Egypt 6-17 Dec 2000
I really really enjoyed this trip - it was Ramadan, we slept on a felucca, we climbed Mt Sinai. If I were to go back to Egypt in future, it may not be Ramadan, and I'd probably not sleep on a felucca and climb anything!
Most of this was written years ago and edited on 2 Apr 2011:
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Wednesday, 6 Dec 2000 – In the wee hours of the day...
Our adventure began at the Cairo airport late Tuesday night or just after midnight. The guys selling entry visas tried to rip us off! Then we were accosted by the numerous agents and taxi drivers at arrival hall, some of them beginning to lead us to their cabs quoting "cheap fares" before we could say a firm "no" - we had a reservation waiting for us.
Then as we stepped out of the airport, ashy, smoky air assaulted our nostrils; the city was severely polluted and the horizon was blurred by smoke. It was not a pretty sight.
On arrival at New Palace Hotel, we were given a welcome drink in their rooftop cafe they called Alaska where we spent a long time negotiating for a package covering the main sights and a 3-days-2-nights felucca ride from Aswan to Edfu. I think we paid £150 each. Sleep was sweet but short.
In the morning, we went to Giza Plateau for the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. The Pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus were so huge I could only stare in awe, wondering at how they were constructed.
We did not go into any of the three pyramids as our guide told us there was nothing to see inside compared to the pyramids in Saqqara. We did not manage to ride camels that day; the price that old man asked for was too much at E£20 each for just half an hour! So we went off to Memphis and Saqqara.
Along the way, we passed by a man-made canal meant for irrigation of the fields and many farms and houses. There were a number of women who walked past carrying, or rather, balancing their goods on top of their heads while walking perfectly at ease. It was an interesting sight and a refreshing change from the usual city sights and yes, the air was definitely cleaner here!
We did not go into Memphis (a partly open air museum) but we did enter the tombs (Mastaba Of Ti and Zoser’s Step Pyramid) in Saqqara where walls were lined with heroglyphics. And coincidentally, we bumped into G's friend outside the Pyramid of Teti; it was a pleasant surprise!
On the way back, we visited a carpet school and tried our hand on weaving carpets. Each of us bought papyrus and perfume essence at the shops that we stopped by. I don't remember how now (April 2011!) but I think we were wandering around Cairo on our own before or after dinner, and bumped into this guy who brought us to his shop. He let us try the various perfume essences on the back of our hands, but at one point, he suddenly kissed my hand! I was so shocked! *.*
Oh, it was Ramadan so our guide didn't stop for lunch. The most interesting thing was that he didn't even ask us if we wanted lunch! Did he assume we were Muslims?? Luckily, as poor student travellers, we carried crackers and even some raisins for the trip.. And because it was so hot, we didn't feel too hungry. More on Ramadan later..
Thursday, 7 Dec 2000 - Lost in Egypt!
We overslept and were late for our guide who still kindly waited for us while we had our breakfast.
The first place we visited was The Citadel. I think there was nothing really special about the place though the Mohammed Ali Mosque was quite nicely done and of course, there was the broken clock tower presented to Egypt by France in appreciation for the obelisk now in Concorde, Paris.
Next on our itinerary was Egyptian Museum. We went there two hours before closing time and we really had to rush through many exhibits. I would think I could enjoy it more if we had had more time. There were many stories about all these tomb artefacts, as we heard from our guide. Only then, I guess, did we think it quite worthwhile for the package as we would not have known this much if we had no guide with us.
We had to pay extra to get into the Mummy Room but when we get in, I thought the mummies were not all that impressive and as the notice outside the room said, children could have nightmares after seeing the mummies. I could not agree more!
It was 3 pm by the time we were done and we dropped off the taxi before we reached the hotel and went off in search of Khan el Kalilil, a big market place, on our own. It was quite a long and unpleasant walk, with all those vehicles honking and spewing grey smoke; it just got on my nerves! We saw amazing sights of people jumping on buses and hanging on as it drove on! When we did reach the market place in the end, it all looked too messy to shop and we sort of walked right through it to a big bustling square called Midan Hussein.
