Friday, February 04, 2011

Egypt - February 2

We left at Hurghada at 7:30am and arrived in Cairo airport around 4:30pm. The extra 2-3 hours in the middle were taken up by a minor crisis. The bus (different one from yesterday's) broke down and had to be taken to a garage, and then we had to switch to another bus - something which would have taken a lot longer if we didn't find an empty bus at the lot where we waited for the replacement. Danny filled up the waiting period by telling us about the Cairo Geniza (had to finish the story on the bus).



The whole drive is along the Red Sea, towards the Suez canal - beautiful sea and a continuous stream of new touristic developments - tens of thousands of living units - all of which seemed empty.

Only after arriving at the airport did we hear from Danny that the embassy had forbidden us to go on this road, something which seems like an exaggerated reaction to a warning by the Israeli Foreign Ministry about dangers on this road (perhaps they thought we'll go through the town of Suez, in which there apparently were riots). Their suggestion was that we fly individually to Europe on various flights out of Hurghada - Danny refused. This is just one of the many decisions Danny and Rami had to take - they were responsible for the lives and well being of 30 people - a huge responsibility!

The airport was busy but not insane. The funny thing is that flights to Israel do not depart out of the new terminal from which the flights to Europe and North America depart. So we were in a terminal full of people on their way to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan... But everybody was calm and peaceful and despite a 3-hour delay we all felt calm and rather sad that this adventure is coming to its end (ok - also greatly relieved...). We had a few last conversations with our new friends and then the normal airport routine: security checks (the El-Al checker told us that it seems her Cairo apartment was looted - she had not been back there since being evacuated a few days earlier), check-in, a bus to the plane, boarding... And then we were back in Israel, dodged a few cameras and reporters, met Moshik and went home, exhausted but happy. We definitely plan to go back and wish this new phase in Egypt's long history is successful!



Egypt - February 1

The short summary of this day is a short drive of about 4 hours from Luxor to Hurghada - a beach town on the Red Sea, just across from Sharm-al-Sheikh. The bus broke down in the middle, but was finally fixed by our driver. It was great to see the water. The town looked a lot like Sharm - tons of hotels and developments, but actually several times larger. What was disappointing were the beaches - no sand at all.

A few of us found a cafe by the water, had calamari etc. The waiter had no idea which country has Lebanon and Syria to its north, Jordan to its East and Egypt to its south. When told it was Israel, he explained that he learned in school we want to rule from the Euphrates to the Nile. Danny gave him a long lecture about the lies they were fed, complete with a bonus about the need for birth control in Egypt. The guy was so happy he requested a night class from Danny and they continued in a cafe after dinner. This was the worst hotel we got, but given that it was last minute (almost) no one complained.



After desperately searching for t-shirts and finding them all too ugly to buy, some food shopping for the next day (rumor had it that Cairo airport had no food left in its restaurants), many in the group ended up dancing in the hotel's nightclub. One of the worst singers ever, but a lot of fun nonetheless!

Egypt - January 31

This was the most suspenseful and intimidating day. The riots continued, and no one knew how bad it will get, and where. First, our leaders decided to continue as planned and go south to Aswan. On the way they checked the airport (was still closed) and the train station (train traffic still on hold), and as we turned south, the embassy decided we should stay in Luxor, and try to make our way to Cairo, together with the other Israeli group in Luxor. We passed the time waiting at the hotel, going to lunch and then the highlight of the day - sailing on the Nile, aboard a Faluka - sail boat - on which the mood finally improved with the sailors' Darbuka, singing and Riki and Yossi dancing. (We also tried going to the Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum - all closed and guarded by many soldiers.)



As an example of the pressures Danny and Rami had to deal with - at 11pm they got a call from the embassy (or foreign ministry) that through some Egyptian travel agent there will be a flight to Cairo. They were given the following demands by the agent: $300 per person, all or nothing (this includes our 30 travelers and the other group's 30 travelers), and... decide in 15 min. They of course, had to reject. This turned out to be an attempt by the embassy to get us out - we'll never know if their leg was pulled by some opportunistic Egyptian who had no plane to offer, or we could have spent a night in Luxor airport, fly and then spend another 36 hours in Cairo airport with hordes of others. Our leaders decided to go to Cairo by bus. As the direct road to Cairo was blocked, they got army & police permission to go indirectly - first to Hurghada, and from there to Cairo.

