Egypt

Thanks to some dodgy icecream on the train to Delhi on our way out of India, Tim and I didn't see much other than the inside of our hotel room for the first week of Egypt. We almost got desperate enough to go to an Egyptian hospital but started showing signs of improvement just in time to save us that potentially harrowing experience. We emailed our friend, Sunil, for his doctorly advice... but the email arrived on April 1st and he assumed it was an April fools day joke.

Good things definitely come out of bad experiences... as we were sick and therefore delayed in Cairo it meant that we were fortuante enough to meet Eglys, a gorgeous girl from Venezuela who ended up travelling with us throughout Egypt. Tim claimed her for himself as a second wife.
Almost every Egyptian male that we came across found it entertaining to call out to Tim "Lucky man - two wives / women! Give me one!" They would then usually start making him offers for one of the girls. The best offer that we got was for 200 camels and one banana. Despite being tempting he didn't accept purely because it would be too difficult to continue the rest of the trip with that many camels tagging along.

As soon as we were well again we visited the pyramids of Giza on camel back. It was a fantastic experience despite the inner thigh pain that the three of us experienced the next day. While we were wandering around our guide was approached by the police who demanded money from him. He didn't have anything to hand over so the policeman dragged him away in an armlock leaving us alone. A friend saw what happened and raced off on his horse to find some money, brining it back to ransom him.


Pyramids of Giza (the camel on the right wasnt feeling very bright that day)


How cute... matching outfits



From Cairo we followed the Nile by train south to the city of Aswan. By this time the custom of asking for baksheesh ("tips") was beginning to wear thin - for example: the train attendants wanted baksheesh just because we had good seats on the train. I don't know what made them better than any other seats!

When we arrived in Aswan we had to argue with the hotel manager over the price of rooms. We had booked over the internet but he decided that we weren't being charged enough and did his absolute best to make us pay several times the rate we were quoted.

We visited the ancient site of Abu Simbel which is close to the Sudan border. It is an awesome temple for the burial of Ramses II and his Queen. Although the structure itself is impressive, equally as amazing is the fact that the whole temple has been moved to save it from the rising waters of the Nile after it was dammed. Originally the temple was built in such a way that the sunlight shone through and lit up the statue of Ramses inside the chamber on two significant days a year. When the temple was moved they positioned it almost perfectly so that now the day that the statue is lit up is only one day late.



Tim defacing the ancient temle of Abu Simbel


Eglys and Renee at Abu Simbel


Tim walking like and Egyptian on Island of Philae in Aswan

From Aswan we travelled up to Luxor (where again we had to argue with the hotel manager over the prices of our room!). Instead of taking the feluca we opted for the train and ended up being very thankful for our choice. Instead we took a sunset feluca "sailing"cruise on the Nile in Luxor. Sailing didn't really happen - they didn't even bother raising the sails due to lack of wind. Instead we got a tow from a motorised boat along with several other felucas and then drifted back to shore with the current. Despite this it was a beautiful sunset over the dessert landscape alongside the river.


Felucas being towed along the Nile alongside our boat


Eglys and Tim on "Banana island" in the Nile

We spent some time exploring the Valley of the Kings and Queens on the West bank of Luxor. The contrast between the lush strip alongside the Nile and the surrounding dessert is incredible. All the tombs were hidden deep underground to try to prevent grave robbers from looting them. Many of the paintings inside the tombs have been preserved incredibly well.

We travelled across the ocean to the Sinai peninsula via ferry and made our way to the seaside town of Dahab. Tim was disappointed that the Red Sea was actually blue like every other ocean despite it's name. We were surprised by the stunning beauty of the coast and the ability to see Saudi Arabia over the water.

The first night we climbed Mt Sinai. We had to set out at 11pm to get to the summit for sunrise. We were some of the first to the summit and had a fantastic position to view the dawn from. It was extemely cold - Moses must have frozen his butt off up there. The walk down was incredibly beautiful.


Renee and Tim on the climb down from the summit of Mt Sinai

Sleep deprived Renee and Eglys on the way down Mt Sinai

We spent the next few days in Dahab doing our Scuba diving open water course. The highlight was seeing a huge turtle swimming past us. It was a gorgeous dive site and despite being exhausted (and at times freaked out by the training exercises we had to do) we both loved it. We were left with just a couple of days left to visit the city of Alexandria on the Mediteranean coast before we had to say a sad goodbye to Eglys and move onto Germany.


Renee in Dahab on the Red Sea


Tim at "Club Red" where we did our open water scuba diving course




Tim and Eglys enjoying one of many icecream thickshakes... I do mean many!


Despite being in an Islamic country Tim managed to find Renee an Easter Egg - it was a few days late and it did give us upset stomachs... but it was very sweet of him