On-the-Road Tales

0300 wake up call Yikes. My roommate and I both fell back asleep and got up 15 minutes later to roll downstairs. We slugged into the van and got to our location at 0400 to meet the convoy. This is just a ridiculous concept in my book but it is supposed to ensure security by piling all of the tourist busses in a long police escort the 300 km or so south to Abu Simbel temple. The fact that they leave the same time every day and guaranteee thousands of westerners sounds more like a security risk. In addition, the police escorts drive on average according to our guide, 120-140 km so the busses race and pass each other to keep up! Talk about introduced danger, you are more likely to have an accident. Fortunetly, we were all passed out and did not notice the road rage. We arrived at 0730 and went to explore another one of the temples that have been saved from the Nile.

This was another huge structure built by a king to glorify himself and his wife. The workmanship was impressive. You wonder what do these guys say – Hey carve me a temples into the side of a mountains,Make multiple rooms with scenes depicting me in battle, me with the gods, me and my wife, talk about vanity. The sun shines in on the statues inside only 2 days out of the year which used to be Feb 21 and Oct 21. After the temples were move, it is now actually Feb 22 and Oct 22 which probably defeats the purpose of some solar lineup.

After a nap, we had lunch where we experienced Bedouin coffee. The guy kept telling us we were going to start seeing pink elephants and promising it was legal so we got a bit nervous – but it turned out to be just a strong cup of Java.

We got breakfast on the train and it was great countryside watching everyone working in the fields along the water, walking to school, using donkeys for transport. The train pulled in around 0830 and after a short van ride we boarded a boat to a small island where the Philae Temple was located. After the Aswan Dam was built and the Nile water level started rising, many temples were in danger of being lost forever. This one actually was submerged with water and it was necessary to float over it. UNESCO stepped in and together with 50 countries, 14 temples were dismantled and relocated out of Niles path. While I am all for perserving history, the cost of one of these temples alone back in the 1960s was 40$ million US dollars. With the plight of poverty, it is hard to justify spending that kind of cash on a building. Granted one could argue, the resulting money from tourism could generate even more and raise the economic standards of the population but in reality – this did not happen. Regardless, the Nile with its controlled water could now provide agricultural opportunity for people to feed themselves.

Soapbox aside – it was a phenomenal feat of engineering to move this thing and make it look like it did thousands of years ago. The details, the reliefs, the structures, are fantastic. These people really knew how to pay tribute to themselves. Next we visited the Aswan Dam and the High Dam. Another incredible feat and I have distinct memories of learning about all the political implications behind the project back in high school. Looks like they all worked themselves out bc it is a great hydroelectric scheme now. I got cornered by an Egyptian and his son chatting. WHen they figure out I live in the US, people always want to know what I think about the US in Iraq. For various reasons, I choose to opt out of answering this questions. Partially, in honor of the soldiers actually risking their lives over there and partially because I am an American in Egypt answering a political matter I can probably guess they have strong opinions on. Anyway the subject turned to the fact i was not married and had no boyfriend so I was acting in a muslim manner, thus I think I ended up with some sort of marriage proposal. That is my second but I was already tols on the other, I would not be allowed to work afterwards so I am not considering that one as seriously. haha.

Onto another boat, we had lunch on the Nile. Nubians are a group that live in the south of Egypt, they have their own language and the nomadic bediouns tribes actually are part of these people. The village elder, Hamdi, shared with us some info on the history and customs of the people. His family has can trace back at least 12 generations on the island. He took us past some cartouches (pharoah names) carved in the sandstone that were over 5000 years old! incredible. There are numerous tombs and forts on the hillsides he pointed out. Afterwards, we got off at a port and we got ready to board some camels for a 45 minute trek across the Saharan Desert. Yep – there I was back to my, what the heck am I doing atop a camel in the middle of the beating sun in a desert. These things are tall and you are way up there. We had small boys ‘leading’ but camels, like horses, like to nudge each other and squish your legs along the way. At least, there was not galloping involved. We had 2 police with us as well. There are guards accompanying often here especially in tourist places. Egypt has had some problejs in the past so I am guessing it is a measure to protect their industry. There are metal detectors to walk through, but since you are going through with your bags and there is a cursory search, I would not bank on the effectiveness. As for the police escorts, they are more interested in collecting some tips at the end than readying their weapons. Thankfully, I have not been in any situations where I feel safety is even questioned. We went past an old christian monastery from the 5th century which was impressive. I will not be joining a multimonth nomad caravan anytime soon after this jaunt. The animals are somehwat comfortable but the relentless beating sun of the desert, dry choking air and whipping sand do not make long period of exposure very pleasant.

On to another boat and over to the island to meet at JJ’s house. We had some cinnamon tea (great!) and watched some videos of the traditional Nubian wedding. There are bits reminiscent of other cultures. Henna, 2 days cermonies, white dresses. It was interesting. It was a long day and we headed to dinner before getting ready for our early wake up call the next day.

We enjoyed some tasty Hibiscus juice for breakfast along with something similar to Baklava and loaded into our minivan. We were enroute to the Pyramids! Yeah! We crossed the Nile in the relentless traffic and could see them ... [Continue reading this entry]

I arrived in Cairo at 0600 after an 8 hour flight. On a promise to mom, I joined a tour for Egypt with a company called Intrepid. Not much of a tour person, these guys are ideal. ... [Continue reading this entry]

Cambodia has a ton of charity projects evidenced everywhere sponsered by Australia,Germany, US, England etc. I think it is great but I am not sure what makes it so prevelant here when many countries I have visited need help. I ... [Continue reading this entry]

We hired a car to go check out another temple,Beng Melea. No restoration has been done here and unlike Ta Prohm, the jungle has not been pinned back so it is in the wild. We gota young girl who guided ... [Continue reading this entry]

It rained all night and we could just envision the road trip back so we opted for another journey. We were warned the river was low and the fast boat would not be operating which normally takes about 4 ... [Continue reading this entry]

Nancy and I decided to go check out another town and headed to Battambang. There were no recommended busses - and when the locals tell you things like that, you tend to listen. We hired an aircon taxi ... [Continue reading this entry]

In the morning we headed off to the Tomb Raider temple, Ta Prohm. So named for the movies that was filmed there with Angelina Jolie aka Lara Croft. Transport in town is easy - you hire a tuktuk driver ... [Continue reading this entry]

We headed out early to try and beat the heat and the crowds to angkor Wat. Passing monkeys along the way, we entered the worlds largest religous building. Most of the grounds included a moat, pools, libraries, raised ... [Continue reading this entry]