I'm back! I know you missed me. I've just been to Egypt for 10 days. And here's the story...

Cairo

We started our trip by flying scheduled EgyptAir to Cairo. Now, I'd heard mixed reviews about Egypt Air which made me a bit apprehensive, but as it turned out, we had nothing to worry about. We flew out on a Boeing 777 (wide-bodied, 3-4-2 seating configuration, if anybody is interested) which had about the most leg room I've ever had in economy class. The in-flight entertainment left a lot to be desired (some naff black and white film with Arabic subtitles), but it was only 4 and a half hours, so it wasn't too bad. The food was fine - standard airline stuff, really, with a choice of beef or fish.

We stayed at the Mena House Oberoi in Giza, right by the pyramids, and it seems to have been a wise choice. It's a five star hotel (although it's starting to fray around the edges a bit now, however a refit is planned for some time in 2004), and with it being outside of Cairo itself, it's a real escape from the hustle and bustle and general mayhem of the city.

The day after we arrived, we checked out the pyramids. They are quite an impressive site, and you have to visit them really, but I wouldn't go back there now that I've seen them. That's all there is there, and it's not going to keep you occupied for long. You can go inside, but you have to get there early to get one of the 100 tickets they sell at 8am and 1pm. We passed on that as it was peak season, and very busy. We walked down to the Sphinx, too. From all the pictures you see on TV, it looks like it's just in front of the pyramids, but actually it's a fair trek downhill to get to it. Still, it was very impressive, too. Shame about the Turks blowing the face off.

The worst thing about the pyramids is the constant hassle you get from people trying to sell you stuff. It's really, really bad. You just cannot escape it. The best thing to do is just completely ignore them. Don't even acknowledge their existence. Then they soon get the message and walk off to hassle the next person.

So, that was enough sightseeing for one day. The temperature was already hitting the high 30s, so we went back to the hotel.

The next day we went to the Egyptian Museum. This place is pretty vast, and there's far too much stuff to cover in one visit. We had a tour guide take us round, and she showed us the main stuff. What gets you about some of these things is just how well preserved it all is. In the entrance hall there are some ENORMOUS statues which are pretty much in perfect condition which make you think they must be replicas. But they aren't. Everything in there is original ancient Egyptian, anything up to 4000 years old (well, almost everything. The original Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum - they want it back! - this is the stone with the same piece of text carved in Hieroglyphics, Demotic and Greek which finally cracked the Hieroglyphic code). There's far too much stuff in there to list it, but the highlight was Tutankhamun's treasure, I suppose. It's the stuff you see in all the guide books and on all the TV programmes, so it's great to have finally seen it.

That was about all we did in Cairo. The rest of the time was spent chilling in the rather excellent Mena House Oberoi hotel, by the pool. Incidentally, the pool here is quite deep (3.5m or so) and consequently it's as cold as ice! I kid you not. We wondered why there was nobody in it, when it was so hot outside. When I stuck a toe in, I found out why! Still, I did brave it once, but I didn't last long before my muscles started to seize up.

We tried a few of the restaurants - The Moghul Room - which is an Indian restaurant. Some good curries in there, and some other kebabs and stuff to choose from, too. Live entertainment was provided by a guy with a sitar and a woman singing. It wasn't bad. The next night we wanted to eat at the Khan El Khalili restaurant (named after the bazaar/market in Cairo). This did all sorts of Egyptian and international cuisine. However, when we arrived, it was full up (despite having been told there's no need to book!). So we stumbled across the Al Rubayat restaurant. It's rather unfortunately situated at the end of a long corridor so you would hardly know it was there. As it turned out, I'm very glad we found it. It serves predominantly French-style cuisine, and the standard was superb. I can recommend the flambed pancakes - they really were superb (flambed at your table, of course). The surroundings were really opulent. A massive room, with high ceilings and gold fittings everywhere - a real colonial feel. There was some entertainment on the night we went, too. Genuine Egyptian style entertainment, with belly-dancing and all that sort of stuff. It was really good.

The next evening we had room service as we were leaving late that night - no complaints here. We had pizzas, and they were very good!


And so to Luxor...

We took an internal flight to Luxor at the ungodly hour of 5 to midnight. It was only an hour or so, maybe less. Can't remember now. But in any case, we were soon tucked up in bed at the Sheraton in Luxor. We had a Nile view room, and it's well worth the extra supplement. You think you're not going to be in your room much, but when you are, it's great to be able to sit on your balcony and watch the world go by on the Nile.

What a contrast to Cairo. Luxor is so much more laid back and quiet. It's just what you want after the mayhem of Cairo.

The first day we had nothing planned, so after breakfast we decided to grab a taxi and head down to the Mummyfication Museum in town. It's only a tiny place, but very interesting. Lots of details on the mummyfication process, and then some mummies - one human, one fish, one crocodile and a cat. This is also about the only place you can get a photo of a human mummy.

