2025 Egypt Nile Cruise

Prelude: Mark visited Egypt in 1979 when he was a single, unmarried college student.  Mom & Dad were working in Saudi Arabia, hired by Whitaker Life Science Group to staff the King Faisal Military Medical Hospital in Khamis Mushayt.  They flew the children over during the summer to be with their parents.

On the way home, Mark converted his full fare airline ticket to standby out of Amsterdam and used the money to travel through the Middle East.  His first country back then was Egypt.

Lynn really wanted to go to Egypt, and Mark had been resistant, having already been there.  But she made her case, so we signed up for our sixth Adventure Discovery tour for their Nile Cruise through Egypt.

19 February 2025

Wed: We were packed and ready to leave by 11am. Lynn felt we should just take off, but since we were so early, we went to H&R so she could work on a couple returns, including ours. By 2, we started south.

Every time we pass through Mesquite, we stop at Los Lupes for Mexican food. We like that restaurant.  The food was great, as usual.

At the airport, there is some construction going on so we ended up in the Long Term parking instead of the Economy Parking.  But we weren't in long enough to incur a charge, and when we pulled into the Economy lot, there was a spot right up in front!

We were so early there was no line, and Lynn recently achieved Medallion status at Delta, so they were very nice to us.  We have TSA Precheck, so we breezed through security.  Our biggest problem was that Wendy's was outside of security so we couldn't get a Frosty.  Lynn got a Mango Smoothy instead.

We decided we are too old for Economy seats and have been upgrading to Comfort+ or Premium Select when we fly.  The flight from LA to Paris was on Air France, which was nice, but Mark likes Delta for cross ocean flying.  Delta gives you free WiFi!

20 February 2025 Cairo

Thurs: We had a bit of a walk through the Charles Degaule airport, but made it fine. There at the gate was Carol Gee!  We were glad to see her, because the next stop at Cairo will surely be more complex.

And it was. Our guide was not at the designated meeting place, but Carol was, so we just waited with her while she texted him.  The guide was getting our visa stickers, and showed up right quick.  Getting through customs was painless; the hardest part was for the customs agent to find the sticker in our passports.  The bags were slightly delayed, but they all came out fine.  There was another young couple from our tour on our flight (Erik & Yanwha), whom we met there at customs.

Once out on the street, it was chaos!  Horns honking, sirens blaring, cars driving crazy, people everywhere.  We were so glad to have Carol there!  Once we were loaded in our minivan, the driving commenced. Lanes are optional. Signaling is done with the horn. Many times our driver just straddled the line, perhaps to keep other cars from passing him.

21 February 2025 Cairo

Fri: Even though we went to sleep super late, we were able to get up by 8:30.  Breakfast was really nice; we both had cheese omelets.  The hotel was originally built as a palace for the Queen of France's visit for the opening of the Suez Canal.  Sculptures from France, Clocks from Germany. Leather painted pictures on the wall.  Gorgeous chandeliers.

About 8 of us that arrived a day early went on the Pre-Tour add on: the Museum of Egyptian Civilization with the Royal Mummies gallery.  If you are just in Egypt for 1 day and can't get out to see the sites, this is a great solution.  It shows examples of all the Egyptian periods.

We saw examples of stone tools, prosthetics, model ships that are placed in the tombs, even cosmetic kits that are entombed with buried queens.  They also had Coptic door examples and scripture scroll holding cases (for Koran and Torah). Up until the 1950s, Egypt was the rich powerhouse country and every year they would weave a new covering for the Kaaba stone in Saudi.  But then Saudi discovered oil and became rich, while Egypt fell on hard times, so nowadays the Saudis weave it themselves.

The culmination is the gallery where they display the Royal Mummies.  About 4 years ago, after they finished building the new museum, they had a grand procession where they crated the mummies over in a parade.  It took all day and was on International TV at the time.

We had a late lunch at the Blue Nile restaurant.  After returning to the hotel, our guide gave us a tour of the hotel.  Then we all went outside the hotel for a walkabout.  The guide warned us that while the area was safe, Don't Cross the Road!  It's quite dangerous.

Apparently, you're not supposed to look at the driver.  If you make eye contact, then the driver knows you can see him so he just drives through without slowing down.

