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Published: June 14th 2006
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Fierce
who's hand is that? (Kev)
We only had a week to cover all of Egypt. So that meant fun nights of all night travel on trains and busses, I think in all the week in Egypt is the least amount of sleep I have ever gotten in a seven day span. The lack of sleep was worth it though because the days were fully action packed.
Following the Nile, we got right to exploring temples. We saw four in all, Karnak, Luxor, Kom Ombo, and Edfu. They were everything I hoped for...and expected actually. It was just like the movies, huge statues, and pillars, and all sorts of Egyptian writing and inscriptions on the wall. The one thing we didn't get to do, that I had hoped to see was the valley of the kings...but that will be for next time.
We got transported in convoys, from temple to temple. It was my first armed escort experience...I felt very safe. We only spent half a day in Luxor, and then made our way to Dahab. Dahab actually got bombed about a month ago, but we evaluated it and thought about...and decided it was safe. And indeed it was and I
was very glad we went.
Dahab is the gateway to Israel, as well as a convenient base for Mt Sinai. It also happens to have some of the best diving and snorkeling in the Red Sea. We spent the morning snorkeling in the Red Sea at a place called the blue hole, and then spent the night climbing up Mt Sinai to catch the sunrise, which just happens to be our next blog
~Kev
(Dustin)
In one day we toured around half of the main temples along the Nile. Early in the morning our Felucca dropped us off at Kom Ombo where there is a large temple and from there it was police escort up the nile with another 3 vans of people. From the Kom Ombo temple we headed to Edfu where the temple is huge and seeminly well preserved, though probably alot of reconstruction. The weird thing about these temples is that every room is so empty and lonely because its carved out of stone that it seems like each one should be a tomb in itself. Edfu was Horus' temple and I think was the most enclosed of all the temples
with lots of rooms with carvings on every wall.
After Edfu we jumped back in the vans after some confusion about one girl that wasn't back in time because she only heard one set of instructions and left before some other police man changed them. Then the usual someone goes looking for the missing person thing happened and sure enough she showed up and then we were waiting for the person to get back from looking.
The again the convoy was off and we headed up to Luxor. There was a little confusion there as well, we didn't know if we were supposed to stay the night in Luxor or head to Dahab that night and our transportation didn't take us to where we were supposed to meet a guy to take us around town because we really had no idea about the final plans. So finally after getting some people to call our guy back in Cairo we got it sorted out, and met the other dude in a hotel in town and found out that we would be leaving that night. I almost left my passport at the hotel because the people were so eager to
sign us in even though we weren't staying there that they wouldn't let me walk away without looking it over and I accidentally walked out to the van without it.....thankfully one of the workers ran it out to me. We then saw Luxor and Karnak in 2 hours which was a real squeeze especially for Karnak because its so large and many different areas. The pillars there are huge and apparently one of the largest halls of its type in the world I think a sign said.
Then straight to Luxor from there, we saw a scottish couple saying they were going to charge one of the local loitering types around the temples because if you don't charge them for being in the picture...they will try to get it out of you. Luxor was pretty cool, and had some great statues and we even managed to get the people at the entrance to let us use the same ticket as for Karnak because it said Luxor on it......there was a little bit of confusion considering the guy at the ticket booth would accept it and the guy at the security gate wouldn't but finally the guy at the gate
said "Well whatever, I guess if he says its ok."
The day was pretty full, right after we got out of Luxor we headed to a bus for Dahab and a long night because the trip was supposed to be 16 hours. These temples were a neat change from even the really cool ones in Southeast Asia just because they were so different. I don't know though, Luxor was cool but Edfu and Karnak had some other things that out did Luxor in alot of ways. Then again, I suppose not many people would be impressed by a casino in Vegas if it was called Edfu.
Cheers,
Dustin
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Bill Roberts
non-member comment
dear kevin and Dustin, thanks for the blogs. I am enjoying following your adverntures as you travel the world. You must be wild at heart. I pray for your protection on the road. You will have a lot of stories to tell your kids. Great Education. Pastor Bill