Egypt - 2007
Travelling independently using public transport
(Sinai part together with my wife, alone the rest)
TERM: 19.10. - 19.11. 2007
ROUTE: Cairo - Dahab
(Sinai desert trip, St. Katherine monastery visit & Mt. Sinai trek) - Sharm el-Sheik (Shark's Bay, Ras Mohammed NP visit) - Alexandria - Siwa
- Bahariya (Black Desert & White Desert visit) - Farafra - Dakhla
- Luxor - Cairo (Giza, Dahshur & Saqqara pyramids visit, Wadi
Natrun monasteries visit)
There seems to be no shortage of information
about majority of places of any interest to travellers in Egypt and thus before
going there I have not expected to encounter too many surprises. Yet, I have
found that the information given about some places is full of myths which are
copied from one source to the other and create rather unfounded expectations.
This especially concerns curiously unbalanced information about Western Desert
oases, where Siwa seems to be very overrated comparing to other oases, in
particular Dakhla. Also information about hassling in Egypt is rather
misguiding as it is in fact not especially bad regarding shopkeepers or taxi
drivers - of course, the Egyptian omnipresent "baksheesh" (tipping)
culture is indeed a very annoying nuisance. To make up for this rather deformed
image of Egypt I have prepared this rather detailed trip report which describes
my own, somewhat different views and may thus hopefully give my readers another
angle. Yet, as always, please understand that all the opinions and observations
given here are highly subjective and based on my personal values.
-----------------------------------------
General Information
Transport: Public transport in Egypt is very cheap and
quite effective, but you have to be prepared for a constant struggle as it is
not generally too friendly to independent travellers. Yet, one of the reasons
behind it may be that the Egyptians seem not to really understand the concept
of "system" in doing things - they have got as far as knowing that there is
some system in some things but cannot really grasp its substance. So, e.g. when
using "Western-made" buses which come with their seats numbered, they insist on
issuing numbered tickets and putting people on their given seat but they often
cannot really draw tickets according to the request (like to the left or right
side - and the sun in Egypt is strong and you would like to sit on the shaded
side) or seat people properly. I have frequently witnessed people being
repeatedly reseated according to the best abilities of the bus conductor (or
several conductors vividly discussing the matter and putting their ideas in
practice for a trial) but often it did not work due to a lack of understanding
of the numbering system. So, you better learn Arabic numbers, let the man at
the ticket counter indicate for you which number on the ticket means the seat
number (everything on the tickets is in Arabic, so you do not understand a
thing), and find your given seat; if you by coincidence get what you have
wanted and the conductor gets some other idea, try to give him a lesson - he
will be probably amazed by the logic and gladly follow your lead.
1. We flew to Cairo and back with the Czech Airlines (CSA) as this company
flies direct from our home town Prague - both flights were OK even if slightly
delayed, leg space was about average. In general, regarding the flights the CSA
is normal European airline now but dealing with ground personnel in its Prague
office is still not so pleasant as the staff seems to be rather undertrained
and incompetent.
2. In Egypt we used the local airline Egypt Air for some routes. The planes
looked well maintained and the flights were OK even if often modestly late. The
company felt as a typical low-cost airline with almost no service on board and
average leg space; the tickets bought well ahead of the flying time were indeed
very cheap. Their internet booking worked well (even allowing to reserve exact
seats) and the payment using a debit card went without problem; there were no
problems with using their electronic tickets.
3. Otherwise I used mainly public buses, which are the main means of transport
in Egypt and are indeed dead cheap. They connect major places in Egypt and feel
about normal - the Egyptians are of a similar stature as Westerners so there
are no problems with your available space. The buses are strictly nonsmoking
which you may appreciate as the Egyptians are often very heavy smokers. The
buses are frequently full so better book the ticket a day before (it should be
enough, not many Egyptians bother to do it) or be prepared to stand for some
time. Seats are numbered but do not expect to have much influence on the exact
seat you get, its almost random - either the man in the office does not listen
to your request, or the bus has different numbering system than the booking
sheet, or the bus conductor does not understand the numbering system and forces
some distribution of his own (see also the introduction above). The buses are
usually air-conditioned (the Upper Egypt servicing the oases is an exception)
and their air condition works anything from freezing you to an icicle (your
personal regulation switch is frequently broken) to not doing any noticeable
job - come well prepared for all eventualities. The luggage goes to the storage
under the bus deck - contrary to what is written in many guidebooks (and to
what is normal in the "developing countries" in general) there seems to be some
luggage fee required now - at the beginning I was refusing it as a common scam
and always put my luggage to the storage myself to avoid being asked for a "baksheesh"
(tip) but later I have noticed that locals indeed pay something too. They asked
something like 1EP but usually did not insist on it any more than in other
cases of clear "baksheesh" requests; sometimes they issued a ticket for
the luggage and in these cases they were more persistent. So, my rule of thumb
now would be that when you get a ticket issued you should pay (some 1EP or so)
while without a ticket you are entitled to refuse - still, the locals seem to
pay always.
4. Another means of transport you are likely to use is the train servicing the
route from Cairo to Luxor and Aswan (on this route the Egyptian tourist police
is quite persistent in its effort to make it difficult for you to use a bus).
Yet, the train is quite comfortable and allows you to catch interesting sights
of Egyptian countryside and so I do recommend using it for this route. There
are several classes of seating coaches in the Egyptian trains, the kind of my
choice is the air-conditioned 2nd class which I have found sufficiently
comfortable (very generous leg space, reasonably clean toilets, even too
efficient air-conditioning - again, come prepared), and still reasonably cheap
(1st class is more expensive and I have not needed any more comfort,
2nd class without air-condition is rather hot and very crowded); the
air-conditioned 1st and 2nd classes are strictly
nonsmoking, the rest of classes are smoking (very much so). There are also some
night sleeping trains with extremely expensive tickets (payable in US$ only),
which I have not even thought about. Basically you are requested to travel on
few selected trains only ("guarded" by police) but this rule is not too strict
- nevertheless, you are not able to buy tickets for an "improper" train ahead
and so need to be prepared for a likely necessity to look for a new place
several times; still, you should be able to always find it. When boarding a
train without a ticket, you will get the ticket issued by the conductor with a
small penalty added (about 10EP) - when there is no place available, you will
probably - "Inshallah" (God willing) - get help from the coach servant
(at least it looked there has been one in each coach) who will find a place for
you for a well deserved "baksheesh" (probably by kicking out some other
guy without proper ticket). As for the "proper" trains meant to be used by
foreigners, you can buy ticket ahead and book your seat but do not expect not
having any problems. First of all, the same problem of choosing your exact seat
applies as described for the buses (sure as hell, I got my ticket to the sunny
side of the train, the sunshade next to my seat was missing, and the
air-conditioning on my coach was not working for some time - they fixed it
later - so I anyway moved to other coach and had to change my seat several
times). Also, I was buying ticket from Luxor to Cairo and got issued and paid
for the ticket valid for the whole train route from Aswan to Cairo - it was
explained to me, that the "system" (PC reservation this time) did not allow to
reserve the seat from Luxor only and so I had to pay for the whole route (I
checked with the information office and tourist police and they all did talk
the same !!??); still, I noticed that the Egyptians boarding the train later
along the way had their reserved seats but did not pay for full route - so it
was a scam again, but an official one this time (nice indeed). In general, your
choice is to board an "improper" train without ticket and "baksheesh" your way
through, or to buy an overcharged ticket for the "proper" train - the final
price will be about the same. Both trains feel about the same, the "improper"
one stops slightly more frequently but it is little more fun as it is cheaper
and so better available for locals.
5. Other means of transport you may need to use are the so-called "service
taxi" and "pick-up". The "service taxi" is a typical microbus running along the
preset route, leaving when full (well, overcrowded typically) and stopping
anywhere along its way - you may want to use it esp. between oases; it costs
just slightly more than a bus, luggage travels free, and smoking is allowed (it
makes travelling in that small overcrowded place rather unpleasant as many
Egyptians just cannot quit smoking). The "pick-up" is indeed a pick-up truck -
sometimes with some seats arranged on its rear, sometimes just an ordinary one
- which is used for travelling between villages, esp. off the main road, or
within some cities (e.g. Luxor); the ride is usually for a flat fee (very
small, typically up to 1EP) no matter how far you go. Yet, typically there are
many different routes and there are no signs on the pick-ups, so you need to
ask locals who are frequently confused too. Beware that the frequency of this
transport is considerably reduced on Fridays. In places where the service taxi
and/or pick-ups are running between villages you can also try hitch-hiking as
is frequently done by locals too (actually, the locals just stand on side of
the road and the drivers stop for them by themselves, but it would probably not
work for a foreigner, as "Westerners" are expected to be too rich to need a
ride) - you are expected to pay for this ride at least the same price as paid
for the pick-up.
6. In the cities you will need to use taxis. There are a lot of them around and
they are quite cheap but - as it is typical in "developing countries" - they do
not use a meter and so you need to negotiate the price in advance. The asking
price is several times the "real" one so it always helps to find out what is
the "proper" price - check out your guidebook, look around on the internet,
and/or ask in your hotel to get an idea. At Sinai expect much higher prices
than in the rest of Egypt but the cars used there are also in much better shape
- half of taxis in Cairo are indeed pieces of pathetic junk. In some places the
taxis are rarely marked by any sign (Dahab), but otherwise they use some common
two-colour pattern (in fact, there are even several kinds of taxis in the
biggest cities but it would complicate things too much - just use the small
passenger cars which are the cheapest). In some places you can encounter some
special kinds of taxi, like donkey carts (Siwa), horse carts (Luxor), or
three-wheel "tuk-tuk" vehicles otherwise known esp. from Asia (Wadi Natrun
City). In some smaller places there are no private taxi cars available (Western
Desert oases) and you need to hire a whole "service taxi" or "pick-up" - they
call it "taxi especial" in Egypt - naturally, this is not really cheap. The
taxi drivers always look actively for clients so you will hear them shouting on
you or blowing their horns but - contrary to what you can read in many trip
reports - they are not overly persistent; just use the local customary way of
refusing a ride, which is just few quick twists of hand at wrist, and they will
stop bothering you. Still, there are some not so typical things about taxis in
Egypt too - after stopping the driver always asks first about your destination
and many times simply drives away when hearing it - they do it to locals too
(this is quite strange for me and I have never encountered it in any other
place in the world); another and much more unpleasant thing is that Egyptian
taxi drivers have no problem to pick you up without knowing your destination
(or understanding what you are saying or both) and drop you just anywhere near
("Inshallah" - and it happened to me even with the Turgoman main bus
terminal in Cairo ??!!!) - well, this is annoying indeed and you need to be on
guard (during my travels I was always thinking that this could be a problem in
an unknown town but I had to go to Egypt to see it happen).
7. Sometimes I also hired a car/taxi for a longer, even a day-long trip and
this was usually quite an ordeal (but there have been exceptions too). It seems
to me that Egyptian honor code is quite alien to our perception of it - many
Egyptians understand a deal as something to stick to as long as they think it
is advantageous for them and to drop whenever they do not like it so much any
more; yet, of course they are very hurt and angry when you say that they are
not delivering as agreed and esp. when you try to give them less money for less
work. The longer time beyond the negotiation moment the more likely they get
their second thoughts - so when you need to make an agreement for the next day
morning you are in a rather difficult situation: if you succeed to negotiate a
good deal the guy is not likely to show up or seems not to remember well what
the deal was. Also, one of the few things they learned quite well is that
highly assertive behaviour we all know from our civil servants or other people
holding any kind of monopoly: if you do not like their ideas you quickly get
that happy "if-you-do-not-like-it- you-do-not-need-to-take-it" talk and you are
facing the choice of either to take a new, highly depleted deal, or risk to
lose lots of time with uncertain prognosis. I do not know what to advise here,
the only way to be safe would be to strike a deal heavily biased towards the
car driver/owner from start - yet, I personally really hate to make a bad behaviour
a winning strategy. Besides, sometimes there are exceptions (esp. in places
where there is stronger competition) and everything goes smoothly and as
agreed. So I would say: negotiate a good deal but not too good, keep your
fingers crossed, and be ready for struggle and concessions (good luck).
