15 Day trip to Egypt - the travel notes, by Seafun

[seafun]

this is frustrating..

[seafun]

can't paste for some reason.

[seafun]

[Okay -- I have to quit for a while. I've tried five times to paste in Chapters 5 and 6. Need to go cool off and try later.

[seafun]

Very early, the next morning: We're currently in the air, on an Egypt Air flight, way up over the Nile, halfway between Cairo and Luxor, with a fiery sunrise evolving outside my window on the left side of the plane. (I'm including seating locations on planes for those of you who might come this way -- so far I've chosen the "correct side" visually on all my flights.) Pinks, oranges and a kaleidoscope of colors, as the sun starts to climb out of bed -- hours after us!

 

The wake-up call, at 2:45 am, I think, was surreal -- the ring of the phone, then waking from a deep sleep, slowly coming to and immediately being overwhelmed by all that I'd seen yesterday -- the ancient wonders at Giza, twice actually, and then the incredible Egyptian Museum, stuffed to the rafters with thousands of years worth of some of mankind's best artistic offerings... well, the broad and satisfied grin quickly installed itself on my face.

 

I vaguely remember showering and stumbling down to the lobby to pick up a breakfast box. I guess I haven't had many boxed breakfasts, but this was nice enough -- fruit juice, a couple pastries, a croissant with butter and jam, some fruit flavored yogurt, an apple I think (mind you, still half asleep...) and I remember for sure the hard boiled egg. I even had a cup of coffee to wake up my brain and get it ready to receive the days sensory offerings.

 

Then we, and our luggage, all got counted ( I suppose they frown on leaving tour members, or luggage, behind, so early in the trip -- adversely affects the tip, you know...) and climbed up into our two big busses for the transfer to the airport, all the way across Cairo. Even at this time of the morning, traffic was busy getting through Cairo, but most of our travel was on the bigger highways and it was noticeably more calm and less crowded than in mid-day.

 

The group leaders were well organized, and the check-in and distribution of tickets went smoothly, and eventually we got on our flight for the still pre-dawn take off.

 

6:35 am -- Luxor airport: We've landed safely, and I was intrigued to watch the rising sun actually sink back down in the sky as we landed. All the luggage is here, and they're collecting everyone's bags on large carts before we head to downtown Luxor to drop off the luggage at our home for the next seven days, our Nile cruise ship, the Queen of Sheeba.

 

Since we descended from up there at 20,000 feet, the sun has just risen here at Luxor, for the second time today for us -- quite magical. I was able to snap a couple of nice photos from the small terminal here of the sunrise with palm trees and luggage carts silhouetted against it. Okay, onto the busses again for our trip into the middle of Luxor, on the Corniche, the large boulevard right along the Nile, where our ship awaits. Well, halfway awaits... it's still too early to get our rooms, because the last guests either haven't left yet, or the rooms haven't been properly cleaned. So we're dropping the luggage off here, then taking a bus ride around Luxor and then over to the Karnak temple complex. More later about Karnak -- but I can feel the butterflies starting -- it's supposed to be pretty breath taking.

 

7:45 pm -- on the cruise ship "Queen of Sheeba," comfortably installed in my "junior suite" -- a nice sized room on the third floor (of five) with two twin beds, a separate sitting area, small but functional bathroom, and a huge picture window (that slides all the way open for great photo taking). My room is on the port (left) side, halfway between the middle and the bow (front) of the ship -- a nice location, that puts my window right smack in front of the grand Winter Palace Hotel, right across the Corniche. (The Corniche -- the main drag, the main boulevard through Luxor, along the Nile, with the big hotels, banks, businesses and shops on one side, and then the cruise ships moored on the river bank on the other side -- parallel parked, sometimes four boats deep.

 

The Nile cruise boats are almost all very similar in size -- long and narrow, to fit through the navigational locks on the river, four or five stories tall, usually with the whole top deck as living room-viewing area so you can watch the mesmerizing Nile go by. Some of the top deck has shade, in the form of awnings and tents, and some of it is in the full sun. Our ship has, oddly enough, Astroturf covering the whole upper deck, which is actually quite soothing on the feet and reasonably pleasant on the eyes, a dark color that is a bit of an optical relief in the bright sun. There is a good-sized swimming pool and a hot tub, and lots of comfortable rattan furniture full of pillows for whiling away the days and evenings in our "outside living room."

 

To maximize space, many of the ships "parallel park," side by side, sometimes up to four deep, so you literally walk through one to get to the other. (I learned immediately that if you're not the ship closest to shore, you'd darned well memorize the name of the ship closest to shore, that you have to walk through to get to yours, because they almost all look alike... hmm, was it the King of the Nile, King of Thebes, Queen of the Nile, Nile River Princess, etc. etc.)

 

Wow! just a couple short paragraphs and I realize that I've been awake so long -- since 2:00 am this morning, that I'm way to tired to record anything meaningful (he said, as his mind drifted off into babbling about ships parking side by side...). So I think I'll go upstairs for dinner -- which starts in a couple minutes, and then call it a night. There's no way I can do justice to the Karnak temple complex at this point.

 

Certainly tomorrow, once we set sail, there will be more time to record the absolute splendors of both the Temples of Luxor and Karnak that we saw today.

 

It's been another spectacular day ( I think I took another 200 pictures today) but I'm too tired to write anything meaningful -- I'm not even up to describing the rest of the ship or the dining room, or the nice buffet full of food. And you know I'm tired when I can't talk about food....

_________________

[seafun]

The next day -- what day is it? Day 4, I think? Jet lag, plus sensory overload, plus odd sleeping patterns, makes it hard to recall. At any rate, "Our first full day on the cruise ship." That will work.

 

We boarded yesterday after touring the Karnak Temple complex ( and it really is a complex complex, with many different areas and phases of construction, but more on that later...)

 

The ship is comfortable, although by no means comparable to a major cruise line ship -- it's not Carnival or Holland America! But it has its own quaint charms, and all the staff is extremely friendly and smiling and trying to be helpful, although most of them have limited knowledge of much English outside of their specific duties. The more important positions are held by more professional people who are quite fluent in English -- and probably 6 or 8 other languages.

 

There's a nice main lobby -- with wide double doors on each side, in case you need to walk through it to another ship while docked side by side. Several floors of cabins -- I think the ship will accommodate 120 people, so about 60 cabins. The top floor is the beautiful outside viewing deck/living room I mentioned earlier. The next floor down is the most-used public area, the dining room and bar/lounge. The space is divided between the large dining room and buffet area, with a service bar at one end and the doors into the kitchen near the back of the boat, and the bar/lounge/dance floor at the front of the boat.

