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

[Traveler50]

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

 

Thanks for the information. It's amazing that you can use USD all over the world. Even in the remote villages of Peru they are happy to get dollars. My husband likes to give take $2 bills on trips and they really loved those in Peru because they think they are good luck! I found that the $2 bills have negotiating power sometimes too.

 

I agree that you should have a talent for writing and should consider writing a book!

[seafun]

Well Chapter 13 has indeed proved to be unlucky for me – I just erased three full typed pages that I’d written describing this day, as I was trying to save it. I’m torn between starting over, or just going to bed! Very frustrating! But I know you’re out there – waiting…

 

Let’s take a deep breath or two and try again… I already told you, maintaining the willpower and discipline to continue documenting the trip is difficult at times…

 

This day -- Feb 15th, Friday, Luxor, last full day of the Nile cruise -- was one of the few days when I wrote absolutely no notes down, and now find myself trying to recreate an extremely long, busy day, that was full of many highs and lows (wait! Is that a hot air balloon ride joke?)

 

The itinerary for the day included a very early wake-up call, around 4:45 am, then a 5:10 departure for the West Bank (first Nile crossing) for the much-anticipated hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings at dawn, then return to the boat (second Nile crossing) for breakfast before leaving at 8:30, (to cross the Nile again – third time) to board our tour busses for tours of the Valley of the Kings (tombs of Ramses II, King Tut, and dozens of their “Eternal Sleep Club” buddies), then the beautiful temple of Queen Hatshepsut (the only female Pharaoh), a visit to a “tour-sponsored” (uh-oh, there’s that term again…) alabaster carving business, on to the Valley of the Queens (tombs of Nefertari, Titi, and various princes and sons and daughter of note), the (not-so-spectacular) Collossi of Memnon, then back across the Nile (fourth time! I bet Pharaohs never even did that!!). We had a late lunch on the boat, mid afternoon, and were then given a few hours free time to explore and shop in Luxor one last time, some time to settle up our accounts on the boat, then our last dinner at 8:00pm with the crew of the Queen of Sheeba, and then (if you had ANY energy left), a Big Finale Belly Dance and Whirling Dervish Farewell Show at 9:30pm!!

 

That last long, full paragraph was meant to mirror just how long, and full, our day was! Okay, let’s get to the details:

 

I had looked forward to the hot air balloon ride at dawn ever since I had booked the trip. At that point, it wasn’t offered in print or online by my tour company, but I had read in the guidebooks that it was easy to book from inside the Winter Palace Hotel, if your tour company didn’t offer it. And I was prepared to do that, on my own. But once we arrived in Egypt, we found that our company was offering it as an add on, for $95.00. (That’s about $20.00 more than I had seen in the guide books, but I figured it would be easier to just go through our company, Gate 1, and not worry about the price difference.

 

A bit of background – apparently the hot air balloon ride safety record in Luxor was “not the greatest” for a while, so several years ago they basically shut them all down and made them take classes on piloting the things and install safety procedures, get licensed, or something like that. Things seem to be much better now. I suppose you could do a Google search and find out the specific safety statistics, but the short search I did didn’t turn up any horror stories of tourists plummeting to their deaths, so I figured I’d take the plunge…. Oh wait! BAD choice of words.

 

Sindbad and Jolley are a couple of the company names that offer the balloon rides if you want to search them on Google, but “hot air balloon rides Luxor Egypt” should get you there. We never did find out what the name of our company was – hmm… a bit of foreshadowing?

 

At any rate, this is how the adventure unfolded… From our cruise ship, we went to a water taxi boat for the ride across the river, still in darkness, with a hint of color at the horizon growing to the East. We were offered tea or (instant) coffee as well as some breads or pastries, which was a nice little touch, but apparently standard with most of the companies. We huddled together against the morning chill as we crossed the Nile, and congratulated ourselves for our nerve in taking this big adventure!

 

On the other side of the Nile we were put into minivans and taken to a field a couple miles away, halfway between the banks of the Nile and the mountains that rise behind the Valley of the Kings. There were several balloon companies there, with lots of busy workers beginning to inflate their large balloons, and move the large wicker baskets – some of them held 16 or 20 or maybe more people, from what we could see, as the day started to brighten.

 

(Author’s note: At this point you have something new and exciting from me, and must make a choice… Would you like the “Disneyland Version” of the balloon ride, or “The Tragic Truth” about it? The Disneyland version will be first, and then the truth will be down where the asterisks are…)

 

“The sun was starting to come up and turn the sky all kinds of beautiful colors as our cameras snapped away. The balloons, both from our company and several other were inflated at various rates, some with plainer colors, some with very colorful designs, that made great pictures as they were inflated, silhouetted against the colors of dawn. That familiar “whooshing” noise of the hot, gas-heated air going into the balloons filled the air as it filled the balloons."

 

"The balloons were soon inflated, like the giant stars of a grand parade, and we were helped into the large wicker baskets by the staff and their handy stair steps. Soon enough, seemingly by Wizard of Oz magic, we lifted off, ever so gently, as the dawn approached, up into the Technicolor sky, amidst our “oohs” and “ahhs.” The heat from the flame of the burner offset the cool of the slowly brightening dawn, alternately whooshing, and then oh-so-silent when it turned off.”

 

“We drifted up silently, in awe, and soon had majestic views of the Nile, the temple and city of Luxor across the river, the mountains behind us, the various tombs of the Valley of the Kings below us, and then, finally, the first rays of the sun peeking up from behind the mountains, throwing beautiful light and shadows as far as we could see!

 

The goose bumps from the slight chill of dawn at hundreds of feet up, were replaced by World Class Experience Goose Bumps! The views in every direction were incredible, and we drifted lazily for about another 35 minutes, most of us silently lost in reverie, snapping pictures of views that no Pharaoh ever got to see, and drifting with the gently breeze several miles from where we had taken off."

 

"The same vans that had given us rides to the launch fields followed us down below, zipping around the patchwork of farmers’ fields below us, and accurately anticipated where we were going to come down. They raced into place, with perfect timing, grabbed the tether ropes that were thrown down from the balloon as we slowly descended, and guided us down to a gentle landing, with just one quick bump that was similar to stepping off a curb that you didn’t notice was there.”

 

“We were helped out of the basket, giddy as could be from our experience, and then presented with not only a certificate proclaiming our accomplishment, but a colorful Luxor Balloon Rides T-shirt as well! We giggled like school children in the ride back to the water taxi, and back across the Nile to our ship, recounting our favorite sights from our big adventure. What a GREAT way to start a day!”

 

******

Lovely, wasn’t it? I’ve taken hot air balloon rides before, and the scenario above was what I thought our trip would be like, and is very similar to the rides taken by others I’ve spoken with. And, it is quite accurate for what happens the vast majority of the time. But occasionally, the wind just blows too hard and the whole thing has to be cancelled at the last minute. And that is, unfortunately, what happened to us.

 

******

I think there were about 11 folks from our tour group that showed up that morning (several had missed the wake-up call or apparently changed their minds, had too much to drink the night before, or lost their nerve at the last minute) and neither of our two guides came with us, although the young fellow who had been faithfully videotaping our adventures on and off the ship all week was with us to document our trip.

 

We were all anxious, a bit nervous, and grew increasingly annoyed that no one was telling us what was going on, as we waited and waited in the cold, windy, pre-dawn in the middle of a field. Finally they let us move into one of the vans that we had come in – not warm, or heated, but at least out of the wind. And that was when it hit me – “We’re not going, because of the wind.”

 

Unfortunately, we were made to wait for maybe 45 miserable, cranky minutes, in the unheated vans, with no explanations from anyone, while they presumably waited for the wind to subside, so they could still make their money. Soon things got heated, but NOT in a good way, with arguments going back and forth between members of our group and the “balloon people,” as to why we weren’t being told what was going on.

 

A couple balloons actually got inflated, but it was obvious from the direction and strength of the wind – blowing completely AWAY from the Valley of the Kings, and STRONG – so that even if we went up, we would not only NOT go over the Valley of the Kings , we’d be lucky if we didn’t blow all the way to Land of the Wicked Witch of the West, or Morocco, whichever we blew into first!

