Home again Home again!

Well, today all we did was got on a plane to Cairo. When we got to Cairo the guy who took us from the airport to our hotel was quite the chatter. He said Akon was coming to Cairo and performing at the Opera house tonight, weird right? Anyways he said we should hop the fence and get in! When we got to our hotel we walked around Cairo one last time and had lunch at a chicken place. Tomorrow I will be sitting on the plane ALL DAY LONG! Sadly, when I see you all I will have jet lag and be a little droopey. I think this is only the beginning of my passport pages I will soon have them filled up with entry stickers, I hope I go to many other places! I miss you all very much and hope to see you soon! If you have any questions whatsoever you can talk to me or post on my blog! I thought you might have a laugh in class!

Answers to your questions!

This is a picture of the carvings at Habu temple, which was for Ramses III (I think). Thes are the ones that are about 8 inches deep! The guide said they did this to keep other pharoahs who came after from carving their own names on the walls!

Here are some answers to your great questions:

* I won the donkey race, we posted a picture so you can see what we looked like. Our race came to an abrupt end when we got squished into a parking space by a taxi van who pulled in front of us and cut us off!

* how high off the ground is a camel? I think the camel's back goes to my head, so maybe 5 feet, 5 inch. The hardest part it getting on, because you mount it when the camel is sitting, then the guide tells you to lean back because the front legs stand up first and if you don't you'll fall off. Riding a camel was more comfortable than riding a donkey.

* I have seen lots of tourists, not many Americans at all. Mostly British, French, and Japanese. For the British it is not far (5 hours) and not expensive to fly, and they all are excited about the warm climate. It is amazing to sit in a restaurant and listen to everyone speaking different languages.

* As for Hatshepsut's temple...normally you can't tell the difference between between all the pharoah's faces on the statues in their temples. But when you look at statues of Hatshepsut, you can really tell that she is a female because her face is so much softer (look at that photo below) and feminine, even though she dressed totally in men's clothes and even wore that beard. Eight of her statues in her temple are still intact (out of 26 I think). Ironically, the stepson that took over after she died (tuthmosis III) was considered a great ruler and the last great warrior pharoah.

* egyptian pancakes are basically like pizza. I haven't tried it yet, but I am going to seek it out on my last night. But I did try the local cheese, feta, and it is delicious on omelettes, very salty!

* Howard Carter's tools are not in the tomb, sorry! The house where he lived is nearby and they are thinking of making it a stop on the tour, but right now it is just decaying!

It ain't over till the fat lady sings!

OK guys my trip is sadly coming to a close! Today was my last day in Luxor, or Luoxor. Tommorow I fly back to Cairo and hang out and then the next day I fly back to San Francisco. So I will post when i get to Cairo. I will be seeing you all on Monday! Today, we went to the Luxor museum which was small but very very beautiful. There were a lot of intact statues but sadly we weren't aloud to take pictures! So I really have nothing to write about or any pictures to put up so I will tell you a litle about life in Egypt!

Egypt is a very poor country, so tons of people live of tips. Woman stand outside the bathroom handing you the toilet paper and excpect a tip. Everyone is in a loop for instance that story i told you guys about on my first day how that guy tricked us into going into someone elses shop? Everyone works for everyone, if they can't make you buy somthing of theirs, they will tell you to go to this other person. Well, I would type till my fingers broke but there is a bald guy waiting to use the computer, ugh!

This is a picture of Tutankamun's mummy with his famous solid gold mask on, we took this picture of the sign at his tomb.

