Thursday, June 30, 2005

Arrr ye matey

After yogurt and muesli for breakfast, we finally did our laundry this morning. It turned out to be quite good exercise since we had so much of it and it required vigorous scrubbing. Knackered from the exertion, we relaxed for a bit, used the internet and then, somehow, just managed to end up at the pub. We had some beers, ate some peanuts and played Shithead while the sun set. For dinner we went to an 'expensive' place that seemed quite popular, even though it is shaped like a pirate boat and painted like a cheesy kid's ride at a carnival. Their menu is extensive and alluring, but it's too bad the prices are meant for those travelling on the English pound rather than the Aussie dollar. But the food was good, and we were not disappointed. Nige got refreshed on his 80's/90's Aussie pop as they played The Dyvinals, Darryl Braithwate, Kylie and Diesel etc.


Oh yeah, it's a tough life doing nothing at the beach all day.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Just keep swimming

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLIANNE!

Despite both of us feeling a bit sick today (Nigel more so), we had a great day. And we actually accomplished a few things. We slept in, splurged on a 14 pound iced coffee and a burger for lunch on the beach, then hired some proper snorkelling gear for the afternoon. We took a cab to a place nearby called 'The Islands' which was supposed to be better than the Blue Hole. It was nice, but not fantastic. Plus, all of the trash floating around in the water detracted from it. Also the fact that our snorkels were shite and we were breathing in saltwater. So we walked back to town, swapped snorkels and decided to swim around right there near our hotel. The coral comes right up out of the water along the whole beach, making it easy to just jump in and start snorkelling away. We were not expecting too much (given that it is where everyone goes to swim) but it was great. Tons and tons of fish, and the coral was healthy and colourful. Among many things, a bright red sea cucumber and some really long sea cucumbers, some lionfish, schools of baby Barracuda, and tons and tons of jellyfish. Swimming through them we felt like Dory and Merlin in 'Finding Nemo' excpet that these were harmless jellies.

A few hours later we walked back to the hotel for a shower, returned our gear to the dive shop and then I spoke to my family for a while as a birthday treat. We then had a great Italian dinner on the beach (complete with candles). We were going to have cake and beer, but we were too stuffed so decided to call it a night.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Wearing dirty clothes again

Well, somehow we managed to do absolutely nothing today. We slept in, had a late breakfast, then tried to change our flight out of Cairo to an earlier date. Since everything was booked out, we decided to hang out in Dahab for a while longer. We had planned to spend these last few days going to southern Jordan, but Karen and Mark had just come from there and were able to tell us how much things cost. We worked out that it would be too expensive, even though we really wanted to go. But, hanging out doing not much in Dahab wasn't a bad second choice. We had tons of laundry to do, but managed not to even do that. After time on the internet and a siesta, we met up with Karen and Mark again for 'just a few beers' which of course turned into many. It was about 1:30 a.m. by the time we were back in bed.

The people in Dahab are alot more relaxed than in the rest of Egypt. Even the restaurant touts that try to entice you in are friendly and not too pushy. They do their speil and when you say no thanks not tonight they finish with "OK no problem you guys have a nice night". The camel and horse touts are nice too, not too pushy. One of the horse touts (riding Madonna) gave up asking us, and it was understood that we weren't interested. So now we just wave and smile like old friends.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Holy Moses!

It took 2 hours by minibus to reach Mt. Sinai. We arrived around 1:30 this morning and began our climb up shortly afterwards. It was pretty dark outside, the half moon only providing some light. With Mark and Karen, a couple from England, and 2 other Americans, we made an unplanned 'detour' through St. Katherine's monastery at the bottom of the mountain before finding what we hoped was the correct path and started ascending the 2285m high mountain.

We first noticed the camels when Nigel nearly ran into one sitting down in the middle of the path. It sounds funny to say, but it was dark and the camel did look like a big rock. Looking around, we saw at least 40 other camels laying around, waiting to take passengers up the mountain. Being the only ones around and the first on the trail, it was hard to believe that so many camels would be needed. But then we remembered all of the tour buses arriving just as we set off and thought that, just maybe, these would be some busy camels today.

Mt. Sinai, where God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses, is a gorgeous, rocky mountain set amid a desert full of rugged mountains. As we walked, the stars were brilliant, and the moon shed just enough light to give us a hint at the scenery to come at sunrise. Along the way there are a series of small huts to buy drinks and snacks. Surprisingly, it wasn't the easiest climb. It took 2 hours to reach the top, and the last 40 minutes were straight up a rock staircase, bringing back fond memories of the Great Wall of China.

At the top, it didn't take long for the sweat under our clothes to quickly turn us into shivering popsicles. Why the hell didn't I bring our sleeping bag??? We had asked if it would be cold at the top and were told it shouldn't be. But I'm smarter than that, and can't understand why we listened to those fools. Sure I would miss the sunrise in two hours because my eyes would be frozen, we paid 10 pounds to borrow a blanket from one of the local Bedouin guys at the top. We tried to bargain with him but he wouldn't have any of it. Mark lasted the longest, but eventually we all broke down and paid the 10. The word 'blanket' doesn't do much to describe this thing. More like 'skin from a camel that has been dead for 3 days.' It was pretty disgusting, and I can't believe I sat curled up in this thing for 2 hours, but they say that hypothermia can make you delirious.

Around 5:30 we began to see some pink and orange on the horizon and the cameras came out. It had been a pleasant wait, but unfortunately the masses from all of the tour buses had finally caught up. It wasn't quite the serene, peaceful setting we had imagined, with people yelling at their kids, sending & receiving text messages on their mobiles, shoving people aside to get photos and just about ruining the whole experience. There was one buff tour leader working for Travelco (big tour group type company we are regularly badmouthing) that was showing off to his group by standing on the edge of the cliff and being a tool. It was when we started taking photos of him that he finally got the idea that he might be in our way, so he went off to bother some other camel riding tourists. Nevertheless, as the sun slowly came up, the mountains changed from black to orange to pink, the light accenting their ruggedness and the deep cracks. It was breathtaking...or maybe that was the skanky blanket.

It was amazing how quickly we went from being frozen to being quite warm to being hot. Really in just a matter of about 30 minutes. Since no one was in a hurry to leave, we all waited at the top, chatting while all of the other people went off down the mountain on foot or on their camels (which were not allowed up the stair part). We had a quick wander around the Greek Orthodox chapel and mosque at the top, but they were both closed. It didn't take nearly as long to walk back down, even though we stopped a few times to take photos. We were at the bottom before 8:00, and St. Katherine's monastery doesn't open until 9:00, so we sat and waited along with the rest of those who stayed to go inside.

St. Katherine of Alexandria was tortured on a spiked wheel and then beheaded for her Christianity. He body was supposedly transported by angels away from the torture device (which spun out of control and killed the onlookers) and up to the top of Mt. Katarina, the highest mountain in Egypt and only 6km from Mt. Sinai. Monks from the monastery found her body about 300 years later. St. Katherine's was built as a sanctuary for Christians fleeing from religious persecution. It is a cute place, almost Spanish or American southwestern. Inside the complex is a gorgeous church where the remains of St. Katherine are interred. Nearby is a bush descending from the original Burning Bush from which God spoke to Moses.

Just before 10:00 a.m. everyone from our minibus was ready to leave, so we set off on the 2 hour drive back to Dahab. Arriving back at our hotel in only 1 hour and 20 minutes, we changed to an air-conditioned room, took a shower and went straight to sleep for a few hours. We then had a late lunch, spent some time on the internet, then went off to meet Mark and Karen for some 5 pound beers. About 4 hours and several beers later, we all headed back to our hotels for bed.

Sunday, June 26, 2005

The Blue Hole

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH ELIZABETH!!!

