egypt

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21 February 2010
Woke up in Alexandria, Egypt to the calling for holy prayer, I felt an urge to bow to the East. It was sunny, warm, no clouds, a little yellow dust in the air. Down for a early breaky then off on our tour (this was to be 12 ½ hrs). The Port was very clean, however once we left port one side was clean, the other side was dirty. We found our 3 hour trip through Alexandria to Giza Plateau was very dirty.
Our guide was a woman who was born and raised and still resides in Cairo. She gave us a narrative of the history of Egypt. Once we arrived in Cairo, we saw that their irrigation canals were also being used in part as a garbage dump. We hear that the locals pay for garbage pick-up, but in fact there is no garbage pickup, so they are left to their own ingenuity for getting rid of their garbage, hence the canals are used as garbage dumps. It is just unbelievable. Within the course of 3 city blocks, we saw floating in the canals, a dead goat, horse, cow, dog and get this, they also fish in this canal with nets and fishing poles, surprise, what’s for dinner (chemical stew). Just think the canal is also used to irrigate the crops, then we/locals eat this stuff. Needless to say, we didn’t have any local food. We wonder if green peace or any other international environmental group has visited Egypt?
We arrived at the Pyramids in Giza around 11:00 am. We immediately were faced with a barrage of merchants selling everything (postcards, head dress apparel, shawls, books, Etc. Etc. Etc). We even found that the police are involved with making extra money by volunteering to take pictures, then look for you to pay them.
I know that none of you will believe this, but we both rode a camel, (Gerrie is actually on a living, breathing camel, I must say, I couldn’t believe I got her to do this, one condition, I had to too). (see pics) The hardest part for the camel is getting up from a lying position then getting back down to a lying position to let us off. This is equivalent to that first big hill of a roller coaster, if you don’t lean back, you’ll fall off. Suffice to say, the locals are always looking for more money. We had already paid for our ride, but then the boy who was leading our camel ride, took us away from the others and then wanted more money to take us back and get us off the camel. Too bad we don’t have a scratch and sniff photo for the camel smell, but trust us, we STUNK for the rest of the day.
Then off to visit the two largest pyramids of Khufu and Khafre. Khufu is the largest one. Took photos etc. etc. etc. These pyramids aren’t as heavy or tall as you may think. It was breathtaking to see these monuments up close and to touch them; no climbing allowed. Then off to the Sphinx. This is completely closed off from the public, took photos. Then off to lunch to a 5 star hotel, (food was good, but we didn’t eat very much, just hot stuff). After lunch, off to the first city of Egypt, Memphis (not in USA). Tour took us through the old part of town (what a disaster) to the museum. (photos of artefacts) then off to the step pyramid at Saqqara and ancient tombs which date back to 2300 BC. Then we went to the Papyrus Institute and to the jewellery store to see the cartouches. WOW, these places cost us big time. Then on the bus for our 3 hour bus trip back to the ship, we arrived at 9:30 pm, had supper then crashed.
22 February, 2010
Up early had breaky then off for our five hour tour of Alexandria. Took us to the newer part of Alexandria, which is very clean (we think this is for the tourists to see how beautiful Alexandria is, the Four Seasons Hotel is located in this part of Alexandria), but there is still the low income part of town (80% of the population in Alexandria is low income, and we think the homeless in Vancouver may live better then the low income people live here. What an eye opener this was.
There are local bazaars which go for blocks.
Next we went to the Royal Palace which has 280 rooms. Until 1952, the public was not allowed in the Royal Palace grounds, it was strictly for royalty. Then off to the Roman Catacombs, which was discovered by mistake when they were starting construction. We went into the catacombs (down 100 steps) The air was damp and cool. Last photo road construction the Egyptian way.
Then back on the ship, saw a couple of shows (Celine Dion impersonator) and then dinner and crashed again.
The history and artefacts of Egypt are awesome. The country itself has a lot of work to do to bring themselves to international standards.
Next stop Malta.

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