2005-01-02 - I visited Luxor and Aswan over the last 5 days. I took a 9 hour train ride from Cairo to Luxor, spent 2 days in Luxor and then a 3.5 hour ride to Aswan for the new year. I had great experiences in both places. I really love the children and young adults in Egypt. They are a constant source of happiness and exuberance. Almost every time I'm at a major attraction (pharos tomb, temple to the Gods, etc...) there are local groups of school children taking in the site also. I noticed that most of the other tourists avoid the groups of children (usually the other tourists are in groups that have a local guide and are being led around the monuments). I make it a point to say "Hello" to any kid that sits there and stares at me in wonder. When I say "Hello" they immediately reply with "Hello" and get very excited that they are speaking English to a native English speaker (well at least I pretend to be a native English speaker when I'm in Egypt). Usually, once I say Hello the the first kid a bunch of other kids come running to say Hello also. The teachers are usually right behind trying to figure out what all the commotion is about and to make sure the kids don't offend the tourist. Most of our conversations revolve around "What is your name? Where are you from? Welcome to Misr (Egypt)." The clever students (and adults) say "Welcome to Alaska!" I don't know why they say Alaska but I've heard it all over Egypt so I think it is some sort of national joke. Most of the kids and adults do not believe that I'm an American. One little guy told me (through his teacher who was translating)"I've never seen American before, I was told they use to be here lots but now they are all gone." The boy kids touch my arms and hands just to say hi. The groups of girls don't touch but they like to clap and giggle and sing songs in celebration of our talking. The groups of boys usually like to have a group photo. I think I've posed in photos with at least 20 different groups of kids. We all leave happy and smiling.

On January 1st I had a great experience while on Kitchner's island in Aswan. The island is planted with all sorts of plants and trees from around the world and is an outdoor botanical garden of sorts. The view to the west of the island is awesome. The Nile below is full of rocks with ibis and herons flocking around, fish jumping and a huge sand dune (over a 150 feet tall) that comes right down to the waters edge. A majority of the sand dune is pure sand with no tracks or markings, just a huge wave of sand. To the north (right) the dune melts into rock and you can see the entrances to the tombs of Nubian Kings. It is breath taking.

While on the island I ran into a few groups of school kids (had my picture taken with them). I attached myself to two different tour groups who were being led around the island. Since I don't speak or understand either Italian or Russian I only spent about 15 minutes with each. I was wandering around the island and noticed a solider trying to flag me down. He seemed very excited and kept calling me Rambo (On a side note, Rambo is the name most foreigners call large strong people. I've been called Rambo all over Europe (particularly Prague) and again here in Egypt). He was waving me into a more sec part of the island where we couldn't be seen by people on the main paths. I followed him back a few feet where I met his solider friend. They both asked me my name and asked me where I was from. I told them I am an America and they wouldn't believe me. I showed them my passport and they seemed very pleased. The first one (Ahmed) showed me a 2 euro coin and asked me if I wanted to bet. I asked him what we were going to bet. He flexed his biceps and indicated that he wanted to arm wrestle me for the 2 euro. I told him I didn't have any Euro but that I would bet a 10 pound note against his 2 Euro. This was met with great enthusiasm and was followed by a round of flexing our biceps so that the others could get a good feel and judge the competition. I think the two were straight out of boot camp since they were both excited to do push ups for me before the competition began. The two decided that Mustafa (the second solider) would be the one to wrestle. I tried to explain that I wanted to wrestle left handed (since I'm a lefty) but they didn't understand so we went with right handed wrestling. I knelt down planted my elbow and put up my hand. Mustafa from a standing position grabbed my hand and started pushing down on my arm as hard as he could with all of his weight. I was able to hold up a little bit until Ahmed grabbed my arm to and they pulled my arm down. They started jumping around and celebrating while laughing and kissing the 10 pound note. I yelled "Le Le Le Le Le Le" (No, no, no, no no). I grabbed Mustafa again. Showed him that he needed to kneel down and plant his elbow. We tried again and I smoked Mustafa in about 10 seconds (I had to give him a fighting chance). So then Ahmed decided that he was going to wrestle against me left handed. So that lasted about 3 seconds and I put Ahmed down. Ahmed tried again right handed and lasted about 15 seconds. At this point it looked like they were worried that they were going to loose their 2 euro piece. So Ahmed ran off to get reinforcements while I wrested Mustafa one more time. So about 5 minutes later Ahmed returns with their "ringer". The guy was about 6ft 2 and looked like a bull. He has this wicked scar running down his left cheek from his eye. He wanted to wrestle left handed. We both knelt down and locked hands (about this time I also noticed that an older solider with a walkie talkie and 3 stars on his shoulder started walking towards us). I thought the bull was going to put me down in 2 seconds flat. I was prepared just to make sure my arm didn't get torn up while I was loosing. We locked up for about a minute, he would push me back a little, I would sway and get him on the defensive for a little. I think I could have beaten him. However I figured I'm in Egypt and this was their ringer. I wouldn't be a good guest if I beat their strong arm and took their 2 Euro. I slowly let my arm get pinned down and let out a big grunt as I lost. My loss was met by Ahmed and Mustafa cheering wildly again and slapping their buddy on the back. At this time the commander came upon us. The 3 of them snapped to attention and saluted him. The commander looked at me as I was picking myself up and slapping the dust off my knees. I could tell he was worried that his soldiers had done something to offend me. I stood up saluted the commander said Hello and started laughing. He smile shook my hand and said "Welcome to Alaska!" A good time was had by all.

Most of the soldiers I've met have the same enthusiasim like the school kids, with one exception, they carry AK-47's and Uzi's.