Advertisement
Executive summary: Very dry, very hot, very dusty, and very windy and that is just the food - just kidding - that's the weather! There are enough check points, soldiers armed with automatic weapons, and armoured vehicles to make you think Egypt is at war or about to go to war. That, together with the dilapidated buildings, ruins, half finished new builds, and fairly trashy surrounds make this even more believable. But that's not why we came here, we came to see Egypt and all its great buildings - the pyramids of Giza were awesome, as were the many temples and tombs we've visited. The trip on a felucca up the Nile was just as special and the diving has been quite spectacular too. It's proved fairly difficult to find authentic Egyptian food as they unfortunately try to only satisfy the western palate but what we have eaten has been very tasty and different. Egypt is known for its heckling of tourists and it lived up to expectations but we are now old hands at brushing people off without causing a punch up. All in all, Egypt is a place to visit if you want some insight into the ancient civilisations.
I wouldn't have it on my places to come if you really wanted to experience the local cultures and livelihoods or just lie on a nice quiet sandy beach for a few days. But if you do want to come here for diving and the more environmentally focused activities come soon - tourism is booming but the controls aren't and the chances of places like Dahab having the natural attractions destroyed, and in particular the corals and sea life, is high in my opinion.
Updates: The Stormers have a home semi against the 'Tahs in Cape Town - let's hope the brill cream boys can pull it off! The Montreal Canadiens are in the western Conference finals but 2-0 behind. Fulham sadly lost the Europa league final and the ash clouds continue to be a menace over Europe whilst Gordon Brown has had to call in the movers. On a personal front, we have had the exciting news that Pam has been accepted to do her Masters in OT at the University of Toronto, apparently the best place in Canada to do it - it's school nerd time for Pam again. I have had a dreadful time trying to
get my Canadian visa and my dislike for beaurocrats and their binary minds, inflexible processes and ability to maximise unhelpfulness has reached epic proportions. But such is life and the fight will go on although it is going to be a very unsettling and frustrating few months ahead - let's hope it is all sorted by Christmas (2010!). As a result of the visa chaos we didn't manage to catch up with many people in London and so for all those we missed, we're very sorry but hope to catch up on one of our later trips to London. I am certainly likely to be spending some time there in the next few months. My hair is now also longer than it's been since I was a teen and my "beard" looks like a ginger pot scourer. Pam still looks like Cameron Diaz, even in Egypt!
The long bit: After a quick and very busy stopover in London, and with a fire hole inside my stomach compliments of a stuck malaria tablet (there's a way to lose weight!), we hightailed it out of the coldest place we'd been for 6 months, apart from the top of Mount Kinabalu in
Malaysia, and headed for Egypt, and the hottest place we'd been to for 6 months. Our Egypt air flight was ok - the plane was new, entertainment good, and food fairly tasty. The only downside was that we departed 2 hours late due to technical problems (always a concern!) and were seated in the kindergarten section. With the parental control set to Level 0, we had kids running up and down the aisles, jumping on the seats, banging their tray tables, and screaming at each other. Picture the scene from Kindergarten cop, only a much skinnier and lighter Arnold Schwarznigger and you weren't far off from what I had to do to ensure my seat wasn't uprooted or smashed during the flight. Are there any books out there on "Hands off parenting", "Kids - rulers of the world", "Disruptive behaviour training for kids" or "Pissing off the rest of society - how your kids can do it for you"? Or are all the proponents to this type of parenting and potential authors too stupid or all in jail to be capable of writing such a book? We both love kids, but we have had 2 incidents in 3 flights now
where things have got out of hand with the parents present. It's a sad day when society starts to be run by 4 year olds and parents dictated to by anyone under the age of 30! Rant over.
We landed in Egypt and left the play centre, passed through immigration without any hassles and met our tour rep at the baggage collection. The trip to the hotel was longer than I had imagined but we managed to catch a glimpse of the pyramids of Giza on the way - we were in Egypt! The air was hot, dry and dusty and hung over the city like a thick sea mist with many of the half finished or crumbling buildings looking like ghost ships drifting through the night. Crossing over the Nile river in the early hours of the morning we saw hundreds of people out enjoying some tea and snacks with family and friends. Apparently it is the thing to do in Egypt - head to the river's edge, the source of life throughout Egypt, to socialise and catch up with family and friends during the cool morning hours. People had tables and chairs, or just stood around. Cars
were parked on the pavements or the edge of the road; it all looked a little chaotic but everyone was chilled and happy.