We took our time getting up this morning, had some breakfast and then got ready to go snorkelling. We went to the Blue Hole, an 80-100m deep pool in the reef just off the beach near Dahab. It's a famous place to dive, but has also killed many inexperienced people because of the depths. As it turns out, it was one of the best snorkellig sites we've ever been to.

We arrived by 4WD jeep since the road is a bit rocky. There are a bunch of hut restaurants set up, but otherwise there is nothing. After over an hour of us trying to find flippers that fit and masks that wouldn't leak, and burning the bottoms of our feet on the searing hot pavement, we were very pissed off at the company we went through and nearly went back to receive a refund. But, we just decided to get in the water without flippers and dealt with the leaky masks. We're so happy we did because it is absolutely gorgeous there. The visibility was about 25m, and the water was crystal clear. It was like we were swimming in an aquarium fish tank. We saw thousands and thousands of fish, and tons of different types and colours of coral. It was a bit scary looking down into the depths, since we're both petrified of sharks, but the beauty of the fish and coral overpowered our fear. We swam along the edge of the hole, then crossed over the reef and out onto the outside. It was truly amazing.

After two rounds of snorkelling, we decided to head back to town. The company we booked with assured that we could get a ride back whenever we were ready. Well, it was only 3:00 and our driver said they wouldn't be leaving until 4:30. We'd had enough hanging around, so we just hung out near the jeeps and got a ride back with a group of divers. I don't think the guy was happy about it (we saw him later in town) but we didn't care because they were crap.

Back in town, we had a late lunch and found a place that sells beer for 5 pounds. Bargain. We sat there for quite a while, then went back to Jay's for dinner. Back at our hotel room, we packed up and prepared to leave at 11:00 p.m. for Mt. Sinai. We managed to lay down for a bit beforehand.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Anyone know a place where we can get some dive gear?

We were up early again this morning to catch the 8:00 ferry from Hurgada to Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula. After turning down at least 8 buses that wanted to charge us taxi rates, we finally sqeezed ourselves into a nearly full minibus down to the ferry pier. While Nigel squeezed his way through a line to a tiny window in an old wooden building to get our boarding passes, I stood there and watched as many passengers for the ferry bound for Saudi Arabia filled out their immigration forms. If we thought Egyptian women have it bad, then I feel really sorry for the Saudi women. They were covered head to toe in black bhurkas, with just a slit for their eyes. Even their hands were covered with black gloves. Suddenly a gust of wind flipped up the hood of one girl's bhurka. I had a very quick glimpse of a cute red and white striped t-shirt and her hair combed into a braid. It was ineresting to see that underneath, she could be a 'normal' girl but that her society doesn't let her show any of this. Quickly she pulled the bhurka down and tucked it in so that this wouldn't happen again.

Getting on the ferry, we were pleased to see that the US$40 our tickets cost was actually reflective of the quality of service we got. The ferry is pretty new, clean and nice. We sat at a table, got coffee and a little something for breakfast from the onboard cafe and settled in for a few games of shithead. After about 30 minutes, the boat started up and we were off. On the TVs, advertisements for less than C-grade Hollywood movies were shown, all of which had plenty of shooting, bombing and the destruction of property. We had never heard of any of them. The feature movie came on, no less captivating than the previews, was so bad that it didn't even feature Steven Baldwin. It held my interest for about 3 minutes.

The trip was supposed to take 90 minutes, but rough seas extended it out to over 2 hours. Arriving at the Sharm el-Sheikh port, we got off the boat and waited while our luggage was unloaded. We caught a taxi to the bus station, hoping to get a bus soon after to Dahab. After arguing with the taxi driver for a few minutes (he wanted to charge 60E pounds to take us about 2km, and he picked up another passenger), we paid him the 10E pounds we thought the trip was worth and arrived at the bus station in time to have missed the 10:00 bus by less than an hour. The next bus was not due to depart until 2:30. As we got ready to have a long, hot, boring wait on the hard benches of the outdoor bus station, a Kiwi guy approached us and said that he had a minibus taking him to Dahab for 50E pounds per person, do we want to join them? Well, the bus only costs 11, but it was very tempting as we didn't feel like sitting there all day. Especially with a bunch perverted boys hanging around., whistling at me and making comments in Arabic. Nige was able to talk the driver down to 30 each, and we quickly grabbed our bags and hopped on. But, that wasn't before was whistled at again, so I approached the boys and asked "Do you speak to married Egyptian women that way? Probably not, because you'd go to jail or get your asses kicked. Don't talk to westerners that way either."

It was a short ride north to Dahab through the stunning mountainside scenery of the Sinai Peninsula. Just over an hour later we arrived at the small beach town. Made up of small shops, lots of restaurants and bars, and about 400 dive shops, Dahab is a chilled out 'hippy' town. We didn't think it was too hippy, but that's what people say. There is a paved path all along the waterfront, lined with shops and restaurants and hotels. And no cars! We found a hotel on the beach here (our room resembled an igloo), El-Salam Camp, then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering along the beachfront. The water is absolutely gorgeous here, and it would seem, a popular place to dive too. We had a few beers at one of the many places on the beach, then a home-cooked meal at Jay's. It's a fantastic restaurant where the chef changes the menu daily. A few mains and side dishes are always on offer. We had chicken, a pasty, veggies and rice. All delicious. It felt like we were at mom's house for dinner. We wandered around some more before heading back to our hotel and to bed.

Friday, June 24, 2005

Snorkelling by default

In stealth mode early this morning, we snuck out of our hotel around 7:30 to go snorkelling. We were trying to avoid the guys at the hotel reception, as they had been trying to get us to buy trips and ferry tickets from them. But we didn't want to give them any more business than we already were, so we booked elsewhere (and at a cheaper price too). We didn't really feel like spending the money on a day's snorkelling here, but we also didn't want to hang around Hurgada all day either. Snorkelling won by default.

We bought some bread and cheese (our niece Megan would call them 'Baby Cheeses') at the only shop open around, then had a 'coffee' at a coffee & sheesha shop. I say 'coffee' because it's really that crystallized powder Nescafe stuff. We're getting rather used to it actually. Around 8:30 we were picked up by a minibus, where we drove all over town collecting other passengers also snorkelling for the day. Finally at the boat dock, we waited in line (we were the last ones) to get snorkelling gear. After trying about 4 different pairs of flippers and masks each, we were so annoyed at the guys at the equipment counter that we nearly didn't go out on the trip. They were so rude and accused us of not trying on the flippers and just asking for smaller/larger sizes without even trying them. Now, why the hell would we do that?? Anyway, our gear in hand, we walked down to the boats. There were about 4 different boats there, and no one knew which one we were supposed to be on. The receipt for our trip had been collected by the minibus driver, and we couldn't see anyone we recognized from the minibus on any of the boats. True, we could have hopped on any of the boats, but there are many different snorkelling trips and we wanted to be sure we were going to where we had paid to go. Frustrated beyond belief at this stage, Nigel finally got onto one of the boats, recognized someone, and off we went, hoping it would take us to 2 snorkelling spots plus Griftin Island.

As I boarded the boat, an Egyptian guy (who worked on the boat) was using an ancient video camera to film all of the passengers. We could only assume it would be made into a cheesy souvenier video we could purchase at the end of our fabulous day. Whenever we saw him turning the camera to us, Nigel and I would quickly turn the other way or move to a different spot. We cruised (slowly which was the maximum speed of the grossly underpowered vessel) in the boat for about an hour or so through the beautiful clear blue waters of the Red Sea. The varying depths of the water made a variety of ocean colours, from deep dark blue to turquoise to clear sea green. We stopped at Griftin Island for about 1.5 hours. It's a fairly large island off the coast of Hurgada, and home to only one resort and nothing else but beautiful sandy beaches. The wind was howling mightily, and the water was a bit chilly, but we went in anyway to see what we could find. Unfortunately, we didn't see much at all. We did see one flat fish cruising along the sandy bottom, a few tiger fish and that was about all. We spent the rest of the time under the shade of one of two straw umbrella huts, 'enjoying' the view of hordes of tourists arriving in boats and invading the island.

