Ha, as soon as you think a post is finished and that you've recorded everything, you realize there are a couple more interesting bits that you had forgotten!
At the end of the late supper at the St. Catherine monastery (see picture in previous post), as our folks were clearing out to go back to their rooms, a short portly fellow behind me with a thick accent (Italian?) asked me whether we were there together as a faith group or as a group of (secular / non-religious) tourists. I replied that we were mostly one faith group, from Canada. He asked if we were Roman Catholic or Orthodox Christians, in a manner which implied that there weren't any others (hey I wasn't offended, more amused than anything - reminded me of the wonderful nuns who taught us at St. Charles Academy many years ago). So I told him that we were neither, that we were Protestants. Well, this must have thrown him for a loop, because he was most astonished. "But we have the church, in church we have icons, you do not believe in these icons," he exclaimed. He went on to make it clear that they were Orthodox and that the monastery was Orthodox. [ this was very obvious the next day, when we saw the church itself - from the style, the icons, and the writing style on the items in the church (sorry don't know what lettering it is, but imagine it is Greek?), it was clear that it was Orthodox ]
Well, I explained, we were there to climb the mountain and to tour the monastery. He was still unbelieving. So, I tried to tell him that there would be two types of Christian visitors:
1. those who had the religious fervour to visit and to pray because it was Orthodox and an important blessed location - these would be the aforesaid Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians, and
2. those who came because it was an important historical location and liked to see the Christian history of those that came before - other Christians and those from other religions.
Well, that didn't placate him. "But, you don't celebrate the Eucharist!"
"Well, actually we do," I advised, "we just don't do it at every service."
"But we invoke the Holy Spirit to change the elements into ze body and ze blood of our Saviour!"
"Well, we actually do the same thing. Just not as often."
There was an Orthodox priest right beside him who apparently was rather amused by the exchange. Another woman from the table asked me, in perfect English, where I was from, and I of course told her.
At this point, we were obviously suffering from a disconnect. So I changed tacts.
"We need to know and understand each other, Muslim and Jew, Orthodox and Catholic and Protestant, so we can learn from each other," I advised my new friend.
"But these people, Muslim and Jews (with a pause that made it clear that others, implies us) are all different from us. We have our Saviour Jesus Christ, ze one true path, ze only way to the Father, to God! ...and they do not."
"My friend," I replied, "it is not through conflict that we successfully convert others to our beliefs. It is only through dialogue. This dialogue is the only way to understand each other, to convince each other, to convert one another. I choose to listen to many points of view, and it deepens my understanding and my faith."
Then I bid him adieu and turned to leave. I noticed that George was the only one behind me at our table, as if to be watching my back. He also got up and left. I was thinking about whether I did the right thing, said the right thing. In my limited way, I think maybe I did. Hmm, just read that passage this morning that might apply to this, Matthew 10:19&20, excerpted NIV: "...do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." Hmm, not sure of the divinity of the words, but maybe something I can lean on, myself.
The other "missed item" that occurred to me was not nearly as important. But, as we were climbing to the summit, we were gawking around from time to time to see what was out there. This was dangerous; you could lose your footing, or in my case, crank out an ankle, in one step. And at the coffee shacks, there were lights that blotted out your night vision, so sad. So, once in a while, we did sneak a peak up. The stars lit up the sky! Well, then, let me tell you, once I reached the summit, I found an unoccupied space and gazed up. Oh the magnificent stars up there! Clear and beautiful. Now I'm not an astronomer by any means, but it sure was a wonderful sight, a vision to behold.
31 October 2010
30 October 2010
A Long Drive, Sinai Peninsula, St. Catherine Monastery, and a big big climb - 29 and 30 October
Friday was a big driving day. We packed up early and headed out on the bus, across Giza and Cairo, off to the Sinai Peninsula. We crossed *under* the Suez Canal.
Our destination was St. Catherine Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula, right next to Mount Sinai where Moses saw the burning bush and received the ten commandments. Along the way, we stopped at the site where manna was first received by the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness. There are twelve wells there, one for each Israeli tribe. We saw three of them which were within walking distance. There are quite a few families settled behind it in shacks, and they appear to sell small trinkets and the like. Dozens children chase down the tourists, begging for money.
One interesting thing about our journey was that each "province" of Egypt seems to have an armed checkpoint at its border. We passed through several such checkpoints on our way to St. Catherine. We had wondered why our guide had stopped in Cairo and bought a stack of newspapers, but it seemed as though he was giving each border guard post a copy of today's news - and that seemed to speed our passage. Or, I could have just been imagining things.
We stopped for a wonderful lunch at Moon Beach restaurant on the Red Sea. Some went down and stood in the Red Sea, it was beautiful.
The Sinai is a desolate, beautiful place. So much soaring rock, so much scalloped rock face!
The roads are narrow two lane highways with a moderate amount of traffic. There are all kinds of vehicles, but mostly tour buses like ours, a few tanker trucks and other commercial vehicles, and of course a scattering of cars too. Much of the highway is across the plains between the rock outcroppings, punctuated by breathtaking careening curves through rock cuts.
It was during one of the serene plains stretches that our bus passed a fuel tanker. The tanker driver honk-honked as we passed, as they seem always to do. However, we immediately pulled off of the road and stopped. One of the staff members (I think he is an alternate driver) jumped out, was gone for several minutes, returned, and we were on our way again. Dayna said that she saw him carrying something blue, like bus body paint colour, into the bus. Yikes!
