day 1 minus 1- miriam and bob arrived in philly after a very long ride from
williamsburg. Length of ride caused by accident on road. They looked
exhausted when they arrived.
Day 1- got an early start from philly. Ben and bob packed up the car with all
our suitcases and small carry-ons. They did an amazing job and we were off
to the airport in n.y. Unbeknownst to any of us, we had left the back doors of
our house completely open. Fortunately we turned down the heat and left the
lights on! Amazingly no one came into the house while it was open for a week.
Unless someone came in and didn’t like anything he/she saw. And they didn’t
even bother to dust. In either case, it was an insult to our belongings!
We made the plane with time to spare so we didn’t have to rush like crazies.
We noticed while we were walking to security that we had a bottle of water
with us. Ben requested that i get rid of it. i tried to, but there are no trash cans
anywhere because of the security. I dropped the bottle accidentally and
kicked it across the floor out of frustration. A minute or so later the bottle
came flying by us. At that point we let it go. We expected the airport to be
closed down at that time because of the bottle, but maybe no one saw it or
someone found a trash can.
The plane left a little late because a seat was broken. The flight to egypt is
about 11 hours so we had lots of time to eat and complain. We are on an
egyptian airliner and, unlike other planes we have been on, they are feeding
us. The flight is a full one.
I wake at 3am and i feel like i have been flogged. Everyone around me looks
like they have been flogged, too, except for the woman sitting in front of me
who looks like she has had her hair cut and styled during the flight. I find
that highly suspicious.
Ben sleeps most of the way because he fills himself up with pills. I am
cautioned to wake him for any food that comes by. I know this routine from
past flights so i am aware of what is expected of me.
Day 2- we arrived in cairo at 11am. By the time the suitcases are unloaded
and loaded again on the buses and the time waiting for our police escort and
the horrible cairo traffic we don’t get to the hotel until 2pm.
Cairo is an enormous city with a population of over 16,000,000. Most city
dwelling egyptians live in cairo. The people that don’t live here live in small
villages along the nile all the way to sudan. They are poor farmers. The
fertile land along the river does not spread out too much. We don’t have a
real good idea of cairo except that it is terribly crowded.
We get to hotel and are shown to our rooms and because of some horrific
noise miriam calls to change our rooms. They are doing some fixing at the
hotel and we are right over it. They move us to the tennis court view. Our
guide, saladin (i changed his name to protect myself) looks like he wants to
kill us already. The hotel is quite beautiful and huge and very well protected.
There are guards outside with guns and guard dogs and an x-ray machine at
every entrance. They are feeding us dinner tonight and then we can sleep in a
real bed till they roust us out in the morning. I think ben is already catching a
quick nap.
Day 3- they fed us a wonderful breakfast. We get the same food for breakfast
as all the other hotel guests. It is a beautiful buffet with wonderful goodies.
We had a meeting after breakfast to discuss our trip. I fell asleep so i heard
nothing, but luckily ben stayed awake. Today we go to the museum and then
to the house of a local person for dinner. This is something that grand circle
does on all its trips.
Spent afternoon at the museum. Amazing place. Artifacts piled all over
except for valuables that can be snatched. King tut’s treasures are incredible.
His gold funeral mask gave me goose bumps. Most of his stuff is in private
rooms, but some of it is out in the hall. There was a chance to pay extra to go
into a room filled with mummies, but i think i have seen enough mummies and
didn’t need to go there. Many countries stole artifacts from egypt, but largest
collection is still here. Tut’s treasures alone are enough to fill a museum. The
only problem with the museum is that it was very crowded and noisy. I
expected peace and quiet. I assume now that all the sites we go to will be
equally noisy and crowded. I made my first very foolish, but fun purchase
from a vendor. I bought what i thought was papyrus, but saladin said it was
banana leaves. At least i didn’t pay too much, but the vendor was very happy
so i obviously paid more than enough. I will learn to haggle very fast as we
only have 2 weeks here. We have a lecture today and then the home dinner.
Tomorrow the pyramids. A museum can be anywhere, but the pyramids can
only be in egypt.
Went to dinner at a rich person’s apartment. The food was wonderful and the
hostess was very gracious as was her son. They had a gorgeous apartment.
The family owns the entire building and the apartments are occupied by
different family members. That is the custom in egypt.
Left the apartment to drive back to hotel. The traffic was still terrible at
10pm. The city stays open till midnight.
We have a guard on our bus carrying an uzi! Yikes!
Is it because we are americans or do all tourists get guards?
Day 4- Tuesday-the muezzin calls from the minarets 5 times a day over a loud
speaker. He calls for about 15-20 minutes. He is calling the faithful to prayer.
