Here's a compilation of email excerpts written by fellow-travelers Tom and Bill C. to their respective spouses here in Charlotte:

Our "fabulous five" (connected by family and/or St. Gabriel Choir) constitutes nearly half of this STA Travel Tour twelvesome. Joining our Charlotte ensemble in Cairo are seven more 20-ish "student types": 2 from Canada, 2 from New Zealand, 2 from Australia, 1 more from the USA (thus we are now a group of 7 women and 5 men).

1/7/08
Spent the day touring pyramids: Giza (3), Sakkara, and Dashur. Very cool! Each stop was more amazing than the one before. Some members of our group went into 2, others only ventured into the Red Pyramid. Brief quips:"We went in the Red Pyramid: hard work, low passage ways, hot and smelly." "Climbed stairs to about a quarter of the way up the pyramid and then traveled down (bent over) a very long downward corridor." "Won't need to do it again but glad I did." "Did not like the claustrophobic feel in the tunnel, so went back out." "Totally worn out. Feet tired, body tired and mind tired." "Steav is on cloud 10 1/2."

This is a fascinating trip . . . but by NO means is it relaxing thus far. The Egyptian culture is so very different from ours. Many people speak at least a little English, so it's not too difficult to communicate. All the Pharaoh temples and Pyramids have been awesome. Cairo is a big (11M) and dirty city. It is much nicer away from Cairo.

Resting/napping in a group room (actually Steav and Bill's) prior to 11:30 p.m. departure on the overnight train to Aswan.

1/8/08

We arrived in Aswan about 1:30 Tuesday afternoon. After checking into the hotel, we went out to lunch at a local pizza place. Wait: we travelled all the way to Egypt to eat pizza???? Our tour guide, Gandi, took us. What a surprise, Egyptian Pizza is very different. Very light flaky crust with the toppings and then covered with crust, tomato bits and cheese. We then took a brief walk through the souq, returned to our hotel for a short nap before leaving on a motorboat ride across the Nile, to the west bank.

On Ellephantine Island, we walked to the beginning of our camel ride in the Sahara Desert . . . our destination being dinner in the home of a Nubian family. The camel ride lasted over 30 minutes ("during which time I found parts of my rear end that I didn't know existed. Two days later I am still being reminded of their existence"). When we climbed off our camels, we went into a Nubian family's home for dinner and to experience a bit of their way of life.

The Nubian house consisted of two large rooms in a T shape. We entered the top of the T, side rooms came off of the leg of the T. The side rooms were living quarters for two or three families and a room with an oven. Bread for dinner was baking in the oven. Part of the top common room had a roof consisting of a single layer of corrugated sheet metal. An upstairs was located over the family living quarters. The second floor rooms were in disrepair and strewn with general stuff . . . a great view of the surrounding village was presented from this second level.

Benches surrounded the walls of the front common room. We sat and visited for a short time and then mats were spread on the floor for dinner. Dinner consisted of lentil soup, vegetables, tomato salad (like Tabuli), roasted chicken, fresh water, fried fish and bread. After dinner, the mats were rolled up, and several other families from the village came in. Young men arrived and played drums and sang for us while the girls got us all up to dance to the local music! The little girls are so cute with their big brown eyes and how they danced. We then had coffee and tea, rested a bit, back on the boat for the trip across the Nile, and then returned to our hotel. To bed and sleep in preparation for our 4:00 a.m. bus trip to Abu Simbel.

1/9/08

Because of its proximity to the Sudan, all police-escorted tour busses have to convoy on the long, uncomfortable 3-hour trip to Abu Simbel. (One of our tough travelers called it a "torcher".) These temples are awesome, quite a site, and worth the arduous trip!! On the return trip, we stopped at the High Dam holding Lake Nasser (the largest man made lake in the world), but it was not overly impressive. We then went on to Philae Temple: it had a lot of Greek influence as it was "only" a few hundred years BC. With a jam-packed itinerary, unfortunately, it was a rather rough day because of no air conditioning on the bus, no bathrooms between stops and not enough to drink.

1/10/08

HOORAY, we could sleep in this morning (relatively speaking) because we only had to be ready to board the fallucca (sailboat) by 10 AM.

Hi from the Nile River! Today was a very relaxing day: the only one so far. We just recline on cushion mats while sailing back and forth on the Nile. Our Nubian crew do the sailing and cooking for us. The Egyptians serve vegetables and pasta stewed in delicious spices. (Tomorrow night we will stop in a small village and buy some camel meat to add to our dinner.) It is also good to have a slow day since Steav and Lisa were feeling under the weather.

We thought that it might be really quiet here along the bank of the Nile since we are no where near any villages. Just having finished dinner, we are tied up on the bank for the night. However, large luxury cruise ships ply the waters between Aswan and Luxor 24 hours a day, so we hear their diesel engines and feel their wake from time to time. Now many of the young folk are playing a foot game that the ladies from Montreal are teaching. Soon we will enjoy a fire . . . maybe some singing?

Tomorrow we continue on the fallucca/sailboat . . . and sleep on it one more night.