Oh how Egypt was a great time, it was both a battle and an adventure. We got to see a ton of sites and see the land (the adventure part), but It was a battle to keep hydrated. When 7 dollar PowerAde is worth it you know its hot. All of my travel in Egypt will be with SAS; I took a five day trip traveling from Alexandria to Cairo to Luxor to Aswan to Abu Simbel (3 bus rides and 4 flights). Justin, Amanda, and Julie were also on this trip, but many friends were made during the trip.
Day 1: It took a while for the ship to pass customs, every passport had to be stamped and receive a quick trip visa. After we passed customs we made our way to the buses. There were three bus leaders one really good one, another good one, and a horrible one; so we had to make sure we got on the good bus (which we did).
We took a bus from Alexandria to Cairo to see the pyramids; its about a 3hour bus ride from Alexandria. We first at lunch an ex palace which is now a 5 star hotel, this is the start to the same meal I will have everyday. The foods at Egyptian hotels are pretty much all the same, and I got very burnt out on it and buffets in general. The best meals I had was some zucchini soup and a waffle I had for breakfast. This hotel was right across from the pyramids in Giza.
We made our way next to the Pyramids and Sphinx; first we had the opportunity to ride camels around the pyramids. Of course I opted to ride a big harry smelly animal around the desert. After this brief ride around we next had the option to go into the middle pyramid of the pyramids, I again opted for this adventure. Inside the pyramid it was a small shaft you had to climb down to get to the middle, then another small climb to get to where the tomb in the pyramid. We next got some free time to explore around the pyramid; there were a lot of tourist type sellers trying to peddle their goods. It was a little annoying, but this would happen a lot more during this trip. It definitely doesnt help that the economy of Egypt mainly depends on the Suez Canal and tourism. We also got to see the Sphinx, it was a little bit smaller than I was expecting.
We next made our way to the hotel we would be spending the night and preparation for our flight to Luxor in the morning. I believe the hotel we were staying at was a Marriott, which was also a 5 star hotel. We settled in and then met back up at the bus to go see the pyramid light show. The light show was pretty interesting to me, but the best sites were when the pyramids were lit up in wonderful colors. Once the light show was done we made our way back to the Marriott for dinner and then sleepy time. The dinner at the Marriott was pretty much just like lunch, some rice, pasta, beef, chicken and a fish dish.
It was time to go to bed; we had a very early start the next morning.
Day 2: The wake up call today was 3:30am, which was wayyyyyy tooooo early. We knew when we signed onto this trip that it was going to be a lot of long days with not so much sleep, the bus rides around were a great place and time to sleep.
We got to the airport and got our tickets to fly to Luxor, went through two different securities and then boarded the plain for the hour flight. I personally slept during the whole flight, only waking up for the beverage cart to go by. Once we landed in Luxor we made our way to the Valley of the Kings, which was awesome. We got to see the valley, where unfortunately no cameras were allowed. With our ticket we were allowed to enter 3 tombs, but we could opt to go into a 4th. I opted for 4 and went and saw King Ramses 1, 3, 6, and 9. Ramses the 6ths tomb was the best one; it was in amazing condition and had lots of hieroglyphs on the walls.
With the Valley of the Kings behind us we made our way to Queen Hatshepsuts temple, which happens to be the only women pharaoh. This was a very nice site, after seeing her temple we made our way to see the statues of Amenophis III. When done at the statues we made our way to our hotel to check in and have some lunch (again, pretty much the same dishes all over again). We had a little break at the hotel for a nap, and then we made our way to Karnak Temple. The Karnak Temple was my favorite place we visited we visited during this trip. It was so big and made you fee like you were back in the olden time. The amount of the temple left standing is sparse to the actual size of the original temple. The only downside to the Karnak temple was the temperature, it was 130 degrees out, and it was hot as hell.
Our next step for the night was the Luxor Temple, which was very nice and since the temperature was down below the 100s it was a lot more comfortable to visit. The very interesting thing between the Luxor and Karnak temple is that there used to be a 2 mile long road connecting the two temples. This road was lined with sphinxes, on the Luxor side it was human headed sphinxes and on the Karnak side it was ram headed sphinxes. The road was tore up a long time ago, but it is being reinstalled between the two temples.
