Notes from a Sandy Spot

Our last early morning call for a flight from Luxor back to London - and a last surprise as Luxor airport turns out to be an extraordinary modern vision of an airport that would put most in Europe to shame. Actually no, ALL of them. A real contrast to the poverty and dirt in the rest of the city.

And that sums up my experience of Egypt pretty well, it is a land of incredible contrasts - from the arrid desert to the fertile Nile floodplains, the majesty and architectural triumph of the ancient egyptian temples compared to the modern day haphazard mud huts and rickety colonial buildings, the friendliness of the people and yet a sense of desparation to sell something. The epitome of culture shock and a trip that will leave a lasting impression.

If you ever have the chance to go ... do it, all the documentaries in the world can't prepare you for the real experience.

Leaving Aswan, we cruised back up the Nile to Luxor for our final night.

We landed in Luxor and disembarked the boat for some more exploring. First stop the ATM to get enough money to pay our bar bill, and then on to the bookshop. Next we wandered towards the bazaar with insistent calesh drivers telling us the tourist bazaar was shut and then one chap started to lead us down another street to "his brother's shop" which all felt distinctly iffy so we determinedly back-tracked and carried on with our original plan. In due course, we found some open shops etc and found a nice open air cafe for a refuelling stop - and who should we meet but the rest of the group who had headed straight there.

Suitably refreshed, we walked back round to the entrance to Luxor temple where we had arranged to meet Heidi and Michelle. Most impressive it was too, despite the lack of photographic evidence!

We walked back to the boat for a spot of dinner and then Heidi, Michelle and us set forth on a final expedition through Luxor. The market was amazing at night, lots of little shops and side-streets selling absolutely everything you don't actually need. We were amongst the only tourists wandering about and so this was probably a slightly more authentically Egyptian market than the tourist traps we had seen before, and Anne and Michelle kept the traders happy with some dodgy (and to be fair, not so dodgy) deals.

We finally returned to the boat after mid-night for our last night in Egypt.

Avoiding the camel trek to St Simeon meant we could have a lie in at last! Well, sort of. Clearly the rest of the group had temple fatigue by now as there were only 7 of us down to visit the temples at Philae, so it was a small and select group that soon boarded a couple of taxis which took us up to the spot to catch a boat over to the island. It was a glorious morning and there were all sorts of birds to watch as we whizzed over the water. The setting for the temples made this trip well worth while and the weather was simply glorious, so a fun time was had by all (well, me at least).


Temples duely examined and photographed, it was a quick boat ride back to shore and then a taxi back to our boat where we boarded for the sail back to Luxor. All those early morning starts were catching up with us a bit so the chance just to relax on board and chat with new friends provided a pleasant contrast to the hustle and bustle at the start of the tour.

It's fair to say that if we'd known the wake up call time for the Abu Simbel trip, we'd either have opted to pay the extra for the flight or possibly even given it a miss as we were both now rather tired and Anne had also fallen victim to the bug. This wasn't an early morning call - it was 2.45am - that's barely the middle of the night if you ask me!

The reason for the early call was that we had to travel in a police convoy across the western desert. Now I'm sure like me, that conjures up images of a row of coaches all neatly travelling along the road flanked by police ... but no, in Egypt a police convoy seems to equate to a formula 1 race with coach drivers overtaking each other at every opportunity and gradually spreading the convoy out so much that you couldn't see any vehicles ahead or behind on the narrow road that was visible all the way to the horizon. I'm not sure the army checkpoints we went through were so much for our safety, as to record our time!

The downside of travelling by convoy is of course that everyone tends to arrive at once - so inside the temples was actually pretty unplesantly crowded, but again, like every monument we saw in Egypt, the sheer scale of the architecture, the quantity and quality of the carvings and paintings and the realisation that while the Egyptians were constructing masterpieces like this, we in Europe were barely making mud huts, made it an impressive site to visit.

And as it turns out, those travelling by plane had a few problems with delays and so only had an hour and a bit on site compared to the two and a half hours we had - so maybe the 2 1/2 hour drive over the desert was not such a bad choice after all. Except of course that we then had another 2 1/2 hour journey back to the boat! And when I say the journey was across the desert - that's what I mean - over 2 hours on a single road stretching to the horizon with nothing but sand and rock to be seen. It was a real wake up to the fact that the country is largely uninhabitable and without irrigation from the Nile, there would be little here but camels and bedouins.

