Recollections and writings on four holidays in Egypt in 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023. Exploring the ancient sites, and a doing a bit of meeting the locals, with my views on a few things.
I had allowed myself 4 days in Cairo to visit the new Grand Egyptian Museum, that isn't open yet. I was looking at 2 days, possibly 3, in the GEM which is only a short walk from my hotel, and then a day deciding what to do next. A visit to Alexandria is still on the cards to explore an old family connection there, but the weather in Alex in February is not good...
In any case I have two days to fill which is easy enough because I have not been to Saqqara since 2017, and since my last visit things have changed.
And I have also been told I should visit the New Museum of Egyptian Civilisation.
Saqqara is a little bit of a journey out from Giza, the time varies with how fast the taxi driver can go... But about 45 minutes is average...
The boss in my hotel is only too happy to sell me a car and guide for the morning, except I don't want the guide, which is going be either him or his father. (The father has lived in the The States I believe so his English is very good, the son's not so good).
He looks a bit disappointed but to be honest I find that guides get in the way, and want to rush you from one place to another too quickly, which is what happened on my last visit. As it turned out my driver was quite a good guide anyway and in exchange I bought him lunch.
The trip cost 60 USD, (I could have used LE but he preferred USD), which included my lunch and the basic entry ticket to Saqqara, I opted to buy the 'extras' ticket which cost a further 180 LE on top of the 200LE I had already paid via the driver. If you have the time an the inclination I would recommend going the whole hog and buying the 440 LE ticket which cover just about everything as it works out cheaper.
Arriving outside the actual site there were the usual souvenir sellers, but of course you are not obliged to buy anything! And anyway they charge far too much, but you are allowed to haggle to your heart's content, but i wouldn't bother because they don't have a very good range of stuff, better to reserve a day and go to proper shops. One of them spoke with a strong West Midlands accent,mainly because he had lived in Wolverhampton for a lot of his life.
Inside Saqqara I was not disappointed as I could now see the Step Pyramid properly, last time I was here it was covered in scaffolding,and also there were fewer visitors so it was quite uncrowded, and I managed to tag on to a group that had an English speaking guide... Always a plus! Somewhere along the line I completely lost my sense of direction during the short video clip, that's not Cairo in the distance at all! Some of the nobles tombs are included in the extras ticket others are not even included in the full ticket.
The Museum of Imhotep is not open as they are giving it a makeover, but all around Saqqara there is more digging going on...
I didn't get a chance to see this on my last visit because the guide was in a hurry...
Just a few pictures but not enough to spoil your visit!
And now we come to a bit about the dreaded mobile phone syndrome.
I don't know how we coped before we had them, 50 years ago if you went on holiday you contacted your family and friends by sending them a picture postcard, depending on where you had gone, and for how long, it was quite usual for you to get back home before the cards did.
These days we seem to have to be in almost constant communication with the rest of the world all of the time, why this should be i really don't know, but I suppose I am as bad as everyone else!
Apart from the normal landlines which is how the internet is still done in most countries, not even fibre optic in many places, Egypt has a fully developed mobile phone system with generally excellent coverage, unless you are in the desert of course because the camels don't use the internet..... The technology of the system is such that you can bring your own mobile with you and it will work.... Generally the coverage is on the 4G network, during my recent trip, over 8 weeks, there was only one occasion when the signal was less than 4G, and that was in a taxi in an underpass in Cairo...
There are 4 main operators, Vodafone, EtiSalat, Orange, and We (Telecom Egypt), to date on various visits I have used 3 of them and found the service overall to be very good, reliable, and economic. You can look them up on the internet to see what deals they are doing for visitors and then buy a SIM card at the airport.
I don't do this because there are always queues at the airport desks, and also I have found that if you find a mobile shop near to where you are staying you will often get a better deal than the standard tourist ones!
