seekingmygreaterperhaps

Hello Gentle Readers,

I recently finished a whirlwind trip around Egypt, my first big trip since I moved to Dubai. I knew the transition to a new job, city, and country would be tough, so I actually planned this in July, from my mom’s living room. As a solo female, I read on multiple different sources that it would be better to hire a guide. So, that’s what I did, and I had a great time. There were of course pros and cons, but overall, they planned the entire thing and I just showed up. I used iEgypt because they did everything I asked for at the best value. This was my first time visiting Egypt (and stepping onto the African continent!) and I was excited to see it all… and as I sit here exhausted the week afterwards, it’s possible I overextended myself a little bit. That being said, I did it to myself, and I am super happy with how much I was able to do! I was in Egypt from Friday to Sunday (a full 8 days and two half days for travel to Dubai) and I visited: Cairo, Alexandria, Aswan, Luxor, Hurghada, and back to Cairo. Let’s get into it!

Cairo

I started and ended in Cairo, and people either love it or hate it- I loved it! It is full of character. (See also: it is full of dirt and trash, but character nonetheless.) The driving is absolutely insane and I would never drive here, but people make it work. One of my driver’s said, “the rules are, there are no rules.” And I think people actually believe that. Another driver said, “the white lines in the middle? Those are decorations.” Hey, I made it safely everywhere I went, if for some sprinkled adrenaline here and there.

The highlight of Cairo is of course, the Great Pyramids of Giza. I visited on my first day, and they were absolutely magical. They are HUGE. When you get up close, you can’t even see the top, it is quite the cool optical illusion. You are allowed to go and touch it, which I feel like you shouldn’t be allowed to do? But, I did it, because what if when I want to visit again in 20 years you aren’t allowed to touch it and then I would be mad that I missed my chance. (Side note- I have climbed up Chichenitza, which now you can no longer do, so this is why I want to do the things that they say you can do.)

The Pyramids are iconic for so many reasons, and when I visited I felt as though I was realizing something that the little girl in me only ever saw in a textbook. The fact that I was there, touching the Great Pyramids of Giza, brought me a tremendous sense of awe and joy for my life. I did not set out to be an inspiration to anyone, I am just tired of waiting for other people for my life to begin. Eventually, I hope to have adventure partners, but for now, I love my own company, and solo travel is not scary to me. I knew I was moving to Dubai, and seeing the Pyramids have been on my bucket list since I learned about them. So I set the budget for this trip, planned and booked the trip, and I went on it. How crazy even is that to put in writing? Like, what a huge blessing it is to soak up the joy of this wild and crazy life? All of that was going through my head while I was so thankful to be there.

Yes, I absolutely rode the camel. This was a highlight and as a basic b**ch tourist, a rite of passage. My camel appeared to be treated well.

Right by the Pyramids lies the Sphinx- another incredible icon that it was mind blowing to be in the presence of. It wasn’t until later that I realized my tour guide was not very good at taking my picture, and I don’t actually have very good pictures from this day… but lesson learned?

After the Pyramids and the Sphinx, I got fresh pomegranate and fresh mango juice and it was absolutely excellent. Then we stopped at the “Museum of Papyrus” where I learned how they made the old paper. It was cool, but definitely a tourist stop to get my money when I bought something. It worked. Also, the next stop where we saw the cartouche jewelry, also worked. Although I didn’t buy the cartouche, I bought a scarab. (A cartouche is the Egyptian way to write out royal names.) It was on this day that I realized I am bad at saying no to buying things when I am alone and they have done an entire demonstration for me. I have a feeling this will not help me in the Middle East, based on how, let’s say convincing Egyptians were at selling things.

Next up was the GEM- which officially opens on November 1st, but I was still able to go on a preview ticket. The Grand Egyptian Museum is a masterpiece, full of relics and masterpieces. The architecture of the building itself is really incredible as well. This was a stop before lunch, and I was tired from being up late traveling to Egypt the night before, and I was too sleepy to really soak in all the history my guide was sharing, but it was an incredible museum to walk around.

