Tired

I found out today why I haven't been keen on learning anymore routes at the Post Office. I had to do the route I was trained on last week by myself. I got seriously kicked. Monday is the worst day to have someone who is new to a route to do it. You have 2 days of mail. I walked in and I had 5 full tubs of mail waiting to be cased as well as fliers. It got worse from there. It took me so long to case the mail for the route that I didn't start delivering it till around 2:45 p.m. One nice thing about the route I did today was that it was virtually all mounted. What that means is that I was able to drive up to each box and put their mail right in it vice having to get out of the mail truck and do a second sorting at a multi-box. The route did have 9 or so multi-boxes but, the carrier had single slotted the boxes so when I hit the street, the mail was already broken down to each individual address in the multi-boxes. No second sorting and no bad mail to bring back to the Post Office.

In time, I know I'll get better at the route I did today. The hardest part of this particular route is casing the mail since it is all single slotted i.e. broken down to each individual address. Some of the streets on the route jumped around the case and there were some addresses that were off by themselves making them hard to find. This makes it hard to case/sort but, it also makes it very easy to deliver which I like. Once I hit the street, I'm on easy street as far as delivering the mail on the route. It's all stick and stuff.

Tomorrow, I'll get to train on another route. That should go easier as Tuesdays are typically the lightest mail volume wise as far as the week goes. Still, I know I'll be going around in circles looking for various addresses. It'll be a pain but, the money will be nice and by knowing the route, I'll be able to get more hours down the line. Cheers all!

Craziness on the Nile

Above is a picture of men trying to sell stuff to people on the river cruise ship I was on. It was so ridiculous that I had to take a picture of it. The picture below show just how many of these guys there were. There must have been at least 35 boats. They would literally surround the ship in their attempt to sell their various good. It was crazy.

Enroute to Aswan, all the cruise ships had to come to a stop and wait their turn outside the Esna Locks. This is where these guys were waiting. They would then oar out to each ship. When they arrived, they displayed their various wares. If a customer wasn't sure about the item, they'd put it in a plastic bag and throw it up to them so they could take it out of the bag and look the item over. If the person liked the item, the haggling began. If they didn't, they put it back in the bag and threw it back to the seller. Hopefully, the item landed back in their boat though in a number of cases, the seller had to fish their wares out of the river. Things got more interesting if the seller and buyer agreed on a price. The buyer would then put their money in the bag and throw it down to the seller. In some cases, the seller had to fish their money out of the river. In one case, a would be seller threw his item too high and it landed on the roof of our ship. Luckily for him, I'm a decent bloke. I managed to get the item off the roof and, I threw it back to him. This whole experience was the craziest thing that happened on my tour of Egypt. It said just how hard these folks would try to sell you something. It was unreal.

Training

I got to train the last 2 days on a new route. My supervisor wants me to do the route next Monday and, I can't reasonably do it unless I've been trained on it. I hate learning new routes as it makes me feel like a new hire all over again. You have to hunt all over the case for the various addresses. Also, you feel like you're moving so slow compared to the normal speed you can case the mail on a route you know. It can be very frustrating. Lastly, you're more likely to make mistakes out on the street delivering the mail. It can be very easy to forget to check your accountables, your small parcels or your large parcels while you're trying to deliver the letters and flats (magazines, newspapers, fliers). I wish I had more time to learn the route but, there isn't time. We'll see how I do when I have to deliver it next Monday. Cheers all!

Easy Day at the Post Office

It is known that Tuesdays are the easiest day to deliver mail at the Post Office. The mail is caught up from the weekend and, there seems to be a little gap between it picks back up on Wednesday. Today, the mail seemed especially light. My Postmaster called all the First Class mail up at 9:30 a.m. to my astonishment. Once the Postmaster calls all First Class mail up, you can empty your mail holds one last time and then, you can start packing up the mail for your assigned route. By 10:30 a.m., I'd packed up all my mail including packages and loaded up my mail truck. 10 minutes later, I departed my Post Office to deliver my mail. 3 hours later, I was done. I arrived back at my Post Office at 2 p.m. I could scarcely believe it. This was the earliest I'd ever finished. Also, I'd beat the assessed time on the route. Something, I rarely do. It was nice to have an easy day at the Post Office. I don't get many of those. Cheers all!

