Egypt

                   

When people think of Egypt the first thought is pyramids and history but Egypt, as I learnt, actually has a lot more to offer.  It is described as one of the best adventure destinations in the world, offering numerous outdoor activities and excursions such as swimming and scuba diving in the Red Sea, horse and camel rides, hot air ballooning, mountain hikes and local village visits.

I’ve always wanted to go to Egypt and decided that Travel Talk’s Highlights of Egypt and Jordan 15 days tour was perfect for what I wanted to see. Many people were rather concerned that I was going to Egypt and I will admit I didn’t quite know what to expect as many people have said that those in Egypt are the worst when it comes to hassling you and the political state of the country was enough to make any parent worry, particularly when I was going ‘alone’, no matter how many times I assured them I wouldn’t be ‘alone’ as I was in a tour group.

My first impressions of Egypt as I drove from the Cairo airport to my hotel was that this place was extremely under developed, all these building looked unfinished and like in other African countries I’ve been to, everyone just hangs about on the roads. I later found out that the unfinished buildings were for tax purposes, a way to avoid paying for a ‘finished’ building, something the Government is apparently beginning to crack down on. There is dust and sand everywhere and its like they have just placed roads and buildings in between a desert terrain. The streets are busy and everyone drives like a manic leaving almost no point for the painted lines representing the lanes- controlled chaos is the best way to describe this. I suddenly felt the need to buckle up. Nevertheless, I survived the car ride and arrived at my 5 star hotel. Yes, quite a different way to travelling than I am used to but this company offers 4 and 5 star accommodation on all it’s tours, hello luxury! The hotel was beautiful and as soon as I checked in I headed straight for the pool, something I had been craving to do since I left Sydney in February. Later that night I climbed the roof of the hotel and watched the sunset over the pyramids, beautiful moment and such a great start to my Egyptian adventures.

The next day at 7:30am we all hopped on the coach ready for our tour. First impression, I wasn’t too happy with the group size and this would later be one of the downfalls of my trip and why I am not sure if I would recommend this company. We had 42 people on our bus, the most I’ve experienced and I began to wonder if this felt more like a tour, a school trip or if people would look at us like we do to a coach full of Asians. No individual introductions or icebreaker games were played and as silly as they can be, I realised how effective they actually were because even to the last day there were still some people whose names I didn’t know or still hadn’t spoken to.

With the revolution in 2011 Egypt has endured a massive hit to its tourism industry and the effects were clearly visible throughout each of the sights we visited. As a result multiple tours (from the same company) were combined, making the management side a bit messy and confusing, however I was here for the sights and experiences, not entirely for the people I’d make friends with for 2 weeks and possibly never see again. First sight was the famous pyramids of Giza! I couldn’t believe how close they were placed next to the city, I thought we would have to drive quite a while into the desert but no, in 15 minutes, from our hotel we were there!

No matter how many pictures I have seen of the pyramids nothing compares to actually seeing them. As one of the seven wonders of the Ancient world, they have survived the rise and fall of great dynasties and conquerors and still stand mostly intact today. Looking at them you can’t help but wonder exactly how they were built. Each stone weighs at least a few tonnes and it is suggested that over 2 million stones were used for each pyramid. I also couldn’t believe how high they were (they don’t look too high upon first sight until your standing next to it)! In fact, it was actually the tallest structure in the world until the 1800’s when the Eiffel tower was built, today of course we have much taller. Many theories have surfaced regarding it’s construction with the most common being the idea that mainly slaves (about 100,000) or peasants who were unable to work constructed these pyramids and it took about 30 years.

We first saw the oldest known pyramid, built in a 6 ‘step’ structure and hollow on the inside but the pyramid of Giza is solid and, like all pyramids, was used as a burial place to house the tomb of a pharaoh, his family members or someone of extremely high rank. Call me silly but I assumed and thought that the pyramids had many hidden passages and spells or curses placed on doors. No, that is just in the movies. You can walk in one of the pyramids and it really is nothing special, simple passages with plain walls and I begun to think that this was one huge burial place and partly a waste of space for one body. I must admit I was a little disappointed but little did I know that I was confusing this perception with something else that we were about to see.

On to the Sphinx and again I didn’t realise that it was right next to the pyramids. Of course we all tried to get the perfect picture of us giving the Sphinx a kiss. It was used to prepare the dead bodies before they went into the tomb. They had 70 days between death and burial in the tomb to prepare the body, extract and place in canopic jars the four vital organs of the body (the lungs, intestines, liver and stomach) and mummify it. A hook took out the brain from their nose after they broke it and was disposed of. The coffin was then placed in the tomb and adorned with treasures, many of which were stolen long before archeologists discovered them.

