So Rich And Yet So Poor

There they are, the Pyramids, in the suburbs...
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First of all, a HUGE Thank You to Kathleen for coming from Canada to join me on this portion of my adventure.....

We began our trip in Cairo (population 16 million people and don't you know it!) and then proceeded down to Aswan where we jumped on our Felucca Sailboat and made our way leisurely over the next three days up to the second biggest city in Egypt, Luxor.

I met Kathleen at our hotel the night before our tour started and we celebrated our reunion with Champagne and Smarties!  She had endured a huge trek to get to me and I had merely flown in from London.  Our group is small, only 7 of us which is the perfect number for our Felucca Sailboat...more on that later.

Kathleen and I at the Pyramids of Giza
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We began our adventure with the top Egyptian Tourist Trap the great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphynix (built around 2700 BC) which are literally in a suburb of Cairo, we were driving along on the ring road around Cairo next to stores and auto garages and all of a sudden our view was shadowed by a huge edifice...the Pyramids.  It is insame...the poor Sphynix is staring at a Pizza Hut and KFC about 100 yards from his nose which thankfully fell off a couple of hundred years ago so he does not have to stand the stench of the fast food venues.  We ventured into the Second Pyramid - the Pyramid of Chephren - via this really small (about 4 ft high and 3 feet wide ramp which takes you into the belly of the building.  We were told not to take cameras in as picture taking is not allowed.  It was really disappointing that we were all very law obiding and obedient as once we arrived at the burial chamber room, there was no one but our group there and we could have had a field day taking pictures of each other lying in the empty sarcophagus.  We then proceeded to Cheops Boat Museum to view an original Spirit Boat or Sun Barge which was burried in a chamber next to the First Pyramid of Cheops.  The spirit boat is left for the dead to transport them to the next world.  It had striking resembelance to the Viking ships.  As we entered this museum we walked through a metal detector, not the first nor the last but I am mentioning it as they are everywhere, hotels, shopping malls, etc, and but not so comforting as you walk through and set it off almost every time and they just don't care, you just keep walking, no one checks you or runs after you...a bit disconcerting and quite a waste of time and money I think. As we entered this museum, I am still n ot to sure why, but we were given these canvas slipper things to walk around on the wooden floors...sweeping as we went (see picture of Kathleen just before the guard came over and told us off for horsing around).  Next was the Sphynix which according to all accounts has no real purpose other than being created as a place where the body of Chephren was prepared for burial.  The term Sphynix means "Father of Terror" although up close it is not so terrifying, actually quite a bit smaller than I thought it would be.

I had to pay them to wear these and mop the floors while I visited the Cheops Boat Museum
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We popped into a Papyrus making place and had a demonstration of the creation of this ancient technique.  Quite a simple process actually, just stripping the reed into small slices and then squeezing the water out of it.  Once it is dry, it is incredibly strong.  Kathleen and I purchased a painting of a Cartouche with our name in it.  A cartouche is a protective oval shape which contains the name of the King and Queen in the pictures and carvings in Egyptian artwork.

We then proceeded to the Egyptian Museum and viewed the extensive collection of Egyptian antiquities.  There are hundreds of pieces to see and although our guide Hanna toured us around the most important ones (including Tutankamun and his insanely lavish collection for a boy of only 19) Kathleen and I relaxed in the sunshine of the gardens out front and had a nap to catch up on a bit of sleep.

Spirit boat left my the servants for the King from the first Pyramid to be used to carry him to the next life
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Finally, we jumped on an overnight train to Aswan....14 hours later (about 4 of which I slept) we arrived.  Aswan is in the south of Egypt near the boarder of Sudan.  Like most egyptian cities, Aswan looks very third world.  Not sure why this was a shock, but it certainly was.  Egypts population is growing by 1.5 million people a year the majority of those congregate in the cities resulting in huge slum areas as the majority of the population suffer from lack of  employment.    Although the majority of Egyptians work in agriculture, tourism is their most profitable and accessible form of employment.  Upon our arrival in Aswan we took off to the Aswan Dam and the Philae Temple which is on an island in the Nile.  The Dam was a tad disappointing although we did manage a nice pic of Kat and I hee hee.  The Philae Temple however was awesome.  The temple (created for Isis the Goddess of Magic and Protection) and the Gate of Hadrian originally resided in a place which was covered by the water of the Nile for 6 months every year due to the creation of the 2 dams.  A joint force of UNESCO Worl Heritage and other countries took the temple apart into 40,000 pieces and recreated it on an island safe from the damaging waters.  Kathleen and I went back the next night and viewed the ruins in a sound and light show which was greatly enhanced by a few Sara special cocktails I created and we put in our water bottles.  We also visited the souks in Aswan and created AKA names for ourselves as we were tired of being asked what is your name, where do you come from so I was Gina and Kat was Susan and Tom was Sandy.

Sphynix...not as big as you would think and he looks sad because he is looking out at a KFC and a Pizza Hut
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The next day we got up at 3:30 am to leave at 4 am to go to the Abu Simbel Temples which are about 40 km from the Sudanese boarded.  These temples  are over 20 m high and were created by Rameses II (who ruled from the time he was 9 until he was 96 and was the most famous and popular of all the kings) for he and Hathor (Goddess of Love and Pleasure) and his first wife Nefertari.  They were also moved as the creation of the dam would have caused the Nile to flood and ruin them as well.  The buildings were originally created facing east west so that the sun would shine right into the inner sanctum at the spring and autum solstice, however, when they were moved this meant that the sun now hits them one day later.   On our way home our guide Hanna took us to purchase Key of Life rings which according to Egyptian Legend you are to purchase one for every 10 years you want to continue living...I purchased 2, I guess I had better get back to Egypt before I turn 60 or I am toast!

