Tombs & Touts in Luxor & Aswan

From Cairo we headed south to Luxor and Thebes, best known as the home of the Valley of The Kings, where we started our day. We toured three of the 63 tombs at the Valley of the Kings. Each was filled with hot stale air, so it's advisable to keep the amount of time you spent in them to a minimum. The walls are adorned with ancient paintings and carvings, but all the treasures that once filled them have been removed and stored in museums. This leaves them a bit bare, and while 4,000 year old paint is kind of amazing, the whole experience leaves you wanting a bit more. Hieroglyphics are extremely elementary looking so it didn't wow us in the way the Sistine Chapel might. We got one good picture (without a flash as our guidebook said was okay) before getting in some serious trouble for snapping it. Nevertheless, here it is.



After an hour here, we headed to the lesser visited Valley of the Nobles. These tombs seemed better preserved and we liked them more than those of the pharaohs. You can see them cut into the side of the mountain like in this picture:



Because each and every attraction required a separate ticket (pretty annoying), we saved money and snapped a picture of the Temple of Hatshepsut without entering.



That evening we watched the sunset on the Nile, but held off on riding on a felucca, despite the tout's best efforts.



One major downside of the day was continuously being hassled by taxi drivers, touts, and useless people demanding baksheesh (or a tip).

First the taxi drivers. These guys honk about 25 times as they pass you and scream "taxi" 5 time, which gets pretty tiring. If you do happen to ride in a taxi, the entire trip will be an annoying sales pitch of their services or the services of their brother's cousin's friend's camel-walker who happens to have a great alabaster shop you should look at. When it comes time to pay, the driver will never have any change, which results in another 10 minutes of waiting for them to find change. It makes you feel cheated and annoyed which really ruins your impression of the culture.

Next are the touts. These guys, mostly offering felucca rides, walk beside you closely and ask you repeatedly if you'd like to go. They don't understand words like 'no' or 'I already went on one' and accuse you of being rude if you ignore them entirely, generally finishing the encounter with some Arabic cursing. Lindsey told one she would take his card at which point she had to go down to his boat to get it, then he asked her to get on the boat, then he said he didn't actually have a card, then he went to find a pen, etc, etc. We understand that these people need to make a living in a fairly poor country, but it's absolutely tiring, and beyond any annoyance we experienced in Asia.

Finally, and worst of them all, are the baksheesh-demanders. These people perform some useless task that you haven't asked of them and then demand baksheesh, or a tip, from you. This could include pointing a hieroglyphic and saying something you don't understand, awkwardly standing in a bathroom and not doing anything, or walking alongside you and claiming to be showing you the way to something clearly marked. Any attempts to tell them you don't want their services are ignored and generally result in them getting angry with you (again with the Arabic cursing). In the event you do give them baksheesh, it's never sufficient, which again brings you back to the Arabic cursing. This really ruined some of the tombs and temples we toured, as we spent the entire time trying to escape them.

Enough of the ranting, but wanted to share and make everyone aware of the dark side of Egypt, specifically in Luxor & Aswan.

Our second day, we headed to the absolutely massive Karnak. The best feature here was the Great Hypostle Hall, supported by 134 towering pillars meant to resemble a papyrus swamp. This temple is usually plagued with tour buses, but we arrive early and again missed the crowd. We had some annoying backsheesh experiences here, but enjoyed this temple the most of our stops in Luxor.



Originally, the entire temple would have been painted, and many of the ceilings, still remained that way.



While we'd planned to stay in Luxor/Thebes for three days, we didn't find the temples to be as time consuming or interesting as we'd expected, and headed down to Aswan for a day.

The train ride proved to be another annoying experience that made you feel cheated. The staff at the ticket counter in the station refuse to sell tourists (white people) train tickets and instead instruct you to buy them on the train. Once on the train, they demand that you pay a fine for not purchasing a ticket in the station. A few other tourists bothered arguing with the conductor to waste his time, but to no avail, they just really love to cheat their visitors out of a few more dollars.

Getting off the train in Aswan, we had an interesting cultural encounter. Three Nubian women shoved their way off the train (stomping on Lindsey's feet in the process) and began a sort of screaming-howling-singing chant in a large circle of bounding people directly on the train station. Our jaws dropped and we looked at each other to see if either of us had a guess as to what was happening. A bystander must have seen our bewilderment and explained that someone had died and it was their tribal way of mourning. We wish we could explain this a bit better, but it was certainly something tribal and ancient to observe.

