Our ferry to Egypt was booked for 3pm but we'd been warned that it often left whenever the crew wanted to-most often much later. Leaving to catch the ferry was intense. There seemed to be no real procedures in place and we went from one place to another, dumping our bags on the back of a pick up truck precariously balanced and us all nervously watching to make sure no bag fell off. On the ferry itself, we had a quick, smooth journey but arriving in Egypt was diabolical. We and to hand over our passports, then they gave us a piece of paper, then we had to walk out the ferry, collect our bags from the tractors, scan the bags, pay for a visa, get a physical visa stamp, give the visa stamp immediately away to another person and then wait for them to take the visa away to put inside our still unseen passport. A few hours passed and finally we were out. There were audible sighs of relief. Heading to our beach camp by the Red Sea, we watched egypt We had sweet little palm leaf huts facing the beach and as it was already dark, had a quick dinner, promptly went to bed and listened to the waves splashing against the shore.
The next morning we could see what the camp was like and although it was very simple and rustic, it was a lovely place complete with jumping fish, swaying hammocks and pussycat friends. It was still quite dusty and the haze just allowed a peak of the mountains behind giving the camp a desolate and remote feel.
Driving into Dahab felt like entering into a war zone. There were unfinished buildings everywhere, abandoned shops and pot holed roads which were mostly dirt. I'd imagined beautiful Australian beaches so it took a while to see the beauty. We wandered into town to swap some cash and grab some lunch, finding a nice falafel man on the side of the road. Ordering two falafel sambos, we watched the world go by in this dusty quiet little place. The falafel man was doing a roaring trade with the locals and soon ran out of falafels. Firing up his oil, the man began cooking as we watched him throw little handfuls of the delicious chickpea mix into the deep fryer. A quick swim in the pool and a meeting with our new leader and then we went out for dinner. Dahab had loads of shops and restaurants but very few people so every owner was shouting out trying to get a sale. Our restaurant was situated towards the end of the town and was built over the Red Sea so as we were eating were graced by the presence of four lion fish, waving their manes at schools of bait fish and generally looking impressive yet intimidating.
The following morning we headed off snorkelling to the blue hole. An impressive 200 metre plus canyon in the ocean, it is surrounded by drop offs and coral reefs which were absolutely stunning. Sandy and dusty, numerous restaurants overlook the water which gives no indication whatsoever of the beautiful landscape below. Camels meander past, divers tank up and the bbq sizzles with orders of fish as sloth like tourists hang out on the cushions.
The snorkelling itself is a matter of stepping into the water over rocks, sliding past the two coral shelves and immediately being swamped by schools of red and blue fish and impressive coral. Finding Nemo amongst the anenomes and finding bright blue clams, parrot fish and angel fish op in and out of the coral. Pretty little striped fish come up close to eyeball you before flapping their fins and shooting behind you to nibble on your legs. It's been a while since I last saw seal life this impressive and the meditative nature of watching sea life is addictive. I drag a reluctant Tony into the water and he too is blown away by the beauty and serenity that exists here and we both leave feeling rejuvenated and refreshed by the salt water and sunshine and new perspectives. After chilling out by the pool and chatting to our friends, we have another massive western style dinner by the sea before heading to bed ready for our early morning flight.
Transferring to the airport, we say goodbye to the Sinai peninsula ready to take our flight to Cairo. I think we are going to be in for a bit of a shock here as over 20 million Egyptians live in Cairo- that's about three million less than live in the whole of Australia but just in one city!
We arrived into Cairo in the early afternoon and after we got settled, headed out to find some lunch. A few streets away we found a restaurant and about eight of us sat down to feast on local Egyptian food. Working out our plans for the afternoon, one of our group members (Tony) told us a tip he'd heard about the pyramids from a friend he'd met travelling. Apparently, KFC is opposite the pyramids and if you get there just before sunset, you can see the sun setting behind the pyramids. I was super keen to see if this was true so my Tony, Tony, Amar and myself negotiated a taxi out to KFC (which felt very weird I must say!) and got ourselves into the thick of Cairo traffic. Similar to Delhi or Bangkok traffic, the painted lanes b come mere guidelines and three lanes quickly become five as some unwritten law of driving evolves around me. Every car was scratched and most had a ding of some sort showing that perhaps we there was some method in the madness of the old lane system after all. Suddenly, we see a glimpse of the pyramids, poking out over the top of crowded mini buses. Cheering and whooping, the taxi driver looked at us as if we were stark raving mad. I mean, seriously, who gets excited about pyramids?
Turning down the road which was to lead us to KFC, our taxi driver was swamped by men rushing to his window and shouting at him, trying to make him stop. We realised they were trying to get him to take us to their shop/restaurant/insert whatever they may have possibly owned and he was trying to drive without running them over. A few decisive 'No's' from us and we inched our way closer to the pyramids. We then had to shout at our driver who had suddenly become consumed with tourist exploitation fever and was refusing to give us back any change from 100 (the agreed price had been 50). Furious at his stealing, we refused to relent and even the other Egyptians sellers were now inching away with their plastic pyramids not wanting to be involved in this little drama. he finally gave us the change and we got out eager to be free from touts, scams and rip offs and walked into the oasis of American mass produced food.
KFC and Pizza Hut have priceless land. They sit opposite the sphinx, the great pyramid and two others and have three stories ini which to gaze out at these incredible structures in air conditioned comfort or in our case, a roof top patio where we could watch the world go by and admire these magnificent creations. Buying some drinks from Pizza Hut, we settled in, already amazed by the beauty of the setting sun. Realising we were surrounded by signs for the light and sound show, we wondered if perhaps we may be able to see the show that was due to start in an hour so decided to kick back, have a chat and enjoy our night in Cairo in the shadows of the pyramids. Bus loads of tourists started to show up and a quick light test proved that we had indeed found a space where we could watch the pyramids lit up at night.
