Luxor city.

Upon arrival in Luxor's train station, we were preparing for the worst possible experience with the touts.
Luxor is famous for the many touts that constantly wait in the station for some fresh tourist meat, just to throw on you their products; "cousin's hotels - with cheap prices"; misdirections - so that you end up in another hotel which pays them a commission (that is actually charged to your bill); and other sorts of scams (or "legit" business).
Some of them actually try to help you in any way, hoping to receive a good baksheesh.

To our surprise, we had just two people trying to sell us stuff, and one youngster that didn't succeed in sending us in the wrong direction. We ignored him, asked for proper directions from an ambulance driver and managed to find the hotel - which was surprisingly cheap: 60 Egyptian pounds ~ 9 euros per room. The price included good air conditioning, a modest breakfast, internet and sunset tea on the rooftop.
Also, we had a nice staff that didn't try to sell us tours or directly ask for any tips.

In the roof garden, we met some really nice people that have the same route as us, for Dahab and Jordan. We're actually all together right now - in the bus that goes to Dahab.
"Shisha" and good conversations were part of the menu, at every sunset.
For the shisha, me and Andra tried the apple one (yes, Andra too :D). After the first intakes, we asked the guy about what's inside exactly; he instantly answered: "hasis" :)) with quite a serious face - that he managed to keep just for 3 seconds.
It was actually just apple, but we did meet one local that was quite high from hasis, and he was saying that really loud, with a policemen in less than 10 meters ...and a half a razor blade in his mouth (we only saw it when it accidentally fell from his mouth while talking).

Anyway, back to Luxor: this city was our gate to: Valley of the Kings, Karnak temple (impressive!) and a one hour flight with a hot-air ballon. A separate short post for each one will follow.

Let's end this one with some quick facts about Luxor city:
- generally less pleasant than Aswan, because of the narrow streets and high amounts of trash everywhere (not as much as in Cairo though);
- as hot as Aswan, with around 40 degrees in the afternoon.
- many street-side vendors with special prices for tourists, not open for bargaining. We had at least three annoying moments when some Egyptians bought high amounts of foods for a few Egyptian pounds, while we were asked to pay the same amount of money - for just one small piece (overall, between 10 to 15 times the price for the locals).
- nice Nile view;
- cheaper than Aswan for accommodation;
- interesting sights in & around the city;
- similar or even less touts than in Aswan;
- nice bazaar with funny vendors. I actually enjoyed talking to them, negotiating or refusing in a funny manner, making jokes with some while dodging others.

Bottom line, Luxor is a must see if you plan to visit Egypt.
For us, seeing it once will be enough for a really long time..

Desert mirage...wow!

On the way back from Abu Simbel we saw our first desert mirage, and it was a strong one.
For us it was simply unbelievable: at the right angle, an entire patch of desert on the horizon line, turned into a reflective surface with watery like appearances.


Because the desert had many rocky structures scattered all over the place, the mirage made them look like small islands coming out of water.
It was so convincing that at first, I wanted to ask the driver if we have the Nile river on the horizon; but the angle changed a bit and it was clear to us that it was just an illusion.

When the illusion's intensity started fading away, I couldn't stop thinking about other sorts of illusions we experience every day:
- commercials that try to make us buy brands, not necessarily good products;
- political campaigns that rely on carefully chosen words, with little substance;
- fashion, with it's seasoned colors/clothes; trying to make us buy new stuff just because there's a new trend out there (a trend that doesn't exist in reality, but will soon exist after they choose & announce it);
- a path that the society imposes to us, with it's guidelines, liberties and restrictions (do this and that, but you're not allowed to do that... Soo transitory, place related and ..maybe.. useless);
- mass-media with it's way of exaggerating and emphasizing on certain things, just to score more readers count;
- religion, when it is misunderstood or misused and we get: fanatics, hidden & selfish purposes, meaningless rules & restrictions; (maybe I'll post more on religion, in a separate post - since recently I found out some new interesting things)

Anyway, I think we're getting smarter and we're not falling for the same old tricks.
Just watch out for the mirages, enjoy looking at them, learn from them, but don't start chasing any illusion - like a desperately thirsty Bedouin, tricked into meeting his fate.

