Here I sit on my balcony at the Movenpick in Aswan overlooking the Nile and the hustling and bustling going on right across the river in town where life goes on for most Egyptians who live on few cents a day and depend on baksheesh.(Picture:http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2791/img16752.jpg Aren't I sexy?) What is baksheesh? That is the tip you pay these people to boost their income. For example, you use a bathroom in
the airport you pay 1LE baksheesh, you want toilet paper 1LE. Honestly, this is ridiculous, if they were paid a proper wage
then this would not be a problem. The way I see it is the rich egyptians who employ these people pay them the few cents and
then pawn them off to the travelers who they expect will cover the income gap with this baksheesh, ridiculous I say!I am trying to fight back against this baksheesh but it is not easy..more on that later.
Sadly, we check out at 1 from this beautiful(movenpick) place and head to the airport to catch our 330 flight back to our final destination - CAIRO. The movenpick hotel is located on an island which is serviced by the 24-hour movenpick ferry. The hotel cost $70/night but it is like a 4/5-star hotel(I can't tell nor know the difference). We get free breakfast buffet, a dinner buffet costs 100LE each, big water bottle 12LE each. There are also parfum shops that can make you anything scent youd like or a suit shop that will make a man or women the type of suit or dress they'd like. Also heard this song on MTV here which is amazing(Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU-J6J8_Ytk)
I really do wish I walked more around Aswan but considering Tuesday and Wednesday nights were our only nights at a legitimate hotel we wanted to relax more and my lack of sleep finally helped me sleep better the last 2 nights.
Before I discuss Aswan let me step back a minute and discuss our little adventure in Luxor, after we got to our rooms at the Bob Marley we relaxed for a few got food and then passed out. There are no TVs or WiFi at this place because it is a simple hostel. Some people may be turned off by this but I loved it. The hospitality of the staff was amazing, soon as we came in they gave us Mango Juice which was amazing. The staff was just chill and the roof amazing. I passed out for a bit on their hammock and there were many other travelers who liked this place but onto what we did/did not do in Luxor.
So there are tons of sights in Luxor, they are: Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Colossus of Memnon, Hateshput temple, Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.
We first headed to the Valley of the Kings where we saw 3 tombs which was great and if you wanted to see Tut's tomb it was an extra 100LE fee and didn't partake in that. After going to the Valley we were just dying of thirst, only if I listened to my own advice and brought water with me. No worries here I AM ALIVE and kicking after quenching my thirst. Another thing is inside the tomb photos are not allowed. I thought I would try to be sneaky and take photos until reality kicked in when as I was going in I saw a man and his wife/girlfriend's cameras confiscated inside the tomb. They are very strict about the no photography policy.
After the Valley we went to Hateshput temple where we stood outside and took photos, didn't think the fee was worth it or didn't think so because the tour guide said it wasn't, guess I will never truly know. After that we stopped by this Alabster place which the guide goes it is free but its such a stupid scam where they show you something in hopes of making you buy things at that point I said no and our tour guide got pissed at us.(so if your guide ever asks do you want to see alabster just say NO!) Then he goes why don't we take the boat across the nile and let our van come as itll take one hour to get back. We were like fine and paid 10LE and ended up at the Luxor temple when we wanted to go to the Karnak temple but whatever. The key to a successful trip is a good tour guide and this guy was horrible at best an asshole at worse. We did not tip him because of his bad service. Oh and as we were driving to the boat/pier we passed the Colossus of Memnon which looked cool but didn't think they were worth the stop.
By the time we were finished with all this it was about 12-1230 and our train was at 5 so we were like frack what do we do? Duh! Let's go back to the same restaurant we went to last night have a nice feast and get some free wifi to check our emails and stuff. We were there for a hour and half before we headed back to teh Bob Marley where we left our bags and went to the rooftop and passed out. We woke up around 4 headed to the train station only for our train to arrive at 550PM when the guy handling our tour told us the train will be there at 5. My god that wait was disgusting - so hot and humid and flies just loved us that we were covered in them. The train ride back to Aswan was uneventful but it wasn't as great of a first class
ride like it was to Luxor. Below I wrote down how much it costs to enter each of the sites we went to.
