December Holiday to Egypt by Nicola Grayson
Thanks Nicola for sending us your report of your trip to Egypt.
My December holiday in Egypt:
I spent a very entertaining, interesting and eye-opening holiday in a magnificent part of the world in December. Just one warning – do not go to Egypt if you want to relax – it is an adventure and
you have little time to stand still unless you book into a resort and not step outside the door – but then why travel in the first place?!
It is a massive, open place so full of people, animals and museums. The buildings are left natural in colour as the desert winds create a worn look and the people wear dark or natural colours too…so
when you see the spice market you are blown away by beautiful colours and smells. Take Egyptian pounds in cash as it is hard to exchange travellers cheques and with US dollars you can get an unfavourable rate. Also you will see how everyone wants a tip for their service! Even the lady in the toilet who hands you some paper as you go into your cubicle!
One factor to realise is the star rating of hotels….a 4 star is not really a 4 star but more like a 1 or maybe 2 star. So if you have a certain level you want to travel then only go 5 star or else you will be disappointed!
We spent 2 nights in Cairo initially. This is a good way to start as you fly in here first anyway and you can get a feel for the capital and its culture. Cairo is a VERY busy place and you will have many people trying to talk to you and sell you things – these include homemade perfume to spices to papyrus artwork to chess boards to stuffed leather camels…you will see a lot of these. Make sure you bargain with the people as they tend to start very high! If you walk away slightly the price tends to tumble down almost immediately! They get desperate to do business with you and I had one man say he would marry me if I just came to look in his shop! We did a tour of the pyramids and sphinx, the museum and the markets in one day. This is quite nice to do like this as you can then choose where you would like to go back and spend more time if you so choose.
Then we took a flight to Abu Simbel to see the temple there. I would advise flying as it costs next to nothing and also the train takes 12 hours and is apparently rather uncomfortable with dreadful food.
This temple was the highlight of our trip – standing close to 36m in height – it is an unbelievable creation. The inside tomb is stunning and still very well kept with much paintwork still showing beautiful colours.
You can stay the night if you choose ( it is not necessary) - we did and then that evening we visited a Nuweibian home and experienced their food and culture. Fascinating and very friendly people! They are darker in colour to Egyptians and speak a language called Nuweibian.
The next morning we took a short flight to Aswan to meet our cruise boat for our trip up the Nile. Friends of ours drove – it takes around 4 hours and the road is apparently fine. The one danger is hijacking/attacks by rebels who dislike tourists so tour groups arrange convoys to drive together to help to prevent this. As I said – flying is cheap, quick and safe so why drive and waste precious hours!
Aswan is very pretty – here you will see the desert meet the Nile. The town is quite large with dull buildings and horse drawn carriages and taxis on the roads! We visited Kitchener’s Island by felucca ( small sailboat) which was awesome and also the Temple of the Nobles which was worthwhile too. You get lovely views of Aswan from up there. I would not recommend the trip to Aswan High Dam and the Unfinished Obelisk is a bit underwhelming too. We ended up staying here 3 nights ( not by choice but because our tour guide made a mistake) but I would only stay 1 night and 2 full days. There is a lovely souq (market) to visit and buy pretty shawls, spices, incense etc. Finally our boat moved and we stopped the next day at Kom Ombo and Edfu which are both great to see – you will see the first calendar here! Just to talk about the cruise ship – it was 5 star in rating – believe me this is more like max 3 star. If you go with low expectations then you will be happy. It is rather cheap in any case so you get what you pay for! You also never really experience moving as your boat cruises whilst you are asleep, so an option is to drive in between Aswan and Luxor and stay at hotels along the way!
We arrived in Luxor – this is a very beautiful place and in 22 years the entire city will become a museum as archaeologists are uncovering more of the temple every day!
The Temple of Karnak is a must – huge and so detailed and the Luxor Temple is beautiful and has rows of gorgeous Sphinxs that I won’t forget! I would recommend staying here 1 night and then doing the East bank one day and the West bank the next day.
From here we took a short flight to the Red Sea. Definitely fly here – our friends took a train and car and only arrived 26 hours later whereas our flight was 1,5 hours!
At the Red Sea we visited Sharm el Sheik for 2 nights and then Dahab for 3 nights. Sharm is a bit like South Africa’s Plett – rich Arabs holiday in Sharm and Dahab is like Geoffery’s Bay – more chilled and relaxed with many backpackers. Up to you what you enjoy. In Sharm, we went out for the day on a big boat and snorkeled – you will see awesome fish. For those who don’t like snorkkeling, you can go in a glass bottomed boat. We then drove to Dahab – it is a good road and takes 1 hour max. Dahab has 2 parts – the town where backpackers chill and there are vibey restaurants and a souq and then 10 minute drive away are the resorts – like the Hilton – which have there own beaches. The sea and the snorkelling is awesome in Dahab! It has the famous Blue Hole which has lovely tropical fish but the one sad thing is the coral is dying and is all brown as there is no regulation of tourists destroying it by walking on it etc. We took a camel safari here and had dinner with the Bedouins in the desert – of all our meals this was the best! You can also take a day trip to St Catherine from here and see the church there and the hill Moses received the 10 commandments.
Then we went back to Cairo for a last night before heading home. We enjoyed ourselves but we were happy to be going home in the end! Egypt is a hectic place, very dirty and busy. You will be harassed constantly so you need to have a lot of energy. I would definitely recommend travelling with at least one other person and single ladies must wear a wedding band to stop getting marriage proposals! It is a real adventure though and through the tales and museums you will be in awe of what an already mighty force the Egyptians were 4000 years ago.
Thanks so much Nicola for a great report!
Andrew and Gelle