After a break for lunch (gyros and falafel, yum!), I met up with my new friend Amanda and her friends for a sunset felucca ride and dinner. I just met Amanda in Dubai, she is an independent college counselor, and she was like, “hey let me know when you’re in Cairo and we can meet up!” and so I did and we did. The felucca is an incredible boat, and we rode on the Nile at sunset, got to see some cool birds, and definitely disconnect from the chaos of the city. The meal we had afterward was also delicious, and it was here where I felt, oh yeah I could live here.

All of this was just on day 1! My trip would definitely follow the same pattern the entire rest of the time, so this was not a restful vacation, but an action packed, history learning, culture soaking in, trip. I am so happy I went.

I’m going to zoom forward in time a little to keep talking about Cairo. This post I will go city by city. On my return from all the other adventures, I came back to Cairo for another full day before my departure. That day we went to the Citadel, saw the Muhammed Ali Mosque, went to the Museum of Civilization to see the mummies, had koshary at a famous restaurant, went to the Khalil Al Kali bazaar and the tent-makers alley, did another felucca ride, and ended with hanging out in downtown Cairo smoking shisha. (Phew!)

The Citadel and Mosque were stunning! The Muhammed Ali Mosque was modeled after the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and it made me want to visit Istanbul even more! The lighting on the inside was gorgeous, and I cannot get over the ceilings of the mosques I’ve been to recently! The Museum of Civilization was cool, but the GEM is truly where it is at. My guide did a speed tour through the exhibits and pointed out cool stuff, my favorite being the ancient make-up set. At this museum though, are the mummies. You go downstairs and they are all in their own rooms in a temperature controlled environment, and they are just right there. It was pretty creepy while being very impressive at the same time. Ancient Egyptian science is wild. Some of the hair was even intact still. I read the information, looked at each mummy, and then skedaddled.

I requested, and then insisted, that we go to the tent-maker’s alley (on the advice of my friend), and I was not disappointed. This is where artisans hand sew incredible textile pieces. I bought 4 pillowcases that I am looking at right now and love them so much. Afterwards we headed to the Khalil Al Kali bazaar, which is where you can buy ALL the things. To the disappointment of the vendors, I only needed a magnet at this point, and I found a cool one. We also stop at El Fishawy Cafe- the oldest operating cafe in Cairo (open since 1771) and had a karkade (a hibiscus drink). It was here that I got harassed by a vendor so much that my guide had to yell at him in Arabic and call over the local police. But weirdly, I felt calm the entire time? I just had this understanding that it wasn’t about me, and felt completely safe with my guide- what could have been scary just… wasn’t.

We ended the morning with lunch at the most famous koshary restaurant- Abou Tarek. Koshary is basically just a bunch of carbs in a bowl topped with tomato sauce, and it is tasty! The inside has diner vibes, but with a giant chandelier on the ceiling, it is very stylish. We ended with rice pudding and headed for a rest at the hotel.

In the evening we missed the sunset for the sunset felucca ride, so I got a night time felucca ride instead, which was also cool. I love the sails of this type of boat and it is relaxing to hang out on the Nile river. Afterwards we did a “tour” of downtown Cairo, which was just going to a shisha bar, and it is here where I felt like, oh this is just like a boteco in Brazil, but with shisha instead of beer. So that was a neat feeling. (After Cairo the second I flew back to Dubai, but let’s circle back to talk about the other cities.)

Alexandria

Did I choose a day trip to Alexandria just to see the Alexandria library? Yes. Did I also learn that the great lighthouse of Alexandria is where the current citadel is, and is built with the same stones? Yes. Am I counting it is an ancient wonder of the world? Also yes.