Our next major sight along the trip was in Luxor where we visited the Valley of the Kings. It’s extremely hard to say what my favourite sight in Egypt was but this comes close to the top. No pictures were allowed to be taken so I’ll have to do my best to describe it. From Thutmose 1 in the 18^th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period, all the Kings and occasionally high officials were buried in the exclusive and secluded wadi, or dry gully, which is today known as The Valley of the Kings. The Valley is hidden from sight, behind cliffs and as of today 64 tombs have been discovered. We entered 5 tombs, each unique in their own ways; Ramesses 2, 6, 7, 9 and the famous Tutankhamun.

It was here that I got the colourful walls and numerous rooms and tomb paths that I had imagined in the pyramids. This was incredible; as you entered the tomb every single wall was filled with heliographics, telling stories of the pharaoh and what was expected for his afterlife, which is all the pharaohs seemed to have lived and prepared themselves for back then. Many of them were mostly still intact, full of colour and stories unknown to me. It was quite interesting to have to try and work out the tales on the walls and although empty rooms now, just looking at the empty spaces and numerous sections cut out of walls you could only imagine all the treasures and possessions that were contained in such a place, wondering what it would be like if you were the person who first laid eyes on such a place as if you discovered it first. I’m not sure if I can even explain this properly but what I saw was really cool and in many ways I am glad that you can’t take pictures because that way it still retains the element of surprise for visitors and you are in such awe over what you see and imagine was once there. 

I must take a moment to mention Tutankhamun’s tomb. For those who have studied or can remember any of the history taught at school (I never chose a history elective) you may remember his name popping up as we learnt about Ancient Egypt. He is by no means any important King. He ruled from age 9-19 and his death is unknown, theories such as infection, leg wound or complications due to being the child of an inbred relationship exist. What he is famous for is the highly publicized discovery of his intact tomb. In 1920, Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of “King Tut” and what they found was the gold of any archeologist’s discovery! This tomb was, as it seems, never robbed, therefore everything they discovered was possibly the same as the day it was sealed. The tomb itself was rather small as we entered but we would later witness 90% of the tombs remains when we visited the museum in Cairo, highly recommended (such an excellent collection where you can even see mummified animals such as crocodiles, monkeys and goats).

Nothing remains in the tomb expect the body of King Tut himself. I’ve never seen a dead body let alone a dead mummified body. He was rather short and small, a blanket covered his body so that only his head and feet were on show. It looked really weird but kinda cool at the same time. We stood and stared at it for quite a while, making our own suggestions of how we think he died and commenting on the shape and formation of the remains as well as voicing our imaginations of the mummification process and how it would feel if we were pulling someone’s brains out of their noses. I’m sure now you can see why this is possibly one of my favourite sights in Egypt.

Keeping on track with sights Abu Simbel was another mind blowing place that we visited and definitely a recommendation for anyone travelling to Egypt. There isn’t a lot of symbolism in the temples itself that I really need to note, all I know is that King Ramses 2 built a temple out of the cliffs for himself and another next to it for his wife, Queen Nefertari and of all the temples discovered it was the first which showed the Queen at the same height (symbolizing equality) as the King, meaning he must have really loved her because this wasn’t common. What was spectacular was the size of the temple, some features of the temple and knowing that this temple had actually been moved from it’s original place, meaning that piece by piece it had been cut apart and restructured. Looking at it you couldn’t tell and even once told we all still stared at it, in awe, wondering how they didn’t destroy any of it in the process. We watched a 20min video on how this was done as well as why. The Egyptians wanted to widen the Nile and create a dam, Abu Simbel was on a river back and was in the firing line for development. Creating this dam they sacrificed a few temples and pyramids but Abu Simbel would not be one of them. The restructuring occurred in the 1960’s and took just 4 years. We watched as they sawed off sections of the temples in block formations, carefully labeling and placing them on a boat to take to the new destination where it would be carefully restructured. I’m not one for building and development but this was really interesting so I assume this process would have overwhelmed any tradie. One interesting thing was that on only two days each year the light made it through the door far enough to light up three of the four God’s on display as statues, the fourth, unlit God was the God of dark or death. With all the technology today when moving and rebuilding this they still couldn’t manage to recreate this effect on the same two days, instead it now occurs a day later both times. This was certainly impressive!