Aswan city.

Aswan was good to us.
Above you can see the Nile view we had from the hotel's roof garden. It was pretty breathtaking the first time.

The city is a lot different than other places in Egypt (like Cairo and Luxor): it's not crowded, less hassle from the locals... a quiet place where we could relax after the busy Cairo. We even made some new acquaintances while staying here: a couple from Japan, a guy from Argentina and a really nice couple from Holland - doing a trip to South Africa.
The trip to Abu Simbel was totally worth it, even though we had to get up at 3am and leave with the military convoy.

Time is short today, so we'll take care of the luggage and just let you enjoy some of the photos we took:
Aswan:

http://picasaweb.google.com/IonRazvanCiuca/Aswan?feat=directlink
Abu Simbel & Philae temples:

http://picasaweb.google.com/IonRazvanCiuca/AbuSimbelPhilaeTemples?feat=directlink

Aswan - update.

We arrived safely in Aswan, one of the southest touristic spots in Egypt.

There should be a funny sign here, something like: "Welcome to Hell - here you have the chance to slowly roast at 40 degrees Celsius" :)
It's hot and impossible to stay outside between 1:00 - 17:30..
(update: the locals are funny, they often say: "welcome to Alaska" :), so no need for any special sign)

We were lucky enough to find a budget hotel with air conditioning, wi-fi and a roof garden with a nice Nile view and a small pool.
More about Aswan tomorrow. Right now we just wanted to let everyone know that tomorrow we'll be traveling to Abu Simbel - 3 hours through the desert - accompanied by military convoy :|

So, wish us luck in returning safely. OR, if you have some old grudge with either of us, now is your time to pray to Allah so that he will send Bedouins to kidnap us :)
Ovidiu, do you need me to give you the direction of Mecca? :p

Train to Aswan.

In our 4th day in Cairo, we took the 13 hours train to Aswan, where we'll be staying for two days, and then move to the neighboring Luxor.

Since we knew one or two things about Egyptian trains, we booked the 1st class, which is more like a 2nd or 3rd class in Romanian trains. No kidding :)
It was ok though, we met a few other travelers like us, talked with them for a couple of hours and then slept most of the way.
Actually Andra slept more (after finishing documenting about Aswan and Luxor); I chose to write the Cairo post and this one, and also tried to take some photos. It's hard to take any quality photos through very dirty windows though.

Other than these small inconveniences, the train ride provided some insights into the rural side of the country, with its lush lands along the Nile.

Wow, I stopped for 10 seconds for some inspiration :) and saw the first camels during this ride, also people working the land, some white birds on the ground (maybe egrets), now donkeys and cows (they look like cows.. but not entirely).

One more sip from the Guava juice and back to scouting the horizons.
hmm..I don't believe I told you about the Guava juice in the previous post. Our 1st host Jenna, introduced it to us. It's simple: it smells awful, but it has an amazingly good taste :D, very different from what I've had so far. The trick is not to smell it when drinking :).
Andra is not crazy about it, I am at my third box already.

Back to train sightings: poor areas almost everywhere.
The villages look unfinished; small, isolated communities with half built houses; the people in rather dirty clothing, and only a handful of them. Many cities/villages look almost deserted, with little activity at this hour (7:30 in the morning).
We were wondering how it was possible for a civilization with such an impressive heritage, to remain behind so much. These people's ancestors build the pyramids, way before other countries were even born. Now they're building new stuff with outside help: "from the people of Japan" is written on the metro cars. A new museum is to be built soon with help from Germany (the entire Egyptian museum is supposed to move in the new location).
I don't know enough history and politics to come up with an answer and I actually have no idea about what kept these people behind.
Please don't say "Google it", as we don't have internet and will not have it for a while. It's a luxury right now.. (obviously, if you read this post we have already solved the internet problem, at least temporary).

Hopefully we'll be able to write more from Luxor. Until then, I'm curios what lies ahead and what new stories we'll be able to share with you later.

Cairo city.

