So beautiful! How many camels for your wife?

Our flight from Delhi, India to Cairo, Egypt included a layover in Kuwait City, Kuwait. I must say, flying into Kuwait, staring out the plane window looking down at a place so often talked about during my childhood was surreal. That day we flew over Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, which sounds silly but was all very exhilarating. Just the thought of being 30,000 feet over sectors of the “axis of evil” made us feel like we were on the brink of danger! Drew even spotted a Patriot missile battery as we landed in Kuwait… We finally arrived in Cairo, zipped through immigration with ease, and found our hotel pickup immediately. Our initial reaction to Egypt was that of sheer happiness. The scenery reminded us of southern California with large, straight, palm tree lined highways, crystal clear blue sky, a cool breeze, and 75 degree weather. The only distinguishable difference was the architecture and the fact that the buildings were all a different variation of the color tan.

Our guesthouse was on a traffic circle in the heart of Cairo, which had a Parisian air to it all. The smells of the bakeries, the beautiful restaurants, and delicious street food was a warm welcome as well as the Egyptian people. While a lot of them are smooth operating snake oil salesmen, trying hard to get you into their perfume shops with trickery, the majority just seem to be nice people who all said, ‘Welcome!’ as we passed them on the street. We fell for the ‘charmer’ routine once, but I guess everyone does the first time they come here.

As always, we hit the ground running and the very next day found our way to Giza to see the Great Pyramids. A lot of people don’t realize (we were guilty of it ourselves) that the Pyramids are smack in the middle of a city. As a matter of fact, you can take a taxi to go see them. So, we made it there with relative ease on a mini bus and stumbled upon another charming man trying to sell us something, this time camel rides. We called it fate and rented two camels (named “Whiskey” and “Michael Jackson”) and a guide for two hours. Though completely awe inspiring, I couldn’t help but feel like we were in Disneyland. As a matter of fact, all of the sites we have visited in Egypt make us feel that way because it’s just so hard to believe these sites are the real deal. Maybe it is because out of all the countries we have visited we are taught most about Egyptian history and culture, so we arrived with more preconceived notions and ideas than other places? Maybe it’s because Americans have taken Egyptian history and incorporated it into their amusement parks, malls, money, and various forms of pop culture? I dunno. Whatever the case may be, it’s been absolutely amazing being here, but also a little hard to wrap around minds around.

From Cairo we decided to head all the way down to Aswan, which is the southern capitol of Egypt. The Nile River divides the country east/west and all of the major cities are a long this stretch of water. We went to Aswan because we were told Abu Simbel was a must and had to check it out. Abu Simbel is a temple built by Ramses II which sits on the Egypt/Sudan border 3 hours south of Aswan and next to Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake on the planet. While the temples of Ramses II and Nefartiti were spectacular we found that Lake Nasser was just as breath taking. The lake was built in the 60′s but in order to complete it they had to move the Temples to higher ground so a team of people from Egypt, America, Italy, and France came to the rescue. What did the Americans have to offer in this deal? Caterpillar. No really, a team from Caterpillar provided all of the heavy machinery to help move these ancient ruins to safe ground. The bus to Abu Simbel left at 3:30 a.m. and arrived there at 7 a.m., which was the perfect time of day when the air was still cool and fresh. We could’ve sat there all-day and stared out at that beautiful lake.

Our next move was to Luxor, three hours north of Aswan. Luxor is an absolutely stunning city with loads of history. You can easily spend weeks there and not fully cover all that it has to offer. We found a lovely guesthouse called Fontana Hotel run by an Egyptian family, which we were happy to call home for a few days. They set us up on a day tour of ‘The Valley of the Kings’, ‘The Valley of the Queens’, and a temple built by a female Egyptian pharaoh named Hatshepsut. Again, the day started early but we had a lot of ground to cover. The first stop was ‘The Valley of the Kings’ where 160+ tombs lay of Egyptian pharaohs and other VIP’s. You see, the pharaoh’s decided that pyramids were a little too obvious so they chose to make their tombs in a far off valley underneath mountains because mountains mimicked that of a pyramid. This way their gateway to heaven would stay safe from robbers. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to bring cameras into the tombs we visited because they are spectacular! The hieroglyphics, the colors, and the all around work put into these masterpieces are mind blowing. Some of the tombs even reach 5 stories down! The most colorful tomb we visited was in ‘The Valley of the Queens’ and was the son of Ramses III. The walls were all depictions of Ramses and his son enacting Book of the Dead scenes and then walking to the gates of heaven. I believe the boy was only twelve or so when he died and at the time his mother had a miscarriage so they put the fetus in the tomb with the boy. Upon excavation archeologists did find the skeleton of a baby, which is now on display inside. Each tomb and temple has a story to tell; they show the life and death of whoever was buried and/or revered in great detail. A lot of the tombs were robbed over the years but many of the treasures have been found and are on display in the Cairo Museum or Luxor Museum. The temple built by Hatshepsut is intense. She was a female pharaoh around 1,500 BC who knew females at that time could never rule so she dressed like a man and acted like a man to maintain rule and deceive. After her death her body was stolen (and recently found by archeologists) and her temple was defaced. We do wish we had a little more time to spend in Luxor exploring but were happy with what we could see and were very, very anxious to get to the beach for some much needed r & r.

A 20-hour bus ride later and we finally made it to Dahab, Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula. Drew wasted no time signing up to get his advanced divers certification (my birthday gift to him!) so we’ll be here for the next three days enjoying the sun, the relaxation, and some good dives. I must say, the beaches here are gorgeous. White sand, crystal clear blue water, perfect blue skies, a desert backdrop, and a lot of palm trees. They say people come here for a few days and end up staying for a month… we can definitely understand why. Two weeks left on our trip and we still have Jordan to get to. We are trying desperately to live in the moment and not plan for Jordan quite yet. The thought of packing our backpacks right now is excruciating although we are very excited to spend some time at Petra and swim in the Dead Sea. The plan may be for Drew to finish his advanced dive certification and then we head to Jordan, see the sites, and come back to Dahab if we have time but as for right now, the skies the limit…

Advertisement