A New Post! My journey from Cairo to Lesotho

It has definitely been some time since my last post. Let’s see, that was back in Cairo. I was chilling in my air conditioned 4 star luxury hotel room. My computer was connected to the wireless internet and was powered by the grid. Things are a bit different now, but are no less enjoyable. I am now with Jeremy (my brother) in Bethel. He teaches at a school in Bethel, a village in Lesotho. Lesotho is the “mountain kingdom” of South Africa. It is an independent country surrounded by South Africa. Or, in Family Guy terms, it is the Pretoria of Rhode Island.

Yet, I would be remiss if I skipped the story of my travels in Egypt and my adventure to get to this beautiful mountainous land.

I woke up on the 14th, got packed, and met Nibal in the lobby of the hotel at 9am. While waiting, one of the hotel staff showed me his Obama watch. Yes, it is a bit silly, be he seemed quite proud to sport that watch. We loaded into the van and were off to the great Pyramids of Egypt. It was hot out, and I was very glad that I didn’t prepare for real winter weather. I had been told that it was getting colder out. But it seems that cold in Egypt is around 80 degrees. The sun was super bright and before I applied some sun screen, I got a bit of a burn. The pyramids were spectacular! They were so incredibly tall. When you were at the base, you could look up and it seemed to rise forever. And the guides are not kidding when they say that they are well constructed. It honestly did not seem like you could slip a sheet of paper between the cracks.

After viewing Cheops pyramid (the tallest), I was able to climb down inside of the Queens Pyramid (one of the three smaller monuments to the left of the larger pyramid). This was so incredibly cool. You could touch stone and carvings that were thousands of years old. It was cool and quiet down in the tomb, and I could just imagine what it was like for those first explorers when they cracked it open.

We also visited the other pyramids at the site, but instead of taking the van back to the great Sphinx, I rode a camel! Camels are intriguing beasts. Tall and somewhat awkward, they are nonetheless fun to ride. The have a strong rocking motion as they lumber forward, but the camel ride was a blast.

After taking my picture with the Sphinx, Nibal and I went to “La Cuisine.” This restaurant, despite the French name, had good and authentic Egyptian food. The highlights were perhaps a freshly squeezed mango drink and the dates for dessert. Dates are very fibrous and not overly sweet, but well worth a taste.

The next stop was the Egyptian Museum. Highlights here included the Treasures of King Tutankhamen and some very interesting and mummified animals. The very best part of the museum was how close you could get to the antiquities. Many of the statues and items were not behind glass or covered by anything. You could simply reach out and touch them. However, you were not supposed to do this.

The next stop was a Felucca ride on the Nile. A Felucca is an Egyptian party boat. But the ride was with Nibal and me and it was very nice to cruise along the Nile. Then it was off to the airport. This was a pretty boring part of the trip. My plane departed near midnight, and I was there quite early. However, I did get to see Egypt beat Algeria on one of the televisions. The uproar from the crowd was amazing. People knocked over chairs and pounded on trash cans. They were 100% engrossed in the game.

That night, I slept terribly on the plane. However, I did sit next to a nice Afrikaner girl who was very pleasant to chat with. She told me about some bands that I will be sure to listen to. She also said that I was a bit crazy to go into Johannesburg and get onto one of the mini buses. I didn’t know why this would be crazy until the next day.

At the airport, I got off and tried my best to change my Egyptian pounds into South African Rand. I was able to change most of them and then went in search of a Taxi driver to get me to the Johannesburg Taxi Ring. This was pretty easy, but I was also ripped off by this guy in the long run. He probably charged me about 100-200 Rands extra to take the journey. Ah well. I was at the Taxi Ring and he set me up with a mini bus to take me to Masaru. And let me tell you. These mini buses are terrible. The seat was a folding seat that was welded into the left side of the van. My luggage was piled in front of me. To make a long story short, I spent 5 hours crammed into one position, unable to move and without a clue where I was going.

When I finally got to Masaru, I followed people through the South African border and soon found my way to the Lesotho border. A very nice couple waited for me to meet with Jeremy. Then, there he was! It was so cool to finally meet up with my brother after 2 years.

We stayed in the Peace Corps training headquarters that night, and then caught a much nicer mini bus (a sprinter) to Mount Moorosi. This small town is basically referred to as the “bus stop”. In town, I was coming down with a somewhat bad case of the traveler’s poo. I took my pills, but it was a very unpleasant walk back to Jeremy’s village. I had a heavy load on my back, though Jeremy had taken a much heavier burden. We finally made it and I got to see Bethel for the first time. It is beautiful. Yeah, it doesn’t have much, but the mountains that surround the town are so lovely to look at. It is so tranquil here. You could sit back and just stare at your surroundings. Just wait for the pictures.

On the 18th, I didn’t really do much. Jeremy and I baked soda bread and made pork and sour kraut. We also watched Zombieland. On the 19th, we went for lunch at Ivan’s 2020 Café. Although we were supposed to try out their new menu, the waitress didn’t seem to get this concept. They served us a pre-made meal that was pretty good. Later in the day, Jeremy and I took a nice walk to see some cave paintings.

On the 20th (today), I started off the day with a horseback ride. This ill-fated idea started out fine, though we should have known things were a bit off when the horses showed up with no saddles. Still, I went on the ride. It hurt something awful. My butt was riding the spine of the horse. Saddles were invented for a reason, and I really should have had one. Then, to make matters worse, Thabang, who Jeremy asked to take me on the ride, didn’t walk the horse up a very steep embankment. When the horse went up, I didn’t go with it. And the horse didn’t wait for me at the top. It was off, and it still hasn’t returned.

I rode back on Thabang’s horse and later in the day, Jeremy and I tried the local brew. The Joala is made from Sorghum, and you can still see the mush mix in the beer. I think I like my drinks free of gunk, so this turned me off to the drink. Its taste wasn’t much better. So after two sips, I was done. But it was fun to have tried it out. The best part is that the drink is served from houses that are waving a white flag. So, in London, you could look at the flag over a palace and see if a royal family member were in. In Lesotho, it let’s you know that they have beer in stock.

That’s about it for now. I am having a great time. Jeremy has some super cool things planned for us in Mozambique and Italy is taking shape. We will have better internet access when we get to Masaru in about a week. We will be in Masaru until December 5th. Then it is off to Mozambique. We will go on a fishing expedition, go on a mini cruise, see some wildlife, and spend some time at the beach taking surfing lessons and yoga lessons. Then off to Rome.

Cheers!