Abu Simbel

One of the ironic things about me getting sick during the tour in Egypt was it caused me to see the temples at Abu Simbel. When I found out that we'd have to leave the hotel at 4 a.m. to see the temples, I said no way and informed our guide I wasn't going. Then, the morning of the excursion, I woke up at 2 .m. and, I couldn't get back to sleep. Not wanting to lay in bed and be bored to tears, I decided to go on the trip after all. I will admit the temples are extremely impressive. Rameses II intentionally built them that way. He wanted to impress any would be invaders that he was a mighty king. Also, he wanted to convince people he was a god. It seems that Rameses was an impatient fellow. In the Egyptian mythology, every pharaoh is a semi-god until he dies. At that time, that pharaoh becomes a full god. Rameses wanted to be a full god while he was alive but, he knew he couldn't do that where the people understood the Egyptian religion so, he built a temple and told the soldiers stationed close by to worship him as a god. The soldiers were good little soldiers and did what their boss said. Inside the temple, you'll find a place where you can leave offerings for 3 of the Egyptian gods AND when you do that, you'll in the process leave an offering for Rameses. Interestingly, Rameses suffered from a number of dental abcesses and had arteriosclerosis according to a short blurb I saw on his mummy at the Egyptian museum in Cairo but, this didn't stop him from believing he was a god. The man must have had one heck of an ego.

Another fascinating story about the 2 temples at Abu Simbel is the international efforts to save them. The Egyptian government back in the 60's decided to build a new hydroelectric dam in Aswan that would supply Egypt with most of the electricity it needed. The downside of this project is that it would flood a large area of land that had a number of important temples in it including Abu Simbel. Various proposals were considered on how to save the temples at Abu Simbel. The proposal that was accepted was where the 2 temples would be cut up and moved further inland to a place where they would be on land that was 186 feet higher than the original site. The Rameses temple alone was cut into 35,000 massive blocks. Then, they moved it to the new site and put it back together again. To ensure people saw it in its proper setting, they built a fake mountain/hill around it which is what you see in the picture. The project was a great success, the temples at Abu Simbel were saved and they remain one of the must see sites in Egypt.

Crazy Week at the Post Office

It has been a crazy week at the Post Office where I work. One of the problems my Post Office has is we need more substitute carriers. We have a number of subs who can only work 1 day a week. That causes real problems when carriers start calling out sick like this past week. We had 2 regulars do that. Another problem that causes is that we have to use subs from other Post Offices to cover the routes. This is always iffy because if their Post Office needs them on short notice, we're screwed. That very thing happened this past Friday. A sub was scheduled to do a route for us and at the last minute his Post Office called him and told him they needed him to work. So, we had to break up one route because of that. What breaking up a route means is that the subs working that day split the route and deliver those parts in addition to the full route they're doing already. This makes for a long day obviously. Another problem being short subs causes is when one gets unexpectedly sick. A regular was supposed to work his route Friday and then he remembered it was his birthday. He wanted to take the day off for that. We called the sub in and initially, he was able to case the mail. Then, he started throwing up. So, we had to break up a second route because we didn't have any subs who could carry the entire thing.

Our sub problem won't get better because the Postal Service is in massive limbo. If Congress approves us going to a 5-day delivery week, we won't need a lot of the subs we have. If it doesn't, we'll need more subs. Until the decision is made on this, the Postal Service won't hire any new subs. That makes sense as it doesn't want to hire people and then have to let them go shortly afterwards. But, it leaves us in a real bind. The good thing of sorts for me is it means I'll get more hours which will help with the bills. I say of sorts because, there are weeks when I'd rather have a day off instead. This week, I'm not scheduled to work Wednesday but, I won't be surprised if I get called in. I've learned repeatedly that just because you're not scheduled doesn't mean you won't end up working. We'll see what happens with the continuing saga at my Post Office. Cheers all!

Above is a picture of the view I had from my hotel room in Giza, Egypt. The hotel was the MENA House Oberoi. I'd stayed at this hotel for 2 nights back in 2001 and, I looked forward to staying there again. It's a super nice hotel with outstanding service and ideal if you want to visit the pyramids. It is only minutes walking from the pyramid complex. The room I stayed in was part of the palace part of the hotel. I believe this part of the hotel is from the older and more luxurious rooms the hotel has. The palace rooms were also more convenient as they were closer to the hotel's 5 restaurants, 2 bars and reception area. When it came time to leave Cairo for Luxor, I was saddened to have to check out as I'd very much enjoyed my stay here.

