We landed in Sydney a little a head of schedule (yay!). As we got off the plane, we were hit by how cold it was. I think it might have been the coldest destination we'd experience on this trip so far (and Hobart was going to be worse...).
Filling out the customs forms on the plane was interesting. For once, we got to answer 'yes' to the 'have you been in Africa within the last 6 days' question. We had some packaged food (which we think didn't count), but answered 'yes' to the 'have you got any food' question as well.
The immigration guy asked about the Africa thing, and then said it was all good when we said it was just Egypt. We then went into customs. The guy asked us how we were. To which I replied "Good thanks, and yourself?" He seemed pleasantly surprised by my concern for him, as I would expect most people would barely acknowedge his existance after flying for so long. He asked us about the food we had and then let us go through. Customs can be cool! Sometimes...
We checked in our baggage for the next flight and made our way to Newtown to visit one of my mates (Craig). Turns out that there was some track maintenance for the train to the airport so we got a free bus to Central station. Win!
So we had a pleasant couple of hours with Craig, eating some breakfast, and drinking some smoothies. Afterwards, we whipped out the old hackie sack and had a hack. Despite hacking with old Chinese men, and Egyptian workers, it took me a while to get back into it. Sandra took this opportunity to snooze...
From Central, we took the free bus to the airport again (yay!) and waited for our flight home. To draw out the holiday for as long as possible, it turned out that the winds had picked up, and there was only one runway active. WTF. At this point, I was struggling to stay awake. So we found a quite corner at a gate (not the gate we needed, as that wasn't announced yet) and had a bit of a snooze.
The gate finally got announced, and after another twenty minute delay we got onto our plane. I love flights that are less than 4 hours. So this one was a dream. We arrived in Hobart to a welcoming 12 degrees... Aparently one of the coldest days in a while. Great.
But regardless, it was good to be home again. And so ends the Epic adventure of Sandra and Steve. We hope you all enjoyed our little online updates and forgive us when we tell you stories that we've already written about.
Cheers, Steve and Sandra
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Day 50
Today was our last day in Japan. So our first stop was obviously going to be the fish market! Sandra was keen on this place because it boasts some good food. Me, not eating fish, wasn't so keen on the food aspect.
We made our way to the area via the Metro and found the market. Although where we entered was truely just the fish trading section of the market. Heaps of people, stores that went on as far as you could see and heaps of fish. And despite how fishy it smelt from the outside, the inside seemed quite hygenic.
The workers there often used these strange trolly things to get around. Imagine a tray for placing goods on. Then imagine a drum barrel at the front that stored the engine stearing wheel. That's what these things looked like. The newer ones were electric, but the older ones were still fuel powered.
After some walking we found where all the food stores were. Although the problem is that the lines to get food from these places were massive. A little too massive. So we simply went on our way and got food elsewhere.
We walked up to Ginza. This place has a Sony building with a display area. I was expecting a little more from this, but is was cool enough to play around with. They had an Apple stored down the road as well. this place had a floor for demoing, a floor for signing up to contracts, a floor for public training sessions (like a lecture theatre), a floor for accessories, and a floor for private lessons. The eleveator looked cool, but was annoyingly an automatic elevator. i.e. it stopped as every floor and you couldn't choose which floor you wanted to go to. You could see the finger prints on the floor numbers where people (including myself) had thought they were the floor buttons and pressed them.
It was now time to make our way to the airport. So we went back to the hotel to grab our bags, and caught the train. Now that we had a bit of a clue about the train system, it was much easier to get out than it was to get in.
We had a fair amount of time to kill until our flight to Australia, so we spent it doing the regular time wasting stuff. We managed to use all of our Yen as well. To the stage where I had to haggle for the last drink. I had 109 yen, and the water was 115 yen. The lady wouldn't sell it to me, but said she would sell the milk which was 110 yen. For such a bargain, why wouldn't I get the milk?
The flight to Australia was going to be around 9 hours. And as always, I hardly slept. This was a little harder this time around as I was still recovering from a flight a few nights ago, and this one went over night. Luckily, there were new movies for me to watch!
We made our way to the area via the Metro and found the market. Although where we entered was truely just the fish trading section of the market. Heaps of people, stores that went on as far as you could see and heaps of fish. And despite how fishy it smelt from the outside, the inside seemed quite hygenic.
The workers there often used these strange trolly things to get around. Imagine a tray for placing goods on. Then imagine a drum barrel at the front that stored the engine stearing wheel. That's what these things looked like. The newer ones were electric, but the older ones were still fuel powered.
After some walking we found where all the food stores were. Although the problem is that the lines to get food from these places were massive. A little too massive. So we simply went on our way and got food elsewhere.
We walked up to Ginza. This place has a Sony building with a display area. I was expecting a little more from this, but is was cool enough to play around with. They had an Apple stored down the road as well. this place had a floor for demoing, a floor for signing up to contracts, a floor for public training sessions (like a lecture theatre), a floor for accessories, and a floor for private lessons. The eleveator looked cool, but was annoyingly an automatic elevator. i.e. it stopped as every floor and you couldn't choose which floor you wanted to go to. You could see the finger prints on the floor numbers where people (including myself) had thought they were the floor buttons and pressed them.
