Heading Home

Today marks my last day in Egypt. It has been quite a trip. All together pretty amazing. Egypt really is a land of wonders. Part modern, part ancient, part touristy. It was really an unforgettable experience. I have so much more to reflect on for maybe a later post. Sadly I have a torturous journey ahead of me before I get home. Enought to make that 19 hour bus ride seem like fun! A nine hour bus, four hour wait, 3 flight, two layovers, and then hopefully arrive home in one piece with my head on straight! Nothing like traveling. Nothing in the world like traveling. Here's to Egypt, Jordan, and the Red Sea.

Can't get out, can't get in

Petra was even better on the second day. I was able to wander through the ancient city at my own pace, seeing amazing temples, tombs, etc. I went all the way out to the Monastery. So impressive and then a bit further to do a bit of a hike into the mountains. It was great scenery. You could even see bits of the Dead Sea from the Petra mountains. It was an incredible day. Warm, but not hot, sunny, but not scorching, breezy, but not windy. Really a nice way to spend the day. It is hard to describe Petra in a few words. At some point I will post some pictures, but even they can't do it justice. I loved being there. Jordan was worth the trip.

The nitty gritty details however, are not as fun. I was saddled with a new roommate whiel there. He and I got along fine and spent the day together. Why not. Interestingly, when we got back to the ferry to take us back to Egypt, we weren't on the list. Another one of those Seinfeld moments. We can't get on the boat. Jordanian officials won't stamp our passports to leave. Why? Not becuase we have don anything wrong, etc. Just because we aren't on the list. Sort of felt left out in the cold. After much cell phone calling and yelling in arabic at each other, the captain comes to say that we can't leave and must stay in Jordan. We refuse. He says sorry Jordan won't let us out and Egypt won't let us in becuase we aren't on the list. "No, we are going on the boat" "No. Sorry sir, you can't". "How can we make this work?" More cell-phoning, more talking, the Jordanian officials get off the boat. They refuse to talk to us. the captain, takes our passports. He disappears, he returns, gives tht passports to the officials, they look at them, give them back. The passports disappear for a while. They come back to us. The captain reappears and asks if they were stamped. Yes! go ahead and take your chances in Egypt.

In Egypt, they were not happy we weren't on the list. They checked and double checked, yelled in arabic. Yelled at me in Arabic. I just smiled! finally they stamp the damn thing and we are in! yay. Then are ride is not there. we call, he is on his way. Arrive safely in Dahab and find a beer or two! What craziness!

Today I slept in, went for a dive and notw am kicking back. Tomorrow, I am off on a bus to Cairo, to the airport for the journey back to reality. Did I mention that I am loving Dahab? I dont' really want to leave!

Petra: More then just Indiana Jones

Once again, I am amazed that I am able to see some of the most magical places on the planet. Today, I am in Jordan at Petra. Petra is an ancient city with much of it carved out of the sandstone walls of the mountains. This are not little huts, these are amazing buildings, complete with columns, relief carvings, etc. All carved from the outside of the stone. It is truly an amazing sight. I had for a long time thought that Petra was one building "The Treasury", which was in the Indiana Jones movie. I was so wrong it is a city of them. They are remarkable. The other very cool thing was that the sandstone of the walls is a rainbow of colors due to the mineral deposits. I can only hope the colors turn out in pictures, it is amazing.

I was on a tour today and I will spend another full day exploring Petra tomorrow. Then I will head back to Dahab.

It only took 7 hours to get here (read sarcasm, please). I was told they were picking me up at 5:00am. Sadly they came at 4:34am. Now maybe it doesn't matter to some people, but that is a big change in time, especially first thing in the morning. I was just getting up! Other then that, the trip was fairly uneventful. Just long. There was a lot of "hurry up and wait" which is always a bit nervewracking to me.

