We love diving. We really, really, love diving. That’s why a little over a year ago we became divemasters in Utila, Honduras. Utila, as far as I know, is the world’s cheapest place to learn to dive. It compares favourably with the island of Koh Tao, Thailand, which appears to be the world’s cheapest place for a certified diver to rent tanks and go on a fun dive. All in all, we’re doing a pretty good job of frugal living under the sea.

Well, not exactly. The truth is, we’ve had to balance our love for diving with our love for travel and our love for not working (aka, our budget). That’s kept us landlocked and feet-dry for the past year. So, when we arrived at Koh Tao we could hardly keep ourselves out of the water. We arrived sleep deprived from an insane night bus/ferry schedule that found us dropped off at the ferry depot at the ungodly hour of 3:00 am, only to have to wait until 7:00 am to actually get on the boat.  We spent that first day looking for a dive shop and were in the water first thing the next morning.

The Dive Shop

We dove with a company called Phoenix Divers. We chose them for a few reasons. Primarily, it was the vibe. We’re professionals, and we wanted a laid-back shop that would let us dive the way we wanted to dive. Most dive shops wouldn’t even entertain the idea of allowing us to dive on our own from the boat. They also wouldn’t all guarantee a small group size, and ensure that like-qualified divers would be paired together. Phoenix Divers came through on all of that. They weren’t pushy, and their price was right. So they got our business.

Of course, being certified, we tend to be overly critical about our dive shop. Especially when it comes to following the standards to keep everyone safe. I like a relaxed shop but in the water, things have to be done right. After 4 days of diving with Phoenix, there were definitely some things I didn’t like.

• No drop tanks on deep dives. They used them from the wreck dive, at our insistence, but it wasn’t typical.
• We didn’t get a boat briefing until day 4. It would have been nice to know that there was a dry room for our stuff on board a bit sooner.
• One of the divers we dove with requested a tank of Nitrox. It’s required that the the diver using the tank personally verifies the oxygen percentage before using it. Phoenix didn’t have an O2 sensor, and they wanted him to use it anyways. That’s a big no no.
• Dive briefings were done individually, instead of as a group.  We had no idea which divers were in our group until we were in the water.

On the other hand, there were some really great things about the shop.

• The price for diving with accommodation was the cheapest we found the day we spent looking. 2,700 Baht ($91 CAD) for four dives (two dives each) and 200 Baht ($6.70) for a private bungalow with hot water.
• Our divemaster “F” was really good, except for skipping the whole boat briefing thing.
• The dive boats had free food. Fresh fruit some days, and cookies every day.
• Their equipment was in really good shape.
• They took the boat out twice a day, giving you a choice of diving in the mornings or afternoons. They tried their best to schedule dive sites a day in advance giving you an informed choice of diving in the mornings, afternoons, or both.

Diving in Koh Tao

We don’t actually have the greatest frame of reference when it comes to diving, as we’ve only really dove in two spots – Utila and here. But I can say that the diving was really enjoyable. Compared to Utila, there’s just more fish to see. A lot more fish.  The coral seems to be in fairly good health. There’s much worse visibility and much stronger currents.

One of the most interesting things to me was the predictability of the local fish. They showed us a map of one of our dive sites with with a clown fish drawn on it, labelled Nemo. Our divemaster Eff said simply, “This is where we’ll see Nemo.” And he was right. That little clown fish spends every day hovering above a small tuft of anemone. He’s just always there.

Likewise, he was able to show us some large shark-like fish called cobias. They were just swimming circles right where he said they would be.

Movies

One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen, I saw while diving in Koh Tao. A fishing net had washed up and covered the Chumphon Pinnacle dive site, trapping several fish.

A collage of clips from our 4 days of diving in Koh Tao

Photos

In general, I find underwater movies are much more enjoyable than photos. At least with our little point-and-shoot camera. We’d probably have taken nothing but movies, but our underwater enclosure is damaged (I’m kind of upset that I couldn’t get warranty from Canon) and we can’t change the camera mode back to movies once the camera is installed inside the enclosure. Inevitably, it gets bumped to photo and stays there for the rest of the day.

Our dive boat

Checking the aim on the sunken wreck’s artillery.

A bit rusty, but only a bit

Colourful christmas tree worms

Butterfly fish

Another butterfly fish

The effect of long term exposure to pink snorkels while diving.