When our time was up, we loaded back onto the boat and sat there for about 30 minutes while one of the guides went and found 2 people that hadn't come back to the boat. We then cruised to another snorkelling spot. This time we jumped into the water from the boat, and the snorkelling was much better. We saw tons of fish and coral. The highlight was probably seeing a few blue spotted rays. After lunch on the boat, we went to another snorkelling spot. It wasn't as good, but still worth having a swim around. The water is just so clear and beautiful here, it's like swimming in a pool.

Arriving back to the mainland, we turned in our snorkelling gear, waited at least 30 more minutes for everyone to be loaded into the proper vans, and we were dropped off somewhere near where we were picked up that morning. Without even returning to our hotel, we went straight to the pub for a few cold beers. Afterwards we walked around for ages looking for somewhere cheap to eat. Finding nothing, we took a bus to the other area of Hurgada. This place was full of restaurants, shops, hotels and people! It's too bad we didn't know about this area before! We got a salad (a real treat to us!) and a burger at McDonald's (I think we should buy stock in the Golden Arches) and made our way back to our hotel. Again, with nothing else to do, we went to bed.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Hellgada

This morning we decided we were ready to move on from Luxor. We definitely enjoyed it, but were looking forward to somewhere a bit cooler and a bit cheaper. We took a bus west to Hurgada on the coast of the Red Sea. We were headed to Dahab, also on the Red Sea coast but on the Sinai Peninsula. There was no ferry across the Gulf of Suez from Hurgada to the Sinai Peninsula on Friday, so we were stuck in Hurgada for 2 nights. It wasn't too bad, since the ocean here is beautiful, and the weather was exquisitely cool(er).

We walked through town and found a reasonable hotel,the 4 Season. Sadly, it was not a member of the 5 star chain. In fact, the staff was rude and it was overpriced. But it was the cheapest clean place we could find. We dropped our stuff and put on our bathing suits to head down to the beach for a nice swim. Unfortunately, most of the beaches charge an 'entrance fee' of at least 15E pounds. What is this world coming to??? On the way, we passed a pub selling Stella beers for 5E pounds. Seeing this as a total bargain (it's the cheapest we've found in Egypt), we couldn't pass up the opportunity, so we sat down at a table outside for a few cold ones. Well, about 2 beers later, we really couldn't be bothered to walk ourselves down to the public beach, so we spent the rest of the afternoon parked right where we were. We got to watch some of Grosse Point Blank and most of Pal Joey a Frank Sinatra classic. On the third beer we thought it was time to try a Sheesha and we decided on apple flavoured. It was alright, very smooth and sweet. We finally left when the Celine Dion music and the creepy waiter (he called himself Crazy Mohammed and tried to 'sneakily' touch me on the leg or arm) became too much to bear.

We walked around for ages trying to find something cheap to eat for dinner. Finding nothing, we shared a pasta meal at one of the many Italian places which was far from cheap. With nothing else to do in this hole of a town, we went back to our hotel room and went to bed.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

The West Bank of Luxor

The entire day was spent touring the sites of the west bank of Luxor. We were picked up by our taxi driver (Maradona) around 6:00 a.m. We were desperate to get an early start due to the heat. Our first stop was at the Valley of the Kings. It is a barren canyon home to the burial tombs of at least 62 pharaohs and nobles. It was chosen by the royalty because it was isolated, was easy to guard, and appears to be the site of the setting sun, associated with the afterlife. We got out of our taxi and didn't pay 1 Egyptian pound to catch a little train up the hill as they had no change but we rode anyway. We didn't mind the walk, but wanted to take advantage of the fact that there were only about 10 people around. Some 30 seconds later, the tram stopped at the ticket booth, making the ride up a bit of a laugh.

With our tickets, we were able to go inside any of the 3 tombs currently open to visitors. I had read through my book and had marked several of them off. But walking around for 5 minutes, it became clear that every single one of the tombs we wanted to see or even had the slightest interest in was closed. Angry and bummed out, we thought about asking for our money back, but decided we were there and may as well see some. So, we went insdie the tombs of Ramses I, Tuthmosis III and Tuthmosis IV. These tombs are very different from everything we have been seeing because there is nothing carved on the wals or ceilings. Instead, all of the pictures are painted, and much of the paint is as vivid as it was all those years ago. Although we much prefer the carvings and reliefs, it was interesting to see the painted walls. Our favourite was the Tomb of Tuthmosis III. It was the earliest tomb in the valley to be painted, and everything is painted simply as stick figures, something we hadn't seen. Also, the chamber is oval in shape, another unique feature. I'm not sure what we expected with the Valley of the Kings, but we were a bit disappointed, even though we enjoyed what we saw.

Next we went on to Deir al-Bahri and the Temple of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for over 20 years during a time of peace and prosperity. Many of the carvings and statues of her here at this temple show her with a false beard and the clothing of a man, while others show her clearly as a female. Today, the temple is most famous for the terrorist massacre of tourists in 1997. It was interesting to see the temple dedicated to a female for once.

Our next stop was at the Valley of the Queens. There are at least 75 tombs here, belonging to members of the royal family. Not many are open to visitors, but we went inside 3 of them. They are quite similar to the King tombs with brightly coloured walls and ceilings and little, if any, carvings. The most interesting one was the Tomb of Khaemwaset. He was one of Ramses III's many sons and died eary at the age of about 10. So he is portrayed as a young boy, with his father leading him to the gods of the underworld.

On to more tombs...we next went to a few of the Tombs of the Nobles. There are over 100 tombs scattered in and around a small village. It is a shame because they don't appear to be very well taken care of, and there are no signs or paths, making it almost a necessity to pay a local to guide you to the ones of your choice. Of course, we didn't choose to pay anyone. We spoke to a couple of locals who offered to show us the right way, but as soon as we said we had nothing to pay (as we knew they would ask for it) they became instant assholes. We wandered around until we found the tombs we wanted to see. Mostly they are the tombs of those who worked closely with the royal families. We chose to see the tombs of Sennofer and Rekhmire. Sennofer was the supervisor of King Amenhotep II's gardens, so the entire ceiling of his tomb is painted with grape vines and bright purple grapes. Very beautiful. Rekhmire was a governor, and his tomb is full of paintings of him receiving gifts from foreign lands, including panthers, giraffes and elephants.

Our next stop was at Medinat Habu, a huge temple complex nearly the size of Karnak. It was built by Ramses III and added to by succeeding rulers. It served as the economic and governmental centre of Luxor (then called Thebes) and was inhabited up until the 9th century AD, when a plague was thought to have hit the town. Most interesting were the reliefs showing the victory of Ramses III over the Libyans, who are tied up at the neck like slaves, and where scribes are doing a body count by tallying the number of severed hands and genitals. It was damn hot and it was a struggle to walk around in the blazing heat, stopping to recover in any shadow that we could find.

Absolutely stuffed by this stage, we made one last stop at the Colossi of Memnon before heading back to the east bank. It is a huge pair of statues built by Amenhotep III around 1350 BC. They are faceless statues rising about 18m high, and are thought to be part of a huge temple complex. Nothing but the statues remain because they sit on the flood plain of the Nile. The ancient Greeks thought these were statues of Memnon, a king of Ethiopia and son of Eos, who was slain by Achilles during the Trojan War.

