Egypt - Western Desert and Alexandria

After over a week of exploring along the Nile, we headed west into the vast Sahara desert. This part of the trip wasn't quite as exciting, as it included a lot of time getting from A to B.

Day one, we had our own small bus and drove 8 hour to Dakhla Oasis. The desert scenery is beautiful in its own right, but also

generally monotonous after a number of hours. In Dakhla, we stayed in a simple hotel and enjoyed a few course standard Egyptian meal for dinner at the end of a long day. The highlight was watching the sun set from the rooftop and waving at the small children who jumped up and down, enthusiastically calling "he-llo, he-llo" every time they'd see us peak our heads over the side.

Day two was part bus, part 4WD. We made a stop in the morning at an incredibly well-preserved medieval mud-brick city called Al-Qasr - the former capital of Dakhla Oasis. As we wandered through the narrow passageways and ducked into small houses and buildings, we felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. After lunch, we piled into three 4WD jeeps, which would be our mode of transport for the next two days. We headed north to the White Desert, a national park known for it's unique chalky-white

limestone formations. After taking artistic and silly

photos with the numerous rock formations, we parked our jeeps in a U-shape to make camp for the night. We watched another beautiful sunset over the desert, but it didn't even compare to the brilliance of the night sky. The night we spent in the White Desert was another highlight of the trip. We had a delicious camp-fire prepared dinner and sat around the fire drinking tea and enjoying the hookah past dark. Then we laid out our sleeping bags between the jeeps and watched shooting stars and a glowing milky way. I intentionally tried to wake up every couple hours so I could peak open my eyes and look at the stars as the night sky

drifted by. It was quiet and peaceful - with the big dipper and thousands of other stars shining above to remind us that we are only one small being within an unfathomable universe.

Day three was all about 4-wheel driving! Our drivers took us down sand dunes, through rocky patches and choppy roads, and

over numerous hills of sand. We ventured through the Black Desert and climbed to the top of a sizable black hill/mountain to look out on dozens of other black hills/mountains. We got first-hand experience of adventuring in the desolation of the desert and were thankful for being in a jeep instead of on foot! By the end of the day, we arrived to the town of Bawiti in Bahariya Oasis. We

again arrived in the early evening so didn't have too much time for exploring the town. Eric and I took a walk down the main street to buy some snacks for the following day and to browse around some of the shops. A couple young boys gladly engaged Eric in some soccer drills - getting him to kick the ball back and forth across the road with them as we all made our way down the street. We had another relaxing evening on the hotel rooftop after dinner, chatting with others from our group over a couple beers (which we bought from the one shop that sold beer in town).

Day four was another long day on the road. We spent 8 hours in the jeep with few stops making our way through the military-owned slice of desert between Bawiti and Siwa Oasis. Every hour or two, we stopped at a military check point, and now and then would stop for a stretch break. The road is extremely bad most of the way, so there is no other option than a 4WD jeep. Sometimes

we drove on the road, but a good part of the time, we ventured off of it (or what's left of it) and made our own path through the desert. There was definitely some fun 4-wheel-driving! We stopped for lunch under a huge limestone rock formation that was peppered with sand dollar and shell fossils. It was clear this was at one time the bottom of the ocean, pretty incredible to imagine. Some of the landscape was also quite impressive - extremely expansive, but also varied in all ways that a desert can be - sand dunes, rock formations, flat and barren, etc. We did have a few complications along the way - one of our jeeps was a lemon. It got a flat tire, was leaking fuel and had some major exhaust problems. In fact, it ran out of gas towards the end of the day and had to be towed behind the second jeep for the remainder of the trip into town. Let's just say that when its passengers got out of the car with sand caked on their sunglasses and in their hair and their lungs filled with fumes, they were not too happy. Eric and I lucked out and rode in the front jeep, which had the most experienced (and fastest) driver and a good bill of health. We felt bad for the others and had to turn around a few times over the course of the journey to go back and find out what issue they were confronting "this time." It certainly added some interest to the day. When we arrived to Siwa Oasis, we hurried to make the sunset from the top of the ancient citadel...another incredibly well-preserved mud-brick city. Our hotel was

in the main town down below and we were thrilled to have dinner at a restaurant that had greater variety (and quality) of food than we'd had the last number of days. And we were excited to spend the next day exploring the famed city of Siwa - the historic sites, natural springs and surrounding desert.

