Bud and the Belly Dancer...and on to Kenya!

Our cruise on the Nile ended this morning, and we caught a short Egypt Air flight back to Cairo for the day.

Cairo's airport is large, spotless and very modern. There is even a lovely Business/First Class area in the main entrance/check-in area to sit and use your WiFi if check-in isn't open yet. WiFi is free throughout the airport.

We have (so far been impressed but a little confused with Egypt Air.  Their security is very different...you don't have to take out laptops or your 3-3-3 bag, take off your shoes or jackets or anything.  But you have to put all your luggage through a large x-ray the moment you come in the front doors. At the same time, Bud had his tiny (and favorite) 1" mustache scissors confiscated on our flight down to Aswan.  Those scissors have been in his carry-on practically all over the world since 2001. Their domestic fleet is Embraer 170's and they seem to be in fine shape. Most surprising, if you are traveling in Business or First Class you have a spearate immigration area--no need to put your hand luggage through an xray or walk through a metal detector (though you have gone through it at the airport entrance). Ecomony class gets the extra level of security at immigration.

But back to the cruise. If you do the cruise going south from Luxor to Aswan, it's a four-day cruise, but the return from Aswan to Luxor is only 3 days. This made it a whirlwind of temples and tombs, with just a moment off for a cooking class.  The chef aboard the Sunboat IV has been with A & K for 15 years and is a master. He gave a cooking class one morning and was kind enough to pass out recipes. Can't wait to cook some of this stuff for the group.

The archeology is truly amazing...the engineering aspects of how they cut and moved obelisks, statues and such is mind-boggling and has kept Bud very interested.  I am amazed by the richness of the colors...some still vibrant even in the sections of temples and tombs almost 5000 years old.

A sneak shot into the entrance of the tomb of Ramses IV in the Valley of the Kings--photos are not allowed inside.

I won't go into the differences in the Old Kindom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom (when all the most famous pharoahs ruled and all the arts, sciences and engineering were at their peaks). People spend lifetimes studying the nuances and coming up with theories on mummification, moving 800-ton obelisks cut out of a single piece of granite two at a time in boats down the Nile. Every site has it's own story and beauty.  Hear are just a few images that caught my eye.

Ramses II had quite the ego and buitl many, many temples featuring...Ramses II!

It is hard not to ask "how did they do that?" at every turn.

This section of a 3 mile-long "alley of sphinxes" connecting two temples was buried under block and block of apartments--all of which were torn down and the residents relocated to make way for the restoration.  The government compensates families who have to move, and builds them new hosues or apartments, though apparently some of the money gets siphoned off at upper levels of the corrupt bureaucracy.

The Sunboat IV administration is quite proud of their head pilot.  He uses no charts or other navigational devices except on occasional glance at a depth finder.  He goes by dead reckoning--and his lifetime spent on the river.  He did "bump" a sandbar in the middle of the night (he chuckled about it) but was able to back off and go around.

We visited the West Bank of the Nile, home to Queen Hatchepsut's Temple and the valley of the Kings, and got some details about the 1997 massacre.

Apparently 4 Egyptians wearing coats to cover their machine guns came out of the hills to the right of the photo--there are a series of paths that criss-cross the rock.  They walked up the staircase in the center and opened fire--an American and a Japanese group had just cleared the area and a swiss group was making it's way down. Our guide was there later that afternoon and said the terracce was covered with blood.  The 4 terrorists fled over the hills and in an apparent suicide, seemed to have all shot each other.

There used to be a walking tour on top of the mountains, but they don't do that any more. They also don't allow farmers to grow sugar cane within a certain distance of the temple--too easy for terrorists to hide in it.

But to happier things...as expected, there was a party the last night of the cruise, with a quite talented belly dancer.  Yes, as expected, she got Bud and all the other men up dancing. I thought he was pretty coordinated.

So back to cairo to visit Old Cairo, the Coptic Museum and the Egyptian Museum. Our coordinator from A & K, Emad, met us again and made everything smooth and easy.  The streets of Cairo are a riot.  Some sections (notably Garden City, where many of the fancy hotels and embassies are) are very European feeling. In others, donkeys and carts vie for space with taxis and commuters.

