Temple of Kom Ombo, Temple of Edfu, and Gala New Year's Eve Dinner

Each evening on the boat, you get the schedule of stops for the following day -- although, the schedule can change. So while we thought we would get up early and see the Temple of Kom Ombo before breakfast, the schedule was mercifully altered to accommodate a 7am wake-up call followed by breakfast and an 8am departure for our visit to the Temple. While we have our own guide on this boat, most of the other guests are going with their own guide/groups to see the same things. A few guests, who had been on the boat for four days prior to our embarkation, had already seen the temples on their way down from Luxor and are now just relaxing on the return trip to Luxor.

Aside from the other guests on our boat going to visit Kom Ombu this morning, there were about six other cruise boats docked either next to us or nearby. Since there are so many cruise boats operating on the Nile, the unusual thing is that they often need to dock themselves to one another instead of to shore. For example, yesterday when we boarded our boat, we actually walked through the reception areas of two other boats before we reached ours. We were the third and last boat of this group. Fortunately for us, our room faced out to the Nile on the side that was not attached to a boat so we enjoyed a wonderful view all afternoon before setting sail at 8pm. When we woke up this morning, the opposite was true. We were on the inside, so out our window, we were looking into the window of another boat. It didn’t really matter since we were getting off anyway.

Not a happy camper

Again, Avery could not be persuaded to eat anything at breakfast, but he also could not be persuaded to stay behind and watch a movie in the room.

Needless to say, it was crowded at Kom Ombu. This was really the first time we felt there were too many people around to really enjoy a monument. Kom Ombu is unique as a Temple because it is divided into two halves each for worshiping a different god. One half is devoted to Sobek, symbolized by the crocodile head, he is the god of the desert and storms and evil. The other half is for worshiping Horus the Senior, symbolized by the falcon’s head, he is the good god and represents kindness. We learned how to read the cartouches and at the hieroglyphics for the days, months and seasons of the year. After visiting the temple and seeing the Nilo-meter (each temple has one that measures the water level of the Nile), Montaser took us to see a typical dwelling of the indigenous people. Unfortunately, Avery and Josh missed this part having to return to the boat, but the girls first enjoyed seeing the stable and petting the baby goats. There was also a camel, a donkey and a horse. Then, we saw the home made of mud with an open courtyard – always with a tree. Montaser showed us the bedroom of the house as well as the living area and dining and cooking area. I thought it was fascinating to see how these people are living. Everything is made of natural materials. The beds, chairs and tables are made of date tree reeds. There were guava and mandarin trees around. A very primitive life, but close to nature.

Before heading back to the boat, there was a hard sell on a batch of bracelets. Avery commented “why are they always chasing you if they want to give you something?” You’ve got to love a kid’s perspective!

Yesterday, Josh successfully purchased two bracelets made of Camel bone for me. Montaser gave us the best advice about buying things: determine what you want to pay; offer it to the vendor; if he begins to bargain with you offer him your price again; then walk away; the vendor will sell you the item at your price. He told us if you move one inch off your original price, the haggling never stops. Having a guide is also useful for understanding the value of things. He told me the bracelets usually sell for between 25 and 30 Egyptian pounds. While the vendor started at 60 pounds, he sold it to us for 25 just as we were getting on the boat to leave the Temple.

Once back on the boat, everyone was overzealous about changing into bathing suits in order to go swimming at the pool on the sundeck. As it turns out, the sundeck is fairly windy as we are sailing –although still very pleasant in the sun -- not exactly swimsuit temperature. And, the pool water again was very cold. Once again there were no swimmers. We lounged around for a few hours before lunch and compared notes with our new Italian friends from the night before.

We had lunch on board before disembarking at Edfu to visit the Edfu Temple. All of a sudden, Avery was back! He had not had much of a fever the night before and it seems it took him the morning to regain his hunger. At lunchtime, he wanted fish and pasta – I hoped it would work out down the line. When we disembarked, we took a horse-drawn carriage though the town of Edfu to get to the Temple located about 2 km away. Josh took the girls, and our guide took Avery and I in a second carriage. Avery was super excited about going with the horse and sat in carriage with me. The girls, on the other hand, sat up with the driver in order to “steer” the horse. It looked like a lot of fun until, upon arrival; I heard that the horse had kicked some dung back on to their legs. Fortunately, both were wearing long pants.

