The Return to Egypt 2019, Meeting an Old Friend, Luxor Museum, and Egyptian Tea

If I said that arriving in Luxor seemed a bit like coming home, then meeting up with Abdul again was like meeting a lifelong friend. But all is not well in the state of Egypt to copy a bit from Shakespeare.. For a start the price of fuel has gone up, and so has sugar.....

But all that apart, Abdul used to have his very own felucca, one of the smaller ones, but it was all his own, but he had to sell it to pay for his father's medical care, (he has a bad heart and diabetes as I understand it). Not an unusual move in the circumstance except that soon afterwards the Egyptian Govt. decided that no more felucca licences would be issued..... Of course, Abdul sold at the bottom of the market and shortly afterwards prices rocketed!! 

Annoying to say the least, so Abdul now, when he can, sails somebody else's motorboat/felucca, and splits the proceeds with the owner. Nevertheless he, and the owner of the boat, pick me up on the riverbank opposite my hotel, next to the garbage barge... I know this is going to cost me but it is the personal service you pay for, US$30 to take me across to the East Bank not far from the museum, wait for me and bring me back again. It makes economic sense if there are 10 people but not really for one passenger!!

Luxor Museum is delightful, one of the best museums I have been in anywhere in the World.... 

Succinct display of exhibits, beautifully lit, and with more than adequate signage something which is sorely lacking in many museums!  

Not too many pictures here or it will spoil the fun for everyone else..... As usual there is an extra charge for taking your camera in, and as it is only EG£5 it is worth it. Go in the morning because it is less crowded. 



Blogger takes the definition down a bit too much sometimes......


The sarcophagus with hieroglyphics on the inside was interesting. Why put them on the inside? To give the deceased something to read perhaps?

There are also a couple of information displays with stories about the latest finds, and yes, they are still finding new tombs, and there are still many things to be found...

I return to the boat via the bakery where they have a great selection of pies both sweet and savoury, and next door I find a man with a huge vat of boiling oil cooking falafel outside of a street food shop..... He gives me one to try, fatal mistake because I then have to buy a dozen! (Pig)

Arriving back at the boat Abdul and co spot the bakery bag.... That's fatal too, I intended that they were for them anyway, but when they started eating my falafel as well........... But the Egyptians DO like their food, and they are going to make tea.....

I don't know how tea arrived in Egypt, whether it is a leftover from the British, or whether it arrived direct from The East by the overland route, either way the Egyptians thoroughly understand the concept of boiling water, and instead of presenting you with a cup of lukewarm water with a tea bag on the saucer beside it, this is real tea. 

They call it Egyptian tea but to be honest the chances of growing a camellia bush in their climate is virtually zero so I have to assume it is imported and most likely from India, whatever it is leaf tea... Real tea..... It is usually served in a glass, or perhaps a glass mug, and if you are really lucky there will still be a handle on the mug because otherwise it is too hot too handle!

Every boat has a cubby hole with a ''Gaz'' stove and a kettle or saucepan for making this delicious brew...


And when you are offered tea be careful... It is going to have about 4 spoons of sugar in it, I normally put milk in my tea, but this stuff I can drink black and with just a hint of sugar to ''take the edge off'' as it were.

Abdul and his ''co boatman'' are a bit up market as well because they are using bottled water, don't be at all surprised if it is made with a saucepan of water lifted straight out of the Nile!


Nothing wrong with that by the way, after all it is going to be boiled and the Nile is a good deal cleaner than you might think!

Heading back to the West Bank I can see all the cruise ships moored up going nowhere, even more of them than when I was here two years ago.... And all the feluccas as well....

Tomorrow is revisiting The King's Valley.......

The Return to Egypt 2019, Exploring The West Bank.....

Arriving at Cairo Airport is always an experience, it is a busy airport, and everyone has a least 10 suitcases that have to be scanned....

Once through security I again marvel at how quiet it is on the other side. Where has everybody gone??

The last time I did the flight from Cairo to Luxor it was on an Embraer aircraft which I was rather impressed with as far as comfort and noise went. This time it is an Airbus, and Egypt Air have ''upgraded'' me, which means instead of sitting at the back, my favoured position, I am now half way up the aircraft directly behind Business Class with the curtain directly in front of me.

We board and are then told there will be a short delay, which turns out to be over an hour because we have to wait..... For the catering truck... On such a short flight I really think we could have done without a packet of biscuits and a cup of lukewarm coffee but there you go... When we do finally take off and the trolley comes around the man next to me manages to convince the young lady that as we are sitting so close to Business Class we should get Business Class service. We get a plate of sandwiches each.

