Egypt Part 3

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Week 4

The last week of Sunshine! With the children this week we finished off the scene of the Nile, coloured pictures of a donkey, a camel and a man, a house and some boats and a lot of fish! That was part of the project to decorate the place for the meeting in the UK. We also made some cats, lizards and some mosques. We had some new comers to the class, some of the younger kids, called marawan, Gomaa and Hanan. other activities that week were making necklaces out of cut up tubes, which the kids loved because they could take them away with them. They made a bird and stuck feathers on it. It was so lovely because Hasim loved doing that, he made four! and he is usually the naughtiest one! We also made balloons and stuck stickers on them with the little ones, and the bigger ones made aeroplanes to go on our transport display, which looked fantastic when it was finished!

One day we met up with our friend Chris and went on a boat to the West bank to meet his friend Jabber in his ''villa'', or little beach hut, and had some tea. Then we went on the boat and went fishing on the Nile! Alice caught 4 fish- a catfish, 2 sea bass and one with teeth! They were small but it was amazing! and of course I caught nothing! It was so fun though! Then after we went to Jabber's house on his motorbike, and his wife cooked us an Egyptian meal, an amazing round bread, beans, salty cheese and different salads- was so good! We went for a long walk with Jabba and Chris around the village, met some friends and saw huge houses where all the western tourists live. They come and build really cheap houses in the villages, right next to the Egypyian houses. We then went to a wedding in the village, where the ceremony was still going on but loads of people were sat around outside. A band was playing and the men were doing stick dances, it looked amazing! I befriended 13 year old Mahmoud who was very sweet and rides a motorbike! it was such an amazing day and Jabber was fantastic, he took us back to the ferry on the motorbike and then said ''by the way, I am very drunk and stoned'' haha!

Other days we went to Sofra for a lovely meal, got some sweets from Twinkies- best pastry shop in Luxor, went back to ACE and met Ernesto, a guy from Uraguay who just moved to Luxor. There was a tiny puppy there who was found in a street- unbelieveably cute! We played with the cats, saw the dog there while his owners are on holiday, visited the donkeys and horses. That night we ate at Sinbads surrounded by cats, and finished off our shopping in the souk.

One afternoon we went to Venus hotel to see our friends Chris and Paola and we took them to see Sunshine. We had a tour around and went to play with the babies, where Chris got beaten up by two little girls- he was exhausted after that! We also saw the tiny tiny babies, one little disabled baby was 9 months old and so small! They were gorgeous! I felt much more comfortable being with the kids this time than when we first arrived and went to see them, think I am getting used to being around children a bit now! As we were leaving we saw the kids from our class going to play outside, they ran up to us for a hug saying 'auntie, auntie!' but we had to leave.

That evening we ate in the hotel with Paola and her two Colombian friends, Chris and two American guys who were staying at Venus. We all ordered camel steak for our last night in Luxor, and it was beautiful! We went upstairs to the bedouin lounge and chatted a while to Chris and the Americans, Seth and Dan, and arranged to meet up with them in Dahab when we got there.

Our last day at Sunshine was a very sad one. Alice was so ill in the morning she couldn't come with me so when I got back we were both in tears and disappointed she missed it. For the last day we decided to have a party for the kids. So we made hats for them to wear, and made extra for the little children who weren't in our group. We had balloons and croissants and party games like ring-a-ring a roses and hokey cokey, and the children had a great time. They all kissed me goodbye as they were leaving and one boy, Basim, he kissed me goodbye then as he was walking out the door he stopped and looked back and he said 'auntie, auntie' i said 'yes?' he said 'salaam' with a wave. Awwww!!! I was trying my hardest not to cry the whole time. I said goodbye to Nagia, she was such a fantastic teacher! She told me she didn't want us to leave and I said 'I don't want to leave!' When I got back we had our last meal at Nefertiti: beef tajin and lemon lassie, yummy! Alice and I wrote a review for Aladin on trip advisor and it was time to say goodbye. We got a flight from Luxor to Sharm and a taxi to Dahab.

Dahab

We stayed in a cool hostel in Dahab although the room was small and smelly, and we had to put a scarf under the door to stop cockroaches getting in, but the place was right on the sea front, had a great bedouin lounge type restaurant, -and really good breakfast! Dahab is very chilled, hippy town near Sharm-el-Sheikh. You can see Saudi Arabia right across the water!