At the next stop, I noticed that the right hand outside mirror was missing. It seems that we must have succumbed to the narrow roadway and hooked the mirror into the tanker. In any case, I'll note that the next morning, when the bus pulled up to the monastery, there was a new mirror in place. We were impressed!
So, after a very long ride, something like eight or nine hours, we arrived at the monastery in the dark, in time for a late supper.
So we ate then crashed, ready for our big climb up Mount Sinai in the morning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Sinai . Did I mention that it was *early* morning? Well we hit the pit at about 8:30 PM, got our wake up "knock on the door" (no room phones - hey it's the guest house of a monastery!) at 1:30 AM, and had to be out and ready to climb at 2:00 AM. We were led through the monastery grounds and up to the trail. The target is to get to the summit before sunrise, which is apparently magnificent up there. At this time, we aren't sure when sunrise is, so we hustle, thinking that it should be at about 5 AM, giving us about 3 hours to scramble to the top.
Our leader and pastor, Rev. George Davidson (see picture above), was not feeling up to the hike this time, so we weren't able to have a service at the summit, as has been his custom on past trips. Oh, well.
Wouldn't you know it, but there were THOUSANDS of people on the trail already, hundreds of camels and their handlers, dozens of Bedouin guides and other guides. What a melee! And us with our flashlights, striding up the five kilometres of trails, dodging camel doo, trying not to slip or trip on the rocks. Yes, a trail about five kilometres long and about four feet wide, with two way traffic, camels and people stopped on the side, some extra camels being offered at about hundred feet intervals for those who decide the climb was getting too much.
So we try to stick together, while others are going slower and faster, we are passing and being passed, accented voices calling "Camel" from the darkness as we scramble to the left or right to avoid being trampled. We flash our lights on the feet of the person in front of us, trying to anticipate the trail's uneven footing and watching for signs of stumbling or trouble.
There are twelve small ramshackle coffee shops set up along the trail, each a hustling bustling centre of activity. More than coffee, they sell chocolate bars and energy bars, other drinks including soft drinks and tea, and provide refuge from the elements. Unfortunate, they are also crowded and packed, and almost every Bedouin seems to smoke while they hang around their groups. This was enough to get me antsy at pretty well every coffee shop stop, as we always seemed to be waiting for someone to catch up, catch their breath, use the W.C. (yes here in Egypt they follow the British convention of calling the washrooms a Water Closet, or more commonly "toilet") or whatever else. Not that I'm complaining, it was a tough climb, but curses if they would just butt out I would breath a whole heck of a lot easier!
Then there are the vendors all the way along the trail. In the dark, they were mostly hawking rides the rest of the way up by camel. However, after daybreak, the trail filled up with dozens and dozens of old men and children, selling polished stones ("only one US dollar sir, five Egyptian pounds"), or books about the monastery or the Sinai, or all manner of other trinkets and junque. Near the bottom, the youngest children were simply picking up any old stones off of the path and trying to look sad; the last few were simply asking for money. It seems everyone in this land is out for the few EGPs (Egyptian Pounds) that they can hustle, sad actually - but what can you do?
In any case, this approximately five kilometres of trail goes up at a moderate slope, back and forth on the mountains (well sharp escarpment really) around Mount Sinai, but it is only the opening act of what turns out to be a tough tough performance. You get to a point where the camels can no longer climb, and the path turns from a four feet wide sand-gravel-and-rock trail, to what has been called 750 steps to the summit. Well it's hardly steps, more like rocks carefully piled to make an approximation of steps. As such, they are even more uneven, more narrow, more treacherous. And, as the time approaches sunrise, the pace quickens, folks get a little more twitchy, and they take more chances, passing each other where they really shouldn't, yikes.
Then you've got the local folks, who scare you half to death by scrambling up and down across what look like sheer rock cuts, laughing as they go. And these guys wear sandals, OMG! They have a cavalier attitude and I suppose they are very comfortable running up and down. Yikes.
The last 100 feet or so to the summit was to me the scariest. Although the "steps" are no different, the slope seems to be much steeper.
So why, may you ask, am I so concerned about the climb? Well it's not just my fear of heights, which of course is fairly easy to ignore in the dark, but will be on high alert in the daylight coming down.
No, it's because of my ankles. In late June 2009, I had a very bad right ankle sprain that I foolishly delayed seeking attention for. It took months of physio to get it feeling better. This past summer it was feeling so strong and great that I stopped doing the exercises. Well, about four weeks ago, while riding my bike to work, I suffered another bad sprain on the same side. This time, I got right back into the exercise program, and it felt better within days. So while it does feel good, there's always the possibility that...
The one thing that gave me confidence that I could do it, on the other hand, was my recent hard work to lose weight, get into shape, and get my lung capacity back to where it should be. Since late August, I've lost around 27 pounds cycling back and forth from Headingley to work at Scurfield Blvd., about 23 km each way. Well that and some swimming too, now that fall is fading and winter is closing in. I haven't felt this good in a long time.
So, what happened? Of the 25 of us who were on the Biblical Lands Discovery Tour, 13 of us started out that morning. 5 decided that they would ride camels as far as they would go, 8 of us decided to walk. Of the 8 that walked, 6 stayed at the base of the "steps", 3 of us ventured on and made it to the summit. Of the 5 that rode camels, 3 of them ventured on up the "steps" and 1 made it to the summit.
