Deb at Medrassa Ben Youssef.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Images from Morocco II
Deb at Medrassa Ben Youssef.
Images from Morocco
Friday, February 25, 2011
Final images from Jordan
General Observations
Allow me to step away from the descriptions of the places we
are visiting to talk about the nature of the trip.
We had some concerns about visiting so many places in such a
short time. Obviously, you are not going to do an exhaustive
visit anywhere.
But the trip as formatted had a special appeal to me. Before
this trip, I had never been away from the office for more than
two weeks. I saw it as an opportunity to see the maximum amount
in the shortest period possible. That is important when you
have clients who expect you to push their cases. The second
aspect of the trip was the lack of hassle. I go on vacation
to enjoy myself. I do not want to fret over travel arrangements,
language barriers, and local customs which I did not anticipate.
On this trip, I did not have to worry about any of these. You
show up when your schedule says to show up and you put your bags
outside your room when you are told to do so. Otherwise, you
are guided through the wonders of the world. There is no way that
I could have ever done the research to know where to visit, the best
hotels, and the best local guides. Of course, there is a price for
such convenience but it has been worth every cent.
The trip can be compared to standing in the water at the ocean.
Each day a new wave hits you. One morning, you are observing big
game in Tanzania and the next morning, you are standing in front of
the Treasury in Petra, Jordan. You never know what to expect because
these are new places for us.
It has been physically demanding as we have not always slept as much
as might be desired. But the excitement of a new stimulating
environment every day compensates for any sleep deprivation.
The trip is sponsored by National Geographic which publicizes the
trip and provides some lecturers. But it is really run by TCS/
Starquest out of Seatle. They contract with Thomson Airways, a large
charter plane outfit out of the UK to provide the 757 and flight crew.
But the expedition staff of three persons on the plane and ground
is paid by TCS/Starquest. These people have done many of these trips
and know exactly what to expect. They also have advance people at each
location a day or two in advance to make sure the accomodations, customs,
and local guides are ready for us. We talked last night to the
advance man in Jordan. He flew in from London for this assignment. He
candidly admitted "gratuities" are sometimes expected by local officals
for the preferential treatment that we received on this trip. I expressed
some amazement that TCS/Starquest was able to make the change from Egypt
to Jordan on such quick notice. For example, seventy eight people plus
staff added to a busy hotel two weeks before a arrival could present
some problems. The advance man explained that TCS/Starquest is such a
presence in the travel industry that a hotel will go out of its way to
accomodate a request.
In sum, the trip has more than met our expectations and has whetted our
appetite for more international travel. It has also taught us what we
should do if we decide to venture out on our own.
A specific comment about Jordan. One of our readers pointed out that the
Treasury appeared prominently in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Thanks.
are visiting to talk about the nature of the trip.
We had some concerns about visiting so many places in such a
short time. Obviously, you are not going to do an exhaustive
visit anywhere.
But the trip as formatted had a special appeal to me. Before
this trip, I had never been away from the office for more than
two weeks. I saw it as an opportunity to see the maximum amount
in the shortest period possible. That is important when you
have clients who expect you to push their cases. The second
aspect of the trip was the lack of hassle. I go on vacation
to enjoy myself. I do not want to fret over travel arrangements,
language barriers, and local customs which I did not anticipate.
On this trip, I did not have to worry about any of these. You
show up when your schedule says to show up and you put your bags
outside your room when you are told to do so. Otherwise, you
are guided through the wonders of the world. There is no way that
I could have ever done the research to know where to visit, the best
hotels, and the best local guides. Of course, there is a price for
such convenience but it has been worth every cent.
The trip can be compared to standing in the water at the ocean.
Each day a new wave hits you. One morning, you are observing big
game in Tanzania and the next morning, you are standing in front of
the Treasury in Petra, Jordan. You never know what to expect because
these are new places for us.
It has been physically demanding as we have not always slept as much
as might be desired. But the excitement of a new stimulating
environment every day compensates for any sleep deprivation.
The trip is sponsored by National Geographic which publicizes the
trip and provides some lecturers. But it is really run by TCS/
Starquest out of Seatle. They contract with Thomson Airways, a large
charter plane outfit out of the UK to provide the 757 and flight crew.
But the expedition staff of three persons on the plane and ground
is paid by TCS/Starquest. These people have done many of these trips
and know exactly what to expect. They also have advance people at each
location a day or two in advance to make sure the accomodations, customs,
and local guides are ready for us. We talked last night to the
advance man in Jordan. He flew in from London for this assignment. He
candidly admitted "gratuities" are sometimes expected by local officals
for the preferential treatment that we received on this trip. I expressed
some amazement that TCS/Starquest was able to make the change from Egypt
to Jordan on such quick notice. For example, seventy eight people plus
staff added to a busy hotel two weeks before a arrival could present
some problems. The advance man explained that TCS/Starquest is such a
presence in the travel industry that a hotel will go out of its way to
accomodate a request.