Back to Work

I ended up going back to work at the Post Office. I wasn't supposed to work yesterday. When I put in my leave slip, I gave myself 3 days to recover from my Egypt vacation. I stopped by the Post Office where I work yesterday to give a co-worker a t-shirt and nubian hat I bought him. While I was there, another carrier who was working supposedly got sick and claimed she needed to leave. There isn't any way to know if she was legitimately sick. The supervisor was now in a bind. We were already short handed and, it would've been impossible to find someone on such short notice. He asked me if I could help out a little. I agreed to. I ended up delivering the entire auxiliary route. It was interesting to do that route as I haven't done it in a while. Another plus was I could use the bucks. I kept my charges down while I was in Egypt but, I still have a lot of bills to pay. There's this years taxes, the scooter I plan to get and paying off the U.S. and Canada tours. While an extra 5 hours won't make a huge dent in those bills, it will help a little. So, I was glad to do it. Today, I'm back on the schedule and will deliver Express Mails and who knows what else. Every day seems to be a crisis at the Post Office so you never know what you might end up working. We'll see how it goes. Now, I'm counting down to the U.S. and Canada tours. Approximately 120 days to go on those. Plus, I'm looking into doing another Caribbean cruise. We'll see what happens on that. Cheers all!

Adventures Log

Now that I'm back from my Egypt trip, I can start telling you my readers more fully about it. Here goes.

I arrived in Cairo a day early. I wanted time to recover from the long flight and ensure I was well rested before the important first group meeting. I haven't forgotten falling asleep sporadically at the group meeting at the beginning of the Scandanavia tour I did. Through my travel agent Joel, I made sure Globus/Avalon Waterways would have someone to meet me at the airport. I very much wanted someone there who knew their way around there and spoke the language. I visited Cairo before in March 2001 but, I wasn't any expert on the ropes there. I would be very glad to see a person from Avalon waiting for me when I arrived.

I stepped off the plane in Cairo and boarded a bus that took me to the arrivals terminal. I walked in there and to my surprise, I saw a sign saying Globus/Avalon Waterways. I hadn't passed through Egyptian immigration yet. I walked up to the representative, told him my name and he checked his list and confirmed that I was one of the people who was supposed to pick up. Then, he had me rush to the MISR Bank counter to buy my Egyptian visa which you had to have to get into Egypt. It cost $15. I expected some kind of form to fill out but there wasn't one to my astonishment. I paid my money and they gave me a sticker to put in my passport that was my visa. The man who met me at the gate took the sticker, put it in my passport, checked what I'd filled in on arrivals card I had to fill out and got me through the immigration line. Another man took over from there.

The man who took over from there would later be called Bob. His real name is something like Sopi. However you say his name, he was super nice and made sure the tour got off to a good start. He was the one who called Samy, my tour's guide and arranged for me to meet him at the hotel I would be staying at. I was a little perplexed why Bob would want me to meet Samy so soon but, I figured whatever. I do remember him saying Samy was outstanding. It turned out, he was right.

Bob herded me and a friend to the van and driver that would take me to the MENA House Oberoi Hotel in Giza. I don't know the driver's name but, he did a fine job getting me to the hotel. I was surprised how far it was from the hotel. As we drove along, I looked at the van windows to see some of the sights of Cairo. Some of the sights were surprising. I saw run down dirty multi-storied apartment building that appalled me. I saw people driving carts pulled by donkeys in the city. Traffic was a madhouse. Drivers drove where ever there was an opening on the road. Cairo sprawled for miles and looked like it had been built haphazardly. There was also a lot of new construction going on. I don't remember what it was for.

After over 30 minutes driving at least, I arrived at the hotel. I'd stayed at the hotel during my first visit in 2001. I had fond memories of it. It is an outstanding hotel and, the perfect place to visit the pyramids from. It's just minutes walking from them. The hotel staff were very prompt in helping me check in. I expected to stay in one of the rooms to the back of the hotel. To my surprise, I got a room the palace part of the hotel. The palace part of the hotel is I believe part of the older original hotel. It's considered more luxurious and has better views. I was knocked for six when I looked out my bedroom window and saw Cheops pyramid. Another advantage of rooms in the palace part of the hotel is you are closer to the hotel's various restaurants including the bar where I would meet Samy.