The Temple of Edfu is the most well-preserved temple in all of Egypt. It is dedicated to Horus the God of Protection, symbolized with the falcon’s head with the double hat (different than his father, Horus the Senior that we saw in Kom Ombu with the single hat). When the Temple was discovered in 1860, the original altarpiece – the wooden ship – was still there. Today, it sits in the Louvre and a replica is in its place in Edfu. Every god had it’s own wooden ship on the altar in the temples. But before arriving at the altar, the Temple, the largest we’ve seen thus far, was magnificent to behold. Just in the outer courtyard alone, there are 38 incredible pillars. The amazing thing about all the temples is that every square inch is covered with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics and cartouches. Nothing is left undecorated. This temple was built during a span of 180 years from 237 BC to 57 BC. It was completely Greek and not at all from the Roman period. Again, the Christians used the Temple later and in one of the structures dedicated to childbirth they desecrated the bas-reliefs because they were a tribute to paganism.

Avery whined and was beside-himself tired for most of the visit to Edfu with the exception of the horse and carriage ride to and from the Temple. On the return trip, he wanted to drive the horse the same way his sisters had earlier. His cute little face showed he was taking it all in. I thought he was really enjoying himself. Once back on the boat, he collapsed into what turned in to a 4 ½ hour nap. Afterall, it’s New Year’s Eve, so we want to manage to stay up until midnight…

We all got ready for the Gala dinner. At first the girls were shy, but eventually they wore the beaded headdress we purchased for them the day before. Tonight, instead of a buffet, we had a seated six-course dinner. I expected Avery to feel well and refreshed after his long nap. Instead he complained of a tummy ache and threw up on the dinner table right after the second course! He hadn’t eaten either of the first two, so this was lunch we were seeing. I guess we were too lenient allowing him to eat fish and pasta, but it had been three days since he’d eaten much of anything. The staff was kind and changed our table linens while I took Avery upstairs to change his clothes. He said he felt better after he had vomited and while he didn’t eat anything, he didn’t want to miss participating in the festivities.

One thing about travelling in a Muslim country is that you can’t expect to have good wine (still or sparking) from a culture that doesn’t drink. I knew this to be the case, but it was New Year’s Eve and so I thought I might give a glass of wine a try – we’d already taken a pass on the $60 bottle of Egyptian champagne (There was a French champagne option for $240 but I know for a fact that it sells for $12 in the States). Well, unfortunately, the wine lived up to my expectations. Beer is bubbly, right?

During dinner, the drummers and the kitchen staff came out and started dancing with the waiters. They, in turn, solicited several guests and pretty soon, most of the diners were up on their feet dancing to the beat. Despite very poor English skills (although they may have been better in French or Italian), the cruise staff couldn’t have been nicer – from the waiters to the receptionist to the cleaning staff, they were all extremely congenial men. I specify men, because there were no women working on board. In fact, we didn’t see any women housekeepers during our stay in Cairo either – all men. The reason, as it was explained to me, is that Muslim women are not allowed to spend an evening away from their home.

After dinner, we all went up to the disco for the entertainment portion of the evening. The belly dancer came on around 10:30. As part of her program, she brought guests up to the dance floor for a sort of private lesson in public. It had already been established that our girls were dancers, so of course they had a turn. But then she got her hands on a reluctant Josh and that was fun to watch. Actually, watching anyone try to belly dance is fun! After the program, everyone just danced the night away at the disco. Josh was tired; Avery was clearly still not himself and didn’t want to dance with me; so I enjoyed dancing with the girls. But they were the stars of the show. When it was time to put Avery to bed, another guest volunteered to keep an eye on them. They were having a ball ripping it up.

The nice thing about this boat is that it is relatively small. There are only 65 cabins, so after a day or two of seeing the same folks it’s easy to get to know people. Also, we can let the kids loose on the boat because they can’t get too far.

Avery fell asleep a while before midnight, with Josh alongside him. But just as the clock struck, Josh joined the girls and me in the disco to ring in 2010. Then we went to the sundeck to see the lights of Esna, the town in which we’d docked for dinner, and to enjoy some fresh air. Now that we’d successfully partied into the New Year, it was time to retire. This was a little tougher to do with the disco thumping below us, but we managed.

Philae Temple; and sailing ?

We started our day in a much better mood than the prior one - all of us except Avery that is. He had had a high fever during the night, and was still listless. We had received a message the night before from Grandma Dale, so Josh figured out how to get on-line (which was not a straightforward operation) and called her using Skype on his laptop. We used the opportunity to also call my parents and get advice from my Dad on how to treat Avery’s condition.

