Egypt was amazing! After a week of being back home I am still adjusting to the 10 hour time difference, and even though I really enjoyed going to Egypt it's definitely a place you only visit once. It was a tiring but fun adventure. Most mornings we woke up at 5 or earlier to beat the heat and crowds, the history was amazing, and what they were able to built was incredible. All the pictures I have seen of Egypt really don't do it justice, the monuments are so much larger. We also go to learn about local culture, we had two tour guides from the area who were really great. One guide had the best laugh and called us all habibah which translates as sweetheart but they use it like we use bro. To be a tour guide they have years of formal training and refresher courses all the time. They work for the government and if they told a local seller to leave us alone, they disappeared.Shopping there was an adventure. The vendors are very aggressive and are constantly calling out "HEY LADY". As we were cruising down the Nile as we were slowing down to go through a lock about 7 small row boats roped onto our boats and shouted up to people in their room windows and people on the top deck. My mom loved this and was dealing with on boat. They throw merchandise up on to the boat and then you have to try to bargain with them then put money in a bag and throw it back down to them. It was definitely an interesting experience.
My favorite was the Temple at Dendara. To me it seemed to be the most intact temple. It was beautiful and there were fully enclosed staircases that we took up to the roof. From there you could see what was left of the walls surrounding the temples and the gateways. On the back of the temple is one of the few reliefs of Cleopatra the VII and her son Caesarian. That is the Cleopatra most people know about.
We got to see where Nubia once was. The Aswan dam has caused what once was Nubia to be completely underwater. We also saw two temples that had been moved so they would not be flooded. Egypt is definitely different then America, it was dirty and polluted. You can smell the chlorine in the water and we were advised to even brush out teeth with bottle water and not to eat lettuce. The average age in the city is low and when you see the conditions you understand. We also talked to our guides about political views that people have and their government, they would only talk about these things when we were alone or only around people who didn't speak english. It was extremely eye opening and for people who think America is horrible, well it's not perfect but they need to see some of the alternatives. While we were there California was voting whether or not gay people could marry.... in Egypt if you are gay you go to jail. We have so many more rights we really are blessed. Also in Egypt there are armed military men EVERYWHERE, like I said before tour guides work for the government and also all the religious leaders are government appointed there which is very interesting.
But back to the history there was so much it was really amazing and hearing about Ramses II who it's pretty well believed that he is the Pharaoh during Moses time. We got to go to a papyrus store and see how it was made, we went to a Nubian perfumery and watch the perfume vases be made. We got to go into different tombs at the Valley of the Kings, including King Tut's and got to see his mask at the Egyptian museum. At the Valley of the Kings we also saw a large group that believes they are close to finding two more tombs.
I actually didn't buy as much as I thought I would, if you so much as look at something you will have three guys trying to grab you and pull you into their store, others will come up to you and try to put things on you. They will try to give you things saying its a gift and then 5 min later demand payment. Our guides warned us of all these things and at the pyramids they told us not to accept camel rides because they give you a price, take you out to the desert and then if you want to get back you must pay tons more. We had the option to do a camel ride at a specific place where it was safe but we decided to skip it. My dad on the other hand had a ball shopping. The guy that organized our trip, John, said he bets all the vendors hated my dad and were glad when he left. He also said dad was "tighter than a rusty lid on a pickle jar", there was more than once that everyone waited while dad finished haggling with someone. Dad loved it. He also had tons of people saying he looked Egyptian starting with the immigration guy at the airport. And I'm not sure if it was that or his height or just his friendliness but while at one of the pyramids he had about ten kids standing around him asking him questions to practice their english and getting pictures with him. He even had a family ask for a picture and the kid grabbed dads arm and put it around him, it was hilarious, Tom, John and I stood to the side just watching and cracking up.
