Vol 77 Michele Day 9

All right all you whiners- here's the long awaited post for day 3 of our Egypt trip. I have had non-stop couchsurfing guests so I've been busy being a good host. The last 3 have gone back to their student lives in Singapore so I'm back to writing at night instead of dining in cafes with travelers.

I have forgotten to tell you how Egypt IS. It's noisy, it's dirty, it's exciting, it's..... it's..... it's amazing!

You know I'm a sucker for old stuff. Well Egypt is full of old stuff. It's the Cradle of Civilization. And though time has taken it's tole, it's incredible how much history is left standing.

Our third day in Egypt Michele and I went back to the West Bank, this time to explore some of the temples. Reggae, the CouchSurfer who worked at the hostel that we had dinner with the night before arranged for a taxi to take us around the sights for a super cheap price. Something like $5 US for the day. I am only sharing our best photos of the day and still there are a ton. Happy to report that many of these photos are Michele's. Her camera (and her great eye) did her proud on this day.

First up was the temple complex of Medinat Habu.

Starts off tame enough but we quickly realized it's huge. It goes on and on.

Gate near the entrance.

Detail of pillar near the gate near the entrance.

Statue of Sekhmet near the pillar near the gate near the entrance........

Detail of wall near the....... never mind.

Black granite offering table. The channel at the top is for blood to run....

This is the first pylon of the memorial temple of Ramses III.

Detail of the pylon showing Ramses III smiting his enemies. He's holding a handful of heads.

More wall detail.

The south colonnade of the First Court.

Statue in the north colonnade of the First Court.

Ceiling detail passing from First to Second Court.

Second Court walls.

Second Court columns.

Second Court wall.

Passing from Second Court to Hypostyle Hall.

More wall detail. Amazing that the paint is still there!

More wall detail.

The Great Hypostyle Hall is not in very good shape but the 52 rooms off of it are.

Sweet light moment in one of those rooms.

Temple guard.

Wall with rooms.

After Madinat Habu we headed to the village of Dayr al Madinat or the Worker's Village.

It's behind the modern village.

It's a well planned and neatly constructed village of mud and stone where the men responsible for cutting and decorating the tombs of Egypt's New Kingdom pharaohs lived with their families.

Of course Puddles came along with us.

While in the village we also toured 3 of the tombs open to the public. These tombs were for the more important of the artists responsible for decorating the pharaohs tombs.

Entrance to the Tomb of Sennedjem. We were not able to take photos inside these tombs as they are just too tiny and there is always a guard right there, watching.

I did however find these 2 photos on the internet. It is amazing that these tombs are in such good shape after thousands of years.

I didn't bother Googleing the other 2 tombs we saw. It's late, I'm tired.

At the top left of this photo you can see the mud brick enclosure walls of a Ptolemaic Temple, which is where we ended up when we walked through the village.


Ceiling detail of the temple with thousands of stars.

Love this shot.

Love this one even more.

Wall detail.

More wall detail.

Detail of detail.

Next stop was a look at an alabaster shop. All cabs drivers will try to take you to a shop, where they receive a commission if you buy. Our driver, hired by Reggae asked if we'd like to stop, we said sure. This super-friendly guy is demonstrating how alabaster is cut by hand to make a vase. We went in to get an education on alabaster but we did not buy anything. It's best to buy on your own- the prices are lower when you aren't paying someones commission.

Some of the tourist tat for sale in the shop.

The alabaster vases. They glow when light is shone through them. I discovered I don't like alabaster so it was easy for me not to buy.



From there we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which Michele called "Hot Chicken Soup". She cracks me up.

This temple is carved into and out of the mountain face. The approach is spectacular.

What kind of tourists would we be if we didn't get other tourists to take our photo? We are wearing matching shirts. I brought extra long-sleeved, function over fashion shirts to share with Michele because I knew she was packing all pretty things, thinking that we were going to Dubai. She and I both wore those same pants everyday we were in Egypt. In my hand you can see that damn hat which I was actually forced to wear on the later half of this day as I had a wicked sunburn on my nose and forehead from my previous hatless days. Stupid useful hat. Michele was sweetly unsmug. The weather was strange. If I was in the sun I was fine, but as soon as I moved out of the sun I was cold. Everyone else seemed fine, perhaps I'm too acclimated to Oman heat.





I'm too tired to comment on these photos. What am I going to say? It's a wall. A cow. It's old. Blah, blah, blah.




View of the Temple Of Seti I from Hatsheput temple.


Roman graffiti scratched into the temple walls.

This guard asked Michele to take his photo. Then asked for baksheesh. Oh brother.

Spare parts.

And now, a sad story. Michele had Puddles in her pocket this day while we toured the various monuments. Before we entered Hatshepsut's Temple, we had to walk past a bunch of booths selling tourist crap. We hadn't bought anything yet so we shopped ever so briefly at these booths. I bought her a carved scarab paper weight and that was about it. We continued on our way and wandered around the temple for quite a while.

As we were leaving the temple complex, just getting into our waiting taxi, having just walked past all those tourist crap booths again, she realized Puddles was no longer in her pocket. She remembered him being there as we exited the temple gates but he was definitely missing now.

I can't begin to tell you how upset she was. She walked up and down the whole area, asking all the booth salesmen if they'd seen him. But no luck. he was gone.

I took this photo in the taxi as we were leaving. That's Michele in the backseat, trying desparately not to cry. Chloe, her daughter, had entrusted Puddles to Michele and she felt she had betrayed that trust. She consoled herself with the theory that he fell out of her pocket and some Egyptian child picked him up and has given him a good home. Perhaps a child who otherwise could not have afforded a sweet little stuffie like Puddles.

And now a happy story. As we were leaving the temple, ready to head back to the East Bank, Reggae, the CouchSurfer who worked at the hostel and had fed us the previous night, called and invited us for a ride on his friends felucca on the Nile. Do I refuse invitations? Of course we said yes!

A felucca is a small sail boat and sailing the Nile in one is one of the things my guide book says everyone must do.

A Brazilian CouchSurfer staying at the hostel joined us. That's Reggae in the middle.

I love this photo of the captain of the boat. There were 6 of us- the captain, his deckhand, Reggae, the Brazilian CouchSurfer whose name I've forgotten, Michele and I.

The deckhand, Moustafa.

Camels on the riverbank.

Here's a bummer of a photo moment. Michele was taking this damn near perfect photo, which I have effectively ruined by being in it because I was taking.....

....this no where near as good photo. Poop.



It was soooooo pretty on the water. To be honest I had not been too gung ho on the whole felucca thing when I had read about it in the guide book. It just seemed boring and I was worried I would be cold. I was so wrong. It was relaxing and social and gorgeous. They made us hibiscus tea and Reggae sang to us.

He also flirted with Michele.


And with the boat! He was a really funny guy and so hospitable.

My smiley-faced sister!

Lowering the sail.

Michele's perfect, cheesey sunset-on-the-Nile shot.

I found this guy in her photos. Hmmmm, I wonder why she took this photo? Could it be she thought he was a teensey bit handsome? We did a little shopping on the way home but Michele can't dicker worth beans so we didn't buy anything. She sucked so bad at it in fact that I actually forbid her to speak inside the shops. She had to pretend to be mute. More about this in the next post.

And I'll admit it- I missed Puddles at bedtime. It was strange not having him there. He had been such a part of our days since Michele had arrived in Oman. Michele was still sad about losing him.



The day's video.