The Widow and the Spinster: The Search for Adventure, Enlightenment, and the Quest for Forbidden food - Bacon, Bacon, Bacon, and New TR Link! 5/23

[franandaj]

Fayed showed up closer to 3PM. Neither of us were very excited about this tour. We were both tired and would have much rathered do it the next day. It seems that the Aussies in our group were in the same boat as we were (so to speak). They also had nothing to do on Friday and a late flight to Cairo, but they didn't either know how to do anything about it or want to. They also told us that the reason our tour of Philae Temple was moved from Friday to Thursday was that our guide Fayed wanted to get to Cairo Thursday evening. Thanks bud.

Here we are leaving the ship again, and another look at our ship.

We stopped to pick up the "rest of the gang". This would be the last time that we saw them. I know that sounds ominous, but we were all just going our separate ways the next day.

Here we are driving through Aswan in the light of day. As we drove through town in the daylight, I noticed that Aswan appears to be more affluent and modern than most of the other cities we visited. Fayed told us that the dam and it’s industry brought a lot of revenue to the region. It allowed the region to prosper more than other areas of Egypt.

Our van took us to a boat landing where we would take a boat to the temple.

We passed through yet another gauntlet of sellers of cheap T-shirts and trinkets before we got to the turnstiles. As we waited for the guide to purchase the tickets we had a bunch of scam artists trying to change their worthless tokens for paper money. Remember the ones the guy from the travel agency gave us at lunch that he said were worth about 3 American cents. Or 1 pound.

Some of the others were holding American dollars. Likely they would give you less change for the larger bill as if you didn't know the value of what you had. I just continued to ignore them. Does anyone remember that episode of Star Trek TOS when Captain Kirk is sped up by the aliens so that they move so fast that the crew who are still in real time perceive them like flies? I thought of them like that.

Finally we got on board the boat that was to take us to the island. The guide said to make sure we kept our hands inside the boat. As we sat down, Jill pointed that the boats were a series of multiple safety violations just waiting to happen. You couldn't even hold on to the exterior railings. It was like "bumper boats" and your hand could easily get smashed when two of the boats collided.

Here is the family waiting on the boat.

We motored over to the island.

Here is the Temple we are on our way to visit.

Here’s all the other boats of people who are already on the island. You take the same boat to and from the island.

We exited the boat, and I don’t remember if there were actual turnstiles that we passed through, but here is our last ticket of the trip.

Here we are at the entrance to the temple.

There were lots of kitties on the island! And I was so Temple fatigued, I took almost more pictures of the cats than I did the actual temple itself.

By this time both Jill and I were "templed out". We had seen eight Temples in four days. I think it might have been better, had we seen this temple the following day (as our original schedule had planned), but maybe not.

This temple had been occupied by the Roman Christians who turned the original Egyptian temple which was dedicated to Isis, Horus and Hathor into a church. As part of converting the temple to a church the Romans ordered that the Egyptian gods be defaced. Isis's face was blotted out wherever it appeared. Most of the intricate designs had been chiseled and ruined on purpose, so it was a little anticlimactic after all the beautiful Temples we had already seen. Combine that with the 3:15AM wake up this morning and we were just running on fumes.

More history from Wikipedia. “Great pains have been taken to mutilate the sculptures of this temple. The work of demolition is attributable, in the first instance, to the zeal of the early Christians, and afterward, to the policy of the Iconoclasts, who curried favor for themselves with the Byzantine court by the destruction of heathen images as well as Christian ones. Images/icons of Horus are often less mutilated than the other carvings. In some wall scenes, every figure and hieroglyphic text except that of Horus and his winged solar-disk representation have been meticulously scratched out by early Christians. This is presumably because the early Christians had some degree of respect for Horus or the legend of Horus - it may be because they saw parallels between the stories of Jesus and Horus.”

Another picture of the front of the Temple.

Here we are inside the courtyard.

The two women you see on the bench in the picture above were feeding this little kitty.

Here we are inside the Hypostyle Hall.

And this is Fayed telling us something. He was so dead pan in comparison to the other two guides, it was hard to listen to him, which is another reason I don’t think I maintained a lot of the information he gave us.

Here we are going into the area they turned into the Sanctuary.

You can see in this picture where they have chiseled away at the reliefs.

In this one you can see that the whole face has been gouged out.

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

At least both the camel and the Nile Crocodile were present so we didn't have to deal with any meltdowns.

More defacing of the Temple.

This shot looks out over the dam.

And the other direction from the same part of the island.

We walked over to the eastern side of the island to see this structure.

This is looking off the island to the East.

Luckily the whole place closed down at 5PM. Remember we woke up at 3:15AM? The guide gave us free time around 4:30, which Jill and I took to use the restroom and then we found seats in the shade. I saw this little cutie pose while we were waiting.

The sun was getting low in the sky.

Jill took this panoramic shot as we waited.

Just as we were gathering up our crew the sun began to set. I was in a perfect position to capture the orb inside these temple windows.

Just before we were leaving the guide mentioned that we should tip our boat driver $200LE and the same for our bus driver. I was busy taking pictures but I heard someone say, "I don't want to do Math."

That was my cue. There were seven adults on the tour. "If we just put in $30LE for each of them, we're fine." I said.

The Aussie gent reached the same conclusion. He'd been our "spokesperson" on the day we went to Karnak and Luxor. So he asked everyone to give him $60LE. He gave $200LE to the boat driver and $220LE to the bus driver. While he was collecting the funds, I was able to get the last of the Sunset photos before it went down.

We got back on the boat and headed to shore. Buh Bye Philae.

The same annoying scam artists were there as we waited for our bus. Others in the party weren't as good as ignoring them as we were, so they kept swarming around like flies. Finally the bus came and we went back to the ship. I grudgingly gave Fayed his tip. We gave him $100USD which was ironic because that's what he cost us extra with his little "itinerary change". At least when Ahmed did it to us we could visit the museum of Egyptian Civilization and MickyD’s. There was nothing we could have done in Aswan with six bags in tow.

When we got back to the room we packed up our stuff for the trip home. We had to do it in turns because the room was so small. It took me about 20 minutes to divide my stuff into "don't need it til home" and "need it for the next two days" and "goes into carry on".

