posted by Travel Cat on Feb 26
We booked our own tour of Egypt independently to fit in all the sights we wished to see, remembering that when you book a Nile Cruise - which takes in all the tombs and temples - that it doesn’t automatically include the Pyramids as they are a flight away. Abul Symbel is also not included in the cruise for the same reason.
We arrived late at night in Luxor, where we had to stay the night before we met up with ‘The Nile Beauty’. We woke up in the morning and looked out over the balcony. Our first thoughts were ‘Oh my god, we’re in Beirut!’. We took a stroll before breakfast anyway and were shocked to find armed guards all along the waterfront. This didn’t put us off however, as this trip was our long-awaited dream.
We finally embarked the boat and went to our cabin; it was wonderful. The staff had made swans out of our towels and put flowers in them - it was a really warm welcome.
During the cruise, we stopped off at all the main temples: Karnak, Luxor, Esna, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Philae. These were all included in our tour with this cruise and they were most awe-inspiring.
We cruised for the whole week and the staff on the boat entertained us the whole time. The food was good, with afternoon tea on deck every day at four. We stayed in Aswan for three days afterwards, where we saw the Hotel Cateract, apparently where Agatha Christie (a favourite author of mine) wrote some of her best novels!
We also went round a Nubian Village which really was an eye opener. Nubians apparently ruled Egypt for some time, but now things were very different. We were told to bring sweets, pens and little gifts to give to the children there, but we were told not to give them money.
From Aswan, we got a convoy bus taking us to the Red Sea. We had armed guards on the front and back of the convoy, with machine gunned soldiers, in case of what? We weren’t sure. This extra trip took about eight hours with one stop for refreshments before arriving in Hurgarda for a five night stay. This is a beautiful beach holiday, which you need after the tombs and temples we visited.
There was still plenty to do here, so it was up at 5am to catch the tour buses and back in time for afternoon tea. We took some additional trips through the hotel as well, which included a submarine trip to see the coral reefs, and a boat trip to a desert island called Paradise; which it was! No-one there but the day-trippers who came with us. The sea was warm and the weather in the 40’s. Beautiful it was.
From there, we also took a plane ride - with kamikaze pilots - to Cairo, where we stayed for five nights at a lovely hotel called the Mardi Gras. The next day we saw our dream come true, the Pyramids of Egypt and the Sphinx. We were absolutely gob smacked! They were the most awesome thing we have ever seen!
We spent the whole day there and we even went inside one of the pyramids for a tour! Wandering round the Cairo Museum was a sight to behold as well. All the items from Tutankhamun’s tomb were on display and we took all day just oggling these. This was made even better as later, when we were in the Valley of the Kings, we went into King Tuts tomb and tried to visualise the amount of relics from the museum in here, it didn’t seem possible that they were able to fit inside!
The only thing that may put people off going to Egypt is the armed soldiers all around the area, but once you realise they are there for your safety, it was reassuring. The people themselves are so poor that they pester you all the time to help you with something, just so they could earn some money. We just politely told them we were ‘OK’, which meant that they didn’t bother you again, well…. until the next day at least! They were nice people, just very poor.
We spent a lovely two weeks there, have been back four times since and would go again at a drop of a hat! The whole holiday cost us about $2000/£1000 and really was worth it. The food, which we regularly brought off the local traders cost a pittance, thankfully neither did it make us ill!
Elaine Andrews
Leave a Reply