long term travel

Meeting the man of the forest in Borneo

November 27, 2012 Malaysia

After exploring the underwater world off the coast of Borneo for three days, we were ready to discover the natural wonders of the jungle.  Our first stop was the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre where orphaned Orangutans are rescued and then nurtured to maturity in a 23 sq km protected area at the edge of the Kabili Sepilok Forest Reserve.  Each year many adult organ utans are killed because of illegal logging and deforestation activities, leaving their young offspring to die.  Others have been illegally caught and kept as pets.  Today, there are about 25 young orphaned oOrangutans living at the centre in addition to those living freely in the reserve. The centre is open to tourists who visit during the twice daily feeding times in order to catch a glimpse of these adorable creatures.

It was an easy 4.5 hour bus ride from Semporna to Sepilok Junction where the bus deposited us on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. We had been told it was a 3 km walk to our hostel (Sepilok Jungle Resort) which was next to the Centre, but if we were lucky, a car might offer us a lift for a few ringgits.  Luck was definitely on our side that morning.  Not only did the torrential rain stop as soon as we were dropped off, but a car approached us within minutes to offer us a ride.

We had two nights booked at the Sepilok Jungle Resort which allowed us a full day to visit the Centre and the nearby Rainforest Discovery Centre.  After reading mixed reviews about this resort, we were pleasantly surprised with our very spacious, comfortable room tucked amidst a lovely, tropical garden setting.  It turns out we were staying at the more posh end of the resort with prices to match.  The other end offers up basic, hostel-like accommodations at more reasonable rates.  At $50 CAD per night for a large double room with ensuite, we were paying about double the rate of our other accommodations in Malaysia.  But it was worth every penny!  The hotel restaurant served up tasty, reasonably priced meals too.  There was a very inviting pool which unfortunately we didn’t have time to use.

By the time we arrived at the resort, I was feeling sick again.  My sore throat had returned with a vengeance and my energy was very low.  I pushed myself since we only had the one day to visit the Orangutans and I didn’t want to miss it because of a stupid cold.  The Centre cannot guarantee that visitors will see Orangutans because they really are living in the wild and may or may not choose to visit the feeding platform for some free bananas.  The day of our visit, they were out in full force, including a huge male who rarely comes to the platform.  Apparently, he’s looking for a mate, so he has been showing up about once a month lately.  In the afternoon, another male, much smaller than the one we saw in the morning, found himself a female to his liking, and mated her right there and then as we all watched in amazement.

Before the feedings began, I had a close encounter with a group of long tailed macaque monkeys.  After walking ahead beyond the feeding platform towards the exit, a dozen or so monkeys appeared on the railings about a hundred feet away from me.  I was alone and to my astonishment, they all started walking towards me, pausing and staring at me with as much curiosity towards me as I had for them.  I got a little nervous when a large male stopped beside me and glared with piercing eyes, baring his teeth like he meant business.  There was really nowhere for me to go because I was surrounded by them, so I carefully avoided eye contact and stood still to let him pass; after all, these monkeys are wild and have been known to be aggressive, especially if they feel threatened.  I got some great video footage which you can see at the end of this post.

In between feedings, we walked to the Rainforest Discovery Centre  about a kilometre away. While this environmental education centre is geared towards teachers and students, it is open to everyone. Their mission is to create public awareness and appreciation for the importance of conserving forests, as well as the sustainable use of forest resources. Arriving in the middle of the day, when it was stinking hot guaranteed we would see no animals.  They were all taking a siesta which we should have done too.  The only animal we saw was a long tailed squirrel, which looked exactly like a squirrel in Canada, except it had a long tail.  Even though we didn’t see any wildlife or birds or flowers for that matter, we did enjoy the 300 m long canopy walkway, which was 25 m above the forest floor, giving us a great perspective of the rainforest from above. There is a vast network of many kilometres of well kept trails throughout the rainforest too. The dense forest canopy kept us surprisingly dry when it poured rain a few times during our visit.