Hot, exhausted and starving, we could only think of relaxing in a cool place to enjoy a huge lunch. So of course we ended up at McDonald's again. And it was damn good. We went back to our hotel to nap and rest in the air-conditioned room, had a few beers on the roof of our hotel, then walked around Luxor later in the evening when it had cooled down some.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Making Mummies

On our way out this morning, we decided to have a look at the hotel pool (it was dark when we arrived last night) to get us excited for a refreshing swim after a hot morning touring around. We went outside and saw a huge, algae green cesspool dug into the concrete. Talk about disappointment! We were so sad. And we were not going to suffer at the creepy Redrum Hotel if we couldn't use the pool (the whole reason we were here anyway). So, we grabbed a 2 Egyptian pound breakfast of felafel and looked around for another hotel. We found a reasonable place, went back to the other one, packed up our bags and moved.

Finally organised, we headed out to the Temples of Karnak, a huge complex of sanctuaries, temples and chambers. It's an immense site, and we spent a few hours wandering around getting stiff necks from constantly looking up. Nearly every inch of wall or column is covered in carvings and hieroglyphs, added to and modified by several different pharaohs over a period of 1500 years between 1570 BC and 1090 BC. The most impressive part is a huge hall, supposedly covering an area large enough to contain both St. Paul's Cathedral in London and St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. There are 134 huge columns towering over us as we walked among them. Each column is completely carved from top to bottom, and many of them still have paint on them. We sat there amazed at how everything is carved so precisely and so perfectly. We also sat there amazed at how clueless alot of the tourists are in foreign countries in what they wear.

Desperate for food, water and somewhere cool to relax (it was about 45C), we went to the only air-conditioned restaurant in Luxor that we can afford: McDonald's. And let me tell you, we were definitely not the only ones who realised it would be the best place to have lunch! Walking in, nearly everyone looked as if they'd just been through a war or something, haggard, sunburned and exhausted from the heat. We fully enjoyed our meal and once again have that newfound appreciation for the Golden Arches.

We spent some time on the internet and in our hotel room before going out in the evening (cooler, but still uncomfortable) and walking around the Luxor Temple. It's a fairly large complex built in 1390 BC, and now in the heart of Luxor surrounded by busy streets, souvenier shops and wandering touts. We walked through an avenue of sphinxes leading up to the temple, where most of the sphinx sculptures are still decently standing. This avenue once stretched all the way to the Temple of Karnak, 3km away. We wandered around the courtyards, hallways, temples and shrines, finally starting to recognize some of the carvings of gods, kings and hieroglyphs.

We then walked down the river to the Mummification Museum, a small (air-conditioned!) collection of all things having to do with the process of making mummies. There are paintings to show what they Egyptians did once a noble died and what they believed happened to the body. Also on display are some of the tools used in the process, another creepy mummy, some coptic jars (they contain the viscera of the body and were usually buried with him/her) and all sorts of interesting things. Grusomely enough, we really enjoyed it.

In need of some liquid amber, we found a place to have a few beers, then had dinner and returned to our hotel room and to bed.

Monday, June 20, 2005

The Redrum Hotel

A very uneventful day today. We had a swim in the morning, enjoying the refreshing water and Nile views for the last time, then packed up and headed for the bus station. We arrived around 11:30, hoping to catch the next bus north to Luxor. Well, there was a problem with the 12:30 bus and we found out it wouldn't be going, so the next bus was leaving at 3:30. Rather than deal with taxis back to town to do nothing, we sat at the bus station for a few hours and did nothing. We played some cards, had some lunch, and sweated in the heat. Nige had a good time chatting to a cute young boy, at least until he asked for baksheesh (a tip), which ruined it for him. Kids come up to us all the time and ask for baksheesh. They don't seem to realise that they're actually begging since they have done nothing to deserve baksheesh. It's pretty annoying.

It took about 5 hours to reach Luxor. We were dropped of on the side of the highway, caught a taxi to town, and found a hotel. We really wanted one with a pool, so we spent a bit extra to stay at the Luxor Hotel. The young desk clerk was a punk and Nigel took a quick dislike to him. Since it's not very busy right now in Egypt, many hotels are doing updates and modifications. I think we were the only people staying at this huge hotel. It was a bit creepy with abandoned hallways and echoing rooms. Just like the hotel in 'The Shining.' We had dropped our bags in the room (which was fine, and had a huge terrace overlooking the Luxor Temple) and headed out for some dinner. Luxor is quite expensive, being the most popular tourist destination after the Giza Pyramids. Being a warm night (well, actually it was still hot at 9:30 pm) we walked around a bit, found some food and then went to bed.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Abu Simbel


Abu Simbel
Originally uploaded by wapstar.
This morning we were up at 3:30 for a trip south to Abu Simbel. It is 280km south of Aswan, and home to the Great Temple of Ramses II. All tourists must be part of a police convoy if they want to visit. So, around 4:00 a.m. we sat on the street outside our minibus just out of town, waiting for all of the tour buses to show up. When all were accounted for, the first truck full of armed policemen took off, we all followed, and another police truck followed. In additioned, there were a few other police vehicles full of armed men among us, and we had an officer armed with both an automatic and an uzi sitting in the passenger seat. We're not sure of the reason for the security, and we weren't sure if we felt safe or unsafe, but the trip was uneventful.

Arriving at Abu Simbel around 8:00 a.m., we walked along a desert path, turned a corner and had a beautiful site of 4 huge statues of Ramses guarding the entrance to the temple. The temple was carved out of the side of a mountain around 1274 BC, designed by Ramses II as a place of worship of 3 gods as well as a show of the pharaoh's strength. The temple is 30m high, towering over the river and Lake Nasser, and the 4 statues of Ramses II are over 20m high. It is one of the most impressive things we have ever seen. It would have been completely submerged after the Aswan dam was built, but was alone is an amazing feat of engineering let alone the temple itself.

Inside the temple are thousands and thousands of hieroglyphs as well as carvings and reliefs, mostly showing Ramses II conquering his enemies. There are also statues of Ramses II himself and the three gods the temple is dedicated to: Ra-Harakhty (sun god), Amun (king of gods) and Ptah (god of creation). Nearby this temple is the Temple of Hathor, dedicated to Queen Nefertari, Ramses II's wife. Hathor is the goddess of love.

After spending the morning exploring and just sitting there staring at these temples, we waited around for the convoy to assemble, then set out on the 280km drive back to Aswan. Our next destination was the Aswan High Dam. This was crap and not worth the 5 Egyptian pounds we paid. Next we went to the Temple of Philae. This was one of the temples that would have been destroyed when the dam was flooded, except Unesco rescued it and moved it to a different island in the Nile. It is a temple dedicated to Isis, Goddess of magic, protector of the dead, and the symbolic mother of pharaohs. We took a little boat out to the island, driven by a boy no older than 12. Unfortunately for us, it was at least 45C out and because we refused to pay anything more than the posted price for the boat, they gave us the only boat 'working today' which also had no shade. But it was a short ride, and we had our kushari lunch (which we'd brought with us) sitting in the shade of part of the temple.

This temple was built around 380BC and was still in use as late as 550AD. It's a fairly large complex, with hieroglyphs, carvings and reliefs adorning nearly every surface. It was very cool, and in a beautiful setting as well. Taking the boat back to the mainland, we were all motionless and silent in the heat. We thought the 2 Japanese girls were going to melt. Back on shore we loaded back up into the minibus and stopped at the Unfinished Obelisk just outside of town. It's a huge piece of granite in the middle of a quarry, measuring about 42m long. It was supposed to be a huge obelisk for one of the many temples around the country, as this type of granite is only available in southern Egypt. But the guys found a flaw in the stone and stopped carving it. Had they finished, it would have been the heaviest piece of stone ever fashioned. This was a quick visit as it was so bloody hot and walking around on a huge slab of granite that has been sitting in the heat of day is not the best place to be.