A surprisingly cool thing I saw was the Catacomb. Located in a poor area of Alexandria, it was discovered under an old garbage dump. Someone added their load of garbage, and a sinkhole formed, unveiling this incredible catacomb. Inside the decor is a mix of Roman and Egyptian, and I was surprised at how cool it was. And spacious down there. Don’t worry- no bodies are left down there. (Unlike the catacombs in Paris where they literally decorate with skulls…)

We also stopped at the Roman Amphitheater and got to take a wander around the ruins. This is different from other ruins I’ve seen because it was the old art school, essentially. You can see the little rooms beside that were classrooms, with stone benches and everything. That part was cool- yay education!

We ended with lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean Sea with a fresh seafood meal. Then 3 more hours in the car to head back to Cairo.

Aswan

Even though I was tired the entire day because of a 3:30am pick-up time, I think Aswan was my favorite city. The first thing we did (after driving past the dam, which is very important) was go to a perfume factory. Here there was a whole demonstration on aromatherapy, and I even got a little back massage. So yes, I bought the smallest bottle of perfume I could buy, but it is delightful. I didn’t get perfume, I bought the oil, but it’s not the essential oils, it’s more concentrated? Pretend you understand, haha!

Then we took a boat over to the Nubian village, which is where my hotel was. The Nubian village was awesome. Everything has a distinct architecture, and things are painted white until they aren’t. There are explosions of color and patterns, and it is beautiful to walk around. We stopped in a local home where I learned about the importance of crocodiles to the Nubian people. Crocodiles are sacred, so many Nubian homes raise crocodiles from the eggs through maturity until they are strong enough to be released into the wild. So you get homes that have little crocodile cages. I asked my tour guide, who is Nubian if he ever had a crocodile, and he said, “yeah everybody does. We help them from going extinct.” So that was mind blowing to me. I got to hold a little one, and it tried climbing up my arm and I definitely didn’t freak out. (What a life- I held a baby alligator in the Amazon during Thanksgiving last year. Now I held a crocodile.) This same family served us Nubian tea, which was delicious and tasted minty, but it wasn’t just mint tea. Next we walked through the very colorful market to a youth social hang out spot where I had a Nubian language lesson. Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of it… but I learned that Nubian is an entirely different language, and the written part has been lost, so it is important that the spoken language remain. It is still spoken in all the villages. The next activity was a quick stop to the public beach where I got to SWIM IN THE NILE! Cold, but clean, I splished and splashed to my heart’s content. (There are no crocodiles in the Nile because of Aswan dam.) I had a real moment where I thought- this is the same Nile of Moses. The reeds we boated through? The same reeds (ish) of Moses. It is glorious.

The next big activity in Aswan was visiting the temple of Philae. What a wow moment because this was my first Egyptian temple! I joined up with a couple other girls, and you’ll never guess where they are from? If you guessed Brasilia, Brazil, then you’d be right. I was shocked. We spoke in Portuguese and English, and it was such a cool connection. This temple was cool because it was flooded when the dam of Aswan was built. Egypt decided, nope this is too important, and cut it into 42,000 blocks and REBUILT IT just a little bit away from the original island it was on. You can see French graffiti from Napoleon Bonaparte inside the temple. This temple begins to tell the story of Horus.*

*As we get into all of the temples, I am not going to even attempt to get into the Ancient Egyptians beliefs and the stories of the gods. They are fascinating, but also I won’t remember all the details. I learned a lot of history, and it was fabulous… but you’d be better off with another source for all things regarding the stories of the gods and pharaohs. I just couldn’t keep up.

I also learned the temple of Philae had a little side temple that was an “ancient nightclub” as my guide described- on the inside you can see hieroglyphs of instruments.

A huge highlight of my time in Aswan was a high tea at the Old Cataract Hotel- where Agatha Christie stayed. I sat right next to the Nile and watched the boats float by while enjoying some delicious food. I even whipped out my watercolors (which I bring on every trip and rarely use) and did a sketch! The Old Cataract Hotel is beautiful, and the architecture and decor hasn’t changed since it’s opening- so it feels like you’re stepping back in time.

