Home, sweet home!!

We didn't take any photos yesterday so I thought I would post this. I think this is what yiu call a blopper. After about 3 goes at trying to get a photo of me jumping in the air, this is after I have crawled through the pyramids and the temp is about 30 deg. Just as well you can't see the expression on my face!!!

Well here we are. I am not only confused about the day, I am confused about which month it is! I seem to have lost 2 months somewhere.

And it is cold! I have 2 merinos and a jersey and my woollen sox on.

No hassles at the airport. Luggage was not overweight, phew. Flight was full and for the first time we couldn't get a window seat, so we have been really lucky before. Unfortunately there was a woman with 4 children in the row directly behind us from Dubai to Melbourne, 13 hours!. The Mum went to sleep but 4 kids, kev and I never did. Hour and a half in Melbourne, 2 and half hours in Auckland and we were in NP at 5.15pm, bang on time. So good to here Kia Ora from the airport staff.

Much excitement and jumping about at home ( and that was just me Kev and Karen! ) Naki was probably the most excited, Abbie was pretty stoked and of course Razz wanted a game!! Karen has done the most fabulous job with them. Naki has put on weight, and looks a very grown up dog, and they are all bathed and happy and beautiful. They have been excercised and loved and are very lucky.

Today Karen has gone south for a wedding and there was quite a bit of concern from the dogs when she was packing the car. They have missed her today which is cool.

So, we had 24 hrs travelling and about 36 hours without sleep. We broke open a bottle of bubbly last night, headed off to bed about 9pm and I slept till 7am. Kevin was up a bit earlier but we are both feeling surprisingly good and will be off for hopefully another good nights sleep tonight.

We have had the most amazing time, learned new skills, met wonderful new people, seen the most amazing things. Our horizons have been broadened and we certainly know how lucky we are to live in NZ.

Now we have several thousand photos to sort through and bore our friends with:)

I have really enjoyed writing this and would recommend writing a blog to anyone. It has helped me to feel closer to home, to fix things in my memory and has given me a permanent record of our wonderful adventure.

Thanks for being a part of it!!!

Dubai, what a contrast.

The only crocodile we saw, although there are 65,000 in the Nile!

This is a stingray, pretty eh

Kev had a great time chatting with these guys.

Not an alien!

Dubai is pristine. Everything is sparkling clean, new and top quality!

We slept till 9am, leisurely breakfast, washed some smalls and off on the metro. It was travel free day in Dubai which was great although we had to pay 6 duram each?? this is about $2. Unfortunately travel free day meant huge crowds and packed in like sardines. Every day a new experience:)

Went back to Dubai mall. You may remember this place from one of the first blogs. Hope I don't repeat myself but you probably won't remember either from 2 months ago! This place is incredible. It has the biggest aquarium in the world, which kept Kev occupied since you can't get a drink anywhere. Also an ice skating rink. We managed to lose each other for 1 and half hours, was dark when we got back to metro, got lost getting from metro to our hotel.

So the last of our adventures I hope!!

It is now 7.45pm and we are going down for dinner then off to bed. Shuttle pick up 7.25aam, flight goes out 10.10am which is about 5.10pm nz time. We have 1 and half hours stopover in Melbourne afte 14hr flight, then 2 aqnd half hours in Auckland. Arrive in NP 5.15pm. Not sure when we will sleep as our night will be when we are in melbourne/ Auckland.

Can't wait to be home now.

Thanks to all those who have read the blog, left messages and followed our adventures. We will sign it off when we get home.

Incredible Cairo, Bags searched at airport, safe in Dubai!

These people are standing on the road and will decide to wander across at any time!

Then a little cart thing like this appears on the three lane highway!

Traffic at a stanstill. No lanes, changes from 3 to 4 to 5 as  more vehicles come in.

No helmets for bikes. We have seen 3 on a bike, quite common & yestrday Mum, Dad and two kids all  perched on and laughing!!

Peopl just step out into the road and the cars stop or swerve. That thing is hanging from the rearvision mirror and was a jolly nuisance for photos

Then there are the vegetable carts, mostly pulled by donkey.

Rubbish lies everywhere

Fresh fruit stall on side of road

Taken from downtown Cairo

Kevin showing the Sphinx who's boss!

