About our Egypt trip - this is a temporary post to some information out there...

A few people have been asking about how we are touring around Egypt. 

We booked at 10 day tour of Egypt through Groupon, ours was land content only.  The Australian company that we have dealt with was Destination International and Cynthia has been very efficient with all our correspondence.  The company that we are with in Egypt is Chrismar. So far so good.

When we arrived in Cairo a representative was there to greet us as soon as we exited the plane.  They escorted us through immigration, which was seamless as we had already purchased our Egyptian Visa’s online.

Next was the luggage, he found a trolley and we loaded up.  There was only 4 of us so it was easy to ask him to take us to an ATM in the terminal to get money…. Haven’t check the exchange but I think it is pretty good.  We also asked if we could drop by the Vodafone stand where we purchased a sim card with 30gig of data for around $50 … you could get smaller but Gaz is hot spotting off my phone.

We were then handed over to our Cairo tour Leader who looked after us during our 3 days there.  We stayed at the Hilton Ramses.  Very nice for their standard - think Shangri La, but a lot more tired looking.  It was in a great position on the Nile and just opposite the Cairo Museum.

Security is tight as every van is checked and all bags are scanned on entry.  Prices at the hotel certainly did not reflect what you would expect to pay in Egypt $$$.

Although we had free time we decided not the venture out on our own, but left it for times that we were touring with our guide.  On our first full day we visited the Pyramids in the morning and the museum in the afternoon with an Egyptologist.  That night we paid extra to visit the Giza Light and Sound show followed by a dinner at a local restaurant. 

Be  warned, we are here in August and the heat is bad… we have a neck cooler that only lasts for 20 minutes, but now I also take a washer or small towel which I soak in water to help cool down and wipe the sweat out of my eyes.

The second day we headed to Luxor.  It was a 4am walk up call, for a 5am departure to the airport, with a 7.30 am flight.  They booked us business class – the main benefit was that we have 30 kilo baggage allowance.  Again we had some one with us right until we walked through security.  Oh and the hotel supplied a breakfast box for the trip to the airport.

Touch down in Luxor and again someone is waiting for us.  It was straight to the Karnak Temple with the guide that will stay with us for the entire duration of our cruise. 

Our ship, the Princess Sarah, is very grand looking for Egyptian standards and you can see the wear and tear.  But that is just cosmetic, the crew are wonderful and they are all our friends already.  Rooms are huge and yes we have balcony…. Well French style.

We stayed overnight in Luxor to enable us to explore both the east and west banks  ( all this  will be covered in my real blog). 

The restaurant is assigned seating according to your tour group… did I mention that we are only 4 on our tour? Although it is a melting pot of nationalities on the ship, we are the only Aussies.  Meals are all buffet style.  The food is quite good with a mixture of traditional and western style food. 

Tonight is a Egyptian themed night known as Galabiya … so we will dress up for dinner and then the party in the Lounge area… which is really the only other public area on the ship … except for the deck.  Drinks not super cheap, but cheaper than the hotel…  small cans of beer around $5 and small bottles of wine $10 (one person), soft drinks around $4. I have not tried the local cocktail yet.

When coming back on board after touring you are welcomed with a wet washer and a refreshing mint Tea.

We have 3 room stewards, 2 Mohamed’s and I can’t quite remember but I think it is Yousef… Towel animals every day …. Yay

That is all I can tell you at this stage as we are only on day three…  I am sitting in the cool of our room watching the life on the Nile pass by.  My concentration is broken by the young children waving frantically, calling out and whistling to catch our attention as we pass by their Villages.

So that is it for now and I will rewrite this and add pictures at a later date.

Gaznjo….