The credit for this post goes to Saudi Arabian airlines, all thanks to the promotion that they were running which enabled me & tikku to get cheap return tickets for Cairo.
Jeddah- Most of the times there is a small price to pay, in case one is getting a good deal. Same was applicable for my Egypt trip, as I had to while away a night each during onwards & returns journey from Mumbai. Onwards flight was via Jeddah & the transit lounge was barely adequate for the staff managing the same. There was no place to even sit, leave aside the option of lying down. After struggling for most of the night we spotted a few people moving out. Language barrier ensured that we could not ask them questions, but still we followed them. They all moved to a hall where there were many rugs kept & in my head I started cursing myself for not knowing the resting area (even though it was dirty & rugs were looking unclean, I was sleep deprived for 2 days & this was welcome relief) & wasting the major part of the night. It was almost 2:30 am & we still could get some rest before our 9:30 am flight. It took me some time but I managed to fall asleep in a bit only to be woken abruptly by a bunch of people. 4 am by any standards is an insane time to be woken up, leave aside the fact that I slept at 2:30 am. It took me a while to realize that this was the prayer room & people were not very happy that we (there were a few others) were using the same as a sleeping area. I quickly got up & rushed towards the transit lounge.
Ful- On the hindsight, the funniest moment for me was on the flight to Cairo when we were struggling with language big time. Apparently there was no one on the flight staff who was good in English & we were extremely hungry. Food was awaited & given that I didn't pre-book meals we had to communicate to them that we were Vegetarian. Also its critical to add here that only preparation that I do before travelling to a new place is to find the local word for vegetarian, which in this case was 'Nabaeti'. So I used that as well but we still could not understand what they were reverting back. We kept on saying we need vegetarian/ Nabaeti food & they kept on reverting full. We thought there is a local concept of full vegetarian & half vegetarian & we wanted to specify that we were full vegetarians, without even having a basic understanding of what could be a half vegetarian. But irrespective of whatever we said, they kept on reverting with full. Then I demanded to be shown what this food look like & it was not very appealing site or didn't gave me the kind of clarity that I was looking for. So eventually, we had to survive only on a bread roll, which was difficult given how hungry we were. Later, while we were travelling in Egypt we realised that they were talking about this dish which is called 'Ful medammes' which is a vegetarian bean curry to be had with bread & had a good laugh about the entire incident.
Alexandria/ Cairo- The lesser used & situated somewhere between Alexandria & Cairo is Borg Al Arab airport. Interacted with some locals to find that the best way to go to Cairo from here is getting a cab, after much negotiation we got one, but the cab soon got stopped on the way by cops. The guy had to pay something to grease the palms of the officer in charge & post which he asked us for additional money. Now had this been one of instance, I would have been okay with paying more but we realized later that this was to be repeated through out the trip. We had no intentions of making the poor cabbie manage the load, so we gave him extra money to cover for the bribe that he paid.
Egyptian night hostel- We managed to spot the hostel with great amount of difficulty, no one knew about the hostel & it was located in the dingiest of lanes in the middle of the city. Thankfully people were nice (both the staff & travellers), so we managed to have a good time here. Met Amira here who was a student visiting Cairo & she helped us with lots of pointers. For the first time realized the kind of customization that people do in coffee buying, Amira bought some coffee, where she selected the mix of various types of coffee beans to be mixed with select spices. Personally I explored it about a year later, when I was travelling in Jordan, where I fell in love with Turkish coffee.
Vegetarian food- Thanks to Amira we first full Egyptian meal in Cairo, we tried Dolma, Lentin Soup, Rice with vegetable curry, etc. This was also when we realised that food wise we would not struggle here in Egypt & we were completely correct. Falafel sandwiches & Koshary were our go to meals till the time we were there, with a healthy sprinkle of various dips with bread. I also tried a few road side delicacies with roll equivalent of Egypt which was pretty good. And food was extremely satisfactory. Best meal being the one that we had in open desert in Dahab, which was cooked in Bedouin style inside an underground sand oven.
