Please remind me to never never never poke anything in my ears again, as it seems I have perforated my eardrum.
The treatment is the same, which appears to be working, but I won’t be able to put my head underwater for some weeks. What a dilly. It’s not the first time in fact, I ruptured it initially when I was 12, due to an unfortunate combination of recurrent ear infections and a love of diving down into the deep end of swimming pools. When I think back to all the various sorts of infections I’ve had over the years, I’d have been dead many times over if it wasn’t for antibiotics. Sorry for weakening the gene pool, everyone.
I am currently lying in bed with my left side up having put ear drops in. We have just set sail for the day having spent the morning at Dandarah Temple. The rest of the passengers are upstairs having a setting sail party, followed by a meet and greet.
Dandarah Temple is another famous Egyptian site that I have never heard of. It is the first one with a Greco-Roman influence, as seen on some of the columns and the shape of the human figures which are becoming more curved and realistic rather than stylized. There was also a frieze on one of the ceilings depicting a calendar and the zodiac but unfortunately the French nicked it and it’s now in the Louvre.
We had another policeman with us today, and our tour buses were escorted through the streets by a police entourage. Our guide said it was the national day of the tourist, and when we arrived the local governor was there with several burly body guards with sunglasses and guns. We were given roses, a band played and there were dancers who performed. Bizarre.
We had left the ship at 7 so the temperature was very pleasant at the start of our tour, although it was already hot by the time we left just before ten.
Interestingly Wael said he always imagined Cleopatra as looking like Elizabeth Taylor when he was young, because of the famous movie she was in.
Once again I could show many photos of this one spot but it would be too much.
I was looking for a dress to wear on the ship over my togs, I did some serious haggling and got one for considerably cheaper than one of the other passengers, at 250 Egyptian pounds (about 8USD), but then on the bus on the way back to the ship Wael explained how much we were all expected to tip everyone, and it put things into perspective. It’s going to be several hundred USD each. Tipping is so dumb. Just pay people already!