A happy eel

Neat coral

Checking out all the silvery fish

Lots and lots of silvery fish

Sea cucumber

Hard Coral

Worms

Awesome

Surprise! We’re home!  Not in Bulgaria, silly… in Saskamoose-a-bush, Canada, the land of ice and snow.

Okay, maybe you’ve already been surprised. Probably because we’ve already been home for three weeks as any astute Facebook follower would know. If you didn’t know, don’t feel bad. It just means we get to surprise you now. Surprise!

How long are you home for?

Ah, right to it. The first question everyone asks.

We’re going to be home for a while, but not forever. Our rough plan/dream is to go to Bhutan where Ashley will teach math for a year and I’ll either work online or, more likely, go hiking every day and work on my photography. It can always use a bit of work but unfortunately doesn’t pay so well.

Where the heck is Bhutan? 

This is the second most common question we get.  Bhutan is a small country located in the Himalayas. It’s south of Tibet, east of Nepal, and north of India and Bangladesh. Aside from its premium geographic location, the kingdom is most well known for its so called “happiness legislation”. Basically what they’ve done is given up on the traditional measure of GDP employed by most of the world to determine how well the country is doing, and instead have decided to use the measure of happiness. I have no idea how they measure it, but they do.

Government policies are thus made with the goal of increasing national happiness, which has had some interesting results. The most relevant to would-be travellers like us is their restrictive travel visa. It turns out that cultural preservation makes the Bhutanese happy, while being surrounded by throngs of foreign tourists does not. Travel visas are limited in number, short on time, restrictive on movement, and are very very expensive. Which is why for years, Ashley and I had written Bhutan off as a dream travel destination that we would likely never see.

Until now…

What we’ve found is a volunteer job opportunity that Ashley is qualified for. Applications open in May. Successful applicants are announced in September. If she’s accepted (fingers crossed), we’ll be moving to Bhutan in January 2014!

If not… we’ll do something else. Probably something like teaching English abroad.

Map of Bhutan

Whoa, January! Is Traveled Earth shutting down until January? What will I read on Fridays?

Don’t worry… we’re not going anywhere. We’ve got a back log of, oh geeze, like two months of stories from our time in Thailand and Cambodia. I’m working really hard on getting our photos ready to publish, I promise.

By that time, this ice ball we call Canada should have thawed a bit, school will be out (relevant as Ashley is working as a substitute teacher right now), and we’ll be travelling Canada. We currently have a poll on our facebook page. You can help us decide which way to head out (East or West) by voting and sharing the poll with your friends.

After our brief (2 month) cross country tour we’ll be headed home for some more work until the cold sets in. Having skipped two winters, and finding this spring quite unbearably cold, I’ve got a pretty good feeling we’ll be re-locating someplace warm a few months before our scheduled arrival in Bhutan.

Phew, I can live with that. So how’s home?

It’s good and bad in ways, but mostly it’s just a little weird. It feels so familiar and yet so different from what we’re used to.  It’s been great meeting up with family and friends. We surprised both of our parents (we told them we were coming home in mid April and showed up without warning at the end of March). Their reactions were priceless.

We’ve rekindled our love of board games. We’re cooking up a storm now that we have not only a kitchen, but a whole array of seasonings and spices.  Ashley’s even started watching a little TV and movies again (I haven’t gotten there yet, but probably will soon).

Price shock has been hard. Rental rates in this city are unaffordable for us at $1,000+ a month for a single room apartment. A single restaurant meal for one person costs more than what we are accustomed to spending for the two of us during a whole day.

It’s also impossible for us to get by using only public transport. To get to work on time, Ashley needs a car. To visit my parents we need a car (there are no buses). So we bought a car.

Toyota Echo – The newest member of the Family

As you can tell from the picture above, it’s been cold. It was 38 °C the day we left Bangkok, and -14°C when we arrived back in Saskatchewan. That’s a big difference.  We knew the weather would be iffy coming home this early, but a windchill of -27°C on April 9?  Come on!

Some other odds and ends:

• Vegetables/fruits are expensive and taste terrible here. We’ve always known that. Everything is picked green and trucked long distances. At least in the fall we can hit up farmer markets.
• It’s nice being able to control what we eat again. Having a full kitchen is bliss. It’s been a glut of whole grains and beans. My bread starter is almost done, so fresh bread should be on the table soon.
• It’s weird not seeing/hearing chickens. Especially in the morning. I miss them. The factory eggs they sell in our stores are the most flavourless, sickly, pale food items we’ve seen since we left home (maybe the zero calorie peanut butter we saw in Florida was worse). Fortunately, we found a source of free-range eggs.