Accommodation: We used budget hotels typically
with rooms up to about US$10 (with the exception of Sinai where, if lucky, you
would get just about a dorm for this money). In general, the prices for the
rooms are very diverse depending on the place, competition, season, and your
luck and negotiation skills - for the money mentioned you can sometimes get a
quite large air-conditioned room and/or a room with your own bathroom included,
or otherwise just a small bare cubicle with some beds only. The price depends
on occupancy, so a room is cheaper as single than as double - while being it
the same room (I did not see any single-bed rooms at all and quite often paid
the single-room price for a room with three or even more beds). If the bathroom
is attached to the room, it normally consists in a toilet bowl (never seen a
squat toilet) and a shower (and rarely also a bath tube) in single separate
room; the shared bathroom is either the same combination or the water closet
and shower are in separated cabins. As it is typical in the "developing
countries", you are often requested not to put toilet paper into the toilet due
to possible plumbing problems - yet, a separate garbage can is rarely provided
and you are requested to throw the used paper into the normal trash can; often
an outfit for using the Asian/African water-cleaning method is provided but not
always. Hot water shower is (surprisingly for me) almost always available even
in very hot places and not too good looking hotels - typically they use a small
boiler and I have never really had a problem with hot water not being
available. A fan is usually provided and it is quite important during the days
(a place for a siesta in early afternoon is really needed) and in the evenings
but it is not really necessary at nights in the time of year of my visit
(October/November), possibly with exception of Luxor any time, and Cairo in
October (in the oases there is nice cool at night). The single most important
thing for your sleep (and survival at your room even during the day) is to do
something about mosquitoes which are very plentiful just about anywhere in
Egypt, esp. in the oases, and including the Sinai coast (the only place without
mosquitoes was surprisingly Luxor). There is no way you could survive just on a
repellent lotion - it is good just for a short time when going about your
dinner; at your sleep you would get seriously eaten up. An electric insecticide
vaporizer is an option here but I personally prefer a mosquito net - yet, I
have never seen a net in any hotel in Egypt and always used my own (it is not
always easy to attach the net somewhere - I have made two additional ears to my
net allowing to make a tent-like structure out of it and hang it down from a
low-lying rope which can usually be attached to some suitable points like
picture hooks or door/window hinges). Always ask about breakfast - sometimes it
is included even in places where you would not expect it (breakfast typically
means a small tea pot, an omelet, a sausage, two or three slices of bread, some
fruit, butter, honey, and/or jam); frequently there is a chance to get a
discount for the room price when not taking the breakfast. I have found it
quite difficult to find an available budget room in Alexandria and esp. Cairo;
for Dahab and Sharm I rather booked the rooms for us ahead.
Food: Egyptian food seems to be rather good and
tasty but it is difficult to get in some places (esp. oases) - it is said that
the best food in Egypt is prepared at home and it is rather uncommon for the
Egyptians to eat out. Vegetarian food is an important part of Egyptian cuisine
but you do not have much choice on the street (I am not a vegetarian but when
in tropical areas prefer to resort to vegetarian food to avoid problems). The
Egyptian staple food, typically eaten every day by not-so-well locals eating
out, esp. "fellahs" (farmers) - is fully vegetarian and consists in "fuul"
(boiled fava beans in thick spicy tomato sauce; not too much to my taste) or "falafel"
(fried balls or patties made from spiced mashed fava beans and chickpeas; quite
tasty; 10 pcs for 1EP), flatbread (typically made of leavened wheat flour; not
bad; 20 pcs for 1EP), and sometimes an addition of some fried vegetables like
eggplant or potato; all this is dead cheap and can be bought in street stalls
everywhere in poorer neighborhoods - it is either made into sandwiches or put
separately to plastic sachets. Another cheap vegetarian food is "koshary"
(cooked brown lentils, rice, and macaroni put together in spicy tomato sauce)
which I have found really delicious but not been able to find it in the street
stalls anywhere out of Cairo. All this food is typically sold not really fresh
- it is prepared in advance and sold till it run out - so, prefer buy it at
places frequented with locals to have chance to get it reasonably fresh ("Inshallah").
In bigger but not too touristy places there are so called "restaurants" but
they cannot present any menu (always saying they have it in their head) but
they do not really need one as their only offer is chicken and rice, looking
not especially tempting (I have never dared to try it), and so called "vegetable" which is some green leaves reminding spinach and sometimes potato
chips. In touristy places some cheap restaurants are readily available - and
locals happily eat there too - usually they have menu in English and the food
there is rather good and tasty. It happened to me once in Cairo (but in not any
specially looking small restaurant) that some 10% "service fee" was added to the
food, so be careful to avoid surprises (but the information about it was well
hidden, written in fine letters and in Arabic only on their English menu - one
more thing they may have learned form us). When buying some basic supplies
(like bottled water) in shops, shop around esp. if staying longer in the same
place - the prices may differ substantially.
Money: We used a debit card in ATMs with no problem
at all (MasterCard). There were several banks with ATMs - we used HSBC Middle
East Bank that had ATMs accepting both MasterCard and VISA cards with a
withdrawal limit up to 2400EP. When arriving to the Cairo Airport "old"
terminal 1, beware that the only ATM in the arrival hall is in the
baggage-claim area before the passport control, behind the control there is no
ATM and you need to go to the Departure Hall 2 (HSBC). When changing your
remaining money back you can use banks as well as Forex - none of them is
charging any commission. Beware, that when using your debit/credit card for
making direct payments a 3% surcharge is added to the price.
Timing: The timing of our trip was predetermined by the
need to wait for the end of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr holidays (I cannot believe
it is really pleasant and safe to travel in time when everybody is nervous
because of not eating during the day and not sleeping at night) but it has
shown to be a rather good choice. The seawater was still pleasantly warm at the
Gulf of Aqaba and it was not so hot in the south and in the oases. The
temperature was clearly going down through November - while it was still quite
hot in Cairo on November 3, it was rather pleasantly there around November 17.
Besides, coming to Dahab just after Ramadan turned out to be a very good timing
too, as there was very few people there, esp. in the beginning of our week-long
stay.
Safety and pestering: I have found Egypt very safe and
reasonably friendly. Both petty and violent crime is virtually non-existent in
Egypt as the Muslim ethical codex is very strict in this respect and it is
normally - "Al Hamdulillah" (Praise be to God) - applied even to
foreigners. The people are generally rather friendly or at least disinterested
and I never felt really threatened or resented. As for usual hassling -
described as terrible in many trip reports - I have not found it much worse
than anywhere in the world regarding shop-keepers or taxi drivers. Of course,
the Egyptian omnipresent "baksheesh" culture - meaning constant begging
for money while more or less cleverly pretending that there is some service
done for you (but sometimes even without it) - is a different story and indeed
a very annoying nuisance; I have not encountered any nearly that bad level of
it anywhere in the world (maybe in Morocco but I am not sure as I was there
with a travel agency and so were sheltered by hired local guides). I do
understand that this culture is an offspring of one of the pillars of Islam,
the requirement of giving "Zakat" (support of the needy), but I do think
this principle has been meant, as in other religions, to be a direction for the
giver how to become more understanding and less greedy, and not to be an
encouragement for the receiver to expect and even demand gifts as a way of
living. In general, nobody is bound to give any money for small common helps
(like telling the directions), non-asked services, or even nothing at all;
unfortunately even children are often engaged in this practice since their
early age - in any case, I strongly believe you should never give money for
nothing as your momentary money solve nothing for the poor and it makes them
believe that begging is a way how to live instead of finding some sustainable
way (South Asian countries are an example that there is a self-sustaining way
out for even the poorest parts of the world). Locals are also asked for "baksheesh"
frequently and they seem to have no difficulty with ignoring the request or
even directly refusing to oblige. And by the way, this culture has
unfortunately even worse implications as you are likely to meet people in Egypt
who understand their job position as a valid source of their income (it is
called "corruption" everywhere else) - e.g., almost all guards at Luxor ancient
sites seem to believe that the only reason for them being there is to let
people do for money the things which they are precisely supposed to prevent
from happening (like taking pictures with a flash in tombs, entering closed
places, etc.). Of course, if you really get some help it is absolutely right to
reward it as anywhere - common sense will tell you when to pay, just do not
feel obliged to throw money around you for nothing. The basic phrase for
refusing unwanted offers or requests for "baksheesh" is "la shukran"
meaning "no, thanks"; if it does not work drop the "shukran" and say
only "la" in a more strict manner and more loudly - usually this is
enough. In the cases you are not left alone, use the word "khalas"
(enough) said in a very strict manner - very often it works as a spell and
persistent tout or children asking for money (or a pen, the world famous
substitute for money, which has of course nothing to do with school) just
disappear. If still not successful you are facing rather insistent case and you
can expect some problems - first try the rather rude "jalla emshi" ("go
away" is the most decent meaning) and next the ultimate threat "bolis"
(police) - locals, esp. adult, rather take heed of police which, I have been
told, is quick to use corporal punishments (I used this word just about once
against a would-be guide at Balat in Dakhla and it did help). In general, do
not hesitate to call the police, esp. Tourist Police, for help - they are
generally always on your side and likely to get you rid of the pest.
Nevertheless, I experienced one more case of needing to resort to this threat
and that time I got a logical response from a bunch of children asking for
money at Qalamun in Dakhla - they replied "where?" as there was indeed no
policeman present anywhere near. The only thing you can do next in such case is
just to try to ignore the pests but you are not likely to enjoy himself further
on anyway - those kids mentioned started throwing stones next but they have
been at least still rather irresolute in it and responded by a flight when I
pretended to be picking up some stones too - well, they would not likely turn
to stoning with any adults around (as Egyptians do understand well that they
need tourist money) but I am not sure what will happen when these guys grew out
(better visit Egypt now, I guess ...).
General impression: To put it point-blank, Egypt is rather difficult country and sometimes one gets enough of the struggle. Still, the nature there is very nice and special and there is, of course, a lot of ancient sites to admire. It may appear easier to travel with a group or at least with a guide, who are likely to save you from many problems (whilst creating some other) but that way you are just sheltering yourself from the real Egyptian life, that is indeed interesting and rich. And as always, rather hidden behind that coat of pestering crowd there is a world of normal, hard working Egyptians who are honestly friendly and even interested in meeting rather different human being. So do not hide in that tourist cocoon and go meet real life. It may be hard sometimes but that is the very reason for travelling - to meet new, unexpected, different ...
Note for possible Egyptian readers: I am aware that you may found some of my observations not too pleasant
for you or may even feel offended. I am really sorry but this is just how I
see it. Still, I am not trying to master you here - in your own country you
definitely has every right to go about your life as you like. This information
is aimed at my fellow travellers and meant just to prepare them for some rather
atypical things to be encountered in Egypt and to give them some hints how to
go about it.
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Dahab
We have spent seven days in Dahab and had a very good time - besides
enjoying the sea we have visited the Sinai interior from there: some desert
canyons and oases, St. Katherine monastery, and Mt. Sinai (Jebel Musa).
Dahab village: Dahab is an original Bedouin
settlement (but there is nothing left to be seen of it) turned into a little tourist
town. It consists of one short main street and a seaside footpath lined with a
string of restaurants, hotels, and even small resorts but everything is still
moderately sized (well, mostly) and general atmosphere there is friendly and
relaxed (when walking along the footpath you do get approached by restaurant
touts but even them are more friendly and even sportful than persistent). Dahab
is still far from being a tourist-resorts area like Sharm el-Sheikh but you can
already clearly see it coming - south of the main part there is a separated
area called "Lagoon" with several large self-contained hotel complexes where
people can spent their holiday well sheltered from Egyptian reality, and you
can also see starts of new developments of this kind all around the main Dahab;
better come soon before the current pleasant atmosphere all disappears. Note: I
was using the LP Egypt Guide 2006 and found its Dahab map dead wrong - it is
showing some center with banks and so somewhat away from the main Dahab, but it
is simply not there.
