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Published: December 13th 2008
It’s hard to believe that our holiday is rapidly drawing to a close. Thankfully, after an extremely busy albeit enjoyable time in Israel and Jordan, we managed to kick back into holiday mode during our stay in Egypt.
We did a tour in Egypt, although we use the term “tour” loosely. It was more of a package of a few organized activities and accommodation, with a tour guide available to organize anything else you wish to do on top of these pre-arranged activities. This suited us quite well as it allowed us to largely stick to our preferred method of independent travel.
We arrived in Cairo last Saturday morning. Our tour was not scheduled to start until Sunday evening, so we had some R&R time and walked the streets of Cairo. Crossing the road in Cairo rates as an extreme sport and you learn the true meaning of the phrase “Inshallah” which means “God willing”. “Inshallah we will make it to the other side of the road” we would chant as a 10 tonne truck comes hurtling down the road. The driver’s in Cairo rely on their horns and brakes rather than actual road rules. We also discovered the
Emma at the Sphinx, Giza
Much less colourful and intact than the Las Vegas version.world’s most wasteful government expenditure…Cairo road lane markings. When they construct a road here, they shouldn’t bother with them as they serve no obvious use when a three lane road turns into a 5.5 lane road with cars and trucks squeezed up together, mirror-to-mirror, bumper-to-bumper.
On Sunday, we met our fellow tourers. Thankfully, it was a small tour with only four of us plus our guide, Mammoun. The other two were two girls from Melbourne, Caroline and Ilana, who were adding an Egyptian jaunt to their travels in Israel.
Our first day of proper activities was on Monday. We went on a tour with an Egyptologist named Dr Redi. He was very knowledgeable and showed us the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum. It was quite amazing to see the pyramids up close and personal. Although we also found out that the pyramid at the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas was the one tacky Vegas monument that was actually bigger than the real thing. That says more about how big the Luxor Casino is rather than how small the real pyramids are as they are certainly no small building by any stretch of the imagination. You
are not allowed to take any photos within the Egyptian Museum, but there were quite a few amazing things there. This is where all of King Tutt’s treasures are kept, except the actual mummy which is back in the desert where they found it. The amount of gold these pharaohs used is staggering. His famous mask is 11 kgs of pure gold and his coffin was 130 kgs of gold!! And he wasn’t even a very significant ruler.
We also went to the famous Khan el Khalili market. We browsed around and did a little bit of shopping, but getting harassed every ten metres to come look in someone’s shop got a little wearing after a while so we got some drinks and sat and watched the world go by for a while. Matt had dirty boots from walking around in the Giza sands all day and was constantly getting offers for people to polish his shoes.
We were pleasantly surprised by Cairo. Although our opinion would probably be different in summer. It is a bit dirty, but not a grubby city. It’s like it just needs someone to give the streets a good sweep, a dose of
rain, and give the buildings a fresh coat of paint and it would actually be quite a nice city.
The next day we set off for Dahab on the Gulf of Aqaba on the eastern side of the Sinai Peninsula. It was about a seven hour drive through the Eastern Desert with nothing much to see until the Sinai Mountains. These are quite pretty in a rugged sort of way. “Sin” is Arabic for tooth and the tooth shaped mountains are the reason for the name. Our room was facing the ocean which was only 20 metres away. We had a room with a balcony on the top floor and each night we slept with the balcony doors open with the sounds of waves crashing against the sea wall putting us to sleep.
We spent three full days in Dahab. On the second day, we took a drive out to St. Catherine’s Monastery which is at the base of Mt Sinai. This monastery was built in the 6th century and houses the second oldest library in the world, after the Vatican. We went to the library and saw many ancient pieces of art as well as manuscripts. We
saw part of the Codex Sinaticus which is one of the oldest copies of the Bible including both New and Old Testaments written in the 4th century. After visiting the monastery, we hiked 14kms up to the top of Mt Sinai to see sunset over Mt. St. Katherine, the highest peak in Egypt. Mt Sinai is a little bit taller than Mt. Kosciuszko, and it took us about 5 hours to walk up and down the mountain. On top, we pulled out our Bible and read the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments.
On the final day in Dahab, Emma went snorkeling in the Red Sea. After Hanauma Bay, Matt knew that snorkeling would be an exercise in futility so stayed back at the hotel and packed up ready to leave early the next morning. Another seven hour drive back to Cairo, a spot of shopping again in Giza, and back to our hotel.
Today, our last day in Cairo, is being spent in the lobby of our hotel. Our flight to Bangkok isn’t until 10:15pm. Thankfully, everything’s looking fine for getting there and out again. We’ll be having a “holiday from the holiday” with a nice
Learning to make papyrus
Layer upon layer upon layer... stay in luxury in the middle of Bangkok before flying home next Tuesday via Hong Kong.
Hopefully, we’ll squeeze in one more blog on what has been an excellent trip. Until then!
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hooray...
hurry home... too much missing is going on...