Khan-Al-Khalili market- Same day evening after taking a walk to the city centre Tikku decided to catch up on sleep but I wanted to explore the city further. As I was about to step out another Australian traveller, Smitty asked me where I was off to. Well I had no destination in mind & he wanted to visit Khan-al-Khalili market, so we decided to travel together to save on cost. Also this small trip made me sympathetic towards white folks visiting Egypt. The amount of harassment that white skinned people receive in Asia was not a hidden fact for me, but Egypt was special. Here they wouldn't even spare a brown skinned person like me, so white folks were always in for a special treatment. Smitty was on a long break & was planning to cover quite a bit of Europe & Africa. We decided on a strategy where we would maintain a safe distance from all shops while covering the entire market on foot. It was fascinating watching these colourful shops go by, listening to owners calling out for Smitty in english "Hey man" & calling me Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, etc (I don't know how they figure out Indians, when there is such a strong resemblance in people from most of the sub-continent countries). Our plan was working perfectly till I saw shops with food, at which point I just gave in. We tried a few deserts and had to pay much more than the regular price. But the most striking fact was the absence of tourists. So many people depending on tourists but outnumbering them by a good margins.
Tahrir square- For some reason Tahrir Square was extremely relevant point for all tourists & it is located at a point where you can't really miss it as a tourist. Right in front of the Egyptian Museum, which is one of the must visit point in Cairo. But when I went there it was slightly underwhelming, a small garden out of nowhere, where a few local people were sitting & chatting. After seeing it it was difficult to hide my disappointment. But I realized pretty soon the relevance of the point, when I saw a couple of Tanks roaming around without creating any disturbance in the environment. I was told by a local that after the uprising this place is covered by tanks & armed army troopers, to ensure the revolution does not start again. Slightly sad to see that in a historic point people did not have full freedom to express their opinion any more.
'Government run agency' at the Giza- The first point in our list, like anyone's list, was pyramid of Giza. I was so excited, but we still need to close the how bit of it. I wanted to just land their & enter the pyramid complex but tikku was of the opinion that we should take help of an agent. After doing a little research even I realized that tikku's plan made sense, given that public transportation was not that great. After speaking to many agency, including our hostel owner, we decided to go with on who assured us that this would be managed end-to-end. Our experience hasn't been so great in Egypt as everyone was trying to dupe us so far. The cab driver who came to pick us up was a fun guy, we discussed plenty of things on the way & he also informed us that best way to visit Giza is to go via a Government agency outside Giza complex, this was also mentioned by the agency. Now we haven't done much research & hence we agreed. As we reached we realised it was a shady place and no way had anything to do with any government. Finally after a decent bit of negotiation we agreed on 450 Egyptian pounds. Later we realised he only had to pay 160 pounds and rest was simply Pocketed by him. To cut a long story short, our experience with Egyptians was not going in the right direction so far, the agent in Cairo, driver, 'Government' agent, camel guy, etc. But the place was mesmerizing beautiful & had that impact on us that we managed to enjoy it while blocking all the randomness.
Gift for a Gift- Another funny thing happened while we were exploring the pyramids & spinx at giza. A man came & offered a local head gear as a gift. Now Tikku had cracked the code & said a no straight away but I wanted to give some more chances to people of Egypt. So I asked him straight that I would take it & what does he expects in return. He continuously denied taking no money for the gift & this would be a gift from an Egyptian to an Indian. I knew there was something more to the entire thing but I still went for it. As soon as I took the headgear in my hands, the man started asking for a gift in return. I asked him what he wants to which he replied I can give him some Indian currency. This was the best I had seen so far & I was genuinely impressed with his method. I gave him a 100 INR note but he wasn't too kicked about that & started asking for a 1000. Now anywhere I could have bought that head gear for 5-10 Egyptian Pound but this guy wanted a 100 pound equivalent for the headgear. Finally I paid his 100 INR which is 15 pounds in local currency & got rid of him. For the rest of the trip I stayed away from anyone who wanted to gift me anything. Something similar happened later when a guy helped us find a good restaurant ordered good food for us, given no one understood English there, was also willing to walk us to the railway station. We were certain about a hidden angle, Tikku was asking him to leave us but I asked him what does he need. After giving a back story about his family stuck in UK & he also had to make enough money to go to UK he asked to use our passports to buy some cigarettes & alcohol from duty free shop. He said one packet & one bottle, but once we were there he bought the maximum amount of stuff from our passport, good enough for stacking a supermarket's alcohol & tobacco bay. Not that we had anything to lose in this, in fact we wanted to help him, but overall it left a bad taste in my mouth & I decided to stay away from idiot like this one.
