Sinai and Goodbye

The final chapter of our Egypt saga takes place on the Sinai Peninsula.  To make Dave happy after his whining about the beach in his Cairo post, we booked a resort hotel in the touristy town of Dahab—something we’ve literally never done before as a family.  

Our hotel view. Okay, not bad.

The idea was to relax and for the first 48 hours, we did just that.  

While Mom and Dave did this...

Followed by this...

I did this...

And saw this! Also not bad.

But by day two we were ready for an epic adventure.  And in Egypt, these are very easy to come by. 

Naturally, when people come to the Sinai Peninsula, they wonder about its eponymous mountain.  You know, the one that Moses climbed?  At the summit, he communicated with God and received…hmmm…either the 10 Commandments or the Bill of Rights…I, like much of America, keep getting them confused.  

Dahab’s promenade with its enticing mountains in the background. 

So we asked our hotel concierge, what about Mt. Sinai, can we go there?  Oh no, he said.  After recent “incidents” our hotel no longer organizes trips.  

Interesting…

Luckily the travel agencies in town didn’t seem to worried about these incidents.  They were more than happy to take our money and plan a trip for us. As we prepared for the excursion the next morning, a different hotel employee told us “Mt. Sinai, there’s ice up there!”   Well the McGaughey-Huntington Clan has never been intimidated by a little ice.  

We hopped in a microbus, speeding up vacant highways towards the center of the peninsula. As we gained altitude, the air thinned and the temperature dropped.  We received clearance from military checkpoint after checkpoint.  Bare mountains towered over us like skyscrapers as we passed miniscule Bedouin villages.

The road less traveled...

A shepherd keeping watch over his flock…very apt.

Just to be even more cliché… there were actually unmanned camels roaming around in the desert

Dave is forced to remove his Babushka scarf and wrap it around his body for warmth.  Note the SNOW in the background…

Presently we arrived at the St. Katherine Monastery, one of the world’s oldest Christian institutions.  It was built in the 6^th century around an even older chapel that marked the place of Moses’ Burning Bush.  Today there is actually is a bush here that might be a “descendent” of this scriptural shrubbery.  Sounds tenuous, but it sure helps to sell postcards.

4^th most famous Bush.  After the two Georges and the British 90’s band.

Dad passes the St. Katherine Monastery as we begin our climb of Sinai.

The path up Mt. Sinai begins in St. Katherine’s backyard.  Our guide Mohammad (I would estimate that half of the people in Egypt have this name) pointed to the approaching clouds and said “rain.”  But I think he too, like the hotel receptionist, didn’t know the word for snow.

Uh oh...

Dave returns to Babushka mode, this time with a Mexican poncho as a twist.

Soon the flurries began to fall and the wind picked up. How could I scuba dive by a coral reef one day and hike through a snowstorm the next? 

Sadly as we neared the top—a rugged section of some 700 steps—our guide informed us that the final leg was now closed due to snow.  Why didn’t he inform us when we hired him?  Probably because that would be terrible for business.  But he did invite us into a nearby hut/tent for some oregano Bedouin tea and crackers.

It seems this colorful tent is as close as this family will get to the summit of this legendary mountain

Ray and Mom on the way down as the sun peaks out for a few seconds…

Safely back at the hotel, we rendezvoused with our new friends, Jess, Jonathan and Anne from England.  In just a few days we became close with this family even got to enjoy a snorkeling escapade with them out on the Red Sea.  Jess works in the art world and lived in New York all fall, perhaps our family’s paths will cross again!  

It turns out Jess, like Dave, likes to dress up in giant scarves.  Since they are both practical people, here they have chosen to assemble here at an official Hotel Assembly Point. 

All travels must end at some point and work and school commitments finally called us back home.  At our layover in Rome, I parted ways with my family in order to go explore Italy.  What a trip Egypt was!  And yet, as with all travels, we are leaving unfulfilled, knowing that there is still so much more to see in this diverse country.  

Brothers Unite! To raise one eyebrow each.

Until next time, Egypt!

 

Luxor...so many ruins!

On we go to Luxor, a city two Egyptian hours north of Aswan. I say Egyptian hours because this country runs on its own schedule which can cause all sorts of problems if you don’t factor in this exchange rate. Our 12 hour train ride from Cairo to Aswan was a 15 hour train ride from Cairo to Aswan. No big deal. No apologies. Just don’t have any plans within that swing window of Egyptian time. 

Kind of a nice concept actually. Most of you know I pretty much operate on Egyptian time all the time, so it seems like the right pace. We are on vacation after all, and nothing reminds you that there’s no need to rush when your two hour ride from Aswan to Luxor takes closer to four. It’s hard to move too fast in a country that takes its time. We are in a new time zone. We move slowly. It is a nice adjustment. 

After a particularly big meal, Karl and dad move especially slowly.