By then, it was near 5 pm, the time when the Muslims broke their fast and we saw tables set up along the road and the stalls began to fill up with people. The nearby mosque looked interesting enough, with many people coming and going but we found out later that non-Muslims were not allowed to go into it :(
We were quite glad it was Ramadan - we saw a lot of nice candies and bought some (I think), and everywhere was bustling as the locals prepared for the upcoming festival. My favourite sight, besides the candies, was that teenage boys balancing a huge tray of bread on his head with one hand and cycling through town.
After stoning in the square for some time, we decided it was time for some chow and started to head back towards our hotel. It was a noisy walk - I distinctly remember people selling cassette tapes of local music which they blasted loudly from many small players along the road. Somewhere along the route, we lost our road signs and asked this kind lady Nazia who happened to be heading for our destination as well, and we made a friend! :)
Dinner was at this little local eatery. I never liked caulflower much but the cauliflower deep-fried in batter was good!!
Later at night, we left the hotel to take a train to Aswan. We had first class seats which we thought were no different from the usual seats in more developed countries.. Couldn’t begin to imagine what common seats will be like in Egypt.. Oh, but we found out later..
Friday, 8 Dec 2000 - Caught red-handed in Aswan
Aswan was cleaner but I didn't think there was a lot to see. We went to the unfinished obelisk but we did not go inside as we thought there was nothing much. Then we went to the High Dam and along the way, we passed by the Aswan Dam where I took a picture out of the taxi which subsequently almost got my film confiscated by the guards at the kiosk at the end of the dam! But things turned out fine in the end with some intervention by our fatherly guide.
We could see beautiful Lake Nasser from the High Dam. After taking some pictures, we left for the Philae Temple on Agilika Island. The temple was moved from the island of Philae in a bid to prevent its inevitable total submergence into the water due to the construction of the Aswan Dam, followed by the High Dam. It was really incredible considering the sheer size of the temple!
We went shopping around town after the sightseeing and bought water for our felucca trip starting the next morning.
Saturday, 9 Dec 2000 - Down the Nile we sailed!
In the morning we set off to the riverside to board our felucca - Queen Noubian.
First shock: it was a high step down into the felucca with nothing but the Nile in between - but I did not fall into the Nile...
Second shock: no, the captain, Mohammed, did not have enough blankets for all of us - our jaws dropped very low.. But he said he would borrow blankets from other felucca.... Fine, let's see....
It was hot; the sun was beating down on us as we waited for our fellow felucca mates. Finally all arrived and we were seven! The other four were Marcus (British), Jon (US) (so we had Singapore Jon and US Jon), Barkher (Netherlands) and Scott (Aussie) who joined us a little down the river. It was fine at first until the six of them, the four travellers and captain and his helper Walid started their decadence of tobacco and marijuana, first on the deck and then in the little cabin but we still could smell the disgusting smoke. No, we just could not be freed from smoke hur?
This was our last breakfast on the felucca two days later but well, this was how we ate on the felucca!
Lunch was salad with fuul and bread, edible enough but dinner was nicer with some rice and meat.
After dusk, we docked at some place and started preparing for the night. We wondered off to some mud houses and went on top of a little hill where G and I sat on a skinny donkey. Then, while Mohammed and Walid were setting up the canvas to cover the felucca, the rest of us were on land building a little fire after we had our toilet breaks in the bushes *.*
It was quite fun as there were two more feluccas docking with us. Someone on another felucca had a little drum and we were singing in front of the fire. Campfire songs, pop songs and some absurd little songs sung by the guy with the little drum. One particular one went like this:
"She'll be smoking marijuana when she comes, she'll be smoking marijuana when she comes, she'll be smoking marijuana, she'll be smoking mairijuana, she'll be smoking marijuana when she comes!"
