---

I have long been fascinated by Egypt- ever since I was 13 and learnt about hieroglyphics and the Rosetta stone. I therefore made sure we got to visit this history rich country while we were in the UK, with the Xmas/ New Year break seeming a good time to go.

The trip started well with an upgrade to premium economy on our British Airways flight on Christmas Eve. Once we cleared customs and located our driver, we were all keen to hit the road. However, our driver really wanted some ‘top quality’ vodka from duty free, so nominated one of our fellow travelers to head back into customs, and gave him a hand full of Egyptian pounds. Okay, take two: Passengers check, Bags check, Vodka double check. The trip to the hotel gave us our first taste of the chaotic Egyptian roads, and we finally got to our rooms at 2am. Santa had been to our rooms and left us with an Xmas stocking/red sock filled with lollies, nuts and an orange!

Day 1:

There was to be no sleep-in on Christmas morning, where we quickly rushed to breakfast before meeting up with our tour group. Our first stop was the Saqqara pyramid - the oldest pyramid in Egypt, and was partly under construction. We were all a bit eager though to move onto our next stop, which was the famous Giza pyramids. Sadly though we were disappointed at just how close the pyramids are to Cairo city. They were amazing to look at size wise and we could climb up onto one of them. There weren’t many tourists at the Pyramids so we were getting fairly hassled by the locals. We were wearing Santa hats too, which didn't really help our cause! We watched the sun go down over the pyramids from the roof of our hotel and then we caught the overnight sleeper train to Aswan.

Day 2:

Thirteen hours later we arrived at our destination. The train was pretty good and we awoke to views of the Nile. Was definitely worth paying to upgrade to a sleeper cabin. Today we went to see Philae Temple, which was a personal favourite of mine as it was on its own island. That night we caught a boat across to the west side of the Nile to a local Nubian Village for a meal. After dinner they put on a show complete with drums, dancers and multiple costume changes!

Day 3:

Up at 3.30am to join the police convoy to drive down to Abu Simbel, which was three hours south on the boarder of Sudan. The Abu Simbel temples were originally carved into the mountainside in the 13th century BC, but in 1968 the two temples both had to be entirely relocated to a hill above the original site to avoid them being submerged by the creation of the High Dam in Aswan. It was incredible to see how intact the temples are and I cannot even begin to imagine the process that went into moving them. Both temples had multiple rooms inside the hill, which were fill of hieroglyphics, and drawings - you would never have guessed the whole thing had been moved!

Later that night we boarded our home for the next two nights - a felucca boat! The felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat, designed for the Nile. There were thirteen of us on the boat, plus three crew members and we all fitted comfortably, with us passengers lying on the large mattress.

Day 4:

After a surprisingly solid night sleep on the boat (probably due to tiredness) we spent the day sailing the Nile. Was definitely a highlight of the trip- reading books and playing cards. We stopped on the banks of the Nile for lunch, and some people swam. It wasn't quite warm enough for me. That night we pulled up along the riverbank again for a massive bon fire with the locals loving involving all of us in the singing and dancing!

Day 5:

Early morning and back on the bus to drive to the Kom Ombo and Edfu temples. More amazing sights- Edfu temple was especially interesting as all the hieroglyphics were carved outwards instead of inwards. It was unfathomable to think about the amount of time that had gone into this. After our temple visits we continued driving onto Luxor, where we were able to have a few hours free in the afternoon to enjoy our hotel, which had great sunset views of the Nile.

Day 6:

Another early morning, but if the thought of Hot Air Ballooning over the Nile and Valley of the Kings for sunrise can't get you out of bed, I don't know what can! As we were missing breakfast our hotel gave us 'breakfast boxes' to eat on the way which consisted of stale pastries, a green banana and one gherkin. After a short boat trip across the Nile to the west bank, we were meet with by a hand full of kids eyeing off out breakfast boxes. They must have heard about the gherkins! Despite most of the boxes being uneaten we were instructed not to give them to the children, which was both frustrating and understandable! As we arrived at the launching site for the hot air ballooning, the Egyptians were inflating our balloon. As the balloon started to take shape, we quickly clambered or in my case were thrown into the 25-person basket. With the gas burners on full power, we slowly inched up, trying not to worry about the fact that a screaming fire engine had just arriving beneath us. Once we got to full height I managed get over my fear of heights and enjoy the calmness in the balloon. Sadly the day was a bit hazy but we still had a great time and saw lots of monuments and farmland with the farmers attending to their crops. The divide between the greenery and the desert was exceptionally great to see. The landing was much more fun than we were all anticipating- we all had to duck down and then balloon bumped along the gravel for a couple of minutes and we had local kids on donkeys chasing after us to stop it!

The rest of the day was filled with more ancient sites- Valley of the Kings, Hatchepsut temple, and Karnack and Luxor temples. Valley of the Kings was my favourite out of these, as we got to see the inside of some of the former Egyptian Kings' Tombs, which were amazing and elaborate, with lots of artwork on the walls. We then rode donkeys leaving the site, which were a lot more fun than we all thought! We weren't tied to each other so pretty much got to ride free, and there were some kids running between us all who would make our Donkeys go faster.

It was back on the sleeper trains for our return to Cairo that night.

Day 7:

We were woken up by our amusing cabin attendant who whistled like a bird outside our door to wake us up, and then it was time to get ready for another big day. This time it was seeing the sights around Cairo. We went to a Mosque at the top of a hill, which was good to see, as I have never been inside one, and they are quite different to churches! The view over the city showed just how crowded Cairo is. Before lunch we headed to some markets where I may have brought too many scarves. The final destination on our trip was the famous Egyptian Museum, which we were unsure whether we were going to get to due to it being right next to Tahir Square where the current protests are happening. The square was fine though and all we saw were a couple of tents and flags. The museum had some amazing artifacts and was great to see some of the things we had learned about over the last week- the best things there was Tutankhamen’s mask and the mummies.

Tonight was New Years Eve and the hotel provided us with a gala dinner- complete with party bags, which included animal masks among other party pieces. It was a great night with a dance floor and balloons falling at midnight.

Day 8:

The tour had officially ended but we spent another day in Cairo- unfortunately it wasn’t very warm, but it was nice to finally catch up on some sleep and relax in the resort before our return to London.

Day 9:

We arrived at Cairo airport ahead of time after our final thrill ride on the Egyptian roads. Upon checking in we were instructed that the plane was very full and that we had been upgraded to business class. Michael was thankful he had decided to wear clean clothes that day. After making 16 micro adjustments to my seating position, I settled in for the flight home and wondered ‘where next?’.

---