And then we were in Luxor.

Temple of Luxor, sandwiched between the city and the Nile.

The city of Luxor is sort of the middle line between Cairo and Aswan. Life in Cairo moves like Midtown Manhattan, even in Egyptian time. In Aswan life stands still. Luxor, with more than 400,000 people and with a huge number of tourists from all over the world drawn to view the famous Valley of the Kings, has a tempo of its own. With both Aswan and Cairo it seemed to take over a day for us to find our bearings in each city’s distinctive culture and speed. Somehow, maybe because of its similarities to both places or the fact that we had been in Egypt for more than a week, we figured out Luxor right away.

Sunset in Luxor as we explore the downtown on our first evening.

It’s no surprise that Ray rapidly finds work making alabaster vases by hand… And I thought I was supposed to be the business-minded one.

The great thing about Luxor is how accessible the city felt. Once we got off the main tourist drags we were in normal neighborhoods where we appeared to the locals more as an exciting novelty than a financial opportunity. The general hospitality we had experienced all trip remained strong throughout our stay in Luxor.

Having seen one too many sites without a guide en route from Aswan to Luxor, we decided that it would be worth investing in someone who actually knew what they were talking about when it came to the tourist sites.

Amr! In front of the Temple of Hatshepsut

So we hired Amr, an excellent guide whose tours included visual aids and excerpts from several relevant texts. This seems like an apt moment to mention that we know someone else who who uses an advanced repertoire of teaching techniques… Ray is an exceptional NYC tour guide!

We then got busy trying to see as many of the ancient sites as we could. The temples and tombs of Luxor may have been the best of the trip so far.

We decided to stick our heads right in. 

A statue of the falcon god Horus guards the entrance to Enfu Temple.

This 3000 year old marriage is still going strong, though it seems like the wife has finally gotten a little ahead of her husband.

To be a true obelisk the statue must be cared out of one slab of granite. Imagine what a task it must have been to move and raise this enormous piece of granite. Amr told us it took 7 months simply to make it stand up.

During ancient Egyptian times over thousands of these Ram's head sphinxes lined the path between the Nile and Karnak temple

Sometimes the color of the 3000 year old dye remains. I didn’t realize before this trip that all of the ancient Egyptian creations, including the stone carvings, were once painted just as vibrantly with these natural color

The Colossi of Memnon--guardians who once walked this great land but now stay frozen in deep slumber, awaiting the time when their services are once again needed.

Because of the number of ancient sites we saw it is easy to gloss over each individual one. Seen one spectacular ancient ruin seen them all, right? Not really. Though every place we went is not worth mentioning I felt that the more sites we explored the more fascinated we all became with ancient Egyptian history and culture. There is a draw about this civilization—the way they explained the world, the monuments they built to honor those explanations. In the age of information we are much more divided about our beliefs than this great civilization was. Their unity of purpose contributed to their ability to accomplish feats that even today with our modern technology would be nearly impossible.

One of these such constructions is Carnak Temple, the largest temple ever in the Egyptian empire. 

The Hipostyle Hall in the Temple of Carnak...note the obelisk in the background

The magnitude of the columns put to scale with our mom.

Yet even with how amazing the sites we were seeing were, what I valued most about Luxor was the time we got to spend with our wonderful travel companions. Traveling is already an experience of constant alertness. With everything so unfamiliar my mind never has time to calm down into repetition. Every glance meant reexamining normal. This feeling was heightened by our traveling friends who themselves saw the world through a completely different lens. After a long, hot day of adventuring, the ability to go back to the hotel with our friends to do nothing but relax and reflect added a wonderful dimension to the travel experience. Thanks Monika, Karl and Sofia!

The adventurers themselves.

 

Sun five, Sofia!

Ray and Sofia share a Rocket Power handshake in Carnak Temple.

In Egypt a man is allowed up to four wives…

The longer we stay in Egypt the more comfortable we feel. Considering how we felt the trip may seem dangerous this reality is remarkable. We may be getting too comfortable…

As Ray aptly pointed out, in Egypt there is actually no wrong way to wear a scarf.

Unless you think you’re being stylish and wind up looking like a babushka.

Look at these two Egyptians.

And always the Brothers will try to "fly" wherever we go. Sometimes this venture proves successful as it did at Giza. Sometimes it just ends with some fantastic faces.

Lets take a closer look...

Look at those patented McGaughey eyebrows.

We are proud to say that Brothers Unite has led to a laudable spin-off, Cousins Unite.  This photo was submitted by our cousins Sarah and Dave.  Feel free to send in your best Unite photos!

Awesome.  Where is this?

As our time in Luxor came to an end, so did one era of our travels.  Because Sophia was already late for the start of her semester, we were forced to part ways with the Germans who we have enjoyed so much on this trip.  Until next time guys!

SOPHIAAAA!