Finally HOME!

What was supposed to be a 17-hour commute that got us home Friday night turned into a 45-hour commute that got us home Saturday night. We had delays in Cairo and Munich, missed our connecting flight in Newark and had to stay overnight there. The next flight wasn't until 2:50 pm Saturday, but that was also delayed and we didn't take off until 4:30 pm. It was an ordeal. Poor J is sick, I'm still getting over a head cold, and we're both jet lagged, but we're happy to be home.

Picking up from where we left off on our last big post, we arrived in Luxor and went to the Colossi of Memnon

and then to the Valley of the Kings. It was amazing - really! We went into 3 tombs - Ramses III, Ramses, VI, and Ramses IX. The few glimpses of colors that we'd seen to that point could not hold a candle to the spectacular colors painted in these tombs - the blues, reds, and yellows - simply beautiful! Photos are not allowed inside the tombs so I just have to try to explain how incredible it was to see carvings and paintings that were done thousands and thousands of years ago and still in bright, vibrant color! It just took my breath away. It was jaw-dropping when you stopped to think about what we were getting to see and how old it was and the people who explored and discovered it all. We had a fantastic time in the Valley of the Kings.

After visiting the Valley we went to an alabaster factory/shop and it was probably the first time on the whole trip of store stops that we didn't buy anything - hahaha! Actually, after we left the "official" tour of the factory we were offered cast-offs of alabaster and J did buy a small piece for the equivalent of 10 cents from one of the kids making the vases and other items.

Back on the bus to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which is just huge! Hatshepsut was the only Egyptian woman to rule Egypt - you may say, "what about Cleopatra?" but Cleopatra was Greek, not Egyptian. Hatshepsut's brother built her this temple and had his own burial temple built near the site.

We walked around the Temple for about 45 minutes and then went to our hotel. It was lunch time so part of the group, who I started to call "the adventurous eight" went to a Koshary place and had a nice meal. Later, the same group went to a fabulous restaurant called Sofra and ate pigeon! It's a luxury in Egypt and we really enjoyed it, even if there isn't much meat on a pigeon. After dinner, some shisha was enjoyed by all (well, all except Jen and two others in our group of eight). Dinner, with appetizers, juice, teas, and shisha was like $12 each! Parts of Egypt are still an incredible bargain.

The next morning we got to sleep in for the first time on the tour. There was an optional tour that left at 7:00 am but we skipped it and instead had a relaxing breakfast and went to the souk (shopping area). After battling our way through the tourist portion (and coming out with an adorable purse) we went through the local bazaar and it was so much fun! We got a hand embroidered lace square for our dining room table and some great pictures:

That afternoon we visited Karnak Temple. One of the James Bond chase scenes from "The Spy Who Loved Me" was filmed there! It was impressive, to say the least, but to be honest, we were all a bit templed-out at that point!

There are temple guides at each one you stop at and most of them are native speakers and very poor. At Karnak one came up to us and offered to show us an area that was gated off due to construction. There were statues behind the gates that were in good shape and he "let" us take pictures of them - for a 5 Egyptian Pound baksheesh (tip) which is less than $1 and well worth it to us.

After visiting the temple, we went to our final group dinner with the entire tour group (which was only 13 including our guide, Sami). It turned out to be a fun dinner and only "the adventurous eight" made it to shisha time, and we had a lot of laughs. We had to get back to the hotel relatively early, though, because we had a 4:45 am wake-up call for our flight from Luxor to Cairo. Upon landing half of us went straight to the hotel, but others were on an optional tour. We were happy to get settled a bit before meeting the rest of the group at the grand bazaar, khan el-khalili. It's a huge shopping district with little restaurants. We knew exactly what we wanted and found it all straight away so we got some lunch at an outdoor cafe and had a nice time sipping fresh mango juice and just watching the world go by (also chasing off flies and cats, but that was only a small part of the experience!). Men kept offering to shine J's shoes and we kept refusing, but he let this one guy do it and the next thing we knew, the man ran off with his shoe! We couldn't imagine what was going on, but about 10 minutes later he came back with it and then took the other one. He insisted that we pay him 1 Euro for the pleasure of almost losing a shoe and we tried to explain that we would pay him 1 Egyptian Pound but he didn't like that at all. In the end we gave him about $5 US which was overpriced but whatever. This was the last time we got to see our guide and we knew we would miss him. He was fantastic! Having an Egyptologist who spoke nearly perfect English as our guide was priceless. Two members of our group got lost but we did find them and they were so embarrassed, but it was a huge souk and not hard to get lost in if you're not careful as all the alleys look alike.

