Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 21st

March 21st is my new year and I definitely had a good day.

In the morning we took a tour of the monastery which is at the bottom of Mt. Sinai. We saw the famous burning bush and a church where all the bones of past pastors remained. Kind of chilling...

Then we drove to Nuweiba and checked in to the Eliaria Hotel Resort right on the Gulf of Aqaba (Red Sea). Although it was a port city, there really wasn’t anywhere else to go. We arrived at around 1 and were offered an all inclusive package for $25 that included lunch, dinner, and all the drinks you wanted until 11pm. So of course, we bought the deal, and we took full advantage.

After lunch we spent most of the afternoon on the beach, drinking, lying about, chatting, sun tanning, and playing beach volleyball.

The coolest part about this town was that when standing on the shore you could see Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 20th

Today we got up early once again and took a 7-hour drive to the Sinai Peninsula. We passed through the famous Suez Canal Tunnel (I believe its 2km long!) and went from the continent of Africa to Asia!

We checked in to the Morgenland Hotel, which was literally in the middle of nowhere but close to Mt. Sinai. In the afternoon we took a drive to Mt. Sinai and started our trek up it. Our aim was to make it for the sunset – our guide was not with us but another guide came along. It was pretty difficult and we had to take many rests. There are 3,750 steps up to the top, but we took the easier route as most people do and only had to climb the last 750. This is where Moses supposedly red the Ten Commandments.

By the time we got to the top it was cold and the sunset was a couple hours away. We sat around for a bit, took a bunch of pictures, then decided as a group that we had seen enough sunrises and it was cloudy anyway, and headed back down. I have to say though, that I will definitely add this climb to the list of my accomplishments. When you get to the top you really do feel at peace with yourself.

We were starving after that! There was the ‘optional’ buffet at the hotel, but of course if you didn’t want to there was not a place in sight to eat at, so we all indulged. Also, snuck out a bit extra for lunch the next day lol.

Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 19th

We checked back in to the Santana Hotel in Cairo. I don’t think too many of us were happy about being back in Cairo, but it did give us a chance to do some things we haven’t done. Unfortunately for me the citadel was the first thing on the itinerary that morning. So I skipped it and took a nap in the car.

After the citadel we drove to the Khan al-Khalili bazaar which is a traditional market place. That place was a maze! We had a mosque as a landmark but still had to ask around when trying to get back to our meeting spot. It was a very cultural experience. A couple of us walked as far as we could to find something to eat and ended up finding a small shop that was serving some traditional food. One of them was a sandwich filled with some sort of eggplant mix which was absolutely delicious! The other was one filled with falafel, which we have had before.

We then joined the rest of the group and sat at a coffee shop in the main square by the mosque. I had a very overpriced mango juice that was not blended properly.

On the way back to the hotel most of us got dropped off at the metro station as we were going to venture out on our own to Coptic Cairo. We had the rest of the afternoon off and didn’t want it to go to waste. I thought the metro experience was going to be something that might make me uncomfortable, but I was pleasantly surprised. The surprise, however, wasn’t that it wasn’t different or crazy, but that I’m so used to travelling now that it wasn’t shocking. The first time we took it, it wasn’t too packed but I almost didn’t make it in cause everyone rushes to the door. I had an older man wink and blow me air kisses the whole time. I tried so hard not to laugh but I couldn’t help it so it seemed as though I was smiling back at him! The second time the girls got on the one of their women-only carts – now that’s different.

The first thing we saw in Coptic Cairo was the Hanging Church. Then Saint Georges church, then a huge cemetery by a monastery. Then finally we entered a Greek Orthodox Monastery of Saint George where I nice gentlemen gave us a little tour. We discovered that this was where Virgin Mary stayed. We saw where she slept, where she prayed, and the well where she drank from. I sure hope I have all this information right, cause it would be embarrassing. Forgive me, I’m templed and churched out.

