We knew it was going to be an early morning, but while 2:45am sounds bad in theory, in practice it is much, much worse. Nevertheless, we manage to drag ourselves out of bed and out to the waiting minibus for our trip to Abu Simbel. Given the dearth of tourists we have seen, we are optimistic that the two other people in the bus are going to be the only ones with us, leaving a good amount of room to stretch out and get some much needed sleep. There’s no good story in that though, and 4 stops and 30 minutes later we are packed in like sardines for a tasty three hour drive.

All traffic between Aswan and Abu Simbel has to go in conveys that leave town at specific times during the day. This is supposedly for safety reasons, but I think it really just makes it easier for the checkpoint guards to collect all of their baksheesh at a few convenient times instead of having to be awake all day and charging each car as it goes by throughout the day. We arrive close to the 3:30 convoy departure and there are already dozens of minibuses like ours and much larger coaches full of blue haired ladies, but it means we don’t have to wait that long before we are actually on the road.

An hour or so down the road, travel buddy at my side with her head tilted back and mouth open in a quiet snore, the sun starts to rise over the desert and two thoughts come to mind as I watch. The first is that the desert is surprisingly beautiful, particularly in the early light when the colors are most vibrant. The second is that there is absolutely nothing out there. There are no cactuses, no tumbleweeds rolling by, not even a few scraggly plants eeking out a basic existence. As far as the eye can see in any direction, there is only rock and sand. Unless there are reports of Jawas in the area, the convoy is definitely overkill.

The name Abu Simbel may not ring many bells, but the temple there is something most people would recognize from pictures. Three thousand years before Mount Rushmore, Ramses II had these giant statues of himself carved into a mountainside overlooking the Nile river, serving as the entrance to a large temple hollowed out of the rock. As an added twist, the whole complex (there is also a second, smaller temple that Ramses II had built for his favorite wife, Nefertari) was moved in the 1960s to save it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser.

As we are restricted by the convey system, we only have a brief time in the two temples, and once again, cameras aren’t allowed inside, so we only get pictures of the entrances. By 9:00am (earlier than we would likely even be up on a regular day) we are back in the packed minivan on our way back to Aswan and the departure for our Nile cruise.

Our itinerary is to spend the next three days making our way slowly down the river to Luxor, stopping along the way to visit a few temples. Thankfully, given our early start, there is only one stop planned at the end of the day, so we are able to just relax and watch the countryside go by from our faux patio (doors, but nowhere to actually stand without ending up in the river). The boat is fairly large and there is a pool and bar on the top deck, but we just don’t have it in us to take advantage.

The stop we do make is at Kom Ombo, which is a temple complex changed several times over the years as different civilizations occupied Egypt. The first shoe drops on the trip we reserved in Cairo (it’s shocking that it took this long) and we find that no one has arranged a guide for us at either this stop or the one we will make tomorrow. We decide to head over anyways and read about it when we get back to the boat to try and put it in perspective.

In isolation, Kom Ombo would definitely be an impressive sight, but it has been a long day, and after cramming in a lot of sights in a handful of days, one temple is starting to blur into the next, so we don’t spend too much time wandering around, taking a few pictures before heading back to the boat. On the way, I get to thinking having a couple cold beers in the fridge might be nice given the heat, so stop at one of the shops along the waterfront. They ask if we want beer, and lo and behold I do, so I say sure. I am quickly escorted to the back of the store where we conduct some business and they stuff my purchase into my backpack along with some tips on what to say to the police if they stop me. Needless to say, these may be the last two beers I buy in Egypt.

Finished with our brief stay in Cairo, we headed off for the train station and our night train to Aswan, about 600 miles south. Our previous experience on an overnight train in China was reasonably pleasant (two bunks, small sitting area and a private bathroom), so we weren’t too concerned about this one and figured it a much better use of time than going all the way back through Cairo to the airport and spending another night in a hotel.

