Aswan, Egypt 02.09

We arrived in Aswan at about 2pm, and were greeted by a wave of 45 degree celsius air. Thankfully our hotel wasn't far from the train station, so we didn't collapse from the heat, under our bags, on the way. We cleaned ourselves up and then headed out for a cruise on the Nile.

Cruise on the Nile
Our boat was a motor powered boat, unlike many of the others on the Nile. The typical boat in Egypt is the 'felucca'. These are sail boats with huge sails and its cross mast hangs diagonally. They are very pretty to see floating along the river. We had two drivers, and one had a missing arm. Someone said that it was taken by a crocodile, but I think that was a joke, not real life. There are no crocodiles in this stretch of the Nile. They are kept back by the dam, and on that side, there are hundreds of them.
The ride along the river was really pretty, we could have stared at the scenery all day. On one side of the river, there was the city of Aswan, and on the other side is the Sahara desert, which begins here and finishes all the way over in West Africa. So we had beautiful sand dunes along one side of the boat, and ancient fortresses sitting on top of them along the way.
The reeds of the Nile were full of life. There were long necked white birds all along the river bank. We even saw a dog sitting down in the water, as if to cool his behind. The current was quite strong and you could see the patterns that it made on the water. It was quite green along the Nile, more than we expected, but I suppose it is a river, and water brings life.
Some little boys sitting on planks of wood or some kind of floating device swam over to our boat. They looked like they were having fun. It didn't take too long after that, to reach our destination. We arrived at a beach filled with tourists, locals and lots and lots of camels.
After we secured our boat, and everyone jumped to shore. It was really hot, so some of us decided to go swimming. We were reassured that there were no crocodiles, and that the water was clean because it was moving so quickly. They were certainly right about it moving quickly! We had to swim against the current, to keep from being swept away. The water was really freezing as well, you couldn't stay in there for too long, but as soon as you got out, you dried really quickly.

Camel Ride
The sandy bank where we had landed was our first taste of the Sahara Desert, so we were excited and wanted to check it out. As soon as our swim was over, we all climbed up to where there was a big empty stretch of sand. The sand was so smooth and soft, but it was difficult to step anyway in this area without standing on camel dung.
Soon we were taken over to where the camels were. There was a long line of camels that were sitting down. We were each given a camel to sit on, and then one by one, they rose to their feet. It was very rocky when the camel stood up, because it rises with its front legs, and then with its back legs.
Loren was in a line of camels that were tied together. It was a long slow ride, but still exciting because she'd never ridden a camel before. Artur was given a camel that wasn't tied to anyone else. He was supposed to be led by one of the camel guides, but the guy got distracted and left him on his own. It was a bit of a surprise for him, as he had never even ridden a horse before. Even more surprising for him, was when his camel decided to take off running down the beach. He was going so fast, that he overtook everyone from his place at the back of the line, and arrived before anyone else.
Nubian Village
The camels took us through a little village, and stopped at one blue painted house. This area of Egypt is dominated by the Nubian people. We were here to see their way of life and to eat a meal with them. We all sat around a long table and shared a traditional fish meal. It was pretty good, and there was far more food than we could eat.
The bright colours of the house reminded us of the Village that we visited in Jaipur, India, where we got seriously sick. This put us off our food a little bit, and when they offered henna tattoo painting, the similarity was frightening. We survived with only the usual Egyptian dosage of food poisoning, which is enough to make you sick, but not enough to put you in bed for 2 days like in India.
After our meal, we were shown several tanks in the house, where they kept crocodiles! There were some pretty big ones, and also a glass case with tiny ones. One of the guys from the house teased them, and made them snap at him. He didn't get hurt, so it was pretty cool to watch. The baby ones were so tiny and scared that if you moved near the glass case, they ran to the other side.
All sorts of cool souvenirs were being sold in this house, including Cleopatra doily head decorations. Loren watched a movie the night before, where a girl was wearing one, and it looked really cool, so we decided to buy one too. There were all sorts of other sculptures and necklaces. Typical Egyptian souvenirs.While we were shopping and watching the crocodiles, a group of guys started playing music with drums and other percussion instruments. We hesitated in joining the conga line of fellow tourists at first, but eventually we were coaxed into the circle. It was pretty fun, and as we danced, the musicians sang lines that we had to repeat.
At the end of the evening, we were picked up in our little boat and taken back to the city in total darkness. Now and then, the boat would flash its lights so that other people would see us and not collide with us.
When we got back, we all decided to go shopping for supplies for our boat trip. Alchohol is hard to find in a muslim country, so we had to look for the only duty free shop in town. Eventually we found a little shop filled with Polish people, buying a huge supply of vodka.

