Adventure Travel in the Middle East

Foodie Friday: Doner Kebab

August 6, 2010 By Jillian

One of our first Foodie Friday’s when we reached Arabia was that of shwarma. Meat roasting over an open flame mixed with wonderful veggies and served up on some version of bread. We’ve eaten this all over the place since but by the name of Doner Kebab in Germany and if we get to Greece, there it will be called a gyro. I’m writing about the Doner now not because it is so different but because it is the type of food, that almost perfectly describes Turkey’s place in the world, straddling two continents.

It was the Turks who brought this delicious dish to Germany (although we heard at least one German say that it was from Berlin). It is Istanbul that serves as the gateway between Europe and nearly everything else that mattered in the pre-Colombian world. The dish is as common in Munich as is pizza in New York.

As we embark on a journey through the silk road it is dishes like Doner that we expect to continue to surprise us the most. We certainly won’t write about most of them, but it is how each of these things is the same thing altered by similar cultures rather than different things created by different cultures. The very word for pizza is derived from the somewhat similar and equally familiar pita, a dish that is eaten in various forms to this day across the entire Levant, not just in Italy.

Just as the Turks of Central Asia brought Doner to Europe, they brought silk, spices, and technology from the east as well. Their relatives mixed with the nearby Persians and both mixed with the not too far off Arabs. We will see, taste, and enjoy bits and mixes of all of these things over the next few months on our way to China.

Country Guide: Egypt

June 27, 2010 By Danny

Egypt may be a touristy place but it is also extremely backpacker friendly with a rather large selection of budget accommodation options in all major tourist spots as well as 50% student discounts at most attractions with a student ID, including an ISIC card.

Transportation: Getting up and down the Nile is best done by overnight train. Egyptian security conditions, or at least the Egyptian Government’s opinion of those conditions, is always changing meaning that other options may or may not be available. For planning purposes best to expect to use one of the more expensive trains to travel between Cairo, Luxor and Aswan. Sinai is connected to Cairo by daily bus service.

Aswan: Aswan does not hold the same ‘must see’ status that Luxor does. If you have extra time by all means it is worth including as it does hold some fantastic sites but if you’re a bit short then you won’t miss out too much. The Temple of Isis is truly magnificent, if not completely rebuilt in the modern era, and the region is covered with various Nubian artifacts and restored temples from when Nubia was downed under the rising waters of Lake Nasser. A trip to Abu Simbel could be a way to top off any trip to Aswan, and might even be your entire reason for going, but choose wisely as most trips depart Aswan at 3am, leaving you a bit tired for your big tour. Get to Aswan from Cairo via either overnight train or a short flight. Transportation options to Luxor will likely include either bus or train; at the time of writing, caravans are no longer used by the police along this route.

If visiting Aswan from Luxor you will also have the option to book a Nile cruise to take you to and from Aswan. These typically are all inclusive and run anywhere from $50 to $500 per person per night, quality naturally varies immensely.

Luxor: The ancient city of Thebes in all its glory. This city just bleeds Egyptian history from the impressive Luxor Temple right downtown to the incredible Karnak temple that even played a role in a James Bond flick. Just outside of town are the valleys of the Kings and Queens (home to some rather impressive tombs and more tourists Disney) as well as more temples than you can shake a stick at. The options abound and you could feel quite satisfied after only a couple of days, but even if you spent a full week you probably couldn’t see everything. Lodging options abound, as to tour packages so be careful when booking.

Cairo: A big and bustling city but you probably came here for more than just the shwarma… you came here for the Pyramids and the Egypt Museum. Unless you are the first in line at the pyramids there isn’t much reason to getting up early as they will be packed from 8am on till closing. We have been told the extra money one must pay to enter the pyramid’s is not worth it so if you are considering this, do think twice. The Egypt Museum is rather impressive to look through but if you’re the type who likes organization and the ability to learn something you will either need to hire a guide or be prepared to be disappointed.

