Day 44

We slept in as late as we could this morning to try and make full use of our late wake up time but alas, all those early mornings had ruined us and we were up and about by 7:00 am. It gave us ample time to finish packing though so that was useful. We put our bags out in the hall for collection and handed our key in then headed down for breakfast. After breakfast we made our way up to the sun deck for one last time and made ourselves comfortable until 9:30 when our transfer to the airport arrived.

We farewelled the Dolphin and piled into the mini bus with two other Australians who were also doing the Lake Nasser cruise. Our driver was a bit of a maniac even though the traffic wasn't that bad because it was a Friday (Fridays and Saturdays are the weekends here). We arrived at the airport and checked in and then had to kill two hours before our flight. Boring.

The flight itself was incredibly short. Total boarding, taxiing and flight time was only about 45 minutes. I slept the whole way :) When we arrived we were greeted by a representative from the tour group who waited until we collected our luggage and then showed us to the minibus before disappearing into another car with other people. We were told that there would be a representative somewhere else waiting for us. Umm, ok...

So the driver takes us off and after about 10 minutes of driving we pull up on what appears to be the edge of a rocky hill where some guys are sitting in the shade of a tree. The driver says to us "Khayam?" I'm like, that vaguely sounds like what I remember being written on our voucher for checking in so, "Yes!" Next thing I know the porters are hauling the luggage out and another guy jumps in the van and we're like, umm, ok? We start to get off the minibus and the new guy says "No" and points further down the hill. So, we sit back down, our luggage gets taken out and then we drive another couple of hundred meters were all of a sudden we see a huge ship docked in a small bay with a large staircase leading down to it. Right, this is it!

As we file off the bus the new guy says something to us like, "I'm calling reception to let them know that you're coming. Just go down the steps and when you arrive, tell them your with " insert random name that starts with a V. Umm, ok. So, we walk down the stairs, board this ship and enter the plushest reception area. We had some issues with the name at first but I finally remembered that I'd been given a voucher and handed it over to the reception. We were told to have a seat and then filled in some forms before being given the keys to our room and advised that lunch was currently being served.

Now, the tour representative had told us the day before that we were on a very good boat on this cruise and that we had been upgraded and were in suites rather than cabins but I hadn't realised how good he meant by very good. Our room was twice the size of our room on the Dolphin. We had a giant bed, a desk, a sitting area and there was a bottle of water and fresh fruit platter waiting for us. There was a huge bathroom that had a shower and a bath and two hand basins and a sliding door that led to a little sitting area outside. When we went to the dining room for lunch we were whisked to a specially reserved table and were given silver service. There was a great variety of food and a little area where the chefs cooked fresh food in front of you. For lunch it was macaroni (pretty boring) and freshly battered fish which was delicious!

We found out later that the MS Omar El Khayam is the newest (built in 2008) and largest Lake Nasser cruise ship and had been designed for travellers who enjoyed luxery and being treated like royalty. Whoa. So, we had not just been upgraded up one class as per the previous cruise, we had been upgraded to the best and biggest boat on the lake! This ship was bigger than our previous ship! We spoke to our guide about it later and he said that the ship that we (the four of us) were supposed to be on was currently being refurbished and the ship that the other two ladies was supposed to be on was probably full so they probably had to upgrade all of us to this ship as it was the only other one sailing on the dates that we had booked. Score! I felt very fake being in these fancy pants suites and being waited on almost hand and foot - I didn't pay for this! But I figured I may as well try to enjoy it seeing as we were going to be on this ship for three nights.

We met our tour guide Mina over lunch. He informed us that we would be going to visit the temple of Abu Simbel at 3:30 so after lunch we decided to explore the ship. We found the following:
 - 1st floor - Health and beauty spa with a gym, sauna, spa and massages and a night club/bar
 - 2nd floor - Reception, four grand suites (our rooms) and two royal suites
 - 3rd floor - shops, cabins and another four grand suites and two royal suites
 - 4th floor - cabins and a casual lounge bar with board and card games for passengers and a billiards room
 - 5th floor - cabins and a more formal lounge bar
 - Up top - outside bar, shaded lounge area, shaded sitting area, deck chairs with umbrellas and, once again, a pool!