 

The lounge is nicely decorated, with comfortable overstuffed chairs and banquettes, rich, thick fabric curtains on the windows, those beautiful middle-Eastern carved brass tray tabletops, as well as some marble ones. There's a bar set up at one end of the room that offers mixed drinks, beer and wine as well as coffee and soft drinks (remember -- don't have ice! ) There were several beautiful mural style painting of Egyptian landscapes that I loved in various parts of this room and around the central staircase. Some of them I photographed by themselves, because they were very nice landscape paintings, and I later had my picture taken in front of them on Galabaya party (dress up in Egyptian costume) night. The other end of the lounge is set up with a small deejay area so they can have "disco nights," and a variety of local shows and performers -- belly dancers, twirling dervishes, lectures, presentations, musical groups, etc.

 

My room is a nice size -- much bigger than most cruise ship cabins. The carpet is tired and not particularly clean, but the decor is comfortable, slightly worn, but about what I expected from all the research I did before I came. (It's a little challenging, but not too difficult, to Google the name of your ship and Nile River Egypt and that usually gets you to an appropriate website and whatever promotional/propaganda photos are available.) I have spotty hot water in my bathroom shower that comes and goes with no apparent schedule, but I can live with that. There's big closets and lots of dressers to put clothes and other items in. (I always bring about 10 extra wire hangers with me on every trip, which I leave behind at the end, and once again, they've come in handy.) I could have spent thousands more to have more deluxe accommodations, but I didn't come to Egypt to see the lodgings, I came to see Egypt's wonders! And the ship is laid out very well to accomplish that, so I am satisfied with what I am getting for the reasonable price I paid.

 

I've now had one each of breakfast, lunch and dinner -- the food is good, plentiful and fairly nicely varied --trying to please the tastes and palates of many different types and nationalities of tourists. Most of the food is recognizable (small signs in three languages helps) and reflected a good sampling of many different cuisines. Three buffet style meals are served daily and the waiters are attentive, taking your empty plates away between courses, and bringing you coffee, tea, beer, wine or whatever else you want to drink and then you sign for it as a room charge -- no cash needed. At lunch and dinner there's a large variety of the "forbidden" salads -- I get braver with each meal -- a strawberry here, a partially unpeeled cucumber there, maybe some sliced ripe tomatoes, a raw vegetable salad that looked too good to pass up... It's so odd to have eating feel like Russian Roulette! You just never know when you're going to eat something that throws your system into Digestive Distress!

 

So far no signs of "Mummy Tummy" or "Pharaoh's Revenge." My iron stomach and strong immune system are serving me well, at least so far...

 

I awoke this morning at 5:40 am, just as our ship was leaving the mooring at Luxor. I quickly got dressed, grabbed my camera and came up to the beautiful top deck of the ship (where I'm writing this now, in the afternoon, in the sun, as we drift up the Nile.... ahhhh!) I wanted to watch and photograph the sunrise and life along the Nile. And what a sunrise it was!

 

Total darkness at first, interrupted by a few lights along the banks of the Nile as we sailed away from Luxor, with just a tiny glimmer of light in the sky to the East, then a slight warming glow on the horizon that eventually changed to pinks and oranges, slowly illuminating the sky, finally followed by the sun peeking above the horizon in all its glory. Again, many photos -- about 200 --were taken over a two hour period on the deck. I was the only one up there for quite a while, and then was joined by only one or two other dawn worshippers, up here in the reverent silence -- broken only by an occasional rooster crowing, a donkey braying and the quiet noise of the ship gliding through the water as the sun provided a glorious show of color, light and shadows.

 

I was able to photographically capture the colors of the dawn, but more importantly to me, the various aspects of life along the Nile -- so many of them similar or almost identical to what they have been for thousands of years. Children playing with one another as they head off to schoolwork or to work in the fields or tend to the animals. Fishermen throwing their nets out from little boats, and pounding the the water with oars or various implements, to scare the fish into the net. Women in long dark colored dresses, composed and balancing a pile of clothes on their head, walking down to the riverbank to wash them, trade stories and catch up with the lives of their neighbors as they beat the clothes on large rocks to wash them, just as they've done for many thousands of sunrises here along the Nile. This glimpse into these lives was every bit as spectacular, in it's own simple, quiet way, as great temples, and a marvelous memory for me to etch into my mental travelogue.

 

It's now mid-afternoon, probably about 70 degrees, but it feels warmer with the bright sun shining on me as I write this on the deck in my comfy chair. There's several people dunking their feet in the fairly cool swimming pool, and a couple more enjoying the heat of the hot tub on deck. The deck, as I said, is rather oddly covered with green Astroturf, which mildly resembles grass, and is comfortable on the feet, and now that I think of it, probably covers up nicely whatever the last worn-out decking material was. The effect of the green is softened nicely by many rattan chairs and loungers with great thick cushions, wrapped in you-guessed-it, Egyptian cotton! There's lots of areas to sit, some shaded, some in full sun, grouped around the deck, by the pool and hot tub, and near the outdoor bar and the barbecue area at the rear of the ship -- very relaxed, very comfortable, very nice way to glide along and watch the world go by.

 

Occasionally another cruise boat goes by to provide us something to compare our boat to, and to provide an occasional wake to cross, but for the most part the ride is completely smooth. The inevitable comparison to the luxuried days gone by of Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile" are hard to avoid. (Is there a mysterious stranger among us? The doctor from Germany with the shifty eyes? The frenzied French man with the little moustache? The sad looking large woman from Italy (also with a small moustache!) (laughing at his own joke...)

 

Okay, let's try to concentrate for a minute on jotting down a few recollections about Karnak. My initial reaction is -- "impossible!" It's another one of those "it's TOO much, too big, too monumental for my mere words to try to describe" experiences, that are happening to me every day here in Egypt!

 

All right -- deep breath, relax, concentrate -- paint a mental sketch, then simply describe it...

 

HUGE!! Or as the guidebooks say, the largest temple complex in the world. The temple complex at Karnak, literally went on and on and on, as each Pharaoh added more and more on to the existing complex -- some parts simpler, and some parts grander. Some of them just built on, others used the old trick of erasing the previous fellow's name and putting his on it instead, claiming the accomplishments as his own. But no matter whose name was on each part, the sum of the parts is staggering.

I think I took close to 100 photos -- some of which I gave up and edited out already, since a "regular" camera can hardly do justice to the size of the structures.

 

It was impressive to see the successive contributions of generations of kings and several dynasties building and adding to the complex. The huge pylons, as they're called -- the portals or gateways from one Pharaoh's work to the next, huge columns, obelisks, and temples covered with carvings and hieroglyphics for as far as the eye can see. Immensely tall in places -- 70 feet or so, and we learned "how they did it." Putting the base of all the columns on the solid floor in rough form, but exactly placed, filling the entire room with dirt or sand to that level, then putting the next level on all the columns, then filling in with more dirt, again and again, until they were 70 feet up, but in an area full of dirt up to that level, then putting on the huge stone roof beams in rough form, and then slowly carving, and scooping out the dirt, doing the carving and sculpting and painting and hieroglyphic work -- from the top down -- as they emptied the rooms a few feet of dirt at a time, until all the dirt was gone and they were back to "ground level" with a perfectly finished temple! (Did you survive that run-on sentence? Oh good!)

