MY ADVENTURE (continued)
April 21 – 1:50 am
I’m sitting in my small hotel room near downtown Cairo. I made it! My first observation of the city was the dull looking yellow lights from my airplane window. The lights were different from the seemingly brighter twinkling lights in North America. Once I deplaned I immediately noticed an armoured car parked on the airport tarmac. Had good fortune of receiving help right after getting passport stamped in the airport. The travel company staff were very accommodating because they wanted tourist money! I’m staying at the luxurious Noran Hotel – room Spartan with an old t.v., tiny bathroom, worn out carpet. Cost $42.00 U.S. a night. Traffic is strange – no speed lime signs, people casually weave through traffic speeding at incredible speeds. There are few stop signs or traffic lights and many cars have no lights on at night! Many old rickety cars here and there are plenty of stray cats. Have been hearing what sounds like a rooster crowing in the distance. Will explore briefly tomorrow and then meet up with tour group that’s only a few blocks away! Still very tired and must sleep. P.S. Good meals on my two British Airways flights!
April 21 – 11:40 pm
It’s been a long but exciting day. Didn’t leave the hotel until 11:30 am to go find the Santana Hotel (tour group meeting is there). As I stopped to check street signs a man came up and we started talking. His name is Esam and was an artist. He showed me his paintings on papyrus – stunning colors! Quite cheap but getting twelve paintings came to $450.00 Canadian. Then he drove me to Giza where I paid a lot including tips for a camel ride around the pyramids! Amazing! Next we stopped at a store that made carpets. Beautiful items so I bought two and may give one to Craig and Malini. Hope to god that the inheritance money comes in a month as I’ve so far spent just over $1,400 Canadian! But it’s been well worth it. I still can’t believe the suicidal pace of traffic and pedestrians crossing in Cairo! I met the Kumuka group tonight and we depart tomorrow at 8:00 am. Good night!!
April 24 – 6:45 am
It’s very warm already –can’t sleep so I’ll write for a while. The tour started yesterday and has been fun – saw pyramids again then we drove out to Bahariya Oasis and stayed at Camp Amhed Safari. The locals danced and played their musical instruments for us last night – very entertaining! The four and a half hour drive in the desert was interesting – a fair number of rocks and not as sandy as I expected it. Need to rinse off/cool off now. More to write later…Speaking of rocks, I picked up a few fossilized tree pieces – quite a few in the desert! It’s now almost 8:00 am and we’re waiting for breakfast. Looks to be a hot day – think we’re going to the hot springs later.
April 24 – 5:15 pm
We’re setting up camp in the “White Desert”. It has spectacular scenery with moon-like rock formations. The cold spring (hot spring that we visited earlier) this morning was actually warm and had slime and smelled like sulfur. Next we went to an extremely hot, hot spring back near Bahariya. Some of us then wandered onto a person’s property and stumbled upon their pasture with grazing cows. Some kids came up (sheep herders) carrying guns so we smiled and made a hasty retreat! Then we had lunch (more pita bread and cold vegetables) and began our trek into the desert. Climbed Black Mountain – low lying quartz mountain. Getting hotter as we head south and am not wearing my shirt much. Want to learn how to tie the desert scarf (kafiyah) so I can wear it!
April 25 – 3:00 pm
Just had a good lunch with barbequed chicken, pita bread, rice, and green beans. The restaurant is called Amhed Hamdy’s and in the town of Dakhla. Our server was full of jokes. I’ve been relegated to sitting at the back of the bus – very warm, not much air conditioning and cramped. I’ll be glad when busing through the desert is finished!
April 25 – 5:30 pm
Just visited ruins build by Darius in 600 B.C. It had a temple with hieroglyphics with colors! It’s currently being moved stone by stone because oasis waters behind it are rising! We’re almost at our hotel now.
April 25 – 6:10 pm
We’re in our small but comfortable room in the bustling town of Kharga (100 kilometers south of Cairo).
April 25 – 11:45 pm
I’m all ready for bed. Getting tired of virtually same food (pita bread and cold vegetables including tomatoes, peppers and onions. But we had a drumstick ice cream cone for desert – what a treat! Everyone went to bed early because of the long trip to Luxor tomorrow. But I went with three girls from our group afterwards (dinner) and walked around town. I got good deals on oranges and cookies. Met many friendly people – town is busy at night! I noticed that many girls wear much make up and dress very nicely. Since there aren’t the same kinds of entertainment venues in The West, people dress up and walk around town. Citizens here own strange little garage type stores. It seems like each sells one or two products only. But that’s the way stores used to be back home one hundred years ago before the advent of the modern department store. We got lost on our way back to the hostel but two kids helped us. My feet are sore and I have a bit of a sunburn on my face and neck. Bad news is that I lost my fucking kafiyah headband somewhere in the White Desert!
April 26 – 1:50 pm
Just had another good lunch – this time at Hotel Shady in Luxor. Got up early but haven’t been too tired yet. We made good time in the drive to Luxor – desolate but beautiful desert scenery. Luxor is 200 miles south of Cairo.
April 26 – 11:00 pm
Luxor was another bustling city but with primitive facilities – it’s like most of the town hasn’t changed in fifty years. It was very warm today and the bus ride hot and uncomfortable. Thank god the bus tour part is nearing its end. We will return to the hotel, where we had lunch, in a few days after our trip south to the Red Sea port city of Hurghada. The Hotel Shady has a cozy swimming pool and is ostensibly a four star hotel. Spending tonight at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hurghada. It has primitive but fairly clean facilities. Checked email (first time in over one week) at the Internet Café. It cost eight Egyptian Pounds. I believe the exchange rate was about $1.00 Canadian to 1.50 Egyptian Pounds. Am disappointed that items are over priced and small in size! What blew me away today was paying three Egyptian Pounds for a tiny scoop of ice cream! As her supply diminished the scoops got progressively smaller plus prices for items mysteriously rose when throngs of tourists arrived! Somewhat tired now so will go to bed. More to write later…
That night I sent my first of several emails to friends and family. Here is the first message:
Hi everyone. It’s late on April 26 (local time was nine hours ahead of Edmonton) and I’m currently at a resort town on the Red Sea. Plane ride over was good, quite a culture change in Egypt – language, clothing, food. Seems like I’ve been here for weeks already. Tour has been nice – climate very hot and am suntanned already. Hart to believe that I’m so far away from home. Miss everyone and think of you often. I haven’t got sick – yet! Getting a bit tired of Middle Eastern cuisine – chicken, rice, tomatoes, pita bread. Things are very expensive here and food is served in small portions. Must go, will email again when I have time!
posted by Michael at 10:19 AM