In that last miserable 100 feet to the summit, the temperature seemed to drop at least 10 deg C and the wind just started to howl (it had been pretty calm until that point). It was just then that I realized that while climbing and sweating on the lower levels, I had dumped my sweater and mittens and put them into Dayna's knapsack - which of course she kept down at the base of the "steps". Also, the 7500 ft elevation became very obvious all the sudden - it was getting harder and harder to catch my breath. Up to this point, I had paced my breathing, much like when cycling. But at the summit, OMG, it became that much harder - with the cold, the wind, the steeper slope. But the four of us pressed on to the summit.
We arrived at the summit around 5:15 AM. We had heard from our guide that the sun should rise at about 6:00 AM, so we had plenty of time to hang out.
On the summit, there is a small chapel and a small mosque, with stone terraces, stone steps and low stone walls. So, how many people do you think could fit up there? My guess is about five to seven hundred. It was packed! All the good spots for viewing the sunrise were taken, but we managed to squeeze a spot on some stairs and wait.
There was a hazy cloud on the horizon to the east, so the sun didn't rise cleanly above the horizon. I got several photos of the sun "almost" risen, but the crowd, the smoke (yes lots of smoking everywhere in Egypt!) and the cold got to me and I started the way back down. Well the sun broke through as I descended the first stretch from the summit, so I turned back and snapped a picture of it.
When I looked around in the daylight, I was so surprised that there were hundreds more people lining the spine of the path all the way down. There were a *lot* of people up there!
So we scrambled our way back down the "steps". It was rather uneventful, although for what should be a less rushed trek down, there seemed to be several persons and groups in an awful hurry, rushing past on spots where it really wasn't wide enough, even pushing in a few spots. There were some folks who probably should not have made the trip up, using walking canes to get back down, and they were subject to a lot of passing and folks breathing down their necks. Bad form, people! Thankfully, I only saw one injury, there were three people tending to a lady with what looked like a sprained ankle.
We rejoined the rest of our group at the base of the steps, although there was confusion as to who was where, why they weren't all there at the same time, etc. Yikes, we have some ways to go to learn how to trek together as a group!
Surprise, surprise, the "easy" part of the walk down was actually the most difficult for me. The "steps" were largely free from debris and sand, so while you had to be careful and watch your step, footing was relatively sure. However, on the lower portion, the 5 km portion of the trail, the larger rocks often had sand on them, or gravel (well loose broken stone, not gravel as we know it), and this made it very treacherous to walk down. Also, never discount the effect of walking *downward* for a long stretch of time, it really wears down the back and the Achilles!
We reached the monastery at about 8:15 AM. We showered, stretched out flat for a bit (ouch ouch) then off for breakfast. After taking a tour of the monastery and the very old Orthodox church within, and seeing what is held to be *the* burning bush, we were on the bus and on our way. We stopped near the end of the lane, to see a likeness of the golden calf that the Israelites created and worshipped while Moses was up on the mountain getting the ten commandments. One of our tour members did mock homage to it, I wanted to tell him that he'd better smarten up or I'd smash some stone tablets over his head.
The monastery kitchen provided us with elaborate box lunches (hot meal too, rice & chicken!), so we headed straight for the Mariott Resort at Taba. Checkpoint, checkpoint, checkpoint... well, you get the idea. No newspapers now (guess they would have been old news).
Well not quite straight. We stopped at the Sayadeen Village Resort in Nuweibaa for a "toilet break" (NB British influence on our guide again). Wow, very nice place, again on the Red Sea. I'd love to holiday there if it wasn't like 12 hours of plane flight away!
We got to the Taba Resort, very nice, but I made the mistake of mentioning that I'd really really really prefer a non-smoking room (I've put up with too much smoke in the past few days) and then there was an argument at the desk. We waited over half an hour while they checked the room, checked again, changed our room, etc. Yikes, I should have just shut up and took what they gave me. Then I couldn't FIND the room. It turns out that they have about seven buildings of rooms around a campus area, and they are numbered in way that would make a believer in numerology cry. Well Dayna and I had a bit of a tiff over the search for a room, but then she found it and I crashed. Wouldn't you know it, I was tired! And life is really much better after you get an hour's sleep.
Then we had the requisite dinner, quite nice actually. We are looking forward to a free day at the resort tomorrow.
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| Check point to go under the Suez Canal |
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| Two of the twelve wells can be seen here, and the settlement behind it |
We stopped for a wonderful lunch at Moon Beach restaurant on the Red Sea. Some went down and stood in the Red Sea, it was beautiful.
The Sinai is a desolate, beautiful place. So much soaring rock, so much scalloped rock face!
The roads are narrow two lane highways with a moderate amount of traffic. There are all kinds of vehicles, but mostly tour buses like ours, a few tanker trucks and other commercial vehicles, and of course a scattering of cars too. Much of the highway is across the plains between the rock outcroppings, punctuated by breathtaking careening curves through rock cuts.
It was during one of the serene plains stretches that our bus passed a fuel tanker. The tanker driver honk-honked as we passed, as they seem always to do. However, we immediately pulled off of the road and stopped. One of the staff members (I think he is an alternate driver) jumped out, was gone for several minutes, returned, and we were on our way again. Dayna said that she saw him carrying something blue, like bus body paint colour, into the bus. Yikes!
At the next stop, I noticed that the right hand outside mirror was missing. It seems that we must have succumbed to the narrow roadway and hooked the mirror into the tanker. In any case, I'll note that the next morning, when the bus pulled up to the monastery, there was a new mirror in place. We were impressed!
