Snorkling the Red Sea and Climbing Mount Sinai
Hello again everyone,
This will be my final post from Egpyt. I know y'all are probably ready for something new, so just to keep you all happy, we am flying of to Istanbul (not Constantinople) tommorrow:) As many of you know, I've been looking forward to a trip to Turkey for years now, so I am quite excited and we will be there for 3 weeks, so I hope to have lots of cool things to write about from there.
But, before I move onto Turkey, I have more to say about this fascinating country. I've been told that India is a country of colours; along the same lines, I would have to say that Egypt is a country of sounds. In Cairo, the sounds are unique and constant. The predominant sound is that of the car horns. The car horn is far and away the most important car-part here in Egpyt; they barely use the steering wheel or the mirrors, they just about never use the brakes or check thier blind spots, they just point the car in the direction they want to go and keep honking the horn to let other vehicles know that they are coming. Being in a vehicle in Cairo is a truly scary, adrenaline producing rush!! We even got in a car accident! We were in a small group with a tour guide going to the Egyptian Musuem. Our driver was going through an intersection and a taxi, coming from the other direction decided to continue going through the same intersection. It was completely obviously that we were going to hit said taxi, but our driver just honked his horn a couple of times, which, shockingly, did not work and so ! BANG! we hit the taxi! Now we were only going about 10km/hour, so the only injuries suffered in our vehicle were a bruised arm (poor Lisa) and a broken nail (poor me), so no need to worry Mom! But the whole thing was quite surreal.
The next sound that characterizes Egypt is the sound of the Imam calling the faithfull to prayer. It happens 5 times a day, every day, at the same time. The fasinating thing is that all the hundreds if not thousands of mosques througout the city all have loudspeaker systems set up, so you can hear the sound of the call-to-prayer verberating and echoing from building to building for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time. It is truly a beautiful, peaceful, and haunting sound. Even the car horns seem quieter for a brief space of time.
The next and last sound that I would say distinguishes Egypt is the sound of the merchants inviting us into their shops! I must have heard the phrase "Hello, my friend, come into my shop" a thousand times here! Their favourite phrases are "Special price - just for you" and "Don't tell anyone I give you this price". They also always ask where we are from, and when we say Canada the inevitable reponse is "Canada Dry". The funny thing is, I have not seen a single can or bottle of Canada Dry while we've been here, so how they have developed this instant association is beyond me!
So, after 13 days here, my synopsis of Egypt is that it is full of big, old things, fascinating monuments, pushy salesmen, and interesting noises. Below are some of my favourite photos from the things that we have done over the past week.
- Snorkling in the Red Sea was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. These two photos don't do it justice at all, but our disposable underwater camera wasn't exactly of the best quality, so all the fish look grey in the pics. (sigh). The place where we went snorkling was called the Blue Hole, which was just 15 minutes outside of Dahab. While not an orignal name, the Blue Hole is certainly appropriate, because is was literally a vast circle surrounded by a stunning coral reef. It was located immediately off-shore. We just walked along a short walkway, jumped into the water, with snorkels, masks and flippers, and happily swam around for about 4 hours looking at the absolutely beautiful coral and fish. I was amazed at how colourful it all was. Since our photos didn't really turn out, you'll all just have to come here for yourselves to find out how amazing it is!
- The above 5 pictures are a sampling from our hike up Mount Sinai - or to be specific, our hike up Moses Mountain, which is for the record the 4th highest mountain in Africa! So there! This was definitely also a highlight of our trip here. We left the hotel at about 11:00pm and drove for about 2 hours to the start point. This means that we started climbing at about 1:00am. It was about a 3 hour hike, so while most normal people were asleep in their comfy beds, we were hiking up a a very steep mountain in pitch black! Hard work, let me tell you. It was all worth while however, because when we arrived at the top, the view of the stars was something I will never forget. You may have seen or heard the phrase 'a velvet black sky' but to actually understand it you just have to climb this mountain and look out at the stars at 4 o'clock in the morning. (Or, according to some of the Aussies in our group, you can also see this kind of site in the Australian outback!)
