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

[rentayenta]

I am caught up!! Thoroughly enjoying all the details and photos I had not seen! What a truly grand adventure! Can't wait for more.

 

[BabySteps11]

Subbing in!

 

[franandaj]

I had a hard time sleeping for the rest of that night. Around 3AM I woke up again, I could hear barking out the window. Now we were on the 14th floor so that must have been some barking to hear it up that high. The best thing I could figure out was that the stray dogs that roamed the streets of Cairo were agitated in the building site below our window.

I decided that the best remedy for insomnia for me is a nice hot bath. I had those Dead Sea Crystals and it sounded like a perfect solution. So I went to the tub and started to fill it up. I turned it to what I thought should have been hot water, and it was just tepid. I tried other settings, and there was nowhere that I could seem to find nice hot water. I was sad.

I was getting dressed when Jill woke up. I asked her if she had any hot water when she took her shower the night before, and she said that she couldn’t figure out how to get hot water either.

We were meeting our guide at 8:30AM, so we'd planned to do breakfast at 7:00AM.

The buffet was very International. I took these pictures on one of the last days of our trip. We stayed six nights, and by the time we had been there a while, I was not as self conscious about taking buffet pictures. When you entered the buffet area, there was a hostess stand where you would give your room number before entering. The first thing you came to was the Orange Juice dispenser. They did a good job of keeping it filled.

This guy was making fresh juices. The only one I ever saw was carrot juice. I tried it once, but I could tell he didn’t take the outside off the carrots before juicing them. The juice had a “woody” taste, so I only had it on one day.

There were fancy pastries and waffles here (when the guy felt like making them). As you can see he is not at the waffle station when I took this picture.

On the end of this buffet station there was cereal. I know they had corn flakes, and something that resembled fruit loops. There were some others that were more granola like, and something that was basically seeds. In the bowls on the side that you can see was where they had basically a salad bar.

On the opposite side was an assortment of fruit salads, fruit, and yogurt. Sorry the picture below is blurry. There was bread of almost any kind that you wanted here. Rolls, Pita, Bagels…I might have had a bagel and cream cheese, but I never saw any cream cheese, although they did have about 6-7 different types of cheese on the buffet.

This section always had some sort of beans. Sometimes they had refried beans or pinto beans, but other times there were middle eastern beans that I didn’t recognize at all.

This is where you could get eggs cooked to order, and omelet or over-easy, or whatever….they also made falafel there, but you kind of had to know and ask about it.

This was the hot part of the buffet. They had scrambled eggs here. Also beef sausage, chicken sausage, no bacon. There were potatoes (which changed every day), there was one pot that had chicken shawarma, beef shawarma, and meatballs, depending on the day. I think there was one with mushrooms and tomatoes, and some sort of weird milk curd dish. To the right is where all the cheese and cold cuts were located. They also had things like tabouleh, baba ganoush, and other middle eastern dishes.

There was another are with lots of stuff that I didn't even know what it was for. I think that area was aimed at the Asian palates. And they also had two stations that served regular coffee.

There was a view of the Nile from the dining room, but we only sat near that view a couple times. Those tables were usually full, and were more “communal” than the tables we chose. We were more like, “pull up your pants, and stay off my lawn” than wanting to make new friends and embrace your neighbor.

Today I went with a waffle. I actually asked someone about whether or not they were making them and they called a guy over there. I got a cinnamon roll, a chocolate croissant, some potatoes and that chocolate cake. They had these chocolate and vanilla coffee cakes that I totally loved. I ate them every day. There’s a little fruit salad there as well.

I realized that with my previous plate there was no protein, so I got myself a bowl of the Chicken shawarma with some rice. That hit the spot.

After breakfast we went back to the room to get our stuff for the day. Then we went to the bank and got smaller monies for baksheesh.

Then we sat down to wait for our guide. His name was Achmed and he turned out to be quite an animated and fun guide, as well as some other interesting quirks.

He found us right at 8:30 and got us settled in the van. We were off to see the pyramids of Giza. At first we weren't quite sure what to make of him. He had great facts, and gave us a lot of history of the country, it's rulers and such.

The first thing he told us when we passed a picture of the "the Pharoah", as he called the President, you can't look at him for more than three seconds or it is bad luck. As we drove around for the next week and a half, we realized he did have a point. The guy's picture was almost everywhere. He had billboards, bills posted on overpasses, he was even on a few digital billboards, although those were not nearly as prevalent as in So Cal. It was kind of like what you read about in the history books with Authoritarian leaders.

While driving on the highway, Achmed pointed out these buildings that obviously had parts of them removed. He told us that was to make room for widening the road. When I asked what happened to the people who lived there, he kicked his foot up like a boot in the pants.

Now for those of you who are friends on FB or follow on Instagram, you may have seen some of the photos that I posted about daily life. Rather than lump them all together here, I'm going to sprinkle them in where and when they happened to break up the monotony of all the cool tomb and Pyramid shots. I only shared a sampling of the pictures that I took while traveling, so by following here, you’re getting the whole story and not just the Cliff Notes.

It was very overcast that day. In So Cal we call it the Marine Layer. I think there they just call it fog. Whatever it was, it was totally obscuring the view of the great Pyramid.

We really didn't want to spoil our one visit by the weather, so he offered a compromise. We could visit tomorrow's pyramids today and change things up so we would have better weather for the Great Pyramid and complex.

We were all for switching up the schedule, so we headed off for Saqqara instead. Achmed informed us that Saqqara is out more in the “countryside” than the regular cities of Giza and Cairo. I was astonished to see donkeys pulling carts and really working just as they had done centuries ago. I had to work hard to get these donkey shots. Our driver was going very fast (not unsafe, but fast enough that by the time I saw the donkey cart, it was out of picture range.)

Sheep and goat herders (even in the middle of busy streets) were not uncommon.

And then we reached Saqqara.

