Moses, Mrs. Mubarak, Mom and Dad, and Luxor

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Its was a busy two weeks since the last post and when I wrote but didn't post this blog that has been filled with very eventful and once-in-a-lifetime moments.

After my last post, we had a four-day weekend. I was filled with joy when I saw this on AUC’s calendar only to have my joy crushed when I found out that I couldn’t go traveling to some far off locale like Istanbul with my friends. My Egyptology professor had already claimed that weekend for himself. Instead of Istanbul, I went to Luxor with about 12 or so members of my class. We were going to fly down to Luxor instead of taking the overnight train so I had to be at the airport at 3AM for our 5AM flight. So I went out for a late dinner with two friends. Unfortunately, something was wrong with either my babaganoush or my onion soup and developed food poisoning within 2 hours. I still had already paid for a portion of the trip (AUC covered most of it) and really wanted to go to Luxor so I went anyway thinking I just had an upset stomach. After throwing up and sleeping my way through our 2 hours of waiting at the airport, I determined I had food poisoning. Instead of exploring Karnak Temple and the Luxor Museum, I spent my day in my room trying to get over the food poisoning, but I won’t go into details. Everyone was really nice to me about it with my professor checking in to see if I was alive and the front desk calling to check the same and inform me that they were getting me some medicine to settle my stomach. After sleeping the day away, I decided I would join everyone for Friday’s site visits. We began at Deir el-Bahri, or the Temple of Hatshepsut, which is a three-terraced temple that juts out from the mountain behind it. Surrounding it are several other tombs and temples with some still readable scenes, which we visited. Then we headed to the Temple of Ramsesseum for Ramses II which apparently is home to the largest statue in ancient Egypt though it has since fallen over and broken. After that we went to another temple right next door which had traces of kitchens and other more domestic elements before heading to Medinat Habu built by Ramses II with excellent scenes on the walls of battles and festivals. We returned to our hotel for lunch and nap before exploring Luxor Temple at sunset, which was beautiful. It was nice to get a break from the heat and sun as I was so dehydrated and dead from not eating or drinking water all day Thursday and barely on Friday. Luxor was beautiful and I hope to have photos up soon to show you. Attached to Luxor is a mosque sI went to bed shortly after a quick dinner since all our mornings were beginning with 5AM breakfasts. Our last day in Luxor began with the Valley of the Kings back on the West Bank of Thebes. We started all the way in the back with the tomb of Thutmosis III, the son of Hatshepsut. His tomb requires a steep climb up to it and then a narrow climb down into the antechamber. We spent an hour and a half decoding the perfectly preserved walls of the burial chamber that outlined the 12 Hours of the Book of Amduat, which are about the sun god Re’s descent into the Netherworld and overcoming the evil snake Apophis and being reborn in the 12th hour in time for day in short. The humidity in the tomb rivals DC’s summers and it was only March! When we got out the already high 80s seemed like a cool 70. We then made our way back through the Valley to the Tomb of Ramses VI which is beautiful preserved and very colorful with yellow and red everywhere. After begging our professor, he let us go into King Tut’s tomb, which contains his mummy, the only mummy I would look at in all of Egypt. Then we boarded our bus and our professor took us to the Valley of the Baboons, which lacks tourists and even those who stray to see extra sites as it is off limits to almost everyone who doesn’t have a card from the Supreme Council of Antiquities saying “This person can go anywhere they want with X number of students,” so in short, we were spoiled because we never paid for a single tomb or temple except baksheeshing the Egyptian who flicked the switch for the lights. In the Valley of the Baboons, we explored the Tomb of Ay who followed King Tut. Their tombs are very similar in color, design and wall art. We then were dropped off on a hill across from the Temple of Ramsesseum from yesterday and climbed about half the way up to a series of 3 or 4 noble tombs. They were almost all perfectly preserved. The first one’s antechamber had a wavy ceiling to it to resemble the bunches of grapes that were painted on it. The last one visited had such beautiful and delicate reliefs carved on the wall, but unfortunately was not finished as the stone wasn’t appropriate for relief work. Then we went to Deir el-Medinat which is the workers’ village. The excavation shows you all the paths and houses that they lived in and along the hill are the workers’ tombs. They are even better preserved than anything belonging to the kings and queens and show the daily life of most workers. We ended with a trip to the village’s temple from Ptolemaic period. After lunch, we went back to the West Bank for a quick trip to the Valley of the Queens, but I felt sick after such a rich lunch and chose to rest rather than making myself sick again. In all, it was so wonderful to have the chance to see all these unique sights, but quite exhausting. We went on a felucca ride at sunset along the Nile before we headed to the airport for our 12AM flight.

That Sunday morning, after getting back to my room around 230AM, I got up to meet my parents at the airport for a quick exchange of goods. They then headed to Alexandria for two days. Upon their return to Cairo, I met up with them at their hotel Tuesday night for the most amazing moment of my time in Cairo. The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (TCM), the group of which my parents were a part, had arranged a special dinner with Mrs. Mubarak at the Four Seasons. We arrived, went through security and began to wait for our special guest to arrive over appetizers, fresh juice and wine, and then were greeted by Zahi Hawass, the top Egyptologist and the Director of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. Dr. Hawass is extremely well-known throughout Egypt and despite being full of himself, thinks he descended from the pharaohs themselves, he was very nice and intelligent. Finally, Mrs. Mubarak arrived so elegantly and dignified and greeted all of us individually. After introductions, Dr. Patchem, the Museum’s head, went around giving more detailed introductions of the couples and mentioned to her that I was a student at AUC, her alma mater. We had a quick conversation about how I’m a study abroad student and what my majors are. We were then escorted into the dining room for the best meal I’ve had in Egypt. I tried foie gras, which made my mom proud! I had a nice time speaking with my parents’ guide, Fadel, one of his UCLA students who is a retired police sheriff from California, an Egyptian woman whose husband worked for Eli Lilly and therefore spent time in Indianapolis and Mrs. Mubarak’s bodyguard, who sadly wasn’t Kevin Costner. I tried to use a little bit of Arabic and get their feedback on my colloquial and they were very happy to help and also offered suggestions of places to go in Cairo. After bidding each of us good bye individually again, my father in true P Bo style asked for a photo. So now I have proof of my encounter!

