David and Yanmei

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015

To Aswan

Friday we had a flight to Aswan for the next leg of our journey. Egypt is going to be busy for us, lots of stuff to see and not much time to rest. We got to the domestic terminal at the airport, but we couldn't figure out where to get our boarding passes. Finally we asked someone and they told us we had to go through security first, then we could get our boarding passes. Strange, but turned out to be correct. Anyway it was only a one hour twenty minute flight to Aswan airport.

We needed to take a taxi to our hotel. We were booked at Sofitel Legend Old Cataract hotel. We went outside (much hotter in Aswan by the way) to look for a taxi, but there were no taxis, only guys with cars. Of course we were approached right away. I told the first guy Sofitel and he said “Sofitel Old Cataract?” so I knew he knew it. Then Yanmei asked “How much?” and he said “How much do you want to pay?”. We didn't like that so we moved on.

Eventually we settled on a guy who actually had the word “taxi” stenciled on the side of his car. The car was an old Peugeot with no meter, no AC, and the speedometer was broken too. He basically spoke no English but I told him Sofitel several times and he nodded. After driving for a while Yanmei started to get nervous. I was too, but tried not to show it. We were in the middle of nowhere at the mercy of some random guy who didn't speak English. Yanmei said I should have had someone from the hotel meet us at the airport. Good idea, too bad I didn't think of that ahead of time.

I took out my phone and searched for the hotel on Google maps. I found we were on the major road heading towards the hotel, so it looked good. Then we got to the intersection where he was supposed to turn left, and he turned right! We tried telling him he was going the wrong way, even showed him the map on my phone, but he didn't understand. He said “Sofitel downtown”. We passed the train station and I wanted to get out there and call the hotel to send someone, but he kept going. We ended up going down this little alleyway, weaving around donkey carts before stopping in front of a dilapidated building and he said “Sofitel”. I looked at the sign and it said “Safa Hotel”. Oh, sounds like Sofitel. Yanmei was freaking out a bit, saying “no, no, no, we are in a five star hotel!” Finally I told him “Sofitel Legend Old Cataract”, and he understood, he said “Oh, Old Cataract.” So he took us back out and to the correct place. Phew!

After that mini adventure we checked into the hotel and had a late lunch at the hotel cafe before relaxing in our room. The hotel is quite nice, and we had a suite overlooking the Nile. The bathroom was bigger than one of the rooms we stayed at in Taiwan.

We both ended up falling asleep. I woke up around 7:30pm, which is shortly after sunset, but it was still sweltering outside. We decided just to stay in the room and relax for the evening.

-David

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May 22, 2015May 22, 2015

Cairo, day 3

Thursday we decided to take a half day tour to Dashour, which has the bent pyramid and red pyramid. These are the pyramids of Cheops' father. This time we booked the tour through the travel agency in the hotel. Dashour is a little more remote, so we got to drive outside Cairo and through some smaller villages and farmland. Before we got out of the city I got a good picture of typical Cairo, garbage, dust and unfinished buildings with satellite dishes.

Nile basin farmland. Palm trees are date trees.

Soon we got to the red pyramid, so named because it was built with red limestone, although the color is not very distinct now.

We had the place to ourselves. Here is a picture of our tour car in the parking area.

We chose to go inside the red pyramid. We didn't go inside the great pyramid because we figured it would be too crowded and difficult. I'm not very claustrophobic, but being stuck in a hot narrow, passage with other people blocking your way isn't my idea of fun. Here we'd have the whole tomb to ourselves.

There were no pictures allowed inside, but I'm starting to learn how Egypt works, so I bribed the guard. Then I could take pictures and he even took some of us together. The entrance is about halfway up the side (where the wood steps and platform are), then you climb down a steep narrow passageway to the three burial chambers.

After that we went to the bent pyramid, which is visible in the distance from the red pyramid. The bent pyramid is called that because it was built too steep initially, and the architect realized it might collapse so the angle was changed halfway through. The pharaoh didn't like the result so he had the red pyramid built to replace it.

Queen's smaller pyramid next to bent pyramid

It actually wasn't that bad walking for a short while through the desert to look at these pyramids, the temperature was low 90s and there was a breeze. It is supposed to get up to the hundred and teens over the next several days.

For dinner we booked a Nile cruise. Unfortunately it didn't really live up to the billing. It was a buffet and the guests descended like locusts and all the food was gone after about 20 minutes. Meanwhile we did move away from the dock but other than that we barely moved. Row boats were passing us. Eventually after the meal was finished we started moving some more. There was also a belly dancing performance. Yanmei was pretty shocked. Not at the belly dancer, but at the reaction of the crowd, which seemed like mostly locals. The supposedly conservative, religious people were handing their babies to the belly dancer for photo ops. 🙂

-David

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May 21, 2015

Cairo, day 2

For the second day we had the same driver and guide. The plan for the day was to go to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, then visit some historic sites around Cairo.

My first impression of Cairo yesterday when we arrived was it was dirty. There is dust everywhere, but I expected that from the desert. There is also garbage eveywhere, except for a few tourist areas. Some times the garbage is on fire.

The other thing I noticed driving around is how many unfinished buildings there are. There are hundreds of unfinished brick towers. They are being lived in because you can see laundry hanging to dry and satellite dishes on the top floor, next to the rebar structure for the next level. The guide said it is to save on tax.

Before we went to the museum I asked to stop at a convenience store for some water. I figured we could bring our own water so we wouldn't get ripped off for drinks at lunch again. We ended up going to a local supermarket, which was interesting. Mainly similar to most grocery stores, but the spice section was definitely something new to me.

We got to the museum and there was a lot of security, including sandbagged machine gun nests and APCs. I asked the guide what that was about and he said this is where some of the demonstrations happened during the unrest a few years ago. Not at the museum itself, but in the large square adjacent to it, which is what the soldiers were guarding.

Anyway the museums most famous pieces are the treasures and sarcophagi of King Tutenkhamen. I do remember seeing some of these treasures a long time ago when they were on display in Toronto, but I had to look up when that was. It was over 35 years ago, when I was 8. I think I can appreciate them a bit more now. There were no pictures allowed in the museum, but Yanmei snuck a couple with some Egyptian women she met. We were in the animal mummy section, which was pretty empty.

Unfortunately the museum is pretty disorganized and there are a lot of pieces without labels or descriptions. The guide said they are building a new and improved museum where they will fix these problems.

After the museum we went to see some historic religious sites. One of the great things about Egypt is how much history there is. Not just pyramids and pharaohs, but Greek, Roman and other civilizations too. We went to old Cairo.

The first place we went is a church built on the place where Joseph, Mary and Jesus are supposed to have stayed after they fled to Egypt. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I took a few anyway when no one was around.

After that we went to see a synagogue at the site where baby Moses was supposedly found on the Nile. They were more strict about the no photo policy and watched us the whole time. You can google Ben Ezra synagogue for pictures.

After that we went to the oldest mosque in Egypt. Pictures were allowed in the mosque. Yanmei was allowed in but she had to wear a robe to cover herself up.

Yanmei and our guide approaching the mosque

After that we returned to the hotel. Jet lag was catching up to us. I lied down for a nap and didn't wake up until midnight.

-David

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