Live, Love, Share, Inspire http://www.garyinegypt.com/ en-us garyisse@garyisse.com 2006-04-21 Sorry I have not posted in a while. Now that I am back home I have a big mountain of things to tackle. Don't worry though, I have not forgotten about the site and putting up the remainder of the photos and videos. Ths next temple is one of my favorites. Deir el-Bari, which means Northern Monastery in Arabic, is the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, the only woman ever to reign as a Pharaoh over Egypt. http://www.garyisse.com/article-238.htm As many of you have most likely already heard, there have been a couple of terrorist attacks in Egypt in the last few days. I want to take this moment to express my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives or were injured. These acts are despicable and unacceptable and must stop. Egypts tourism industry is bound to suffer due to these events but I dearly hope that people all over the world will continue to keep an open mind about the people from this beautiful country. Throughout my time there I met many wonderful people, both Christian and Muslim, equally shocked and disgusted by these actions, who will now be unwitting victims of the repercussions of these terrible acts just as we were after 9/11. As a country dependent on tourism, these actions reach much further than just the Sinai. http://www.garyisse.com/article-239.htm Taking a trip out to visit the Temples at Abydos and Dendara is a must for anyone visiting the Luxor region. It is a little more difficult than heading out to the others, except maybe Abu Simbel, but the trip is well worth it, especially after seeing Abydos. To get to the two temples, you need to take a taxi, mini-van or tour bus at the designated times. If you want to see both, the convoy leaves at 10 am. Or you can leave at 2 pm to see only Dendara. But I strongly recommend catching the morning convoy and seeing them both. The reason you must leave at the designated times only is because all tourists going out to this region are required to have a military escort, for your protection of course. The day we had originally planned to see the two temples, we arrived late to the convoy and were told that we would have to wait until the next day. After telling them that we really wanted to see the temples that day (only because we wanted to see if any other options were available), we were told that we could go talk to the police and ask them if we could get a private escort. So, out of curiosity, we were off to see them. Luckily, the tourist police station is right next to the Tourist office so we did not have to go very far. If you would like to read about our experience asking the luxor police for a private escort, I have added it at the bottom of this page for you. Ok, back to Abydos. http://www.garyisse.com/article-225.htm I almost forgot to congratulate myself for not touching the hookah, or the shisha, the entire time I was in Egypt. I quit smoking in May of 2004 so I was a bit nervous about going to Egypt considering the prevalence of tobacco smoking, particularly using the hookah. It was especially hard considering that I never smoked tobacco from a hookah before so I really wanted to try it. I thought of many reasons why it would be ok but in the end I realized that it would not be. There were a couple of times while sitting with people who were smoking that I was extremely tempted to say the least. At one point I even asked someone to blow the smoke in my face so I could smell it. Ah, how I wanted to try it. I am not quite sure which part of my brain prevailed but I withstood the temptation and can now say that it has been 1 year, 10 months, and 21 days since I have been tobacco-free. http://www.garyisse.com/article-217.htm After visiting Abu Simbel, I joined a shared mini-bus to see the Temple of Isis at Philae. On the bus, was a very nice mother and daughter duo exploring Egypt together. It was a pleasure to meet them and to know that they were not only from the states, but also shared my views on fair trade. In fact, the mother, Nancy, owns the Ancient Oracle Company, a fair trade store in which she plans to sell imports from Egypt. I was excited to know that I had met her on her mission... http://www.garyisse.com/article-212.htm Many people have asked me about the women in Egypt. Questions like, "Is it true that they all cover themselves up completely?" or "Are they allowed to walk in the streets alone?" Although I can try to explain to you about it, I actally think that this video from Nell Holden does a very good job of doing so from another woman's perspective. http://www.garyisse.com/article-213.htm As a scuba diver, there was no way that I could have visited Egypt and not gone diving at Ras Mohammed. For some unknown reason, just the idea of scuba diving in the Red Sea at a place, whose name translated into English is Head of Mohammed, was intriguing and instilled a sense of adventure. While on my way to the dive sites with Oonas Dive Club from Sharm el-Sheihk (a great dive club by the way), I shot this video to give you an idea of what getting out there was like. These are all above water, however, the video below is an excellent compilation of some spectacular clips captured in the waters of the Red Sea. I hesitated to post my video for two reasons; first is that seeing all of the boats can be a bit disturbing, and the second and main reason is because the video below is just so much cooler to look at. http://www.garyisse.com/article-211.htm I did not realize how many of you wanted to see more of the eclipse. I thought the part you all wanted to see was the diamond ring moment. Well, no problem. I have about thirty minutes of the entire process and I am more than happy to share it with you. I have also sped up this video into a 4 minute time-lapse clip and even sped that one up twice as much (except for the two diamond ring moments) for those of you that want to quickly see more. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.garyisse.com/article-208.htm Here is a 4-minute time-lapse clip of about 30 minutes of the eclipse including totality. http://www.garyisse.com/article-209.htm Here is a time-lapse clip of about 30 minutes of the total solar eclipse including totality. Everything is sped up here to about 2 minutes except for the two diamond ring moments left unedited. http://www.garyisse.com/article-210.htm Well, 2 days and 10 hours after leaving Cairo to broadcast video of the total solar eclipse from Sollum, Egypt, I have finally made it back home. Corey and I left Cairo, stopping only when we ran out of gas, to broadcast the eclipse, to quickly eat dinner, to take a shower, and on layovers, and travelled by car and plane non-stop until we got home safely. Although the eclipse is over, please continue to check back as I have plenty of video and photos I will be adding from the rest of my visits to Egypt; such as the pyramids, some dive videos, temples, screensavers, and more. Thanks again for visiting. http://www.garyisse.com/article-205.htm Ok, due to popular demand, here is a 5 minute video that includes the complete 4+ minutes of totality, that started at about 12:38 pm, from Sollum in Egypt. http://www.garyisse.com/article-206.htm I recently received a very interesting request and thought I would share this with you. Someone asked if we would be willing to do a debriefing video interview and we think it is a great idea. I also think it would be a good idea to open the floor to all of you, my web site visitors, to ask us any questions you would like to have answered. We will get together early next week and would be happy to answer whatever questions you may have for us and later post the video for you all to see. To send us your question, please click the "more" link and fill out the form. I look forward to hearing from you. http://www.garyisse.com/article-207.htm Some of you may be wondering why I said in the my entry for the live broadcast of the eclipse that I could not believe that we finally made it and were able to pull it off. It is a pretty long story so I saved it all for this separate post. It actually all started a couple of days before I left for Egypt when my hard drive on my laptop failed. It could not have happened at a more crucial time as that was the machine I planned to broadcast from. Luckily, I backup my data and I rushed my computer to the Geek Squad at the nearby Best Buy and was able to get everything restored and running just before I left. Although everything worked out in the end, it was the first of many nerve racking situations that would plague my mission. http://www.garyisse.com/article-203.htm Corey and I arrived to Amsterdam a couple of hours ago and are waiting to hop on our final leg home. With luck we will see our family and friends within the next twenty hours! I do want to take a moment to wish my brother David a Happy Birthday. I hope you are having a great day! http://www.garyisse.com/article-204.htm I hope you had a chance to see this live. If not, I will have the video up shortly. Just give me a few minutes. http://www.garyisse.com/article-201.htm Well, here it is. The video of the big moment. The whole event took up about half an hour to video but I cut it down to the highlights in about 1 1/2 minutes for you. I got a couple of complaints that some people couldn't watch the live video and I apologize for that. Unfortunately, I was way too busy with the recording to look into what the problem may have been. I did hear back from many though that they saw and enjoyed it tremendously. Thanks again for all of your support. I hope you enjoyed it! I would also like to thank Ramy and Samer for driving Corey and I out on this crazy adventure all over the western deserts of Egypt. You were great! http://www.garyisse.com/article-202.htm Well, thanks again to all you well-wishers. The weather has cleared up and we are ready to head out shortly to Siwa. Before I left though, I thought I would say hello to some friends from the famous pyramids and sphynx. http://www.garyisse.com/article-199.htm No visit to Egypt, and especially Luxor, is complete without a visit to Karnak Temple. According to the Rough Guide to Egypt, this pharaonic monument is by far the largest and most complex found to date and is due to "1300 years of aggrandizement. From its XI Dynasty core..." Surprisingly, this core is easily missed by many visitors because it just looks like a few big rock on the grounds (seen in the second to last picture below), however, due to its age, it definitely deserves a peak if you make it to the Temple. Another amazing thing about Karnak Temple is that because of its size, there is still, according to Francesco Tiradritti, about two-thirds of it that has yet to be excavated, and as I mentioned in the Luxor Temple post, there are supposedly plans to once again join the Avenue of the Sphinxes of these two temples, as they were in their heyday. Again, there are many many many other interesting things about this temple and the others sites that I mentioned throughout my site, however, for that information, you have plenty of other resources, such as the Rough Guide to Egypt, that do a much better job of explaining them than I do. http://www.garyisse.com/article-198.htm Those of you that know me know that I absolutely love chocolate. I can admit it. I am a choclaholic. So, when I came to Egypt and noticed that Nestle is plastered absolutely everywhere, I knew I was going to have some trouble with my addiction. Not only that, but the only ice cream I have seen for sale on the streets here is Nestle, and one of the most common bottled waters sold in restaurants is Nestle. Coming from a free-market system, I see a perfect opportunity for someone to come here and start selling some Fair Trade chocolate, hint, hint. For those of you not sure why I am complaining so much about Nestle, please Click Here. http://www.garyisse.com/article-195.htm Well, if yesterday and today are any indication of Wednesday's weather, we are in for some trouble. It actually started pouring rain here in Cairo, which I heard is very rare this time of year. It was obvious that the people in the sreets were neither expecting nor welcoming the rain as they scurried off of the streets and caused traffic jams all over town. Please join me and the hundreds of eclipse chasers here in Egypt in a prayer for a stop to the rain. I am sure that with your help, we can ensure that we have a bright and clear day for eclipse viewing. http://www.garyisse.com/article-196.htm