After surviving our initial contact with the Nile we hopped a flight to Cairo, the biggest city in Africa. Unfortunately, we had to endure a brutal 10hr. overnight layover in Addis Ababa and even though the good folks at Ethiopian Airlines had 10hrs. to make sure our bags were on the right plane, we still showed up in Cairo sans luggage. The whole luggage debacle was actually a very strange sort of Twilight Zone situation that Lynn and I have yet to figure out. We showed up on a full flight of about 150 people, made it through immigration and bought our visas in under ten minutes (which is a miracle in itself) and then went straight to the baggage carousel. While Lynn went to the bathroom I saw one woman from our flight walk up and take the one bag that was on the non-moving carousel. Aside from her, not one other passenger from our flight was anywhere to be seen. We stood there for 15-20 minutes hoping people and bags would show up, but neither ever did. We finally asked for help and while the guy ran around trying to locate our bags, I couldn’t shake that mysterious feeling and kept pestering him as to where the hell all the other passengers from our flight went. His limited English left it a mystery and we, thankfully, received our fully intact bags about 12hrs later. I have concluded that the other 147 passengers from the flight are either still missing or they were all, coincidentally, very light packers.
We were very lucky to be able to have a place to stay in Cairo with my friend Kathi who is a math professor doing a 2yr stint at the American University in Cairo. She had joined us down in Uganda for Christmas and was now poised to show us around her part of Africa. Cairo is worlds away from the Africa that Lynn and I know and, in fact, the more reading I do the more I come across references of the real Africa, Nubian Africa, beginning with or south of Khartoum, Sudan. Cairo reminded me of New York City, minus the kraut dogs, much..much cheaper and full of Mosques. It’s a city of 12 million people deftly dodging 12 million taxis while presenting an impressive infrastructure and first rate manners and customer service. I am now keenly aware of customer service because, sadly, the rest of the African service industry, as far as we have encountered, tends to eagerly ignore or dismiss you as a nuisance to their goal of becoming the champions of laziness.
Our first day in Cairo we visited the overwhelmingly artifact filled Egypt Museum where we witnessed the famous mummies of the Pharaohs and their Queens, but the highlight of the day was perusing the Khan al-Khalili bazaar that evening in Islamic Cairo where traders have conducted business continuously for the last 1500 years! The buildings that the bazaar weaves its way through are astounding works of art.
The next day we went to Giza to see the Pyramids & Sphinx. Kathi had set us up with a guide for a half day tour which turned out to be a great idea. Tamer was a well educated, budding Egyptologist and practicing Christian which made for some very interesting discussions. He explained to us his ongoing Masters Thesis which involved a discrepancy between the Bible and the Koran and how he was trying very hard to conduct unbiased research so it was amusing when Lynn asked him which book was correct and he immediately said, “Well, of course, the Koran is wrong”. His lack of bias was as clear as the Nile waters. He was a mountain of information though and also just a really nice guy as he treated us to lunch and sugarcane juice (my new favorite drink) after the tour. The Pyramids were, of course, phenomenal as was the Sphinx and I was a truly proud American to see that KFC and Pizza Hut shared my enthusiasm for history by setting up shop right in front of the Sphinx…almost as great as the Starbucks in the Forbidden City. Seriously, these monuments along with all the ruins we saw in Luxor are so ridiculously enormous and aesthetically pleasing it makes you wonder if ancient Egyptians were actually freakishly giant, exceptionally skilled artisans who could carry 5 ton stones on their backs. Of course, the 5’3” mummies at the museum totally contradict that theory, but who knows, maybe you shrink when you’re mummified.
Lynn and I took the train to Alexandria for a short 24hr trip. The shortness of the trip was a shame as Alexandria was the quaintest city of 4 million people I have ever visited. Our hotel overlooked the waters of the east harbor and our taxis scraped side mirrors as they wound us around the narrow streets of this famous city. Alexandria is famous for many reasons, but mostly because it was home to the ancient Alexandria Library which it is said, at its height around 1st century BC, contained all the known literature in the world. Today there is a modern library in its place that sets a standard for libraries that I think will never again be matched…unless, of course, those freakishly giant Egyptians reappear and then all bet are off. We took the bus back to Cairo, picked up Kathi and flew to Luxor.
Luxor is not only home to the Valley of the Kings, but also to Karnak and several other dramatically beautiful temples. We chose, what I feel is the best way to see all these spectacular sites, to rent bikes for the day. We immediately jump on any chance to avoid mingling with typical tourists and a typical tourist would never dream of breaking a sweat or getting too dirty. For example, the Valley of the Kings has incorporated six-car golf cart trains to haul lazy tourists the apparently unbearable distance of 500yds from the ticket office to the beginning of the tombs.