On Wednesday we had to get up a 2AM to make it across the river by 315AM to catch the 4AM convoy to abu simbel. There is no real military escort but a military person posted in the 1st bus and last bus of the convoy with lots and lots of checkpoints. Going through the desert that early in the morning is just a sight of its own. At 5AM on our way to Abu Simbel you can see millions of stars light up the sky and every now and then a shooting star which makes it a spectacular night time journey. You can take the 11am convoy, but why? And then at around 6-630 you see the sunrise in the desert which is just another amazing sight to see - it is totally mesmerizing. I want to note that when I was on this convoy I kind of do feel what the guys over in iraq and afghanistan must feel - that at any time a band of bandits or bombers might just come and kidnap you for ransom in the middle of the desert. Another reason there is a "military" convoy is because at 4am it is even worse to drive thru the road of Abu Simbel, for a period of few minutes we drove right thru a sandstorm which was pretty cool. I got to experience alot of deserty firsts and it feels great. The 4AM convoy gets into Abu Simbel around 7AM. That time is perfect because the sun has just risen and it is not hot yet. It felt like a good cool 80 degrees.(Also after the hatesphut temple killings in 1997 and the bombings of earlier this year it is good to have a "military escort".
Anyone that comes to Aswan and doesn't do the Abu Simbel tour is just crazy. Going to Abu Simbel has so far been a great highlight of my trip. Seeing those statues hundreds of feet high in the sky knowing this is what the Nubians(the african's south of egypt) saw when they first came to Egypt during the Phranoic times feels like I am a part of living history and it feels amazing. By 9-930AM it starts to get hot and lucky for us we were on our way back to Aswan because besides seeing the statues there is pretty much nothing else to do unless you dare trek further south to Sudan(gasp!).
The ride back to Aswan was uneventful as we got there by 1230, we went to our hotel, took a quick nap and then at 2pm were back across the river to see the high dam, unfinished obelisk and the phalean temple. At this point we got a tour guide named Rico who spoke great english, if you come to Aswan request HIM! He was great on giving us knowledge about each of these sites but also just general knowledge and tips about Egypt and Aswan. Much better guide than we had in Luxor and thus he deserved a good tip too. Now this is just funny, half the time people think I am egyptian and the other half they go Indian, NAMASTE! it is way too funny at the sites in luxor and aswan. I feel great looking egyptian so I don't get totally ripped off on buying things.
After the tour ended we went back to our room at 515 and took another catnap then went back across the river to take a sunset felucca ride, it was pretty cool ride but hate the fact that they try to sell necklaces and stuff, but i guess they need to make a living somehow. After the ride Essmat(our point of contact) took us to a shisha(hookah) place where the guys were doing shisha but lo and behold right across the street was a sugarcane joint - WOHOOOO!!! I ran across the street like a little boy would run after the ice cream man and just pointed to the sugarcane without saying a word. The cost was .75paistres. The guide told us locals pay .50 and tourists pay 1LE so I guess i am an in-between, fair enough for me for a good class of sugarcane juice.
Afte that we returned to our great movenpick where it costs 40LE to use the internet for 30minutes, what a rip-off but whatever. Anyhow this is where we got our delicious buffet for 100LE each and stuffed ourselves with such a ridiculous amount of dessert that we were on a dessert high and the staff looked at us in disbelief/awe. At one point the staff was scared of my brother because the amount of food he ate he just goes okay so take your time to eat..ahaha.
The next day(which is Thursday morning) we woke up at 10 and ran downstairs for our breakfast before heading back up and passing out for a bit to which I woke by starting this entry. This is where I say hahaha succkkaas in NY who started law school enjoy the work!! Anyhow at 1 we checked out finished paying the bill headed across the river and waited a bit before heading to the airport.
In between I went to the bank where I took out some cash and will be adding egyptian coins to my collection - yay! On my way back I had some pens in my pocket and I saw a little kid and gave him one and as soon as I gave him one he pointed to his friend who I gave one too also then out of nowhere I SEE this older kid who also asks me for one. I gave it to him and kept walking then he started hissing at me and calling to which I walked really fast even though I wasn't scared - I SWEAR I WASN'T! and walked back to my point of contact and driver.
Let me go back again to Baksheesh. I wanted to tip the people at the Bob Marley because of their superb hospitality and instead they go we do not accept tips our happiness if your smile and us providing good hospitality. So I said what I can do they said just enjoy it and you will get an email from hostelworld requesting a review and you just write whatever you want good or bad, I wrote only good things. But my hospitality came when I gave them 15 pens. And I know they truly appreciated them. You may ask how? Because they checked to make sure the pens actually worked. I feel like I did a bit of my work as an
humanitarian and it feels good to give back and just goes to show that things other than money CAN and WILL make people happy!
Anyway, the airport is 20-30minutes from the city and is a nice drive. On our drive Essmat brought us some dates as a gift and we headed to the airport. As we got there these guys came at us and took our bags. We had to tip them 20LE for carrying our bags when we were just as capable of carrying our bags. Out of the trip so far this part of the baksheesh for carrying our bags really really pissed me off. I was going to flip but kept my calm.
