April 27 - Back in Cairo

We arrive back in Cairo melancholy because we really sense that our trip is wrapping up. This time we stay at a hostel just a block from the City View Hotel where we stayed upon arrival. We're feeling like veterans now.

We head back to the Egyptian Museum - even crossing the street without the protection of locals. Now we get it right. We split up. First I take Cici and spend 1 1/2 hours pouring over the artifacts in the museum, including the treasures of King Tut's tomb. They underscore that he was really not an important Pharaoh, so just imagine the treasures that were buried with some of the powerful Pharaoh's like Ramses II! Greg brings the boys down to the Children's Museum (aka the Lego Exhibit). Then we switch.

I tell Gavin all about the treasures of King Tut they are all upstairs, just like he read in the book! Does he want to go with Dad to see them? No, he's not done making his lego rocket ship. WHAT? Are you six years old or something??

Once Greg gets his fill of the museum we meet up in the courtyard. All of a sudden I hear "Cici! Cici!" A long lost friend - it's the waitress from City View, she's there with what looks like her sister. They smother Cici with kisses take about a dozen photos with their camera phones and then run off.

Kids say the darndest things...

1) So when we were in Luxor the first day Connor started in with this little scene that he'd act out. He'd pretend to be walking along with not a care in the world then he'd thrust his fist in the air and yell in a deep voice "BOOOMM!!" followed by "Ow! My pea-nus!"(in a high voice). This began in the hotel room and continued while we were out and about. Thankfully most of what he says to others still needs to be translated by Greg, Gavin or myself.

2) During one (much needed) bath for the boys while we were on the cruise I was getting their clothes ready in their cabin. I hear some giggling and then Gavin yelled to me "Hey, Mom, come in here, want to see my obelisk?"

3) Forward ahead to our return trip to Rome. We are engrossed in a fascinating tour of the Coliseum when I hear from behind a wall "BOOOMM! Ow! My OBELISK!"

Hmmm. I take solice in knowing that the boys are smart enough to figure that the obelisk was also a fertility symbol. Well, I guess it's kinda hard to miss :)

Overnight Train Part Due

The overnight train from Cairo to Luxor was such hit with the Nut Gallery we decided to take it on the return trip. Taking the overnight train back to Cairo from Aswan we felt like veterans. It was a much more relaxed experience. One reason is because the northbound train starts in Aswan, so we were able to board the train 20 minutes before it departed. When we boarded the train in Cairo, it was coming from Alexandria and we only had about 5 minutes to load our 11 bags (I know, we weren't exactly travelling light) and 3 kids onto the train.

We were prepared because we knew that we'd get dinner, but this time dinner was at 6 pm instead of 10 pm. The food was actually better on this leg too. For some reason they provide 2 or 3 entrees for each meal. Each sleeper car has an attendant that brings the meals and then later on sets up the beds. I had planned on taking a little video of the transformer magic, but he was too quick! Basically there are 3 or 4 seats on a bench. With the use of the magic key the back of bench flips down to a bed. Behind the bench headrest hides a ladder that is take out and attached to what I thought was a luggage rack. The magic key also opens up the panel above the headrest and a top bunk flips down. This little set up also has a little corner sink! I thought that might be the case when we first saw the couchette, but then I never really checked it out. Much nicer to wash your hands in the privacy (and cleanliness) of your own car versus the community bathroom. Yes, the toilet is pretty much an open hole that leaves your souvenirs on the track.

Gavin befriended our neighbor and enjoyed a few hours of making up stories with Tim who is backpacking across Africa and making his way to the world cup in South Africa! This time we all (including Greg) slept well and through the night.

Aswan -Sunday, April 25

Riddle of the Day

Q: What did the fish say when he hit concrete swimming around Aswan?

A: Damn!

We arrive back at our room in Aswan at the Keylani Hotel where we left most of our bags for our side trip to Abu Simbel. As per our "vacation" domestic roles I tend to the kids, trying to get them cleaned up and ready for bed while Greg hunts down kid-friendly meals to bring back to the room. The guy at the front desk is helpful pointing Greg to two good options resulting in falafel sandwiches (for 1 Egyptain Pound = 20 cents!) and some kiddie sandwiches - one with three hot dogs, one chicken panne (breaded chicken cutlet) and one beef shwarma. We dine then sleep our one night in Aswan. While we have tomorrow to check out Aswan in the evening we're on the overnight train again.