Dahab sea and marine-life tips: There is a
wall reef all along the coast all around Dahab just next the shore, corals
there are alive, colourful and fine and attract a lot of nice and unafraid
fish. The reef forms a narrow flat shallow strip almost everywhere along the
coast, starting right from the shore with long-time dead corals and ending with
sloping drop to depths (very deep in some parts) - the reef wall is all covered
with alive corals of all kinds and some sporadic corals also appear on the
seaside of the flat reef top. So, it is possible to snorkel or dive there right
off the coast without needing a boat, but the reef layout together with quite
common surf makes it rather difficult to enter the sea without damaging the
corals and hurting oneself - you need to find one of the rare places where
there is either natural or more often man-made entry, typically one of the
places used by divers. Seawater temperature was quite pleasant in the end of
October and there was no problem to swim for over an hour without getting cold
through. The tide difference is not too big in the Gulf of Aqaba (up to a meter
at full/new moon).
1. Swimming: Dahab is not really place for swimmers, entry to the sea is
usually difficult and there is hardly any beach there - one exception is the
Mashraba dive site entry where there is something like a small, stony and
rather dirty beach. There would by a very good place for swimming in the
sheltered Lagoon area but it is now all taken by completely careless
windsurfers from adjacent resorts - thus, if there is any wind swimming there
is very dangerous.
2. Snorkelling: In and around Dahab you can snorkel just about anywhere from
the shore providing you can find a way to enter the sea safely - the best
entering places are those used by divers. There is lots of all kinds of reef
fish to be seen there, esp. abundant is otherwise rare lion fish. Two sites
good for snorkelling in Dahab itself are the Lighthouse and Mashraba and there
are some more in walking distance; also, in front of some dive centers in Dahab
there is some sort of entry path established over the reef top. You can also
easily hire a taxi to take you to the sites north or south of Dahab or join a
snorkelling trip there organized by many hotels and/or dive centers. We have
found the Mashraba site right in the middle of Dahab very good for snorkelling
- there is lots of fish there (we have even spotted a turtle there one morning)
and also esp. good entry to the see via a little beach; the Lighthouse is also
good. Snorkelling in the morning is very good in general as the reef wall is
well lit by rising sun and you can spot some less common marine creatures. When
there is windy the surf may become quite strong making entering the sea very
difficult at many sites - in such case head either to the Mashraba, or better
by taxi to the southern sites (Golden Blocks, Moray House, Three Pools) which
are somewhat sheltered (a 5EP entrance fee has to be paid when going to the
southern sites); the sites in the Lagoon are out now. Average visibility in the sea is above 20 meters and it is does not seem to be much affected by windy or stormy weather.
3. Diving: In general, diving in Dahab is very good and quite cheap and I can
recommend it without any hesitation. There is an incredible number of diving
centers there - the prices for diving are generally quite moderate but there
are differences; typically they prefer divers buying several-dive packages and
offer a good discount for it. As I am no passionate diver myself I was looking
for a dive center offering good prices for individual dives - after thorough
search and discussion of things via the internet I picked up the Divers House
(divershouse.com) which offered the best prices: EUR18 per dive and EUR25 for
the check dive and for a night dive; the prices included equipment rental and
transport to the dive sites (and it was also important to me that they always
took along for free my non-diving wife to enjoy snorkelling); you can generally
discuss your preferences regarding the dive sites, but the exact site to go is
(understandably) always decided by the divemaster according to the particular
weather situation. I did six dives with them - they were rather efficient,
their divemaster and equipment were quite good (well, the flash light I got
rented for the night dive was very weak). The check dive is requested from the
divers not diving during last six months - it is just an ordinary dive starting
with just several under-water exercises like picking up the lost regulator and
taking off you mask; it is generally required at all Sinai dive centers and it
is supposed to be the general PADI requirement but I have never been asked to
go through it before in other places of the world. The dives were quite good -
the corals in Dahab are in a rather good shape and you can see all kinds of
corals there (including some soft ones) and usual variety of reef fish and some
scarcer fish too (seen crocodile fish, stone fish, big moray, barracudas). I
have done my first night dive there but I have found it rather not worth it
(not sure if it was typical night dive yet) - I was quite surprised that there
was hardly any fish around and we were looking esp. for "macro stuff". Note:
Beware that the Napoleon Reef and Lagoon dive sites are not dived any more as
the area has been taken over by windsurfers.
Sinai desert tour: We went for a whole-day tour to
the Sinai desert interior using the services of Dahab travel agencies. The tour
used a jeep for transport and consisted in a drive north of Dahab, walk through
the Coloured Canyon, ride along the Ghazala Valley to the Ain Hudra oasis, walk
through the White Canyon, and drive back to Dahab - it was the most popular so
called "jeep safari" offered in Dahab by many hotels and travel agencies which
pooled their clients together to rented jeeps accompanied by a guide; the usual
cost was 150EP per person, we got it for the discounted price of 135EP in our
hotel (Penguin Village). The trip was very interesting and allowed to get a
good idea what the Sinai desert was about. Both canyons were quite nice and
walks was not too difficult, strenuous, or hot (yet, beware that the Coloured
Canyon is not so colourful in reality as it is on pictures, the colours seem to
be rather pale for the eyesight - being there I thought all the available
pictures had been somehow manipulated but we got exactly same colourful
pictures themselves from there; also beware that the White Canyon is more grey
than really white); the Ain Hudra was a very nice exemplary little oasis in the
middle of desert (just few date palms, several houses, some camels and goats,
and a nice pool). The tour organization was OK (still, our guide wasted a lot
of time talking to some friends so long at the beginning that we had to rush it
in the end and got out of the White Canyon some 10 minutes before night dark)
and definitely worth its cost. Note: Originally, I was trying to organize a
private tour for us, taking in the White Canyon and Ain Hudra and ending in the
village of St. Katherine, but
it would cost a fortune and I just gave up. Also, the Rough Guides Egypt Guide
gives a mention of a village of Sheikh Hamid (and even its position on included
chart map) on the road to St. Katherine just in the place where the dirt road
leading to the White Canyon entrance forks from it, and I was considering to find
accommodation there and get a transport from there to the White Canyon - but I
could not get any further information about this village and when we were
actually passing this road we found out that there was no real village there
(there was just some fenced settlement looking very much as an army camp).
Sinai mountains tour: We went for a whole-day trip to
the Sinai mountains consisting of a short visit of the St. Katherine monastery
and a half-day trek to the top of Mt. Sinai (also called Mt. Moses or "Jebel
Musa", 2285 m asl). The trip was a very lucky result of a tour which did
not work out for the tour agency and turned to private trip for us. In general,
the tour to the St. Katherine monastery and Mt. Sinai was another very popular
tour offered in Dahab by many hotels and travel agencies which pooled their
clients together to rented microbuses (maybe with a guide too but I would not
know) - there were two options: (i) the "night trip" consisting in a late night
drive to St. Katherine, night climb of the mountain, watching sunrise, descent,
visit of the monastery, and return back to Dahab around midday (60EP per
person, immensely popular option easy to find - yet, we hate night climbing
with no views and even more mass climbing, so it was out for us), and (ii) the "day trip" consisting in a morning drive to St. Katherine, morning visit of the
monastery, afternoon climb of the mountain, watching sunset, night descent, and
night return back to Dahab (100EP per person, much less popular option -
difficult to get as there has to be at least four persons signed in for it).
Besides, the whole area around St. Katherine lies within the St. Katherine
Protectorate with admission fee of US$3 per person (really payable in US$). We
signed for this tour with the Sphinx Safari (based
in the New Sphinx Hotel) for a discounted price of 90EP per person but we were
very lucky as all the other persons in our group cancelled and the
aforementioned travel agency turned out to be very exceptionally honest; it did
not try to dump the problem on our heads but simply kept its commitment by
renting a private air-conditioned car to drive us there and back for the given
price. Thus we have got an ideal possibility to organize the trip very cheap
(other obvious option would be to hire a more expensive taxi for a day) in our
own pace and enjoyed it very much. There were two different paths leading to
the top of Mt. Sinai: the main easy path used also by camels, and the shorter
but strenuous stairway forking south from the main path just next the southeast
wall of the monastery (beware of an incorrect description given in the
publication "Mount Sinai - A Walking Trail Guide" and else, that put the fork
further east along the main path somewhat away from the monastery). We started
up the main path at about 2pm and had the mountain almost for ourselves all the
way up (even the kiosks along the path normally selling overpriced drinks were
closed); the hike was quite pleasant due to a breeze, not hot at all; it took
us some three hours of easy walk to get up (the last 500 meters was a craggy
staircase). From the top, there is a nice view of the surrounding barren
mountains; yet, the sunset itself is not esp. scenic as the mountain range
westward from Mt. Sinai is higher than the one eastward and so there are no
effects of changing colours around - just watching the sun hiding behind the
range. After sunset head down the staircase till you have some light (lasting
some half an hour after sunset), the rest of main path is fine and easy to walk
even at night (still, if there is not enough of moonlight, do not forget a
flashlight). There is a legend spreading about the guides being obligatory even
for the Mt. Sinai climb but it has proved to be complete nonsense (another
Egyptian scam) - we have been never asked about it and the policemen at the
check point did not care; just some local hopefuls have offered their services
but had not been persistent at all. My clear recommendation is not to take any
guide as he would be nothing but nuisance there - you for sure do not need one
on that wide path even when being completely alone, just say no and walk on.
Note: Originally, I planned to spend a night at St. Katherine village and climb
Mt. Katherine ("Jebel Katrina", 2642 m asl, the highest mountain of
Sinai lying few kilometers southwest of Mt. Sinai) but it proved to be too
difficult and costly and I gave up. Fist of all, as a guide was supposed to be
obligatory for any trips around St. Katherine I contacted local "expert", Mr.
Sheik Mousa, known to have a monopoly for guiding (in fact I read later that
Mr. Farag of the Fox Camp was now allowed to provide these services too) and he
asked the price of 180EP per person for a single guide - incredibly outrageous
price for that well established path on Mt. Katherine where no guide was
clearly needed (well, no surprise when he had that near monopoly); I guess, in
St. Katherine village you may get a better price but all this setup looked
rather ill-favoured to me and I generally hated rewarding people for bad behaviour.
You may manage to avoid taking that overpriced and needless guide but beware it
is technically illegal and the locals would have no reason to let you do it.
Second, it appeared not so easy to get to St. Katherine village from Dahab or
Sharm: there should be a bus every day going there and back but I were told
that it was very un-dependable and might fail to go several days in a row; even
trying to get a ride with tours going there from Dahab and Sharm every day
might be tricky - I were told that normally the tour microbuses went just when
fully booked and you might find free seat just when somebody decided to stay at
St. Katherine village which was rather rare. Anyway, when it proved to exist so
easy way to avoid crowds on Mt. Sinai I would say it makes no sense to go
through so much struggle.
The St. Katherine monastery (open daily 9:30-11:45am except Fridays, Sundays,
and Greek Orthodox holidays; free admission) consists in quite small walled
construction rather nicely set in a deep desert valley. Majority of the
monastery is closed to the visitors and you are just allowed to enter - via a
small adjacent yard - the nice and interesting basilica of St. Catherine. You
do not need much time to see the accessible parts - about an hour is enough. We
have been there on Saturday and the monastery was packed full with visitors
making it difficult to really feel spirituality of the place.
