Dancing barefoot in pages of history & riding camels by one of the ancient wonders of the World

Arriving into Cairo just after 7pm, we stepped off the plane and headed for customs only to be greeted by a well dressed man holding an ‘On the Go sign’. I had decided long ago to do this country on a tour because of the political unrest and peace of mind as there was so much I wanted to see but would not have felt safe being a young woman traveling here alone. The man welcomed us to Egypt and took us straight through passport control to collect our luggage. The smiley and timid looking gentleman attempted to push our heavy bags on a trolley up a ramp…only to slide straight back down due to his no grip but fancy evening shoes which put Dan and I into fits of laughter! Ushered onto a private mini bus we then drove through Cairo for 40 minutes stopping for a brief photo of our first acquaintance with the river Nile. Immediately Egypt felt familiar, like somewhere I had been before…India! Carrying the same vibrant energy, the dirty and dusty streets intrigue and disgust, the people offend and flatter you and there’s a never ending beat on the streets that you can’t help but dance to! 

We pulled into a fancy foyer of the Oasis hotel decorated with bright lights and suited porter men, Dan and I stumbled out the air con van feeling far too underdressed in our sweaty plane clothes, unbruised hair and dusty thongs! Escorted to our clean and comfortable room, exhausted from the day we ordered room service; two cold stellas and a pizza! Freshening up in the porcelain bathroom complete with complimentary fluffy towels and products…I forgot what luxury felt like!!! (for me crisp white linen says it all). 

With a 7am wake up call, it was difficult to drag myself out from under the sheets! Zipping our bags back up we met with the rest of the ‘On the Go’ group in the foyer to discus our Egypt itinerary, and set off just after 9. The 17 of us piled onto the bus complete with our tour guide Haytham to drive only 10 minutes before spotting a pyramid at the traffic lights! It blew my mind, just there out of my right window I could see the Pyramids of Giza as we drove closer the scale of them was extraordinary and beyond incredible! We Dived off the bus and morphed into the circus that danced around the astonishing ancient wonders! Even the locals constantly hassling, haggling and following me could not steal that moment; when your neck is so far bent as you try to strain your eyes to find the distant point where all four angles join, standing beside bricks that are taller than you and weigh over 25* tones, you can’t help but think something along the line of; ‘How? Who? Wow!!! Really?…Yes really!!!

I felt miniscale as we headed further into the sandy valley riding on the back of camels! It was so surreal being led through the dry desert looking out to see the pyramids of Giza and when you turn your head the other direction right there is the cosmopolitan city of Cairo! Back on the bus we then made a stop at the Sphynx, so impressive and again huge and then onto the pyramids of Saqqara to see the step pyramid! Hot, sweaty and exhausted we found ourselves some lunch at a lovely Egyptian cuisine resturaunt for some delicious vegetable targuine complimented with pita and hummus. Back to the hotel for a quick shower we collected our luggage and we made our way to the train station for our overnight ride to Aswan. A last minute decision; Dan and I decided to upgrade from a sweater seat to a sleeper carriage with the rest of the group for the lengthy 12 hour journey. Our private room was clean and comfy complete with bunk bedding, dinner and breaky service, a sink and a charger! Due to my previous travels on the transiberian I find sleeping on the train very calming, with an almost rocking melody so I was put to sleep within no time of hearing the metal speed along the tracks. 

Waking up in Aswan we were transferred to our hotel; isis, down town by the Nile. With a quick change we went to visit the The High Dam of Aswan which is one of the most important achievements of the in the last century in Egypt, even for many years it was a symbol of the New Era of the Revolution of 1952. It provided Egypt with water and electricity and secured the country of the risk of the destructive inundation. We then caught a water taxi over to the Philae Temple which was incredibly impressive where all the walls were covered in hyrogliphics! The temple of Isis at Philae is one of the most beautiful and best preserved Greco-Roman temples in Egypt. Most of the temple was built by the Ptolemaic rulers as part of their promotion of the cult of Isis, which lasted well into the Roman Period. In the 1970’s the temple was relocated to preserve it from the rising waters resulting from the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Being present at such a magnificent temple felt like we were dancing barefoot with pages of history! On the return boat little local boys jumped on board to sell cheap, flimsy but colorful jewelry which I found myself unable to resist! Tempting us further we then decided to check out Aswan local markets, however very disappointed with the one dusty street we lasted no more than an hour before returning back to a cafe for pizza and ice-cream. Busting for the bathroom Dan and I headed over the road to the public bathroom to pay 3pounds (Egyptian) to use, (most charge but this was particular expensive)…walking into the cement hot box the service lady dragged open the heavy metal door and ushered me in to a wet flooded and smelly cubical before locking me in! Knocking for her to open again I then waited for Dan as I was hassled by locals asking for more coins…all within one trip to the bathroom! Opting for a quick, easy and greasy take out meal for dinner en route home from mcdonalds the rest of the night was spent by the pool with a cold Stella watching the sun set by the Nile. 