Charlotte and Olivia slept soundly. Charlotte liked the hotel – the Iberotel Aswan – a lot and didn’t want to check out. But right after breakfast, we did. We met another representative from our tour company (remember, I must have scared off the guy that met us at the train station) and we also met our new guide for the next four days, Montaser. He said to call him Monty and I liked him right away. He immediately told me that calls had been made to the boat and the hotel in Luxor and everything was squared away as far as having an extra bed was concerned.

Our first stop was to the pharmacy. It was clean and well-ordered and the pharmacist was extremely nice. We bought the Antinal that was recommended by our tour operator and by our guide: syrup for Avery, tablets for Josh. These cost five Egyptian pounds each, or less than a dollar. Getting Avery to take the yellow, chalky fluid was another matter.

After the brief stop at the pharmacy, we went to visit the granite quarry of Aswan. This is the quarry that most of the granite in all of Egypt came from to decorate the temples and to carve the statuettes that were worshiped and then buried with their owners. It is also the quarry that is known for having the “unfinished obelisk,” an obelisk that would have been 42 meters high – the tallest in the world, had they not discovered a crack in the granite. At least that’s the story --- it could have just been that the project was too ambitious. In any case, there was a massive amount of red granite all around and it was fun to hike and walk up to the top – except for the fact that one of us had to carry Avery. At the conclusion of the visit, we walked through a mini-souk to get back to our van. Several Egyptian men were complimenting Josh on his beautiful family and calling out after Charlotte, yelling “how many camels??” In other words, how many camels do you want for her! We stopped to talk with a spice merchant who gave us an olfactory tour of his market. We even smelled burning frankincense.

Next, we drove to see the Aswan high dam. It was constructed from 1960 to 1971 as a joint project with the Russians. It is about 4 km across and 111 meters high and about 1km wide at the base. On the other side of the dam is Lake Nasser, the largest man made lake in the world. It was really beautiful because it was pristine. The water was clear, and the mountains of the desert served as a backdrop. No one was on the lake, and there are currently no inhabitants on this side of the dam. The Nubians who are the indigenous people to this area of Egypt, were relocated North of the Dam during the construction of the High Dam because once complete, their homes would be submerged. Nowadays, the Nubians are making a bid to move back to the area surrounding Lake Nasser. But, since there are now 3 million Nubians it would be too expensive for the Egyptian Government to relocate them. Nubia had not been a part of Egypt in ancient times but rather was incorporated in 1914 as part of the British occupancy during WWI when the border was drawn between Egypt and Sudan.

Philae

Hieroglyphics at Philae

Our final stop on the tour this morning was to visit the Philae Temple. By this point, Avery stayed in car with the driver and slept (although not as willingly as in Cairo). The four of us took a short boat ride with Montaser to the island of Ajelika. Like the Nubian people, 14 monuments were relocated due to the construction of the High Dam. The Philae Temple is one of them – it had originally stood 




on Philae Island, the majority of which is now submerged in the Nile. The temple was magnificent but it was not built in the ancient period, rather it dates back to the 1^st or 2^nd century AD – so it is from the Roman and Greek periods. It’s position on the water afforded great views. Due to the seasonal flooding of the Nile, for centuries, half of the temple was under water for six months of the year, and we could see the different color in sandstone half way up the monument. Montaser gave us a great overview of the architecture of the Temple and the meaning behind many of the bas reliefs. This temple is dedicated to Isis, the God of maternity and fertility, but is unique in that it had three altar rooms instead of just one. Isis is is the wife fo the God Osiris and mother of the God Horus. All three are honored in the sanctuary. Later, the temple was used by the Christians and he pointed out where the crosses were added.

After visiting Philae, we went to check in for our Nile cruise. Interesting, there was some discussion in Arabic about the voucher (as I would have suspected) but Montaser straightened it out. He is a great guy and really goes the extra mile. The boat itself is one of the newest sailing the Nile. The rooms are very nice – better than I expected. Montaser took care of everything for us and we just went to lunch. Avery was still not eating. In fact, he just lay down on my lap on the banquet bench.

After we had a chance to settle in, went to sail on felucca – the ancient, wooden sail boats used by the Nubians. The kids were all looking forward to it. The only problem was there was not too much wind, so we were barely moving. The tour around Elephentine and Kitchener’s island that was supposed to take 45 minutes to an hour, took almost two – and we didn’t even go all the way around. While we were “sailing” Olivia was bored and had the idea of playing charades. That was fun for a while until Avery announced he had to poop. Given his circumstances, I thought this was an emergency situation and that Josh would have to hold him over the edge of the boat. This prompted the decision to abort our tour AROUND the island and just double back to shore. Josh and our Nubian captain ended up rowing us back most of the way. The rowing is not done with paddles but rather with sticks so the traction per reach was minimal. In the end, we had a motorboat tow us in. Montaser explained that there is rarely any wind on this part of the Nile. So why, I asked, is the felucca sailing done at all when everyone needs to get towed. The reply: it’s traditional and everyone wants to do it. Egyptian commercialism at its best!