 

Parts of the temples looked like they were just built a few years ago, and hardly showed signs of age. Some of the original paint remained on some parts, and there were lots of would-be "guides, anxious to show you the best bits and best photo opportunities, for a tiny bit of baksheesh, if you please. Even the machine gun-toting security police were eager to help out the wayward tourist, showing me to parts of Ramses' accomplishments I would have missed, and graciously accepting my small token of gratitude. One of my favorite parts of the whole complex was a simple set of worn stone steps. You could plainly see where thousands of feet, trodding up and down them, over thousands of years, had gently and slowly worn down the steps and made them gently rounded instead of straight. In H. Rider Haggard's novel "She" there's a description of the same thing -- stone steps worn down by the feet of the priests over the many many years, but to see the phenomenon in person brought a glisten to my eyes and a lump to my throat.

 

There was a sacred pool, or lake, in the middle of the complex, which made for beautiful photos of the temple reflected in it. It was situated next to a little cafe and a pretty decent souvenir stand as well, which actually made for a nice break in the midst of all that serious Art and Architecture. I was able to buy some nice postcards and papyrus bookmarks, for a reasonable price even, so that my inner shopper had a little unexpected moment of pleasure as I did my best to memorize and absorb all the details of the temple complex.

 

You know, I think I'm done on Karnak. My recollection of the history of it all runs together as far as specific dates and dynasties. I can't remember which Ramses did what at this point because there was so much to see. Let it suffice to say, that I was overwhelmed by the size and grandeur (think of Elizabeth Taylor getting pulled into town on the huge throne in "Cleopatra" by hundreds of servants as thousands looked on -- a veritable spectacle, everywhere you looked! That was the scale of Karnak.) I remember watching all of us tourists walking around, mouths gaping wide open in wonder as we walked from one splendid area to another. It's surprising there were no sunburned tongues from our mouths being open so long and exposed to that much bright sunshine beaming down on us! But it was truly a spectacle and a very special place to explore.

 

And that, my friends, seems like another good place to stop.

 

[seafun]

Day 6 – Mid-afternoon, up on deck in the sun – about 80 degrees and a cloudless blue sky, several hours after visiting the temple at Edfu. More on that in a bit. For now, we’re sailing by quarries along the river bank that undoubtedly provided stones for various temples, or maybe pyramids, but you can see where they were carved out of the rock.

 

There’s also small dwellings carved into the rock in various places in some of the cliffs; no sign of anyone living there today, but I could be wrong – in the bright sunshine it’s hard to see into the little doorways and windows cut into the rock face.

 

We were lucky at the locks at Esna, and sailed right up to them, and through, without a wait. I’ve read that in the busier times of the year it can take up to eight hours to get through them. Living in Seattle, I’m used to the phenomenon of locks, which help a ship pass from water of one height to another, near a dam.

 

You sail up to a set of gates that opens, you sail into a holding area, the watertight gates close behind you and they either pump water in or release it, to either raise or lower you to the elevation of the next part of the river.

 

The amusing part of our not having to wait was how it disturbed the standard operating procedure of the famous rowboat salesmen. What, you say, are those?

 

As the cruise ships sail up the Nile, at a certain point, a small fleet of rowboats suddenly appears, all rowing hard to approach the ship, usually two or three people to a boat. At first it looked rather like a poorly planned pirate raid – many little boats looking like they are trying to attack or board our much larger ship.

 

In the rowboats are plastic bags – lots of them, clear, but full of different colors. The men begin shouting to get our attention up on the top deck and pull up closer to our ship. Soon people on board our ship are leaning over the edge, and even out their cabin windows to see what the ruckus is, and then BAM!

 

The onslaught begins… It turns out they are salesmen, with clear plastic bags containing items they wish to sell – shirts, blouses, dresses, galabayas (traditional Egyptian robes), jewelry, tablecloths and whatever else tourists might buy. One man rowing for all he is worth, and the other one or two in the rowboat taking aim for either a cabin window, or the four-floor toss all the way up to the top deck.

 

It’s a little like fireworks going off, as the colorful bags are tossed up and grabbed and opened and their colorful contents explored. If an item is desirable to the shopper, negotiations on price begin. If not, the bag is thrown back to the seller. Amazingly, the salesmen are able to fulfill requests for different colors and sizes, from either their boat or one of their fellows.

 

Soon the afternoon air is full – full of bags going up and down, voices going up and down, and prices going up and down! It’s quite amazing to watch, as I had never seen “nautical negotiations” like that before. It went on in that manner for several minutes, with shoppers finding “treasures” and then dropping the agreed upon amount of money over the edge in a plastic bag to the sellers below.

 

The monkey wrench in all this was our sailing into the locks too soon, without the normal waiting time to complete all the transactions. It was quite fun to watch the give and take of it all and the missed shots – where the bag went astray and fell back into the Nile, or a shopper (not having a pitcher’s arm) throwing the bag into the river rather into the small boat. Or into the wrong boat.

 

But I soon determined that some of the rowboats were the “clean up team.” They broke away from the formation to go downstream and pick up the orphaned bags, presumably numbered or marked somehow to get them back to their original seller. It was quite an organizational feat and extremely fun to watch. Everyone on deck was laughing and clapping their approval, and cheering successful tosses back and forth.

 

My camera was in my cabin when it all started, so I didn’t have time to get any pictures of this fun, frenzied, floating bazaar, but if you ever see any pictures of it, you’ll certainly recognize what you’re looking at immediately.

 

A note of caution should you get caught up in this exciting activity, as fun as it was… we learned later that many of the bought items were substandard – the wrong size, already used or dirty in several cases, torn in places or unfinished, etc. and most were quite overpriced compared to the same item on shore. And obviously a merchandise return, exchange or refund is out of the question in this situation. So have fun with it, but let the buyer beware…

 

As I said, we messed up negotiations by sailing into the locks too soon – forcing many transactions to an early halt, as the salesmen scrambled to get their wares back before the gates of the lock swung shut. Several people commented later at their surprise in finding a bag of goodies in their stateroom if they had left the window open! Maybe not anything they wanted, but hey, the price was right!

 

It was a wonderful, fun and unique taste of life on the Nile.

[seafun]

After our first full day of sailing up the Nile, we had stopped overnight in Edfu, on the night that Egypt ended up winning the Africa Cup in soccer – their version of the Super Bowl. The main street in Edfu was alive with whoops and screams of delight, and cars and trucks packed with people waving Egyptian flags, cheering wildly and careening through the streets, horns a-honking and headlights a-flashing! The small town was lit up with excitement, and it was fun to watch from our perch on the top deck of the ship, a few feet from the main street.

