Well we can't seem to leave Egypt there is just so
much to see and do!  In the end we stayed in Dahab for
8 days (Our longest stay in one place).

Rachael and I finished up our dive training with no
problems and enjoyed the whole experience thoroughly! 
We even made two extra dives after finishing the
course.  The reefs in Dahab are really amazing,
although I have no other data points I'm confident in
saying that it is on par with anywhere else in the
world.  

Rachael and I dived at Lighthouse Reef, Eel Garden,
and The Islands Reef.  At Lighthouse we saw the usual
Unicorn fish, lion fish, crodile fish, glass fish
etc... and even came upon a Giant Moray Eel that was
about 2 meters long curled around a coral.  At Eel
Garden we saw hundreds of these slender eels sticking
out of the bottom like so many plant stems which
lowered as we passed and rose back up as we went by! 
Quite a sight.  It was all amazingly beautiful and I
can't wait to do it again.

While not diving we spent the evenings at one of the
row of beach side outdoor resuarants.  They are like
paradise; cushions set out on the ground around coffee
tables with palm trees and pit fires all around, and
of course the obligatory Bob Marley music playing over
and over and over again!  When we were not sitting at
the restuarants we were usually playing pool on the
deck of a bar by the beach.  Ah, it was quite nice I
must say.  In the end we were delayed by 1 day due to
floods in the north preventing our bus trip to Luxor
so we relaxed an extra day.  

I should also note that Than celebrated his 36th
birthday in Dahab with a big grin plastered on his
face due to the diving and relaxation.  I was pretty
jealous having spent my birthday cold and pennyless
waiting for a train in Poland being bought drinks by a
gay homeless drunk!  Needless to say I didn't kill
him, and even helped pick out a shirt that Rachael and
Brad gave him as a birthday gift.  So Than now wears
his Stella Egyptian beer shirt proudly stating Than's
motto, "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger"!
Oh yes, the restuarant played a great birthday song
for Than and got him out dancing to "Happy Birthday To
You - Cha Cha Cha!"

Keep in mind that we have been travelling with Brad
and Rachael, and 4 other Kiwi and Aussie girls (Jane,
Andrea, Kayli, and Carma).  We mostly hang out with
Brad and Rachael though.

So we all took the 14 hour bus ride to Luxor following
the coast up the Suez and back down to Luxor in Egypt
proper.  I stayed awake to see the Suez when we
crossed but became cross when I found out that the bus
takes a tunnel under it!  So alas, I saw nothing!

Luxor is mostly a touristy town with carriages around
and the usual donkey carts going everywhere along with
the cars.  This is where the Middle Egyptian Kingdoms
were seated and thus the great Temple of Karnak and
Luxor on the East built up by successive rulers and
then the Valley of the Kings and Queens which once hid
the tombs of the these rulers in the hills on the west
side of the Nile.

The first day we stayed on the East side to run
errands (Change our flight date to Ghana which was
pushed back 10 days!  Barely got that flight only
after we upgraded to business class).  Afterwards we
atre and visited Temple Karnak which is the larget
imaginable Egyptian Temple.  This place was huge with
probably 100 enormous columns in the center which must
have been 15 meters tall and much thicker than any
Roman column we ever saw.  There were hyroglyphics
everywhere and the place just went on and on having
been extended over many years by different rulers.  At
one point Rachael and I were quite concerned when a
machine gun armed guard motioned for us to follow him
to a sight on the far side of the complex.  I
hessitated but followed once I saw Than behind
brandishing the video camera in case something went
awry.  But he was just taking us to a small temple on
the side to show us more sights so that we would pay
him some Bakshish (Tip)!  This happened again at
another part of the temple but we knew the drill but
got to see some really great sights.

Afterwards we wanted to go to the Mummufication museum
but were turned away when we saw that it was closed at
3pm due to Ramadan (Nothing gets in the way of a good
Muslim's 4:30 meal during Ramadan!).  So we found a
local pub and had a long awaited few beers and played
cards.

The next day we took a tour of the Valley of Kings and
Queens.  There we saw 3 tombs of the Kings (One old,
one from the middle period, and one newer).  This
allowed us to see the progression.  I forget the first
one but the middle one was Seti II and then Ramses VI.
 They were increasingly impressive.  Ramses VI had
opened 6 days prior after being closed for 8 years! 
It was pretty big with a huge vaulted main chamber. 
The hyroglyphic frescos were amazingly colorfull and
ornate.  There were supposedly 80 tombs like this
built.  So far around 60 have been found.

Before Valley of the Queens we saw Temple Hatshepsut
which is where 60 tourists were gunned down some
several years ago causing a huge hit to Egyptian
tourism.  Since things are much better though.  This
temple was simply used for the mummufication of Queen
Hatshepsut which lasted 140 days!  Mostly it was a
facade but a quite beautiful and extensive one for
being used 140 days!

In the Valley of the Queens we saw Queen Titi and her
unborn son's tombs.  In the son's tomb they had the
fetus skeleton on display which was left there.  That
was pretty wild.  These we similar to the other tombs.
 They are all mostly a long corridor, an antiroom, and
then a main chamber with the Sarcophagus.

Supposedly, the centerpiece is Nefertari which we
unfortunately did not get to see.  You see, they only
let 150 people in a day and it alone cost about $60
($30 with student card) for only 10 minutes!  Yikes! 
So we skipped this one although we heard it is just
spectacular.

Afterwards we took the train to Aswan which we planned
to launch a 2 day and 2 night felucca sail boat ride
down the Nile.  We spent 1 day there seeing the Aswan
High Dam (Not so impressive), Temple Philae, and an
unfinished obelisk.  Temple Philae was quite
impressive though.  It was moved to an island since
the dam flooded it's original location.  Even after
being relocated it is one of the best preserved ruins
we've seen.  

The next day (Friday Dec. 15) we set sail on a felluca
with 10 others (mostly the group we have been
travelling with) and had a most relaxing time sitting
on the deck of the boat sleeping, reading, playing
cards, and drinking the occasional 3 beers.  At night
we camped on the beach and had a fire.  It was the
exact experience we were looking for.

Afterwards we landed in Edfu and quickly saw another
amazing temple (Temple of Horus) in great condition
and nearly as huge as Karnak.  After 1 hour there we
quickly took a convoy from Edfu back to Luxor to catch
an overnight train to Cairo.  Note that travel on the
roads in this part of Egypt is strictly done with
police escort as a precaution from extremists such as
those at the temple previously mentioned in Luxor. 
But we have heard of no problems in the recent past.

So we arrived in Cairo this morning and quickly made
way via the two worst cab drivers in Cairo to the
Ghana Embassy.  Yes, we gave the driver direction to
go down 1 street till the end (No turns) yet both
drivers stopped numerous times for directions and damn
nearly got us there past closing.  But we made it and
will have our visas in time for our flight to Ghana on
Wednesday!  So we went to the Cairo Museum for the
remainder of the day and were impressed with the
Egyptian artifacts we saw there.  Especially the gold
of Tutankhamun!  This was the best collection of
ancient artifacts we've ever seen and any trip to
Cairo would not be complete without a visit.

Okay, enough for this update.  Than and I send happy
holiday tidings to everyone out there and will be
thinking of you this Christmas and New Years.  So you
know, we will be spending Christmas in Ghana and New
Years in Mali!  Those of you we haven't heard from in
some time send us a note and let us know how you are.

Cheers,

Chris and Than