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Photographs Travel

I like monkeys

We just got back from Zanzibar and I posted a couple of photos on my facebook page.

Those monkeys crack me up.

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Photographs Travel

Some Bangkok photos

A small page with a handful of our photos from Bangkok.
We did something different on this trip.
Normally we each have an SLR.
This trip we shared one SLR.

So some of these are mine, some of these are Kaddee’s.
The Wat Arun photos are definitely Kaddee’s photos. The rest, who knows.

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Photographs Travel

Photos from Paris

Yeah, it has only been a month and a half. It is hard to find time to process the photos.

Here are a dozen or so of my favorites.

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Out and about Photographs

I’m going to Memphis, Memphis….

About a month ago, we had the great privilege to attend a tour of Sakarra and Memphis with Dr Alain Zivie.

Dr Zivie has been digging in Sakarra for a very long time. He has made many notable discoveries including a mummified lion and the tomb of the wetnurse to Tutankhamen and is featured in a short movie they show at the Imhotep museum in the Sakarra complex.

He took us on a tour of the necropolis of Sakarra. We visited the tomb of Horemheb.

Much of that tomb’s original art now lives in museums in Paris, Belgium and London. Most of what is on the site now are replicas. They are still quite amazing.

All of this sits a few minutes walk from the main tourist attractions. And is practically unknown.

Dr Zivie then took us to Memphis. Not much remains of the once royal city of Egypt. Some statues mostly, and vague impressions on the ground of where walls once stood.

I managed to snap a few photos, as always.

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Photographs

Jazz at the Sphinx

About a month ago, we were lucky enough to score tickets to a concert.

The concert was by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. Who knew the Smithsonian even had a jazz ochestra?

It was a pleasant 2 hours spent sitting in front of the Sphinx. They played some classics. Everyone, both the audience and the performers, really seemed to enjoy themselves.

It was a slightly bizarre juxtaposition. The Smithsonian was playing “old” music, stuff as much as 60 and 70 years old! In front of a 4500 year old monument.

I took a handful of photos.

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Photographs Travel

The Temple of Edfu.

We hit this temple just after sunset. It is fairly well lit.

I have a couple of photos I like here.

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Photographs Travel

The Locks at Esna

On our trip down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan we sailed through the locks at Esna.

I think the locks are cool.

Here are just a very small handful of photos.

[And by overwhelming demand of my loyal readers, we are back to using Picasa for photo webpages]

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Photographs Travel

Medinat Habu photos

A set from Medinat Habu.

This temple is interesting for a couple of reasons.

  • it is not heavily visited. No crowds!
  • It is very well preserved.
  • The colors on some of the carvings are still intact and then are pretty spectacular

Trying another one of photoshops web formats.

I can’t find one that lets me enter in text for the individual photos.

I may end up going back to Picasa.

Let me know what you think.

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Photographs Travel

A few photos from our trip at Christmas to Luxor

I am trying something new. I am using the web page generator from PhotoShop to create a Flash based web page.

Here it is.

If you love it, hate it or tolerate it, let me know. Trying to decide if I will switch to a new presentation format or not.

Thanks

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Photographs Travel

Abu Simbel already?

Gee. Has it been 2 months since we were in Abu Simbel? And still no post.

I slack, therefore I am.

We went to Abu Simbel in “the convoy”. [They even had a bear in the air]

For “safety” reasons, all tourists are required to ride in a convoy between Aswan and Abu Simbel. [Between Aswan and Luxor too, I have been told]. There are 2 convoys per day in each direction.

I don’t know what the government was thinking, but if I wanted to safeguard tourists on a road, I certainly wouldn’t bunch them all together and have them travel the road AT ANNOUNCED TIMES. But maybe that’s just me.

“The convoy” is a bit of a misnomer anyway. There is a common meeting place where all the buses, mini-buses, taxis and private cars assemble. They are all then let through the checkpoint together.

After that, it is every man for himself. It becomes the cannonball run!

We were in a mini-van. At the checkpoint a policeman with a rifle got in. Looked to be a Lt or so.

I thought “hmm, do they put a cop in each mini-van”. I looked around, “no, just us”.

“Why are we special? Is it because we are in a short-bus?”

After a few minutes of observation and listening, I realized the cop needed a ride to the other side and he knew this driver. So he climbed in. And promptly fell asleep.

Many Egyptians seem to have an amazing ability to sleep anywhere, anytime.

So, off we go. Our driver was quick. I think we beat everybody else to Abu Simbel.

We stayed at a “resort” about a 20 minute walk from the temple complex. It is a nice place. But the travel agent and everybody else was right: staying over night in Abu Simbel is not really worth it. We were staying 2 nights.

Not worth it, UNLESS you want to be there for sunrise or see the Sound and Light show. We got to be at the temple when the sun rose on Christmas Morning.
AbuSimbel480x320IMG_7305.jpg

One night would have been enough, but we were unable to get flights out on Christmas Day, so we spent 2 nights. Which means we spent one day doing ABSOLUTELY nothing.

The temple was amazing. One fact is that the temple was built such that on Ramses birthday, the rising sun shines through that door at the bottom, all the way back to illuminate Ramses’ face on the back wall.

Side note:

I was more amazed the the modern Egyptians got it right when they moved it (when the dam was built) than I was amazed that the ancient Egyptians were able to get that right.

Granted the Egyptians had UNESCO help the second time. BUT I just found out that they (UNESCO) got it wrong! They are off a day. So the sunshines on Ramses’ face on his birthday+1. LOL. Welcome in Egypt.

This interesting bit of, um, “reporting” has some interesting “facts”. They say that the day that the light shines on the faces in the back of the temple is on the equinox in February and October.

Last time *I* checked, the Equinox was in March and September. Now I know the earth’s orbit has changed some, but I don’t think it has changed THAT much in the 4 or 5 thousand years the temple has been built.

And then the article goes on to say that the new location is off a day because they had no choice during the move. An American archaelogist/egyptologist of my acquaintance says that it was a mistake. They had all the calculations to do it right, but somebody screwed up somewhere along the line.

Who knows.

Regardless, I may have to make a trip back on the “egyptian equinox” to see it for myself.

So we got up at 4 am, put on every piece of clothing we had and marched off to the temple. Kaddee’s mom decided to sleep in.

It was REALLY cold that morning. We froze. I kept one hand in my pocket, the other had worked the shutter release. The skin on that hand dried out and cracked and the cuticles bled from the cold.

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

A friend who has been here in Cairo a few years longer than us asked:

“So, I haven’t been to Abu Simbel yet. It is just a pain to get to. Am I nuts if I leave Egypt without seeing it?”

The answer is “Yes. You would be nuts not to go.”

It is one thing if you are only in country for a week and are trying to squeeze in to much (but even then, I urge people to go) but being here for multiple years and missing it is inexcusable, IMNSHO.