We spent a fast paced 11 days in Egypt being blasted by the amazing ancient history and awesome sights. What a spectacular place to visit! Though most of us on our tour agreed it is probably a once-in-a-lifetime place only, you can’t help but get swept away by the charm, skill and intelligence of the ancient Egyptians. Be warned, this is a very… very long post.
After much speculating and weighing up advice from many people, we decided to ‘do’ Egypt as part of a group tour. About 2 hours into our experience, we were thanking our lucky stars that we did.
Always a fan of the Lonely Planet, I had purchased the Egypt guide, but was a bit behind in actually reading it before we got to Cairo. So, having stepped no more than 5 steps out of our hotel, we were approached by a friendly native who offered to show us the ‘real’ Egypt and also a good Papyrus Museum. We obliged and joined him for a walk through some market streets to the museum. He talked… a lot. He was convinced we wanted to see the pyramids with him the following day, even though I told him we were going the day after and we really did not want to join him.
We managed to wiggle our way out of the papyrus museum with our cash staying firmly in our pockets. We then asked for a recommendation for dinner – hey, he was friendly! So he took us to a place near the shop where he worked. He asked Kim if he wanted 1/2kg of meat to which we nearly jumped out of our pants. He assured us it would be fine and invited Kim to see exactly how much 1/2kg of meat was. So Kim was lucky enough to watch the ‘chef’ grab (literally in his bare hands) a handful of meat from a non-refrigerated tray in the shop window, slap it on some scales (that had probably not been washed since it was purchased), and stuck on skewers to be smoked and served as kofta. All that said, we ate it and it was awesome. Best meal we had in Egypt! Though we were overcharged for it 
Next our friend told us we must go to his shop to have hibiscus tea – it’s what you must do after dinner apparently. So we followed him to the purfume shop where he ‘worked’. We sat down to be introduced to an older guy named Fathy. He proceeded to tell us all about the essential oils and how he hand picks them, grinds them to extract the oils and how he has sold them all over the world… etc etc etc. We did get a tad worried when he insisted on massaging my shoulders followed by Kim’s with his top off. Kim wasn’t overly impressed! After about 15 minutes of discussing exactly why we didn’t want to purchase purfume right there and then, he finally let us go as I assured him we would be back at the end of our tour to buy up big. Three hours since we left our hotel, we finally managed to make it back!
Escaping relatively unscathed, we went back to the hotel and I had a read of that Lonely Planet guide. What did I find out? Our evening neatly written out, step by step, as a scam warning to tourists Nice one.
So the next day we weren’t taking any chances. We called the tour guide and asked him for advice about where to go. We ended up hiring a taxi for the day (yep, he waits around for you) to take us to the Mohammed Ali Mosque at Cidatel and then to a restaurant and back to the hotel. Great day, but I was starting to wonder why I was getting so much attention (was it the blonde hair, the big assets or the low cut top?).
We were pretty keen to start the tour by this stage and our meeting didn’t come around quick enough! Next day we were up and at the pyramids before we knew it! Awesome! Though the hundreds of locals trying to sell us everything from camera film to postcards to hats kind of took away from the ‘wow’ appeal. But we weren’t too phased, got some awesome photo’s and started to get to know everyone on our tour.
We took the opportunity to go inside the second pyramid – an extremely humid and squishy experience, but one we were glad we did. Afterall, we can now say we were inside one of the pyramids of Giza! Next we saw the Sphinx. With the pyramids in the background, I was in awe and couldn’t believe I was actually there in Egypt!
Next we went to a papyrus museum – funny that there is one on every corner?! Then the Egyptian Museum which was just so huge – full of thousands of artifacts from ancient Egypt.
Next we were off to catch a ‘first class’ overnight train to Aswan. Now there’s an experience! The dunny’s on that thing were horrific to say the least. And we were blessed with seats near the door to the loo’s too! Yay! Seats were comfy though and we managed to get some rest. Arrived at Aswan and checked in to our cruise boat. Soon we were off to see the High Dam and the magnificent Lake Nassar. Our first temple visit was to Philae Temple – the temple of love It was gorgeous, on a beautiful little island but sadly damaged by the Christians, like many of the temples of ancient Egypt.
