Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

14. November 2004 11:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Egypt - Pallesen Family Holiday 2004

14. November 2004 11:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

*Egypt - Pallesen Family Holiday 2004*

~ Travel Journal ~ Read about our journey with links to an amazing photo gallery


*~ Photo Gallery ~*

What We are All in Egypt for


The Sphinx ~ Half Man Half Lion ~	Saqqara's Step Pyramid	Valley of the Kings

Pyramids of Giza	Kheop's Pyramid ~ the Largest Pyramid ~	Khefren's Pyramid

Aswan Dam	Memphis ~ Capital of Ancient Egypt ~	The Unfinished Obelisk


Temples


Karnak ~ 120-metre Columns ~	Hatshepsut in a Cliff	Horus ~ Greek "Egyptian" Temple ~

Philae - the Island Temple	Kom Ombo Crocodile Mummies	Luxor


The People Way of Life


Streets of Luxor	Khan Al-Khalili ~ an Egyptian Bazaar ~	Horses


The Pallesen Family


Bedstemor's Fest	Egyptian "Italian" Dinner	Coffee-shop

On the Roof-top		In Cairo


The Nile


On the Boat	Felucca on the Nile	Tomb of Nobles

	Egyptian Sunset


Things to Buy


Papyrus	Perfumery	Alabaster


Other Places We Saw


The Citadel in Cairo		Lunch on the Nile

Created: 8 Jan 2005Last Updated: 24-Jan-2005

14. November 2004 11:02
by Rene Pallesen
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Bedstemor's 85th Birthday ( 13 - 20 Nov 2004 )

14. November 2004 11:02 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Bedstemor's 85th Birthday ( 13 - 20 Nov 2004 )

Dansk oversættelse

Ancient Egyptian stories and legends have long made their mark through movies such as "Cleopatra", "The Mummy" and wowed us women with Omar Sharif's performance in "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago" and more recently in cartoons such as "The Prince of Egypt". There is a certain mystic about middle east portrayed to us from a very young age when we hear bedtime tales like "Ali Baba the 40 Thieves" or "Sinbad the Sailor" - most of us have a dream of seeing the pyramids.

I was very lucky to have the opportunity 20 years ago to come to Egypt with my parents and at 10 years old, there's only so much a child can remember. But this year, the Pallesen Family once again get together for the Matriach's 85th birthday. It is tradition for the family to come together and travel to an exotic country - in the past Tunisia, Morocco, Gambia and for Grandmother's last wish, to see the pyramids of Egypt, that her husband saw 45 years earlier.

The Matriach's three children, six grandchildren (Nikolai could not make it), four greatgrandchildren and respective spouses all came together for a week in magical Egypt. It is autumn with warm days and cool nights - a contrast to the approaching winter in Denmark.

Saturday 13 November 2004
Departure for Egypt

Our family had to leave Falster at 2:30am to catch a 6:30 flight, 4½hr later we arrived at Cairo Airport. I have dim memories of a very warm airport in complete chaos, with people pushing to get their luggage through, shouting over a mad din. Instead we found a rather clean and uncrowded airport. We were met by the AB Travel Agency representative, taken to a Hotel Pyramisa, left in a closed piano bar Pallesen familie venter på værelser

and promptly forgotten until one of us had the bright idea to ask for our keys.

Our family shared a two-bedroom hotel room with a large living area. Our first afternoon was spent walking around the streets of Cairo trying to find a place for the family to have dinner. Our hotel was located across the river from downtown Cairo, so there was not a lot to see, combined with the fact that many shops were closed during the day over Ramadan, the Islamic period of fasting from dawn to dusk. Sunday heralded the last day of Ramadan, so many were preparing for the final feast.

In the end, the whole family had dinner in the hotel's "Oriental" restaurant of Egyptian style. We figured we would get some decent Egyptian food but were disappointed to find most of our food luke-warm. The rice was very dry, little meat on the lamb and rather bland food. To our surprise, after our comment about this, we were presented with a complimentary platter of fruits native to Egypt such as fresh dates and guava. To our amusement, no matter what kind of Egyptian wine we ordered, they all tasted the same. There was plenty of Egyptian beer and of course the danes lived up to their drinking prowess and Bedstemor ("grandmother") treated us all dinner.

Sunday 14. november 2004

On the first night we didn't sleep very well - sleeping in a different bed combined with quranic prayers coming from a nearby mosque didn't exactly leave us with a peaceful sleep. However we were all up early to get together in Bedstemor's room for a "surprise" get-together - to sing the danish birthday song amongst a flutter of red white flags, and present her with a small gift. This family "surprises" the birthdayee and all sing in unison this rather cute birthday song.

The Citadel Muhammad Ali Mosque

Udsigten fra Citadellet

Our first destination was the Citadel. It is the city's fortress that once housed the royal family and although most of the complex is open to visitors, the military still have a foothold and some areas are out of bounds. It takes a half day to explore all areas of the Citadel but we didn't have the opportunity to do so, and instead spent most of our time in the Muhammad Ali Mosque.

<== There is a magnificent view of the city from the Western Terraces - magnificent had most of Cairo not been filled with the same shade of mud-bricked buildings. What was most notable about Cairo was its lack of colour or rather its ability to blend into the desert.

Mohammed Ali Mosque

Our guide Adam/Mohammed provided little insight to the function or history of the Citadel, and instead sat the group in one corner of the Muhammad Ali Mosque like a bunch of school children, and gave a lecture on Islamic laws and behaviour.

When René ventured to ask more about the Citadel, he was scolded for interrupting and told to listen. We never got the opportunity to find the number 7 Napoleon's troops had painted above one doorway to avoid using the unfamiliar Arabic names or the twin half-round towers because our guide simply didn't know where they were.

Ind i Mohammed Ali Mosque

During this time, I had the opportunity to wander off and walk the beautiful alabaster-lined arcades of the mosque. the soaring central prayer hall was a glimmer of hundreds of lights hanging in concentric circles. Arabic inscriptions in gold were painted on the ceiling. Women had to be suitably attired and could not wear sleeveless tops or short skirts or shorts. In one corner lay the sarcophagus of Muhammad Ali - the builder of the mosque and an albanian mercenary who was the founder of the dynasty that ruled till the revolution in 1952.

Cairo Egyptian Museum

I have memories of wandering around this museum, peering into smudged glass cases, staring into the shrivelled faces of some once well-known pharaoh like Ramses II and wondering if the ancient Egyptians were giants in their large coffins.
20 years later, it was almost impossible to push through the crowds of tourists - only useful because their guides provided more information than ours. With only two hours, there was no way that we could view the whole museum or see the royal mummies.
The museum was celebrating its centenary and there was a special exhibition dedicated to TutAnkhAmun - the most famous archaeological find. With travel guide in hand, we oohed and ahhed over the gold treasures found in his tomb - a gold throne featuring the famous scene of TutAnkhAmun's queen anointing him, chests made out of ebony ivory, cheetah-skinned hunting shields, bows, arrows, alabaster canopic jars holding King Tut's mummified organs, gold sarcophagus - if Howard Carter had found such treasures for a little known boy-king, imagine what the tomb of a pharaoh like Ramses II would have been like? King Tut's inner coffin of solid gold and the famous mask of gold that everyone wants to see and is portrayed in many egyptian images.
The museum has become another money-making expedition for the Egyptians with an exhorbitant price to view the royal mummies. We had to content ourselves with the animal mummies - cats, dogs, birds, goats, Nile perch (yes, fish as well!) and most amazing was a 7-metre crocodile mummy.
The exhibitions were arranged by themes on the upper floor and chronological on the lower floor, going clockwise from the Old Kingdom, to the Middle and finally to the New and later kingdoms. There were rooms full of giant sarcophagi that would've weighed a tonne each, a room full of miniatures showing the egyptians' daily lives, a room full of ancient papyrus long faded and rooms full of bits and pieces from ruins, statues, palace floors - a place where one needs a days to spend with a decent travel guide.

Khan Al-Khalili

På gaderne af Ægypts største bazar, Khan Al Khalili

After a stop at an egyptian perfumery and some lunch, we headed to Khan Al-Khalili - the oldest bazaar in Egypt that has lasted since the 1300s. Ancient buyers visited the khan for goods brought in on merchant caravans. No longer do we find slaves, silk, jewels or diamonds, but wooden guitars, brightly patched pouffe covers, clothes, t-shirts, crappy papyrus paintings, bongs/water pipes, bright bolts of cloth, the aroma of spices is very much present and stalls are heaped with bright red, gold and blue powders and sacks of seeds pods. Coppersmiths hammer out platters, tureens, coffeepots and enormous crescent-shaped tops for minarets. It is a ritual of the bazaar to expect to bargain - locals or foreign visitors - usually a 10th of the offer price - if you have paid a third, you have paid too much. We had only an hour to spare but many of the shops were closed for a siesta after lunch. Ulla I pointed to bags of multicoloured spices. He wanted £50 (AUD$10, 50DK.Kr) and after I said "da ketir awi" (it costs too much) and walked away, the shopkeeper doggedly followed us for a kilometre reducing the price from £40 to £30, £25, £20 and after we shouted £10 in jest, he offered £15, £10 and finally £5 before finally giving up on us. After much haggling, we managed to bargain for two ornate glass perfume bottles for £20 (AUD$2.50; 20DK.Kr)

Bedstemor's Birthday Feast

Bedstemors fest

Irene Ole had organised a private room for Bedstemor's birthday party. A single long table in a room of egyptian style. Small silver pots lined in two rows in the middle of the table kept the food warm.

We feasted on cumin-flavoured fried fish, chicken fillets egyptian-style, cinammon-flavoured ravioli, rice, mashed potatoes and beef steaks in pepper sauce, sang and toasted with bottles of egyptian wine and beer to Bedstemor.

Whilst the children played in one corner, there was much chatter througout the table and the evening finished off with chocolate and fruit cakes topped with "Happy Pirthday" (note, it's not an error) and we laughed in amusement in a plethora of egyptian sweets - baklawa, semolina tarts, rose-water flavoured tarts, and tarts that tasted like liquid honey... Ulla almost wanted to take the rest of the desserts with her (except for the rose-water flavoured ones - it was funny to watch her expression - rosewater almost smells like cosmetics). The waiters were extremely attentive, coming by every two minutes to serve us.