The funny part of the story is that most people come to Petra for a day. I wanted more time. I booked to stay (through a company) for two nights. Seems fine. Another guy on my tour was staying overnight as well, but was heading to the Dead Sea, or so he thought. Sadly, his tour operator seems a bit sketchy, and so there weren't really plans for him. Somehow, the hotel puts him in my room with me! He is a nice guy and we talked a bit today, but I wasn't really expecting to share, expecially after I had to pay extra for a single room! Still trying to work out the details on this one.

Loving Dahab

Oh yeah. I am over it. The bus ride that is. I knew it would be a matter of time and it was. I got here, checked into an ok (cheap) hotel, but didn't like it. I moved to a great place with really helpful and friendly staff. Once that happened, I knew that I would love Dahab. It has been great. I have had a busy couple of days here though. Sunday I read. I am trying to finish my book. I got up late, moved hotels, had a leisurely breakfast on the water, drank a cup of coffee, had a beer, and basically read my book. I bumped into my Felucca friends who are here and we had drinks and dinner. So nice. Then that same night I was off to Mt Sinai to climb during the night to be at the summit for sunrise. Amazing. I was sure that it was going to cloudy and I was excited that it wasn't.

Mt Sinai is an interesting place. A lot of really religious people make the pilgrimmage to the summit. i was going for a sunrise! There was a group of Chinese however, who were full of their religious fervor this morning. They piled off their bus in matching blue and with warmups with TAEKWONDOE written on the back. They hiked throughout the night and when they arrived at the summit, they started singing religious hymns. It was sort of nice; then the sun came up. Once the sun had risen, they all began chanting. It started with a low "mmmm mmmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm mmmm" and morphed into a full on yell, complete with hands raised and bodies shaking. Clearly the spirit had moved them. Wow. It was like nothing I had ever seen. It felt very cult like and a bit freaky. (Don't worry I took some pictures for proof.) I had rented a balnket at the summit to keep warm and it was worth it. it was really nice to be up there for all of this.

Walking down off the mountain we stopped at the Monastary adn got to see the actual burning bush. The one that spoke to Moses. Pretty cool. (Of course they are assuming that this is the bush, just as they are assuming that Mt Sinai that I hiked is the same one that Moses got the Commandments on). It was a rpretty remarkable day.

I got back and did a nice SCUBA dive for a while and had soem good local food. I am still a fan of the Kushary and Falafel. I am catching up with some friends tonight and then I am off to Jordan on Tuesday to see Petra. I will be in Jordan for two days and then back to Egypt.

Did I mention, Dahab is a laid back town good for chilling out and diving? Yeah, I kind of love it here.

A Bus Trip from ****

You may have read enough about amazing in sights in Egypt. If so, scroll down to the next paragraph! Luxor was a pretty amazing place and I only wish that I had more time there to really explore the city and just relax. It seemed truly an amazing place. Lots of things to see, lots of freidly people and a pretty managable city. Karnak Temple was HUGE and awesome, certainly a highlight of my trip. A room with 134 columns supporting a stone ceiling as an entry way....really pretty nice. The Temple of Hatshepsut (restored by the Polish Mission) also pretty amazing. I was there with a million other tourists but these places are so big thta you can still find your peace and solitude. The Valley of the Kings was nice; an important place to see. It wasn't as amazing as I had hoped. Oh yeah, King Tut? He was a shorty. Seriously short. HI stomb was nothinga ll that exciting until you really put toether what they were able to take out of it!

