Travels to Egypt and Jordan

I haven't been writing for quite sometime because my husband and I have been on an eleven day vacation to Egypt and Jordan. We started our journey on the 13th of March and came back to Tehran on the 24th. We went on Jazeera Airline from Tehran to Alexandria and on coming back we caught a flight from Amman, Jordan to Tehran. It was good to see our youngest son in Cairo. We haven't seen him for about three months. I was also happy to see most of my former students there. Some of them were kind enough to invite us for dinner.

We were in Cairo for about 8 days - extended because the baby wanted us to stay on for a few more days, so we didn't get to spend more days in Jordan as planned. From Cairo, we took a bus to Nuwaiba, and from there a ferry to Aqaba, Jordan. The journey took us like, a day.. Then we spent another 5 hours in a bus to Ibrid where we stayed the night at another former student's and then fly back to Tehran...

Some pics to bring back memories:

In Aqaba, Jordan

At the port - probably queuing for immigration..

Ex-students in Cairo invited us to dinner...

Adik having picture taken at the Citadel in Alexandria.

Ex-student in Ibrid, Jordan serving us breakfast..

Waiting to board the boat at Nuweiba, Egypt.

Guests for Dinner

A few days ago we had guests from Malaysia. They slept at Joe's house upstairs and had dinner at our house. I cooked beef stew - not bad, my very own recipe! And today, I cooked an Indian recipe from my Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery Book (which is about 20 years old and falling to pieces). I love the dish because it uses lots of fresh tomatoes. And over here in Iran the tomatoes are really marvellous! Sweet and yummy!

A simple meal

Joe giving the thumbs-up for my cooking (I hope)

Warm Days...

Since the days are getting warmer... we don't need to turn on the heater much during the day. And what I hate most when it starts to get warmer is the insects - flies, ants... no mosquitoes yet though, thank God! The neighbours are starting to wash their carpets and hanging them to dry on the brick walls separating our houses. The dry climate makes carpet drying a cinch. Don't do that in Malaysia or you'll have one smelly carpet if you can't predict the weather...

Drying carpets..

Fridays in Tehran

It's starting to get warmer now. But the trees are still leafless and the mountains around Tehran are still snow-peaked. Last Friday, as usual we make our weekly trip to Tehran. We met some Indonesian gentlemen on the way to their embassy for the Friday prayers. We happened to be on the same metro train. After Friday prayers, the hubby and I went to Saadi to buy some fish. The streets were crowded with shoppers. Not many shops open in Tehran on Friday but I guess the Iranians are getting things ready for their Nurus (I hope I get the spelling right) festive holidays which is coming soon. Here are some pictures of Tehran which were actually taken the Friday before..

The snow-peaked mountains seen from Tehran

A street in Tehran

Crowded streets

Buying fish

Indonesian Embassy for prayers

Here are pics from cold wintry days last January:

Yes, snowfall on my birthday

Picture taken on our rooftop