The show began and it consisted of classical music, a very British 1950's BBC sounding man explaining the site of the pyramids from the sphinx's perspective as well as the pharaoh's stories.the pyramids looked amazing and we snapped a few good pictures of the beautifully lit pyramids enjoying the cooler temperatures and disappearance of the hawkers. A quick dutiful dinner of KFC out of respect for the kind staff allowing us to litter their balcony for hours and we headed back to our hotel. Just having been at one of the most well known sites in the world, one would think that getting a taxi back into the city from it would be a piece of cake. It wasn't. All of the hawkers and taxis had headed home for the day and the area had been replaced with women and children taking evening strolls, men smoking sheesha and everyone totally ignoring us. Whilst that was welcome bliss, the taxis were not only few and far between but those who were driving by were refusing to stop for us. We split up and crossed the busy dual carriage way to try our luck. I managed to flag down a few but they promptly waved we off when they saw me. Continuously crossing the carriage way trying to find a good place to flag down an allusive cab, an Egyptian man approached me and asked if I needed help. Taking the business card of the hotel from me and walking me up the road a bit to where there was a fruit market, he managed to flag down a cab effortlessly and helped explain where it was we needed to go. Aussie Tony ( as I'll now refer to him as), Amar and my Tony and I slid in, thanking the man profusely for his kindness and hospitality and our previous frustrations of dishonesty were washed away in that one helpful moment.
The next day we returned to the pyramids bright and early to explore them properly. From a distance, they look perfectly smooth and shiny. Up close, one can see the huge blocks of sandstone that have been put together with utmost precision. They are incredible. Truly incredible. Built thousands of years ago, the mathematical and engineering feat is mind blowing in itself let alone the fact that in order to have built them in the time they were made, three huge blocks would have had to be positioned each minute every hour of the day non stop. Even more incredible, there are tombs inside, hidden along long steep entryways and somehow all of the pharaohs treasure and belongings had been taken in secretly and then sealed up. I paid extra to go inside one and it was an exciting feeling, ducking down and walking into the place where pharaohs rested awaiting their journey into the afterlife and potentially into heaven with tiny passages shooting off mysteriously from the main chamber. After seeing the main pyramids, we drive to the back where we had a fabulous view of them all before visiting the sphinx. We spent the morning wandering the site surrounded by Bedouins on camels, relentless hawkers and 40 degree heat so was looking forward to exploring the Egyptian museum where so many of the antiquities from the tombs now reside.
The Egyptian museum is fantastic. Not because of their displays or labelling but the sheer amount of antiquities they have shoved into every nook and cranny. I've been reading that the most amazing place to explore is the museums basement as even more stuff is hiding in there waiting to be displayed one day. Maybe once the Egyptian government builds the new museum near the pyramids this will happen. We began by looking at some pottery sculptures that were over 6000 years old but still in fantastic condition follows by some stone coffins that came out of the pyramids. We continued around to see the different carvings and statues and learnt more about the subtle hand placements and objects they were holding. Without a doubt, Tutankhamen's treasures are the highlight. His solid gold face mask weighs 11kgs and is so beautiful. All of his treasures are displayed there and there is countless numbers of solid gold necklaces, semi precious stones, scarab beetles, rings, combs and knives. There is also his whole collection of boxes that his sarcophagus was laid in, each fitting into each other like a babushka doll. He had beds, animal carvings and even all of his clothing including a linen penis covering. Yes, nothing was left to chance for the afterlife. We went into the mummified animal section and this was really interesting. The ancient Egyptians mummified anything they could get their hands on really which was great as we now have a collection of animals that are now extinct here like the Nile perch and the Nile crocodile. There were a few baboons which were pets and their little tails and nails were still visible. We stayed until we were kicked out and on the way out spotted the mummified humans. The faces were quite black and some still had chunks of hair attached to the heads. My ancient history lessons are firing ancient synapses to me once more and I'm slowly remembering the old stories. I'm sad to leave but actually really brain drained from the amazing day.
Back to the hotel for a quick shower and then we jumped on an overnight train. I really love sleeper trains so I'm looking forward to this trip. There are only 2 people to a carriage so Tony and I can spread out all of our stuff (which has been reduced by half as we left his backpack plus two other bags in Cairo) so nice to just have the one bag again! We managed to get some sleep and the food was quite edible although by the time we arrived in Aswan we were eager for a shower and some clean clothes. Waiting for our keys, I had a seat outside and watched life go by for the locals. There was a girl that I'd seen driving into town that I'd waved at-she now walked by and gave me a massive smile and waved again. There was an old man with a portable knife sharpener business, working his sharpening stone by foot. There were numerous donkeys, heavily weighted down with trays of fruit and vegetables and what seemed like a ten year old hoon by on a tractor like quad bike with a cheeky grin. A quick refresh and then we hit the road again-this time to Philae temple. Philae temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis and I think she's my favourite so far. She was worshipped even until roman times all through Europe and even into Britain. The temple was due to be lost forever with the creation of the Aswan high dam but unesco intervened and saved it. Between 1972-1980, each piece of the temple was disassembled, numbers, moved to a new island 20 metres higher and then put back together. That in itself is incredible but there were also some large sculptures, hieroglyphics and reliefs of Isis breastfeeding her child and the offerings brought to her. We had to catch a boat there and back which was a cool relief as was the sneaky icypole in the shade. The rest of the afternoon was free so it was spent oscillating between swimming in the swimming pool that was as deep as a bathtub and then sitting in my own bathtub doing my washing. We'd organised to go to a homestay for dinner and as we were all gathering there together, our guide Walid told us some sad news. 8 Mexican citizens had been shot dead as well as 4 Egyptians with many others injured as they were travelling though the western desert. The details were and are still sketchy as the Egyptian government gagged the media, but essentially they were doing what we were due to do in a few days time-travel the well driven tourist raid seeing the black and white desert in 4x4's. They had a police guard with them but the military shot at them mistakenly from a helicopter thinking they were ISIS militants. We wer of course deeply upset to hear of this tragedy and concerned for our safety but felt confident that Intrepid would find a solution for us. Unsettled, we headed out to the Nubian homestay for our dinner.