We arrived at the platform in time to see the train before ours just leaving, and from the sight of it knew we could be in for a bit of a rude awakening. The people here can clearly fix anything, with the result being equipment that would have long since made its way to the scrap yard in most other countries is just hitting middle age in Egypt. Nonetheless, we have a schedule to keep (in theory we are being met in Aswan by a representative of the travel company we booked our Nile cruise with), so as soon as our train pulls in, we find our car and step on board.

We quickly find our cabin, and are happy to see that it does only contain two bunks as promised (we have heard many stories of reservations for two berth cabins turning into four berth cabins upon arrival complete with strangers). However, that is pretty much all there is, as the cabin is no more than 5 feet across and slightly more than 6 feet long (the latter I confirm when I turn in for the night and am able to fit it perfectly). The upside is that as a night train, we will be sleeping 80% of the time anyways, so won’t miss the space much.

Our tickets include two meals, an about an hour out of Aswan, our steward brings in breakfast. In Cairo, we had breakfast at the hotel, so this is our first real exposure to a typical Egyptian breakfast, as we quickly learn that bread is pretty much the base component of everything (my tray contains four different buns of varying dryness and an orange). Not being particularly big bread eaters, both Ang and I eye up each other’s orange, but the cabin is too small to grab it and run away, so we hunker down, guarding our prize like Smeagol and the one true ring.

Arriving in Aswan, we leave the train and breathe a sigh of relief seeing someone standing on the platform holding a card with our name. Sam takes us quickly to a taxi where the driver throws our bags on the roof (without tying them down) and peels off toward the river. When we arrive, lo and behold we are taken onto a boat that appears to be of the quality promised when we booked in Cairo. We are definitely relieved, as spending a day stranded in Aswan trying to book space on a different boat would have taken a little something away from the experience.

The boat isn’t scheduled to leave Aswan until tomorrow, so with the rest of our day we go on a package tour that stops at the Aswan High Dam and Philae Temple. The former is a bit underwhelming since its just a dam (a big one, but a dam nonetheless), but the temple is interesting, on part because of the process involved in taking it apart and moving it to higher ground to keep it from being submerged by the water rising behind the completed dam.

After the temple we make our way back to the boat and spend about an hour walking through the local market before dinner and an early bedtime. We have a wake up call at 2:45am to catch the 3:30am bus to Abu Simbel ☹.

For our second full day in Cairo, we are having our guide from the museum (Mohamed) take us to the pyramids at Saqqara and at Giza. We had originally just planned to see Giza, but when he told us about the full day guided tour that he would take us on, including transportation in his car, it was hard to pass up.

Since we are leaving on the night train, we also had to check out of the hotel, so combined with some time to talk to Nick (the other kids were already asleep), we are up fairly early. Mohamed arrived promptly at 9am, and after convincing hotel security he was legit (even though we weren’t that concerned, it was comforting to see the hotel take enough interest to check all of his credentials and note the information), we headed off to Saqqara.

Saqqara is most well known as the place, where the first pyramid was built for the pharaoh Djoser, by his architect Imothep (who despite some bad PR in The Mummy, was pretty famous in his own right). This pyramid is known as the Step Pyramid, as it was built as a series of small square platforms on top of one another rather than the straight-sided versions that came later. The pyramid itself was part of a large complex of buildings, such as temples the pharaoh would use in his afterlife, and tombs for the nobility of the time, who were allowed to be buried near the pharaoh. A handful of later pharaohs also built their pyramids at Saqqara, although at a time when Egypt was waning in wealth and power, so none of them were equal in size to the Step Pyramid and attract little attention.

From Saqqara, we can also see two more of the famous pyramids at Dahshur, about 30km in the distance. These are the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, both built for the next pharaoh Snefru. Our schedule doesn’t have enough time to see them close up, but we do get a couple of snapshots of them through the haze.

One of the other pyramids at Saqqara was built for the pharaoh Teti, and it is our first opportunity to enter one and walk all the way down into the burial chamber. With the exception of the Great Pyramid (built for Khufu), there is nothing inside of the pyramids, with the actual tomb being built underground. So to enter, you walk duck style down a fairly steep tunnel, where the temperature gets gradually hotter and the air increasingly more stale.

