Which is always the best place to start.....
I have wanted to visit Egypt ever since I read (at primary school), about the plans to save the temple of Rameses II from the rising waters of the newly formed Lake Nasser, and also seeing pictures of the treasures from King Tut's tomb.
Yes I really am that old!
Somehow I never seemed to get around to making the trip until finally last August 2016, I decided that it was time to go.
When I said to friends that that I was thinking about Egypt the instant response was ''Hurghada or Sharm El Sheikh?''
Neither I replied, ''Cairo, a Nile cruise, and maybe some extra time in Luxor and Aswan.''
''You can't do that,'' they said, ''It's not safe''.
Well three weeks later I am back home after one of the most enjoyable, and interesting holidays I have ever had.
So let's get rid of a few myths to start off with...
Egypt isn't safe - Well if you walk down unlit back alleys in the middle of the night nowhere is ''safe''.
You will get robbed - As ever, walking around dripping in jewellery, flaunting expensive designer clothes is always a draw anywhere you go.
There are children who will approach you begging for money - Occasionally
.
People will try to sell you things you don't want - Then don't buy them.
You have to bribe everyone - Well no not really, but an occasional bit of ''baksheesh'' never hurts anywhere you go. Just look upon it as a tip but a lot less than you have to pay in other countries.
You have to travel in convoys with armed guards - Well actually no you don't.
Unfortunately since ''the revolution'' in 2011, which was mainly centred around Cairo and Alexandria many would be visitors have been put off, and with reports of the occasional shooting by extremists at some archaeological sites 20 (yes 20) years ago, it is still more than likely true to say that you will get on the wrong end of a shooting in the USA rather than in Egypt.
Take a look at this web site if you don't believe me, http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/ and then tell me how many reports there have been of tourist being shot in Egypt, and rest assured you would have heard about it if there had been!
So minor rant over and let's get down to business. Of course these are only my findings, and it was after all my holiday, but I do like to ask questions and I don't always ''follow the herd''.
Egypt is majority a Muslim country. Not all Muslims are extremists or terrorists, that is only what the press (and possibly your government) make them out to be. Some of them are devout Muslims, and some are not. Just like Christians of which there are a fair amount too. And look all of them manage to live together!
As for Egyptians themselves? Well they are ready to smile, you smile at them they return the smile without imagining that you are some kind of nutter, not only that but they have a great sense of humour too.
They are polite and helpful, and expect you to be the same.
They will walk past you in the street and say ''Welcome to Egypt''. And they mean it. And they will help you to cross the street too, and boy, will you need the help in Cairo!
They are incredibly impressed if you can read Arabic numbers if nothing else, even though, like everywhere these days, all the bills and cash registers print out everything in Latin characters. And virtually all them speak English.
So there is your xenophobia gone for a start.....
Many people still go to the Red Sea resorts, but all inclusive hotels resorts are not Egypt.
To see Egypt you have to travel and this is what this blog is about.
Us English are a strange lot, apparently. Or so one of my tour guides seemed to think. Well I think that he thought that because we have an author called Agatha Christie, who wrote a book called Death On The Nile.
Agatha, bless her, travelled around a bit, and she went to Egypt, to Cairo, Aswan, and down the Nile and was inspired to write the book, and ever since armchair travellers have followed her. Of course you have to remember that the English (rightly or wrongly) have had a close relationship with many parts of Africa not only with Egypt and Sudan, but many other parts of it too.
My inspiration comes not from her book, but from things I read so many years ago and I don't like things that are too organised and like to do a fair amount of things on my own, with the help of the internet of course. But of course I would like to follow a little bit in Poirot's footsteps so on the list of things to do is visit Karnak, the Aswan Dams, and Abu Simbel, and stay at The Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, and The Winter Palace in Luxor, so naturally the Nile cruise is going to be the way to go.
But I also want to see The Great Pyramid, THE Sphinx, (as opposed to any other sphinxes there may be) and Fayoum Oasis which not so many people go to.
So at ''the core'' of my trip is a Nile cruise with bits bolted on to visit other things away from the Nile. There are about 280 Nile cruise ships in existence, only about 80 of them are actually running because of the current downturn in visitors to Egypt which for those tourists that are visiting, (and there are many of them), makes the whole experience mush more enjoyable as you are not vieing with hoards of other people everywhere you go. (Although it does not do a lot for the Egyptian tourist industry).