Some of it would have to be done in the morning too. Both of us needed showers, but we decided just to go to dinner all gross and shower before bed so we didn't get another set of clothes dirty. We also had to settle up our bills this evening. Like most ships you keep a tab until the end. Our massages were the most expensive thing we did and that was more than half. We also sent out laundry. It was so much more affordable than at the hotel. We did equally the same amount of laundry if not more and it was $14 for both of ours.

The bottles of wine at dinner were right around $33-36US when converted. We each ended up spending less than $200US for everything on the cruise. Laundry, massage, beverages.

Then there was the matter of tips. Instead of tipping your server, your room steward, etc. You leave a general tip. Online we read that tips should be around $3-5 per person per day. We calculated our tips at $5 each and that came to $1200LE.

We had enough money for the boat staff, but what we didn't realize until we were talking with our guide earlier that day, is that there are separate workers who are hired to carry the luggage from the boat up to the street. We also needed money to tip them. We had $200LE left between us (again other than bathroom change) so we decided that would have to do for them.

Dinner was again a hit and miss. Jill had the Waldorf salad. She said it was heavily dressed but tasted fine. The only thing we didn't get was the blue schmear across the plate. Aren't garnishes supposed to make the food look more appetizing?

I got the seafood Canneloni. I ate about half of it. At first it tasted fine, but the more I ate, the fishier it got, so I stopped about halfway through.

Next was vegetable soup. As usual the soup turned out to be the most solid choice. Someone in the kitchen knows how to make a great flavorful stock and whatever you add to it seems to taste good.

For my main, I ordered the Tagliatelle with Alfredo sauce. No it was not a rich creamy buttery sauce, but it was good enough for me to finish it off.

They gave me this cheese to put on top of it.

Jill got the Cashew Chicken. Both of us assumed when she was thinking about ordering that it was an Asian dish, but upon further reading the menu, we realized that was not at all the case. I'm not sure what her thoughts were on this meal.

We were both so tired that we didn't really engage in idle chit chat.

We both got a few of the desserts, but they just weren't that enticing.

After dinner we went by the reception desk to settle our bill. I'd been keeping track of expenses throughout the trip, but the boat required an extra special level of detail. Any beverage you wanted cost some amount of money. Bottled water, coke, coffees (outside of meals), and of course wine. We ended up splitting the bill 45/55. I'd had a few more glasses of wine than she did.

We came back to the room to find this.

And here is our timeline for today.

We took our showers and crawled in bed. That 4:30 wake up call would come soon enough.

Next Up: The Journey Home Begins….

 

[pkondz]

I'm sure you could find plenty of people who could do that for you. They're called Travel Agents. Thank you very much.

Yes, but your TA traveled with you. That sort of service goes above and beyond.

Only two band rehearsals, a concert and another rehearsal left to go. Oh and a day at Disney.

Oh, of course. A day at Disney. You know... like one does.

Well, it might not have been bad if we did some planning in that area, might have saved me some amount of worry and such.

Yeah, he built one for himself and one for his wife.

Oh. Of course. That kinda follows, doesn't it?

Yeah, well then you might not want to visit Egypt cause most everywhere that's what you do.

I don't know. After a week of doing, it was just kind of the thing.....you went until you got to the thing that everyone was pushing to see, regardless of whether it was worth it.

You're not exactly selling it, here.

I'm thinking maybe you need a bit more slow time in your touring? Maybe? But... I do get it. I sure pack in non-stop action when I'm seeing new things.

Tons! Which is why we think it could warrant a return visit.

I'm seeing that!

I doubt there's that much sophistication in such a remote town.

Ah. Maybe so?

How?

ESP

the rest of the stuff was hard to mess up.

Valid point.

My mom always called the little chocolate sprinkles "jimmies", perhaps that was a New England thing.

No idea! I'd never heard them called that before.

 

[pkondz]

Fayed showed up closer to 3PM. Neither of us were very excited about this tour. We were both tired and would have much rathered do it the next day. It seems that the Aussies in our group were in the same boat as we were (so to speak). They also had nothing to do on Friday and a late flight to Cairo, but they didn't either know how to do anything about it or want to. They also told us that the reason our tour of Philae Temple was moved from Friday to Thursday was that our guide Fayed wanted to get to Cairo Thursday evening. Thanks bud.

Not okay. I'm sure you were less than impressed.

This would be the last time that we saw them. I know that sounds ominous, but we were all just going our separate ways the next day.

"Not everyone would survive the curse of the Egyptian temple!"

As we drove through town in the daylight, I noticed that Aswan appears to be more affluent and modern than most of the other cities we visited. Fayed told us that the dam and it’s industry brought a lot of revenue to the region. It allowed the region to prosper more than other areas of Egypt.

Dam prosperous.

Our van took us to a boat landing where we would take a boat to the temple.

That's good. Because if you'd gone to an airplane landing, it would've made it harder to get a boat.
Then again, if it was a float plane, I guess that would work too. Or an airboat.

I'll stop now.

We passed through yet another gauntlet of sellers of cheap T-shirts and trinkets

How... tiring. Just... stop.
And... who buys this crap???? Who????

Some of the others were holding American dollars. Likely they would give you less change for the larger bill as if you didn't know the value of what you had.

I remember one guy at a job I had a long time ago trying to scam me. He wanted change for a $20. "Can I have 2 fives, a ten and a five?"
I just looked at him and he grinned to show he was "kidding"... yeah... and if I'd done it, I'm sure he wouldn't have taken the extra $5... uh, huh.

Does anyone remember that episode of Star Trek TOS when Captain Kirk is sped up by the aliens so that they move so fast that the crew who are still in real time perceive them like flies?

I liked that one quite a bit.

The guide said to make sure we kept our hands inside the boat.

My first thought was "But you said there were no crocodiles!"

You couldn't even hold on to the exterior railings. It was like "bumper boats" and your hand could easily get smashed when two of the boats collided.

That's a cool looking place. Wonder if it's some rich person's home or a public building of some kind.

Here is the Temple we are on our way to visit.

Very geometric

here is our last ticket of the trip.

How did that make you feel? Or were you tired at that point to feel anything?

There were lots of kitties on the island!

I'm sure that was just fine by you!

And I was so Temple fatigued, I took almost more pictures of the cats than I did the actual temple itself.

This surprises... no one.

By this time both Jill and I were "templed out". We had seen eight Temples in four days.

