APRIL 3, 2008 – SAFAGA TO LUXOR & KARNACK

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There were 53 of us going on the overland but the convoy from Safaga to Luxor included 300 from the ship. The others were on day trips like we did last time. The convoy this time was longer and while there’s security everywhere, it is still somewhat less than in 2004. There are armed security on each bus, a police escort in the front ( and I think the rear as well)…you get the picture. The side roads were closed to let our busses pass everywhere. And there are “chick points” at regular intervals (that’s how they were spelled too). They put up barricades so that any vehicle has to zig zag to get through.
MOSES: Yes, it’s true. We were part of “followers of Moses”. Moses took us through the desert for four days only but he is an excellent guide. He is wild about American movies and Clint Eastwood is his idol. The tour guides in Egypt are all licensed Egyptologists and Moses son has just graduated and will be starting his career as a tour guide soon.
Abercrombie and Kent, now often called Akorn, was the tour company. We were with them last time and had a great experience so we were pleased when told they would be the company. And the name carries some weight: Going through X-ray at the airport, the X-ray police wanted to confiscate my sun tan lotion. One of the tour guides, we were 22 in our group with our own guide; other groups had a similar ratio. The guide spoke to the policeman in Arabic and heard him say Abercrombie, so we compromised: the guide kept my suntan lotion and returned it to me later.
Now this happened at only one X-ray machine mind you. And many of us were carrying one or two liter bottles of water, often inside our backpacks, and they were never confiscated. On the positive side, we never had to take our shoes off. On the plus or minus side, depending on your viewpoint, at almost everyplace we had to go through X-ray, we had to do it twice. This wasn’t just the airports; it was the hotels, and all of the sites we visited.
My sleeve complicates matters but we managed with the help of the guides and Ed so that it wasn’t too much of a problem though I got some very strange looks in some places.
We traveled on an air conditioned motorcoach on an “agricultural road” to Luxor. It looked like it too. You’d see poor little donkeys working their hearts out hauling these wagons full of green produce and the driver sitting atop.
VALLEY OF THE KINGS: First off, and this includes the whole trip, we never had any temps that went above 90s. That doesn’t mean we didn’t get hot and dehydrated, but the experience wasn’t nearly as arduous as it was in 2004. We toured a few of the tombs here. You need a separate ticket to see Tut’s tomb which is largely excavated at this point; we saw a lot of Tut stuff at the Museum in Cairo. There were scads of other tourists and they take you to the site on the Egyptian version of the people movers at Disneyland.
There are 62 pharaohs buried here and there’s still some valuable property in many of these tombs. There are guards everywhere and lots of locals in the gebaya at each entrance to check your tickets. The level of preservation of the items in these tomb, including the paintings, is really quite remarkable. They have not been renovated, merely cleaned so the original shows at it’s best.
TEMPLE OF HATCHEUSUT: She was Egypt’s only female Pharaoh.This was just a photo stop, but this would be a very interesting place to go inside.
COLOSSI OF MEMNON: We did get off the bus here, but it was just an elongated bus stop. Last time, we didn’t even get to stop.
SONESTA ST. GEORGE: This was our hotel for the night and the lunch location, the same one we visited in 2004. It is right on the Nile and a great location; calm, serene and so on. We had lunch, checked into our rooms, and had some time to clean up and rest. We were able to get BBC News here and there was a great debate, held in Monterey, CA. the panel included one of the founders of Google, Carl Bernstein, an African journalist, a psychologist, Queen Noor of Jordan, and others whose names I can’t recall. They discussed news today: how it’s gathered, how it’s consumed, regulation or not, ethics, and so on. Fascinating. Great mental dessert.
TEMPLE OF LUXOR: While touring this, Ed and I realized that we had only been driven around this on our last visit. This time we went through it. It was dedicated to the god Amun a fertility figure. Karnack and Luxor were originally connected by the Avenue of Human-headed Sphinxes, stretching almost three kilometers between them.
KARNACK: No, not Johnny Carson’s Carnack (but wasn’t that a howl?). Here we arrived at sunset and walked through Karnack while a sound and light show entertained us at each spot culminating with a seated conventional show at the end. It was Friday night and the Imans were moaning out their prayers in the background which I found very distracting and annoying, but which some felt enhanced the validity of the experience. I was also somewhat disappointed with this show as I had expected something different than we experienced. Too much to explain here; neither of us is sorry we went but we wouldn’t do it again nor recommend it.
SUPPER: Was outside between the swimming pool and the Nile River. There was a belly dancer who was truly awful. A young girl who swung around in stereotypical moves Miss Piggy would do. I was stunned. She was followed by what I’ll call a “whirling dervish” and this guy is amazing. They twirl for the longest time (we aren’t talking just 10 minutes here) and does things to keep you looking. We were tired just watching him. The food was buffet and BBQ and terrific as all the food was on our trips.
Hotel: At least 5 star, very comfortable, all toilets have a bidet hose nearby the commode. I just knew this would be important information for you to know.

