Rameses II and Nefertari temples at Abu Simbel

Thursday 28 February 2013

Pati and Beebee visited the temples of of Rameses II and his wife Nefertari at Abu Simbel on Lake Nasser on Thursday. Their day started with a 2:45 am wake up call for a 3:25 am departure from Aswan via bus (they had planned to fly but learned that Egypt Air will resell confirmed seats if someone offers them more money). They traveled with about 20 tourists from England (Pati and Beebee quite like their English traveling companions). They took their pillows and a breakfast packed by the ship.

The bus traveled from their Nile cruise ship to a local meeting point where about 30 busses and smaller vans met to form several armed convoys. It was important to get there early to be in the first convoy, so that the most time could be spent at their destination before starting back with another convoy. Most busses in the convoy get an armed solder to ride with them. Pati and Beebee's bus got to the meeting point early enough to be part of the first convoy, but did not have an armed soldier on their bus. Their bus started as bus #5 of 7 busses, but within about 30 minutes, it had passed the 4 busses ahead of it and sprinted down the road.

The sun came up a few hours later. It rose quickly and was beautiful. The moon, just past full, was high in the Western sky for the whole trip.

The distance between Aswan and Abu Simbel is 300 km and takes 3 hours to drive. The north-south road is almost entirely straight and has a good surface. At the southern border of Egypt with Sudan, the bus turned East toward the Nile, Lake Nasser, and the temples. From the guide's description, it seemed that the bus (and group) was very briefly in Sudan.

At 6 am, the guide awoke the tourists and everyone ate breakfast as the bus travelled the remaining 30 minutes to the temples. The ship had packed enough breakfast food for two meals: 4 sandwiches, an orange (Pati had 2), 2 bananas, cheese, boxed orange juice, potato chips, and a bottle of cold water. In fact, most passengers saved some food for an early lunch.

The air was chilly when they left the bus, and did not warm up for an hour or so. Guides are not allowed to accompany tourists inside these temples, so all the groups from all the busses stood outside (there was plenty of room) shivering a bit and facing the temples while their guides explained what they would find inside, showing them professionally-taken photos.

The two temples are those of Rameses II and of his favorite wife Nefertari. They were preserved from being submerged in Lake Nasser (the largest man-made lake in the world) during the 1960s when the high dam was built by being dismantled into many huge, heavy pieces and re-assembled much higher. The Rameses II temple faces East; on two days of each year the sun reaches to the inside back of the temple to illuminate a statue of him. These days are February 22 (his birthday) and October 22 (his coronation day). Pati and Beebee were in Egypt for the birthday of Rameses II, but were in Cairo instead of Abu Simbel.

Interesting trivia: Rameses II ruled for 67 years and conquered 67 countries, taking a wife from each country (yes, 67 wives). Nefertari, the queen of Nubia (where Abu Simbel is located now), was his favorite wife. He had over 200 children, 97 of them daughters. He married 13 of his daughters; many (over 50) of the children of these unions died young of causes associated with inbreeding.

After an enjoyable 2 hours at the site wandering inside and around the temples by themselves, the group met at 9:45 am to begin the journey back to the ship. This time there was an armed uniformed guard on the bus with a small machine gun. The guard, who looked to be in his early 20s, left the bus at Aswan. As before, the trip was uneventful and they arrived back at fhe ship just after 1 pm, when lunch was served.

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Finally on the Nile

Written Monday 25 Feb 2013
Pati and Beebee are onboard the MS Domina Prestige for their trip on the Nile this week. The ship starts up the Nile (south) at 9:30 tonight. Tomorrow they meet with their group with their tour guide/Egyptologist to get the lowdown. Then the first excursion is sometime in the afternoon.
The group has 26 people plus a business guy plus the guide. Pati and Beebee are the only Americans in the group (probably the only Americans on the ship - maybe in Egypt). The other 24 in the group are British. Pati used a British tour company that he found on the internet, with very good reviews.

There are 72 cabins on this ship, so there are more than 140 passengers. There are other tour groups, each speaking their own country's language: so far German and Japanese have been overheard. Each tour group is seated together. The British group fills 3 tables at meals.

This afternoon Beebee had a leg/foot massage for 100 Egyptian pounds (around $16 US). Pati checked out the "hot tub" but didn't get in because it was icy cold. The swimming pool is cold too.

Pati and Beebee bought the all-inclusive drinks package so that they can get drinks "free" between 11:30 am and 11:30 pm each day. That includes bottled water, soft drinks, tea, coffee, juices, and alcoholic drinks. They have to pay for drinks outside that time, except at meals. Wine is only available at meals. It is VERY important to collect enough bottled water while it is "free," for use in the cabin and on tours. Passengers use bottled water to drink and to brush their teeth and tap water for bathing.

