Food Around the World: Kenya

During our time in Kenya, our Masaai friend and guide, Hesaan, would sometimes come up with interesting questions out of the blue. Not all of them were politically correct ("why do all Asians look alike?") but it was always a bit of a feat to try and answer them diplomatically and in a way that would make sense. One day he asked us, "Why do Chinese people eat dogs?" In our attempt to answer that one, we talked about how people all over the world find different things delectable. For example, most Americans don't eat goat. They'll use goat milk and make goat cheese, but your average American would think that eating goat is about as strange as we might find eating a dog. To this, the inimitable Hesaan replied that he would come to America and eat all the goats we Americans were too stupid to appreciate.

Fortunately, Jody of Eddybles didn't shy away from the challenge when it came to recreating a Kenyan meal. From my observations and her own research, she created a menu of Kenyan treats, Mshikaki (yogurt-marinated goat), Irio (like mashed potatoes) and Ugali With Roasted Tomatoes and Cabbage. You can try to take some of those American goats from Hesaan and read about other Kenyan delicacies at her blog.

Bon appetite!

Pockets Full of Ticket Stubs and Heads Full of Pharoahs

At one time during the height of Egyptian civilization, Luxor (then called Thebes) was the capitol of Egypt. Not surprisingly, that means there is lots of stuff here for tourists to gawk at. So today, Tyler and I took a tour of the West Bank of the Nile, which included the Colossi of Memnon, three tombs in the Valley of the Kings, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, and three tombs in the Valley of the Queens. And, for once, our tour included a guide, so we now know useful trivia like which crown represents Upper versus Lower Egypt, that Queen Hatshepsut brought back henna and incense trees from Somalia, and that evil multiple-headed snakes awaited pharoahs in the afterlife. But I get ahead of myself.

Our first stop was to see the Colossi of Memnon. These 23 meter high statues (colossal indeed!) are the only remains of a distant pharoah's temple, destroyed in flooding of the Nile. The Greeks named these statues after their famed king, Agamemnon, and they still stand guard, cracked by still awe-inspiring, worthy of Ozymandias-like sonnets.


Tyler in front of the Colossi of Memnon. You can see they are pretty aptly named (except for the "Memnon" part).

Quickly we were off to the Valley of the Kings, where 62 tombs of pharoahs have been found. Howard Carter's discovery of King Tutankhamon's tomb is famed because it was the only one found that had not been plundered or disturbed, but the tomb itself (which we didn't see in person; they make you pay extra) is not as grand as many others. Apparently, a pharoah would start construction on his tomb the day he started ruling. Thus, pharoahs with a long rule have big tombs; those with a short rule (like King Tut) have small ones. The Egyptians built their tombs on the west bank following the idea that they should live on the side where the sun rises and find the afterlife where the sun set. There was a great 3-D representation of the entire Valley and the layout of the tombs in the entryway.


Representation of the Valley of the Kings. Each flag represents one of the 62 tombs found here, including King Tut's.


Representation of the actual depths and shapes of the tombs dug into the earth.


The Valley of the Kings--not particularly photogenic, but you can see at least one tomb opening and the mountains rising behind.

Our first stop was the tomb of Tuthmes III, a pharoah ruling for 32 years and a big tomb. (Remember him; he'll come back into play later....) After climbing many steps up to the opening, we then went down into the earth to view the various corridors, antechambers and finally the burial room itself. Many tombs also have false endings or shafts meant to confuse grave robbers. One of the most interesting things about the tomb was that the style of the pictures were very different from the more realistic paintings usually found in tombs and temples, more stylized and almost stick-figure-like. The burial chamber was also interestingly built in the shape of a cartouche.


Map of the first tomb we visited, Thutmes III, long because of his long rule.

Unfortunately, no picture taking is allowed in the tombs. The other tombs we visited were similar, with slightly different details. For example, one tomb had a great depiction of the god of the sky, who was believed to be spread across the sky, eating the sun every evening and giving birth to it again each morning, like ideas of the afterlife.

You quickly realize while on the West side of the Nile that there are many more graves than those that have found fame and recognition. From almost any vantage point, you can see caves and small entryways in the hills surrounding you, each foretelling of a tomb. Besides the famed valleys of the Kings and Queens, there are many tombs of nobles and workers as well.


Tombs litter the landscape on the West Bank, besides the famed valleys, including tombs of nobles and workers.

Then we were off to Hatshepsut's Temple. Hatshepsut was one interesting pharoah. She was married to Thutmoses II, her half-brother. During his life, she ruled in the background; when he died, she shipped his 10-year-old son (the same Tuthmoses III whose tomb we saw in the Valley of the Kings) off to Cairo for education and took to ruling herself by claiming she was a son of Amon, the sun god, and generally representing herself as a man. She ruled for 20 years until her death (which may or may not have been a natural one) when her son, Thutmoses III came back to rule for 32 years himself. However, pharoahs generally don't seem to be very generous to their predecessors, and he chiselled out the cartouches of her name from her temple and also hid one of the huge granite obelisks she erected at Karnak.

