Words Can't Describe It

That is how amazing these dives were.

1st dive - Thistlegorm outside

We descended down a rope, as there were some pretty strong currents. As we went down, the wreck came into view, and was just impressive. We saw tanks, old bombs/ammo, anti-aircraft guns, and the propeller just to name a few. It was my first wreck dive, so of course, I was amazed by it. There were a lot of large schools of large tuna in the area too.

2nd dive - Thistlegorm inside

Our second dive consisted of going through the cabins and chambers of the shipwreck. This was amazing. We went through rooms with hundreds of motorcycles lined up, and with old British army trucks. We went in the kitchen and the captains chambers. We saw the trapped air bubble that has supposedly been there since the ship sank in 1941. As if that wasn't enough, but when we came out of the wreck at the end of the dive we saw a sea turtle! It was my first time to see a sea turtle, so I was beyond excited!

3rd dive - Ras Mohammed National Park - Shark & Yolanda Reef

The third dive, and last dive of the day, was a great dive. It was a nice relaxing drift dive (relaxing once we finally started going with the current!). There was so much diverse marine life here with amazingly large fish, barracuda, tuna, eels, and lots of great corals. We saw the Yolanda wreck, which consisted of a cargo of toilets and bathtubs. I couldn't resist taking the picture of me sitting on the toilet! :)

After the dives, we boated back into Sharm el-Sheikh. We wasted some time in the city, to ensure the nitrogen content had time to go down before we went over the mountains back into Dahab. We got back into Dahab to have enough time to clean up, eat and chill for a little while before leaving to go on an all night climb of Mt. Sinai. Whose idea was this, to sleep about 5 hours on a dive boat the night before, go on 3 dives, and then climb a mountain throughout the night to watch the sunrise?!?!?!?

Start of Ear Infection #1

So today I woke up and out of nowhere my right ear was feeling really weird. I tried to equalize the pressure and felt a sharp pain, which is never good when you are about to go diving! We had booked the really nice dive for our last day of diving, on the 31st, so I was afraid that if I went on this dive I might screw my ear up worse and not be able to go on the last dive. I decided I would just relax today, try and hit up a pharmacy and see if I couldn't clear this thing up before it got bad.

I think this was probably a good idea on my part, because towards the end of the day my end was feeling a lot better. We laid around until 11pm, which was when the bus would come pick us up to take us to Sharm el-Sheikh. We would sleep on a dive boat there for the night and then go out early the next morning to dive the Thistlegorm and Shark & Yolanda Reef. We arrived at the boat dock and loaded the dive boat. We had our pre-dive trip briefing and then went to bed up on the second deck.

Blue Hole/Canyon Diving

So this is our second day of diving. Day #1 was somewhat of a let down just because of some problems with another diver in our group. It was nothing big though. Day #2 made up for it though. We dove the Blue Hole and The Canyon, which were both pretty awesome dives.

We also had a new dive group. It was us and Nadine, a girl from Canada who was teaching in London. On the Canyon dive, we got to descend down into a Canyon on the bottom of the ocean floor. It was filled with a school of fish that just kind of swam around us as we dropped down in the canyon amongst them. It was great dive.

After the dives were over, we went back into Dahab and cleaned up and went out with Nadine and her friend Grace. We hit up a happy hour, where we ended up meeting some Peace Corp volunteers who just finished in Uganda. We talked with them, as well as with two little Egyptain girls who suckered us into buying handmade bracelets from them. We went to dinner and then hit up our first Egyptain night club, the Mojoito Bar. It was a Egyptain disco club which played rap from the US. Good combation, right?

Red Sea = Amazing

So it was definitely time to get out of "Ancient Egypt," and onto the touristy, diving part of our Egyptian holiday.

We went to the airport in Luxor, which had some of the best airport security ever! (can you detect my sarcasm?) I went through security with a half drank bottle of water in my hands. I forgot about it completely, seeing as a bottle of water had become part of my daily attire in Egypt. I thought of it as a natural extension of my body. I guess the airport security did too, because they didn't say anything about it. Needless to say, I felt real safe on that flight! :)

After arriving in Sharm-el Sheikh, we left with our hostel airport pickup service and left Sharm for the town of Dahab, a less expensive and more diver oriented town that was about an hour north of Sharm. Dahab had some of the old Egyptian look and feel about it, i.e. the old crumbling buildings, goats and trash in the street, etc, but for the most part it was nothing like any of the Egypt we had been in thus far. It was definitely set up for beach/relaxation tourism.

