Chapter II
'The Pharaohs Welcome'
November 2022,
I would say it was a long wait until my next adventure but it wasn’t really, a few sneaky trips to Spain and a weekend in Norse country but nothing to shout about, so here we are again, I’m glad you’ve made it to page 2, you might be here to see if I end up wrestling with a shark or kidnapped by Libyan forces but regardless you’re here. Now this one is going to be a bit tricky, as I have no idea how I booked this, cant even remember the airline never mind the package, so you’re shit out of luck if you’re here to get some tips on pricing and value for money, you’ll just have to enjoy the read. What I can remember it all started on the train from Cardiff Central and this is where a ‘G’s tip does come in handy’ my flight was another early morning one and we’re now learning from previous. So you’ll notice a lot of my flights are quite far from Cardiff purely because its cheaper and Cardiff Airport is about as organised as a cousin I have. But back to the point, any early flights just travel up the day before and stay in a nearby hotel, especially if you’re driving, premier inn’s and travelodge’s tend to have cheaper parking than the airport itself and offer free shuttle rides to and from, thats Gatwick, Stansted, Heathrow or Luton far easier and definitely less hassle as I now know. I touchdown in Paddington Station and had a lovely meal in the Shard London, cannot recommend enough ‘Hutong’ top floor overlooks London, Brilliant! It was then an early train from London down to Gatwick, as easy as that, the train takes you straight into the airport. As I said I cannot remember for the life of me what airline something pretty common Im sure it was but nothing sticks out in the memory that made it a particulary bad or fantastic flight, but for just over 5 hours its a breeze and was VERY reasonable, the two most common destinations in Egypt, Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh I myself went to Hurghada but i’ve been told they’re identical, for location I would suggest Hurghada myself because of the trips you can take down to Luxor and Aswan, Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh are separated by the Suez Gulf so may be a tad more challenging to see the rest of Egypt if in Sharm El Sheikh, just my opinion.
So remember what I told you about taxi drivers waiting at the airport, ooooh yes and Egypt is the king of them all, this country runs off tourism, Im sure its where the bartering was born, It was relatively straight forward to enter the country, an e-visa is needed most online websites can supply within 24hrs and cost around £20 I personally recommend ‘ivisa.com‘ they are brilliant competitive prices and have an annual membership which then waives all the government fees etc , well worth it. So getting through arrivals was easy… famous last words again… I was greeted by what I thought was a very polite gentlemen, maybe even a taxi driver who wanted to help with my bags, so gave them to him, he then proceeded to put them on a trolley and I watched him walk them, no lie 10 feet to the door, took the bag off and asked for money, I couldn’t believe it. ‘Learning every time see I did say, and now I pass this knowledge onto you scumbags‘ unlike Cuba, Egypt very much love their currency ‘the Egyptian pound’ and they will ask for it at any given chance. You have to be stern but not aggressive, you don’t need to apologise every time somebody wants a hand out and not necessarily rude but be stern, I am telling you now ‘EVERYONE’ will want to help you and clothe you with items and then will request money, they will tell you free, ITS NOT! Unless you genuinely need the help or want to buy something don’t bother entertaining them, it just winds you up.
I stayed south of Hurghada town itself but from the centre and way down past where I was the whole coast is littered with resorts, and in truth I don’t think location really matters they all near enough have the same to offer. It took me around 15mins to arrive from the airport so a taxi is very affordable instead of pre booking any private transfers. I stayed in a hotel called ‘Aladdin Beach Resort‘ wooo thats right, what a name the pictures looked good online and it was very cheap thinking about it now I think the hotel and flights was below £500 its a very affordable holiday and it was part of a chain so once you were in the resort you could venture to a couple of different ones which connected from the south and north. But hey apart from the Aladdin like theme and a giant blue genie on arrival I didn’t care, it was hot and looked incredible, of course that time of the year again on arrival a giant Christmas tree greeted me in the lobby, becoming a running theme this and I guarantee you it wont be the last. I arrived close to midnight so I after checking in and being showed to my room which was very nice btw, an Arabic themed apartment (shown in picture) I decided to get my head down for the night and start bright and early the next day. This trip was slightly more evident of some English speaking tourists, I think they had the same idea as me, go watch the Qatar World Cup in a hot country and at normal hours. So it was fair to say a lot of people were here, started with walking around the resort, my go to opening day routine to get your bearings, nothing worse missing out on something by not knowing where it will be but more importantly after 20 sherbets knowing your way and familiarising yourself with your surroundings to get back to your room. I spent a lot of my days relaxing by the pool, walking 20ft to the beach bar then onto the beach, the set up was fantastic and everything was within a minutes walk. A few massages of course followed and more trips to the beach bar than I can remember, there wasn’t many lagers I recall, Sakara was one and Luxor another, but in an all inclusive resort again do you really care? For what ever reason around this time of the year and the last 10 from what I researched there had been more shark attacks and fatalities in this area in the last 2 months than in 10years, it didn’t bother me tbh, I wasn’t a frail old woman floating around 200yards away from the beach… but its 100% a sea you need to explore, the Red Sea is up there as one of the best, crystal clear and bloody boiling, it was honestly like a bath.