Abu Simbel
The next day, we had to get up at 3.30am! We had a trip planned to Abu Simbel, a major Egyptian archaeological site and temple. It was a three hour drive, so we tried to catch up on some sleep on the way. The Temple was dedicated to Amon Rah and another three Egyptian gods, but in reality it was supposed to be a demonstration of the power of King Ramses II. The temple is 38m wide by 68m long, and the facade was carved out of a single piece of rock. Four 31m high statues of Ramses dominate the entrance. The lips alone are 1.5m high! Pretty impressive!
The temple was discovered by an Italian man. He took sketches of the interior, but no one was interested because they couldn't read hieroglyphs, and there was no treasure inside. The temple was completely covered in sand, so local Egyptians were hired to move all the sand away. These men were very crafty, and they realised that they could make money from this, so after the Italian guy left, they covered the temple with sand again. This way they had to be hired to uncover it again!
When the Egyptian government decided to build a huge dam, which would significantly raise the water levels of the Nile, the Abu Simbel temple was put in danger. It would be drowned under the Nile, never to be seen again. One solution to this, was to remove the entire temple and move it to a new location. This was the option that they chose.
The Abu Simbel temple was cut into thousands of pieces, each several tonnes in weight, and then moved to a new location 90m above that one. The original temple was carved out of a cliff face, but the new location was on flat ground, so they had to build a support structure for it. They built a huge dome of concrete and reconstructed the temple on top of it. It was a successful project, allowing the dam to be completed and the temple preserved.
It was very exciting to finally enter the huge temple. As we walked through the central hallway, we passed beneath 4 huge statues. They were worn away by time, but still impressive. The most surprising and even shocking discovery that we made, was the 18th century graffiti that covered these statues, such as 'Here was Balzac 1836'. People who came here in the past, explorers or whoever they were, carved their names into these ancient pieces of art.
At the end of the hallway, there was a temple room with the statues of the four gods that the temple was dedicated to. Twice a year, the sun shines through the doorway and the hallway, and falls on the faces of Amon Ra and Ramses II. The third god, remains in darkness, as he is the god of darkness.
The temple was full of side rooms and was covered in incredible hieroglyphs. We explored each of the hallways, and noticed that some of the wall paintings seemed to be cut down the middle. We hadn't heard about the removal and reconstruction of the temple at this point, so it seemed pretty strange. The paintings are done on top of a kind of stucco, so we assumed the gaps would be filled in with this substance. It all made a lot more sense when we heard what had happened to the temple.
The other temple at Abu Simbel is much smaller but still impressive. We didn't learn much about this temple though, as our tour guide was lazy and sat in the bus rather than accompanying us. The only information we received was eavesdropped from a Polish tour group. Artur sat nearby and listened to the information and passed it on to Loren.

On the way back from Abu Simbel, we drove through a road in the middle of desert. We watched out the window, spotting mirages, where it looked like there was water, but really there was nothing at all. The scenery was amazing!

