The Missus has always had a fascination
with Ancient Egypt and she’s wanted to go and see the pyramids, the temples,
the Valley of the Kings, Cairo Museum, and sail on the Nile and Lake Nasser since
she was nine.
Unfortunately, every time we planned the
holiday something would happen. One year it was a bomb, then last year it was
the revolution… but this year we thought ‘Fuck it. We’re going!’ And so we did…
The initial plan was to take a Nile Cruise
and fly to Abu Simbel, the huge rock-hewn temple of Ramesses II, then head to
Cairo to see the Pyramids and the Cairo Museum.
But then we started to realise just how
huge the country is and just how little time we were giving ourselves… so the
plan expanded and evolved and we ended up doing a cruise down the Nile from
Luxor to Aswan and back again, then getting a car transfer back to Aswan to join
a cruise sailing down Laker Nasser, ending up outside Abu Simbel Temple before
flying back to Cairo to see the Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum.
Not so much of a holiday, more of a
logistical challenge…
But it was worth it. We did loads, saw loads and the
trip was even better because the country is suffering a dearth of
tourism at the moment following the revolution last year.
Tourism remains the main industry in Egypt
and the country usually welcomes something like 14million tourists every year
but this year it’s estimated that figure won’t even reach 1million. That’s
obviously awful for the struggling Egyptian economy but great for us as it felt
like we pretty much had the run of the major tourist sites. This was an
unexpected bonus.
The people were also lovely and genuinely
welcoming and happy to see us. And we never had a sniff of trouble so if you’ve
ever fancied doing a trip to Egypt then now is the perfect time to do it.
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