Jackson's Egyptian (Mis)Adventure

Hey bloggies!  It’s me, Jackson. For our Egypt trip, we started in Cairo and ended in Dahab but I’ll get to that. In our days of Cairo these were my favorite things I did.

Our first day (Jan 27) we got a guide to show us some of Cairo. The first place our guide took us was the great pyramids of Giza. The pyramids were casting huge shadows because there so big.

Then Savannah and I got to ride a camel but this time the seats were really comfy.

After that the guide took us to another pyramid and Savannah, Dad and I went in. The air was nice and cool in the pyramids and the ceiling was low. We saw a couple chambers but since the guide was not with us we could not tell which one was the tomb. Our guide told us that the Egyptians put granite in the walls to help keep the walls from falling down and Dad spotted the granite.

When we got out of the pyramid our guide took us to the Sphinx!!! The Sphinx has the face of a pharaoh named Cheops and the body of a lion. Most people think that an Arabic man shot of the nose of the Sphinx. While we paid the Sphinx a visit it was being restored.

When we done with the Sphinx our guide too us to a perfume place. When we got there we saw a man make a glass perfume bottle. Then we were brought upstairs to test perfumes. All the perfumes smelled lovely. Then our guide took us to a papyrus store where there were lots and lots of papyrus scrolls. My Dad said he once came to the same shop the time he came to Egypt alone. I bought a little papyrus scroll with the solar boat on it. The Egyptians thought that the solar boat would take the spirits of the dead to the afterlife.

Our last stop was the very first pyramid to be built. People call it the step pyramid because it is made of 6 steps. At the front of the pyramid was a courtyard with two B shaped structures. It was probably what the Heb Seb festival looked like. The Heb Seb festival is when the king has to prove to his people that he is the rightful king of Egypt. To do this the king has to run around the B shaped structures 30 times. After this the king has to defeat a bull.  

    

 One day later we were evacuated into another section of Egypt called Dahab.  We got to Dahab in a car. 3 of our bags fit in the back. Where did the fourth suitcase go you ask? It was unfortunately on our laps. It was a 7 hour drive. When we arrived at Dahab we stayed in a hotel by ocean.

In Dahab we walked along the boardwalk that is next to the ocean. On the boardwalk there were loads of restaurants. At a lot of these restaurants you could either sit at a table or on pillows on the floor, which is traditional Bedoin seating. At a lot of these restaurants there were a lot of cats hanging out on the floor, hopping to get a good meal.

Our favorite restaurant was called the Jasmine. They had amazing chocolate milkshakes and it was full of a lot of nice cats. Almost every time we went to the Jasmine, a lot of cats slept and sat on our laps. The first time we ever went to the Jasmine we made a big mistake. Our mistake was not guarding our food from the cats. One of the cats, who we later nicknamed “the thief,” because he ate part of our starter, main meal, and dessert! He was a naughty cat, but we later loved him J.

Another day at the Jasmine it got a little scary because one cat clawed my sisters face. Two of the other cats at the Jasmine got to drink milk that we ordered for them. They were little black and white kittens. Another day we met a friendly dog named Gina, and on our last day we found her on our doorstep.

On our last day it was really cool when my dad wandered onto the beach and discovered that the beach was covered with starfish!

 Another day we went snorkeling. It was really cool because we saw lots and lots of fish. Some of the fish were sergeant majors. I also saw a gar fish. The place we went snorkeling was called the Blue Hole, and the reefs there were beautiful. We swam through a whole school of sergeant majors. One of the sergeant majors looked at me from about two inches from my face.

One of the other days we found a little tiny baby kitten that had been born about a week ago. The kitten had no mommy with him. That night we wanted to see if his mommy had found him yet. When we found him, he was on the side of the path. We went to the owner of the Jasmine and asked him what to do. He said to put the kitten back in an area that was him home. When I carried the kitten, he pooped on my arm, but he was still cute.

Another day we went to a monastery at the bottom of a big mountain called Mt. Sinai. The monastery has monks living in it. As well at the monastery there was a place where there is a bush that represents where the burning bush was suppose to be located in the story of Moses. We then climbed Mt. Sinai. Some of the rocks were humungous! It was a big mountain that was very hard to climb. It took around four hours to get to the top, and two and a half down. Near the end, we had to go up a whole bunch of steep steps, which a monk built. At the top of the mountain, there was a Greek Orthodox Church. On clear days, people usually watch the sunset on the top of the mountain. There are a whole bunch of other mountains around Mt. Sinai.

Another day, I had my very first massage. It was really fun in Dahab and I don’t think I’ll ever find cats as cute as the ones that were at the Jasmine.