Posted by Seth on January 25, 2010 under Trip Reports | 
I’m that guy. I feel it is important to get that out of the way very early in this trip report. I’m the guy who went to Egypt and didn’t actually see the pyramids. I was given strict instructions by many, many people that I should see the pyramids. I did much research on how to best experience the pyramids given the short amount of time we had on the ground.
And then reality set in. We only had five nights on the ground and one of them started well after midnight. We would be diving for two full days so that was a decent chunk of the total time. And we had trouble with the flights as well. Around New Years the domestic flights are pretty full so that further restricted our options time-wise. Based on that – and a desire to have more than a few hours of time to actually see things – we were basically stuck. We could either do Luxor or Cairo and the pyramids. We chose Luxor over Cairo. That meant no pyramids, but we saw amazing temples, a pharaoh and an awesome collection of sphinx.
The ride in to Luxor from Hurghada was four hours through the middle of the desert. It is truly a beautiful and completely barren landscape. Rockier than I expected for a desert but absolutely stunning. And then we were on the edge of the Nile River. The transformation from desert to lush green is a stark change. It happens suddenly along both sides of the Nile. And it is amazing. You end up with views like this from the restaurant/pool area from the hotel:
The Temple at Luxor is simply awesome. Like many of the other ruins on display in Egypt it is hard to believe that they are thousands of years old. They look reasonably new. And they are wonderfully well lighted at night. The mosque in the middle is a relatively new addition to the site but the whole of the site is a wonderful walk-through.
On our one full day in Luxor we did the “standard” half day tour. A private car, including an English-speaking driver, was about $80 for us as arranged through the front desk of our hotel. That included visiting the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and other temples. The admissions costs at the sites was easily another $75ish per person – lots more than I expected – but they were worth it for the most part.
The Valley of the Kings is a collection of tombs from a number of pharaohs who ruled about 3-4000 years ago. They decided to relocate their tombs farther south in Egypt, out in the middle of the desert, to avoid the typical looters of the pyramids. They found a site a few miles away from Luxor where there was a natural formation that resembles a pyramid – a sharp point at the top of the hill – and they excavated amazing caverns under the desert to hold their remains and possessions.
The number of tombs that are now uncovered and exposed to the public is quite impressive. The tomb of Ramses II is one of the more publicized bits of museum within the greater site. I do not think that it meets the expectations set by that publicity. It was the smallest of the three tombs we visited and the interior was rather unimpressive. Yes, there was a 3000+ year old corpse on display and that was pretty cool. And there is the hope that the money paid goes to the further maintenance and preservation of the site. But beyond that the tomb was really rather small, simple and notably less impressive than the other couple that we saw at the site.
After the Valley of the Kings it was on to the other side of the hill where the Temple of Hatshepsut sits. Hatshepsut was one of the more famous pharaohs, mostly because she was a woman, a rather rare bit in the lineage of ancient rulers in Egypt. And, for reasons that I cannot quite understand, that particular site is not excluded from photography like the Valleys of the Kings and Queens are. It is in just as good of shape as the others and it presents some amazing views of how the temples of the time were built. The hieroglyphic carvings are intricate and amazing.and are impressive even thousands of years later. But photos are permitted. I’m not complaining.
And then there are the Sphinx. Pluralize it how you wish. I like Sphinxen though I can understand where the term Sphinxes is more acceptable. Either way, there are tons of them throughout Egypt and they are quite impressive. Only recently was it discovered that there is a boulevard connecting the Temples of Luxor and Karnak, about two kilometers apart, and that the entire length of road is lined with sphinxen on both sides. Businesses and homes have been bought out using the Egyptian version of eminent domain laws and the path is being uncovered from end to end to put the sphinxen on display. The interruption to life is unfortunate but the history that they’ve been able to put on display is wonderful.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these sphinxen on the road from Luxor to Karnak. And at either end is an amazing temple, thousands of years old and incredibly well preserved. Both are worth visiting but the site at Karnak is somewhat larger and truly amazing. Given no personal experience, if asked to describe an ancient Egyptian Temple the description given would almost certainly come very close to the reality that is the Temple at Karnak. The columns, the statues and the facades are iconic. And seeing them in person is not an experience that can be easily translated to words.
I can use the word awesome only so many times in a single post so I’ll let this be the last one:The Temple at Karnak is AWESOME. If it isn’t there already put it on your bucket list. It really is that impressive.