Bargaining at the Souq
After we got back, we had lunch at a place that was recommended by our guide. It was ok for Egyptian food, meaning we still got food poisoning, but not too bad. They even had cold beers here, which is pretty unusual in this country. We made the most of the opportunity, although we felt a bit sleepy afterwards.
Next we went to check out the local souq (market). It was a prime opportunity to pick up some souvenirs and test our bargaining skills. We ended up with a whole pile of little alasbater and basalt sculptures. The coolest one of all, was a little pyramid which was covered in hieroglyphs. You could even open it and inside there was a little carving of a scarab beetle.
The market was a long colourful street with tiny shops on either side. There were little strings of flags above the street, so it had a very festive feel to it. The only thing that took away from the atmosphere, was the hundreds of sellers shouting at us to buy from them. 'Hello, where you from? Only 10 pound! I have good price!'
That evening, we had dinner at the same place where we ate lunch. This time we ate outside, on some boats which were permanently attached to the shore. They were like huge rafts with roofs, and lots of tables and chairs. It was nice to eat with the cool breeze coming off the river.
After dinner, everyone wanted to go back to the market. So we headed into the war zone again. We helped some of the more inexperienced members of our tour group with their bargaining. With a little bit of training, they became pretty fiesty in the marketplace. Artur was offered 20 million camels for Loren. Not the first offer we had received of this nature!
To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Aswan pictures

Cairo, Egypt 01.09

We got caught in traffic on the way to the airport, and had a scare that we might miss our 3 connecting flights. Thankfully we got there in time. We made it onto our flight which took us from Warsaw to Budapest.
We took another flight from Budapest to London, where we spent our time exploring the Heathrow shops. We found a little laptop, which was a really good price and looked great for travelling. We had been considering buying the Asus eee laptop, but it had almost no memory space. This little Advent computer that we found had 80gb of memory, so it was like a dream come true. We decided to buy it, so it was a very exciting purchase for us.

Enlarge this picture if you can. Look at where the Multi Faith Room at the airport is located. Makes sense.

We arrived in Cairo at about 11.30pm, quite exhausted but thrilled to have arrived. We had a transfer booked from the airport to the hotel, but that was organised in Melbourne before we left. We tried to call the number given to us, to check if they were still coming. Then we realised that our flight had been changed due to Malev cancelling a flight route, and nobody but us knew our new flight time.

We were approached by many people offering taxi services and transfers, so we were ignoring everyone for our own sanity. One guy approached us, and said something uninteligible, but it sounded like 'Intrepid'. We had our tour booked with Intrepid, so we stopped after a few metres and went back to talk to him. He didn't have our names on his sign, but he had them scribbled on a note in his shirt pocket, as we were passengers who were expected but who hadn't yet shown up.
Soon we met a group of other people that were also waiting for transport. It turned out they were from another group though. We were all taken together in a little minivan to our respective hotels.

The hotel that we arrived at had a metal detector at the entrance, but it was more for decorative purposes. It beeped every time we went through, but no one seemed to care. The guard sitting next to it just sat there and looked bored. There were two tiny, scary looking elevators in the building, which looked even scarier when we realised that the weights that controlled their balance were hanging off the side of the building outside. You could see them rising and falling as the elevators moved. Anyone could have messed around with them from the outside, scary!

Exploring Cairo
The next day, we decided to sleep in, as we had missed out on any sleep the night before. We had a tv and great airconditioning, so we didn't manage to leave the hotel until about 3pm. We went out to wander the streets, and see what Cairo was all about.

The ground is so hot that soft drink bottle tops have sunk into the melted tar.

The streets were quite dirty, but they were all paved. Along each road, you could see street sellers, selling books, car parts and socks. The book sellers spread their books all over the ground, and some were selling 'Mein Kampf', in Arabic! Dangerous reading!
Artur was amazed at how many Polish cars there were. All the taxis were Polonez and old Fiat 125s. They were all old cars from the 80s. Now that Poland's economy is better, there are probably less Polish cars in Poland than we saw in Cairo! The taxis looked quite funny as they were made up of panels of different colours. Loren thought they had been repaired with different coloured panels, and never painted, but we realised that all of the taxis were like that, so it couldn't have been a coincidence.

As we walked along the street, we were constantly greeted with 'Welcome!' Everyone stared at us as all the time, but it wasn't too bad. Lots of guys gave Artur gestures of approval for his choice of woman. Guys were not shy at staring at a woman all over. We were a bit wary of talking to the people who were 'welcoming' us, after the constant bombardment of unwanted attention from sellers and touters in India. We just smiled, and kept walking.

