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Published: April 4th 2010
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1 April 2010
Today we are checking out of the lovely Havana Hotel and going to the King Hotel ready for the start of our tour. We are really enjoying Cairo, the girls have been madly shopping at the markets. Everything is pretty cheap and bartering is a heap of fun. Sarah has bought scarves and Rachel a little Aladdin lamp. The locals are super friendly, even away from the markets. Everybody wants their photo taken which is in contrast to the Peruvian women who did not want their photo taken. Everybody wants to shake you hand or yell out welcome.
We have been to the Egyptian Museum, twice and the only way to describe it is overwhelming. It is jam packed full of artefacts. Amazing. We visited the mummy room which was great, and we could not pull Rachel out of the Tutankhamen room with its 11kg gold death mask, about 3500 years old - WOW. There was corridor after corridor of stuff on exhibition. Starting to get a feel how Egypt developed from a stone age culture through several stages as a civilisation.
2 April 2010.
Today was the first full day with the tour group.
Ten Aussies including us and 2 Poms and Ahmed the group leader, a local. After a brief intro talk, we headed back to the markets again, and visited a mosque. We had Egyptian pancakes for dinner. The next day the obligatory tour of the Pyramids - absolutely awesome even with the crowds. Tim, Sarah and Rachel did a tour inside one of the pyramids crouching down through a long claustrophobic tunnel to reach the burial chamber - interesting but not too exciting. ‘Ahmed filled us in on the history and we had some free time wandering around and also visiting the Sun Boat which was a funeral boat found buried beside the biggest Pyramid. Then it was time for Rachel’s favourite (not) - riding a camel. As it turned out it was quite relaxing, once you got the hang of it. Mohammed, the 11 year old leading us, spoke a teeny bit of English and I rode his camel, which he had named Michael Jackson. People here also seem to speak a little German, Dutch, and French etc. The backdrop of the pyramids was spectacular.
Currently on the overnight sleeper train to Aswan. It was a real fun experience.
Our two cabins joined through an internal door. Everything was pretty clean and working. Even got to charge computer from a power point. 10 minutes after we left Cairo-Giza Station, dinner was served in our cabin. Lots of meat and also rice and a really weird sesame salad. We went straight to bed as our days are exhausting. Relatively good sleep. Train trip to Aswan is approximately 12 hours and we woke up to a knock from the conductor for breakfast which was also served in our cabin. An hour later we arrived in Aswan.
Our hotel is situated right on the Nile River. We are now having a quick lunch in the hotel restaurant overlooking heap and heaps of feluccas and very large cruise boats. Not like P&O (smaller) but still very large. We have had a walk through Aswan markets and enjoyed, well Rachel didn’t some sugar cane juice. It is really hot, approx 40degrees. We have done some washing in our room and are going to go swimming in the Nile this afternoon. I’m not sure about the swim but will check it out.
Yes, we went swimming, bit risky but what the hell. We went
on a cruise, visited and had dinner with a Nubian family. We danced with the kids; they were so gorgeous and little. In the end, it turned out to be a very relaxing day by the might river Nile.
1.4.10
Today, a very very early 3am start, as we went to see Abu Simbil. It was a 3 hour drive in a convoy situation, 2 hours there and 3 hours back again. Abu Simbil, was built by King Rameses, also known as Ramesex, as he had 68 wives, and ruled for a long time and supposedly lived for 99 years. The temple is amazing, as you can see on the photos. Not only wow from front but inside there are many highly decorated rooms filled with more statues and frescos. Some still with colour visible. The two temples his and his wife’s Nefereti, were relocated, with great effort and cost in the 1960’s as they built Lake Nasser and the temples would have been underwater. An amazing job of this relocation was done. You can’t tell it was moved.
Gotta go now. We are off to dinner with our group. Hope you are all well, wish you were
here etc etc. Lots of love Tim, Suzanne, Sarah and Rachel
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Kelly
non-member comment
heyy
heyy guys!! looks like u had fun on the camels!! hav fun in the rest of your trip from kelly :) <3