 

Fortunately a couple of our group had the nerve to repeatedly, strongly demand that we be taken back to our ship and our money be refunded, or we would have wasted even more time out there. Eventually we were begrudgingly driven back to the water taxi and taken back across the Nile to our ship, where we at least had just enough time for a decent breakfast before starting out on the next leg of our marathon day.

 

We didn’t have to pay for the trip… we didn’t get the certificates… we didn’t get the T-shirts.

 

It was a disappointing, anti-climactic way to start a very long and full day.

 

Since the balloon ride was such a big, anticipated event, I think it’s an appropriate place to end this chapter – (especially since I’ve written it twice from scratch, since the computer ate the first attempt).

[MVPinBoynton]

How disappointing! Too windy, what a bummer. When we did a balloon ride in Sedona, we were concerned about the wind; but missing this one would be quite upsetting.

 

I kind of thought that the Collossi of Memnon didn't look that great in the pictures. Thanks for confirming, so I won't be disappointed. I am sure the size is impressive; but since they are so ruined, it sure seems like a great renovation project for Egypt. Maybe do one of them to show what they were in their original glory.

[WeBeGone]

I kind of thought that the Collossi of Memnon didn't look that great in the pictures. Thanks for confirming, so I won't be disappointed. I am sure the size is impressive; but since they are so ruined, it sure seems like a great renovation project for Egypt. Maybe do one of them to show what they were in their original glory.

 

They are actually encased in scaffolding so you can't even get a decent photo. We were there all of 5 minutes and we said let's go. Buy a postcard. :p

[Traveler50]

Since the balloon ride was such a big, anticipated event, I think it’s an appropriate place to end this chapter – (especially since I’ve written it twice from scratch, since the computer ate the first attempt).

 

You really had me going there and it seemed so real that I thought you actually went on the ballon ride!

All very interesting because I am really anticipating the hot air balloon ride on our tour in April. It is offered by GCT but it's closer to $155 to do it through them. My husband has done a hot air ballon before so he isn't as interested in the optional tour. Since we read about terrible accidents recently even in the USA...he is discouraging me from doing it also. BUT I guess I am willing to take the risk...even though this makes me think a little more about it. I guess I'll just have to wait until we get there and see how I feel then.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience about this particular activity....since that was the next question I was going to ask you!

[Trece]

Seafun, I'm another one of your faithful readers, but it was only until your February 15 non-balloon day that my brain cells kicked in and I realized we were actually in Luxor at the same time! We disembarked our ship there on the 12th and then spent three nights at the Winter Palace. We'd done the balloon ride last year on February 14 (OK, everyone sigh, "how romantic") and back in Egypt again this year, we repeated it on February 13. I believe the balloons were also up on the 14th, so it must have been only on the 15th when the winds kicked up. I'm so sorry you didn't get to go! :( It's just amazing! Admittedly it's the luck of the draw what you see. Last year (Magic Horizon) we were over Hatshepsut and Valley of the Kings. This year (Sky Cruise) we were further south so we were more over sugar cane fields. It was different, and interesting, but I'd rather we'd been back over Hatshepsut!

 

This was our third tour in Egypt (4th time if you consider a day trip to Mt. Sinai from Israel). When we went the first time, I was sure it would be our only time (so many places to see in this world and so forth). However, the magic that is Egypt had us back last year, and again this year, and I know we will go back again, good Lord willing. And since you've been bitten by the same bug, frankly I think you'll go back too, and this time you'll do your balloon ride!

 

Not to end on a negative note, but during all the discussions about food and so forth, I wanted to remind everyone to watch what you eat on the plane ride home!! DH and I have never been sick in Egypt until last year, when he let his guard down on the Egyptair flight home. Think about it folks! Where does the food served most likely come from! He ate the salad on the plane - I didn't - he barely made it home from the airport before he was violently sick, and violently sick he remained for days. :p

 

Also, what you want to buy if you do get intestinal illnesses in Egypt is Antinal. We were told our American products are pretty useless against Egyptian bugs. It's an antibiotic but it's over the counter and only costs a few bucks. I'm not big on taking antibiotics even here for all the reasons coming to light about antibiotics being overprescribed, but I understand that our American intestines don't really stand a chance against what they come across in Egypt. It's so cheap I'd buy it at the first pharmacy you see in Egypt, and just keep it on hand. With luck you'll never need it and you can toss it when you get home. :D

[seafun]

Heck, I'd have the Antinal bronzed if you didn't need it -- put it on the shelf with the prized Egyptian souvenirs --what a trophy! :D

Okay, even though it's Easter, I'm going to try to pound out a couple more chapters..... I'm anxious for this story to come to an end! :p

Fortunately, I've just finished the worst part - recreating the whole Valley of the Kings day (when I hadn't taken a single note that whole day!) :o

It's almost done -- a little editing and I should have it posted later today. :)

[seafun]

8:30 am Friday Feb 15th -- just after the "balloon ride":

 

Nothing like a nice big breakfast to make you feel a little better, after an early morning "adventure"! It also occurred to me that this was the next to the last breakfast on our ship, since tomorrow we would be leaving the Queen of Sheeba, and heading across the mountains to the Red Sea coast and resort life!

 

I was reaching into my mental bag of tricks to try to dig in and get excited about our last very full day of tomb viewing -- Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut's Temple, the Valley of the Queens, an alabaster carving factory, a drive by of Howard Carter's house and the Colossi of Memnon -- well, the itinerary for the day went on and on. As excited as I was about all the famous sights to explore that day, I was glad it was the last intense day of "tomb raiding" for a while.

 

We had already seen a large number of temples -- most of them spectacular -- and I was almost getting jaded (70 foot columns! 60 foot statues! 100's of carved ram-headed sphinxes! The moon rising over the huge obelisk! The treasures of the Egyptian Museum!!) It's hard to beat our visits to the temples at Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel, and even Kom Ombo with the beautiful sunset that had bathed it in such a rosy glow. Experiencing "world class" sights of that magnitude was thrilling, and richly satisfying. But I found as we explored the Valley of the Kings, that the simpler tombs and their simpler offerings -- a few carvings here and there and fairly well-preserved, but glassed-over, painting on the walls in the tombs that were open that day, were a tiny bit anti-climactic for me, and I fought being slightly disappointed. I hope that makes sense to you -- but somehow I guess I had expected to see and experience something grander than what we found in the Valley of the Kings and Queens.

 

I bring it up just to forewarn other travelers so you're not disappointed. And perhaps if I had seen all this before some of the grander temples I would have enjoyed them more. And maybe if I hadn't been sick a couple days earlier, and if I hadn't gotten up at the crack of dawn... So the point here is that I found the whole experience here to be more about "the place," this hidden valley where so many Pharaohs had been buried, under the vaguely pyramid-shaped mountain, than about any particular tomb we explored there.

 

Now mind you, visiting the Valley of the Kings (or Queens) is a bit like a roll of the dice. Only a few of the 60-some tombs (maybe 10) are open on any given day, and you may get lucky and get great ones to choose from, or you may get so-so ones to choose from. (Author's advice -- either make a list of the tombs and their descriptions to take with you, or better yet, photocopy the pages describing these tombs from a guidebook, make some notes on the ones that interest you most, and take those pages with you that day, so you've got that information at your fingertips so you can choose wisely. You get entrance to three tombs with your admission ticket -- rather like having three magic wishes, and you'll want to use them wisely! I took the whole guidebook with me and it helped me make good choices.)

 

There is an interesting Visitor's Center with a 3-D map of the Valley, a great short film of the opening of Tut's tomb in 1922, and some nice descriptions of how the tombs were dug and decorated over the years. After the visit there, our tour guides led us first into a tomb (which shall remain nameless, so as to protect the reputation -- oh heck! It was Ramses IX -- and I found myself very disappointed, under whelmed, and almost shocked, expecting something more and grander, and upset that we had (I felt) wasted one of our "magic wishes."

