Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt 9-28-11

We were lucky enough to find a flight that routed us through Sharm and we spent 1 day there. I had originally wanted to go to a few more places in Egypt besides Cairo,such as Alexandria, Aswan, Luxor and Sharm El Sheikh but we cut our trip short last month because I was getting sick and we were not liking Cairo at all.

Sharm reminds me alot of Cancun, a town built exclusively for tourist. If you want to go to an over priced, artificially cultivated city than this is the place for you. Most hotels are in the old market district which is rather loud with thumping, old disco music blaring well into the evening. We were lucky enough to stay at The Lido which is on the far end of the street. You can hear the music but it is not unbearable. At the airport it was easy enough to get a cab, but all the prices are set and again its for tourist so its over priced and the taxis can't drive down the old market rd so we had to schlep our bags to the other end where our hotel was. We did take the hotel shuttle back to the airport and at least we didn't have to take the luggage all the way thru town.

There are many, many things to do in the old market- lots of eating, drinking, dancing, shisha smoking and shopping establishments. Reminded me of spring break for the older crowd. The beaches were there but roped off and empty of any kind of snorkeling view so you had to book a snorkel trip if you wanted to do this. Its on the Red Sea and the water is clear and cool but for my money I much rather go to Aqaba in Jordan. Its a real town with reasonably priced accommodations etc and you can snorkel right from the beach.

I was happy to find the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) still open there and I did get a pin to add to my collection. The HRC's in Turkey, Jordan and Cairo have closed and I was disappointed I couldn't get my pins.

A word of caution don't go to the dimly lit side streets with little shops unless your in a group. There were warnings from several people saying tourist get locked in a store until they purchase something. Also don't go with anyone claiming they can take you on a low budget tour. Book any tours thru a reputable company and/or hotel. Many times these scammers want a deposit and then never come back to get you. I did feel safe there but the vendors were somewhat pesty trying to get you into their store. Just say "Chokran La" No Thanks and keep walking. You can haggle with vendors over prices, if a price is marked its pretty fixed but if there is no price on the item you can haggle. Sometimes if you buy more than one thing they will give you a discount or a free gift and if your the first customer of the day you usually get a good deal too. Old Market is open during the day but it really comes to life in the evening, so enjoy the beach or a tour during the day and eat, drink and be merry in the evening.

I didn't even feel like I was in Egypt, mostly because everyone there is a tourist. There were lots of German and Europeans there, fat men wearing banana hammocks instead of board shorts.
Tip: You can have a free visa if you are just going to the Sinai area, but if you are going to Cairo or any other place you do have to pay the 15 dollars for the visa.

on to Turkey.

9-2-11 Freedom Square, Cairo

We were on our way to the airport and had to pass by Freedom Square where all the riots were. This is a picture of the armed police standing guard in the square and the burnt out buildings behind it. The Ritz Carlton hotel is among the burnt out buildings. We didn't see any protestors but our friends said there is still a lot of unrest. Everyone seems to want things fixed instantly and apparently the new government isn't fixing things fast enough, unemployment is very high too. It's a good thing we went when we did because I heard the riots started up again the following week. I think if the riots continue its still safe to go just avoid the protests if you see them and always check current travel warnings.

9-1-11 The Pyramids

Excited to go and see them but not excited to walk all around, feeling sore and tired still from yesterday.
Everyone seems to have a friend that works here or there or does this or that so after a few calls our friends found someone that works at the pyramids. Its about an hours drive there from our hotel and we stopped to pick up the young man that worked there on the way. Its 60 Egyptian pounds to get in but you would have to walk around all of it and its up hill and very hot. There are a few options to remedy this-you can book a tour on an air conditioned bus usually right from your hotel, but they can't stop in front of the pyramids you still have to walk alot. We opted for the horse drawn carriage ride, it holds 2 ppl plus the driver, so we needed 2 carriages. This was about 240 EGP (40 usd pp) for ea person in the carriage, you can negotiate some and we did get a better price than the original quote.It does feel like everyone is out to rip you off at least when you go to disney world you know its a rip off but the price is set. Negotiate, be firm and walk away if you can't agree, more than likely they will run after you with a better offer if not there is 10 others waiting for your business. There weren't many outsiders there, looked like a lot of local ppl.

The driver of the carriage motioned for us to get off so I did and was promptly handed over to a man with a camel. I thought this was included in the tour and since he handed me over to him I went willingly. The camel guy had a turban and crop in my hand before I could even ask anything and up I went on the camel. We took a few pics and when I got down the guy demanded more than 300 EGP LOL for sitting on your camel? Rayan glared at me for even getting on it but I shrugged my shoulders as I thought it was part of the tour and eventually they agreed upon about half that. There were also many kids following us trying to sell their trinkets which were priced only 20 EGP for most small things, but I won't be home for a long time and I have no where to store stuff and no where to ship it to so I passed. Just say chokran la which means thank you no.

