12/28/08- It's official- plane tickets to Egypt have been bought. Will start out with a few days in Istanbul Turkey then fly to Egypt to see Cairo, Aswan, Luxor and Alexandria. All in around 2 1/2 weeks in November.
10/30/09- We left our place around 1pm. We were lucky enough to have our good friend Mary drive us to LAX. We ate a quick meal at Chipotle, checked in our bags, and then had some drinks at Islands until around 5pm. We got back to the airport around 5:30pm realizing we now only have less than an hour to get through check-in and board our international flight. Luckily we made it just as they started boarding.
10/31/09- Arrived in London around 11:30am. The flight was nice- just a few bumps here and there. The strange part was when the pilot did a double U-turn around London before making its approach. Must be the weather who knows. I was able to watch 4 movies on the 10 hours flight. It felt much like sneaking into several movies at a theatre. Saw The Taking of Pelham 123, Angels and Demons, The Hangover which was funny as hell and Transformers 2, which I've seen before. Oh they also provided socks and eye blinders for sleeping. How nice! The food was not very good however.
We had 5 hours to kill on our layover flight in London and just walked around to several shops. I tried to get a free upgrade to business class but unfortunately the flight was completely full. Hey, it was worth a try. Our next flight to Istanbul was different however. Smaller plane with coughing guy next to us and rain caused turbulence when landing equals a really fun ride. I heard several people throwing up, but I held my hands up like a roller coaster. Wheeeeee!
We got our visas, found our driver and got to the hotel around 11:30pm. Tomorrow is going to be very busy.
11/01/09- First full day on our trip. At 6am we heard the prayers from the mosques as it was amplified very loudly. It kept us up for about 30 minutes but I didn’t mind at all. It was Sunday and it was nice to hear how different cultures go about their days. We finally woke up around 9am and took advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel. By the way it was a cold night. The heater did not work apparently but they had plenty of heavy blankets to keep us warm.
After breakfast we ventured off to the streets. We stayed in the Sultanahmet area, so mostly everything was close by. Our first stop was the Church of SS Sergius and Bacchus. We took off our shoes at the door and walked around a bit. The floors were uneven in some places and you can actually feel foot imprints on the stairs, but it was a nice place to start. On our way out we were greeted by a guy (I say greeted because he didn’t say a word when we entered) asking us to pay a donation. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled thinking “did you show us anything?”
Next was the Bayazit Square. At first we thought we were at the Blue Mosque, because face it we never seen any of these before. So we were checking our map trying to walk around the area but nothing seemed to match up. It was at this time when I realized that some of the mosques look the same on the map. We did hit a market in the area that was very crowded with people. Shop owners were calling me friend as I walked by and one actually said “Hey, do you remember me?” I’m like “Oh yeah, you’re the guy that owes me $50”
We did manage to get to the Blue Mosque and go inside. We got there just after prayer time. We took off our shoes again, put them in a baggie they provided and went inside. It looked similar to the other one, although the light wires took some away from the views.
Now our legs are getting tired. It is cold, extremely windy and we can feel the cramps in our thighs from walking. However, we are near the Topkapi Palace so we said what the hell. It looks nice on the map so we might as well look around.
The Palace cost about 20 LE, or $15 each. We paid and went but thought it was really nothing special. We walked around hoping to get our monies worth, but soon we were just too hungry and cold to keep going. We left the area, hit a McDonalds (I know, I know but we wanted food we could trust) and made it back to the hotel around 4:30pm. Then I slept. Told you I was tired.
11/02/09- Woke up to the prayers again. I didn’t think this was an everyday thing, but again it wasn’t a bother. It is actually kind of cool to hear it sometimes. Ate breakfast again at the hotel and got there early enough for the fried potatoes. YES!!! Hey, it’s the little things. It is also raining pretty good outside but the sun is out which is strange to see. Had a nice view of a rainbow from our hotel roof as well.
