Nine Suns in the Middle East

It is not very smart to choose going to the Middle East in the summer. However, with a profession like mine, I have a three-month-long summer vacation along with a month long only of winter vacation. It seems that it makes more sense to go to the far-away Middle East in the summer. So even though knowing it would be scorchingly hot, I had to work up my courage to make the trip happen.

If you think 50 days is some kind of a trip, then I have to remind you something. Even going back to the 3-month Southern Africa trip in 1997, it sounded bragging. But on the road, I met so many travelers making round-the –world trips for one or two years. So comparatively, the trip I was making was just nothing. This time it was no exception. I’ve met a lot of travelers going round the world in the Middle East. Therefore the 50 days sounded pathetic. Nevertheless, considering being a middle-aged woman, I shouldn’t be put together to be judged with the young. The tough long-distance overland travel ought to be left to young men. And I have to admit that there are a lot of things in my life that I want to do but will not be able to do. The following is the summary of the route I made in this trip.


I flew from Taipei to Bangkok, and then transferred to Cairo.
















Stayed in Egypt for 13 days and then took a ferry, crossed the border to Jordan.

From Amman, the capital city of Jordan, I crossed the border to Jerusalem, trying to go into Israel but got rejected for not having the visa in advance, so I was sent back to Jordanian side. (And at that moment I decided the title for my article. How does A Day Trip between Jordan and Israel Borders sound? Alas! )


From Jordan, succeed of crossing the border to Syria. (What an ahievement!!!)



Came to Turkey after Syria.











Many thanks to Lee for receiving a tired dirty smelly traveler like Camille as a guest after I traveled for over thirty days. I rested at her place, stayed with her sweet family for a week and moved on to my dream city Istanbul. And due to an unexpected allergy outbreak and most route being finished, I changed my flight coming back to Taiwan 10 days earlier then scheduled. Luckily, now I am home and still under the treatment of this allergy thing.

The above is the introduction of this 50-day trip of Middle East. Hope you stick to my blog and Camille will share the stories with you.