As you can see from the second photo, we set up blankets on an outcropping of rock that our guide took us to. If you'll take a moment to note the pitch black outlines around the outcrop - that is not a trick of photography; we really were lieing on this outcrop, inches away from a sheer drop about 2000 metres strait down! We looked at the stars for a while and even slept for a couple of hours. Then we watched an amazing sunrise. The only bad part was having to hike back down the mountain! But even that was bareable, because at the bottom was St. Katherine's Monestary. It is the oldest Monestary in the world (built around 300AD) and is fascinating for at least 3 reasons: 1) The Burning Bush, which told Moses to Climb the mountain to receive the 10 Commandments is still there, and still alive 2) The Moses Well is there and 3) Actually inside the Monestary walls is a mosque, which was built to show that Christians and Muslims can live together in harmony.
All in all, it was an incredible night for all of us, but special mention goes to our new friend Charlie who was deathly scared of heights, but still managed to climb up and down the mountain!
- This is me, Charlie, Brad and Haylee (taking photo) having a relaxing and yummy breakfast overlooking the Red Sea the day after the hike.
- This is me and Brad participating in a popular Egyptian passtime - smoking a sheesha pipe. The tobacco is usually fruit flavoured (I think this one was apple) and quite yummy. We are most definitely looking foward to visiting Haylee in Australia and Charlie and Lisa in England later on in our travels, so we can help test out the sheesha pipes they bought at the market in Cairo.
- Taken on our final day in Cairo, this is a picture of the city from the lookout point by the Mohammed Ali Mosque. (No, not named after the boxer, but rather the religious and policial leader of Egypt about 200 years ago; he is deemed to be the father of modern Egypt). TheMosque was stunning inside; we got to take our shoes off and walk around! The only downside was having to wear a headscarf in 40 degree heat!
I am particularly proud of this photo, because Brad and I made it to the Citadel (the name if the area of Cario where the Mohamed Ali Mosque as well as several other very important mosques are located) on our own! Our tour officially finished yesterday, so we've spent today wandering around Cairo on our own; we managed to get a taxi, both directions!, to the Citadel, and not get rolled for all our money and possesions. Very, very cool:)
So Ladies and Gentlemen, that was it! The moment I'd been waiting for all my life. Egpyt! Fascinating, beautiful, loud, and friendly. I'd recommend anyone to come here; and for the record our 'On the Go' Tour with tour leaders Mostafa and Sharif was AWESOME. Better yet, it was 'mashi, mashi'*!
Until the next country,
T
* Egyptian Arabic for 'all good'
This will be my final post from Egpyt. I know y'all are probably ready for something new, so just to keep you all happy, we am flying of to Istanbul (not Constantinople) tommorrow:) As many of you know, I've been looking forward to a trip to Turkey for years now, so I am quite excited and we will be there for 3 weeks, so I hope to have lots of cool things to write about from there.
But, before I move onto Turkey, I have more to say about this fascinating country. I've been told that India is a country of colours; along the same lines, I would have to say that Egypt is a country of sounds. In Cairo, the sounds are unique and constant. The predominant sound is that of the car horns. The car horn is far and away the most important car-part here in Egpyt; they barely use the steering wheel or the mirrors, they just about never use the brakes or check thier blind spots, they just point the car in the direction they want to go and keep honking the horn to let other vehicles know that they are coming. Being in a vehicle in Cairo is a truly scary, adrenaline producing rush!! We even got in a car accident! We were in a small group with a tour guide going to the Egyptian Musuem. Our driver was going through an intersection and a taxi, coming from the other direction decided to continue going through the same intersection. It was completely obviously that we were going to hit said taxi, but our driver just honked his horn a couple of times, which, shockingly, did not work and so ! BANG! we hit the taxi! Now we were only going about 10km/hour, so the only injuries suffered in our vehicle were a bruised arm (poor Lisa) and a broken nail (poor me), so no need to worry Mom! But the whole thing was quite surreal.
The next sound that characterizes Egypt is the sound of the Imam calling the faithfull to prayer. It happens 5 times a day, every day, at the same time. The fasinating thing is that all the hundreds if not thousands of mosques througout the city all have loudspeaker systems set up, so you can hear the sound of the call-to-prayer verberating and echoing from building to building for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time. It is truly a beautiful, peaceful, and haunting sound. Even the car horns seem quieter for a brief space of time.
The next and last sound that I would say distinguishes Egypt is the sound of the merchants inviting us into their shops! I must have heard the phrase "Hello, my friend, come into my shop" a thousand times here! Their favourite phrases are "Special price - just for you" and "Don't tell anyone I give you this price". They also always ask where we are from, and when we say Canada the inevitable reponse is "Canada Dry". The funny thing is, I have not seen a single can or bottle of Canada Dry while we've been here, so how they have developed this instant association is beyond me!
