September 14, 2005 – Regina to Amsterdam

Today was the start of our Egyptian adventure. The plane didn't leave until 2 in the afternoon, so I slept in a little and finished packing. Just before 12 Brandi picked me up, then we picked up Mike and were on the way to the airport. We arrived at the Regina International airport a nice two hours before our plane was due to leave. We checked in and Brandi and Mike said their goodbyes. Our first flight was to Minneapolis. Once seated on the plane I opened up my novel "Angels and Demons". In the first paragraph the main characters are standing on the Giza plateau looking at the pyramids! I turned to Brandi and read the sentence and said, "It's a sign!!" Brandi looked at her book and said, "These people are on a plane… it's a sign!" Then two minutes later she looks up from her book and says "their plane just got taken over by terrorists… maybe it's not a sign!!" Once we arrived we had to go through U.S. customs and then we wandered around and found a lovely, and ridiculously expensive Mexican restaurant on the exact other side of the airport where we sat down and enjoyed some beer and nachos. Brandi and I started talking to the fellow beside us. He was a nice guy, but even though he didn't know where Saskatchewan was… he was still able to make fun of me for not being able to pronounce Illinois (apparently it a silent 's')… now how fair is that! Luckily with a couple $US6 beers the four-hour layover passed quickly and we were soon on our plane destined to Amsterdam.

September 15, 2005 – Amsterdam to Cairo

Our flight to Amsterdam went well, and we arrived and were off the plane at 12 noon for our eight-hour layover. Brandi and I found some lockers to put our backpacks in and headed off to find the train to get to downtown (although it did take us about ten minutes to figure out how the lockers worked!!) After wandering around for a while and getting Euros we knew where we were and we were on the train! We got to the main station and realized it was rainy and ugly out, and neither of us had an umbrella… I mean who packs an umbrella when heading to the desert?!? Well, we walked around and got nicely damp and a little lost! FINALLY we followed the flow of traffic and found the "main" strip where we were finally able to find a decently priced umbrella! We were walking down the street when we saw the Sex Museum… and we had to take a look! I would like to describe what we saw there, but I'm trying to keep this journal G-rated! After the museum we looked at a couple shops and then we wandered through the red light district. We were there around 4 in the afternoon, so there wasn't much action, and to be honest the hookers looked more bored than anything, but it was still interesting! Then we stopped at a café for a beer. We were thinking of having a 'smoke' but both of us were to chicken to ask! At the café we enjoyed a couple beers, and were also able to watch a 'high speed' chase! One cop was on a bike and the other was slowly walking behind! After our drinks we headed back to the train station to make our way to the airport. I stopped to look at buying "The Da Vinci Code" because "Angels and Demons" was so good, but 20 euro was a little much! We went to the station and grabbed our train. The train ride was a good 20-30 mins to the airport, and Brandi had to use to facilities so she wandered over to a washroom sign and looked around for bit trying to find the door. She found a handle and pulled it… and the train mysteriously started to slow down… Hmmmm what was going on? Brandi was standing there, and looked at some people near her and asked "did I do that" and they replied, "YES" as I was dying laughing hidden in my seat!! Well, Brandi slowly made her way back to hide behind our seats and the conductor came to our car to see what was wrong and Brandi sheepishly replied that she accidentally stopped the train. As they walked by someone muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "stupid Americans"… and we didn't bother to correct them… tee hee hee. Well, the rest of the train ride was uneventful, and we made it back to the airport and onto our flight without too much excitement. Then we were on our way to Cairo!

September 16, 2006 – Cairo

We arrived in Cairo around 2am local time and slowly made our way through customs and onto the shuttle bus that Contiki had to bring us to our hotel. Although we were both exhausted by this point, we were excited to be in Egypt! The drive took almost an hour and it was 4am before we were at our hotel. Upon getting to the hotel we saw one of the first in a string of many strange 'security' devices. A metal detector on the way into the hotel. Because of the luggage they just waved us around the machine! Later we learned that basically if you're a women you can walk through and beep all you want and they're never going to check you! Anyhow, we checked in and brought our stuff to our rooms and got ready to go to bed. I decided to have a cigarette and stepped outside where the call to prayer was happening… the first one of the day… the first one I ever heard… and the last thing I heard before drifting off to sleep!

Brandi and I both slept for about 12 hours straight! It was late afternoon before we were awake and even later before we were dressed! That evening we didn't do much at all. We had supper at the hotel restaurant and sat around the pool. Then we watched what appeared to be a belly dancer performing at a wedding for a while. The rest of the evening was spent reading and then going to bed and getting over our jet lag!

September 17, 2005 – Cairo

Today we were actually up before noon! We got up and dressed and had a bite to eat then grabbed the shuttle bus to downtown Cairo. On the bus we were able to have our first glimpse of the pyramids!!! WOW… they are so impressive! We arrived downtown and the fellow in the bus helped us cross the street… it doesn't sound like much… until you see the traffic in downtown Cairo… OH MY GOD! It was insane! A red traffic light is more like a sign that you should think about slowing down! And pedestrian lights don't exist! Well, we made it across the street and wandered into a shop. The lovely young man there showed us around and even got a little something extra… he enjoyed a nice, creepy, wiff of Brandi's hair. We left the store shortly after that! We had been thinking of grabbing a cab to Islamic Cairo and doing a walking tour, but I was a little chicken, so we decided to wander around for a bit.