The Sphinx was so impressed with how stong I was, she kissed my arse.

More rubbish, just everywhere.

We had such a big day yesterday. Out at 8.30 back at 6.30. So dinner, bed, no time for blog.
Tonight we are safe in Dubai. What a contrast to Cairo.

I have been trying to find some words to describe Cairo, so here are a few;

25 million people, vibrant, very different, exciting, unbelievably busy, never stops all night, noise, traffic, rubbish, donkeys, horse, cats, dogs, hawkers, friendly, caring people, tipping, passion, fun, laughter, incredibly patriotic, kind, chauvanist, ancient, shopping, squalour, stalls, talking, guns, tanks, motorbikes, decrepid cars, police, burkas, scarey, gorgeous children, handsome men, beautiful women, touists, driving, traffic jams, hovels, temples, pyramids, tombs, kings, queens, pharoahs and sultans.

How this makes me feel; sad, very sad, envious, embarrassed, tired, grateful, helpless, frightened, frustrated,

I can't find the words to do justice to Cairo. You need to come and see for yourselves!!

Yesterday we went first to the pyramids. We were able to go inside, Kevin mostly on hands and knees. No photos allowed and nothing could capture how it feels to be in there. We had 30 mins free time to explore after and our tour guide so kindly followed us at a distance keeping the hawkers away from us but so far back we didn't know. How very cool. Then he took some clever photos of us and then introduced us to a young friend of his who got Kevin and I to pose for photos with the sphinx. They are so funny and got more photos of Kev than we have had in the last 10 years! Amazing what a man will do for a pretty girl.

It takes hours to get anywhere through the Cairo traffic. I will post some photos but nothing can show the chaos. Drivers are very courteous though and let each other in. Otherwise it would be gridlock.

Next we went to the cotton factory. Eygptian cotton is beautiful but we could reallu buy sheets and towels to carry home. Next to jewellery factory where we bought some cool gifts, then papyrus where we didn't intend to buy anything:)

Next to mosque where I wore a lovely new gown and then to lunch at 3.30pm. Over lunch I said that my biggest fear wasn't the revolution but the tummy bug. And he was aazed. He said they are very careful and take tourists to clean places etc. I said that most of the people I know who have been to Egypt have been sick and he was horrified!

Then to Cairo museum. This is incredible with treasures from Tutenkaman's tomb and many mummies dating back to 2500BC. Unbelievable. No photos in there unfortunately. This is very close to the square where the revolution was launched and there is still large crowds there. peaceful though.

Security everywhere. Scanners, and patdowns in most places. Everyone seems to have a gun.

About 90% of tourists have stayed away from Egypt this year and as 45% of working people are employed in tourism things are very grim for people. Is picking up a bit now though.

So, back to hotel, dinner, bed and up at 6.30. Pick up at 8.30am. Took 45mins to get to airport, half of it at crawling pace. When we got there our escort from the tour got into an argument with the airport security man, not a good idea. He wouldn't let us through to checkin and Sam, who I thought was a quiet little mouse really got upset. The result was that they made us open our bags and checked through our stuff!! First time we have had that scarey experience. They found two aerosole cans and a small peeling knife in our checked in luggage. They made a huge fuss about this then gave them back and said it was a special exemption for us, and have a great trip home!!

Will post some photos. Two nights in Dubai then home on Thursday arvo!!

Kom-ombo to Edfu to Luxor to Cairo

Egyption Police hard at work! So many of them sit around all day with their guns.

Our tour leader was called Emad and he called our group Lovers. I think he thought it meant Friends. This notice was on the board on the boat. Hate to think what the other groups thought we got up to!

Beautifully preserved decoration at Kom-O=ombol Temple. and Emad.

Look at the detail on the fingers. Incredible

The people who cleaned our room on the boat left us s differrent creation made out of the towels each morning.

Typical scene of Egypt. People waiting for the bus.

Beautifully preserved statue and Queen HHatshepsut's temple. And me. I'm the one with the camera and the shawl. Covered shoulders and knees.

Downtown Luxor.

Queen hotchipsoup's temple, unusuale with 3 stories and carved out of the cliff.