In Aswan, we walked through some Nubian villages on Elaphantine Island in the middle of the Nile. These villages were filled with colorful houses as well as cruder mud-dwellings. Lindsey picked up some henna tattoos on her feet in a rather awkward home where dead frogs adorned the walls and a baby played with a cucumber and hookah.



We had planned to take one of the famous felucca (Nile boat) rides here, but decided not to. We'd grown increasingly aggravated with the felucca touts and couldn't stand the thought of encouraging them anymore.

One last highlight was drinking a Stella beer, our first drink in an otherwise dry Islamic country.



Overall, Luxor and Aswan didn't live up to the high expectations we developed in Cairo. Next stop: Sharm el-Sheik for some Red Sea diving.

Holy Crap, Those Are Big

We saved our last day in Cairo to see the Pyramids of Giza, the only remaining monument of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. We woke early to beat the crowds and jumped in a cab to Giza. Surprisingly, the Pyramids are smack in the middle of a Cairo suburb. Within 20 minutes we had our first exciting glimpse of them from the highway.



When we arrived, we were both floored by their scale and stood in silence for a bit, just as people probably did 4,000 years ago when they were completed. The largest of the pyramids stands over 50 stories high and has sides 800 feet long. It's simply unbelievable that such a monument was completed so long ago. We had been nervous about crowds of tourists here, but were surprised to find that we practically had the entire place to ourselves.

The nearby Sphinx is dwarfed by their scale, but the right camera angle makes it okay.



To get the full experience, we jumped on some camels and guides led us through the "desert" to all the best photo spots. Even with the city in view, riding a camel up the sand dunes makes you feel like you are far away and even in a different millennium. The best part were our head scarves for added photogenic appeal.

Riding a camel is fairly comfortable, although they move faster than expected. It can also be a bit awkward when they kneel down to let you off.



Along the way, our guide offered to buy Lindsey from Steve for 200 camels. It seemed a fair deal, but we're still working out the logistics of shipping all those humps to Chicago.

Our best stop was a small hill from which you can view all of the nine pyramids at once.



At the pyramid's base we got a close look at their rough exterior that was formerly covered with a smooth and shiny layer of limestone that reflected the sun. This rock, however, was removed during the rule of Mohammed Ali, to complete the construction of his mosque.



After nearly three hours at the pyramids, the tour buses began to arrive and we quickly left. We had an early lunch at the Oberoi, which has an amazing view of the pyramids from their restaurant.



That evening we headed to the Egyptian Museum. The collection was extensive, and we especially liked the King Tut collection, which includes his well-known death mask. Unfortunately photography was not allowed. The museum could use some work, however, as it lacks air-conditioning, artifacts are in old wooden boxes, and descriptions on thousands of items are missing. A new one is planned in Giza in 2011 which will hopefully improve the experience.

That evening we took a night train to Luxor (not just a casino in Vegas) to see the Valley of the Kings and actually go inside ancient tombs. We really loved Cairo, and ending it with a day at the Pyramids was perfect.

Cairo Day 2, Don't Stop the Mosque-ing

Our second morning, we headed to Coptic Cairo, home to various Coptic Christian churches. We didn't even know 'Copts' existed, but apparently they're Egyptian Christians that split from the Catholics back in the day. The most notable of churches here are the Hanging Church and Saint Sergius, where Jesus is said to have stayed. These structures date to the 3rd century, but have been rebuilt time and again so it is difficult to know hold old any of it is. We enjoyed the amazing detail in the patterns, but didn't spend too much time here.



Next, we returned to Islamic Cairo, stopping at the Citadel which for 700 years protected the ruling Fatimah party. Originally constructed to protect against invading crusaders, the Citadel now is best known for housing the Mohamed Ali Mosque. Although this one is only about 200 years old, the people here love it and have placed it on some of their bank notes. We found the scale and outside of it impressive, but the inside lacked the details of other mosques we've seen. The limestone used to construct this was actually taken from the outer layer of the Pyramids of Giza in the 1800s.



