Egypt Forum: Egypt - Review of Right Travel 15 day Grand Circle Tour

Photo galleries from our trip to Egypt:

http://www.pbase.com/edboots/egypt

Tour Journal:

Things were going well until our Chicago flight. After waiting 4 hours for the flight to start boarding they announce, “there is a problem with the plane, we cannot fly and will have to delay for 4 hours”. There was another flight leaving at 6pm, but it was listed as full. We got booked for the a 9pm flight and put on standby for the 6pm. Well as luck would have it we were the last people called to go on the 6pm flight. This would soon prove disastrous. We arrived in London and quickly spoke with BMI, our flight from London to Cairo which we had just missed. The told us to talk to United, who put us on another airline all together, British Airways. We were told our bags would be put on this flight, soon we would find this not to be. After a nearly 30 hour day of airports and planes we arrived in Cairo around midnight Cairo time only to find out our bags didn’t make it. No surprise after the flight reassignments. The bag guys at Cairo said we should get 1 bag in the morning and another possibly the next day. Oh great, not a fun way to start things. We did however have our ride waiting for us, Essam the tour manager for Right Travel. He got us to our hotel and took down the baggage numbers and told us he would call them in the morning. Moral of the story, if your flight gets canceled stick with what the airline does to reroute you, don't get hasty and jump on the next flight out or your bags may not make it.

2/18/2010 - Islamic Cairo

Wednesday morning, we woke up to the 5am prayer call from the mosque down the street, I had no idea they started so early. At sunrise we got to see the lovely Cairo smog, real honest to god thick smog. Anxious to get our bags, we called around to see if our bags would be coming, but no luck. Trying to make the most of the day, we put on yesterdays clothes, jumped in a cab, and headed to Islamic Cairo, 30 LE. We got our first taste with the madness that is Cairo traffic and drivers, wow, complete chaos. Lanes and streetlights are merely suggestions. Near misses are happening constantly, people on foot dodging between cars you swear are going to get hit, but somehow it all works out. We arrived at Khan el Khalili, the main city bazaar and quickly found out everyone wants us to come have tea, or come see my shop; it was the shopping area after all. First thing however we did was head into the Al Azhar mosque, Cairo’s main mosque. We got a guided tour by a guy near the front door, we took us to the main areas of the mosque and also up a minaret for a nice view of the city. Of course he wanted his baksheesh (tip) so we gave him 40LE. Next we headed to a caravansary called the Wikala al Ghouri, a place where in the old times the traders would bring their wares from the caravans to sell and also stay in the inn. We followed this up with a great walk up a street full of spice markets, copper vendors and other various shops. This was also a very well known old street full of mosques and minarets. We finished with a walk thru the medieval north gate and then got a very wild cab ride back to the hotel.

2/18/2010 – Egyptian Museum, Dinner with local Family

Thursday morning around 5am they called to let us know 1 bag showed up, it was my girlfriends. After much calling around we found that mine was still lost. Not good, but we were set on seeing the city. This day we met our guide Mammoud at 9.30am to go to the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. Mammoud was a well educated intelligent egyptian man who spoke great English but was very hard to understand, mainly because he was soft spoken. Nevertheless he guided us thru the important objects of the very large museum. My girlfriend got to see her little Khufu statue she was looking forward to seeing. We also went into the Mummies room and looked on the face of many great pharaohs such as Ramses II and Seti I. The large king Tut exhibit was of course the most exciting as it contained all the treasures of his tomb. Leaving the museum we had lunch at an obvious tourist stop for a terrible buffet and then followed that up with another typical tourist stop at a perfume factory. In the eve our driver took us too a local Egyptian families house where we were to have dinner with them. Later we found out it was the family of the tour manager Essam. We were greeted at the apartment house by the older daughter of the family Abril I think it was. Her mother answered the door and to our surprise she was veiled head to toe in the traditional abaya, with only her hands and eyes showing. Nevertheless they were very hospitable and invited us into their home. They had eaten earlier so instead they served us. A nice salad, roasted chicken, a delicious lamb in a tomato sauce, plenty of rice and some sweet oranges for a dessert. The whole time we talked with mostly the mother, it was interesting to hear her talk about her family, her country, the city of Cairo and how it has changed. She said she wore the covering so that only her husband can see her. However as it turns out when I went to the bathroom, she pulled her veil back for my girlfriend to show herself, which is ok to show to other women. She also showed to my girlfriend her wedding photos. It was a great experience that were were happy to have done.

