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| Me, relaxing on the felucca |
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| Spencer drinking his Stella |
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| Jules, Jen and Ish stike a pose |
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| Felucca on the Nile |
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| Our 'Campsite' |
That night we headed into the local village for dinner, We sat on the floor of a villagers house and devoured more flat bread, this time with different trimmings, and removed ourselves outside. We started getting smashed by sandflies and the conversation turned again to photography, much to the disappointment of those amongst us who are not into photography (they number about three). Kyle points out that my red crocs are surrounded by black sandals in the doorway so I attempt to take a photo, which turns out to be many photos due to my attempt to use my flash unit with a fish eye lens...hmm, the flash only illuminates a part of the almost 180 degree view of the fisheye! A couple of men sitting inside beckon me in and ask me to take their photographs, now this is quite amusing as I have the fisheye lens on, which turns out some wicked distortions at times, these guys have possible seen as many cameras on as many occasions as I have been wrong, so they were quite amused with their partially distorted images on the LCD screen. From there I attempted to get their address so that I can mail them some photos when I get home, not an easy task with little English on their side and no Arabic on my behalf, I hope that I got the address right.
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| Dinner on the floor in the village |
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| Love the red crocs |
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| Two men who were very amused to see themselves through the fisheye |
We were then invited into the adjoining house to take photographs, initially we thought that the ladies were shy as they scurried off when we appeared looking like the paparazzi, they had their head coverings off and quickly went to affix them and put on some make-up! One lady was more than happy to sit on the bed whilst her young child was sleeping whilst I took a photo, even the flash firing didn’t make the child stir, much less the noise of 5 or 6 ‘photographers’ or the excitement of the women.
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| Mother and child, local village |
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| Myself with local lady |
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| m&m man tries his hands at sailing |
We slept on the felucca, the waves from the passing luxury liners rocking us to sleep nicely. Our alarm clock sounded at 4.50am to the tune of ‘allah, allah, allah....arrr, arrrggg, ahhhh, allah’. , like seriously is there nowhere in this country where you can escape the speaker range of a mosque? Honestly, we could see no infrastructure from our Nile camp, so how the hell could allah dial a direct line into our felucca at 4.50am? We had a leisurely breakfast and then floated across the river, following the direction of the current until it was swimming time (we were about 100m away from camp!). The water was fantastic, after three laps around the felucca came the hard task of climbing back into it; well no one told me that! Once back in we drift another short distance before lunch is served, the staple flatbread with a slightly varied set of trimmings this time around. That afternoon we set up camp in the felucca on the shore of the Nile, seemingly a mile away from anywhere, still not far enough to escape the clutches of allah, though... Sleeping on the felucca was a very comfortable affair, for anyone wanting to try it my advice is to gain a front row pew, feluccas are widest at the front, meaning that you will not be kicking (or being kicked) by the person on the other side of the felucca. The down shot of the front row is that the food will need to be passed over your bed so you need to sit up at least three times a day!
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| Lunch onboard the felucca |
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| Spencer looking like he is working |
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| Lunchtime! |
After departing from the felucca we boarded a mini van, (well, lose use of the word boarded, more likely we breathed in and slammed the door before someone spilled back out!) Honestly, can 14 people, one esky, 44 beers, 6 boxes of water and all gear for three days really fit into ONE Toyota hiace? Of course! There was even room for one more, and possibly a chicken or two if required!
We stopped at Ombo to see the Temple of Haroeis, then continued on to Edfu where we visited the Temple of Horus, one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. Walking around Horus, it became apparent that Horus wasn’t the main tourist attraction, the tourists themselves were, and they were all entered into a competition to find the worst dressed tourist of 2010. Honestly, some of these people really need a good amount of time in front of a mirror to sort out their image. There is a huge difference between the attire of a tourist on a one country trip to Egypt and Africa overland travellers; one is functional, the other is not.!
