Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania - Africa Overland Journey

I finished the 16-day Egypt trip with Chris and Kim. It was a great trip and fun traveling with them!

I started the Africa overland journey on December 24th from Nairobi. Our first destinations were the Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti. I'm traveling with 19-others on a huge bus which holds us, all our backpacks, tents, food, water and other gear. We're camping most of the time, but can upgrade to dorms or rooms in some locations.

In the Serengeti we saw huge herds of wilderbeasts that are migrating north, the total herd is over a million animals. We also saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, hyenas, a cheetah and loads of other animals. It is truly amazing to see so many thousands of animals on the plains of the Serengeti. It's like the reverse of a zoo. You are the minority population here.

The Ngorogo Crater is a volcanic, now grass/lake filled, crator that is over twelve miles (20-Km) across. There are large numbers of the same animals as in the Serengeti, but in a much smaller area.

We're heading to the island of Zanzibar today. Some of us plan to do some scuba diving. It's supposed to be some of the best in the world (that is if the weather cooperates!). I'll be spending New Years in Zanzibar.

Internet access while traveling overland has been limited, so sorry about the sparse and short postings. I may try to embellish them after I return to the USA.

Side note: The Nepal photos have been posted to the web site!

Mt. Sinai, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt

Chris, Kim and I climbed Mt. Sinai (where Moses received the ten commandments) early this morning, starting at 2:00 a.m. and reaching the 7,000 foot summit about 5:00 a.m. We were frequently passed by people taking camels up the mountain. It was 5 below zero centigrade, pretty cold for Egypt. Vendors rented mattresses and camel hair blankets at the top, that we took advantage of, as we waited an hour for sunrise. It was like a big sleepover with about 200-people at the top of the mountain. The sunrise was quite nice, but amidst the crowd I really was not able to experience the spiritual sense of Moses getting the ten commandments here. But the mountain is quite impressive. I'm hoping Moses had a camel to carry the tablets down for him. Otherwise it must of been a very difficult journey! The entire area is very rugged and lacks for any vegetation. We visited the Monastery at St. Katherine and saw the tree of "burning bush" fame, which still survives.

Dahab, Egypt - Camel ride, The Blue Hole

Chris, Kim and I took a camel ride to the "Blue Hole" in Dahab. Riding a camel is much less comfortable than riding a horse and we were all sore after just a 1/2 hour ride. It also seems that the saddle arrangement for riding was much less comfortble than the camel I rode in India. In India we did a 2-hour ride and I didn't feel that sore afterwards. In either case, this helped us decide not to take the 2-hour camel ride option for going up Mt. Sinai the next day.

The following description is from the Blue Hole Project Web site:

"Situated a few miles outside the town of Dahab on the Sinai Peninsular, The Blue Hole is a natural coral feature and considered to be a world class diving site. It is also the site that has seen the deaths of over 70 divers - more than any other diving site. Essentially The Blue Hole is a small coral lagoon which starts near the surface and drops down to a stunning arch which leads out to the main reef wall. At its deepest part, the Blue Hole reaches over 120m (394-feet). "

It's a beautiful area and we saw a number of people snorkeling and diving. One group of divers were using a nitrox mix, which meant they were going to do some deep dives. The water appeared to be very clear and a bit chilly for my taste, it is winter time here after all, but there were still hearty souls snorkeling without wet suits. I guess I got spoiled by the wonderfully warm water temperatures in Indonesia and Malaysia and decided not to do any snorkleing or diving on this trip. I might consider coming back some time in the summer.

Dahab is a small town with a nicely developed restaurant and shopping area along the waterfront. We went to the waterfront for dinner. The restaurant has the catch of the day displayed on ice in front of each restaurant. The restaurants themselves had wood firepots and come complete with your own set of begging felines. They'll supply with you with a water squirt bottle if the cats become a nuisance.

The meals were quite good and for about $8-$10 we had freshly prepared fish, rice, french fries, salad, hummis and pita bread in a beautiful setting.

It's a bit hard to beleive that the sleepy town of Dahab was the site of a terrorist bombing in April 24th of this year, but it was. 23 people were killed and 62 wounded. Three of the persons killed were foreigners. In talking to one of the locals he said at the time it was a feeling of disbelief. How could anything like this possibly happen here?

