Interlude. Lei.

Before we decided to go on this trip together, Lei and I were pretty much strangers. Although we work in the same company and our professional paths had crossed a few times, we didn't know anything about each other. But we had something in common that's this insatiable desire to travel the globe. We took the chance on each other and I'm so glad we did. Looking back on the trip, I realize that so much of the fun that I had was because of Lei.

Nothing like spending 24x7 for nearly three weeks to get to know someone. So, here's my impressions of Lei....and I did give her fair warning that I would be posting this up!

Goodbye Egypt, Hello Jordan!

It's day 12 and we're headed for Aqaba, Jordan. Though I was excited about finally getting to Jordan, I was sad to be leaving Egypt. Really sad because I had such a wonderful time there - I would like to return some day.

Interlude. Trekking fashion.

What can I say? When we started out in Cairo, we pretty much looked like your stereotypical tourist - street clothing with the cameras hung around our necks. By the time we got to Aswan and Cairo, we had started to morph into trekkers. Dressing to look "nice" was quickly tossed out the window in favor of comfort and practicality - hiking pants and fleece jackets soon became de rigeur.

Case in point about dressing for practicality. Lei at Nuweiba. She has on her black gym pants, rolled up to the knee. But because she needed pockets and her gym pants didn't have any, she unzipped the legs of her hiking pants and wore them as shorts over her gym pants. She has one sock on because she cut the bottom of her foot on the coral reef and wore the sock to protect the wound. Because she didn't want her sock to get dirty, she put her flip flops on. Not sure whose definition of beachwear this is but what a vision it made!

Days 10 and 11. Nuweiba

This is what awaited us at the end of Day 10 ! We had two days to do nothing, absolutely nothing but R-E-L-A-X and we couldn't get there soon enough!!

St. Catherine's.

It's day 10 and we're still in Sinai. We awoke at a reasonable hour. No mosque in sight so no prayer to call to interrupt sleep. Lei had left both heaters on all night so I woke up all sweaty! Ugh. A few minutes to clean up and we headed to the restaurant for breakfast. By now, we had all fallen into the routine - breakfast, check out, dump backpack next to van, pile into van.

Day 9. Sinai.

We woke up before the crack of dawn on Day 9, dropped our keys at the Front Desk, picked up our breakfast boxes (bread, cheese and jam, hardboiled eggs and fruit), grabbed our backpacks and waited outside for the mini-van to arrive. The packs were strapped to the luggage rack on top the van and we all piled inside for the 7 hour ride to Sinai. Lei had taken her Dramamine and put her sea bands on to ward off the nausea that she suffers when her motion sickness hits.

Interlude. Traffic in Cairo.

I'm a city girl at heart and I've been to LOTS of cities....many a place where traffic is utterly chaotic and even as a passenger in a vehicle, heart stopping. I have had my share of white knuckle rides, closed eyed rides, speeding taxi drivers, swerving vehicles, and rides that literally took away my breath. I have been in many cities where crossing streets were a challenge. But then, I went to Cairo and it has set a new benchmark on my list of cities for driving chaos.

Day 8. Back to Cairo.

Ugh. I had been dreading going back to Cairo and all its chaos. Compared to Cairo, the atmosphere of both Aswan and Luxor is relatively sedate and I was beginning to enjoy the slower pace of life.

What I relished even less was returning to the smog and pollution that enshrouds Cairo. Unfortunately, like many major cities in developing countries, Cairo is in bad need of air pollution controls. Add that to the fact that smoking is a popular habit among Egyptian men and you have just about the worse air you could possibly breathe.

Interlude. Food.

Okay, I confess. I ate like a pig on this trip and for a pittance!! Familiar food items like kabobs, felafel, shawarma, hummus, baba ghanouj and tabouleh were everywhere to be found, cheap as can be and ever so tasty. Ordinarily, I'm not fond of lamb but what I ate in Egypt was so wonderful, I've become a convert!

I also learned to appreciate labneh which is a yogurt based cheese that was often the spread in sandwiches and showed up at the breakfast table in Jordan.

Interlude. Laundry.

The thing about travelling with a backpack is there's not a whole lot of room for clothes - especially when you have to carry a sleeping bag as well.

Luxor. Lunch and a papyrus factory.

It's still Day 7. We're still in Luxor and it's lunchtime!!

From Habu Temple, we head to Ahmed's house for lunch for a home made meal. What a feast it was! There was so much yummy food, I didn't know where to start eating and I could barely finish everything that was out in front of me. Of all the dishes served, the lentil soup was divine - could've easily had another bowl with warm ayish to dip into it. Daniel and I devoured the dessert - simple triangles of fried phyllo drizzled with honey.

Luxor. An alabaster factory and Habu Temple.

Day 7 continues. After the Valley of the Kings, the next stop on the itinerary was for the group to visit Hisam's alabaster factory. Since I had already been at the factory earlier in the morning, I lolled around outside and chatted with some of the workers while everyone else went on the tour and made their purchases afterwards.

Luxor. Colossi at Memnon and the Valley of the Kings

Day 7. Our second morning in Luxor began with a walk down the corniche, heading towards the boat dock. There, we would meet with up Ahmed who would be our local guide for the day.

It was another glorious day - I'm liking the desert in winter :-)

Luxor. The grandeur of Karnak.

It's still Day 6. At 2pm, Lei and I met back up with the group. It was the first time that they had seen me since I fell on the felucca. From the looks on their faces, I think they were as glad to see us (in one piece) as we were to see them. Poor Kristen opted out of the trip to Karnak - she was in bed battling the "bug" that was going around.