Well, well, well, I'll try not to complain... too much :)

Cairo is CRAZY! Yes, you saw it right: CAPS and exclamation mark, because it can be that different (not necessarily in the good way); but it also has it's positive aspects as well.
We'll start with the negative ones, so that we can conclude on a positive note.

We've been warned about the "touts", the people trying to talk you into buying something from them, but we had no idea it can be that intensive. They search for you, they follow you (even for hundreds of meters), they constantly try to make you talk to them so that they can relate to something ("Romania great country", "Bucharest number one" and so on).
But that's nothing.. The problem is that most people here hope to gain something from you: "baksheesh" (the word sounds familiar, right?).
If you stop someone and ask for information, he might expect a few Egyptian pounds for the effort, or he will invite you to his shop to buy something, or he has a souvenir that you can buy from him - on the spot, or ...he knows the Pyramid's entrance and some Bedouins that can give you good prices for camel rides.
Ok, we fell for the last one, mostly because we had no idea where we were supposed to go.. and this "nice" old guy helped us with directions and in catching the right bus (this one is a lot harder than it sounds: in Cairo, most buses have no numbers/direction in English, and the route is yelled constantly by one guy sitting on the stairs, half-way out the bus).
Anyway, it was the second and the last time we decided to trust "friendly" locals, without double or triple checking the information.

Back to Cairo being a crazy city: imagine almost the entire population of Romania in one crowded, dirty, polluted, badly maintained city - with tourism as the main way of earning a living. I know it sounds harsh, but nothing here is exaggerated.
You, as a tourist, are a "walking euro coin" - as some friends put it.
Hospitality is almost non-existent. It can be bought though and it only comes after paying, ..before is just hassle.

Some other things that amazed us from the very first day:
- all the drivers use the horn as a second nature, especially the taxi drivers that use it every time they see you on the sidewalk, just to let you know they are there in case you need them. Also, they slow down, get near the sidewalk and ask if you need a taxi (50% of the time).

- people here stare at women all the time. I even got the customary "lucky man..lucky man" when seen together with Andra.

- almost the entire city looks like some of the worst districts in Bucharest: really dirty, with old badly maintained buildings. It's actually hard to find a safe-haven and the only one we found was at the Opera house. Also, me and Andra were the only ones looking (for 10 minutes or more) for a garbage disposal of any kind.. the other people just threw stuff everywhere.

- there are no new or nice looking cars, all of them look like they've been through many accidents and the fixing was done with the hammer. Also, most cars on the roads resemble the old Dacia model - and they look very very old.
We even witnessed an incident with an old car that was just driving normally and one wheel suddenly snapped and almost broke off from the car.

- most tourist attractions don't have direction signs on the roads. Also, in many cases we stopped and wondered if we were in the right place, since the area looked so bad or isolated.
You would expect that for the major attractions there's an infrastructure in place. Wrong. Even for the Pyramids, you have to take the metro and then walk for 25 minutes, or take a local bus that leaves you in front of a small street that has nothing special, not even asphalt in some areas.

There are other small things that could be mentioned here, but it's time to get to positive aspects :)

The culture is amazing and it's really interesting to learn about things directly on the spot. Especially as we learned: with examples and stories that our host Jenna was so kind to share with us.

The pyramids are impressive. Too bad that half the time spent there was lost with touts that constantly tried to sell something, from small souvenirs to horse or camel rides.
Even the policemen tried to earn a few Egyptian pounds by showing the best spot for a cliche picture with the sphinx (kissing, hugging, holding it etc).
Darn, I'm back to less pleasant facts, ..but that's Cairo: every positive aspect also has a negative side.

The Egyptian museum has a lot of impressive pieces inside. You can stay for a full day if you want to see everything. Now, I must mention that I wasn't that impressed because many expos did not have a description, so you looked but didn't learn/understand anything. Also, taking photos is not allowed, or you have to pay a lot of money for it (more than the price of the ticket - which was 10 euros). And a last thing: sadly the glass casings are full of fingerprints and some grease, probably because cleaners don't do their job or the museum authorities don't care that much about this aspect.
We found a funny description of the museum, in a guide, which seemed really fit: probably the most impressive collection in the world, gathered under the worst roof.

