Mena House, Great Pyramids, Cairo Museum

As with the other hotels, the Mena House is lovely. Where the others were very much European in styling, this one has a more Middle Eastern feel. They use lots of mirrors and golds to accent the lights. Our hotel is also right next to the Pyramids of Giza.

 Garden at Mena House

Holy Moly are the pyramids huge! The blocks that make up the pyramids are as tall as I am but weigh around 2 tons! Can you imagine the labor that went in to making these things? We were able to go into the largest of the three, The Great Pyramid. Let me tell you, it is quite the hike. There is one very small passageway. Some of the areas I had to duck in order not to bump my head; my poor husband had to seriously duck and duck and duck some more. The passageway does not have stairs, just a ramp that has bumps to help people from sliding. This ramp travels at about a 45 degree angle all the way up to the main chamber. I was so sweaty after getting to the top. I wish I had pictures, unfortunately they take your camera before entering.

Some outer parts of the pyramid gave clues to what the pyramid would have looked like when first built. There were blocks that still had some of the limestone casing intact. This casing would have covered the entire pyramid. Its color would have been a smooth shiny white and it would have gleamed in the sunlight. Talk about needing some shades! 

We also saw the Great Sphinx. There really isn't much I can say about him, other than he was really cool to see. His paws and face are still in pretty good condition, though of course parts of his face are broken off. After seeing the Sphinx we left to get something to eat. Luckily right across the road was a familiar sight. There was a Pizza Hut right across the road! All these years I thought the pyramids were in a secluded desert and they have a Pizza Hut next to them.

 Some of the limestone casing intact (lower) with the main blocks (upper)

I don't have many pictures from Cairo Museum, because cameras were not allowed inside (sensing a theme here??). We saw some amazing things, however. The museum is huge! I have never seen so many artifacts for one culture in my life. There is no way to see everything in one day. We visited the royal mummies. Pretty amazing and creepy at the same time. I was waiting for one of them to turn and say "BOO!" as I was inspecting them. Many of the mummies still had hair and eye lashes! They almost all came fully equipped with teeth and toes too (ooh look at that fancy alliteration!). We saw Ramses the Great! His body was extremely well preserved. We were not able to visit his tomb in Luxor because it was not "open," but at least we saw his mummy.


King Tut's treasures were also on display at the museum. There were rooms full of treasure and I really don't understand how it all fit because his tomb was so small! Some of the shrines and box were huge.  We were able to see the famous golden mask. The detailing of everything found in his tomb was amazing.

 A government building post revolution

Snorkeling in the Red Sea!

We had two wonderful days of snorkeling while in Sharm el Sheikh. I was really excited because I had not been to the beach in years let alone one this pretty, and I definitely had not ever been really far out to sea. The first day of snorkeling was along the coral of the Tiran Islands. Looking back I wish we had invested in a cheap underwater camera, but luckily the group we were with had a professional taking pictures of the people and the animals. Within 5 minutes of being in the water we saw a sting ray! There were so many beautiful fish and coral. We found out that the small jellyfish that inhabit the red sea are harmless. They swam around us and were not bothered at all. We also spotted what is called a lion fish. These fish have barbs that will hurt you, but it was far enough down that as long as you left it alone, it would leave you alone.

Our second day of snorkeling was a bit more exciting. We snorkeled along the reefs of Ras Mohamed National Park. The coral there was beautiful, and there was more wildlife. We noticed that many of the fish swam either in a huge school or were paired off. I wondered if perhaps they were with their mate. We saw something very scary and exciting lurking in a cavern below us. Our guide pointed him out. It was a Moray Eel. He never came all the way out...I think I would have flipped out if he did. Moray Eels are dangerous to humans. If agitated their needle like teeth can do some major damage.

A couple of minutes after we saw our eel friend I was looking down throughout the caverns. Have you ever seen those movies where all of the sudden you get a glimpse of something scary. Like the tail of a huge snake in Anaconda or the leg of an alien in the movie Signs? Well this was one of those moments. I am looking down and all of the sudden I see this huge Moray Eel slither between the caverns. He was huge! I did not see his head or his tail during the entire time I watched him swim by, it was like he was never ending. I popped up and asked the guide if he saw what I saw and he confirmed it was a very large Moray Eel. If you know me, then you know how much I HATE snakes...well I believe that eels are the snakes of the sea. 

In a few minutes we check out of this wonderful hotel and head to Cairo/Giza for our final stop. The trip is winding down, but tomorrow will be exciting!

 This is not a picture of our eel...but one alot like it....SCARY LARRY!

Sharm Hotel and Submarine ride

 The Hotel at Sharm

As amazing as the hotel in Luxor was, the hotel in Sharm is even more spectacular. The lobby itself is breathtaking and we have a beautiful view of the pool and Red Sea from our balcony. We enjoyed most of the first day just looking at the pretty fish swim close to us. One fish was quite aggressive and took a liking to nibbling on our legs. He did not hurt, it just startled me the first time.

It is so weird being in a place where your native tongue is not the one that is spoken most frequent. We did meet a very nice lady from Australia, she mentioned how it was nice speaking english to someone besides her husband.

