was here that we boarded a riverboat for a four-day cruise down the Nile visiting various sites at Agilika Island, Kom Ombo, Edfu, Luxor, and Karnak.
Q. What was the most memorable experience or site you visited?
A. There were a great many, but the number of statues, temples, etc. built by, for and of Ramses II (about 1250 BC) takes the definition of the word “ego” to a whole new level.
Q. Was there a low point in this part of the tour?
A. Only that they didn’t have a memorial to Johnny Carson in Karnak.
Q. You’re stooping pretty low there, aren’t you?
A. If you say so.
Q. After the boat trip you flew to Jordan?
A. Yes. This was the time that my brain calcified from eating too much goat cheese at breakfast. I made the mistake of packing tweezers and nail clippers in my carryon bag. At the airport they sent the security guys in a tizzy to the point I couldn’t tell what they were saying.
Q. What happened?
A. At the end of the flight the pilot came back in the cabin and handed me my stuff. Amazing. No ― embarrassing.
Q. OK. So now you’re in Jordan. What next?
A. A fairly long coach ride from Aqaba to Petra with a stop at Wadi Rum, an area with distinctive hills and rocks out in the desert, including the so-called Seven Pillars rock formation (remember The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by Lawrence of Arabia?). But Petra, of course, was the principal destination. This was a five mile (roundtrip) walk down a spectacular narrow canyon that opened out into a small valley where the famous Treasury is carved into the mountainside. Actually, this area was once a city with many habitations, temples, tombs, etc. carved into the sandstone.
Q. What about that five miles you mentioned? Did everyone walk the whole way?
A. Everyone walked in, but coming back you had numerous opportunities with locals offering donkey or camel rides. Also you could go by horse-drawn carriage which was a wild ride that could rattle your teeth into the back of your neck. Dee and I walked.
Q. Anything else in Jordan?
A. We visited the extensive ruins of a Roman city in Jerash on the outskirts of Amman, as well as Mt. Nebo, believed to be the burial site of Moses. Our final night was in a large hotel complex down by the Dead Sea (over 1,300 feet below sea level). One stop was by the River Jordan where we had the ridiculous sight of our group on one side of the river and an American group touring Israel on the other side (forty feet away) taking pictures of each other.
Q. So, have I covered everything?
A. You’ve hardly scratched the surface. But on the other hand, perhaps this is all your readers can reasonably be expected to take at one sitting.
Q. Well then, how would you sum up your trip?
A. By saying that we had a very compatible and enjoyable group of people in our tour, with outstanding guides, including the Tauck tour director who kept us in line, and took care of us at all times.
Q. Are you planning your next trip?
A. Not if you’re going to ask me a lot of inane questions when I get back.