We walked a few blocks before returning to the hotel for a little nap.

Then to the Hanging Church.  It's built over the southern edge of a Roman fort, thus the name. 

Old Cairo restaurant was where we had our lunch reservation, but they weren't ready for us before the church. Nor after. But they did eventually get us seated.

Next was the Cave church (Abu Serga) where traditionally Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived while in Egypt.

Finally, we drove to the part of town located at the foot of the Mokattam Plateau where the Zabbaleen live (an Arabic word that means Garbage People). This is where all the garbage collectors live.  They drive their trucks out all across town and gather the garbage, bring it back home, sort and recycle/sell. The ground floor of their homes is used as a garbage sorting area & people live on the second floor.   We had to switch to a smaller bus, because driving through the area was a nightmare, unless you are an Egyptian driver in which it was business as usual.

23 February 2025 Cairo

Sun: Today's adventure is Pyramids!

We drove to the Great Pyramids in Giza.  They are now surrounded by a hill, so the local developers won't build apartment buildings right up to them.  The nearby areas are being developed constantly, and whatever zoning laws they do have are basically ignored.

You can't climb the Pyramids anymore, but they do take you inside to the tomb room, for an additional fee.  Only a couple signed up for that.  The rest of us went around to the side and descended into a much smaller pyramid burial room.  It took about 3-5 minutes to get to the bottom, but you had to scrunch bent over the whole way, as the entrance is about 4 feet high.

And the room itself was just a stone encased room; nothing special.

We did view a hole beside the burial room, kind of like the entrance to an underground parking lot, where they discovered the dis-assembled parts for a ship, along with assembly instructions.  This was placed near the pyramid so the pharaoh could re-assemble his ship in the afterlife and sail to his destination.

Then, on to the pyramid viewing area where most of us took a camel ride.  When the camel first starts to stand up, it raises its hind legs, so it really pitches forward.  It's best if you lean WAY back, but you better also hold on, or you'll likely fall off the camel on your face. Our guides took some staged photos.

We also visited the Sphinx.

Back on the bus to Sakkara restaurant.  Most of our meals have been very similar.  Start with Tahini (rarely hummus) and Baba Ganoush (eggplant and tahini), Pita bread and a salad of cabbage, tomatoes and cucumbers.  Add some BBQ chicken and veal sausages.  Twice we've had a traditional milk pudding for dessert.

At this restaurant, they had a brick oven where they baked the bread.

On to the Memphis Mit Rahina Museum, where we saw the fallen colossal limestone statue of Ramses II. 

At Sakkura archeological site, we saw a great example of a high government official's tomb.  These are supposedly the oldest buildings in the world. The carvings on the wall are still very much readable.  We also descended into the underground burial room of the nearby small pyramid.  We could see the ’Bent Pyramid’ in the distance.

More driving to the Step Pyramid for a photo stop.

We then visited the Oriental Carpet School.  They showed us both knot tying and weaving methods, and took us upstairs to the shop.

Finally back to the Hotel, where we tried to obtain 2 * $160 payment for the upcoming Hot-air balloon ride.  They don’t take credit cards, so we had to cobble together cash.  We could only extract 24000 Egyptian Pounds before our bank account ran out of money. Fortunately we had the last $80 in cash with us.

At 6pm, we walked to Abou El Sid restaurant.  The crossing of the street was death defying.

After a delicious lunch, we went to the Temple of Karnak.  This is a REALLY big area with lots of temples inside the temple of Karnak. Each Pharaoh wanted to leave his impression here. It was built over a period of about 2000 years.

There is a lovely road walkway leading to the temple.  It's only 5 years old and it's already crumbling.  They don't make em like they used to.

While there, we walked around the Scarab statute to bring good luck.  There is a really big hall of columns.  It starts with a set of 6 columns and goes back to sets of 9 columns, offset and height varied so the light can penetrate the hall.  The columns were carved and were brightly painted (originally).  Some of the painting still remains after 3000 years.

How interesting!  This is where the locals do their shopping, and the variety and colors are amazing. It seemed that the horse carriages had right of way, because the people and most of the cars would yield to us. We eventually (sadly) arrived at the temple of Luxor. It was dark, so we got to see the temple lit up with lights.