It was now time to make our way to the airport. So we went back to the hotel to grab our bags, and caught the train. Now that we had a bit of a clue about the train system, it was much easier to get out than it was to get in.
We had a fair amount of time to kill until our flight to Australia, so we spent it doing the regular time wasting stuff. We managed to use all of our Yen as well. To the stage where I had to haggle for the last drink. I had 109 yen, and the water was 115 yen. The lady wouldn't sell it to me, but said she would sell the milk which was 110 yen. For such a bargain, why wouldn't I get the milk?
The flight to Australia was going to be around 9 hours. And as always, I hardly slept. This was a little harder this time around as I was still recovering from a flight a few nights ago, and this one went over night. Luckily, there were new movies for me to watch!
Day 49
To catch up on some of the lost sleep we had, we didn't get out of bed until close to 11. We could have kept going but since today was our only full day in Japan, it was time to get up.
Unlike most other cities, the Tokyo public transport is run by a few different companies. So this means that you can't just buy a ticket, you have to buy a ticket for a particular transport system. You can by inter-company-all-day passes, but they were more expensive. So we had to make a choice. We went with the JR lines. For no other reason than that their station map highlighted monuments etc to look at, and which stations to get off at to see them.
Our first stop was Ueno Park. This was basically a park with park-type things. It had things like merry-go-rounds, food shops, paddle boats and a zoo. While walking around the water area, we saw these massive fish. Like pigeons, they sensed when humans were around and flocked. Also like pigeons, they did this because they get fed. Amongst these massive fish was a random turtle as well.
Our next stop was a Sensoji temple in Asakusa. Aparently this is one of the big tourist attractions. People from all over Japan come here to get a photo taken. So this was the perfect spot for my handstand picture!
As for the temple itself, it's was cool enough. Outside they had heaps of 'fortune' based things. A pretty clever way to make some cash at a place like this I'd expect.
Sandra's stomach still wasn't feeling too good while we were walking around. Luckily, Japan seemed to have a decent number of well-kept public toilets (that you didn't have to pay to use). Fantastic! The only downside was that I would have to wait for her outside. The waiting I had no problem with. It was the fact that I waited outside so many toilets that I started to feel like some kind of serial toilet stalker.
Next we made our way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. As famous as the Tokyo tower is, the tourist centre says that you can get just as good a view from the towers in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for free. Win!
From the train station, it was a small walk to the government building. But luckily a lot of the way had travelators! The view was pretty cool at the top of the towers. Although it was really just looking down on a city.
One thing we noticed while walking around Japan was that they tended to lack 2 things. Bins and Seats. For something that you would think were pretty common (and are common enough in most other places), they really didn't have many of these. We guessed that it might be to do with the fact that Japanese people don't like to 'eat on the run' like us westerners. If it's one way to discourage loitering, it's to not put bins and seats outside your building. The big thing for me was the lack of bins at the train stations. If it's one place they should let you throw stuff away it would be there. Although later we were talking to this white guy, and he said that he thinks the lack of bins in the stations was due to making it harder for terrorists to blow stations up due to some summit that Tokyo was hosting.
Our next stop was Harajuku. Sadly, our time in Japan didn't allow us to see this place during the weekend (and therefore not see all the crazy fashions), but it was worth a stop anyway. There were still heaps of 'trendy' clothes stores, and 'trendy' people wearing the clothes.
We then made our way to Tokyo Dome. On our way here, we experienced our first majorly packed train ride. It was so packed that Sandra didn't fit in the doors at first, and we had to squish in a little tighter to get her in. Hmmm cozy.
Tokyo Dome is a massive sports stadium that is encapsulated within a dome. This was ok enough to see, but the real attraction here was the amusement park! As expected, they had the regular assortment of rides. For me, the highlight was the Thunder Dolphin roller coaster! You know how almost all roller coasters start with that first drop? Well this one seemed to be the longest drop I'd ever been on. Looking at Wikipedia, aparently this is the 6th tallest roller coaster in the world. Explains why.
After all the run with rides, we got some food there, then headed off back to the hotel. As with the night before, I couldn't get to sleep. So again, we went for a midnight run to the shop. The hotel gave us pyjamas to wear. They looked too much like nighties for me but Sandra gave them a go. So when we went down to the store Sandra decided to just keep her nighty on. I wasn't convinced, but she did it anyway. On our way back to the room, we saw another Japanese guy walking round in the same nighty. Maybe it's more accepted than I thought...
We shared the elevator back up with a drunk japanese guy who was looking a bit worse for wear and a bit ashamed of himself. It was pretty amusing though as he wandered out of the elevator bowing and mumbling apologies to us. Japanese people are so polite.
Unlike most other cities, the Tokyo public transport is run by a few different companies. So this means that you can't just buy a ticket, you have to buy a ticket for a particular transport system. You can by inter-company-all-day passes, but they were more expensive. So we had to make a choice. We went with the JR lines. For no other reason than that their station map highlighted monuments etc to look at, and which stations to get off at to see them.
Our first stop was Ueno Park. This was basically a park with park-type things. It had things like merry-go-rounds, food shops, paddle boats and a zoo. While walking around the water area, we saw these massive fish. Like pigeons, they sensed when humans were around and flocked. Also like pigeons, they did this because they get fed. Amongst these massive fish was a random turtle as well.