 

With the majority of townsfolk packed into the few businesses that had televisions, and no one out shopping, it was easy to strike a bargain on my galabaya from one of the shops near the ship. My friend Nancy helped me try on a few and cheered me on – helping me eventually decide on a white floor length robe with navy blue embroidery around the neck and cuffs (after lots of negotiations, eventually less than $10.00 . Our young merchant friend convinced me that the outfit wasn’t complete without head wear, so I rolled out another $1.00 for a scarf-like piece of cotton that he taught me how to wrap around my head to complete the “Lawrence of Arabia” look.

 

An interesting part of shopping for clothes is the “Pure Egyptian Cotton” Discussion. This is the part where you tell them the size you want, they ignore you, and hold up a new cotton garment that will fit you, right now, new and unwashed. You know that it will shrink when washed and dried, and you try to explain that. That never works. They invoke the magic words of “But my friend, it is 100 per cent pure Egyptian cotton – no shrink!” You try to explain that it will shrink in the dryer. Ah… the dryer … the concept they do not understand. Egyptians seem to wash their clothes, and due to the nature of their weather and the heat, the clothes just magically dry in about 10 minutes. I’m not sure they even have dryers in Egypt. Or they’ve never done laundry like we do, but as a man who has done his own laundry for the last 30 years, I know those cotton garments are going to shrink at least two sizes when they go in the dryer, and that I’ll never be able to wear them again! It made for several interesting and amusing discussions with sellers and fellow members of our tour.

 

It was a fun night in Edfu, and we enjoyed watching all the Egyptians exhibit their extraordinary pride and team spirit. I don’t remember if we stayed up late to watch or not – but probably not, since we had a tour scheduled for the next morning, and the “Disco Party” in the lounge was not getting many participants.

 

This was the stop where we got the horse carriage ride to and from the Edfu Temple, 5 or 10 minutes away, included as part of our package deal. The carriages were in better shape than most of the horses, although my foursome managed to get a pretty good horse as it turns out, one that looked and performed like he was actually getting fed on a regular basis.

Our driver was extremely animated and humorous, obviously working for an extra tip – even though one was already included in what he was paid by our guides. He proudly called his horse and carriage, decorated with bits of chrome, his “Egyptian Ferrari!” He insisted on calling me “Rambo” and tried to impress us with the speed of his steed. Soon we were passing all the other carriages as we careened through the dusty dirt streets. He was clearly hoping his prowess, speed and personality would earn him extra baksheesh, but it was charming nonetheless. It was much less charming after we made the return ride to the ship with him after the temple tour, and were screamed at and berated by him for not leaving enough of an additional tip, even though we left a large amount!

 

But I digress… The “star” of the Edfu Temple is Horus, the falcon god, and was featured prominently throughout the beautiful temple, in statues and carvings -- one of the best preserved temples in all of Egypt. The temple was indeed a beauty – with much of the detail and hieroglyphics still intact, so once again, many photos were taken to help preserve the memories. I managed to take some of my favorite “temple shots” there, including one of an Egyptian man in a traditional robe framed in a doorway of the temple, illuminated by a ray of sunshine. (Very National Geographic, he said, congratulating himself…)

 

The vendors outside the temple were more persistent than most, hawking their wares with great zeal. One of them, probably 16 or 17, even gave me his printed business card, noting that he was “Sales Manager!” Alas for him and his friends, on exiting the temple I was able to avoid the gauntlet of salesmen by ducking through the barricades that purposely funneled you to the vendors...

 

Oddly enough, I only wanted to buy more batteries for my camera, but I refused to spend $20.00 for four AA batteries, so I’m now on my last two batteries until we stop in several hours at Kom Ombo, where hopefully the prices won’t be quite so outrageous. My camera seems to burn up the batteries quite quickly, but then I am taking a lot of pictures. And speaking of pictures…

 

Yesterday at this time brought my biggest disaster of the trip. Somehow I managed to reach in my pocket to grab my camera, and hit four different specific buttons, in precisely the right order, and it deleted every picture on my memory card! All the pictures of the Luxor temple by sunset, twilight and by night, and more importantly to me, all the 2 and ½ hour sunrise from Luxor up the Nile photos!

 

It was a true test of patience, acceptance and letting life unfold as it will, and trying to deal with that which I cannot change. It was NOT my happiest hour, for there had been glorious photos – about 200 of them. Even the tour guides, and some of the other group members (Hello Carol), who I’d shown the photos to earlier in the day were devastated. Mohammed even tried to resurrect them with his laptop and a retrieval program. But unfortunately, my memory card full of those photos, unlike the Pharaohs, did not enjoy eternal life.

 

I had to let them go, put aside the regret and their loss, and celebrate instead my many blessings at that point – no missed flights on the way to Egypt, no lost luggage, beautiful weather, and a glorious itinerary filled with new wonders at every turn. This trip has just been extraordinary so far, with very few regret. Actually, my biggest regret is that I don’t have a photographic memory to recall everything when it’s all over! (Which is why I’m trying so hard to write things down, knowing full well that these writings are only the tiniest tip of the “memory iceberg.”)

 

I’ve given up on any attempt to keep this journal chronological as things happen. It’s just not convenient or practical, so I’m happy enough to jot down a memory here, a story there, a touching moment, or something that impressed me… I’m afraid they’ll just have to be written down as time allows. It is after all a vacation, and not the Final Exam for Travel Writing 101. The laptop would have made writing this so much easier, but the experience wouldn’t have been nearly as atmospheric as sitting here on the sun deck, writing a few paragraphs, enjoying the scenery and sounds of the Nile – occasionally walking over to one side or the other to snap another photo of something I’ve never seen before. This certainly beats being hunched over the laptop down below, typing away.

 

Several fellow travelers have commended me on my diligence in writing and we all agree that it takes intense self discipline. It would be much easier to not write this and just relax, but I’m sure that I’d forget a lot of stories if I didn’t write them down.

 

Which reminds me, I don’t think I’ve written about the young cabin steward, in his very early 20’s at the oldest, who was up on the top deck with me the other morning as the sunrise unfolded. It was charming to hear his very broken English as we neared a tiny village on the banks of the Nile.

 

“Me, here, house. Me, here, Madam. Me. Here.”

 

I soon understood what he was saying – this was his village, this was his house up ahead, and this was his Madam, his young wife, that came out at 6:30 in the brightening dawn to stand on the river bank to see her young husband go by on his riverboat. A woman that looked to be her mother, or his mother, was there as well, waving and blowing kisses from 30 feet away. They exchanged a few slightly hushed words in the near silence of dawn, expressing their affection, both understanding that his job – probably highly envied and coveted – was more important than their temporary separation.