Food prices were quite normal for us, not expensive nor too cheap. You can try traditional food everywhere. But yes, there's a negative aspect here as well: many places don't look that clean and we had doubts about the safety factor in trying foods from such places. It was quite hard in finding a place that inspired thrust, where flies can not stay on the food, or where the food did not look like it was out in the sun for too many days.
It's a bit more expensive, but safer to eat inside restaurants.

To conclude this post:
In a nutshell, if you wish to see only the nice things in Egypt and fully relax for the entire period, then a complete tour booked through a travel agency can provide just that: hotel, nice resort, sightseeing, no hassling with touts, bus from and to each attraction - with not too much time spent in the dirty city..
The problem is that this is not Egypt.
If you wish to have the "full Egypt experience" then brace yourself for some tough, but interesting moments.


More photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/IonRazvanCiuca/Cairo?feat=directlink

Andra's birthday

It was today..., but it actually started with this tour and it is going to last as long as the tour itself.

Since it's hard to prepare anything special, because everything we're doing in this trip is kind of special, I compiled a photo collection with what Andra has been up to, so far:

Flight to Cairo

It started raining heavily in Istanbul in the morning we left (it rained in the previous day as well), so we headed directly towards the airport, accompanied for a while by our host Ercan.

It turned out that it was worth it to carry with me the "LOST hoodie" (received 2 years ago when working on the LOST game) and the rain cover for the DSLR.

Before the trip I was really close to decide upon leaving them at home, as I thought that there were little chances for rain in the areas we're visiting. Anyway, I would have regretted it.

The hoodie was also a cause for having some fun at the airport. While in line for Passport Control, an Italian couple noticed it and the guy asked where/when did I buy it. When I told him that I work in the gaming industry and that I received the hoodie while working on the Lost game, he asked if he could touch me :). Then we had a nice 5 minutes talk about traveling and couchsurfing.

The flight was scheduled to leave at 14:00, but it was delayed. It seems that there was a problematic passenger and the authorities escorted him out of the plane (we didn't see/hear any commotion, so it probably happened in the 1st class isolated space).
The flight itself was bumpy, with quite some turbulence that made us regret the food we ate on board (a really nice meal though, offered by Egypt airlines).
Upon landing, it was interesting to see Cairo from above, ..it looked "sandy". The heat wave that hit us when getting off the plane, was unexpected. Shukran Allah for the air conditioning inside the airport :)

As you can see we're trying to learn a few words and phrases in the local languages. So far they proved a bit useful; but they're definitely not a must, as most people know basic English.
Shukran (thank you) and Salam Alecum (peace be with you) get instant positive responses, especially the latter which seems to disarm people and make them treat you with more respect (and less hassle).

More about Cairo in 1-2 days.

Two days and two nights in Istanbul.

Istanbul is a city of contrasts, placed on two continents, with an European side and an Asian side divided by the Bosporus strait.

We enjoyed the European side for its many tourist attractions, interesting mosques, architecture and easy to navigate streets. As for the Asian side, we appreciated it for the nice narrow streets and general architecture. Unfortunately, in two days we didn't have enough time to explore both sides, so we focused more on the European one that had the tourist attractions: Hagia Sofia (considered the eighth wonder of the world), Sultan Ahmet Mosque (or the blue mosque), grand bazaar, spice bazaar, hippodrome of Constantinople, many other mosques, an interesting cemetery with a restaurant inside, pottery shop & textile shop with live demonstrations (Andra participated in both ways at a demonstration, first in the audience and then on the wheel).








We were hosted on the Asian side by a wonderful Turkish couple.
From them we learned many interesting things about the Turkish language, culture, religion, differences & connections between our two countries (it seems we have many words in common - thanks to the ottoman influence in the past).
They took care of us exactly as we take care of our couchsurfers, so we felt just like home in their nice apartment. Comfortable couch, pink bedsheets :) (we have some pink slippers for our couchsurfers), wi-fi and two lovely turtles that I enjoy feeding.
It was great to have Turkish tea and coffee together; the tea glasses were interesting and the coffee came accompanied by an eatable spoon made out of chocolate!


