| Submitted by: Mark Nowak United States |
| Submission Date: 11 February 2005 |
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Cate ended up talking me into buying a black T-shirt with the cartouche of my name and the ankh symbol on the front. Both items cost more than they should have.
We didn't have to travel very long before we reached our first stop, the temple at Kom Ombo. We could see the temple long before we actually docked. A few of us were allowed to view the approach from the deck where the control room was. We seemed to be the lead boat in a convoy of several. It was a short walk from the dock to the temple. Shelley was still suffering from her cold, but she made it to the site. Cate didn't. The temple was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god, and Harwar (or Horus the Elder), the falcon god. It dates back to Ptolemaic times, but its roof is missing. One of the first things we saw as we entered the temple complex were some mummified crocodiles. We were told that the ancient Egyptians worshiped what they feared; hence, the crocodile god. Anubis, the jackal god, was made a god of the underworld because they saw how jackals would dig up bodies in the desert.
Rabie took us around and explained many of the hieroglyphics on the walls, their numbering system and images of giving birth and breast feeding. He told us about the ancient Egyptian god of medicine and how the eye of Horus was wounded in the battle with Set and had to be healed. The eye of Horus is often used to represent the idea of healing. Even to this day, the Rx used on prescriptions has its origin from the image of the eye of Horus. Before we left the site, we had a group picture taken. Rabie also asked for volunteers for a skit that was going to be performed at the party tonight. Unfortunately, not everyone had come up to see the temple. As it is, you can only see Shelley's hand in the picture. On the way back to the boat we passed through another shopping area. I didn't buy anything.
Cate wasn't feeling well. Ahmed made her and another woman drink some kind of electrolyte solution for dehydration. When Lester came by to talk about computers and programming, Cate went away. Shelley was still feeling bad enough that she napped during the afternoon and missed tea time at five o'clock. The hibiscus tea didn't taste like it did yesterday -- it was more bitter. We told Ahmed about it, he talked to the crew and within minutes we had tea that tasted like it used to. Ahmed -- what a guy.
I talked with Cate in her room for a while. Tonight we were having a galibeya party on board the boat. Galibeyas are the gown-like clothes many Egyptians wear. We were all supposed to go in costume (meaning galibeyas). I hadn't bought one from one of the many street vendors because I knew I wouldn't ever wear it at home. Cate, Shelley and I weren't going to dress up for the party, but Ahmed came by and practically forced us to come in costume. He took me up to the galibeya rental shop (which also served as as hair dresser's shop), and made me pick a galibeya out. It only cost five Egyptian pounds to rent, so I selected an all black one. Cate and Shelley decided they would wear Chinese gowns that Cate had bought in Singapore the week before she came to Egypt.
The Oriental dinner was disappointing. I was really starting to miss enjoying the food I ate. I had to hurry to get into costume in time for the party. Cate, Shelley and I sat together. Ahmed joined us, and we ordered some more Ruby of Egypt rose. When that was gone, he got us a bottle of something else. The skit was pretty funny. Someone pretended to be the pharoah Ramses II. Shelley's mom Lois was a priestess. A bunch of people played ambassadors. They had trouble with their lines, but it was pretty wild. Afterwards, there were a few contests. Four couple were brought up for a mummy wrapping contest. The man was supposed to stand still while the woman wrapped him in rolls of toilet paper. The best wrapped mummy won the prize. I was drafted with three others (including Ahmed) to be in another contest. We all knelt around a pan of water with straws in out hands. At the signal we were supposed to fill our glasses with water using just our straws. However, when the signal was given, it sounded like a water balloon had been hurled at the pan because we were all wet. There was a great deal of laughter. We had been set up -- Ahmed, pretending to be a contestant, had slapped the water as hard as he could, drenching us. He was pretty soaked too. I wondered if that part of the tour ever got monotonous for him.
After we towelled off, some musicians played more of that Nubian music. People were invited to belly dance, and some people really knew what they were doing. Others were brought up including Shelley. She was eventually swept up in something of a conga line. During the evening someone went around taking pictures. Shelley always hated having her picture taken. When the party broke up, Ahmed, Cate, Shelley and I went to sit up on the sun deck. We were docked as we always were at night. We talked and laughed (and in the end went through four bottles of wine). Uninhibited and joking around, I gave Cate a hard enough time that at one point she was pummeling me with punches (though not seriously). Ahmed was laughing so hard, he said, 'You are drunk, and you are great!' From then on he would from time to time refer to me as Mark the Great.
Shelley and Ahmed eventually left Cate and me on our own. We talked on deck and briefly shared a blanket because it had gotten fairly cool -- even after I went to my cabin to get a sweatshirt. She told me she hated her life. Cate wanted to turn in but didn't want to leave me alone on deck and tried to drag me up off my deck chair, but I was fine. After she left, I was there for a while enjoying just being there. I finally got to bed after 2:00 AM.