So, after a very long ride, something like eight or nine hours, we arrived at the monastery in the dark, in time for a late supper.
 |
| Supper at the monastery - that's George in blue & beige on the left, looking away, his wife Donna at the far end in pink, and of course me on the right staring into the camera (as I was told!) |
Our leader and pastor, Rev. George Davidson (see picture above), was not feeling up to the hike this time, so we weren't able to have a service at the summit, as has been his custom on past trips. Oh, well.
Wouldn't you know it, but there were THOUSANDS of people on the trail already, hundreds of camels and their handlers, dozens of Bedouin guides and other guides. What a melee! And us with our flashlights, striding up the five kilometres of trails, dodging camel doo, trying not to slip or trip on the rocks. Yes, a trail about five kilometres long and about four feet wide, with two way traffic, camels and people stopped on the side, some extra camels being offered at about hundred feet intervals for those who decide the climb was getting too much.
So we try to stick together, while others are going slower and faster, we are passing and being passed, accented voices calling "Camel" from the darkness as we scramble to the left or right to avoid being trampled. We flash our lights on the feet of the person in front of us, trying to anticipate the trail's uneven footing and watching for signs of stumbling or trouble.
 |
| Camels waiting for customers, partway up the trail, in the dark! |
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| Camels can be smelly, noisy beasts - I saw one biting another one to annoy it - wonder if the first camel insulted the second one's mother? |
There are twelve small ramshackle coffee shops set up along the trail, each a hustling bustling centre of activity. More than coffee, they sell chocolate bars and energy bars, other drinks including soft drinks and tea, and provide refuge from the elements. Unfortunate, they are also crowded and packed, and almost every Bedouin seems to smoke while they hang around their groups. This was enough to get me antsy at pretty well every coffee shop stop, as we always seemed to be waiting for someone to catch up, catch their breath, use the W.C. (yes here in Egypt they follow the British convention of calling the washrooms a Water Closet, or more commonly "toilet") or whatever else. Not that I'm complaining, it was a tough climb, but curses if they would just butt out I would breath a whole heck of a lot easier!
Then there are the vendors all the way along the trail. In the dark, they were mostly hawking rides the rest of the way up by camel. However, after daybreak, the trail filled up with dozens and dozens of old men and children, selling polished stones ("only one US dollar sir, five Egyptian pounds"), or books about the monastery or the Sinai, or all manner of other trinkets and junque. Near the bottom, the youngest children were simply picking up any old stones off of the path and trying to look sad; the last few were simply asking for money. It seems everyone in this land is out for the few EGPs (Egyptian Pounds) that they can hustle, sad actually - but what can you do?
In any case, this approximately five kilometres of trail goes up at a moderate slope, back and forth on the mountains (well sharp escarpment really) around Mount Sinai, but it is only the opening act of what turns out to be a tough tough performance. You get to a point where the camels can no longer climb, and the path turns from a four feet wide sand-gravel-and-rock trail, to what has been called 750 steps to the summit. Well it's hardly steps, more like rocks carefully piled to make an approximation of steps. As such, they are even more uneven, more narrow, more treacherous. And, as the time approaches sunrise, the pace quickens, folks get a little more twitchy, and they take more chances, passing each other where they really shouldn't, yikes.
Then you've got the local folks, who scare you half to death by scrambling up and down across what look like sheer rock cuts, laughing as they go. And these guys wear sandals, OMG! They have a cavalier attitude and I suppose they are very comfortable running up and down. Yikes.
The last 100 feet or so to the summit was to me the scariest. Although the "steps" are no different, the slope seems to be much steeper.
So why, may you ask, am I so concerned about the climb? Well it's not just my fear of heights, which of course is fairly easy to ignore in the dark, but will be on high alert in the daylight coming down.
No, it's because of my ankles. In late June 2009, I had a very bad right ankle sprain that I foolishly delayed seeking attention for. It took months of physio to get it feeling better. This past summer it was feeling so strong and great that I stopped doing the exercises. Well, about four weeks ago, while riding my bike to work, I suffered another bad sprain on the same side. This time, I got right back into the exercise program, and it felt better within days. So while it does feel good, there's always the possibility that...
The one thing that gave me confidence that I could do it, on the other hand, was my recent hard work to lose weight, get into shape, and get my lung capacity back to where it should be. Since late August, I've lost around 27 pounds cycling back and forth from Headingley to work at Scurfield Blvd., about 23 km each way. Well that and some swimming too, now that fall is fading and winter is closing in. I haven't felt this good in a long time.
So, what happened? Of the 25 of us who were on the Biblical Lands Discovery Tour, 13 of us started out that morning. 5 decided that they would ride camels as far as they would go, 8 of us decided to walk. Of the 8 that walked, 6 stayed at the base of the "steps", 3 of us ventured on and made it to the summit. Of the 5 that rode camels, 3 of them ventured on up the "steps" and 1 made it to the summit.
In that last miserable 100 feet to the summit, the temperature seemed to drop at least 10 deg C and the wind just started to howl (it had been pretty calm until that point). It was just then that I realized that while climbing and sweating on the lower levels, I had dumped my sweater and mittens and put them into Dayna's knapsack - which of course she kept down at the base of the "steps". Also, the 7500 ft elevation became very obvious all the sudden - it was getting harder and harder to catch my breath. Up to this point, I had paced my breathing, much like when cycling. But at the summit, OMG, it became that much harder - with the cold, the wind, the steeper slope. But the four of us pressed on to the summit.
We arrived at the summit around 5:15 AM. We had heard from our guide that the sun should rise at about 6:00 AM, so we had plenty of time to hang out.