Another thing is that airport security is ridiculous with flaws. For example: To enter the airport in aswan you need to show yoru ticket and passport if you cannot then you cannot enter the airport. Then you go thru security before you can check-in to the airport. Once you check-in you go to your gate where there is a sign that liquids arent permitted, but guess what? It is definitely not enforced because when you go to the gate you go thru another security system. So security within security which is just a false sense of security in reality and really irritated at me when you had to show a ticket to just enter the airport. I mean let me show my American passport, seriously? Anyhowt the flight back to Cairo was uneventful as I had a whole row to myself and just passed out. The flight to cairo was good as the one to aswan was very scary cause of all the
turbulence but geez looking out the window the amount of pollution is pure ridiculousness. Once we landed in Cairo we had to wait 1hr just to get our bag and we were the only flight that came in in the domestic terminal. Sometimes the system is so inefficiently slow that it makes me mad but then I also like it because it is the old world egyptian/east asian way of doing things, slowly and with lots and lots of patience. At one point my brother joked maybe our bags aren't coming back the baksheesh hasn't been paid.
Back in Cairo on our way to Juliana via car was fun. Driving in Cairo is not for the faint of heart, driving in Cairo is like driving in Bombay and definitelty worse than NYC, only in places like this can 1 lane turn into 3 random lanes.
After getting into our place for the weekend we ordered some pizza hut where for the amount of food we received we paid only $5 per person, SO SO CHEAP. One thing I did notice is that Subway prices are universal they will be on par with US prices or more expensive. After dinner we walked around a bit(video here:[Will post video later as it is tooo big to upload here] picture here: http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8313/img2004d.jpg)(that picture is from garden city across the river, and that big phallic looking thing is the cairo tower) and headed to the galleria mall and hyatt hotel where if you are not a hotel guess each person must run a tab of 95LE and 1 toothbrush costs $5USD(so expensive!) before calling it a night. Tomorrow will be a great long day. I still need to buy my gifts and send some postcards out and see the grand finale we are all anticipating - the Giza Pyramids! Oh i forgot to put the prices, i will find the paper and post my calculations in my next post but the total spent on entrance fees per person so
far has been $60USD and tips so far spent has been about $100USD.
Hope ya'll enjoyed the pictures and videos!
Till next time!
Nilay, Under Construction
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
And the sun starts shining at the moment...
Here I am at 3AM in Luxor(8pm ny time) and I just cannot sleep. I can't figure out what is wrong, my sleep cycle is totally fubar'd. I know I am not jet-lagged cause I will be up when we need to be up and be all energetic and ready to go but overall I just cannot seem to fall asleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I refuse to take ambien. Today(Tuesday, i think it is tuesday) we have a big day. After all the running around and seeing airports and train stations for day and half to 2 days without seeing a single sight in egypt things have begun to calm down as now we truly do have a structured itinerary and everything is pretty much set for the rest of our time here, i am happy at how things have changed in just a day and a half for the better, but it had to get worse before it could get any better.
I am still trying to figure out what we should do on Friday and Sunday in Cairo(saturday is giza..anticipation has been building up since we saw the pyramids from the plane on sunday). Thank god for the internet and guide books that help you get a basic idea of what to do and see in a city. However, I don't want to just see the touristic sites, I want to get down and see the culture of cairo, how people love, live, eat, interact. To me coming to a city is one-dimensional if we cannot see the city through a local's eye. Please wish me luck on that adventure as I try to figure out spots where I can see the nitty-gritty cairo city life.
I am liking egypt so far to a point, we flew into Aswan on Monday and then took the train from aswan to luxor. That plane ride, all though 50 minutes was just way to turbulent and looking out the window all we see is pollution, I want to hope that its all the sand just dusting around but i doubt it. So we landed in aswan safely, or else this entry would not be here and began our back-tracking trek.
I think so far Aswan seems like such an interesting and beautiful city just by driving through it. It has this weird unspeakable charming look to it that has my eyes noticing and I cannot wait to be back there later in the evening at our movenpick resort overlooking the nile and the sunset felucca ride to come(ya ya, i probably am a romantic at heart).
So we got in at 4pm in Aswan and soon as I got out of the plane I feel like I was bitch-slapped by the hot humid heat. My god! Wear that suntan lotion people cause it may just hurt you. we chilled out for a bit, the train station was close by, had a falfel drank some water. This is where I say STAY FRACKIN'THIRSTY, my friends! Seriously, drink bottled water, it is ridicuously cheap and it will save you from dehydration. So we got on our train in the 1st class compartment all A.C'ed and it got kinda chilly BUT and I say this as a YOU MUST! Please take the train between aswan and luxor the scenery/landscape is just beautiful and mesmerizing. Seeing the nile on the side of the train and seeing the sun set in the back of the high hills overlooking the nile is just great.(I like photography and scenic landscapes so this is just pure heaven). But also you get to see how the people live in the rural areas with their donkeys and rice paddy fields among other things. But you also get to see the darker poorer side of egypt as you see trash, people without shoes and dirty, it helps me realize how lucky we are in the US for having the things we do and taking the things we have for granted. But please please take the train ride it will be worth it.
