Photo of the Week: Egypt

Karnak Temple, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

A rooftop in Luxor, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

The Pyramids at night, Cairo, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

 Nile River, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Hot Air Balloon over the Nile River at sunrise: Luxor, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Sunrise of the Nile River in Luxor

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Luxor, Egypt

The other obelisk is in France.

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Sunrise over the Nile Rive, Luxor, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

From:  Khan el Kalili Market, Cairo

Just a reminder about my giveaway that is ending on October 30 for a copy of My Memories Suite 2, digital scrapbooking software.  You can find out more about this here.

Photo of the Week: Egypt

From Luxor Egypt, a gas station for donkeys????

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Sunrise over the Nile River, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Hot Air Balloon: Luxor, Egypt

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Abu Simbel, Egypt

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and thoughts on Becco for lunch

After my visit to the King Tut exhibit I realized that it's time to get myself out and about and seeing more things in New York City. On my list was a visit to "The Met" or The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since I was meeting my friend from out of town for lunch in the city, I figured it was a perfect opportunity to see a museum.

I met my friend at Becco on West 46 Street and had a great lunch. Becco had really good food (the kind of food that the average eater goes, "Wow, this is why people love food," the service was great. My only complaint about it was that the restaurant was kinda loud.

After lunch I had the brilliant idea to walk to The Met. It was a nice walk, but by the time I got there I was already tired and my feet were already starting to hurt, not a good way to start a visit to a museum.

The museum does not have a required admission, they have a recommended admission of $20 for adults. It mental hurts to give money, but I know it's the right thing to do and is certainly in line with the cost of other museums so I did give the donation.

I first went to the Egyptian exhibit, it took me a few minutes to get into it but slowly I did. What I didn't like about the exhibit was the signage for the different pieces, some were hard to read, others I never found. I also found all the different little rooms made it hard to make sure you saw everything, I think for that reason (and the large amount of stuff they have) you either need to dedicate hours or you need to visit several times to see the whole exhibit. What I liked was the different pieces. There were a lot of pieces of wall, which really surprised me. There were a lot of sarcophagus's too, though not overly impressive ones like you would see in Egypt.

This was the first time I looked at Egyptian art in terms of time period, other then a few little things, I really never knew what might be the difference between art from different dynasties, until now. Unlike the King Tut exhibit I recently saw there were not too many smaller pieces from tombs, the pieces were more ordinary pieces - pieces of wall, statues, sarcophagus's, and pottery are what stick out. It seemed a little more like daily life type of stuff, not just the stuff of Pharohs.

After seeing the Egyptian stuff I headed to the American exhibit, which I really enjoyed. This is my type of museum stuff - stuff that tells me about American life. There was a giant house like exhibit with "rooms," the rooms were all very nicely decorated and gave a nice feeling for how people lived. To add to the experience there was a woman in one of the rooms talking about how the bed reminded her of her bed in her farm house from her youth. I like that real life image that I can picture.

After that I was exhausted and ready to go, but on my way out (since I couldn't figure out how to get out) I walked through the armor rooms - who doesn't like a knight in shining armor? It seemed like cool stuff in there, and I felt bad for the horses who had to wear armor, it looked really heavy!

Overall I enjoyed The Met. It's the type of place that if I lived nearby I could see myself stopping there every couple weeks and checking out a different exhibit.  For those planning a visit I would suggest planning a few hours to see just 1 or 2 exhibits, otherwise you might end up tired or overwhelmed by the museum.

Photo of the Week: Egypt

Abu Simbel, Egypt

King Tut and family

On Saturday I went to the King Tut exhibit in Times Square. I enjoyed the exhibit, but your reaction to the exhibit will depend a lot on what you expect. I was in Egypt in 2007 so I know that all the really good stuff is still in Egypt like his mask, the sarcophagus, gold boxes that held the sarcophagus, and the mummy. They did have a nice sampling of some of the more minor pieces from King Tut's tomb and his family. I read that there were 130 pieces, and it's quite a bit of stuff, though not overwhelming. I thought it was a good amount.


The first half of the exhibit is items of his family, including the sarcophagus of his grandmother - by far the largest and nicest piece. I thought this piece was one of the best of the collection. There was also a larger statue, though not nearly as large as the pieces you would see in Egypt. There were many items from King Tut's tomb. One example of how this exhibit could be disapointing is that there was a small wooden chair, the chair is kinda cool, though not spectacular. In Egypt there was a small chair that I remember seeing, it was covered in gold and jeweles and really jumped out at you. But overall I thought the exhibit had a nice selection which showed a variety of the types of things you would have seen in Ancient Egypt, without going all the way to Egypt.


