Contrasts and Chellenges - Rhodes and Cairo

We spent Saturday in Rhodes – this is a large Greek island, but as we were only in port for 6 hours we decided to walk the town. It is very gorgeous – the oldest inhabited medieval town in the world and a world heritage site. There is the old town and new town and we just wandered around the cobbled streets of the old walled town and saw where the Knights used to live and the Palace of the Grand Master who was in charge of the knights. It is boy heaven and the boys had a blast – all the beautiful little medieval buildings are filled with tacky souvenir shops with swords, knives, armour and headdresses as well as figurines of all the Greek guys – Spartan warriors etc. – I don’t really know the names! Needless to say, the boys spent up. Rhodes is a pommy package tour destination and it was heaving with people, it would be chaotic in summer, but we could still appreciate the beauty of it.


Alexandria, Egypt was the port of call for the next day, but that evening about midnight Liam came down with what we are sure was a bout of food poisoning (I since know of at least 6 cases of it on the boat from the people we have talked to). We all only got about 3 hours sleep and when the sun came up there was no way Liam was going to be able to cope with the 13 hour tour to Cairo to see the pyramids. So, Chris stayed on the boat with Liam and Jordan and I jumped on the bus – there were 50 buses off the ship today – 2500 thousand people.

We travelled 3 hours to Giza, had a look at the pyramids, looked at more pyramids, went on a jeep ride through some desert area and rode camels back to a country club for lunch, then more pyramids, shops and back to the boat. That’s it in a nutshell, but Egypt is a total culture shock – it is filthy and derelict and I know this is only my impression from a day, but it seems to have little to redeem it. The trip to the pyramids was quite scary – touts were manhandling people, putting headdresses on you and expecting you to pay, one guy was lifted bodily onto a camel and only when he threatened to jump off did they let him down – they were wanting him to pay for a ride, even the guards were offering to take a photo and then wanting you to pay them. We said no to them, but when they are carrying AK47’s that possibly wasn’t a good idea in hindsight! I am also amazed that you are able to touch the pyramids - normally anything like this you would think would be fenced off as it is so precious.
The jeep and camel ride was fun, and it was nice to try some local food, rice with cinnamon spices and nuts, chargrilled chicken, stuffed baked peppers and other stuffed veges, flatbread and dips. I was glad they fed us Egyptian food rather than dish up chips and burgers to the tourists. The trip to a Papyrus factory and a souvenir shop was certainly a case of milk the tourist so Jordan and I refused to buy anything on principle. It was a long day and we got back to the boat at 9pm. Liam was a bit brighter and they had had a very quiet day. Thankfully because Liam was ill they will refund his and Chris’ tickets – they are otherwise non-refundable - the trip was 145 E for adults and 102 for children so for the four of us it would have been a NZ$1000 day. Liam’s ship’s doctor visit and assorted medications cost 105E (about $NZ200).

Anyway, a sea day today and we arrive in Heraklion, Crete tomorrow and hopefully Liam will be back at full speed. Once again, sorry for lack of photos. I will post photos as soon as it is not costing me an arm and a leg !