As we were wandering, a couple blocks later, these two guys were walking in front of us, and one turned around and said, "Welcome to Alaska!"  We both laughed, but little did we know that it was just a test to see if we spoke English. I guess two ghost white girls in Cairo stick out like sore thumbs and when they saw we spoke English they knew they could wrangle some tourist money out of us. These guys were super nice and the one spoke excellent English. The other one was apparently a male model, and I must admit he had the body for it, but I think he must have been one of those surly models that doesn't smile, because his teeth were a different story! Well, we chatted for a while and they asked if we wanted to go for tea. Since we didn't have to meet our "husbands" for a while we accepted (we wore fake wedding bands so that people would think we were married and we wouldn't get harassed). We wandered down a couple side streets and sat down at a quaint outdoor teahouse, where we talked about life in Cairo, life in Canada and a bunch of other stuff. They also explained to us that in Cairo to cross the street you just "close your eyes and pray"! We wholeheartedly agreed with them!! After our tea break they brought us to their "cousins" perfume shop for a demonstration. We were a little wary at first, but we ended up getting the best Turkish coffee ever tasted in the world, and the cheapest perfume we saw in Egypt! Brandi and I both only bought one bottle each because we didn't know if we were getting screwed or not, and it was only our first day in Cairo! After the perfume store we went to another "cousins" Papyrus store where I bought a couple Papyrus painting. At this point we were getting a little suspicious of these "cousins" and said we needed to meet our "husbands" at the museum. The one fellow led us through the streets and brought us back to the museum. I guess he stopped to make sure we were really going in, because when we walked past he came running back telling us we had missed the entrance. We "explained" to him that I was just stopping for a smoke before we went into the museum.

After standing in front of the museum for about 15 minutes we were finally able to cross the street and we walked down the Nile for a while. There was nothing too exciting in that area so we walked back and eventually crossed the street again! The heat and the smog in downtown Cairo was pretty bad, so we were kind of happy when the bus showed up to bring us back to the hotel. On the way back we saw the pyramids again, and the bus driver even pulled over to the side of the road so we could take some pictures, how sweet, eh?!? While driving it was amazing seeing what Cairo really looked like. A lot of the buildings aren't even finished at the upper levels and just have rebar sticking out of them. Some people even appear to have built makeshift apartments on the top floors without a roof. There were also random mountains of garbage everywhere. The poverty was very visible, and not like anything I'd ever seen before. We also got to see more of the crazy Cairo drivers! They honk for everything!  They honk to say "I'm passing you", they honk to say, "you're passing me", they honk to say "get out of my way", they honk to say "I'm braking", then honk to say "I'm turning now" and they honk to say just about anything else they could say!

Once back at the hotel we washed up and had supper, then were off to meet our Contiki group. We all sat around and introduced ourselves and met our Tour Manager, Sheriff. Afterwards we ended up at the poolside having a couple drinks, enjoying a Sheesha and getting to know each other. This was the first time Brandi had ever smoked, and sadly, she seemed to pick it up pretty quickly. Mark, however, choked on every puff he took until his eyes watered. Most of the way through the night Brandi and I realized there was an entire table of Aussies on the other side of the pool that we didn't even know were there! Well, we were thinking of going to sleep fairly soon, so we wandered over to their table, chatted with them for a bit and then were off to bed.

September 18, 2006 – Cairo

Today was the first (official) real day of our tour. We were up nice and early and piled onto the Contiki bus to head out to the Giza plateau to see the pyramids! Once we parked it was time for a photo! And when in Egypt… you have to walk like an Egyptian (I'm sure a million tacky tourists do this every year… and we were two of them!) After pictures we went and bought tickets to get into the Pyramid of Khafre. It was a long (hunched over) walk down to the burial chamber, and although it was basically just a big empty room… it was still a big empty room inside a pyramid. And I even got to stand where the mummy had been! We all walked back out and went over to see the Great Pyramid. As we headed over we met a couple people in the group, and had our first experience with the locals trying to take your money! A guy came up with a bandana type thing and asked to put it on us and take our picture, ensuring us that it was free! We said no, but some of the guys in the group came up and we ended up getting a couple pics… and then this guy wanted money! I guess free doesn't translate very well! Anyhow, after dealing with him, and swatting off other people we walked up the Great Pyramid. You could enter this one as well, but we didn't realize it at first, and then it was too late to buy a ticket to get in. We slowly made our way back to the bus, and drove up to a photo/camel area. For about $5 you could sit on a camel for about 2 minutes, and get a sweet picture with the pyramids behind. Well, since the whole point of going to Egypt was to see the pyramids and pet a camel, I had to do this! After everyone had gotten their picture on a camel we went over to the Sphinx. It was pretty impressive, but honestly, he's a little ugly! This is where we got our first taste of the Tourist Police.  They're not there just to scare the tourists with their AK-47s – they'll actually chase off people who are trying to sell trinkets and bother the tourists.