The highlight of our day were the Orangutans, which we saw again at the afternoon feeding back at the Rehabilitation Centre.  These endangered apes only live in Borneo and Sumatra so it was a real thrill to see them up close like we did.  Their numbers are declining because their habitat has decreased rapidly, mainly because of the conversion of large areas of the tropical forest to palm oil plantations.  Everywhere we went, we saw miles and miles of these plantations, visible reminders of the shrinking forest.  Sharing 96.4 % of our DNA, it’s not surprising that these apes act so human-like and are so endearing to us.  These gentle primates are highly intelligent and have the ability to reason and think.  In Malay, Orangutan means “man of the forest”, a fitting name, don’t you think?

Our next stop is at a jungle lodge on the Kinitabangan River where we will spend three days and 2 nights exploring the wildlife along the river banks and into the jungle interior.  We hope to see Orangutans in the wild as well as the funny looking proboscis monkeys. If we’re lucky, we might even spot a pygmy elephant.

Video:  The Man of the Jungle and a Troop of Macaques
 

An incident at the Giza pyramids

October 16, 2012 Egypt Middle East

As tensions flared, erupting into riots and demonstrations in Tehrir Square on Friday afternoon, we witnessed an incident at the pyramids in Giza that caught us off guard and made us realize how quickly situations can escalate and how important it is to stay alert to your surroundings and to avoid large gatherings of any kind.  I’ll tell you more about what happened later, but first let me share with you how we managed to have the most amazing experience at the most touristy attraction in Egypt.

There are 93 pyramids in Egypt, the three most famous being those in Giza, which is now a suburb of Cairo.  I had read about how there are condos and fast food restaurants right next to the pyramids so I guess I was expecting the worse.  It really isn’t as bad as that sounds as there is still a good buffer of desert around the site.

These are probably the most visited pyramids, maybe even the most visited tourist site in all of Egypt.  It is also a magnet for pushy Egyptians looking to make a buck off or rip off (depending on your perspective) tourists by hawking their cheap souvenirs, camel rides, horseback rides, as well as guide services.  When people talk about going to Giza, they often talk about their negative experience getting hassled and hustled which seems to overshadow the visit to the pyramids themselves. For this reason, many guide books recommend taking an organized tour so that you are somewhat buffered by these tenacious hawkers.

But we hate going in large tour groups and so did our new friend Felippe, a fellow long term traveller from Chile who we met at our hostel.  One evening, we talked about our respective plans to do the pyramids independently.  Felippe went the day before us and when we saw him that night, he looked exhausted and disappointed with what had transpired earlier.  “I am Chilean”, he said, “I should be able to deal with these hustlers, because Chile is full of them! But they got me, they got me good!”  He then shared his story with us.

He took the metro to the Giza station and then grabbed a taxi for the short ride to the Pyramids.  With plans to visit two other pyramid sites that day, he arranged for the taxi to wait for him. Instead of going to the entrance where you purchase your entry ticket, he was deposited on a side street where he was quickly accosted by tour operators and guides.  They told him all kinds of lies like you can’t visit the pyramids alone, it’s too far to walk so you need to hire a camel or horse, you need a guide, etc. etc.  He was duped into buying a “package” that included his entrance fee, a camel ride and a guide.  At 80 Euros, but he knew it was too much, but he felt trapped.  The whole experience left a bad taste in his mouth, although he was really happy to get his photo on a camel with the pyramids in the background – we all joked that it was one expensive photo.  He subsequently had some problems with his taxi driver who wanted to charge him more than the agreed price.  He ended up going to just one other site before calling it a day, completely exhausted and fed up with the whole hassle of it all.  It just wasn’t worth it.

So what were we going to do?  After much debate, we decided we would try it on our own as well, feeling a little bit more prepared with the knowledge of what happened to Felippe.  We figured we have been dealing with these hawkers for three weeks now, surely we could handle this.  Felippe had misgivings and gravely wished us the best of luck.  I promised him I would write our tale in the blog so he would know how it turned out – good or bad.  Here is our story.