Arriving back at our hotel around 4:00, we had a swim in the pool and tried to scrub off the layers of sand and dirt. We did some laundry in our room and spoke with Nigel's dad before heading out to meet a potential felucca guide. We had heard from a few sources that 'Captain Washington' at the Aswan Moon restaurant was the guy to go to for felucca trips. He had a trip leaving tomorrow with 4 people already signed up, but he was charging more than double what we should have been paying, probably since he knows he's now 'famous' in the backpacking world (not that we could officially verify that it was the true Cap'n Washington). We spent some time in the evening trying to get another boat organised, but there just were not enough backpackers around, and we couldn't afford to hire out a whole boat to ourselves. We wandered through the town souqs again, had some dinner, another night swim and then went to bed.

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Sites of Aswan

We started our sightseeing early today because of the heat (about 44C!). We took the ferry across the Nile to the west bank and visited the Tombs of the Nobles. There are many tombs dug into the side of the high cliffs and were the burial sites of princes, governors and other dignitaries, dating back to as early as the 2600s BC. We were guided around by a man packing some serious heat. We're not sure why he was armed, and we didn't ask, but by the end of the tour we still hadn't decided if this was a good thing or a bad thing! The tombs are very interesting, and some of them have the most beautiful carvings. Most of the carvings and reliefs depict the lifestyles of those buried within, as well as serve as a diary of things that happened in his/her lifetime. One of the nobles had a bad knee and is shown with his crutch in all his reliefs. Some of them even still had paint showing in various places. We politely thanked the dude with the gun, gave him a tip, and when he suggested we tip the guy with the key we thought it was a great idea.

We then took the ferry back over to the east bank to catch a different ferry to Elephantine Island, a huge piece of land in the middle of the Nile right in Aswan. Civilisation began here around 3000 BC. We wandered around the Nubian villages on the island, a series of unpaved alleys, small farms, wandering chickens & goats and brightly coloured mud homes. We then went to the Ruins of Abu, an ancient village dating from the beginning of settlement on the island. It's still much in the process of being excavated. The most interesting things were the two Nilometres. Essentially a well built on the banks of the Nile, there are stairs leading down inside and a scale carved into one side. They used the Nilometre to measure the level of the river. If the river was high, it meant a flood was approaching and there would be plenty of water for crops. In addition, the higher the water, the more prosperous they would be, and the higher the taxes would go.

By this time, it was at least 44C, so we had a quick lunch of kushari, headed back to our hotel and had a swim in the refreshing pool before having a nap. Later in the evening, we spent some time trying to arrange a felucca (sailboat) trip north. We wandered through the souqs (markets), had pizza for dinner (it was supposed to be an Egyptian pizza, but the waiter just assumed we wanted a western style one and that is what we got), and had another night swim before heading to bed.

Friday, June 17, 2005

Aswan

Our train pulled into Aswan station around 11:30 this morning. We walked the 1.5 kilometres to our hotel along the Nile. Only 11:30 and it was already over 40C! We got a room at the Hathor hotel, dropped our gear and went straight up to the roof for a swim in the pool. It was exactly what we needed, a dip in the cool refreshing water. The views over the Nile from the pool are fantastic as well. Except for all the cruise ships with their leather skinned old european tourists baking by the pool on the upper deck.

Refreshed, we set out to find a cheap lunch and ended up walking through the town's souqs, or markets. People were busy buying fresh veggies and fruit and going about their daily errands. We found a kushari shop, where we sat out under an umbrella and watched the town go by. The cutest kid kept us entertained. He was looking after his dad's produce stand, but he was being cheeky for us, doing hand stands and clowing around. He had a gorgeous smile and huge dimples.

After a nap by the pool, we wandered around town for a bit. Aswan is a pretty laid back place just 300 km north of the Sudan border. The Nile here is gorgeous, clean (at least it looks clean), and flowing beautifully with lots of feluccas (sailboats). The whole Nile valley is very lush, but the green trees don't extend very far beyond the shores of the river and quickly change to desert and nothingness. It was a bit tiring though, constantly fending off the felucca guys following us down the street trying to get us to sail with them.

We headed to the Nubian Museum, thankful it is open late (until 10:00 p.m.) and air-conditioned! The Nubians are people native to what was once Nubia, an area spreading fromf Aswan in southern Egypt south to Khartoum, Sudan. Most of their traditional lands were wiped out in the 1970s when Egypt built a dam in the Nile and flooded their land. At the museum is a display of all of the ancient tombs and temples that were flooded and now lay under the Nile, gone forever. They did remove some of these and shifted them to higher ground, but most of them are now underwater. It is a great little museum.

Afterwards we enjoyed a few cold beers at a restaurant on the water before having dinner, then another night dip in the pool before bed.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

2 buses and a train

It was a crappy overnight bus ride back to Cairo, but we didn't expect any thing more than that, so it was okay. We had to change buses in Alexandria, but managed to hop off of one and jump right onto one leaving for Cairo. Back in the capital, we went straight to the train station and bought tickets for Aswan later that evening. We took a dorm bed at the hotel we stayed at before, had a shower and slept for a few hours. We hadn't realised how tired we were! We had lunch at our favourite shwarma shop, Felfela, then spent a few hours on the internet. We had some cold beers, more shwarma for dinner, then headed to the train station.

We had booked a 1st class ticket in Nefertiti class, where the cars are supposed to be the newest and cleanest. Our cabin was air-conditioned with 3 seats facing 3 more seats, and plent of room in between. The only strange thing is that the seats don't recline. You'd think that 1st class overnight would be a sleeper, but the only sleeper trains are the tourist trains and quite expensive. But the seats were large and comfortable, so we settled in for the 14 hour journey south to Aswan.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Sleepless in Siwa

It was a pretty miserable night out in the desert. It was so incredibly hot that we couldn't have any covers on us, but there were so many mosquitos that we had to stay covered up. Needless to say, we didn't get any sleep. At one stage I'd had enough so I went out to lay under the stars. It was still hot in my sleeping bag, but not as bad as in the sand tent. I mummified myself in my sleeping bag but the mossies were relentless buzzing around my face. Shortly after I was joined by Nigel. We lay there in misery together. But on the bright side, the stars in the sky were so brilliant. There were millions of them, the sky nearly looked white. So beautiful! As the sun started to rise, we made a fire again, and made sure there was plenty of smoke to keep the mossies away (it didn't work). It was a nice sunrise, and we just hung out until around 8:30 when our guide woke up (he had no problems sleeping) and we waited for our driver to come pick us up.

Back in town, we had some breakfast and a cool shower and slept for a few hours.We then took what they call an 'air-conditioned taxi' to see a few sights. The taxi is a donkey cart, and our driver was about 12 years old, who repeatedly tried to sell his "uncles" safari tours to the desert and other oasies. It was a slow ride, but fun. We went out to the Temple of the Oracle, built in the 6th century BC. There are many stories around this powerful oracle. The Persians invading Egypt sent and army to destroy it, only to have all 50,000 men swallowed up by a sandstorm and never seen again. Alexander the Great came here to seek confirmation from the oracle that he was in fact the son of Zeus. It was very hot but interesting to climb around the ruins of the village in which the oracle sat. And we had fantastic views from the top of the oasis and surrounding desert.

Back in town, we enjoyed some ice cold bottled water while sitting in the town centre, just watching the people. It was strange because other than young girls and married women (who are fully covered head to toe, including their faces), we didn't see any other females. We're not too sure how girls between the ages of 10 and 20 (or until they're married) spend their days, but apparently it is indoors. We had an excellent Siwan late lunch at a local restaurant, then we bought some scissors and I gave Nige a much-needed haircut. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing until our bus left at 11:00 p.m.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Yabba Dabba Doo


Siwa Oasis
Originally uploaded by wapstar.
We arrived in Siwa just after midnight, but the town still seemed to be awake. Men were out walking around, enjoying a sheesha, or riding their donkeys. Even kids were out playing in the dirt streets. Walking from the bus stop to our hotel, we felt as if we were walking around a movie set. Siwa is 550km west of Cairo near the Libyan border, which also happens to be the middle of nowhere. It is surrounded by huge sand dunes, salt lakes, and of course natural springs that make it an oasis, allowing the growth of thousands of date palms and olive trees.