Next we piled back onto the bus and headed to the Egyptian museum. Sherif toured us around for a bit and then we were given some time alone where we could view the King Tut exhibit and the mummy room. We hit up King Tut first and got to see all the crazy things he was buried with. Then we attempted to find the mummy room. While we were looking around we ran into Kimberly and although it took a while, the three of us eventually were able to look at bodies of pharaohs that had been dead thousands of years! It's crazy to think they're not just dust! Pharaoh Ramses II was so well preserved he still had hair and you could sort of see the whites of his eyes – which followed you around the room in a creepy sort of way. All in all, the museum was pretty amazing, although it is massive, and a lot of things aren't well labelled, so the time without Sherif wasn't that productive.

Once we were done at the museum we headed back near the Giza plateau to visit a perfume shop. The men there did their little spiel, and given that Brandi and I were now experts in the perfume industry we didn't listen that closely, but opted to help others out with our wisdom, and we helped Matthew (aka Man-Whore) chose his new cologne. This is where we also found out that Brian knew where Regina was! Brian had friends there and actually used to visit fairly often. It was strange, sitting in a perfume shop in Egypt with an American and reminiscing about the bar scene in Regina. Since the price here was over double what we paid the day before we chose not to buy more perfume, and wandered around for a bit. The sun was now starting to set, so outside you could get an amazing view of the sun setting over the pyramids. Unfortunately Brandi didn't get a great view because she'd forgotten she had perfume on her hands and rubbed her eyes and wasn't able to see for most of the evening!

The next destination on our tour was the train! We headed off for the train station and were assigned rooms. We got our suitcases into our room… and then there really wasn't any room left for us! Brandi and I hung out in our 'room' for a bit and cleaned ourselves up as best as we could. When we were off and rolling we were given a 'supper'. Once we ate we read for a bit, and then tried to find where the action was. A bunch of people were hanging out in the club car, including some raunchy German tourists, so we ended up there. The evening was spent enjoying a couple beers, getting to know everyone, and playing a strange game for what seemed like hours. The game involved naming someone famous, and then the next person used the first letter of their last name to name another person. Eventually we drank the train's entire supply of beer and had nothing else to do but go to bed. With all the beer gone, Brandi and I headed back to our room, and I made Brandi sleep on the top bunk because I was afraid I'd fall out! Although we didn't sleep much that night, it was pretty cool sleeping on the train, swaying back and forth, and it was also my first train ride!

September 19, 2006 – Aswan

We were woken up bright and early by our wake up call/knock. We washed up in the sink in our room, and were given breakfast. Then we watched the sights through the window as we pulled into Aswan. We pulled into Aswan mid-morning and first went to see the High Dam. At the dam Brandi even got to see a strange thief do some sort of lobster walk up behind some people and steal their shoes! Next we saw a strange lotus thing that the British may have given to Egypt? It had something to do with friendship, so we all had our pictures taken in the middle of it. Afterwards we went to the granite quarry to see the unfinished obelisk. The obelisk would have been the biggest one of its kind, but when they were almost done a huge flaw was found, and it was discarded in the quarry centuries ago. As we approached the quarry, I had my stiletto sandals on, and didn't think we would be doing too much walking, so I didn't switch into my walking sandals… well, I was wrong, and managed to hike through a rock quarry in stilettos! How impressive is that?!? After wandering through the quarry we checked into our cruise ship, where we'd be spending the next few nights. The cruise ship was very nice, and Brandi and I both enjoyed the chance to shower and change into some clean clothes.

After a mid-afternoon siesta we jumped onto a felucca to sail around Elephantine Island to see the Botanical Gardens on Kitchener's Island. Unfortunately we had some felucca problems, and in the middle of the Nile River we all moved onto a motorboat so we'd get to the gardens sometime that century. We wandered around the gardens, which were nice… but really didn't hold my attention, especially considering there were cats everywhere! Since I was going through Punky withdrawal I spent a lot of time at the gardens playing with cats, chasing cats, petting cats, and whatever else I could do around the cats! Honestly, the only thing I remember from the gardens were the cats! After leaving the gardens we slowly took the boat around the area to see everything. And saw an island was where some famous person had lived (?!?!?).

The view around the Nile was beautiful, and some of the guys wanted to stop and walk up the sand hills, so the boat pulled over at the side of the river. Here every guy on our tour (except Jason who had hurt his leg shortly before the tour began) raced up to the top of the sand hill, while all the women just waited at the bottom. Well, except for Kirsten, because she ran up the hill with all the guys too! Once the guys got high enough, they stopped to moon us, but most people (myself included) weren't quick enough with their cameras. As we were all standing around Jason called me over to see this man's baby crocodile. A family lived in a small house at the bottom of the hill, and the one guy had this cute little crocodile. Jason was holding it, and I got my turn and a picture next! Jason kind of walked off and left me talking to this guy. First the man said he had a full size crocodile inside if I wanted to see it, and I said I was fine, while I was thinking that there was no way I was going to go into his house! Then the guy noticed I had a lighter in my camera case and pointed at it and asked me something. I assumed he had asked if he could have a cigarette, but I'd left them on the boat so I told him that. Then he shook his head no and asked if I would like one. I said no thanks, and he looked at me and said "oh… you don't smoke cigarettes, would you like something else? I have cocaine, come inside and have some." By this point I was a little freaked out and didn't know what to do, so I called my 'husband', Jason, over to save me! Although he was a little slow, and joked about selling me, he finally came through and brought me away from my newfound cocaine buddy! I thing the strangest thing was that this guy went straight to cocaine, I mean from cigarettes to cocaine! Normally you'd think he'd offer marijuana or something less harsh first, I mean isn't that drug etiquette or something?!?!