APRIL 4, 2008 – TO ASWAN

We had a wake up call at 5:30 am and were on the bus by 6:30 am; this means we do our showers at night and suffer with bed head all day. What the hell: you’re not supposed to look good on vacation in the swealtering heat anyway.
FLIGHT TO ASWAN: Egypt Air flew us everywhere in Egypt and Moses was constantly amazed as they have traditionally had a reputation for poor service, and never being on time. Both reps were countred with our experiences on this trip. We arrived at Aswan at 8:40 am. This is a sweet little town with old and new parts and it’s right on the Nile. Very picturesque and serene. I wouldn’t mind spending time here doing nothing.
While our luggage and such was taken to the hotel, we went to visit the High and Low (older) dams. I didn’t know there were two of them. The older dam had been heightened several times before the new dam was built. Egypt approached the US to help in building the High Dam and John Foster Dulles refused so Egypt asked Russia which did provide the money. This was a bad mistake on the part of the US but we had had many years of good relations now.
PHILAE TEMPLE: This was an unexpected surprise. We took a motorboat ride to Agilka island where this temple had been moved from the former location which is now under water. It’s mind boggling to me how they have so successfully moved these ancient cities and reassembled them perfectly. And the degree of preservation is indescribable. Restorations are done to preserve the integrity of the original work, not to make it look like it did when it was first built.
UNFINISHED OBELISK: This is at the quarry which supplied ancient Egypt with most of the stone used in the various building projects. The obelisk illustrates the method used to make them and the problems, for example, a defect in the stone that precludes its use, often after the work had progressed a long way. There were 5 little puppies here and a Japanese tourist was feeding them. One of our ship mates fed them water and we spent almost as much time with the puppies as we did the quarry itself.
VENDORS: There have been vendors at most places, some more pushy than others. They have many clever techniques which I won’t recount here because if I did, I’d never be done with this blog. Just chalk it up to lessons learned to survive in the 3rd (and some 1st world) countries.
LUNCH: We went here for lunch and to rest in our hotel rooms. This hotel is on an island in the middle of the Nile so you have Nile river scenes on all 4 sides; it’s glorious as every room has a great view. It’s called the Movenpick (a Swiss company) Elephantine Island Hotel. We got there by taking a local ferry boat across.
FELUCCA RIDE: At 4 pm we all met for a ride on these sail boats on the Nile called fellucas. We are now in Nubian country, the upper Egypt (this is the southern part of Egypt; lower Egypt is near Cairo; The Nile is the only river that runs South to North—trivia question alert). These people are black skinned and look more like your typical African. The felluca is an interesting sailboat that I can’t adequately describe. The fellows who sail it (it is so quiet on it; reminded me of the hot air balloon ride!) zig zagged across the Nile and took us around the islands. We saw many interesting sights along the way including the boat where “Death on the Nile” was filmed, Agatha christie’s famous book, and women washing serving trays in the Nile. Young boys swim out to the boats, or more commonly, have little wooden boats they could have made which they paddle with flat pieces of wood about 6 inches square. The sneak up behind the boats and hide just out of sight and hang on for a free ride—pretty dangerous for so many reasons.
The Nubians played music and sang for us using something that looks like the Irish: Bouharain (boy that’s slaughtering the spelling but perhaps you’ll recognize it: the flat, drum played with a small stick except that the Nubian’s play it with their hands only. Eventually they had all of us up dancing and this included not just swaying and motions with your arms, but jumping up and down too. It was a good way to end the ride which also included (surprise!) trying to sell us trinkets. We contributed to the drums for tips to the guys.
DINNER: this was a Buffet dinner at the hotel. Food was universally good at each location and included the usual foods you’d expect plus many local, and always delicious, dishes. Then it was off to bed to try to get some sleep before we had an early morning rise.