I am enjoying the sound. I don’t notice many people rushing to pray, but
maybe i am not looking in the right places.
I cried when we first glimpsed the pyramids. They are not far from cairo on
the giza plateau. They are enormous even from this distance. We can see
three pyramids. The pharoah Khufu built the largest one. His son khafre is
the next largest and the smallest of the three was built to house
menkaure...these are father, son and grandson. There are 110 pyramids along
the nile. Some of them can be seen from the plateau. I don’t have the words to
describe what it is like to go up to the pyramid and bend your head back to
try to see the top. Khufu’s pyramid is still the most massive building on earth
and until the eiffel tower was built in the 1800's it was the tallest structure. It
is hard to believe we are standing here so close to something that i have longed
to see since i was a child. I feel very fortunate. There is a huge boat that was
dug up that was built for the pharaoh to use in the afterworld. They built a
lovely museum which we tour. The boat is beautifully made and beautifully
set up. It is suspended from the ceiling of the museum.
After we see the boat we go to the sphinx! It is on the same plateau, but the
distances are large so we are taken by bus. The sphinx is gigantic and was
carved from a single block of sandstone probably for the pharaoh khafre.
This is assumed since it is in front of his pyramid. The face has been mostly
eroded away. They are building some brick walls around the sphinx to try to
prevent further damage.
We are off to saqqara with a stop for lunch. The lunch is not great, but ok,
but at least it is cool and we can use the bathrooms. There are not many pit
stops on the trip. Actually i don’t think we need too many. It is hot and one
gets dried out very quickly.
Next we go to saqqara to see djoser’s step pyramid. This is much older than
khufu’s and built as a series of huge steps. It is also enormous and it is from
here that we can see the other pyramids on the giza plateau and some more
pyramids in the distance. We are about 20 miles from giza, but there is
nothing to block our view. It is hard to judge distances across this huge
desert. It is also very hazy so you don’t get a clear view.
When one crosses from the fertile green ground that surrounds the nile into
the desert the line of demarcation is abrupt. It is as if someone carved a line
in the land...grass on one side...no grass on the other. When the wind blows
the sand does, too, and it hurts when it hits bare skin.
I purchased some more trinkets with my newly acquired bargaining skill. I
bought some beaded necklaces. We had a stop at a rug factory on the way
back to the hotel. We also bought a rug to have shipped home. Did we need
it? We are not even sure it is a real rug. It is a real rug, but we are not sure it
is the rug we purchased. There is no label on it.
Saladin wrote our names in arabic on our cards and we made the mistake of
wearing them when we went out. Everyone knows the names of the americans
now. I also bought two headpieces which i know nate will enjoy having. He
will look like lawrence of arabia. The vendors are terrible nudniks. If you
look at them at all you are lost. They will follow you to the ends of the earth
and if you make the mistake of speaking (which i did!) they will follow you off
the end of the earth. We also had a chance to ride a camel for 2 minutes for
$5., but i decided my bones could not take that. Some people also chose to
crawl into a pyramid. The ceiling in the passageway was only 3 feet high and i
didn’t think my back could take that. Ben didn’t go either and neither did
miriam or bob.
It is fun being with miriam and bob. Glad they joined us.
This was a tiring day. We got back in time for dinner and we got to bed early.
Tomorrow most of the group is going to alexandria, but ben, miriam, bob and
i opted to relax at the pool.
Wednesday-day 5- When the group returns from alexandria they are not so
enthusiastic about their 4 hour round trip and most of them tell us we made a
wise choice. We sat by the pool all day. We did not swim. We chatted and ate
a bit and read a bit and had a nice relaxing time. We stayed at the pool all
day and had dinner at joe’s steakhouse and it cost us a fortune. The hotel
adds the tip and the bill says you can leave more. Bob saw that after we left
and felt bad that he hadn’t left more. We didn’t feel bad at all and i don’t
really think bob felt bad either. Ben didn’t even think his steak was that
good, but my chicken was very good, but not worth $100. The service and
the room were lovely.
The restaurant is in the palace part of the hotel. This building was built to
honor napoleon 3rd and his wife eugenie when the suez canal was opened in
the 1850's. A frenchman by the name of ferdinand de lesseps built the canal
for the egyptians which is why napoleon and his wife came to cairo. This is a
beautiful building and there are still many original pieces of furniture around
that were built at the time. The hotel has since added two huge towers and the
garden rooms that we stayed in. Last night we ate at the italian restaurant
which was also good. I wore a white blouse and spilled my dinner on it. I’m
surprised i have only done that one time.
Thursday- today we visited the citadel fortress which was started in the 1200s
and added on to over the centuries. Inside the citadel there is a huge mosque.