After relaxing the last few days and chilling by the pool and in the sea it was coming close to my first excursion of the trip and it was a biggie! A full day trip to Cairo & Giza, I booked this trip through ‘GetYourGuide‘ and this is one I still use today they are brilliant, theres so many packages to suit all needs, plenty of reviews and they tell you
exactly what will happen from the pick up to the drop off, can’t recommend them enough. The trip cost me around £80 pound and I booked it before I came to Egypt, if there are trips you are planning on I do recommend pre booking, a lot of times especially in prime time these fill up quickly, the trip duration was around 20 hours, pick up was around 2am and an air conditioned mini bus picked us up from the hotel lobby, the bus then traveled about an hour into the depths of the night to a meeting point with probably around 300 people and 7 large coaches waiting. Now not that Egypt is a particularly dangerous place but as I said tourism is everything to them, there was a police escort and probably 4 stopping points from Hurghada to Cairo a 5hour trip took around 7hours it was tough I cant lie, you couldn’t really get your head down to sleep and you also couldn’t really see anything outside the window apart from a lot of police inspection points with guns, I am probably making this sound rubbish but I honestly couldn’t feel safer and you are en route to see one of the ancient wonders of the world! We arrive in Cairo right outside the world famous History Museum of Egypt you’ve probably seen many films its featured in ‘the mummy’ for one and on entry it does not disappoint huge hallways filled with archeological finds from statues to sarcophagi’s, golden chairs to mummified animals its eye opening. We were given a guided tour for about an hour then allowed 40mins to wonder but I don’t think I could even scratch the surface its massive and theres far too much to see. Of course the ‘piece de resistance’ was the boy kings golden mask, ‘Tutankhamun’ which was secured in a dark room at the end of the museum and sealed, you are strictly told no cameras nothing, but I managed to get a sneaky shot for you guys. Now I could go pages and pages talking about how actually he wasn’t of that importance and how nearly all of the pharaohs had similar tombs but were robbed, what made this boy king special was pot luck nobody stole his sarcophagi its that simple, but the story is fascinating. After a really interesting start to the trip It was time for lunch and it was a pretty cool way to have some grub, we arrived at the ‘River Nile’ and had food on a large static boat and you cant help to just look around hoping to see a Nile Crocodile surface from the river. Lunch was fine mostly rice and fruits, your typical lunch package with these types of trips and was then told the bus will be leaving soon to go to the next meeting point and we could either get back on the bus and wait or take a traditional boat a ‘dahabiyas’ across the river to the meeting point, of course I jumped all over this, another chance to see some crocodiles so headed straight to the roof of the boat and enjoyed the views.
