Egyptian Holiday, Early Period

Most memorable moments from my trip through Egypt:

Fighting our way through Cairo airport, with our subpar guide who was supposed to guide us to the other terminal for our connecting flight to Hurghada. The two cars he arranged for this purpose were probably bought used from the Cairo Taxi pool, and our driver got lost driving us to the other terminal, while the other car stopped so the driver could get out and pray towards Mecca for a bit. But we made our flight, leaving from a terminal usually reserved for private charter flights as the regular terminal was fully dedicated to Pilgrims traveling to Mecca for the Hajj.

The do-it-yourself service experiance at the Hilton Hurghada Plaza, which reminded me more of a parody of or a training a regular Hilton. The place was completely filled with Russians on holiday, as most of the Brits and other Euros vacation in Sharm-el-Sheik. We fetched our own water, scavenged our own place settings at the buffet, and hunted down towel guys. The buffets were mediocre and we got sick of the same food.

SCUBA Diving in the Red Sea wearing 5 mm two-piece wet suits so we all looked like extras from StarTrek. The worst moments were stripping down to our bathing suits and slipping into the cold, wet suits in the cool, cloudy weather. Once we were suited and in the water, we were very warm. My favorite meals in Hurghada were the hot lunches served on the dive boat, a little buffet of local hot dishes prepared while we dived.

Seeing a highly toxic lionfish and swimming around a towering pinnacle of rock and coral in a relative seafloor desert. Also swimming through a lush coral garden where not a rock was seen for all the table coral covering it.

Walking down Hurghada's main street. The place only boomed as a tourist resort town in the last ten years from almost nothing, so the main street looks like something out of rural Mexico, except filled with tourist shops selling tee shirts and plastic ancient Egyptian junk and souveniers. Also, we were in the middle of a blowing dust cloud, but that didn't deter any of the shopkeepers from running out to grab us, shake our hands, and attempt to start a conversation which they hoped would end with us buying something from them. "Where are you from?" they would ask. "America! We love America!" they would proclaim, giving thumbs up signs, "come inside and see, my friends!" This little conversation we would have with every single seller we passed. Finally in irritation, Taylor replied that he was Korean. The shopkepper without a moments hesitation retorted "Me too!" After we realized we weren't going into any of the shops, we gave up and went back to the sanitzed disneyland of the hotel.

Until the end of the trip, I could not decide if the Egyptians we encountered were desperate for conversation because (A) they wanted to engage us to sell us something or swindle us (or more likely, both), (B) they were really bored, or (C) they were genuinely curious about life the United States.

Getting a deep tissue massage at the resort. They put mom and I in the same room with two tables and appeared perplexed that we didn't want to strip in the same room. "But he is your son," mom's massuse said. I ended up waiting outside until mom was on the table covered before coming in. It was not a great experiance. I'd never had a massage before, and it would be unthinkable to have a female massaging a man in a muslim country, so I was being rubbed down with oil by a small Pakistani man, which was uncomfortable enough without being in the same room as my practically nude mother. I found it impossible to relax. Bizzarely, at the end, they wrapped us in towels and hid at the bottom of the massage tables. Never having had a massage before, I wondered if it was something usual. They literally jumped out of hiding when mom asked "are we done?" We figured out later that they were giving us "'time to meditate" in our relaxed state. Taylor, who also got a massage in a different room, disliked his as well.

Picking our fish at the "cleanest" seafood restaurant in town. Dad, Taylor, and I were sick of the buffet, so dad decided to seek sustainance elsewhere. We tried to get a taxi from the front desk, but they called us a limo taxi which cost about ten times as much as a regular taxi would be. By chance, our local guide was there, who offered to drive us into town as he was heading that way anyway. He dropped us at a fish place he recommended, and we were reasured by all the Russians eating inside. We all picked out a fish to have outside and they cooked it all up for us, and served it by sailor-cap wearing waiters who all had name badges with the title of "captain."

Traveling by convoy across the desert wasteland to Luxor from Hurghada. We were told initially that we would travel by convoy "in case one of the vehicles broke down." This was for a four-hour drive. Granted, there were only a few outposts along the way, but when we got there we realized that the convoy consisted of a half dozen tourist busses and minibusses (like ours) and headed by a armored police truck with armed police in the back. Breakdowns, my camel. We were together as a security precaution against terrorists and bandits.

The desert itself was beautiful and rugged, pristine in its absolute inhospitability. It felt like a road trip on mars. It was a shocking contrast to the lush greenery when we crossed into the areas irrigated from canals stemming from the Nile.

Looking at hieroglyphics and carvings in the tomb of Ramses IX in the valley of the Kings, and walking around in the small canyon which held the great pharoes, including Tutankhamen. Sadly we had time to explore two of the 60 some tombs.

Crossing the Nile river on a local water taxi/ferry. Our party of six were the only people aboard the long, narrow open air craft, and we were nearly hit by a much bigger ferry. The distinctive sailboats could be seen sailing down the river in the late afternoon sun, and the pilot's young son practiced english with me, and began asking me for money. I refused, and later when he saw me writing in my moleskein, asked me for my pen, which I gave to him.

Exploring Karnac temple as the sun was beginning to go down. The orange light and shadows lent an amazing air of mystery and grandeur to the ruins. The temple is built on a scale which is almost unbelievable. This was my favorite place in Egypt.

Listening to our guide explain a extremely long carving of the Nile river at Luxor Temple which depicted the ceremonies of carrying the statues of the gods. Our guide was actually an Egyptologist who was working on a doctorate degree specializng in daily life of ancient Egyptians. While he was incredibly knowlegable about everything we saw, he had a detectable air of condesention to the effect that he'd much rather be studying and working on his dissertation than herding around a bunch of American yahoos.

I can understand to a certain extent. Mom added Luxor at the last minute, so we could only dedicate one afternoon to see the things that this Egyptologist had probably spent years studying. He did really look the part though, a stooped back, very overweight and unweildly shuffling along, with glasses, and pants belted high up his stomach.

The slowest-napkin unfolding event. This needs some explanation: we were dropped at the nicest hotel in Luxor for dinner, and we had three hours to kill before the van picked us up again. So, we took our jolly time, and really worked hard to linger. We lazily competed to see who could take the most time unfolding our napkins, (taylor won) and waiting for our drinks to arrive. The wait staff approached us twice to remind us that the buffet was self-service. We lingered over drinks, we lingered after the first plate, and the second, and over tea and coffee.

We flew on to Cairo at midnight, getting into our hotel at 2 AM, and getting to bed close to 3 AM.