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Thursday, March 9
EDFU, ESNA, NILE LOCKS, LUXOR
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I woke up after 6:00 AM with a sore throat. I had caught a cold. I had breakfast with Cate. We cast off at 9:30. At Edfu Shelley, Cate, John and I took a carriage ride to the Temple of Horus. It dates back to Cleopatra's time 2000 years ago and is well preserved. The temple was quite large, but I suppose everything we saw was huge. The sites started reminding me of the monuments of Washington D.C. as far as size went. I was not feeling well, and I wasn't very outgoing that day. There were quite a few tourists around, so getting pictures without anyone in the way was pretty difficult. The temple included a huge statue of a falcon and a granite sanctuary in which the statue of Horus was kept that had been polished to such an extent that it seemed metallic. The statue could be controlled and used as an oracle. Inside we could also see some painted hieroglyphics. In another small room a replica of the boat that was used to carry the statue could be seen. We had been told to be careful when haggling with the vendors, that sometimes they give you a ridiculously low price to draw you in and when it is time to buy, they say that the price was in Nubian pounds (as opposed to Egyptian pounds) which could be ten times more than you thought. There are no such things as Nubian pounds.
Shelley, Cate, John and I took the same carriage that we took to the temple back to the boat after looking at some souvenirs. We were told that the drivers had already been paid and tipped in advance, so when our driver wanted more, I just got off and walked away -- I was not in the mood for this today. I think John ended up tipping him anyway. Cate needed some special film, so I walked into a film shop with her before we boarded the boat. They didn't have what she was looking for.
During the cruise down to Esna I intended to write postcards on the sun deck, but I was feeling so out of it, I mostly just lied there which was a shame because I was sorely behind in my postcard writing.
We arrived at Esna in the late afternoon. Despite how I felt, I wasn't going to miss anything, so I walked to the Sunken Temple of Khnum, the ram-head god of creation, at Esna. They weren't kidding -- it was sunken. We had to go down quite a few stairs to reach the level of the temple floor. One of the features that really stood out in the temple were the 18 huge columns supporting the ceiling. Rabie pointed out how the tops were meant to resemble flowers, and since they wanted to add a more realistic touch, stone bees were placed on them.
One of the cool things about Esna was that the shopkeepers weren't allowed to step into the street to get you to buy anything. They had to talk you into entering their shops. It was funny to watch them trying to get your attention while standing in their doorways. I asked Shelley if she had found a scarf for herself. A shopkeeper overheard me, ducked into his shop and quickly emerged with scarves in hand.
We had to go through a bridge which opened for us and had to wait a long time to go through the locks on the Nile. While we were waiting, I was on the sun deck. People would try to sell us things from the bank of the river. Someone threw the children below some candy. Once we were in the locks it was fascinating watching the water level drop and take us with it.
I had a lot of tea during tea time, and I had to admit that dinner was actually really good. I think it was also this night that we had ice cream. Apparently Shelley's father complained that it was hard to believe that on a boat of the size of ours you couldn't get ice cream. Well, I have to admit, they did go out of their way to please. Until this meal Cate and I thought that our best meal in Egypt was the chicken shwarma we had in Cairo.
We arrived in Luxor after dark. I joined Ahmed and Cate in the lounge and worked on a few postcards. Ahmed said there was chance we could go into town that night, but it didn't seem like we had enough people who wanted to go, so Ahmed postponed it. While Ahmed was there, Cate got kind of obnoxious. I felt she was actively trying to make me look dumb. We eventually got into an argument. This was when I told her I had finally figured her out -- she was nuts! That remark caused Ahmed to burst out laughing. From then on he started telling Cate she was nuts.
Then she told me she felt uncomfortable around Shelley and me because she thought we were making fun of her accent when we laughed or repeated some of the things she said. She felt picked on. I explained to her that we just weren't used to her accent and some of the words she used and that it was novel for us and that we didn't mean anything by it. I was really surprised she had taken it that way. It actually ended up into an argument about how Americans don't bother to learn enough about other cultures and expect everyone else to adapt to them. Ahmed told us both to stop being so sensitive, and we got past it.
Cate needed some special film, so Ahmed sent someone from the ship with a lot of money to go get some. He was gone a long time, and it seemed to make Ahmed a little worried, but it all worked out in the end. Ahmed got me to try drinking ouzo straight. I think he bought the first round, and it burned its way down. The second was much smoother. Cate and I ended up talking in her room until I was falling asleep again.
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Friday, March 10
DEIR EL-BAHARI, VALLEY OF KINGS, COLOSSI OF MEMNON, KARNAK
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| This morning after breakfast, we took a ferry to our bus which took us to Deir El-Bahari (Queen Hatshepsut's Temple). It was quite a structure in the bright morning sun. The walls along the path were littered with caves. Rabie told us that the architect of the temple had been the queen's lover. |
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| Copyright © - "Mark Nowak" |
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