Day five started early - 12AM. There was a rumble in the tumble and then the food poisoning hit full on. First me, then Eric. The next morning, I peaked my head into the hallway and found a gathering of other sickies emerging from their rooms, asking, "You sick too?" Turns out eight of the fourteen of us fell ill...after a lengthy conversation recounting all possible causes, we narrowed it down to the cucumbers we had eaten at lunch the day before on

our 4WD adventure in the desert. This was definitely a cherry on top (of misery) for the poor people in the lemon jeep! The only people who didn't get sick either didn't eat the cucumbers or didn't have many. While we would have loved to join the excursions of the day, there was no way. The vomiting may have ceased, but we still felt like crap. So, like most others on the trip, we crawled back into our extremely uncomfortable beds, sinking into the mushy hole in the center and laying our heads our brick pillows, and settled in for the day. We slept, read, and stared at the ceiling. After lunch time (there would be no eating), Eric and I ventured up to the rooftop to enjoy the view and to test if we were well enough for some site seeing. After 10 minutes, we decided no go. I did finally get up for a couple hours around 3PM and went downstairs to find a "healthy" groupie, Mavis, and she agreed to come with me to slowly roam the streets and shops in the immediate vicinity. After a cup of tea at the end of our short adventure, I went back to the room for a nap before dinner, which was a gathering of zombies who ate very little, except for the five people who did go on the excursions and had a great time. Darn. Well, what can you do? So we were sick in Siwa. At least it was memorable, and we did observe and take in as much as possible from the rooftop, the nearby street and citadel, and by reading the guidebook about all the cool things there that we wouldn't see. Everyone was happy to go to bed and start afresh the next day.

Day six we headed to the Mediterranean coast and the city of Alexandria, founded by none other than Alexander the Great. On the way, we stopped at the World War II memorial and museum for the battle of Alamein, which was a major turning point for the Allies in the African

campaign. I had not known of this important battle and it was interesting to learn the history and sobering to walk around the cemetery of thousands of Allied soldiers from the Common Wealth and Egypt. We arrived to Alexandria in the late afternoon, in time to head to the local coffee shop to catch the football (soccer) match between Egypt and Nigeria where Egypt beat their opponent 3-1. I actually only joined for the tail end of the game along with Kim from our group to meet up with the others and by a stroke of luck, Egypt scored their final and third goal about a minute after we entered. The coffee shop owner jumped for joy and proclaimed to everyone in the room that we were surely tokens of good luck! It was pretty hilarious. We dined that night on fresh local seafood, which was delicious, though we didn't pig out since our stomachs were still just a bit queasy from the day prior.

Day seven was a full day in Alexandria. We met our local guide, Shireen, at 9AM and spent the first half the day touring the local sites of interest, including the Roman catacombs, a Greek amphitheater, Pompey's Pillar and the site of the ancient lighthouse (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world until it was destroyed by an earthquake in the fourteenth century). Shireen had moved to the U.S. with her family when she was 19 and only returned to Egypt in her twenties because she married her childhood sweetheart who wanted to stay in Alexandria. She was more Westernized than many of the other Egyptians we had met and it was interesting to hear her perspective on the country, culture, etc. We split with a few others from our group before the full tour ended because we wanted to walk the distance of the harbor along the boardwalk. We encountered a number of Egyptian youths along our way that were quite interested in us and asked to take photos with us, talk with us, and even exchange emails with a couple of us. We had a seafood pasta lunch at a restaurant with a great view of the water and had fresh mango juice at a local juice bar for dessert. After a few hours of wandering, we returned to

join the group for a celebratory dinner at a nice seafood restaurant (to celebrate our last night together and a couple birthdays) and enjoyed birthday cake at a seaside coffee shop before heading back to the hotel.