After this we headed back to the cruise ship for supper. The chefs on the cruise ship were hilarious and always seemed to enjoy bugging Brandi and myself! The food was all served buffet style, and every time we asked for something they'd give us about a teaspoon of it and joke that we didn't need any more food or else they'd give us a massive serving and say we needed to eat it all. They were really nice and always remembered us at each meal, so it was always fun and entertaining to eat. Seeing as we really hadn't gotten that much sleep on the train the night before, and we were heading to Abu Simbel the next morning, we headed to bed nice and early that night.

September 20, 2006 – Aswan to Abu Simbel to Edfu

This morning we jumped on a plane and headed about 40 km north of the Sudanese border to see Abu Simbel and it is absolutely amazing! Abu Simbel was moved, piece-by-piece, to its present location years ago when the Aswan dam was built. At Abu Simbel there is the Great Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor. The temple of Hathor was built for Ramses' wife, Nefertari. At Abu Simbel we sat and listened to a talk about the site, and then had time to wander around. Inside the temples, the hieroglyphs and paintings were stellar! The paint inside still has colour and looks wonderful after 3000 years! We were there for a couple hours, and then had to leave to jump on the plane and head back to Aswan. On the plane ride to Abu Simbel I sat beside Kirsten, and that was an adventure in itself! Kirsten is not a happy flyer, and usually has to take Valium or something to calm her… so I was happy on the flight back to Aswan when I was a row in front of her and could watch the poor sucker beside her!

When Brandi and I got back to the ship and to our room, we discovered the cleaning guy had prepared towel animals for us! We had a couple swans and a lobster/crab thing! We were pretty amazed and then heard a knock on the door. It was the cleaning guy to see how we liked our animals, and he insisted on coming in so we could get a picture of us with him and with the towel animals!!! Then he made us a towel baby and a towel crocodile!

We cruised down the Nile this afternoon and stopped at Kom Ombo to see the temple there. The temple was very nice, and I was once again amazed by the hieroglyphs and the fact that the colour in the paint was still visible in places! The temple here is also known as the "Crocodile Temple" and features a mummified crocodile in one of the rooms. When we finished the tour of the temple we had time to wander back to the boat. Just outside the temple there was a snake charmer, and for about E£100 you could get a picture with a snake. Although I chose not to do this, a couple others (Kirsten and Ryan) enjoyed some time with the cobra! When we got back to the ship we discovered a new towel animal…this time it was a towel person! And again the cleaning guy insisted on getting a picture… and sniffing Brandi's hair… and getting a little too close in the pictures!! It was now getting a little creepy, especially since the towel person had a hair clip that had been in Brandi's suitcase. After this animal we decided to leave our "Do Not Disturb" sign on all the time and just make our beds ourselves! Of course, that meant the cleaning guy seemed to just hang out in our hallway, and every time he saw us he'd get all excited and ask if we needed our room cleaned.

We sailed on and then docked at Edfu for the night. At Edfu we all walked through the market to find an outfit for the Egyptian night later that evening. We all started walking as a group, but quickly got separated. Brandi and I were sort of by ourselves, and in the Egyptian bazaars its always a good idea to walk with your 'husband', so Mark, Howard, Brett and Jason called out to us and we ended up shopping with them for a while. But I don't know if this actually worked much better. As we were walking, one man said he'd pay a million camels for me, and he even had them down the alley if I wanted to see. I'll admit I was a bit curious how they all fit in the ally… but chose not to look! Shortly after Mark offered to sell me for four camels and I figured I was worth at least ten! Well, from that point onwards our marriage was doomed, and I chose Jason for my husband instead! Shopping in the bazaar was very entertaining, and I learned that pretending not to speak English doesn't work because they speak every language possible! One merchant's French was even better than mine! Although not too many spoke Russian, but seeing as we didn't either it didn't help much! Brandi and I wanted a full belly dancer outfit and spent ages searching for one that wasn't too revealing! Jason, our trusty husband (we were sharing now because we lost the other guys), helped us bargain and we were able to get matching outfits with headpiece for about $50 a person. Once we had our outfits we headed back to the cruise ship for supper and some free time before the Egyptian night.

