30th June 09 - It is a week since we came back from Egypt but you know what…we are still there and I guess it will be a few more weeks (or probably another holiday) before we come out of it. Egypt was magical, exotic…7 days of wonderment and getting lost in a different world…the world of a beautiful Nile river, the mighty Saharan desert, majestic pyramids, massive temples, eerie tombs…a realisation that there didn’t exist an older civilisation than this. This is what man created first…what happened on the shores of the Nile was unprecedented and unique, an adventure which evolved at dizzying speed, creating works of art and science way beyond the prospects of the time.
We had to put that paragraph there before we start from the beginning – that is how amazing it was. We were sceptical of organised tours…privacy, pace of the tour, comfort of people around etc…but all of this was proven misplaced when we arrived in Cairo at 11:30 pm on Jan 17th, 2009. We were met by a representative from the tour company and escorted to the waiting group at the baggage claim. There were 4 to 5 couples already there and after quick introductions, we picked up our bags and were comfortably seated in the bus. After listening to the do’s and don’ts from our tour manager on the bus, we arrived at the Sonesta hotel 20 minutes later.
The hotel was comfortable but we hardly had any time to enjoy it as at 8am the next day we checked out and headed to Giza to see the pyramids. They appeared more colossal and magnificent than we had thought them to be. Out came the camera and we started with the pictures. There was of course a detailed history provided by our tour guide which we will let you read on the internet else this will become a never ending travelogue considering the Egyptian civilisation spans over 3000 years.
After the pyramids we were taken to a Papyrus shop. Papyrus as you may know is the oldest form of paper and used by the Egyptians to record history. This material has lasted thousands of years. We were given a demonstration of how Papyrus paper is made and then there were hand drawn sheets we could buy personalising them with our names. We bought an Egyptian wedding card (what they used thousands of years back to depict a wedding) and got our names written in Hieroglyphics.
This was followed by lunch at an Indian restaurant. While it is very easy to find a few thousand year old mummies in Egypt, vegetarian food is not that easy to find. This happened to be the strongest motivator for us to take an organised trip. Tasty desi food and we then left for some museums followed by the Khan el Khaleeli bazaar. We then boarded an overnight train to Aswan. While the train was reasonably comfortable, the bland pasta and tomato ketchup, the so called dinner on train was far from interesting. We had been alerted to this by our tour manager in advance and had armed ourselves with Falafal and some fruits on our way to the station.
Arriving at Aswan early in the morning, we went to the Nubian museum there and then to a perfume shop. We were educated on the various types available…perfumes which make you smell fresh at the start of a day to those with medicinal values.
Then the best part of the tour began…we checked into our cruise on the Nile. We were pleasantly surprised to see the luxury on board…the rooms were amazing and overlooked the river. A tastefully done lobby and a wonderful sun deck made the cruise really impressive. We were to visit places around Aswan for the next 2 days while the cruise stayed docked on the river.
On the day we checked in on to the cruise, we were spared any more sight seeing and allowed to rest for a couple of hours. A relaxing Felucca ride on the Nile (local sail boat) was planned for the evening. The setting sun, Sahara desert spread across the bank of the Nile and a cool breeze…this was a perfect evening. Because the train journey had not been that comfortable and we had to be up by 4 am the next day to visit the magnificent temple of Abu Simbel, it was an early night for us.
After a cup of coffee at 4am, we left for the temple. It was to be a 3 hour drive through the Sahara in a convoy of vehicles. Apparently, there had been a terrorist strike in the late 90s, where in many tourists were killed. After that incident, vehicles are only allowed in a convoy through the desert and all vehicles are escorted by armed guards. It has been over a decade after that incident…the security measures are more of a second nature now and not an indication of actual threat.
Anyways, as you would imagine, everyone in the bus slept of once we hit the road. At about 5:45am, we opened our eyes to see one of the most spectacular sights we have ever experienced. The sun was just about rising to our left and the light made the desert expanse on either side of the road look magical. But for the stretch of road ahead of us in black, on either side it was just sand till the horizon, faintly glowing in the early sunlight.
We reached Abu Simbel just before 7am and true to our expectations, the temple was splendid. The sheer size of the structure captivated us. After a brief on its history, we were allowed to go inside the temple and were given time to indulge in our ‘Japanese hobby’ as our tour guide chose to refer to photography. We got back by noon to the cruise for lunch and then visited the Edfu temple. A couple of hours there and we got back to the cruise.
The entire next day was idyllic. The itinerary was easy with the Kom Ombo temple prior to
lunch and the Philae temple in the evening. We set sail on the cruise after breakfast and were at Kom Ombo by noon. The temple is just on the banks of Nile. As impressive as the rest of the temples, Kom Ombo also has a mummy of a crocodile. We reached the Philae temple at dusk and with our tripod walked into the exquisitely lit temple premises. This was the first Egyptian temple we were seeing after dark and that made it special. While the structure is similar to the other temples, this one is spread over a far larger area. We got some good night shots and headed back to the cruise.
W
e could barely sleep that night in anticipation of the hot air balloon ride the next day. Like a drill, we were up at 5am and after a short boat ride crossing to the west bank, we were in open fields where we saw close to 8 hot air balloons being prepared for take off. Each of the balloons had baskets which could carry 25 people. These baskets had been split into compartments to hold 5 people each with an additional central compartment for the Pilot (guess this would best describe the person flying the balloon). We were quickly given information on how to position ourselves on landing should we experience either the American or British landing (American landing representing a bumpy landing with the balloon hopping a few times before stopping and the British landing referring to a sliding stop). We were fortunate to have an Egyptian landing which was just one touch and a stop on the ground.We went up to a height of over 1500 feet and watching the sun rise while suspended in air was a whole new experience. The view of the desert and the city of Luxor from up there was spell-binding. We got back to the cruise by 8am and checked out after breakfast. We then went to the Valley of the kings where the tombs of various Egyptian kings are present…including Ramses and Tut an Khamun. The pilgrimage continued with the temple of Hatshepsut (hot chick soup – an easy way to remember as suggested by our tour guide J) before lunch followed by the Karnak and Luxor temple after that before heading to the station for an overnight train journey back to Cairo. This time it was some salads and garlic bread from Pizza Hut which rescued us from the scary spaghetti in the train.
Checking into our hotel in Cairo, we were already feeling a bit low since it was the last day of the trip. We visited the Pharonic village which orchestrates the Egyptian way of life and history from early days. It was time for lunch then and all of us assembled in the hotel lobby for the sound and light show at the pyramids. It is a spectacular laser show with the pyramids and Sphinx lit in all their glory with the history being told in the background. The day and our tour ended with a good dinner at an Indian restaurant.
We were all back at the airport at 6am the next day for our flights back to London.