Yeah... I get that. And am not surprised at all.

As part of converting the temple to a church the Romans ordered that the Egyptian gods be defaced.

So unfortunate.
I'd like to say we're more civilized and tolerant now, but...

Fairly recently (last couple decades) "The [Redacted for the Dis] destroyed the Lion of Al-lāt, the temples of Bel and Baalshamin, the Arch of Triumph, and other sites in Palmyra. The group also destroyed the Monastery of St. Elian, the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church, and several ancient sculptures in the city of Raqqa."

Or...

"(In the Maldives) On 7 February 2012, in the aftermath of (a) coup, the National Museum was stormed by [Redacted for the Dis] who destroyed Buddhist artifacts. Most of Maldive's Buddhist physical history was obliterated."

There's more, but that's enough.

And this is Fayed telling us something. He was so dead pan in comparison to the other two guides, it was hard to listen to him, which is another reason I don’t think I maintained a lot of the information he gave us.

Hard to learn when you're being lulled to sleep.

You can see in this picture where they have chiseled away at the reliefs.

At least both the camel and the Nile Crocodile were present so we didn't have to deal with any meltdowns.

Thank goodness!

This shot looks out over the dam.

Nice dam shot.

Luckily the whole place closed down at 5PM.

Heh. Don't think you were too upset by that. Hmmm... maybe except that it didn't close down earlier.

Remember we woke up at 3:15AM?

I saw this little cutie pose while we were waiting.

Reminds me of my last cat.

I was in a perfect position to capture the orb inside these temple windows.

Nice one!

Just before we were leaving the guide mentioned that we should tip our boat driver $200LE and the same for our bus driver. I was busy taking pictures but I heard someone say, "I don't want to do Math."

Math is hard!

That was my cue. There were seven adults on the tour. "If we just put in $30LE for each of them, we're fine." I said.

Alison to the rescue.

The same annoying scam artists were there as we waited for our bus.

Just... go away and leave us alone! I wonder if one could (for a price... and I'd bet you'd be happy to pay it) hire a guide who would know some magic way of getting them to stay away.

We gave him $100USD which was ironic because that's what he cost us extra with his little "itinerary change".

I'm not sure I'd have tipped him that much, considering. Hmmm... maybe...

We did equally the same amount of laundry if not more and it was $14 for both of ours.

Cheap!

We each ended up spending less than $200US for everything on the cruise. Laundry, massage, beverages.

That's it?!?!? I mean... sure the food wasn't top notch, but... how many "Bon apetit's" does that work out to for $200?

The only thing we didn't get was the blue schmear across the plate. Aren't garnishes supposed to make the food look more appetizing?

Chef: "Pretty!"
Waiter: "ummm... but it doesn't really go with..."
Chef: "Pretty!"
Waiter: "yes, yes, I underst..."
Chef: "Pretty!"
Waiter: "But what do I tell the cus..."
Chef: "Pretty!"
Waiter: "Right. How about I just serve it?"
Chef: "Pretty!"

We were both so tired that we didn't really engage in idle chit chat.

Awww... bone tired. You both did an incredible amount of touring on this trip. I'm betting you slept long and hard once you had the chance!

We came back to the room to find this.

Opportunity wasted.
"We came back to the room to find tHISSSSSS"

We took our showers and crawled in bed. That 4:30 wake up call would come soon enough.

 

[DnA2010]

another look at our ship.

They are just so different to the cruise ships I know, do you know what the occupancy was?

Does anyone remember that episode of Star Trek TOS when Captain Kirk is sped up by the aliens so that they move so fast that the crew who are still in real time perceive them like flies? I thought of them like that.

It was like "bumper boats" and your hand could easily get smashed when two of the boats collided.

We would literally have to be holding M's hands as she'd totally get smushed trying to look at everything and be squirming and such

Aww this one looks like one of my childhood cats

I like his colouring a lot!

By this time both Jill and I were "templed out"

Yeah, I bet! That's a lot!

You can see in this picture where they have chiseled away at the reliefs.

that the whole face has been gouged out.

Brutal! so much damage!

Jill took this panoramic shot as we waited.

Great pic Jill!

I was in a perfect position to capture the orb inside these temple windows.

Very nice! I bet you didn't plan that! Or did you?

We each ended up spending less than $200US for everything on the cruise. Laundry, massage, beverages.

Seems like a very affordable trip overall

The only thing we didn't get was the blue schmear across the plate. Aren't garnishes supposed to make the food look more appetizing?

Yes, that is very drastic for a salad!

At first it tasted fine, but the more I ate, the fishier it got, so I stopped about halfway through.

I don't do fishy with seafood, so that would be a nope for me

As usual the soup turned out to be the most solid choice. Someone in the kitchen knows how to make a great flavorful stock and whatever you add to it seems to taste good.

Looks a bit blah, glad it was good!


Wow and we are at the journey home! thanks again for letting us tag along!

 

[franandaj]

Yes, but your TA traveled with you. That sort of service goes above and beyond.

Well actually LookAtEgypt was our TA. She just told them some of the places she wanted to go and they actually planned the itinerary.

Oh, of course. A day at Disney. You know... like one does.

This one does!

You're not exactly selling it, here.

I'm thinking maybe you need a bit more slow time in your touring? Maybe? But... I do get it. I sure pack in non-stop action when I'm seeing new things.

Just telling it like it is!

Not okay. I'm sure you were less than impressed.

It was bad enough that he changed up the schedule without warning us, but for as selfish a reason that he just wanted to get back to Cairo Thursday night.

"Not everyone would survive the curse of the Egyptian temple!"

I know, that's kind of what it sounded like after I wrote it!

That's good. Because if you'd gone to an airplane landing, it would've made it harder to get a boat.
Then again, if it was a float plane, I guess that would work too. Or an airboat.

I'll stop now.

Thank you.

How... tiring. Just... stop.
And... who buys this crap???? Who????

I don't think I saw anyone buying any. Ever.

I remember one guy at a job I had a long time ago trying to scam me. He wanted change for a $20. "Can I have 2 fives, a ten and a five?"
I just looked at him and he grinned to show he was "kidding"... yeah... and if I'd done it, I'm sure he wouldn't have taken the extra $5... uh, huh.

Yeah, I'm sure it would have gone down something like that.

I liked that one quite a bit.

I'm glad someone understood my comparison!

