Savannah's Short but Sweet Visit to Egypt

Today (Jan. 27, 2011) we landed in Egypt! I am really excited because Egypt is the place that I am most looking forward to. When we landed, we took a car to our hotel in the very early hours of the morning.

            In the late afternoon/early evening, we left our hotel and went on a Nile dinner cruise! The dinner cruise was really cool. After standing out on the deck for a long time, we went back down to dinner. At dinner, all of the other guests ate all of the food before we had touched our main course! After dinner, we had three different people entertain us. The first person was a belly dancer. She was really good! After her there was a guy who was twirling around and around and the huge multicolored skirt he was wearing flared out and the colors mixed together. The next guy did the same twirling in the same outfit, but he did a lot of cool things with his skirt and other things. The coolest thing was when a guy from outside threw him a tray, and he balanced it like a waiter but tilted, then in came a cup and a big bottle of water, and he balanced them at an angle, (he is still spinning!) and then he opened the big bottle and poured it! Then, he closed it and drank the water in the glass! Then he threw it all back and kept spinning. That was the coolest part of the night!

            The next day (which we later learned was our only day of the tour we planned that we could do.) we had an incredibly nice guide whose nickname is Sheco who is studying Egyptology (so cool!) and driver Mohamed, that took us to Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Djoser Step Pyramid, a shop that sells essence, and a papyrus museum.

            The Great Pyramids were AMAZING!!! It was really cool to see them in person. When we got there, we walked up to the biggest of the three and touched it. A few years ago, you used to be able to climb to the top and sit on it, but not anymore. When you see them up close, you realize just how hard it must have been to build. After that, we went to a different one, and we went inside it! You have to bend over and climb down, but the inside is not too bad. We were only allowed in three or four rooms. They are completely empty though. When we were done inside, we drove to a spot pretty far away, but we could still see them. Jackson and I went on a camel ride, which was surprisingly more comfortable than Morocco. Sheco took shots of us “holding” and “eating” the pyramids, which were pretty funny.

            The Sphinx was another amazing monument that was great to finally see in person. We couldn’t touch it though. We went through a temple to see it. We learned that Napoleon actually didn’t shoot off its nose, but that someone from another Middle Eastern country broke it off to embarrass the Egyptians and prove that he had conquered them.

            In the essence shop, we first saw someone making one of the little perfume bottles by blowing glass. Then, we had a person who showed us around and let us sample a couple different smells on our skins, including frankincense, meuir, lotus flower, citrus, papyrus flower, and many others. After that, we brought a couple things.

            The Djoser Step Pyramid in Sakkara is really cool for a few reasons: it is the oldest pyramid ever discovered, and the only step pyramid ever discovered. The architect that built it just kept layering big blocks smaller and smaller. The architect that designed it liked his king so much that he even built him a huge courtyard and a temple. There is a huge wall around the whole thing. The courtyard is probably made to look like the Heb Sed festival. In ancient Egypt after a king has ruled for thirty years, the public kills him, because they think he is not fit to rule anymore. At the Heb Sed festival, the king has to prove himself. What he has to do is run around two formations thirty times, (thirty back then was pretty old, and in the heat too.) and if he manages that, he has to wrestle and kill a bull. There was one guy (Rames II?) who had to do it twice!  The pyramid itself was amazing. From a point up on a hill we could see the Red Pyramid, and one of the failed tries to make a perfect pyramid that the king after the one that build the step pyramid had ordered to get made for him.

            Our last stop, the papyrus museum was really cool as well. We saw the papyrus plant that is used to make the scrolls. Jackson and I each got a piece of stem to try and break, and we got a few paper cuts. Someone then explained to us the process. After that, we got to see the completed and painted scrolls.

            On the way back, there were a few police blockades, but there was no problem and it didn’t seem unordinary or anything. When we did get back to the hotel, our guide tried to break the news as nicely as possible. We were not able to take the overnight train ride to Aswan we had planned. Instead, they said that we would have to stay another night at a hotel while they tried to get us on a morning one. They were so incredibly nice about it though. The hotel that we stayed at last night was getting renovated and there were no doors, just tarp type things, so we had to go to another one just around the block, but it was after curfew! It was a little creepy, because the streets were practically empty and silent too. There is still no internet or cell phone service.. In the room we could hear tear gas and we saw a road a few streets away with a big group of people, presumably headed to the protests.