Pyramid of Dahsur- Not that all our experiences that day were bad, our driver asked us not to enter the Pyramids in Giza as it is expensive, rather we should enter the Pyramid in Dahsur which is not that expensive. We decided to enter the pyramid which was a difficult task for tikku given that one needs to walk in hunched position for about 200 m in a path which is barely 2 or 3 ft by 2 or 3 ft. But good thing about that experience was that we got to experience everything with complete freedom. No one was inside to ask us to move out or walk quickly. And the pyramid was beautiful from inside but the mummy casket was cracked open & body were moved to Egyptian museum.
Sharm Al Sheikh- We got so frustrated with people trying to fleece us in Cairo that we decided to head out of the city & the easiest option was to head towards Sharm. Without even booking our hotel, we just took a bus which was to arrive at Sharm early in the morning. So when at 4 am in the morning, we had to tag our luggage across various hotels, as some were locked & others had no rooms. Irrespective of the season this city always get loads of tourists & majority of them are from Middle east. So finally we managed to struck a deal with a decent hotel after trying our luck for about an hour.
Little Diver- I wanted to dive in Red Sea & tikku was happy with the idea of Snorkelling. We spotted a diving centre just beside the swimming pool at our hotel. We dropped the idea of swimming & went their to negotiate a good deal for our interest. We got a good deal & in the back of our heads we were thinking how great was the decision to leave Cairo. My guide was a British kid who was in school completing his higher secondary. He had a good sense of humour & pretty soon we were making fun of each other, but whatever doubts anyone could have had about him being all of 19 years old would vanish away when they see him dive. He knew his stuff, even his briefing was to the point defying his age. Had a great dive & thanked Chistian for the experience.
Taxed to death- After the diving & snorkelling, we wanted to have food. Went to one of the restaurants in the market near our hotel & ordered a pizza & tahini dip with bread. The total according to the menu was to be 60 LE, but we got a bill for 135 LE. But this time we had both lost it with Egyptian peoples tendency to try & rob us of our hard earned money. Taxes were to the tune of 22% & when asked question the manager started to negotiate with us on the bill amount. We were a little tired & decided to settle it at 100 LE & left with a bad taste in our mouth.
Random checks by police- Every single bus Journey that we took was an overnight one, because one the buses are designed that way & two we also end up saving on hotel rentals when we use over night buses. But on all these occasions we got a taste of what locals had to go through every single time. Buses would be stopped at least 5-6 times over the night & checked thoroughly. The drill is that every single passenger get off the bus & army people get the luggage down & keep them in a line. People then stand in front of their bags, in the meanwhile a big dog would come & take a sniff across all the luggages. Post this check people would have to pick their bags & put it back in. It would be so frustrating to be woken up 5-6 times during the night & then having to put your bags back in that drowsy state.
Dahab- The game changer- The best part of the entire trip was the time that I spent in Dahab. Now Egypt is a beautiful country & there is plenty to do & see. But Dahab takes the cake as it is a dream town, one of the most laid back & rightly considered backpacker's paradise in Egypt, it gives options of desert, red sea & Sinai range related activity & also give an opportunity to observe Bedouin culture from close quarters. I have read an article about Dahab & was extremely keen on visiting & it was fully worth it. We also met Mohammad here who became a guide for us for the entire trip. He took us around in his truck, arranged snorkelling in Blue hole, got us to spend a wonderful evening in desert with bedouin food, etc. Now we were so wary of local people, due to our bad experiences that we took a lot of time to trust Mohammad. But thankfully we eventually trusted him & he ensured we had a great time in Dahab. He took us to Blue hole, which is considered to be one of the best diving spots in the world. He also arranged for a night in the desert where we had prepared in the local manner, inside an underground sand oven. We sang, exchanged stories, ate to our heart's content, smoked sheesha, etc & came back post mid night
.
