Walk Like an Egyptian
Well, it’s about time I begin talking about my trip to Egypt. After a tasty ham and sweet potato lunch Easter afternoon, we left for the bus station. We took the familiar Jerusalem-Eilat bus and reached the southernmost point of Israel late in the evening. We had made no reservations (or really any concrete plans at all), and figured we’d be able to find a hostel pretty easily. We were really wrong, though, because it was Pesach and every Israeli was vacationing in Eilat. Luckily, we found a hotel room with five beds for an outrageous price and were able to spend the night inside.
Come morning, we woke up and visited the Egyptian Consulate in Eilat to get our travel visas. We were successful, then took a cab with a Gospel-singing driver to the Taba border crossing. Once in Egypt, we inquired about a bus to Cairo. We were told, whether truthfully or not, that none would be leaving for several hours. We decided to take a cab, which charged each of us 100 Egyptian Pounds (L.E.) for the five hour trip. Our destination was Luxor in Upper Egypt, the location of some temples and the Valley of the Kings (an interesting note about Egyptian geography- Upper Egypt is actually in the southern part of the country, because the Nile flows north and “Upper Egypt” is higher in elevation than “Lower Egypt.”) Halfway along the ride, which took us through the rocky desert of the Sinai wilderness, our driver advised us against going to Cairo and taking the train to Luxor. He claimed it was bad for the girls, so we decided to go to Suez instead to catch a red-eye bus to Luxor. Come to find out, though, our driver was from Suez and probably didn’t want to drive us all the way to Cairo. This was a difficulty we experienced many times in Egypt. It was exceedingly tough to discern whether people were genuinely trying to help us out with advice and hospitality or whether they had other motives and were trying to dupe us for their own benefit.
We reached Suez in the late-afternoon and had a quick bite-to-eat at a local restaurant (where two kabab sandwiches cost me less than a dollar). After the meal, a Muslim fellow approached us with some Islamic literature. Being in a strange place and not wanting to offend him, we smiled and accepted his booklets. The literature would end up causing us some trouble later on.
That evening we took a very long bus ride to Luxor. For the first half of the trip, I sat next to Mohammed, a single 25 year-old Muslim fellow from Cairo. He worked in the hospitality industry, and I was able to speak with him a lot about his background and family. He’s working hard to get a house, which in Egypt is basically a requirement for getting a wife. He also shared with me the expectations of his Muslim family. As an only son, he is expected to continue in the faith and traditions of his parents without question or deviation. Another topic of our discussion was women. I commiserated with him on how difficult it is to find a suitable wife (although, as he pointed out, I would probably be much more successful in Egypt than in the States), and we both agreed on the importance of gender roles (he laughed at the prospect of women doing the jobs of men, finding our modern American concept of equality a farce).
We arrived in Luxor at 3 am and quickly found a hostel. The rooms cost around 2 dollars a night, a great price for my budget travel. I quickly fell asleep, only to be awoken a short time later by the blare of a minaret calling Muslims to early-morning prayer. Later that morning, we awoke and grabbed a bite to eat at the local eatery. I had pita with a warm bean dip that seemed much like refried beans to me, a meal that would suffice for Tuesday’s tour. Our first destination was Karnak, a massive ancient Egyptian temple complex complete with giant pillars and a partially reconstructed roof. The compound was impressive, and every niche seemed to be decorated with ancient hieroglyphic carvings or paintings. At one point, near the back of the temple, we were approached by a guard who led us to panoramic view overlooking the entire area. Once we had taken our pictures, he began rubbing his figures together and muttering “backsheesh,” the Egyptian way of saying he wanted a tip. He was holding a rifle, so we obliged, and had the first of many encounters with Egyptians seeking out our hard-earned tourist cash.
That afternoon, we returned to our hostel for a long siesta. The weather in Luxor and later in Cairo was so hot during the afternoon that it was nearly impossible to do anything outdoors. Instead, each day we toured in the morning, slept or read indoors during the afternoon, and then went out to dinner in the evening.
Wednesday morning we woke up early to visit the Temple of Hatsheput and the Valley of the Kings. Both were on the West Bank (of the Nile) so, after taking a ferry across, we were met by a cab driver arranged through our hostel. He took us first to the temple, an impressive edifice built into the side of a mountain. A few years ago, the temple was the scene of a terror attack where Islamic militants opened fire on the crowd and killed dozens of visitors. It was much calmer on the day we visited, thankfully.
Our driver then took us to visit the Valley of the Kings, the place where several Ramses and Tut were buried. It was, as the name implies, a valley in the desert with dozens of small, inconspicuous entrances to the tombs of pharaohs. Our entrance tickets allowed us to visit just three tombs (and Tut cost much extra), so we visited the burial sites of a couple Ramses and a certain Thutmoses. The burial chambers, barren of any artifacts, were still marvelously mysterious and decorated with colorful hieroglyphic designs. Another aspect of the tombs that impressed me was their stuffiness. One would think that traveling inside a tomb carved out of a mountain would offer a cool respite from the outside sun and heat. The burial chambers, however, felt like stuffy saunas and smelled intensely like people. After every tomb we visited, it was actually a relief to be out in the open again to feel the cool breeze.