This makes the choice of cruises a bit more limited especially as I do not want a flight from the UK included in the package because I live on Crete, and surprisingly some of the tour companies do not want to know you unless you are taking the whole package. So by the time I have added on the single supplement, (which I personally think should be dropped), moved my cabin up a deck, and taken the ''included drinks package'', the price came out about the same, a shade short of £900, as if I had had the flights included.
Having booked a 7 night cruise I have to look at the other things I want to see so I started with 6 nights in Cairo, my original plan of taking the train from Cairo to Luxor to join the ship was changed to flying so that I got a full extra day in Luxor so that I had time to visit the Temples at Abydos and Dendera, and also booked a 2 day guided tour around Cairo, a bit extravagant that might seem but so much easier logistically than doing it my own. Further investigation produced the overall feeling that guided tours were definitely the way to go, you certainly don't want to be driving a rental car in Egypt!
The prices of guided tours are quite reasonable, most of them include lunch and you get a guide and a driver both of whom are licensed.
And here's Tim's Top Tip Of The Day - Car registration plates are colour coded in Egypt. Private cars have a blue stripe along the top, taxis have an orange stripe, tourist vehicles (cars and minibuses) have a cream coloured stripe along the top, and public transport/freight have a red stripe.
So if you are told by someone that they are a licensed tour guide and they put you in a car with a blue stripe then they are no such thing, similarly the man that asks you if you want a taxi, grabs your bags and puts them in a car with a blue strips is not a taxi driver.
Most of the important sites are already included in the cruise itinerary, but the trip to Abu Simbel is an extra, and from the cruise itinerary it is fairly obvious that to take the optional trip to Abu Simbel means getting up at 3am!
I am on holiday so there is no way I am getting up at 3am, which is the reason for backtracking to Aswan so that I can take a 10.30am departure!
The final night in Egypt is going to be spent in Cairo again, and as I always like to have at least one train trip I am taking the overnight sleeper train from Aswan arriving back in Cairo (well Giza actually) at around 9am which gives me another whole day to look round Cairo some more but there is an oddity here because although I can book the sleeper train on the Web, I cannot book the day train from Luxor to Aswan, but we will cross that bridge a little later.
And the last thing to do is hit Ebay for a second hand guide book with small maps of Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan. And to get an Egyptian Arabic phrasebbok and dictionary which turned out to be completely unnecessary!
So armed with my trusty Panama hat (a real one that you can roll up and put in your hand luggage), that everyone says make me look the part of the traditional English archaeologist, and bottle of insect repellent and a tube of sting cream, I am ready to go.
Well nearly because three days before I am due to leave I realise that my typhoid jab has expired, not time to get one now, but there is not that much risk if I avoid drinking Nile water and stick to bottles.
I just know this is going to make you laugh.
I drive to the airport on the first leg of my journey to Cairo via Athens.... In a snow storm following the tracks of the car in front through slushy snow and water...
Yes a snow storm on Crete. You see we do have a winter.
There are no flights going from Heraklion because the incoming flights coming from Athens have been delayed by snow in Athens. Eventually two aircraft arrive, the 8am flight leaves 4 hours late, mine doesn't go anywhere because there is a problem with the aircraft as well as the snow. No problem as I had a four hour wait in Athens, three hours later it is clear that I will not be in Athens in time to get my onward flight. No problem they say, we will put you on the night flight from Athens to Istanbul, a good one hour flying time in the wrong direction, and from there you can pick a flight to Cairo and you will only be 12 hours late. No thanks.
So I am spending the first night of my hols in Athens, and then onward to Istanbul and then Cairo the following afternoon, except that at 7.30am they decide that the flight from Athens to Istanbul has been cancelled due to snow at Istanbul airport. Finally I am put on the direct flight from Athens to Cairo to get me there a day late.
Which is well and good, but I have a hotel booked, and I have an airport transfer booked, fortunately the transfer company got the message in time to re-arrange the transfer, but I have lost the hotel booking because it is not refundable.
(Notice there that I said I had booked an airport transfer? I almost always do that unless it is somewhere that I know. It just saves all the hassle of getting taxis, airport buses etc. after a day travelling, and in this case the transfer rep even meets you before you go through immigration and carries your bags. The Egyptians are wonderful).