I felt especially happy as I saw a shooting star as we were singing! That's my #4! :)
Back on the felucca, Mohammed from another felucca set G and me a problem: he tied a string to both hands of each of us such that we were held by the strings and we got to separate ourselves. "Very easy", he said and he promised us E£10 if we succeeded. I would say we tried very hard, not for the money but for fun. Even Sg Jon and Marcus joined in the effort but to no avail. After some time we just had to give up and when we saw the answer, we felt cheated; how would we know we could loosen the knot on the string to allow the other string to loop around??! Anyway, we had enough of his "Egyptian games" and got ready for bed. Mohammed seemed to have forgotten to borrow blankets but he lent us a blanket from the cabin where he and Walid slept so the three of us shared this carpet-like blanket and slept through a cold night.
Sunday, 10 Dec 2000 - Sleeping with the Captain!
After breakfast we continued to sail down the Nile towards Kom Ombu which was so smelly I felt nauseas. We visited the Kom Ombu Temple which was supposed to be totally symmetrical in the building structure but the temple was quite broken and the symmetry was not really obvious. There was one door leading to the top of that part of the temple which was supposed to be locked but I saw Barkher and Marcus go into it so I went in to take a look too.
When I took just a few steps, almost reaching the corner to reach the steps, Marcus came down and "Boom!", gave me a scare! When I was barely recovering fron the shock, Barkher came down with a snare like a cat! Ahhh! Idiots!
Anyway, we left pretty soon in search of a toilet. We found one and the old man led us to to toilet and the basin but later asked us for baksheesh. Having no small notes, we tried to change with the two men Jon was talking to but they ended up telling us to forget about the baksheesh and welcomed us to Kom Ombu. Well, we gathered the Egyptians were generally a friendly lot. Even the old man was not grudgy.
After a good lunch, we had to dock as the wind became too strong to carry on sailing and Mohammed said he would not carry on to Edfu anymore as we could not possibly reach Edfu by midmorning the next day. There would be minibuses coming to where we docked to fetch all of us from the three feluccas to Edfu and then Luxor.
This photo must be taken just before my blue inflatable pillow got blown into the Nile! Captain kindly turned back to retrieve it for me, but I didn't use it for the rest of the trip; I had to wash it with soap!
The wind was really strong and it was really cold even before the night arrived. After a while near the fire, we went back to the felucca. My sore throat was bothering me and I was feeling especially cold. Finally, G and I crawled into the cabin to escape the cold night on the deck. It was a little cramped as we had to share the cabin with Mohammed (!) but at least we were not too cold. Walid slept on another felucca that night as there was no space.
Monday, 11 Dec 2000 - A sip of the Nile
Once again, I missed the sunrise but some guys on deck apparently did not sleep much due to the cold and caught the sunrise. This morning, I thought since we were going off by minibus, I could afford to drink without worrying about docking for toilets. So I had my first tea on board the felucca after I woke up. It was only later after breakfast that I saw Mohammed dip the kettle into the river to get more water for more tea!! But I had already drunk my tea and I tried not to think about it...
At about 9 am, we moved everything from the felucca to the minibus and took a group photo in front of our felucca.
We exchanged goodbyes with Mohammed and he said this in his punctured English, "Next time, next time, remember, Queen Noubian, Captain Walid..." It was the way he said it, I guessed, that made me realise the attachment of these people to their livelihood, their floating houses, their feluccas...
The way to Edfu was beautiful. For some 10 minutes, we passed by nothing but vast areas of sand. Then there were some farms and again, the sand. I even saw a carcass of a cow by the roadside on the sand; it was eerie just thinking about it.
Edfu was uneventful; we did not go into the crowded temple but shopped around. G got her Egyptian blanket and me, a scarf :) Later, here or elsewhere, I had a little conversation with a guy who was trying to sell me a scarf after I told him I already got one - he told me that he would quote prices according to his target; E£100 to the American, E£6-70 to the Japanese. I forgot his original quote but his lowest was E£25, and he told me I could have bought my scarf for cheaper!!
The way to Luxor was littered with farms and little boys and girls waved to us as we passed by. It was a peaceful sight.
Finally we were in Luxor. The hotel was really nice and at 3 pm, we set off for Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.