I took a bus to Dahab. Dahab is this tiny city on the Red Sea, famous for it's diving. Pretty cool to be here. I love it already and it has only been a few hours. Getting here was a mission. It was a 19 hour bus journey. NINETEEN hours. Do you know how long that is? On a bus. With no bathroom. Wow. Let's just say that we did it all. There was a fight in the seat next to (and in front of) about how far someone should be able to put there seat back. Screaming in Arabic and pointing at each other. I was sure I was going to get punched but I couldn't escape I was surrounded! Everytime the bus stopped everyone got off to have a cigarette. I feel like they must have been through at least a pack on the bus journey. There was some "illegal" smoking of cigarettes on the bus. We stopped often, sometimes for extended periods of time. Not sure why, but we stopped. There was constant yelling at each other in Arabic. A really aggressive kind of yelling. People also played music out loud on their phones, talked loudly on their phones and got text messages and calls all through the night. My favorite (read the sarcasm) text message alert was "Hey Boss I think you just got a text message". I heard it probably 30 times. The sliver lining in some of this was that the movie wouldn't play, and therefore the driver wasn't playing the speakers loud throughout the ride.

Did I mention the crazy driver? I mean crazy. Too much yelling, too much pointing, too much volume, just too much everything!

Driving in Egypt you are required to stop at police checkpoints. Over a long journey there are probably 100 check points. You can't drive straight you must weave around the barriers. Also, sometimes you get boarded and they take people off the bus for a while. Sometimes they look at your passports. The worst part of the journey though was probably the speedbumps. Apparently Egypt doesn't believe in traffic lights, only speedbumps. We probably went over 500 ( a conservative estimate). thump thump. thump thump. thmup thump. over and over again. It really slows down the bus!

We did have some fun times on the bus. I learned some Arabic from the guys on the bus. They were excited to teach us our number and some other basic phrases. ONe guy had some (very poor quality) porn on his phone and was quietly showing us for fun. We took bets on what time we would arrive in Dahab. The bus is notoriously late. We had late night snacks (street food!) at the crazy road side rest stops. And we arrived in this most magnificent beach side town. I am sure that I will say it was worth the trip tomorrow. Today, I am just hoping to get some sleep and enjoy the sun. 19 hours is a long, long time to be sitting on a bus. Shame.

Felucca Fiasco

Things seemed to be running according to plan. We (my new Aussie friends and I) were transferred from the hotel to the felucca, it was a bright sunny day, a light breeze. Perfect for a cruise on the Nile! We arrived at the boat and met our 8 shipmates, and our two person crew and were pumped! They even offered to do a packy run for a few beers and some wine (hard to find in Egypt). It was great. They made us a light lunch and we were ready. But we didn't move. and we waited and waited. Finally the "captain" told us that it was too windy to sail. (Ironically, it was too windy for a sailboat, hmmm.) but in truth, the Nile was rough with whitecaps. We were moving to the other side of the river and then waiting for the wind to die down so that we could then sail up the Nile to Luxor. A couple of river crossings, and we were on the far bank waiting.

Well that is about as far as we got. So we spent the afternoon getting to know each other, relaxing on the banks of the Nile, having a cocktail or two. We had some dinner, a few more drinks and then we all (11 of us) staked our claim on a a bit of the deck of the feluuca and went off to dreamland. But it was cold. Very cold. I was wedged between a Japanese and an Aussie. Not a lot of room for all of us tosleep but huddling together kept us warm. The guides had warned that it gets cold, and wow, were they right. It didn't help that when I was jumping off the boat (to use the reeds for a bathroom), that I slipped and partially sat in the Nile. It took a few hours to dry (my pack was stored under the deck and too hard to get to), but eventually I dried out and caught a few winks.

In the morning we had our breakfast and then waited for the Transport to come to take us to a couple of temples along the way. Of course we weren't where we were supposed to be, but it seemed to work out ok. They picked us up and we were off to Kom Ombo (where we were scheduled to camp) on the banks of the Nile, and then to Edfu. (one couple was screaming that the driver, and then told me that I didn't know how to work "with these people". I told him he was racist.) The temples were amazing however, and big. They made the day worth it. We dumped some of our crew (and the annoying coule) at the bus station, picked up some locals (as a taxi service), took a side road through the sugar fields narrowly avoiding donkey carts, to avoid a police checkpoint, and eventually found our selves in Luxor. Only to find out that the driver dropped me at the wrong hotel. I found a cab and eventually made it to my hotel (which was paid for). Long day.

