Jessie Goes….

Leaving in the morning from Luxor couldn’t have been easier, everything actually went as planned.  Granted we were taking off on ‘scary’ Egyptair, but it was for the last time.   Luxor airport is like a little regional airport, something you’d see in medium sized town USA.  (well sort of, except they don’t check i.d. really well).  Anyhow, the hardest part, was YET again waking up before dawn. 

Unfortunately, Sharm airport WASN’T all that normal.   No real arrivals gate or departures gate, signs clearly not in English, and frankly, once you got through the armed baggage area, there was nothing there.   So Bryan and I are wandering around outside, thinking we are going somewhere which would give us some ‘departure’ options.  Such as line of cabs, buses, anything.  But no. Nothing.   So we walk further on.  To the parking lot.  Then to the second parking lot.   Something wasn’t right here, we had probably royally missed wherever we were supposed to go, but here we were, in a parking lot with 2 other backpackers talking to some cabbies who were sitting in their respective beat up cabs smoking and chatting.

None of our tricks worked in getting any of these cabbies to bring us to Dahab (even if we went together and split it, it was still insultingly expensive), so we saw the highway off in the distance and figured we could do a little better bartering roadside!   I’m sure we looked ridiculous, or foolish but: Paydirt.  This succeeded in bringing down the price and garnering us one of the most beatup cabs I’ve ever seen.  What a clunker.   As to physically underline our potential stupidity for picking a car with 3 tires in the grave, the cabbie (who speaks zero English) pulls into a gas station 15 seconds after we get in, and pops open the hood, throws in a quart or two of oil….We are off again, on our 60 mile trek through a faceless desert… but wait, wasn’t Dahab also on the ocean, just like Sharm? Why then were we headed towards these craggy cliff like mountains?    Still, the cabbie was sending me ‘good guy’ type vibes so I chilled out and decided to check for a sign to make sure we were in fact heading to Dahab.  In the meantime I would concentrate my worries on whether the clumkermobile would actually make it.    So one minute later of course, we are back on the side of the road.  This time we added two gallons of water in an attempt to replace coolant.

Anyhow, we were off again (for the 3^rd time, in less than 10 minutes).  The desert here is nothing like I would picture a desert.  Even the ugliest parts of Nevada aren’t the same type of desert as here.  Craggy endless cliffs of all the same flat yellowish brown color.  Harsh flat light, and not speck of plantlife of any kind.  No sand.  Just land baked beyond recongnition, and it seemed to go on endlessly the same.  Its hard to believe the world has been fighting over these areas for millennia.  We crawl through the desert going a third the pace of the few other cars we see on the endless road, and finally make it to a police checkpoint.  All the other vehicles (those 2 that I mentioned), drove on through, but we were stopped and our driver question at length to the point where he had to produce some papers from under the seat.   They finally let us through, while our driver turns to us and says what I assume to the Arabic equivalent of “police are bad bad men”.  I was willing to believe him, until it happened at the next police checkpoint.  What had this guy done???  

 The good news was that we made it to the next police checkpoint, and I had seen a sign that indeed indicated that we were on our way to Dahab.   Turns out the Bryan, who was incredibly quiet the entire trip, missed the first couple of signs and was pretty much sure we were headed to the desert towards our graves.Anyhow, one more police checkpoint later our bandit cabbie, and the POS vehicle he road in on, delivered us safely, albeit ridiculously slowly to our Dahab home.  It looks exactly like it should.  Nap Time.    

The sailboats we met in the afternoon after our Abu Simbel trip are called feluccas. I’d say ours, called Moodshadow, was about thirty feet long, with a single, curved sail.

Yes! After all this running around and getting up super early, we had 2 days and two nights of sailing down the Nile doing nothing!

Boarding the felucca by a little gang plank, we piled our bags underneath and lounged in the sunshine on a bed of floor cushions and pillows. Within moments our group of 10 had unfurled their sleepingbags and we were in full lounge mode, sipping some hot Egyptian tea and having a traditional lunch, everyone sharing everything. This was cool!

As we tacked down the river, the riverbanks looked more like I’d imagined they would be: narrow strips of green dotted with palm trees flanking either side of the water, with shiny blinding desert just beyond. We read, we drank beers, some people played games… It was a great afternoon.

Though neither Bryan or I were greatly effected, the only downside to the felucca trip is the fact that there is no bathroom on board and pulling off the river is necessary to find you a place to go in the bushes. And, there are limited bushes ’round these parts! But if you can get over your modesty, and don’t have any stomach bugs, I don’t think the experience can be beat! I was feeling badly for all the people cruising around in these big cruise vessels. Those on board never got to hear the absolute silence or the waves lapping on the banks while on those monstrous things.

