About Egypt

[Black Tulip]

Ok, because some people wanted to know about my trip to Egypt, I thought it would be more efficient to post my comments in a thread.

I hope I'm not offending anyone with the amateur pics, I am no more than an average photographer who is still using a non-digital camera.

Have mercy!

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Ok, because some people wanted to know about my trip to Egypt, I thought it would be more efficient to post my comments in a thread.

I hope I'm not offending anyone with the amateur pics, I am no more than an average photographer who is still using a non-digital camera.

Have mercy!

WooHoo, I can't wait....I wanna know everything and live through your experiences.

 

[Black Tulip]

The hotel was nothing fancy, but my room had a view of the Red Sea. The water was so incredibly clear, from the third floor up I could still see the bottom of the small harbour I could see from the tiny balcony. About ten steps on the other side took me to the beach.

It was terribly hot, during the day about 44°C, I think that's 110°F. But a perpetual strong wind made being outside no problem at all. All you had to do was being very careful of getting burned.

The hospital I found on my wandering around even has a special emergency unit for heat stroke. It is anounced with a huge sign, in Latin script so every tourist can find it. LOL

 

[Black Tulip]

If you had a look at the view from my room, I'm sure you never saw the mountains, did you?

I didn't even know there was something like the Red Sea mountains. Well, they are there and they become visible when the sun goes down behind them.

Around 7 pm local time the sun dips behind the mountains. Sundown is quick enough to catch it with a camera. It takes about 15 minutes all in all.

 

[Black Tulip]

Speaking of those mountains. I made a trip to Luxor, the ancient city of Thebe.

In order to get there you have to cross those mountains. The only way you can do that is in a convoy. It is a bit weird to see about 25 touring cars and a host of smaller, private vehicles coming together at the gathering point. I'm not sure, but I suspect there was a police escort at the front and the rear of the convoy.

I asked why and the reason was safety. Not so much from terrorists, but more from the bandits still roaming the desert and the mountains.

I learned that 95% of the total population inhabits only 5% of the country, the valley of the Nile. The other 95% of the country is not fit for habitation since it's desert and about once in 20 years they have about 5 minutes rain in Egypt.

 

[Black Tulip]

After the mountains you have to cross a lot of desert before you reach the river Nile. Unfortunately I could not take pictures from the mountains like I wanted to. That's the drawback when you make a trip like that.

The same went for the desert. I did see a few women in black, swathed in cloth, tending a herd of goats but it was too quick to capture it.

Remember, this pics were taken from the touring car.
Do you see the little sigly line in the front? Electricity cable, since there were a few police stations/posts along the way.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

I'm loving this!!!

 

[Black Tulip]

Given the dense population in the valley of the Nile, the government is trying to get people to move out into the desert, by digging canals, so they can enlarge the agricultural area.
Up till now it's not working very well.

The change is very abrupt. One minute you see nothing but sand and dunes, the next you are surrounded by very green and very lush country.

Oh, by the way, the sand is not yellow. It has all colors from pink to purple, some yellow and reds, and blues in the shadows. Amazing how many colors you can see in a stretch of sand.

The part of the Nile valley I saw was still very traditional and the houses were mainly build with mud bricks. It seems most Egyptians do not finish their houses, they are quite content to build what they need and add some more later on. The result is lots of houses with no roof, not a proper one that is.

 

[Black Tulip]

Once in the Nile valley you are surrounded by lots of people with lots of donkeys.

Still travelling in convoy, all local traffic comes to a stop till all those tourists have passed. I have to confess that was embarrassing to me. But it made a nice picture.

 

[cantdog]

A friend of mine went to Egypt as the Tech Director of a touring play company, a guest of the State Department, technically. They put on an awful show in Cairo, in the little school on the outskirts, in Alexandria, four shows in all-- "The Fantastiks" dude. He said the new Library at Alexandria was incredible, the Valley of the Kings rocked, and "the Sphinx is badass, even though a KFC sits across the street from it. You know the Sphinx will be there long after the KFC is dust."

But the ass took no pictures. Thanks, Black Tulip.

 

[Black Tulip]

Ancient Thebe, modern Luxor is famous for a lot of things. First I visited the temple at Karnak. It is huge and it's unbelievable that so much of it still stands after thousands of years.

Even though it was flooded every year from the Nile, the hieroglyphs are still very clear.

Edited: shit, the picture is still too big. I'll fix it and post it later.

 

[Black Tulip]

I am glad some of you are enjoying yourselves. I have to quit for today however. It's already one a.m.

I'll continue tomorrow. I got more pics ready and another film nearly used so that will get us some more.

Night, night.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Good night sweetie, thank you.

 

[Black Tulip]

Hopefully the hieroglyphs from the temple will get uploaded now.

Edited: yes, it worked.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Hopefully the hieroglyphs from the temple will get uploaded now.

Edited: yes, it worked.

omg, I would have to run over and touch them, I don't even care if they shot me.

 

[Black Tulip]

Oh, what the heck. One more for the road.

There are a lot of people visiting the temple, about 5 million tourists every year and most of it is out in the open. You can touch it of you want to. There are guards walking around however. The tourist police, identifiable because they were white uniforms. The local police is clad in black or khaki.

Some things are too precious so they are guarded.
Like this statue

 

[Black Tulip]

Abs, I did when nobody looked and I had strolled to the back of the temple. LOL

The statue is surrounded by simple rope, that's all.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Oh, what the heck. One more for the road.

There are a lot of people visiting the temple, about 5 million tourists every year and most of it is out in the open. You can touch it of you want to. There are guards walking around however. The tourist police, identifiable because they were white uniforms. The local police is clad in black or khaki.

Some things are too precious so they are guarded.
Like this statue

Touch!!!

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Abs, I did when nobody looked and I had strolled to the back of the temple. LOL

The statue is surrounded by simple rope, that's all.

You're my hero!

 

[Lying Eyes]

I'll continue tomorrow. I got more pics ready and another film nearly used so that will get us some more.

Night, night.

While everyone is waiting I suggest that everyone take a look at Black Tulip's new story "Creativity in the Flesh", the link is in her signature. It's a good bed time story

 

[cantdog]

The girl can write.

 

[DirtyJJ]

omg, I would have to run over and touch them, I don't even care if they shot me.

How funny - I know what you mean though! They are so fascinating.

 

[DirtyJJ]

BT,
Thank you for sharing this! It looks and sounds wonderful.

JJ

 

[McKenna]

Fabulous photos BT! I feel like I'm traveling vicariously through you.

Can't wait for more!

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Thanks BT for the trevelogue

Almost as good as being there 9and a lot less expensive for us po folks )