Fittingly, the temple is as unusual as its namesake. Though for a queen, it was built in the Valley of the Kings. In addition, it was built in three levels into the rock, rather than carved deep into its surface. After seeing many pictures of it from Ancient Civilization courses (and Art History for Tyler), it was pretty impressive to see in person. She definitely knew how to find the right landscape to make a statement!


Queen Hatshepsut's Temple/Tomb, also called Deir el-Bahri because it was converted to a Coptic monastery in the third century BC. Only in Egypt could this be considered a "recent name change" according to a government-produced brochure we recieved!

One thing I always look for at the tombs and temples we visit are the hidden crevices and protected corners where the original paint remains. While we're accustomed to seeing Egyptian (as well as Greek) edifices as stately stone structures, they were actually possibly quite gaudy in their heydey, with each heiroglyphic and surface painted bright colors. There were a few great examples on the second level of Hatshepsut's temple.


Still vibrant paintings from Hatshepsut's Tomb


Another painting example. If you enlarge, you can see they are offerings of all kinds of animals and foods.

Our final stop was the Valley of the Queens. I was anxious to see the tomb of Nefertari, the wife of one of the 11 Ramses (the same one who built Abu Simbel) and considered to be the finest example of painting of all the Egyptian tombs. Unfortunately, it was closed for restorations. In all, there are 80 tombs in the Valley of the Queens, more than in the Valley of the Kings since the pharoahs often had many wives. We visited two of young princes (those that died before age 15 were buried by their mothers) and one Queen. While there were some nice examples of bright, well-preserved painting, they were a little bit of a let down. Or it could just have been that we were getting hungry and hot. And all the staff at the entries of each temple tried to work us over for tips.

But, all in all, it was a good day. It might have made more sense to have a guided tour at the beginning of our trip to help us interpret all the other imagery we've seen, but it was also a good send off. Tonight, we head back to Cairo on an overnight 10 (which probaby means 12) hour trip before a 3AM flight to Turkey.



Happy but hot in Thebes!

Luxor: It's not just a casino in Vegas

It's also a giant Egyptian temple which sits smack-dab in the middle of a city by the same name. So, after resting up for a day and bombarding myself with medicine to kill my amoebas, Sarah and I decided to go check it out.

The Avenue of Sphinxes, leading to the Temple of Luxor.

The entrance to the Temple of Luxor. As a general rule, if you see a larger than life statue of an Egyptian Pharoah, it's probably Ramses II.

Probably the most interesting thing about the Temple of Luxor is that a number of people built and rebuilt it over the ages. As a result, it reflects a number of different styles and uses. In addition, to a number of Pharoahs working on it, it was also used during the Roman era. In addition, when Islam came to Egypt, a mosque was built in the middle of it.

The Mosque at the Temple of Luxor. Interestingly, they just sort of jammed it into the middle of the temple with little regard to anything like the original temples orientations.

The remains of a Roman era fresco overlaid on top of the original Egyptian carvings.

"...And the waters of the Nile spurt forth from my sandals!"

In Lonely Planet, the writer for the Egypt guide makes mention of the Sound and Light Show at Karnak. Now, Sound and Light Shows are pretty standard throughout Egypt. Basically, every major temple and ruin has its own sound and light show. But, the writer said that the one at the Temple of Karnak was high in drama and camp, and explictedly quoted the line "...and the waters of the Nile sprut forth from my sandals."

And, since I first read that line in the guide, I've been endlessly (mis)quoting it. At every mention of the Nile, I'd suddenly announce, in my deepest baritone:

"And the waters. Of the Nile. Burst forth. From my sandals."

So, it went without saying that it was absolutely essential that we see the Sound and Light Show at the Temple of Karnak.

The first night we intended to go, we actually missed it. We went to a nice restaurant, but the service was slow, and by the time we left the show had started. So, it goes without saying that Sarah, Yusuke and I showed up extra early the second night.

It's easy to imagine a sound and light show, but harder to describe. Basically, your with a large group of people who are herded through the temple in the dark, while sections of it are suddenly illuminated. And theatrical voices and blaring trumpets come blaring at you from random directions.

It proved almost as hard to photograph the light show as it is to describe it.

A large portion of the Temple of Karnak. It would have been nice to go explore it during the day, but my darned amoebas keep us from getting a chance.

Then, about 10 minutes into the show, I heard it: "And the waters of the Nile spurt forth from my Sandals!" I clapped my hands and smiled with glee!

Meanwhile, I can only imagine that the whole spectacle was just confusing to Yusuke, who's grip of English is scatter-shot at best. Oh well, I was happy.

What $80 gets you in Luxor.

