Giza pyramids

30th - 2:45 pm
Arrived at the pyramids. Read the next post below for my introduction to Giza. Okay, with the tough part out of the way I'm walking around the sphyinx and it's incredable. I only wish that I could have gotten right next to it. I moved on from there to khufu pyramid and walked around the site. I took so many pictures. The size is incredable, all three are incredable. It's amazing that men with ropes and wooden sleds moved so much stone, cut so precisely, and built so well. From Khufu I moved on to Khafre (it's the one in the center). I came just in time to walk into the shadow of the point and captures a silhouetted pyramid with rays of light streaming from the point (f22 helped with the ray effect). After taking more Images than anyone should take, I moved on to the smaller of the three, Menkarue. This is where I spent the rest of my time. When I finished walking around I just sat on a wall looking at the other two pyramids and enjoyed the view. Seriously, I was the only one around until the police came riding up on camel and spoiled it by yelling at me to go. Bummer! The site closes at 4:30.

A side note:
I have to say that all this has been tough for me too. I've broken down in private a couple times and I've never felt lonelier in my life which is amazing for being in a city of 16 million people. I've been with one person for ten years and they aren't here to share this experiance. I always wanted to travel and I'm fullfiling some major childhood dreams by coming to Egypt but it's all a bit overshadowed by my loss of Amy. It's funny that I was asked by a man in the street last night what I like to do. He said girls, drink, smoke. I said work, photography. He shrugged his sholders and tilted his head... I think he was trying to sell me a prostitute. Anyway, I think I realized at that point I'm not much fun. Well, 10:45 pm here and I have a long day and long train ride to Luxor tomorrow night, 9 hours. Peace.

Evening breez

It's 7:20 pm and I've been sitting on my balcony enjoying the evening breez. It was such a hot day in the desert, and frustrating too. Just so many people wanting baksheesh and my driver pissed me off by dumping me right in the center of the camel and horse jockeys. I told Hany specifically that I didn't want a horse or camel at the pyramids. Hany is the owner of the Juliana hotel where I'm staying. He's a nice guy and I'm sure he just probably didn't relay that to the driver. Anyway, I had to argue again with a horse jockey at which point I just walked away. But it's not like it's easy to get away. Once inside the gate it was pretty much none stop though... hey mister, you want a horse, you want a camel, you want me to take your picture?? I just wanted to walk but they just follow you and all I could say was la shakran (no thank you), la (no), la... la la la. I felt like I was going to break into a musical number. The cool thing was that since I arrived at Giza late, I had about two hours left before closing, the place became really peaceful and quite empty. The crazy thing was that I almost got robed by an Italian guy. Or maybe he was just playing around... hmm. Anyway, he was with a group of friends and asked for the time, he then grabbed my bag and I grabbed his arm and said no loudly. What the hell was he thinking!? I feel pretty safe in this country but man, international travel can be challenging. I'll write more before heading off to sleep but I have to go out and get some food.

Memphis, Imhotep, and Saqqara

30th - 9:00am
Waited for my driver for half hour, finaly got here (the hotel) and then we both waited on the car, he didn't have one and I guess was dropped off. Too funny. He was friendly enogh, just didn't speake english... very little. And, I know like a handful of Arabic words/phrases so there wasn't much conversation. The drive to Memphis was long, bumpy and scarry at times. Scarry with traffic, people do pretty much whatever they want on the road here. Speaking of which, I've seen the sign in California many times, you know (don't cross the freeway), with the family crossing the freeway but I've never seen anyone actually do it. Today, playing chicken took on a hole new meaning. I can not believe that I had seen so many people darting across a freeway with cars doing 60mph. Insane. Anyway, we arrived in Memphis and there's not much to see there but the colossal statue of Ramses II, it's incredable. The alabaster shpinx is amazing too. Sad that ther's nothing left of Memphis. One can only imagien as to what it might have been like.

12:00pm
Just left Imhotep. Went into the temple and down into the tomd. I keep saying this but, amazing! The detail on the walls, the stories they tell. After the temple and tomb I went to visit Saqqara but the guard wouldn't let me in. He told me I had to buy another ticket. I left and went to the museum down the hill. After the museum I talked to the man that sold me the ticket and he said the ticket I purchased was good for the whole site, Imhotep, Saqqara, and the museum. I went back up the hill to the guard gate at Saqqara and argued with the the man that wouldn't let me in. He let me in and I spent about an hour walking the site. Saqqqara/the step pyramid is wonderful. The thing I'm left saddened with is how much trash is on the site. Hell, there's trash everywhere so I shouldn't be shocked. I've even seen some dead mules and cows in the chanels and just down the road kids swiming. Regardless of the trash, Saqqara is mesmerising though.

