Pyramids and sharks...

No pictures so far. I have either erased the card or misplaced it. In any case I can't find the photos from our day at the pyramids.

Another early morning. We don’t normally mind getting up early but our body clocks are so screwed up—even though it’s a cruise and we didn’t think that could happen!—because for the last few days we have gone back one hour (Safaga, Egypt) followed by forward one hour (Petra, Jordan) followed by back one hour (Cairo) and tonight we’ll go back one hour (Mykonos) again. Or maybe it’s forward an hour, I don’t know anymore! We are also starting—oh, me, poor me, I can feel your sympathy—a sequence of many, many port days and not so many sea days. By July 7 we’ll see Mykonos, Istanbul, Athens, Naples, Dubrovnik, Rome, Venice, Florence, Cannes, Barcelona, Lisbon, and Le Havre.

The pyramids were everything we thought they would be and so much more in so many ways! Mohammed—not Muhammed, he told us, nobody but the Prophet is named Muhammed—was our guide, a very nice, knowledgeable man. He has a degree in archeology and is working on a masters in hieroglyphics. Who knew they even had such a degree? Since the bus ride is three hours each way, we had lots of time to learn more about both the pyramids and Mohammed that we ever thought we’d know. Most of which I promptly forgot. I do remember that the Pyramid of Cheops is the largest manmade structure—ever! It is a pyramid 142 meters (956 feet) high, contains two million limestone blocks, and the angle of the sides is exactly 48°. The mind boggles to even think about how they thought about all the mathematics they needed to construct that pyramid!

We were able to climb part of it using steps put in in modern times but we didn’t go too high so I don’t know how high the steps go. We could have crawled in an opening in the pyramid if we wanted but I didn’t particularly fancy crawling on hands and knees a fair distance (you can’t turn around until you get to the end of the passageway).

Our first view of the Pyramids. Looks like a residential area in the US, doesn't it? It is.

We're getting closer. Note the vendors waiting to pounce!

Flat Stanley meeting his first camel, in front of the Pryamid of Cheops, 142 meters high.

If your knees will survive, you may crawl into the Pyramid. And crawl back out!

One of the many, many camels (I know, they are actually dromedaries, but everyone calls them camels) available for hire.

Stanley is excited to see the Pyramid of Cheops

Randy, dwarfed by the Pyramid

Flat Stanley, Pam, and Randy. This gives you a good idea of the size of the blocks of limestone used to create the Pyramids.

You can get a camel ride around the Pyramid. But you may have to pay again to have the camel driver tell his camel to kneel down so you can get OFF!

Arguably the most famous three Pyramids. Unfortunately I only know the far left one is Cheops'.

The Sphinx and a pyramid with some of the covering it originally had.

Can you tell I loved the Sphinx?

The Egyptian version of a rest area on the highway. Literally ON the highway.

We saw the Sphinx as well and where we were amazed by the large size of the pyramids, we were amazed at the relatively small Sphinx. Not that it’s exactly small, it’s just much smaller than I imagined. Unfortunately, what overshadowed everything were the vendors! The vendors around the pyramids are by far the most aggressive and obnoxious of all that we have been subjected to in Jordan and Egypt.

As soon as a bus pulls up they start pushing trinkets and clothing on you. Literally pushing! If you won’t look at them (my technique is pretending to be deaf) they hold the item directly in front of your face, two inches away, yelling “one dollar!” or “five dollar” or whatever price. They will put items in your hands, drape clothing over your shoulder and then demand you pay them for the item you have “bought.” If you take a picture of the vendor (they are colorfully dressed and usually standing directly in front of what you want a picture of) they yell in your face that you owe them “five dollar” for the picture you just took. Any eye contact at all and more of them will converge on you. And never, never say anything to them. They block the door to the bus, they are inside the areas that I would consider part of the various monuments, there is no place where you can be left in peace to enjoy what you came to see. The whole experience is unpleasant at best and comparable to being in a feeding frenzy of sharks. But I refuse to let it spoil my experience of Egypt and the pyramids.

We had to stop at a shopping opportunity, actually a very nice, government run store with jewelry, inlaid wood items, and lots of other stuff. And, although a government-run store, bargaining was necessary. But it was a fun experience and not at all like the vendors at the pyramids. And yes, kids, we did finally buy something!

 

A ride on a feluca (sailboat) on the Nile and a buffet lunch in an open air restaurant on the Nile completed our day other than the three-hour bus ride back to our “home.” The feluca ride was nice—cool under the awning with a nice breeze—interesting but the best part was watching the “captain,” a 20-something young man, pull down the sail and glide into his mooring from a couple of hundred feet away, against the current, and with barely a bump as the feluca came to a stop. To me, a non-sailor, an amazing feat of seamanship. Of course he sort of spoiled it by demanding “tips, baksheesh” (baksheesh is apparently a bribe).

Are we actually going to get ON this feluca? Yup!

In full sail regalia, Cairo in the background. The horizon is a bit off because I am leaning back, reaching out over the edge, and a bit off-balance trying to get a decent photo of the feluca.

Drifting in (no motor is even available to help) to a perfect landing.

This shows just a tiny portion of the building un-boom in Cairo.

Bad things come in threes; one, two,…

Our first viewe of the Temple of Karnak area. We weren't very impressed.

But then we started to see what all the fuss is about. This is a very tall obelisk

Different view of the obelisk.

A cartouche, unfortunately I don't remember whose.

Some of the VERY large columns

A dog sleeping and oblivious to the world of tourists swirling about her.

A few carvings leading up to the Temple of Karnak with the only green for miles around.