2/19/2010 – Memphis, Saqqara, Giza

Friday morning we headed to Memphis with our guide Mammoud. Our first stop was Memphis, the old capitol of Egypt. Not much is there now but fields and houses. This was our first taste of rural Egypt. People on carts pulled by donkeys. All the men in galabiyya’s, the long, lightweight shirt that was like a dress. People fishing the canal, working the fields, or just sitting around outside a building smoking a sheesha pipe or often just sitting there idle, staring at the world go by. At Memphis we saw the remains of the colossal Ramses II, laying on its back inside a building. Also a large alabaster sphinx, the largest after the great Sphinx of Giza. Leaving there we visited next Saqqara, the ancient necropolis of the dead. We saw a short film on the area and then walked thru the temple area of the Step Pyramid and then unfortunately left abruptly to have lunch at a nearby restaurant in the palm groves. It was a good meal, bbq’d meats, fresh aish (flat bread that puffs up as it bakes), and mezze (various dishes of vegetables). Our last visit was finally Giza and the pyramids. We purchased our entry to get inside the great pyramid, 100LE each, then entered the complex, wow what a site. They were much steeper then I had imagined. Naturally the area was crawling with tons of people, but we made our way to the entrance of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Here we entered the tunnel dug in the middle ages and then made our way bent over up the ascending passage. It wasn’t too long before we made it into the Grand Gallery, the long corbelled roof passage that leads to the kings chamber. Wow what a site, this was built over 4000 years ago and was never intended to be seen by outside eyes. Finally at the top we stooped down below and entered the antechamber or portcullis room, a small area that probably housed blocks intended on closing this door after the king was put to rest. Another quick stoop and we were finally in the Kings Chamber. It was much larger then I had imagined, and much hotter as well. We began to sweat profusely in the humid hot air. We were lucky, we had the room to ourselves for a good 10 minutes. I climbed into the sarcophagus for a moment, but mostly we just were there in awe. I took a final look back into the chamber before crawling back down out of the pyramid and into the fresh air. Next we visited the solar boat museum, the wooden boat that was buried 4000 years ago for the kings after life journey but was found intact in recent times and reassembled. Last we drove to a viewpoint overlooking all the Giza pyramids where we took several photos and then on to the Sphinx. It was cool to finally be standing by the Sphinx, the most famous statue in the world.

2/20/2010 – Alexandria

This morning we drove to the city of Alexandria, the ancient Greek capitol city that was founded in honour of Alexander the Great. The drive took about 3 hours to get there. The city similar to the hectic Cairo but with some narrower streets. We quickly visited the Catacombs and the old Roman Forum. We stopped in for a wander thru the new Library of Alexandria, built 5 years ago. For lunch we ate at a local seafood restaurant right along the ancient bay. Lastly before leaving we stopped at the Fort of Qaitbey, site of the old Pharos lighthouse. The drive back was even longer and stressful as our driver was much more crazy and in a hurry then our previous guy.

2/21/2010 – Old Coptic Cairo, Citadel of Cairo

Today we visited the oldest part of Cairo, the Coptic quarter. Here the Romans first built a fort that today still stands in part but has the “Hanging” Church built on top of it. We saw the church of St. Sergius, the Hanging Church and the Ben Ezra jewish synagogue. In general nothing too impressive, but these places were certainly some of the oldest churches in Christendom. This area of Cairo also had the most armed guards we had seen yet in all the places we visited. Next we visited the Citadel of Saladin. Here the Alabaster Mosque built by Mohammad Ali sits. An impressive mosque built to imitate the Haga Sophia in Istanbul, but not as large however. Still it sits impressively on top of the Citadel, overlooking Cairo. After going inside we headed for lunch where we would finally get some Koshary, the Egyptian dish of rice, noodles, lentils, crispy onions, tomato sauce, some garlicy vinegar and a little hot sauce. It was delicious.

Hey DasBoots,

Enjoying your report !

I wanted to ask how you liked Alexandria, and if you thought the drive was worthwhile. I am considering going there, right now we would spend one night., and drive back in the morning.

Thanks

If you are a history buff, Alexandria is a must do. We drove over in the morning and returned in the evening, it was a very crammed full day but well worth it for me to have visited such a historic city. We saw the catacombs, Roman amphitheater, the new Library of Alexandria, the Alexandria Museum (excellent, well done for an Egyptian museum), had lunch at a great seafood restaurant and stopped for a few minutes at Fort Qaibey (old Pharos lighthouse site). Alexandria is similar to Cairo as far as a city goes, but with narrower streets. I think if you had the evening to stay you would be quite happy to visit it.

2/22/2010 – Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple

Finally we were leaving the crazy times in Cairo behind us, we were off to the south, too Luxor to begin our Nile Cruise. We headed to the airport around 3am for the early flight. Our travel company wasn’t clear about what flight we were on, but we managed to get thru the airport and board a plane, hoping our bags would arrive. The flight was only 45 minutes and this time our bags did arrive. However we sat in the airport for a good hour waiting for an older Indian couple that was part of our tour but apparently missed their flight from Cairo. They never arrived so we headed off to our tour boat the MS Stephanie. We were able to check into our rooms and get situated. We had arranged for a cabin suite on the MS Stephanie, it was nice to have a large bed and the forward cabin had two big glass doors that opened up to the Nile river. After getting unpacked we continued to wait and wait for the older couple to arrive. By this time I was getting pretty upset for having wasted lots of valuable time to see the sights. We finally set off for Karnak and it was obvious our time here would be short. We and some other younger people on our tour decided to set off on our own to see Karnak. Asaraf our guide was concerned for us but wrote down directions on how to get back to the cruise boat. We walked around Karnak at our own pace, impressed with what it must have looked like. The giant pylons, columns and obelisks, it had to of been quite impressive in its heyday. After Karnak we took a caleche ride (horse buggy) into downtown Luxor. We had read that the drivers try and steer people to the market but we were firm with where we wanted to go. We had a great lunch at the Oasis Café, not far from the Luxor Temple. After lunch we walked to the temple of Luxor, it was good timing as there were hardly any tour groups there. However as it was getting dark the groups started pouring in. We spotted our tour guide Asharaf and the rest of our group as they were entering and rejoined back up with them. Asharaf gave us a great tour of the site with great descriptions and stories.