Driving in to town, many of the newer buildings looked decidely dodgy. The spirit level is obviously a tool that is no longer considered necessary in Egypt and I would be decidely reluctant to enter a 99 year lease here! Beware what plastering may conceal! For a country that produced the pyramids and numerous tombs and temples over 3000 years old, many of which still stand, it is somewhat surprising and a bit disappointing that they appear to have regressed in their building standards. But then what do i know, I'm not a builder nor an architect but an unemployed hairy bloke. Despite the dilapidated appearance of most of the buildings they almost all had satellite dishes. Satellite dishes here are apparently cheap as chips to install and once you have it you have free access to over 500 TV channels. There were so many satellite dishes on some buildings it was hard to know if they even had a roof or if the satellite dishes were the roof. Then again, it almost never rains here
so who needs a roof! The hotel check-in (Oasis Hotel - recommended) was nice and a true oasis within the dry and dust of Cairo. Our rooms were very comfortable and the bed inviting and cozy, with the Egyptian budgies, aka flies, safely locked outside, so it wasn't long before we'd hopped into bed and fallen fast asleep.
As we had arrived before the official start of our tour we were able to do a day's sightseeing around Cairo which in hindsight proved a brilliant move. We visited the Egyptian museum in all its glory, went in to the Mohammed Ali mosque (not the boxer, but sure he chose his name for a reason!), a synagogue and the Koptic Church. All very interesting, as was the explanation of Islam and what it means - like most religions, they all follow good sound lines and principles. It tends to be the uneductaed minority, quite often lead by the crooked and educated elite, who get led down the garden path into fundamentalism. In fact, on TV last night we saw an advert, in Arabic, condeming armed attacks, suicide bombers, etc. Reassuring it has to be said although neither of us has
felt threatened or in danger at any point on this trip. Our group did have a run in with a toilet attendant - instead of charging 1 Egyptian pound to use it she was trying to charge anything up to 20LE. Our guide later said Egyptians will try and make something out of nothing - he did also say we should have told him sooner and he'd have had her reported - that essentially means jail time or something fairly unpleasant - certainly no more job! Tourists are top in Egypt.
The dust and smog in Cairo meant that we could barely see the sun - it was bright, but more like a glare ball than a sun. It also meant you couldn't see much further than a kilometer or two and blowing our noses later proved just how dusty it was. You couldn't even take a picture at night as the flash would only illuminate all the dust particles and you couldn't see anything other than bright shiny dots! The traffic in Cairo was not what we expected, or maybe we just had a driver who knew his way around the back streets so that we could avoid
hours in traffic jams. We did see a bad jam on our way back to the hotel later but thankfully it was going in the opposite direction to us. We ended the day with a trip to the sound and light show at the Pyramids of Giza. It really was quite the show and well worth the cash. Seeing the pyramids at night covers up the weathered aspects of both and makes them look even more impressive. The chicken schwarmas on the way home plugged the rumbling cavities between our waist and heads and the exposure to the sun and heat all day meant we hit our beds absolutely exhausted.
Our tour kicked off the next day amid much action. Breakfast was good but the real carnage came when a toilet a lady was sitting on exploded on her - maybe it was just fighting back?? Oh well, she exited the loo (apparently - it was in the ladies and i wasn't in there) with her pants round her ankles looking very distressed.
On our bus we were given a brief intro to Egypt - 80 million people, 20 million of which live in Cairo. 96% of the
country is dessert - ouch! - and most people live along the Nile. 80% of the population are Muslim and 20% are Koptic Christian, not that it matters or you can tell the difference as nobody here is too bothered by what you choose to believe in or follow. We left the hotel in our bus without even stopping to look - 2 soldiers had stopped all the traffic for us! And this leads me into my security piece.
