Christmas Day and off to Egypt!!

December 25, 2009
Christmas day was unlike Christmas in so many ways. We awoke and started to prepare for our departure for Egypt. Since my eyelashes were all falling out, I went back to the spa and had them reapplied for free -- I at least wanted them for my trip to Egypt. We packed and were off. Once again, Doug Bowsher, the official welcoming and sending-off person in Abu Dhabi, took us to the airport. Our flight was delayed 45 minutes -- which we found was common with Egypt Air as the week went on. The boarding of the plane seemed a bit chaotic with Egypt Air -- a foreshadowing of things to come. We were taxiing down the runway and people were changing seats. The airline steward was in his seat and not even buckled in?? Chaos and disorder (definitely not a Disney company).

Our 4 hour flight was uneventful and we landed in the early evening. We found "Anter" from Noga Tours -- he was very intense. We were longer at the airport than anticipated -- our flight was delayed and our luggage took forever to be unloaded. People were overall pushy and in your personal space. Our Noga guy was busy with other things as well. He was pushy and talked incessantly. He kept asking us how we liked Egypt and I finally said, "we just arrived and it is nightfall -- we really haven't seen anything yet". He was very irritating and on high octane fuel that sucks the energy out of you. We arrived at our new hotel, the Sheraton, and not the dump that Noga Tours had planned for us. It took forever to check in and I was getting really irritated. The girl in the "Club Room" was slow and helping other guests while we waited. We also had to view a few rooms to make sure we were getting what we requested. While we waited, we witnessed a wedding procession entering the ballroom of the hotel. It was a sight to see -- women letting out cat calls and a live band playing up a large staircase. Really different from a western wedding which seems subdued in comparison. We finally got to our room and went to bed -- the day had been filled with errands, travel and commotion and we were tired. We would rest up for the following day which would be the first day of our tour and we would need all the energy we could muster!!

December 26, 2009
We booked the "Sound and Light Show" which would take place at the great Sphinx with the pyramids of Giza as a backdrop. Our plan was to attend this show when Benny arrived. We awoke and readied ourselves for a busy day with our tour guide. Tony, our Noga Tours guide, seemed so friendly and was proud to inform us that he was an "Egyptologist". We must have heard that 50 times in the course of 2 days. His friendly, talkative manner soon became completely irritating as he never shut-up. The Nile was stretched out before us, but it was overshadowed by the unbelievable crazy traffic and erratic driving. Lines on a 3 lane roadway are decoration -- there may be 5-6 cars abreast constantly swerving in and out and honking endlessly. We made our way to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. What a zoo!! It was so busy and loaded with artifacts. Tony was so interested in hearing his own voice I had to finally say, "Tony, we need to keep moving I can't stand still her listening to you". I was being swallowed up in a sea of people and noise and my 5'2" frame was feeling claustrophobic with tall people towering all around me and I couldn't see anything. He kind of got the hint and we moved along. The museum was fabulous, but I would have preferred to wonder around alone with Scott and ditch Tony and his expertise. It was university "Land of the Pharaohs" all over again -- Ramses II (not the condom) and his wife Nefertari, Akhenaton and his wife Nefertiti, King Tut the boy king and Queen Hatsepchut who posed as a man to rule over Egypt. Enough history now back to our tour guide Tony. Part of the problem with our guide Tony is that he was a slob in dress, who frothed at the mouth -- you know, white, thick spittle that forms on the side of his lips and then he spits it in your face. Scott and I were constantly jockeying for positions the furthest from Tony as possible. When you would take a step back to create a larger personal space, he would step forward. He would also fart whenever the feeling came upon him with no discretion regarding sound or smell. He clearly did not know to let his wind pass in a secluded place then walk around and blame others for the odorous offense. The museum was interesting especially the treasures of King Tut and the mummified corpses (Ramses II sticks out for me as I imagined the movie "The Ten Commandments" and Yul Brenner's magnificent performance as Ramses II -- "so it shall be written, so it shall be done".

