Egypt - Day 3: Day at the Museum + Night on the Train

Egyptian Museum in Cairo - most of the stuff found in the tombs are in here.

Various statues outside. Chock full of tourists.
LE 50 to get in.


Candid shot of the inside. Like most of the sites - no photo.
Lots of statues, coffins, etc. from the various dynasties. It's pretty cool to see how things, especially the designs and material evolved throughout the years.
There were even some Roman inspired ones!

Royal Mummies Exhibit

LE 100 extra to see the mummies. We ran out of cash and had to go to the ATM at the Hilton near the museum to get money. There are about 10 mummies of various Pharaohs in glass cases in a dimly lit room. Most of them had only their heads to shoulders exposed. The rest of the body was wrapped. A few was totally wrapped.
The one I really wanted to see was the pharaoh that was mummified on the battlefield - with a gash on the head and a broken wrist (last in the video)

Sleeping train to Luxor

Train leaves from the Giza station at 8:10PM. After a crazy but fun taxi ride through the city of Giza (which is a lot more modern than Cairo), we arrived at the station. The train was 30 minutes late. A couple of second class train passed by, it looked horrible to be in it: no light, windows open.


The dinner they served us was horrible. Dried, over cooked, etc. They had a notice telling us that there's belly dancing at the Club Cart after dinner. We went after dinner - no dancer. Big surprise. Got myself a Johnny Black. The guy poured me 3 cap full. LE 50 for 3 caps. When I ordered a second one, the same guy insisted on pouring for me again, telling the bartender who came later to step aside. I think he made a mistake pouring so little the first time and had to continue the charade.

The steward woke us up around 4:30AM for a breakfast of bread, bread and bread (3 different kinds) with jam, butter and cheese.
The train arrived at Luxor at around 6:30AM.


Check out my picture set on Cairo, Egypt

Egypt - Day 2: Part 2: Saqqara, Dashur, Memphis

These 3 cities illustrate the progression of pyramid building.

We ate at a place called Saqqara Nest before arriving at the Saqqara site. This place was extra special and a tourist / tour guide favorite because it is clean. There's a government health inspector in the kitchen (Maghdi kept telling us that.) More about it here:
Food In Egypt - Part 2: Standard Fare et al
Food In Egypt - Part 1: Bread and Salad

Saqqara - Large city of tombs. It's cool to see that they're still excavating.

Highlight: Step Pyramid

Dashur - Black Pyramid, Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid

Black Pyramid - we can only see this from a distance, not quite a pyramid yet.


Bent Pyramid - they deemed this unsafe and closed it to tourists a couple of years ago. they were still playing with the angles and decided they had to make it less steep half way.


Red Pyramid - the one that was built before the pyramids at giza. this is the one we went inside of. check out the path of stairs leading up to the tiny entrance in the middle.


Climbing the outside of the pyramid. I fast forwarded the first part because it's pretty boring, the 2nd half shows you how tiny the entrance to the inside is. Yes, that IS me running out of breath after climbing those stairs. Of course, the 'guardian' disregards the giant "No Photo" sign for some 'bakesh'


On the way down the long, dark and narrow pathway and the chambers inside the pyramid. Not much inside as I had expected due to grave robbers back in ancient times. Even if there were stuff in there, it'd probably be sitting in the museum.
Now we know why the locals gave us that reaction when we said we want to go in. Your knees AND back need to be bent the whole way down. I'm sure glad we didn't go in Giza, where there's a lot more people and you can't go at your own speed. We blazed down that hatch. Coming back up, not so much... my knees started to hurt and buckle.
It disgusted me to find garbage inside the pyramid. How hard is it to bring the empty water bottles back up with you!?

Memphis - bunch of statues. We had about 10 minutes to look at everything because they close at 4PM and we got there at 3:45PM.

The other Sphinx


Statue of Ramsis II and a 'guardian' looking for bakesh.

Check out my picture set on Cairo, Egypt

Egypt - Day 2: Part 1: Giza

Our driver Maghdi picked us up promptly at 8AM. He actually got to the hotel earlier but waited for us to eat breakfast. Breakfast wasn't bad: coffee, cereal, eggs, sausages, yogurt, bread, croissants, juices...


