Egypt

November 30 - Dec 7, 2019

Egypt, a magical place that was at the forefront of civiliazation over 4,000 years ago. The ingenuity from that time period was amazing. There is so much history here, and the history as we know it is still evolving with every excavation taking place. It’s not the easiest place to travel, but it’s safer than what most people think, and it’s so rewarding once you get here.

Day 0 - Arrive in Cairo

Day 1 - Giza Pyramids

Day 2 - Luxor East Bank

Day 3 - Luxor West Bank

Day 4 - Edfu and Kom Ombo

Day 5 - Aswan

Day 6 - Back to Cairo

Day 7 - Fly to Dubai

Voyagers tips: While cost of living is very low in Egypt, it is difficult for foreigners to navigate around. Unlike in other countries where we do independent travels, we decided to go with a full-service (thus pricey) tour in Egypt. Many vendors are desperate to make a buck and are not above tricking tourists to make money. We’re glad we went with a full service tour. We used Memphis Tours, and they were very good.

Tipping is expected just about everywhere. They prefer US dollars over local Egyptian currency. For Americans, bring a few hundreds of dollars, preferably in small bills, and expect to use them all during the trip. For the cruise, a large tip is also expected for the crew and for the tour guide. No need to take out local currency, everyone prefers US dollars.

Private tour guides will almost always bring you to shops where they get a cut of your purchases. If you want to avoid wasting your precious time in these shops, tell the guide up front to avoid them and let them know you’ll make it up in higher tips. The Papyrus shops and alabaster shops were interesting enough to see; jewelry shops are a waste of time. The selling pressure is never comfortable.

Day 0 - Fly to cairo

We first flew from Santorini to Athens on Olympus Airways. The flight was smooth, but man, the ground staff’s attitude was one of the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve flown a lot.

Priority Pass membership got us into the lounge for our layover in Athens. Good time to recharge.

Next, Egyptair to Cairo.

Ashlyn has an episode of nosebleed on the plane, blood ran like an open faucet for about 20 minutes. A very bloody mess. Just glad it’s behind us now. The flight attendant was super helpful.

Using my Marriott points for our stay at JW Marriott Cairo. Used upgrade points to get a suite. Yeah!

Survived another travel day, time for bed!

Travel day — We flew from Santorini to Athens, then Athens to Cairo. Got picked up at the airport by Memphis Tours guide and driver, which was nice.

Day 1 - Giza & cairo

pyramids

great sphynx

papyrus papers

egyptian museum

JW Marriott Cairo

We got picked up in our private van with our own tour guide for the day. Seeing the pyramids was a dream come true!

pyramids

The Great Pyramid, aka the Pyramid of Khufu.

Our private shuttle was a special one today, equipped with four massage chairs!

There are three pyramids at this site. The one with the shiny smooth tip is the second largest. The largest one is the Great (Khufu) Pyramid.

The small hole seen here is the entrance to the great pyramid.

The path starts out spacious and quickly gets very tight.

The ticket collector took my tickets instead of just punching them. My guide said the unscrupulous worker will probably re-sell the tickets.

Getting narrower. For such a massive structure, you’d think they can make the tunnels bigger. But the vast majority of it is solid rock.

The king’s chamber, where the mummy of the pharo was placed. The walls here are made with granite, as opposed to limestone for the rest of the pyramid.

The place where the mummy was placed. It’s empty now.

We climbed out of this hole to get to the king’s burial room. It’s the entrance as well as the exit.

Climbing back down. Not made for claustrophobic people.

This path leads to the queen's chamber, but is not accessible.

We got back out!

Finding our spot for a picture.

Our tour guide gave us a full lesson on the pyramids. Each block weighs 2.5 tons, the great pyramid is made of 2.3 million blocks.

All these limestone blocks were hidden by a smooth shiny surface shell, but all the surface is gone except for the tip of the second pyramid.

Each block is taller than the girls.

Pyramids were built to help the spirit of the pharaohs become gods.

Cartwheel time!

The Great Pyramid, the only one of the seven ancient wonders of the world that’s still intact. It’s still a mystery today how they accomplished such a massive engineering feat 4,500 years ago, before wheels were invented.

Great Sphynx

If you kiss the Sphinx, does it turn into a prince?

The Great Sphinx, carved out of one single rock, is meant to protect the Great Pyramid.

The Great Sphinx is located near the great pyramid and is meant to protect the pyramid.

papyrus papers

Smash the plant flat to get the water out.

Roll the plant flat, then intertwine them to make paper.

Glow-in-the-dark art isn't ancient at all, but make for a cool "wow" effect for these art.

We got some Egyptian food for lunch.

First time we've had filtered well water in a bottle.

We visited a paper store where they make hand-made paper out of papyrus plant. The girls got a hand on the demo.

egyptian museum

These women had elongated skulls. The pharaoh’s family married each other to keep the divine bloodline pure. The inbreeding probably explains many anomalies in the statues’ body shapes.