We did a little walking up and down the beach/boardwalk area in Dahab. It was crammed with shops, diving centers, restaurants, and hotels/hostels. We then went back to our hostel, booked our first dive for the next day and went snorkeling. Followed by some Egyptian brew for a nice relaxing night. Globie indulged himself, drinking for two!

The Gauntlet

Today we went about Luxor, visiting the main tourist attractions. We went to The Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, and the Valley of the Queens.

At all these main attractions, they make everyone exit through one central point, which Justin and I have nicknamed "The Gauntlet." We have named it this, because they coral you to this one central exit which is lined with shops. The shop owners see the groups coming through and come out to get to you buy stuff. This morning exiting the Valley of the Kings was probably the worst one ever! When we started leaving, the shop owners formed a line, looking like the line of a football team. They refused to budge as we walked towards them, and finally at the last moment, they gave way to let us through, and then attacked. Yelling at us that they would make us a good deal, and that they wanted to be our friends. You have got to love it! I really wish I had videoed that first "Gauntlet" experience, because it was by far the best one ever. I did video one later on that day at the Temple of Hatshepsut. It is pretty funny and somewhat tame in comparsion to the one experienced earlier in the day.

Once arriving back to our hostel, we thought we would visit Karnak Temple, but by the time we got there it was closed. We walked back from Karnak down the road that runs parallel with the Nile River. This may or may not have been such a good idea, seeing as we got asked to buy something probably 75 times in the span of about a 2-3 mile walk! Anything from a taxi, to horse drawn carriage, to cigrattes, water, and then lastly just beggars wanting money.

Walking through the Gaunlet, I have become pretty immune to the attacks. At those places you can usually just keep walking and they will go on to the next person. But walking the streets calls for a different tactic. Sometimes the avoid and act like they are talking to someone else works, but I've also found that instead of ignoring them and saying no thanks a hundred times, you can talk back with them as you continue walking (continuing walking is key too, if you stop you will get bombarded by more people). Answer their questions as you go, making sure to repeat on occasion that your not interested. Usually you get the whole, "Where are you from" bit. Sometimes we answered US, sometimes I felt a little more Ozzy coming out of me, sometimes Canadian. Whatever the response was, it was always followed by, "Oh, (insert country here), very nice people, my favorite people in fact." If we answered US, it was almost always followed by some comment concerning Obama. In the end though, it is kind of funny, but using the nice approach usually ended in the Egyptian getting tired of spending so much time on us and evidently wanting to shake our hand and say it was nice meeting us. This versus ignoring them to the end of getting harsh Arabic words yelled at you. I will take the nice approach I think!

Luxor, aka Traveler's Sickness Begins

After two days of floating the Nile River, I think I no longer need mosquito repellent, as my natural odor would probably scare off any creature!

We arrived at this little hole-in-wall port where a mini bus picked us up and took us to more temples along the way to Luxor. When we got off the boat, Justin and I tipped the captain and crew, as did the Canadian girl. The two Japanese people did not tip however, which caused a major scene! The crew boys from the boat started yelling and screaming at them demanding tips, but the Japanese refused and loaded up in the van and we took off. It was pretty outrageous the way the captain and crew acted towards them. It was extremely offensive to them I know, but at the same time the way they demanded tips and acted after not receiving them was a shocker!

We left the port area in the mini bus and started off through this village. We actually had a minor crash driving down the narrow streets, when a scraped alongside a motorcycle taxi. It didn't do any damage though, so we weren't held up for long. We were right in the middle of the camel market though, which was disgusting because people were walking by with freshly sawed off camel legs - legs from the knee down.

The first temple we went to was the Kom Ombo Temple, which was pretty cool.