Riding down the Nile was beautiful, the green and then the desert mountains. Oh and the fine sandy deserts you see in the movies, not very common, we were in rocky dirt. But floating down the Nile was so nice and hearing the multiple calls to worship overlapping, the only negative was the horrible smell of burning garbage. Whatever efforts we are making in America against global warming are being undone there, that's for sure. Oh and the kids on the bank would call out to the boat trying to get the boat to honk at them and to get all the tourists to wave and call hi back.
Well there is so much I can say but it's already a long enough post, but it really was a once in a lifetime trip, it was so amazing and I am so thankful that my parents took Tom and me on the trip. It was so much fun getting to experience it with my husband and also with my parents, it was amazing!
My favorite was the Temple at Dendara. To me it seemed to be the most intact temple. It was beautiful and there were fully enclosed staircases that we took up to the roof. From there you could see what was left of the walls surrounding the temples and the gateways. On the back of the temple is one of the few reliefs of Cleopatra the VII and her son Caesarian. That is the Cleopatra most people know about.
We got to see where Nubia once was. The Aswan dam has caused what once was Nubia to be completely underwater. We also saw two temples that had been moved so they would not be flooded. Egypt is definitely different then America, it was dirty and polluted. You can smell the chlorine in the water and we were advised to even brush out teeth with bottle water and not to eat lettuce. The average age in the city is low and when you see the conditions you understand. We also talked to our guides about political views that people have and their government, they would only talk about these things when we were alone or only around people who didn't speak english. It was extremely eye opening and for people who think America is horrible, well it's not perfect but they need to see some of the alternatives. While we were there California was voting whether or not gay people could marry.... in Egypt if you are gay you go to jail. We have so many more rights we really are blessed. Also in Egypt there are armed military men EVERYWHERE, like I said before tour guides work for the government and also all the religious leaders are government appointed there which is very interesting.
But back to the history there was so much it was really amazing and hearing about Ramses II who it's pretty well believed that he is the Pharaoh during Moses time. We got to go to a papyrus store and see how it was made, we went to a Nubian perfumery and watch the perfume vases be made. We got to go into different tombs at the Valley of the Kings, including King Tut's and got to see his mask at the Egyptian museum. At the Valley of the Kings we also saw a large group that believes they are close to finding two more tombs.
I actually didn't buy as much as I thought I would, if you so much as look at something you will have three guys trying to grab you and pull you into their store, others will come up to you and try to put things on you. They will try to give you things saying its a gift and then 5 min later demand payment. Our guides warned us of all these things and at the pyramids they told us not to accept camel rides because they give you a price, take you out to the desert and then if you want to get back you must pay tons more. We had the option to do a camel ride at a specific place where it was safe but we decided to skip it. My dad on the other hand had a ball shopping. The guy that organized our trip, John, said he bets all the vendors hated my dad and were glad when he left. He also said dad was "tighter than a rusty lid on a pickle jar", there was more than once that everyone waited while dad finished haggling with someone. Dad loved it. He also had tons of people saying he looked Egyptian starting with the immigration guy at the airport. And I'm not sure if it was that or his height or just his friendliness but while at one of the pyramids he had about ten kids standing around him asking him questions to practice their english and getting pictures with him. He even had a family ask for a picture and the kid grabbed dads arm and put it around him, it was hilarious, Tom, John and I stood to the side just watching and cracking up.
Riding down the Nile was beautiful, the green and then the desert mountains. Oh and the fine sandy deserts you see in the movies, not very common, we were in rocky dirt. But floating down the Nile was so nice and hearing the multiple calls to worship overlapping, the only negative was the horrible smell of burning garbage. Whatever efforts we are making in America against global warming are being undone there, that's for sure. Oh and the kids on the bank would call out to the boat trying to get the boat to honk at them and to get all the tourists to wave and call hi back.
Well there is so much I can say but it's already a long enough post, but it really was a once in a lifetime trip, it was so amazing and I am so thankful that my parents took Tom and me on the trip. It was so much fun getting to experience it with my husband and also with my parents, it was amazing!
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