To the Red Sea Coast

Having Luxor all wrapped up, I was quite ready for some relaxing on the beach so I headed to Dahab.  There are a couple of options on getting here and the one I was wanting to take which was Luxor to Hurgada by bus, one night in Hurgada then a ferry across the Red Sea to Sharm el Sheik, then another bus to Dahab.  I had heard from a few other travelers that this way is not recommended because the cost and hassle is far from fun so I opted for the 16 hour bus that travelled up the coast, crossing into Sinai at Suez then down and around the southern tip and back up the east coast to Dahab.  I really didn't want to spend 16 hours on a crappy Egyptian bus but since Moses' staff had been rented out by some Russians, parting the Red Sea was out so the bus it was.  I've had worse but this was by far the most tortuous transport.  Much worse than the train.  But the Red Sea is well worth it.  I'm still here.  My hotel is right on the beach.  In the distance, you can make out the skyline of the mountains of Saudi Arabia with the most crystal clear beautiful turquoise blue water you could imagine.  I went snorkeling on day one and after seeing the amount of marine life teeming on the reefs and the clarity of the water I quickly decided that snorkeling would not be enough so I enrolled in the SCUBA class and after tomorrow I will be certified for open water diving.  I'm pretty stoked to get out there and have a look around.  4 out of the top 10 diving sites in the world are located here.  I've only been down to 12 meters (36ft) In class tomorrow we are going on 3 dives and down to 18 meters (60 ft).  Can't wait!!!  

Luxor and the Valley of the Kings

From Aswan, I traveled by train again up to Luxor.  I spent about 5 days here traveling around to the tombs and temples.  Every person breathing in Luxor is somehow associated with tourism and they are trying to get your money!  I enjoy finding the way without the need to be a drone on some tour group.  I rented a bicycle for 2 days and rode up into the Valley of the Kings and although it was a bit of a sweat, it was worth the $5 I paid for 2 days of transportation.  The tombs are all off limits to any kind of photography so I don't have any to share.  There are guards in every tomb and when you either ascend or descend into the tomb, they are there instantly to show you around and point out certain hieroglyphs or paintings of importance then rushing you out the door again (with hand out waiting to be filled with coins of quantity) to allow a new group of donations.  This is also to keep your time inside to a minimum since the humidity of everyones breath increases the moisture of the air and encourages a bacteria to grow that eats the paint.  You are also only allowed to visit 3 tombs.  A small let down I suppose but understandable.

  The temples, on the other hand, are really amazing and it is easy to spend hours in the afternoon or at sunset just roaming around between the statues, columns and doorways.  I visited the Luxor temple, Karnak temple, Hatshepsut temple and Ramesseum temple.  

Luxor Temple

Karnak Temple

Karnak Temple

Karnak Temple

Scarab beetle.  Apparently if you walk in a circle around this statue 10 times you become Chinese.

Ramesseum Temple

 

Ramesseum Temple with guardians guarding

Deir el Medina Tombs

Birds eye view of Hatshepsut Temple

Camel Luxury Transport

Hieroglyphs Translated

Egyptian Voyeurs

Egyptian Peer Pressure.

Egyptian Tea server

Egyptian Masseuse

Disco

Nubian children

Came across a couple Nubian kids in Aswan.  I want to comment on sincere kindness that the Nubian people that I met.  They are generally very friendly and more interested in you and showing you their homes and inviting you for tea than getting your money.  I enjoyed this part of Aswan a lot and a lot of them live on a island in the middle of the Nile so you are away from all the noise from cars and touts.

Aswan

Some photos from walking around in Aswan and the Nile valley.  Quite a beautiful little city but again, full of locals trying to sell you boat rides and crappy "made in China" souvenirs.

Nile Valley

Nile Valley

Nubian ruins several layers deep.  These are still being excavated. 

Nubian Mummy

Islamic Cairo

Sleepy little alley in Cairo

Abu Simbel

Been a little lazy on the blog (blame the beaches of the Red Sea for that) so I suppose I should catch everyone up here.
After the Desert I arrived back in Cairo and spent a day there to wait for the night train that I was taking down to Aswan in the Nubian south of Egypt.  The train ride was supposed to be a 12 hour ride but in reality was close to 16!  Can't rave on the comforts much either.  Anyway, found my hotel and kept it low key for the night since sleep wasn't so easy on the train.  The next day, I booked my trip down to Abu Simbel which is the temple that Rameses the Great built for himself around the 13th century BC.  He also had one built, though not as grand, for Nefertari.  The entire temple was torn down brick by brick and relocated on higher land due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam when it was "discovered" well into the building of the dam that when it would be completed these temples would be under water.  Egypt can thank the USA and many other countries for the emergency relocation which cost roughly $40 million and took 4 years to do.
To get here you are required to go in a police convoy and everything was a bit rushed.  Get up at 3am to board the bus, drive 2 1/2 hours south to the temple, fight the crowds and souvenir vendors to buy your ticket, walk through the temples 45 min max with "no photo! no photo!"shouted in your ear.  Back on the bus for 2 1/2 hours back and done.  I'm happy I went but any readers out there wanting to go, contact me and I can recommend a much better way to get there without all this frenzy and a much better experience.  Here are the only 2 photos I took here.

