Category: Egypt

Was it really only 4 days ago since I had arrived in Egypt? What an exhausting battle it had been.

Today I was getting the train from Luxor down to Aswan where I would spend 2 nights and have a day at Abu Simbel.

The driver from yesterday wasn’t at the hotel by 7.40am and I was panicking, so I got another taxi.  I didn’t want to miss my train. I needn’t have worried about that!

My train was due to depart at 8.15am. I was at the station before 8. At around 8.15 the sleeper train from Cairo pulled into the station. I checked to make sure it wasn’t my train and of course it wasn’t. I was told it was the next train. The next train pulled into the station at platform 2. I was told this wasn’t my train either. In actual fact it was the VIP train that I wanted to book a seat for, but wasn’t able to. That was on time. I wished I’d just got on it and paid the difference or even bought a new ticket if I had to. The one I’d bought had cost me £3, this train cost £5. Anyway I watched the train pull out of the station and the station staff, at least half a dozen of them were watching me, all blokes of course, told me it was the next train. Guess what? The next train arrived and that wasn’t my train either. I’d now watched 3 trains pull in and out of the station and I was still sitting on platform 2.

I decided that the next train that pulled into platform 2 that was going to Aswan, regardless of whether it was train 996 or not, I was getting on it! The fourth train apparently was mine, by this time it was an hour late. Wonderful!

I insisted on pulling my own suitcase along the platform, they only had to touch your suitcase and they expected a tip, but one of the station staff saw me struggling to get onto the train with my suitcase and grabbed it from me and then put it on the overhead rack. I looked in dismay. How the hell was I going to get that down. I had no change so he didn’t get a tip, but I was beyond feeling sorry for these money grubbing men. They probably made more money from tips than I made in my normal job!

This train was fairly quiet, I was in the first class carriage and had just sat in the first seat after I walked into the carriage, a single seat by the window. While the view from Giza to Luxor had been largely unremarkable, the section of train between Luxor and Aswan was very nice with lovely views of the Nile in a lot of places. The train didn’t lose any more time so I wasn’t more than an hour late to Aswan. As one bloke walked past me on the train, a while before Aswan I asked him to take my suitcase off the overhead rack for me, which he did. I stowed it safely behind my seat. I could manage it from there.

I struggled with my suitcase through the whole station and refused to let anyone touch it, even though it had killed me to drag it the length of the platform and up and down several flights of stairs. When someone tried to take it off me when I had about 2 more steps to climb I snatched it out of his reach saying “I’ve managed all this way”! I was immediately accosted by taxi drivers at the exit of the station. I don’t know whether they don’t allow the drivers onto the platform like they do in Luxor or whether none of them thought it lucrative enough to hang around on the platform for any train that wasn’t a VIP train and full of tourists.

One lad spoke good English, he asked for 100 Egyptian pounds, we settled on 80 and I asked if he had change. He said he had. “Welcome to Alaska” he said ironically referring to the heat in Aswan. If only he knew just how little this was like Alaska in just about every way imaginable. There had been plenty of times during my time in Egypt when I was being pestered in the heat that I’d wished I was somewhere else. Alaska would have done just fine. The Karnak Temple in Anchorage? Perfect. The Great Pyramid in Talkeetna? Ideal.

Anyway to give the lad credit, when I gave him 100 note because I didn’t have change he was true to his word and gave me my change and he’d also carried my suitcase all the way down the steps to the boat dock and waited until the boat was ready and put my suitcase onto the boat with me. I had to ask the young driver of the boat to help me with my suitcase so I didn’t end up falling into the Nile with it.

Decent, reasonably priced accommodation in Aswan is hard to find. The glorious Old Cataract Hotel is ridiculously expensive, the mainland hotel that had availability had poor ratings and most other stuff was booked up. It was both Easter and Ramadan, so that might have made it busier.

Instead of staying on the mainland, I had found a Nubian guesthouse on Elephantine Island, so I had to get a boat from the mainland part way across the Nile. I had no idea how the hell I was going to find the guesthouse. I asked the boat driver who didn’t know, but someone at the dock did and said he would take me there and also carried my heavy suitcase all the way. I certainly didn’t begrudge giving him the last of my change, the equivalent of a pound after he’d carried my big red case all the way to the guesthouse.

I had a welcome drink of hibiscus and the owner of the guesthouse said he had arranged for a driver for me to take me to the Philae Temple Complex, which I had requested in advance. I had to pay for the temple entrance and the boat over to the island myself. I was relieved I’d thought to ask him how much to pay for a return boat ride as the boat driver, whose name was Harris, decided to ask for stupid money which I ignored and gave him what the guesthouse owner said should be the maximum.

My room was really nice, brightly decorated and comfortable with a balcony and fully air conditioned. It was very good accommodation for a reasonable price. The owner took me over to the mainland himself in his boat and I met the driver who was going to take me to the Philae Temple Complex.

I was in a nice air conditioned car, for once, to take me on my excursion this afternoon. The driver drove me to the dock where boats going over to Agilkia Island were and got Harris to take me to his boat. I bought my ticket to go to the temple and also to climb the pylon and then we sailed across to Agilkia Island. 

Due to the construction of the Aswan Dam, many places were going to be flooded and lost at the bottom of the lake, so the Egyptian authorities moved several important temples to other locations to save them from a watery grave. The ancient Egyptian temple complex of Philae, including the Temple of Isis on Philae Island were moved to nearby Agilkia Island to preserve them.

The boat ride over was quite nice. Harris had a cup and he filled it with some water out of the Nile and drank it, said it was nice clean water. I didn’t ask to try it myself. I’m already paranoid about getting dysentery when I come to hot countries without drinking dirty river water!

I said I’d be about an hour and made my way to the temple complex.

Armed with my tickets I set off to explore. The main temple of the Temple of Isis and then there are surrounding smaller temples on the island that form the entire Philae Temple Complex.

The Temple of Isis is huge. There is an outer courtyard and from there you can see the entrance to the temple with extremely tall pylons constructed from as early as 280BC. I loved the atmosphere. I took a photo for a Canadian girl who was from near Prince Rupert and was amazed when I said I’d been there. She took a photo for me.