Hurgharda, Egypt - Aborted ferry trip

We boarded the ferry and left port at 9:00 a.m. for a 90-minute boat ride to Sharm El Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula. About an hour into the trip the waves were getting very big, and though we were on a 46-meter (150-foot) ferry, some of the waves broke over the bow and spashed the windows on the top deck about 30-feet above the water! We turned around and the capatin announced that weather was bad and we were heading back to our port of origin. Just as we were due to leave the boat back in Hurgharda, they announced they were going to make a second attempt. We waited on the boat another hour and then they annoucned that the port at Sharm El Sheikh had been closed and the boat trip was cancelled. We talked with our tour company and they arranged for a van to take us to Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula, our final destination, instead of the ferry. The trip should take about 10-hours. We leave at 5:00 p.m. and will probably arrive about 2 in the morning. Well, you've got to expect some glitches when you're traveling!

Luxor, Egypt

The amount of written and drawn history in Egypt is astounding! My favorite place so far has been Abu Simbel (280 km south of Aswan). The location right on a lake is very beautiful. The memorial to Ramses II is huge, and to realize it as moved from another location is astounding. It has extensive chambers and statues inside it, so it was like moving and re-assembling a mountain with something the size of the Lincoln Memorial inside of it.

Esna/Luxor, Egypt - Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, Colossi of Memnon
(text by Chris J., Kim G. and Chris M.)

We catch a private van to Luxor / Valley of the Kings, and grab a guide just before entering the Valley of Kings. The valley holds a majority of the king's tombs. It was intentionally built in the middle of nowhere to prevent grave robbers. The tombs have some of the best coloring we've seen, but regretfully cameras are not allowed inside the tombs. The depths of the tombs were amazing, how far in they went and how much time it must have taken to dig them into the mountain sides. In order to keep the locations secret the tomb builders had their own village and their whole life and generations thereafter did nothing but build these tombs. The tomb of Tutankhamen was here, but everything of note was moved to the Egyptian museum. Once again another tomb was found a couple of months ago by and American cleaning nearby.

*****"Updated: 2:38 p.m. ET Feb 10, 2006 CAIRO, Egypt - Through a partially opened underground door, Egyptian authorities gave a peek Friday into the first tomb uncovered in the Valley of the Kings since King Tut’s in 1922. U.S. archaeologists said they discovered the tomb by accident while working on a nearby site. Still unknown is whose mummies are in the five wooden sarcophagi with painted funeral masks, surrounded by alabaster jars inside the undecorated single-chamber tomb.
The tomb, believed to be some 3,000 years old and dating to the 18th Dynasty, does not appear to be that of a pharaoh. But it could be for members of a royal court, said Edwin Brock, co-director of the University of Memphis in Tennessee that discovered the site."
*****

Next was a visit to the tombs in the Valley of Queens, which were very similar in nature to the king's tombs. We were a little disappointed when we found out the tomb of Nefertari, favorite wife of Ramses II, was indeed open but required a special permit obtained in Cairo and only 150 people a day could visit the tomb. The guide book mentioned the tomb was closed, so it must have just recently been reopened. The tomb is the most well preserved with the most striking colors of all the tombs. We had to stick with a photo book to get an idea of what it looked like inside.

Colossi of Memnon - not a great site, two large statues in almost total disrepair. They reminded me of the rock creatures from Galaxy Quest.

"The twin statues depict Amenhotep III (fl. 14th century BC) in a seated position, his hands resting on his knees and his gaze turned eastward toward the river and the rising sun. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs: these are his wife Tiy and mother Mutemwiya. The side panels depict the Nile god Hapy.

The statues are made from blocks of quartzite sandstone which was quarried at either Giza (near modern-day Cairo) or Gebel el-Silsila (60 km north of Aswan). Including the stone platforms on which they stand, they reach a towering 18 metres (approx. 60 ft) in height."

Temple of Hatshepsut:
"The masterpiece of her building projects was her mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri. It was designed and implemented by Senemut on a site on the West Bank of the Nile close to the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. The focal point was the Djeser-Djeseru or "the Sublime of Sublimes", a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony nearly one thousand years before the Parthenon. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of terraces that were once graced with gardens. Djeser-Djeseru is built into a cliff face that rises sharply above it. Djeser-Djeseru and the other buildings of the Deir el-Bahri complex are considered to be among the great buildings of the ancient world."

One of the more impressive sites built into the mountain side and also the discovery of many of the mummies seen in the museum. They had been moved constantly because of tomb raiders. The temple is in three massive layers with the third built into the side of the mountain.
Take a short break for a coke and a 30 pound ($6) can of Pringles... eek.

