We arrived in Cairo knowing that we needed to purchase a visa at the airport but what we did not know was that we could not use the Egyptian Pounds we had just withdrawn from the ATM - only foreign currency of which we had none. So we had to exchange our EP for USD and then purchase our visas which have on them the price in Egyptian Pounds. This was our first taste of some of the crazy bureaucracy that exists here in Egypt.

Despite the fact that we arrived in Cairo at 4am, our good friend Ashraf who was in Cairo visiting his family was there to pick us up. For those of you who don’t know Ash, I used to work with him at ECNG in Oakville… back when I had a job. For those who DO know Ash, I think I can explain where he picked up his driving skills - more to come later. Ashraf and his family very, very kindly offered us Ashraf’s Cairo apartment to use as our own for our entire stay. Ash dropped us off there and then picked us up early the next afternoon and took us to where he was staying with his wife, Gigy, and 8-month old daughter, Nora, at the home of his parents and brother, Ayman. It was during this drive that we were able to enjoy the full experience of Cairo driving. Kevin and I have been to a lot of different cities around the world but have never seen anything like this. Nevermind about lanes, turn signals, red lights, stop signs, pedestrians, tailgating, speeding - it’s a complete free-for-all and Ash has mastered the art.

Mrs. Morsy prepared a feast: stuffed peppers, eggplant, zucchini, and grape leaves; different types of shish-ka-bob meats; rice, salad and fresh fruit. We ate and ate and ate until we finally were able to convince Mrs. Morsy that we could eat no more! The food was absolutely delicious. After that came cake and tea and then Ayman came home with ice cream. Needless to say, we did not eat again until much later the next day. We had a really nice visit with Ashraf and his family and then Ash gave us a driving tour around the city and showed us the Cairo Tower, the old city, the Nile River, the main market area, the Citadel and the grandstands where Sadat was assassinated.

The next morning Ash, Gigy and Nora picked us up and we headed north to Alexandria where Gigy’s family lives. This is when we got our first glimpse of the great pyramids and even from the highway they looked spectacular. We traveled on the “Desert Highway” which does have a lot of sandy sections but a lot of it has now been cultivated and somehow supports different crops such as bananas and apricots. Upon arriving in Alex, we were welcomed by Gigy’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. El Kasaby and Gigy’s brother Alaa. Mrs. El Kasaby had prepared a feast as well and we got to try fish from the Mediterranean prepared three different traditional ways. The food was amazing. After some tea, Alaa gave us a short driving tour showing us some of the sights of Alexandria. We then checked into a small hotel with a view of the sea.

The following day we spent exploring Alexandria including an ancient Roman amphitheatre, a recently discovered catacomb cut into the bedrock and containing the graves of over 350 people, the beautiful new Alex Library, and the Graeco-Roman Museum which was full of beautifully carved roman sculptures. Everyone here is extremely friendly and is anxious to say “Hello” and “Welcome to Egypt”. We really stand out in Egypt where foreigners seem to be rare. It is a big shock after coming from Croatia where most people seemed very serious and were reluctant to give up a smile or a “hello”. We spent 45 minutes trying to send a package back to Canada. This involved visits to numerous offices in a huge 14-floor post office building where the contents of our package were thoroughly searched several times (they would not allow us to send a disc containing photos), several forms were filled out and then someone wrapped our stuff in paper, tied it with a string and sealed the string with a small lead seal. Luckily, a very nice man who did not speak much English but seemed to understand the whole procedure quite well, lead us through almost the entire process. That afternoon Kevin and I said good-bye to Gigy and her family and caught a bus back to Cairo.

We spent two days in Cairo exploring the city. The first day we visited the Citadel which is a walled fortress which contains many museums and beautiful mosques. As it is set up on a large hill we were able to get a good view of Cairo. The second day we got up really early and went to the pyramids and the Sphinx where we walked around in complete awe for about three hours. We met a really nice guy from Malaysia named Joshua and banded together with him to avoid the touts who wanted us to ride their camels.

Later that day we visited the Cairo Museum which is huge and absolutely amazing. We saw most of the contents of King Tut’s tomb (which is a whole lot of stuff), beautiful sculptures, sarcophagi, jewelry, and a room full of royal mummies. There are over 100,000 artifacts in the museum - we could not believe the volume of the collection and there is an urban legend that the basement contains three times that.

We picked up some flowers for Ash’s mom and hopped the subway out of downtown toward the Morsy house. At the subway station Kevin was accosted by a fish monger who chased Kevin down the street and slapped him with his fish. Kevin was only able to scare him off by making stabbing motions at him with the bouquet. Who knows what would have happened had we not stopped for those flowers.

Tired and smelling fishy, we stopped at the Morsy house to say our farewells and give our thanks for the most amazing hospitality we could have imagined. Having the apartment to return to each night was our oasis in the chaos that is Cairo. The city is very overwhelming to a couple of Canadians like us and it was great to have somewhere to go to relax.

That evening we caught a 10pm night train headed south down the Nile to Aswan. We had purchased the 1st class tickets in advance, as advised, however it seems that there are two types of 1st class seats, those that recline and those that do not. How you end up with one or the other I think will forever remain a mystery. In any event, we got the seats that did not recline and shared our small compartment with a crazy college kid from Connecticut (on his way to Sudan!), which made the 15 hour overnight trip seem a bit more like 25 hours. Nonetheless we made it to Aswan safe and sound, although a bit tired, where we met up with a guy at the train station and went to his hotel. At the station, he had promised the hotel had a pool which was something that we wanted as it is over 40 degrees in Aswan. The hotel did have a pool, but what we forgot to specify is that we wanted a pool with water in it. After a bit of negotiating, it was agreed that the pool would be filled and we would stay, as our room has a great view of the Nile and the view is even better from the roof top which is where the lounge chairs and pool reside. We walked around Aswan a bit and although it is a very small town compared to Cairo, we still get the inevitable offers for taxis, boat rides, small plastic pyramids and anything else anyone ever would, or would not, want to buy. Seeking some peace we retreated to our rooftop and enjoyed the stunning view of the Nile lined with palm trees and beautiful sand dunes as a backdrop.

The following morning, after a 3am wake-up call, we boarded a mini-bus with about 12 other back packers and headed towards the small village of Abu Simbel which is about 300 km south of Aswan and only 40 km north of Sudan. This trip can only be made in a military police escorted convoy, as it seems the threat of violence at the hands of Muslim extremists is still real in this part of the country. The reason to visit Abu Simbel is the amazing temples that Ramses II built for himself and his wife Nefertari. These temples were carved out of huge rock hills and originally sat on the edge of the Nile. However the construction of the Aswan High Dam would have submerged the temples forever in Lake Nasser so UNESCO undertook to move them to higher ground. They are stunning in that on the front of both temples are huge carved statues of Ramses and his wife. Inside, the temples have many rooms and all the walls and ceilings are beautifully carved and the paint is still visible.

After Abu Simbel we headed back towards Aswan along the long, straight desert highway. We stopped briefly at the High Dam and then again at the Temple of Philae, which is another amazing monument that had to be moved to protect it from the flooding waters created by the High Dam.

Then it was home to our roof top pool to relax and escape the heat that had reached over 50 degrees. We are looking forward to reaching the Red Sea Coast where we should get some relief from the heat, but first we will travel by sailboat to Luxor to check out some more temples.

B.

Photos:
Morsy Family
Pigeon Houses - Road to Alexandria
El Kasaby Family and Feast
Alexandria Sunset
Sphinx and Pyramid
Brandy and Kevin and Pyramid
Joshua and Kevin
View of Nile from our Hotel
Abu Simbel
Philea