On the summit, there is a small chapel and a small mosque, with stone terraces, stone steps and low stone walls. So, how many people do you think could fit up there? My guess is about five to seven hundred. It was packed! All the good spots for viewing the sunrise were taken, but we managed to squeeze a spot on some stairs and wait.
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| Summit dwellers huddling below the mosque |
 | |
| Summit dwellers huddling along the south side of the chapel |
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| Here I am, on the west side of the summit - the one where you could actually find a place to stand. The sun seekers are weighing down the east side. |
There was a hazy cloud on the horizon to the east, so the sun didn't rise cleanly above the horizon. I got several photos of the sun "almost" risen, but the crowd, the smoke (yes lots of smoking everywhere in Egypt!) and the cold got to me and I started the way back down. Well the sun broke through as I descended the first stretch from the summit, so I turned back and snapped a picture of it.
When I looked around in the daylight, I was so surprised that there were hundreds more people lining the spine of the path all the way down. There were a *lot* of people up there!
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| The sun comes up just in time! |
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| Folks lined the ridges facing east |
So we scrambled our way back down the "steps". It was rather uneventful, although for what should be a less rushed trek down, there seemed to be several persons and groups in an awful hurry, rushing past on spots where it really wasn't wide enough, even pushing in a few spots. There were some folks who probably should not have made the trip up, using walking canes to get back down, and they were subject to a lot of passing and folks breathing down their necks. Bad form, people! Thankfully, I only saw one injury, there were three people tending to a lady with what looked like a sprained ankle.
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| Steps near the summit down to the first coffee / refreshment stand |
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| More of the steps, further down from the summit. Goes through a rock cut! |
We rejoined the rest of our group at the base of the steps, although there was confusion as to who was where, why they weren't all there at the same time, etc. Yikes, we have some ways to go to learn how to trek together as a group!
Surprise, surprise, the "easy" part of the walk down was actually the most difficult for me. The "steps" were largely free from debris and sand, so while you had to be careful and watch your step, footing was relatively sure. However, on the lower portion, the 5 km portion of the trail, the larger rocks often had sand on them, or gravel (well loose broken stone, not gravel as we know it), and this made it very treacherous to walk down. Also, never discount the effect of walking *downward* for a long stretch of time, it really wears down the back and the Achilles!
We reached the monastery at about 8:15 AM. We showered, stretched out flat for a bit (ouch ouch) then off for breakfast. After taking a tour of the monastery and the very old Orthodox church within, and seeing what is held to be *the* burning bush, we were on the bus and on our way. We stopped near the end of the lane, to see a likeness of the golden calf that the Israelites created and worshipped while Moses was up on the mountain getting the ten commandments. One of our tour members did mock homage to it, I wanted to tell him that he'd better smarten up or I'd smash some stone tablets over his head.
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| Burning bush, long since extinguished, thankfully |
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| Likeness of the golden calf? (in stone about 3/4 up in picture) |
The monastery kitchen provided us with elaborate box lunches (hot meal too, rice & chicken!), so we headed straight for the Mariott Resort at Taba. Checkpoint, checkpoint, checkpoint... well, you get the idea. No newspapers now (guess they would have been old news).
Well not quite straight. We stopped at the Sayadeen Village Resort in Nuweibaa for a "toilet break" (NB British influence on our guide again). Wow, very nice place, again on the Red Sea. I'd love to holiday there if it wasn't like 12 hours of plane flight away!
We got to the Taba Resort, very nice, but I made the mistake of mentioning that I'd really really really prefer a non-smoking room (I've put up with too much smoke in the past few days) and then there was an argument at the desk. We waited over half an hour while they checked the room, checked again, changed our room, etc. Yikes, I should have just shut up and took what they gave me. Then I couldn't FIND the room. It turns out that they have about seven buildings of rooms around a campus area, and they are numbered in way that would make a believer in numerology cry. Well Dayna and I had a bit of a tiff over the search for a room, but then she found it and I crashed. Wouldn't you know it, I was tired! And life is really much better after you get an hour's sleep.
Then we had the requisite dinner, quite nice actually. We are looking forward to a free day at the resort tomorrow.
28 October 2010
Cairo Citadel, Churches and Egyptian Museum - 28 October
We were off early to the Citadel this morning, the fortress built by sultan Saladin in the 12th city where the 19th century Mohammed Ali Mosque is built, very impressive.
Then we were off to Old Cairo - Coptic Cairo - the walled city within the city, where Christians once found refuge. We visited St. Sargius Church, which was recently (last decade) pumped dry after being flooded by the Nile. The crypt below the church, which we could only peer down into, is held to be one of the places where the Holy Family sought refuge when they fled to Egypt to escape from King Herod's murderous intent.
We also visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue, apparently one of the oldest and most famous synagogues in the world.
The streets of Coptic Cairo are narrow and made of cobblestone. It was quite crowded, difficult to navigate with all the other groups making their way along the same path!
Driving in Cairo must be quite a challenge - honking constantly, weaving in and out, and the road markings are, in the words of our first night's guide, "for decoration only." I honestly don't know how more people aren't laying along the side of the road every day. There are almost no traffic lights, yet traffic moves along fairly well. Apparently insurance is available but good luck in getting a settlement in your lifetime. You might as well toss the car and get another one. Not a new one, mind you - apparently the import duties on automobiles can be as high as 100% - and there are no domestic vehicles manufactured.
