Travels to Egypt

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I did a lot of research before we went on this trip to Egypt but I didnt find a place where I could find tips useful to first time travellers from India and hence this blog..

Day 1: We flew from Bangalore to Dubai where there was a six hour stop over. From there we flew to Cairo on Emirates. We were really apprehensive about the six hour stop over at Dubai wondering what we’ll do to pass time. However (maybe because of the excitement of getting to Egypt soon) we had little to worry.

We indulged in duty free window shopping. The airport has also very thoughtfully provided comfortable chairs between areas 9 and 8 where you can stretch your legs and go to sleep for a while. If you fly Emirates, they provide you with free lunch/ dinner if you have to wait for more than 4 hrs for your connecting flight. This is great and they have a wide variety to choose from their buffet (both veg and non-veg food).

Tip1: Even though you are flying to a hot country, it’s better to carry a shawl/ light jacket with you as they tend to keep their air conditioning at freezing temperatures!!

Dubai airport also has a facility where you can take a bath and freshen up at 13$ per use of a clean bathroom. They provide you with shampoo, razor, soap, towels. If you want, you could also avail their per hour basis rooms (approx 60 usd per hour).

We reached Cairo at about 7pm Egypt time. By the way, the flying time is 4 hrs from Bangalore to Dubai and 4 hours from Dubai to Egypt. Egypt is approximately 2.5 hrs behind India.

On reaching Egypt we were taken to an Indian restaurant. Pure (and fussy) vegetarians who are used to having even outside food at an “all vegetarian” restaurant back home better beware in Egypt. It’s a real tough life for you guys.

We being vegetarians did get veggie fare (it was ok) but the restaurant smelled of non-veg food. We stayed over at Saffir Doki hotel at downtown Cairo. Expect your passports to be taken by the hotel for registration with the local police. Ask for an acknowledgement of the passports. Better still, give them only a copy of the passports.

Tip2: Water costs approx 5 Egyptian pounds (EP) in hotels. However if you buy them outside, it will cost you about 1 EP - 2 EP per bottle. So be careful about ordering water in hotels/ restaurants.

Tip 3: “BAKSHEESH” or tipping is expected everywhere and can be quite a nuisance sometimes. This is NOT a part of travel packages. Taxi drivers expect a tip of at least 5 pounds. Even toilets have local people controlling the tissues and expect to pay a baksheesh of 1 pound for the tissues. So make sure you keep a lot of loose change in your purse! We ended up paying baksheesh to the tune of approximately 100 pounds per day for our six day stay in Egypt (including tips to guides where we paid between 25-40 pounds).


Day 2: We were taken to a mosque (many people talk about the blue mosque, but our guide told us that only those people who have made a wish would go there) which was the first mosque built in Egypt. Women are expected to cover their heads and are given a raincoat like jacket which must be worn at all times inside the mosque. The mosque has very good vibrations inside it. Near the mosque is a Coptic church which is really beautiful. We also visited the Egyptian museum which is a must see. Photography is not allowed inside the museum. You’ll need about a day to see the museum in detail (if you are a big history fan). Else you can just run through the museum looking at only the most important artecrafts in about 3 hrs. Also, wear good walking shoes as it is a huge museum. We unfortunately only got 3 hrs inside the museum which kind of left me unsatisfied.

Tip 4: If you have a choice, allow yourself a day’s rest at your hotel to get over your jet lag. We were herded to the museum and had to get up really early in the morning, on Day 2 of the trip, as we hadn’t allowed much time for the Egypt trip and had only 2 days in Cairo. Two days are enough provided you don’t mind taking a bit of strain to cover the places in Cairo. Else you should negotiate with your guide/ travel agent to spread the itinerary over 3 days. Our guide wanted to cover all the places in one day and so we were very tired by the end of the day.

Our lunch was “Filafal” a vegetarian fare of Egyptia roti stuffed with veggies/ fried chick pea cutlets. We had our lunch while traveling over to the Pyramids of Giza where we took a lot of pictures at the Pyramids like typical holidayers. Beware of some hawkers though. They are wily. There was one guy who approached us who claimed he’s from India and that he was so happy to see Indians that he wanted to give us a gift and take a picture with us. He opened a cover with an Arabian head dress before we could say anything and put it on my husbands head. After I took a photograph, he started demanding money. He started with 25 pounds (!!) for a piece of cloth and a small rope!! But we settled at 5 pounds. (Yes, ended up buying it!).

You can get inside the biggest pyramid or another small one. While entry to the big pyramid costs 50 pounds, entry to the small pyramid costs 25 pounds. Our guide advised us to go into the small one as there is nothing much to see anyways (just a small dark room) and if you see one pyramid you’ve seen inside all of them.

Tip 5: If you suffer from Asthma or claustrophobia or back ache, please think about going inside the pyramids because the entry and exit are really narrow with very little air and you get hot and sweaty inside. It is also very steep while you climb up and down. Don’t expect to see any paintings/ carvings. All you will see is an empty room. But still worth it to say you’ve been inside a pyramid!!

We were also taken into a papyrus making unit near the pyramids. They show you how ancient Egyptians used papyrus reeds to make the paper and sell Egyptian paintings made on papyrus. Expect to pay approximately 150 pounds (small to medium sized paintings) onwards for these. You are also expected to ask for a discount on the paintings in the showrooms. You can expect a discount from 10 - 25% depending on the number of paintings you purchase.

Tip 6: You may get cheaper paintings outside but beware of these as they might be made out of banana stems! These don’t usually last long and need not necessarily be of good quality. They are also not authentic papyrus (but obviously!)

