Alexandria

On Sunday, we left most of our luggage at the Indiana Hotel, and headed for Ramses Station and the 9 am train to Alexandria. We thought this was a two hour train, but it arrived in Alexandria at 12.

It was a short ride to our hotel, which is located across from the harbour. Our room has a wonderful view of the harbour. The hotel, called Le Metropole, was built in the grand style in 1902 and remains in beautiful condition. It is apparently one of the better hotels in town and is very much a step up in class from what we have experienced elsewhere on our trip.

There isn't that much to see in Alexandria. It gets numbers of tourists from cruise boats (most of whom are bused to Cairo to see the pyramids), as well as large numbers of Egyptians looking for a beach holiday in summer.

We walked around the harbour and had an excellent fresh fish meal at the Fish Market Restaurant.

We continued to wander for the afternoon. There are many old buildings which once must have been quite grand, but which are really in need of cleaning and restoration. Apparently, Alexandria was a thriving and even modern city from 1900 to about 1950, with impressive buildings and public features and parks, but it seems to have been in something of a decline since then. Some form of building renovation or restoration is happening for a few buildings (mainly bank buildings), there is a long way to go to make Alexandria an architectural jewel - the city suffers from the general uncleanliness, rubbish and decay that seems endemic in Egypt.

It isn't easy to find a restaurant that serves alcohol, but fortunately we did so for dinner and shared an expensive but welcome bottle of what passes for wine in Egypt - we are even getting close to appreciating it.

On Monday, we took the opportunity to sleep in - we felt that we had done our quota of early starts and we knew that we had to fly out at 4 am the next morning.

We then went for a stroll along the Corso, by the harbour, towards the new library (the Bibliotheca Alexandrina), which has a striking architecture and is airy and spacious internally.

We had a light lunch on the way back to our hotel and then headed for our 3 pm train back to Cairo. The train passes through densely farmed areas, watered by irrigation channels from the Nile or its delta. The fields are generally small, and mostly growing food crops. Tractors seem rare; the donkey is the universal aid. Egypt relies entirely on the Nile; if the Nile water isn't there to provide irrigation, the land is nothing but desert in all the areas were saw from Alexandria to Aswan and beyond.

We returned to the Indiana Hotel (using the Cairo Metro, which is surprising clean, efficient and cheap, even if not very extensive). We had a light meal and a short sleep, before rising at 12:30 am to taxi to Cairo Airport for our 4:15 am flight home, via Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur.

Cairo - Again

The overnight train from Luxor was quite good. Thanks to the blanket that we bought in Aswan, we had a cosy night and got some sleep. Egyptian Railways excelled and the train arrived just before 10 am on Saturday.

We headed for the Indiana Hotel, where we had previously stayed in Cairo.

For the afternoon, we went to look around Islamic Cairo. This is the area of the markets (more shopping!). Firstly we took the Metro to Ramses station and bought some tickets for Alexandria for Sunday and Monday).

After the usual negotiation, we took a taxi to Islamic Cairo (Khan el-Khalili). When we exited the taxi, we clearly looked lost. Two lovely girls took pity on us and guided us to the market area and oriented us. We shared a cup of tea with them and their friends at Fishawi's, the oldest tea shop in Cairo. They were local university students, studying English literature.

We wandered around the market area, buying various gifts and other dubious items, as well as running into most of the other people on the tour.

On Saturday night, most of the tour group had a final meal together at a restaurant on the Nile, and we said our good-byes as we had to move on early the next morning.

Luxor and the Valley of the Kings

On Thursday, we left our felluca by motorboat at 6.00 am (another early start) and returned to Aswan. We collected our luggage and boarded our bus, ready for our convoy. Egyptians require foreigners to travel in police convoys in lower Egypt (essentially the area south of Cairo), so your travel times are determined by the convoy times.

We had stops along the way to Luxor at Kom-Ombo and Edfu. Both are temples.

Kom-Ombo is on the edge of the Nile and has good relief carvings. It is a double temple, where most features are duplicated, side-by-side, along a symetrical central axis. The temple is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god, and to the falcon god, Horaeris (also called Horis the Elder). The temple is Ptolemaic (from about 180 BC). Earthquakes, Nile floods, damage from later Coptic users and reuse of the stone for local building have taken their toll on the building, but is remains worth seeing, particularly for the reliefs.

The Efdu temple is dedicated to the falcon-god Horus. It is inland from the Nile on the western side. For centuries, it was covered with sand, which protected the building from earthquakes and the elements. Consequently, it is one of the best preserved temples in Egypt, with even the roof remaining. It is newer (comparatively) than the temples of Luxor. being Ptolemaic (after about 300 BC).