 

Could it have been much different from this 2,600 years ago as men left their wives and their villages to sail down the river to Giza to work on the pyramids and temples?

 

The eternal aspects of Egypt and life on the Nile, and the similarities between life today and all those years ago on this river are thought provoking and certainly did not escape me.

 

“The more things change, the more they stay the same…”

[MVPinBoynton]

Thank you again for continuing the story for us. I will go back and reread it to mark down things I don't want to forget for our trip. I can't imagine losing photos from a trip like this. I would be devastated. Rather than writing down notes, we take hundreds of pictures a day to remind us of what we did, so that we can write up our reviews. Losing pictures is like wiping out part of our personal memory. We back up our cards to our laptop and burn discs as we go, but it is still always possible to lose them. The readers of this thread are glad you have remembered so much.

[seafun]

I thought I was being so clever, taking FOUR memory cards with me. That way, I reasoned, I couldn't lose many pictures if anything went wrong.

Well, I didn't lose all my pictures, but it was still a disaster at the time, to lose so many pictures.

The problem seems to be with my camera, which has a "delete/trash can" button that is obviously TOO easy to activate!

I hope the new chapters will keep you all satisfied for a day or two (since I typed so much yesterday, I've got a lot of actual work to do today! :eek: )

Talk to you all soon -- :)

[MVPinBoynton]

It is a shame that work has to get in the way of play. :D These installments will keep us happy for a little while. After all, like with the cruise itself, once it is over, it is all over. So we will enjoy reliving your experiences and the anticipation of the upcoming chapters.

[mikefang]

Seafun, thanks for the great review. DW and myself doing a one day trip to Cairo/pyramids in Sept off cruise ship. She has asthma problems and we are hearing some bad things and mixed reviews on the air in Cairo and asthma type complications. Any issues with your group? Did anyone wear masks or use other precautions?

Thanks, Mike

[seafun]

Cairo doesn't have the best air in the world, but I think your sheer adrenalin should keep you breathing okay, especially if it's just for a day or two. :o

No seriously, no one in our group wore masks, although we did see a few Asians wearing them. Honestly, I doubt that the masks would protect you that much, but I'm not a doctor.

Many of us ended up sick near the end of our trip but we're pretty sure that was a cold/cough/bronchitis thing, that we gave each other, rather than a reaction to the air in Cairo.

If your wife just takes her normal asthma stuff -- maybe an emergency inhaler, I think she'll be just fine.

At the risk of sounding cliche'ed -- You'll be so busy noticing all the sights that take your breath away, you won't notice or be bothered by the air in Cairo! :D

[seafun]

Tuesday night, 9:30 pm – Aswan

 

Dear Diary –

I’ve been laughing about starting an entry that way for several days, especially after one of our group asked, “so what do you write in your diary?” I told her she would have to wait until we got home to find out…. And now, if she’s reading this (and I bet she is), she’ll find out what I was writing.

 

This will be a short entry, since I am bone tired bodily, but at the same time so satisfied from how well the trip is going in general, and especially thrilled from today’s special side trip and flight to the famous – no, make that world

famous – temples at Abu Simbel.

 

We got up early, as usual, here in Aswan and had an early breakfast, then we were off to a quarry here in beautiful downtown Aswan, where lots of stone came from for various projects, and particularly for obelisks. There is a very large, unfinished obelisk that is not only amazing for its proposed size, but for the questions that it raises – how did they move and erect those things?!?!?!

 

After another souvenir gauntlet exiting the quarry, we were off to a tour of the Aswan Dam – the massive concrete structure that tamed the Nile, prevented the annual flooding, and brought cheap electricity – all of those being pretty amazing feats. The dam itself was not much to look at, but what it symbolizes is significant.

 

The tour then split up, with some of us – the fortunate big spenders -- heading off to the Aswan airport for the flight a couple hundred miles to the south to Abu Simbel. It was very funny to note that almost EVERYONE on the flight was sitting on the left hand side of the plane – anxiously awaiting their personal photo opportunity just before landing, as we approached the temples on the banks of the Nile, which was now Lake Nasser, after being dammed. The views from the plane were great – hundreds of miles of barren deserts, the newly-created shoreline of the huge Lake Nasser, that often resembled an inland sea, and then the glimpses of the Sun temples of Abu Simbel from the air.

 

For those that haven’t memorized quite all of Egyptian history yet – he says with tongue firmly in cheek – they are the temples that were threatened by the rising Nile after the Aswan Dam was built back in the 1960’s. They consist of two temples, one incorporating the four famous 60-foot tall sculptures (of himself) that Ramses II had constructed right on the shore of the Nile, carved into a mountainside, so that anyone sailing downstream from further south in Africa would be immediately impressed with (if not fearful of) the power and accomplishments of this great Pharaoh.

 

The other, slightly lesser temple is dedicated to Ramses’ Queen Nefertari, and is just to the side of the “main” temple, but both are incredible on the outside, and oh my goodness gracious, folks, on the inside they are … (hmm, haven’t used this word in three paragraphs…) SPECTACULAR!!

 

Okay, so the kicker here is that several thousand years ago they built these temples so precisely in alignment with the movement of the earth, that two days a year, on Ramses’ birthday, and on the anniversary of his coronation, the earth and sun line up just right, so that at dawn the rays of the rising sun shoot through the doors of the temple, all the way through the rooms and halls of the temple to the chamber carved 200 feet or so back into the solid rock mountain, and illuminate the statues of the famous gods. Now that’s some engineering!

 

So fast forward – the temples get buried with sand over the ages and aren’t rediscovered until the early 1800’s, which helps to protect the carvings and paintings inside. Fast forward some more – Egypt needs the Aswan Dam built to both stop the annual flooding of the Nile, and oh-by-the-way, it would be great if this dam could provide all the electricity we’ll ever need!

 

They start building the dam, realize the temples will be flooded and lost, so the United Nations gets together, and wisely, much of the world chips in to save the temples. They decided to cut the temples up into literally a thousand pieces, move them UP about 180 feet, and BACK about 600 feet, build a man-made mountain to put them on, and reassemble the whole thing.

 

They are so well done, you would think Walt Disney and his team had flown in and worked the miracle. It really is amazing, both from the outside, as well as the incredible artwork inside.

 

I’m not going to try to describe the temples inside and out, as you can get a book that can do that much better than my words, but let me tell you, I was blown away! Yes, it is worth the effort and expense (an extra $250.00 for me) to fly down here and see this. Absolutely World Class!

 

After several hours there mid-day, and having our visit remarkably, joyously, gloriously uncrowded, we returned to the ship for a late lunch about 4:00 pm, all of us ooohing and ahhing.

 

I have great memories of all of us, bonded together in the temples by this journey, mouths agape in wonder at this trip that most of us had waited a lifetime to experience. Awestruck, reverent, grateful, incredulous, flabbergasted – trying as hard as possible to commit each rich detail to memory and seal it in our brains in order to replay it over and over in our minds in the future.