And at the airport is where your Egyptian Experience begins...
The first job is to get an Entry Visa and you can buy this from any of the banks/exchange booths when you change some money into Egyptian Pounds (EL for short), and whatever you read on web sites to the contrary you are going to need cash to buy bottles of water, cups of coffee, and above all to pay tips to everyone that does something for you, and that includes the toilet attendant who gives you a bit of toilet roll to dry your hands on.
And you might well need it for ''baksheesh'' which in a way is a bribe, for instance I managed to get photos of the inside of Abu Simbel for the small ''consideration'' of 5 EL (about 25 pence in English money).
You might also read of beggars and children approaching you for money as well, although this is not as common as some web sites would have you believe, if you are approached then do remember that giving alms is one one of the tenets of Islam. More often the asker will actually be offering you something, a pack of tissues is not uncommon with children for instance. It is up to you whether you actually take them or not! This type of baksheesh is quite rare in my experience.
The biggest problem you will have here is having any coins to give! You just don't see them that much although they do exist, even 1 EL coins and notes are a rarity and you have to be really insistence with shop keepers (who want the odd 5 EL from you so that they can give you large notes for your change), that you do not have any small notes!
Tour guides always seem to have quite a stock of coins which is a very good reason to take guided tours and you will often see them give odd coins to security guards at archaeological sites for no apparent reason.
Having got your visa sticker and stuck it in your passport, you will then pass through immigration where they stamp it and take the boarding card you filled out on the aircraft and then it's time to get your baggage.
After that you get your passport inspected once again as you leave baggage reclaim and you are out in the big wide world where you will be mobbed by taxi drivers and their helpers (who will want a tip for carrying your bags).
Welcome to Egypt!
On the way from Cairo airport into the city you will realise why you do not want to rent a car, if there are supposed to be two lanes on the highway, the Egyptians will make three, if there are three lanes they will make four. Indeed in many places there are no road markings at all and you need a pretty strong stomach to sit in the front passenger seat of a car!
Surprisingly there seems to be very few accidents although a lot of cars seem to have rounded corners!
On your way you will get your first sight of security measures as there are frequently check points manned by army and police, both armed, and that ''sentry box'' that looks empty probably isn't because there is the barrel of a machine gun sticking out of the window. Sometimes the inspection is cursory, sometimes the boot is opened and they will check who is in the car.
And when you arrive in your hotel you get the second sight... Every hotel has an X Ray machine and the good old metal detector arch just like in the airport.
My hotel receptionist is delighted to see me and finds it very amusing that
I am a day late due to bad weather..... I ask about a refund for the first night as it was not my fault. ''No'' is the answer, ''but I have upgraded your room to a Nile view suite''! And quite right too, after all it is a Novotel, and they are part of Accor and they own Raffles in Singapore where I have stayed twice and paid a fortune for the pleasure!
Early night called for after something to eat, and my tour guide for tomorrow has sent me an SMS to say he will be picking me up at 6.30am. Well actually he won't because I am on holiday and I tell him that it is going to be 8.30am and no earlier, but when I get downstairs for breakfast he is already there so I take him for breakfast.... And the Egyptians certainly know about breakfast, a buffet with virtually everything you could want (except bacon of course, but then they do do that wonderful smoked beef), and while we are at it we discuss the day's plan.....
And we are not doing that either because there is not time for coffee anywhere in the schedule.
Adjustments will need to be made!
Would you believe I am quite excited by all this?
Well I am! Something about the very name ''Cairo'' is doing it. Somehow the remote and mysterious East is stirring within me.... And at my age that doesn't happen as often as I would like. There is almost something romantic about it all.....
We have ahead of us 4 days of concentrated history ahead of us, and what I don't want is archaeological (and cultural) overload which is why I discussed the itinerary with my guide, (who is called Jesus by the way), and anyway it makes less work for him!
Driving out of Cairo in daylight is a bit of a surprise, I think I am being taken by the prettiest route though, but what is surprising is the large number of unfinished apartment blocks. I live in Greece and we have a fair number of those
but nothing like the ones I am seeing here. They are vast condominiums, not just a block of half a dozen. And many of them are dull drab khaki colour, but that of course is just the colour of Egyptian concrete, in Greece it is darkish grey. Some are just skeletons while others are partially completed, and even partly occupied.