From Edfu, is it a one hour trip to Luxor, where we would stay for one night. Luxor was the capital of Egypt in ancient times (it was then known as Thebes). We took horse-drawn carriages from our hotel to the Karnak temple complex, about 2 km north of the town. Luxor is on the east side of the Nile (the side for the living).

Karnak is a large and impressive temple complex, built and re-built by many pharaohs over the Middle and New Kingdom periods, starting around 1500 BC. It is a large site and we had a good local guide. He was quite a character, having been born in the temple area itself in 1943 (then, locals lived among the ruins). The complex itself is spread over a large area. Particularly impressive are the large statues, the remaining tall granite obelisks and the Hypostyle Hall, with its array of 134 massive columns.

The next morning we rose before sunrise yet again - this time to take a motorboat across the Nile to the west bank to visit the Valley of the Kings. The west bank is the side of the dead (ancient Egyptians lived predominately on the east bank, where the sun rose, which was seen as the side of life). It is a few kilometers from the bank to the Valley, so we set off on donkeys provided by locals. Fortunately, the donkeys knew the way well and we made it, even if the ride isn't terribly comfortable.

The Valley of the Kings is a relatively small and desolate valley, with steeply sloping sides and a rocky peak at the head that resembles a pyramid. It was quite crowded, even at this early hour (about 8 am). We visited four tombs. The general layout is similar - a gently sloping descent though a rock-cut corridor about 5m square, passing through two or three somewhat larger spaces, to end at a burial chamber (of maybe 8m square). Walls and roof are covered with incredibly well-preserved drawings and hieroglyphics, which are typically carved into the plaster of the wall and painted.

The tombs can be crowded and become quite hot and stuffy. It must be very unpleasant visiting in the hottest summer months.

We bused to Deir El Medina, the area of the tombs and village ruins of the workers who actually built the regal tombs. These tombs are smaller (of course), but colourfully executed and show more scenes of normal life. One worker showed a scene of his wish for the next life - to be farming by the Nile with his wife.

We returned to the Nile by our trusty donkeys.

In the afternoon, we had free time. We found a jewellery shop and helped the local economy, before walking past the floodlit Luxor temple to have a G & T on the terrace of the Old Palace Hotel - the grand hotel in town.

We had a meal at the Jamboree Restaurant (for the second night - we had been there previously to sample the local delicacy, stuffed pigeon). At 10pm we headed to Luxor station to board the 11pm overnight train to Cairo.

Felluca

Back at Aswan, we quickly grabbed some day-packs and headed for the river. There we boarded our felluca.

A felluca is a single-sail Nile boat, typically crewed by Nubians. We were on the felluca for the afternoon and overnight. We had two boats (one slightly smaller) for the 19 of us. Each boat has a padded deck (which you lie/sleep on), a very small cooking area and a small cabin (for changing).

We sailed up the Nile, past various sites (such as the Old Cataract Hotel, where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile). We moored at a quiet spot on a rocky island (part of the Nile cataract) and had a swim. This was really quite refreshing. We had adequate supplies of cold beer on the boat and it was good to relax.

Towards evening, we moored on the bank, near a Nubian Village. For dinner, we walked though the village to the home of one of these families and gathered in an open courtyard.

The meal was delicious. It was mainly vegetarian, with some kofte and chicken, washed down with some of the beer from the boat.

Following dancing (the Nubians seem to love to dance), we headed back to our boat to sleep.

We were up at 5 am to take a motorboat back to Aswan, to pick up our luggage and board our bus for Luxor. Yes - another Egyptian sunrise - this was getting to be too many!

Abu Simbel

We headed off to Abu Simbel just after 3 am. Yes - we were seeing a lot of Egyptian sunrises on this trip.

To travel to Abu Simbel by bus is about a three hour trip from Aswan. The authorities require that tourists (foreigners) travel in convoys organized by the police and protected by the police. Everybody in any sort of uniform in Egypt seems to carry a sub-machine gun (usually with at least one spare magazine).

Our bus travelled to the convoy muster-point and then (after the obligatory waiting around), away we went. The drive is uneventful - it's all desert anywhere in Egypt away from the Nile.

Abu Simbel (and a smaller temple to Rameses II's Nubian queen) is on the banks of Lake Nasser. These temples were moved here in the 1970's from their original location about 200m away (which is now under the lake).

Abu Simbel is worth visiting. The towering statues of Rameses II outside the temple are striking. Inside, there is a hall of multiple columns and decorated walls, all hewn from the sandstone rock.