We got back and jumped on a felucca to sail around the Nile. The sun was setting and it was just beautiful! The plan was to sail up the Nile to a Nubian village for a camel ride and see the village. Problem was, the current was particularly strong and even the motor boat we transferred to struggled to get anywhere through that current. 2m forward, 1m back. After about 30 minutes and 50 litres of petrol, we turned back
Dreading the 2.50am wakeup call, we all head to bed to get our 3 or 4 hours sleep. Weery eyed, 3am came far too quick and we were up and on the bus ready for our armed escort to Abu Simbel, 250km south of Aswan. After 2 hours of our tour guide negotiating with the police because our co-driver did not have a licence, we were finally on the road to Abu Simbel – though I’m not sure where that armed escort went… Asleep on the bus, I woke a few times – once to see the beautiful sunrise over the desert plains and another to see an unfortunate road accident 
Once we got there, after eating our infamous breakfast boxes (with which we may as well have been eating the cardboard itself), we were lining up to see the magnificent temples of 13th Century BC, Abu Simbel. Amazingly enough, organisations from all over the world helped to move these temples 65m higher and 200m back from the river to prevent the temples being destroyed with the forming of Lake Nassar. Ramesses II built the temples for himself and his favourite wife (of 200 wives and concubines), Nefertari. These were amazingly beautiful with an awesome view on the banks of Lake Nassar to match. The condition of the inner rooms of this temple was astounding – the colour was so vibrant on so many of the hieroglyphs and carvings.
After twisting my ankle (not terribly bad), we were back on the bus for another snooze. Once we got back, we were straight onto a small boat to visit a Nubian village of which we traveled to via camels. Ange’s camel was named Mickey and strangely, I think that was the name of mine too… or maybe that’s just an Arabic word for giddy up! Nonetheless, I was leading my own camel the whole way, my ’supervisor’ just walked behind us.
Back on the cruise boat, we set sail on the Nile until we docked to see Kom Ombo at night where we saw surgical instruments and calendars on the walls of the temple. Pretty damn impressive if you ask me. I just can’t get out of my head – what on earth went wrong with humankind?! These ancient Egyptians knew so much of what we know today, they were so advanced, yet somewhere along the line, we went back to square one! What happened with all that knowledge? We also saw 3 mummified crocodiles which was pretty cool given they’re 2000 years old!
On the boat again, we had an Egyptian ‘fancy dress’ party I guess you could call it! Highlight was Kim in a dress – damn cool that was (make sure you check out the photo’s to see him). Next morning, we dock in Edfu to see Egypt’s best preserved temple. The temple of Horus is Ptolemaic and it is massive to say the very least. The highlight was the room with the recipes for medicines – everything is still so clear it just blows your mind away!
Back on the boat again, we cruise down the Nile. This is probably the first time we actually got to rest and soak up the sun while watching the banks of the Nile drift by. It was lovely! We passed by Edna Lock and were amazed at the 6 metre drop! We eventually make it to Luxor and made our way to Luxor Temple. We get there just in time for the sun to go down so got some great shots This place stood out because you can clearly see where churches and mosque’s had been literally built on top of the remains of the temple, before they were uncovered. It was a good way to see the evolution of Egypt’s spirituality in one place!
After the temple, we made our way to a legit perfume shop where (for far too long) we tried to decide what to get. I got a good set for my sister – she was pretty happy with that Then we headed back for another short night…
Next morning our wakeup call was in the vicinity of 3am for our hot air balloon ride over Luxor. Although we’ve had the pleasure of taking a ride in the past, it was incredible to watch the sun rise over the Nile and drift over the desert not far from the Valley of Kings. We did sail over a temple which was fantastic to be able to see the ‘bird’s eye view’ for a change! After we landed, we found out it was our Pilot’s first flight… we were just glad we found out AFTER the fact rather than before! We had a strange dance with the locals before they tried to get money out of us just for holding hands during the dance… But you get used to that kind of thing in Egypt!
Next we met up with the rest of the group and headed straight for the Valley of the Kings & Queens. This was one of the highlights for us as we’d seen so many documentaries and exhibits, so it was fantastic to finally be there! The tombs were amazing – the paint was still so bright and the entrances so grand! The highlight was the tomb of Thutmes III – we had to climb up the side of a mountain and then down into the tomb, which was so hot and humid you can only last 3 or 4 minutes inside! But it was a beautiful oval shaped room with primitive drawings on the walls. Simply amazing. We also went inside Ramses IV, Ramses V and Tutankhamun’s tombs – we even got to see the boy king himself! His mummy is on display only a few metres from where he was laid to rest. He was so small! It was just amazing to be standing not a metre away from him!!!
Next we visited a stone mason’s shop and then we visited the temple of Al-Deir el-Bahri. This is the most impressive temple in all of Egypt (in my opinion)! From afar, it looks like it is almost new! It’s design is so slick and impressive! Though, by the time we reached this one, we were tired, hungry and very very hot. So we probably didn’t pay it the attention it deserved!
We got back to Luxor and free time was on the menu. We all decided to head to town to grab some lunch and the brave ones of the group – us included – made a beeline for Macca’s. Mouths watering from the sight of recognisible *cough* food, we ordered what we thought would be regular meals. When we got them, however, they were about 3 times the size of what they are at home, and that goes for the fries and drink as well! They were massive! Some of us couldn’t finish what we had, so we brought the leftovers outside and gave them to the local kids that were waiting for us to leave. Steph gave her McFlurry to one of the boys and he asked her what is was. She said ‘icecream’ and he was in awe of it! I gave half a cup of lemonade to another boy and Ange said to him that he should share it with the others, to which she got a very rude ‘NO’ response! Ouch!