The first evening we ate dinner aboard while pulled up to a small beach– Bryan kicked the soccer ball around with the felucca crews – he was much better than them, and all the Europeans on board were duly impressed. After dinner we went to a traditional nubian house (skeptical on how traditional as it was the largest house around) and sat around talking with travellers from other boats, some of whom we smoking sheesha from large hookas. We considered it, (and Bryan still is) until our guide told us it was the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes! Yikes!

The second day on board was much the same as the first, sailing along and socializing on our cushions!

The second evening while playing party games (different felucca boats were competing), Bryan got roped into being the mummy in the mummy-making competition and, being creative we wrapped him up in a pose like the statue of liberty, complete with a beer bottle torch. Someone got the great idea to actually light the torch at “showtime” and stuffed some more TP wrappings sticking out of the wrapped up beer bottle. They did end up lighting Bryan on fire (or what looked like his hand) but someone smartly yanked the torch out of his hand and stomped the flaming beer bottle out before the rest of him ignited. Stupid, but no harm done! Besides Bryan (though he couldn’t see or move) told me he had it under control, and had a ‘I’m on fire’ plan.

When we finally made it to Aswan it was midday AND warm. Finally Egypt as it was supposed to be experienced. I believe it rains in Aswan about once a decade so I was feeling pretty good about the sunny day factor.

Day one in Aswan was mostly free time. We saw the Aswan High dam (looks like a dam, shockingly), and then the Temple of Isis at Phylae. This temple is located on an island in the middle of the Nile, so very picturesque. The most impressive thing about it though, was the fact that it was relocated by the Egyptian government. Block by block. It looks like its been there forever. Here’s a government who protects its national treasures with fake xray machines, but can move a million ton temple and put it back together. Go figure.

Day two in Aswan was a doozy… 2:45 am wake up call. Thats right folks. We are going to go see Abu Simbel, a major temple which Rameses II built on the southern border (current day border too with the ever restless Sudan), right on the Nile to welcome all coming up the Nile to the great kingdom and power of the ruler of Egypt. We are heading to a little airport to board a plane at 4am to fly us to the site, because between Aswan and the theoretical (disputed) Sudanese border there are areas of ‘civil’ unrest. So our choices were to drive down with a police escort for 4 hours, with dubious ability to help us from mauraders should they try to get us, or take suspicious flight down, and risk sketchy pilot/aircraft. We chose 20 min flight with sketchy aircraft. So, we get to the plane and I realize I have not brought anything to identify myself. It turned out not to be a problem. I got a ticket with just my first name on it, so did Bryan, and we boarded the plane. Our tickets on the way back had no names on them. I’m telling you, the security here is razor sharp.

We land way way before dawn, like 4:45. Grumbling, thinking, crap its still dark out for like another hour and a half, its 40 degrees out, this really sucks. I’m freezing. Sulkily we follow our guide through ‘check in’ (some more fake xrays) and start walking towards the site in the pitch black. I had to eat my words.

The site was lit, and it was stunning, and because we were here before Allah himself was awake, we were the ONLY ones here. At one point I sat down in the middle of the temple of Abu Simbel (there are two big temples on site, the other dedicated to his favorite wife), BY MYSELF, and just listened to the quiet. It was also too damn cold outside to sit out there waiting for the sunrise. When the sunrise did happen though we got some fantastic shots. Again, will try and post when I can.

So utterly worth it. Back on plane, back to hotel by 9am. Asleep by 9:25. Awake again at 11:45, to depart on our felucca journey. Still exhausted.

So…like a lot of people I suspect, Bryan and I have been thinking about visiting the great pyramids since we were very little. Finally, today was the day.

Unfortunately, we were both feeling way “none the better” for the 10% beer of last nights gala event, and the early wake up call to pack/eat/load bus was a sorry state of affairs between the two of us. I didn’t feel good at all and Bryan was moving insanely slowly and non-coordinated.

Today was going to be a long day ending with a 14 hour sleeper train and we were off to a fine start.

Kicking myself. Once in a lifetime experience and hungover because couldn’t face 80s prom new years eve sober.

Ah well, food in – hardboiled eggs, flat bread, tang. Coffee. Packed up the bus, and off we went!

The pyramids of Giza are fantastically large. No pictures do their massive size any justice because you have to be so far away to really see them. As we came up through Giza village they loom massively in the background.. and from this distance they look as sharp and as straight as a razors edge. Its amazing.

I think the thought that occured to me most, when standing outside of the pyramid of Khufu (the biggest), is that I wish I could have seen it before the arabs removed most of the smooth limestone sides to build their mosques and palaces. It must have been incredible.