Zamalek

We eventually reached the Nile River, and walked along a huge bridge to the Island, Zamalek, in the middle. The ramp that led up to the bridge was not really made for pedestrians, but we couldn't find any other way to get onto it. We just kept close to the edge, and tried to avoid cars.
Eventually we made it onto the bridge itself, and admired the city from a distance. The Nile was very wide, and filled with little boats and big boats that were being used as restaurants. When we reached the other side, we fought the crazy Egyptian traffic again. There are not many traffic lights, so when you cross the road, you have to on your guard. Cars do not like to stop for pedestrians, even at pedestrian crossings. We used our street crossing skills from Vietnam, and just waded into the traffic, trusting that they would stop. There is really no other way to do it.
We decided to visit the Cairo tower, which is located on Zamalek. It is 187m high, and looks like it is still being built even though it is 20 years old. It is supposed to look like a palm tree without the leaves.
There was a great view of Cairo from the top of the tower, and we could see the Nile forking around the island we were on. The only problem was that the smog over the city made it impossible to see very far away. We could see the city close to us, and recognise some of the big buildings that we'd seen from the ground, but any further than that was a haze. If we really strained our eyes, we could see the faint outline of one of they pyramids.
After seeing the tower, we went to visit the Opera House, and the other cultural museums and offices which were in the same location. The buildings were in a little fenced off and patrolled community. We had to go through metal detectors to get in, but like in the hotel, they weren't really bothered if it went off. We had a quick look inside the Opera House, which was pretty small. There were sculptures and well kept lawns. At the Opera House, there was a big marble courtyard which was very shiny and pretty.
Next we went looking for some dinner. We had a few recommendations in our Intrepid brochure, but we couldn't find the one we were looking for. Instead, we found a pizza place that was not far away. The food was pretty good, but we realised later that it was a bit overpriced. Artur thought he had been given too much change, but he quickly realised that they 50 'cent' notes as well as 50 pound notes.
We retired to the hotel after dinner, and went back to watching movies on tv and relaxing. Artur started putting our pictures in order on our brand new laptop!
The next morning, we managed to get up in time for breakfast. It was pretty basic; 2 hard boiled eggs, some jam and some pita bread. Not bad for a free breakfast though. We had gone to bed pretty late, so when we got back to the room, Loren fell asleep again. Artur busied himself organising the rest of our 17GB of pictures.

Meeting our New Companions
At 7pm that evening, we had a meeting with our Intrepid Group Leader and the rest of our tour group. The group was made up of 8 people, 6 of which were Aussie girls! The other 2 people were Artur and a German guy. Most people were around 24 years old. Our guide's name was Wahid, which means 'unique or lonely'. We didn't like him too much when we met him, but our opinion improved later.

We all went out for dinner together, at a restaurant called 'Gad'. Artur thought this was a funny name, as 'Gad' means 'reptile' in Polish. We had typical Egyptian food here, although the place seemed a lot like a fast food restaurant.
Outside the restaurant, the streets were chaotic. It was hard to move through the crowds of people who were out for the evening. The nightlife seems to be pretty happening here. It actually had a lot to do with the time of year that we were here. Ramadan was starting the next day. Ramadan is a month of fasting in the muslim world.
They fast from all food, drink, have sex or cigarettes etc, from sunrise to sunset. So when the sun goes down, it's one big party. People get up in the middle of the night and early in the morning to eat, before the sun rises. Some people even sleep all day and live at night. Some people shorten the fast to 4pm regardless of when the sun sets.
After our dinner, we went to a local shisha cafe. Here we shared a shisha between our whole group. It was apple flavour, which is the most common here. You see people smoking them on every corner, in big groups at cafes. Most places are for men only, but tourists are an exception. The men hang out here and play dominoes, cards and smoke shisha.
The women here are covered from head to toe. They are allowed to show their hands and faces, but some women even cover these too. Women that choose to be fully covered, are seen as very religious, and many men seek this in a wife. Most of the young women wear quite modern clothing. They are covered from head to toe still, but they wear tight clothing. Lots of women wear normal dresses with jeans underneath, and long sleeved tops beneath as well. Some girls coordinate fancy head scarfs with their outfits.
From the number of shoe shops we saw here, shoes are obviously an important accessory here. The range of colours and styles was quite incredible. For women that don't show much of themselves to the public, shoes are one way to show off their style a little bit. We were also surprised by the number of sexy lingerie shops here as well. Obviously its ok to show off a little at home!
The Pyramids at Giza
The next day, we woke up early and got ready for our first day with our tour group. Our tour started at 8.30am, and we had a special tour guide and bus to take us around.
The guide gave us a little introduction to Egypt, and told us the social and religious details about the country. Apparently Egypt has 35% upper class, 5% middle class, and 60% really poor. They are 80% Muslim and 20% Christian. The Muslim culture seems very dominant, as 5 times a day prayers are blasted from loudspeakers all over the city. Every mosque has a loudspeaker, and it's impossible to avoid the noise.