After going through the entrance between the two pylons, you enter a second,inner courtyard. I wandered around looking at the columns and then entered the inner temple through a doorway between two more enormous pylons. In the inner temple are more columns and carvings on the walls representing the story of Isis. There was a sanctuary in a chamber at the far end of the temple where a sacred image Isis, the goddess of healing and magic had been kept. She brought divine King Osiris back to life and the gave birth to his son, Horus. The Temple of Isis has a connection with birth and midwifery and indeed, there is a birth house within the temple.

I also saw there were a lot of cats hanging around inside by the columns. I kept as far away from them as possible in case they tried to scratch me, although they didn’t move, they were content to just lay in the shade.

I took a look outside and found the Nilometer, which was a measuring device to record the water level of the River Nile so they could keep an eye out for it flooding. A very innovative thing to put into an ancient Egyptian temple!

I was looking round for the entrance to climb the pylon and there didn’t appear to be anything open that led to a staircase, so I had no choice but to ask one of the security guards about it. And unfortunately it was locked up so a bloke came along with a key to unlock the padlocked door and the security guard and his semiautomatic machine gun came with me to the roof. I wouldn’t let him have my phone, I took my own photos, it was a rule, I only let fellow tourists take my photo. Or a guide if I was with one. Certainly not a man with a machine gun! It was a total con, I asked to have access to something I’d legitimately paid for and I still had to tip the guard for letting me have access. I drew the line at giving the bloke with the padlock key anything. What did he want a tip for? Not losing the key?!

After that I went to one of the other temples of the Philae complex next to the Nile, looked around and took some photos and then as I’d had an hour there, I made my way back to the dock. Harris had gone for petrol apparently, so I had to wait and while getting petrol he’d also picked up 3 tourists. He took the boat around the other side of Agilkia Island so I got to see it all. I wasn’t amused when he told me how much he wanted for the boat trip and it just spoilt things. Although I didn’t let him get away with it, I paid him what the guesthouse owner told me. I was out of the boat and walking away by then, so there wasn’t much he could do.

I was supposed to go to the Aswan High Dam, but time was getting away from me, so I got the driver to turn back so I could be in good time for my sunset felucca ride. There was a bit of a misunderstanding and I had no idea whether I was supposed to get on the felucca here or on Elephantine Island. To be on the safe side I went back to the island and then the owner took me to the felucca. The boatman wasn’t happy when I said I had booked 2 hours, he thought it was just one hour.

We zigzagged across the Nile a few times and then sailed back, but at times we weren’t moving at all. I complained and he said there was no wind. I pointed out the other feluccas that all appeared to be moving.  So I don’t know why they were moving and we weren’t. I asked him if he had dropped the anchor, as he didn’t seem to be doing much, except talking on his mobile phone. He denied dropping the anchor. Either way it wasn’t good and what should have been a lovely sunset felucca ride ended with me scowling for the most part and storming off when I only got an hour and a half, a good bit of that not moving at all. He shouted after me for money, but he didn’t get a tip. The guesthouse owner had told me to pay him rather than my afternoon driver and the felucca owner, so he was getting nothing. I probably sound harsh, but you have to be firm. I hadn’t even got what I’d paid for, so there was no way I was giving him a tip!

It was quite tricky to find my way back to the guesthouse, all the roads are dirt roads, no real street names, everyone just knows their way around this Nubian community.  I thought I must be in the vicinity, but I was a bit concerned I couldn’t find the guesthouse. I saw something I thought I recognised, turned the corner and there it was. 

I didn’t see the guesthouse owner when I first got back, but I caught up with him and complained to him later about the felucca ride. He also said there was no wind, but I wasn’t having it and he offered to take me round the island in his boat at sunset the next day as compensation. I’m an absolute nightmare to have as a guest! To placate me, he gave me a drink of something made from plants in the garden, I couldn’t pinpoint the taste, but I’m sure it had hallucinogenic qualities as I had the craziest dreams all night!

I retreated to my room and took advantage of the fact that I had a balcony and sat on that in the warm night air drinking this purple concoction until I decided I would have an early night as it was going to be a long day tomorrow.

The following evening, after my day out at Abu Simbel, which I will detail in a separate post, I arrived back at the guesthouse and the owner had promised me a free ride around Elephantine Island this evening to make up for the disastrous felucca ride the day before.

The ride around Elephantine Island in a small boat was one of the most enjoyable things I did. It was a lovely ride around the island which is a lot bigger than you might think from looking at it from the mainland. One of the first things we saw as we sailed was the Aga Khan Mausoleum on the hillside, built in 1959 for Aga Khan III who had liked to spend his winters in Aswan for health reasons.

The Nubian villages were all lit up as we sailed around. There were a lot of locals out in boats and enjoying their evening on the shoreline. I was here during Ramadan, so everything came to life at night. We passed the Movenpick Hotel which is in the middle of Elephantine Island and then further along were the Nubian villages and accommodation there.

It all looked very pretty lit up at night, but I was pleased I wasn’t staying this far along the island. The great thing about my guesthouse was it on the part of the island directly across from the main city, so it was easy to get to. As lovely as these hotels in the Nubian villages looked, they were too far away to be particularly practical as a base for exploring Aswan.

We went through a small cataract, basically some rapids in the river and down the Nile as far as the Old Cataract Hotel. This is where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile and I decided not to splash out on a room there, it did seem a bit overpriced. It undoubtedly looked beautiful from the Nile and I had wondered where it was as I hadn’t spotted it on any of the drives through Aswan.

However, I had not really spent much time in Aswan city itself as I wasn’t staying on the mainland, I tended to stay on the island when it came to the evening. Therefore, I hadn’t really had the opportunity to go to the Old Cataract Hotel and have afternoon tea. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do everything during my 8 days in Egypt.

The Spanish couple I was sharing the boat with got off at the mainland, I couldn’t be bothered. As lovely as Elephantine Island was, it was a bit of a nuisance staying on the island and having to keep getting boats across the river and then try to find my guesthouse yet again, especially in the dark!

