10 April ’04

Saturday.

6am, out the door to check out, grab a taxi, and head off for the bus. The bus was a little late arriving, but after settling into our seats we looked back on one heck of a weeks stay in Sharm el Sheikh. This resort community is very high on our list of “PLACES TO GO”. You will have to give this one a go… Well the bus ride was a bus ride with the trip up the coast of the Sinai being very pleasant. The water, the desert, the mountains, are right there. As we neared Suez we noticed more and more large ships anchored and waiting their turn through the great Suez Canal. We got to a point were we where right at the canal and we went under it via a long tunnel. A short hour and a half later and we were in Cairo. Upon arrival at the bus station and the door of the bus opening, we were totally engaged by every taxi driver in Cairo wanting to get our attention. I left Louise on the bus for a minute and met the mass directly and tried to negotiate our best deal. We needed a hotel close to the Cairo airport and in “our budget”.  Without having any idea of just were we where at that time, we hoped for the best. Well, some of it worked out and some didn’t. We paid TOO much for the hotel ($60US) but it is close to the airport. It cost us 10 Egyptian Pounds for the taxi ride ($1.80US). Meals in the hotel are too expensive and downright s- poor.

7 April '04 Well yesterday was Mt Sinai. The guide book said you should be "reasonablly fit" to make the climb. Well we consider ourselves reasonably fit. No way. We almost died. We are so sore and we can hardly walk. There are 700 rock steps of all different sizes to reach the summit. That's after about 4 miles of steep ascent on a rocky camel trail. Then we took the 3,700 step decent that the monks used to use. It was hell.

 The monk's used to do it on their knees saying a prayer on each step. It must have taken them a month !!!! We should have enough pennance to last for a while. The tour started out at 10:00 at night a bus picked us up from our hotel. When we got to Dehab (some where up the coast) at the check point we were told we could not continue because our driver did not have a valid drivers license. Our guide was able to flag down another bus that would take us with them to St. Catherines Monastery. It was crowded but we made it. We started the climb about 3:00am and reached the top at 5:15 am. We had missed the sunrise by about 30 minutes. It was so beautiful to be there at this chapel and on top of Mt. Sinai... this small chapel, which is no longer in use, is to mark where Moses recieved the Ten Commandments. Once you reach the top, you just know that you've got to go down.  We arrived back at the Monastery about 7:30am only to find the Monastery was closed and getting ready for Easter. OK, now let's get back on the bus and start our drive back... What no Bus? That's right our guide was trying to find us a bus. So feeling a mass take-over, he took us to a crummy restaurant for breakfast. At breakfast we were told there was a chance that the Monastery might open for an hour at 11:00am so that we could visit.  The "English" wanted to forget it and return to Sharm El Sheik while the Italians wanted to chance the Monastery would open. Our bus finally arrived just in time to take us back to the monastery.  So back we went. It was worth the wait and the fact that they did let us in. We couldn't go into the church but could peak through the door.  We did see the burning bush where God spoke to Moses. It was healthy and green, though they say it doesn't recieve any water.  Also, they still use the original well that Moses and his family used when they lived there 40 years before God spoke to him.  Now we have a three hour ride back through the desert.  Unfortunately, we also had to check out of our hotel as they were booked due to an Egyptian holiday. After checking out, we went over to the market to buy some snacks for our 7 hour bus ride back to Cairo. We'll be traveling up the Sinai, following the roadway that runs beside the Suez Canal.  About 2/3 the way up the channel, we'll drive down into a long tunnel that runs from one side of the canal to the other and then onto Cairo...

3 & 4 April ’04. Saturday and Sunday. The “fast ferry” was to leave at 8am and according to the ticket package they wanted us there 2 hours early but, the person who sold us the ticket said 1 hour was plenty. As it was, we were the 2nd to arrive and REAL early. When the crowd started to come they seemed to arrive all at once.  One thing we found was, as the crowd arrived, they all pushed to the front of the line...lesson learned.  Let me tell you, we had heard that no one recognizes the formation of a line and that is a fact. You’ve got to learn to get right up there and set yourself for the position that you want and HOLD IT UNDER ALL COSTS !!!!

The ferry was actually quite large and handled cars as well in the crossing of the Red Sea. It was to last 90 minutes but because of the heavy seas that we encountered it was just a little over that. The inside was like getting into a Boeing 747 except the windows were about 2 feet wide and 10 feet high and was quite nice and comfy.