Our next stop was the Egyptian Museum. Yes, King Tuankhamun's tomb treasures are here, including many, many pieces of jewelry, the head dress, gold coated furniture & caskets. In fact, many of the wooden pieces have a thick layer of gold leaf on them, and then they fit one within another, like Ukranian Dolls. Even the caskets are four huge boxes coated with gold leaf, and fit one within another. They are so large that they cannot be practically extracted from within each other. Each larger one was built around the outside of the smaller one, yikes!
There are hundreds of thousands of artifacts in the museum, it would take years to see it all. We spent two hours and saw a small fraction. I think maybe in spite of this, I got my fill.
...which brings me to the next thing. Everyone here has their hand out, especially in the washrooms. You will be paying to go to the bathroom, just count on it. There often isn't any toilet paper in the bathroom stall, even if there is a holder for it. A young man (or woman as the case may be in a woman's washroom) will be there with a roll, ready to offer some. So you can take some in with you, right? Well there is no hand towel either. As soon as you emerge, the person will jump to the sink, start the water for you, and offer you a hand towel. So you might as well haul out an Egyptian 5 pound note (roughly equivalent to 1 dollar) and offer it to the young person. Not realizing all of this, I went into one washroom in the museum, where there was a posting "no tips allowed", feeling pretty good about myself. No toilet paper. I turned right round and walked out, the young fellow started hassling me to pay! I did the old "wash out" symbol and told him, "didn't do anything, no pay" and continued right past him. He was pretty peeved. I guess I'll have to get down with the local customs better...
We had lunch on "The Imperial", a permanently moored ship along the Nile, quite nice. Then we took photos off the top deck. I'm not sure I would swim in that river, let me tell you! Then again, neither would I swim in the Assiniboine, come to think of it.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at an Egyptian Cotton Shop.
We returned to the hotel for a late afternoon nap, then off to a laser light show at the Giza Pyramids. The show was called "Sound and Light". It was quite impressive, lighting up the pyramids and sphynx with lasers and many different coloured floodlights, but it was all a bit melodramatic for me. Oh well, everyone else seemed to enjoy it. I just thought that at 55 minutes, it was about 30 minutes too long.
We had a late supper, now typing this in and ready to crash. Dayna has re-packed us, we are prepared for an early morning departure for St. Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula. Apparently we're in for six to eight hours of riding in the motor coach tomorrow! We'll be hitting the sack early tomorrow night, as the next day we are up at 02h00 for the three hour climb to the summit of climb Mount Sinai for a sunrise service on top. Apparently, most won't be able to make the walk, as it's a long, long walk up, very taxing, and quite a challenge to keep your footing on the several few hundred metres. I don't know if I'll be posting tomorrow evening, we shall see!
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| Mohammed Ali mosque in the Cairo Citadel |
Then we were off to Old Cairo - Coptic Cairo - the walled city within the city, where Christians once found refuge. We visited St. Sargius Church, which was recently (last decade) pumped dry after being flooded by the Nile. The crypt below the church, which we could only peer down into, is held to be one of the places where the Holy Family sought refuge when they fled to Egypt to escape from King Herod's murderous intent.
We also visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue, apparently one of the oldest and most famous synagogues in the world.
The streets of Coptic Cairo are narrow and made of cobblestone. It was quite crowded, difficult to navigate with all the other groups making their way along the same path!
Driving in Cairo must be quite a challenge - honking constantly, weaving in and out, and the road markings are, in the words of our first night's guide, "for decoration only." I honestly don't know how more people aren't laying along the side of the road every day. There are almost no traffic lights, yet traffic moves along fairly well. Apparently insurance is available but good luck in getting a settlement in your lifetime. You might as well toss the car and get another one. Not a new one, mind you - apparently the import duties on automobiles can be as high as 100% - and there are no domestic vehicles manufactured.
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| A quiet time on a street outside of Coptic Cairo |
Our next stop was the Egyptian Museum. Yes, King Tuankhamun's tomb treasures are here, including many, many pieces of jewelry, the head dress, gold coated furniture & caskets. In fact, many of the wooden pieces have a thick layer of gold leaf on them, and then they fit one within another, like Ukranian Dolls. Even the caskets are four huge boxes coated with gold leaf, and fit one within another. They are so large that they cannot be practically extracted from within each other. Each larger one was built around the outside of the smaller one, yikes!
There are hundreds of thousands of artifacts in the museum, it would take years to see it all. We spent two hours and saw a small fraction. I think maybe in spite of this, I got my fill.
...which brings me to the next thing. Everyone here has their hand out, especially in the washrooms. You will be paying to go to the bathroom, just count on it. There often isn't any toilet paper in the bathroom stall, even if there is a holder for it. A young man (or woman as the case may be in a woman's washroom) will be there with a roll, ready to offer some. So you can take some in with you, right? Well there is no hand towel either. As soon as you emerge, the person will jump to the sink, start the water for you, and offer you a hand towel. So you might as well haul out an Egyptian 5 pound note (roughly equivalent to 1 dollar) and offer it to the young person. Not realizing all of this, I went into one washroom in the museum, where there was a posting "no tips allowed", feeling pretty good about myself. No toilet paper. I turned right round and walked out, the young fellow started hassling me to pay! I did the old "wash out" symbol and told him, "didn't do anything, no pay" and continued right past him. He was pretty peeved. I guess I'll have to get down with the local customs better...
We had lunch on "The Imperial", a permanently moored ship along the Nile, quite nice. Then we took photos off the top deck. I'm not sure I would swim in that river, let me tell you! Then again, neither would I swim in the Assiniboine, come to think of it.