So if you noticed I wrote I like egypt to a point. There are some negatives that I need to put out there so people can be better prepared. Pollution is the biggest problem, it is just ridiculous at how polluted the air is, everytime I take a breath I feel my lungs becoming dirtier, darker and less able. Another thing is, for most people who have not been to 3rd-world type countries Egypt can be quite a culture shock. For example a friend had a trash bag in hand and the train conductor just took the bag and threw it out which leads me to hate the fact that trash is so rampant everywhere.
Lastly, and we found this really really funny, we went to eat dinner after walking around at 10pm in luxor(stores and people seem to stay open and out, respectively, well past midnite here. I like that carefreeness). I've noticed that people that have less are oh so much happier and care free and more relaxed. Look at me, I am 23, living in NYC and am stressed out of my mind every freaken day with the bad job market for law students and planning on what my next move is. I just want to be carefree, go with the flow and say eff it, what life has in store for me it will just lead me to it, there is no fighting it.
Oh right, back to the story, sometimes I get lost in my own thoughts, so we went out to this pizza place where we got 2x1.75litre water bottles, 2 cans of coke, large topping pizza and french fries all for only $11 and if you split it it is less than 3-4$. That is amazing! The funny thing is that when our friend paid the bill the waiter gave a ripped dirty old 5LE note among others. I looked at it and said get this changed, most people don't take old notes. And my theory was proved correct when we called the waiter over and he saw the 5LE note in our hand he had this smirk and knew exactly what we wanted.
So that is my last warning, don't take old ripped notes as most people(taxi, stores, etc..) will not accept them and they try to hand it off to travelers who don't know any better. I feel like tonight we earned egypt street cred by getting our bill exchanged but also felt proud that growing up in ny we know a bit about street smarts and haggling.
People when you come to egypt, BRUSH UP ON YOUR BARGAINING SKILLS, if you cannot bargain you deserve to be robbed, seriously!
For example the abu simbel/felucca ride was offered to us for $65USD per person we managed to bargain it down to $35, that is about half the original price. Be persistent and make them earn your money, you earned yours through hardwork and so should they. I am not egyptian so I don't know if the price we got for abu simbel and felucca ride is great or not but comparing it to what we've seen and read it seems like a pretty good deal(any comments on this?). So Please don't be one of those ignorant travelers who just says yes to everything cause you might as well be waving your foreign passport in one hand and throwing ALL your money at them in the other.
P.S. if anyone has any requests regarding egypt and stuff email me, facebook message me or leave me a comment.
P.P.S I took a picture of the giza pyramids from our plane on the iphone, not the best picture but check it out here: http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9117/padcmisc237.jpg
Till next time
-Nilay, under Construct
I am still trying to figure out what we should do on Friday and Sunday in Cairo(saturday is giza..anticipation has been building up since we saw the pyramids from the plane on sunday). Thank god for the internet and guide books that help you get a basic idea of what to do and see in a city. However, I don't want to just see the touristic sites, I want to get down and see the culture of cairo, how people love, live, eat, interact. To me coming to a city is one-dimensional if we cannot see the city through a local's eye. Please wish me luck on that adventure as I try to figure out spots where I can see the nitty-gritty cairo city life.
I am liking egypt so far to a point, we flew into Aswan on Monday and then took the train from aswan to luxor. That plane ride, all though 50 minutes was just way to turbulent and looking out the window all we see is pollution, I want to hope that its all the sand just dusting around but i doubt it. So we landed in aswan safely, or else this entry would not be here and began our back-tracking trek.
I think so far Aswan seems like such an interesting and beautiful city just by driving through it. It has this weird unspeakable charming look to it that has my eyes noticing and I cannot wait to be back there later in the evening at our movenpick resort overlooking the nile and the sunset felucca ride to come(ya ya, i probably am a romantic at heart).
So we got in at 4pm in Aswan and soon as I got out of the plane I feel like I was bitch-slapped by the hot humid heat. My god! Wear that suntan lotion people cause it may just hurt you. we chilled out for a bit, the train station was close by, had a falfel drank some water. This is where I say STAY FRACKIN'THIRSTY, my friends! Seriously, drink bottled water, it is ridicuously cheap and it will save you from dehydration. So we got on our train in the 1st class compartment all A.C'ed and it got kinda chilly BUT and I say this as a YOU MUST! Please take the train between aswan and luxor the scenery/landscape is just beautiful and mesmerizing. Seeing the nile on the side of the train and seeing the sun set in the back of the high hills overlooking the nile is just great.(I like photography and scenic landscapes so this is just pure heaven). But also you get to see how the people live in the rural areas with their donkeys and rice paddy fields among other things. But you also get to see the darker poorer side of egypt as you see trash, people without shoes and dirty, it helps me realize how lucky we are in the US for having the things we do and taking the things we have for granted. But please please take the train ride it will be worth it.