So a little history, to make this blog a little more than idle prattle. The pyramids were built in the 4th Dynasty of Egpytian history, in what is the “Old Kingdom”. This era was marked by extreme belief in the pharoah as a walking god on earth, which enabled a lot of cool things to be done. Namely things like massive pyramids. People really believed, these weren’t slaves. It was a good time to be an Egyptian Pharoah.

All of the pyramids, and actually all the dead people in general are found on the west bank of the Nile, as the ancient Egyptians believed that life followed the Sun (Ra), and rose to life in the East, and travelled to afterlife in the West, with the Nile conveniently seperating the two. Where they thought the Hitites were coming from using this theory of life is beyond me.

So, anyhow, the family unit of Khufu, his father Snefaru and Khafre, built themselves the three great pyramids, to insure themselves of a nice safe journey into the afterlife. Because things were so good during this period of Egyptian history (3200 BC or so) they actually probably got to live in their little afterlife with their mummified cats, baboons and all for about 500 years, when the Old Kingdom came crashing down in a firey heap, and the people, feeling jipped for all their hard work and sacrifices to the gods, went postal on their asses and robbed, defaced, and generally desecrated the places. Never again were pharoahs really seen as walking gods- the next kingdoms had to suffice with “highest servant of God”, which really wasn’t too bad a deal either… though they no longer had free labor, and putting a giant pyramid shaped “X marks the spot” over your worldly treasures lost its appeal as well.

We went into the 2nd pyramid, or under it I should say. The passageway was about 4 feet wide by 3.5 feet tall. Very claustrophobic, and heading downhill. Talk about stale air! When we reached the bottom it opened into a large burial chamber… Which was stifling hot. Couldn’t breath. I had to get out asap.

Directly after the pyramids of Giza, we did the pyramids of Zoser at Saqqara… those are the step pyramids built by the great architectural genius Imhotep. The very first pyramids. The sight was nice too I suppose, but I think I was pyramided out. 5 hours of pyramids and they all start looking like great mounds of rocks. One noteworthy thing though… from the far corner of the step pyramid you have a view of a couple of other pyramids of more rudimentary design, with the pyramids of Giza off in the distance. Its an amazing sight. Again, cameras don’t do it justice. I can’t get over how unphotogenic these things are.

After that, the day just went downhill. We had hours upon hours to waste waiting for our 10pm overnight train to Aswan. Here is one of the very bad things about big tours (which so far had been more enjoyable than I thought…nice people, and generally some useful facts and then time to do our own thing). We were stuck waiting around in place they brought us, which, while super nice if it had been warm out, really really sucked because it was 50 degrees and dropping. For 5 hours we sat there outside freezing. And this kills me because they had us waking up at 7am to enjoy this pleasure. So, that there folks, is the downside of not having to take care of the details. Good with the bad I guess.

Suffice it to say, I have never been more happy in my life to get on a 14 hour overnight train ride than I was then! I jumped in my sleeping bag in my nice cushy first classed seat and was OUT!

Been in the no internet zone/exhausted zone/ lazy zone for a few days here…so this is going back a couple of days: but now I’ve got some time to catch up on this blog, so here goes:

So for the first official day of our guided tour we went back to the Egyptian Museum – which both Bryan and I thought worthwhile, as there is so much to see, and nothing is labeled, a guide would be great.

A quick forward comment, as with most of Egypt, I suspect, security around here is pretty lacking. For those of you into tomb robbing and the like – might I suggest the Egyptian Museum? Though you walk through multiple metal detectors and an xray machine, the place has the security of a pasta strainer. No metal or cameras (and I’m just assuming no weapons) are allowed on the premises, yet both Bryan and I walked in packin’ : cameras, cellphones with cameras, ipods, glass cutters, plastic explosives, and Nothing. Not a pat down, beep or anything. And because I’m a woman, every time I go through, even if I do beep like crazy, indicating these machines are actually working, their religious modesty prevents them from actually touching me, so, ….? Aside from that, once we got in there, though the place was stationed with guards and cameras, Bryan is snapping pics and nobody ever said a thing (no flash, so please, no angry emails). Crazy. Frankly, the way things are organized in this place, if you actually did walk out with anything, lets say a 20 foot stone sarcophagus, I’m not sure they’d ever miss it anyway!

Anyhow, back to the story here, as you might imagine our second visit to the Egyptian Museum was a lot more productive. For future reference for those who might visit, i’d recommend a couple of hours in the late afternoon, as the place was a true mob scene in the morning, packed to the brim with tour groups – claustrophobia city.