Bob had helped set up my first meeting with Samy. I'd heard about him on one of the few Egypt stories on Globus's exchange travel stories website. The reviewer said he was great but didn't give any real reasons why. I was surprised to be meeting the tour's guide so soon. But, I figured it would be worthwhiled as I could find out how the tour was going to run.

The first thing you get to see about Samy Hassaan is his warm and cordial smile. You would get to see it a lot during the trip. The second was his very professional manner. Samy got me and my friend our complimentary welcome drink and then, we sat down and got answers to questions like when could we sign up and pay for the tour's optional excursions and how was the first group meeting going to go the next day. To my delight, I was able to pay at once for all the excursions I wanted to take. This would enable me to avoid a hefty charge card bill when I got back to the U.S. Second, to my surprise, I found out Samy was going to take a few people to a museum next to the pyramids that we wouldn't get to see during the tour. It's the solar boat museum. The solar boat is a boat that was built for Pharoah Cheops (Khufu) that would simulate the boat he would use in the afterlife. It was never intended to be used. Surprisingly, it wasn't found until 1954. Samy said it was worth seeing. The same group afterwards was going to see the Royal mummies collection at the museum of antiquities. As I hadn't planned to do anything that day barring the group meeting, I willing to go so I agreed to join the group that Samy would take to the solar boat museum.

After my first meeting with Samy was concluded, we made our way over to a closeby ATM where I was able to get some Egyptian pounds. I withdrew 1,000 of them. Then, it was time for dinner. The MENA House Oberoi hotel has 4 or 5 restaurants. The Khan El Khalili restaurant is open 24 hours I believe. My friend and I decided to eat there. We'd have a nice meal there and discuss our upcoming adventures. There was going to be a LOT of things to see and do within the next 2 weeks. Continued in Adventures Log - Part II.

I'm Back!

I made it back to the good old USA but, I'm not home yet. I had to be up at 5 a.m. with my bags out at 5:30 in Cairo. The Avalon Waterways (MISR Travel) shuttle that would take me to Cairo International was waiting for me. It took me to the airport where I had a mis-adventure when the person at the check-in counter gave me the wrong boarding pass. I managed to get that fixed. Then, I had to endure a 12 hour flight to New York JFK Airport. That royally sucked. Finally, I arrived there and had to sit and twiddle my thumbs for almost 4 hours. I finally get to board the plane for Dulles International and, we find out the plane is overweight. They end up kicking a passenger off the plane. I bet she wasn't happy. Neither were the rest of us as we sat in the plane for over 35 minutes waiting for them to get that sorted out. My plane ended up leaving over an hour late.

By the time I arrived at Dulles, I know I'm not in any shape to drive home. No problem, I'll stay at Embassy Suites again right, WRONG! First, I miss their shuttle. I figure, they'll send another one in 15 or 30 minutes. WRONG! After waiting over 40 minutes with the time past 11 p.m., I go back into the airport and look up their number. I call them on my cell phone which it turned out had a very low battery so, I wondered if the call would disconnect because it ran out of juice. Thankfully, it didn't. The driver for the hotel shuttle shows up and takes me to the Embassy Suites where my car. I inform the person at the reception that I need a room. To my astonishment, he informs me they are fully booked! Luckily, there is a Homewood Suites next door and, they had some rooms available. So, later today (now), I'll finally drive home and conclude my Egypt adventure.

The tour itself was awesome barring me getting sick. I'm still taking antibiotics for that. I hope the bug I caught will be gone permanently when I finish the antibiotics. We'll see. I plan to post more indepth blogs about the trip some time in the coming days. I got to see a lot of neat stuff though I also saw some very sad stuff. The poverty in Egypt is appalling. So, stay tuned for more updates.

Last Blog from Egypt

This is my last blog entry from Egypt. I arrived back in Cairo this morning. Tomorrow, I fly back to the states. I hate it when a tour ends. I had an awesome guide in Samy Hassaan and a group of people to share the tour with. Plus, I don't look forward to going back to the Post Office. Oh well. I can solace that in approximately 4 months, I'll get to do another bunch of adventures when I go on tour again with Globus.