Somewhere along the way our luggage had miraculously made it to the foyer so we got it brought into our room. We met Mina in the reception at 3:30 and headed up the stairs that we had descended earlier today to reach the ship. Turns out that the ship was just over the hill from the temples so all we had to do was walk up the stairs, through a gate and we stepped into the arrivals area. Mina gave us our tickets and we went down. This temple was amazing due to the sheer size of it and also the intent of it. It was built by Ramses II who was determined to prove himself the equal of the gods. He dedicated his temple to worship three gods and himself. Nice. He also built a smaller temple to the side for his favourite wife, Nefertari. How sweet.

Mina informed us that these temples had also had to be rescued due to the construction of the High Dam in Aswan and were now located 60 metres above their original location. We were given 45 minutes to wander around the temples by ourselves once he had finished with his explanations and then we wandered back up to the cafe.

We decided to get an ice cream and had an interesting conversation with the shop keeper. It went something along the lines of this:
Me: pick up the ice cream and go to the shop keeper - "How much is the ice cream?"
Shop keeper: "25 pounds"
Me: "I only paid 15 pounds in Philae" - which I knew was still over priced but at least an acceptable over priced, not ridiculous over priced
Shop keeper: "More expensive here because it's further away"
Me: "It's too expensive" - start walking to put ice cream away
Shop keeper: "20 pounds"
Me: Pause and think about it before putting the ice cream into the freezer - "No thank you. Too expensive"
We start to walk away.
Shop keeper: "Ok, 15 pounds!"
I'd kind of given up at that point and was pretty unconvinced but Steve said that he'd buy it for me so 15 pounds later we were enjoying our expensive ice cream. We talked to Mina and Steve's parents about it too and Tina mentioned how she had a similar experience with the same shop keeper just a few minutes ago regarding some mints. Ah, Egypt.

We sat in the cafe and finished our ice cream before heading back to the ship. The other two ladies with us were going to the sound and light show at 6 so they stayed at the cafe along with Steve's parents who were keeping them company. We decided to go for a quick dip only to find out that the pool is actually really cold! Not freezing but there are lines painted along the bottom so I suspect the pool was designed to be a lap pool, hence the cooler temperature. Steve just stuck his feet in while I went the whole hog and jumped in.

Dinner wasn't until 8 so we came back to the room and hung out in our bath robes (life is so tough) before making ourselves decent to go to the dining room. We had a nice relaxing program the next day with nothing scheduled until 11 so we could have a bit of a lie in. Some of the others went up to the lounge to have a cuppa after dinner but we were so tired that we just came back and crashed in bed.

Day 43

The wake up call came in, which we answered and then slept in for another half an hour. We weren't the only ones looking slightly bleary eyed at breakfast. We had arrived in Aswan overnight so walked up to the street and got onto the bus which took us to a small wharf where there were squillions of motor boats waiting to ferry passengers to the Temple of Philae. We precariously hopped on one and headed over.

The Temple was dedicated to the Isis, the goddess of love and beauty, so Ibrahim called it the romantic temple. He told us that the temple had been relocated because the original island of Philae was flooded when the Egyptians built their dams. UNESCO came and divided the temple up into hundreds of large blocks and relocated the temple 60 metres away onto the island of Agilkia, where it now resides.

The temple was fantastic, the location on the river meant that there was a lovely breeze blowing around and through the temple and the carvings on the temple wall were fantastic. Once we finished we had a seat at the cafe near the temple in the shade and enjoyed the nice view. We left Philae/Agilkia island and headed back to the main land.

Our bus headed up to the High Dam where we got to marvel at the massive piece of engineering. It was pretty cool. The dam is 110 metres high and 3800 metres long and generates 2.1 GW of electricity which is enough to supply all of Egypt and enables Egypt to export power to other nearby countries.

From the High Dam we went to a red granite quarry that was used by the ancient egyptians for their temples. The granite quarry was only included in one person on the tour's itinerary but the rest of us were given the option to visit the quarry if we paid the entrance fee. Another lady and I took up the offer while the others waited on the bus. The quarry was amazing - you could see evidence of the ancient egyptians and remnants of their work. There was also a humongous obelisk still lying in the quarry. Ibrahim informed us that it was commissioned by Queen Hetshepsut and was going to be the biggest at 42 metres long (they're usually only 25 or so) but it cracked as they were attempting to lift it up so they had to abandon it but the granite had already been carved into an obelisk shape.