Getting ourselves into our new costumes was a bit more difficult than anticipated, and Brandi and I were a bit late for the evening, but we were excused when Sherif saw we were the only ladies who went all out! The evening started out with dancing and singing, and then we got some group pictures. Two of the best photos of the evening were when Brandi and I were held up by all the guys, and the photo where all the women held up Man-Whore!!! As the evening progressed we played some games, including the Egyptian potato game, the Egyptian mummy wrapping game, the Egyptian pass the bottle game and more! These ancient Egyptian party games have been passed down through the centuries… you may remember them from kindergarten! For the mummy wrapping Jason was my partner, and I kicked some serious butt! Our strategy involved Jason and I both turning simultaneously. We were judged by our trusty Contiki audience, and out of the four guys involved, Jason was the best-wrapped mummy! We all danced for a while, and then headed upstairs and outside to the pool. Brandi didn't want to get in and was just sitting at the side dangling her feet in the water when Man-whore snuck up and pushed her in. She sprayed him with a beer, but as he was already soaking wet, it didn't have the intended effect. And she had just wasted a beer. We all hung out at the pool until the wee hours of the morning. In the pool there was also a lot of strange happenings… including skinny-dipping as we cruised down the Nile! In the course of the evening several people went without clothing, including Man-Whore! Someone had thrown his shorts to the shallow end of the pool, and rather than asking someone to retrieve them for him he decided to shimmy down the shallow end (which is 1 foot deep), and ended up getting some painful 'rug-burn' in a strange area! Another surprise was when I was sitting by the stairs, and Spencer just decided to walk out and retrieve his shorts! I've tried to block that sight from my memory! Around 3am I decided to go to bed, but I couldn't find my camera and I was sure Brandi hadn't taken it earlier so I ended up wandering around with Jason and Kirsten trying to find it, and also returned Man-Whore's camera, which we found in the process. After searching for quite a while I headed back to my room, and discovered Brandi had brought it back hours earlier! Stupid Erin!

September 21, 2006 – Edfu to Luxor

Today was an early morning for the group and most of us were in rough shape (myself included!) We went to the Temple of Horus, and as we did with all the other sightseeing we were nice and early so we could avoid the crowds and the heat. After Karnak, the Temple of Horus is the largest temple in Egypt. It is also the best preserved. The temple was built on the site where Horus was said to have fought with his evil Uncle Seth to avenge his father's death and gain control of the world. We wandered through the halls and I saw a hyrogliph that didn't seem like it fit in the temple. Well, the story of Horus goes like this: The evil Seth trapped Osiris in a coffin & threw him into the Nile. Isis found Osiris' body and was able to revive him long enough to conceive their son, Horus. Seth then took Osiris' body, cut it into 14 pieces and threw it back into the Nile. Isis was able to gather 13 pieces, but never recovered his penis, which was eaten by a fish. Anyhow, I discovered the missing piece! After the tour we had some free time and Brandi and I ran back to find my heirogliph and take a couple.. tasteful/tasteless pictures! I think the group of Japenese touists nearby thought we were insane! After the extra time we headed back to the cruise ship and had time to relax and get in a nap before we docked at Luxor.

September 23, 2006 – Luxor to Cairo

Today we were up at a decent hour and on a plane headed to Cairo. Today was a nice and easy day where we actually got time to relax. After the flight we checked back into the Oasis hotel and our friend at the front desk even remembered us from the week before! After dropping our stuff off we headed to the Bazaar Khan El Khalili, which is crazy! I wanted to find some fabric to give to mom, so Brandi, Aaron, myself and some others wandered off. We ended up getting to the other side of the bazaar and out into a non-bazaar area! By the time we turned around we had about 10 minutes to get back to the bus so we rushed back through and made it in time! Some people were able to get some amazing souvenirs at the bazaar, but the only purchase I made was a couple cheesy pyramid key chains!  (One of which is still hanging from my car's rear-view mirror!) We were then bussed back to the hotel where we had a free afternoon. Everyone that had hit the Irish pub the night before was exhausted, so they all went to take a nap. I wasn't that tired after my early night, so I grabbed a book and read by the pool for a while. I had finished reading Angels and Demons early in the trip, and Jason had finished his book so we traded early on and I only had one day left to finish his. After a couple people woke up we played ping pong for a bit and hung out before supper. We had an earlyish supper before some of us headed to the Pyramids to see the Sounds and Light show. Jason, Mark, Brett and Howard were all planning on jumping on the bus for the show but not paying for the optional, and instead hitting up Pizza Hut, which is right in front of the Sphinx, having a pizza and seeing the show from there. Well apparently this is not allowed and after a big hassle they had to take a cab. The rest of us headed to the pyramids and all sat down in front of the Sphinx. But first we were treated to the musical stylings of an Egyptian bagpipe band! I would love to describe that experience for you… but it is really indescribable! As the sun started to set, the lights were lit and the Sphinx narrated a tale of why the pyramids were made. Although the show itself was a little cheesy, seeing the pyramids lit up at night more than made up for the cheese! After the show we were back on the bus and brought back to the hotel where we enjoyed a couple beer and a sheesha or two before bed.