Took the ferry over to the Asia side of Istanbul and walked around in circles for a spell. There really wasn’t anything that interested us there other than just saying we went to Asia. We took the ferry back and walked around. It was still raining and the wind chill was getting crazy on top of it. We ducked into an El Toritos restaurant and rested our bodies in the heated place while stuffing our stomachs. Very good food. As we left another shop owner was grabbing at me asking if he could try on my sunglasses. My wife literally had to pull me away from him stating “He’s my man”. I’m still laughing at that one.
Got back to the hotel, arranged our transportation to the airport tomorrow morning, took a nice hot bath and watched the latest episode of Desperate Housewives on the laptop. What a way to end a day.
11/03/09- It felt good to get out of Istanbul today. The weather was getting really cold and we both were aching for some sun. Cairo is just the thing we needed.
We landed in Cairo around 2:45pm and found our driver shortly after picking up our luggage and got our visas. The driving here is crazy. People constantly honking at each other and waging all out war against pedestrians. And the white dotted lines that separate the lanes seem to be merely suggestions instead of rules. It was all fun.
We get to the hotel and are immediately met by the hotel manager. He sets us up in a nice big room and asks us to meet him downstairs in about 10 minutes. He then proceeds to talk to us about our trip and tries to get us to buy into some tours around Egypt. We listened and told him we will get back to him, but after reading up on felucca rides and such we decided not to go with their plan. We have our own itinerary mapped out already. We may have the driver help us out on the 5th though. Besides, he was trying to get us to go on a felucca ride for 2 nights. WTF! It’s an open sail boat. Where do you take a piss? We’d be mosquito food. The hotel overall looks nice enough near the heart of the city, however my only complaint so far is the smell. I feel like I’ve been working in an automobile shop all day. The exhaust smell is killing my nose. Whewwwww!
We did take them up on the Nile cruise option for $35 each. The driver took us down to the dock (driving as crazy as ever with a fake police siren). Have to admit it was pretty funny sometimes. And the cruise was decent enough. It lasted about 2 hours and they fed us a nice buffet. When they first opened up the line, however, people were shoving to get to the food. I was thinking, is there a prize to get your food first? Later, there was some singing and belly dancing. I was the first one called up to dance with the belly dancer and broke the ice for everyone else. The shit hit the fan when the photographer tried to sell us his photo of us. Sharece kindly told him no thank you and he perceived to get upset almost insisting we buy. After the third time of almost yelling at her I got his attention, pointed at him, flipped him the bird and motioned my hand for him to leave as if telling him to “move the F- away, now” Sure enough he did very quickly.
Tomorrow we are going to Giza to see the pyramids followed by Memphis and Sakkara. By the way, during our flight today we saw what appeared to be a jet zooming by under our plane with a streak of black smoke as a tail. Later we saw on the news that missiles were being launched in the area and it had the same black smoke. Hmmmm!
11/04/09- OMG, this was the best day so far- EVER!!!! Giza and the pyramids were awesome and our tour guide was an absolute jem. We started off at 8:30am after getting a small breakfast from our hotel. I say small because it was just bread and jam with Egyptian tea. Not bad though- it held us over and somewhat made up for sleeping on one of the hardest beds ever.
Anyhow, at Giza we saw the pyramids and Sphinx of course and it was extraordinary. Our guide Mohammed, who also helps out as an archeologist, helped us determine if the souvenirs we were getting were worth the price. The seller first said 120 Egyptian pounds (which is roughly $20+). We walked away. Then 80, 60, 50, 40 and finally around 30 Egyptian pounds he put them in a bag and said you buy. Mohamed said it was a great deal. I pulled out 24 pounds out of my pocket and said that’s all I had. In the end I got them for less than $4 USD.
Afterwards we hit an Egyptian papyrus shop with beautiful artwork on them. We splurged a bit and got an awesome painting of the pyramids with 2 others thrown in. A perfume shop was next, but we were not interested in buying anything there. We did like the demonstration the glass blower gave us.
Lastly we get to Saqqara and ate a very nice meal and saw one of the original step pyramids as we went inside one of the tombs. The guide in the tomb (not our guide) allowed me to lay down in one of the coffins and try to scare the next tourist coming through. It was fun. Then we walked around the grounds only to get haggled a bit by locals to get our picture taken- of course for a tip. We simply said no thank you. One of the guys was actually a tourist policeman. Weird!