So, when the doctor first came to check out my stomach on our first morning in Luxor, he charged us $80 for the housecall, the injection of painkiller, the anti-biotics and some herbal medicine.

By the next day, my symptoms had changed, but I still wasn't doing well. So, we called him again, and he did another housecall for free. After prescribing me some more medicine, he also said we should stop by his clinic that evening.

So, after the Sound and Light Show, Sarah and I dropped by his clinic. After telling him that I was feeling much better now he suddenly announced: "Here! Let me show you something!"

Leading me and Sarah into the backroom, he had me climb ont a table, lifted my shirt, squeezed some jelly onto my stomach and fired up the ultrasound machine.

"See! This is you stomach! And here, your kidneys. Good kidneys. And your bladder. You ate about two hours ago, didn't you (which was true). And here... here is your heart. Nice heart."

I've never had the opportunity to see my heart before. Frankly, it was pretty darned cool.

"Your organs are in very good shape. I think you will live 80 years. From today. How old are you? 31? You will live to be about 110. Now, I have more patients. But, I'd like to invite you to have some juice. She will get it for you."

So, sitting in the waiting room, Sarah and I finished our bottles of mango juice. And then made our way back to the hotel.

So, to answer the question, "What will $80 get you in Egypt?" $80 will get you two housecalls, one visit to the clinic, a shot of painkiller, antibiotics, some herbal medicine, an examination with an ultrasound, a doctor who thinks he's your new best friend and two bottles of mango juice.

Something is wrong with our health-care system.

Food Around the World: South Africa

Perfect for a late summer dinner, Jody at Eddybles took inspiration from the multicultural cuisine of South Africa to create a delicious recipe for Curried Ostrich Burgers With Raita and Sweet Potato Relish. You too can have an osterich experience, even if it doesn't actually involve riding one like Tyler! You can also read my write-up about the foods we encountered during our three weeks in South Africa!

Bon appetite!

Amoebas! Yay!

We awoke the next day with our felucca slowly drifting into port at Kom Ombo. The other people on the boat awoke and munched on pita bread and eggs, but my stomach still felt a little off so I passed on breakfast. After reaching solid ground again, we climbed off the boat, collected our luggage and said goodbye to the boat and its crew (except the Captain and his son who would ride with us as far as Edfu).

After depositing our luggage in a mini-van, we doubled back to check out the Temple of Kom Ombo. Unfortunately, I think that entire group was too tired and dirty feeling to appreciate it fully; and most of us just ended up wandering around in a slight daze.

The Temple of Kom Ombo.

Sarah was trying to take a picture of the beautiful carved wall, when this goof-ball stepped in front of her, trying to take a picture of the ceiling. I whispered: "take the picture! Take the picture!" I'm not sure why it entertains me, but it does.

One thing that did grab my attention was the mummified crocodiles on display in part of the ruins. I mean, Mummified Crocodiles!!

Imediately after I entered the room with the mummified crocs, a group of middle aged Japanese women entered a simultaneously exclaimed "oooooooooooh!" Ooooooooooh, indeed!

After about an hour, we all made our way back to the mini-van and climbed in. One of the members of our group, a Brazilian named Richardo sat in the front seat next to the driver. But, when he reached to turn on the A/C, the driver suddenly shouted: "No! Is finished!"

As usual, just because a tour package says it includes a "van with A/C" that doesn't mean the A/C actually has to work. So, we rolled down the windows and headed for Edfu.

Pulling into the Temple of Edfu, roughly an hour later, the security guard at the entrance leaned in through the drivers windows and shouted at us: "One hour! One hour only! Then leave!" Apparently, during our driver from Edfu to Luxor, we'd be part of another convoy, and had to leave in a hour to be part of it.

So, making our way through the gauntlet of vendors and souvenir sellers, we entered the Temple of Edfu. The Temple itself is a huge structure with an enormous courtyard, giants carved walls, and a maze of rooms, halls and chambers... all carved with heirgyphics. As Sarah observed: "Just imagine if people covered ever wall in every room of their house with writing."

The front of the Temple of Edfu. By looking at the door on the left hand side of the temple, you get an idea of its scale.

Walking around the outisde of the Temple. The sheer number of heiroglyphics is amazing.

Our hour quickly up, we regrouped at our van and headed out. After driving for about fifteen minutes, we came to a stop at the checkpoint where we were to join our convoy. This convoy would consist of about a half dozen tour vehicles and two police vehicles to "provide protection."

OK... let me talk about this for a minute.

After the terrorists attack that I mentioned in a previous entry, it was decided that -in certain areas of Egypt- tourists would have to travel in armed convoys for their protection. But, I ask you, if you were a terrorist, which would make an easier target: A) A single tour van driving down a road at a random, unpredictable interval or B) a huge line of tour vehicles, travelling together, at the exact same scheduled time each day with police sirens announcing their presence? As another tour member, Rafik, noted "it would be like shooting fish in a barrel."