Best of all, Bedstemor turned 2 years old, as she blew out each candle on the cakes. As the danes would say, "det var meget hyggeligt!" (it was cozy)

Monday 15. november 2004 (7:30am start)

From the brown buildings and streets of Cairo, we travelled 24km southeast of the city to Saqqara, changing from a uniform brown to lush green fields of large cabbages and hundreds of date palms. It was like an oasis, a gentle mist gave a surreal sense of the fertile plains of ancient Egypt. Women in full-length black abeeyas squatted in the fields, the odd man walking around - such a contrast to the intense crowds of central Cairo.

Saqqara's Step Pyramid

Founded as a necropolis (burial city) for the Old Kingdom and is one of the richest archaeological sites in Egypt.

The Step Pyramid is less that ½ the height of the largest pyramids at Giza, but this monument served as a predecessor of the smooth pyramids. Previously tombs were made of mud brick, rectangular slablike structure covering a burial pit. But the architect Imhotep had the bright idea to construct in stone and Zosers trinpyramide i Sakkara

build the slablike structure 5 times one on top of the other, creating the first pyramid.

We entered through the Great South Court - the size of a soccer field, down a corridor of 40 pillars inspired by bundles of tied reeds. Whilst Adam was making another one of his speeches, I was tempted by a turbaned egyptian in a dress who took me to the top where I managed to get one shot of the magnificent pillars up top, before being scolded by Adam and being asked for baksheesh (tip). I was gratefully rescued by a couple of Italians when the egyptian would not let me go without a baksheesh. However, once I surfaced from the building, I was blinded by white sands and the immense pyramid sitting solitary amongst a few ruined stones, with a much smaller triangular heap of stones in the background. Although the morning had been cool, the sun soon warmed us up as we wandered round to the north.

Memphis

Once the capital of ancient Egypt, it remains unexcavated due to villages built on top of it and a high water table as a result of the Aswan Dam. There is a small garden with small finds - bits and pieces but the most exciting thing to see is a colossus of Ramses II lying on his back as the lower legs are missing. The colossus would've been 5 stories high had it been standing. Nearby lies the largest alabaster statue ever found - 80 tons of sphinx - imagine what treasures that could've been found if Memphis could've been excavated, especially as this ancient city lay halfway between Upper and Lower Egypt.

Our final stop before lunch was a papyrus museum - another place of commission for Adam. Bedstemor purchased a papyrus of egyptian alphabets. Some of the paintings cost a massive £3,500 (AUD$900, 3,500DK.Kr). For lunch, we had a splendid egyptian meal in the middle of nowhere that served excellent mezza (egyptian tapas) of baba ghanoush (roasted eggplant dip), tzatziki (cucumber dip), hummus (chickpea dip), fuul (beans) served with freshly made pita bread, warm vine-leaf rolls, lamb kofta and freshly roasted chicken in thyme. It was feast fit for a king and the most egyptian meal we had on the whole trip.

De store fantastiske pyramider i Giza. Her ses vi den største pyramid - Cheops/Khufus pyramid

Pyramids of Giza

From air the desert pyramids were right on the edge of the city, 16km from Cairo.

I remember vaguely, as a child, hunched over, walking up a surprisingly warm shaft lit by a single light bulbs and emerging into a very chilly dark room that held a single stone sarcophagus, the room empty except for occasional square holes in the wall where food was left for the afterlife.

I had entered the Queen's chamber in the largest pyramid and 20 years later, only the first 300 can enter these pyramids - for an exhorbitant fee.

The largest of the three, Cheops' pyramid was the largest, standing at 146metres at one point, took 920 metres to walk around it and contained 2.3 million blocks! Each block was at least one metre high, so you can imagine how massive these pyramids were.

Den anden største pyramid - Chephrens pyramid

Den anden største pyramid - Chephrens pyramid

The 2nd largest, Khefren's (Cheop's son) pyramid still had some of the smooth shiny limestone casing that once used to cover all these pyramids.==>

The massive solar boat that once carried the pharaoh's body from Memphis to Giza and the three smaller Queens' pyramids stood at one corner of the massive Cheop pyramid. We didn't have the opportunity this time to enter the tombs, but I feel priveleged that I did and that I still have some memories of the event.

The Sphinx

Sfinxen

The pyramids loomed in the background as it sat silently on the hot sand under the glaring sunlight for 4,000 years. Napoleon's troops once used it for target practice, so its nose and pharaohs beard and long fallen off and lies in a British museum. The Greeks called it "the Sphinx" as it was based on a mystical creature with the head of a man and body of a lion, which would stop any traveller along the way with a riddle - if the riddle wasn't answered, it became the sphinx's dinner. Throngs of crowds surrounded the sphinx and we could only enter in single file. Over time, it seemed that tourists could view it from further and further away. 45 years ago, Bedstefar's (grandfather) could touch the Sphinx and even climb to the top of the pyramid; 20 years ago, it was simply surrounded by a small wire fence but I could stand close up to it; now it lay in a very large pit where visitors could only view it up close if they zoomed in on their cameras. 4 millenia later, it still manages to awe all of us.

Tuesday 16. november 2004 (2:30am start)

Yes, you did read that right - we were all waiting in the lobby at 2:30AM. Last night, Bedstemor's grandchildren treated the family to a Spanish-Egyptian Italian dinner, which was followed by a Familien i en

cacophany of tambourines, oboes and drums played for an Egyptian engagement couple in the lobby.

This morning we were flying to Aswan, to board a 3-day cruise up the Nile, sailing up to Luxor. When we arrived, we were taken for a short felucca ride along the Nile with a fantastic view of the Tomb of Nobles. When we returned we were given our rooms onboard a four-storey cruise ship that had an indoor games room, a pool and sundeck at the top. Even from our rooms right at the bottom, we had a magnificent view of a small white mosque-like structure on top of huge sandy mountains dotted with small caves.

In the evening we had the opportunity to visit a small souq (local bazaar) selling t-shirts, papyrus paintings, mounds of saffron and dry scented lotus flowers, brown, red, yellow indigo mounds of fragrant spices - all of which some of us bargained for - the most expensive £25 papyrus painting (AUD$5, 25DK.Kr) to cheapest £15 embroidered t-shirts with hieroglyphics (AUD$3, 15DK.Kr). To top the evening off, we took a £5 horse carriage ride back to the ship.

Wednesday 17. november 2004 (7:30am start)

It seemed some of the family had succumbed to a tummy bug. The rest of us steered clear of unwashed fruit, fresh salads, raw vegetables and drinks made with local water. However, this didn't stop us from going out to see a few sights.

The Unfinished Obelisk

Had this obelisk been completed, it would've been the largest and heaviest ever made standing at 142 metres. It sat in a granite quarry, perfectly complete on three sides but abandoned when a flaw was found in the stone. It is almost impossible to imagine how the ancient egyptians could've moved even a single rock made from this quarry as it stood a great many miles from any of the monuments ever made. Unfortunately for Egypt, most of its obelisks have been spirited to other countries - to Italy, Britain, France and even Argentina by foreign archaeologists in the last centuries. Most of us didn't have the chance to view the complete obelisk before Adam rang a bell that he carried (to annoy us I suppose)

Den ufuldendte Obelisk De meste familier kom ikke så langt til her

High Dam

For centuries the Nile controlled the Egyptians' lives - either flooding or insufficient water levels were disastrous for the people who relied on this huge water source for their livelihood. When the Aswan Dam was built, some of the villages in the south lost their water supply.

30 years ago, a new High Dam was built which resulted in the man-made Lake Nasser to the south being created ==>

This meant many people had to be moved as villages were buried, as well as some of the ancient egyptian monuments such as the Temple of Philae.

At its highest point, the High Dam stands at 111m high, 3.8km long and 980m wide at the base.

Three times the number of stones used for Cheops' Pyramid was used.

Videoing isn't allowed as it is a high-security military area - should there be an attack on this Dam, then much of Egypt would be submerged under water and would be a disaster for the country.

Given only 10min, Adam "rang" us back to the bus.

Temple of Philae

Vi sejler til Philae templet

After Aswan Dam, the Temple of Philae was submerged for six months a year and tourists had to view it through the murky waters of Lake Philae. When the High Dam was built, it threatened to submerge the Temple permanently, so was moved stone by stone to a new island similarly landscaped. Philae is special in that it's only accessible by boat and the sunset forms a spectactular backdrop. A temple dedicated to Isis (goddess of women, sex purity), it was one of the last outposes for paganism and due to the popularity of Isis, was also used by the early Christians. The Temple walls and many pillars were filled from top to bottom with hieroglyphs and images of Isis - many defaced by the early Christians who considered ancient Egypt's gods to be "pagan". I had a fantastic afternoon walking in and out of all the nook and crannies - visiting the Birth House, Nilometer, the "Pharaoh's Bedstead" and much to the amusement of the family, I was the last to emerge.

Kom Ombo

The ship set sail from Aswan at 3:45pm after an afternoon spent sunbaking and drinking beer (typically danish to make the most of sunshine and beer). We were sailing 48km north of Aswan to Kom Ombo - the site of an ancient city devoted to the worship of a crocodile god, Sobek. The ancient city is long gone and crocodiles existing on nearby sandbanks have been hunted to extinction.

At sunset, we visited the Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to both Sobek the Crocodile god and Horus, the falcon-headed sky god Isis' son. Although we didn't have the opportunity to explore this 2 crocodil mumie på Kom Ombo temple

temple, it was both spectacular and eerie at sunset, with large light illuminating it. There existed a pit filled with water, with a platform halfway down, where crocodiles were lured in from the Nile with human flesh, and the largest crocodile was caught and mummified as a tribute to Sobek. At the Chapel of Hathor (Horus' wife), an American shouted "Geez, I thought I was supposed to see crocodile statues!" *laugh* It contained two of the mummified crocodiles found at the Temple.

We returned to a small cocktail party before dinner, provided by the ship to introduce all the staff responsible for making our trip enjoyable.

Thursday 18. november 2004 (7am start)

We sailed overnight past Kom Ombo to Edfu, a small regional center for the sugarcane trade, visited the Temple of Horus and sailed on to the Lock-crossing at Esna.

Temple of Horus

Den smukke Horus temple i Edfu

This is the most complete of its kind, a Greco-Roman temple that conforms exactly to ancient egyptian principles of architecture ie visit Edfu to see what almost every other temple in Egypt would've looked like in its original form. We were awed by the massive walls of the pylons at the entrance, distince reliefs showing mirror images of Horus and the pharaoh grasping the hair of his enemies. It was built by Cleopatra's father around 50yr BC. Standing in the forecourt of this well-preserved temple we can see mud-brick houses lined up at the top of the compound walls because this temple was once buried right up to the ceiling with a village built on top of it. Many of the temple relifes capture the cataclysmic battle of Horus with his brother Seth. We entered a small Nilometer - a dark, dank tunnel that smelled of pee and was once used to measure the level of the Nile. Again I was the last to emerge (a couple of minutes late only) to the loud applause of everyone (and a huge glare from Adam).