[WeBeGone]

ABU SIMBAL - you spent $$ to fly. We had the "pleasure" of getting up at 1:00AM to be in a convoy at 1:30 to DRIVE to Abu Simbal for the twice a year sunrise into the temple. Either way, this was the BEST!! People just have to make the effort to see it. You run out of words trying to describe it.

 

Keep writing.

[Dan919]

I'm heading out on this exact same trip on 4/9 and the descriptions of your experiences and impressions have made me even more excited about the trip. (I've also noted that I'll need many more memory sticks for my camera then I had anticipated.. :) ).

 

You sound like you must have been a great addition to the group on tour. I hope there will be some people with similar qualities when I go.

The only thing I'm a little worried about is that I'm not generally an early morning person. Hopefully the time change works in my favor :)

[seafun]

Ahhh, one posting! I remember back when I was new here. :) Welcome!

I've learned a lot from Cruise Critic Boards over the years, and it was my turn to give back, as I'm sure you will too!

Have a wonderful time on your trip -- and you will get used to getting up that early, the rewards are so worth it! :D

I'll try to get more of my report typed up soon.

Thanks to everyone again for all the nice messages! :D :D

[seafun]

Later that same night (“Abu Simbel” day) Tuesday, about 10:30 pm—

 

I found a little second wind after eating dinner, having a coffee, and getting a few impressions of my big day trip to the temples at Abu Simbel written down. Tonight was the much-recommended (by our tour guides anyway) “Nubian Show” performed in our upstairs lounge here on the ship.

 

I didn’t know quite what to expect but had heard little bits of descriptions from our guides of “native dancers,” “beautiful costumes,” “belly dancers,” “a dancing camel,” and a “whirling dervish or devil,” so I pushed myself to go check it out.

 

It turned out to be a combination of the beautiful and the absurd, but then I’ve always been partial to sweet and sour, so it worked for me. The basic concept was an Egyptian/African dance troupe, with a variety of costumes, and a variety of dances and routines, and samples of several different kinds of music. There was even a dancing camel! (think of our old-fashioned vaudeville shows with two people in a horse or cow costume, one in the front and one in the back). The camel danced around quite energetically and I remember thinking it must have been about 110 degrees inside that musty camel costume, sweaty and gasping for air.

 

It was all well and good up till that point, but they had to throw in the old “audience participation” thing – pulling poor unsuspecting people up from the audience to dance, sing or chant, make fools of themselves or whatever. May I add that many people actually seem to enjoy that sort of thing….

 

I didn’t fall off the papyrus truck yesterday, so I knew to sit WAY at the back of the room to avoid embarrassment and forced participation. That ploy worked quite well for most of the show, and I enjoyed a variety of dancers and music, with various themes, going back and forth between typical African dancers and dances (hence the “Nubian” name) as well as some belly dancing, some more Egyptian dancing, some Conga lines involving our passengers, and a nice presentation of several cultures.

 

However, our dear guide Mo insisted on “volunteering” me to participate in a “Dance with the Devil.” The “Devil” was an energetic dancer, chanter, shouter, choreographer, who pulled us from the audience to the stage (practically kicking and screaming in my case, but those weren’t the steps and shouts he wanted me to perform) and had us mimic his dance steps, and his chants and songs and shouts, for what seemed like fifteen minutes.

 

Mind you this is probably all quite fun to watch IF you are not an participant! I tried to be a good sport about it, much to the amusement of my fellow passengers – whom I vaguely recall howling with laughter.

It wasn’t really my thing, but I gave it my best shot, and several times suffered through the disdain of the witch doctor/devil, who put his painted face right up against mine to loudly verbally chastise me when I wasn’t performing correctly! It was embarrassing to be pulled up on stage and force to perform like that -- (not quite as “cerebral” as a grass skirt and coconut brassiere in “the Islands…”), but it was fun in a way – letting our hair down, bonding as a group, and celebrating our common humanity and ability to entertain (and embarrass) ourselves.

 

I think VERY soon after my dance performance I snuck back to the back of the room – enjoyed one last glimpse of most of my fellow group members hard at work in an Egyptian version of a Conga line, winding throughout the lounge, having a great time. I’d had enough for one day – well, more than enough, so I discretely snuck down to my room for bed while the party continued.

 

Okay – time for bed, now that my Nubian Dance Adrenalin is wearing off.

It’s been another absolutely grand day – perfect weather, a world-class field trip to a wonder of the world, and once again learning more about the world and my reactions to it all.

 

“1,000 places to see before you die,” and I got to cross a couple more big ones off the list today

[seafun]

5:00 pm, Wednesday, the day after Abu Simbel:

 

If I could have skipped the last 15 hours – just erased them from my memory – I would have in an instant! I must have eaten something that didn’t agree with me (and I have a good idea of what it was), because I was violently ill last night – waking up from a very sound post-Nubian sleep at exactly 3:00 am.

 

It’s hard to phrase this next bit “delicately.” Even my utmost efforts to get from my bed to the bathroom as quickly as humanly possible were not successful – I fell victim to the dreaded E.D. (No, not Erectile Disfunction…) The much more dreaded Explosive Diarrhea!!

 

I spent the remainder of the night in there, every few minutes relieving myself of a little bit more of whatever it was that had violated my gastro-intestinal system!

 

There are two likely culprits for my affliction – either something a little too daring from our salad bar at dinner on the ship – and as the trip wore on, I did become much more daring in my food selections. Or, and I think this was it, the ice cream bar I had at Abu Simbel. I remember that it was hot outside and thinking, “Oh poo, what harm can a frozen ice cream bar do?” My words may have been too prophetic…

 

Since “the malady,” I have since looked up in various sources warnings to stay away from ice cream in Egypt, for two reasons – one, that their milk products have different enzymes and thingies in them that our systems aren’t used to, and two, that often, due to the heat, many ice cream products melt, and then are refrozen, melt and then are refrozen, allowing all kinds of science projects to grow in them!

 

Anyway, I chose the time-honored choice of letting “whatever it is” run through my system, rather than trying to plug it up with Immodium right away. And even though I’d read lots about the various Egyptian remedies for stomach ailments that are supposedly quite effective, and embarrassingly inexpensive, and decided against seeking them out. I could hear the voice of my dear mother in my head (see, I told you I was sick!) telling me “That this too shall pass…”

 

We had a visit scheduled this morning to Philae, and as much as it pained me to do so, I cancelled out on a “temple run” for the first time on the trip. I stayed in bed, sipped lots and lots of bottled water all morning, and enjoyed having the pain pill my mother had sent along with me for emergencies. It helped me get some rest and allowed me to worry a lot less about my “poopy” situation.

