Walk like an Egyptian...

Egypt, home of the one of the 7 Wonders of the World and thousands of other monuments, was one of the most morose places I have ever seen. My friends and I realized that we were no longer on “vacation” after walking out into the 115 degree heat and riding on a bus through garbage covered streets.

Although an immense amount of information was learned in the other ports visited up to this point, our Egyptian experience was the first time we began to feel complete culture shock.

Thank goodness I signed up for a planned “excursion” that lasted the duration of the 5 days we spent in Egypt. Navigating in a taxi or train in this country seemed unfeasible and dangerous.

The first day of our trip I rode on a bus with other SASers from Alexandria (where our ship was ported) to Cairo, where we would see the Great Pyramids. For three hours, we drove through desert land where unfinished houses were scattered amongst palm trees, more garbage, and sand.

-To explain the unfinished houses: Our wonderful tour guide Vivienne informed us that because of the rampant poverty in Egypt, homeowners leave their houses unfinished in order to avoid paying property taxes that they would otherwise pay if their house was finished. I can count on one hand the amount of finished houses I saw in all of Cairo..

In Cairo, we visited many tombs, monuments and finally, the Great Pyramids. Seeing the Pyramids was spectacular. We woke up at 3:00 in the morning, grabbed a box breakfast and sat on a sand dune as we watched the sun rise up over the Pyramids. Many pictures were taken as we were all in awe of such beauty. At this moment I remember thinking… I have never been more sure of my faith in God than at this very moment… As soon as the sun had risen, several of us went on camel rides.. This was a blast! To my amusement, trotting on a camel is actually much easier than on a horse. After falling off, my riding partner learned it was a lot higher up as well.

After seeing the Pyramids and the Cairo Museum of History, we took a Nile River Cruise, where we ate lunch and watched belly dancers perform.. I’m going to have to guess the men on the cruise enjoyed it more than all of us girls. …. They got belly dancers. We got a whirling dervish.. You’d think they would cater a little more to the audience majority.. haha! Oh well…

The next morning, we took a short plane ride to Luxor. Luxor is home to the Valley of Kings. Here we went inside King Ramses VI, and King Tutankhamen’s tombs as well as a few others. Inside King Tutankhamen’s tomb, there lay his actual mummified body, which was only about five feet long and very well preserved by a preservation technique that has still not been completely replicated by today’s top scientists and doctors. Pretty cool.

Back to the ship for class….. See you in Morocco!