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Published: January 14th 2010
No Horns
In Egypt - Good Luck!Our last stop (or country) on our overland trip was Egypt. Now a little over a year ago when we spent 6 days in Cairo, before flying to Nairobi for our African overland trip, we were pretty overwhelmed by Cairo and although we enjoyed the pyramids, museum, citadel and bazaar, by the end there was a bitter taste in our mouth about Egypt and both of us were pretty confident that we wouldn’t be racing back to the land of the Pharaohs…wrong! Here we were crossing the Gulf of Aquaba, an arm of the Red Sea, on our way from Jordan to Egypt; hoping that the stories from other travellers were true: “the rest of Egypt is MUCH better then Cairo.”
After a proper Egyptian welcome that involved over 6 hours baking in the port customs area and bribes paid to maybe one too many customs officers, we managed to get an Egyptian license plate (that looked like it had been shot up and ran over) on the back of the truck and got ourselves on the road. Fortunately Dahab was only a couple hours away and our first stop.
Dahab looks across the Gulf of Aquaba at the
coast of Saudi Arabia and although the landscape looks rocky and barren it’s a total different story underwater. Dahab is rated as one of the best dive areas in the world and although, unlike many of our co-travellers, we didn’t dive, the snorkelling was beautiful and we enjoyed our time in the water. Apart from snorkelling ,we caught up on much needed sleep after so many bush camps (after all we were staying in a room with a bed…amazing!), enjoyed our fair share of Stella & Sakkara beers overlooking the water, smoked a few sheeshas (apple tobacco only!), ate a few half-chickens and koshary (a mix of maccaroni, lentils, beans, fried/dried onions and a spicy tomato sauce), and really just relaxed in the warm weather that we had been missing for the first part of the trip.
After our time in Dahab was up we headed inland and up to higher altitudes, to Mt. Sinai. The 4-hour drive saw us climb and the temperature drop from 25C at sea level to about 10C at the base of the 2285m high Mt. Sinai. After a meal off the truck we prepared ourselves for the 3-hour hike to the top of
Looking Up
Blue Hole, Dahab this very important Biblical mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God. The idea was to climb the mountain starting around 9pm, make our way to the top with our Bedouin guide by midnight, sleep at the top and watch the sunrise around 6am. Now, I’m sure this plan works great in the summer, when you wouldn’t want to be caught on that mountain in the heat of the day, but we’re now talking December and had heard rumours that this is the time of the year when it starts snowing at the top… not cool! Although we tried to come up with other itineraries, the majority of the group still wanted to stick to the prescribed plan, so being part of the group we went along with it. The temp when we left the truck was 9C and after a well paced 3 hour hike (including 750 steep rock stairs) we were at the last tea stand before the top where we had a chance to rent sleeping mats and extra blankets. Considering it was now midnight and 2C we knew it would probably still get colder, so even though the blankets reeked like camel, we loaded up
with them and made our way to the top. During the summer months there can be over 500 people at the top of this mountain, all trying to see the view Moses saw after 40 days and 40 nights, when he received those Commandments from his Maker; and while those people are devout, they are also smart as not one of them was up here on this night and it was just us crazy overlanders sleeping out in the cold. It was a very cold and not too comfortable night but we must have slept a bit because it didn’t seem too long and then finally at 5:30am the sky turned pink and we all woke up to see the sun rise over the Sinai Peninsula and the many peaks surrounding Mt. Sinai. With frozen water bottles, we knew the temperature had dropped below 0C and we were all happy to shed the stinky blankets and make our way back down, getting the blood flowing again to our toes and fingers. Once back at the truck we had breakfast and then drove for 12 hours crossing the Suez Cannel and then bush camped outside of a monastery in the dessert
and then the next day drove again for 6 hours until we reached the Nile and town of Luxor.
Luxor, known as Thebes a few years ago (2000 BC), sits on the Nile and was essentially the religious capital for the ancient Egyptians for 2000 years. With sights like Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Nobles, Valley of the Workers, and Temples dedicated to Queens such as Hatshepsut (say: “Hot-Chick-Soup”) we knew we had a lot of ground to cover. All of the sights were amazing and when you considered their ages were mind-blowing. It was fascinating to see the vibrant paintings on the walls of the tombs of Pharaohs who died over 4000 years ago in the Valley of the Kings; or to find out about the tombs King Ramses II built for his 100+ sons (plus he had another 100 daughters - that’s why our call guide called him King Ram-Sex); or to walk though the 134 massive hieroglyph iced pillars in Karnak Temple where our guide taught us a little about reading the ancient script; or to learn about how Queen Hatshepsut disguised herself as a man to rule as King;
Before the Climb
At the base of Mt. Sinai or to learn that the 3rd floor of the McDonalds has the best views of Luxor Temple…it was all great! After a few days of “Tomb Raiding” in Luxor we were off again and headed down the Nile to Aswan.
In Aswan, we stayed in a hotel that was down an alley between the Nile and the popular Souq (Market), which proved to be a great location. That night we hopped on a boat and visited a Nubian village and had dinner at a Nubian house. It was interesting to learn about this civilization whose roots are based in south Egypt and north Sudan. It was also classic when, during his talk about how they are very traditional (marriages, houses, farming, etc.), his cell phone went off with “ I can be your hero, baby” as the ringtone! We also enjoyed teasing his 3 juvenile Nile Crocodiles he had in a small pen (apparently it’s illegal to have live crocodiles in your house in Egypt - but it didn’t bother him!) All in all a fun night!