Birthday celebration to remember- Even though I forgot the occasion, there were people who remembered that it was my birthday & so after spending a full evening in the deserts we came back to the town. It was almost midnight by the time we came back & I was surprised to hear a request for a coffee. Both tikku & mohammad were in favour & I tagged along. After a while they all started singing the local birthday song & clapping. It took me a little while to understand what was going on & then they brought in a small cake. It was one of the better celebration that I have had for my birthdays.
Best meal of the trip- Dahab was the best part of the entire trip & even the best meal of the trip happened here. We decided to take up mohammad idea of spending an evening in desert & having a bedouin prepared in traditional sand oven style right there. We reached at the spot early evening & spend a good 6-7 hours there. Star lit sky, bonfire, tea made in traditional bedouin style, greeted us straight away. It would have been enough also, but then we were informed the highlight is the meal that we would eventually have & given that both of us were vegetarian they planned everything keeping that in mind. And the meal was amazing to say the least, flavourful & spicy yet they had the balance which was perfect. And the company of Bob, Hamada & Mohammad ensure
Valley of the Kings- After Pyramids, I wasn't very keen on visiting any other religious/historic places centred around Kings, Gods from upper or lower Egypt. But thankfully there were great reviews on the Valley of Kings & Queens & We decided to go. As it panned out, it turned out to be better than Pyramids (Though it is unfair on my part to even compare the two monuments, but my Return on expectation was higher on Valley of the Kings). Loved the day that we spent here, with us gasping at all the valleys. Even though majority of the valleys were blocked due to some natural disaster or due to the fact that they are in bad state due to increased exposure. But whichever we could visit, I was taken aback by the beauty & ingenuity of it all.
Luxor & Aswan- This was the part where we were thinking whether we should proceed or not. But like Valley of the kings, there were other places which were high on ROE, like Luxor temple which was extremely pretty. Especially during the night it looked breathtakingly beautiful. We realised that the best view could be obtained from a Mosque opposite to the temple, but the challenge was that Mosque closes down at an early hour. I had to have a chat with the caretaker of the Mosque & convince him on letting me in. Post which I realised that it was a pretty Mosque as well & ended up spending more than 40 minutes there out of which only about 10 minutes were dedicated to the temple. Also on our way back we realised that there was a festival celebration going on at Luxor & we spent some time there listening to local music, link shared below.
Musical Performance at Luxor
Bob Marley Hostel- While we were walking with our bags from bus stop to our hostel, we kept on getting different directions for the hostel. It was all very confusing, even when we asked a few tourists we got contradicting answers. After adjusting my route for a few times, someone told me that there are two different Bob Marley hostels here in Luxor & both are pretty decent, but the one which I had booked was in the opposite direction. When we reach the place, we met Maria a European lady who owns the hostel & shares the wisdom on how to manage Egypt as a tourist. She also told us that we can get food in Egypt at a lower price by taking help of the support staff, mostly all Egyptian restaurants have dual pricing catering to locals & tourists. Overall, she ensured that we had a great time & helped us have a great stay in Luxor.
Alexandria- This represents the modern side of Egypt, being the closest point to Europe it was obviously the most advanced part. There were a few tourist attraction as well, but for me the best part was walking around Mediterranean Sea against the strongest of breeze, with a strong chill factor in air. Even though it was the coldest part of the trip & I did not have the adequate layering needed, but I still could not spend much time in hotel room simply because the setting was too awesome to miss out on. The city is built around the sea in a semi-circular fashion & the view is nothing short of spectacular. Even with the light house being destroyed & the library no longer being there in its original form, the sheer natural beauty & the way the city is located around the sea makes it an experience in itself.
Station at Alexandria- we eventually managed to board a train in Alexandria, which was a good experience. I wont even start off at the effectiveness of the railway system, since that's not the reason why I have put this point here. The real reason for the mention in this post is the regal look of the station. I have already mentioned how Alexandria looks sharp in contrast with the rest of the Egypt due to its proximity to Europe. Even the railway station maintains the same contrast, given that rest of the country does not even maintain its heritage points nicely but at Alexandria even the railway station looks like this :)
Mummy in Egyptian Museum- I have not met anyone who didn't attempt a mummy joke after knowing that I returned from Egypt. Even I was keen on watching a few of them but at majority of pyramids & Valleys they had removed the bodies & shifted it to the Egyptian Museum. At the museum they also had the entire collection which was excavated from Tutankhamun's tomb. It was expensive, but completely worth it. Overall from the entire trip, tikku managed to capture a few images of the mummies which are shared below. Post-facto I could have avoided seeing these completely.