Now, some interesting facts.
- We arrived in Istanbul around 5:30 in the morning and decided to visit until the open hour for the exchange office and public transportation. It was the best decision we took (we could have waited in the tourist agency instead, and get bored to death). It was great especially because there were just a few people outside at that hour, and we could see the hippodrome and Blue Mosque in a quiet (almost serene) atmosphere. The first time we entered the mosque, it was such an impressive sight, almost breathtaking. The silence and the echo were unbelievable.
It is was far less nice to visit the same places again, with a lot of crowd around us. So, we'll repeat this experience with visiting at early hours, as often as we can - for the rest of the trip.

- Our daily budget was around 15 euros per day, for each of us, enough for free sightseeing and eating. As said in the beginning, Istanbul is a city of contrasts: clothes are a lot cheaper than in Romania (in bazars and some shops), food prices depend on the location (you can eat plentiful traditional meals from kiosks; restaurants can be really expensive though - especially near tourist attractions), transportation is quite expensive (1$ per ticket) and there's no way around it; the city is huge and you can't walk everywhere.
It's best to choose each day an area with many concentrated attractions, rather than jumping from one place to another, as it will cost you also a lot of time beside money.

- Turkish hospitality is amazing. You won't experience it everywhere, but when you encounter it, it is overwhelming. There was this bakery boss that started asking us where are we from (we were just searching for corn flower to prepare "mamaliga"/polenta for our hosts), then he offered free cookies. The next day we passed by his place, he saw us and yelled "ce faci"/"how are you" in Romanian, then gave us other free bakery specialties - despite our initial refusal. He wanted to know many things about us: where we work, if we're married (we did a funny head salute when he heard that we are together for 7 years). The next day when we went to offer him a small pottery pot, we found out from his workers that he told everyone about us :)








- Call for prayers from all mosques. This thing happens 5 times per day and it can be easily heard inside the houses. The mosques have really loud speakers; the locals say they are too loud, but we liked it. They don't start all in the same time, but random, and the sounds build up in the first minutes, then slowly fades away. It feels relaxing every time..

I intended to upload more photos, but the internet here is incredibly slow, almost the same in Istanbul. So, I will never complain about internet speed in Romania :)
You can see more photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/IonRazvanCiuca/Istanbul?feat=directlink

Middle East trip - on the way to Turkey.

Merhaba dear readers.

I am writing this first post from the trip - while in the bus towards Turkey; but, by the time you'll read it, we would have already reached Istanbul and posted it successfully.
Right now we're in Bulgaria, probably 70 km away from Veliko Tarnovo, which we briefly saw almost an hour ago.

Anyway, since I have a nice story to tell you, let's start from the beginning.

It's the little things that matter.
We kind of finished packing in the last moment, just in time to reach the bus. Half an hour later, after arriving at the agency, it turned out that the bus timetable was different from what we were told on the phone and we were scheduled to leave in two hours. It was ok, the time passed quite fast and we used it to prepare our bellies for the road ahead :)
During the 2 hours stay, the Turkish driver told us at least three times to go in and have a coffee. Normally, I thought he was interested in the money and just wanted to convince us to go inside and buy things from his agency.
My initial thought changed drastically after two hours drive in the bus. At first they constantly offered us cold water from the refrigerator, then cookies, ice-cream!, tea and sodas; free ..of course :). So, the coffee he so nicely mentioned was probably free as well.
All these came accompanied by smiles from the two guys serving us. It would have been perfect if there were girls instead of guys :D. Ouch! Punch from Andra. I deserved that :).

Back on topic, the drive through Bulgaria was amazing. We passed through Bulgaria's beautiful country side, with its waved hills and continuously changing landscape. And 45 min ago we saw an incredible sunset. The pictures taken through the windows don't do it justice..

A passenger just dropped his glass of water on the floor. "No problema, No problema" came the quick response from the smiling Turkish guys, "we'll give you another one". All this happening on a nice & calm Turkish music in the background.

Turkish hospitality experienced way before reaching the country. Nice. Can't wait to see the country.

It's quite dark inside and I can hardly see the keyboard. Also, it started raining outside, so perfect setting for sleeping. It's time to rest the heads on those nice inflatable pillows that we brought with us.