September 24, 2006 – Cairo

Today was the last day of our tour. The first stop today was to see the Saqqara Plateau and the first pyramids ever made. The first one we saw was crumbled so it just looked like a mound, but this was still were it all started! We went inside a building and looked around there. As we were walking I heard a commotion in the room behind where I was. It turn out Kimberly had fainted! Luckily Ryan was standing right beside her. She had started to go white and kind of wavered, so when she actually fainted he was able to catch her. Then Ryan, Raphael and Kirsten carried her out to the bus where she was given a snack and waited until she felt better. We finished up our tour and then entered a pyramid! Back outside of the pyramid I got Spencer to grab some sand for me to so I could bring it back to Canada and give it to Tony (I'd promised him I'd bring him sand from a pyramid) and in the bus I transferred my Egyptian sand to a handy Ziploc bag. In the bus Kimberly was feeling better and by the time we got to the step pyramid she was well enough to get out and see it. We walked through a beautiful hypostyle hall and then headed to see the step pyramid. This pyramid is right in the middle of the desert and when you look out all you can see is sand! It's crazy! Also, you can see peddlers with camels, and Mark just had to pay the guy to feed the camel some grass. We then wandered around the plateau and viewed some other sights.

After we saw everything at the Saqqara plateau we headed back to Cairo to the Citadel where we viewed the Alabaster Mosque. This mosque is gorgeous and has an amazing view of the city. Inside we had to take our shoes off and couldn't have our knees or shoulders showing. We sat inside and Sherif told us all about the place and about Muslim customs. Then we headed over to the sultan Husan Mosque where apparently Brandi and I were not dressed appropriately! I had on a long skirt and a v-neck t-shirt and Brandi had pants and a t-shirt! We couldn't figure out how they figured we were scantily clad! Anyhow, this mosque was also very nice and we had a bit of time to view it.

After viewing the mosques we stopped for a late lunch in downtown Cairo. Lunch was pretty good and everyone enjoyed sitting and relaxing and spending our last day together. After lunch we were brought back to the hotel and hung out. Some people enjoyed a siesta, some people hung out at the pool and others read. Brandi and I were hanging out by the pool trying to decide what to do with our two extra days in Cairo. I asked Sherif what else he thought we should see in Cairo and he said we'd pretty much seen it all! Brett, Howard and Mark were all planning to go to Sharm el-Sheik for two days, and Brett was sitting chatting with Sherif when I'd gone up to ask him what else we should do.  After hearing the conversation, Brett suggested we go to Sharm with them. Well within an hour Brandi and I had decided, booked and paid for our voyage to Sharm! Sharm el-Sheik Whoo Hoo!! The boys were leaving later that evening for Sharm, while we were heading there the next day, so we made plans to meet up there. That night the whole group met at the indoor restaurant for supper, and at the end of the supper Mark, Howard and Brett all had to make a mad dash to leave and catch their plane. After supper, everyone met around the pool for a last evening of drinking and debauchery! The sheeshas and the booze flowed freely! We had a great time that evening and laughed and drank until the wee hours of the morning. We had photo ops with the Aussies, the Canuks, the Americans, NAFTA, and more, although Brett, Howard and Mark were missing. Around midnight I looked around and realized that Jason was missing so I tracked him down in his room. Jason had decided he wasn't much for saying goodbyes so he'd snuck off. We hung out and chatted for a bit, and I told him he should come back to the party! As the evening wound down we all eventually headed off to sleep, and I stopped by Jason's room to say goodbye. Jason had become one of my favourite people on the trip and I knew that I was going to miss him when I got home. I'd already said good-bye to two other favourites, Ryan and Aaron, so Jason was the last difficult good-bye and we ended up hanging out until about 3am… leaving me an hour before I had to be up to catch the plane to Sharm!

September 25, 2006 – Cairo to Sharm el-Sheik

This morning was very early!  Brandi and I were up at 4 in the morning (after one hour of sleep) to get all of our stuff and get to the airport for our 7am flight to Sharm el-Sheik (whoo hoo)! By 5am we were all packed up and waiting in the hotel lobby with Brian who was flying back to Maryland that morning (please note, the pronunciation is not Merry–land… and if you pronounce it that way people will laugh at you… trust me!) We had never actually asked if we could jump on the shuttle bus to the airport, thinking it wouldn't be a big deal… and boy were we wrong! We were 20 minutes late leaving the hotel because they didn't want to fit Brandi and I onto the bus that fits about 10 people… and Brian was the only other person on the bus!!! Anyhow, once things were sorted out we were heading to the airport. At the airport we said our good-byes to Brian and checked into our flight to Sharm el-Sheik (whoo hoo!) (And in case you're wondering that became our catch phrase the last day of the trip so that any time Brandi, Mark, Howard, Brett or myself saw one of us we had to yell it out!)