Still within the citadel we stopped in the small mosque of Suleiman Pasha. This was our favorite thus far due to the intricate ceiling mosaics.



Starved and determined to eat a real meal, we searched the streets. Without many options we took our chances on a random empty restaurant and were rewarded. It was a huge meal in which the humus and bbq'd chicken stood out.



Amazingly still not sick of mosques, we headed to the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan. This was built on a massive scale, as you can see from Lindsey's size in the below picture.



Lastly, we stopped at Ibn Tulun, a mosque large enough to hold every man in that district. The view from the roof and climb up the minaret were great.



It was amazingly empty.



In the evening we headed to see a performance of the whirling dervishes, but for some reason they weren't having one that evening. Nevertheless, we returned to close-by Fishawi's for another tea, and this time had some apple sheesha.



We cabbed it home, excited for our trip to the Pyramids of Giza early the next morning.

Welcome to Cairo, let's Mosque

We arrived in Cairo a few days ago after a record setting day of travel that had us in four different countries within 16 hours. We left Bali, switched planes in Kuala Lumpur, sat on the runway in Mumbai, and eventually landed in Cairo at around 8am.

There's a very long story about how we almost didn't make this flight due to the incompetence of Malaysia Airlines, but the end is the best. With little more than an hour until takeoff, Steve had to ride on the back of a motorbike with a man from their operations department to a travel agency's ticket office where he was instructed to buy a ticket for travel on June 1st and guaranteed that it would get us on the plane leaving in an hour. After months of irrational and sketchy travel arrangements, he followed suit and amazingly we made the flight. But to be clear, don't fly this airline!

In Cairo, our first tourist stop was to Islamic Cairo, a section settled around 1000AD known for its beautiful mosques and markets. We powered up with some fast-food falafel (pretty good!) and jumped in one of the cities dilapidated taxis.

Walking around the city, we immediately found the locals to be incredibly friendly and interested in meeting foreigners. They all walk with you for a while, which makes you suspect they want something, but amazingly they generally don't. The men are very touchy and walk arm in arm with each other. The women stay covered and reinforce that this is a pretty serious society, despite how modern it may seem. Traffic laws don't exist and we think of the song 'Walk like an Egyptian' everytime we scurry across a street. The weather is beautiful, not nearly as hot as we'd expected. Everyone says 'Welcome to Egypt', and EVERYONE loves Obama. The only negative side of the city is the practice of bakseesh, in which you have to tip everyone who happens to do any small deed for you. It gets to be a bit ridiculous.



Our first stop in Islamic Cairo was the Mosque of al-Azhi, which is the center of Sunni Islam eduction. The university-mosque was filled with friendly-students (mostly from Egypt, Sudan, and Malaysia) cramming for exams. A man led us around the mosque (this time someone looking for money) on a tour that covered many places we wouldn't have felt comfortable venturing. Lindsey stayed covered up as directed and Steve was ridiculed for not producing any offspring at the age of 27. The man, Saeed, literally thought there was something wrong with Steve and constantly chastised him for the entire tour. We learned a bit about the Muslim architecture and were generally just taken back by our new surroundings.



We got to climb to the top of the minaret for a good view of the mosque and Islamic Cairo.



After getting hassled into making donations to both Saeed and "Allah," we escaped the mosque and headed to the Wikala of al-Ghouri. This complex is the city's best example of a medieval merchant's hotel. The bottom floor would have been used as stables and the upper floors for the merchants. Again the architecture including the wooden screens, marble fountain, and arches were amazing and would still make a great hotel. At night, the venue also hosts whirling dervish dance performances which we hoped to make.



Following this, we headed across the street to one of the biggest bazaars in the Middle East. Khan al-Khalili, which now mainly caters to tourists, dates to the 1300s and is the spot to buy hookahs, gold jewelry, belly dancing outfits, bronze lamps, spices, or just about anything. It was a great change from Buddhas and more Buddhas!



Exhausted from our pace, we stopped for lunch and again devoured some falafel sandwiches. After lunch, we headed to 200 year-old Fishawi's, one of the city's oldest coffee shops. We sipped mint tea aside mostly locals who puffed away at sheeshas. We met some Saudis, one of whom gave Lindsey an incredibly ugly bracelet from a street vendor. It was a great place to relax for a bit.



