We found some lovely (economical) flights from Geneva to Sharm El Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. We took the train bright and early and made the 3 hour trek to the Geneva airport arriving just in time for our 1200 departure.
Arriving in Sharm we made a connecting flight to Cairo where we were picked up by our hostel (all 15 of us) and also met by the train ticket man (we were planning an overnight train ride from cairo to luxor ).
The van ride back to the hostel was mesmerizing. I seemed that the city didn't sleep. not that it was THAt late or anything, but there was certainly a fair amount of bustling going on. The hostel was on the third and forth floors of a somewhat abandoned building. The staff were really great and directed us to a delicious eating house that was open till 4am. Apparently Egyptians tend to indulge in late dinners. Getting to the eating house was a little sketchy. the trick is always look like you know where you are going and if that fails don't stop walking. haha. but we found it a sketchy alley or two later and it was well worth it.
This is a view from our hostel window the next morning before we headed out on our Giza tour. The smog made it seem like we were looking at everything through a glass of watered down milk, but it was so very warm and nonetheless beautiful.
The Giza Necropolis. Situated right in cairo and extremely dirty (it seems they have a bit of a garbage problem in egypt in general) it was a be startling. This landmark, sustenance for for every childs imagination, the location of untold mysteries, movies, books and legends seemed to have it's own little cage of sand dunes (which did get cleaner the closer you got to the pyramids). It was very surreal. We got sort of coerced into taking a camel ride through instead of the usual tourist paths and it really was a good idea. The tourists, we saw later were corralled together and from a distance seemed to be doing strange (and colorful) dances of who can get what pictures without "that guy in the background", ect. very interesting. See bellow....
The camels are not the most graceful or creatures, but the whole adventure was was informative and awesome. Some people also rode horses. I'm sad (but not particularly surprised) to say that these camels especially did not seem to be treated particularly well...
Some of the camels in question. These ones were all tied toghether in a disgruntled chain of tourist bearing, long legged fury but later on in the week we rode some and got to hold their "bridle" almost like we were real camel riders of old (and new.....but real!).
That first day we saw the pyramids of Giza, the stepped pyramid of Saqqara and the Dahshur pyramids.
At Dahshur, one of the two was a " bent" or "false" pyramid because the ancients began building with a very steep angle and about halfway up realised it just wasn't going to work, they were finding things like cracks in the foundation, so they changed the angle and that is why it has such a strange shape. Below is the red pyramid at Dahshur. It is believed to be the first successful completion of the smooth sided pyramid and was the tallest man made structure in existence at it's completion.It currently stands at 104m. In the center about a thrid of the way up you can see the stairs ascend to a passageway 3' high and 4'wide that leads the curious down a 68m tunnel. I was kind of terrified. but when else would i be in a pyramid? the passage had a 27degree slope also. many of us complained of sore thighs and butt the next day from this little jaunt.
Here is the vaulted ceiling of one of the three main chambers at the end of the passageway. all in all there wasn't a whole lot to see but the smell was intriguing...
Our last stop on the tour was Memphis, the ancient capital of lower egypt. It now houses all sorts of statues remanicsent of it's past glory. Bellow is a gigantic statue of Ramses II. Said to have fathered more then 150 children with his harem of wives. He was by all accounts a forced to be reconed with. The second largest sphinx in the world , after the one standing guard at the Giza pyramids was also located here.
After our tour we split into factions to find food. One thing to note if anyone is going to Cairo is that you can cross a street anytime, no matter the traffic or lights. It is real life frogger but with a little more to lose. We dodged are way to our first glimpse of the Nile and were met by party boat bloc. The neon lights were flashing and music was blasting but once you boarded one of these boats you mostly just sat down on one of the seats and waited for your nile tour. all the makings for a party but we only saw one boats worth of dancing......
The next day we made a bee-line for the market. It was great. i love the markets. especially when you wind your way back into the little alleyways catering less to the tourists. You have to watch single file and keep your eyes open for for the market stall owners moving there merchandise from one place to another in huge nondescript sacs.
In the afternoon we made our way to the Cairo Museum, two floors wonders. Learned all about mummifying animals and people, there art and sport and funerary atiquities were everywhere. The most entertaining room was probably the one containing the statues from the time when the romans were in the picture. a most valiant attempt but some things are just not meant to be. Also the Mask of Tutankhamun and all his other treasure are on display. the mask of gold weighs ~10kg.
Night train to luxor went smooth. not much sleep but we made it there safe and sound and EARLY! we arrived at the hostelat 5-5:30 and checked in.It was called the bob marley hostel ad they wern't joking! The owner was great. we got booking into a valley of the kings tour for that very day and he made us up a traditional egyptian breakfast (sorta) of bread and fallafels, fruit, yogurt and bean dip. At this point only a couple of us were feeling adverse effects from eating all the delicious food. We all tried to stay away form the water but sometimes you can't help it. This is a view from the rroftop patio at the hostel. There was even a family of (mildly skittish) cats to share it with us!
Valley of the kings was not as enormous as i had pictured. there were no cameras allowed so we don't have any documentation but i believe we got to enter the tombs of Ramses I, III and the 9th. It is truly incredible that such beautiful things could last so very long. Apparently some of the first graffiti found was by a scribe in the Saqqara step pyramid in 1232 BC...
This is Djeser-Djeseru the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut one of the most successful female pharaohs.
The luxor temple.
Karnak temple.
Our sunset nile cruise. it was complete with the noticeably egyptian sails dotting the river and a stop at banana island to see the one remaining crocodile (caged) and indulge in some of fresh bananas. Here a jumble of masts on the river before we set out.
banana island docking point. quite official really.
That night we took a flight back to sharm to enjoy our last three days of sun and surf. We started by doing a camel ride into into RAs Abu Gallum national park where we ate lunch at a bedouin camp and scubaed waters with underwater life and color to rival the great barrier reef.Below is the our transportation waiting at the foot of the coastal trail into the park.
The Bedouin camp in the distance.
The final night we gave up sleeping for a midnight hike (1am start) up to the top of mount sinai where we rented matresses and blankets and bundeled up toghether to watch the sunrise on a peak long known as a pilgrimage destination. Unfortunately for us many of us were suffering more seriously due to poor eating choices at this point but the path was well equiped with at least rudimentary facilities. the sunrise was just as glorious as it should have been. The sun immediately warming the alledged -4 to something a little more balmy and were were stripping off the layers as we progrssed back down the mountain.
At the base is St. Katherines monastery, location of a cutting of the burning bush. Bellow the bush is a brick wall and in all the little crevices, small tattered notes have been pushed into the mortar. secret thought? prayers? a very mysterious and tantalizing potential for breach of privacy.
Go. It was great.
** All photos courtesy of Miss Rachel Sondergaard**
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