Beebee has sent a bundle of clothes to the laundry (happy happy joy joy) for about $20 US.

Internet access is available in the lobby for 20 Egyptian pounds (less than $3) for 1 hour, but the whole hour is used at once. That means writing all drafts offline and then posting in one marathon session.



Happy side note: Pati first made the round trip plane reservations between Cairo and Luxor using Expedia. However, Beebee became concerned about the short time they would have to switch planes when they got back to Cairo next week, since the first flight is domestic and the next flight is international, using 2 different terminals and having to handle their luggage themselves (not connecting flights). So Pati cancelled the Expedia flights (the agent couldn't figure out how to change just the return flight; her final suggestion was for Pati to change the flight in person after arriving in Luxor) and made the flight reservations directly with EgyptAir. When they got on the Cairo-to-Luxor flight, looking for seats in row 21, they found themselves seated in the second row. First/Business class! Beverages before takeoff! Meal service first! First bus to the terminal upon landing! And the best part - business class cost less through EgyptAir than coach cost through Expedia!

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Posts may be limited this week

Pati and Beebee fly to Luxor this morning, where they will board the MS Domina Prestige Emilio for a 7night/8 day cruise up the Nile to Aswan and then back. They will keep writing posts for this blog, but may not publish posts as frequently as before since the cost and quality of internet service is not known at this time.

 

This is posted at approximately 7:20 am local time (EST + 7) on Monday 25 February 2013. The Blogger date/time frequently is incorrect.

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The touts tell the Nigerians how smart Pati is!

Pati and Beebee just got this email. Even with the fiscal cliff, the FBI is only charging $280 (anything more less would be a scam) to mail them an ATM card :) Pati thinks the FBI is doing an excellent job since they know he is owed $2.3 million before they even know his name! Pati thinks they should simply deduct the $280 from the $2.3 million in case Pati's bank account is too small.

Should you visit Cairo?

Egypt's economy depends on tourists and very few are here. Pati and Beebee have seen very few Americans (mostly in the bathroom mirror). Major hotels like the Hilton seem to be closed or nearly closed. Tour boats are sitting idle. People are in financial trouble here.
Our tour guides want us to know that Americans are safe and welcome here. Pati and Beebee think that is true if one is concerned about being attacked or robbed. That seems unlikely. They even use the edge of Tahrir Square, which seems to be constantly blocked by protests, as a way to safely cross the street.
However, there are problems in Cairo. Pati decided to describe them -- not as a rant -- but as a way for readers of this blog to properly set their expectations too should they visit in the future. Pati and Beebee liked Cairo very much but had to overcome culture shock in the process.
The biggest problems in Cairo are the touts, traffic, litter, and unavailability of change and small bills.

• Touts

The touts come up with friendly greetings "Hello, America we are your friend. Mrs. America your glasses make you look like a doctor! Let me show you something in my shop." They use tourists natural desire to be polite against them. Pati and Beebee were warned by their hotel's staff to be aware of touts and they tried to be. However, yesterday, Pati wanted a SIM card for his international phone so he could make calls within Egypt at the local rate. He went into a shop that sold phones and asked if they sold SIM cards. They said no and then someone in the shop said he sold them next door. When Pati and Beebee went in the shop, they found it sold perfume. When Pati objected they said they had a SIM and asked to see Pati's phone. Pati asked how much the card would cost and a chorus answered "Don't worry! Very cheap!" Before he knew what was happening, one of the store workers was disassembling Pati's phone to "See if SIM card fits." Pati - starting to get a little agitated -- again asked how much. The store worker said 85 Egyptian pounds and then quickly revised it to 185 Egyptian pounds (more than $30 USD and at least three times the value of the card). Pati knew he was taken but was willing to pay to get out of the shop before things got worse. The shopkeeper nearly vacuumed every Egyptian pound out of Pati's shirt pocket (where he hid his walking around money) then found a US $20 and took it to "make change." Then a pitch started to sell perfume - "both for men and women" that Pati could take elsewhere in Egypt and "sell for double." Pati was beginning to believe the change was never coming (he had once given his keys to the Chevy dealer in Springfield and been offered test drives while they "try to find them") and was ready to run (the time for walking had long passed). At that instant the change did come (possibly fear of the tourist police) and Pati and Beebee left. The shop worker followed and said "Now that I have helped you, you help me" while making a sign for money. Before Pati could answer, Beebee had him across the street. Otherwise, Beebee feared the shop worker would tickle Pati until he had to pee and then charge him to use the bathroom.
What was the bottom line for the touts? First, Pati lost about $20 that he didn't want to lose but could afford. The touts got about $20 which was a lot to them but the way they got it made Pati avoid all other merchants. Pati and Beebee didn't even glance in the windows of shops they might have liked to have visited and made purchases in. Tourists spending money in Cairo could be good for the tourists and good for Cairo. The touts take a little money but prevent tourists from spending much more. Pati and Beebee became afraid to even speak to anyone on the street because of the touts. That was a shame because Pati and Beebee knew that most Egyptians are nice and helpful people - they just couldn't tell which were nice and which were touts.

