Wednesday - Bus ride back to Cairo

Not much going on today, another 9 hour bus ride to Cairo.  I am actually writing this on the bus.  Pretty comfortable, fortunately nobody is in the seat in front of me, if they were, with the seat laid back, I would have the top of their head in my face.  I may get lucky for the rest of the trip. (evening update: that didn't last long, and I did have his head in my face for 7 hours) Some of you have wondered how I do this blog. For those of who aren't skip this next section!

I did take my little laptop with me on this trip and I use the program "Windows Live Writer".  It allows me to write the entries and insert photos wherever I am and stores them for later uploading.  Usually that is in the hotel room each night.

Most hotels have WiFi access now.  Not always in the room, but usually in the lobby.  If a hotel doesn't, we can usually find an Internet cafe that has WiFi.  For the price of a drink or a sandwich, we can hop online to upload the blog, download our email, and check the news. (Rain in Twain Harte!)

As we have met a lot of people on this trip, many are traveling by themselves. Some for many months.  One thing that helps them is they are all "connected" with home.  All have their cell phones with the appropriate card, and all "instant message" family. 

Got into the hotel tonight, yes another 9 hours on the bus.  6:30AM is our van pickup to the western desert.  Heard it is quite primitive, you may not hear from us for 4 days.

Yes, I admit it, I miss Starbucks.

Tuesday - Scuba Diving

Met our scuba guide this morning, Ali, he was quite insistent that we needed to do a check-out dive, since we had no log book to prove we had dived in the last 6 months, (it has been two years),

Both Gloria and I have been diving for more than 30 years with around a hundred dives each under out belts, but he wasn't going to be talked out of it.

It was a bit laborious, but we satisfied him in our skill and knowledge, and had a relatively good dive.  Didn't go real deep, which was just as well since this was the only cloudy day since we have been in Egypt.

We did return at 4PM for our afternoon dive with a French guide.  It was fun just listening to her!  Felt like we were in "Ratatouille". (Thank you spell checker!).  Another shallow dive, around 50 feet, but some rather incredible coral gardens.  A good dive.  Now we can say that we have dived the Red Sea.

I have already talked about the economy a bit.  With the world economy in the dumper and the Iraq War, people are traveling a lot less, especially in the Middle East.  Gloria and I guessed that about one third of the buildings in town are either abandoned or they are partially built.

When we eat out once a day, if it is a "fancier" restaurant, and for every breakfast at our hotel, we are the only people eating.  ALL of the shops selling souvenirs are empty, some off the main track never see a shopper, I don't know how these people can even stay in business. And, this is the high season, I can't imagine what it is like in the summer when it hits 120 degrees!  Dinner was at a fancier restaurant, about $13 for the two of us.  It included, a large Greek salad, (their feta is almost as good as you find in Greece, spreads like butter!), lentil soup, a medium vege pizza, and one fanta.  And sure enough we were the only ones there except for the dog.

Almost 100% of the people here are from Europe, primarily southern Europe, (Italians are huge here) and eastern Europe, (numerous restaurants, and dive shops with only Russian signs).

Monday - St. Catherine's Monastery

As I mentioned yesterday, this is an oldie.  The problem with this visit was, again, the crush of people, it was absolutely impossible to move in the monastery, and indeed only two parts were open.  The  Basilica of the Transfiguration, with no photos, and a very grumpy looking Coptic Orthodox Christian priest sitting there glaring at you.  On our way through the Basilica, we were showed  a door from the 4th century.

The other accessible area was the "burning bush" remnant.  Tradition states that is straggly bush originated from Moses' burning bush encounter with God.   Again, a crush of people, none who spoke English all pushing and shoving to see and touch the bush.

A couple of notes on St. Catherine.  She was one of the most popular early Christian saints.  Born into a wealthy Alexandrian family in the early 4th century.  She was tortured for her beliefs, first spun on a spiked wheel, then beheaded. 

She did get the last "laugh" though. On her last "spin" the wheel fell apart killing all of her torturers. The 2nd string torturers cut her head off.

 

On a whole different note, the maids enjoy "bed art" here in Egypt.  Here are two of their latest creations from our towels!

This is a Daffy Duck pillow with two swans

We think this is a cross between a crocodile and a scorpion, with two swan escorts

Monday - Mt. Sinai

As promised, our taxi was here at 11PM last night for our trip to Mr. Sinai and St. Katherine's Monastery.  Six or so checkpoints and a couple of passport checks later, we arrive at our destination around 2AM, then a climb until 4:30AM.  Very cold, hundreds, if not a thousand plus people and at least  100 plus camels on the path to the summit.  The camels were everywhere as "sag wagons" for those who couldn't make it to the summit.

