Browsing Tag

Egypt

Fa-la-la-la-la-lafel

December 26, 2010

When my husband and I were tryng to figure out where in the world to meet for the holidays, I threw out some practical suggestions.

“London is a good halfway point and a big airline hub.”

“Nah.”

“Paris? It’s easy to get there and it would be romantic. Or Rome? Frankfurt? Istanbul?”

“Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.”

“Well, Cairo is a major city, but too far out of the way …”

“YES.”

And that’s how we ended up in a predominantly Muslim country for Christmas — because my husband only wants to travel to places that have been in Indiana Jones movies.

Our Christmas day began with a short hop from Luxor to Sharm el Sheikh.

This is the Red Sea. You might remember it from such works as The Bible or Charlton Heston movies.

At the airport, everybody was in the Christmas spirit, even Arab African International Bank …

… and baggage claim.

One cab ride and a few police checkpoints later, The Husband and I arrived at our reefside hostel — so beautiful it felt like a Christmas miracle!

I’ve never been one of those people who gets really into Christmas. My dad usually sends one of those small and droopy Charlie Brown trees, and if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have any decorations at all.

But this year, removed from all the Christmas hype, I found myself aching for lights, garland and tinsel, and I gleefully took photos of anything that resembled the holidays back home.

For breakfast on the beach, I ate falafel, just so that I could make that fa-la-la-lafel joke in the post title. It was delicious, too.

Later that afternoon, our hostel hosted a holiday dinner. The chefs attempted their very first turkey. Even though that’s not really my thing, it was sweet to see how proud and excited they were to present a Christmas meal to weary and homesick travelers.

We ended the day smoking shesha on the beach and watching the waves.

There was no snow this Christmas. No carols, no wrapping paper, no stockings. But we were together, and that was the best present of all.

 

Special guest star

December 24, 2010

Making a cameo appearance for just two short weeks … The Husband!

In addition to making camero appearances on GirlVentures, The Husband is also an experienced Egyptian carpet weaver …

Felucca captain …

Pyramid holder …

And camel walker.

Plus, he’s my very best friend. It’s safe to say I couldn’t do this round-the-world trip without his constant love, trust and support.

I honestly didn’t think we’d be able to spend the holidays together this year. Yet here we are, with two precious weeks side by side on a whirlwind tour of Egypt.

It’s the very best possible Christmas gift. Santa himself couldn’t have come up with anything better.

I’m positively giddy The Husband is my corner of the world right now, because the last six months without him have been rough.

I can’t say that absence makes the heart grow fonder — mostly because I was pretty damn fond of him to begin with — but absence does help you cherish the things that matter most.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you’re spending it with people you love.

 

Inside Kom Ombo

December 23, 2010

Egypt reminds me of the first time I visited the Grand Canyon and realized there are no guard rails.

Like, seriously? You trust me with this?

Take, for example, Kom Ombo. This temple was built somewhere around 150 B.C., and it’s unique in that it was designed for two sets of gods.

Honestly, I am too clumsy to be around ruins without some kind of velvet rope or glass to protect the antiquities. And at most of the temples, tombs and pyramids, there aren’t many things in place to separate the people from the priceless.

There are guards, but they basically let tourists stomp all over, scale the rocks, touch the delicate hieroglyphs, even stub out cigarettes on the walls.

This tiny little Kom Ombo temple is among my favorite places in Egypt so far. Not only is it situated in a quiet agricultural area along the bank of the Nile River, but the etchings are also quite stunning.

It’s a wonderful place. I just hope tourists don’t ruin it before everybody else gets a chance to see it.

 

Pharaohs after dark

December 22, 2010

Getting to Abu Simbel takes effort.

The small Nubian town is situated  in the southern portion of Egypt, where the country really starts to feel like Africa. As one of the driest inhabited places on earth, most Nubians don’t even bother to put a roof over their clay homes.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult for tourists to get there. Due to security concerns, all foreigners are encouraged to travel from Aswan to Abu Simbel by police convoy. There is at least one convoy per day going into and out of the town.

The unfortunate part of taking the convoy is that it leaves too early (3 a.m.), it is expensive, and everybody is shepherded through the same Abu Simbel temples during a two-hour window.

Public transportation is available, but it is not reliable. Also, only four foreigners are allowed to ride each bus, in an effort to make the vehicles less of a target for terrorists.

My husband and I decided to combine the two options. We took the police convoy to Abu Simbel, stayed the night at a Nubian lodge, then returned to Aswan by public transportation the following day.

I think we were right on the money.

Seeing the Great Temple of Ramses II for the first time was exactly as we expected — astounding, breathtaking, but also very loud, busy and crowded.

So we waited. We strolled back to our Nubian lodge, sipped hibiscus tea, took cool showers. After the convoys rolled out of town, we returned to the temples for a second round.

This time, it was quiet. Mysterious. Magical.

Walking into each temple felt like traveling through time.

At the Temple of Hathor and Nefertari, I felt as if I had been summoned to the site by the pharoah himself. I could only hear my own footsteps, my heartbeat and the wind sliding over the stone crevices.

No crowds also meant I could take an illegal photo of the carvings inside the temple. (It was so beautiful in there, I just couldn’t help myself!)

As the sun made way for a swollen moon, a small crowd trickled in to watch the nightly sound and light show.

It was a great show. We’ve heard that the other sites put on cheesy presentations — like in Giza, where the Sphinx narrates a story while disco lights bounce off the pyramids — but this was tasteful and restrained.

Then again, the “sound” part of the “sound and light show” was in Japanese, so it could have been cheesy as hell. (I really wish somebody would have told us that translator headphones were available.)

Still, the sight of Abu Simbel at night — stately, regal, overwhelming — made everything worthwhile.

At closing time, a guard ushered us toward the path.

“Shhh.” he said as he tiptoed away. “Ramses is sleeping.”