Maghdi says "I'm going to take you four places - Giza, Saqqara, Dashur and Memphis".
We told him we want to ride camels. He said "No problem!" and drive us to the area of staples near the pyramids (about 1 hour). There were a lot of staples there but Maghdi had his contacts. We also told him that we want to go into the great pyramid. He replied "Why? you bend and walk down a long passage and there's nothing there! - we'll go to the one on Dashur, it's part of the ticket, no pay extra".


After some slight haggling, we were on camels with a guide name Hassan and a camel boy name Ali. Hassan is more like a tour guide. Ali leads the camels on foot.
Note: What we should have done with haggling is to do it BEFORE we got on the camels. Also, we should have told them that we'll pay 1/3 of the price he offered, not 1/2.


Riding camel is an experience! They tell you to lean back while it gets on it's legs or sits. That didn't really sink in until my camel first got up and I felt like I was going to fall off. The front legs extends first, then the back legs. So when only two legs are extended, you are sitting on a slant, way off balance. On top of that, camels are pretty tall.


Hassan asked us to give him LE 50 each for admission tickets. While we waited for the tickets, Gim's camel kept trying to wipe its head on my leg. It was pretty gross. It took many attempts before he actually got me... but he got me.


After riding in the desert for a bit, we came to the pyramids. Surprisingly, there weren't that many people in this part of the site. It was fenced off and can only be accessible via camels or horses. A lot of the time, it felt like we were the only ones there. There are also views that you can't get from the other side (where the tour buses would drop people off). I highly recommend doing the camel tour (but of course, haggle and pay less). We told Hassan we want to go into the pyramid. He pretty much gave us the same reply as Maghdi and told us to go to Dashur. There must be a reason why the locals say this...


"You happy? I'm happy." and "High Ho Silver!" are the memorable quotes from Mr. Hassan. He took us to good spots for photos and made us pose. The spots were nice but the poses were mostly corny (above).


The guide books did say that you can't climb the pyramids. There was also a reason why Hassan kept giving all the tourist police around "hand shakes". We both got to climb the Pyramid of Khefre (the 2nd biggest one, with dome on top). These things are MASSIVE! I'm still in awe of how these were built so long ago and are still standing.


To see the Sphinx, we had to cross over to the tourist area. It's not as close to the pyramids as I thought. Hassan's story / description of it was way off. I learned from the audio lectures that this was NOT the "face of man, body of lion, head of woman" that Hassan described it as.
I'm glad I didn't get to see the Pizza Hut and McDonald's near the sphinx I heard so much about. Sad note: dropped my nice Ray Bans in front of the Sphinx (the pair of sunglasses I picked up in Amsterdam 5 years ago).


Mr. Hassan and I in front of the staples after the pyramids. He loves America, especially the money and super especially the tip he shook us down for.


Us in the desert to the pyramids

Check out my picture set on Cairo, Egypt

Egypt - Day 1: Cairo

We arranged with our hotel in Cairo, Hotel Longchamps, to pick us up at the airport. I was sure glad to see the driver (his name sounds like Armor All) with the sign when we came out of the gates. He told us that he stood there for 3 hours because no one told him about the delay. I Email them about our delay before the plane took off; maybe they don't check Email often or Armor All wanted to shake us down. Either way, I'm just glad he's there. Armor All works full time at the airport (he showed us his Egypt Air badge) and part time for the hotel as a tour guide / driver. He asked us the the while lines on the road is for in our country, we told him it's for lanes. He replied to that by saying the white lines in his country is for decoration only. I thought he was joking until he made his own lane by squeezing between a bus and another car. Then I noticed that everyone else was doing that. We gave him a full LE 100 (Egyptian Pound; $1 USD to LE 5.5) - LE 60 plus LE 40 tip I guess.

The hotel was located on the island called Zamalek. This is more residential and most of the ex-pats live there. It's less noisy than the hotels in downtown. It's about 5-10 minutes cab ride from downtown, depending on traffic. I highly recommend finding hotels in this area - also highly recommend Hotel Longchamps.

When we got to the hotel, we told them to get us a driver to bring us to the Giza Pyramids (this was recommended by the books and Sarah). It end up being LE 180 for the day - 4 sites. Not too bad of a rate. Our driver will pick us up at 8AM. The hotel offers free breakfast buffet.

The original plan for day 1 was to go to the Egyptian Museum that day. But with the delay (arrived at around 1PM), we bumped to day 3. For the rest of day 1, we decided to get the admin stuff out of the way: currency exchange, cigar shop (Cubans!) and check out the Kahn El-Khalili bazaar.