The best parts of the day: Making some new friends from Bozeman, Montana. These two great women. Kicking back on a felucca. The crazy driving and driver. Wondering about how my parents would enjoy Egypt and imagining them in the rickety van. Arriving a nice place near the temple in Luxor. Touring Luxor Temple at night.

The temple was stunning, but at night, even cooler. Really amazing, really big, just tremendous and worth every ounce of frustration to get here. Being there at night means that the crowds were leaving and it was lit up. Nice.

Tomorrow, Valley of the Kings, Karnac Temple and an overnight bus to Dahab on the Red Sea.

Abu Simbel

Well, there was a change in plans. I got up dutifully this morning at 2:45 to get my bus to Abu Simbel at 3:15. (This was one thing I was very excited to see.) We were told about 3:25 that the police would not take us, there was no trip this morning. At first, I really did think that they were joking. Alas, no. No joke. Apparently the weather was acting up. (Too much wind.) While a few of us were quickly trying to process this, there were phone calls to us from the travel companies reorganizing everything for us. In fact, they reorganized for us to go later in the day, to stay at the hotel overnight, to rebook my felucca trip, to move my hotel in Luxor, and make sure my train ticket to Dahab is on the new date. It was really unbeleivable. I have traveled enough not to expect this type of situation to end well. This one apparently did!

We were able to try to get to Abu Simbel this afternoon leaving at 10:30 in the "second" convoy. I went back to sleep, woke up and was ready for the day. Basically it was a long day in a hot (yet apparently air-conditioned) van. Abu Simbel lies 250km south 30 miles from Sudan. It was a trek. We drove and drove in a small packed hot van.

The temple was worth it. While we drove for 3+ hours to get there and only had about 2 hours there, it was worth it. The temple was moved to higher ground due to the construction of Lake Nasser. It still sits however on the edge of the lake and its location is spectacular. Remote and spectacular. There is nothing like it. You walk around the corner and see four immense statues leading into a temple on the edge of this amazing body of water in the very south of Egypt. Wow.

The temple has the "wow" factor you need after a 3 hour drive, and I can only imagine how much more amazing it would have looked at sunrise (hence the early departures). Again covered in heiroglyphics (some painted), it was really remarkable to see. Apparently Ramses II wanted his enemies to see how important and imposing he was. I think they might understand. He has portrayed himself as among the gods and they would have understood that. He also displays his queen Nefertari as an equal (in size) indicating she played an important role in his "administration". There was a secondary temple to the god Hapshut, she is shown as a cow with horns. In this temple Nefertari has her head with horns. (Perhaps Ramses II was making a statement? You are a god, but you have to shown with a cow's head?) HOpefully not. The secondary temple was pretty impressive as well.

After that a quick 3+ hour trip back to Aswan. Of course, our van had some troubles, but we eventually made it. Tomorrow morning is free, and then off on the Felucca overnight. A long but great day. Well worth the hours in the van.

Moving Temples, literally

The journey today begins on an overnight train....

Well actually a bit before that. I ended up heading for the train station with a guy (owner of the hostel) and a buddy of his. We were headed to the station left at 9:30 for a 10:00 train. We were cutting it close and driving through ridiculous and hectic traffic. One thing I realized is that there are not very many traffic lights in Cairo and a lane for the car is where ever there is room for the car. No lines are needed. What this does do (lack of lanes and lights) is force the Egyptians to be very good at merging and keeping the traffic going. Cars are on top of each other. Did I mention that we got bumped by another car? Shame. We were still moving forward, rolled down the window and they exchanged some pleasant words in Arabic and we kept on moving. We had a train to catch. Meanwhile I am thinking again, how do I get myself in these situations! We hit the station at about 10:03. Good thing our train came at 10:20!

