Egypt 1: In which we learn how to tip and discover that Ramses II was quite narcissistic

Salaam from Egypt!

After half a year of working and beginning my college career I am back out in the world ( but will start college again in a week). It was great to take a long plane ride again :).

On that note, our trip to Egypt started out with a 10-hour plane ride on Egypt Air from JFK. We arrived in Cairo in the morning, were picked up by a tour representative (our whole trip has been with a tour company--more on that later) and experienced Cairo traffic. My goodness. I could write a whole post about Cairo traffic--it's crazy! The roads are always packed, and there is a constant symphony of car horns. Stop lights and signs are optional, along with lines on the road. And somehow no one hits anyone else! (so far... though it seems every car is kind of scraped up). I am entirely impressed; I know I don't have the reflexes that these Egyptian drivers have.

Anyway, after a nap we went out to dinner at Felfela, a cute and not-too-touristy restaurant walking distance from our hotel (which is right by the Nile and the Egyptian Museum), where I had traditional Egyptian foul (beans). To get there, we had to navigate Cairo traffic, which is entirely different from Minnesota. As I said, stop lights are often optional and crosswalks are few (at least where we are), but somehow we arrived at the restaurant unscathed--the drivers have good reflexes. Crossing the street is quite a dance.

Then an early night, because we woke up at 3 to take a care to the airport for our 5 AM flight to Abu Simbel, which is not irregular. The desert/Nile scenery from the plane was gorgeous--apparently the area above Abu Simbel is sometimes called Egypt's moonscape. We arrived early enough to beat the heat and some of the crowds (though lots of tourists took the same flight we did). Abu Simbel, on the shore of Lake Nasser, is home to two gigantic temples built into the side of a mountain. The largest was built by and for Ramses II, the pharaoh who seems to show up most in Egyptian history (King Tut, despite popular opinion, actually didn't do much of importance except have a tomb that was tricky to find); four huge statues of the pharaoh dominate the front of the temple. The smaller temple was built for his favorite wife, Nefertari (he had many wives--no one knows exactly how many).
A couple cool facts about the temples: 1) at two different times during the year (it used to be October 20 and February 20 or so...) the sunlight will shine directly in the doorway of the temple so that it lights up the last room deep inside. I love how those ancient architects knew so much about the astronomy and math. 2) After the Aswan dam was built, lake Nasser grew until it threatened to flood the temples. So the temples were moved 65 m up and 200 m back from the lake and put into a newly constructed mountain. The sunshine lines up at different dates now, but other than that the temples are like they would have been in the old setting.

After a quick morning visit to Abu Simbel we flew back to Aswan, where we met our tour representative and were taken to our hotel on Elephantine island, in the middle of the Nile. Ironically, the hotel is called Mövenpick and is run by the Swiss :). After a brief rest and lunch we took a ride on the Nile in a Felucca--a traditional Egyptian sailboat. It was beautiful and very relaxing--we didn't move much because there was little wind--and I even took a nap on the boat.

That evening we headed to the Temple at Philae (which, like Abu Simbel, was also moved block by block because of Nile flooding. This one was built by the Greeks, though, and is on an island--we got there in a boat with a driver who looked to be about 10) for the sound and light show, a very popular tourist activity in Egypt. Different parts of the temple were lit up while various speakers played out voices of the gods and goddesses talking about the temple. On our way back to the hotel we stopped by the souk--the market in Aswan. It was filled with stalls selling clothing, shoes, spices, souvenirs--anythinga tourist or a local might want. Some parts were more touristy, which meant more hassle. Egyptian vendors are very vocal, which takes some time to get used to. As we walked down the street, it was impossible to avoid vendors coming up to us, trying to sell us things, inviting us to their shops... even using lines such as "You marry me your daughter, I give you my shop" or "How many camels for your daughter, madame?" Marriage proposals, lovely! Never serious, though; just a way to attract tourists. We also heard "We have everything--whatever you need--I don't know what you need, but we have it!" My favorite was when men would yell "No hassle here! No hassle!" when really, what they were doing was hassling. It is a totally different way of selling; sometimes I longed for the peace and quiet of a store where you are left alone. On the other hand, I've enjoyed discovering the Egyptian culture first hand. I ended up buying a nice shirt in a galabiya shop--galabiyas are traditional Egyptian robes. My parents insisted that I try to bargain--bargaining is also part of the buying/selling culture here. I discovered that I have no natural proclivity to bargaining and really don't enjoy it, but I managed to get the price down a bit. I'll work on it.