Getting out of Cairo is surprisingly quick and we are heading for Dahshur and my first taste of a pyramid in the flesh!
For many I guess that leaving Cairo for the country would be a bit of a culture shock, but this is the Egypt where donkeys are still an everyday mode of transport, and many buildings are a bit dilapidated to say the least, and there is a lot of dust, and a fair amount of rubbish blown into corners, and the infrastructure is variable to say the least, the roads are rough and there are speed humps every so often, (which means the drivers race a break neck speed from one hump to the next and brake heavily when they get there.
Most of the roads follow canals that bring water for irrigation from the Nile quite some distance away, the banks of the canals are obviously a good place for dumping rubbish...... You certainly would not want to go for a swim in them.....
And there are date palms!
Dahshur reached we have a bit of a problem getting past the security guard and the policeman at the gate. In spite of the fact that we already have tickets money changes hands but my guide remains unfazed by it all!
Of course the first visit is to one of the most famous pyramids, The Bent Pyramid
of Sneferu about 4,600 years ago, one of the first attempts at a true pyramid it, still has its outer casing of limestone nearly intact. According to my guide there are various reasons why the outer casings on all other pyramids have disappeared, it seems some say erosion removed it, by my guide follows the theory that the outer skins were removed on purpose to be used elsewhere!
Nobody was around at the time who can actually tell us....
Here also we find the Red Pyramid, which is made from red limestone, hence the name. It didn't look red to me which is why I asked, ''Why do they call it the Red Pyramid?'' Doh......
Built be Sneferu again it was the second bash at getting it right. If you are into a bit of engineering then you will appreciate the technology behind the construction, and how difficult it must have been for the ancient Egyptians to actually build these things. Which is why they had a few attempts and a couple of disasters before they got it right. Indeed building pyramids became something of a family hobby after this because his son, Khufu, built, or rather commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Tim's Tip of The Day. If you want to see pyramids then you have to go to Cairo because that is where they mostly are......
Dahshur is quite a spread out site and there are other things to see if you have the time and inclination, there is a fair amount of walking over not very good terrain so if you are not a ''walker'' you might find that you get
tired quickly, and that goes for nearly all Egyptian archaeological sites.
But we are off to Saqqara, probably best known for the Step Pyramid, one of the first attempts at a true pyramid.... Unfortunately it was surrounded by scaffolding when we got there, which was a bit disappointing, but there is lots more to see, and some great opportunities for photographs once you have fought your way past the row of stalls selling some unbelievably tacky souvenirs.... (It's a common problem in any country so we will not single out Egypt as the worst case, I think Peru is the worst!).
My guide, and at this point I should say that I was his only tourist that day, has found somebody who is interested in what he has to say, and actually asks some astute questions, (well astute for me anyway), and is waxing lyrical about Old Kingdoms, Middle Kingdoms, First Dynasty, Third Dynasty, Fifth Dynasty.......... Indeed, even the not so humble average Nile boatman knows all about this stuff. You think his only talent is shinning up a felucca mast to take down the sails, well beware because if you start him off with an idle question you will get a potted history of Egypt. And hats off to them I say, they are proud of their history and have every right to be.
Saqqara is a big site, apart from Djoser's Step Pyramid there are another 15, (or was it 16?), pyramids built by various kings of Egypt, plus a vast amount of other nobles' tombs. Well every court has its ''hangers on'', I have a few myself.
There is a bit of graffiti in one of the building too, you have to take a picture of it even though you do not know what it says. Strangely my guide seems a little disinclined to tell me.
There is also a tomb that you can go down to and for many visitors if they are starting their tour in Cairo then this will be their first Egyptian tomb.... The way in and out is easy enough but if yu are a bit claustrophobic you might have a problem! (The Valley of The Kings is easier).
We missed lunch! So it is back to Cairo and something to eat. My guide is a bit surprised when I ask him to eat with me, but I am a sole traveller.
Back in the hotel I collect my thoughts and go through my dozens of photos taken that day.
Tomorrow is a big day......
The Pyramids at Giza has got to be one of the highlights of Egypt. Is there anybody in the World who has not seen a picture of them??
Just for a change I am up early because this is gong to be a busy day......
