March–April 2009
After purchasing my visa upon arrival at Cairo International Aiport ($15), and getting stamped in, I took a taxi into the city and checked into a downtown hotel. Although I quite liked the hotel, it felt a little separated from the better-known backpacker places. So I decided to switch hotels (The African Hotel), and then spent the morning touring the rather daunting Egyptian Museum. It was a great way to try to educate myself a little about what I was to see later in my journey through Egypt. While I was walking through the museum (and the rest of Egypt for that matter) I kept wishing that I remembered more of my high school history classes that I had taken many moons ago. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent walking around (orientation), eating and relaxing.
After a good night's sleep, I awoke and had the breakfast that is almost always included with any hotel in Egypt: sticks of bread, a boiled egg, a triangle of cheese, plastic-packaged jam and butter, and instant coffee. Then I headed for the Pyramids by public CTA bus. The pyramids lived up to their fame–the constant hassle by touts offering camel or horse rides were a minor irritation in the face of such grandeur (although I got my chance to get up on one). The area inside the pyramid complex was very windy. I paid the extra ticket to go inside the largest pyramid (Khufu), which was spectacular, and much larger than I had anticipated. I spent the evening in Khan-al Khalili, and had dinner in one of the many restaurant patios on the main square, finishing with a tea at the famous Fishawi Coffeehouse in the souk.
The following day, I wandered the downtown in the morning, constantly battling the never-ending traffic, and fetched my train ticket to Aswan beside the Giza metro station. The sleeper car was full, so I ended up having to buy a sitting car ticket. To the south of the centre lies the Coptic Christian quarter of Cairo, which pre-dates Islam and contains a collection of old churches and alleyways. I took the metro out here for the afternoon–a popular time for tour buses as well it seemed. That evening (10:30pm), I took the twelve-hour train to Aswan, which lies some 1000km or so south of Cairo and geographically-speaking constitutes the 'Upper Nile'. The people here are Nubian–ethnically different from the Egyptians found in the Lower Nile. The town has a nice relaxed feeling to it.
The next morning in Aswan, I took a local ferry across the river to Elephantine Island, where I toured the ruins of a Nubian village, and walked around two current Nubian villages. Had a nice dinner with a couple of others tourists, and hit the sack around 10pm, as I was booked to wake up at 3am for my tour to Abu Simbel, 2.5 hours south of Aswan. This was an amazing place. The site had been raised back in the 1960s by a group of archeologists to prevent it from future demise under Lake Nasser.
I booked a felucca trip through my hotel reception for the following day. Feluccas are single-sailed vessels that depend on wind and current. They're also the cheapest way to travel on the Nile River. This was extremely easy, and I was set to leave the following afternoon at 2pm, immediately upon my return from an early morning trip to Abu Simbel. There were seven of us on the boat in total. We sailed for three hours, and headed into shore for the evening. We spent a pleasant evening talking around a campfire that had been started by another felucca group. Early next morning, we continued along the Nile for two hours before going ashore at Kom Ombo, where we were whisked by minibus to the temple for 30 minutes, and then on to Edfu Temple for 1.5 hours. Finally, I arrived in Luxor.
Although the pyramids at Giza may be more recognizable and better known, it is Luxor and the ancient city of Thebes, surrounded as it is by pharonic monuments and tombs, that really symbolizes the wealth of ancient Egypt. Ignoring all the taxi drivers and touts in the crazy streets (despite the efforts of the city to make Luxor hassle-free), I checked into one of the recommended addresses in the guidebook–the Nefertiti Hotel, located in the souk.
Luxor was a bit daunting at first (lots of sights), so I took a walk in order to get my bearings. The Corniche which ran beside the Nile was almost as swamped with touts offering felluca trips, horse cart rides and generally being rude and annoying. For a city that attracts so many tourists with money, it was also remarkably dirty–garbage clogged the side streets.
I had booked a tour for The Valley of the Kings from my hotel reception upon arrival, and headed out at 8am the following morning. In addition to the tour fee, we were charged for a ticket that allows entrance to 3 tombs (kings)–most of which were closed for restoration, and another ticket for 2 tombs (queens). Overall, the valley was really interesting to see and experience. Later that afternoon, I wandered over to Luxor Temple and toured inside for a couple of hours. The following morning, after a leisurely breakfast on the rooftop of my hotel, I walked over to the Temple of Karnak, which did impress for its shear size–towering obelisks and columns rising far above the swarms of tourists walking beneath them. I walked back to my hotel in the souk, and at 5pm, after a nice late lunch in front of the hotel, I boarded the long-distance bus to Dahab, located in the Sinai peninsula, on the Red Sea. The bus took 18 hours, having stopped frequently for food and bathroom breaks throughout the night.
Spent three nights here. Did some snorkelling, and ate some wonderful food. I also climbed Mt. Sinai one night, getting picked up by minibus at 11pm, started the ascent at 1:30am, and arrived at the summit in time to see the sunrise at 5:40am. Then we began the long climb back down the hill in daylight, followed by a tour of St. Katherine's Monastery at 9am. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and eating. The long hike (and being up all night) was very draining. Had a wonderful evening at Rush restaurant/nighclub with a couple of people I had met a couple of days earlier in Dahab. Spent the following day snorkelling the Blue Hole area, which was amazing.
From Dahab, I took an overnight bus back to Cairo (nine hours), changed bus stations (via taxi) and carried on to Alexandria (two hours). The setting beside the Mediterranean was picturesque, the colonial buildings oozed character and faded charm and there was barely a tout nor tourist in sight. Even the food was cheap and honestly priced. There was not a lot of see tourist-wise here, and two days was plenty for me. I returned to Cairo, checked into the Richmond Hotel for my last evening. I had an early morning flight the next morning, which required me to wake up at 3am. Returned to Vancouver via Paris and Montreal.