On the Falucca, prior to Avery's poop

Back on the cruise boat (where Avery was afforded the use of a proper toilet) we all rested before dinner. We are to be seated at the same table for each meal for the duration of our cruise. Yet, we already noticed that this cruise has a very international crowd. There is a group of 30 Italians; there are also two French groups; we saw Australians and New Zealanders too; not many Americans. Altogether, I believe the boat accommodates a little over 100 people and given that this is a New Year’s Cruise, it is completely full.

Avery wouldn’t eat much at dinner either but I did force-feed him a little rice. After dinner, we met a nice Italian family with two boys from Napoli. We met just outside the boat’s shop where they were buying traditional Galabaya outfits for the Gala Dinner tomorrow night. Our girls fell in love with the beaded hats – Olivia chose a red one with gold accents and Charlotte chose a green one. It was almost 10pm and time for bed. Unfortunately, our rooms, while on the upper-most deck, were also located just above the disco. I think it’s the first time Olivia and Charlotte slept with earplugs.

Arrival in Aswan

To say we were anxious to get off the train would be a major understatement. Of course, we were late in arriving. This was no Eurostar train. While the trip was to have been non-stop to Luxor and then on to Aswan, I noticed the train made many more stops throughout the night and into the morning. Apparently, no one was getting on or off, but the train had to stop either for other trains or due to switching tracks or some other technical reason. We left an hour and a half late from Cairo and we arrived a little more than two hours late in to Aswan at about 11:30am. During the morning hours, I watched the country go by and I did find that the area along the Nile in Upper Egypt was beautiful: fertile fields, animals working the fields with the farmers, acre upon acre of palm trees. Really a lovely view. Now, if only the train window were clean...

The minute we were out on the curb in Aswan with our luggage, we knew we would like Aswan more than Cairo. This was the kind of town we preferred: local color, manageable, with clean air, and not too crowded. Our local rep. escorted us to the van that literally drove three minutes down the road to our hotel. We chose the Iberotel, which had only opened half a year ago. It was huge with marble everywhere. As we were checking in, I mentioned to our rep. that I noticed that the cruise voucher listed only four people and since we were five, I wanted to make sure we would have a bed for Avery. He assured me in a very “don’t worry, be happy” kind of way that we would. We went up to our rooms and guess what – no extra bed even here (despite the hotel voucher listing the five of us). I phoned the front desk and asked for a rollaway. They were all out of rollaways. To make a long story short, we moved rooms. The hotel manager upgraded us into larger rooms, both with sofa beds and balconies over-looking the Nile and the Tombs of Aswan. The manager personally showed us the rooms and then had water and sweets sent up. Very nice. He also informed me that while the handwritten voucher listed the “extra bed,” our tour company had not booked our reservation that way. Needless to say, I made it clear to the rep. (who was still waiting in the lobby) that I did not expect to have the same issue with either of the subsequent accommodations the tour company had booked for us. I think I scared him because the next morning another guy from the company showed up to introduce us to our guide.

We all needed the day to recover from the train ride. Josh said he was pretending last night never happened and he did not want to speak of it ever again. We lounged by the pool all afternoon. Unfortunately, the water temperature was very cold. In fact, it was so cold that the girls didn’t even want to swim -- strange since the air temperature was at least 80 or 90 degrees. But the temps here drop significantly at night so in that case if the pool isn’t heated it can’t ever get too warm. The pool was located right on the Nile with great views of the tombs on the West bank. The same beautiful view we enjoyed later for dinner from our balconies.