The following day we made our way by armed convoy to Abu Simbal for a day trip. Because tourists can
At the top
We survived the night! Mt. Sinai be targeted when traveling that close to the Sudanese boarder (30km away), we had to travel by coaches, that travel in convoys with armed police on each bus. The armed guard thing was a bit of an unnerving experience (especially because our cop just slept on the bus and constantly adjusted his AK-47 in his sleep) and at the same time we had a bus driver who thought that driving 150km/hr (directly behind another bus) was the safest way to get us to our destination…what a trip! But the sights we saw were worth the “risk” and it was not only amazing to see the to temple of Abu Simbal (two temples - one for Ramses II and one for his Queen Nefertiti), but to learn that with the constriction of the High Dam in the mid-1900’s and the flooding of the new manmade Nasser Lake (the second largest manmade lake in the world), that in the 1960’s a UNESCO group of Archaeologists deconstructed both temples and relocated them piece by piece over 4-years and rebuilt the temples above the sore line of Lake Nasser - and you wouldn’t even know it! That was amazing! After 2-hours at Abu Simbal
Mosses' View
Sunrise on Mt.Sinai our convoy headed back for Aswan with the same cop pointing his gun all over the bus and a new driver who only drove 120km/hr (how nice!).
The next day we packed up in Aswan and with overnight-bags in hand walked down to the shores of the Nile where we boarded 2 Felucca boats that would be our homes for the next 2 days and 2 nights. With our Nubian crew joking with us on the onset we made our way down the Nile in these traditional sail boats. The sun was shining and with nothing to do but watch the shores, read or play cards it was a real nice relaxing time, just zigzagging back and forth from one bank to the other. In the evening we pulled up on shore, the crew cooked us a simple but tasty meal and we had a fire on the “beach” and put our beer bong to good use, much to the amazement and interest of our crew members who also liked to have fun, bringing out their bongo drums and teaching us a few songs. The next day was much of the same, with a quieter, earlier night, and the
The Key of Life
Occupies the hand of every Egyptian God following morning we met up with the truck again and drove back to Luxor.
That evening we boarded an overnight train from Luxor and despite being an hour late, arrived into Cairo around 8am. As we exited the train station we could “feel” that we were back in Cairo: the low think smog, the black and white taxis jockeying for inches on the road whaling on their horns, and immediately being hawked by “porters” charging 20-times the going rate to “help” you with your bag… yup, we’re in Cairo! We took a bus to the hotel (the truck stayed outside of Cairo to avoid the chaos) which was located in a different part of Cairo then the last time we were there. The rest of the group headed off to see the Pyramids of Giza and the Egyptian Museum, but since we had already “been there, done that” we went on our own into downtown to sort out our visas for India. As this was the last days of the Istanbul to Cairo part of the trip, we decided to have Christmas early and celebrated with everyone on December 22nd. Our driver managed to buy all the fixings, including
two turkeys, and we organized a hotel to cook everything up. The Chef did a great job with the turkeies, but had no idea about stuffing, so our guide asked Kelsey and I to help with making stuffing and gravy for the dinner. It was pretty funny going into an “industrial” kitchen with our flip-flops on and making use of what they had available, but we managed to turn out a decent gravy and a pretty good stuffing, which along with everything else was enjoyed by all our friends we had been travelling with over the past 5 weeks, as well as the new members of the group who were taking the truck from Cairo to Tunis. “Merry Oasis Christmas!”
The next day was a pretty groggy start, but we managed to say good-bye to our friends who were finishing in Cairo and got a bus to where our truck was stored and then headed for Alexandria; the last destination in the Middle East for Kelsey and I. Alexandria, the place where Alexander the Great was buried after his body was brought back from his conquest in India, was a great relief from Cairo; with a nice breeze coming
off the Mediterranean and the remnants of a popular French, British and Italian port town. Whether it was the colonial architecture (which put even the newest Egyptian buildings to shame) or the fact that the French had left their patisseries, the Italians their espresso machines and the Brits a tram-line; Alexandria seemed a lot more hospitable, with more of an international flavour then anywhere else in Egypt. These things, combined with great Egyptian food like Shwarma (similar to beef kabab), koshary and “Egyptian Pies” and sites like the Citadel, the harbour, the many mosques and museums and of course the main attraction the Bibliotheca Alexandria (a new version of the ancient library that put Alexandria on every ancient map, housing over 700,000 ancient scrolls in it‘s prime) made Alexandria the perfect spot to end our Middle East journey. We enjoyed our last couple days here with the group and even managed to have a glass of Port for Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas Day we had to part with our friends and the truck we called home for over 5-weeks and waved good-bye as they continued onwards to Libya (which does not allow Canadians to enter at the moment) and
Oblisk in Karnak
Connecting the Earth and the Sky then onwards to Tunisia. It was sad to say good-bye but we knew that some of the friends we made on that trip would stay connected for a long time to come.
Kels and I stayed in “Alex” for another two days where we mostly organized ourselves for the next part of our trip. Then we headed back to Cairo by bus for a night, picked up our passports with our new Indian visas and then headed for the airport. Just like that our time in the Middle East was over; what a great trip! We would fly from Cairo to Kuwait, then onwards to Trivandrum India and then another connecting flight to Chennai, followed by a 3 hr drive to Tiruvannamalai where we would meet up with my Dad and Cheryl. The Middle East was a great trip and definitely broadened our horizons and understanding of an often stereotyped group of people. The history (ancient, biblical, and recent) and the historical sites were all very eye-opening and it was amazing to think that you were standing in the same site of an ancient metropolis or the site of events that shaped and changed history. If anything the stories
Pillar in Karnak
One of the 134 "Lotus Pillars" were great and learning about how people lived and live now were as big a part of the trip as anything. The people that we traveled with were a lot of fun, and like I said before, we’ll be connected with them for many years to come. Thank you Middle East for your Crescent Moons, early morning call to prayer, hospitable smiles and traditional way of life; it was a great education and experience.
Until Next Time…
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