In sum, the trip has more than met our expectations and has whetted our
appetite for more international travel. It has also taught us what we
should do if we decide to venture out on our own.
A specific comment about Jordan. One of our readers pointed out that the
Treasury appeared prominently in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Thanks.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Images from a Jordanian dinner II
Images from a Jordanian dinner
Second Report from Petra, Jordan
Today, we visited the Siq which is almost in front of our hotel. In short, it is a canyon which was carved by moving water through soft limestone over thousands or even millions of years. In some spots, the vertical walls rise 500 feet or more. The stone is various shades of brown, red, and black. The natural formation would be quite an attraction by itself.
But the real deal here is the carving that was done by the bedouin people who lived around here from 500 BC til around 50 AD. The Siq was generally not a residential area but contained tombs and ceremonial spots for such things as weddings. It should be emphasized that they built nothing in the conventional sense but instead carved some times simple and sometimes elaborate facades on the sandstone. And they also carved rooms behind the facades. The most well known and photgraphed tomb is one called the Treasury. It was for one of their revered kings. At the end of the Siq, there is a more open area where the Romans built elaborate buildings in the traditional sense with stones. Many of these building are in ruins but you can get an idea of the original grandeur. It is about 2.5 miles to the end. At the end, there is a climb of 1200 plus steps to a very high vantage point. Of course, the boss said we had to make that climb. Then the only way out is to retrace your steps to the entrance another 2.5 miles. So you can see that we had sufficient exercise today. Of course, we did not have to walk. There were plenty of locals who would have transported us by camel, donkey, horse or a cart pulled by a horse. All this makes for an interesting spectacle in the Siq.
I did not take any pictures as I lost my camera going through airport security yesterday. But I have remedied that situation as I just went out and purchased another camera. The visit to the camera shop was interesting. When we walked in, the proprietor was on his knees on a rug behind the counter doing his prayers. We just waited for him to finish. Thankfully, I had downloaded all my photos to the laptop. But if anyone has a hankering to see what we saw today, just google "Petra" & "Treasury".
Some may be interested in knowing that John McCain and Joe Leiberman are staying at our hotel. We saw Joe at dinner last night. Then I saw him at the breakfast buffet this morning, He was wearing a Stratford, CT
fire/rescue t-shirt (shirt tail out) and red gym shorts. I went back to the table and told Deb never to call me a slob again.
We go to dinner and entertainment tonight outside the hotel. I really like the Middle Eastern food so far. The zuchinni and egg plant are cooked very well and I like the dried fruits. I will post some pictures of the activities tonight.
Tomorrow, we leave for our final destination- Marrekech, Morocco. It is almost a seven hour flight.
But the real deal here is the carving that was done by the bedouin people who lived around here from 500 BC til around 50 AD. The Siq was generally not a residential area but contained tombs and ceremonial spots for such things as weddings. It should be emphasized that they built nothing in the conventional sense but instead carved some times simple and sometimes elaborate facades on the sandstone. And they also carved rooms behind the facades. The most well known and photgraphed tomb is one called the Treasury. It was for one of their revered kings. At the end of the Siq, there is a more open area where the Romans built elaborate buildings in the traditional sense with stones. Many of these building are in ruins but you can get an idea of the original grandeur. It is about 2.5 miles to the end. At the end, there is a climb of 1200 plus steps to a very high vantage point. Of course, the boss said we had to make that climb. Then the only way out is to retrace your steps to the entrance another 2.5 miles. So you can see that we had sufficient exercise today. Of course, we did not have to walk. There were plenty of locals who would have transported us by camel, donkey, horse or a cart pulled by a horse. All this makes for an interesting spectacle in the Siq.
I did not take any pictures as I lost my camera going through airport security yesterday. But I have remedied that situation as I just went out and purchased another camera. The visit to the camera shop was interesting. When we walked in, the proprietor was on his knees on a rug behind the counter doing his prayers. We just waited for him to finish. Thankfully, I had downloaded all my photos to the laptop. But if anyone has a hankering to see what we saw today, just google "Petra" & "Treasury".
Some may be interested in knowing that John McCain and Joe Leiberman are staying at our hotel. We saw Joe at dinner last night. Then I saw him at the breakfast buffet this morning, He was wearing a Stratford, CT
fire/rescue t-shirt (shirt tail out) and red gym shorts. I went back to the table and told Deb never to call me a slob again.
We go to dinner and entertainment tonight outside the hotel. I really like the Middle Eastern food so far. The zuchinni and egg plant are cooked very well and I like the dried fruits. I will post some pictures of the activities tonight.
Tomorrow, we leave for our final destination- Marrekech, Morocco. It is almost a seven hour flight.
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