Once we arrived back at the bus it was a short trip to Giza, home of the pyramids, well the most recognised pyramids anyway, you see them from miles away, and in actual fact the closer you get to the entrance the more in awe you are, not only the sheer size but how the world has changed around them, you would think they are in the middle of nowhere but in actual fact the town of Giza has tried to adapt and get as close as possible which kind of ruins the aura of it, could’ve sat in the top window of McDonalds with a Big Mac and seen them but they secure the actual area off thank god, but once you’re inside it is bedlam! The guide told us try to keep up and say no to everything, we go back to me learning about being stern to people, them trying to stitch you up with taking your pictures and then demanding money, giving you free stuff, this is it ladies and gentlemen this is ground zero of people annoying the fuck out of you. There are merchants, theres people selling you shit, camel rides, horse rides, personal shop assistants ‘may as well’ it was carnage and it took a whole 5 mins for me to be suckered in, took pictures of me wearing a traditional ‘Keffieyh’ holding imaginary rocks in the air, if they were selling it I bloody bought it ‘figuratively’ speaking. But I enjoyed it, it made for some great pictures and in the end yeah, I wanted to ride a camel too, they take you out away from the crowds and take pictures, its worth it I am telling you its worth it, just give them a fair tip. FYI remember camels are an absolute pain in the arse whilst they are getting up and down, it’s like a bloody rollercoaster without the harness so be warned. I could’ve spent hours there it really is one of maybe the most incredible structure I have ever seen and the stories of how it was built is still a complete mystery, I overheard several guides telling groups completely different things and I think thats whats so special about the pyramids of Giza, still to this day its a complete and utter mystery.
The trip back was similar to the ride there, you get about an hour or two sunlight and then hours of nothing in the dark, but I went back smiling and with incredible memories I will never forget. The next couple of days I went back to relaxation mode, the World Cup was on, I had unlimited free beer and food 24hrs a day id be a fool to not take advantage of this, my evenings consisted of red wine, popcorn, shishas and live football, some may say what else does a man need in life. I forgot to add at the start of the page, this time I bought an e-sim, and with iPhones and androids its the easiest thing in the world to activate, for about £10 you get unlimited Internet and the satisfaction you know you wont get home to a huge phone bill.
I spent one evening taking a taxi to Hurghada town, it was nice, peaceful no tourists in site but equally not a lot to do there, I headed for the harbour which was very nice and had a great meal overlooking the sea in a place called ‘The Moon Restaurant & Bar’ which would please anyone, from simple dishes such as chicken and chips to what I had ‘camel steak’ love it or hate it if theres a delicacy individual to that country I will be eating it! But not a lot of nightlife I found, maybe it was just the time of the year perhaps, because it had a lot of potential. After my planned trip to Giza & Cairo I was hooked to know what else there was to see and do, speaking with some of the other travellers they suggested Luxor is a must see. So that night researched on ‘getyourguide’ to see what trips the following day had going to Luxor, found one and booked it straight away, this one cost around £40 but within minutes of booking I was sent confirmation and pick up times, it really is that simple to use. The minibus arrived around 5am which was an upgrade on the previous for sure, air conditioned bus plenty of room and no armed escorts this time, it took around 4 hours to get to Luxor, home of the kings and queens of ancient Egypt, Luxor has a pretty special place in Egyptian history, and of course is used for a lot of films again! Luxor Temple is incredible, its the most intact temple from that era in the world and the stories and history of this temple and area are real! There was a pretty cool story also that happened around WWII, the River Nile is incredibly unreliable due to its rising tides in the summer and diminishing waters in the winter which made it very hard for farmers to grow produce all year round, so the Egyptians asked the UK, France, even Russia to build them a dam that would help the farmers have a more stable resource, all said no and were pretty busy elsewhere… So they asked the Germans, now the Germans agreed to this knowing the others had been asked, this may be valuable ties to Africa whilst their war progresses, so they said yes, the Egyptians waited for the very efficient Germans to complete their blue prints for the dam and gather the resources and then the Egyptians simply killed them and built it themselves. How true this is I don’t know I haven’t done much research into it but I love it, thats the great thing about Egypt its just full of stories and history going back thousands and thousands of years.