Our Group..Karen, Simon, Elizabeth and Michael, Tom, Kat and Me!
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My favorite part of the next day was our camel ride!  We each jumped on a camel and headed out to St. Simeon's Monestary.  Although most of the country is Muslim, a small percentage are Christian and in Aswan they have the largest population of Christians in all of Egypt.  Our tour guide was a crazy Egyptian who took a liking (much to Tom's dismay) to a fellow in our group...we had to make a getaway quickly on our camels or he would have been scooped up

In the afternoon we boarded our Felucca Boat (not that you will not get it from the pictures, but imagine 10 people on a boat the size of 2 snooker tables...that was to be our home for the next 3 nights.  Thank goodness we all got along famously.  Our first night was at a beach with about 10 other boats.  Tom jumped right in the Nile and the rest of us were contemplating it when this swedish couple came up to me and said "excuse me, I do not mean to be a bitch, but we were told not to swim in the Nile as there is a very dangerous parasite in there)  Well as this message was delivered by the male of the couple, I attempted to stifle my laugh at his reference to not wanting to be perceived as a Bitch and thanked him very much for his warning.  We had been aware of this potential parasite, but were told that it does not usually appear in fast running water and the Nile is really fast running (you basically had to swim as hard as you could to stay in one place and prevent yourself from being swept away, it was essentially a big lap pool) I too however did subscribe to the swedish approach and other than my toes and some splashing on my arms and legs did not embrace swimming in the Nile.  I will check in on Tom in 5 years to see if the parasite has liquified his internal organs.  Unfortunately, the beach where we were staying although beautiful  was very crowded and not much sleep was to be had so needless to say, we were all very enthusiastic when we had the opportunity the next night to camp on a beach all my ourselves.  During the day we visited another temple in Kom Ombo and that night we had a great bonfire and played music and had a few games.  It was terrific, but I think I am getting templed out.  Kind of like in Europe with the churches....  The third day we visited the temple of Horus and that final night we pulled up near Edfu right next to a farm complete with cows and potential malaria mosquito breeding centre of a swamp.  It was an ideallic three days filled with card games (Texas Hold'em with rasins as chips) and chess (I still suck by the way) and reading and eating and snoozing.

Philiae Temple
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We disembarked in Edfu and had a police convoy to Luxor.  Due to past terrorist and guerilla attacks on tourists, whenever a tourist bus is travelling any great distance between cities they need to do so in a police supervised convoy...scared us a bit at first until we realized it is really just a form of employment for the locals as we never once saw our police escorts in cars, only the occasional guy on the side of the road with a rifle or when we passed through a police checkpoint.

Abu Simbel Temples
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Once in Luxor we visited the Karnak Temple via a caleche ride...it was so hot and we felt quite sorry for the horses, but they did appear to be well cared for as did all of the animals that our tour operator used.   The temple is a complex of buildings dedicated to the many pharohs who ruled Egypt.  There are the most sphynixs here than in all of the temples in Egypt but the greates sight is the forest of colums which contains 134 colums which are atleast 20 m high.  There are 2 obelisks which still remain standing and are created by one piece of granite each.  They weigh over 143 tonnes each.  We went back that night to see the sound and light show, but it was no where near as entertaining as the one in Philae and almost everyone in our group fell asleep.

Me on and my shadow on a Camel
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The next day we took Donkeys to the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatshepsut.  It was so much fun and my worries of getting a vertically challenged donkey were thankfully unfounded.  My feet had atleast 12 inches of clearance and he was by far the cutest.  Kat and I had toyed with the idea of taking a balloon ride to the Valley of the Kings, but in the end decided that it was not worth $400 US for 1 hour and we were so glad as the view we were afforded on our trip over the mountain was clearly superb to that we would have had in the baloon as you can see from the pictures, I think we were even higher than the balloons.  In the Valley of the Kings we visited 3 temples, that of Ramses the 4th, 9th and 11th.  Each one was very different, be each of them had the most amazingly well preserved paintings on the walls and the sarcophagus of Ramses the 4th was huge!  The Temple of Hatshepsut which is in the Valley of the Queens is in honour of the only woman to occupy the pharoh's thrown.  This was also the site of the terrorist attacks in 1997 and although there is no marker to commemorate the 80 tourists who were shot our guide pointed out the place where the attack happened.  Quite erie as we passed by I must admit.

Me and my Camel Jasminka!
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Kat and I flew to Cairo the next day and spent a leisurely (cause we have not rested enough) at a Movenpick hotel by the Cairo airport.  As Kat had to leave at 2 am for her 4 am flight we decided to stay awake by eating (yummy Chinese) and drinking (yummy red wine)...hindsight revealed that this was maybe not the best way to stay awake, but we managed it although Kat is lucky that the customs officials were not too picky at 4 am as she was a tad tipsy when boarding.  I on the other hand had the benefit of a bed, Advil and Gravol.

Kat Dusting The Spirit Ship Museum
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The next day, slightly fuzzy I headed to the airport and flew to Nairobi....