day 87 – safaga, egypt

entire avenue of rams' headed sphinx

all i can say is, “wow!”  and, also, way to go, captain, for putting egypt back on the menu!

it is such a total trip to be in a place as ancient as this place… where to start?  there are so many impressions i came away with of this place today… to refresh your memory, i was chosen to escort a guest tour to the temples of karnak and luxor today.  i had to report for duty and clear customs and immigration at 7:15 am and pick up the escort knapsack… this contains a numbered flag (matching the tour number, so you can stand in view and guests with matching tour number will gather with you) and a minor first aid kit in case of skinned knees, insect bites, minor boo boos, etc.   (and no, we didn’t have any boo boos or lose anyone, so that was a good thing!)  i also had to get a large water bottle for the day since it is an eleven hour tour… it was awesome of the hotel manager, by the way (my boss’ boss) to give me permission to start at 9 tonight so that i could go… it’s just as well, because most of the ship is also going to be on this and other assorted tours, so i would have had a fairly empty house anyway.

i waited on the docks where the buses were queued up for tours… i found mine and stood with my flag, #8, waiting for guests.  wouldn’t you know that on #7, also on our tour, was my visiting pal brianna!  nice knowing we would see each other at various sites and at least get to have lunch together!

we drove from the port city of safaga through the sahara desert about three and a half hours towards luxor.  the landscape in this distance varies so widely!  so much of the desert had rocks and small mountains, very star wars-y… every several miles were military checkpoints we had to go through.  there were bedouin camps here and there, and they have moved to sturdier shelters than just tents, though still very rustic.  the primary beast of burden here is the donkey.  they didn’t see any camels in egypt until more recent history when some were imported from saudi arabia, though donkeys always were and still are everywhere… very cute!  it is clear that most of egypt seems to be living in poverty… their homes are built with bricks made from mud and they still work the fields by hand, crops like sugarcane, onions, and alfalfa…

it was required to travel in a convoy

guards at a checkpoint

mudbrick homes

truck full o' onions

as soon as we reached the irrigation ditches diverted from the nile, we saw more greenery, and on the final stretch of road to luxor, there are flowering trees and shrubs that line both sides of the road.  we first went to the temple of karnak and i was awestruck at how huge everything was… also wondered at how the hieroglyhics are mostly still so clear, and at how there are hardly any tourists back yet... we are the first tour my driver has done since the egyptian revolution, and, boy! were they glad to see us and sell some stuff!  our ship is one of if not the first to come back… the majority of people here are making their living from the tourist trade and have really suffered since everything went down here a couple of months ago… after karnak, we had lunch at the st. george hotel and then continued to the temple of luxor… i won’t belabor the history of these places, but encourage you to check out the history online even if just to glance at wikipedia… it’s amazing to be walking in these footsteps!  luxor was incredible also, and i saw the twin of the obelisk the french took, whose mate bob and i saw on the place de la concorde in paris…

beautiful ankhs, symbol of life

forests of huge pillars covered in hieroglyhics

imposing sentries

obelisk whose twin lives in paris

loved the critters...

two little girls high on a mosque... this used to be at ground level, and luxor was excavated around it

rare human faced sphinxes line huge road at luxor temple

he looks happy

the whole place gave me shivers, and it was definitely worth 7 hours of roundtrip desert driving, which in itself was fascinating, to have 4 hours of sightseeing in these wonders of the ancient world… i was sad bob had to work, but i will share every bit of this adventure with him!  i wrote my port song on the way back to the ship with pen and paper (so typed version will come later), and had a pretty short night in the club… i did requests for my main set since so few folks had it in them after 11 and 12 hour tours to hang out!  i wrapped early at 11:15 and we lost an hour setting the clocks forward to go towards jordan tomorrow… i have another epic tour day tomorrow, so i gotta get some rest!