Submarine Ride

The pictures we took in the submarine do not show half of the brilliance that the fish and coral had in real life. We saw many jellyfish that are actually not poisonous. There was one type of fish that looked like a parrot....guess what he was a parrot fish lol. In fact there are 4 types, I think. He had many beautiful bright colors and what appeared to be a beak. My favorite part was when we came across a large school of fish. They would sometimes come right up to the window. It felt like we were the "human aquarium" and they were the onlookers. All in all, it was a great time! We snorkeled today and will do so tomorrow. I'll make a post about all of that together

The Winter Palace Hotel, Luxor, and the awesome Anniversary Party

The Winter Palace

The hotel where we stayed is awesome! Because of the lack of tourism, which is sad, our room was upgraded from staying in the pavilion to staying in the actual palace. Our balcony overlooked the garden and was just breathtaking. Every morning we enjoyed a yummy breakfast that was included. I ate my weight in fresh fruit, it was so delicious.

 The Garden

The back of the palace from the garden

The lovely pool

My hat I bought for the trip

The view from our balcony

Luxor Temple

The Luxor Temple was absolutely beautiful! We were able to visit it at sunset and stayed to see the lovely lights at night. The temple included very high columns and many beautiful statues. When you think about how old the place is and how they built it using the technology they had, it is amazing.

 Anniversary Party

Mark and I had planned to have a nice dinner, see Luxor at night and just chill out on our anniversary...but boy did Dr. Brand and the rest of the crew have different plans. We did go to dinner and see Luxor but we were surprised with a little party type thing with everyone. I had heard that where we were going would have a snake charmer...and if you know me you know that I do not think snakes are charming at all.

When we got to our location I was looking for the basket that you always see them pull the snake out of, but it was nowhere in sight. A band began to play and Omar got us all up to dance. After a little dancing a belly dancer came out to entertain us for a while. She pulled myself and the others up to dance with her. I was told I am pretty good at belly dancing...I don't know about that but it was fun and a great workout.

While I was dancing the lights and electricity went off. I thought they were trying to have some grand entrance for the snake charmer and ran to my seat. Luckily it was not the snake...the power just went off. When the snake charmer did bring the snake out I started breathing hard and my mouth got dry. Even though I am afraid of snakes it was a good show. He offered the snake to people that wanted to come up. Mark was brave and held the snake while I coward at my seat. After the snake charmer was a whirling dervish. He was amazing. He seriously spun around and around while doing different tricks for I would say 20 minutes. Can you imagine spinning around for 20 minutes without getting dizzy?

Overall it was a great anniversary and one that we will remember forever!

Catching up (warning this will be long)

 The Land and the People and a Little Slice of Karnak

Egypt is AMAZING! When we were flying over Luxor it was interesting to see the definite line that separates desert from life. The Nile and canals keep the area right on the river nice and green but you can see where it all stops. You can even put one foot in the desert and one in the fertile area. Driving is very interesting in Egypt. They have signs and lines in the road but paying attention to them seems optional. If you can pass a car or fit a car in the road, you do it. When you want to turn you pretty much just do it whenever. I'm sure there's a logic to it, but it's definitely very foreign to my way of thinking! Cars will come a foot or so from hitting each other, but I have yet to see them actually hit. And pedestrians have the right of way does not really apply here. They won't hit you or anything; there's just no right away. Go when you can, and do so assertively. Omar, an awesome local that works for Mark's group, told us we have to learn how to walk like an Egyptian. This simply means when you think you have a chance to make it, you go. Don't think about it, just do it.

Perhaps the most important thing that struck me is this: we are so spoiled. I knew this before, but being here has really confirmed it. We only see the pictures of the beautiful tourist traps in Egypt, but many people here are not so fortunate to live in the beautiful areas. Now that tourism is down, many of the people are desperate. When we visit places we think it's awesome at first because there is hardly no one there. But then you become friends with some of the locals and realize how dependent they are on the tourism. Children will come up to you asking you to buy their items or even just asking for money. They can be a little annoying, but imagine if that is how you made ends meat, and all of the sudden the amount of people you saw in a day was drastically reduced. You have to hold your guns and sometimes ignore them, because you can not buy from them all. It makes me sad that they have suffered because of lack of tourism.  

When I told people I was coming over here they would tell me to be careful or ask me if I was afraid. Let me tell you, I feel safer here than I do in Memphis in many respects. We Americans judge the Arab people so harshly because of the things the extremist do. Most of the people are very nice, work hard and take pride in their work.  I have met so many wonderful people. They make the same jokes we make, and in a way they are even funnier because of the broken English. I mean they can make me laugh without fully being able to communicate with me. That's impressive when you think about it. And many of them are so helpful. Mark and Omar even refer to each other as brothers. Sure some of them haggling with you or are annoying but most of them are great from my experience. We are so quick to judge people that are different from us, when we have no idea who they really are except for what the television tells us. 

Okay some fun stuff...

My first full day of Egypt we spent some time at the Karnak Temple, among other things. This is the temple that Mark is working at.

Ram Sphinxes outside of temple

Entrance to the Temple

 There were hieroglyphs everywhere, even the ceiling.  Notice the colors that have survived so long!

 There are 122 of these huge columns. Mark and his group are working on recording everything these columns say.

 Obelisk at Karnak, what does it remind you of?

 Erm, do you see what I see? It is in fact, ALL OVER the place!!

I have so so so much more to say (I haven't even gotten to the anniversary celebration with a Belly Dancer, a snake charmer and a whirling dervish) but that's enough for now. I'll try to update you all again later tonight!