It was somewhat unexpected by me but, it was full. That would have been about 250-300 people. The music that seems to be played almost everywhere, including the ferry, is western pop and it’s also interesting that we hear “Christmas” music quite a lot. We met young man and his son from Keiv that was sitting in front of us. One of the things that Louise and I are doing is flying by our shoestrings on these ventures so we don’t normally have any idea were we might find ourselves staying the night. Well Sergai helped us make our decision in this case. After we went through the baggage and security check (for the second time) he came and found us. He was holding his ride for us just in case we might want to check out his hotel. Well, here we are….and it is quite nice and is costing us $50US a night including breakfast and taxes.

 We will be here for 4 days at least. This afternoon we laid by the pool and headed out to the Sharm City Market this evening. This place (Sharm el Sheikh), reminds both of us of Cabo San Lucas in a lot of ways but quite honestly, Cabo would appreciate the comparison a lot. This is a very nice spot and I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to find a great vacation location and it just happens to have one of the finest snorkeling and diving spots in the world. Now I must get this in print….. every time you go out for a walk here in Egypt you’ve just got to remember…. The car has the right away and lo the pedestrian !!!! You’ve got cars on the road driving full out and no headlights !!! They do run with these little running lights and as they approach you on the road as you are crossing they start flashing their lights, honking their horn and it seems like they start aiming right for you as they step on the gas!!! It make’s it quite exciting for all. If your riding in a cab it doesn’t change for the pedestrian out there and it becomes a “white knuckle” ride for those of us in the cab. The vehicle rules the road!!! Now, when it comes to other vehicles on the road, well I’ll get to that later…it’s a good story on it’s own. Sunday, we jumped on a free bus to explore Naama Bay. Very picturesque with low rise hotels lining the beach area. Each hotel had their “Private Beach” but in between about every 3 private beach there was a public beach area.

Just about all you could see the full length of the beach was umbrellas with chaise lounge chairs everywhere. Lots of restaurants lined the “Promenade” which ran the whole length between the hotels and the beach. There is good snorkeling right off the beach and again the water is wonderful… It seems like the largest group of tourists comes here from Italy and Russia. We stand out with our “accent” every time we speak. I think that we have only been I.D.’d as Americans only twice. One thing for sure, we have always been greeted with a warm “welcome”…. we do feel welcome every time and in every way. This has been a great trip!!!!

30 March ’04.

We had decided to get up early for breakfast and get an early start at the beach. Well, we were up prior to 8am (not too bad), headed down to have our buffet breakfast (it comes with the room) and as we passed through the lobby we saw what seemed to be enough people to fill this hotel, all checking out…. Well, it seems that yes, they were all checking out and second, they got up earlier than we did and ate ALL the breakfast buffet. Even the hot water for coffee and tea was limited and that meant I had to skimp on my “Nescafe”(can you believe Nescafe?). Now to some of you, that just means that you jump into your car, go down the street a block or two and you will find a little coffee shop that will fill your caffeine needs. Well that’s not here…. we only had 20 minutes before our bus was to come and pick us up for the beach so we have learned to just sit back and enjoy what you have now because you it doesn’t do any good to fight it anyway and honestly, it’s still OK. The bus that picked us up was also picking up those that were going diving for the day. The beach that we were going to was set into a cove with a nice sand beach, sparkling clear, turquoise blue water and the dive depot. We found ourselves a great spot to call " with 2 lounges, a large umbrella for shade, and nothing but a full day of sun worshiping ahead. I have always heard that the Red Sea is the premier diving spot in the world and from what I saw today it just may be true. We enjoyed a water temp of about 80-82 degrees and the day temp was 85-90. The bus arrived in time for us to get back to the hotel, shower, change, and head off to dinner by 6:30. Another night of a (1) beer and peanuts and then off for some great shrimp….well, we volunteered to do this you know. I have had some problem getting the Internet Café’s networking system working with my computer so our up-loading has been sporadic and I apologize.