Transport:
1. To get to Dahab from Cairo, we first flew to Sharm al-Sheikh and then got a
taxi. The Egypt Air flight (their first of the day at 5am) cost 340EP for both
of us, took one hour, was on time and uneventful. From the Sharm airport you
should be always able to find a taxi but you would have hard work to get a good
deal with price up to about 200EP per car. Therefore, we preferred to settle for an airport
pick-up deal offered by our hotel (Penguin Village) that sent a car for us for
EUR25 (about 200EP) and saved us from that ordeal after a night travel with no
sleep (the price given was charged for the whole car and the car sent for us
was a small microbus - so if you would be able to find any other travellers
heading for Dahab you would get a ride real cheap).
2. To get to snorkelling sites around Dahab you need to take a taxi (when
diving transport is included in the cost) - often, the taxis are not marked in
Dahab and you just hang around till you get an offer (it happens very soon,
normally). In general, the prices are not really cheap and more or less set -
ask for the price at your hotel and do not expect to get any better price (we
got a better price agreed once and then it turned out that the car was no taxi;
the driver was just an out-of-towner trying to make money (??!), who later
asked locals about the "right" price and insisted to get more, involving
police, etc. - not worth it..).
Accommodation: Penguin Village Hotel
(penguindahab.com), double room with bathroom attached and breakfasts for EUR10
per night (the one called "Camp Style Ensuite" at their website); the room
booked ahead via internet together with the airport pick-up. This hotel was
heavily recommended and we also had no complaints to rise - the booking were
carried out as agreed, the room and whole hotel including its restaurant was
OK, and the staff was friendly and efficient (and always ready to organize
anything asked for). The hotel looked full so booking ahead was probably a good
idea - the booking was free. Note: In general, the south part of Dahab is more
quiet and good for sleep while majority of restaurants with possibly noisy
discos is in the north part.
Food:
1. There are a lot of rather expensive restaurants along the seaside footpath,
when walking there you will be approached by not overly persistent touts who
may offer a discount; sometimes there may also be some promo actions like two
meals for price of one. The only rather cheap restaurant on the footpath is the
Chinese restaurant north of the "bridge" which offers rather good vegetarian
meal - beware that the food is not really Chinese and you need a lot of
patience when waiting for your food to arrive. The cheap restaurants are on
main El Mashraba street - we have been satisfied, both by menu and quality, at
the esp. cheap Gado Restaurant (right opp. to the Penguin Village) and King
Chicken Bedouin Restaurant (opp. the Nesima Resort) where I enjoyed one of the
few my meat meals ("kofta" - fried patties of nicely spiced minced
meat).
2. As for buying supplies we were getting the best prices from a cheerful owner
of the small shop next the King Chicken Bedouin Restaurant.
Sharm el-Sheikh
I have spent about two days there in the area (my wife left for her
planned return home via Cairo just after half a day stay) and had a very good
time enjoying the sea in the Sharks Bay and Ras Mohammed N.P. In general, the
entire coast in the area is packed tight with rampant resorts for holiday
package stays - very terrifying sight for me. Yet, there is also a wall reef
all along the coast bustling with marine life making a short stay there very
tolerable.
Sharks Bay sea and marine-life tips: Similarly
to Dahab, the reef in the Sharks Bay forms a very narrow flat shallow strip
everywhere along the coast, starting right from the shore with long-time dead
corals and ending with sloping drop to sandy bottom some 6 meters below. It is
possible to snorkel there right off the coast and the entry to the sea is very
easy as many resorts have a jetty allowing easy crossing of the wall top and
using a ladder to enter and leave the sea. It is always quite a few people
around you when swimming or snorkelling in the Bay but considering the crowds
the reef in the Bay is in a surprisingly good shape, the corals are alive and
nice and there is even more species of fish than in Dahab area and they are
even less afraid of swimmers. The seawater temperature is even little higher
than in Dahab.
1. Swimming: With its easy access to sea, the Sharks Bay is quite a good place
for swimmers. All the resorts have some kind of sandy beach with sunbeds
provided and all kind of facilities available.
2. Snorkelling: You can snorkel anywhere along the coast in the Bay. In general
there is little more people in water at left half of the Bay but the fish is
fed there and so it is abundant (seen big Napoleon wrasse there); in right half
of the Bay there is less people and you can see there some scarcer kinds of
fish (seen tiger ray, eagle ray, and big moray) - access there is, e.g., via a
small beach just south the pier for boats to Tiran Island. Average visibility
is above 20 meters.
3. Diving: I have not been diving there but there is again a lot of diving
centers everywhere in the area offering boat diving trips all around, e.g. to
the world class Ras Mohammed N.P. and Tiran Straight. In general, diving in
Sharm el-Sheikh area is considerably more expensive than in Dahab, partly
because of necessity to use boats - yet even diving trips to the Ras Mohammed
N.P. are cheaper, when bought in Dahab.
Ras Mohammed N.P. trip: The Ras Mohammed National Park is
allegedly one of the best diving and snorkelling spots in the world and I have
no reason to dispute this statement. I went there for a whole-day snorkelling
trip using a rented taxi and it was indeed one of the best snorkelling I have
ever done. The Park is constituted by a long narrow peninsula and in particular
by a huge endless wall reef all around it. Especially corals there were just
incredible - they came in all kinds, colours and sizes; there was of course
also a lot of fish but for my uneducated eyes there were no species not seen
before, the fish was just bigger in size (saw several real big Napoleon wrasses
there). Average visibility there is well above 20 meters.
1. Snorkelling tips: The coast in the Park is rather rugged and the surf is
considerable and so an access to the sea is not that easy - there is just a few
beaches where you can enter the sea relatively easily without any danger to
damage the corals or hurt yourself. There are four main beaches in the Park -
namely the Main Beach, Aqaba Beaches, Yolanda Beach, and Quay Beach - and all
of them are well worth visiting. The southeast Main Beach borders rather deep
and wide bay - the long shallow swim out of it ends abruptly with an immense
vertical wall going straight into the blue depth (the depths there is supposed
to be nearly 800 meters - gulp!!) - when swimming over the reef edge you may
need to fight off the fear of falling right down to unseen bottom; when the
tide is low it may become difficult to get over the reef top so get the tide
table and plan your visit there for the high tide. Also, the Main Beach is the
most popular with tours and swimmers and so you may like to go there early
morning to enjoy this incredible place alone. The east Aqaba Beaches is a
string of narrow beaches bordering very narrow reef top covered with sharp
sporadic corals and ending with another vertical bottomless wall; the surf on
this site is rather big and so crossing those few meters of the reef top may
not be so easy. The south Yolanda Beach is next the Main Beach and borders a
narrow inlet filled in with a flat reef top which is too shallow to swim over
it on low tide - enter through a short path over the narrow reef top on the
east side of the bay to get to another vertical wall. The last but not least
Quay (Suez) Beach clearly differs from the previous ones - it is the only one
bordering the considerably less deep Red Sea (all the others border the Gulf of
Aqaba) and you may also see there slightly different species of fish and
corals; the beach is not so nice and therefore very quiet and the entry to the
sea there is easy disregarding the tide. It is said that there may be strong
currents around southeast tip of the peninsula so exercise caution when
swimming there - but I have not encountered any currents myself.
2. Logistic tips: The Park is supposed to be open from dawn to sunset, the
entrance fee is US$5 per person (really payable in US$). To visit, you can join
a boat or bus tour organized by many hotels and travel agencies in Sharm for
some 150EP, resp. 200EP per person (including the entrance fee and lunch) but I
would recommend it just to people not so passionate and determined about
snorkelling as myself - I have seen the tour clients to be herded around by their
guides on their overly short visits and quickly lead back to the shore for
another meal, or quickly recalled by their boat horn to come back home. Instead
I strongly recommend you to hire a taxi for whole day and enjoy the Park in
your own pace - I hired an ordinary taxi at Sharks Bay for 250EP and I
considered it worth every pound spent. In fact, you should be able to get it
cheaper (allegedly as low as for 100EP), but it was quite a struggle for me to
get even what I managed - it was once again that Egyptian wall of reluctance
and lies. At first I discussed the matter with the pick-up driver who brought
us to Sharks Bay from the bus station and took his very reasonable asking price
150EP without any haggling (the deal included early morning trip to the Sharm
airport and whole day in the park) but he had never showed up for the
appointment (as I understood later, he was probably running an unofficial taxi
which was technically illegal at Sinai and he probably got his second
thoughts); so, we were stuck in the early morning dark without any transport
but managed to get my wife to the airport in time. Next I tried to get an
ordinary taxi for the day on the main road next the airport and got one with a
driver asking 200EP but it turned out later that he probably did not understand
my English and thought it would be just for a one-way trip to the Park - after
having things explained by other taxi drivers somewhere where he brought me to
found out what was going on (by the way, a typical thing often done by non-English
speaking taxi drivers) he was asking 400EP which I refused and so was taken
back to Sharks Bay for 30EP. After getting organized again I went for another
try and this time got - after some haggling - that final deal of 250EP at
Sharks Bay at about 7am (I had read before that you could get a better deal by
getting a taxi to the Sharm "Old Market" (wherever it was) and trying to find a
cheaper taxi there but I figured that the two rides would add up anyway to
about the same price and I was really regretting the time passing by). Anyway,
this driver knew better what he was doing and drove me to the Park and around
it without many problems. Yet, it was not so easy altogether: first, in the
morning the driver was maintaining that the Park was opening as late as 9am but
after my insistence he went there right away - when we got to the gate it was
open but deserted and the driver was afraid to go in, so he even called
somewhere by his mobile and got there an approval to ride on (so this actually
saved me from paying the Park entrance fee for myself and for the car - it
would be US$10 altogether); second, in the Park the driver started with another
one, this time maintaining that we were supposed to leave the Park by 3pm - yet
this was probably just a hoax because when I got out of water after my last
swim at about 3:30pm he was talking to some policemen and when he started again
saying that we had a problem now I eimply asked those policemen and they
clearly saw none problem at all, next the driver said there would be a problem
at the Park gate but when we drove through it some time after 4pm the policemen
there did not take a notice of us; so, all these talkings were either just a
try to make his pre-paid day shorter or possibly the result of my - rather
typical - breaking of an unused path (obviously, the tours did not spend so
much time in the Park). In any case, if you are any serious about snorkelling
(and the Park is very much worth any effort) definitely hire your own
transport, go early in, and enjoy it as long you manage to float.
Transport:
1. It was fairly easy to get to Sharm from Dahab as there were many buses
serving this route during the day; the taxi in Dahab from its main part to the
bus station (built in the middle of nowhere somewhat away) was 10EP.
2. To get around Sharm you need to take a taxi. Yet, the taxi drivers there are
really spoiled by rich package tourists and so even the basic prices are rather
high and on top of it, it is next to impossible to get them for travellers just
passing through (the drivers seem to be skilled psychologists who can clearly
see who you are). The taxi prices for local experts can be found at this very useful page of the user "mr.small" at the Virtual Tourist site -
yet, I have not found it possible to haggle down to those prices within my
lifetime. For comparison: the taxi from Sharks Bay to the airport should be
about 20EP according to "mr.small" - on my first ride I just handed this amount
to the driver and he become genuinely hurt and I just pacified him with another
5EP and walked away, on my second try I haggled for the price before the ride
and got it down just to 30EP (while promising to get out on the main road in
front of the airport thus saving the driver from paying 5EP entrance fee to the
airport premises - it was about 100m walk from there); the price for the Ras
Mohammed trip should be up to 100EP according "mr.small". Good luck...
3. Otherwise, there should be cheap "pick ups" running along "Peace Road", the
main coastal artery of Sharm, but this road is quite far away from the Sharks
Bay.