The rest of us, along with Daniel, piled into a mini-van for the short ride to Karnak. Ahmed was our local guide for the day. Daniel got us our tickets....



.... and then left us in Ahmed's care.



Karnak is a complex of temples that comprises three separate temple enclosures and covers over 100 acres. Our tour would take us through the largest and grandest of these enclosures - the Precinct of Amun which is dedicated to the supreme god Amun who was the lord of all: king of the gods and patron of the pharaohs.

Entry into the Precint of Amun begins with a walk down the Processional Way which is flanked on both sides by ram-headed sphynxes.



A tiny statue of Ramses II sits between the forelegs of each sphynx.



At the end of the Processional Way is what is referred to as the First Pylon - a walled gateway that measures 113m wide and 43m high.



Beyond the First Pylon is the Forecourt. The Colossus of Ramses II, with a smaller statue of Queen Nefertari between his legs, stands in the Forecourt, positioned beside the vestibule to the Second Pylon.





Just beyond the Second Pylon lies the Great Hypostyle Hall.



The Hall was started by King Seti I (1313 - 1292 BC) and completed by his son, Ramses II (1292-1225 BC). The hall contains 134 columns - 14 line the processional avenue - each is 23m high and 15m in circumference. To this, Seti I and Ramses II added 122 smaller columns in two flanking wings. The smaller columns are 15m in height. At one time, these columns supported a roof with small clerestory windows. While the roof is gone, some of the windows remain.





The smaller columns have calyx capitals....



....and the larger columns, papyrus bud capitals.



The columns constructed by Seti I are decorated with raised reliefs; the columns constructed by Ramses II are decorated with sunken reliefs. The reliefs show the Kings making offerings to Theban deities, most notably Amun.



Wonder how the ancient Egyptians built 29m high columns without a crane? The theory is that the columns were built up in sections. To start, columns of a "manageable" height were placed into the ground. The spaces that separated the group of columns was filled in with sand to the height of the column sections. The process was repeated with each column section until the top was reached. Once the stone roof was placed on top, the sand was hauled away - essentially unearthing the columns. Pretty smart, huh?< Just beyond the Third Pylon is the 23m high, pink granite obelisk of Tuthmosis II.




Beyond the Fourth Pylon is yet another pink granite obelisk. This one stands 27m high and is significant because it belongs to Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to rule as pharoah.



Ahmed guided us to a wall that was constructed by Hatshepsut but was deliberately defaced by Tuthmosis II. In the picture below, you can see that her image has been scratched out. Tuthmosis II also replaced her cartouches, which border the wall, with those of his father's and grandfather's names.



A short walk from the Obelisk of Hatshepsut lies the Sacred Lake. Next to the Sacred Lake is a giant scarab, dedicated by Amenophsis III to the God Khepri. The Egyptians believed that the Sun was pushed by a scarab on its daily crossing of the sky. It came to symbolize eternity. It is said that if you walk around the scarab one time, you will have good health, three times will give you wealth and seven times for love. It was too crowded so I didn't even go one round :-(



Lei and I managed to convince a guard (1 EG helped) to let us up onto a grandstand. From there, we took these shots of the complex.




On the way back through the complex, we came across this relief wall. I don't know what it's named but it's remarkable.




We retraced our steps back to the entrance and when we were all there, piled back into the mini-van and headed back into the hotel.

If Abu Simbel is awe inspiring and Philae breath taking then Karnak can only be described as being simply magnificent! It is a truly incredible sight and visiting it was definitely a highlight of my time in Egypt. Words and photos cannot do it justice - you have to be there to really appreciate its majesty and grandeur.

Here are Lei's reflections on her visit to Karnak.

Luxor. The morning after.

We're in Luxor. Day 6 began with Lei and I sleeping in. I think we both deserved it considering the events of the previous day. We soon rolled out of bed and got ready for the day which began with breakfast on the rooftop of Little Garden.

Day 5. Did not end as expected.

The lesson learned from this days'events is "Do not walk in socks on a slick boat deck."

I slipped and fell on the felucca. I don't remember some of the details of what took place so you'll need to read Lei's posting to fill in the gaps.

Day 5. Started out as expected.

The description of the itinerary for Day 5, reads "Morning we meet the felucca for a relaxing day of sailing on the Nile". We were to spend the night on the felucca - sleeping in the open, under the stars. Per Daniel's instructions, we all packed our daypacks accordingly - lots of warm clothing, flashlight, and of course, sleeping bag.

Downtime in Aswan.

It was sometime after noon when we arrived back to Aswan after spending the morning touring Abu Simbel and Philae.

The Temples at Abu Simbel and Philae.

Day 3 in Aswan began with Lei's alarm clock going off at 2:30a . No chance of hearing the daily call of prayer as we had to have an early wake up in order to meet up with the group (except for Daniel) at 3:30a.

Sick as a dog in Aswan.

My first day in Aswan was spent in bed - I was determined to shake off the flu so I could enjoy the rest of the tour. I got into bed and piled on as many layers as I could. The fever eventually broke and I was able to join the group for dinner in a restaurant located next to the Nile River. I had my first taste of a "real" Egyptian meal and it was wonderful - many more were to come!

From lower left, it's me, Bridget, Alex, Sandy (tilting her head), Kirsten, Dora in red, Laura, Daniel and Daniel.