Days 100-103: Dahab/Mt. Sinai

From Luxor we drove to Hurghada (the Las Vegas of Egypt?) for a short night and caught a plane early the next morning to Sharm el Sheikh airport where we then took another van to Dhahab. Dhahab used to be known as a backpacker beach stop, but it is becoming more or a diving resort similar to Sharm el Sheik. Due to shark attacks, Sharm had prohibited swimming so we were lucky to be in Dhahab. We went snorkeling at the Blue Hole one day, no sharks, but lots of other fish. One day we also went to Mt. Sinai for a 7km hike up to the top for the sunset.

Beach and Red Sea in front of our hotel in Dhahab.

The pool at our hotel. We were fortunate to have good weather during our stay. After we left, Egypt experienced severe rain and sand storms.

At the beginning of our trip to Mt. Sinai, we stopped at St. Catherine's Monastary. It was built on the spot where Moses saw the burning bush. According to the monks, this bush on the left is a "descendent" of the original bush. We did not see it burn.

St. Catherine's at the foot of Mt. Sinai was built around 520 AD.

St. Catherine's again.

Following our guide on Mt. Sinai. It took about 4 hours to hike up and 3 to hike back down in the dark.

Our guide at a rock from which Moses supposedly produced water for the exiles.

A couple of houses in a village on the side of Mt. Sinai.

The village had several of these animals in pens around the village for food. We never learned its name, but we think it is a hyrax. The Kiwis with us called them Dessies?

Some people, lazy ones, take camels up the mountain instead of hiking. 

View from the top once we finally reached it. It is 2285 meters high.

Us at the top. It was very cold in the desert.

There is a small Greek Orthodox chapel at the top.

At the top waiting for sunset.

Sunset. Our pictures do not really capture it very well.

The next day we went snorkeling at the Blue Hole, which has a large coral reef and lots of fish. Unfortunately, most of the coral is dead. There were a few brilliant patches, but based on the number of Russians we saw walking on the coral reef in surf shoes, these will be dead soon too. Egypt is not doing a very good job protecting the reef.

There were a lot of camels wandering around without any riders at the dive site as well, but they stayed off the coral at least.

Dhahab was a nice and relaxing break. From here we head to Jordan.

Days 93-99: Cairo, Luxor & Hurghada

After packing up in Instanbul, we headed to the airport to head to Cairo. Unfortunately our 12:30 flight  didn't end up taking off until 8:30 due to the smog in Cairo. We had decided to join up with a tour group to see Egypt and Jordan so we had a couple free days before meeting them. We spent some time walking around Cairo and visited the Indian embassy and consulate in an attempt to get an Indian visa. Unfortunately it takes a couple of days to process so hopefully we'll be able to get the visa once we get to Israel.


After meeting up with the group, which consisted of us and one other couple (Australian) at this point, we headed to Giza where we saw the pyramids. I was surprised at how large they really were. Next, we climbed on some camels for a short ride and a nice photo op. We also got to go inside one of the smaller pyramids. We climbed down a long ramp with a very low ceiling and ended up in a fairly small room packed with lots of other tourist. It was very hot and stuffy and there was not a lot to see.

The Great Pyramid. The largest of the three.

One of the other pyramids. At the top the smooth stones are still there. The whole pyramid was covered by these stones.

The three pyramids.

Fun on a camel.

The sphinx

Another view of the sphinx.

After our trip to the pyramids, we visited the Cairo Museum and saw lots of mummies and artifacts. We also got to see many of the items that were found in King Tut's tomb. His tomb was the only king's tomb that was found with all of the gold and posessions still inside.


That night we boarded the night train to Luxor where we would meet up with the rest of the group. The train we took did not have sleeper cars, but large reclining seats. It was not the best night's sleep I've gotten but it wasn't that bad.


In Luxor we met up with ten more people. We took an interesting sunset ride on the Nile in a falucca. There wasn't a lot of wind so the ride involved a lot of pulling along the side of boats that were docked on the side of the river. That night we visited the Luxor Temple. It was neat to see it in the dark with lots of lights shining on all of the columns and statues.

Trying to find some darkness on the night train. Also it was quite cold.

Mountain that contains the Valley of the Kings from our falucca ride.

The kid that was helping our falucca driver.

Due to the lack of wind, this was how we made our way up the Nile.

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple

The next day we headed to the west bank of Luxor and went to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Workers. The old kingdom put their tombs in pyramids in Cairo but the new kingdom, in Luxor, decided it was not a good idea to advertise where you were putting the mummies and their treasure. Rather than building pyramids, they dug tombs into the mountain and hid the entrances. These tombs were full of carvings and paintings. Our guide was great about explaining what the different scenes meant. Unfortunately, they do not allow cameras inside the tombs so we don't have any pictures of those. On the other side of the mountain was the Valley of the Workers. The workers who dug the kings' tombs were not allowed to leave the mountain area for fear that they would tell where the tombs were located. So on their days off they dug their own tombs in the area that they lived. Their tombs were much shorter but the paintings were very impressive.


