10 January, 2006 · 12:01 am

Cairo – Khan El Khalili

We stopped in Cairo for one more night before heading off to the Sinai and Jordan. That morning we awoke to frantic messages and texts from home – apparently there had been a bus crash on the road to Alexandria yesterday and some Australian tourists had been involved. Our families were understandably very concerned to make sure we were all okay!

On our last day in Cairo we spent more time in Khan el Khalili, having tea and shisha in El Fishawi. Not many shops were open, as it was the holidays, but we still managed to pick up a few things 😉

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9 January, 2006 · 12:01 am

Alexandria

In Alexandria we stayed in a big hotel right on the beach! The view from our balcony was the Mediterranean… and the multi-lane highway right in front of it!

Apparently Alexandria was founded when Alexander the Great convinced the high priest at Memphis to crown him pharaoh of Egypt. Quite a persuasive guy, once presumes! While here we started by visiting the National Alexandria Museum which is housed in the building that used to be the US Consulate.

The Catacombs were next – a deep underground tomb like a reversed tower. The people took picnics down to have celebrations with their dead relatives, which was pretty spooky.

Another big attraction in Aexandria is the Fort. Supposedly using stone from the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, it’s an awesomely restored edifice. We walked around the bay along the beach to get to it – and there were heaps if kitty cats enjoying the sun (and the fishing).

The Cecil Hotel was another attraction – where Noel Coward and his cronies used to write. Very civilised.

We ate very well in Alexandria – fabulous seafood chosen live at the shop across the road, and prepared as you like it, and where I first experienced sahlab (yummy drink/dessert that’s kind of like milky custard/rice pudding with coconut, crushed nuts and dried fruit on top) and the ubiquitous sheep’s testicles! I didn’t order this by the way – one of the girls was feeling adventurous, but we all had a taste!

The Eid celebration took place while we were in Alexandria, which meant that a lot of people were buying animals to butcher and feast on. It was a bit strange to see people cutting a sheep’s throat on the side of the road before loading it into the boot of their sedan to drive home with!

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7 January, 2006 · 12:01 am

Back to Cairo

We caught the train back up to Cairo – on my birthday!We celebrated by going to lunch at the Columbo Cafe and having fruit juice mocktails (this one is a mint and lemon juice – so refreshing!)

The Egyptian Museum was our next stop for the day. There was just so much stuff here, it got really overwhelming. We look at the Tut Ankh Amon exhibit, the Jewellery Room, the Tombs of Tanis and Ankhenaten. Most of us didn’t bother going to the Mummy Room – there are lots of mummies throughout the rest of the museum, so we didn’t think it was worth paying extra to see more! We stocked up on tacky souvenirs in the gift shop (not the cheapest, but they had some good stuff).

Dinner was a “5-Star Extravaganza”! We had dinner on another cruise boat on the Nile: one that just does a loop for a couple of hours from the Cairo docks for lunch/dinner cruises. The buffet wasn’t anything special compared to the other meals we had, but the desserts were much more expansive! The entertainment was great though – the usual show of a Sufi dancer, solo bellydancer, a small group of male dancers, and the bellydancer joined them before inviting the audience to come up and dance. Because it was my b’day, I was invited up to have a shimmy or two, which was fun.

On our way back to the hotel we saw some of the contrasts of Cairo: on one side there was a wedding party, and on the other a cow was being strapped to the back of a car!

 

 

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5 January, 2006 · 12:01 am

Aswan & Abu Simbel

After arriving in Aswan, we visited more temples – this time the Philae group of temples, which were painstakingly relocated when the dam was put in place to create Lake Nasser.

We wandered the bazaar near our hotel, bargaining for jewellery, scarves and clothing. One negative in Aswan – I got scammed by some guys selling water bottles on the waterfront. When I gave them a 5LE note to pay, then did an amazing sleight of hand and replaced it with a 1/2 LE note. I fell for it the first time, but it was hard to miss them trying the same trick when I gave them a 20LE note, and they switched it for my original fiver! I had to squawk a lot and start calling over the tourist policeman on the other side of the road to make them give it back. I only realised they’d done it twice when I was checking my pockets later, as I’d put a fiver in one pocket specifically to get water with… How annoying.

Lord Kitchener’s Island was a quick ferry ride away, an amazing botanical park in the middle of the Nile. It was strange seeing such contrasts – lush vegetation, water, then arid desert within metres of each other! There were hundreds of stray cats there, who were very playful.

We had to get up veeeery early to catch the bus to Abu Simbel, a 3-hour trip, but it was definitely worth it! The Nefertari and Ramses II temples were also moved when the High Dam at Aswan was built to create Lake Nasser, and it must have been an staggeringly huge effort, as every piece was catalogued, moved and put right back in the right place.

It was great to see some female gods predominantly presiding in the Nefertari temple, although it was much smaller than her hubby’s! Ramses II’s temple was huge!

On our last evening in Aswan we took a relaxing felucca cruise down to a Nubian village to have a “traditional” meal with henna tattooing, shisha and relaxing on the rugs out in the open air.

On our ferry trip back, some of the motors had broken down, so the drivers tied the boats together in a convoy and we floated back, dancing to some of the guys accompanying us with tambourines and tablas.

 

 

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3 January, 2006 · 12:01 am

Cruising – Edfu, Komombo

From Luxor we cruised down the Nile to Aswan, over two nights. During this time we visited the Temple of Horus at Edfu and the Temple of Sobek at Komombo.

The riverboat was comfortable, but the rooms were pretty cramped, especially the bathrooms! While cruising, we shopped for silver at the on-boat jewellery store, sipped drinks and played cards to pass the time.