Following the 1997 massacre in the Valley of the Queens in Luxor, and more recently the Red Sea resort attacks in 2004, security has been massively stepped up. Every hotel or place we've been too has had security gates, manned 24 hours, often by people with automatic weapons. All hotels also have metal detectors although as a white westerner they pay little attention to our beeping. At one hotel if we beeped they laughingly just asked if we had a bomb - of course we said no! Throughout Egypt we have never driven more than 20 minutes without passing a roadblock, and not one of those silly ones with a donut eating cop and car, but full on road barricades,
speed bumps, and tyre spikes with several armed guards, often armoured vehicles, and little bullet shields for the foot soldiers. Just driving through them at walking pace proved tough enough. We are never questioned, but our bus details are recorded, and then phoned ahead to the next check point. If we don't arrive within a predetermined timeframe the armed troops are scrambled to come and get us. Nice to know although it would be nicer if it wasn't required. The tourist sites are even more heavily guarded - this is also handy if a salesman gets a little pushy or someone tries to harass a tourist. We saw it in action when a dodgy taxi man overstepped the mark.
Another topic to touch on as it is Egypt wide - backhanders. Anything is possible here for a few LE (Egyptian pounds). Want to double park or park on a solid yellow, slip the cop, soldier, whoever a few pounds and...all your troubles seem so faaaarrrrr away (you know the song I'm sure). It's all done very discreetly though so you have to have sharp eyes for it. Need to slip in somewhere without paying the full fee, need to
jump the queue, or have something expedited, slip 'em a few pounds.
Next general topic - price negotiations. EVERYTHING is negotiable here, even in places where prices are marked. It's great. You go into a shop, think they are charging too much, you tell them and then negotiate. I found the best way to negotiate, which can be done once you know the fair price, is just to tell them what you are going to pay, even better to just give them that amount of money. And if you know you can get it cheaper down the road, tell them, and in a blink of an eye the price drops. Can you imagine walking in to the Apple store on Oxford street in London and telling them their stuff is too pricey before negotiating a price which seems to be fair to all. A nice idea but as someone like Vinnie Jones might say, not bloody likely. Even going to a restaurant comes with some negotiations - you want us to eat here, well throw in free water, starters and dessert together witha 25% discount on mains and we'll come in!!
On to transport - Egypt like Asia
has it all. We've seen cars, many seemingly out of a 60's movie, trucks, motorbikes and buses. There are also donkeys, donkey carts, horses, and camels whilst on the river we have feluccas, cruise boats, and little fishing boats. The roads are generally pretty good although many seem to be under construction, or were possibly bombed at some point and haven't been repaired yet, well it certainly appears that way. Many roads, although under construction, don't seem to have any work being done on them. Then there are others, like here in Dahab, where road networks 10 times the size of town have already been built and completed with just the big hotels and resorts still to go up.
And now eating - not much to add here other than there doesn't seem to be an accepted way of indicating with ones knife and fork that one is either finished or busy with ones meal. The end result is that you have to protect your food and hold onto your plate at all times! There have been several occassions where we've been chatting to someone during the meal and the next thing you know someone is leaning over you,
and your plate is disapperaing. If you don't notice...sorry for you because your food is gone! We've had to retrieve our plates a couple of times already. Even more ironic though, when your knife and fork are together and the plate clean of everything but for a bit of sauce or gravy, they ask if you are done? Or is Egypt like the HSBC advert and an empty plate means you are going to have more? And a bit of research later, it appears that one would normally be offered more food several times, which one politely declines if full, which might explain the empty plate food offers. Not sure where the whipping away of ones plate with food on it without asking would fit in to that though.
So back to the day to day stuff...we headed off to visit the great pyramids of Giza. These certainly lived up to expectations. The 3 pyramids, Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus are all different with their own history and skull duggery. The Sphinx was good too and it was amazing that all of these structures are still around and in such good condition a few thousand years on. We got to
go inside Chephren and although the tomb was fairly bland it was quite impressive to think that it was deep inside this massive structure.
