Trapped in the Red Pyramid of Dashur, Egypt

Dashur, Egypt, Day 2 - December 17, 2009 - Trapped Inside the Red Pyramid
Inside Photos of the Red Pyramid included

The Red Pyramid, the third largest pyramid built
104m high (345 feet), built by Pharaoh Sneferu (2613 BC to 2589 BC)
(yes, the pyramid you see in the background is where we were trapped)

Ok, trapped may be too strong of a word, but its the best way I can describe what happened to us while visiting the Red Pyramid in Dashur, Egypt.

Can you imagine being trapped in a pyramid or being buried alive? I can. While my brother and I were in Dashur, we visited one of the first pyramids ever built in Egypt and while there, we found ourselves at the bottom of the pyramid in complete darkness. We started the descent into the pyramid with lights initially guiding our way, however, the lights turned off as soon as we reached the bottom of the pyramid. If you can imagine yourself being buried alive in a coffin, then you will know what I was feeling while standing there in the darkness. It was already hot inside the pyramid and getting hotter as I sense the anxiety building within me. To make matters worse, there was an unfamiliar smell that was unpleasant (think it was ammonia from the mummification process? who knows) -- but that was easily solved as I breathed through my mouth. The oxygen however, felt scarce and at times Wilson echoed my silent thoughts of -- "its getting more and more difficult to breathe down here".

At this point, Wilson and I only had three choices - 1) wait for them (whoever them should be) to turn the lights back on (um, we had two things going against us -- we're in a desert (so we'd be lucky to find water) and we're in Egypt (where things take forever to fix and people do things at an incredibly s l o w pace), 2) some how find a way back to the entrance (not too hard) or 3) continue on with our one mini flash light and my on camera flash... Of course, being the adventurers that we are .... We continued on (hurray! we're crazies! how else would we have a good story to tell?). We eventually found the main chamber but because of the darkness (duh) we could not see much of what was there, if anything was there.

This is a video of us talking inside the pyramid in complete darkness (obviously you won't see anything, you'll just hear our voices), a few seconds after the lights went out. (click the "play" button below")

Below is our journey inside the pyramid with a pictorial view of what we went through.

Here goes...

Man who let us into the pyramid and who also expected "basheesh" (aka tip) for taking a photo of us and for letting us into the pyramid (even though we already paid the entrance fee). In hindsight (and things are always 20/20 afterwards), perhaps he turned the lights off on us! Somethings are better left unknown...

This is the entrance down into the pyramid.

With big smiles on our faces, Wilson and I descend a few steps to take this photo... not knowing what we were going to expect next ...

After we get to the bottom of the stairs, and as we walk for a few minutes ... the lights went off.. and Wilson and I were, literally, left to our own devices -- his: a mini flashlight ; mine: my on-camera flash...

The photo above is of the entrance, a view from the bottom... with the lights off (compare it to the one above -- stark contrast, right?!). Our shouts of "turn on the lights" were ignored... Wilson and I hesitated and then debated whether we should go back, but we got the courage to move deeper within the pyramid...

Left: Wilson crouching to get through a passageway.
Right: Stairs inside the pyramid. Climb this and you'll get into the heart of the pyramid...

Wilson starts climbing up the stairs (photo left)... and just to give you an idea of what it felt like ... to the right is a photo of us going down the stairs... can you, now, imagine doing this in complete darkness, with only a flash to guide you every few seconds?

We finally make it up the stairs and this is the tiny passage we see (left)... entering into the heart of the pyramid... as we enter, we find it difficult to breathe. Wilson notices a pungent smell (right), and I accidentally whiff it in through my nose ... ACK! my mistake! it was once again that ammonia smell, but much stronger ... this must be the source... the air was sooo stifling that we could not stay there for long, but of course, I stay there long enough to take some photos with my flash...

Left: Wilson and I finally made it to the end of the pyramid (look at my shocked face!). And there was nothing there. Well, nothing we can see... (photo on the right is what my camera saw).

Wilson and I make our way back to the entrance... and as we get closer to the pyramid opening, we hear laughter, children laughing... a group of kids were already descending the stairs hoping to seek the same adventure my brother and I just experienced ... I wonder if they were brave enough to go through the dark passageways, up and down the stairs and into the heart of the pyramid... because of the excitement in their voices, we could not tell them that there was nothing at the end of the road...