After visiting the tombs, we climbed on some donkeys and took a ride around a village on the west bank. Riding the donkeys was lots of fun and it was really neat to see how the people live.

The walls of the city remaining at the Valley of the Workers.

Agamemnon statues. The Greek name stuck.

Riding donkeys around the west bank of Luxor.

The following morning we visited the Karnak Temple, also in Luxor.

Statues of Ra, the sun god.

Carvings on one of the columns.

There was a queen, Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt for a while and I won't go into her long drama, but after she was knocked out of power they destroyed everything that had her name or image on it. They did not what to destroy this scene so they just chissled her out of it.

Todd decided to shave. Egypt is pretty hot and beard tan lines are not cute.

After the temple, we all climbed into the mini bus for a five hour ride to Hurghada. We aren't really doing anything in Hurghada, just spending the night before we catch a plane to Dahab in the morning. Usually the tour group uses the fast ferries to cross the Red Sea, but they are currently not running. After my last ferry experience, I'll gladly take a flight over a ferry.

Istanbul, Not Constantinople: Days 89-92

Istanbul is an interesting city with lots to see. We spent one day visiting the Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. Another day we visited the Topkapi Palace, the Spice Bazaar, and wandered around the area near the Galata Bridge. Our last day in Istanbul we visited a hamami (Turkish Bath) for an intersting experience and visited the Basilica Cistern.

 

 Hagia Sofia. From 360 to the 1400s, it was a Christian cathedral, then a mosque until 1935 when Attaturk declared it would be a museum.

Hagia Sofia

Hagia Sofia mosaic

Hagia Sofia ceiling. The windows were meant to make it appear as though the dome is floating above the building.

Coronation spot located inside Hagia Sofia.

In the Hagia Sofia there is a marble column that is known as the "sweating stone" because there is a hole where water droplets form. The belief is that if you stick your thumb in the hole and twist it around your wish will come true.

While we were there, the Prime Minister's wife was visiting. Her tour guide explained and demonstrated but she was not about to be seen sticking her thumb into any holes.

View from the second floor.

Viking grafiti on the marble railing of the second floor. Apparently, vikings at one time served as guards of the building.

Another view of the Hagia Sofia without our heads in the way.

The Blue Mosque

 

Inside the Blue Mosque.

The sign at the entrance of the Blue Mosque asked that visitors remove their shoes and that females cover their head, shoulders and legs. I came prepared. I was suprised by the number of women that did not cover their heads; they supplied cloth at the door if you hadn't brought your own.

Another view of the inside.

Gate to the Topkapi Palace. Official residence for the Ottoman sultans beginning in the 14th century.

First couryard in the Topkapi Palace.

View of the Asian side of Turkey from the palace.

Istanbul from the Galata Bridge. The bridge was full of fishermen.

Another view from the bridge.

Dinner on the main street, Istanbul's version of Mexican food.

Our day at the hamami was an interesting experience. We started by doing a little research online and managed to find one that was mixed gender that people really liked. When we arrived, we were shown to a room and given clothing to change into. (Since it is co-ed, it is not completely nude.) Todd's was a cute plaid towel to wrap. Mine consisted of a pair of shorts and a bikini top made of the plaid fabic. There were photos taken but they will not be making it onto the blog. We were then given wooden clogs, which were a little tricky to walk on, especially on wet marble floors. We were lead into the hot room where we could relax on a marble platform and sweat. It was very relaxing and we were sweating a lot. After 30-40 minutes of sweating two guys came in to scrub and massage us. The scrub was VERY exfolliating. To rinse you off they threw buckets of water over your head. There were a couple times where I couldn't get a breath in between buckets and I thought I might inhale water. Next they instructed us to lay on marble tables for our massage. It was a very vigorous massage. After more rinsing we were lead back to the marble platform where we were invited to stay as long as we wanted. After a few minutes we decided we had sweat enough and were ready to head to a cooler room so we headed to the drying room. Here you change out of your wet plaid clothing and are wrapped in a specific way in the white and yellow towels you see in the picture above. Next we went to the warm room  and relaxed and attempted to cool down with some water and Turkish tea. It was definitely an interesting experience and I'm glad we went.

After the hamami we went to the Basilica Cistern built in the 6th century, which was quite impressive. (For those of you who watch the Bachelorette, this is the place where Ali had dinner when they walked out to the platform through the water with all the fish in it.) It is large enough to hold 100,000 tons of water.

Another view inside the cistern.

One of two Medusa heads at the base of a pillar. No one is sure why they were used or why one is upside down and one is on its side.

This is the peacock feather pillar. None if the other pillars are decorated like this. 

We really enjoyed Istanbul and wish we could have visited more cities in Turkey.

 Next we are headed to Cairo.