Returning to the ship in time for the 9am sail, we set off for Esna, 48km south of Luxor. Whilst the family tanned on the sundeck, I sat in the sun at the front of the boat, enjoying sense of peace and tranquility. It was truly beautiful to sit on a boat not too big or small, to watch the changing scenery on both sides, passed fields of giant palms and lush green fields, a smoking metal, the ship moving at a leisurely 16km/hr and passing some incredibe mountains of sand and cliffs. Ole joined me for a chat - he Irene are moving to Greenland on Tuesday. Later in the morning, I joined René and Ulla by the pool, gossiping about Bedstefar and family resemblances, watching Vinnie's kids and Sebastian splash about the pool, Lonnie, Sarah Birit stripped down to the minimum to get a bit of colour.

We reached Esna and used the few hours to get off the ship and stretch our legs after a morning of lazing around the pool. I was itching to walk around Esna, away from tourists and see how the locals lived. René and I headed for the quieter streets avoiding the busy streets around a souq. We were followed by a few children clad in long grey or white robes, who guided and annoyed us. Most of the narrow streets were unpaved, some very muddy and smelling of manure. Skinny, skeletal donkeys balanced again flat wagons, many shy girls waving from the darkness of their doorways or 2nd-level windows, whilst little boys came out to say hello and mill around us. Most houses were simple of mud bricks, with tiny wooden shuttered windows to keep the intense summer heat out. Some had extremely ornate wooden doors, reminiscent of colonial days. Occasional peek in doorways revealed empty mud-lined rooms as most people lived in the upper floors. Eventually René shouted imshee! (go away) as the kids got noisier, more aggressive, pulling on our arms and throwing pebbles at us. When I stumbled over a whimpering black and white disease-ridden puppy in brown paper, it was kicked aside - making me almost reach out for it if René hadn't stopped me.it was wise not to even make contact witht the children, who were dust-covered and clad in the long egyptian grey robes. It was such a relief when they finally left us even though we knew they were hiding in in alleyways watching us wind through the streets. There were goldsmiths glittering with ornate rings, earrings and necklaces; tailors still sewing by hand on the steps of their shop; coffee houses filled with solitary men smoking their water-pipes - their eyes following us down the street. We had spent so much time just sitting around that it was good to get away.

Crossing of the Lock

We set sail at 3pm and many ships like ours got together near two bridges just north of Esna. For one hour of the day, a bridge opened up for the ships and cars were ferried across the Nile instead. In the meanwhile, the ship had organised a special Egyptian "Oriental" dinner where guests could dress up in egyptian attire. It was a traditional egyptian feast of flat bread, baba ghanoush, warm stuffed zucchini and capsicum, warm cabbage rolls, chickpeas, lentils, fish, and traditional dish of okra, and a dressed up rice-stuffed whole lamb with a foil-covered head, small skinny eggplants for ears sitting upright on a silver platter. To finish it off was a plethora of egyptian dessert - semolina tarts, almond-milk agar (jelly) and the tartlets that tasted of liquid honey. Between 10-11pm we all gathered together for the lock-crossing.
Canal lock-crossing involves ships moving from a one water-level to another, usually where a dam is involved. Two cruise ships moved into a channel that is closed off and the water in the channel gradually reduced - in our case approx 10 metres. Once we reached the new water-level on the other side of the lock, the door in front of the ship opened and we sailed out. The lock-crossing took approx one hour, although all the waiting took a few hours. It was well-worth staying up even though we had an early start the next day. What was most amazing was the way the ship travelled with such expertise through such a narrow channel with barely enough space on each side.

Friday 19 November 2004 (7am start)

Overnight we had sailed from Esna to Luxor arriving at approx 2am - the last port for us. We were awoken by efficient wake-up calls and we could hear phones ringing in all the rooms going on early tours. We had a long day ahead, cramming four different sights.

Valley of the Kings

Builders of the great pyramids realised that hidden entrances and false shafts were not going to protect their dead pharaohs or the riches buried with them from tomb-robbers, so from the 18th dynasty, the ancient egyptians started digging underground. Rolling hills and valleys of sand, rubble and solid limestone - it is amazing to think that the ancient egyptians managed to bury something like possibly over 300 pharaohs of which only 62 have been found (last was TutAnkhAmun).

The mountain under which many of the tombs were found has a pyramid-shaped peak.

Our tickets allowed us to visit three tombs only and only a handful were opened on the day with long queues at each.

We visited the tombs of Ramseses III, IX and V/VI - all of them relatively small tombs, some partly excavated, others quite madly damaged by humidity from all the tourists and from oily fingers.

There was a variety of hieroglyphs and images, of the pharaohs, how they treated their subjects, even the ceilings were beautifully adorned with dark blue skies, thousands of stars and the sky goddess Nut, stretched above. Tomb of Ramses III was like a picture book of "Better Homes Gardens" with images of hundreds of pots, furniture and food preparation. In the tomb of Ramses V/VI was a large shattered giant pharaoh-shaped sarcophagus eerily illuminated by silver light - Ramses VI unusually sharing a tomb with his predecessor brother. It is truly amazing that such images have lasted thousands of years, hidden away in dark low-humidity tombs that are quickly disintegrating since they have been excavated.

Colossi of Memnon

Colossi af Memnon

Just past the Valley of the Kings, we stopped to view the Colossi of Memnon - twin 18-metre figures of Amenhotep III that once stood in front of what was believed to be Egypt's greatest temples, even larger than the existing Temple of Karnak. Each carved from single pieces of stone, once famous for bell-like tone emitted each sunrise. The Greeks believed these sounds were made by the immortal Memnon greeting his mother. After an Roman emperor made restorations in 170AD, the sounds ceased.

To our amusement, Adam made another one of his commission-based stops at an alabaster factory. He couldn't understand why we broke into laughter. Instead of boycotting the trip, we all went rushing in for free cups of coffee. René led a race with Sebastian and Vinnie's boys sliding across the smooth alabaster marble floor. At the other end was Ulla being approached with a small £10,000 alabaster hippo, to which she jokingly said yes and the shop-assistant went away to put it aside.

Temple of Hatshepsut

Dronning Hatshepsuts terrassetempel

Lying next to the Valley of the Kings is this temple of the only female pharaoh who ever ruled in Egypt. Due to a botched job by an Egyptian-Polish archaeological team, the ruined temple was recreated to resemble a bus depot, with much of the original artwork covered over or destroyed. The sucessor to Hatshepsut's brother/husband was stepson Tuthmose III who had to wait 20 year to get his throne, hence when she died, she was not mummified and her temple destroyed as punishment. The temple was at the site of a Coptic monastery and fantastic limestone cliffs. There may not be much of the temple to look at but the view, from up close, far away or even from the sky is definitely worth the trip.

Then we had lunch and a brief rest. I was surprised to find that a humorous member of housekeeping had set up towels, blanket lettuce leaves to resember a man and his snake. I thought René had played a joke on me until I found out something similar other family members' rooms!

134 kæmpe-søjler af Karnak temple - verdens største tempelkompleks

Temples of Karnak Luxor

Karnak was known as "Ipet-Isut" - The Most Perfect of Places.

Much of it is in ruins but is possibly the largest temple complex ever built anywhere and created over 1,500 years by successive generations of pharaohs.

It was the residence of pharaohs, place of worship, wealthy treasury, centre of administration and employed thousands.

Karnak is most famous for its giant columns - 134, each 15m high, centre 12 columns were 21 metres tall. It takes six adults to stretch their arms out around a column's girth.

Between the columns there once stood statues of pharaohs and the whole effect would've been intimidating, as though passing through a hall of giant gods.

<== Ramses II was responsible for a lot of the restoration of the temple and his signature is etched deeply in certain area so no other pharaoh could take credit.

Den højste obelisk i Ægypt - Hatshepsuts Oberlisk i Karnak tempel

Den højste obelisk i Ægypt - Hatshepsuts Oberlisk i Karnak tempel

Past the giant columns stood the tallest obelisk existing in Egypt at almost 30m high. Although made out of one piece of granite, the Obelisk of Hatshepsut looks like it's made of two different stones as the lower half was covered up for many years by Tuthmosis III in his resentment towards his stepmother's usurpment of the throne. There once existed 17 obelisks but these now lie in various parts of the world.

The further we walked into the temple, the older the temple and the more ruined it became so when we reached the other side, it was a mass of ruins.

The most beautiful aspect of the temple to me were the images of a queen embracing her pharaoh.

It was considered taboo for such displays of close affection that for many years it was covered up with a gold plate.

Near the Sacred Lake - a body of water used for priests' ablutions - stood a giant scarab beetle. Adam told us to walk around it seven time and our wishes would be granted. It would've been very comical to see a large group of people all walking around this large beetle.

After 1½hr, it was time to move on... to another commission-based stop - a cotton t-shirt shop with template-printed t-shirts costing five times more than what I bought them for.

Finally our last tour - the Temple of Luxor==>

There was once an Avenue of Sphinxes that joined the Temple of Karnak to the Temple of Luxor for 2.5km.

In pharaonic times, Luxor Temple sat at the heart of the ancient capital of Thebes and was well-preserved because it was once buried under the village of Luxor and even had a 13th-century mosque built amongst its walls - which the villagers demanded it remain during excavations of the site.

It is a temple that doesn't seem to be flooded with tourists and at the diminishing lights of sunset, the temple casts an eerie but beautiful shadow through the city.

After the tour, the rest of the family returned to the ship whilst our little family decided to walk through the city - a short walk along the Nile. Like the walk around Esna, we were interested in walking through the streets, taking photos and seeing how people lived - old men smoking bongs, tailors mending clothes, a man cleaning cups in small coffeeshop, an open butcher with carcasses hanging by the roadside, little kids all vying for a shot on a photo, women clad from head to toe in black, children happily waving from all corners - these people were smiled more and seemed friendlier - and none asking for baksheesh (tip), and a sharp contrast to the streets of Esna. We stopped for a drink on the rooftop of a hotel and watched another fantastic sunset over Luxor.