If you're expecting to see his body (it's in his tomb), or his sarcophagus and mask (in a special room at the Cairo Museum) you will be very disappointed.

Since my brother-in-law asked, I thought I would mention that this exhibit isn't really appropriate for young children. If you have a child 10 and up and they are interested in Ancient Egypt, then they might enjoy this exhibit, otherwise leave them at home.

Egypt: Flying Home and the Epilogue

Day 10 (March 18, 2007): Farewell Egypt - your tour ends after breakfast. (Breakfast included)


At 12:25 Jen, Kelley, Tara and I made our way to the lobby area for our shuttle to the airport. Adam, Tim, Ed, Craig, Jacqui, Sharon and Alan all saw us off. They waved until we couldn’t see them anymore, it was quite sad. I won’t mention any names, but someone in the van tried to make the rest of us cry and was almost successful. But we had a good chat on the way to the airport about the tour and the people. At the airport I made my way through check-in with no problems while the other girls checked in at Lufthansa and got seats together. The 4 of us walked around the airport a bit, shopped a little, paid our last Baksheesh for the bathroom and then at 2:45 I watched them go through security for their flight. I had a little more time before my flight boarded and walked around a bit more till they called my flight at 3:30. On the line for security there were a couple really annoying Canadians – the type that give Canadians a bad name. I just hoped they weren’t sitting near me.

I wasn’t sitting near the annoying Canadians; I had a window seat with a view of Jen, Tara, and Kelley’s plane and an empty seat on the other side of me. I was exhausted at this point and slept at least half the flight to Milan, but managed to wake up for breakfast – Yogurt, fruit and bread with some cheese. But 2 hours of sleep wasn’t going to cut it.

Security in Milan was much better this time then when I was on my way to Egypt, only about a 10 minute wait. When I got on line for the flight back to NY I ended up in front of a big group, and man were they annoying! I had another entertainment box under my feet, but since I knew I was going to sleep on this flight I didn’t bother taking much stuff out of my backpack. Lunch was pretty good, but the snack was weird. My flight got in ontime, although my luggage took forever to come out. There was a customs guy with a dog, I was just hoping my bottle of Sahara sand didn’t smell. But I was fine. Mom and Dad took me out to lunch and then it was time to try and readjust to real life, which I knew wasn’t going to be easy to do – Egypt is the type of place that stays with you.

Epilogue

Before I left for Egypt I started reading a book called Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif on the recommendation of someone from my Office. I continued reading it while I was in Egypt, and finally finished it when I returned home. I wouldn't highly recommend the book as it took a long time to get into the book, but it helped to keep the spirit of Egypt with me. But in reality I didn't need to read a book, Egypt is the type of place that lingers with you. There is just something about Egypt, and many others have told me this, that is distinct from other places and it lingers. I could jump on a plane tomorrow and go back.
I did mention early on that I thought this was a great group, and it absolutely was. I think the smaller group size helped as well as the fact that we were in Egypt and everyone was conscious of watching out for each other. Since the tour a couple of us have gotten together. I met up with Jen and Ed in Philly a few weeks after the tour. We were supposed to meet with Reid and her cousin and spend the day together; however, a rainstorm screwed up the plans and I only saw Ed and Jen. I went to the Morning Show with Mike and Juliet with Reid and her cousin a few days later and got to meet up with Chi for lunch. I've also had a chance to see Kelley a couple times. It's been great to keep in touch and see people from tour, it's always fun to relive the moments from tour, especially one as special as this tour was. I'm still in touch with quite a few people (facebook is a great tool) and even 2 and a half years after the trip we're still in touch.

What surprised me most about the tour was how friendly the Egyptians were, how nice the accommodations were and how much I could love a place that I was having second thoughts about going to right before I went. It didn't hurt that I didn't have to carry my suitcase everywhere, like on my other Contiki tours. Egypt is well set up for tourists (which means there are a lot of tourists), but a person can still get a feel for the culture while staying in their comfort zone. As long as you leave your hotel...

Sherif served not only as Tour Manager and guide, but also as a bridge between the Western World and Egypt. Although he was born and raised in Egypt he has a good understanding of Westerners and gave an appropriate amount of information, enough to get an understanding, but not so much that you couldn't absorb what we were told.