Tony convinced us that he was there to protect us and save us money as our official Egyptologist tour guide. He took us to lunch at a buffet style restaurant which was packed -- we had to sit with 3 other people at our table. I'm sure all the tour guides get kick-backs for supporting certain restaurants and stores. Tony ate like a complete pig!!!! He held his head low hovering over his plate and shoveled the food with his fork without taking a break or looking up from his plate. Food was spilling out of his plate and onto his lap. Scott was completely disgusted as he was sitting next to Tony. Tony would speak and now spit tiny bits of food in Scott's face. After lunch Tony informed me that he could get myself and my sister, Belle, a fair deal on a "cartouche" from a reputable jeweler. He assured that it was excellent quality and that if I bought them elsewhere, I would be cheated and get junk. I trusted him and bought a cartouche for myself and Belle. A cartouche is like a name plaque that was often engraved on all the sarcophagus and tomb walls to identify who was there. Servants even had cartouches on their graves to identify who they served. They remind me of military "dog tags" which is probably where the military got the idea -- from the ancient Egyptians. We discussed price and I put in my orders for Tony to take care of. Our names would be spelled out in hieroglyphics. Both would be sterling silver but mine has 18kt gold hieroglyphics and Belle's has silver. I wanted an entire gold one, but the price of gold was too high. I was a bit disappointed with the finished product and learned over the next several days that I overpaid and got ripped-off by Tony our tour guide. Tony turned out to be "on the take" the entire time he was with us!!

We continued our day with a visit to Old Cairo (the whole city looked old to me). We saw the Hanging Church of Mary a 4th century Coptic Orthodox church. Tony was kissing all the religious pictures as he is apparently a 2nd degree Deacon in training. Such a pious, holy man who found it in his heart to rip me off!!! Old Cairo was filthy and poor -- the side streets were cluttered and ravaged. We made our way to the oldest synagogue of Ben Ezra and later we drove to the citadel of Saladin and the Alabaster mosque of Mohammed Ali (not the heavyweight champ). Scott headed back to the hotel to await the arrival of our friend Benny and Tony was gracious enough to take me to the "government" cotton store where everything was double the price of the market place (I would later learn). That evening Benny, Scott and myself decided to dine at the the Buddha Bar. The atmosphere was a welcome reprise from the chaos of Cairo. Dreamy music, great food and wonderful company -- a perfect way to recharge the batteries for the pyramids of Giza which were scheduled for the next day.

December 27, 2009
Today's the big day to travel to Giza and witness the marvel of the pyramids. Hopefully being outside, Tony will be at a more distant proximity and his spittle will hit the pyramids, camels and other tourists and not us!! Tony gave us a brief history (we asked him to keep it brief) and then he allowed us some space to wander around and take some pictures of the pyramid of Cheops. We then traveled to another area for photo ops that now included the pyramid of Chepren as well. Then on to the touristy camel area to ride the camel to the 3rd pyramid which is the pyramid of Mycrenos. The camels were large and healthy. I really enjoyed this camel ride which was about 20 minutes long and boy, did you have to hold on -- at times I thought I would fall off!! Our next stop was Sakkara to see the oldest pyramid structure which is the "stepped pyramid of King Zoser". I remember studying this in Art History at university and my professor saying, "there's nothing new in art people". He had a snide voice and he often spoke about the "Minoan culture" and the "stepped pyramid of Zoser in Sakkara". I thought of him briefly and then moved on. We made a pit stop at a carpet factory which had many children and younger people working on carpets. Scott and Benny did not want to stop, but I insisted. They thought it was a situation of "child labour" and did not want those images as part of their Egyptian slide show in their memories. We were told the children make good money and all go to school -- who knows -- lies are so common place you never know what is truth and what is fiction.

We finished our touring early for the day and it was decided that the time had come for some SHOPPING!! Tony convinced me that "Khana Khalili" -- the old market -- was a place of cheats and swindlers. I put my trust in him and he directed me to the NEW Khana Khalili in the form of government sponsored shops. He assured me that all the silver jewelery would be real here and that it would be fake garbage at the old market. Scott and Benny headed off for the old Khana Khalili and I went off with Tony. I made several purchases and negotiated hard for silver jewelery, alabaster and jewelery boxes. I was pleased with my treasures and Tony deposited me at "Mena House Oberoi" to await pick-up from the driver who would bring Scott and Benny enroute to the "Sound and Light Show" in Giza. The Mena House Oberoi Hotel was beautiful -- I would have loved to stay here -- just lovely, old world charm. I grabbed a quick bit to eat and waited for my ride. The Sound and Light show was exciting at first and quickly turned "cheesy". We were pleased to see it however. It was freezing as well sitting at the foot of the Great Sphinx in the evening wind.

December 28, 2010
Today we flew to Aswan, Egypt where we boarded our ship for our 3 day Nile cruise. We had some disputes over our cabins, but we got that sorted out and enjoyed a tolerable lunch on board. We then met our newest tour guide and driver who took us to the "High Dam, Old Dam and Philae temple", which overlooked a Nubian village. Earlier, we had decided that we would pass, thank you very much, on the 4 hour bus ride to Abu Simbel (one way). We made our way to an Egypt Air office and booked flights to Abu Simbel to save ourselves the pain and suffering of a day on a bus with 30 other people. It was the best decision we made and worth every penny. When our day was done, I set off on my own and spent about 2-3 hours in the Aswan Souk which I enjoyed. As is the case in Egypt, the haggling and constant barrage of merchants is eventually exhausting even for a seasoned shopper like myself. That evening on board the ship, I attended a Nubian show -- Scott and Benny were both feeling a bit nauseated -- mine was yet to come!!!!