On the way back, the guide tried to persuade us to visit the High-Dam and stop off at the bank ... but we soon made our feelings clear and went straight back to the boat for a bit of a nap!

Suitably refreshed, we now had some free time to do some exploring of our own and to break away from the group.

First stop was the Egyptian market where we ran the gauntlet of traders insistent on trying to sell us something we didn't want. By now we were starting to get the hang of this a little bit, however it was still rather wearing and it was with some relief that we eventually emerged back on the corniche. Time for a bit of posh and so we found a calesh with a moderately fit looking horse and knocked the driver down from E£20 to E£5 for the journey to the Old Cataract Hotel of Agatha Christie fame.

To deter interlopers, getting past reception requires a minimum charge of E£85 (each), but once you realise that this is only £8.50, and it is deducted from your bill, it seems like a bargain for a slice of such luxury. We were escorted down to the Elephantine terrace overlooking the nile where we enjoyed an "oriental tea" of, er, tea and a triple stacked silver platter of pastries ... not many of which remained after we had finished with them!

The river cruise forced us all to slow down a bit and proved a lovely way to pass the time. The boat was just a nice size and we lay out in the sun reading, chatting or just watching the world go by. During the trip, we'd both met some other fun people and so Anne was often to be found chatting with Michelle whilst Heidi (pictured above) and I got on well too.



As evening fell, we approached Aswan, our base for the next couple of days.

We sailed through the night and the morning on our way to Aswan. Two stops en-route provided some more temple hopping opportunities. Now by this point in the trip, the tummy bug that had begun to claim multiple casualties on board had finally reached me and wandering round a temple was close to the last thing I wanted to do. Unfortunately Edfu was also pretty high on my list of places I wanted to see (having a hypostyle hall with intact roof) and so illness or not, we were soon in a bus for the short journey to the temple complex.



Edfu didn't disappoint and was a glorious site.



After Edfu, some more sailing down the nile watching the world go by. I was feeling distinctly not at my best and had to be encouraged to venture forth to see Kom Ombo - which I really only did because it was right by the shore and therefore but a short walk from the boat.

Today (by which of course I mean at O stupid hundred hours this morning) was valley of the kings day - famous for the tomb of Tutankhamun amongst others. Anne had opted for the donkey ride option but thankfuly explore's responsible tourism remit meant that I was excused on grounds of potentially flattening the poor beast and joined a group of 7 of us who were taking the taxi instead.

Sadly our dreams of a lie in were shattered by the news that we would all cross the nile before dawn to meet the donkey wrangler and so sometime before 5am we were duely huddled on a small boat venturing over the waters. We trogged through the streets to the donkey wrangler for what then turned out to be one of the most hysterical briefings I've ever seen. Ossama duely mounted his steed and began to demonstrate how to sit, get the donkey to change direction etc ... with just one teeny weeny little problem - well, 2 teeny weeny little problems actually. a) it was pitch dark and b) Luxor isn't renowned for its street lighting. Made even more amusing by a few donkeys who made a break for it and began running down the hill ... and who could blame them!

Boy was I glad I was going by Taxi.

Briefing complete, the riders duely mounted their donkeys and rather bemused, set forth in the gloom towards the valley of the kings. We meanwhile waited for the taxi. At this point the organisation went a bit pear shaped really and we only had one taxi for a group that was too large to fit in it - so while the first group went off we sat with the donkey wrangler and played with the rat his wife had caught in the upstairs bedroom!

Eventually we all ended up in the valley and hung around waiting for the donkey riders to emerge over the ridge above. Quite why we couldn't all have had an extra hour or more in bed escaped us really but soon we were all assembled in the valley and ready to explore the tombs. Although possible to visit, we opted out of King Tut's tomb as by all accounts it is rather boring and also happens to have an additional entrance fee. Instead we decided on Tuthmosis III followed by Rameses III and Rameses IV.

The tomb of Tuthmosis III was a rather imposing site as the entrance is high up in the mountain and reached by a step set of wooden stairs suspended in a narrow gorge.



The tomb was most impressive - as indeed were those of the Rameses clan - the state of preservation of the wall paintings kind of takes your breath away when you realise they are thousands of years old.