Siwa remained isolated from the rest of the country, and the world, until a paved road was built in the 1980s, linking Siwa with the Mediterranean coast. Siwans still speak their own language & have a unique culture different to that of the rest of Egypt. set up on a hill in the centre of town are the remains of the ancient fortress, Shali. Built in the 13th century, it was the home to hundreds of people, and few, if any, outsiders were admitted. Very few that entred ever returned. But the fortress was built with kershef, large chunks of salt mixed with rock and plastered in clay. In 1926, it rained for 3 days and most of the fortress was destroyed. As we passed by in the middle of the night, the ruins were lit up like a cheesy amusement park ride. Most of the buildings are still made of mud bricks, giving the town a Bedrock feel.

At our hotel, we had a cold shower (it was still about 35C out) and went to sleep until about noon. For lunch we enjoyed the best lemon, sugar, banana and cinnamon pancake ever, then spent a few hours walking around the small town. At 3:00 pm we left on an overnight desert safari. We drove through Lake Zeitun, a huge saltwater lake, which a little bit of water and a lot of salt. It was about an inch thick on the surface where we walked. We then stopped in Az-Zeitun, an abandonded mud-brick village. Apparently these guys had the same contractors as the people of Shali. From there we stopped at Abu Shuruf, a gorgeous little freshwater spring in the middle of the desert. Surrounded by palm trees, the spring is a refreshingly cool swimming hole. The water is a gorgeous turquoise blue, and so clear we could see straight to the bottom. We relaxed here for a bit, swimming and enjoying the quiet. We were told of a hot springs across the road but when we got there it looked like a runoff pool from the neighboring factory, not cool...exactly

On our way out to the sand dunes, we passed through Ain Safi, home to around 30 Bedouin families. What they do out here, I don't know. After letting some air out of our tires, we drove around the desert, stopping every now and then to take photos. We climbed to the top of a huge rock structure in the sand, where the views of Siwa and the oasis are stunning. It looks like a mirage popping out of the desert. Walking around, we found hundreds of sea shells, left over from hundreds of thousands of years ago. As we roared over and through the sand dunes, we felt as if we could have been on Tatooine from Star Wars.

As we sped along, we noticed a 'thump thump' sound coming from the rear of the open jeep. The driver stopped, we all hopped out, and sure enough, we had a flat tire. In the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere in Egypt. He indicated in broken English that it was because the sand is so hot (it was at least 40C out). Unfortunately, the jeep was in desert sand. To make a long story short, we spent the next 45 minutes trying to change the tire. First the driver had to dig the sand out around the wheel. This wasn't too successful, since the sand just slid right back in. He then had to try to use the jack to prop the jeep up, which was nearly impossible with the sand. Eventually all of us (us and a couple from Hong Kong) had to lift up the side of the jeep so the driver could wedge the tire on. We couldn't lift the jeep high enough to get the full size spare on, so we had to make do with a smaller one.

We finally made it to our camp for the night, which resembled a patchwork circus tent. Some guys from town were putting up our 'hotel' for the night, a tent made from various blanket scraps haphazardly put together. The floor was of course just the sand. But they did have small mats and we had brought our sleeping bags. We got what little gear we had out of the jeep, then climbed a giant sand dune to watch the sunset. As far as sunsets go, it wasn't too spectacular, but the desert and surroundings were beautiful. While we waited for our driver to come back with our dinner (he had left us to go back to town to get our guide and our food), we fought off mosquitos and finally built a fire in the sand. We had an excellent dinner of traditional Bedouin food (Siwans descend from various Bedouin tribes) and sat around the fire chatting to our guide. It was really interesting speaking to him about growing up in Siwa (a.k.a. BFE) and how he will always live there. We also tried some Siwan tea. It usually involves 3 rounds of tea, the first being tea as strong as you can possibly make it, the second is made with mint which tastes like toothpaste mixed in water and well we didn't make it to the third round but apparently it is supposed to be like the first only weaker. When our exhaustion crept up on us some time late in the night, we all crawled into the tent and went to bed.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Catacombs

After breakfast we headed to the Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa, the largest known Roman burial site in Egypt. They are large, tri-leveled tombs dug underground. There is a large room which is the main burial chamber, thought to be that of some Roman nobles, but no one knows for sure who really was buried in the catacombs. Around the main chamber are larger ones with many holes lining the walls in which many other bodies were placed. It was interesting to walk around inside, and I felt very much like being in a work by Edgar Allan Poe.

Next we walked down the street to see Pompey's Pillar, a huge 30 metre high column of pink granite, used as a temple for worship back in 293 AD. We didn't actually pay to go in, since all of the places around the pillar are in heaps of rubble, and we could see the pillar itself through the gates, bargain.

Ready to move on, we spent the afternoon stuffing around with taxi drivers, trying to organise tickets to Siwa, our next destination. We headed to the bus station to buy tickets, then couldn't get a taxi back to the museum we wanted to go to for a reasonable price, so we took the local tram, a run-down but useful little trolley/cable car that runs around town. Well, our Arabic not being up up to standard, we didn't know where to get off so just took a guess. At the tram station, the maps are all in Arabic as well, so there was nothing we could do except walk down to the water and orientate ourselves from there. It turns out that we needed to stay on the tram for at least 10 more stops! But, being a nice day, we just walked along the water. By the time we were near the museum, we didn't think it was worth going into for just an hour (which is all the time we could spare), so we just continued on walking back to our hotel. We passed by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a beautiful structure (it is a real library), inspired by the original great library here in the 3rd century BC. The architecture is great it has a huge windowed wedge which is the main part of the library and a huge sphere that is half above ground and half below. Impressive stuff.

Done wandering, we had just enough time to have a quick lunch at Mohammed Ahmeds, grab our bags at the hotel, and get to the bus station. The trip west to Siwa was a long 10 hours. We drove along the coast for the first 5 hours, passing some absolutely gorgeous beaches and hideous unfinished resorts, before turning south and into the desert. Unfortunately the numerous 'tea & sheesha' stops made the trip seem even longer.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Alexandria

We had a bit of a sleep in today, then caught the bus north to Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast. It's a nice city of 5 million people, and we were happy to be on the coast. Straight away we could see all of the Roman influences around town. It was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great, was made the capital of Egypt, and now almost doesn't fit in with the rest of the country. Still the romance of Cleopatra's days are still evident in the architecture of the city.

We quickly found the cheapest hotel available (Alex is a big weekend spot for wealthy Cairo families), complete with partial view of the Mediterranean, and headed to a restaurant on the waterfront (called Athenios) for a few cold beers. It was very relaxing sitting there, enjoying the view of the water and watching all of the people pass by. It was just too bad we were not able to sit outside, because, heaven forbid someone actually see us consuming alcohol! We then wandered along the water, watching local fishermen have a go, and stopping to play with a group of puppies while the local looked at us strangely. A typical reaction in many parts of the world where dogs are not treated well.