Egypt: Cairo

Day 9 (March 17, 2007): First to Sakkara to see the oldest pyramid in the world, the Step Pyramid. We continue on to the citadel, Alabaster Mosque and Sultan Husan Mosque. Tonight we have a final get-together. (Breakfast and dinner included)

This morning breakfast was at 6:45 with a 7:15 departure for the step pyramid. Our first stop was at the pyramid complex at Saqqara. Here we saw was the tomb of a regular person (Tomb of Mere – Ruka). We couldn’t take photos inside and were with a guide so we really couldn't. Sherif told us that while they are protecting the tomb by not allowing photos they are allowing too much sand inside the tomb, which is slowly erasing the etchings on the walls. I love Egyptians!

After that we went to the Titi Pyramid which was a pyramid shaped mound of sand. Apparently you can tell how well Egypt was doing by the state of the pyramids – the better the pyramid the better the country was doing. Apparently Titi wasn't the most successful pharaoh. Inside the pyramid you walked down a shaft into a room which had two smaller rooms off of it. When we came back outside it was raining. It was a light drizzle for about 5 minutes which apparently qualified the day as rainy for Egyptians.

From there we went over to the step pyramid, which was built during the 3rd dynasty. The design was pretty much an accident, but seems to have worked out for the Egyptians. Walking to the pyramid we went through the first colonnade room, the columns are all attached to the outer wall because they didn’t know if the columns would hold the ceiling. It was interesting to see and to consider that thousands of years ago no one thought columns would hold up a roof, yet it’s such a basic part of building design today, amazing! On the other side of the colonnade room was the step pyramid where we made Sherif take a group picture of us with everyone’s camera. We would have taken a picture of him with our cameras sitting in front of him, but he already had all our cameras. Then as he took the last one we thought he should have been in the picture. But things had gotten a bit ridiculous as it was, so there are no pictures of him with the group, but gosh, everyone has a group picture from that day. During our picture taking session a dog was running around, well he got his head stuck in a plastic bag and started to flip out a bit trying to get out and being disoriented and all. I felt bad for him, but it was hysterical. I was laughing too hard to even take a picture of it.

After the pyramid we walked a little bit more towards the desert to get a better look, we got many offers for camel rides or something equally unwanted, it really never ends does it! Back on the bus we started towards the mosques, luckily Sherif left us alone so we could nap.

Our next stop was the Citadel of Salah al-Din, better known as the Alabaster Mosque. Before we went in we had to take off our shoes and those of us who were dressed to revealingly were given green robes to wear. Inside the mosque Sherif showed us a few things in the Mosque and explained about some of the writings on the ceiling. Outside there was a great view of the city, too bad it was cloudy out. I also noticed a lot of women with burqas and in general more conservatively dressed then we had seen through most of the trip. But then again, we hadn’t seen THAT many women. Most of the workers at the sites were men, and most of the people in the markets were men or tourists so I guess I hadn’t seen much of a cross section of Egyptian women. One place I had noticed women who were working was in hotels. I guess I could make a lot of assymptions about that, but I'll leave you to make your own. Our next stop was another Mosque – The Mosque of Sultan Hasan, where Sherif was going to talk about the Muslim religion.

I should tell you a little about myself: I consider myself a non-practicing Catholic. I think religion is a good thing in peoples lives, but don’t participate myself. I believe in being respectful of all religions for two reasons – one is that others believe it and you should be respectful of other people; and second, because you never know when one is going to be right and I think whatever god I encounter at the other side would be pissed at me if I was disrespectful of their religion. Having said that, I really didn’t know much about the Muslim Religion except that women have to wear Burqas and seem to be oppressed, they pray a lot and radical Muslims don't like the US.

At the Mosque of Sultan Hasan we again took our shoes off and Sherif told us where the good pictures were and had us sit while he explained a bit about the religion. So far during the tour Sherif had been fairly low key about being Muslim and never did anything overtly religious, watching him talk about it you could tell that he certainly was religious. I always enjoy watching someone who is passionate about thier topic. Sherif was passionate about everything, but especially so about Islam. He showed us how they pray and that Muslims pray 5 times a day, but it does not have to correspond with the calls to prayer. They pray for themselves and sins they might commit or thought about committing. Women pray in the back of the Mosque so they don’t distract the men, not as a sign of disrespect or to treat them as second class. Maybe I’m cynical, but while I understood it on a logical level, I didn’t totally get it. Women are forced to cover themselves because men can’t control themselves – I realize there is some sort of respect thing in there to protect women, but it takes away their freedoms too. Sherif took us to a room where the, I think Imam, read/chanted/sang the Arabic writing from the Quran that were on the wall.