• Traffic

There are few - if any - stoplights in Cairo. Drivers ignore lane markings and drive within inches of each other both front to back and side to side. There are no safe pedestrian crossings. The only way to cross the streets is to follow an Egyptian and weave between moving cars. Pati suspects that someday there will be one gigantic chain reaction crash that kills everyone in Cairo - except for the touts.

• Litter

Cairo is dusty and littered. It might be difficult to control the dust because of the sandstorms but the litter makes no sense. When people are done with something - say a food wrapper - they just drop it and move on. Cairo has 22 million people and a large number of them litter. The piles of litter are unsightly and smell. It would be so easy to have a government program to use some of the 4.4 million unemployed in Cairo to clean the litter off the streets. It would be even easier for the residents to become more aware of the effects of the litter and try to minimize their littering. (I don't think Pati's feeling about the litter are cultural bias. Litter breeds pests. Also, the litter hurts tourism which is a major element of Cairo's economy. Pati once heard a fellow tourist - whom Pati felt was a little grubby himself - describe Cairo as "very dirty.")

• Change

For some reason that Pati can not understand, small bills and coins are in very short supply. This is a problem because when one wants to buy something inexpensive, no one can make change. There are lots of inexpensive things in Cairo but they are impossible to buy. For example, Beebee wanted to buy two postcards in the Egyptian Museum but didn't have small enough change to get them. Another, more pressing, example is going to the restroom - every one of them has an attendant wanting a tip (it isn't clear what they do but Pati suspects they do the cleaning). Pati paid $1.50 for a quick pee at the Egyptian Museum because that was the smallest denomination he had.

• Should you visit Cairo?

Cairo has many more wonderful things than problems (e.g., you can look at the mummy of the Pharoh of the Bible). Most Egyptians also seem genuinely nice and visiting Cairo can be inexpensive. But, given Cairo's problems, Pati thinks you should visit but only with a professional guide. Pati and Beebee would not have survived without one. TripAdvisor is a good starting point for finding one. Pati also thinks that people who want to visit Egypt should do it soon. If its problems are addressed (especially the touts), Pati thinks Cairo will be packed with more tourists than Rome.

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Concentrated Cairo

Pati and Beebee are spending three full days in Cairo. The first two days they are going on excursions arranged by Orbital Travel. They have an air-conditioned car (though it is too cool already to require it), a driver who speaks almost no English, and a guide who is fluent in English (as well as German). Although his university degree is in archeology, he has been a guide for 18 years. He is married, with two children (son aged 13, daughter aged 8). He has a brother and a cousin in the U.S.; he said they "won the green-card lottery." He has never been to the U.S. himself; his children want him to take them to Disneyland. He is an excellent guide.

Each day for the tours, Pati and Beebee are picked up at their B&B, driven to each place of interest, escorted by the guide who buys the tickets, walks them to the best parts and explains them, taken to an excellent authentic Egyptian lunch (the guide and driver eat separately), and driven back to the B&B at the end of the day's activities.

On the first day of tours (Friday), Pati and Beebee were picked up at 8:30 am following an 8 am breakfast provided by the B&B. The guide climbed up to the 3rd floor to get them (80 steps); it was agreed that he would just call the hotel desk when he got there the next day and they would walk down. They visited the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities (originally named the Cairo Museum) in Cairo, the Pyramids of Giza, and the Sphinx (Khafre's head attached to the body of a lion). The three pyramids visited from the outside, in size order, were the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the Pyramid of Khafre (which appears larger only because it sits on higher ground), and Menkaure. Pati and Beebee also went into the Pyramid of Khafre, climbing first down a narrow passage, then up, to get to the burial chamber. The visit to the Museum included the best parts of the Museum, which is huge, but did not include the Mummy Room. Pati and Beebee plan to go back to the Museum on their own on their third day in Cairo to see more, especially the mummies.

Pati and Beebee were fortunate to visit the Museum on Friday, because that is the only day that Egyptians get off from work. That is the day that many go to the mosques, or to outdoor places to relax, or to Tahrir Square to protest. (Protests in Tahrir Square happen every Friday, each with its own pre-announced theme, because it is a very important square. There is a tent city of protesters living on the square, who apparently form the core of the protesters.) The guide took Pati and Beebee to the Museum early in the day to get that tour completed before that day's protests started. The Museum is just off Tahrir Square on the opposite side from the B&B. Pati and Beebee arrived at the museum just before opening time (9 am) and the museum was quite empty of tourists (2 or 3 other groups) for the entire visit.