Off to Luxor.

Temple complex of Karnak in Ancient Egypt was named Ipet Sut, "the most venerated place" and it is a small...... "Al-Karnak (Arabic village in Egypt, located on the banks of the River Nile some 2.5 km north of Luxor (25°43'N 32°39'E). Visitors to the area – particularly foreign tourists – perceive no distinction between Luxor and al-Karnak, as the two are both parts of the same conurbation. The Karnak Temple is twice the size of the built-up village area, and it is the leading attraction in al-Karnak; essentially this is al-Karnak, as the term Karnak is nearly universally understood as the temple complex and not the village.

The temple area is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world, and is probably the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids near Cairo."

Another favorite site for us, basically a temple complex that was added on by many kings and queens (over 30). The scale was magnificent, large pillars, home to many obelisks, etc.
Next stop Luxor temple, which was basically an extension of the Karnak complex. Very detailed large obelisk out front. The site was great in that we arrived just before dusk so we got to see the temple in both the day and lit up at night. Hundreds of sphinxes once lined the road to Karnak and the government is trying to clear the ancient road.

Also the place of the great six toe joke on Chris... he might have been left counting forever.
Van ride back to the boat.

Edfu, Egypt - Temple at Kom Ombo and Temple of Horus at Edfu
(text by Chris J., Kim G. and Chris M.)

As we waited in the lobby of the boat for our guide, I head back to the room to put some valuables out of site and as I'm walking past the desk on the way back they hand me the phone. It totally throws me off that a) I have a phone call and b) how did the desk know who I am? The call ends up being from our local Memphis Tour contact, who between the language barrier and the noise from the crowd in the lobby, all I get from the conversation is "8 and 11". I assume it had something to do with our trip to Hurghada in two days, oh well, we'll just see what happens!
Our guide from the day before in Aswan meets us Kom Ombo, apparently having driven there, while we were cruising to Kom Ombo on the boat. We visited two temples today. The Temple of Kom Ombo is a twin temple to Sobek and Haroeris. Interesting sites here were the carvings of the surgical tools, the alligator mummies (Sobek was the alligator god) and our first siting of the "Nilometer", which was basically a well connected to an underwater passageway to the Nile that rises and falls with the Nile to determine the tax rate for the season. The temple also had a nice calendar showing the harvest seasons. The temple was only 5 minutes from where the boat docked.

Sail to Edfu.

Temple of Horus. Our guide meets us again and we take a 10 minute carriage ride to the temple. Only items that really stood out were the flag holders out front for what must have been 40-50' tall flags. A local temple guide shows me the Nilometer and sneaks a picture of me in the chamber. I also learned not to sit on the outside of the carriage, as a spray of mystery liquid from a pool we hit in the road runs up my pant legs. Chris gets a good laugh as he holds on tight for the ride there and our guide kids him about overreacting, but low and behold, on the way back we hit a hole in the road and she almost falls out but Chris ends up grabbing her before she falls.

At Edfu is the temple of Horus, the falcon-god built by Ptolemy III in 237 BC and finished 200 years later by Ptolemy XIII (father of Cleopatra). Edfu temple is one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. It is devoted to the ancient falcon-god, Horus. The inner walls of the enclosure depict the story of how Horus was conceived from parts of his father, Osiris, god of the underworld. Seth chopped Osiris up into little pieces and cast his parts into the Nile. Isis used her magic to restore Osiris to life only to have Seth do the same again. The second time Isis was unable to restore Osiris, so she used the parts to conceive Horus. Horus later slays Seth (now in the form of a miniature hippo) but looses an eye in the battle. The eye of Horus is an important religious symbol in ancient Egyptian theology."

Chris bargains for a Galabeyya outfit in a store just outside the boat. We have dinner and then dress for the party. We run into "Chinese Elvis" who I catch a photo with beforehand. We have a few beers. I win a massage in the raffle and we dance for a bit. The Asian group definitely had the most fun. Chris cut a rug for a good part of the night.

We discover the bad part of the cruise in that the Esna lock to Luxor is closed. We cannot sail all the way to Luxor, but have to stay in Edfu, which is a really small town. Luxor is about an hour van ride away and we have to shuttle back and forth from there.

Aswan, Egypt - The Unfinished Obelisk and the High Dam
(text by Chris J., Kim G. and Chris M.)