Day eight was officially the last day of our trip. We rose early and caught a 3-hour train back to Cairo. Once we got back to our starting hotel, we said our goodbyes and people went in various directions. It had been a great group and we met some wonderful friends. We spent the remainder of the day and evening with our Kiwi friends - Paul, Jacinta and Mavis - and our

Austrian friend Markus, roaming through the Khan el-Khalili bazaar once again to pick up last souvenirs and gifts. In the early evening, we headed back to the hotel and had a beer and some last laughs with the Kiwis - Paul and Jacinta just embarked on a trip around the world and we hope to see them in California before they head home next year :). We decided to skip dinner to get some sleep since we had to leave the hotel at 2AM to go to the airport to catch our 4AM flight. It wasn't a restful sleep, but I'd take what I could get before the 24-hour plus journey back home!

All in all, we had an amazing time in Egypt and would definitely recommend it as a destination!

Egypt - The South

After thirteen hours on an Egyptian train (and some intermittent sleep), we arrived to Egypt's most Southern city - Aswan. The next several days would be spent exploring the area known as Upper Egypt (since the Nile flows north, the northern part of the country is considered Lower Egypt, the southern part is Upper Egypt).

Camel Riding and a Nubian Village

During our first day in Aswan, we ventured out onto the river in a motor boat and cruised along the shores of the Nile, taking in Elephant Island (where they used to import elephants for battle from Southern Africa), a variety of tombs along the western bank and some peaceful wildlife once away from the city. We stopped at a small cafe perched on a cliff for Hibiscus tea and to admire the sand dunes and then hopped back on the

boat in the early evening to motor on to the bank where camels were waiting to take us to a Nubian village for dinner. We each got to ride our own camel (assisted by a "camel boy") across a stretch of desert, watching the sunset behind a hillside where the country's first monastery sits. Riding a camel is not quite as easy as riding a horse...and my eager camel, Lulu, liked to be in front so there was certainly some "trotting" involved. It was a lot of fun and definitely a highlight of the day, though after an hour my backside was ready to disembark.

The camels dropped us off at a Nubian village that sits on the opposite bank of the river from Aswan. The Nubian people have been in this area for thousands of years and were one of ancient Egypt's primary enemies. Now they are officially part of the country, but their traditions and way of life are respected and most of them still live within their own Nubian communities. We were taken to the home of a local Nubian family for dinner. They gave us a tour of the house and prepared a traditional meal that included chicken, fish, soup, vegetable stew and some mushy green stuff that was sort of like spinach, but not quite. After the meal, the man of the house sat with us and described the traditions around Nubian marriages and weddings. The evening concluded with some of the local children coming in to drum, sing and dance with us. One little girl was particularly fond of me and marched right in, took my hands and didn't let go for the rest of the evening. She was quite cute and waved goodbye to me until we were completely out of site from the village.

Abu Simbel

In the wee hours of the next morning (i.e., 3AM), we sleepily boarded a small bus to venture South to the famous temple of Abu Simbel. It is a three-hour drive from Aswan, very near to the Sudanese border and in the heart of the desert. The government requires a daily tourist caravan of the various buses, vans and taxis flanked by tourist police...so there is not a lot of option about departure times. They prefer to leave extremely early so that you arrive around 7AM (before the heat becomes unbearable) and stay for a couple hours to take in the site. The temple was built by Ramses II for himself and he also build an adjacent temple for his wife Nefertari. The structure is colossal and a reminder from Ramses to those entering Egypt from the South that HE is Pharaoh of this land. In addition to his impressive statues outside the temple, the inside is also well preserved and includes a number of rooms and chambers decorated with hieroglyphics, carved scenes of war and offerings to the gods, and more statues. Some of the original paint is also still visible to give you a sense for how it might have looked a couple thousand years earlier.

