Walking like an Egyption

Egypt... what an amazing country and so different from the recent places that i have visited. My first impressions of Egypt was arriving into Cairo and getting a taxi to my hotel, as i had just come from Greece i had shorts on and the taxi driver in his broken English pointed at my knees, made a gun symbol with his hands and went "bang bang". From this point on my knees and shoulders were covered for the rest of the trip in populated areas. Joining my Intrepid group of only 5, we travelled all around Egypt from Cairo to Asawan to Luxor to St. Katherines and then back to Cairo. We visited the Pyramids, Sphinx, Valley of the Kings, Mt Sinai, Coloured Canyon, St. Katherines Monastery (site of the biblical 'Burning Bush') The Cairo Garbage City and A.P.E and many other places in-between. We rode through the Sahara on camel back, ate at a local house in a Nubian village, sailed for 2 days down the Nile River on a Felucca boat, visited the town of Darow (the real Egypt), watched Sufi Dancing (pic) where a dancer just span for around 30 minutes non-stop, and went to countless markets and mind blowing temples. The last 2 weeks have been hectic with moments of relaxation and long train and bus journeys in-between towns. I have so much to talk about that i could write a book but i have picked a few stories from a tour i will always remember.

The Pyramids at Giza and
Valley of the Kings
What a way to start, on day 2 after meeting everyone the night before we were gazing up at one of the ancient wonders of the world. After learning a bit about them from our tour guide we had some spare time to go and explore. With Egyptians wanting to take your money every 10 steps, i couldn't resist hopping on a camel and have my photo taken. Also making friends with one of the "security guards" with his weathered laminated pass, preventing people from entering a particular area, he allowed me to have a quick look around and have more photos taken of me in-front of the strategically placed pile of stones. 1 Egyptian pound ($0.20 AUS) goes a long way.
Going through the 3 most interesting tombs of Ramsis 3, Ramsis 4 and Merenptah in the Valley of the Kings was just as spectacular as the Pyramids. The detail that has gone into the hieroglyphics and effort it must have taken to dig 60m down into a hillside is unbelievable, especially with the 30 odd tombs in the area and more are to be discovered. As you couldn't take photos inside the tombs i was disappointed however with the numerous other temples we visited throughout Egypt, i was able to take photos and even touch the hieroglyphics at those.

Mt. Sinai (Mt. Moses)
With my walking shoes on and having a good stretch i was ready and pumped to tackle the 3750 steps up to the top of Mt. Sinai where Moses received the 10 Commandments from the Big Guy. Starting at the Monastery of St. Kathereines where the biblical Burning Bush is located (it's not burning at the moment which is disappointing but you get over these things) we climbed the rocky path and 2.2km above sea level mountain to watch the sunset (pic- me being Moses). The view from up the top is spectacular and it was the reddest sunset i have ever seen. Climbing back down was another challenge in itself as it was now dusk/night. The temperature dropped 20 degrees in about 5 minutes, so with runny noses, we all carefully baby stepped our way back down the mountain on the safer camel track, stepping in camel sh*t as the only light we had was a flashlight and a full moon. We all got back down safely with a few slips and slides.

Ramadhan
I count myself so lucky to have booked my Egypt trip through Ramadhan as i have been able to experience so many different and once a year opportunities. I had no idea it was on until i arrived. Ramadhan is a fasting celebration where it is a time for Muslims to get back in touch with Allah and this includes fasting for the lunar month to show you can control and devote yourself. As a Muslim you can only eat, drink and smoke in the hours between 6pm and 3am (even water!), you cannot have sex unless you are married, alcohol/drugs is forbidden all year round and praying 5 times a day - every day, are just some of the main tasks that must be adhered to. Our poor tour guide Muhammad climbing a mountain and camel riding through the Sahara looked a bit parched as no water was allowed. On the other hand it is also a time for celebration. After the 1500 Mosques around Egypt stop their megaphone prayer call at 6pm, everyone devours their food out in the street where everyone comes to socialise. Kofta's, shish-kebabs and a whole range of beef and chicken and bread is served to the thousands. I got to try pretty much all the dishes, drinks and desserts that come out only during Ramadhan and eat with the locals that are all extremely friendly and accepting of Westerners. As a tourist i could eat at any part of the day, it was very easy to find food, but you felt guilty eating and drinking in front of them, especially our guide that was always excited at 5.45pm. Muhammad always made sure we had an awesome and safe experience in Egypt.

Back into Italy for around 3 weeks exploring Rome, Siena, Florence and the towns in-between.

Facebook: I must apologise as i have taken down my Facebook page as i can't keep up with all the messages and invitations that i have been recieving. I will start it up again when i get home next year as i don't have time to work out how to use it properly. Please still send me a messages as i can organise myself better through email.