Arriving at Luxor the wait for baggage seems like forever. But my driver, organised by my hotel is outside waiting for me, he looks vaguely familiar.

''I know you,'' he says.

Realisation dawns, it is the man that took me to the train station the last time I was here, the one with the oldest Peugeot car still in existence. ''Lord help me,'' I think, ''Don't tell me we are going all the way to the West Bank in that Peugeot.''

Luckily he has a ''newer'' vehicle this time, and we take off through the sugar cane fields, they grow a lot of sugar in Egypt, through Luxor to the bridge as this time I am staying on the West Bank...

 This might sound odd, but in a way, I rather feel like I am coming home.

Of course taking a taxi is the long way round and it would be a lot quicker to take a taxi to the ferry and then walk to my hotel which is not far from the ferry terminal on the West Bank.... But I am not as young as I used to be....

No flash hotels this time, a basic apartment in one of the several smaller hotels that exist on the West Bank. A bit of unpacking to do as I am here for three weeks and then a wander around to get my bearings, and tonight I will eat at the hotel on the rooftop as the cook tells me the food is very good!!

Sorry about the quality of the video, my phone is not the best!! But you get the general idea. The place I am staying is almost opposite The Winter Palace where I stayed on my last visit.

The West Bank is considerably less touristy than the East Bank, the ''Corniche'' is quite short running either side of the public ferry dock, and apart from the main road that leads from the Corniche out to the Valley Of The King's most of the side roads are unmade. Here the ordinary daily life of Egypt carries on, in some cases much as it has done for a thousand years.

The road past my hotel is, like many others, dirt..... 

A car is definitely a rarity, a motocycle slightly more common, but most of the traffic is on foot, by donkey, or by horse. 

There is just an open space between here and the Nile but rumour has it that the Corniche will be extended and then like anywhere else, property prices will rise!

From where I am staying I approach the Corniche and the public ferry from the south, I know this looks pretty deserted but as you approach the public ferry you get mobbed by Nile boatmen. It is Egypt, what else do you expect??

The public ferry costs EG£5, about 25 English pence, to cross to the East Bank, the boatmen want GB£20 at least..... And anyway you meet more

interesting people on the public ferry!

As before there are a lot of boats and feluccas going nowhere, and a lot of shipping that has clearly not been anywhere for a while...

Perhaps the names of the boats might put some people off using them!

Fighting my way through the boatmen and taxi drivers wanting to take me to ''The Valley'' heading north I am taking  wander and find Abdul, another Abdul that is. Not the one I met last time I was here. This Abdul has a felucca but does not seem very interested in going anywhere in it. He is interested in coffee though and we find a typical little Nileside cafe, with dirt floors and wobbly tables, and a fai amount of ethnicity about it.

The coffee is good......

Abdul says I should go and look for accommodation in the village of El Gezira because it will be cheaper. (And probably he gets a commission). 

It was actually quite an interesting walk, up the main road from the ferry, passing various shops on the way, including a butcher's where they haven't heard of refrigeration yet, and the meat probably tastes all the better without it.

Along with a pharmacy, a new ATM that has just been installed but doesn't work yet, the nearest one is across the river on the East Bank, a greengrocer and other vital services like a mobile phone shop.....

There is a least one felucca in business, and that's a picture of Abdul 2 on his felucca.... And below is the place where we went for coffee... Complete with dirt floors, (none of those fancy ceramic tiles in Egypt), and some very ethnic throws etc.. While we are on that subject of ethnic throws, somebody ''back home'' asked me if I could get them one of the brightly coloured blankets they put on the camels.

After a bit of research I found out that they are Bedouin work and cost fortunes!! I was taken to meet the man that sells them but I had to decline his offer...

I will let the photos do the talking for the most part, but on the way to see this accommodation we pass a stables, Abdul want to know if I can ride a horse. ''Well I did try years ago but kept falling off.'' ''I will teach you,'' he says..... Having and using a horse and a donkey is still something the do here, you will often see children on the way to school on a donkey, and I must admit I didn't know that donkeys went that fast  but if you are late for school then they do.

I am reminded of Greece in some ways, for instance, the ladder is not long enough?? Then tie two together with a piece of rope. And there is a shop selling live rabbits for eating. Sorry about that.

It is quite a pleasant stroll through the area, and I notice that there are several small hotels along the way, and a couple of bigger ones as well, and the normal number of unfinished buildings to avoid paying the tax, although Abdul tells me that they now have to pay it anyway!