Valley of the kings duely explored (your ticket gets you in to 3 tombs), we all hopped on a bus to visit the amazing temple of Queen Hatshepsut where 58 tourists were murdered in 1997. The understandable impact on tourism led Egypt to significantly enhance the security presence at tourist sites and whilst keeping a low profile, armed guards and airport style x-ray machines were much in evidence everywhere we visited. I think the Egyptians have managed to get the tone just right - the security is obvious and reassuring rather than being oppressive and unsettling.

As for the temple ... yet another amazing work of Egyptian architecture.





After visting the temple, those of us going by taxi led a mini-rebellion. We were supposed to go back to the Nile Valley Hotel and wait for the donkey riders to join us, however partly inspired by Karen who was ill and needed to get back to the boat somewhat faster, we decided en-masse that we too wanted to get straight back to the boat and despite our guides protests about security, we didn't really give him much choice. We duely returned on board MS Doma and set-sail upriver on the cruise part of our trip.

With Anne insisting that the calesh driver went SLOWLY, the 2 mile trip to Karnak was much more pleasant than the race through the streets from the station that we had endured the day before. I was looking forward to Karnak because of the amazing hypostyle hall it has although I have singularly failed to take any pictures that come close to doing it justice. I put this down to the fact that we were probably a little tired - having already done the balloon trip, visited the workers' tombs and been to Medinet Habut. Relaxing wasn't yet on the agenda for this trip.




A pleasant dander round Karnak soaking up the atmosphere was concluded by a calesh ride back to the corniche to meet the boat.

Fresh from the workers' tombs, onwards to Medinet Habu which came as something of a shock to the system. Here, in the middle of nowhere, was the most amazing temple that basically made the jaw drop. In part no doubt this was because it was the first temple we had seen ... but also because of the sheer scale and audacity of the architecture.

This was ancient Egypt writ large.





Unfortunately my photographs don't really do it justice ... probably because I spent most of the time wandering round with my jaw on the floor. The state of preservation was astonishing - just look at the paint still atop the columns in the hypostyle hall.






So ... day 3 and so far we've done a balloon trip, visited the tonbs of the workers and now the temples at Medinet Habu. That would be more than enough for one day don't you think? But Oh no ... not for us ... we returned to the boat for a spot of lunch and then it was time to hit the Caleche again for a trip to Karnak!

Fresh from our balloon ride, we went back to the Nile Valley Hotel where we had a quick turkish coffee to await the tour members who were going to join us at the valley of the workers.

Met by a new guide who explained the history and what we would see inside, we duely explored 2 of the open tombs. Unfortunately the advent of digital photography has spoilt the experience for those of us responsible enough to turn our flashes off as photography has now been banned throughout Egypt in all the tombs to save the delicate paintwork from further fading.

The tombs are remarkable in their state of preservation. Much of the painting looks as if it could have been done last week and yet remember that these walls were painted some 3,200 years ago!

They really were very beautiful indeed.

Up at the crack of dawn (well no, actually some time before hand) to get a mini-bus to a hotel up the road and cross the Nile by boat before catching another mini-bus that took us off to the take-off site near the valley of the queens. Somewhat reassured by the fact that our pilot was proudly wearing his blue peter badge, the 22 of us (not all from our group) clambered more or (in my case) less graciously aboard. The basket was divided into 5 compartments - a central one for the pilot and then 4 at each corner for the passengers. It was a rather tight squeeze but it certainly meant you weren't going to accidentally fall out!

With a few blasts of the burner (which was rather hot on the back of our heads!) we were soon drifting skywards over the village and heading towards the Theban necropolis as the sun began to rise.



We spent something like an hour in the air gently drifting over the hills and watching the changing light on the landscape ... it was fantastic and a definate highlight of the trip that I wouldn't have missed. The Pilot was very good in gently turning the balloon around so that everyone got a chance to see the various views and we explored the hills from various heights which made it all very interesting.



The landing was amazing too ... a perfectly upright touchdown that could barely be felt as the ground crew basically caught us in mid-air and lowered us to the ground.

Now for most people that would be enough for one day ... but not for the intrepid explore team ... it was barely breakfast time and we had a schedule to keep to ... next on the list was Deir el Medina to visit the tombs of the workers who actually made the tombs for the kings and queens.