This pyramid was build some 300 years after the Step Pyramid, and one of the new features not present in earlier versions are hieroglyphics carved into the granite walls in every room of the tomb. The detail and volume of these carvings are mind blowing, and we could have easily spent hours in this small room underground just running our fingers over them and trying to imagine them being chiseled into the rock over 4,000 years ago. Ang tried to bribe the guard to let us take a picture (which in retrospect probably wasn’t the best idea), but without success, so there are none to post. Nonetheless, the time spent in this tiny underground room is definitely the high point of our trip to Saqqara.

After a nice lunch down in the valley (where plants actually grow), we head back toward Giza. On the way back, our guide tells us that Saqqara is now well known as a place where carpets are made, and all along the road there are buildings marked as carpet schools. We didn’t stop to take any pictures, but as far as we can tell, “carpet school” loosely translates to Egyptian sweatshop, and is apparently a place where children go to learn how to weave carpets. The front of these buildings are decked out quite nicely and contain the showroom, with the actual school either in the basement, or behind the showroom in a plain, unfinished brick building. We think back to how much our kids complain about how boring their school is and wonder if maybe carpet school would keep them busier.

We arrive at Giza at little after 1pm, and despite seeing the pyramids for two days already from our balcony, nothing could prepare us for seeing them up close. They are simply massive, and as we walk around them listening to our guide talk about the history, I can’t stop staring, trying to imagine how the ancient Eqyptians could have possibly built something of this scale. Mohamed reminds us that the pyramids at Giza were built around 2500 B.C., so that by the time the Chinese were building the Great Wall, the buildings I am staring at had already survived over two thousand years.

Mohamed also points out some markers on the ground that show where the original edges of the pyramids would have been as almost all of the smooth limestone casing (save for a small chunk at the top of the pyramid of Khafre) and many of the inner blocks (which are what you see now) were removed over the years and used in the construction of other buildings in Cairo. Based on these markings, I figure that as massive as what stands there today is, easily a third to a half again as many stones must have comprised the original buildings in the time of the pharaohs.

Behind the pyramid of Khufu, there is a separate museum built specifically to house a wooden boat that was excavated from a pit near his tomb. Rebuilt, the boat measures over 140 feet in length and is made of cedar, which remains in excellent condition even 4,500 years later. Designed for the pharaoh to use in the afterlife, the boat was never actually put into water, but instead was constructed, disassembled, and stored in a pit carved into the limestone, and then covered with a series of huge limestone blocks.

We bought an additional ticket to go into the pyramid of Khafre, so head over next to do that. Mohamed tells us there isn’t really much to see inside the pyramids as these were built before the time when the builders started carving hieroglyphics into the walls, and it turns out he is pretty much spot on. It is interesting to see, but mostly because of the scale (the passageways and burial chamber are much bigger than the other pyramids we have been in) and to be able to say that we did it.

Our final stop in Giza is a visit to the Sphinx. Having seen countless images of it over the years, it is nice to have a chance to see the real thing, but up close, it seems a lot more worn down than I imagined it. Because of that, or perhaps because it was at the end of a long day filled with really big things, it doesn’t inspire the same feelings of awe (Ang may say different). Its location is closest to the tour bus drop off so it is also the most crowded part of Giza and we get the opportunity to see a number of klassy (with a K) tourists dressed in tank tops and shorts. We’ve read this is a no-no in a Muslim country so joke a bit about them, but on the inside I definitely acknowledge they are likely pretty darn comfortable, while I am really, really, hot.

Finished with our trip, we head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and get ready for our night train to Aswan. We have a few hours to kill, so we take advantage of some final internet access to talk to all the boys before they head off to school and we head into what may be a 5 day void of connectivity.

Our first full day in Cairo got off to an early start (for one of us anyway). Still adjusting to the time zone, I found myself wide awake at 4:00 in the morning, and rather than stare at the ceiling for a few hours, made my way up to the business center to get on to the Internet and catch up on things. While it was good to have a bit of time to deal with emails (sadly, the needs of PDA Verticals go on even when I’m on vacation), by late in the afternoon, I am the walking dead.