 Finally we reach the apartment that he has been telling me about. It belongs to Mahmoud who like a lot of Egytpians is not so tall, and slightly built, and most of him seems to be made up of ''turban'' which apparently extends beyond his shoulders, but doesn't really....

During the course of our travels I have made contact with Abdul the boatman from my previous visit. Isn't WhatsApp wonderful, and tomorrow morning hes i picking me up on the riverbank by my hotel...

Returning to my hotel I find the ''chamberman'' has been taking lessons from the ones on the Nile cruise ships so I can look forward to finding there are no towels in the bathroom and my hat and spectacles have been used to make monsters on my bed... In this case the remote control for the aircon as well.

And a quick note on that too, Egytpian summers are hot, around the 40C mark, but the humidity is low which makes the heat more comfortable. In winter the days are delightfully warm, mid to high 20s Celsius, but the nights are cold!!

I had to ask for an extra blanket, but then anything below 20C means I wear thermal socks, it is all to do with the dicky mitral valve in the heart.

 

And so to bed...... After something to eat that is....

The (Belated) Return to Egypt January 2019 - Cairo.

Somehow i just knew I was going to come back to Egypt again.....

But first, I have taken the liberty of re-dating the original posts so that they start earliest first, this will give new readers a chance to start at the beginning instead of the end of the 2017 trip!!

A few weeks after my return from the January 2017 trip I was taken into hospital in Greece (where I was spending the winter), the doctors were surprised that I had been able to fly to Egypt so recently, and even more surprised to find that the previous January (2016) I had spent 13 hours on a flight to Singapore!! Anyway it is the end of March and I am due to fly back to the UK the following weekend in time to celebrate my 65th birthday in Brighton. Except I am not because they will not let me......

Two days after I returned from the 2017 trip I was already looking flights and doing a bit of planning towards returning in January 2018, but the (not unexpected), news that I had chest problems put the fear of God up me, and the plan was dropped as I had now become a nervous flyer!!

Yes me, nervous. Me who over the period of many years has clocked up millions of miles at least!!

But in the meantime something else came up that didn't need to much flying, well only one way across the Atlantic anyway, and in September 2018 I spent 6 weeks in the USA and Canada, but that is another story.

The hankering to return to Egypt was still there and having clocked up a few more air miles I had free tickets to Egypt and back..... So........ The trip to the US and Canada having been a bit breathless (pun intended), a more relaxing holiday to Egypt is called for and time to fill in a few blanks as it were.

The itinerary will be Cairo, and Luxor, and that is it. No desperate one day tours into the desert, no cruise to anywhere, and just a few visits that were an absolute must to fill in the gaps from before.

Arriving in Cairo in the middle of the night, (that's air miles for you, they put you on a flight that nobody wants to be on), I have booked a transfer except that this time there is nobody to meet me before passport control, but that is OK because I have done this before... First change money, and get the visa, stick it in the passport, and go to immigration with the landing card.... Reclaim bags, but still nobody with a sign up with my name on it.....

Something different, after reclaim you don't get your passport checked yet again, but they do X ray your bags on the way out.

I get the usual approaches from taxi drivers and at this point many might think, ''Hell my transfer is not here. I'll get a cab''. But my driver is outside the terminal building, no sign up but a tablet instead!! How modern is that then?

And Tim's Tip Of The Day.... Get WhatsApp on your mobile phone. Everybody in Egypt is on it and it is a really good way of getting in touch with transfer drivers and tour companies. You don't even need to use data because there are Wi-fis everywherem and if you do need to turn data on then WhatsApp is very frugal with it!

I am staying at Mena House, yes I am still on the Agatha Christie trail, and remember I was a bit put out because my co-travellers on the Nile cruise in 2017 had stayed there and I hadn't. Not that I was jealous of course.

So Day 1 is in Cairo.... Breakfast time at Mena House. And what a crap view that is to have to look at while you are having breakfast on the terrace at Mena House.

Slightly disappointed that the old part of Mena House is not currently open but never mind. I am in Cairo so what else matters. And the Great Pyramid of Cheops is just a short walk away.

Walking up to the Pyramids is like, well I don't know what it is like, but it involves getting accosted by taxi drivers, (why do I need a taxi? It is only half a mile away), and people trying to sell you tours, and tour guides, and who needs one of those when you can read the guide book??

But I found the same tactic worked as with boatmen in Luxor, engage them in conversation and then walk off..... On the way up the hill you pass a yard where they keep lots of very dusty cars, carriages, and spare camels.

