Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Some photos from Egypt

Here are some of our photos from Egypt. If you're on facebook, you may have already seen these and others. But for those of you who aren't (ahem, Paige), here they are.


Here we are on our first day in front of the Sphinx and the Pyramids in Cairo. It was crazy hot when we landed, 40C. Typical for March is between 25-30. The pyramids are right in Cairo, which is strange. In this photo we are standing right across the street from a jewelry shop, a Pizza Hut, and some souvenir stores.


After Cairo, we traveled to the south of Egypt where we took a Nile cruise. I was very surprised by how incredibly beautiful the Nile was. Here's a shot from the boat. We would typically sail in the afternoons and evenings. Most of our sight-seeing took place in the early morning before it got really hot.


Here is the ceiling of the one of the temples we visited. The black marks are from the torches of Christians who hid in the abandoned temples to escape Roman persecution. Unfortunately, they also defaced many of the temples. I was so impressed with how well-preserved the temples were after 4000 years. We don't have any photos but in the Valley of the Kings where the Pharaohs were buried, the paint on the walls is so vibrant it looks as though it was painted yesterday.


We traveled a bit by bus. We usually travelled in convoys and were always accompanied by guards with AK47s. They even checked under our buses with mirrors to check for bombs. Anyway, at one truck stop, there was a Bedouin woman who stood there with a baby goat riding on top of a donkey. I LOVE IT WHEN ANIMALS CATCH A RIDE ON OTHER ANIMALS! When I spotted her, I almost lost it. I think this was the most excited I was all trip. The donkey didn't like me and kept trying to walk away with its goat. The Bedouin woman also had an albino son, which was interesting. I wondered how they kept him from getting sun burnt.


Here we are riding our donkeys into the valley of the Kings. It was a very bumpy ride and as I wrote earlier, mine was crazy and ran off into traffic. It was a lot of fun and I giggled most of the way.


Our really enjoyed the end of our trip when we went to the Red Sea and Sinai peninsula. We did some snorkeling in the Red Sea, which was incredible. I got stung by a jellyfish while we were snorkeling. Kyle valiantly offered to pee on the sting but I declined.

On our last day we woke up at 1am to climb Mt. Sinai. We started from an ancient (but still working) monastery at the base of the mountain and climbed for three hours. The paths were filled with tourists, camels, and chanting pilgrims. We climbed in the dark with the help of Bedouin guides and flashlights. There were tea houses along the path where you could pull over for a cup of tea or a snack. We got to the top while it was still dark and watched an amazing sun rise. It was a fantastic way to end our time in Egypt.

2 comments:

The Dolskys said...

Wow! That sounds like an incredible trip. i especially appreciate the woman with the donkey riding goat and albino son. Very cool.
Tim

Paige said...

Thanks for the pictures! I'm so grateful that you accomodate (though still dislike) my hate-on for Facebook. Now THAT'S a true friend!

 
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