March 27, Sunday. We caught the bus to Hurghada at 2:30pm. They told us it would take 4 ½ hours and would go with a convoy (this is for security purposes after the massacre of ‘97).  The bus was air conditioned, crowded, and overall, not bad. Oh, I ran across my first squat toilet at the bus station. It’s an experience I wont wipe from my mind quickly.  The trip took us through sugar cane plantations and the desert. Miles of nothing, no trees only rocks and sand. As we neared the coast we passed through some mountains of large rock formations. We arrived in Hurghada just after 9:00pm (so much for 4 ½ hrs).  There was an Egyptian family on the bus who said he would take us and two other couples to a clean and very well priced hotel.  Looking for a good value, we jumped on this "deal".  After gathering our bags from the bus, we found a taxi.  The taxi drove down a dirt lane and stopped in front of a tall dark building.  The 4 of us piled out and went inside. With the lobby was clean and nice, we asked to see a room. The room was clean, so we asked the big question..."how much".  45 Egyptian pounds (6EPS = 1$ or just over $6 ). I slept pretty good even with the disco and belly dancing group that didn’t let up until 5am.  Then someone started singing prayers, 

March 28, Monday We headed out early this morning to find a new hotel, and we found a jewel. Right across from the beach. Our room has a waterfront view of the beautiful Red Sea.

 This hotel is VERY quiet and even has a gorgeous pool. The water is blue green and the temp is about 90 degrees . We really found deal and are now "Happy Campers" !!!   We hope to stay here 5 days and then head for the Sinai. Had a quiet day by the pool, a little catching up, and later went for pizza and beer at the beach.  Now off to have a beer and a bowl of peanuts at one of the local establishments ( its just like Montana, were you get to toss the shells on the floor).

March 26, Saturday. Well we are back in Luxor at the Windsor Hotel. We are spending the morning by the pool and this afternoon we will tour Karnak and the Luxor temple. No other religious center matches Karnak for scale and grandeur.

Here for 1500 years, the priests offered prayers to the god Amun. This temple was built over a thousand years by the Pharaohs of the new kingdom. The Luxor temple is very impressive too. The guide we had is the best one yet since leaving Cairo! At a place of history like this, it is wonderful to have a guide that can give you the information you are looking for.  We went to a nice dinner at the Palace Winter Garden Hotel.  Now after a very busy day we called it a night.  Mohomad, our guide, has our train ticket back to Cairo.  We've "had enough of Mohomad" and we are ditching him to catch a bus to the Red Sea.  Enough of guides taking a cut of everything and not keeping their promises. We are going on our own...

March 25, thursday. Finally a tour guide to meet us !!!! Montaufa rushed us off to a Falucca to sail to Kitchners garden. The sail to this island was very refreshing and we shared our boat with Carrie and Mark Todd of California (formerly of Issaquah WA).

 They are brother and sister currently teaching school in CA and are touring Egypt for about a month. This small island was given to General Kitchner for the good job he did in the Sudan Campaign in 1910. The island was planted with exotic plants that turned this small non-descript parcel of land into a magnificent Isle that has attracted some of the best of exotic birds. We also saw a medium sized lizard that felt truely at home.  Now it was off to Elephantine Island to see the Yebu ruins and the nilometer. The Nilometer was a measurement of the river during the flooding of the Nile to decide how much taxes the people could be levied. The higher the flood the more fertile and irrigated the plantings would be and thus a larger production and the reward of....HIGHER TAXES. The nilometrer is inscribed in Greek, Latin, and Arabic as well as hieroglyphs, indicating that successive generations of rulers found it useful. With a full day behind us, it was time to head back to the ship to have lunch and say goodbye to our new friends and Aswan.  We were off to the High Dam and Philae Temple.

The Dam was very impressive, and Lake Nasser, which the dam created, is the longest lake in the world. Many ancient ruins had to be relocated when the dam was built. New York, who financially helped with the relocations, benefited by Egypt giving one of the large obelisks to them in thanks for a job well done.  Philae reveals the glory of ancient Egypt's late flourish under the Greeks and Romans. It is also one of Egypt's most romantic sites.

 The temples, shrines and kiosks of Philae island were moved to this site between 1972 and 1980.  Another great tour !!!!  Again back to the ship for the last time and  collect our things.  After saying goodbye to friends and staff, we head off to the hotel our guide is paying for (I'll bet you we paid for it out of the monies we put out earlier).  Wow, this is one of those $6.00 hotels that we've heard about !!!!  The room is clean and the bath is OK (what else would you want in a hotel?).  Mark and Maryann are meeting us for dinner and a walk through the local bazarr. The first stop is a coffee and shesha shoppe. I had some great mint tea and a few "puffs" on the shesha

 and then a stroll through the bazarr to find a place to eat. We found the perfect restaurant....dirt floor, angled and sloping table and a smoking motor bike coming through the kitchen. A variety of Egyption food was ordered by Maryann and it all was very good.

