Adventures of Beth and Dan: Safaga, Egypt Luxor November 1st

We’ve spent three weeks now onboard and it has gone by so quickly. I’d have to say most our entertainment has been mediocre. Sone of the singers and dancers got COVID and so those performances were cancelled. We have had movies in the theater then a flutist and a saxophone player. The saxophone player was great and we enjoyed him. For two nights we had sone traditional African singers and a pianist. Their voices were so harmonic and their costumes beautiful. They sang a few of their homeland songs but sadly the others were all American. The ship has remained hot in many places. I still hear people talk about it. Betsy is living her creative writing class and we are still doing crafts. I’ll include some photos of what we have made. Then sone afternoons we have a round of card playing and Kate my friend and her friend Steve have joined us. Outside decks have been hit and humid. This has surprised me as I thought we would have a bit cooler temperatures than we have. We haven’t had any more COVID testing for quite awhile but we did have another muster practice.

Our tour today was to Luxor . A Viking ship is in port beside us. This is the only ship we have encountered in port with us or even have seen. Our guide today is Momo or Mohammed. We also have an official security guard with us. He is dressed smartly and carry’s a gun. He doesn’t speak English and really has no contact with us. The port here is commercial, old, dirty and run dumb. There are huge silos for wheat storage. The Red Sea is called this because the red corals reflect the color of the alabaster colors mountains. Arabic is spoken here. The language is a blend of many tribes and cultures from ancient Egypt.

Our tour is with Memphis Tours. There are brochures as we go through security but none are in English. I notice there are very few pamphlets anywhere:museums, churches, palaces. Bathrooms often have no toilet paper, no running water and sometimes there is a bucket of water for you to use to flush. If you are reading this because you are planning to come in the future be prepared always. They suggest you don’t eat any of the cold dishes or even fruit. Don’t drink anything but bottled water, beer or soda. The hygiene here leaves much to be desired.

Our tour is in a big comfortable bus with 33 of us. The city is surrounded by mountains. At one time over 3000 pounds of gold was extracted but silver was actually worth more because it was imported. The Bedouins were here because they liked living in a protected valley. They cooked food in the desert by burying it deep in the sand in crocks. Then the put stones on top and sand and the heat of the sun cooked it. Sone camels have one or two humps. They never attack people. Their eyelids are upside down to protect them from the sand so they don’t see well to things up close only far away. This makes them fear people.

Camels can tell the difference between poisonous and good herbs. Their tongues have saliva with acid that can melt the spikes of poison in plants. 60% of Western Africa is desert. Males have dominated Eastern Europe. But women here were not to be mistreated. It took silver to give to a women’s family to be able to meet her.

Our tour is 12 hours so as you can imagine we see and learn a lot. It covers the Karnak Temples, the largest temple ever built, lunch, the West Bank of the Nile where we visit two colossal statues of Amenhotep. Then we visit the Valley of the Kings where there are magnificent tombs of the Pharaohs which have been carved into the desert Rick; we will be able to visit three tombs with then a visit to Hatshepsut Temple at El Deirdre Bahary, the only female Pharaoh.

We also go to a papyrus plant and an alabaster factory. We got to our lunch spot by two interesting motorized boats decorated with Egyptian fanfare. The restaurant was inside a most beautiful hotel, the Steinberger.