We got back on the bus and had a quick stop at a few banks to change some more money (damn tips!) before heading to the waterfront to board our felucca. It was fantastic. We were sailing peacefully along the Nile with the wind in our hair and the sun shine coming in from the sides. Our captain and his sailors were Nubians so they got us to sing and dance along with them at one point. They then used the opportunity while we were on there to try and sell us some stuff but they did it nicely so we actually bought something.

The felucca stopped at Kitchener Island where the Botanical Gardens of Aswan are located and we disembarked for a stroll through the gardens. I managed to get separated from the group because a heap of them went off to the loo and the rest of us were standing around waiting for them when this local guy started following me around, trying to show me stuff and giving me stuff from the gardens. During this time, the rest of the party had returned and started walking up through the gardens, leaving me behind with the dude. He asked me for a tip (surprise surprise) which I gave him and then kind of expected him to go away. Unfortunately, he didn't stop there and proceeded to climb a lotus tree and bring me a lotus blossom, which he then asked for another tip. I told him no because I'd already tipped him and I didn't ask for the flower. Needless to say it didn't end well with the guy taking the lotus flower and going off in a huff and me being cranky at Steve because I couldn't be angry at the group for abandoning me to the hawkers.

Other than that irritating experience, the gardens were actually quite nice. There was a fantastic view on one side of the desert and on the other side of the river. We sat in the cafe at the end of the gardens until our boat came and picked us up and then headed back to the ship. We were meant to go back on the felucca but the tour company had been worried that the wind might have died down so we wouldn't be able to sail so they had organised for a motor boat instead. Not quite as atmospheric but still nice. Unfortunately as we approached the wharf being in a boat wasn't quite so nice as we had to go in between a set of cruise ships to disembark and the ships were all spewing out diesel fumes.

We struggled through the noxious fumes and boarded the ship in time for lunch. After lunch we had a really relaxing afternoon in the pool and on the sun deck. I had a snooze while Steve read. We then dragged ourselves down to the cabin and started packing our suitcase ready to leave the next day. We had been given the choice to go on an excursion to a Nubian village but we had declined because we were a bit excursioned out for the day which was unfortunate as the members of the group who had gone said it was fantastic. Nubians keep live crocodiles in tanks in their homes to ward off evil spirits and scare any would be robbers. Crazy!

We had a meeting with Ibrahim and the company representative at 6:30 to find out about flights for the next day so we headed down to the lounge. We winced in  pain as one group got told that they had a 3:30 am wake up call. Thankfully ours wasn't until 7:45 am so there was lots of joking about trading tours and early wake up calls during dinner. We exchanged contact details with the ones that we wanted to keep in touch with and then headed upstairs to watch a Nubian  performance. There was singing and dancing and they even dragged the whole room up on the dance floor at one stage. We headed off to bed soon after due to tiredness and the fact that one of the instruments they had just brought out was some sort of horn thingy like what snake charmers use and it was loud!

Day 42

We enjoyed our sleep in and then headed down to breakfast. I think the other members of the group also appreciated the sleep in. During the night the ship had docked at Edfu so we all gathered in the reception at 7:30 am and ventured off the ship. This time we were five ships in so we had to go in and out of their ships before we made it to the dock which was fun!

Our mode of transport to the temple was horse carriage! It was four to a carriage so Steve rode up front with the driver and his parents and I rode in the back. It took about 10 minutes to get to the temple but it was an amusing way of arriving there. We unfortunately had to fight our way through the hawkers to make it to the temple this time. We definitely weren't looking forward to coming back through that. The temple itself was amazing. It was dedicated to Horus by the Greek/Roman Pharoahs at the time. This is where they found the first depiction of an ancient Egyptian story regarding the battle between Horus and his Uncle Seth to avenge the death of his father Osiris.

Afterwards, Ibrahim surprised us with a video in an air conditioned room next to the temple. It showed the discovery of the temple, the restoration of the temple to its current state and gave a tour through the temple which was good because some of our group had not come in due to not feeling well.

We fought our way back through the hawkers and found our ride back to the ship. Wim rode up front this time so we hung out in the back and enjoyed the ride. Unfortunately it got spoilt a bit when we tipped the guy
(more than we'd been told already because he'd been cool and we'd taken some photos) and he asked for more (for his horse apparently). We crossed the other ships to ours and arrived in the reception to another awesome hot towel and drink.

