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Sofitel Le Sphinx
Location, Location, LocationGoing straight into the crazy mix of noise, traffic, sheer volume of people can make Egypt seem pretty daunting for the first time traveller. Fortunately when we arrived at around 4pm on 1 May having already travelled to countries such as Tunisia and Turkey, we were fairly clued up on how to deal with the "how much money can I get out of you" culture that seems to prevail throughout a lot of Egypt.
Step one was getting from the airport to our hotel. We had decided since we were facing the prospect of 40 nights in a tent in the near future to splash out and "ease" ourselves into travelling by booking the first 2 nights at the Sofitel Le Sphinx in Giza, which offered lovely sunset views from the rooftop terrace looking out at the Pyramids. Unfortunately this was also a advertisement for "I'm a rich tourist with a big fat wallet" so we quickly got into the habit of telling everyone we travelled "very far from New Zealand" and were backpackers, to whatever use that was! We were able to bargin the first taxi driver from about Egyptian 120pds to 80 and went with that. We then
The Second Pyramid
Someones been watching way too much America's Next Top Model thought we had fallen foul of taxi scam no.1: Take tourist to alternative hotel and get them to stay there instead. After a very long winded taxi ride we finally arrived via most of the city where a further 50pds was promptly demanded for the taxi fare. We were having none of that!!
Day two and we quickly figured out the white taxis were the best to take in Cairo. They are registered and if you ask they will use a meter instead of haggling over a price up front. Inevitably the drivers will then ask you for more cash or tips, or tell you price is in US dollars, not local currency and so forth! One driver even spat at us after we paid him local currency after he told us "Egyptian pound payment was over". After all it was "only US$2" despite the fact we told him many times we were not American and had no dollars!
So we got a taxi to Giza Metro station and public transported it in to downtown Cairo near the Egyptian Museum. The goal was to find a local backpackers who could help us organise our student ID cards. (We're
Pyramid with Cart
One Horse Power... students, didn't ya know??) As luck would have it we stumbled upon a hostel that not only organised a driver for us to go to the place which issues the cards, they also send a man along with us to help us. What we didn't know is the building was almost all the way back near the station we came from! Once we had our cards, we would be granted 50% off most entrance fees to museums and historical sites. So we made the most of the trip in by a visit to the Egyptian Museum. The museum itself is fairly disorganised in its setup and does not offer a lot in the way of explanation unless you hire a guide. The highlight is the chance to view the Tutankkamun collection which were taken from Luxor. This includes his burial tooms and the mask that was placed on top of the mummy.
After a nice meal on our rooftop "pyramid view" restaurant (try the kofta - spiced mince if you can..yum) we headed out to the Pyramids and Sphinx for the 11.30pm sound and light show. Sunday was the only night we had available to see this and unfortunately
Tacky Tourist Shot
Yes, it's definitely tacky the English version was at 11.30pm! It's well worth going to see, if not a little bit cheesy narration by the Sphinx giving a history of the pyramids. There are sound and light shows offered in a few sites around Egypt but this was the only one we ended up seeing.
The next day was Pyramid time! We spent a good three hours looking around Khufu and Khafre and also the Sphinx. Brent went into one of the pyramids which Cath chickened out of when she saw you had to walk half bent over down a very narrow shaft to get into it!! The space between each was also very walkable although quite hot going as it was about 30deg. Unfortunately we had to check out of our room in the morning before we left and store our bags but facing the prospect of spending 6 hours waiting before our sleeper train Cath struck on the idea of asking the hotel if we could hang out by the pool for a bit which they said was fine. YAY! We even had showers by the pool so were able to get on the 8.50pm sleeper train for Aswan feeling (and
Abu Simbel
Truely huge smelling!) reasonably okay.
