On Holidays Part 1

We begin our African adventure. It was a long drawn out affair to get here; 1.5 hour flight to Seattle, 10 hour wait for our departure to Dubai, 14 hour flight from Seattle to Dubai, airport shuttle to hotel in Dubai for a few hours shut eye before hopping on another 3.5 hour flight from Dubai to Cairo. Once we arrived in Cairo, we were greeted by Mamoud who briefed us on our upcoming itinerary and then delivered us to the local regional airport for yet another 1.5 hour flight for our arrival in Luxor.
We were greeted in Luxor by another friendly representative of Lion Dog Safari named Ahmed, who delivered us to the beautiful Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel. Here we enjoyed the only authentic Thai cuisine in Luxor; and a peaceful night sleep. The following morning Ahmed introduced us to the guide who would navigate us through the next part of our journey; touring around Luxor and the 5 day river cruise down the Nile.
Ayman is a University educated man with a wife and beautiful baby girl named, Ereni. We have found Ayman to be wonderful company and very passionate about the political situation Egypt is currently facing under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. Ayman also proved to be extremely resourceful when Gord’s backpack caved under the weight of all his electronics and broke a strap, and then again, when he was able to get Gord hooked up with Internet while we are in Egypt. While this country seems quite behind in many respects, Gord has ended up with a better internet connection than we have at home – go figure.
Yesterday we spent the morning visiting the tombs at the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, and the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the status of Colissi of Menmon. Ayman then took us to a factory where we got to watch them hand carve all kinds of authentic artwork on genuine stone. I picked out a lovely Onyx pot for my collection and a hand carved Sand stone tablet with beautiful colours. The weather is quite lovely at around 20C, however Ayman finds it cold, as it is their winter here.
We then boarded our ship, the Crown Jewel, where we enjoyed lunch and relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. After dinner, there was a cheesy belly dancing show and Ayman confirmed that belly dancing is not considered a respectable profession in Egypt.
After the show, we met up with Ayman and he took us for a walk downtown to Luxor. The weather was pleasant and it is Saturday night, and so there were many people on the street. It is an entirely different world here and it was fascinating to see the local people doing what the local people do. Considering the political challenges Egyptians are facing, they seem to be amazingly happy as we watched them dancing and laughing on the street.
There is no social support for poor people here and it was very hard for me to see a young mother with her infant child, begging in the street - absolutely heartbreaking.
In a society that does not look after their poor people well, animals do not fare well here. It has been so hard to see the horses and donkeys pulling carriages and carts through crazy traffic; that appear starving and are obviously lame. I just want to do TTouch on them and bring them to a sweet grassy field.

Tovie