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at an Egyptian Cotton Shop.
We returned to the hotel for a late afternoon nap, then off to a laser light show at the Giza Pyramids. The show was called "Sound and Light". It was quite impressive, lighting up the pyramids and sphynx with lasers and many different coloured floodlights, but it was all a bit melodramatic for me. Oh well, everyone else seemed to enjoy it. I just thought that at 55 minutes, it was about 30 minutes too long.
We had a late supper, now typing this in and ready to crash. Dayna has re-packed us, we are prepared for an early morning departure for St. Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula. Apparently we're in for six to eight hours of riding in the motor coach tomorrow! We'll be hitting the sack early tomorrow night, as the next day we are up at 02h00 for the three hour climb to the summit of climb Mount Sinai for a sunrise service on top. Apparently, most won't be able to make the walk, as it's a long, long walk up, very taxing, and quite a challenge to keep your footing on the several few hundred metres. I don't know if I'll be posting tomorrow evening, we shall see!
27 October 2010
Pyramid day - 27 October
One of the things that strikes you about the city of Cairo (and Giza) is that the buildings look terrible. Very few of the residence buildings are completed. Our guide advised that this is a way to avoid taxes, as apparently incomplete buildings are taxed much lower. It sure makes the residences look ugly, especially at night, when you can see that they don't have windows but people are still living there. You can see carpets & towels over windows, even see right into people's living areas, and it can look rather sad.
That said, there is obviously a lot of money in this country too - in some places. There are beautiful places.
So about the pyramids. We went to two sites today - the Giza pyramids, the larger ones and more modern, and the Sakkara pyramids, one of which is the oldest man-made stone structure in the world, over 4500 years old, yikes.
At each stop, we of course got out and did the tourist thing - took pictures of course! And said, "no no no" hundreds of times. Yikes, there are hundreds of guys hawking their wares here, from kids who look eight or nine years old, right up to those who look to be in their eighties! They seem very pushy to Canadians, let me tell you. And they are all smoking cigarettes - even the eight year olds!
The pyramids themselves are pretty impressive. They were at one time capped with limestone, but it was all stolen to make new buildings, so now they are jagged on the edges.
So then we went to a shop that sold jewelry. Now we could not afford the big ticket items in there, but we did buy a nice crystal pyramid and a few other little items.
Next to a papyrus shop. We didn't buy anything but it was fascinating the way they used to make the stuff... and they still do!
Lunch was wonderful, although we couldn't identify everything, it was all great.
Then off to the Sakkara pyramids, which are the oldest pyramids of them all, reaching back to around 5,000 years ago! We actually got to go inside one of them, down to the sarcophagus chamber and saw real hyroglyphics, very cool. I actually touched them, wasn't supposed to, oops. We weren't able to take pictures in there, so nothing to show - but it's worthwhile, if you ever get the chance.
So then back to the hotel for supper, very nice.
After supper, Dayna and I went for a walk outside the walls of the hotel grounds. We figured we might come across a convenience store or market where we might buy Diet Pepsi, etc. We came across two others from our group who were doing the same thing. Then we came across a member of the hotel staff, just off duty, who offered to take us to one.
Well first stop was nothing of the sort, it was a perfume shop. Wow, what a place. The perfumes were apparently pure extract, no chemicals nor alcohol. It was amazing! So we bought some, spent too much!
Then they took us to a general gift shop, then another papyrus place. We were tired, didn't buy, came back. And that's it. Well, except updating this blog!
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| Incomplete buildings - they almost all look this way! |
So about the pyramids. We went to two sites today - the Giza pyramids, the larger ones and more modern, and the Sakkara pyramids, one of which is the oldest man-made stone structure in the world, over 4500 years old, yikes.
At each stop, we of course got out and did the tourist thing - took pictures of course! And said, "no no no" hundreds of times. Yikes, there are hundreds of guys hawking their wares here, from kids who look eight or nine years old, right up to those who look to be in their eighties! They seem very pushy to Canadians, let me tell you. And they are all smoking cigarettes - even the eight year olds!
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| Vendors hawking their wares at the Giza Pyramids |
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| The Giza Pyramids |
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| Dayna stands before the largest pyramid at Giza. Notice the jaggy edge. The smooth part up high is what is left of the smooth cap that used to be on all of them! |
Next to a papyrus shop. We didn't buy anything but it was fascinating the way they used to make the stuff... and they still do!
Lunch was wonderful, although we couldn't identify everything, it was all great.
Then off to the Sakkara pyramids, which are the oldest pyramids of them all, reaching back to around 5,000 years ago! We actually got to go inside one of them, down to the sarcophagus chamber and saw real hyroglyphics, very cool. I actually touched them, wasn't supposed to, oops. We weren't able to take pictures in there, so nothing to show - but it's worthwhile, if you ever get the chance.
So then back to the hotel for supper, very nice.
After supper, Dayna and I went for a walk outside the walls of the hotel grounds. We figured we might come across a convenience store or market where we might buy Diet Pepsi, etc. We came across two others from our group who were doing the same thing. Then we came across a member of the hotel staff, just off duty, who offered to take us to one.
Well first stop was nothing of the sort, it was a perfume shop. Wow, what a place. The perfumes were apparently pure extract, no chemicals nor alcohol. It was amazing! So we bought some, spent too much!
Then they took us to a general gift shop, then another papyrus place. We were tired, didn't buy, came back. And that's it. Well, except updating this blog!