We got back around 5pm and decided to take our Alexandria tour tomorrow instead of on the 6th.
11/05/09- Early start today. Got up at 5:30am to be picked up by our driver at 6:30am to go straight to Alexandria. It took 3 hours for the drive there. Traffic is crazy in Egypt. Again the white dashed line in the road is there only for decoration.
We went to the catacombs (ancient tombs), Fortress and Alexandria Libray (which is one of the largest in the world) among other places. We also ate a nice dinner right off the beach over looking the Mediterranean Sea. Cost was only 65 Egyptian pounds or roughly $12 per person. In LA that would be about $30+ per person just for the view.
Traffic on the way back to Cairo was so bad that it took 5 hours (a ton of it was stop and go). Reminded me of the 405 at rush hour. Finally got back around 7pm and stayed in for the night. We thanked Mohammed for his expertise as our tour guide and gave him a nice tip. Apparently he is making his own website soon and wants to use some of my photos for it. I have no problem with that at all.
11/06/09- Slept in until about 9:30am. The bed was still rock solid so it was not a good sleep in though. Our hotel set us up with a driver (the crazy one that picked us up from the airport) and took us to the Islamic side of Cairo. Did I mention he had an ambulance siren in his car and he ran it numerous times to part traffic.
Our first stop was the Citadel. It was a large fortress type place with a few museums and it's own Mosque. We went during their prayer time so we did get some looks from the locals. But we made sure to stay out of their way out of respect.
Next was the market Khan el Khalili (which is the largest market in Cairo). This place was huge. It is all outdoors and the roads were mazelike. Very easy to get lost in. Every step of the way we had locals trying to get us into their store to buy. They tried every trick in the book from saying I am a lucky man to "Welcome to Alaska" I still crack up over that one. A few even tried to grab my arm to help stear me in. A simple "No thank you" was all that was needed though and we just smiled and kept on walking. We met our driver about 5 minutes later than we said- not because we got lost or anything *wink,wink*
Made it back to our hotel and is resting up for the night preparing for our early flight out tomorrow to Aswan. We did go down the road to get a few hambergers. They were one of the best I have had and it was dirt cheap. Only 7.5 Egyptian pounds or roughly $1.50 total. TOTAL!!!! We are definitely going back TONIGHT!
11/07/09- Took a flight to Aswan and arrived around 10:45am. Checked into our hotel and was amazed at the views. We have a fridge- yeah! Air conditioning- double yeah! And oh yes, a Nile view!!!!!! Only problem so far is no internet or tv, so we are going to rough it. It’s strange how each hotel has its ups and downs. Istanbul was cold (no heater) but had a nice breakfast, Cairo smelled and had a messed up bed but was spacious with satellite tv, and in Aswan (besides no tv or internet) the sink backs up and small bath towels, but it has an elevator and view.
Walked down the Nile to check out the town and was not very impressed. Very few shops. At least they weren’t pushy. We stopped at one shop to get a bottle of water for 2 Egyptian pounds. We gave him a 5 and he asked if we had change. When we said no he told us not to worry, just pay later when you have the 2 pounds. How trusting. Sure enough we did get change and went back to pay him about 30 minutes later.
The weather is extremely hot, hot, hot. Feels like 100 degrees without any wind relief. We also were hounded by guys on the left of us asking if we wanted a felucca boat ride and taxis on the right honking at us for a ride. After about 2 hours of walking in the heat we decided to call it a day. Went back to the hotel, took a shower with just a small towel to dry off with for the both of us (apparently the hotel had all of their towels in the laundry), and watched a movie on the laptop. We have a very early wake up time tomorrow morning (Around 2:45am) for our trip to Abu Simbel, so it’s off to bed early tonight.
11/08/09- Got up, grabbed our box breakfast (which was more bread and mango juice) and jumped into the shuttle. At first I thought the shuttle was going to take us to a bigger bus to get on. Actually hoping was more like it since I was sandwiched in the back next to some old, smelly, hairy guy. But it turns out we just met at the bus area so we can all go in a convoy together. There were some 35 buses and shuttles all going down to Abu Simbel together. Man, I’d hate to be the car stuck behind that. Good thing it was 4am and not later.