News from Bulgaria.

We got some bad news from Bulgaria this week. Our car has been stripped. They removed the LPG kit, broke the rear window, and stole the tires. And no, we don’t have insurance. It was a $500 car.

Broken rear window – no rims

Missing LPG kit

Our house was also broken into. We didn’t really have much in there, maybe $100 worth of tools which I’m sure are now gone.

That’s pretty sad news for us. Not so much because of what was stolen/damaged, but because our dream has been squashed. Our plan for the house was to visit it over the next several years and slowly improve it and the yard when we had money. Our goal was to only move there full time once we could afford to do it.

But now, we’ve come to realize that any improvements we could make, like installing new appliances, toilets, cupboards and the like would most likely end up as somebody else’s improvements in somebody else’s house when we’re away.

Not sure what we’ll end up doing with the place now, but if you’re looking for your own house in Bulgaria we’re open to offers…

If you missed our Bulgarian House Saga, you can read more on it here and here.

Back to the regular schedule.

That’s our real-time update for now. Stay tuned for posts on S.E. Asia. Our final trip stats and reflections will be published after that.

Luxor is full of Ancient Egyptian sites. Really, really full. There’s so much ancient stuff here that it would take weeks (months?) to see it all just one time. Historically, the ancients built their city of Thebes (later Luxor) on the eastern bank of the Nile. To the ancients, the East was the side of the living, while the West was the side of the dead. On the West we find the great mortuary temples and the tombs. On the east, the temples that were used for day to day worship.

Typical luxor street
Roof tops – unfinished to avoid paying the steep construction tax

The East Bank

Karnak Temple

Entry was 65£ Egyptian per person ($11 CAD). It’s massively impressive, as in really big and full of cool stuff. It houses many obelisks, many more statues, covered temples, a huge columned hall, carved walls, and even an artificial lake. Just about every surface was originally covered with detailed carvings and hieroglyphics. Original colour can still be seen in many places where the stone managed to avoid direct sunlight. Unfortunately, almost everything you see has been badly damaged at one point or another. The temple is mostly a recreation made from a conglomerate of concrete and the original stones that managed to survive the ages. The good news is that the restoration was very well done. I think, given the options of displaying a field of crumbled blocks or a rebuilt temple like they have today, they made the right choice.

One interesting thing that holds true for just about all of the temples in Egypt was the presence of official scammers/beggars. These guys would wear a uniform and sport a set of keys. Invariably, they would come after you while you were off by yourself. They’d usually signal you to stay quiet and beckon you over to a locked door. Pretending that he’d be in trouble if he were caught, he’d look all around while getting you to hide behind some blocks. Finally he’d quickly unlock the door and usher you inside. Nothing more than charades designed to squeeze a bit more money from the unwary tourist. We found that if we clearly said “La Baksheesh” (no tips) up front, we would still get the “secret” tour but wouldn’t have to part with our cash after it was done.

Karnak Temple
Karnak Temple
Kissing by the butts (in one of those “secret tour” areas
Obelisk
A classic shot
Rams
Playing with Sepia

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple is the smaller of the two and is highly accessible. By this I mean that there are no “block out fences”, and the temple complex is surrounded by roads. This meant that we were free to walk completely around the perimeter and get a surprisingly good glimpse of the temple without paying the steep entrance fee. Unfortunately, it’s located at a hot-spot for horse and carriage drivers. If you want to “enjoy” seeing the temple, you are probably best off to purchase a ticket, get off the street, and view it from inside.

Luxor Temple
Luxor Temple

The West Bank

Our original plan was to spend a few days renting bicycles and try to see as many of the West Bank sites as we could. I still think this would be a reasonably good way to see the West Bank, but we didn’t get the chance to try. Instead, we relented into taking a tour. It was paid for by the hotel we had booked our felucca tour through in Aswan. They did this because we threatened to go to the tourist police and complain about how our felucca tour abruptly ended leaving us stranded in the wrong city, without taking us to the two temple sites that were on the itinerary. Thus, our tour was free, but we did have to pay our own entrance fees which amounted to 150£ each ($25 CAD).