After the two temples we went back to the hotel and had an enjoyable dinner and time to relax before our next early morning adventure.
Day 3: We got up around 630 this morning, which sounded awesome compared to our 330 am wake up time. Today we were going to be busing our way from Luxor to Aswan. We first made our way to the Temple of Philae, which was pretty cool. This is where I first started considering Egyptian engineers as bad engineers. On the river Nile there are two dams, a high and low dam. These dams were put in place to control the flow of The Nile through Egypt and to create electricity. The temple of Philae was pretty close to the low damn on an island, but when the low damn was created the temple was flooded. To save the temple the Egyptian government had to pile drive pylons into the ground and create a barrier and pump out all the water around the temple. Then they had to move the temple piece by piece to a new island. This isnt the only temple they had to move due to being flooded. To get to the temple we took a rickety boat to the temple on The Nile, this was our first hand experience with The Nile, which is quite nasty water. After the temple we made our way to see the high dam of The Nile, this was a pretty cool site to see. After this we made our way to a pretty swank hotel in Aswan. The hotel is actually on an island in the middle of The Nile. Our next adventure was to take a little cruise on The Nile in a felucca (which is a canvas covered sail boat). Just one word about the felucca on The Nile, they are very slow due to there was absolutely no wind.
After the felucca ride we rested up before dinner and soaked our feet in the awesome pool at the hotel. The pool was about 5ft deep at the deepest but had a very large 2ft deep wading area where the deep end usually goes. After dinner we took a boat from the hotel to the city and decided to check out the local market.
The market was quite an adventure; the bargaining we saw in Turkey was quite different from what we saw in Egypt. This was the first real time we experienced negative hostility towards Americans. We said we were from Canada when people asked. A little saying all the Egyptians would say was Canada Dry, Canada Cool, which is referring to Canada Dry Ginger Ale. We bought some items and during our bartering we were offered drugs. We made our way back to the hotel for some sleep in preparation for our 4th day in Egypt.
Day 4: We woke up early this morning to catch the bus to go to the airport to go see Abu Simbel, today we would be catching two flights. We flew to Abu Simbel to see the rock temples of Abu Simbel, which are considered the most famed monuments of their kind in Egypt. This temple was also not in the original location, after creation of the high dam this and many other temples were flooded. More support to incompetence of Egyptian Engineers. It seems like no one did the calculations for how much water would back up after these two dams were created. Seems like an easily avoidable situation.
After enjoying the temple of Abu Simbel we made our way back to the airport for our flight back to Aswan. After lunch we had some free time and then had the option to visit a Nubian Village. We all opted for this adventure. We started off on a motorboat in The Nile and headed up river to the village. The trip up to the village was pretty interesting when we were going up some rapid areas. We first stopped a sandy beach for people to take a dip in The Nile if they wanted to. After this brief stop we made our way to the village. The Nubian people have their own language from Arabic and were displaced when the high dam was constructed and their lands flooded. The Nubian people are also known for keeping crocodiles in their houses. We visited a traditional Nubian house and got to hold crocodiles if we wanted. I did and proceeded to get peed on by the little beast. We then visited a school were both young and old Nubians learn how to read and write; we also had a little lesson on the Arabic and Nubian languages. After this we made our way back to the hotel for dinner and relaxation time.
Day 5: We woke up early again to go to the Aswan airport to catch a flight back to Cairo to see the National Archaeological Museum. After landing we made our way to the museum, which isnt air conditioned. Lots of Egyptians want artifacts kept around the world returned back to Egypt so they can house them in their museums. I dont believe this should be done, even though I thoroughly enjoyed the National Archaeological Museum it didnt gain my confidence that they could really properly care for all of their artifacts.
At the museum we saw a lot of King Tuts possessions and items found in his tomb. The mummies at the museum were in such great condition, it was amazing what we saw in the mummy rooms. The Egyptians knew how to preserve a body.
With the museum behind us we made our way back to the first hotel we had lunch at and then back on the bus to Alexandria to get on the boat.
All in all Egypt was a very good time, and without the SAS trip I wouldnt have really gotten to see as much as I did. I pretty much saw the whole Nile, and was within like 30 miles for Sudan. Im really looking forward to my Morocco trip in the coming days.
