Back in Florida
21 August
Back in Tampa. We got in around 6:30 this morning but had to wait quite a while to disembark. We were supposed to start the debarkation process at 7:45 but they kept calling various people to the US immigration onboard so we didn’t start getting out till 8:15 or later. Homeland Security at work.Overall the trip was good but this cruise as all cruises was at least partly scam. They have a captive audience and they know it. Gratuities are automatically added to every bill and every day at sea ‘for your convenience’. Isn’t it nice when people take extra money from you and say it’s easier for you that way? I suppose, they could have been more invasive but they should have been less.
The last sea day wasn’t too bad. I’d brought a book of word games and we played a bunch of those, then played both of the trivia games offered by the cruise that day. And we won them both. Now we have several cheesy gold-painted plastic trophies. But it was fun.
We played some more slot machines and discovered that the table games had all raised their minimums. Looks like my question of raising the stakes has been answered. I guess they try to hook you at first and then take back the money you won early in the cruise. In the afternoon, we went up to the top deck to play putt-putt golf. The course was short but many of the holes were listed as par 3. “How could this little thing possibly be a par 3?” I thought. But there’s a difference in putt-putt at sea. Especially today in the wake of a tropical storm. The wind was quite strong and the boat was listing, adding to the difficulty. With the added pitch and roll, it was quite difficult even to keep the ball from wandering away from the tee, let alone go straight towards the hole.
So I had a good time and I think my mother did too. We may be a year older, but it doesn’t mean we can’t do interesting things. I’m particularly impressed with her for getting her diving certification and going on a rather deep dive with me. My brother got certified many years ago and first interested me in diving, then I eventually got certified and now she has too. Some people get to be sticks in mud as they move to retirement age, but not her and I’m very proud of her. Of course, the great thing about being an artist is that you don’t have to retire at all and I’m sure she’ll continue creating, traveling, diving, and doing all sorts of interesting things for many, many years to come.
The stop here was only 5 hours long and we had a 4 hour tour. Better than yesterday when the stop was 6 hours long and we were supposed to have a 7 hour tour. We tendered out to the dock (which takes time since the tender boats can’t take more than 100 people or so) and then waited for our group guides. Finally we were taken to the dive shop and issued our gear. They didn’t want us to wear a lot of lead but most inexperienced divers need quite a bit since they aren’t used to controlling their breathing. I’m getting pretty good at staying down without a lot of weight, but it’s not always easy. We would be diving over a very deep trench where a reef falls away 2000 feet (they use feet and pounds per square inch here? I’m used to meters and bar) and they didn’t want us sinking too quickly.
It was called Lone Star Ledges. This time we had a 50 foot dive planned for 40 minutes. And this time it would be a low reef with many channels in it, ledges to swim under and many fishes. Indeed, it lived up to the hype. We got more weight for my mother’s belt and it looked like she could sink in the buoyancy test. But she had trouble with her ears and it was a slow descent. We followed along above most of the people and she had trouble with buoyancy again. Finally I took one of the weights off my belt and put it in her BCD pocket. We used her camera for shots this time and got some pretty good ones. At least this time there was a lot to see. Fish were everywhere and the long channel ledges were super cool. I swam in the channels and under the ledges. It was great fun.
After Angel finished his spiel he turned us loose for about 45 minutes. We had to rush from here to there, wanting first to see the beach. So we went to the top of the hill and took the stairs down to the small beach cove. It was smaller than I expected but the water looked great. The site itself was packed and, little surprise, so was the beach. I took an underwater camera and tried to get some shots of the buildings on the cliff from the water. That was the only place you could get the angle on it. We dried off and tried to get the sand off our feet, then climbed back up. We had little time but wanted to see the buildings, so we made the circuit. By the time we got back around to the exit, one of the trams had just left and it was already approaching the time for our main bus to leave. We wouldn’t even have time to get food at the exit.
