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An American's Travel Report of Egypt!
Hard to say where to begin!! Egypt was absolutely wonderful!! A little pricy to fly there (I recommend Egypt Air for non-stop), but EXTREMELY inexpensive once you hit the ground!! you will be amazed! We had the luck of hiring Debbie Senters from Casual Cairo Detours (an American living in Egypt for many years), she was very well connected and known and had us celebrating Iftar (the breaking of the Ramadan fast) on our first night in Cairo with Egyptians in the street!! WOW! By relying on her for travel, we were able to see sites and have experiences in Egypt that we would have never found ourselves!! I remember watching the poor souls trapped on the big tour busses being hurried from one site to then next...usually missing the best (what we called "Indiana Jones") experiences!! We traveled to parts of Coptic (Christian) Cairo and the Citedel (a historic center for Muslim religion) that the tour busses ignore entirely!! And ALL ON OUR OWN SCHEDULE!! The people of Egypt were soo friendly (pick up a few key phrases in Arabic as a friendly gesture, they will appreciate it), and we felt safe the entire time we were there! Debbie hooked us up with a taxi driver (Moustaffa) in Luxor that we hired as our personal driver the entire time we were in Luxor (For something like $40 a day!!! for the whole day!! and that was after our very generous tip!!!). He was very knowledgable and friendly (we ate dinner with his family 2 nights!!!), and really knew what we wanted to see better then we did!! He even found our Hot Air Balloon (around $120 per person, kinda pricey but well worth it) after we landed in the middle of a sugar cane field because he thought it would be quicker then just picking us up at the hotel after the ride was over! We didn't ask him to, he just did! This may seem like a lot of jumbled thoughts...but there is so much to say...so here is some organization Things to remember!! -Go to the Khan el-Khalili (a shopping bazaar) and BARGAIN LIKE HECK and have fun with it!! -Keep 10s and 20s ( egyptian pounds...6.2 equal $1) for tips, and give them out generously...you will be amazed at the service you get for such a small tip! -SUNSCREEN!! -Be ready to take more pictures then you ever have in your life! -Ride a camel! -CONTACT DEBBIE SENTERS!!!! her rate is about the same that a burger flipper gets at McDonald's and the service is PRICELESS!! -Try the Karkade (hibiscus tea) and a sheesha pipe (tobacco) even if youdont smoke! -Did I mention that buying EVERYTHING is negotiable in Egypt? But sometimes also remember that that last 5 pounds in the Haggle doesnt mean all that much to you financially, but it really does to an Egyptian! -Have fun and dont fool yourself into thinking you will see everything!! dont even try! (we stayed for one week, saw a lot, but not near everything!!) -It is very safe there....but if the conversation turns to politics..just redirect the conversation with "Wow, but i really love Egypt...the people here are wonderful and and so kind" or something like that.(Egyptians seperate the actions of our government from the citezens very well, they have issues with thier own gov't policy as well) -Stop thinking about it and go! Ok, thats all for now...I plan to post pictures on the web eventually, and will try to respond if anyone has ANY questions at all. -- ratfink90210 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ratfink90210's Profile: http://travelforums.org/forums/member.php?userid=288 View this thread: http://travelforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=19245 This post was submitted via http://www.TravelForums.org |
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