We set out for the Egyptian Museum after breakfast, which is back in the center of the city (our hotel in Giza is out on the western side). Rather than fight the relentless traffic, we make our way to the subway, which proves to be extremely efficient. I note while riding that the people that design subways must not really ride them, as even a short trip here would quickly reinforce that handles hanging from the ceiling are a bad idea since they force people to raise their arms to hold them. Where it it routinely 90 degrees plus, that can be a very, very bad idea.

Once downtown, we make a quite stop at a travel agent to book our Nile cruise. We did a bit of research while still in Redmond, but didn’t reserve anything figuring we could get something here once we were sure what days we wanted to be on the river. That may turn out to be a good thing as the price we paid here was about half what we were quoted earlier, but of course, the proof in that will be when we actually show up for the boat and see if our names are actually on the list (and if they are, whether we are sharing a room with two other Egyptian families). Since reservations here are paid in cash and by the time we get to the boat we will be 600 miles from the travel agent’s office, the arrangements are not without some risk.

The rest of the afternoon we spend in the museum itself, which is crammed full of all kinds of amazing pieces. After walking through about 10%, using our guidebook to point out the highlights, we realize we will be far better off with a guide to tell us about what we are seeing. For about $40, he spends the next 2 hours walking us through the history of Egypt, and while the general overview is pretty well known, there is a lot of detail I never knew and find quite interesting. In retrospect, I think going to the museum first will help put a lot of the other things we see from here on out into better context, so while we didn’t plan it that way, should definitely benefit from it.

The big draw for the Egyptian Museum is the collection of items from the tomb of King Tut. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed in the museum or we would have a ton of pictures as the exhibit goes on forever. The death mask and gold sarcophagus are a couple of the most well known pieces and it is great to actually see those in person, but they are only a few of the thousands of items found in the tomb that are on display. Even more amazing is that King Tut is only really famous because his tomb was found complete and not because he was a particularly noteworthy pharaoh. With some of the longer reigning pharaohs having burial chambers ten times the size of King Tut’s, it is hard to imagine what those would have originally held before they were robbed.

We wrap up our museum visit checking out the mummy room. There is an extra charge to see the mummies and guides aren’t allowed in those rooms, so we leave them for last. Like the King Tut artifacts, we have seen plenty of pictures of mummies, but seeing them up close is definitely a whole different experience. Keeping in mind they are over 3,000 years old, seeing fingernails, teeth and hair is a little surreal.

Following the museum, our plan is to grab a quick snack to tide us over while we get back to the hotel and a restaurant we want to eat at near there. We pick out a few items by pointing at them, and quickly find our table full of the things we selected plus a whole host of other associated things like salads and bread. Not really sure whether they come with what we asked for (and not able to speak the language) we just dig into what has quickly become a full meal. The food is pretty good, but we find when we get the bill that we need to be far more specific as every item has its own charge.

No longer in need of dinner, by the time we get back to the hotel, I am ready for a nap, so while Angela catches up on her email, I study the inside of my eyelids.

Tomorrow we are heading out to the pyramids with the same guide we used at the museum. He is going to take us to Giza and then down to Saqqara (the burial grounds from when the capital f Egypt was Memphis), after which we will head off to the train station for our trip down the Aswan (where we will find out just how trustworthy Egyptian travel agents are). I suspect Internet access will be pretty limited between now and when we check in to our next hotel in Luxor on Tuesday, so may have very little opportunity to post between now and then.

After a fairly uneventful set of flights, we arrived in Cairo around 3pm local time.  We have definitely been spoiled with Cathay Pacific (mixed in with getting older and more grouchy) and now are quick to complain about seats that don’t go perfectly flat, but our connection was perfect in Frankfurt (only 90 minutes on the ground), and with impeccable German efficiency we stuck strictly to the schedule. The airport in Cairo seems fairly quiet for mid-afternoon which works to our advantage as we are able to quickly get our visa stamps, clear customs and pick up our luggage (yes, I caved and checked baggage).

