New Years In Egypt

Over Xmas / New Year 07 myself and 3 friends took the Oasis Overland 'Egypt Emcompassed' tour.  After arriving in Cairo we managed to survive the taxi ride to the hotel, where indicating, speed limits and general common sense seem to be optional when navigating through the local streets.  

Our tour officially commenced with a river cruise on the Nile, dinner consisted of a buffet, with staples of chicken and pita on the menu which would form the basis of our diet for the next two weeks.  The entertainment provided was a belly dancer, the spinning man, and a two guys dressed up as a dancing horse - great stuff.  It also provided our first introduction to local wine, which didn't go down to well, and the local Stella beer, which was actually pretty good!

Day 2 we were up at 7.30 to board the mini vans to the Egyptian musemum.  Our tour guide Romani was a pretty enthusiantic (and knowledgable) chap, and tried to get the group out of our sleepy mindset by getting the group chanting 'Lets get excited'.  It was relatively amusing, although a few hours latter on the 10th chant it was starting to wear a little thin. 

The museum itself was very interesting, and having a Egyptologist to explain the significance of the artifacts, hieroglyphics etc definitely made it a worthwhile trip.  From there we once again boarded the mini vans and headed off to the Pyramids of Giza, with Romani leading a few more rounds of 'lets get excited'.

I was really looking forward to seeing the Pyramids as they are such an icon of human history.  I was surprised to find they were just a short distance out of Cairo, and on the drive out you can see them in the distance towering over the local apartment buildings.  The pyramids themselves were awe inspiring, and were such an impressive feat of engineering considering the primative tools the Egyptians of the time would have had to work with. 

After spending some time walking around the pyramids it was time for a short camel ride.  This is really one for the tourists as you wander 15 minutes from the viewing area down to the base of the Chephren pyramid.  Good opportunity to get those 'I'm on a camel in front of a pyramid' holiday snaps.  Definitely worth doing, although you will tend to find a few of the camel guides asking you for money.

From there it was back on the mini bus for the short ride down the hill to the Sphinx, which although was pretty interesting in itself, I personally felt it didn't compare to the sheer scale of the pyramids.  After spending 40 minutes or so taking photo's, and getting some more history lessons from Romani, it was back on the bus to prepare for the overnight train to Aswan.

After the long day at the Pyramids it was with some trepidation we looked forward to the overnight train to Aswan, which was going to be roughly 1,000 miles and about 12 to 14 hours.  We had be forwarned that the carriages were not exactly plush, so decided that the best way to overcome this was to have a few drinks on the way down.  We had received differing views on whether this was acceptable in a Muslim country, but the general consensus seemed to be, it was OK as long as you were discrete and not over the top.

The train rolled in around an hour late at 11pm and we fired all our gear on as the train only stopped for a couple of minutes, and you definitely didn't want to miss this one.  The carriage was about as expected and we settled into a few quiets to while away the 14 hour journey.

As we were starting to find, Egyptian time is not particularly precise, and we eventually arrived in Aswan at 2.30pm on Xmas day, around 3 and a half hours late.  We then headed off to the Aswan Hilton, which although a step up from the train, still had a few issues, probably the main one being that there was nothing stopping the water from the shower coming out into the bedroom, and after a short nap I awoke to find our room under an inch of water! 

Our Xmas dinner consisted of another buffet, which was actually pretty good, and more spinning men and dancing horses for entertainment.  We also had a secret santa within the tour group and I acquired 'Street Duck' as my present.  Street Duck appeared to be a tough talking (although mute) getto duck that took no prisoners.  We quickly decided that Street Duck was going to go in the Nile and catch a tow behind the Falucaa (small Egyptian yacht). 

It was up very early at 3am for the 3 hour bus ride to Abu Simbel on Boxing Day.  Predictably everyone slept on the bus ride out but it was well  worth it when we got to the two magnificent Sun Temple Monuments, the first one dedicated to Ramesses II, who fathered well over 100 children.  The second smaller temple is dedicated to Ramesses favourite wife Nefetari. 

Both the Monuments are pretty impressive but we thought the most interesting fact was that twice a year the sun shines directly into the inner sanctum and lights up Ramesses II's image, but not the images of those around him, which we thought was pretty cool.