One thing that strikes us is the strong affection/affiliation between the French and the Egyptians...it seems to go back to Napoleon. The French have been extremely instrumental in locating and preserving Egyptian ancient history. A Frenchman built the Egyptian Musuem in Cairo--where we saw a lot of the contents of King Tutakhamen's tomb--incredible!

We spent a lot of time talking about the current political situation--walked by the buildings that were fire-bombed. There is a nervousness about getting past the anniversary of the revolution without violence.

Speaking of which, a family with SEVEN young children...some babies...just sat down next to us in the Business Lounge.  I am praying they are not our flight to Nairobi, and have to go check with the gate concierge.

I won't be emailing or bloggin for several days...no internet for a while, though I do expect to be able to pick up some basic email.

On to Kenya.











On to Aswan, Abu Simbel and the Nile River!

Flying to Abu Simbel, where the Egyptians (with the help of UNESCO) dismantled and reassembled the Temples of Ramses II and Nefertiti on higher ground so they wouldn't be permanently submerged under Lake Nasser, turned out to be ridiculously easy. The plane leaves Cairo, stops in Aswan to pick up and drop passengers, and continues on to Abu Simbel.

Lake Nasser, of course, was created in the late 1960's with the building of the Aswan High Dam across the Nile River (a lower one was built by the Brits in 1899). It is now the second largest man-made lake in the world...huge and deep and home to immense crocodiles. The Nile flows through 9 African countries (beginning in Lake Victoria) before arrriving in Egypt and hence is full of nasty stuff like zebra and water buffalo parts--food for the crocs who keep it clean and hence are protected by the government. They grow to be 30' or more.

Not surprisingly, there is no swimming in Lake Nasser.

Not only does it boggle the mind how they moved these temples, which were cut into the rock originally--not built up out of stones, it is completely amazing to think about the exact methods (still unknown/unproven) they used to build them in the first place.

The four seated statues all represent Ramses II...and were moved (after being cut into pieces, numbered and so on) exactly as they were found.  The head of the second Ramses from the left is missing, knocked to ground by an earthquake in something like 27 AD. You can see the head below his feet--as found.  They also built the mountain above/behind the temple to resemble the orginal location.

It also turns out that graffiti is not such a new idea...this details shows names and dates carved into Ramses leg by visiting British, French and Italian soldiers.



This is one of many local men who work around the temples--he was making sure that no one took pictures inside the temple, and seemed very cheerful.

The Abercrombie & Kent rep found us after the flight back to Aswan to board the Nile Adventurer, but took us instead to the A & K's Sunboat IV. Turns out that we were the only ones booked on the Adventurer, so they sent back to Luxor empty to pick up people booked on the next cruise, a they consolidated us onto the very much upscale Sunboat IV.  This ship holds 87 passengers, but there are only 22 of us aboard for this cruise!! We have met a family from Tennessee, another from London and another from Brazil. Among them they have several teenage girls and a few boys, all of whom ask lots of questions about the history and seem quite interested.

The boat has an amazingly comfy upper deck.

And they serve lunch on the outdoor dining deck.

This morning we went to visit the temples at Philae, another set of temples that had to be moved...these because of repeated flooding, partially as a result of the dams. The upper Nile (in the south) area is home to the Nubian population, darker than Egyptians and they have a traditional language that is only spoken--there is no written alphabet or grammar.  They run all the hundreds of boats that ferry visitors out to the restoration on an island. They wear long coats and wrap up with great scarves and also sell souveniers.



The temples before they were moved.

and in their new location.

Above the village surrounding the temples are several turrets that were erected as guard towers right after the 1997 massacre of 73 Swiss tourists at Luxor.  They aren't manned any more. Our guide said that Egypt evacuated 2.5 million tourists in the two days after the shootings and it took 2 1/2 years before any tourists came back.



The views along the Nile are fascinating.  There are farms, small islands with herds of donkeys, pumping stations for banana plantations...some very lush and green sections, some sections where you can see the demarkation between the areas that get water and the desert beyond.

and in some places, like Kom Omombo, you can see temples right from the boats.

We're learning alot about how the temples were abandoned when the Christians came in, covered with sand over the succeeding centuries, the rediscovered in the 19th century by French and British explorers and ultimately restored (well, not restored, but preserved). A Frenchman named David Roberts explored during the late 1830's and left incredibly detailed drawing of the Sphinx, the temples at Luxor and much, much more, so we can see the exact extant to which everything was buried.