For some reason our guide’s credit card wasn’t working, so Jill ended up putting most of our entrance fees on her card, and he repaid her in cash. It ended up working out pretty well so she didn’t have to visit the ATM as many times as I did. I’m not sure that there was an actual turnstile that we scanned our tickets at this site.

While they were buying the tickets, I took some shots of the stray dogs that were everywhere. This was my winning dog photo of the trip.

However, some sad commentary on the litter and pollution there. See the cigarette butt in the bottom of the picture? Those snuck into my pictures more often than I would have liked. I could have photoshopped it out, but I’m here to be real. Otherwise I wouldn’t have shared the horrific potty story from the day of the jeep tour!

And here's where the precedent begins. I'm pretty sure that I needed to pee at nearly every attraction we visited. And of course they collected baksheesh in exchange for providing me with two little pieces of toilet paper. Jill and our guide waited while I took care of nature’s calling.

Saqarra is also a working excavation site. Here are some folks actually excavating.

We actually got to go inside some real tombs and a real Pyramid. The first place we visited was the Tomb of Kagemni. He was the Chief Justice and Vizier, from the 6th Dynasty during the Reign of King Teti (c. 2345-2323BC). This tomb was discovered in 1843.

The reliefs in his tomb show people performing everyday tasks like fishing, hunting, and dancing. Here’s our guide explaining things to Jill as I have again fallen behind due to taking too many pictures. I would wait for people to leave the room so I could get pictures without people in them.

Here they are depicted fishing.

I think this is hunting….

Perhaps this is dancing?

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

I believe that this was the actual burial chamber.

Most tombs had a door like this on the entrance, there was small slit in the center which was supposedly where the spirit can escape from the tomb. Most of the doors like this are damaged and only a part of them remain, if any.

We may have entered a second tomb at this point.

These folks are definitely dancing. At least I think they are.

After that other tomb we entered a tomb inside the Pyramid of King Teti. Thanks to Jill for actually taking a picture above ground. I was too busy taking pictures of all the stray dogs.

This is the shaft that we climbed down to get to the tomb. It was super steep.

Now guides are not allowed into certain tombs, so our guide gave a quick once over of what to be looking for.

To say that these were relatively cramped and claustrophobic is an understatement.

This is looking up at the ceiling. They tried to mimic the stars on the ceiling of many tombs. We saw this same pattern in a few other places throughout the trip. This is Jill’s picture from her camera. The thing about cell phone cameras is that they compensate for the light (or lack thereof) and try to get you the clearest picture, which may or may not reflect what you are actually seeing.

That’s why I took this picture with the DSLR camera on the “Manual” setting, so I could control the amount of light in the picture. This is more of what we actually saw.

This is where the sarcophagus would have been.

Jill put on the flashlight on her phone and held it over the “rock coffin”, she had me hurry to take a picture. I didn’t quite understand, and didn’t get the best picture. The reason she told me to hurry was that the guy inside the tomb had stepped away following someone else, she was hoping to get an illuminated picture without having to give him baksheesh. Later she learned that well placed baksheesh was well spent.

You can see a few of the inscriptions though….

Another picture of a different room in the tomb, taken on Manual, just to show how dark it really is inside there.

And here I am about to climb back up the shaft. I actually waited for two ladies to finish their descent before I went up. They thanked me for that. Jill and the guide thought I got lost down there. Most people didn’t care if someone was coming up or down in these shafts, they just pushed past even if it was close quarters.

Saqqara is also the location of the pyramid of Djoser, sometimes called the Step Pyramid of Djoser. It is an archaeological site in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the ruins of Memphis. The 6-tier, 4-sided structure is the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt. It was built in the 27th century BC during the Third Dynasty for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser.

Here is our nifty little touring van that we had for the week in Cairo.

I think I will wrap this up here for now.

Up next: Memphis and not Elvis’s Memphis.

 

[franandaj]

By design?

Well, I think the tour companies like to show only what they feel is the best of Egypt. We go on a few more jaunts on our own but not to sketchy places.

Not surprised in a desert climate.

Actually it was rather humid from the river.

Oh?
Standing by…

It will be a while, it's a long trip.

 

[franandaj]

I am caught up!! Thoroughly enjoying all the details and photos I had not seen! What a truly grand adventure! Can't wait for more.

Yay for being caught up! You'll get all behind again on your trip!

 

[franandaj]

Subbing in!

 

[DnA2010]

the jeep tour got us super dusty and dirty

I bet! We rode in the back of a truck like that once on the Big Island of Hawaii and I remember getting super dusty

Kind of reminds me of a luau in Hawaii where they do a whole pig under the banana leaves. Yuuummmm Kahlua pi-eeeerp move along! Nothing to see here!

I was thinking that too! Yum yum!

We would be dining on chicken and lamb

This looks tasty as well.

Later this area would be full of folks kicking back and smoking.

We do forget that is still the norm in many places for sure.
I really don't encounter much smoking in my day to day life anymore

Everything looks yummy and fresh!

Our plates were so full with chicken, lamb, potato, rice, spinach salad, samosa, vegetables, potato salad, pita bread, and more!

Plates looked great, yum!

As I opened it up, Jill (who also couldn't sleep), saw that there were stars visible in the sky. We went outside and I tried to take some pictures with the DSLR.

Although boo about the lack of sleep, what a serene experience

Up, up, and Away…..how many of you can sing the rest of that song lyirc? Or name the group?

Nope

Our driver was a young Bedouin who obviously did the jeep tours in the daylight hours. The truck was a mini death trap. The back door on the outside of the driver's side didn't even have a door handle, and the door itself didn't open at all, even if you tried it from the inside.

oh no!!

We did make it to the destination unscathed

Glad you made it ok

We watched as they filled the balloons with air. I had brought my big camera along to take some great pictures but as I tried to take the shots every picture had a big black smudge right in the middle of it.