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| Temple of Horus |
For those of you that know me, you know that I do not pretend to be into fashion in any way, by either wearing it or taking an interest in it. Regardless of this fact, I still think that I have something to offer the general Egypt traveller in the way of fashion advice and here it is...
There is absolutely no need for stilettos of any colour, size, shape or design whilst walking in the Valley of the Kings. The Kings are not going to care whether your shoes match our outfit (which is possibly on it’s own level of ridiculousness) and Tutankhamen’s eyes were dried up too moons ago to notice your footwear
If you are fair skinned and live in a country where you get five minutes of sunshine a year then it’s just poor fashion sense to wear a green singlet when you are going to be in the sun all day long. It’s an old one but it’s still good “red and green should never be seen” needs to be adhered to, especially when in such royal company, AND when that royal company does not care much for Christmas decorations!
If you are over the age of 40 and you are NOT in the 0.10% of the population who’s butt is genetically (or surgically) not prone to drooping, then wear respectable length shorts. No one except sleazy Egyptian men want to see sagging middle aged ass cheeks hanging beneath the hem of your shorts. This crime is heightened by a high waistband, anything above the belly button went out in the early nineties, and that’s the way it should stay!
White, frilly and lacy dresses have two uses; 1. On your dolls, when you are like 8 years old. 2. on your wedding day. A day of sightseeing should not be confused with either of the above situations, for most people who are not mentally challenged, it should be apparent that they are not getting married at that ancient temple or that they are not a doll living in a huge stone dolls house. Leave the frills at home girls! For the good of the universe and just to help out our fellow human beings, it’s a great idea to help these poor, lost souls out by informing them that it’s NOT their wedding day, for best effect, ensure a large crowd is nearby.
There is no need to wear matching shirt and pants (unless you are being paid for your presence at a workplace)There is also no need for team uniforms in any marriage, AND THERE IS DEFINATLY NO NEED FOR HUSBAND AND WIFE, TOP AND BOTTOM MATCHING UNIFORMS! (well, maybe there is a need; entertainment value, the initial sighting, the photo shoot and laughing with fellow travellers and posting the photo online for the world to see (well maybe just the 150 odd people who view this each week! He he he
You can never have enough red zebra t-shirts for travel (or home or work for that matter), they are a functional, sensible addition to any wardrobe, especially when teamed up with a pair of red crocs. Safety note on the crocs, many African toilets have large amounts of a liquid that I hope to be water on the floors, wearing crocs with a worn down sole is an extreme sport in this setting
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See? no need for matching uniforms!
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We finally arrive in Luxor, clamber out of the minivan, some of us with luggage permanently embedded into our ribs, to appreciate the new sign writing on the truck and appreciate the new lights fitted tot he passenger cab (the truck now doubles as a disco hall) Our taxi driver stands around hoping that one of us is going to pay him a tip, nope, way too many Aussies and Kiwis in this minivan! The driver eventually tries to extract money from Mark, another Aussie, still no luck!
The following day Spencer is on cook group so heads out with Hendrick in search of food for that night and the following morning. We then set out to purchase a ‘teacher card’ which enables us half price entry into most sites in Egypt, after an hour on this task, and one McDonalds session later we head back to camp without the cards so that I can go fishing that afternoon. Now maybe I am used to decent fishing gear, or maybe I am a fishing snob, along with being a fish snob, but I must sat that I was not at all impressed when handed an eggbeater reel that had to be hand fed out and hand fed in on a crappy rod with a hook hanging of the end of a monofilament line, no leader, no sinker, no floater, no worm....yep, worm, it wasn’t on the hook then, but it sure was in a minute. Apparently the Egyptians put their worms on a little different than us (Nah, f&*k off, who fishes with worms, apart from those afflicted with the intestinal type), the second mate openly laughed at how I had impaled my worm, and finished the little bastard off by impaling it from head to (almost tail) on the hook, then ripping the poor thing in half and throwing the rest overboard....burly anyone? After trolling my worm carcass for 20m I give up in disgust and decide to take up drinking again. Burbs caught two tiny fish, like 3cm, but with a little creative photography and a whole lot of Photoshop may look promising!, Kenji also pulled in a whale sized catch...well maybe in 40-60 years!