This security guard offered to pose for a photo, then wanted money for doing it!

No blog last night. As tourist numbers are well down (currently about 40 boats on the Nile instead of 300) our boat has a number of seperate tours running from it. As all the tours are slightly different there has been quite a bit of rejigging of timetables so we can all sail at the same time:)

So last night we were on deck watching the cruise ship go through the lock at Edsa. What an amazing experience. Everywhere you go here men and children stand in your way and are very pushy about selling you things. I have learned to stay very close to the tour guide because otherwise they are just awful. Yesterday morning when we got off the boat the were all over me. The only way to deal with them is to make no eye contact, keep moving and say no!!! This boy of about 10 would not leave me alone he stood in my way as I tried to go round him and I swear he was trying to shove his braclets up my nose. I almost pushed him out of my way. It is so sad as we feel very sorry for them but if you buy from one you are doomed. It is a real problem and stops us all looking at things we might otherwise buy.

It was dark when the boat approached the lock. This boat has 72 cabins so is not small at all. I was standing beside Suzanne, one of the lovely aussies and we could see something on the water right in frnt of the boat. as we got closer we could see there were 2 small row boats with 2 people ( a child and an adult in each) so close to the boat they disappeared at times. Turned out they were selling things!!!

They threw towels and tablecloths up to people on the boat. Hard not to catch something thrown like that, then when the boat was lowered in the lock, the top deck where we were was level with them and them expected to be paid. They raced around the lock with no regard to their safety. I just couldn't believe my eyes!

The other reason there was no blog last night was that it took 45 min to load 6 photos the night before and One of those is a problem. So I decided to leave it for tonight.

So we went yesterday to the Kom-ombo temple, then the Edfu temple which is the best preserved one due to it being low lying and covered with sand for generations. Then we had 4 hours to relax on board while we sailed. So relaxing just laying in the sun watching the world go by.

So this morning we started early as we needed to be at the airport by 12pm. First to the Valley of the Kings. It was extremely hot even at 9am. We visited 3 toombs, Ramses iii iv and ix. Just amazing place to be.  Tomorrow we will go to the Cairo museum which is where most of the teasure found in those toombes is now.

Then we went to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut ( pronounced hot chip soup). Beautiful temple and amazing lady. She was one of only 5 Queens to rule Egypt. She was the daughter of a Pharoah and to gain power she married her brother (just a busines arrangement, quite common in those days) unfortunately he died soon after :).

So now we are back in Cairo. We are the only ones on our tour tomorrow which is gr8 as we can go where we want. So will do the pyramids, Cairo museum, Citadel and cotton factory.

Then off to Dubai on Monday to start the trip home.

I want to do a blog on driving before we finish. I thought France, Italy and Turkey were bad enough but my god Egypt!!!

Can't wait to be home now.  Although this hotel is wonderful and Dubai is very good too.

So far have managed to stay well in Egypt. Only 2 nights 2 go.

Aswan, relaxing and casting off

This is a police vehicle!!!

One of many

Take your life in your hands on the road and the river!

These pictures tell a cool story. You read the story from left to right or right to left depending on which way the pictures are facing



They even had graffiti in those days.

 Buffet dinner last night, was very good. Good company with the 3 Australians. Early night, amazing how tiring this relaxing thing is.

This morning it was pitch black in our cabin when the wake up call came at 7.30am. We had been awake for a while but thought it must be earlier. The curtains are very effective. Had a freshly made omelette for breakfast. Very good.

The five of us took off in the van. Hard to believe there are any drivers worse than Turkey but we have found some.First up was a visit to the high dam. This created the biggest man made lake on earth, Lake nassar. The high dam was built to replace the Aswan dam which was built in 1902. The area between the dams is protected and not even fishing or sailing is allowed. The high dam is beautiful and much more effective than the earlier model.

Then we got on a motor boat, took our lives in our hands, no life jackets and went to the Temple of Philae. This was moved 250m when the high dam was built. The island the temple was originally on is now submerged but you can see the steel support structures sticking up out of the water. The temple was very interesting, allowed to take photos inside and our guide was very knowledge able. I learned some interesting things about Egyptian Hyroglifics (spelling?). There were lots of motorboats all pushing for their space at the landing.