Our rep arrived in the morning and we ended up simply walking to the boat, since it was quite close. We hadn't seen it the day before because the boats moor tied next to each other (side by side), sometimes 5-7 deep. It was on the far side of a group of moored boats. The driver took our luggage as we walked. The boat, the "Crown Empress", was very nice compared to the 3 star hotels we had been staying in. The boat was indeed 5-stars! The cabins were spacious with sliding glass doors opening to the ocean.

We were met by our female guide, who spoke the best English to date and we headed off to our first stop, the unfinished obelisk. A 40' piece of granite that had been 70% cut away before it cracked. The Egyptians just left it where it was, as there was plenty of other granite about. It was interesting to hear and see evidence of the techniques used to carve out the granite. It involved chiseling out the outline of the obelisk and then digging holes at strategic points, filling the holes with wood, and starting fires to expand the surrounding rock. They were then filled with water to help push the granite up and away.

The conjecture about this obelisk was it was being cut for Queen Hatshepsut, who was almost as famous as Ramses II. She ruled Egypt for about 22 years (her first husband died and her second husband was weak, so she took over). She was unique in that she ruled just like a Pharaoh. Often she is portrayed as a man in her statues. She built some of the largest temples in Egypt, such as the one in Luxor. She wanted to have the largest Obelisk ever and this one would have been it if completed. Interesting note - her second husband (who was also her nephew) hated her so much for taking over that he defaced all of her carvings out of spite after she died .
Next stop was the High Dam, which was not all that impressive. The visit lasted a whole 15 minutes. Only interesting note is that the lake created by the dam, Lake Nasser is the largest man-made lake in the world. The Russians help Egypt complete the dam and there's a monument just outside the dam thanking them. Apparently the USA offered help, but during the Mideast crisis, we withheld the funds and engineering work, so the Russians stepped in.
Last stop was the temple at Philae, this time during daylight. Our guide purchased the tickets. Our boat driver could not have been more than 11 years old.

We headed back into town and we asked the guide about getting cheap beer (our previous Stella beer purchased in a bar was selling for around 25 pounds ($5) each). She mentioned a duty free shop which we passed on the way to our ship. As a guide she was unique in that she told how much to tip everyone, which had been a guessing game with us previously. As an example wages versus product prices, we meet a school teacher who makes 220 pounds ($45) a month and we end up paying 30 pounds ($5) for a can of Pringles in Luxor... some crazy economics! Kim, Chris and I headed out to the store, which is about a 15 minute walk, but when we finally found the store it's closed and doesn't open until 7 pm, so we had a long walk back to the boat. We rested for a bit and Kim decided to stay at the ship as Chris and I departed on our second attempted beer run. Now to find a cheap horse drawn carriage... the first guy doesn't speak English well, so we keep walking, next guy speaks English well, so we begin the bargaining dance. We had heard 5 pounds ($1) per hour during the day for carriage rides (which we knew was impossible to get at night) so we wanted to do the round trip for 10 Egyptian pounds ($2). After 10 minutes of haggling, the driver agrees to the 10 pounds and takes us to the duty free shop.

It was the oddest duty free store I've ever seen. The first floor had a hodge podge of items (vacuum cleaners, toasters, etc, all looked used), so we headed upstairs which has a small glass front cooler with beer. The price was 7.50 pounds ($1.50), so a great deal compared to 20 pounds ($5). We each buy some beer and head back to the boat. When we arrive the driver gives me the "need more money speech", I had already planned to give him 15 pounds ($3), since he was very efficient, but once I hand him the money he tries a slight of hand trick and pulls out a 50 pence bill (1/2 a pound) and says that's all I gave him. I just laughed and told him to be a tad bit quicker next time!

In the evening the boat sailed on to Kom Ombo.

Tomorrow is the Galabeyya party where passengers dress in Egyptian garb. There is a store on board selling costumes and Kim and I pick out a set for 190 pounds (less than $20).

Aswan, Egypt - Abu Simbel, Light and Sound show at the Temple at Philae
(text by Chris J., Kim G. and Chris M.)

We had to get up at 3:30 am to catch the bus convey to Abu Simbel for a 3-hour ride to Abu Simbel. The convoy was put in place after a tourist massacre in 1997, but at this point is quite useless. Besides, what better way to plan an attack on a group of tourists than to know the exact time they will be leaving every day.

