Planning Our Trip to Egypt

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10 weeks and counting....and we will be heading off on our Egyptian adventure over Christmas break! Touring around Egypt, immersing ourselves in Egyptian history and experiencing Egyptian culture are definitely going to be a highlight of 2008. Not to say that 2008 hasn't been an interesting year so far!

Thankfully, Papa Canuck's gall bladder won't be a problem because he doesn't have one anymore! We are just hoping for a full and speedy recovery since he is in charge of baggage handling when he takes a short leave of absence from his new and electrifying job! Mama Canuck can't wait to take a break from her taxing job and missing 5 days of school for Junior Canuck is an early Christmas present!

Once again, Mama Canuck has risen to the challenge. Determined to travel Egypt independently, she has spent untold hours reading travel books, surfing the net, reading blogs, forums and reviews, as well as contributing on Trip Advisor forums as "VancouverMukluk" in planning our trip.

Happily, we are fully inoculated since we had most of our jabs in preparation for our trip to Morocco in March 2007. All our flights and hotels have been booked. Sights and restaurants have been added to our things not to be missed list! We are just waiting to pack our bags!

While we couldn't help to splurge on luxury hotel stays in Cairo and Alexandria and cruising the Nile in style, our hotel plans mix in some local flavor when we stay in a hotel made of mud & salt in Siwa Oasis (hope it doesn't rain before we get there) and stay in Abu Simbel in a traditional Nubian guesthouse on the edge of Lake Nasser. By the way, we are staying in a resort hotel for the first time in Aswan (some hope for relaxation) and staying on the West Bank in Luxor to experience rural life in Egypt in a small family run hotel located in the midst of fields and palm trees.

Trying to make our hotel experiences as unique as those in Morocco has been challenging since the concept of Riads has not yet taken off in Egypt as it has in Morocco; chain hotels are unfortunately still the norm. Hopefully, we won't be disappointed. To find out, look for our hotel reviews on Trip Advisor in January 2009. After benefiting from other travelers’ reviews, it will be our turn to pay it forward and share our experiences with other travelers’ to Egypt. What did independent travelers do before the Internet, Trip Advisor & TravelBlog.com?

Like in Morocco, we are planning to engage private tour guides to provide insight into the historical and cultural highlights in Cairo and Luxor, which may otherwise be overlooked when faced with the challenges of travelling in a country with language and cultural barriers! Again, we are counting on the reviewers of Trip Advisor in selecting freelance guides. As always, Mama Canuck will try sneaking one or two travel books (Lonely Planet & Rough Guide) in our luggage when Papa Canuck isn't looking as Team Canuck plans on taking self-guided tours of Alexandria, Siwa Oasis, Aswan and Abu Simbel.

Planning for independent travel in Egypt as opposed to going on organized tours definitely requires patience, perseverance and acceptance of different economic and cultural conditions. Recognizing that Egypt is a developing third world country with one of the largest and fastest growing capitals, Cairo, with over 18 million residents, and that tourism is critical to the survival of its economy, which is faltering under rising energy and food prices and the threat of terrorism, it is a country that caters to group travelers who are escorted by security in buses that join convoys.

Not our travel style, so we are relying on Egypt Air to get us safely from Point A to Point B, with the exception of booking a driver to get us safely to Siwa Oasis from Alexandria and return us to Cairo to spend Christmas. Booking flights on Egypt Air was almost as frustrating as trying to book on Air Maroc. After trying to book flights on the internet, a couple of telephone calls to Egypt Air agents in the Montreal office seem to work the best. With electronic tickets "in hand", apparently, it is not guaranteed that there will be seats on the scheduled flight, so that all important confirmation call a few days before flight day will be an absolute must!

We plan on blogging as we travel around Egypt if the internet gods permit and Papa Canuck can squeeze free time out of an action-packed itinerary to upload photos. We hope you will join us!

After spending the year planning our trip, brushing up on ancient Egyptian history, and trying to learn a few words in Egyptian Arabic, we are counting the days until we arrive at YVR to embark on our journey! 45 work days, but who's counting!

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Photos

Brushing Up On Eqyptian History & Arabic
Travelling Canucks can't wait to see the treasures and monumental architecture of ancient Egypt. 10 weeks and counting before we put our Egyptian Arabic to the test!