We also took the opportunity to enjoy a camel ride, on Cassanova, around the pyramids. It's fair to say it's not the most comfortable ride of ones life, nor the best smelling, but it is a great experience nonetheless. Pam was trying to talk to one of the camels, and there are rumours circulating that she can speak to animals, but maybe this one got lost in translation because it promptly barked/burped back at her! Not sure what she must have said, maybe "Your humps look fat under that saddle", but the end result was very funny for one times husband sitting on the back of the camel!
So after the pyramids of Giza we paid a visit to the pyramid of King Zoser in Sakkara. This was a stepped pyramid, as opposed to the more triangular and smoother type of pyramids, but still very impressive. It was the early form of pyramid building - the pyramids of Giza were considered an improvement in the building structure. Apologies to the architects reading all this
- I'm probably bludgening the history of building here but I am too lazy to do the proper pyramid building research.
That night we took the train from Cairo down to Aswan. Before we hopped on the train we enjoyed a delicious Egyptian barbeque and a nice cool shower, the latter much needed after a sweaty day in the sun and dust. Here a lady tried to charge us for using the showers which we had already paid for. She also insisted on literally helping the girls undress and dress - very embarrassing and uncomfortable. All this for a tip which was more like a demand for payment as she blocked the bathroom door if you didn't tip her. This was soon reported and lo and behold the problem got solved! On to the train - we were in the seater section which was a bit like the old business class seats on the aeroplanes so not too bad. The toilets were positively dodgy so we either just avoided them or went in the first class carriages "on the way to the bar" if anyone asked. Our train driver, let's call him Andy Rab, could be a bit jerky
on the breaks which meant we were all woken up every now and again when he decided we needed to slow down or stop. They also have a funny rule where the lights have to stay on all night. Thankfully we had taken our eye guards with us from one of our many flights which helped block out most of the light. Despite the light and jerking we still managed to get about 7 hours sleep - phew!
We checked in to our hotel in Aswan which was very comfortable, right on the bank of the Nile with a lovely big pool and plenty of sun beds. After a lovely pool side lunch we headed out in the afternoon to see the old Aswan Dam and the new High Aswan Dam. The lake, Lake Nasser, created by the latter stretches back 500km and could supply Egypt with water for 20 years! Peter, a tall and well built Aussie, and I seemed to attract the attention of the security police for some odd reason as we were followed around wherever we went. No cameras with zoom lenses are allowed here too so they are quite concerned about terrorists here. The
hydro plant here supplies all of Egypt with electricity which is very impressive. We never went far, but as we surveyed the hydro station and dam wall they seemed to be a little concerned. The batterd up cortina filled with 7 hooded locals in robes that pulled up would seem a greater threat than us but they seemed to think otherwise. Oh well, we thought it all quite funny.
After visitng the dam we went on to see the temples of Philae. Quite an impressive set of temples. They had to be moved 300m from their original site after the building of the Aswan Dam as the higher water level would have left much of the temple submerged and in time would most likely have resulted in the temple being destroyed.
On getting back to town we all went to the Aswan markets. They did not live up to expectations, other than in the hassling. We had expected to see something that was frequented primarily by the locals rather than tourists, where we might get a feel for how people in the town go about their daily lives. Instead we got bombarded by people hassling you into buying
krappy souvenirs, probably all made in China, for some silly price. The default assumption amongst the salesman also seemed to be that we were Aussie as they all greeted us with a loud "G'day mate!" - weird! We didn't have space for krap, nor the patience to bargain with or be hassled by the salesman, and so took an early exit, bought some cold cokes, and went to sit on a bench alongside the Nile and just relax. This proved to be a good move as we probably got to witness more local life here than anywhere else in Egypt up to that point. We did get hassled by some guy trying to sell us a trip on a felucca but as soon as we said we were leaving and got up he left us alone.
We ate out at a Nubian restaurant that night which was quite an experience. Another big tour group were there and had paid for a performance by a Nubian band. It all started off ok with just a bit of music and singing but then the crowd participation got started. Having arrived after the other tour group we had barely started our dinner
when dancers were pulling people out of their seats and onto the stage. Then came the human horse that went around pecking people. In theory all good stuff but it killed the dinner conversation and made trying to finish ones meal a tough exercise. Later we tried the Nubian coffee. This smelt delicious with nutmeg, ginger, cloves, coffee beans, cumin and cinnamon but the taste was far from nice. Thankfully it was only served in an espresso size cup! Don't try, don't know as they say.
