The Khan and Aswan

After washing both laundry and dive gear, I made time for a quick visit to the Khan al Kahlili for another fitting at Atlas Silks, and to find an Arabic name necklace for a friend. Emad, who is more like our brother than just friend and driver, zipped me there and we climbed up three flights of stairs and emerged in the workshop of his jeweler friend. It was amazing to see men working on intricate gold webs of filagree and turn what looked like lead into gleaming silver. They wrote the name in Arabic and sent it down to a calligrapher, who created a template in handsome cursive; and then, gobsmacked, I watched them incise it into a circle of silver under a torch, pound it flat, and rub it until it gleamed. They also replaced the thong from which my Arabic name pendant hung (it is stainless steel, not silver).

Emad made a new friend at the Khan

Alley of the Khan

Turning lead into incised siver

Buffing the pendant

The final product. Points if you can read the name!

Emad and I had some time to kill between the jewelers and Atlas Silks, so he took me to the famous Al Fishaway café’s VIP room, where we drank coffee and shay nana (tea with mint), and I indulged in apple sheesha until I was pretty stoned on nicotine. The café itself is extraordinary: built over 240 years ago, it has hosted nobility, intellectuals—like Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mafouz—and folks like us. Emad showed me fascinating photos of his family, we laughed and talked politics, and the only bad thing was that Harris had stayed home to think Deep Thoughts.

Al Fishaway Cafe

On Friday, we awoke very early to catch a 7AM flight to Aswan and Abu Simbel, another tour organized by the indefatigable Tarek Swelim. We were met at the Cairo airport by his glamorous colleague, Manal Helmy, who shepherded us through to Aswan, connecting there for Abu Simbel, to see the astonishing mortuary temples on the edge of Lake Nasser, built for Ramses II (who else?) and his favorite wife, Nefertari. Like the Temple of Philae, these temples were threatened by rising waters when the High Dam was built in the 1960s, and a team from the U.N. and UNESCO carefully cut the temples into thousands of pieces, and rebuilt them 140 meters higher in a nearly perfectly analogous location.

Abu Simbel from the air; you can see the temples if you click on this

Manal Helmy and Harris in front of Ramses's mortuary temple

At Abu Simbel, Lake Nasser sparkling in the back

Judging from everything else we have seen built for Ramses II, size matters, and these temples are typically enormous. The originals were carved into living rock, like the mortuary temple of Hatsphepsut in the Valley of the Kings, and their scale is nearly overwhelming. In the final sanctuary of Ramses’s temple are four sculptures of gods (including Ramses) that twice a year are lighted by the sun, all but Ptah, who remains in the dark. But perhaps more than the carvings, sculptures, and paintings, we were struck by the location. Windy, and of course dusty, but magnificent: the temples overlook the vastness of Lake Nasser, and you can hear the lapping of waves many meters below. Manal told us that the most quiet and romantic Nile cruise is between Aswan and Abu Simbel, largely through the gigantic lake.

In front of Ramses's mortuary temple

The gods in the sanctuary of Ramses's temple

One really needs no more than three hours at Abu Simbel, so after our archaeology fix, we boarded a plane shuttling us to Aswan. There, we kissed Manal goodbye and headed to the gorgeous Old Cataract Hotel for three nights of suite luxury. The hotel comprises two buildings, its original (with the famed Agatha Christie suite, ornate décor, and the elegant “1902” restaurant built for King Farouk), and a tower added later. Sofitel, the owner of the hotel, spent three years renovating it, and the tower is now all Nile-facing rooms and suites, with a spa and gym on the ground floors. The suite deck’s views are killer, overlooking Elephantine Island’s ruins and Nubian village, the Nile stretching to the north, and the noble tombs on its west bank.

The Old Cataract Hotel from the Nile

New tower of the Old Cataract; our suite was on the 9th floor

Elephantine Island from our balcony

There’s a genre I call “hotel porn,” photos of drool-worthy hotel rooms, and ours fits the category. Its double balcony overlooked the Nile, rocky cataract islands, and city of Aswan, and it’s where we enjoyed tea in the afternoon and wine as the sun set and lights came up.