To add insult to injury, this is our "police protection":



Notice that the guy on the right is soundly asleep. Meanwhile, his companion on the right is noticably bobbing for apples. If our van were to suddenly burst into flames, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't even notice.

Also, as we approached Edfu, our driver became impatient with the pace of the convoy and honk to try to get past them (we were in the town limits, so the convoy officially had disolved). In response, one of the soldiers awoke, and said something to the driver. In response, the driver moved the truck into the middle of the two lanes, making it impossible for our driver to pass. The soldier, meanwhile, turned and smiled at our driver as if to say: "see if you can get around that, driver-boy."

The whole incident was very mature.

Before arriving in town, the driver had asked us which hotels we'd like to be dropped off at. Several members of our tour already had reservations, but the rest of us randomly picked the Nubian Oasis Hotel out of our guide book. Not surprisingly, the driver took us to some other random hotel, where we were instantly bombarded by touts.

Out of the crowd, rather mysteriously, a man announced that he was from the Nubian Oasis and declared: "All we have left are dorm rooms."

So, with that in mind, several of us decided to check out the hotel our driver had taken us to. We'd all specifically asked for doubles with A/C and private bathrooms. But the first room had neither. The second had A/C, but no bath. The third had a bathroom... but no door on the bathroom. Two Spanish guys from our tour decided to stay, but I decided to pass (Sarah was waiting int he van).

Climbing back into the van, another tout leaned through the door (our driver was calming smoking nearby, in no rush to remove us from the situation). "My hotel Nu Polo Hotel. In Lonely Planet. Listed at 300 Egyptian pounds. I give you for 80. Air condition. Private bath. Very nice. Free coffee. Free laundry." He rattled on and on. He sounded suspicious, so we passed. But, he kept jamming the brochure into our face and repeating the same lines again and again.

Finally, after we shouted repeatedly and honked the van horn, our driver ground out his cigarette and wandered back to the van. Sarah and some other members of our group realized how suspicious it was that someone from the Nubian Oasis Hotel had been waiting for us in front of some other hotel only to tell us they were full. So, we decided to see for ourselves and told the driver to take us there.

As he pulled away, in response to the touts, Steve announced "I have never seen anything like that." I tried to play it cool, but -honestly- I had never seen touting that bad before. Even more amazingly, the man from the New Polo Hotel jumped on a motorcycle and began following us, shouting through the window "...Private bath. A/C. Free Coffee..."

Finally, at the Nubian Oasis, we found a significantly more relaxed affair. Unfortuantely, they only had one A/C room available. So, dropping off two members of the tour group, we told the driver to take us to the Nefertiti Hotel.

So, with the New Polo Man still following us on his motorcycle, we heade for the hotel. In addition, two mysterious men had climbed into the van with us. The two men turned out to be touts for the Nubian Oasis. And, while the driver dropped off the other members of our tour at their hotels, they continued to harass us. "You will find the Nefertiti to be too expensive..."

Finally, it was down to just Sarah, Yusuke, myself, the driver and the two touts. One of the touts started herassing Yusuke.

"Nubian Oasis is much better. 20 pounds. With A/C. Private bathroom..."

"He isn't interested." I said to the tout, tired of watching him lean on Yusuke.

"He is his own person. With his own mind. Let him think for himself." The tout spat back at me, trying to act like he had the moral high ground.

"Yes. But, he's my friend and he doesn't speak good English, so you are confusing him." I replied.

Yusuke, for his part, proved that he was his own person, with his own mind, and ignored the tout for the rest of the drive.

So, though, we were at the Nefertiti. As Yusuke and I climbed out to look at the hotel, one of the touts followed us in, and the New Polo guy pulled up behind the van to continue harassing Sarah.

Sarah finally had enough of him and explained: "We will never stay at your hotel, because you are obnoxious." Apparently, the driver acted all indignant, but finally got the hint and drove away.

Inside the hotel, Yusuke and I were pleased to find it to be relaxed and clean. But, unfortunately, more expensive than we'd hoped. So, slightly defeated feeling we returned to the van and told them to take us back to the Nubian Oasis, much to the touts glee.

But, three blocks later, I had second thoughts. "I don't want to stay at the Nubian Oasis. The Nefertiti was nicer," I whispered to Sarah. "Me too," Sarah responded.

"Driver, stop the car, we want to go back to the Nefertiti." I announced.

"No!" He responded indignantly and clearly in bed with the touts at this point.

So, I proceeded to begin opening the van door, forcing him to roll to a stop. "Don't worry," Sarh said, eager to be out of the van, "we'll walk back. Just drop us off here."

So, begrudgingly, the driver dropped the three of us off. And, feeling rather triumphant, we walked back to the Nefertiti to check in.