Tangent here, the current thinking is the pyramids where NOT built by slaves, but the Egyptian people themselves. During the farming season they would work the farms, but other times of the year there was no farm work to be done The Pharaoh, not wanting them to be idle, gave them something to do and paid them as well. This was also their chance to contribute something to the gods, so it was also a "labor of love". I tend to think that the craftsmanship is too precise to have been done under force. This was basically a work relief program instituted by the Pharaohs. They kept the people of Egypt gainfully employed building the pyramids. Today the Egyptian people are kept gainfully employed "protecting" the pyramids (my personal opinion). We arrived at Abu Simbel in the early morning with a nice view of the Nile. It was a bit of a walk to the ticket counter. Our rep had given us money to buy the tickets. Apparently the ticket included having the services of a guide, but we were not aware of how this worked, so we turned down someone offering to guide us. No biggie in my mind. A guide did not seem that necessary for this site.

We walked around a small mountain to the magnificent site of the Temple of Ramses II. In 1257 BCE, Pharaoh Ramses II had two temples carved out of solid rock at a site on the west bank of the Nile south of Aswan in the land known today as Abu Simbel. The massive scale of the statues of Ramses II was truly amazing. The rock-cut facade of Ramses' temple represents the front of a pylon in front of which are four colossal seated figures of Ramses. This facade is one 119 feet wide, and 100 feet high, while the colossal statues are 67 feet in height. The temple was designed to intimidate those coming up the Nile from the south and surely it must have.
Another astounding fact is that the temple and the mountain surrounding it were relocated from 800-meters away. After the construction of the Aswan High Dam the temple would have been under water at is current location. Surprisingly, the Egyptian government would have been OK with this. Fortunately a private group (UNESCO) collected funds to save and move the temple. This was accomplished between 1964 and 1966. They had to build a dam to hold back the already encroaching waters from Lake Nasser. The project cost about $40-million US dollars. They even built an artificial mountain to move the temple back into. They also moved a smaller temple to Nefertari (his favorite wife) at the same time.

The actual interior of the temple is inside the cliff in the form of a man-made cave cut out of the living rock. It consists of a series of halls and rooms extending back a total of 185 feet from the entrance. The long first hall is 54 feet wide and 58 feet deep and has two rows of Osirid statues of Ramses each 30 feet high. Those on the north side are shown wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, while those on the south wear wearing the Double Crown of Lower Egypt. Trying to imagine the amount of effort and time necessary to carve these chambers and figures out of solid rock is mind boggling!

We had a 3-hour bus trip back to Aswan during which we slept most of the way.
We had a short nap at the hotel and had dinner at a local restaurant off of a square. This restaurant didn't try to rip us off, which was quite refreshing. We kept looking at all the cruise boats docked along the Nile trying to find which one was ours, the Crown Empress, without success.

Our goal for this evening was trying to go to see the light show at Philae, even though we knew it would not be in English this particular night. Our pushy rep offered us transportation and the tour for 150 pounds ($30), but we knew we could do better on our own. We grabbed a taxi and said, "Philae" to which the driver responded "OK". We drove off, then our driver starts yelling to another cab next to us as we are driving. We both pull over and the other taxi driver comes over. Apparently he spoke English and our driver didn't, so he bargained for our driver over the price with us. We ended up agreeing on 30 pounds ($6) one-way which was the price we originally offered. Our taxi driver was probably the slowest driver in all of Egypt but we finally got there.

There were about 20 people at the ticket gate, but tickets were not on sale yet. The another group, mostly German, had missed the earlier show so they asked us if we cared if they convinced the Philae people to have the show in German, as opposed to being in French, as it was originally scheduled. We responded it didn't matter to us. we wouldn't understand in either language, so it didn't make any difference. After about 10 minutes a group of 5-6 French people arrived and tickets went on sale. We bought our tickets for 55 pounds ($11) each.

From here we headed onto the dock where we had to haggle with the boat drivers on a price to take us to the island. This was a little backwards in my mind, since you have no choice but to hire a boat to get to the island, why not include their fee in the ticket price? We connected up with two nice older French women who spoke English and we negotiated a price of 10 pounds ($2) each for a round trip to the island.

The boat ride out to the island was relaxing. The show was actually a narrated (in French), walking tour of the ancient temple. The temple was very pretty all lit up at night. The temple is not completely finished, as it was added onto by many different rulers and the last ruler apparently died before completing his additions. This was another example of a temple (like Abu Simbel) moved from it's original location to prevent it from being submerged. To move this temple they had to build a small temporary dam around the original island to drain the water away.

