The Fly in the Ointment...

Remember kushari?  The Egyptian dish with lentils, rice, macaroni, chickpeas, tomatoes and fried onions?  Well, it turns out that my particular bowl of kushari contained a very nasty microbe.  One that made me so violently ill, the force of ejecting the kushari from my body, via my mouth, bruised my eyelids and broke blood vessels on my eyeballs and under my eyes.

Who knew such an innocent dish:

Could cause so much pain?

that is not eye makeup

Pyramids!

On our last day in Egypt, we visited the Pyramids.  It was hot, again, so much so that my toes were sweating...along with the rest of my body.  We took some pictures, lounged on the stones forming the base of each of the Pyramids, saw the Sphinx and then sought the refuge of a local (air-conditioned) falafel fast food joint, where the tour guide persisted in asking, quite aggrievedly, "Gary, why you not loving falafel?"

We returned to the hotel to spend our remaining hours sleeping (Dad) and lounging by the pool (me and Mom).

someone took the whole "Mummy" thing a little too seriously

Luxor

For Day Two of our Egyptian Adventure, we journeyed to Luxor, to see some monuments to dead people and to gods.  It was brutally hot, about 105 degrees Fahrenheit.  But the sights were totally worth it.

Collossus of Memnon

Mortuary Temple of Hatshetsup

she took on the form of a man, to gain influence and power

the "Coke Palace" which turned out to be more of a mirage, given its prices were four times the average and thus rejected by us cheapskates

some extremely inappropriate "basalt" statues at the obligatory alabaster workshop stop

the Valley of the Kings - they built their tombs here under the natural pyramid

inside the tomb of Ramses the IX - about two seconds later, I got caught by the guard illegally taking this picture and would've had my camera confiscated if my Mom hadn't gone into protective overdrive and rescued me

Karnak

Karnak again

and again (I am sparing you the other 97 pictures I took of these columns)

Towards the end of the day, when our tour guide took us to get a very late lunch (or early dinner - take your pick) at an "air-conditioned" restaurant that was really just an open-air patio, we gave into our rich American tendencies and ordered him to drive us to the nearest Hilton where we ate gazpacho and club sandwiches in a blissfully frigid dining room.

Cairo (minus the Pyramids): Part One

We packed it in the first day in Cairo, starting out with "Islamic" Cairo, stopping in the middle to pick up my Dad (who stayed at the hotel and slept in), and then proceeding to the Coptic Christian (and Jewish) section of town. 

the Mohamed Ali Mosque in the Citadel

inside

 Rachel was a little immodest for their tastes

in the Gayer-Anderson Museum - now you see her... 

now you don't - gallery hiding place for the ladies to look down into the parties below...

on the roof of the Gayer-Anderson Museum, the site of a chase in The Spy Who Loved Me

the Hanging Church, built over the Fortress of Babylon

the Fortress of Babylon, built by Trajan...I was glad to leave the church, given it was literally hanging over this gigantic open space you see pictured

we are a very immature family

Cairo (minus the Pyramids): Part Two

After spending all day seeing sights, and doing a little shopping, we stopped into a local fast food joint serving kushari, an Egyptian dish with lentils, rice, macaroni, chickpeas, tomatoes and fried onions.  It was surprisingly delicious but with less than enjoyable after-effects (more on that later).

We finished out the evening with a trip to Wikalat al-Ghuriya, an old Mamluke traders market converted to a museum during the day and a stage at night, where Sufi dancers (aka Whirling Dervishes) perform.  Pretty amazing...

To Aqaba!!

From Petra, we made our way to Wadi Rum, where we learned all about Lieutenant Colonel T. E. Lawrence, his interactions with the bedouins who traveled through the area, and the filming of Lawrence of Arabia, as we camped bedouin (lite) style in the desert.  

It is really quite amazing to see so many, many bright stars that you can barely pick out the Big and Little Dipper.  Sadly, my camera battery died shortly after we got there but I did get a few quick pictures of our surroundings.

nestled snug at the base of a sand dune

our resident bedouin said these were beetle tracks

the view from the top of the sand dune, behind the tent

The highlight of the trip for me was Dad ripping the pocket on his ancient jeans while swinging his leg over the side of the camel.  He spent the rest of the trip hugging walls and sitting down quickly upon entering rooms, to avoid flashing the world.

Sandstorms in Petra...

My parents and I drove down to Petra, to see the sights. At the beginning of the Siq we were glad for a brisk wind, to keep us cool. By the time we got to the Treasury, we had discovered that brisk wind was creating little dust devils and flash sandstorms. I think I will be scratching sand out of my hair for days...

Still - we managed to get a few good pictures...

Never gets old...

Who's coming next?  I need an excuse for another trip or two to the Dead Sea...

Money Laundering...

I ran out of checks a few weeks ago and refuse to pay the ATM fees while waiting for my new checks to arrive (so exorbitant). So, I've been hoarding my remaining moneys, waiting for my parents to show up with a bundle of cash transferred from my bank account to theirs. 

Apparently Katie decided the cash wasn't safe zipped up in a wallet. So she sewed it into a little hand-made money pouch.

How adorable is this? And let me tell you, it was surprisingly fun to slice into this with scissors and have the cash poking through. Kinda felt like I was getting to live this scene from my absolute favorite movie as a kid (sorry about the German - it's all I could find):