When we sailed back across the Nile, we docked at the restaurant that did takeaway pizzas, so I ordered a margherita to eat at the hotel. When it arrived I sat on my balcony and ate it, just enjoying the view and the peace and quiet. It was a nice way to spend my last night in Aswan. Not long afterwards I went to bed as I had an early start in the morning to catch my train back to Luxor.

I travelled to Egypt in April 2022.

I travelled from Luxor to Aswan by train. You can buy train tickets online. Tickets are only available 2 weeks in advance and the website can be temperamental. The website address is enr.gov.eg It is very slow to load. My first class ticket cost £60 Egyptian pounds, approximately £3 sterling. Since December 2022, non-Egyptians have had to pay foreigner fares. A first class ticket between Luxor and Aswan now costs $25 USD for tourists. You can also buy tickets at the station.

I stayed at Mango Guesthouse on Elephantine Island. I booked my room on booking.com My air conditioned room with balcony cost $35 USD per night. The guesthouse owner has a boat and can take you to the mainland on request. Alternatively there are public boats from the mainland to Elephantine Island that cost £5 Egyptian pounds, which is about 20p.

I visited the Temple of Isis at the Philae Complex on Agilkia Island on a trip arranged by the guesthouse owner for around £300 Egyptian pounds, approximately £13 sterling. Entrance to the Philae Temple and Pylon Panorama Ticket costs £300 Egyptian pounds, approximately £13 sterling. You pay for the ticket on arrival at the complex.

I booked my felucca cruise with the guesthouse owner for £400 Egyptian pounds, approximately £17 sterling.

I flew to Cairo with British Airways from Manchester via Heathrow. A one way flight from Manchester to Cairo via Heathrow takes approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes and cost £237.

You will need a visa to visit Egypt. I applied for my visa online through the Egyptian government e-Visa portal website. A single entry tourist visa costs $25 USD and is valid for 3 months.

Read my other posts about my time in Egypt

First Day and First Impressions of Egypt

The Pyramids of Giza, Dahshur and Saqqara

Dendera and Karnak

I am a huge Poirot fan and have seen Death on the Nile, both the Peter Ustinov film and the David Suchet television programme many times. As I was going to be spending 10 days cruising on the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea, I didn’t want to be spending more time in a boat on the Nile, but I was going to see some of the sights featured in the screen adaptations. 

I spent all of my third day in Egypt, not on a boat, but on the train. The journey should have been 10 hours, it ended up being almost 12 hours. I got to Giza Station in good time and was waiting about an hour for the train. I spoke to the Station Master who pointed out where I needed to wait and I sat down. I had someone else who worked for the railway service try to move me, but I refused and stayed where I was. A little girl with grubby hands was trying to sell me tissues but I didn’t have any change. She hung around for ages and kept showing off her counting skills, which weren’t very good, she managed 1, 2, 3, but it all went a bit wrong after that, she kept saying 1, 2, 3, 7, 6. She became fascinated with the combination lock on my suitcase and I just let her push the numbers around until she got fed up and moved away.

I had a window seat on the train and it was a single seat so I didn’t have anyone sitting next to me. There were a bunch of noisy Germans in the carriage and quite a few locals. Me and the Germans travelled all the way to Luxor.  Most of the Egyptians got off in Asyut. The journey and the scenery was less interesting than I expected, a lot of the time you couldn’t see the River Nile and we also passed through a few very built up cities. I kept intermittently falling asleep. When we finally rolled into Luxor we were about an hour and a half late because we’d kept stopping for no apparent reason along the way which put us further and further behind.

The journeys by train are long, but they’re a good way to travel in Egypt. I didn’t have to battle through airports and had a basically relaxing day looking out of the window and dozing as the train rolled through the Egyptian countryside, desert, Nile Valley and cities. I used several trains during my week in Egypt and while they weren’t without minor issues, they were generally a good choice of transportation.

As I got off the train a bloke asked me if I needed a taxi and I bargained hard with him. Someone grabbed my suitcase, even though I told him not to and then another porter started fighting with him over who would carry my case. The interloper won and wasn’t happy when I only gave him £5 in Egyptian currency for carrying it. I shouted at him that I told him I didn’t need anyone to carry it for me. I’m never sure how much I’m understood when I shout at these pests, but they must know from my tone that I’m angry. They generally don’t expect you to shout and make a scene, I was learning that was the best approach. As a woman travelling on your own you need to stand up for yourself.

I was delivered to the Hilton Hotel by the taxi driver who I paid the agreed price to. Then I tried to sort out my day the next day.

After seeing the Temple of Hathor at Dendera in Death on the Nile with David Suchet and reading about how colourful and beautiful it was, I had decided this was something that I did want to see while in Luxor and included it in my itinerary.

One of the hotel staff got the local tour organiser on the phone who wanted ridiculous money from me to provide me with a guide for the afternoon, so I declined. To get to Dendera I would need to take the train to Qena and then a taxi to Dendera.

As evidenced by my travel to Luxor that day, trains in Egypt don’t run on time, the timetables are more of a suggestion than anything resembling reality. The journey back especially would have been a case of turning up at the station and then just waiting for a train to arrive with no idea if I’d have to wait for 5 minutes or 5 hours. I didn’t fancy waiting at the station for hours on end, so I took the advice of the concierge and booked a taxi to take me to Dendera in the morning, it was going to cost me about £40 in English money and I decided that it would be worth the money for an air conditioned car that would take me all the way to the temple complex without me having to wait for trains and search for taxis at the station.

Next morning I had a very nice breakfast in the restaurant and then went to get in my air conditioned car to Dendera. The Egyptian idea of air conditioning simply means that both front windows wind down! If this car had ever had air conditioning it had broken long ago. First off the driver had to get a permit to go to Dendera as there are police checks all the way along the road. We were stopped several times to check paperwork, but it wasn’t as extreme as at the Hilton where they take security very seriously and have a mirror so they can look under every car before they let it into the complex! I didn’t mind the police checks, I appreciated that it meant they were doing everything they could to keep us safe.

It took about an hour and forty five minutes to get to Dendera and there were a couple of buses in the car park, but it was by no means heaving with people. The Dendera Temple complex featuring the Temple of Hathor. The first hall you walk into is the most impressive with coloured columns with the head of Queen Hathor at the top of all of them and a coloured ceiling which represented the night sky and the zodiac.

