Egypt Again 2023.... A Frustrated Visit On My Fourth Trip - eVisas Explained and The Arrival Late At Night and Giza

 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.

Cairo to Luxor and on to Dendera and Abydos

My original plan was to take the train from Cairo to Luxor where I am picking up my Nile cruise ship, but a friend was telling me about Dendera and Abydos, and when I looked at it I thought ''Yes. Why not''. But taking the train was going to take up too much time, and flying was cheaper anyway...

Cairo airport departures is a seething mass of humanity, you and your baggage are X rayed and scanned before you even get to the check in desk, and add the fact that I have to go to the Egyptair desk to get my ticket it all makes for good fun. There are people that will walk up to you and tell you that they have special permission to take you the back way through to save you time. 

Don't believe them, they will take your money and your luggage but they will not take you as well. Just ask them where their official ID tag is and they disappear like a puff of smoke.

I lost one trainer in the X ray machine... They proudly presented me with a trainer except it wasn't mine, so at some stage somebody had given up and continued on with only one trainer. I got mine eventually....

Beyond the security and check in the departure gates there is not a soul in sight. Where has everybody gone? The lavatory attendant will let you have a cigarette in the toilet for a small consideration, unnecessary in my case, but there is a smoking lounge anyway that costs nothing.

Arriving at Luxor I don't seem to have any luggage but it finally appears and I walk outside looking for a taxi. My luggage is heaved up on to one shoulder of a total stranger who trots off into the car park with me following. (You get used to this after a while in Egypt, so far the only time I have had to deal with my own luggage is from the taxi into the departure hall at Cairo airport) and I am introduced to Ali my taxi driver who is one of the funniest men I have ever met, certainly the funniest taxi driver for sure. 

Ali is no youngster, speaks excellent English, laughs a lot, and has only one tooth that I can see, which is not difficult because he spends most of the time looking at me not the road. 

''First time in Luxor?''

''Yes''

''I will take you on a tour''

I thought it was going to cost me a fortune but it was about the same amount of money that you have to pay just to get into a taxi in Brighton, without even going anywhere. You don't want his life history and neither did I but I got it anyway.

Arriving at my hotel, The Winter Palace, we have to stop 300 metres away from the entrance because the entire front of the hotel and the road is full of motorbikes. The Egyptian Motorcycling Club are having there annual get together. Ali shouts and whistles, (how can you whistle with only one tooth?), and a ''bellboy'' appears to take my bags. Bags scanned and me too I approach the reception desk to be told that they have suspended the normal dress code, (smart casual), which is not a surprise with the amount of denim, T shirts, and leather floating around. They seem to know who I am and the necessary paperwork is done, my bags have disappeared already, I know not where, and I am guided to my room...... 

Time for a wander around the area before something to eat and then an early night because it is another early start....

And this is one trip that I think is essential if you are doing a Nile cruise then you must find time to do the trip to Dendera and Abydos. It is a shortish journey and the road is not too good in places, but my guide is entertaining, and the driver is excellent especially when we drove through the middle of what appreared to be the local rubbish tip! Again I am surprised that I am the only passenger but it seems this is normal unless you are actually travelling as part of a party. I never mind sharing transport especially doing things like this because it gives you somebody to discuss what you have seen.

If you confine yourself to just going from your 5 star Cairo hotel to Giza and back again, and the sights that you see along the Nile, you are restricting yourself to a very narrow view of Egypt so I make no apologies for the length of this post, nor for the number of photos of the journey where you see things that have been happening for thousands of years such as the making of ''mud'' bricks..

Arriving at Abydos be prepared to see,
and hear many things. Not least of all the story of Dorothy Eady, of which you can believe as much or as little as you like. The best part of this side trip is that although it is a popular place to visit, it is not so crowded as the sites along the Nile, so both at Abydos and Dendera you can see more because you are not being jostled by other groups of visitors.....

The guides also have more time to explain what is going on.


Tim's Tip of The Day: You will only get
as much from your guide as you put in.
If you are interested in what you see and show it, you will get a lot more from your guide.....

At Abydos is not only the Temple of Seti I,  but also the Temple of Ramesses II, and you are going to hear those names again during your further adventures in Egypt. Here you can see the famous hieroglyph said to depict modern technology including the helicopter, a result of the original carving from the time of Set I being plastered over and re-carved in the time of Ramsses II, his son. And the carving depicting Seti I wearing the crown of Lower Egypt roping the sacred bull with his son, then only Prince Ramesses.

Nearby is a cafe, typical of many in Egypt, where you can get a coffee after walking through the site, again my guide is fascinated by my desire for coffee at regular intervals!

 Leaving Abydos we get a police escort through the lunchtime traffic on our way to Dendera.

 

 Dendera is a large complex, parts of which do get crowded because they are not very large, but on the day I visited there were very few visitors.

Like many monuments worldwide it has suffered with the ravages of time, (don't we all?), but here something has happened over time that has given us the chance to see what it was really like. Hundreds of years of soot, presumably from oil lamps and fires within the temple, had been deposited
on the ceiling, preservingnwhat lay beneath, (although as it is a ceilling I suppose that should read ''What lay above''), this soot has been carefully removed to reveal the original painting giving us a view of what it was like when first built.

 Some of the carving at Dendera is quite clearly not Pharoanic, and the columns are more Corinthian than Doric as at Abydos. There are excellent examples of Ptolemaic art including the carving of THE Cleopatra, (overheard in the background, ''You mean she really existed? I thought she was just a part played by Elizabeth Taylor), with her son one of the last Ptolemy's who was fathered by Julius Caesar!

The Romans might have thought their occupation of Egypt was a good thing,
whether the Egytpians did is a different

 matter!

Also at Dendera you can see the famous Zodiac ceiling, well actually you can't because what you are looking at is a copy. Napoleon's army took it and it is now in The Louvre, as are many other
artifacts.
I will not dwell on the political side of this because I live in Greece and there are ongoing demands for the return of The Marbles....

 Meanwhile in The Louvre the Venus de Milo,and the statue of Winged Victory are still to be found....

Enjoy the rest of the pictures because we are heading back to Luxor for something to eat!

Part of the revealed ceiling to the right.
A wonderful shade of blue....