Cairo/Luxor

Hello all! I returned yesterday from a 4-day trip to Cairo and Luxor, and there is definitely a lot to tell!  Egypt is completely different from all of the other ports we’ve been to.  I’d have to say that what we saw (pyramids, Sphinx, museums, temples, etc.) was by far my favorite of the entire trip, but by the end, I couldn’t stand the people. More on that later. Here is my day-by-day!

-----Tuesday, July 27-----

We are in Egypt! I had planned to wake up to watch us pull into Alexandria, but my snooze button just kept calling and I slept in (ha) until 0730.  We quickly grabbed breakfast and finished packing for our 4-day trip to Cairo and Luxor. Our trip was meeting in the Union at 0930, and it was so hectic!! There were around 120 people on our trip alone, and many people had parents going on the trip.  It was fun seeing parents reunite with their kids, and one girl’s brother even surprised her when he showed up!  That made me even more excited for seeing my family again in a few weeks.  Not that I want to leave the ship, of course!  We went out to our buses, which were cramped but very well air-conditioned. The bus ride to Cairo was 3 hours long, which was ample time for a nap! We got to Cairo a little after 1300 and ate a buffet lunch at a 5-star hotel that overlooks the pyramids! We were still fairly far away from them but it was so cool to get off the bus and see them!  A little band greeted us as we walked in, and we went to the dining room for a wide variety of food. No one really knows what traditional Egyptian food is, but the food we ate was fairly common—“oriental” rice, roast chicken, beef in “brown sauce,” and penne pasta.  After lunch and dessert, we got back on the bus and headed to Memphis, which was the first capital of Egypt.  On the way, our tour guide pointed out a village saying “this is where the middle class people live,” and we were amazed.  What they refer to as middle class, we would probably refer to as slums.  Pretty much everywhere we drove was so dirty and there were piles of trash everywhere.  It was amazing just to see the vast difference in the qualities of life between Egypt and the previous countries we’ve visited.  Once we reached Memphis, we saw a huge statue of Ramses II that was found lying on its back and has stayed that way every since.  The statue is HUGE and very well preserved considering it is several thousand years old.  We then proceeded to the alabaster sphinx of King Amenhopis II, a small preview for the large sphinx at the Giza pyramids.  After exploring the area, we proceeded to Sakkara, a cemetery complex.  We saw a 5000-year step pyramid belonging to King Zoser, and we explored a few tombs.  I am getting better at managing small tunnels! If I thought people selling stuff in Turkey was bad, people here were even worse.  They follow you and keep following you, even when you turn around and say NO loudly, they still follow! My goodness, people!  There are “security” people everywhere who are just wearing long gowns and turbans, they didn’t have any badges except for a paper nametag that said “security.”  They all ask for “baksheesh,” which is a tip.  The man at the door to one of the tombs wanted a tip for, well, I guess standing at the door.  He actually grabbed my arm and asked for baksheesh but I pulled away and he moved on to asking the next person. Pushy people!!! We then headed off to our very nice 5-star hotel.  SAS does well!  There were two different buildings in the hotel, and of course Steven and I were in different ones. My room was amazing and had the absolute comfiest pillows EVER.  I felt like I was lying on a cloud.  We had a half hour “siesta” before we had to meet to go to the Khan El Khalili bazaar.  Our tour guide gave us many warnings, like not to stray from the main street and not to buy anything expensive (like jewelry) because it was most likely a knockoff and overpriced.  This bazaar was nothing like the one in Istanbul!  It wasn’t even a tenth of the size and the streets were full of trash and food.  Ick!  We walked for a while, not really finding much variety.  Steven found a stone statue of Anubis, and I got a pyramid and a votive made out of a really pretty stone.  They were 45 Egyptian pounds each (~$8) but I haggled him down to 60 pounds for both.  I am redeeming myself from the lamp incident!  I had also been eyeing some colorful cloth bags with embroidered elephants or camels on them.  I got one with elephants on it for 45 pounds down from 60.  The guy wouldn’t go any lower because he claimed it was hand-embroidered (which I highly doubt because every bag looked the same).  Steven wanted a set of canopic jars, so we went to a store with hundreds of statues.  He is now a pro at bartering, and he got the shopkeeper to accept a price much lower than he wanted.  I believe he was asking 320 pounds for a set of 4 small jars, and Steven got him down to 150!  We left the bazaar for a buffet dinner at the hotel at 10pm.  4am wakeup call tomorrow!