Karnak Temple was amazingly huge as we walked through each section with our eloquent guide explaining the significance of each pillar and statue. There was a "garden" of papyrus pillars so huge it could accomodate St Peter's Cathedral in Vatican City, as said in LP. Our guide, btw, swore a lot in English. Our driver or someone told us that this guide was the top of his batch in the tourism university.
It was dark by the time we reached Luxor Temple but just as well because it was all lit up and with the yellow moon in the background, it was breathtakingly beautiful. We saw the twin of the Parisan obelisk at the pylon of the temple and inside was an open ground lined with pillars.
We had kushari for dinner, nice enough I thought though G and Jon pledged not to have it anymore...
Tuesday, 12 Dec 2000 - Of kings and queens
It was very early, 8am, when we set off for the Valley of the Kings where we ventured into the Tomb of Merneptah, the Tomb of Ramses VI and the Tomb of Queen Tawsert/Sethnakt. Merneptah was the son of Ramses II. Tutankhamun’s tomb was actually below that of Ramses VI. Queen Tawsert, wife of Seti II had her tomb taken over by Sethnakt who had trouble decorating his own tomb!!
Next on our itinerary was the Temple of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut was the third queen to rule ancient Egypt. Her successor Tuthmosis III defaced every image of hers when he took to the throne, and we could still see the parts that were defaced.
In the Valley of the Queens, we went into the Tomb of Amunherkhepshep and the Tomb of Queen Teti which was almost barren. In the former tomb, a five-month-old mummified foetus was discovered, a result of the grief of Amun’s mother when Amun died at nine. Not sure why a male is buried in the Valley of the Queens though...
We visited an alabaster workshop in the area and I befriended two boys who talked to me in stuttering English and from them, I learnt that they did not have enough pens to go around in school. That was a sad thing but unfortunately we could not do much to help. As we parted, they gave me two small pieces of alabaster stones and in return, I could only urge them to study well.
We changed our plans that day. Instead of spending one night in Luxor, we decided to spend two and reduce one night in Cairo.
Wednesday, 13 Dec 2000
There was not much to do but we just hung around town before catching a bus to Dahab. I remember we took a 15-hour bus - it was either this or from Dahab to Cairo.. Anyway, in Dahab, we stayed in a nice friendly place where the owner helped us arrange transport to Mt Sinai the next day. Our room was really basic, with three mattresses on the ground!! But the common area was like a small open air pub. If we did shower, the showers were not fantastic.. =P
Thursday, 14 Dec 2000 - Dahab
Dahab was a seaside village with foreigners trying to earn their scuba diving licence, and snorkelling was popular as well. Dredlocks seemed to be gaining popularity there and little boys and girls were everywhere trying to sell us little colourful bands. I succumbed to their charm and bought one. Then there were artists creating beautiful pictures in glass bottles using colour sand (or was it salt?). We stopped by one shop and watched how it was done. Along the way, locals sometimes approached us and someone even offered Jon lots of camels for G! =P
We made a friend with the young owner of a tourist shop where I bought two short sarong skirts and we all agreed to meet up in Cairo on our last night. Coincidentally, we met US Jon who told us a small girl went up to him as he was sitting down on a mat and started to braid his fringe for him! He was not keen on that and so bought some bands from her instead.
As evening approached, we turned back to the camels we saw earlier and bargained hard for an half hour ride into the wide sandy patch behind the shops. It was certainly way cheaper than what we were offered in Cairo! However the ride did not turned out smooth. It was rather scary when the camel stood up and we had to hold on real tight! Then my thighs were aching badly within minutes and I just could not wait for us to stop! But the scenery was very pretty as the sun was beginning to set. Finally we got back to the seaside and chose a resturant with nice mats and candlelights to settle our dinner which was a fabulous selection of turkish kebabs and giant burgers. Yumm!
Friday, 15 Dec 2000 - Mt Sinai!!
After a good rest in our room, we packed our bags and got ready our coats for the night climb to the top of Mt Sinai. A big cab came along to ferry us with some other adventurers to the foot of Mt Sinai where we then started on foot on the camel trail. Nearer the foot of the mountain, locals were urging us to take their camels to go up, one even pointing to me and said I would not make it! That’s it! To hell with their camels! I am going up by foot! Yes, I was panting and feeling tired quickly but we all managed to shake them off our backs after a short climb as they stopped following us after a while.
