Egypt - week 2

Luxor

After the peace of our felucca journey on the Nile, Luxor was intense. 85% of Luxor's revenues come from tourists so you get hassled here quite a bit (although not as much as in Cairo, I'm told). First afternoon, I had a bit of a scare in an internet cafe when I thought I was being locked in, but I came to no harm and had a protector/saviour in a 12 year old boy named Karim :).

That first evening we went to see Luxor temple, went for dinner & then hit the silver markets for which Luxor is well known.



The Egyptian soccer team was playing that evening so all along the streets, TVs were set up on chairs/stools with lots of people crowded around shouting at the screen. When Egypt scored (what turned out to be) the winning goal, the proprietor of the shop we were in, ran out into the street to celebrate and when he returned, he made presents to all of us in the shop of silver Ankh charms (Ankh is the symbol of the Key of Life).



While in Luxor, we also visited the Valley of the Kings & the Valley of the Workers. The Valley of the Workers contained the village & burial sites of all the workers who lived & died while digging the Valley of the Kings' tombs. It was incredible (if a bit claustrophobic) to see the 5,000 year old paintings in the tombs that looked as fresh as if painted yesterday.

Our last morning in Luxor we spent at Karnak Temple which is enormous. We had a fantastic guide who told us the stories, scandals & intrigues surrounding some of the more famous & infamous Pharoahs of the time. I really enjoyed this temple.



After Karnak, we loaded our bags onto our bus for the 4 hour journey to Hurghada to meet the ferry to take us to the Sinai peninsula. When we got to Hurghada we found out the ferry was cancelled due to rough sea conditions so we had to board an overnight coach to Dahab. I didnt mind, it was good practice for South America (not to mention the return journey to Cairo!).

Dahab

Oh Dahab, Dahab, Dahab - I LOVED Dahab. After the few frenetic days in Luxor, Dahab was a really welcome oasis of calm & relaxation - with VERY little hassle on the street from vendors.
Dahab is a couple of hours north of Sharm-el-Sheikh on the Red Sea coast. There is plenty of diving to be done here, but if, like me, you are a land rat :) there's plenty of other stuff to do. Gorging yourself on yummy seafood, banana pancakes & milkshakes while sitting beside a fire reading a book, being one.

Mt. Sinai

2nd night in Dahab, most of our group opted to climb Mt. Sinai. I'm going to be lazy here & plagiarise Cayley's description of the night (which is spot on): "We woke at 11pm and drove two hours to the base of Mt Sinai to retrace Moses' footsteps. Battling the freezing cold we trekked in the pitch dark to an Arabic dance music soundtrack courtesy of our local guide. But it was worth it to see the magical sunrise! It was great to see a holy site that is significant to Christian, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim religions."

Snorkelling...

...is not for me! OK, maybe I'll give it one more try somewhere else..but next time I'll make sure to start in shallow water and not over a Blue Hole...
Last day of the organised tour, our tour leader arranged a jeep to take us out to the Blue Hole. A ramshackle, boneshaking, no suspension jeep seemed like a strange choice...until we suddenly left the paved road and took off across the edge of the desert following the coast to get to the Blue Hole site. It's not far at all from Dahab (less than 30 mins), but it really is a rollercoaster ride across rough ground, the only transport apart from jeeps like ours, are camels!

The Blue Hole is really close to the beach, you walk out along a little jetty, jump into the water and it's there below you! I could snorkel (technically) but I didnt relax enough to stop hyperventilating each time I put my face in the water. Looking into a yawning blue-&-getting-darker-into-deep-dark-black-nothingness chasm didnt help matters either, so I contented myself with sunbathing, feeding a camel water from a bottle & contemplating how lucky I was to still be alive :) while the others continued on their quest to see a tiger/lion fish (cant remember the correct name) or sharks (yeah, thinking of sharks didnt help me much in the water either).

Rock-Climbing

Originally I read about rock climbing in Jordan, but didnt have the time to go there to climb without sacrificing some of my Egyptian itinerary, which I decided I didnt want to do, so after some google searching I found Desert Divers in Dahab http://www.desert-divers.com/ and booked with them. I'm really glad I did it, it was great to get to do some climbing outdoors in warm weather, and it's one more thing ticked off the to-do list! I signed up for the 2 day beginner's rock climbing course.

Jenny was my instructor and was fantastically patient, kind, encouraging & entertaining all in one. We climbed different crags each day. Each day, I met Jenny & our driver, Mohammed at Desert Divers office and off we drove to Wadi Gnai. Mohammed was also our cook and would serve up the most amazing tahini I've ever had with warm pitas cooked over a fire in the desert while we climbed. The first day I found difficult, but by the end of the 2nd I was loving it and wished I had booked another day. Rock climbing is in its infancy on the Sinai peninsula, but Jenny is always mapping new crags & new routes, and I do not hesitate to recommed her services.