These golden houses were fit inside one another like Russian dolls.

The guard dogs are meant to protect the tombs, so they're well respected and can be seen near all pharaoh tombs.

One of the mummies still under wraps.

Enjoyed some Egyptian coffee with the tour guide. Like Greek coffee, Egyptian coffee is strong, unfiltered and earthy, with ground at the bottom.

The Egyptian Museum was built back in 1906 and has the largest collection of Egyptian art in Egypt. The best room with Tutankhamen’s (e.g. King Tut) golden mask and golden mummy box couldn’t be photographed, unfortunately. A brand new massive museum, funded by Japanese government, is being built and will be open in 2020 and will replace this one.

JW Marriott Cairo - Back at the Hotel

Should we go down to the pool? Hmmm...

Man-made beach with waves. A beach in the desert in December? Sure, why not?

The girls went for a swim in the heated pool. One lifeguard, four pool workers, and just the two of them swimming. This was before we discovered the indoor pool.

Their fruit smoothies at the restaurant is amazing! You can taste the fresh fruit.

I'm rarely a fan of hotel restaurants, but this restaurant was fantastic and the staff was friendly. And dinner is free with executive lounge access.

JW Marriott is a very nice hotel, geared towards business people. As a Marriott Titanium member, they were polite to me, but with all the restrictions on kids, I felt unwelcome here. The kids still had a lot of fun here though, and the restaurant and suite upgrade was nice.

Day 2 - luxor east bank

luxor, river nile cruise

karnak temples

luxor temple

We flew to Luxor, checked into our cruise ship on River Nile, and visited the Karnak temples and the Luxor temple. Will be on the cruise for the next few days heading to Aswan. Should be fun!

luxor, river nile cruise

Had to wake up at 4:30am for this flight, that was brutal. This is definitely the least amount of leg room I’ve seen on a plane.

The MS Mayfair cruise ship will be taking us down the River Nile.

We had to book two cabins since they don’t allow four people in one room. This is one of the two.

The sun deck looks nice with swimming pool, jacuzzi and lounge chairs.

After Cairo, we flew to Luxor to start our 4-day River Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan.

karnak temples

Our tour guide throughout the cruise is very knowledgeable.

Obelisks are built to commemorate individuals or to honor the gods.

This body of water is used to purify people, similar to Christian baptism.

A fallen obelisk.

These columns are huge!

Weird-looking sphinx.

The Karnak Temples, a vast complex with 250 acres of temples, obelisks, columns, and statues. This temple of the sun god is the second most visited historical site after the pyramid.

luxor temple

The Luxor Temple.

This path lined with Sphinx used to lead to the Karnak Temples in ancient times. There’s a major project to restore this path.

All temple entrances symbolize the map of Egypt. Left wall symbolizes the left bank of the River Nile, right wall is the right bank, and the path in the middle is the River Nile, the source of life.

The left-foot-forward stance of the Pharaohs signify they’re powerful and ready for war.

Day 3 - luxor west bank

valley of the kings

alabaster workshop

temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Colossi of Memnon

A day to visit the west bank of Luxor before heading south on River Nile.

valley of the kings

The tip of the mountain has a natural pyramid shape, which was believed to help the pharaohs’ spirits reach the heaven in similar ways as the pyramid.

The first tomb - king/pharaoh Rameses IX. Each king’s tomb is a separate site; the designs are somewhat similar in tunnel width and wall art, but they vary in shapes, size, depths and burial area.

The artwork starts out intricate, then stops abruptly, then continues with lower quality art near the placement of the tomb.

It’s believed the king ran out of money to pay the master artisans so the work stopped, then quickly hired cheaper labor to complete the work before his death.

This is where the tomb was actually placed.

The tomb of king Rameses III. His tomb was very big and well preserved.

These are the ancient Egyptian letters.

They started digging his tomb, ran into another King’s tomb, and had to reroute the tunnel. This is where they ran into another tomb and had to reroute the path.

Third tomb - King Merenptah. It was the deepest. They even had a fake burial chamber with a fake coffin in the middle to deceive tomb raiders. I guess it didn’t work.

The mummy of king Merenptah was in here.

The famous tomb of King Tut (Tutankhamen). It was famous for being the only tomb discovered that was not destroyed and raided by tomb raiders, so the treasures they found were one of a kind.

King Tut's body is moved back here. This is the only body in the entire Valley of the Kings, the rest have been moved to museums.

King Tut was actually not a good king, he became king as a kid and was killed at the age of 18.

His tomb was plain and not as nice as many others. Many believe that the high priest that married his widowed wife also stole his royal burial site and gave him this one instead.