From there is was another 3 hour bus ride back before taking a water taxi over to Philae Temple.  Again it was pretty impressive, although some of the original artifacts had been taken and relocated to other parts of the world such as London.

Day 4 ended with a traditional Nubian dinner where we were broken up into smaller groups of around 10 and had dinner with a local family.  The dinner was very nice, with the old staples of chicken and pita, and and it was very interesting chatting to the family about what was a pretty simple lifestyle, although the one luxury they did have was a TV to keep up with the latest football action!

On day 5 we managed to have our first decent lie in which was much needed after a pretty hectic few days of sightseeing.  On day 5 and 6 we were really doing away with the normlities of life share a Felucca (sailing boat that consisted mainly of a flat deck) with 14 others and no toilet or shower facilities. 

The plan was to try and sail around 40 miles, but unfortunately the wind had got up and the police wouldn't let us sail, intially for an hour, which eventually turned into the whole afternoon, and just before dark we were finally authorised to sail across to the far bank of the Nile and set up camp for the night still within sight of Aswan. 

On the first night on the Feluccas the weather wasn't that flash, so once the tarpalin cover had gone up we sat around in circle and had a few quiet drinks.   A few us had phones with music on, so we hooked up some speakers and had a bit of a sing a long, with the singing being of highly debatable quality! 

Day 6 dawned bright and clear, and we were quickly on our way down the Nile to try and make up some time.  The felucca's don't look the sturdiest of craft's, however I was comforted to know that they had been sailing on the Nile for hundreds of years.  However my confidence was rocked a little when in the first two hours we had been beached once, had taken on water, and had also had the metal frame that holds up the tarpalin collapse on top of us on the deck.  From then on however it was plain sailing and it was extremely relaxing lying on the deck and watching the banks of the Nile drift by.

We also decided it was time to launch Street Duck and see what he was made of.  So with some twine around his neck he was ceremonly launched into the Nile, only for us to find that he would more aptly be named sub marine duck as he kept diving down below the surface and unfortunately this proved telling on the twine and it evenually snapped and that was the last we saw of Street Duck.

That evening we had a bon fire on the beach, and the entertainment ranged from the locals singing traditional Egyptian songs to our tour group banging out such boy band classics as 'Everybody Get Up' by Five, which went down, err interestingly with the locals.  Around 2am everyone retired to the Felucca's to another pretty cold night, which wasn't helped with by the tarpalin not coming right down to the deck and the breeze whipping through the gap.

We had to be up at around 6.30am to catch the police convoy (which was mandatory for large groups going through the desert) to Luxor, taking in two more temples on the way Kom Ombo and Edfu.  After two days on the Felucca's, and not a whole lot of sleep these two temples were probably the least enthusiatically taken in sights.  By this stage I think most people we just looking forward to a hot shower and being back in civilization again.

After an afternoon of free time where we roamed some of the local markets, we got back together again as a group just after dust to take in the Luxor Temple.  This was the only temple that we saw at night and with the key area's lit up under floodlights it was quite an impressive sight.  Again we had an Egyptologist to explain the main features of the temple, and interesting legends.

Day 7 ended with a well earned trip to McDonald's.  After 7 days of chicken and pita hitting Macca's provided a good change of pace, even though the power went out 4 times while we were in there!

Day 8 was another big highlight day in terms of Egyptian history as we boarded the bus and headed out to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Workers.

When you first walk into the reception area of the Valley of the Kings there is a 3 dimentional model that shows all of the tombs that have been discovered to date.  Its fascinating to see just how many tombs have been dug into the hill side, with the larger ones going over well over 100m down into the earth.

The Egyptian government rotates the tombs that are actually open to the public, with usually around 2 main sites open at any one time.  We were also surprised to find that Tutankhamun was actually a relatively minor figure in Egyptian history and that his fame only really arises because his has been one of the few tombs uncovered with virtually all its treasures remaining intact. 

After the Valley of the Queens we went to the Valley of the Workers and found that some of the much smaller tombs were actually brilliantly preserved and the colours were very bright in comparision with the much larger tombs of the kings.

After lunch, the next event on the cards was a donkey ride which proved to be hilarious with around 50 tourists trying in vein to navigate their donkeys in the right direction, with cars, motorbikes, buses and kids on camels all trying to use the same road space.  We managed to make it through with no major incidents, and it provided to be a really entertaining activity.  Especially as the donkeys were basically in full control of what speed you traveled at, and even what direction you were going in!