Did you manage to sort it out later? (apologies if I missed you saying so)

In our basket, we had mostly Americans, two Germans, the Belgian gals, and a couple Canadians who vehemently denied their American nationality when the balloon pilot joked with them about being American.

Some Canadian's can be very uppity indeed about being confused for American's, I'd say especially more so since the whole Trump thing...
D tells a story about meeting American's with a very strong southern accent one his travels in Europe who had the Canadian flag on their backpack

Wowzas!!

This is a photo of us coming over the rock structure in the video above.

Love all the colours in this one!!

This is one of the original camps in the desert. Those little pods all have hot tubs inside them.

Fancy fancy!!

Landing was actually pretty smooth. He described three different ways it could go, one of which included the basket tipping on it's side. Luckily we just skipped along the ground a few times before coming to a full stop.

I've never done an air balloon ride, so hadn't thought about the landing, but I guess that makes sense re: options for the basket to come down

Here's the death trap of a truck in which we traveled to and from the take off/landing sites.

This is def in very different condition than the other one!

Here's a cat on a hot canvas roof.

hehe I did get this reference though!

tiny puppy came running out onto the roadway. Our driver immediately stopped right in the middle of the road, put on his flashers, got out of the car and picked up the puppy from the road and spied one of its siblings on the side of the road. He picked up the other one too.

Oh I'm so glad he grabbed them, hopefully he was able to put them somewhere more secure

So he's reading along with you as well?

He saw a lot of the pictues online, and then I've been showing him as well yup

 

[DnA2010]

See that canyon in the middle of this picture? That’s the main “city” of Petra.

Wow!

Our driver took us to an ATM (at our request). We had each ordered $100 (US$155.75 + $5.00 conversion fee) in Jordanian Dinars from our banks at home, but we realized that we needed some more so we each took out an additional $80JD at the ATM. This is the street. I took these pics while Jill was getting her money.

Was it fairly easy to do? English was an option on the machine

Alone the cost for Jordan for three days was $383 per day per person including driver, accommodations, breakfast 3 days, 1 dinner, 2 hour jeep tour, and admission to Petra.

That's very reasonable!

Egypt portion the entire 15 days works out to $300 per day. As you see as it unfolds the Egypt portion has many more items that are covered in our fare.

I know this is USD, but still seems reasonable!

Our guide warned us the day before that Petra involved a 6 hour walk from start to finish.

Yikes!!!

Now keep in mind that this day was around 88F or 31C.

Getting a bit warm!!

However, the one thing that I think annoyed us both the most was that he kept referring to us as "the Queens." As Jill said, it was kind of cute the first time, but the 100th time it was definitely annoying.

ya, that would get annoying fast

These caves were among some of the places that people called home. People actually lived in the underground caves until 1985 when the site was declared a World Heritage site.

this is very interesting! you didn't go in them at all correct?

Obelisk Tomb is towered by four obelisks and hence it got its name.

Interesting to see the multi-levels!


Now this sort of crowd activity is not normal for Petra in October. Every inch of the place should be crawling with tourists. I’m not saying I minded the lack of crowds, just saying that it’s unusual.

wow a lot of people cancelled!

The roads were paved with these stones, much of it has been paved over with modern pavement as the original stones have cracked over the years.

this reminds me of some of the streets in Edenborough Scotland!

here are dogs and cats everywhere, and this puppy was so cute.

Awww hey guys! did they look to be in ok condition?

I thought it was much more impressive once we emerged from the canyon.

The structure, the guards? the camels, just wow!!

these guys look very content to just hang out!

Jill and I just kept telling the vendors "no". The guide was sympathetic to the sellers and even kept leading us through some of the shops, but we held firm

one tough aspect of travelling for sure

We walked almost to the theater. I was getting super overheated and starting to feel dehydrated.

oh no!!

At one point he told us that he actually appears in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Maybe I'll watch the movie before I get to this point in the TR and see if I see him, or maybe not!

Did you ever take a look for him?

I decided that the lemon mint slushie that I'd seen other people order sounded good. It totally hit the spot!

Well that looks just perfect!

Dorian would get this I bet

I'd probably get this lol I like lamb, but he grew up eating it so loves it, where as I'm just learning to like it

Perfect for you!

They gave us the room on the floor above, and the tub there sealed perfectly.

Nice, much better indeed!

 

[franandaj]

I bet! We rode in the back of a truck like that once on the Big Island of Hawaii and I remember getting super dusty

It's hard not to get dirty in that situation.

I was thinking that too! Yum yum!

This looks tasty as well.

Yeah, no pig here, but it was tasty

We do forget that is still the norm in many places for sure.
I really don't encounter much smoking in my day to day life anymore

It's pretty much not allowed anywhere indoors here in CA. And many places outdoors have also banned it.

Everything looks yummy and fresh!
Plates looked great, yum!

We ate pretty well this whole trip!

Although boo about the lack of sleep, what a serene experience

Yeah, we didn't realize it, but we would get pretty used to it. I'm still struggling with sleep, but in different ways.

Nope

That's OK, it was before your time. Pkondz got it. He and I are about the same age.

oh no!!
Glad you made it ok

Yeah, it was an interesting experience.

Did you manage to sort it out later? (apologies if I missed you saying so)

As I have to say to a lot of folks....patience grasshopper.....

Some Canadian's can be very uppity indeed about being confused for American's, I'd say especially more so since the whole Trump thing...
D tells a story about meeting American's with a very strong southern accent one his travels in Europe who had the Canadian flag on their backpack

I think I remember him telling me that story.

I've never done an air balloon ride, so hadn't thought about the landing, but I guess that makes sense re: options for the basket to come down

Yeah, they never really know exactly how the landing is going to go!

This is def in very different condition than the other one!

We didn't know how lucky we were!

hehe I did get this reference though!

