Walk Like An Egyptian

Hello everyone!

What I should say is, SWEAT like an Egyptian. Except that sweating doesn't seem to phase them much here, while I remain in a constant state of discomfort. Everyone sweats so much that I don't even really smell anyone. So, either I have gotten so used to the B.O. smell that I don't even notice, or perspiration actually recycles itself so often that it doesn't have time to stink. Like Tracy says, you should listen to anybody that tells you to avoid this place in July/August! I actually think this place would be a lot more paradise-like in December or March.

So we started our Egyptian tour a few days ago. The way that tours work is that they not only take you to the most popular tourist locations, but they also try to expose you to snippets of the culture, and arrange for you to have typical tourist experiences but under the safety and guidance of a group leader. Our group leader's name is Mudi, and he speaks English quite well and has a Masters degree in Egyptian History & Culture, which comes in handy.

Amidst seeing the pyramids and museums and temples, he also has arrangements with certain places that sell tourist souvenirs. For example, yesterday we went to a papyrus shop. They did a demo and explanation and then they try to sell you stuff. It can seem a bit annoying to have someone give you a sales pitch, but it's actually really informative and you know that the stuff is good quality and you aren't getting ripped off. Having said that, I haven't bought anything yet - my bag is heavy enough as it is!

One of the first activities we did with our group was to have an authentic Egyptian dinner called a Koshary - I think it literally means "mixture" - which is what it is, a mixture of stuff. Pasta, meat, lentils, chick peas, tomatoes... and you mix it all up with garlic sauce. It was YUM. I Loved it. It was awesome. And tasty. And flavourful. And... I woke the next morning sick to my stomach. And so begins my love/hate relationship with Egyptian food. It's REALLY good - but I try to mix it with a fair amount of bland stuff (breads, buns, rice, plain pasta, french fries etc.) so that I am not upsetting my delicate system too much, hehe! It's been 5 days in Egypt and everybody in our group except 2 have been less than 100% at one point or another.

On our 2nd day of the tour we went to the Egyptian Museum (got to see mummies, King Tut's stuff,and about a million/billion other mind-boggling pieces) and the pyramids at Giza. Oh, it was amazing there! Talk about fulfilling a dream. We rode camels down closer to the pyramids, and that was really really cool - definitely a highlight for me so far. LOVED the camels. You gotta lean back when they stand up/sit down though, cause otherwise you will flip right off of them. :P We also got to go right inside a pyramid, which was awesome - how many people can say they have been inside a pyramid?? And the sphynx too - was very impressive.

That night we went straight to an overnight train, which was kinda awful because we had been up since 6am or something and sweat all day. Then we get on the train and Mudi says to make sure we use bug spray. So now we are covered in greasy sunscreen, oily sweat, and sticky putrid bug spray. There was a train attendant who was the Egyptian-equivalent of Mr. Bean - except that he was creepy, too. And just for future reference... train food = bad. And then we had to try to sleep on the train. It was... bleh.

So we arrived in Aswan the next morning and we went straight to our hotel to shower. Tracy & I discovered that the A/C in our room was leaking through the ceiling. We told them, they said they would fix it. We had some lunch, and then met our group for a Felucca ride down the Nile. Very majestic. We stopped at a Nubian village for lunch (again, it was very yummy but...) and we got henna tattoos from a local artisan. Then we went back to our hotel and we noticed that our A/C was still leaking so they came to fix it again. Then we spent the evening at the pool. It's less hot when the sun goes down, but doesn't cool off as much as you hope.

While at the pool we chatted a bit about the blue fluorescent lights they had up, that zap the mosquitoes when they land on them; we have them at home too. A few minutes later, we noticed that there was smoke and flames coming from somewhere across the Nile. The quiet order of the night erupted into frantic shoutings and boats going back and forth to put the fire out. It was quite the scene. Amidst all this, I became distracted by the noise of the mosquito-killing-machine, and muttered, "those little buggers can fry!". Uhhhhhhhh, that was an untimely remark. Luckily Tracy figured out that I wasn't talking about the Egyptian people in the burning building, and cleared it up quickly. For a minute though, the people in my tour group were probably wondering, though. We all had a very big laugh at that one. After that, we watched some Egyptian National Soccer (thanks to you Ted I knew more of what was actually going on!) and went to bed.

