After spending nearly a month with precious family in NSW and Victoria we flew out of Melbourne late on the evening of 10 April 2022 for a breakfast stopover in Dubai before flying on to Cairo just in time to settle into our hotel and have lunch (just a couple of days in Cairo).

We’ll be staying 3 nights in Aswan, including a day trip to Abu Simbel by plane.

Then 3 nights in Luxor before taking a taxi trip to Safaga, where we’ll meet with the ship for our voyage through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, and on to the Mediterranean.

Overview of Egypt

The Egyptian antiquities are the number one reason to visit Egypt, with highlights around Cairo being the first known pyramid dated over 5000 years old, other amazing pyramids, and the Sphinx. The Cairo museum was a spectacular array of priceless antiquities based in a massive, very old wooden building.

We took a train from Cairo to Aswan, a very stressful time at the train station when no-one could confirm the platform and we had a lot of luggage to try to drag around. An undercover cop pointedly flashed his gun before helpfully moving our luggage closer to our feet and warning us of thieves. The trip itself in an overnight sleeper was lovely. I slept in the top bunk because I didn’t trust John to get down safely for a pee in the middle of the night.

From Aswan a day trip by plane to Abu Simbel allowed us to see the temple of Ramses II and alongside it the temple of his wife Nefertari, massive temples saved from the waters of the High Aswan Dam. The sheer size of these structures is mind blowing, as is the observation that every single surface is covered with hieroglyphics, paintings and sculptures that were once as brilliantly coloured as a comic book. They must have been a sight when new and they still take the breath away today.

At Aswan we stayed in the AirBnB “Nooba Dool” on Elephantine Island, once an important administrative and military centre. The little restaurants there were the best food we had in the entirety of Egypt. Our fave restaurant turned out to be owned by a Nubian family who lived in neighbouring Balga back in Perth, dad Mohammed and adult son Ayman – small world. Watching the rise of the full moon over the Nile was very special.

From Aswan we hired a driver to Luxor and stayed at the Eatabe Hotel, right on the Nile. The Nile was the only thing that saved Luxor. The hotel food was literally horrible and the internet was almost unusable. The best thing about Luxor was a morning balloon ride which took in the Valley of the Kings amid the whole of the area. We ended that with a desert landing, rather rough. The next day we appreciated how lucky we were because winds caused the cancellation of flights over the rest of our stay.

We did a trip to the Valley of the Kings, which is essentially a large protected valley where the kings’ tombs were dug deep into the ground. It was amazing but at times a crush, and I think that’s how we picked up such a bad rhinovirus that wrecked our first days on the ship, and maybe where some of the crew and passengers picked up Covid.

What’s revolting about Egypt ensures that we’ll never be back. Despite very healthy industries the population has been kept not only poor but destitute. It’s hard to see what’s under construction and what’s being demolished or is simply falling down. There’s little mechanisation in farming and people still scythe crops by hand and cart by donkey. About 5% of the population don’t have enough food. No-one maintains anything and there’s a lot of rubbish and junk everywhere except a few city areas. It seems like everyone, including police and government employees, are doing their utmost to scam tourists and it’s relentless. Every time you visit some antiquity you have to run a gauntlet of hawkers who are on you like ants. You learn to stop trying to say a polite “no thank you” and just keep your head down, avoid eye contact, and plough through as quickly as possible.

The taxi drivers are perhaps the worst of all. We only took one, which turned into a disaster with the guy demanding nearly 6 times the agreed price after getting lost 3 times. After that we used the hotel driver.

From Luxor we took a 4-hour bus ride to the industrial port town of Safaga to meet the Star Flyer. Even here the customs staff extorted money from the ship, refusing to release passports until a bribe was paid, and delaying embarkation for 3 hours. Absolute bastards.

The first night’s sailing was rough and about 6 passengers were seasick. I copped it and no sooner had that passed when we came down with a bug that seemed like mild Covid: sore throat, constant runny nose, the runs, fatigue and general unwellness, and a persistent cough. But 4 RATs in 4 days made it clear it was just a nasty rhinovirus.

Only John was well enough to check out the stops at Port Said and Alexandria and he reported (along with others that visited), that they were “shitholes” with the usual plagues of scammy hawkers.

Cairo

Stayed 2 nights at the very beautiful Steigenberger Hotel El Tahrir Cairo.

This was a really nice hotel but it’s clear in Egypt they don’t like couples sleeping in the same bed. Two singles pretty much everywhere.

Crossing the street is a deadly occupation – some 7,000 pedestrians die on the streets each year because cars don’t give way and crosswalks (if you can find them) are a signal to speed up. It was more terrifying even than Asia.

The Egyptian Museum was incredible – full of sculptures, sarcophagi, mummies, papyrus and much more.

Our stay in Cairo was where we laid eyes on the pyramids and the sphinx for the first time in our lives and they were breathtaking. Ranging in age from 5,000 to 3000 years ago, it blows the mind.

The following photos are of the pyramids in Giza, the Sphinx, and the Egyptian Museum.

Another kind of bonus from Cairo is that we got sucked into buying a papyrus and some pretty special oils, which we know will be long-time reminders of the amazing parts of Egypt that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

Aswan

Stayed on Elephantine Island, an island on the Nile at Aswan, 3 nights at the Nuba Dool Guest House, reached by ferry only (the women sitting in the back, the men at the front). This was a really relaxing stay, and a pleasure to hang out on an island with no cars and slow treks through dusty laneways to dinner each night. The food was without doubt the best in the entire time in Egypt, authentic tagines were tender and tasty.

It was amazing that our favourite restaurant was owned by a family who’d lived nearby us in Perth. Sitting at dinner, watching the full moon rise over the Nile, was just awesome. I thought we had a picture of that, the moon in the sky over the lights of the main city across the river — but it seems it has to stay only in our memory.

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel was a day trip from Aswan, by plane in order to save time. On one of the rare occasions we’re upgraded to business class, there was absolutely no difference in seating except for a bit more leg room.

Abu Simbel is where we saw the relocated Temple of Ramses II and alongside it the Temple of Nefertari, his wife.

Luxor

We stayed 3 nights in the Aracan Eatabe Hotel, right on the beautiful Nile as you can see from the photo below.

On the surface the hotel looked beautiful, but the internet was hopeless, dumping us off and at times non-existent. Our room had a blocked shower head, bed lamp with broken filament, television remote inoperative. Had to ask twice for milk for our tea (not even creamer supplied), asked for iron and board twice and not supplied.

Lifts not working in the morning so had to take the luggage lift, which is a dangerous lift because it has no safety door, only a door on each floor, and if the doors are not closed properly someone could fall down the shaft.

The food wasn’t good and the dinner meal especially was just appalling. It seems they didn’t have a cook and someone was just “having a go”. At least the wine was OK.

Room size was good, view was outstanding. Need to ask for a second key card otherwise if someone remains in the room there will be no power and no air conditioning.