Saturday, November 04, 2006
21 Oct
I got woken up on the plane at 1:45 AM to eat. We had to eat prior to 4 AM due to Ramadan. At 6:45 we landed in Dubai. We had a 10 hour layover, so we went out into town. Conor had a college friend who was living there, so she took us around. We went to a couple of malls, had lunch, and looked at the "sail building" from the beach. It was quite hot. The city had a slight resemblance to Las Vegas in that it was a strip of new buildings on essentially one road in the desert. The level of ongoing construction is staggering. It will be interesting to see if the real estate speculation is out of control or if the buildings will be occupied. In one area they are building the tallest building in the world at about 2 stories a week...and it is surrounded by 10 other skyscrapers that are yet to be completed. Just out of downtown they are building an area of predominately residential complexes...10 blocks simultaneously. They say 40% of the world cranes are currently in Dubai. We flew out in the afternoon for Cairo. Upon landing, we collected our bags and got into a cab. Driving is quite an experience in Cairo. Lanelines, other than the center yellow line, are ignored. Our cab was all over the place. We hit traffic and the cars just formed extra lanes...2 lanes became 3 to 4 depending on the width of the road and the width of the other cars on it. Honking was non-stop and essentially meant get out of the way I am about to hit you. So every time you passed a person or a car passed your car there was a honk. We eventually got to our guesthouse in the Zamerick neighborhood of Cairo (an island in the middle of the Nile). The neighborhood was quite nice. Lots of trees and away from the hustle and noise of the rest of the city.
22 Oct
We had breakfast at the hotel and then hailed a cab to the Egyptian Musuem. It had a warehouse feel and was packed with tour groups. The hieroglyphics, mummies, sarcophoguses, and other artifacts were amazing, but the musuem did little to explain them. You needed a fair amount of knowledge on Egypt to really appreciate everything there. Another difficulty was all of the tour groups. So many people in groups of 30 speaking different languages surrounded most of major artifacts. It was hard to get a good view at times. After a few hours, we got a cab to the train station. The train was booked, so we had to go to a travel agent to get a ticket. At the agency, we set up the rest of our transport and lodging in Egypt. We were paying the cab for the day (approx. $10 usd). He waited and then took us to a resturant for lunch. It was a buffet of Egyptian food and was quite good. After lunch it was off to the pyramids. They closed early due to Ramadan...and we got there when it closed. We were offered a camel ride to them, but instead paid an employee to let us in and we got some good pictures (paying a person to "help" is common in Egypt). We relaxed a little in the early evening and then got our train to Luxor.
23 Oct
Woke up on the train about and hour outside of Luxor. The train followed the Nile. It was so green and lush along the river, but the land a kilometer away was completely barren. We got to Luxor at 8:30 AM. We did not leave on a tour until 3 PM, so we walked the city and along the Nile. A lunch of kebabs was quite good and very inexpensive. That afternoon we got on our tour and headed to the Temple of Karnak, one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. It was large and spectacular and extremely crowded...a constant theme in Egypt. After Karnak, the sun was setting, so we opted out of the tour of the Temple of Luxor. We could see it from the balcony of our hotel room and could walk around it for free. It was dark and it was beautifully illuminated. That evening, after dinner, we had an ice cream along the Nile and strolled the markets which were quite alive.
24 Oct
Today we toured the western side of the Nile...the Valley of Kings, the Valley of Queens and the Temple of Hatchepsu (sp?). The Valley of Kings contained 63 tombs. We toured 3. All of the artifacts were removed and are in the Egyptian Museum but the hiergliphics were amazing. All color reliefs predominately predicting scenes on how to combat the evil spirits they would encounter on the way to the afterlife. The area around the tombs was less spectacular. Just rugged desert...and it was extremely hot. The Valley of the Queens was quite similar but not on the same scale as the Valley of the Kings. The Temple of Hatchepsu (sp?) was the highlight of the day. It was a 3 story temple build into the side of the cliff. All of these monuments were within 10 km of each other. The present town in the area is currently being relocated for historical reasons...there is so much in the area. Egypt is really promoting historical tourism so the town must go. That evening we transfered from Luxor to Hurghada via mini-bus. They really take tourist safety seriously (there was a bombing killing tourists in 1997). We went in a 50-70 bus caravan with tourist police escourts....they have a separate division of the police dedicated to tourists. It was not a good ride. The mini-bus was small, the driver didn't speak English and was not familar with Hurghada. Finally we made it to our hotel and our tour operator was waiting. He checked us in and we scheduled a scuba trip.
