24th - 26th April 2010 - Amman Jordan –I skipped last day in Sri Lanka but I will do it later

Amman – Jordan
We have flown in hours and hours over miles and miles of desert. Every now and then you see circles of green patches in the desert where it is being irrigated to grow vegetables but other than that the area approaching Amman is very barren. Amman is to the south east of Isreal. The funniest thing is that NO maps in this part of the world say Isreal; either the country is left blank or referred to as New Palestine.
The biggest surprise to me is that Amman is very cool. I was expecting hot and dusty instead we got cool and dry. It is impeccably clean in comparison to Sri Lanka which is hot, dusty and dirty. What a pleasant change.
Once again after we arrived we met with Bill and got our scores and our scavenger booklets. Lily and I placed second in the Sri Lanka leg. I am so proud of Lils. We plotted our plans and set off into Amman. The first thing we noticed is it the first place that we have been that there is zero signs in English and everyone we stop in the street to speak to cannot speak one word of English. We can't find an English speaking book store and basically we are spinning top in mud. Finally we decided to just fly by the seat of our pants and start the challenges.

Our first stop was to visit the Abdullah mosque in the centre of town. This is a new mosque (thank goodness we moved away from the Buddhist temples now we are in Muslim country)) this mosque is relatively new built in the last 10 years or so. It has a blue dome that can be seen from miles away. We attempted at first to just enter the building but we were quickly stopped by the guard, you see women cannot enter unless they are fully covered from the tip of their heads to the floor. They took us downstairs and gave us long black gowns with hoods to wear. When I say us I mean the women, there is no dress code for the en except to remove their hats while in the temple.

After this we set off for the ancient city of Jerash. What an amazing place. It is an entire Roman city that has been excavated. The people back then where definitely terrific architects. The city was well laid out and we had certain buildings and temples to find. Remember last night we walked Adams Peak. Everything is a little sore and needless to say the Temple of Artemis was the furthest away and guess what? It is up 100 steps. Once again I say. Thanks Bill. I say that but the temple is beautiful and so ornate I was glad that I was encouraged to walk and see it. We met some very friendly kids on the steps who were excited to practice their English.

Everyone in this country is so nice. I had some preconceived ideas about the people here. I knew they were of Arab descent and was expecting rude and arrogant people. I couldn't have been more wrong. They are so nice, gentle and helpful
We left Jerash and headed back to the hotel. Once there we changed TAXI's and headed out again. This time we set off for Mount Nebo (where Moses arrived with the Israelites. The place where he looked across at the Promised Land and where he was never permitted to see. Moses is actually buried on Mount Nebo. The view is spectacular and as I said it looks at the river Jordan, Israel and the Dead Sea.

Next we went to Madera to St. George's Church. To our disappointment when we got there the church was closed. Our TAXI driver had had difficulty finding this spot and we had arrived later than expected. Well to my astonishment the driver jumped out and started knocking on this huge metal gate. Suddenly the centre of the gate opened and a young boy/man peered out and asked if he could help, he spoke perfect English. We explained our predicament that we had to see the Biblical mosaic map. He invited us in and shepherd us into the dimly lit church. All of us were peering around to see if we could find this map and leave quickly so as not to disturb the boy any longer. Again to our amazement he bent over and rolled up the carpet on the floor and revealed this amazing map of the biblical lands that had been tied into the floor. Madaba was the home of the Moabites back in the Old Testament. As I told you these people are wonderful and are so delighted to help you out. We tried to give him a tip but he refused it so we dropped it into the collection box.

We went around the corner had dinner in the required Alloyah Café and tried to smoke the "Hubbly Bubbly" that was another challenge. We chose apple flavor and we all choked and coughed our way through the first puff. YUCCK!! It actually left me feeling nauseous afterwards. We headed back home to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another very early morning. We are off to Petra. Bill put a curfew on us, we had to be in the hotel by 10.00pm and we could not leave the hotel until 4.30 am so guess what we are off at 4.30…..