En ægyptisk kvinde bærer noget på hendes hoved

en Sko mager Tømmer En slagter

After our last dinner, we were entertained by a young boring bellydancer and what I've been waiting to see... a Whirling Dervish - a display of Sufi dancing.

Sufism a semi-mystical branch of Islam with an unorthodox approach to prayer ie dancing to attain a trancelike union with God.

Urged on by the pulse of drums, strings and pipes, the dancer spun in a blur of multicoloured skirts - reds, yellows blue until he looked like a spinning top.

Photo Courtesy of Tour Egypt Photos

Saturday 20 November 2004 (4:45am start)

Most of the family enjoyed the cruise and the sights they saw. They were not very happy with the organisation of the tour, with ridiculous early-morning starts, packed days on some and almost nothing on others. Most of all, many of the family were unhappy with Adam - we vented on our questionnaires and Ulla gave the AB Travel Agent representative an earful, about how rude Adam had been, how unintelligible his heavily-accented danish had been, he picked on some of us, glared at the children for chattering at the back of the bus, he avoided questions and scolded anyone who interrupted him with a question. Worst of all were all these unneccesary "commission-based" trips that cut into our sightseeing time. He was the typical Egyptian that could've made our trip much more enjoyable.

From an early flight to Cairo, a mad-scramble for our baggage, a three-hour wait in the coffeeshop of a nearby hotel to a 4½hr flight back to København, it was 5pm by the time we all retrieved our luggage and bade our final farewells to each member of the family. Despite a 4:45am start, it took us a whole day to return home.

There is a certain amount of sadness that it may be last time the family is united as Bedstemor is getting on in her years. René has been on approx ten reunions, organised by Bedstemor's children but paid for the grandparents - as a legacy to the family. I have been lucky and privileged to be invited to one of these family gatherings - four generations in all. It allowed me to visit another exotic part of the world and to get to know this very special Matriach.

BEDSTEMOR på Karnak tempel

§ The End §

Created: 8 Dec 2004Last Updated: 16-Jan-2005

14. November 2004 11:02
by Rene Pallesen
0 Comments

Bedstemor's 85 års fødselsdag ( 13 - 20 Nov 2004 )

14. November 2004 11:02 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Bedstemor's 85 års fødselsdag ( 13 - 20 Nov 2004 )

Det gamle Ægyptens historier og legender har længe markeret sig gennem film som "Kleopatra", "Mumien" og begejstret os kvinder med Omar Sharifs optræden i "Lawrence of Arabia" og "Doctor Zhivago og senere i tegnefilm som "The Prince of Egypt". Der er en vis mystik omkring mellemøsten skildret for os i en meget ung alder, når vi hørte godnathistorier som "Ali Baba og de 40 røvere" eller "Sinbad Søfareren" - de fleste af os har en drøm om at se pyramiderne.

Jeg var meget heldig at få muligheden for 20 år siden sammen med mine forældre at komme til Ægypten, men som 10 årig er der ikke så meget et barn kan huske. Men dette år samles Familien Pallesen igen engang for "Matriarkens" 85 års fødselsdag. Det er tradition for familien at samles og rejse til et eksotisk land - tidligere har det været Tunesien, Marokko, Tyrkiet og Gambia - og nu for Bedstemors ønske om at se Ægyptens pyramider, som hendes mand så for 50 år siden.

Bedstemors tre børn, seks børnebørn (Nikolai kunne ikke komme med), fire oldebørn og respektive ægtefæller, alle tog sammen til det magiske Ægypten. Det er efterår med varme dage og kølige nætter - en kontrast til den kommende vinter i Danmark.

Lørdag 13. November 2004
Afrejse til Ægypten

Vores familie måtte af sted kl. 3.30 for at nå flyet kl. 6.55; 4½ time senere ankom vi til Cairo lufthavn. Jeg har en svag hukommelse om en meget varm lufthavn med komplet kaos, med mennesker, der skubber for at få deres kufferter igennem, råbende gennem en masse larm. Nu fandt vi en næsten ren og ikke tætpakket lufthavn.Vi mødte AP-Travels repræsentant, som tog os til Hotel Pyramissa, hvor vi tilsyneladende blev glemt i Pianobaren, til en af os fik den lyse ide, at bede om vores værelsesnøgler. Pallesen familie venter på værelser

Vores familie deltes om en toværelses suite med et stort fællesrum. Vores første eftermiddag blev brugt til en spadseretur rundt i kvarteret for evt. at finde et sted for familien at spise. Vores hotel lå på den anden side af floden i forhold til centrum, så der var ikke meget at se på sammen med, at mange butikker var lukket p.g.a. Ramadanen, den Islamiske fasteperiode fra daggry til solnedgang. Søndag var sidste dag i Ramadanen, så mange var i gang med at forberede den sidste faste.

Sluttelig spiste familien til aften i hotellets "Orientel" restaurant i Ægyptisk stil. Vi regnede med at få ordentlig Ægyptisk mad, men blev skuffede over at få lunkent mad. Risen var meget tør, lammekødet var meget småt og maden var en blandet fornøjelse. Til vores overraskelse, efter vores kommentarer, fik vi serveret ekstra tallerkner med lokal Ægyptisk frugt så som friske dadler og duava. Til vores morskab smagte alle Ægyptiske vine ens, uanset mærke. Der var masser af Ægyptisk øl og selvfølgelig levede danskerne op til deres drikkeevner og Bedstemor gav maden til alle.

Søndag 14. november 2004

Første nat sov vi ikke så godt - at sove i en fremmed seng kombineret med koranbøn fra en nærliggende moske gav os ikke ligefrem en fredfyldt søvn. Imidlertid var vi alle tidlig oppe for at mødes i Bedstemors værelse for at overraske hende med danske fødselsdagssange til flimmer med danske flag og små gaver. Denne familie overrasker fødselaren og alle synger unisont denne meget søde fødselsdagssang.

Citadellet Muhammad Ali Moskeen

Udsigten fra Citadellet

Vores første besøg gjaldt Citadellet. Det er byens fort og husede engang den kongelige familie og skønt det meste af komplekset er åben for besøgende, besidder militæret stadig en del, som er lukket område. Det tager en halv dag at komme gennem hele Citadellet, hvilket vi ikke havde mulighed for. I stedet tilbragte vi vores tid i Muhammed Ali moskeen.

<== Der er en fantastisk panorama over byen fra den Vestlige terrasse - fantastisk at Cairo ikke et bygget af ens mudderfarvede stenbygninger. Det mest bemærkelsesværdige ved Cairo er imidlertid mangelen på farver og farverne stemmer overens med ørkenens farver.

Mohammed Ali Mosque

Vores guide Adam/Mohammed gav os en ringe indsigt i funktionen eller historien af Citadellet, og i stedet pladserede gruppen i hjørnet i hjørnet af Muhammed Ali moskeen som en gruppe skolebørn, og gav en lektion om Islamisk lov og sædvane.

Da René vovede sig til at spørge om mere om Citadellet, blev han skældt ud for at afbryde og fik besked på at lytte. Vi fik aldrig muligheden for at finde 7-tallet Napoleons tropper hade malet over port for at undgå de uvante arabiske navne, eller det halvrunde tårn, da vores guide simpelthen ikke vidste, hvor de var.

Ind i Mohammed Ali Mosque

I den tid havde jeg muligheden for at spadsere lidt for mig selv og gå i moskeens skønne alabaster arkader. Den himmelhvælvede centrale bederum var et glimmer af hundrede af lys, der hang i koncentriske cirkler. På loftet var der arabiske inskriptioner i guld. Kvinder skulle være anstændig klædt og kunne ikke bære ærmeløse trøjer eller korte shorts eller skørter. I et hjørne af rummet lå sarkofaget med Muhhamed Ali - grundlægger af moskeen og Albanisk handelsmand, grundlægger af dynastiet, som herskede til revolutionen i 1952.

Cairo Ægyptisk Museet

Jeg huske turen rundt i dette museum, hvor jeg kiggede ind i smudsige glas montre og stirrede på de rynkede ansigter af nogle engang kendte faroer som Ramses II og undrede mig over, om disse gamle Ægyptere var giganter i deres store kister.
20 år senere var det næsten umuligt at skubbe sig gennem mængderne af turister - kun nyttigt fordi deres guider gav flere informationer end vores. Med kun to timer var det umulig at se hele museet og slet ikke de kongelige mumier.
Museet fejrede sit hundred år med en speciel udstilling omkring TutAnkhAmun - det mest berømte fund. Med rejseguiden i hånden "aaaede" og "åååede" vi over guldskattene fundet i hans grav - en guldtrone med den berømte scene med TutAnkhAmons dronning, der tilbeder ham, kister af ibenholt og elfenben, jagtskjolde beklædt med gepardskin, buer og pile, alabaster krukker med kong Tuts mummificerede organer, guld sarkofager - da Howard Carter havde fundet sådanne skatte for en lille kendt drenge-konge, forestil jer, hvad Ramses II´s grav har indeholdt. Kong Tuts inderste kiste af rent guld og og den berømte maske af guld, som alle gerne vil se, er trykt i mange Ægyptiske billedmaterialer.
Museet er blevet en ny pengemaskine for Ægypterne med yderligere en entre for at se de kongelige mumier. Vi måtte være tilfreds med at se dyremumierne - katte, hunde, fugle, geder, Nile Perch (ja, også fisk!) og mest fantastisk var en 7 meter krokodillemumie.
Udstillingerne var på øverste etage opsat efter emne og på underste etage i kronologisk orden uret rundt fra det Gamle Kongerige, til det midterste og sluttende med de Nye og Sidste Kongedømmer. Der var værelser fyldt med kæmpe sarkofager (kister), som hver ville veje en tons, et værelse fyldt med miniaturer, der viste daglig liv i Ægypten, et værelse fuld af falmede gamle papyrusskrifter og værelser fulde af brokker og stykker fra ruiner, statuer, palads gulve - et sted, man kan tilbringe dage med en ordentlig rejse guide.

