Land of the Pharaohs

Egypt....I barely know where to begin.  To set the stage, we caught a 2:30 am flight from Bangkok to Kuwait.  We hardly expected to find ourselves there, but suddenly we were.  Needless to say, the Arab world is entirely and utterly different from anywhere is SE Asia.  One of the things that stuck us the strongest in Kuwait was the light.  It was hard and yellow.  It made the air look glassy and felt vaguely threatening (the light in Egypt is fortunately very different; it's softer and makes the world glow).  After a six hour lay-over we flew to Cairo.  Crossing the desert by plane was quite an experience.  The Earth was an endless sea of sand and rock.  God only knows what remains, human or otherwise, lay beneath that ever-shifting landscape.  Arriving in Cairo, we expected to find what everyone says of it: chaos.  It didn't let us down.  As the joke here goes, there are 10 million people in Egypt, and 25 million in Cairo.  It is a city painted the colours of the desert; it's all browns, bieges, and yellows.  It's hard to see further than a few city blocks due to the outrageous air pollution.  The traffic is barely controlled insanity.  Nearly every single vehicle bears the scars of collisions past.  Pedestrians literally take their lives in their hands as some drivers actually speed up in an attempt to scare them (we heard this directly from a taxi driver).  Still, we settled in and quickly fell in love with this place.  It has a charm that is difficult to define.

Since being in Cairo we've explored Islamic Cairo, where we saw the amazing Citadel, a beautiful mosque.  We've wandered around Coptic Cairo, home to the Christian community here.  There we saw the Church of St. Sergius, built over the sight where the Holy Family supposedly stayed after fleeing King Herod's massacre of the firstborn.  We lost ourselves in the massive market.  It is a bewildering and exciting place to buy basically everything from papyrus to statues to curly-toed slippers.  Plus, nestled within it is one of the coolest cafes we've ever seen.  It boasts chandeliers, polished hardwood, a stuffed alligator, and unbelievably gaudy floor to ceiling mirrors at either end that, when looking into one, gives the illusion of an infinite hallway.  We paid the hefty fee and saw the wonders of the Egyptian Museum.  There were two main highlights.  One was the mummies, particularly that of Ramses II, the wealthiest, most famous, and busiest (he had over a hundred sons and dozens of wives) of the Pharoahs.  The other main highlight was the treasures of King Tutankhamun.  It was stunning to see all that gold, particularly the famous deathmask in person.  King Tut only ruled Egypt for nine years, yet we have all this treasure.  Ramses II ruled over sixty years, yet there was nothing much found associated with him.  It makes one wonder what became of all the treasure.  Sadly, it was probably stolen and melted down.  It hardly bears saying that most astonishing experience we've had so far in Egypt was seeing the Pyramids.  Our taxi pulled out of an alleyway, and I barely had time to wonder where we were when I saw the Great Pyramid, blurred a bit by distance and sand, ruling the skyline.  We explored for hours, hassled by the ubiquitous scam artists, but still enjoying ourselves.  We got to venture inside the Great Pyramid, which is only open for one hour, twice daily.  Wow.  At one point during our ascent of the main passage, the electric lights went out, leaving us in pitch darkness.  Fortunately I had thought to bring my headlamp along, so we Indiana Jonesed it through the remainder of the Pyramid.  So cool.  The main chamber housing the "sarcophagus" was particularly thrilling.  It boggles the mind to think of how it all was constructed.

One final story that requires a brief telling is our mugging experience.  It was night and we were standing on a busy street looking at some wares, when I felt a tug at my backpack.  I whirled around and saw an Egyptian man standing there holding the water bottle we had stuck into the outside pocket of the pack.  He was clearly busted and tried to make a friendly gesture indicating he wanted a drink.  I just give him a dirty look and snatched the bottle back....then the crowd took over.  They don't like theives, or "Ali Babas," here.  Seeing as how it wasn't that long ago that they cut the hands off theives, this guy got off easy, still, it was a bit horrifying.  He got chased down the street by a howling mob, and most assuredly received a severe beating.  He survived a flying jump kick by one man, before running off, but it's certain they caught him.  Yikes.
Every day is an adventure here, and we feel like we are truly traveling again after the ease with which we'd become accustomed to spending our days in Thailand. 

We want to take the chance to tell all of our families and friends how much we miss them this Christmas.  Merry Christmas and we love you all.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
-- Helen Keller



The Citadel





Citadel interior



Saqqara, the step pyramid of King Djoser, and the oldest pyramid on Earth

View of Cairo from our hotel window

Megan's first sheesha and black tea poured over mint leaves

I'd like to be....under the sea....