-----Wednesday, July 28-----

After only getting about 4 hours of sleep, we were off to watch the sunrise at the pyramids!  Apparently they closed off the area so only our SAS group was there.  We sat on a wall and watched as the dark sky became lighter and lighter.  It was very foggy so we couldn’t see the sun, but it was still amazing.  We had box breakfasts from the hotel which included 3 rolls, a croissant, an apple, and a hard-boiled egg.  We had been told to avoid fruit and I didn’t trust the egg, so my breakfast was bread.  We walked down to the pyramids, and some people bribed the guards so that they could climb on one of them (after we were told not to since someone on an SAS trip many years ago climbed up, fell, and died. But whatever makes them happy I guess).  We then headed back up to the buses because camels were waiting for us!!  Steven and I got on the same camel and the driver took my camera to take pictures.  We were told to lean back, and the camel started to get up.  It was pretty scary!  His back legs stood all the way up while his front legs were still kneeling, so we REALLY had to lean back to keep from sliding off the front!  It was a bumpy ride, but it was a lot of fun in the end.   The driver took pictures of us with the pyramids in the background.  At the end of the ride, the camel kneeled but didn’t want to sit, so the driver whipped the poor thing =(.  He of course asked for baksheesh and we gave him a dollar because he took pictures (we weren’t required to tip because we had already paid for the ride).  My behind was pretty sore after that ride!!  We again boarded the buses for a close-up look at the pyramids.  We walked around the Great Pyramid, the only remaining wonder of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Steven climbed up a few stairs (legally).  The next stop was the Sphinx, where we sat for a while with my “uncle” Greg and my sea’s graduate assistant, Sarah, admiring the view of the Sphinx with the pyramids.  Next we were off to the National Archaeological Museum, where we saw a collection of the treasures found in King Tut’s tomb.  Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures, but Steven bought a CD with pictures of all the artifacts.  We bought an extra ticket to go into the mummy exhibit, where we saw mummies of many pharaohs!  The mummy of Rameses II even still had hair!  Since we hadn’t eaten since 4am, we were starving, but we still had one more stop before lunch.  We drove to the Citadel of Saladin to visit the alabaster mosque of Mohamed Ali (no, not the boxer—he’s the founder of modern Egypt).  From the citadel, we had a panoramic view of Cairo.  FINALLY we went to lunch (it was around 2pm already), which was on a boat cruise down the Nile.  We ate a buffet lunch with pretty much the same exact food that we’ve been having at every meal, and we were entertained by folk music, a bellydancer (a very out-of-shape bellydancer), and a guy with a big skirt who spun around really fast and did tricks with his skirt.  We cruised for a while down the Nile, but we were in a fairly Westernized/touristy area.  There are buildings on the water with restaurants like TGI Fridays and Chili’s.  It was still a fun trip, and we were thankful to have food for the first time in almost 10 hours!  We then headed back to the ship for another siesta (it’s extremely hot in the afternoons so we get to spend them in the air-conditioned hotel).  I took a 2-hour nap (yay!!!) and then we headed out for the Sound and Light show at the pyramids.  I had heard that the show is extremely touristy and lame, but we really had nothing else to do so we went.  I swear that SAS bought out the show.  Our trip was there along with the Cairo Overnight and the Cairo Extended trips.  Probably half the ship was there.  Anyway, the show started with the pyramids being lit up.  I have to admit that the lighted pyramids against the night sky was really striking, but we could really do without the sound.  The Sphinx narrated the show, there was dramatic music, it was all very over the top.  Example: The Sphinx says “The world fears time, but time fears…….THE PYRAMIDS” *dramatic music with the pyramids lighting up*. Yeah.  After the show, we went back to the hotel for dinner, again at 10pm, and went to sleep because we had a 3am wakeup call for the next day!