Jeddah- Most of the times there is a small price to pay, in case one is getting a good deal. Same was applicable for my Egypt trip, as I had to while away a night each during onwards & returns journey from Mumbai. Onwards flight was via Jeddah & the transit lounge was barely adequate for the staff managing the same. There was no place to even sit, leave aside the option of lying down. After struggling for most of the night we spotted a few people moving out. Language barrier ensured that we could not ask them questions, but still we followed them. They all moved to a hall where there were many rugs kept & in my head I started cursing myself for not knowing the resting area (even though it was dirty & rugs were looking unclean, I was sleep deprived for 2 days & this was welcome relief) & wasting the major part of the night. It was almost 2:30 am & we still could get some rest before our 9:30 am flight. It took me some time but I managed to fall asleep in a bit only to be woken abruptly by a bunch of people. 4 am by any standards is an insane time to be woken up, leave aside the fact that I slept at 2:30 am. It took me a while to realize that this was the prayer room & people were not very happy that we (there were a few others) were using the same as a sleeping area. I quickly got up & rushed towards the transit lounge.
Ful- On the hindsight, the funniest moment for me was on the flight to Cairo when we were struggling with language big time. Apparently there was no one on the flight staff who was good in English & we were extremely hungry. Food was awaited & given that I didn't pre-book meals we had to communicate to them that we were Vegetarian. Also its critical to add here that only preparation that I do before travelling to a new place is to find the local word for vegetarian, which in this case was 'Nabaeti'. So I used that as well but we still could not understand what they were reverting back. We kept on saying we need vegetarian/ Nabaeti food & they kept on reverting full. We thought there is a local concept of full vegetarian & half vegetarian & we wanted to specify that we were full vegetarians, without even having a basic understanding of what could be a half vegetarian. But irrespective of whatever we said, they kept on reverting with full. Then I demanded to be shown what this food look like & it was not very appealing site or didn't gave me the kind of clarity that I was looking for. So eventually, we had to survive only on a bread roll, which was difficult given how hungry we were. Later, while we were travelling in Egypt we realised that they were talking about this dish which is called 'Ful medammes' which is a vegetarian bean curry to be had with bread & had a good laugh about the entire incident. Alexandria/ Cairo- The lesser used & situated somewhere between Alexandria & Cairo is Borg Al Arab airport. Interacted with some locals to find that the best way to go to Cairo from here is getting a cab, after much negotiation we got one, but the cab soon got stopped on the way by cops. The guy had to pay something to grease the palms of the officer in charge & post which he asked us for additional money. Now had this been one of instance, I would have been okay with paying more but we realized later that this was to be repeated through out the trip. We had no intentions of making the poor cabbie manage the load, so we gave him extra money to cover for the bribe that he paid.
Egyptian night hostel- We managed to spot the hostel with great amount of difficulty, no one knew about the hostel & it was located in the dingiest of lanes in the middle of the city. Thankfully people were nice (both the staff & travellers), so we managed to have a good time here. Met Amira here who was a student visiting Cairo & she helped us with lots of pointers. For the first time realized the kind of customization that people do in coffee buying, Amira bought some coffee, where she selected the mix of various types of coffee beans to be mixed with select spices. Personally I explored it about a year later, when I was travelling in Jordan, where I fell in love with Turkish coffee.Vegetarian food- Thanks to Amira we first full Egyptian meal in Cairo, we tried Dolma, Lentin Soup, Rice with vegetable curry, etc. This was also when we realised that food wise we would not struggle here in Egypt & we were completely correct. Falafel sandwiches & Koshary were our go to meals till the time we were there, with a healthy sprinkle of various dips with bread. I also tried a few road side delicacies with roll equivalent of Egypt which was pretty good. And food was extremely satisfactory. Best meal being the one that we had in open desert in Dahab, which was cooked in Bedouin style inside an underground sand oven.
