Taking on the Sinai

I arrived back in Cairo quite refreshed after the trip from Luxor on the overnight train. We dumped our gear back at King Hotel and headed to the old part of town.

This part of Cairo has many churches of various religions. The Coptic church (Christian) was very beautiful.





Next stop was a Synagogue then a really large mosque. Females need to cover up to enter, so we donned bright green polyester robes, took off our shoes and headed on in.


It was call to prayer while we were in the mosque. It is Ramadan so many people make it to the mosque for their prayers. And apparently you get more points from Mohammad if you make it to the mosque.


After all these dips into religion it was time to check out the markets. The tourist market is on the edges and the real locals market is in the middle of this crazy place.


As I'm a homeless vagabond I didn't purchase anything, but had fun looking at what was on offer.








This market wasn't the craziest in town.


Quite pleased I didn't venture in to that crazyness!


The last part of my Egypt adventure was taking on the Sinai Desert. We were supposed to go to Mt Sinai but due to the many tourists being kidnapped recently the Egyptian government have closed these roads to tourists. I was a bit sad about missing this - not the 6 hour climb to the top but I had great visions of re-enacting Moses receiving the 10 commandments. Oh well, I was off to the Red Sea so I guess I could part the waters.


The trip across the desert takes around 10 hours, give or take a few hours depending on the number of police stops and the hassle they give. We were held up for ages at one stop. Ahmed the trusty (and usually very jolly) tour leader lost his cool and a big argument erupted. Now I can't speak Arabic but I knew he was pissed. Anyways, whatever he said worked, they let us continue our journey.

I was so excited to get to the Red Sea. We stopped in Dahab for a night instead of Mt Sinai. We got a fancy hotel with a beach front pool. Dahab is quite touristy with loads of ocean front restaurants. We thought it would be rude not to give one a try.


Next morning was all about the water. We climbed into the back of a jeep and headed to the Blue Hole for a morning of snorkeling. It is a desolate place but the water is amazing.





After a cup of tea to wash away the very salty water, it was off along the coast to the remote Sawa Beach huts, home for the next two days.






My hut is the first on the right with my trusty black havaianas out the front.


I had landed in Lynne paradise.

I must admit it was very difficult to sleep the first night. I'm sure it didn't dip much below 40 degrees and there wasn't a lick of breeze to speak of. But I found loads of ways to keep cool.



Ahhhhhhhhh the serenity.

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Life in deNILE

My next adventure in Egypt was on a felluca on the Nile. The boat was to be home for the next couple of days.




Sailing down the Nile in July is very relaxing ..... when there is a breeze. To keep things cool we jumped over the edge into the very cold water. Despite what my sisters have suggested, I don't think I caught any parasites from the water and am not in deNILE about this (thanks Kathryn for this pun, we used it constantly on the boat).

A night was spent on the west bank in the home of a Nubian lady and her daughters.


We were very grateful for the water fan thingy which helped us survive the near 50 degree heat.



After a welcome shower and farewells we headed back to the felluca. It was loads of fun but we did nearly pass out in the afternoon heat when the winds stopped .... so more time was spent in the water than on the boat.
Luckily for my buddy Tania and I, we had purchased a few beers along with our water supplies for the boat.


As we pulled into an island (so we had a bush for a bathroom) Tan and I cracked a couple of coldies and watched the sunset.



It was off the boat and back on the road the following day, heading for Luxor. We stopped at a temple on the way, I must try and remember the name of it as it was amazing.











Luxor is a beautiful town of the banks of the Nile. We strolled around the town checking out Luxor temple by night.










After a late night it was tough pulling myself out of bed at 3.30am but I was quite excited as I was going in a hot air balloon. Floating over the Nile as the sun rose was quite an amazing experience.





From the air it was easy to see the contrast of the lush green around the Nile against the desert hills.







I asked for a very bumpy landing, much to the horror of the others in the basket, but the landing was ok - except we landed on a farmers potato crop which he was none too pleased about!

Next stop Valley of the Kings. It was close to 50 degrees again but nothing was going to stop me from walking the dusty hills of one of the most amazing sites in Egypt. Once again, no cameras were allowed in the tombs, which is a shame as the carvings and paintings are so well preserved.

Another temple was on the agenda today, Al-Bahari temple which was built by King Hat Chi Su (not the correct spelling but think hot chicken soup). This king was actually a queen but pretended to be a man so she could rule Egypt. Not a bad gig if you can get it. Parts of this temple are exposed to the elements but the paintings are still so vivid.