The next room had a blackened ceiling and many of the room decorations were either very faded or had lost their colour totally. I didn’t have a guide with me, so I didn’t get the significance of everything, but I’d read my guidebook and was quite happy to wander round just taking things in on my own. I had a selfie stick which turned into a tripod which you aren’t strictly supposed to use without buying a photography ticket, but the guards didn’t seem to be bothered and there weren’t enough people around to warrant it being any bother to anyone else.

I went onto the roof, but to go right to the top you needed an extra ticket which I didn’t have. I could have given some money to the guard, but I didn’t want to encourage him even though I ended up looking in a room that was being renovated and giving a tip anyway. Preservation means little to the guards in Egypt, they will let anyone in to look if they can make some cash. Having said that, this was a wonderful painted carving of the goddess bowing down to kiss what appeared to be the sun. However, after that I refused any more offers and for the rest of my time at Dendera I was left alone to wander and set up my tripod and take photos at will. All the tour groups had left by now so the temple was pretty empty.

I chatted to a Japanese girl travelling on her own in Egypt for a month and she didn’t have a guide either.  There was a small building that was the Temple of Isis in the complex and then I walked all the way round the outside of the Temple of Hathor as the exterior stone was beautifully carved. Then I went back to my car.

I really enjoyed my trip to the Dendera Temple and going somewhere that was quieter was definitely very nice.

On the way back the driver was badgering me to let him take me to Aswan even though I told him that I had a train ticket. I’d miss Edfu he told me. I only had so much time and I had a plan, I wanted an afternoon in Aswan.

He then wanted to take me around the Karnak and Luxor temples that afternoon. I told him no, I was going to have a rest and decide what I wanted to do. This was becoming a real nuisance.

I relaxed in my room for a short time and then decided that I would walk to the Karnak Temple. As I’ve often discovered when visiting touristy destinations, no one ever walks anywhere. They have cars or guides or taxis to go everywhere. So me walking down the street from the Hilton hotel to the Karnak Temple was a real novelty.

As I turned off the hotel drive onto the street, the taxi driver was lying in wait for me. I told him that I didn’t want a taxi I was going to walk. Even though the Hilton is a flash hotel, the street I was walking down now was anything but flash. It looked relatively poor in the eyes of this Yorkshire lass.

All the buildings appear to be inhabited, which I concluded by seeing all the washing hung out on the balconies, but a lot look like they’re either being built or falling down. I think they give this impression because a lot of them don’t have glass in the windows. They’re open air windows like they used to have in medieval castles. Maybe glass isn’t practical in the heat, although I would strongly object to staying in a hotel in Egypt with no proper windows.

As I walked down the street I was a source of fascination to the local inhabitants, I was polite and said hello, especially to the children and then I came across a group of schoolgirls waiting for a bus, who I would imagine were around 14 or 15 years old. When I smiled and said hello they were very excited and asked me if they could do a selfie with me. About 4 of them pulled out mobile phones so they could have a selfie with this weird English woman in a red jumpsuit and an Australian hat walking down the street instead of riding round in a taxi.

I got to the main road and started walking to the entrance to the Karnak Temple. It was quite a long way round to the entrance and a man with a horse and carriage started pestering me to ride in his carriage. I told him no and finally told him horses made me sick which he understood and then he left me alone. I had completely run out of patience when I came out of the temple later that afternoon and another man with a horse and carriage just got screamed at with a “get that horse away from me”! I think everyone within earshot was a bit shocked by my complete overreaction and no one came near me after that! I was told that the horse and carriage drivers are the worst scammers. They give you a ridiculously cheap price to get you into their carriage and then drive you to an out of the way back street so you have to pay them all the cash you have on you to get back to somewhere you recognise.

I wanted to buy a Luxor Pass as I was going to be in Luxor again before my cruise and it was the most economical way to see things. It cost $200 USD and I had my passport with me for inspection and my photograph. The man who was doing my ticket said he needed a copy of my passport and asked me for money. I pretended not to understand determined that I was not going to give him any more money. I got my passport and my pass and then when he demanded money again I told him no and walked off. He didn’t follow me.

When I got to the entrance of the temple I showed someone my ticket who asked to look at it and then he tried to take it off me and ask me for more money. I snatched it back and walked off. I’d paid my money, I wasn’t going to pay another penny.

It’s such a shame that the people in Egypt, actually no, just the men in Egypt, are such hideous humans to tourists, because the things in Egypt are beautiful.

Despite all of this, the Karnak Temple is amazing. The papyrus columns in the hall are so beautiful. From the photos I’d seen of them I thought they were just carved orange stone, but they are painted in a wide variety of colours. You don’t need a guide to walk you through to appreciate just how awesome these colourful columns are.

I asked an Aussie tourist to take some photos for me. The tourists here are well aware of what the guards are like, so they will usually be happy to take a good few photos for you. A guide would have been useful here to bat the security guards away. Any that approached me I barked “leave me alone” at them. I’m an inherently polite person so generally it was not easy being so rude to people, but I got so sick and tired of these awful Egyptian men I frequently lost my temper.

It was beautiful at the Karnak Temple, I would thoroughly recommend it, but it was definitely spoilt to a degree by pests following me around trying to get money out of me. I’ve travelled in Latin America and never encountered anything anywhere near as bad as it is in Egypt. I read it was the worst place in the world for being hassled and I can believe it. It would be quite difficult for it to be even worse than this.

There were more coloured halls within the Karnak Temple, but after an hour and a half I’d seen enough. I walked back to the hotel and I was getting tired, the heat and the hassle was draining. I decided that I would spend £4 on a taxi to take me to the Sound and Light show that evening, meantime I needed a drink.

The Hilton was as comfortable as you would expect and my corner room gave me a partial view of the River Nile. However, if I went out to the swimming pool area I got a full view of the Nile.

It was happy hour so I ordered 2 blue lagoons at the pool bar and sat at a table sipping my drink watching the sun set over the River Nile. It was a nice way to spend an hour or so and very relaxing following my afternoon at the Karnak Temple.

The taxi arrived in time to take me to the Sound and Light show. The show was going to be in German so I had to get a headset for translation. By the end of the show I was not feeling well. I was ready to vomit and I had a bad leg which had now become very painful.

