Crusing

After touring for so long, and buying the majority of our meals (and trying to stay on budget); being on the cruise felt decadent. Three full meals a day – plus tea-time! A pool! A gift-shop! A bar! But like every cruise, there is the somewhat goofy evening entertainment. The “highlight” was costume night, where we had to “dress-up” as an Egyptian. (I must say that this did bother me on some level. Is this not what the English did when they came to Egypt, the basis of Orientalism? Contrive a romantic notion of what Egyptians were, all the while as distancing themselves as being superior? Wasn’t the idea of this trip to understand a culture, not give a Western attitude of Egyptians being “the other”? Maybe I just think too much…)

So here I am on the Nile, in my Egyptian get-up. (That veil did not want to stay on my head; now I know why so many Muslim women use straight pins to keep them put.)

Here’s my roommate Peggy:

Dan and Kathryn looking good!

Now what do you do with a bunch of adults in costumes? Make them play silly games, of course, such as passing an empty water bottle around.

It certainly was touristy, but fun.

Temple Tour, Part Two

The next day we left early for the Valley of Kings, where generations of pharaohs were buried. Sadly you can take photos outsides of the tombs, but not the interior.

After the Valley of Kings, we went to the Temple of Hapshepsut. When looking at the temple you have to image it originally being covered with bright sculptures and lush plants.

While the tour was fun, it was unbearably hot. Sweat was running down into my eyes. We returned to the cruise ship and began to cruise down the Nile. (No, that is not our cruise ship!)

As luck would have it, two days prior to leaving Luxor, Arlene, a fellow traveler, gave me the book, Down the Nile by Rosemary Mahoney, as she had just finished it. Mahoney wrote about her experience rowing down the Nile, something virtually unheard of in Egypt. Though our trip was opposite of hers, (She started in Aswan, and followed the river flowing northward, we went up the river.) it was incredible to follow her story as we were surrounded by the beauty of the Nile. While I did not have the same experience that she had in Luxor, I certainly agreed with many of her observations of Egyptian life.

New York Times Article

The New York Times just posted an article on Agriculture in Egypt. I must say, from what we have seen and all the lectures we have attended, it is spot on.

Upper Egypt, Part One

Yesterday morning, we returned from our trip to Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simel. This section of Egypt is known as “Upper Egypt” even though it is Southern Egypt. As the Nile flows northward to the Mediterranean Sea, “upper” refers to “up the river.”

Our first stop was Luxor, via overnight train from Cairo. This, along with so many aspects of our trip, turned out to be a cultural experience. The overnight train consisted of cabins (Here with my roommate, Peggy):

And dinner: (Umm… not the best I’ve had.)

A beer I can not recommend:

And a club car:

(I didn’t hang around too long here, pricey drinks and too smoky.)

The porters then came around to pull out the beds:

Our tour guide, Selma, said that only tourists took this train. We weren’t sure if this was due to security or financial reasons. (With Egypt Air flying to Luxor and Aswan from Cairo, maybe the issue was time.) For the most part the train followed the Nile and/or one of the drainage canals parallel with it.

Normally I can sleep anywhere - planes, trains and automobiles. This ride was a bit rough; the train kept jerking and stopping.

Arrive at Luxor, we boarded our cruise ship. The ship, The MS Nile Odyssey, was part of a large fleet; very British in every way. There was tea time at 5pm, four course, sit-down dinner at 8pm. Lunch was a large buffet. As lovely as the food was, when it’s reaching 40C, I really didn’t feel like have stuffed duck, mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch. There were some salads, but with my recovering stomach, I really didn’t want to chance raw veggies.

With the sweltering heat, we toured the sites either very early in the morning, or late in the afternoon. Our first temple was Karnak.

With these ancient temples, you soon find how inadequate the English language can be in conveying size and scale. “Big” just doesn’t cut it. “Enormous” comes close, but still does not capture the height, as it is subjective.

We then went on to Luxor Temple:

This ancient Egyptian temple was buried under sand for over a thousand years. Where part of the temple was sticking out, the Egyptians built a mosque, which is still there and in use. (The tourist below are in the ancient section that was buried.)

Break Down

Before I left for Luxor, I was getting a serious case of home-sickness. I was approaching week six of the trip, and missing the comforts of home. The idea of re-packing for the trip made me want to tear my hair out (we typically leave one bag in Cairo, with our souvenirs, extra clothes, etc, and take another bag with us). It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go to Luxor, more that I didn’t want to go anywhere – just let me stay put for the love of God! The constant change was grating on my nerves; which in itself surprised me as I always loved to travel. To break past this mental wall, I went for the culinary equivalent of an American security blanket – McDonald’s.
I ordered a Big Mac, with Fries and Soda.

What was surreal was that it tasted exactly the same from the States. If you had a Big Mac from the Denver sitting right next to one from Cairo, you couldn’t tell them apart. (I take that back, I bet the one from the States is bigger.) There are different menu items, such as a Chicken Big Mac, and a McArabia, a chicken pita:

(I have not had the McArabia, and it had gotten mixed review among our group; either they love it or hate it.) Another differnece? In Egypt, McDonald's delivers:

While the McDonald’s fix was comforting, that Big Mac sat in my stomach like a rock – just like at home.