Egypt has been an exciting last minute adventure for me...like usual..lol...but unforgetable! I was at the right place (Delhi) at the right time to make it here to meet one of my good friends, Albert who was in Iraq at the time.

Day 1
My journey started off in Cairo where I waited for Albert at the hostel. I was there a day
earlier than him, so I visited the Indian embassy to try to take care of my visa for India.
As I was leaving India, they stamped my passport saying that there must be a minimum of 2 months between visits to India! So I was stuck trying to get special permission....did not work out...so now the plan is to stay 2 weeks in Egypt and jordan than fly to Thailand, cambodia, laos, vietnam and nepal before returning to India...
Day 2
Went to an Egyptian circus and held a baby lion...really cool!!!Albert finally arrived from Kuwait! He is military so he did not have far to travel...just got hung up in the dust storms in Iraq.
Day 3
We took a camel ride in the desert to the great pyramids and to the sphinx. And yes I
climbed all over them...cant help myself :) We took a break at the foot of the sphinx. As we looked to the sphinx, we could see the pyramids behind them...What a moment! You def dont get to see this on a typical lunch break working 9-5!
Day 4
We went to the Egyptian Museam where we saw mummies!!! I coulnd not beleive how well preserved they were! It was a scary sight to see. it was absolutly amazing...therir teeth were gleaming white, eyelashes still attached, skin still smooth, finger prints visible,
fingernails, hair, you name it! It makes you wonder...did you know that the mummies are so well preserved that some of their cells are still alive?! Modern embalming and duplication of the techniques were never able to replicate the same effects.
After all that excitement Albert and I just decided out of the blue to go to the airport and grab a flight to Luxor...We landed 40 minutes later. We had just enough time to head to the sound and light show at Karnak complex in ancient Thebes. They told us a story about ancient egypt while flashing scenes and lights on the old pillars and monuments...beautiful display!
Day 5
We planned to go on a hot air balloon overlooking vally of the kings, but we planned it too late...oh well. We hired a taxi for the day on the west bank to take us to the vally of the kings and to many other places. Vally of the kings was awsome. We went into some of the old tombs of the mummy kings. I snuck a few pics, but got caught and had to pay the gaurd off to keep my camera. i pretended like i erased the memory...hahaha, i fooled him :) We went for a hike over the desert mountains along the vally of the kings to get to Hatshepsut. The hike was about an hour and a half, but it was amazing! We decided to book a flight to Sharm el Sheik to go diving...45 min later we arrived and had to get a cab to Dahab (1 1/2 hrs away).
Day 6
We rested the majority of the day...lounging on the pillowed cafes. Most of the cafes and restaurants have short tables where you sit on the floor with pillows everywhere...very comfortable! at 11pm we took a car to mt sanai where moses gave laws to the isrealites (10 commandments). We climbed up 3,750 steps. It took us 2 hrs to reach the summit! It was so cold...I did not plan for 0 degree weather on the mountain top! Welcome to the desert! We reached the top at about 4am. We then rested in the cold huddled together while waiting to see the amazing sun rise...just our luck! It was a cloudy morning high in the mountains..oh well...it was a great hike. on the way down, we stopped to visit the monastary.
Since we did not sleep the whole night, we slept the whole day :)
Day 7
Slept and went to friends cafe and had lunch and chilled out.
Day 8
We left at 5am to go to Jordan to see Petra. We took a bus, ferry and then another bus. Petra is one of the new 7 wonders of the world! It was carved out in the 6th century BC and is known as the pink city for its colored rocks. We had a tour guide for the first day. In the evening time we went to the cave bar which is the oldest bar in the world...over 2,000 yrs old!
Day 9
The second day in Petra we hiked up to the high place of sacrifice and over everything
else...in the caves and on top of everything. We then headed back to Egypt (Dahab).
Day 10-13
Day one of scuba and we were already in the sea learning new skills like swiming with out a mask and emergency ascends etc. By the end of the first day, the instructor was already impressed with how fast I caught on to the skills. The manager told me that i should do the master dive course. Anyways I ended up graduating top of the class lol. It was easy. the only bad thing was that the water was chilly and I nearly passed out on day 2! I think it must be because of my low blood pressure (69/40) and low heart rate of 50bpm! I do a lot of sports...what can i say...I did not pay special attention to it like i should of. Passing out while scuba is very dangerous!
Day 14
We went to the Islands to dive for real this time. We graduated and decided to step up to the plate! We dove at a coral reef and into a little cave...it was amazing...But 10 min into the dive i almost blacked out again...it was scary! the dive instructor insisted that I see a doctor before my next dive...Dont worry mom, that was my last dive for a little while :)
Day 15
Flew to Amman in Jordan...rested.
Day 16
Went to Mt Nebo which is the memorial (final resting place) of Moses. We also saw the roman ampitheater and the Citidal. There was a museum at the Citidel which housed the dead sea scrolls, which are the original scriptures of the old testament from the 6th century! That was a suprise to see!
Day 17
We are pondering...maybe we go to Israel (Jerusalem) and Mt Zion (place of last supper) for a day trip or just spend our last two days floating in the dead sea...
It takes 2-3 hours to cross the border because of the security...so we dont know if it is
worth siting there for 4-6 hrs (there and back). Plus once you enter Israel (passport
stamped) you have trouble entering some countries like lebonon etc...but we heard that you can get a paper stamped in place of you passport...still researching it....