Getting a ticket into Giza means standing in a queue, but this gives you time to read the price list, (entry in Egyptian archaeological sites is still cheap compared with other countries), and the plethora of options that seem to be available is confusing in spite of the gentlemen that approach you and offer to sell you a ticket for US$50. When you finally get to the ticket office, be prepared to be ignored and get pushed out of the way by a local who is obviously in a lot more of a hurry than you. So when I finally get the man's attention I just ask for a ticket. 

''Just one?'' 

''Yes, just one.''

Five English Pounds later I have my ticket, (which apparently does most things depending on the time of day, and the day of the week, and whether it is an odd or even date, and whether there is an R in the month), and on the way up to the Great Pyramid I am accosted yet again by an ''official guide'' flashing a very official looking ''badge'' asking me what ticket I have. So I show him and he very helpfully tells me what it entitles me to see, except the man checking the tickets has already told me... I think he was expecting a tip for telling me but he didn't get one.

The last trip was somewhat rushed and with long explanations from my guide there was no time for roaming. This time I am able to roam at my leisure and marvel at the people taking selfies with nothing but desert and blue sky behind them. Rather like people who take pictures of themselves on a beach with nothing but sea and sky behind them. They could be anywhere.....

My ticket does not let me go into everything, but I manage to get into the Boat Museum, and also I can visit the Temple of Khafre and The Sphinx..... And also the Tomb of Seshem Nefer Theti.






Meanwhile I encounter Ali..... Ali has a camel.... Ali wants me to take a camel ride, and if you read the blog on the 2017 trip, I am never getting on a camel again.

Ali will take a picture of me sitting on the camel, while it is on the ground, for a couple of English pounds... Ali is a rip off merchant.....




 Ali takes a very nice selfie of himself using my camera, and a picture of me on the camel.... Which is fine but then he pockets my camera, whistles and the camel stands up and takes off across the desert, stopping next to a ruined wall which means I can get off the camel on to the wall......


He then thinks I am going to give him US$200 for the camel ride and to get my camera back. Ali doesn't know that I only have a few English Pounds on me and he can keep the camera...

Something of an argument ensues while I walk back up to the track leading to The Sphinx, but I do give him a fiver and he does give me back the camera while still shouting (presumably) abuse at me.......

I think Ali is saving up for some serious dental work.

On the way down to the Sphinx I pass two policemen who ask me what was going on up the hill, so I tell them and show them the picture of Ali. They are not happy and a few minutes later I see them up the hill talking to Ali.

I think Ali got into trouble. But never mind, I arrive down the hill at the Sphinx and a very nice official guide takes my photograph for me, doesn't even want a tip, and restores my faith in human nature. Before leaving Giza Plateau I take a look around and still marvel at how Giza has grown since I saw pictures of the Sphinx in the ''Children's Book Of Knowledge when I was about 7 or 8 years old, when it was in the middle of the desert.... They seem now to be pulling down some buildings nearby, and I am heading for the rather excellent restaurant where I had lunch the last time I was here, only to find it is closed, and has been for some some, as is the restaurant next door.

Indeed none of the restaurants in the area seems to be open. A sign of the times, or are they going to knock them down I wonder??

I cannot re-enter the Plateau it seems so I take a walk by the main road back to my hotel, this turns out to be the long route, and certainly not the prettiest. Egypt is not a place for those of limited physical capabilities. The pavement all seem to be at least a foot high and involve a big step up and down as you cross a side road. Which is why everyone walks along the side of the road I guess.

I don't think many tourists walk this way as I don't get accosted at all by any of the shop keepers. Disappointing in a way, but I do get something to eat and I let the man in the shop do the choosing for me, and end up with more food than I can eat for EG£75, say GB£3.50 roughly.

When I get back to my hotel I pause to take a picture of the very large light fitting in reception before getting an early night.

Tomorrow is flying to Luxor day, and as I didn't get to sleep until gone 3 am this morning and early night is called for.

The next day is a leisurely one with plenty of time for breakfast before my taxi to the airport.

You will read that the trip from Giza to Cairo Airport takes less than an hour via the ''ring road''. It doesn't because the traffic is at a complete standstill and it takes over an hour and a half. Luckily I have allowed plenty of time, and it was worth the extra time just to get a view of IKEA on the way.....

Let's Start At The Beginning, The Independent Traveller Follows Poirot.....

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.

The Weather Turns Against Me, and The Egyptian Experience Begins A Day Late.

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!

Cairo to Saqqara and back again.

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......