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Published: August 7th 2008
Back in Egypt!
Well, it's been three years since I landed at Cairo Airport and somehow found myself extending my four night stay to a one month tour of Egypt.
Cairo is still all madness and heat! Mark and I booked a nice tour in an aircon minibus for the day of pyramids - I can't tell you what a difference it is sitting in luxury with our personal tourguide all to ourselves. This is as opposed to having a taxi driver stoned on hash, windows open with dirt and dust flying in, while trying to sell you a camel ride! It was quite wonderful! We also spent a bit of time at the Nile Hilton for their buffet breakfast and lunch and their big swimming pool!
We made our way to Aswan on the overnight train, booked ourselves into a nice little hostel and then took the 4:00am airconditioned minivan down to Abu Simbel - beautiful!!!! The convoy drivers are crazy but we made it there and back in one piece, stopping at the High Dam, unfinished oblisk and Philae Island.
Aswan was a quick two nights and we dodged the felluca captains and made our
way to Luxor by train where we checked into the Sheraton Hotel for their four day tour plus breakfast and accomodations "Discover Luxor" package. Our huge room looked out onto the Nile, had 2 Queen beds, television with CNN, airconditioning and a fridge....we also laid about at one of the two pools and a had personal driver for our tours of Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos and Dendara. I admit it sounds like cheating...staying at a nice hotel instead of a hostel...but it was worth every penny. It was one of my most favorite parts of the trip!
We flew from Luxor to Sharm El Sheikh and a minibus picked us up and drove to Dahab. Ah Dahab...what can I say? It's a bit busier than last time and there are more families but it retains it's laid back appeal.
Mark took his Advanced Open Water Course and can now dive down to 30 meters (about 100 feet or so). We've been diving almost daily and made it out to dive the Thistlegorm - the WWII ship sunk by German fighter pilots. After two dives at the Thistlegorm (one outside the ship and one inside the
ship) we went to Ras Mohammad for a dive and I saw my first turtle! The fish were huge - at least 4 times the size of the fish in Dahab - and we saw a giant Moray Eel swimming around! Great day of diving - one of the best ever. I'm getting closer to my goal of 50 dives so I can more advanced dives around the world - hopefully there's some good diving in San Diego???
The other news is that Mark and I are returning to the States a couple of months early. We went a bit over budget due to the Euro and our time in Europe so we've decided to head back and move to San Diego. That and it's really hot in the Middle East right now....it would be a bit miserable touring in the height of summer heat!
I will post more photos when I return to the states and update everyone on the move when I make it to San Diego. In the mean time, take care and I will see you sooner as opposed to later!
Much love,
Andrea
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