Blogs from Egypt, Africa - page 6

"Welcome to Egypt" is the common refrain frequently heard from genuine Egyptians but with the massive drop in tourist numbers since 2011's revolution (and the more recent second revolution as referred to by locals), traveling in Egypt, especially the south, has become a serious test of patience for foreigners who disregard the negative press and venture here. When I visited in 2009 there was only a very small hassle factor compared to the present but that is because people are desperate for business in areas that are heavily dependent on tourism. Aswan and Luxor were the prime examples of this. Traveling in the desert and Cairo involved much less exhaustion although crossing the street in Cairo is very unnerving and easily the most dangerous activity in all of Egypt. $US ≈ 6.1 Egyptian pounds (LE) when ... read more

Okay. I've just got back from a lovely holiday away with an old school friend, Jenny. After much deliberation and conversation we were able to decide on place to go we decided on Egypt. Dispite it being an All Inclusive/ resort holiday we did manage to get out and about a fair bit. We managed to visit vairious temples and tombs, Tutankhamun's tomb and a river boat trip accross the Nile and being able to visit the Sahara Desert ride a camel to see the bedouin people. An awful lot considering it was initally going to be a ''relax by the pool, maybe do a couple of excursions" kind of holiday. It would have been criminal if we hadn't of left the resort the memories and experiences we had are ones that I will never forget. ... read more

We had just returned from the rooftop pool. I threw my robe to the floor and collapsed onto the billowy white bed. I lie there in my shiny green bikini feeling so refreshed and comfortable. Then there was a pounding on the door. Having learned a thing or two about Middle Eastern modesty, I had the fleeting thought that I should probably cover myself before answering the door. Jeremy was too quick though. He swung the door open and was greeted by a 40-something, shy, Muslim hotel employee who announced, “Good evening, sir. I am here for your turn down service.” The man stepped inside, saw me lying scantily clad in bed and panicked. He put his eyes to the floor and said, “Oh sir, I am sorry. I am so sorry. I leave you.” “No! ... read more

The plane departs at 8.50am. We all meet for a quick breakfast in the morning and then head to the airport. The funniest bit about this is the bag weigh. Jamaces bag is 26KG!!!! Lol. We all get on the plane and we are put in random seats around the plane however me and MO are seated together waahoo. The others are looking through the on board magazine which shoes a Map of the countries in the world. Being obviously the token New Zealander in our group, they all take the mickey out of me, as NZ isnt shown on the Map however Australia is... Story of our life eh? Anyways I chat to Mo and show him pictures of New Zealand. He's sold. The funniest thing was ... read more

We meet Mo and the others with our packed breakfasts outside our hotel . With our 3am wake up call we all take off to meet at the convoy point to head to Abu Simbel. There are heaps of different buses here, also a few people with Guns. Mo tells us it's very safe traveling out there and being there, the reason why we convoy is just in case we break down along the way then we can jump in another bus behind us or whatever, I’m not too convinced, why would they need guns? I know it’s kind of dangerous as its right on the boarder of Syria. It takes 3 hours and I snooze along the way. We are traveling through the desert. All you see is sand, sand, and more sand. We finally ... read more