Oh I'm so glad he grabbed them, hopefully he was able to put them somewhere more secure

There wasn't really that many place he could put them, but he did put them farther back from the road.

He saw a lot of the pictues online, and then I've been showing him as well yup

Cool!

 

[pkondz]

Subbing in!

This cracks me up. When I first saw this new person with the limited posts and comments, I wondered if it was a spam.

Around 3AM I woke up again, I could hear barking out the window. Now we were on the 14th floor so that must have been some barking to hear it up that high.

Reminds me of something I forgot to ask from a previous post. When you were in the air in the balloon, did you notice how sound carried so well from below? That was something I really was surprised at when I went up in a balloon.

I decided that the best remedy for insomnia for me is a nice hot bath.

I turned it to what I thought should have been hot water, and it was just tepid. I tried other settings, and there was nowhere that I could seem to find nice hot water. I was sad.

Well, shoot! Totally not okay. I've stayed at a hotel and deliberately picked a room with a nice tub... only to have no hot water. I got a partial refund at least, but wasn't happy.

The first thing you came to was the Orange Juice dispenser. They did a good job of keeping it filled.

Fresh OJ?

I could tell he didn’t take the outside off the carrots before juicing them. The juice had a “woody” taste

Thanks for that. I don't have a juicer but have been considering it. I wouldn't have known to do that.

As you can see he is not at the waffle station when I took this picture.

Slacker!

other times there were middle eastern beans that I didn’t recognize at all.

I kinda like that. I'm not normally a beans person, but I'd like to see (and maybe try, if it looked appealing) something new.

There was another are with lots of stuff that I didn't even know what it was for. I think that area was aimed at the Asian palates

This would attract me too. Not sure if I'd try anything... but I'd definitely check it out.

We were more like, “pull up your pants, and stay off my lawn” than wanting to make new friends and embrace your neighbor.

I'm that way too. I'm perfectly happy eating alone with a good book.

I got myself a bowl of the Chicken shawarma with some rice. That hit the spot.

That looks really good.

Then we went to the bank and got smaller monies for baksheesh.

I'd heard the term... but looked it up anyway. Interesting that it has different connotations.
I never knew it could be used to mean a charitable donation.

We were off to see the pyramids of Giza.

How excited were you??

The first thing he told us when we passed a picture of the "the Pharoah", as he called the President, you can't look at him for more than three seconds or it is bad luck.

Huh! Interesting custom.

It was kind of like what you read about in the history books with Authoritarian leaders.

I thought the same thing.

While driving on the highway, Achmed pointed out these buildings that obviously had parts of them removed. He told us that was to make room for widening the road. When I asked what happened to the people who lived there, he kicked his foot up like a boot in the pants.

by following here, you’re getting the whole story and not just the Cliff Notes.

It was very overcast that day. In So Cal we call it the Marine Layer. I think there they just call it fog. Whatever it was, it was totally obscuring the view of the great Pyramid.

Very surprised about the fog. I just think of Egypt as very dry.

I had to work hard to get these donkey shots. Our driver was going very fast (not unsafe, but fast enough that by the time I saw the donkey cart, it was out of picture range.)

You done good!

Sheep and goat herders (even in the middle of busy streets) were not uncommon.

So different from what we see in this part of the world.

For some reason our guide’s credit card wasn’t working, so Jill ended up putting most of our entrance fees on her card, and he repaid her in cash.

Phew! When I first started reading that sentence, I thought "Here we go. Scam coming up." Glad it wasn't.

I took some shots of the stray dogs that were everywhere. This was my winning dog photo of the trip.

I like it. Nice shot. And cute pup.

See the cigarette butt in the bottom of the picture? Those snuck into my pictures more often than I would have liked.

So gross. It's bad enough that they stink, but then you have to litter?

I could have photoshopped it out, but I’m here to be real. Otherwise I wouldn’t have shared the horrific potty story from the day of the jeep tour!

And here's where the precedent begins. I'm pretty sure that I needed to pee at nearly every attraction we visited.

Sure. Gotta mark your territory. Kinda like scribbling "Alison was here" on a wall.

We actually got to go inside some real tombs and a real Pyramid.

Cool!

I would wait for people to leave the room so I could get pictures without people in them.

Perhaps this is dancing?

Most tombs had a door like this on the entrance, there was small slit in the center which was supposedly where the spirit can escape from the tomb.

That's interesting too. I like that bit of info. Gives you an insight into the ancient belief system.

Most of the doors like this are damaged and only a part of them remain, if any.

Not at all surprised. Millenia of grave robbing...

These folks are definitely dancing. At least I think they are.

Thanks to Jill for actually taking a picture above ground. I was too busy taking pictures of all the stray dogs.

Of course you were.

This is the shaft that we climbed down to get to the tomb. It was super steep.

And no handrails! Were you nervous? Worried?

Now guides are not allowed into certain tombs, so our guide gave a quick once over of what to be looking for.

Odd that they're not allowed. I wonder why?

That’s why I took this picture with the DSLR camera on the “Manual” setting, so I could control the amount of light in the picture. This is more of what we actually saw.

Thanks for that. A marked difference!

Another picture of a different room in the tomb, taken on Manual, just to show how dark it really is inside there.

Where was the (little bit of) lighting coming from? Was it just ambient from the entrance?

Saqqara is also the location of the pyramid of Djoser

At first I thought you meant:

But that's Gozer... Not at all the same.

Seriously, though... That pyramid makes me think Incan, rather than Egyptian. Amazing that two such far flung civilizations could develop such similar architecture.

Well, I think the tour companies like to show only what they feel is the best of Egypt. We go on a few more jaunts on our own but not to sketchy places.

Makes sense.

Actually it was rather humid from the river.

Of course (see above). I didn't think of the river at all, just the desert.

It will be a while, it's a long trip.

I ain't going nowhere.