We drift back across the Nile (seriously we haven’t even moved out of sight from where we departed from!) and take a swim, after washing my bikini that morning and rushing to organise myself for fishing, mine is hanging off the tent, so I decide to do the underwear swim. After four cans of Stellar beer we pull back into the wharf and I announce that I need to go tot he toilet, and what a great decision! I used the most fantastic toilet, it was clean, sparkly, had soap, toilet paper, marble floors AND handtowels, but not the paper hand towels, it had REAL handtowels, YES the real ones that you use and put in the little basket to be washed...well not mine....I acquired that to aid with my hygiene routine whilst in the western desert! (No I am usually not so wound up in bathrooms, and I have used many great bathrooms in my years, just not THIS year!, this one was like sight to a blind man!)
From there six of us headed into a bar for more beers and some sheesha. We started to walk the couple of kilometres home but after being offered a horse ride, (about the 100,000th for that day) and getting all six of us in the carriage for 10 Egyptian pounds, ($1.60AUD) we took up the offer. Arriving back at camp we find dinner on the table, fish and chips, or ‘fush ‘n chups’ for the kiwis, have another beer, talk some s&%t then clamber into our tents.
The following day Spencer and I managed to purchase our teacher cards, for 95 Egyptian pounds; the first people to buy there’s paid 85, the next paid 90, then we were charged 95?.....reason, recouping of lost profits, they had overcharged Jen the previous day by 10 pounds, when he asked us where we were staying he added the 10 pounds onto our price! AND THEN...asked us to get Jen to bring the extra change back...hmmm, now that was an instruction which was lost in translation!
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| Avenue of Sphinxes |
From there we headed to the Luxor Temple an amazing place. The avenue of the sphinxes once had 730 human headed lion stone carvings; it was amazing enough to see the 50 odd that remain! We dodged and weaved our way through the busloads of tourists clad in matching uniforms, short shorts, short tops and everything else which constitutes as a fashion crime.
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| Luxor Temple |
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| Luxor Temple |
Later that afternoon saffa (South African) Robert and I headed off on our food mission for cook group, armed with a cooks.com curry recipe and a recipes.com.au golden syrup dumplings recipe we head in the direction of the market, turning down the countless offers of “taxi”, and “horse ride”. Arriving at the market we realise at once that it is a Friday afternoon, (Friday is the day of rest here) and that few shops are left open. After walking away from a produce seller after he continued to charge us too much for some potatoes, we added up the price of the 2kg of spuds which had caused the issue, 60cents! We find another produce seller and get some fruit and vegies and a tip off of where to find some meat, we are advised to take a taxi to find the wonderful market where there is a meat counter ‘this long’ (like 5m long), Robert gets the taxi driver to take us for 5 pounds, down from the initial asking price of 20 pounds, he assures us that he knows where we want to go, Robert has memorised the name and keeps saying it, after two left hand turns it’s apparent that he does not know of the meat counter ‘this long’ and we pull over for an interpreter. Ahh, it’s not ‘hafallll it’s hafalll’ he says... hmmm, sounds the same to me! We turn left, again, and again and I think maybe another 20 times and I am bamboozled, I announce that I have no idea which direction I’m facing and that I would have no way of finding my way back to the camp. Then we pull up out the front of the same supermarket where Spencer and I had got food for lunch, it’s a long way to walk home with food for 20 people! We purchase all required gear for the feast, only substitution was a date syrup instead of golden syrup, which turns out to be an excellent substitute if you can source any date syrup at home! And get the bloke from the supermarket to drive us back to camp for 3 pounds, bargain!
The Muslim lady on the check out gives me a funny look (or maybe I’m just paranoid), but I think she was wondering how in the space of three hours I had shopped with one bloke, then returned to do another shop with another, this one about 5 years younger than the first! Tea was good, dumplings seemed a hit and the mess was all cleaned up pretty early. This was only the second time I have had to cook since Nairobi, I will possibly not have to cook for another two weeks, luxury!
