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January 20, 2005
Visitors
We took the month of December off from classes once again and played host to several guests for a good portion of the month. Carrie’s parents came to see us here for just less than 2 weeks and we also had 4 good friends (Matt & Vicky and Aaron & Aubrey) for the Christmas holiday. We got to play tour guide as we took them all over Egypt. Ok, so we did not take them everywhere, but we were all worn out by the time it came to get them off to the airport.
Mom and Dad had it the easiest as we allowed them two days before we started the high-speed tour. Before the others arrived we took Mom and Dad to the Pyramids as well as some other places around town where we spend our time. Must not forget the shopping, both in the Bazaar and in other parts of town.
The others were not nearly so lucky, it was go-time almost immediately from touch down. Allowing them a mere 8 hours to recover from their flights, we loaded them onto the over night train to Luxor. In total we had nine people traveling together: the two of us (C&D), Mom & Dad (DDH), Matt & Vicky (MVP), Aaron & Aubrey (AK2) and our flatmate Christin (who doesn’t have any abbreviations yet). We followed almost the same itinerary as when Carrie and I went Up South in July (see the “Up South” entry) with only a few minor variations, not the least of which was a guide – thanks Hattam! – for the sites in and around Luxor. We spent two days in Luxor, visiting the Luxor Museum, Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, Madinat Habou, Hatshepsut’s Temple, and the Village of the Artisans. Although it is smaller, and contains what could be argued are perhaps more “minor” artifacts, the Luxor Museum is very nice and it's much more enjoyable, as it is better laid out than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
After our whirl-wind tour of the Luxor area, we took the morning train down to Aswan. The time in Aswan was perhaps slightly slower in pace, at least for the first day. We hired a felucca and spent several hours sailing on the Nile and visiting the botanical gardens on one of the islands there.
Early morning the next day was time once again to “beat feet”, so with a 3am start we boarded a micro-bus – a.k.a. the rocket ship – and took off across the desert to Abu Simbel. This excursion broke the primary rule of travel: be at the destination longer than the traveling required. Four hours in a microbus, each way, for a mere two hours at the site. However, it was enough time to see everything and definitely worth the trip. The monuments themselves are amazing, but the fact that they were actually moved from their original location makes them doubly impressive. They are now approximately 55 meters higher than where they started, a move resulting from the building of the Aswan High Dam.
We returned to Cairo the morning of Christmas Eve and saw a beautiful full double rainbow. Unfortunately, we were not able to get the whole thing on film because of its sheer size. However, later that same day, using the 10x zoom on MVP’s camera we were able to gain photographic evidence that we can indeed see the Pyramids from our bedroom window.
Christmas day we had 10 people for brunch, a tradition in Carrie’s family, complete with sparkling grape juice. We had a total of 23 people here - at the same time - for dinner and desert, although four of them came for desert only.
On the 26th we went to Old Cairo, also known as Coptic Cairo, which is the oldest part of the city, and went to the place where Coptic tradition says the Holy Family stayed while they sojourned in Egypt. Because Friday is our “Sunday” in Egypt, we forgot that there would be services in the churches there on Sunday. The downside is that we only got to stand in the back of the churches for a little while instead of really looking around inside, but the upside was that we got to see part of both a Coptic Orthodox mass and a Greek Orthodox mass, and the churches were lit by more than just candles.
After leaving this area, we went to an area called “Zeboleena” or the Garbage City. Not much of a tourist site generally speaking, although we have been through there several times, this is a very poor area where a major portion of the garbage collected in Cairo gets taken. It is sorted by hand by men, women, and children for anything of use and/or recyclable. The sale of recyclable materials is the major source of income for the residents there. While it is very eye opening to see this, it was not in and of itself our destination. Our destination was a place in the heart of this area known as the Cave Church. This is a Coptic Orthodox Church and Monastery. Carved out of the mountain, it is the largest church in the Middle East, with the main hall holding several thousand at once! The face of the cliff and many of the surrounding boulders have been carved with depictions of biblical scenes, from the ten commandments to the crucifixion. The story of the Cave Church and Garbage City is a story for another time.
The next stop on our whirlwind tour of Cairo was the new El Azhar park; a recently constructed park with water gardens, trees, grass, and amazing views of the city and even in-ground sprinkling, much to the delight of Aaron, who felt a need to inspect the sprinkler heads. Because the sun was so bright by this time in mid afternoon, the girls without shades decided to use their scarfs as eye protection...
After lunch at the very good authentic Egyptian restaurant there, we wrapped up the tour with a trip to Khan El Khaili, the centuries-old shopping bazaar, where you can find everything from cheesy plastic “I Love Egypt” toys, pyramids, and the ubiquitous “Sheesha pipes” to amazing works of art, hand-made oriental rugs, and genuine antiques. The shopkeepers range from pushy, obnoxious, and creepy, to kind, genuine artisans who take great pride in their work.
The next day it was off to the Museum for the kids, while we took Mom and Dad to the airport. Of course, a family vacation wouldn't be complete without a last minute rush to find "that something special" so Carrie and Dad did an early morning run to Khan El Khalili, to pick up the jewelry box that mom had ordered and to make one last purchase: a beautiful game table. Even if you have no use for a game table, you can’t help but love this work of art. More than once I have been tempted to buy it, but knowing that I would need to find a way to transport it back to Michigan has always stopped me. So thanks Dad for buying it, so that I can’t… well I guess I still could, he has plenty more. Ayman "the Box Man" refinished the surface of the table, wrapped it up, and met us at the airport with the finished product, and it's now safely at home in front of the fire place in Michigan waiting for grandchildren.
For the final day, the final adventure, the “grand finale,” if you will, we went back to the pyramids with AK2 and MVP. Christin tagged along again as she had not been to the pyramids at Dashur, or Sakarra. In spite of the hazy skys we had a great time. We had the bus from 7am 'til 5pm and saw 19 pyramids from close range, climbing half way up and then down into one, and into another smaller one, painted with stars and carved with hieroglyphics. Lunch and a flat tire in there somewhere, and back home for a packing frenzy, before the next bus came at 11pm to whisk them off to the airport. We've already got pics up of these sights, under "the Early Days", but here's one you won't find there... the two surveyors in our troop, upon locating the marker at the fourth corner of the Great Pyramid.
your host for this episode : dan; 06:13 PM | Comments (2)