Alexandria, Egypt, 07Apr2009

Subject: greetings from Alexandria, Egypt
Date: Tuesday, 7 April 2009 2:16 PM

Founded by Alexander the Great in 332BC, this city fringes the Mediterranean north west of Cairo, and has a present population of only 4 million which grows to 8 million in the height of summer, July-August. Imagining where these extra 4 million people go is difficult as the place, to us, seems already crowded to capacity.

Last time I emailed we were about to leave on the overnight train from Aswan to Cairo. Fortunately, we'd managed to find the duty free shop, a scruffy place in the main drag, where we managed to stock up with the essentials for such a trip -- you know, bottles of gin, tonic, and similar. And we certainly needed them. The train trip was the worst I can remember. Not only did the carriage seem to have wheels out of round, producing a constant vertical vibration which made sleeping (in bunks) nigh on impossible, but every now and again, at all speeds the driver seemed to have a penchant for suddenly increasing or decreasing the speed with a huge jolt felt throughout the train. And this was the best rail service Egypt can provide.

And so, our gin bottles emptied, we arrived back in Cairo at dawn the next day, most of us sleepless, but I with the added burden of dose of the runs (the first I'd had on this trip) probably caused by incautious consumption of home baked bread with a dubious "spread" at a fascinating Nubian village in Aswan the day before. The Nubians actually keep live crocodiles in their homes, supposedly to keep the homes safe - the crocs are allegedly returned to the wild after a couple of years living in these parlous circumstances.

It was with great relief that I charged into the toilet in the spotlessly clean hotel where our tour team had organised breakfast in Cairo, after which we piled aboard a bus to set off for Alex, some three hours drive away.

Here we are ensconced in the old world style Le Metropole Hotel, an ornate has-been which features 14 foot ceilings and lavish wall decorations but also deficiencies in minor things such as toilet paper, oh, and hot water. The room, sorry, suite, which Mary and I have consists of a a huge drawing room at the entrance, a large bedroom, and a bathroom, complete with jacuzzi, which is bigger than many hotel rooms we've experienced.

But the hotel has free internet access so here I am, at 0600, in my hotel-supplied dressing gown, sending this to you.

Today we're off to the El Alamein battlefield followed by a return to Cairo for a last fling before the group members depart for their various destinations tomorrow. Mary and I have opted for a few days in Singapore before arriving home next Monday.

Some pics:

My quest to win the photo comp continues. A self-timer shot in the jacuzzi of our hotel.

The 13th century Citadel at Alexandria, built on the site of the Alexandria lighthouse which toppled several hundred years earlier. We can see this citadel from one of our suite's windows.

View to the west from the Citadel, showing the proximity of Alex to the coast.

Regards
Kev & Mary Long

Aswan, upper Egypt, 03Apr2009

Subject: greetings from Aswan, upper Egypt
Date: Friday, 3 April 2009 11:45 PM

How the world has changed in a few years. I remember clearly having difficulty in the year 2000 getting internet access of any sort in Turkey and Greece and now here I am in Aswan, Egypt, many, many kilometres up the Nile from Cairo and am sitting here with a quite fast and stable and relatively cheap connection.

Our floating hotel arrived here during the night yesterday, so that we awoke yesterday morning to a sunlit vista of a new location and the promise of new experiences. As a group we'd opted to visit Abu Simbel, some 3 hours drive SW, in the afternoon rather than face the crowds which inevitably accompany the morning visit, not to mention the obligatory 0400 start for that visit. Our convoy left at 1100 and returned to Aswan at around 1915, just after dark. This so-called convoy, topped and tailed by armed police, is probably formed only for political reasons, but that is the way things are so we have no option but to go along with the deal. The journey is through a desert wasteland on a quite good bitumen road which has only a few very gentle direction changes over its 250km or so. All around the landscape is dominated by sand with the occasional hummock of rock (particularly near Abu Simbel) which protrudes from its surroundings in much the same shape as pyramids.

The temples at Abu Simbel were, of course, relocated in the 1960s from their original position -- now totally submerged under the limpid waters of Lake Nasser -- to high ground, close by. It was a magnificent engineering feat, surpassed only by the magnificence of the original work, both temples having been carved out of the rock of two small mountains instead of constructed from blocks of stone.