The sleeper train is an experience in itself. You pay around US 50/60 depending on where you buy your ticket and how much they decide to hike the price up and you get a little cabin to yourselves with three seats, a fold down table and a small sink. The beds then fold into one bunk and another bunk folds down from the wall to form your bed. You also get dinner and breakfast. It takes about 12 hours to get from Cairo to Aswan and in theory you should be nice and rested when you get there, or so we thought! Unfortunately this wasn't the nice sleep inducing "clickety clack" Eurostar variety but the shaking, lurching, accelerating, stop start train. Even Brent "sleeps on anything that moves" Sutton barely managed to get an hour or two of sleep during the night. It's the first time were were actually grateful the train was running two hours late and we were able to snatch a few "power naps" in the morning while the train was reasonably stationery. Having said that, the sleeper train is surely an experience not to miss and a good way of getting to
Aswan Sunset
Plain Stunning southern Egypt.
We arrived in Aswan about 10.30am the next morning and checked into Hathor, which (we honestly didn't know at the time, really!) is in Egyptian mythology the goddess of love and sensual pleasures. As it was more than 40deg outside, the most sensual pleasure Cath experienced at that point was having a fridge in our room for nice cold water!!
Having had mostly non existent sleep the night before, Cath was none to pleased at the next morning's 3am wake up call to make the trek down to Abu Simbel. In fact, after two beers on a barge pub in the Nile and a quick dinner, Cath went into complete shut down mode from about 6.30pm! Abu Simbel is one of the most impressive colossal temples in Egypt, the great temple of Ramses II. In fact the temple used to be in a different place but it had to be shifted when the Aswan High Dam was built. Because of safety fears, all trips are now undertaken in convoys which leave Aswan and return at a few points during the day, although a couple of hours at the temple is plenty. So it was up by
Felucca Ride
Calm now but we almost got swallowed by a cruise liner! 3am and in a mini van to join the convoy departing at 4.30am. The trip was three hours away by road and when we arrived at around 7.30am we were grateful for the early start as the temperature had not quite reached "fry an egg" status yet. We were safely back at our hotel by 2.30pm in time for nap time!
The next day we were due to join our second little treat of the holiday so far - a three night cruise on the Nile. We had booked a room on the M/S Renaissance through Expedia and the ship turned out to be a beauty. Unfortunately we not only had a twin room (and not the double we booked) our room also could not have been closer to the engine if we had laid down and slept in the actual engine room. While this was not an issue the majority of the time, our poor weary souls were awoken at 3am the next morning when the ship disembarked to cruise to Edfu. Nothing like a bit of bone shattering shaking and noise to make you feel alive. Particularly as our wake up call was 6am!! <:-O
The
Cruising on the Nile
Cath just worked out we were no longer in London best part of the cruise, of which we actually had no idea, was in included PRIVATE tours of the sites, so just the two of us, a guide and a driver, which was excellent, and included all entrance fees as well.
After we embarked on the cruise on 6 May (happy birthday Mum Couch and Dad Sutton!) we were off for a tour of local sites around Aswan, including the Unfinished Obelisk - a large granite stone which had been partially carved out from the surrounding stone until it cracked and was abandoned. If completed it would have been the largest obelisk ever completed at nearly 42m long.
Next was a quick jaunt to the Aswan High Dam. This was completed in 1971 and built on the work done by the British when they built the Aswan Dam to regulate the flow of the Nile and stop the yearly floods which were often devastating. As Egypt did not have enough money at the time to complete such a large structure they asked the Americans to help them. The Americans refused, so as it was during the time of the Cold War, Egypt asked the Russians who were very
Temple Stuff
Hieroglyphic of Horus keen to stick it to the Yanks. There is also a monument in the form of a lotus flower in thanks to the Russians and their help.
We then had a ride on a feluca, a traditional sail boat - which fell a bit flat we there was absolutely no wind! So we bobbed about a bit on the nile for 20 mins then decided to head back when we got caught up in the waves created by a cruise boat which pushed us right into another stationary cruise ship. We then spent a good 15 mins trying to push ourselves away from the cruise ship to get back to the mooring site - actually the most exciting part of the ride! We then had to pay Egyptian 10pds for the pleasure of getting battered on cruise boats for 1/2 hour!