Accommodation: Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village
(sharksbay.com), bamboo hut with shared bathroom and very good
breakfasts for EUR15/12 per double/single per night (the one called "View Hut"
at their website); the room booked ahead via internet. According to my research
this accommodation should be the cheapest one (!!!) in the Sharm area and I
chose it also because of its proximity to the airport and good reputation of
Sharks Bay for snorkelling (proved true). The hut was OK, hot during the day
(there were no fan provided) but OK at night, bathroom was near and OK too; the
hut was sitting on the top of a cliff just above the beach, offering a good
view of Tiran Island and not so nice vicinity (resorts all around); there was
some noise of the planes landing on near airport (very busy day and night) but
it was not so bad to disturb our sleep. The other huts were unoccupied so the
booking ahead was not probably necessary but it was free and I would hate to
stay anywhere else for even more money - for booking they just requested a
debit/credit card number to be able to get compensation in case of booking
cancel but I paid cash for the accommodation. The Village facilities were OK
and included a supermarket, good restaurant, and beach with some sunbeds and a
jetty for easy sea access. Note: When snorkelling "early" in the morning
(everybody is sleeping there till 9am) I got a bad surprise of not founding my
bag left on the beach (with just some basics like towel and so) after coming
back - it turned out later that it was removed by Village security and put to
some storage (I asked them to put information about this practice to their
welcoming informing letter).
Food: There were no other options in Sharks Bay area
but the shops and restaurants of the resorts there. Fortunately, the prices in
the supermarket of the Village were still reasonable and its restaurant was
quite good and not so expensive. The breakfast was served buffet style with
quite a good choice (and you could also get a take-away pack on request a day
before). Besides the usual and not-so-cheap full meals on the Village
restaurant menu it was possible to get very tasty and reasonably cheap "starters", which were quite filling and sufficient to keep us happy.
Alexandria
I have been just about passing there on my way to Siwa and got time just
for two short walks around the Eastern Harbour Corniche. It was busy with cars
day and night and the seawater in the bay was quite dirty - I have not found
the place too attractive.
Transport:
1. I flew Egypt Air to Alexandria (El Nohza airport) from Sharm al-Sheikh for
224EP. The route appeared to be rather downgraded by the airline - when bought
in April it was supposed to depart at 10:25, fly nonstop, and arrive at 11:35 -
but it was rescheduled several times and ended up flying via Hurghada while
departing at 17:40 and arriving at 20:10. The flight was about an hour and half
late on departure (as appeared to be all other flights that evening) and kept
this delay; still, the flight itself was uneventful.
2. To get around Alexandria take a taxi - they are plentiful and quite cheap:
47EP from airport to downtown, 10EP from downtown to Moharrem Bay.
3. When heading from Alexandria to Siwa using the West Delta bus company, the
buses leave from the new bus terminal in Moharrem Bay (i.e. not from their
previous terminal next to the Sidi Gaber train station); they changed the
location in September 2007.
Accommodation: Hotel Union, single room with a
bathroom attached and breakfast for 70EP per night. The place was very
unfriendly and the room (maybe luxurious some 50 years ago) was quite ruined
and total rip off for the price. Yet, it was their last room and - after
arrival there at 11pm after wandering around Alexandria in search for bus station,
and after finding no room available at the Hotel Crillon - I was in no mood for
further search.
Food: I would not know as I just bought some basic
supplies there.
Siwa
I have spent three days there and felt rather cheated. Siwa has been heavily
praised in all the guidebooks and majority of trip reports I have seen but I
have found that quite exaggerated and unjustified. Shali (the main settlement
of Siwa) - and the surrounding villages as well - are made up of rather ugly
breeze-block houses, typically half finished and/or incorporating ruins of old
adobe houses. The old adobe town/fortress in the middle of the contemporary
town of Shali has been totally ruined by rain in 1926 and is now reduced to
nearly a pile of clay, yet elaborately illuminated at night - well, this pile
at least offers a good opportunity of nice view all around this large oasis.
Around Shali town there are some other historical sites too but they are in
pitiful ruins as well and not at all attractive (but I admit I am not too much into
ruins); all of them are again "nicely" illuminated at night, which I indeed found
very synthetic and rather disgusting. There is a lot of large palm gardens all
around Siwa but they are mostly rather neglected and do not provide any special
sight (a reason may be that there is actually so much water available in Siwa
just under the earth surface, that there is no real need to put much effort to
cultivating the gardens to get good harvest). All around Siwa there are many
natural lakes, typically very shallow and salty and looking uncomfortably
insentient. Also around Siwa there are several mountains of that typical desert
flat-top shape - the most accessible of them is Gebel Dakrur some 4km southeast
of Shali. Just a kilometer south of Gebel Dakrur there is a good possibility to
easily reach some rather fine examples of sand dunes of the Great Sand Sea and
bring to life those childhood dreams about the Sahara Desert.
Note: The Great Sand
Sea is the area of the mysterious "erg" (sandy desert), which covers all
the eastern central part of Egypt south of Siwa and east of the other oases
(and continues on to Libya) and is practically impenetrable in the east-west
direction due to its up to 200m-tall dunes running uninterrupted in north-south
direction for hundreds of kilometers - yet, in general the "erg" forms
just a minority of Sahara Desert while its 70% is a "hamada" (rocky desert),
and "serir" or "reg" (stony desert).
Siwa is very often praised for being especially authentic but I have not seen
any reason for this attribute; it has almost nothing which could not be found
in other oases and lacks any atmosphere - the way of life in Siwa is in fact
quite similar to that in Bahariya. The most striking difference and clear advantage
of Siwa is its well developed tourist infrastructure for independent travellers
(full spectrum of hotels, real restaurants, bicycles for rent) which is rather
missing in other oases - yet, it means also that you actually meet much more
tourists in Siwa than in any other oasis. Another typical attribute assigned to
Siwa is its remoteness and this one is indeed justified - yet, this is no
advantage per se but just one more reason for my final conclusion that
currently Siwa is simply not worth the detour. Nevertheless, there is a road
under construction between Siwa and Bahariya (after several postponements now
scheduled for completion in the end of 2008) and it will allow to take Siwa in
as a reasonable part of an uninterrupted tour through the oases even for
independent travellers (Cairo-based desert tours already now often pass through
Siwa and continue to Bahariya via the old desert road). Note: I am aware that my
views of Siwa might be rather controversial but I cannot help it. Indeed, I was
actually asking those few travellers I have met in the oases about their
opinion of Siwa and all of them (both rather) ranked it as the best - but, when
questioned about the reasons the only one they could come up with was its
serenity. So probably I just do not have to go so far off my way to find a
serenity which I see just about everywhere in nature away from civilization.
Transport:
1. There are several direct buses from Alexandria to Siwa operated by the West
Delta bus company (the first bus leaves at 8:30am); the journey costs 27EP and
takes about 10 hours with an hour long interruption in Marsa Matrouh. The
journey is rather boring - the first half goes along the coastal highway (but
too far away from the sea) lined with a lot of newly build but very often
uninhabited residential complexes (strange spectacle indeed), the second half
crosses a flat "serir" with no features to set your eyes on.
2. Bicycles can be rented at several places in Shali and they make very good
means of transport all around Siwa - all of them in quite bad shape. I rented
mine at the bicycle shop next the Palm Trees Hotel for 10EP per day (half-day
rental for 5EP was also available); the bike remained quite bad even after
thorough selection and ordering some improvements, but it was still good enough
for the flat terrain.
3. As my next destination after Siwa was Bahariya, I was trying to find some
fellow travellers to share the cost of direct transport through desert - the
route should have been rather interesting as it passed through all kinds of
desert and several uninhabited oases - unfortunately, I could not find anybody
in the time window suitable for me and so I went via Cairo in the end (see it
described at Bahariya section). In general, the asking price for the transport
through desert was from some 1200 to 1800 EP, depending on size of the car (a
4WD car or at least a pick up was needed for the route), and this price would
be simply splitted between the passengers; the route would take whole day. When
looking for co-passengers go first to the Siwa tourist office and to its
director Mr. Mahdi Hweiti (mahdi_hweiti@yahoo.com), who collects information
about prospective passengers and put them together. As for local safari
companies, I have found the most reasonable (being friendly and looking
capable) the Bedouine House at Sadat St. next the Main Square
(nasersafari@hotmail.com). Also useful may be Mr. Said Hedawy
(saidaghormy@yahoo.com) of the Traditional Handicraft Shop next the East West
Restaurant who can put you together with locals possibly going to Bahariya with
a pick up (this should be cheaper - some 800EP per car - as you sit in the rear
and get good share of sand).
Accommodation: Palm Trees
Hotel at Shali, single room with shared bathroom and without breakfast for 15EP
per night. This hotel is often recommended and I have found it also good - the
staff was friendly and the room was quite good, esp. considering the price; the
hot water availability was rather uncertain but it was no problem in that hot
weather there.
Food:
1. Very good availability of good restaurants is the only clear advantage of
Siwa over other oases. There is quite a few restaurants in Shali, many has a
menu in English with quite promisingly looking offers. I have been so happy
with the East West Restaurant at the Main Square behind the mosque that I never
found reason to try other restaurants.
2. For your trips you can get "falafel" at the food stall just next the East
West Restaurant and bread at the hole-in-the-wall shop at the Azmi Kilani St.
Bahariya
I have spent about a day there and found it rather interesting - from
there I have taken an independent trip through very scenic desert landscape
between Bahariya and Farafra. Bahariya (just as Siwa) is mainly a men's world
where all the shopkeepers (and majority of shoppers too) as well as all the
guests in the restaurants are men; almost all men wear "galabeya" (a
long loose outer garment, looking like a prolonged shirt; it is also worn by
women), exception are those wearing some sort of uniform. The women get around
only accompanied by a related men (even being it a small son clearly under ten
years of age) but they all usually hide at home after dark; they are all
dressed in a black flyaway dress and wear "niqab" (a kind of veil which
completely covers the face but at least leaves an opening for the eyes); they
are allowed to work in the palm gardens but have to keep all the mentioned
dress on all the time, and are driven there and back in donkey carts. There are
remnants of an old but still mainly inhabited adobe village on the south face
of the hill in the middle of the contemporary town of Bawiti (the main
settlement of Bahariya) and you can still find there a few of quite picturesque
adobe corners with winding streets and passages - yet, the old adobe houses are
being quickly replaced with new walled houses set in a right-angled structure
(thus opening the streets to the merciless sun) and it will not take long till
the old buildings are all gone. There is a strong spring just under the top
of the hill, which is an origin for a cluster of little irrigation streams
running down along the north face of the hill and watering palm gardens spread
there, making a rather nice scenery (the plants grown also include olive and
apricot trees). You need just an evening and/or morning to wander around the
old village and the palm gardens to get a full feel of Bahariya but it will
give you a good idea of the life in a desert oasis.
Western Desert trip: I went for a whole-day independent
trip to enjoy the scenic desert landscape spread on some 180 km between the
oases of Bahariya and Farafra. The area around Bahariya is characterized by the
so called Black Desert (Sahara Suda) - its base is flat sandy "serir"
plane but there is lots of smallish round hills protruding from this plane; the
prime colour everywhere is the yellow colour of sand but all landscape seems to
be covered by a cute black "dust", in fact formed by small black volcanic
stones, mostly pyrite. By contrast, the area around Farafra features the so
called White Desert (Sahara Beida) - the same sandy "serir" plane
is here and there replaced with whitish rocky "hamada" outcrops and
monoliths, formed of chalk and limestone, and sculpted into sometimes quite
picturesque forms and shapes by wind erosion; the ground is sometimes again
littered with black stones forming crystals and sticks, and with ancient sea
shells turned stone. In between these two areas, there are some other desert features including
some sand dunes and typical flat featureless "serir", so a drive from Bahariya
to Farafra provides quite a good review of the desert landscapes. The
guidebooks also accent the place called "Crystal Mountain" which is in fact a
not-especially-interesting small hill distinguished with some quartz outcrops allowing to find there some quite large
quartz crystals.
