Day 2 - Wednesday, February 21st

Our 26 member tour group met in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel and settled in to meet our guide and get started on our adventures. Walid is our guide and little did we know at this time just how special he would make this exploration of Egypt! Walid informed us that we would be called "Habibi" group. Habibi means "beloved" and we came to love our own Habibi, Walid!!

Walid has degrees in Archeology, Politics, and Commerce and is passionate about the history of his country, the culture of the Egyptians and the politics. Every explanation and description of what we were seeing was colored with every ounce of knowledge Habibi could impart to us.

Our first stop of the day was the Citadel of Salah El Din and Mohammed Ali's Mosque. The Citadel was home to Egypt's rulers for almost 700 years - originally founded in 1176. The upper terraces of the Citadel offer spectacular views of the city. Mohammed Ali's Alabaster Mosque is enclosed in the Citadel is was built in the mid-19th century (he was regarded as the founder of modern Egypt). Walid had given us a lesson on Islam before we arrived and so had a very respectful tour with a little more understanding of the Muslim faith than we had before. The size and beauty of the Mosque was just a teaser for the size and beauty of the temples we would see in the next days.

The Egyptian Museum was next. We saw the originals of statues, coffins, jewellery, linen cloths, furniture, effigies, a war chariot, all items that we've seen copies and pictures of. And then...the Tutankhamun Galleries...life sized statues, clothing, hunting implements, jewellery, couches and beds...and...Tutankhamun's fabulous death mask. For Les seeing the death mask was worth the price of the whole trip!! The Museum is very old and considering the priceless treasures that it houses, not at all secure or particularly safe for the artifacts. For instance the glass cases that contain fabrics, some as old as 3500 years are cracked and in sunny areas of the museum. (We discovered later in the tour that a new Museum is being built near the Pyramids of Giza - thank goodness!) One piece that we saw only a copy of (the original is in the British Museum) was the "Rosetta Stone". This piece was found in 1799 and had a text in 3 scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. In 1822 Thomas Young translated the demotic text and identified the cartouches of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. At the same time, Jean-Francois Champollion also deciphered these names and others, compiling an extensive list of symbols. He realized that there were separate types of hieroglyphics with different functions and so discovered the basis of the writing system used in hieroglyphic texts.

In the evening we drove to Giza for the Pyramid Sound and Light Show. The Pyramids are not outside of Cairo anymore. The growth of this huge city (the current metropolitan population is 16.1 million) has encroached on the area surrounding the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Our first glimpse of the Pyramids was awesome - really...who gets to actually see the pyramids in their lifetime?? We are so lucky!! Up close you can feel the magic and mystery of them. It helped immensely that the crescent moon was clear and present (and the crescent was on it's back - something we never see in Canada!). The light show was beautiful, it incorporated history and facts with dialogue and lights. Next week we get to come back in the daylight to explore some more.

Tidbits from today:

• Habibi tells us about everything we pass (you will read lots of "Habibi says..." in my descriptions of our tour!)
• Went passed the area where leather is tanned - beside an ancient aqua-duct - horse or donkey carts are used to move the goods throughout the area - leather drying on roof-top racks - fur & "stuff" thrown and left on the streets, dogs & cats rummage through this - people live here too
• Passed the Northern Cemetery "City of the Dead" - homeless people inhabit some of the tombs and now the living and the dead coexist side by side
• Armed soldiers are everywhere - either hand guns or AK47 Russian semi-automatic or machine guns - we go through security machines everywhere (including the hotel) - most times the machines just beep and beep and no one stops to check the reason why
• The area around the Pyramids of Giza is at least 1000 years behind the rest of the world - donkeys & horses are used for transportation, with or without a cart - aqua-ducts full of garbage - trash everywhere - shops line the streets to the pyramids - alleyways (imagine a picture from the time of Christ; robed people, donkeys, horses) - derelict buildings & rubble - merchants & food sellers; bakeries, meat shops - slow moving people - Hard Rock Cafe beside t-shirt, sheesha pipe, book, souvenir & jewellery shops
• Our tour group consists of new friends from: Australia (Adelaide & Brisbane), South Africa, U.S.A. (Washington & Oregon) & Canada (N. Saanich, B.C.; Picture Butte & Edmonton, Alberta; Oshawa, Guelph, & Belleville, Ontario; & Halifax, Nova Scotia)

Day 1 - Tuesday, February 20th - Arrival in Egypt and First Impressions

I am still very overwhelmed by our tour of Egypt and want to go justice to all that we experienced and saw. I want our family and friends to know that words and photographs will never do justice to; the magnitude of size, grandeur, comprehension of age of the temples, pyramids, statues and artifacts; the beauty of the fertile fields along the Nile River, the amazement of seeing people live still as I would imagine life looked during the time of Christ, the beauty of the Mosques and the Coptic Churches, the noise, traffic, pollution of Cairo. We spent 12 days in a completely different world and enjoyed every second soaking up as much as we could.

We arrived in Cairo and were met by the Insight Travel agent who led us through the maze of passport/visa control, helped us gather our luggage and through one more passport control. As we drove from the airport to the hotel he regaled us with a running commentary of what we were seeing, facts, interesting tidbits of life in Cairo, laughter while watching our amazement of traffic in Cairo. On arrival at the Cairo Marriott he handed our bags to the porter, produced our room key, gave us our instructions for meeting with the entire group the next day and wished us well. I wish I had gotten his name. We knew that if he was an indication of our Insight Travel experience of Cairo we were definitely in for a good time!