So if you noticed I wrote I like egypt to a point. There are some negatives that I need to put out there so people can be better prepared. Pollution is the biggest problem, it is just ridiculous at how polluted the air is, everytime I take a breath I feel my lungs becoming dirtier, darker and less able. Another thing is, for most people who have not been to 3rd-world type countries Egypt can be quite a culture shock. For example a friend had a trash bag in hand and the train conductor just took the bag and threw it out which leads me to hate the fact that trash is so rampant everywhere.
Lastly, and we found this really really funny, we went to eat dinner after walking around at 10pm in luxor(stores and people seem to stay open and out, respectively, well past midnite here. I like that carefreeness). I've noticed that people that have less are oh so much happier and care free and more relaxed. Look at me, I am 23, living in NYC and am stressed out of my mind every freaken day with the bad job market for law students and planning on what my next move is. I just want to be carefree, go with the flow and say eff it, what life has in store for me it will just lead me to it, there is no fighting it.
Oh right, back to the story, sometimes I get lost in my own thoughts, so we went out to this pizza place where we got 2x1.75litre water bottles, 2 cans of coke, large topping pizza and french fries all for only $11 and if you split it it is less than 3-4$. That is amazing! The funny thing is that when our friend paid the bill the waiter gave a ripped dirty old 5LE note among others. I looked at it and said get this changed, most people don't take old notes. And my theory was proved correct when we called the waiter over and he saw the 5LE note in our hand he had this smirk and knew exactly what we wanted.
So that is my last warning, don't take old ripped notes as most people(taxi, stores, etc..) will not accept them and they try to hand it off to travelers who don't know any better. I feel like tonight we earned egypt street cred by getting our bill exchanged but also felt proud that growing up in ny we know a bit about street smarts and haggling.
People when you come to egypt, BRUSH UP ON YOUR BARGAINING SKILLS, if you cannot bargain you deserve to be robbed, seriously!
For example the abu simbel/felucca ride was offered to us for $65USD per person we managed to bargain it down to $35, that is about half the original price. Be persistent and make them earn your money, you earned yours through hardwork and so should they. I am not egyptian so I don't know if the price we got for abu simbel and felucca ride is great or not but comparing it to what we've seen and read it seems like a pretty good deal(any comments on this?). So Please don't be one of those ignorant travelers who just says yes to everything cause you might as well be waving your foreign passport in one hand and throwing ALL your money at them in the other.
P.S. if anyone has any requests regarding egypt and stuff email me, facebook message me or leave me a comment.
P.P.S I took a picture of the giza pyramids from our plane on the iphone, not the best picture but check it out here: http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/9117/padcmisc237.jpg
Till next time
-Nilay, under Construct
And it all turns upside down...
So this was written up in Aswan on less than 2 hours of sleep in the past 30 hours. It may be boring but I welcome your
critiques on how I can spice it up and make it more entertaining as my mind is not fully functional when I have a
scalding hot laptop on my lap giving me lacerations(spelling?). Future wife, we may not be able to have babies if I keep this up, but the time together will be fun, GURANTEED! On to my little bs blurb. Oh wait, one more thing, at the end of it I am going to write down the prices and money I spent individually so you, future egypt travelers, can get an idea of how much things will cost per person.
So the flight was a loooooooong one it felt like I was going to India. But I was excited, we had a strict itinerary that we made so we feel a bit structured and know what the hell
we are going to end up doing day by day. If yall don't know Egypt is 7 hours ahead of Eastern standard time
We flew Delta airlines, the flights scheduled departure time was 10PM but we didn't pullout (thats what she said)
till 1030-1040PM. The flight was for the most part uneventful. As we were arriving into Cairo we got to see our first glimpse of the giza
pyramids and I am loving every minute of the anticipation buildup since that will wait till the weekend.
We didn't have our own personal AVOD systems so it was boring.
As a vegeterian I should've ordered the vegeterian meal but I learned after flying to Dublin on delta - the veg food sucks.
We took a stab at just getting the available meals and it was pasta for dinner and pizza for lunch - it wasn't bad but it
wasn't that good either - I lived thru the airline food. We arrived at 4pm on the flight all groggy and stuff.
I was suppose to take Ambien but for some reason I hate taking pills even if I will end up buying them, sometimes I myself
wonder why I spend money on medicine I will never take(anyone want to buy Ambien?).
