The Start of Ramadan

We woke up at 8:30 this morning, showered and ate breakfast. Our plan was to see Karnak temple, check out from the hotel and head back to Cairo. The night before we had timed everything out perfectly but little did we know, the time actually went back an hour for the beginning of Ramadan. So what we thought was 8:30 was actually 7:30 and our plan to return to the hotel at 11:15 and check out turned out to be 10:15. If we had known this then we definitely would have gotten an extra hour of sleep (if you have not figured it out by now, Jack and I enjoy our sleep). In the end, I used the extra hour to blog in our hotel.

A model of Karnak Temple

We went downstairs after breakfast and asked for a taxi to Karnak, the price they gave us was 15 EGP. We started walking away and someone came up to us and said 10 was fine. Karnak temple is UGE (as my Dad would say). It spans about 2 sq km and the Temple of Amun is the largest religious building ever built. Records show that at one point it had 81,000 people working on or for the temple. If you remember from the Luxor temple pictures, there is a row of sphinxes. This row actually leads all the way (3 km) from Luxor to Karnak. On a side note, the city leaders have decided to once again have that row lead from Luxor to Karnak which has caused a lot of unrest in Luxor as homes and businesses are displaced. The picture of me next to the column is taken from the Great Hypostyle Hall. This room covers enough space to contain both Rome’s St Peter’s Church and London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. It took a couple of rulers to build and you can actually see in the walls the differences in style between them. Following the hall is one of Hatshepsut’s Obelisks, and it is the tallest one still standing in Egypt. I found this rather ironic considering Tuthmosis III tried to erase all memory of her. We continued to wander around Karnak for an hour until we were ready to take a taxi back to the hotel.

Standing outside the entrance

There are 134 of these in this room and it is very impressive.

I found their attempt at depicting motion kind of interesting

Tall obelisk for Hatshepsut

By the Sacred Lake and I like this picture because it makes Jack look tiny

We took a break for 15 minutes at the base of one of the huge columns just to take it all in.

We checked out at 11:45 and everything was good. It was unfortunate the pool was not working while we were there as that would have been a very nice way to relax. If I ever go back, I might consider staying at the cheaper Nefertiti Hotel nearby. We got to the airport and men caming running up to help with our bags. They opened the trunk only to find absolutely nothing. We apologized for just bringing our backpacks. The airport once again has a checkpoint before you check in to your flight. I found this incredibly annoying as the guards asked us for our tickets and we had to explain that we had not checked in. For some reason they did not understand. I kept pointing to other side and saying we needed to check in. He asked us for our flight number and I brought out our itinerary. He then thought that our itinerary was a printed version of the Web Check In. I still do not completely understand the purpose of why we were stopped. Near our gate we stopped for lunch and ordered some Pizza. We were hungry and could not wait another 3-4 hours to eat. It ended up being a smart decision as our driver was 30 minutes late picking us up and traffic was terrible. At some point though the government in Cairo was smart enough to build a tunnel. Without the tunnel it would have added an additional hour if not more to the journey.

Drying my shirts after washing them in the sink

We stayed in the hotel and caught up with our family and friends. We had planned to do a felucca ride but decided that it was too late to try. During this time I also did some laundry as I was out of shirts. We headed to Khan al Khalili so Jack could see what he missed and to see what Ramadan was like. The streets were barren. It is unbelievable how empty the streets get at sundown during Ramadan. The whole city moves inside and it turns into a ghost town. There is no way you would think it is inhabited by as many people as it is. The first place we went to get dinner only had a set menu for the breakfast of Ramadan. This set menu cost 150 EGP and they would not change it for us. The second place we went was closed and the third place was only serving drinks. What a great start to Ramadan in Cairo. We made it back to the same place near our hotel we had been on our first night and ordered a chicken dish. It was alright and following dinner we just went back to the hotel. Jack passed out almost immediately and I went to bed shortly after.

Kind of blurry, but you get the idea. During the day this street is normally packed

Nutrition:

Jack and I continue to eat at midrange places and order what would be considered “safe” food. Although still Egyptian, we are not getting the stuffed pigeon or liver and I do not think we will try that anytime soon.

Shish Tawook, not nearly as good as my Dad's bbq chicken