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A new chapter to my travelblog!! (Slightly delayed posting as usual)
Me and Simone (younger sister) had decided it was time to take a break from our busy studies and booked a lastminute - splurged a little - and that's how we ended up in Egypt 2 weeks later!
Being two girls on holiday alone in this male-oriented society was (how shall I put it) interesting, and we certainly got enough attention to give us an ego boost. Especially at the bazaars (markets) there was a lot of hissing and Arabic whispering and they said "Shakira" or "Hello- you are like two beautiful cats!" and "Marry me I will pay 100,000 camels" (a good offer) We felt we should stay reasonably covered up for cultural reasons even though it was HOT (30-35 degrees) not that everyone (especially the Eastern European ladies among the tourists) took much notice of this, they happily walked around the resort topless and in a thong, and during the trips wore hotpants and low-cut tops. Disrespectful of the culture, but let's not get started on that topic....as I could go on for a while about them.
We stayed at the Hilton Long Beach resort,
certainly one of the fanciest places I've stayed recently (see previous journals 😉. We arrived at night and got shown to our room (s) - we had two large balconies looking out on the sea, and two rooms (a living room as well as a bedroom) with TV's...not that we would spend much time inside with the gorgeous weather! The next morning we awoke at 6am and were excited to see the resort and the sea in daylight. It really is huge and walking from one end to another takes at least 20 minutes. We headed to the dining hall where there was a large selection of breads, cereals, diet options, omelettes etc. Always topped up and fresh and certainly enough waiting staff.
The plan for this holiday was: lie on the beach, get a tan, read some books and do a little swimming... Of course, the staff at the resort try and get you to try it all once. Always friendly but sometimes you just wished they'd leave you alone while you're trying to read Memoirs of a Geisha! Amazingly the guys from the health club, trips, diving can all speak several languages fluently. Our tour representatives were
both Egyptian, had never been to the Netherlands but explained everything in Dutch, respect! And very kind and honest, giving us tips on how 'not to be ripped off'.
We went on two trips with them: one to Luxor, and one to Sharm El Naga to go snorkelling. Now before we went to Sharm El Naga we hadn't explored the resort's house reef, which we didn't do until the last day (typical mistake) and which is AMAZING. Sharm El Naga was a nice relaxing day out, nice to leave the resort and not expensive, but the snorkelling was not amazing as the house reef. Beautiful sea life to be seen, the most colourful fish imaginable, some huge parrotfish, boxfish and a lot which I don't know the names of.
There was another first for Simone and I, we did an introduction dive. I've always been intrigued by it and wanted to try it but always had a bit of a fear of being deep under water. So when the guys from Pirates Diving approached us (many times) we actually thought 'well let's just do it and get it over with'. There was a Diving Centre in the resort,
to try it in the pool first. They taught us the signals etc and then we gave it a go. A bit nervous.. but nothing too scary, and I was actually relaxed by the end of it, I'm keen to try it again. We didn't go on the diving trip, we put it off and by the end we didn't really have enough time or money anymore! Will definitely want to give it a go on the next holiday.
Later that week we got a bit of a shock, as we switched on CNN and saw the headline "Egypt bomb attacks", followed by sirens on the street a short while later. The attacks were not near us, in Dahab, but still very scary of course.
Our trip to Luxor was breathtaking. Our bus left in a convoy around 6 am....quite a sight, over a hundred coaches lined up and driving through the desert. From what my mom had told me (they lived there in the early 80's), it was quite different then. Now security is so high, especially after the attacks at Hatchepsut that this is the only way to get tourists in. After quite a picturesque drive
through the desert and some smaller cities we reached the Valley of the Kings. We visited one tomb with our Sky group, got a lot of info about them but it must have been the heat because I don't remember a thing. At the time it was really impressive though, I should have brought a notepad. The guide said that after seeing three tombs (which our entrance ticket allowed us to see) we'd have seen them all because according to him they were all the same, because all the artifacts are on display in the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo. I disagree, we went to three which were all different. The first we saw had a mummy in it (they suspect it was just a worker) and was tiny, the next had three different levels- quite climb - and the 3rd we saw had different corridors. And the wall drawings were much clearer in some than the other, amazing how they've managed to keep so well.
After a short stop at an alabaster "factory" (read: opportunity for the local people to sell you their goods) we went on to the Temple of Hatchepsut. In the middle of nothing, this beautiful
temple...really incredible. I had expected it to be much busier still, we were able to look around quietly without too many tourists, which was nice. The first level is pretty damaged and has little left to see, many parts have been restored to keep the temple stable. However some of the pictures are still so clear and whole stories of Hatchepsut and her life are told through these drawings, and our guide's explanation of how the Gods are portrayed was really interesting (but again so much it's hard to take it all in at once!!).
We then took a boat across the Nile to a local restaurant, where the food was surprisingly good!! I made sure to stick to the heavily cooked goods because everyone I know comes back with a serious bug. (they say it's not
whether you'll get it, rather
when you'll get it!) At this point our group was really starting to get tired (everyone was also lucky enough to witness a couple in our group in a lover's fight) and it was off to our last stop this day, the Karnak Temple. Again, really incredible. It is HUGE. We didn't have that much time to
The bazaar
Spot the salesmen, ready to pounce... explore but it's so big I imagine it's difficult to take it all in. Our guide did his thing telling us about the Egyptian Gods and how they are protrayed in the temple and gave us a short 101 on Egyptian history. How he manages to remember it all is beyond me, because there are a lot of Gods!! The sun was setting at this point which was beautiful..and it was finally starting to cool down, as it had been 40 degrees for most of the day.
After a quick stop at the Papyrus "factory" (yes another sales opp!) where most of us used the toilet and were ready to go home, we started our convoy drive back to the hotel. The heat we'd experienced in the morning, had now turned into freezing cold. Relieved, we arrived back at the resort around 10.30 pm. A long day, but completely worth it and unforgettable. Especially when you go on a resort holiday like this one, I'm glad we managed to add some culture to it- it's such a shame to be in a country and only see a resort.
All in all, an amazing week, and Egypt is
a country I will definitely want to explore further.
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Jenny
non-member comment
Hey hey!
Hey Falluj! Your trip sounds A-Mazing! I'm so glad you got to get out with your sister and then come back and write about it! I miss you and now I want to go to Egypt! Um, another sentence with an exclamation point! Love you!!! Jenny