That's me being a king ... kings do the folded arm business.








It was quite hot so i had a rest and chat to a few of the locals. Not sure why I'm poking my tongue out, maybe I need water. BTW the dude next to me is wearing my sunnies and he so didn't want to give them back!


We had lunch with a local family. The food was great but it was a bit weird eating in their home when they cant join in because of Ramadan.


The other big temple in Luxor is Karnac temple. It is so enormous.
The temple covers about 60 acres (i didnt cover it all!) and was built by various Kings over a period of hundreds of years. The good thing with this temple is they didn't finish it ... leaving clues on building techniques which have helped solve many mysteries of how the Egyptians did what they did.

















I made a few more friends at this temple.


And the girls and i had a few laughs playing charlies angels ... Well the egyptian king poses were getting a bit boring.


After scones, jam and cream it was time to pack up and head back to Cairo.



NB: not your typical Egyptian dinner



Posted from somewhere round the world...

Walk like an Egyptian

Egypt was always on my list of must see countries, but things were getting quite heated prior to my arrival ... and mum kept suggesting I rethink my travel plans so I decided to do a tour with Intrepid just to be on the safe side - and to let them do the negotiations in case I got kidnapped.

I'm a bit tardy with my first blog from Egypt, but the Egyptians aren't big on wifi ... or many other technical things such as computers with an internet connection.

I arrived in Cairo at around 2am and it was a balmy (read that as bloody hot) 35 degrees. I had a day before I had to meet the group so decided to beat the heat at the lovely pool at the intercontinental hotel over looking the Nile.

After a relaxed afternoon with Tania who I'd met in the hotel lobby we rocked up to see who we would be spending the next two weeks with. Very cool, only three other people, girls from the states who are much more Mexican than American. And Ahmed our fab if a little crazy leader.

My first adventure was of course the pyramids. We're belting along the highway in our van when there they are. Such acool site.

The pyramids are much bigger than I expected ....very awesome.


To get a closer look I decided that a camel would be my transport of choice.


Betsy (alias) was a very cool camel, we had a relaxing little journey in the belting Egyptian sun.

The next stop was the sphinx, which was much smaller than I imagined but very very cool.





I needed a beverage stop after all the wandering in the 40 degree heat (at 9am) so made my way over to a group of kids with an esky. I grabbed a seat and hung out with the kids - I was quite good at yelling out coca cola only 10 pounds. Sadly I didn't actually make a sale but the kids were highly amused.

Driving to the museum we went past liberation square where many protestors are still camping out.


The next stop was the Egyptian museum. Sadly cameras are not allowed in so you'll have to take my word for it when I say that this is one of the best museums I have ever been to. The sheer number of artifacts that are so well preserved is mind blowing.

I was so excited to see the King Tut display. Despite the fact that King Tut didn't achieve much during his reign, his tomb is the only one in Egypt that was found intact, hence his claim to fame. His multiple casks, gold masks etc are all there ... very awesome. Makes me understand why Molly Meldrum is so into all things Egyptian.

After a busy day in the crazy city of Cairo it was off to the station to board our train to Aswan. I was prepared for the worst given my Indian train experiences, but the Egyptians can sure run a train service. There are only 2 bunks I each room, there is a lockable door, a sink and towel, very clean linen and a butler type dude delivers edible food.

I woke the next morning to find the train at a stand still. It was very early so I wandered down to the 'have a ciggie' carriage to get a coffee. I found out that we are still 2.5 hours from Aswan and there were protestors blocking the tracks. We waited it out for 5 hours ...


... until Ahmed our fearless leader called for a car to come get us. Well the landscape was a bit desolate....





Many of the passengers looked on in envy as we climbed across the tracks and got into the old blue beast, our transport for the next 3 hours.


We passed the protestors on the way ... they looked like they would have scattered if the train had of ploughed on through.


We arrived in the beautiful town of Aswan sweaty but ready for the next adventure. So we dumped our gear and jumped on a boat to cruise around the islands in the Nile.








We stopped on an island where i had a swim with some local kids. The nile is very cold.





The next morning we were up at 3am to join the three hour convoy to Abu Simbel. The two temples are full of carving and paintings on every surface, cameras weren't allowed inside but the entrances will give some idea of how amazing this place is.














These temples totally blew me away so i wasnt sure whether anything else would measure up or if egypt had peaked too early.

The answer to that and to my crazy sisters' comments about me getting parasites from swimming in the Nile will be in my next post coming soon (while I have a rare wifi day or two) .... unless the parasites get to me first!

Posted from somewhere round the world...