The ship set sail at 10:00 am so with nothing else to do we figured we'd go in for a swim! We got changed, jumped in and jumped back out again because it was freezing! Surprising what 4 hours of sun shine on the water can do. So, found somewhere comfy to sit down and read our books instead. We ended up getting really hot so jumped in again for a bit before lunch.

We reconvened at 3:30 in the reception to visit the Temple of Kom Ombo. The ship had docked really close to the temple so we could walk from the dock. We still had to walk through three ships to make it to the dock though.

Kom Ombo was lovely. It was a fantastic time of day to be out, there was the slightest breeze which cooled everything down and we were all relaxed and refreshed from the break in between. The temple had been dedicated to two gods, Sobek and Horus, so was split into two identical halves apart from the carvings. The sun had started to set by the time we started to go back so it was nice to stand at the temple on the top of the hill and watch it go down. The temple also had a working Nile-o-meter which was pretty awesome - a device invented by the Greek Romans to determine how much tax to charge the people based on how much the Nile flooded. Nice.

Sandra's just gone to have a shower, so Steve is back on the blog:

On our way back to the boat, we stopped off at some local stores to get some galabeyas (the long Egyptian robe things), because tonight was the Egyptian party! By local stores, we mean dudes setup market style along the water.

Ok, now the locals are annoying enough while trying to sell you stuff you don't want. They are worse when you actually want something. I'd arranged with our guide to simply go and get the cheapest one they could find (I doubt I'm going need it to withstand years of use). The mission was simple, with minimal haggling. I got it for 30 Egyptian pounds ($6), score.

To avoid being hassled by more store folk, I kept my galabeya on so that they could all see I already had one and didn't need to buy more. But these veteran salesman then saw this as opportunity to supply me with accessories.... How many times can a man say "La Shocran" (no thank you).

While all this fun was going on, Sandra was battling the hordes with other tour group members. After getting dragged around, there was finally a galabeya worth keeping. Now comes the fun of haggling. Instantly, the guy gave her the 'good price' of 60 pounds, backing up his claim by telling Sandra "that's what she paid" pointing to a tour group member. Despite this being true, Sandra then asked another tour group member next to her how much hers was. 40 pounds you say. Ok, 40 pounds, no less. Seeing defeat, the salesman relented and accepted her price. Despite this feeling like a victory, I'm still sure the guy made an awesome profit on it anyway.

Sadly, I was not the only one who attracted the 'accessory' sellers. Sandra, too, had to brush off wave after wave of locals putting scarves and crap on her.

After our successful shopping trip, it was time to get back on the boat. Our lovely room cleaning crew had created another piece 'towel art'. This one was a towel man sitting on a chair wearing my t-shirt, shorts, hat and glasses. He was right near the door, giving Sandra a bit of a fright when she entered our room.

We all dressed up ready for the Egyptian night. Like most people, we did it before we went to dinner as well. The food that night was traditional Egyptian food as well. It was awesome.

After dinner we went upstairs to the bar where the Egypt night was supposed to occur. It was a fun night, involving things like Egyptian dancing, regular dancing and much laughing. Dad got up as well which was awesome! Mum decided not to, but we did get her up once.

Day 41

Our wake up call came in at 5:45 am on the dot. All of our tour group except the Canadians were on the 4th floor and our cabines were next to/opposite each other so you could hear the chorus of telephones going off. We got up and made our way down to the restaurant for breakfast. Surprisingly, we were the second ones there being beaten only by the Canadian family. Breakfast and afternoon tea are the only meals of the day when drinks are free. Unfortunately, the drinks are tea and coffee which didn't really help us although there was a really sweet orange drink that we had at breakfast instead.

At 7:00 am sharp we were all ready to head off. We piled on to the bus and headed out to the Valley of the Kings! We had to ride these little open buses from the entrance to the area around the tombs. Our entrance tickets gave us entry into three tombs in the valley. Special tombs, such as Tutankahmun, were extra so we decided not to take up the extra tombs. I can't remember which ones we visited now but they were all of the Ramses dynasty. The tombs were pretty cool, there was still lots of the original carvings and colours inside. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos. There were also hundreds of people already there and it was shaping up to be a hot day so we could understand, if not appreciate, the reason for the early start.

