Memphis, Egypt

Today we met our new guide, she is called Heba (she is pictured with Siobhan and myself)
She showed us what is left of the City of Memphis. Memphis was Cairos first capital and it has many remarkable treasures. We saw the Colossus of Ramses II which is so enormous it was left where it was found and the building was erected around it. We also saw the Sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut and many more amazing artifacts.
We were beckoned by the security guards and asked if they could take our pictures. They are very corrupt and want money for doing it. I think we had about 4-5 around us and it was strange as they were more interested in us than any security problem that may arise. We took a couple of pics with them and gave them a tip. http://touregypt.net/memphis.htm









King Zosars step pyramid

We then went to Saqqara where King Zosers step pyramid was built to "last until the end of time". This was the first of the pyramids we would see.

http://interoz.com/egypt/stepyram.htm

Heba then took us to a carpet school. This is a school for children to make carpets and also learning to read and write. They attend the scholls during their school holidays. They will take the craft in to adult hood and some young women will weave carpets at home to make money for their families. This is something the western world would never do but it is the Egyptian culture and the children seemed happy enough doing it. The carpets are beautiful. I bought a bag and a small carpet to hang on my wall. One of the little girls invited me to try to weave and showed me how to do it. I was useless without her help! It would take me around a month to do 1 line and she was whizzing along knowing exactly what colour to add to from the maze of wool in front of her. There are no machines, it is all done manually. Egyptian carpets are expensive but, after seeing how much work goes into it, it is worth every penny. This was so humbling and made me realise how lucky my family and I.
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/cairo_carpets.htm



Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx


We then went onto the pyramids. It was hard to see them from Cairo inner city as the smog from the pollution is so thick. They should be on the sky line. We arrived at the base of to Pyramids and were in awe of them. 3 in a row and all so perfectly built. Siobhan, Richard, Seddon and I took the opportunity to enter one of them and we were taken back by how perfect the geometrics were. I found it a bit of a struggle to walk down ythen up a narrow ramp to the inner room but I did it and was glad I did. It was beautiful and we had only seen a small part of it. No cameras were allowed so I do not have any photos of the inside but I do have one of me on a camel with the pyramids in the background.

We then made our way to the Sphinx and was suprised to see that it was not as big as I expected it to be. We were harrassed by some sellers but most of them were very nice. The little girls I met gave me gifts of book marks which was very sweet as we had bought a little camel for Kieran. Just a quick note to put something to bed, THERE IS NO MACDONALDS BESIDE THE PYRAMIDS!!! It maybe close but it is not beside it, I did not see a McDonalds anywhere.

Valley of the Kings and Queens

This is the ultimate part of an Egyptian tour. The valley of the Kings and Queens. It is the valley that is filled with tombs of Pharoes and Kings of the past. It is something to behold. We went into 3 tombs, Ramses ix, Ramses iv and Merenptah. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the tombs but if the price was right, the people there would probably let you do what you want to do. I had one old guy take my hand and press it to the wall of King Ramsis tomb for luck and told me not to tell anyone. For an extra price we visited one chamber of King Tutankhamen. It was a beautifully painted room.

http://www.jimloy.com/egypt/kv.htm

We also visited 3 Queens tombs and saw the house that Howard Carter lived in when he discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb.

Unfortunatley my picture is not a good one as I had to take it while we were driving past it.
There is a link below with a short peice about Howard Carter.

http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/4hcart.html

After seeing the valleys hidden treasures,

Yasser took us to an Alibaster factory.

This is a factory that produces pots and statues from this almost indistructable rock. The men working there do all the work manually. They very kindly showed how a peice of Alibaster was transformed into something very beautiful.

Colossi of Memnon

Our next stop was the Colossi of Memnon. These huge statues once stood either side of the entrance to Amenhotep III's mortuary temple. They are something to behold. It is a shame they have not withstood the weather and test of time but are still spectacular to see. The size is very clear when you look at the people below.

http://www.akhet.co.uk/memnon.htm

The temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Queen Hatshepsut or Queen Hot Chicken Soup as Yasser called her was unique. She made herself King and is depicted with a beard. She sounds like a remarkable lady and was probably ahead of her time as she was living in a time when men ruled. She took charge of her own destiny. Siobhan is pictured with one of the many guides around the temple. Siobhan gave a tip to him for this picture which is customary everywhere in Egypt. Click on the link below to find out more about her.
http://www.bediz.com/hatshep/story.html

It was a very sad day as we had to say goodbye to Yasser for putting up with our westernised ways and for me at least attempting to speak the language but I did it so badly to the amusment of the Egyptian people. We will miss Yasser the most for his broken English, He had a unique way with the language and was often talking about the Egyptian god Hathor who had a "sun disk between 2 hornies". His English was far better than my Egyptian.