Khan-Al-Khalili market- Same day evening after taking a walk to the city centre Tikku decided to catch up on sleep but I wanted to explore the city further. As I was about to step out another Australian traveller, Smitty asked me where I was off to. Well I had no destination in mind & he wanted to visit Khan-al-Khalili market, so we decided to travel together to save on cost. Also this small trip made me sympathetic towards white folks visiting Egypt. The amount of harassment that white skinned people receive in Asia was not a hidden fact for me, but Egypt was special. Here they wouldn't even spare a brown skinned person like me, so white folks were always in for a special treatment. Smitty was on a long break & was planning to cover quite a bit of Europe & Africa. We decided on a strategy where we would maintain a safe distance from all shops while covering the entire market on foot. It was fascinating watching these colourful shops go by, listening to owners calling out for Smitty in english "Hey man" & calling me Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, etc (I don't know how they figure out Indians, when there is such a strong resemblance in people from most of the sub-continent countries). Our plan was working perfectly till I saw shops with food, at which point I just gave in. We tried a few deserts and had to pay much more than the regular price. But the most striking fact was the absence of tourists. So many people depending on tourists but outnumbering them by a good margins.
Tahrir square- For some reason Tahrir Square was extremely relevant point for all tourists & it is located at a point where you can't really miss it as a tourist. Right in front of the Egyptian Museum, which is one of the must visit point in Cairo. But when I went there it was slightly underwhelming, a small garden out of nowhere, where a few local people were sitting & chatting. After seeing it it was difficult to hide my disappointment. But I realized pretty soon the relevance of the point, when I saw a couple of Tanks roaming around without creating any disturbance in the environment. I was told by a local that after the uprising this place is covered by tanks & armed army troopers, to ensure the revolution does not start again. Slightly sad to see that in a historic point people did not have full freedom to express their opinion any more.
'Government run agency' at the Giza- The first point in our list, like anyone's list, was pyramid of Giza. I was so excited, but we still need to close the how bit of it. I wanted to just land their & enter the pyramid complex but tikku was of the opinion that we should take help of an agent. After doing a little research even I realized that tikku's plan made sense, given that public transportation was not that great. After speaking to many agency, including our hostel owner, we decided to go with on who assured us that this would be managed end-to-end. Our experience hasn't been so great in Egypt as everyone was trying to dupe us so far. The cab driver who came to pick us up was a fun guy, we discussed plenty of things on the way & he also informed us that best way to visit Giza is to go via a Government agency outside Giza complex, this was also mentioned by the agency. Now we haven't done much research & hence we agreed. As we reached we realised it was a shady place and no way had anything to do with any government. Finally after a decent bit of negotiation we agreed on 450 Egyptian pounds. Later we realised he only had to pay 160 pounds and rest was simply Pocketed by him. To cut a long story short, our experience with Egyptians was not going in the right direction so far, the agent in Cairo, driver, 'Government' agent, camel guy, etc. But the place was mesmerizing beautiful & had that impact on us that we managed to enjoy it while blocking all the randomness.
Gift for a Gift- Another funny thing happened while we were exploring the pyramids & spinx at giza. A man came & offered a local head gear as a gift. Now Tikku had cracked the code & said a no straight away but I wanted to give some more chances to people of Egypt. So I asked him straight that I would take it & what does he expects in return. He continuously denied taking no money for the gift & this would be a gift from an Egyptian to an Indian. I knew there was something more to the entire thing but I still went for it. As soon as I took the headgear in my hands, the man started asking for a gift in return. I asked him what he wants to which he replied I can give him some Indian currency. This was the best I had seen so far & I was genuinely impressed with his method. I gave him a 100 INR note but he wasn't too kicked about that & started asking for a 1000. Now anywhere I could have bought that head gear for 5-10 Egyptian Pound but this guy wanted a 100 pound equivalent for the headgear. Finally I paid his 100 INR which is 15 pounds in local currency & got rid of him. For the rest of the trip I stayed away from anyone who wanted to gift me anything. Something similar happened later when a guy helped us find a good restaurant ordered good food for us, given no one understood English there, was also willing to walk us to the railway station. We were certain about a hidden angle, Tikku was asking him to leave us but I asked him what does he need. After giving a back story about his family stuck in UK & he also had to make enough money to go to UK he asked to use our passports to buy some cigarettes & alcohol from duty free shop. He said one packet & one bottle, but once we were there he bought the maximum amount of stuff from our passport, good enough for stacking a supermarket's alcohol & tobacco bay. Not that we had anything to lose in this, in fact we wanted to help him, but overall it left a bad taste in my mouth & I decided to stay away from idiot like this one.