We eased into the next day as we had a free morning - so we over slept and then charged down to breakfast just in time to grab some food before it all disappeared. We lazed at the pool a bit before packing bags and boarding our feluccas, our home for the next 2 days and nights. These are broad and fairly flatt bottomed boats, wind powered, with a deck of planks covered in mattresses for lounging and sleeping on. Thankfully they also have a canvas canopy to protect the occupants from the blazing sun shine that one is exposed to out on the water.
Our boat had 3 captains, odd I
guess but everyone wants the big title don't they! Personally it's the pay cheque, or maybe in my case the welfare cheque, that I am more interested in. I am not too sure who did what but between them they cooked and sailed the boat for us. They obviously did a pretty good job because we got to our end destination safe and sound without any tummy issues, only the bar tab didn't reconcile. The other boat had less success - they seemed to be heading for the river bank every 30 minutes as people jumped ship to head for the nearest bush following a dodgy meal of some sort at the start of the boat trip.
The first night we moored along the river bank just below a Nubian village. We took a stroll along the bank as the sun slowly sunk into the scorching earth with the drop in temperature unfortunately so slight it was barely noticeable. We came across a rotting goat carcas and a rather curious water buffalo but other than that nothing too interesting. After a dinner of pita breads and tasty goodies we left the feluccas and headed for a Nubian house in
the village where we sat around chatting and having a Q&A about Nubian life. Then out came the Shisha bongs or whatever they are called. The stuff didn't taste particularly good but it was fun to give it a try at least.
We enjoyed a fairly sound sleep that night under the piece of canvas stretched across the deck and surrounded, thankfully, by the biggest mosquito net I have ever come across. It meant a very peaceful nights sleep except for the call to prayer at 4:30am which seemed particulalrly loud and also seemed to coincide with the coldest time of night. I'm glad Pam and I both had our sleeping bags ready and open because we may have lain shivering on deck for an hour or two if that wasn't the case. As soon as the sun started to appear though the temperature rose rapidly and any thoughts of being cold seemed a distant dreamy memory.
Most of the next day was spent sailing up the river. We stopped for a swim in the Nile late afternoon in a spot that is supposedly bilharsia free. It was surprisingly refreshing and cool for a river that has run
for several hundred kilometres through a dessert! We enjoyed a couple of drinks as the sun set whilst cruise ships passed us by like planes coming in to land at Heathrow. I have never seen that many cruise ships in my life, never mind all passing one spot in 2 hours, which would explain why so many of them only appeared to have a handful of passengers on. Then again, if they were anything like the cruise ship some of the others in our tour were on, they may have been in their rooms, within a few feet of the loo! Not even the 5 class cruises were food poisoning free. What is it with boats and food poisoning??
After dinner we were entertained by our crew on the banks of the Nile, with bonfire raging and drums beating. They rattled off several Nubian tunes and songs whilst we danced around or performed our best belly dancing moves!! Quite the sight as I am sure you can imagine.
After leaving the feluccas rather too early in the morning for my liking, we visited the Temple of Horus at Edfu. This was probably our favourite temple, grand and imposing, and easy to imagine what it may have been like in its glory days. It certainly made quite the impression on us. We followed this with a visit to the Temple of Karnak which was nice but nowhere near as impressive as the Temple of Horus.
Our hotel in Luxor was pretty smart, as they have all been when we've stayed in one, but the town itself is rather non-Egyptian. The high street had a KFC, Pizza Hut, Chinese Take-away, Irish pub, and a Yorkshire shop of all things. It took me 45 minutes of walking around town and down some rather shady backstreets before I found a local take-out for some lunch. IT was well worth it though as the schwarmas were rather tasty!
We had an early start the next day as we were headed for the Valley of the Queens, the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (pronounced hot chicken soup!). Both the valley of the Queens and Kings was very interesting as we were able to walk down into several of the tombs. They were rather impressive, with many of the paintings and carvings still in excellent condition, probably because of being underground for all those years.