The tour included an English guide, transportation to the Colossi of Memnon, the mortuary temple of Hatchepsut, the Valley of the Kings, Medinet Habu Temple, and a mandatory shopping stop. Unlike the East Bank sites, the West Bank sites are in a very good state of preservation. I rate the tour quite highly, but it could be improved quite a bit by exchanging the hour long shopping stop for a lunch break.

Valley of the Kings

Not all the tombs are officially opened. Supposedly, the humidity from the breath of visitors causes damage to the decorated stuccoes. To solve the problem, the tombs are on a steady rotation giving them time to recuperate. On any given day, only a half dozen tombs are open to the public.

Interestingly, the entry ticket does not give you free run of the tombs. Your ticket only buys you entrance into three tombs.

The three tombs that we saw were very interesting, and totally worth seeing. The tombs were constructed for the duration of the pharaoh’s reign. Thus, you could tell how long the pharaoh had ruled for by measuring the length of his tomb. And they were long. Even the shorter tombs that we were in didn’t seem short. The walls and ceilings were covered in smooth white stucco which was covered from floor to ceiling by various paintings and writings. The artwork had a general theme. According to our guide they depicted scenes and prayers from the Book of the Dead which would help guide the deceased pharaoh during the first few days of the afterlife.

The tombs were also very similar. After seeing three of the tombs, I didn’t feel like I really needed to see a fourth, so the ticketing scheme seems to be okay in my opinion. Besides, there’s always the not-so-secret system of bribery if you want to see more tombs. We didn’t pay any bribes, so we don’t know exactly what the prices are, but we saw a lot of money changing hands between the tomb guards at the entrance and the throngs of tourists entering.

Here’s a basic run down of what you can get with a bribe:

• Entry into a tomb after you’ve used up your three entrances
• Permission to take photos (normally cameras are not allowed inside the complex)
• Entry into one of the sealed, not-for-the-public, undergoing-restoration tombs
• Permission to chisel off a large piece of painted plaster from the tomb wall as a take home memento. Crocodile paintings seemed to be especially popular.

Hatchepsut (a.k.a. “Hot Chicken Soup” Temple)

This three story complex was used as a stage for Verdi’s opera Aida in modern times. That all came to an end after a terrorist attack in 1997. Gunmen stormed the complex and shot and killed at least 70 people. Since then, there hasn’t been much trouble.

Hatshepsut Temple
Hatshepsut Temple

Medinet Habu

This was my favourite temple near Luxor. It was unique, having very deep carvings. And, there were very few tourists to get in the way of photos.

Medinet Habu – Deep carvings
Medinet Habu

Colossi of Memnon

A quick photo stop.

Colossi
Colossi

The Southern Stretch of the Nile between Aswan and Luxor is filled with the single sailed, wind-powered craft called feluccas. They are silent, graceful, and a joy to watch. Most carry tourists like us, but we’ve also seen them loaded with various freight like live cattle. They are a working ship that’s still very much in use today.

The graceful felucca

Of course there are also a large number of ships much bigger than the felucca. Loud ships that spew thick black clouds of smelly exhaust. These, naturally are called luxury cruise ships. Their numbers are not to be underestimated.

Regardless of your chosen method of transportation, one thing is for certain. No trip to Egypt is complete without spending at least a little time afloat on the waters of the Nile. At least that’s the way we looked at it. And, as you can probably tell from my description above, we chose to indulge our river-faring ways aboard a felucca and left the more expensive cruise ships to everyone else.

Two of many luxury cruise ships

We booked a group tour through our hotel for 250£ Egyptian each (about $42 CAD) . The itinerary had us mingling with a boat full of other tourists as we set sail northward from Aswan over the course of three days. After breakfast on the third day, we were to meet up with our land-based transportation and make our way to the temples of Edfu and Kom Ombo. Afterwards we would complete our journey by land to Luxor where we would be dropped off at the hotel of our choosing. But, we were in Egypt so that’s not really how the tour went. Since we’ve written about this already, I’m not going to re-hash it. If you missed our negative piece on Egypt, here’s the link.