A Difficult Night of Sleeping in Tel Aviv

January 16, 2010 (Night of) -- Our only night in Tel Aviv

Wilson and I checked into Hayarkon 48 Hostel and due to the enormous price difference between the private rooms vs. dorm rooms, we opted for a dorm room for $45. Many may say, you get what you pay for and we probably did get what we paid for - limited sleep - but our night stay provided a few comical moments that we will remember for a lifetime. If you haven't stayed at a hostel before, they often offer dorm rooms and private rooms. With dorm rooms, sometimes they can fill up to 8 people or in our case 4. Sometimes you may be lucky and have no one else join you, but of course that didn't happen ... our room filled up with two other girls -- which, doesn't seem so bad -- better chances for Wilson to score! jk. Ugh, that's a dirty thought... Ok, moving on. So what do you think happened? Did someone sCore in a room of four? or did someone sNore??? Snoring was the main culprit for our lack of sleep.

Wilson snores every now and then and for the last week he has been snoring quite consistently. He's a considerate person, so knowing he could potentially snore, he decided he'd try to sleep on his side -- no such luck. I heard someone snoring throughout the night. In the early part of the night, it was a modest humming noise and then it progressed to a roaring like noise that could wake up people down the hall. It was intense! I was unable to fall back asleep and decided to get up to hush Wilson, but to my surprise, it was not him! Wilson's eyes were open and we quickly discovered that it was one of the girls in the room. WOW! That girl can snore! Whew! She could be the drummer in the band and play without any equipment! just amazing!

Wilson and I looked at one another and tried to figure out what time it was -- 6:00 am -- still too early to get ready for the day (especially for Wilson who normally gets up around 8:30/9:00 am). So what to do?


Wilson slept in the bunk below hers and since her blanket was slightly hanging over the bed, he decided to tug on it a little, hoping it would wake her up. The blanket moved, but she didn't budge and her roaring snore grew louder. Wilson tugged on the blanket a little harder and it was now halfway down to the floor. Still no movement and the snoring continued. Wilson and I couldn't help but laugh. And even our laughter didn't wake her up! (and for those of you who know us, we can laugh pretty loud)... so, Wilson and I were in disbelief... Man, this girl snores like a rock star and she was a heavy sleeper!?!?! What a lucky combo!

Next, we decided to try and make some "real" noise - but not so much that it would wake up the third girl -- who was quite remarkably still asleep (not sure how she was still asleep, since the building next door was probably awake from her snoring!). But our noise didn't work either -- and Wilson and I just stared at each other and decided to try and go back to sleep. Yeah, right -- wishful thinking!

Eventually, the third girl woke up and said aloud "I can't believe this, this is the worse snoring I've ever heard -- worse than my ex-boyfriends!" She quite simply yelled over to the girl to tell her she was snoring very loudly and asked her to sleep on her side. Finally, the snoring girl woke up, apologized, and turned on her side. Within seconds she was back asleep and the SNORING continued. Unbelievable. We were just in shock and unaware of what we could do next. Nothing really, but to let the rock music continue.

It was 6:45 am... Wilson decided to play music out loud on his iPhone, the third girl decided to get ready for the day, and I decided to continue on with my blog. There was no way anyone would be able to fall back asleep. So, I guess sometimes, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get! And in this case, sometimes its hit or miss with random roommates. Unfortunately for us, we got a free show to a rock concert!

... want a taste of the music? I of course, recorded a part of the show. Its not the entire event ... I wouldn't do that to you because we wouldn't want a hole developing in your ear drum. So when you're ready, press play!

Tears Coming Down My Cheeks at St. Anne's Church

January 13, 2010 - St. Anne's Church, Jerusalem

St. Anne's Church in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter is known to have one of the finest examples of Crusader architecture and is also traditionally known as the home of Virgin Mary's parents, Joachim and Anne. What I found to be one of the most beautiful things here was not the architecture, but the acoustic system within the church, which the church is also famously known for.

We were fortunate enough to have two strangers - man and wife - sing for us while inside the church. As I was sitting there enjoying the environment and listening to them sing -- something happened to me internally and tears started to well up in my eyes. I didn't even know what he was singing, but whatever it was, it touched me so much that the floodgates opened -- and tears began to roll down my cheeks. It truly was a touching moment for me. Luckily enough, Wilson recorded them singing and below is a video of the moment (the feeling may not be the same as if you were sitting there, but at least you get a sense of it).

After they left, Wilson also sang Silent Night in the center of the church -- and though it was good, it didn't touch me quite as much. :D haha.