We left the Valley (had to fight our way through a group of hawkers whom had all set up shop around the exit - nasty( and headed to Queen Hatshepsut's Temple. On our way we stopped by an alabster shop where the workers still find, carve and paint alabaster stone in the same method that the ancient Egyptians used to. We succumbed and bought our first souvenir of the trip - a little limestone carving for home.

Queen Hatshepsut, or as Ibrahim joked, "Hot Chicken Soup", was the only woman to rule Egypt as a Pharoah. Her temple was carved into the side of a mountain but unfortunately a lot of the temple was damaged due to natural disasters, such as earth quakes and floods, and vandalism. One of the really sad things is that a lot of the carvings in a lot of the temples were vandalised by early Christians that were using the temples as refuges before Christianity was legalised. They found the carvings offensive so defaced them. The interesting this about this temple was that this was one of the few temples that hadn't been defaced by early Christians. This had been defaced by Hatshepsut's step son. There was a struggle for power between her and her step son and when he finally won he ordered her name and all carvings bearing her face to be destroyed.

We had to catch little open buses from the car park to near the temple again. The temple was hot. Really hot. There was absolutely no shade and it was midday and there were three different tiers. Needless to say, we didn't spend too long on each one before making our way back to the shade of the cafeteria. We caught the bus back and once again had to duck and weave our way through the hawkers lining the exit.

From here we went to see the Collosus of Memnon, two large statues that are all that remains of an ancient temple. It was just a quick stop, out of the bus for some photos and then back on the bus to the ship for lunch and to start sailing up the Nile. One of the best things was walking back onto the ship to find warm towels and refreshing lemon drinks waiting for us. It was a fantastic cure to feeling hot, sweaty and dirty.

We had all had lunch and were sitting around chatting when we realised that the ship had started moving so we all dashed up to the sun deck and watched the ship leave. We changed into our swimmers and bobbed around in the pool while we watched the scenary pass. We didn't have any other excursions planned for the rest of the day so we spent it swimming and reading on the sun deck. Hard, I know.

We had to meet Ibrahim that evening for an information session regarding our visits and the harsh reality of working in the Egyptian tourism industry. Most people working in tourism earn bugger all so the way they make their living is off tips. So he informed us when we should tip, who we should tip, how much we should tip, etc. In summary, we should tip almost everybody - the porters, bus drivers, the cruise crew, the toilet cleaners,the cats and dogs... It wasn't so much the amounts as when you do the conversion, it's a few dollars here and there. But it's a few dollars constantly and it's just such a different culture to what we have at home that we were quite uncomfortable about it. He did mention that tipping wasn't obligatory and that if you were happy with your service then you could but sometimes it didn't quite feel that way, especially when the people asked for a tip!

We were starting at 7:30 am the next morning so we had dinner, sat around chatting with the other people in the group and then retired to our room for the night. There was meant to be a disco at 9:30 in the bar but when we walked past it looked pretty unlively.

Day 40

Despite our guide wanting us to wake up at 4:30, we decided to wake ourselves up at 4:50 instead. 20 minutes of sweet sweet sleep was worth it. It would have been later but we had to get the suit cases out by 5.

We got down to reception a bit early but the tour guy was already there (this was the guy who met us at the airport). The hotel was kind enough to prepare some breakfast boxes for our travel. Score!

While getting into the bus, we noticed there were others already on from another hotel. We were the last stop, so thankfully we got to sleep in the longest!

After finishing the breakfast box, we arrived at the airport. Our tour guy pretty much babied us through the whole check in process. To our surprise, we were flying business class. I was filled with both sadness and joy. Joy, because it is the first time I have EVER flown business class. Sadness because out of all the flights I have ever been on, it's the shortest. A pathetic 45 minutes. The plane hardly gets to full altitude before it starts to descend again...

The plane landed, and as with every other flight we have ever been on, we waited to let the impatient people out (especially since you have to get into a bus and stand anyway). But turns out that in business class, they don't let the cattle out until we've gone. Crap, so we had to quickly get our stuff and move out. The cool thing is that the business class bus leaves as soon as the business class people are on. So you get a seat and don't have to wait. But again, this isn't as good as it sounds because you still have to wait for your bags. And since we were the first to get off, we had to stand in the stupid baggage hall with everyone else waiting for the bags to even start coming rather than be in our comfy business class chairs. Once we finally got the bags, it was time to experience Luxor! The first stop was our cruise boat, the MS Nile Dolphin. This was an upgrade to the one that we were supposed to be on because it must have been more cost efficient for the tour company to just put us with the other people on the tour so score!

