No Hassle Free

Well we are home and things are returning to normal now. Although the trip to Egypt was short I can honestly say that its effect and memory will be lasting. The place, the culture, the people….they get right under your skin.

As I said in my last post we started in Cairo and spent our first day pinching ourselves as we stood in front of the pyramids. I still can’t quite grasp that I’ve seen them. I wish we had of had time to go back again because it all seems so surreal now. They are massive beyond anything I expected and that’s on a physical, mental and spiritual level.

We also visited the Cairo Museum which is stuffed full of amazing things, not least of which are the items from the tomb of Tutankhamun. We wandered around old Cairo, visited synagogue and church and mosque, did a little shopping, ate some fantastic food and generally walked around with our mouths and our eyes wide open in amazement!

We took an overnight train to Aswan. I shall only say this about the train…if you can organize it…fly instead. Aswan was a different world. Admittedly we were a little dazed after our train ride and very little sleep however after Cairo, Aswan was quiet, peaceful, brighter, cleaner and the Nile was blue. Here we visited the Philae temple complex, Abu Simbel, spent an afternoon on a Felucca, haggled our way through the market and wished we could reorganize the trip so we could stay longer!

But we had to keep moving and so we made our way to Luxor by way of the Kom Ombo and Edfu temples…both were amazing with vivid carvings covering every inch of their massive structures.Luxor was much more like Cairo than Aswan with more traffic and plenty of hassling. Whenever we passed by a shop people would appear out of nowhere calling, "Come look in my beautiful shop" and "Come look at my rubbish!" Horse and carriage drivers would walk slowly beside you on the street and taxi drivers would call out "Hey lucky man....you want to rent my taxi?” Luxor didn’t let up on the amazing though. With the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and both Luxor and the Temples of Karnak we were kept in a constant state of “gob-smacked-ness”!!

It is possible for someone to get ‘templed-out’ and I’ve been there before but not this trip. In fact the more temples we saw the more information started to sink in and we were able to recognize hieroglyphs and what they meant or understand why things were built the way they were and get a taste of the culture back then. It's hard to equate the civilization that was with ruins that are left behind, but every now and then we'd turn a corner or come across a painting or carving that for a second would give you a glimpse of the sheer scale of what used to be. It just took your breath away.

After Luxor we, somewhat reluctantly, caught another overnight train to Cairo. This one was better than the first but it’s still a rough trip. Our last day was spent wandering around the Khan al-Khalili market…a great place to wander around. So many sights and sounds and colors, so much to buy, so many people trying to talk to you and get your attention. By now we were at ease with the aggressive nature of selling and this was one of the highlights of the trip. I love markets!

Egypt is a fascinating place so full of contrasts that it makes your head spin. The people are friendly, the sights are amazing and neither of us wanted to leave when our time was up. We only had a whirlwind tour of 8 days or so and it was nowhere near enough to see and do everything we wanted but what a brilliant ‘taster’. We’ve already decided that we are going back…tomorrow would be good for me!!

Over the next few days I’ll post some photos of the places we saw. As per usual we took quite a few photos and I’m still in the process of sorting them out….