The town of Aswan is situated on the East bank of the river. There are no bridges so the only way to cross is by boat. The river is full of feluccas (crude wooden sailboats) ferreting tourists around as well as small motorboats, and of course, the larger river cruise boats – similar to the one we’d be embarking tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Avery did not appear to be bouncing back from his illness. While he hadn’t vomited since the first half of the train ride, he was listless, tired and developed a high fever. He felt much better on ibuprofen, but as soon as it wore off (3 to 4 hours) he was miserable. He slept most of the afternoon and it was clear he was not a candidate to go out on the town in Aswan. However, I did manage to get him a haircut. He was overdue, and his fever made it clear that with the upcoming heat, the long hair would not be comfortable. He was okay for the first 10 minutes in the chair and then for the next 10 minutes he cried to go back to the room. I thought it’d be fun to document the year by all the places that Avery got his hair cut. Recall, his last visit to the paruccherie was in Santa Maria di Leuca in Puglia where he got an unbelievable haircut for eight euros. Here in Aswan, he was less fortunate, not only was he sick, but he received a haphazard haircut. I knew the minute the hairdresser picked up the scissors and cut the first locks, that the scissors were old and dull and therefore very imprecise. Good thing hair grows; and we can get it shaped up more nicely in Italy.

Unlike Avery, the girls were ready to hit the town – particularly after spotting the bowling alley next door to the hotel. So I stayed in the room with Avery and Josh took the girls bowling. Apparently, it was a tiny, four-lane bowling alley, and they were the only “rollers” in the place. When the bowlers returned. I learned that Olivia was upset by Josh’s performance when he bowled for her and got his only gutter ball. In fact, she had a fit. It seems our children are more competitive than I thought. In any case, I had ordered room service and we ate out on the balcony. Avery was asleep in the other room. Or so we thought, until a naked boy in his underpants came strolling down the hall and found us next door. I will say, though, that the cup-o-noodles that we’d purchased back at the Mall in Cairo did come in handy!

This evening there was a large wedding at the hotel. An American Pakastani boy marrying an Egyptian girl -- or the other way around, depending on who you asked. They put on quite a show in the lobby with dancers and drummers and singing and everyone could join in and dance. It was really very fun to watch and to see all the colorful outfits and hennas on the women.

The Egyptian Museum and the Train Station

We had a leisurely morning. The kids swam. Charlotte actually worked out after we bought a pair of (used) goggles from a staffer at the pool (Charlotte had forgotten her cap and goggles in Rome). I spent much of the morning re-packing and organizing our clothing for the coming days. 

After a quick lunch, we met our guide and headed to the Egyptian Museum. There are many things to see at the Museum, but in my mind, there are two highlights.


1. The Mummy Room – seeing the real thing was spooky and cool at the same time, especially knowing that these are the bodies of several former Pharohs of Egypt including Ramses II, Amenhotep I, and Thutmes III.

2. The treasures of the Tomb of Tutankhamen. This Pharoh’s tomb was discovered in 1922 by a British archeologist named Howard Carter. This is the only reason Tutankhamen is well-known – because his tomb was discovered in tact. Otherwise, he rose to the throne at the age of 9 and died when he was 18, so he didn’t really do too much for Egypt. But the seven-kilo, solid golden mask that fit over his mummy, and then one after another of the golden coffins that were used to bury him were fascinating and beautiful to see. In all, they excavated 200 kilos of gold from his tomb.

Otherwise, we were struck by the same sentiment at the Egyptian Museum as that of the Citadel yesterday. It seems a shame that the Egyptians do not maintain their treasures better. The Museum was dusty and dingy inside. It was also poorly lit although that could be intentional. But the glass boxes that held the mummies were dusty. This is a real problem in Cairo – perhaps because the weather is so dry, it’s near a dessert, and there is a lot of pollution, dust is a permanent fixture of the landscape.

After our tour of the Museum during which Avery whined incessantly and wanted to be carried, we piled into the van for an outing to the big Cairo Mall that our guide kept referring to as Carrefoure because the grocery store is the anchor tenant. It was the driver’s idea to give us something to do before we had to turn up at the train station for our 9pm train. Avery immediately fell asleep in the van, so when we arrived at the Mall we left him in the car with the driver. The girls were in heaven and said the trip to the Mall was the highlight of the day. The Mall had all the American stores: Claire’s, Nike, Sunglass Hut, and STARBUCKS. It’s actually the first Starbucks we’ve seen since we moved abroad. It was clear, however, that we were the only “foreigners” here because Muslim women do not wear shorts! Charlotte was the only “woman” baring her legs, and it did cause quite a few stares and giggles. I’m not sure if Charlotte would have noticed, but Josh had to point it out to her. Then, she was mad at me for having selected her outfit. The girls decided to have an appetizer at Baskin Robbins and then we shopped for snacks at the Carrefoure. We anticipated that we may need to supplement (replace) the train dinner with recognizable foods.