When we landed we went to customs and the line was ridicuously long. I already got my visa in NY for $15 but you can
as an american citizen get it for $15 us dollars in cairo airport at this placed called the banque something something.
While we were waiting on line this old lady slowly pushes us out of the way as we're up front and cuts 5 of us yelling YELLA YELLA! I don't know what that means but I hope she didn't curse us. Wait till Karma gets you back old lady for cutting!
OH SNAP, I just realized I am in EGYPT!!! Wohoo! I've made it! Also I am happy to say that this is the 4th continent I have touched this year. Australia and Asia here I COME! Back to your regular scheduled nilay blurb.
So we arrived in Cairo, got our bags, lets head into town and get reckless - WOHOO! No wait, crap, they don't use US dollars here they use this thing called the pound, egyptian pound, we need money so we took some us dollars with us and well soon as you
leave the airport from terminal 1 there is a bank of egypt exchange which gives you a pretty good rate of 5.53 with the
interbank rate being 5.54.
Now like most Americans we want to use our ATM cards and take money out as needed - fear not- there were HSBC and BNP Paribas
atms found at the terminals. BNP Paribas has an affilation with Bank of America so youll get the exact interbank rate without
a conversion fee or any other fees, I think. Oh and if you are a citibank user there were citibanks seen throughout Cairo.
Wait a second...Cairo? Yes, I said cairo even though we were suppose to take a train straight down to Luxor.
What a mess that was. We were awaiting on final member and that person wasn't to arrive until 10PM(or 2200hrs). We had to kill
6+ hrs at the airport and make our way from terminal 1 thru terminal 3. We were going to walk to terminal 3 until the police
gave us a reality check and told us it was 5 kilometers away and laughed at us thinking that we dare walk it.
Safe to say we didn't walk it cause it was 5 kilometers and with the bags we were carrying and the sweltering heat we dont think
we would've made it more than .25 kilometers without passing out. So we made our way around terminal 1 and ended up in the domestic
terminal where we mingled a bit with the egyptians who thought we were one of them. Awesome! except the fact that when they
start speaking arabic I just have this blank ignent(ignorant) look and just nod like a moron. Then they keep asking me, I wish there was an
international gesture for I really don't know what you are saying without speaking a word. Note to future Nilay: Learn arabic
or bits and pieces of it atleast. I know Salaam and shukria but I am slowly learning..very slowly.
So yea we're chilling at the airport we get some food and we hang out where the are no people and start taking random photos
and shooting videos but we get tired of that and take advantage of the free wifi offered in terminal 1. Terminal 3 you must
pay for wifi but if you enter thru security and are flying domestic park yourself near the egyptair business lounge
and take advantage of their unsecured wifi. I can't believe I am so connected to the world here in Egypt and I haven't even
left the airport. It's funny, we really haven't left the airport.
Geez, I digress so much, so we're waiting for our final memeber of the trip and the flight arrives at 945pm(or 2145) and we're like
awesome we can catch the 1215am train to luxor which is a 10hr journey in of itself. You ask why, nilay, why? why put yourself
thru another brutual 10 hours after going thru a 11hr flight. Well I say to you good lady or sir because we wanted to start our
trip backwards, start south egypt then work our way back up to cairo where we can relax and be easy.
So we're waiting for the final member and geez..10pm...1030...11pm..1130, finally the person comes out and we have only 45 mintues
to make it to the train station to be in luxor by 12noon. But wait, what's this? we're going to the Juliana hostel("hotel") and not the train station
whyyyy? we don't want to be in cairo we want to be out of here but guess what? There were no train tickets booked for us even though we had
countless back and forth emails. You ask why not? Are the egyptians lazy? Was there something lost in translation? In our defense
we said the last member arrives at 10 and we want to catch the 1215 train. You know what that means here? 10AM and 1215pm. So the guy who was to handle
this looked online and saw the flight was going to arrive at 2200hrs(note to future self: give military time internationally with "american time").
So the train tickets were never booked and they would cost $65usd for an overnight sleeper which we werent going to make since the last one leaves at 2200hrs(10pm). Shoots there goes
our itinerary, this is going to suck major, what will we do, how can we salvage our trip, we have a nice hotel booked in aswan and we need to keep our schedule. AAHHh! Headaches and nothing can be solved
at this our. So we did what any lost travler did We headed over to juliana paid for a night stay a shower(125LE for 2 people) and most of us passed out. I was so anxious like will we meet our schedule
what is going to happen?
The next morning(monday) the owner of juliana came by took me to the Egyptair office and we booked a same day flight to aswan as luxor flights were fully booked.