Khan Al-Khalili

På gaderne af Ægypts største bazar, Khan Al Khalili

Efter et stop på en Ægyptisk parfumefabrik og en frokostpause, kom vi til Khan Al-Khalili, det ældste basar i Ægypten, som går tilbage til 1300-tallet. Gamle tiders købere besøgte Khanen for at kigge på varerne bragt dertil af handelskaravanerne. Vi finder ikke længere slaver, silke, juveler eller diamanter, men træ guitarer, skønne klude tæpper, klæder, t-shirts, papyrustryk, vandpiber, bunker af tøj, aromaen af krydderier breder sig og boder med stakke af rødt, guld og blå pulver og sække med frø og bønner. Kobbersmede udhamrer fade, terriner, kaffekander og enorme halvmåneformede toppe til minareter. Det er et ritual i basarer at tinge om priserne, lokale såvel som gæster - almindeligvis til en tiendedel af den budte pris - har du betalt en tredjedel, har du betalt for meget. Vi havde kun en time til vores rådighed, men mange af boderne var lukkede for siesta og for ramadanen. Ulla og jeg pegede på nogle sække af mangefarvede krydderier. Han ville have 50£ (50 kr.), men efter jeg sagde "da ketir awi" (det koster for meget) og gik, fulgte sælgeren efter os en kilometer mens han reducerede prisen fra 40£ til 30£, 25£, 20£, og efter vi i spøg råbte 10£, tilbød han 15£, 10£ og endelig 5£ før han opgav os. Efter megen tingen lykkedes det os få to udsmykkede parfumeglas flasker for 20£ (20 kr.).

Bedstemor's fødselsdagfest

Bedstemors fest

Irene og Ole havde sørget for et privat værelse til Bedstemors fødselsdagsfest. Et enkelt langt bord i et værelse i Ægyptisk stil. Sølv fade i to rækker midt på bordet med ild under holdt maden varm.

Vi fik kommen-panneret stegt fisk, kyllinge filleter på Ægyptisk stil, kanel-krydret ravioli, ris, kartoffelmos og steg i pebbersauce, "sang" og brød med Ægyptisk vin og øl til Bedstemor.

Mens børnene legede i et hjørne, var der meget snak bordet rundt, og aftenen sluttede med chokolade og frugt kage pyntet med "Happy Pirthday" (det er ikke en fejl) og vi morede os over os over overfloden af Ægyptiske kager - bagværk, semulje tærte, rosenvands krydrede tærter og tærter, der smagte af flydende honning… Ulla ville gerne have resten af desserten med sig (undtagen den rosenvands krydrede - det var morsomt at se hendes udtryk - rosenvand dufter næsten som parfume). Tjenerne var hele tiden meget opmærksomme, passerede hver andet minut for at opvarte os.

Det bedste var, at Bedstemor blev som to årig, da hun skulle puste lysene på kagerne ud. Som danskerne ville sige, "det var meget hyggeligt!"

Mandag 15. november 2004 (start 7:30)

Fra de grå bygninger og gader I Cairo kørte vi 24 km mod sydøst til Saqqara, skiftende fra ensartet brun til frodige grøne marker med grøntsager og hundrede af dadelpalmer. Det var som en oase, hvor et fint slør gav en uvirkelig følelse af de frodige områder i det gamle Ægypten. Kvinder i hellange sorte "abeeyas" fordelt i markerne, den gamle mand, der vandrede omkring - en stor kontrast til mylderet i Cairos centrum.

Saqqara's Trin Pyramide

Grundlagt som et nekropolis (begravelses by) for det gamle Kongedømme og et af de rigeste arkæologiske områder i Ægypten.

Trin pyramiden er mindre end halv så høj, som den største pyramide ved Giza, men dette monument var en forløber for de glatte pyramider. Tidligere var gravene bygget af soltørrede muddersten, rektangulære byggesten, der dækkede gravstedet. Men arkitekten Imhotep havde Zosers trinpyramide i Sakkara

den lyse ide at bygge med sten og bygge den trinagtige struktur fen gange ovenpå hinanden, og skabte den første pyramide.

Vi kom ind gennem den store sydlige gård - på størelse med en fodboldbane - gennem en koridor af 40 søjler inspireret af bundter af bundne rør. Mens Adam holdt endnu en af sine taler, blev jeg antastet af en klæde og turbanklædt Ægypter, som førte mig op til toppen, hvor jeg fik et godt skud af de fantastiske søjlers top, før jeg blev skældt ud af Adam og tigget for "baksheesh". Jeg var taknemmelig for at blive reddet fra Ægypteren, som ikke ville lade mig gå uden baksheesh, af et par Italienere. Da jeg kom ud fra koridoren blev jeg imidlertid blændet af det hvide sand og den enorme pyramide alene omgivet af sten fra andre ruiner og en meget mindre trekantet høj af sten i baggrunden. Selv om morgenen var køkig, så varmede solen os, mens vi vandrede nord omkring pyramiden.

Memphis

Engang hovedstaden i det gamle Ægypten, uudgravet på grund af landsbyen, bygget over den gamle by, og det hævede grundvandsspejl på grund at Asuan-dæmningen. Der er en lille park med nogle få fund, brokker og stykker, men den mest spændende ting at se er en kolos af Ramses II, der ligger på ryggen og mangler den nederste del af benene. Kolossen ville have været 5 etager høj, hvis den havde været hel. Midt i parken ligger den største alabaststatue, der er fundet - en sphinx på 80 tons - tænk hvilke skatte, der kunne have været fundet, hvis Memphis kunne udgraves, især da denne gamle by lå på halvvejen mellem Øvre og Nedre Ægypten.

Vores sidste stop før frokost var ved en papyrus butik - endnu et sted med kommission til Adam. Bedstemor købte en papyrus med det Ægyptiske alfabet i heroglypher. Nogle af papyrusbillederne kostede 3500£ (3500 kr). Til frokost fik vi et udmærket Ægyptisk måltid ude midt i ingenting. Vi fik glimrende mezza (ægyptiske tapas) af baba ghanoush (ristet aubergine dip), tzatziki (agurke dip), hummus (kikærte dip), fuul (bønner) serveret med friskbagte pitabrød, varme vinblade ruller, lamme kofta og ny grillet kylling med timian. Det var et måltid for konger og det bedste Ægyptiske måltid, vi fik på hele turen.

Pyramider af Giza

De store fantastiske pyramider i Giza. Her ses vi den største pyramid - Cheops/Khufus pyramid

Fra luften ligger ørkenen og pyramiderne lige op til byen, 16 km fra Cairo.

Jeg husker svagt at blive puklet op ad en overraskende varm skakt, oplyst af en enkelt lyspære, og komme ind i et meget køligt, mørk rum, hvor der stod en enkel stensarkofag; rummet var tomt, men med tilfældige firkantede huller i væggen til mad til livet hinsides.

Jeg var inde i Dronningerummet i den største pyramide og nu 20 år senere kan kun de første 300 gæster daglig komme ind i disse pyramider - for en anseelig entre.

Den største af de tre, Kheops pyramide, er 146 meter høj, 920 meter i omkreds og består af 2,3 millioner stenblokke! Hver blok var mindst en meter høj, så man kan forestille sig hvor massive disse pyramider var.

Den anden største pyramid - Chephrens pyramid

Den næststørste Khefrens (Kheops søn) pyramide har stadig noget af de glatte skinnende kalkstens dækning, som engang dækkede alle pyramiderne.==>

Den massive solbåd, som engang bragte faraos krop fra Memphis til Giza og de tre mindre Dronninge pyramider står ved foden af den massive Kheops pyramide. Vi havde ikke mulighed for at komme ind i gravkammeret denne gang, men jeg føler mig privilegeret over at jeg var derinde, og stadig har nogle minder fra begivenheden.

Sphinxen

Pyramiderne rejser sig i baggrunden, mens den sider stille på det varme sand under den bagende sol i 4000 år. Napoleons tropper brugte den som målskive, så næsen og faraos skæg er for længst faldet af og findes i British museum. Grækerne kaldte den "Sphinx", som var basseret på en mærkelig skikkelse med hovedet af et menneske og kroppen af en løve, som ville stoppe enhver rejsende langs vejen med en gåde - hvis gåden ikke blev gættet, blev man måltid for Sphinxen. Trængslen af skarerne omringede Sphinxen og vi kunne kun bevæge os i gåsegang. Gennem tiden ser det ud til, at turisterne må se Sphinxen på længere og længere afstand. For 50 år siden kunne Bedstefar røre ved Sphinxen og også klatre op på toppen af pyramiden; for 20 år siden var Sphinxen hegnet inde med et lille trådhegn, men jeg kunne stå tæt ved den; nu ligger den i et stort hul, hvor besøgende kun kan se den tæt på gennem zoomen på deres kameraer. 4 tusind år senere bjergtager den stadig os alle.

Tirsdag 16. november 2004 (start 2:30)

Ja, du læste rigtig - vi ventede alle I receptionen kl. 2.30. I aftes diskede Bedstemors børnebørn op med Spansk-Ægyptisk-Italiensk middag til hele familien. Dette fulgtes op af en Familien i en

larm fra tamboriner, obo og trommer, der spillede til forlovelsesfest for et Ægyptisk par I receptionen.

Denne morgen fløj vi til Asuan for at gå ombord til et Nilkryds på 4 dage op til Luxor. Da vi ankom, tog vi på en "felucca" (nilbåd) tur på Nilen med en fantastisk panorama til "Tomb of Nobles" (de overordnedes grave). Da vi kom tilbage fik vi vores værelser på en fire etages krydstogt skib, der havde motionsrum, svømmebassin og soldæk øverst oppe. Selv fra vores værelser i bunden, havde vi en fantastisk udsigt til de små moskelignende bygninger på toppen af de store sandbjerge med små huler.

Om aftenen havde vi mulighed for at besøge byens lille souq (locale bazaar), hvor de solgte t-shirts, papyrusbilleder, dynger af safran og tørret vellugtende lotusblomster, brun, rød, gul og indigo bjerge af duftende krydderier - alt noget som nogle af os tingede om - det dyreste køb var 25£ for papyrus billede og billigst 15£ for en broderet t-shirt med hieroglyffer. Sidst brugte vi 5£ til en hestevogn tilbage til skibet.

Den anden papyrus har jeg købt fra bazaren

Onsdag 17. november 2004 (start 7:30)

Det ser ud til, at nogle I familien har pådraget sig en maveonde. Vi andre undgik uvasket frugt, frisk salat, rå grøntsager og drinks med vand fra vandhane. Dette forhindrede os imidlertid ikke i at tage på sightseing.

Den ufærdige Obelisk

Hvis denne obelisk var blevet færdig, ville det have været den højeste og tungeste nogensinde fremstillet på 142 meter. Den ligger i et granitstenbrud, færdighugget på tre sider, men opgivet da en revne viste sig i stenen. Det er næsten umulig at forestille sig, hvordan de gamle ægyptere kunne flytte selv en enkelt sten fra dette stenbrud, da dette sted er ganske mange mile fra alle monumenterne, som er færdigfremstillet. Uheldigt for Ægypten er de fleste obelisker blevet spredt til andre lande - til Italien, England, Frankrig og selv Argentina - af fremmede arkæologer gennem de sidste århundreder. Mange af os havde ikke tid til at se hele obelisken før Adam ringede med sin klokke, som han medbragte (for at genere os, tror jeg).