Then we went to see the unfinished obelisk. There is so much granite here, they use it for anything.

Then the perfume factory. When we arrived there was a boy of about 10 outside. he pushed something he wanted to sell at us and said, 10 Egypian pounds, welcome to Aswan:) We got a massage with sandalwood oil, great for my neck and bought perfume and oil to bring home.

The boat has cast off and we are on our way to Kom-Ombo where tomorrow we will visit the temple dedicated to the gods Sobek and Haroeris.It is dark now but it was lovely on the deck watching the sunset. Tomorrow we will sail to Edfu and visit the temple dedicated to Horus before sailing to Luxor for the night.

Dinner is not served here until 7.30pm so we are always hanging out for that.

High Dam

Love the Egyptian writing

On the boat the women on the staff are all cleaners and the men do all the important stuff, like direct contact with the tourists (guests). Most women on the street are wearing burkhas and even in the perfume factory the women in full burkas were only there to massage the women and the men did everything else. Security is everywhere, including tanks and machine guns. I have not been able to get good photos of this stuff as we are always going flat out in the van with heaps of other vehicles surrounding us, and I am trying to be a bit discrete in case I upset someone.Will keep trying.

Aswan, Nile and a bit of understanding

View from the felluca. Amazing contrast between old and new. These are burial caves on the West bank

Felucca ss the sun goes down

Small boy alone in the middle of the Nile. He looked perfectly at home.

Well, lots to report!

Yesterday arvo we had a sleep, had a swim, had dinner and went to bed. I tried to work on the tan but the sun sets before 6pm here so while it is still warm there is not heat in the sun after about 3pm.

This morning we decided to go for a walk to get some money and deodorant and hand sanitiser. The paranoia is till going well! What an experience. Most of the women in burkha's, the most run down vehicles we have ever seen (Kev's writing finger twitched away) men everywhere trying to sell us boat rides, horse and carriage rides, food and everything else. Quite intimidating and they force you to be very rude. Several times we nearly turned back but the hotel and the tour guide both said it was very safe so we tried to get over it. Then I found a pharmacy. The lady inside wore a full burkha and was very friendly. All the stuff was just like NZ. I found what I wanted then remembered I had no cash and she didn't take visa. So she kindly sent me to Thomas Cook where my visa card declined twice!! This was the moment I rememberd the travel card was empty as we didn't need euros anymore. So we continued on until we found an ATM, Thankfully it gave me some money. Back to the pharmacy. Funny there was an advert sign hanging from the roof with a bouncing soccer ball. Kevin pointed at the sign and the lady laughed and laughed. It was advertising viagra!! So I discovered that these women I have been too scared to even make eye contact with like a laugh just like us. Just as well her husband wasn't there. Goodness knows what happens to a man who jokes about viagra with a woman in a burkha.

Then we went to the bank to change some money to 10 pound notes for tips Ten pounds is about $3NZD. . First time I have been in a bank since we have been away. They always have people with guns but I have got over that now. As we went in there was a short (they're  all short) woman in a burkha standing in the doorway and Kevin nearly knocked her over. Don't think he even saw her coming out of the light. He made a big joke (amazing what you can convey by gestures) and she though it was very funny. So we survived our walk. I wore a light cardigan to cover my shoulders as I didn't want to offend. Was sweating when I got back up the hill to hotel.

Picked up by the tour guide at 11am. There are only 5 of us on this tour, end of season, but several tours using the same boat. So there are 72 cabins on boat. It is really nice. Cabins bigger than I expected, swimming pool with bar, everything you could want really. Settled in, had lunch then we went for a Felluca ride for about an hour, Just lovely sailing and relaxing. We were right in the middle of the Nile when a boy sitting on what looked like a large skateboard appeared right beside the boat. He was about 10 I think. Not sure if he wanted money or just to practise his english. He was there about 5 mins then buggered off.