Another early start (well, actually compared to what is to come, this was a positive lie in) for a coach journey to the station to catch the 8.40am train to Luxor. Various grumblings from the group about the prospect of having to carry the cases along the streets again to meet the coach but were pleasantly surprised by finding the coach directly outside the hotel.

And 20 yards down the road we found out why large coaches in narrow Cairo streets aren't such a good idea - we were completely blocked from progress by some parked cars that gave us no room to get around. To make it more interesting, we were then sandwiched in by a school bus and some cars ... much to the amusement of the policeman who had now woken up (or more correctly had been woken up by all the hooting of horns). This was not good. We experimentally went backwards a bit, and then forwards again before having to basically reverse the entire length of the street whilst narrowly (and I mean narrowly) avoiding lots of parked cars and vans etc. Eventually with the help of lots of people guiding the bus from behind, the driver emerged triumphantly into a turning space to spontaneous applause from the group who now still had a chance to catch the morning train after all.

I'd kind of imagined a 3 or 4 hour journey but it soon transpired that the trip to Luxor was estimated at 10 hours ... they don't print that in the brochure for some reason! We had a first class carriage which gave us rather comfortable seats (although no tables) along with air-conditioning and the services of a chap who spent the entire journey wandering up and down the carriage service tea / coffee etc.

One of the advantages of being male is that loo trips aren't as urgently required as for the fairer sex and judging by the comments from Anne and the others, this was probably just as well - by all accounts it was a rather unpleasant experience and one I'm happy to have missed! We spent the journey chatting, reading, being forced to do the odd su doku puzzle and generally watching the world go by. The train goes through some distinctly "dodgy" areas and so it was fairly reassuring having some not-so-secret police on board. We were amongst the more adventurous members of the group and ventured into the buffet car for a coffee (incidentally for some reason the Egyptian idea of coffee almost always seems to be Nescafe) and a sandwich. All the bar stools were occupied when we entered (and we were the only Europeans) but a couple of businessmen kindly gave up their seats for us and we duely sat down and ordered.

It's fair to say we stuck out like a pair of sore thumbs ... but whilst it was a little unsettling, it's nice to have had the experience.

Some time around 6 or 6.30pm the train arrived in Luxor and we disembarked onto the most ridiculously narrow platform you can imagine - we're talking maybe 4 feet wide here and full of pot-holes / missing chunks etc. Getting off the platform was certainly an experience - not least due to all the people trying to get on at the same time!

Outside the station our next mode of transport for the day was to be a Caleche ... or horse drawn buggy. Some of the horses looked in much better shape than others and there was definately an air of dubiousness amongst the group as to the wisdom of this particular element ... however it was really the only way of getting to the boat and so Caleche it was.

Comedy moment when my bag fell off the seat in front and nearly ended up on the back streets of luxor, but the driver managed to catch it and we made it in one piece, although perhaps with slightly more frayed nerves than would have been ideal. A strategy for future caleche journies was definately in order and Anne had a plan on that front that would soon be revealed ...

And so there we were ... hundreds of miles from Cairo and now aboard our boat, the MS Doma. Just 14 cabins and so a nice size for our group which had 23 people. Quick beer in the bar and a bite to eat and then we were off once more on a walking tour of part of the city! This was probably our first major exposure to all the hassle you get from street vendors who attempt to sell you stuff at every turn. It's all a bit of a culture shock to those of us used to price stickers on the bottom of things you might be considering buying and at times saying no to people simply resulted in them running down the street after you clutching their wares! It felt really rather aggressive at first and it took until almost the end of the holiday before we started to get the hang of it ... at which point it becomes relatively pleasant, if a bit wearing.

Tour complete, Anne & I ventured out to get some money from a cash point I had spotted and this had a comedy moment all its own. At first all went well, card goes in, select "English" and then it's just like using an ATM at home ... until you get to the end when whilst the machine still has hold of your card, the instructions change to arabic and you have 1 of 2 buttons to choose from. I guessed they were saying something along the lines of "do you require anything else" and on the basis that the top one was probably yes, I hoped pressing the bottom one would give me my card back ... but knowing the canny Egyptians it could equally have been selling me some camels or T-shirts or authorising them to clone the card! Thankfully the card came back without incident and so we retired to the boat fighting our way through the street vendors who were still insistent on selling us their wares.

Early start the next day for the balloon trip over the valley of the queens ... and by early I mean before dawn!