As for the Sound and Light show, don’t waste your money, it’s rubbish. You’re led down the avenue of rams and then to the hall with the coloured columns. They don’t light up very much and the story was boring. Finally you walk to a seated area overlooking the sacred lake where you can see a few lit up palm trees reflected in the water. At one point in the commentary they mention fireworks, so I got my hopes up and then they were dashed when the show came to an end and there were no fireworks. A few more lights go on, that’s it. Yes, save your money, don’t bother. I discussed it with some other people who agreed the Sound and Light show wasn’t worth the effort. I’d have been better staying at the hotel pool bar for the evening.

In conclusion, the highs of the day were the relative tranquility of Dendera, the coloured columns and ceiling at the Temple of Hathor and the amazing papyrus columns in the Karnak Temple.

The lows were the dismal Sound and Light show and being constantly hassled by Egyptian men. They were enough to turn anyone’s holiday into Death on the Nile 2! There would have been quite a pile of bodies!

You can make your own way around the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, but a guide at the Karnak Temple would have been a good investment and I would advise any woman travelling alone like me to engage one here. I would have also benefited from a verbal explanation of what I was seeing rather than just relying on my guidebook.

The West Bank of Luxor was to come a few days later at the end of my holiday in Egypt. Tomorrow I was going to Aswan.

I travelled to Egypt in April 2022.

I travelled from Giza to Luxor by train. You can buy train tickets online. Tickets are only available 2 weeks in advance and the website can be temperamental. The website address is enr.gov.eg It is very slow to load. My first class ticket cost £255 Egyptian pounds, approximately £11 sterling. Since December 2022, non-Egyptians have had to pay foreigner fares. A first class ticket between Giza and Luxor now costs $45 USD for tourists. You can also buy tickets at the station.

I stayed in the Hilton Hotel in Luxor on the East Bank a short distance from the Karnak Temple. I booked my room through the Hilton Hotels website. My partial Nile view room with breakfast cost $120 USD per night.

I visited the Temple of Hathor at Dendera by taxi arranged by the concierge at the Hilton Hotel. The return taxi ride cost approximately £40 sterling.

Entrance to the Dendera Complex costs £120 Egyptian pounds, approximately £6 sterling. You pay for the ticket on arrival at the complex.

The Luxor Premium Pass costs $200 USD. It is valid for 5 days and covers all the sites on the East Bank and West Bank in Luxor, including the Temple of Karnak, the Temple of Luxor and all tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. You have to buy it in person at one of the temples or in the Valley of the Kings.

I flew to Cairo with British Airways from Manchester via Heathrow. A one way flight from Manchester to Cairo via Heathrow takes approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes and cost £237.

You will need a visa to visit Egypt. I applied for my visa online through the Egyptian government e-Visa portal website. A single entry tourist visa costs $25 USD and is valid for 3 months.

Read my other posts about my time in Egypt

First Day and First Impressions of Egypt

The Pyramids of Giza, Dahshur and Saqqara

Being a tourist in Egypt is exhausting. Not necessarily physically although that can be quite demanding, especially in the heat of the desert. But you have to be mentally alert the whole time. Everyone is trying to make money out of you and in some cases trying to scam you and it is completely draining to have to think about it every minute. I wouldn’t have missed seeing Egypt, but it could be hardgoing.

My day in Giza started reasonably well. I didn’t fancy breakfast, I just wanted a drink. I asked for orange juice and got something that was orange in colour, the similarity to real orange juice ended there. I drank it and then went down to reception. First I needed to get some Egyptian money. The first ATM I went to had a blank screen. The next one I tried wasn’t attached to a bank and wanted to charge me a £2.50 fee. I declined. The next ATM was attached to a bank but wouldn’t give me any money. I spotted another one attached to a bank and this one gave me money without offering to convert into English pounds or charging a fee. Useful to know about, I could use that again if necessary.

The man who was supposed to be taking me on the camel hadn’t arrived so I had to ask the hotel to ring him. He finally turned up, took me to the ticket office where he bought a ticket for the Giza plateau and for me to go inside one of the pyramids. The Great Pyramid was closed today so I had a ticket to go in the smaller one, the Pyramid of Khafre.

We went into the pyramid complex and I could see the pyramids in front of me. I posed for the obligatory touristy photos which looked like I was picking up the pyramids. Not really my sort of thing, but never mind.

My guide went to get a camel for me and a horse for himself. I waited for a while and then he returned with a camel for me. It was quite easy getting onto the camel, I just had to hold on tight and lean back and the camel stood up.

My camel was very serene. The horse was a bit skittish as horses notoriously are, but camels don’t let much bother them. When I was in Australia I was told that if a camel saw a snake it would probably just step over if rather than panicking like a horse would.  My camel on this trip kept calm for the whole ride.

I really enjoyed the camel ride. We rode out onto the Giza Plateau and went to a viewing point where we could see six of the nine pyramids on the plateau. This was a wonderful view and one that you would only see if you did a longer camel ride. It was much too far to walk and the 15 minute camel rides didn’t come on this route.  I was pleased I had decided to come on this ride and see the pyramids on the plateau from this angle. I posed for more photos and then we were on our way again. At one point the horse lost its footing and got startled, my camel just kept going as if nothing had happened. I was pleased I was on a camel and not a horse.

We continued our ride towards the three big pyramids. The Great Pyramid of Giza was closed today, but I sat on my camel and had more photos with the Great Pyramid behind me. I then walked up to the second largest pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre which does look bigger than the Great Pyramid, but that’s because it’s built on a higher elevation. I had paid to go inside this pyramid so I left my camel behind.

I descended into the pyramid and walked through it until I got to one of the rooms with a tomb inside. That was it, an empty tomb. That’s all there is to see inside the pyramids on the Giza Plateau.  But I had read it wasn’t the most exciting thing you would ever do. I declined the offers to have any photos taken as everyone here was just after a tip. I got to loathe the tipping culture very quickly, everyone constantly asking you for money. That’s what I mean about being a tourist in Egypt being exhausting.

