Author Archives: david

About david

I am a world citizen wondering at everything it has to offer.

Priceless

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  • Taxi ride from the hotel to the bus station and from Abu Simbel town to the temples: 13 EGP
  • Round-trip ticket Aswan – Abu Simbel: 41 EGP
  • Entrance ticket to the Abu Simbel temples: 70 EGP
  • Spend 2 hours completely alone around the great temple of Rasmses II and the temple of Nefertari: PRICELESS

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Yes, it cost me a bit more than going with the organized tour. Yes, it was longer and more difficult than going with the organized tour. Yes, I did not have police protection like the organized tour where all the buses form a convoy that is escorted by the police.

But it was more than worth it :). Alone with Ramses II and Nefertari. Nobody on my pictures. Pure. Quiet. Awesome. The way it should be. Thanks “Guide du Routard”.

This was yesterday’s highlight. I woke-up at 6:45, made my way to the bus station and lurked around until I found the 8AM bus to Abu Simbel. 4 hours later, I was in front of the two temples and I got almost 2 hours to enjoy them for myself in between 2 plane loads (the organized tour buses had left for almost 2 hours already). I then made my way back to town where I waited 2 hours for the 4PM bus. I was home for 8:30PM. A bit exhausted by so much traveling but with great memories and pictures.

Backtracking a bit more, my train trip went very well. I boarded at 10PM on Monday night and arrived arround 11AM in Abu Simbel. In the train, I ended up seating with two French people, Nadine and Bernard, who were going to Luxor. Nadine is an Egyptolog and Bernard has visited a lot so we had a lot of things to talk about. They also gave me a lot of pointers about many things to see, places to eat…

I found a nice hotel with my own bathroom and a view of the Nile in the middle of the Corniche. The staff is kind of clueless and unable to answer any of my questions but the room is ok and cheap.

I then visited the Nubian museum. Very nice museum that is very well presented. Unlike the Egyptian museum.

Today, I took it kind of easy visiting two temples around Aswan: Kalabchah temple and Philae temple. Philae temple is very impressive! The only caveat is that it cost me a lot to get to these temples. The cab to go around was fairly priced but since each temple is on an island on the lake Nasser, you have to take a small motor boat to get there. And they try everything they can to get the most money out of you trying to charge 3 or 4 times the normal price of the boat. I was visiting alone so I had to pay for the full boat but bargained hard until I was kind of ok with the price. I heard other tourists say they had to pay half what I paid each while they were 5 on the boat! This whole thing needs some clean-up for the best of the tourist industry.

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Since it was only 3PM when I was done and I had enough hassling with the locals, I decided it was time to take it even easier and enjoy the sun and the hot weather. I spent the rest of the day at the Club Med hotel situated on a small island in the middle of the Nile. Their swimming pool and hamman are great and cost almost nothing to use (40 EGP but you can use 37 of them to buy drinks and some food). Definitely worth every penny I spent :).

Chilling Out Club Med Style.JPG

Oh, and I heard it was rainning in California, sorry to hear that… here it is more like 85F. You should come ;).

[Edited on 4/7/2006 to add some info on Philae and Kalabchah temples and Club Med]
[Edited on 4/12/2006 to add links to the related pictures]

Egyptian Museum

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I met with Karim, the friend of Jacques-Alexandre and Raphaele, last night. I called him at 6PM and he just cancelled his plans to meet me at 7PM. He took me around (shisha and fruit juice first and then dinner followed by shisha and tea) and helped me plan a bit my trip.

His first advice was to go to Upper-Egypt as soon as possible because the heat will be soon unbearable there. Seeing how hot it is in Cairo already, I think it is a very good idea and so, I am going south tonight taking a night train to Aswan. Karim took me to buy the train ticket and seeing how people where pushing him in the line, I was happy he was here. I don’t know how long it would have taken me to get this ticket by myself. If I ever did.

So, today, I checked out of the hotel and went to the Egyptian Museum. The museum is not that big actually. I had expected a bigger monument. The place is packed though. With tourists of course but also with antiquities. I got in for 20 LE (Egyptian pound) ($1 is around 6LE). Actually, I got to lurk around a bit to check-in my camera that was forbidden inside and finally got in.

The first floor is organized chronologically: Old Kingdom, Medium Kingdom, New Kingdom and Graeco-Roman period. There are some great pieces all over the place so it is difficult to make a selection. I really liked the Amarna room with pieces from al-Amarna, capital of Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh, dad of Tutankhamen and husband of the gracious Nefertiti. It is just the style of the statues and murals is so much different that you cannot forget it.

But this first floor is just an appetizer as the second floor is just outshining it. The second floor is organized by themes like animal mummies or models. But it is also home to the most visited collection: King Tut collection. It is just mind boggling to see all these awesome objects that were found in his tomb. There was not too many people around his gold mask and other jewels so I had plenty of time to study them. It is so fine and precise work. So much wealth left in a tomb. I cannot even imagine what we could have found in the tombs of more powerful, longer ruling pharaohs like Ramses II.