The next morning whilst some of the group attended a bolt on tour to Abu Simbel, we stayed behind with a few other girls for a free morning! After a quick breaky we decided to go out and explore what two of the girls stumbled upon the previous night; a free shuttle boat across the Nile! We walked into a Nubian community where we were invited in to look at a local mans house! It was beautifully decorated with wall hangings, colorful cushions, fabric mats and jewelry dangled off the wall! He had a small caged crocodile and a nest which had baby birds! Racing back to meet the rest of our group at 2pm we all broke off into different directions again in order to purchase a few snacks for the evenings felucca. After buying some water and chocolate Dan and I headed back walking behind a few of the others when we were approached by two local boys selling cheap wall hangings. They continued to walk beside us for a few minutes while we refused to purchase anything as we hurried back to meet the group. All of a sudden Dan realized the front of her bag had been opened and she immediately dropped to the ground searching for her phone which had been in that pocket. We frantically searched all of the other bags as an elderly local man approached us and was saying something to us, unable to concentrate I asked him to leave us alone as I assumed he was selling us a ride on his carriage as he had done earlier. At that moment I looked up the street to see a group of elderly local men holding one of the young boys that had just approached us. I ran over to them as the men searched his pockets to hand over Danni’s phone, they then asked that we stay around as they wanted to call the tourist police! Thankful for their help we agreed, not really knowing what this entailed. The group of men then dragged the two boys back to the hotel as they kicked, screamed and cried to fight free! The young thief turned to me and begged for me not to call the tourist police but then men sternly encouraged us to go through with it. Within 5minuted the tourist police had arrived and searched the young boys to find a knife in their pocked and drugs. 

Danni, myself and Haytham (guide) were then taken in horse and carriage (by the man that I thought was selling it to me earlier but in fact was trying to tell us that her phone had been stolen as he saw the whole thing) to the tourist police station, however on arrival we were sent onto the main police station as it was not only theft that the boys were now facing due to the knife and drugs. We walked into the main station to find three non uniformed men sitting around a dirty dusty room, all smoking cigarettes, in what they call air-conditioning (three fans blaring) as the tv flickered. Danni wrote and signed her statement which was translated by Haytham into Arabic, before being taken into another room, a naked space posing as an office but really was more like a huge hallway, with one lonely desk and three couches. Cigarette butts and ash polluted the floor whilst the smoke hazed the vision. We sat, and watched the man as he then re wrote this into 5 pages, a can of coke and four smokes later we were finally released for a few hours before having to return to court later that evening. 

We made it back to the group appolgising for the 2 hour delay we had caused as we all headed down to the Nile to board our boat that we were to sleep on for the next two nights. The felucca was simply a large boat with a flat wooden deck covered with mattresses and a shade cloth, the crew consisted of three men who sailed us, cooked for us and cared for us. Breaky lunch and dinner were all served on board, spread on a table cloth which was unrolled over the sleeping area, all three means served with pita bread and fruit, but differing between each meal. Breaky; boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers and cheeses, lunch; falafel, chicken and salads, and dinner; soup, pastas and rice. On the first day we sailed up the mile zigzagging from one side to the other for about three hours away from the hassle and bustle of Aswan before docking near by a traditional Nubian house. The group spent the evening drinking and dancing with the Nubians whist Dan, Haytham and myself were escorted back into town to attend court. 

We entered an old run down building with smashed windows and no lighting in the stairs, however this didn’t dim the way enough to hide the dirty cement floor piled with cigarette butts. Climbing to the third floor we found electricity and entered a room with three men sat smoking. We were introduced to the judges in a very casual way whist they apologized for had happened! They sat, reading and speaking in Arabic occasionally throwing us a glance whilst we had no clue as to what was going on…(I think they just told us to sit in there so we didn’t have to stand with the locals in the hall way). We were then ushered into another small room already occupied with three men. We sat on the couch and stared as they took turns in speaking while the man behind the desk wrote notes and asked each of them questions for about 20 minutes before they left…it was then translated to us that we were in court, the casual man writing notes was a judge, and that was a court case we had just witnessed…wow. Haytham and the judge talked amongst themselves for about an hour, whilst dan and I sat uncomfortably in the smokey cold room sippimg on another can of cole. Finally we were asked do you swear? Dan awkwardly asked does she need a bible or something to swear over? However the judge just snickered a smile and replied; “no just hold you hand up”. She did so as she uncrossed her legs and I followed still bewildered with the informality and casual manner of the entire experience! The thieves were to enter once we were dismissed and as it turns out both are repeat offenders; one wanted for 9 other crimes and the other for 7, and the guilt started to subside once we found out that we what we thought were to be two young boys were actually 18 years of age. The most likely outcome for the two boys is jail from between 1 to 3 years which is an incredibly heavy weight we felt on our shoulders. However from the local men, our guide, the police and the judges all reasoned this explaining that even though the boy had simply stolen a phone that we retrieved, It’s not just petty theft that these two are involved in, and had it of been later and we were alone things would have been a lot worse as the knife in his pocket wasn’t just an accessory but a weapon. After 3hours and 10 signed pages of arabic later we left and returned to the dormant group just on mid night. 

The next day we is casually sailed the Nile, occasionally docking and splashing into the croc free waters, soaking up the sun, dozing and simply taking in the incredible scenery of Egypt! Its bizarre that most of the country is covered in desert whilst the banks of the river Nile feed the lush green tropical looking terrain that doesn’t run far from the stream! Camping out on the boat deck again it actually is surprisingly comfortable and I enjoyed being woken by the 5am striking sunrise! With an early start, the peaceful felucca trip came to an end at about 9am as we headed towards two impressive temples for a tour; kom Ombo which has hieroglyphics depicting the first ever calendar in history and Edfu temple which is not only the best preserved ancient temple in Egypt, but the second largest after Karnak. It was believed that the temple was built on the site of the great battle between Horus and Seth, hence ’ The temple of Horus’. 

After a day of sight seeing we finally arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon to relax by the pool (with a swim up bar…) for a few hours before getting ready for an evening meal with the entire group. Two beers down and a little quiet time to reflect…whilst it’s only been one week in this colorful and mesmerizing country it blown my mind…from the history to the art…I’m completely consumed and excited to see what more it has to show.