The number of ships on the river was amazing! Our ship was the closest to the dock but there were five boats docked abreast of each other so passengers on the other ships had to walk through our reception area to get to theirs which was quite cool. There were probably about 20 boats docked in the area where we were but our guide told us that there were about 500 ships that sail this section of the Nile with at least 100 ships sailing at any point in time. Crazy!

We got the to ship and went straight to the bar. More because that's where we were told to go and meet, not so much because we're alcos. After some administration stuff, we went to our rooms. These were pretty nice. Much better than many hotel rooms I've been in. Lunch was still a little while away, so we started with an exploration of the boat. We found the following:
 - 1st floor - Dining area.
 - 2nd floor - Reception and rooms for the guides
 - 3rd floor - shops and guest rooms
 - 4th floor - the bar and guest rooms (our room was on this one)
 - Up top - outside bar, sitting areas, deck chairs (both unshaded / shaded. So really Europeans / everyone else) and most importantly a pool!

After finding the pool, the number one priority was to get on the bathers, and get in it. The water was fantastic. The weather was so hot, and the water was so warm. But in the water, it was just right. I don't think I have ever been in pool or beach water that is too warm.

Lunch time came, so we went to the dining floor and got allocated our table. There were heaps of tables with heaps of people, but turns out that there are many different tours for many different languages. Our English speaking tour had only 14 people. All the people are pretty cool. There were us, 5 other Australians, a family of 3 Canadians and 2 Brits. No Americans, which surprised me a little. I think the other nationalities were Spanish and Italian, but I obviously hadn't talked to them about that.

It was now time for our first ancient Egyptian tour on the cruise. We met our guide (Ibrahim. Sounds like Abraham) and went to the Karnak temple. This place was massive. It wasn't so much one massive building, but a few buildings and halls mixed with open areas and a small lake. It was roughly the same size as a small theme park (Egyptopia perhaps). It was also incredibly hot, even though it was 3:00 in the afternoon.

To make things easier, our guide gave our group a name - Habibi, meaning darling or something along those lines in Arabic. We didn't get a choice in this name, he just gave it to us. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's used this name before, like, for every other tour group he has. When we asked him about this he laughed and said that we were "Special Habibis". Thanks.

From Karnak we went to Luxor temple which was smaller than Karnak but better preserved. There was a mosque on the top of one of the old ruins. Ibrahim explained that it was because when the Arabs had settled in Luxor, the temple was covered in sand so when they built their mosque, they didn't realise that it was being built on the ruins of the old temple. Luxor temple was also hot but in a different way. By the time we got to this temple the sun was setting so we didn't have to worry about hats, sunglasses and scarves so that was good. Unfortunately though, the whole temple was emanating heat from the stones that had been baking in the sun the whole day. Can't have everything I guess.

We finished up and went back to the ship and hung out in air conditioned comfort until dinner time. There was a belly dancing show on at 10:00 pm in the bar that evening but all thoughts of going to the show vanished when Ibrahim announced that we would be starting at 7:00 tomorrow morning, meaning a 5:45 am wake up call. After a 5:00 am start, the thought of a 5:45 wake up call really didn't sound appealing so we wrapped up the evening after dinner and had an early night.

Day 39

Today we met our tour guide George. George was cool. He was an Egpytologist who spoke very good english with a slight British accent. He explained to us that Egyptologists have to study for four years before they can be qualified to undertake guided tours. As part of their degree they have to select a language to specialise in and then the WHOLE COURSE is taught in that language. That's right folks. Imagine going to uni, choosing to study Medicine, Law or Engineering and then having to study it in Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, etc. Nuts! One of the perks they get as a tour guide is free entrance to all the archeological sites in Egypt and free entrance to all tourist sites around the world if they visit another city due to their tour guide union. Awesome!

Anyway, as I said, George was cool. We headed off to the Egyptian Musuem where George told us the history of the musuem and then took us inside. We did a bit of a whirlwind tour as we only had three and a half hours in there to look and get some lunch but it was good. The musuem was amazing but it was so higgledy piggledy with stuff kind of everywhere and not really enough room for everything and NO AIRCONDITIONING. You can imagine how awesome the building was with 2000 bodies inside and no airconditioning. Gross. Apparently the government are building a new musuem that they think may be one of the biggest musuems in the world but that's not for a few more years. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside the museum because the Egyptian government banned the use of cameras around Egyptian artifacts because they found the flash was affecting the colour but they couldn't control the tourists using the flash so they've just made a blanket ban on cameras in any sensitive areas.