My first thought was "But you said there were no crocodiles!"

In the Nile below the Aswan dam there are no crocodiles, but we are above the Aswan dam!

That's a cool looking place. Wonder if it's some rich person's home or a public building of some kind.

I think it's some kind of hotel. The little arches look like the separate baconies.

How did that make you feel? Or were you tired at that point to feel anything?

We were just too tired for almost anything.

Yeah... I get that. And am not surprised at all.

Yeah, too much of a good thing.

So unfortunate.
I'd like to say we're more civilized and tolerant now, but...

Just like your [Redacted for the DIS} comments above, I could just tell you to look at the [Country redacted for the DIS]. I'll give you a hint sometimes it's a three letter acronym, and it is right in between two other large countries in in the Northern Hemisphere.

Hard to learn when you're being lulled to sleep.

Heh. Don't think you were too upset by that. Hmmm... maybe except that it didn't close down earlier.

Well I was happy to catch the sunset in a nice place.

Math is hard!

And I do math puzzles in my free time.

Just... go away and leave us alone! I wonder if one could (for a price... and I'd bet you'd be happy to pay it) hire a guide who would know some magic way of getting them to stay away.

I wish!

I'm not sure I'd have tipped him that much, considering. Hmmm... maybe...

We really considered tipping less.....but then he only got half of what Ahmed got.

That's it?!?!? I mean... sure the food wasn't top notch, but... how many "Bon apetit's" does that work out to for $200?

Well the actual fare of the cruise was included in our package that we paid up front, but incidentals like water, alcohol etc, didn't end up costing that much.

Awww... bone tired. You both did an incredible amount of touring on this trip. I'm betting you slept long and hard once you had the chance!

Unfortunately no.....

Opportunity wasted.
"We came back to the room to find tHISSSSSS"

They're birds! Not snakes!!!!!!

 

[pkondz]

Well actually LookAtEgypt was our TA. She just told them some of the places she wanted to go and they actually planned the itinerary.

Po-tay-to, po-tah-to

This one does!

It was bad enough that he changed up the schedule without warning us, but for as selfish a reason that he just wanted to get back to Cairo Thursday night.

Very unprofessional.

Thank you.

In the Nile below the Aswan dam there are no crocodiles, but we are above the Aswan dam!

Ah! Dam crocs!

We were just too tired for almost anything.

Just like your [Redacted for the DIS} comments above, I could just tell you to look at the [Country redacted for the DIS]. I'll give you a hint sometimes it's a three letter acronym, and it is right in between two other large countries in in the Northern Hemisphere.

Zero clue what you could be referring to. Lots of places that could be...

And I do math puzzles in my free time.

Oh, yeah? Care to share? I do the NYT Ken Ken (both 6x6 and 4x4) daily. I've eased off on the sudoku as I'm getting a bit bored with them.

We really considered tipping less.....but then he only got half of what Ahmed got.

I hope he talked to Ahmed and found out what he missed out on.

Unfortunately no.....

d'oh...

They're birds! Not snakes!!!!!!

Nope. I know what I saw. Those is cobras. Yep!

 

[franandaj]

They are just so different to the cruise ships I know, do you know what the occupancy was?

No clue, but it wasn't close to fully occupied. We had out own table that could have seated t least four more, and there were other tables that were empty. I suppose doe to canceled reservations.

We would literally have to be holding M's hands as she'd totally get smushed trying to look at everything and be squirming and such

The kids with us were pretty well behaved.

Aww this one looks like one of my childhood cats

They were pretty cute.

I like his colouring a lot!

It's actually she. Calicos are always females.

Brutal! so much damage!

Very nice! I bet you didn't plan that! Or did you?

Nope. It just happened.

Seems like a very affordable trip overall

Yeah considering everything and how long it was. It wasn't bad at all! Our cruise and London will be probably a bit pricier since we plan on doing Remy and Palo multiple times. At least we are paying for some of the London things ahead of time, like the show, and Harry Potter sets.

Yes, that is very drastic for a salad!

I don't do fishy with seafood, so that would be a nope for me

Yeah, it sounded good on paper, but not so good in the execution.

Looks a bit blah, glad it was good!

It was kind of blah, but it tasted good.

Wow and we are at the journey home! thanks again for letting us tag along!

Yup! Next stop we start on the way home!

 

[franandaj]

Zero clue what you could be referring to. Lots of places that could be...

I'll give you another hint.....some people call it 'merica

Oh, yeah? Care to share? I do the NYT Ken Ken (both 6x6 and 4x4) daily. I've eased off on the sudoku as I'm getting a bit bored with them.

I do Kakuro. Been doing it for YEARS like since like 1985. I wrote out all the possibilities like you can find here https://www.scribd.com/document/387674411/Kakuro-Cheat-Sheet but I figured them all out on my own when I lived in my Northridge condo when I was living there in the 80s. I now have every combination memorized so I don't need the cheat sheet anymore. I have an app on my phone and tablet and play it a lot when I'm on an airplane cause I don't need WiFi to use it.

I hope he talked to Ahmed and found out what he missed out on.

I doubt these guides talk and are buddies. At least this guy wouldn't be. Did I mention that at the beginning if us traveling with him we asked him his preferred currency of tipping and said, "US dollars, I have a better chance of my wife not spending it that way."

Nope. I know what I saw. Those is cobras. Yep!

Nope, they's birds. Why else would there be a heart in between?

 

[franandaj]

That wake up call did come super early. But we were ready. The whole laying out your outfit the night before doesn't hurt one bit. We packed up our last little bits and when I peeked outside the stateroom at 5:10AM the stewards were waiting for us to carry the bags downstairs.

We followed them down to the lobby to wait for our guide/escort, Mustafa, to take us to the airport. He arrived shortly, even before the 5:30AM scheduled departure time, and then the dock porters came and got our luggage. They really have their work cut out for them. There were three flights of stairs up to the street. They loaded the luggage into the van and we were off to the airport.

The security measures in Aswan were much more evident than in other cities. It's likely because it's the largest southernmost city, and Sudan is right across the border from Abu Simbel. Military presence going into and at the airport was also very apparent. It's odd how only two weeks after arriving I wasn’t phased anymore by the sight of soldiers carrying assault rifles.