As we had already checked out from the hotel, we were moved to a much nicer hotel in Luxor. There was no curfew that night in Luxor, so people took walks along the Nile, went to the market and hired carriages. Was very relaxed and enjoyable despite everything. The worst part was the knowledge that everybody is so worried about us while we are having a wonderful time...

Egypt - January 30

Karnak (meaning "windows") is grand. Of all we saw in three hours I will only mention the, yes, amazing column gallery. 144 of them, beautiful and round, 20 meters high, each from about 10 stones weighing many tons each, all supporting a ceiling with similarly weighted blocks. I'll also mention the relevance to the history of Israel (which we saw in other places) from several carvings of conquests of it by Seti I, Ramses II and Shishaq, which is mentioned in the Bible. The names of the conquered towns (in particular those in Israel) all appear in hieroglyphics on the walls.



The group's bus dropped us off in the hotel, we said goodbye to everyone, and went to check out and go to the airport. Then we learned from Ahmed, Ayala's Egyptian representative, and various other sources, slowly over a couple of hours, that all of EgyptAir's flights were canceled, that the Luxor airport is closed and that we are stuck here.

After treating ourselves to lunch in the hotel, we set off along the Nile to the other large temple, Luxor temple, which is a 10 minute walk from the hotel. As our guide and group were visiting Tutankhamun's grave, we had to make do with Yuval's guidance. After three days of carefully listening (and remembering) Danny's lectures, he got quite good at reading hieroglyphics, recognizing gods, kings, and classical wall reliefs. So we know a lot about this temple too, and we'll see if we have to revise this knowledge when we meet Danny this evening.





We went to the mall to get some water at the small mini-market there. Adjacent to the hotel is the local government headquarters and the mall immediately after it. So the shopkeeper starts talking to us (he recognized us as Israelis) - all within earshot of the soldiers next door. It was amazing. He described how fed up people are with the corruption, both at the State level and locally. For example he complained about the sugar prices rising immensely while the government did not raise the price they give him for the sugar cane he grows. And about the fact that the price of gas rose by about a factor of 10 due to a short supply and asked why does Egypt continue selling gas to Israel if there is a shortage. Locally, he complained about Saudis and such buying up property in Luxor with the blessing of the government. People are forced to sell their properties at very low prices if they do not want to get into trouble with the officials who were bribed. And then he gave us the most amazing piece of gossip - he claimed that Gamal Mubarak is hiding in Israel! This whole experience was fascinating if bizarre and we sure hope he does not get into trouble talking like this next to the soldiers. We parted with the mutual hope that he will get to Jerusalem to pray there. A lovely man!

Egypt - January 29

Arrived at 5am, on time, to Luxor. Looked quiet. Took the bus to the hotel, beautiful on the East bank of the Nile. Left before 6am to our daily work. Danny was as energetic as any day, as if he didn't sleep only 2 hours on the train, and people followed. I apologize, but it was amazing! We crossed the Nile to the west side and started with the temple of Memnon. The only two structures already dug-out are the two enormous statutes of Memnon, son of Aurora.



From there, we went to queen Hatchepsut's (a female Pharaoh!) tomb. In general, we found that architecture here predated lots of ideas that we saw all over the world, but this was so modern, so elegant, so nature-respecting that it takes your breath away. Of course, then you find out there is much more to it. There is a grand staircase leading up to three stories, with 2 galleries each, all in perfect alignment with the base of the mountain. Each gallery describes different parts of her life in beautiful art, again in wall reliefs. Danny was extra thorough as usual, touring each and every gallery, telling us about her remarkable life, being the only woman-king, and how Thutmose III, her step brother, cousin, nephew,...(through a remarkable complex of inter-marriages) tried to completely erase her memory, physically, from history.(e.g. most of her engravings are "erased" by chisel).



Then to a well deserved lunch and rest, where a TV was showing the riots in Cairo, such a contrast to our experience here. From there to Ramose's grave. He was the prime minister of Achnaton (Thutmose IV) who is unique for formally establishing the first monotheistic religion documented - worshiping only the sun-god Aton. Thus the life-story of Ramose (grave-temples are built throughout a man's life) depicts classical scenes from the time, with all gods involved, and suddenly it switches to sole depictions of Aton and his sun disk and sun-ray beam. We could not take pictures there...