This time around I used We where the shop in Giza gave me 4 SIM cards, ideal if you a family or group, for 156LE which included 22.5 Gb of data and 1000 minutes of local calls, (useful because I have friends there I like to chat to), but only 30 SMS, certainly enough for me. Unless you are going to be streaming movies 22.5 Gb is a lot. Each SIM had its own account and could be recharged separately. the basic credit lasted a month but could be topped up which some tourist cards cannot.
Contrary to what you might hear, you can get access to Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp. I don't know why some people have the idea they are banned in Egypt, but what I can tell you is that some of the packages sold by the companies might not include some features, for instance I have friends there who can use WhatsApp for pictures movies and general messaging, even audio messages, but they cannot make an audio or video call. for that they use Messenger or Skype.
What is difficult is if for some strange reason you try to use a VPN because these are not allowed and they are blocked although there are a couple that the government haven't found out about yet so I was able to use those if I needed to appear as though I was in my home country.
So in a small nutshell there is a bit about mobiles and the internet!
Many hotels have a data cap, as do a lot of people in their homes, so although you might apparently have an internet connection nothing seems to happen. What happens here usually is that the staff manage to consume all the data watching videos on YouTube and there is nothing left for the guests!! A bit unfair but life rarely is fair.
A little note about mobiles if you are over 60 and can stay longer than 30 days...
Theoretically your SIM card should be cut off as you cannot get one without a valid visa, and if you are over 60 and staying for a longer period then your visa has expired so you cannot still have an active SIM card.
In practice I have found this doesn't happen because it seems it has to be cut off manually!
Of course there was always going to be a fourth trip because the Grand Egyptian Museum was not open last year, and so one year on almost I am on the trip I planned last August because there were rumours that the GEM would be open by ealry 2023.
Of course it isn't, but am I going to let that spoil my trip? No, of course not!
Unusually for me I arrive at 1.00am in the morning at Cairo airport on a full flight from Athens. Indeed so full they were offering people money NOT to get on it, and at the same time checking the weight of cabin bags. Fortunately I avoided this because mine weighed in at 14kgs and you are only allowed 6kgs. One of the advantages of having ''Special Assistance'' through airports is that you manage to avoid the queues...
Arriving at Cairo was no different from usual, with about 200 people queuing to get a visa, but I of course have already got mine because I did it on line so I was through immigration and waiting for my bags, very fast as usual, while others were still waiting to get their visa label! This is one of the advantages of the eVisa, and also it means you have paid in advance so don't have to budget for it out of your valuable cash balance, if you have one.
Outside are the usual number of people offering you taxis, but I already have a pre-arranged transfer via my hotel. This is 20USD for the ride through the deserted streets of Cairo to my hotel in Giza. Taxis now have to pay for parking at Cairo airport so when I get out I give the man a tip equivalent to the parking fee.
And now before your very eyes I will explain a bit about eVisas and how to get one as some people seem to have real problems getting the web site to work, this is more than likely because they have not followed the instructions, others have noted that the site uses 'old' software but nonetheless it does work! And it does save time at the airport. Others have claimed that they have been charged the money but not got a visa and cannot get a refund but like any country visas are sometimes refused but if you applied you still have to pay for it! And imagine how you would feel if you were queuing at the airport and then were refused entry, and it does happen!
Firstly, there IS ONLY ONE OFFICIAL eVISA WEB SITE ...
And it is this one here.... EGYPT eVISA ...It will open in a new window. You will find other sites that appear to be the right site and indeed most/many of them will get you a visa, but they are third party sites who just fill in the forms for you and the charge exorbitant sums for doing it!!
The first thing you have to do is read the terms and conditions for getting a visa which you will find under the FAQ link. Note that you need a passport with at least 6 months validity, the other things they note there, is a ''travel itinerary'' I have never produced one of these at immigration and indeed, have never been asked for one, I have however been asked where I am staying so I carry my initial hotel booking with me just in case. If you try to get a visa with less than 6 months validity your application will fall over at the first stage.
You will also need to create an account before you start.