Concerning my illness, the antibiotics I'm taking are working. However, I am on a diet of bread, rice, soup and bananas as these would upset my stomach. I hope to fully kick this bug soon. We'll see.

Cheers from Cairo!

Sickness

To my great annoyance and pain, I've come down with some intestinal bug. I believe I caught the things while I was cruising on the Nile. At first, I suffered a mild case of diarrhea then, it progressed to stomach pain and finally steady intestinal pain. Luckily, there is a nurse in our group who knows about such things. She sold me a combination antibiotic/anti-diuretic. The drug has supposedly worked for her while she's been here. Now, I have to be patient and wait for the drug to do its stuff. That isn't easy when your gut is steadily hurting. There has been one blessing of sorts. Because of the bug, I woke up at 2 a.m. this morning and, I couldn't get back to sleep. I'd planned to skip the excursion to Abu Simbel because I didn't want to have to get up at 3:30 a.m. Because of the bug, I woke up earlier and decided that I might as well go on the trip.

Abu Simbel was very impressive. Rameses II didn't believe in building small monuments to himself. This one features 18 meter (approximately 60 feet) high statues of himself as well as a number of ingrained pictures telling of his alleged victory over the Hittites. The pictures are stunning. Another interesting thing about the temple is that apparently Rameses II was impatient to become a god. While a pharoah is alive, he is considered a semi-God. It is only when he dies that he become a full god. Rameses wanted to be a full God in life. He couldn't be one where people understood the Egyptian religion so he built a temple in one of the remotest parts of the Egyptian empire and told the garrison there to worship him as a God. The garrison reportedly did what they were told. Another interesting thing is that Rameses built a temple to his primary wife Nefertari. Egyptian Queens don't receive temples unless they become pharaohs like Hatshepsut. Nefertari was the first. This indicates that Nefertari was very powerful.

Overall, the temples were very impressive. I was glad I got to see them though I didn't enjoy the steady intestinal pain I suffered during the visit. For now, I have to wait for the antibiotic to do its stuff. Hopefully, it'll beat the bug quickly. We'll see. Tomorrow, I fly back to Cairo for my last full day in Egypt. I hope to post one last update while there. Stay tuned for further updates.

Tour Update

I found out Internet access is affordable at the Maritim Jolie Ville Hotel. Our group will be staying here one night. Tomorrow, we'll transfer to our boat. I actually got see it briefly as we drove to our hotel. Sami our guide assured us we get VIP treatment on the boat. We'll see.

Concerning the tour, we got started shortly after 8 a.m. I was sorry that it was time to check out of the MENA House Oberoi Hotel. My stay there had been really nice. If I ever return to Egypt, I'll definitely stay at that hotel again.

Our first stop was the famous step-pyramid at Saqqara. Sami took us to a museum dedicated to its architect Imhotep. The museum showed some of the artifacts recovered in the area and explained some of the unique aspects of the pyramids. After that, we visited the mastaba (tomb) of an Egyptian prince. The tomb was very impressive with carved figures in the wall showing how life was during those times. Some of the figures still have some of the color they'd been painted with. The tomb must've been very impressive when it was first built. Next was the funerary temple which had stone columns shaped like bundles of reeds. Every stall reportedly held a statue though it isn't know with certainty what the statues were in the stalls.

After that, there was a vast courtyard in the rear of the pyramid. It was built so the pharaoh could complete certain tasks in the afterlife. The step-pyramid itself was impressive though not as much as the 3 great pyramids that came after it.

From there, we went to Memphis which was the first capital of ancient Egypt. Sadly, there isn't anything remaining of the buildings from that time. They were built of mud brick according to Sami and would've been destroyed when the Nile river flooded. It was only due to a number of statues being found at the small museum we visited that archaeologists were able to determine that had to be where Memphis had been located.

Next lunch, lunch ironically was at the same restaurant I ate at when I visited in 2001. My visit this time was less pleasant as they changed the prices of the sodas when it came time to pay the bill and they pushed hard for a tip. They didn't get one from me.

Last, we visited a carpet factory. I remembered the carpet factory from my 2001 visit and decided to skip this. I wasn't going to buy a carpet that could cost as much as a used car.

