Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-415291 Cairo…. Think of the words like testy, feisty, frenzy, edgy, nutty and hellish and that’s Cairo in a nutshell! Our arrival was no picnic as we endured another 10 hour long bus ride back from Siwa only to find that we had missed our drop off site and ended up at Cairo International Airport, which is a good 40 minutes away from city center if we survived the cab ride! Allen and I were so tired, very... Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-415113 The trip to Siwa was well worth the 10 hours of bus ride to get there from Cairo. Siwa is simply divine and nowhere else you could find such a place like this on earth! It was as if part of heaven had fallen off the sky and landed somewhere on the edge of Sahara desert. But I am getting ahead of myself now. The bus ride was really interesting getting out of Cairo as we surely felt safe being in th... Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-414087 All I can say about today was… That sums it all! No words can describe the experiences and sights we have seen at the Giza plateau with 3 towering pyramids laid out in a perfect diagonal that their sides align with true north. Khufu (The Great Pyramid) is by far the largest and most famous if not oldest one of 3 greeted us mightily as we entered the site. The Sphinx looked gracefully eastward for... Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-416423 <B>Randy</B> On our second day in Egypt we visited the great pyramids of Giza. I’ve been to the pyramids before. I recall being awe-struck by the pyramids and enjoying my time around them. This visit was no different. This time I learned that the three huge pyramids are a part a huge ancient cemetery in the area. Many graves have been excavated, resulting in a labyrinth of trenches, deep holes, an... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-416203 12/12/08 The truck carried us away from the magical monuments of ancient Egypt to the Sinai Peninsula, past the Suez Canal, which provides a shortcut from Europe and Africa to Asia by connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and Mt. Sinai, where God purportedly gave Moses the ten commandments. Dahab, our stopping point on the eastern side of the peninsula, was a cute beachy town with lots of ... Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-416223 <B>John</B> Cairo is a very dirty, poor, hustle-bustle place. I don’t like it very much. <B>Randy</B> Culture shock has hit us. I recall comments over the past month in Turkey from travelers who had come north from Egypt. A chorus of warnings and qualifications about Egypt. “Yes the sites are amazing but……”. “We spent most of the time in our room to escape….”. “We planned to stay three weeks but w... Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-416201 12/8/08 The pyramids are the best known symbol of ancient Egyptian civilization, and lie on the outskirts of Cairo. Having whet our appetite in Sudan for these mythical structures, we spent the day seeking them out. Representing the earliest stone building of importance in Egypt, the first “step” pyramid was built at Saqqara around 2700 BC for Pharoah Djoser by the architect Imhotep (also buried i... Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-416200 12/4/08 Happy birthday to me! I couldn’t have planned a better birthday if I tried. We arrived in Luxor the night before, another beautiful city on the Nile and home to several famous sites. Temples generally are east of the Nile and tombs are in the west, because Egyptians believed that the sunset signifies the death of the day and the passing of the pharaohs by boat into the underworld. Their to... Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-411734 11/28/08 A journey through Egypt would spark the interest of just about any traveler, backpacker or big spender. We were no exception. We braved a nasty overnight ferry trip from Wadi Halfa, Sudan, traveling along the Nile through Lake Nasser to Aswan, Egypt. We decided it was worth spending some money to upgrade to a small sleeper cabin, and while our chums actually spent a pretty nice night on t... Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-409343 Ok. So here I am. At the base of Mount Sinai! Just a few kilometers from St Catherines Monastery! I wasn't able to finish my scuba diving lessons if I wanted to climb tonight so instead I ran out to get a massage :D and then back to Ed's place to grab a few layers and back to catch the 2pm Bedouin Bus up to Moses Mountain aka Mt Sinai. I was the only one on the bus, so that made it nice, and t... Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-403712 Ok so last night I caught my flight on Egypt Air from Cairo to Sharm. Hated saying goodbye to everyone in my group...they were such good company. Wendy n I shared a cab to the airport and totally got ripped off, left a bitter taste in my mouth after having such a good experience with most of the other Egyptians so far. THe guy stopped off at a perfume company and I was conned into buyin some..haha... Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-408321 When we were picked up at the hotel on the morning of our drive from Cairo to Alexandria, we were amazed to find that a private security guard would be riding in the van with us. That was when we learned how very well the Egyptians take care of their tourists. Tourism is the third largest source of income for Egypt. The first two are the Suez Canal and oil. Egypt is very diligent about protecting ... Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-408137 Alexandria, Egypt November 19, 2008 Today we got to sleep in; we left the ship at 9:30. It is a lovely warm day and we are off to see the Catacombs. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take our cameras. We walked down a spiral staircase of 100 steps. Down and down we went into the bowels of the earth. This was an amazing place; beautiful and eerie. There are no bodies down here anymore just the b... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-408320 I fell in love with Egypt. Don’t even know how to describe it but here goes. (For those of you who aren’t into the “whoo-hoo” stuff, don’t read the next paragraph.) I think I was an Egyptian in another life. Really! Everything felt so FAMILIAR . . . like I’ve been here, lived here, been one of them. First of all, we really lucked out! We booked a private two-day overnight to Cairo (thanks for the ... Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-408133-port-said-cairo-pyramids-camel-city-buildings-dirt-museum-time Cairo and the Pyramids November 18, 2008 We were up very early and in the buses by 6:30 and then we sat there until 8:00! We had to form our convoy and it consisted of about 70 buses. Each bus had an armed guard and there were armed escorts with us all the way to Cairo and back.. When we did leave, the streets had been cleared and all of the traffic was stopped on the side streets. There were seve... Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-407175 Photo of us at komo ubo temple and moving up the nile to Aswan. The temple at Komo Ubo described how a woman to tell if she was going to have a boy or a girl. They would take urine from woman and use corn and Barley. If corn floated boy if barley floated girl. Our guide says there is some enzyme in each plant that react diffenent is corrent in telling. They also show on wall various medical instr... Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-406622 We learned that temple in egypt have a basic desing. 1.. Outside courtyard as seen by big gates. All temples are designed to get smaller and smaller the closer you get back. The king and high priest were the only ones allowed to go to back area. They kept if ver dark, but this is where they mader offerings to god(s). Local priest could go into courtyard you see with all the peolpe, but common peop... Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-405380 My friend, Bond Hopkins, and his roommate, Colin, picked us up at the Cairo airport on Sunday night (11/2). Driving around in Cairo is the definition of insanity! It is hard to explain, but will try to get video driving around in Colin's car or a taxi ride. Another major obstacles is crossing the street. You take your life into your own hands every time you step off the 'sidewalk'. We went to the ... Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-406474 We left Cairo and flew to Luxor, valley of Kings and Queens. Known as capital of New Dynasty. Egypt had 3 dynasties, Old, middle and new. Luxor was capital of new with Ramass 2 as the king who re-united Egypt. Dynasty, from what I could figure, is based upon when egypt split and then re-united. Giza pryamids you saw from pic -old dynasty, Luxor and Ramass 2 was start or "new" The history of the Ka... Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 /travel-405683 Well here we are back in Cairo, but only for the day. The last few days have been really busy. The quah bikes on Monday were a lot of fun. They brought us all over on the beach and then up into the mountains to see the sunset. After the quads we were all so dusty but ended up going out to this bar and having dinner and drinks and playing some games of pool. (I didnt do as well this time... oh well... http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-Egypt