My Egyptian Adventure - May 2023

 (FYI. Many of the pictures have captions that you can read if you click on the picture. Also play the videos, they are fun!)

When we were diving with our dive shop in Cozumel in Oct we found out about a dive trip they were organizing to go dive the Red Sea in May of 2023. We were all in! It's a trip of a lifetime; 3 days in Cairo and 6 days in Sharm-El-Sheik with 4 days of diving in the Red Sea. After our experience in Mazatlan, Jim felt that the long plane trip and all the travel would be too stressful, so he opted not to go. I had to do a lot of soul searching but I decided to go with the group. Visiting Egypt has always been a dream and it did not disappoint!

On May 6th, after attending our granddaughter Kalyn's college graduation from the Business school at the University of Northern Colorado, I flew to London on British Airways. The flight was great, overnight to Heathrow, with 2 meals and free drinks. Quite a nice change from domestic flights. You barely get peanuts and sodas even flying to Mexico or the Caribbean. I got into Heathrow mid morning and I have to say, it was the strangest experience. When you have a connecting flight you don't go thru immigration or customs. You just scan your boarding pass multiple times and walk down miles of corridors to the departure area. This was a huge warehouse structure filled with hundreds (maybe thousands) of passengers and lined with endless high end retail stores and duty free shops. I'm surprised I didn't see a Maserati store! Very few restaurants or coffee venders. They did have a caviar and champagne bistro though. I found a pub and had a GREAT beer and settled down to wait. They don't announce your gate until an hour prior to departure. Of course my flight was delayed and I didn't get into Cairo until 1 am Monday morning. Overall my flight took 30 hours! (Pictures of Heathrow)

Cairo never sleeps. There was a lot of traffic and so many stores and restaurants open, even at that hour. Lots of lights and neon. I met up with Engin and Xime (pronounced Seme) for coffee and chocolate cake for breakfast at 2 pm. The group gradually assembled and I got to meet everyone. There were 13 of us all together. I needed to get Egyptian pounds at the bank across the street from our hotel. To do this I had to get help from the busboy at the hotel. This is because traffic never stops! There are no stoplights or crosswalks or lane markings. Crossing the street is like playing Frogger. I just held on to the bellboy's arm and prayed. Unfortunately, you have a repeat performance when you go back across! It was a terrifying experience.  

We went out to dinner at a Shawarma restaurant. It was our first experience with ordering unknown foods in an unknown language. The menu was in Arabic. We translated with Google lens and it sort of worked. One waitress spoke some English and we pretty much got what we ordered, LOL. A very interesting view from the restaurant was a group of stores across the street. There were 3-4 blocks of 2 story shops selling formals and bridal gowns, all right next each other, all lit up, all selling very similar dresses. It was a spectacular display. (Pictures of Cairo day 1)

There are an amazing variety of vehicles in Cairo, from horse drawn carts to the most decrepit VW buses; rusted, dented, missing parts, overloaded with riders! After they die they come to Cairo to be resurrected. And lots and lots and lots of scooters. We came to joke about the "music" of Cairo; horn honking.....all the time, everywhere. (Pictures of Cairo street scenes)

Tuesday we met up with our guide and drove to Giza across the Nile to visit the Saqqara Necropolis. There are over 11 pyramids/tombs including the Step Pyramid of Djoser, the 1st pyramid built in Egypt, built by Imhotep, one of the 1st architects in history. It was built around 2630 BCE. We were able to go into another one of the other pyramids, the Pharoah Teti. The entrance is a long steep stone hallway, with wood rungs across the floor to keep you from sliding down. It's also only about 4 1/2 feet tall so you have to crouch down while descending. Beautiful carvings and hieroglyphs on the walls. The paint on the carvings is the original paint, over 4000 years old! (Pictures of Teti's tomb)

Then we went to the Giza pyramid complex, with the Great Pyramid, King Khufu's, being the tallest. (481 feet). It's the oldest and last remaining of the original 7 world wonders.  The other pyramid is for his son King Khafre and the 3rd is for the grandson King Menkaure. They were built in the 4th dynasty, circa 2550 BC. We were able to go into the pyramid of Khafre. It still has part of the limestone cap at the top of the pyramid. Then we went to see the Sphinx. It was an amazing day and an incredible adventure! (Pictures of Khafre's Pyramid).

Tuesday night we took a Nile River dinner cruise complete with a belly dancer, lots more boobs than belly, and a whirling dervish. Everyone got into the dancing and the videos are great! (Pictures of the Nile Cruise)

Wednesday we started at the Cairo Museum. It's old and in disrepair in places but so, so incredible. They are building a new museum and most of King Tut's treasures have been moved there but it was still overwhelming and amazing. My pictures don't do it justice. (Pictures of the Cairo Museum).

Our next stop was an essential oils factory and then a papyrus museum. (Pictures of Cairo tour). After lunch we visited 2 ancient churches, The Hanging Church and the Cavern Church, where the Holy Family found refuge when they fled the Holy Land for Egypt during Herod's reign. The icons are so beautiful and so old. (Pictures of the churches.)

We finished off the day by visiting the Khan El Khalily bazaar. What an experience! (Pictures of the bazaar)

On Thursday we flew to Sharm El Sheik on the Red Sea. When we got to the terminal in Cairo we were reminded again that everyone smokes, everywhere. There was an actual smoking room in the departure area! The only problem was, they kept the door open so the smell went all over.  (Pictures of our hotel in Cairo). 

Next Blog: Sharm El Sheik