Day 121 - Cairo, Egypt - Nairobi, Kenya

We awoke much earlier today, minus the hangover's & plus the advantage of the free buffet breakfast which we missed out on yesterday.
There was an overwhelming sense of deja-vu as we packed, checked out & headed for the same booth in the bar as yesterday.

It was another day of technology, I managed to do 3 blog posts before the computer insisted on updating & stressing Tom out. After updating, the computer decided to insinuate it had lost all 13,700 photos from our travel's we had already saved online, thankfully this was not the case & it identified what was saved locally & could merge with the online back up.
Technology really feels like the bane of our existence at times like this.

At 4.30pm it was time for our airport transfer. Because of the heavy traffic through Cairo at this time of day, the distance & the fact that we were unable to check in for our flight online, we wanted to get there with plenty of time to spare.
We arrived 70 minutes later & were told before the first security gate that we were too early for our flight which didn't leave till 9.45pm & to have a seat for 2 hours. For an international airport terminal, it does look pretty small, therefore it probably doesn't need the 3-4 hours to get through airport procedures & arrive on time at the gate.

Just after 7pm we went through security, checked our bags in & went through immigration. By the time we browsed through duty free, indulged in a bottle of amarula & walked to the appropriate gate it was 8.15pm. The time taken to do this in a small, quiet airport was the fault of the check in staff who seemed too busy to check us in until the line of people had been standing in front of the counter for 20 minutes & several people had complained.
I was really grumpy to discover that we weren't seated together & were 10 rows apart. How does that even happen on the one booking purchased 6 months ago ?

At 9pm we finally went through our 3rd lot of security to get to the gate. All 3 security checks have included baggage screening & the most intense metal detection with thorough body pat downs. Everyone had to take all hats, belts, big jewellery items, jumpers & shoes off to walk through.
We finally started boarding at 9.45pm, the time that our flight was meant to take off. I was very amused to see that people were still going through the 3rd set of security at 9.45pm. Our tickets & passports were checked another 2 times before we boarded the plane.
Finally at 10.23pm we started to feel the plane reverse out of the parking space & make it's way to the runway. By the time we were in the air, it was pretty much 1 hour late. I hope they make up for it in the air & we aren't 1 hour late. Our next accommodation is a guesthouse & the owner is already being amazingly accommodating by picking us up at the ridiculous time of 4am.

People, honestly, never cease to amaze me with how dumb they can be. While we are taxing towards the end of the runway to take off, a man gets up out of his seat to ask the flight attendant's who are seated, for another pillow. Is that really worth being in the aisle when the plane accelerates ? The flight attendants are quite grumpy & exasperated at him & make no effort to hide their emotions as they shove a pillow at him & tell him to sit down.

The same man a few hours later gets up out of his chair with a hot cup of coffee to open his overhead compartment & walk around, after the captain announces for everyone, including cabin crew, to be seated as there is turbulence ahead. He looks really offended when cabin crew yell at him to close the compartment & sit down. He only half gets it right by sitting down, a flight attendant has to rush over & close the compartment so bags don't fall out & injure someone in the turbulence.
I hope as soon as he leaves the airport that a large african bird flies overhead & pooh's on his head.

Our plane touched down an hour late, unfortunately not arriving on time. By the time we passed through immigration, a process made quicker by our approved online EVISA and cleared the non existent customs it was close to 5am.

We met our airport transfer after making a phone call with a friendly local's phone. The mans name was George & he lives/owns the guesthouse we are staying at with his wife Caroline.

We finally arrived at the guesthouse at 5.30am, it was 9 degrees outside & we were very ready for bed.

- Alli

Day 120 - An Extra Day In Egypt

We woke up with hangover's after 10am, having missed the free buffet breakfast & to the sad realization that It was our last day in Egypt... so we thought.

After completely repacking every item into our packs in preparation for an international flight & checking out. We sat in the bar area, knowing we had half a day to kill before our airport transfer. We started to double check all of our confirmations, starting with a quick Google search of our flight number to make sure it was currently running on time. For some reason it wouldn't display with todays date, we checked the flight confirmation we got via email & started to realise we have somehow forgotten to include 1 whole day in our planning & that our next lot of accommodation & flights are not till tomorrow. 

We think this has happened quite a long time ago & we booked the flight to be the day after the tour, not realizing day 9 of the tour was in fact a blank day with no activities & most people use this day to leave Cairo. 

In 4 months of travel this is the first time this has happened, couldn't of picked a more convenient place to do it & make the realization last minute.
Poor us, looks like we're spending another day in Egypt ordering room service.

