A little bit of heaven

Hi all,

A quick note form another airport lounge. Let me just say Ryan having platinum status is a life saver. Cario was not nice but it was a place to sit down away from the crowds. It is Ramadan and while it was not too big of a deal in the city. (no alcohal in 80% of the resteraunts, even though it is served normally. Plus the majority of all shops close from 9am to 7pm except there are always a few cafes & pharmacies open near all the sights and hotels) but in the airport it was craziness. It seemed as if the whole country was going on a pilgramage to Mecca, you have never seen so much chaos in your life, people were doing things you would get arrested for in any western country. Plus Ramadan requires that all healthy muslims must fast from sunrise to sundown so there were a lot of hungry and thristy people. And then right about the time we needed to go through securilty it was sundown so people everywhere stoped eveything they were doing to eat and drink. I mean everything. Security closed, check in closed and people just sat down wherever they were to have a full on meal. We had alot of time so we were not worried, but it was complete madness. However every one was also so generous. People who had not eat or drank anying for 14 hours were offereing us some of their meal and welcoming us to their country. A totally sureal experience, that I am gad we got partake in...

Now to our little piece of heaven...We arrived in Madrid at 4am from Cario and it was dead, a few cleaning people, one customs guy, one information guy etc.. We were unable to get a boading pass or check our bags all the way through to Johanesberg from Cairo beacause our flight from Madrid to Johanessberg was more 24 hours away. So we had to pick up our bags in Madrid and re check for Jo Berg. Everyting was basically closed until 6 am except the Iberia business class check-in. We then got our boarding passes and checked our bags through. The man at the desk appologized because the lounge would not open till 6 am but we found two couches and took a qucik nap. At 6 am we got to the lounge when they had a quiet room with giant chaise lounges just for sleeping. We took a nice nap then went for showers in these amazing multi head steam showers with fresh towels and luxury bath products. Now I am on the internet while Ryan is eating a free breakfast. Well I am finishing up now so we can explore Madrid.

Egypt, truely amazing

Danielle and I are sitting in a Cafe at Cairo International Airport on our way to Madrid, Spain. So I finally have some time to reflect on our time in Egypt and to post some photos to Flickr.

First where did we go. Well we started in Cairo and met up with our group of fellow backpackers and Hoda our Egyptian guide.

"If anyone from the group is reading this, thanks all, we really had a great time experiancing egypt with you and good luck on you travels. Also thanks to Hoda for an awesome trip."

Next we visited Giza, then hopped a sleeper train to the City of Aswan. Then a police convoy to Abu Simbel and back to Aswan. While is Aswan we took a boat to Elephantine Island. Next we sailed down the Nile on a Feluca and spent the night on an island in the Nile. Then continued sailing and once on land again joined another police convoy to the city of Luxor. Luxor included a visit to the Valley of the Kings and then finally another night train back to Cairo ariving early this morning.

Ok, that is all good, but what did we actually do. Well to keep it short, the highlights included the visit to the pyramids at Giza, the Syphinx, the Tutankhamen exhibit at the Egyptian Museam, a cammel ride through the desert to a St. Simon Monastry, a visit to Abu Simbel, me actually sailing a feluca on the nile river (it was awesome), a visit to Karnak temple, the Luxor temple at night, and the tomb of Ramses the VI.

Some thoughts on Egypt as a destination:

The sights are awe inspiring, but at the same time you find youself puzzeled by how badly they are protected, with tourists touching hyroglifics that are 3000 years old, and rubish being left everywhere, and the lack of climate control to protect the tombs and artifacts. I am very glad we have had the opportunity to see what we did, because I believe that unless Egypt gets their act together the rate of deteriation will ruin the sites for our children and their children. That being said, they are doing things, a new modern egyptian museam is being built to house most artifacts and the trash situation was well managed at the valley of the kings.

The scale of the monuments cannot be captured by a camera, you have to see it with your own eyes. The size of the pyramids, the size of Karnak, you just cannot take it all in. I know you are thinking, I have seen pictures, but trust me, pictures do not do these things justice.

Cairo is out of control crazy, so many people, traffic like you cannot believe, people flood the streets in between speeding cars, taxis and busses. The poverty, the dirt, the noise can at times be overwhelming and this is all compounded by intense heat. But then nightime comes, and although the chaos is still present it seems to be more managable to the individual, and the lights wipe away the dirt that is visible in the day time. We stayed in downtown Cairo, and got to see ordinary people go about their daily business, and deal with the challange of overcoming the chaos in navigating from our hotel to a place to eat, or a store. The streets are non sensible by western standards, no one obeys any traffic laws, people stop their cars on flyovers and hang out with friends, and no one uses their headlights at night, but everyone uses their horn continuously.

For me personally the highlight of the trip was sailing the nile, I talked with the capitan of the Feluca and he allowed me to take the helm, and I was sailing, tacking my way up the great river. The views of desert in the distance, with green along the shores, the cold nile water, and the silence was just beautiful. Also our traditional meals on the Feluca, and at the various houses we visited were awesome, filling me right up. These visits were also a great way to get a small exposure to the lives of the average Egyptian.

Karnak temple was truely amazing, the scale of the structure, the design and execution. I said the Romans knew their engineering, well I think I need to give the crown to the ancient Egyptians.

This is becoming a really long post, I have some much more to tell, but it will need to wait until we see family and friends. Oh, one last thing... I have never experianced heat anything close to the temperatures we were exposed to on this trip. The one advantage of the heat though, its the low season, and we did not have to wait for any sites or resturants.

PS. Peter, I hope you like the pictures of Uncle Ryan and Aunt Danielle by the Pyramids and Spyinx.