inside a temple

For weeks I'd been hanging with this American girl, teaching her my expertise - sheesa-ology... but when it was her turn to teach me... boy did I get lucky...she's an Egyptologist!

With her & 6 other Egyptologist from the renowned Cairo Museum we took a long 14hr train ride... & although we rode 1st class, there was no cute fringed table lamps in the car or any hint of glamour... instead there were enough stains to play a "name that stain" game!

We arrived the next day & after checking into a great hotel with a beautiful garden restaurant & air conditioning (it's been 100 degrees in Cairo & I've been without air... so this was a major treat!), we immediately set out for some sights.

the family inside their home

After wandering around one great temple & walking thru the desert to another amazing site we were invited into a family's home for tea & bread... & despite them being extremely poor, they gave each of us a necklace & were the most wonderful hosts!

tomb painting

Hatshepsut's Temple

lunch in a archeologist's house

What would have been an ideal trip was somewhat squashed by all the transport out of town being full. We were finally forced to hire a private minivan to drive back to Cairo. Which doesn't sound bad... but because of the tourists shootings & other similar problems in the middle of Egypt, tourists are only allowed to travel with police escorts. Meaning a truck of police -with rifles pointing- in front of us & another truck behind us. And they wouldn't let us stop anywhere! Had to coordinate our potty breaks & they wouldn't even let us go anywhere except KFC for lunch!! It was like we were the bad guys... like we were prisoners!

All in all, a completely amazing trip! And I still can't believe how lucky I was to meet these fun, interesting Egypt experts!