Tuesday March 23. Cruising down the Nile. We Left Luxor at 9 am and headed south towards Aswan. This is not your luxury cruise ship !!!  It's a lot smaller and not so fancy as the Princess Cruise ship we took to Alaska. Very comfortable, good food, good company, and the crew couldn't have been nicer. It is hot here on the Nile, but there is a small swimming pool that we use to cool down and enjoy. The Nile is plentiful with plantations of bananas, sugar cane

and fields of other produce growing on both sides. Beyond that is a golden desert and HOT. At dinner the first night, we met our table mates, Doc and Susie from California and Maryann and Mark from the UK.

The food at lunch consisted of multiple dishes of vegetables and meat, a wonderful salad bar and of course, a dessert bar. Today we spend cruising the river. There is a canal we will pass through around midnight . Only one cruise ship can go through the lock at a time so we wait....

Oh did I mention, there are processing plants spewing out lots of smoke and from the fields were they burn the sugar cane. Everyone onboard is suffering from sinus problems because of it.

21-22 March ’04 Finished our day in Cairo by leaving the hotel just a little later than we really thought we should, but, our hosts thought we would have plenty of time to make it to the train station. After all it was only just a “short distance from the hotel”…. Well first off, the driver wouldn’t take us for the price we were told it would be.  No matter how hard I tried he wouldn’t budge.  After agreeing on “his price” we took off in a mad rush with the transmission of his car constantly jumping out of gear. Every time it would disengage or shift gears we thought the whole thing was going to let go…..but, we were underway….we thought. All of a sudden out of a star lit night, he was pounding on the dash of the car and saying something that we couldn’t understand….it turned out we were running out of GAS!!!!  NOT NOW!!! Well we did make it to a gas station, filled, got back on the road and ran smack dab into a traffic jam.  OK,  time was really getting short now but he kept trying to tell us to sit back, relax and we will get there with time to spare. Well, he must write the book and this sort thing because upon arrival at the station, getting our luggage to the track, verifying our location at the track, we found the train was going to arrive 20 minutes later than we had been expecting. So goes it here in Cairo….  Money!! (Money was our Porter) Well there it was, 4am and we were being woke up to have breakfast and get ready to disembark in Luxor….boy, that was a quick night !!! Mohammad met us at the station and took us to a hotel to discuss our day of sightseeing and arranging our space on the boat to Aswan. Let me remind you how fast things are going, the Valleys of the Kings,

Valley of the Queens,

Ramesseum, and the Temple of Seti I

and all this on our first morning in Luxor. This adventure took us to the other side of the Nile River, can you believe it, THE NILE RIVER!!!  It really is hard to believe sometimes, that we started this trip just a week ago and here we are in the Upper Egypt area and sleeping on a boat on the Nile River, WOW! Let’s digress back to this morning and our tour…First it was 101 degrees in the shade. The tombs of both the Kings and the Queens were quite stunning, HOT,but stunning... This is the entrance to the Queens Tombs...

To think of all the planning, designing, and labor that went into these incredible tombs. The walls were covered with decorations and inscriptions many of which was to instruct the Pharaoh on how to reach the after-life. These tombs were built after the pyramids, out of solid rock, cut into the mountain, and thought would be vandal proof. Unfortunately, they were broken into and robbed as well. Enough, tough day, hungry, tired, going to bed….

21 March ’04 Here we go again…. But, before we do, I would like to say Thank You to Ismail Abdelhadi (the Public Relation Manager for the Pharaoh Egypt Hotel) and Eman Fawzy our “Tourist Guide”

for ALL they have done and provided for us while here in Cairo. We want you to know that this IS hard work but as they say; SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT !!!!  Up at 7 this morning, showered, down to breakfast, and we met with our host Eman once again.  This morning we have a our tour of the Egyptian museum (El-Mathaf el-Masri). Once again, what a wonderful experience we have had once again…. The Egyptian Museum is one of the world’s great “storehouses of antiquities”. It is amazing because only a part of the collection is on display and there is more to see than anyone could take in on a single visit. This museum was first opened in 1902 and was designed by a Frenchman. Of course Ramsis and Tutankhamun and the names that most of us recognize, and they were great to see and learn more about but, there was sooo much more. Tutankhamun galleries were displaying over 1,700 grave goods that were found in his tomb (I’ll bet you would love to get your hands on just one neck piece). A little over 3 hours later we were on our way to Memphis (no, not Tennessee). Memphis was the WORLD’S FIRST IMPERIAL CAPITAL. Not much left of Memphis now but it does have a great mark in history. There we found a small Sphinx and a limestone colossus of Ramses II.

