Welcome to Egypt

After spemding time in the civilized and small Greek Islands arriving in Cairo was a bit of culture shock. The city is very old and dirty, garbage everywhere, and the traffic and noise is staggerring. We have not even considered attempting to cross a major road as traffic signals of any kind are non-existant and you really put your life at risk The tour company we hired has been excellent, they really do everything for you from airport pick up to meals and tours.

We spent the first 2 days in Cairo seeing the sights, pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, old Cairo, the Egyptian museum and of course the obligatory shopping bazaars, were they really do not like to hear no. Too bad for them! We then took the overnight train down to Aswan ( 14 hours in a sitting car - not great). What a difference Aswan is to Cairo, clean and green, right on the Nile, nice city. Which we would have known that sooner. So for 4 days and 3 nights we cruised the Nile and took in the ancient temples from Aswan to Luxor. The boat was excellent, met lots of interesting people from all over the world and our tour guide Marcos stayed with us the whole time. You could not have asked for a better guide, very personable and very knowledgable. So if you are planning on a visit start in Aswan or Luxor, much smaller cities and much more to see and easy to get around. The amount of tourists down here is staggering though, at one temple I counted 100 large tourist buses with more coming, and it is not even busy season yet. I cannot imagine what it will be like in a month. All the local people we encountered have been very freindly and welcoming to tourists. They always want to know where we are from and they always reply, Canada Dry!!

Back in Cairo today and then we have a 2 day desert trip, camping at an oasis for 1 night. Should be a fun experience. After that off to South Africa. Way too many pictures to post so here a few.

All the best

Don & Marlyn