Tea time on the balcony

Aswan at dusk from our balcony

another view of Aswan at dusk

A felucca ride around Elephantine Island brought the Nile back to a lower level, and we enjoyed the quiet and beauty as we cruised around. That evening, our local guide Mamdoud took us across the water to a Nubian restaurant for a delicious, though overly large, meal of local food. Our other dinners were dedicated to “1902,” gourmet food and exquisite service. I particularly enjoyed eating a Nile fish caught only on the Sudan side of the High Dam, a huge creature called sammous, evidently a wily fish who requires a psychologist to catch it as it stops and starts, trying to work the hook out of its mouth.

On the felucca near Kitchener's Island

The fabulous "1902" restaurant

Since this was a vacation, a bit of calm before returning to work and Egyptian politics, I got a massage, and the two of us worked out in the hotel gym and took deliciously hot steams in the hotel hammam. News flash: Harris worked out! It was his first time in a gym since August, and whether it’s the constant walking we do in Cairo or scuba diving, he did well. Sadly, this only gives him more reason not to go the gym in Cairo, but he’s getting away with it.

I had fun playing with the settings on my camera and photographing the view from our terrace as the sun set and lights twinkled on. Aswan is really photogenic and its clean air, crisp weather (at least in the winter) and mix of lower Egyptian and Nubian culture make it a delightful place to visit. Now it is back to work in a couple of days. Tomorrow is the big rally at Tahrir celebrating the first anniversary of the Revolution, and ISA, it will be peaceful. If the first meeting of Parliament is an augury, it shall.

Maldives dive trip

After saying farewell to family, Harris and I took some couple’s vacation time, and indulged in a dive trip to the Maldives, one of those dive destinations on everyone’s bucket list. It did not disappoint, and we can proudly say that we are no longer whale shark virgins after over 4000 combined dives! We boarded the MV Carpe Diem, a liveaboard dive boat, along with 17 other divers, and headed out for 6.5 days of diving and cruising the atolls of North and South Male, Vaavu, and North and South Ari Atolls.

Central Maldives map, route marked

Typical Maldives island

MV Carpe Diem

This curious nation, only a few feet above sea level, has about 319,000 inhabitants, over 1000 islands, of which 200 are occupied. The location is far from everything, 430 miles southwest of Sri Lanka and 250 miles southwest of India. It’s possibly the world’s most Muslim country: locals brag that 100% of the population are Muslim, and their customs suggest how strong beliefs run: not only can one not bring in liquor or porn, but no dogs. No pocket poodles or Chihuahuas. Dogs are anathema to the devout.

Minaret in Male shaped like a lighthouse

This trip was all about diving, like most liveaboards, and not so much about luxury. The boat was quite comfortable (though the beds were rock-hard), and our suite roomy and bright with big windows. We awoke every morning at 6:15 except for the one day we went after alleged hammerheads and awoke before dawn at 5:15; ate a banana and coffee, and were in the water by 7AM most days.

Divers Mel and Harris en route to a site

Most dives were channel dives and the current ranged from moderate to impressively strong, like high speed trains. Because of the time of year, weather topside was dry and gorgeous; the water was filled with plankton and life (and I have the jellyfish and siphonophore stings on my face to prove it), visibility was usually low, but the reward meant big animals. They love current, and my dive log records one dive alone in which we saw one whale shark, a squadron of eagle rays, a manta, a leopard or variegated shark, two hawksbill turtles, tunas, gray reef, whitetip, and blacktip sharks in number I had not seen outside of Cocos Island. Of course, not every dive was like this, but we had enough high-voltage encounters to become blasé when a dive offered only half a dozen sharks.

Imagine a dozen eagle rays instead of just four...

