Cruising down the Nile

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Trip Start Oct 20, 2008 Previous
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  Aswan, Nile River Valley, Egypt
Monday, November 17, 2008

Wow!  It's been an amazing week in Egypt.  It started with the most nightmarish airport experience we've had yet (a growing trend, it seems).  Our flight out of Zanzibar was delayed by five hours.  Side note about African air travel: after you check in, it's pretty much impossible to find anyone with any information about your flight, and if you can, they avoid you as best they can.  So we were stuck with very little information other than "it's delayed due to technical reasons" for five hours in an airport with just about no air conditioning.  Finally, we got to Nairobi, Kenya too late to catch our connection to Cairo.  The next flight out?  7PM the next evening.  This would have thrown off our entire tour -- we would miss our train and our cruise and everything.  After standing in line (another side note on African lines -- people ignore them.  You pretty much ave to push your way up or everyone will cut in front of you) for about an hour, and explaining our situation, we found out about a different airline's flight that would leave at 3AM, oh, and no guarantee they would let us on board, but we could try.  So, we set ourselves up for a night at the airport.  We managed to shoot out an e-mail to warn our tour company that we would be late, then settled down to try to catch some sleep in uncomfortable chairs, getting moved every once in a while as the overnight cleaning crew came in.  Amazingly, other than spending about 12 hours total in the airport, the flight went smoothly, and we arrived bleary-eyed in Cairo in the early morning, straight into our tour of Egypt.
Cairo is amazing and overwhelming all at once.  It reminds me a little of Rome where the ancient meets the modern all blended into one.  The pyramids stick up over satellite dishes on rooftops.  Traffic is worse then anywhere I've been thus far, and riding in a car is not for the faint of heart.  The air is very smoggy, and tourists are everywhere!  But the history is mind-blowing.  Whenever I've been to Europe it's made the US seem very new in terms of history.  Being to Egypt now makes Europe seem very young.  These pyramids are thousands and thousands of years old, and you can actually touch them!  Forget the roped off areas and glass barriers of most museums.  These monuments you can walk on and touch.  Pictures coming soon, I promise!  We are going to try to post a bunch in Athens, which we are flying to tomorrow.  Aidess has talked about the quirks of tourism in Egypt.  I would only add that since this is the lifeblood of Egypt, you have many, many people trying to sell you things at every monument.  Some places like the great pyramids it was not so bad.  Others, like the sphinx it really took away from the experience.  Also, everyone wants a tip.  Take a picture of someone?  Better give them a tip.  The person who folded cute towel figures in our cruise expected a tip afterwards.  If you come, make sure to get lots of small bills.
Leaving Cairo behind we took an overnight train to Luxor for the start of our cruise.  The train was fine, the food was pretty awful.  We landed at Luxor starving, ready to jump into our next tour.  Now we visit temples galore, filled with massive statues, hieroglypics covering every wall, some painted vibrant colors, others vandalized (19th century graffiti involved stone chisels into walls).  Mummies, tombs, calendars, medicine, music.  The Egyptians did everything and we saw it all with our very knowledgeable guide -- I felt like I was back in the classroom.  The cruise ship was nice.  This was my first cruise, and it was very relaxing to lay out on the roof and read while the banks of the Nile passed by.
Today was our final full day in Egypt and what a way to end it.  We started by visiting the island temple of Philae, taking a small motorbat to it.  We also saw the High Dam -- largest dam in the world outside of China, and an unfinished obelisk which showed how they were made.  Then we had lunch aboard the cruise ship, and then took a felluca ride -- the classic Egyptian sailboat.  This is what I really pictured when they talk about crusing the Nile.  After that, we entered a very nice motorboat to go to another bank of the Nile where Nubians live (the dark-skinned Egyptians in the south of Egypt) to sip some Mint tea, smoke a water pipe, and be asked if we want to hold a baby crocodile (we kindly refused).  Finally, dinner in a local (non-tourist) restaurant with the delicacy of stuffed pidgeon.  You couldn't end on a better note.
Next stop Athens, which will hopefully include some R&R and some photos on this blog.
-E and A

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Hieroglyphic food	The island temple of Philae	Sailing on an Egyptian felluca	Nubian village along the Nile
View cruising down the Nile	Aidess attempting to smoke a water pipe	Sunset on our cruise down the Nile	The oldest pyramid.
Little Ernie at the great pyramid	Riding a camel in ancient Egypt	Classic sphinx photo	Mosque of Mohammed Ali in Cairo
Hieroglyphics up-close

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