It's a similar temple to the others we’ve seen, with the open area at the front for the normal people, two statues at the entrance to the columnated hall, and a sanctuary area at the very back. This temple had been partially converted to a Christian church, evidenced by a Last Supper painting done over the original hieroglyphics. It had also been covered with sand and dust so that the upper floor (which was at the ground level when the temple was covered by dirt) had been converted into a mosque.

While the rest of our group had free time there in the temple, our guide took us back into the suq to a music shop where we purchased 2 CDs: Ancient Egyptian Music and Nubian Music.

25 February 2025 Luxor

Tues: Even earlier wakeup call: 4:00am!

We were awake at 3:45 anyway. We got prepared for an early van ride.  There were no little children around saying ‘Excuse me’ and ‘2 dollars’. Most of us left the ship at 4:30 to be vanned to the Nile, where we boarded a boat to cross to the West side, where we again boarded a van which took us to a launch area near the Valley of the Kings.  We were lucky to be in the first group of 20 balloons to launch, so we were airborne before the sunrise.

It was spectacular.  The sky was golden with clouds that glowed. We floated over the Valley of the Kings.  The pilot turned the balloon 360 degrees so we could see the whole valley and the other balloons. We continued floating over the Valley of the Queens. Men and women worship separately.  They are also buried separately.

On the way out, one of the (MANY) vendors displayed a lovely shirt that caught Lynn's eye and stated ‘1 dollar’. We entered his booth and Lynn found the size she wanted. But when she went to give him the dollar, he stated 10 dollars. 1 dollar is for a small bottle of water.  This is why Mark hates visiting Egypt.  Egypt depends on Tourism for ⅓ of their income, so you'd think they'd treat the tourists well. But every time you interact with them, they try to scam, swindle or screw you.

We left immediately, with him chasing us down the lane. He lowered the price to $5, but treat me like this and you will not have my business.

Lastly, we visited an Alabaster factory.  The stone was beautiful and the works were pretty, but we don't collect that.

We started returning to the ship, which had gotten a head start up the Nile.  There is a lock at Esna that all ships have to pass through, and all the ships want to get to Aswan tonight.  We rode in the bus until we reached the ship, just in time for a late lunch.

You kind of wonder why they had such a high level of civilization and skill to build these buildings and now it's a third world country. As invaders came they would kill the priests and those with knowledge and thus the knowledge of the people was lost and they were more submissive to foreign rulership.

At the entrance where the 2 columns or statues are usually found, the towers angle up to a point in the sky and if you lower that point to the ground it ends up at the Holy of Holies, which is a fascinating architectural design. The entrances to these temples used to have large wooden doors. They are gone now because they were removed and used in the mosques. 

Christians took the doors, cut them smaller and put them in their churches. There's no evidence of the doors now, except where they were mounted, but they were huge massive doors.  

While we're here, our guide told us a story and he had us take the role of each character to tell the story of what the hieroglyphics say.  

Horus is the son of Isis and Osirus (God of the Underworld) and Sett is the uncle that killed Horus's father.  Sett made a big golden coffin exactly the size of Osirus. At a party he allowed people to try out the coffin. And when his brother Osirus tried it, he slapped the lid on and threw it in the Nile. 

ISIS's wife and half-sister turned into a type of a bird and her sister also, and they went searching for him in the Nile. Sett found him and decided that he would be so powerful if the women were able to resurrect him so he chopped up the body into many, many parts and cast them into the Nile. The women in their bird shapes found all the parts but one.  

There is a story of the conception of a child with this deceased ISIS. So Horus grew up under his mother's great protection. Sett knew of this child but did not know where he was.  And so he ordered that all infant males be killed, which seems very much similar to our stories in the days of Moses and in the days of Jesus.

As we walked around the outer wall, we found that story depicted. Hieroglyphic work sort of like the old cartoon pictures where you'd move from one column to the next. It showed Horus and his mother encouraging him to capture Sett. Eventually, he was able to capture Sett.  And then the question is, what does Horace do with Sett: kill him or forgive him? 

And our guide explained that Sett and Horus weren't actually 2 separate people. But it was the inner struggle of every individual good against evil, it took 800 years to capture Sett because Sett had the ability to change into different creatures.  Horus would almost get him, then Sett would change into something else and escape.