We are happy to say Southern Thailand has lived up to its reputation.  It is simply paradise.  We took a boat from Ao Nang to Koh Phi Phi, and discovered the amazing, psychedelic, stunning world beneath the waves.  The town of Koh Phi Phi itself is a bit ridiculous, but we quickly discovered the real reason to be there.  We took a full day snorkeling trip around the island, and to a few smaller, neighbouring ones, and were totally blown away.  How to describe the colour of the water...?  It went from the clearest, brightest blue to an amazing emerald green.  The water was so warm you didn't worry about ever being uncomfortable.  Once you dipped your face below the surface, you were in another world, and it was hard to leave. 

The islands around Kho Phi Phi are home to the worlds most abundant coral reefs. There are multicolored fish, and beautifully colored coral just meters under the surface of the water. As you snorkel through the schools of florescent fish you feel almost as if you have joined their gang. You are able to hear the clicking of their mouths as they pick food off the coral. The fish swim right up to you with their wobbly eyes and their slowly moving jaws. Like our guide says in broken English, "they don't bite, they just come to kiss you." We're not too sure about that, because we both thought we felt a nip or two.  It was especially exciting when the guides would throw bits of bread into the water and a feeding frenzy would occur, sometimes completely enveloping an unwary snorkeler.  At this time hundreds of fish would come out of nowhere, and it was a bit insane being amongst them.  At one point a huge jellyfish came along to investigate, and I (John) ended up in a strange dance with it, each of us negotiating the others' space.  They are lumps of mush when beached, but in the water they are the most graceful animals imaginable.  Their bodies ripple and flow like gauze in a breeze, or billow like pale pink ghosts.  In addition to the incredible swimming, we met a fantastic group of people from all around the world: Australia, France, and Argentina.  We also stopped at the famous Koh Phi Phi Lay, which was the location of the movie "The Beach." Both of us were prepared to be underwhelmed by it, thinking "okay, here's another tourist trap," but it was nothing of the sort.  It was the most idyllic place we'd ever seen.  Our time there was brief (and was a bit harrowing to get to - those of you on our boat know what we mean!), but well worth it.

Needless to say, one day was not enough.  We returned to Ao Nang and went to Four Islands to spend more time with our heads under the water, breathing out of a plastic tubes. Our time spent snorkeling and playing in the ocean has been some of the best times on this trip. The beauty is an actual physical ache; it is unbelievable that nature can contrive to create places like this.  We don't want this time to end.....but it must because we have already planned out our next adventure.  We are catching a bus on the 19th to Bangkok to prepare.  Our time overseas is winding down, but there's still a bit more to come.  We have decided to take a leap, and explore what must surely be one of the most exotic places on our planet.  Next stop: Egypt! oh boy oh boy

Riding the boat to Koh Phi Phi

Our new friend Carmen being silly...John being cool

Fools

OMG

OMG!

Aptly named Chicken Island

Feeding frenzy!

Bad Monkey!

We have left the calm and beauty of Malaysia behind, to return to the equally beautiful, if slightly more hectic, land of Thailand.  This time we are exploring the beaches of the Andaman coast and islands of the south.  It is very different here from the north.  Although still a bit of a tourist-trap, it's far less seedy and much more relaxed.  We took a ferry from Langkawi to the border town of Samut, then found our way to an amazing little hide-away called Hat Rai Leh.  It is a hippie climber paradise, with huge swaths of beautiful beach encircled by towering spires of rock.  It is probably the most visual dramatic scenery we have seen, aside from Halong Bay.  Unfortunatelyy the weather, and our health, was not cooperating, but we still managed a bit of exploring.  We took a fun jungle walk from the end of the beach at Rai Leh West, to the nearby beach of Ton Sai.  It was even more laid back.  Imagine a mix of Lord of the Flies, The Beach (the movie) and a dreadlocked Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

There was one other adventure of note....and let it be a warning to all those would-be travelers, and friends of monkeys.  My dear friend Jordy recently warned me to stay away from the monkeys....but sometimes the monkeys come to you.  We were headed to a beautiful part of the beach, reached by a wooden walkway, enclosed by a fence on the right, and a hundred foot cliff on the left.  We stopped at the head of the trail to buy a few bananas....yes, you know where this is going.  I'm certain this little monkey/mugger, was watching our purchase with anticipation, already plotting his attack.  We ate two of the three bananas immediately, on the admonishment of the proprietor, who warned us with a single word: monkeys.  We stashed the remaining tasty treat in our bag and headed off.  We'd walked about ten seconds before the primate in question leaped to the ground from his perch on the fence, and headed straight toward me.  Something flashed in my mind, some wordless simian memory....or maybe t was just the look in his eye.  I barely had time to say "bad monkey," before he had jumped from the ground onto my bag.  No amount of swinging or protesting helped, and I finally let go ( he had big teeth).  Once on the ground he carefully, and very considerately, sorted through our belongings until he found the banana.  Then, with a parting hiss in our direction, departed.  Of course, during the entire episode, Megan hid behind a German couple.  Mugged by a monkey.  Dang.