2/23/2010 – Valley of the Kings & Queens, Temple of Hatshepsut, Collosi of Memnon

Today was the tour of the west bank of Luxor. First we made the drive to the Valley of the Kings. Here we had to leave our cameras and bags behind in the van. It’s too bad so many people don’t know how to use their cameras properly and turn off their flash, it’s ruined it for those that want to take photos and respect the artwork by not damaging it with flashes. We visited 3 tombs that were suggested to us by Asharaf. First KV6 the tomb of Rameses IX, very colorful and easily accessible. Next was KV 34, the tomb of Tutmosis III, which is a tomb I had really wanted to see. The entrance was high in the cliffs, accessible via a long flight of stairs, and then the journey down and down into the tomb. The artwork was beautiful, in a simple papyrus style. Lastly we visited KV 14, tomb of Tausert and Setnakht. Not famous pharaohs but certainly a lovely tomb. Here we could see unfinished work, thousands of years old where the painters had put down the outlines but never finished filling in the coloring. Leaving Valley of the Kings we stopped at an alabaster stoneware shop to look over some goods and then on to the Temple of Hatshepsut. Here it was definitely the hottest spot we visited, however the site is very iconic. Next we had a quick stop at a few tombs in the Valley of the Queens where the place was practically empty, which was nice when going inside the tombs. We finished off the day with another stop at the Collosi of Memnon before heading to the boat to cast off for our journey south on the Nile. The afternoon was pleasant as we sat on the top deck of the roof and read books or relaxed in our cabin with the windows open with the cool air blowing in off the Nile.

2/24/2010 – Edfu, Temple of Horus

In the middle of the night the cruise boat stopped at the Nile river locks, a strange noise woke us up. It was men on boats paddling around trying to hawk their goods. They were yelling out “galabiya?!!!” or “something for the lady?”, it was kind of annoying being in the middle of the night but at the same time funny as “galabiya?!!” soon became our catch phrase for the trip. In the morning we joined the tour group and hit the shore. Here our tour guide Asaraf created a scene in bargaining with the calache drivers for rides to the Edfu temple. Someone must have undercut another because there were some seriously pissed off drivers, but this just seemed to be the way deals are made in Egypt. After a fun ride on the horse buggy thru the city we arrived at the Edfu temple, the most intact of all the temples we saw. Before entering we first had to run the gauntlet of vendors outside the narrow entrance. Edfu was amazing, it gave us a sense of what these massive religious sites were like in ancient times. It was packed with people however, and apparently in just 2 hours it would be empty as it’s mostly the cruise boat tours that hit the place up in the morning and then set sail, which is exactly what we did. After another nice relaxing afternoon on the boat we arrived in Aswan.

2/25/2010 – Aswan, Unfinished Obelisk, High Dam, Philae Island, Nubian Village

This morning we had a nice drive thru Aswan and first visited the Unfinished Obelisk and the stone quarries. I have seen pictures of the quarries and the obelisk and was amazed to see it in person. You can see how they would pound out a deep trench, over a long period of time, to slowly free the obelisk from the rock. It must have been heartbreaking for those stone workers thousands of years ago to have this one crack, but fortunately for us it was left and we are able to see how their work was done. We drove to the High Dam of Aswan and talked about how Egypt uses the dam to control the Nile now, preventing the floods from happening but at the same time it is changing the ecology of the river and surrounding lands. We next took a fun boat ride out to the Philae Island to see another very intact temple, one that like Abu Simbel, was moved from a lower elevation to a higher point to be preserved after the waters rose due to the high dam being built. Located on an island the temple had a neat feel to it and was enjoyable to view from the boat as we approached and departed. In the afternoon we took another great boat ride, this time up the Nile and thru the cataracts, a section of islands and narrows, where the river runs quickly in places. Here the water is clean. The boat snaked thru several narrow sections of the river giving us great views of the little islands and the settlements on them. We stopped on a sandy shore on the west bank where several camels were standing. We were soon in for a surprise as we had no idea this was part of the tour. We loaded onto some camels and set off down the sandy trail for the Nubian Village. Riding the camels was a blast for me, for others it was an “interesting” experience. You sit so high up on them. When we went thru the village it had a real neat feel, like we were on a caravan arriving from the desert. We visited a school where we learned some Arabic and had tea with a Nubian family in their home, it was another great experience.

DasBoots,

Thanks for the trip report. Looking forward to reading more.

Wonderful photos. You captured the beauty of Egypt and its people.

I can’t wait to go!