 

The last part of the trek was 750 steps.  Wouldn't have been to bad except for the crush of people in front of you and behind you.  As you neared the summit you could look into the valley behind you and think you were seeing Interstate 5 on the Grapevine; a steady line of flashlights.

 

That is the dust and camel poop we breathed for 2 and a half hours!

Once you get to the top, it is an hour and a half wait for sunrise.  So you rent a pad and camel blanket for $2 each, huddle up so you don't freeze, and try to catch a little sleep.

But the sunrise was spectacular!

We descended a different way then we went up.  We went down the "Steps of Repentance", 3,750 steps assembled by one monk many centuries ago as his penance to his faith.

Desolation beyond imagination.

Sunday - Snorkeling and leaving for Mt. Sinai

Hey, a day off!  Got up late this morning, (8AM for us), had a leisurely breakfast downstairs, then went out to the "Lagoona" for a couple of hours of relaxing and snorkeling.

Also entertainment.  This is THE place for windsurfing and kite surfing.  We have complained of the wind the last few days, not everybody does.  We counted over 75 windsurfers and probably 15 kitesurfers.

And it was windy.  We snorkeled around the point of the lagoon, dodging windsurfers.  The first 100 yards the water was about 3 feet deep, coral pretty close to your chest, then it dropped off endlessly.  A nice place to snorkel. Clear visibility, lots of healthy coral and many fish of all sizes.

The afternoon was pool time and time to catch up on the myriad of reading material we brought.

This is the view of the pool  A 5 star view for a 3 star hotel!  Our first shower was confusing.  Couldn't get the soap to lather up. Just attributed it to very hard water.  Next shower, I actually opened my mouth to see what was going on and discovered it was salt water!  Not sea salt concentration, but definitely salty, hence no lather.  Now we know why there are always a couple of packets of "Pert" shampoo in the bathroom, that is what we use for soap, it does lather.

Tonight we leave at 11pm for the beginning of our assault on "Moses Mountain", or Mt. Sinai.  After a 2 hour bus ride and a 2 hour hike, we arrive on the summit for sunrise.  On our way back tomorrow morning, we visit St. Catherine's Monastery, which they began building in 527AD, and is thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery in the world.

Saturday - Camel Trek and Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Another early taxi pickup to the camel staging area. We mounted our camels for an hour and a half ride on the coast to an excellent snorkeling area.

Ibrahim and his brother Achmed were our camel tenders as we rolled back and forth for several miles.  Camels are unique in that unlike horses or dogs, the two left legs move together, then the two right.  Hence the term "ships of the desert" because they sway back and forth like ships.  Also, their feet are like flattened toilet bowl plungers, great for walking on the sand or pebbles.

 

The camels were quite well behaved, Gloria's talked more than mine but they got up and lay down on command.  Quite a ride when they are doing so, you really need to hang on so you neither flip over their head or go sailing over their tail.

This is a view of the "village" where we stopped to snorkel and have tea.  About 20 people live here, Ibraham, Achmed, his 4 sisters and his parents, and about 12 more.  20 total.  They have electricity, but they have to bring all their water in by truck.  The mountains in the background are on the other side of the Gulf of Akaba, in Saudi Arabia.

Oh, so you don't think they are too backward, Ibraham has two cell phones, he was talking on them half the time we were trekking.

Snorkeling was excellent, went twice.  About 60 foot visibility, we are looking forward to the SCUBA in a few days.

Friday - The bus to Dahab

Not a really newsy day today.  Took a bus from Cairo to Dahab, it was a 7 hour bus ride that 9 hours.  Went through over a dozen checkpoints, and had our passports checked at least 6 times.  Unfortunately, terrorists have hit the Sinai resorts three times in the last 4 years, so everybody is a little edge.  Fortunately, they always hit the resorts on a holiday.  There aren't any in the next few days.

The above road sign, (besides the security concerns), are why we don't rent a car and drive out here.

This is the typical view in the Sinai Peninsula, very dry, nothing grows here.  No wonder the Israelites were so grumpy during there 40 years of wondering about.

After arriving in Dahab, we walked around a bit, checked out the Lonely Planet Guidebook and settled on this restaurant.  You choose which sea creature you would like to consume, they then cook it for you.  We chose the Sea Bass.  Here it is.

Along with the fish was soup, salad, pita bread, two dips, rice, (and bones).  Good meal.  Tomorrow is snorkeling and the camel ride.

Thursday - Cairo Museum

First of all, this is going to be a fairly short blog.  Photos are outlawed in the museum, indeed they did a fairly thorough metal detector and pat down of everyone who walks in the door.  If you have a camera, it has to be checked, similar to to a coat check.  If you are found with a camera, they either keep it or have you delete your entire card.  Needless to say, there were no cameras inside the museum.