I got back onto the camel and we rode around to the Sphinx for more photographs. I wanted to get a closer look at the Sphinx so the guide took me closer to it and showed me the way out. He wasn’t impressed with the tip I gave him, but I thought was generous to say he had only given me about an hour and twenty minute camel ride rather than the full 2 hours that I’d paid for.  However, I had plenty more to see today, so I didn’t argue for more time on the camel.

I walked around close to the Sphinx and got a fellow tourist to take a photo for me. They were the only ones that didn’t ask for tips. I’d got a new phone and wasn’t about to be held to ransom by any of the locals out to scam tourists. I only handed over my phone to either my personal guide or another tourist. I walked around the complex of the Sphinx for a short time and then made my way back to my hotel ready for my next excursion.

 I had a car booked for late morning to take me to Dahshur and Saqqara. It was the same driver that had picked me up from the airport the day before.

My top priority was to go inside the pyramids at Dahshur, so I said we should start there to make sure I had enough time to go inside. I had read that only one was open at any time, however both of them were open today. The ticket was a bargain at the equivalent of just under £3 for both pyramids.

The pyramids at Dahshur are older than the ones at Giza. They are some of the best preserved and also the least crowded. Most day trips take in Giza, Saqqara and Memphis and as Dahshur is further away this often gets left out. One of the reasons I loved my experience at Dahshur was because of the lack of people there.  This also meant there were no people hassling you for money, it wasn’t worth their while to be there. I know I keep going on about this, but if you haven’t experienced it, you’ve no idea how annoying it is!

I started at the Red Pyramid and I just took my mobile with me and left my rucksack in the car. This turned out to be a good move. If I had no money with me I couldn’t be pestered by everyone for tips.  They soon leave you alone when they realise you have no money.

The Red Pyramid, also called the North Pyramid is the largest of the pyramids at Dahshur. It’s called the Red Pyramid due to the fact that red limestone was used to construct it. The pyramid is the third largest in Egypt after the two largest ones in Giza.

To go inside the Red Pyramid the first thing you have to do is to climb several flights of steps on the outside so you’re part way up the pyramid.  Then there’s a kind of ladder to climb down to get to the base of the pyramid. You go down backwards like you would with a real ladder.  This ladder has wooden rungs, but there’s also a wooden platform underneath rather than fresh air like a normal ladder, so you can slide your foot along the wood until you reach the rung. There’s a handrail at each side. You go a long way down. I was amazed how long the ladder was and how far down I was going. I counted on the way back up and it was somewhere around 150 rungs which equates to about 60 metres. That’s a big ladder!

Once you get down to the bottom of the ladder you’re in the interior of the pyramid and unlike in the Giza pyramid you can tell you’re in pyramid. It is pyramid shaped!

There was a set of stairs leading further up into the pyramid. So I’d climbed all that way down to go back up again. I got to see more of the interior of the pyramid, plus the rubble that had been discarded, presumably when the pyramid was constructed. There wasn’t a huge amount to see, but it was quite an adventure climbing a ladder into a pyramid. That was one of the things I enjoyed about going inside the pyramids at Dahshur. It felt like I was exploring and on an adventure.

Next off I went to the Bent Pyramid, the other pyramid at Dahshur that you can go inside.  The Egyptians constructed the Bent Pyramid first and this early pyramid was built at the wrong angle at first. When they realised that the angle wouldn’t work they corrected it and resumed building at a different angle, but the result was a bent pyramid.

Again I had to climb up some steps outside the pyramid in order to climb down into the pyramid. This descent was 80 metres and there were well over 200 steps on this ladder. This was a bit more difficult to climb down because of the varying size of the ceiling because of the different angles. It felt like it was taking forever to get to the bottom of the ladder.

This was even more of an adventure than the Red Pyramid because as well as steps inside the pyramid, there were also some tunnels to get through. You didn’t have to crawl, they weren’t that small, but you had to crouch right down in order to get through them and there were some tight spots. Again, I could tell that I was in a pyramid, you could see quite clearly the shape inside.

The final destination wasn’t a tomb, but a bat cave and there were quite a lot of bats sleeping in this part of the pyramid. They seemed quite content to sleep, so I observed them silently for a few minutes and then went back through the pyramid to the ladder. I had to keep my head lower than my back as I climbed up because of the varying height of the ceiling.

The complexes all closed at 3 o’clock today because Ramadan had affected the closing times of places. So I had a choice to go to Saqqara to see yet another pyramid or to Memphis. I decided I might as well see all the pyramids while I was here. If I ever came back I could go to Memphis then. I have since determined it’s highly unlikely I’ll be back to Egypt, I’m getting older and running out of time for repeat visits and Egypt didn’t grip me enough to compel me to go back.  The only Memphis I’ll ever see in my lifetime now will be the one in Tennessee.

I really enjoyed the Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid.  I loved being able to explore the interiors and you could tell you were inside a pyramid. I also loved the fact that very few tourists were there.  Almost all tourists who came to Dahshur had come with a guide so no one was hanging around wanting to offer their guiding services or anything else. The blokes at the entrance to the pyramids had asked for a tip, I’m not sure what for, they only showed me the entrance to the pyramid and I could see that myself! But other than that there was no one around.  It was as close to peace as I was going to find.

Saqqara is closer to Giza and much more on the tourist trail. So the fact that I didn’t have a guide there was a nuisance. I had blokes following me around all the time.

Saqqara is the home of the Step Pyramid which was built in stages, deliberately stepped, not a mistake like the Bent Pyramid. I had bought a ticket to go inside. I had been annoyed when I’d paid my entrance ticket which was 285 Egyptian pounds and I only had 400 in notes and so the ticket office man decided it was reasonable to give me 100 pounds in change and keep the extra 15. Okay it only amounted to about 70p, but why should he get to keep it?

Saqqara is the necropolis for the city of Memphis, a large complex where the Step Pyramid can be found as well as the royal tombs. I was hounded by a bloke trying to sell me a scarf, my rucksack was in the car, I had no money on me, I kept telling him no, but he persisted for a while until I took a turn into one of the courtyards with decorative tombs.

