Relaxing in Egypt
We are back in Dahab for a week of R&R.
Our 36 day tour ended on Sunday, and I think we were both happy to have it completed. Met some nice people, enjoyed our time, but keeping up with a hectic tour pace and having no control over itinerary gets wearing after a while. Dahab is one of the most chilled out places that I have been. The most difficult decision to make in a day is whether to have strawberry or mango juice. The rest of our time in Egypt was decidedly less relaxed…
I will try to go in order, but no doubt I will mix things up a bit. From Cairo we took a night train to Aswan. The train was surprisingly comfortable, though the washroom was not surprisingly quite uncomfortable!!! It was a quite evening in preparation for our early rise at 3:00 a.m. to visit Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is an amazing temple overlooking Lake Nasser (The lake or water resevoir created by the building of the Aswan Dam) - it originally was located in the area flooded, so in the early 60’s, UNESCO put a plan in place to literally carve it up and move it to higher land. The temple itself is amazing… like most sights that we visited, in excellent condition with original paint and inscriptions still visible. The effort of moving it was incredible to learn about - they sawed it into 19,000 pieces and moved each piece to higher ground, all while the flood waters continued to rise around it. Looking really hard you can not see any cut marks… it really was a cool place to visit.
After getting back from Abu Simbel we boarded Felucas for an overnight sail on the Nile. These are old boats with sails, and no motors. If there is no wind, you sit. Luckily we had some wind, though we didn’t go anywhere in a hurry. Several people from the tour, including Chris, went for a swim in the Nile. After hearing horror stories about bugs that get under your skin in the Nile, I relaxed on the cushioned deck! Dinner that night was in a home of a local Nubian man (also turned out to own the business of the feluca we were on). We had a nice dinner, including stewed veggies, a potato casserole, tomato/cucumber salad, bread, chicken wings, and pasta. After dinner it was back to the feluca for sleep. While it was very comfy (literally the whole deck is a mattress), it was freaking hot and not the best sleep ever.
From Aswan we drove to Luxor, and visited Edfu and Kom Ombo temples on the way. In the afternoon Chris went to see Karnak Temple with the group while I spent a frustrating 2 hours on and off the phone to Kenya Airways, trying to make changes to our flight to Mombasa sheduled for June 11. The next morning we were up at 5 am and caught a quick ferry from the West bank to the East bank of the Nile. From there we rode donkies to the Valley of the Kings! The donkey rides will no doubt be on our list of fondest memories of the trip! My little donkey had a need for speed, and the hour long trip was spent jockeying for first place with a mule, ridden by someone else on the tour. In the end the mule won, but I still felt like I came in first, since I was the first donkey across the finish line (not to mention the first female to come in first-ish)!! Yes, I still like to win!! I have easily been very impressed by both camels and donkeys! They are amazing animals!! Anyhow, on to the Valley of the Kings. There were 67 tombs (including Tut) found in this valley. Because of the heat and dryness of the desert, they are in amazing shape (though most were pilfered of their contents prior to being uncovered later by archaeologists) — the paintings for the most part are just as bright as when they were painted. Very interesting how much time was spent on the afterlife in ancient Egyptian times. The tombs we visited were really deep and some had multiple rooms where the belongings of the King would have been kept. We also visited the tombs of the workers - just outside of the Valley.
From Luxor we headed back (on another overnight train), to Cairo. It was a busy and hectic week. You could literally spend weeks and weeks in Egpyt - there are so many sites. It does get quite tiring due to temperatures in the late 30’s and early 40’s, and after a while, the temples kind of blend into one another. Regardless of that, I am so glad that we visited.
As I mentioned, we have changed our tickets for our Kenya leg of our journey. Due to travel advisories we have decided to knock off the Kenyan coast section, giving us about 3 weeks to play with. We fly out of Cairo to Nairobi on July 1, and start an 8 day safari on July 2. This week we will continue to relax in Dahab, and on Sunday will leave here for Israel (and no worries, we will be avoiding the Gaza area). We are so close to Israel… it is about a two hour bus ride to Taba, where we cross into Israel. It will nicely round off our time in the Middle East. We’ve loved our time here, learned a lot, and have so far come away with a new appreciation of this part of the world. I highly recommend spending some time in this region (especially in our favorite - Syria).
I hope that all is well at home. I’ve been feeling homesick, and while I am happy to be where I am, I do miss life back in Canada. I’ll be thinking of you Morag, moving into your brand new home; Sibby, I can’t wait to see a picture when the baby is born! Don’t forget to send one when you can!!!!!; Mom and Dad, have fun with Katie, Lauren, Barb and Neil.
xoxoxox
Paula
June 13 2007 11:29 am | Egypt