egypt... 2006

it's been quite some time
since i've last hit the blog
life got busy
and now i'm in egypt
over a month into my trip
and my visa has run out
but no worries!
life is laid back here
and i'm in full backpacker travel mode
taking taxis and ferries for 5-10 cents
life is good :)
a quick recap on the last month
flew into cairo at the start of october
and just about the start of ramadan too
did 2 weeks of diving
one on a liveaboard (the Emperor Serenity)
where i got to dive with some awesome sharks!
oceanic white tips and silkies
also caught a glimpse of a thresher shark :)
(beautiful!!!!)
then did a week in sharm-el-sheikh
doing land based boat dives
and after the brothers islands
it took a day or so to adjust
and appreciate how nice it was there :)
(life is SO subjective eh?)
then it was back to cairo
where linda and i chilled for a few days
before heading down to aswan
via overnight train
(about 15 hours)
and then to abu simbel
where we saw the light show in the evening
(very VERY good!)
and the sun rise into the temple
which lit up a bunch of the statues
in the inner most sanctuary
(we missed the date by about 5 days
but 2 of the 4 statues still lit up
and that was super cool)
then it was back to aswan
to see a few more things
and take a felucca part way down the nile
(one day and one night)
and then onto a mini-bus convoy
that stopped in kom'ombo
(to see a temple)
and edfu
(to see a temple)
and then luxor
(to see a whole crapload of temples)
here i am now in luxor
and have been for 6 days
visiting temples
and tombs (valley of the kings, queens, etc)
just for the record,
the light show at the awesome temple of karnak
SUCKS
big waste of money
overrated in the guide books
and a waste of time too
for those of you that know me
trust me!
if you have to see a light show in egypt
go see abu simbel :)
especially if you like taking photos
with gigantic statues lit up at night
:)
i've been hiking over the little mountains here
saving money
but also getting magnificent views
of the different valleys
where they buried all their "important" people
too bad many tombs are closed
and all of them were robbed
(even king tut's...
tho most of the stuff made it to the museum in cairo)
today i did a day trip to abydos and dendarra
and it was amazing!
tomorrow i head for dahab
on a 16-18 hour bus ride
and will try to exit the country
and pop over into jordan
as my visa expired a couple of days ago
and apparently i have a grace period of a week or two
so hopefully i'll end up in jordan visiting petra soon
and not in an egyptian jail ;)
hehehee
actually
they'll prolly just want bakshish here
(pronounced bak-sheesh)
ok,
there's been a lot of little stories here
met some cool people
(lots!)
met some not-so-cool people
(just a couple here and there)
and had some ups and downs
just like life any where, doing any thing eh?
in the end it's all good
so long as one keeps things in perspective
:)
ok,
one last confession
read my lil bro's blog
(lil bro who is off adventuring in central america -
even if he thinks he's in south america...
check the map for guatemala *wink*)
and that inspired me to at least make an entry into mine
which has been some what dormant for over a year
hey,
what can i say?
life got busy
:)
in a good way!
:)
cheers all!