Day 4, Saturday 16th December continued
The flight is 3,75 hrs, we have 2 3-rows to ourselves, with 2 window seats, so we can spread out comfortably. The kids are sitting at the windows, but it is overcast for most of the way, so unfortunately not much of a view.
It is a crisp 17 degrees on arrival … well it is winter in Cairo and it has been overcast all day. A few anxious moments until we see Cathy’s ‘loaded’ suitcase at last. The man from the travel agency is there and we find ourselves in a small group in a minibus to the hotel.
A few minutes after arrival at the Oasis Hotel we have to assemble in a meeting room and find ourselves now in a much larger group of about 30, about half of them South Africans. We get briefed by our tour guide Wael for longer than necessary. 20:00 -21:00.
Next thing is to see whether Cathy’s suitcase can be opened. A few maintenance/bell-boy types crack it (literally) within a few minutes. Question remains: can it ever be locked again? We are too scared to try …
Fortunately the restaurant is still open after we finally brought our luggage to the well appointed rooms. Egypt is impossible to do other than on a package tour, but 10 days for N$4,000 per person almost all inclusive (Expat Explore), is the best we could find. But still this includes 4-star hotels.
After dinner we are getting a half-hour wifi card (Egypt Pound 10.00 = N$14.00) and finally can post our blog. But somehow we can’t access our home e-mails.
By the time that is all done it is almost midnight – back on GMT +2 (same as Namibia).
Day 5: Sunday 16th December 2012 Cairo (Beatrice)
This morning we woke up at 6am and pressed the snooze button about 5 times. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 6.30am and after a nice hot shower we went outside.. and froze to death! It was very frostlike and our breath fogged. We went to the breakfast buffet and it was huge! Almost anything we wanted was to be had, waffles, nan (the Indian name for the bread- I asked the chef what the Egyptian name was and he proceeded to tell me his name..so I’ll just stick with nan) fruit salad, eggs and loads of other things! After that we stood in the sun to warm up and socialize with the other group members. As we are back in Africa, African time is the norm. So instead of leaving at 8am, we left at 8.30am.
Once in the bus we were on our way to the pyramids.. well not quite, first we had to go to the ATM, in order that some could get the money to pay the entrance fees and tip money, which adds up to a considerable amount! And then we were on our way to see the step pyramid! It was a long drive, in which we saw the town and its pollution. I sincerely hope, that the next time I read this, it has changed. Rubbish is everywhere especially in the Nile, leaving loads of areas of water unseen by piles and piles of plastic. It was a very sad sight indeed.
Also we saw loads of “domestic Buffalos” (which as a Namibian is a hard concept to grasp!) pulling along carts and loads and loads of old VW Kombis, which we later found out were fuelled with gas instead of petrol to stop the air pollution, which already left everything looking hazy.
Finally we did arrive at the step pyramid, which consists out of 6 steps and is the only pyramid that has a rectangular base instead of a square base. This is probably so because it was originally made as a kings burial house which was then added to. When we got out of the bus we were bombarded by people trying to sell souvenirs or get photographed on their camels for money. Fortunately we were forewarned not to accept easily since they would rip us off. We went into the temple in front of it and walked up on to a mountain with a view onto the Giza pyramids and onto the ruins left behind of the houses. It was really fascinating! Especially with a guide to tell us about the history.
Then to the King Teti’s burial chamber. The entrance was tiny, not the width but the height. We had to almost permanently duck, so we almost crawled all the way down to the chamber. A different guide led us there. The walls where completely filled with hieroglyphs (about 5 by 5cm!) it was brilliant, so obviously I wanted to take a picture- as soon as I uncapped my camera the new guide told me off. But no one else heard so everyone was trying to take a photo and so the guide had to run from one to the other to tell them off for taking a picture. Yet some still wanted to take pictures and as soon as he was in the other room everyone took out their cameras, but when he came back he got really aggro and tried to snatch the cameras away from the people half chasing them across the room. So I do not have any pictures of that for I was way too scared! But to all who want to go I really recommend it and if you take a picture or no.. well that’s your decision. By now the day had warmed up and was nice and warm.