I also paid the extra 70 EL to see the royal mummies. I debated for a while to decide if i should pay or not and finally did. You can see 13 royal mummies for that price including Ramses II and Seti. If I remember well the story I learnt some time ago, they were all found together in a cache off the king valley that was created by order of a pharaoh of the New Kingdom that wanted to safeguard the mummies of his ancestors while plenty of tombs had already been plundered. It worked quite well since the cache was only discovered in the late 19th or early 20th century (I don’t recollect exactly). I am still undecided of the worth of paying that much to see them but well, it is amazing to see corpses that are more than 3000 years old and are so well conserved. Also, I can tell you Seti must have been an handsome man while I does not seem Ramses aged well ;).

Going to the Egyptian museum was also a milestone for me since it was the last one of the top 4 Egyptian museums in the world I had yet to see (the others being the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It tops them all easy. Just King Tut section could make one museum by itself. And other collections suffer so much from the comparison while being impressive in their own way that it is a bit sad.

I can tell you I had a great time if you did not guess yet.

First taste of Egypt

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My trip from Paris to Cairo was uneventfull so we will just not talk about it much. Just a note for my vegeterian/Vegan friends: do not fly Austrian airlines if you are hungry. There was only once choice for lunch and it was not vegetables! It was very good but just wanted to make a note.

Actually, one more thing. If you fly early from Paris CDG, do not bother arriving too early. Nothing happens before 6 or 6:30 AM. Next time I will know better than wake-up at 4AM ;).

Now, My first impressions of Egypt and Cairo.

Astonishing view of infinite land of sand 5 minutes before landing. I knew there was sand here but I did picture it like this.

And then, I already experience most the things I had been told/warned about:

  • A lot of women wearing the veil.
  • Life and business following the rythm of the prayers. With the call for prayer as well.
  • Men walking arm under arm or even hand in hand in the street.
  • Omnipresent army and police all over town.
  • Crazy driving and jay-walking. I have seen crazy driving in Lima, Hong Kong or Paris but this is one order of magnitude worse. Also, most cars do not turn on their lights at night since it could bother the people coming in the other direction :).
  • People hassling me at the airport and everywhere I go to either get me to an hotel or a papyrus shop . And they don’t go away as easily as in Peru.

I checked-in at an hotel downtown. It is very close to the Egyptian museum and everything else.

I am seeing Karim, the friend of Jacques Alexandre and Raphaele, very soon. Hopefully, he will give me some pointers.

Le Meilleur des Mondes

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As this hits your screen, I should be somewhere in between Paris and Cairo.

As I leave Paris, I wanted to make a little advertisement.

While I was in Paris, as you might have noticed, it was easy for me to access my emails and update this site. It was all possible thanks to my friends Siegfried and Sharon that provided internet access to me at their internet cafe located close to gare de Lyon. Thanks guys, I should be back in August ;).
I have known Siegfried for almost 14 years now. They are cool people. If you are in Paris around Bastille or Gare de Lyon, come by and ask for them, they will be more than happy to meet you.

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Their cafe is a very nice place, with 11 posts and a very good connection. It is called “Le Meilleur des Mondes” and is located at 4 bis rue Michel Chasles 75012 Paris.

Oh yeah… they offer wi-fi if you have your own computer and they have two computers with QUERTY keyboards if like me you have become AZERTY keyboard disabled.

Egypt, here I come

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Some news before I leave tomorrow for Cairo via Vienna :D.

I got my passport back from the Syrian embassy yesterday morning as planned so it means I now have everything I needed before leaving. My backpack is ready and as I wrote last time, it all fits and weights at 17kgs (38lbs).

The last few days have been very laid back as I was meeting with family and friends during the evening and doing mostly nothing but reading, watching movies and seating in front of a computer the rest of the day.

Actually, one thing stroke me. While I have no trouble doing nothing for the day, I have this strong feeling of guilt nagging me by the end of the day. I feel I should be doing more. So, I will have to work on that later. Not on doing more… but on suppressing this damn nagging!

Talking of the future, the next 2 or 3 weeks should be very busy since I plan on visiting very actively all over Egypt. I have two possible contacts in Cairo provided by Jacques-Alexandre and Raphaele so it should go well. Thanks guys! After that, the plan is to spend at least a week on the dead sea, tanning, scuba diving and doing nothing (this for my conscience).

Anyway. Paris has been great. It was really nice hanging out in family and with my friends but I feel two weeks is enough especially as the pastry shops around here are running out of pastries to try and I have been over the standard brasserie menu (crazy how all brasseries serve close to the same things) almost twice already ;).

Since starting from tomorrow, I will be in Egypt, I am not sure if I will be able to post as much as I have been posting in the last two weeks but I will do it whenever I find a place to do so. It has been great so far. I got some good feedback and exchange with some of you. If you read this site, do not hesitate to comment on my posts or send me an email even if it is only to say hi.

Alright, write to you soon from Egypt!