Brace yourselves - this is a Big One!!!

Thanks for waiting!  We have been enjoying our cruise down the Nile and our itinerary has been so full we had little time to sit down and write the blog…..okay, that and the pool time on board trumped typing!  (Unfortunately we are experiencing some technical difficulties and downloading our photos is taking too long so we have had to give up.  will post more later.....)

A short flight from Cairo to Luxor – we bade a temporary farewell to our Ramez, we’re not sure how he is going to cope while we are away, poor lad!  We were met in Luxor by Michael (Ram Two – he’s just not you!!) and enjoyed the short drive from the airport to the cruise ship...boat really.  We were instantly aware of the differences between the two cities.  Luxor is much cleaner, less frenetic and the drivers actually drive between the lines!

Our boat is very quaint and the staff are hilarious – Egyptian humour is surprisingly good and we have had a lot of fun with them.  It seems that the volcano has also affected the tourist industry and about 40 people didn’t make it here so we are a cruise of 30!!  Great for us.

Our guide is Maged…..but bears an uncanny resemblance to Mr Bean, it is quite hilarious.  He is an Egyptologist, just like Viola, and so extremely knowledgeable.  He is also very precise, regimented and you kind of feel you are back at school!  It’s becoming a sport to push his buttons, but we are behaving for the most part.

What can we say about the Karnak and Luxor Temples?  They are magnificent and strolling around in the punishing heat gives you a glimpse into what life in Ancient Egypt was like.  After a while you get tired of using the same adjectives to describe what you see….and to be honest, we do not have the vocabulary to do it all justice.  It is also very hard not to take photos of every square inch of the temples.  We have absolutely nothing of modern times that compares to these structures.  But then again, you see the incongruity of the present Egypt with what it should have been based on the past.  We have posted a few photos but have hundreds to share ;-)  We decided to skip the Sound and Light show based on our experience in Giza!

A recent discovery has shown that there is a line of sphinxs on either side of a road linking the two temples – a mere 3 kms in length.  There are about 1270 of them, so they believe, and they are in the process of excavating them by buying up and demolishing the houses in the way.  The project is estimated to take 4 years and they will allow the public to wander the road for free…..an unusual step for Egypt!

There is a Muslim temple sitting high up on the walls of the Luxor Temple.  The reason – it was built before the ancient temple was discovered!  It is still used for prayer and worship but makes for an interesting vista.

The next day (Sunday, April 18^th) was a trip to the Valley of the Kings to start off with.  Blistering hot again, but not as hot as it usually is according to Mr Bean.  We ventured into three tombs – Thuthmosis III; Ramses III and Thiutmes III (a guess).  It is amazing to see that the colours of the drawings still exist today and they are absolutely beautiful.  The only record we have of them is in our minds eye as cameras are forbidden in the valley to preserve the tombs and also out of respect.

Next we popped into an alabaster factory/ shop and were shown the process for creating the alabaster statues and vases.  Several of us were also married off to the young men…not sure for how many camels though.  Some of the statues glow in the dark when the lights are turned off……quite interesting, especially the god for fertility!!! 

Deir a-Bahri, otherwise know as the funerary temple of Hatshepsut, was the next stop on the tour.  Her history is fascinating and controversial as they are still trying to determine the relationship between her and Thuthmosis III……he is her step-son, nephew and son-in-law!  Hatshepsut is depicted in all of her statues as a man and in the garb of a pharaoh since is was not typical for Egypt to be ruled by a queen at that time.  On the way back to the boat we stopped off to view the Colossi of Memnon, whose claim to fame is that they have been mistakenly called that by the Greeks as it is now believed they are statues of Amenhotep III. 