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We stopped off at Fishawi’s in the middle of the chaos that is the Khan. I enjoy this coffee stop, it’s a great place to people watch. You still get accosted by the countless sandal salesmen and watch peddlers, but you also see, hear and smell the incredible milieu that makes up this unique place. I best remember a trip I made here with several colleagues and the ever-charming Barbara Mertz (Elizabeth Peters). She visited our work at Giza and then we went to the Khan with her. I was reading one of her books at the time and she graciously signed it for me. We talked about many things both archaeological and writerly. She is remarkable, having obtained her Ph.D. in Egyptology many years ago when it wasn’t common for women to do so, having written textbooks on the subject, and having written many, many novels. I’d like to accomplish even half of what she has and I admire her greatly. (The picture at right was taken at Fishawi's early 2003. She's signing my copy of Night Train to Memphis).
Today our dives would again be at Abu Ramada, but a different island in what was a chain of sorts. In fact, this one was not an island at all but simply a reef that almost met the water at the surface but not quite. It is called Gotta Abu Ramada. This area is definitely a good one to dive; yesterday’s dives topped any I had done before and today’s were equally as good.
We docked in Luxor last night, against the side of another tour boat. As at Aswan, boats are so common that they must tie up against one another and they are all designed with big doors on both sides so that passengers can walk through the lobbies to eventually get to the strand. We ended up on the far edge, four boats away from the east bank of the river itself. This morning, we had a motorized felucca pick us up on the river side and ferry us over to the west bank. As I’m sure you all know, the ancient Egyptians lived on the east bank of the Nile, the sun rise, the land of the living, and buried their dead on the west bank, the sun set, the land of the dead. We were on our way to visit the New Kingdom tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
Hassan took us around the temple, the early morning sun already shouldering its way into the sky and heating up age-old stone. The guide was particularly interested in the representations of music here, pointing to an image of the god Bes represented as a relatively disfigured or distorted dwarf character playing a lyre of sorts. He said that in ancient times, people with various handicaps were given the task of entertaining, but the Egyptians weren’t laughing at them, they were laughing and singing with them. He went on to say that music was important for temples and that they were the original discos. To use the word disco was certainly an exaggeration and gross fabrication, but he was obviously wanting to appeal to his audience. I think much of his inaccuracy was geared that way because part of his job itself was entertainment and he was keenly aware of that. Indeed, he walked with a cane and were encouraged to consider him one of the handicapped entertainers from the past.
We saw the valley temple, got up relatively close to the sphinx, walked through the eastern cemetery and saw the queen’s pyramids and then some of the tombs of the nobles. Next we walked to Khafre and looked at that pyramid, then to Menkaure. The pyramids themselves never cease to amaze. At times when I was working on the plateau, they would fade into the background but then I’d look up and they would seemingly shout back at me, “Hello? Remember where you are!” 
It was 39 degrees at 11am and was promising to get hotter. We went into the ‘lunch tomb’, so known because we used to eat lunch there each day on the dig seasons, and sat in the relative shade. This tomb was just outside our concession but its walls were preserved higher than most and so afforded the most shade for the day. It also still has some relief decoration in it and the shafts of the various tombs are impressively deep. These northern tombs are a bit more impressive; though some, like the caves at Petra, had been used as toilets in recent times leading us to dub one in particular Mr. Hanky’s tomb.
Eventually we walked back to the great pyramid, checked out the solar boat pits and wandered some more. Once back in the main tourist areas, we were often asked if we wanted to buy postcards, ride camels, and the like. The first time I’d been to see the pyramids I felt I couldn’t get away from such people, but Zahi has done a good job of regulating the number of touts in more recent years. Of course he’s also stopped the use of cameras in museums and even inside the pyramids, plus it costs extra for each pyramid you might want to enter. I was lucky enough to explore the great pyramid with only a few co-workers and our inspector a few years ago. We had the entire structure to ourselves and got to crawl to some of the chambers that most people don’t see. It’s a strange feeling inching down a long, narrow passage inside tons of built stone, but a fascinating one all the same. I post a scanned picture from back then of me in the passage leading into the queen's chamber. This is where it was beginning to open up, and other passages are narrower still.
9 July [continued]
These days Zahi has made it a rule that no cameras can be used in any museums in Egypt so I couldn’t get any pictures now that I have a decent camera. I suppose they sell more postcards this way. I post here a photo of the main museum hall taken in my earlier travels when photos were allowed and also my favourite picture from the museum that