The flight passed very quickly, due in part to the fact that I only got an hour of sleep the night before, and I slept the entire flight which is not a normal thing for me (I don't remember take-off and hardly remember landing)! Once we were out we grabbed a cab. We had a tour book that said how much a taxi should cost, so we were trying to barter one down (he quoted like 4 times as much as the tour book)… well he wasn't coming down, and we were exhausted and figured the price had just changed and said fine. It turns out he DID rip us off, AND there was a hotel shuttle bus at the airport that would have driven us to the hotel!!! Anyhow, we were dropped off near the hotel strip and told to walk in a general direction (taxis can't go in that area). Anyhow, we walked, and walked, and walked… until finally I saw a large H that looked like it could be right, and it was! To this day I have no idea how I ever thought it could be right, because the hotel we were staying at was called the "Marina" but who knows?!? We walked into the hotel a little worried that we wouldn't be able to check in since it was only 10am, but luck was with us and we checked in right away! As soon as we got to our room we dropped all of our stuff, closed the curtains, and slept! Around 4 in the afternoon we both woke up from our 'nap' and showered and dressed for the 'day'. We checked at the front counter to see what room Brett, Howard and Mark were in, but the hotel staff had no idea who they were or what room they were in, even though we gave them all three of their full names! Then we walked around for a bit and decided where to eat. We were technically in Na'ama bay, and there's a main strip area with shops and restaurants. All the restaurants were open air (although you could eat inside if you wanted to) and each one had their menu out in the front, so it was nice and easy to pick where you wanted to eat. We basically walked down the entire strip and back before deciding what we wanted and then sat down to eat. We each had our food, and were enjoying a drink when the strip started to pick up. Sharm attracts a lot of European travellers, and they tend to have supper later in the evening. As it was picking up there were people who's entire job was to get people to come into the restaurant. They'd just stand by the menu and try and to entice you to eat there! Anyhow, we were sitting when Jennifer, a girl on our tour walked by and chatted with us a bit. Apparently she wasn't able to find Brett, Howard or Mark either, although she didn't even know what hotel they were at. We talked for a couple minutes, but to be honest Brandi and I never really clicked with her during the tour so she went her way and we went ours. After supper we decided it was about time to do some shopping! And we shopped until the wee hours of the evening. The shopping in Sharm was great! Everything was really cheap, and it wasn't too crowded so you could take all the time you wanted to barter. The only time we had trouble was buying tobacco for our sheeshaws. At one point we had to walk back to the hotel and drop off all the stuff we bought so we could go back and buy more, and I think I spent more that night then I had on souvenirs the rest of the entire trip!

September 26, 2006 – Sharm el-Sheik

This morning started off quite early when the phone in our room started ringing at 4am! It was Mark, and not only was it Mark, but it was drunk Mark! The guys had been out at a bar and were just returning to the hotel. I asked Mark if he knew what time it was, and he stated "Yhea, it's 1am, get up and come party with us!!!" to which I replied, "NO it's 4am and I'm not going anywhere!!!" Anyhow, we made plans to meet up the next morning, and then I hung up and went back to sleep.

Later that morning Brandi and I woke up properly and showered and got ready for the day. That morning Mark called and was bugging us that we hadn't tried getting in touch with them. I explained to him how we'd tried. And he said he didn't understand it because all they did was go to the front desk and ask for two Canadian girls! I guess we make an impression!! Anyhow, we left Brett and Howard sleeping, and Mark, Brandi and myself went out for lunch at McDonalds. Once everyone was awake the guys brought all their bags into our room as this was their last day in Sharm, and we decided to go to the beach. So we grabbed our stuff, grabbed a cab and headed off. At the beach we had something to eat and hung out for a while. The guys thought it would be fun to go snorkelling for a while, so they figured everything out, and Brandi and I just had to give them money and jump on the boat! It was really nice to have them there to do all the work for us! The driver drove us out to a reef, and everyone but Brandi put on their snorkels and fins and jumped in the water (Brandi wasn't in the mood for snorkelling so she stayed in the boat.) The view was amazing! Apparently the red sea is supposed to have the second best coral reefs in the world (second to Great Barrier Reef in Australia), and I believe it! The water was clear blue, the fish were colourful and the coral was beautiful! I floated around looking at everything until I lost track of the guys and the boat. I was a little worried until I noticed Brandi and the driver trolling down the coast (they had taken a bit of a joy ride out toward the ocean.) I slowly floated back that way and got into the boat.  Within 15 minutes the guys were back and we were heading to the beach again. At the beach we hung out in the water until we were nice and shrivelled and then moved to the beach. Brandi and I decided to just lie there while the guys joined an Egyptian volleyball team, and just watching them was a lot of fun! The sun was starting to set so we all got cleaned up and grabbed a cab back to the hotel. At the hotel all five of us showered (separately) and then went to a Asian restaurant for supper. Supper was entertaining and by the time it was over the guys had to head out to catch their plane. Brandi and I walked them to the hotel for their bags, and once they were off we headed out to try and get in a little more shopping! We shopped for a couple hours then headed back to the hotel so we could get a good nights sleep!