I then diverted around the Step Pyramid and walked all the way around it. There were no touts there, just security and tourist police who were just as much of a nuisance trying to show you things so they could get tips. I largely ignored them as there were a couple of other tourists they were busy with and continued all the way around the pyramid until I saw the entrance into the Step Pyramid.

The Step Pyramid of Djoser was built in the 27^th century BC. The interior of the Step Pyramid was nothing like the other two I’d been inside this afternoon, fairy lights lit the corridor of columns that led you down a short path to a barrier and when I looked over the barrier it was a definite wow moment. I very much doubt it has been captured adequately in the photos I took, but basically when I looked over the barrier it was into the depths of the pyramid. And it was really deep. Like looking into a well and always being surprised how deep it is. The Step Pyramid obviously had huge foundations.

I walked around the rest of the complex, once again ignoring the scarf salesman who then had a word with one of the tourist police who had a big gun and he wanted to show me around. I wasn’t interested in a guide, but he seemed intent on sticking with me, even when I deliberately held back pretending to read something.

He showed me one of the tombs and the bloke guarding the tomb kept asking me for my phone to take a photo of me. I declined and took my own photos. The tomb was very beautiful with coloured paintings on the wall, similar to what I saw in the tombs on the West Bank in Luxor. As I exited the tomb he asked me for money and I told him I had none.

The policeman was still waiting for me and the scarf salesman now reappeared, I told them I had no money and finally, when they realised they weren’t going to get a penny out of me, they left me alone. Do you see a pattern developing here?  I was concerned they were going to follow me to my waiting car, but thankfully they didn’t! The enjoyment of my visit to Saqqara had definitely been diminished by the fact I had no guide to bat away the hawkers. 

My driver then took me to a papyrus museum. It was obvious that this was a tourist trap with commissions for taxi drivers, but I was quite interested in getting some nice papyrus and it was a very smart shop, not some backstreet market stall.

My original intention was not to buy anything, but the salesman showed me a few pieces. When he gave me the price I told him I wasn’t going to pay anything like that and gave him a budget for him to work with. I went up from my budget and he came a long way down from his initial price and offered to have my name written in hieroglyphics on the papyrus which was a scene of Egyptian gods weighing a heart. So I agreed.

I’m under no illusions that I got the bargain of the century, but the sum wasn’t outrageous.  I got a guarantee certifying that this was genuine Egyptian papyrus made from papyrus grown on an Egyptian farm, the same material that the Ancient Egyptians used.  I had no reason to believe it wasn’t genuine papyrus, it certainly didn’t look like the stuff they were trying to flog for $2 at the pyramids that morning. 

If you’re interested my name in hieroglyphics is loyal, protective, strong personality and a triple amount of truthfulness as both E and Y mean truthful and obviously I have one E and two Ys in my name.

My driver took me to a perfume shop after the papyrus shop, this time I did resist the hard sell and came away empty handed.

By the time I got back to the hotel I was tired and hungry. The man at hotel reception who had greeted me the day before offered more tours, an hour round the streets in a tuktuk, a trip to the Grand Bazaar, another shopping trip for perfume and papyrus. I didn’t have the energy, I was drained, I said I was going to eat and then I just wanted to rest. He said to be sure to watch the Sound and Light Show. So that would be the sound and light show I’d watched from my balcony the previous night. I just agreed.

I went back to my hotel room and had an early night. I waited for the Sound and Light Show to start to see if it was in English this time.  It was in Spanish again, so I didn’t bother listening to it a second time.

Tomorrow I had a long day ahead of me on the train all day. Tonight I needed some rest.

I travelled to Egypt in April 2022.

I stayed at the Giza Pyramids View Inn in a panoramic pyramids view double room with a balcony. I booked through Expedia and paid £43 per night which included breakfast and a complimentary one way airport pick up which was offered with a booking of 2 nights or more.

I arranged my excursions through Giza Pyramids View Inn. The full day tour which comprised of a morning camel ride, visit to Giza Plateau and transport to Dahshur and Saqqara cost approximately £90. There is a list of tours available on the website which can be adapted to your requirements.

Entry to the Giza Plateau costs £200 EGP. Entry inside the Great Pyramid costs £400 EGP and entry inside the Pyramid of Khafre costs £100 EGP.

Entry to the Pyramids at Dahshur including the interior of the Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid costs £60 EGP.

Entry to Saqqara including the interior of the Step Pyramid costs £285 EGP.

I flew to Cairo with British Airways from Manchester via Heathrow. A one way flight from Manchester to Cairo via Heathrow takes approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes and cost £237.

You will need a visa to visit Egypt. I applied for my visa online through the Egyptian government e-Visa portal website. A single entry tourist visa costs $25 USD and is valid for 3 months.

Read about other adventures in Egypt.

First Day and First Impressions of Egypt

Dendera and Karnak Temples

Everyone should go to Egypt once in their life. With so many iconic attractions, the pyramids, the temples, the tombs and the River Nile, I believe these are things you should make the effort to go and see. Whether you decide to return is up to you!

Egypt was on my list of places to visit, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere near the top of that list. That all changed when I found a cruise through the Suez Canal and managed to grab a cabin on that sailing in April. I wouldn’t see a huge amount of Egypt on the cruise, so I decided since I was going to have to fly to Egypt to get on the clipper ship I might as well spend a week in the country beforehand to see some of the sights.

An abundance of flights to Cairo meant it was logical to start my holiday in Egypt there, or more specifically, in Giza. 

There were huge problems with enormous queues at British airports and this week which was the run up to Good Friday was no exception.  I was flying from Manchester via Heathrow to Cairo so I had booked the early flight from Manchester to Heathrow as I knew there were 2 flights to Cairo from Heathrow each day. If I aimed for the first flight out of Heathrow and missed my connection, I had a fighting chance of catching the second flight.  Despite the queues I got through check in and security in good time to reach the gate.

We were all boarded about 10 minutes before take off, but then everything went wrong. The computerised navigation system had apparently disappeared overnight. So the pilot had nothing to guide him to Heathrow. Did he not know his way there? Surely he must have flown the route hundreds of times? As far as I could tell the computer never did get fixed, but they got maps so that he could fly to Heathrow. We took off an hour late. When I originally booked my flights I had 90 minutes to make the connection. Now I probably wouldn’t have half that time to get to the gate at Heathrow. And I might miss my connection altogether. Just as well I’d allowed for this. The flight attendant told us incorrectly that there was only one flight to Cairo a day so if we missed the connection we’d be stuck in Heathrow for a day, but I pointed out that there was another BA flight to Cairo later that day plus two Egyptair flights.