We had to take our shoes off to go in and when we came out i fell down a step.
I never saw it! Ben insists he was following behind me and i disappeared. I
wasn’t badly injured just two bloody knees and lots of dirt, but i was shook
up. Everyone was kind and someone brought me a chair to rest on. Saladin
offered to take me to the dr., but that wasn’t necessary. I just needed two
bandaids and my pants needed a wash. Took the four of us forever to find our
way out of the citadel. We had to make a pit stop which was truly a pit stop.
..it was a hole in the floor....yech! It was very crowded and we had to stand on
a long line. At the door to every w.c. there is someone selling a snippet of
toilet paper for .25 cents. Ben and bob said the men’s room was quite nice.
Of course.
While we were standing on line a group of children was behind us. One of the
children puffed his chest out and in his best english welcomed us to egypt.
The children were very sweet and asked us lots of questions. The young girls
all wear head scarves. The chic young women don’t and the older ladies and
the village ladies do. We hardly saw anyone with a full mask on except for
some saudi women in the hotel who were also walking 10 feet behind the men.
They looked very richly dressed.
After the mosque we went to our bazaar experience at the khan al kalili. It is
an area of cairo that consists of small alleyways completely filled with sellers
of everything. The area dates back to the middle ages and the shops are
handed down in the family. I bought a cotton scarf that turned out to be
acrylic and 2 cotton shirts made in china and the shopkeepers all told me
what a sharp businesswoman i am!! Yeah, right! Miriam bought me a little
egyptian bag after i fell. That was very sweet of her.
We had lunch at the hotel and then went off to 2 churches and the synagogue.
The only synagogue in egypt! We were told that there are only 63 jews in
cairo. Miriam said she wouldn’t want to be part of a group that everyone
knows the exact number of. I agreed.
The churches were all guarded. The synagogue had more guards and a metal
detector. There are 10,000 coptic christians in cairo. Remember this is out of
a population of 16,000,000 muslims. The guards at the churches and the
synagogue also were heavily armed with uzis and some were behind bullet
proof shields. The churches were celebrating easter and saladin made a big
point of telling us that this was unusual for all the churches to have easter at
the same time. Ben asked me to remind saladin that it was also passover. He
did not look happy about that. You won’t believe this, but there was not one
piece of matzo around. One of the churches is believed to be where jesus and
mary and joseph slept when they had to escape from israel. I’m sorry i don’t
know what this story is.
We had dinner at the hotel and then had to check out because tomorrow we
get up at 2:15 am to take a plane to aswan. We will have breakfast at 2:30am
and leave the hotel by 3:30am. We will be landing in aswan and go to visit the
dam which they are all very proud of. This dam was very necessary to control
the flooding of the nile. There are now also 5 locks on the nile around the
cataracts. And some monumental monuments were cut up and moved so they
wouldn’t be submerged beneath the river and lost from sight forever. There
is a huge lake called lake nasser. The dam is not impressive to see. It is very
large, but most of it is hidden behind the water of the lake. The dam was built
by the russians. Egypt badly needed the hydroelectric power that they get
from the dam.
Friday- well, we got up and did everything we had to do and we got to the
riverboat the ss anuket. It is hot as hell in aswan. Cairo was not as bad. Here
it is 104 and climbing. The ship is very nice, but we can’t take a lot of
advantage of the top deck. It is extremely hot up there and we don’t have a lot
of extra time. I’m surprised that i am still awake right now, but we did
manage to eat lunch which was quite good. They also have a buffet with a
very large variety and fresh pasta cooked on the spot.
My suitcase just broke. The zipper was ripped off and the lock was gone! I
don’t think anything was taken, but it is hard to tell.
There is a felucca ride (sailboat to you) at 3:45pm. I shall skip that. I’m too
tired to leave the boat. I will sit on the hot deck and try to read.
They are back from their sailing experience. Miriam fell while getting off the
boat. She says she escaped injury because saladin and bob were hanging on
to her. That is good news. We heard that another woman fell and had to go
to the hospital to be hydrated. She fell again a few days later. I guess she
didn’t learn her lesson.
we had a delicious dinner and then a show. It was quite awful except for the
“whirling dervish” who managed to keep his balance and spin a cape at the
same time. Some of the people in the audience participated in a very
ridiculous skit...embarrassing really both for the leader and the participants.
Someone filmed the entire show so i suspect they will make a dvd to try to sell
us. (The next morning they were selling the dvd outside the dining room)
Sat.-April 3, 2010- got up at 3:15 am. They let us sleep late today@#$%^&.
Breakfast at 4:00am and on the bus at 5am. We were also given a box of
snacks to take along on the trip. We had a 3 hour bus trip through the sahara
south towards the sudan to abu simbel. We also had a guard with an uzi.