For dinner, we found another fantastic, cheap Egyptian place, Mohammed Ahmed's. It appeared to be a local favourite as well. We stuffed ourselves on fuul (mashed fava beans, these ones mixed with onions, tomato and coriander) and ta'amiyya (felafel), and of course plenty of shammy (pita-like bread). Walking back to our hotel, we passed through busy streets full of locals and Egyptian tourists hitting the shops, then went to bed with the sound of the ocean just sneaking in through our window.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

The Pyramids


Pyramids of Giza
Originally uploaded by wapstar.
We caught a taxi early this morning to our first stop, the pyramids of Saqqara. We actually had a brief detour to pick up our International Student passes. For a small fee we became students this morning which gives us about 50% off most sites in Egypt. All we needed was our passport and a photo and within 5 minutes we had our cards. Ohh to be living the student life again, quick take me to the tavern.

Saqqara was a cemetery for more than 3500 years, where both pharaohs and their subjects were buried. We first went inside the Tomb of Mereruka and the Tomb of Akethotep. We were amazed to see how perfectly carved the hieroglyphs are, and how the most minute details can still be seen, thousands of years later. We were excited to see carvings of hippos in one of them. Next was the Pyramid of Teti, who ruled from 2345-2323 BC. Inside, the royal burial chamber was one of the first to have decorations and his huge basalt sarcophagus is still there.

Back in the taxi, we headed down the road to Dahshur to see the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. Halfway through constructing this one, the steep angle caused the walls to show signs of stress, so the builders reduced the angle from 53 degrees to 43 degrees and kept building. As a result, the sides of the pyramid bend slightly inwards. Building the pyramids was all trial and error I suppose. Having another go, they finally constructed the world's first and oldest true pyramid, the Red Pyramid. Supposedly the limestone gives off a red hue, but we didn't really see it. Using the Step Pyramid and Bent Pyramid as examples, the builders started this one at a 43 degree angle, and the results were a huge, beautiful pyramid. We ventured inside this pyramid, testing our claustrophobia. Down, down, down into the depths of the earth. Not much was inside, but it was the sheer experience of entering such an ancient place that was exciting. Later that day we felt a bit sore in the back and legs from climbing in and out, hunched over like Quasimodo. (or maybe Nige was just showing his 31 years of age)

Next stop was Zoser's Step Pyramid, built in 2650 BC. It is the world's earliest stone monument, and was the first tomb to be built with hewn stone (rather than with perishable materials like mud bricks). Six separate stages marked the construction of the pyramid, allowing the builders to slowly master the art of building a pyramid. As a result, it rises in a series of six steps, reacing 60 metres high. Outside the pyramid is a statue of Zoser himself, housed in a little stone structure. There are two drilled holes through which you can peek, getting you face to face with the ancient king. It was a bit creepy.

Next it was on to Memphis, the first capital of ancient Egypt. Egypt's first pharaoh, Narmer (aka Memes) ruled beginning in 3100 BC and was responsible for uniting Upper and Lower Egypt. Not much is left of this important city, but we went to a museum where there is a huge statue of Ramses II. While we were walking around the outdoor museum, a group of young Egyptian girls approached us and indicated (no English spoken) that they'd like to have a photo with us. As we all gathered in a group pose, a man nearby started yelling. He was working at the museum, and noticed the girls standing with us. One of the girls spoke back to them, and eventually they said "Sorry" in broken English and walked away, without the photo being taken. I think that the man was yelling at them because they weren't supposed to be in a photo with us. Maybe because I am a woman, and I was wearing shorts and did not have my head covered? Who knows. But it was kind of sad. The girls were all dressed in trendy clothes, the only difference being that they had jeans on (despite the 40C+ heat) and they had their heads covered.

Our final stop for the day was at the infamous Pyramids of Giza, the last survivors of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World and the oldest 'tourist attraction' in the world. Our taxi driver dropped us off near the gate, and we immediately headed to find something to eat. There are no ATMs around Giza, and we didn't have much money, so we looked for something quick and cheap. Oddly enough, we ended up at KFC. We had a gorgeous view of the Sphinx and Pyramids while eating our chicken sandwiches and fries. We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking around the 3 pyramids and the Sphinx. The 3 pyramids were built by a father (Khufu 2589-2566 BC), son (Khafre 2558-2532 BC), and grandson (Menkaure 2532-2503 BC). They were already more than 2500 years old at the time of the birth of Jesus. It is so amazing to walk around something so ancient, yet so perfect still. The only thing that detracts from the site is the fact that the huge, polluted city of Cairo extends right up to the pyramids and is not a very romantic backdrop. It's a bit disappointing.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is the largest in Egypt at 146 metres high, followed by the Pyramid of Khafre at 136 metres (although this one looks larger as it is built on higher ground) and the Pyramid of Menkaure at 62 metres. They are absolutely massive. The individual blocks are about 5 times my size at the bottom, leading us to wonder how they were ever built. And the Sphinx looked just as we expected. There is a theory that there were two shinxes, which I think we believe having been here. We walked around and among the pyramids for a few hours, getting sore necks as we stared up at them and getting hassled for camel and horse rides. Despite the heat of the day (probably about 42C), we trekked a bit of a way out into the desert to get a view of all 3 pyramids simultaneously. While we were enjoying the view, it was prayer time for Muslims, and all of the mosques in Cairo called out to the people to pray. The songs of the prayer-callers (or muezzin) carried all the way out to where we stood, a very cool experience.

We were nearly the last to leave the pyramid complex as it closed for the day (except for re-opening at night for a 'sound and light' show for ticket holders). We headed straight for a cold shower after being dropped off at our hotel, then straight out to the pub. The only place we could find open was a dodgy hole in the wall dark place, but the beer was cold and rewarding. We headed back to our favourite Cairo diner, Felfela, for some more kushari and shwarma and then headed to bed, exhausted.

Friday, June 10, 2005

Scary mummies

We arrived in Cairo around 1:00 this morning. We had arranged for a taxi from the hotel to pick us up, so we didn't have to deal with the expected hassel at the airport. Straight away the guy tried to rip us off by charging twice what we were quoted from the hotel in an email. We told the guy to take care of it through the hotel, and we quickly got a room, had a shower and slept until 11:30.

We were woken by loud chanting coming from outside. It turned out to be the guy in the mosque next door, calling out prayer time (one of five times throughout the day) through loud speakers on the street. This will become a very familiar sound to us, at all hours of the day, as long as we remain in a Muslim country. We had the crappy (but free) breakfast from our hotel, the Meramees, then headed for the Egyptian Museum.

We were able to walk to the museum from our hotel. Luckily it was a short walk, as it was about 36C/97F. Walking along the gates of the museum, we were pleased to see that such priceless items housed inside are so well-guarded. In fact, there is a police office with a machine gun about every 15 feet around the museum's perimeter. On the way in, we passed through 2 different metal detectors and had our bags x-rayed two different times. Once we were finally inside, we were free of the hasslers outside, but the museum is not air-conditioned, so it was a bit stuffy. We spent most of the afternoon viewing the more than 120,000 ancient relics and antiquities inside. We saw the Narmer Palette (a depiction of basically the start of ancient Egyptian civilisation), King Tut's stuff (including the famous gold death mask), and of course mummies. We had to pay a small fortune to enter the mummy room, where there are 11 mummies on display. These are the remains of some of Egypt's most famous pharaohs and queens, dating between 1650 A.D. and 945 B.C. We couldn't believe how 'in-tact' they look, given their ages. Admittedly, they are a bit frightening, but amazing all the same. We could see individual toe nails, hair still combed perfectly, old scars, and many of the details similar to a sleeping (yet shrivelled) person.