25 Oct
After breakfast at the hotel, we headed off for our Scuba trip. We drove down the coast to Black Shark Diving. It was part of a mega resort. As we learned, Hurghada is a major Russian and eastern European resort. There is about 30 km of resorts lining the coast. Lots and lots of construction...a lot of money from Russian if you catch my drift. The boat was very nice, if a bit old. We got out to the first dive spot by about 10 AM. There were some other boats there, but the water was like nothing I had seen before. The color and clarity was amazing. You could see the bottom from the boat...about 60 ft of water. Underwater, it was much like an aquarium. The fish were bright and the coral colorful...the great visiblity obviously helped. After lunch we did a second dive and headed back to shore watching kite surfers practice (major wind/kite surfing area). It was probably the best diving I would ever experience. That night we ate at a small resturant and had a couple of Egyptian beers.
26 Oct
Today was an all day travel day. We had a 6 hour bus from Hurghada to Cairo. Then it was night flight from Cairo to Bangkok. The drive along the Red Sea up to Cairo was quite scenic...better than expected. The water was so blue and the hilly desert landscape was a great contrast. Once in Cairo, we went back to the Zamerick neighborhood. A coffee shop attendant recommended a resturant around the corner so we went in for dinner. It had great interior and the food was the best we had had in Egypt. After that we relaxed in a nearby coffee shop and read the international version of the NY Times. The cab to the airport was actually crazier than the one into the city...hard to believe. He drove the same way, but could not speak English. We had to use a translate to negotiate the price initially and use had signals to get to the correct terminal. After we got to the airport, it was smooth sailing.
I got woken up on the plane at 1:45 AM to eat. We had to eat prior to 4 AM due to Ramadan. At 6:45 we landed in Dubai. We had a 10 hour layover, so we went out into town. Conor had a college friend who was living there, so she took us around. We went to a couple of malls, had lunch, and looked at the "sail building" from the beach. It was quite hot. The city had a slight resemblance to Las Vegas in that it was a strip of new buildings on essentially one road in the desert. The level of ongoing construction is staggering. It will be interesting to see if the real estate speculation is out of control or if the buildings will be occupied. In one area they are building the tallest building in the world at about 2 stories a week...and it is surrounded by 10 other skyscrapers that are yet to be completed. Just out of downtown they are building an area of predominately residential complexes...10 blocks simultaneously. They say 40% of the world cranes are currently in Dubai. We flew out in the afternoon for Cairo. Upon landing, we collected our bags and got into a cab. Driving is quite an experience in Cairo. Lanelines, other than the center yellow line, are ignored. Our cab was all over the place. We hit traffic and the cars just formed extra lanes...2 lanes became 3 to 4 depending on the width of the road and the width of the other cars on it. Honking was non-stop and essentially meant get out of the way I am about to hit you. So every time you passed a person or a car passed your car there was a honk. We eventually got to our guesthouse in the Zamerick neighborhood of Cairo (an island in the middle of the Nile). The neighborhood was quite nice. Lots of trees and away from the hustle and noise of the rest of the city.
22 Oct
We had breakfast at the hotel and then hailed a cab to the Egyptian Musuem. It had a warehouse feel and was packed with tour groups. The hieroglyphics, mummies, sarcophoguses, and other artifacts were amazing, but the musuem did little to explain them. You needed a fair amount of knowledge on Egypt to really appreciate everything there. Another difficulty was all of the tour groups. So many people in groups of 30 speaking different languages surrounded most of major artifacts. It was hard to get a good view at times. After a few hours, we got a cab to the train station. The train was booked, so we had to go to a travel agent to get a ticket. At the agency, we set up the rest of our transport and lodging in Egypt. We were paying the cab for the day (approx. $10 usd). He waited and then took us to a resturant for lunch. It was a buffet of Egyptian food and was quite good. After lunch it was off to the pyramids. They closed early due to Ramadan...and we got there when it closed. We were offered a camel ride to them, but instead paid an employee to let us in and we got some good pictures (paying a person to "help" is common in Egypt). We relaxed a little in the early evening and then got our train to Luxor.
