Saturday, 2 August 2025

Jordan - Sunday May 25th - The Dead Sea


After a very early start, and negotiating Cairo airport again, we have arrived in Jordan. 

We were given Jordanian flags at the airport and had a group photo taken by the tourist board. Its  Jordan's national day! They are so pleased to see a tour groups as so many tourists have cancelled due to the unrest in the Middle East and tourism is the main industry of Jordan. Poor Jordan... it's only going to get worse but they don't know it yet.

Anyway on the 25th of May they were very pleased to see us! Folks were shouting out "welcome tourists" from their cars.

 


 This above is on the outskirts of Annam the capital city and these is the first Bedouin camp that we saw.
 
Our guide in Jordan is Muhannad, "Call me Mo". His Grandfather had an incredible number of children, I suspect from more than one wife, so it seems everyone in Jordan is Mo's cousin. 
 
So, we stopped the coach and one of Mo's cousins delivered our lunch, which were the most delicious falafel wraps. Warm beautiful bread and soft and delicious falafel. Then there were sesame biscuits YUM. (I've tried to make the sesame biscuits since we've been home, got close but not as crisp, I suspect Mo's ones had honey in them).

Here is the dead sea, and that on the other shore is Israel.

That photo Dear Readers is the closest you will get to Israel for a very long time. This trip would have been cancelled if it was a week later.


 Apparently on the horizon are Jerusalem and Jericho. 
 

 

The Dead Sea is shrinking in size every year.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea

Then it was down to 440 metres below sea level. The lowest place on the earth.

Its so beautiful, the sky is so blue. 

 
Tonight we are staying at the Movenpick resort which is very fancy. Its on the northern edge of the Sea.
 
Its so big that you need to ride in a golf cart to get to the beach and tip the driver... 
 

 
 



 The sand and stone were sooooooo hot. We burnt our feet!

Never thought to pack cozzies or thongs! Great Aussies we are!

The water is so salty that you can't sink and nothing lives in the dead sea. 


 After washing our burnt feet! It was time for happy hour.



View from our room, sunset over the Dead Sea.
 

 

 

Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Egypt - Saturday May 24th - Back in Cairo


Above is the huge Ramses II statue at the GEM in Cairo.

Last day in Egypt and it was an early start, 7.45 on the coach, for the transfer back to the airport for our flight back from Luxor to Cairo. 

Everyone on two very familiar dash 8's. The airports are still crazy, so much screening.

 
We are staying at a hotel closer to the airport. We went straight there for lunch.

This below is the beautiful, if a bit Disney like, foyer.
 


The room was a bit ordinary with a dreadful view. But maybe I'm getting a bit spoiled.


 

 Before I move on to our last Egyptian adventure I'll record our adventures of this hotel.

We had a really early start the next day for Jordan.  We had to have the bags outside our door at 3.30am and were departing at 4am. 

Just as we were going to bed for an early night a fuse blew an our room had no power. We had to have the hotels electrician fix it. Then the people in the adjoining room talked and smoked until the early hours. And that pyramid in the above photo had a disco going! Arrrgh!

(So many smokers in Egypt. We've forgotten what its like to sit in a restaurant when people are smoking)

So now to jump back to this afternoons excursion,  and we end our Egypt tour the way it started with a museum. 

Grand Egyptian Museum - GEM 

-------------------------

 

I didn't take the above photo because I couldn't get it all in a shot, but what a beautiful building.

I did take these below, the tiles are pyramids, and ingots with hieroglyphs. 

 


Its so new its not yet finished!

(Its grand opening day was to be in July 2025, but it has been postponed since  mainly due to an escalation of troubles in the Middle East. (which luckily for us on the 24th May 2025 was still bubbling away and didn't explode into all out mayhem until we were safely home. Not a great look to be throwing a big party when people in a neighboring country are being bombed and starving to death...) 


It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen and I'm sure in the future will become one of the greatest museums in the world. 

They have great website, go and visit and you can tour virtually.

 https://grandegyptianmuseum.org/


 They intend to move Tutankhamen here with his grave goods to a special purpose built gallery. (Which I'm sure they will charge extra to enter). YAY, we've already met the superstar Pharaoh.

