Hello!

We arrived in Cairo not knowing exactly what to expect. We wandered the streets our first day and were greeted with shouts of “welcome to Egypt”. Quickly our wandering turned into being lost. In the old part of town (where we got lost) the streets are a medieval maze. We eventually found our way home. It was a good orientation to the city. Although it has 16 million people we found it easier to get around than Bangkok, Hanoi, or Saigon.

Our first full day we visited the pyramids at Giza. The urban sprawl of Cairo has reached the pyramids, but the other side is still a vast desert. We got the first sight of the pyramids on the bus and they took our breath away. We wandered around the complex (3 large pyramids and a sphinx) for hours in amazement of the fact they are 4,600 years old. We were also very impressed by the solar barque, one of 5 huge boats found at the base of the pyramids. It was used to transport the pharaoh to the funeral site and was buried for him to use in the afterlife. It is believed to be the oldest boat in existence.

We will be returning to Cairo a couple more times so we saved the rest of the sightseeing there for later and headed to the desert. We took a bus to Farafra Oasis and did a 2 night desert safari there. Considering that Egypt is 94% desert we thought this was a crucial activity. We slept under the stars surrounded by pure silence. No cars, planes, birds, bugs, trees, etc. In the day we hid in the shade by a small oasis. We saw the White Desert, with strange white limestone rock formations jutting out of the sand. It looks like snow drifts at times. Which made us think of precipitation so we asked our guide how often it rains. NEVER! was the reply. He said 17 years went by without a drop of rain. We looked in the guidebook and it said they get an average 10 mm every 5 years. Crazy!

Our next adventure was getting to Luxor, a mere 280 miles as the crow flies, and the number 1 tourist destination. The journey ended up taking over 30 hours and 5 different buses. There is a direct road, but god forbid they let the buses use it (it hasn’t been deemed “safe” yet)! This was the most grueling part of our trip to date. We got our first taste of Egyptian tourist security when we attempted to take a local bus out of Farafra on our own. We were heavily pursuaded to allow a cop to join us on the bus for the 5 hr ride to the next town. That was awkward. However, on arrival there and at each of the next 4 towns we were met at the bus stop by hordes of police. They escorted us everywhere, even to buy a bottle of water. We spent the night in Kharga and were undecided about which bus to take. We told the receptionist we would take the next bus after we woke up. We came down at 9 and it was clear to us that the cop had been waiting in the lobby since before 6 since that was when the first bus left. Nevermind the fact that we were right across the street from the bus station. We are not sure if this was due to us being “Americans” or if all tourists are treated the same. We wouldn’t know, because we didn’t see any other tourists there. We actually felt less safe because they were attracting so much attention to us, we may as well have been wearing stars & stripes. On top of our irritation with all the police attention we had severe stomach illness from the spring water in the desert that didn’t help matters. However, I think it should be said that all the cops were very respectful, patient, and they never asked for a dime.

We made it to Luxor and were busy for 2 days seeing all the ancient sites. The pharaohs moved their capitol down here around 2000 BC. We saw lots of tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens. The pyramids were plagued with graverobbers so they started to hide the tombs in these valleys to keep the tomb and treasures safe and secret. Most were robbed anyways, which is what makes the discovery of King Tuts untouched tomb amazing. His treasures were immense even though he was a pretty insignificant pharaoh, he only ruled 9 years. Things are still being discovered to this day. The most recent discovery was made in 1995 and is the largest tomb complex discovered in Egypt with 110 chambers and corridors. It has the mummies of more than 50 of Ramses II’s sons (Ramses II was the longest reigning pharaoh-66 years).

The most amazing tomb was that of Queen Nefertari, Ramses II most beloved wife. The paintings in all the tombs were much more vivid than we expected, almost as if they were painted yesterday. But Nefertari’s looked as if the paint was still wet. It was an amazing look into ancient history. We saw many other sites in Luxor, it was almost overwhelming. The scale of the structures and the details of the artwork are amazing.