Unfortunately, no soory had we checked in than my stomach problems came back with a vengance. In addition to the stabbing pains in my gut, I was now also suffering from weakness, sore muscles and a fever. I made the hike to a pharmacy to get rehydration salts, and was still taking antibiotics, but my condition was continuing to get worse. Even though we'd taken anti-malarial medicine, we were beginning to fear that I'd picked up malaria in Kenya.

So, the next morning, we talked to the man at the front desk of the hotel and he arranged to have a doctor come see me. The doctor was a nice man with a disorganized briefcase who, after a quick inspection, reassured us that I didn't have malaria.

"No, you don't have malaria. You have amoebas."

So, he gave me a shot of painkiller in my backside. Some pills to kill my amoebas. And some foul tasting herbal medicine to strengthen my stomach and assured us I'd feel better in the next 24 hours.

And, honestly, I'm feeling better already. At this point, I'm really grateful that we decided to go with the Nefertiti. In addition to being a nice hotel, the staff has been very helpful today. It makes our uphill battle yesterday seem that much more worth it.

With any luck, tomorrow I'll be in good enough shape to start sight seeing again.

Drifting Down the Nile

When we arranged our felucca trip at our hotel, we had the option of a one-day or a two-day journey. The trip included the boat down the Nile, meals, a drop off down the river at Kom Ombo, and a minibus to Luxor, with stops at two temples en route. The difference in price between the one-day and two-day trip was only 20 pounds (~$3), but the most we could get out of the guy at the reception was that we'd sail further down the Nile and that we'd have more time at the temples. So we figured two days would be better than one and signed up.

At 11AM, the captain of our felucca arrived, taking us, our Japanese friend Yasuke, and four other guests, to the felucca. I was pleasantly surprised by the nice boat. Boards had been placed across the two benches so that there was a large, cushioned platform for us all to stretch out on. Seeing how we'd be sleeping on the boat, it looked like it would be comfortable and not too cozy for the seven of us. After being on plenty of tours in different countries, I was pleased to see that this looked more like a Vietnam tour than a Bolivian tour.

We crawled onto the boat, under the sun shade (oddly made of a sheet with mice, a skateboard and the caption "Hello Brother's! I wish you both much happines together!, lending itself to a joke I'm sure the Spanish brothers never tired of), as the captain ascertained how much water we had all brought with us (drinks weren't included, and he decided we didn't have nearly enough), whether we wanted beers, and then collected money for these, ice and watermelons. Then we sat, waiting for police permission and other final preparations, getting to know our fellow tour mates.


The strange and barely comprehensible images on the sheet that was part of our sun canopy on the felucca

We were a motely crew; in addition to Tyler, Yasuke and I, the tour included two brothers from the Basque region of Spain and a couple from Brazil. We all were relieved to see that there were seven of us to share the felucca, only to be surprised when the Captain mentioned we would be waiting for four other guests. Now, we had all faithfully read our Lonely Planet guidebooks and knew that eight was really the maximum you wanted on a good felucca tour. And at least the Brazilians and Tyler and I had asked the hotel about the maximum number of guests, to which we had both separately been assured would be eight. I wasn't thrilled but just decided to take it in stride; after all, our whole tour had only cost about $17 each and we were probably getting what we paid for. But the Brazilians were not pleased, demanding that they get a refund. Their logic was that if the boat would be shared by more people, the cost to each of us should be less. The Captain, not wanting to deal with frustrated customers, called the travel agent in charge, who came to the boat to explain that this was a "large" felucca that could accomodate 8, 10, 12 people. Why were we complaining? One thing we've learned about Egyptian men so far is that while they are very pleasant and polite, a fierce anger can rise quickly to the surface if they feel you are impugning their reputation or showing disrespect. Suddenly, the discussion with the Brazilians went south, while we tried to intervene and explain that no one wanted to quit the tour, we just didn't appreciate being told one thing and having something else be the case. In the end, a compromise was reached, we all got 10 pounds back (a little over $1) and we would end up with 10 people on the felucca.

So, potential disaster averted, we waited some more. Apparently police permission never came through until 1:30 or 2PM. Why they had us meet up so early we never really figured out. And the other guests arrived, a woman from Australia, a guy from South Africa on his way home from working in Jordan, and a fellow American from Miami. Finally, a motorized ferry towed us across to the open water. We were finally beginning our journey! But, no. We slowly drifted with the wind back to where we had begun, the captain explaining that the conditions were bad--hot wind and too much sand in the air was bad for the sail. We'd wait until things improved.