Today was pointy things day. Breakfast, coach to Giza and then time to wander amongst the pyramids. We opted out of seeing inside as a) by all accounts there is nothing to see and b) the same accounts recall heat, humidity and back breaking short corridors. Instead we ignored instructions to stay between the pyramids and wandered a short distance off into the desert before having a chat with a friendly policeman who pointed out that he could take silly pictures of us holding the top of the pyramids from the position he was guarding. All well and good, but we were somewhat amazed when he wanted paying for the privilege! Baksheesh seems to be very much a way of life here ("nothing in Egypt is free" as our guide kept saying) but when even the cops are in on the act you have to wonder!

Had a wander round the "solar boat" museum which was basically a cedar ceremonial barque that was found buried near one of the pyramids and has now been reconstructed. Most impressive bit of carpentry.

Back to the coach and then a trip down the hill to see the Sphinx [ photo's to come ]. Great views of the Sphinx and the pyramids and although there were a lot of people now that it was a bit later in the morning, it never really felt too overcrowded which was something I had wondered about before the trip.

Next it was off to a ritual fleecing emporium (sorry, Papyrus "Institute") where we had a demonstration of how to make papyrus and then the opportunity to purchase all manner of overpriced (sorry, government regulated) pictures. You half felt that even looking at a papyrus would end up costing you rent as a salesman would appear as if by magic at the mere suggestion of interest in something hanging on the walls. On the plus side, Anne reported the best loos in Egypt so far so perhaps the true reason behind the visit was more sanitory than shopping.

Back on the coach, a simple lunch of felafel with mint yoghurt in the freshest pitta on the planet would, with hindsight, turn out to be one of the most authentic and pleasant lunches of the trip as we wended our way to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo. There we spent a plesant hour or two having a guided tour of the highlights and then some precious free time to go a wandering. The Museum is home to the Tutankhamun cache and never having seen the gold mask and sarchophagi it was really v. impressive indeed. And to think that this was for one of the minor kings ...

Back to the Hotel and time for a quick nap before a "longing" in the bar prior to going out for a group meal. By "longing" I mean briefing from Osama our tour leader ... but boy did he go on ... and on ... and on ... and by the end of it I could probably have told you what we were meant to be doing for almost every hour of every day for the remainder of the trip. If there's one thing that Explore are certainly very good at, it's organisation!

Group meal out was rather nice indeed in a restaurant called felafela which judging by the photos of distinguished patrons, had once been a rather exclusive venue rather than taking coach parties of English tourists! However, that's doing it a disservice as the starters in particular were excellent (Meze style) and a good night was had by all.

So to recap ... day 1 had comprised

1. Pyramids

2. Solar Boat Museum

3. Sphinx

4. Papyrus Institute

5. Museum of Antiquities

6. Group Meal

The prospect of relaxing on this trip looked rather distant indeed ... but maybe the train journey to Luxor would slow the pace down a bit ...

Anne and I haven't done too badly on the travel stakes over the years ... New York, Amalfi, Paris, Florence, Rome ... and on those travels we've seen some of the finest Egyptian collections in the world. Now it was time to see where they all came from (and belong) with a 10 day tour of Egypt courtesy of small group specialists Explore.

We met at Heathrow terminal 3 for a very civilised flight at 2pm, most disappointed by the airport experience, not nearly enough queuing and I shall be complaining to BAA shortly. The flight with Egyptair was uneventful and as pleasant as 5 hour flights can be ... plenty of leg room, nice seats and decent food - so a good start all round.

On arriving at Cairo we were suitably organised by the tour leaders and dispatched to our hotel "The President" in the district of Zamalek. Not quite the ideal start as it turns out the coach can't actually get outside the hotel due to the narrow streets and so we have to walk the final few hundred yards ... which would have been fine if we hadn't had to bring all our luggage as well - and let's just say the streets weren't in the best of condition and you practically needed climbing ropes to scale the kerbs. Still, hooray for cases with wheels ... anyone without was definately suffering.

Equally efficient organisation at the hotel where the 23 of us were checked in remarkably efficiently. Quick sandwich and beer before retiring ... little did we know that the accompanying aubergine dip was possibly the most authentic food of the trip!

As for the hotel - well it won't win any 5* awards, but it was perfectly tidy and clean and served well for the 2 nights we were there.