The museum was built in the late 1800's and is similar to the British Museum in London.  It is huge! (and full of people). Fortunately, Ibraham was our guide so he took us to certain areas of the museum with a thorough explanation of each.  Without that your eyes would glaze over at the volume of artifacts, (120,000) at last count.

The are currently building a new museum out by the Giza Pyramids that is much larger and much more user friendly.  Many of the exhibits have no explanation in Arabic or English.  Indeed, they have another 150,000 artifacts in the basement, not on display.

The hallmark of the museum is King Tutankhamun tomb contents. As I believe I mentioned earlier, it was discovered intact, with very little disturbance in 3,500 years.  It actually took four years just to catalogue and empty the tomb in the 1920's.  The death mask is the most famous, and it is a spectacular in real life as in photos.  Also, the inner most sarcophagus is of solid gold, 253 pounds! The tomb contained over 1,400 artifacts.

The rest of the museum contained countless statues, jewelry, and mummies.  A couple of interesting foot notes.  When the Romans showed up on the seen about 200BC, they also mummified many who died.  But there twist on the process was to have the likeness of the individual painted on wood and bound to the face portion of the mummy.  So, they have discovered many mummies with faces on them!  These were primarily Roman citizens that had moved there, and their likenesses were as modern as you would see in the mirror.

Also, they discovered in a nobleman's tomb, many dioramas of normal Egyptian life some 4000 years ago.  They included a horse auction, spinning wool for fabric, scenes of sailing ships, home life, cooking, etc.  Each diorama was about 3 by 2 feet, the figures were about 6-8 inches tall.  All in perfect condition.

Much more to tell, but we did buy a couple of books for you to look at!

Thursday - Mosque - Church - Synagogue

After a relatively painless 11 hr. overnight train ride from Luxor, we arrived back in Cairo for one day to see the sights and hit the Cairo Museum.

Our guide today is Ibraham.  Tall guy, about 6'4", found out he used to be on the country's basketball team.  In year's past he studied in Germany, and knows English, German, Spanish and Arabic.  Very smart guy, really knows his history and is a devote Muslim.  So much so that he carries his prayer beads with him in the taxi, similar to rosary beads and has a flat spot on his forehead from his daily prayers.

First was the Citadel, home to Egypt's rulers for over 700 years.  Building was begun by Saladin in 1176.  It includes mosques, museums and battlements (vital during the Crusades).  However, it is dominated by the 19th century mosque of Mohammed Ali, (not the boxer). An interesting story is that he modeled it along lines of the great imperial Ottoman mosques of the day.  France offered to donate a large clock for the mosque if Ali would give him one of the Egyptian obelisks from the Luxor temple.  He agreed but to the country's despair since it was delivered in 1849 the clock has never worked and nobody, French or Egyptian, has bothered to fix it!

Much of it is constructed out of alabaster.  I thought only small perfume bottles were made out of alabaster.

Gloria did get busted when we went into the mosque,  her tee shirt and capris did not past muster with the ladies at the entrance, so they draped her in this special robe.  Interesting, there were only two other women at that time, out of several hundred that were similarly draped.

After the mosque we moved on to the Coptic Christian (Hanging)church.  Tradition tells us that this church was built where "The Holy Family", Joseph, Mary and Jesus, spent time when they traveled to Egypt.

Indeed, tradition states that this is the washbasin that they used.  History here is a bit fuzzy.  This church was built in the 4th century, then rebuilt in the 11th century.  It is called "hanging" because it was built on top of the Water Gate of the old Roman fortress. (There is glass in the floor so you can see how far above the ground you are).

Beautiful stained glass throughout the church.

Finally, we spent a few minutes in the Jewish Synagogue by the citadel.  Ibraham knew the rabbi there, they were quite good friends.

So, to finish this blog, I must report on my questioning of Ibraham concerning what the Koran says about non-Muslims.  When I asked him if indeed the Koran states that it is the Muslims right and responsibility to kill all non-Muslims, he seemed quite upset.  Not at me, but the notion.  First, he blamed all of this on the media after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.  He suggested I read the Koran itself, (one can get it on Amazon for less than $10) to see what Mohammed had to say.

First of all, he said that Allah told Mohammed that Muslims should never try to convert others to Islam if they weren't interested, ("not even your uncle").  And he also stated that Mohammed said in the Koran that people of all faiths, including Christians and Jews, (Koran was written around 500AD) should be respected and loved.

He went on to say that Muslims are to kill no one, especially women and children, and the only time they are to take someone else's life is in battle, when you look your enemy in the eye.

So, there you have it from a devoted Muslim.  Frankly, all I have heard about Islam is from either the media, or from a Christian spokesperson, I have not read the Koran myself. One has to question conclusions that may have been based on Koranic scripture taken out of context.  I am only the messenger here, but I do respect Ibraham's perspective.  He concluded by saying that it is all people's responsibility to love others, since God first loved us.