 

The other two tombs, that I chose, I enjoyed much more. (I will make you do your homework, read the guidebooks, and see which ones appeal most to you, and make your choices on your own.) Another option you might consider -- when you get tickets at the Valley of the Kings, buy yourself a second ticket, so you can choose six tombs. And consider whether you want to buy tickets to the "optional" tombs like Tut's, although I just read they will be closing it soon for "refurbishment." ...Good ole Zawi Hawass -- Egyptology's modern day omnipotent Pharaoh!

 

And once again, you cannot take photos in any of the tombs, although I did see several people "sneaking" them with their cell phones. There are excellent photo postcards available of the interior of the tombs from the hawker/vendors for $1.00 if you haggle a little. (And they look just fine in a photo album, even if you didn't take the pictures yourself!) So that's my (more than) two cents worth on the Valley of the Kings, for what it's worth.

 

Hatshepsut's Temple (easier name than Deir el-Bahri) was more interesting to me, as I have always loved the lines of the low, horizontal building, with its graceful ramps, nestled against the soaring cliffs immediately behind it. I loved that Queen Hatshepsut (who also reigned as the only female Pharaoh -- did someone say "ballsy move?") thought enough of her own temple to call it "Djeser Djeseru" -- "Splendor of Splendors." I really think it is, and I loved her choice of words. There were nice carvings and beautiful paintings, on walls and ceilings if you poked around a bit. Look for the 3,500 year old roots of the myrrh trees that used to be planted all around.

There are great paintings behind the colonnade on the right side, but I had my "goose bump" moment at the relief carvings in the left colonnade -- the river transport of two large obelisks from the quarry at Aswan, probably the quarry we'd visited -- no doubt the two she had erected at Karnak.

 

Okay, I think I'm getting too involved in temple description for most people. Check your guide books -- there is a lot to see on the West bank if it interests you; more tombs (but lesser ones) at the Valley of the Queens, the Ramesseum (the mortuary temple of Ramses II), Medinet Habu (mortuary temple of Ramses III), the workers village, the trail up over the mountains between the valleys... Okay, I'll stop. Do your homework, see what interest you.

Don't waste your time on the Colossi of Memnon -- they're not that colossal, and they're surrounded by scaffolding and hardly worth a drive by.

 

Our factory tour to the alabaster factory was moderately interesting, and fun to watch the artisans at work -- and there were some beautiful pieces for sale -- but again "tour-sponsored," so that means "expensive plus guide kickback," and you had to haggle hard on every price, and not great deals at all in my opinion. And then of course I was able to refer back to the old mantra... "suitcase weight limit, suitcase weight limit..."

 

At any rate, our tours of all these places took most of the day, getting us back across the Nile (for the record-setting fourth time in one day) around 3:00 or 4:00pm, culturally richer, but for me, very tired of dry, dusty tombs. I took advantage of the welcome free time to explore and visit the nicely landscaped gardens of the Winter Palace Hotel across the street from our ship. It was a refreshing and fairly lush oasis of well-manicured greenery, swimming pools, fresh squeezed juices, palm trees and flowers, after a long day of tombs.

 

And just in front of the hotel, on the Corniche, I once again highly recommend the "Gaddis Books" store, with its set prices(!) and great selection of books, videos, music, papyrus, trinkets, clothing, tablecloths, toys, gifts, etc. I was able to get lots of gifts and souvenirs without the exhausting hassle of having to haggle over every price!

 

Some of the people used this time to take a carriage ride down to the Luxor Museum -- it's a long walk, maybe 25 minutes each way. Those who had not been to the museum, came back oohing and ahhing -- even after a long day of "tomb raiding." Once again, highly recommended!

 

Others shopped in the bazaar area of Luxor, back behind the Luxor temple. The further down the street you go, the more locals and less tourists, until eventually you are in an area of only locals, with a wondrous feel and atmosphere to it. Local shops and vendors -- fresh foods lined up on newspapers on the ground -- vegetables of all kinds -- potatoes, onions, and the stubby carrots we saw everywhere for pennies a pound. The little oranges that are on most corners were the cheapest here as well. A butcher shop with the hunks of meat hanging on hooks -- no refrigeration -- just have the piece you want carved off. Fragrant spices available from big bulk bins that perfumed the air. Even freshly caught fish -- the eyes were still shiny and the gills fresh -- laid out on the ground on newspapers, again, no refrigeration, laid out just as proudly as the ice-bedded fish we see in our supermarkets. I could tell from the looks of the locals, that not many of "our kind" made it to those streets, but I found them fascinating, and the people friendly, curious about us, and open to us being there.

 

I vaguely remember some notation about it being the last dinner on the boat -- singing, special food, introduction of the chefs? But by that point, on that long day, I couldn't tell you exactly what it was. I remember packing things up in my cabin and taking a quick look at the "farewell show" in the lounge. Most of us were far too tired to fully appreciate the belly dancers and whirling dervishes at that point -- sensory overload was taking its toll!

 

I was ready to move on to the resort on theRed Sea, but it was a little sad, packing up our things and getting ready to leave our ship, and the wonders of the Nile valley. Knowing that the new day would bring new wonders made it easier to finally relax and fall into a very deep, well-deserved sleep.

[seafun]

Saturday, Feb 16, 7:00 pm -- Makadi Bay, south of Hurghada, on the Red Sea

 

What a difference a day makes, from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea Coast! This morning we left our well-worn, but enjoyable home on the Nile -- once again, at the crack of dawn -- oddly enough, just as some very familiar hot air balloons drifted overhead just above us, nicely lit by the very early morning sun. It was interesting to see them "from the other side," and a couple balloons were close enough that you could hear the people above us admiring their view. The sky full of balloons was a nice final view of Luxor as we boarded our luxurious motor coaches for the trip across the mountains to the resort on the Red Sea.

 

Today's trip reminded us all of the elaborate security measures in place to protect us, the dear tourists -- the cash cows -- so sacred, so highly regarded, and so necessary to the Egyptian economy.

 

By 8:00 am we were on board our coaches and lined up in front of the Luxor Museum, waiting for our "convoy" to depart, and travel from the Nile Valley through the high desert and the mountains to the resort areas near Hurghada on the coast -- an entirely different part of Egypt, almost like a different country. At first I had thought we were just stuck in a traffic jam since we didn't move for so long. I had no idea that there were so many busses converging -- probably 50 or more full sized ones and as many minivans all grouped together -- with very visibly armed police escorts, before, during and after the convoy, waiting to travel together. Once everyone was assembled, we all started our great journey.

 

What was most amazing to me was that they literally shut down all other traffic as we traveled -- anyone coming the other way, all cross traffic at highways, big avenues, mid-sized streets, freeway entrances, all the way down to (very) rural roads and donkey cart paths. ALL other traffic had to stop as we passed; everything from big trucks, down to cars, motorcycles, donkey carts, various assorted camels, and herds of sheep. Similar to having to have to stop and wait for a train to go by, for as long as it took , and like a train, no one dared to try to cross.

 

I explained my embarrassment in contributing to this complete stoppage of peoples’ lives to our guides, and he shrugged it off. He said the vast majority of people accept it as necessary for the economy, and for the direct trickle down effect it has in spreading much-needed money around the country. So twice a day, or more, if you live along this route, your ability to get anywhere comes to a complete grinding halt.

 

The analogy quickly came to mind as we traveled that here we were, much like the ancient Kings, with all traffic, automotive as well as animal, stopped for our regal passing on our unobstructed highway. It was an odd feeling of class awareness, of being a "have," looking out the windows at the "have nots."

 

After two hours on the road we stopped in the middle of the high desert at a secured rest area, with tourist-worthy restrooms, places to buy food, drinks, ice cream (NO ice cream!) and souvenirs, as well as a curious photo opportunity. Several families of Bedouins were there in native dress, the women in long dark colored or black burkas with just their eyes visible, and children, with their camels, laden with brightly colored woven blankets and saddlebags stuffed with trinkets to sell and baby goats, which they posed on the camels to give the pictures that "extra cute" factor. All of this display was obviously in hopes of the tourists giving the families some baksheesh while taking their pictures in this odd, man-made photo opportunity.