 

Around 2:00pm, I got the strength to take a shower. It helped a lot, but I was still pretty weak and shaky. But I pulled it all together – took a couple Immodiums – and hurried downstairs just in time to join the group for the felluca ride on the Nile. I was pleasantly surprised and buoyed by the cheers of support and congratulations from my fellow passengers as I climbed into the felluca at the last minute.

 

I got some nice photos on the water, with lots of sparkling sunshine dancing on the Nile, the famous Old Cataract Hotel, Aswan from the middle of the Nile, and a few of our colorful Nubian boatmen. Proving that you’re never very far away from a “souvenir opportunity,” in the middle of the Nile the boatmen began carefully unwrapping a lot of hand crafted items – necklaces, jewelry, carved wooden animals and the like – and as I recall, they were extremely inexpensive, and of fairly nice quality.

 

So take a second look if this is part of your itinerary – I regret not having the strength to peruse the items more closely – several members of our group got some beautiful things for excellent prices, shopping in the middle of the Nile!

 

4:00 pm: A few minutes ago I tried some tea and simple cakes and cookies up on deck – so far so good. We’ve just pulled up anchor from Aswan and are sailing north, back toward Luxor. We’ll overnight tonightnear the locks at Esna, and this evening is the “Galabaya Party.” All of us are supposed to dress up in the local costumes, and have “local delicacies” for dinner.

 

HELLO?!?!? Local delicacies sounds like the LAST thing my “mummy tummy” needs. I’ll be choosing VERY carefully what I eat tonight! Although I am starting to feel a little better and a little stronger all the time, and hopefully will be good as new tomorrow (Thursday.)

 

On Friday, when we get back to Luxor, starting BEFORE the crack of dawn, is another of the “world class” days – a hot air balloon ride, before, during, and after sunrise, over the Valley of the Kings and Queens, the Nile and Luxor. Then we’ll be off for an “all you can eat” tour of the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s Temple, the Valley of the Queens, the Collossi of Memnon, and God-only-knows what else. It will include visits inside the tombs in the Valleys, including King Tut’s actual tomb (his mummy and inner sarcophagus have been returned there, while the rest of his treasures are on display in the museums).

 

Well, almost time for some more “sunset-over-the-Nile” shots up on deck. I’ve taken a lot of them, so I’m bound to get some good ones! More later…

[seafun]

Thursday morning 11:00 am (Valentine’s Day)

 

We just sailed back through the locks at Esna, and are on our way to Luxor, arrival time estimated at 3:00 pm. It seems there’s always something fascinating to look at on the shore – the ribbon of green fields, and how it runs into the sands and deserts.

 

Now that I’m here, and am coming to the close of a glorious week sailing up and down the Nile, I can’t imagine coming to Egypt and not experiencing this. The seven night cruise has been such a special part of this trip. We have all commented, repeatedly, on how much we are enjoying the simple views from the ship as we glide along the Nile, sailing between the 21st century and the 3,000 years before it, in just a few minutes , on our floating time machine.

 

I will try very hard to get some more pictures of the beautiful Luxor temple tonight, to replace all those that were erased. There’s a wonderful warmth to the temple photos taken at night that is a great counterpoint to those taken in the bright sun, and I was particularly fond of the Luxor temple, right smack in the middle of the city.

 

I’m feeling pretty much back to normal today – and very grateful for it. Whatever my “bug” was, it must have “exited the building.” I’d say close to a third of our group has gotten sick at one point – but most of them seem to be down and out for at least three days. So I consider myself lucky to have bounced back sooner.

 

We are currently sailing down the Nile, which is actually going north, towards the Mediterranean. It is easy to get turned around, since in Egypt, “upper Egypt, lower Egypt, north and south” all seem to be the opposite of what one’s first guess is. I’ve also gotten turned around in Luxor as to West bank and East bank – ah, the luxurious little problems one deals with in global travels…

 

The Galabaya Party last night was one of those purely touristy concoctions – let’s have the tourists (I mean “our valued guests”) buy Egyptian costumes (yet another way to support the local economy) and wear them to a fancy dinner. Then after dinner, we’ll coerce them into singing songs, dancing local dances, clapping and chanting, so as to make them look like complete idiots – talk about your “Pharaoh’s Revenge!” Actually, it wasn’t all that bad, and most of the people really enjoyed themselves in their sparkling new outfits and head wraps, turbans and jewelry.

 

I was still kind of weak at dinner – and still quite nervous about “local delicacies.” I managed some (well, quite a bit) of a very nice thick and rich potato soup, a few pieces of bread and a large meatball (that I silently hoped wasn’t camel) and had to stop at that point. I honestly didn’t even look to see what “local delicacies” lurked in the large silver chafing dishes – I’ve seen enough movies to know that strange organ meats, monkey brains or sheep’s eyes could have been inches away in the next dish!) (Just kidding – I’m sure it was nothing THAT exotic, or I would have heard about it for sure!)

 

With help from friends, I was able to get several good photos of me in my “local” costume and headwrap/turban, which I’m still exceedingly proud to have tied myself, after only one lesson in Edfu! I wish I’d had the energy to take everyone else’s pictures, but I chose to head off to bed, as the party went on without me. However, since my cabin was almost under the bar/disco/lounge, I was “treated” to the dancing sounds of our would-be Rockettes up above me until around midnight.

 

I was once again grateful for one of Mom’s pills, and my CD player with speakers, so I could play some nice soothing music and almost drown out the Egyptian Party Animals. I got a great night’s sleep, slept in and skipped the Esna temple in the morning. From others that went, on a scale of 1 to 5 on our “Temple-ometer,” I was told that it rated a mere 1, so I think the extra sleep was a good choice.

 

Thursday night 7:30 pm –

 

I just got back from taking my second set of pictures at the Luxor temple (after the first set got erased). I wasn’t able to take nearly as many this time – I got there and to my dismay, found my memory card only had 11 pictures left on it! I didn’t have enough “sunset time” to run back to the boat for another card, so I sat for a few minutes on a big block of stone, making painful decisions, and deleting enough “so-so” pictures that I soon made enough room on the card.

 

I got a couple of great shots – or at least they looked that way in the viewfinder. (Author’s note: many of the shots came out a little blurry due to not-quite-enough light – if you look at my “Obelisk with Moon Centered Above It’ pictures, you’ll see what I mean.) My favorite “artistic shot” was of the famous “twin obelisk” in front of the Luxor Temple (the other twin is the one given to the French that stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris).

 

IF (note the word IF…) the shot turns out, it’s a vertical shot up the obelisk from the bottom, with the almost-full moon posed just above the top of the obelisk, with all the carvings and hieroglyphics nicely visible. We’ll hope that the ancient Egyptian gods of Digital Photography are with me!

 

I wrote a couple notes home today at an internet café here in the row of shops along the Corniche, quite close to where all the ships are docked. VERY hard to figure out parts of the keyboard, until I moved to another computer, but it only cost $1.00 for a half hour of time.

