Thursday - Sunday

Day 11-14: Thursday-Sunday, June 14-17
By Richard Boyer
We're home now, so I'm going to combine the last four days of our trip together.

Thursday
We left Jerusalem on Thursday morning. It was a lovely trip to the airport. We got to see some of the countryside west and north of Jerusalem. We had an easy check in to Egypt Air and flew about one hour to Cairo. I learned later from Eliza that there was fighting in the Gaza Strip today and the border between Gaza and Egypt was closed. I’m glad that didn’t affect us.
We found Egypt quite different from Israel. It is a land of mosques, minarets, beautiful buildings and estates, poverty and antiquity. We met our guide, a lovely lady named Negla (sp?) who has guided for the Paces in the past. I would estimate she is about my age, is very bright, speaks quite good English, though I had a little trouble with her accent, and has a delightful sense of humor. We first visited the mosque of Mohammed Ali, who began a dynasty in the early 1800’s and is almost a modern-day pharaoh to the Egyptians. We had the chance to ask our guide a lot of questions about the Islam religion and about Moslems. It was fascinating! They are monotheistic, believing in Allah, pray five times a day, believe in modesty, thrift, families and living their religion. They seldom convert to another religion and would be “dead” to their families if they did so. Women kneel behind the men in the mosques for modesty sake. There are different levels of modesty among the women, some being completely covered in black except for a thin slit for their eyes. Most of the women wear black. Most of the men wear something that looks like a long night shirt and a small turban on their head. Mohammed’s mosque is huge!
We then visited the Cairo Museum. The most interesting exhibit (at least, to me) was the artifacts that were obtained from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Because of my involvement with interpretation of the x-rays of the mummy of “King Tut”, I was fascinated to see the caskets, jewelry and many other things obtained from his well-preserved tomb in the Valley of the Kings. But most magnificent of all was the gold face mask. As I stood face-to-face with my good friend, it was almost a reverent experience for me. I stood in front of the reinforced glass case containing the mask and studied it for some time. It was truly like seeing an old friend!
Jennie also met an “old friend” in the museum – some Egyptian man tried to pick up on her. She is so beautiful with her blonde hair, but also so naïve, that she needs to be careful. We tried to stay close to her the rest of the time in Egypt, but we noticed the men’s heads turning to follow her and some aggressive street vendors being especially forward with her. Of course, she is nice to everyone and assumes they are all just being friendly. One of the vendors had her by the arm and I came up and took the other arm and pulled her away.
We had a unique experience tonight – we took the night train to Luxor, about 400 miles up the Nile. We stopped first at an American-style grocery store and stocked up on water, toilet paper, crackers, etc. for the night (We actually got more than we needed.) then went to the train station in Giza. It was quite a zoo! At first the train platform was filled with local Egyptians. I thought we would be competing with them for seats, but they boarded an earlier train. There was a big hassle about whether we would have our suitcases in our compartments with us or not. First they were going to be left in Cairo, then in a luggage compartment on the train and then finally they would be in our small compartments with us, which is how it turned out. That made it a lot easier because we had all of our things for the night. We were assigned cabins for the night by twos. We had two seats which folded down and two bunk beds folded out of the wall. There was a small sink in the room and a shelf overhead where we could put our suitcases (Sammie had to lift ours up that high.) and two water closets at the end of the car. (It is an interesting experience to use the toilet while the train is moving and rocking back and forth! I found it a lot easier to sit down.) It appears when flushing the toilet that it empties onto the tracks underneath the moving train. How gross! No wonder they won’t let you use the toilet in the station. We had a marginal dinner and got ready for bed. I actually slept pretty well, but Lori didn’t sleep well at all.

Friday
Our day started early! The porter knocked on our door at 4 a.m. and brought by breakfast at 4:30 a.m. It was a tray of bread served 4 different ways! Someone in the group dubbed it “breadfest”. Bread is the staple of life in Egypt. The government subsidizes the purchase of wheat from the U.S. so, according to our guide, there are poor in Egypt, but none are starving. They live on bread. We were still trying to get our things together when the train pulled into the station at Luxor. I thought we’d have some time there to get organized, but the porters started shouting at us; one smacked Lori on the back and they started pushing us out of the train. The train started moving and we had to throw our things off the train and jump off. The train moved forward 10 or 20 yards and then stopped! It was just a hoax to get us off. It didn’t leave the platform while we were there. Thanks a lot!
Luxor is the former Thebes, the capital of the Egypt during the time of its prime when the pharaohs ruled Egypt. Today it is even more primitive than Cairo and Giza, but has a charm of its own. We saw men in the fields even though it was before 7 a.m. on the Moslem Sabbath using primitive tools pulled by donkeys. We saw donkeys pulling carts toward the bazaar with produce and other goods to sell and people riding donkeys and camels. We crossed a large bridge across the Nile to the West Bank area and drove to the Valley of the Kings. We visited two tombs there; the most interesting was the tomb of Tutankhamen. I have studied the tomb in pictures and drawings so it was amazing to actually be in it! The innermost coffin is still in place with the remains of Tut inside. The hieroglyphics on the walls are quite well preserved. It was awesome!
We also visited the Temple of Hatchepsut (sp?), an impressive three tiered temple of columns and porches in the reddish cliffs. Some walked to the opening of tomb #53 where the scrolls from which the Book of Abraham are said to have been found. It was awfully hot and all there was to see was a closed door, so I stayed in the bus.
We had some rest time at a nice hotel in Luxor including lunch. The kids went swimming. I tried to take a shower but the cold water didn’t work and the hot was too hot to shower, so I washed my hair in the sink. Back in the heat (it must have been 100 degrees) we visited the temples of Karnak, one of the largest temples in the world, and of Luxor. By that time, I’d seen enough old stones, columns, hieroglyphs, etc. and was ready to head home.
The train ride back to Giza was a lot easier tonight. We knew what to expect. We started a little later, so we didn’t have to get up so early the next morning. The Rices (Scott and Lesli) flew back to Cairo, but I’m glad we took the train. I dispensed some Ambien to several in the group. All seemed to have a good night, except that a few people have come down with a mild GI illness. We administered to one brother and gave out Imodium and Pepto-Bismol. I haven’t given out any Cipro yet. I don’t think anyone has the “Pharaoh’s revenge” yet!