 

After fifteen or twenty minutes of "economy building" and leg stretching, we were on our way again, our caravan of busses winding through the desolate mountain passes, on our way to Safaga, on the Red Sea coast. After passing through a security checkpoint, at the end of the mountains, presumably to insure no busses had been waylaid or ambushed in the mountain passes, it was apparently safe for the convoy to disband, and the various busses and minivans began to peel off on their own and go to their respective destinations of luxury.

 

The first glimpses of the water of the Red Sea looked beautiful and blue after the starkness of the mountains, but there was very little natural vegetation in that area -- just wind-blown sand and rocks, up to the waters edge. Most of the area is very dry and only the artificially irrigated areas alongside the highway supported a few palm trees and some small landscaped areas with flowers planted.

 

We proceeded on another 30 kilometers, heading north along mostly barren rocks and sand that was the strip between the mountains and the shore. Eventually we turned in toward the shore at an all-but-unmarked road (in fact our bus driver missed the turn and had to turn around to get back to it) and finally arrived at our hotel in the newly created, beachfront resort area of Makadi Bay.

 

To put it into a short sentence, we had come forward in time thousands of years in the hours it took us to get from the Nile to our resort! A vast modern marble and glass palace, that after our slightly shabby cruise ship – was rather like Cinderella going from rags to the Ball! (There’s numerous pictures of the hotel posted on the Shutterfly website I’ve mentioned before. http://seafunegypt.shutterfly.com/action/?a=2AaMnLVo0YsnHA&notag=1 )

 

The El Nabila Grand Makadi Resort looks incredible – on a hill overlooking the beautiful water of the Red Sea, on a private inlet full of pristine coral reefs with many varieties of colorful fish. The hotel itself is like a palace – grand staircases, marble floors, gigantic open atriums, painted ceilings, huge chandeliers, elegant furnishings, even a copy of “Winged Victory” in the middle of the lobby – very upscale. Once again I find myself taking lots of pictures. I think I’m going to like it here!

 

It’s obvious that it is brand new, open only a short time, and definitely not quite finished yet. The elevator isn’t installed yet, although it’s easy enough to use the long, airy circular ramps to get around. The landscaping outside is still going in, and has a long way to go. Construction to finish all the rough edges is still going on all over, although the noise from it has not been noticeable. This is still the opening phase for this would be tourist Mecca (oops, hope that’s not disrespectful.) But I have no doubt this will be a very expensive resort destination in a year or so.

 

Oh, sorry, but it’s time to go for lunch! The resort is “all inclusive” – all meals, snacks and drinks, including Egyptian-made alcoholic drinks, beer and wine, are included. The meals are lavishly laid out buffets, with everything labeled in four languages, to accommodate the very internationally mixed clientele. I’ve seen Italian, French, German, English and Russian groups so far – once again, we’re some of their very first American guests – so somewhat of a novelty to both staff and other guests as well.

 

After lunch we’ll hop one of the four-times-a-day shuttles into Hurghada – the original Red Sea tourist destination that started all this clamor to build resort areas all up and down this coast. Hopefully there will be some interesting sights to see and, of course, some new opportunities for shopping!

[MVPinBoynton]

Well you have confirmed another one of my concerns, that the tombs might be less exciting after seeing some of the other impressive sites. Just being in the Valley of the Kings will be awesome, but I won't have great expectations, so I won't be disappointed. It does sound like most of your stops had wonderful sights to see. Can't wait. Thanks again for the valuable and entertaining info.

[WeBeGone]

Mike, don't be concerned, the Valley of the Kings IS awesome, just in a different way than the grand temples. We were able to go inside 3 of the Pharaohs' tombs, Seti II, Rames IV and Siptah. Hazem, our guide, said that these are the 3 most beautifully preserved tombs and he was right. It's amazing that the colors are still so vibrant after 5000 years. The ceilings are painted blue with yellow stars (that looked like starfish to me) and the walls depict battles and daily life of the King and his family. It is a shame that photos aren't allowed however the postcards do more justice to the beauty than I could have captured. I was struck by the artists' talents and the number of people that spent their lives glorifying their king. I'm sure you know that the tombs are started as soon as the pharaoh is crowned, so the longer the pharaoh lived, the more ornate the tomb was. King Tut's tomb is not decorated at all since he died very young. All the contents of his tomb are in the Egyptian Museum although his mummy is in the tomb. There is still much excavation underway in the valley and it was incredible to be in a place I'd wanted to see my whole life. Howard Carters house is on the hill by the road that leads into the valley. It is empty after a failed experiment at a museum.

 

[MVPinBoynton]

Thanks for the info WeBeGone. I will mark down your recommendations so that if they are on tour the day we are there, we will go to them.

[Sekhmet]

Seafun,

 

What a wonderful series of reports - I hope you don't mind, but I've taken the liberty of cut and pasting them into a Word document so that I can reread them at leisure?

 

However, I have to issue you with a warning. You may recall I warned you before in the McDonald's thread about asking for a McMummy, but this is far more serious. If it isn't already too late, you are in great danger of becoming an Egyptological Addict - you might surmise from my screen name that I have been so afflicted for a number of years. Some of the symptoms you should look out for are clearing shelves of ornaments and other decorative items to make way for your Egypt book collection, insisting on watching TV programmes about obscure Late Period High Priests to the exclusion of anything else, planning visits to places around what there is Egyptian (on a recent trip to Berlin, our #1 priority was the bust of Nefertiti rather than the Brandenburg Gate or Checkpoint Charlie).

 

As far as I know, there is no cure, nor any support group (Friends of Ramasses W?), but if you have caught it, welcome!!

 

Once again, thank you so much for your evocative writings.

 

All the best,

 

Richard

 

PS - we leave for our eighth visit to Egypt in just over three weeks.

[seafun]

"Several of those symptoms might apply," (he said, clearing a spot on his bookshelf of Egypt books for the new King Tut bookends...)

LOL ... Very nice of you to point out the "dreaded" symptoms. I'll certainly keep my eyes open. (and speaking of eyes, has anyone tried outlining their eyes Egyptian style, just to see what it looks like...) (Just kidding....so far).

Okay, back to work. Thanks! :D

[smeyer418]

We will all know we are in trouble when on a regular cruise, in addition to the Friends of Bill and the Friends of Dorothy meetings they announce there will be a meeting of the Friends of Ramses II in the sky lounge at 10 am....and we go to it...

[MVPinBoynton]

I think that there would be a rather large fun group in the sky lounge after that announcement.

[seafun]

This guy thought it was a "combo" meeting -- "Friends of Ramses II, and of Dorothy, and of Bill W."

 

sorry, folks.... I just couldn't resist. Someone sent me this picture this morning.

[Trece]

We powerful ladies are holding out for the Sisters of Hatshepsut meeting at 11! :D

 

Sekhmet - eight trips in three weeks? I should be so lucky!! :eek: Don't mind me, I'm just jealous - but when I first read it that's what I thought you meant!

 

Seriously - I think DH and I are suffering from Egyptosis too, since in anticipation of our 20th anniversary later this year, we replaced our original wedding bands with cartouche wedding bands, and exchanged them at Edfu. And - we have so many papyrus (papyri?) in our house that we had to resort to hanging the two newest ones in the bathroom. :D I think we are in danger of never recovering.

[wblevin]

Seafun - thanks so much for your fabulous review! I am truly enjoying every minute of it.

[seafun]

(Author’ note: Our time at the lovely hotel on the Red Sea in Makadi Bay was a welcome rest after dashing about through the Nile Valley at such a break-neck pace. I found myself truly ready to relax, and lay by the beautiful pools or down by the Red Sea and snorkel, and lay by the buffet and eat –(safe ice cream and sherbet!).