For lunch we went to ….. it was incredible!! We all sat down on very padded benches and had lunch (noodles in a mild chilli and tomato sauce) which was very tasty and with it mint tea, which was a bit too strong for my liking, yet the others enjoyed it! While that was happening the shop owner entertained us- it was as the word says: very entertaining! He showed us some flower oils and tells us what they do and how to use it. That does not sound very interesting, I know, but it was how he said it. I do not know what it was: the timing, the tone or the passion with what he was saying it, but whatever it was, it was entertaining as heck! At one point (I am not sure how we got to this subject) he talked about marijuana and that one would never see the pyramids in the same way ever again.
Daddy insisted I take one small bottle of essence- which I gladly did. This will be my wonderful Christmas present, which I of course don’t know anything about, and will be totally surprised to receive!
After one of the most entertaining hours of the entire trip was over, we went off to see the biggest pyramids in Egypt, the pyramids of Giza. Originally the tallest pyramid belonged to Cheops, who was a mighty pharaoh awfully long ago in Egypt, which was 146m high, but over time eroded and is now ‘only’ 142m high. The second tallest belonged to Cheops’ son, who out of respect built his pyramid 3m smaller (143m) and had the pyramid rapped with solid granite, of which the tip did not erode. The smallest of the tree, is quite a bit smaller. It belonged to Cheops’ grandson who did not want to build a huge monument, because he cared about his people and did not want to take their money. He was remembered only in a good light.
Of course we took loads of pictures posing here and there, yet it was terribly hard with people coming into your oh so carefully aligned shot to sell you some trinket. That was very annoying and when the boys walked further on Mummy and I were harassed to buy stupid stuff or have a camel ride or even let them take a shot of us- all for money of course. Mummy got extremely irritated. Then to a further spot where one could get a nice panorama shot. Last but definitely not least we went to the Sphinx. That was when Mummy realised she had lost her ticket, so we went with the group and slid her in very nicely. Moments like that is when you appreciate being in a group out of 41 people!
The Sphinx I really found quite amazing and the mummifying room was very interesting too!
Then it was off to the hotel passing by the grocers on the way.
And throughout the entire trip I was so glad we had a driver, the traffic was crazy. Everyone is constantly almost crashing!- That is when you learn the gift of not looking!
At the hotel we sat in the restaurant and had a cup of good old tea, while the travellers that were going onto the sleeper train (instead of, like us, the sitting train) had a shower and got ready, since their train left 2 hours earlier.
Then we went to the rooms and had a shower got ready, stitched up a few things and packed. Then Daddy got cabbage and tomatoes out of his bag and we made coleslaw salad in the hotel room (cutlery, bowls and salad dressing stuff, we had brought from Windhoek). After washing up in the hand basin, we went to the lobby to wait for our bus. The bus came and we were quickly onboard and off to the train station, once again through the drastic traffic. We reached the platform and the had to wait an hour for the actual time of the arrival. Why I say actual time? Easy, because to top it all off, the train came one hour late, leaving us waiting 2h in the cold. And it was really quite cold sitting on the ground playing cards and talking to other people, but it was interesting too.
Day 6, Monday 17th December Cathy
Being stuck on the train for 17 hours certainly gives one time to muse – there is not much else to do really so here are some musings;
Egyptian building style; the contemporary owes little to the past apart from a liking for the rectangular. The ancient Egyptians did not know the arch and used lintels to span the gaps between their columns. This made for a building style of long verticals and short horizontals since even a massive hunk of granite has a limited span. It’s a beautiful style that has led to temples with avenues of closely packed columns and a massiveness that even now we associate with power. The modern Egyptian style owes everything to reinforced concrete. Grey skeletons are erected, most reaching about four floors in height. These are then filled in with red clay bricks leaving the odd gap for a window but since windows are expensive some buildings have remarkably few. At a later stage the building may be plastered and finished off with various embellishments but in most cases the building does not progress beyond the red brick stage. Reinforced steel rods are left protruding from the top of the concrete uprights in the hope of further building in the future but meanwhile the building is occupied, the roof is used for drying washing, even the odd shack may be up there for the population overspill. The skyline of most towns is made up of concrete columns, waving steel rods, washing and dish aerials. Householders tend to limit their outside decoration to the balcony which may be plastered and painted or even wallpapered and from which hang more festoons of washing. The balconies and washing portray a love for strong colour but this is not really seen on the street.