The next morning we met our guide, Ashraf, and saw the Aswan High Dam, a huge dam constructed from 1960-1970 to control flow of the Nile (this was the dam that caused some of the temples we saw to be at risk for flooding). The structure was quite impressive, and full of tour busses, of course, like any other site. We then headed back to Philae, to get a look at it in the day time. The temples along the Nile (we've seen quite a few), like Philae, are beautiful, and some of them are quite well preserved, even the painted parts that weren't exposed to the elements. Our guide, Ashraf, told us about some of the stories depicted on the walls (Philae is dedicated to Isis and Hathor, two goddesses). After Philae we headed to a granite quarry from the time of the pharaohs to see the unfinished obelisk. This obelisk, which would have been the largest in the world, had begun to be carved out of the granite when a crack formed, and the workers were forced to give it up. I'm almost glad they did, because I could hardly imagine the amount of work that would go into transporting the obelisk and putting it into place when it was completed.

Our next stop in Aswan was the Nubian Museum, a lovely museum showcasing ancient Egyptian artifacts with a focus on Nubia. Nubia is the area encompassing southern Egypt and northern Sudan, and is characterized by darker-skinned people than those in Cairo. The Nubians also have a distinct history, gastronomy, and musical tradition. The museum was beautiful: much of it was made out of the same type of granite from the pharaonic quarry.

After saying farewell to Aswan, we headed to our cruise boat that would take us to Luxor. There are around 300 boats like ours on the Nile--cruising down the Nile is a very popular activity for tourists. Tourism in Egypt is different from many of the other places I've visited: organized tours are the way to go. Because 95% of Egypt is desert, it's good to be in the hands of someone who knows their way around, and renting a car would not be the way to go. Egypt is also less developed than most of the other places I've visited, and tour companies are good at finding hotels and restaurants that are comfortable and safe for tourists. It also helps a lot since none of us speak Arabic. And I'm extremely thankful for the van drivers, since I know I couldn't navigate this traffic!

Speaking of van drivers, one thing that this trip has illuminated for me is the art of tipping. Egypt is a tipping culture, and having people drive us and take our bags means that we're tipping a lot! There are often attendants in bathrooms who need a tip, and many people will try to help us to get a tip. Sometimes this means helping us with our bags, giving us directions, or explaining something in a temple. It's almost overwhelming like in the souk, and we've only started to learn how to tip. The Egyptians use pounds and piasters (cents), and at around 5.45 pounds to the dollar, it takes some calculating. In general, everything in Egypt is quite cheap, but tourists are expected to tip quite a lot.

Anyway, back to the boat. Ours was the Monaco, and was like a mini Caribbean cruise ship: basically, a floating hotel. It has a restaurant, a pool on the top deck, a lounge, a small work-out room, a gift shop, and a lot of comfortable cabins. We had a beautiful view out of the picture window in our cabin, but the best view was from the top deck. Watching the Nile pass by was breathtaking; I could have stayed on that boat for a month. We saw a lot of donkeys, mud huts, and agriculture; scenes that have not changed much in the past 4000 years. In some areas, the desert came right up to the banks of the Nile, but there were always palm trees along the shoreline.

I have so much more to write about, but I think this is enough for now. In the next post I'll talk about our cruise and our visit in Luxor. Right now We're back in Cairo having a relaxing afternoon, and will start our tour of the city tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, I will update again soon!