Sightseeing the Caldow Way

The Blog of the Drive By Tourists

On the road again

Just can’t wait to get on the road again... 

This time we are off to explore Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. Why? Just because.

The first thing we discovered is that it isn’t easy to get there and back with frequent flyer miles. First, we must use that hated British Air. No choice. Why do we hate them? One word—surcharge.  Next, it takes a while. Noon this am, Jax to Charlotte, to LaGuardia. Taxi to JFK, wait around. JFK to Heathrow and wait around. Then finally get to Cairo at 11 pm tomorrow night. But try to come home from Tel Aviv! Not happening. So buy ourselves a ticket from Tel Aviv to Istanbul to spend the night in the airport because Turkey is mad at the USA and won’t let us in the country. But ok, we can handle that since we can use the frequent flyer miles to get back from Istanbul.   And then what happens? Turkey likes us again, we get visas, and can go to a hotel. Too bad we didn’t know this would happen or we could have spent a few days exploring Istanbul. 

 10/6/18 at home 

Here we go again!

How do you sightsee the Caldow way? See less and see more!  We don’t like to spend a whole lot of time seeing anything in depth. By skimming the surface, we get to see and experience more things. But mostly it’s just because we get bored with too much of a good thing. There’s way too much to see and way too many places to go and never enough time...or money...to do it all.    

 10/5/18 at home.

If you are offered a wheelchair, take it!

First observation— it takes a very long time to get from Jacksonville to Cairo. Left home at 10:00 am on Saturday 10/6 and got to our hotel in Cairo just before midnight on Sunday 10/7. 

Second observation— it was amazing to have so many Egyptians helping us when we arrived. We stopped after leaving the jetway to pull out our visas, and immediately were offered a wheelchair. I declined because I was determined to be independent. But as I got to the top of the elevator a man was there to grab my suitcases and again offer me a wheelchair. Of course, I declined once again, so he pushed the chair and my luggage and started ahead. Meanwhile, another fellow was doing the same with Brian. They took our passports and visas and told us to follow them. When we got to passport control, we were whisked into a very short line- diplomats, crew, and the DISABLED!! 

Third observation— my immediate assumption when these fellows first offered assistance was that they just wanted tips. But just before we went thru passport control, one of them slipped away, no tip. And when we got to the baggage area, another one directed us to the correct carousel. We explained that we had no additional bags, so the new fellow grabbed my two carry-ons, the original guy took Brian’s bags and off we went. They took us to a tourist help desk, left me and the luggage waiting there, and the second fellow slipped away, no tip. The original guy then took Brian to a bank to exchange currency and as Brian did that, he arranged for a prepaid taxi to get us to the hotel. Then he slipped away, but this time Brian was able to tip him. When Brian got back to me and the luggage, the man at the info desk, grabbed both of our bags and led us out to meet the taxi. He waited with us till we got situated, and then slipped away, no tip. It was an amazing welcome to Egypt.

Sunday 10/7 11:45 pm in Le Meridian Cairo Airport.

Yeah, but how safe is it?

 We are getting used to having the vehicle searched by armed guards with sniffing dogs and mirrors to look underneath. It happened before we could enter the grounds of both hotels and the Pharaonic Village. And in all three places we went through metal detectors at the entrance. So, on the surface, they seem to be very security conscious— but we keep setting the alarm off and nobody even looks up. And besides, they drive like maniacs here.

 Monday 10/8/18 10:30 pm at Le Meridian Pyramids

Pharaonic Village? Never heard of it!

  Since we were arriving so late at night, we didn’t think that we would have much energy on the first day in Egypt. Of course, we can’t waste a day either, so we needed an activity that would only take a few hours. Hmmmm, let’s see— there’s the Egyptian Museum. But wait! Why go to a stuffy old museum when there’s a cheesy tourist attraction instead? So ok, it’s cheesy, but it’s also a living museumof life in the times of the Pharaohs. We learned about the Gods, saw craft demonstrations and replicas of a Temple, homes of a rich man and a peasant, and King Tut’s tomb. It was actually very interesting, the perfect length of time, and a good introduction to Egypt. 