After the guided tour portion, we walked through the market.  What a mess.  Each vendor was out there trying to get us to come into his shop.  As our guide said, when the tourists show up, that's a dollar walking by and they only walk by until the ship leaves.

Lynn found a lovely T-Shirt with some intricate embroidery of Pyramids, and they wanted 2 for $35. Mark was adamant about below $5, but Lynn felt $5 was fair.  But oh how they haggled and changed T Shirts and sizes.  We walked away when they were at $10 for one.  The right side of the market was more civilized (If you can use that term for an Egyptian market). We had been looking for a refrigerator magnet but we never did see one that talked to us.

When we got to the end, Lynn wanted to go back and get the shirt for $5.  Fine. Mark gave her some $1s and off she went.  All the rest of the group was back on the bus as she finally came back with the vendor bartering with her about another TShirt of similar design.

As she got closer and closer to the bus, the price dropped every so slowly.  $5 dollars.  $4 dollars. When she actually got on the bus: $3.  Lynn didn't have the bills, but one of our group gave her some ones, so she got the second shirt for $3.

Back to the ship, where we lounged until 7pm.  We had docked at a place that is listed on Google Maps as Nile Cruise Tuesday Night Dinner island.  They were setting up a BBQ for us.  In the meantime, Lynn joined a family playing Oriental Rummy. She was a quick learner and played a good first hand.

After dancing and listening, we went back to the boat.  Lynn wanted to take one more picture from this different angle, so Mark handed her the cellphone.  But as Lynn worked her way around to the edge of the boat, she didn't notice the half-step raised platform holding the waterfall bowl.  She tripped, and on the way down, brought the waterfall bowl down with her.  What a mess.

The crew hurried to help her up, but it was embarrassing.

On the way to our cabin, we found the hallway strewn with towel-animals!

What a day!

27 February 2025 Kom Ombo

Thurs: Another lazy day.  No wake-up call.

We had a leisurely breakfast. Our guide let us know we would be visiting a local village in the morning, and a temple in the afternoon.

The WiFi has been spotty, which is annoying.  But, when you consider that we are cruising up the Nile on our own private ship, viewing the little towns and boats and animals as we glide by, who can complain!

At 10am, we ‘docked’ at an island.  That means the crew jumped off the ship and tied up to some metal spikes they drove into the ground.  Next, they arranged for a motor boat to come take us to Besaw Island.  Here live about 400 Egyptians in pretty limited conditions.  They do have grid power and water.  But the only store is a shed with snacks.  If you want anything real, you have to go back to the mainland.

We walked through their gardens.  They were growing mostly bananas and fruits.  Each home farmed the land behind it.

We visited a home where the females were baking bread.  The bread is basic flour, water, yeast, and salt.  No sugar. While letting the bread rise, they put straw as fuel under the clay oven.  When the fire goes out and the embers are hot, they place the bread inside and cover the opening with cardboard and a rock to keep it in place.

When the bread has browned nicely, they take it out and place it on a clay circle plate. We were offered pieces, which were still very warm!  It had the texture and taste of sourdough bread without the sour.  We had bread of this type at last night's dinner but this, just out of the oven, was so much better!

We also walked the grounds.  They make bridges about 12 feet long out of palm trees to cross the water canal.  One family invited us into their home and up on the roof, where we could view the village.  We saw chickens, children, and colorfully painted houses.

After our visit, back to the transit boat and aboard our private ship.

More cruising.

Afterwards, we visited a couple stores associated with the temple.  Nice enough, and they weren't super aggressive.  But then we went down to the marketplace, we were barraged.  Our ship was the only one in the harbor at the time, so we were the only tourists, so we were the only ones with money.  Lynn looked at a couple dresses that were pretty enough. 

We didn't want that one (definitely not at the price), so we continued on.  We found a really nice embroidered black dress with a nice waist sash and a sleeveless overdress.  $120.

Sorry, we don't have that much..  We started the ‘walk of negotiation’. Our guide said as you walk away slowly, the price starts to drop.  It got down to $90 before I said we only have $20 with us, so sorry.

Then another guy (who is apparently the big boss) took over negotiations.  $80. $75. Because I like your smile: $50. We kept walking and I said it's so beautiful but we only have $20, so sorry.

$35.

$32.