From there, we drove to the Cairo airport where we said good-bye to our driver. He'd done a good job and, I made sure I gave him a nice tip. Sami was helpful in getting my United Airline frequent flier number added to my ticket so I could earn some airmiles on the flight. The flight itself lasted 1 hour and was uneventful. I hadn't slept great the night before and ended sleeping most of the flight.

Our driver was waiting for us at Luxor airport. We had a pleasant drive through the city and saw the Luxor temple as we passed by. It looked impressive. After checking it, it was time for dinner. The hotel had a buffet that was phenomenal. I piled my plate only to find out there even more entrees available. I decided to limit myself to 1 plate. I've already got a big enough gut.

So, tomorrow we see the Valley of the Kings and Queen Hatshepsut's temple. Then, we board our river cruise ship where we have our first meal on board. Stay tuned for further updates. Cheers all!

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt with a population of 8 million. The city was founded by Alexander the Great though there was an important Egyptian village on the site of the future city. For my tour group, we would visit Alexandria to see the city, its museum, its catacombs and Pompey's pillar.

The city's museum was nice though not super big. It's housed in a former U.S. consulate and consists of 3 floors. The basement holds the Egyptian history exhibit though much of what's exhibited there isn't from Alexandria. The first floor holds the Greco-Roman period and includes some new artifacts that were recovered from the sea floor by French divers. The second floor hold Islamic and Coptic exhibits and more modern items. I checked out the first floor and found it interesting. Like the Egyptian museum in Cairo, I found items mis-spelled and mis-labelled. Also, the museum had a very lacklustre gift shop.

The catacombs were discovered purely by accident in 1900. 238 people were buried in them though all the bodies have since been removed. Still, it was interesting and a little spooky to visit them. A spiral staircase took you down in subterranean chambers were the various burial cells were located. There was also a small temple that showed the Egyptian God Anubis mummifying a body. Lastly at this site, we saw a burial temple that was recovered and showed a mix of Roman and Egyptian beliefs.

Pompey's Column is actually a column dedicated in honor of Roman Emperor Diocletian. The rest of the site has the remains of 4 temples as well as some statues left in Alexandria by various Egyptian Pharaohs. I thought it interesting.

After visiting Pompey's column, we drove along the coast to the hotel were Avalon Waterways treated us to lunch. The hotel was nice and the lunch was good. We had pleasant views of a small harbor and beach. Interestingly, the hotel is located next to the former Royal palace and now Presidential mansion. The mansion was a stunning building. Just a little ways down from the mansion was the mansion that held the last Egyptian King's harem. That was interesting.

Overall, the trip was a very nice one though it did involve a drive of 3 hours each way. The drive was an experience as Egyptians don't pay any attention to road markings and I suspect speed limits. After seeing how they drive here, I know I wouldn't want to. At times, it is pure chaos. My respect for our bus driver as well as the driver who picked me up at the Cairo airport has been very high.

That's all for now. Tomorrow, I get to see Old Memphis and the step-pyramid at Saqqara. After that, we fly to Luxor where we have a free evening and stay overnight in a hotel. I hope to post another update but, that'll depend on how much they charge at the hotel to access the Internet. Stay tuned.

5 March Update

Per my last post, I attended the Pyramids sound and light show. It was interesting and yet boring too. At times, I nearly fell asleep. Thankfully, it only lasted an hour and 15 minutes. Our guide Sami was waiting for us when the show was done.

Then, I bought one of the items that was at the top of my list to buy - a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. Ok, I know that is a little ridiculous but, I really like collecting the things. It turned out the Cairo cafe has a small shop that sells merchandise only. I looked over what they had and decided to get just a t-shirt.

Next, Sami took us to a shop where we could get supposedly (how would I know) good prices on Egyptian cotton clothes. It was there that I bought a ghabeliyah (I undoubtedly mis-spelled that). A ghabeliyah is sort of like a super long night shirt that Egyptian men were during the daytime. You'll see every once in a while a man wearing one. Sami said we're going to have a party during the river cruise where the men have to wear a ghabeliyah and properly Egyptian. So, I bought one of those and a head scarf. I looked at myself in a mirror at the store and laughed. I was a sight. I'm definitely going to get a picture taken at the party.

I also bought a copy of night t-shirts which cleaned me out Egyptian pounds wise. I'll have to pick up some more this morning dang it.