 

[jedijill]

I had the carb special every day with a little fruit. I missed pork bacon and sausage!

Today I went with a waffle. I actually asked someone about whether or not they were making them and they called a guy over there. I got a cinnamon roll, a chocolate croissant, some potatoes and that chocolate cake. They had these chocolate and vanilla coffee cakes that I totally loved. I ate them every day. There’s a little fruit salad there as well.

The first thing he told us when we passed a picture of the "the Pharoah", as he called the President, you can't look at him for more than three seconds or it is bad luck. As we drove around for the next week and a half, we realized he did have a point. The guy's picture was almost everywhere. He had billboards, bills posted on overpasses, he was even on a few digital billboards, although those were not nearly as prevalent as in So Cal. It was kind of like what you read about in the history books with Authoritarian leaders.

The Egyptian president is a bit of a narcissist and has his name and picture on EVERYTHING! Achmed was not a fan to say the least.

BTW, the inside of the tombs are absolutely stifling although Saqqara wasn't nearly as bad as future locations. The Cairo area was also about 10-15 degrees cooler than when we get further south in Luxor and Aswan.

Jill in CO

 

[franandaj]

Was it fairly easy to do? English was an option on the machine

Yes, I think in Jordan English and Arabic were the options. In Egypt, I think there were many language options.

That's very reasonable!
I know this is USD, but still seems reasonable!

We thought the trip was very reasonable!

ya, that would get annoying fast

this is very interesting! you didn't go in them at all correct?

I think people were supposed to stay on the path. There were probably folks who would have come after you if you tried to go inside them. I didn't even think about it.

wow a lot of people cancelled!

That's the impression I got. Mostly Americans. They don't know their geography and think the Middle East is all one place. Kind of like the people who think Disneyland is in LA.

this reminds me of some of the streets in Edenborough Scotland!

I want to go there!

Awww hey guys! did they look to be in ok condition?

I didn't get too close to many of them. I was afraid of fleas and other pests. Some looked better than others. Same for the cats.

The structure, the guards? the camels, just wow!!

these guys look very content to just hang out!

That's actually just a facade, there's really nothing behind it. Yes the camels appear very content.

one tough aspect of travelling for sure

It's definitely tiring.

Did you ever take a look for him?

I have not had the opportunity yet.

Well that looks just perfect!

It was! So tasty!

Dorian would get this I bet
I'd probably get this lol I like lamb, but he grew up eating it so loves it, where as I'm just learning to like it

Yeah, I was on a lamb kick those first few days.

Perfect for you!

I'm still using them!

Nice, much better indeed!

Definitely!

 

[franandaj]

This cracks me up. When I first saw this new person with the limited posts and comments, I wondered if it was a spam.

I decided that the problem with posting is me and potentially the number of external links that are associated with my username. So I created a new user name, and took a spin around the games board, and my own TRs. I'm not sure if my alter ego can post pictures yet. But we will see the next time this user name has a problem!

Reminds me of something I forgot to ask from a previous post. When you were in the air in the balloon, did you notice how sound carried so well from below? That was something I really was surprised at when I went up in a balloon.

Honestly I don't know. It was so quiet in Wadi Rum and there was no sound from below. I don't think that I heard anything on the later flight. I was so busy paying attention to other things going on.

Well, shoot! Totally not okay. I've stayed at a hotel and deliberately picked a room with a nice tub... only to have no hot water. I got a partial refund at least, but wasn't happy.

I've done that as well, but had hot water. I think this was the first time I wasn't able to get hot water at a hotel.

Fresh OJ?

Well I saw them refill the container and it came from an industrial sized prepackaged plastic container. However, it was so tasty that I think they were getting it from a very fresh source. I like OJ, but this was especially tasty OJ. I got a glass every day as we walked in even before we had selected a table.

Thanks for that. I don't have a juicer but have been considering it. I wouldn't have known to do that.

I always peel my carrots at home (though I know most of the nutrients are in the outside) because I don't like that taste. The only time I don't peel them is when I put them in the base of the pan when cooking a turkey.

Slacker!

Whoever had that job certainly was! I rarely saw anyone at the waffle maker. I guess you will see by how many days I have a waffle for breakfast. Also, the waffles at the Ramses Hilton were not nearly as good as some of the other waffles I had later in the trip. I realized at the Ramses how much I like the American versions of "malted" waffles. The waffles at the Ramses were super sweet, and I like a little more savory in my waffle.

I kinda like that. I'm not normally a beans person, but I'd like to see (and maybe try, if it looked appealing) something new.

I do venture to the beans for protein one day.....

This would attract me too. Not sure if I'd try anything... but I'd definitely check it out.

I really didn't even know what some of the little bowls had in them, much less what I would put them on.

I'm that way too. I'm perfectly happy eating alone with a good book.

Yeah, rarely do I want to just strike up a conversation with a random person. And here, a lot were speaking languages that I didn't recognize.

That looks really good.

It was very tasty!

I'd heard the term... but looked it up anyway. Interesting that it has different connotations.
I never knew it could be used to mean a charitable donation.

I didn't know that either. I thought it was just money you gave for services.

How excited were you??

I'm not sure if I was excited or what. Everything was so new and unique. I remember while we were driving on a 4-5 lane highway, there was a pick up truck with a camper shell. There must have been a dozen guys in the back. I don't know if the back flap of the pick up bed was down or it was just missing. There was one guy sitting with his legs hanging off the back of the truck, another guy was standing up, and another guy was also precariously perched. This was going 50-60mph.

That first day driving around I was just so dumbstruck by how different everything was and how the drivers just weaved in and out of each other that I was in awe. Plus I was listening to Achmed who was talking about the various places we were driving past, and also the history of Egypt.

Huh! Interesting custom.

I'm not sure it was a custom. He was an interesting guy, very much a "for the people" kind of guy who did not like big business or "the man".

I thought the same thing.