The convoy approach means that everyone arrives at once, but if you look at the smaller temple first and then the larger, you seem to miss the worst of it (most tourists crowd into Abu Simbel).

Our local guide gave us an overview of the temples and then left us to explore the internals (guides aren't allowed to operate inside).

Both temples are worth seeing, even if it means an early rise, long drives and (consequently) a higher cost (still only about $A100 each). Rameses II built these temples well down here in Nubia to make something of a statement to the Nubians - and the scale of these temples is a mighty statement. He was a cunning scoundrel in many ways - he also married a Nubian bride to keep them on-side (this is the queen in the smaller temple). Rameses II ruled for 67 years (he died at 92) and made a habit of marrying queens from each area of Egypt and from every surrounding tribe or country - he had over 50 wives and about 200 children.

You leave Abu Simbel as you arrive - when the convoy leaves. However, you do have enough time (just) to see the site.

Aswan

We arrived at Giza Station in Cairo for our train. It was due to leave about 10:15 pm, so it was pretty good that it got away at 11:00 pm. We felt as though we had been on the go for days, so we were all pretty tired and ready to take a seat on the train.

The train isn't too bad, as long as you understand its limitations. The seats are good (we were in 'first class'), with plenty of room and a good recline. However, the toilets at the carriage ends aren't first class (their class level diminished as the trip proceeds). The lights stay on all night and it gets a bit cold.

The trip is supposed to take 13 hours. Ours took 15 hours (we arrived at 2 pm), which is apparently a good performance.

We got to our hotel and had a shower, which was bliss. We then had a walk around the nearby souks, which weren't worth much attention. We had an early dinner at a restaurant on the Nile and then got an early night. This was merely self-preservation - we anticipated a 2:45 am wake-up call so that we could travel to Abu Simbel

Cairo

We convinced our guide to have a 8 am start to get us moving to the Pyramids early. We had an Egyptian guide for our trip (by bus) to the Pyramids. Unfortunately the day was hazy (it cleared progressively), so we didn't see the pyramids until we were nearly next to them.

It's difficult not to be impressed. They are what you expect - very big and very old. We went inside the 'middle one'. There is a narrow sloping passage down (only about 1.2m high), then a horizontal passage, then a passage up. You arrive at a chamber of about 10m by 4m, with a pitched ceiling about 6m high. There is no decoration anywhere and just a large stone sarcophagus in the chamber (they would probably have to demolish the pyramid to remove it). It is oppressively hot and humid inside, so you don't linger. There were only a few people inside when we were there - it must be terrible when there are larger numbers.

We had a good look around the pyramids and the sphinx and then went to a papyrus shop (seems almost a mandatory thing!). Of course, we now have a a decorated papyrus to take home.

The tour group met up for lunch (our last meal together). We went to a kushari - this is the type of restaurant and the name of the only dish that it serves, a meal that is a mix of rice, brown lentils, chickpeas, macaroni and onion, topped with a garlic, tomato and chili sauce.This is cheap and filling and is something of a staple food in Egypt.

Traffic in Cairo is simply maniac - much more so than anywhere else we have been so far in the Middle East. Traffic is almost constantly gridlocked, cars squeeze into every space, there is no concept of a lane and no traffic lights (which would be ignored anyway). The whole shambles is basically left to sort itself out. All this makes crossing the roads a complete adventure. You simply have to find the best way across that you can - the best approach seems to be to watch for a local and them use them to "shield" you as you cross.

For the afternoon, our brilliant team member (turned guide) Eileen had organized a tour of the Egyptian Museum. We took taxis there and met with our own guide. This was a brilliant thing to do. Our guide was great and we spent over 2.5 hours having our own guided tour of the museum. Our guide showed us key exhibits and really explained what they meant and why. She was a trained Egyptologist and could read the cartouches (the hieroglyphic names of the kings) on the statues.

The material from the tomb of Tutankhamen is simply amazing, both in terms of the quantity of items and the magnificence of the works. The solid gold funeral mask, inlaid with blue, is breath-taking, as are the various sarcophagi (one inside the other). The other material (jewellery, beds, chariots, boxes, jars and so much more) fills rooms. And all this for a fairly unimportant boy-king who reigned for only eight years!

From there, it was back to the hotel, a quick stop for supplies for the train, a quick meal and off to the train. We farewelled Eileen, James, Mary, Leeanne and Roberta, who finished their travels with us here. We were now with a new group (seven of us from the 'old group' joined 11 who had travelled in parallel to us from Amman). We also had a new guide (David).