I decided to take a tour throughout Egypt for several reasons including safety, ease of travel, and ability to take a Nile Cruise. It is very difficult to arrange a Nile Cruise as a solo traveler and that is something that I really wanted to do in Egypt. I found out about Traveltalk Tours through a friend that had taken a Morocco trip with them. He compared it to Contiki saying it was a similar tour but a better value for your money. I was originally going to do the Conitki Egypt tour since I had heard such good things through several people. But taking a Sabbatical and traveling for a long time has made more money conscious. So when I saw they had an Egypt/Jordan tour for just a little more money than the Contiki option, I was sold!
TravelTalk Tour Day 1:
The tour starts at 6pm at night and they do a very quick overview of what is to come for the week or two ahead. We had 101 people that they divided into 3 groups. Those visiting the Nile by Cruise, Felucca, or traveling overland. My friends, Meghan and Scott Lundeen were joining me for the Egypt portion so we discussed and decided to pick the Nile Cruise Option. The main reasons were that the Nile Cruise is a bigger boat with individualized rooms and a working bathroom and shower. The Felucca ride is supposed to be an amazing way to experience the Nile since it is very authentic to how they have traveled the Nile for years. The down side is that it’s comparable to camping on a boat. Everyone sleeps on foam mattresses side by side on the deck of the boat. Your choice for a bathroom include jumping in the water and holding onto a rope so that you don’t float away or they will call in a motor boat that runs behind the feluccas that has a bathroom on it. I am not a big fan of camping so the Nile Cruise sounded perfect for me.
Night 1 Dinner: They give you an option of a Nile Cruise buffet dinner for around $25 USD. The food on the boat was okay but nothing special. We were on the bottom level and you really couldn’t see much from the boat at night. The entertainment onboard was cheesy and unauthentic which included one belly dancer and one whirling dervish. The whirling dervish was the highlight for me as he didn’t wear the typical white costume but had neon lights on the skirt of the dress. He had a great sense of humor and was challenging people to give him a language and he would count to ten. I was impressed that he knew the numbers of at least 20+ languages. Overall I wish I would have skipped Nile Cruise though, you can eat a good meal in Cairo for less then $10 USD.
Day 2: The Pyramids
Imhotep and Saqqara pyramids: We started the day by visiting the day by visiting two smaller pyramids with one that is under construction and the other collapsed and you can see the ruins of it. We got to go inside one of the tombs outside the pyramid and saw our first hieroglyphics of the trip. There was a guide inside that showed us with a flashlight the different types of limestone and marble used. Almost all of the color is of the drawing has worn away but you can still see some blues and reds in some spots. When he turned on the flashlight, you could also see the outline of a king that seemed to be made in a slight raise of the stones. It was so impressive to think how did they have the knowledge back then to build something so grand. Those pyramids were fun to explore but we were excited to head to the Great Pyramid.
Great Pyramid:
I had never realized that since the Great Pyramid was built during the Old Egypt time, it doesn’t have any hieroglyphics inside. They don’t allow any photos to be taken in the Great Pyramid and I had to leave my camera outside. The Great Pyramid consists of three burial chambers, one at ground level, the middle and the top. For 300 EGP or ~$18 USD, you can go inside and visit the middle burial chamber. We figured that we will probably only visit Egypt once and it is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World so we better go inside.
If you are claustrophobic then I would not suggest going inside. The way up to the burial chamber is very tight and you have to squeeze by others. Not to mention that the ceiling in some sections is at your waist level so you are bent completely over as you climb up. I felt like the hunchback of Notre Dame. When you reach the burial chamber, you feel like you just entered a sauna. Everyone we saw was hot and sweaty from the climb up and the room has no circulation. There really isn’t much to see in the burial chamber aside from one tomb. So we quickly saw that and began our climb down.
Although there wasn’t much to see inside, I am still glad that I experienced it. It made me marvel at how could they possible build these pyramids all those years ago without any proper tools. We were all huffing and puffing from our 5 minute walk up so how could they continue to build in the Egyptian heat all those years ago. The dedication it takes to build the pyramids is astounding.