Yes, a lot of that going on around there. I have more pictures later that show more of that sort of power display.

Very surprised about the fog. I just think of Egypt as very dry.

There's definitely two sorts of climates. The Nile is a HUGE river, and there's a reason that the people have lived near the river for all these thousands of years. It's very humid near the river, and very dry when you get away from there.

You done good!

Thanks!

So different from what we see in this part of the world.

Yes, and also I'm watching Su-Lynn's posts on Instagram from Japan, and that is so different from what I was seeing in Egypt. And so different from here as well.

Phew! When I first started reading that sentence, I thought "Here we go. Scam coming up." Glad it wasn't.

No, I will give a spoiler alert. While we may have had a few "hiccups" in the trip, I highly recommend this tour company. Everything was top notch. You can't necessarily control all the circumstances, but they did the best that they could for everything that we needed.

I like it. Nice shot. And cute pup.

So gross. It's bad enough that they stink, but then you have to litter?

I haven't even gotten started on the litter....

Sure. Gotta mark your territory. Kinda like scribbling "Alison was here" on a wall.

Except that then I flushed my mark away.....

That's interesting too. I like that bit of info. Gives you an insight into the ancient belief system.

If I could tell you all the stuff that Achmed told us about their belief system and everything. By the end of the trip, my brain was so full with random information. We got so much education in such a short time, there's no way we could remember it all!

Not at all surprised. Millenia of grave robbing...

Not to mention winds, and other weather phenomena....

I'm sorry but a lot of these pop references are lost on me...should I recognize these people?

And no handrails! Were you nervous? Worried?

I don't think I had the opportunity to be nervous or worried. As we approached the pyramid tomb, there was a grubby old man with only half his teeth trying to sell us brochures for like $5US. While he was sticking the pamphlets in our faces, Achmed was trying to tell us about the stars on the ceiling and a few other things to look at. He was telling us there were two rooms in the tomb, the one on the right had the chamber that held the sarcophagus, the one on the left contained items that the decedent would need in the afterlife.

I was just trying to fathom this information we were receiving, ignore the guy trying to sell us stuff, and then I was descending into the tomb. I was more concerned with taking pictures of the crazy descent. I remember thinking, "this is definitely something for the Trip Report!"

Odd that they're not allowed. I wonder why?

I think because there are guides that are already in the tombs, but you have to give them baksheesh. Our guide would be getting a tip at the end of the week, and there is a very strict thing for guides and their conduct. In the books I'm listening to, even over 100 years ago, being a guide was an established profession.

Thanks for that. A marked difference!

Yes! That's one thing that I'm so glad I have a DSLR and know how to use it. So many situations when the cell phone camera (or automatic mode on the DSLR) doesn't even give you accurate picture of what a place really looks like because the cell phone adapts for the lack of light.

Where was the (little bit of) lighting coming from? Was it just ambient from the entrance?

I'm not sure which little bit of light you're referring to. There were lights down in the tomb otherwise people would have been falling all over the place. If you're meaning that second room, that's a good question? I'm not sure where the light would have been coming from. I was just so in awe of being in the tomb, I was snapping pictures like crazy.

At first I thought you meant:

But that's Gozer... Not at all the same.

OK this reference I understand!

Seriously, though... That pyramid makes me think Incan, rather than Egyptian. Amazing that two such far flung civilizations could develop such similar architecture.

Well throughout the trip Jill kept quoting this guy!

Of course (see above). I didn't think of the river at all, just the desert.

Like I said above.....

I ain't going nowhere.

It's going to be a long haul! I just "parsed" my trip notes into chapters and there's a lot!

Well it's only proper to welcome new readers!
:

 

[franandaj]

had the carb special every day with a little fruit. I missed pork bacon and sausage!

Yes you did! I kept wondering how you could keep going without protein!

The Egyptian president is a bit of a narcissist and has his name and picture on EVERYTHING! Achmed was not a fan to say the least.

Yes, you saw his face everywhere!

BTW, the inside of the tombs are absolutely stifling although Saqqara wasn't nearly as bad as future locations. The Cairo area was also about 10-15 degrees cooler than when we get further south in Luxor and Aswan.

I didn't notice it so bad at Saqqara, but yes in Luxor and Aswan, it was absolutely stifling.

 

[franandaj]

We had switched up our day today opting to save the pyramids at Giza for the next day. We had just left Saqqara, and then we went to Memphis. This was once the capital of Egypt in early Pharaonic times. All the stuff around this area was found here and are ruins from ancient times. In the background of some of the pictures you’ll end up seeing chunks of statues and other relics.

But first we need to get there. Saqqara, Memphis, and Dashur are all relatively close in modern distance, meaning that with a car you can get there easily. I’m sure in the times when these sites were capitals of the nation they were far apart, but today we moved easily from place to place.

All the locations that we visited today were close along this waterway which was being dredged while we were visiting.

As we drove through this part of the city, you can see an number of things in this picture. The little car on the right hand side of the photo is called a Tuk tuk. These little cars are taxis that the locals use to get around, they are kind of open air cars on three wheels. You’ll see more pics of them throughout the Trip Report. Also in this picture is a donkey cart piled high with sacks. I was obsessed with these carts and how they were still in use in this century.

And these women transporting palm fronds on donkey back blew me away.

Stray dogs and cats were everywhere. I felt so bad for them.

I’m not sure that Egypt has what we in the US know of as “supermarkets”. We saw stands along the road where you could buy fruits and vegetables all over the place.

There were many places like this that made fresh bread that we saw all over the country.

Eventually we arrived at the ancient site of Memphis. This was the first place where I realized “how Egypt works.” At every site there are the Antiquities Police. Most of the time they were just sitting around shooting the breeze, no not literally, though some of them are armed with assault rifles, but mostly they’re sitting around talking and smoking. As we pulled into the parking lot here, one of them walked up to our van. Before the window was rolled down, Achmed said, “This is one of my favorite police officers.”

