Anybody here ever go on an Egypt tour?

scott.cr

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The wife and I are considering taking a tour of Egypt next year, you know, cruise the Nile, see the pyramids and all that. Just wondering if anyone here has pointers on what to look for in a tour, or even if we should be looking for a tour considering the "heat" in that area of the globe.

And, of course, anybody know if flashlight use is not permitted or not polite inside their buildings of antiquity? (I ask because things like flash photography are not usually permitted in museums, etc.) Far be it for me to want to bust out the 24W HID and fade a few years' of wear into 5,000 year old paintings!
 

fasuto

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I went to Egypt past year, in August. Two weeks, one in a Boat in Red Sea, diving, and another cruising the Nile, in Cairo, etc. Great trip!

Wheather was hot, but not to much (around 35 ºC). Only have excesive hot inside some toms and in a walk in the desert. Hotels, and boat had all air conditioning, some taxies so.

You can use flashlight inside monuments and museums (in general), our guide used my JetBeam sometimes to explain some things better. Lasers are not permited.

I had problems one time (of around 6) in an airport because in the hand carriage I carried a lot of flashlights, batteries and wires (from a DIY charger). They take security very seriusly, they have a specialiced police for tourist and you have to past metal detectors in every access to a building.

If you have the oportunity visit Abu Simbel, is far away from cities but in my opinion one of the best things. Is better to go in bus, not airplane.

I enjoyed Egypt alot, people are very kind, but be prepared for a completely different culture.

Europeans are more welcome than americans (I am from Spain), people from Israel are less welcome.

Carry one large trouser,some long clothes for your wife and socks if you want to enter in the "big mosque". Also is interesting to see people praying on fridays (not remember the time) because ALL people do it, i say all, even waiters in their jobs, or policemens stop for a moment at the same time.

AH!,DONT drive! they are crazy behind a wheel.
 
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Kilovolt

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Well, the night show at the pyramids in Giza with sounds and colored lights is something you don't forget easily:


giza02go9.jpg



and the Nile is really beautiful.

It is also true that today's political situation is not too favourable for Americans.

Have you considered Lake Como for your holidays? Here flashlights are very popular....:cool:
 

scott.cr

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Thanks for the informative replies! That is some good firsthand info for the Egypt newbie.

Fasuto: I read about Abu Simbel at wikipedia and will DEFINITELY add it to my checklist based on your recommendation!

Kilovolt: Lake Como, would love to! You know where I can rent a Ferrari for a week? ;-)
 

Kilovolt

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Kilovolt: Lake Como, would love to! You know where I can rent a Ferrari for a week? ;-)

Yeah, why not? Raise the volume of your PC:

http://www.firstclasscar.it/


The going rate is around $12,000 per week not much included i.e. there's extras for insurance etc. and of course the fuel at $ 1.90 per liter ($ 7.20 per US gallon) is of course all on you. But you will surely enjoy the ride and the unforgettable view.....:cool:
 

Tubor

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Fantastic Hotels in Cairo (I think there's even a six star one). Nile cruise is usually very good. A sense of humour definately helps. Haggle, haggle, smile, big smile, "fair price", wink. :thumbsup:
 
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FlashSpyJ

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I have been to Egypt Cairo, we went by boat from Cyprus. When we got close to egypt you could see the skyskrapes rise in the horizon. That was a rather cool view! At arrival in the Nile where we went ashore there was some salesman in a little rowingboat, they casted a rope on to the boat (it was quite a bit to throw from down where they where), telling some turist to secure it so they could hoist up some merchanidises. They hoisted up a stool/pallet aboard, and what do you know, they bought it! :) they told the tourist to hurry up sending down the money and realese the rope so they could row away from the police! :D it looked really funny seeing the two men in the little rowing boat, rowing as h*ll away from the police or whatever they where, telling them they couldnt sell stuff to turist like that.

Well ashore, there where a whole army of sellers that wanted to sell junk to us, cheap rolex watches and what not. We had been told not to pay any attention to the sellers if we wanted to get away from the them. They said if we paid any interset in one seller the rest of them would see you like a injured pray and would flock around you completely! You would then have to litterally beat your way out of the crowd of sellers. Well past them we had to go through the customs (or something like that), we had to put all of our bags thru an x-ray before we where allowed to go any further. We then was divided into diffrent busses because of the diffrent nationalitys among the turists, some of us didnt understand english so they had guides that spoke their language.
After we had climed aboard the busses, we saw a couple of miilitary/police men jumping on some of the busses, and the busses where also escorted by some military jeeps! We got a bit anxious because of this, they told us the reason for this was because a feew weeks earlier there had been some armed farmers or something that had been throwing grenades at the turist busses. I wasnt very old when we took this trip, so I got really anxious right about now! :mecry:

They said it was just a precausion and we didnt have to worry... yeah right...

We arrived in Cario at the museeum, we got to look at some really old stuff, and pay extra if we wanted to see a mummy! Ecchh.. :)

(A few weeks after we had been here, I heard on the news that they had blowed up some of the tourist busses outside the museeum! The very same busses we had traveld with! Noby was hurt since they where in the museeum when it happend)

After that we went to a jeweller, where the owner and his son wanted to buy my mother and my sister for some camels! At first me and my father laughed at the men, but after a short while we understood that they where serious! By that time my mother and sister where very anxious to get the h*ll out of there! So we did...

On the streets there was some children in torn clothes crawling around in the dust begging us to give them money, it looked really stated...But very weird to see!

Last stop was the pyramids! Really weird going from the city with skyscrapes to a rather small spot with sand (it really felt lik that) where the pyramids where. It was a really awsome seight to see the pyramids! I had only seen them on tv before, but now we where here for real!
Before we got out from the busses a camel and some dude riding the camel came up to the bus, the camel started to lick the side window of the bus. We thought that was really cool and started to take pictures of that! When we got outside the bus, the camel dude came up to us and asked for money. We asked why he wanted money, he then said it was because we had taken pictures of his camel frenching the bus!
We didnt want to give him any money for that, it wasnt our fault the camle had feelings for the bus...
He got very angry and swore at us or something. After him came some other camel riding dudes trying to sell us some stuff, but they got chased of by ridng camel polices! :D That was a really cool thing to watch! Felt like it was staged though. The police was riding the camel holdig a gun and shouting to the sellers to back of!

The heat outside the bus was really hot! I think it was soemthing around 45 degrees Celisius! The guided trip offered two things at the pyramids, we could either go down in the smallest pyramid, or we could ride a camel. Me and my family decided to go down in the pyramid. It really was creapy going down in the pyramid, the passage was really narrow, and the steps was totally worn out, so you could slip very easy. Nothing spectacular to see down there, but its fun to have been there. I dont remember if we could take any pictures or not, I think we could but whitout the flash.

The trip was really fun to do, even if I didnt think so at the time, I was rather young and a bit against the trip to start with. But afterwards I appreciate that I went!
 
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