Day 2 -Started at 4.30am

Zoe is not going to scavenge today as she has a lot of work to do for the trial she is going straight into when she gets back to USA. It seemed unfair for Rainy to stay home when he had paid to be on this trip so we begged him to come out with Lily and me today. We are off to the lost city of Petra. This is a city that was completely carved out of a mountain. The buildings are made out of one solid piece of rock. I have only ever heard for Petra and we are excited to go and see. It is a long long drive to Petra and our rules say we have to travel on "the King's Highway" either into or out of Petra. The Kings Highway is the same route as was travelled by Moses back when he was leading the Israelites. He asked the King if he could travel on the Kings Highway but he promised he would turn neither left nor right off of it". This Highway is much longer and windy that the new highway. We opted to travel into Petra on the Highway and leave the Kings way. It was a lovely drive and I watched the sunrise over the mountains while Lily and Rainy caught up on their sleep.
We had to travel into 'The Treasury of Petra" by horse drawn carriages. These carriages supposedly look the same as the ones made back before Christ. Well we call them the shake and bake carriages. They travel very fast but they shake up your gizzards, there is no way to take a photo while on them because it would be a shaken blur. We hustled through close caverns and openings in the rocks to reach The Treasury.

When we got there it took your breath away. The Petra rocks are pink in colour and the craftsmanship and detail cannot be described. I thought the Roman city the day before was awesome but that was made out of different stones and put together. This place has no joins; it is all carved out of solid rock.

We meander through the old roads and made our way to the other end of the city where we had to ride donkeys up to the Monastery. Fool Bert here thought we were going to ride up on a mountain path. Well no such luck, the donkeys climb up over 900 worn down, broke steps and along the way on both sides of you are very far drop offs to rocks below. Up and away we went clinging on to the donkeys for dare life. I am thinking, donkeys are very sure footed animals and all will be well. Well what goes up, must come down so not only did we ride the donkeys up but back down as well!

The Monastry was another amazing wonder to see. It was enormous as Lily says when we took pictures in front of it we look like ants in comparison to the size of the structure.

Well if I thought riding donkeys up was scary well there is nothing to describe coming down. They actually "jump" over the rocks and steps. Yes I said jump and here I am struggling to stay on. Well again I comforted myself that these donkeys do this all the time so we are safe. So we get down the mountain safely and we are riding along on sand when suddenly I see Lily's donkey stumble and fall over and Lily is a heap on the ground. She was so brave she scrambled back up and assures all of u s that she was fine. She did not want to ride again, she felt sorry for the donkey but we were a far way from where we needed to go so after a couple of minutes she rode the donkey up to the Bedwin camp.
Then we set off for Wadi Ram where we had to ride camels like Lawrence of Arabia with headdress. So Lils tied her head up in a kaffiah and we rode camels.

Then we drove into the dessert to have some tea and cool water at the base of a spring in a Bedwin tent. What a neat experience. Out there is also the rock formation called The Seven Ancient Wonders. It was a long way to go but we had fun.

Our next scavenge was to go and swim in the Dead Sea and take a picture reading the newspaper while we floated. If we walked up Wadi Mujib Gorge we got more points. Well we drove for about 4 hours looking for this gorge with a TAXI driver who insisted on stopping at every vegetable stand on the way to buy sacks of vegetables. We came to the conclusion that he must have a vegetable stand at home or something. We were getting more and more harassed as he stopped about half a dozen times to barging and purchase these vegetables. By the time we were getting close to Mujib we had decided we were going to let him go (for rules purposes) and go on and try and do a few more scavenges. Well the travel imp had it in for us because in the middle of nowhere our TAXI broke down. Yes we had another broken TAXI but in the middle of nowhere.

We have the Dead Sea on our left and huge mountains on our right and an empty highway for as far as you could see. What next. Rainy and I had to get out and push start the TAXI. At the next stop the dumb dumb head turns off the TAXI and once again we had to push start it.
We decided after walking up Mujib Gorge to cut our losses. We went to a guest house along the Dead Sea. Begged them to call a new TAXI and we went "swimming" or should I say floating in the Dead Sea. Great experience with lots of laughs. By the time we could change, swim, paint ourselves in black mud, swim and get bathed and dress the new TAXI had arrived.