We put the extra day to good use by buying some of the good internet to save all our photos to the online storage, a process that is very tedious, uncooperative & necessary.

-Alli

Day 119 - The Egyptian Museum, Hanging Church, Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Khan El Khalili Bazar & Saying Goodbye

The Egyptian Museum, Hanging Church, Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Khan El Khalili Bazar & Saying Goodbye,

Our last day on tour & last full day in Egypt would surely be a big one!
We were all fresh, stuffed full from breakfast & on the bus by 8am, some of the tour group also had their bags & were catching flights out during the day.

First stop of the day was to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.  We are both full of anticipation to finally see a mummy! Unfortunately it was a Saturday & we encountered our first crowding & queuing experience in Egypt. Once we were all issued with tickets & were inside the museum gates, we were given a brief history by Sam & then each handed walkie talkie devices with an ear piece so we could listen to Sam. Unfortunately once we got inside the museum, hearing Sam through the walkie talkie piece was very difficult, due to the crowds of people, the high ceilings of the museum which were creating echo's & the static from the walkie talkies.
The museum was absolutely huge! We were confined to only a small section of ancient history that we would already be familiar with from the temples & given a few hours to explore.
The first few rooms we went into contained various sized statues that were for different purposes & representations which had been escavated from tombs & temples. It was amazing to see & learn about the progression of the sculpting & the painting of the ancient artists. Some of the lifelike statues found in tombs, designed to guard the entranceways had stones & mirrors in their eyes to create a realistic glint that was very pronounced from light. I imagined this would have scared a lot of grave robbers who were already anxious of traps & their souls predestined doom in the afterlife.

An exhibit that required extra payment and a special ticket was to see Tutenkhamun's gold jewellery, mask & sarcophagus. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos in this exhibit & it was extremely crowded. The amount of wealth this young pharaoh had at the age of his death (19) was unfathomable. I did think it was rather disappointing that they didn't have his mummy in the same exhibit, instead choosing to leave that in his tomb at the valley of the kings.

After this we brought another extra ticket which gave us access to the royal mummy room. It was here we finally got to see our first mummy & many more. For reasons of wealth & worship, the royal mummies had a much longer embalming period of 70 days, so their mummies are in a much better state of preservation. Again we were not allowed to take any pictures in this room. It was a very strange feeling to be looking into the face of a ruler who lived centuries ago in such an established civilisation. Often we knew so much about the mummies we were looking at & had been to their temples & hard about the great things they had done for Egypt. We both distinctly remember that the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut was rather large & that medical imaging & tests showed she had diabetes, arthritis, periodontal disease & bone cancer, which was likely the cause of her death.
Ramesses II, also known as Ramessex was one of the oldest rulers to die & be mummified, his scans showing he had pelvic cancer, possibly from all the heir's he created while alive.






















We also went into another 2 mummy rooms that our extra ticket granted us entry to. One held the mummies of lesser important people such as priests. The last room of mummies we went into had the mummified remains of pets which was highly interesting. We saw the mummified remains of many cats, dogs, cows, crocodiles, birds, baboons & even a fish. Most animal's were in the image of a god & therefore were worshipped in their life.

After this we had barely any time to explore what remained of the museum & as usual we were running late back to the bus. On our way out we did briefly stop in a few rooms to look at the many displays of surgeons tools, beauty utensils, agricultural tools, children's toys, jewellery, furniture, books & scrolls. We also saw a lot of sarcophagus's and smaller mummies of poor preservation & of no identification.

We both left feeling like we could of easily spent the whole day in the museum!

After the museum we were straight off to the Hanging Church also known as Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church. Our guide told us this is one of the first holy sights, its history beginning in the 3rd century AD & about Egypt's history with Christianity & how it can boast for having the first Christian Monk. Throughout exploring the temples, we have definitely seen the evidence of the coptic Christian monks trying to eliminate the older religion of the ancient Egyptians.
it is nicknamed the hanging church, after being built on top of the babalon fortress & seeming to suspend above the original foundations.
We weren't allowed to take any photos inside the church and after walking inside the chapel area we sat not he pews while Sam gave us an education & explained about the 110 holy icons that this church holds.

After the church it was time for lunch before our next stop, the mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha.
The mosque is also know as the Alabaster Mosque & is situated int he citadel of Cairo.
It was our first mosque that we would be going into, despite spending so much time in muslim countries. The mosque was built between 1830 and 1848 & commissioned by Muhammad Ali Pasha, who was essentially the governor of Egypt at the time.
While we were sitting inside the mosque & getting an education on the importance of the mosque for prayer & the protocols for men & women, a news team for Channel 2 arrived and started to film us. They would later go on to interview 2 of the people from our tour about our experiences in Egypt.
The snippet of film, received air time on the following Monday around 10am. Tom & I were both sitting right at the back of the crowd & can't really be seen. Just like the church, photography of the mosque was not permitted.