I've had a Greak time on the islands

Partying every night and sleeping on the beaches most days with the occasional sightseeing is what sums up the Contiki Greek Island Hopping tour. Starting off in Athens, we ferried between the islands of Mykonos, Santorini, Ios and then finished back in Athens. There are so many drunken stories to tell where we had a Toga Party, numerous pub/club crawls, Greek dancing, shots of pretty much every available liqueur including Ouzo, cocktails being shouted by our awesome tour guide every night, the Paradise Beach parties (old man pic) and days spent cruising on a pirate boat, watching the sunset in Santorini (pic), traditional Greek dinners and spending time with a group of people with positive attitudes. The last photo is of myself and Nick, having a Greek coffee with a smoke playing with our Cobaloi beads which is what most of the old Greek men do in Greece. The last 2 weeks have gone so quickly and it was very sad to say goodbye to everyone towards the end.

Ministry of Sound
This was a day that i will be laughing about for a long time. Started the day on a good meal of bacon and eggs as tonight was a pub crawl where everyone was very keen to go out and have fun around Mykonos. During the day i wandered around the winding white streets eating chocolate banana crepes and meeting Pedro the Pelican (pic), Mykonos' mascot who loves a photo with tourists and the occasional feed, (i had to line up in front of 6 people to get this photo) and then had a nap during the hottest part of the day in the sun/shade on the beach as tonight was going to be quite long. As the main clubs don't really start until midnight, there are a few bars we went to beforehand for pre drinks which turned out to be a lot of fun. Travelling in a group of 27, wherever we went was the party. Dancing on anything we could climb on we danced and drank up a storm until it was time to go clubbing. More dancing, more shots, great music and a great party atmosphere. Our transfer bus was to pick us up at 3am to take us back to our Contiki resort but i was having such a good time i didn't want to go home, so with Beth and Lex we decided to keep the night alive and so we caught a cab to Paradise beach where the club Ministry of Sound was. The club had a swimming pool in the centre, awesome DJ's and was 20 metres away from the beach where we partied until the music stopped at around 6am. Stumbling out wanting a cab to go home to the other side of the island as we were all pooped, we couldn't find one. No taxis, no buses, no transport whatsoever. Most people leaving the club were jumping on their motorbikes and scooters driving home drunk and we just looked at each other and thought how the hell are we going to get back home (30min taxi ride away). We asked one of the security guards wandering around for help and when we told him where we wanted to go, his face said it all...we were stranded. Our options were, wait 3 hours for the next bus, walk a good 5 hours back home or swim! Sitting down too tired to think of any other option a car was pulling out of a nearby driveway. Lex spontaneously jumped up and ran to the drivers window asking if he could drive us home. The driver wasn't drunk as he was on his way to work but he turned out to be deaf. With the security guard knowing him and then explaining to him where we wanted to go, he ended up taking us home an hour out of his way... so lucky! We paid him a very generous tip for his kindness and couldn't stop giggling to ourselves that we were getting a lift from a deaf Greek bloke in Mykonos at 6:30am! Took us 40minutes to get home as we got lost and tried to sign language/lip read Greek to him where we wanted to go, but arrived safe and sound in the end in time for breakfast back at the resort.

I am off to Egypt for the next 2 weeks on another tour where i can't wait. I have been wanting to see the Pyramids as well as Egypt as a whole for a long long time.

Athena lot in Athens

From Ancona in Italy, i booked a 21hour ferry to the port of Patras in Greece. After realising that my recliner seat only reclined 10cm, i ended up sleeping on the floor (pic), reminding myself of the night spent on the airport floor in Hong Kong...oh well, Athens was only another 3 hour bus ride away!
Upon arrival at Parliament house in the centre of Athens, i found myself wandering through thousands of people dressed in black t-shirts protesting to the Government about how they haven't dealt with the massive fires properly where they are still ablaze.
Quickly dumping my bags at my hostel close by, i went back out, hoping something interesting might happen as there were riot police everywhere. In the end nothing much did happen, just the police firing a few warning explosions in the air which seemed to make at least a third of the crowd disappear. After speaking to the receptionist about it on his thoughts, he put it simply by saying, "if all those (at least 10,000) protesters got a bucket of water each and dumped it on the fires instead of complaining, they wouldn't have anything to complain about."
It's the end of summer and it's hot.
37 degrees which is actually ok whereas a month ago it averaged 45 degrees. I spent the next day visiting as many of the historical sites as i could in the dry heat. The Acropolis is amazing and with the Parthenon (pic) under construction to keep it standing, i was able to look past all the scaffolding and cranes and imagine it as it were thousands of years ago. The 360 degree view of Athens from the top of the Acropolis was also breath taking. Athens is huge and would take forever to explore.
Got up at the crack of sparrows the next day to visit the monasteries in the skies at Meteora! Ideally i should have spent 2 days here, but with my limited time i took a 5 hour bus ride then a further 45 minute bus to get there and another 6 hour bus ride back home. Well worth it in the end. Monasteries built on top of vertical rock hills and mountains with views of the valleys below. They are still being used today where you can visit them by walking or busing it to each one. It was a good day but a long one, especially the bus home, full of sweaty and hairy old Greek men and women. The women with their arms waving and shouting something at their husbands and the looks on the men's faces wishing their wives would just shut up. Ha ha ha.

I am off to the Greek Islands of Mykonos, Santorini and Ios for the next 2 weeks.