Den ufuldendte Obelisk De meste familier kom ikke så langt til her

Den Høje Dæmning

I århundreder har Nilen styret Ægypternes liv - hvad enten der var oversvømmelse eller for lidt vand, var det skæbnesvangert for folket, hvis liv afhang af denne store vandkilde. Da Asuandæmningen blev bygget mistede nogle af landsbyerne i det sydlige deres vandforsyninger.

For 30 år siden blev den nye Høje Dæmning bygget, hvilket resulterede i den menneskeskabte Nasser sø mod syd. ==>

Det betød, at mange mennesker måtte flyttes, da landsbyerne og bopladserne blev oversvømmet, ligesom også nogle af de gamle Ægyptiske monumenter som Philae templet.

På sit højeste er den Høje Dæmning 111 m, 3,8 km lang og 980 m bred ved foden.

Der er blevet brugt tre gange så mange sten, som der var i Kheops pyramiden til bygningen af dæmningen.

Da dæmningen er militært område, må man ikke bruge videokamera - hvis der blev rettet et angreb på dæmningen kunne meget af Ægypten blive oversvømmet, hvilket ville være en katastrofe for landet.

Efter kun 10 minutter "ringede" Adam os tilbage til bussen igen.

Philae templet

Vi sejler til Philae templet

Efter den første Asuan dæmning blev bygget, var Philae templet oversvømmet 6 måneder om året, og turisterne måtte se templet gennem Philae søens mudrede vand. Da den Høje Dæmning blev bygget, truede det med at oversvømme templet for evigt. Templet blev da flyttet sten for sten til en ø med et lignende landskab. Philae er speciel i, at den kun kan nås med båd og at solnedgangen giver et spektakulært bagtæppe. Templet, som er bygget til Isis (gudinden for kvinder, sexualitet og renhed), var en af de sidste hedenske udsteder og på grund af Isis popularitet, blev det også brugt af de tidlige Kristne. Templets vægge og mange af søjlerne var fra top til fod fyldt med hieroglyffer og billeder af Isis - mange af billedernes ansigter var ødelagt af de tidlige Kristne, som anså de gamle Ægyptiske guder for hedenske. Jeg havde en fantastisk eftermiddag med at vandre ind og ud af gennem alle krogene og sprækkerne - besøge Fødselshuset, Nilometeret, Faraos sengested og meget mere og til stor morskab for familien, var jeg den sidste til at møde op.

Kom Ombo

Skibet sejlede fra Asuan kl. 15.45 efter en eftermiddag tilbragt med solbadning og øldrikning (typisk dansk med solbadning og øl). Vi sejlede 48 km. nord for Asuan til Kom Ombo - den gamle by med tilbedelsen af krokodilleguden Sobek. Den gamle by er for længst forsvunden og krokodillernes eksistens på de nærliggende sandbanker er blevet jagtet til udryddelse.

I solnedgangen besøgte vi Kom Ombo templet, opført til både krokodilleguden Sobek og Horus, den falkehovede himmelgud og Isis søn. Selvom vi ikke havde tiden til at fordybe os i 2 crocodil mumie på Kom Ombo temple

dette tempen, var det både i Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

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7. May 2008 04:28
by Rene Pallesen
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Engaged - Getting Married

7. May 2008 04:28 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

As you can read further down this blog I popped the big question to Kim when we were in Rio de Janeiro at the end of our holiday. Luckily she said yes because otherwise it would have been a couple of really miserable last couple of days there.

It took us almost a week to find the right moment to break the news to Kims family but as soon as we opened our mouthes and said "We've got some news for..." everyone shouted "YOU ARE GETTING MARRIED!!!". Yeah well, they must have seen it coming miles away. Even my friends Andy, Glen and Luke weren't surprised. Anyway, everyone is very happy (including me) and we are really looking forward to us moving into our own place together.

So now the wedding planning has started. We have set a date (16th November this year) and we have booked the reception venue. Everything else is still up in the air but at least I've got less things to stress about than Kim who is running around looking for dresses thinking up colour schemes, table decorations etc. We still have to find a nice venue for the ceremony itself...there are plenty of really nice places in Sydney to have it but the problem is that we also have to take wind and rain into account and most public places such as parks and beaches you have to book and pay for in advance.
It should be a nice wedding although we want to keep the major expenses down as we need the money to buy something to live in.

According to Vietnamese traditions there is given money in red envelopes instead of wedding presents (so do not start looking for presents) so hopefully this will eventually cover some of the cost.

All my friends and family in Denmark is invited to the wedding (This is your official invitation). If you happen to be in Sydney on this day then let me know well in advance.

I am hoping that my Mum and Dad will make it to the wedding. Otherwise it looks like it may be a wedding without any of my family there which would be a major disappointment :-(

Anyway, it looks like 2008 is turning out to be the year of change. Kim has got a new job, we are getting married and we are looking to buy a place to live in. We have 4 big changes that we want to make this year...3 more changes to go and only 7 months to make them in.

Some of Kims friends are starting a Photography business so they agreed to take some engagement photos of us in Centennial Park one morning and then based on that we could decide whether we want to use them for all or some of the wedding photos.

The photos you see here were taken by them and I have provided a link to their websites below where you can see more photos:

Sonova Photography
Sonova Flikr Photo Album Engagement Photos

My slide show

6. May 2008 01:34
by Rene Pallesen
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The Stables - Nothing to do with horses

6. May 2008 01:34 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

This Sunday Andy, May and myself went climbing at the Stables up near Pennant Hills in Sydney. The area is close to another nice little area called Otherland, but the stables requires a fair bit a bush bashing to get to.

The climbs are of a higher grade (18-25) but are mostly well bolted, but because of the pretty shitty rock a lot of holds have come of and sometimes this affects the grading of the climb.

May is new to lead climbing but the area had got a really easy grade 14 so we decided that she should have the honour or leading the first climb of the day...she was pretty nervous and back clipped a few draws but otherwise didn't do anything too disastrous.

On the 2rd climb of the day I lead this grade 19 (I think it is 16 or 17) and I did pretty well until I got to the last anchor right at the top. There wasn't a lot of hand holds and I grabbed a small ledge with a rock lip on in. While I was getting my feet into position and getting my balance right to be able to clip the anchor I felt the handhold crumble between my fingers. Everything started happening in slow motion..."oh shit, the hold is breaking away, I'm loosing balance, I'm falling how long am I going to fall". After falling about 5 metres Andy caught me on the belay (Andy, you're my hero) and I was ok...nice to see that the theory also works in practice.
Andy lost a bit of skin on his finger and ankles but was otherwise ok. After resting a few minutes I went back up and completed the climb and Andy and May wisely decided to top rope the climb.

Afterwards we did another couple of really nice climbs all in the grade 19 range and I led all of them and Andy and May top roped.

There is not that many climbs in the area. There are two more climbs that I would go back there for but otherwise I think we've had enough of the Stables...the rock is too crumbly which makes the climbing less enjoyable as you think more about what might break off next instead of focusing on the climb itself.

2. April 2008 02:38
by Rene Pallesen
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Barrenjoey - Another couple of ticks

2. April 2008 02:38 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Sunday I went to Barrenjoey climbing with Andy and May. It was one of those rare days where the temperature was perfect and where we had most of the area to ourselves.

Although the climbing is fairly easy at Barrenjoey I enjoy going back here time after time as it is located within the national park at one of the most beautiful spots in Sydney.

I led most of the climbs on the day (trying to veen myself of TR) and Andy and May was happy following. The most memorable is a climb called Mescalito (19) with some interesting section as well as Enterprise (18) which is very enjoyable.

There is generally a lot of ticks (small insects that suck your blood) there and today was no different. I got 4 tick bites.

Also took a couple of videos:

Video of Andy climbing Enterprise
Video of May climbing Enterprise

23. March 2008 12:06
by Rene Pallesen
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South America Summary

23. March 2008 12:06 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

We are now back in Sydney and I thought I'd write a summary of the various places and experiences.

It has been a big rollercoaster ride through South America...the differences between the countries are huge. During the last six weeks I have taken off in aircrafts 20 times:

Sydney to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Mexico City, Mexico City to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Sydney, Sydney to Auckland, Auchland to Santiago, Santiago to Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires to Santiago, Santiago to Lima, Lima to Cusco, Sucre to La Paz, La Paz to Iguazu, Iguazu to Santiago, Santiago to Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo to Rio, Rio to Sau Paulo, Rio to Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo to Santiago, Santiago to Auckland, Auckland to Sydney.

In other words...I have an enormous carbon footprint this year which cannot be apologised enough for.

The people in South America were extremely friendly and helpful (Except the girl at the hostel in Potosi). Most people didn't speak anything other than Spanish...but Spanish is almost my second language now (I know at least 70 words)

Argentina was an interesting place. I loved the culture and the dancing. The food was bland with too much meat and Buenos Aires itself didn't have much else to offer and was a bit run down.

Chile is amazing. It is really organised in Santiago and you could be in Northern Europe in terms of cleanliness. They have a really effective public transport system which is a magnitude better than sydneys (close to being as good as Tokyo). People are very friendly...but unfortynately this is also the only location in all of south america where they managed to scam Chris and I on the price of a taxi fare as we didn't know the local exchange rate...in the rest of South America they did try, but generally we paid same price as the locals (and a few times less). Again I can understand why my cousin chose to live in Santiago rather than somewhere else...it is by far the safest and most developed city in this part of the world. The food here is amazing, and you can get everything...this is the only place in South america that we saw a Thai restaurant.

Macchu Picchu in Peru is incredible...it is a fantastic ride into the site and the area around Cusco has got a lot of potential.

Bolivia is a country with so much potential and with people with so little ability and knowledge to tap into it. People in the North are fantastic, but the further south you get the less culture. It has been a privilege to go there and I think they will get there one day.

Brasil...Beautiful by day and dangerous by night. It was fantastic to go here and I'd like to one day come back to Brasil to see other parts of the country. The economy has really taken off here...but in the process left a lot of people behind and that can be seen by all the crime and social problems.

I have now set foot in 52 countries on 6 continents. As I have travelled I've noticed that the world is becoming a smaller place where no major differences in culture and language.

