Walking Like an Egyptian

Sorry for the delay, but here is more juice from our amazing trip to Egypt. After getting out of Cairo we took a night train down to Aswan, a city in the south of Egypt. We had a nice hotel right on the Nile, yes the Nile River was just sitting there when we walked out of our hotel. I don't know if I can ever get used to how amazing and different each place is that we visit. Just the idea that we rode a camel or that our hotel is on the Nile is enough for me to want to pinch myself to see if this trip is real. Anyway, in Aswan we had a half day tour of the city on a felucca boat around some of the tiny islands on the Nile, the botanical gardens, and Elephant Island. We then took the much anticipated camel rides. Mary and I were fired up about the camels, how could you not be, they are just such cool looking dudes!?! We rode on the camels for an hour, talk about a butt work-out, to view the Monastery of St. Simeoren. We were honestly just on the camels traveling somewhere in the middle of the desert, it could have been 1,000s of years ago. Surreal. Pinch me.

One of the coolest things we did was go to a Nubian (local people in Aswan) village. All the kids in the village were running after our trucks yelling hello to us and waving, so cute. At the village we went into a Nubian families home where they served us dinner, the Egyptian usual combo of flat bread, random assortment of veggies with peas and tomatoes, chicken, rice, and eggplant mush-stuff which is pretty awesome. It was such a pleasure to be a guest in a family home with all the children of the house dancing around and waving at us.

Maybe our best day in Egypt started off with a 3 am wake-up call followed by a 4 hour bus ride to see the all impressive, Abu Simbel Temple. It might be the most magnificent thing that I saw in Egypt (yes I said it). We were walking on the dirt path to see this Temple and suddenly it appeared, the TEMPLE of Abu Simbel. It consists of four huge statues showing Abu Simbel at different stages in his life. These statues are so massive I cannot even imagine what it must have been like to be the person that first uncovered them; they took my breath away. Inside the Temple are some of the most amazing statues and engravings and paintings that I have ever seen in one room. The inside area is huge with several rooms, high ceilings and all of them are decorated with the symbols such as the God of protection, the key of life, or the God of fertility. Awesome. Next to the Temple is the temple of his most beloved wife, Nefertiti. He had about 70 wives but Nefertiti was his favorite, so sweet. Her temple was also covered with gorgeous statues on the outside and engravings on the inside. Egypt is so impressive...

Later that day when we got back to our hotel we just spent time with our awesome group by the pool relaxing and napping. That night we did some bargaining at the local market, and I love a good bargain. Then it was off to bed before our all day fellucca boat trip to Luxor and my Birthday!

Cairo, Egypt

We could not wait to get to Egypt, I have been wanting to go since learning about ancient Egyptian history in sixth grade. We have been looking forward to this leg of the trip for months.
After we picked up our bags at the airport we had to find a taxi to take us to the hotel and quickly realized that the men in Cairo are extremely aggressive and follow you everywhere. They do not take no for an answer no matter how forceful you are with them. We made it through the gaunlet of taxi drivers near the baggage claim and found a driver who seemed legit. You have to haggle for everything in Egypt, they can and will rip you off every chance they get. Luckily Sarah read up in one of our guidebooks and took control of the price talks and managed to get us a decent deal. We got in the taxi and headed for the hotel. I could not believe the traffic, it was like nothing I have ever seen before - it was around 9pm and the roads were totally gridlocked. There were four proper lanes but the drivers created five on their own (no traffic patrol here), everyone was laying on their horns, it was total chaos. Cairo was built for 1mm people and the current population is about 18mm, so overcrowded. Rush hour is from 7am to 11pm everyday. Next observation: most of the houses/apartments are unfinished, missing sections of roof, windows, foundation. We learned that if a house is unfinished that the residents do not have to pay property taxes, hence no one completes the building process. Our driver got in a minor ruck with another taxi after he drove the wrong way down a one-way street (like I said, no traffic laws here), but we finally made it to the hotel.

The next morning we met up with our tour group who we would be traveling all through Egypt with for the next 8 days. Everyone seemed really cool, we were excited to have a fun group. The group guide, Adel, was born and raised in Egypt and had been a tour guide for several years. Although sometimes hard to understand because of his accent, he was very knowledgeable about Egyptian history and told us the history about everything we were seeing. First stop: the Great Pyramids, jumping right in with our first Wonder of the World. The Pyramids were incredible, it was pretty surreal to be standing right in front of them. Sarah and I jumped at the chance to ride camels around them and loved it - riding camels in front of the Great Pyramids, not something you do everyday. We went into the tombs which required squeezing down narrow passages into the tombs. It was about 35 degrees Celcius outside, and at least 45 degrees and humid in the tombs, definitely not for the claustrophobic. Still it was so amazing to be inside the tombs and learn about how they were built. It was the most incredible architectural feat I have ever seen - built thousands of years ago sans machinery in the oppressive heat. I was so impressed. After the Pyramids we made our way to the Sphinx and had an amazing view of it with the Pyramids in the background. Again, it was pretty surreal to be standing right in front of it knowing that it was built thousands of years ago. It was truly an incredible feeling.

Our last stop of the day was the Egyptian Museum. I was pretty excited to see all of the artifacts from the tombs, I am kind of a museum buff. When we arrived I have to say that I was totally shocked at its condition - some of the glass cases could literally be pryed open with your fingers, most of the artifacts were not even labeled and if they were it was handwritten on notebook paper. It was disorganized and in my opinion, an insult to the importance of the artifacts it housed. I spoke to Adel about it and started to explain the level of corruption within the Egpytian government and how that has delayed the construction of a proper museum, roadways, schools, etc. Bribery is an everyday part of life for everyone, Adel even had to pay off police officers for us to pass through certain roadblocks. It is really sad because Egypt would be a relatively wealthy country since it generates so much income from tourism and oil, but the corrupt government does not fairly distribute funds. Adel said it has always been this way and there is really no end in sight, such a shame.

Despite the negatives Cairo is an amazing place and I am so glad that I got to see it. From Cairo the tour group heads to Luxor and Aswan. More to come, check back again soon...