More questions, thoughts, trash, etc.

I thought I had already told you some of these but I think I forgot to put them on the blog. I asked our guide about sports. They play soccer, they swim, box, and play basketball. They really like Jean Claude Van Damme, Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone and Julia Roberts. One of their favorite movies is Saw 3. They like 50 Cent and Eminem.

No one knows where Cleopatra was buried. They have not found her mummy – if there was a mummy.

The closest we are coming to seeing an oasis is being at this resort right now.

There are probably about 300 houses built on top of probably 900 or so tombs in the Valley of the Kings and it’s surrounding area. The locals who own these houses are probably using some of the tombs as bathrooms. They just don’t understand how important these tombs are to understanding their history. And, once they accept the importance, they realize that this is a way for them to make money. This is also their homes and where they have lived for quite awhile. It’s difficult for them to give that up. I think by the time you all get to visit Egypt, things will look a lot different. More tombs will have been discovered and more structures will be uncovered.

The nose of the Sphinx is just gone. It fell off due to whatever reason and has either not been found yet or has been ground up into small pieces that no one recognizes as the nose.

I had mentioned before that the Egyptians worshipped things that they were afraid of. Mostly these things were animals.

The northern part of Egypt is much dirtier then the southern part. There are more industries and more people in Cairo versus Aswan. Some of the cities are relatively clean but the majority of the places we have been have had trash all in the streets. There are people that clean it up but there don’t seem to be any trashcans available for general use. When we were waiting for the train in Minia, a girl opened a cottage cheese container and just through the lid right on the ground. The train tracks were just filled with soda cans and bottles and some of the kids were kicking empty bottles onto the tracks. The hotel rooms that we have stayed at are definitely not cleaned at the same standard that you would expect in the United States. I had to specifically ask that our room in Luxor be vacuumed because they just don’t do it.

I do feel like people are clean here. The restaurants have been relatively clean. The staff at McDonald’s was actually cleaning the stairway with a rag and bucket. I have brought my anti bacterial cleaner that I carry on my purse but I haven’t used much of it. Most of the public restrooms have running water and soap.

I have been surprised by a few things here. First off is the fact that there aren’t a lot of Americans traveling in Egypt. I know this is because we are scared and we are at war with an Arabic nation. Our boat manager told us that prior to 2001, the Americans were the number one group of tourists. Now they are barely in the top 10.

I have also been surprised by the choice of sodas. Normally when we travel outside of the US, the choices are coke, coca cola lite (diet coke), sprite and fanta orange. I have seen all of those here but I have seen Diet 7up, Pepsi Max, and Coke Zero. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen Pepsi products anywhere else. There are also a very good selection of personal items like lotions and drugstore items that we buy in the US. Things are also fairly cheap here in Egypt.

I know I’ve talked about the driving but I think I failed to mention that they don’t drive with lights on at night. It makes it very difficult to cross the street! I’m not sure of the reason. They just flash their lights when they pass someone.

All of the children we pass on the street that aren’t with a group ask for money. They just stick their hands out and ask for money.