Aside from the tour not going entirely as planned, and us feeling a little bit “taken”, the time on the river was quite enjoyable. We cruised for about 6 hours a day, gently drifting from one bank, tacking, and drifting back. Except when the cruise ships were passing, it was quiet, calm, peaceful, and relaxing. This carried on until the sun went down, giving us a nightly sunset display that we watched from the deck of the felucca.

After dark, the captain and first mate would glide the ship over to the river bank and tie us off for the night. We wrapped ourselves up in a couple of blankets and slept on the deck in the same place where we’d been seated most of the day.

Sunset on the Nile

Sunset on the Nile

A Few Thoughts

• The food was quite tasty. As advertised, it was mostly vegetarian (tuna salad was part of one lunch), which is exactly what we were after.
• There is no bathroom on board. We regularly spent 4 hours sailing without shore break, which meant holding everything for at least 4 hours. Of course we could have relieved ourselves at anytime – somewhat publicly over the side of the boat – but it never came to that.  Of course, this meant no showers for the duration of the trip.
• The deck of the felucca was covered with a thin mattress and a number of pillows. It was comfortable enough, and we spent most of the day sprawled in the same spots.
• Above the deck was a cloth sun covering that seemed to keep the sun off of us well enough, though not 100% of the time. Neither of us sunburned.
• It was cold at night, but there were plenty of blankets on board to make this a non-issue.
• We had no trouble with mosquitoes or other bugs. We’ve since heard from other people that have done the same trip that the mosquitoes on their tour were terrible. Either we were lucky, or they were unlucky. It’s hard to say.
• The staff didn’t speak more than two words of English. Not that they needed to.

Lunch

Shore Stop

Enjoying the sailing

Aswan is located in the south of Egypt and is probably best known for it’s proximity to the famous temples of Abu Simbel. More or less, that’s why we made the journey this far south, so naturally we booked ourselves transportation out to see them.

As Ashley’s already discussed in her post describing why we didn’t like Egypt, this tour made the esteemed list entitled “tours that did not deliver what we paid for”. This could go without saying, as all of our tours in Egypt managed to make the list.

The Tour

Despite the proximity, Abu Simbel is still a 3 hour mini-van ride southward towards the Sudan border. Though I have no evidence to support it, I get the impression that this isn’t the safest drive to make on your own. That impression comes from the precautions taken. To put it simply, every tour operator providing transportation to Abu Simbel from Aswan, of which there are many, first sends their vehicles to a common meeting point in Aswan. Once everyone has arrived, an enormous caravan is formed. Probably close to 50 vans and buses hit the road at the exact same time and drive straight to Abu Simbel. The only stops made are for the multiple military checkpoints. Even then, the drivers are careful to keep the caravan together. Two hours after arriving at the exotic location of Abu Simbel, the whole caravan saddles up again and heads as a group back towards Aswan. This affair only happens one time per day.

Knowing this, we felt more or less resigned to booking a tour to get to Abu Simbel.  We booked a transportation-only tour for 100£ Egyptian each (Approximately $17 CAD) through our hotel. The tour was to leave from the hotel at 4:30AM, give us two hours at Abu Simbel, take us to the High Dam for 1 hour, Philae Temple for 1  hour, then the Unfinished Obelisk for 1 hour, before dropping us off back at our hotel.. Or, at least it was supposed to.

Abu Simbel

I can honestly say that Abu Simbel was my absolute favourite ancient Egyptian anything that I saw in Egypt. We received the full two hours that we were promised at the site, and it was about the right amount of time. Although I only have photos taken from outside (which looks impressive in itself), the inside was really what made it so amazing.  No cameras are permitted inside the temple in an effort to protect the colouring on the walls.

There are two temple complexes here, both of which you can wander around inside freely. Despite the fact that everyone visiting Abu Simbel arrives and leaves at the exact same time, the temples were large enough that they never really felt that crowded. The inside walls are adorned with coloured hieroglyphs depicting various scenes from wars to warship (hmm, alphabetically, that’s actually a fairly small range, but it seemed diverse…). The columns are carved to resemble human figures, and everything is in a really exceptional state of preservation.

Another thing making Abu Simbel appear even more impressive is the fact that it has been moved from its original location. Before the Nile was dammed, and Lake Nasser was flooded, the temple used to lie lower in the valley. Wanting to preserve this fantastic historical site from flooding and destruction, the international community came to the rescue and helped orchestrate the careful dissection, transportation, and re-assembly of the temple in its current location. The process was exceedingly manual. About 10,000 individual blocks were cut using handsaws. Each block was identified, measured, transported, and re-assembled after a series of painstakingly accurate measurements. The end result is that we couldn’t tell that the thing had ever been moved. It was reassembled perfectly, or near enough as to not matter.