As it turned out, Tahrir Square had only a small protest, with the larger protest in another square, so the return to the B&B in the afternoon after seeing the pyramids was uneventful.

On the second day of tours (Saturday), Pati and Beebee visited the Mohamed Ali Mosque, a bazaar, Memphis (the original capital about an hour south of Cairo), and Saqqara near Memphis. The Mosque could not have been visited Friday, because it was being used for religious purposes. The guide, in addition to showing the features of the Mosque, also gave an easy-to-understand description of the 5 pilars of the muslim faith, explaining how similar it is to Christianity (his faith).

The souk (open-air marketplace) was just opening, with vendors setting up their stalls. The guide arranged for one man of the group of policemen there to walk around with Pati and Beebee, to discourage their being harrassed by sellers. This man was dressed in ordinary clothes, but had a pistol in a holster tucked into the back of his waistband. Pati and Beebee walked through slowly, observing the wares being set out, and the whole process in general. They were most interested in the spices, but did not buy any, since food products would probably be confiscated in at least one of the customs checks during the rest of the trip. Pati wondered how many of the objects sold came to Egypt via China. The officer who accompanied them spoke only a few words of English; while polite, he was uncomfortable in this duty. As they were about to exit the souk, a vender called out "American housewife" and he did not mean Beebee.

The drive to Memphis and Saqqara took about an hour. Here at Saqqara were the oldest pyramids in Egypt, including the step pyramid, the bent pyramid and the red pyramid. As they approached the step pyramid, there was an abrupt change from green plantings to the Sahara desert. At Memphis, they visited a fallen partial statue of Rameses II that was so hugh and heavy that the government just built a small building around it where it lay. There is also an alabaster sphinx there, which archeologists now believe belonged to the female pharoh Hapshepsut

Pati and Beebee decided to skip a visit to a carpet workshop, and they all stopped for lunch in an interesting outdoor restaurant. The meal was called "barbecue" and the meat (chicken and beef) was cooked at the table on a personal-sized grill. There were small bowls of side items and baklava for dessert. (They were especially appreciative of this meal, because they had left the B&B at 7:45 am before breakfast was available.)

Arriving back at the B&B at 3 pm, they said goodbye to their driver and guide and were on their own again. They arranged through their B&B to be taken to (and returned from) a dinner cruise on the Lady Diana on the Nile. Their driver arrived at 6:20 (climbing up the 80 steps), advised them to take jackets for Nile-watching atop the ship, and off they went for an "exciting" 45 minute drive to the Lady Diana. While the driver had some English (and tried to communicate), he definitely said "woman driver" while passing a timid driver who had been afraid to enter the traffic fray. The cause (or effect) of her timidity was exhibited in the metal gouges down the length of the side of her car.

On arriving at the Lady Diana, Pati and Beebee were led by their driver through another ship in order to enter the Diana. The cruise meal was a delicious buffet of Egyptian food at western prices. A beer was about $6.50 which would buy a brewery in some parts of Cairo. This was followed by the entertainment as the ship cruised slowly up the Nile (south) for some distance and then back down again. The entertainers were a singer whose American English was superb when he sang English-language songs, a belly dancer who was a great hit with the Asian men there, and a sufi dancer, who wore three skirts (that lit up at appropriate times) and spun counterclockwise for at least 20 minutes with no sign of dizziness. It is impossible to describe sufi dancing adequately in words. Pati and Beebee spent about 10 minutes "up top" enjoying the view in the chilly night.

The row of tables beside Pati and Beebee's held 8 Asian men, and the next row had about 8 more Asian men and women. One man had a video camera; each of the other men had a large camera (high-end Nikon SLR's) with a huge lens, and each woman had a smaller camera. Until the belly dancer appeared, the men spent their time photographing each other and other people's cameras. Then they focussed their huge lenses on her. They also ate an amazing quantity of food.

Pati and Beebee finally got back to the B&B at 10:30 pm and collapsed into bed.

On Sunday, Pati and Beebee returned on their own to the Egyptian Museum, only a 5-minute walk alongside Tahrir Square. This time they visited the Mummy Room where the best mummies, including Rameses II, are kept. Then they walked around the rest of the Museum at leisure. Beebee's favorite exhibit is the Narmer Tablet. Before they left, they tried to buy postcards at a counter in the Museum. The clerk did not have change, so they hope to find postcards at the airport.

Leaving the Museum, they ate lunch at Cafe Riche, an authentic Egyptian restaurant with delicious food. Tonight they plan to go back to Felfela for their last dinner in Cairo. They have eaten there twice before; it is a wonderful experience.

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Quick Cairo Note

Pati and Beebee are in Cairo, checked into their B&B, and full of a delicious meal at a restaurant with great atmosphere. And walked safely through traffic and the edge of Tahrir Square after dark.

 

Local time = GMT + 2 = EST + 7

 

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