The Temple of Horus was fabulous. Apparently it’s the only intact temple left, with its roof in situ. The guide said it was used by the Christians hiding out during Roman times, so the faces of a lot of the carvings are chipped off. The usual hawkers were out the front, with the ubiquitous clothes, jewellery and souvenirs.

We stopped at Komombo just as dusk was falling, so we got an eerie visit to the temple. Amongst the usual ruins, there was a mummified crocodile on display.

We settled down for dinner, coffee and shisha after visiting the temple, then wandered around the area, seeing a baby camel!

Back on the boat we had the obligatory Galabeya Night where we dressed up in the clothes we’d bought on our travels so far. There were games and music and much laughter – bellydance to the Macarena, anyone?

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2 January, 2006 · 12:01 am

Luxor Day 2

We got up at some ungodly hour this morning to hitch a ride in a ferry across the Nile to the West Bank to go to the Valley of the Kings. We rode donkeys from there for about an hour – wow they were competitive! If they saw a gap in the donkeys ahead they’d race to get there! At one point my donkey decided to make a run for it, slipping past someone else and leaving confusion in our wake. Apparently I was clutching it so hard it looked like my legs were wrapped completely around the donkey’s girth in an effort to stay on! No stirrups, we just had to rely on our thigh muscles to hold us on.


The Valley of the Kings was fantastic! We visited three tombs: Ramses I, Mermeptah and Ramses IV. Gotta love those Ramseses! They’d apparently just reopened Mermeptah’s tomb, and it had lots of vivid colouring on the wall, unlike Ramses I, whose tomb was really plain.

Then we headed off to see Queen Hapsetshut’s Temple. Amazing view – imagine being queen of all she surveyed!

Instead of donkeys, we took a taxi bus back to the banks of the Nile. The drivers were no less competitive than the donkeys, overtaking tour buses on blind corners and making us generally fear that we’d be joining the pharaohs pretty soon! But we made it back and took a ferry across, before moving our stuff to the riverboat for the next few days.

Before leaving Luxor we treated ourselves to afternoon tea at the Winter Palace. Apparently it costs $1500US per night to stay there! And they knew it too – the waiter looked askance at our jeans, so W got his own back by slurping his Coke from the bottle. Take that!

 

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1 January, 2006 · 12:01 am

Luxor

The night train was good – much more comfortable than airplane seats, and we actually got some sleep! Our huge New Year celebration consisted of a plastic cup with Baileys and Frangelico that some of the others brought with them – yay!

The facilities on the train were pretty yuck, but at least it was only a 7 hour train ride.

Luxor is gorgeous, nice and warm compared to Cairo. We arrived at 7am and couldn’t get to our rooms until 10.30, so spent the morning wandering around then sitting by the pool on the roof. Not too shabby!

Once we sorted out our rooms etc, we headed off to Karnak Temple. Huge! I couldn’t believe that there was still some of the original coloured paint on the undersides of some of the under cover sculptures. Wow!

After catching a horse and carriage ride back to the town proper, we hit the bazaar, including getting some fresh dates. Perfect.

Luxor’s a bit quieter than Cairo, understandably. We still got a lot of touts, but a lot fewer than the hassle we had in Cairo, which is relaxing.

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31 December, 2005 · 12:01 am

Cairo Day 5 – Giza

We started the actual tour today, with a trip to Giza to see more pyramids. Driving out to Giza was pretty surreal. One minute we’re in deepest suburbia, then we looked out the window and saw the outline of pyramids, right next to us!

We went into the second pyramid to have a look. Pretty freaky to think about all those tonnes of rock above us. There wasn’t much left inside to see, but it was certainly interesting to get the claustrophobia going for a while. Once again the place was full of touts offering camel rides, photos etc, but we avoided most of them.

Next stop, Sphinx! It was amazing to see all these icons up close. Wow!

Tonight we take the night train down to Luxor. Happy New Year!

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30 December, 2005 · 12:01 am

Cairo Day 4 – Coptic Cairo and Khan El Khalili

In the Coptic district of Cairo we visited St George’s Church, a chapelet, The Church of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Family and of course, shops. Phew!

Before lunch we stopped at the Citidel of Saladin. Very cool – lots of wrought iron windows on the mosque, amazing views of the city, and a police and military museum!

Then we walked through the biggest mosque in Africa! Impressive, with lots of marble and columns.

In the afternoon we finally got to Khal El Khalili. Wow! A huge amount of people jammed into close quarters, all yelling at each other to buy, buy buy! We were pulled along by the crowd a lot, but managed to stop and buy lots of trinkets and scarves.

We had some great come-on lines from the shopkeepers. Some of the most imaginative:

“You dropped something!”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You dropped my heart!”

And the classic:

“You look like Cindy Crawford, but better!”

Yup, that didn’t sell them much.

After a long day it was lovely to relax on the roof terrace of the Salma Hotel with a cold drink.

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29 December, 2005 · 12:01 am

Cairo Day 3- Saqqara, Memphis & Dashur

Wow, we saw another completely different side of Egypt today. Some of the other people who were on our tour had arrived early so we organised to join forces with them, so we organised to go and see Saqqara, Memphis and Dashur, places that weren’t visited on our tour.

First stop: The Step Pyramid at Saqqara. Our first experience of a pyramid was pretty amazing. up close, you can see the damage where people have nabbed the capstones over the millennia, leaving the inside stone to weather the elements. We also made acquaintance with the continual stream of touts offering papyrus, pictures with camels, horses, donkeys etc etc.

Even the tourist police were getting into this in a big way, as we found out at the Red Pyramid!

We had our first camel ride, too, which was fun, especially getting up. Lurch, lurch, LURCH!

We also visited Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt. Doesn’t look like much now, but there are lots of salvaged statues from the tombs and also more stalls and photo opportunities, of course!


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