 

I’m almost apologetic that I didn’t do more while we were there, but I was pooped and it was time to recharge my batteries, knowing that I had to go back to work immediately after my vacation ended! I’ll try to include a couple notes about what was available in the way of Gate 1 side trips that I didn’t take.

 

There was a snorkeling trip to Giftun Island for $59.00 (which used to be famous for its beautiful coral, but it’s been over-visited.) I chose not to go on that partly because the snorkeling was so nice from the hotel! My guide books had said that there were much better places to snorkel and that you could book a less expensive trip almost anywhere in the area. There was a concierge at the hotel that could hook you up if you wanted. I did speak with a family on our trip that did the Giftun Island trip and they enjoyed it very much, but noted that the coral wasn’t as spectacular as they thought it would be. They saw huge numbers of fish (nicely trained after being fed all these years by tour operators…) So it’s a nice, easy organized tour if you don’t feel like organizing something on your own.

 

That area of the Red Sea is world famous for its scuba diving trips, and rightly so. If you’re interested, or certified, you can look up all kinds of information on it. Several trips are available to book from the hotel, but not through Gate 1, as I recall. Most of the dive companies are based in Hurghada.

 

Several members of our group went on the all day trip to the monasteries of St. Paul and St. Anthony. ($75.00) It is a long bus ride – 3 hours out – to the first monastery, a beautiful example of Coptic Christianity from 16 centuries ago, a visit there, then off on the bus again to the other one, then the 3 hour bus ride back to the hotel. Apparently the monks who run the tour were incredibly gracious, and glad to see them, even though they got to the second monastery about a half hour after “closing” time. On a humorous note, one of the senior fathers was overheard in a hushed tone telling the “gatekeeper”, “Don’t EVER let people in that late again!” We all laughed about that. My friends who went enjoyed it and said the art was worth it, but said the ride was too long, and they got caught in a bit of a sandstorm on the way back with an inexperienced driver. As I recall they got back just before 10:00 at night and were starved! Only recommended if you love old monasteries AND long, pious bus rides through the desert!

 

The one trip that I regret not taking was something not listed by Gate 1 on their website, but our tour guides called the Bedouin safari, or something like that. A bus ride out into the desert in the afternoon to visit a Bedouin encampment, your choice of a horse ride, camel ride or ATV (all terrain vehicle) ride, then dinner with the Bedouins and a show after dinner. I think there was something else they did out there too – some kind of explanation of the Bedouin lifestyle, but I don’t recall. Those who took it raved about it and the amount of “local color” they enjoyed. I believe it was about $40.00, a great price.

 

Before our trip, I almost “used up” the Internet, trying to figure out a way to include a side trip to the world-famous city of Petra, in Jordan. There is a ferry from Hurghada to Sharm-el-Sheikh, and then another ferry to Aqaba, Jordan, and then a bus ride to the famous city… but in the end it was just too much to try. I’ve since found there are other ways to do it, but I’ll let you look into that on your own. It was a shame to be “so close,” yet “so far away!” Perhaps on another adventure….

 

Okay, back to our story….)

 

Grand Makadi Hotel, 10:00 pm, after the trip to Hurghada and dinner at the resort buffet…

 

I’m sorry, but I hated Hurghada. Well, let’s tone that down – I’ve enjoyed everything in Egypt, both good and bad (except for the tragic “poisoning by ice cream” at Abu Simbel, thankfully, as close as I came to “Death on the Nile.”). I’ve just enjoyed some things more than others. And I enjoyed almost everything more than Hurghada. Our hotel shuttle dropped us off in a square in the heart of town on the main street, in the midst of urban planning gone very wrong. It was dirty, smelly, smoky from car exhaust, commercial, noisy and full of pushy street hawkers that would not leave you alone. And you couldn’t see the water from anywhere downtown without paying to enter a hotel’s grounds to get to the water!

 

The area of town I was in reminded me of New York’s Times Square before it got cleaned up. I was able to find some souvenirs and gifts at decent (marked) prices in the Star Market on the main street. And I found my tour members enjoying a nice cup of coffee at a “Starbucks-like” coffee shop that they enjoyed – so see, there’s two good things about Hurghada right off the bat!

We all found ourselves going back to the hotel on the first shuttle.

 

One thing we all commented on was the incredible amount of building going on in the area – half-finished apartments or condos lined the highways around the Hurghada area, most of them looking like they had stopped in mid-construction. I don’t know if the housing market surged and then crashed, but it was odd to see so much unfinished building, and no workmen on the sites. But it was definitely different from the “leave part of one floor unfinished so you don’t pay taxes” that we had seen in other parts of Egypt.

 

Tonight was “baby disco” night in the bar here at the hotel. Mind you, it was mostly Italians participating, but Who in the hell thought this up!?!?! 9:30 at night, you drag your baby or babies to a bar(!) and have drinks (and cigarettes!) and get up and drag your baby around the dance floor to old disco music? This A) makes the bar unusable for most other people who do not happen to enjoy their music drowned out by screaming babies, and B) makes me question the health benefits to all involved.

 

Uh-oh – time to put this baby down for the night. He’s starting to sound fussy and crabby. I’m sure tomorrow will be a better day…

[seafun]

Monday Feb 18 – still at the hotel in Makadi Bay

 

It’s been another beautiful day in Makadi Bay, maybe even a little warmer today – in the 75 to 80 degree range, with a light breeze (too hard to do those Celsius conversions in my head) – close to perfect weather for relaxing and beaching. I finished a nice (big) breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, honeydew melon, banana, pomegranate juice, lots of breads and fresh pastries – very nice choices from the buffet. Quit looking at me that way – I have to gain back some of that weight I lost from being sick!

 

I brought a small baggie of laundry soap and dryer sheets with me to do laundry and never found machines anywhere, but I just managed to wash out some clothes in my bathroom’s marble sink and then rinse them out in the tub. I’m sorry, washing out laundry and unmentionables in a five star hotel just seems wrong! There’s a handy little laundry stringy-thing over the tub to dry them with, but I’m sure they’ll dry faster out on my beautiful balcony. Besides, in the lovely morning sun, the laundry will have one of the best views – out over the Red Sea – that my laundry has ever seen!

 

This hotel isn’t quite finished yet, and some of the amenities aren’t quite in place, but it’s still very pleasant to be here. In spite of a few little glitches here and there – mostly it seems from this being one of the first times they’ve run this trip – the whole trip’s been very enjoyable. Other than upgrading the cruise ship a couple levels, there’s not much I would change, and I’m sure others coming on this trip – assuming a few bugs are worked out -- will enjoy it as well. Remember, you’re here to see Egypt, not a hotel room, and the most important thing to pack is a Good Attitude!

 

Now it’s off to the beach for some snorkeling. The beautiful coral shelf here makes for an awesome snorkeling spot without even leaving the hotel grounds! And a quick side note – although it seems close to the Equator here, I see from my globe that Hawaii is actually closer. So if you’re debating on sun screen, it’s almost, but not quite as strong as Hawaii sun. (Now remember, my trip is in February – the sun will be much stronger as we get closer to summer, so don’t forget sunscreen.)

 

I’ve seen lots of fish already, but this morning I’m cheating – the secret fish weapon – I’m bringing a bunch of pita bread I smuggled out of the dining room at breakfast in one of my various sizes of Zip-Loc baggies that I always travel with. We’ll see if that entices even more fish – and I’m sure it will.

 

My “room attendant” (as opposed to “maid”) is just finishing up cleaning and straightening up my room. We have noticed that 95 per cent of everyone who works here in the hotel is male, with just one or two women occasionally seen at the front desk. No maids, no waitresses. He is busy now making some Arabian towel animals, but since I’m at the table on the balcony overlooking the sea, I can’t see what he’s making. So far my favorite “towel animal” of the trip was the “Felucca on the Nile” folded for me on the cruise ship (there’s a picture of it in my Shutterfly photo album).