Once we had finished at the mosque it was off to the Khan El Khalili Bazaar, a local shopping market known to attract tourists for the cheap souvenirs & the cafe's sprawled along the front. Tom & I went from a small walk around, not really looking at anything & trying to avoid being hassled by shop owners & children. I managed to find a pair of sunglasses to replace the ones I lost while sailing on the felucca before we retired to a cafe & ordered a turkish coffee that tasted really earthy.

Once everyone had finished shopping, we all hoped back onto the bus and made our way back to the resort where we would all order dinner & say goodbye to our driver Rami, tour guide Sam & all of our new friends. It was quite a sad event, made bearable by the large amount of cold beer, shisha & food we ate by the pool. We stayed up for many hours drinking, talking & saying goodbye until we realised it was 2.30am.

Day 118 - Karnak Temple, Papyrus Gallery & travelling To Cairo

Karnak Temple, Papyrus Gallery & travelling To Cairo,

The next day we awoke feeling very refreshed and satisfied from our big night of sleep. We hurried down to the breakfast buffet just after 8am & made good use of it.
After breakfast we met the rest of the tour group in the lobby, some of them were as fresh as us, while others looked like they desired nothing more than bed. Some people had elected an extra activity of a sunrise hot air balloon ride, some of those same people had stayed at the Irish pub drinking until 1am & had to be in the lobby to leave for the hot air balloon by 3am. We watched some very amusing footage of one of the girls who had fallen asleep during the ride and could be heard snoring.

Our first stop today was the Karnak temple complex, a temple built in Luxor, which was connected to the Luxor temple by the alley of sphinx's. The Karnak temple was the main place of worship during the 18th dynasty &  it's main gods of worship were Amun, Mut & their son Khonso, also known as the Theban triad. The temple's construction started in the Middle Kingdom & continued right through to Ptolemaic era, a staggering 2000 years of construction with 30 pharaohs contributing. It was by far the largest & grandest complex we had been in yet & it's blatantly obvious why it is the second most visited ancient site in Egypt, following the Giza pyramids.

One part of this temple complex we will always remember is the hall of Amun-Re with its columns. The hall is approximately 5,000 square metres and is defined by 134 massive columns that vary in size. 122 columns are 10 metres tall while the remaining 12 are 21 metres in height with a diameter of 3 metres.

























As well as the columns,  there are giant statues, obelisks & walls of hieroglyphic writings. This temple complex is one of the most diverse, captivating & established, containing so much history from so many rulers of Egypt. The best was definitely saved till last.


























After Karnak we hopped back onto the bus and made a short journey to the local papyrus factory, where we had a brief education on the making of the papyrus paper and an opportunity for the other people on our tour to purchase a painting. I was dreading this stop, absolutely terrified I would find my exact painting cheaper or done by a better artist. Thankfully that was not the case, our papyrus that we had previously brought still remained the largest, brightest & one of the best ones we saw.

After this it was time for lunch, before making our way back to Cairo, a journey of 9 hours we were not looking forward to. A journey made worse by the 2 girls sitting behind us who's flatulence was frequent and obnoxious in every way possible.

Once we got back to Cairo, we checked in to our hotel and ordered room service pizza.
It's starting to sink in that we only have 2 days left in Egypt, we couldn't have foreseen the amazing time that we would have or that Egypt would become our number 1 country so far.

- Alli

Day 117 - The Edfu Temple, Travelling To Luxor & Luxor Temple.

Today's adventures would be dramatically calmer than our previous day's spent on land.
We all awake on the Felucca, just after the sun rises, feeling very sore & sorry for ourselves. Tom is a strong leader in the hangover brigade & was sick overnight as his body evacuated the excess alcohol.
Breakfast is served & eaten with haste as the shore and our departure fast approaches. We are all back on land by 7.30 am & straight into the bus. There is no mercy for the severely hungover as we drive to our first Temple of the day.

The temple of Edfu, is located in the town of Edfu of the west shore of the Nile, the temple was built in 237 and 57 BC during the Greek Ptolemic Dynasty, with the primary god of worship being Horus & secondary worship for Hathor. At 36 metres tall, 76 metres wide & 79 metres long, this impressive temple is one of the biggest we would  walk through.
Tom was less enthusiastic and retired back to the air con bus at the first chance, which gave me free reign over the go pro, as I explored the many chambers & corridors of this huge temple! Looking back on the photos, it would appear I got carried away (though I will never admit this) & that I seem to have accidentally select burst mode & taken hundreds of accidental photos.