Before I continue, I should warn you that you’ll need some time to read this tale as I do go on a bit.  I hope you don’t mind.  Maybe go and get a cup of coffee or tea, or go to the bathroom now, because this is probably one of my longest written posts to date.  Or you can just skip to the bottom to see the photos.  But I do hope you take the time to read our story as it was quite an experience to go through and maybe we can help others who, like us, want to see the pyramids on their own terms and not be held hostage by an organized tour, or worse, by the army of hawkers that have taken over the site.

As I mentioned in the last post, we unexpectedly had to leave our hostel on Friday morning, the morning we were planning to visit the pyramids.  We had already booked our flight to Dahab for Saturday morning, so we had to go to the pyramids that day, no matter what.  Our original plan was to take the metro and bus avoiding any taxi hassle. We did some research so we knew what bus number we needed.  I suspected the bus numbers might only be in Arabic, so I carefully wrote down the Arabic numbers (0-9) in my note book as reference.  The only thing I wasn’t sure about was if the numbers were to be read left to right or right to left.  We’d have to figure that out on the fly.

But all that changed when we switched hotels that morning. We flagged down a taxi in front of our hostel, and amazingly our taxi driver took us to our new hotel using the meter, directly and quickly.  Wow, a taxi driver you can trust.  Imagine that!  He didn’t speak a word of English so at the hotel, we had the desk clerk tell him to take us to the Giza Pyramids by meter.  He agreed so off we went.  We felt relaxed, confident that we had found perhaps the only honest taxi driver in Cairo.  What a nice feeling to be able to sit back and let our guard down because we didn’t have to worry about being scammed by our taxi driver. Then I noticed he passed the bridge that had a sign to the Giza pyramids.  Hmmmm…..that was weird.  Well, maybe there was more than one way to get there.  But as we were heading straight back downtown from where we had originally come, I started to get suspicious.  Remember our driver speaks no English, so it’s not like we could ask him where the hell he was going.  Finally, he pulls up to the “Pyramisio Hotel” which is nowhere close to the pyramids and points to it as if this is where we had asked to go.  Bullshit.  He knew we wanted to go to the pyramids.  This is such a classic taxi scam – taking you to the wrong address – I couldn’t believe this guy did this.  Well, there goes his tip!  Chris used his mad, firm voice and motioned with his hands that we want to go to the pyramids in Giza not this damn hotel.  Ohhh, he looked all surprised, as if to say, you mean THE pyramids.  So now our guard was back up and we were mad which actually served us well for what came next.

Our taxi was immediately accosted as we entered the road that lead to the entrance gate.  It is not uncommon for these unscrupulous characters to jump right into your cab, or block your passageway.  At the first onslaught, we locked our car doors, rolled up our windows, and yelled out of the front windows “La, la, la” (no, no, no) in really angry voices, and we motioned to our taxi driver not to stop, to keep going straight ahead.  I think we scared the shit out of him.  Then the next wave came up to us, and a guy with a bunch of horses tried to block our way, well we yelled even louder to everybody to get out of our way, and for our taxi driver to keep driving.  Amazingly, they cleared out and we proceeded to the gate.  We congratulated ourselves for getting to the ticket entrance relatively unscathed.  Our fare cost us 70 EGP (about $12 CAD) which included the ride to the hotel in the suburbs and the unnecessary detour to the Pyramisio Hotel which we figured cost us an extra 20 pounds.  Still, not too bad when you consider our hostel offered to arrange a car and driver to take us there and back for five times that amount (350 EGP).

Now that we had our tickets (60 EGP site entrance and 30 EGP tomb entrance each), we knew we would have to deal with another onslaught as soon as we passed through the entrance gate.  We had a simple strategy.  Ignore them.  Speak not a single word to them.  No smiles, no eye contact, act as if they did not exist.  This might seem extreme and pretty rude and really it is under normal circumstances.  But these were not normal circumstances.  You have to understand that these people will harass you for an hour if you let them, they just won’t leave you alone until they have worn you down so badly that you give in and buy something just to get rid of them.

Amazingly, our strategy worked.  I’m telling you, this was not for the faint of heart.  You had to be as ruthless as they were.  But after a couple of minutes trying to engage us, and being met with a wall of silence and a glazed over look that did not even acknowledge their presence, they quickly gave up and moved on to easier prey.