The show lasted about an hour and we had no clue as to what was said in the French commentary. When we had gotten off the boat on the island of Philae, the boat driver stated that the boats name was "Ares" and to look for him when we were ready to return to the mainland. To reinforce this, a deck hand on the dock pointed to the Arabic name on the boat and says "Ares", like somehow we could distinguish boat names written in Arabic from one another. We found it quite amusing.

After the show we arrived back on the mainland and were somewhat worried about how we were going to get back to our docked ship, since there were no taxis or buses to be seen. But to our luck, our original taxi driver had apparently parked nearby and decided we weren't that bad of a fare, so he was eventually pulled up and picked us up. We returned to the hotel for another 30 pounds ($6). So in total we paid 85 pounds ($17) each... not bad compared to the 150 pounds ($30) each offered by our rep.

Cairo, Egypt - Mosque of Mohammad Ali, Egyptian Museum, Flight to Aswan

(text by Chris J., Kim G. and Chris M.)
We were back with our guide, Modi, from our first tour in Cairo. The first stop was to the Alabaster Mosque or the Mosque of Mohammad Ali. I must admit, I thought Mohammad Ali was a religious figure but he was actually a lieutenant in a contingent from Albania who took advantage of turbulent times to become governor. He is credited with bringing Egypt into the industrial age. He built this mosque which can be seen throughout Cairo. The funny story here is he traded a obelisk to France for a clock tower, which sits on the outer wall of the Mosque. The clock is ugly and was broken in transit so it has never worked. In my mind this was the worst trade ever! Not surprisingly, across from the Alabaster Mosque was a large alabaster mine.

Next stop was in Old Cairo. We visited the the Hanging Church from the 9th century built on top of the Water Gate of the Roman Fort Babylon. The floor is made of tree trunks meant to "float" the church if flood waters got too high. According to our guide, the wooden ceiling was also designed to look like Noah's Ark, but was basically just a curved wooden ceiling. We also visited a Synagogue, the oldest in Egypt dating back to the 9th century. It was built on the shell of a 4th century Christian church. We also visited the Church of St. George, built on the northern tower of the Roman wall.

Our next stop was the Egyptian museum. The museum has an amazingly large collection of ancient artifacts, the largest in Egypt! Our guide took us on a hurried two hour tour and then left us for an hour to explore on our own. An interesting note was that they had to cut up and then re-assemble two large statues of Ramses II and Nefertari to get them through the doors. I thought at first, "what a ridiculous thing to do to two priceless, ancient artifacts!", but on closer inspection, it appeared they needed a lot of restoration anyway and were better protected from further damage by being placed within the museum.

The showcase exhibit in the museum were of the artifacts found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, the only tomb discovered completely intact. Especially impressive was his gold laden burial box, within a box, within a box, along with his sarcophagus, within a sarcophagus, within a final sarcophagus. The last sarcophagus was made completely of gold. They are tremendous pieces of work! It took 10 years to completely excavate his tomb.

We paid the extra 100 pounds ($20) to see the two rooms containing mummies of kings and other high ranking officials. Some of the bodies of the ancient kings and queens were still in remarkable shape, while some of them were quite gruesome.

Kim wanted a cartouche with her name on it, so Modi took us to a nice jewelry shop where she a had a silver cartouche made with gold inlays. We were in a hurry and a bit anxious, so we our guide took us to see the cartouche being made in the "factory". It was your basic Egyptian sweat shop, but the skills of the workers were quite impressive.

We returned to the hotel to take a bus to the airport for a late night flight to Aswan. Our Memphis rep seemed in a rush when we got to the airport. He was further frustrated by the fact that the usual entrance to the airport terminal had been changed to accommodate pilgrimage flights to Mecca, so we had to take a longer route to our departure terminal. In the end it was a nice flight on Egypt Air to Aswan. The hotel was on par with our place in Cairo.

We had the most annoying Memphis rep who met us and kept pestering us about "additional" tours as soon as we arrived in Aswan. We were a bit tired and cranky at this point, so we were not the most receptive audience. We arrived at our hotel in Aswan around midnight.

Alexandria, Egypt - Pompey Pillar (Amud El Sawari), Roman Theatre, Roman Catacombs (Kom El-Shuqafa)

(text by Chris J., Kim G. and Chris M.)
We had an early star of 7 am for our 3 hour van trip to Alexandria. We met our guide in the city. Traffic was light since Friday and Saturday are considered the weekend in Egypt. Our guide was female and she was quite good. Her previous employment was giving VIP tours in the Greek Museum.