In the morning we enjoy the breakfast crepes and fruit served on the rooftop terrace. Then Cici and I head back to the room to nap and pack respectively, while the boys enjoy a quick swim in the jacuzzi-sized roof pool. Once all of our bags are packed we head to lunch and to the market. For some reason I can't move the photos around in this posting so I'll just describe the photos in the order they're pasted below.

1) One of the covered streets of the market

2) Typical wooden holder for their pita-like bread

3) Beautiful display of spices and indigo blue (for whitening laundy whites)

4) More bowls of spices

5) Dried hibiscus leaves for making a drink called Karkaday

6) Greg and a donkey that is used for making deliveries

7) Just a cute shot of Connor perched on Greg's knee at the lunch place while Greg chats up the staff.

Safe Travels - April 25

So, if you know our itinerary, you know that we're actually back home safe and sound. Since I wasn't able to post to the blog in real time, I am just going to continue to add blog posts to continue to recap our trip.

Egypt takes the tourist industry very seriously – as they should – it brings on a good deal of money into the country. They take a number of precautions to ensure the safety of travelers, some may be a bit much.

Every tourist site has a metal detector the pyramids at Giza, the various temples and even the Khan el Kahlili market when you enter from the main square. The Egyptian museum has two sets of metal detectors - although the purpose of the second one may primarily be to catch people sneaking in cameras, which are banned from the museum.

Another precaution they take to safeguard foreigners is the “Convoy”. As mentioned before we took the Public Bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel. When you set up a tour via microbus you need to leave at 4:00 am not only to get to the temple before the heat of the day, but because the convoy leaves then it only goes twice a day. The convoy is a police escorted convoy for the tourists. The logic behind it is that in the long stretch of desert there aren’t any police. So to keep foreigners safe from bandits they need the police to protect them. As Lonely Planet points out, now the bandits know exactly what time they can expect lot of tourists! But the Egyptian police (or is it the tourist police – really, they have this) feel it is safer.

I bet you are wondering what happens if you need to travel from Abu Simbel back to Aswan and you’ve missed the last Public Bus of the day… and inadvertently also missed the last convoy heading that direction. Well, my friends, do to our thorough research we have an answer for you.

Greg headed to the temple to check it out and on his way back was able to arrange a microbus to take us back to Aswan. As part of the negotiation Ramadan the policeman said that he would make the arrangements for us to travel. So they came to pick us up at the hotel. We said our goodbyes and loaded into the 14 passenger van that we had to ourselves. About 10 minutes down the road we arrived at the check point. "You're not part of a convoy!" they exclaimed. The driver explained that Ramadan the policeman had 'arranged everything.' "No, no, you must go to the tourist police and pay for someone to go with you." But when we left our hotel proprietor had warned us not to pay any more fees. Greg had Ramadan's phone number so they called him up. After a number of back and forths we headed back to the hotel in Abu Simbel. Ramadan the police man arrived and was talking and walkie-talkie-ing a great deal. While all of this was going on I found a dead ant and showed it to Gavin and Connor. Gavin decided to make the world's first ant sarcophagus! I passed the time by trying to photograph the Mama and Baby camel that came over from the neighbors.

In the end Ramadan talked one of his lackeys into riding to Aswan with us. We had our very own Watchy Watchy man! Watchy Watchy is what our friend Paige called the 'security" guys in the Dominican Republic that stand outside of every establishment with their semi-automatic weapon. This poor guy just sat there for 3 1/2 hours to Aswan and then turned around and sat for another 3 1/2 hours on the way back. So , do you feel safer with a guy in the front seat with a semi-automatic weapon? I'm not sure I did. I wanted to take some photos to document it, but we opted not to take any flash photos.

Rising at Dawn

We arrived at he town of Abu Simbel at about 9 pm and set out to walk the 4 minutes to the hotel, asking locals which direction to set off in. We ambled down the road eager to get settled for the night. The description of the hotel was a 5 room hotel constructed in the Nubian style. We passed one place that seemed to fit the description, but with no lights on we continued up the road. A few minutes later two gentlemen approached Greg and Connor asking if we were the Americans coming to stay at Eskaleh. If so, we just passed it. They escorted us to the hotel and we were greeted by the owner, Fikry. They were very hospitable. His cousin’s family was there too and they have a baby girl, just two weeks younger than Cici. The two babes looked doe-eyed at each other for a few minutes, but neither thought the other was too interesting.