Next stop was the ‘Valley of the Kings’ this is predominately where all the Pharaohs and emperors of Egypt were buried and laid to rest, and man did they have it good! This place was massive built into the side of a mountain, the craftsmanship was incredible, really makes you wonder how we cant brick a house straight these days but these fuckers built structures like these, amazing, anyway its an incredibly large area which you can get a cart to whisk you back and fourth but its definitely worth the walk in my opinion, the most popular tomb there… Ramses II, now what was interesting out of the 60 odd tombs there only a handful were intact, so as you walk down into the tomb you come across several stages, first theres rooms where ancestors were buried, then rooms with all of your treasures and gold, then the room of your sarcophagi, but I found the most interesting thing was how some tombs were plastered in bright colours and gold paint and some just rock carvings. This was all down to what kind of man and ruler you were, it was said the better the ruler and person you were to the people the more appealing your tomb was, if you were a harsh ruler your tomb was left like a shit hole, you have to remember once you died it was the working class people who built the tomb if they felt no appreciation or feeling to that ruler they didn’t decorate it like others, important lesson I thought, what ever you have in life… you can only really leave a memory of what type of person you were behind.
We move, I figured I concurred the sands of Egypt and now for the seas, once again using my trusty app ‘GetYourGuide’ I began to fish around for some sort or scuba or snorkelling excursion and boy was there a lot. Ive always wanted to attempt scuba diving, the big air tank on your back, swimming metres below the surface just something I think everyone should try, I found a full day diving tour to two different locations in the Red Sea, cost about £30 absolute bargain for 8 hours, I was picked up from the hotel and taken to the dock where ‘Chloe’s Diving Centre’ was located, cant recommend this enough btw, they measure you up with a wet suit, snorkelling gear and fins, you then board a fair size boat where a lounge indoor and out, toilets and a kitchen is available, you’re then separated into two groups, ones who want to dive and the other snorkel and given a crash course on both.
Of course I went for the diving, the instructors are all PADI licensed so you’re in good hands and tbh I was pretty overwhelmed with how much stuff i.e safety goes into diving, hand signals, tilting your body and breathing at different stages for your lungs to adapt, amazing! If you’re thick as shit don’t do this you will die. We arrive at our first location, where the boat
stopped amongst others, I assumed different diving centres and trips, it was amazing, sun was beaming down onto a relatively shallow coral reef, about 5 metres I would say, this is where the people who wanted to snorkel jumped out of the boat and could enjoy all the colours of marine life there was to offer, now just because I did the diving I wouldn’t disregard the snorkelling, snorkelling is great fun! And as long as you can hold you’re breathe well, you also get some great shots under the water amongst the fish and coral. Anyway they helped us suit up and attached the air tanks, showed how to dive into the sea without making a fool of yourself and then you’re on your own, you had about 40 minutes to get familiar with how to dive, how to increase lung capacity, how to signal to the instructor you’re ok and not wanting to go back up etc, it was great, as an Aquarius I was in my element.
Once the 40 minutes were up it was back on the boat for some lunch, which was actually very good considering it was made in a kitchenette, I had no complaints but don’t advise eating too much if you’re going back out… we arrive at location 2, and some of the snorkelers wanted to attempt diving, highly amusing two women got into the water went to go under the water and completely flipped their shit, crying everything, as I said diving isn’t for the faint hearted. Now this was the real deal, middle of the Red Sea, coral reefs and caves everywhere, the instructors would take a small group out and then the bravest could go deeper and deeper if they chose to, which I did! I got to around the 20m mark and I cant lie as a complete novice and with so much going on around you including concentrating on not dying, I may have fucked the lung situation up, I started to turn on my side, breathing out anything to stop me from feeling like my body had an elephant sat on me, luckily enough it all worked out and I ended up with some incredible pictures and videos, after about an hour playing with the fish, exploring tunnels I surfaced undressed and just basked in the sun. To my surprise about 5 minutes after I started bleeding from my nose, luckily enough nobody seen this but it was my body telling me you almost fucked that up. The pressure in my body was insane and it had to come out somewhere! See I keep telling you lessons learnt. It was the perfect way to end my trip to Egypt and once again a new hobby to add to the collection, I have also looked into getting a PADI license for me to be more comfortable the next time, I loved it!
The rest of the trip went very well, more relaxing on the beach in the pool, watching grown ass adults try to get everyone doing water aerobics and dancing ‘which worked’ raided the all inclusive beach bar once again, just everything to top a great 10 days off. The hotel would book me a taxi back to the airport which took less than 20 mins and that was that, another successful trip, no delayed flights this time, no random searches or paperwork to sign to get back into the country just an extra stamp collected in the passport. Hope you think about going to Egypt its one of the best places I think even today you can visit and so affordable.