To bed now...we've made some friends and are looking forward to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings tomorrow.



Egyptian Politics, Casinos and "Alex" on the Mediterranean

Tuesday night we made it down to Giza to watch the "Sound and Light" show, which was amazing.  We were expecting an illustration of how the pyramids at Giza were constructed, but the show covered the essentials of Egyptian history as a whole...all played in lights using the pyramids as a canvas and Omar Sharif's (who knew he was Egyptian?)voice as narrator. It was lovely...and a bit sad, as only about 10% of the seats were filled. The night lighting really showed the facing or outer limestone "skin" of the pyramids has fallen off over the centuries.

The traffic here is just bewildering. There are virtually no traffic lights and traffic police (since the revolution) are either nonexistent or completely ignored. Residents aren't concerned about getting tickets or fines, and do pretty much what they like...speeding, going down one-way streets the wrong way--whatever. There is no way we could ever drive here, in spite of our experience in places like Montenegro and Bosnia.  In fact, our guide today, a wonderful man named Mohamed, doesn't drive himself--he has had his own driver for 12 years!

On the route to Alex yesterday (a 3 1/2 hour drive each way) we saw these strange-looking towers.  Mohamed said they are coops for raising pigeons--a delicacy in Egypt, best stuffed with rice and fried. We haven't tried it!

We hit a torrential rainstorm in Alexandria, which is the port most cruise ships come into when Egypt is on their Mediterranean itinerary. The city was orginally laid out by Alexander the Great along two perfect natural harbors, and hit it's heyday around the turn of the century when the British and French influence resulted in a long, lovely corniche (waterfront boardwalk) backed by Belle Epoque mansions.  You can see the remnants now--though a fresh coat of paint here and there would do wonders.

We ate lunch at a fabulous restaurant called the Fish Market--fresh pita bread with mezze or appetizers like hummus, babaganoush, yogurt with garlic, then fresh fish, shrimp and calamari. Yum.

They did not serve alcohol out of respect for Muslim traditions--but this is something new.  Mohamed said he was there a few months ago and had wine/beer. This conservative approach is something very new, and a result of the revolution. More and more restuarants and resorts are going "nonalcoholic" and there is even talk of closing down all the casinos (there are twenty in Cairo alone).

The liberal intellengencia, the more educated people, especially those who work in what used to the $12billion tourism industry, are very anxious about the revolution and it's resulting swing to a very fundamentalist and religious society. Almost everyone agreed that Mubarak was corrupt and had to go, but to be replaced with what? Right now many basic services (like trash collection) are simply not happening.  Police are not enforcing laws --though we did pass through one checkpoint where the police and army were looking for guns/weapons. There is a general sense of unease over what will come next and how conservative the swing will  be. Mohamed said all the elections should be over and the new constitution drafted by mid-summer. It's been quite an education and we will now read all news of Egypt in a different light.

These two students were taking a break from the incredible library at Alenxandria.  The girl on the left is wearing the Saudi-influenced black head-to-toe covering, while the girl on the right is in a more typically Egytpian headscarf. It must be brutal in summer! It used to be that any woman in black like this was assumed to be a Saudi, but no more. About 25% of Egyptian Muslim women now wear these. I keep looking for happy, smiling faces!

We have felt very safe everywhere, though.  Truly. Last night we took a cab up to the casino at the Marriott, which is in an old palace. Security was tight, with the cab having to stop, shut it's engine off for the dog-sniffing patrol. Once cleared, we got out and went through a metal-detector--these are standard in hotels and major buildings. We lost a bit of money the $5 at Caribbean Stud table, but finished the evening up at the $5 Black Jack here at the Sofitel.

We are actually fairly near Tahrir Square and have passed through several times.  It looks like this...a fairly normal city square with traffic, vendors and such. Protests happen generally on Fridays, though.  But we'll be gone by early tomorrow morning, so won't see anything.

This morning we went to the Great Pyramids at Giza...we saw them at night for the light show and wanted the daytime view.  They are amazing...huge and ancient and technically perfect in terms of mathematical precision, polar orientation, engineering and architectural techniques--and all 5000 years old. Eman was with us again and expressed again how sad it was that all the tourists are staying away.  There are whole villages and cities that rely on the trade for their livelihood and we could see lines of camels waiting for riders, knick-knack sellers hoping to sell their stuff for any amount.