The skipper of the felluca had some things to sell. We were a bit worried about his level of attention to the boat as he worked on selling to us. All hand made stuff. I bought 3 necklaces  for 35 pounds total which is about $8NZD. A small opportumity to support local industry.So if anyone would like a genuine handmade camel bone necklace this is your opportunity :)

Tipping costs on this tour are $14usd per tourist to cover all the places we visit off the boat, $15USD per tourist for people on the boat and recommended $6USD per day for tour guide. At least they take care of that as we hate dealing with it!!!

Back about 3 pm, time to read my book and relax before dinner.

Walking the streets of Aswan. Very dirty.

Our cabin on the boat. It is currently tied up 3 deep with other cruise boats. We walked across then to get on board.

Love those pools

Flight to Cairo, Abu Simbel and Aswan

Stained glass window in the hotel in Cairo

Swimming complex in Cairo hotel

Taxi! Yohh!

Shopping complex in Cairo

Sunrise from the plane on the way to Abu Simbel

Temple in honour of RamsesII. There are 4 statues out the front, all of him. We were not allowed to take photos inside. This temple is designed so that 2 days a year, his birthday and coronation day, at sunrise the sun falls on his statue in the room inside the temple.

The 2nd statue from the left is missing the torso and the head which were shaken loose in a n earthquake and now lie in this position at the foot of the statue.

This is Nefertari's temple. She is the only Queen of Egypt to have a temple built for her. It has 2 statues of her and 4 of Ramses. He really couldn't help himself.

A gr8 shot of both temples

Pool at the hotel in Aswan

The blog will cover 2 days tonight. Heaps of frustration with the wifi which is working for 2 guys in the bar but not for me.

So I have come to use the hotel computer which costs 35 Egypt pounds an hour. Thankfully that is only about $8nzd.

So flight to Cairo yesterday was good. Up at 6am. Unfortunately we were back in the noisey hotel in Istanbul and also had asian/indian people in the room next to us who yelled and coughed until after midnight then started again at 4.50am. Kevin then hammered on the wall which bought 60 sec silence.

When we arrived in Cairo I thought someone from the tour would be there to meet us and because that didn't happen we were surrounded by taxi drivers inside the terminal. The hotel was close by but too hard to walk so we did get a taxi. Afternoon was free. We went to the shopping mall. Amazing. Overwhelming really I bought 2 scarves that took 2 hours. We came out at 6pm to find it was dark. Taxis queue up and the one at the front gets the next client. Unfortunately the one at the front was a total heap of junk. Photo attached. kev said NO but this created a huge drama so we just crossed our fingers. Back to hotel safely, we have video of this trip, it is worse than France, Italy and Turkey!!

Up at 3am today for our flight to Abu Simbel. When we got to the airport two guys (thought they were airport staff) got us a trolley, grabbed our bags, wheeled the trolley, showed us how to get through the scanners (which we knew) and then we had to pay them for it. Tourist suckers

The hotel gave us 2 huge breakfast boxes, most of which we couldn't eat due to avoiding the tunmmy bugs. Had an apple and knife and bread and jam. Threw out heaps of lovely filled rolls etc.

Flight Cairo to Aswan about 1 and half hours, stayed on plane for half hour at Aswan then 40 mins to abu simbel. Was an airbus 320. So much for my worries about a puddle jumper! I took my relaxing pill and was asleep when we arrived in Aswan and slept again on flights to and from Abu Simbel. Then I had a snozze in hotel this arvo, so did Kev.

No words to describe Abu Simbel. Built by Ramses II basically to honour himself and he also built a smaller temple to honour his wife Nefertati. Smaller being relative. Both these temples were moved 600metres higher in 1964 to avoid them being immersed when the Aswan dam was built. This amazing achievement took 4 years and cost USD85 billion. Funded by UNESCO.

So a sleep this arvo, a swim in the pool for me (28 deg here) and off for dinner soon. Tomorrow we start the Nile cruise. Getting picked up at 11 so a sleep in planned. Then 3 days on the Nile then flight from Luxor to Cairo.

We are both well, fingers crossed that will continue. I am paranoid about what I eat and drink here.
Have more funny stories to add to the toilet blog that Kev is going to write before we get home. They want payment for everything here. There is a lady in the toilet who hands you toilet paper and expects payment.

The hawkers at Abu Simbel were the worst we've seen. Such a shame. Security huge. Machine guns and scanners everywhere.