In general, there are jeep
tours (locally organized by hotels and attached travel agencies both in
Bahariya or Farafra) which take in all these features for some 600EP
per car;
the tours typically leave before midday, spend a night in the White
Desert and
come back next morning. Problem of these tours is that they normally
follow
very similar itinerary and especially that they all confluent to the
same
favorite spot for the night - so forget about any desert solitude
experience. Nevertheless, as all the main desert features can be
observed just next the sealed
road between Bahariya and Farafra, they can be easily accessed by an
ordinary
car (i.e. no jeep is really needed). Therefore it is generally possible
to do the trip
independently if you just can find any transport - you can even just take one of the rather infrequent buses and service taxis passing along this
road; of course, when you want to spent a night you need to make your own
preparations (esp. take enough water).
As I wanted to experience a desert solitude, I decided to find in Bahariya my
own transport
to take me along the sealed road - this proved again to be rather
difficult.
First I checked in my hotel (Alpenblick) and got quoted the price of
400EP and then I tried to talk to some locals in Bawiti but was told
that there were no
taxi available in Bahariya; finally I went to Bawiti Tourist Office and
the man
there referred me quickly to a youngish guy conveniently hanging out in
a jeep
in front of the Office - I asked for a ride along the paved road
starting in
the morning and ending in the evening at the White Desert some 20km
before
Farafra while stopping wherever along the route at my requests, and
ended with
no better deal but the trip starting at 9am and ending at 5pm for
300EP. Sure as hell, next morning at some 9:30am it was some other old
guy who showed up in
an old jeep announcing that he was ready to take me to the White Desert
but had
to be heading back by 3pm - after my objections he took me again to the
same
man in the Tourist Office who explained me quickly that I had to either
take
this abridged offer or look for another transport; well, after this
nice and
clear explanation I settled for whatever was left of the original deal.
So, at
some 9:45am we went to a gas station for gas and after another half an
hour
finally sailed for the trip. Anyway, the trip itself was nice enough -
we were
still slightly ahead of the usual tours so I got chance to stop at the Black
Desert
and climb one of the hills there alone (I have found the landscape
there really
nice) just before the tour jeeps started coming in; next we did several
stops
in some other nice spots along the road (including the not so interesting Crystal
Mountain)
and some 50 km before Farafra we arrived to a rather small but nice
area of
white rocks which I was told was the White Desert where I was supposed
to get
out. Well, it was just some 2pm so I insisted on going on (I wanted to
get
closer to Farafra to made it easier for me to get a lift there next morning)
and so we
went on - yet, the interesting area of white rocks quickly turned to a
rather uninteresting
flat "serir" and so, some 25 km before Farafra, I agreed to be driven back to
the original spot of the White Desert and left there (later I found that there
was another area of white chalk monoliths next the road some 18 km before
Farafra; the main area of the White Desert visited by tours is
off-road, several kilometers east of the road) - the guy then left whining that he had no lights and
long trip ahead (?!!). Anyway, I chose a spot to put my tent for night not far
from the road (with almost no traffic - the guy offered to drive me somewhat further away from the road but I declined that to
avoid long walk back to the road next morning with all my stuff) and started my solitary meeting with the desert; the area
(though small) had all the promised attributes of the White Desert - limestone
rocky outcrops (forming small "hamada"-kind,
barren rocky plateau),
chalk mushroom-like monoliths, and yellow soft sand patches littered with black
pyrite crystals (some of them were nice indeed and made a very good
souvenir -
found e.g. a nearly perfect octahedron); further away to the west there
was a
strip of nice steep rocky hills shaped as sugarloaves and behind this
strip there was rising a lofty escarpment surrounding the whole Farafra oasis; all this made a
nice setting for contemplation and watching the sunset and sunrise. There was
almost no wind, and the night was rather warm and very
quiet (there was hardly any traffic on the road at night). Next morning I
strolled to the road hoping for a ride to Farafra but it turned out to be quite
a long exercise in patience and survival; it took me six full hours to get that
ride at about 2pm - still, the cars were passing there with frequency of about
two in an hour and I got the ride from the first one ideally suited to pick up
a guy with a rather big backpack (being it a small lorry with empty rear
platform to put my backpack); in any case, the ride later afternoon would be
rather safe as the bus and service taxi were supposed to pass there. Anyway, I
found this long stay in the Sahara desert definitely interesting and have been
rather surprised that it was not so difficult to stay well even in high noon
heat - even though there was no wind I did not feel hot and did not need much
water when just sitting still in a shadow. The guys who gave me the ride were
very nice and refused any money for that 50km long ride - there were several
police checkpoints along this distance (and later in other parts of Western
Desert as well) and the level of bothering, which police gave to the driver and
his mate, was good explanation why nobody was especially eager to pick up a
foreigner - they had to answer questions about where they picked me, where me
and them were going, etc., and had all the information from their IDs copied to
policemen notes; also I had to say which hotel I was going and they were
requested and later even tried to drive me right there). To summarize, in spite
of another rather annoying experience with Egyptian character, I have found my
independent trip very interesting and can recommend it to anybody - I am sure that any fully
organized and packed tour would not be so real and complete. Yet, after the
experience I would simply go for that 400EP offer of the Hotel
Alpenblick.
Transport: There is no direct public transport between Siwa
and Bahariya, so it is necessary to go via Marsa Matrouh and Cairo (it would be
also possible to go via Alexandria and Cairo but this would take longer as the
buses from Matrouh bypass Alexandria via desert road). There are several
buses per day from Siwa to Matrouh operated by the West Delta bus company
(12EP) - the first one is scheduled to leave at 7am and to arrive at 11am. From
Matrouh there are also several buses per day to Cairo, again operated by the
West Delta bus company (46EP) and scheduled to connect to the buses from Siwa
(so, there is a bus leaving at 12pm and arriving to Cairo Turgoman Station at
about 7pm). From Cairo there are several direct buses to Bahariya (some of them
go on to Farafra and Dakhla) operated by the Upper Egypt bus company (27EP) -
the buses leave from Turgoman Station and stop at Giza and the journey costs 27EP
(the first bus leaves Cairo at 7am and arrives to Bawiti around 12pm).
Accommodation:
Hotel
Alpenblick at Bawiti, single room with shared bathroom (but with a
wash-basin
in the room) and without breakfast for 50EP per night. The place was
little
unfriendly but the room was OK. Beware that the local cheapie Paradise
Hotel is out of business for good (allegedly closed by police).
Food: Besides rather expensive restaurants in the
hotels there were two not especially appetizing restaurants at the main
crossroad of Bawiti, serving just chicken and rice. On the main road there were
some food stalls serving quite good "falafel" and also fresh fried
potatoes and eggplant; bread was also available there at the hole-in-the-wall
shop.
Farafra
I have spent about a day there and again found it interesting. The way
of life in Farafra shows some visible differences from Siwa and Bahariya;
especially the role of women is not so passive any more and some of them
clearly show their certain self-reliance - some women work as shopkeepers at
shops (even alone), walk around alone, wear less dull clothes (meaning some
grave colours other than black), and esp. wear just "chador" (a
headcloth completely covering hair but leaving face exposed) instead of "niqab".
There are not many donkey carts to be seen there, being replaced with
motorcycles. Farafra is quite small and there is not much settlement there
beyond the main village called Qasr al-Farafra. There indeed used to be a "qasr"
(meaning fortress in Arabic) standing in the middle of contemporary village but
there is not much left of it - it has been nearly all replaced with new walled
houses set in a right-angled structure. The main attraction of Farafra now are
its palm gardens which are far the best developed and kept of all the oases -
the irrigation channels are mostly well kept and fully operational and the
gardens of individual families are separated by well kept mud walls topped with
palm brushwood; these "palm gardens" indeed remind more gardens than fields and
typically are neatly splitted into various patches, bearing different kinds of
crops, and little groves of various fruit trees. The crops grown in the gardens
encompass not only dates, olives and apricots but also oranges, apples, grains,
corn, and many kinds of vegetables; some cattle is also kept in some gardens. I
liked those palm gardens very much and admired work of their keepers - be sure
to visit there when passing Farafra.
Transport: I hitchhiked in myself (see Bahariya
description) but there were some buses available coming from Cairo and
continuing from Bahariya to Farafra, operated by the Upper Egypt bus company.
Accommodation: Hotel Al Waha
at Qasr al-Farafra, single room with shared bathroom and without breakfast for
45EP per night. The place was very unfriendly and the room and esp. bathroom
were just about bearable - yet, it was the only budget place in Farafra which
explained its exorbitant price.
Food: There was not much choice there - fortunately,
the restaurant next to the Badr's Museum quite close to the Hotel Al Waha was
not so bad as I was able to negotiate there quite significant changes to their
basic chicken-and-rice menu and the food was quite good. Even the choice of
food stalls was very limited at Qasr al-Farafra and I could not find a bread
shop.
Dakhla
I have spent three days there and enjoyed it very much - visited several villages there, enjoyed sunset in the dunes, and climbed the escarpment to overlook the desert panorama. The Dakhla oasis is spread along the road in the east-west direction - to the north it is bordered by a tall escarpment and to the south by sand fields and dunes of the Great Sand Sea. The way of life in Dakhla regarding the role of women reminds that of Farafra. However, Dakhla is much larger then Farafra and large part of it is cultivated with old kinds of crops grown on rather large fields (some palm gardens are there too but they form just a minority of the husbandry) - all the setting is very similar to the Nile valley agriculture. The "fellahs" (farmers) go to their fields not only by donkey carts and motorcycles (and also some horse wagons), but many of them also rides their donkeys and even horses - for some reason majority of them also wear straw hats (not seen anywhere else in Egypt) and I could not help it feeling like being in a middle of a western movie. I have found the atmosphere there (esp. at Mut, the main settlement of Dakhla) markedly more pleasant than in other parts of Egypt visited - people seemed to be more friendly and comfortable there. There is not much to see at Mut itself, which looks like a relatively well kept modern town (there are even regularly cleaned wastebaskets there and locals really use them - a thing absolutely unseen anywhere else in Egypt); still, there is an old adobe village on a hill in the middle of Mut, still partly inhabited. Yet around Dakhla, in some villages surrounding Mut, there are much better places to visit to still get a good idea of the old way of life in the oases - the best preserved adobe villages/fortresses can be found at Qasr, Qalamun, and Balat; nevertheless, even there can be seen some signs of decline and coming changes, so better do not wait long to see it before it is gone for ever. There is also a lot of ancient ruins spread around the area - I have not been interested to explore them myself but I am sure that when going there you will be able to enjoy the sites alone without any disturbing noise, so typical for Egyptian monuments. You can set your base in Dakhla either at Mut or Qasr, Mut being slightly better due to its central location. There have been hardly any tourists around it the time of my visit - I have been told that the season in Dakhla runs from December to March. In general, I have found Dakhla the most pleasant, interesting, and diverse of all the Egyptian oases and I strongly recommend to spend some time there - if you have time to visit just one oasis make it Dakhla, if you are touring the oases definitely do not skip it.
Visit of Balat: I have spent a half of a day in Balat, a small village some 35 km east of Mut. On a small hill in the middle of Balat sits quite well preserved old adobe settlement - it is still mostly inhabited and allows you to catch a glimpse of original way of life of the Sahara Desert oases. You can see families going about their ordinary life and you can also enter some houses which are already deserted but are still standing more or less preserved (but some parts of the village are already in the ruins too). There is no entrance fee charged - it is just a part of a normal inhabited village; still, expect to be approached by some would-be guides insisting to show you around. I have been approached by two separate hopefuls but refused them as it would clearly be just a nuisance to have them around - yet, one of them proved to be quite persistent and left me alone only after threatening him with police. Anyway, the place has been magic and I strongly recommend to anyone to come to see it.