From Luxor we headed to Dahab on the Red Sea by way of a rather gruelling 18 hour overnight bus trip. It didn't start well as we punctured one of our tyres within the first hour and then spent a hot and bothered 90 minutes in the bus whilst the tyre was repaired. It was productivity at its best watching the repairs - the management team of 5 and worker of 1 did a fine job. It is always a good idea to get 5 opinions on a puncture before having it repaired, even if some of the management team have never actually seen the inside of a tyre before yet feel compelled to offer their advice, with much pointing and gesticulating! I'm sure you can all visualise the scene now - if not, you need to come to Africa!
We didn't sleep the greatest on the bus as we stopped every few hours, hit check points every 20 minutes, and had seats that were better suited to the kindergarten class than grown adults. But we made it, and it only made the beach side breakfast and comfortable hotel feel all the better. Our resort hotel was huge, with over 600 rooms, 2 swimming pools, gym (we didn't go!), disco, restaurant, and private "beach". Flash as it sounds, it had its problems - no hot water, menus that said one price and waiters who said another, and it was a long way out of town. The staff were rather odd too - very friendly, but try and get anything done and they were as useful as a boat in the middle of the dessert. We did, however, enjoy our stay there which, at 6 nights, has been the longest we've stayed anywhere other than Cape Town, for the last 6 months. Dahab itself seems to be 10% built, and 90% approved for building. The dessert is scarred with a comprehensive sub-urban road network but is still missing the several hundred hotels and blocks of flats that will no doubt be going up here in the next few years. It is also known as being a rather windy city and hence rates as the best place to windsurf and kite surf in the world apparently! And there are a lot of both types on display everyday here as the wind has proceeded to blow, and blow, and blow some more! And then there are the goats. They seem to occupy every pavement and street corner, tucking into a tasty meal of plastic bags and discarded coke cans. They must be Dahab's version of township dogs! The camels walking down the streets make for a far more interesting view.
We signed up to do some Red Sea diving during our stay in Dahab as it is meant to be amongst the best in the world. It certainly didn't disappoint with brilliant visibility well in excess of 10m and on some in excess of 20m. It has been known to be up to 50m at times! Each of our dives was very different, Lighthouse was shallow and straightforward as we eased back into the underworld, Island was far more picturesque and interesting, Bluehole was amazing as the sea bed dropped vertically for 300m plus metres just 3 metres from shore whilst the Canyon was interesting with plenty of pretty fsh and corals.
We have also climbed Mount Sinai whilst staying here and visited St Katherine's Monastery. The Climb is relatively straight forward with a starting altitude of 1500m and a summit of just over 2100m but a nice bit of exercise nonetheless. We left for the mountain at a rather nasty 10:30pm. After 2 hours in the bus we arrived, dropped off our breakfast boxes and started the climb. One has the option of taking a camel most of the way up or walking. We chose to walk although we could have changed our minds at any point because there were "Avis" camel depots the whole way up with salesmen asking if you wanted a camel. In hindsight we're glad we didn't take the camel, not only is it quite a risky affair, but the camels sounded rotten. They burped almost non-stop and makes me think they need to change their diets! It took a little over 2 hours to reach the summit on foot, somewhat hot and sweaty, whereupon we found a flat piece of ground, in our case the flat cement roof of a chapel, to lay down our sleeping bags and grab some sleep before sunrise. When we got to the summit we were joined by only a few others but by 5am the summit was packed. I awoke to happy birthday, then some singing, then some praying and then a whole bunch of wailing. I should add that Mount Sinai is where Moses is meant to have received the 10 commandments from God after a 40 day retreat. The top of the mountain is a little messy these days, with litter blowing around and gathering in little corners and rocky cracks. It seems a bit of a shame for somewhere so special and which is meant to be such a big tourist attraction and Egyptian show piece.
With our time in Dahab now almost at an end we're left with an 8-10 hour local bus ride back to Cairo tomorrow before boarding our Egypt Air flight down to Nairobi where we depart on our 18 day Gorilla and Game trek through Kenya, Uganda and possibly the DRC and Rwanda.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.164s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0654s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Kirsten
non-member comment
Pam - congrats on getting into the program you wanted! Well deserved! Regarding your trip, I am simply too jealous to provide any commentary ;)