Around 1:30 we finally went to lunch. Sherif took us to some place where for 40 LE we got Kebab and a lot of other good food. Apparently my journal entries about lunch are better then they were for the Mosques, opps. The tables were really low and I ate with Tara, Tim and Kelley. After the main course Jen and Tara went shopping, I opted not to go since I was still eating and I wanted dessert. While they were gone someone came around to collect our money for drinks, I paid for mine and Tara’s. After Jen and Tara came back they came around to collect money for lunch, but tried to get money for the drinks again. I explained that the drinks had been paid for, but the guy wasn’t getting it and I had to explain it to him twice, since Tara’s drink was paid for, it was really frustrating. Then Tara and Jen showed me the shirts they had gotten and I fell in love and decided I wanted one too. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time. Sherif finally agreed we could go if we ran. So Tara and I ran down the streets of Cairo to this little shop, which caused a bit of a stir. Nothing like two Western girls running down the street of a Muslim city! But I grabbed my shirt, paid for it and ran back. When we got to the bus no one was there. Apparently Sherif had taken his time getting everyone to the bus so they wouldn’t be stuck waiting for us (and the bus wouldn't get a ticket, but we beat them anyway. We probably should have just run slower, I thought I was going to die by the time we got to the bus.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Egyptian cotton store. I had wanted to get myself a set of sheets for my bed. But I didn’t know what color I was going to be using when I set up my new apt and I didn’t want white (which according to Sherif is the best color to get) and it didn’t seem that cheap so I decided not to get sheets. I got a blouse and a shawl instead. I think on today's drive through Cairo I was realizing it wasn't quite as bad as I previously thought. I wouldn't say it's a clean city or that it's pretty. More like it's dirt covered because it never rains to clean it and the construction is ugly combined with it being very densely populated. But there are few cities that I've thought were terribly clean and pretty.

On the bus ride back to the hotel we passed the unfinished buildings again, I finally decided to ask Sherif about these. He explained that people pretty much up and build them and then people move in, since the buildings aren't finished no one is paying taxes. From there the conversation went something like this:

Sherif: Poor people at home don't do that?

Me: No, you have to get a permit to do work. If you don't get a permit when you build you have to get it when you sell the house.

Sherif: Well here we just pass it down through the family, they don't sell it.

Me: Well then the neighbors might call and report you.

Sherif: That's not very nice.

He's right, but it still happens. I hope the Egyptians never figure out the pure joy of red tape!

We got back to the hotel around 3:00 and had some time to rest before going to the Sound and Light Show. I used the time to do some packing and take a nap. But I didn’t sleep well (I kept thinking about the tour) and then my mother called. I left a folder of info for her but she couldn't figure out when my plane was getting in, but it's always nice to hear from her.

At 6:00 16 of us met in the lobby and Mohammed (one of the Spring Tour reps) took us to the Sound and Light show. We were dropped off near the Hard Rock Café and set off on our own. The main reason I had decided to go to the Sound and Light show was because I wanted to see the pyramids at night and I wanted to take pictures of them at night, I even dragged my tripod all the way to Egypt for this. I had heard the show was cheesy, but it was worse then I imagined. After about 2 minutes of the Sphinx talking, Tara and Jen had to leave because they were laughing and couldn't take it anymore. I think everyone else made it through the show, but it was sooooo cheesy. Then while I was taking my pictures from the back of the arena some woman complained that the flash on my camera was bothering her and asked me to move over (never mind the fact that no one was on the other side of her), I moved over about an inch.

When we came out of the show we heard bagpipes (it was St. Patrick’s Day), they had Egyptian dressed bagpipers outside playing Irish music, cute. Our meeting place was in front of the Hard Rock Café and since Mohammed wasn’t around we were able to go inside, I got myself a pin. I’m not much of a Hard Rock Café person, but at least they had a pin that proved I had been to Egypt, I hadn't found pins anywhere else in the country.

At 8:15 everyone met in the lobby of the hotel for dinner. Sherif was all dressed up for us and looking rather dapper. We had the hotels buffet dinner, which was good but nothing special. After dinner we all went out by the pool to hang out for the night. Everyone took lots of pictures. Rumor has it that Chi took about 4,000 pictures during the whole trip, I felt like I was slacking since I only took 1,200. Slowly as the night went on people started to head to bed, since we missed Reid going to bed a whole group of us went to say goodbye to her. But a bunch of us planned to meet in Philly and NYC a few weeks later so we knew this wasn't the last time we would see each other. A little before midnight Sherif said goodbye to us, I knew I would miss him. He was a great Tour Manager and a link to the Egyptian and Muslim world, as well as a good friend. The tour wouldn't have been the same without him and I don't know if I would have appreciated Egypt as much without him there.