Hatshepsut and donkeys

Then we went to Hatshepsut's temple, nowIi am sure you all know the story of Hatshepsut but I will tell you anyway. So she married the king and they only had baby girls, and then he died. So, she became king, then she realized her step son wanted to become king. So she threw him in jail for 20 years! Hatshepsut was the first woman ruler who was very successful, when she died the step son got out of jail. He came to her temple and scratched of every single face of her, he wanted revenge! It is very sad to go there and see all of her faces chizled of, but also very exciting to be there. Hatshepsut is my personal favourite ruler because she did everything in her power to rule because she knew she could be successful! Hatshepsut dressed exactly like a man with the false beard, crown, and everything! It was very beautiful there and everything I had hoped for! We also went to the Habu temple which had color and carvings so deep I could stick my hand through! Then, we went for a donkey ride, which was very scary and nothing like a camel ride! My donkey was hungry so he kept stopping and eating, and we were on the busiest streets almost getting run over by cars. And my mom's and my donkeys went out of control and went speeding off, all I can say is, donkeys are very competative!

All better now

So, I am feeling a little better, enough to go swimming in the pool and see the sights. Today we went to THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS, gosh it was so fun! We could only see 3 tombs out of 64, we saw Ramses the I, Ramses the IV, and Ramses the IX! Those were the ones our guide recommended. They were so beautiful, they were all colored on the inside I have never seen anything so amazing. In the movies you see only carvings that are sand colored, but now picture a rainbow splash of color on each one! We also went in Tutankamun's burial chamber and I will tell you all of it when I get home, but all I can say is they had to rush him in there because he died so young so people say "oh his tomb is probably not worth seeing since there is only one room." But, I really wanted to go in so we paid the extra 30 dollars and went in! It was way cool you could see his gold sarcophagus! And, overall his mummy! It was so cool, Tutankamun officially come up to my chin! You see, they have him in there because Howard Carter when he illegally wrenched open the lid of the sasrcophagus he jabbed the mummy in the side! Since he did that he is too fragile to move anywhere to a museum! It was so great and fantastic!

By the way Mark, we were going to go to Sety the I's tomb but it was closed! So we still went to get the picture of the entrance you wanted, sorry!

Bomb in Cairo

Hello friends and family. It's Roxy's mom here. I just wanted to put up a note on Roxy's blog letting everyone know we were not near the bomb that went off in the bazaar in Cairo yesterday, so please do not worry about us. We learned of it an hour after it happened, but we were only able to get information about it from the computer just now (the Egyptians are downplaying it so as not to frighten tourists), so here are more details if you have not read about it. We are both very sad for the family and friends of this young French student who was killed. We were in this same bazaar last week, admiring the square where it happened, which is next to a very famous mosque. We are feeling very lucky and also very sad. Tomorrow we go to the Valley of the Kings, the burial site for the pharoahs. (Mom and Dad, please give Lily an extra big kiss for us. We tried to call tonight from our hotel, but the phone line was not working!)

Hey hey hey

Hey, still having a great time. Ok so the cruise was AWESOME! We would stop at a monument and then everyone would get off see it and then get back on the boat. Oh and I lost my camera! it was in my hip pouch when either it fell out or someone hippocketed me! So for now I will just use my mom's camera. So we went to the temple of Kom Ombo, Edfu Temple, the unfinished Obolisk, the high dam, and a long camel ride! And they were all awesome. Sadly I got sick from I don't know what and my hands are shaking on the keyboard, it is just my stomach that is acting funny. You know how when you have the flu you just have to sit or lay down, and if you walk your legs go a little numb? That is how I feel! Today we got to the super super fancy hotel that I paid for, I raised money in the summer to pay for it, it is sad that I am sick during the stay. Today we did Karnak temple, which is HUGE, way bigger than any other temple in Egypt!

Oh, and we went to Abu Simbel (pictured), which was also AWESOME!

Food

Ok so I thought I would leave you guys with a little info. The food here is WAY different! You won't find any cheetos or Jolly ranchers! I have been missing my usual American food a LOT but I am getting used to the Egyptian food and now I am craving it! So, I started out by trying a Felafel, my mom loves them and said i would too. She did not tell me what it was made of for she feared I would not try it if I knew. It was DELICIOUS, a Felafel is chick peas ground up and deep fried in little patties and served with pita bread dipped in hummus! Ok, so then I tried shawerma which was also very good but a little sweet for my taste. Next I was going to try Egyptian pancakes but didn't have enough meals in the day.