We paid oh..$155 for a round trip flight from aswan to cairo. Time saved? definitely, 8 hrs and a big headache. But for $20 more the flight is well worth it over a long
train ride. Trust me! I've trained it in Indian for over 24 hrs straight and it is NOT pretty at all.
So here I sit in the hotel without wireless internet for the first time in aswan waiting for our 6pm train to luxor where we'll be
staying at the bob marley hostel("hotel") and coming back to aswan tomorrow evening.
The owner of the Juliana for only $150 per person hooked us up with a fairly good deal IMO: This is what we get
airport drop off in cairo today, pickup in aswan with a train ticket to luxor, pickup in luxor to bob marley, tour of luxor tomorrow then drop off at train station with train ticket back to aswan, pick up in aswan to our hotel, a tour of aswan on thursday, drop off to aswan airport and pickup at cairo airport to the juliana, a tour of giza, saqaara and memphis
on saturday and a drop off to the airport for our flight back sunday at midnight(ahhhh! I'll be back just in time(645am) for work on monday morning and classes tuesday). AND A WHOLE LOT OF PEACE OF MIND! Money could definitely be saved but I learned by bother trying to setup everything indivdually? It just means you need to keep track of more things and make sure everything goes as planned and the people you have contracted with for certain things come thru. In our case we are so far happy that everything is centralized thru one person that means things are set, wheels are turning and no more moves need to be made on our end. We want to relax on this trip and not get overly stressed out thinking oh man what is tomorrow? will that person come thru for us for this part of our trip. I say eff it and just pay the money, bargain if you need to and have it all set up for you cause in the end it will be well worth it.
On a side note, I love walking around cairo (cause everywhere we go people want to know what we are and where we're from? They guess egyptian we say no! They say what? And we say indian and they go I like!) it is so much like india, cars don't stop for you, you make them stop by crossing the street and taking your chances -it is beautiful! As a New Yorker we are already used to this, so on Monday when we went for a walk we were dodging cars left and right like if I was playing frogger. We also found a little grocery store(there are tons) where for 5LE(less than 1USD) we got a .60litre bottle of
water and a 1litre bottle of Miranda(yea thats right, its that eastern stuff most of ya people don't know about, it is the good stuff!)
Our main man Essmat up in the aswan set us up with a ride to Abu Simbel and a felucca ride for 196LE(~35$). I don't know much about good deals but pre-trip I tried to set something up and it was pretty much the same price give or take a dollar but this way we have something that is set in stone in person which at times here is clutch because while they have email here things do not always get correctly translated and understood.
essmat(),
-Nilay, under construct.
critiques on how I can spice it up and make it more entertaining as my mind is not fully functional when I have a
scalding hot laptop on my lap giving me lacerations(spelling?). Future wife, we may not be able to have babies if I keep this up, but the time together will be fun, GURANTEED! On to my little bs blurb. Oh wait, one more thing, at the end of it I am going to write down the prices and money I spent individually so you, future egypt travelers, can get an idea of how much things will cost per person.
So the flight was a loooooooong one it felt like I was going to India. But I was excited, we had a strict itinerary that we made so we feel a bit structured and know what the hell
we are going to end up doing day by day. If yall don't know Egypt is 7 hours ahead of Eastern standard time
We flew Delta airlines, the flights scheduled departure time was 10PM but we didn't pullout (thats what she said)
till 1030-1040PM. The flight was for the most part uneventful. As we were arriving into Cairo we got to see our first glimpse of the giza
pyramids and I am loving every minute of the anticipation buildup since that will wait till the weekend.
We didn't have our own personal AVOD systems so it was boring.
As a vegeterian I should've ordered the vegeterian meal but I learned after flying to Dublin on delta - the veg food sucks.
We took a stab at just getting the available meals and it was pasta for dinner and pizza for lunch - it wasn't bad but it
wasn't that good either - I lived thru the airline food. We arrived at 4pm on the flight all groggy and stuff.
I was suppose to take Ambien but for some reason I hate taking pills even if I will end up buying them, sometimes I myself
wonder why I spend money on medicine I will never take(anyone want to buy Ambien?).
When we landed we went to customs and the line was ridicuously long. I already got my visa in NY for $15 but you can
as an american citizen get it for $15 us dollars in cairo airport at this placed called the banque something something.
While we were waiting on line this old lady slowly pushes us out of the way as we're up front and cuts 5 of us yelling YELLA YELLA! I don't know what that means but I hope she didn't curse us. Wait till Karma gets you back old lady for cutting!
OH SNAP, I just realized I am in EGYPT!!! Wohoo! I've made it! Also I am happy to say that this is the 4th continent I have touched this year. Australia and Asia here I COME! Back to your regular scheduled nilay blurb.
