Off to Egypt!

Arrived safe and sound! Glass of hibiscus juice to celebrate!
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Bring on the pyramids and temples!Traffic laws need not apply...It was quite insane when we first arrived. And, we for surely felt the heat. But, sometimes as a Canadian who has to brave a sometimes wicked winter - heat can be a nice change. But, then I am reminded we are entering the desert. Hmm...we'll see how this goes.

Cairo was great. I loved the Cairo museum that housed many Egyptian treasures - including most of the items from King Tut's tomb. Wow...the detail in his jewelry was superb. Everything was gold, gold, gold. And, he wasn't even a big king either. We also had a chance to check out the mummy part of the museum. There were basically 30 King and Queen mummies that were thousands of years old. And, the conditions of the mummies were fabulous too - you could see fingernails, eyelashes, hair on their heads. Now, they were 'mummified' so they had had some decent wear and tear. But, it's amazing to think they've been so well preserved for so many years.

I'm surviving the culture shock!

First night in Egypt and off for a dinner cruise on the Nile River! Hooray for great food!
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After the museum we headed to the Pyramids of Giza (which are the 3 largest pyramids in Egypt). We had the opportunity to go down inside one of the pyramids. You had to go down a ramp that required you to bend in half then slowly make your way down the ramp (which I would guess was no more than one meter high and 1 meter wide - claustrophobics beware!). You climbed back up another ramp once you reached the bottom and you reached a room that once held the dead King and his treasures. It is of course empty now. All the treasures were looted back in the day. But, it was really neat to be in the middle of a pyramid. But...it was boiling in there as there was no air movement. I thought it would have been cool - but we were all sweating buckets. It didn't take too long and then we were back outside of the pyramid (to be hassled by a few Egyptians! Eek!) and on our way to see the Sphinx. Which was also really neat to see.

Yup...it was a buffet...and there were amazing desserts!
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That evening we saw a Light and Sound Show outside the pyramids that told the story of the pyramids, Egypt, and the Sphinx. It was pretty cool to see the pyramids in different colors in the dark night. It was pitch black by about 6pm.

That night we had a sketchy train ride, traveling from Cairo to Aswan. The whole train smelt like an outhouse. Some people refused to step in the questionable bathroom...it was a 14 hour train ride! I braved it! And, survived. Not to mention the people working on the train had massive body odor issues! The only time in Egypt where I was truly scared to touch anything!