Countries I've set my foot in

in 10-20 years from now everyone will wear the same clothes, listens to the same music and eat the same food (Pizza). The fun and the purpose of travelling will disappear. I can see from the new generation of travelers that they are more interested in thrill seeking and dead buildings rather than people, cultures and observing and learning from differences. Pity as there is so much to learn and it will build appreciation of how lucky we are to have what we have.

Where to next? I don't know...there is one continent down south that I still haven't been to and former Russian republics have got potential....otherwise closer areas like Tonga, Fiji, Indonesia etc.

22. March 2008 06:08
by Rene Pallesen
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Rio De Janeiro - Brasil

22. March 2008 06:08 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

We are now in Brasil after an overnight stopover in Santiago (The flights here in South America are fairly irregular so it can be difficult to get connecting flights without having stopovers).

We hadn't booked a place to stay but at the airport the tourist information suggested renting an apartment at Ipanema. When we got there it turned out to be really basic, fairly prices and probably a friend of the guy at the tourist information. Instead we went to Copacabana beach to one of the other options we had which also was very basic and a bit far from the beach...but at least non commiting for more than one night. Later in the evening we walked around and eventually found a hotel close to the beach and cheap. It also had big mirrors on the wall and in the ceiling over the bed...and Kim and I was wondering if it was one of those hotels that could be hired by the hour.
It did however turn out to be really nice apart from one evening when some of the other guests tried to get into our room because they got the number on the door wrong.

The day after we went to Ipanema beach to go for a walk. It is very beautiful in Rio and especially this beach is really cool.

After lunch we took the local bus to the Sugarloaf mountain. Traffic is really bad in Rio and Taxis are outrageously expensive and just as slow as the busses so it took us about two hours to get there. It turned out to be perfect. We ended up taking the lift of there just before sunset and had a fantastic view from the top.

In the evening we had a fantastic meal called a Ridozio (or something like that). It was a 15 course meal (A lot more than we could eat) and only cost around 10 australian.

Next day we decided to go to see the Jesus statue first thing in the morning. Again we took the local bus there to save some money (Rio is really expensive). We then took the train up to the Statue which has got a fantastic view of Rio and all the beaches.

On this trip with Kim I had planning to ask her if she'd marry me. I had three possibly locations in mind..29th Feb in Santiago, Machu Picchu or at the statue in Rio. Kim was very happy when I popped the question and showed her the ring I'd gotten for her (but more about that later), so we are officially no longer boyfriend and girlfriend.

In the evening we went to a restaurant called Porcao Rios which had been recommended to be by our partner in Mexico to celebrate and later we had a drink down at the beach.

We didn't get back to the hotel until very late and I promised that I would never again walk back to the hotel that late at night. There were people from the slums everywhere and I didn't feel safe walking back...so next time we definitely take a taxi. In the daytime you see quite a few police cars and police officers around...but at night they are very hard to spot. It is almost like the movie 'I am Legend'...you are safe during the day, but as soon as night falls and most people have gone off the streets then the kids from the slums rule the city. It is truly a dangerous place at night...not that we were carrying any valuable on us whatsoever except for whatever cash we needed on the night, but the question is....would these kids believe that that was all we were carrying?
All houses an properties in the more wealthy areas are all surrounded by big fences and cages to keep the kids out...but really...not a very comforting way to live if you cant leave your house.

Another thing I noticed is that there also still is a class difference between the white/light and the black. The blacks have all the lowest paid jobs and the ones requiring manual labour. It is also the black people you see living on the street and going through the garbage every night (and there are a lot of these). So even through slavery was abolished several hundred years ago doesn't mean that everyone is equal.

In the morning I had caught some sort of a stomach bug...probably from the one drink I had at the beach and was feeling really weak so we spend the day doing a bit of shopping locally and then went to Ipanema.

In the evening I started to feel really weak and felt like vomiting so dinner consisted of some light vegetables followed by coca cola (The ultimate remedy for any stomach problems).

Last day we slept in (ignored the hotel checkout time) and packed out stuff. I still felt a bit weak but otherwise ok (My bug lasted for two days after which I felt really weak but a dose of Imodium eventually took care of it).

Next back to Santiago overnight and then back to Sydney

Click here to see more photos from Brasil

14. March 2008 10:23
by Rene Pallesen
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Sucre - Bolivia

14. March 2008 10:23 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Wow, wow, wow...Sucre is everything that La Paz isn´t...it is fantastic.

We took the bus from Potosi yesterday afternoon and drive through a fantastic landscape of deep canyons and high mountains and through passes of 4800 meters altitude. As soon as we arrived into Sucre we fell in love with it. Right from the start at the bus terminal they had fixed prices on taxis. We drove into town with an old gentleman that had a 1970´s Datsun.
He held the door for us at the hoteland made sure we had accomodation.

Oh..yeah...did I mention accomodation. Kim had booked the Hotel Real Audencia the night before and received confiemation. When we got to the Hotel they didn´t have our booking but fortunately the hotel is empty (I think we are the only ones here). They told us that it was $60 per night...Kim said that the booking we had was $45 and they agreed to this price. It later turned out that she by mistake had booked the Real Audencia in Quito Equador 2000km from here...LOL.
Anyway the hotel is fantastic and Kim loves the luxery...not even Hilton compares and it is 1/20th of the price of a similar hotel.

We then went to this French restaurant La Taverne...fantastic. I spoiled Kim with a 5 star meal that we would have a hard time finding in sydney...price for the two of us...less than $10.

Sucre is a nice and quiet city...it is beautiful with all the old colonial white washed buildings and it is clean and not polluted. There are far less beggers and street kids and far less social problems. Everything is getting very well maintained and it is a really romantic place to walk around at night through the plazas...with people everywhere at night.

We were initially planning to go back to Santiago one day early...but because this is such a nice place we stay here another night and then spend as little time as possible in La Paz. We also treat ourselves to a flight to La Paz which takes 45 minutes rather than a terrible 14 hour bus ride.

Sucre is at 2800 meters altitude but probably 20 degrees warmer than Potosi (4000-4500 meters). It is so nice being able to walk around in a T-Shirt during the day and just a thin Alpaca (I´ve bought two for less than $15 each)jumper during the night.

We went out to the dinosaur park. In some limestone they have found some 5000 tracks from more than 400 different species of dinosaurs. The park has only been open for less than two years and will be a major attraction once they get the place conserved and once the word spreads.

We also had lunch at this fantasic Cafe Mirador overlooking the whole city...very nice.

Next day we hired a guide to take us through one of the local Inca trails as well as to a small village called Potola. It was raining so in the beginning it was pretty cold and miserable but eventually it stopped and we had a really nice day on the Inka trail (by the way there are thousands of Inka Trails around the Andes...most of them still in use by the locals as the main mode of transport still is on foot).

Potola is a small village west of Sucre. It is supposed to have a lot of local still dressed in their local costumes and lost of local handicraft...but really is has none of that. There was far more dressed in local costumes in Copacabana.

As such for Bolivia it has got a huge potential for developing tourism...but the people there don't understand how to do it.

Tomorrow...onto Santiago and then continue to Rio De Janeiro

Click here to see more photos from Bolivia

12. March 2008 11:54
by Rene Pallesen
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Potosi, The Mines - Bolivia

12. March 2008 11:54 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Today was a really positive day compared to yesterday after I'd written my last post. We found an excellent restaurant (much better than most restaurants in Sydney) called El Meson...and the food was cheap as. For around USD 13 we got a three course dinner that was absolutely fantastic including drinks. It was so good that we decided to go back there tonight.

This morning we had to move hotel. We did try to extend one night at Hotel Eldorado...but everything in this town is fully booked. Late last night we had managed to put through a couple of bookings at other places, but the only one that came through was a local hostel...so this morning we moved there. It is a nice enough place...but the personnel is totally disinterested in providing a service (and no smiling please)...there is no heat in the room so it could be a cold night...but everything else is ok once you chase them for towels, blankets etc.
The told us that we couldn't have the room until 11.30am...so in the mean time we decided to go to the mint museum.

The Mint museum was really good. They had a lot of interesting items there and they provided an english speaking guide for free to explain how the silver was mined in Potosi, the historical significance as well as went through the whole process of producing silver coins which were produced in the same building (All the original equipment is still there). They also have a fantastic art collection there.
We joined the guided tour a bit late, but the guide was kind enough to repeat the first part of the collection so that we didn't miss out.

The highlight for Kim was when I made her a copper coin using an original minting stamp using a large hammer...she got to keep the coin as a souvernir.

After a lunch at La Plata (With the thickest hit chocolate we've ever seen...the spoon could stand upright) we went down to join a tour of the mines in Potosi. It turned out that Kim and I were the only ones on the tour and the guide spoke perfect English.

First we were fitted with overalls and helmets and afterwards the tour went to the miners market. I bought a stick of dynamite for around 5 Bolivianos (75 cents) and our guide gave Kim a fright when he threw the stick at her.

After this we went to the processing plant where they do the first extraction of the metals from the rock. We saw how they crush the rock into a fine powder and then using various chemicals extract the metals from the rock as well as using gravity. All the chemicals and side products are then flushed into the Rio Negra where it then is washed into Paraguay and Argentina. Both BHP and Rio Tinto buy minerals from here processed in this way (It it great to see my shares at work). There are 42 such processing plans here in Potosi...because everything is working as coorporatives there is no investing in processing plants and machinery and the various plants refuse to work together although this would benefit everyone...but more about that later.

Afterwards we drove up to the mine itself. We expected to be visiting a part of the mine that was no longer being used but this is not the case...the mine was fully functioning so once in a while we had to run for our lives to a location where the tunnel was wide enough for us to jump to the side when one of the small trains came zooming past.

As we went further and further into the tunnels the gasses became thicker and thicker. I have never seen so many visible minerals in one location before...you could actually see the zinc, lead, copper, iron and bronce in the walls all over the place. The yellow sulphur was sitting in 2cm thick layers on the wall (but they don't mine this) and there was Albestos hanging in long threads off the ceiling all over the place and the air was think of asbestos dust.

We were covering our mouthes with bandannas but running through the tunnels, the cramped places, the dust and the gasses in the air made it really hard to breathe through the bandanna (Remember that this is all happening at 4500 meters altitude where there is only 25% of the oxygen as at sea level...so there is not much air in the first place!). The miners themselves were chewing coca leaves to tolerate the gasses.