The Nubian homestay was located on elephantine island placed slap bang in the middle of the Nile. Our boat driver kindly drove us around the island where we saw loads of different bird life and the 'Nileometre' which was an ancient tool where rocks had been marked to indicate when a flood was coming and the depth of the water. With the sun slowly setting and some beautiful serene moments, we began to relax from our news and went onto the island. Met by loads of friendly children, the Nubian village was lovely. Full of handmade mud brick houses, clucking chooks and delicious wafting smells, we navigated the thin twisting lanes to get to the house. An absolute feast had been laid for us including fresh guava and mango juice and loads of beautiful Nubian/Egyptian food. We were as Aussie Tony would say 'Full as a goog' and eagerly tucked ourselves into bed for a good long sleep.
Many people left the next morning at 3am to visit Abu Simbel but Tony and I had decided to try to save some money and have a good sleep in. We'd been told to contact our travel insurance and I wanted to make sure our families knew we were ok so a lot of the morning was spent on logistics. I checked out the local market with Katarina, Vlad and Amar, finding a great cotton Galabea made of bright blue with pink and gold embroidery. There were loads of spice markets with lots of dried hibiscus to make their local Egyptian drink-hibiscus tea. Walking through the lanes, I spotted some pretty racy lingerie that the ladies wear under their layers of black-so sexy in fact, poor Amar turned away blushing. By the end, we were totally over the whole shopping thing. It's so hard in Egypt-tourism is very low and there's a palpable sense of desperation in the sellers but they don't help themselves with their constant hassle and totally unrealistic prices. Overwhelmed mostly by the heat but supported by annoyance, we headed back into the swimming bath and aircon when the rest of the group returned. Our trip to the desert had been cancelled by the Egyptian government so we needed to make new plans as to where we'd go on our trip. We decided to do a Nubian home stay the next night after a day on the felucca, followed by another day and night on the felucca. Two nights in Luxor followed by two nights in Hurghada on the Red Sea. A quick night in Cairo as we make our way up to Alexandria for two nights and then back to Cairo for the last night of our trip. Everyone was happy so I wanted to go out to have dinner in one of the suggested restaurants in the Lonely Planet I'd been reading. Heading out with Ty, Amar, Aussie Tone, my Tone and I, I walked in the vague direction I'd seen on the map towards the places. The closest one was closed and when we went to the next one, they opened their restaurant especially for us. I love just following my nose and looking up recommendations but I felt a bit worried when the rest of the group asked if I'd checked on trip advisor about them. No. Whoops!
I needn't have worried, they did us proud and brought out a wonderful meal which everyone agreed had been some of the best food we had had. The waitress and waiter (who quite possibly were the owners) were so friendly and nice and I loved being able to leave the big group for dinner and do a small bit of independent exploration. Walking along the Nile was beautiful with a cool refreshing breeze, twinkling lights on the neighbouring islands and a chilled out vibe. For Egypt at least. Walking home next to Ty and Aussie Tone, Ty managed to get offered marijuana about five times and the decided to flank me when the local boys came too close.
We had been upgraded to a bigger felucca and thank god quite frankly as I've no idea how 20 people would've sat let alone slept on the usual one Intrepid uses. This one was a posh one as it had a toilet onboard and a roof meaning we could spread out on both levels over the two days. We'd made a drinks order complete with beer and wine and I was looking forward to my first alcoholic drink in Egypt. A day of doing nothing but watching the world go by, feeling the wind in my hair and swimming in the Nile was defiantly required. Everyone settled in on the boat with a mixture of chatting, reading, sleeping,drinking and then Walid's card game of monopoly. Initially tricky to get ones head around the rules, those who stuck at it got fiercely competitive and played it over and over again even giving themselves travel sickness playing it on our minibus later in our trip!
Pulling up at a small Nubian village on the side of the Nile, we were met with numerous cheeky grins by local boys swimming in their undies. Donkeys were braying, cows were tied up under the shade of the tree and our home stay was painted with bright colours and geometric designs. The ladies had made our beds in the back, a long open room filled with mattresses on the floor and the worlds loudest aircon. We all claimed a bed, set our stuff down and went back into the sandy courtyard to chill out. The ladies were making dinner so I offered to help with Catalina and Jo and our job was to make the salad. There was a mother and her two daughters that were running the show and they quickly got us to work, showing us how to dice a tomato and a cucumber without a chopping board. Adding some finely sliced rocket leaves and some freshly squeezed lime juice, our dinner was ready. A few mats were placed on the sand and whalah! Dinner is served.
Snuggling into our beds, the jet engine air con helped drown out the inevitable snores from my friendly travellers so I managed to get some sleep. Waking up bright and early, I jumped at the chance of having a shower as I knew we wouldn't have access to one again until Luxor. The matriarch of the home was already awake so after I'd freshened up, I brought over my wool and crochet needle to head Mumma. Immediately taking them and getting down to business, she started creating a masterpiece before my eyes. Telling me she was making a Muslim headscarf, she busied herself until more and more people surfaced from bed. Suddenly jumping up she declared she had to make breakfast, telling me to continue. Ummmm, how???? I bumbled my way through it the best I could, amazed to see how she'd created an oval shape. Maybe I've just learnt something other than a straight line!

