K. Morgan

KATMOR

K. Morgan

I live on beautiful Vancouver Island, BC Canada. I have journaled all my trips in the past and am now enjoying accessing and using this Blog site. I have found it to be a great resource and a great place to store the journaling. I would love to add some of my older journals and pics and may start that one year when I'm not travelling. I love travel and reading and hearing where others are going and have been. I love to travel with my sisters, family and friends and we 4 sisters made it on a 35 day South America trip that we will never forget and will always cherish and will certainly be planning another. Now for this fall 2013 my sister and I made an unplanned choice to do a cruise from Seattle to Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, 3 stops in Australia, 7 in New Zealand ending with a couple of days in Auckland. It has been a whirlwind of research and planning which we really enjoy. As this area has been on the backburner for a number or years, we were originally researching for 2014 and 2015 but the one we really wanted, vanished, and then this awesome deal came along. Sometimes the last minute deals can be awesome. This time our other 2 sisters couldn't make it on short notice and so they have booked a trip from Chili to the South Pacific in December.



Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Aswan October 18th 2012

October 18, 19, 20, and 21st. Thursday 18th - Nile Cruise ending in Aswan We arrive at Aswan and I am up early as we sail in under the Aswan bridge. We have a busy morning visiting the High Dam, Ancient unfinished obelisk site and then a boatride on the Nile over to the Temple of Philae. This entire temple had been moved off an island in the 1970s and took 5 years to move. Difficult to comprehend. 51 countries assisted in the move. We opt out on any afternoon tours that are extra as we are toured out so to speak and want to spend the afternoon on the boat. We are getting ready to head back to Cairo the next morning. Sian had a spa treatment that ended with a covering of mud up ... read more
Temple of Philae (14)
Fishermen on the Nile River
Temple of Philae (28)

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Kom Ombo October 17th 2012

Wednesday Afternoon - Cruising On the Nile - Kom Ombo After Edfu we are back on board and we then set sail further up the Nile for a late afternoon tour at Kom Ombo to visit the Temple of Sobek, dedicated to Sobek the Crocodile God and Horus the Falcon-Headed God. We got several more wonderful hours of sailing the Nile watching the riverbank go by and getting more pictures. As we approached Kom Ombo we could see the temple was right near the waterfront and within walking distance of the ship. Just incredible. It was late afternoon and was so beautiful and cooler to visit just as we got another gorgeous Nile sunset. The lighting was beautiful and made the whole site mellow and relaxing, no melting tonite. We also visited the Crocodile Mummies museum ... read more
Life On the Nile (24)
Life On the Nile (11)
Along the Nile (2)

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor October 17th 2012

Wednesday - October 17th - On the Nile from Luxor to Edfu Am splitting up this day as entries as visited two different places and there are hundreds of photos of the Nile and sites of the Temples to share between them. There is a videographer on board, Peter, and we give him a hard time whenever we can. He is very funny. We often feel like we really stick out..…tall blonde women travelling on our own. All the staff onboard and all the people we have met have been really amazing and kind. Our guide Alaa, is incredible, very nice and very knowledgable. He has his masters degree and is a fountain of information. Only problem is I am worried about a test at the end of this. He likes to ask us questions to ... read more
Floating Market guys making some sales
At quiet rest
They Pass Us

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor October 15th 2012

Monday - Cairo to Luxor October 15th and 16th Karnak and Luxor Temples We are in the lobby by 5 a.m. and head to the airport for our flight from Cairo to Luxor which is included in our tour package. Our guide is incredible and takes care of everything and helps us through security and check in. An hour flight and we land in Luxor. The area is about a million and a half people, as we are told by our guide Hassan and quite a contrast from what we had seen in Cairo. Lots of green along the river banks, agriculture and livestock. We didn’t realize that we had a river boat upgrade until we got on the ship for our river cruise on the Nile. We were upgraded to a new boat and a ... read more
Beautiful Karnak Temple
Beautiful Sky at Luxor Temple (2)
Amazing Karnak Pillars

Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo October 13th 2012

Egypt - Cairo October 13 and 14th When we had decided to visit Jordan and Egypt we had decided that we would go the route of two different tour companies and we were far from disappointed. Actually both of the companies, their guides, drivers, office staff and meet and greet people far exceeded any of our expectations. Two tall blonde women travelling in these countries, we kind of stuck out, and we were treated with respect and welcomed with warmth, great hospitality and service. Would go back in a heartbeat and would strongly recommend visiting these countries and these companies and doing some individual research when making choices. We found the companies through research of different Tourism Boards and various sites that have posted reviews for these countries. We read lots of travel books and nailed ... read more
Camel with breakfast
View from breakfast
The pointy part

Middle East » Jordan » South » Aqaba October 13th 2012

Friday and Saturday - Aqaba and the Red Sea Jordan After our day at Little Petra and Wadi Rum Desert, next we head to Aqaba and the Red Sea. The area is quite busy as we are arriving on their weekend and because it is a duty free area a lot of people come down from Amman and other parts of Jordan for the weekends which are Friday and Saturday. As I spot the Red Sea I say a little prayer for a friend who had always wanted to dive in this Sea and didn't reach her goal. We arrived at an incredible, beautiful resort right on the Red Sea…We quickly changed and headed for the beach. We made it into the waters of the Red Sea 10 minutes before sunset and Sian was able to ... read more
Resort at the Red Sea (2)
One of the pools
Sian's pic of the Red Sea Sunset

Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum October 12th 2012

Friday, Little Petra, Wadi Rum ending our day at the Red Sea at Aqaba Jordan We say goodbye to Petra and meet Khaled in the lobby and head out for Little Petra which is very near Petra. The rocks and cliffs are beautiful and could see steps carved out of the rocks and then they would vanish under crumbled and toppled rocks. Lots of intriquing steps that no longer lead to anywhere. The traders and caravans would come to this area as it was a larger area for the hundreds of camels and travellers in the caravans. The Siq at Petra would be too narrow to bring hundreds of camels through. We walked through and took a lot of pictures and watched the goats climb down steep rocks and came across an older lady who we ... read more
Beautiful Wadi Rum Desert
Passing By
Here's Looking At You

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra October 11th 2012

Wednesday night and Thursday: Petra The thought of visiting has been a highlight in planning our trip and we are both excited about arriving here. We stopped on our way in and Khaled ran in and picked up tickets for us for Petra at Night and we arrive at our hotel around 5:30. We will have time to do this. We headed into Petra by Night after a quick salad dinner. A lot of people have jackets and heavier clothes on which had us kind of wondering if they know something we didn't. As it turned out our T shirts and capris were all we needed. The Siq going into the Treasury was all candlelit so we could make our way. There were large groups and we were warned to distance ourselves and stay away from ... read more
Horse and Carriage
Colourful Duo
Approaching the Treasury (2)

Middle East » Jordan » West » Madaba October 10th 2012

Wednesday - Dead Sea - Bethany by the Jordan, Mt. Nebo, Madaba, Shawbak Castle to Petra We leave the Dead Sea and head to Bethany beyond the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized. It was already hot hot hot by 9sh and on our way we could see Jericho off in the distance. Imagine 2 penguins in the desert…that was basically equivalent to 2 Canadians in the desert this morning, melting… We arrived at an area where we had to wait for a shuttle to take us to the sites and the Jordan River. We walked on a pathway and visited the Baptism site and then onto the Jordan River. Sian stepped into the Jordan River where they were baptizing people from the other side and to her surprise it wasn’t shallow. We visited the St. John ... read more
Pathway
He's watching us too
Jordan River

Middle East » Jordan » West » Dead Sea October 9th 2012

Monday evening - Tuesday - Dead Sea Monday evening - At the end of the day, we head to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, 400m below sea level and as we make the very long drive down, our ears keep popping. Would not want to have to climb up this highway on foot. The view is incredible as we drive down to our resort and towards a whole day tomorrow of kicking back and no touring. As much as we have absolutely loved this we are looking forward to some downtime, some pool and beach time. Once we got through security and dropped stuff at our room, we headed down to the beach through the resort property... a long way down...but we didn't make it down to the beach fast enough to see ... read more
Puts some perspective on the elevation
Dead Sea (2)
Sunset on the Dead Sea (2)




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