Our last visit for the day (and as a full group) was to the Temple of Karnak. Although we were getting pretty sick and tired of visiting temples by this stage, we were determined to get the most out of one of the biggest remaining in Egypt. Something odd was happening within the group. It was either the introduction of the chemicals from the Macca’s feed or the severe lack of sleep we were all experiencing, but we all went a little bit nuts! When Victor told us about the good luck you got if you circled around a statue of a scarab beetle 7 times, you will have good luck, we all linked up and laughed ourselves silly as we circled it 7 times We then started heading back to the bus when someone announced they wanted to take another obelisk photo when someone else piped up and said there was one lying down back there. So 3 people went back to take some photo’s and then the rest of us just started bolting towards it to see what they were talking about. When we turned the corner, they were in the most hillarious poses… sooo funny. And… then I did my ankle. My other ankle. Whoo – two bad ankles, a first even for me!
We then had to say our sad goodbye’s to 2/3 of our group as they were heading back to Cairo. After a quick dance and a few drinks, they were on the bus and ready for their awesome overnight train ride The remainder of us had a nice meal on the roof of the hotel and then a reasonably early night for a change!
Next day we were on the bus again for a drive to Hurghada on the Red Sea. We had just enough time to walk through the oh so awesome resort (of which we only ended up enjoying for a total of about 3 hours), a quick bite to eat before we were off on our quad bikes through the desert. How awesome that was! I was initially scared out of my wits, but I ended up enjoying it loads! Coming back was a little scary as it was pitch black and it was hard to tell if you were eating dust or not with polaroid sunnies on at night – hey, it was either that or dust in your eyes and not being able to see at all!
Next day, we were lucky enough to catch a boat to a little island and do some snorkeling. We saw a dolphin on the way which was cool! We still think Vanuatu was better, but it was great to get in the sea for some swimming and some sun! That night, Victor took us to a local restaurant for some traditional/typical food. It was AWESOME and on par with the meal we had on the first night. He ordered for us which meant we could try a range of different things that we would have never known to order if we were on our own! Yummo!
Our trip back to Cairo was set for 2am, that’s right, 2 o’clock in the MORNING, so we really only had one night in Hurghada afterall! We were up at 1.30am and had a bit of a dance in the nightclub before getting on the bus (mind you, we were not exactly dressed the part). But we tried to sleep in our tiny minibus overnight to Cairo. I headbutt the window latch a few times during the night resulting in a nice bruise on my forehead
Always asking for punishment, we had asked Victor to organise a full day of sightseeing in Cairo the day we got there as we didn’t want to sit around doing nothing. So first thing after a shower at the hotel was to head back on our bus to Saqqara. This is the home of the step pyramid. The most amazing thing about Egypt is that every place you go to seems more awesome than the last, so you never (almost never) get sick of the sightseeing! From here, you could see a whole range of attempts at building pyramids in the desert.
Next we were off to the Coptic Quarter in Cairo where we visited a very old Christian church where Mary and Joseph visited with Jesus when they were hiding from King Herod. We then subjected ourselves to the madness of hawkers in a Cairo market – oh the joy!
We fought the Cairo traffic back to the hotel only to give ourselves about 20 minutes before we had to leave for the Sound and Light show at the Pyramids. This was a bit disappointing and we found ourselves either trailing off to sleep or entertaining ourselves in other ways – I used the camera to keep me awake, it was fun to try to capture the laser in a photo We had a fairly flat and disappointing dinner before heading back to the hotel for our final night in Egypt!
We spent the morning saying goodbye’s to various people and then we too headed for the airport. It was a full on 11 days, but every minute was well and truly worth the tiredness!! And just when we thought we were escaping, we were on the tarmac and about to take off when the captain pulled the plug, went back to the parking bay and announced there was a problem with one of the engines. Awesome. 30 minutes he said. 30 minutes came and went and after an hour he said 10 more minutes. 3 hours later and we were finally on the go. Problem was, we’d offered Scott and Laura a place to stay for the night and they were due back about an hour after we were supposed to be home!
Once we got back to London, poor Scott and Laura were freezing their butts off waiting for us at our house, so we let the poor homeless souls in for some warmth. They departed the next day with a parting gift – our remote control was neatly glad-wrapped, Asian style Thanks guys!
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Wow guys, sounds like you had an awesome time!! I have a feeling that camel guide was actually saying “Imshi” which kinda translates to walk or come on. It’s one of the words the Maltese picked up from the arabic.
I’d love to do Egypt one day, but definitely on a tour like you guys! Hope you are both well.
God, I feel tired just reading this!!! You Guys really pack your holidays, but how awesome it must be to be seeing so much of the world!!! Missing you heaps and very envious of all your travels!!! xoxoxo
Giza pyramids is an excellent place to travel to. Sunset in the sands is something you should definitely see live.