We get to Abu Simbel around 7:15am and have over 2 hours to ourselves. We grab a big bottle of water at the stand and make our way around. The place was huge. Statues 10x my size and awesome artwork in the tomb. Very impressive. Before leaving we trotted down the shop area and were surrounded by locals to go into their shop. I wonder how many tourists actually buy because they are pressured to. By the way, we used our old student ID cards and got half price admission.
We left there around 9:45am and it was already getting hot. It took us 3 hours to get back into Aswan where we saw the High Dam. I wasn’t very impressed about the view or the fact that we had to pay 20 Egyptian pounds each to see it. Later we went to see the Philae Temple. We had to take a motor boat to get to the island and we went with 6 others on our tour to get a cheaper price. The motorboat guy tried to double the price on us, but once we took a picture of the price on the board next to the ticket counter and showed him, he quickly agreed.
The temple itself was very massive although some parts did smell like urine. I bet homeless people sleep there all the time (or at least use to). Lastly, we journeyed to the unfinished obelisk. They did not accept my student ID however Sharece was not interested in going anyhow so it still worked out on price. There really wasn’t much to see anyhow. I thought the unfinished obelisk was a bit more finished than what it was.
We were dropped off at our hotel around 3:30pm and walked straight to McDonalds. The driver didn’t stop anywhere for food all day and all they had at the sights were drinks and chips. There we met up with a couple from our tour and chatted it up for a bit before getting some ice cream cones and walking back to our hotel. All in all, it was a very crazy, amazing, tiring and hot day. I’m glad we did it.
11/09/09- Slept in this morning until around 9am and got breakfast at the hotel. This is our last day in Aswan so we decided to actually spend it in Aswan. We took a ferry to Elephantine Island and took a look at the Nubian villages there. At first a local tried to get us on his felucca for 15 pounds one way. When we told him we were looking for the ferry for only 1 pound he said, ferry no good. It’s felucca time now. We walked down further and actually saw the ferry. Crazy cheat!
We get to the island and immediately met by a local Nubian. He takes us toward the Aswan antiques museum where we used the student IDs and got half off. It’s funny how everyone examines the fake date I put on my ID and then looks at me like they know. But they give it to me anyhow. While touring the museum a local started following us and pointing things out. I realized quickly he was looking for a tip and just assumed to help us, but I let him do it anyhow. At the end I gave him 1 pound. He looked at me like it wasn’t enough but then smiled and went on his way. I mean all the guy did was point to something and say “knife”. Duh, it says that on the label.
On our way out we were directed to more ruins of a temple. No extra charge. Again another guy there started touring us around. The weird part was there were two of them and one guy didn’t do anything. At the end we gave the guy 1 pound and he looked at us stating, “nothing for my friend?” Ugggh, he didn’t do anything but follow us around and look creepy. But I gave him a pound as well and told him that is all I have. They left us alone after that as we continued to look around.
Lastly we were directed to the new museum next door. A third guy tried to show us around but I told him I do not have any money. He said, “no problem… you are my friend”. Then he quickly left the building.
We came back to the hotel and grabbed our train tickets to Luxor, which our hotel was kind enough to get for us from the station. Then we paid for an hour on the internet at a local café. He wanted 10 pounds for an hour but we haggled for 6. We searched for a good restaurant nearby and found one called Aswan Moon. Fantastic place to go. They had an awesome margarita pizza and mixed salad. We had to order another pizza before leaving. Later we went shopping for a long cotton shirt that covered the whole body (as the locals would wear). I walked down the street and met a guy who instantly took me to his shop for one. I tried it on and it was a perfect fit. When I asked how much he said 120 pounds. I started walking off saying it was too much. After going next door for a moment to check out what they had he quickly lowered the price to 90 pounds. I pulled out first 70 pounds then an extra 5 to show him that is all I have. He still did not want to go under 90. When I told him I would have to come back, he finally said okay. By the way, 75 pounds is like $13.50 US.