What followed was four to five hours of climbing, punctured by more and more frequent request stops by moi! Along the way we passed by a couple of little huts which sold snacks and drinks. Inevitably, I had to take a little toilet break behind one of those huts..
There was a point when we were not sure which way to go as the big stones lining the way became indistinguishable from the rest and the others who were in the same cab had already gone off as they were much faster. We asked the old man at the hut a little way down but we thought the way he directed did not look good so went the other way but reached a dead end. Well, we had to take the not-so-good route but later found that it led to a better route with the familiar big stones.
As we ascended further, it got colder, and the air became thinner. Soon there were patches of snow on the path and we had to really watch our footing especially where there were steps. Poor G and Jon did not have winter coats like mine though G was faring better with her new big blanket. I was comparatively the most padded, with a hooded winter parka, a sweater, a scarf, gloves, and two pairs of socks!!
By the time we finally got to the top, we were freezing and amazingly, there was an old fat man at the hut there and I really wondered how he could take it, going up and down the hill everyday!! He made it sound so simple. Gosh!
We bought hot tea from him but thought the blankets were a strife too expensive. On retrospect, we should have cared more for our skin! Duh! Anyway, we waited for about half an hour for the sun to rise while I had my hands at my armpits and the two of them were sharing a lamp for warmth!
We went out of the hut as the sun came out. It was so pretty! For some reason, it rose not at what we thought was the horizon but slightly forward. Then the surroundings were all lighted up gradually and it was so awesome I could only stare, speechless. The very top of the mountain was actually a few steps above us but we had a good view where we were and did not go further up. There was supposed a little chapel up there as well.
The old man gave us directions to go down by a different route, called the 3000 Steps of Repentance. We were supposed to go down behind the hut and we should see an oasis with a tree, after which we would see the steps leading all the way down. It was a tedious walk by my standards as it was slippery during to the snow but it got better as we descended. It was tough on my knees but eventually we got to the bottom where we visited St Katherina’s Monastery before we took a cab back to Dahab, just in time to catch our bus to Cairo!
When we reached Cairo, taxi drivers were trying to cheat us by telling us that there were no trains to Alexandria at that time and told us to use their taxis, charging exorbitant fees. But when we insisted on going to the train station, a driver agreed to take us and we did get on a train bound for Alexandria where we checked into a crap hotel.
Saturday, 16 Dec 2000 - Alexandria
We spent the day slacking a lot, just walking around the town and eating, deciding there really was nothing much about the place. But it was quite nice sitting on the ledge facing the sea and enjoying the breeze...
Sunday, 17 Dec 2000 - Bye bye...
It was an interesting train ride back to Cairo. Perhaps we were too tired when we rode the train to Alexandria. This time, we took in the economy class with all our senses.
We met some Egyptian school girls who were heading home somewhere between Alexandria and Cairo. At first, we asked them if we were on the right carriage. Then they changed their seats to next to us. Then two girls came to sit with us and we talked in punctured English. This girl who read Islamic Studies was betrothed to a man she liked back home, due to marry after her studies. She promised to send Jon a recipe of a dish that he liked.
It was perhaps peak hour. Or maybe not. But the train was soon very crowded, with people sitting and standing everywhere! Then a couple of chaps would carry a big box and walk up and down the train, throwing little packets of things at everyone and collecting some back on his way back. One of the school girls bought something and told us to just return the packets if we didn't want them.
All too soon, they had to alight and we bade farewell. This was perhaps the most interesting bit in our encounters with the locals.
Back in Cairo, we didn't manage to meet up with the guy we met in Dahab. But we spent all our money on dinner at the same little eatery - I ate so much I had to stop and look away from the food! But there was food everywhere and there was a mirror over our heads! Argh...
we only managed to shower and catch a bit of sleep before catching our flight at around 4 am the next day. So it was back to good old Oxford for us!
