stevie667

Me and some friends are currently planning a visit to Egypt next year, most likely in the south of the country, and i would like to know if anyone out there has any advice on where to visit, what to see, things to know about travelling to Egypt/Africa e.t.c.

Our plans are to go for a week, probably around this time next year, with a party of 8 adults.

Just a brief overview there, but any insight would be appreciated.

DJ Happy

I've only been there on business, but I hear that Sharm El Sheikh on the Red Sea is absolutely beautiful. It's a resort city and caters almost exclusively for tourists. Cairo is very busy and crowded but very enjoyable. It has a very unique vibe about it. Beware the driving though - it is some of the worst in the world.

If you are buying anything there, haggle, haggle and then haggle some more. The best way to approach these negotiations is to tell yourself that you really don't want to buy anything. That way you are not tempted to give in too early. The last time I was in Cairo I wanted to buy a mother-of-pearl and mahogany jewellery box that they were trying to sell to me for $100. After about an hour of tea drinking and cigarette smoking, I eventually walked away with the mother-of-pearl box, two smaller mother-of-pearl boxes and a jade bust of Nefertiti for $30. And I was probably still ripped off.

gcbrowni

If you spend any time in the north, I would visit Saqquara(sp?) It's located near the great pyramids in Gaza, but has FAR fewer tourists. The Seraphim is not to be missed! It's a big underground maze like structure full of large black granite burial chambers. It's one of the coolest things I saw when I was there.

I'd pick up the Lonely Planet guide. It has a pretty good description of all of the local sites, and the best times to visit.

__________________
From the day of his birth Gilgamesh was called by name.

-Ever-

I'm very jealous. I tried to organize a week long trip to Egypt when I was studying abroad in London but it failed at the final moments. Enjoy yourself!
-T

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Embracing the goddess energy within yourselves will bring all of you to a new understanding and valuing of life. A vision that inspires you to live and love on planet Earth. Like a priceless jewel buried in dark layers of soil and stone, Earth radiates her brilliant beauty into the caverns of space and time. Perhaps you are aware of those who watch over your home And experience of this place to visit and play with reality. You are becoming aware of yourself as a gamemaster...
--Acknowledge your weaknesses--

Alyssa

I can't help too much. My boyfriend Aaron is over visiting there right now with his little brother Noah, and is currently staying about 15 km away from the location of the resort bombing that happened a couple days ago...He called today and said they were all safe, but you could tell that he was a little shook up. So when you are there, please be careful.


Here is a part of one of his emails he sent to me from when he just arrived in Egypt, (some of the names of the towns are misspelled):

"After we woke up, we ate lunch and proceded to purchase train tickets for an overnight train to Luxor that night. Not as easy as it sounds when you are trying to get directions and at the same time they are trying to sell you something. We made it and bought the tickets and were finally off for some sight seeing. We stayed right next to the Egyption Museum so it was logical to see it first. We acquired a guide at the gates and were off to see the sights. We saw all of King Tuts stuff and some mummies which were cool. At the end, the guide invited us into a shop where we received a 30 min demistration on a product, that is a gift for you, and finally made a purchase. After that we had some time to kill so we ate and walked around where we met an interesting fellow that thought that I was from the Netherlands so I didn't correct him since I thought that we would be in and out. Nope. We got some time saving info on how to get to Jordan so instead of taking the night train back to Cairo and a bus over to the ferry port to cross into Jordan, we could take a bus ride over to Hurgada and a ferry to Sharim el Shirek and then a bus to Nuwebi to finally catch the ferry to Aquaba, Jordan. This will save us a lot of time traveling, allowing us to enjoy the culture instead of a train. No problem, but then he asked us if we had a piece of paper to write this stuff down and since his brother had a shop close by, well we could go there and get a piece of paper and get the directions. Sounds easy but in the process you inherited another gift and we still didn't have the directions. Well it was time to go to the train station but this guy had a sob story about needing some liquor for a wedding and the only cheap place was the duty free across town. So train leaves in 1.5 hrs so we thought that we had enough time. He hails a taxi and little did we know, but it was a ride for our lives. Envision Nascar, but with gridlock traffic and people crossing the streets constantly. You could say that I was emotionally drained by the time we got back to our hotel half hour before the train departs. Now it's a race to get our bags and make the train so we run 7 flights of stairs up and back and get into the same taxi to make it to the train station. The guy hands the money to Noah and we're off now 20 min till we depart. In the middle off the ride, the driver asks for the money and Noah gives it to him. Bad idea, the driver starts ranting, so we told him to stop so we could talk to a tourist policeman. He didn't want to and again went on with the ranting. At this point, we are yelling at eachother, Noah and I vs the driver to stop the fucking car. He wouldn't so next logical idea is to get out when the traffic pauses for a second. Nope, as Noah opened the door , a semi almost borrowed the door. So now we are getting worked up, we don't know where we are, it's night and this guy won't stop. Now we're yelling help out of the car to cops as we pass by and just like that, he stopped and we dove out of the car as if it was home plate in the world series. We were so riled up, when we spoke we sounded like the driver as we were asking directions to the train station. We got pointed in the general direction and ran through New York crowded streets and finally found the station with 5 mins to spare. Well you can say that it was an adventure to be continued....
I'll call you in a few hours so don't go anywhere. We have to rush off to see Luxor Temple in English."



Not very informative, but kind of entertaining