11/10/09- Took a taxi to the train station for about 10 pounds and boarded the train for Luxor. It was a very smooth ride and took about 3 hours. Once we got off the train we were hounded by people asking us for a taxi. At one point we had 6 people surrounding us. One stated he was from our hotel. I asked him to tell me my name and he couldn’t answer. Finally our ride came in within a minute.
Our room was not ready yet but they hooked us up with a free breakfast on their rooftop. Not much of a view but the weather feels perfect. We had a guy tell us about their tours and we opted for the West Bank of Luxor tour for tomorrow. We ventured off to the Luxor temple and took some photos. We just looked over the fenced area so we never paid to go in. We also went through the local market (souq) and found a few good souvenirs and a head wrap.
We also found a great café called Snack Time just off the Nile. It has free Wi-Fi. I walked back to my hotel (which was several blocks away) to grab my laptop while they were cooking my food order. After a few hours we finished the evening with some night photos of Luxor temple.
11/11/09- Day #2 in Luxor. We slept very well last night and had a nice free breakfast from the hotel including crepes and eggs. Our tour of the West Bank of Luxor began at 8:15am. We started at Hatshepsut Temple (which was carved out of an actual mountain and where a massacre of tourists by terrorists happened in 1997).
Next stop was straight to the Valley of the Kings where numerous tombs were found of ancient Egyptian pharaohs like Tutankhamun, Ramses II and Horemheb. The writings on the walls were absolutely tremendous. The color and detail looked like it was done just last week and it was all original from several thousand years ago. One of the tombs was unfinished so we got to see the first hand the stages on how they made the writings. First it was smoothing out the wall, then carving, then painting. Some of the walls had actually drawings on them with gridlines in a red color to keep everything level- but it was not carved yet. Very interesting.
Our last area was to the Valley of the Queens where Nefertari and Queen Titi were held. Yes I said Titi. As we were traveling to this area we were held up by donkeys. Our tour guide told us, “We have a lot of donkey’s that like to take over the road.” I replied, “We have the same problem in LA but we call them jackasses.”
Pictures were not supposed to be taken even outside of the tombs, but I snuck a few anyhow when no one was looking. I’m sooo bad! On our way out we were bombarded by locals trying to hack their stuff. One lady on our tour was almost being pushed to the side by one of the locals. I got in front of him and stopped to cut him off from her and said, “No thank you”. He left her alone after that.
I also got a cartouche with my name in hieroglyphics on the front and Sharece’s name on the back for a very cheap price. After the tour we took the ferry boat back over the Vile…. Errrr I mean Nile River and ate again at the Snack Time restaurant while surfing the internet. I told you they had good food.
11/12/09- It’s hard to believe we only have a few days left on this trip. Today, we grabbed our hot breakfast again from the hotel and walked over towards the Mummification Museum. We didn’t know exactly where it was so when a local with a horse carriage said he’d take us there for only 2 pounds, we took him up on it. Unfortunately he took us to the Luxor Museum instead which was out of our way. We asked him to just take us to Karnak Temple for 10 pounds and he was willing to wait an hour to give us a ride back.
The temple was very large. I could almost vision myself walking through the gates some thousands of years ago when the place was flourishing with people. Of course I had to get on top of a pillar to look like a statue and have my picture taken. I wore my new scarf as well.
The heat was getting crazy hot so we didn’t spend much more than an hour and our ride took us back towards the right museum this time. At the Mummification Museum they had on display several items found that were used to make a mummy. They also had some real mummies to view. The main problem I had was it was only 1 room for the cost. At least I got a 50% discount with my student ID again. I saved over 500 Egyptian pounds with that so far (or close to $100)
After the museum we walked back towards our hotel but the heat was bearing down on us very hard. We ducked into a McDonalds and grabbed some ice cream cones before making our way back to the hotel for some rest. It’s amazing how little food and drinks cost here. You can get a huge bottle of water for only around 60 cents US.
11/13/09- A lazy day today. It’s our last day in Luxor and we already checked out of our hotel. Their internet wasn’t working this whole time but it finally came up today (after we checked out). We stayed in the hotel lobby and caught up on some emails and picture downloads.