Relaxation

Well, the train ride was kinda fun. We took a sleeper train over night to Aswan and it was pretty cool. The food on the train was TERRRIBLE! We arrived in at our hotel at 10:20, in the morning. It is WAY hotter here then in Cairo. We then took a Felluca ride on the Nile with two funny guys who liked to say, "No Problem" a lot. There was barely any wind so we went REALLY slow, but it was still nice. You know I didn't see one crocodile or hippo at all, and when we asked if there was any the two guys said no. The ride took about 2 hours. It was really nice to sit there and just think about what a wonderful place your in looking out on the nile. We got back too our hotel which by the way is so big it has it's own island! It, in my opinion, was really hot and I needed a swim. So we went to the pool and it was FREEZING! I couldn't stand it, so we walked around the island a little and found a second pool! One that was heated a little, the perfect temperature. I had a great time relaxing and swimming in the pool.

P.S. Sadly you won't be hearing from me until Monday because I will be CRUISING DOWN THE NIIIIIILLLLLEEEE!!!!

Papyrus

It is then that we went to the Papyrus making museum and had a wonderful time learning how to make Papyrus. I have made a video in which i will show you all when I get back, for it will take much too long to download, it is very long. My mom bought me a beutiful painting on Papyrus that had King Tutankamun and his Wife. His wife is giving him an oil massage in his famous chair. At first it looks sort of boring but then you notice that the couple are sharing a single pair of sandles, they each have one on. This was a sign of great affection. A lovely story isn't it?

The Sphinx

It was so much fun to see the Sphinx. I could go on and on about all of the theories of the Sphinx, but that really would take all night! All I can say is it is breath taking! Sadly it's nose got blown off and so did the fake beard. Here are a few pictures I took.

The Giza Pyramids

OMG! That was definatly the BEST DAY EVER! We started out with going to the Giza pyramids, which i will tell you about in this post.
We drove up to the parking lot and only at first did the first pyramid of Giza seem very small. But as we got closer, and closer it got bigger, and bigger. It was so beutiful, it really takes your breath away! I was afraid it would be windy like when we went to Saqqara but it was the perfect weather, it started out a little breeze and got warmer and warmer untile it was just enough to take off your sweater. The insides of pyramids make me claustruphobic so i didn't go in because you walk on your knees for a REALLY long time! But i did climb up to the entrance, it makes me cry to think again of how beutiful it was.
Then we move on too the second pyramid of Giza, my favourite. It is my favourite for two reasons, one it still has some of the outer soft layer on the tip, and two it looks bigger than the first but really it is just on a hill. You see, the kings, would always make they're pyramid smaller than their fathers as a kind of respect.
Afterwards we took a twenty minute camel ride around a hill and our camel just happened to be a super model! When the little boy says cheese, the camel turns his head to the side so you can see his face! he says "get my good side"! I absolutely loved the camel ride it was deffinatly one of my absolute favuorite parts of the whole trip.

The Wedding

Hey! One more thing, while i was posting yesterday there was a HUGE wedding in the hotel and it was sooooooooooooooooo loud i could barely hear myself type! Here is a picture of it my mom took.
P.S We thought you would like this lily, pps we bought you a present lily!

For Mr.Leister

O.K, you are going to be so happy when I tell you this Mr. Leister. I went to Muhammad Ali's Mosque in Cairo Egypt, I got to stand next to his grave! Isn't that so awesome, I took pictures so you could see, it is very beautiful. Our tour guide even taught us the five pillars of faith and I told her that I knew ALL about it. Well, that's about it for today, three things.

