Egypt Day 17 - Disembarkation Esna / Luxor / Cairo and Home Cooking

Itinerary Day 17:  Disembarkation Esna / Luxor / Cairo

"After breakfast, we bid farewell to Captain Hassan and the crew. Your luggage will be collected and will be ready for you to travel to Luxor to get your flight to Cairo . when you arrive at Cairo airport our rep will be waiting for you to transfer you to your House in Cairo for overnight."

Journal: 

Our last full day in Egypt. Woke up to brilliant sunshine but still cold. Some other boats were moored behind us in the night. I threw the loaned fishing line off our balcony deck with a bobber in the vain hope I might still catch something while packing for departure. I can't help but think some of the warm feelings from the captain and crew on our sendoff last night were dissipated when they had to haul our four large heavy bags off the boat, up the embankment, and into the waiting car this morning.

The short flight to Cairo was uneventful. Once again the arrangements facilitated by Oriental Tours Egypt was seamless. The handoff from guide, to crew,  to driver and airport made the security and transfer process simple, fast and less painful than flying in the U.S.  In Cairo, we are again met by Ramadan, who met us on our initial arrival. It felt like a homecoming. Actually, it was a homecoming.

We are whisked through crowded Cairo streets to the home of Sayed and his wife Noha. Sayed is the owner/director of Oriental Tours Egypt, arranged the Egypt trip with Sigrid, and has invited us to spend our last night in Egypt in their guest house.

They have a meal waiting for us on arrival. The warmth and hospitality they show us is something very special.  We enjoy another spectacular home cooked feast with Sayed, Noha, and their three delightful daughters - Sama, Hana, and Rana.

After dinner we talked about the trip, showed pictures, discussed the state of the travel industry, and even indulged in a bit of politics and religion.

As mentioned before, Sayed and Oriental Tours Egypt specializes in custom and small group tours of Egypt. To at least some degree Chinese, Japanese, and Russian tourism have partially filled the gap left by the dearth of American tourists in Egypt. However, those tourists tend to travel in large groups. Sayed's approach of smaller, individualized custom tours with superior service is more appealing to American and European travelers. He's hoping that we are in the vanguard of  American tourists returning to Egypt in some numbers. We'll do our part. When (not if) we return to Egypt, there is no one else we would consider working with.

If you are planning to tour Egypt, you can't do better than working with Oriental Tours Egypt and Sayed. With the exchange rate you could not pick a better time than right now. As far as safety, don't worry about it. I mean, do you really want to create the impression that Americans have become bigger travel wimps than the Chinese and Japanese?

Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Egypt and Jordan adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Internet access is always a crapshoot. My hope is that by pre-loading the itinerary it will be easier to add some pics and journal commentary as time and the internet permits. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. Further!

Egypt Day 12 - Esna - Edfu

Itinerary Day 12:  Esna - Edfu

"Morning Sailing gently en-route to Edfu; enjoy breakfast at your leisure, visit Edfu Temple by horse carriage, one of the largest and most intact of Egypt's monuments. Two beautiful granite statues of the Falcon God Horus flank the entrance. After your visit to the temple, either ride or walk through the bazaar, this is an extensive bazaar where you can barter for souvenirs, spices and perfumes. We will then set sail for our private island "El Fouza" where we will disembark for dinner served to you on the edge of the Nile."

Journal:
The cruise to Edfu is as relaxing as advertised. Edfu Temple is a favored stop for all tour boats cruising the Nile. We count at least half dozen large Nile cruise ships steaming past us as our dahabiya is towed upstream. There are more tied up at port when we get there.

They unloaded a lot of passengers at Edfu, all heading for the same temple. Fortunately Ismael is familiar with their schedule. He planned with the captain to arrive at Edfu around the time they are heading back to the boats. They have a tight schedule. We do not. It worked out pretty much as planned, although there was a bit of a horse carriage traffic jam as we approached the temple. 

The crowds thinned as we entered the temple grounds.

Ismael was doing double duty, providing context and guidance to Sigrid and me in English, then the same to the Egyptian families on board in Egyptian. It's not as easy as it sounds.

At Edfu, the meticulously carved falcon god Horus is a mandatory selfie...

And despite the apparent ancient heiroglyphic WiFi instructions carved into the walls...

 ... I couldn't get better than 2G/3G speeds on my T-Mobile internet connection.

