Sailing through the bible 28-09-2003
- 29 May 2013
At least, thats what it feels like. Well a week later& we have stopped at Luxor & just across the road from where the boat docks is this internet cafe.Rather usefull. Rather full of fat (no not me you bastards) loud (No NOT ME!!!) yanks in bright shirts that would make excellent targets for any islamic loonies with an AK. Where oh where is a nutter when you need one.Now that I have found somewhere that is not going to charge $20 an hour to use the computer I can fill you in on the last week or so.
They really cram in stuff on this trip. First day went to Memphis which is Egypt's oldest capital but now little more than a village. A good open air museum with an enormous statue of Ramses II lying on its back minus it's feet.It was so damn big I couldn't get it all in 1 photo despite using a wide angle lense.
Off then to Sakara to check out the Step Pyramid (te first of the lot) & all the tombs there.Back into the van & off to Giza & the really, really big mutha's.
Amazingly enough they still let tourists climb all over these things, slowly eroding them more & more. Went, as everyone does, inside a couple of them. To be able to walk standing up you would need to be a dwarf pygmy. I would have thought that under all those tons of rock that the inside would be relativly cool but I was drenched in sweat by the time I got out. Coming out into 39 degree heat was a cooling relief.Not much to see inside them except sweaty americans in a clostrophobic panic & some pretty impressive architecture.
Told you about the Russian girl with the brazilian so that was about the only laughs of the day.Down then to the Sphinx which was actually larger than I was expecting, about 15 metres high. Good for photos. More inappropriately dressed Russians.
If you ever come here beware the tour guides, they must be on a kickback as they try to drag you to "schools" where they hassle the crap out of you to buy carpets, Papyrus's, perfumes, statues etc etc ad infinitum.
Day 2 wandered through the museum & checked out Tut's gear. Jeeeeezzzzuuussss. Wouldn't mind robbing that place. Went up to the Citadel in the afternoon & wandered through the Alabasta mosque. Never thought I'd be caught dead in one of them but it was a truly impressive building. Designed by a Frenchman which probably explains it. And another "school".
Hopped on an Egypt air flight down to Aswan & another to Abu Simbal to check out the Temple of Ramses II & Nefatari. Boy this guy liked to build BIG statues. All these ones carved into the face of the cliff. Wasn't aware that there was actually chambers inside the cliff, I thought it was just the cliff carvings so this was even more inspiring than I was expecting. Drank about 4 litres of water in 2 hous.Didn't need to take a piss because you lose it all in sweat.
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Back to Aswan & onto the boat. Got bumped up into a suite ( 3 rooms for christ's sake) right at the front of the boat so I have a 90 degree panoramic view. Not a bad start. The other suite has an obnoxiously loud, blimp like yank who was also supposed to be on the boat that I got changed from so I asume that we got them for that reason. Not going to complain about that though.
My group here consists of this loud prick, who is just behind me now bitching about having to spend the equivelant of $2, & his wife, 2 queens from New York who are pretty good value, a pommie who works for the Sinai peacekeeping force (Yep, it's still here) & his German wife, who are both very nice & a bloke who works for Telstra in Melbourne & his Chilean wife. Just can't escape the big T.
Checked out the temple at Phillea & started cruising on up the Nile. Stopped at Edfu & another temple at Com Obo. All good. On up to Luxor & the really impressive stuff. Valley of the Kings it amazing but they will not let you take photos inside the tombs. No flash I can understand but nothing at all? BUGGER!! So no photos from there as there is nothing outside but sand & rocks. The artwork on the inside of the tombs is exquisite & has to be seen to be believed.Same deal in the valley of the Queens. Double bugger!!!
The guide here used to be an archeologist so he cirtainly knows his stuff. Pity that all he wants to do is stand in one spot for 90% of the time allocated at each site & jabber. after about 5 minutes most of us just give up & wander off on our own.
HapsetchutsTemple is not as large as I was expecting & although still pretty impressive has been the only "letdown" (which it isn't really, so far.
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LuxorTemple is an amazing site with an incedible avenue of small (only about 10 feet high - only) that goes for about half a mile & gigantic columns. Amazing & giant that is, until you go to the Karnak temple about 4 miles away. What a mind blow. This place is utterly, utterly awsome.
Took then over 200 years to complete it all. The columns inside would have to be at least 100 feet high & about 20 wide, all intricately carved with hyrogliphics & painted in the most incredible colours. In some places this place used to be 3 stories high & the columns were only for the first floor. Several oblisks & a multitude of statues you could easilly spend an entire day just checking this joint out.
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This isn't a bad time of year to come here as the tourist season hasn't quite started so there are not huge crouds everywhere. You can actually get away from the pack & wander about completely alone in some places. Thank god for that. Plenty of gits that never come out from behind the video camera & just absorb the atmosphere though.
Bit bloody warn though, 42 yesterday & as we were on the go from 6;30 AM to about 6;30 PM I was a bit knackered by the end of it all. Solution?? Drank Red, passed out. I have already drunk all the red wine on the boat. It's not bad stuff & pretty cheap.
I now more fully appreciate the Monty Python skit about the travel agent when Cleese is ranting about the "half built Algerian ruin called the Hotel Del Sol" Almost all the buildings in Egypt are never completed so you have all these crumbling half built apartment blocks covered in satelite dishs. What an odd site. The reason you ask? They don't have to pay there land rates until the building is finished so to avoid paying them, they never finish them. Why can't we have laws like that?
Even the 5 star hotels have weird faults. The room I had at Cairo was like a palace with an entirely marbled bathroom. Only problem was that in the shower the drainiage hole was at the top of a slope so you had about 3 inchs of water cascading out of the shower stall onto the bathroom floor at one side & a slight trickle going down the drain. And these are the guys built the Pyramids?
Lazy day today (quite why they packed all that into yesterday & we sit here doing fuck all today is a question worth asking) so I think I will just go & sit in the pool, fry off some more skin & have a beer.The beers not bad either.
Au 'vior
F.U.S.B.