General Background:
My wife and I traveled in Egypt for 23 days in October/November, 2010. We are both in our late 50s and like to do things backpacker style. Don’t ask me why. We stayed in budget Hostel World or Lonely Planet recommended hotels, ate Egyptian street food pretty much exclusively (except one foray into a Scottish restaurant for a Big Mac) and traveled around by train, taxi and bus at a very leisurely pace. In Cairo we found the subway efficient and easy to use. We did a two night, five-star cruise from Aswan to Luxor.
Money:
The trip cost us 35 USD per-day each or 70 USD per day total. That included everything except airfare. We carried US cash in money belts hidden under our clothes. If you do this make sure the bills are clean and without marks. Fifties, hundreds and twenties work well. The Obama Messiah may be doing everything in his power to drive the USD into the ground but the Egyptians haven’t twigged onto this yet. US cash is still king. We didn’t use credit cards or ATMs. I don’t trust plastic in the third, sorry, developing world.
Get used to bargaining for everything. Egypt is the first country that I’ve traveled in where it is necessary to bargain for the basic necessities of life like bottled water, bananas, bread, Laughing Cow cheese and fuul sandwiches. My advice is to bargain hard. Save the ‘fair trade’ advocacy for discussions with your lefty friends. The Egyptians will use every known form of deceit to separate you from your cash so keep your wits and sense of humor about you.
I had an International Teachers’ ID and so I got half price on all the entrance fees.
Safety and Women’s’ Issues:
Egypt is very safe in our experience. I never once felt threatened or afraid and I am a paranoid guy. Mind you we didn’t leave anything worth stealing in our hotel rooms and I had wads of money in three different zippered pockets on my person. My passport was always with me.
Needless to say Egyptians have a different relationship with the fairer sex than we are used to in the west. It fell upon me to make all of the public decisions. Negotiating price, talking to taxi drivers, ordering food and tea and arranging for guides and hotel rooms was my responsibility. My wife was looked upon as chattel. If she ordered a Coke the seller would glance at me to see if this was okay. If I had said, “no Coke for her,” she would definitely have gone Cokeless. I didn’t try this, however fearing a finger poke in the eye. Back in the 70s my wife burned her share of bras.
Gallons of ink have been spilled on the subject of what women should wear. My wife covered up her legs and arms with loose clothing. She didn’t wear a headscarf but had one tucked away in her bag for if it was needed. Cultural sensitivity only goes so far. Most of the local women wear hijabs and quite a few wear the burqa. Interestingly enough there are sexy lingerie displays in the windows of women’s clothing stores. My advice would be to cover up in public and then buy some hot lingerie for when the bedroom door is closed.
We did see western women dressed inappropriately in short shorts and tube tops complete with naval jewelry and tramp stamps that would make Hefner blush but these women were part of tour groups or packaged holidays. On the five star cruise many women had bikinis made from shreds of dental floss but that was just on the boat and so it didn’t count as Egypt.
In Dina’s Hostel there were a couple of very fetching twenty something girls in cute little sun dresses that were see-through when the light hit them in just the right way. It was vaguely trashy but highly erotic. They had never been taught by their mothers about closing their knees when sitting on a floor cushion so I got a delightful glimpse of thong, but I digress.
We met a pretty American girl in Cairo who was traveling alone and just about ready to pack it in and return home. She was finding the sexual harassment intense and constant and it was tiring her out. Maybe she was overly sensitive but she said it was worse than the constant haggling over money.
Food:
The best food on the trip was on the Air France flight to Cairo, that is, if I don’t include the five star Nile cruise. We ate it all. Hummus, fuul, babaghanoush, falafel, shawarma, koshari and every form of ground chickpea and dead pigeon known to man. Egyptian food handling techniques are not up to anything near western standards. Egypt is quite simply the second filthiest country I have been in. India wins first place in the filthy sweepstakes but Egypt isn’t far behind.
We ate in crowded street stalls where the ‘chef’ looked healthy. We avoided salads, tap water, tourist restaurants and any fruit we couldn’t peel. We ate pounds of Laughing Cow cheese (the brie of Africa) and dozens of hard-boiled eggs and little baguettes. Still, we both got violently ill and took a course Cipro that we had brought with us from home.
We drank gallons of Egyptian and Lipton tea. We didn’t drink any alcohol so I can’t comment on the Stella. My wife accompanied me to all the cafes from the touristy El Fishawis in Cairo to the small street cafes. She didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable enjoying her tea while I sipped mine and smoked the Sheesha pipe.
Cairo:
We stayed at Dina’s Hostel. It was great. Dina runs a tight ship. Her place is clean, central and cheap. She arranged for a driver to take us to the various pyramids around Cairo. She also arranged for us to be picked up at the airport. All of this worked very well.
In Cairo don’t miss the souk, Fishawis café, Coptic Cairo, the Egyptian Museum and of course the pyramids, the great, the stepped, the bent and the red.
On the way out of Egypt we stayed at the Australian Hotel, also excellent. They arranged for our second trip to Giza and got us to the airport for the trip home. The Australian Hotel is managed by several young Egyptian guys who will be very attentive to solo female travelers, but in a good way. If you are a young woman, traveling alone and fancy an Egyptian cuddle the Australian is the place to go.
Aswan:
We took the overnight sleeper train to Aswan from Cairo. You get the tickets at Ramses station for 60 USD each but the train leaves from Giza station that you can get to by subway. Bring food. Do not trust the meal included in the fare unless you want a four-day case of the sh-ts.
We stayed at the Keylany Hotel. A great choice. I recommend it. They arranged a bus trip to Abu Simbel that worked well. Seeing the sunrise on the desert is a spectacular experience. You get to Abu Simbel in an armed convoy of busses. The Egyptians are very conscious of terrorism and are aware of the Muslim affinity for making westerners go boom. There are well-armed police everywhere in Egypt keeping their eyes peeled for their coreligionists on the rather wide and becoming wider as the days go by, idiot fringe.
The hotel also hooked us up to an honest travel agent (no small feat) who got us the two-night cruise to Luxor. If you go on the cruise bring water. Sneak it in. On the boat you need to pay for beverages and that includes water.
When in Aswan get a felucca trip at sunset. We did it two evenings and it is great. Tell the captain not to talk on the boat otherwise he will gab your ear off and the trip won’t be nearly as pleasant. Bargain hard with these captains.
Luxor:
We stayed at the Happy Land Hotel. Another great choice. Very helpful and friendly staff. They arranged for a guide and driver to the west bank where all the tombs are. We explored Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple on our own. The Luxor Museum is not to be missed.
Alexandria:
This was my favorite Egyptian city. It is like Europe except run down. The Cornish is scenic and walking along it from the old fort to the library is something to do. We stayed at the Union Hotel, which gets mixed reviews, but we found it to be fine. There are some very old cafes in Alexandria like El Tugareya and some good Egyptian restaurants like Mohammed Ahmed’s.
