Blogs from Egypt, Africa - page 306

17th November 2002 As I sit outside my room on my first evening in the Camel Dive Club Hotel I await the new adventure of diving and being by myself in Egypt. The evening is warm a cool 25c the pool is lit and looks warm and inviting, still and deep. It’s a busy place with lots going on all around. On my visit out in to the streets looking to see what there is to do I finally stated talking to Hamad a salesman of course I went to dinner in a nice but quite seafood restaurant good food, it was pleasant chatting and finding out more about the place, about Egyptian life and the way he works. (I know I’ll laugh at this when I read it next as I don’t know the names ... read more

Karnak is a place that is hard to describe. Huge. Grand. Visually astounding. Its a massive complex (over 100 acres all up, but you only look at a part of it) which you enter down a short avenue of sphinxes with rams heads and 'holding' statues of Ramses II - remember that avenue of sphinxes from Luxor temple? This is the other end. The further you go in the "main" part, the bigger things get, more and more grand. The columns in the hypostyle hall are awesome, huge round decorated pillars, all the walls have a different story to tell, of battles fought and always won. Even our photos, and we took a lot! wont do the place justice. The main part of the complex is the Precinct of Amun (almost 62 acres!) The most impressive ... read more

There is so much to see and do around Luxor, and we took so many photos, that we are going to try and write a separate entry for each place ie Luxor Temple, Karnak, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens... So here goes, our first day in Luxor... The train ride down wasnt anything special. When we got the tickets we asked for two seats next to each other, but the tickets came back with two seat numbers no where near each other. We questioned this and we assured that they were right next to each other, several times as we did keep asking! So what happened when we got on the train, yup, we were at either end of the carriage. At least we were in the same carriage. Luckily we managed to ... read more

Egypt is an Islamic country, something which is sometimes difficult to reconcile with the Western understanding of this ancient land of heiroglyphics, Phaorahs, and pyramids... It's also a very Christian country, with a historical connection to the Judeo-Christian tradition and a strong Coptic community. Copts are Orthodox Christians not dissimilar to Russian, Greek and Serbian Orthodox Churches... We quickly discovered the Egyptians to be a gregarious and friendly people, who absolutely adore children and were bemused by the fact we'd left our four at home on this trip... Cairo is a city to experience just in walking around the streets, interacting with the everyday Cairenes who live there. Full of contradictions you see BMW's next to donket carts, policemen with kalishikovs and military uniform next to boy on bicycles with massive baskets of bread on their ... read more

What can i say about egypt. Absolutely awesome... I loved Luxor. Again the culture of the place has alot to do with why i loved it so much. The way in which the people are so diffrent, transport the things they eat, the houses etc. The temperature was right up their. I couldnt lie beside the pool for even 3mins it was like a river of sweat running of me, and my feel were getting scoulded on the stones. Anyway the forst few days we just relazed in the hilton hotel we were staying at. The 3rd day my brother and I decided to adventure into town in taxi, WHAT A EXPERIENCE THAT WAS !!. Once we had survived the crazy taxi ride and bartered with the taxi driver, we ended up locked in a shop ... read more