Also to all the staff on board the liner who had treated us so well and took care of us. We have 3 of us who are vegetarians and they obliged us with the most wonderful veggie meals we have had for a long time. Thank you Yasser and the crew on the Sonesta St George all of you have been wonderful.
We left the Sonesta St George cruise ship and headed for Luxor airport where we would fly to Cairo to stay in a third hotel, The Cairo Marriot. Tomorrow we would meet our second Egyptologist and many more

drivers and escorts from Peltours.

http://www.peltours.com/w.peltours.com/ (Hany with Me)

(Mohammed with Me)

(Mena and Me)

(Hany with Siobhan and Seddon)

(Hany with Siobhan and Seddon)

Luxor....this is my favourite temple

We sailed into Luxor and had lunch on board. We left the cruise liner after lunch and visited the East bank which contained Karnak and Luxor temples.

Karnak Temple

This temple is famous for featuring in a James Bond movie "The spy who loved me".

This is an amazing temple filled with a lot of history. We also went to the sound and light show but we were not impressed as it was too long and featured voices with lights. With the said, the lighting was good and it was great to see the temple in an atmospheric tone.

Luxor temple

I had been looking forward to seeing Luxor temple as I knew this was the roots of Tutankhamen and his wife, Ankhesenpaaten. It is one of the best temples to see as it has a lot of the monuments undamaged by time. It is stunningly beautiful.

The picture to the left are the statues of the young King, Tutankhamen and his Queen Ankhesenpaaten. It is very good condition considering the age of the temple.

We returned once again to the cruiser and this would be our last night aboard. Tomorrow we would be travelling to Ciaro and saying goodbye to Yasser.

Kitcheners Island and more!

We had a good sleep on board the cruise liner and had an alarm call from Yasser as we were starting another day of site seeing. We sailed to Kitchener's island on a Felucca whaich is an Egytian ferry. The 2 men on the Felucca rowed us to the island. It looked like hard work as most people were going over by the motorised version. We had an idilic, relaxing ride.

Kitcheners island

This island was given to Lord Kitchener in recognition of his work in the Sudan. It is a beautiful place and has many Egyptian cats and a lot of very beautiful herbs and flowers. There is a link below with more informtion about Kitcheners island.

http://touregyp/t.net/kitchner.htm

We headed back to the hotel, this time in a motorised Felucca and had lunch on board the Sonesta St George 1.

Temple of Sobek and Haeroris Kom Ombo

After lunch we travelled by mini bus to Kom Ombo to visit our first temple. This one was shared by 2 gods. Yasser explained everything very well and was very informative. The temple has remnants of mummified crocodiles as they were once very popular there. The 2 gods that share it are Sobek, the crocodile god

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sobek.htm

and Haeroris which is a form of Horus the god of the sky.

http://gei.aerobaticsweb.org/egypt_horus.html

The symbols carved in the monuments are wonderful. It is so clear and beautiful.

We returned to the cruise liner for dinner and sailed into Esna ready for another full day of history.

On the Nile

Sonesta St George 1
We left the hotel and were transferred by air to Aswan for the cruise along the Nile. This cruiser, the Sonesta St George 1, is beautiful. The people are wonderful and accommodated us fully. This is the best of the best and it was fantastic.
Check it out for yourself.

http://www.sonesta.com/Nilecruises/index.cfm?fa=StGeorge.home

High Dam

Our first visit was the high dam

http://touregypt.net/highdam.htm

It has a monument thanking the Russian people for helping the Egyptians build it as they could not get any help from other countries. It is like all of Egypt, built with hard labour, sweat and muscle. It produces a lot of the electricity that is needed in Egypt.

Philae Temple

We then visited the Philae temple. This templed was moved from its original setting due to the high dam. It was reasembled and is a stunning peice of Egyptian architecture.

http://www.touregypt.net/Philae.htm

Granite Quarries
We also visited the granite quarries where the obelisk were made and Yasser explained the process of how they were carved and lifted upwards. This is one tremendous peice of workmanship and skill as the obelisks are huge, about 20-30 feet high with art work and hyroglyphics all over it. http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/minesandquarries1.htm

I hope these links are helpful. If you have any more information you would like to see here,please let me know.