Sinai: Dahab and Sharm el Shek are the two main attractions on the coast. Both offering all you could ever want in the form of beach and underwater excitement with some of the best diving available on the planet. The difference between the two is that Sharm is where the nice hotels are and Dahab is where the backpackers go. Tours to Mt Sinai can be booked from either location but for our money it is better to base yourself in St. Catherine’s and climb Mt. Sinai by day rather than to take the package trip and climb by night…cheaper as well. There is also a ferry service across the Red Sea but we were told that the bus through the canal zone is actually faster, more reliable, and cheaper.

Onward Travel:

Israel: The only land border open to US citizen and most others without prearranged visas, this is straight forward but can be nerve wracking if you have any other Arab visas in your passport.

Jordan: The ferry to Acaba is straight forward if not always running late. Be prepared to spend the day dealing with this two hour crossing. If you want to get to Petra the same day you should prepare to put a group together while on the ferry to share a private tax.

Sudan: The Aswan ferry to Sudan runs a bit more according to schedule but it is long and uncomfortable. Choose a spot on the port deck (Northbound) if planning to sleep outside so that the morning sun doesn’t hit you dead on.

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Jerusalem

June 16, 2010 By Danny

For most people, Israel is a destination that is visited via an all-inclusive tourist bus. That is how I entered Jerusalem for the first time, Jillian as well. We stopped at an overlook to see the Old City, sang a couple of songs, then listened to to religious music on the remainder of the journey to help set the mood. I imagine it is this way for most ‘pilgrims’ of any of the faiths that consider Jerusalem to be their spiritual holy land.

This time, things were different. Things were exactly as they were for every other city in the 29 countries we visited on the way here to Israel. We got on the bus in one city, and rode into the bus station at the next city. We entered Jerusalem without stopping for any scenic overlook and then were subjected to the standard display of security (which, in my opinion, was highly ineffective). Inside the station, the first thing we saw was a McDonald’s…Kosher of course. Much of the city itself, felt just that, like a city. It had some big and fancy buildings. People were going about their business. Tourists buying things in shops. Fancy hotels next to cheap ones.

Walking to the Old City my images of Jerusalem began to change. Outside the Jaffa gate were ritzy shops displaying the best in fashion trends. Inside the gate was shop after shop selling Judaica and other Israeli themed merchandise and souvinirs. I expected the Old City to have a market but I did not expect the Old City to be a market. Prices were high and we had a good laugh at the hoards of people bargaining hard to save a dollar or two. This was not the market we’ve become accustomed to.

Visiting the Kotel, also known as the Western Wall, was the most disappointingpart for me. A visit here, for us, felt a bit obligatory as Jews but what we found was hardly what we expected. Less than 100 meters from the wall, the holiest place in all of Judaism, was some kind of military function. Hundreds of troops were in uniform marching, more like goofing off with some level of forward motion, to a square with machine guns decorating tables.

The ceremony was in Hebrew so we are not entirely sure what it was we were witnessing but between what we saw and what we have pieced together in speaking to Israeli’s after the fact, lead us to believe it was a graduation for the paratrooper division of the Israeli Defense Forces. Since it was this division who captured The Wall for Israel they’ve held their graduation in front of it ever since.

I am not a religious man but I found the display, especially in light of the current turmoil with the Gaza Flotilla, to be deeply troubling. It made me feel as though this holy place was being treated like a trophy of war rather than a religious center. After all the traveling we’ve done I can safely say this was a unique experience, but for the wrong reasons.

In the end we had a nice time in Jerusalem, just as we did in the rest of Israel. As has been true of many places we’ve visited though it wasn’t the place that made it special but the people. We stayed with old friends in Tel Aviv, couch surfed in Jerusalem, and celebrated nice meals with family. These are the nice memories and the ones I most hope to repeat on our next visit.

Into the holy land

June 15, 2010 By Danny

Walking into Israel was, in a way, walking from Kansas into Oz. Gone was the bad internet, livestock sharing bus space with us, and people yelling at you everywhere you went because you are the western tourist. In place of these things was flat-screen TV’s, cans of Dr. Pepper, Falafel served WITH hummus rather than plain, and functioning highways. The first step to entering Oz however, is making your way through the twister…in our case that would be questioning about why we would go to a country like Sudan.