Following the visit to Karnak we headed back down to Luxor and settled in for a couple drinks, dinner and then heading off to the airport to start our overnight journey home. But that last afternoon and evening in Luxor gave us many wonderful discoveries. There were the couple amazing restaurants we found – probably the only two worth speaking of in Egypt from our perspective. There was the sunset. It was a beautiful blend of natural light, a range of colors and shadows and a handful of guys on the promenade, swearing that they could sell us a sunset felucca sailing even after it was clear that the sun had actually passed below the horizon.
The restaurants that afternoon and evening – Sofra and Casablanca, respectively – were both quite good. Finding an authentic dining experience rather than a greasy spoon targeting Brits, Germans and other Europeans on package holidays was incredibly hard throughout our time in Egypt. Asking at the hotel in Hurghada got us referred to a restaurant that was out of business. Asking elsewhere endured the risk of being sent to the place where the baksheesh was stronger than the actual quality. It was not a good situation.
There were many recommendations for a place on the west bank of the Nile that had all the details except for an actual address. We never found that restaurant. But these two, these tourist-focused but authentic cuisine shops, were truly outstanding. The food quality was some of the best that we experienced in Egypt and the service was top notch, almost too much in the case of Casablanca. Still, we finally managed to actually find some good food in Egypt and that was a tremendous relief. The trouble we had on that front is a big enough scar on the visit that it has actually made a return trip less likely than I had expected it to be.
Overall the experiences that one can have in Egypt are unparalleled. There is simply too much there that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world that it demands a few days out of every life. And it still demands a few more days of mine.
After all, I still have to see the pyramids.
More photos from the trip here.
Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Sitting on board EgyptAir flight 362 from Luxor to Cairo right now, happily ensconced in the bulkhead aisle of the “business class” cabin and laughing to myself about the scene going on across the aisle. The flight is operated by the Express arm of EgyptAir on an Embrear E170 (my first time on this type, I believe) and the business class cabin is anything but special. The bulkhead seats have plenty of knee room and typical bulkhead legroom while row two has nothing special to speak of, save for the guy in 2K (starboard window).
Boarding off the bus and up the air stairs he seemed quite shocked to discover that the business class seats were really just regular seats. So shocked that he didn’t shut up about it, grumbling to his wife in the row behind for several minutes before calling the flight attendant over to inquire about the situation. Once informed that the only difference is in the food service on board he gave up, pulled his hat over his face and passed out. A bit strange, but it definitely goes to show that there are plenty of people out there who have no idea what they are buying when it comes to travel. For what it is worth, the sandwich we had was pretty decent though I found the dessert a bit dry.
Shortly before boarding started a group of about a dozen guys showed up at the airport in dark suits. Several of them went into one of the private waiting rooms in the gate area while the rest milled about just outside the door. Not so hard to identify VVIPs in this sort of situation. And these two definitely are. They are two cabinet-level ministers in the Egyptian government – Education and Youth/Sports. They were the last two on the plane (plus their rather conspicuous security guy) and the doors were closed pretty much right after they got on board. The flight attendant told me just how special they were when I asked and the body guard poked his head out to say hi.
I didn’t ask for a photo with them – I’ll blame it on not wanting to document the crazy that is my hair right now rather than having no real reason to ask and a lack of cojones to ignore that – but it was certainly interesting. Especially the part where a security guard cam running down the stairs after us to make sure we didn’t try to board their VIP van since we followed them directly off the plane.
Good stuff.
Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I sit in the airport in Luxor, Egypt pondering the absolute insanity of the trip I’m beginning. Nothing quite like a 36+ hour adventure to travel from Luxor to Barcelona, Spain. It is just across the Mediterranean. It really isn’t that far. But I’m crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice – three hours apart – to make the trip. Yeah, it is crazy.
versus
Back over the summer Delta offered up a sale for flights to Spain so we bought a couple for the weekend over New Years. Celebrating in Barcelona seemed like a good idea. A few months later, we learned that my wife got a few extra vacation days for the time between Christmas and New Years. Use ‘em or lose ‘em, so we used them. A quick search of various reward inventory showed Egypt as a destination with premium cabin seats available and a destination where the country doesn’t shutdown over the Christmas period. Plus, it is a pretty soft introduction to travel in Africa. We were sold, and the trip was phenomenal.