Our guide accompanied us to the ticket counter. Again they hassled us for having two checked bags, but we didn't have a lot of choice. Somehow the price this time was only $1040LE whereas it was $1800LE on the way to Luxor. I suspect the fact that our guide was with us had something to do with it.

After the bags were checked, the guide showed us where we needed to go, we gave him $5US and headed through security. If I didn't mention it before there are two different lines. One for men and one for women. You get patted down by a member of the same sex while your bags go through the screener. The women's line is always longer.

Once we got through security we dumped our "breakfast bags". Jill dumped the bag in its entirety. I just dumped most of the contents, I kept the jam and honey. Plus the guava juice. I wanted the bag itself as a souvenir. I know, I'm a cheap date.

We strolled the gate area looking at the various shops and finally we were able to browse without being accosted by pushy shopkeepers. No "hey lady!" Or "English? Perfect for you!" As they held up a guide book. We were asked the same in Spanish and German. Funny no one mistook us for French or Asian.

Anyways there was no hard sell here. We browsed the books leisurely. I found a book on the Royal mummies and that's how you saw pictures of them in the chapter on the Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Since I couldn't take pictures on my own, I'd been hoping to find a book like this, but hadn't wanted to endure the hassle of the aggressive shopkeepers. The book cost me $10US which was well worth it to me for the pictures for the TR and the memories.

Jill also picked up a book on Ancient Egypt for about $30US. Perhaps we paid a little more than we might have if we had haggled on the price, but just like at the Luxor Hilton it was worth the extra money to avoid the conflict and hassle.

Next we needed something to eat. Our guide had told us that there was nothing to eat at the Aswan airport. However we found the selection (1 restaurant) better than what they had at the domestic terminal in Cairo. I ordered a Cappuccino, and some sort of chocolate pastry. It wasn't a croissant, but it wasn't fully bread either. It was OK and it filled the void. The guava juice wasn't bad, but not my favorite. I drank it more for the nutritional quality than anything else.

Jill got this funky looking pastry and a coke. She said it wasn’t all that great.

After a while we went to our gate, and sat some more. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15. It was 7:30AM and no one had shown up at the gate yet. Around 7:45 people started to line up, so we decided to go get in line. Right behind us was a very nice couple from New Zealand. They had been traveling for over a month. They were in Tanzania when the Israel war broke out. Israel was one of the planned stops on their trip so they had to reorganize and ended up going to Turkey instead. They said while it wasn't on their plans it was beautiful. Now that's for sure on mine and Jill's travel list.

They had also been to Wadi Rum and Petra before coming to Egypt. Finally the line began to move. They took our ticket (or part of it) and we got on a bus to go to the plane. There's something refreshing about holding a paper boarding pass that I miss on flight in the Americas. Electronic boarding passes on the phone are nice and convenient, but there's something comforting about having that boarding pass in your pocket. Then again it's easy to misplace. By the time we got to the plane, I couldn't find my stub. Turns out it was just way down in the pocket of my nifty traveling purse and I found it just in time to climb the stairs and board the plane.

We were still traveling economy class, and were seated three across. Jill had the window seat, I was in the middle and unfortunately there was someone in the aisle seat. The flight was a little over an hour and he slept the whole way, so it wasn't too bad.

As we approached Cairo, Jill was able to see the pyramids out her window and took some pictures. Here’s the Bent Pyramid of Dashur.

In this one you can see both the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid.

Here’s the Step Pyramid at Saqqara.

And finally the pyramid complex at Giza.

We landed smoothly. The plane disembarked and we boarded busses which took us back to the terminal.

As we came up the escalator to the Baggage claim level we started to look for folks holding signs with our names on it. Not on the first four guys standing at the top of the escalator. And then all of a sudden out pops Mahmoud. I didn’t expect him to be meeting us. He was impeccably dressed in dark pants, a white Oxford shirt, dark blue tie and a mauve tweed blazer.

As we waited for our bags to come up from the plane, he asked us all about the trip. I think he was fishing for information as to how the whole thing for us needing to come back early went down. He asked about our guide in Cairo and then he asked about the guide who screwed us over. We gave Ahmed rave reviews and had nothing but good things to say about him, but we threw Fayed under the bus at every opportunity that we had.

He didn’t ask about Mohammed, (who was actually our favorite guide) but we made sure to put in a HUGE plug for him because he was super helpful, friendly, and fun. Soon our bags came up and he helped us get all of them onto a cart and wheel them to the hotel which was attached to the airport.

The elevator taking us to the airport was fully mirrored just like the bathroom on the cruise. Neither Jill or I could help but notice Mahmoud preening himself in the mirrors. First adjusting his tie so that it was just right, and then shifting his pants and belt so that they were perfectly centered. And lastly running his hands through his perfectly quaffed hair. The two of us were just lucky our shirts were on right side out!

He got us all checked into the hotel and Jill gave them her Marriott Bonvoy number. The Front Desk Clerk said that she had applied her benefits and given us an upgrade. We didn’t realize until we got on the elevator that we had been upgraded to Club level! Mahmoud was surprised as well. The elevator that we used to get to our room only stopped at three floors. The Ground or Lobby Level, the 3rd floor where the airport bridge was located, and the 5th floor or Club level.

He almost told us that we needed to go to one of the elevators that stopped on floors two or four (down the hall). However, when the bellman took us into the elevator, he said, “Now you’ll have to use your key card to access the 5th floor”. And Mahmoud figured out we had received an upgrade. He exited at the 3rd floor to go back to the airport and we went on to our room.

This was absolutely the nicest hotel that we had on the whole trip.

If we had to rate them, the Le Meridian Cairo Airport would be #1, the Hilton in Luxor #2, and the Amman Hyatt #3. The rest of the hotels (Bedouin tent, Ramses Hilton, and River Cruise ship) were all so different, I’m not sure how to rate them in the scheme of the mix, But I think that the Ramses Hilton would rate at the bottom of the list. It was just not up to Hilton standard. Hopefully when the renovations are complete it will be better.

We had to do a little more repacking, but we were starving. A little pastry for breakfast five hours ago was not cutting it anymore. We had hoped the Chinese restaurant would be open, but it was a dinner only place. They were having a luncheon for a private party, but obviously we weren’t invited.

We looked at a place called EVOO, and as I said to Jill, “They basically serve food.”

