Flight Zurich via Geneva to Cairo with Egypt Air. Arriving we had to buy visa-vouchers at any bank counter before proceding to passport control. In the arrival hall so called taxi drivers approached us; 100 to 120 LE to get down-town. We went outside, no taxis, no queues. There were a lot of taxi drivers in the arrivals hall touting for passengers. Usually they should sit in cars behind the steering wheel. We went to the departure hall, outside, same situation; taxis arrived, offloaded passengers, went. Finally we decided to follow a 60 year old man who offered a ride for 60 LE. His cab was parked somewhere at the parking lot. The trip down-town took about 45 minutes. Some young guys were racing along the motorway, braking suddenly in front of us, accelerating again, like mad.. Hotel Carlton was situated near Midan Orabi down-town.. We were ending the day with a beer on the rooftop terrace, outside. Some hours before the temperatures were below zero.
We went to the sleeper class ticket office at Ramses Station. February 22 was the first possible option to travel in sleeper class. Our intention was to travel the day after tomorrow. At least it was no problem to purchase first class tickets for the 17th.. From Ramses Station we took the taxi to Khan al Khalili after having taking a couple of pictures of the Al-Fath mosque and its amazingly high minaret. The Islamic old town was in fact the most scenic area in Cairo. Starting with Al-Azhar mosque with its three minarets we went to Midan Hussein, strolled through the market Khan al Khalili, went along Bein al-Qasreen a street full of mosques and towers. Mosque al Hakim was situated at the end of that street. Its courtyard was vast and tranquil. The two stony minarets are Cairos oldest towers. We went through the city wall, turned right and walked along Al-Gamaliyya (a street, you feel like being brought back to the beginning of last century) back to Khan al Khalili. There we went to famous Coffee house Fishawi where travellers meet natives. At about 1 pm we took a taxi to Giza to see the pyramids. It took us a full hour and cost 35 LE (only). It was a metered taxi and so we got an idea about appropriate taxi fares. At the entrance we bought tickets to go inside Cheops. This cost us 100 LE apart from the regular entry fee of 60 LE. Aparently we were lucky as the entries to go inside the pyramid were usually limited. First impression to see the pyraimds was in fact not as breathtaking as we thought. There's not much to say about the inside of the pyramid. Whether it was worth the money? I don't know.. The area was very wide spread. Walking down to the Sphinx took about 20 minutes, another back to Chephren which seemed to be higher than Cheops but wasn't.. 4 pm was closing time; surprise. That was the reason why there were not that many tourists around at that time apart from the fact that the Sphinx' face was covered with shadow in the afternoon. Nevertheless we could see the sunset from the top of a restaurant which was situated outside the entrance to the Sphinx.. We taxied back to Carlton hotel in more than an hour through Cairos never ending traffic jams.
Coptic Cairo was the first destination of that day. The metro station Nasser was close to Carlton hotel. The trains were full at 9:30 am. We were waiting in front of a ladies coach. My wife could have entered, but my son and myself not. So we went into the next coach, which was completely full, only men inside except my wife who was feeling quite inconvenient. Coptic Cairo was quite small. There was a museum. We did not go inside, because we had to leave our cameras at the entrance. Taking pictures (even) in the court was forbidden. The most impressive building was the hanging church which in fact was built upon ruins rather than hanging in the air. It's wooden roof was exceptional.. Next stop was the Egyptian museum. Cameras were not allowed inside, so we had to leave them at a deposit. The hall with Tutanchamun's death-mask was a highlight, another was the hall with the mummies. The access to the deceased cost 100 LE extra (a regular entry fee to the museum was 50 LE). The wrinkled creatures were exposed in display cabinets one next to the other. All seen in CSI.. Overall impression, the museum was fairly overloaded.. The taxi to Giza station cost 20 LE. Trains to Luxor and Aswan apparently left from Giza. As from 6:30 pm there were sleeper trains departing every 15 minutes. Our first class seats were in the last carriage, all others were sleeper coaches. The train was fairly on time, and the trip was quite comfortable.