Abu simbel was moved piece by careful piece to a newly made island to
preserve it. It is the temple of rameses II and nearby is a temple dedicated to
his favorite wife, nefertari. He had 50 wives, 60 sons and 100 daughters. That
is quite a bunch for anyone to care for. I don’t know what kind of father he
was. How do you remember the names of 160 children??? He was always
busy supervising the building of new monuments to himself. The dam, we
were told, raised the level of the water 250 feet. Even though the temples are
huge they would have been lost in the deluge. The dam took years to build
and years to cut up the temples and move them. It was obviously an
outstanding job and you would never guess from seeing them that they were
cut up and moved. Because of money that the u.s. donated the metropolitan
museum in n.y. was given a small temple as a gift. The statues of rameses are
65 feet high and the temple is filled with little side rooms. These were
probably for the very powerful priests. the further you entered into the
temple the more sacred the rooms became. Only the pharoah and the priests
were allowed into the very depths. It was terribly hot on the island and even
hotter inside the temple. I didn’t feel very well there. Dehydration happens
very fast and you have to be very aware of drinking lots of water.
We slept a lot on the three hour trip across the desert and slept a lot on the
equally long trip home. However we were awake enuff to see our first mirage.
It was amazing. It looked like a huge lake in the middle of the desert. It was
so incredibly real looking.
The vendors are impossible. They lie, of course, to try to get huge sums of
money from you. Nothing is real, but they claim it is. I got robbed on a
necklace, but i am giving it to sara and hopefully she will like it. Everyone is
paying way too much for everything they are buying, but that is part of the
fun experience.
Tonight we went to the spice market. Ran another gauntlet past the vendors.
I have such a headache. The market is 2 ½ miles long and very busy. I did
buy bookmarks from some child and a fuzzy camel purse for fabby. Ben
insists that i am buying more than anyone else, but it is mostly small things for
our grandchildren. I love to do that.
Sunday- i have lost track of time and days. In fact, most of our fellow
travelers look slightly dazed.
Today the nubians were on board. We are at their city now which they were
moved to when the dam was built and they were flooded out. Ben bought a
necklace from them and i bought a hat for nate. I also ordered a t-shirt for
nate with a cartouche of his name. Hope he likes it. I think we are finished
buying. Yeah, right! ( Got home, but nate’s shirt didn’t. Someone named
nate on the ss anuket must have taken it. Too bad.)
Went to temple of philae. It, too, was moved because of the dam. It was
another amazing sight, but again incredibly hot and someone fainted and fell
flat on his face onto the rocks. It was amazing that he avoided breaking his
nose. He is ok.
Bob fell getting on the boat which we took to the temple, but he caught himself
with his cane and only twisted himself. Not good, but at least he didn’t break
anything. There are too many unseen steps around here. There are no trees
and constant sun so there are no shadows anywhere to give a indication of
distance or height.
The temples are so unreal looking. I guess because we have seen so many
pictures it is hard to believe one is not looking at another picture.
Right now we are sailing down the nile to kom ombo which is where the
nubians were settled. I have read about these places all my life and now i am
seeing that they are real. I keep pinching myself to check if i am really here.
We are staying overnight here and tomorrow we sail for edfu and another
temple.
We also visited the papyrus institute. Another place for us to shop. We saw
how papyrus is made and bought a bunch for gifts for us and the children.
We think they are lovely and very interesting. Since the papyrus is wrapped
in the shop you really can’t get a good look at what you are buying unless you
watch every move they are making. Miriam came home to discover she got an
inferior piece to the one she thought she had purchased. She wrote them and
they actually sent her another piece. Wonder of wonders!!
I finally mailed some postcards which i was told would be delivered to the
states in 15 days. Tonight we are having a festive lamb dinner for easter.
The lamb was mutton..not lamb. But the dinner was nicely presented. The
staff is very pleasant and works very hard to please.
We got to kom ombo in 3 hours. We decided to visit the temples after all.
These are temples dedicated to the gods horus and sobek. They were fairly
new at only 2,000 years old dating back to ptolemaic times. Ptolemy was one
of alexander the great’s generals and he started his own dynasty when the
greeks overran egypt. That is also when alexandria was begun. This was a
few years ago in about 300b.c. Cleopatra was a descendant of the Ptolemys.
The temples were also defaced by egyptian christians. In rome the churches
were built over the temples. I’m sure there are some like that here, too.
Thank goodness the temple was not very large, but it was very good with some
marvelous hieroglyphs.
More vendors.
Another person fell. We are dropping like flies. This is a tough trip mainly
because of the heat and the uneven ground. Even i look good next to some of
the people on the trip. At least i am drinking a lot of water. Ben is trudging
along and is doing very well. He has much more energy than i do.