Now we could focus on the reason for being here.  The pyramids.  The first thing I noticed was how massive they were.  Up close, you can see how the stones were laid in perfect alignment and it boggles the mind as to how this was accomplished over 5,000 years ago.  There are three main pyramids and three smaller ones.

  • The most famous Pyramid in Egypt is the Great Pyramid of Khufu.  It is the biggest, tallest and most intact, and the only remaining one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  Until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, this Pyramid was the tallest building on earth, originally measuring 146.5 m high. Today it measures 137 m in height, the missing 9m were stolen by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century to build houses and mosques in Cairo.  The four sides face the four cardinal points precisely angled at 52 degrees. It contains around 1,300,000 blocks ranging in weight from 2.5 to 15 tons each.  It’s square base has sides measuring 230 m and covers 13 acres!  Like I said, it is huge.
  • Khafre’s Pyramid (the middle one) appears larger than the Great Pyramid but is is merely an illusion because it stands on a higher part of the plateau.  Today it is 134.5m tall (originally 136m) with sides equalling 214.5m, a surface area of 11 acres and an angle of 53 degrees.
  • The smallest of the three main pyramids was built by Khafre’s son, Menkaure.  It is relatively tiny, just 65.5m tall (today 62m), with sides equalling 105m angled at 51.3 degrees.  Unlike the other two pyramids which were constructed entirely of limestone, the first 15m of this one was built from pink granite which came all the way from Aswan.
  • The three small pyramids next to the Menkaure Pyramid are believed to have been built for Menkaure’s wife and children.
  • The Great Sphinx is probably one of the most recognizable constructions in history.  It was sculpted from soft sandstone and would probably have disappeared long ago if it hadn’t been buried in sand for so many long periods in its history.  The body is 60m long and 20m tall. It faces the rising sun and was so revered that a temple was built in front of it.

We walked around each of the pyramids getting a good, close view of each side.  Then we headed out into the desert where the tour buses were taking the tourists to see the pyramids from afar.  We continued to walk further into the desert, maybe half a kilometre from the pyramids, stopping on a hilltop that offered a magnificent view. Here I sat for over an hour marvelling at the panorama of these magnificent, iconic structures. I was completely alone (Chris was off taking photos). It was so peaceful far away from the crowds – no vendors, no tourists, just me and the pyramids.  The hot sun seared my back, but I felt cool and comfortable on the breezy hilltop.

At 11:30, the city of Cairo erupted into a symphony of prayer; it was time for the noon prayers which are broadcast over loud speakers from every mosque in the city.  I was surprised I could hear it in the distance.  It was as if the city was singing.  Here I was in one of the most touristic sites in Egypt enjoying complete solitude as I soaked in the magnificent view and atmosphere.  Nothing short of magical.  (Sorry Felippe, I’m sure you didn’t want to hear this!)

As we made our way towards the exit where we would see the infamous Sphinx, we became aware of a sudden change in our surroundings.  People were talking loudly in excited voices and there was tension in the air.  We looked around to see what could be the reason when a truck came barrelling towards us, the driver and passengers screaming at the top of their lungs.  As it passed, I turned to see a man lying on the back of the truck, his chest bloody red.  What the hell was that all about, we wondered.  Maybe someone fell off a camel or horse, I speculated.  But then, cars and horses with their carriages all started to turn around and come back up the hill.  We stopped in our tracks about half way down the hill, realizing something was terribly wrong at the bottom, about a couple of hundred feet ahead of us.  A police truck was lying overturned on its side, and a small car sat in ruins next to it.  What happened?  Was it a bomb? An accident? A terrorist attack? Another truck came screaming by, this one with two bodies on the back.  Were they injured or dead?  Without understanding the language, we had no idea what was going on.  Locals were running down the hill, some in tears, a large crowd gathering near the overturned vehicles.  There was screaming and yelling and as the crowd swelled, the noise escalated.  This was no place for us, so we quickly turned around and headed to safer ground where we could exit through the entrance.