Manta

Sharks as seen in typically low visibility

Our suite in part

The view we had of one whale shark

Leopard or variated shark, one of many species we saw

Because of the isolation of the Maldives, there are a few endemic species we were thrilled see. The cutest were the fish invented by Kodak, anemonefishes (or clownfish, like Nemo). Of the two species in the Maldives, one lives only there—the black-bellied Maldivian anemonefish, with its handsome white vertical stripe head to belly; these creatures only live in glorious heteractus anemones, which invert as it gets later in the day to expose vivid undersides of purple and green. The other anemonefish is the Sebae, quite dark with white patches near the face and caudal fin, and a pugnacious personality that again made me glad they are tiny fish.

Maldivian anemonefish, lives only in this species of anemone

Harris discovered that some eels have acquired a taste for human flesh. From time to time, we had to gecko dive, to hang on to dead corals and holes in the reef and pull ourselves along in the ripping currents. He stuck his fingers in a hole already occupied by a blackface eel, who proceeded to hunt him for the rest of the dive. Happily, it only grazed his knuckles but did break right through his gloves. Since eels don’t floss, we made sure the wound stayed clean and it’s fine now.

Eel with a taste for human flesh...

Between dives, I did a prodigious amount of napping despite the rock-hard mattress, suggesting I was truly tired, and sometimes we watched trashy dvds on the screen in our suite. Most of the other divers from the U.K., and for some reason, we never made real friends with anyone, though all remained cordial. Harris remarked it was the first time no one seemed to get his humor. However, it was a perfectly congenial group. We also enjoyed one evening ashore on a little island where the crew prepared a yummy barbeque with a special sand sculpture of a manta. I also went on a walking tour of one small village on an island in the South Ari atoll, which was partly interesting and partly an attempt to get us into the souvenir shops. Sadly, there are no impressive Maldivian crafts, and prices are sky high, owing to the isolation of the islands.

Street in Maldivian village

Breadfruit, a local staple

Manta sand sculpture at the BBQ

We did take a tour of Male, the capital. It’s not like Cairo, which meant clean and quiet. The most interesting parts to me were the old mosque, with its minaret shaped like a lighthouse, and the markets for produce and fish. Other than tourism, fishing is the other main source of income in the Maldives. It will be interesting to see if the nation abides as sea levels rise. Evidently, the Maldivian mission to the U.N. advocates actively for anything that can keep sea levels down.

Male fish market

Male produce market

Enjoying a beer as the sun sets on Carpe Diem

After the liveaboard part of the trip was over, we had two nights at a resort called Bandos Island to await our plane back to Cairo via Qatar. There, we did two more dives, but had become so spoiled by the diving in the outer islands that the dives seemed a little dull—though we did see the largest green turtle ever. But it was nice to sleep in a better bed, and we enjoyed the spa, where we indulged in a couple’s deep tissue massage in their honeymoon spa suite. The food was okay, not great, but resorts in the Maldives are impressively expensive, and I chose Bandos in part for its relatively reasonable price. Interestingly, there were virtually no Americans there: lots of Japanese, tons of Russians and folks from the various former USSR, plenty of Brits, and lots of families since they offered a kids club. Our little villa was quite a hoot, shaped like a tiki-inspired beehive, with a fabulous outdoor bathroom with a Jacuzzi. If we ever come back, my fantasy would be to combine a liveaboard trip with a live-ashore stay at one of the remote resorts.

Bandos Island Resort view

You can tell it's our hut by the drying scuba gear

Couples massage suite

Harris in the couples jacuzzi (it was cold, so he's faking!)

A cocktail after sunset

Returning to Cairo, with its traffic, noise, and garbage, was oddly comforting! Today is laundry, washing scuba gear, returning emails, and household stuff, interspersed with doing this blog. Harris got an exciting email from a publisher who is avid for his monograph on poetic theory, so he is busy thinking Deep Thoughts. I’m working on getting my brain going again as well since classes are scheduled to resume next week, ISA.

We plan on a short trip to Aswan for three days to see Abu Simbel, some of the tombs around Aswan, and to enjoy the Old Cataract Hotel and its spa. Any Agatha Christie fans of “Murder on the Nile” will recognize the hotel, where she wrote the book and the movie was filmed. We will be back from Aswan before the anniversary of the Revolution on 25 January, when ISA, all wil be calm. Our greetings to everyone.