We had some more very silly entertainment after dinner. We left early as we
couldn’t stand it. We are such poopers. Most of the people stayed late. I
would much rather have a good lecture, but i think i am in the minority.
April 5, 2010-Monday morning- today is fabby’s 4th birthday!! Happy
birthday, big girl!!
I woke to the sound of engines starting at 6am. We are continuing our trip
down the nile to edfu. It truly is amazing to ride on this river. The fertile area
is basically a very small area and the desert is all consuming. We just passed
one tiny village. I’m sure life has not changed here in 5,000 years or 10,000
years. We see men rowing tiny boats and cattle grazing in the grass. I wish i
could write better. This scenery deserves poetry.
This afternoon we had a lecture from sam the woman. She showed us how to
tie a head scarf which she has worn for a few years. She also answered some of
our questions. Said the face mask is not a religious issue, but a traditional
one. She calls the people who wear them “stupid”. I thought that was harsh
and strange, but she was very adamant. She also said how wonderful egypt
and islam are, but they all do that. I understand why they would defend their
country and religion and i understand also that this country is not a
democracy. They can talk, but not too much. They also are very concerned
that we should take home a good impression of their country so we can
influence others to go there.
She also did not speak with any familiarity about israel. They are next door
neighbors for pete’s sake! It is definitely not a subject that they are
encouraged to talk about. Here are two of the oldest civilizations on earth and
one totally ignores the other.
This afternoon we went to an amazing temple at Edfu. The pylons are huge
and so was the temple. It was built during ptolemaic times so it is only 2,000
years old. We nearly lost bob. Luckily he sat down before he fell. I believe
that he had not been drinking enough water. We don’t feel that thirsty, but
we are losing huge amounts of water because of the horrible dry heat.
Anyway, we took him to a cool spot to rest and miriam was pouring water
over him and urging him to drink. Each of us sat with him for a while to
allow him to recover while we took turns going into the temple. Bob said i was
even tougher than miriam. They don’t call me nurse ratchett for nothing!
The temple, while marvelous, was very dark inside and we couldn’t explore
much because we couldn’t see. What we could see of the carvings were
wonderful. Apparently the british troops in the early part of the 20th century
used the temple for target practice. They showed a wonderful regard for
historically important places... bless them.
On the way back to the buses ben took a slightly different route and we had to
wait a few minutes for him. He went through the bazaar area which is a
dangerous thing to do. If it had been i who took that route, i would never
have emerged alive.
Tonight we had an egyptian dinner. I enjoyed the falafel and salad. Miriam
had arranged a little surprise for bob. They brought out a cake and candles
and we all sang happy birthday to him. That was very nice.
Tonight was the galabeya party. Galabeyas are the long loose dresses that
both the men and women wear. People who had bought them donned them
and those of us who didn’t buy them didn’t don them. There are a few people
that participate in all the activities. Good for them. I can’t. Someone took
pictures of the party, as usual, and they were on sale in the shop area.
We also watched our boat go through a lock on the river. We probably
dropped about 20 feet or more to get under a bridge. It was very interesting.
All this time we have been floating down the river to Esna and we arrived. We
then went to Luxor. We stay here overnight and tomorrow we are going to
the valley of the kings...another 5am wake-up. We leave ship at 6:30 and after
the valley the rest of the day is quiet.
By the way, some of the women on the ship looked like mummies in their
galabeyas. Galabeyas are definitely not for everyone.
Tuesday- April 6- we are in luxor. We were awakened at 4am by the damn
muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. I enjoyed the sound when we first got
here, but now i want to strangle him. The people on the side of the boat
opposite to us can’t hear him. Aren’t they lucky!
Had breakfast and then we were off to the valley. We drove about 40
minutes. On the way to the valley we passed a huge temple complex in luxor
which in the old days was called thebes. The valley is just another amazing
site in a country full of them. It is surrounded by large hills one of which is
shaped like a pyramid. ( There is a police tower on the hill next to this one. I
hope they do their job. There is a lot of police presence here. )
We were told that the pyramid shaped hill is the reason the ancients chose this
spot. I think the ancients also expected to keep the tombs a secret, but it did
not happen. The pyramids were robbed as soon as they were built and so
were the tombs. I think it was the guards that did the robbing. The workers
doing the building would not have had the energy.
We visited two tombs. My leg was hurting too much to do anymore. Ben
insisted he was going to visit the one in which you had to go down a narrow 80
step staircase, but he didn’t. Anyway, we saw the tombs of rameses III and
rameses IX. They were gorgeous. The hieroglyphs were the most fantastic
we saw anywhere. The colors were as bright as if they had been painted just
before we got there. We were not allowed to take any photos in the tombs so i
have got to keep all these pictures in my head.
