Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: Ballons Rising over the Nile and The Valley of the Kings
We were awake before the alarm went off, well-rested, and happy. And when we went to the window, a wonderful sight, balloons rising over the Nile!
We head downstairs for a quick breakfast to discover the breakfast area is chaos, there are bags everywhere with “Cosmos” on them. Merv tells us Cosmos is the agency that handles all these Egypt tours and once a year takes all the employees to a hotel for a meeting to show appreciation for all their hard work. She told us she had been given a room like ours to honor her long service, but – she couldn’t work the shower, and asked for a room on a lower level. We all laughed at our problems with the shower technology.
We are all on the bus before the deadline – what a great group. We head across the Nile to the Valley of the Kings, the group heads to three tombs, AdventureMan heads to the tomb of Seti and I settle into an oasis-like coffee shop where all the guides hang out. I drink coffee and listen to all the stories and gossip. They all know one another.
AdventureMan finds me, and we decide we don’t see any more things we like at the shops. We are not big shoppers, but we need to bring back some small things for people we know.
We leave the Valley and hit several more tomb areas – Queen Hatshepsut’s temple, Medina Habu (temple of Ramses III) which is an anomaly in the Valley as most of it is all about death, but this palace was for the living. A group was setting up for a party, or rock star performance, or something with gold chairs and all kinds of sound systems and fireworks in preparation.
We get to clean up a little before loading back into the bus at 1:24 – this is significant – for the two-and-a-half-hour ride back to Sfaga and the Nautica.
We actually arrived back at about six. It took us a long time to get through all the little villages along the Nile, and my camera battery had run out early in the morning. I watched, I slept, I tried to take some photos with my iPhone, and it got later and later. When we finally got to the mountain road, it was nearly sunset. We stopped for a restroom break, where I paid for three people because no one else had small change and they were charging for the usage. I bought a mochaccino; it tasted great and I really needed it.
Back on the road, slowly, slowly we lost our light and the time got later and later. Finally, we entered Safaga, and within fifteen more minutes, we had gone through Egyptian security and Nautica security, turned in our passports, and headed to our room.
Our favorite table at The Terrace restaurant in the corner is free, so we eat outside, eager to get back to the room, catch up with ourselves, and get our daypacks ready for our docking tomorrow in Aqaba. We are on our way to Wadi Rum, a place with many exhilarating memories from a past life in Jordan.
Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: A Day in Luxor and Karnak
Have you noticed a theme developing on this trip? I am finding that some of the things I had most delighted in planning and anticipating have turned out to be not that great, while parts that I had maybe dreaded, or not cared so much for, have turned out way better than expected.
On our ship, which is beautiful, and noted for its cuisine and social life, I love our quiet, beautiful stateroom, with its spaciousness, serene colors, and large balcony. It is a happy place for me.
I had concerns about this hotel. I do my research. It looked very pedestrian, to me.
I was so wrong. Once again, we had a room that knocked our socks off. Again, spacious, and beautiful, with a nice balcony and a gorgeous view of the Nile. It had a state-of-the-art bathroom, so modern that it took AdventureMan half an hour to figure out the controls for the shower – and I never did figure it out. You could use the controls on the outside of the shower, or inside the shower, or use the remote control. Eventually, I just gave up and sponge bathed.
We are back on the bus very shortly to go to Luxor, and then to Karnak. This is AdventureMan’s happy place. He is really into all things Egyptian. Luxor and Karnak have expanded amazingly since our last visit, and he is grinning with happiness.
Near the entrance, we run into a happy group, they are visiting from Qatar, where we used to live.
You can still see traces of the original pigments on figures higher up on the pillers.
I break away to find a restroom; AdventureMan accompanies me and finds a new friend. He dazzled the attendant with old Egyptian coins we had saved – what – forty years? The attendant was so amazed, he gave me extra toilet paper 🙂
As we were leaving Luxor, I looked for a replacement keffiyeh for the one I lost and ended up with one I really hadn’t wanted. When you don’t really want something, amazing things can happen. He threw it at me, and I got it for $3 instead of 100 Egyptian pounds. I am glad now, it is navy and black, a very fine keffiyeh, and it keeps me warm.
At Karnak, I left the group and wandered out to the main drag where I could see the Nile and the horse-drawn carriages. The horses look healthier than they used to look, so many years ago.
We planned to skip the Sound and Light show to hit a handicraft shop we had wanted to visit only to discover it no longer exists. We get to our room around five and sack out briefly. We are exhausted. We have a quiet dinner. Later, AdventureMan heads down to the old Winter Palace to find some good Egyptian souvenirs for the kids with whom he volunteers.
This has been a great time to be here. There are no crowds of people thronging the old ruins. The weather is lovely.
The bed is huge, with really good linens and good reading lights. We slept well.
Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: Safaga to Luxor
We docked in an industrial port in Sfaga, no getting off and wandering around. We have breakfast in our room, beautiful, quick and easy. We have to wait a while until the Egyptians have examined and stamped our passports.
All departing passengers gather in the Nautica Lounge – we are number 20, one of the last to go. We go through exit procedures (facial scan, Egyptian inspection) and discover we are on a small bus, a group of only eight people, for the next two days. We don’t know any of them, but we feel very fortunate to be with a very small group. We are happily surprised. We had thought we might be on a large bus with coughing and sneezing people and need to mask.