 

Also this afternoon, I finally visited the new and extremely beautiful Luxor Museum. Let me HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to you!! (I had tried once before but it was closed in the middle of the day for “lunch.”) Although it was hardly mentioned by our tour guides, and many of our folks missed it, I had read glowing reviews in every guide book I’d looked at. Its modern displays, wonderful lighting and labeling of the offerings was much better than all the other museums I’ve seen in Egypt. Definitely plan on reserving an hour or so to see it!

 

Beautiful statues, items from Tut’s and others tombs, items from daily life, Ramses the Great’s and other mummies, a piece of cloth woven and worn almost 4,000 years ago that still looked great, a bed, many items from everyday life, jewelry, explanations of all kinds of things – and some of the best preserved statues we’ve seen in the entire trip – all presented in a clean, well-lit, well-labeled manner – very, very nice, and not to be missed.

 

And a quick side note – as you exit the museum, just to your left – that’s NOT the official gift shop; someone has been bribed to put an overpriced shop in that prime location. Instead, exit the building, go back past the statues outside, and there’s another door, on your left, down by the café, that has an excellent gift shop, with marked prices and lots of great quality merchandise! DVDs and CD’s with digital pictures of Egyptian art and travelogues, coffee table books, postcards, posters, etc.

 

Okay, it’s dinner time. But if you promise you’ll visit the Luxor Museum when you’re here, I’ll try to write more tonight after dinner!

 

Dinner was very good, complete with a “Valentine’s Day” theme. The ladies each received a rose as they entered the dining room, the men got a chocolate, and we were treated to a much-touted “complimentary holiday drink!” It turned out to be a sugar-rimmed wine glass, filled with fresh strawberry juice. I laughed thinking about the “I Love Lucy” episode with Lucy in the Italian wine grape vat, prancing about, crushing grapes with her bare feet. I remember saying a silent prayer that our strawberries had NOT been crushed in the same manner down in the basement of the boat by our Egyptian cooks!

 

They had also decorated the dessert table with a Valentine’s Day cake and lots of red strawberry-themed offerings. It made for a couple of cute pictures, and it all tasted great as well!

 

It feels VERY good to have digital memory card “Egypt 2” safely stashed away, and out of the “photo-erasing” camera. I’ve started on the 3rd, and presumably final memory card, with some ridiculous photos from the local McDonald’s here in downtown Luxor. I wasn’t surprised to see the omni-present Ronald McDonald full-sized statue outside the door, but was floored to discover they deliver here!! I’ve never seen that before, and they have a little motorcycle with an insulated metal box on the back of it, the “McDelivery” phone numbers painted on the side, parked right in front of the restaurant. Upstairs (there’s two upper floors with tables and chairs) there’s a mural – a cultural abomination if you will, but funny – with Chicken McNuggets skateboarding across the desert in front of the pyramids, with Ronald McDonald’s face on the Sphinx, while the Hamburgler leers on the other side. Any wonder why we are called Ugly Americans??

 

Anyway, I walked back over there after dinner, after hearing from other passengers (who I had sent over there to photograph the mural) that they sold “McDonald’s Egypt” beach towels! Truth IS stranger than fiction my friends, and now, after throwing my pride out the window, I own one! (about $10.00, as I recall.) I’ll bet I’m the only person in Seattle that has one…

 

Okay, time for bed – only 5 hours until the wake-up call for the hot air balloon ride. Maybe I’ll snuggle with my McTowel…

_________________

[seafun]

I hope you're happy! :rolleyes: I have slaved away over a hot keyboard for hours and hours -- just so you'll have something fresh to read!

I'm sure glad you're enjoying it. :)

Today is exactly one month since I came home from Egypt -- I'm pressing forward, with such diligence, because it's getting harder and harder to "translate" and remember what I meant in my notes.

I'll be very glad when it's all transcribed and typed up. I'd like to reclaim my "life" but I can't until this is done! :eek:

[WeBeGone]

Every morsel of your writing brings back such fond memories. MY pharoh's revenge didn't start until I'd been home 5 days. Apparently, in spite of being so so protective of what I ate and drank, I contracted "giardia", for which I am still home bound and on very strong medication. I think I got it from brushing my teeth with tap water one night on the cruise ship after too much partying. I can't wait to read about the hot air balloon. I so wanted to do that but our plane didn't arrive in Luxor early enough....maybe in October.

 

write on

[celle]

I hope you're happy! :rolleyes: I have slaved away over a hot keyboard for hours and hours -- just so you'll have something fresh to read!

 

I'm sure glad you're enjoying it. :)

 

Today is exactly one month since I came home from Egypt -- I'm pressing forward, with such diligence, because it's getting harder and harder to "translate" and remember what I meant in my notes.

I'll be very glad when it's all transcribed and typed up. I'd like to reclaim my "life" but I can't until this is done! :eek:

 

 

Thank you so much for your very detailed diary of your trip to Egypt and your photos.

 

We will be in Egypt in September and your writings have been just what we needed for information and anticipation.

[Traveler50]

I hope you're happy! :rolleyes: I have slaved away over a hot keyboard for hours and hours -- just so you'll have something fresh to read!

 

I'm sure glad you're enjoying it. :)

 

 

My husband and I will be traveling to Egypt with GCT on April 12 for 15 days. Six days in Cairo and a 7-day Nile cruise. Your review has given me so much information for the trip so I really appreciate that you took the time to share your experiences.

 

I do have one question about the currency exchange. Did you wait until you got there or did you exchange before you left the USA? You may have already addressed this...I'll go back and read the whole reveiw again if you did.

 

If you think of anything else to help us prepare for the trip please keep posting....Thanks!

[seafun]

In my guide books it suggested waiting until you got to Egypt to change money. I believe the exchange banks at the Cairo airport are open 24 hours, and I had no trouble paying for my visa ($15.00 paid in U.S. funds) before I changed my money. Also you can use your ATM card and PIN to get Egyptian pounds from cash machines all over the place.

I was led to believe that the exchange rate is much better in Egypt than in the U.S. Also it is "illegal" to import or export more than 1,000 Egyptian pounds (about $200.00) and travellers checks are VERY hard to use, so don't bother with them.

I also took $100.00 in one dollar bills for tips. Usually $1.00 is way too much for a tip (restrooms, etc.) but it can be very hard to find small Egyptian pound bills, (I asked three times for small change, in banks, and was refused!) so in a pinch, you can use a dollar, it won't break your budget and it will make someone very happy!

Also, you can pay in U.S. dollars almost everywhere, so I never panicked when I was running low on Egyptian pounds.

[micked10@earthlink.net]

Seafun,

I have enjoyed your journal so much. You are an awesome writer. Maybe you should think of writing a book!!

micked10