We could have paid extra to go in to the tombs of rameses VI and
tutankamun, but we didn’t. There were an awful lot of rameses tombs. He
had a lot of children as i mentioned earlier. Someone found a huge tomb
containing 55 of his sons. Good lord! There were also at least 12 rulers
named rameses. Don’t know if they were called by name or number or had a
different name when they became pharoah. The tomb of thutmosis was the
one that was 80 steps straight down. I guess they thought if they buried him
deeply no one would find him, but that didn’t help.
As we all know now, the tomb of tutankhamun was the only one that was
preserved fairly intact with tons of treasure. He was such a minor king and
ruled only for a short period of time. No one can imagine how much treasure
there must have been in the tomb of rameses II who ruled for such an
incredibly long time and lived for 94 years. The tombs were started as soon as
the pharaoh ascended the throne, as were the pyramids. If the king died
before the tomb was finished, it was left in its unfinished state so the workers
could go on to start one for the next king.
Two tombs were enuff for us to see and mull over while we were sitting down
in a slightly shaded spot drinking our warm water. I never thought warm
water could taste so good. The guides told us not to drink cold water. They
said it is not good for us. I don’t know if that is true or just to cover
themselves for not having cold water.
The tombs are carved very deeply into the hills and one can only wonder how
the ancients did this with the copper and stone tools that they had.
Luckily we went to the tombs early in the morning because it becomes
unbearably hot in the valley, as it does all over the south of egypt as the day
goes on. The crowds multiply, too. I don’t know why i thought we would not
have crowds around us everywhere i went. There is no place on earth now
that doesn’t have crowds.
After the valley we went to al dier el bahri, the tomb of queen hatshepsut. She
stole the crown from her son and put on a fake beard to fool everyone and
ruled for 20 years and built a wonderful tomb. Her tomb is cut into the side of
a hill and fits in beautifully. It is almost neoclassical in its design. So different
from the tombs of the other pharaohs. It was carved in 1550 b.c. The
columns are straight not curved to look like lotuses or papyrus as in the other
temples. The whole area around her tomb is littered with holes cut into the
hills that are the burial places of nobles. We were told there were probably
about 6,000 tombs in all. Poor hatshepsut was not beloved by her son when he
finally came of age to rule. In fact, he tried to erase all carvings depicting her
from the sides of temples.
After the valley we went to an alabaster factory where ben bought a scarab
and saladin told them to throw in a gorgeous amber necklace for me. It is
pink amber which i have never seen and beautiful. Ben is hoping that the
scarab is an antique. I think it is antique, but not ancient. Ben has been
having bad feelings about the scarab since we got home. It is cute, but not
worth what he paid for it. I think our guide must get a percentage of
everything that gets sold on these trips. It is a good business for him. My
necklace is pretty, but i am not sure now what it is!
On the way back to the boat we stopped to see the colossi of memnon which
are not as good as they look in photos. They are huge and at the edge of a
large field that is still being excavated. They are dedicated to the pharaoh
amenophis who was the father of akhenaten and the grandfather of tut.
Tonight we had a tasty, but tough dinner and a wonderful dessert. After
dinner we went to a cotton store with miriam and bob. Bob bought a shirt
and miriam bought something for her expected grandchild. There was no
negotiating at this store. Ben tried to bargain, but to no avail.
Most of our group went for a horse and buggy ride and a trip to a café, but we
opted out. We decided we don’t have to do all these things.
The horse ride cost each person $35. We were told we could go for $1. each,
but i was afraid they would drop us off somewhere and charge us $100. to get
back. I don’t trust anyone!
Wednesday-April 7- today we sail down the river and then sail back.
Awakened at 4am by the damned muezzin again. He sounds as if he is right
outside my window...may allah rip his tongue out.
At 6am on the dot we set sail for Quena (kena). We have a short ride then to
go see the temple of dendera. Dendera is a very well preserved temple. It was
dedicated to the goddess hathor and the rite of birthing. Beautiful columns
inside and marvelous colors still apparent. I managed to lose my hat, but
fortunately someone found it. It could only be an american’s because it has a
phillies logo on it.
we have one more full day of touring and then Friday we have a wasted day
flying back to cairo. They haven’t told us what ungodly time we will have to
get up yet.
Had early breakfast and sat with the tea partiers. They are very opinionated,
but to their credit have not mentioned politics.
Met another couple whose daughter was in the peace corps. She was stationed
in gabon and had a much nicer experience than allison did. Her husband was
ill yesterday with the pharaoh’s revenge and today she said “he arose like a
phoenix from the ashes of the toilet”. We were happy to hear that.
