Egypt and Jordan Trip: Day 1, 2, and 3

Day 1
We departed Garmisch via bus due to the construction to the train tracks then caught the train in Murnau and then the bahn to the airport. Our flight was uneventful and we arrived in Cairo after our direct flight from Munich. We were picked up by a guy named Farag who drove us through Cairo to the Museum View Hostel where we would stay for the night. Farag had learned some English from working with tourists, and somethings are lost in translation. One of his favorite quotes is "Life is Delicious!" which he yelled out several times during our ride. We found that traffic laws are alot more loose than we are used to in the US or Germany. For example, there were 3 lanes on most roads we were on and there were usually about 5 cars wide. Also honking is acceptable and flashing headlights. These practices are usually used to warn the car in front of you to get out of the way or for the car straddling the lines to move over so you can pass. When we asked "Why does everyone honk their horns?" Farag responded that it's how they power the cars. If you don't honk the car can't drive! We also experienced people just walking out into the road and holding up a hand to get people to stop so they can cross. As well whole families would ride a moped together... Dad, Mom, kids together. And yes I said kids, plural!
We arrived at the Museum View hostel and got our rooms with 2 beds in each. We got ready for bed and fell asleep(or tried) to the sound of the honking horns outside.
Day 2
We woke up and got our things together and had a breakfast of long skinny white bread rolls with some butter and some sort of cheese and tea. The first of many cups of tea during the trip.
Hanna was our tour guide for the day. We found out later that Farag and Hanna are married and have a 10 month old baby boy. Hanna showed us around old Cairo. We saw some burial grounds and some very old buildings and mosques and tried to visit a floating church but due to the 4 day feast after Ramadan there were prayers going on and things were closed for holiday.
We then went and got camels to take us around the 9 Pyramids in Giza. We each had our own camel and our guide was on a horse and we had a guy leading our camels which were all tied together in a line. We stopped to take pictures of us with the pyramids in the distance and our guide took some pictures but his timing wasn't the greatest. Some how the other 3 girls got individual photos but I didn't. We kept going and Kelly's camel had a freak out moment and tore the rope off it's nose and bucked up on his hind legs. It was quite the sight to see. We regrouped and continued on to the Sphinx and then back to the base camp. From there we stopped at a perfume shop for a lesson on how Egyptian perfume is made and of course made some purchases. We also stopped at a papyrus shop for another lesson but didn't buy anything. Hanna got us lunch of rice and noodles with some beans along the way. We were to then go to the Egyptian Museum but of course it closed early due to the feast. So we were back to the hostel until Farag picked us up for a Nile River Cruise that Mohammed arranged because our day had been so messed up. The cruise included a belly dancer(who turned out to be 52 years old) and 2 male spin dancers(one midget and one average sized man) and a buffet dinner. We ordered Egyptian beer and then found out that it was non-alcoholic... fail!
Next was a typical cab ride by Farag back to the hostel to wait for our driver for our overnight transfer. Typical for our trip... we waited for the driver to show up. He came around 11:30 and we were on our way. Horn honking and all. The ride was very bumpy and we didn't sleep much. We were awoken at about 2:30 in the morning when we picked up Mohammed's brother and sister-in-law who were just married. We were then dropped off in Taba at the ferry port to Aqaba, Jordan where we begin Day 3...
We found our tour guide for the day and went to our tour bus which was waiting a 5 minute walk away. Jordan is a beautiful country and much cleaner than what we experienced in Egypt. We drove about 2 hours to Petra where we had a guided tour through the gorge and carvings. The route of the tour was in and out the same way so we got commentary on the way in and at our leisure on the way out. I was in awe of the natural beauty of the stone and the abilities of the craftsmen of years and years ago to create such beauty. We took lots of pictures and tried to stay cool on the walk back out and to the bus. We then had lunch at the Marriott nearby and drove back to the port only to find out that the wind caused waves that the Ferry couldn't travel in so we waited not knowing when we would be able to leave. The tour guide gave us some time to walk around the city of Aqaba and stop for some sunset photos before boarding the ferry. On the ride back all coffee, soda, water and juice were free due to the delay in the ferry and it was a sight to see the people racing to get in line for their free drink(s). After arriving back in Egypt and going through security again we waited for our driver to pick us up and take us to Dahab. After about 2 hours we arrived in Dahab and met Mohammed, had some tea at the seaside restaurant at the Penguin Village, and then went to our rooms. Our names were spelled out with toilet paper and flowers on our beds which was a nice surprise... but really we just wanted to sleep!

To be continued.

Egypt Trip: Introduction

I'm back!! I think it is safe to say this was one of the best trips I've taken in my life. I went with my roommate, Lisa, and two friends, Kelly and Haley. We left on Saturday September 11th and returned Friday September 17th via Munich. We booked our week with a guy named Mohammed who lives in Dahab and has booked tours for almost everyone from the Abrams(my building) that has gone to Egypt in the last 3 years. We had some issues with the drivers being late, but otherwise we had a great time and learned alot about the Egyptian lifestyle and history with a brief day trip to Jordan to visit Petra.
To see all my pictures click on the link below...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112342&id=44801562&l=426500752c
So far Kelly posted an album as well. Check my profile for the link to her album.