 

The view from the balcony is very relaxing, but so bright you need sunglasses even to write out here. With my dark glasses on, and scribbling away in my leather-bound journal, perhaps Ali thinks I’m a famous writer… (Perhaps he doesn’t give a damn what I do, as long as I tip, lol.) The sun bounces off everything as it rises higher in the sky and it’s only 10:00 am. It’s getting warmer and you can almost hear the laundry drying (“100 per cent Egyptian cotton – NO shrink!!”)

 

Oh my!! Ali the room attendant has outdone himself, and earned a place in my heart for winning my official “Best Towel Animal of the Trip Award!” I have a gigantic elephant, with tusks, made out of pillows and towels, with a monkey riding on his back! I’ve never had a towel creation that big or detailed before, so I had to take pictures – oh, and slip Ali a few dollars for his trouble, which made his face light up as bright as the sun on the balcony. (Again, on Shutterfly, pictures 3074 – 3078). Okay, now it is time to go snorkel – knowing that even if I’m dripping wet when I get back here, I’ve got enough towels wrapped up in that creation to dry off me and eight or ten of my closest friends!

 

4:15 pm after snorkeling, a delightful lunch buffet, and then back down to the water for a day at the beach:

 

Speaking of lunch, I don’t recall if I mentioned the odd set up for “all inclusive” drinks. Egyptian made beer, wine and “liquor” are included, but not soft drinks, since they’re imported. There are juices at the buffet for free, and we don’t want to know how they reconstitute the concentrate, but no one has gotten sick from anything here at the hotel, so it must be bottled water.

 

At lunch and dinner, you order a beer or glass of wine from the waiter, and he brings it for free, as long as it is Egyptian. If you order, say a Heineken, you pay cash or sign for it – that’s all very normal to me. But the “hard liquor, ” Egyptian versions of vodka, gin, rum, whiskey, ouzo, etc. in bottles with labels “quite similar” to well-known brands, is just sitting out on the bar table for you to help yourself! There are pre-poured mixers of layered fruit juice, or flavored syrups, usually two or three pretty colors, like red, green, yellow or orange, layered in a tall glass, no ice, about two thirds full. You simply pick your booze and top it off!

Pop in a straw, and away you go – no bartender there, no one monitoring how much you put away. Very odd set up – I’ve never seen that before. (In his best Mr. Rogers’ voice… “Can you say “liability issue?” I knew you could.”)

 

Anyway, what a perfect afternoon! There’s a little building at the end of the beach manned by hotel staff that rents masks, snorkels and flippers – so convenient! I should have rented flippers, but just went for the mask and snorkel; even though I’d brought my own goggles from home, the viewing area of the mask was much bigger. The views underwater were incredible. I’m sure I could see at least 60 feet down and away from me in the azure water, both the sandy bottom of the cove, as well as the beautiful coral shelf were clear as could be. The coral shelf in the bay here is full of living, healthy, almost untouched coral in a rainbow of shapes, sizes and colors -- reds, oranges, yellows, whites, and my favorite – a bright purple fuzzy one. I spotted about 30 different species of fish – also in a rainbow of colors, sometimes swimming alone, and sometimes in schools of thousands, twisting and turning as one in the water. I had to quit feeding them the pita bread – it was attracting thousands of fish at a time – some of them big enough to make me nervous that they might mistakenly take off a few of my fingers and make a little “pita bread sandwich!”

 

I actually overextended my swimming limits because the views underwater were so beautiful, and kept enticing me to go further and further along the shelf, almost out to the corner of our bay. I came to my senses a little late (the siren song of the sea had lured me along quite a ways from my starting point). Then I had some serious aquatic huffing and puffing to swim back around to shore, cursing myself with every other breath for not getting the flippers – which would have made it ten times easier. (Note to self: Get the flippers next time!!)

 

Thank goodness I bought the “Diving the Red Sea” book yesterday (see, another good thing about Hurghada…). I was able to identify almost all the fish I saw today. Sorry folks, I didn’t have an underwater camera so you’ll just have to imagine how beautiful it all was, but it certainly exceeded all my expectations, and even a serious snorkeler will be quite satisfied here.

 

Right now I’m exhausted after my beach day – swimming, walking up and down the stairs to the beach several times, snorkeling, walking all over to take pictures, pausing for lunch, swimming some more, feeding the fish, taking more photos, watching the hilarious water and beach aerobics, talking with friends on the beach, did I mention walking up the 100 or so steps to the beach – and enjoying the free ice cream and sherbet as a reward when I got to the top. The snorkeling and the fish and coral were world class, but now I need one of those exfoliating scrubs to get rid of all the salt on my skin, but I’m too cheap to spring for one at the spa here. So I’ll just rinse off in the shower – find a towel, “Gee, I hope I can find one,” he said chuckling, and then I think I’ll take a much-needed nap.

 

7:00 pm: Ouch! My eyes!!

I took a nap, got cleaned up and was trying to go do a last minute run through the hotel gift shop (not bad prices), but I heard the wind blowing outside, I thought. I’d noticed it kicking up this afternoon, but nothing like this. We’ve got a nasty sandstorm blowing. I made it about 15 feet down the outside corridor on the way to the gift shop before BOTH my contacts were screaming at me, full of sand and grit that felt like ground glass! I came racing blindly back into my room and rinsed them out as fast as humanly possible. It made me wonder how often that little weather phenomenon happens out here at the end of the world?

 

Shoot, just since I’ve been writing this, I hear the heavy, floor to ceiling, glass balcony doors rattling from the wind, and even the front door to the hotel room rattling a bit as well. I read about the big Sirocco winds in my guide books, but they aren’t supposed to start until March – hmm, I guess it IS almost the last week of February – I guess that’s close enough! This must be just a little taste of what they are like. Certainly unpleasant for contact lens wearers… and once again, makes me extremely grateful we haven’t had this for the whole trip.

 

Okay, let’s try that dash for the gift shop, for one last batch of souvenirs and gifts, one more time.

_________________

[WeBeGone]

Sekhmet - eight trips in three weeks? I should be so lucky!! :eek: Don't mind me, I'm just jealous - but when I first read it that's what I thought you meant!quote]

 

I think you mis-read. They're leaving in 3 weeks for their 8th trip.

 

We're planning our 3rd trip in Oct which will make our 3rd trip in less than a year. YES, we've got the bug. We have redone our bathroom in "Egyptian"- mother of pearl tissue box and mirror, rugs, papyrsus, candlesticks, statues, towels, etc. It's quite pretty actually.

[Trece]

:D Webegone, I know what Richard meant, it's just that when I read it the first time, quickly, the way it's worded I read it a different way. I was joking. ;) I'm thrilled for him, and I'm jealous too!

[seafun]

Tuesday the 19th – leaving the hotel at Makadi Bay, flying to Cairo for a last full day of touring…

 

I got up at 4:00 am in order to pack, shower, eat something and be ready to leave for the Hurghada airport by 6:00 am. All the big winds from the night before were gone, and it was another beautiful sunrise out over the Red Sea to the East. The stunning view of sunrise from the balcony was just as beautiful as ever.

 

Leaving the resort was bittersweet – the trip was almost over, but I’d had the time I needed to rest up and process at least a little of all of “historical Egypt” that I’d seen so far, and I was grateful for the slow, easy days by the pool and the relative excitement of all that I’d seen snorkeling. The hotel and resort, even though it wasn’t totally finished, had been a wonderful experience. I’d had the time necessary to get rested and ready for one last busy day of sightseeing around Cairo, and then the big push to get halfway around the world to home.

 

Being well-rested was good, because the day had many literal and figurative bumps in the road. When we got to the airport – again passing all those mysterious miles and miles of unfinished apartments, condos and homes around Hurghada – we discovered that our Egypt Air flight, scheduled for 8:35 am take off, was overbooked by 8 or 9 people.