We went to a lecture today on modern egypt given by another one of our
guides, sam the man. This is when we learned that nearly everything we
bought was made in china with arabic labels. The vendors all say “no china”
when they try to sell you something. Lecture was interesting. I fell asleep
during part of it, but i think i heard most of it. I did manage to ask a
question. I had heard that mohommed al baradei was planning on running
for president of egypt. He was formally in charge of the atomic energy
watchdog committee. We were told that he bowed out. I don’t know how
gracefully he bowed out because i have since heard he is under house arrest.
We also learned that egypt is very poor...no surprise there. Has a huge
population which lives either in cairo or on the narrow strip of land bordering
the nile.
We are sailing back to luxor now. It is taking longer than this morning.
Dendera temple is downstream of luxor so we went fairly fast. We are now
going against the current of this immense river so it is taking a little longer.
Tonight we ate and after dinner we saw “death on the nile” by agatha
christie. She and her husband, who was an archeologist, spent a lot of time in
egypt in the early 1900's and she wrote while she was staying at a luxurious
hotel.
Today we were told that on Friday we are leaving the boat on 3 separate buses
and are taking 3 planes to cairo. We surmised it was either cheaper for grand
circle to do it that way or else they are splitting up the americans to make us
less of a target. The terrorists are busy lately bombing baghad so we figure
they could come here, too. I think, however, that the egyptians are very
careful about letting them in since it would be a blow to tourism and they are
not stupid. I am cursing Geo. Bush and hoping that he gets bitten by a very
large and very venomous cobra.
Ashkof, our maid, makes funny things out of towels every night to amuse us.
He made a flower, a cobra and tonight he hung a pharaoh from the ceiling.
We got a talk today on how much to tip everyone. I don’t like that, but i guess
they feel people won’t do it unless they are told. Who knows??
Last night a waiter quit during dinner. The manager ran after him, but it
didn’t help. We did not see him today. We don’t know what happened.
Thursday- the balloonists had to rise at 4am just a little after i was awakened
by that cursed “prayer man”, may he become a wart on the tush of a camel
and be sat upon every day. When the balloonists returned we all went to the
temple of karnak. Karnak is an immense temple and
the one that is shown in all the photos of egypt with
all the huge columns. It is called the hypostyle hall.
There are over one hundred huge columns. The
temple site covers 60 acres and is still being
excavated. The plan is to link karnak with the temple
of thebes (over a mile away) which it was once
thought to be linked to. In the process some
buildings are being removed. They have already
removed a church and many houses of the poor.
There is a mosque in the way, too, but there is no talk
of taking that down in this nearly 100% Muslim
country. Both temples were amazing, but i am now
“templed out”. I told ben i was worn down to my
very essence. I am exhausted and overwhelmed by all
we have seen. It is time to go home and mull over all
of this. Jeff asked me to do some geocaching for him
which i tried to do. There were so many specific
questions to answer and I’m not sure i did a good job.
This photo of the tired (and probably starving) dog sleeping in the arms of an
ancient statue of a ram was taken at karnak temple. This is my favorite photo
of egypt. It is a perfect blending of the new and the ancient. To me it
exemplifies egypt. The old are treated with far greater reverence than the
new. A lot of money is put into restoring the ancient temples, pyramids,
tombs, etc., while i see the farmers working just as they have done for
thousands of years. I don’t see things changing a lot in the future. After we
got home i read that there was a riot in cairo protesting the long tenure of
president mubarak. Our guide did not call egypt a dictatorship, but, of
course, it is. It may be somewhat more benevolent than some others, but
nonetheless it has been ruled by one man for more than 30 years and now he
wants his son to succeed him. As no opposition is allowed, the son will likely
succeed in this quest.
tonight is our farewell dinner and the “baked alaska procession”. They
obviously don’t know that they have a baked alaska procession at jewish
weddings or they wouldn’t do it! They are also serving a complimentary drink.
Fortunately there is always at least one non-alcoholic drink for moi and people
like moi.
It is 6pm and prayer man just went off!
He woke me at 4am again this morning. I will be so happy to not hear him
again.
Friday-April 9, 2010- they got us up at 5:30am except that we were up since
4am thanks to prayer man. I have not seen many people drop what they are
doing and run to pray when prayer man calls. Maybe they pray in their heads.
Today is the Muslim shabbat so there is not much traffic on the road. We
arrived back to Marriott in Cairo by 12pm. I had a window seat flying to cairo,
but couldn’t see a thing. There is too much haze and dust and no rain to wash it
away. There is no point in unpacking our luggage when it arrives because we
have to get up at 4am Saturday to catch our flight back to n.y. The system here
is so inefficient. Everything goes around in circles. This extra day is a wasted
day for everyone except for the porters who carry our baggage around.