Arrival at Aswan at approximately 9:30 am. Aswan was a pleasant town at the Nile. The temperatures were quite high, but bearable at that time of the year. The nubian taxi driver took us to Keylany hotel which was fully booked. We found a room for 300 LE at Philae hotel which was situated at the river front. The staff was very friendly. The only handicap was the disturbing sound of the tourist boats. Lunch at a small restaurant (Madena) at the market street was inexpensive and excellent.. The colourful spices which were exposed on the market were worth a couple of pictures. At about 4pm we hired a felucca for 90 LE two hours, enough time to sail around Elephantine island with its awful tower of Swissôtel. In fact it was rather a rowing than a sailing excursion because there was no wind, resulting that the captain and his first officer expected a big tip at the end of the trip.. What we did not find in Aswan was a perfect spot to take pictures from the sunset.
Alarm clock went off at 2:30 am. At 3:15 the minibus picked us up (100 LE per person to Abu Simbel and back). Unfortunately we were late at the starting area so the first convoy left already. To be mentioned: tourists could only travel in convoys escorted by police due to terorist activities. At the time the route between Aswan and Abu Simble was the last bit where travelling in convoys was compulsory. Finally we left at about 5 am in an overloaded mini-bus. The race (yes,it was a race) through the desert took about 3hrs. Having 1hr and a half for Abu Simbel was enough. The four big statues of Ramses II were impressive, no doubt. But the entire site was not that huge to stay more than two hours. The site has been evacuated before construction of Nasser dam and reconstructed on another spot which was above water-lever of lake Nasser of course. Nowadays the figures are overlooking the immense lake. On the way back we had a stop at the upper dam and another one at the temple of Philae which was built on an island of the lower lake.. We had dinner at restaurant Aswan Moon which was situated at the riverfront of the Nile. The hot pot with fish was very tasty as well as fish kebab. No alcohol was served.. Restaurants without permission to serve alcohol seem to provide better food than the ones with. They apparently take more care in preparing tasty stuff to attract foreigners.
We went by minibus from Aswan to Luxor stopping in Kom Ombo and Edfu. Kom Ombo was one of the most fascinating temple we have seen. It was not as big as Luxor temple or Karnak but it's reliefs were beautiful. The pylon of Horus temple in Edfu was tremendous.. Take care not to put your feet in the water when entering the corridor to the Nilometer.. Arriving in Luxor we went to Hotel Philippe. We payed 300 LE for a tripple room. There was a swimming pool at its roof. After having a swim we went to Luxor temple in the evening. There was one of Egypts famous Obelisks in front ot the pylon. One of them has been exported to Paris, another one to Rome. After sunset the temple was illuminated. Good shots, but don't forget your tripod. We had dinner in Osiris Café. In fact, we cannot recommend this place. The waiter took off our plates even before we had finished eating. And as we didn't order anything else, the bill was served immediately.
We took the horse taxi to the Karnak temples. There were carriages all everywhere in Luxor. Tourists could hire them for an hour or so to do sightseeing. We found out that they could be used like taxis, to get from A to B for a price even cheaper than a taxi ride. So, back to Karnak which was the biggest religious construction ever built. The hall of pillars was very impressive. We felt like being so tiny surrounded by all those massive lithic trees. There was also a statue of Ramses II with his beloved mother whose size was the one of a dwarf. She reached the level of Ramses' knees.. We went to West-Bank in the afternoon. Walking along the Nile river a guy touted us to bring us to the other side for the same price as we'd pay for the ferry. So far, so good. He offered a drive around West-Bank for half a day 180 LE. We bargained the price to 120 LE; bad business, because the sites which we were about to visit were all very close together. We could have hired bikes for little money. West-Bank was very rural. There were small villages, palm trees, grassland and then the desert starting with a huge rock, the site of the deceased pharaos and their entourage. Passing the two colossus' we came to the ticketing offices where we had to buy our tickets to the tumbs and temples. Visiting two tumbs cost 30 LE, the price of a temple. So first we went to the tumbs of the nobles, not far away from the offices. Some guys were waiting for us to show us the way to the tumbs. Our driver didn't want to guide us; was not his job. We went to the first tumb by our own; luckily found it. Outside, these tumbs were looking like mining gates but the paintings inside were stupendous. The grave warden explained them for a bakshish and guided us to the next tumb. The paintings of the second grave were shown with the mirror technique. One grave warden was staying outside beaming the sunlight down to the tumb with a mirror. The other warden was inside together with us, holding another mirror in his hand and beaming the sun to the paintings on the wall. In the other hand he had a small piece of broken glass which served as pointer to the paintings. Tremendous. That was good bakshish for those guys.. Right, here's our recommendation: If you go to West-Bank, do not miss the valley of the nobles, see: Menna, Nacht, Rechmire and Sennofer. After the vally of the nobles we got a drive to Ramesseum Temple with the broken statue of Ramses II. Head on the ground. Two immense feet left. Medinat Habu was another interesting temple, Ok. but not exceptional.. Later in the afternoon we went back to Luxor and enjoyed the sunset. We had dinner at restaurant Sofra; pigeon and rabbit. The waiter said, good luck. We were not that lucky with our choice.