Our next stop was a Sensoji temple in Asakusa. Aparently this is one of the big tourist attractions. People from all over Japan come here to get a photo taken. So this was the perfect spot for my handstand picture!
As for the temple itself, it's was cool enough. Outside they had heaps of 'fortune' based things. A pretty clever way to make some cash at a place like this I'd expect.
Sandra's stomach still wasn't feeling too good while we were walking around. Luckily, Japan seemed to have a decent number of well-kept public toilets (that you didn't have to pay to use). Fantastic! The only downside was that I would have to wait for her outside. The waiting I had no problem with. It was the fact that I waited outside so many toilets that I started to feel like some kind of serial toilet stalker.
Next we made our way to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. As famous as the Tokyo tower is, the tourist centre says that you can get just as good a view from the towers in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building for free. Win!
From the train station, it was a small walk to the government building. But luckily a lot of the way had travelators! The view was pretty cool at the top of the towers. Although it was really just looking down on a city.
One thing we noticed while walking around Japan was that they tended to lack 2 things. Bins and Seats. For something that you would think were pretty common (and are common enough in most other places), they really didn't have many of these. We guessed that it might be to do with the fact that Japanese people don't like to 'eat on the run' like us westerners. If it's one way to discourage loitering, it's to not put bins and seats outside your building. The big thing for me was the lack of bins at the train stations. If it's one place they should let you throw stuff away it would be there. Although later we were talking to this white guy, and he said that he thinks the lack of bins in the stations was due to making it harder for terrorists to blow stations up due to some summit that Tokyo was hosting.
Our next stop was Harajuku. Sadly, our time in Japan didn't allow us to see this place during the weekend (and therefore not see all the crazy fashions), but it was worth a stop anyway. There were still heaps of 'trendy' clothes stores, and 'trendy' people wearing the clothes.
We then made our way to Tokyo Dome. On our way here, we experienced our first majorly packed train ride. It was so packed that Sandra didn't fit in the doors at first, and we had to squish in a little tighter to get her in. Hmmm cozy.
Tokyo Dome is a massive sports stadium that is encapsulated within a dome. This was ok enough to see, but the real attraction here was the amusement park! As expected, they had the regular assortment of rides. For me, the highlight was the Thunder Dolphin roller coaster! You know how almost all roller coasters start with that first drop? Well this one seemed to be the longest drop I'd ever been on. Looking at Wikipedia, aparently this is the 6th tallest roller coaster in the world. Explains why.
After all the run with rides, we got some food there, then headed off back to the hotel. As with the night before, I couldn't get to sleep. So again, we went for a midnight run to the shop. The hotel gave us pyjamas to wear. They looked too much like nighties for me but Sandra gave them a go. So when we went down to the store Sandra decided to just keep her nighty on. I wasn't convinced, but she did it anyway. On our way back to the room, we saw another Japanese guy walking round in the same nighty. Maybe it's more accepted than I thought...
We shared the elevator back up with a drunk japanese guy who was looking a bit worse for wear and a bit ashamed of himself. It was pretty amusing though as he wandered out of the elevator bowing and mumbling apologies to us. Japanese people are so polite.
Day 48
We didn't have to leave the hotel till around 8 so we were able to have a relatively relaxed morning. It gave us time to eat some grub and bring our suitcases down. It was here that we said our goodbyes to the folks and went on our way to the airport. Tamer was the representative who picked us up so that was cool.
Because we were flying with Lufthansa, our flight plan was to fly to Munich (Germany), and then transfer to a flight to Tokyo. The Munich flight was 4 hours and wasn't too bad. We had less than an hour for the transfer before the 11 hour Japan flight...
As a rule, I really don't mind flights. I can waste time with the best of them. However, one thing I cannot do is sleep. The flight itself was ok. We watched some movies we'd been meaning to see, I read a bit. Sandra slept in her seat and curled up on the floor. All good. However, we landed in Japan at around 9 am, but my body was telling me that it was around 5 am. So for anyone who has stayed up all night past 5 am, this is how I felt.
We made our way to immigration and found out that we hadn't received the immigration forms on the plane when they were handing them out. Must have been during one of our attempts to sleep. Filled in the forms, went through and then headed to the luggage belt and picked up our suitcases. When we got to Japanese customs there weren't many people but we had to fill in a customs declaration form (which we also didn't get on the plane) before we were allowed through. By the time we had filled out the form there were a few more people at customs so Sandra chose the next freest looking one.
Unfortunately, this one had a nice but fussy lady who made us unlock one of our suitcases and then pull everything out so that she could have a look. This was also unfortunately the bag that had my dutch licorice powder and our Egyptian stone carving that was wrapped suspiciously in newspaper and bubble wrap. Thankfully one of the other guys in another lane had finished up so came over to see what was happening. He was cool. Each time the lady wanted to investigate something closer the cool guy was just like, "These people are cool, chill out". Sandra was pretty annoyed about the suitcase, especially when they couldn't fit everything back in again.
Once we finally made it through customs we changed some money over and then headed down to the train station to get to our hotel. Now, keep in mind, our flight landed around 9 am. We didn't make it to the train platform until 11:30 am and then it took us about two hours to make it to our hotel from the airport. Nuts! At least we got a seat on the train though.