Then we went to the Ben Ezra Synagogue. So we’ve covered the three major religions now. Pretty cool.

That night we tried some local shawarma. I’m always excited about trying the local food and this was delicious!

Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 18th

This morning we woke up super early and left the hotel at 4:40 am for a ferry ride to Thebes on the west bank of the Nile. After some tea we drove to the spot where we’d take off in hot air balloons!

This was by far one of the coolest, most beautiful experiences yet! There were many other tourists there as well. Each balloon took 20 so we were able to all go in to one with a couple other tourists. We managed to get in to the air just in time to catch the sunrise. I’ve seen many sunrises, and some probably more beautiful than this, but seeing it from a hot air balloon just could not compare! We had a great view of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut which was cool because we would go and see that temple later in the day.

Somehow we landed in a field instead of the proper landing area. But the transport was obviously in touch and came to get us. But before we left they had a little ceremony – a couple people danced and sang – and then we received our certificates.

Then we took an hour and a half donkey ride to the Valley of the Kings. This was more fun than the camel ride because we had freedom with our donkeys. We could make them run if we wanted, or slow them down. My donkey had a mind of its own – it would only listen to the owner’s voice, run when it wanted to, walk when it wanted to, eat when it wanted to – but fun anyway.

Unfortunately one of the things I remember the most of the Valley of the Kings was just how tired I was. It was hot and we had to walk a lot. Walking in and out of the tombs was exhausting – you could hardly breathe down there and it took forever because it was PACKED with other tourists. Nonetheless it was interesting.

The first tomb we saw was Tuthmosis III. When we finally got down to the actual tomb it was interesting to see the differences in the drawings compared to other temples and tombs we’ve seen. It was very primitive – it looked as if children came down and drew Egyptian style stickmen to tell the stories.

The second tomb was Ramses I. Now we could see the progression from the first tomb to this one. The drawings were more advanced, and some were carvings.

The third was Ramses IX and was the most ‘advanced’. I was happy the tour guide planned it this way because it made it that much more interesting. Plus after such a long day I think I would have lost interest otherwise.

Next stop was an Alabaster factory. I have to be honest here, I didn’t listen and I didn’t look around. I was exhausted and I knew I wasn’t going to buy anything. I only remember them telling us they were going to teach us to know the difference between something fake and something real when we buy things in the local markets. Also their way of saying – bye it here it’s real.

Yes, there was another stop – the temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir El Bahari. I will always remember this name because of when the tour guide gave me this name on my first day of the tour (this was the guide that took me to Al Azhar park, Mena, a different guide from the group tour). He told us how to pronounce it: Hat-cheap-suit.

The temple was beautiful, but again full of tourists. We had a couple other tourists tag along while Saad gave us an explanation. I was happy we got to see the temple from the air when it was completely isolated.

Can you believe all this was done before we ate lunch?

We went back to the train station that night and boarded a sleeper train back to Cairo.

Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 17th

After having breakfast on the support boat we sailed for a bit before pulling up to shore and getting on a bus. We drove to Edfu to see the famous temple of Horus. This temple is the most preserved of all the temples in Egypt and was built between 237 BCE to 57 BCE.

After Edfu it was a two hour bus ride to Luxor. Luxor has often been called the world’s greatest open air museum...the number and preservation of the monuments in the Luxor area are unparalleled anywhere else in the world. We stopped at a government run jewellery store. (I keep saying ‘government-owned’ because on tour they took us to these shops to do our shopping to make sure we got authentic items)

We then checked in to the Flobater Hotel and ate lunch at Pizza Hut. We were hungry and it was too much trouble to find anything else.

Our next stop was the Karnak temple in Luxor. Karnak is a complex area of many pylons, temples, halls and sanctuaries from the middle kingdom till the Greek-Roman period. It is also the largest temple in the world.

