http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Egypt en-us Thu, 03 Dec 09 10:00:44 +0000 Thu, 03 Dec 09 10:00:44 +0000 Today we awoke heinously early in order to catch our 745 flight from Cairo to Luxor. In case you donrsquot know what heinously early is that is 545. In the morning. We left for the airport and arrived early enough to have to wait an hour and a half for the flight. In that time we had breakfast and chatted about our lives and invariably politics. The flight itself was fine the part of http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Luxor/blog-457714.html Nice when things live up to your expectations. Films documentaries and stories have fed my imagination since I was a pup and for me the Sahara became the quintessential desert populated by Bedouins small towns clustered around oases mile after mile of sand hills rocks eroded by the incessant winds a hard extremely fragile environment that takes no prisoners. Deserts are special places for http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Western-Desert/blog-457529.html Sorry all that I havenrsquot written practically all of November. I would give a ton of excuses but why dwell on my imperfections Now I canrsquot even remember the last event I talked about so Irsquoll just go over the last 3 weeks. On Friday the 6th a group of us went to Tanis. Tanis was an Ancient Egyptian capital during the 20th Dynasty. Several 21st and 22nd Dynasty pharaohs were burie http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-457413.html Een heleboel gebeurd sinds mijn laatste blog.. Ben ondertussen in level 4 geraakt met weliswaar dezelfde leerkracht uit level 2 die keihard is in het geven van huistaken voorstellingen en vooral binnen 2 weken het examen... Het Arabisch begint moeilijk te worden. We hebben zowat alle basisgrammatica gezien wat niet zo simpel is vooral de verleden tijd van de vele vele werkwoorden die we al gez http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-457311.html Though I wished we could have spent a lot more time in Israel I was looking forward to seeing the Pyramids in Egypt. All six of us were off the boat before the buses left and had to walk out of the port over a bridge where the security detail six or more trucks full of soldiers carrying machine guns to escort the tour buses to Cairo. Our passports were checked again as we left to meet our rep http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-457157.html Sabah el khir Good Morning from SAFAGA EGYPTWe disembarked early for our 3hour ride to LUXOR which was punctuated with many security checkpoints along the way. As we left the industrial port of Safaga in a 12bus convoy more safety measures accompanied by our knowledgeable guide Odah and our very own security guard Ahmed we began our desert drive. The Red Sea Mountain range bleak and de http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/blog-456708.html My journey begins rather inauspiciously firstly with an hour delay to the flight and then the stubbornly stiff top button of my new trousers decides to pop off. Arriving in Sharm elSheikh I am quickly mobbed by a bunch of taxi drivers hustling the airport crowd and despite haggling to 13 of the original price am undoubtedly ripped off. My young driver does his best however to give me value http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Sinai/blog-455800.html Giftun Island can be reached by many tourist boats taking off from Hurgada in less then an hour. The sand is really white and water magic. And we did lot of snorkeling along the coral reefs too. The area is protected and construction forbidden but there are too many tourists for my taste. Luckily the stay on the Island is limited so they donrsquot manage to disperse and make more damage but be http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Red-Sea/Hurghada/blog-455576.html El Gouna is a resort 22km north of Hurgada. It is actually a hotel town owned by an orthodox Copt Samih Sawiris one of the richest people in Egypt. It is striking and very artificial real Trumanrsquos Show. The beauty is in a system of canals that cut into the sand and make up private beaches to colourful low traditionally designed houses. Desert is transformed into oasis by using irrigati http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Red-Sea/blog-455516.html Hurgada is 36km long seashore resort on the Red Sea. It seamed rather new and boring so nothing attracted us except prospect of snorkeling in the famous waters and visiting our friends Tamara and Marko who worked in El Gouna.We decided to go over agency because it was impossible to get to charter flight from Belgrade to Hurgada otherwise. Joca lost a wallet on the plane and a friendly guy found it http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Red-Sea/Hurghada/blog-455276.html There is no question that what attracts people to Egypt at the moment tends to be the past. So far we haven't seen a great deal of the really old stuff that is scheduled to happen in the next couple of weeks but it is still impossible not to feel that the past is important here. It doesn't begin and end with the pyramids though. There are echoes of the past in a lot of areas.The first time we http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-455097.html I normally post a number of travel stories on my personal blog The Arena but I recently found this amazing website and wanted to get more involved in this community. I will repost a lot of the daytoday adventures from my various trips recently went to Egypt and Vietnam for six weeks but also include a number of Priceless Misadventure stories such as the one below. These stories will be http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Giza/blog-453944.html TerryRich Kim and I talked about our trip. We agreed that we were really glad we came to Egypt. We did manage to cram a lot of things into a short period of time but hats of to Kim for arranging everything We saw a bit of Cairo sailed down I think the Nile stopping at exotic ports of call meandered through ancient historical temples dodged aggressive vendors in local bazaars took a ride http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/blog-453747.html I tried to get Kim's story into my blog on Kom Ombo but that didn't work So she gets her own blog.Here's Kim's storyWe were given our 1520 minutes free time after our guide finished his tour at the Temple of Kom Ombo. Mom went her own way and Rich and I wondered around for our allotted time. When we were done we headed to the meeting point. I sat on the side of a pillar next to Ahmet and http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Kom-Ombo/blog-453322.html What day is it I have no clue. Kim tells me this happened on Saturday. Our itinerary was changed or we missed an excursion or Irsquom confused and since I am now in London I have no idea what we did when But I do remember the things we saw so here goesThe River Nile sand on the west side lush vegetation on the right. Time to sit on the pool deck and get a bit of sun as we continue our http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Kom-Ombo/blog-452636.html The friendliest most hospitable people I ever met and cairo was an absolute BLASTIt never sleeps and the buzz around the markets at night with the mosques people traffic it's just so surreal.Was 2 weeks of absolute joyeurail pass reviews http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-452497.html GreetingsMy mom and I really want to travel egypt for a little over two weeks this Christmas. What we really want to know is if it is better to arrange a tour before we leave or if it is better to contract with a local company once we get there. Basically this late in the game we know it is going to be expensive but we want to be as efficient as possible. So I guess my question is arrange it http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/blog-452481.html Yesterday was so busy that I didnrsquot have time to write. So Irsquom trying to catch up this afternoon Sunday while we are jockeying for position at the only lock on the Nile between Aswan and Luxor.So yesterday. We had an opportunity to ldquosleep inrdquo which meant a choice. As breakfast was served between 700 and 800 a.m. and we didnrsquot have to meet our guide Ahmed until http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Kom-Ombo/blog-451791.html Owkee de laatste tijd niet zoveel succes gehad met taxichauffeurs en zal eventjes uit de doeken doen wat er zoal kan misgaan als je een taxi neemt in Cairo... tussen haakjes deze verhalen spelen zich af in welgeteld 2 dagen tijd.......1 Omstreeks 18u30 neem ik een taxi richting mijn appartement m.a.w. file drukte iedereen wil precies naar nzelfde plaats. Bon ik stap dus in een taxi en http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-451021.html Hi AllWersquove just returned from an awesome trip around Egypt. Chilled is the wordThis place really blew our minds. People were so friendly and easy going. The scenery was beautiful as well. Check out some of our photos as this will give you a better idea of what Irsquom talking about.We landed in Sharm el sheikh and travel up to Dahab on the first night. Dahab is really cool with loads of http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Sinai/blog-450998.html