We navigated our way to the hotel with good old Google maps and the iPhone GPS. It was a nice place, with the most space age toilet ever. As soon as you sit down, it starts filling the bidet. This is strange as it sounds like it flushes when you sit. The interesting thing is that I suspect that this is a 'regular' toilet by Japanese standards...
So after getting settled into the hotel, we made our way to Akihabara. This is an area where you can buy a whole bunch of the latest and greatest stuff Japan has to offer.
While walking around Tokyo, you start to realise that every 20th person is wearing one of those face masks. One can only assume this is for either stopping germs from coming in, stopping germs from getting out, or polution (or all of the above). After coming from Cairo, any of these seemed trivial. Yet still, you see them everywhere.
While crusing down Akihabara, we also noticed quite a few chicks dressed in 'maid' outfits handing out brochures. I figured it was best not to ask, and just accept it for the norm. We then found a street-side tourist information place (with a british girl dress in a maid outfit). After talking to her, it turns out that a current fad in Akihabara are 'Maid Cafes'. Well, that explains that then. Apparently, in these cafes the waitresses are all dress in 'maid' outfits, and treat you like a 'master' of a house while serving you drinks etc.
We went into some of the building in this area, and saw all the trading card stores, manga figurene stores, comic stores etc. All the stuff you had hoped they'd sell and more. It was truely and interesting experience. Even though I got Megatron in Greece, I still kept an eye out for him. It came as no surprise that I didn't find the one I wanted. Instead, I found crazier versions of Megatron.
The supermarkets and corner stores were pretty cool. They all had a wicked selection of Japanese style takeaway meals. These were awesome, and pretty much became our steady diet.
Keeping in mind that we haven't had any sleep yet, and our bodies thought it was 1pm now, we were struggling to stay awake. So we made it to the hotel, to get into bed by 7pm.
Annoyingly, I woke up around midnight fully awake and unable to get back to sleep. I also felt a snack attack coming on. But with no food in the hotel, what was one to do? Ah ha! We have a 24 hour convinience store below the hotel! Time to get me some of those awesome Japanese takeaway meals!
After some reading, with a full tummy, it was time to go to sleep again.
Because we were flying with Lufthansa, our flight plan was to fly to Munich (Germany), and then transfer to a flight to Tokyo. The Munich flight was 4 hours and wasn't too bad. We had less than an hour for the transfer before the 11 hour Japan flight...
As a rule, I really don't mind flights. I can waste time with the best of them. However, one thing I cannot do is sleep. The flight itself was ok. We watched some movies we'd been meaning to see, I read a bit. Sandra slept in her seat and curled up on the floor. All good. However, we landed in Japan at around 9 am, but my body was telling me that it was around 5 am. So for anyone who has stayed up all night past 5 am, this is how I felt.
We made our way to immigration and found out that we hadn't received the immigration forms on the plane when they were handing them out. Must have been during one of our attempts to sleep. Filled in the forms, went through and then headed to the luggage belt and picked up our suitcases. When we got to Japanese customs there weren't many people but we had to fill in a customs declaration form (which we also didn't get on the plane) before we were allowed through. By the time we had filled out the form there were a few more people at customs so Sandra chose the next freest looking one.
Unfortunately, this one had a nice but fussy lady who made us unlock one of our suitcases and then pull everything out so that she could have a look. This was also unfortunately the bag that had my dutch licorice powder and our Egyptian stone carving that was wrapped suspiciously in newspaper and bubble wrap. Thankfully one of the other guys in another lane had finished up so came over to see what was happening. He was cool. Each time the lady wanted to investigate something closer the cool guy was just like, "These people are cool, chill out". Sandra was pretty annoyed about the suitcase, especially when they couldn't fit everything back in again.
Once we finally made it through customs we changed some money over and then headed down to the train station to get to our hotel. Now, keep in mind, our flight landed around 9 am. We didn't make it to the train platform until 11:30 am and then it took us about two hours to make it to our hotel from the airport. Nuts! At least we got a seat on the train though.
We navigated our way to the hotel with good old Google maps and the iPhone GPS. It was a nice place, with the most space age toilet ever. As soon as you sit down, it starts filling the bidet. This is strange as it sounds like it flushes when you sit. The interesting thing is that I suspect that this is a 'regular' toilet by Japanese standards...
So after getting settled into the hotel, we made our way to Akihabara. This is an area where you can buy a whole bunch of the latest and greatest stuff Japan has to offer.
While walking around Tokyo, you start to realise that every 20th person is wearing one of those face masks. One can only assume this is for either stopping germs from coming in, stopping germs from getting out, or polution (or all of the above). After coming from Cairo, any of these seemed trivial. Yet still, you see them everywhere.
While crusing down Akihabara, we also noticed quite a few chicks dressed in 'maid' outfits handing out brochures. I figured it was best not to ask, and just accept it for the norm. We then found a street-side tourist information place (with a british girl dress in a maid outfit). After talking to her, it turns out that a current fad in Akihabara are 'Maid Cafes'. Well, that explains that then. Apparently, in these cafes the waitresses are all dress in 'maid' outfits, and treat you like a 'master' of a house while serving you drinks etc.
