Photographic Voyage

We deboarded our cruise through the Med in Alexandria, Egypt, and made our way to Cairo where we met Laurie's parents for a two week Nile adventure. I've always been fascinated with ancient Egyptian stuff, so it was a great experience for us to visit the Pyramids and other temples and tombs. We spent our first few days in Cairo where we wandered through the markets and mosques of the Islamic Quarter, ate some great meals at amazing restaurants on the Nile river, and played chicken with oncoming traffic. Cairo is perhaps the most chaotic city in the world, and our taxi drivers didn't disappoint. One driver even offered Laurie's father a cigarette with one hand while holding the other hand on his horn. We saw the pyramids, and they seemed even larger in person than in any photo. We also went into various old mosques and other sights from the middle ages, but that was "only A.D. stuff" according to Laurie's mother. Sometimes it could be difficult to put 5000 years of history into perspective while dodging traffic.

From Cairo we took the overnight sleeper train to Aswan, a smaller town in the southern part of Egypt on the Nile. We took the small ferry boat to Elephantine island which is home to some Nubian villages, and it was a great opportunity to see how the local population lives.

The next morning we boarded a boat for a three day cruise along the Nile to Luxor. We were well fed (always a good thing), and made stops at Kom Ombo and Edfu temples along the way. The best part was getting to lounge on the roof-top deck next to the pool while admiring the scenery of the Nile. The land is very surreal. Next to the river are palm trees, lush fields of crops, and small villages. After a few hundred yards from the river the desert begins, and then there is nothing but sand for miles.

Once in Luxor we explored the Luxor temple and the larger Karnak temple, both very interesting and typical examples of ancient Egyptian architecture. We also ventured over to the other side of the river to check out the Valleys of the Kings and Queens along with other temples. We finally managed to get Laurie's parents on top of some camels as well, although the experience proved to be a little painful to our backsides. One of our camel guides was a teenage boy, and he asked Laurie if we had children. When she said "no", he responded by rubbing his belly and asking, "oh, do you have problems?" It seems to be a trend in the middle east that if you are married and don't have a child, you must have "problems". On another evening we boarded a small felucca, a typical Egyptian sailboat with a triangular sail, for a sunset cruise.

Then it was back to Cairo for another three days. We made our way to the Citadel to see the large mosque with silver domes and the other sights. Coptic Cairo was our next destination where we visited some old Coptic Christian churches. Finally, on our last day in Cairo we took a taxi out into the suburbs to see the camel market at Birqash. This was definitely the highlight of Cairo (other than the pyramids, perhaps). There were thousands of camels, and men were herding them in every direction or carrying them away in pickup trucks. Impromptu auctions seemed to happen where people would make purchases and then a man with a bucket of paint would write something on the side of a camel before bringing the next one out for display. We managed to get some great photos despite nearly being stampeded and carefully dodging a lot of camel poop. Unfortunately we didn't buy one.

Laurie's parents flew home, but we continued on to the Sinai peninsula. Our first stop was the town of Katreen near the base of Mount Sinai and St. Katherine's Monastery. We stayed at a small Bedouin camp turned into a hotel and met some other travelers who had hiked the mountain the night before, starting at 2:00 a.m. Supposedly this was the best time so that you avoid the heat and see the sunset. We had planned to hike up, but this new twist added much drama because we were tired and generally enjoy sleep. We decided to go for it, and made it to the top about half an hour before sunrise. The scenery was stunning. The surrounding mountains were oddly shaped and various shades of red and brown - it was like a scene from another planet. Hiking down was much faster, and we got to see more of the land this time since our hike up was in the dark. At the end we saw the monastery and the famous Biblical burning bush (currently not burning). It has a "No Smoking" sign on it.

Next we took a shared taxi through the other-worldly desert to the coastal town of Dahab on the Red Sea. The brown mountains plunge into crystal clear water, and on the edge of the water is the small backpacker-oriented town with cheap hotels and non-Egyptian restaurants. It doesn't feel like Egypt at all, but it was fun and relaxing. The beach is rocky, but you can step into the water, put your mask on, and see thousands of colorful fish and coral. It was the most pristine underwater environment we've ever seen. The Red Sea should be renamed, because it is anything but red.

After a few days we took a bus north to the border of Israel and crossed over on foot into the town of Eilat.