Well, as it turns out, worrying about what we’ll have for dinner was the least of our problems. As soon as we returned to the van, Avery woke up, said his tummy hurt, and then he vomited. For the next round, I was prepared with the waste-basket – and there were several more rounds in the car. Then, when we arrived at the train station, we waited a while for our tour representative. In the meantime, Avery vomited again while standing outside the van. When our rep. arrived, he helped us with our luggage and we entered the train station. Once on the train platform (and there is only one) the track was empty and our rep. announced that we would wait here for one hour until 9:30 for our train. Standing around on a disgusting (and that is putting it mildly) train platform with a sick child for an hour – could he please be joking! If the train would not be here for another hour, I asked why we couldn’t just wait in the van so that Avery could lie down. Well, the van already left for another job. The rep. led us to the “waiting room” where I wouldn’t set foot even if there were a seat to be had. I couldn’t believe our tour company would knowingly have us arrive early to spend time in this dump, let alone when our 4-year old was sick. The driver knew he was sick and so did the rep. as soon as he arrived. And yet, they knowingly led us into the train station to stand around. Apparently, our meet and greet rep. has no common sense. How could we have known when we left the van that a) the train wasn’t already at the station (we thought it originated in Cairo --which it does but it comes from a garage into this station) b) that the trains always run late and c) that the facility we were about to enter would not nearly be suitable for humankind. Josh took Avery to the toilet – it was literally a shit hole – and Avery took a pass. The kid with diarrhea took one look and said he’d wait for the train!

I made my displeasure known. I let loose over the phone to the head of the tour company. Then, we found a place to sit in the cafeteria, and waited for the train which rolled into the station at 10:15pm! During this delightful 2 hours, I discovered that there are three sleeping trains to Aswan each night, and we were booked on the latest one. Again, why would we want to go later if given the choice? Apparently the earlier trains were booked. I was beginning to get the picture that the tour operator keeps a lot of information close to the vest and often, you get the information after it’s too late to use it.

We did meet a nice Pakistani family from Boston at the station; three out of four boys had gone to Harvard and one just graduated from Harvard Medical School. He gave us some advice about how to care for Avery.

Sumptuous train cabin

Once the train arrived, it was a fire drill getting on. People were pushing and shoving and tossing luggage in a panic as if train would roll off without them (maybe it would, at this point, I guess anything is possible here). On board, I believe everyone, with the exception of Josh (either that or he didn’t let on) was shocked when we entered our cabins. Did I mention they have a cleanliness issue in Egypt? The train man who was assigned to our car couldn’t have been nicer – he recently spent a year in Columbus, Ohio where his wife still remains (didn’t explore that) and loves Americans, of which we were the only ones in our car. In fact, we were the only caucasians.

Avery sick in "bed'

I don’t know exactly how many more times Avery was ill during the night. I shared a bed with him and Olivia slept in the bunk above us. Josh and Charlotte were in the adjoining cabin. Josh relieved me and took Avery at about 4am. I don’t know how many times Josh went back and forth to the toilet with Olivia or Avery throughout the night but he was getting sick from it. As you might imagine the toilets were not particularly appealing – and thank God we had wipies!! I do know that I only found one cockroach in my bed, and it was dead. So I guess it could have been worse? Actually, I can’t imagine. Oh, and did I mention it was a 14 hour train ride?

Coptic Cairo - The Citadel, The Hanging Church and Ben Ezra Synagogue!

Did I mention they have a pollution problem in this city? This morning, we couldn’t even see out our window it was so smoggy. I’m glad we didn’t upgrade to the Pyramid view rooms (??) since we wouldn’t have been able to see them anyway. Also, Mahmoud told us that the traffic on Friday (the Muslim Sabbath) and Saturday would be lighter than the rest of the week and today it was easy to see what he was talking about. It was crazy out there; it makes living in Rome feel like you’re in the wilderness of Montana.