            The next morning we learned that we were actually not going on the morning train, and we would get another call at five. We had CNN or BBC on constantly, and they were just showing the same pictures over and over. At noon we got a call saying that they were trying to get us on a bus to a resort city called Dahab tomorrow, because the best thing to do was to get out of Cairo. At least we were able to get out of the hotel for lunch. There were little groups of people on every corner and shopkeepers building walls in front of their stores with anything they could get their hands on, mostly bricks, but we did see one made of cases of water bottles. After lunch we sat in our hotel room all afternoon. We could see military vehicles, tanks, and hear more tear gas, and even some gunfire. It is pretty scary. The only event that happened was when mom tried to send dad out for diet coke after curfew with the escaped convicts and all sorts of people taking advantage of the situation around.

            The next morning I awoke to the sound of gunfire and people relatively close by yelling. I am really worried but I know that we are safe. When the time came that we were supposed to leave on a bus, we learned that it is too dangerous for tourists to leave the area. We then waited for a driver. When the driver does show up, it is in a tiny car, but assuming that it is just taking us to the bus station; we cram everything in and put a suitcase across mom, Jack, and my laps. We eventually do figure out that we are doing the full 8 hour drive to Dahab in this car! We had to drive to the Sinai Peninsula, which Dahab is in. The peninsula was amazing! It was full of beautiful mountains that ranged from different sizes and shapes, and the colours were all different yellowy sandy colours. Along the way, we saw a lot more tanks, and a lot of police blockades. We went through the Suez tunnel (which was not closed) which was really cool. I was really upset about leaving Egypt, but I definitely understand the situation. 

Waiting to Leave Egypt

            There wasn’t much to do in Dahab, but it was really nice just to relax. These are the main things that we did:

            Swimming: Since it is the middle of winter in Egypt, (same as us) we didn’t do much swimming. We went to the beach once, which was fun. Jackson and I jumped in the pool a couple of times, but it was FREEZING!

            Snorkeling: One day we went to the Blue Hole to snorkel. It was really cool, but nothing like north rock in Bermuda. We saw lots of cool coral and fish though. Mom didn’t want to go in, and as she sat in the little restaurant, she met a twelve year old boy named Mohamed. Mohamed was really nice and he made really pretty jewelry.

            Mt. Sinai: On our last day, we went and climbed Mt. Sinai. It was really hard, but the views were amazing! We had planned on watching the sunset, but since it was a really cloudy and cold evening, we decided to get some of the climb down over with in daylight. On the top I was amazed to find that they sold snicker bars and Pringles. We had a really grumpy camel named “toot” (you can guess why) that carried our bags for us. There were a few other people doing the climb with us, including a couple that carried their eighteen month year old (really cute) little girl named Chloe up with them.

Almost there!

Made it to the top!

            The Jasmine: The Jasmine was my number one favorite place in all of Dahab. We went there at least once every day, just to hang out. The Jasmine is a restaurant with the traditional Bedoin seats (pillows on the floor with low tables) like all of the restaurants have, and although the food was nothing special, they had cold beer, great chocolate milkshakes, (but nowhere near as good as my grandpas) and …………………………… cats! The restaurant was full of cats that would climb all over you. Some of my favorite cats were:

·         Two little black and white kittens that were adorable and always tried to climb on the low tables, and we always had to pull them off.

·         An adult black cat that always sat on dad and slept the whole time. At the end when dad tried to lift him off, he would climb back on right away. One night we learned that he was the two kitten’s mom because they were all on my lap and the kittens started suckling.

·         A young white, blonde, and black cat that after the first visit we nicknamed “the thief” because on our first night, he managed to steal a piece of calamari, a huge piece of pizza, and a piece of melon.

      Kitten: One day, we went to the grocery store, and Jack and I found a little kitten wandering through the grocery store, and when I started stroking it, it climbed up onto my lap, and I picked it up and held it in my arms. It was ginger, and a little bit smaller than the black and white kittens at the Jasmine. It purred a lot, and at the end I had to pry it from my arms.

      Newborn Kitten: One day as we had just escaped from the Funny Mummy, we saw a little tiny kitten smaller than my hand that had barely even opened its eyes! It was soooooooo cute!

            Massage: One day, Jackson and I got our first ever massages! As mom said, we weren’t too keen. It was relaxing though. 

            Starfish: On our last day it was low tide and our dad wandered out onto the beach in front of our hotel, and he discovered that it was covered in starfish!