We set sail (finally) and enjoyed an afternoon relaxing by the pool and watching the scenery as we headed down the Nile to the lock at Esna and then on to Edfu where we would stay the night.  We were not prepared for what was to greet us at the lock, but we should not have been all that surprised since this is Egypt after all!  The boat was literally swarmed with a flotilla of small rowboats with the local natives touting their wares.  “My lady, my lady, I have something for you!” they would shout and then proceed to throw up a plastic bag with a galabeya and you would then haggle the price from your lofty perch!  It was hilarious.  Returning the goods was interesting as several of our fellow passengers missed the mark and the item would end up in the Nile…..which makes you really think twice about purchasing one since it had probably enjoyed a few Nile dunkings!  Thankfully it was our turn to go through the dock so we were able to leave the merchants behind and watch them swarm the next boat.  Unbelievable.

The food on board has been very good, although we do feel that we are eating all the time.  After dinner we had, wait for it, a Bingo Party!!  Imagine organizing a great big party for 140 guests and only 16 show up……..yeah, that was bingo night on the Admiral!  However, it turned out to be a ton of fun because the bingo caller was hilarious and as a group we have all bonded.  And to make it even better – Errin won the Gold prize, a scarab pendant.

That brings us up to April 19th.  After breakfast Errin and I decided to go for a quick walk along the road.  A simple enough task except you get hassled every step of the way, and should you get suckered in to saying where you are from – the response is always “Canada Dry”!!  We thought we should introduce them to the beaver……

We were occupied with bartering when we realized we were a bit late for our departure.  Mr Bean is a punctual kind of fellow so we had to run to get to the bus in time….thank you for running, was his greeting.  He’s so cute.

We visited the Temple of Horus, the most completely preserved Ptolemaic temple in all of Egypt and one of the last attempts of monument building and took 200 years to complete.  Most of the faces and bodies of the gods had been erased by the Romans and Christians – graffiti of another era (Errin’s profound quote of the trip so far!).  As with the previous temples, it is very impressive…..they are all so incredibly impressive.

A sail down the Nile to Komombo, more pool time, and then we were able to walk to the next temple dedicated to the crocodile and falcon gods.  A quickish tour around there and then it was off to shop (again!) but this time with fellow passengers who hail from Edmonton but are Lebanese and therefore speak the language and bartered for us – thanks Bill and Sonja! 

The evening dinner was an Egyptian buffet followed by a Galabeya Party.  What is a galabeya, you may ask.  It is the traditional dress here in Egypt and we are now the proud owners (and wearers) of said garment.  It was actually a lot of fun despite the fact that we are an intimate tour group of 30.  And we looked so pretty.  Most embarrassing moment – having to do a belly dance individually with not enough alcohol on board!!!  While we were partying it up we headed to our final destination – Aswan. 

This time we also saw some modern achievements – the High Dam which provides Egypt with much needed irrigation to prevent it from plunging into famine.  However one cannot have a temple free day and this time we visited the Temple of Isis, the goddess of love, beauty and health…..a busy lady!  The amazing thing about this temple, and about 25 others, is that it was moved block by block to its current position since the High Dam meant that it would have been submerged.  Can you imagine that undertaking?  Over 42,000 blocks to be dismantled and then reassembled about 500m away! 

After lunch Errin and I decided to go for a short walk – our goal, to visit McDonalds just to see what it was like!  A scorcher of a day….a mere 43C.  You are hassled every step of the way so in order to ensure you enjoy your holiday, you have to turn it into a sport and know who to respond to and who not to encourage.  Most fall into the latter category, but occasionally it is fun to have a few words with the locals.  Picture this, a fellow starts to walk with us and proudly announces that he is a Nubian and asks us where we are from.  Apparently they have not heard of Canada Dry this far south so we were spared the usual response.  He then remarked to Errin – “you have a big ass….good for sex!”!  Hilarious!! But you’ve got to give it to Errin for the best response ever – “then just watch this ass as it walks away from you”!  Priceless.  And did you know that a horse and carriage is the Egyptian Ferrari?  Most of them appear to be in slightly better shape than the tired cars and vans – many look like 60’s models from the UK.  A minor detour en route to the boat – we were very brave and crossed the road several times.  Doesn’t seem like much (have we really sunk that low as to aspire to such things?) but when you see the drivers here, it is a big deal to do it AND survive!  And where else would you go into a local store and proceed to haggle the price of a fanta?  Errin gave it a good old college try and managed to get a deal on a can, but was not so successful with the larger bottle.  The shops are all very interesting with many dedicated to spices – the aromas are (for the most part) enticing……some smells, not so much.  It was tempting to get some hibiscus to make tea at home but suspect that hibiscus tea is probably one of those things that tastes good when on vacation and may not be quite the same sipping it watching the rain pouring down in Vancouver!