The next morning after Arabic, I took a cab to the Pyramids to meet up with TCM group at the base of the Sphinx for their private lecture by Dr. Hawass. The base of the sphinx is blocked off for tourists so that was pretty special. Then the group went to the Great Pyramid for a narrow climb up to the king’s burial chamber, which was insanely humid, but nowhere close to the humidity in Thutmosis III’s tomb. After that, a portion of the group was allowed to take a camel ride, which included my parents. I was extremely entertained watching my parents on a camel and watching my dad freak out by it. And almost regret not joining them on the camel ride since I only get to watch the freak out for a bit. That night we went to al-Ghouri complex for the whirling dervishes’ performance. After an hour and half of spinning, we were more than ready to leave, especially Mr. Impatience, my dad.

The next night, I met up with my parents at the U.S. Embassy near campus for a unique reception with the Ambassador who informed us of the actions taken by him and the US and the Egyptian governments to resolve what could have been a more major issue when US military forces opened fire on a civilian boat that was approaching the un-marked military vessel in the Suez Canal despite numerous methods of warning the small boat to stay away. One of the bullets accidentally hit one of the Egyptians onboard despite the soldiers’ efforts to hit only the water in front of the boat. The bullet killed the Egyptian and caused quite the reaction by the locals at his funeral. The US denied that it was their bullet that killed the Egyptian until they had proof and once it was confirmed, apologized to the victims family and President Bush called Hosni Mubarak in the afternoon or evening the day after the event once it was confirmed to be the American’s fault to apologize and express his condolences to the victim’s family. This was then put all over the Egyptian media to try to calm any unrest or outrage. After this explanation, the Ambassador went on to discuss US-Egyptian relations and the Egyptians view of Americans which fit everything I’ve experienced here. They love Americans and are so happy to see Americans visiting and learning about Egyptians! I’ve never experienced any anti-American moments while I’ve been here despite what some people at home feared. After watching the Cairo sunset from the Ambassador’s balcony, my parents and I went to dinner near by my dorm with one of my friends so they could meet some of my friends here.

That night at 11, I boarded a micro bus with about 12 of my friends for Dahab and Mount Sinai. We drove through the night at super fast speeds thanks to our driver Osama who increased the price by 100LE when he found out there were 13 instead of 12 of us once we were onboard. We arrived in Dahab, the beach town on the Red Sea about a 13km swim from visible Saudi Arabia, at 6AM. Osama dropped us off at a hostel with the Funny Mummy restaurant. We sprawled out on the terrace of the restaurant waiting for the cook to arrive before eating breakfast and heading to the sandy beach about 20 minutes away. We spent the most of the day tanning, swimming, throwing the football around. That afternoon/evening, four of us went ATVing, two went horseback riding, some of us took walks and the rest stood guard over everyone’s stuff. We ate dinner at a place called Goha with the most energetic waiter ever. Ainsley and Ariel had talked him down to a 35LE dinner that included seafood soup, salads (tehina, babaganoush, and a real salad), fillet of fresh fish with rice, ice cream and fruit dessert, Bedouin tea and shisha. Very impressive work by them!! At 1130PM, we met up with Osama and drove to Mt. Sinai. He got there in about 90 minutes and it normally takes almost double that to get there. We had a few problems with passports since one in our group didn’t have his and according to Osama we are now in trouble with the local cops and they are being very suspicious of us. Nonetheless, we were still let into St. Catherine’s Monastery/Mt Sinai. At around 2/230AM, we began our climb up the camel path without the guide Osama forced us to arrange. This climb was intense as it was dark, we were tired, and it included several hundreds of other climbers, young and old from all ethnicities and religions. After losing most of the group, I did about 75% of the climb with one of our guys named Marshall. My horrible sunburn on my legs and his migraine headache slowed us down. We reached the 700 steps to the summit a little before 5 and about halfway up I sent Marshall up on his way as my knees were bugging me and I didn’t want him to miss the sunrise. Thankfully, I didn’t either as I made it up with 15 minutes or so to spare. Despite the super cold winds, I was able to experience bits and pieces of the sunrise over people’s shoulders. Once we found each other, we climbed down to meet up with one in our group who was feeling very sick and rested at hot tea hut just below the final 50 steps to the summit. We took a nap and warmed up while the mass exodus of people (fitting) climbed down. We took the Steps of Repentance (3750 steps) down to the base. We had to wait for St. Catherine’s Monastery to up at 9AM, which let several in our group head down slowly. Despite the packs of tourists inside making it hard to explore, I did get to see the burning bush, yes that one, which isn’t in fact burning and doesn’t really look like it once was since it is still living and growing. We climbed back into the bus by 10AM to drive back to Cairo with a stop around 1 for lunch before returning to Cairo around 4ish. Osama made record time with each trip! Sunburn and exhaustion sent me straight to bed for a nap only to wake up at 9 exhausted so I set my alarm and fall back asleep until 8AM.

The next bit will be posted before spring break and will include the end of the parental units’ visit, a Park Tudor appearance, Mexican food in Cairo, some more of Islamic Cairo and a bit on where I’ll be for spring break!

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