R2R
We started our tour of antiquities in Cairo and were blessed to spend our time with Moody our new couch surfing friend. Moody is studying to be a tour guide and knows everything there is to know about Egyptian History. We spent time with the pyramids of Giza, at the Egyptian museum with King Tut’s stuff and living the video game Frogger while navigating the streets of big loud and busy Cairo!
We both celebrated our birthdays in Egypt and a highlight of our experience was some shopping we did in Luxor. As a friend pointed out on facebook, it is never really too early to start choosing your final resting place and Luxor certainly has it’s fair share of tombs.
We started our tomb selection from the air with a hot air balloon ride over the valley of the Kings and then got up close and personal with a few more using some rented bikes.
Matt decided he liked King Tut’s tomb the best – I think because of the gold sarcophogus. I liked Hatsheput”s funery temple maybe because of the size, and her obvious ego problem. We both don’t think it would be a problem to use these tombs because their previous occupants haven’t done much for housekeeping in thousands of years.
Egypt, the land of Pharohs, Revolution and street touts. Here is what one of our conversations in Luxor would sound like:
Matt and I: “Hello”
Random Guy: ” Where from?”
Matt and I: “Canada”
Random Guy: “OOh Canada Dry!”
Matt and I: Yes, Canada Dry
Random Guy: Do you want feluca/taxi/random piece of carved crap?
Matt and I: No thank you
Random Guy: Good price..you know how much?
Matt and I:
Random Guy (Now following us): Yes! Yes! You want? Good price!
Matt and I:
Random Guy: Maybe later?
Matt and I: This may seem harsh to stop replying, but it really is the only way to survive the constant onslaught of touts wanting to help us spend our money, and the polite “No Thank You” just didn’t work.
It is really a shame that many tourists likely leave Egypt with only this type of interaction with Egyptians because it is not indicative of how wonderful the people we met were. It was not uncommon to hear “welcome in Egypt” from random people not trying to sell us something.
While visiting the Luxor temple we had a couple of funny interactions with school kids. Their poor teacher was trying to instil some national pride in the great history of the place and all the kids wanted to do was take pictures of the tourists. The teacher finally gave up and allowed this group of girls to let me take their picture, have them take my picture and have a brief conversation in English. Some of them spoke pretty good English, and they were pretty proud of what they knew. After a few minutes of being literally backed into an ancient column, I did my best to convince these young ladies to return to their teacher. About 15 minutes later the boys school/class came by and this time it was Matt’s turn to be the centre of attention. So funny!
We made our way south to Aswan and then even further south to Abu Simbel…. old temple in Egypt. The cool thing about this temple, however is that it was completely moved 60 meters from it’s ancient position to it’s current location because of a damn. We learned all about the international effort at preserving Ramses II’s narcissistic tribute to himself and one of his wives in the mid 1960’s. Each piece of sandstone was lovingly cut and moved in a race against the heightening waters as a result of a new dam that was built. The carvings are incredible in themselves, but to think of the engineering involved in moving them was even more awe inspiring.
Our time in Egypt was fantastic, and it really is impressive to see some of the oldest structures on the planet up close and personal! it was also kind of fun to actually walk like an Egyptian (whatever that means).