The first part of the form are self explanatory, I have deliberately left the 'info' box open on the departure date field, because if you are over 65 and you are not going to get a job, you can stay longer than 30 days if you want to!! But you cannot put more than 30 days in this field
Remember to 'SAVE' each page as you complete it so that if you have to leave the form it will still be there as a draft when you go back to the site
The next sections are easy enough too.... Just remember to put in your correct name as it is in your passport, and get the dates right, it's surprising the number of people who forget this simple fact, and also cannot read the dates either!
Where it asks for your address, it tells you what characters are permitted, and carriage return is not one of them!! Put the address all on one line... If you get the message about inallowed characters look closely at what you have done becuase it mean you have made a mistake somewhere!Make sure your phone number is valid with the country code and no spaces in it!
And then the picture of your passport... TWO IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE, AND IT DOES TELL YOU, FIRST THE PICTURE MUST BE LESS THAN A CERTAIN SIZE, AND SECOND IT CAN ONLY CONTAIN ALPHANUMERIC CHARACTERS IN THE FILE NAME.
If you have used your phone to take the picture then the chances are the file will be far too large!! Read the instruction under the photo!! Most phones have a built in editor so you can resize the photo, on my phone I have to take it down to 20% of the original.. And while you are editing rename the file to something logical like ''passport''. When you click on ATTACH a window opens with helpful suggestions as to how your photo should look,
Here's a nice clean image, above that works just fine, I know because it is the one I have used more than once..
The one above is never going to wrok because the software has to read the passport.
There is often a delay before anything happens because internet upload speeds are not that good in many places, and indeed a slow connection means the system 'times out' on occasions too.
When your photo has uploaded you will see this....
When the photo has uploaded you will see the name/DOB/Passport number fields have been populated automatically.... Which is why you cannot fill them in yourself, and people have actually tried to do so!
Saving the information will keep it as a draft and you can come back to it later and amend anything.... Or you can move directly on to the next step which is payment. Make sure your card is valid and can be used for foreign transactions and actually has credit available on it...
See it's easy, and most people already have a copy of their passport on their phone already don't they??
Quite soon after you have filed the application you will get an email confirming so, and a couple of days later, sometimes more quickly, you get the actual visa which you have to print off to present to immigration.
You will also need a landing card which some airlines will give you on the flight but many no longer do so, you can find these in the airports just before the immigration desk.
A couple of weeks have passed since my return from Egypt and I have ''post holiday blues'', particularly as the weather is disgusting and I hoped I would have missed all the rain on Crete....
Looking back at my notes again, it was nice to see quite a few British people travelling in Egypt again. They all seemed to be ''independent'' travellers who elected to fly in through Hurghada and then after a week of 'beach' holiday were travelling inland by private vehicle or coach to the Nile Valley to see the important sites and spend a few days around the area rather than some Hurghada tourists who come inland by coach to see the Valley Of The King's and then leave again.
The general plan after Luxor and Aswan included a few days in Cairo before flying back to the UK. While these plans sound expensive Egypt really is still remarkably cheap, and Luxor has a lot of accommodation for about 5 euros a night if you are staying a while.
As an example in Luxor, West Bank you can find many properties to rent like this one Mahmoud Haseeb Nubian House at very reasonable rates
This one in Al Bairat has some lovely traditional features like domed ceilings!
This trip was supposed to be my last and was supposed to included Alexandria where I have a 'family' connection and initially I was planning on 6 weeks until I read on Trip Advisor that it was currently impossible, because of COVID, to get a visa extension unless you were in Cairo and wanted to brave the one and only police station that was issuing them....
Of course I later found out that I didn't even need a visa extension because I was over 60.... And the Passport Office in Luxor was open so don't believe everything you read on TA, unless I wrote it
And of course the new museum in Cairo has not yet opened and I still need to visit that so another visit is already in the planning stage to do that and also visit Alexandria....
I still don't know what it is about Egypt that I love so much.....
