Enjoying Egypt

Sunday 31st August 1997
Hotel; Pensione Roma
Room Type: Three bedded room (54 Egyptian pounds)
Verdict: Too expensive for what we got which included an outside cockroach-infested toilet, dodgy lift, and general noise.

Monday 1st September to Friday 5th 1997 (inclusive)
Hotel; The Sultan Hotel, 15 minutes from Madir Tahir
Room Type: Dormitory (3 Egyptian pounds each)
Verdict: Basic outside facilities, lots of mosquitoes but very friendly and helpful staff and a good location by the market..

Cairo
After arriving in Cairo one should explore the city for at least a day, greet the local "Welcome in Egypt", get used to dealing with shop-keepers, overcome fear of crossing roads and noisy traffic, locate the bus station at Tahir Square, browse the markets and source the cheapest and best falafel and schwerma joints in town. You can have a beer, McDonalds or Pizza Hut here if you are missing Western food already.

Train Tickets
The next thing to do is to buy your train ticket out of the city as tickets are booked up well in advance. Getting to Ramses station and finding the correct queue can be difficult and time-consuming. Pushing is the norm. Second class tickets to Aswan (on the Luxor and Valley of the Kings trail) costs E50.

Sight-seeing
Old Cairo
Take a day to wander round Old Cairo (on the metro line). If you ask locals to show you round you will discover many hidden churches and graveyards not immediately obvious. There is a lot of history here, try to find out as much as possible.

Pyramids at Giza
Of course one of the main sights around Cairo are the pyramids. The most famous and recent of these are the three pyramids with the sphinx guarding them at Giza. A local bus from Tahir Square costs 50 piastres for the 18km journey. If you go up to the pyramids by camel you do not have to pay the entry fee for the grounds but you still must pay to enter the actual tombs. Try to find Mohammed Abu Ashwa and his camel "Charlie Brown" at the camel tents. This fantastic guy brought us away from the touristy sand dunes, past the cemeteries and through rustic villages around Giza. He is a very interesting and chatty guy and we had dinner with his family and stayed until late evening in his neighbourhood near the pyramids. Beware of aching muscles in the morning!

Other
While in Cairo you must visit the Egyptian Museum and the Step Pyramids at Saqqara. See the end of October for more information.

Saturday 6th September 1997
Hotel; The train.(E50)
The train journey from Cairo to Aswan takes anything from 12-17 hours. There is an overnight train that leaves at 10.30.

Sunday 7th and Monday 8th September 1997
Hotel; Nubian Oasis Hotel, Aswan
Room Type: Three bedded room (E7 each)
Verdict: Legal loophole but remembers that you cannot go over your quota. Some foreigners are in on this scam and will approach on the street and ask you to buy drink for them for their birthday party and not pay you anything!
There is a Duty Free in Luxor where you can purchase cheap beer and cigarettes.

Saturday 13th September 1997
Hotel; Alternating coach and minibus
Room Type: A seat (E25)
Verdict: Fine but scary when you have to draw the curtains because of bandits on the road.

To get to the Sinai overland get a coach up to the Suez canal. On arrival in the very early hours of the morning there is supposed to be a connecting bus. However when you get there it may have gone or you get differing answers when asking the people at the bus station. You can hire a minibus straight down to Dahab cheaply.

Sunday 14th to Saturday 20th September 1997
Hotel; Auski Camp Dahab
Room Type: 3 Bedded room (E15)
Verdict: There are plenty of hotels to choose from in Dahab varying in price, cleanliness and insect presence. Pay by the day to catch any potential extra charges that some of the hotels like to levy.

Diving courses are cheap here and are supposed to be brilliant for those non-claustrophobic souls.

For the poorer and faint-hearted The Blue Hole is a fantastic snorkeling alternative to diving. Jeeps take you a few kilometres to this splendid coral area and the marine life is colourfully stunning. On the way the Coloured Canyon is a little more rugged.

I have since completed my "Advanced Diving Certificate" on the Great Barrier Reef and have seen sharks, turtles, octopus and swam through caves, my only regret that I hadn't taken the plunge (sorry, couldn't resist) sooner.

A day (or night) trip to Mount Sinai and St Catherines' monastery is not for the faint-hearted but is worth the strenuous climb for the view. Lazy people can get a camel up part of the way, for a fee. It is very cold when you finally reach the top of the mountain in the early hours of the day, bring a sleeping bag and light warm clothes. The 3,000 steps down are aching on the tired legs and you shake all the way to the burning bush at St. Catherine's monastery. A taxi will be waiting for you outside to bring you back to Dahab.

Egypt (Sinai) to Jordan (Aqaba)

To get from Dahab or the Sinai to Jordan take a bus or taxi to Nuweiba. The slow boat costs $30 and takes about 4 hours when it actually leaves the port. The fast boat costs $42 and usually leaves on time and takes approx. 1.5 hours. The ticket office is a bit away from the boat port, ask the taxi driver to stop off when you are paying (in dollars). Separate queues to get on the ship for females - great (perhaps that goes for all foreigners, we were the only westerners there so I can't be sure).
Look out for the dolphins jumping alongside the boat in the Red Sea on your way up to Aqaba - Spectacular!

> on to Jordan