For dinner, I ate at my hotel, and it was possibly the best meal of the trip. I had a beef tangine with a ton of sides, and the mashed potatoes are probably the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. There was some type of cheese and it was caramelized on the top, and it was incredible. And there was SO MUCH food for just little old me. The breakfast the next day at the hotel was also incredible. I didn’t book the hotel myself, but the tour company picked really well- it was the Kendaka Nubian House .

Road Between Aswan and Luxor

Many people choose the relaxing voyage of a Nile cruise between Aswan and Luxor. However, I did not choose this route. Rather, I unknowingly signed myself up for quite the bumpy ride on local roads to stop at 2 different temples on the route between Aswan and Luxor.

First up, we have Kom Ombo, which was a temple for Sobek, the crocodile king! At this temple you can see many medical instruments in the hieroglyphs, like a stethoscope and equipment they would use for surgery. There is a well in the shape of the symbol they used for “life” and it was to represent that water is life. They would use the well to determine the taxes as well; more water, more prosperity, and higher taxes. Also neat here, an intact Egyptian calendar- if you know how to read the symbols for the days, you can see exactly what the high priests would have offered on that day. The Egyptians laid out their year in 3 seasons: flood, planting, and harvesting. The best hieroglyph that our guide pointed out? The sex education one, where there is literally a penis, sperm, and an egg right there on the wall.

At Kom Ombo, there were mummified crocodiles! This is unique to this temple, and the crocodile museum was right next to the temple. Ancient Egyptians feared the fierce Nile crocodiles, so they worshipped Sobek in hopes that he would prevent the crocodiles from attacking them. Priests would select specific live crocodiles to be the physical manifestations of the god, which were cared for during their lifetime. When a sacred crocodile died, it would be mummified and buried in a special tomb.

Another few hours away, the Temple of Edfu awaited me! Between Kom Ombo and Edfu, the driver stopped for a road side falafel, and it was absolutely incredible, and cost 10 Egyptian pounds… about 21 cents USD. I looked at it in hunger and thought… if I shit myself at this next temple, it will be worth it. But, huzzah! I did not, my digestive system was fine, and it is a happy tale.

Anyways… Edfu! The exterior of this temple was super well preserved. I learned that the 50 pound note has this temple featured on it. All sorts of different plants are featured at the top of the columns. My guide showed me the relief of the “original ribbon cutting” where they commemorated the opening of the temple. There were bats living at the ceiling in one of the rooms that made it smell terrible, but made me think of my friend Ana. There was a cool corridor that you could walk up and feel like Indiana Jones. Aaaand, that’s about all I got for Edfu.

My hotel (Blue Nile House) when arriving in Luxor was beautiful. It was right on the Nile, with beautiful marshes separating it from the water, and I loved watching the birds right at dusk (and then at sunrise the next day). I ate dinner at the hotel and had a pretty great moussaka. I played ping pong with one of the people who worked there, and I fed some bread to a friendly cat.

Luxor

The city of all the temples! I skipped the hot air balloon ride (because I just did an incredible one in the Aparados da Serra in Brazil, and I just didn’t want to compare seeing the beautiful trees with the… sand), so my day started with the Colossi of Memnon. I watched a hot air balloon slowly rise behind it, so that was neat, otherwise, they are giant statues. You look at them and then you go to the next thing.

And WHAT A NEXT THING IT WAS! We entered the Valley of the Kings- the tombs of all the pharaohs! Before you enter there is a very cool 3D model of the valley where you can see how the geography impacts the site. Then, double cool, the model also shows the depth and length of the tombs under the mountain. Once my guide told me (a tall person) to squat down to look under, I was very impressed. And it gives an entirely new perspective to Egyptian engineering.

Major cool takeaways- Egyptians were true artists. The colors inside the tombs are still incredibly vibrant for being over 3000 years old, and it’s because of the all natural materials they used, and then sealed it with beeswax! Also, in some of the tombs you can see the sketch by the apprentice in red, and then the master coming in with black to show corrections and approvals. Walking down in the tomb with all the colors and letters was absolutely incredible. It was also right outside one of these tombs that I would buy my most prized possession of the day- a circular piece of cardboard that I could use as a hand fan. Honestly, the best 50 cents I’ve ever spent. Did it have any designs on it? Nope. Was it literally just cut out of a box? Yep. Did I enjoy supporting this genius entrepreneur? Absolutely.