First stop was the Pompey pillar. This was a column raised in 300 A.D. in honour of Emperor Diocletian, who saved the city of Alexandria from a frightful famine. On the western side of the column is engraved, "To the just Emperor, the god of Alexandria, the invincible Diocletian." The monument is 22 meters high (72-feet) and 9 meters (30-feet) in diameter and is made of polished red granite brought from Upper Egypt across the Nile! Nearby we also saw a small sphinx.

Second stop was the Roman catacombs which was one the most interesting sites yet. It was a large underground burial chamber believed to have been built by a rich man in the 2nd century. It was constructed with an interesting blend of Egyptian, Greek and Roman influences. Since Alexandria was founded by the Alexander the Great, the presence of the Greek influence was obvious. At the time the catacombs were built, Rome was the ruling influence, but the builder liked to keep the Egyptian images of power to denote his stature in life (and the hereafter). One writer describing the catacombs said, "Its vast, intricately decorated interior spaces cut at so great a depth into the rock present an enormity of experience outside the normal human realm and tell us of a level of technological expertise equaling enterprises of modern subways and tunnels while far surpassing them in aesthetic response."

The catacombs included a dining area where visitors would eat and drink during their visit. They would never bring plates or anything else back from the cemetary ("the place of death"). It was it considered bad luck, so they would break them in the dining hall after eating. The entrance was full of dish shards when originally discovered. The Arab name for the catacombs, Kom El-Shuqafa, means "Mound of Shards".

Another interesting site was the Roman Amphitheater. Built in the 4th century AD, it remained in use until about the 7th century AD, or about the time of the Arab invasion. The seats of the amphitheater were still in great condition, you could still be read the seat numbers on them! There was also a "sweet" spot on the floor of the amphitheater where even a whisper could be hear by everyone in the amphitheatre and would also be echoed back to you.

Next we stopped by the citadel located right on the Mediterranean. The Qaitbay Citadel in Alexandria is considered one of the most important defensive strongholds, not only in Egypt, but also along the Mediterranean Sea coast. It formulated an important part of the fortification system of Alexandria in the 15th century A.D. It was erected on the exact site of the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The lighthouse continued to function until the time of the Arab conquest, but the lighthouse was destroyed by several earthquakes.

Our guide showed us a nice seafood restaurant for lunch, but we wanted something easier and cheaper, but still on the water... so we ended up at a Pizza Hut, of all places. Not quite what we were looking for, but nice and easy.

It was also market day... lots of fruits and meats along with all sorts of live birds. Pigeons are a popular meal entre and you can actually see brick towers erected to house and catch them in various parts of the city.

It was vacation day for school kids, so there were big groups at each of the sites, they all liked to yell "Ello, what's your name?" Our guide said that was the only English they learned at that age. We ran into a big group of school kids when visiting the King's Palace as well. It was a very nice location right on the waterfront with good boat harbor. We saw an older man coming out the harbor in his flashy Lamborghini Dialo. Our guide recognized him and confirmed the impression that this was rich man who used his wealth and flashy car to pick up women.

First time we really noticed the Muslim calls to prayer from the loudspeakers at 4:30 am... a little early for us!

Last stop was at the Alexandria library, the world's second largest after the Library of Congress. We didn't go inside, but took pictures from the outside. One of the outside views is designed to look like the sun setting into the water.

Cairo, Egypt - the Pyramids at Giza

I made it through the gauntlet of customs and security checks with my newly issued passport, from Bangkok, to Mumbai, to Kuwait City and finally to Cairo.

Chris and Kim arrived from the USA last evening to join me on this part of the trip. It was great to see Chris again and to meet Kim for the 1st time!

I had been in Cairo for two days before they arrived and saw the pyramids both days from my hotel room. They are within walking distance. Unfortunately, this morning the smog/fog was so thick that even driving right next to them, you would not even know they were there. Our Guide gave us the option to go to Memphis this morning instead and come back later in the afternoon to see the pyramids, when hopefully the smog had cleared. We quickly took him up on this offer.

Memphis, founded around 3,100 BC, is the legendary city of Menes, the King who united Upper and Lower Egypt, but now not much remains. The highlight of Memphis is the "Colossus of Ramses II", a 34-foot long statue of Ramses II that lays horizontal inside of a museum. A modern sculptor commented, "How these master carvers achieved perfect surfaces on this scale with simple tools was beyond my comprehension. My own twenty years' experience provided no clue. But clearly this was not the work of slaves. This forty-foot length of stone could only have been brought to life through the sensitive hand and watchful eye of a master sculptor, and with a great deal of loving care."