That night "the adventurous eight" headed out for dinner and found a Chili's! We were so happy to have Western food, even if it didn't quite taste like the Chili's at home and they didn't put tequila in the margaritas - it was a real treat!

The next day most of our tour group flew out and we spent the day with a mother/daughter of the group that we'd become friends with and went to the mall - what a mall! Six levels and four wings. You would need two entire days to see every store. They even had the Egyptian version of a super Wal-Mart, called Spinney's and that was huge! It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, in air-conditioned comfort!

We bought a few things and had lunch at a Johnny Rockets (more Western food!). Then we had to say our good-byes and transfer to our final hotel, the Radisson Blu, which was, as said on our previous post, just fabulous!

Once we're both recovered from colds and jet lag we'll get lots more pictures posted and relive the trip a bit more. Thanks to everyone who has tuned into our blog so far - hope you've enjoyed it!

Ahh, free wireless!

We checked into our final hotel of our stay in Egypt, the Radisson Blu - wow this place is nice! They apparently only have Blu hotels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but I have to say if you get a chance to stay in one, I highly recommend it. We just finished dinner in their wonderful Italian restaurant (delicious!) and are back in our huge room. J is zonked out tired and although it's only around 9:00 pm, I am sleepy too, so we'll be going to bed soon. I wanted to add pictures, but the server is too slow and it keeps rejecting all of my attempts. We will add lots and lots of photos when we get home, so stay tuned :)  Hoping for safe and on-time travels tomorrow and after we recover some from the jet lag we'll post again!

Finally an update . . .

We haven't had an Internet connection in several days – sorry for the long absence – so there is much to catch up on and we've only got 1 day left in Egypt and then it's travel day. This will be a long post, but not with any pictures, sorry.

When we last left off we were setting sail on the Nile. The days prior to that were full of sight-seeing, lots of wonderful food, and different modes of transportation. Our first official tour day was going to the pyramids and the Sphinx; the following day we drove 3 hours to Alexandria, the city by the Mediterranean Sea. We visited the Catacombs that were built by the Greeks and they were discovered when a donkey fell into a hole in the ground in 1900. It was interesting and most of it has yet to be discovered because housing has been built on top of the site over the centuries and it cannot now be excavated. We saw the old street cars and drove through town to the hotel, which was beautiful. Our tour guide, Sami, gave us an upgrade to a huge suite with a balcony and a gorgeous view of the sea. It was really, really nice. That night we went with the most adventurous of our tour-mates and found a fantastic little restaurant called Mohammed Ahmed that served fuul, which is a traditional dish that you eat in pita with lots of condiments. We sat down and didn't know what to expect, but our new friend from the tour had the best attitude, clapped her hands, and said “let's see what happens” with the excitement of a child on Christmas Eve. When the food started coming out we weren't sure what was happening – our entire table was full of all kinds of delicious culinary discoveries and we each tried some of everything. It was our favorite meal of the entire trip (so far) and cost only $2 US per person, including the bottled water! After dinner we walked the busy streets of Alexandria and as the guide book said would likely happen, Jen got her butt grabbed. It was no big deal, and we were prepared for it, since our guide book said to expect it, we just kept on walking. We eventually took a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride back to the hotel and slept great. The next morning we dipped our toes in the Mediterranean, which was about all we were dipping since the water was freezing cold, but we can say we've been “in” the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt!

The next day in Alexandria we visited Fort Qaitbey, the site of the old lighthouse. That was fun because there were fisherman all over and combining fresh catches with the dozens of cats running around was neat to watch - can you say "feeding frenzy!" We visited a gorgeous mosque and took beautiful pictures inside. Then we went to the Biblioteca Alexandria, the biggest library we've ever seen and one of the most interesting places we visited the entire trip. Just Google it to learn more – there is entirely too much to the library to type. We visited the Anwar Sadat Museum, inside the library, as well as several art collections. We then drove to the gardens of the old king's mansion, which the current president uses as a summer house. The grounds include a 5-star hotel which was originally built for the old king's concubines(!) and has a tourist-only casino next door.