I said we have $20 and I could go back to the ship and get another $5. In the end, he dropped the price to $30.  I started finding my bills stashed around my body and came up with $25 in fives and had 6 in ones. We gave him that, so it was $31 plus 60 cents in Egyptian Pounds.

Lynn now has a gorgeous black queenly Egyptian dress.

She put it on back on the ship for everyone to admire, which they did.

At dinner, we had Koshary, Egypts national dish.

It is a traditional Egyptian staple, mixing pasta, Egyptian fried rice, vermicelli and brown lentils, and topped with chickpeas, a garlicky tomato sauce, garlic vinegar and crispy fried onions. (Wikipedia)

Many eat it with spicy salsa, which we did, too.  Our guide told us that there are often restaurants that feature only this dish on every street.

28 February 2025 Aswan

Fri: Today is a cruising day. We stopped at a beach area so we could swim in the Nile. Everyone went down to the beach, but only Lynn, Mark and Linda actually swam in the Nile. The rest just dip their feet. This was a strange beach because it was a small island in the middle of the Nile where cows and goats were grazing on the grass. This is an area where the Nubian people have settled. Of course, there were a couple of kids with their ware's to hawk so we had an unexpected shopping trip for souvenirs.

The river water was cold but not bitter cold. They parked on a ship to block the current, so it was calm and peaceful swimming. But the water was only 3 feet deep at best. It was actually kind of difficult to swim because you would touch the bottom from time to time.

Leaving our Niles swimming hole, we cruised, occasionally having the sail up.  We examined some Nubian jewelry (and ordered some!), worked on some Sudoku and talked with our fellow adventurers.

Eventually we arrived at Aswan.  We're ‘docking’ along the shore next to a road that seems to be a major thoroughfare for the city. We were invited to memorize the shore features.  You have to remember to turn at appropriate places lest you end up in the water as you snake your way to the shore. Tomorrow morning when we leave the boat, it will be dark.

Getting the ship arranged just so isn’t simple.  First, it has no motor, so everything has to be done by the tug boat, or by human power. The ship wasn't in just the right spot, so a bunch of the crew jumped in to push the boat into position. 

They cooked a turkey for dinner.  They also featured a rice dish with kidneys and livers that is traditional in Syria.  It was flavorful.  They often had a variety of salads: beets, chickpeas, coldslaw (with carrots), tomatoes and onions, and of course regular salad.  They were all really good.  The fruits and vegetables are almost always fresh.

1 March 2025 Abu Simbel/Aswan

Sat: Our last real day as tourists.  Another early morning wake up at 4:30 AM, Departure at 5:30 AM.  We walk in the dark through the marsh.  Fortunately the boat provided just enough light that no one got wet feet.  Our guide had asked us to memorize the path just before nightfall last night.  We had a 30 minute drive to the airport followed by a 30 minute flight to Abu Simbel.  Air Egypt provided a bus for us to the Temple of Ramses II and one for his favorite wife Neffretetti.  Coming out of the temple site we wandered through a long bazaar. We purchased a pashmina scarf after much negotiation.  

Then it was back to the airport to fly back to Aswan.  Our luggage from the ship was transferred to our hotel, and we checked in for a 90 minute rest.

We were off again on a boat ride in the Nile seeing many islands of varying sizes made mostly of granite.  We saw and heard birds of various sorts.  We could view the Nubian construction on the shores of the Nile.  Though the map shows this land as part of Egypt, it is actually Nubian land.  These people were relocated here when the Aswan Dam was built.  Their original homes were flooded by the lake that formed behind the dam.  Speaking of flooding an area when the dam was built, the temples we saw today were also relocated because of the dam.

During our Nile boat ride we stopped at a Nubian village where we visited a Nubian home and saw their crocodile and held one of their baby crocodiles.  We had our dinner in this village.  The food was most excellent.

Mark wanted to purchase a Nubian mask to hang on our African wall, and we found a lovely Mahogany model.  $45.  $40. $35.  $30.

It's exhausting.

We finally purchased it for $17.  On the boat ride back to the bus, Lynn purchased a couple necklaces.  Everywhere you go, there are locals with their souvenirs. 

