Honeymooners

Salaam 'alaykum Friends and Family,
We're at it again. Once more we find ourselves on the other side of the world enjoying the latest foreign discovery and cultural enlightenment. In case you didn't know, our current destination is the mystical land of Egypt. Kendra and I are now almost 2 weeks into our honeymoon and loving every minute of it.

On our way to Cairo we had the chance to meet up with our old friends from our Tibet trip last year, Karl and Petra in Vienna. We had one overnight stop there, and a great evening catching up. They put us up for the night, took us around the town to enjoy some local culture (an open air opera playing on a big screen at the Vienna town hall), and even fed us before we settled down to play some cards. We went to bed that night after being awake nearly 40 hours.

On Monday we finally arrived in Cairo, and were welcomed to the heat, the haggling, and the chaotic streets of this big city. As this is our honeymoon, I surprised Kendra when we pulled up to the Nile Hilton in central Cairo for our stay. Unfortunately for us the jet lag was a killer this time. In our 1-1/2 days in Cairo we only made it out of the hotel long enough to take a mandatory visit to the Cairo Egyptian museum. The museum is a huge place, chock and block full of artifacts, statues, sculptures, and even several royal mummies.


A view of the Egyptian Museum from our Hotel.

On Wednesday we were off to the famous Nile city of Luxor where we would begin a life of luxury. Little did I know at the time of booking the trip but the Oberoi Philae cruise boat was actually one of the best on the Nile. When we arrived in Luxor we were picked up by a private car that took us to the boat. Once there the manager introduced himself and showed us to our cabin with our own private balcony overlooking the Nile. Once on board everything was all inclusive except drinks, they had a pool on the top deck, a bar, a lounge, and a restaurant, all of which were in immaculate shape. They took care of everything for us including arranging a guide to visit all the temples and sites along the way. The food was amazing, the attention to detail was amazing and the Nile was amazing. We were to be on this floating palace for 7 days/ 6 nights, and couldn't be happier.


The sun deck on the Oberoi Philae

Our days on the boat consisted of several hours of cruising and several hours visiting the Egyptian temples along the way. Our guide kept us entertained and well informed wherever we went. He would show us the famous aspects of each temple but also less famous ones and we were always given time to explore by ourselves, which is much appreciated as I hate being herded around from one thing to the next. For those of you who are interested we visited several temples including, Dendara, Karnak, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, The Temple of Hatshepsut, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Philae. We also saw an ancient quarry where unfinished sculptures can still be seen, and enjoyed a ride in one of the many felucca boats on the Nile. All of this was in a 200km corridor along the Nile. The history of the temples were mind boggling, some from 3700 BC, others from Alexander the Greats time, and others still as late as 300 AD. The size of these temples was equally mind boggling, huge obelisks, walls and columns are everywhere. Several of these temples I had never heard of and was literally in shock as we approached them. Shocking still is the fact that most of these temples, especially the tombs of the, Valley of the Kings, which had all originally been beautifully painted still retained their colors! In some cases after over 3000 years! Amazing!


The outer wall of the Temple of Dendara.


Some of the massive columns in the Hypostytle Hall at the Temple of Karnak.


One of the few remaining statues of the Pharaoh Tutankhamum, otherwise known as
"King Tut", at the temple of Karnak,

While the history of this place borders on surreal, so equally does the beauty of its landscape. The Nile is truly a life giving artery to the people of Egypt. Except for only a few small oasis' in the Western Desert, all of the settlements in the interior of Egypt are on the Nile. Of all the land in this country only 5 percent is actually habitable year round. The scenes of the Nile valley is one of stark contrasts. The dry beige desert cliffs and sand dunes are the backdrop to lush green trees and fields of maize, bananas, cotton, and fruit. Then comes the dark blue of the river and the mud huts of the villages. From our balcony or the top deck we spent hours watching as life on the Nile slowly drifted by.

We have now left our palace and spent a night in Aswan. As an adder to our trip on the Nile we also took a day trip to one last temple that could easily be called the greatest, Abu Simbel. With that we completed our historical Egypt trip and will now start our diving Egypt trip. Later today we take a tourist convoy (the only way for tourists to travel overland in Egypt) to the Red Sea where yet another boat awaits us, this time for a dive adventure to some of the worlds renown coral reefs.



See you soon,
Mike and Kendra