One thing is sure this time I will do some reviews of hotels and eateries for Trip Advisor this time as looking at my past reviews I didn't do very many!!
So you can expect some updates to the blog again sometime early next year...
This post was originally published on 25th March 2020, and updated and re-dated in April 2020 and again in May 2020 While you might think that Egyptian archaeology is a completed book this is a long way from the truth and discoveries are still being made. During the course of 2019, a new tomb was discovered as Saqqara, and also at Saqqara the Bent Pyramid is now open to the public since 1965, similarly at Dashur a pyramid has been re-opened to the public. The Valley of The Kings has also revealed new secrets, and there have been new discoveries at Aswan, and also out at Fayoum and Abydos to name but a few. And now more is being discovered about the finds that have already been made such as the fact that Hatshepsut died of cancer and had diabetes! There is one tomb that would still be one of the greatest finds in Egyptian archaeology, and to the finder will go much fame, but probably little fortune... The whereabouts of the tomb of Cleopatra has yet to be discovered and while perhaps she is not the greatest of Egypt's rulers, she is certainly one of the most romantic! In October a performance of Verdi's Aida was given in Luxor in front of The Temple Of Hatshepsut, I would dearly loved to have been there as performance of Verdi's greatest (for me anyway), opera in the country where the story was set would be amazing. Many years ago there was a performance done at Giza, maybe some day there will be another and I will be lucky enough to go this time! The plan for spending my winters in Egypt depended a lot on being able to sell my winter house on Crete, which had in any case been up for sale for some time. So getting back to Crete I find that the new petrol station next to my house is now complete and indeed open for business. Exactly why anybody in the day and age would even consider building a brand new gas station is beyond me, particularly as there is one about 700 metres along the road. But this is Greece, and if you own a piece of land you can build on it. So much for town planning, or business planning come to that.... With the exception that this turns out to be the smelliest gas station ever built, mainly because they have leaking pipework and they do not seems to understand that it should not smell..... Having put up with the steadily worsening fume for 6 months I end up writing to BP in the UK to ask them to do something about it as their sign is outside and as they have licensed the petrol station it is their responsibility, or so I feel.... As it is now impossible to sell my house, any future plans have now been shelved!! In addition my 6 monthly check up at the hospital showed that the area of fibrosis on my left lung has got larger. My doctor tells me this is more than likely due to pollution or chemicals in the air. As there is only one thing that has changed in my environment....... Thank you #BP #BPInternational !!!!! By now we are in the throes of the coronavirus ''pandemic'' which has affected less people than the annual 'flu season but has involved people around the world being incarcerated in their homes, often against their wishes, for long periods of time. Welcome to 1984! George Orwell would love it! Up until March I was able to keep in touch with people I met in Egypt who told me that the situation was much as published on various web sites, and like other countries the measures were designed to prevent the spread so to avoid the fact that most countries have ''creaking'' healthcare systems, and there is quite a lot of political mileage in preventing healthcare systems from becoming overloaded..... The coronavirus outbreak has also caused a further delay in the opening of the New Egyptian Museum in Cairo, I don't think many people were actually holding their breath waiting for it to be opened as there have been so many delays in its construction and opening that we are now used to it not being open! Back in February WhatsApp announced that they would no longer be supporting my aged Samsung phone and in the process of upgrading to a newer version of Android I lost all my history and contacts on WhatsApp (in spite of having a back up, which like all back ups never actually works when you need it), as a result I am now no longer in contact with anybody for the latest news ''on the ground''. But I am not finished yet... I still have my blog to complete of my journey to the US and Canada in late 2018, which has never been published as I did not have any photographs... Until last month when finally my hard drive was reclaimed!