Next stop was a perfume factory. They served us refreshing hibiscus juice. These perfume makers sell typical Arabian perfumes which they say is made out of herbs. They also sell beautiful glass decanters and other lovely perfume bottles. Again the perfumes can be very expensive and you are expected to negotiate the price.

The next day we visited Khan e Khalili bazaar. The bazaar opens at about 10pm. It looks like Shivajinagar market at Bangalore. The roads are very narrow and the shopkeepers friendly. One look at Indians, and they yell “hey Indian! Amitabh Bachan! Sonia Gandhi”

You can buy junk jewellery, hookahs, and some small artifacts like a replica of the pyramid, Tutankhamen’s bust etc. You can spend about half a day scouring the market. Again bargaining is a must. Bring down the prices by about 50 - 25%.

After lunch, we walked near the hotel neighborhood to get a feel of Cairo. We also tasted the date fruit.

Day 3: We had to leave the hotel early (about 2am that night) as the flight we had booked to Aswan was at an unusual time. We had informed the hotel reception earlier on that we were leaving early and had requested them to pack a vegetarian fare/ breakfast box for us as it was part of the package. Make sure you mention that you do not want eggs in your breakfast box as Egyptians are not very familiar with the term “vegetarian”. Expect breads, croissants, butter and jam in your breakfast box. You may also request some fruits. You can take this with you to the airport (you’ll see many people doing this) and eat it at your convenience.

Tip 7: Inform the reception earlier if you are leaving early and request them to pack you the breakfast if it is included in your package. If you are a pure vegetarian, make sure you mention that you do not want eggs in your breakfast box as Egyptians are not very familiar with the term “vegetarian”. Better to mention “no meat, no eggs”.

From Cairo we flew to Aswan. Aswan surprisingly has a better airport then Cairo in my opinion. From there we flew to Abu Simbal. This place in my opinion is a “must see”!!

Expect to spend about 2 hrs at this place. We flew back to Aswan the same day in the afternoon. It is about an hour’s flight from Aswan.

We went over to the cruise that we were booked on by the agent. We asked for the upper deck but were informed that for one day we will have to stay in the lower deck and that we will be shifted to the upper deck the next day. Fortunately they kept their promise.

Tip 8: ASK for the upper deck as the view is better from the upper deck.

We found that the cost of water on the cruise is ridiculously expensive (anywhere upwards of 20 pounds per bottle!) Pick up your bottle of water at the shops around the ports. They will at least be lower than 20 pounds!

Tip 9: Make sure you carry a party outfit as most of the cruises have “cocktail parties” which may sometimes be a formal do.

Again getting veggie fare on the cruise is very difficult (more difficult than getting them in the cities). We ended up eating fruits and salads and yoghurt.

As were a bit late we unfortunately missed seeing the “Temple of Philae”. But we were taken to Aswan dam and a quarry from where the ancient Egyptians got the stone for making their obelisks (which is a kind of flagstone used in almost every Egyptian temple). Aswan dam is a bit disappointing. Not much to see or do; so was the quarry. You can give the latter a miss unless it is included as part of your package. Entry fee into the quarry is about 20 pounds per person.

Must see in Aswan: We were told was the Temple of Philae. Aswan dam since you’ve read so much about it in your text books.

Day 4: We had set sail to KomOmbo in the night. We reached the place early in the morning. We set out to explore Kom Ombo temple at about 9 am in the morning. The cruise stops directly in front of the temple. You’ll need about 2 hrs to cover the temple. You’ll see a mummified crocodile. In this temple the ancient Egyptians also worshipped crocodiles.

Afternoon (after lunch) we landed at Edfu temple. We actually rode on a horse carriage to reach Edfu temple. Again you’ll need about 2 hrs to see the temple. Rest of the day is free for you to relax on board the ship. At night we were introduced to the staff on board the cruise.

Day 5: We then sailed on to Luxor. We left the ship at about 7am in the morning to go to the Valley of Kings. The entrance fee (part of our package) included the entry fees. The ticket allows you to enter into 3 tombs. This place is definitely a must see. There are intricate paintings/ hieroglyphics all over the walls of the tombs. From here we went over to visit an alabaster factory. They have beautiful stuff, again expect to pay anything above 100 pounds for the artifacts. You are expected to bargain.

If nothing else, make sure you visit the toilets here as they are cleaner than the ones you will see at public places/ temples.

The above places will take half a day to visit. We were told that the next half is free. On further enquiry, we were told that we “could” (read not part of the package) visit Luxor temple and Karnak temple. We decided to visit these and ended up paying a lot extra. We soon figured that this was worth it! Make sure you have a guide with you as without explanation these temples will just look like huge ruins and will not make much sense.

We were actually quite surprised that we were not told about these big temples earlier which emphasize the fact that you must have done a thorough research before you visit the places.

We missed out on Alexandria and Esna as we didn’t have the time and from the looks of it on Lonely Planet, we figured we wouldn’t be missing much anyways. But a trip to these two places would cover most of the must see locales in Egypt.

From Luxor, we flew to Cairo from where we flew to Dubai.

Tip 10: We were told that the cruise staffs expect a tip of 30 pound per person per day (!). But you may use your discretion. We were told to put the tip in an envelop and hand it over to the cruise reception which would then distribute the money to the cruise staff.

Must Carry: Umbrellas unless you want to tan; sun glasses; anti tan lotions; caps; good pair of walking shoes; flash lights just in case; one party outfit; Ready to eat stuff if you are a vegetarian.

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