During the Roman empire, religious worship other than christianity was illegal & left the temple in disuse. There appears to be attempt's to destroy it with fire and many images were chiselled off the temple walls. The roof & the tops of the great columns are stained black from the use of fire & smoke inside the temple & there are holes throughout the temple from market stall holders that have forced sticks into the wall to hang their wares.

Over the centuries, 12 metres of sand was allowed to bury the temple grounds and helped to preserve the temple, while locals built their homes around and on top of the temple grounds. In 1860, Egyptologist's began excavation of the temple from the sand and the process of restoring it as a an ancient monument. Over the years since then it has become a major attraction in Egypt.
At the time of our visit there was a paved entry way, visitor information centre and a flash lighting system inside some of the darker rooms.
What I loved about this temple was the amazing hieroglyphics that were very big & thick which allowed a lot more emphasis on detail. They also didn't sit flush or deeper than the wall & instead sat proud of the wall. They were stunning!

Not surprisingly I was the 2nd last person back on the bus after the temple & we set off on the road back towards Luxor. Thankfully on arrival to Luxor, we checked into our 5 star hotel & unbelievable had free time! For once we didn't run straight to the pool and actually had time to explore. Most fo our attention was drawn towards the many restaurants & we happily lost ourselves in a meal of Italian Woodfired vegetarian pizza & vegetarian risotto that did not disappoint! After lunch we went to our room & had a much needed nap in what felt like the biggest & most comfortable bed we had ever been in! 

We awoke at 6pm and made our way down to the lobby to meet our tour group. Our second temple of the day was the Luxor temple and we would be seeing it at sunset. Luxor temple was truly amazing, I feel like each temple just keeps getting better & better. It truly blew our socks off & it was really cool to see it at night with the lights shining up into the statues faces & hieroglyphs of the pillars, illuminating details the sunlight would have skimmed over.

Luxor is the name of the modern day city known to the Egyptians as Thebes, the temple was built on the East side of the Nile river in approximately 1400 BC. The really unique thing about this temple is that it wasn't dedicated to one God or Goddess or a pharaoh as a god after death, but instead it is dedicated to the pharaohs of Egypt while alive. It is thought that this might have been the place where Ancient Egyptian rulers were crowned, as is the case with Alexander the Great who's record claim that he was crowned in Luxor. Some rulers through the dynasty's that can take credit for helping to create this impressive temple were Alexander The Great, Amenhotep III, Ramesses II & Tutenkhamun. The temple depicts one of the rulers with a boner & it was thought to provide fertility for women who were struggling to conceive. For this reason the area around the genitals is black in colour from the women over the centuries who have come to the temple and touched the carving while praying for a child.

Something really cool I loved about this temple (apart from everything) was the sphinx alley out the front of the temple. An alley that links the Luxor temple & the Karnak temple and is lined on each side by sphinx statues. Over the centuries this alley has been covered by sand and then built upon by urban dwellings, including a police station. Once it was rediscovered, huge efforts were made & are still being made to escavate the whole alleyway, relocate the building's & turn it into one of the worlds largest open air museum's that connects the 2 temples. An estimated 1350 sphinx statues were thought to have lined the alleyway which is about 2 miles in length.

Tom was feeling revived after the pizza & nap, so we could spend our time together in this temple marvelling at the ancient wonders.



After the temple we all went back to our hotel and across the road to an Irish pub for dinner and a few more beers, for those of us who were game. We were both again representing the great Australian drinking culture & Tom had a few games of pool with some of the other lad's from our tour. Sadly our dinner here was disappointing. We ordered a vegetarian platter, thinking it would be like other vegetarian platters we had eaten & consist of mediterranean salad & bread.

It was a weird medley of rice & boiled veg with some pickles. It was one of those rare occasions when being a vegetarian was a sad affair next to everyone else's traditional pub meals of steak, parmigiana & chips.

It was also at this pub were we would meet a jeweller that the tour company organised, who made custom hieroglyph jewellery. Tom ordered a leather bracelet with his name in Hieroglphys and I ordered us matching design cartouche necklace pendants with our individual names in the middle.

We didn't need any convincing that our bed was better than the time at the pub, we were all tucked in & ready for sleep by 10pm, with that glorious feeling that we didn't need to leave bed till 8am the next morning, a sleep in by recent standards. Before sleep claimed us, we did indulge in some room service....

- Alli