3 Days and 3 Nights

Western Desert

Finally getting a chance to get some of these photos up.  These are from my 3 nights camping in the desert near the Bahariah Oasis which is a little north west of the center of Egypt.  This has to be by far my favorite excursion yet!!!  We visited the White Desert, the Black Desert and the Western Desert all of which were relatively close to each other but quite distinctly different.  Our first day took us out pretty far from the oasis with a stop off at a Bedouin village for lunch.  I would have liked to enjoy the village more but they obviously are used to large tourist buses stopping here for photos and expecting Baksheesh (tips) in return.  After lunch was where the pavement ended.  Our driver was quite the skilled driver in the sand.  Rolling along up and down and around sand dunes, he never got stuck in the sand the entire time we were out there.  There were many times I thought for sure this is it, we had better get out and start shoveling or something but his experience was phenomenal.  He was telling us over the campfire one evening that he comes from the south-western most point of Egypt and before working with the tour groups would make runs back and forth in transportation convoys of 5 jeeps, taking 25-30 days one way.  He definitely knew how to read the dunes to see where the sand would be the most compact.

In the Western Desert, we began to see these "fields" of small black rocks.  When we finally stopped to camp we were able to walk around a bit and do some exploring.  The black rocks were in all sorts of crazy shapes and forms.  The puzzle was finally solved.  They were fossils.  Fossilized coral, seashells, sea amenities,  snails and clams.  They were  everywhere.

Needless to say, my pack is a little heavier now.

The White Desert is equally unique due to the chalky white formations of rocks.  We were going to camp here for one night but this desert is a little easier accessible and there were many groups spending only one night there so we only spent a few hours here which was fine with us as it was a very large group and the serenity of the night before was calling at us.  Here are a few pics.

The final night was spent in the Black Desert.  Although not as beautiful as the others there are still wonders here.

By far, the best part about the 3 days spent in the desert was the camping!  There is an eery silence here that reminds you just how far away from anything living.  I don't think there has ever been a place where I have heard this complete silence.  No airplanes overhead, no bird or animal sounds, no traffic noise in the distance, just pure, sweet, 100% silence.  And then there were the STARS!!!

Of course we brought along a sheesha or hookah.  This is Cam, sparking up the coals.  We had Apple, the best flavor if you ask me.

Sean, warming by the campfire.

And here's our Bedouin camp.

The road from Siwa to Bahariah

I'm adding some photos from the 6 hour trip from Siwa to Bahariah.  There is no official road although one is being built.  There is only about 1/4 of this journey that is completed so the rest is just tracks in the sand.  To get between these two places, you have to hire a 4x4 Land Cruiser which costs about $300 total so what most people do is get a group together to share the cost.  While I was in Siwa, the Egyptian Government decided to close the desert.  There are several checkpoints along this trip and for tourists, you are required to get special permission to even go out into the desert.  The reason the desert was closed is still unclear but it finally opened and I was lucky enough to meet 3 other people that were going.  We were told that the reason for the checkpoints is if you do not show up at the next checkpoint within a certain amount of time, they come looking for you.  Not out of concern for you but concern that you are out in the desert digging and tomb raiding.

Here's where we stopped for lunch

Crashed remnants of a helicopter.  Very unfortunate location even if there were any survivors this is far far away from anything living.

Siwa Oasis

After spending a day in Alexandria I took an overnight bus to the Siwa oasis which is located near the border of Libya.  This is the view from my hotel window.  Hotel room was 40 Egyptian Pounds which is about $7 USD.  The village is surrounded by a mass of palm trees and a lake past the palms.  A quiet little town but well worth the journey into the desert.  I rented a bike for a day and spent the day roaming around.  These are the ruins that was once the village where people lived up until the 1920's when there was a rain storm that lasted 3 days which destroyed their mud brick homes.  

They have since rebuilt their town around the old one but still use the old mud brick type of construction.

Donkey transportation.  I'm still trying to figure out the 4x4?!?