Last stop was we had to go to Allamby Bridge to see but not to cross. Well the trick to this is the Bridge is called Allamby Bridge from Israel to Jordan but called King Hussein's Bridge from Jordan to Isreal. Not much to see as there is immigration police on the border and we could not get close enough to even see the bridge. We went and did our eating scavenges and then rolled home tired and exhausted but thrilled with how much fun we had that day. I am absolutely dead on my feet.

22rd April 2010 - Day 2 in Sri Lanka

We started out late, we didn't leave until 6.30am because our TAXI driver over slept and arrived just as we were trying to get another one. We deliberately chose him because he was one of the few TAXI;s that have air-conditioning or so we thought….. The bonus challenge has 6 sections the first was
You MUST take the train one way , either to or from Anuradhpura. Which we had completed the night before
Locate and visit the sacred tree of enlightenment. When we arrived here Lily, Zoe and Rainey were all in trouble for the way they were dressed and had to go and buy long scarves and tie them around them as clothes.

This a also known as the Sri Maha Bodhiya. This tree sits outside the Temple and is suppose to be 23 centuries old. It has some of its limbs propped up by metal poles and wooden poles to support its weight. The story goes that the "mother" or original tree was the one under which Buddaha died and received Enlightenment or Nirvana under. A sapling was taken from that tree and planted in this spot. The tree is taken care of diligently. People have tied hundreds of streamers and ribbons on and around the tree so it looks very festival. There was early morning service going on in the small temple next to the tree.
iii)walk from the Sri Maha bodhiya past the Brazen Palace to visit he Ruwanwelisaya, be respectful.
This was an amazing white bubble of a building being held up by hundreds of almost full size elephant statues. All around the Stupa were monkeys at play. They are quite large monkeys with pink faces. They are also very brave around people and come and walk all between you. See the elephants, there are hundreds that hold up this large stupa.

It was once the third tallest structure of the ancient world after the Great Giza Pyramids – visit it and explain.
This is an enormous terracotta stupa sitting in the middle of "nowhere" Again it was a playground for the monkeys.

Find moonstones and explain,
Moonstones are semicircular stepping stones that are very carved and ornate at the foot of most stairways in this country. They are very old and many are so worn that the pattern is almost rubbed away. They are lots around and they are very pretty.

Take in the view a top Mihinitale (Note stairs) get a team photo. This is an area where a king devote the entire area to Buddha. On top of one hill is a large white statue of Buddha himself, then there is a large white stupa on another hill and then the Mihintale rock itself, This is a huge rock that you can climb to the yop to see the view. We had already climbed about 800 steps to the base of the Mihintale area, then we had climbed up to the top of the stupa about another 200 steps then we realized that to complete the challenge we had to climb the rock. Zoe was miserable about this discovery but up we went to the top. The view was spectacular and it was so lovely and cool up there.

Then we scrambled down and set off for the next challenge about 2 hours away.
Once again the travel imp struck because on the way to Polonnaruwa our air-conditioned car ( which blew hot air any how and we were cooler with the windows down) over heated. The radiator had busted and here we were in the middle of nowhere and 1 hour from our next destination we were stranded. We scrambled out of the car and I started trying to flag down passing vehicles to give us a lift to the next town to get transportation. The first thing that stopped was a big dump truck filled with gravel, we were about to get on board on top of the gravel when I got another covered van to stop and give us a ride. This van had 2 men in the back sitting on bags of rice so we climbed in and made friends. In the next town we managed to procure a new TAXI and continue on our way. The only problem is that this rural taxi did not really know his way in the town. We were constantly going wrong and having to ask directions because he was clueless.
Six out of the seven challenges in Polonnaruwa where in the "Old City" This is acres of land that was a city in ancient times. It was huge and very difficult to find the scavenges. It was so hot that you could hardly think and we took so much longer there than we expected. What is absolutely amazing in the Asian countries is how Old their history is. This city dates back 2-3 hundred years before Christ and the frescos are still visible and some of the monuments. Churches, crematoriums and the areas that had trade stalls etc. are in near perfect condition.

In Polo.. we also had to locate any part of the 900 year old irrigation system still working in this area.
Can you believe that 900 years there was a ruler who had the foresight to build a 6000 acres reservoir to feed the city. His motto was not a drop of water that fell from the sky would be wasted. This water was used to keep the rice fields wet etc.