We went into some of the building in this area, and saw all the trading card stores, manga figurene stores, comic stores etc. All the stuff you had hoped they'd sell and more. It was truely and interesting experience. Even though I got Megatron in Greece, I still kept an eye out for him. It came as no surprise that I didn't find the one I wanted. Instead, I found crazier versions of Megatron.
The supermarkets and corner stores were pretty cool. They all had a wicked selection of Japanese style takeaway meals. These were awesome, and pretty much became our steady diet.
Keeping in mind that we haven't had any sleep yet, and our bodies thought it was 1pm now, we were struggling to stay awake. So we made it to the hotel, to get into bed by 7pm.
Annoyingly, I woke up around midnight fully awake and unable to get back to sleep. I also felt a snack attack coming on. But with no food in the hotel, what was one to do? Ah ha! We have a 24 hour convinience store below the hotel! Time to get me some of those awesome Japanese takeaway meals!
After some reading, with a full tummy, it was time to go to sleep again.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Day 47
Today, we found the boat docked in Aswan. We were right near the high dam wall that we checked out with the other cruise.
This was the day that we had to leave the boat, so we got all our bags packed and out of the room before we went for the tour of the day. We were a little late, because everyone on our tour didn't realise that all the drinks bills had to be paid before we went and although we would be back from our excursion at 10, we had to vacate the rooms completely before we left...
When it was tour time, we left for the Kalabsha Temple. The same routine as before, get on the small boat, get taken out there, visit the temples. I found that a lot of the temples had similar styles. You could be forgiven for not knowing the difference.
This temple was, like most of the others, moved from its original place. It had a 'nile-ometer' as well, but this doesn't work so well now that the temple is situated well above the height of the dam...
Like the other stops, there were a couple of temples in the one spot. So we also visited Beit El Wali and the Kiosk of Kertassi.
On our way to one of the temples, the guide showed us some stones engraved with the most childish looking carvings. They looked almost like cave man pictures. Well, turns out that we were on the right track, these were over 7000 years old, and are the oldest carvings known in Egypt. I don't care if I've seen better in Kindergarden, their raw ages made them awesome. I wonder if these were the ancient fridges that ancient parents hung the drawings of their ancient children on...
One of the carvings had both gazelles and giraffes on it. Although it looked like the guide was pointing at the giraffe when he said gazelle, and gazelle when he said giraffe. The next one had just a giraffe, and he proved to us he had the names wrong when he called it a gazelle....
Sadly, Sandra wasn't feeling well that day. A lot of us weren't, but she was feeling a bit worse than the rest. But Sandra's a trooper, even when you want her to rest and get better.
We got back around 10:30 so had half an hour to kill before the tour company came to pick us up. Unfortunately as we had checked out of the boat all we could do was sit around in the foyer and people watch. The transfer arrived and took us to the Aswan airport again. This airport and Cairo airport were the only airports in the whole trip that we flew out of twice... So it was wierd coming back and knowing the way.
From here, we were going to fly to Cairo again and spend the night there. Sticking with the 'familiar' theme, when the plane landed we were met by the same tour representative that came on the first cruise with us (Tamer).
The previous tour guide said that laptops were cheap in Egypt. Mum was interested in getting one, so while we were driving to the hotel, we told Tamer this. He was then kind enough to take us to one of their computer stores.
This wasn't part of the tour, so we had to take a cab rather than use the tour driver and car. We ditched dad at the hotel, as there wasn't room for all of us, and, well, he's simply the most useless out of us all for buying a laptop for mum.
We got dropped off at the spot, and then had to cross the road. Remember how fullon the traffic was in Cairo? Yeah, that made for an interesting time crossing. We trusted that Tamar knew what he was doing...
The computer store was just like any other department store. I was expecting something more shabby. Either way, the computers weren't that much cheaper, so we decided to leave it.
Getting a cab back to the hotel proved to be harder. Unlike Australian cabs, taxis in Cairo have the right to refuse a job. So each time Tamar said where we were going, the driver would simply keep on driving. We figured it was due to rush hour, so we crossed the road again went for a drink and a snack at a sports bar.
After hanging at the sports bar with Tamer, we decided to try the cabs again. Still, the little bitches just didn't want to take us. Tamer then suggested we take a cab to his place (which was close) and he would drive us instead. Cool, cheers. The cab stopped straight away...
So we made it to Tamer's place. I had no idea which apartment was his, but then, we weren't there to see his apartment. We made our way round the back to where the car was parked. Hey, some dude parked his car in the middle of the road! Oh, that's your car... Ok then. Turns out that if there aren't any parks, they simply park people in.
The whole trek to the computer store and back was actually pretty cool. Despite the fact that it yielded no results, it was a great way to see a little of the everyday life (which tours tend to hide from you).
Now, a while ago, we started feeling bad for dad as he was still at the hotel for all of this. When we got back, we found that he had left. No surprise really. My money was on finding him in the restaurant next door. And luckily, that's exactly where he was.
We all had dinner there, and then went up stairs. Sandra and I had to pack (not that we had really taken that much out of our suitcases) to leave the next day, where as the parents weren't going to fly out till the day after. Thankfully our transfer was at a normal time tomorrow instead of some stupidly early hour.
This was the day that we had to leave the boat, so we got all our bags packed and out of the room before we went for the tour of the day. We were a little late, because everyone on our tour didn't realise that all the drinks bills had to be paid before we went and although we would be back from our excursion at 10, we had to vacate the rooms completely before we left...
