Epilogue
I usually wait a week or so for the Epilogue to give my mind time to digest the entirety of the trip. However, lately it seems if I wait too long the entirety will disappear from my mind. So here we go. (You can expand any photo by clicking on it.)

Cruising the Nile - Once we reached Luxor and boarded the good ship SS Sphinx, we began our cruise down the Nile. Here are a couple of videos that hopefully give you a feel of what we saw as we stood on the top deck of the Sphinx.



On Board Entertainment - We enjoyed two nights of entertainment featuring local folk. At Kom Ombo, we were introduced to the Nubian people that inhabit southern Egypt. Nubia was conquered by Egypt during the New Kingdom period (c. 1550–1070 BC). The word "Nubia" is believed to derive from the ancient Egyptian word "nub" meaning "gold" and the reason for Egypt's conquest. As the strength of Egypt wained, the Nubians established the independent and powerful Kingdom of Kush. In 742 BC they conqured Egypt establishing the 25th Dynasty (the "Ethiopian Dynasty").

In Esna, we saw the Whirling Dervish. Based on a Sufi Muslim ceremony, the ritual involves spinning in repetitive circles to achieve a trance-like state, to connect with God by abandoning the ego and embracing Divine love. The performer had to have continued spinning for at least 15 minutes.



Felucca Boat Ride - While in Aswan, we were privileged to ride on a traditional Felucca boat. Powered by a single triangular shaped sail, it is the boat that you will see in any photo of the Nile River. We were entertained by the captain, another Nubian, while his son manned the tiller (except when the urge to dance overtook him).



Food - For me, a major part of any trip is the food. I love to see how food is prepared in other countries and I love eating it even more. Also, we flew business class so we were not served the same grub as the lower class. Here is a grab bag of my meals. To see a full screen view of any photo, just click it.

Here are my meals on the British Airways flight from O'Hare to London Heathrow.


We spent the first two nights in Cairo at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo At Nile Plaza. It is rated as a top luxury, 5-star hotel so I would expect the food to be excellent and the prices to reflect it. Fortunately, breakfast was on Uniworld though we did have an excellent meal on Sunday night poolside under a lovely waxing moon.

On the ship, lunch and breakfast was served as a buffet and dinner was from a menu. And then on a few occasions they served a brunch on the top deck when we returned from an excursion.

On the return flight, British Airways served the following:

Traffic in Egypt - Don't get me started. OK, I'll try to describe it. Until now, I thought that drivers in Sicily were the worst, but I now give that title to Egypt...all of it. As our Egyptologist, Tarek, explained, first the lane lines painted on the street were just a suggestion. It was quite normal to so a roadway painted for three lanes but the traffic making it five lanes. As Tarek pointed out, they often did not even paint lane lines.

Cars would wander from one lane to another with no signalling, just a slight nudge of the front wheels. Horns were sometimes used but not to the extent as in, say, NY City. And then there are the motorcycles. (Unlike Sicily that was dominated by scooters, Egypt was almost entirely motor cycles. None of the brands were recognizble, probably Chinese or Italian - no Hondas or Harleys here.) Motor cycle traffic seemed to be of three type - individuals, delivery often with a large, wide box on back and taxis. With the taxis, the passenger could be in a business suit or street clothes. If it was a woman, often in an abaya (a loose outer robe)or a burqa (a full-body veil), sitting "side saddle". These taxis would make their own lanes, often gunning it when a small openning appeared between two cars in separate "lanes". And they had to allow for wide boxes and ladies knees. Tarek mentioned that they had a high rate of accidents each day; however, because of the speed, deaths were few.

Other forms of "taxis" included vans and mini pickup trucks. In cases of the latter, riders would sit in the open bed, often packed like sardines. And one of the strangest I saw I can only describe as "a VW mini van that had the middle half removed and the two ends jammed back together". I saw my first one as we were leaving the Grand Egyptian Museum on Day 2. Unfortunately I was unable to get my camera in time to snap a photo. However, here's a reasonable facsimile that I found on-line. They look quite cartoonish going down the road, a la "Roger Rabbit".

State of the Travel Industry - First let me say a few words about travel in general and the current state of the travel industry in particular. I've discussed this at length with my friend George Griffiths and we both agree that travel is just getting harder. It seems that there are more connections required to get from point A to point B and those connections are a pain in themselves. Flying British Airways, it appears that they don't post the gate number until an hour before the flight. That's fine if you happen to be on the correct end of the terminal (as Amy and I lucked out on in O'Hare), but if you are on the wrong end, then you have to OJ it to get to the gate on time. The only OJ I do these days comes in a glass.

On our return through London Heathrow, we had to get from Terminal 2 (where our Cairo flight landed) to Terminal 5 for our return to Philly. After taking a long bus ride across the airport, we made it to our gate where they were totally mishandling the boarding groups. Finally we got through the gate and they put us on a shuttle and, honest to God, drove us all the way back to Terminal 2 to board our plane. Even in Egypt you can see the plane you are flying on from the gate. In the military they have a name for this type of operation - it's called a Charlie Foxtrot (you'll have to look it up).

In Egypt, the flight schedule time is followed with an "ish". For instance our flight from Aswan to Abu Simbel left at 9ish. That meant that we had to be there at 9am but the actual time was most certainly not at 9am.