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Published: January 13th 2012
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This is an update for everyone about what I've done since the group meeting in Cairo on the 31st.
People: My group consists of 1 Kiwi, 10 Aussies, and 3 Canadians (including myself). Our tour leader is also an Aussie and the driver is South African. I'm the second youngest person on the tour and the rest are 30-60ish. It's a really great group and we all get along well.
Activities: Pyramids first, then the Sphinx. The pyramids are much larger than I thought they'd be for some reason. Got a lot of photos which I will hopefully be able to post soon. Every scenic National Geographic shot you see of them never seems to include the dozen Egyptians trying to sell you tacky stone pyramids or plastic statues. The best one I saw was a snowglobe with a camel in it. A _snowglobe_ in Egypt. It was evident that the Sphinx was under restoration but it was still impressive. The whole group enjoyed taking silly trick shots of each of us kissing the Sphinx or holding the pyramids.
After that we head into the desert for some bush camping for two days. At first the Black Desert
was more flat with the occasional sprinkling of black rocks but gradually changed to include large heaps of rock dunes. There weren't huge dunes of just sand like I was expecting. Again, photos at a later time. The first night was not very good all around, too cold, no sleep, trains shaking the earth as they passed us at 4 in the morning. The second day we went into the White Desert. As you may have guessed the White Desert had white rocks. Also, purple ones. Strange but definitely beautiful. The whole landscape was very, very alien and I remember thinking that if you just plunked me down here with no prior warning I wouldn't have known I was still on Earth. Second night was better, I was warm and actually got a reasonable amount of sleep.
We kept driving and passes through several oasis and checkpoints along the highway. Mostly they just asked the tour guide and driver where we were from/going to. Stuff like that. We were warned they may want to board the truck to check passports but they never did. When we passed through Dahkla Oasis we stopped at a local artist's workshop. He'd build
a house out of sandstone using traditional methods and had then carved his artwork into the stone.
At our guesthouse that night we were right across from a school where the voting for the elections was being held. A few of the group people watched there for an hour or so and we all agreed that it was a unique experience to be able to say you were in Egypt while they were holding these elections.
A very long day of driving and then we arrived in Aswan. The group explored the local market and, as expected, was harassed every other step. Our favourite lines of the night were: 'Buy one, get me free.' and 'You see my shop, no hassle here.' The next day (today) we went to Aswan dam and Philae (spelling I'll have to check later) Temple. The dam was....well, just a dam. But the temple was quite impressive. The two are related. When they finished the dam they flooded the island where the original temple was located (back in the 70s I tihnk). The temple was beautiful and still held its colours at that time but after they flooded it all the colours washed
away. 6 months later they cut up the temple and moved it to where it is located now. Why they didn't do that before they flooded it I have no idea. Anyway, the temple is dedicated to Isis and is still very impressive. It's gone through a lot of trauma (being underwater, being attacked, converted into a church, having the heiroglyphics scraped away, being moved) but some of the pictures are still very clear.
After that we went for a visit to two botanical gardens and had a dinner at a local's house (again, kinda western food). Tomorrow we've got to get up at 3:00 am in order to join a convoy and head out to Abu Simbel. It's supposed to be a highlight of the trip and I'm really looking forward to it.
After tomorrow I'm going to be on a boat going up the nile. It promises to be cold (again) and we'll have the pleasure of spending the night with mosquitos too. I also will have no internet access for at least two days.
Food: When we were travelling around the desert we were all eating meals from the truck. It was a communal
thing, everyone had jobs to do but the tour leader (Kim) was the one actually doing the cooking. She's had training as a chef and her food is really good and very healthy. Since we're not in the desert anymore we've had a few meals provided by the hotels and restaurants. Both are western meals, soups and salads and lots of zucchini and potatoes. Havn't had an authentic meal yet, but hopefully we'll be having something along those lines tomorrow morning.
Weather: No rain. Of course if there was rain, that would be very unusual. Clear skies only occasionally cloudy and or smoggy depending on if you are in a city or not. Also, as previously touched upon in the activites section, really cold at night. The day is nice when you're in the sun but chilly in the shade and cold at night no matter where you are. The hotels have provided us with a lovely air conditioner which I'm sure would be a lifesaver in the summer months but for the moment is completely useless. Our 3 star rooms aren't exactly weather or soundproof either.
Observations: Painted lines on the road are only a mild suggestion
and it's obvious that after they're painted for the first time they're never re-painted after that because there is no point. Headlights, seatbelts, helmets and licenses are not in use. Egypt is also a huge fan of speed bumps. I've only seen three traffic lights while I've been here but I have felt about 200 speed bumps. As expected, everything is pretty cheap around here but I've been very good in resisting the urge to buy chocolates and chips when I see them. Especially when they're less than 1 dollar Canadian each. Call to prayer happens every morning at about 5:00am. It's when people in the mosque start singing on a loudspeaker and warning people that it is time to pray. Unfortunately it's just a part of life here.
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Meg Davies
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Wow, you're definitely right when you say it looks alien. The desert looks like something out of a Riddick movie. It's really cool though! Wish I was there!