Day 7: Not a good day

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I should explain the title. I suffer from Anxiety attacks. Most of the times they are minor and I am able to use them to focus on the task at hand. Every 4 or 5 years I suffer a severe attack that immobilizes me mentally. Today I suffered a bad one and at the worse possible time as well.

Back to the tour first. I woke again on a boat swaying back and forth. I had slept better last night so I was getting used to the Felucca boat. We were leaving that morning to get back on our bus and return to the land based tour. After some breakfast of eggs and bread we settled accounts with the crew. The usual Baksheesh (TIP) is 40 EGP. I didn't have any small Egyptian currency so I gave them 7 USD which is about the same.

We were somewhere north of Aswan and drove to Luxor for the Karnak temples. Karnak is essentially a big open air museum. It is a collection of temples and monuments built over thousand of years. It is considered one of the largest religious sites in the world. It is a tossup between it and the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia depending on what you include as part of the site of each. It cost 80 EGP to enter the temple and we had about an hour or so to walk around. Zizo took us through the temples and pointed out the monuments and the hieroglyphics. He translated one of them which read the King of Upper and Lower Egypt. You can see faint coloring on the walls and I was impressed that everything had been colored thousands of years ago. It must have been quite a site when it was built up and colored. 2 things from stick out in my mind about this temple. One was the carvings made by explorers who visited. They seemed to very high up on the pylons and walls and Zizo explained to us that was floor the year they visited. Sand had almost completely covered the temples in those years. The other thing that stuck in my mind was a line drawn high up on a wall and Zizo explained that this represented the flood level for that year. It was high up on the wall and I am impressed the temples held up that well under the water. We had some free time to wander around the temples and I went to a scarab beetle that you walk around 5 times and it will grant you a wish. I did that and made my wish (its a secret).

Next stop was a papyrus shop. We were given a history lesson on papyrus and how it was made. They were good enough to give us a 15 percent discount. This was an official store so the papyrus was real instead of badly made paper they sell in tourist shops. The papyrus on the walls had pictures on them and there were a lot of beautiful ones. The prices started at 150 EGP and went up from there. I was tempted by one of a cat but opted instead for 2 pieces of blank papyrus for 30 EGP to use as birthday cards.

We next went to Macdonalds for lunch and to get something for dinner. I got chicken nuggets, Double Mctasty and a drink. I also got a few toys for my little cousins back home. We than had an 8 hour drive to Cairo and only 1 stop along the way.

This is where the problem started. I could feel my anxiety building since the morning but it wasn't dissipating like it usually did. By the time we left MacDonalds it was hitting me in waves. I was silent on the bus as the people around me played some kind of memory game. People did notice something was wrong and I managed to mumble that I was not feeling well. I had only a vague recollection of sleeping and waking up and my mind was all over the place. It was 4 hours into the bus ride until we got off the bus. I rushed out and went into the convenience store and bought an orange drink. Elevating my blood sugar helps with my control. I walked outside and around the corner because I needed to be alone as I fought for control. I slumped against the wall and just breathed and fought for control and the anxiety levels hit its peak. Some people went to check up on me and I was able to tell them I knew what was happening and needed to be alone. They also advised me I didn't have a lot of time because security didn't like the fact I was in an unauthorized area. Finally the anxiety attack broke and after a few minutes I returned to reality and went back to the bus feeling a lot better.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and shortly before midnight we got back to Cataract Pyramid hotel. Most people went to sleep but I did some writing before turning in. Well that was an odd day and I will say I have never had an anxiety attack around other people. The other times all occurred when I was alone. My tour mates were great about it and I thank them for their support and concern.

Tomorrow would be the last full day of the tour.

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Photos

Scarab Beetle
You walk around this beetle 5 times clockwise and it will grant you a wish