That only took 20 minutes or so, so we decided to walk down to the main Luxor Museum. This is much bigger than the Mummification Museum, but small in comparison with the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Nonetheless, there's still some interesting stuff in here, and some really well preserved statues, including a superb black granite one. You shouldn't need more than an hour to get round here, and I think we took even less time than that. Just as well, really, as it's closed from 13:00-17:00. The rest of the day was spent by the pool.

The next day involved an early rise. We were off to the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of the Nile. With temperatures approaching 40 degrees C on the cards, we wanted to try and get back before the hottest part of the day. On the way we stopped off at Hatshepsut's Mortuary Temple. This is a very imposing place, carved into some cliffs in the middle of a desert. Very impressive, very well preserved and well worth a visit. Again, it's the scale of the place which hits you.
They've introduced some little trains which take you up from the car park to the temple itself to save a bit of a schlepp in the heat. They've only been here a short while apparently, and strangely they don't charge any extra for them, and the driver doesn't expect any baksheesh off you!
The temperature was already rising, so we continued to the Valley of the Kings a short drive away. Again, they've introduced some little trains here to take you to the valley itself. Your entrance ticket will get you into 3 of the tombs. Tutankhamun's tomb is extra, and you have to buy a seperate ticket at the entrance to the valley. However, Tutankhamun's tomb is really the least impressive one there. It's very small, but it does have some decoration. The other tombs we visited were much grander and much more impressive, going deep into the rock, full of inscriptions and carvings. If you're short of cash, give old Tut a miss, although it was only an extra 3.50p (Sterling) when we went, so we thought we might aswell.
They're very strict about photography here. They wont allow it in the tombs at all, and they wont even let video cameras into the valley, let alone the tombs.

That was enough of that, so we went on to the Valley of the Queens. Although this is called the Valley of the Queens, it also has princes, princesses and various other people dotted around. It's similar to the Valley of the Kings, except it's all on a much smaller scale. Sadly, Queen Nefatari's tomb is closed while they work out how to sort out some salt damage. This is supposed to be the most beautiful tomb in Egypt, but we had to make do with the pictures in the guide book. If it's open when you go, make sure you go in!

And that was the end of that excursion, and almost the end of our time in Luxor. The next day was spent by the pool, with a ride on a falucca (the traditional Nile sail boats) at dusk. We booked this through the hotel, and they laid on tea, coffee and cakes in the boat, which was great. They made you feel like royalty.

The Sheraton was superb. It didn't have the colonial opulence of the Mena House in Cairo as it was more modern, but it had a good choice of restaurants - Agra, an Indian restaurant, which personally I think was better than the Moghul Room in the Mena House. We had a blinding ruby in there! La Mamma which did decent Italian food. Expect to pay about 20 Sterling for 2 courses with drinks for 2 people. If you want imported wine, expect to pay from about 20 Sterling per bottle! They are ludicrously priced (this is the same all over Egypt, not just here). The Egyptian wine is much more reasonable, and is quite nice tasting, too! Worth a try, I reckon.

So that's Luxor wrapped up, on to Sharm El Sheikh.

Sharm El Sheikh / Naama Bay

Another short flight brought us to Sharm El Sheikh International Airport (more like a shack, really). Got a good view of the Red Sea as we were getting close. Worth getting a window seat if you're flying in during the day.
A short ride took us down Peace Road to our hotel - The Sonesta Beach Resort. This is a sprawling complex, built in whitewashed Arabic style, with no more than about 3 storeys anywhere. First impressions were good. We were there quite early and our room wasn't ready yet, so we sat in reception and they brought us some of the juniper juice they have over there while we waited. 25 minutes later, the room was ready so we went for a kip (after another stupid early rise for the flight, we needed it!). In the afternoon we hit the 'beach' to do some snorkling. Oh dear. It was downhill from here on in. The beach was a tiny little stretch of sand, completely covered in sun loungers, and every one of them had various towels and stuff flung on them (lots of Russians and Italians come here, for some reason). I gave the loungers a miss and went straight in to do some snorkling. After wading my way past the various detritus on the sea bed by the beach, I reached the reefs and the snorkling was very good indeed. Very similar to the Maldives, with all the same fish I'd seen there, and much of the coral was also dead and just starting to recover.

We'd booked half-board, and the evening meal was just a buffet. And what a nightmare. It started at 6:30, but by 6pm most of the tables had already been bagged! As soon as it turned 6:30, there was a stampede for the buffet! We decided to give it a miss and went to eat in the a la carte Italian restaurant called La Gondola. This was much better, more relaxed, and no awful 'entertainment' in the background. Just a guy playing a saxophone calmly! The entertainment elsewhere consisted of the same woman murdering the same Abba tracks night after night. Very, very poor.

If you're into diving or snorkling, and just want somewhere cheaper than the Maldives to do it, then this is the place for you. But if you also want somewhere to chill-out and relax, give it a miss. Pay the extra and go to the Maldives!

Well, I think that about sums it up. I'm sure I probably missed some stuff out, but that's life. You can see pictures of most of the stuff I've mentioned in my photos section. If you want to ask me / tell me anything about Egypt, feel free to drop me a line and I'll do my best.