Back to the boat for the usual routine of pool time, shower, dinner and then….the bar.  That bar is going to miss us for sure as we no doubt accumulated the biggest bill of the cruise!  It is also going to be tough for us to know when to eat since we have been programmed to respond to the lunch/ dinner bell that is sounded before each meal.  One of the staff members walks along the corridors ringing the silver bell and we’d all dutifully troop along to the restaurant, salivating as we went!  The food was excellent, add that to the beverages enjoyed at the bar and we are in dangerous territory!  Oh well, we are on vacation. 

The evening’s entertainment was a display by a band of Nubian musicians and dancers.  Once again it was an audience participation event and we were hauled up to make fools of ourselves.  Errin and I got a fit of the giggles when made to follow the actions and chants of a rather ferocious looking Nubian – heaven knows what he was making us say, but it was a good laugh for all.

We had a very pleasant evening with all our new friends from this tour.  At the outset we were a little worried that we might be in with a group of what we affectionately call the Tilley Brigade, but it turned out to be an awesome conglomeration of interesting people from all over the globe.  It was a bit like saying goodbye to family as we all bonded really quickly that actually made this part of our adventure very special.  Maged also joined us and spurred on by questions from Errin continued his teaching of Egyptian history as we sat and sipped our drinks.  He could probably talk for hours on what is clearly his passion, but a 4.30 am wake-up call was in our immediate future so we had to say our good byes to our new friends and head off to bed.

A day of flights.  Let’s just take a moment to talk about flying in Egypt.  It’s a bit like stepping back in time, to a time before 9/11 when you could take on things like water and no one cares.  But like many other things here in Egypt there are inconsistencies so you never quite know if you will get away with the bottles of water or suntan lotion in your carry on bag.  For the most part we have managed to board with pretty much everything that you can’t take on board in North America.  And Errin has been flying as Thomas, not St Thomas but no one seems to worry about that here either.  The numbering system is odd as well - our seats were 27 A and C and the guy mentioned that we were in the front of the plane.  Really?  What size of plane could it be?  Well, when they start at 20, I guess 27 is near the front.  As for the letters, A, C, H and K.  No idea what happened to B and D.  They also make the assumption that most people have probably flown before and therefore do not require training on how to fasten your seat belt, or worry about the application of your oxygen mask should it appear in front of you.  Just the basics required – exit doors and here’s the card in your seat for information, but you do have to listen to two languages.  Thanks for flying Egypt Air!  We had a good laugh at having to board the bus from the airplane to take us to the terminal in Abu Simbel….a mere 300m away!  It took longer for everyone to climb in the bus than it would have taken to walk there….

Abu Simbel is about 280 km south of Aswan and the site of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel and the Temple of Hathor.  Ramses II, who probably had the greatest ego of them all as he declared himself a god, had the temples built to commemorate himself and his 13^th wife, Neferarti.  Because of the High Dam, these temples had to be moved from their original site 67m higher and 210m further away to avoid being submerged by the lake.  Since these temples were carved out of the rock, this was no small undertaking that cost $40 million and took 4 years.  Incredible.  The interior of each temple is beautifully preserved and depicts Ramses II in all of his splendor…over and over again.  It was also time to take a photo of our silent traveling companion, Quatchi.  This was a short detour on our trip but with mercury rapidly approaching 40C at 9.30am, we were glad that our visit was so early.

We are now sitting in Cairo airport waiting for our flight to Sharm el Sheikh – to our surprise it was actually rather cool getting off the plane.  Crazy to think that 26C is now cool to us!!!  We shall update you  in a few days.


Joan and Errin