Oscar Hotel Aswan

... biggest drawback of Eypt is everyone is desperately trying to sell you something. everywhere, even not just at a market. They obviously want your money, but I think half of they're enjoyment comes from haggling with you. I've gotten quite good at haggling prices just in 2 days. I usually can get them to drop their orignal price by about half, or more. I would say the starting price is what you would pay in ...

... the girls danced.<br><br>We got back to the hotel about 8pm and went wandering in the Souk for a while.<br><br>Next morning some of us left early for the Nubian Museum which houses many of the artefacts slvaged before the High Dam was flooded.<br><br>We then boarded a felucca about 11am for a day and night cruising the Nile. Relaxing day watching the scenery go by with the crew cooking fabulous food for us on board. We moored just before sunset and ...

... hard core intinerary wise - first 2 days no lunch (no safe place to eat outside the Marriot) which was difficult for those accustomed to gourmet buffet lunches and regular wee-wee stops! Harder was the 3.15 wake-up for the flight to Abu Simbel - given most of the bods are older people- hard, but simply unavailable - EgyptAir does domestic flights in the early morning so the planes can be used on the international legs in the afternoon - the early start alowed us ...

... a little closer to Aswan and moored up where we could see the Aswan bridge (which just happened to be many miles from Aswan). From our place on the banks of the nile we still had a few hours to travel before reaching Aswan. It would be a<br>4.30am start in the morning for the guys too get us there &#8211; mainly because we had a flight to get at 9.30am to Abu Simbel. After dinner of soup, Fried chicken pieces, salad, pita bread, rice, tahini, we chilled out with beers ...

... claim is full of piles of rubbish. The second you walk out of customs the leeches trying to get you to take their taxi/go to their hotel or whatever start harassing you. I was expecting this. I was also expecting the guy who was supposed to privately transfer me to my hotel to not turn up, which he didn't. So i called the emergency contact which we were supposed to call on such an occassion and they barely spoke english and i regret to say that i got very impatient with him and was ...

... etc.<br>I had avoided going into essence shops in Cairo (even when I was led to them after wild goose chases) but at least with this experience I could learn a bit about essences with no expectation to buy anything. With a large group of 44 people, the salespeople didn't push you hard, they let you wander around as there were people who were buying things they could assist.<br>They also make beautiful glass bottles for the essences and those are works of ...

... not even to start bargaining or touching the stuff unless we were serious buyers, how much to tip, great photo angles etc. His face kinda reminded me of Jerry Lewis except tanner but not so clownish though.<br><br>Our first stop as a group - the Unfinished Obelisk at the Northern Quarries. Hence starts the visit of many , many temples, Gods and Goddesses, Pharoah etc. As much as I love ancient history, my CPU was too ...

... that we are in Africa now. We are greeted by our guide - his English is quite good but I'm tired and I'm just nodding to everything he is saying. we take the van and are taken to the jetty to take a boat across the river. Pyramid Isis is located on an island right in the middle of the Nile. Normally, I would be excited but right then I jsut wanted to shower and get into bed.<br><br>More forms to sign to check in and I'm ...

... seemed solely to provide for the town&#8217;s people, from the butchers slicing camel meat in the open air amidst the flies, to the bloke selling kitchen sinks. Without the touts hassling us to buy ****** souvenirs I was free to enjoy the experience of getting a more authentic picture of normal Egyptian life, and I loved every minute of it.<br> <br>Once we were back at the felucca and helped the load huge block of ice and other supplies ...

... As a living room the felucca&#8217;s deck accommodated all eleven of us with a little bit of room in reserve. As a slumber party bedroom it was a bit more squeezy, and being the last one to go to bed I found this out the hard way. But after walking up the plank from the riverbank to the boat and then treading over the uneven line of bodies in the dark I was just able to find enough unreserved space to curl up.