 Monday 10/9/18 10:30 pm at Le Meridian Pyramids hotel.

Egyptian Dreams

 Today has been our day to see all things that make you want to come to Egypt. We saw 11 different pyramids, two Sphinxes and giant statue of Ramses II, starting in Memphis, then on to Saqqara, then back to Giza. We also visited a school for carpet making, a gold store where I got a future heirloom for someone who might want to remember us. It’s a cartouche with our names in hieroglyphics. Becca on one side and Brian on the other. 

We also visited a papyrus store where we saw a demonstration of papyrus being made and a store selling Egyptian cotton. Although tempted by the 1600 thread count sheets, we did manage to resist. 

One of the best things about today was our private guide. He tailored everything to suit our style of sightseeing and my bad knees. And best of all was his sharing, throughout the day, tales about how Egyptians live. During lunch we managed to cover all the forbidden topics—sex, religion, and politics. One thing that he most wanted us to know and remember is that when the world thinks about and criticizes other countries, it’s the government that is being criticized, and most definitely not the people. A truly great guide and a new Facebook friend.

 Tuesday 10/9/18 4:30 pm. Back at the hotel.

 Uh-Oh

No Caldow trip would be complete without an “uh-oh” moment, and mine was this morning. Ok, in fairness, I had only slept for about 4 hours when we had to check out at 4:15 am. Why so early? Our ride needed to get us by 4:30 in order to get us to the airport to catch our 7am flight to Aswan. When I woke at 3 am, I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I hauled out my iPad. So far so good. However, when I sat down at my gate at the airport, and reached for my iPad, it was nowhere to be found. I realized that I had no memory of packing it. Uh-oh!!! I called the hotel, they checked the room and sure enough, there it was on the bed. Fortunately, we will be back in Cairo for one night next week and I can retrieve it then.

 Weds. 10/10/18 Cairo

And speaking of airports

 When you have desert all around, you can build one of the world’s largest airports (area wise). Once you land, it takes forever to reach the terminals. You taxi for miles and miles on runways surrounded by sand. Brown sand. It’s everywhere

Brown, brown and more brown

 If you look at a geographical map, Egypt is all brown except a little green along the Nile. And that’s truly what it looks like. Cairo itself is crowded and brown, and drab, and poor. There are green patches of palm trees and other plants, but overall what you see is brown. .

Aswan

 The Aswan High Dam is truly an engineering marvel. In order to complete it, the Nile had to be rerouted for 4 years. When you stand on top of the dam, you are at the highest point in Egypt. Everywhere you look, you see the armed Egyptian Army guarding the dam. It’s obvious why, when you consider the critical significance of the dam in terms of providing power, water, irrigation, and flood control.

 After leaving the dam we went to a Nubian village and took a motorboat to the Philae Temple. This temple was started by the Greeks when Alexander the Great invaded. Construction continued under the Romans and was finished by a Ptolemy. Later the Coptic Christians came along to deface the carvings. 

Weds. 10/10/18 Aswan 

Uh- Oh Part ll

After the dam, temple and a interesting stop at an essential oils place, we arrived at our ship (the Blue Shadow) for the Nile Cruise. Partly because I didn’t have my knee braces on, and partly because we didn’t get enough sleep last night, and partly because of dehydration (despite all the water our guides provide us) I was exhausted by the time I got to the ship. Ok, being honest, it’s mostly because of my being fat and out of shape. But my second uh-oh moment came when I realized that there are no elevators on this 5-deck boat. And of course, the dining room is on the first floor and our room is on the fourth floor. We did get a chance to rest a bit after lunch, and then it was time for our sail on a felucca. Once I got on the thing, the sail itself was lovely. And then we stopped on an island to visit the botanical gardens. My idea was to find a shady bench and relax while Brian and the guide walked around. But oh no! The boat let us off on one end of the island and was going to pick us up at the other end. So, walk it I did, and it was so lush and lovely that it was totally worth it. As we left, that’s when we were BECALMED IN THE NILE. Sounds like the title of a novel! As for me, I was so happy to be back on the boat and sitting in the shade, I didn’t care how long we sat in the middle of the river.

