Egypt

The Ibn Tulun mosque was very photogenic and was one of our favourite mosques we saw in Egypt. The following day we set out in the morning to explore Islamic Cairo.…

We wandered around looking for a new hotel having left the Berlin Hotel when they switched us to a new room without asking while we were out during the day.  When we found the Lotus Hotel, a member of the ‘hotel staff’ followed us up to the reception.…

The hotel we had tried to book in advance, the Berlin Hotel , refused to give us a reservation unless they personally picked us up at the airport to guarantee we would keep our reservation, and also to avoid taxi drivers demanding a ‘finders fee’ for bringing us to their h

Local ferry crossing to the West Bank, Luxor The next day we woke up early and headed back to the West Bank. Although we’d visited it already on our “tour” with Hamis Travel, we wanted to head back and actually see some things.…

Edfu Temple on the Nile River Edfu was our first stop as we made our way south towards Aswan. Here was where we met our new guide. He spoke English better than our first guide, but overall was not much more competent then the first guide.…

Abu Simbel Early the next morning, we left for Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel borders Sudan, and there is heavy security. Tourists from Aswan are forced to join an early morning motor convoy to the site, several sleepy hours away.…

Life along the Nile River.Kom Ombo to Aswan isn’t a very long trip. At this point, we’d had it with our tour guide. We were supposed to be taken to the Unfinished Obelisk, the High Dam, and Philae Temple.…

Vaguely re-assured, we headed out that evening by ourselves to the Karnak Temple sound and light show. There are various shows throughout the evening in various languages – although to be honest, the language was sort of irrelevant.…

Our boat was called the Aton and was run by Selection Hotel. It's not a conventional cruise boat, it's more like a floating hotel. The next day the horror of our cruise began.…

The Upper Egypt Travel bus we took from Hurghada to Luxor. The bus to Luxor was half an hour late. We were lucky to get seats. You can’t buy seats in advance (as it’s not an originating point), so there’s just a mad scramble to get seats as the bus pulls in.…