Phu_phita@hotmail.com

And we're off

We were so bleeried eyed this morning. Everyone managed to get up and made it to the coah to be transferred to the flight and then the next hotel. We were met by another Peltours rep who escorted us through the terminals of te airport and we were met in Luxor by a different one again with a people carrier all to ourselves. We were settled into our hotel and introduced to our Egyptologist who, again, we had all to ourselves. He was called Yasser and we nick named him Charlie as he called us his angels. He is pictured here with Rich.

The final judgement papyrus painting



Yasser took us to a papyrus museum so we could see how it was made. I bought one for myself called the final judgement. There is a link below that explains the papyrus painting.

http://www.egyptologyonline.com/book_of_the_dead.htm

Sonesta St George Hotel

We stayed in another 5 star hotel called the Sonesta St George

http://www.sonesta.com/luxor/

This hotel was beautifully decorated and had the most stunning chandelier in the foyer. The people were very polite and helpful and the rooms were lovely.

Last night in Taba

This is our last night at the Marriot until 2nd August when we come back for 2 days before we go home. Time for Jacqz to do a bit more sunbathing and for us all to chill out. So far so good. We are going to a hotel tomorrow and the following day onto a cruise liner to start our tour of the Nile and its surroundings. I am so looking forward to the valley of the kings and queens.

We have to be up early as we will be leaving on a 4:00am bus to get our flight at 8:15am from Sharm-El-Sheikh airport to Luxor....AARRGGHHH.....

We had an early night as we would need to be up around 3:00pm to get ready and have all our bags packed.

My *$th Birthday

It's that day again, with a difference....I AM IN EGYPT!!!!

I can't beleive it! My sister gave me a lovely dress and bracelet that I will be wearing tonight and my children gave me a photo album. We chilled all day again. I could get used to this...the waiters do everything. The custom in Egypt is that the men do everything for the women and when this was mentioned to my son he said " yeh, but I'm on holiday", no change there then : )

I had a birthday cake (above) from the hotel management which was very kind and we took it with us to the restaraunt.

The guys (Fun 2 c) played in the Regatta club tonight Jon anbd the girls weregreat as usual. They played some requests for us including purple haze by Jimi Hendrix, Lithium by Nirvana and Bryan Adams Summer of 69 and baby when your gone which I dueted with Jon on. I had a great day and am glad to be here but I do miss Kieran.

Flooding in the uk

We have been watching the TV and seen that London is pretty badly flooded. It doesn't seem to be sinking in properly as we have heat of 140 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I don't feel like I am on the same planet.

We had another chill out day and Jacqui and I tried out the local bar. There was a fantastic band in there called Fun2c. This band is made up of 2 beautiful girls, Rosalene and Mai and one of the best guitarists I have ever seen Jon. They are from the Philopines
and have real talent.
Mai is picured with my sister.

My son Richard also enjoyed the attention! Rosalene is wearing his hat.


Left: Jon doing his stuff...sorry about the picture quality.

First full day in Egypt

We don't have anything planned for the next fews days as the tours don't start until 26th July when we are transferred to Sharm El Sheikh airport to fly to Luxor.

We are trying out the swimming pools and the eating areas. The food is certainly not 5* as it is luke warm and not that appetising. The Orange juice tastes like dilute juice and I have heard tht this is a powder. Saying that though the people are very friendly and helpful.


The picture, above right, is my son Richard with Seddon my daughters boyfriend, in the pool. The heat was very intense and everyone was careful, Especially Seddon as he has such fair skin.



As you can see, my sister enjoyed it also!

Destination Egypt!

We repacked and are ready to go. We are off to Egypt and are looking forward to seeing the tombs and monuments of the ancient Egyptians. We left Gatwick for the flight to Egypt at around 11:55am after panicking that we would not make it through the security screening section as the was a massive queue. We arrived in Taba at around 17:55 as there is a 2 hour change with the time. Egypt is ahead of the UK. We were met at the airport by the PELTOURS rep who escorted us via coach to the Marriot hotel at Taba Heights. I have added a link below that will take you to their website.

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/tcpeg-taba-heights-marriott-beach-resort/sort/

When we left the plane the heat was intense, 140 degrees!

The surroundings of the hotel are beautiful. The picture above was the view from my room. The little pond at the bottom is the Red Sea. Usually there is a security guard who sits on a chair under the palm tree. It certainly looks like 5* accomodation but the food dictated otherwise. We have a few days of chilling out ahead of us before we start the tours. This place looks stunning, it is like a paradise.

FOOT NOTE :A little note about the airport staff, I thought they were mechanics as they wear blue overalls but they are infact toilet attendants and hand out paper for money. The toilets are disgusting and some didn't have any toilet paper in them. Make sure that you have some with you when visiting toilets in Egypt.