Another notable artifact was the Alabaster Sphinx. The Alabaster Sphinx is 8m (26 ft) long and 4m (13 ft) tall and weighs around 90 tons. The type of figure known as a sphinx is created with the body of a lion and the head of royalty. The lion is in a crouching position with its paws outstretched. The human head is adorned with the covering reserved for kings of that particular period.

Next we headed to the Step Pyramids in Saqqara. Unlike Giza, Saqqara has the distinction not of having Egypt's largest pyramids, but its first, the Step Pyramid of Djoser. This was an impressive site, with a large courtyard and more pyramids, some very ancient, than Giza. The Step Pyramids were quite huge.

After the Step Pyramids, we visited a carpet school and papyrus factory... both ended up being pitches for vendors to sell their wares, but they weren't too bad. Quite interesting to see the hand-made Egypt carpets. Chris J. bought a small carpet for Kim.

Finally off to see the Great Pyramids and luckily by this time the weather had cleared, how funny to come to Egypt and not get to see the GP. What was most odd was the location... right in downtown Giza. Kinda expected a long bus ride in the desert but the Pyramids were about 2 miles from the hotel. Impressive to see all three Pyramids, we decided thanks to our guide not to pay the 100 pounds ($20) to go inside the main Pyramid but spent 25 pounds ($5) to go into the second. Both had the same flavor, very small shaft leading into the burial chamber. But no hieroglyphics or art of any kind just small stone passages. Still incredible the precision in the construction. Last stop was the Sphinx, once again not expecting it in such a crowded local, but still it was fascinating.

Afterwards we visited a perfume shop. We were subjected to the worst sales pitch I've heard quite in awhile. We left with nothing but an odd mix of scents lingering on us.

In the evening we paid roughly 25 pounds ($5) each for Stella beers in the hotel bar. We had a short, heated discussion with the waitstaff and left feeling slightly ripped off. The main issues were, beers are really expensive in bars in Egypt and we didn't understand Arabic numerals.
Egypt note: Necropolises, tombs of the dead, were always located on the western side of the Nile River while the eastern side was used for active temples for the living.

Bangkok, Thailand - Photos and viruses on memory sticks! (geek stuff)

Bangkok is a great place to get prints made from digital images. 4x6 prints are 10-cents a piece and am 8x12 prints are quite cheap as well. I decided to have some prints made for friends and for myself.

I'd been having some problems with the memory sticks where I stored my photos and discovered that they had contracted a virus. I managed to get the prints made. On another PC I was looking at the memory sticks with a virus program and decided to "clean" out the viruses, which the program did. The only other issue was that all my directories on the stick were gone! Directories which contained some photos that I didn't have copies of.

I had some older backups of some of the other important stuff on the stick on my web site and started downloading them. I discovered I couldn't create a directory because, "it already exists!". I looked at the memory stick and it was using a lot of memory space that was unaccounted for. Fortunately I could change the folder settings on the PC I was using at the Internet cafe, and by allowing viewing of system and hidden files, I was able to find and recover the missing directories and photos. Hooray!

This has been one hell of a week...

I am supposed to pick up my Kuwait Airways ticket tomorrow and fly to Mumbai tomorrow evening. I fly out of Mumbai for Cairo the next morning. I hope everything goes well!

Bangkok, Thailand - Ticket problems

I spent 7-days talking to the people in the Kuwait Airways office in Bangkok trying to get the stolen ticket from Mumbai to Cairo reissued. The people in Bangkok were very nice, but the office in Mumbai gave a variety of reasons why they could not reissue the ticket. They said they had to get a "letter of guarantee" from the travel agent who sold the ticket to me in Varanasi. I could not get hold of the travel agent in Varanasi and I think Kuwait Airways had problems trying to contact them as well. I even tried contacting the main Kuwait Airways office in Kuwait. I was within ten minutes of taking the cheapest alternative, purchasing an entirely new ticket from Bangkok to Cairo for $527, as opposed to likely having to pay Kuwait Airways $700 for an entirely new ticket from Mumbai to Cairo, when the Bangkok Kuwait Airways office called and said they had just gotten the OK to reissue the ticket. Whew! Having my stuff stolen, like this ticket, has caused a lot of stress. The rest of the day was spent working on getting documentation together for filing the insurance claim for the stolen items.