There were 3 currency exchange places around the hotel. We went to the first one. Got pretty good rates $1 USD to LE 5.4. With a wad of Egyptian cash, we set out to explore.

First things first... must feed!

We came across a bunch of street food stand / holes in walls. We first went to a juice shop (more on this later at the food blog) and got ourselves a cup of sugarcane juice. Then we went to a snack shot and the owner made us "fool" sandwiches and gave me samples of "tamiya" - Egyptian falafel.


After not finding the phantom cigar shop at the Semiramis Intercontinental (b00! no Cubanos while riding camels), we decided to go to Kahn El-Khalili bazaar - one of the biggest and oldest in the world. The taxi dropped us off on the dead side of the street. Found a restaurant called "Gad" and got some grub: stuffed pigeons, mixed grill and salads (more on food blog - of course).


After dinner, we took an underground tunnel to cross the street to the main market area. The tunnel smelled like urine and had a couple of bums in it. We did a quick survey of the market
and decided to come back at the end of the trip to get souvenirs. As we were heading to hail a cab, a guy approached us telling us about the spice store we were in front of. He doesn't work there but wants to give us advice. He said he wasn't going to sell us anything and proceeded to drag us to a perfume store, a clothing store, a jewelery store and a gift shop. He really didn't try to sell us anything, just gave us prices of what we should pay. By the way, his name was Mohammed, nicked named "ola". I think he makes commission if we do buy from these stores. The price he gave was a lot cheaper than what we gathered prior. Mohammed must have been drunk or high because he kept forgetting things and kept mentioning it and even brought us back to the same stores. Well, he ended us buying us sugar cane juices and getting us a cheap cab ride home. Though he did take the cab with us and felt like if we didn't fight him off (in a nice way), he would have came up to our room with us.

Egypt - Part 11: I'm Off

I'm off to Egypt!
It's going to go low tech from here...

Egypt - Part 10: Packing List

To Pack: 10 shirts 10 boxers 10 pairs of socks 3 pairs of pants 2 button downs (1 linen) 3 tank tops 1 light jacket 1 hat 1 pair of sunglasses 1 belt 1 swimming trunks 1 pair of shorts 1 flash light 1 leatherman tool 1 neck pillow 1 pair of flip flops 1 pair of sanuks 1 pair of sneakers Added: knee brace extra wallet deodorant face wash lotion headphones q tips student ID

Tech: Nintendo DS SLR (big camera) S750 (small camera) camera 1 charger camera 2 charger tripod phone phone charger Archos 404 Archos charger Power adapters ipod ipod charger usb cable memory cards Misc: bug spray journal pen lotion book (Caesar) medicine (thanks Amy!) vitamins nasal spray money passport

Egypt - Part 7: Random Not In The Books Questions

The guidebooks tell you a lot but I always have random questions that they never answer.
Once again, Sarah picked up the slacks:
Her replies in blue.

any pointers in haggling is also appreciated. i may have gotten rusty.

As I was saying, offer half of what they suggest. They'll make all kinds of sounds like what you said is so outrageously low that they can't even believe their ears. Act nonchalant, no matter how badly you want it, keep a straight poker face and say nothing. After approximately 10-15 seconds, the bartering will begin. They'll offer something close to what their original offer was, and you can say something like, "Yeah, well..I don't really like it anyway." Start to find problems with it. It's scratched. It looks too old. It's plastic. I saw one down the road for only ___ pounds. Things like that. You can come up on your price obviously, but take it slow. It's a cultural thing - they're not used to someone just walking in and buying something without haggling. There's a certain amount of respect that you gain by following the process. Not that that matters.

big OH! what should i be wearing?

Long pants and t-shirts are fine. Tank tops - NO. Shorts - NO. You'll see other people wearing them, but it's highly frowned upon. If you're traveling with a woman, make sure her legs are covered at all times. T-shirts are okay for her, but long sleeved shirts are better. No need to cover her head - they accept that Westerners don't do that.

Depending on where you're staying and what you're doing, you might actually get cold from time to time because of the A/C. Bring a light jacket or sweatshirt of some kind you can wear around your waist. (Sorry - if you're at the beach - especially El Gouna - then you'll be fine wearing shorts, tank tops, swim suits, etc.)

are sneakers ok to hike around these places or should i wear some kind of boots to keep the sand out? (i imagine it to be sand everywhere)

Sneakers are fine. Anything that's comfy. It will only be sandy by the pyramids and in the Valley of the Kings. And the beach.

are jeans too hot? khakis? linen?