“What else would you call it?” she asked snarkily. I was tired and not making sense, but essentially they were serving salads, pizzas (flatbreads), pasta, sort of basic food with a slight Italian twist. We were interested in something more basic.

There was an “American” Sports Bar and when we got there, we found out that they allowed smoking inside. They also allowed smoking outside, but we decided to take our chances. Kind of odd because we read online that this was the only non-smoking hotel in Cairo. There was almost no one there and we chose a table at the far end of the patio. We did end up lucking out.

They served us these bar snacks and took forever to take our order. We got a second set of bar snacks before our order even came.

She got Fish and Chips which had an odd Egyptian flare to them with a seasoning on top that she couldn’t quite pinpoint.

I got the Wienerschnitzel which at first I was thinking was pork, but then I realized it must have been veal because, duh! All trip we had been hoping (without luck) that we would find a rogue restaurant that served some sort of pig, but alas, we never found that forbidden food.

After that we went back to the room. I took a bath in that wonderful tub using my Dead Sea bath salts yet again. And after that I took a nap for about 40 minutes. While I did that Jill updated Facebook with posts from the Valley of the Kings, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Abu Simbel.

After my nap, I worked on the trip report, resizing pictures, uploading them to Photobucket, and inserting the picture links into my Google document. Around 5:15 we went down to the Chinese restaurant for dinner, because the website said they opened at 5:00PM, but when we peeked into there, they told us 5:30.

We went back to the room and I did some more updating until 5:45 when we went back down yet again. This time they seated us right away. We each ordered a glass of wine, but we didn’t want to pay for too much because the Club lounge had happy hour from 6 to 8PM with free alcohol.

We each ordered a bowl of the wonton soup.

And split an order of the Chicken Dumplings. Both were super tasty.

We split orders of the Kung Pao Beef, and the Chicken fried rice. The beef was really good and the rice was serviceable, not the best, but it wasn’t bad.

They gave us roses with the check. Which we took up to the concierge lounge where we enjoyed our “free” wine, until they stopped serving.

Then we went back to the room for our final repacking of our bags before the long haul trip back to Denver. Here’s our timeline for today.

The alarm went off at 3:15AM (again) and we were on our way to the lobby at 3:45AM. We called the Bellman to take our bags down because it was totally worth $5US to us to not have to wrangle them. We were on the next shuttle to the International Terminal. (The bridge only links to the Domestic Terminal). And through the initial security/pat down and waiting for the ticket counter to open by 4AM.

We passed through Passport Control next and then down a whole bunch of corridors with moving walkways. Finally we reached the secondary or “real” security, where we had to take off our shoes and take electronics out of the bags, etc.

Once we passed through that security, Jill wanted to check out the duty free. She got more goodies for her parents that were watching the dogs, and then we headed to the British Airways (shared) lounge. I had a Cappuccino and some yogurt.

Jill tried some of the multiple day old pastries, not good.

Here’s the other stuff they had on offer, nothing looked good to us.

We both grabbed some water and then went to the gate. As I may have mentioned before, there are multiple levels to the gates in Cairo. There is the initial gate where you can sit and wait. Then they do another screening (or not in our case this time), to let you get to the final boarding gate. They divided the passengers up into women and men. At first we thought they were searching everyone. All the women in front of us were wearing headscarves and they searched their bags and patted them down.

When we got to the front of the line they waved us through. As we sat watching who got searched and who didn’t, we thought it was white privilege that got us through. But then they were letting brown people through as well. I want to say African-American, but we don’t know that they were American. Some held US passports (you can tell by the color of the passport), but others held maroon or green passports. We could not figure out the rhyme or reason of who was being searched and who got a pass.

We finally boarded the plane. Even though they didn't have a business class section, we had the window and the aisle seat with the middle seat open. It was a five hour flight and I got the computer out, purchased the WiFi and worked on the TR almost the entire trip to London. I got quite a bit done, and was two updates ahead when we landed. With a 10 hour flight from London to Denver, I should have been able to get super far ahead.

We were served beverages. I got a coffee.

Jill got an orange juice.

They served us an in-flight meal, but I didn’t even write in my notes what it was. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was a “mixed grill”. I don’t even remember if I thought it was good or not. I was so brain dead and out of it. We were up so early and I was so shell shocked from all the early wake-ups for the last few days, I was just going through the motions.

Evidently this was our dessert.

And then we landed at Heathrow.

Up Next: Bacon! Bacon! Bacon! And Home Sweet Home

 

[pkondz]

I'll give you another hint.....some people call it 'merica

Oh! Mauritania??? That's it, right?

I do Kakuro. Been doing it for YEARS like since like 1985. I wrote out all the possibilities like you can find here https://www.scribd.com/document/387674411/Kakuro-Cheat-Sheet but I figured them all out on my own when I lived in my Northridge condo when I was living there in the 80s. I now have every combination memorized so I don't need the cheat sheet anymore. I have an app on my phone and tablet and play it a lot when I'm on an airplane cause I don't need WiFi to use it.

I've never even heard of Kakuro. I'll have to take a peak. But judging from the "cheat sheet", it looks pretty involved.

I doubt these guides talk and are buddies.

I assumed so, actually.

Did I mention that at the beginning if us traveling with him we asked him his preferred currency of tipping and said, "US dollars, I have a better chance of my wife not spending it that way."

Nope, they's birds. Why else would there be a heart in between?

That's where baby snakes come from. Snakes!

The whole laying out your outfit the night before doesn't hurt one bit.

I do that for work when I know I'm getting less than enough sleep

the dock porters came and got our luggage. They really have their work cut out for them. There were three flights of stairs up to the street.

Yikes. That would've just killed my back. It hurts just thinking about it.

The security measures in Aswan were much more evident than in other cities. It's likely because it's the largest southernmost city, and Sudan is right across the border from Abu Simbel. Military presence going into and at the airport was also very apparent. It's odd how only two weeks after arriving I wasn’t phased anymore by the sight of soldiers carrying assault rifles.

I remember seeing that at the border crossing in Detroit. It was very jarring. Still not sure if that's a normal thing or if something was going on.

If I didn't mention it before there are two different lines. One for men and one for women. You get patted down by a member of the same sex while your bags go through the screener. The women's line is always longer.

I wonder why the women's line was longer? Fewer people working it?

I wanted the bag itself as a souvenir. I know, I'm a cheap date.