Women’s wear; Most people wear dull coloured robes and many women wear black. It’s quite interesting to speculate on the bright clothing that may be hidden under the outside concealment. Although many women here wear the same kind of robes that we saw in Dubai they are not the same quality since most people here are not wealthy. In Dubai the women’s robes were a deep expensive black made from crepe de chine, georgette, and other beautiful cloths and they were decorated with crystals, embroidery and expensive braids. Here most women wear a rusty black with no depth to the colour and if there is decoration it is beaded or of a cheaper type of braid. The dress is less modest in the sense that most women reveal their faces but more modest in that it is not a demonstration of wealth. Many women wear a lot of make-up, even veiled women since after all their only expression is through their eyes. Painted eyebrows are very popular. One young woman who had her veils draped over piled up hair reminded Beatrice of Amy Winehouse. Many people are also very perfumed, great wafts of perfume fill your nose in a crowd and there are many shops dedicated only to selling perfumes.
Rubbish; Egypt, the land of plastic waste. The streets and canals are clogged with old plastic bags that have just been dropped and never collected up. There seems to be no organised rubbish collecting, judging from the piles that amass in the streets. Or maybe there is house to house collection but no street cleaning? Either way the result is drifts of dusty plastic bags even around some of the monuments. There are no public rubbish bins that I have seen and people are in the habit of just tossing their rubbish to the ground. The end result is a paradise for rats and other wildlife.
Egyptian wildlife; the egrets have become used to picking through the rubbish tips and can often be seen by the canals walking on the water hyacinth/plastic bag carpet. There are plenty of kites also, the opportunist bird, hunting for the rats and mice that live in the tips. The local dogs, of standard African design, can be found lurking in the markets, dozing on street corners and hanging around tourists as can the ubiquitous alley cats. There are supposed to be hippos and crocs in the Nile, so far we have not spotted any.
As the sun rises and we are further from Cairo we see more of the little fields that are used by the peasant farmers to grow their crops and as we move further south the crops change with the warmer prevailing weather. The more northerly crops are cabbage, lucerne, winter wheat and a little rice, as we go south bananas and sugar cane are added to the mix and the cabbages and wheat disappear. The fields are tiny and are worked mostly by hand or with the help of a couple of buffalo. Only the sugar cane seems to be farmed on a larger scale. As we move away from the city the dusty pall that hangs over everything diminishes a bit and the new green of the rice and wheat shines in the morning sun.
It wasn’t such a bad night, I managed to sleep in a train sleep way, periods of dozing, periods of sleep, periods of wakefulness. Nearby there are a couple of enthusiastic snorers who put Chris totally in the shade. The seats recline nice and far back and there is a good footrest. The only real problem is that the toilets are really awful. Men have obviously tried to wee standing up in a moving train and the end result is beyond description. The train’s hooter has a brighter sound than the trains in India which honked mournfully through the night but it too honks through the night not quite so mournfully. During the night we travelled through the Islamic fundamentalist heartland and as the day dawns we are mostly through the central part of the country. Nowadays you can’t do an Aswan to Cairo cruise because of the danger of being attacked, so tourists tend to visit Cairo and the delta and then Aswan and Luxor and miss out the middle of the country. Only the brave or foolish visit the fundamentalist villages but the very foolish do often have efficient guardian angels.