Next stop was the palace/mosque of Muhammed Ali – the original – not the boxer. Extremely ornate and altogether beautiful. From the back side of the mosque you could see over the entire city skyline. For once, we were actually allowed in the mosque, but I had to cover up (I was wearing a baggy hoodie and even baggier cargo pants). The ladies at the door grabbed me and put me in a bright green long robe. To complete the effect I put my hood up. I looked like a cross between Kermit the frog and the Virgin Mary. Bryan has a picture that I will post if I can find a USB.

The mosque itself is surprisingly European in design; it is painted and lit in traditional Islamic fashion, but the architecture, domes, columns etc are reminiscent of some of the churches in Europe. It isn’t traditional, or so I am told, but given none of the other mosques will let me in, I can’t confirm that.

On the way to the mosque, stepping back a second, we passed by the walled “City of the Dead” which is a cemetery of the type where the tombs and graves are all above ground… and in this case most were actually built with rooms above them so that the family would have a place to operate from in the caring for the dead. Right now, due to the massive poverty of the general population, many poor families have moved into those rooms, creating an actual city of the living and the dead. I understand it to be the most dangerous neighborhood in all of Cairo.

Next step(this was a packed day), Coptic Cairo. Egypt is not actually wholly a Muslim nation, though their really isn’t any separation between the Muslim “church” and state), about 10-15% of the population is Coptic, which is an ancient Christian religion, visually along the lines of Catholicism: very formal, ornate churches, etc. Being raised in a mostly Christian society, seeing some of the paths of the beginning of that period of history was so much more impressive than going to some of the other Christian sites, such as the Vatican. It was humbling to me, vs. somewhat appalling as the Vatican example was to me, a shrine to a history of excess and corruption. Anyhow, Coptic Cairo and its history was worth visiting I thought, just for the age and beauty alone.

PART II: New Years Eve

So, today is New Years Eve. Bryan and I are very interest of course, to see what a “new years eve” gala event the hotel has planned. All the hotels around here charge you for the event if you are staying the night there, so you might as well check it out huh?

 We met our new Aussi friends (Steven & Rebecca) and a new couple Erin & Tim (Kiwi/Aussi mix), and revisited the beer store for a little preparty in Tim/Erins room. A little get to know each other, I suppose, seeing as we were spending the next week together. We stepped it up and purchase the 10% alcohol Sakara brews…oh boy, not recommended. Sort of like drinking 40s at home…but 500 ml of beer cost only 5 Egyptian Pounds (80cents) and we felt it our duty to drink as much 80 cent beer as possible.
Only after this, did we go to our Egyptian ‘gala dinner’ which was suspiciously in a ballroom upstairs in the hotel.

Bryan and I looked at each other when we walked in. “80s prom night” best describes it. Pink and gold ballroom with helium filled balloons everywhere. Someone even boutinere’d Bryan! I looked at my watch – crap..only 9pm…I’d already done senior prom once, and it wasn’t that fun the first time! What were we gonna do?

Somehow it did pass though: 80s music playing in the background, we drank a lot more beer, and raised a glass at Egyptian midnight to our new friends, and our friends and family at home.

Thank god that was out of the way. 12:20, back in our rooms, passed out.

To be honest, we really didn’t accomplish much today… slept in, ate breakfat late, etc. It WAS time to transfer hotels though – from our relative palace on the Nile for ???? (?). We weren’t sure what was ahead.

Nobody had heard of this hotel – so we eventually hopped into a cab who nodded his head knowingly… he had heard of it! He proceeded to drive us all around Cairo asking other people on the streets where to go. He then had the nerve to try and charge us 10x what it should have cost!! Generally, I am all for these guys charging us a little more…they can use the extra dollar more than we can. But this guy knew I was unhappy and wanted to charge the equivalent of going to the airport for clearly subpar service. What we offered him, it turned out, was still way more than he deserved. Afterwards we traced our path on the map, we went all OVER town, only to end up walking distance from where we started!!!! My goodwill has quickly eroded.

But, we had made it…where we were supposed to be to meeting our tour group. I have never taken a large tour group before…so this will be an experience. For the ancient part of the tour though, it seems crazy not to get someone to be there and guide you through what you are seeing. Otherwise it will all start looking like piles of rocks. So anyhow, starting tomorrow we are joing a group for the next 7 days…til we leave them in Luxor.

It was only 1pm, and we had an appointment at 4pm to get ourselves some fake student IDs (everything is half priced…why Bryan didn’t bring his REAL student ID is beyond me – but he now attends Victoria College), so we had a couple of hours to kill, but couldn’t go too too far. It was a nice day (finally) so we decided to check out the neighborhood, which seemed more authentically egpyptian than hotel row did, along the cornishe el Nil. (nile road)

As I mentioned, there is a big 4 day holiday (holy days) going on right now in the Muslim world. Apparently, today is “sacrfice day”.