Egypt: Luxor to Cairo

Day 8 (March 16, 2007): This morning we board our flight to Cairo. Upon arrival we head for the fascinating bazaar Khan El Khalili and the opportunity for some last minute bazaar shopping. (Breakfast included)

I had set my alarm for 9:30, but woke up at 9am and wasn’t feeling so great. I took a bunch of drugs and layed down for a bit. At 10am Tara and I went down for breakfast. Breakfast was pretty good and even had fresh made-to-order omelets. Tara and I sat alone (except for the birds that wouldn’t leave us alone) until we eventually moved to share a table with Jason (NY) and Karen. People floated in and out of breakfast, eventually I was just hanging out with Jacqui soaking in the sun. After a bit I went upstairs for a shower and to pack up. Just as I finished getting ready Tara came in, which was handy because then she would be there to put the luggage out while I went to use the internet. I’ll digress for a minute... Egypt is a Muslim Country and the Muslims pray several times a day. Periodically throughout the day there would be a call to prayer – over the loud speakers they would broadcast prayers (I think) throughout the cities. It’s fairly loud and very distinctive. When I was ready to go use the internet the call to prayer was still going on. I thought the call to prayer meant people were actually praying, but it actually means they're supposed to go to whereever they are going to pray so they can pray. Since it hadn’t really affected anything we had done so far I didn’t think much of it.

While I was walking over to the internet, which was just around the block, many men said hello to me and that I was beautiful, I have to admit that that made me feel more uncomfortable then good. When I got to the internet place I asked the guy how much for half an hour, he said it was 10 LE, but he had to close up to pray. I probably made a face turned on my heel and left, I was not happy and was having an ignorant tourist moment. So if you’re that guy – I’m sorry I was rude. Then I had to walk past the same people who said hi, and that I’m beautiful, which is even more fun when I'm grumpy. Back at the hotel I ran into Jacqui and hung out with her for a few minutes before going back to the room.

At 1:15 we all met in the lobby to take the bus to Karnak Temple. The temple is HUGE and so is everything in it. The colonnade room alone could hold Notre Dame Cathedral. There seemed to be a lot of excavation and work being done. The temple was built on top of another temple, which they can’t get to without destroying Karnak temple. In one area they had a pool, which was looking really disgusting, and was used to cleanse by the ancient Egyptians. Sherif said that when the Nile would rise it would clean the water out, but I wasn’t convinced it was a place to cleanse. Across from the pool was a scarab that after the Egyptians came out of the pool they were supposed to run around – for good luck. Adam and Tara skipped the pool but they did run around the scarab.

After Karnak we had a chance for a gourmet lunch – McDonalds. I learned on my last trip that when everyone gets off the bus at McDonalds and you actually want to eat lunch you have to be quick, I was one of the first people on line. For that I got to eat in the McDonalds. I guess the anti-supersize thing didn’t transfer over to Egypt because the fries and soda were huge. But the place did have a nice view of a new courtyard and Karnak Temple. After lunch we went to the airport.

We arrived at the airport around 4:00 for a 5:00 flight, before we got off the bus Sherif told us to take our own luggage and inside it would get scanned by security. When I got my suitcase some guy tried to take it for me (naturally he would have wanted baksheesh for the trouble), I had to pull it away from him to get him to let go. Hey, I don’t mind when people take my luggage but I can handle taking it 20 feet by myself. On our flight to Cairo I sat next to Jason (SLC) and Jen (on the other side of the aisle). The flight was only about an hour.

When we were back in Cairo we had a brand new Spring Tours (the company that manages Contiki tours in Egypt) bus, the plastic was still on the seats, which naturally prompted a plastic fight. Our first stop was the Khan el-Khalili Market, for an hour and a half visit. Sherif told us that he doesn’t take the Trafalgar Tours to the market since they don’t seem to enjoy it, I have to say that I couldn't picture my parents here. The market is one of the oldest, biggest markets in the world, but we stayed in the touristy area of it. While I had done most of my traveling in Egypt with a guy (husband) around, Jen, Tara and I spent most of our time there together without a guy and had no troubles, or at least no more then we had anywhere else when guys were around. But it was insanely crowded here and everyone was calling to you to get you to look at there stuff, some asked why you didn’t want to look at thier stuff, some shoved stuff in your face. After about 2 minutes I thought that I might go insane and become an angry woman, but I made it through the market ok. I even bought some stuff; a singing camel for my nephew was my best purchase. Ed wasn’t so happy with being there either, but in the end he bought a chess set so I guess it worked out ok for him too.

