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Published: April 13th 2008
An Egyptian Sunset
From our balcony on our first night in Hurghada
~ The Lonely Planet ~ Whoa! The Lonely Planet holds no punches! Luckily however, I didn't read this until after we arrived home from our resort in Hurghada. Our main motivation in choosing a holiday destination was somewhere with great weather to relax in for our 3rd wedding anniversary, but close enough to fascinating places to travel to. In the past when staying in resorts in poorer countries we felt fairly cool about it. They seemed in harmony with their environment and we knew it helped the people of the area who depended on tourism for employment. What was immediately obvious though in Hurghada was the bright green strip of resorts along the Red Sea, directly backing onto an endless stretch of barren land. And in a country where water is at a massive premium, we couldn't help try and balance in our heads the cost/benefit equation of tourism in the
Steph Poolside
In between swimming and crepes ;) area. But we had already paid in full, so our compromise was to drink imported bottled water. (Sorry to sound glib - we were concerned but you know I can't resist a punch line.)
So for the most part we lay by the pool, drank beer and cocktails (the resort didn't have Coke and CLEARLY Pepsi is only for emergencies). We read our books, we swam, we had a little nap, then we read again, then we swam. Then we thought about walking 15m to the crepe station for lunch. Then we read. Then we swam. And to be totally honest the only experience there of Arabic culture was being woken at 4 in the morning with calls to prayer... But we don't want to trivialise what were amazing experiences with endless descriptions of lying by the pool because we spent 3 brilliant days in the middle of the week discovering a very small part of an incredible country.
We started with a Quad Biking safari to a Bedouin village in the Arabian Desert. Whilst for the most part there was nothing to see, that in itself was really cool. It was just sand (and amazing heat) as
Quad Bike Safari
As we dissappear into the mountiains far as we could see, then eventually mountains starting appearing on the horizon. Settled within them was a massively over-commercialised Bedouin village that clearly survives from the tourist groups that swing past it. It would have been interesting to experience the genuine article but I imagine as a western tourist they'd be pretty hard to just turn up to and just 'experience'! But it was still kinda cool to smoke a water pipe, drink Bedouin tea, gag at the 'toilet' etc. We also learnt another little survival lesson in Egypt when we took our camel ride. When asked approximately 20 times "was it good" or "do you like" this literally translates into "tip me". Another time we actually had someone in our group held hostage on the camel until she decided 'she liked it'!
The next morning we caught a (smaller than Steph would have liked) plane to Cairo. Cairo was big and chaotic and incredibly dirty. Allegedly it is 25 million people but about 5 million of those are said to be illegal since they only are there during the day for work. (Google research since ranges from 11m to 26m but given how cluttered and unorganised the
Our First View of the Pyramids, from Cairo
Cairo was only established around 1000 AD, well after the pyramids were built. But urban sprawl has meant the city now reaches out to their site at Giza.
place is there I can understand the confusion!) There were cars everywhere, non-existent lanes merging into other non-existent lanes and by some fluke the cars
mostly managed to miss each other. And I can't remember being in a city where the air looked more polluted - our tour guide said that he never wears white, or drives his car into the city because they'd just be filthy by the end of that day!
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo houses all the ancient relics (that Britain or Germany haven't appropriated) from the days of the Pharaohs - most notably all the goodies from Tutankhamen’s tomb. It was here we discovered the good thing about organising our holiday with a Czech speaking agency - while the rest of the group shared one Czech speaking guide, we got our personal English guide through the exhibits. His favourite way of describing the amazing exhibits was by saying "this is worthless" or "everything here is worthless" . We think he meant priceless. But he was pretty good so I decided I'd give him $20 tip minus $1 for every time he spat on me. (At the end of the day he got $10.) Tutankhamen’s
treasures and coffins especially were amazing and but almost impossible to imagine how all those things managed to fit into such a tiny little tomb - I think the first thing Tut needed to do in his afterlife was go to Ikea and get some storage solutions. But don't scan down for any pictures from inside - we had to leave our camera at security.
By now we were getting used to the arranged rest stops on tours (where our guides get a commission of everything sold) but still were slightly traumatised by being chased around a papyrus shop for 30 mins on route to the pyramids. It was definitely worth the wait though! When we had visited other iconic sites such as the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty we had been distinctly underwhelmed since the real thing just couldn't compete with the ridiculous hype. But as soon as I arrived at the pyramids I realised they could compete with the hype! Maybe it's the mystery that surrounds how they were built, or the fact that they are just SOOO old (the Great Pyramid was built in 2600BC). The Great Pyramid of Khufu was originally 146.5m high (now
The Wikala al-Bazara in Cairo
Where we made many 'very good friends' 8m smaller since the theft of the top stones by the Turks in the Middle Ages). The other 2 belong to his son Chephren and grandson Mycerinus, who all built a little smaller than their fathers out of respect! Although I think Chephren was having a bet both ways since although it is a smaller structure, it looks bigger since it was built on higher land!