Bazaar

Then we went to the marketplace, or bazaar, where we bought quite a few things. You see in Egypt they don't put prices on things, you are supposed to ask how much it cost and then you bargain. Here is an example:
" Ummmm.. 90 Egyptian pounds"
us: "oh that is too expensive"
" 70?"
And it just keeps going and going until he lets you walk out the door or you agree on a price. By the way too Mr. Siem, I bought you a present, I saw it and had to get it for you, it is a sponge from the Red Sea! Anyways, this bargaining is called haggling, it made me nervous.
YEAH JET LAG IS GONZO!
P.S Ava, we went to the airport bookstore and all they had was, inkdeath in paperback and stop in the name of pants in paperback.

First activity for the day

Ooooohhhh! My goodness. I just had a very wonderful tiring day.
It started out at the Egyptian museum, our tour guide picked us up and took us there. It is huge, and very beautiful, it was amazing how many artifacts there were. It would take a month just to look at every detail, we learned a great deal of things there. Like the museum wasn't big enough to hold all the artifacts they had and only 1/4 of it was on display! Anyway we looked around with our tour guide taking long amounts of time describing the very important artifacts and then we had free time to wander. We went to the mummy part of the museum where you had to pay 20 and 10 extra dollars to get in, it was cool but they didn't have Ramses II or Seti I, even though they said they did. Oh and then we went to the animal mummies, I am sorry to John Sasso and to everyone else who wanted pictures of mummified cats, sadly you weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum, sorry. I did see five mummified cats though. And a whole variety of things, so I couldn't take pictures of a single thing I saw in the museum. My favourite thing i saw in the museum was King Tutunkamun's mask and Sarcaughagus, made of solid gold. I know what you are thinking Mark, but sadly you will not be seeing these artifacts on your fieldtrip because they are to priceless to travel. No one will insure them.

Ripped off

Oh my gosh! My mom and i took a walk today and guess what happened? ok we were going to go to a museum place and on the way this guy started talking to us. we wanted to say "oh sorry we really must be going" but we didn't want to be rude. So we let him walk us all over town until we figured out we were going the wrong way and he said, "oh well you shouldn't go to the museum because it opens at 1pm, why don't i take you to the market place i can walk you there." So he walks us all the way there and then when we get to the main street he forces us into a shop. It is there we are manipulated into buying some papyrus for much too high a cost! it is only later we found out that the museum really opens at eight, we could have gone!

P.s to lily, we went to the Hello Kitty store and thought of you because the whole room was PINK!

Saqqara & Memphis

Today was my first full day in Cairo. My mother and I went to Saqqara & Memphis. Our tour guide took us first to Memphis where we saw a huge limestone statue of Ramses II and the smaller model Sphinx. It was so amazing, his thumb was as big as my face! Afterwards we went to Saqqara, Saqqara is a burial ground where the very first pyramid was built. Since it was the first it was not as advanced as the Giza pyramids, this was known as the step pyramid.
Later we went to the pyramid of TeTi and nearby tombs. There were tons of drawings on the walls explaining daily life and the underworld. I learned from our tour guide that the lotus flower was a sign of strong affection, and was given to a woman if she was proposed to.

Arriving in Cairo (at midnight)

Wow Egypt is way coooooolllllll!!!!!! Where shall i start....... so the flight was excruciatingly long, but then we got to our hotel and that's when I noticed it was a 5 star hotel! It is so nice here. It's so different from America because everyone here is sooooooooooooooooo nice. Like the bell hop guy, he asked me my name and then when I told him I came from California he told me he LOVES Nicolas Cage, hahahahaha!
P.s I have total jet lag.

Our Route

This is our route: Cairo-Aswan by train, then Aswan-Luxor by boat up the Nile!

Egypt Postcard

We will be seeing all these things on our trip! The Sphinx is in the background, and the pyramids of Giza. I'm not sure which pharoah is in the foreground, but we will find out. And we are looking forward to riding on a Felucca sailboat. Last time mom did she was proposed to!

EGYPT!!!!

Jaguar in Egypt

On February 14th I will be traveling to Egypt. I am starting this blog to share my adventures. I am really excited. I will be going to different places every day. Keep an eye out for posts along the way.

I am looking forward to visiting the pyramids at Giza and riding on camels!