Final adventure - the bridge back to the East bank was closed by the police, so we took a small boat across the Nile. It is so beautiful and picturesque and calm on the water.





Back to the hotel for another switch in this schizophrenic trip. From the balcony of our hotel room, besides the Nile, we observe the local police preparing for the evening riots, complete with shields, tear-gas guns and water hoses. Our hotel borders the mayor's office so they cordoned off the street from both sides, and declared curfew at 6pm. We didn't see much action, but other group mates claimed to have seen one dead and one wounded on the street. We definitely heard gun shots late at night.



All this, the news from home, and our travel agent's fast action got us a reservation on tomorrow's flights Luxor-Cairo-Tel Aviv. With a heavy heart, we decided to separate from the group and return home. As all flights were for the evening, we decided to still join the group in the morning to Karnak temple.

Egypt - January 28

Breakfast news was that we are staying in the hotel. Riots continued in Cairo and elsewhere, people died, and the tourist police is worried. Given that our plan today was central Cairo, that made perfect sense. However at 11am Danny convinced them to let us go to Memphis, and see more pyramids.

While not as impressive as the Giza pyramids, the two we visited were really interesting. Both belong to the same Pharaoh - Seneferu - father of Hufu. He first built the "crooked pyramid", in which the angle up changed midway, didn't like it and built the "Red pyramid", which is called so for no obvious reason. We climbed inside to the burial chamber, which is hidden behind two false burial chambers - these kings were well aware of tomb-looting and devised childish ideas to prevent them, like false doors etc. Nothing worked, and all of them were robbed (well, except for King Tut's, where the robbers were caught red-handed). The soldiers guarding these pyramids were very bored and glad to kid around with us, being photographed and very happy for any baksheesh we gave them.



Then we went to Memphis itself, to a museum which collected tons of sculptures. The most impressive is an absolutely huge one of Ramses II (later we found out there is a much bigger one, which weighs 1100 tons!). Others include another sphinx, the goddess Chatchor (looks like a cow, and has several portfolios including protecting Egypt's borders, music, orgasms and more) and others. Then another hour in traffic to go to lunch at 5PM - this is a good place to say how amazing our group is. Most people are older, quite a few in their 70s and even 80s, and they accept hours on end of heat, no toilets, standing, and listening to the elaborate lectures of Danny without a complaint - quite a feat!

As we were finishing the meal, around 6pm, we got the news of the curfew at 7pm, rushed to the bus and headed to the train station, bypassing various blocked roads and seeing people obviously converging to a demonstration. But we made it, waited like refugees in the station, boarded the train, which left and arrived on time. It was a nice experience overall - clean, organized, 2-person cabins with bunk beds and clean sheets. Not that we slept much - talked late about the "situation", then the rattle kept us awake, and then they woke us up for breakfast at 4am.





Egypt - January 27

On Thursday morning we woke up to the hotel phone ring which woke everyone up at 5:30, so we can be early enough (7:30am) in line for the Hufu Pyramid, 1Km from the hotel.
There is no individual responsibility on this trip, perhaps logical in a group of 32,
though people in our group seem well traveled and organized. Anyway, we did make it on time to that particular ticket line - they only sell 150 tickets each morning.

We had a funny incident in the ticket line: Einat & Yuval's student cards were "of the wrong kind" and ineligible for the 50 pound discount (a regular ticket costs 100 pounds). But the cashier gave them student tickets nonetheless, and 50 pounds change accompanied with a huge wink and smirk when Avi handed him 400 pounds - we cheated the government together and split the difference. So this is our first step down the slippery slope of the criminal's life in Egypt...