After tea, we stopped in at Beit as-Suhayami, a stunning example of a 17th century Ottoman house. We loved the wooden screens and intricate ceilings and the numerous "party rooms" throughout with dozens of pillows and low tables. This picture doesn't begin to show you how amazing it would be to live here. Look at the full album to get a better idea by clicking on any picture.



After a day of cramming in tourist sights, we started to crash and took in a four hour nap to adjust to our new time-zone. We headed for a late dinner at what turned out to be a disappointing fast-food style restaurant--we're losing all faith in Lonely Planet food.

At the end of the day we were amazed at everything we'd seen and happy for the new experiences of a different continent. We slept well excited for another two packed days in Cairo.

Be sure to check out the complete picture album and check back soon for day 2 in Cairo.

ReRouted

A few weeks ago, we wrote out a list of all the places in the world we wanted to see in our lives. When we recognized that we wouldn't cross a single place off our list in our last month of travel, we started thinking. We researched the current climates, cheapest flights, day-day to costs for touring each country and arrived at this: Enough of Asia, we're headed to Africa.

Our last month will be spent in Egypt and Morocco before heading home via Madrid on June 28th!

We'll see the Pyramids, swim and dive in the Red Sea, climb Mt. Sinai, and visit Petra. Then we'll jump over to Morocco to smoke hasheesh with snake charmers, wander the markets of Fez and Marrakesh, sleep in the Sahara, ride a camel, get our Mosque on, and rock the casbah. All this, before high-tailing it through the south of Spain, stuffing our faces with jamon, and catching the cheap seats state-side.

Back in the US of A, we'll be stopping in NYC from Thursday July 9th-Sunday 12th. We've worked out the following plan of our old stomping grounds.

Thursday 9th Night - Loreley (Dinner & Drinks)

Friday Daytime - Lunch/Drinks with old colleagues at ML/NYTimes

Friday Night - Drinks: Black Bear Lodge/East Village Crawl (7B, Sing-Sing)

Saturday Night - Drinks: BYO-Wine Party & Slideshow, Location: To Be Announced.

Sunday - Brunch: Bondi Road, Drinks: Iggys

We're excited. We hope you are!

This morning we've actually already arrived in Cairo and are loving it. For our last post on Bali, read below.

Ubud and Rest

Ubud, one of Bali's cultural centers, is set among steep ravines and rice paddies. We spent our days here walking around the town's various galleries and shops. Most sold traditional Balinese wood-carvings or masks worn in the various traditional dances. Scarves and the omnipresent buddha images were also popular.



Culture aside, the real reason we wanted to come to Ubud was to eat Babi Guling. Balinese suckling pig is stuffed with herbs and spices, basked in coconut milk, and slowly cooked for 5 hours over an open fire. When we first learned of this swine sensation on Anthony Bordain's No Reservations, we added Bali to the trip itinerary. Like Tony, we headed to Warung Ibu Oka, to give it a try at $2/plate. The meat was moist and spiced perfectly, and the crispy skin was sweet from the coconut milk. This is a great meal not to be missed when in Bali.



Following our meal, we walked down the street to get a look at the kitchen. Within the walls of a traditional balinese home, two pigs were slowly being roasted. A proud cook gave us a tour, describing how that day he'd prepared 6 pigs.



In the afternoon, we walked through the town's Monkey Forest, home to 200 macaque monkeys. Steve got a close encounter with one that tried to climb up his leg from behind. One temple within the forest had an Indiana Jones vibe to it, but overall the park was a fairly small place, that basically just offered some monkey viewing.



Following a few days in Ubud, we headed back south to Seminyak to relax away our last days on Bali and in Indonesia.

Our biggest accomplishment, so to speak, was a long beach walk and ultimate visit to Tanah Lot. This temple, which means "Land in the Middle of the sea," attracts a large tourist crowd for its picturesque setting.



One adventure that we should mention was a disappointing trip to the nearby island of Nusa Lembongan. Because Lonely Planet dubbed it as the "bali people dream of but never find" we hoped it might get us back to something like we'd seen on the Gili islands. To get here we took a small public speed boat that ended up being one of our most terrifying transportation adventures yet. Powered by 4 engines, the small craft bounced from wave to wave across a churning sea. Each time the boat's hull crashed down, the deafening thud made you wonder if everything was still in one piece. At times, you could look out and actually see long rolling waves that were above eye-level. It was a harrowing experience to say the least. Surely, we figured, the island must be worth it!