We started by visiting the Citadel of Saladin– the fortress built to protect ancient Cairo from the Crusaders. Just after we entered, the girls needed to use the toilet. I haven't gotten in to this yet, but going to the toilet in Egypt is a strategic operation. If at all possible, you want to use the bathroom in your hotel; a restaurant that looks to be clean and of reasonable quality might be a good second choice; public toilets, whether inside of a tourist destination or not, rank a distant third -- you never know what you're going to get. In all cases, you must be prepared with some coins for the attendant. The job of a toilet attendant covers a wide spectrum of work (or not) in Egypt. At the hotel, the attendant actually keeps the bathroom clean and may even hand you a towel as you are washing your hands. The public toilet attendant may hand you a square (and I mean one square) of toilet paper after you give her some cash, or she may just ask for the money to allow you inside and you have to come up with your own means of cleaning up after yourself. The cleanliness of these facilities ranges from just plain dirty to disgusting and hardly usable. On this particular day, there were three Muslim lady attendants in the toilet at the Citadel. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a squat hole with poop on the sides and 10 being a marble clad hotel bathroom, this toilet would rate a 4. That is to say, it was dirty but not uninhabitable. The reason the experience was notable is because the ladies were having their breakfast -- right there inside the stinky, smelly toilet, while handing out toilet paper squares. Given my travels, I may not have paid particular attention to this fact, but Charlotte and Olivia did. Charlotte could not get over the hygienic issues involved and the fact that the food was just laid out right there on a dirty toilet stool. Oh, and they chewed their food with their mouths open.

Inside the Citadel is the Citadel Mosque. It was the first time we saw men “renting” shoe covers so people wouldn’t have to take their shoes off to enter. Yesterday, we were offered shoe covers at the Ibn Tulun Mosque because the courtyard was outside and thus dirty. But today, we figured we’d just take our shoes off as we’d done at the other two Mosques yesterday. Big Mistake. The courtyard floor was damp and dirty and our feet were immediately black – still better than the bottoms of Josh’s socks. Good thing I’d brought “wipies” so we could take the 15 min necessary after the tour to clean our feet. Perhaps our feet were just a metaphor for the feeling you get in Cairo. My advice to any future traveler would be – don’t bring anything white. It won’t be white inside an hour. The reality is that the Citadel and the Mosque were disappointing. There were some beautiful aspects to the Mosque – that is true – and it is certainly looks majestic from the outside, but it doesn’t appear to be properly cared for. Just outside the Mosque, the courtyard was barren and dirty. I was surprised the Egyptians wouldn’t have wanted to plant a few flowers, or trees, or just beautify the place in some manner given the number of tourists who come through. The Mosque was built in the 1800’s so it is relatively new. It really helps put in perspective the gorgeous Italian basilicas and cathedrals we’ve seen that were built a dozen centuries earlier.

Next, we drove to the center of Coptic Cairo – the area of all religions. There are churches, mosques and even a synagogue all side by side. The Hanging Church is famous for the way in which it was built above two ancient Roman towers. Inside, it was quaint but not particularly impressive. The main street and the one below where the Ben Ezra Synagogue was located were probably two of the nicest streets we’d seen in Cairo. By nice I mean relatively peaceful pedestrian only zones lined with trees. Upon entering the Synagogue it was startling to see the Hebrew letters in the midst of this chaotic Arabic city. Apparently there are several other synagogues in the city as well.

We waited a while for our driver to pick us up as he was praying in the noon prayer. After he arrived, we drove to the Khan El Kalili market. There, a bodyguard joined us to walk through the souk. He was a kind man, wore a suit and his English was good. He even negotiated the purchase of a wooden snake for Avery. The girls each picked out a bracelet. At 5 Egyptian pounds, it wasn’t worth haggling. Per our request, our guard directed us to the spice market. I honestly couldn’t imagine purchasing anything that you put in your mouth from any of the stalls. The spices were out in the open and it was certainly easy for our kids to stick their hands in the buckets; I can only imagine what else finds its way in there. Still the scents were wonderful.

The kids were getting hungry and our bodyguard directed us to the falafel stand recommended by our guide. It looked very grimy but we gave it a shot and ordered two sandwiches – for 2 ½ Egyptian pounds! That’s less than 50cents for two sandwiches. This was the real Egypt. Well, it turns out this was the best falafel we’d ever tasted and Josh went back to buy four more sandwiches. The falafel man gave him five and Josh gave one to our bodyguard. The falafel man was so nice he even gave me some grilled eggplant that I noticed – for free. Egyptian people are generous and nice.

We went around the corner to meet our guide, sit down and eat our sandwiches and have a cup of tea. It’s embarrassing that the six falafel sandwiches we enjoyed cost little over a dollar, and yet at the bar around the corner we paid $3 for each tea!! Josh actually thought the waiter made a mistake on the bill. This is the disparity that is Egypt – the difference between what the locals pay and what the tourists are charged.

It was time to drive back to our hotel. I wondered before the outset of our trip why the tours were scheduled for five or six hours each even though we were taking it slow and only seeing a few things each day. Well, now I understand. It’s the traffic. It takes an hour to go 10km. Olivia was insisting that we return to the hotel by 3pm – we were about 20 minutes late – so she would have enough time to swim.

