Red sea
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2008
1
5
68
Trip End
Jun 15, 2009
Dahab,
Red Sea and Sinai,
Egypt
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Everyone was feeling a bit better after a good sleep, but I still wasn't up to eating much. On today's agenda was the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and Karnak Temple. Valley of the Kings Was cool, but lots of people were about. The most impressive thing I thought was the colours that were used in all the tombs. I never imagined that the hieroglyphs would be in colour. It was also interesting to see how all the tombs were different, depending on the age of the King and their preferences. As soon as a King died, the builders would stop work, so if the tomb wasn't finished it was just too bad.
Hatshepsut was probably one of my favorite temples, just for the setting and style. It was placed on the other side of the mountain from Valley of the Kings and looked spectacular from a distance. Last of the temples, and probably the most spectacular on sheer size was Karnak. This place was huge and had so many temples in side it because all the kings had to add something to it while they were ruling. The best bit was the hypostyle hall, the biggest of its kind in the world. It was made out of 136 columns, of which were huge! It was really amazing, an absolute must if you are in the area. After walking around a giant Scarab beetle 6 times for money we left to spend another night on the train, this time heading to Cairo.
I have to say the trip back was much better, 10 hrs and we were all woken up at 6am to get up we're here! We on the normal train were very happy I can tell you now! The group split up here and 6 of us Mum, Dad, Jessie, Kelly and Dave and I got in a mini bus to head for Dahab, and 4 days of relaxing next to the red sea. It was a long trip and after 10 hrs on the train we were all relieved once we got to the hotel. We had dinner that night at a cool place called the funny Mummy. It was right on the sea with big carpets hanging up everywhere and cushions on the floor to sit about on. There seems to be a bit of a problem with cats in the area and to stop the people eating from getting harassed they provided water spray bottles. So if one got close enough you just had to spray a bit of water in the cats direction and off it would run! Dave and Peter had lots of fun with this!
Basically we spent 4 days shopping snorkeling and lying about next to the pool. Every night we went into town for tea, and then back to the hotel to watch a movie. We got to have a go at scuba diving as well, I really loved it, but Dave had some problems with his ears. I think I will try and get my ticket in Thailand, if there is any money left! The coral and fish here are great, I would say on par with the barrier reef. Dahab was a great place; I would go back there any day.
Before we went back to Cairo we had to climb Mt Sinai. Basically we left Dahab at 11pm drove a few hours to Mt Sinai and started the climb at0130hrs. Mum made it to the first coffee house before she decided a camel ride might be a nice way to get to the top. We trudged our way slowly to the top and met mum at the stairs. Now Peter our guide had told us there were only 85 stairs to climb to get to the summit, well thanks Peter, but you knew all along it was 750! We eventually made it up bought a few matteresses and blankets and fell asleep for the hour or so wait until sun rise. It was a bit of an acheivement, but not being religous i wasn't particularly excited about it. Really there is not much to see and it could be missed.
Then it was back to Cairo, to see the Egyptian Museum, the citadel and do some shopping in the Bazaar. The Bazaar was great, lots of people and great stuff to buy. I got a cute little camel and a scarf and then some souvenirs. We said good bye that night with dinner and drinks (the first proper drink for more then a week!). Egypt was great fun, and we met some really nice people. Having never done an organized tour before I found that everything seemed very rushed. You always had a time limit, 30 mins here 1 hr there, sometimes it just wasn't enough. It was nice though not having to think about anything, knowing we were going to a place but not worrying about how to get there was a nice treat. It was sad having to say good bye to Mum and Dad again, but don't worry guys, about 6mths and we will be home!