The second temple was the Edfu Temple, which was probably one of my favorite temples of the entire trip. It was very big and impressive, and had so much detail. I also made some local mad here. I was taking a picture of Globie, and the guy saw me. He, of course, ran over and grabbed Globe volunteering to take a picture with him. I knew exactly what he was doing, he wasn't volunteering for anything. He was volunteering for an opportunity to demand money from me. But took him up on his offer of taking a picture with Globie. After the picture, I grabbed Globie back, ensuring he wasn't held for ransom. Sure enough, he extended his hand giving that old familiar gesture of give me some money. I shook my finger at him and said, "No, thank you!" He followed behind me as I walked away, muttering Arabic and continuing to gesture at me. I turned back to him and said, "I'm not giving you any money!" He then got very upset and said what I would have to assume to be some "choice" words in Arabic as he stamped off. I know, I'm a cheap American! I'm also a poor college student, so my money isn't going to be handed out to people who VOLUNTEER to take a picture!

Also, the conspiracy of keeping all the small money bills kept me from giving tips as well. I really feel like they do anything they can to keep from giving you back change in small bills, which means you get screwed over when you tip because all you have are large bills!!!

We finally arrived in Luxor, where we stayed at the Bob Marley House. It was a highly recommended hostel from hostelworld, so we knew it must be pretty legit. The first thing I did was jump in the shower, which was amazing! Never before have I loved a cold shower as much as I did that one!

Later, we walked down the street to book our flight to go to Sharm el-Sheikh. We booked our flight at the Egyptian Airlines place for the 26th, which was perfect because it gave us a day to look around Luxor.

By the end of the day, both Justin and I were hurting. Not so much that we couldn't get around, but definitely the traveler's sickness had set in. We think that it stems from the dishes and food preparation that happened on the felluca. I think the dishes were washed in the Nile, which definitely isn't the cleanest river ever! Luckily, we are off the boat now and near toilets, otherwise life might be a little unbearable!

We continued walking down the street and stumbled upon Luxor Temple, which was right in the middle of town on the Nile River. It was a pretty cool temple, and we saw the Avenue of Sphinx

Overnight Train to Aswan

We arrived in Aswan this morning around 10am by the overnight train. The sleeper car train ticket was definitely the way to go!

When we arrived in Aswan, we had no real plans. We knew what we wanted to do, but we had no reservations or idea of if what we wanted to do was possible. Exiting the train station, we were bombarded by the mass of taxi drivers. We finally started talking to a couple of guys who agreed to drive us around for the day, taking us to the highlights of Aswan and then would arrange a felucca ride for us to sail down the Nile starting tonight.

The Highlights of Aswan:

1. First we went to the Aswan High Dam on the Nile.
2. We went to Philae Temple.
3. Then we went to the unfinished obelisk.

We had a bit of a scare when we were at Philae Temple. The temple was on an island, so our taxi driver dropped us off at the point where we could catch a boat out to the temple. We left our bags in the taxi, as we had arranged for them to drive us around all day. We get back from the temple and give the tourist police the paper our taxi driver had given us so that he could radio him up from the parking lot down the hill. The tourist policemen radioed down the hill, then came to tell us that our taxi was no longer there. A couple guys came running up saying they would take us whereever we wanted to go. We told the policemen that we would not go with anyone else, that this taxi had our bags. He radioed down the hill again, and then a couple minutes later told us they had found our taxi. Needless to say, the time period where our taxi was nowhere to be found was a little nerve racking! I wasn't too worried since all I really had in the car was my clothing, but Justin was worried because he had his computer and some other stuff in the car. It all turned out fine though. The taxi came roaring up the hill finally, and we piled in the car to the driver and his buddy apologizing saying they were not in there car because they were praying. Whatever the excuse, we were just happy that they showed back up with our bags.

After touring the obelisk, we went down to the river and boarded the felucca on the Nile River and started our 2 day sailing adventure. It was a pretty random group aboard with two people from Japan, one French Canadian, and us. Captain Rob and two younger Egyptian boys (both were 15) made up the crew. It served for a relaxing afternoon as we sailed down the river, napping on and off on the mattress laid out on the deck of the boat.

Cairo, Day #2

Today we visited went on the church tour.

