Okay, so this was hands down the best trip of the whole program. I think I took over 600 photos on this trip alone, so even more so than Cairo, this trip is best explained by the numerous amazing pictures.
I don't really know how to explain to you guys just how amazing this trip was. We drove to Cairo and stayed in the Ramses hotel because we had an early morning flight to Aswan, which is way down in the south, or Upper Egypt (it's weird, I know; Upper Egypt is the south because the Nile starts there). Anyway, that night, I couldn't sleep, but I saw one of my Arabic professors leaving, and I asked him where he was going. It's important to note that this man, whom I love to death--his name is Mohammed Ansary--does not speak English with me at all unless absolutely necessary. So keep in mind that unless otherwise stated, every conversation with him is in Arabic.
So he tells me to follow him, and I do, and we leave the hotel and suddenly someone drives up in a small red car and Ansary tells me to get in. This is really weird, 'cause it's like 1:30 AM and I don't know this guy and we're in Cairo which is pretty foreign to me. But whatever: I feel much safer in Egypt than I do in America, most of the time, and of course I trust Ansary, so we head out. We drive around and they chat; apparently this guy teaches Arabic with Ansary in the United States. Cool.
Eventually we stop at some store and Ansary buys me a drink and a snack, and we're just standing outside, chatting, because we're waiting for their other friend. All of a sudden, all the lights on the street go out, and it's pitch black. Kind of awkward. It's real quiet. Then suddenly Ansary says, in English, "Okay guys: every ... body ... just ... be ... cool." And I burst out laughing and say, "What the heck?!" in English, and he responds, "Engleezee mamnua3--I'm serious" which means "English is forbidden." And then we went back to the hotel. It was a very strange experience, but memorable and hilarious nonetheless.
After that, we woke up very early to catch a domestic flight down to Aswan, which is far south in Egypt. When we got there, we went on a bus tour of Nasser Dam, which is this incredibly huge dam that provides a significant portion of electricity to Egypt. In fact, it provides so much that Egypt actually exports electricity to other North African countries, which I found fascinating. Our tour guide was this charming Nubian guy, and I got my first exposure to Upper Egyptian dialect and to the Nubian language, which is apparently not written.
After that, we headed to our cruise ship to drop off our stuff and relax a bit. Let me make it clear: I stayed on a cruise ship on the Nile River for roughly four days. Yes, it was as freakin' awesome as it sounds. In Aswan I saw some temples, as the pictures show. I'm gonna say this a couple times, but it's important to emphasize how incredible these temples are. The pyramids and sphinx and Giza are cool and all, but the temples in Luxor and Aswan beat the hell out of them. They are astoundingly intact, and the intricacy and scope of the architecture and the art there is absolutely amazing. I was consistently floored by each subsequent temple.
That night, we chilled on the boat as we cruised along the Nile, stopping along the way to visit temples and tombs and whatnot. I don't exactly remember all the temples and tombs, the order in which we visited them, and where they all were, but here is a list of the most memorable for those of you who want to research:
- Aswan
- Kom Ombo
- Edfu
- Luxsor
- Valley of the Kings
- Something that started with a K
- Luxor Temple
I saw the tombs of both Ramses II and III in Valley of the Kings, so it's very likely I saw the pharaoh known for enslaving and oppressing the Israelites. Weird. By the way, the best temples were in Luxor. It's necessary to look at the pictures. They are simply awe-inspiring.
We also visited an alabaster factory, where these guys put on a cute little show some of which I recorded. And there I bought some trinkets and gifts handmade of various kinds of beautiful stone for a fantastic price.
Also, on the Fourth of July, we sang the national anthem together, which made my heart swell. That was the first time I really missed America. Later that day, I heard "Georgia on My Mind" on the boat, and it made that swelling grow. I realized I really do bleed red, white, and blue. 'Merica.
Okay, so I have two stories to tell. The first happened those giant statues you might see among the thousands. As I was walking around and enjoying the view, I overheard a man trying to sell crappy trinkets to this woman who clearly spoke no Arabic. He was hassling her, as these people are wont to do to tourists, and when I found them, I could tell she was a little stressed out and didn't know what to do. So I went up to them and asked her if she wanted to buy anything from him. She said, "No, of course not!" So I told him, in Arabic, that she didn't want anything, and to go away. He looked at me and asked me how I knew, that he could definitely sell her something. I told him I asked her and she said no, so "Respect yourself and go away." And he left. And this woman looks at me so bewildered and says in a thick accent, "You speak Arabish?!" I laughed and said yes, and she said, "Wow. Well, um ... thanks."
Second is another story with C. Well, it's kind of an amalgam of three stories. So, C, our friend Ahmed and his family, and I went to the souq in Luqsor on the last night of the trip. A souq is an open-air market. Anyway, as we're walking through, Ahmed takes us to this little shop that sells different dried fruits and plants and spices and stuff for cooking and whatever. So Ahmed gives us this piece of a some dried thing and tells us to eat it. It's called a doum, apparently (which is pronounced "dowm," but we pronounced it "doom" 'cause we still have a little bit of hick in us). So this thing, by the way, tastes like wood soaked in caramel. The juice is good, but the dried fruit itself is pretty atrocious. But as C is trying to finish this thing off, Ahmed points to a pile of shit and goes, "Look, horse shit." C promptly spits out the doum and shouts, "Damn it, Ahmed, don't be talkin' to me about horse shit when I'm tryin' to eat a goddamn doum!" I don't know why, but somehow the combination of words, the thick Southern accent, and the mispronunciation "doom" made this a particularly hilarious memory that demanded it be written. I still laugh when I think about it.
So after that, C and I were walking behind the group, laughing about the horse shit and the goddamn "doom," and as we walk along, the slick ass man stops us and asks us to come into his shop. His name was Yusef (Joseph) and he was Christian. He sold oil paintings on papyrus, and most of them were really nice. Of course, we didn't want anything, so we thanked him and tried to leave. However--and I don't know how--he convinced us to come in and at least have a look, no hassle. Next thing I know, C and I are on the way to the ATM so he can withdraw money to buy this painting for his mom. And I get out some money, too, but I'm smarter than C and get out the maximum amount I'm willing to spend. That makes hard bargaining either. Now I promised C I wouldn't tell anyone how much we paid, 'cause we don't know if we got a fair deal or not. I talked him down 70% of what he wanted, but even still. I wrote this story in Arabic, and I think I'm gonna post that version in the next post, along with a translation.
After that, as we were walking home, C and I ran into two guys--Ahmed and Montaser--who worked in the restaurant on the boat. They invited us to go to an 2hwa with them (prounced "AH-wa") which is a cafe with tea, coffee, shisha, etc. So we went. And it was great. It was really good Arabic practice because they didn't really speak a lick of English. And this conversation was hard, because they talked about their service and training in the Special Forces of the Egyptian Army. It was nuts. I didn't understand everything, but I gathered that they had to cross these nasty salt flats--like 100 km or something--and along the way had to wade through a pool of rotting dead animals and filth and shit and in there bite off a piece of some dead animal and carry it with them in their mouth along the way. Yeah. Try understanding all of that in a foreign language. But it was fun. These guys were really nice, and they bought us tea and shisha and chatted with us, and it was a really good time. Like I've said before, I've grown really close to C, and it was nice to hang out with my friend and some Arabs and get away from the group and the temptation to use English.
That's about it. I'm gonna post a couple stories in Arabic with translations, but all in all, the cruise along the Nile, the trips to Aswan and Luqsor, were absolutely incredible. The best trip of my life, really, and a sorely needed vacation. Till then.
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