Totally up to you. Any are fine, but jeans will be really hot. Taxis aren't air-conditioned, so you'll sweat your butt off. Literally. I think they have a new company that's operating there now that has nicer taxis, so maybe you'll luck out. But be prepared to lose some water weight!

thanks again!

No problem - let me know if you have more questions. I'll be more than happy to help if I can. We had a lot of visitors while we lived there, and each time it was a trying experience for them when they went out on their own. Just be prepared to be hassled quite a bit. It wasn't uncommon for children to follow us for BLOCKS AND BLOCKS or even grab my hair or attach themselves to my leg and not let go. The poverty there is high and rampant. Most people live on less than $25 a month. They see foreigners and they equate them with dollar signs.

If you don't hire a taxi for a full day and just try to brave it, then find out from the hotel personnel how much it should cost to get to your destination. The taxis are very strange there. People just know how much it costs to go from Point A to Point B. No one discusses price before getting in the car (despite what the travel guides might say), and you certainly don't discuss it when you get there. You just know how much it is, get out of the car and give the money to the driver THROUGH THE PASSENGER SIDE WINDOW once you're completely out of the car. I know it sounds weird, but if you do it that way, the driver will assume that you know what you're doing. That's the Egyptian way. It can be a real bitch, so it's probably easier to just hire someone to drive you around for the day, wait for you, answer your questions, etc.

Like I said, let me know if you've got any more questions!

Sarah

Egypt - Part 6: Itinerary Feedback

I hustled to get my itinerary down so I can get some feedback from Sarah.
After flipping through the guidebook about 9000 times, I nailed down the wheres and whens.

Sarah's replies in blue, to my first itinerary*...

day 1 - cairo: arrive around 11 - museum, night market, walk around

This is a good plan. Will he have a car waiting for him at the airport? It's INSANE if he doesn't, and it's enough to make a visitor want to turn right around and get back on the plane. Also, when he comes through customs, he will need to go to one of the little booths and get TWO STAMPS before his passport can be processed. No one will tell him - it's as if they want to torture tourists. But you have to go pay for these stamps (try to use Egyptian Pounds if he's got them), and then you go wait in the line. It was normal for us to spend an hour to an hour and a half just to get to baggage claim. Cairo is the epitome of disorganization.

day 2 - cairo: pyramids, camels (i plan to smoke a cuban while riding a camel)

Definitely do the camel ride and definitely smoke the cuban! You can get them all over, but any nice hotel is a sure bet. Beware at the pyramids that he should try to get there as early as possible. I think they open up around 7:15 or 7:30am? Something like that. The lines get long, and often times there's a guy at the front of each pyramid trying to charge money. The only fee you have to pay is when you go through the main gate. Enjoy the view of Pizza Hut and McDonalds at the bottom of the Sphynx.

day 3 - cairo: (not sure what), night train to luxor

This would be the day to do whatever you haven't managed to do yet. Traffic can be bad, so things take a little longer. There are lots of lines, and the exhaustion level can be really high. Don't feel bad if you just want to head to the Four Seasons and down a few martinis.

As far as the train goes, buy First Class tickets, but don't be surprised when it's less than what you hoped for. You should be able to get tickets for less than $15 a piece, and the ride takes about 9 hours.

day 4 - luxor: valley of the kings

Get up early. There are boats that leave regularly, and once you get to the other side of the river you'll need to hire a car/driver to drive you to the actually valley. They'll be all over harrassing you to no end. Act as if you know what you're doing, even if you don't. People will seriously try to charge you massive amounts of money for next to nothing. There are other sites around there as well (The Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut (sp??)). When you're in the Valley of the Kings, pay the extra money to go down into the different chambers. They have package deals for this (you'll see what I mean when you get there). It's definitely worth it. There are some really cool ones.

day 5 - luxor: (not sure what)

Karnak Temple is what you want to do on this day. Or night. I only went there at night and did this huge light show tour. It was really cool - not just looking, but in temperature as well. It's a short taxi ride down the road from Luxor. There are also lots of restaurants and little bars in this city.

day 6 - hurghada: early bus to hurghada or other beach city along red sea coast, do water stuff?