Then things went less than good. We had to drive the 3 hours back to Cairo to get on the overnight train to Aswan. That seemed fine in theory, but in practice it was, well, pretty awful. First the highway was closed so we had to find another way around and that took at least an hour. By the time we got to Cairo we had just 10 minutes to run into a grocery store and buy water and snacks for the train ride. Jen was getting a head cold and when we boarded the train and our train car reeked of cigarette smoke, which didn't help the head cold at all. We tried to settle in, but lack of sleep and not feeling all that great, added up to grumpiness and discomfort. Dinner was delivered to our train car but Jen couldn't really eat. Good thing, in the end, because she spent 1:00 am to 5:00 am sick. Let's just say, an overnight Egyptian train with a shared bathroom (and the word “bathroom” is used VERY loosely here!) is NOT the place to get sick! Just bad. Really, really bad. Indescribably bad. In the morning J was great and got sick pills from our tour guide, Sami, and they helped fairly quickly, but Jen had to sit out the events of the day and just went straight to the hotel to rest. Thankfully it was a fabulous 5-star hotel right on the Nile and, best of all, it was non-smoking with a wonderful patio.

While Jen recovered, J continued on the tour (no sense for him to stay at the hotel and just watch Jen being sick). He took lots of pictures for Jen to see but since he didn't sleep much on the train either, it was a very long day. J took a boat to Elephantine Island, toured a perfume factory, and later went to the Nubian Village. We were both looking forward to the Nubian Village experience, but Jen was just not up to it, so J provided photographic commentary. Thank goodness we rode camels at the pyramids because that was part of the Nubian Village trip, and J promised Jen she could ride a camel in Egypt, so she would have missed the experience entirely. As it was, J said the camels at the pyramids were much better (cleaner, nicer) than at the Nubian Village.

The next day was an early morning flight to Abu Simbel. We had to wake up at 3:30 am but seeing the sun come up over Lake Nasser and getting to Abu Simbel before all the crowds was worth the early morning wake-up call. Abu Simbel was moved from its original place because of the damn built on the Nile, which created Lake Nasser. It was impressive – that's such an understatement! There was so much to see, but unfortunately, no photos inside the temples. Abu Simbel was built in 1244 BC for Ramses II, who was described to us as the greatest king of Egypt. In an age where the average life span was 45 years, Ramses II lived to be 92. Part of the site includes the temple to Ramses II wife, Queen Nefertari. After visiting the temples we ran the gauntlet of the souvenir vendors – and lived to tell about it – hahaha! The flight back was fine and then we returned to the hotel for a couple of hours to rest a little, which was nice. Later that afternoon we moved to the boat.

We had a 3-day journey up the Nile on an older river boat called the Shehrazad. Again, Sami gave us an upgrade and we had a huge double room with 2 full bathrooms. The boat is older and desperately needed a good cleaning, but it was fine. It was a very nice room, non-smoking, with 2 huge windows and a sitting area, which was wonderful while we were sailing and could look out at the Nile while in the comfort of our room. It was an opportunity to get laundry done, too. We had been washing in the sink but we had so much dirty stuff that a real washing was needed at that point.

We were on the boat, but still in Aswan. Aswan is a lovely city – it was the favorite city of both of us on the entire trip. The air is clean, the sky is clear, the people are friendly (they are all throughout Egypt), and it's just beautiful.

Because Jen missed the perfume factory the day before, Sami arranged for us to visit it again our last night in Aswan. We anticipated spending 30 minutes there, and ended up spending 1.5 hours! The salesman was cool and funny, the shop was closed and they were keeping it open just for us, and the salesman really wanted to watch the soccer game that was about to come on, so we haggled some and got a really good deal on 6 fabulous perfumes – not colognes or sprays but real perfumes – and he threw in a decorative bottle, too. According to another friend we made on the tour, the perfumes will last years and years and still smell the same because there is no alcohol to degrade the scent. That's good because there are enough perfumes to last Jen 20 years! The salesman was funny, he told Jen that if she ever got tired of J to come back to the shop and he will teach her Arabic and he has 50 camels and will take care of her. He was a real charmer!