The tour guide/carriage driver did speak english and he did give a nice narrative of each pyramid. There are about 97 in Egypt but this of course with the Sphinx is one of the most popular. The tour takes abt 1 hour and I was glad to be done with it. Our guide asked us for a tip and then lead us over to stores where I am sure they get a commission for bringing tourist to them. I got angry and refused to go up to the lame papyrus museum located about a perfumery. The perfume guy kept trying to get me to sample his wares and I finally said I am allergic, I was waiting for the rest of the party to return from the paper museum. The "friend" of our friends wanted to take us into more spots and stay for the night time laser show, which is about 15 more EGP and 4 more hours waiting around for it to start so I said I needed to go back to the hotel. I was still feeling achy and sore and tired from yesterday and I wanted air conditioning and a nap.
I got my nap and was sniffling and sneezing when I woke up and didn't feel like going shopping even. If you know me you know I will do almost anything to go shopping so I must not be feeling well. I ordered some soup from room service and I asked Rayan to go shopping in my place and do me proud. Rayan obliged, he was probably happy to get out of my presence because in addition to not feeling well I was cranky, irritable and whiny.
Rayan returned several hours later and said I indeed missed a great shopping/eating/ppl watching expedition. He went to an open market really streets and streets lined with vendors for several miles. He was able to find some inexpensive colored contacts for my daughter, less than 2 dollars a pack and it came with solution and a lens holder. I was excited because they are 30 bucks in the US and these were "fresh look" made in Germany. He was even a sweety and brought me a pair but I try as I might I could not get those things in my eyes, so he tired the one on that I didn't use. Dang they change even the darkest brown into a cool color, he used gray and it gave him an eerie wolf like appearance (see pic).
Sadly the Cairo HRC is no longer in business either.

I wanted to go to the hard rock cafe in cairo but it had closed about 6 months ago and there was one in sharm or hurghada but it was a 5 hour bus ride ea way.We also wanted to go to alexandria but I was definitely coming down with something and didn't feel like doing any of it. I also didn't feel up to the 15 hour ferry/bus ride home so I suggested we fly back. I tried to validate the cost saying it would be a good evaluation of the other travel options since we came bus ferry/bus.
All in all I didn't like Cairo but they were recovering from a revolution and it could have been much worse. It was very dirty but they said the garbage guys had not resumed working since the revolution. I am now able to cross this country off my list but would like to eventually go to the other places I mentioned.

8-30-11 Nile Cruise

Our friends accompanied us on the Nile Cruise. We stopped along the way to buy some snacks and found that the little store also offered some fresh baked bread. They offered us an impromptu tour and gave us a sample. The baker was very proud that I said it was "zacky" delicious. We also saw a few horse/donkey drawn carts going down the street along with traffic. We arrived at the departure point and Rayan negotiated the price. This would be significantly harder to do if you don't speak Arabic, but it can be done they do speak some English. Be firm and if you don't like the price pretend to walk away, they will come after you and haggle some more. The price was for the entire boat regardless of how many ppl were on it and it included a nice lunch. The cruise has alot of small islands to stop over on and each one has something to offer tourist. There is an extra fee for each place you stop over at and an additional charge if you purchase any of the products on the islands as well, keep in mind their goal is to sell you products and even if you don't buy anything they want a tip for giving you their spiel. The price for this lovely day including lunch, taxis and all the extras was about 100.00 pp. It is more fun to go in a group, safer too and as an unmarried woman this also provided me with a female companion.

Our 1st stop was a lush tropical oasis with a small hive of honey bees and the friendly bee keeper was funny and informative and we got to see and taste fresh flavorful honey. His wife was busy baking pharaoh's bread , a bread once only served to royalty now being served to tourists. The bread was warm and flaky like phyllo dough and went really well with the honey. There were also fields of flowers there (probably for the bees) and the teenagers giving the tour will happily pick you a small bunch to take with you-they were very fragrant and lovely but they don't hold up well in the hot sun it will only cost you a few extra coins.

Next stop was my favorite, a horse drawn carriage ride followed by some horse back riding by the Nile and down the middle of the crowded street. Don't be alarmed the horses are used to the traffic and there is the child of the carriage driver running behind you with a crop yelling directions at the horse. There also appeared to be a festival going on as Ramadan ended yesterday and we got to ride past a carnival and concert venue. It was very bouncy and I kept yelling "Hollis" which means "enough", but the 11yo running behind the horse kept whacking him and making him run.

Lunch was grilled shrimp and fish and some fried fillets served with lots of bread and salad and sauces on the side. We sat on plastic chairs and tables directly overlooking the Nile. We found out that this island only serves drinks and someone had to go and get the food and bring it to us but it was definitely worth it. They even had a decent bathroom to use so I was a happy girl.

As it approached sunset we cruised by a bridge and some alcoves that were dam like to retain the water. Unfortunately there was a ton of garbage stuck in the alcoves and there was even a dead horse and a goat floating in it which I found disturbing and disgusting as this is supposed to be the water source for the city. Its always a good idea to drink bottled water and drinks and avoid ice cubes just in case and this confirms it.

Our day concludes with disembarking and waving goodbye to the crew of our Nile Cruise and we wearily but happily were driven back to our hotel by a taxi.