We were asked the same in Spanish and German. Funny no one mistook us for French or Asian.

That is odd. I guess, statistically, you're less likely to speak an Asian tongue, but... not French. Huh.

The book cost me $10US which was well worth it to me for the pictures for the TR and the memories.

Not bad at all.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8:15. It was 7:30AM and no one had shown up at the gate yet

I'd be worried. That's not that far away.

they had to reorganize and ended up going to Turkey instead. They said while it wasn't on their plans it was beautiful. Now that's for sure on mine and Jill's travel list.

I've heard Turkey is amazing.

There's something refreshing about holding a paper boarding pass that I miss on flight in the Americas. Electronic boarding passes on the phone are nice and convenient, but there's something comforting about having that boarding pass in your pocket.

Unless you misplace it... but surely that won't happen...

By the time we got to the plane, I couldn't find my stub. Turns out it was just way down in the pocket of my nifty traveling purse and I found it just in time to climb the stairs and board the plane.

And... I'm sure you had a nice little moment or two of panicking.

I was in the middle and unfortunately there was someone in the aisle seat. The flight was a little over an hour and he slept the whole way, so it wasn't too bad.

At least he didn't sleep with his head on your shoulder.

Here’s the Bent Pyramid of Dashur.

Cool! It's asymetrical.

We gave Ahmed rave reviews and had nothing but good things to say about him, but we threw Fayed under the bus at every opportunity that we had.

What goes around, comes around.

He didn’t ask about Mohammed, (who was actually our favorite guide) but we made sure to put in a HUGE plug for him because he was super helpful, friendly, and fun.

Good.

Neither Jill or I could help but notice Mahmoud preening himself in the mirrors. First adjusting his tie so that it was just right, and then shifting his pants and belt so that they were perfectly centered. And lastly running his hands through his perfectly quaffed hair. The two of us were just lucky our shirts were on right side out!

We didn’t realize until we got on the elevator that we had been upgraded to Club level!

Nice!!

This was absolutely the nicest hotel that we had on the whole trip.

All I see is that tub. Hello!

We looked at a place called EVOO, and as I said to Jill, “They basically serve food.”

Um...

“What else would you call it?” she asked snarkily.

Oh dear. I think some people in the room may have been stretched to their limits?

She got Fish and Chips which had an odd Egyptian flare to them with a seasoning on top that she couldn’t quite pinpoint.

How was it?

All trip we had been hoping (without luck) that we would find a rogue restaurant that served some sort of pig, but alas, we never found that forbidden food.

I wonder if there was a severe penalty for doing that.

And split an order of the Chicken Dumplings. Both were super tasty.

A nice change from the not so good food on the ship.

They gave us roses with the check

Nice touch.

The alarm went off at 3:15AM (again)

Noooooo...

Jill tried some of the multiple day old pastries, not good.

Ew. No surprise.

Here’s the other stuff they had on offer, nothing looked good to us.

They obviously aren't familiar with quality over quantity.

When we got to the front of the line they waved us through. As we sat watching who got searched and who didn’t, we thought it was white privilege that got us through. But then they were letting brown people through as well. I want to say African-American, but we don’t know that they were American. Some held US passports (you can tell by the color of the passport), but others held maroon or green passports. We could not figure out the rhyme or reason of who was being searched and who got a pass.

Hmm... maybe it really was random?

Even though they didn't have a business class section, we had the window and the aisle seat with the middle seat open.

They served us an in-flight meal, but I didn’t even write in my notes what it was. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was a “mixed grill”. I don’t even remember if I thought it was good or not. I was so brain dead and out of it.

Oh dear. Alison has reached the end of her rope.

Evidently this was our dessert.

mmm... red Lindt. The best one.

Up Next: Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!

 

[jedijill]

Jill got the Cashew Chicken. Both of us assumed when she was thinking about ordering that it was an Asian dish, but upon further reading the menu, we realized that was not at all the case. I'm not sure what her thoughts were on this meal.

It was interesting....it was cashew crusted chicken cutlet. Wasn't horrible but not what I was expecting.

They served us an in-flight meal, but I didn’t even write in my notes what it was. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was a “mixed grill”. I don’t even remember if I thought it was good or not. I was so brain dead and out of it. We were up so early and I was so shell shocked from all the early wake-ups for the last few days, I was just going through the motions.

It was steak with eggs and a potato cake thingy. The steak was delicious and the potato was a little greasy but it was serviceable. The eggs were vomit inducing for me LOL

Jill in CO

 

[DnA2010]

The whole laying out your outfit the night before doesn't hurt one bit.

I lay my clothes out almost every night, well I guess work nights, it's such a habit for me now, and especially before travel!

It's odd how only two weeks after arriving I wasn’t phased anymore by the sight of soldiers carrying assault rifles.

Yeah, that's crazy, I wonder if I'd manage to get used to it also...

The book cost me $10US which was well worth it to me for the pictures for the TR and the memories.

Well I'm thankful for it! It added a lot for me!

ended up going to Turkey instead. They said while it wasn't on their plans it was beautiful. Now that's for sure on mine and Jill's travel list.

You will have to talk to Dorian about Turkey- his brother lived there for 10 years and I know he visited a few times

And finally the pyramid complex at Giza.

Wow this really shows how close to the city they are!

We gave Ahmed rave reviews and had nothing but good things to say about him, but we threw Fayed under the bus at every opportunity that we had.

I totally laughed out loud at throwing Fayed under the bus hehe! How did he interpret that?

He didn’t ask about Mohammed, (who was actually our favorite guide) but we made sure to put in a HUGE plug for him because he was super helpful, friendly, and fun.

Good for you! Maybe they will get a little bonus (or just to keep their jobs)

First adjusting his tie so that it was just right, and then shifting his pants and belt so that they were perfectly centered. And lastly running his hands through his perfectly quaffed hair. The two of us were just lucky our shirts were on right side out!

LOL literally me every day, hoping my shirt is the right way haha!

I immediately thought "decent tub" then you wrote you had a bath with your salts just after

Looks clean and nicely kept!

These look more like fish fingers?

We each ordered a bowl of the wonton soup.

Good thing you said it was good, the broth looked a little "lackluster" me me

Which we took up to the concierge lounge where we enjoyed our “free” wine, until they stopped serving.

Winning! I'm a huge fan of free lounge wine indeed!