But we still had to be back in New York City in time for our flight to Spain. No need to spend any extra time there. Three hours should be more than enough for an international to international connection. So we’re off.
We’ve got an 11:10pm flight from Luxor to Cairo followed by a 3:30am flight from Cairo to Istanbul and then a 10:30am flight from Istanbul to New York’s JFK airport. All in premium seats including the first class suites of the Turkish Air 777-300 wet-leased from Jet Airways. That should be quite nice. We follow that up with coach seats on a Delta 767-300ER. Probably one of the worst long-haul products out there today that crosses the Atlantic (likely still better than a Lufthansa 747-400 in the back), but the price was right. And there is plenty of potential fun and crazy along the way. Just the way I like to travel.
Images from Great Circle Mapper
Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Walking down the street in Luxor, Egypt is, to say the least, an interesting experience. It is hard to pass much more than 15 seconds without being offered at least one taxi and one carriage ride. Usually there are many, many more. What was particularly interesting about our walk yesterday was that every cabbie who passed us – often in 70s era station wagons that were much less comfortable than they looked – had already set their price. Only 5 Egyptian Pounds. And that was before they knew where we were headed. I was tempted to hop in and say, “OK, 5 Pounds to Cairo,” and see just how quickly they threw me out on the curb. I restrained myself.
During this particular walk, however, my splendiferous wife and I were were laughing about the fares as we passed another couple walking the same general direction. Our conversation caught their attention and soon we were chatting with Christine and Mohammed. After a stint working for the mouse in Florida she up and moved from her home in the UK to Luxor in search of work. Apparently her customer service training spills over from the day job into random conversations on the street.
Next thing we knew we were in a cab with her – Mohammed had to run a quick errand – on our way to a market. Better than the typical bazaars, the market was low stress and no haggling. That was quite pleasant. And the product quality was rather better, too. Or at least it seemed to be. So we did some shopping and chatted with new friends and learning about Luxor the way I prefer to discover new places: from locals.
On the way out there was a discussion between Mohammed and one of the cabbies hanging out on the stoop of the store. He had a collection of Euro coins that he couldn’t really do anything with. Some visitors had paid with them but the bank wouldn’t convert them. We’re on our way to Spain next so a deal was struck. But I was out of Egyptian Pounds (a recurring theme throughout the trip). So Mohammed fronted the money to the cabbie and gave me the Euros. He then took me to an ATM. The whole thing was rather surreal, and also at a very reasonable exchange rate.
And then we were back on our own, hunting down dinner and trying to figure out what had just happened. Fun, entertaining and completely random, all at the same time. Just one more awesome travel experience to add to the long list.
Posted by Seth on December 28, 2009 under Trip Reports |
A few more photos here from diving in Hurghada, Egypt. Day two of the diving was much better than day one. The folks on the boat were more friendly and generally better divers so we had a much better time both in the water and during the boat rides and surface intervals. No pedicure service on the boat – that was rather disgusting – and a smaller and more friendly crowd.
There were a whole bunch of interesting animals to be seen on day two, including an octopus, several blue spotted rays, some tiny blue banded shrimp and plenty of clown fish.
And then there were the dolphins. Wow. Just plain wow. We saw them on the surface and knew that there was a chance we’d see them underwater. We headed in and didn’t see them right away but they showed up about 5 minutes into the dive heading away from us. OK, fine. We saw them. I can’t really complain. And then, about 45 minutes later, as we were wrapping up the dive, the dolphins came back. This time they were swimming towards us and they were not shy at all. I was able to get pretty darn close – enough that i couldn’t get a wide enough shot with my camera – and swim right with them. At least for a few seconds, anyways.
That was a TON of fun.
Lots more underwater photos (and the rest of the shots from Egypt when I get around to posting them later) in the gallery here.
Posted by Seth on December 26, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Not a ton of time to post now as we’re between diving and dinner but I wanted to share a couple photos from our first day of diving. Suffice it to say that all the hype I’ve heard about Red Sea diving seems to be entirely justified. It really is quite impressive. I wasn’t all that impressed by the dive or social skills of the other folks diving on the boat with us, save one pair, but overall it didn’t cause us too much trouble. Over two hours underwater today and looking for a repeat tomorrow. Much happiness, indeed.