Round trip west of Mut:
Within a day I climbed the escarpment north of Dakhla to overlook the
desert panorama and visited old adobe sections of Qasr and Qalamun. To get to
the escarpment I went to Qasr and hired a "taxi especial" there (an empty pick
up) to get me to the place called Bir al-Gebel (the place closest to the escarpment and accessible
along a paved road) and climbed up from there. Generally recommended
way up was to find a sand dune reaching all the way to top of the
escarpment and
climb along it - it would be safe but for sure very exhausting way.
Fortunately, when I was getting near the escarpment in a direction of
the
nearest dune (slightly to the west of the road end) I came across a
jeep trail
and later a little path going up the edge; I went along it and it took me
relatively
comfortably (the surface was not a rock but at least a somewhat braced
detritus) almost to
the top where I just easily climbed up the remaining rocky cliff along
one of
many crevices (stil, the rock was quite soft and unstable). The top of
the
escarpment was a typical "hamada", formed by a flat limestone plateau,
which was densely littered with small hard dark-grey stones (probably some kind
of hornfel) - everything was grinded smooth by winds (making the stones nice
souvenir as paperweights). The escarpment offered nice views of the desert
plain bellow with the sand dunes field further south. The escarpment plateau
was rather flat but splitted with deep valleys/crevices, making thus walking
along it rather difficult - therefore I gave up my original plan to walk closer
to Qasr along the plateau and descend there (later I saw that there were
indeed dunes all the way to top there too) but simply went back down along the
sand dune and back to the road; while walking along this road I was fortunate
to get a free lift from a passing motorcyclist all the way to the old fortress
at Qasr. The climb was quite nice and interesting experience and I can
recommend it without hesitation to anybody ready to put some effort to coping
with the climb.
Qasr is a village (the second largest settlement in Dakhla some 35 km west of
Mut) which harbours a remarkable old adobe village/fortress ("qasr" means
fortress in Arabic), hereby the best conserved adobe structure around - it is
being kept in a good condition and even further renovated, but it is almost
uninhabited and so shown as a rather inanimate museum. There is no entrance fee charged
but some locals are often hanging next the main south entrance and insist on
guiding you around for a fee. I arrived around midday when there were no
would-be guides around (in case you are not so lucky and still want to see
the place undisturbed, just circle the outer wall and enter from the north
where you should be able to avoid the guides). The fortress was very nice and
well worth visiting. Next I went to see another village of Qalamun (there was a
side route connecting Qasr and Mut going through Qalamun and there should be
pick-ups going along this road - yet, I was hitchhiking while waiting and got a
lift after some half an hour waiting before any pick-up actually showed up)
which also had a partly inhabited and partly ruined old adobe section. Next
this adobe section there were also some quite nice palm gardens, which are
otherwise rather rare in Dakhla area. However, Qalamun turned to be somewhat
unfriendly, people did not seem to be happy to see me walking around and some
of them were asking for "baksheesh" without any attempt to at least pretend to be providing any
service at all. I was also followed around by a bunch of small boys who would
not go away and even started throwing stones although not being too serious
about it. Still, Qalamun is worth visiting especially if you have no time to see
Balat.
Visit of sand dunes: The sand dunes, part of immense "erg" of the Great Sand Sea, begin just south of Dakhla and so are easy to visit - Mut, being on the south edge of Dakhla, provides especially good access to the dunes. I have done the trip there one afternoon and enjoyed the sunset in the dunes and it was quite nice experience. To get there, just head south from Mut's "New Mosque square" - first south along the airport road, when this road turns east at the outskirt of the cultivated land continue south along a dirt road, and when this dirt road turns west after some hundred meters continue still south along some jeep tracks; when the tracks end just head on south into the dunes - after climbing over several sand dunes you will become completely encompassed by sand with no sings of life around you; all this takes some one to two hours of walking. You can wait for the sunset there and then walk back - if you have not wandered too far you should be able to get back to the road with the remaining light; when walking back along the road you will very likely get some offers from passing "fellahs" of a free lift back to Mut on a donkey cart or motorcycle.
Transport:
1. I took the service taxi leaving Farafra at 1pm and paid 15EP. The Upper Egypt
buses should be also passing Farafra for Dakhla at about 2pm and 2am.
2. There is quite good and extensive system of service-taxi and pick-up
transport covering all the Dakhla area. At Mut the main hub for the western
Dakhla part is at the main Midan at-Tahrir circle, and for the eastern part
it is at the 10th of Ramadan St. next the Mut hospital; there is
lots of microbuses and pick ups passing through these hubs and heading for
different places - it is very confusing and you need to ask the drivers and/or
other locals to find the one heading to your destination; the price is usually
flat fee of 1EP, disregarding the distance. While waiting for this transport outside Mut it
is common to hitchhike - if you get a lift, you are also
expected to pay that 1EP fee.
Accommodation:
1. Gardens Hotel at Mut, single room with bathroom attached and without
breakfast for 15EP per night. The place was very friendly, the room was small
but comfortable and I was very happy there - there were some 30 rooms available
but I was the only guest.
2. There is another good hotel in Dakhla area - El Qasr Guesthouse at
Qasr,
which is world famous for its very friendly atmosphere and good
cooking, all
created by the hotel manager Mahmoud (familiarly called Hamda). It gets
a lot
of good reports from passing travellers and I have not found any
complaints
(besides Hamda's cheating in domino games - watch out). Allegedly,
staying
there feels like being a child on school vacations at his/her
grandmother's
house - little patronized but well cared about; I was only eating there
once
myself but all was indeed just like that - I was able to ask for a
vegetarian lunch but when trying to enquire for the details I was said
to just
wait and see; the lunch was prepared rather quickly, looked fresh,
consisted of several different meals, and it was too big to fit in my
stomach sadly
shrunk after three weeks in Egypt - by far the best meal I had in
Dakhla.
1. Not much choice at Mut - there were several "restaurants" around the town but all were serving the same chicken-and-rice meal and none of them looked appetizing or were ready to prepare anything off the usual pattern; the restaurant of the Gardens Hotel (recommended in the LP Egypt Guide) was not functioning yet in November but the manager said he would start it again in December to March for full season. There was relatively good choice of food stalls at Mut but all of them served just the typical "fuul" and "falafel" menu; the bread was sold at the hole-in-the-wall shops, e.g. at the Al-Wadi St. and Basatenn St.
2. At Qasr there is a good restaurant attached to the El Qasr Guesthouse - see above.
Luxor
Luxor is known and visited for its abundance of monuments left there by
the ancient Egyptian civilization - I have spent two days there, mostly
browsing around these monuments, and of course found it interesting. Luxor is
already lying at the Nile valley and it is also a longtime tourist center, and so it
is naturally another world in many aspects comparing to the desert oases
discussed before. The way of life in Luxor is much more broad-minded and the
roles and dress of women and men are not so strictly set. Luxor feels like a
rather small town, the streets even next to the very main ones quickly become
shabby and full of rubbish. There are Christian sections in Luxor (one is just
north of the train station entrance) but you will not notice no other
difference but the crosses and statuettes. Regarding the ancient monuments
there is really almost too many sites worth visiting and it is advisable to
make some selection; also, not all the sites are equally interesting at close
range and so it may be generally equally rewarding to see some sites just from
the outside. Last but not least, the admission fees add up quickly and it is
advisable to give a thought to one's budget. The sites in Luxor itself (i.e.
the Luxor and Karnak temples) can be easily visited on foot within a day, to
visit all the sites on the opposite West Bank of the Nile you need to use some
sort of transport (it may be e.g. public transport pick up, rented bicycle,
taxi, or even a tour). After thorough research, I visited "only" the Karnak
Temple (entrance fee 50EP), Valley of the Queens (25EP), Medinet Habu (25EP),
Tombs of the Nobles (20EP for the tombs of Sennofer and Rekhmire), and Deir
al-Madinah (25EP); from the outside I else surveyed the Luxor Temple,
Hatshepsut Temple, Ramesseum, and Colossi of Memnon (as for the famous Valley
of the Kings, I skipped it completely for its overcrowding - it is sometimes
called "Valley of the buses"). All the sites visited were interesting and worth
visiting - Karnak and Medinet Habu temples were both enormous but also featured
some very nice reliefs, and the paintings in all the tombs visited were very
nice. General advice: When visiting the West Bank with an itinerary similar to
mine, go as early as possible (read your guidebook and check the opening hours
of ticket office and the sites) and start with the most popular sites (I made a mistake to visit
the Valley of the Queens around midday and had difficulties to really enjoy it
in very noisy crowds).
Transport:
1. There is no direct public transport between Dakhla and Luxor, so it is
necessary to go by bus to Asyut and switch to train there (it would be also
possible to go to Al Kharga and take a direct train from there but this train
goes just once a week on Saturday). There are several direct buses per day from
Dakhla to Asyut operated by the Upper Egypt bus company (25EP) - the first one
is scheduled to leave at 6am and to arrive around 12pm (but expect delays).
From Asyut there are many trains going south to Luxor but majority of them are
slow (so called "ordinary") trains not really enjoyable to go with; still, some
of the trains are also the fast trains with the air-conditioned 2nd class
seating coaches (my favorite class), which take some fiwe hours to get to
Luxor; yet, just some of these trains are supposed to be used by tourists - see
also the general discussion above in the beginning of this report (I took the
train not supposed to be used by tourists - in fact, I was even put on it by a
policeman - and found the ride quite enjoyable).
2. Travelling by train along the Nile valley provides a good opportunity to
catch sights of life of majority of Egyptian population, the "fellahs"
(farmers). The train passes along their little fields and irrigation channels
bringing water from the Nile river to their fields, and you can see "fellahs"
working their fields all day long (strangely, they seem not to take any "siesta" and work even in the midday heat). Just south of Asyut you can even
glimpse still used the"shadoof", a famous ancient device - a kind of
lever - used to pump water from the Nile to irrigation channels ever since the
times of faraons (now mostly replaced with motor pumps).
3. The best way to get to the West Bank is to take a public ferry for the flat
tourist fee of 1EP (locals pay even less) - the boats leave very frequently
from their pier just next the Luxor Temple and cross the river in some 10
minutes; you can even take a bicycle along for free. There are also much more
expensive motor boats, which do exactly the same service as the public boats;
besides you can also rent one of the famous "feluccas" (local wooden
sailing boats) - I have no idea how typical it was, but I usually seen them
being pulled by motor boats as there was no wind to propel them.
4. A good way to get around the West Bank is using a bicycle rented either in
Luxor or on the West Bank. The bike is good not only for travelling between
individual ancient sites but also for touring around some West Bank villages
allowing to observe the life of Egyptian "fellahs" - those villages
represent another world completely different from the tourist ghetto of Luxor.
The bikes can be usually rented through any hotel (the fee may be as low as 5EP
per day) but do not expect to get any really roadworthy bike this way - as the
terrain of the West Bank is rather hilly I strongly recommend to look around
for some bike workshops also renting their bikes (there are some in the streets
around the northeast corner of the Luxor Temple) as you have at least some
choice there and a chance to ask for some adjustments. However, I needed quite
a lot of effort to find a bike boasting with at least reasonably functional
brakes, and I had to pay 30EP for it at the rental place on Mohammed Farid St.
near the Luxor Temple.
Accommodation: Oasis Hotel,
single room with air condition and shared bathroom without breakfast for 15EP
per night - the room was in fact a dormitory with four beds but the competition
was fierce in Luxor as in middle of November it was still before the full season
(yet I was probably also getting real good in bargaining, as the owners got
their second thoughts during my stay and started to speak about putting some
more guests to my assigned room or moving me to another room, which I of course
flatly refused as our deal was very clear - my advice here is to hold to your
key and never ever leave it in the hotel - as they often ask you - or you may
get some unpleasant surprise). Before the Oasis Hotel, I also tried the Grand
Hotel and found it too filthy even for the discounted price of 15EP per night.
