The Passionate Traveler

Luxor temple at night Camels at the Pyramids in Giza Often, you know you are going to get taken for a ride when negotiating local transport in different countries. Like for example, getting a Tuk Tuk in Bangkok, or getting a horse drawn carriage in Egypt. The camel rides around the pyramids are also quite well known for taking you for a ride, although I have not done this in the past, or on my last trip).  Being taken for a ride can be very frustrating and can often ruin your plans for the day (if you let it). The alternative is to known that you will be taken for a ride and then just sit back and enjoy it. If you know that this is likely to happen (as it often does), you have two options. Stand firm and negotiate the price and details of the trip and state that there will be no added "extras" or to just go with the flow. A few examples of when and how you get taken for a ride will follow. Camel waiting to take you for a ride Busy street in Bangkok In Bangko...

Overlooking the flooded islands Temple from the boat The main building The temple to the goddess Isis is currently located on the Island of Agilika, close to Aswan, above the Low dam, but before the High dam. This temple was subjected to periodic flooring and when UNESCO undertook the mammoth task of relocating various ancient sites with the construction of the High dam, this temple was also moved from its location on the Island of Philae to its current location. It is still called the temple of Philae. This is mainly because the now submerged Island of Philae was believed to be the burial site of Osiris. Boats to take you to the island Interesting guest house The goddess Isis (not to be confused with the current terror group)  was the sister and wife (nothing like keeping it in the family) of Osiris. They had a son names Horus. Isis was the goddess of life and magic and she protected woman and children and healed the sick. The stories of Osiris are represen...

Valley of the Kings A "must see" place to visit in Egypt is the Valley of the Kings. After the era of the building of pyramids, the next stage was to carve tombs into the mountains, which would hopefully protect the Kings from the grave robbers. Alas, this did not happen and so far, only one tomb was not found and plundered by grave robbers. This was the tomb of King Tutankhamen, which is also in the valley of the Kings. Large entrance to the tomb The entrance ticket  which you buy at the gate, allows you to go into three tombs. You can basically pick any three tombs. The Tomb of King Tutankhamen is not included as one of the three tombs. You can buy an extra ticket if you want to go into King Tut's tomb. This is by no means the most impressive of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, but because of the significance of this tomb, being the only intact tomb of a Pharaoh ever to be found, there is much interest to see inside. You can also buy a ticket (quite...

Magnificent Abu Simbel Lake Nasser In the first post on Abu Simbel I described my visit to this amazing site. All this could have been lost if it were not for the real miracle of Abu Simbel! Egypt gets its electricity from hydro-electric power plants along the Nile rive. The first dam (or low dam) in the Nile was built from 1898 to 1902 and was opened on 10 Dec 1902. It was apparent that this was not sufficient electricity for all of Egypt and it was decided to build the second "high" dam at Aswan. Construction of this high dam started at Aswan between 1960 and 1970. The dam wall and the lake it created would flood vast areas.  The lake created by the dam is 479 km long and at its widest point, 16 km across.  Around 150 000 to 200 000 people had to be re-located to newly constructed villages as a result of the building of the dam. It was absolutely essential that the dam be built, but many of the amazing historical sites along the Nile would be flooded and lost for ...

The imposing outside of the temple Maybe "Miracle" is not quite the correct word. "Wonder" might be a better work for Abu Simbel. Wonder or Miracle - both could be used to describe the massive temple at Abu Simbel. The first "wonder" is the amazing size of the temple. It is quite difficult to fully understand the size of the four massive statues of Ramesses II until you are standing next to them. Ramesses II must be regarded as the "King of Selfies". He was a bit obsessed with giant statues of himself and you pretty much cannot go anywhere in Egypt without bumping into a statue of Ramesses II. Anyway - there are four massive statues of Ramesses II which was carved into the solid rock of the mountain side. The four statues are meant to represent the Pharaoh through different stages of his life, from when he was about 20 until  and then every 20 years until he was 80. To me the statues all look pretty much the same but the guide assured m...