When it was tour time, we left for the Kalabsha Temple. The same routine as before, get on the small boat, get taken out there, visit the temples. I found that a lot of the temples had similar styles. You could be forgiven for not knowing the difference.
This temple was, like most of the others, moved from its original place. It had a 'nile-ometer' as well, but this doesn't work so well now that the temple is situated well above the height of the dam...
Like the other stops, there were a couple of temples in the one spot. So we also visited Beit El Wali and the Kiosk of Kertassi.
On our way to one of the temples, the guide showed us some stones engraved with the most childish looking carvings. They looked almost like cave man pictures. Well, turns out that we were on the right track, these were over 7000 years old, and are the oldest carvings known in Egypt. I don't care if I've seen better in Kindergarden, their raw ages made them awesome. I wonder if these were the ancient fridges that ancient parents hung the drawings of their ancient children on...
One of the carvings had both gazelles and giraffes on it. Although it looked like the guide was pointing at the giraffe when he said gazelle, and gazelle when he said giraffe. The next one had just a giraffe, and he proved to us he had the names wrong when he called it a gazelle....
Sadly, Sandra wasn't feeling well that day. A lot of us weren't, but she was feeling a bit worse than the rest. But Sandra's a trooper, even when you want her to rest and get better.
We got back around 10:30 so had half an hour to kill before the tour company came to pick us up. Unfortunately as we had checked out of the boat all we could do was sit around in the foyer and people watch. The transfer arrived and took us to the Aswan airport again. This airport and Cairo airport were the only airports in the whole trip that we flew out of twice... So it was wierd coming back and knowing the way.
From here, we were going to fly to Cairo again and spend the night there. Sticking with the 'familiar' theme, when the plane landed we were met by the same tour representative that came on the first cruise with us (Tamer).
The previous tour guide said that laptops were cheap in Egypt. Mum was interested in getting one, so while we were driving to the hotel, we told Tamer this. He was then kind enough to take us to one of their computer stores.
This wasn't part of the tour, so we had to take a cab rather than use the tour driver and car. We ditched dad at the hotel, as there wasn't room for all of us, and, well, he's simply the most useless out of us all for buying a laptop for mum.
We got dropped off at the spot, and then had to cross the road. Remember how fullon the traffic was in Cairo? Yeah, that made for an interesting time crossing. We trusted that Tamar knew what he was doing...
The computer store was just like any other department store. I was expecting something more shabby. Either way, the computers weren't that much cheaper, so we decided to leave it.
Getting a cab back to the hotel proved to be harder. Unlike Australian cabs, taxis in Cairo have the right to refuse a job. So each time Tamar said where we were going, the driver would simply keep on driving. We figured it was due to rush hour, so we crossed the road again went for a drink and a snack at a sports bar.
After hanging at the sports bar with Tamer, we decided to try the cabs again. Still, the little bitches just didn't want to take us. Tamer then suggested we take a cab to his place (which was close) and he would drive us instead. Cool, cheers. The cab stopped straight away...
So we made it to Tamer's place. I had no idea which apartment was his, but then, we weren't there to see his apartment. We made our way round the back to where the car was parked. Hey, some dude parked his car in the middle of the road! Oh, that's your car... Ok then. Turns out that if there aren't any parks, they simply park people in.
The whole trek to the computer store and back was actually pretty cool. Despite the fact that it yielded no results, it was a great way to see a little of the everyday life (which tours tend to hide from you).
Now, a while ago, we started feeling bad for dad as he was still at the hotel for all of this. When we got back, we found that he had left. No surprise really. My money was on finding him in the restaurant next door. And luckily, that's exactly where he was.
We all had dinner there, and then went up stairs. Sandra and I had to pack (not that we had really taken that much out of our suitcases) to leave the next day, where as the parents weren't going to fly out till the day after. Thankfully our transfer was at a normal time tomorrow instead of some stupidly early hour.
Day 46
We got up and wandered into the restaurant for breakfast. Fares was in the freshly cooked area again so when I went in over for an omelette he also made me a pancake with fresh banana this time so we shared both of those. As we were packing a few rolls of bread and cheese for snacks during the day, Fares cooked some felafels and arranged them with some vegetables and sauce and gave them to us as a traditional breakfast. It was tasty but we felt bad because we had to go so we had to wolf it down a bit.
We boarded another motor boat to head towards the shore and had the awesome plank and handrail again. This time when we got off, there were wild watermelons on the shore... Awesome!
We visited the temples of Dakka (built by the Greek Romans), Wadi El Seboua (built by Ramses II as a test run for Abu Simbel) and Meharakka which was rescued because it had the world's earliest spiral staircase. We had to do some desert trekking again to get to each of the temples but it was nicer than yesterday because it was early morning so the sun wasn't quiet as high or as hot. We did almost get run over by some run away camels which was kind of amusing.
For all of our offshore visits, we had armed guards accompanying us. Dudes in white with machine guns. I asked our guide if they were to protect the ancient temples or us. He said both...
As we headed back to the motor boat, there was a little Egyptian man waiting with some baby crocodiles! Steve's dad got a photo holding one and as we left there was a lady taking a photo with the baby croc on her head. They were pretty cute, mainly because their mouths were also bound so they couldn't bite you.