That's all for now.  We are headed for the island of Ko Phi P:hi in a day or two, which is exciting.  Take care everyone.

Very.  Bad.  Monkeys.

Rai Leh was a bit of a climbing mecca



Portable restaurants





Forest friends

 A note from Megan. John has taken over my blog! That's fine with me, but I do want to share some great signs I have seen in the last few days. The other day on a restaurant board our choices were: Cellophane noodles barked with prawns, pancake ball head, Thai herp chicken soup and fried pink sweet and sour. Mmmn...what to choose? Another great phrase advertising for a bar, "Great for Youngster!" You can't help but wonder what dictionary they are looking in. Youngster? I haven't heard that word since 1950.

Malaysia

  Hey everyone, John here.  Megan is taking a vacation from her blog, so I'm picking up the slack.  Sorry for the delay in uploading our latest blog, we've been busy!  So I know you're all anxious to here the news.  Well, Chiang Mai turned out to be quite a disappointment.  For some reason we were expecting something akin to Luang Prabang...quiet, peaceful, atmospheric....but no.  We were greeted by a huge, noisy city, with barely a monk in sight.  Initially, we were intending on doing a Vipassana retreat, but were so stunned by the crassness of the city that we couldn't find the motivation.  The image of Chiang Mai that jumps most readily to mind is a 50+ man walking hand-in-hand with an 18 year-old Thai girl.  Chiang Mai is crammed full of girly bars, prostitutes, and the lonely old men who flock to them.  It was a bit shocking.  After a few days of trying to make the best of it, we decided a change was needed.  So, yes, about the "big surprise"....Well it seems as if everyone already knows, and you'll have to forgive us for making a comment so packed with promise.  No, it's nothing sensational, we simply jumped on a plane and flew to Malaysia.  This is one of those happy, spontaneous decisions that make traveling so much fun.  We suddenly found ourselves in a totally different country, and deep in the heart of one of the craziest cities around: Kuala Lumpur.

KL is both ultra-modern metropolis and old-world sprawl, but all of it is interesting.  For one thing, it was exciting and refreshing to be in a Muslim country.  The conservatism was refreshing after the hedonism of Thailand, and the people were fascinating to watch.  The call to prayer (heard multiple times a day over loudspeakers) somehow stirs the heart and adds another layer of mystique to an already enjoyable experience.  KL itself wore on us after a few days, but not before we had explored it by day and night, including the biggest mall either of us had ever seen (it had a rollercoaster on the seventh floor).  From here we island hopped up the west coast, during which time I was fortunate enough to pick up a sweet lung-infection, finally arriving at the island-paradise of Langkawi.  When you imagine giant crescents of golden sand, swaying palm trees, and warm blue water, this is one of those places that makes all of that come to life.  Unfortunately it was discovered by tourists long ago, so the trick is to rent a moped and zip across the island to the more remote stretches of beach.  Life here is almost too easy, and a strange sort of guilt settles upon you after a few days of idle nothingness.  Still, it is amazingly beautiful, and the people are remarkably friendly and laid-back.  We have been here six days and are likely leaving tomorrow to return to Thailand, but this time to explore the islands of the south.

One final, most distressing note.....Carly and Nikki, I know you will understand and feel my pain.  Two days ago Megan made a very very unfortunate discovery.  Well, they may not sell VANILLA COKE at home any more, but they sure do here!  You should have seen the crazed look in her eye.  She turned into a fearsome beast right in front of me.  I tried to have a sip and she nearly destroyed my face with a fork.  Oh no.

A note from Megan: Another great aspect of Malaysia is the multiculturalism, Malaysia is made up of immigrants from China, India and of course Malaysians and this combination results in some of the best food in the world. Curries from India, Roti Canai, fried Koay Teow, Mee Goreng, Vanilla Coke, seafood galore! Locals love great food; you just have to watch where the locals are headed at meal time and you will be rewarded.

I guess my blog vacation is now over

Kuala Lumpur, KL to locals, is the biggest city we've seen yet

The gigantic twin towers downtown KL.  They're sitting on top of a mall.

These girls were desperate for a picture with Megan.

The beautiful island of Pangkor.

aw.

Monkeys!

More monkeys!

A swimming monkey?

The amazing island of Langkawi.

The beast is back.