Then it was on to Sigiriya, where once again we had to climb over a thousand steps to the Sky Palace through the "jaws of a lion" We also saw the frescos that were painted in the cave. These frescos date back to BC. It is amazing to see how well preserved they are.

It was 3.00ish in the afternoon and the hardest part about this climb was the heat. My goodness I thought I was going to melt, but we didn't we managed to crawl to the top on platforms that clung to the side of the mountain (hundreds of feet suspended above ground)to see what was left of the Sky Palace. This was a palace built on top of the mountain to keep a king safe. Unfortunately he died in battle when his elephant caught fright and ran away.

This is how we looked when we got to the top. Absolutely exhausted, but we had climbed and conquored the Lion Rock!!



We finally made it down, very thirsty, hot and tired and we tried to buy some drinks from a vendor at the bottom of the climb, this vendor wanted us to pay about 5 times the price of the drink. Zoe pitched a fit and gave all the drinks back very aggrevated and miserable.
Then it was on to have a drink at Hotel Sigirya, thank goodness we had some cold drinks, dipped our weary feet into the pool and changed TAXIS again and off to the Dambulla Caves.

It was going to be close call as to whether we could make it in time before the caves closed, we had to drive in that direction anyway so we decided to stop and try anyhow. We got there with about 30 minutes to spare and were blessed to watch the sunset from the entrance to the caves. These are 5 caves side by side on a hill top. They were very elaborate and each cave tried to outdo itself with lavish statues, frescos, other ornamentation. I was in awe of them. The Buddhas in each cave are enormous his feet are almost the size of a human.

In most he is lying on his side. We were there for evening prayers and left as the final bell was ringing.

Back down the numerous stairs to the TAXI and on to Kandy for the night. On the way down we passed a man who had a small basket under his arm. He sat down on the pavement and Lily bthought he had sat down to eat his lunch, imagine her surprise when he lifted the cover of the basket out popped a cobra snake. She was passing very close and she leaped back in surprise.

Another long long drive (this island is the size of England) through the windy mountain trails, but we are in Kandy ready to get up early tomorrow….. What a very long hard day with so many steps to climb.

20 - 21th April 2010, Colombo, Sri Lanka

We arrived here in Sri Lanka late last night. The first sign that greets you in the airport is "It is illegal to carry drugs, it carries a death sentence". Quite an eye opener. We are staying at the Hilton Colombo and we are here for 5 nights. It has beautiful grounds. There were black swans swimming in the fountain shown below

We met Bill at 10.00am this morning and he handed us our challenges and has given us 5 days to complete the. We have to check back in with him on Friday 24^th at 4.00pm. We are not permitted to travel the countryside between 10.00pm and 5.00am. So we collected our scavenge books, pack a backpack and have set off to see and learn and immerse ourselves in the culture of this island. Very quickly I have learnt that the country is beautiful but people are very poor. Sri Lanka has been under Tamal Tiger rule for the last 25 years. It was very dangerous for people to visit but 1 year ago they manage to kill, imprison or change the minds of the Tamal tigers and finally the country is under democratic rule. They had their first elections 1 year ago and 2 weeks ago they had their parliament elections. The country is now deemed stable thus here we are.

It is extremely hot so hot I can't describe how hot. It is 104 degrees F. We spent the first part of the morning trying to buy a Cultural Triangle Ticket. This is a ticket that permits you into some historical sites and towns. We were first taken to the National Museum to but them, which was the wrong address but it was one of our challenges. The challenge read:- Visit the National Museum; locate vthe Kings of Kandy goodies . And locate General Zheng He's tablet and explain.
Well we found the room with a huge golden throne and other possessions that had belonged to the Kings of Kandy and the large stone tablet belonging to Zheng so we completed our first challenge for 25 points.

After that we bought our Cultural Triangle Tickets (another 10 points) and we set off to the next challenge.

Visit the fish market in Negombo then take a short boat ride on either an outrigger canoe or a wooden oruwas in the lagoon area. Don't forget to eat something. Why is Negombo referred to as Little Rome? All this sounds easy but Nagombo is a 1 hour taxi ride away from Colombo. When we got their we had to find the fish market. Not as easy as it sounds. We went to the old market. It was very very old and the women were peddling their fish sitting or stooping on the ground

The biggest challenge was getting a ride in an oruwas, these are small canoes attached to a couple of floats and topped by a huge square sail. This was so difficult as all the fishing boats were out fishing. We were lucky to find some fishermen who had just come ashore and they were on their way home, we begged them to take us for a ride and they agreed to re-rig their boat and let us get on.