From there it was onto a low key dinner, and that was supposed to be it for the night, especially with New Years the next night, however we eventually turned in at around 4am with the hotel bar staying open to accomodate us.

After a relaxing morning roaming through the Luxor markets we boarded the bus for the 4 hour bus ride to Hurghada, which is where we were going to spend New Years Eve. 

Once we arrived at the hotel we were disappointed to find that although it looked quite good from the outside, the rooms themselves were less than impressive, however given that we had another big night followed by an early start we weren’t too worried about the situation.

For dinner we went to a western style restaurant that served up pretty good food, and that combined with a few local beers and spirits, and some 80’s rock pumping out of the speakers ensured that we were ready to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.

At 11pm we moved onto the Ministry of Sound New Year's party where they were apparently expecting 2,000 people.  The bar itself was quite unique being outdoors and having sand on the ground, and it provided a pretty cool venue to see the New Year in, in style.  With another early start approaching most people in the tour group had the good sense to be back at the hotel by 3am, although some still when straight to the hotel bar!

A pretty jaded looking tour group managed to make it in tact to the ferry terminal by around 7am, and we were relived to find the ferry running even though the sea was quite rough.  No ferry would have meant a 18 hour bus ride, and most were more than willing to endure the bumpy ferry ride than a mammoth bus ride.

The ferry ride was not too bad and many off us slept the whole way, unfortunately those without very good sea legs spent the majority of the time in the toilet, which can’t have been too much fun!  Once we arrived at Sharm El Sheikh, it was a short 2 hour bus ride to Dahab, which spelt the end of the tourist / cultural part of the trip, and the start of the sitting by the pool / snorkling and diving part of the trip.

Dahab is a pretty westernised tourist spot, and we found the food to be pretty good in general.  After a relaxing 3 hour dinner it was off to bed to catch up on some sleep.

Most of Day 11 was spent snorkling around the Blue Hole.  Some of the fish are pretty spectacular and at times you swim right through huge schools of fish.  The rest of the time was spend in the local café lounging around eating copious amounts of food and cold drinks.

That evening it was back to the main strip of restaurants that run along the coast line, where I discovered the Shee-sha pipe for the first time, and although I am not a smoker, I definitely enjoyed it as a relaxing way to pass a few hours in the restaurant, with the main flavours on offer being apple and / or orange.

The whole day was mainly spent relaxing by the pool, reading, sleeping and having a few quiet beers.  Definitely a good way to spend a day.

That evening, those that wanted too could go horse riding down the coast to watch the sun set.  This was definitely good fun, although it was with some trepidation that I climbed onto my horse as the local guys said he was the quickest horse in the group and was acting a little frisky.  He turned out to be pretty well behaved and it was pretty cool when the tour guide said we could get the horses up into a gallop through the fields.

For dinner it was back to the restaurants for another 3 hour effort, and some more Shee-sha.  Followed by a night out at a local bar where a shot was actually half a glass of straight spirits!  As this was the last night with the entire group together it was predictably a pretty big one.

We spent the final day making any last minute purchases (I got 3 'genuine brand' tee shirts for £7 ), lounging by the pool again, and generally mentally preparing for the overnight bus ride to Cairo.

At 11pm we climbed on the bus and said goodbye to those in our tour group that were heading off to Jordan.  Although the bus was pretty modern, it did feel pretty cramped and I think I actually preferred the ancient overnight train!  Especially as every couple of hours we had to go through a police check point so they would wake everyone up and we would have to produce our passports.

After getting to the hotel at around 6.30am we had around 5 hours before we had to catch our flight back to the UK, so we all crashed out, before saying final goodbyes to everyone and heading off to the airport and back home.

I would definitely recommend doing the two week Eygpt Encompassed tour with Oasis Overland.  You do fit an incredible about of sight seeing into the two weeks, and the tour guides were very knowledgable and friendly (and very enthusiastic).  Probably the only down side was you don’t get a lot of free time, and the accommodation is generally not of a great standard.  However if you can put up with that, you will definitely have a great time seeing one of the most interesting countries on earth.