Pyramid of Dahsur- Not that all our experiences that day were bad, our driver asked us not to enter the Pyramids in Giza as it is expensive, rather we should enter the Pyramid in Dahsur which is not that expensive. We decided to enter the pyramid which was a difficult task for tikku given that one needs to walk in hunched position for about 200 m in a path which is barely 2 or 3 ft by 2 or 3 ft. But good thing about that experience was that we got to experience everything with complete freedom. No one was inside to ask us to move out or walk quickly. And the pyramid was beautiful from inside but the mummy casket was cracked open & body were moved to Egyptian museum.
Sharm Al Sheikh- We got so frustrated with people trying to fleece us in Cairo that we decided to head out of the city & the easiest option was to head towards Sharm. Without even booking our hotel, we just took a bus which was to arrive at Sharm early in the morning. So when at 4 am in the morning, we had to tag our luggage across various hotels, as some were locked & others had no rooms. Irrespective of the season this city always get loads of tourists & majority of them are from Middle east. So finally we managed to struck a deal with a decent hotel after trying our luck for about an hour.
Little Diver- I wanted to dive in Red Sea & tikku was happy with the idea of Snorkelling. We spotted a diving centre just beside the swimming pool at our hotel. We dropped the idea of swimming & went their to negotiate a good deal for our interest. We got a good deal & in the back of our heads we were thinking how great was the decision to leave Cairo. My guide was a British kid who was in school completing his higher secondary. He had a good sense of humour & pretty soon we were making fun of each other, but whatever doubts anyone could have had about him being all of 19 years old would vanish away when they see him dive. He knew his stuff, even his briefing was to the point defying his age. Had a great dive & thanked Chistian for the experience.Taxed to death- After the diving & snorkelling, we wanted to have food. Went to one of the restaurants in the market near our hotel & ordered a pizza & tahini dip with bread. The total according to the menu was to be 60 LE, but we got a bill for 135 LE. But this time we had both lost it with Egyptian peoples tendency to try & rob us of our hard earned money. Taxes were to the tune of 22% & when asked question the manager started to negotiate with us on the bill amount. We were a little tired & decided to settle it at 100 LE & left with a bad taste in our mouth.
Random checks by police- Every single bus Journey that we took was an overnight one, because one the buses are designed that way & two we also end up saving on hotel rentals when we use over night buses. But on all these occasions we got a taste of what locals had to go through every single time. Buses would be stopped at least 5-6 times over the night & checked thoroughly. The drill is that every single passenger get off the bus & army people get the luggage down & keep them in a line. People then stand in front of their bags, in the meanwhile a big dog would come & take a sniff across all the luggages. Post this check people would have to pick their bags & put it back in. It would be so frustrating to be woken up 5-6 times during the night & then having to put your bags back in that drowsy state.
Dahab- The game changer- The best part of the entire trip was the time that I spent in Dahab. Now Egypt is a beautiful country & there is plenty to do & see. But Dahab takes the cake as it is a dream town, one of the most laid back & rightly considered backpacker's paradise in Egypt, it gives options of desert, red sea & Sinai range related activity & also give an opportunity to observe Bedouin culture from close quarters. I have read an article about Dahab & was extremely keen on visiting & it was fully worth it. We also met Mohammad here who became a guide for us for the entire trip. He took us around in his truck, arranged snorkelling in Blue hole, got us to spend a wonderful evening in desert with bedouin food, etc. Now we were so wary of local people, due to our bad experiences that we took a lot of time to trust Mohammad. But thankfully we eventually trusted him & he ensured we had a great time in Dahab. He took us to Blue hole, which is considered to be one of the best diving spots in the world. He also arranged for a night in the desert where we had prepared in the local manner, inside an underground sand oven. We sang, exchanged stories, ate to our heart's content, smoked sheesha, etc & came back post mid night
Birthday celebration to remember- Even though I forgot the occasion, there were people who remembered that it was my birthday & so after spending a full evening in the deserts we came back to the town. It was almost midnight by the time we came back & I was surprised to hear a request for a coffee. Both tikku & mohammad were in favour & I tagged along. After a while they all started singing the local birthday song & clapping. It took me a little while to understand what was going on & then they brought in a small cake. It was one of the better celebration that I have had for my birthdays.