The boats are so weird. The actual boat is a only about 18 inches wide or smaller, it is very difficult to fit between the two sides.. We sat on the outrigger on s platform. The men were dressed in traditional dress and I found them beautiful even though they were dirty from a day's work.
Note how narrow the boat is.

We bought some candy from these people in a shop, the shop really sells whole ssale rice etc but they did have candy. These poor people thought that insane people had decended as we rushed in quickly bought the sweets, took their photo and rushed out again

as we had a train to catch and hurried back to Colombo to catch a 4,20 train to Anuradhapura. This is a 5 part 500 point challenge. I am presently sitting on 4 our train ride through the countryside of Sri Lanka, writing this blog. I have just taken a beautiful picture of the sun setting over the rice fields.

We pass through small settlements of mud house.Yes they seem to make a shell out of sticks and then coat the sticks with mud, some have thatched roves but most have galvanize. There is No electricity or running water to these homes and the floors are also made out of mud. As I fly by in my seat on the train I ponder how different my life would have been had I been born a girl in one of these mud huts in the wilds of Sri Lanka.

The train ride seemed to last forever as we swayed, clanked and screeched our way up through the mountains until we finally reached the town or city of Anuradhapura. We arrived about 9.00pm in the pitch dark. We took an old TAXI fan to Nuwarawewa Rest House. It was a very basic hotel, but it had lots of hot water, sitting toilets (not stooping ones), air-conditioning (thank goodness, it is 95 degrees at night), clean sheets and a restaurant. As Lily says "What more can you possibly want, this is better than some houses at Cattlewash because they don't have hot water". Zoe was much more squeamish about her room.
We were fine and grateful to be able to lie down in a reclined position. We went to bed by 10.00mpm because we arranged to have a TAXI collect us at 6.00am tomorrow to start our scavenges. Good-night!!!

19th April 2010 – Last Day in Chiang Mai.

We got up before dawn again today at 5.30am so that we can leave the hotel at 6.00am. Lily is feeling awful because she is still sick but she is a trouper. We took a TAXI to the Doi Suthep temple. Lils slept on the way.

When we arrived, even though Lily and I had on knee length shorts it did not satify the resident monk so he lent us the pretty skirts that you see in the photos.When we got to the temple we were in time to see the sunrise. Quite spectacular!! The entire temple is quite spectacular.

We had to take a funicular up to the temple and we walked around. Everything is so ornate and the temple is quite extensive, every corner you turn has something more simulating to see.

We also saw the feeding of the monks as they carried their bowls. There was one very old monk, he was walking with the aid of a stick. My heart went out to him. He seems so peaceful.

We also watched another ceremony where there was this row of cups filled with oil. In the centre of each cup was a burning wick. You have to take a spoon and pour oil around each wick. There were about 10 cups in a row. Could not find any one to explain this ritual.

We walked down the serpent staircase of 340 steps. It was so neat to be there in the cool of the morning, the sun rising out over the city and hearing the chanting of the monks. Once again I find it feels surreal.

We left and went to a cooking class. We arrived early and they allowed us in to st on the floor, as is their custom, while we waited on the teacher. Once again Lils napped as she tried to help her body heal. The first part of the class was a walk to the nearest market where we were taught how to choose the produce. See us walking down the back streets of Chiang Mai, swinging our woven shopping baskets to go and buy our cooking ingredients.

Then back to the house again. The classes are given in people's homes not a school. We were given menus to cho0se what we wanted to cook and then we started We made 1) spring rolls, 2) Red Thai curry noodles, Fried Banana and stir fry chicken and noodles. We stopped and eat each course as we finished cooking it. This was great fun. It was a peaceful morning and a great day for Lily to handle as it was very slow paced.

Back to the hotel, packed up our things and off to Sri Lanka we go… I don't even know where Sri Lanka is on the map…. But that's where we are going!!!!