Saturday
This was our last day of touring. Our group has bonded well. We are comfortable sitting with any member of the group on the bus or at meals. The family lines have blurred and it’s like we are all family.
We visited pyramids today, first some which were especially well preserved at Memphis, former capital of Ramses II and other great pharaohs. After lunch at KFC, we saw the famous pyramids at Giza, the ones seen in pictures. They are mammoth! Two of the pyramids are over 440 feet high. The third is about half that. There is a tunnel into the center chamber of the second one. We paid $5 each to go down the tunnel. I started in and realized this was not going to be good for my back to go over 400 feet each way bent over to my waist, so I turned around and went out. The rest of our family (except Melissa, who has done it before) and several from the group went in and said it wasn’t worth it. No writing or pictures on the walls, just a long, claustrophobic, hot, stuffy tunnel. I’m glad I missed it.
We also saw the Sphinx, but had to look from a distance because the site was closed even though it wasn’t yet 5 p.m. (They took our money at the entrance then wouldn’t let us through the locked gate. Typical Egypt!) We visited the “Solar Boat”, a huge wooden boat which was used to convey the remains of a deceased Pharaoh up the Nile from Memphis to this site to be buried in his pyramid. It was uncovered in the 1900s and restored by a professor who gave a good part of his life to the project.
The last event was to ride a camel. We paid $3.00 each to ride single or double. Jennie and I rode together. The most exciting part is as they get up and then get down – you have to really lean back to keep from falling forward in the saddle. Other than that, it wasn’t too exciting – a lot like riding a horse but more rhythmic and smoother. Lori opted out. You know how much she loves horses, so the affection was transferred to the camels. After the ride we tipped the owner and a young boy named Abdula who chose our camel for us, whose name was “Michael Jackson.”
Just a word about the street vendors in Egypt – they were really aggressive and obnoxious. I don’t mind people trying to sell a postcard or souvenir but these guys were really aggressive! One of them insisted I take a postcard as a gift because his brother lived in America for two years. He then handed me a head scarf and said it was a gift, so I put both into my pocket as I went in to see the Solar Boat. Sure enough, he was waiting for me when I came out and followed me. He insisted again that they were gifts and then started asking for money. The language is a barrier so it’s hard to say, “But a gift means no charge!” and have them understand. I tried to give it back to him, but he insisted I keep it. Finally, I set both the card and the scarf on the ground and walked away. I had to do the same thing the day before with a small statue that someone got into my hand. Some of them were really creepy with Jennie and Lori. While I was dealing with this guy, Lori had walked ahead and some guy was pretty aggressive with her and offended her. I felt bad I wasn’t there to protect her better.
We took a long bus ride through Giza, back across the Nile and through Cairo to a hotel near the airport. Cairo is a city of over 20 million people, so it is huge! We checked into a nice hotel for a few hours. We had time to have a good dinner and nearly 3 hours sleep.

Sunday
Our wakeup call was at 12:30 a.m. after going to bed at about 10:00 p.m. 2 ½ hours earlier. I slept a few more minutes and then was up to put our luggage out before 1 a.m. and have a shower. When we got down to the bus at 1:30 a.m., Joe and Hal were no where to be seen. I called them from the lobby without response so I went to their room and banged on the door. I thought I was going to wake up everyone in that hall, but I was fairly upset. They were out cold. Finally, Hal came to the door. Spencer, Melissa and Sammie were leaving three hours later, so they had good reason to be asleep, but Joe and Hal should have been up. They came sleepy-eyed and embarrassed to the bus.
We made it through the Cairo airport without any difficulty and caught a flight to Amsterdam. In the huge Schipol Airport in Amsterdam we had a 5 hour layover. Since it was Sunday, we gathered together on a few rows of chairs at the end of one of the concourses and had a church meeting for a little over an hour. It wasn’t a sacrament meeting, but we sang hymns, prayed and had some thoughts and testimonies. I was able give a “thanktimony” to the Paces and then to bear my testimony about the Savior and the atonement. One of the Pace’s daughters admitted that she really didn’t want us “outsiders” on the trip (It’s the same reaction I’d have if I learned that the whole Pace family was coming on one of our trips to Balboa.), but she felt that we added to the trip and, instead of being a burden on her parents, were helpful to them and each other. I hope that is true. They were certainly generous in including us.
We made it home without incident. We flew from Amsterdam to Minneapolis and then on to Salt Lake City, arriving about 7 p.m. Eliza and Ben met us and had dinner in the oven when we got home. As we drove down our street, I couldn’t believe how nice the houses and yards were, how green were the lawns. We live in such a lovely place. This seems so far from the slums of Egypt. It’s hard to believe we are in the same world. By time I got to bed after 10 p.m., I’d been up for over 30 hours on 3 hours sleep the night before and sleeping on trains the two nights before that. It felt so good to get into a real bed!