Many things are still not known about the Pyramids and they still continue to discover new things within the Pyramids. The most common belief is that mud slides were used to haul materials up and build the Pyramids but we may never know for sure.
Photo Op with the Pyramids. We then choose to take the 10 minute Camel Ride for 100 EGP or ~$6USD. It was such a cool experience to be riding on camels towards the Pyramids and made for some great photos! As the camels went up and down towards the 3rd pyramid, I found myself sliding around. There was a small fear that I would fall off so I found myself gripping onto the handle on the saddle of the camel for dear life. It was totally worth it though!
Great Sphinx. I have seen so many photos of the statue but never realized it was a missing it’s nose. They were worried about people worshipping the statue, so ?? Decided to destroy it and got as far as cutting the nose off. It was very entertaining to watch everyone make photos of themselves kissing the statue. You don’t look silly at all, sitting their with your lips pursed. I really should taken a photo of everyone lined in various weird poses.
Perfumery:We made a short visit to a local perfumery where we got to small probably 15 various perfumes and oils.The group really enjoyed this stop and at least half the people on the tour bought something.
Long Drive: After that stop, we drove back to the hotel to pick up our bags and pay for any optional excursions for the week. I found this stop very unorganized and took us about an hour for everyone to register, pay, and get back on the bus. They had many TravelTalk Agents in the lobby but only one was taking the payment from everyone. It seemed like they could have those that want to pay in cash do so on the bus ahead of time so they are only pressing the credit cards in the lobby. So many options to make that portion run more smoothly! This was my biggest complaint about the tour. Many times it seemed like there could be much more organized and effective way of doing things and this was just the first example. Once on the bus, we had the first of many long drives as it is a 9 to 10 hour bus ride to Luxor.
Observations of Egypt :
Old Vs. New: What immediately struck me about Cairo was the dichotomy between old and new as well as rich and poor. You would be driving on the highway alongside fancy cars and then exit onto smaller roads riding alongside carts driven by donkeys or horses. I also saw several women walking transporting various items on top of their head.
Traditional Clothing: You would see those people dressed in long robes or dresses with the women having their hair covered.
Trash everywhere: Cairo may be the dirtiest city that I have ever visited. There are giant piles of trash along the road and on the side of the rivers. You would think that they don’t believe in trash cans! It is sad that they have all of these amazing wonders of the world including the Pyramids but don’t have the money to take care of their cities.
Few women in the workforce: Throughout my entire time in Egypt, I have seen very women working at all. I would have thought I would see more women at least selling items alongside the roads but I have only seen a few working at the hotels.
Security: After a few days in Egypt, it has become normal to see armed security guards everywhere that I don’t even think twice about it anymore. Also every time you enter a hotel or temple, you have to have your bag scanned as well as walk through a scanner. Along our drive, there are various security checkpoints. One of the other buses got stopped and everyone had to get out of the bus while they checked it. The next day that bus got through a security checkpoint and we were forced to choose to either wait for an armed escort from the city or take the long to our destination. It ended up taking up as an additional 90 minutes to get to our hotel. One of my tour guides informed us that it has always been this way even before the revolution. I didn’t dare take any photos of the Security stops. I didn’t want any reason for them detain me!
State of the country: Egypt is a poor country and things have been hard for the citizens since the revolution. This is easily seen everywhere with people begging to sell items for just a few pounds, trash everywhere, buildings in desperate need of repair.
Where it is the saddest is when you talk to the people of Egypt and they talk about how few opportunities there are right now. One guy that I met in Sharm-el-Sheikh lived in Cairo but the only place he could find work was in Sharm-El-Sheikh which is about a 10 hour drive. He only gets to visit his family once a month. Another guy I talked to wants to work in Finance but the only type of jobs he could find right now is in tourism.
Animals: I say that you can tell how poor the country is by how malnourished their animals are. I saw the skinniest cats of my life with their ribs showing on the way to the Mt. Sinai hike. Y When we took a horse drawn carriage ride in Luxor, you could see the horses back bones and some of their ribs. We were appalled when we were told that our horse, Monica, was pregnant and she looked so skinny. It may have been a scam to get more money from us to feed Monica though.
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