The Valley of the Kings in Luxor is where pharaohs of many generations were buried, including the famous King Tut’s grave. 65 tombs have been discovered here so far; King Tut was #62.

alabaster workshop

All the pieces here are made with traditional manual methods.

This is how they hollow out the containers.

The tour continued to an alabaster shop to see a demo. This shop wasn’t too pushy, but the prices were ridiculous. The demo was entertaining enough.

temple of queen Hatshepsut

The columns here are actually for support, not for show.

In addition to shady and pushy street vendors, even workers at these official sites try to trick visitors by offering help then pressuring for tip.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the most powerful queen in Egyptian history. She ruled Egypt for 20 years.

Colossi of Memnon

Last stop - Colossi of Memnon, the third largest monument in Egypt. They’re still excavating at this site.

Back on the Cruise

Back on the ship. Our ship finally departs from Luxor to head south to Edfu.

View from our cabin.

Having a drink with our tour guide. We have 13 people in our tour group including the four of us. Everyone is super nice.

We went through a lock where our ship enters a chamber, is raised, and continues south. It’s a way to control water level and avoid flooding.

Gotta give these guys credit for creativity. These small boats latch onto cruise ships and try to sell scarfs by yelling at the passengers. I saw them throwing products in plastic bags up to cabins.

The MS Mayfair, our cruise ship, was fantastic. The boat is great and the service is exceptional. The people in our group made the trip unforgettable.

Day 4 - edfu & kom ombo

edfu temple

kom ombo

back on the cruise

We cruised to Edfu and Kom Ombo today and learned some interesting facts about these temples. We also saw crocodile mummies!

edfu temple

Our cruise ship arrived in Edfu and we took horse carriages to Edfu Temple. Horse carriages, tuk tuks and trucks all share the road together.

People used to come to temples for illnesses, so knowledge of medicine was stored in them. These carvings show how to treat certain illnesses.

The tour guide called this “the oldest pharmacy”. It’s unclear if marijuana was legal back then.

The WiFi signal was very strong in this temple.

Time to head back to the ship.

Edfu Temple is for worshiping the falcon god Horus, the god of protection. It’s the most well preserved temple in Egypt.

kom ombu

The guide was proud to state that the Egyptians invented the squatting birth position.

This well is used to measure rainfall. The higher the water level, the higher the tax rate that year, since water promotes crop growth.

The crocodiles were worshiped and mummified. These are mummy crocodiles.

Mummy crocodiles still wrapped up.

It’s a rare temple that worships two gods: the falcon god (god of the eye) and the crocodile god (god of fertility). The temple is literally split in half with distinctions of god of worship in each half.

back on the cruise

Our tour group has diverse backgrounds, yet everyone bonded over our passion for travel. We made some new friends, had a fantastic time, and learned a lot from their travel and personal experiences.

Day 5 - aswan

granite quarry

high dam

philae temple

essential oils shop

last night on the cruise

Our last full day on the River Nile cruise was a blast. In Aswan, we visited the granite quarry, the second largest dam in the world, and Philae Temple. We also celebrated our group’s last night together and had great fun.

granite quarry

All the rocks the eyes can see are rose/red granite.

They started cutting this massive obelisk, but it cracked in the middle, so the unfinished obelisk is still in place until now.

They look like regular brown rocks from afar, but the rose granite pattern can be seen up close.

The small rectangular holes are cut, wood pieces are then placed in them, then water is poured in to them to make the wood expand, and the expansion then cracks the entire rock.

Ashlyn had another episode of bloody nose. We were admiring the rocks while trying to stop her nose bleed.

This granite quarry is known for having an unfinished obelisk in place. The unfinished work provides clues on how they quarried granite in the ancient days. The red/rose granite is abundant in this area.

high dam

One side of the dam is the River Nile, the other side is the man-made lake.

Lake Nasser, by the High Dam, is one of the world’s largest man-made lakes. The girls are here with our new friend, Jagroop Gill.

River Nile, the longest river in the world, flows through 11 countries. The High Dam here is the world’s second largest dam, and is the reason the River Nile no longer floods Egypt.

philae temple

We've arrived at the port to get to Philae Temple.

Hopped on a boat to the temple.

The temple was moved from Philae Island to Agilka island in Aswan.

Shadows of four weird looking Egyptians. One appears to be holding a cell phone for the selfie.

Beautiful sunset.

Our new friend Joy Patel and his parents, part of our awesome group.

Philae Temple. This impressive temple was at risk of being flooded due to the construction of the High Dam. UNESCO helped moved the entire temple, block by block, to this new higher island.

essential oils shop

So many choices. People in our group say the prices are about half of those in the U.S..

There are many fancy bottles to hold the essential oils.

We got an interesting introduction to the various types of essential oils they sell. It's not for us though.

We visited a massive essential oils place. They had over 250 different scents, the choices were dizzying. They even have the “essence” of name brand perfumes like Chanel and Hugo Boss, but without the alcohol.