On the bus back I mostly sat with Sherif in the front and got to discuss the US and Cairo with him. Apparently they have some different traffic laws here, you can put extra lights on your car, you have to wear a seatbelt, but they don’t seem to have laws, or simply don't enforce them, regarding emissions. And have I mentioned that the lines on the road are only there because they thought it was a good idea?

We got back to the Oasis hotel around 10pm, it was sad being back, it meant that the end of the tour was near, and I was having too much fun for it to end. Back at the hotel everyone went by the pool for some dinner. I had a burger and poor Tara had the worst/weirdest cheese sandwich (who new you could screw up grilled cheese?). I don’t think the rest of her dinner was any better. Went back to the room at 11:15, it was a long day, and I was exhausted.

Egypt: Luxor 7

Day 7 (March 15, 2007): We visit the Valley of the Kings where King Tutankhamun was burried We continue to the Colossos of Memnon. This afternoon we check in to our hotel before leaving for the magnificent temple of Karnak. Later why not enjoy a camel ride through a local village in Luxor. (Breakfast included)

I was up at 4am so I could make sure I had enough time to shower and do my last minute packing. I had woken up in the middle of the night yelling, "No, No, No" then I woke up and was disoriented and asked, "hello? is anyone there." Tara told me I was fine and I went back to sleep. I had had a dream that I was at a market and someone was trying to all but drag me into a shop and I didn't want to go. I think that expresses how I feel about the markets! At 5:00 we had to have our bags outside our rooms and had to be in the lobby at 5:10. Once everyone was downstairs we were driven to a boat that was to take us to the West Bank of the Nile. Then we were driven to the hot air balloons, we were taking a green one. While on the boat we were given a little information about the ride. We were told there are 3 types of landings. I don’t remember what he called the first one, but it was where you slid into the next town. The second landing was where you kinda bounced a bit until you came to a stop. The third, Egyptian, is where you come to a gentle stop.

The balloon has 5 compartments, the pilot is in the middle one and the other 4 hold 5 people each, though 4 would fit more comfortably. I was with Natasha, Anton, Jason (SLC), and Karen. When we got there the balloon was mostly filled and we boarded while they continued to fill it. Then they unhitched the balloon from the truck (yes, we were being held down by a truck) and the guys working jiggled us a bit and we quietly floated up into the sky. I remember it as being quiet, but any time they turned on the propane it was really loud and hot. The hot was nice since it was chilly out, but it was annoying when it was loud. We got to see the sunrise over the Nile, people’s roofs, farms. It was fun and interesting, a totally different view of the city then you would get any other way. The workers followed us to the other side of the Nile by van since where you land depends on the winds. Our pilot pointed things out from time to time, like Karnak Temple. After 45 minutes we landed (second type of landing) in a sugar cane field (the sugar cane was already cut). When we landed we saw a couple kids running to us, along with the guys who work on the balloons, I would think since they do this pretty much everyday the excitement (for the kids) would wear off, but apparently not. We had to wait inside the basket until they had the balloon down and off. At first I think it was incase we weren’t totally stable, then I think it was because the workers were busy cleaning up the balloon. After we were all out and cleaned up they sang and played us music, not forgetting to collect baksheesh. After that we were driven to the place where we were supposed to meet Sherif and the 5 people who didn’t go on this optional.

At 8:00 we met up with everyone at Colossi of Memnon, took some pictures and then boarded the bus. Sherif told us a little about the excavation there and that every week when he returns they have found new items. This has made me realize that while everyone thinks of Egypt as a “once in a lifetime” vacation, you could come back here in 10 years and there will be new things to see.

Our next stop was Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple which was built for Hatshepsut. As part of seeing the temple we had to take a tram (a new mode of transportation for the trip), which wasn’t totally necessarily as the walk isn’t that long. Unfortunately, Hatshepsut pissed her husband off by kicking him out of Egypt, he returned years later. She disappeared not too long after and her body has still not been found. Her husband attempted to erase her from Egypt by destroying or erasing anything that referenced her. In many spots in this temple there are areas where a figure (Hatshepsut) was erased off the walls. Otherwise the temple was good and seemed to be in good shape, it also seemed like the Egyptians were taking more then the usual steps (they roped off areas of the temple so you couldn’t touch things) to protect this temple.

On the way into the temple Adam got one of the guys in the market to agree to 2 scarves for 20 LE and the guy found Adam and I on the way out. However, the guy wouldn’t give us the scarves we wanted for 20 LE, he would only give us the cheap ones. After about 10 minutes of going back and forth with the guy we just got back on the bus, without scarves, and left for our next stop, the Valley of the Kings.