We ordered some chicken for dinner and eventually asked to have it in our rooms, since it was getting late and we wanted to get the kiddos to bed – since the plan was to go see the temple at dawn. The chicken turned out the be the best meal we had in Egypt – we were hungry from just eating little sandwiches at the bus station (liver and pepper for Greg, cheese for me and Gavin, and just bread for Connor), but generally that opinion is not biased. We booked two double rooms, but it turned out each had 3 beds. They boys didn’t want to be split up, so we just cancelled one of the rooms and made due with the 3 beds.

Mosquito nets (or Mosquito Temples as the kids were calling them) were draped romantically above the beds. Greg asked about them, and they said “you won’t need them, it’s not really mosquito season.” We liked the feel of the hotel and started planning on staying 2 nights. I’d get up at dawn with Gavin on the first day to see the temple; we’d hang around the hotel and town; then take everyone to the sound and light show at the temple after dinner. The following day Greg would head to the temple at dawn and we could all depart on the 9:30 am bus.

However, 26 dead mosquitos later… (kill tallies: Greg 20; Maia 5: Gavin 1) we decided it wasn’t worth it to stay the second night for the sound and light show.

Gavin and I did rise at dawn and left Greg, Cici and Connor to slumber as we took a taxi to the temple at 5:45 am. The sun had risen by the time got to the temple, but the air was cool and the dawn’s light was pretty. There were a few other tourists, but basically we had the place to ourselves.

Ramses II really knew how to celebrate himself. The temples are carved from rock and are really impressive. These two temples also had to be moved when Lake Nasser was created by the Aswan High Dam. A team of archeologists and architects (and probably a slew of others) from 4 countries cut these two temples into 2000 pieces and relocated them above the Lake’s water line. The larger one has four Colossi of Ramses II adorning the front. Gavin and I are in the shot above for scale. These temples have less hieroglyphics carved into them, and are less ornate than most of the others we saw, but they are probably my favorites.

I like how in one room the wall carvings weren’t finished and the last bit in the corner is a mix of carving and then just black outline of what is to be chiseled out. The next two walls were bare – the only two bare walls we’d seen in any temples!

Local Experience Necessary?

Looking for the local experience in Egypt?

Greg and I recommend the public bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel. Many tourists set up one day tours to see the two temples at Abu Simbel on Lake Nasser either by quick set of round trip flights or the micro busses that leave at 4 am from Aswan and return late morning. We opted for the public bus, which technically only takes 4 tourists per bus, but that’s not enforced – which is good since we didn’t want to put Cici in the cargo holdJ We planned on taking the 11:30 am bus and got to the bus station just at 11:30 am to find out that there is no 11:30 am bus, only an 8 am bus and a 5 pm bus. Bummer, that would mean we would miss the sound and light show at the temple that night, but we forged ahead and purchased tix for the 5 pm bus. We headed to a nearby café to eat some lunch and have some down time. After a while we took a taxi to the other side of town to check out the Nubian Museum (Nubi is the word for Gold and Nubia is that southern area where gold was found) for an hour before returning to the bus station an hour before the departure time, as advised by the locals.

The photo is Connor sitting in the Ticket window at the bus station. The gent to the left of the window is our bus driver - he took a shine to Connor. He gave him the nickel tour of the bus station before we left.

At first we only bought 2 tickets for the adults and were considering the half price kids ticket for Gavin (based on his age). But when we realized that meant that he wouldn’t get a seat for the 4 hour bus ride, we coughed up the money for seats for Gavin and for Connor. Each $5 fare was completely worth it, since the bus completely filled up. The bus came complete with a Bollywood movie subtitled into Arabic that featured an Indian version of Al Pacino and the boys’ (including Greg) favorite part, the finale with a man-eating crocodile. [If anyone knows the name of this movie let us know!] The route is basically along Lake Nasser through the desert. It was neat to see the road slicing through the sand dunes and our shadow shooting across the stretching sand. There was one rest stop where we stayed about half an hour. Ever change a dirty diaper in the desert in the dark behind a pile of construction equipment?? Check that one off the list for us.

Here's a weird scene from out of the bus window - looks like a mash up of Epcot Center and Tatooine.