Basically we walked around the museum in awe of how old everything is. Everything seems fake it is so old. It was amazing. After we'd had enough, we went out and had our first Egyptian meal: kushari, a mix of noodles, rice, black lentils, fried onions and tomato sauce as well as shawarma, strips of beef or chicken sliced from a spit, sizzled on a hot plate and stuffed into bread with sauce, tomatoes, onion and parsley (like a gyros)(or Yiros in Adelaide). The food was cheap and fantastic. Kushari is like mixing all of the leftovers in your fridge and dumping a jar of spaghetti sauce on top. It doesn't look too great, but tastes excellent. After stuffing ourselves, we headed to an Egyptian coffee and sheesha shop (a scary looking contraption they smoke tobacco through, like a big bong really) where we had to sit behind shuttered windows to enjoy a few cold Stella beers (the Egyptian one not Belgium one). We then headed off for a cold shower and bed.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Egypt bound

This morning we took care of some errands before leaving the civilised world of London before catching the tube back out to Heathrow. We were sad to have missed catching up with a few people (namely, Jake-he arrived in London a few hours after we left; Andrew & Pia-we didn't get their contact info until the day before we left; and Lincoln-we couldn't manage to catch up). Still, we had a great time and look forward to our next visit. Since Nigel couldn't leave England without eating bangers 'n mash, we had a late lunch/early dinner at a pub in the airport before taking off to Cairo. We had copious amounts of alcohol on the flight, all the better to deal with the stuffy, snotty British Airways flight attendant we had!

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

A quick pint at the pub

Today was another full day out on the streets of London. We walked through the beautiful Hyde Park again, then headed to the British Airways travel clinic where we paid a fortune to stock up on our doxy (doxycycline, our anti-malarials). We could have bought them heaps cheaper in any other country, but we wanted to be sure we were getting the quality we need. Then we had lunch on the steps of the statue in the middle of the round-about in Picadilly Circus, then went to Buckingham Palace (Kel was a bit disappointed here), a quick trip to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone in preparation for Egypt (found in 1799 and translated in 1822, allowing us to understand hieroglypics), then went out to Camden to pick up a package we had sent over from home. While in Camden, we got a good idea of what some of the suburbs of London are like, and we made the quick decision that if we were ever to live in London, it wouldn't be in Camden. After a beer or two at a redneck bar, we headed back to Kensington, used the internet for a while and had dinner on our own, as Nigel was working late.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

London un-tourists

Today was a full day as official tourists in London...well, almost tourists. We walked around and saw a bunch of stuff, but we didn't actually go in and pay for anything, as we were feeling the pressure of the pound. We took the tube to London Tower, saw the Tower Bridge, a cheap recreation of Shakespear's Globe theatre, Southwark Cathedral, St. Paul's Cathedral, walked across the Milennium Bridge to the Tate Modern museum (awesome), had lunch (again, goodies from Marks & Spencer) on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral, changing of the guards at the Guard Palace, looked down the street to No. 10 Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives-I had to ask), Big Ben, Parliament (with many references to European Vacation of course), Westminster Abbey, walked across the Thames to the London Eye (huge ass ferris wheel), had another warm beer in a London pub, then went back to Nigel's where we ordered pizza for dinner. A great day walking around the beautiful city. We love it here.

Monday, June 06, 2005

Oops-a-daisy

Yet another lazyish day for us. We caught up on some laundry, used the internet again, tried to track down a package that was supposed to be delivered to us in London.

We did take a walk through Notting Hill and Portobello road which is a bit of a hippy street. It has a mixed collection of food stalls, reggae record stores, knick knack stores, antique shops and bookshops. At Kel's insistence, we sussed out the bookshop that was the inspiration for Hugh Grant's shop in Notting Hill. It has become pretty trendy and most of its bohemian ways are dissapearing but it was a nice day and a great walk.

We had a fantastic dinner of chicken and veggies from Marks & Spencer and had an early night.

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Lazy London

Today was a lazy day for us. After a sleep in, we watched a video and napped. We met my cousin Brett later in the day for a few pints. It was great to catch up after 18 months. Brett had been in Brighton with his Spiegeltent (shameless plug) and was on his way up to the Edinburgh Festival. The tent may even make its way to NY around the same time we are there later in the year. It was also a treat to be with family, if only for an evening. A spot of late night Subway for dinner and off to bed before midnight WOW!!

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Being Nigel

We slept in today to about midday, which was much needed. London Nige made us a great lunch and we sat on the balcony between intermittant showers. Once we gathered ourselves we went out for a spot of shopping. Kellianne and I had to look for some new running shoes to replace those stolen in Zimbabwe and it was a nice afternoon looking around Oxford street and Kensington/High street.

That evening we went out to a few bars to meet some of Nige H.'s friends also from Adelaide. We also met up with Irish Nigel, so there were 3 Nigels out together which was interesting when someone called out 'Nige'. After a few drinks at the A.K.A. bar we moved on to another great nightclub/bar for more drinks and dancing. It turned out to be a big night. Thanks to Nige H. and the incredibly strong cocktails. We eventually got our first London cab home about 4 a.m.

Friday, June 03, 2005

London Calling

After a good but a little bumpy flight we arrived in Heathrow Airport, England. We easily went through customs (although immigration was a bit too nosy about where we were headed next, for how long, and did we have visas yet?) and made our way to the underground station to get into Bayswater where Nigel's friend Nigel lives. The London underground system is great, it is clearly marked and easy to use. After about 40 minutes we reached the Notting Hlll Gate station and we emerged in London. It was pretty much how we pictured it and it did feel like London to us. It is strange to think that you can have an idea of how you will feel somewhere even if you haven't been there before.

At Nige's flat we took a shower and took a few moments to adjust to being in a house after being in hotels, dorms, guesthouses and tents for 6 months. Kel was most excited about being able to put her toothbrush under the tap, and not having to used bottled water. Even though we were tired we decided to take a bit of a walk in the nice weather (18C and sunny). First we stopped at Tesco to get our budget lunch of a huge baguette, tuna, potato salad and a tomato. Total cost of about 4 pounds (Thanks to Nickie and Alex for their tip). We walked 5 minutes to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park, a huge park with a couple of lakes and playgrounds. We sat on a bench and made our lunch and watched the people for a while. It was interesting that we really hadn't heard any locals all morning, plenty of Aussies, Americans, Germans, French, and various other indistinguishable accents.

We had a peek at the back of Kensington Palace and then walked around the rest of the Park and over to Oxford street. After a bit of shopping (we needed socks) and our first warm English pint of beer (Kel didn't really enjoy it, but it was beer), we returned back to the flat.

Nige took us out to dinner with some friends to a fantastic Thai restaurant in Soho. It was actually almost 10:30 by the time we ate but it didn't feel that late, probably because the English summer sun doesn't set until about 9:30. On the way home we picked up a couple beers and sat and chatted late into the night before retiring after a long day.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Steers and beers

We managed to sleep in a bit this morning, packed up our gear and walked to the nearby mall to send some stuff home. After finally managing to find the post office and shipping our stuff off, we shared a huge fresh salad for lunch, then headed back to the hotel to finish up a few things. We then walked back to the mall and saw Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Although the sound was crap and the screen not a monstrosity, we still enjoyed the film and were not disappointed. We just had enough time to get back to the hotel, pick up our stuff and say goodbye to Benson and Jairos before catching a cab to the airport.

At the airport, we ate dinner at a chain called Steers, a clever name for a hamburger joint. Of course we had beer too. We made our last purchase of biltong (South African dried meat, like jerky - we prefer the beef variety, but we did try 'game' and 'elephant' biltong!) before hopping on the plane to London.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Safari Day 22 - The Doldrums

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIGEL!!!

We were sad that this was our very last day of our safari, but at least it was Nigel's birthday to help cheer us up. We spent all morning driving from Kruger back to Johannesburg. After dropping our gear, we headed to the BA office to pick up our airline tickets, did some laundry and had a big scrub in the shower. We hung out in the basement pub at the hotel with Toni, Benson and Jairos and ordered pizza and salad delivered for dinner. There was plenty of cold beer to drown our sorrows and celebrate Nigel's birthday. Our exhaustion quickly crept up on us and we were asleep not long after our heads hit the pillows (or lack thereof).