We actually went inside the second pyramid - although I'm afraid to say my lasting memory will be of being folded in half, walking down the short mans tunnel, with sweat dripping off. Whilst building the pyramids was an amazing feat, their engineering ability didn't extend to anything regarding ventilation! I confess they weren't as big as we imagined but still I think I could have looked at them all day. We weren't far from a typical Cairo bazaar so we spent some time wondering through the alleys and shops there. It was disappointing how many shops were just selling magnets and postcards, but amongst them there were some gems. We cut this short though, just because it became impossible to move without Arabic guys trying to make very good friends with Steph
😞. We caught a plane back to Hurghada in time for an early morning bus ride the next day (although not quite as early as the call to prayer!)
Luxor is the modern name for ancient Thebes: the site where the 'New' Kingdom of Pharaohs made their home almost 4000 years ago. The only way foreigners are allowed to travel the journey is in a massive police escorted convoy. At several points along the way we passed check points with soldiers facing their guns out into the open to anticipate an ambush. I know they should have made us feel secure, but I couldn’t help focusing on why they were needed in the first place…
Again we were on a Czech tour, but this time our lazy English guide sat up the front and largely ignored us. Nevermind - after a year in Prague we fancied ourselves as getting quite good at Czech so we tried to understand the Czech guide. We gave up when we heard something about "a king in the water" but discovered she had actually said something more like "we will be stopping in 30 minutes" (which makes more sense since we didn't see
any pharaohs swimming down the Nile). What we did hear correctly was the guide saying it was 50 degrees outside, and it was very hot, but perhaps 50 was a little exaggeration.
By the first stop at the Colossi of Memnon, we started getting the picture that the new kingdom Pharaohs did nothing small. They are these 2 enormous statues (18m high) that apparently used to 'sing' as the wind blew through them, until restorations in 199 AD closed their windpipes for good. The temple they were attached to is long since gone, and since they no longer sing it was little more than a photo stop. The next stop however at the Deir al-Bahri Temple was brilliant. The temple is built into one side of a mountain which on the other side forms part of the Valley of the Kings, and is nothing short of dramatic when you approach it. Deir al-Bahri is also known as the Funery Temple of Hatshepsut (one of the few female Pharaohs) but all trace of her was removed by her successor and nephew, Tithmosis III. You see, she had cunningly dethroned him as a 3 year old and he carried a grudge...
The Amazing Columns of the Karnak Temple at Luxor
For scale, note the size of the people at the bottom. so be careful how you treat your toddlers is the moral!
As I said, the other side of this cliff was the Valley of the Kings, with dozens of Pharonic tombs. I guess Tutankhamen’s tomb (rediscovered in 1922) is the most famous, but also carries an additional fee beyond the Valley entry price, despite all its contents now being in Cairo. Instead we went into 3 of the other tombs recommended by our guide as the best. It struck us how open they were - some didn't have any barriers or glass meaning you could even touch the hieroglyphics. It would have been great to just walk around though, however there were always local inside who insisted on giving you a personal tour (ie pointing at a picture of a boat, and shouting 'boat' at you until you looked). Obviously then they were then entitled to payment at the end...
We managed to escape and took the obligatory Felucca Ride down the Nile before having a late lunch and finally visiting the Temples of Karnack. Not having heard anything about this we had no expectations but it absolutely blew our minds. It's impossible to describe the enormity of
it, nor do the photos do it justice; over 1.2 square kms, 30m high and continuously built by over 30 pharaohs in a row. We spent about an hour walking through it, climbing over various ruins and generally just staring up at the enormous columns and at times racy hieroglyphics. It was definitely a worthy end to an amazing series of ancient sites in Egypt.
(Oh...please refer back to the paragraph on pool, reading, sun, crepes etc for more details on our last day at the resort 😊)
Anth
PS At the bottom you need to click on page 2 to see the rest of the photos
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Scott McDonnell
non-member comment
Indiana Jones
Hey - loved the blog - am having flashbacks to Indiana Jones, got to say that pic of you puffing on the H2O pipe (whatever that is) reflects the real you!