Bishbishi

The last couple nights Brian and I have spent in Dahab, Egypt (a little town on the east coast of the Sinai Peninsula located along the seashore). The scenery is awe inspiring. Looking out across the Gulf of Aquaba you can see on the opposite coast in Saudia Arabia a jagged mountain range. And behind us are more majestic, rugged mountains.

The last couple of nights Brian and I stayed in a place named Bishbishi. The room is simply a little concrete building, our room 8'x8', a wooden door with large cracks all the way around the frame so that you can see in and out through it, and a grass ceiling/roof. We like it, it's nice! The first night however we had these sheets that felt so dirty, nasty, and filthy. The mosquitoes got to me pretty good that first night because the top sheet was only 4'x4'. I couldn't easily cover up from them with a sheet so small. We stayed there one more night but last night before going to bed I asked one of the workers if I could get an extra sheet for sleeping. I saw where the sheets were stored away and he gave me a medium sized sheet(at least not a small one). But while in there I saw a bunch of large clean sheets neatly folded and stacked. So 10-15 minutes or so after the area was clear of people I quietly walked over and inside and helped myself to several of the large clean sheets for both Brian and I. Close call though, cuz as soon as I was clear of the area one of the guys that runs the place walked around the corner. That would have been awkward had I been 15 seconds later in carrying out my plan. It was really nice last night sleeping on clean sheets and being protected from the mosquitoes. Slept like an angel.

Anyway, we're headed for Taba in an hour and then crossing the state line into Israel today.

Karnak Temple

Writings in the deepest-interior room in the Temple of Karnak. There is also a large stone table or altar in the center of this room but our photos of it didn't turn out very good. The built in stone bench that Brian is sitting on lines the walls around this altar. The room isn't very big. We thought that the writings above Brian were also interesting. Enjoy!

Pictures

I hope this batch of pictures satisfies everyone's hunger for a little while. Both Robby and I dont take a lot of pictures but for everyone's sake we are stepping it up. ALSO click on the photos to get a larger size, some of the pictures are really cool and you can get close ups of the writings.

Karnak

View from Karnak.

Columns at Karnak Temple

These are some BIG columns! How did they ever get these standing upright?! Another interesting thing is that they are covered in writings all the way to the top.

Arm-wrestling some little Arabian Egyptian kid while en-route to Deir el-Bahri. I forget his name. January 5, 2009.

Karnak Temple

Interesting hiero-glyphics at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt. This is where the capitol of Egypt was located when Moses was growing up as a young man. January 6, 2009.

Deir el-Bahri

This is a site in between valley of the Kings and Queens. The temple right behind me belongs to Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled for about 20 years (in peace) while her son (Thutmose III) was in the army. Her son then took over and expanded the empire further than any Pharaoh before him. He also built tons of monuments, mostly at Karnak.

Valley of the Kings - Queen Tausert's tomb

Sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings. This belonged to Queen Tausert, yea I know she's a queen why isn't she in the Valley of the Queens. I dont know go to Wikipedia. I felt pretty cool cause photos are illegal in the tombs now, but the guard wasn't looking and there are no colors for the flash to washout.

Crazy Gunnar and Brian

This is Gunnar from Norway and he is one crazy dude. We met this guy at the Fontana in Luxor where we were staying and this guy just bikes everywhere. He has spent years biking from place to place. This time he is planning on biking from Egypt to South Africa. Yea crazy!! He told of the times he would get caught in sandstorms and who sometimes he has to go around areas because they are kidnapping tourists (Peru).
Anyway just one of the interesting people we have come across.

One long, cold, uncomfortable bus ride.

Well, after a 19 hour cold, crammed, jerky bus ride (which was only supposed to be 14 hours) we are now in the town of Dahab, Egypt. It is located on the eastern coast of the Sinai Peninsula. We found a place to stay here for less than 6 US Dollars. But the transportation isn't as cheap. If I figured right a gallon of gasoline is about 7-8 US Dollars for a gallon.

Right now Brian is sleeping back at our motel recovering from something he ate mixed with his being crammed in an uncomfortable position for 19 straight hours. The plan was to go climb Mt. Sinai tonight and watch the sunrise but I don't think Brian will be up for much climbing tonight. I thought about going by myself but my brother, Steve, kinda took some of the fun out of that. Tomorrow I think we'll catch a ride up north to Taba and then a ferry on over to Aquaba, Jordan and go up and see Petra. That's the place where the end of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed.

Yesterday we went and saw the Temple of Karnak (Very IMPRESSIVE!) and the day before that we went and saw the Valley of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens.

I figure for now I'd just give a quick narration and Brian can add in some funny stories later on. Pictures are long in uploading to the internet. Seems to be a problem all over Egypt, at least that's what someone told me. But we'll still work at getting a few more on here. Anyway I'm hungry (Haven't eaten in over 24 hours) and gonna go look for something to eat around this town. So this is me signing off.

Pyramids of Giza

Reading Will Durant's "Lessons of History" on Khufu at Giza, the largest pyramid in Egypt.

Me (Brian it says Robby at the bottom because he uploads all the pictures) and my Camel relaxing in the desert. Yea riding a camel is pretty cool overall. If it is something you are considering make sure that you lead your own camel, much more fun and that you wear appropriate clothing. Also the guides really try and hurry people through the sights, but they can be ignored pretty easily.

Riding out from the pyramids of Giza (background) to see other pyramids that we could see off in the distant sandy desert. Would rather have had a horse.

The Train Ride

As Saturday began to come to a close, and the 12 hour train ride to Luxor looming, Robby and I prepared for the ordeal by eating McDonald's and some chicken shwarmas. The train at first glance was hideous, dirty, dark, no seats, and cold it looked like a nightmare waiting to happen. Thats when we realized that this was the wrong train. Our train wasn't bad a little dirtier than a coach flight in an airplane but with more room. By paying a little more Robby and I were able to get a private compartment so we were able to stretch out and sleep almost the entire way. A great way to travel down to Luxor. We did have one little hiccup after finishing our "bounteous breakfast" of dry bread and jam our server returned wanting 70 pounds (13 bucks) for the "meal". As this was the same crappy breakfast we had been served for free everywhere else and we did have first class tickets we expected this would be for free. Again the brain must have still been sleeping. Additionally as we were out of pounds and not wanting to give dollars (which were only in high denominations) Anyway when the server returned and demanded payment we basically refused. In the end we figured the bread and juice to be worth 10 pounds so we gave the server some new chapstick, 2 pounds and 4 quarters along with a pack of tissues. The server did not like this at all, and as the train would be moving on from Luxor we would not have time to go and get change for dollars, so he went and got a very disinterested guard who seemed to speak no English and didn't really care, so we left the train, with the server still following us. We tried to explain that he should have told us it would cost money before giving it to us and that we had no pounds but his English wasn't so good. In the end he gave up trying to get more money for the dry bread and we began our exploration of Luxor.