Only 3 more nights left before we fly back. Tonight is going to be crazy. We fly out of Luxor to Cairo around 11:10pm and arrive after midnight. We have a hotel next to the airport where we will stay the night for a few hours before catching our plane to Istanbul at 9:05am. Once we land in Istanbul we have about 5 hours before our British Airways flight to London. Three flights almost back to back. Crazy I know. Oh and I was asked today, “How much camels for your wife?” I just laughed at first before thinking, “hmmmmm, how many camels could I get? What is the going rate these days?”
11/14/09- Flight arrived in Cairo shortly after midnight. It took forever for our luggage to appear but once it did we caught the shuttle straight to the hotel airport. Managed to get about 4 ½ hours of sleep, grabbed a horrible and scary breakfast from the hotel- Novotel, and made it to the airport in plenty of time.
The first flight of the day to Istanbul went without a hitch. We grabbed our luggage, snagged a starbucks coffee and went to check in for our next flight to London. Like on the way down here, we asked the ticket lady at British Airways if they had any upgrades available for this flight. We explained that due to a change in schedule we had to move our flight from the 16th to the 14th and a supervisor told us if an upgrade was available we could get it. Unfortunately they said it was full. So no upgrade. Moments later, while waiting at the terminal to board, we were notified that London was experiencing severe weather and our flight was going to be delayed until cleared.
We waited an hour and just before they announced boarding one of the flight attendents spotted Sharece and I sitting and approached us. He asked for our tickets, left for a moment and came back with business class stating this was due to a no-show. NICE!!!!!
We enjoyed our comfy seats, 3 course meal, and free alcohol. I even had to have a little fun with the flight attendant at times. She liked my sense of humor, especially after all this worry about the weather. Funny, I was just thinking it would be ironic to be able to cross off a first class plane ticket from your bucket list and that plane was the one to crash. Well, we have about an hour left before entering London airspace so fingers crossed. Hey, if we go out at least it was in style.
11/15/09- In case you haven’t noticed- we survived the flight. Actually the weather cleared just before landing. How convenient. We checked into our hotel by the airport okay (Holiday Inn- Ariel) and slept for a few hours before having an early tour of Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and the old Roman town of Bath.
The tour couldn’t pick us up from our airport hotel so we had to get up early to catch the metro to Victoria station in central London. Took about 45 or so minutes- not too bad but it cost us 15 pounds ($28) for the all-day underground pass.
First stop was Windsor Castle. We toured the complex and saw the flag was up indicating the Queen was in town (however we didn’t see her at all). I also got caught trying to sneak a picture inside the castle where no photography is allowed. I still managed to get a few shots though regardless.
Next was Stonehenge. It took about an hour and a half by the tour bus to get there but it was worth it. The sun was out just perfect enough to get some gorgeous shots. The stones themselves were not nearly as impressive as all the other sights we saw in Rome and Egypt but the history of the stones was enough to keep me intrigued.
Last on the tour was the town of Bath. It was founded by the Roman Empire around 2000 years ago and is bedded on a natural hot spring. A very nice little area. Afterwards we scoped out the area looking for some food and found an excellent place selling meat pasties.
Our tour finally brought us back to central London around 6:45pm. Before taking the long underground ride back to our hotel we decided to get some good night shots of Big Ben and the Parliament Building as well as the London Eye. I got these shots last time I was here but not at night. It was fun walking around the area again 2 ½ years later. It brought back old memories of our first time in London before we traveled to any other country. But this is now officially our last night before flying back home. Time has flown by but we are ready to get back to normal society. At least until I plan my next trip somewhere.
11/16/09- Our flight home was nice. We got another free upgrade and the seats were wide and reclined. I watched around 5 ½ movies on the flight as well and played some video games. Overall, the trip was excellent. I still can’t believe we just went to Egypt.
We made it to LAX around 3:20pm. Our flight was delayed an hour from London and our luggage took almost an hour to finally come off the plane after we landed, but who’s complaining. We had fun!!
END OF BLOG