International Hot Spring Hotel Giza

... about 7.15am. We met his mate the camel owner who robbed me blind for the attached photograph. Mohamed had suggested I tip the tea man $20 for a small glass of tea. Unsurprisingly I didn't agree. The camel man was muttering about $500 for a ride but I hope he was joking. I paid him $5 for some shots of him and his angry, smelly beast. <br><br>I picked up Elly and then off to the Museum of Antiquity. I had used TripAdvisor to find guides and this worked pretty ...

... and packed with tourists. I didn't really like all the people and didn't take as many goofy photos like some people. The Sphinx has a lion body with a human head. The rock that it is carved out of is said to be the oldest of the tourist sights. Even before they carved the head it is said that people thought the rock looked like a reclining lion and would visit to see it. <br><br>Finally it was lunch time. I hadn't had a real meal in 3 days and was living off ...

... have felt like I was actually going to die. In the city, the traffic is just slow and clogged with everyone tooting "me first" on their horns. But outside the city on the freeways, there is no sense of a lane, cars whiz through any gap they can find - all at 80+mph. It was really like being in a video game. But there is a communication system with horns and eye contact and hand gestures that seems to keep thing moving.

... by a small, metallic platform. In all directions, gritty desert stretched without interruption to an interminable horizon. A while longer and we finally reached the oasis town of Bahariya, a dense conglomeration of lush palm trees and one-story stucco buildings. Before we could travel further, we had to get travel permits to allow entry into the desert beyond. Luckily, that's why we hired a tour guide. Unluckily, we arrived just as Friday prayers began and he ...

... bunk all to himself . Finally, Ray has his privacy, no sharing with a sloppy 12 year old.<br><br>But my sloppy 12 year had a ball of a time in our berth which had door which we could open to Clarissa and Annie's berth. The cabin was a bit crammed compared to the European trains but each had its own basin Dinner was served by this extremely efficient waiter and of course , we had our hot noodle which I packed myself because ...

... especially in rural areas, do not speak English, so I had very few interactions with Muslim women. I was hoping to learn from them but it just wasn't possible because of the culture. In the end we had found what we came for, a little R&R!! The Oases of western Egypt though not exactly what we expected, are truly special places. It was a good chance to learn about rural Egypt without all the hassle. We came, we rested, and now we feel ready for India!

... ridiculous in the heat but absolutely neccesary. They really look invisible. In the 1960s, large numbers of Bedouin throughout the Middle East started to leave the traditional, nomadic life to settle in the cities. Many Bedouin have given up herding for standard jobs. Government policies in Egypt as well as a desire for improved standards of living, effectively led most Bedouin to become settled citizens rather than stateless nomadic herders. Government policies ...

... like windblown snow. We camped out here for the night amongst the strange formations and enjoyed some Libyan songs thanks to our guides, some excellent chicken and the company of desert foxes which came right into our camp with the expectation of food. We woke up in the morning to find strange little tracks everywhere that we thought were from lizards until we found the largest beetle either of us has ever seen making the exact same tracks ...

... of the old arcade game Frogger. <br><br>&#8221;Yeah, guess so.&#8221; I thought absently as a large 70&#8217;s American car rumbled past and I concentrated more on the hope that I wasn&#8217;t going end up with my head through its windscreen. It was a pretty big car but not remarkably so, certainly not the size of a Hummer, and I wondered why Hoges even bothered to mention it. But after we got to the other side of the street and I turned my attention back ...

... br><br>After having had two and half months travelling in Europe I was really looking forward to coming to the Middle East and experiencing somewhere out of my comfort zone a bit, and straight away my senses were struggling to take in the passing show of Cairo in the balmy early hours of morning. The streets were clogged with old taxis and trucks with no lights, no windows and little in the way of bodywork &#8211; about the only parts in working order were the horns ...