Back to the boat again for a day and night of felucca playing monopoly, swimming and drinking beer. Happy days. Had a dance party in the roof with drumming by Sabu and moo singing songs and having a laugh.
Wind powered
Flooded toilet from toilet paper
Drinks scam

Driving to Luxor for a few nights and as we've changed our trip, intrepid is paying for all the things we wanted to do. looking forward to having a shower and having a good nights sleep as well as checking out Karnak temple and valley of the Kings

Luxor: drove there in the morning, temple of Karnak in the afternoon.
Ram Sphinx lined entrance
Huge pillars with hieroglyphics
Color remaining on pillars and roof
Large scarab beetle
Original mud brick ram against pylons
Next day valley of the Kings, tomb of Tutankhamen saw his mummy and original gilded sarcophagus went into three tombs which had incredible drawings on the wall. Ramses 3, 9 memphat
Hassles with sellers and scams of security guards
No photos
Alabaster workshop incredible light through the brown stone.
Queen temple told everyone to draw her as a man. Hatshepsut
Only woman pharaoh and current imaging has identified a tooth found as hers.
Hot
Colossus statues on the way home
Rooftop restaurant see valley of the Kings all lit up as well as Luxor temple where the Karnak temple will meet up with again
Fair trade shop and horse drawn carriage. Tony offered alcohol, marijuana and finally prostitutes as Kim and I got out of his carriage. Kim suggested that maybe he thought us feisty girls were s wives and Tony needed a reprieve.
Shit load of military