Normally I would be fine, but at one point I thought I'd die and decided to not use the bandanna (I'd rather die young than die instantly)...and at this point we were still only on the first level (3 additional levels and appx 80 meters below us).

We got to a 20 meter almost vertical tunnel and halfway down we took a break where we got the chance to ask a lot of questions about the mine. We also asked if the gasses became worse than here and the reply was yes. We were also told that the tunnels were very similar so Kim and I decided that we'd had enough and would like to breathe clean air...also because the mines are still working and a lot of the supporting structures are from the colonial spanish times 350 years ago the mines are really dangerous places.

On the way out we say how the used an old electric motor to pull up the rocks from 80 meters below to our level and then dump it onto the trains. They actually have a champer above the level and then use a big hole in the floor to fill the trains...unsuspecting I walked across the pile 2 minutes prior to them opening up the while whereafter a 1 meter whole appeared in the floor.

The whole mountain has got more than 700 mines most existing several hundred years where more than 400 of them are in use today. There is no backfilling taking place and there are no geologists or engineers working on stabilising the mines so the whole place is like a swiss cheese that can collapse any time.

Each individual mine is working as a small collective of maybe 50 miners. There is no coordination between the different mines and most regard eachother as enemies. Because of this they still use old inefficient and very dangerous mining methods and equipment. If they instead coordinated their efforts they would be able to mine the whole mountain in a very modern way which would benefit the whole town and actually earn the individual miners 50-100 more money than they do today. The same goes for the processing plants as they currently don't extract the minerals efficiently and have too high production costs. They haven't even bothered exploring the area for other mining sites, but instead mine the same mountain they have done for several hundred years.

The average age in the mine is 25 years old. The youngest is 10 years old and the estimated lifespan is about 10 years before dying from lung cancer from inhaling gasses and asbestos. The miners are chewing coca leaves and their eyes are blood red. On the weekend they drink 96% pure alcohol (50 cents a bottle).

For both Kim and I it was real eye openers...we now love our 9-5 jobs. I think everyone should at least once in their life try and enter such a mine...but for me...never again.

Was it a positive experience? Yes absolutely...I have always wanted to see these mines with my own eyes how dangerous they are. Are they dangerous...yes undescribable...I cannot describe with words what a horrible feeling it was just being on the first level of these mines. I have been in other mines and enjoyed it immensely...but this was truly scary and awful. It took several hours before I could breathe normally again from inhaling all the dust and sulpher gasses.

One more night in Potosi and then we continue to Sucre. Click here to see more photos from Bolivia

11. March 2008 10:00
by Rene Pallesen
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Potosi - Bolivia

11. March 2008 10:00 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The drive from La Paz was pretty uneventful. The bus was a double decker as promised and our seat was in the front of the bus...but so was the toilet. Fortunately they kept the toilet locked pretty much the whole trip so no-one could use it (except Kim because we figured out how to fiddle the lock to get her access). Kim had bought herself a cheap headtorch so the toilet wa now lit.

The drive turned out to only be 9.5 hours as opposed to the promised 14 hours so that was a nice surprise. We arrived at Potosi at 6am in the morning it being freezing cold and pouring down with rain. We got a taxi to drive us to our preferred hotel and it turned out to be fully booked. Our second preference has only got room for one night and is then fully booked (and so is every other hotel in town)...we have a booking confirmation from a hostel tomorrow as a backup but we are not sure if it has got hot water and heating.

Potosi is a lot different from what I had expected. I had expected that the deeper we entered into Bolivia the more traditional it would get...but to the contrary. Potosi is another polluted city with little infrastructure...although a great number of travellers pass through the city there is no restaurants or cafes or even proper accomodation to cater for them. Someone with flair forwhat travellers desirecould make a killing here as well as in La Paz.
It wouldn´t take much...proper accomodation with heating and hot water, A heated restaurant serving a good selection of western style and local dishes (NOOO...Pizza and pasta does not count) an some evening or afternoon entertainment in the form of Bolivian music and dancing.

Also Potosi is totally void of any souvernirs (but also beggers etc.)...and again they could make a killing by start selling some of those lovely locally made handicrafts that we could but up near lake Titacaca.

Because of the cold, the rain and the fact that all museeums are closed today because it is Monday makes it pretty depressing to here. We have however booked a tour into the mines tomorrow afternoon which should be exciting and I´d like to see the Mint museum.

We are also considering what to do next before going to Brazil on the 17th...so far looks like we will go to Sucre (3 hours from here) day after tomorrow and then fly to La Paz from there (maybe even re-shedule flight to go to Rio a day or two earlier). Click here to see more photos from Bolivia

10. March 2008 08:29
by Rene Pallesen
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La Paz - Bolivia

10. March 2008 08:29 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The bus ride to La Paz was interesting. It was a local bus so full of locals heading into La Paz 4 hours away. After about one hours drive through the high plains (4300 meters altitude) we suddenly arrived to a strait. I hadn´t studies the map properly and hadn´t realised that Copacabana was on a peninsular with no Bolivian direct access to mainland Bolivia (you would have to pass back into Peru to drive directly)...so at the strait we got offloaded from the bus and then had to get onto a smaller boat for the passengers while the bus was ferried across on a big wooden pram.

Also at this strait is the only division of Bolivias Navy (I think they still hope to eventually get access to the ocean through Chile (They lost 350 kilometers of coastline in a war with Chile back in time).
On the other side Kim missed using the toilet so when we stopped at a petrol station a couple of hours later we took the oppertunity...when the bus took off she wasn´t back yet...and she would have been standing there alone if I hadn´t told the bus driver that we were missing a passenger.
Unfortunately it was cloudy so we could only see the bottom bits of the Huyana Potosi and Illimani (6500 meters).

The drive into La Paz is stunning...they outer suburbs is totally disorganised with mud houses and mud roads...but suddenly you drive over the escarpment and see all of La Paz in a big crater below.

Once we got out of the bus we were however less impressed. La Paz is a town like any other...it is full of traffic, pollution and there has been no city planning whatso ever. Once you get over the escarpment wow factor it is really an ugly city full of social problems, beggers, street kids, pollution, crime etc.
Even the backpacker area is totally uninteresting and has been totally spoiled by young kids going for white water rafting, mountain biking without any interest whatsoever in the local culture.

Our plan was to spend a day here and then continue down to Potosi and we decided we would spend the next day before heading south looking around and see if the city would reveal its more beautiful side. In the morning I went to the bus station to organise bus tickets and I hope I´ve got the promised ticket (sleeper bus, with toilet onboard and sitting in the front of the bus away from the toilets...but Bolivia is full of surprises...but that is part of the adventure).
Afterwards wewent for a walk around the city and found a couple of nice spots but not enough to convince us that this is a city worthwhile spending a lot of time in.

The witches market if full of souvernirs that are no-where near as good quality as what we saw in Copacabana, The museums were all closed on Sundays (except the music instrument museum which was interesting), and we are unable to find any decent local food in La Paz (only pizza, pasta etc.).

We did however have a good laugh sitting observing people at Plaza Avaroa close to our hotel. People were out walking their dogs and they were all dressed in cute little costumes like small humans...and I thought the Honkies were crazy.

I am hoping that the south is nice. I have kept Kim from buying too many things so far promising her that there would be plenty of chances...I hope that this is correct as some of the things we saw up north were really nice.

Bolivia is pretty cheap to travel in (same prices as Thailand) and my dad would love it here (as well as in Peru). I could however travel a lot cheaper if I got to choose the mode of transport and the hotels...Kim gets to choose the hotels we stay in which from a local aspect is the upper range hotels (but still cheap by australian standards) and the criteria is hot water, blankets, heating, cleanetc. We have however been lucky with a couple of hostels we have found (one that we will stay in once we return to La Paz and we stayed in one in Copacabana). I think over time I will get her hardened up enough to check out the hostels first and then afterwards increase the comfort levels if we dont find anything of a decent standard...but so far it is ok that she gets a bit of comfort...it is her first backpacking/roughing trip and she is doing really well so far (getting into the spirit of finding cheap restaurants etc.). Click here to see more photos from Bolivia

10. March 2008 08:00
by Rene Pallesen
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Copacabana - Bolivia

10. March 2008 08:00 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The bus ride from Cusco was interesting...but probably more for Kim than I (she called it horrendous). The company that we had bought our ticket from in Cusco came and picked us up at the hotel at 9.30 pm in a taxi and then drove us to the bus terminal a couple of kilometers out of town. The ticket was a direct ticket to Copacabana in Bolivia in a sleeper bus...but when we got to the station it turned out that the bus was going to drop us off 15 kilometers out of Copacabana...the guy from the company gave us a little cach and told us to use it to bribe the bus driver to drive us all the was to Copacabana.
We then had a talk to the company and they agreed to organise with the bus driver to drive us all the way. The bus was ok and full of other gringos also going to Copacabana or La Paz. Kim was greatfull that the bus had a toilet and less gratefull that it was pitch black in the middle of the night and couldn´t flush...so very stinky. About 30 kilometers from the border we got dropped off by the bus (so much for the promise of a direct bus)and loaded into a minibus with far too little seating. The bus wouldn´t start so we had to get out and push. It then started to rain and there was 2-3cm of snow on the road at certain places (4000 meters altitude) once we reached the Peru border we were again off loaded and had to walk across the border...the border crossing itself was smooth although we had to wai a while for the office to open at 7.30am.

On the bolivia side we then took another bus (which we had to pay for) to Copacabana about 8 kilometers away.
Copacabana is a small town next to Lake Titicaca and Kim had researched hotels...but after looking where some of the other people on the bus would stay she agreed to stay the same place (after we got some towels and a heater).
The rest of the day we spent in Copacabana which is a pleasant but very small place and hos got a cheap backpacker feel to it in a positive way (A lot of backpackers out searching for the meaning of life rather than partying an ruining it for others).
In the evening after dinner we found a little cafe playing live music. For dinner they had these set 3-4 course menus for around $2 USD per person at the various restaurants which is a lot cheaper than a-la-carte.

The next day we took a boat to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) on the lake and spent a couple of hours walking the 11 km from one end to the other (I am quite proud of Kim on this trip being happy to walk long distances with me) and then in the afternoon we took the boat back to Copacabana. On the Island I bought a jumper made from Alpaca wool for around USD $7 and Kim bought a local scarf.

Back in Copacabana Kim found some really nice local jewellery so she was busy spending the rest of the evening shopping (I have told her not to buy too much because it is difficult to carry).

In the morning next day we took the bus to La Paz (about USD $2 per person for a 4 hour drive).
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