Fun Times in Egypt
Hello everyone,
Well, we have now been in Egypt for about a week. We have seen Cairo, including the pyramids, and the sphinx; we have been to Luxor to see the Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens; we have taken 17 hour bus ride from Luxor to Dahab, which is a beach town on the Sinai Peninsula; we have been snorkling in the Red Sea, and tonight we are going to be climbing Mount Sinai to watch the sunrise and to visit St. Katherine's Monestary, and to see the Burning Bush.
All in all Egypt has been incredible, due, in large part, to the fact that we are traveling with a very good tour company called 'On the Go'. This country would be difficult and in some cases impossible to travel in independently. For example, you cannot just walk up to the pyramids and wander around; you have to be with an authorized guide and they check his ID at the entry point. If you were to arrive on your own, they would just deny you entry, or make you pay lots of money for a guide at the pyramid itself. Also, when we took our 17 hour bus ride from Luxor to Dahab, we had to travel in a convoy of busses, with a police car in the front, middle and rear. It is simply not allowed to just get in a car and drive the route by yourself. Therefore, we are very grateful for the advice recieved from my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Bern! Otherwise we might have just shown up here on our own, and then not been able to see anything or go anywere! Thanks!!
Below are some cool photos of what we've been up to, and some SUPER-cool photos of us snorkling in the Red Sea will be posted soon.
- The Sphinx. Need I say more?
- Our super-cool group. From left to right Hayley, Me, Our guide Mahmood, Brad, Charlie, and Lisa.
- The view from the balcony of our absolutely phenominal 5* hotel in Luxor. Yes, that body of water in the back ground is the Nile!!!!!
- A donkey swimming in the Nile.
- - Me and B swiming in the Nile!
- The Temple of Luxor
- The Temple to Hatchepsoot; a Queen of Egypt about 3500 years ago. Apparently she was a pretty darned effective Queen, because after her 25 year reign, her step son killed her and then attempted to erradicate every image of her and every monument dedicated to her. But there were just so many of them and they were so big (note above two photos) that he was decidedly unsucessful in elminating her from the records of Egyptian history; her Temple gets about 10,00 tourists visiting every year!
- Camels, with tourist buses in the background. I love the incongruity of it all:)
-
- Brad and Camel!
- The Pyramids at Giza. About 3000 years old. Not bad, eh?
Well, we have now been in Egypt for about a week. We have seen Cairo, including the pyramids, and the sphinx; we have been to Luxor to see the Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens; we have taken 17 hour bus ride from Luxor to Dahab, which is a beach town on the Sinai Peninsula; we have been snorkling in the Red Sea, and tonight we are going to be climbing Mount Sinai to watch the sunrise and to visit St. Katherine's Monestary, and to see the Burning Bush.
All in all Egypt has been incredible, due, in large part, to the fact that we are traveling with a very good tour company called 'On the Go'. This country would be difficult and in some cases impossible to travel in independently. For example, you cannot just walk up to the pyramids and wander around; you have to be with an authorized guide and they check his ID at the entry point. If you were to arrive on your own, they would just deny you entry, or make you pay lots of money for a guide at the pyramid itself. Also, when we took our 17 hour bus ride from Luxor to Dahab, we had to travel in a convoy of busses, with a police car in the front, middle and rear. It is simply not allowed to just get in a car and drive the route by yourself. Therefore, we are very grateful for the advice recieved from my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Bern! Otherwise we might have just shown up here on our own, and then not been able to see anything or go anywere! Thanks!!
Below are some cool photos of what we've been up to, and some SUPER-cool photos of us snorkling in the Red Sea will be posted soon.
- The Sphinx. Need I say more?
- Our super-cool group. From left to right Hayley, Me, Our guide Mahmood, Brad, Charlie, and Lisa.
- The view from the balcony of our absolutely phenominal 5* hotel in Luxor. Yes, that body of water in the back ground is the Nile!!!!!
- A donkey swimming in the Nile.
- - Me and B swiming in the Nile!
- The Temple of Luxor
- The Temple to Hatchepsoot; a Queen of Egypt about 3500 years ago. Apparently she was a pretty darned effective Queen, because after her 25 year reign, her step son killed her and then attempted to erradicate every image of her and every monument dedicated to her. But there were just so many of them and they were so big (note above two photos) that he was decidedly unsucessful in elminating her from the records of Egyptian history; her Temple gets about 10,00 tourists visiting every year!
- Camels, with tourist buses in the background. I love the incongruity of it all:)
-
- Brad and Camel!
- The Pyramids at Giza. About 3000 years old. Not bad, eh?
posted by TK at 1:55 AM
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