Sailing the Nile

A highlight of our Egypt trip was the day we spent sailing down the Nile on a felucca (i.e., sailboat). We left late morning and boarded the boat, sprawling across the cushions and preparing for a day of relaxation. We spent the day reading, playing card games and backgammon, napping and hanging out with our group. We docked for lunch on a small island in the middle of the river, but had our meal on the boat, sitting around a plastic tablecloth spread across the cushions. The food on the journey was surprising good thanks to our Nubian chef on board. For the evening, we docked along the east bank - first course of business being to build our "temple" (i.e., toilet). We dug a hole into the ground, placed a toilet seat contraption over the top and surrounded it with a canvas wall. Better than the bushes I suppose. A number of us were put on firewood duty and climbed up the bank and walked into the brushy desert to gather large spiky branches of wood from the bush. We weren't too far from a local village and were passed by a couple local boys hauling loads on their donkeys (donkeys are still a common form of transport throughout the country, with the exception of in Cairo and

Alexandria). The boys snuck to the outskirts of our camp later in the evening to curiously observe the goings on around the fire. After another delicious dinner on the boat, we built a campfire and fired up the hookah. Our Nubian crew got out their drums and sang into the night - they are a very happy and laid back people. The stars were amazing and the moon quite full. We slept on the boat and I woke at 5:30AM as the first call to prayer sang out from the village nearby. I kept my eyes closed, but perked up my ears to listen and take in the the still and quiet, broken only by lapping water against the boat and the devout singing of the prayer. It was so peaceful. I drifted back to sleep again shortly after and rose with the group sometime after 7AM for Nubian pancakes.

Luxor and the Valley of the Kings

After our day on the boat, we headed north a couple hours to visit Egypt's capital from the New Kingdom - Thebes, now known as Luxor. The two major sites in Luxor are Karnak temple, the largest in all of Egypt, and the famous Valley of the Kings. We spent two days here at the Little Garden Hotel, which had a great rooftop area and a garden courtyard. Eric and I got the honeymoon suite on the roof, complete with full size bed (as hard as a rock), red satin bed spread, cheesy decor and mood lighting. It was quite hilarious...except for the fact that the lock was broken and we were constantly getting locked in or out of our room. While staying here, we also met a very friendly Egyptian couple and their two-year-old daughter who were in town for work/vacation from Cairo. They were fascinated with us and asked to video tape us and take photos with their daughter. I and another member from our group, Kim, spent some time chatting with them and learning about their life, work, family and other topics. The man enjoyed smoking Shisha with Eric and the wife shared with me the various ways to prepare Kushari (the local dish I like so much).

We were fortunate to have an excellent guide in Luxor named Shaimaa. She was extremely knowledgeable and kept the group captivated with the history and facts surrounding each ancient site. We visited Karnak Temple near sunset on the first day and were one of the last groups to enter so had the place almost to ourselves. It was a temple that was built and expanded by a number of Pharaohs over time and dedicated to Egypt's primary God during the New Kingdom, Amun-Re. It was the size of several football fields at least and had numerous statues, obelisks, a holy lake, courtyards, inner chambers and the "holy of the holies" - the inner sanctum at the end of the temple where the daily offerings of food and drink were given by the Pharaoh and the high priest to the god. This is also one of the temples where the Coptic Christians took refuge to escape the persecution of the Romans, and as a result, a number of the carved murals of Egyptian gods have been chipped away or defaced.

In addition to our explorations at Karnak, we spent a day venturing to the west bank of the Nile (ancient Egyptians always lived on the east bank, where the sun rises, and buried their dead on the west bank, where the sun sets) to the Valley of the Kings. We visited three tombs in the Valley of the Kings from three different periods of the New Kingdom. It was incredible how well preserved these are...many of them still have vibrant painted and carved murals and the construction of the tombs and chambers deep into the mountainside are impressive. It's worth a read on Wikipedia (link above) to learn more if you're interested. No cameras allowed, so unfortunately no photos to show.