We were wrong. So wrong in fact, that it wouldn't surprise me if "Lembongan" translated to "the island of smelly seaweed". Seaweed, along with some surfing, seemed to be island's focus and every inch of beach or path was taken up by it. We accepted our mistake and headed back to Bali the next morning when the waves had calmed.

Our final impression of Bali is that it's great for surfing and resorts, but it didn't have the best beaches or towns. The island is fairly congested with traffic and we found ourselves having to take taxis nearly everwhere. We do have to say that we got a bit lazy and didn't see all the island had to offer, so perhaps places like Lovina in the north or other hidden spots might prove us wrong. Nevertheless, we're exicted to move on and continue our trip.

One month left and we're mixing things up a bit. More to come.

Southern Bali

Our first stop back on the island of Bali was Sanur.  This beach isn't anything spectacular, but it happens to be the home to a kite-surfing school we were both interested in.  We spoke with the instructor and were told that he'd take us out as soon as the wind showed up.  Unfortunately, the wind never showed up, but we did manage to fit in a few things in the surrounding area.

We booked a driver and headed south to the tip of Bali.  Our first stop was Padang Padang, a beautiful cliff-lined beach popular with surfers.

We headed to a platform atop one of these boulders for a view of some great surfers and some even better wipe-outs.

We continued onwards to Ulu Watu, a temple at the southern-most tip of Bali.  The temple itself can't compare to some of those we've already seen, but it is popular for its dramatic views and monkey population.

As you arrive, you are warned by scores of people to remove any and everything that a monkey might be enticed to grab: sunglasses, hats, purses, necklaces, etc.  This proved accurate as we saw people in tug-of-war matches against the monkeys.  One monkey managed to grab someone's camera and carried it away to a high tree limb. Many of the guides threw nuts and bananas at it, which eventually it went for and inturn dropped the camera.  This one was perched high over the waves.

Following our tour of the temple, we attended a traditional Kecak dance.  The performance consists of several elaborated dressed characters interacting within a circle of about 50-100 men chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms.   Their actions depict the Hindu story, the Ramayana, which to extremely simplify it, is about a princess being rescued from an evil king by a prince with the help of a monkey.

We enjoy it, although we would have opted for an abridged version.  Fifty minutes of guys going "cak-cak-cak" can be a bit much for a first-timer.  The freakiest part is the way in which the female dancers are able to bend their fingers backwards. 

The following day we walked along three of Bali's most well known beaches. We began in the over-developed and backpacker-haven of Kuta.  This should be avoided by anyone heading to Bali and as the waves are filled with trash, and the town looks like a strip mall.  We continued onwards to Legian, which is little more than a buffer-zone to the higher-class Seminyak.  All of the beaches are known for surfing and boards line the beach.

We had planned to meet up with friends from New York here, but due to a last minute injury they were unable to join us. Get better Jay!  We did take a stop to look at their planned hotel, the Oberoi, which we'd highly recommend. It was simply amazing.

We continued walking through the botique filled streets of Seminyak, and just as Steve was about to collapse of boredom, stopped into a Moroccan restaurant for dinner.

We left southern Bali and headed just a bit north to Ubud, disappointed we missed out on kite-surfing, but excited for some famous local food.

Gili Islands

Our newest home is Gili Meno, a tiny tiny island that lies two hours from Bali, surrounded by turquoise waters and beautiful reefs. We chose Meno, the smallest or the three Gilis, because it is the least developed, which is really saying something as none of the islands have paved roads or motorized transportation. Getting here was another saga, but only involved two flights (one only 20 minutes!), a taxi, one boat, and a horse-drawn carriage! Here Steve is towards the end of the journey ready to make our boat crossing in a typical bali-style boat.



Once we arrived, we jumped in a cidomo (horse-drawn carriage) for a ride across the island. While this seemed convenient at the time, it turns out that its a lot like being pulled around in a wheelbarrow. We both clung to the sides of the cart on a steep incline as the horse pulled us around and the driver jumped on and off to keep him going. It wasn't the most relaxing ride and we were both happy for it to end.