Along the way Sherif told us how thousands of years ago, during the bad periods of Egypt people would rob the Pyramids, to cut down on that they tried to hide the resting places of the Pharoses so they used tombs in the Valley of the Kings. But they were still robbed. When people found tombs they would build their house on top of the tomb so no one else could get to it and they have been there for thousands of years. In an effort to reclaim the tombs (and other parts of Luxor) Egyptian officials are moving entire villages of people, this year they are moving a village from the Valley of the Kings area. Last year they moved a village from the area of Karnak Temple.

The Valley of the Kings is an absolute highlight of the trip. When we got in Sherif bought us our admission ticket which includes admission to 3 tombs and gave us the option to purchase a separate ticket for King Tut’s tomb. Unfortunately, we were not able to take photos inside the tombs and since there were guards inside, it would have been pretty hard to take them without having to pay someone off. The first tomb we went to was tomb #2, KV2, Ramsses IV. Inside the tomb was exactly what I pictured a tomb being like, it had beautiful pictures and a bunch of rooms for the Pharoses stuff. The second tomb we went to was tomb #11, KV11, Ramses III. This one also had beautiful pictures and lots of rooms. What was unique about this tomb is that Ramses III died while they were building it so at the end there are rooms that were dug out, but were left unfinished.

Along the way we saw KV5 which was built for Ramses II’s children (he had about 100 – they were adopted and from around the world). When they initially found this tomb they only found a small part of it. In 1995 after massive rain (and flooding of the tomb) they found the whole network of rooms inside the tomb, unfortunately the tomb is still being fixed (most of it was collapsed from the floods) so you can’t go inside, but it's supposed to be really big with lots of passage ways and rooms. Our next stop was tomb #34, KV34, Thutmoses III. This tomb was designed to be well hidden to prevent grave robbing, the entrance was high in the mountain, we had to climb a large set of stairs, then climb down in what was intentionally designed to be a dangerous walk (they’ve found the bones of many who died trying to steal from the tomb). Inside it was really hot and smelly (I think one of the guards was to blame) and the pictures (which were covered with plastic) weren’t as detailed. The theory on that was that it was too hot to work for long periods inside so they made the designs simpler then was usual. Inside there were some guards and the one in the burial chamber was “helping” people by shining a flashlight inside the coffin. Naturally he wanted baksheesh and he didn’t give change. I know this because someone from tour got sucked into this and couldn’t get change. At that, he made the guard show everyone else from tour inside the coffin and got mad when the guard tried to ask other people for baksheesh.

It was pretty hot and people were getting really hungry so Sherif took us to a shady spot and spoke to us about King Tut’s tomb (KV62). In 1922 his tomb was found by Carter and is the most complete of the tombs that have been found. King Tut died young and there wasn’t time for a proper tomb to be built, they only had the 70 days it takes to mummify the body to make create the tomb, so they used an already existing tomb, which is one of the reasons it is so small. At the Cairo Museum we were able to see all the stuff that was inside the tomb and all I have to say is that it was probably worse then my storage unit is! Never mind that the body was inside 3 different coffins that were inside 4 or 5 gold boxes. But King Tut’s body is still inside the tomb and has only been out of the tomb twice, once when the tomb was discovered and once in 2005 to do a body scan on him. I can remember learning about King Tut as a child, that he was the boy King, he died and 16 and was probably poisoned. When they did the body scan of him they found out that he in fact died at 19 years old and that he died from gangrene caused by a broken leg. After our little talk we went inside the tomb. While the tomb was significantly smaller then the other tombs we had been in, this tomb was just as decorated and grand inside as the others and it had his mummy inside too. After that we left and finally had some lunch around noon.

We got to our 5 star hotel a little after 1:00 and the hotel was awesome! We had balconies in our room and used a few minutes of my free time to take some pictures of people on there balconies. Then it was time for a much needed nap.