We boarded the motor boat and headed back to the ship before setting sail for Aswan. There were no more excursions until tomorrow so we were forced to have to relax and do nothing for the rest of the day apart from eating and drinking and whatever we felt like - terrible isn't it?
Like the other boat, we had 'towel art' waiting for us in our cabin. This one was a dude riding an elephant. I have to admit, even though the art was better on this boat, it didn't have as much of an impact as the first boat because it was 'already done'. But we still liked it.
We went on the managers tour of the ship where we visited the kitchen - all the poor chefs had to line up for inspection (except Faris, who was busy cooking) - and then headed upstairs to visit one of the grand suites (which was what we were in so no biggy) and the massive royal suite! The bathroom was about the same size as our bedroom at home. Nuts! We found out that it costs 350 Euros per night to stay in a grand suite and 900 Euros per night to stay in the royal suite. Now, I don't know about the other people but we totally did not pay that much money for our room...
After the rooms we headed to the bridge where we met the captain and his second in charge, his brother. Turns out that around 95% of all the boat captains on the lake come from the same 3 families. These guys spend all their lives on the lake, and know it well. So well in fact that they do not even use the radar. They also don't use it because they don't know how...
On the bridge, we all took turns driving the boat. At first, this sounds like we all took turns making it do donuts and fish-tails, but it really was just us grabbing the knob (yes, not a wheel. Damn new boats) and looking out to the water. This is where the tour left off.
The rest of the day involved simply chilling out on the luxury boat... Oh yeah!
We boarded another motor boat to head towards the shore and had the awesome plank and handrail again. This time when we got off, there were wild watermelons on the shore... Awesome!
We visited the temples of Dakka (built by the Greek Romans), Wadi El Seboua (built by Ramses II as a test run for Abu Simbel) and Meharakka which was rescued because it had the world's earliest spiral staircase. We had to do some desert trekking again to get to each of the temples but it was nicer than yesterday because it was early morning so the sun wasn't quiet as high or as hot. We did almost get run over by some run away camels which was kind of amusing.
For all of our offshore visits, we had armed guards accompanying us. Dudes in white with machine guns. I asked our guide if they were to protect the ancient temples or us. He said both...
As we headed back to the motor boat, there was a little Egyptian man waiting with some baby crocodiles! Steve's dad got a photo holding one and as we left there was a lady taking a photo with the baby croc on her head. They were pretty cute, mainly because their mouths were also bound so they couldn't bite you.
We boarded the motor boat and headed back to the ship before setting sail for Aswan. There were no more excursions until tomorrow so we were forced to have to relax and do nothing for the rest of the day apart from eating and drinking and whatever we felt like - terrible isn't it?
Like the other boat, we had 'towel art' waiting for us in our cabin. This one was a dude riding an elephant. I have to admit, even though the art was better on this boat, it didn't have as much of an impact as the first boat because it was 'already done'. But we still liked it.
We went on the managers tour of the ship where we visited the kitchen - all the poor chefs had to line up for inspection (except Faris, who was busy cooking) - and then headed upstairs to visit one of the grand suites (which was what we were in so no biggy) and the massive royal suite! The bathroom was about the same size as our bedroom at home. Nuts! We found out that it costs 350 Euros per night to stay in a grand suite and 900 Euros per night to stay in the royal suite. Now, I don't know about the other people but we totally did not pay that much money for our room...
After the rooms we headed to the bridge where we met the captain and his second in charge, his brother. Turns out that around 95% of all the boat captains on the lake come from the same 3 families. These guys spend all their lives on the lake, and know it well. So well in fact that they do not even use the radar. They also don't use it because they don't know how...
On the bridge, we all took turns driving the boat. At first, this sounds like we all took turns making it do donuts and fish-tails, but it really was just us grabbing the knob (yes, not a wheel. Damn new boats) and looking out to the water. This is where the tour left off.
The rest of the day involved simply chilling out on the luxury boat... Oh yeah!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Day 45
We woke up just in time to feel the ship start to set sail. The ship parked in front of the temples of Abu Simbel for about 15 minutes before heading down the lake. We were luckily on the side of the ship facing Abu Simbel so could sit on our bed and enjoy the view of the temples. There were hundreds of people there already. Mina had told us the day before that there are three convoys a day from Aswan to Abu Simbel leaving at 4:30 am, 6:30 am and 11:00 am. The people we saw must have been the 4:30 am crew. Gross.
Breakfast was cool! We haven't really been talking about the meals but I felt that I had to mention something about it because in the freshly cooked food area they were making omelettes and pancakes! We had one of each :) We only wanted omelettes but we had made friends with one of the chefs (Fares) and he was working in the cooking area so he decided that we needed to have one of each.
After breakfast we went and sat up in the lounge area on the sun deck and read, blogged, chatted with the others in the group and enjoyed the scenary. We could see why the Pharoahs were inspired to build pyramids because all around us were the tops of mountains. Mina informed us that Lake Nasser is 500 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide as well as 140 metres deep. All the mountain ranges we saw were those that had not been submerged when the lake was created which meant that they were huge and that there were hundreds of mountain ranges in the lake.