Last, we drove back to the hotel. It was around 9 p.m. and we have an early start for Alexandria this morning so I skipped dinner. I plan to make up for it by hitting the hotel breakfast buffet hard. I know very little about Alexandria so today will be a big learning experience. We'll see how it goes. Stay tuned for more updates. Cheers all!

Quick Note

I have to post a quick note as I'll be leaving in 30 minutes for the sound and light show at the pyramids. It's been a hectic first full day of the tour. We started at 8 a.m. and drove to the nearby pyramids. I climbed inside Cheops pyramid like I did back in 2001. The long low narrow passageway hasn't changed or the confined spaces inside the pyramid. I enjoyed the adventure but, I was glad to be back outside the pyramid.

After that, we had the chance to ride a camel for 50 Egyptian pounds. I had a better ride than in Australia but, I didn't like dealing with the Egyptian who led my camel.

Then, we visited the famous Sphinx. We learned about the 2 temples that would be built with a pyramid. One would be the funerary temple which was right next to the pyramid and, the other was the mummification temple where the body was mummified. We got to see what remains of the mummification temple for Pharoah Khefren (Cheops son). It was interesting. Afterwards, we took pictures of the Sphinx.

Lunch was next with a restaurant closeby. They had a fixed price lunch which was reasonable and good. I got to eat some good traditional Egyptian food.

Last, we visited the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities to see the King Tutankamun treasures. The treasures haven't lost any of their ability to awe. It's incredible to see what we buried with a boy king who only ruled for 9 years. The horde that would've been buried with a great pharaoah like Rameses II must have been truly mind boggling.

That's all for now. I have the sound and light show to go to and then, I have to grab a quick dinner. After that, I'll be hitting the sack quickly as we have an early start tomorrow morning for Alexandria. Stay tuned for further updates.

Initial Observations

Here are a few initial observations I've made on my trip so far. I suspect water is going to be a major concern. You can't drip the tap water in Egypt so you must drink bottled water. Bottled water can be expensive. A small bottle of it will set you back almost $2. That could add up real quick. Also, I continued to be annoyed by minor things I forgot to pack. I forgot to pack extra sweat bands for my workouts and, I apparently forgot my hairbrush. At least I hope I forgot it, otherwise, I left it at the hotel in Virginia. Lastly, I forgot my spare camera battery. My digital camera uses batteries you have to recharge. Apparently, I left the spare battery on the recharger at home. While I've never needed it past trips, it is nice to have it just in case. I hope I won't need it this time.

Food wise, I noticed the absence of real i.e. pork bacon at the hotel breakfast buffet this morning. I confess I like the real stuff vice beef bacon which is what I think they had. They also had beef and chicken sausages vice pork sausages. One interesting thing I got to try was hibiscus juice. I didn't even know there was such a thing. It was all right.

Lastly, it is a bit unreal to wake up, look outside your bedroom window and see the pyramids. Later, I got to see a bunch of people go off on a camel ride. I remember the last time I was in Egypt, they offered that. If I'm given the chance, I may do it though I've already ridden a camel. I did that during my Globus Australia tour. The ride itself wasn't terribly impressive but, I could say I'd ridden a camel. We'll see if I get to ride one here.

That's all for now. I'll post more later. I bought a 12 hour internet card from the hotel so I'll be posting a fair amount from here. I can't say how much I'll post from other places. It'll depend on the cost. Cheers all!

Made It

I arrived in Cairo this morning. The flight was long as expected. Egyptair was surprisingly decent. The main meal they offered was pretty good plus, they offered a choice of beef, chicken or fish.

Avalon Waterways came through too. There was a 2-man team waiting at the arrivals section at the Cairo airport. The first man showed me where to get my visa and got me quickly in line so I could get through immigration quickly. Note: Getting my Egyptian visa turned out to be ridiculously easy at the airport. I definitely wouldn't bother getting it at the Egyptian consulate in the states.

The second man helped me get my suitcase and directed me to where the driver was. He also contacted the tour guide who met with me later. The tour guide was fantastic. Because of him, I'll get to see the boat museum next to the pyramids tomorrow and the royal mummy section of the Egyptian museum of antiquities. It should be a serious blast.

Lastly, my room at the Mena House Oberoi absolutely rocks. I can look out my bedroom window and see Cheops pyramid. It's unreal.

So, my Egyptian adventure is going well. Stay tuned for further updates as I can post them. Cheers all!