The Plan B Adventure

Wow…the Sinai Peninsula is fantastic. After traveling through Jordan, spending a night in the desert, and visiting multiple sights we decided to treat ourselves to a well-deserved, do-nothing beach vacation. We crossed from the southern Jordan port city of Aqaba to the lonely Egyptian port city of Nuweiba via the fast ferry. This is one ferry that you wanna pay up for as the slow ferry is an 8-10 hour adventure according to who you run into on the road. Not only was it a good choice for speed but we also got the opportunity to meet a new Italian friend, Valerio whom convinced us that Dahab should be our destination for rest and relaxation. Perfect recommendation!!

The beaches of Dahab are almost non-existent (a few a bike ride away) but the town itself is set up in order to take advantage of the beautiful Red Sea. Almost the entire city sits along a reef….just off the water are the restaurants and pubs, then a small Boardwalk-type of street that runs along the entire waterfront, then all hotels and guesthouses that bracket the Boardwalk. Very well done in our opinion. Well, we were there to DO NOTHING! So unless you’d like to hear about how much tanning lotion we went through, mind-numbing books we read, or 40-cent falafels we consumed there is not much to write about. One thing we would be remiss in relating to you all is one of the only physical activities we took part in besides flipping from back to front on our lounge chair…..the snorkeling. Dahab is well known in certain circles as one of the best places to scuba and snorkel. After two days, Valerio convinced us to finally drag our lazy bums off the lounge chairs where we found an unbelievable underwater world just steps away. If the sheer numbers and size of the fish (giant snapper and cow-looking fish) don’t amaze you, the colors of the huge schools and dense coral will almost cause you to swallow the Red Sea as you scream in delight! This is a must-do activity in Dahab and although packed with people make sure not to miss out on the Lighthouse reef spot which offers some of the most visible fish, eels, sponges, and anemones around!

As we waved goodbye to our beach home at the Penguin Village, we got ready for a 10-hour bus ride across the Sinai Peninsula to the Egyptian capital of Cairo. Wow…ten hours these countries are huge!!! After quite a few uncomfortably long bus rides (remember southern China) during our world journeys this was relatively painless and we arrived in Cairo to be picked up and shuttled with ease to our hotel. We had booked an accommodation and transportation (meaning just hotels and buses) tour through Pack2Egpyt which over the next 9 days would take us up and down the Nile River Valley. As we sat down to eat that night we ran into our traveling buddy for the next 9 days, Craig the Aussie, and split a beer while we traded stories about our travels. Craig is traveling around the world for eight months….just like us and is a great bloke! He will be traveling in the U.S. for a couple months and we have already scheduled some time with him in Seattle for a full (a free) tour. He will be touring Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Cali, and many other places as well so if you are a local in those cities expect an email from us as you will have a great time (Ladies, he’s single) with this hilarious guy from Down Under!

Are you ready?….the next morning we set off to see the only remaining ancient Wonder of the World…..the Great Pyramids of Giza. Just as with Petra, words can’t even come close to articulating our awe as we caught our first glimpse of the Pyramids. Actually our first glimpse was across three lanes of traffic and through two condo buildings as the Pyramids are just a short jaunt away from the modern city of Giza. It’s crazy thinking the locals just step out to hang up their laundry and lackadaisically gaze out to the Pyramids from their back porch…crazy!!! The next thing to knock us back into reality is how old this stuff is. Over the past four months we have seen many old things but this area of the world has a monopoly on the Ancient stuff. The antiquity of all of this is almost too much to get your arms around as you gaze upon Djoser’s Pyramid in Sakkara which was built in the 27^th Century BC….yea you heard us right…this is over 4500 years old. These guys were really great engineers!

Speaking of great engineers please bear with us for a brief pause of congratulations. After 43 years with The Boeing Company, Jeff’s dad, Jerry has hung up his slide-rule and retired. We couldn’t be happier for him and Judy so please join us in congratulating him on the type of fulfilling and lengthy career that seems to have escaped many of our generation…..especially those traveling-around-the-world types…HAHA!

The rest of our first day was spent learning all about the ancient kingdoms, multiple gods and goddess, and pyramids of Lower Egypt. Remember in Egypt, North is Lower and South is Upper as the Nile runs North to South…yea, we know way too much to take in all at once. We also had time to look in on real papyrus makers which….again…has been going on for over 4500 years. Are you kidding me???!! Everything is so old!

Our tour started with Cairo and ends with Cairo so we hopped a night train to the far south of the Nile River Valley and the town of Aswan in order to make our way DOWN (South to North) the Nile over the next six nights. Aswan is an interesting place as its home to the crossroads of the Egyptian empire and Nubian (modern day Sudan) Africa. In Aswan we saw it all including the Temple of Philae (located on an island in the Nile) and a 3AM day trip to Abu Simbel, which was worth the long, early journey as the pinnacle monument of Upper Egypt. Additionally, we floated the Nile at sunset on a traditional felucca for a romantic adventure (yes…Craig was there too).

After seeing the sights of the far south and enduring the unbelievable desert heat we were ready for our two day float on the Nile, courtesy of the five-star Miss World cruise ship…..Please stay tuned but give us ten days as we are off for our Tanzanian safari and won’t be able to finish up our writings on Egypt until next time.

Tags: Aswan, Cairo, Egypt, Nile, Travel

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