We also did a quick visit to the Valley of the Workers. Contrary to common belief, Egyptologists now believe that highly skilled artisans and workers were hired to build the tombs of the Pharaohs. There are remnants of a village for these workers (the skills passed down from generation to generation) on the west bank and it is believed that they were the only people besides the royal family who knew the locations of the tombs. Commoners from the east bank were not allowed to cross to the west bank and and workers on the west bank were not allowed to cross to the city on the east bank. On their days off (evidence shows they had a 10-day work week and then two days off), they would focus on building and decorating their own tombs. We visited two such tombs and while the chambers are of course much simpler and smaller, the artwork and murals were astounding and almost perfectly preserved.

Our final stop on the west bank was to Hatshepsut's Temple, a grand structure carved into the side of the mountain with the inner sanctum being the only one that contains a passageway deep into the mountain to connect with her tomb on the other side of the mountain. Hatshepsut was one of the few female Pharaohs and ruled for nearly 22 years. With the support of the powerful Amun-Re priests, she took power from her young stepson after the death of her husband. When she died, her stepson, Thutmose III, assumed his place as Pharaoh and became the greatest conquerer of all the Egyptian kings. However, he was quite resentful of his stepmother and set about defacing many of her statues and cartouches to erase her from history so that she wouldn't be able to find her way to the afterlife. Initially, Egyptologists thought the temple was Thutmose's since he replaced her name with his own, but after greater investigation, they uncovered the temple's true owner and were able to learn more about the history.

Onwards to the Western Desert

Following our time in Luxor, we headed west into the desert to visit a number of oases over the next several days...

Egypt - Cairo

A few days after Christmas, we set off for our latest adventure...to Egypt. While Belize earlier this year was a relaxing, lay-by-the-pool kind of vacation, Egypt promised to be a couple weeks of true "travel" (i.e., maybe not so relaxing, but a lot more exciting). Intrigued by the country's history, culture and of course many famous landmarks, we thought this destination would also be the perfect place to celebrate our second anniversary.

We arrived to Cairo late in the evening on December 29, after 22 hours of grueling flights and layovers. We caught a taxi to our hotel and while the city was still abuzz outside, we decided to have a quite beer (hotels being one of the few places you can buy a beer since this is a Muslim country) and retire early. A couple things we observed before even leaving our room: 1. The city of Cairo only "sleeps" from 3-5 am (when the incessant honking from the streets quiets just slightly), 2. The 5:30 am call to prayer to begin the new day is both a wake-up call, and yet also calming and an admirably spiritual part of this country. So it was at 6AM on December 30th that we crawled out of bed to begin our exploration.

We spent three full days in Cairo...

Day One

We focused on getting our bearings and exploring the city. We started our day in one of the oldest parts of Cairo, where there are remnants of the Babylon pillars and narrow alleyways that lead through the old Coptic Christian neighborhood. We visited a famous Coptic Christian church and had lunch at a small cafe that serves the traditional noodle/rice dish called Kushari (one of my favorites). We then wandered to the site of the first mosque in Cairo and I was asked to wear a funny looking green hooded cape (to cover my hair) while wandering around the place of worship. During the afternoon, we took the metro back towards downtown and a taxi to the Khan el Khalili souk (market) and got lost in the myriad alleyways and streets filled with spices, textiles, perfumes, jewelry, and tourist treasures. Deep inside the bazaar we found Fishawi's Coffee House - one of the oldest in Cairo

serving Turkish coffee, mint tea, and shisha...Eric was in heaven.

We walked back to our hotel on the busy main streets and found a delicious fast food place with excellent beef kebabs for dinner. We completed our evening with a visit to the top floor of an old hotel that has a small cafe on the roof where you can sip fresh fruit juice and tea while taking in the city lights and constant chaos of the streets below.