My hotel is not far from the Egyptian Museum so when Jesus comes to collect me we are going there first. He already has the entry tickets but I want to take my camera in with me so I have to pay a bit extra.
The Egyptian Museum is not huge by European standards, and by those standards it is not the ''best'' museum either. Indeed it all seems a bit haphazard and not very well kept. Everybody apologises for it and says it will be so much better when they open the New Museum ''next year''. But this is Egypt and things
do seem to be a bit haphazard at the best of times so it does not come as a surprise. It has, nonetheless, some of the prime exhibits of Egyptian artifacts of any museum in the world, (except perhaps for The Louvre where a lot of Egyptian things seem to be housed). We walk around and I take photos, some of it is a bit gruesome as a do not really want to walk around a room full of mummified bodies. Persons of a nervous dispostition take note. But what did surprise me was the fact that they mummified animals as well. A favourite dog or cat to take with you into the afterlife perhaps, but a sheep or a goat?? What's going on there then??
And then finally we get to the Tutankhamen display, so many glass cabinets, and a small army of women armed with a bottle of Windex and a yellow duster, except that the dust is on the inside of the glass not the outside, but somehow it does not detract from what you are looking at. Up to this point my guide stays with me, and then we get to the holy of holies, the room where you are not allowed to take photos, and guides are not allowed because they take up to much space and make too much noise although he gives me some advice on the layout before I go in, except there is something I have not told him yet.
Inside THE room we find King Tut's sarcophagus,
various bits of jewellery, and the ultimate piece, that death mask of solid gold although the Japanese couple taking selfies with a mobile phone rather detracts from the atmosphere, and the security guard is having problem with them because they do not speak English, (I bet they do), and they do not understand the sign with a large picture of a camera and a mobile phone with red lines through them....
But I am here in Egypt looking at King Tut's death mask in its rightful place...
In Egypt.
Absolutely choked. I am having a moment. The last time I felt like this was walking into St Peter's in Rome, where I had to have a tall Italian to hold me up.
I leave the room after a few minutes in deep thought, my guide meets me and starts to speak to me , and then asks if I am OK.
''No. I am fine but I want to go now....''
Sitting outside in the sun while we wait for the driver he asks me again what I thought of it all. Blase as ever, I reply ''Well I have seen it before but somehow it is completely different seeing it here, in Egypt''
''You have seen it before?''
''Yes. In London in 1972. I queued for hours.... But this is his home''
Lunchtime... And we go to a restaurant that has a view of The Sphinx. Not many restaurants can boast that. Somewhat surprised as I think the only pictures I have seen of The Sphinx it is miles from anywhere. But of course like any city Giza has grown and now borders right on to the Pyramids and Sphinx.
But first the Pyramids which are way over the other side of the hill..... You can see as many pictures as you like of something but seeing the real thing is completely different because you never quite get the scale of things right.
And the Great Pyramid of Khufu, (it is the Greeks that called him Cheops), is indeed awe inspiring, and truly deserves its place as one of the 7 Wonders of The Ancient World, indeed it is the only
one left virtually complete!
Which says quite a lot about the builders!
I just know I am going to get the statistics any moment now.... As Jesus starts I complete the sentence..... ''built by Khufu who was the second Pharoah of the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom''.
Silence.... Then
''You have been doing some reading have you?''
''Yes''...... ''And earlier we saw the only statue of him in the museum.''
The subject of slavery rears its ugly head. Hollywood would have us believe that everything in Egypt was built by slaves, probably with Charleton Heston leading them, but current thinking is that they did not use ''slaves'' in the way that we use the term. Indeed fairly recent research concludes that the workforce building the Great Pyramid were well treated and were probably peasants who were unable to farm their land during the Nile flood periods. Wherever they came from they had their work cut out building the Great Pyramid.
We can but marvel at man's ingenuity.
Of course there are other pyramids at Giza and although we get time to look at them we have a timetable which includes a camel ride....
Tim's Tip of The Day... Never, under any circumstances, try riding a camel...
But you are going to do it anyway so why am I wasting my breath?
It is possibly the most uncomfortable and nerve wracking experience known to mankind, unless of course you are Arab in which case it is second nature to walking, and why walk when you have a camel?