I’ll continue describing my trip tomorrow, but for now here is the link to the pictures from my Egypt trip…
Come morning, we woke up and visited the Egyptian Consulate in Eilat to get our travel visas. We were successful, then took a cab with a Gospel-singing driver to the Taba border crossing. Once in Egypt, we inquired about a bus to Cairo. We were told, whether truthfully or not, that none would be leaving for several hours. We decided to take a cab, which charged each of us 100 Egyptian Pounds (L.E.) for the five hour trip. Our destination was Luxor in Upper Egypt, the location of some temples and the Valley of the Kings (an interesting note about Egyptian geography- Upper Egypt is actually in the southern part of the country, because the Nile flows north and “Upper Egypt” is higher in elevation than “Lower Egypt.”) Halfway along the ride, which took us through the rocky desert of the Sinai wilderness, our driver advised us against going to Cairo and taking the train to Luxor. He claimed it was bad for the girls, so we decided to go to Suez instead to catch a red-eye bus to Luxor. Come to find out, though, our driver was from Suez and probably didn’t want to drive us all the way to Cairo. This was a difficulty we experienced many times in Egypt. It was exceedingly tough to discern whether people were genuinely trying to help us out with advice and hospitality or whether they had other motives and were trying to dupe us for their own benefit.
We reached Suez in the late-afternoon and had a quick bite-to-eat at a local restaurant (where two kabab sandwiches cost me less than a dollar). After the meal, a Muslim fellow approached us with some Islamic literature. Being in a strange place and not wanting to offend him, we smiled and accepted his booklets. The literature would end up causing us some trouble later on.
That evening we took a very long bus ride to Luxor. For the first half of the trip, I sat next to Mohammed, a single 25 year-old Muslim fellow from Cairo. He worked in the hospitality industry, and I was able to speak with him a lot about his background and family. He’s working hard to get a house, which in Egypt is basically a requirement for getting a wife. He also shared with me the expectations of his Muslim family. As an only son, he is expected to continue in the faith and traditions of his parents without question or deviation. Another topic of our discussion was women. I commiserated with him on how difficult it is to find a suitable wife (although, as he pointed out, I would probably be much more successful in Egypt than in the States), and we both agreed on the importance of gender roles (he laughed at the prospect of women doing the jobs of men, finding our modern American concept of equality a farce).
We arrived in Luxor at 3 am and quickly found a hostel. The rooms cost around 2 dollars a night, a great price for my budget travel. I quickly fell asleep, only to be awoken a short time later by the blare of a minaret calling Muslims to early-morning prayer. Later that morning, we awoke and grabbed a bite to eat at the local eatery. I had pita with a warm bean dip that seemed much like refried beans to me, a meal that would suffice for Tuesday’s tour. Our first destination was Karnak, a massive ancient Egyptian temple complex complete with giant pillars and a partially reconstructed roof. The compound was impressive, and every niche seemed to be decorated with ancient hieroglyphic carvings or paintings. At one point, near the back of the temple, we were approached by a guard who led us to panoramic view overlooking the entire area. Once we had taken our pictures, he began rubbing his figures together and muttering “backsheesh,” the Egyptian way of saying he wanted a tip. He was holding a rifle, so we obliged, and had the first of many encounters with Egyptians seeking out our hard-earned tourist cash.
That afternoon, we returned to our hostel for a long siesta. The weather in Luxor and later in Cairo was so hot during the afternoon that it was nearly impossible to do anything outdoors. Instead, each day we toured in the morning, slept or read indoors during the afternoon, and then went out to dinner in the evening.
Wednesday morning we woke up early to visit the Temple of Hatsheput and the Valley of the Kings. Both were on the West Bank (of the Nile) so, after taking a ferry across, we were met by a cab driver arranged through our hostel. He took us first to the temple, an impressive edifice built into the side of a mountain. A few years ago, the temple was the scene of a terror attack where Islamic militants opened fire on the crowd and killed dozens of visitors. It was much calmer on the day we visited, thankfully.
Our driver then took us to visit the Valley of the Kings, the place where several Ramses and Tut were buried. It was, as the name implies, a valley in the desert with dozens of small, inconspicuous entrances to the tombs of pharaohs. Our entrance tickets allowed us to visit just three tombs (and Tut cost much extra), so we visited the burial sites of a couple Ramses and a certain Thutmoses. The burial chambers, barren of any artifacts, were still marvelously mysterious and decorated with colorful hieroglyphic designs. Another aspect of the tombs that impressed me was their stuffiness. One would think that traveling inside a tomb carved out of a mountain would offer a cool respite from the outside sun and heat. The burial chambers, however, felt like stuffy saunas and smelled intensely like people. After every tomb we visited, it was actually a relief to be out in the open again to feel the cool breeze.
I’ll continue describing my trip tomorrow, but for now here is the link to the pictures from my Egypt trip…
posted by Jason | 11:51 AM
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