We had plenty of time to walk around see the hundreds of columns and statues. One of the halls – The Great Hypostyle Hall – had 134 columns representing the papyrus flower. That was my favourite part. There were many areas where even the colours in the carvings were very well preserved so we could get a good idea of what this may have looked like when it was first built. The temple grounds also had a big sacred lake. This was one of my favourite temples in Egypt.

Something interesting – some of the carvings of males had their ‘male organ’ very distinctly shown.

In the evening after dinner we thought we’d do something a little different. We had already seen so many temples, so to change it up a bit, we went to see the Luxor temple at night when it is all lit up. It made it that much more magical, and for a change it wasn’t polluted with too many tourists.

Something fun and probably dangerous – we fit 9 people plus the driver in to a taxi on the ride back to the hotel. It was a cosy experience.

We then went on a search for some kushari – the traditional Egyptian dish I described in an earlier post. After stuffing ourselves we went to Murphy’s Irish Pub to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. This was something REALLY different – walking in to an Irish pub in Luxor and feeling like we were in Ireland, or Canada, or anywhere but Egypt!

Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 16th

This was the most peaceful and relaxing day I had in Egypt. We took two feluccas and sailed down the Nile heading towards Luxor to the vicinity of Kom Ombo. The day consisted of quite a few naps, and a couple stops to use the washroom on our support motor boat, and to eat lunch.

The support boat was fancier than I thought it would be, with nice toilets and a pretty big eating area. At night we had a couple of musicians that played for us while we enjoyed looking up at the enormous sky that was absolutely littered with stars. We were not sailing at night as it is not allowed so we had pulled up to a bank and the sleeping areas were covered. I shivered for most of the night but it was still an awesome experience.

Egypt & Jordan GAP Tour - March 15th

In the morning we joined a convoy and headed to Abu Simbel, which is the historic site for one of Egypt’s greatest temples. I want to add a little explanation from my GAP itinerary to explain:

Not only are the two temples located at Abu Simbel among the most magnificent monuments in the world but their removal and reconstruction was an historic event in itself. When the temples (280 km from Aswan) were threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the High Dam, the Egyptian Government secured the support of UNESCO and launched a world wide appeal. During the salvage operation which began in1964 and continued until 1968, the two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled, in the exact same relationship to each other and the sun, and covered with an artificial mountain.

It was quite a site. One temple is that of Ramesses II and the other Nefertari, his wife. It was discovered in 1813. You weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but I will never forget how grand the interior was, with its many columns and carvings.

On the way back through the Lybian desert our bus broke down. It was funny to think we could have been stuck in the desert for quite some time if we hadn’t been with a convoy. A German tour bus picked us up a little later on and we headed back to Aswan to a government run essence shop.

By then we were starving and it is Egyptian hospitality to always offer drinks and sometimes food to guests, even in a shop. So we were served their very popular Hibiscus tea and had Egyptian sandwiches filled with falafel. We were then entertained by a demonstration and explanation of how essences, perfumes, etc., are made. And of course, we had some time to shop.

We had some time to rest at the hotel before joining our guide once again for a walk through the market where he had to pick up some spices to take back home. We had a nice explanation of some of the spices there, most of which I knew already from my Zanzibar spice route tour.

For dinner we ate Egyptian pizzas which are much like calzones. We made our own way back to the hotel so that we could walk through the market some more. We had a very entertaining experience with the local vendors. One man came up to me and this is the conversation we had:

“How much?”
“How much for what?”
“For you!”
“Ha well I’m pretty expensive.”
“How about one million camels!?!”

We insisted to one man that we had no money, and his answer was: “No money, no funny, no honey!” And of course many times we would hear how they would give us money to walk through their store. Everyone always wants to know where you are from and not once was my answer, being ‘Canada’, acceptable for them. No I am ‘India’ and that’s that.

So long as you take everything in good humour it is a lot of fun to roam through the market and immerse yourself in the very well known ‘baksheesh’ culture of Egypt.