En Route

Syngnathidae

Oh boy. These tiny fellows make me incredibly happy underwater. Their delicate bodies, their poor yet elegant swimming abilities and their uber-cute demeanor make my heart sing. C'mon, just look at their little snouts!

Pipefish are related to seahorses (minus the belly) and are completely and utterly adorable. Period.
Good thing about working in the Red Sea is that I get to see them almost on every dive!
There is a bunch of them that hang out on the crow's nest of the shipwreck the Cedar Pride and I make a point of going to see them when I take clients out there (Please don't ask me what my oh so not creative underwater signal for 'pipefish' is)
One day I took a Danish guest out diving and after the dive briefing and going on about my pipefish adoration we approached their little love nest. Imagine my dismay to find a big-ass Devil Scorpionfish. Right next to where one of these little guys was hovering.
Holding your breath underwater is not the best thing to do but I couldn't help it: Three Pipefish socializing not even 20 centimeters away from this dude that could vacuum them up faster than my mother's Dirt Devil. (I am embarrassed to say I was also kind of fascinated. Let's face it, you don't get to see a Scorpionfish having a snack on every dive...)

No harm was done in the end. I returned to the Cedar Pride a day later and all were still happily floating about. Phew.

Delicate beauty of a Pipefish

Elusive Ornate Ghost Pipefish

Movement

It is official: I am leaving Jordan!
In nine days.
My great new job offer leads me to Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. Close to Oman, my birth country. I cannot wait...!

Farewell, Aqaba.

Aqaba with a view of the Israeli city of Eilat across the Red Sea

Unlocked

After living and working in Jordan for the last little while I have come across a lot of keys. Unfortunately none of the keys that my roommates have lost during my stay here but nonetheless, I am seeing keys wherever I go.

In the antique shop that I am addicted to I found a whole bundle dangling from a shelf and was irresistibly drawn to one specimen. The old shopkeeper apologized, saying there was not a lock to match it but I replied that I was not interested in unlocking anything and that the key would be just fine as it was, and took it home.
Later on I was having dinner with a friend and showed him the key that hung around my neck. He told me that it was Palestinian and then proceeded to tell a story that fascinated me deeply. It is called 'The Key of Palestine'.

Al-Nakba, also known as the Catastrophe, happened almost 65 years ago when a million Palestinians left their homes. The old rusty key I had just purchased unlocked a sad story, one that is not mine to tell.

An old article by Reuters tells the tale of one of the many key-holders out there.

My Palestinian key

Purple Haze

Wadi Rum lies just outside of Aqaba, where I live. It is more famously known as the Desert of Lawrence of Arabia and its landscape is utterly magnificent: Dramatic rock formations, stunning sunsets and hospitable Bedouins tending to their herds of goats, camels and sheep. Together with my family and a Jordanian pal we explored some of it via jeep one afternoon.
We came across old petroglyphs carved in rock and a drinking hole for camels that the locals had ingeniously crafted to manipulate the Spring rainwater into a holding place. But what captured our attention mostly was the purple haze that covered every inch of the sand.
After the recent rainfall delicate small flowers had transformed the desert into a lush garden. A botanist's wet dream. It was gorgeous.
In the distance a sandstorm was brewing and the horizon became somewhat hazy, muddling the division where sand and sky meet.
A little fire was stoked to brew up a delicious batch of Bedouin tea and we all leaned back on the rocks and drank in our surroundings. All of it.

Wadi Rum in Spring

Jeff Molloy

What else can I say but: Simply. Wondrous.
Jeff Molloy's award-winning work introduces viewers to a vibrant multi-media world shaped by his deep-rooted Canadian identity: An exploration of his cherished and honest view of his cultural origins.
But Jeff is not a one-trick pony. Ever.

After spending a holiday in Cuba in 2011 he created the 'Fachada Cubana' collection and only anticipation will hold us over until we get to see what he will produce after several months of tracking through Asia with his wife Kathryn. I have this inkling that the outcome will be colorful!
After all, color, texture, human behavior and rituals, whether historical or contemporary, yield a strong influence on the creative process. True artists utilize a variety of mediums to expose what lies hidden beneath a subject's surface, and Molloy's work is a fine example of this.

I was very fortunate to have one of his pieces on my living room wall for a while and I will be for always in love with it. Other favorites? His Mixed Media Cabinets. Oh my lord. One day I will have one.

Check out his website and be prepared to get addicted...

Wishing Well

I purchased this beautiful Arabic scroll holder in my favorite shop in Aqaba, Jordan. It is a tiny store, crammed full of random objects ranging from forgotten dusty antiques to tacky tourist souvenirs, haphazardly stacked from floor to ceiling. I could spend an eternity in here, drinking shai with the old gentleman that owns it, spellbound by his stories and asking him a million questions about some of the unfamiliar antiques that are found in his store.
I had come across the scroll holder last month and was hoping that it would still be tucked in the back, between the copper platters and ancient clay oil lamps. It was.
I have seen other scroll holders before, normally consisting solely out of metal but this particular one has thick gorgeous blue glass worked into the design and when the light hits it seems to almost...glow.
I wonder what was once written on the pages that were rolled up inside it. I guess I will always wonder, and never know.

But I do know what it will contain from now on. I will write tiny wishes on little scrolls of paper and store them safely inside this tube. After time, and once the scroll holder is full, I will take all the wishes out, read them and see which ones have come true.