Our base for tonight is an old style hotel, well appointed, overlooking the Nile. It has a heated swimming pool and reasonably priced large bottles of Stella beer. Having been informed by our tour guide of the nearby location of a duty free shop which sells spirituous liquors, several of us intend to visit that establishment this evening bent on procuring supplies to assist in the next part of the journey, an overnight train trip back to Cairo, tomorrow (Saturday) night.

All arrangements during this tour have worked faultlessly. Our small group of 13 friends is treated as an entirely separate group, with our own ground transport and of course a dedicated guide. On arrival at a new location the usual recce parties go out and report back at the obligatory 1900 hrs, pre-dinner, meeting, with drinks and humorous discussions, in one of the rooms.

Things could hardly be better and I, for one, am very glad that we employed a guide and undertook a tour as language is always a difficulty, as is the culture difference.

OK, some pics:

Kay and Geoff Gettons, part of our group, in front of the smaller of the two temples at Abu Simbel (sorry, its name escapes me right now). The red luggage strap is there to make the image eligible for the Bunnik's Tours photo prize, which I intend to win.

Yesterday afternoon the glass doors of one of the Nile cruisers cum floating hotels near us in Aswan were being washed by a couple of the crew who were seated (and sometimes standing) on a single plank suspended on two ropes. The ornate surroundings of the glass doors particularly attracted my attention. Remember, this is a boat.

Another boat image. This one was carved over 3000 years ago -- temple of Edfu, on the Nile, north of Aswan.

Temple of Edfu. Several of the ladies visible in the bottom right corner are from our group (Mary included).

This morning we visited a genuine papyrus-making establishment here in Aswan. Most so-called papyrus artwork available on the streets here is actually constructed from banana leaf. Mary liked the look of this piece and bought it.

Anyway, must go and check out the duty free. Next catch up will probably not be until Alexandria, in a couple of days. Thanks for the emails on the local news. Hope the Clio has recovered from its flood encounter, Beanie.

Regards
Kev & Mary Long

Luxor, again, 31Mar2009

Subject: greetings from Luxor, again
Date: Tuesday, 31 March 2009 6:53 PM

Sava-hererer ("good morning" in Arabic)

Thought I'd just duck over the road from our floating hotel to the internet shop as it's unlikely that we'll get another opportunity to do this before we reach Aswan in several days' time.

Thanks for emails, everyone. The balloon flight this morning was spectacular and undertaken in perfect conditions. I shot lots of video, as did Jaro, so look out when we get home. The early morning call came at 0415, for assembly in the reception area at 0445 -- not much different from our kayak fishing trips, at least in timings. Mary enjoyed the flight immensely, drifting a couple of hundred feet over tiny rural villages consisting of mainly mudbrick dwellings, watching the inhabitants gradually start their work day. Donkey carts and accompanying workers were scattered widely around the fileds, as the sugar cane harvest is underway. It's all done by hand, except that the final process apparently employs sugar cane trams to get the cane to the mill.

We sail for Aswan at 1230. The ladies are taking a last look at a very special, difficult to find, shop before 1100, when we're meeting our guide for a lecture on the surrounding history and geographic features we'll encounter on our afternoon's travels.

I've attached a couple of pics...

Mary and I in our hansom cab at sunset yesterday in the streets of Luxor. Photo by Ali, our driver, using my camera -- and yes, I've still got it!!.

Part way through our hansom cab drive last night we pulled in to a cafe where we were offered a smoke on a bubbler pipe, very popular hereabouts. This pic shows Jim having a go.

Anyway, must go.

Regards
Kev & Mary Long

Luxor, Egypt, 31Mar2009

Subject: Greetings from Luxor, Egypt
Date: Tuesday, 31 March 2009 12:29 AM

Hello all

Luxor, pop 150,000, is on the Nile, 25.5 degrees north of the equator, just one degree closer to the equator than Noosa is, but very different, as you'd imagine.

Egypt just gets better and better. Our guide, travelling with us, is a 43 year old professional Egyptologist (name: Magdy -- a Coptic Catholic Egyptian, and as such a second class citizen in his own nation). His takes on contemporary life in Egypt and his knowledge of the ancient Egyptian civilisations fill our days with interesting discussions. These discussions are prompted by the amazing structures and monuments that abound hereabouts and the inevitable scenes of everyday life which are inevitably encountered as we move about, usually in air conditioned buses, although horse drawn carts are on the agenda this evening, and water transport is in the offing as we have just embarked on the Tu-ya, a 140 passenger floating, and Nile-worthy hotel.