APRIL 5, 2008 – LONG DAY WITH 3 FLIGHTS

BREAKFAST: Too early wake up call and off to Aswan Domestic Airport at 7:30 am. The hotel has agreed to let us have the rooms until 6 pm today so we don’t have to put our bags out until 5:45 PM. Hallelujah!
AIR EGYPT AGAIN: This is the time my sun tan lotion was confiscated; Mohammed, the tour guide for group two, returned it to me in Cairo, bless him. By this time I had asked them to try to get me window seats on the right. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. The first time, we were in first class, the second time, I was alone in a seat on the left side of the plane (not the right) and Ed was back in the back of the plane. By the time we had our flight from Aswan to Cairo, it had gotten the right combination of seat requests. Forget about preboarding after you leave the states however. You’ll be stampeded if you’re not careful. Handicapped (and I’m not bad) haven’t a chance honest to God. You find yourself protecting each other.
ABU SIMBEL: This is the temple you will recognize that was moved due to the building of the High Dam. It was built by Ramses II, Egypt’s longest ruling Pharaoh, and is one of the most recognizable images in the country. There are actually two temples that have been moved here; the second is for Ramses’ favorite wife Queen Nefertari. There former home is now underwater in Lake Nasser.
Words don’t do justice to these two temples. One is like Stonehenge and the places in Ireland where the sun hits a certain place twice a year on the solstices. In this case, it hits 3 statues. However, the ancients had it right and the engineers who arranged this move (and what a public works project that was!!) were one day off! Now isn’t that amazing! Again the state of preservation is remarkable. The colors, where there are paintings, are fresh and easy to behold.
We had carried box lunches with us from Aswan this morning, and we ate them at the rest house near Abu Simbel.
AND AIR EGYPT TO ASWAN: We finally got to the hotel (after flight, bus ride, ferry ride across the Nile) about 2p. this is when I could have kissed the hotel manager who allowed us to have our rooms until 6 pm. We took showers and had plenty of time to pack and rest a little.
The schedules where we have a few hours in the afternoon to rest in these hot climates are such a sensible itinerary no matter what the age of your tourists.
PAPYRUS FACTORY: This was fun learning how it is made and seeing all the beautiful stuff they make. We watched these young ladies use water color to make cartuches for customers. Ed and I were interested in some papyrus paper to bring to Hank and Erna for their water coloring. The ole world bait and switch was alive and well. We were quoted on price per page for 11x17 page and were taken to the counter to buy it where the price increased 4 fold; it went downhill from there and we walked out without anything.
I fell down on the way into this factory but felt fortunate that I still had my Reid sleeve on. It pads my arm well and served as a cushion for the fall. I wound up with some wrenching and a black and blue mark on my legs, but otherwise uninjured. I try to be very careful on these outings since the surfaces are uneven and I often can’t tell the depth of the earth in front of me. Also, they often have marble stairs without a railing to use. We all talk about the danger in walking no matter how young and fit you are.
BBQ DINNER: Again great food, right on the Nile near the swimming pool. We had a violinist as we arrived for supper, another whirling dervish (these guys are something else), and later a Nubian group of musicians, singers and dancers. These guys pulled a bunch of us into the dancing which reminded me of the hora danced at so many family weddings. It was fun and kept us awake when all of us were crying for sleep.
LAST AIR EGYPT: 7:15 pm we followed Moses and Mohammed to the Aswan airport for our flight to Cairo. We arrived in Cairo at 12:30 am and got our luggage around 1 am. Great 5 star hotel, Semiramis Intercontinental. However, we hardly got our money’s worth, we were here such a short period of time.