Returning from Aswan to Luxor is a leisurely affair. We have picked up passengers making the short trip back to Luxor, including some Australians from Melbourne, indeed it turns out that they live in Waverley, which is spitting distance from where my mother in law lives! This was the evening i decided to go for ''proper drinks'' rather than the unbranded stuff that you are allowed with the inclusive ''drinks package'', when I got the bill I decided I would probably not do that again. Our evening waiter left the cruise after the first five nights because he was going home on holidays, needless to say he left with a hefty tip from us on the English table. And on the trip back we discovered that our guide has to ''sign off'' our food bill every evening, including the wine. Particularly the wine. I think he was a bit puzzled by the amount of it that we managed to consume, particularly as two of us were not one the ''drinks package''. Perhaps now he has had an insight into how sociable the British can be at the dinner table, and how chatty we get... I have come to the conclusion that they should not try to do ''Western food'' on these ships, but having said that the breakfast and lunchtime buffets are amazing. I tend to travel light these days and do a bit of laundry by hand until I found out how cheap the laundry service was on the ship, (I think that perhaps some of them might have laundry facilities?), wonderful service and everything came back ironed, even my socks! Well worth the money!
There seems to be a competition going on to see which members of the crew can come up with the most amazing animals made out of towels and bed spreads.
On the way back to Luxor you get a chance to drive the ship! Apparently I was not very good at it....
Arriving back in Luxor the last two sites included in the cruise are Karnak and Luxor Temple.... I am giving Luxor Temple a miss because I want to visit the museum instead, and you can see enough temples on one lifetime. Karnak is impressive, and of course, in ''Death On The Nile'' it is where the dislodged stone narrowly misses killing Lynette Doyle (nee Ridgeway), but seemingly it has other important features! Karnak is the largest temple complex is Egypt, and apparently the largest religious complex in the world. It has been destroyed, and rebuilt, refurbished and rebuilt, modified and rebuilt. Successive rulers have all added their own touches to it, and even when it fell into disuse for worshipping Egyptian gods, it was used by Christians...
At Karnak you will find obelisks standing up, and obelisks lying down, columns of massive proportions, hieroglyphics in abundance,massive statues, and the first example ever of clerestory windows set high in the ''roof''... Indeed everything you could want and far more than you can see in one visit, but them you are coming back aren't you?? My decision to go to the museum was a wise one i think, except that when I got there it was closed. I missed the normal opening hours is the only reason, but never mind the market is close by.... Me and markets, it is worth the visit just to see how much, or how little you can get hassled!! Our last night on board and under discussion is our onward travel the following morning. One of us was a last minute booking who flew direct from the UK to Luxor and is returning the same way. The two couples came via Cairo, as did I, but the are flying back from Luxor direct to the UK.
And me? Ever the difficult one, I am taking the train back to Aswan. The guide asks me if I have got a ticket, to which the answer is no, I am going to book it on line tonight. It seems it is better to go to the station, which is no far away, and do it in person. No sooner said than done he arranges for one of the crew to go to the station and get me a ticket. There are regular trains from Luxor and the go-for calls the guide and says what time do I want to go, late morning would be ideal as the trip takes 3 hours and gets me there for about the right time to check into my hotel.... But there is a plus in sending somebody Egyptian to get the ticket, because as you have already found out (if you are an independent traveler), there is an Egyptian price and a tourist price for a lot of things including the train! So my train ticket comes out at the Egyptian price.... You just have to hope that nobody notices!! The following morning I am packed and ready to go, having made new friend on Facebook, and Whatsapp, my bags are whisked away, and I am taken shoreside and put into the oldest Peugeot car I have ever seen in my life. I think they only thing that was holding it together was the paint, and that was beginning to go in places. The trip to the station takes all of five minutes, and on arrival I pay the driver, and already my bags and ticket have been whisked away by a man of indeterminate age assisted by a boy who cannot be much more than 10. Inside the station they have already checked my bag through the scanner and are waiting for me on the other side of the barrier, except I don't have my ticket but it doesn't matter because the man on the barrier knows I am with them.
Fully expecting to be left on the platform with my luggage, but no they wait until the train comes and bundle me and luggage on to the train and into a seat in completely the wrong carriage but it seems that doesn't matter either. And we are off........