They greeted each other warmly and when Achmed shook his hand, there was more than just a hand shake in there. I saw him do the same thing later that day at Dahshur as well.

At Saqqara we did not pass through any sort of turnstile or scan our tickets, but at most of the places we went there was a specific entrance where we passed through as pedestrians. Anytime we went to a site we scanned our purses just like at the airports (though I’m not really sure anyone was actually watching). Cell phones and cameras went on top of the scanner as you walked through the metal detector.

After the body scanning process we scanned the QR code on our tickets, and passed through turnstiles. This was pretty common for almost all the monuments.

The first sight Achmed took us to see was this statue of Ramses II

These cartouches on his wrist are significant. Our guide told us whose cartouches they were, but now it escapes me. I even used google images, but all it recognizes is that they “are” cartouches, but it can’t tell me whose names they represent.

Outside the building where the statue of Ramses resides is an area with many other statues. These dogs are not dead, but they give you an idea of how hot it is outside they’re all sapped by the heat. You can also see how there are vendors everywhere at the monuments.

As we were touring, we were talking with Achmed about how he planned to change up our week. I noticed the multiple vendors at the park and since he was going to be with us for the rest of the week in Cairo, I mentioned to him that the one souvenir that I wanted was a pin of a scarab beetle. I didn't have any predisposed notions about what the beetle would look like or what it would be made of, but I wanted a pin. He said that he knew exactly the place.

The Sphinx of Memphis or Alabaster Sphinx is a stone sphinx located near the remains of Memphis, Egypt. The carving is believed to have taken place between 1700 and 1400 BCE, which was during the 18th Dynasty. It is unknown which pharaoh is being honored and there are no inscriptions to supply information. The facial features imply that the Sphinx is honoring Hatshepsut, or Amenhotep II, or Amenhotep III.

The Alabaster Sphinx was discovered in 1912 by Flinders Petrie, when an affiliate from the British School in America spotted a uniquely carved object jutting out of a sand hill. It was so far in the season that excavation was useless, but a year later in 1913 further digging displayed that the object was a Sphinx's tail.

Here is another statue that I have no recollection of it’s significance. I believe it was likely Ramses and some gods, but the google fails me to give you more detail.

This statue came from the Middle Kingdom and was restored under the name of Ramses II.

There were so many artifacts here that were recovered, I couldn’t possibly describe how many there were or even their significance. That little white building you see off in the distance is where we entered the monument. It’s a huge area filled with rich history.

Once we finished at Memphis, we climbed back into our traveling van. Then we were on our way to our next destination.

As we drove through the various locales, we saw all kinds of unique sights. These camel carcasses just hung outside of this market. I can’t imagine who purchases this meat, and how do they sell it? Do they just lop off a chunk? Do you get a choice of which part, or do you just buy the whole thing? So many questions!!!!

Here’s another snapshot of reality of daily life. The woman here is selling vegetables, while another vendor sells some sort of sandwiches, and in the background there is another market selling chips, and probably cold beverages.

Now throughout our visit, our tour guides would take us to a variety of local businesses. I suppose they got some sort of kickbacks for bringing customers to them. While we somewhat appreciated the need for supporting the local economy, for the most part, we didn’t buy into these blatant attempts to sell us stuff. They weren’t high pressure like the folks in the bazaars, but there was definitely an implied, we’d like it if you bought something.

This particular stop was in a carpet making factory. They showed us how they trained children to weave the carpets and how the kids ended up taking some profits from the carpets they made. It was a way to teach them a trade, and they also employed some ladies who might not otherwise have a way to earn money on their own.

It was in this place that I had my first “unexpected Disney moment” of the trip!

After the educational presentation on how the carpets were made we were led upstairs to the sale area. There was no way Jill or I were buying any carpets. While they were beautiful and we could appreciate the handiwork, they just weren't our thing. Despite their offers to ship home for free, we just weren't interested and they were expensive. I didn't need to spend that much for something the cats would just pee on.

After we left the carpet place we went to Dashur. On the way we passed these Date Palm farms.

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

We traveled along this same river quite a bit today. I was astonished by all the trash that was alongside the road.

It looks like they have not got this far with the dredging of the river here. If you look at the other side of the river, there is a dirt road. For most of the driving that we did in this area, the side of the river that we are currently on was a one way road. The other side of the river was the road in the other direction. A few miles back, the road on the side we are driving on started having two way traffic. I noticed that the road on the other side of the river was a dirt road. However, there was still plenty of traffic, pedestrians, donkey carts, and even some motor vehicles.

Oh, and I forgot about the Tuk tuks. You could see some of those driving on the dirt road as well.

Now we have turned off that main road, and we are headed towards Dashur.

Finally we reached our destination. When we got to the entrance gate, there were more Antiquities Police, and again Achmed shook his hand with a relatively greasy palm, if you get my drift. It was a bit of a drive to where the pyramids were actually located. This was another site where everything was so spread out that even though we paid admission and received tickets, there was no turnstile to pass through to reach the pyramids.

Dashur is the home of the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid. By this time it was about 12:30 in the afternoon. It had been five hours since we had breakfast, we had climbed into a pyramid, walked the length of the Memphis archaeological site, and here we are presented with climbing the Red pyramid.

Achmed said that it was up to us if we wanted to go inside. Now take a took at the picture below, and notice the size of the of the people, and the path to even get up to where the stairs start. And this is zoomed in.

Now take a look at the walk from the parking lot just to get to the path, to climb up to the stairs.

And don’t forget, once you get to the top of those stairs, you need to climb down who knows how many stairs to get to what you want to see inside the pyramid.

Then

You have to climb back up to get out of the pyramid, and then climb back down all those stairs.