The Captain and his son


The two other men working the felucca. They were surprisingly spry for the age they appeared to be, climbing the mast, pulling up the sail, and generally doing the hard labor for the few moments we actually sailed


One of the sailors, high up on the mast, working on the sail

So we waited some more. Remember, we'd been picked up at 11AM, now it was 5:30PM. Finally, we heard the sail getting unfurled and we were going to start sailing down the Nile. And sail we did...for about 30 minutes, to a bank on the other side of the river, Aswan still clearly in sight. Confused, we got off the boat, used the bathroom, and wondered if this was where we were stopping for the night. You'll see, slow progress and confusion were to continue to be a theme of the trip; this was definitely bringing back flashbacks of our Uyuni tour. But the captian finally said we'd go a bit further, it was just that the winds were still bad. Finally, we drifted away from the shore, and then continued to drift, slowly, further down the river. Not exactly what any of us had in mind when we signed up for a sail down the Nile. After a long bout of drifting in the river's current, we headed again for the shore for dinner and our night's sleep.


The whole crew, relaxing on the felucca. With the platform and the sun shade (which we needed), you couldn't really do much of anything except laze about

I slept well in the open boat, so well, in fact, that I didn't realize that during the night we had actually moved the boat further down the shore for a better resting place. Waking at 6AM, on the Nile, the coastline's reflection shimmering in the deep blue waters, I was excited to start a day of what must be serious sailing to make up for our slow progress the previous day. And after breakfast, sail we did, tacking across the waters, the sides dipping low like a catamaran as we zig-zagged across. We all splayed out in the boat, avoiding the sun and napping. The Captain finally gave us a nugget of the information we all craved: we'd sail to an island for lunch and a swim, arriving around 1PM and resting there until about 3:30PM when we'd head to another island for the night. He seemed unconcerned about our progress, so I decided to take advantage of a forced rest after several days of hot sightseeing.


Along the Nile after sunrise


How we spent most our time on the felucca


Unfortunately, Tyler started feeling ill that morning, again having some stomach cramps and the usual traveller's GI disruptions, taking away from both of our enjoyment of the trip. As he sat, we watched others swim (I was a little frightened of bilharzia, which our guidebook had mentioned) and waited to start sailing where we might have some cool breezes to counteract the heat of the midday sun. But 3:30 came and went, as our Captain sat, relaxing on the boat. Around 4:30, he started asking if we wanted any extra supplies--beer, camel meat for dinner--as we were close to town and he could get some. But all of us were anxious to keep moving and declined, so finally, around 5PM or so, we left the island's shore.

And we started drifting again. At this point, all this drifting with the current was a running joke among the group, so this time we started trying to figure out how long it would actually take a felucca to go from Aswan to Kom Ombo, our stopping point. Turns out, you could do the entire trip in 10 hours, with good weather. It was dawning on all of us that taking the two day tour only meant that we went on the same route as the one day trip, only much, much more slowly. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think the thing that drove us all a little crazy was never really knowing what was going on. On the plus side, it was a nice group of people, the setting was gorgeous, and we were on the Nile, so who's to complain too much. So we proceeded to drift to land that was actually only about 300 meters beyond the island we'd stopped at for lunch, which already had a collection of five other feluccas on it.

We stopped for the night, enjoying our last dinner on the boat, having some beer, and chatting around the makeshift lanterns one of the boatmen made from a water bottle, cut in half, with the cap end down into the bottom half, a candle burning from the inside of the cap. Like the night in India when we drove from Leh to Manali, Tyler started getting bad stomach cramps. This was happening at the worst possible time. We were on a boat, on an island, no "civilization" easily accessible. But he took some medications we had and finally was able to sleep through the night. I slept well again (after Tyler seemed to be able to rest a bit more easily) until hearing call to prayer from about six different mosques all at once at 5AM. Unlike the day before, we set off early this time, all of us half awake as we drifted only a little bit further down the river to disembark at Kom Ombo, happy to get to use a real bathroom and check out some ruins on the way to Luxor.


Our felucca docked for the night


Sunset on the Nile

Sailing Down the Nile

Since arriving in Aswan, we'd been watching the graceful feluccas, or local sailing boats, darting around the Nile. So of course, we needed to book a trip for ourselves. Finding a felucca captain is no problem; in fact, we practically have to beat them off with sticks whenever we venture outside the hotel. But one who seemed genial and easy going finally won us over, and we agreed to meet the next day for a tour and lunch.


Feluccas sailing down the Nile at sunset

One thing to know about Egypt before coming: everything is more expensive than you expect because of baksheesh, or the culture of tipping. Bathroom attendents who don't seem to do anything expect it, waiters need it because though a service charge is added onto your bill they don't actually get any of it, and anyone who provides any type of service at a tourist site wants something. So we shouldn't have been surprised as we got on the boat that the captain we met said we should give a good tip to the two guys working on the boat because we were getting such a good price (which is actually just what seems to be the going rate).

But tips and money issues aside, sailing down the Nile was quite a treat. The men unfurled the sail, and we entered the waltz that is feluccas tacking, or zigzagging, back and forth across the Nile, to visit the local sites: the Royal Temples, Kitchener's Island, Saint Simeon Coptic Monastery, and Elephantine Island. And we were sailing on the Nile! Can you complain about that?