Entrance 95£ ($16 CAD)

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel

The High Dam

Back at Aswan, the tour continued with a 10 minute view of the High Dam. As already explained, we opted not to see it.

Philae Temple

This temple was also impressive, though not quite as impressive as Abu Simbel. Again, it was not in its original position. It was moved onto the island where it resides today to protect it from higher water levels. This island location left us thoroughly frustrated between the time we purchased entry tickets (boat not included) for 50£ per person and managed to get a private boat captain to take us over to the island for another 10£ (a total of about $10 CAD each).

Philae Temple

Carvings inside Philae Temple

Philae Temple

Philae Temple

Unfinished Obelisk

Although officially a part of the transportation tour, it was not part of the tour. Neither was the ride back to out hotel, but that’s just the way things go in Egypt.

What we did in Cairo is pretty close to what everyone does in Cairo. See the national museum, see the pyramids, walk around town a bit.

The National Egyptian Museum

The National Museum was amazing. At least its contents were. The museum itself is in a very aged building with broken windows, disgusting washroom facilities, and a thick layer of grime on everything except, mysteriously, the artifacts. It’s located next to Tahrir Square which means you should probably check the news to make sure things are calm before going. Thankfully, as Ashley has already explained, the protests were non-violent during the time that we were there.

The museum.

Some of this old junk just gets left outside.

I wish I could show you the stuff inside.

Entry was 60£ Egyptian (about $10 CAD) to get in the door, and another 100£ Egyptian ($17 CAD) to see the mummy rooms. No cameras are allowed, so I have no inside photos to show you. As they say, you’ll have to use your imagination.

Walking inside feels a little bit like you are the first person to arrive at a big garage sale. The place is crammed full. That’s not to say it’s a small building, because it’s a huge two story building – there’s just that much stuff. Imagine row upon row upon row of statues, sarcophagi, inscribed tablets, mummified animals, boats, stone doorways, colossi, chariots, and on, and on, and on. Everything ancient Egyptian you’ve ever wanted to see is there, in bulk quantities. To see it all at a cursory glance would take days, and I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. We spent about 6 hours there and didn’t come close to seeing it all.

For me, the highlights were the golden mask, sarcophagi, chairs, chariots, beds, and jewellery from Tutankhamen (King Tut’s) tomb; and the mummy exhibits. Some of the mummies were partially unwrapped allowing us to see their faces. And they weren’t just no-name mummies either. Many of them were movers and shakers, meaning that we were able to put a few faces to the names of the pharaohs who constructed tombs and temples that we visited in other parts of Egypt. That was pretty cool.

On the flip side, most of the artifacts were just displayed with little or no information. It would have been nice to learn a bit about the wars, beliefs, and daily life of the ancient Egyptians while I was looking at the artifacts. But alas, I should have done my research ahead of time.

The Pyramids

Despite being both an Ancient and Modern Wonder of the World, they made Ashley cry. We’ve already talked about that a bit here, so even though that’s my strongest memory of the pyramids, I’m not going to re-hash it. Otherwise, there’s not much to say. They look big and impressive, and they are very old. If you ever go, I urge you to wait until you get inside the gate (where prices are cheaper), then barter with a tout and rent either a horse or a camel for the duration of your visit. It will make life so much more bearable than being stubborn and saying no 1,000 times like we did. Because of the touts, I didn’t get anything more from my visit than I could have gotten from looking at photos online. I don’t think you could pay me to go again. Which is a shame. I normally love old ruined stuff.

A classic shot.

Taken from the other direction. The sphinx has a wonderful view of Cairo.

As much as I hated the horse touts at the time, the animals are photogenic.

A different perspective.

Walking Around

Arguably our favourite day in Cairo was spent walking around. Away from the hustlers near Tahrir Square and Giza, it was quite peaceful. Like in Alexandria, our street map sucked, but we made do. It was probably to our advantage as we unintentionally skirted around the edge of Old Islamic Cairo missing the bazaar. It was sometime later that we met others who had gone. They described the horror of the bazaar to us, and we realized how fortunate we were to have passed it by.