-----Thursday, July 29-----

After another night of little sleep, we were up and packed by 3:30am and on the bus to go to the airport.  We again got the same box breakfasts, yum!  We were missing 2 girls from our bus, and our bus leader went to call them thinking that they overslept.  He woke them up and apparently the wakeup call was too early for them because they said they were signing off the trip (and thereby throwing away about $600).  Whatever, the rest of us were off to Luxor!  The benefit of getting to the airport at 5:30am is that no one is there!  The flight took about an hour (no food this time), and once we landed we were off to the Valley of the Kings.  Our ticket got us into three royal tombs: Ramses I, Ramses VI, and Ramses IX (apparently it was a popular name).  The tombs were so well preserved that most of the hieroglyphics and drawings still had their original color.  Steven and I paid extra to go into the tomb of King Tut, which was worth it except for the “security” person there.  We were the only two people besides this security guy, and he started talking to us.  As soon as he started, I knew we would have to pay him baksheesh.  He pointed out all of the artwork on the walls and gave us his flashlight so we could get a better look at Tut’s sarcophagus.  At the other end of the tomb was his mummy, which was extremely tiny considering he died when he was around our age.  The guy pointed out his buck teeth.  After we were taught everything about the tomb, we were preparing to leave when the guy asked us if we were married.  He was amazed when I said we weren’t, since Muslim couples don’t date in public.  He immediately grabbed my arm and clutched it to his stomach (ew) and proceeded to tell Steven that he needed to marry me because I was pretty or something.  He alternated between grabbing my arm, touching Steven’s beard, and touching my face, the entire time we were inching toward the door and trying to leave.  He then told Steven that we need to come back in a year and we had better be married and have a kid.  Riiiiiiiiight.  We were making it obvious that we were trying to leave, and he finally let us go, but not before asking for baksheesh.  I gave him 5 pounds (less than a dollar) and we bolted out of there.  I pretty much bathed in hand sanitizer when we got out.  It’s amazing and a little scary how we learn in America that it is bad if a stranger touches you, but here it is so common.  It’s not threatening or anything, I wasn’t afraid of the guy (I probably would have been if I didn’t have Steven with me) but it was just uncomfortable since I grew up knowing that it’s weird for a stranger to physically touch you.  So after we bolted out of there, we checked out the shops that were near the bus.  It was like the bazaar in that everyone was trying to get our attention, but they were REALLY persistent and just kept following us.  I seriously told one guy about 15 times that I didn’t want to buy his book of Luxor.  I did, however, spy an adorable wooden camel that I wanted.  Thinking it didn’t cost more than $10, I asked the man how much.  He said 160 Egyptian pounds, which is about $29.  Heck no!  I said all I had was 50 pounds (~$9).  He said “no, 85!”  Again, I said all I had was 50 pounds.  He kept going lower: 75, 70, 65.  Then I said my bus was leaving and I had to go, so he finally gave it to me for 50.  I trotted off happily with my purchase (and my remaining 200 pounds).  We then headed to the temple of the only female pharaoh, Queen Hatshepshut.  Three different “security” people tried to get baksheesh from us (I was starting to get really annoyed with them).  One guy jumped in a picture I was taking of Steven and then demanded a tip.  We lied and said we left our money on the bus.  Another guy offered to show us a place behind a rope we weren’t supposed to cross, and we just walked away.  The last guy started pointing things out to us like the guy in the tomb did, but we learned our lesson and just ignored him.  It was already extremely hot (our tour guide said we were lucky as it was only 110 degrees, and the day before got up to 130 degrees!!!!), but we only had one more stop.  Just outside of the valley with the temple were two huge statues called the Colossi of Memnon.  They are pretty weathered and you can only make out the shape of a person, but they were definitely colossal!  We returned to the hotel for another buffet lunch with the same food and then we had a 5-hour siesta away from the blazing heat.  Some people went to the pool, which overlooks the Nile, but I chose instead to nap in the air-conditioned room.  We got back on the bus and went to Luxor Temple, where our guide gave us a very detailed tour of the major statues and pictures on the wall.  We headed back to the hotel for an (early) dinner and got some much-needed sleep.

-----Friday, July 30-----

Our wakeup call came at 6am this morning, so we got ample sleep.  We got a real breakfast this time, and I got a scrumptious omelet that was made right in front of me.  Our big group was divided in thirds for the flights back to Cairo.  Steven was on the 10:25 flight and I was on the 2:15 flight, so we had different itineraries.  Everyone went in the morning to Karnak Temple, which Steven was very excited to go to.  I’m not really up on my Egyptian history or mythology, but I definitely appreciated the amazing statues, obelisks, and carvings on the walls.  We all went to the airport and said adios to the 10:05 and 10:25 flights.  They were flying back to Cairo, eating lunch there, then driving the 3 hours back to Alexandria (yes, Alexandria has an airport but I guess SAS bought roundtrip tickets to save money).  My group went back to the hotel to pack and rest before lunch was served.  At 12:45 we were off to the airport again for our flight.  I had to open my bag at security because I stupidly forgot to take my nail clippers out of my makeup bag before the trip, but the security guy just looked at them and gave them back to me.  Other people were traveling with huge bottles of liquid and razors, so they had to throw them out (common sense, people?).  We finally all made it through security and we were off to Cairo.  The plane was extremely small and a little bumpy, but I made it out alive =).  Once in Cairo, we hopped on the bus for our 3-hour ride from hell.  The first two hours were fine, but our driver began to get really impatient.  He laid on the horn and tailgated cars, and it seemed like we were driving really fast (the kid in front of me said we were only going 55-60 but it seemed like so much faster).  We even drove another bus off the road!!! Once we got into the city of Alexandria, it became a lot worse.  We had been told to be extremely careful in crossing streets because oncoming traffic doesn’t stop.  Traffic here is HORRENDOUS.  There are no lane lines, and if there are, people don’t obey them.  It’s a free for all.  I took video of us driving through the city, and I think we almost hit 5 cars and came close to hitting several people.  At one point we were stopped in traffic, no one could move, and our driver was laying on the horn.  Crazy!  The scariest part was when we had the ship in sight and everyone was so relieved, our driver drove right out into 4 lanes of traffic and we were inches from a collision.  It’s all on video!  As soon as we got to the ship, we all bolted off of that bus and ran to the ship.  The whole trip was amazing, but I was definitely happy to be home. I missed my room!!!