As we left the area, we saw two police trucks arrive, full of police men.  Further on, we saw some police men getting kitted up in riot gear.  We still don’t know what happened as there was nothing reported on the news.  I must admit it shook me up a little.  This incident occurred suddenly and it was easy to see how one could find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It was a good reminder to be cautious and aware of one’s surroundings at all times.

We made our way back to our hotel via mini bus which we flagged down on the main road and metro for a total cost of 4 EGP, about 60 cents CAD.  Total cost for the day:  254 EGP or about $42 CAD.  What a great day visiting one of the greatest sites in the world!

Are you curious about how we are doing after one year of travel? I’ve written all about it – how we’re getting along, how we’re managing our money, what our plans are for the future and what are some of the biggest challenges facing us right now.  Read “Checking in at 12 months” located in the Travel Diary widget on the column to the left.  

 

Exploring Cairo, old and new

October 14, 2012 Egypt Middle East

With only three days at our disposal, we limited our explorations to the downtown core of Cairo and focused on a few of the most interesting and important sites.  We used the metro system when we ventured a little further afar and found it to be a reliable, safe, cheap and fast way to get around. One metro trip costs 1 EGP, or about 15 cents CAD.  The underground system is comparable to any similar system we have used in other cities with one very noticeable difference.  Each station has signs along the platform that say “Women Only”.   We puzzled over these signs and quickly learned what they meant when we entered a car full of women who cried out in unison – women, women.  Clearly, no men were allowed on the cars that stopped between the “Women Only” signs.  Ahhh, mystery solved!

During the day, the down town core is dirty, chaotic, and noisy with people busily going about their affairs.  But every night, the area is transformed into a festive, fun, almost carnival like atmosphere. At sunset, vendors start setting up stalls in the already crowded streets, selling everything imaginable.  The shops are illuminated like bright Christmas trees.  There are balloon vendors, and popcorn carts just like a country fair in Canada.  The people fill up the sidewalks, walking slowly from window display to window display, pausing to admire the goods.  The restaurants are abuzz with customers.  I loved walking around at night watching all the families going about their business.  We were never bothered or felt ill at ease.  People were friendly towards us, often saying “Welcome to Egypt” as we passed by. One night, we were approached by a young woman, a university student who was interviewing tourists to find out their experience in the down town area.  She wanted to know if we felt safe, if we were being harassed, etc.  We gladly answered her questions and she was so appreciative.  It did raise an interesting question though: where are all the tourists?  They are noticeably absent, yet we knew there are tourists around as we see busloads of them when we visit the tourist sites. I surmise they are probably cloistered away in their Western style hotels far away from the real Egyptian life. They are missing out on so much, in my opinion.

A papyrus paper making demonstration.

The Egyptian Museum

 The Egyptian Museum in down town Cairo is reputed to be have one of the best repositories of Egyptian antiquities in the world.  Now that we had visited the temples and tombs in Upper Egypt, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to view some of the treasures from that region, especially the infamous gold treasures from King Tut’s tomb.  They strictly enforced the “no camera” rule, so we have no photos to share.  But there are plenty on line if you are interested.

The museum is a relic in its own right, dating back to 1902.  The architecture is beautiful, with high ceilings and lofty spaces designed to showcase a plethora of antiquities.

The museum is filled to the rafters, yet apparently only a fraction of the 120,000 piece collection is on display.  Each item has been catalogued, yet most exhibits are not labelled which was frustrating at times. The labels that do exist, seemingly with no rhyme or reason, were small type-written notes on faded paper looking as old as the museum itself. All the display cases are the old-fashioned kind, the ones made of heavy wood with dusty glass shelves, relics of a bygone area.  Each cabinet is secured with a flimsy, rusted out lock. Many cabinets were simply secured with thin piece of twisted wire.  At least the treasures, including the stunning 11 kg solid gold death mask and the two innermost golden anthropoid coffins from King Tut’s tomb were segregated in a separate, highly secure room.  I found it quite incredible that the security was so minimal in a museum that housed such a vast collection of invaluable ancient artefacts.

The museum sure could use a good cleaning as most exhibits are buried under a thick layer of dust. Yet in spite of its tired, faded, old fashioned appearance, there was a charm to this unpretentious museum that made it a pleasure to explore.