Then, we visited the Essence of Life Perfume Palace, where we watched a glass blower forming a lovely perfume holder.  Then upstairs for a talk about Essential Oils.  It was quite interesting, and we purchased some Sandalwood, Eucalyptus, and Lavender oils and what they call Cleopatra Cream.  We also purchased a lovely Christmas Ornament of blown glass.  It's green with Egyptian-type leaves. Bonus: Because we are special (and bought something) we got a free Essential Oil candle diffuser.

We returned to the hotel for an hour's rest and final packing.

The next event was our last meal (late lunch,early dinner) at an Egyptian restaurant.  Mark had the very traditional Egyptian lemonade, typically made with mint, but he had it withheld.  Dessert was the traditional Egyptian milk pudding, which is very much like Creme Brulee without the crusted sugar topping. 

On the way back, we talked with a local young lady, asking her where she obtained her very traditional simple black headscarf, and she said just down the street! So down we went. The store was closing, but there was a store nearby that also sold them. Lynn purchased one for $9. She then asked about the other models the owner had pulled down.  One was a smaller model, and the other was the same size as what Lynn had purchased, but made with Egyptian cotton.  Lynn upgraded for an additional $6.

Back to the hotel. Crossing the street back wasn't as treacherous; there was a stoplight (one of two in Egypt) and the light was with us. We had previously checked out, but they were fine with us hanging around until 5:30.  We then took the boat to the bus to the airport.

It's the first day of Ramadan.  One of the principles of Ramadan is you try to be good, or do good deeds during the month.  As we were driving along the way, young men were offering drinks & fruit (dates) to the drivers as a Do a Good Deed. The idea is that the drivers may need to go a long way, and now that the fast is over, they need sustenance. So the young men do a good thing by offering free drinks or dates.  Our bus driver indulged in their services.

At the airport, there was no one at the ticket counter. We arrived just after sunset, so they were still breaking their fast. Eventually one person came to staff the counter. 

We had to wait a long time on hard plastic chairs. The flight was supposed to leave On-time at 8:45.  But the plane was late getting in. So now, it's leaving On-time at 9:30.  But eventually we got on the flight which also had hard chairs. Fortunately the fight was only an hour and 15 minutes. 

Overview:  Our guide Ayman is very enthused about the history of his country and loves to share it with all who will listen.  He has a subtle sense of humor which is quite enjoyable.  He will often tell us a story (explanation), then says “If you don't like that one I will tell you another one.”  Sometimes he has 3 or 4 stories (alternative theories) for the same thing.  

Tourism is currently down 80%.  The people in accommodation and food service are extremely polite, wanting to make the tourist happy.  For the poorer people trying to get by day by day, the hustle is quite intense.  Common phrases…’No hassle!”, but step into their store and they will follow you all of the way to the end of the bazaar trying to get you to buy from them.  Haggling is the way of business; it is very tiring.  One vendor followed Lynn all of the way to our bus then finally said he would take $3 for a t-shirt for which he had originally asked $10 or $15.

3 March 2025

Mon: A continuation of yesterday traveling across the world. It was nice to be with Eric & Yanwah; they fly to Seattle so we accompany them home. It's also nice to travel Premium Select and not even all cramped up.

Leave Aswan hotel: 5:30 pm

At Aswan airport: 6:15 pm

Leave Aswan Airport: 9:15 (3:30 hours waiting)

Arrive Cairo Airport: 10:30 (1:15 hours flying)

Leave Cairo Airport: 2:05 (3:35 hours waiting)

Arrive Paris Airport: 6:15 (4 hours flying)

Leave Paris Airport: 10:15 (4 hours waiting)

Arrive Seattle Airport: 11:15 (10 hours flying)

Leave Seattle Airport: 3:25 (4 hours waiting)

Arrive LV Airport: 5:30 (1:45 hours flying)

Arrive home: 10:50 (4:30 hours getting home)

Total time coming, waiting, going: 19.5 hours

Total time flying: 16 hours

We stopped on the outskirts of Vegas and had a hamburger at 5 Guys. Then we limped home, sometimes only driving 30 minutes before we had to take a nap.  Mark almost suggested we get a hotel in Mesquite (which is only 50 minutes from home!) because we were so tired. But we struggled through.

Dave and Mia were visiting (Dave won his baseball competition in Las Vegas). We were glad to see them the next day.