Day Two - New Year's Eve

Today we ventured out of town about an hour south to visit the sites of the first and last pyramids built at Saqqara and Darshur (not to be confused with the most magnificent and famous pyramids at Giza). We hired a driver from our hotel who took us around all day - with stops of course at the carpet and papyrus factories in hopes of getting

a commission (little did he know we were not the buying type)...though it was interesting to hear the "free" tutorial on each. The museum and pyramids at Saqqara were very interesting - especially since these were the first ancient sites we visited. The credited "father of architecture" Imhotep (the royal architect of the Pharaoh Djoser) built the first pyramid, which was a step pyramid. Originally, it wasn't meant to be a pyramid at all, but since king Djoser lived so long they kept adding levels until it became what it is today. Pharaohs following Djoser improved on the art of pyramid building with the pyramids at Giza being the height of perfection. It's worth noting that pyramids were only used as tombs during the Old Kingdom - third millennium BC - later kings used more nondescript tombs to avoid tomb robbers. Eric and I spent a couple hours wandering around the burial complexes at Saqqara and had a self-proclaimed guide show us through some of the tombs and explain the wall carvings and hieroglyphics (for baksheesh - a tip - of course).

After Saqqara, we made a quick stop at the first capital of Egypt called Memphis. While this city was probably grand in its day, it's more of a village now hosting only a small museum. For our last stop of the day, we visited pyramids built later in the Old Kingdom

at Darshur. The highlight of this site was being able to climb down deep into the center of Pharoah Snofru's Red Pyramid to visit the burial chambers (which are now empty). It was pretty awesome - and a bit eerie - to be standing in an open room in the center of the pyramid...even if it did smell of musty urine. I had to wonder how they got all those treasures into that thing considering the passageway down was incredibly steep, very long, dark and so small you had to crouch the entire way down. Where there is a will, there is a way.

After returning from our day trip, we met up with our travel group at 6PM to begin our Intrepid Travel tour through Egypt. There were 14 of us in total, plus our tour leader, Ahmed Soltan. There were several Aussies, a few Kiwis, a couple Canadians, an Austrian and four of us Americans. It turned out to be a great group and we made some friends we are sure we'll keep in touch with. Our 15-day itinerary (which you will be hearing all about) would take us to Cairo, south to Aswan, down the Nile, to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, through the Western Desert, to Siwa Oasis, up through Alexandria and back to Cairo. We were ready for a jam-packed couple weeks.

Day Three - New Year's Day...and our 2nd Anniversary

What better way to celebrate two years of marriage than at the pyramids of Giza? :) We got an early start and drove across the bridge to the West bank of the Nile and the outskirts of the city of Giza. There sits the Great Pyramid of Giza (belonging to the Pharaoh Khufu) along with a number of other impressive pyramids belonging to his son, grandson, and their wives. Not to mention the Sphinx of course. We spent the morning roaming the site and marveling at the history and ancient construction of these near-perfect structures. There they have stood for more than 4,000 years...despite earthquakes, sand storms and tomb robbers. Truly breathtaking.

We spent the second half the day at the Egyptian museum where there are thousands of relics - statues, mummies, coffins, jewelry, and all sorts of other treasures. There is almost an entire floor dedicated to what they found in King Tut's tomb - the only intact tomb ever discovered. We had been to the traveling King Tut exhibit in San Francisco just a few days before we left and let's just say that it didn't come close to the grandeur of the King Tut display at the actual Egyptian Museum. It's amazing that so many of the relics of ancient Egypt still exist and have been so well preserved through the ages. It certainly was a mighty and long-lived civilization - and one that's customs, art, science, lifestyle and religion has shaped our current day more than one can imagine.

The only downside to the day was that Eric was battling a stomach bug he most likely picked up from some of the food...so he unfortunately didn't enjoy it as much as he would have liked. But he was a trooper and made it through the day. That night, we boarded an overnight train to Aswan in the south of Egypt. Luckily, he was able to sneak in a few hour nap to recover from the day before we endured 13 hours on the train (without a sleeping cabin).

Stay tuned for more soon...