Going to Egypt. Any advice?

[Dog80]

Thanks Marmite Lover, but your reply was a few days late

I opened another thread about my experience in MPSIMS

I am copying from the other thread:

@Dog80

I was in Cairo from 21 to 24 May 2010. I also visited Alexandria briefly.

Some random thoughts:

• The traffic in Cairo is simply chaotic. They change lanes randomly without indicating, run red lights and honk all the time. Sometimes they honk for no apparent reason at all, even if there isn’t any other car around. Also most of the cars are very very old. There are Dacias, Ladas, some Peugeot 504 and Fiat 128 and some turkish Tofas. When we were returning from Alexandria to Cairo every couple of miles we would see a car stopped on the side of the road with the hood popped open or changing a tyre.

-Many buildings have bare brick walls not covered with mortar or paint, no windows, etc. As our guide explained, they intentionally leave the building unfinished so they don’t have to pay taxes.

-You have to go through metal detectors and bag checks almost everywhere, museums, restaurants, hotels etc.

-There’s no paper in their toilets. Instead there’s a faucet somewhere at the base of the toilet bowl and when you turn it on there’s a jet of water aiming straight to your ass!

-There are thousands of policemen around the city doing nothing, simply standing on their post and sometimes sleeping. According to our guide their salary is something like 60 euros per month. Also they all have guns but I doubt if they have any bullets.

-There are two kinds of cabs, the older black cabs with no meter and the newer white cabs with functioning meter. Non-locals should avoid black cabs if possible.

-Egyptian men act like they have never seen a woman before.

[Dog80]

@ralph124c

How do you buy high quality reproductions? I mean, old egyptian paintings, carvings, vases, etc. There must be high quality ones available-not the cheap stuff hawked by street vendors-where do you buy this stuff?

I found some good (but rather expensive) stuff at the hotel shops (Marriott). Most of the shops outside and especially at Khan el Khalili seem to have the same (made in China?) crap.

[MovieMogul]

So, for those in the know…Which of these two cruise options would you consider preferable?

(A) 4-day cruise from Luxor down to Aswan, including the Valley of the Kings, the Colossi of Memnon, the Temple of Horus, and Philae’s Temple of Isis.

(B) 3-day cruise from Abu Simbel up to Aswan, including Kasr Ibrim, Ed Deir, El Dakka, Mehraka, the Temple of Amada, and the tomb of Pennut.

Any reason why we would pick one over the other, or would that depend on our interests (as in, do they represent two different type of experiences, or is just a matter of different sites/sights)?

[Chefguy]

Be cautious about buying both gold items and papyrus. There are reputable gold shops if you can’t resist getting a cartouche with your name in hieroglyphics on it. Much of the painted papyrus is machine made. Nothing wrong with that, but make sure you aren’t paying for something you aren’t getting. Machine-made should be cheaper.

[MovieMogul]

bump

[BwanaBob]

If you’re female, do not take a cab ride alone. My friend did this, and her driver proceeded to jerk his gherkin while driving.