 Next we were off to the Step Pyramid. The Step Pyramid of King Djoser was built in the 27th Century B.C.

 It was both the first pyramid in Egypt and at that time the largest monument in the world built of “hewn stone”. Now we rushed back to the hotel and gathered ourselves together and proceeded to checkout. Our train leaves the terminal at 8pm. We have a 1st class sleeper cabin and will travel all night and arrive in Luxor at 5am. We are to be met at the station and then transported to our cruise ship. The ship will become our next hotel for those next 3 nights and 4 days traveling down the Nile to Aswan and visiting all the sites along the way. We will try to keep the web up-dated but it might be a little tougher for awhile.

March 19th & 20th Well we are here in Egypt! We started out with a walk around our hotel. You take your life in your hands just to cross the street. No exaggeration here!! We have never seen so much traffic. There are 15 million people in Cairo. The streets are filled with cars, buses, trucks, horse and donkey carts and thousands of taxis. We are staying in an Egyptian Hotel that is clean and comfortable. The people here are very nice and go out of their way to be helpful to us. Saturday morning we did some sight seeing on our own. I bought a pair of sandals for 35 Egyptian pounds (6 pounds to the US $.) and I wore them on the tour to the Pyramids at Giza. What a spectacular sight. We spent the afternoon with Eman our guide and Rakesh Gandhi a young man from India. There are 3 main pyramids here in Cairo. The biggest is the burial chamber of Cheops.

His son Chephren built the second and the third was for his son Menkaure. Around each pyramid are smaller pyramids for the members of the royal families. We took a passageway down into the queens pyramid. The passage way is very tight and you have to hunch over and go down a steep and narrow tunnel to reach the burial chamber.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to go in, but Rakesh encouraged us to take the challenge. He was right, it was a very interesting experience. After that we climbed up with some other people on one of the small pyramids. Plenty steep and difficult. We were getting some good pictures when we were busted by a policeman. It is against the law to climb on the pyramids and he gave us a scolding. When we asked Eman our guide about it she confirmed that it was forbidden to climb on the pyramids but the Egyptians do it anyway. There is a lookout high above Cairo close by that you could see The pyramids and the Pyramids at Saqqaro quite a distance away. Our next stop was to visit the Sphinx.

That was truly amazing. Eman, our guide, then took us to a papyrus shop and a perfume shop. Anything that is purchased from these locations will benefit her with a commission.  Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the night laser light show of the pyramids and Sphinx.

 Our hotel was about a 40 min drive from Giza so we just had time to change clothes and head back. The laser light show was absolutely beautiful and certainly a highlight. We wore our polar fleece jackets and were very glad as It was coooooll... We finished of the evening with a dinner of Lebanese food.  That was very good !!!   It was a full day. Today the 20th of March, we took a Taxi to the "Old City of Cairo".  These gates are the same gates that the caravans entered into city some thousands of years ago. You could find just about anything here in the bazaars. They are somewhat similar to Mexico only magnified a thousand times. You could hardly walk, and some didn't...they rode camels, donkeys, or rode on a flat cart that had regular vehicle wheels on it. This area is under major renovation and should be beautiful when finished. We toured a home that was built in the 1600's by a Sultan and his four

wives.  They lived in over one hundred rooms. No we didn’t see them all and I'm sure they didn't either. Later as hunger grew, we decided to return to our hotel for some lunch. We hailed a cab and gave him the name of our hotel, but unfortunately he didn’t know our hotel so….we hailed another one, he didn’t know our hotel either.  Now it would have been better if we had brought the address with us (big mistake) but we didn't (the un-educated traveler strikes...).  In the end a young man called our hotel, received the address and directions and we were underway, a little longer stay of 2 hours, but underway. Tomorrow we go the Egyptian museum in Cairo and then onto Memphis and Saqqaro to see the step pyramid.  Following that, we catch the night train to Luxor where we board a cruise ship for Aswan. Not sure when we will post again.