Wednesday - Ballooning and R&R

Wake up call today was at 4AM for a sunset hot air balloon ride over the Luxor Temples.  We were expecting a small group, maybe one balloon.  We counted about 20 balloons with 24 people in each basket, over 400 people careening around in the air above Luxor!

 

This is Mohammed our captain filling the balloon to take off.

 

 

A couple of views from the balloon, on the right this fellow is harvesting something that is about 4 feet deep loading into his basket to then put on his camel.

Here we are flying over Hatshepsut Temple

T0night we head back to Cairo for the Museum and the Citadel.

Tuesday - Hatshepsut Temple

Next on our agenda is this temple built by Egypt's only female King.  Long story here, but she was probably one of the smartest of all the pharaohs and ruled for for over 20 prosperous years.

This temple is so huge, it is hard to demonstrate its size with a photograph. Look at the ramp and the people on it.

Indeed all of her likeness show her as a man. 

I didn't want to include this in the blog, but the gals insisted.

At the beginning of her reign she was opposed by many in her government, so she went about to convince a few highly placed officials and the common Egyptian that she was "their man", this overwhelming approval gave her the support she needed to rule effectively.  She was rightfully fearful that when she died she would not be buried in the Valley of the Kings, behind her temple on the other side of the mountain.  As she ruled, she had her workers secretly dig through the mountain from the Valley of the Kings to the back of her palace so she could be taken directly to her burial site in the Valley of the Kings.  Alas, the tunnel was never completed and they had to transport her over land.  And, her tomb was plundered like all the rest of the pharaohs.

Our final trip was to the "worker's village".  No tour busses here.  But very interesting.  They uncovered the remains of where many of the artisans and workers for the king lived.  Probably equivalent to our middle class today.  They uncovered dormitories as well as homes for families.  They had bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. Also, under some of the homes were tombs for the men who lived there.  Two have been restored.  Although very small in size in comparison to the pharaoh's tombs, they were still as beautiful.  Indeed, these were to tombs of the artist's who decorated the pharaoh's tombs, why would they not do as nice a job on their own tombs!  Again, no photos inside, but this is a picture of the recently excavated town.

 

Finally, we had to bid farewell to our traveling buddy, Laura. She is moving on to Deheb tonight.  What we haven't mentioned yet is that we kept calling her Julie for the last three days.  For those of you who have been at Twain Harte Dental for a few years, you will know why.  She is Julie's lost sister and other daughter Margaret never told us about! Even her mannerisms and voice were identical to Julie's.

She is twenty, and as I mentioned before, a student at NYU. She is currently finishing a semester in Prague.  This summer she was in a small town in Namibia starting her own non-profit to build a library.  Her major is Music Business and once she gets her BA and law degree, she will be ready to tackle show business in either New York or Los Angeles.  Good luck Julie, huh Laura!

Tuesday - Valley of the Kings

From 1500BC on the pharaohs realized they needed to hide their tombs from robbers.  They learn their lesson from the Great Pyramids!

However, they still weren't successful.  In the Valley of the Kings are 62 burial chambers of all the subsequent kings to Tuthmosis I, and all but 3 had been broken into by thieves, the most famous being King Tutankhamun.

Indeed, they found another tomb in 2006, not of a king, for they have all been accounted for, but probably of a high priest.

Sorting through artifacts

And, as recently as last week, they uncovered another possible entrance to a tomb.

This is right out of the movie, "The Mummy"!  And Caltrans was there, they had numerous supervisors.

We were able to go into three tombs. Our guide, Heba chose which three.  Cameras are not allowed in the tombs, so no pictures.  Indeed what we saw were plastered walls with innumerable hieroglyphics, and many, many people.  Some tombs were immense and very elaborate, others quite small.  The size depended on the length the King ruled. The only exception was a king that ruled only a few years but his tomb was the largest of all 62.  Reason:  he put all of his energy and time into his own tomb and built no palaces for himself or his gods.

Here is Heba explaining all to our little group.  On the right is Laura, the student from NYU, and Mindy, a microbiologist from Indianapolis who joined us for the day.  Oh, Heba has a four year degree in Egyptology and is getting married in March.

Monday - Luxor Temple

Another creation of Amenhotep III and added to during the reign of Ramses II and finally "finished" by Alexander the Great.  They were a bit more focused with this temple in contrast to the Karnak.

A little different view, we visited it at night.

Monday - Karnak: Temple of Amun

This temple was primarily the product of King Ramses II, the most powerful and prolific off all the Kings.  It was huge, and one they are currently restoring.  A few pictures.

This temple was so massive, it is really hard to give it perspective with just a few photos.  During its first  incarnation, (subsequent kings added areas to the original temple), King Ramses II used 80,000 men to design and build this temple.