The bus to Hurghada is crowded and dirty and smelly - I took it actually the opposite way (Hurghada to Luxor). But it's cheap and gets you there, as long as you don't mind the random Egyptian falling asleep and drooling on your shoulder. Hurghada itself is a crappy little seaside town that's full of nasty, sweaty Germans and tons of Russians on vacation package getaways. That's the downside. The upside is that there's some decent snorkeling, tons of bars with cheap beer and a lot more English spoken. Hotels are pretty cheap, but nothing to write home about. If you're looking for something a bit more remote, there are a ton of other spots on the coast to visit. Let me know if you are interested, and I'll give you some names. These places won't have anywhere to go out to - maybe a restaurant or two, but you'll have a beach to yourself and lots of privacy.

Just north of Hurghada about 45 minutes (I think) is El Gouna. It's a cute little town with some nicer, more western places to eat and hang out. It's where our mom worked, and I would definitely recommend it for a day or two. You can hang out on relatively uncrowded beaches, but there's still a bit of life going on - a nice compromise. There are boats that you can take out for the day or 1/2 day for snorkeling or diving. We did a day long snorkeling trip for about $75 per person, and it was incredible.

day 7 - hurghada: relax then afternoon bus to cairo or alexendria

These bus trips generally take around 6-7 hours, depending on which one you're on. They're nicer than the other kind. You'll have more room and maybe even be lucky enough to watch a ridiculously long Egyptian movie. If you're thinking of doing the Alex segment, then try to take a bus straight there.

day 8 - alexendria: day trip

Alex is a neat town - it's pretty-ish and definitely the most modern. The library there is worth seeing - it's new and modern, but it's on the same site and the original, famous one that was destroyed. There's some good seafood joints right along the boardwalk area, and there are some decent bars around. It's fun for about a day, so if you arrive the night before, that should be good. Take the afternoon train/bus back to Cairo, treat yourself to a night out on the town

day 9 - fly out of cairo (11am)

is this a good itinerary? nothing is solid except the flight in and out of cairo.
im totally open to suggestions.

Definitely a good itinerary! It can get stressful finding things out. Most signs are only in Arabic, and you end up acting out or miming a lot of things. The people there speak very aggressively to one another (or so it seems). It's just their way. They're very non-violent actually, but it looks like things are about to erupt all the time. They're just loud/close-talkers. The prices for most in stores are not set in stone. Usually the shop-keeper will ask you what you want to pay for it. I always hated that because I never really knew what the going price was. Don't answer them. Let them dictate a price, and then cut it in half NO MATTER HOW LOW IT MIGHT SEEM TO YOU.


*After reading this, gim was quick to let me know that I added an extra day. We're not leaving on a Friday night like I had hope to because there simply weren't any flights out. Revision to come.

Egypt Part 4 - Advice From Annie's Mom

More solid advice...

“This one is from my mom. She lived there for a few months, but has visited many times. She's very spiritual and into the temples and gods - if you want more info on that let me know, I can ask.... but I don't know where to start. "Many suggestions to make, but wonder if he has plans to cruise the Nile, or wants to explore the country stem to stern? I highly recommend taking the overnight trip from Cairo to Luxor with a sleeping car. Luxor is a MUST, and going by train gives you a wonderful experience, getting you there safely and in a town where you can walk or take a calish (horse drawn buggy) everywhere you want to go. Shopping wise it's the only Egyptian town that sells those wonderful, beautiful woven blankets. So don't search for them in Cairo, they all come from Luxor. I also encourage him to get out his bargaining skills. We must know how to negotiate with an Arab. If he needs help in that area I'll be happy to tell him my technique. Alexandria is also a must, being just a 2 hour bus ride from Cairo. The city doubles in volume in the summer, and really comes alive. When is he going? If it's prior to summer, many specials exist, but the town and harbour are truly worth the day trip. The museum there is also great." My sister obviously knows quite a bit more about the nightlife and ins-and-outs of it. She lived there for 3 years, and like I said, didn't enjoy the people very much. If you have any questions though, let me know. My mom and sis have been all over the world and know the value of getting inside info - they are happy to answer any questions! Hope this helps!

Luxor and Alexandria - check!