Our felucca captain as we set sail

First stop: the Royal Tombs. We had been looking across at the man-made caves on the other side of the Nile since we arrived, and I was excited to finally see them, even if it meant trudging around the desert in the heat of mid-day. One thing youi notice right away is that it is incredibly green and lush by the banks of the Nile, but it rapidly becomes sandy and arid away from the water. We were led by a man with a set of keys to three of the 4,000 tombs that were made here. I thought the first tomb was the most impressive, with huge columns carved from the existing granite and some nice paintings in good condition at the far end of the tomb. The guide seemed most interested in trying to titillate us by pointing out where the mummy had been and showing us a mummies skull through one locked door, but I was impressed just by the engineering and artistry dedicated to these tombs.


Coming upon the Royal Tombs


Looking down into the first tomb, past the huge columns


Painted niche at the end of the tomb

We also decided to make our way, now guide-free, to the arched structure at the top of the hill. After huffing and puffing our way through the sand, rocks, pottery shards and glaring sun, we were treated to beautiful views. The downside, though, was our bottled water was now near the boiling point, and we had pretty much worn ourselves out. And that was just the first stop.


View of the Nile and Aswan from high up on the Royal Tomb site

Next Stop: Kitchener's Island. This small, green island is now a very nice botanical garden, started by the British Lord Kitchener. Our felucca dropped us off at one end, and we could walk to the other end and meet them. The grounds were beautiful, with tons of palms, flowering trees and birds. But we were in no shape to appreciate them, wanting only to get to the end so that we could buy some over-priced but cold water. As you can tell from the photo, we were perhaps a bit overheated and manic at that point.....


Slightly manic at the botanical gardens

The original plan then would have included a stop to the Coptic monastery. I had been interested in going, because we don't know that much about Coptic Christians and hadn't encountered much about them yet, but the stop would have involved a long, hot walk over the island to the ruins, and we just were too tuckered out. But we did see it from a distance.


Coptic Monastery from afar

Finally, we went to Elephantine Island. We weren't sure what to expect (our guide book mentioned something about large, elephant-like rocks), so as we got off the boat, we were greeted by Hassadah, the chief of the Nubian village on the island. For a small fee, he would show us around to the local mosque, the garden, and a house. Now, before we left on the trip I had specifically said I didn't want to go to the "Nubian Village," envisioning some re-creation of a historical village that would cost a lot of money to see. But the village was interesting. The island is small, no cars, and all people get a plot in a large community garden. There is a primary school on the island, and Hassadah is the chief because his family is the "chief" family. The downside was the trip was quickly getting more expensive than we had expected, and Tyler was getting downright ornery about parting with any more Egyptian pounds. So we quickly got back on the boat and headed back to our part of town.


Hassadah, Nubian village chief, and traditional colored Nubian buildings

Overall, it was a good trip. Four hours of sailing, some ruins, some gardens, some local culture. And that's a good thing, because tomorrow we leave for a two-day felucca trip down the Nile (going north, which feels like it should be "up," but we're going with the current) eventually seeing ruins at Ko Ombo and Edfu, and ending in Luxor, where the ancient city of Thebes was located. As someone who wanted to be an archaeologist when they were a kid, it's pretty exciting to be on the way to see famous sites like Hatshepsut's Tomb and the Temples of Karnak. I even took a number of college courses on them. Unfortunately, that was too long ago, and I know I should remember what things mean (the Ptolemies, the different Dynasties, different architectural styles), but it's exciting nonetheless.


Relaxing on the felucca. Fortunately we liked it, because that's what we'll be doing the next two days!

17 hours to Aswan ...and beyond.

17 hours. From 5:30pm until 10:30am the following day. That's how long it took for our bus to take us from Cairo to Aswan, on the very southern end of Egypt. Aswan is the last major Egyptian city on the Nile before you reach Sudan, and is the home of center of Egypt's portion of Nubia.

Truth to tell, for a long bus ride, the trip from Egypt to Aswan wasn't half bad. At first, the bus look like it left something to be desired, the seats looked ragged and the broken ash tray on the seat in front of me seemed to be growing some sort of fungus which looked like wood glue. Also, as Sarah observed looking at some torn net hanging in front of her, "even when this bus was new, I'm pretty sure these magazine wracks couldn't hold anything." But, honestly, the bus was better than some we've had, and the Egyptian roads are long, straight and well paved.

In addition, I loaded myself up with over the counter sleeping pills in hopes of actually sleeping on the bus for once, which turned entire trip into a hazy dreamscape with the surrounding desert slowly fading into darkness before returning to sunlight hours later. The trip itself was staggered, with numerous stops for the riders to get out, drink tea, have a smoke, run to the bathrooms or by snacks; but Sarah managed to sleep through most of it while I bobbed for apples and gazed around blearily next to her.

