Trip to Egypt, April 2005

Next Trip, March 2007, is under way

We did a combination of an organized tour and some private arrangements. The agency we used is Imaginative Traveller in cooperation with Responsible Travelling . They can be warmly reccommended as they take a responsible attitude towards their arrangements. As an example they take care to employ native guides, they cooperate with an orphanage in Luxor, and they refuse to utilize the poor, starved horses like at Edfu for taking tourists to see the temple. This is in an effort to try and put pressure on the carriage owners to feed their horses properly, only then will they get business. I whish more agencies would do this and I whish tourists would simply refuse to get up in a carriage pulled by one of these poor animals!

We begun by flying to Cairo and stay for a few nights, visiting Sakkara and Giza, then together with the tour we got on a night train to Luxor and arrived in the early morning. There we made an early morning visit to Karnak before it got too hot, and in the afternnon we boarded the little cruise ship 'Melodie' and sailed for Aswan.

There is nothing more pleasant and wonderful than slowly sailing on the Nile, watching the banks glide by. You get a good opportunity to rest and collect energy for the next sight. At night the half moon was out, looking quite different than it does in countries further north. It looked very much like the moon disc above Khonsu or Djehuty in baboon form, broader at the base - it´s easy to see where the ancients got their model for the horned moon disc.

The locks at Esna was another experience. While waiting in line with other cruise boats to get into the locks, we were more or less assaulted by peddlers rowing out in their little boats calling for attention and throwing their goods up on the deck, not caring that you said no thank you I don´t want anything. They don´t take no for an answer. It was a circus and you had to laugh about the confusion. Remember though that many are very poor and they do this to make a livelihood. If you don´t want anything, simply leave the deck.

Next afternoon we sighted Kom Ombo which is magnificently located close by the river. We went ashore before the group did their visit, which enabled us to have a nice tour of the temple in relative peace and quiet. Most places we went to were horribly crowded by tour groups. I don´t understand why they have to cram all groups into a place at once. I whish they would change opening hours from 8 morning to 4 evening into earlier mornings, keep closed during the hottest hours and then open again around 4 evening and stay open at night when the temperature is a bit more comfortable. This goes for April, of course it´s cooler earlier and later in the year.

During the following night we passed Edfu, passed the quarries and the speos of Horemheb at Gebel el-Silsleh and arrived at Aswan in the morning. We visited the Nubian Museum, a really lovely place, and in the evening we went to see the Sound & Light show at Philae, which was something to remember!

Next morning the group went up 3.30 am to go by bus to Aswan. We however slept until 6 am - wow - and returned to Philae to stroll around for a couple of hours. It opens at 8 am and amazingly enough, when we reached Shellal where the boats take you across to the island, there was a Japanese group already arriving from the island. Wonder how they had arranged that? Do I have to mention that the island was full of people already when we arrived shortly after eight.

We stayed yet another day in Aswan, which is a very nice place, before the boat turned back towards Luxor again. On the way back we stopped at Edfu this time and went by minibus to the Edfu temple. More about that later.

Once back in Luxor, we visited the Valley of the Kings and Deir el Medina, morea bout that later too. The next day we parted from the group, they went to the Red Sea and we stayed in Luxor to return to the VoK and to Deir el Bahari. That day it was over 40 degrees Celsius which made it too tiresome to visit Quorna (the Tombs of the Nobles) and Medinet Habu. So we still got that for next time!

We went by sleeper train back to Cairo and took another day at the Egyptian Museum. After that there was just a bit of time left to rest and try to get into the mood of going back home.

I don´t think I´ll ever really "recover" from this trip. It was so amazing and I was thrilled far beyond expectations. We took nearly 1000 photos, I wanted to bring all of Egypt back with me. So many wonderful sights, the kindness and helpfulness of practically everyone we encountered, all the contrasts of this rich and poor country, the vast differences from what we are used to. It all melts into unforgettable impressions in your mind. If there is only one journey you can do in your life - Egypt - Kemet is the place to go.

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