Having traveled a fair amount, we like to think we are fairly sophisticated with airport transportation, and based on some data from our travel book and the information kiosk in the terminal, we navigate with our heads down through the horde of gypsy cab drivers, laughing inside at the inflated rates they are offering and head towards the cab stand – basic travel 101.  We realize we have a problem when we can’t actually find any cabs, even though everyone we ask points us to the same place to get one.  After stumbling around aimlessly for a few minutes (and marking ourselves as the tourists that we are), we find a driver with a rickety old cab who offers to take us to our hotel, which is 50km away.  The price seems steep and we try to haggle him down, but there aren’t any other cabs to be found, so we all know who has the upper hand.

The striking thing for me about Cairo is how monotone everything is. I’m not really sure what I expected given that, save for the Nile running through it, it is in the desert, but there is really just brown in every direction as far as the eye can see.  The big exception is the various colors of the cars that comprise the bumper-to-bumper traffic for pretty much our entire journey. Gas prices are fairly heavily subsidized here, so at least for people that can afford a car, there doesn’t seem to be any reluctance to get something full-size (versus using scooters and motorbikes) and the resulting traffic is horrendous.  They try to make up for the volume of cars by cramming 6 lanes of traffic onto a three-lane road, and for them it seems to work.  I could easily roll down my window and touch cars on either side of me, but surprisingly we don’t see a single fender bender in our 90-minute commute.

Our hotel for the next two nights is in Giza, directly across the street from the pyramids and we luck out with a room facing that direction. Since we arrived close to 4pm, it is still plenty light enough to see them towering in front of us directly from our balcony.  Definitely one of the most impressive views we have ever had, and a great way to start our time here. At night, they light them up a bit, which makes for a fairly impressive sight.

Once checked in, we hop back in a cab to a Radio Shack in search of a converter that will let us charge our electronics here and then the train station to procure tickets on the sleeper train to Aswan.  With those errands out of the way, we spend the rest of the evening wandering around a local market.  We find some street food stalls and are convinced enough that what they are selling is lamb to try it.  We also find a number of bakeries and, of course, have to indulge.  While there are the typical cakes and such available, the majority of what we see are pastries made of some combination of phyllo, nuts, and honey.  Pretty much everything we try is delicious, and between these and the street food, we beat back the hunger.

We get back to the hotel around 8:30 and spend a few minutes online trying to catch up on email and checking in.  Our plan for tomorrow is to head for the Egyptian Museum, and then wing it depending how much time we spend there.  There are quite a few things to see here, but for us, the traffic and noise are a bit much so we’re going to stick to the main attractions and then hit the road after two days.

It’s hard to believe that we are leaving again as it doesn’t seem like a year has already gone by since we were in Indonesia. Nonetheless, the tickets say tomorrow is the day, so once again we are scrambling a bit to try and get a long list of last minute details taken care of in an ever smaller period of time. Tomorrow around this time we will be somewhere over Canada on our way to Frankfurt, and then on to Cairo, which will be a new part of the world for us.  There is definitely a bit of trepidation in leaving the familiar surroundings of Asia, but Egypt seems like one of those places you have to see in your life, so for us, that time is now (we’ll also be spending some of our time in Sinai, so technically we can still get our Asia fix).

We have a bit of an itinerary this trip as Egypt is a little less free-wheeling for travelers than some countries we have been to, but so far we have only scheduled the essentials to try and reserve some degree of spontaneity.  In general, we will be splitting our time roughly equally between the western side of the country and the Sinai Peninsula. In the former, our path will go through Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel, taking in the various temples and such at each location.  The Sinai is mostly for relaxation and hopefully some diving, although time permitting we hope to take a short trip into Jordan to visit Petra.

Once again we are particularly fortunate to know our family is in good hands with both sets of grandparents operating the house of no rules.  It is only because of their help that we are able to embark on these annual adventures, and for that we are deeply grateful.

As always, the plan is to keep a fairly regular record of where we are and what we have seen (time and connectivity ultimately dictating how often that actually happens). So, if you never thought you’d see Angela eating a pigeon or waking up at 2am to climb a mountain, stay tuned.