At 11 the ship stopped near Kasr Ibrim, an old fortress that sat atop a mountain that saw the last of the Egyptian Culture as Christianity swept through the country, became a church for the christians before the Muslim religion began to spread and then became a mosque and a meeting area for trading before it was destroyed by natural events. When we sailed past Kasr Ibrim, we were nearly level with it but Mina informed us that before the construction of the High Dam, Kasr Ibrim stood on a mountain about 80 metres high.
We had a bit of a swim and then went down for lunch. After lunch the ship stopped for an on shore excursion. To get from the ship to the temples, we had to get onto little motor boats that ferried us to the shore. There was a make shift gangway of two planks to get from the motor boat to the shore and a handrail that consisted of a long thick piece of wood held besides the planks by two guys from the boat. It was pretty awesome.
We visited the temples of Amada, Derr and the tomb of Penout (the viceroy of Nubia). All these places had been relocated from their original sites due to the High Dam and had been placed nearby each other. Although it was the afternoon it was still fairly hot but it was nice to stroll casually through the desert between each of the sites. Some people took camels to get from site to site but we chose to walk. Once we finished we got back on the motor boat and were ferried back to the ship.
The rest of the afternoon was very casual. We hung out in our room reading and blogging until 5:00 pm when we went and met Mina in the lounge bar so that he could show us a movie on the rescuing of Egypts monuments. The movie was very cool. It showed how they built a barrier around the temples of Abu Simbel and broke the temple into hundreds of giant pieces to relocate it 60 metres higher and how they reassembled it and rebuilt the mountain around the temples. It also showed the rescue of some of the other temples that we had visited, although not in so much detail, and gave a detailed account of the saving of Philae temple which was already flooded due to the construction of the first Aswan dam.
The movie was followed by cocktails in the lounge bar with the manager of the ship. It was all very swish. The manager introduced himself and gave us information about the El Khayam and introduced his chief staff on the ship. He also invited us all to a tour of the ship the next day to visit the kitchen and the bridge and said that he might even let us steer the ship! There were alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails. We stuck to the non-alcoholic fruity cocktails which were delicious and disappeared within minutes.
After the cocktails was dinner in the restaurant. Mina informed us that we had a 7:20 am start in the morning to visit Wadi El Saboua so after dinner we retired to the room (we're such nannas) to read and blog before getting an early night.
Breakfast was cool! We haven't really been talking about the meals but I felt that I had to mention something about it because in the freshly cooked food area they were making omelettes and pancakes! We had one of each :) We only wanted omelettes but we had made friends with one of the chefs (Fares) and he was working in the cooking area so he decided that we needed to have one of each.
After breakfast we went and sat up in the lounge area on the sun deck and read, blogged, chatted with the others in the group and enjoyed the scenary. We could see why the Pharoahs were inspired to build pyramids because all around us were the tops of mountains. Mina informed us that Lake Nasser is 500 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide as well as 140 metres deep. All the mountain ranges we saw were those that had not been submerged when the lake was created which meant that they were huge and that there were hundreds of mountain ranges in the lake.
At 11 the ship stopped near Kasr Ibrim, an old fortress that sat atop a mountain that saw the last of the Egyptian Culture as Christianity swept through the country, became a church for the christians before the Muslim religion began to spread and then became a mosque and a meeting area for trading before it was destroyed by natural events. When we sailed past Kasr Ibrim, we were nearly level with it but Mina informed us that before the construction of the High Dam, Kasr Ibrim stood on a mountain about 80 metres high.
We had a bit of a swim and then went down for lunch. After lunch the ship stopped for an on shore excursion. To get from the ship to the temples, we had to get onto little motor boats that ferried us to the shore. There was a make shift gangway of two planks to get from the motor boat to the shore and a handrail that consisted of a long thick piece of wood held besides the planks by two guys from the boat. It was pretty awesome.
We visited the temples of Amada, Derr and the tomb of Penout (the viceroy of Nubia). All these places had been relocated from their original sites due to the High Dam and had been placed nearby each other. Although it was the afternoon it was still fairly hot but it was nice to stroll casually through the desert between each of the sites. Some people took camels to get from site to site but we chose to walk. Once we finished we got back on the motor boat and were ferried back to the ship.
The rest of the afternoon was very casual. We hung out in our room reading and blogging until 5:00 pm when we went and met Mina in the lounge bar so that he could show us a movie on the rescuing of Egypts monuments. The movie was very cool. It showed how they built a barrier around the temples of Abu Simbel and broke the temple into hundreds of giant pieces to relocate it 60 metres higher and how they reassembled it and rebuilt the mountain around the temples. It also showed the rescue of some of the other temples that we had visited, although not in so much detail, and gave a detailed account of the saving of Philae temple which was already flooded due to the construction of the first Aswan dam.
The movie was followed by cocktails in the lounge bar with the manager of the ship. It was all very swish. The manager introduced himself and gave us information about the El Khayam and introduced his chief staff on the ship. He also invited us all to a tour of the ship the next day to visit the kitchen and the bridge and said that he might even let us steer the ship! There were alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails. We stuck to the non-alcoholic fruity cocktails which were delicious and disappeared within minutes.
After the cocktails was dinner in the restaurant. Mina informed us that we had a 7:20 am start in the morning to visit Wadi El Saboua so after dinner we retired to the room (we're such nannas) to read and blog before getting an early night.
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