We left Cairo yesterday by air, arriving at Luxor in less than one hour on a comfortable Egypt Air flight (no hassles whatsoever). Immediately on arrival we were whisked off to the Temple of Karnak, in the centre of the city and almost on the banks of the Nile, which rushes past, brilliant blue and clear (this doesn't necessarily mean clean), at some 10kph, on its journey north to the Mediterranean. Karnak is astounding, and just nearby, linked by a 3km (I think) causeway lined with 1800 (yes, 1800, some of which are still being excavated) sphinxes to the Temple of Luxor, also astounding, and which we visited at sunset yesterday. Between the two visits we checked in to our Nile front hotel. Mary and I thought a mistake must have been made as our room was luxurious with a magnificent view of the Nile and the mountain range to the west, on the left bank of the Nile, and which contains among many other ancient wonders, the Valley of the Kings. Rarely do we stay in such luxury but we savoured it -- after all it was the hotel the tour had booked for us and for which we'd already paid.

The WOW factor continued this morning with a visit to the western bank of the Nile including, of course, a stop at the Valley of the Kings -- burial place of many of the Pharaohs from the New Kingdom, dating from (don't quote me on this) 1300BC, some 900 years after the Middle Kingdom pharaohs were entombed in their pyramids. Tutankhamun's tomb is the most well known in the Valley, but there are the tombs of at least 62 other "Kings" nearby.

Anyway, enough about the ancient Egypt tourist stuff, which I have to say, is mind boggling -- if you haven't been here and have the resources to do so, I say come.

The beer. We found some in Cairo, eventually. Of course, we could buy at super-inflated prices in the hotel but that goes against the grain. Jim and I, with the help of a sympathetic local, found, in a back street, a hole in the wall which offered access to large quantities of local (real) beer and we bought as much as we and our fellow travellers could reasonably consume in the 36 hours or so before we had to fly to Luxor. Wine continues to be unavailable or undrinkable.

Illness. Most have been briefly touched by stomach "troubles" but all seem really well today. Needless to say, those who drink beer are among the group least affected.

Weather. Fantastic. Cool clear nights (10-14°C), sunny days (up to 26°C). Light breezes.

Tomorrow our vessel sails at about noon for the south. Our cabin is sumptuous, even including a fridge and separate, personal bathroom containing a full sized bath, but alas, no bidet. Lest you think that the bath is for sleeping in, be assured that two excellent beds are also provided. All meals are provided and there's even a swimming pool (not the Nile).

Before we sail, some of us, M & I included, are booked in for a hot-air balloon ride over the western bank, at sunrise. Early this morning we counted some 24 balloons, each with its basket of tourists in suspense, rising in the dawn mist, to drift gently on the 2-3kph northerly breeze.

Anyway, some pics:

Mary on our hotel room balcony, soon after check-in yesterday (Sunday) afternoon). Yes that's the Nile. The Valley of the Kings is among those background hills, and the water treatment plant is next door.

The balloons as seen from our balcony, this morning. Tomorrow we'll be up there.

In the Valley of the Kings, there is a continuous need for workers of many kinds as excavating continues. This pic shows one of the more highly skilled workers whose duties consist largely of solving the three dimensional jigsaw puzzle presented by the need to reconstruct various shattered earthenware urns and vessels whose shards litter the excavation sites. As you can see, he's doing a pretty good job.

Painted depiction of Anubis, the agent who assists the newly dead in their transition to the after life (as I understand it). This painting is in the mummification room of the enormous and astounding funerary temple of Hatshepsut, on the western bank of the Nile and faintly visible (the temple, not the painting) from our hotel room of yesterday.

Temple of Karnak

Anyway, I must get going as the next thing on our activity list is a horse-drawn carriage ride at sunset through the beautiful, green and flowery riverside city of Luxor, due to start in about an hour.

Thanks all for your emails. Hope you enjoy this one. Those who have been here will no doubt reminisce about that visit and hopefully agree that this is a profoundly interesting place.

