Blogs from Mohandessen, Cairo, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa

Cape Town Since leaving oceans I have tried to tick of my list of things to do in South Africa. One of these was to walk up Table Mountain in Cape Town. I made it on my third attempt and through no fault of my own since the very characteristic table cloth (a cloud) was capped on top the other times I tried. But anyhow after three days in CT at the River Lodge BP I and Rafael made the walk to the top. After a two hour walk, rather steep, we reached the top and were greeted by a magnificent view of the city from 1060 meters above sea level. If you ever get here get to the top! Last weekend After this short time in CT I took the bus back to Mossel bay ... read more

Last nights sleep was a bit broken up, I managed to get to sleep at 9.30pm, woke up gasping for air about 12.30am, turned the aircon on after beating my top score in Subway surfer (yeah that's right Rory, Im insane lol) and fell asleep about 3am. I'm finding it difficult on drift off to sleep with all the honking. I tell you what, I now know why they made the rule in nz that your not allowed to honk between 7pm and 7am lol. Anyway, I wake at 8.30am, as I'm lying there deciding whether to get up now or wait closer till 11am (meant to be meeting tour guide) I hear someone unlocking my door, for those of you that know me, I fright very easily when this sort of thing happens, so what ... read more

Day 2 – Cairo, Egypt 9/2/12 Today was great in Cairo. The tour group met in the main lobby for breakfast before we headed out to the pyramids. The breakfast was buffet style and had lots of falafel! We had our breakfast, coffee and juice and headed to the great pyramids of Giza. When we arrived at the pyramids, there were lots of people there trying to sell us things immediately. Our tour guide told us to be firm with them and to keep saying no, because we can get better deals when we go to Luxor and Aswan, which we will be doing tomorrow. The guys were very pushy and were actually kind of annoying, but we were successful at not buying anything. The area was surrounded by camels, men in long shirts (for lack ... read more

Having finally managed to pull myself away from Dahab, I got the nightbus with Josh who I had met at Penguin. The fact he has lived in Cairo definitely took the edge off arriving into this city of chaos after a nightbus from Dahab, which seemed like a dream after a few hours. I checked into the Canadian Hostel, which is just off Tahrir Square. We went for a look around Tahrir square, got some breakfast and then met up for coffee with one of Josh's mates. Later, I walked out to Islamic Cairo and checked out Khan El Khalili. Walking through Cairo is an adventure in itself. Crossing the street is taking your life in your hands, but I've become quite adept at using other people as buffers. Another thing about walking around Cairo is ... read more

Hello from Africa/the Middle East!!! I arrived in Cairo international airport at 16:20 after a very smooth flight. Taxied in past the uncomfortable sight of a plane that had obviously skidded off the runway years ago- don't fly with Pharoh airlines!! I met an interesting guy on the way over who works as a security consultant on container ships through the Red Sea. I was met by a hotel representative at the airport which was great as I wouldn't have had a clue how to get my Egyptian visa without him, and had an hour long journey across Cairo with a man called Mahmoud. Saw a few sights along the way!! Survived Cairo traffic they have a very interesting system of getting where they went to go- lanes of traffic opening up where there wasn't lanes ... read more