As interesting as it might have been, we were getting tired and hungry. Just going down the one in Saqqara kind of kicked my butt. Walking around Memphis and just getting in and out of the van all took a toll on me. I started walking back in May, just think what bad shape I would have been in if I hadn't started walking. By this point when I would get out of the van (I sat on the driver's side), he would get out and offer me his arm to steady me as I touched my foot to the ground.

I think Achmed had hoped that we would choose to climb the pyramid. He ended up being tied up on a phone call. Who knows what was going on, he was talking in Arabic, and since neither of us speak Arabic, he could have been setting up a hot date for that night, or talking with his stock brocker.

Both Jill and I agreed that we didn't want to go in the Pyramid that badly as we're both somewhat allergic to stairs.

We moved on to the Bent Pyramid, and when I said moved on, we drove over to the parking area near that pyramid. I think Achmed paused his phone call enough to point out that the Bent pyramid had been covered with a layer of polished limestone, and that layer was largely still in tact.

However, he quickly jumped back into the van to continue his conversation. I remember being a little bit miffed that he wasn’t there to take our picture and so we had to take this selfie to prove we were here.

Here’s a look at where I think you could potentially enter the pyramid

And this is a close up of the corner where the limestone has fallen off.

Somewhere in there Achmed pointed out this pyramid in decay. The Black Pyramid was built by King Amenemhat III during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2055–1650 BC). It is one of the five remaining pyramids of the original eleven pyramids at Dahshur in Egypt. Originally named Amenemhet is Mighty, the pyramid earned the name Black Pyramid for its dark, decaying appearance as a rubble mound. The Black Pyramid was the first to house both the deceased pharaoh and his queens. Jacques de Morgan, on a French mission, began the excavation on the pyramids at Dahshur in 1892. The German Archaeological Institute of Cairo completed excavation in 1983.

After this we were fairly done with pyramids. It was approaching the hottest point of the day, we were definitely getting hungry, and Achmed mentioned that lunch would be our next stop, so we were happy to jump back in the van.

Up Next: A whole lotta tasty

 

[Dis_Yoda]

My thighs burn thinking about all those stairs.

It is awesome to go see the pyramids but yeah if its hot...no thanks!

 

[jedijill]

The river is technically one of the canals from the Nile to bring the water further out into the valley. There was trash everywhere! We saw lots of little plots of farmland where people were growing sugar cane and other crops. Lots of date palms around the Dashur/Memphis area as well.

I avoided buying a carpet too although it was cool to see how they were made. They used different fibers like cotton and silk. There were some beautiful carpets but they don't really fit my budget or lifestyle!

Jill in CO

 

[DnA2010]

We were only allowed one carry-on bag, so I had to get my camera, meds, and technology all into the one carry-on, but I did it!

Well you were practiced

We chose a table set back in the corner, because one annoying thing about this part of the world is that they still have smoking sections.

Wow smoking sections- crazy! haven't encountered that for a while

With the exchange rate this drink came out to almost $40!

Yowzas! That would be over $55 for me!

Jill got the Beef Agnolotti. She loved it!

This looks soo good!

I got the Lasagne, also loved it!

As does this! Yum!

It's 8:26am and I could go for this right now as my second coffee of the day

The desserts were both lovely looking and with lots too them!

We went up to our room and I took advantage of the nice tub to try out my new Dead Sea Bath salts. They were heavenly, after exiting the bath and laying in bed, I could feel my muscles tingling from the salts in them

Sounds fantastic!

I think I woke up in the middle of the night, played some games, checked facebook and stuff,

I think I chatted with you at some strange times!

I had an Americano with an extra shot of espresso, and a then later a latte, so I was pretty amped.

Yeehaww cowgirl! Yum!

Unfortunately, they missed the green part of her order and she ended up with a smaller iced black tea. She still said it hit the spot.

Whoops! I haven't drank much green tea to be honest, but I know a lot of people love it

We had the middle and the window seat, and no one took the third seat so she moved over just before take off.

Love it when that happens!

I'd used this purse in both Denver and Kamloops and it was great for lightweight touring. It was indispensable in Egypt. I could wear it through the airport to keep my passport handy. It held enough credit cards, room keys, a tiny baggie of Ibuprofen, cash, and even a wad of toilet paper, for desperate times. It came in over 20 different colors. I might order another one for traveling in the US where I'm not trying to be so low key. But for a place where I want to go unnoticed this was the perfect choice.

Maybe you told me this, that it was such a great price, but I didn't catch it, but it was such a handy little purse! I may need one!

Our plane did not take a direct route to Cairo. It flew South and then West to avoid the fighting.

Thanks for adding the pic, smart airline

Jill decided that she wanted an Egyptian Sim card. There was a cellular provider kiosk in the baggage claim area, so we picked one up for around $12US. It came with a ton of data, and it was a good thing she invested in that.

That reminds me I need to get sorted in the Sim dept, but I do an eSim

We waited outside for a bit. I noticed that across from where we were waiting that there was a hotel attached to the airport and realized that it was the hotel we would be staying at the night before our flight home. How convenient, it was attached to the hotel via a walkway!

there's one at the Vancouver airport I love but it's super pricey without a corporate discount and my new company doesn't have that discount, boo!

He was very handsome with jet black hair, except he had just a hint of grey at his temples giving him a debonair appearance. His white Oxford shirt was perfectly pressed and his shoes were equally expensive to match his perfectly quaffed look.

Sounds like he came to make sure you guys were sorted out, dashing fellow sounds like!

While there are lines on the roads indicating the lanes, no one actually pays attention to them. It's basically whoever has the most cahones that moves forward in the intersection. There are no stoplights, right of way is generally determined by who takes it, unless an officer steps in to direct the flow of traffic. However most intersections are treated as whoever honks the most and edges their car into the spot, goes first. I'm surprised there aren't 10 accidents per second.

Oh boy, glad you got around safe!

Basically worthless.

what a pretty coin!

This looks very yummy, crispy and good!