Similar carvings directly opposite the ones above.

Closeup of a carving

This gives you an idea of the scale of the columns.

Closeup of carvings on the columns.

Close up of a cartouche on one of the columns.

Safaga is definitely not one of the bad things, but the three-hour bus ride to get there certainly qualifies. Imagine a flight from Chicago to San Francisco (or perhaps Adelaide to Perth), sitting in steerage coach, and your knees are touching—no, not touching, pressing against—the seatback in front of you. There is no beverage service, and the flight attendant’s voice, coming through the speaker just above your head, is at a decibel level just below jackhammering. And you know that when you step outside it will be hot enough to fry the proverbial egg on the pavement.  

But I will leave that for a moment to tell you about bad number one. Our credit card was stolen. Where? We have no idea. Nor did we know anything about it being stolen because I was too lazy to download any transactions because the internet was too slow. Apparently on May 18 somebody used a card or the number (we’re not clear on this) to by 200 gallons of fuel in Dover, Delaware. Note that we boarded the ship on May 16. About May 23 or 24 we were called down to the Passenger Service desk because our card had been declined. We had a credit balance so I wondered why they were even bothering, but apparently they check to make sure the card is OK. I called VISA and the sweet young thing on the phone couldn’t figure out why our card was declined other than the charge came from the US and VISA thought we were travelling abroad. OK, that was sorted out and they allowed the “charge.”

A week later the same thing, and I brought my credit card down and they manually swiped it and the charge went through. A week later we got a snotty message telling us to come down before noon (it was 10am). Same thing, I gave them my card and they ran the charges and gave me a receipt that they were paid. That night after dinner, we found a letter telling us to come to the desk that night. The ship's charges had again been denied even though they said earlier they had gone through. This time I asked for the manager and we decided to wait until morning.

In the morning I spent an hour (!) on the phone with VISA and it was only after 15 minutes of conversations and transfers to Security that they allowed that there probably had been some fraudulent charges. After much conversation, including that they would let us keep the card and would authorize payments on a piece by piece basis—it boggles the mind that they would even suggest that—they agreed to cancel the card and ship a new one to the ship in Athens. If it hadn’t been for Alex, the Finance Manager for the Sun, I STILL wouldn’t have solved the problem. So the card is now (4 days later) in Athens and will be sent to Mykonos to meet the ship.

Bad number two? My camera was thrown out of the overhead when our bus went over a particularly nasty bump on the way to Luxor and the lens ripped off the body. It is definitely kaput until we can get home. Both camera and lens have things hanging off them that definitely are not supposed to be hanging off. Randy has a point-and-shoot that I am using, but I miss, miss, miss my D300s!

Bad number three is still to come.

Safaga is the gateway to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings so we were willing to put up with the hardships. The land we drove through is possibly the most barren we have ever seen. No grass, no shrubs, and certainly no trees. Not a speck of plant life anywhere visible. Even Death Valley has SOME vegetation, but not this land! The land rises to about 2100 feet (675 meters) but doesn’t cool off at all. We were told later that the temperature was 50°C (122°F) but I don’t believe it came even close to that; maybe 40, but not much more. But there is no shade in any of the areas of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and the monuments just hold on to the heat and radiate it outwards so it seems much hotter.

To me the Temple of Karnak was the most magnificent. To see the massive columns, decorated with thousands of hieroglyphics and figures is astonishing. Trying to imagine how it looked before is impossible for me; it’s enough to see what’s left.

The caves in the Valley of the Kings, if I can call the tombs of the the Pharaohs mere “caves,” are pretty amazing as well, especially if you see the models of the underground parts as well. It’s hard, in this age of computer modeling, to imagine how the Egyptians of 3-5000 years ago (I can’t remember exactly how old the tombs are) could figure out the logistics of digging into the ground on so many levels and having entrances and tunnels line up. We were not allowed to take photos at the Valley of the Kings so you’ll have to go online to see the magnificence of the tombs of Ramses IV and Ramses IX, the only tombs we could see in the time we had. Here what impressed me the most were the colors. There is no color left at Karnak, but here there is lots of color and it makes a huge difference for a newbie who’s never seen any of the Egyptian tombs.

The last temple we visited was that of Queen Hapshetsup (read about this powerful woman http://www.touregypt.net/historicalessays/hatshepsut.htm), a magnificent temple that looks as if it were carved several hundred years ago, not many thousand.

Between the Temple of Karnak and the Valley of the Kings, we crossed the Nile on what is becoming an ordinary mode of transportation for us, a very dilapidated boat. Nonetheless, it didn’t sink—although the engine temporarily died on the boat’s way to pick us up, that was a bit worrisome!—and we had a lovely albeit hot lunch.

Because of the distances involved, we had no more than about 45 minutes at each place and then back on the bus for what has become “home” for us. My friend Liz especially will be aghast that we spent so little time there, but this is a trip of finding out that this-is-what-we-will-come-back-to-see and that there are a few never-agains!

Our boat to the restaurant for lunch

Not the most wonderful transportation

Our happy boat driverr

Chugging across the river

This is the barren land we travelled through

Flat  Stanley reading the guide books

Flat Stanley making friends with the Egyptian police

Our transport to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

A cartouche

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Closeup of some pictures on Hatshepsut's temple

Flat Stanley enjoying Hatshepsut's carvings

Flat Stanley next to some hieroglyphics

This I took because the sign just makes no sense at all!

I was trying to show the eclectic architecture and unfinished houses along the road to the Valley of Kings (note the rebar sticking up on the left of the yellow house)