Anyways, bikes are definitely the way to see the west bank of the Nile because, unlike the more built up east bank, the west bank still provides a sense of what the area looked like 2-3 thousand years ago. It only takes five minutes to clear the town and soon you are riding past cultivated fields and sheppard’s tending their goats. Within 15min you are treated to your first massive monument, the Colossi of Memnon, thousands of years old and just sitting next to the road seemingly inviting you to continue on to the tombs in the Valley of the Kings deep in the distant mountain. Being able to descend into the tombs in the valley is very impressive, but what was even more impressive to me, however sad and inevitable it may be, was how the ancient tomb robbers were able to burrow themselves into these “impenetrable”, grand burial chambers and pilfer a majority of the treasures. In the end I left Egypt awestruck by the brilliance of the engineers, laborers, and skilled artisans of the time and, once again, humbled by the fact that I was lucky enough to witness more of history’s momentous achievements.
We were very lucky to be able to have a place to stay in Cairo with my friend Kathi who is a math professor doing a 2yr stint at the American University in Cairo. She had joined us down in Uganda for Christmas and was now poised to show us around her part of Africa. Cairo is worlds away from the Africa that Lynn and I know and, in fact, the more reading I do the more I come across references of the real Africa, Nubian Africa, beginning with or south of Khartoum, Sudan. Cairo reminded me of New York City, minus the kraut dogs, much..much cheaper and full of Mosques. It’s a city of 12 million people deftly dodging 12 million taxis while presenting an impressive infrastructure and first rate manners and customer service. I am now keenly aware of customer service because, sadly, the rest of the African service industry, as far as we have encountered, tends to eagerly ignore or dismiss you as a nuisance to their goal of becoming the champions of laziness.
Our first day in Cairo we visited the overwhelmingly artifact filled Egypt Museum where we witnessed the famous mummies of the Pharaohs and their Queens, but the highlight of the day was perusing the Khan al-Khalili bazaar that evening in Islamic Cairo where traders have conducted business continuously for the last 1500 years! The buildings that the bazaar weaves its way through are astounding works of art.
The next day we went to Giza to see the Pyramids & Sphinx. Kathi had set us up with a guide for a half day tour which turned out to be a great idea. Tamer was a well educated, budding Egyptologist and practicing Christian which made for some very interesting discussions. He explained to us his ongoing Masters Thesis which involved a discrepancy between the Bible and the Koran and how he was trying very hard to conduct unbiased research so it was amusing when Lynn asked him which book was correct and he immediately said, “Well, of course, the Koran is wrong”. His lack of bias was as clear as the Nile waters. He was a mountain of information though and also just a really nice guy as he treated us to lunch and sugarcane juice (my new favorite drink) after the tour. The Pyramids were, of course, phenomenal as was the Sphinx and I was a truly proud American to see that KFC and Pizza Hut shared my enthusiasm for history by setting up shop right in front of the Sphinx…almost as great as the Starbucks in the Forbidden City. Seriously, these monuments along with all the ruins we saw in Luxor are so ridiculously enormous and aesthetically pleasing it makes you wonder if ancient Egyptians were actually freakishly giant, exceptionally skilled artisans who could carry 5 ton stones on their backs. Of course, the 5’3” mummies at the museum totally contradict that theory, but who knows, maybe you shrink when you’re mummified.
Lynn and I took the train to Alexandria for a short 24hr trip. The shortness of the trip was a shame as Alexandria was the quaintest city of 4 million people I have ever visited. Our hotel overlooked the waters of the east harbor and our taxis scraped side mirrors as they wound us around the narrow streets of this famous city. Alexandria is famous for many reasons, but mostly because it was home to the ancient Alexandria Library which it is said, at its height around 1st century BC, contained all the known literature in the world. Today there is a modern library in its place that sets a standard for libraries that I think will never again be matched…unless, of course, those freakishly giant Egyptians reappear and then all bet are off. We took the bus back to Cairo, picked up Kathi and flew to Luxor.
Luxor is not only home to the Valley of the Kings, but also to Karnak and several other dramatically beautiful temples. We chose, what I feel is the best way to see all these spectacular sites, to rent bikes for the day. We immediately jump on any chance to avoid mingling with typical tourists and a typical tourist would never dream of breaking a sweat or getting too dirty. For example, the Valley of the Kings has incorporated six-car golf cart trains to haul lazy tourists the apparently unbearable distance of 500yds from the ticket office to the beginning of the tombs.
Anyways, bikes are definitely the way to see the west bank of the Nile because, unlike the more built up east bank, the west bank still provides a sense of what the area looked like 2-3 thousand years ago. It only takes five minutes to clear the town and soon you are riding past cultivated fields and sheppard’s tending their goats. Within 15min you are treated to your first massive monument, the Colossi of Memnon, thousands of years old and just sitting next to the road seemingly inviting you to continue on to the tombs in the Valley of the Kings deep in the distant mountain. Being able to descend into the tombs in the valley is very impressive, but what was even more impressive to me, however sad and inevitable it may be, was how the ancient tomb robbers were able to burrow themselves into these “impenetrable”, grand burial chambers and pilfer a majority of the treasures. In the end I left Egypt awestruck by the brilliance of the engineers, laborers, and skilled artisans of the time and, once again, humbled by the fact that I was lucky enough to witness more of history’s momentous achievements.
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