December 29 and 30th, 2010
Today we flew to Abu Simbel to witness the marvel of the "Temple of Ramses II and the Queen Nefertari Temple". These colossal monuments pay tribute to one of the greatest pharoahs in Egyptian history. Having watched Cecile B. DeMille's movie "The Ten Commandments" on numerous Easter weekends, I had the background info I needed. Ramses dad was Seti I and he preferred Moses (Charlton Heston) to Ramses II (Yul Brenner). They were both hot after Nefertari (Anne Baxter). Moses gets cast into the desert because he is a Jew and he mets Yvonne DiCarlo and grows a long grey beard. He eventually confronts Ramses and leads his people out of Egypt. Ramses marries Nefertari and they have a son named Seti II who dies from the plague of God's might because he is the 1st born of Ramses II. These sights were amazing and I was pleased we did not miss out on this historical side-trip during our trip to Egypt. Those of you who know me well know how much I love history!! I was feeling a little under the weather, but kept on moving and thought it was just being tired. We flew back to Aswan and boarded our ship for lunch. I was a little crampy, but I had booked a massage and enjoyed that before settling in for a 3 hour nap. During my nap, the boat set sail for Kom Ombo. By nightfall, I was suffering from both diarrhea and vomiting and would unfortunately miss our stop. Our cruise ship ended up getting stuck in the Nile on 2 occasions. In Kom Ombo and Edfu -- they said the water levels were low. This caused us to miss stops which I did not care about because I was sick. I eventually needed a doctor, a shot in the ass, and 2 drugs to rid me of what ailed me. I slept so much and eventually recovered when we were ending our cruise in Luxor. Thank goodness I had Scott and Benny to look in on me and take care of me while I was sick and completely out of it. All I wanted was to get off this ship and be done with the cruise.

December 31, 2010 (New Year's Eve)
This was to be a very full day and my first day up and around since my sickness. Our newest guide would be Abdul and we also had a new driver. The constant new guides and drivers was a bit annoying -- plus they all needed to be tipped and trained on what we wanted from them. They had their own agendas and were not interested in what we, the customers, wanted. By now, I did not trust any of them and my veil of Egyptian cynicism had nearly blinded me. We traveled first to see the "Valley of the Kings and Queens" and the "Temple of Queen Hatshepsut". We caught the "Colossi of Memnon" and the "Temple of Karnak". We finally wrapped things up with the "Temple of Luxor". We managed an hour or so at the Luxor Souk and finished off our day at the "Sofitel Winter Palace Hotel", which was beautiful. Our tour guide Abdul nearly drove me crazy with his incessant talking and repeating himself. He refused our tip because he said we had insulted him -- I had been ripped off and imposed on by these guides and we insulted him -- oh well, his loss!! The Winter Palace Hotel was a regular stop for King Farouk and we could see why. A gorgeous, peaceful oasis in the middle of a dirty, chaotic city. We dined here and rested until our driver took us to the airport for our return flight to Cairo. It had been a long day and we were anxious to return to Cairo and ultimately return to Abu Dhabi. Our flight was delayed and at the stroke of midnight, we were on an Air Egypt flight back to Cairo. We arrived in Cairo very late and checked into a hotel closer to the airport for a quick morning getaway. We were thrilled when our plane took off to take us back to the United Arab Emirates. We were in dire need of some civility, cleanliness and greenery.

EPILOGUE
Egypt turned out not to be the "dream vacation" I had hoped it would be, but I was glad to see it nonetheless. The city was more "3rd world" than I had anticipated and the people were not endearing and always on "the take". I will never return, but if I did, I would do it different knowing now what I didn't know at the time of making our initial arrangements. I enjoyed my Hong Kong trip far more than Egypt, but I couldn't have done it without the awesome traveling companions of Scott and Benny. It has made me realize that more difficult traveling countries need a travel companion in case of emergency and to help carry the burden of harder traveling.

I am now planning my next getaway which will be on Prophet Mohammed's birthday. I will be provided with a 4 day weekend in which I plan to travel to Muskat, Oman. I hope to depart on Wednesday, February 24 and return on Sunday February 28, 2010. I will have 4 full days in beautiful, restful Oman -- I am calling this my "retreat vacation" to chill and finally read "Eat, Pray, Love". I may even attempt to get a little sun on my stark white legs!!