Jill got an orange juice.

This looks more like "orange drink" to me?

Up Next: Bacon! Bacon! Bacon! And Home Sweet Home

YAY!!!

 

[pkondz]

The eggs were vomit inducing for me LOL

 

[KimM82]

I've just found this report and read it all in two days. I just love the way you write. I am going to go back and read all your other TRs. What an adventure this trip was!

 

[franandaj]

Oh! Mauritania??? That's it, right?

I've never even heard of Kakuro. I'll have to take a peak. But judging from the "cheat sheet", it looks pretty involved.

It's actually fairly simple, you add all the numbers in the row/column together to get the number at the top/end. You can repeats any number. They are all single digits. Just like a numeric crossword puzzle. After I did this response I actually did a few of these the other day. I imagine I will be doing a lot of them tomorrow on my plane flights to WDW!

I do that for work when I know I'm getting less than enough sleep

I do that for Disney a lot now too!

Yikes. That would've just killed my back. It hurts just thinking about it.

I could barely get up the steps not carrying anything. I don't know what I would have done if I had to carry my luggage!

I remember seeing that at the border crossing in Detroit. It was very jarring. Still not sure if that's a normal thing or if something was going on.

Yes, and I imagine something was going on, cause even at the border to Mexico, I barely saw heavily armed guards, when I accidentally went there last year. At least not on the US side.

I wonder why the women's line was longer? Fewer people working it?

That is odd. I guess, statistically, you're less likely to speak an Asian tongue, but... not French. Huh.

again...

I've heard Turkey is amazing.

Yes and cats are everywhere in Istanbul!

Unless you misplace it... but surely that won't happen...


And... I'm sure you had a nice little moment or two of panicking.

I certainly did!

At least he didn't sleep with his head on your shoulder.

That would be disturbing!!!!

All I see is that tub. Hello!

That was pretty much me too!

Oh dear. I think some people in the room may have been stretched to their limits?

Yeah, I think we were pretty toast at this point.

I wonder if there was a severe penalty for doing that.

It probably just wasn't available from any suppliers. I bet they don't even import it and probably don't grow pigs.

A nice change from the not so good food on the ship.

This may have been the second best meal of the trip.

They obviously aren't familiar with quality over quantity.

Obviously.

Hmm... maybe it really was random?

Could be????

Oh dear. Alison has reached the end of her rope.

Pretty much yeah, I was super exhausted.

mmm... red Lindt. The best one.

I actually prefer Gold which I believe is Caramel. Whatever color, Caramel is my favorite.

 

[franandaj]

It was interesting....it was cashew crusted chicken cutlet. Wasn't horrible but not what I was expecting.

I don't think I would have liked it.

It was steak with eggs and a potato cake thingy. The steak was delicious and the potato was a little greasy but it was serviceable. The eggs were vomit inducing for me LOL

I didn't eat the eggs either. I like mine runny, but these were gross.

 

[franandaj]

I lay my clothes out almost every night, well I guess work nights, it's such a habit for me now, and especially before travel!

For me most of my days are either spent lazing around the house or schlepping stuff, so I just decide whether I want to wear an old beat up T-shirt, or one with a catchy saying. Pants depend on the outdoor temperature, and I'm still wearing full length as opposed to Capris, even though we are fully into Spring!

For Disney days, more and more I have been picking out my clothes in advance!

Yeah, that's crazy, I wonder if I'd manage to get used to it also...

I'm back to being a little astonished now when I see the police or security guards packing, so that's a good thing.

Well I'm thankful for it! It added a lot for me!

You will have to talk to Dorian about Turkey- his brother lived there for 10 years and I know he visited a few times

Definitely! We need to work on my visit in September and when that will be!

Wow this really shows how close to the city they are!

It really does!

I totally laughed out loud at throwing Fayed under the bus hehe! How did he interpret that?

Well Fayed didn't know we were throwing him under the bus, and hopefully Mahmoud didn't hire him as much.

Good for you! Maybe they will get a little bonus (or just to keep their jobs)

Probably the latter. I think they are all mostly independent contractors.

LOL literally me every day, hoping my shirt is the right way haha!

It's usually not as big a deal for me, but that day we'd had soooooo many early wake ups that we were both dumb struck.

I immediately thought "decent tub" then you wrote you had a bath with your salts just after

And I hope to have a couple decent tubs on this upcoming trip!

Looks clean and nicely kept!

This was by far the nicest hotel. We both said we wouldn't mind staying there for the Cairo portion of our next trip. It will only be a couple nights because basically we want to see the Great Egyptian Museum (if it ever opens) and go inside the Great Pyramid. Then on to Alexandria and Luxor.

These look more like fish fingers?

Yeah, they probably weren't Jill's third or 4th best meal......

Good thing you said it was good, the broth looked a little "lackluster" me me

Even though it was cloudy, it had good flavor. I know we both cleaned our bowls!

Winning! I'm a huge fan of free lounge wine indeed!

as am I! I plan to enjoy some of that tomorrow. Then again I paid $695 for that free lounge wine! However each time I cash it in, it gets cheaper and cheaper!

This looks more like "orange drink" to me?

By that point I barely remembered what we were eating......

YAY!!!

Indeed!

 

[franandaj]

I've just found this report and read it all in two days.

That's quite a feat!

I just love the way you write. I am going to go back and read all your other TRs. What an adventure this trip was!

Well, this was by far the biggest adventure that I've been on most of the others are pretty tame. And some of the older ones the pictures don't show up any more.

 

[pkondz]

It's actually fairly simple, you add all the numbers in the row/column together to get the number at the top/end. You can repeats any number. They are all single digits. Just like a numeric crossword puzzle. After I did this response I actually did a few of these the other day. I imagine I will be doing a lot of them tomorrow on my plane flights to WDW!

I’ll have to take a peek.

I could barely get up the steps not carrying anything. I don't know what I would have done if I had to carry my luggage!

Yes and cats are everywhere in Istanbul!

That’s all it takes.

That would be disturbing!!!!

I googled that pic… way too many examples to choose from.

Yeah, I think we were pretty toast at this point.

Pretty much yeah, I was super exhausted.

I actually prefer Gold which I believe is Caramel. Whatever color, Caramel is my favorite

Oh????
I thought it was hazelnut which I’d have trouble with. Must recheck.


Have fun at WDW!!