At 4:00 we met in the lobby to take a camel ride. Sherif had told us to try and get smaller bills for our tips, but the money exchange place was closed. I somehow ended up talking to the car for hire guy, who exchanged some money for me. Then after about a minute of conversation he told me he loved me. Luckily Sherif showed up right after that so I could bail out since I was NOT in love after a one minute conversation. Sherif took us to a boat to take us to the other side of the Nile where we were meeting the camels. We had the option of taking a camel, donkey or a horse. Since I had ridden a camel and a horse I opted for a donkey, as did many other people. My donkey’s name was Bob Marley and my guide was Mohammed. Mohammed was 10 years old who showed me the different trees and sites, along with saying to me, “no woman no cry.” Previously Sherif had told us that in Egypt a couple years ago they had tried having woman Police Officers, but after 2 years they abandoned it because the men didn’t respect the woman enough. I thought that was sad and that I should send over some scary ass woman cops to kick some ass. So I asked Mohammed if I tried to arrest him if he would laugh at me and he said, “Yes.” I was shocked and horrified as you might imagine, and acted it, at which point he patronized me by saying he wouldn’t really, but I know he probably would. How sad that woman get so little respect. On the donkey ride we went through a little town, it was funny because many of the locals came out to see us and some of their doors were open so you could see in. While the houses seemed like simple mud brick, most seemed to have satellite dishes, which cracked me up.

After the donkey ride we stopped at a local house for tea and bread. I have to say I didn’t really like the bread even though it was ancient Egyptian bread, but the tea was good. We got a tour of the house. We saw the kitchen with the ancient (literally) oven and modern stove, the TV room, the other kitchen with the sink and fridge and the bathroom. I took a picture of my traveling giraffe on a couch and the grandmother there laughed at me – crazy Americans! Back by the Nile waiting to go back to the hotel we had the option to stop for 3 LE sodas, the local price, as opposed to the 10 LE that we usually had to pay in the tourist places. Apparently the guy tried to charge Anton more, but Anton told him that he was only paying 3 and he won.

Back at the hotel we had a few minutes until Gary (who decided not to go on this camel ride) met us at 6:30 to go to Luxor Temple. We got to take horse and buggies to the temple, my partner for the ride was Jacquie. Our driver offered to take our picture, which we both accepted. The picture he took with Jacquie’s camera was blurry and mine was crooked and then he had the nerve to ask for baksheesh. We told him our guide would tip him. Then some little kid handed me a flower and having a blonde moment I accepted it, then had to give him baksheesh for some dinky little flower I didn’t even want, Owell.

Once we got to the front of the Temple I recognized it immediately from Las Vegas, except something was off. The real Temple only has one Obelisk; the Egyptians gave it to the French in exchange for a broken clock, the French really made out on that deal! That obelisk can be found in Paris. The lighting at the Temple was great, too bad I didn’t have my tripod. The temple had a part in it where the Christians had cut out an area for use in religious ceremonies, we didn’t see anything like this in any of the other temples and it even struck me as a Christian type of design. The other thing that stood out was the god of fertility… At 8:00 we finally left the temple, Sherif had us come during dinner time so that the temple would be less crowded, so everyone was starved when we got back to the hotel for dinner.

Sherif arraigned for us to have table set up at the hotels Italian restaurant for dinner since dinner wasn’t included. I had pizza, which was surprisingly good. Jacquie and I explained a lot about the typical Contiki tours to Jen, who had never done a Contiki before, and we also gossiped a bit about the tour.

After dinner we all went back to our rooms to get ready for a big night out on the town which was to start in Adam and Craigs room. Tim, Ed, Tara, Jacqui, Sherif, Jen, Sharon, Alan, Kelley, Craig and occasionally Jenna and Adam were in Craig and Adams room. Adam and Jenna at one point decided they were going to go collect glasses for drinking and I gave them my key to the room and told them to be careful because Tara’s key was in our room (you had to leave the key in a slot in the room so there would be power in the room to recharge the battery for the camera I had lent to Adam), except they didn’t come back. After a while Tara said we had to go out to the bar so we left a note for Adam about our key and everyone went out. The bar was pretty much across the street – an Irish Pub in Cairo which didn’t seem all that Irish. Everyone danced a bit, but there really weren’t too many people there. Around 11:00 Tara asked if I wanted to go out for Sheesha, I decided to do that, with the intention of going back to the bar. We wandered for a few minutes and ended up at the hotel. First Tara and I got new keys while the guys went to find out about Sheesha, which they had just stopped serving. In the meantime we ran into Adam. When Adam got back to his room he saw the note about the key and thought it said to leave the key in our room, but when he got to our room he was afraid we were asleep so he just slid it under the door. When he got back to his room he realized he was supposed to leave the key in his room so he went back to our room and spent 20 minutes trying to get it back out for us. After all that I couldn’t even tell you if he did get the key back and it didn’t really matter since we had new keys anyway. Ed, Adam, Tara, Craig and I went to a Sheesha place that the guy at the hotel recommended. We hung out there until about 1am when Tara and I went back to our room, the rest of the guys went back to the bar where the rest of the group was. Apparently they didn't stay out much longer, something about Craig being drunk and a transvestite at the bar – I’m sorry I missed it.