We were also fortunate to get the best taxi driver to take us around. Mohammed took us out to his favorite breakfast place, invited us to his home, arranged a camel ride through a nubian village, and was a delight to meet. He answered all our questions about Egyptian and Islamic culture. It was great!

Next stop, Aswan. From here we took a day trip to the Temple of Abu Simbel. All tourists have to go in a police convoy that goes once a day. Another stretch of road, “not yet safe for tourists”. All this security is in response to the 1997 massacre at Luxor. (It definately seems over the top but in a land with so few resources, it is hard to blame them for trying to protect their tourism revenue.) Abu Simbel was built by Ramses II, it had collosal statues of him and Nefertari. It was carved into a cliff face and was amazingly relocated when a dam was built that would have submerged it. That was a monumental task and they did an amazing job. It was definately an Egyptian highlight. The rest of the time in Aswan we were trying to recuperate from our illness and the only other thing we did was take a short felucca (sailboat) ride on the Nile.

After that we headed to the Sinai Peninsula. The first stop was a small Bedouin village on the Red Sea called Mizena. We came here in search of Hollene, a dolphin that befriended a deaf Bedouin man and has chosen to reside in the bay near the village. Heidi swam with her four years ago after she finished the peace corps and dreamed of returning some day. We didn’t know what to expect, but were delighted to find that there are actually as many as five dolphins frequenting the area, including Holleen’s baby. As soon as we arrived we heard the dolphins were in the area so we wasted no time, grabbed the snorkel gear and jumped in the water. We saw all five dolphins swimming together and were able to get within about 10 ft. The visibility was great. After about 10 minutes the dolphins went on their way and we returned to shore. The day tourists left and we realized we were the only ones staying there. We waited patiently the rest of the day for the dolphins to comeback and shortly before sunset we noticed Holleen and her baby swimming our way. We immediately jumped in and it was magic. A couple of Bedouins got in the sea and the dolphins trust them so much that their demeanor totally changed. Before they would get close, but not too close. When the locals were they were so comfortable and playful. For about 30 minutes we swam with them, rubbed their bellies and noses, and had the most wonderful interactions. The baby was play fighting with her mom and the locals. They would swim no faster than we could and just circled all around us. It was amazing to know that they are wild and every interaction we had with them was because they wanted it. We felt special.

The next day we hoped for the same good fortune, but we waited the whole day and never saw them come by. The next morning we headed to Dahab for some R&R (ha ha) and diving oppportunities. We went to Mt Sinai (where God is believed to have revealed the commandments to Moses) in the middle of the night to hike up to the top before sunrise.  We reached the top at 3:15 am hoping to get a few hours sleep. Not! It was cold and obnoxiously loud tourists prohibited that. We didn’t see anything other than Egyptians and their camels on the way up, but at the top there were hordes of people. Mt. Sinai is revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims, all of whom believe that God delivered the commandments to Moses here. This results in a LOT of pilgrims. And this is low season. Wow.

We spent our anniversary diving in the Red sea. We did two wreck dives on the Thistlegorm, a WWII British cargo ship that sunk after being bombed by the Germans. We saw torpedos, motorbikes, trucks, guns, boots, and other combat stuff. We also did three dives on the reefs and found the colors and coral much better than the Great Barrier reef.

Egypt has been one of the most rewarding of our destinations and at the same time one of the most trying. In addition to the difficulty of travelling independently, we are constantly trying to keep from being ripped off, and we avoid all Egyptians at tourist sites (they are always looking for a kick-backs as they constantly try to guide you around, tell you inaccurate historical information or just follow and harrass you until you give them Baksheesh (tip them) to leave. It is very difficult to admire the ancient monuments in peace. You never get anything for nothing here. People may seem to be honestly trying to help you out, but fear not they will expect payment at the end. All of this on top of being sick made for some challenging times.

Chad & Heidi