Egypt 2010Fitch’s 40th!

Cairo from my hotel room balcony. Satellite dishes as far as the eye can see.

If you really concentrate and will it to be so, terminal 3 will come to you, inshallah.

View out my window at Sofitel Karnak.

Sharia rule # 246

Hot air balloons over the Nile in Luxor. I had trouble adjusting the smog and dust filter on my camera.

Temples at Karnak – Statue of Ramses II with his wee little wife.

Kaled told us that she was little because she was unimportant, as females generally are were.

The internet tells us that she is little because before she was Ramses’ favorite wife, she was Ramses’ favorite daughter.

Ewwww…

On the beams atop these ancient papyrus columns, you can see 5,000 year old paint. Unbelievable.

Compare to the photo below, of the 5 year old paint on my rental property. Unacceptable.

Why? We do not know.

Standing in at 97 feet tall, a shape that needs no introduction….

The obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut (really does not sound one bit like “hot chicken soup”) is a clue that not only was the lady clever in her use of religious symbolism to legitimize her claim to be pharaoh, she was also keenly aware that phallic symbolism garners a lot street cred.

Don’t make eye contact, or else he might call on you to answer a question.

Fitcha Groupa, what were the dates of the new kingdom?

More scenes from the Temples at Karnak. On the left, in the background, a statue of an Egyptian god has been creatively vandalized to resemble a Coptic cross. In the foreground, Anna disapproves.

If anyone’s looking for me, I went thataway.

Really old graffiti was pretty interesting, too.

Behold the Great Belzoni. He was 6’7”, which might

explain why I never saw his name anywhere.

And now, we will begin some navigations…

Flaneuse

Lazuli

Flanuli

Bar-having toilet flushers

Omelet eaters

Scenes from La Flaneuse du Nil, home of instant Starbucks, lots of beer, and flush-anything toilets.

Mealtime aboard the Flaneuse – before we learned we could drink our tomatoes.

Ironically, we lowered our white flags and surrendered our fates to this man, our tug boat captain.

El Kaab

EDFU

Small farming village

Temples near the stone quarries

My feeling is that the three of us together have a 360 panorama.

Tai Chi

Chai Tea

Local pronunciation: Kom Ombo

Fain Jake?

The Greco-Roman influence on Egyptian art takes the form of protruding belly buttons, flabby knees, and a little junk in the trunk.

Here, I am showing you graffiti where someone has written on the floor. They have written on the floor. Written on the floor. Why? We do not know.

“Don’t you think that bit about sucking her eyes out was a little far-fetched?”

My God, that bridge was stunning at night!

Scenes from Philae

Sunset over Aswan

Jake’s Other Other Kitty

Nile crocodiles (best picture!)

This picture is my favorite of all of them.

Don’t even think about having fries or dessert with that.

?

HELLS YEAH!!!

Obligatory pyramid photo section

The sarcophagus you want to view is just above the top entrance. You, however, will enter the pyramid at the bottom and crabwalk on a 3 ft. wide path set at a 30 degree angle, bracing yourself on toe-pegs. Please keep to the left, as there will be Japanese tourists tumbling down on the right.

All aboard the NEW WINNER!!

Which we later traded in for LES-BUS

If elected Pharaoh, I promise to put a pyramid outside every window. -Cheops

Yippee Ki-Yay (mother …………….) !!

Why? I will tell you why… but it will not be the same reason as you heard from Kaled.

The Great Sphinx

The great Spinks

I had a brush with death at the camel market.

Favalafel

I was trying to photograph the Egyptian foul.This caption is funnier out loud.

Fitcha Groupa starts the day (after tequila night) with a light snack.

Why? Because of Mubarek.

…will be the name of my next pet.

That’s just funny; I don’t care who you are.

Here, I turned my lens back onto my mind and captured my own thoughts.Obscura Camera!

Fitcha Groupa shots

Back to Cairo

Markets for food and spices and little tents for your pets – everyone was allergic to aisle 6.

And still I long for swine.

I have my doubts.

Anything but pork. It’s what’s for dinner.

He was still trying to recover from the last call to beer when this one really ramped up.

ABIBAS!!

From the wily marketing team responsible for the notable potables Gordoon’s Gin, Fineland Vodka, and Johnny Watkins Black Table!

It says, “Monkey Wheeee Magic Dream”

Your guess is as good as mine.

9th century mosques, viewed from Bat-Cam angles.

I could kick myself for not even asking how much it cost.

Sheesha bling

Chronology of a barbecued-pigeon snack.

…but you can’t get bacon…

Many religious practices and observations today hearken back to the more pragmatic considerations of ancient peoples rather than anything mystical in nature.

The practice of covering the head but uncovering the feet stands out as an example.

These observances date back to a time before gravity, when it was common to bump the head, but not so much the feet.

Boo! boo!!That was the worst thing I ever saw!Yeah it was terrible!Horrendous!Well it wasn’t that bad.No, it was actually quite good.Yeah it was great!We love it!More more more!!

This slide show has been brought to you by the Amazon 2012 Committee, Fitcha Groupa Birthday Tours