During Ramadan, Muslims are very keen to give money to the poor or help people in need. This is because every good thing that they do during this month is multiplied by 7 in the eyes of Allah. Fasting also helps rich people to understand what it is like to be poor and starving. It also unites people despite their social status.
Soon we arrived at our destination for the day. The Pyramids at Giza! Surprisingly, Loren though they looked a lot smaller than she had imagined. I suppose with skyscrapers everywhere these days, heights like this are less impressive.

The pyramids were built in 2650BC. They were supposed to be temporary houses for the Pharoahs, until they rose from the dead. The Egyptians believed that people were like the sun, they rose, lived and died, then the cycle repeats. All pyramids can be found on the West banks of the Nile, because the sun sets in the West. West represents death.

Pharoah's bodies were mummified so that they would be in good shape for their rebirth. Other animals were also mummified and put in the tomb, so that they would have food to support them while they waited for new life.
The three pyramids were built for the Pharoah 'Cheops', his son 'Chephren', and his grandson 'Micernos'. The first was the biggest, 158m high, (however time has reduced it to 137m). The second one, 'Cheops', is slightly smaller although it looks bigger from some angles, because it is on higher ground.

The smallest pyramid was made this small, because the pharoah was sickly. He knew that if hisi pyramid was not completed before he died, it would never be finished. So he asked for a small one, which would be possible to build and complete in less time.

The biggest pyramid was completed in 32 years, and consisted of 2.3 million blocks. The blocks were lifted by building a ramp around the pyramid, and a road for transporting them. After the pyramid was completed, the ramp was deconstructed, and the pyramid was smoothed over with limestone. Cheops is the only pyramid with remains of limestone still near it's top.
We entered the Cheops pyramid through a tiny ground level entrance. First we had to walk down into the pyramid, then the path led upwards to the very centre. There was a big room in the centre of the pyramid, where the pharoah's mummy, jewelry, chests, beds and coffins were stored. Now all that is left in there is the granite sarcophagus.

It was extremely humid and hot inside the pyramid, and it smelled like mouldy feet. We managed to make it in and out through the tiny passage ways. We had to walk bent over to our knees, because the tunnel was so small. After seeing inside the pyramid, we went to a panoramic viewing point to see all three pyramids from a distance. We entertained ourselves by taking silly pictures of ourselves with the pyramids in the background.
We defended ourselves from the hoardes of touters trying to get us to take photos of them on camels or in their traditional clothes, for a generous tip. As soon as you wandered within 10 metres of the souvenir stalls you were accosted with the shouts of vendors.

Bring it on vendors!

After seeing the pyramids, we visited the famous Sphinx which was not too far away. It is a the front of the pyramid complex, as a guard to the entrance. It is a combination of a lion (representing strength), and a man (representing intelligence).There used to be a cobra on its forehead, to ward off bad luck.
It was a lot smaller than we imagined, but it still looked pretty cool. It is missing its nose, ever since it was shot of by French soldiers who were using it for target practice. The remainders of the nose are at the Louvre, and pieces of the beard are in the British museum.