Food market at night

Islamic Cairo

Another food market

Coptic Cairo

The result of a high import tax on vehicles and a life in the desert.

We seriously considered making our first post about Egypt our last post.  It’s short, to the point, and keeps us from whining on and on about why Egypt was our least favourite country.  But, since this is our journal, we figured we owe it to ourselves to post about our Egypt experiences in a little more detail.

After careful re-consideration, I’ve found that there were indeed a few good things in Egypt that we can tell you about after all.  Let me present to you the icing of Egypt.

Alexandria

Before even arriving in Alexandria, I knew things were going to be good. Unlike when we tried to purchase tickets for the train to Aswan (I’m not giving details here, this is supposed to be a positive post), we were able to easily buy a second class return ticket each without having to resort to begging. We weren’t even charged any additional undocumented, unnamed, fees. Just the price printed on the ticket!

The train itself was roomy, and friendly. Over the lunch hour, our neighbours sitting across the aisle from us noticed that we hadn’t brought any food with us and freely shared a healthy portion of their meal with us:  sun-leavened bread and peanuts. A very kind and delicious gesture that reminded us of the hospitality we had seen in Turkey.

From there, the people of Alexandria kept winning us over. At the train station, we pulled out our cellphone photo we’d taken of a google map with directions to our hotel and started piecing together the roads we needed to take. To his credit, a taxi driver came to our aid and, after being dismissed only a single time, gave us the correct walking directions. After that, finding the hotel was a breeze.

Looking back on it, the hotel was actually pretty good compared to most of the places we stayed in Egypt. The breakfast portions were slightly larger than normal, they included an additional processed pastry in a sealed plastic bag, and the staff were friendly. They even installed a Christmas tree for us on Christmas day. It was a nice touch.

Merry Christmas! We also found some Santa Claus-shaped chocolates. Otherwise, we would have never known it was Christmas time back home.

Over the next three days, we explored Alex more or less on foot. We had a map, which we received from one of the tourist information offices, but it was woefully lack in details such as roads and street names. When we asked for directions to the Roman Catacombs, we were told that it couldn’t be explained using that map. The suggestion, of course, being that we should take a taxi.

Naturally, we ignored the advice and set out through the maze of winding streets on foot. Again, we were well looked after by the people of Alex. Everyone we encountered, whether we asked them for directions or not, pointed us in the proper direction. Half of them quit whatever it was that they were doing just to walk with us a block or two and show us the next turn. No one asked us for money.

At some point, we walked past a man making pitas. We stopped to watch and a few short seconds later found ourselves the proud owners of two pitas fresh from the oven. We chowed them down gushing about how good they were, and were promptly served two more. Naturally, we offered to pay, but he would have none of it.

We absolutely love Egyptian pitas. Thank you!

Our stay in Alexandria basically carried on in this way. When we went into a store, the prices we were given were fair, not über inflated white guy prices. Public transportation likewise charged us the same as everyone else in the mini-van. Our marriage (or fertility, there was a bit of a language barrier) was even blessed by one of our fellow travellers.

In short, Alexandria was good. If you are from Alexandria, give yourself a pat on the back. Thank you!

The Sites:

Fort Qaitbey

This smooth stone fortress looks flawless. Every stone looks like it was just carved yesterday, making me wonder if it was actually used at all. In either case, it looks cool. Admission 20£ or $3.20 CAD each.

Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

These underground catacombs originally housed some 300 mummies dating from Roman times. There is a sort of fusion burial system going on here, with both Greek/Roman style statues and sarcophagi mixed with Egyptian hieroglyphs and burial rites. The whole thing spirals down three levels. The bottom level is flooded, adding to the mood. There are planks and raised walk ways to help you get around. No photos allowed, sorry. Admission 35£ or $5.60 CAD each.

Montazah Palace Gardens

These gardens are easily accessed by taking one of the many mini-vans that traverse the coastal road. The gardens are huge, quiet, and well manicured. A great place for a walk, and to escape the noise of the city. Admission 6£ or $0.96 CAD each.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Ancient Alexandria was famed for its library. That library was destroyed. This is the modern replacement, and surprisingly to me at least, the biggest tourist attraction in Alexandria. We walked around the outside and came to the conclusion that it was a modern style library that charged admission. We didn’t go in, but I’m sure it’s lovely. Admission $???.

P.S.

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