The museum is vast; you could easily spend a day here if you had the stamina for it.  I personally get overloaded after about 3 hours in a museum.  After a couple of hours, we took a lunch break and then returned later in the afternoon for a couple more hours.  It was good to break it up this way and we had no problem re-entering the museum with our ticket.  We opted not to pay the extra 100 EGP per person to visit the Royal Mummies display.  They had plenty of other mummies on exhibit so I didn’t feel the need to see more.  Again, a quick google search will yield many photos of these mummies if you’re interested.

Old Cairo and the Coptic Museum

Old Cairo was known to the Greeks, Romans and early day Christians as Babylon, but this should not be confused with the Mesopotamian city of the same name.  This was the original fortified town around which the rest of the city grew.  It is now home to the Coptic community who form about 15 percent of Cairo’s population.  The “Copts” were one of the earliest peoples to adopt Christianity.

We found our way to this area by metro, our first venture using the underground system. Egyptians are very similar to South Americans in that they will give you directions even if they don’t have a clue where you are going.  They just want to be helpful. So it shouldn’t have surprised us when we were given wrong information, from the Information Desk no less.  After two wrong stops, we were finally directed to the correct station (Mari Girgiss in case you happen to be there) by a kind gentleman who took the initiative to help us out as we were puzzling over our map.  We knew we were in the right place by the groups of tourists milling about the streets.

To be honest, we had no intention of going to the Coptic Museum, but we were both desperate to use the bathroom and we knew the museum would have decent toilet facilities. Of course, after buying the admission ticket, we felt compelled to at least do a quick spin through.  Again, no cameras were allowed, so we have no photos to share.  This museum gives you an excellent idea as to what the interior of a 5th, 6th or 7th century church would have looked like.  The most prized collection is the “Nag Hammadi Codices”: 1,200 papyrus pages bound together as books – the earliest books with leather covers found to date.  These Coptic writings date to the 4th century and offer a rare insight to early Christianity.  We learned a lot about the early Coptic Christians and I was particularly interested to see how many of the practices and symbols from Egyptian mythology was adopted by those early day Christians, most notably the symbol that represented life to the Egyptians was transformed into a Coptic cross.

There are many churches, mosques and a synagogue clustered within the ancient walls of Old Cairo.  We followed alleyways (and the tour groups) to find our way around and explore these diverse religious centres. The whole area is steeped in history.  For example, the spring next to the Ben ‘Ezra Synagogue is supposedly where Mary stopped to wash Jesus, and where Pharoah’s daughter found baby Moses in the bullrushes.

The Citadel

On a hill overlooking Cairo sits the Saladin Citadel, a medieval Islamic fortification that has been well preserved to this day.  This complex houses the Mosque of Mohamed Ali, the Mosque of El-Nasser Mohamed, the Military Museum and the El-Gouhara Palace.

The location offered a fantastic view of Cairo which extended as far as they eye could see.  We could even see the Giza Pyramids in the far distance.

Many students of various ages were touring this site on the afternoon of our visit.  We were approached by a few groups who wanted to have their picture taken with us.  One group of female university students approached me while I was sitting on the Mosque floor just taking in the atmosphere.  One girl in particular spoke English quite fluently.  She approached me rather shyly and said hello.  She was very interested in where I came from and where I had been in Egypt and what I thought of her country.  There was no ulterior motive, she was genuinely interested in learning about me.  We have been engaged several times like this, usually by young people and it always leaves me with such a warm feeling.  These interchanges make me feel very welcome in this country.

Footnote:  A map on the wall of the Egyptian Museum indicated a room that contained the famous Rosetta Stone.  This unique ancient artefact provides the key to our modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs because the stone contains inscriptions of the same text in three different scripts: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Ancient Greek.

We weren’t exactly sure what we were looking for, in terms of size or shape but surely something of such historical importance would be prominently displayed and well labelled.  We scoured the room and verified the map twice. There was nothing to indicate which stone was the Rosetta Stone if it was there at all.  One stone, tucked away in the far corner of the room, had three distinct scripts inscribed on it.  This stone was displayed in a an upright position, in a very shabby wood case that resembled the photo below.  Did we find the Rosetta Stone or was it just a replica?