APRIL 6, 2008 –CAIRO

The 6:30 am wake up call was not appreciated. We are zombies by this time. But we are well trained by now: Moses is waiting to deliver us through the desert. He is about 55 y/o I guess so it’s not easy for him either. We had breakfast in the hotel and at 8:15 am boarded the bus to Giza. By the way I don’t think I mentioned that our groups were never more than 22 people on a bus that will hold 50+ and so we were very comfortable in that respect. There was water and a restroom on board though it was down in the stairwell and a contortionist would be challenged to get into and out of it.
WELCOME BACK: Some sand storm had begun when we arrived but we could still see pretty good. We went first to a location between Cheops, the tallest of the pyramids, and another. Later we drove to an area near the last pyramid where the Bedoins had camels and you could have photos taken with the camels and a short camel ride. Despite the presence of the camel police, and Moses’ efforts to assure prices, they still game you. For example, you tell them you only want a photo, next thing you know, the camel is up and walking off. Before they’ll have the camel kneel so you can get off, the price has gone up remarkably, like $100. We saw the camel police chasing several camel boys away who weren’t following the rules.
Neither of us remembers the camel cops from last time. And one said Ok I could take a photo of him; later two others said no photos of them. Along the way, an armed police (but not in any kind of uniform) “befriended” Ed and I, suggesting he take photos of us, etc. etc. When he was done, he quietly rubs his fingers together asking for “backsheesh”. This happened a lot in several places where the very police who are supposed to be preventing this harassment, are the very ones asking for tips or bribes, take your choice of description. Still he give them something and go on our way.
SPHINX: He’s still here but there have been some upgrades both in the progress made on reconstruction, and on the guards and fences around it. There were lots of groups of school kids at all the sites we attended. At this one, I started blowing kisses to a group of young ones. All except one blew kisses back; this little boy stuck his tongue out at me. I pretended I was pinching his cheeks and giving him a big slobber kiss; he laughed and blew me a kiss.
SPEAKING OF WHICH: The vacation photo that got away: We were driving somewhere in the countryside on the bus and I was looking out the window at the folks on the side of the highway. There were two ladies dressed head to toe in black with only their faces and hands exposed; both were on the plump side but were probably in their 20s. I smiled and waved at one and she just beamed and started wildly waving at me with both hands. That memory will stick in my mind for a long time. It is the opposite of the way we see them otherwise.
LUNCH: this was on the same boat as in 2004. We boarded this lovely boat and it sailed down the Nile. By this time, the sand storm/hamseem was so bad you couldn’t see the tops of the buildings in Cairo from the river. Moses was smart to kick our butts out early because at least we were there early enough to see the pyramids and such even if it was hazy; the folks who came later saw nothing but a giant sand storm.
We had yet one more whirling dervish to entertain us, and the food was marvelous once again.
EGYPTIAN MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES: I especially enjoyed saying hi to King Tut’s artifacts once again. Moses made everything so interesting but the museum was packed and noisy. But I must tell you about one small statue of a scribe in Pharoanic times. This statue is not life size but it has life like eyes. Here’s how they did it: the eyes are made of quartz crystal. This is then painted with the sclera and iris. But here’s the fascinating part: they put copper on the back of this eye before it’s inserted into the statue. When you put a light into the pupil, you get a red flash just like a camera gets from the retina. Is that cool or what?
BACK TO SHIP: We had a drive of several hours back to the ship in Port Said. The route was different than 2004; probably a new road. Again lots of (now written as) “check point”, and lots of security again. The ride went fairly quickly and we got back to the ship about 30 min earlier than expected. Getting to the ship after you got off the bus was a different story however: there were vendors non-stop through the walk to the ship. Our luggage was delivered quickly enough; it was in our room when we returned from a quick snack in the Panorama Buffet. The young man who does this has many diverse jobs. When we first got on the ship, he brought out luggage. He always has a smiling face. I tracked him down and gave him a few dollars. He’s never forgotten that. I get big smiles everywhere I see him. He bought a remote control plane for one of his kids in Dubai and I met him in the terminal.
Our regular cabin steward, Rodolpho, is gone now for the marriage of his sister in Guadalajara. We heard that Princess paid for his air flights and is giving him paid leave to do this. He will rejoin us in Cork, Ireland and finish out his contract. We decided to give him his tip before he left for the wedding so he can enjoy it while away.
This evening we met Ray, our fill in. He’s rather shy but sweet and is still learning the ropes. I can identify with these kids and how they want to do a good job and they are still learning.
There’s so much more tidbits to share but we’ll regale you with them when we’re back. This overland in Egypt was outstanding. I’ve enjoyed all the overlands but This trip through Egypt is in a class by itself.