Summary
What a great trip! It was all that I hoped it would be. The best part was being together with so many of our family and with the others on the trip, including the Paces, the Rices and other good people. I’m so glad that Spencer was able to make it at the last minute, for the time with Sammie and Melissa, whom we don’t see very often, to get to know little Marian better and, of course, to see the places that were meaningful in the life of our Savior. If I’d been in charge, I would have done a little less shopping and a little more teaching, but that’s ok. It was great to have someone else in charge and just be along for the ride. I think it was meaningful for each one of our family. I think they each met the trip and the experiences at their own spiritual level and each found meaningful lessons, insights and impressions that have strengthened their testimonies and helped them to better understand the scriptures.
Here are some summary lists from my perspective. Others may have different lists.

Israel 2007 Top Ten:
1. The land of the Savior, the places He lived, taught, healed, walked, suffered, died and was resurrected.
2. The teachings of the scriptures which have come even more to life to strengthen our testimonies and enlighten our understandings.
3. Our family – Melissa, Sammie, Martha, Adam, Marian, Joe, Anna, Jennie, Spencer, Hal, and, of course, Lori – being together day and night for nearly two weeks. What a treat!
4. The great Pace family – Bud and his knowledge and testimony; Lorraine and her patience, organizational ability and Christlike heart; their kids Lawrence, Elese, Michelle, William, Andrew and Wendell and their spouses, kids and extended family.
5. The rest of the people on the trip, especially our neighbors the Rices; Scott, Lesli, Mike and Tyler; and all the other good people from 80+ year old Marcia to less-active Jim Morse to adopted Pace son, Marv Higbee. What great people!
6. The Holy City of Jerusalem, especially Gethsemane and the Garden Tomb, but many other remarkable places, including walking the wall at night.
7. Galilee – the land of the Savior’s youth, where He loved to be.
8. Our guides – Amos, Eli, Negla – and our drivers – Adel, and others.
9. Hotels and good food, especially the Olive Tree in Jerusalem and Holiday Village at Ein Gev.
10. Egypt, especially seeing Tutankhamen – his death mask, burial treasures and tomb – also the pyramids, temples, etc.

Highlights of places we visited in order of our trip:
Tuesday: Corrie Ten Boom’s home, Anne Frank’s home, Ryksmuseum
Wednesday: Joppa, Mt. Carmel, Nazareth (especially the Nazareth Village), Sea of Galilee
Thursday: Boat ride across Galilee, Mt. of Beatitudes, Capernaum, Mt. Hermon
Friday: Jordan River, Mt. Tabor, Beth Shean, Jericho, Mt. of Olives
Saturday: Jerusalem Center, Bethlehem, Shepherd’s Field
Sunday: Temple Mount, Western Wall, Old City, Arab bazaar, walking through Orthodox Jewish community
Monday: Masada, Qumron, Dead Sea, Bethany
Tuesday: Israel Museum, Holocaust Museum, David’s City and Hezekiah’s Tunnel, walking around the walls of the city at night
Wednesday: Room of the Last Supper, St. Peter’s in Gallicantu, Gethsemane, Orson Hyde Memorial Gardens, Garden Tomb/Golgotha, St. Anne’s cathedral
Thursday: Mohammed Ali’s mosque, Cairo Museum with Tutankhamen findings, Nile River
Friday: Valley of the Kings, Tut’s tomb, temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Temples at Karnak and Luxor
Saturday: Pyramids at Memphis and Giza, Solar Boat, Sphinx, riding a camel

Israel 2007 Bottom Six:
1. The street vendors in Egypt – aggressive, dishonest, and immoral!
2. The porters on the night train to Luxor, pushing us off the train with our luggage and then stopping the train a few feet farther with obviously no need to hurry.
3. The police states of Israel and Egypt with security checks everywhere, rifle carrying men and women all around and the constant threat of a terrorist act directed toward tourists or getting caught in the crossfire between two enemies.
4. The filth of Egypt – the slums, the canals, the flies, the smell, the bad water, et al.
5. The stress and fatigue of travel – sleep loss; hauling luggage on and off buses, trains and through airports; no shower for 2 ½ days in 100 degree heat in Luxor; risk of bad food or water, etc.
6. Shopping!

What a great trip! But I’m glad to be home!