 

This was a continuation of airplane woes from the night before, when we’d learned that Gate 1 had mistakenly scheduled people (myself included) for the 12:35 departure from Hurghada, instead of the 8:35 flight, when we had already signed up for, and paid for, the morning half day tour of Memphis, Saqqara and the famous step pyramid of Zoser, before we had left the U.S! After some wrangling, I was able to switch seats with one of the tour members who said she’d rather sleep in, so I took her reservation on the earlier flight. Several other people weren’t as forceful as I was (insisting that I be on that first flight so I could take the tour), and they ended up not being able to take the tour, so just let that be a word to the wise – another example of Gate 1’s logistic planning showing its faults – as I said, no doubt caused by this being one of the very first times they’d mounted this 15 day tour, but an unprofessional slip in the planning nonetheless.

 

Meanwhile, at the airport, we were forced to experience an hour of our tour guide Sam, and the Egypt Air counter “flight professional” person, first discussing, then arguing, then disagreeing loudly, then yelling at the top of their lungs, on whose fault it was and how to resolve the situation. Apparently voluntary bumping for a free flight in the future, and possibly some compensation, is NOT a well-known concept here! So there we were, with unwanted front row seats for the Egyptian Macho Olympics – with our tour guide and the Egypt Air staff doing their very best to “out piss” one another.

 

After an hour of wasting everyone’s time, they finally rounded up 9 unlucky souls to get bumped. We never found out if it was by their choice, or if they were “selected” based on some unknown criteria – ticket price, amount of luggage, the time they arrived or the color of their eyes. We then found out that the woman I was replacing on the morning flight wasn’t on the flight manifest, so we were still short a seat! Sam, our “vocal” guide ending up staying – which made sense, since the other half of our group, scheduled to fly to Cairo later would have had to face the airport without a guide for the 12:30 flight, if he hadn’t stayed! Poor planning there on the guides’ part… (We later found out that for the afternoon flight, Egypt Air initially denied boarding to Sam, because of all the ruckus he had raised earlier. Pissing Match, Round #2! Although I wasn’t there, I understand that after another ugly scene, with the other 15 passengers absolutely refusing to get on the plane without him, Egypt Air finally gave in and let him fly. I’d hate to see what they do to him the next time he tries to board one of their flights!)

 

At any rate, an hour late, we got off to Cairo, shocked and appalled, but grateful that it was over. I got lucky, again, with another window seat for me to enjoy the geography lesson, and the view, of the jagged crags of the mountain range that separates the Red Sea coastal area from the fertile Nile Valley. It was a beautiful relief to concentrate on the unbelievable blues of the water, and its coral reefs, still visible from the air, then the miles and miles of sandy, barren nothingness of the mountains. Eventually we started to see the handiwork of the life-giving Nile, as we flew over the last of the desert at Giza, getting great views of the pyramids again, and the massive greenbelt that surrounds the sprawling Cairo metropolitan area. We landed smoothly after our “bumpy” take off!

 

Cairo traffic was its usual overcrowded insanity – it took about an hour to get through the cacophony of Cairo, and on our way to the final temples, and the city of Memphis, with its gigantic statue of Ramses II. I got many nice photos there of his huge statue, various others in a statue garden, and an especially beautiful sphinx. Then, finally, on to Saqqara, for one of the highlights of the trip -- the pyramid of Djoser, the oldest stone building in the world, (I repeat, the oldest stone building in the world!), the famous step pyramid engineered by the famous Imhotep, and the vast funerary temples above and below ground, and the huge temple complex that is still being excavated. In fact we saw the workers around the site excavating, and on scaffolding repairing and restoring while we were there.

 

The pyramid was built around 100 years before the Great pyramid, around 2,600 B.C., if memory serves. It was on a fairly high plateau, and it was beautiful to experience, but the wind was blowing sand everywhere (including in my contact lenses!), reducing me to tears several times – not the first time for tears at a beautiful Egyptian sight, but the first time due to sand! This was also the only temple complex we saw where they buried the body hundreds of feet down, below a killer pit probably 50 feet across and so deep and dark you really couldn’t see the bottom. (That’s a LOT of sand to move to excavate it – and a lot of rock to tunnel through all those years ago! I hope they did it in the winter when it was 70 degrees, and not in the summer when it was well over 100!)

 

As another reminder that it was time to go home, (although I had more back in the bus) my camera batteries gave out a little over halfway through the temples at Saqqara, so I didn’t get quite as many pictures as I would have liked in and around the rest of the complex. But somehow I think that the THOUSAND plus photos that I have captured, on four memory cards, will be quite enough!

 

Originally we had planned to revisit the bazaar area downtown of Khan el Kahlili once again, and a famous mosque, and Saqqara was surrounded by carpet weaving schools/showrooms that were just begging to be visited (one of the few “tour- sponsored” trips we didn’t get to do!), but our group consensus was that enough was enough – and fighting Cairo traffic just wasn’t worth a few more treasures and photos to take home with us. We made our way back to the Pyramids Swiss Inn for one last night’s stay before our flights home, once again filled with awe and wonder at what we had just seen. I remember giving Mo our tour guide his “tip” for the week – I felt he had done a very nice job, and I had no problem with showing him my financial gratitude, in spite of a few glitches in the tour along the way, most of them not his fault.

 

We checked into our rooms at the hotel, and most of us said our goodbyes in the late afternoon and exchanged some email addresses, since some people were catching flights out that night. I had a light dinner in the hotel restaurant of pretty good Pad Thai, said a few more goodbyes, and once again, fell into bed exhausted.

[seafun]

Wednesday February 20th – 36,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, not quite halfway to New York from Cairo:

 

12 hours is a beastly long flight! I could almost fly from Seattle to Hawaii for lunch and back in that time! We’ve already seen two movies and had a meal, and the second or third round of Egypt Air’s non-alcoholic beverages are starting down the aisle. I’ll see how far I get here in filling in a few more recollections, kicking around some ideas, and tidying up a few loose ends before high altitude writer’s cramp kicks in. Buckle up – this could be a long one…

 

The ride into and across Cairo, starting very early this morning as the sun came up was beautiful. At least the smog and pollution provide you with incredibly colorful sunrises and sunsets here! And seeing the sun rise above the horizon, one last time for us, a huge ball of pink fire behind the minarets of mosques and the towering date palms was unforgettable.

Alas, no “world class” pictures of that, but a couple of good ones were taken through the bus windows. God knows we all tried, earnestly clicking away as we passed by the pyramids one last time -- click, click, click…

As a matter of fact, those are the last pictures I took – the pyramids shining in the rosy glow of dawn, just as they have done since even before the Pharaohs walked this beautiful and diverse land.

 

Obviously, I made it to the airport in Cairo in time for my flight – plenty of time actually, a full three hours before take-off time. I browsed half-heartedly at a few shops to kill the time, and was amused, once again, to find that unlike the U.S., there were actually some decent prices at shops in the airports here! And I no longer had to chant the mantra … “suitcase weight limit, suitcase weight limit!” (I found three very beautiful “faux-lapis” pyramids that will now and forever remind me of “the mantra…”)

Many of our group had already left, in the middle of the night, for flights that connected through Frankfurt, Paris or London. Scattering to wind, our little group began its way home…

 

Ah – a hot meal has arrived. More later…

When given the choice of “beef” or “fish,” I thought beef sounded safer (smiling – I’ve seen some awfully dirty water in the last two weeks that “fish” might come from.) But hey – I’ve seen more poverty, dirt, filth, dust, grit, sand, raw sewage, garbage, mangy animals, both dead and alive (the more disturbing ones being the few carcasses dumped into the irrigation canals right in the middle of towns.)

The poverty itself isn’t so shocking as it is sad. Such a huge number of people with almost nothing in their lives that we consider important, if not necessary – clean running water, electricity, and even air conditioning to survive the blistering heat. Obviously, that’s my very Western bias.

There are many small villages and hamlets along the Nile with no visible “amenities.” Although the majority of them seem to have at least one satellite dish – no doubt the ultimate status symbol in town for some, and a plague upon the land for others. I can’t help but see television in a much different light after visiting here. A horrendous insatiable hunger that we export. And by we, I mean all the outside countries, each contributing their own glimpses of the outside world to these villages.