It made it easy for us get around, though.

Entrances to the inner level of tombs have been uncovered, and you can go down inside the pyramids...but it's dark, very low overheads and was too spooky for me and Bud to attempt.







I did, however, get to ride a camel--something I have wanted to do for a long time.  Eman helped me negotiate a deal with the young owner of this fellow, a 12 year old camel named Michael Douglas (go figure!)

The ride was very smooth--though it takes a bit of hanging on while the camel is getting up and down. The camel's owner was quite fond of him.

It was a lot of fun, though Bud stayed on the ground!



We are resting a bit this afternoon...I have had an awful cough.  I don't feel at all sick, just am hacking all the time.  The hotel was great to call a pharmacist and get a prescription delivered...all for about $6 USD. We have really enjoyed this hotel, with a view of the pyramids and access to the Club floor, which has saved us a bundle in food/beverage costs.

Tomorrow we getup at 5:00 am to fly to Aswan and pick up a short flight to Abu Simbel, the temple that was taken apart and reassembled to make way for the the Aswan Dam. We'll see that for an hour or two, then fly back to Aswan to board the Nile Sanctuary Adventurer for our four-day river cruise up to Luxor. Not sure whether or not there will be WiFi...so I may or may not blog again until Monday.



Albert of Arabia

Today is our first full day in Egypt. We had a quick breakfast at our hotel, the very nice Sofitel el Gezirah (meaning Sofitel on the island, since it sits on island in the middle of the Nile River). Our driver, Tamar, and our Egyptologist, Eman, picked us up at 8:30 for a ride through the city and due south to the ancient areas of Dashur, Memphis and Sakkara.

The city is dusty, noisy and very interesting. There are donkeys pulling carts of vegetables and other goods everywhere.

Eman told us a lot not only about ancient egypt, but also about current customs and the impact last year's revolution had. I was very curious about the number of woman and girls with the head scarves on.

Eman said that covering heads and wearing the robes is new for women since the 1990's. Back in the 60's and 70's Egyptian women wore primarily Western clothing and Cairo looked very much like any European city. Women were professionals in all areas of business and commerce, education and the like. Since the rise of conservative Islam (which she said traveled from Saudi Arabia) is what is behind this...and she also expects it to swing back, in time.

On a lighter note, we noticed tons of "tuk-tuks", the small 3-wheeled taxis that we last saw in Bangkok.  eman said they showed up a couple of years ago  and now she thinks there are more in Cairo than in Bangkok.  They are often run by young boys.

Our tour coordinator has our time in Cairo organized by chronology of ancient Egypt. So we started at the first pyramids built, down in Dashur. The first one is called the crooked pyramid because one side is built at one angle and the other side another angle.  This makes it looked lopsided and the theory is that the builder was trying to get it right. It was first  close-up look at a pyramid as well as a camel.  The fellows tried to get us to take a ride, but we decided to wait until the most famous pyramids at Giza later in the week. They were almost persuasive--a third one carried an AK 37.

On the second try,  he got it right. Apparently 43 degrees is the proper angle for a perfect pyramind.  This is called the red pyramid and is nearby the first one...it's called red because it was originally covered in a reddish colored sandstone sheathing.

How they know this I am not certain.  I should also put in the disclaimer that any errors in Egyptian history and/or spelling are purely mine. Eman is a terrific guide and certified Egyptologist, but I was not taking detailed notes.







We moved on to Memphis and ended up at Saqquarra where the Step Pyramid is (so called because it is built in six set-backs or steps). The tomb there has incredibly detailed frescoes of Egyptian life and a dramatic column-lined entrance to a large courtyard. Eman said I should take a shot of the entrance--it was virtually empty!  Normally a shot like this is impossible because there are so many tourists. Eman said this is now high season--but because of the revolution, tourists are simply not coming. She was quite interested in our reasons for coming--I told her we figured the media was making things out to be worse than they actually were.

The fellows who make a living giving camels rides and doing photos ops there got ahold of Bud. Before he knew it the fellow had him all dressed up Arab headgear.

It is amazing how the terrain differs once you get a bit away from the Nile. It turns to stark and completely inhospitable desert and high plateaus. This is what it made the areas attractive for tombs for the ancient pharoahs--no flooding from the Nile could reach their monuments.



