Egypt at Last

The road that we travel is sometimes full of fun and adventure but most of the time, we try to focus on our show. But when we have a bit of extra free time, it's always a treat to play the tourist whenever and wherever possible. For instance, last year we got to see Sri Lanka for the first time and visited the Taj Mahal in Agra, India..and in New Jersey, U.S.A.! This year had it's slew of concert dates in due order, but we were surprised to hear about a possible gig in Egypt..Could it be for real?

I have always dreamed and hoped to get to North Africa for a quick visit..Since I had heard and read about it a fair amount and it fascinated me..

After I read "The Sheltering Sky" by author Paul Bowles, I had hoped maybe we could do something there with the band.But the more I asked about that possibility, it seemed a very remote idea.."Too difficult to produce" the powers at be declared..Ok,.. Well it was a wish if anything at all..So the chance of getting to visit AND play was exciting indeed.

We knew it was gonna happen, only after we had boarded the flight to Frankfurt, Germany enroute to Cairo. We landed some 20 hours after departing from sunny Vancouver and arrived at the hotel at around 10pm local time in view of a raging full moon..Yikes! A surreal setting come true! Enchanting more like it..Maybe the ghosts of the Pharaohs would appear at midnite by the Pyramids..! Well, perhaps I was jet lagged a bit, but this was Egypt! And anything might occur.

Since we also knew that our time in Egypt was very limited, we planned a quick trip up to the city of Luxor, about 1 1/2 hrs. flight up north from Cairo. There, we would get a chance to view the famous "Valley of the Kings", which featured the tomb of King Tut.

We were also able to venture inside the actual tomb and I can truly say, it felt rather eerie to be standing inside it! Visions of Mummies danced around in my head!

After some picture taking, we then quickly departed for the relocated monuments at Abu Simbel, the place where they rebuilt the tombs of Ramses 11 and Nefariri his queen ( I hope I spelled that right!)..to save them from the rising flood waters of the Aswan dam project, created in the 1960's.

These giant carved stone edifices of enormous scale, were originally built ages ago and dedicated to their memory.

After some great photo ops, we again left for a 3 hour jaunt back to Cairo to get freshened up and ready for our midnite show in front of the Sphinx and the Pyramids.

With the big orange ball of a full moon high behind us, the setting was oh so spectacular! Though admittedly, we were a little nervous about playing there.. But what a backdrop!

If the gods were angry they certainly didn't show it on this night..We lasted in the cool desert air for about an hour and a half and headed for the hotel to enjoy a cup of arab tea.

I think we were still in shock when we tried to go to sleep that night maybe still in disbelief at our good fortune at being able to do this type of show. Or maybe the fact it was funded by a local magazine certainly didn't hurt.

The following day was dedicated to scouring around the site at Giza where the 3 big Pyramids are situated. I sat on a camel..("one at a time" it bellowed.) took some silly pictures in front of the Pyramids and sadly headed back to the hotel to prepare to pack my bag for the flight to Hamburg Germany, later that evening..

The thing is, we all would really love to get back to this incredible place again soon and perform for even more people..that remains
to be seen. But til then, we'll have to bide our time and wait to see... if the gods were ever angry with us!.

k-man