We traversed the Nile again by ferry to the West-Bank, hired a cab for about 90 LE and went to famous or infamous Hatscheput temple, the site where in 1997 about 30 people were killed. The setting of this temple was fantastic, steep rugged rock behind the buildig. The site was supposed to be the hottest spot on earth. To our luck, it was winter time. Having seen the temple and its fascinating paintings we went to the valley of the kings. Lucky us, we could smuggle our cameras inside the valley. We bought tickets for 80 LE. After having seen the first tumb we were told that we could only visit three tumbs, excluding Tutanchamuns' which would have cost another 100 LE. We went to Tuthmosis' grave which was at the very end of the valey in a narrow canyon. Inside we climbed down through a gallery to the holy room of the pharao. The paintings were nice but there were too many people inside. Same situation at Ramses III; brilliant paintings but too many people. We didn't feel like being in a cementery. From the valley of the kings we walked up to the ridge with the help of a self-proclaimed guide. He was not really happy with the bakshish, but we would have found the path on our own, guess. From the top we had a faboulous view down to the valley of the kings and to Hatschepsut on the other side with the Nile in the far back. The entire walk took about an hour (a highlight). The taxi driver waited at the temple and drove us back to the ferry-port.. We had dinner at restaurant Abu el Hassan el Shazly which was not far away from Sofra: good service, good food, good place to watch street life.
Time to go to the sea. We went to the bus station in Luxor and were the only passengers apart from some kids. Aparently Egyptians were not really used to travel by bus, tourists neither. The trip took about 5 to 6 hrs, crossing the Arabian desert. Hurghada was a large settlement of hotels and construction sites along the Red Sea. The city itself was called Ad Dahar. There were a couple of hotels at the coast of Ad Dahar. We stayed at Cinderella's. There were some restaurants and pubs along the Corniche. Access to the beach was not open to the public. We had dinner at a friend's place, called The Grand Resort Hotel. It was about 10 km away from the city center close to the beach and airport. In fact there was one tourist resort lined up with another all the way south.
That day we went to explore Red Sea's famous underwater world. We payed 20 USD per person (including lunch and snorkeling gear) for a boat trip to the coral reefs around some islands starting at 9 am and returning at about 4 pm. Fish and coral was not bad, but time for underwater excursions was too short. Too many people dabbling around. In fact there were about 50 boats cruising over the reefs all in all.
Another day in Huragda. We spent the afternoon at our friend's resort.
We travelled back to Cairo by bus. The trip took about 6hrs. Rain was pouring down when we arrived there.. We stayed at Omayad hotel which was close to Midan Orabi, had dinner at restaurant Abu al-Hassan al-Haty, another recommendation of Lonely Planet which turned out to be a drain. We were the only guests. The meal was not too bad but the waiter treated to cheat us with a faked bill.
We were visiting the citadel in the morning. The view was fairly clear after the rains. At least we could make out the pyramids in the horizon. The trip by taxi to the airport was another nightmare. Taxi drivers were notorious Formula I pilots. Apart from their dangerous behaviour they constantly tried to cheat us. That guy had an old taxameter installed and tried to claim 70 LE instead of 24 LE. I could bargain the price down to 40 LE after having written his identity number on a booklet. The tourist police man who was right at the taxi drop didn't want to help us.. Our plane (Swiss flight LX 237) left on time back to freezing Europe.