Arriving at the Aswan, we quickly made friends with Yusuke, a 20 year old Japanese tourist who doesn't really speak English. Together, we were accosted with two bickering cab drivers who seemed more excited to push each other around than actually help us. Luckily, another passenger came to our rescue: "Don't go with either of these men, follow me and we will find another cab outside the station." So, the five of us (the passenger had another friend with him) started to make our way out of the station. Suddenly two cars came skiddig to a stop before us. It was the two cab drivers again. The both jumped from their cab, and started pleading with us to use them... before noticing each other and beginning to argue again.

Quickly, we climbed into a bus, and as we pulled away, we all shook our heads in disbelief. Behind us, in the parking lot, the cab drivers continued to fight.

Sarah, Yusuke and I got dropped off at our hotel, across the street from the water front and got settled in. The first thing we did though was book a tour of the Abu Simbel momument for the following day. It's departure time: 3:30am.

Between 1993 and 1997, Egypt had troubles with an Islamic faction culminating with the massacre of 58 people at the Temple of Hatsheput in 1997. Since that time, the Egyptian government has all but eliminated the group, but to this day tourists are still required to travel in convoys through certain portions of Egypt. And, for some reason the convot leaving for Abu Simbel leaves at 4 in the morning.

So, shortly before 4 o'clock, Sarah, Yusuke and I boarded a mini bus, which got into line with over twenty other buses and min-buses to make the three hour drive to Abu Simbel. Like the previous days bus ride, most people on our bus slept through the ride across the darkened desert, awaking shortly before our arrival at the monument.

The pre-dawn convoy prepares to roll out. The buses literally extended out of sight. Safety in numbers, I guess.

Abu Simbel is -in short- amazing. And, it is made only slightly less amazing because (as a result of the convoy) you arrive at the exact same moment at several hundred other tourists.

Abu Simbel. I'm sure you all recognize it from photos. But, I'll ramble about it any way.

This photo gives you a sense of scale... though it also looks like I'm holding a pick purse.

Built by Ramses II (a man who didn't seem to be too big on the word "modesty"), the main entrance of the temple consists of four 30-meter tall statues of himself. The insides of the temple, in turn, are covered with carvings depicting his many successes and victories as well as him interacting with most of the major Egyptian dieties. While not particularly subtle, the whole thing is impressive.

We thought this was interesting. You have graffiti from throughout history... people names and dates from the 1800's next to ancient Greek and Roman.

Almst nearly as impressive as the temple itself is, what's almost as impressive is that the entire thing was relocated in the late 60's. As Egypt moved forward with their plan to build the High Dam, it became apparent that many of the Nile valley ruins south of the Dam would be flooded by the reservoir it would create. So, an International Campaign, lead by UNESCO, leap into action and relocated many of the temples (Abu Simbel included) to higher ground. The entire Abu Simbel temple was cut into pieces, and rebuilt 200 meters back (and 65 meters higher). And then a small mountain was built around it. Like the temple itself, its a process that boggles the imagination.

In this photo you can see the second portion of the temple depicting Ramses (naturally) and the rest of his family. It just amazes me that they could move the whole thing.

After an hour and a half at Abu Simbel, we all piled back in our buses, and the convoy headed back to Aswan.

Just outside of Aswan, we stopped to see the High Dam itself. Completed in 1970, at the time the High Dam (which replaced the pre-existing Low Dam) was the largest dam ever built. 451 people died in its making, and the reservoir it created flooded most of what had once been the Nubian kingdom. It now controls the previously unpredictable flooding of the Nile and provides hydroelectric power. Truth to tell, it wasn't much to look at, but when you realize its scale, it was still pretty impressive.

The High Dam. Not much to look at... but it's huge.

After that, we went to the Temple of Philae. Philae, like Abu Simbel, was another temple that had to be relocated, with the entire complex being moved to higher ground. After haggling with a ferry boat driver, our entire group piled into a small boat to cross over to the island temple. The Temple of Philae was a pleasant complex to wander through, surrounded by lush greet plants, enjoying the ornately carved walls and larger than life pillars.

Approaching the Temple of Philae, after the long bus rides, it seemed so calm and relaxing.

OK, I love every picture of Sarah. But, still, this may be the best photo I've taken... ever. Seriously.

Finally, as we re-entered Aswan, we stopped at the Unfinished Obelisk. This sight, while note as impressive, reminded me of the Moai Nusery on Easter Island. Here though, it was just one massive half-carved obelisk surrounded by signs of other ones which had be previously carved from the quarry (and probably now reside on round-abouts in Europe somewhere).

I'm sure I could make some crude joke about "who has the bigger obelisk," but I'll just let you fill in the blank here.

Having seen on that, we were eager to return home. And, after dinner and beers with Yusuke and another Japanese traveler from our tour, Daisuke, we were happy to call if an early night and finally get some sleep.