Our first impressions of Cairo are of unbelievable traffic, horns, pollution, people, Mosques and Churches everywhere, apartment buildings that look like they were bombed out but are definitely inhabited and have scads of satellite dishes on the roofs, garbage, motor cycles (some with 3 or 4 people on them, some with a woman passenger in her robes sitting side-saddle), bicycle riders weaving in and out (some with baskets of goods on their heads). We couldn't look fast enough to take it all in!

The Cairo Marriott Hotel was built around the palace created for Empress Eugenie of France when she attended the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. It's a beautiful hotel right by the Nile River, with a large out door cafe, lovely decor inside and out, and a casino!! How happy was Les to make his contribution to whatever Egyptian charity the slot machine money goes to!!!

Being the brave soul that he is, Les suggested that we go for a walk in the evening. We walked over the 26 of July St. Bridge to a street that had lots of activity. We passed by shops, sheesha(water pipe)/tea cafes, bakeries, meat markets and hundreds of people. It was exciting and just a bit unnerving. Crossing the street is insanity! Many drivers do not put on their headlights at night, no one stops for pedestrians, 2 lanes of traffic often hold 4 or 5 lanes of cars, traffic lights are never obeyed. But, we did make it back to the hotel safely!

Back at the hotel we enjoyed a mid-eastern dinner at the outdoor restaurant. A couple of old women sit and hand make the best pita bread you've ever tasted, cooking them in an open fire oven right there. Les enjoyed his sheesha after dinner and I must admit that I tried it too. The apple flavoured tobacco goes through the water reservoir at the bottom of the pipe before coming out the pipe. It's very smooth and aromatic!

And so went our first day in Cairo, Egypt!!

We are back in the UAE from Egypt!

We are back in the United Arab Emirates after the most amazing vacation in Egypt! I am currently writing all about our adventures, please check back in a few days to read about our "Trip of a Lifetime". (Temple of Horus at Edfu - this is the granite statue of the falcon god Horus)

Sunset on the Persian Gulf - Valentine's Day

Swimming in the Gulf at the "Danat Resort Jebel Dhanna in Abu Dhabi"

On Friday, another absolutely beautiful day, we went to the "Danat Resort Jebel Dhanna in Abu Dhabi". This hotel is actually only about 15 minute drive from here, not close to Abu Dhabi City at all, but it is in the Abu Dhabi Emarite. It is definately a popular place with Europeans. (Check it out on the Internet.)

We had a lovely lunch buffet here and were able to pay for a day of relaxing on their beach, swimming in the gulf and playing in their pool!! This was the first day I actually swam in the Persian Gulf. Les and I spent the day in the water, lounging on the sand and by the pool. What a nice, relaxing, sunny day we had!! I LOVE swimming in the Gulf!! I can hardly wait until we return for another day of pretending we are very wealthy Arabs or Europeans - pretending to lead the life of the rich and famous!!!

We Finally Find the CAMELS!!

We then drove into the desert in search of camels!!! The desert is amazing. I didn't realize that the desert sand was so colorful, from light beige to almost reddish brown in some places. The wind shapes the sand into great big dunes with a gentle slope on one side and a dangerous looking cliff on the other, little hills and valleys. Small little tufts of grass or small shrubs are growing here and there. There are many small fenced areas of trees that have been planted. We don't know whether these places are like tree farms or just for greenery to be interspersed with the seemingly unending sand. They were welcome sites though! But even more welcome were the camels we saw!! There were a number of them at one of the treed areas and a large herd in a fenced area out in the desert. Now, I have to say, seeing camels in their own environment, running free, was better even than I imagined! We drove to Les' job site. I've seen a lot of the places Les has worked - plants that he built - but never one that has been built in a big sandbox! Very interesting! But, even better than seeing where he's worked for the last year, was the huge herd of camels in the desert beside the plant. There were at least 30 of them grazing on the small tufts of grass. We drove very close to them to get some pictures and they weren't the least bit concerned about us. It was great!!!

We Explore Around Ruwais and Ghayathi

The town of Ruwais is about 15 minutes away and the other night we went in for some groceries. We had Arab Fast Food for supper!! Chicken shwarmas, faelefel, pita and humus - I was in my own little heaven - it was all so good. The town boasts 3 Mosques which are quite lovely and I can't tell you how mystical it is to hear the call the Mosque when you are in an Arab country. There are Mosques everywhere, at every gas station, in the camp, and one down by the boat yard too. I do really like seeing the men and women in their traditional clothing. There seems to be such grace and dignity that goes along with the garments. The road into the town is lined with palm trees and flowers and the town is very clean. Actually the entire highway from Abu Dhabi to here (about 250 km.) is also lined with trees - mainly palm and behind them all you can see is sand. The camp also has lots of flowering trees and flowers planted throughout. The government seems to spend a lot of money and time to nurture the greenery.

Les has Thursday afternoon and all day Friday off work. On Thursday afternoon we drove to another neighbouring town - Ghayathi. This town is another extreme example of poor versus well off. The drive into town was along a lovely road lined with trees and flowers. Very large villas spaced quite far apart could be seen from the road. As we got into the town we passed by the other "homes". Tenement row housing, almost all filthy looking on the outside - hopefully much cleaner on the inside - old unusable furniture and garbage just piled here and there. Store fronts with goods for sale and garbage spilling out into the street, very tired looking shop keepers beckoning passers by in. I was surprised by the number of schools in the town - boy's schools and girl's schools - never co-ed.