September 27, 2006 – Sharm el-Sheik

Today was the longest day in the history of days!!! Brandi and I got up around 11 in the morning and showered and got ready for the longest day in the history of days (if I say it twice will you believe it?!?!) We went to the Hard Rock Café for lunch, and sadly they were out of shot glasses!  I couldn't believe it, there was nowhere in Egypt to get a shot glass! After lunch we went out to a boat ride. We took a glass bottomed boat ride around the bay and got to see all the beautiful sea life from another angle! After our boat ride we wandered through the shops. Brandi and I both ended up buying a bit more perfume. I now have Arabian Nights and Nefertari perfume! Then next up was our last camel ride! We met the guy that was supposed to bring us to the camels, and jumped into a cab. We were apparently going to pick up some other people and go to our final destination… well we waited for about 30-45 minutes in the cab in sweltering heat outside a hotel, and nothing! Then the guide came back and sent us off into the desert… alone… in the cab! We had no idea what was going on! The cab went off down the wrong side of a divided highway and Brandi and I just hoped that we were going somewhere! Well, after about 20 minutes in the cab we stopped at what appeared to be a touristy place with horses, and a guide came over, jumped in and we headed off again to the middle of nowhere! There we were met by two young guys and two camels! Whoo Hoo Camels!!! Here I met Hublibubli, and Hublibubli and I rode off into the sunset! Well actually we wandered around in the sunset led by a very nice Bedouin boy. Him and another boy led Brandi and I around for a bit, and then we got off and he led us up a small hill for an amazing view of the desert. We slowly made our way back to the starting point and were able to lead the camels ourselves for a while. Once back we dismounted the camels and I said a tearful goodbye to Hublibubli. The two guys brought us to their Bedouin campsite where we had some fresh made bread and enjoyed some tea by the fire while they were preparing for a big party that night. It was starting to get dark, and our cab was due to pick us back up any minute, so we made our way to the meeting spot and waited for the cab and another crazy roller-coaster ride back to Na'ama bay! Once back at the bay we wandered through the shops one last time and spent the last of our Egyptian Pounds. We went back to the hotel to grab the 11pm shuttle bus to head to the airport, and we talked to the guys at the front desk one last time. Man I was sure going to miss how friendly the Egyptian men were! The shuttle arrived a little after 11pm and brought ourselves and some other tourists to the airport where we boarded our flight bound for Cairo.

September 28, 2006 – Sharm el-Sheik to Amsterdam to Regina

The flight from Sharm el-Sheik to Cairo was fairly quick and we were back in Cairo in no time at all. At the airport we had to go to another terminal for international flights and unfortunately ended up going the wrong way through the parking lot and taking about 45 minutes to get somewhere that should have only taken 15 minutes!! When we finally found out where we were, and checked in we waited for our 4am flight to Amsterdam. Brandi and I managed to get a bit of sleep on the flight, but it was kind of difficult after the amazing trip we just had! At 8am we landed in Amsterdam and had a nice eight-hour layover to enjoy! This time we understood where to get money, how to take the train, which train to take and we also had a map that Jason had given me, so after a light snack in the airport we put our stuff in a locker and headed to the Anne Frank museum. The museum was very nice and very touching, and we were there early enough in the day that I think we missed most of the tourist flock. The museum is built in the house where Anne Frank and her family lived during the Second World War, and you actually get to walk through the Annex that they lived in. It's a self-guided tour, and has information all the way through on how Anne lived and died. After the museum we walked through the streets and went to the Bulldog café. The Bulldog was a café where we knew we could get something to 'smoke', and even though we were both intent on buying a joint when we were 5 blocks away, by the time we got to the café we both chickened out and just had a coffee instead! Brandi used the Internet there, and then we slowly made our way back to the main train station, where we enjoyed an eventless train ride to the train station! At 4pm we were back on a plane and headed to Minneapolis.

This flight was also uneventful, and even though I was exhausted, I had difficultly sleeping… sadly I still can't sleep on planes! Once we landed in Minneapolis we had a couple hours layover, were we found our favourite overpriced Mexican bar and restaurant, and then we were on our way to Regina. We landed in Regina at 10pm, and we were happy to be home! We got up with everyone else and were on our way through customs when both of us were 'randomly' pulled aside! We were brought to a room where we had to wait about 20 minutes and then had to endure having our luggage gone through, item by item! Unfortunately there was a little problem… Brandi and I had both bought sheeshas in Egypt, and we also bought the tobacco for them. Well, we didn't declare the tobacco, and it turns out we were both way over. They were just going to take them and make us pay duty on it (which was way more than what we bought the tobacco for! It may even have been around $200!!!), but then they found a carton of Cleopatra cigarettes I'd bought to hand out as souvenirs and completely forgot about! We had been pretty accommodating, considering we hadn't slept in ages, and had just been in transit for about 26 hours, and then the guy just started being a complete jerk! He went on and on about how he was confiscating everything, and this and that, and I just snapped at him and said that I didn't care if he took everything and to just stop ranting and search our darn bags!!  Well, I don't know if it made it any better, but at any rate he shut up and let the lady who was searching our stuff finish! Finally, over an hour after we landed, we were let out, with red flags placed beside our names for customs in the future! In the entire process we had been saying that Mike was waiting for us and they wouldn't tell us anything. Well, when we got out, Mike was there freaking out because he didn't know what had happened! Michelle was also waiting with him, but she seemed more annoyed about the long wait than anything. No one had told him anything, and in addition someone had said that there was no one left to go through customs. So the entire time we had been in customs, Mike had been sitting there wondering if we had missed a flight and were stuck somewhere! At any rate we made it through with one more story to add to everything else that had happened on our trip! Mike dropped me off, and I walked up to my apartment excited to see Punky, but also a little sad that my Egyptian adventure was over…

Epilogue