Drive to Hurghada
Desert landscape full of black mountains similar to what we missed
Constant checkpoints
Stopped for lunch and I was busting for the toilet. We'd stopped in between a koshary and a felafel place so the boy took me to the next door restaurant. Worlds worst toilet. Seriously. No water, shit still in bowl, but men there totally fine for me to use it. Couldn't quite face a felafel sandwich when I saw they were making them with their hands.....and there's no running water after one urinates. Suddenly not hungry any more and when Amar sees my face decides he won't eat either.
Hurghada.....not my idea of paradise weird to be in an all inclusive but grateful for not having to pay and having bath mats. Angry and depressed looking Russians, one shoved a soup bowl in my back when she thought I wasn't going apfast enough in the line for the buffet. It's not like the food was going anywhere.... We all retreat to a bar that has wifi, enjoying the reasonably priced beer but noticing that none of the boys serving there ever seem to have change thus making themselves nice tips for each purchase. Feeling unsettled being in an all inclusive-so not my idea of travel but the palace of a room is making up for it so are the young Yugoslavian men that keep waving to me and smiling. They have their flag flying in their balcony and shouted out to me where I was from. After telling them, I asked them. Ponting down to their flag as if it was as obviously and as recognisable as that of the USA, they declared it was Yugoslavian. Silly me.
Next day went snorkelling, stopped to swim with dolphins but very choppy and boat didn't turn off engine.
First stop full of good coral and pretty fish
Had lunch then Dolphins came back to us, I jumped in with Darcie and saw 7 dolphins below me and another two were by my side hanging out which I missed as I popped up to clear my goggles
Jumping off top of boat and taking funny photos.....or trying to.
Another stop, coral mostly dead but some very cool fish
Everyone feeling like we had an incredible day
Got a handmade bracelet of an ankh but felt uneasy by the man thought he could lose it at any moment so took Tony with me.