Mosaic Map

After standing on top of Mount Nebo and not seeing (due to foggy skies) the supposed 'Promised Land' that Moses went nuts about, my Mum, her friend and I went to the church of Saint George in Madaba. Here lies the oldest mosaic map in the world. Now my mum and I love mosaics. And churches. But I'll be honest. All three of us had visited the stunning city of Petra a few days prior to Madaba and quite frankly that might have aided in our unenthusiastic reaction when we arrived at this site. It was anticlimactic, actually.

My advice? If you have the time when visiting Jordan go see Jerash instead, the largest and best preserved Roman city outside of Italy. Or go explore the Mujib Nature Reserve! I'll wish I had done the same, hahah!

Fins Only

I am absolutely and completely in love with sharks...! As a diver they rank among my favorite underwater encounters; in fact I like them even more than dolphins (sorry, Flipper). There is just something about them and a perfect world for me would include seeing them on every dive I do. Unfortunately this is not the case. Sharks are being methodically decimated and their fins harvested on a massive scale. Recently CITES has made some changes (read the article by Damian Carrington here) which hopefully will protect these wonderful majestic animals somewhat...

In order to call attention to the global slaughter of sharks and mantas a video was put out by a shark conservation charity but it was banned from television:  "...Sadly the 45 second advert has been deemed too graphic and distressing to be shown on TV." (Quote from indepths.org The Diving Community Resource)

Take a look at the website of the Bite-Back Shark and Marine Conservation Charity and share it with your friends. If you wish you can view the banned video. Graphic, yes. But the truth does not always involve rose petals and double rainbows.

The Grandmother of Rai

Her last album was 'N'ta Goudami' and Cheikha Rimitti was 83 years old when she recorded it.
Not long after, she passed away.
This fierce musician was such an integral part of the Rai music movement and influenced countless musicians with her sense of poetry and outspoken adversity. Her music was banned from her homeland Algeria and Rimitti spent a large amount of time in France where eventually she died of a heart attack in 2006.
I was walking home a few weeks ago when a car sped by with thumping music and the distinctive voice of Rimitti spilling into the streets. I got goosebumps on the spot.

I have an old vinyl record of her earlier recordings, and one of my favorite things to do is light candles, uncork a bottle of red wine and play it really, really loud.
I think she would approve.

Cairo Craze

I went back to Cairo and got to see my brothers and father again for twelve days. It was simply wonderful to be with them again! Sight-seeing was not a priority for all I wanted to do was hang out with them. However, paying a visit to the famous Khan el-Khalili souk was a must. Spices, cloth, antiques, clothes, junk, souvenirs and much more provides a feast for the eyes and the bustling streets are filled with locals and tourists alike.

An old lady sat at one of the street corners and when I passed we smiled at one another. On our way back she called me over and handed me two guavas, pointing at my little brother and I. They smelled heavenly.

I thanked her profusely and when I was walking away I kept looking back at her. Her simple sweet gesture. It made me smile even more.

En Route

Clowning Around

Clowns. They are sure to evoke some kind of emotion, right? Whether clowns make you recall the horror movie 'It' or something slightly more warm and fuzzy it is not often that we link clowns with healing and connecting people, communities and families. I sure didn't.

Until my friend traveled to Ecuador. To volunteer and attend an intensive clown workshop. A la Patch Adams. I assumed she was joking about becoming a professional clown and urged her to write a book instead (she could be a stand-up comedian, she is that witty).
Boy, was I ever wrong. And she is ever so brave. After looking up what exactly she was doing I was deeply touched and every time I think of her and her purple clown nose I cannot seem to get rid of that giant smile that spreads across my face.

There are a lot of Revolutionary Clowns out there working hard and volunteering with Patch Adams' Gesundheit! Global Outreach
I think they are da bomb.

Revolutionary clowns

Aquatic Art

Art. Add water. And a whole new world unfolds before your eyes...
Imagine floating in front of a painting or sculpture. Now imagine doing it upside down.
Perhaps a sponge has started growing on one of the edges or it has become a shelter for juvenile fish. Art that over time transforms and always grows. I love it.

An underwater museum to check out: The Underwater Museum of Cancun
One of my favorite sculptors: Jason de Caires Taylor 
An underwater art exhibit: Paintings

Hitting a New Low

The Dead Sea.
Approximately 8.6 times more salty than the ocean. And I had no clue that it was the lowest elevation point on earth, 423 meters below sea level (the things you learn when going on a road trip!). I was tempted to see if Cedric would float as well but gnomes are after all not known for their aquatic prowess.
Contemporary beauty products and spas boast about the healing qualities of the Dead Sea but folks have known about it forever. The ancient Egyptians used it for mummifying, Aristotle wrote a note about it and countless other civilizations floated around in it and used the minerals for a myriad of causes.

There's only one small problem. The Dead Sea is dying. It is shrinking, actually. Jordan has been involved with a project to rectify this but according to an article in the International Business Times it might not be the miracle cure that will heal the Dead Sea.

I chatted with a commercial diver who was hired to do a job in the Dead Sea. I asked the obvious question of how much weight he had to bring in order to be able to sink and his reply made me envision a diver looking like the Michelin Man but instead covered head to toe in weight-belts. Bulky for sure. But that was not his biggest annoyance. The high salt content erodes dive gear like crazy (no wonder that there were no boats to be seen bobbing about! Duh.)
And apparently the worst part about diving in the Dead Sea? When your mask leaks during the job...