On the satellite dishes I’ve seen game shows and variety shows and music shows from all over Europe and the Middle East. Most are similar to ours, with giggly, jiggley , heavily made up women, caressing prizes that are out of reach for most people here. The Italian programs are the most animated, with everyone gesturing and waving their hands so much you know it’s Italian, even with the sound off. (Which makes me wonder – how do Italians do radio, when they can’t use their hands?)

In the various hotels I’ve watched CNN and BBC news, reminding us of the world’s peoples not getting along, if not outright killing one another around the world, in the name of religion or oil or what have you.

I even watched some of the hypnotic chanting of prayers, and extolling of Allah’s will on Al-Jezeera television. Prayers and meditation and affirmations droning on and on in a hypnotic and convincing way to follow Allah’s directives. It was pretty easy to see how promises of a better life in the next world could be so convincing and appealing to those who have next to nothing in this world.

I’ve gotten more of a sense of the supreme power of television – something I certainly didn’t expect from this trip.

I feel bad that the “eye candy” of the outside world is not possible for most of these millions and millions of people. The music videos and television programs show beautiful homes and mansions, with luxurious limousines and sports cars – beautiful women and men with designer clothes and designer jewelry, smiling designer smiles, in the artificial reality being rubbed in these people’s faces.

How do they see it? Is it a sin-filled corrupt world to be avoided? Does it make them value their families, their simple but fulfilling lives, and what they have, all the more, and trust their religious beliefs that all will be well and better in the next life?

Or does the cancer of envy gnaw at them as we parade by in our fancy motor coaches, gliding through their world like modern day Pharaohs?

So, in spite of the incredible wonders I’ve seen in my two weeks, some of those questions tug at me, and will no doubt remain, tucked away in my mind’s shadows, behind the spectacular memories of pyramids, glorious temple complexes, and sailing up and down the Nile through glorious sunrises and sunsets.

It makes me feel alive that at least I’m pondering those points. Travel enriches the mind and opens one’s eyes, and this trip has certainly done all that, and more.

Okay, enough for the “thought-provoking essay” part. Maybe it was something I ate… maybe “bull” and not “beef!”

 

Looking back on my trip preparations, I thought I was being extremely clever, bringing four memory cards for my camera instead of one big one – not putting all my eggs in one basket, as it were – in case, Allah forbid, anything should happen to it. My plan actually worked well, with the one notable glitch, due to my own operator error, losing all those carefully composed pictures -- the Luxor temple lit up at night, and then the two hour progression of sunrise photos as we left our dock at the Winter Palace in Luxor and sailed up the Nile.

I was able to get back to the Luxor temple and recreate at least some of those shots – the moon rising directly over the twin obelisk, even though fuzzy the second time around – will always have great meaning to me. And I still advise bringing more than one memory card, so if you lose some pictures, you don’t lose them all.

And there was a lesson to be learned in losing those sunrise on the Nile pictures – it’s about the memories, and not the things. My memories of the conversation with the young cabin steward – “me, here. Me, house. Me Madam, here,” – that’s at least as good as another set of sunrise photos!

And I didn’t have the right camera to take pictures of all the fish and coral – so I bought the book with the pictures to remind me of it all. Cost to rent mask and snorkel, $5.00, book with all the fish and coral in it $10.00, second best snorkeling in my life, priceless!

In everything on this trip, there were plusses and minuses, incredible highs and a few lows, but what a colorful mosaic they make. I think the weeklong cruise up and down the Nile, stopping every day at the doorstep of a temple, and watching everyday river life drift by as it has for millennia, was one of the highest spots.

Getting this cough, which has literally plagued me for four days now, from who knows where – pollution, dust, germs, airplane air, being in and out of air conditioning, a wide variety of temple bacteria, or King Tut’s revenge? Who knows, but for four days I’ve been hacking up half a lung, regularly, every few minutes. Maybe I’m bringing home something exotic that I forgot to get shots for… come to think of it, I never got the tuberculosis booster (laughing, but tentatively, and trying desperately to remember tuberculosis symptoms…)

I had the dreaded Explosive Diarrhea for a miserable day and a half – who knows what caused that (but my bet is the ice cream at Abu Simbel). I’d say at least half of the people in the group have been sick for several days here or there, but fortunately we all bounced back – some quickly, some slowly. But the sights and experiences have more than made up for being sick and in many cases motivated us to recover more quickly.

I know every one of us would take this trip again, although maybe not next week (cough, cough). We’re exhausted, but in a good way, and everyone will be glad to get back to our comfortable routines, and let all these memories that have been cram-packed into us start to fall into some kind of order. I would certainly do a group tour again (this was my first), particularly to “difficult destinations,” where the language, culture and customs are better dealt with when buffered by a guide to take care of all the logistics of travel arrangements. I got along really well with almost every one of our 35 travelers, and not one of them was a pain to be around.

The good memories far outweigh the little glitches – most of which were caused by Gate 1 not having offered this particular trip before, and the logistics haven’t quite been perfected yet.

I wouldn’t mind the cruise ship being a higher quality – cleaner, newer, more reliable hot water, more variety in the food, but I feel we definitely got our money’s worth. To experience so many moments that took my breath away (even before my “Temple Curse Cough”) has been incredible. And provided at what I feel was a great price. Their idea of 5 star is not my idea of 5 star, but I knew that coming in.

(Refer to Rule #1: “ The best thing to pack is a good attitude.”)

 

I could have never seen or done so much on my own, yet I rarely felt herded about. I heartily recommend this tour to those who want to see Egypt, and if you’re a single, as I was, the single supplement was the most reasonable I’ve found on any cruise I’ve been on. All of the highlights that I’ve dreamt of seeing and doing, I’ve seen and done. And at least for now (cough, cough) I’ve lived to tell the glorious tales.

 

Several hours later… STILL on the long flight to New York, with three and a half hours left to go! I just went back and re-read some of my memories and some of my ramblings. Well, it ain’t world class, and some of it sounds corny, self-absorbed and pedestrian, but I am very pleased that I pushed myself to write this. There are several incidents that I’d already forgotten – and even though there are some gaps that I forgot to record –having this account combined with my pictures and other souvenirs will make a fine way to look back at my trip for many years to come. And looking back at it all, there’s at least a few good pages that might be worth sharing.

Well, maybe I’ll try to take a little nap and rebuild some more of that all-important “good attitude” for the final push for home, since this next bit might be ugly, since Egypt Air wouldn’t check my luggage through to Seattle, and I’ll have to retrieve it, clear customs, get across JFK to another terminal, clear security again, check in and hope there’s enough time to get me on that flight to Seattle. Let’s hope my good luck holds out for this one last connection and luggage transfer!

 

Post script: late that night, safely home in Seattle…

 

My luggage made it to JFK! Customs was almost nonexistent, I didn’t even have to open my bags, and the Customs and Immigration official flashed me a big, warm smile and said “Welcome Home, sir.”

It was an easy walk to the Sky Train to transfer terminals -- once again, thanks to the wonderful invention of luggage on wheels – and the Luxor-repaired wheel on my luggage worked just like new… One stop on the Sky Train and I was at the Jet Blue terminal, where check in was painless and I had a bite or two of a sandwich -- sixth meal of the day? -- to kill some time while I waited for the last leg -- the flight home to Seattle.

I’d chosen a window seat on the right side of the plane, facing north – my only mistake in choosing sides for the whole trip – so I missed a lot of the total lunar eclipse out the windows to the south. I saw enough of it though when I got up to stretch my legs a few time – very beautiful, and I was just tired and punchy enough to even think about trying to photograph it. But I reconsidered, and decided to leave the pyramids and Cairo at sunrise as fitting “last pictures.”

I arrived in Seattle around 11:00pm, and crossed my fingers once last time – offering up a prayer to Ramses – hoping that my luggage would be there, one last time, and it was! Both pieces!

 

I very gratefully claimed my bags, found a taxi and headed home around midnight local time, finding my house to be safe and sound, and thus ending a most excellent adventure!

 

Thank you, for coming along with me – it’s been quite an adventure!

 

Happy trails to you, until we meet again…