So, after 13 days here, my synopsis of Egypt is that it is full of big, old things, fascinating monuments, pushy salesmen, and interesting noises. Below are some of my favourite photos from the things that we have done over the past week.
- Snorkling in the Red Sea was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. These two photos don't do it justice at all, but our disposable underwater camera wasn't exactly of the best quality, so all the fish look grey in the pics. (sigh). The place where we went snorkling was called the Blue Hole, which was just 15 minutes outside of Dahab. While not an orignal name, the Blue Hole is certainly appropriate, because is was literally a vast circle surrounded by a stunning coral reef. It was located immediately off-shore. We just walked along a short walkway, jumped into the water, with snorkels, masks and flippers, and happily swam around for about 4 hours looking at the absolutely beautiful coral and fish. I was amazed at how colourful it all was. Since our photos didn't really turn out, you'll all just have to come here for yourselves to find out how amazing it is!
- The above 5 pictures are a sampling from our hike up Mount Sinai - or to be specific, our hike up Moses Mountain, which is for the record the 4th highest mountain in Africa! So there! This was definitely also a highlight of our trip here. We left the hotel at about 11:00pm and drove for about 2 hours to the start point. This means that we started climbing at about 1:00am. It was about a 3 hour hike, so while most normal people were asleep in their comfy beds, we were hiking up a a very steep mountain in pitch black! Hard work, let me tell you. It was all worth while however, because when we arrived at the top, the view of the stars was something I will never forget. You may have seen or heard the phrase 'a velvet black sky' but to actually understand it you just have to climb this mountain and look out at the stars at 4 o'clock in the morning. (Or, according to some of the Aussies in our group, you can also see this kind of site in the Australian outback!)
As you can see from the second photo, we set up blankets on an outcropping of rock that our guide took us to. If you'll take a moment to note the pitch black outlines around the outcrop - that is not a trick of photography; we really were lieing on this outcrop, inches away from a sheer drop about 2000 metres strait down! We looked at the stars for a while and even slept for a couple of hours. Then we watched an amazing sunrise. The only bad part was having to hike back down the mountain! But even that was bareable, because at the bottom was St. Katherine's Monestary. It is the oldest Monestary in the world (built around 300AD) and is fascinating for at least 3 reasons: 1) The Burning Bush, which told Moses to Climb the mountain to receive the 10 Commandments is still there, and still alive 2) The Moses Well is there and 3) Actually inside the Monestary walls is a mosque, which was built to show that Christians and Muslims can live together in harmony.
All in all, it was an incredible night for all of us, but special mention goes to our new friend Charlie who was deathly scared of heights, but still managed to climb up and down the mountain!
- This is me, Charlie, Brad and Haylee (taking photo) having a relaxing and yummy breakfast overlooking the Red Sea the day after the hike.
- This is me and Brad participating in a popular Egyptian passtime - smoking a sheesha pipe. The tobacco is usually fruit flavoured (I think this one was apple) and quite yummy. We are most definitely looking foward to visiting Haylee in Australia and Charlie and Lisa in England later on in our travels, so we can help test out the sheesha pipes they bought at the market in Cairo.
- Taken on our final day in Cairo, this is a picture of the city from the lookout point by the Mohammed Ali Mosque. (No, not named after the boxer, but rather the religious and policial leader of Egypt about 200 years ago; he is deemed to be the father of modern Egypt). TheMosque was stunning inside; we got to take our shoes off and walk around! The only downside was having to wear a headscarf in 40 degree heat!
I am particularly proud of this photo, because Brad and I made it to the Citadel (the name if the area of Cario where the Mohamed Ali Mosque as well as several other very important mosques are located) on our own! Our tour officially finished yesterday, so we've spent today wandering around Cairo on our own; we managed to get a taxi, both directions!, to the Citadel, and not get rolled for all our money and possesions. Very, very cool:)
So Ladies and Gentlemen, that was it! The moment I'd been waiting for all my life. Egpyt! Fascinating, beautiful, loud, and friendly. I'd recommend anyone to come here; and for the record our 'On the Go' Tour with tour leaders Mostafa and Sharif was AWESOME. Better yet, it was 'mashi, mashi'*!
Until the next country,
T
* Egyptian Arabic for 'all good'
posted by TK at 6:59 AM
<< Home