The route

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Trucking from places to places, sometimes I suddenly got up in the middle of the night from a dream at different hotels and looked around the rooms in the dark. I kept asking myself "where am I?" before consciousness found it's way back to my mind in few minutes later. But I am not the only one out there.

Suze, Egypt (13 March 2010)

OK what's in your mind when it comes to Suze Canal?  Obviously it's one of the most busiest shipping route between Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea. It reduces tremendous of time to travel from Europe or Middle East to Asia that 14th century sea explorer couldn't even imagine. However I discovered something interesting while I was in the main port town at Red Sea canal entry. It was the fish. Walked around for lunch once arrived. Randomly talked to one of the restaurant owners. He said they had freshly caught fish on grill. The fish was from the canal that the species only exist in there. Wow that's a kind of "hybrid" fish living between Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea once the canal was connected. Although canal water could be contaminated by big ships traveling across, I just couldn't resist to try the fish only exist there. Yummy!!!!

Cairo, Egypt (11 March 2010)

Pyramid doesn't disappoint me. Most interesting thing to me probably not the outside but inside. Ran into a wine taster from California when I was in Jordon. He didn't recommend me to go inside the Pyramid because there was not much to see plus it needs to walk through a long haul narrow and short tunnel before getting into the tomb. Although the tomb I went has no mural or some sort, I realized the chamber that houses the stone coffin was proportionally shaped like a home. Something is not oversized but comfortably living in there after life. 

Kom Ombo and Edfu, Egypt (10 March 2010)

Edfu

Kom Ombo

Floating on Nile (8 March 2010)

This was a 3 days and 2 nights felucca trip from Aswan sailing down along Nile river (Felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat). It was a peaceful and relaxing journey. Basically we didn't need to do too much other than looking, sitting, reading, taking a nap.....They cooked on the boat and we ate every meal on the deck.

Besides sailing, there were bonuses out of the agenda. We got a chance to go to a Nubian village visiting one of the crew members' family which was absolutely a highlight of the day. They also brought us to a Tuesday camel market next day. It was fun to see how Nubian trade animals.

Everything was great except the first night sleeping on the felucca deck. Wind stopped, air got stuffy. Mosquitoes and flies started lurking around. The only way to avoid being attacked during sleeping was to cover every inches of our body by blankets, from head to toe. But it got so hot if entirely covered up. Dilemma! I chose sweating over being attacked. I didn't recall how much time I had fell slept. All I remembered was I needed a gigantic cup of tea next day in the morning. My body got really sticky from sweating. I was thrill when they docked the felucca at the spot where we could swim. I didn't even have second thought but jumped into this slow current Nile within a sec. Fantastic!

Aswan, Egypt (6 March 2010)

Luxor, Egypt (5 March 2010)

Finally arrived Egypt civilization. The stories you would hear and watch since your childhood. I felt like I was back into my children period walking into these gigantic stones being carved by wisdom and technology that nowadays modern world can't even compare. How cool!!!!

Diving in Red Sea, Egypt (3 March 2010)

Haven't dived for a long while.....well I just couldn't resist diving in Red sea in this totally touristy but comfortable resort city, Dahab. Water color is not in red apparently but crystal clear. Luckly got a chance to dive over its famous dive site, blue hole, before moving on to the next city.

Israel/Egypt Taba border (3 March 2010)

I think insects do recognize the country border line. Flies had their first appearance and started buzzing around me while I had my lunch at the bus station after crossing the border to Egypt.

Around Dead Sea, Israel (1 March 2010)

Masada

Ein Gedi

Swimming in Dead Sea is weird but fun.