Let me just apologize up front for any of you trying to read this post on a dial-up Internet connection. There are a LOT of photos to follow…
Upon first arriving in Cairo, my initial reaction was that it was very similar to Bangkok. A large city, with lots of cars, lots of dirt, lots of people, lots of chaos. After spending a full waking day in the city, not much of that initial reaction has changed. The city has nearly 18 million people in it, and it seems like all of them drive. None of their cars have any sort of emissions regulations. But they all DO have working car horns. And they like to let you know about it… as often as possible.
We woke up bright and early to meet up with our tour guide Fatma at 8am. Even this early in the day, it was already pretty hot outside. Here’s a panoramic image from the hotel room.
We jumped into the air-conditioned van and were shuttled off to the first stop of Saqqara. Along the way we got a first hand look at the realities of this developing nation. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the driving. It’s utterly chaotic. There is no concept of driving lanes despite the guides painted on the road. There is no such thing of right of way, especially if you are a pedestrian. There are roads that seemingly lead to nowhere as traffic will go for several kilometers to only get to the end of the road and everyone — and i do mean everyone — turns around and goes the opposite direction on that same road, despite the fact that the road keeps going in the other direction. It just makes no sense. So many of the dwellings were dilapidated, or at least looked it. Many demolished buildings. Many animals on the road. And many young children walking around without supervision. It was quite a culture shock.
After driving for what seemed like forever past carpet weaving schools, we came to our first stop at Saqqara which features the world’s oldest standing step pyramid.
The pyramid and the nearby tombs were designed by Imhotep, one of the most advanced architect of ancient times. The cut limestone designs have stood up remarkably over the past 5000 years.
Flanking the great pyramid…
…are various tombs where kings from both the first and second dynasties were buried.
Many of the offering tables outside of the tombs have since been destroyed (not by us)…
The similarities between Latin characters and hieroglyphics are just uncanny sad!
This was an epic moment in our lives…
… but just the first of many that the day would provide.
Next up was a short drive over to the pyramid complex of Teti. The pyramid itself is pretty much gone and only resembles a small hill now. But the chambers and corridors below it are in very good shape. The hieroglyphics all over the walls are totally legible. If you can read hieroglyphics that is. We did learn one thing about reading them… there is no preset left-to-right, right-to-left rule. They can be read and written in all 4 directions! The direction in which you read them is determined by the direction that the bird glyph is facing.
With that new knowledge under our belts, it was off to Memphis to view more kings. No, not Elvis, but King Ramesses II. This 83 ton masterpiece is flawlessly carved in solid granite. It once towered above the land below at 11 meters high.
Also in Memphis is this alabaster sphinx from the 19th dynasty, or 1200 BC.
Now, for Big Bertha…
That’s right, the Giza Pyramids!!!! The only remaining member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World!
OMG, these suckers are ENORMOUS!
Folks it doesn’t get any better than this. The great friggin’ pyramids are right there in front of us!
Er, behind us.
And under us.
It’s impossible to even capture their enormity on film. But here are a few photo to put it all in perspective.
Take just one of those steps, and repeat it over 200 times!
The great thing about having a tour guide is that she can take you to the spots that many people never see…
…and help you take photos that no one else will take.
And she can help you not fall into the typical tourist traps, of which there are many in Cairo. And instead get you the really good deals on camel rides!
Hey, we’re in Egypt! What did you expect!? Certainly not more Segways I hope!
And of course the most majestic half-human, half-lion hybrid of all time. The Great Sphinx of Giza!
What else can you really say about a day like this!? Nothing. Nothing at all. It was perfect.
It’s just about time to say goodbye to the awesome city of Edinburgh. We thought today we would take it easy and just roam the streets checking out the street performers. On just bout every block there were acrobats, musicians, artists, jugglers, and vendors selling their wares. One of the standout acts that had me mesmerized was Juzzie Smith who is a one-man-band from Australia. He had a crowd of about 90+ people all watching in awe as he played harmonica, an electric guitar, a stomp box, a tambourine, a maraca, and a didgeridoo all the while singing. If you ever have the chance to see him perform, run, don’t walk! I even shelled out £10 for his CD it was that amazing.
After Juzzie blew my mind we found these adorable little Asian girls…
…promoting a show called Taekwon vs. B-Boy. Sounded interesting and we had a 2 for 1 coupon, so we went down to venue 112 to check it out and were pleasantly surprised by the performance. The dancing and martial arts worked very well together on stage with a lot of cross over. It even had it’s own love story sub-plot which was quite funny.
After the show we took a quick photo with the crews…
…and then headed back to Linda’s house for a farewell drink with the flatmates.
A special thanks to Linda for making our stay in Edinburgh so enjoyable. We’ll never forget it!
After leaving the castle on Saturday, we passed by a building with a sign outside for “Camera Obscura and World of Illusions.” From the outside it looked like a tourist trap, but we later read some pretty favorable reviews, so today we decided to check it out, and it was actually pretty cool.
Lots of mirrors with lights…
…mirrors without lights…
…distortion mirrors…
…hidden images…
…plasma balls…
…and plasma cylinders…
The most fun part was a large dark hallway with glass on both walls stretching from floor to ceiling. Behind the glass were grids of of single points of lights that would change colors, and behind the light were mirrors. Standing in this hallway seemed like you were standing in the middle of space with multicolored stars all around you for as far as you could see.
I cranked up the exposure on the camera and moved it around a bit as the points of light changed colors to create these cool images.
Nope, we’re not back in California, and that was not a typo, and it wasn’t engrish. There really is a Holyrood Park here in Edinburgh, and it’s about the only point in the city that has a higher altitude than the castle.
Like most days in Scotland, the rain will come and go hour by hour. When we started on the hike near the uber-modern parliament building it was a beautiful sunny day.
But once we reached the base of this extinct volcano, the dark clouds started moving in.
We already came this far, so there is no tuning back now… Onwards ho!
Jay wasn’t too happy with his choice of attire once we got further up to find this was more like a hike through the Nile river.
But every few hundred yards, the slipping and slidding through mud puddles was all worth it when the sun would break through and reveal amazing views.
Both far away…
and close up…
The summit was INCREDIBLE! Both an incredible view…
We hiked back down the other side of the mountain, and explored the ruins of St. Anthony’s chapel that was built around 1426
It provided a nice place to practice rock climbing
After dominating Holyrood, we waked back up The Royal Mile, grabbed a bite to eat at a Thai/Indian restaurant, and then rushed off to one of the most popular comedy shows of the festival.
There was a Canadian on a unicycle juggling flaming clubs, but that was nothing compared to what we saw next.
Another Canadian in a nearby plaza had just rode in (from Canada) on a motorcycle! He was a Santa Cruz trained juggler with multiple world records. He was juggling chainsaws, grenades, machetes amoungst other things. He must have sensed his fellow Santa Cruzians in the audience as he selected Jay out of the crowd for a little assistance.
Check the video for the rest of the story as words just wouldn’t do it justice.