File:Rosetta Stone.JPG

Photo of the Rosetta Stone courtesy of Wikipedia.

A subsequent internet search indicates the Rosetta Stone has been a prized possession of the British Museum since 1802.  Yet some on-line descriptions of the Egyptian Museum state the Rosetta Stone resides there.  The official site for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo says nothing about the Rosetta Stone, so my money is on the British Museum, but that doesn’t explain the stone we did see. That remains a mystery!

Bed bugs – a blessing in Cairo

October 13, 2012 Egypt Middle East

My stomach tightened into a knot as we entered into the train station at 4:30 on Monday morning and  I saw the train that would take us to Cairo.  It was old, dirty, and marred with  cracked and broken windows.  The first class coach was marginally better, at least it had air conditioning and large, reclining seats, although it was still pretty grimy and grungy.  But when compared to the second class coach, I’m glad we splurged and paid the extra $10 CAD (total price per ticket: $21 CAD) for first class.  Most tourists travel this route at night on the sleeper train which costs more ($60 CAD + depending on what type of seat you purchase) and I was beginning to see why.  In fact, the day train has only recently become available to tourists.  In the past, it was limited to Egyptians only.

We weren’t alone for long…it filled up
pretty quickly as we stopped in every village along the way. 

The train left on time and 14 hours later we arrived on schedule in Cairo.  Those fourteen hours were spent bumping and swaying slowly along a rickety old track that snaked through the Nile Valley, stopping in every town along the way.  So much for being on the express route! The scenery was consistent and quite beautiful – men and women along with the odd donkey or two, manually labouring in their lush fields of corn, sugar cane, and cabbage.  There are two growing seasons for all crops in the Nile Valley, except sugar cane which takes a year to grow.  It looked like it was harvest and planting time.  The rural landscape was interrupted now and then by small villages, larger towns and a few cities which all looked very much the same as the towns we have already visited.  Surprisingly, we travelled in relative comfort – we even had food and beverage service of which we availed ourselves, at least for drinks.  We declined on the food as the canteen area looked pretty sketchy. There were a few precarious moments, though, when the train and the tracks did not seem to align and I was certain we were goners.  But, we got there in one piece, which is all that really matters at the end of the day.

Sadly, garbage is everywhere.

Before I tell you about Cairo, just a word or two about our weekend in Aswan.  We stayed at the Keylany Hostel which had very good Trip Advisor reviews.  I don’t know if it was because we had been spoiled on the luxury boat for five days, but we found this hostel to be quite grungy even though our room was adequate with comfortable and clean beds, and a usable bathroom.  It had an archaic air conditioner that was noisy as hell but it worked reliably.  We spent three nights here in spite of the grim surroundings.  The town of Aswan came alive at night in the bazaar which was just around the corner from our hostel.  But walking through the market was an exercise of determination to avoid all the shopkeepers who were very obnoxious and persistent, often blocking our way to try to force us into their shop.  We’re getting really good at ignoring these pesky irritants.

View from the front door of our hostel one morning.

A feast for under $10.

Food was a challenge in Aswan.  Our breakfast at the hostel was better than we expected – real filtered coffee, fresh fruit juice, fruit salad, Egyptian pancakes with jam, and toast.  Finding food for the rest of the day was difficult.  On Friday, their holy day, everything was closed and we resigned ourselves to lunch at KFC – yes, they have KFC in Aswan.  With a recommendation from our hostel, we reluctantly ate dinner at a rather grimy looking local restaurant in the market.  The food turned out to be plentiful and tasty and very cheap (about $6 CAD) and most importantly, we didn’t get sick afterwards.  The next day we ate at another restaurant that apparently is a historic icon in Aswan (why our hostel didn’t recommend it in the first place is beyond me) and it was much better in every respect albeit more expensive by Egyptian standards (a mere $10 CAD for the entire meal).