For the first day there we headed to a very different scene: Sharm. My lovely friends Michele, Megan and Sal were staying there for a week in a huge and posh hotel, seven swimming pools, bars, restaurants, hundreds of rooms, and definately no cockroaches! We swam, we ate and drank, we chilled in the sun. And then we went snorkling! It was the first time I'd done it properly and it was amazing! The hotel had 4 or 5 private beaches and you just go off the end of the jetty to where the good snorkling is, so its perfectly safe and the fish were amazing there! We tried it from the beach first but it was shallow so it was definately better further out, after the 'drop-off'! There were so many fish I was in my element, I really want to try diving now! It's pretty tiring so we went back to the pool and had another drink, then headed back to Dahab, tired out after a great day!

Just as we were getting into bed there was a knock at the door and Seth was there, the American guy we met in luxor! They were staying the same hotel as us so we met up for breakfast and spent the next day with them. We went for a walk to find a beach and then went for a snorkle. We found a beach with free sunbeds and tried to snorkle there but it was so far out and shallow it was hard to get to the good place. So we walked back to the hotel, had lunch, and tried to go out again from there. It was much deeper and better, but really far to swim out so we got tired really quickly and didnt want to get stuck out there so went back. It was amazing though, we saw a lion fish, a big eel, clown fish, electric blue fish and angel fish- gorgeous! That evening we ate in the hotel, had some drink and a good chat, they are lovely guys!

We had breakfast with them again them headed out to the 'Blue Hole' which is meant to be the best snorkling in the area. Dan and I swam right round the edge of the sinkhole- it was huge and pretty scary as its so deep you cant see the bottom. Aparently loads of divers die there because they go down and can't find thewir way back out. But the coral was great and I loved swimming around there, but it wasn't as good as the day before. Seth said we should have gone on the outside of the sinkhole as the fish were better there. I took an underwater camera but the shots weren't that good unfortunately. After our swim we chilled a bit in the restaurant, got a pizza and chips, and headed home on the back of a jeep, fun ride!

In the evening we went for a walk through Dahab, went to an Indian restaurant and tried the ice cream, then went somewhere else for dinner. We played pool in a bar and went back to the hotel and chilled for a bit. Alice and I had to get up early the next day and catch our flight to Cairo. We had breakfast with Dan and a hundred cats and got the taxi. When we got to the hotel in Cairo we slept for 17 hours and when I woke up at 3am I was still in my clothes, knackered!

Cairo

In the morning we messed around for ages trying to find internet and an ATM and got completely lost- Cairo is manic! In the end I paid about £3 for 15 minutes internet in the Hilton hotel ahh!! Then we got in a taxi to Coptic Cairo which was a very lovely place! it's surrounded by the old town walls and has narrow streets, tiny chapels and churches, and a nunnery. It has a very different feel to the rest of Cairo and we enjoyed walking around. A policeman let us go into a cemetery for 5 minutes, and of course wanted backsheesh after, but it was cool, like lots of little houses lined up in streets but they were all tombs- literally a ghost town! We also went in a synagogue, which I have never been in before - much like a church but with the star instead of the cross. It was beautiful though, highly decorated. And we were amused when we came out to see a Muslim man praying within the grounds of the synagogue. Further on were some bigger churches and the Coptic museum, which we were too late to see. We wanted to see some Coptic singing because it's the language that sounds most like Ancient Egyptian, but the service wasn't on until much later. The priest did give us some bread though!

On the way back our taxi driver stopped at the mosque for us to go in and see. We had to put on long green robes covering the head. The mosque was huge and so peaceful! We then went to Nile City for dinner, on a boat on the river. We had Mexican food and walked back to the hostel over the huge bridge across the Nile.

We were up early and in the taxi to Saqqara. We went before with Kim but wanted to see more. We had a longer look around the museum and walked around the step pyramid, saw the hieratic writing inscriptions in the building behind, and walked back via Pepi's pyramid. The driver then took us to Teti's pyramid, which you could go inside. There were a few rooms with decoration and writing, and a massive sarcophagus. There was a tomb opposite with a series of rooms all beautifully decorated with scenes of happy people and animals.

After Saqqara we headed for Dahshur and stopped on the way in a tiny village for bananas and crisps. The people there were quite surprised to see tourists I think! At Dahshur we went inside the red pyramid- it is a long staircase up the outside of the pyramid then a long ramp down into the centre. But worth it! There were rooms with vaulted ceilings, one you had to climb some stairs to see, it was very cool! Our driver Ahmed came with us and sprinted up the stairs, which we couldnt do! The passage was so low you have to duck all the way up.

We headed back to the hotel, went to Nile city for a lovely Italian meal, went on the internet, had mint tea at the hostel and cuddled some mangy cats, and headed to bed early for our 4am start to fly home!

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