The waiter passes regularly offering tea and sandwiches, I have some tea, Egyptian style, with sugar and no milk. Chris and the kids are still dozing. I find it very interesting to watch the goings on at the stations. Stallholders who have slept in their stalls are slowly waking to a new day’s trading. Schoolgirls stand in giggling groups as they do all over the world except under the gym slip there are matching trousers and over the head there is a white veil. Men walking to work take the short cut over the railway tracks. Great crowds of tuk-tuks wait at the crossings for the trains to pass. At some points the river has created a wide band of cultivatable land, at others and as we near Aswan the band of cultivation narrows and the vegetation reminds me of the Swakop river back home.
We arrive quite late in Aswan although since the train left late we are within the 16 hour maximum limit. We leave the train without feeling pressure since Aswan is the end of the line but soon after we are battling with would-be porters and traffic to get onto the bus. dashing across three lanes of homicidal traffic wakes you up nicely.
We dive past the ‘unfinished obelisk’ to have a quick look. It is half hewn from the rock but was abandoned when it broke. Our guide Wael is very exercised by the fact that most Egyptian obelisks have been stolen; first by the Romans, then by the French and British. There are only a few left in Egypt and since they tell the country’s history he clearly feels here is where they should be. Must say I sympathise. It’s ironic that if you are an Egyptian scholar you must travel to Europe to research your history. Same of course applies even to Namibian scholars.
We drive to a landing stage where we board a small ferry boat to visit a temple on one of the islands above the first and oldest of the Aswan dams. There are only three other parties here, you can see that this is not the norm by the number of ferry boats that are standing idle and the desperate rush of salesmen when our coach approaches.
The temple is to the goddess Isis and her image is all over the outside and inside of the temple together with that of her husband and various other characters in her story. The temple was moved by UNESCO in the same way as the temple of Abu Simbel. Cut into blocks numbered and reassembled above the flood water Like a giant three dimensional jig saw puzzle. You would never guess really. It is a beautiful little temple with a couple of additions by the Romans. Lotus flower capitals to the columns and all carved from a lovely sandstone that glows honey coloured in the late afternoon sun. There is a small clash as our tour guide sprints us into the inner sanctum of the temple where once a carved replica of a sacred boat was placed onto a granite plinth. Only the plinth remains. Our party has slipped in front of another party to the protest of the other tour guide – it’s a cut throat business this tour leading. She protests by parking her group outside the inner sanctum and explaining the wall carvings loudly, a contretemps ensues. Wael is the victor. Experience tells.
As we return the sun is setting, 5pm, its winter. We travel up a hill to the hotel by bus and have no concept of where we are, only that some areas have lights, presumably the town and some areas are dark, presumably the river and the desert. Morning will reveal all. We are the only guests at the hotel it seems and the staff were relaxing in semi darkness before we arrived. Quickly they rouse themselves and rustle up some welcoming drinks and turn on the lights. The rooms are off open walkways and have huge balconies, designed for the heat since winter must be very brief here. There are two trips on offer, one to a Nubian village for a dinner, sounds a bit canned to me and since the journey there and back, although picturesque will be in the dark, we decide against it, there will be canned dancing and crocodile wrestling but Alex will have to forego the crocodiles. The other trip is to Abu Simbel, I would love to see it but the trip is a) very expensive and b) starts at 3.30am, both factors preclude our participation. We have a mediocre dinner at the hotel, presumably the cook had to be roused to rustle up a meal at short notice, and go to our rooms. We do some washing, a challenge. The water is boiling in the hot tap and so it judders alarmingly even when mixed with cold and the basin is set exactly at backache height. However we prevail, Chris makes a clothesline out of the extension lead and we hang our washing on the balcony. I make a mental note to retrieve my undies early so as not to offend any locals. We battle mosquitos at the start of the night but Chris puts on the aircon although the room is cold and it sends them to sleep. The bed has woollen blankets and so we sleep warmly despite the chill in the air.
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