When asked, she said swimming was her most favorite part of the day. As for Charlotte, when asked if she’d like to live in Cairo, she responded with a resounding “no.” Hopefully, it’s interesting for the kids too, to see how other people in the world live. Josh too, in sharing his thoughts with me, said something along the lines of “this place is a shit hole; it makes Mexico look like Switzerland.” It’s hard to disagree.

Guess where we ate dinner? Felfela. By this night, there were complaints all around on the tummy front. Josh was still eating rice although he added a little chicken. Olivia was looking a bit pallid and stuck to scrambled eggs for dinner. Charlotte was not hungry and was having a digestive issue so she ordered lentil soup. Avery was complaining – maybe because everyone else was – but stuck to his desire to have a hamburger. I was the only one still slugging away at hummus, an eggplant dish called Metemphil (sp?) that I’d discovered, and shish kebob. In any case Felfela had it all, and fit the bill for everyone. Olivia wanted to “retire” the minute she’d finished her eggs, and Avery, with half a burger left was ready to go too. So Josh took them back to the hotel to bed and I stayed with Charlotte to finish our meals. We even shared a dessert.

Islamic Cairo

Today we were off to see the real Cairo – the dirty, gritty, messy Cairo…and the Mosques. First, we visited the El Rifai Mosque. This Mosque is not famous because its old – it was not completed until 1912; it’s not famous due to its original architecture – it was built to copy the Mamluk style Mosque directly next to it, the 14^th century Mosque of Sultan Hassan; it is famous because famous people are buried inside.

We were very lucky in that we had the whole place to ourselves. Not a single other soul was visiting at the time we were there. Too bad Avery decided he wanted to wait in the car with the driver. He would have had a field day running around in his bare feet on the Mosque carpets – all 7000 square meters of it. We walked around and then Mahmoud talked to us about the Muslim religion and the five pillars of Islam including the call to pray five times a day. He also explained that a Muslim man could take up to five wives...but not "purely for pleasure." After the first wife, he could only take on additional wives if it is helpful in some way. For instance, if a woman is widowed and has children to raise, or if a woman is poor and he can support her. Sounds like a load of crap to me!

Next, we drove to Ibn Tulun Mosque which was built in 876 AD and is the oldest original Mosque in Cairo (there is one that is older but it has essentially been rebuilt). This Mosque was very different in that it had an enormous outdoor courtyard in the center around the well where Muslims wash before prayer. This Mosque is also famous because it was the first to use the “six-sided” arches – and there are many of them – which were later copied by Gothic architects. We also climbed up to the top of the minaret where the call to prayer historically came from (nowadays they use microphones). Next door to the Mosque we visited the Gayer Anderson Museum. Gayer Anderson was a British doctor who bought the two homes next to the Mosque that had been connected by the previous owner – a Greek woman. He collected antiquities displayed his collection in his home. He lived there from 1935 to 1942 with special permission from the Egyptian government and it was actually interesting to see a wealthy home in Cairo from that period. Scenes from the James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me were shot in the ceremonial reception hall and the rooftop terrace. The home also had a safe room where the tour guide hid Charlotte then asked Olivia and Avery to find her!

Finally, we visited a popular working Mosque called Al-Azhar that also serves as one of the largest Islamic schools in Cairo. It was built in 972AD and has been a teaching institute since 975AD making it the “oldest university in the world.” We arrived just as the noon prayer was concluding. This Mosque also had an internal courtyard but this time covered in marble stone.

By this point, the kids were done with Mosques; it was time for lunch. Today, we went for an elegant lunch in the Al-Azhar park. The outdoor restaurant had a magnificent view of the Citadel and of parts of Cairo. We ate buffet style – which is always an easy way to feed the kids – but this buffet was unbelievable. There were a dozen different appetizers and salads. There were another dozen entrees offered, delicious hot pita bread, and then a sweet table with two dozen varieties of desserts, both hot and cold. Do you think we overate?

After lunch we walked around the beautiful park before returning to the hotel for a swim. Josh had already been on the brink and the lunch put him over the edge. Let’s just say he ate white rice for dinner. Actually, we ate at a Mexican themed restaurant in the hotel – the first time we’d had Mexican food since arriving on this side of the pond.

Cairo is a late night town. People go out to eat at 9, 10 and 11pm. Establishments are often open until 2am. We felt like wimps limping up to bed at 8pm, but oh well…I had a sick husband and three kids who need their sleep – make that four!