I made it to Abu Simbel today. It wasn't as much fun as it might have been. Security is the strictest I've seen in Egypt. The road is closed to foreigners due to terrorist threats, so the only way to get there is by plane. They shepard you around with herds of other tourists and you can only stay for 1.5 hours.
It is the best preserved temple in Egypt and having to rush through it with masses of other tourists is a shame. Most of the great monuments are around Luxor, so I will probably be monumented out soon since I leave for there this evening. I haven't written much about the monuments because I'm not sure how to put into words what it's like to see these things.

But I do have some strange thoughts from time to time that I thought I'd share: The Egyptians were very concerned about the afterlife and achieving immortality and isn't that just exactly what they've achieved?

I sometimes wonder how one of the most incredible civilizations that ever existed could have ever become modern Egypt. If Egyptians ran the world, I'm not sure that much technology would even exist. Can you imagine 3000 years from now what the US might be like? Will people come visit our office buildings and talk about what a great civilization we had (while gazing in wonder at a completely decayed and crumpling current infrastructure?) I suppose it could happen, eh?

There are so many artifacts, tombs, heiroglyphs, statues, temples, jewelry, etc that it is unbelievable that so much could come from one place. And they are still excavating and finding more things all the time. There is a black market in Egyptian antiquities. If you have the money, you can buy just about anything.

Many people feel a need to graffitti the various monuments with something noting they were there on such and such date. It's upsetting, but then i wonder if this stuff is around in another thousand years will that be part of what's interesting to future visitors? Some of the current graffiti goes back to Roman times. Other graffiti comes from early Coptic Christians. But still, I think it's the epitome of rudeness to put the equivalent of "kilroy was here" on something that has lasted throughout so many centuries. Stupid people.

The Miserable Papaya (aka Kayla with yet another nickname....but this one is a long story best told in person. Let's just leave it as -- I've rarely laughed so hard and the nickname is due to some incredibly garbled attempts at speaking Arabic rather than any actual misery on my part.)