Egypt - Part 3: Advice from Sarah (Annie's Sister)

It turns out my friend Annie's sister, Sarah, spent 3 years working in Cairo.
No guidebook can beat solid advice from someone who's lived there (especially because of stuff like this).

“Oh Jesus - tell him to get his money back!! hahaha

Do you know where he'll be?

If he's in Cairo, here are some spots:

• Khan el Khalili - supposedly the world's oldest souk (shopping bazaar). Prepare to be hassled and ripped off, although there are tons of cool things to buy. HAGGLE HARD.
• City of the Dead - mind-blowingly huge area of graveyards
• the Citadel - this area is really beautiful, and it overlooks the city. On a good day he might have about 20 feet of visibility.
• Falucca ride on the Nile - these are sailboats that take people out on the Nile. Pack some beers, food, whatever and prepare to pay about $5 a person. Again, haggle. The boats are generally rented on an hourly basis, and they hold up to about 20 people comfortably.
• Sequoia - restaurant/bar in Zamalek (area I used to live in). It's on the northern-most tip of the island and has bar-none the best shisha anywhere I've ever tasted in the world. As of two years ago it was quite the Egyptian trendy spot - dress a little nicer.
• Egyptian Museum - this place has some of the coolest crap ever, and it's hard to believe that it's housed in such a shitty manner. King Tut is in here. Totally worth it. I think it costs about $10 to get in.
• the Pyramids (of course) - they're about a 20-25 minute drive south of Cairo. Your friend will have a better time if he hires a driver for a day (or more, depending on how many days he's planning on being in Cairo). Otherwise he'll be harrassed to no end. Taxis there don't have meters, no one speaks English and it can get really intimidating for someone who doesn' t know how much it actually costs to get around. Definitely have the hotel hook him up with a car service or a taxi driver that will work for him and only him for the duration. Prepare to pay about $30-40 a day (although he can no doubt get it for cheaper if he wants to haggle).
• At the pyramids, expect to be mobbed by Egyptians trying to put things in your hand and then refuse to take them back (unless you give them money for them). They will pull on you, follow you around incessantly, constantly asking for 'bakshish" - a tip, trying to give you directions, act as if they want to pose for a picture with you and then NEVER leave you alone (until you pay them).
• Drinking - there are some bars here and there, and there are a few late-night prostitution places that taxi drivers will know about. Basically it's a very strict Muslim country, and alcohol is forbidden for Muslims. So..that being said, bars are for either the wealthy Christian Egyptians or the foreigners. Big hotels are stocked full, and Zamalek (the island in the middle of the Nile) has several bars:
• Bars/restaurants in Zamalek: La Bodega - this is a nicer, upscale restaurant in an old building. I loved going here. It's not for the backpacker type - definitely a little nicer, but it's a great getaway from Cairo. Good service, outstanding food (not Egyptian). There's also a good bar that's just about a block away from here called Deals. Anyone at the restaurant will know where it is. About five or six blocks from there is another pub called Pub 28. It's loud and smokey, but a great place to get wasted. There's also a place called the Sand Bar (might be harder to find, and it might not be open anymore) as well as the place I mentioned before - Sequoia.

BEST ADVICE - ignore the people. There are some great Egyptians out there, but the ones that he is most likely to encounter will by trying their hardest to rip him off in some way or another. I know it sounds extreme, but believe me....I have been all over the world, and I've never seen anything as bad as this. It's a real shame because there are some absolutely incredible things to see in this country. The people certainly take a lot away from that.

If he goes down south to Luxor and the surrounding areas, then he should be prepared for all of the above, but at a higher price. It's hotter down south, so try to do any tours either early in the morning or in the late afternoon/evening. There are lots of night-tours and stuff like that. It's just too damn hot during the day. I was fine because I was climatized, but Keri get heat stroke. hahaha.

If I think of any more cool stuff I'll let you know. Depending on how long he's going to be there, there are even more side trips he can do: the White Dessert, going to the coast, up north to Alexandria, etc. Forward this on to him, and if he's got any questions let me know. Honestly, there are so many fucked up things about visiting there that the more information he's got, the better off he'll be. It's definitely high-stress travel.

Later!

S

Egypt - Part 2: Where else?

Part 2: Where else?

It's a 12 hour plane ride to Egypt. It's not often we go to another continent. We should go somewhere else! Right? What's around Egypt? Out comes the trusty Google Map.