It is very hard to describe the effect of the pyramids. When you stand next to them, they don't look as big as they are supposed to. When you compare them to anything nearby (eg a person) you get a better sense, but it is still misleading. The two things which seem to give a better perspective are looking at them from a distance - they don't seem to get smaller, and dominate the view. The other thing was climbing into one, as we did in Hufu's, the largest pyramid, built some 4600 years ago. In some pyramids the burial place is underground, in some at ground level, and in some, Like Hufu's up in the middle of it. So you climb a long (about 100 meters), narrow, dark and rather airless path inside this huge structure, realize that it is not hollow, but full of "bricks", each about 2.5 tons, with over 2.3 millions of them. You further see much better than from the outside the extreme precision of how they are laid next and above each other. I'd say it was awesome, but as the day progressed I realized that I should use this word cautiously - I'll need it again and again.



After viewing the 3 great Giza pyramids (and the many small ones, there are about 100 in this area) from various directions we went to see the solar boat. No, it is not solar-powered, but rather the boat which is supposed to carry the dead Pharaoh when he resurrects in the underground river, similar to the way mythology explains how the sun, after setting in the West, moves at night in that underground river back to the East. This huge and really beautiful boat was reconstructed recently from a kit left there 4.5 millenia ago which contained the complete materials and complete instructions - IKEA style.

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The sphinx... Another amazing view. There seems to be a plan to restore its nose (which was used as target practice by Ottoman artillery) - we debated the pros and cons of this plan - no resolution, but as nobody asked us that's ok.

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We stopped for lunch at a very touristy place, so some of us opted out and lunched on fresh pitas we bought from the pita bakers - delicious!

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Then to the Sakkara - burial Mastabas (the precursors of pyramids) of priests and noblemen.
You go into one and immediately feel amazement at the quality of art created so long ago, at the remarkable level of preservation, as well as sorrow knowing that it will all deteriorate
very soon as there are no efforts made at all to protect and preserve it. The art is wall reliefs with remarkable detail and beauty, depicting mainly the wealth of the dead person, decorated with all kinds of fish, birds and land animals, and scenes from daily life, like milking and sacrificing cows, force-feeding geese, etc. It was all in color too, with some paint remaining. And they cram hordes of tourists into these tiny rooms which, even if they control their natural tendency to touch these reliefs are forced to lean or brush them when pushed by other tourists. What a shame.

Finally, we went to see the tomb of Josser, from around 2800 BC. He had an architect who
invented so many things we are used to call by other names. The pyramids started with him (accidentally, building one mastaba on top of another, nicknamed the "steps pyramid"),
Greek columns (Ionic and Doric) have started here, where his columns represented a bunch of reeds tied together. And probably more things I forgot. Very impressive!

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Back to the hotel buffet - nothing to write home about. (There was a tourist trap stop on the way in a gift store - we are afraid the cut the local guide and driver got from this stop was nil - everybody was tired and not interested in shopping at all.) Then a lecture by Danny on the history of Egypt, fascinating in detail and very long - some people (like us) started losing him and fading away.

Egypt Trip - Introduction

We decided a few months ago that we really have to go to Egypt during this Sabbatical in Tel-Aviv. We were hoping to find an arrangement similar to those we had in India and China - hook up with a local company and hire a car, driver and guide. We asked around and found no good recommendations, but our friend Rami recommended Ayala Tours. In particular he thought that the tour guided by Dan Bahat (Jan.26 to Feb.2, 2011) is sure to be excellent, and we (Avi, Edna, Einat & Yuval) signed up. Rami surprised us a few days later by announcing he also signed up as an assistant guide.

A few words about Dan: he was the former City Archaeologist of Jerusalem and currently teaches in Toronto. He is extremely knowledgeable, reads hieroglyphics as if they were his mother's tongue and is fluent in Arabic. His huge repertoire of (dirty) jokes in Arabic is a sure way of diffusing any unpleasant situation. And his mustache is unforgettable! See it at http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%93%D7%9F_%D7%91%D7%94%D7%98

And then the demonstrations started in Tunisia... and spread quickly to other Middle-Eastern countries and in particular to Egypt. Tuesday, Jan.25 was the Day of Wrath in Cairo with huge, mostly peaceful demonstrations, and we started wondering...

On the 26th we were notified by Ayala Tours that despite the riots in Cairo we are proceeding according to plan ("things are expected to calm down"). So we took a cab to the airport, met the group, flew to Cairo, were picked up at the airport and transferred to the hotel.

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We (obviously) have many many more photos of the trip. They are all on Picasa