After a breakfast of pomegranate, banana, pineapple, oranges, yoghurt, flatbread and cereal Spencer, Kaye and I head to the West Bank of the Nile in search of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. We manage a private boat across the Nile for one pound each, although this took a bit of negotiating and a couple of walk-offs. Once at the other side, we set out on foot for the ticket office and then to Valley of the Kings. On the way we come across a taxi driver and hire him to take us to the ticket office for 2 pounds, he turns lemons into lemonade and manages to sign us up for a full day of private taxiing for 80 pounds, he also tells us to go first to the Valley of the Queens as the tour buses start off at the Valley of the Kings. Valley of the Queens has three tombs open currently, there is absolutely no photography at any of these sites, but I can tell you that there is some amazing artwork adorning the walls of the tombs. I am still not sure why the Bangles had a hit song called ‘Walk like an Egyptian” I am still to notice anyone walking in the manner of the film clip, and the only strange thing I could say is that in all the artwork, every Egyptian is shown standing with their legs straight and feet both facing the one direction; a very uncomfortable looking sideways!
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| Valley of the Queens |
We then head to the Valley of the Kings, a much more impressive version of the Valley of the Queens. What amazed me the most was the mountain range in which you could not find one blade of grass, or bush or tree, it’s just nothing...expected when it hasn’t rained here for over 2 years!
I coughed up the extra money to pay a visit to the mummified body of Tutankhamen and his tomb, Spencer couched up the money to see the Ramses IX tomb, then we viewed Thutmosis, Siptah and Ramses III. Which were all very impressive in their own way, We arrived back at the taxi late to find the taxi driver was not at all happy about being kept waiting, or paying the 5 pound to re-enter the car park in search of us! Last historical stop for that day was the funary Temple of Hatshepsut, which is a huge building carved out and built in sandstone into the limestone hills. This is the place where 60 odd people were murdered by Islam extremists in the 90’s, although you wouldn’t know it today, there is no memorial or signs, just the part of the temple where the atrocities occurred (people were tortured and disembowelled) remains closed. We manage to find a boat to take us back for one pound, this time we managed to find a boat with three crew who were all stoned off their faces and offering us joints, err, no thinks, just sail! Now had I any hesitations about how stoned they were, I had confirmed the fact when the man said we had paid ‘too much’....hello, we are in Egypt, nothing is ever too much!
The following morning we were up at 5am, this wasn't an issue as the calls of Allah roused us at about 4.40am! Into a taxi, onto a boat to cross tot he west bank, another taxi and then we piled into our balloon. Spencer and I managed to secure a corner spot, the basket contained smaller pens, each for 3 'bigger' or 4 normals...we were in the normal category! We drifted slowly over some amazing sites, and many that we had seen the previous day, sighted Valley of the Queens, and lifted up to 1000m to see the Valley of the Kings. The view over the Nile was amazing, it is like a great big green snake, weaving it's way through a barron desert. Even the desert was better from the air, you could see all the areas where water would run off with rain, not that it occurs often! It had been quite cool overnight, but the gas burners kept us warm, too warm! I had to turn my face away when we were rising as it felt like my skin was melting! We had a smooth landing, in our brace positions, I ended up behind Spencer as there was not enough room in our basket to go side by side, so I was glad that the basket didn't tip as I would have been squashed beneath him and my camera bag was in the mix somewhere too!
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| Getting ready for lift off |
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| Nearing the Valley of the Queens |
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| The gas burner is unbelievably hot |
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| Temple of Ramses |
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| Jen and Jules were in the rainbow balloon on the right of this photo |
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| Pasture land |
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Nile river makes an interesting contrast against the desert
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Packing up
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From here we head out to the Western Desert tomorrow to check out some more desert and the oasis's, then onto Cairo and Giza!
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