The next morning we got on a traditional felucca ride, which was a lot of fun! We sailed around and had tea, some folks smoked the shisha (water pipe), and we got a lot of pictures. We were on the felucca a little over an hour but it flew by. After the felucca ride we bought some water and a couple other grocery snacks and then boarded the boat for sail-away. It was nice weather on the top deck and that's when we found the Internet briefly for our previous post.

That night we arrived in Kom Ombo and visited the Temple. WOW! It's a temple to 2 gods, Sobek (the crocodile god) and Haroeris. Seeing it at night made it that much more impressive and Sami gave us plenty of time to explore and take photos on our own. J got several great shots of the hieroglyphics. One of the mummified crocodiles that were found at the temple was at the Egyptian Museum, which we saw on day 1. That was a huge crocodile! We were both very impressed.

That night was Egyptian Night on the cruise. Some folks on the boat dressed in traditional Egyptian garb. We played games and the Mexican contingent on the boat danced the Salsa.

We sailed on to Philae. We arrived in the morning, had breakfast, and took the bus to Philae Temple. It was huge! Sami did a cute thing using members of the tour groups to represent the gods seen in the temple and the story being told. J got to be Horus, who killed Set, and lost an eye doing so. It was a good way to explain what we were seeing. Philae is a poor city and obviously tries to make any money it can on the river boat tourists. The horses pulling the carriages were emaciated and the dresses for sale were faded and torn. We did see kids walking to school, but the school was beyond run-down. It was kind of sad, actually. Without the discovery of Philae Temple the little town really would have nothing, so at least they do get some tourist dollars.

We sailed away an hour late because the Mexican tour group was late returning from the temple. It was getting cool out, too, so we stayed inside and watched the Nile go by – it was pretty amazing when you think about it! In the afternoon we went through the Locke. Even though it was really cool out, we were up on deck to watch the process and really enjoyed it. But, you could see that a storm was coming – not a rain storm but a wind storm that drove up all that sand! We ended up getting stuck at a port whose name we don't know because we weren't supposed to stop there. Due to poor visibility many boats were stopped and we sat and sat for hours and hours. It ended up being fun for us, though, because we sat in the lounge with several tour-mates and talked and drank and watched soccer and had a lot of laughs. After dinner we went to our cabin to pack up and realized around 9:00 pm that we had begun sailing. We sailed all night and woke up in Luxor.

That's almost got us caught up and we'll have to finish probably when we get home. So, if you're interested in lots more photos and lots more Egypt talk, stay tuned . . .

View from the Boat

We're currently connected to a "borrowed" internet connection from a nearby hotel.  We're on the top deck of the river cruiser "Shehrazed" getting ready to move from Azwan to ports North.  Shortest post ever... but we're staring to move and the connection will drop soon.  More later!

Pyramids, Camels, and Mummies – oh my!

Yesterday was our first full touring day. It was a long day, but it was wonderful and we saw so much! We started out early and drove to the site of the pyramids and the Sphinx. We chose to do the optional interior pyramid visit into the small pyramid and although today we both have aching thighs (as does everyone in the group who did that visit) it was well worth it. We started out at the Great Pyramid and it was incredible. It is so large that I just cannot explain it or capture it in a photo. You can climb a bit of the outside where they've carved in stairs, but no longer to the top, and not on the actual pyramid stones (unlike the pyramid at Coba, Mexico, that we climbed to the top of last year). The individual stones are massive – about the size of a small sofa – and held together not by mortar or plaster, but from pressure inside the pyramid itself, which was a very interesting fact to learn.

We walked all around the Great Pyramid and by the Middle Pyramid, which is currently closed for refurbishment. It is just as huge, being only one meter shorter than the Great Pyramid. Then we visited the site discovered 10 years ago of the remains of the pyramid builders' dwellings and burial areas. What has been written about the pyramids being built by slaves is incorrect, according to our Egyptologist guide, and they were actually built by skilled workers who were admired by the kings and honored with burial sites near the pyramids. We then went up to the panoramic view and got some gorgeous pictures of all three pyramids.

Our guide then asked who among us wanted to take a camel ride, and J and I were the only two in the group to step up. Our guide took us to the camel owner and wrangler. I was helped onto “Robin Hood” and J was on “Mickey Mouse” (which, if you know us, was a cute coincidence). The camel ride was so much fun! We both really enjoyed it. I was looking forward to a camel ride during our trip but J wasn't sure he would enjoy it, but we both really had a great time!