Sunset in the Maldives

They do sunset right...

Felucca, family, home

January 1^st, 2012:the start of a new year, and everyone here hopes, a new page in history for Egypt. We spent a lovely quiet New Year’s Eve with Sarah and Mark Mineart, enjoying gourmet hamburgers, warm company, refreshing beverages, and their 42-inch TV and dvds. Home well before midnight, the way we like it, and contented. Bruce, Ryan, Daniel and Katie McCombie arrived the afternoon of the 1^st from Istanbul, where they concentrated their sightseeing and partying. We quickly repaired to the Ma’adi corniche and a felucca for two hours of quietly cruising the Nile and enjoyed an Egyptian dinner prepared by Kiki.

Sunset on the Nile, New Year's Day

Katie and Daniel McCombie on the felucca

Harris looking fetching on the felucca

As often happens when you travel, we spread a bug around amongst us, probably the norovirus, which resembles food poisoning in all its pleasant effects. Poor Katie seemed to be the last affected, and I’ve worried about her trip back to the US, hoping all stayed quiet. Harris and I got sick, as did Andrew and Ryan. ISA, no one else got it. Wash your hands often!

Bruce came along when I walked to our local grocery store, and enjoyed something we have come to take for granted: freshly squeezed juices. Pretty much every store has a place out front where you order juices to be squeezed while you shop. Oranges are in season, and though I know it’s healthier to eat the fruit than just drink the juice, it is so addictive and wonderful that I indulge. Ryan and Daniel quickly grew to love it. You can order a mix, like orange and pomegranate, or single juice like grapefruit or lemon, and depending on the season, juices like mango are available. Another little place I love is Sally Sweet, a bake shop on Road 233, the funky shopping area near us. Every day around 3:30, the croissants come out, cheese, chocolate, and plain, and if you judge by the crowds, they are laced with something addictive. For 18 LE per dozen, you can’t go wrong. Speaking of fruit, Tarek introduced us to his way of eating a banana: peeled, with lots of salt and a sprinkling of pepper. Try it.

Fresh juices!

and fresh croissants every day, after 3PM....

Harris and I depart for the Maldives for a dive trip on the 6^th so during this run-up, we are doing a lot of laundry, sorting scuba gear, and packing. This trip is just us, though we will be living on a boat (the MV Carpe Diem) with what looks to be a bunch of UK divers. We are flying via Qatar, a first for us, and overnighting in Doha in an airport hotel en route. The itinerary promises to be sharky and manta-filled, with maybe a chance to see one great creature we’ve never laid eyes upon: the whale shark. My sister and I have a long-standing promise that I will call her when I’ve seen the creature no matter the time difference. Ann, let’s hope that phone rings at 3AM sometime soon!

Atlas Silks makes gorgeous stuff

Harris ordered me a few kameezes from a lovely shop in the Khan called Atlas Silks. They are custom-made and I went in for a fitting the other day. One is black medium weight cotton with black silk trim; another white hankerchief cotton with white trim; and the killer one is silk and cotton pinstripes of black on black with gray silk trim. Can’t wait for them to be ready! Atas is  third-generation concern and their fabrics are exquisite, all hand-loomed, and remarkably reasonable. Harris also got me a gorgeous cotton shawl that feels like silk, and two pillow covers of antique silk and cotton with embroidery. I might have “helped” him make those choices….

Tuesday brought a reception for Bryn Mawr college alumnae in Cairo with a group of alumnae traveling here, so we repaired to the Fairmont downtown and got to dress up a little. It was fun to be with such a bright group, and made me proud to be an alumna of the college.

Us at the Bryn Mawr College reception, downtown Cairo. We clean up okay.

The week ended with a festive dinner at our favorite Chinese place, “China Winds,” with our pals Sarah and Mark Mineart. It was the perfect send-off for our vacations—Harris and I diving in the Maldives, Sarah and Mark on safari in Kenya. I’ve planned one more short trip for January, back to Aswan to view the great statues of Abu Simbel; we will be home and settled in well before the anniversary of the revolution on 25 January.