We landed at Heathrow and thankfully I didn’t have to worry about going through security again, I just headed straight to the gate for the Cairo flight and I made it to the aircraft in time for boarding. Hopefully now I could relax a bit and enjoy my flight to Cairo which was just over 4 hours. It was basically a short haul flight, the seat configuration was 3-3 and there were no seat back screens. Music it was then.

I was extremely concerned that my suitcase would not have made it onto the plane. I had put extra stuff into my rucksack just in case my suitcase didn’t make it onto the same plane as me. The carousel in Cairo was set to be a roulette wheel for me. Would my suitcase be on it or not?

Cairo looked so built up when I saw it from the air. It was the most crowded city I’d ever seen in my life. And all the buildings were varying shades of sand which made them all look exactly the same colour from the air, brown like the desert. As we got closer to the ground I could see more clearly that there was no space between the tower blocks, it was extremely crowded. The other thing I noticed from the air was when we first saw the African continent from the coast it was all lush and green and farm fields. Then suddenly all the green stopped and it was yellow desert. It was almost as if you stepped over an invisible line and all the green and the vegetation disappeared and you were faced with a never ending expanse of barren wasteland.

I got through the airport fairly easily and thankfully my suitcase had made it onto the plane at Heathrow. Then had the problem of locating the driver who had come from my hotel to pick me up. It was very confusing because one bloke was waving a sign Giza Pyramids Inn, but I was at the Giza Pyramids View Inn which was different.  They all have similar names down this street in Giza, the appropriately named Sphinx Street.  I located the right driver and got into the back of the car to go to the hotel.

It must have taken about an hour and a half with the traffic to get to the hotel in Giza as we drove through Cairo. The sand coloured tower blocks were everything from brand new to practically falling down, I couldn’t actually tell whether some of them were being built, being knocked down or had just been left to collapse of their own accord. Some looked like slums, much like I’d seen in Rio a decade ago. But Rio had a very different feel to Cairo and after the initial culture shock, I fell in love with Rio. I didn’t feel the same about Cairo. Fortunately this was the only experience I would have of Cairo.  I had just 2 nights in Giza and all my time would be taken up seeing the pyramids.  I was a little disappointed I wouldn’t have time to visit the Egyptian Museum, but you have to make choices with your time and seeing Tutankhamun’s gold mask was sacrificed in favour of other attractions. 

The traffic in Cairo was awful and there were no lane markings, I wasn’t sure how many lanes there were supposed to be, not that this seemed to matter as the drivers were just making their own lanes and cutting in.  The honking horns were constant. I didn’t spot one car without dents or scuffs. Several pedestrians were taking their life in their hands by diving across the road between cars, others were trying to sell to the passing traffic jam, one man was wearing a fearsome Halloween mask, but the ones that intrigued me were the ones selling pastries and pancakes. One of them was wearing a matching suit and tie! I wouldn’t have thought the traffic fumes would have done the suit a lot of good. Another one didn’t have a tie on, but still wore smart trousers and a jacket. Bizarre.

The traffic was bad, but I had seen worse.  It certainly was not as bad as Mexico City despite my driver claiming otherwise. And while it was a bit scary in this traffic and it wasn’t an experience I was planning to repeat, it was nowhere near as scary as the traffic in Buenos Aires which so far no other place I’ve been has come close to regarding me wondering if I would end the journey alive or dead. I noticed there were a lot of collective minibuses and decided I was never getting in one. The essential quality to be a driver of these minibuses was maniac. Or possibly lunatic. Probably a bit of both. As we drove through Cairo I had no desire to spend any time in the city whatsoever. I don’t know why I was surprised by this. In fact, I don’t think it did surprise me. I hate crowds and I’ve never been a huge fan of cities. Especially not somewhere like Cairo with its crumbling sandstone skyscrapers, home to 22 million people.

I was beginning to wonder if I’d made a huge mistake deciding to spend a week in Egypt. But as I got to Giza and to my hotel I started to relax a bit.  I got my excursion sorted for the next day, a 2 hour morning camel ride, followed by time on the Giza plateau and then a driver to take me to Dahshur and Saqqara in the afternoon. The man on reception told me to go to my room and relax and watch the Sound and Light show. I asked him if I could watch it from my room. He said yes, that was the room I’d booked with a balcony with a view.

I was very impressed with my hotel room.  For once the photos on the website didn’t lie. I got exactly the view I’d been promised in the photos, a balcony looking straight at the pyramids and the Sphinx. The room was large, clean and comfortable, it had been a good choice.  I sat on my balcony in my down jacket waiting for the Sound and Light show to begin. In Giza it’s still quite cool at night in April. 

The Sound and Light show in Giza is the story of the pyramids narrated by the Sphinx.  They narrate in one language and there are translations for anyone else attending.  As I was watching from my hotel rather than going into the pyramid complex I didn’t have the option of a translation and unfortunately for me the narration tonight was in Spanish. I didn’t need to understand to enjoy watching the pyramids and the Sphinx illuminated intermittently by different coloured lights. After it had finished I decided to get some sleep.  It had been a long day.  Tomorrow I was going to see the Giza Pyramid complex and explore the interior of some of the pyramids of Ancient Egypt.

I travelled to Egypt in April 2022.

I stayed at the Giza Pyramids View Inn in a panoramic pyramids view double room with a balcony. I booked through Expedia and paid £43 per night which included breakfast and a complimentary one way airport pick up which was offered with a booking of 2 nights or more.

I flew to Cairo with British Airways from Manchester via Heathrow. A one way flight from Manchester to Cairo via Heathrow takes approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes and cost £237.

You will need a visa to visit Egypt. I applied for my visa online through the Egyptian government e-Visa portal website. A single entry tourist visa costs $25 USD and is valid for 3 months.

Read about my visits to

Pyramids of Giza, Dahshur and Saqqara

Dendera and Karnak Temples