After the musuem we headed off to the pyramids, for the second time but this time it was daylight! George gave us some history on the pyramids as we drove there so that we weren't waiting inside the bus once we arrived and gave us some advice on some of the scams that the locals try on tourists sometimes.

Steve, Wim and I decided to go into Khufu's pyramid (the second biggest one) so once we entered the area, the bus driver took us to the car park nearest and then we headed to the entrance. The passage way was amazing. The walls were completely smooth on all four sides. They had installed little wooden ramps to help people get in and out otherwise it would have been a bit dangerous to go in.

The passage way was only wide enough for two people to pass and one person to go through comfortably. The roof was quite low for the first 25 metres of the passage (about 1.5 m) so we had to crouch down a bit. The passage way then opened up and we could stand up straight again for about 10 metres before we started heading down a second low roof passage way before it opened up again into another open hall which I could stand up in but Steve and his dad had to tilt their heads slightly (take that tall people!) before we headed into a third low passage way, but this time heading up, into the burial room.

The room was, well, a room. What was amazing was how they made the room. It was one piece of rock, carved and smoothed with an apex in the roof. The old sarcophogus was still there but it was empty. I felt sorry for the poor buggers who had to drag the sarcophogas into the pyramid because it looked heavy and the passage way in wasn't that big!

We had been told by George that we weren't allowed to take photos inside the tomb. Ok, fair enough. This was due to stupid tourists not respecting the 'no flash' rule. While we were down there, it was only us, a guard, and one other tourist. The other tourist asked the guard if he could take a photo, to which the guard said yes after looking around to see if anyone else was there. We joined in the opportunity, but still respected the 'no flash' rule (as the reason they do it is to stop the degradation of the colours in the carvings). The other guy was flashing away (tourists....). The guard held out his hands as we started heading out of the room - nothing is for free I guess. So, we lined the palms of the guard with some dosh and made our way out. As we exited the tomb, some lady was being told to leave her camera at the top. We chuckled amongst ourselves quietly.

At that point, we made our way back to the largest pyramid for some 'free time'. The tour guide recommended walking around the great pyramid, as that's something a lot of poeple like to do. So we took him up on the recommendation. It took us about 15-20 minutes to make it all the way around in the heat. The pyramid was roped off and there were guards watching so that people couldn't climb up the sides. George told us it was because too many people had climbed up and gotten stuck and not been able to come back down, resulting in having to call in helicopters to get them off. On a more morbid note, he also said that some people tried to climb the pyramids to throw themselves off...nasty.

There was a section that you could go up near the entrance of the tomb. There were steps carved out so people could easily go up and it also meant that you could walk a little bit along one of the large pyramid steps. We saw one guy wander too far and get told off by a guard so we stayed within the allowed areas.

We returned to the van and made our way to the Panaroma - a large hill where you can get a great view of the three pyramids in the background, before heading down to the Khufu's temple where the Sphinx was located. George gave us some information on the history of the temple and the Sphinx and then we got to go up a walkway and take some photos of the Sphinx. As you can imagine there were tourists everywhere but it was still cool.

After we finished at the Sphinx, George asked us if we would like to visit a papyrus shop or perfumery. I felt a bit sorry for him as Tina and I both have no interest in perfume but Tina was interested in getting some blank papyrus paper for her artwork so we went to the papyrus shop and learnt how they made the paper. Apparently it's still the exact same process that the ancient egyptians used thousands of years ago. There was some beautiful artwork on the walls but unfortunately no photos so we only have our memories.

We left the papyrus shop and headed back to the hotel. The drive back was horrendously long due to all the traffic that we had to go through. We were pretty tired after a big day - we had started at 8:30 and didn't get back until after 5:00 and it had been extremely hot - so we were pretty disappointed when we got told that we had to be up at 4:30 the next morning to head out to the airport at 5:30. Gross.

So, keeping that in mind we had an early dinner, packed our suitcases ready to go so that all we had to do was get dressed and then hit the hay.