After the camel ride we went into the small pyramid. It was a treacherous climb down about 30 meters – cramped, steep, and hot – but when we got to the bottom is was worth it! It was amazing to be inside one of the most famous Egyptian pyramids. We weren't allowed to take pictures down there, but it was fantastic to explore! The climb up was not easy, but much better than the climb down.

Then we saw the Sphinx – which is smaller than you'd think. We got some great pictures and took the time to really look at the details in the Sphinx.

We then drove to the papyrus center and we bought some blank papyrus paper, which was apparently a novelty, but we didn't want any of the art, just the paper. We were able to bargain them down from 150 Egyptian Pounds to 40 Egyptian Pounds (about $8 US). The art on papyrus started at 100 Egyptian Pounds so we did well. Then, we drove back over the bridge of the Nile and into Cairo for lunch at what was basically a typical Egyptian fast food place but it was really good. The meal consisted of rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas, tomato, fried onions, garlic, and optional chili sauce (Jen's didn't have the pasta and was still yummy). It was super filling and followed by very sweet rice pudding.

After lunch it was time to visit the Egyptian Museum, where photos were not allowed either. Our guide book had said the museum was full to the brim with ancient Egyptian treasures, but not coherently set up and that most exhibits were not marked or detailed, and the book was right! We did see the treasures of King Tut's tomb and many, many mummies from the different eras, but it was overwhelming after awhile because there was just so much to see with so little explanation of what we were seeing. After a couple of hours we had to leave to save our sanity! Then it was time to head back to the hotel and we went out for falafel sandwiches and fries for dinner, which we ate out by the pool at the hotel.

So, it was a long day and we were exhausted, but it was great day and we got to see and do so much!

We made it!

We flew through Zurich and landed in Cairo on Saturday. Going through customs was easy once we stopped trying to figure out the system ourselves and followed the rest of the crowd through the visa purchase line. Jen grabbed the bags while J tried to track down our transfer contact. We eventually found Islam (the contact, not the religion) on the other side of customs. Islam is a university student and his English was quite good. He was a good resource for our questions.

The first thing you notice about Cairo is the permeating brown fog accompanied by the smell of thick exhaust. The pollution wasn't a surprise - all the travel books mention it- but there's a difference between reading about smog and bathing in it. The blame for the haze may include the location of the city or the lack of regular rains, but the primary reason has to be the number of vehicles cramming the streets. Pedestrians, scooters and donkey carts all vie for space in what amounts to a death-defying game of human Frogger.

The ride took us from east Cairo past the massively sprawling cemetery, over the Nile and into Giza. We had assumed that Giza was a subdivision of Cairo but it is actually a separate city. Our room is large, clean, well appointed with a King bed, table and chairs, a desk and has exceptionally high ceilings. The balcony is large, with a table and chairs, overlooking the pool but the smog pretty much keeps us from going out there too much. The pool is beautiful, but the water is pretty cold and our confusion about the modesty “rules” will keep us out of the pool. This picture kind of demonstrates the pollution as well as the pool.

Today was our first full day in Egypt and we spent it walking around Giza. We found a very cool street with vendors selling everything from tissue packets to fruit to fresh, hanging meat and many other things that we just could not identify. We met up with our tour group (nice folks) and went to dinner, which was much better than last night's hotel food. On the ride to the restaurant we had our first glimpse of the pyramids! It was difficult to see to through the soup of pollution, but we saw them! Tomorrow we head to the pyramids and Sphinx, and a tour of the Cairo Museum. 

Counting down . . .

It's getting close! We have finally finished buying everything we need for the trip. Now to just figure out how it will all fit in our backpacks!

Here is a brief overview of our itinerary:

Day 1 - fly into Egypt
Day 2 - Cairo - meet up with group/group dinner
Day 3 - Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Cairo Museum
Days 4 - Alexandria
Day 5 - Alexandria and overnight train to Aswan
Day 6 - Aswan
Day 7 - fly to Abu Simbel and board Nile cruise boat
Days 7 - 9 - Cruising the Nile
Day 10 - Luxor
Day 11 - Thebes
Day 12 - fly to Cairo
Day 13 - on our own
Day 14 - fly home