Coreyography

Kenya Bound

I'M IN: Aswan for a few more hours
NEXT UP: Kenya en route to Tanzania

Well!  My last week in Aswan was nothing if not uneventful - my friend Ayob had many, many personal problems which led to no cruising on the Nile and lots of drama.  I managed to have a fine time, but am happy to be leaving Egypt nonetheless.  I have quite enjoyed touring Egypt's fantastic cultural sites and meeting lots and lots of folks here, but there are some aspects of life here that I will not miss.  Chiefly: the bathrooms.  I vote for a plumbers convention to come here, gut everything and start afresh.  Is this culturally insensitive?  Perhaps.  I also will not miss the daily lectures I get from Egyptian men about American culture, what it's like to travel as a single woman, what foreigners like and all other manner of things that they seem to think they know a lot about.  My smiling and nodding muscles have certainly gotten a workout here.

Tomorrow I have the pleasure of spending 12 hours in the Cairo airport in between flights from Aswan and to Nairobi.  I hope to goodness that my phone will work there so that I can catch up on chat time with family and friends.  After arriving in Nairobi early Friday morning, I plan to hop a bus to Tanzania tout suite - I've heard and read a lot about Nairobi and none of it sounds too great.  I am REALLY looking forward to meeting up with my Dad and stepmother at the end of next week to start a safari in the Kilimanjaro environs.  So, so excited about having time with family and also seeing lots of cool animals (hopefully!).  Tomorrow will mark my first foray into the Southern Hemisphere, looking forward to seeing what everything looks like upside down, plus the water-swirly-the-other-way deal.  Detailed reports on all to come.

Dust in the Wind

I'M BACK IN: Aswan, having visited the village of  El Ramadi and Dahab
NEXT UP: Chilling on the Nile like a crocodile

First the dust: my visit to the village of El Ramadi was most interesting indeed.  My friend Ayob was most hospitable, and his friends and family are among the nicest people I have met.  I spent three days there during the Eid feast and met many, many folks all of whom were pretty interested in what this Western gal was doing in their midst.  I played several rounds of dominoes (a game I like to think I am perfecting) in the coffee shop and spent several hours on the banks of the Nile talking with Ayob and his friends.  Life in this village was like nothing I've ever seen or heard of before - open-air family dwellings are sort of all clustered together in a rabbit warren fashion and animals just sort of come and go as they please.  We're talking goats, chickens, cats, sheep, pigeons but no dogs (?).  You might be thinking (as I was) that these are not animals that are house trained.  True.

I had a number of worries going into this visit, most of them relating to the bathroom.  Horrors in this arena were encountered.  There is no running water.  Another fear I faced down (which I have been waiting for since the start of this trip) was being served something by a host that I just cannot eat.  Many of you know that I have a pretty weak stomach which completely goes to pieces in the face of animal organs of any sort.  Ayob came to me on the third afternoon of my visit announcing that he was cooking "something you've never eaten before!"  My hackles were up immediately, especially since he had brought out a "sheep's egg" for me to view a few hours earlier.  I told him there was no way I could eat anything other than flesh from an animal.  Despite hurt feelings on the part of his mother and ex-wife I could not make any headway with the bowl of sheep's entrails presented at mealtime.  When the women were out of the room I swept my spoon through the bowl and announced, "Delicious!" as they returned.  I don't think they were fooled for a second, but this was the best I could manage.

And wind!  If you are into wind or the sports that depend on them, go to Dahab immediately.  It is a gusty corner of this earth.  I very much enjoyed my stay at the Dahab Hilton resort, complements of my father (thanks, Dad!) especially the bathroom and bed (my comfort requirements are pretty basic at this point) and, let's don't lie, the television.  I watched quite a bit of BBC programming (how many garden makeover shows does one country need?) and several CSI episodes as well.  A good, if drafty, Christmas was had by me. 

And now I'm back in Aswan, it being the warmest place in the country that I've found, to round out my final week here in Egypt.  My friend Ayob is hooking me up with a multi-day trip on the Nile in a felucca with other backpackers and I'm really excited about this.  The Nile is definitely the best river I've ever met, a wondrous presence to near while basking in the sun or enjoying the stars.  I'm pretty sure champagne is out of the question for New Years Eve, but you can be sure I'll be toasting my friends and family with something (most likely tea!) and wishing you all the best for the coming year. 

Egypt me

I'M IN: Luxor, having visited Abu Simbel and cruised up the Nile from Aswan
NEXT UP: A little village life, then the beach baby!