  Weds 10/10/18 on board The Blue Shadow docked in Aswan

On the Nile

We have well and truly managed to upset our guide. Last night we told him that he could have today off because we are very tired, and don’t have any desire to visit the temples at Kom Ombo and Edfu. He was really distressed, and we think that it may have something to do with his company’s accounting rules. We are going to give him something in writing to the effect that he offered and why we declined.

Our plan is to sleep late, lounge around the boat and rebuild our strength for the Valley of the Kings and Karnak. I’m scheduled to get a massage this afternoon- 2 hours for $90!

Things are cheap here because the Egyptian pound is so weak. Each pound is only about $.17 to the dollar. That’s why we couldn’t get any until money exchanged before we got here. The reason all stems back to the Revolution of 11 years ago. The economy crashed and is only very slowly recovering. Egypt’s economy has always been based on tourism. Before the revolution they averaged 15 million tourists per year. Since then it’s dropped to 5 million. Our tour guides have talked about being out of work for several years and the struggle they had during that time just to keep their families fed. They are optimistic, however, and tell us that tourists have started coming again and also that they are adjusting to the economy as it is now.

Of course, all this explains why everyone is so exceptionally friendly and helpful and why security is so prevalent. We are pampered, feel very safe, and it isn’t costing us a lot of money. If you have ever wanted to see Egypt, it’s a good time to visit.

 Thursday 10/11/18. 9am Docked at Kom Ombo. 

Peddling Nile Style

We just went through a lock south of Luxor and were entertained by the peddlers on the lock and in boats around the ship. They threw merchandise up through our window and we were throwing it right back. Of course (you knew it) we ended up getting two huge beach towels for $15. And then there was the kid. He was asking for a banana or any food. We tossed him a bag of our homemade trail mix. At first, he wasn’t too sure what it was, but when he looked at it under the lights his face lit up with the biggest smile. Then he started waving and blowing kisses as he shoved it in his pocket so no one else could see.

Are We Philistines or Just Tired?

Maybe a little bit of both. Our guide was very upset that we had skipped Kom Ombo and Edfu, but by the time we reached Luxor I think he was becoming resigned to the Caldow  way of sightseeing. He gave up trying to get us to go into every open tomb in the Valley of the Kings, didn’t put up a fuss when we declined to visit the Valley of the Queens, and wasn’t surprised when we were happy to just look at the entrance to Hatshepsut’s tomb from the car. He even volunteered to hop out of the car at the Colossi of Memnon and take the pictures for us!

But when I nearly passed out at Karnak from too much sun and way too little wa ter, I think it scared him, and so he was more than happy to do a drive by of Luxor Temple. Since it is right in the middle of downtown it was easily viewed by driving around it. And now we are “Templed out”. With just Petra left before we finish with the ancient world, we are looking forward to Israel and the modern times of the Wailing Wall, Via Dolorosa, and Masada. 

Friday 10/12/18. Aboard the Blue Shadow on the Nile at Luxor

                         

Off We Go!

 Here we are, back on the road. We are in a minivan with a driver, a tour company rep, and a backup driver heading to the Red Sea at Hurghada. It’s a 5.5-hour drive through agricultural land as we head north along the Nile before turning east across the Sahara. One reason that the drive takes so long is that every mile or so we must pass an armed police check point and every half mile or so there is a speed bump. It’s a jerky way to go, but the scenery is very interesting. Everywhere in Egypt you see folks riding donkeys as primary transportation and donkey driven wagons for haulage. Many, if not most houses are hand built from clay blocks or bricks and have flat roofs covered with stones and brush. The other houses are multi storied, built one story at a time as people need and can afford to add a level. From the beginning the houses are built with beams or piers for future stories sticking up from the level below.

Saturday 10/13/18. Somewhere in the Sahara