Then it was back to the boat for a lovely three course dinner! In fact we both got a little bit TOO used to our nice three course meals. We first felt a bit bad at eating desert for lunch and dinner and then thought that we would not be able to enjoy ourselves so much again
Brent & Horus
The coolest Egyptian God for a while, so went for it. (we had also had a bit of the old "Egyptian belly" which is all too familiar to most travellers!) We are both now seeing the fruits of our indulgence! The boat itself also had a rooftop pool with a bar, while rooms were equipped with bed, desk, chairs, tv, fridge and ensuite. As the only budget backpackers on the cruise,and pretty much the only english speakers and the only people under 40, we stood out like a sore thumb! Probably didn't help when we snuck our own beers and water into the cruise to avoid paying the over inflated prices and also when we handwashed our clothes and dried them out on the sunchairs on the top deck! Peasants...
Day two of the cruise was another 6am wake up call. Which wasn't too bad this time (we are getting used to living off little to no sleep!!) and the benefit is you pack in all the sightseeing in the morning then have the afternoon and evening for relaxing. Today was the temples of Kom Ombo near Edfu, the temple of Horus (Brent's favourite) and then an afternoon sailing all the way to
Luxor. We soon got into the routine of coming back from our tours for lunch, then sitting up on the sundeck reading, swimming then heading down for a shower and change of clothes in time for 7pm dinner. After dinner it had cooled down enough for us to disembark for an evening walk around the town before bed.
Day three and wake up at 6am for six action packed hours of site seeing around Luxor. This included the Valley of the Kings were great tooms were built to bury the dead. The ticket included entry to three tombs, one complete and two unfinished which were just as interesting. Then up the road to the temple of Hatshepsut, a visit to a stone carving store (where we bought our one and only souvenir, a small granite statute of Horus), Karnak temple and Luxor Temple. Thoroughly "templed out" we retreated back for our lunch and arranged our return train ticket to Cairo for the next day.
After a heavenly 8am wake up call we got on the train at Luxor at 10.30am. In Egypt, tourists are mostly only able to travel on the evening sleeper trains as these are guarded. But there does not seem to be any large security risk and I guess they are being overly cautious to prevent incident. As we read on other sites there was nothing to prevent you getting on an ordinary day train and paying on board, as often tourists are not sold tickets for the day trains. We decided to make it easy on ourselves and get our cruise to send down a local to buy the tickets for us for an extra charge, which meant we had peace of mind in having tickets and seats booked. The 1st class cabins were very spacious and comfortable which was good as it was a 10 hour journey back to Cairo! We left at 10.30am and got into Ramses station yesterday about 9.20pm. We then took a taxi to the airport where we were flying out at 3.20am. (yes, you heard right, 3.20am...sigh!) Then we found that also that our flight was not only running late it had one stop in Khartoum, Sudan!!! So after an hour and a half we landed in Sudan and waited in the plane while passengers got off and on, then back in the air for another hour and a half to get to Addis Ababa. I don't think either of us had pulled an all-nighter since we were in our early 20's so quite a shock to the system!!
We were greeted at the airport by our hotel transfer minibus and taken to our Hotel Mimosa where we will stay tonight before flying out to Gonder at 7am tomorrow (yes, you guessed it, a 4am wakeup call!). We both slept like babies this afternoon and are now looking forward to our first dinner in Ethiopia.
We both throughly enjoyed our experience in Egypt. We did pay above average prices some of the time, but if you expect this as part of the experience and keep your wits about you then you will be fine. You do get constant harrassment of people trying to sell you things on the street, taxis offering you a lift, and felucca captains soliciting business but the majority of the time a smile and a no thank you as you walk by is fine.
We are now thoroughly looking forward to our adventures in Ethiopia over the next 10 days.
ma'as salaama
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Mum Couch
non-member comment
The babies of the families.
Hello Catherine and Brent. What a interesting time you have had so far. Reading it makes us feel you have taken us with you!! Cheeky Kiwis with the cruise laundry, which sounds a mite similar. lots of love and safe continual travels. love Mum ( Dad )