Big drive to Cairo. Drive along Red Sea stopping at a resort town where teibult's obsession for KFC saw the group divided. Still can't believe that Belgium has yet to be dominated by them. Tempted to by a pair of high heeled crocs so clearly am thinking more about settling back into Aussie life.
Dinner at nearby shawarma restaurant with yummy mango juice. I whooped one of the boys in connect four had a fun night being silly and talking shit

Drive to Alexandria, only stop the most western place we've seen thus far. Sells monopoly deal cards which nearly everyone buys a pack of and good coffee. We stop to buy some koshary from a local restaurant as many are closed for Eid. It is full of character with loads of copper pots full of chick peas and lentils and bubbling pots of beef liver. Whist we don't have ocean views, we don't have to share a bathroom which is great and as It's Tony's birthday we hang around reading books and catching up on our diaries before meeting for dinner.
Dinner: more of an autopsy than a meal. Liver,heart, stomach, spleen. Any veggie options? Yeah!a vege tagine. With chicken. Afterwards go to a bakery for coffee and cake which turns out to be Tony's birthday cake which Walid and Amar spent all afternoon organising. They seriously have hearts of gold. I'm delighted as Amar and I bought Tony a flame thrower candle in Aswan and it does indeed look impressive. So glad Amar told me not to buy the pack of five, the cake wouldbe looked like a bomb. Beautiful colonial architecture in cafe and jo and Ian delighted as Ian's father met his mother here in the war and took a photo of among meant. The monument still stands and Ian was able to take a photo of himself 70 odd years later.

Eid, Amar and Walid up at 5:30pm to pray
Tire street
Half car street
Mechanic street
Animal horns on corners and intestines littering footpaths with poo pushed out and random hooves thrown onto the street.
Streets parallel, Greek architecture, streets called rue piazzas
Only finished buildings are the old colonial ones which are beautifully painted and look fantastic
Catacombs-did some drawing
Ocean front dirty, kids riding motorbikes barely able to handle them, loads of stallions feeling hot and feisty
Mosque, women enter through corrugated iron back entrance smelling of stale piss
Dinner Ty and I swamped for photos-teenage girls in tight close with rhinestones all over each item of clothes not wearing headscarves and poking out their tongue and pouting near Ty. Weird.

Drive back to Cairo.
Have a olive escort complete with sirens and an 'undercover cop' who is as subtle as a sledgehammer in his suit and mini machine gun.
Tony and I relent and purchase monopoly deal and we people watch at all of the filty rich Egyptians. Such a difference between the haves and have nots.
Driving through the City of the dead.
Church where Mary and Jospeh stayed
Church with 18ad artwork and Islamic art and architecture and peep holes
Synagogue
Walls of Cairo
Original wooden gated area of the Christians
Pencil minaret from 1800 period of Mohammed Ali selling the water, built a well, ablutions
Dinner at Walid's home
Different feeling here-no hassle and friendly locals. Taking photos of us and loads of smiles

Day of saying goodbye-constantly up and down the stairs watching kindred spirits leave.
Realised someone had nicked all of my undies
Spend the rest of my time hand washing my remaining undies and keeping a very close eye on them.
Sad heart and feeling lost
Tony refusing to leave the hotel except for water and a known restaurant
Making friends in the restaurant with kids, giving me balloons and wanting to hi5 me

Leaving-taxi man ripped off by hotel, locals sweet but anyone attached to tourism greedy buggers
Katarina taking two taxis to pyramids, both dropping her in wrong places and charging her.
Laundry scam-paid over twice the amount as 'hotel laundry shut' yet not told about price increase and all the hangers from this laundry place are exactly the same as the other 20 hanging in our cupboard.......funny that.

Rubbish piles
Constant hassle for buying things
Tipping for everything without any exceptional service
Inefficiency and incompetence
Walking atm: charge double the price for water, icecreams until you walk away in disgust
Men making 'pssss' sounds when walking past
Dirt and dust everywhere
Half finished buildings, no pride in aesthetics

Wooshka
Streuth
Full as a goog
I'm catching what you're throwing
I'm picking up what you're putting down
As useless as tits on a bull
Rattle their dags
Up there for thinking down there for dancing
Splash the moccies
Teeth so big he could eat an apple through a picket fence

We all eat potatoes

Men with dark marks on forehead from