We were delighted to find that we have a distant view of the pyramids at Giza from our balcony on the 24th floor. Tonight we will go to the "sound and light show" there--it will be interesting to see how it compares to the sound and light show at Chichen Itza in Mexico.

Tomorrow we are going to see Alex--as the locals call the city of Alexandria.  We'll be gone most of the day...so look for another post tomorrow night.



I'm baaaaack! We visit WMUR Studios and a heads up my feature on travel insurance in tomorrow's Concord Monitor!

It's been two whole months since I've posted--yikes! Bud and I have been deep into landscaping, and have the blisters and sore muscles to prove it!  But that's done, along with very last phase of the pool re-hab--new steps.

Now we can relax!

Some fun stuff has been happening, though. This year's Dinner with Animals for the Concord-Merrimack County SPCA featured a live auction for the first time ever. We raised just shy of $50,000--so heartwarming!  One of the items donated was a New Hampshire Weather Package. WMUR's weatherman, Kevin Skarupa, volunteered to visit a classroom or organization of the winner's choice and do a NH weather presentation and also to give a personal tour of the WMUR studios and have the winner watch an entire live newscast right in the studio.

Son Jon's fiance, Tonya Coplan, was the winning bidder.  Wahoo!

In mid-June, Kevin came and spoke to grandson little Jon's class at Strong Foundations Charter School here in Concord.  He was such a hit that the kids lined up for autographs!

Just yesterday, Bud and I, Tonya and Jon and little Jon all went down to the Channel 9 Studios and got a really comprehensive tour of the studios and newsrooms.  We got to see it all, from the rooms of computers and equipment to the newsroom and even the broadcast studios.

Here we all are standing in back of the news anchors' desk.



And here's little Jon sitting in for one of the anchors...maybe a future broadcast news guy?

We got to sit in the comfy chairs in the "interview" section of the studio and watch Sean MacDonald do the news ( a lot about the capture of Whitey Bulger) and watch Kevin move from his desk to the anchor desk to the blue-screen weather wall--all the while apologizing for the rain we've been having. Jon and Tonya and little Jon had fun!

Afterwards, we went to nearby 900 Degrees Pizza for a fantastic lunch.  An interesting and fun day--AND the abused and neglected animals served by the Concord SPCA will benefit too.

For those who follow Travel Talk, my column with the Concord Monitor, I have written about shopping for the best airfare, picking the best destination and traveling solo over the past few weeks.

Tomorrow's Monitor will feature a piece I did on travel insurance--what to buy and how to buy it. If you have a trip coming up, it should a help!



A year later--Mississippi's Gulf Coast!

Bud and I watched the news recently about the rebound of the Gulf Coast from the BP oil spill. We spent the whole month of February in Gulfport--our second and longest visit since the spill. You can log on to the blog Travels with Chase (or if you're already here look to the archives to the left) and read through February posts to learn more about what it was like and what to do when you're there.

The bottom line in the news seemed to be that the beaches, waters and wildlife are coming back much, much faster than was anticipated--though they're finding many dead baby dolphins and the oil is still present in the Louisiana marshes, among other issues.


Nonetheless, we pulled into Gulfport January 30 and the very next morning we were on the beach in shorts.  It was glorious!

This is Maggie being happy--long before Mariah the cat came to share her world two weeks ago.



Here's a video clip of Maggie and Bud on the beach. (If you're getting this post via email and can't see the video, just click here to get to the blog itself)? How does the beach look to you? Other than a slight bit of mid-winter seaweed at the water's edge, it's pristine!

 

In the month we were there, we could see the progress made since Katrina. Houses are being rebuilt in classic Gulfcoast style and iconic historical sites like Jefferson Davis' home, Beauvoir (which had essentially been demolished by Katrina) are open for visitors.



Fishing piers have been rebuilt and this shot shows the creative approach to the trunks of the many live oaks that were killed by Katrina. Instead of being cut down and removed, the trunks and branches along Beach Boulevard were turned into sculpture depicting local wildlife. This is part of the Katrina Sculpture Garden in Biloxi.

A few feet inland, on the other side of Beach Boulvard, or Route 90, the oaks are making a comeback. To us northerners, this is classic, classic southern landscape.

We are already planning our return.

And by the way...if you haven't caught up with my column Travel Talk, for the Concord Monitor, here's a link to last Sunday's about gas prices and April 10th's about staying safe when a piece falls off your plane.