2:15
Just left Elzba resturant, good food, so full. The driver and I are both ready for a nap but we have to get to Giza. The resturant is just up the road from Saqqara about three miles on the west side of the chanel.

Egyptian Museum and other things

Tuesday 29th - 12:00
Before getting to the museum I spent a couple hours walking around downtown. I woke up late and didn't get out of the hotel until 10. All I have to say is, Crrazy! Cars everywhere, people, noise, water dripping on your head from airconditioning, people trying to talk with you and sell you things. And crossing the street... OMG! Talk about sensory overload. Finally, I get to the museum because I think I would escape some of that. No way.. I have a man that was incesantly trying to get me to hire him as a tour guide... to the point that he follows me around and keeps trying to sell. I made the mistake of sitting with him by the ticket office and being frindly. After that it was all over for me and I finally got away by purchasing my ticket and going inside. People can be very persistent here.

1:08pm
I just walked out of the animal mummy room. The monkeys are scary. I've been walking around here since noon and so far I've just covered the first floor. I moved up to the second (so much more to see) but I think I need to find food.

3:23pm
I've been sitting in front of the museum relaxing. I had to come out to find refreshments. It's so hot in there and the afternoon was much busier with crowds of people. The cafe outside the museum has the best mango jucie. It was so good I had two. In the museum, I had a number of rooms to myself which was really cool. The Tutankhamun exhibit was wonderul and the gold coffins and funerary mask were Amazing. Amazing. So many things to see. It was all a little disapointing thoguh in that there is no photography allowed in the musume. I tried everything to get my camera in. Well, with the exception of paying someone off. I'm sure that might have worked and I should have tried, so many things to take pictures of.

Note about the museum. When leaving around 5pm I stepped past the gates and into the street where it was like fresh meet to the hyenas. I had like ten people trying to sell me papyrus scrolls.

8:05pm
I just ordered food at Cafe Riche. I've walked all over downtown, went to Cairo tower and spent about an hour at the top. After that I walked back to the central square by the Egyptian museum and was sitting watching traffic when a man sat down next to me. We talked for 20 minutes or so and it was one of the best conversations I've had... that's without someone trying to get money from me. Very friendly and he gave good advice. So, after that I walked down to the cafe. Completely good food. I was so hungery for real food, I just had mango juice and water all day. I have to say it has been a pretty good day in all.

The museum, amazing!
Traffic, crazy... Crazy! I survived crossing the street many times today. I have to wonder if this isn't the 21st century meaning of the phrase, walk like an Egyptian.
The Cairo tower, very cool and beautiful views. I captured some great shots there.
Downtown was interesting during the day but came alive at night. So many shops, lights, and people.

The airport

28th
So, we land at 3:45 pm. I get off the plane, go to the arrivals area where I'm asked to fill out another card,... this one is for the Health Ministry. After getting through that I get in line for the passport check but I forget my Visa so I have to get out of line and go over to the bank to get it. $15 US gets you a 30 day visa. I go back to the line and get through that. I'm walking toward the door thinking I'm going to find a taxi when this nice gentalmen walks up and starts asking me questions. I'm led up the stairs to a little office thinking that since this guy looks like an official airport employee I had to provide information about my stay and it was an extension of some formalities. 10 minutes into the conversation I realize I've been lead into a tourisim office and they are trying to sell me packages. I couldn't get a straight answer out of the guy as to whether this was official questioning or a tourist company leading suckers like me into a room and making it feel much like intimidation. It pissed me off that I waisted 15 minutes there to find out that my suspicions where correct. I walked out and they had people follow me so I went to the nearist police and they went away. How wrong is that. I was also told by the guy there were no public taxis close by and that I would have to walk 3km to find one and I would need to pay the EL 100 for his driver. Bastard, I got out the front door and they were right there. I paid EL 70 (about $13 US) but the driver got lost in Garden City and had to get out of the car three times to ask directions. Did I mention Traffic is crazy!? There were three lanes clearly marked but no one, no one, pays any attention to them. It's a free-for-all. Cars, motorcycles, they all scream down the road and weav in and out. Scarry stuff. And I thought L.A was bad.

