Egypt - Walking like an Egyptian

Destination 4 - Egypt; Mission - Do not get ripped off!!
We arrived in Cairo with our guards up and security hats on after constant warnings from fellow travellers about how unsafe Egypt is. Alas, we were here for about 2 hours when we realised that our 'defences' (John - Locked wallets and underpants) were excessive. Infact, overall the Egyptian people have been very friendly and helpful (with exception to the overzealous touts).

Cairo is charismatic, chaotic and intoxicating. Many people seem to want to whiz in and out as fast as possible but we thought it was a pertty amazing city and so full of life - I guess thats the result when the population living in Cairo is the same as the whole of Australia!


Ren eating the famous Abu Tarek Koshary dish and some Cairo style 'parking'


Ren's three new Egyptian husbands...

After spending the first day getting orientated we headed straight to Egypts prime drawcard - The Pyramids of Giza. The pyramids are the most awe inspiring and gynormous monuments (for lack of a better word) that we have seen thus far - No words can truly decribe their prescence. However, the most mind warping thing for us was considering their age - Over 3,000 years old. We totally did the tourist thing and rode (unruly) horses around the sight, which was great fun particullary when the horses bolted. It also meant that we got some really cool shots of all nine pyramids. Seeing the pyramids and the sphynx was such a surreal experience when you've only seen them on tv or travel books and it was pretty awesome start to the trip.



The Pyramids of Giza (Dir!)

One thing that became obvious pretty early on was how cheap Egypt was compared to Jordan - some relief in the bank account for a short while. Food and ice cream (John - Because ice cream deserves a seperate catagory) were very cheap and gernarly cost less than $2 per meal and were great quality however, we would kill for some good fruit!

We decided to get the budget overnight train to Luxor to visit the Valley of the Kings and Queens and all Royal Tombs of the east and west bank. On the plus side of the budget train we met some great travel buddies (John and Josh from Canada, Jerome from Belgium) who we travelled with throughout most of Egypt. On the downside, the budget train was filthy. We were all covered in black soot from the seats (John - As dirty as a coal miners armpit) and the toilet... oh! To be a man for the night!

The Shady Hotel - Covering all your shady needs!

Nevertheless, we arrived in Luxor safe and fairly well rested and the five of us headed straight out to the Valley of the Kings & Queens. Wow! The Egyptians were so advanced and had some pretty far out religious beliefs. The tombs of these kings were bigger and fancier than what many of us could afford to buy in the present life, let alone the afterlife! We also went to Hatchepsut Temple, Deir el Bahari which has been reconstructed. A pretty jam packed day epecially considering it was 45degrees - and there was not a morsel of food to be found!

Luxor was pretty much the location that kept on giving, it was also home to the awesome Luxor Temple, a mummification museum (a personal fav) and just when we thought things couldn't get any better we discovered the Temple of Karnak - there is really only one word - How? Karnak is considered to be the largest temple complex ever built by man. There is one area of Karnak - the hypostyle hall, that has over 130 massive sandstone columns that you could spend days trying to capture it on film and even longer trying to work out how it was built! The hours seemed to slide away from us in Egypt and before we knew it it was time to leave Karnak for a date with the sunset...

Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple

Without a doubt (and it is a pretty big call) the highlight of Luxor was our 5 hour felucca ride on the Nile. We went with a young local man named Mohammed - possibly the nicest and most genuine person in all of Egypt. We sailed on his boat the "Nefertiti" - which he also nicknamed his "wife". Coming from fast pace of Cairo and the last two days we spent 'tomb raiding', sailing the falucca was the most serene and relaxing experience. We had a short excursion to banana island where they had the yummiest bananas ever (John - I think I ate about 9), we drank egyptian whiskey (tea), and went for a paddle in the Nile. All whilst the sun slowly slipped behind the horizon turning the sky a myriad of pinks and oranges - One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. We each took turns sailing the boat back with our two young deckhands keeping a watchful and way more experienced eye on us. When we arrived back to the dock, Mohammed asked us to stay for dinner on the boat. We drank copious amounts of tea and sat in the cool darkness talking, eating koshary (yum) and drinking sugar cane juice until we reluctantly had to leave for our flight to red eye flight to Sharm el Shiehk on the Red Sea coast of Egypt.




Feluca Sunset, the Feluca, Feluca buddies and Banana Island!

The original plan to stay in Sharm was defeated by our lacklustre budget, so we decided to head north to the less pricey Dahab. Within a few hours of waking, we were getting suited up to go diving in the Red Sea and after a little more convincing we agreed to do our advanced diving certificate - why not? We spent the next few days doing some amazing diving inlcuding the famous Blue Hole, the Canyon and several other sites lovely coral reef sites - all of which were sensational! AS Note, as we entered the Blue Hole we noticed about 20-30 memorial stones (?). Apparently, many divers have died there attempting to set new records for the greatest depth AND the bottom of the Hole has several unrecovered bodies!?!?! - That was comforting to know! Despite this discerning info, the fish and sea life were just unbelievable and so was the aquatic terrain - it will be hard to dive in sydney again after this experience! After all the diving we were pretty buggered and decided to just hang out by the beach for a few days trying to recoup some of our diving budget deficet - not really a tough gig, considering the water is the most pristine and clear water we have ever seen!

After the relaxing time in Dahab, we headed back to Cairo via the worst overnight bus experience to date - TORTURE! The bus played Arabic videos and music at full volumn until about 2:00am and the driver, who had the personability of a fundamentalist, was chain smoking the entire time.

With only two days left we tried to hit up as many of the 'must do's' as possible. The Egyptian Museum was top of the list and was definitely up there with the excitement of the Pyramids for us. The highlights were Tutankhamon's treasures (the only fully intact tomb ever found and the man had had more jewels than Puff Daddy and Kanye West combined x 1000)and the actual recovered mummies - who doesn't think mummies are cool? We also discovered the best felafel and foul (local bean dish) pita sandwiches - Unfortunately, it was so late in the trip - so many missed opportunities!

Our last day in Egypt consisted of venturing over to Islamic Cairo and the mosques and the major task of the day: Locating one Julie McBryde for a small family reunion. Alas, it was not to be - no matter how many times we called we couldn't get through! Anyway, we had a great time in Egypt, it was pretty cheap, the exprience value was awesome AND... we didn't get ripped off! Next stop Tanzania: Let the games begin in 'dark Africa'!

Thanks for reading,
Renee and Johnny :)

P.S Notes of interest: Food values of Egypt - 3 scoop Icecream - $1; bottle of water 40 c; felafel and foul sandwhich 20c; bowl of koshary $2; plate of middle eastern sweets $2.

P.P.S Egypt is a very very relaxed muslim country - girls still wear the hijab but are VERY fashionble (and have great shoes); there is also alot of young couples holding hands and sharing icecreams etc and kissing which is most exciting for us because we can be affectionate again - yay!!