23 Oct
Woke up on the train about and hour outside of Luxor. The train followed the Nile. It was so green and lush along the river, but the land a kilometer away was completely barren. We got to Luxor at 8:30 AM. We did not leave on a tour until 3 PM, so we walked the city and along the Nile. A lunch of kebabs was quite good and very inexpensive. That afternoon we got on our tour and headed to the Temple of Karnak, one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. It was large and spectacular and extremely crowded...a constant theme in Egypt. After Karnak, the sun was setting, so we opted out of the tour of the Temple of Luxor. We could see it from the balcony of our hotel room and could walk around it for free. It was dark and it was beautifully illuminated. That evening, after dinner, we had an ice cream along the Nile and strolled the markets which were quite alive.
24 Oct
Today we toured the western side of the Nile...the Valley of Kings, the Valley of Queens and the Temple of Hatchepsu (sp?). The Valley of Kings contained 63 tombs. We toured 3. All of the artifacts were removed and are in the Egyptian Museum but the hiergliphics were amazing. All color reliefs predominately predicting scenes on how to combat the evil spirits they would encounter on the way to the afterlife. The area around the tombs was less spectacular. Just rugged desert...and it was extremely hot. The Valley of the Queens was quite similar but not on the same scale as the Valley of the Kings. The Temple of Hatchepsu (sp?) was the highlight of the day. It was a 3 story temple build into the side of the cliff. All of these monuments were within 10 km of each other. The present town in the area is currently being relocated for historical reasons...there is so much in the area. Egypt is really promoting historical tourism so the town must go. That evening we transfered from Luxor to Hurghada via mini-bus. They really take tourist safety seriously (there was a bombing killing tourists in 1997). We went in a 50-70 bus caravan with tourist police escourts....they have a separate division of the police dedicated to tourists. It was not a good ride. The mini-bus was small, the driver didn't speak English and was not familar with Hurghada. Finally we made it to our hotel and our tour operator was waiting. He checked us in and we scheduled a scuba trip.
25 Oct
After breakfast at the hotel, we headed off for our Scuba trip. We drove down the coast to Black Shark Diving. It was part of a mega resort. As we learned, Hurghada is a major Russian and eastern European resort. There is about 30 km of resorts lining the coast. Lots and lots of construction...a lot of money from Russian if you catch my drift. The boat was very nice, if a bit old. We got out to the first dive spot by about 10 AM. There were some other boats there, but the water was like nothing I had seen before. The color and clarity was amazing. You could see the bottom from the boat...about 60 ft of water. Underwater, it was much like an aquarium. The fish were bright and the coral colorful...the great visiblity obviously helped. After lunch we did a second dive and headed back to shore watching kite surfers practice (major wind/kite surfing area). It was probably the best diving I would ever experience. That night we ate at a small resturant and had a couple of Egyptian beers.
26 Oct
Today was an all day travel day. We had a 6 hour bus from Hurghada to Cairo. Then it was night flight from Cairo to Bangkok. The drive along the Red Sea up to Cairo was quite scenic...better than expected. The water was so blue and the hilly desert landscape was a great contrast. Once in Cairo, we went back to the Zamerick neighborhood. A coffee shop attendant recommended a resturant around the corner so we went in for dinner. It had great interior and the food was the best we had had in Egypt. After that we relaxed in a nearby coffee shop and read the international version of the NY Times. The cab to the airport was actually crazier than the one into the city...hard to believe. He drove the same way, but could not speak English. We had to use a translate to negotiate the price initially and use had signals to get to the correct terminal. After we got to the airport, it was smooth sailing.