Day 4 of the tour we went to Abu Simbel, which is this huge, amazing temple that is basically built into the side of mountain. It was optional, but everyone in our group went. Most people had heard of it or had it recommended to them by someone. In order to go, though, we had to wake up at 2am, and be on the bus by 3am. You cannot go to Abu Simbel on your own; you must be part of a convoy, and there are only 2 convoys a day - 330am and 4am. You basically drive 3 hours, spend 2 hours at the temple, and drive 3 hours back. The temple is fantastic - and totally worth seeing, but holy crow that was a tough day. No sleeping on the bus for me and we were all crammed in there and the only thing to drink is pop.

On our way back from Abu Simbel we were taken to an aromatherapy shop and given lunch. Of course, after lunch we got a sales pitch about the aromatherapy oils and essences (not to be confused with perfumes) and given free 5 min massages. I didn't buy anything. When we got back to our hotel, the A/C was STILL LEAKING. By that point we didn't care and were totally used to dodging the 2 buckets that we had to have at the foot of our beds. We went to sleep for the rest of the afternoon (had to use earplugs at this point to block out sound of dripping).

That night we had Shawarma for dinner (kinda like a donair) at the Aswan markets. The markets are crazy, they remind me of HK - people yell all sorts of things at you to try to get your attention. We heard, "hello lady," "g'day mate," "hola!," "moins chere," and our personal favourite, "everything free! everything for nothing!". They also jump right in front of you and follow you around. Mudi says that sometimes they can be very touchy too, but I haven't experienced that yet. Perhaps it was because he was with us. Basically you just avoid eye contact and ignore them and they give up.

Yesterday (Day 5) we checked out of our hotel, and went on a Felucca again... this time all the way down the Nile on our way to Luxor. We stayed overnight on the Felucca, which was another special brand of Egyptian torture. It wasn't too bad when we were moving, but when we stopped (for Lunch, Dinner, or Breakfast this morning) it was a dead heat and totally awful. The worst was at night, because it didn't cool down at all like we expected. There were 12 of us all sleeping together on this big boat, 10 out of 12 of us were sick in one way or another (and some in our group are really, really sick), and the food wasn't exactly... well, as Tracy puts it, they probably don't have Foodsafe standards to live up to. The toilets overflowed, the sinks didn't work, and most people didn't sleep at all. I chose to stay up all night (wasn't sleeping anyways) with 2 of the sickest girls - keep them company, brought them tissues, bottled water, sympathized through their dashes to the toilet or barfing over the edge. I am not feeling well, but I am nowhere near that bad; somehow I manage to stop feeling sorry for myself when I see that others are suffering worse than I am. Despite that, it was lovely to see the stars overhead and besides, how many people can say that they have slept on the Nile? (At least it wasn't IN the Nile!)

This morning we woke up, had Breakfast on the Felucca (ick) and took a 3 hour bus ride to complete our journey to Luxor. We stopped at a public toilet halfway there, and all I can say is, have you seen that movie Trainspotting? 'Nuff said.

Upon arrival, all of us headed straight to our hotel rooms. We showered and went to bed and aren't meeting up again until dinner tonight. So, Tracy and I had a nap and decided to catch up on some emails! So that's the update on Egypt. It has been amazing, fabulous, once-of-a-lifetime, breathtaking experience so far. But there have understandably been some very trying days. Still, we have a really great group and we are having fun and staying positive despite the heat and the food, hehe. :)

When the days are tough it's really nice to hear from home so feel free to send me a message when you get a chance. :) I have posted 4 photos on my Facebook account so you can see a few highlights. As expected, we haven't had regular access to the Internet, so sorry that this message was SO long! Hope all is well with you!

Cheers,
xo
Elaan