I'm not sure if the term 'gypped' is PC anymore, but anyhoo.  Lots seen and done the past week!  I've been quite the tourista maxima.  Whilst still in Aswan, I took a boat over to Philae Island to visit a temple dedicated to Isis, which was still in business up until the 4th century AD (at which time the Christians seriously cracked down on idol worship and came and scratched out many of the carvings).  For whatever reason (I'm not questioning it) this temple really knocked me out and I've been awed and amazed at most everything I've seen since.  I much prefer responding in this manner than being jaded and over it.  It's more fun.  I took approx. 67 pictures of this temple and they are updated over on Flickr.

Then it was southward to Abu Simbel, which definitely lived up to the hype of being fantastic.  The sound and light show was narrated by the wind and not to dis Sphinxy, but he for sure put on a good show.  I got a lot lost in the story, which kind of bounced all around Ramses II's life, but the image quality and visual effects were v. cool.  Not sure if I'd go as far as the Lonely Planet and call the show "magic," but maybe I have a high standard for such (or am not stoned).

Then it was back to Aswan where I boarded one of the hundreds of Nile Cruise boats that ply the great river between here and Luxor.  I greatly enjoyed meeting some of my fellow cruisers (a Filipino/Malaysian couple who live in Bahrain and two professional single women from China) and learning more about their lives.  Unfortunately the cruise was rife with things like "make party for bellydance" which I just find embarrassing for everyone involved.  I did get in some good TV time, which I always enjoy.

And I've been in Luxor the past two days touring my tail off.  Karnak Temple here is massive beyond belief, and the West Bank tombs (Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings) were equally thrilling.  Tonight I will take the train south to Edfu and meet up with a new Egyptian friend, Ayop, who has invited me to his village to experience some traditional Egyptian culture.  After this interlude I will head to the Red Sea for Christmas; diving and beach bumming are on the menu.  If I don't talk with you before, have a great holiday!

Not Today

I'M IN: Aswan in Southern Egypt (confusingly known as the Upper Nile), having visited Alexandria and the Siwa Oasis
NEXT UP: South to Abu Simbel, the up the Nile to Luxor

I've been on the move the past few days.  From Cairo I headed (north by) northwest to Alexandria, the depressing approach to which put me in mind of Thessaloniki, except for more gas flares, trash piles and lots of stagnant water.  Just about the time I started to wonder why it didn't smell worse, it started to.  The outskirts of Alexandria have an equal claim to New Jersey's unofficial motto, "What Died?"  But the interior of the city is quite lovely, with a nice harbor along which the city stretches, and lots of hustle bustle.  From there I continued westward into the desert just short of the Libyan border to the Siwa Oasis.  One thing I did not expect about the desert: it is very dusty.  Everything, from the blankets in my hotel room to the donkeys around town to the food I consumed, was covered with a fine (or not so fine) layer of dust.  Being there was a really interesting experience regardless - it is a very remote and isolated place and felt so.  There are also lots of temples and tombs and springs to see, which I did via donkey cart.  I left out in the afternoon and hit the major sights before sunset (which I viewed, spectacularly, from the top of a lil' mountain).  And then the serious show started - stars and more stars and shooting stars and more stars.  In addition to being the middle of nowhere, it was a new moon (I never could find it in the sky).  I had trouble finding the few constellations I know because there were so many stars everywhere.  Really fantastic.  Expectations were again dashed when I visited the town's hot spring.  I was picturing a hot pond ringed by date palms; in reality it was a square cement structure with hot water about a foot and a half deep.  "Good for the skin!" my driver/guide Mahmoud told me.  OK.

Guess what?  I took another overnight train.  I lucked out again and got my own cabin and it was a fun journey - I'm convinced that time passes more quickly on a train than on a bus.  I awoke to find myself here in Aswan, which bills itself as a sunny winter resort.  I know I'm always whining about the weather, but seriously ya'll - it's cold here!  Winter resort?  For Canadians maybe.  I was very impressed with my visit to the Nubia Museum here - one of the best designed museums I've seen, the museum looks like a Nubian fortress in the desert and has extensive garden paths all set into the rocks.

Egyptians are world-renowned for their tourist-hassling, and the rep is well deserved in my experience.  Here was an interaction I had with a seemingly middle class kid who was walking the same way as me down the street today:
Kid: Hello!
Me: Hi.
Kid: Hi.  Baksheesh?
Me: For what?
Kid: Yes.
Me: For just being you?
Kid: Yes.
Me: Not today.
"Not today," coupled with a good sense of humor, is my secret weapon/hassle-situation-ender that actually seems to work.  This is a fantastic discovery.   

My plan is to do some felucca-ing tomorrow here amongst the islands in the Nile.  My next stop will be the Abu Simbel temple, which is not only supposed to be super impressive, but according to Lonely Planet also has the best sound-and-light show in Egypt - I'm expecting greatness!