Picture this: A pack of live lambs and cows standing on one side of a little town square. Across from them a hanging line of ropes, hung with carcasses, with men with machete’s hacking wildly at animals, dead and alive. One by one they will be killed in this manner. Worse, maybe 15 feet back from the action is a bunch of little cafe tabes and chairs where locals sit a spell, smoking their hookas, drinking tea and watching the action!! As we walked through I was looking straight down so I couldn’t see any more of the massacre…but even there, the streets were full of bloody and random body parts – hoof here, chunk of bone there… fleshy debris flying everywhere.

Hours later there were stinking heaps of useless body parts piled on the street corners like trash…thes treet cats sniffing through them.

Moving on, one of the more palatable highlights of the day, was the discovery of an actual beer store. They sold NOTHING but beer. Not sure how this place was existing, (maybe not illegal to sell alcohol – just to drink it??) but it was surrounded by a yellowish misty halo, and the distinct sounds of angels singing was issuing from within.

So, we bought beer, smuggled it into a comfy corner of the hotel lobby and whiled away a couple of hours until we could get our fake ids!!

The evening hours consisted of a Nile cruise with dinner and some whirling dervishes. Which amounts to a brightly colored midget spinning around endlessly – something you all should know just in case someone ever tried to talk you into seeing one.

Tomorrow, we are finally going to the pyramids!

Fog/ Clouds are everywhere. I’m trying hard to remember if I’ve ever heard anyone mention a foggy day in the desert. Ever seen a picture of the Sphinx peaking out through the fog?? Well I guess no pyramids again today.

I woke up early this morning after having passed out fully clothed – I mean the works – jeans, belt, hoodie…tv still on, all the lights still on.

Exhausted.

The morning news is full of talk of 2 things – the potential hanging of Sadam Hussein, and the holy pilgramage that is going on in Saudi Arabia. It will be interesting to see the reaction around here, if Sadam is killed, particularly given the holiness of tomorrow.

Anyhow, today we tackled the Khan el Khalili market, in old Cairo. First though, we “went for a walk”. The hotel is on the street that runs along the Nile, so we thought we’d get a little foggy air Nile View and walk down to the 4 Seasons, which is really a very short distance. Well, apparently, people do not walk in Cairo.

Every single cabbie pulled over or honked as they zoomed by on the raod, which we discovered was very difficult to cross over to get to the Nile side. 10 minutes later, once in front of the 4 Seasons, it was very near impossible to get back, as cars, trucks, cow wagons etc, zoomed by, not even pausing for a set of red lights ahead. So cabs it will be! At least they are easy to catch….

Khan el Kalili, a old style bazaar, was really just getting started as we arrived. It is very much full of colors and people and animals. Selling everthing. Spices, dead moist cow heads (defurred-the image will never leave me), musical instruments, cloth bolts, fake papyrus, lamps, and junk of all kinds. Vendors followed us around trying to guess where we were from, and lure us into their little hole in the wall stores. Of course, they didn’t succeed, so a few of them turned very rude, calling us names. By and large though, the hassle factor is much more moderate than I expected. Morocco is by far more annoying. What a relief.

We were followed for a short time as we wondered towards the dirty crowded end of the bazaar. He was pretty obvious though, and turning around and looking at him did no good. So I pulled Bryan to the side, leaving the shady character no choice but to pass. Bryan spotted him 10 minutes later though, back on our trail. We must have been pretty obvious, being the only two white people around :-)! Eventually, we further lost ourselves in the market, and we lost him as well!

It is incredible how dirty the streets are and how normal it all seems to everyone around. Piles of trash and debris are in the middle of rutted out dirty streets. Sometimes more trash than dirty. Modern Cairo, I guess. Tons of modern products with no modern ability to dispose of the waste.

In one of the alleyways of the bazaar we stopped for some tea and people watching. Picture Indiana Jones market…kind of like that. No doubt aimed for tourists, still it did the trick as far as feeling very exotic. People of all sorts were pushing through, tables of tourists and locals smoking hookahs and drinking black tea out of little decorated glasses.

The second half of the day we spent at the Egyptian museum. Indescribably packed… an entire cultures worth of stuff in one dusty oversized tomb. Its overwhelming. Nothing is translated, only 50% of things have any label on them at all. 2.5 hours later, we’d seen a bunch of mummies, and lots of King Tut stuff.

Back to exhausted.