The future plan is to maybe have all the tour coaches start here, tourists to visit the GEM and then be somehow taken to the pyramids.  Stopping the thousands of coaches that must be polluting Giza  and damaging the pyramids.  Also controlling the number of tourists, and maybe the Egyptians will charge a bit more for this trip, I bet its more than 'one dolla'.



 The view to Giza, some parts of the GEM are still a work in progress.

Bye bye Pyramids!
 


 

Well, lets finish the way we started with the female Pharaoh, Hatshesput.


 

 

So that's the Egypt leg of the trip finished and tomorrow we fly to Jordan. I'm feeling a bit tired and homesick at this point and sort of regret adding on this extra trip. But its booked and paid for so off we go for a few more days.

My favourite Egypt bits

--------------------------- 

 1/ The Nile River is wide and stunning. Without the river there would be no Egypt as its like a life blood. One green strip running up the middle of a vast desert. 

2/ The temples and tombs. Especially The Valley of the Kings.  All the beautiful decorations and the stories they told about the Pharaohs and Gods and goddesses.

3/ The beautiful ship the Osiris and how well Viking looks after its guests. 

I didn't mention the pyramids or the Spinx here, because although they are stunning they look just like they do in pictures! Been there, done that, tick it off the bucket list... 

 

My least favourite Egypt bits

------------------------------ 

1/ The 'Vultures'. Aggressive shop owners  who get right in your face. Also other people who expect a "one dolla" tip for any little thing. If people weren't so demanding we would have bought more and tipped more.. Whenever we did spend money on souvenirs  we came away feeling incredibly ripped off. (Except for the grand-daughters beaded necklaces that we bought on the little motor boat on the way to Philae Temple,  these were a good buy and we didn't have to barter).

2/ Airports. Absolutely chaotic.  Thank goodness for the Viking people helping us negotiate these. 

3/ Heat, feeling hot, hot, hot...  Nobody can help the weather of course. But when your blouse is so wet with sweat that its like a damp rag and when you return to the ship you can hardly peel it off..... Arrrgh.

 

Look out Jordan, here we come.... 


 

 



 

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

Egypt - Friday 23rd May - Edfu then sailing back to Luxor


Our last day on the Nile and our last Temple. 

Can you tell that our brains are about to explode with all the  information that they are trying to download? I really admire how these university trained egyptologists, like Caroline, keep all the facts straight in their heads.They have so much enthusiasm for their subject.

Edfu Temple

-----------------------

معبد ادفو

 


 

Everyone in the group is worn out at this point and I think it is obvious by how far we are lagging behind the eternally enthusiastic Caroline.

Yalla, yalla! 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Edfu
 

Above is the God Horus giving a pharaoh enteral life with the Anhk.


 And here is Horus again.




And we are back to the ship for the last leg back to Luxor.



We go up to the top deck to wait to go through the Esna lock.


 
 I need to talk about the Niles pollution at some point so I'll slip it in here. Although the Nile looks pristine in my photos along the banks are billions of plastic drink bottles. Sometimes they are hidden by reeds, but when there is a break in the reeds they are really obvious. I have a terrible feeling that many of these bottles are coming off the cruise ships. Whenever we are given a bottle of water on a tour, and we have drunk our weight in water, I wonder where the empty bottle will eventually end up.
 
Floating down to the Med.  
 
I guess the Egyptians don't have  he infrastructure or resources to do any recycling and it will all float away eventually to become someone else's problem.
 

They are there again, the 'vultures' in boats, throwing things up to the decks and people throwing them back and then landing things in the water. 




The kids on the roof goodness!
 
Then below, we go up again in the lock, photo from our cabin. With Arabic graffiti.
 

 

 Then its farewell drinks in the lounge.
 

 And goodbye to our crew.
 


 And a big thank you to the program directors and chef Alex.
 

 
Finally its back to Luxor, sailing past Luxor Temple again.
 


Finally, goodbye to the magnificent River Nile.