On the plane to Cairo

28th - 2:30pm - that's 5:30 am California time.
We've been in the air for about 9 hours now and there's just over an hour of fligh time left. I've slept most of it and spent the last two hours eating and watching Star Trek, an on flight movie. I was told by the passanger next to me there were a couple hours of really rough flight. I thought it was only like 15 minutes so I guess I slept through most of it. I've talked to couple people about places to visit and things to do and I've already been offered a Nile cruse from Aswan to Luxor. I'm sure I'll get many more offers and suggestions as to how to spend money.

I just filed out a form for immigration. It's a small card that you submit with your passport when going through customs. Wow! Just openned the window shade, and we're over the southern tip of Greece. I think I can even see Mt. Visuvious. Wow! Beautiful view from 38000 feet.

Just flew over another amazing view. Instead of pressing my head against the window this time I actully got the camera out and captured a few shots. I'll have to Check out google earth when I get to Cairo and see what island that was (it was Crete).

Arrived in Cario

I'm so tired and my experiance at the airport and drive downtown have left me exahusted. The experiance coming in was amazing though and flying over Greece was so cool. The ordeal at the airport was chalanging and I won't go into that now but I made it to the hostel and I'm relaxing a bit before taking a walk down the street to see the Nile. I wrote some on the plane so when I get back this evening I'll post that. I'm here! Amazing!

Got to JFK... it was a long day filled with delay. I'm on my flight to Cairo, waiting to take off. I hope to sleep through the flight, I'm so tired.

The plane is fixed and we're off.

Flying out of San Diego

Okay, so this mornig I was finishing my work projects, packing, and trying to get some last minute things taken care of. I've been up all night and tired but I have a friend looking after the place while traveling and I wanted to straighten and clean up a bit. The last thing to do is take out the trash. Since I already gave my keys away I only have the spare to my door and not the entry to the building. I forget to prop the door open. I lock myself out and just minutes before the cab was to arrive. I have to scale the building to get to the second floor because it's 5 in the morning and I don't want to wake anyone. First self-inflicted chalange. The next was thinking I could breez through check-in becasue it was 5 in the morning. My flight was to leave at 6:20 AM so I had an hour. Yes, I said was. By the time I get up the stairs and to the computer kiosks I have 50 minutes but my passport is denied and I have to go through a special line. I get done with whatever that was, go through security and I now have 20 minutes to get to the gate. No problem I think and I'm happy. Not for long. In my haste I mix the seat number with the gate number. I go to gate 32 and it's far. It took me 7 or 8 minutes to get there and I was walking fast. The flight says Huston. WTF! I look at my boarding pass and confirm with the attendant (like I needed to, I knew but I needed someone to confirm that I'm dumb ass), I'm in the wrong place. I need gate 41 and it's on the complete opposite side of the terminal. I have to run my ass off because I now have 10 minutes before departure. I don't know how far it was but it felt like a mile. I get to the gate and find people haven't even got on the plane because it's broke and they're flying the part in. My 6:20 flight is now 11:45. I'm sitting at the airport waiting.

Bags are packed

It's 3am and I'm trying to finish up some last minute work. I have about 2 hours before the cab comes to take me to the airport. I can't wait to get on the plan because I'm so tired. My total flight time is like 17 hours and I think I'm going to sleep most of it. I may spend the 6 hour layover at JFK sleeping too. Ugh, 24 hours of travel time. It's worth it though and I'm excited to fly into Cairo Monday afternoon. I'm not even in the air and I can't wait to get to get to the other side of the globe. Okay, back to some work.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Egyptian Pounds are cool

I went to the bank today and picked up my order of "exotic" currency. It was funny hearing someone call currency exotic I guess (my banker called it that). The pound notes I picked up are the 50s and 100s and the engravings and color on both are very cool. The Sphinx on the 100 is awesome. If you don't know, the 100 is pretty much the equivalent of our $20... my exchange rate today was $1.00 equal to LE 5.51.

Voice memo from iPod

I'm trying out the voice recording feature. If this works you should be able to click on the file below and hear my voice.