Yesterday saladin mentioned the battle at Megiddo that is now referred to as
armageddon. Did he mention that Megiddo is in Israel? I don’t think so.
Anyway we should have stayed at the airport instead of schlepping back and
forth to the hotel. They are having one more turn to kill us. Ben said on his next
trip he wants to go alone. I said “good”. Tours are hard, but i wouldn’t want to
go by ourselves. We are too old to go out of the country by ourselves anymore.
We just heard that there are riots in Kyrgystan. It is in central Asia. The people
look Mongolian. There are also riots in Bangkok. No news about Egypt or
Mubarak. By the way, we have passed many many pictures of mubarak posted
on walls around the country.
We decided to go out of the hotel compound with bob and miriam to have some
lunch. This was not as easy to do as it sounds. We finally found our way to the
street and found an old British pub called “Thomas”. It took about 10 minutes
to cross the street. The pizza was great and Miriam got a wonderful piece of
cake for dessert that she graciously shared. I broke out in hives.
After lunch ben and bob went to sleep and Miriam and i went to look for a
museum. We never found it. No surprise there.
We came back to hotel and found ben and bob at the farewell reception. We
finally got there, but all the food was gone.
We had an interesting dinner. Ben went to sleep and miriam and bob and i went
to the bakery for dinner! We should have gone there for all our meals. We each
had a delicious dessert and bought ben a gigantic croissant. Miriam and bob
treated me which was even nicer.
Saturday-April 10, 2010
We had to get up before the crack of dawn again on Saturday to put out luggage,
and go to breakfast and get on plane for the airport. We arrived home safely
after a 12 hour flight. They made us take off our shoes at the airport and they
took my wonderful little scissors away!
I just put the one picture in this story which i think sums up today’s egypt. It is
a wonderful country with much to offer the world in the way of ancient history,
but we didn’t get the feeling that its modern history is anything to brag about.
In fact, when we asked one of our guides about immigration his question was
“why would anyone want to come to egypt?”. It is a third world country with
enormous poverty and not much in the way of manufacturing. It cannot
continue to exist merely on the tourist trade which is dependent on how safe they
keep the country. They must attract many different peoples with different ideas
and i don’t see that happening. They are a muslim country and i think they
welcome other muslims, but i think the doors are not open wide to anyone who is
not a muslim unless, of course, they are a tourist with lots of money to spend. In
that regard, they do not get many tourists from the united states. I think u.s.
tourists are still afraid to go there. They are working on updating the
monuments, but that is not enough. They must also upgrade their farming
methods which are at best the same they have used for the past 5,000 years. I
wish them luck.
We enjoyed our visit very much. Unfortunately we felt cheated at some of the
gifts we bought, but “buyer beware”!
I feel fortunate to have finally visited the land of the pharaohs...a place i have
dreamed about going to since i was a small child.
There were friends of ours who were concerned that we were traveling to such a
dangerous country. I suppose when you must go around accompanied by armed
guards than you are indeed in a dangerous country. I just recently read in the
paper that anyone in Egypt who is married to an Israeli must divorce or leave
the country. Of course, if the Israeli is an arab than they need not worry. The
article said there are about 30,000 people in the country that are affected by that
law. I still find it hard to believe that Jews can live in that country. I would be a
nervous wreck all the time.
Miriam found that she was missing a blouse when she arrived home. Too bad. I
guess someone else liked it. it was a lovely blouse.
Forgot to mention, in case you have forgotten, that the nile is the longest river in
the world. That is very impressive.
One more note, in the interest of full disclosure. When we saw the ancient
temples in egypt, i thought they were found that way thousands of years after
they had been built. I was frankly amazed, but no one corrected my
misinterpretation. I have since found out that everything has been restored and
is still in the process of being restored. Even the pyramids showed some wear
and tear, but not much.
Addendum to text: since we got home there have been quite a few riots in egypt.
Today is jan. 2, 2011. A few days ago a coptic church in alexandria was bombed
by some terrorists. The government insisted that they are al quaeda, but i am
inclined to think they are home grown egyptians. There have been a few riots in
cairo since we got home and they were mostly protesting the long reign of
mubarak. As long as mubarak is in power the muslims do not completely
control the government. I am afraid when he is gone the muslims will take over
and convert egypt to a crazy muslim government. I’m glad we got to go to egypt
when we did because i certainly wouldn’t go now.
There was also a bus full of american tourists that crashed on the way to abu
simbel. This happened about a week ago. There is only one road to abu simbel
so that is the same road that we were on.
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