We started out with the oldest Christian Church in Cairo, the Hanging Church. Then we went to the oldest synagogue, the Ben Ezra Synagogue. And lastly, we went to the Citadel, which protects the Mosque of Mohamed Ali.

After this, we went to the oldest bazaar in Cairo, Khan El-Khalili , which was pretty cool. We were told there were around 5000 shops within the bazaar, which I can definitely believe, seeing as the little area we went to had shops lining every single street, ally, everywhere! I made my first Egyptian mad here, by bargaining for a product. I was trying to buy a keffiyeh, the traditional head dress, and so I asked the guy how much. He said 150 Egyptian pounds, which was outlandish. That translates to about $27 USD. There was no way I was going to pay that. So I told him 30 pounds, to which he laughed. He said 130 was the best he could offer me, so I countered with 40, to which he said no again. So I walked away. There was no way I was going to pay that much for it, and besides that it had the additional piece to keep it on your head, and I just wanted to the cloth, so I was kind of to the point that I didn’t want to buy it altogether. As I walked away, he came walking behind me, shouting prices at me. “100. 80. 50. Ok, my friend, I give it to you for 40.” I turned back to him, and said no, I don’t want it anymore. So he said, “ok, I give it to you for 30.” But by this point, I already had changed my mind and kept walking. He just kept yelling ok, 30. I give you the price you want. But I didn’t go back. For one, I only wanted the cloth and secondly, I knew that if he came down on the price to 30, I probably could have gotten it cheaper. A couple shops down the way, I ended up getting exactly what I wanted, just the keffiyeh for 10 pounds.After we left the bazaar, we went to the Egyptian Museum, where King Tut’s treasures were on display. We ran into our first Aggie here. I was wearing some kind of shirt with A&M on it, and this guy noticed it and introduced himself. Butch, class of 69 from Waco was on a cruise.

Tonight we are catching the overnight train to Aswan.

Ready or Not, Here We Are!

1st day in Cairo.

We landed in Cairo at 1235am. The hostel had airport pickup, which made it easy for us. Once arriving at the hostel, our hostel manager wanted to map out our time in Egypt. As he said, he wanted to help us “make the most of our time in Egypt.” AKA, he wanted to plan our adventure for an outrageous price. I think we finally went to bed around 300am, and then woke up about four hours later to start our first day of tours in Cairo. We decided against paying the quoted $780 USD that our hostel manager wanted, and only allowed him to arrange the time we were spending in Cairo. We decided we would do the major attractions he talked about, but arrange them ourselves so that it would be cheaper and easier for us to change and adapt to our style of traveling, which is go whereever the wind blows us.

Our first day:

1. We went to see the statue of Memphis and the statue of Ramses
2. We went to Saqqara, the 1st step pyramid built in Egypt
3. We went to a papyrus making factory
4. We rode camels out to Giza pyramids and the sphinx
5. And lastly, stopped on the bridge crossing over the Nile River.


We arrived back at the hostel late that afternoon. The daredevil side in me almost got me killed when I thought I would try to play chicken with an Egyptian taxi driver. Let me tell you, they don’t stop. He slammed on his brakes, but then decided against it and just kept going. I felt like I came close to getting my toes run over and had I not taken a step back, I probably would have! What a welcome to Cairo. First lesson learned, look both ways, and then look both ways again before crossing the street!

Justin and I decided to go for our first authentic meal in Cairo. We went to some local place down the street from our hostel and got falafels, one of my favorite Middle Eastern foods. They did not disappoint either.

Moving

So wow, moving sucked, but I finished. I think I officially finished at around 9pm Sunday night and the only reason I got through then was because of Dana's help. I had a few little last minute things to take care of this morning. I had a few lab test to run for Dr. Miranda before leaving, and I had to go talk to Dr. Wild before I left. I had planned to leave for Houston at 2pm for my 450pm flight. I officially got on the road, driving to Houston at 215pm. We roared into the airport at around 345pm. Nothing like pushing the limit. It just wouldn't be my style any other way! :)

Graduation - May 15, 2009

The day I've long awaited is finally here. It is a weird, surreal feeling knowing that I am done with my undergraduate career. Wow, I'm a college graduate.