This is a very popular location. There are all kinds of trips going out, to various locations for various amounts of time. The buses are all lined up, and the immigration center we all have to go through is on the far left.
Another happy surprise is that the weather is cool on the ship, and cool in the morning, cool enough to need a scarf. (This night, for dinner, I will need a sweater over my dress.) This is a happy surprise. I really hate being too hot.
We are on a two day trip, today and tomorrow with an overnight in Luxor.
Almost immediately, Merv, our guide, has us introduce ourselves. We are traveling with Steve and Becky from Austin, Dave and Patricia, from Toronto, and Tom and Deb from Vancouver. We have a long drive, through the stark mountain area of Egypt (!) and then along the luscious, fertile valley of the Nile, where I take almost all my photos. Steve and AdventureMan discover they have lived just miles from one another. All our fellow passengers are well-traveled. Becky has some mobility issues, but does a great job and never complains.
When you think of Egypt, do you think of mountains? I never did. This first stretch we cover is full of desert and stark mountains, and I envision Moses, shepherding for his father-in-law and his encounter with the great I Am, in a bush that burned and was not consumed. I could imagine long treks with the sheep to find enough to eat, and long days to think about things.
My Arab friends always laughed when I would tell them their countries reminded me of growing up in Alaska, but there are wide open stretches that go on forever and harsh climates. In Alaska, you dress for the cold and stay inside through the worst of it; in the Middle East, you dress for the heat and stay inside for the worst of it, and you spend as much time as you can outdoors when temperatures are mild as you can. I am a big fan of dark skies and myriad stars, both Alaska and deserts provide food for my soul.
We make a stop at a rest stop along the way. We were supposed to travel in a caravan, with security, for our protection, but we were last to leave and our smaller bus did not have onboard facilities. It was really nice being able to get out and walk around, but it cost us in terms of convenience later on. Because we had lost our convoy, the police kept stopping us and questioning our credentials. They found us a curiosity. Finally, at one point, a police van led us several miles and vouched for our right of passage. It was an interesting experience. Our tour guide was relentlessly aggressive with the police, and rather than offending them, they were respectful to her.
Our tour guide was a formidable woman, one of the senior tour guides in Egypt. Her assignment with us was her second to last career assignment; she is retiring. What I loved about having her as a guide was that she was so knowledgeable. She filled us in on politics, social issues, and current events, as we drove a couple hours through the rural areas en route to Luxor.
My geographical knowledge of Egypt was slight. Now I feel really stupid. I had kind of thought the Red Sea and the Nile were somehow related, but the Nile is inland from the Red Sea. The micro-climates inland are lush and fertile.
You might see the donkey, but the reason I took this photo is that in our times living in Middle Eastern countries, we often saw rugs drying at service stations, especially those with car washes. The car washes get them nice and clean and have room to hang them so that they can dry. This is a nice, non-humid day, perfect for having carpets cleaned.
One of the things we learned is that Egypt has become more conservative with so many Egyptian men working as guest laborers in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Egyptian women were at one time freer and better educated and had more civil rights than now. Husbands and fathers returning from stricter countries enforced stricter standards on their daughters, wives, and family members. Interesting, hmmm?
Here is our friendly police escort below:
This is one of my favorite photos – these gourds, which are some kind of pumpkin or squash, are in season, and there are piles of them everywhere! I remember in Tunisia when pumpkins came into season, they were huge! In the market, you bought them by the slice, huge, thick, meaty pumpkins, one of the essential ingredients in couscous.
I remember in Qatar when the Queen found laundry hanging on balconies inelegant and banned it; had a law passed which forbid it. And yet – where were the apartment dwellers to dry their laundry? Laundry continued on the balconies, and I never heard of anyone arrested for it.
Look at this wall, made of recycled broken pots and clay.
There is a line behind the waiting man of little tuk-tuk taxis, many with curtains, with one driver in front and passengers in the back.
We go directly to the hotel once we get to Luxor, check-in, go to our rooms and clean up, then have lunch, which is an international buffet. That means mostly western food. Eating western food in the heart of Egypt was a surprising disappointment to me. I totally get it. Luxor is a huge destination, and Egypt needs the tourist currency. Hotels have to please a large number of people. We were yearning for a good felafel.
The truth is, I did not have high hopes for this part of my cruise. The last time we were in Egypt, we were staying with friends, in Cairo, and we had great adventures. We have actually been to Luxor and Karnak before, and I discovered that I did not like going down into tombs; to me, they are very musty and give me a claustrophobic feeling. I stay above ground and take photos.
I had no idea we would have such a great tour guide; she is a blessing, so full of information and opinions. I don’t always have to agree with her to like her. I respect her! I also had no idea we would be spending so much time traveling through villages where people live their normal lives, and I love it. I’m finding in general the tourist experience is restrictive; we are at the mercy of other people’s schedules, other people’s timing, and where other people find it expedient to take us.
This group is different. The people with whom we are traveling in this small group are all very respectful of being on time and not going missing – in fact, if anyone is guilty of going missing, it is me. I tend to wander off. I make it a point to keep Merv informed about where I will be and to always be on time for departures. She gives me latitude. She allows me to wander – here there and everywhere. 🙂
And, as random as life is, I am so thankful not to be too hot. I am having a great time. I got to go through the Suez Canal! I am going back to Wadi Rum! I am going to sail past Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, and Eritrea, and Djibouti, and Yemen en route to Oman! I am a happy woman!
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