On our first full day, we took to the shores for the island's excellent snorkeling. We spotted a sea turtle, a black lion fish, among thousands of other fish.



Later that day, we took an hour-long walk around the island's entire perimeter (we told you it was tiny!). Lindsey was psyched to be here as you can see. We both thought it was more beautiful than anything we'd seen in Thailand, and wish we'd gotten here sooner.



In the evening, we layed on the beach, far away from civilization and gazed at a star-filled sky. It was the "Bali" both of us had imagined.

Our second day, Steve went scuba diving in the morning at Sunset Reef. He was most excited about seeing cuttlefish, which are able to change the color and texture of their skin in order to camouflage into their surroundings.



He also spotted a white-tip reef shark in the distance, a red lion-fish, some clown-fish (Nemos) hiding in the soft coral, more blue-spotted rays, and a moray-eel.



In the afternoon we napped and sat on our bungalow porch under a light rain.

Our third day on Meno, we headed for a snorkeling site on the other side of the islands know for its friendly turtle population. We didn't understand exactly what this meant until one was headed right for us. We got a bit nervous and started to swim away which prompted the turtle to look at us as if we were crazy. Seems like we could have had a much closer encounter (touching it) if we were a bit calmer and knew what we were in for.

The afternoon was spent reading on the beach, and preparing plans to move onto Bali, proper. More to come...

Ko Phangan & Farewell Thailand

We hopped a quick ferry ride to Samui's sister island, Ko Phangan, best known for its monthly full moon raves, but also home to some secluded beaches. Our first home here was Blue Hill Resort, which is currently undergoing a renovation to into an upscale resort. Lucky for us, they hadn't finished yet, and we got a room overlooking the water at a bargain price. The collection of bungalows were largely empty, and at times it seemed that we had the entire place to ourselves. The highlight was their infinity pool that looked out on Ko Samui.



As usual, we rented a motorbike and explored the island's beaches ('hat's) including Hat Son, Hat Yao, and our favorite Hat Salad.

A couple days into our stay, we realized that our Thai visas had expired. It turns out that we had been given a one-month visa our first time in Thailand because we entered through an airport, but our land entry (from Laos) only earned us a two-week visa. Since we had hoped to make it to Thailand's west coast (Phi Phi & Krabi), we headed to Ko Samui's immigration office to resolve our issue. Here we got a eye-opening lesson on dysfunctional and illogical government.

The immigration official informed us that we could purchase a 7-day extension (which we did in order to exit the country legally), but that she could not provide us with a 14 or 30 day extension. Ok, we figured, it seems logical we can't just stay forever. A bit harsh, but understandable. But wait, if we wanted to stay she told us--no problem--just board a bus on a 16-hour round trip to Ranong on the Burma border, where we could board a long-tail boat, cross a river, stand on a small concrete island for 10 minutes, pay $10 with a crisp ten-dollar bill ONLY (for sale for the equivalent of $20), and then begin the eight hour bus ride back. After doing this, you would be given another 14 day extension for entering Thailand via land.

We both laughed that the official and encouraged government policy was to promote this ridiculous practice instead of just charging us more money for another 7 days. We factored in the annoyance of doing this, the bragging-rights of going to Burma, and the impending monsoon season on the west coast and decided to bid farewell to Thailand a bit sooner than planned. So nice work Thailand, less tourist dollars!

With our remaining days, we decided to return to Ko Phangan and spend the remainder of our time at Hat Salad. We got a great room at Cookies Salad (weird name, but whatever) that looked out over the entire bay.



This made for a great happy hour each evening with our favorite beer.



We continued to explore the island, and chartered a long-tail boat for a ride to Hat Khuat (aka Bottle beach).



Like all the beaches we've seen, the water here was beautiful blending from crystal clear shallows to light greens to dark blues. It's just a beautiful place.



As the full moon party approached on the 9th, the island began to noticeably fill up and we were excited to have timed our exit appropriately.

So we bid a fond farewell to Thailand (we've spent a lot of time here) and hello to Bali & Indonesia. First stop: Gili islands for water sports, diving, and of courses, more pretty beaches.