Cairo Museum
We were rushed away to our next location by our impatient guide, who kept yelling 'Yalla yalla', which means 'come on, hurry up'. We had the entire day for touring, but our guide managed to rush us through it in half a day. He took us to the Cairo Museum, which has the largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world. He told us we could easily spend a week there, but he only gave us two hours.
The biggest attraction of the museum, is the treasures that were found in Tutankamon's tomb. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by a British archaeologist. He was about to return home, having found nothing but empty tombs, when he literally stumbled across this one. Tutankamon wasn't a significant pharoah in history, as he only ruled for 9 years, but his was the only tomb ever found with all of its treasures intact. Most people think that the tombs were all robbed by the Romans, British and French, but in fact, the tombs were robbed by Egyptians, not long after they were filled. Because of this, pharoahs started hiding their bodies in secret underground tombs, instead of in pyramids.

Our guide gave us a quick tour through the artifacts from this tomb. There were beautifully carved boxes, with pictures of battles and royal proceedings. Inside these boxes, are the mummified organs of the pharoah. They keep his brain, heart and other organs preserved separately.

There were also hundreds of little statues of the pharoah, 365 to be exact. These little figures were supposed to be proxies for the pharoah, so that in his next life, he wouldn't have to do any work at all. There is one pharoah per day of the year.
There were also some pretty impressive enclosures. The smallest was a little coffin that would fit the body of the pharoah, then there were two more coffins that fit around this one. Then came a bigger box that held the coffins, then two more huge room like boxes that held this box. Each was beautiful and decorated with hieroglyphs and paintings of the pharoah.

The treasure room was the best though. It had all of the jewelry and gold that was found in the coffin with the pharoah. Throughout the layers of Tutankamon's shrouds, there were hundreds of tiny carved figurines for warding off evil. In each layer of cloth, there was another layer of earrings, bracelets, necklaces and all other manner of jewelry. The most amazing pieces were the mask of Tutankamon's face, which was made of solid gold! The final layer of jewelry was also the most detailled and impressive.
After seeing the treasures, we went wandering around the museum on our own. There were hundreds of sarcophagi, coffins, carvings of pharoahs etc. We were interested in seeing the animal mummy room, so we tried to find this one before we ran out of time. This room was pretty amazing. There were mummified crocodiles, fish, birds, cats, dogs and even little baby ones too. Apparently some of these animals were supposed to represent gods, some were pets, and others were supposed to be food in the next life. It was incredible to see animals mummified, as you tend to only think of humans being preserved.

There was another room where all of the mummies were displayed, but we decided that it was not worth paying entrance to that room, when we had so little time to appreciate it. We chose to come back at a later time and see the museum properly.

Streets of Cairo
We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, so we decided to go shopping along the 26th July Street. We were hoping to buy a book on Egyptian history, as we really didn't have much knowledge on the topic. We couldn't find a book, so we went looking for the rest of our group again.
We came across a store that was packed full of people, and we were curious. Loren braved the crowd and pushed her way through. It turned out to be a patisserie, selling delicious baklava, and other honey and nut filled delights. We found a package of mixed pastries, so we decided to buy it and share it on the train.
We found our friends again soon, and went out for a refreshing drink and some felafel. It was a really cheap and tasty place, but unfortunately the food wasn't so hygienic, as Loren got sick from it.
That evening, we walked in the heat to the train station, carrying our enormous backpacks. We had a long wait before our train came, so we just tried to cool ourselves down with cold soft drinks. Eventually the train arrived, and we all found comfortable seats for ourselves. The trains were pretty run down looking, but the air conditioning was nice and cold.
We snuggled into our sleeping bags and reclined our chairs. We all slept pretty well until early in the morning, when the airconditioning broke, and the heat became unbearable. To top it off, a family nearby started talking really loudly, despite the time being only 6.30am! Not much sleep after that. We did get a lucky break when we reached Luxor, because lots of people got off the train, and we found seats in another airconditioned carriage.

To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Cairo pictures