We explore the temple and wall-to-wall carvings. The quality and exquisite state of this 3,000 year old art continues to amaze.

Back to the boat. Without a doubt, this is the best way to see Egypt.

I think there are 6 cabins on the boat in addition to our aft suite. Besides Sigrid and myself we had our guide Ismael, two Egyptian families with a total of 4 or 5 kids, and two French women with their Egyptian guide accompany us as fellow passengers.  We also had a professional photographer on board who was shooting the Amoura - presumably for future promotional materials.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of our passengers, as the photographer on board was like a papparazzi 9he got our permission first). We were told we'd get his pictures at the end of the trip, so I hope to supplement these posts with his pics. 

I am not sure exactly how many crew there are on board. Maybe eight. The captain, a cook, steward, 2 - 3 deckhands, also the manager of the three boat dahabiya fleet who also captains one of the other boats.

After a relaxing afternoon cruising and sailing upstream (plenty of river pics, but will save for future post), we set anchor on a small deserted island with a flat riverfront, and the crew set up a delicious riverside feast of barbecued meats and side dishes.

WORK IN PROGRESS - JOURNAL POST UNDER CONSTRUCTION - MORE PICS COMING

Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Egypt and Jordan adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Internet access is always a crapshoot. My hope is that by pre-loading the itinerary it will be easier to add some pics and journal commentary as time and the internet permits. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. Further!

Egypt Day 11 - Balloons and Boats

Itinerary Day 11:  Luxor - Esna

"In the early morning you have balloon trip over Luxor. After breakfast our Car and guide will pick you up from your hotel and start our journey to Esna, crew will welcome you on board and have your bags taken to your cabins. We will then set sail on your voyage to Aswan. Overnight close to El Hegz Island"

 Sunrise over the Nile in Luxor 

Journal: 
As instructed, we were in the lobby by 6:00 AM, along with a few other hotel guests intent on a balloon ride over Lexor. Our ride didn't get there until almost 6:30. We were shuffled onto a crowded tourist van, transported to a Nile river taxi to get us over the river, then another tourist van to the launch site. The sun was well up in the sky by the time our balloon was inflated.

Mohammed and Akhbar were coordinating logistics on the ground. One of the guests said she expected a sunrise ride. Mohammed explained that early fog this time of year meant there would not be a visible sunrise.  I showed Mohammed the picture I took as we cleared the river (see above). He shrugged. I asked how many passengers would be in each basket - thinking it would be 5 or 6 like our prior balloon experience. He said 30-35.  He then gave us a 30 second safety demonstration on how to prepare for a hard landing. I was beginning to have doubts about the whole deal.

Mohammed and Akhbar in charge.

Once we were off the ground, all misgivings melted away. It was magical...

Back to the Sofitel Winter Palace by 9 AM, said our fond farewells and checked out.

Sigrid says she is never leaving. She wants to live in this hotel. Good to know in case we feel we need to make a major lifestyle change with our newly elected president.

Ismael picks us up and we are off to Esna, where we will meet the dahabiya, crew, and fellow passengers who will accompany us for a 5 day cruise up the Nile to Aswan. But before we get there, I request one stop. I wasn't sure of the drinking arrangements on this cruise, so I asked to stop at Liquor store to pick up an emergency bottle of whiskey for medicinal purposes. Ismael found a store along the way.

You won't believe the deal I got on this "Johnny Walker Black Label" or "Jani Water Black Labl" as translated into Egyptian.  I just hope it doesn't blind me when I drink it.

Finally we meet the Amoura - our home for the next five days.

Think of a dahabiya as sailing barge. No engine, with large triangular sails on the bow and aft, it can only sail before the wind. It's accompanied by a towboat, which pulls the boat upwind or when there is no wind.

I am accustomed to great trip planning from my wife, but she outdid herself this time. We have the aft suite with our own private deck. Since the boat is always towed from the front, we enjoy nothing but quiet while we drift down the Nile.

As the sun set, the Amoura was under sail. So a few of us climbed aboard the towboat to take picture of the boat under sail.

Sigrid may want to live in the Luxor Winter Palace, but I am going to move to the Amoura Dahabiya.

WORK IN PROGRESS - BLOG POST UNDER CONSTRUCTION - MORE PICS COMING

Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Egypt and Jordan adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Internet access is always a crapshoot. My hope is that by pre-loading the itinerary it will be easier to add some pics and journal commentary as time and the internet permits. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back. Further!