Note:

So the text above was sent from the iPod but the voice recording didn't come through. It would have been cool if it worked for the blog. It does work well with email though. I sent a copy to myself and the recording came through as a mpeg attachment. This could come in handy for many things,... cool feature.

The iPod Touch

It came today. I've been downloading apps and setting up and it's pretty cool. I've set up Skype, created a gmail account to forward and send mail from, added a text chat app that works with my cell phone, and dowloaded a bunch of other cool stuff like google earth, expedia, and some helpful utilities. Sweet!

I think I'll be able to keep in touch without international calling cards and most importantly search for places or make reservations without searching for a computer. I just need to find wifi spots...

Sent from my iPod

Almost there

This morning I booked my hostel in Cairo. It was tough going through all the hostels and deciding where I was going to lay my head. I opted for a quite spot in the Garden City district close to the US and Canadian Embassies. It's inexpensive for a single room at E£135 ($24.00). There are less expensive options but they're also in the heart of downtown. I think I want to sleep well the first couple of nights and I've heard that the Juliana is in a peaceful neighborhood. It's also a couple minute walk to the Nile and is pretty close to a location that Lonely Planet talks about having the best felucca rides. I'm so going to sail on the Nile one evening, maybe two.

I purchased the last of my items yesterday that I needed for the trip. I picked up two pair of lightweight cargo pants and along with a pair of jeans, some shirts and what I'm wearing the day I fly off that's all I'm taking. I had to pick up a few adapter items I need for charging things too. I'm traveling very light for this trip as I want to be somewhat uninhibited and not worry about baggage. I have been considering taking my medium format camera though. I just pulled it out yesterday and was thinking how cool it would be to get some 2.25"x2.25" film images. I love the square format but I'm not sure I want to lug it around.

After booking the hostel I went on the U.S. Department of State Travel Registry site, created an account, and gave some details about my travel plans. I've read it's good to do if there's an emergency of some sort so why not. I'm now receiving a bunch of emails containing information on Egypt and Cairo (the lists I subscribed to). Most of it is warnings about boarder regions but sights a few instances of violence that have happened over the last several years in other areas. I'm not so worried about that but Wow, I just read the part about Egypt having one of the worlds highest rates of road fatalities per mile. I think I'm a little more concerned about crossing the street or getting into a car now. This reminds me of a video I was watching on youtube the other day of a person crossing the road in downtown Cairo, while eating. It was seriously like Frogger and what made it even more hilarious was that the guy was eating,... I think it was KFC too. Too funny. Well, I guess all those waisted hours of my youth spent playing Frogger might actually have been a good thing. Little did I know, it was preparation for Egypt.

Too funny... well not really

I woke this morning at 10am to a nock on the door. Thinking it was UPS I eagerly sprung from bed and threw on clothes,... I've been waiting the arrival of my iPod touch. I opened the door to find two people asking for me. It was a client I had set an appointment with for a portfolio consultation, and her friend. She was on time, I had just mixed the day/time with another client. I had actually just woke minutes before the nock and thinking that the appointment wasn't until noon I set the alarm to get another hour of sleep (I went to bed at 4:30 AM so I need it). After clearing the confusion I asked for 30 minutes to get myself together. We had a great chat but I was so embarrassed, and thankfully she was understanding...

I need more sleep

I've been trying to get everything done this last week and get projects wrapped up for people before heading off. I did my last shoot today in the studio. I don't think I'll set up another before leaving as I still have so much to do and get out before the trip. My plan was to actually stop shooting a week before to get images back to people. I've had a lot of momentum last month and this month so it's going to be tough not shooting. UPS dropped of my new camera bag this afternoon. I purchased a Tamrac 7 which is pretty sleek and small. It functions well and I like the way it fits over the shoulder but it is a little tight with storage. I guess it's good when I'm walking around to have a low profile bag though and that's really why I bought it,... my other bags are pretty bulky.

With everything else I've been doing, I'm trying to study Arabic and memorize some phrases to help me get around. Lonely Planet has a great Egypt guide book and Egyptian Arabic book. Speaking of which, the lonelyplanet.com web site is pretty cool for planning a trip and bookmarking locations you want to visit. I started planning my trip to Egypt in August through Lonely Planet and bookmarked locations I wanted to visit. I mentioned this in my 9.14- post but I'm just doing three locations,... Cairo, Luxor, and Alexandria. I want to experience the locations instead of rushing through. I hope to go back someday too. I think Egypt is one of those locations that would draw you back and really deserves more than one visit; it could even be cool to live there for a while too. I have a couple friends that have both lived there and have loved it. I'm going on their good advice and I'm sure I'm going to love it too.