Surprisingly it was much more comfortable then expected, well air-conditioned (very well airconditioned, I was freezing), they sold food from a cart and there was plenty of room. Our compartment was full but pleasant, all but one of us were foreigners. Things were fine. I even slept a bit! They had a bit of trouble with the power, but over all an uneventful trip. It is really nice to get out of Cairo.

Aswan is a small city in the South of Egypt. Basically there is nothing south of Aswan except for Sudan. Apparently with the building of the High Dam, they flooded all the Nubian poeple that lived here and no there is Lake Nasser and dessert. And the whole reason I came here: Abu Simbel temple. It is 250km south.

What makes Lake Nasser and this dam so famous is that in harnessing the Nile, they were to flood ancient temples and leave them underwater for ever. Unesco came in and with the help of many nations around the world, about 20 of these temples were moved to higher ground so that we can still view them and four were dismantled and shipped to other countries. (The one in the US is at the Met in NYC.) So today I saw the dam and Philae temple. Philae was partially underwater after the construction of the first dam and was to be totally flooded. So they moved it over 8 years to a higher island. kind of cool. Since the Romans were here, they saw the temple and defaced all of the Egyptian and Nubian gods, Scratching out imagery and heiroglyphics. They also carved crosses in the walls! Kind of crazy, the amount of work it took to build and carve, and then to destroy.

Abu Simbel is the reason I came to Aswan. It is a huge temple built by Ramses II. It was also moved due to the waters of Lake Nasser and the High Dam. It took something like $40 Million to do ti. We are leaving at 3:00am to get there. Yikes! I guess you need a police escort (safety) and it gets pretty hot there too. For all you blog watchers out there, I am not sure if I will have time to write for a couple of days. Tomorrow, I get back and immediately jump on a Felucca (little sail boat) for my cruise on the Nile and I will be on that for about a day and a half...I am sure there won't be any internet there!

Wrong truns = Wrong parts of Cairo

Have you ever wandered in a city only to find your self in the wrong part of town? it happens so innocently and yet, you are where you really shouldn't be! Woops.

One of my many weaknesses is markets. I was in search of the biggest market in Egypt (or at least in Cairo) today. Khan al-Khalili. It is huge and famous. And hard to get to. I took the metro (another interesting story, suffice it to say give up your seat to elders or you are gonna get punched), to Attaba and then tried to find the market. I am pretty good with maps and directions and finding my way. I am even pretty good about memorizing the maps and the directions I need so I am not always whipping out my book with the map in it. Not so much today. I was all turned around.

I left the metro and couldn't figure out where I was. All the street signs were, of course, in Arabic. So I took them map and tried to figure it out. I made a wrong turn and walked for a while, realized it couldn't be right and turned around and went another way. Then I forged ahead. This time I was sure I had about 1km to walk. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I was realizing that I was wrong about the same time I figured something else out. The neighborhood was definitely sketchy.They say that it is safe to walk around in Cairo. But how safe can it be when there are men with machine guns on every corner? hmmm. I begin to ponder this when I realize that that the looks I am getting are not "oh look a lost American" but rather (perhaps) something more sinister. A kindly stranger explained I had lost my way and it would be best to turn around. I always like to think of these strangers as my grandfather pointing me in the right direction.

Eventually I found the market. It was, as expected, fun. I also found those guys that sell fresh squeezed ice cold orange juice. Bonus.

I then returned to my favorite "ahwa" had my thick and strong coffee and got on my way. Tonight I am overnight training it to Aswan (about 15 hours or so).

PYRAMIDS are cool!

It is hard to not be impressed by the PYRAMIDS. It is really hard not to be. You might think that that hundreds and hundreds of buses, vans, and taxis ferrying thousands and thousands of people would take away a bit of their mystique and charm. Nope. Not at all. It was awesome. I went to Giza early this morning (was there before 9:00 and had a few un-crowded minutes. Just me and the Sphinx. Then just me and the pyramids (well almost). Then the crowds came. While some might say that they got in the way were running around, etc., it felt to me so nice and natural to see so many people at the base of these massive monuments. Everyone happy and enjoying it.