Next up was a visit to my girl Hatshepsut- the baddie queen. She was the only female pharaoh in Egypt and was known for a prolific period of peace, re-establishing important trade routes, and the construction of many huge projects, including Karnak Temple (we will get there). And naturally, her grandson tried to erase her entirely from history, but Hatshepsut shall not be forgotten. You go girl.

Hatshepsut’s Temple is wonderful. It is the only temple that is 3 stories tall. There is a whole scene retelling her months long travels up the Nile and she describes (in biological detail) various new fish she saw. Also Hatshepsut’s images are the firs to depict a smiling pharaoh. Previously they were all stoic, but she was like, nah, I’m happy to be the pharaoh.

Before lunch, we stopped at Madinat Habu, you guessed it, another temple. Here the highlight was seeing a hieroglyph of an actual king cobra (a cobra wearing the double crowns), as well as an image depicting sports that were popular back in the day. It’s sad because a lot of this temple was deconstructed because they wanted to use the stone for other buildings.

Finally- we made it to Karnak! This temple was the filming location of James Bond: The Spy Who Loved Me. And yes, I absolutely asked my tour guide to help me find the exact location so I could re-create the picture. And yes, the other people in my tour group who had never heard of it, also got excited and got their pictures taken there too. Karnak is cool for other reasons too, but the column hall was definitely the most full of splendor. The avenue of the rams is also very cool, this is the first time we see an obelisk, and there is a big scarab you walk around 7 times for good luck. Yes, my group walked around it, and guys, 7 times is actually a lot of times to walk around something.

Our final temple, Luxor Temple, which was actually connected to Karnak back in the day. Here there is the avenue of the sphinxes, which used to stretch 3 km to connect it to Karnak. Now there is city in between. Luxor is wild because it was half covered in sand for a really long time and people just built houses on top of the sand. The big giant obelisk was just next to someone’s house like decoration. In this temple you can see how invaders covered up the walls and reliefs, but instead of scratching it out like in other places, they put basically plaster on top and painted their own motifs.

A long day turned into a long evening as I made a 3 hour drive to Hurghada.

Hurghada

Ah, a resort town on the Red Sea. I stayed at an all inclusive hotel, but it was probably my least favorite place to stay? To complain for just a minute, it did not feel authentic in any way- it catered to Russian and German tourists, including the food. I didn’t feel lonely on my trip until I got here. Buuuuut that being said, my first day I went on a yacht cruise where we got to go snorkeling and the Red Sea is BEAUTIFUL! It’s actually very blue, not red at all. Because of how salty it is, the visibility is incredible, and I loved seeing all sorts of fish I had never seen before in a sea. The sea is such an incredible landscape.

That’s about all the good things I have to say about Hurghada. I loved the sea (of course, I am super into water), but I didn’t like the people I was on the boat with, they were real pushy with the photograph package, and I never entertained them with taking my picture, and then they were mad when I didn’t want the photo package. And the other tourists weren’t super friendly, so good thing I had my kindle that day and read. Then I had a rest day, and I just stayed at the resort- my own choice, but it was… fine. Thankfully, I didn’t end my trip there, I ended in Cairo, as described above.

Fim

Is this my longest blog post? It took a few sittings to write, and I’m proud because I’m actually writing it within a week or so of returning, which is pretty good. There must be something to be said to writing while it’s fresh. Maybe it’ll be a new trend, but maybe not.

Something I noticed that don’t have a good spot: Egyptians love Bob Marley. I heard Bob in every city I went, with every boat captain, and in every ride. It’s awesome. Even on the little shuttle in the Valley of the Kings, the guy had a Bob Marley sticker. Right on.

Tchau for now friends and family!