Taking a break from sight seeing the second part of the trip (or history lesson as it is now becoming) was more relaxing. We spent 2 nights on a felucca boat cruising the Nile which was beautiful and after all our very early starts to beat the hot rising sun we now had the chance to relax and finally feel like we were on a holiday. No toilet, so we spent the next 3 days squatting on the river banks of the Nile and of course that’s when the toilet conversations began (it happens on every tour). The food was fantastic. I haven’t said much about the food yet, I myself had no idea what Egyptian food was and many people I asked couldn’t quite answer it. Egypt’s food is influenced mainly by Lebanon and is eaten in a meze style; babaganoush, tahini, beef shish, chicken and rice, no pork, falafel and pita bread. Not many vegetables and as the water is non drinkable they advised away form salads which were washed with this water but a little salad doesn't hurt your immune system I say. Many steered clear of it though as we had selected toilet stops which themselves weren’t the cleanest (still don’t understand how you have to pay to use a squatter). Within days we all got over the buffets and bread, hello bloated and always full belly!

The final place I am going to share with you is Dahab, the last stop in our Egypt adventure and a place where many call this the paradise of Egypt. Staying here you would have no idea that you were in Egypt as it is so different to everything we had experienced. Many of the group had fond memories of Dahab and fell in love with it, saying they could stay here for weeks, but I myself didn’t find it too flash, the descriptions they used to people back home didn’t quite fit those of what I saw and experienced but I guess everyone is different. If you like water sports this is the place for you. Where taxi’s are simply you sitting in the back of a ute letting the wind catch your face, seafood is a plenty and rather cheap and hotels have beautiful pools, goats roam the dusty streets and all the town and shops look like they are about to collapse or in need of a serious renovation.

I spent 2 full days in Dahab, the first was wasted because I was so shattered from a midnight hike up Mt Sinai, the place where (for you religious people) Moses supposedly received the 10 commandments from God (very close to the highest point in Egypt). This was a tough hike and one that I actually chose to do in the hope of exercise and was recommended as a great experience and a beautiful sunrise. I forgot to realise that it was British people who recommended this sunrise viewing knowing that they never bloody see a sunrise and it was nothing compared to what I can see in my own backyard in Sydney. Take the sunrise away though and it was a beautiful experience as I looked back on it. Trekking in the middle of the night under a thousand stars and watching the sunrise over a beautiful landscape of mountains. For those wanting some exercise after all the buffets or anyone religious I highly recommend it. 

We arrived back to Dahab at 9am and slept all day whilst everyone else snorkeled, which we could do another day. We even missed out on quad biking because we were so shattered so before you chose to do such a thing, think about which one you wanted to do more, I fear I made the wrong choice. The second day I spent attempting to Scuba dive, where I sadly realised that I am partly claustrophobic, having panic attacks as I went down and the fear of being trapped, not accepting or understanding the concept of being able to breath simply underwater. It was a frightening experience and shook me up quite a bit. I’ve always been one to give things my all but this, this defeated me and broke me down, making me feel like it was the first thing in my life that I had truly failed at, definitely not a good feeling. I used to look at people and wonder how they could let their minds convince them that a space is too small but now it has overcome me. However, I have not ruled this out and aim to conquer it one day in the future, possibly not with strangers and at a slower pace. Therefore the rest of the day was spent feeling sorry for myself by the pool, relaxing and reading (wishing I had done snorkeling now). Would I go back to Dahab to relive the moments I lost? No.

Of course this wasn’t the only things that we did whilst in Egypt. I would be here all day and possibly have to write a book about it if I was to explain them but these were the main highlights of my Egyptian adventure, one that I thoroughly enjoyed and am glad I finally made it there. The tour offered many cultural experiences as we visited local shops and many other temples, learning about the ways of life. I loved Egypt and didn’t seem to witness any harassment that I was warned of; in my opinion Morocco was worse, much worse. As for the uproar and revolution, you would have had no idea that even went on. Tourists are fine, some parts we even had police conveys taking us on our journey for added security, which was comforting (but I didn’t think necessary). Since 2011 Egypt’s tourism has taken a massive hit, because of this many of the major sights were hardly crowded (meaning little to no lines and some great picture opportunities) but I feel for Egypt and hope that they bounce back from this. Of course, if going to Egypt I suggest a tour, there are many benefits from them, just make sure your group size isn’t 42!