Possible locations:
Morocco - Monique just came back from Marrakesh and said it was fun. That's close to Egypt right? No.. not really. It's on the other side of Africa. Go New York education system Geography!!!

Dubai - Way too expensive.

Jerusalem - This was doable. It's close, there's a bunch of stuff to see there... the holy sites, the dead sea (I really wanted to float in it - heavy salt content in water makes people float). Unfortunately, Israel is really hard to get to from Egypt. Sure we can fly there, but Egypt Air and El Al only fly there twice a week (Mondays, Fridays) and it costs about $400 for a ONE way. Bus rides are about 15 hours - you have to get off at the border, go through custom and go on another bus on the other side.

Conclusion:
Let's just stick with Egypt. We'll go to the other cities mentioned in the guide books:
Cairo, Luxor, Alexandria and maybe a city along the Red Sea coast.

Egypt - Prologue

Prologue: Whys and Wherefores*
more or less the actual order of the thought process spanned over about 2 weeks


Why a vacation?
I've been feeling a little burnt out from work, the city and everything around me in general. The 3.75 product launches last year took a nice toll on me - especially the last one: tickerhound.com, but that's for another post. Wayne insisted that I took a vacation before things get REALLY crazy in the summer - oh, you just wait and see what we got coming. Anyway, he's probably right - a vacation should be good for me, not being attached to a computer / interweb and all.
Besides, I haven't really taken a real vacation for 3 years, I need to get out! (the last one was Zurich, Prague and Amsterdam 2 years ago).
The weekend trips (Lake George - pictured, Ocean City) are nice but don't really count and I mostly worked during the day when I was in Seattle.


When?
Sometime in April, as mandated by the man with the shiny head.


Who with?
Of course, I'd hate to go on a vacation or travel by myself. I get paranoid and wouldn't mind someone watching my back (at least the illusion of it - not pointing fingers, really!). Naturally, I started recruiting.
John - since I traveled to Europe with him - twice. But he just got bumped up at a new job and can't leave.
Al - he was going to come and he also suggested going to Sweden/Finland but as soon as he finished mentioning it, his project got dumped on.
Gim - ah.. the childhood best friend. So what if I shanked him with a pilot pen back in 7th grade during class (he did start it with a Bic pen to my leg), we're still cool! I didn't think he had any vacations left... but he did!
Sarah - she just got back from Seattle. I mentioned that we're going and she said she's down to go if we didn't mind. In my mind - don't you want to find a job first? Her reply: since the trip is so soon, it'll be ok. As of this post, she's not 100% yet.


Why Egypt?
The original plan was to just take a week off and go somewhere that JetBlue flies to so I can use the free tickets. I couldn't really put a finger on a city that enticed me. Maybe San Francisco, but can I really spend a week there? I don't know - I've never been there before. Whatever.
I was on the 6 train and saw an ad that said something like "Delta Airlines, non stop to Cairo", with pyramaids in the backdrop. Lightbulb lit up! Why the hell not! I've seen enough Stargate (yup, all 10 seasons plus the 2 movies) to want to go. It'll be like one of those once in a lifetime deals.



* I took the title from "Y The Last Man" #55

Egypt - Part 1: Orders

Part 1: Orders

The plane tickets are booked!
Egypt Air happens to be the only airline that flies to Cairo nonstop. I think Delta will have a route later this year. The flight is going to be 12 hours. April 19 - April 26. I'll arrive at Cairo at 11:30AM on Sunday 4/26. Gim booked the tickets by calling the airline direct. Apparently their website was buggy (according to the sales guy on the phone). He called because I didn't have my passport number with me; it was required by the website. He had to fax his credit card, signature and id to them after ordering - no passport numbers needed.

The travel books are here!
After an afternoon of test driving travel books, we decided on "Lonely Planet Egypt". I have a bunch of books from Lonely Planet and find them pretty useful. Naturally, I ordered from amazon.com, since it was cheaper. What sucks is that the new edition is coming out in May 2008. So I'm stuck with the 2-3 year old edition.

I also picked up the "Lonely Planet Egyptian Arabic Phasebook".
Arabic doesn't sound like European languages which I'm semi familiar with from taking Spanish for 6 years (I'm horrible at it). I also read somewhere on the interweb that they didn't speak a lot of English there. Better be safe than sorry. I don't want to be caught pointing and motioning when the diarrhea hits.



Now starts the planning...