Mostly the questions were innocent enough but they did get annoying:

Agent: Why did you go to Sudan?

Me: It was in between Egypt and Ethiopia, it was just a transit visa to get across.

Agent: Why did you stay there 10 days?

Me: Well there is ferry that goes from Sudan to Egypt, that is the only border crossing, and it only goes once a week.

Agent: Oh, OK. Don’t you have a cell phone number?

Me: I had a SIM card in Egypt but it doesn’t work here, you can keep the SIM as a souvenir of having met me if you’d like

Agent: No, I just need the number so that I can have Mossad trace it and see if your a terrorist.

Me: I don’t know the number, we just use it to call taxi’s. You’re welcome to keep it though.

Agent: That will be a problem because you were in Sudan and now you don’t know the number to this random SIM card that you’ve handed over to me and don’t care about and have only had for two weeks.

Me: Any way we can speed this up for a fellow Jew?

Agent: How do I know you’re Jewish?

Me: I can drop my pants and you can see for yourself….

And so it went for three hours before the start of Shabbat, allowing us to catch the last bus north with space on it with only 30 minutes to spare. We arrived to Tel Aviv about one hour before sundown.

The most surprising thing to us about traveling in Israel was just how expensive it was. Our budget doesn’t quite show this expense because we stayed with friends the entire time, but a can or bottle of soda usually cost about $2. Shwarma cost about 3-5 times as much as it did in Egypt and falafel even more. There is no doubt in our minds that Israel is the most expensive country we have been to on this entire trip. It really felt like we were back in the US, save of course for the Hebrew all over the place.

So what did we do in Israel? We spent our time relaxing, going to the beach, avoiding most of the tourist scene, buying jeans (first pair to travel with us on this entire trip) and tons of dead sea beauty products. We relaxed, recharged and just had a nice time catching up with friends.

For those of you who might realize, correctly, that we were actually in Israel for this whole Gaza Flotilla thing, let me tell you what we saw while we were in Tel Aviv….nothing. Everyone was talking about it, many half expected to be in a new war within a week, but we witnessed no riots or protests of any kind during our stay in Tel Aviv. Opinions were diverse and those critical of the operation, like 90% of the rest of the world, were mostly critical of how the military botched a very simple job. The news differed only slightly from foreign accounts in its coverage, not forgetting to remind people of Egypt’s complacency in the matter…a subject many foreign news outlets seemed not to notice.

Foodie Friday: Humus

June 11, 2010 By Jillian

Homus, hummus, humus, humos, hamos, houmous, seriously Wikipedia has eight spellings for it, but in truth it’s all the same. Pureed chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and some spices, humus is found on almost every middle eastern menu. Not quite as popular as in “Revenge of the Zohan,” humus can be categorized as almost an obsession for some people. Everyone’s mom seems to make the best humus, leading me to wonder how humus reached such cult status. I wandered around the grocery store looking for a small tub of humus for a picnic, the only size to be found was nearly ½ a kilogram!

Humus in the middle east is slightly different than what we have on our shelves in the United States. More like a think liquid than a paste, humus is often used as a condiment on falafel or shwarma , not as a dip. Chickpeas have been part of the Mediterranean diet since before 2500BC and its possible that the Ancient Egyptians even ate humus or something like it. The first documented account of humus dates to a 13th century Arab cookbook, but unsurprisingly few cookbooks were published in the medieval period, so really we’ll never know.

Actually the origins of Humus are rather controversial. In 2008 a Lebanese food association lobbied their government to request protected status from the European Commission as a uniquely Lebanese food because it has become so popular in Israel. It’s so popular in fact that there’s an Israeli food website dedicated to humus: http://humus101.com/EN, which covers the controversy much better than I can.

So maybe the dip isn’t as boring as just pureed chickpeas.

Foodie Friday: Doner Kebab

Country Guide: Egypt

Jerusalem

Into the holy land

Foodie Friday: Humus

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