Winnipeg to Cairo - 25/26 October
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| Leaving Winnipeg on Monday. George didn't take a very clear shot! I think he was nervous to be in such good company. |
The flight to Toronto was smooth and pleasant enough, but there was a mechanical issue with the auxiliary power unit and we were a half hour late. Getting off the plane, we heard last call for our connecting flight to London-Heathrow, yikes! Dayna and I left the rest behind and made a dash for the gate. It took us over 20 minutes of brisk walk to get there, and we knew that there were at least a dozen well behind us, including one lady in a wheelchair. The folks at the gate assured us that they knew we were coming, and would wait. I stood outside and waited, while Dayna got on the plane. They all showed up without incident, although it took some twenty minutes more. We wiped our foreheads and jumped on, and were off!
The flight to London was long but uneventful. Most folks got some sleep; I just couldn't. Pondering, thinking, wondering... and then we were there.
We got to sit for three hours and a bit in Heathrow. Our next flight on Egypt Air, was posted as boarding at 14h45, but no gate number was put up until about 15h00. By the time we got to the gate, the lineup was huge, but that was just to get into the gate lounge. Another hour's delay in the lounge, and we were... oops, delay on the tarmac, and the slowest taxi out & takeoff I have ever seen.
Even after all that, we were only 1/2 hour late getting to Cairo. It was almost midnight by the time we got to our hotel, though - it's actually in Giza, Cairo's sister city across the Nile. We're riding in a bus, and that's a good thing. Driving must be quite the experience here - as our tour guide that night said, the lines on the road are just decorations - and he meant it!
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| After a full day's travel without sleep, we finally get to sit down in Le Meridien lobby |
16 October 2010
Planning for trip to the middle east!
Yes, we are getting ready to go on the "Bible Lands Discovery Tour" of the middle east. It's just over a week away now! Leaving 25 October.
The itinerary looks like this:
25 October - depart Winnipeg early evening, through Toronto then Heathrow and on to Cairo
26 October - arrive Cairo & crash
27 October - Cairo - off to Sakkara and visit Giza Pyramids
28 October - Cairo - Egyptian Museum and other historical sites of Cairo
29 October - Sinai Peninsula / Saint Catherine
30 October - up to top of Mount Sinai for sunrise service, St. Catherine Monastery, and off to Taba, resort along Gulf of Aqaba
31 October - free day in Taba, very nice resort!
1 November - travel out of Egypt across southern Israel and into Jordan, travel to Wadi Rum desert landscape, then on to Petra
2 November - visit ancient city of Petra, accessible only through a mile long canyon
3 November - travel north up "the King's Highway"to Kerak, then Mount Nebo, Masaba, and on to Amman where we stay overnight.
4 November - visit Bethany where John the Baptist lived and where Jesus was baptized, then on into Israel, staying along the Sea of Galilee.
5 November - visit sites around the Sea of Galilee and go on the Sea, then Banias (Caesarea Philippi), Capernaum, Tabgha (loaves & fishes miracle location), and the Mount of Beatitudes (sermon on the mount).
6 November - visit ruins at Sepphoris, Nazareth, and Mount Tabor (location of transfiguration).
7 November - Megiddo (predicted location of Battle of Armegeddon), Caesarea, and Jericho.
8 November - Dead Sea region - Qumran (where Dead Sea Scrolls found), Masada, take a dip in the Dead Sea, then to Jerusalem
9 November - Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Church of Nativity, Shepherd's Fields, Shrine of the Book Museum (Dead Sea Scrolls preserved here).
10 November - Old Jerusalem, Pool of Bethesda, Via Dolorosa ("Way of the Cross" to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), Garden Tomb.
11 November - return home through Toronto
The itinerary looks like this:
25 October - depart Winnipeg early evening, through Toronto then Heathrow and on to Cairo
26 October - arrive Cairo & crash
27 October - Cairo - off to Sakkara and visit Giza Pyramids
28 October - Cairo - Egyptian Museum and other historical sites of Cairo
29 October - Sinai Peninsula / Saint Catherine
30 October - up to top of Mount Sinai for sunrise service, St. Catherine Monastery, and off to Taba, resort along Gulf of Aqaba
31 October - free day in Taba, very nice resort!
1 November - travel out of Egypt across southern Israel and into Jordan, travel to Wadi Rum desert landscape, then on to Petra
2 November - visit ancient city of Petra, accessible only through a mile long canyon
3 November - travel north up "the King's Highway"to Kerak, then Mount Nebo, Masaba, and on to Amman where we stay overnight.
4 November - visit Bethany where John the Baptist lived and where Jesus was baptized, then on into Israel, staying along the Sea of Galilee.
5 November - visit sites around the Sea of Galilee and go on the Sea, then Banias (Caesarea Philippi), Capernaum, Tabgha (loaves & fishes miracle location), and the Mount of Beatitudes (sermon on the mount).
6 November - visit ruins at Sepphoris, Nazareth, and Mount Tabor (location of transfiguration).
7 November - Megiddo (predicted location of Battle of Armegeddon), Caesarea, and Jericho.
8 November - Dead Sea region - Qumran (where Dead Sea Scrolls found), Masada, take a dip in the Dead Sea, then to Jerusalem
9 November - Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Church of Nativity, Shepherd's Fields, Shrine of the Book Museum (Dead Sea Scrolls preserved here).
10 November - Old Jerusalem, Pool of Bethesda, Via Dolorosa ("Way of the Cross" to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre), Garden Tomb.
11 November - return home through Toronto
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