It is nothing like riding a horse, or even a donkey, and they can be a bit uncooperative at times. But on the plus side the camel will kneel down to let you mount it. And the best way that I can describe the ''ride'' is that it is a bit like a bicycle where the spokes have been adjusted so that the wheels are oval instead of round, except that the ''ovality'' seems to vary at random.
All the time you're expecting to get used to the motion but it doesn't happen. The sole saving grace is that the camel driver has the most stunning eyes, which is the only bit of him that you can see because he is wearing the full ''Lawrence'' costume.
Returning to base after an interminable 30 minute trek around the Pyramids, Jesus is waiting for me. And he is smiling, but I am about to get my own back because as he approaches the camel which is sitting down to let me get off, the camel sticks its nose straight into his crotch. While we are trying to get a ''group photo'' the camel is constantly fascinated by him and his crotch. Jesus maintains that it's because he sometimes has food in his ''fanny bag''.
When I start to say ''Well it is quite a good looking camel'' Jesus replies, ''Do not do any camel jokes.''
See, I told you they had a sense of humour.
The last event for the daylight hours is, of course, the Sphinx, and the ultimate photo call that you only do once in a lifetime.
The Sphinx is a mystery. It is carved directly out of of the bedrock, (which was also used to build the Pyramids), but some of it is now made from blocks of stone to replace the parts that have been eroded away, you can make up your own story if you wish.
The buildings nearby are fascinating, the interlocking of the blocks of stone is incredible if you look closely enough.
Time for a trip back to the hotel and a wash and brush up before the evenings activities. No piece for the wicked when you are in Egypt!
On the schedule for the evening is a felucca ride on the Nile followed by an evening of entertainment on a cruise boat that doesn't go anywhere with ''a show''.
Cairo in January is not the warmest place in the world, especially at night, and there is no way I am going sailing in the dark even though the lights of Cairo look very nice from my upgraded Nile view suite at the Novotel El Borg with the heating on.
Jesus knows this so he is taking me from my hotel direct to the ''cabaret'' show, which will be a novelty in as much as they serve alcohol on the boat (that doesn't go anywhere).
The entertainment is a ''whirling dervish'' and a belly dancer..... I ask Jesus to join me for dinner, (he gets his free anyway but usually eats apart from his guests, but as I point out, I am a sole traveller), it was a good move on my part because he is now thawing out a bit.
I will not say too much about the cabaret except that the belly dancer is, apparently, world class, and comes from the USA... The whirling dervish is, well, a whirling dervish.... It is impressive in its own way, and of course very energetic..... But if, during your visit to Egypt, you manage to miss either show then I wouldn't worry to much!!
A final note on The Pyramids and The Sphinx.....
There is a ''sound and light show'' (used to be called Son et Lumiere when I was a boy, but it seems nobody can speak French anymore), done in front of the Sphinx. It is worth attending even if it a bit fanciful at times, the commentary is excellent and there is some excellent music played through a very good sound system. Somebody did make the comment that it made it look like Las Vegas, and in a way it did, but my dream would be to see Aida staged at the Pyramids. It has been done once but is unlikely to ever be done again!
And there's me on that bloody camel again, in the middle of nowhere expecting any minute that Omar Sharif will arrive to rescue me from the clutches of white slave traders........
Those of you who have been paying attention will remember that I arrived in Cairo a day late because of bad weather on Crete, and a snowbound Athens airport, this meant that I did not have my usual day of getting acclimatised before the adventures began.
The other point of leaving a day spare, as any independent traveler knows, is to allow time for flight delays so there is the minimum of rebooking required!! See the system works!!
So by Thursday I am ready for a day off doing whatever I please and have a look around where I am staying, which is on Gezira Island looking east across the Nile. Very handy really because it is only a short walk across Kubri Qasr Al Nil Bridge and turn left to get to the Egyptian Museum and ''downtown'' Cairo, and not far from the Cairo Tower and Opera either. There is a metro station nearby but today I refer to walk.
Or I would do if the taxi drivers outside the hotel would let me! Ask the taxi driver how much it will be, and if you decide it is worth it then take a taxi.... In my case back to the souk for a bit of shopping to get one of these.
