For the last week we have been on a tour with the Mills family. The plane that the Mills were supposed to get on was delayed and they arrived very late in the night or in the early morning. The next day we toured around Coptic Cairo and saw the suspended church and a synagogue. We also walked around a nrighbourhood and saw a Nilometre. The Nilomtre, in ancient egyptian times, measured the rise and fall of the level of the Nile. How high the Nile decided how elevated the taxes were. A kindly caretaker unlocked the doors and allowed us to walk down the Nilometre and see the flood gates from which the water from the Nile used to pour from. The next morning we met our guide from Intrepid Tours so he could give us information on what we would be doing. His name is Wahid. That day we went to visit several mosques and had lessons on Islamic theology. We also visited a crowded market where a little nerd tried to pick my pockets. That night we saw a culture show with mainly consisted of Sufi dnacing. Sufi dancing is a dance that a guy wearing a big, colourful dress spins around in meditation. Unfortunatly the show was almost 2 hours long and got very, very repetitive. We woke up the next morning at the Capsis hotel to the delicious thought of cold hard-boiled eggs and cheap bread. The Mills were equally enthralled by the quality of the breakfast, We were then herded to the subway (which cost 1 pound a person). We got off at the Al Giza station. There we took a small minivan to the Great Pyramids of Giza. As it turned out the Pyramids are in the middle of Cairo, one of the largest cities in the world. THe Pyramids were nothing like in the picture books and movies. There were not smoothly surfaced but had jagged outcroppings of rocks everywhere. ِThe tallest of the Pyramids is about 150 metres tall. All of these Pyramids had tombs in them but all of them had been looted. What a shame. The Pharaohs must have had enormous egos since the queens’ Pyramids are about a 20th of the size. The Pyramids are not the only attractions at Giza, there is also the Sphinx. Yes, it is still missing its nose. And the funny part is that the experts still do not know why. Both sights were definitely worthy of their placement in the 8 wonders of the world. For lunch that day we had a sort of Middle-Eastern Mac and Cheese. That night we got on a ridiculously fancy sleeper train that took us from Cairo to Aswan where we would start our Nile Cruise some days later. Our cabin was amazing. It was clean, had a sink, had a working A.C and speakers. Unfortunatly it was overnight so I slept while I could have been enjoying the pomp. In Aswan we stayed at the Nuba Nile Hotel. We believe the owner got ripped off by his contractors because the place was falling apart. The first thing we did in Aswan was see the famous dam that created Lake Nasser. Simon, Nicole, Alannah and I piled into a decrepit station-wagon that would be our limo. The dam was very impresive and was 18 times the mass of the Giza Pyramid. The dam doubled as a power plant. There was a sign clearly stating that no pictures were to be taken. Probably since it is a sensitive military position and the Israelis threatened to bomb it during the 6 day war. No one cared. We then took a relaxing boat cruise around Elephantine Island. Highly relaxing. After the ride we disembarqued and we loaded ourselved onto to camels. They were a bit too wobbly for my liking. After 30 minutes of hot riding we visited an old monestary that was not particularly interesting. When we got back from that we discovered that the lock to our door had still not been replaced (it had broken earlier with our stuff in the room) but they promised again to fix the lock. We got another room but the lock was missing on that door too. We got a much bigger room for our troubles. The next morning we had to gert up at 3 am to go to Abu Simbel by convoy. What a joke! The ride took 4 hours. Abu Simbel is a small town that exists only because of tourism. The attractions are 2 temples that are mainly decorated with scenes of offerings to the gods. These temples must have also been made by a very egotistical Pharaoh since he depicts himself as more important than the sun god, Ammon Ra. The entry is getting too long so I will summarise. The next day we went for 1 day and 1 night on a basic felucca. It was cold but very relaxing during the day. After the cruise we took a van to Luxor but stopping along the way at Edfu Temple. The temple was very busy and you had to walk a gauntlet of shops to get to the entrrance. Sadly, if I were running the place I would have done the same. In Luxor we stayed at the Little Garden Hotel. The next morning was an early start so we could go see the Valley of the Kings. We took donkeys up and I named mine Kapitan Bomba! I think everyone really loved their donkey by the end of the trip. There were only 3 well maintained tombs in the valley and our tour group visited them all. All of them had depictions of how the Pharaoh would get to the afterlife. The next night we took atrain back to Cairo. The Mills left today.
3 months ago