After three crazy days in Cairo, and by crazy we mean INSANE, we are happy to be off to Aswan.
Cairo is insanity on wheels. There are horns constantly honking - constant and pedestrians crossing the street like "Frogger." Brett and I have truely experienced our first culture shock. This city is in shambles! The buildings are built out of brick and clay and cement and many do not have roofs. Smog checks don't exist here - that is for sure. However, amist the insanity described above, between the hagglers and the donkey carts alongside the road, lies a genuine nature, once you get past the haggling ofcourse.
Aside from the people, the pyramids were amazing! Breath taking and a sight to be had. We enjoyed our 2 hour camel ride in Giza. It was an amazing experience. My camels name was Alibaba and Brett's camel's name was Mickey - like Mickey Mouse. My camel was sassy and hated laying down for me to get off and occassionally grunted and spit and snorted. We also visited Dashur and climbed down about 100 steps into the bottom of the pyramid - once in there, we could barley breath and the limestone reaked of ammonia, I had a mini panic attack as I felt as though I could not breathe.
Yesterday we travelled by bus 6 hours southwest into the black sand and white sand desert and slept under the stars. We hired a guide and drove us through the desert sand dunes and set up our camp and cooked us lunch, dinner and breakfast. We watched the sunset against a salvador dali backdrop and woke just before sunrise and also made a friends with a fox named Jose that looked just like HURLEY!
Now after three crazy days, we're on to Aswan. We're staying on the Nile and will visit more temples and tombs. After Aswan we are taking a bus to Luxor and then onto Dahab to spend Christmas on the Red Sea.
PS: People think we are brother and sister and are from Spain or Canada.
December 21, 2010
December 16, 2010
Off to AFRICA! We'll be blogging from afar!
Today is finally here!
The anticipation leading up to today has been culminating since June of 2010, when Brett and I booked our R/T airfare to Cairo, Egypt! In some sense, we convinced ourselves that this flight was the "right" flight because it has a 9 hour layover in London. We are going to do some quick sightseeing in London and visit our friends who moved to London in 2007 immediately after they were married, Andrew and Katie. Andrew is Brett's "Buddy" (I put "Buddy in quotation marks because when Brett transfered from the NYC PwC office, Andrew was assigned to be his "buddy" in San Francisco) Needless to say, Brett and Andrew became close friends, and this will be our second time seeing A & K in London.
After our quick layover in London - it's off to Cairo we go. We land in Cairo at 5:15am, two days (with the time change) from now! We will orient ourselves to the city day 1 and day 2 were off to see the Giza pyramids!
Day 3 were are safaring out to the Whitesand Desert to see the blacksand desert, crystal mountains and overnighting under the stars in the middle of the desert - alone! We'll have a guide, don't fear.
Day 4 & 5 include a flight down to Aswan to visit the temples and a bus ride up to Luxor the next day for more temple time. Then it's a flight to Sharm-el-sheik where we will take another bus to Dahab, where we will enjoy a vacation from our vacation on the shores of the Red Sea. Here we will spend the next 7 days, lounging on the beach, skiing sand dunes other possible adventures. We will spend Christmas on the Red Sea! Christmas Eve/Christmas Day we are hiking St.Catherines http://www.desertecotours.com/showimg.asp?img=UploadImg/Pages/eilat_12.jpg
We will be spending New Years Eve in South Africa. We're spending a week in SA and will travel the Western portion of the country by car and southern coast line (visiting the southern most point in SA) along with the Winelands, Table Mountain and Robben Island. We also plan on louging on the beach and swimming with the penguins! I can't wait for that experience! After SA were off to Tanzania.
Our game drive is for a week through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We'll have a private guide/tour and are staying in lodges scattered throughout the country and on the rim of the crater. We're also visiting a local tribe the Masia during our visit to Tanzania.
It's going to be a whirlwind of a trip. Brett and I will blog along the way, as many of our friends have asked :) Love you all!!!
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
The anticipation leading up to today has been culminating since June of 2010, when Brett and I booked our R/T airfare to Cairo, Egypt! In some sense, we convinced ourselves that this flight was the "right" flight because it has a 9 hour layover in London. We are going to do some quick sightseeing in London and visit our friends who moved to London in 2007 immediately after they were married, Andrew and Katie. Andrew is Brett's "Buddy" (I put "Buddy in quotation marks because when Brett transfered from the NYC PwC office, Andrew was assigned to be his "buddy" in San Francisco) Needless to say, Brett and Andrew became close friends, and this will be our second time seeing A & K in London.
After our quick layover in London - it's off to Cairo we go. We land in Cairo at 5:15am, two days (with the time change) from now! We will orient ourselves to the city day 1 and day 2 were off to see the Giza pyramids!
Day 3 were are safaring out to the Whitesand Desert to see the blacksand desert, crystal mountains and overnighting under the stars in the middle of the desert - alone! We'll have a guide, don't fear.
Day 4 & 5 include a flight down to Aswan to visit the temples and a bus ride up to Luxor the next day for more temple time. Then it's a flight to Sharm-el-sheik where we will take another bus to Dahab, where we will enjoy a vacation from our vacation on the shores of the Red Sea. Here we will spend the next 7 days, lounging on the beach, skiing sand dunes other possible adventures. We will spend Christmas on the Red Sea! Christmas Eve/Christmas Day we are hiking St.Catherines http://www.desertecotours.com/showimg.asp?img=UploadImg/Pages/eilat_12.jpg
We will be spending New Years Eve in South Africa. We're spending a week in SA and will travel the Western portion of the country by car and southern coast line (visiting the southern most point in SA) along with the Winelands, Table Mountain and Robben Island. We also plan on louging on the beach and swimming with the penguins! I can't wait for that experience! After SA were off to Tanzania.
Our game drive is for a week through the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We'll have a private guide/tour and are staying in lodges scattered throughout the country and on the rim of the crater. We're also visiting a local tribe the Masia during our visit to Tanzania.
It's going to be a whirlwind of a trip. Brett and I will blog along the way, as many of our friends have asked :) Love you all!!!
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
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