Day 38

Hi folks, sorry for the delay but trying to find internet and time to upload the blogs in Egypt was hard. We've made it safely albeit completely exhausted to Japan (night flights plus tummy bugs = grumpy traveller). Here's what you missed out on over the last few days:

Today we travelled to Cairo for the start of our Egyptian adventure! We had an early breakfast and then caught the Metro to the airport. Steve's parents headed out with us too even though they were actually on a later flight.

Check in went smoothly (for once) but we had other drama to entertain us. When we were waiting in the Metro, Steve received a text message from AAMI saying that our house insurance had expired on the 28th of September. We were both stunned as we have family checking our mail and if the bill had arrived, they would have taken care of it for us.

We called our families to see if they had seen any letters but they both said no. We couldn't do anything about it until we arived at the airport but luckily there was free wifi in the Athens airport so we looked up the AAMI number and Skyped them. Turns out that it was our investment property insurance that had expired but we had a seven day grace period so we were still covered. Crisis averted!

Our flight to Egypt was good but long as the flight was slightly delayed departing and then we had to circle for an extra half hour in Cairo airport. On the upside, we met a really nice guy named Sam who was returning to his studies in Alexandria after spending a few months in Greece with his dad. We mentioned to Sam that we weren't sure what the deal was when we landed in Cairo and if the airport transfer would be there so he kindly offered to help us if things didn't work out. We landed, changed some money and purchased our visas to enter Egypt before going through to the baggage area where we found a representative from the tour company waiting for us. Hooray for a smooth transfer!

His name was Mina, he was pretty cool. We got our luggage and headed to our hotel in Cairo, The President Hotel in Zamalek. Cairo traffic is crazy, completely crazy. There are no rules, no lanes, no nothing. There are traffic lights but they're pretty much a decoration. Along the way Mina gave us information about Cairo and its inhabitants, interesting Cairo sites and some background information on the tour. We stopped along the way to do a changeover where we met Mohammed who would be helping us check in to the hotel and who would be accompanying us later this evening for our sound and light show at the pyramids.

We arrived at the hotel where Steve and I got to sit around in the lobby while they did everything for us. It was quite weird but we weren't sure what else to do... Once we were checked in we farewelled Mohammed until later and followed the Valet up to our room.

The hotel was really weird in that the floors had funny numbering. We were on the "fourth floor" which was actually in reality the thirtheenth floor of the building. The elevator only went up to the "third" floor and then there was a staircase leading up to the "fourth" floor. The first thing we did was turn on the airconditioning in our room as it was HOT! I think it was in the high 30's when we landed. Apparently this time of year should be around the low thirties but there had been a heat wave that pushed the temperatures back up again.

We grabbed our hats and went for a walk around the area to check things out, find some snacks for Steve and to buy some water. We found an awesome little hole in the wall shop around the corner from the hotel and then walked around the waterfront looking for a little takeaway or something. Having failed dismally, we went into another hole in the wall so that Steve could pick up a packet of chips to munch on.

On our way back to the hotel there was a construction site where a kid and some of the workers were kicking around a soccer ball. We walked past and Steve kind of looked longingly in their direction. An old guy who was just sitting there watching them noticed us and invited Steve to join in so in 35+ degree heat, Steve was kicking a soccer ball around. It was pretty funny because there were cars parked everywhere so they were playing in the middle of the street which meant each time a car came around the corner they would all have to scatter and the kid was pretty unco so he kept kicking the ball up onto cars, setting of their car alarms.

Eventually the little kid went back home with the ball so it was game over. You can all imagine just how gross Steve was after kicking the ball around in the sun...

We went back to the hotel via the first hole in the wall to buy some more water and then cooled off in the room before heading downstairs to meet Mohammed to go to the sound and light show. We reunited with Steve's parents and then headed off. We worked our way through to the crazy crazy traffic where we arrived at Giza early so we sat down and had a quick bite and drink at a local restaurant before we headed in.

The sound and light show was cool. A bit corny at times but cool. It was held just outside the area with the Sphinx and the three large pyramids so it was very atmospheric. There was a big sign saying "No Flash" as we walked in but obviously nobody had paid attentio as there were flashes going off everywhere.

We drove back to the hotel and made our third trip of the day to the hole in the wall with Steve's parents and then came back and called it a night as the tour began in earnest tomorrow.