The grandeur of Giza

The first post in this series is here..

Our group met at the roof of the Hayat Pyramid View hotel for breakfast. It was cold outside and all the breakfast items were cold given it was in a room with open doors. We made the most of it and saw the run rise to face the pyramids. Caught the first light hit the great pyramids! It was fantastic.

When we first walked up to the roof, it was hazy! The moon was still up.

We took pictures before and after the sun came out..

Had a feeling this trip will be a good one just by the way she was smiling!!! 

The sun comes out and the clouds roll in and "magic"!

Then it was time to meet our guide for the day, Ibrahim. At first glance if you are not used to Arabic nations, the tone comes across as rude and our guides way of saying "excuse me!" everytime he wanted to grab our attention was interesting. He was a really sweet and caring dude!

The language and accents make up for an intersting social study! He was dealing with desis .. from US. So he was a bit flummoxed on how to deal with us. Should he be proud that we bargained for everything like Egyptians? Or should he be upset that being Americans who can afford things, we are still bargaining.. he literally was telling us that in a very roundabout way. He wanted us to tip the locals wherever possible. Tipping, how much and when was the topic of most of our group discussions! 

Ibrahim gave us the rundown and told us he was not allowed inside. He also told us that the big pyramid and the pyramid of the grandson had entrances to go in but it is the same experience. One was 20 USD and a longer line and one was 4 USD and a much smaller line. We opted for the shorter line given the interest of time! We went in and out through a narrow tunnel at a steep angle to see the bottom of an empty chamber and come back up. It was an intersting experience. How they moved things around in these angles and got giant granite boxes in and out is just mindboggling.

Everything about this place is just amazing. This was 3000+ years ago and they still stand inspite of all the regime changes and looting over the decades. Everything thas been stripped off including the stones over the years but what took them a few hundred years to build has lasted a few thousand.

One side has all the drama.. other side is bland ..

 

We as a species don't build anything this lasting anymore. All our glass, steel and sheetrock stuff won't last anything compared to this! 

At some point the room would have had a large granite box with the mummy and all its treasures. They were looted a long time back! What little things the locals and invading cultures didn't take, the Brits and French took to their museums! 

now there is an empty chamber with graffitti over a few thousand years! We suck as a species is what I kept thinking!

After we went in and out of the pyramid, some of us got to go on a camel ride around the pyramids. Our camels were named Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Alex, Mickey mouse and Charlie!

Once the camel ride was done, we visited the Sphinx which was right across from our hotel. There was already a big crowd at the Sphinx thanks to some school excursions. We were lucky to get some photos without too many people around. We also got to see the place where they did the mummification near the Sphinx. 

There is a steele in front of the Sphinx which talks about the Pharoh's dream to clean the sand around it.. we learned that the sphinx probably predates the pyramids. That was a special ticket and given time we were just happy to walk around it and get a view! I cannot write enough words to make you realize how amazing this place is. You have to see it for youself. Do it while you can still walk long distances every day, do a little climbing on tall stones. In another 10-15 years this trip might be difficult for me! 

Was wearing my uniform BYSJ 60 day challenge shirt on multiple days. Surprisingly no one asked me what a 60 day challenge was in Egypt or Jordan and that is a first! 

A video highlight of our first morning in Egypt!

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After this it was time to drive off to our next stop across the Nile into Cario!

The Grand Canyon's South Rim

The previous post is here..

The cover photo for this post.. (usually it is a "bench photo".. there were no benches on this hike and this was as close as it got)

Here is a video highlight of the entire trip! This time posting the video upfront. . . 

The morning of the hike, we were all ready at 5:15 AM waiting for a ride from the Yavapai lodge to the trailhead. There is a car service that gives large groups rides directly to the trailhead for around 3 to 4 dollars a person. We were 9 of us and it was a full van! It was a 5 minute ride to the trailhead but would have been another 2 plus mile walk! 

Once at the trail head we took photos and started at 6AM. The ground was covered in snow and ice. None of this was in the plan! 

This hike is not for the faint hearted. It is a pretty difficult trail. It is an 18 mile minimum hike starting from the South Kaibab trailhead that goes all the way down to the colorado river.. ~ 8 miles of straight downhill hiking over 5000 feet. The weather goes from cold to warm to hot when we are down at the bottom. 

The portrait format photos are fewer..

The landscape format photos (most of them) are in this slide show! Just amazing views all day..

The first two miles were slow going because it was still dark and the icy ground. We reached Ooh-aah point to catch the sunrise! It was spectacular watching the first rays of the sun hit the canyon!

First photos of us as we went through the hike with some time stamps... just 4 years older than Sangeetha, but when that 4 years is on either side of 50, it seems to make a huge difference when it comes to walking uphill.

6:30 AM : Photos at Ooh_aah point waiting for the sun to come out..

San allowed me to do yoga poses on rocks. Was wondering "is there a catch?" and turns out there was none. She is now a yogi and appreciates me posing with the BYSJ shirt at national parks! 

She did start screaming when I turned to take this selfie on the ledge..there was screaming from multiple ladies!

8:15 AM at Skeleton point

After the first two miles we tried to pick up the pace, but it was hard with all the puddles in the trail. That was an added distraction for me. Have a whole series of photos from puddles which will be posted separately.

We managed to reach Skeleton point after two hours and 15 minutes and Tonto West (Tip off point) at 9 AM. We had made up some distance in the last hour. Then it was time to go through a steeper descent to the river. 