Note: The Oasis Hotel were located at the place where the LP Egypt Guide,
Edition 2006 puts the Nubian Oasis Hotel, while a rather upscale hotel of that
name was located near).
Food: There is no shortage of quite cheap restaurants
in Luxor frequently offering menu written in English and rather good variety of
food. I can strongly recommend the Abu Masoud Restaurant on the Station St.
close to the train station, where I got my best food in Egypt - a really
delightful vegetarian "moussaka" for 15EP (I was deeply regretting not
to find the place sooner). Another good restaurant was the Mish Mish Restaurant
on the Televizyon St.
Cairo
I have spent four days there and found the city very interesting and
colourful - beside the city itself I have also visited pyramid sites at
Dahshur, Saqqara, and Giza, and some Coptic monasteries in Wadi Natrun. I spent
my time in Cairo mostly wandering around its crowded streets and observing its
bustling life and thoroughly enjoyed it - pollution level was high there but
still bearable. The part I have found the most interesting was the so-called "Islamic Cairo" which was in fact an old quarter of Cairo well preserving the
atmosphere of the Orient, full of life, bustling "souqs" (markets) and
harbouring many mosques (each of them offering different design but common
atmosphere of peace) and old medieval buildings - especially the area around
the famous "bazaar" (street of shops) of Khan el-Khalili was magic with
its maze of narrow streets and passageways; yet, I would recommend to avoid the
Citadel which was highly overpriced (entrance fee 40EP) and lacked any
atmosphere of real life. Another famous area of Cairo, I have visited, was the
so called "Old Cairo" or "Coptic Cairo", which was a very small place with some
of the oldest Cairo monuments - yet, there was principal reconstruction going
on there and I could not recognize any soul there; still, you may want to visit
the Coptic Museum which my wife found quite interesting and full of spirit
(entrance fee 40EP).
Guide for Cairo: Another way to visit Cairo is to
hire a guide for a day to take you around - it is worth considering esp. if you
do not have much time for your visit. It may give you somewhat
different view on Cairo and Egypt while not even being overly expensive (allowing
you to save money on logistic). I have not done it myself but I found a female
guide for my wife - who went home sooner than myself and had a one-day stopover
at Cairo alone - and she has been very satisfied with the guide. The guide name
was Nibal Gouda (nibal@egyptguest.com, www.egyptguest.com) and she was
especially notable for being able to make substantial changes in her usual
route and habits (which is not at all typical for the guides anywhere in the
world). She picked up my wife at the airport and took her around Cairo using
cheap public transport - they visited Giza pyramids site and walked around the
Old/Coptic Cairo and parts of the Islamic Cairo; besides showing my wife around
and answering her questions, Nibal even recommended good cheap eateries and
helped with getting good prices at the Khan el-Khalili "bazaar". The
price for the whole day (7am to 9pm) guiding around Cairo was EUR45 (payable
also in EP or US$). We can recommend Nibal without any hesitation even to
budget travellers.
Tour of the pyramid sites: The pyramids are symbol of
Egypt and nobody can possible skip them when in Egypt - still, they are indeed
impressive and definitely worth visiting. I rented a taxi for a whole day and
went around the pyramid sites at Dahshur, Saqqara, and Giza and found them all
interesting and sufficiently diverse to pay a visit to all of them. The Giza
pyramids (entrance fee 50EP; hefty extra fees requested to enter pyramids
internal spaces) are the most famous and impressive (the well-known saying "people are afraid of time, time is afraid of the pyramids" refers to them) but
attract little too many people and their buses (allowed to park just next to
each of the pyramids) to my liking - go as early as possible to avoid at least
the tourists shipped there on day tours coming from Sharm and Hurghada. The
Dahshur pyramids (25EP) feel somehow older and indolent and provide better
place for some contemplation as they attract far less people (it is possible to
enter the "Red Pyramid" for free there; I have done it and found the passage in too
discomfortable and the internal spaces too hot to enjoy it at all - it is not
worth the effort as far as I am concerned). The Saqqara pyramids (50EP) feel
somewhat less impressive but the site contains also lots of other structures
and tombs (making it worth visiting especially for people not having time to
visit Luxor sites) while attracting considerably smaller crowds. Within this tour you can also visit Memphis, a
metropolis of faraonic Egypt - I skipped it as it was nearly nothing left of
it. I rented the
taxi to ride me around all these sites through my hotel (New Minerva) and was
very satisfied - the price was 130EP for the whole day (it was the first asking
price and I took it without any haggling as the price should generally be
some 100-150 EP); it was an air-conditioned unmarked car and
its discreet driver was always waiting and knew the places well (and even fully
conformed to my request not to drive me to any shops, alabaster factories and
so); in the morning we went first to Giza to get there just at the time of
opening, then to Dahshur, and finally to Saqqara; at Giza the car was waiting
outside (by the back entrance near the Sphinx) but all the monuments there were
close by and there was no reason to multiply the number of cars on the
premises, at Dahshur and Saqqara the car was allowed to parking lots next the
monuments (ask the driver to drive you between the two main pyramids at Dahshur
- they are quite far apart, and between the several car parks near various
monuments at Saqqara).
Trip to the Coptic monasteries of Wadi Natrun:
I went for a half-day visit of some Coptic monasteries in Wadi Natrun and found
it interesting but not so rewarding as expected. The Wadi Natrun lies about 100
km west from Cairo, just next the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, and hosts four
still surviving venerable Coptic monasteries, that are supposed to offer an
atmosphere of tranquility and contemplation. I have visited namely the
Monastery of St. Bishoi (Deir Amba Bishoi) and the Monastery of the
Syrians (Deir el-Sourian) and regrettably found them not really living
according to their reputation - even if there is still no fee involved, the
place has become slightly commercialized and not much solitude for
contemplation can be found there any more. The Monastery of St. Bishoi is now
ringed with several new churches well towering above it and markedly spoiling its
atmosphere. The Monastery of the Syrians is still standing alone and does
preserve its atmosphere - unfortunately, I experienced there a typical Egyptian
hassle with a would-be guide (insisting on pointing to me some "dificult-to-regognize" images, like the Virgin Mary, for a "baksheesh";
it was a young boy and he would not go away and leave me alone, so I even have
to ask the monk at the gate to get rid of him); very sad, I certainly hoped I
would be spared of this at least there. Also, expect to encounter some busloads
of tourists there (not really pilgrims), both foreigners and Egyptians, who are
not overly meek to the meaning of the place. Besides the monasteries visited, I
have also had a quick look at the Monastery of the Romans (Deir Anba Baramus)
from the outside (by mistake of my taxi driver) and it looked just as
commercialized as the Monastery of St. Bishoi; I have not even tried to visit
the Monastery of St. Macarius (Deir Abu Maqar) as it is supposed to be
impossible to visit it without a pre-arranged permission - after what I have seen
I could blame the monks there not a bit. Nevertheless, the Wadi Natrun sites
are still well worth visiting if you have enough time to spare - a couple of
hours is enough to see what still remains preserved. The trip can be easily
done using public transport - first take a bus to Wadi Natrun City from Cairo
Turgoman bus station (5EP, buses go every hour and take 2 hours; be careful not
leave the bus at an extremely ugly concrete bus station in the middle of
nowhere - it is at Sadat City some 20 km before Wadi Natrun City) and then take
a "tuk-tuk" (a three-wheel motorcycle taxi known from Asia) to the
Monastery of St. Bishoi for 2EP; the "tuk-tuks" come back to the St.
Bishoi from time to time so there is no problem to get back. The Monastery of
the Syrians is just half a kilometer from the Monastery of St. Bishoi so you
can easily walk there and back - but it is no serene desert walk any more as
the place between these monasteries is now densely planted and heavily
irrigated. Note: In my hotel in Cairo I also asked about a possibility to rent
a taxi for a day to tour the monasteries, but got quoted price of some 400EP
due to the distance from Cairo.
Whirling Dervishes performance: There is
an interesting performance offered free of charge at the Wihara al-Ghouri in
the Islamic Cairo at 8:30pm every Wednesday and Saturday. The performance has
nothing to do with real "Whirling Dervishes"
(an old Sufi order famous
for their Allah worshipping practice of whirling ritual dance), it is a
rather elaborate ethnic show of music (sounding very oriental to my
ears) and dance
(mostly indeed whirling) performed by a highly professional group of
men. It is
very good (though slightly slipping to a circus production in the end)
and
definitely worth visiting. Arrive before 7pm to get a good seat in the
auditorium as the show is also much visited by tourist groups passing
through
Cairo).
Transport:
1. My wife flew Egypt Air from Sharm el-Sheikh to Cairo for 190EP, using its
first flight of the day at 6:35am; the flight took one hour and was one hour
delayed but uneventful otherwise.
2. There are several direct trains going from Luxor and Cairo - three "proper"
and several more "improper" seating trains (regarding the trains being meant to
be used by foreigners - see also the general discussion above in the beginning
of this report), and two expensive sleeping trains. I took the first available "proper" seating train, leaving Luxor at 9:30am and arriving to Cairo at
7:30pm; the price was 55EP for a seat in an air-conditioned second class couch
(in fact, this was the price for the full train route from Aswan to Cairo - see also
above).
3. A good way to get around Cairo is its subway ("metro"), which is very cheap
(flat fee of 1EP) and reasonably comfortable. The tickets are sold at every
station; no announcement regarding stops is given in the trains so study your
route ahead. The metro can be used to get, e.g., to
the Turgoman bus station
(it is about 200 meters west from the Orabi station), to downtown
(about 200 meters east from the Nasser and Sadat stations), or to the
Old/Coptic
Cairo (just east of the Mar Girgis station).
4. There is a lot of taxis circulating around Cairo day and night - find out
ahead about "correct" prices, bargain hard, and do not hesitate to leave one
for another if the driver is too stubborn (often he will gladly drive rearward
to get your business then).
5. According to some guidebooks (incl. LP Egypt) there should be boats called "river taxi"
running along the Nile through the city center. These would make nice and cheap
way to see the city from different angle, but unfortunately ceased operation
two years ago for good. There is still a boat running from a right-bank pier
under the Tahrir Bridge somewhere to the Cairo university for 1EP (but I have
not tried it myself).
1. Hotel Richmond, single room with shared bathroom without breakfast for 45EP per night - quite unfriendly place with rather small and shabby rooms and reasonably clean bathrooms; good to pass a night but not so good to spend several days.
2. Hotel New Minerva, single room with shared bathroom (but with a wash-basin in the room) and without breakfast for 50EP per night - rather friendly place and quite comfortable room; the price paid was discounted after my giving up the breakfast (the owners became little morose later saying that this discounting the price was a mistake but they at least did not ask me to change the room or anything; yet, they flatly refused to give me any discount for the last night when I was leaving for the airport at midnight). Before taking this room I tried several other hotels nearby and found no other available room at all; the prices were also higher, sometimes much higher.
1. I enjoyed some good food at the Restaurant Hamman on the Saray al-Ezbekiya St. near the Midan Orabi square.
2. Yet, the best food for me was "koshary" served at the Sayed Hanafy lunch counter on the Orabi St. just south of the Midan Orabi square - I found it truly delicious and one of the best food available in Egypt. The place was very popular also with locals, in fact so popular that there were hardly ever any place available at the tables and so I took all my meals there take away. I strongly recommend trying it if you get anywhere near.
3. There is a good bakery on the Tawfiqiya St. again near the Midan Orabi square where you can get cheap many kinds of Egyptian pastry.
----------------------------------------------
When preparing for my
trips I always gather from the internet information about each place to be
visited and before I go I put it unsorted into a single document that I print
out and use it during the trip. I still have these documents prepared for this trip and I can send them to you. If anybody is interested please see the
information on my Introductory Page.
C 2008
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