10 days before the trip

I ordered an iPod touch the other day and I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival. I decided to get it so I would have a small wi-fi device while traveling which would allow me to access the internet, email, and Skype. I wasn't sure if it would work much in Cairo but there's apparently wi-fi hot spots all over; most of the hostels/hotels I'm looking at staying in have wi-fi. I think the feature I'm going to use most is Maps but I'll send updates to the blog, send email, and use Skype,... Skype is the cool thing as I wont have to worry about international calling cards. I can also use Safari to search for resturant, locations, and last minute hostel/hotel options. Most importantly, I'll have games to play during my long flights and extremely long layovers at JFK. Maybe I should use the layovers to head into Manhattan and get dumplings in China town??
Humm...

Trying another form of quick communication. I just set up an email
address so that I can post without having to log on...

Edit:
Very cool, this worked too. Now I just have to remember it.

>Just set up my cell to send text messages. How cool is that!?<

I didn't know that blogspot had mobile connectivity until a few minutes ago. I was going through the Settings and came across the feature. The text above, in arrows, was posted from my cell phone. Sweet!

Okay, I'm pretty much set for Egypt

I just need to order a water purifier before the end of this week. All the guide info I've read said it's a good idea to take one with you,... besides, it will cut down on buying bottled water. Oh, I'm also looking for some light weight pants that are easy to hand wash and quick to dry but other than that I'm set. I'm traveling very light, just my camera bag and a small 55 liter backpack which will just have a few clothing items and essentials.

I've pretty much fixed my itinerary. I'm leaving a few days loose so I can relax but I've decided that I'm going to spend my time at a few location instead of trying to get a whirlwind trip in to see lots of sights. So far, my trip is going to be Cairo for several days, Luxor for several days, Alexandria for several days, and then back to Cairo for the last day or two. There are so many things to see in just these cities that you could spend weeks visiting one and still not get it all in.

Lets take Cairo for example, I'm going to see the Egyptian Museum and that can take a full day to go through. I've even heard it's worth a second day and that may happen but the museum is first on my list. After that, I plan for a day visiting Coptic Cairo and the Muhammad Ali mosque at the citadel. I'll get in the Giza plane the following day and see the great pyramids. I'm not sure if I'll get an opportunity to but I also want to see Dahshur, Saqqara and Memphis. Ahh, I want to just absorb the city too so after Luxor and Alexandria I'll have to come back and spend a day or two walking streets and seeing other sights.

Awesome, I'm so excited!

It's been a long week but I've got most of my things ready for the trip,... I'm still in need a few items though. I called the bank to order my Egyptian Pounds today but it looks like I'll have to wait until Monday as I didn't receive a call back. I wanted to travel with EP as my bank wont charge for exchange. I'm not sure what the exchange rate would be in Cairo but this way I'll have it take care of before.

I received my new 16GB CF cards this week... I ordered two. So, along with my other CF cards I'll be able to shoot without worrying of running out of card space. I just tried one of the 16GBs for a studio shoot I had this week and I captured 1,162 RAW images. Between all of my cards I should be able to capture around 4,000 images. Would I really shoot that much in Egypt?? Anyway, as I type this I have two weeks before my flight.

22 days and counting to Cairo.

I'm excited but Wow, I've been thinking this is a major step for me to travel by myself and I'm felling butterflies in the stomach. It's kind of the same feeling I used to get before stepping into a sparing match with Sensei Brooks...

I would always ask myself if I was sure I wanted to do it but once I took that step into the ring I was committed, no matter what he threw at me. Of course I ended up on the floor a lot and was never bright enough to stay down, unless I was knocked unconscious. Ah, fun times.

I've had this blogspot for over a year now and have never done anything with it. So, I decided I would use it for family and friends to share my adventures while traveling in Egypt. Yes, that's right, a trip to Egypt. I've always wanted to go and I can hardly believe that's it's coming up so quickly (23 more days from this post). I'm excited and nervous, nervous mainly because I've never been to a foreign country before. Well, I have crossed the boarder from SD to TJ a few times but then Mexico is still part of the same continent.