9:00 AM Tip off point

9:30 AM

We can see the colorado river and the green bridge

10:30 AM 

We finally reached the green bridge across the river. At this point the group was split up into two. So two of us went ahead in search of the next restroom which was a mile away! By the time th rest of the group joined it was 10:30. We walked together to Phantom ranch after a break. 

Under side of the green bridge

Then there is a few miles of walking along the river to Phantom ranch. From there it is a crossover the Colorado river again and back to the Bright Angel trailhead at the top. (most folks start at bright angel and end up in South Kaibab).

Hindsight being 20/20 and given we had our own packed food, we should have just got back on the river trail and saved ourselves 2 hours in time and 2 plus miles extra walking. Phantom ranch was overrated. 

Phantom ranch was a let down. There was a canteen there and a few benches to sit and eat lunch. We were told that there is free lemonade for everyone who visits this place. IT IS A MYTH! THERE IS NO FREE LEMONADE! 

There is lemonade for sale at 6$ a cup with 1$ for refills. Some folks in our group were all set on having that lemonade and did! Their verdict? Nothing special ! 

After eating our packed lunches and having lightened our backpacks a bit, we started our hike back. The return was going to be 9 miles with a stop every 1.5 miles.

The silver bridge to get back across the river

The return is longer as it has at least 30+ switchbacks in the last 3 miles of the trail and is just grueling!

12:00 Noon

We see a warning at 2 PM around Tonto East

We walked together as a group for the first 3 miles. We were climbing steadily but slowly. The altitude gain was gradual. Then we split up 4 and 5 and went through the next mile and a half. Once we reached this Indian garden or Havasupai garden (which is a cross point for two trails), three of us decided to move forward as we were already losing steam. 

that is a little too late...

 3:00 PM

We had hot chai and Parle G biscuits and started walking the last 4.5 miles. It was a steep climb and after the first mile it was already sapping.

The stops have a restroom and we can refill water bottles.

4:00 PM

Was taking it literally one step at a time. My legs were burning by then. There was no option but to keep going. The three of us tried to encourage each other with jokes every now and then. 

4:30 PM

The towel came out to keep wiping rain from face.

5:00 PM in bad rain with a Poncho

When there was two miles left, it started drizzling. By then we had climbed up a good deal. We had come up 3500 feet and had 1500 more to go. Then drizzle became rain. The towel around my shoulders had to come off and replaced with a poncho. Was drenched inspite of the poncho. It was also getting colder as we were hiking up. 

5:30 PM Made it back up! Changed clothes and got the jacket back up.. by then the rain had slowed to a drizzle

The idea of hiking up to end a trail is not that great. Usually we hike up mountains and come down to the parking lot. This was brutal to put it mildly.

When we made it back to the top, we were soaked and were not going to wait for the rest of the group. Glad we didn't. They were also hit by the rain and darkness and had to walk with headlamps and ponchos and made it an hour after we did. A 20 minute delay at Indian garden made them an hour late because of the unpredictable weather! We took the cab service and made it back to our rooms a little after 6 PM. Took us a good 30 minutes to sort things out and after a hot shower and some chai, we realized that we had actually made it!

The legs were shaking and sitting down or standing up was a slow process. I had already taken a couple of Ibuprofens every 3 hours all day thanks to my laces jumping the notches in my hiking shoe and hurting my ankle earlier in the day. That still didn't help at the end of the day. 

Once all of us were ready we spent some time at the canteen at the Yavapai lodge. Then it was time to call it a night. 

The next morning we were going to start at 8 AM from the lodge and celebrate!

That and the return back to Phoenix in the next post...

Mumbai fun

The last post in this series is here..

We went from Cochin to Mumbai and had two full days in Mumbai before our return flight to the US.

Having visited so many temples every day in Tamilnadu and Kerala, why stop. While San was busy trying to get blouses stitched urgently, MIL and me went out to visit local temples. We visited 3 that morning.

Later went with San to another local temple and visited what is probably the worlds best one stop beauty store. (you can see it in the video).. 

We managed to eat out a few times..

watch three movies in two days.. the movie theater is the building next to in-laws apartment. We can just walk down and go see movies!

Here are two lapata ladies at lapata ladies..

Then we spent an evening at Ambani center. It was a stark contrast to the other shopping we did. The stores and complex was grand but there were no people in the stores! 

We walked around, took pictures and drove back in time to get some rest before flying out the next morning.

A video highlight..

The return flight was not direct. It was Mumbai to B'lore and then to SFO. The airport in Bengaluru was nice. We actually enjoyed the two hour wait.

Then there was a disaster of a return trip where the tail section of the flight had no power! 

No way to charge phone/laptop, call the air hostess, or watch anything. It was a horrible 16 hours in a plane with a local power cut. They werent even apologetic. We were to get some money back as token compensation for this horrible trip and it has been 6 months plus and we still don't have anything from Air India. There has been 20 + emails back and forth and a check leaf was wasted. That was about it. They have bought all these used planes from Delta airlines and are flying it BLR to SFO. Ratan Tata must be sad now that he can see what is going on from wherever he is!

The trip on the whole though was a happy one. Checked all the items that were in the plan. Did so much in 10 days! 

Now that I have finally finished posting about the India trip in Feb/March, can get back to otehr things that have happened since!