Best meal of the trip- Dahab was the best part of the entire trip & even the best meal of the trip happened here. We decided to take up mohammad idea of spending an evening in desert & having a bedouin prepared in traditional sand oven style right there. We reached at the spot early evening & spend a good 6-7 hours there. Star lit sky, bonfire, tea made in traditional bedouin style, greeted us straight away. It would have been enough also, but then we were informed the highlight is the meal that we would eventually have & given that both of us were vegetarian they planned everything keeping that in mind. And the meal was amazing to say the least, flavourful & spicy yet they had the balance which was perfect. And the company of Bob, Hamada & Mohammad ensure
Valley of the Kings- After Pyramids, I wasn't very keen on visiting any other religious/historic places centred around Kings, Gods from upper or lower Egypt. But thankfully there were great reviews on the Valley of Kings & Queens & We decided to go. As it panned out, it turned out to be better than Pyramids (Though it is unfair on my part to even compare the two monuments, but my Return on expectation was higher on Valley of the Kings). Loved the day that we spent here, with us gasping at all the valleys. Even though majority of the valleys were blocked due to some natural disaster or due to the fact that they are in bad state due to increased exposure. But whichever we could visit, I was taken aback by the beauty & ingenuity of it all.
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| Luxor Temple- view from Mosque |
Musical Performance at Luxor
Bob Marley Hostel- While we were walking with our bags from bus stop to our hostel, we kept on getting different directions for the hostel. It was all very confusing, even when we asked a few tourists we got contradicting answers. After adjusting my route for a few times, someone told me that there are two different Bob Marley hostels here in Luxor & both are pretty decent, but the one which I had booked was in the opposite direction. When we reach the place, we met Maria a European lady who owns the hostel & shares the wisdom on how to manage Egypt as a tourist. She also told us that we can get food in Egypt at a lower price by taking help of the support staff, mostly all Egyptian restaurants have dual pricing catering to locals & tourists. Overall, she ensured that we had a great time & helped us have a great stay in Luxor.
Alexandria- This represents the modern side of Egypt, being the closest point to Europe it was obviously the most advanced part. There were a few tourist attraction as well, but for me the best part was walking around Mediterranean Sea against the strongest of breeze, with a strong chill factor in air. Even though it was the coldest part of the trip & I did not have the adequate layering needed, but I still could not spend much time in hotel room simply because the setting was too awesome to miss out on. The city is built around the sea in a semi-circular fashion & the view is nothing short of spectacular. Even with the light house being destroyed & the library no longer being there in its original form, the sheer natural beauty & the way the city is located around the sea makes it an experience in itself.
Station at Alexandria- we eventually managed to board a train in Alexandria, which was a good experience. I wont even start off at the effectiveness of the railway system, since that's not the reason why I have put this point here. The real reason for the mention in this post is the regal look of the station. I have already mentioned how Alexandria looks sharp in contrast with the rest of the Egypt due to its proximity to Europe. Even the railway station maintains the same contrast, given that rest of the country does not even maintain its heritage points nicely but at Alexandria even the railway station looks like this :)
Mummy in Egyptian Museum- I have not met anyone who didn't attempt a mummy joke after knowing that I returned from Egypt. Even I was keen on watching a few of them but at majority of pyramids & Valleys they had removed the bodies & shifted it to the Egyptian Museum. At the museum they also had the entire collection which was excavated from Tutankhamun's tomb. It was expensive, but completely worth it. Overall from the entire trip, tikku managed to capture a few images of the mummies which are shared below. Post-facto I could have avoided seeing these completely.