Although we had had our fill of temples this past week, we had already arranged a visit to Abu Simbel through the tour agency in Luxor.  This meant a ridiculously early morning start on Sunday, getting picked up at 3:15 am, spending the next hour picking up other people from different hotels, and then travelling in a very cramped, uncomfortable mini bus for 3 hours in order to get to the site by about 7:15 am.  The site was incredibly impressive, and certainly worth the visit.  The fact that this site had been completely relocated to higher ground in the 60’s when the High Dam was built made it all the more extraordinary.  They literally moved a mountain.

It took a couple of days to get our bearings in Cairo, it is such a huge, chaotic city.  As the capital of Egypt, it is the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and its metropolitan area is ranked 11th in the world with a population of 17.5 million spread over 453 square kilometers.  This is the largest city we have visited so far.

We stayed in the Milano Hostel located right in the down town core.   We were a little intimidated at first as we ventured out to explore our neighbourhood.  Everywhere you looked, the streets were clogged with cars and people, day and night.  In every direction, there was a constant gridlock, often bringing traffic to a standstill.  I don’t know how anybody gets anywhere in a car.  It takes nerves of steel to cross a street, when the traffic is moving that is – you must boldly walk into traffic and trust they will yield to you.  But if you dare hesitate, they don’t give you a second chance and you’re left stranded in the middle of the street as they go around you.  For a while, I waited for a local to step foot into the oncoming traffic and then trailed closely behind.  But we quickly got the hang of it and soon we were walking into 5 lanes of oncoming traffic without breaking a sweat.

There were no signs of protests or unrest while we were in Cairo until Friday (more about that later).  Our hostel was a 15 minute walk from Tehrir Square where all the recent demonstrations have taken place, including the one on Friday.  We feel very safe and comfortable walking around this area day and night.  The shopkeepers don’t even hassle us as they seem more interested in serving their local clientèle than bothering with us tourists. I even went shopping and bought myself a dress without any problems whatsoever.

It’s been a bit of a rigmarole with our hostel.  In spite of their best intentions to make us feel welcome and comfortable, we had problems with this hostel right from the start.  First, nobody met us at the train station as promised.  They did, however, pay for our taxi from the train station to the hostel.  When we finally arrived late on Monday night, we were given a room facing a busy street which was extremely noisy.  Add to this, the ensuite bathroom was ridiculously small, so small in fact that the shower hung over the sink and toilet.  We weren’t quite sure where you were supposed to stand to take the shower.  You could literally sit on the toilet, brush your teeth into the sink and have a shower all at the same time.  Seeing as we were planning to stay in Cairo for a week, we complained, something we rarely do.  We insisted on a better room or we would be going elsewhere.  The next day we were given a new room that was still quite noisy but it had a half decent bathroom, and they offered us a better breakfast after Chris complained about that too.  I have to give them credit for trying to make us feel comfortable and for addressing our concerns.  On our third day, they offered us an even better room which we gladly accepted only to find it infested with bed bugs – something we discovered after we had moved all our stuff over and spent the afternoon napping.  We quickly moved back to our old room which was bug-free as far as we could see.  In spite of these issues, there were positive things about this hostel that made it worth staying – the beds were very comfortable, we had modern, quiet air conditioning, and it was clean.  And it goes without saying that the location was excellent – walking distance to the Egyptian Museum and metro, plenty of restaurants around, and lots of shopping.

Imagine, with all the places we have stayed, this is the first encounter with bed bugs and luckily we saw them before they saw us, or so we thought.

I thought this was the end of the story, but there is more.  When I woke up on Friday morning I was covered in bites, that’s right, bed bugs! That was the last straw.  We packed up our bags and we were out of there first thing in the morning.  We took a taxi to a southern suburb (Maadi), where we found a room at the Hotel Pearl, thanks to a recommendation by Steve, the manager at Roots Camp where we were diving a few weeks ago.

Ironically, this was the day riots and demonstrations broke out down town, apparently right near  our hostel.  If we had still been staying there, we would have walked right into all the commotion later that afternoon when we returned from our trip to the Giza Pyramids.  We avoided the entire down town situation thanks to a bad case of bed bugs, but we did have our own excitement at the pyramids in Giza that day which I’ll tell you about later.