Well one of the things hanging up that is. It's a light fitting and it is not for me and I am not going to carry it around for the next two weeks, it is going in a box and being posted. After some serious bartering I got it for half the price the the man asked, (and don't ask me how much it was), and then I asked him if he could put it in a box because I had to send it by post. At this point three other people got involved, the end result was that I paid the price he asked in the first place and after that is was out of my hands because it was boxed, I addressed it and it disappeared on a scooter to be posted. Three weeks later it arrived at its destination in Florida.... Magic... Who needs a genie in a lamp? All you need is an Egyptian!
Needing to get back to my hotel I thought about getting trying on of these out. You see a lot of these buzzing around, this one is rather smart as mostly they seem to be very elderly Volkswagen camper vans, usually with the back engine flap open because they have an air cooled engine.
They seem to also be ''furnished'' with fringes, tassles, and brightly coloured ''rugs'' which I found out later are Bedouin made and cost a fortune if you want to buy one! But is was not to be because I got ensnared by a taxi driver, but with a difference. This one put the meter on with the result that the fare back to my hotel was about half what I had paid to get there. A lesson learnt there then!
Just around the corner from my hotel is the Cairo Tower.... There is also a gardens here but it was closed for some reason, and there are various government offices, heavily guarded I might add. I think the Cairo Tower is well worth the effort just to get a few photos if nothing else, and to meet people of course. Particularly people wanting to get a visa to go to the UK, but I will not dwell on that......
Cairo is a bit hazy to say the least.. But you get the general idea, and meanwhile the horses are getting their lunch....
Tomorrow is another busy day as I am off to Fayoum Oasis.
The trip out to Fayoum Oasis is, I think, something that not many people do, although, all in all, it is worthwhile if you have the time! My day did not get off to a good start when the guide got into the car and promptly went to sleep.....
Passing through several villages we pick up a police escort on the way, the only occasion during my stay when I had a police escort but there had been some ''troubles'' in the Western Desert so we had to have one. Indeed you have to have permission to go out this way! A bit of confusion came into play when the permit we had said I was Australian when I am not which is probably why when we stopped to pick up a bit of breakfast, I apparently bought breakfast for the police escort as well! Welcome to Egypt!
The sites out this way are clearly not visited by many as at Karanis the guide has to call the curator to come and open up for us, and at Qasr Qarun, the ancient city of Dionysis there was no curator at all, the settlements here are mainly Roman and it would appear that most of the reason for their existence is that they were on the caravan route.
Meanwhile the desert has reclaimed some of the excavations that were done in the past and little has been done in the way of restoration or preservation.
Interestingly the Temple of Sobek-Ra at Qasr Qarun is just about the only remaining temple with the roof still intact.
The nearby lake, which is below sea level is far smaller that is was in ancient times and has become so salty that marine shellfish can be farmed in it.
One day I will learn how to put photos in the right place on Blogger....
Above Karanis and right the Temple of Sobek Ra
Finally we reach the waterfalls at Fayoum, this is the place where people from Cairo come to have a splash about do a bit of sailing, sand boarding, and canoodling, which is frowned upon!! People have been arrested it seems and while we are wandering around I seem to have collected a ''minder''....
There is a large ''coffee house'' here and it is that time of day, and my guide is getting more and more fidgety by the minute because there is a small mosque here, and it is Friday... Before he has a chance to even say anything, I just say ''Go'' because I can already tell that he is one of the more devout and it the Holy Day of the week.
An ideal place for beach volleyball, after all there is plenty of sand....
We are on the eastern edge of the Sahara Desert here, and if you were expecting rolling sand dunes with windblown furrows and Omar Sharif to come riding bareback over the dunes then forget it. It might be like that further west but here the dunes have ruts from 4WDs, and a lot of rocks...
But we have one more stop to make before returning to Cairo. Fayoum is famous for its waterwheels, (which were invented by the Greeks), and we are going to see some of them. Well actually
we are not because the ones you normally see are being ''restored''.
So we are going to look at this one instead, in spite of the rubbish, (mainly plastic carrier bags I am sorry to say), everybody seems to be enjoying the fun of diving off into the canal.....
Above is one of the crops you see frequently here, it is a fast growing grass especially for feeding animals, so to the left is a donkey who has been to the supermarket and is carrying his dinner home with him.
Arriving back in Cairo we go to eat, and this time I insist the driver comes too.... After all he was a lot more responsive than the guide.....