Regards
Kev & Mary Long

Cairo, Egypt, 28Mar2009

Subject: greetings from Cairo, Egypt
Date: Saturday, 28 March 2009 12:20 AM

Hi all

Well the whole gang, all 13 of us, arrived safely and well, all on the same flight, on Tuesday morning at dawn. About an hour later we were deeply involved in the chaotic Cairo traffic, thankfully as passengers aboard a mini bus and accompanied by a rep of the tour company. This rep was a fountain of knowledge and this resource was mined more or less successfully by the new arrivals in between gasps at near misses with trucks and donkey carts and attempts to take in and photograph scenes never before encountered.

Our impressions in that first hour or so seemed to universally centre on the chaos, rubbish, buildings whose main means of support seemed to be of the miraculous variety and a sad and plenteous population.

At every turn we encountered more of this, but much of it was forgotten as we rounded a bend and there in front of us was the great pyramid of Giza, turning pinkish in the hazy early morning light -- and this even before we'd checked in to our hotel, which is located literally over the road from the sandy wastes which surround the colossal monument and its companions.

We're ensconced in Le Meridian Pyramids Hotel in Giza. It has a huge circular heated swimmimg pool which is overlooked by the Great Pyramid. Pool swimmers can actually see the 4000+ year old pyramid's huge cone of gigantic sandstone rocks, all cut to shape, while enjoying the waters. Surely this is one of the most surreal backgrounds anywhere.

Our days are filled with sightseeing accompanied by a guide whose knowledge base of the ancient Egyptians seems inexhaustible, and with searches for alcoholic beer at a reasonable price. You see, we can buy beer in the hotel and other bars, and Egyptian wine (made from French grapes!!) but both have exorbitant prices and the latter is the worst wine I've ever tasted, and I've tasted some pretty bad stuff. Everywhere, beer is sold at small shops, but it is almost all non-alcoholic. I say almost because we did manage to find, on the first day, five cans at one small stall in the Coptic Christian area of Cairo -- that's been the extent of it. Wine outlets are non-existent. We're hoping for an improvement in this situation when we get to Luxor, the day after next, on a flight from here.

Lest I appear to be obsessed with getting a cold beer, I wish to relate that the tour so far has been very enjoyable and informative and highly praised by our little crew -- all are partaking as far as is reasonable in activities, given the need for some to stay within a few minutes of a serviceable toilet, no easy task in the wilds of the Egyptian tourism landscape -- 'nuff said.

I won't get a chance to check my email or send another until we reach Luxor on Sunday, if I'm lucky. And after that we'll be aboard a Nile cruiser for four days.

I've included a few pics:

On an early morning walk the first morning here I was greeted by this really nice guy who was running a tea stand based on a coffee table on the footpath. Business was quiet for him as I passed and, picking me for a non-local, he called me over and with gestures indicated that he'd like me to have a cuppa with him. I'd deliberately come out without any cash and indicated this to him but he insisted that this was a gift. Very quickly I accepted and within seconds I was sipping a delicious and very hot and sweet cuppa, contained in a throw-away plastic cup. It was an experience which contrasted starkly with that of many visitors to Egypt.

A still from a movie. The stepped pyramid (ca 2600 BC) at Saqquara, near Memphis, the now ruined ancient capital of Lower Egypt. In the background the smaller pyramid of Titti, which contains at its centre a heavily hieroglyphed tomb chamber, complete with granite sarcophagus (which we visited, accessing it via a steep ramp downwards from the present ground level).

Still from a movie. View of the Sphinx, foreground, with the huge pyramid of Khefren, one of the three main pyramids at Giza behind. Some kids on a school excursion also visible.

Still from a movie. Our gang, less me (behind camera), accompany our guide Magdy, the big guy in the white shirt, during our visit this morning to Saqquara.

Regards
Kev & Mary Long, and all the other members of the travelling gang.

Egypt, March/April 2009

In 2009 we organized a group tour of Egypt with some close friends from Australia. We travelled by various means to meet in Singapore and then all boarded the same flight to be met by our tour guide on arrival in Cairo. On this trip we relied on Internet cafés and the like and sent emails to ourselves and friends, rather than blogging, which we hadn't yet discovered. iPad, of course, was yet to be produced.

To view the posts of the Egypt trip, in start to finish order, simply select the "Newer Post" option at the bottom of this and each post.