Today I bought a "tour" which is really just hiring your own private taxi/car and went to the Pyramids at Giza, followed by the Saqqara "step pyramid" and tombs and finally the "bent pyramid" and "red pyramid" at Dahshur. Each site was amazing. Giza,just because. You know what you are looking at. Saqqara was amazing for the first pyramid that transformed egyptian architecture, but really, most impressive was the heiroglyphic carvings inside the pyramids and tombs. Looks like it was carved just recently. Clear, concise, amazing.

Dahshur's Red Pyramid is the third tallest after the two main ones at Giza. First climb halfway up to the entrance, next descend (on a ramp) down almost 200 feet into the center of the pyramid. Three chambers, and then back up. The best part of these minor sites is that they are almost as impressive as the Giza pyramids, yet they remain relatively unvisited and therefore have a much more casual feel.

I, of course, took hundreds of photos. It is hard not too! Tomorrow I will be seeing Coptic Cairo (the old Christian quarter) and then heading to Islamic Cairo in the afternoon!

Getting to Cairo/The Egyptian Museum

Getting to Egypt was already going to be problematic. I bought my ticket on the day before I left. I had to go through Detroit! As always I waited until the last minute to buy my ticket. It always seems better that way. Get a ticket and go! So I did. In fact, everything seemed to be working perfectly. I was at the airport in plenty of time, I had a nice bacon blue burger at the restaurant, checked the monitors, wait...wooops! Flight to Detroit was delayed by three hours. So Delta got me a cab and sent me to JFK to catch a flight from there! How fun. I made it with no time to spare and no choice in seats! Ended up in the middle of a 747 crammed in between two others. This wasn't an issue of fighting for an armrest, they were already in use. I really couldn't sit, my seat was being encroached! the person on the left had her child with her as well. She then tucked him into sleep on the floor under our feet. Grrr. I summoned all of my patience, found a spot where I could get most of my back again a seat, and thought it would be ok. Until the meal came and she wanted to use my tray table. I politely said "no", but had a million other thoughts! Shame. This was just the flight to Amsterdam!

Upon arrival in Egypt you can buy a Visas. I thought that they would sell them at immigration. Nope. At the bank. Worked through a million different lines to get the Visa to clear immigration, get my bag, get out and find a taxi to the hotel. Whew. We landed at 2:20 am. Got to the hotel by 3:30 and off to dreamland by 4:00.

AFter that things seemed smooth. I got the shuttle to the airport. The Airport shuttle to the airport bus station, the bus to downtown Cairo, and found my hostel on the 7th floor! Perfect. (Sadly, I couldn't figure out how to use the elevator). Now, who knew that in Cairo it is common to have one elevator that does odd floors, and one that does even floors? Now, I know!

Headed out after a good sweat, carry my pack up all seven floors, and went to the Egyptian Museum. Wow. I will say it again Wow. So many things. Picture this:
A huge majestic building built in the early 1900s. Stuffed full of 1950s vintage wood and glass cases, with lots of fans and open windows to keep it cool. Then more and more stone sculptures, mummies, sarcophagi, partial temples, etc. stuffed inside. Amazing. Did I mention King Tut's gold head and gold coffin? Or how about the mummies of old kings and queens, complete with teeth, fingernails, and hair. Wow. I spent 4 hours, you could spend years. The crowds were huge, but the sights worth it. This is one of the worlds most amazing museums, I can see why.

Apparently they are building a new museum out by the pyramids that will be bigger, air-conditioned, and with signage for more of the items. (If the museum had signs, they were typed on yellowed paper!)While the new place will be great, I am not sure it would have the same character.

Cairo day one is a success. Tomorrow, PYRAMIDS!

Ready

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose."
-Walt Whitman

Spring break 2010.

I am ready to go.