Catch up in Cairo

I haven’t kept up with my blog this past week because we’ve been so busy on our tour of Egypt! It’s been a terrific trip, and right now I am camped out at my lovely hotel back in Cairo for a much needed “rest day.” I am not going to leave the hotel today except to acquire water and food – I seriously need a break from all the noise, hassling, haggling, and offers for Egyptian husbands.

I believe I left off before our trip to Abu Simbel temple – on Tuesday (June 22) we left in the caravan at “stupid o’clock” as Nicola called it, but I’m glad we did! By the time we arrived, the sun was already blazing and there was no place to escape from it, but since it was early in the morning we managed to avoid some of the scorching heat of midday. The temples were take-your-breath-away exquisite; unfortunately, there are no cameras allowed inside, but the outside gives you an idea of the grandiosity of these temples. We spent a couple of hours exploring Abu Simbel, then started the long bus ride back towards Aswan.

On our way home we stopped at an Egyptian Pharmacy – which is actually a perfumery. We got a crash course in how essential oils and perfumes are made, complete with a free lunch and massage by the Nubian women who work there. They made us try about 25 different scents and we all left the Pharmacy covered in perfumes and oils. For the first time since arriving in hot Egypt I really smelled great, and of course I bought a yummy scent for my honey (called “Sphinx” – raaawwwr!).

Wednesday morning we woke up to board our felucca boat, which is a simple, traditional Egyptian sailboat. It was an awesome, relaxing break from all the insanity of the cities! The deck of the boat was covered in comfortable mattresses and we had a fabric roof to protect us from the sun; we spent the entire day sailing down the Nile River on our comfy, breezy felucca boat which we named GINA. It was so lovely!!! (from the left that's Nathan, Nicola and Euan. I think those are Spencer's legs) Sights along the way included a couple of donkeys being amorous and a stark naked man taking a dip in the water. See if you can spot the camels just chillaxin' next to the river! That night we docked and slept on our felucca boat on the Nile, under the stars.

Thursday morning (June 24) we woke up with the sun (it’s hard to sleep past sunrise when you’re sleeping outside), brushed our teeth, then loaded our stinky selves onto a van to head for two small towns and their temples.

At the start of the Kom Ombo Temple, Mudi gave us a little history and showed us some pictures of important hieroglyphics in a book. It was a bit like an Easter egg hunt after that, trying to find the real-life versions of the photos he had shown us. The first one was my favorite (ha ha ha!!).  I found it!  :-)  I also think the hieroglyphics of medical equipment are pretty cool.  The mummification process was actually an advanced surgical procedure that we still, to this day, have not been able to successfully duplicate.

After Aswan we drove to the town of Edfu where we stopped to visit the Temple of Horus.  It's the most well preserved ancient temple in Egypt.  If you look at the third picture below, you might notice that it looks like someone took a hammer to the images of the people.  That's exactly what happened - during the early years of Christianity, groups of Christians did this to many of the ancient ruins.  They especially had a field day in Edfu.

After a few more hours we finally made it to Luxor, checked in to our very nice hotel, and spent the evening relaxing and exploring.

I realize that we woke up so early to beat some of the heat, which I honestly appreciate, but it’s a little weird to wake up every morning of your vacation before 5 AM! However, on Friday we had another early wakeup call so that we could begin what I think might have been my most favorite part of the tour – a 1 ½ hour donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings! My trusty, friendly donkey was named Casper and he did a great job carting me along the west bank of the Nile at sunrise. It was AWESOME!

We arrived at the Valley of the Kings, which is basically a huge archeological site where dozens of pharaoh’s tombs have been discovered – including the tomb of King Tutankhamen. It was an awesome place that would really take days to explore, and of course no cameras were allowed inside. One ticket allows you access to only three tombs, so we took Mudi’s recommendation on which three to visit. They were fantastic and all of us were disappointed that we couldn't see more.  Guess I’ll have to come back another time!

After Valley of the Kings, we caught our van to Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple – the only female ruler ancient Egypt ever had.  Check out the hieroglyphic of the dude drinking right out of the cow's udder!

We had the rest of the afternoon free to explore Luxor, which was probably my favorite city that we visited in Egypt. This little dude cracked all of us up – he wanted to give us a shoe shine, even though we were only wearing flip flops. I gave him a dollar to let me take a picture with him. He was so cute!!

The last outing we had as a tour group was definitely the most amazing – Luxor Temple at sunset. The temple itself is awe inspiring, and to see it at sunset and at night was just breathtaking. It’s a huge, huge temple that actually got added on to by several different pharaohs and even some Christians. There is a fantastic road lined with sphinx statues that leads up to the front of the temple, then a huge obelisk at the entrance (there were two obelisks, but only one is still standing). Luxor Temple was buried beneath the sand for ages and various buildings and roads had actually been built on top of it before it was discovered. The only building remaining is a mosque that is planted right in the middle of the temple. As we were enjoying the sunset and watching the temple lights come on, the mosque’s muezzin added a haunting air to everything. It gave me goose bumps!

This morning we again woke up at “stupid o’clock” and caught an early flight back to Cairo. I found a great little hotel that is really nice and the proprietors are helping me set up some activities for tomorrow.

Oh yeah, in case you are too lazy to go to McDonalds, they have delivery service in Luxor.