So we arrived in Cairo, got our bags, lets head into town and get reckless - WOHOO! No wait, crap, they don't use US dollars here they use this thing called the pound, egyptian pound, we need money so we took some us dollars with us and well soon as you
leave the airport from terminal 1 there is a bank of egypt exchange which gives you a pretty good rate of 5.53 with the
interbank rate being 5.54.
Now like most Americans we want to use our ATM cards and take money out as needed - fear not- there were HSBC and BNP Paribas
atms found at the terminals. BNP Paribas has an affilation with Bank of America so youll get the exact interbank rate without
a conversion fee or any other fees, I think. Oh and if you are a citibank user there were citibanks seen throughout Cairo.
Wait a second...Cairo? Yes, I said cairo even though we were suppose to take a train straight down to Luxor.
What a mess that was. We were awaiting on final member and that person wasn't to arrive until 10PM(or 2200hrs). We had to kill
6+ hrs at the airport and make our way from terminal 1 thru terminal 3. We were going to walk to terminal 3 until the police
gave us a reality check and told us it was 5 kilometers away and laughed at us thinking that we dare walk it.
Safe to say we didn't walk it cause it was 5 kilometers and with the bags we were carrying and the sweltering heat we dont think
we would've made it more than .25 kilometers without passing out. So we made our way around terminal 1 and ended up in the domestic
terminal where we mingled a bit with the egyptians who thought we were one of them. Awesome! except the fact that when they
start speaking arabic I just have this blank ignent(ignorant) look and just nod like a moron. Then they keep asking me, I wish there was an
international gesture for I really don't know what you are saying without speaking a word. Note to future Nilay: Learn arabic
or bits and pieces of it atleast. I know Salaam and shukria but I am slowly learning..very slowly.
So yea we're chilling at the airport we get some food and we hang out where the are no people and start taking random photos
and shooting videos but we get tired of that and take advantage of the free wifi offered in terminal 1. Terminal 3 you must
pay for wifi but if you enter thru security and are flying domestic park yourself near the egyptair business lounge
and take advantage of their unsecured wifi. I can't believe I am so connected to the world here in Egypt and I haven't even
left the airport. It's funny, we really haven't left the airport.
Geez, I digress so much, so we're waiting for our final memeber of the trip and the flight arrives at 945pm(or 2145) and we're like
awesome we can catch the 1215am train to luxor which is a 10hr journey in of itself. You ask why, nilay, why? why put yourself
thru another brutual 10 hours after going thru a 11hr flight. Well I say to you good lady or sir because we wanted to start our
trip backwards, start south egypt then work our way back up to cairo where we can relax and be easy.
So we're waiting for the final member and geez..10pm...1030...11pm..1130, finally the person comes out and we have only 45 mintues
to make it to the train station to be in luxor by 12noon. But wait, what's this? we're going to the Juliana hostel("hotel") and not the train station
whyyyy? we don't want to be in cairo we want to be out of here but guess what? There were no train tickets booked for us even though we had
countless back and forth emails. You ask why not? Are the egyptians lazy? Was there something lost in translation? In our defense
we said the last member arrives at 10 and we want to catch the 1215 train. You know what that means here? 10AM and 1215pm. So the guy who was to handle
this looked online and saw the flight was going to arrive at 2200hrs(note to future self: give military time internationally with "american time").
So the train tickets were never booked and they would cost $65usd for an overnight sleeper which we werent going to make since the last one leaves at 2200hrs(10pm). Shoots there goes
our itinerary, this is going to suck major, what will we do, how can we salvage our trip, we have a nice hotel booked in aswan and we need to keep our schedule. AAHHh! Headaches and nothing can be solved
at this our. So we did what any lost travler did We headed over to juliana paid for a night stay a shower(125LE for 2 people) and most of us passed out. I was so anxious like will we meet our schedule
what is going to happen?
The next morning(monday) the owner of juliana came by took me to the Egyptair office and we booked a same day flight to aswan as luxor flights were fully booked.
We paid oh..$155 for a round trip flight from aswan to cairo. Time saved? definitely, 8 hrs and a big headache. But for $20 more the flight is well worth it over a long
train ride. Trust me! I've trained it in Indian for over 24 hrs straight and it is NOT pretty at all.
So here I sit in the hotel without wireless internet for the first time in aswan waiting for our 6pm train to luxor where we'll be
staying at the bob marley hostel("hotel") and coming back to aswan tomorrow evening.
The owner of the Juliana for only $150 per person hooked us up with a fairly good deal IMO: This is what we get
airport drop off in cairo today, pickup in aswan with a train ticket to luxor, pickup in luxor to bob marley, tour of luxor tomorrow then drop off at train station with train ticket back to aswan, pick up in aswan to our hotel, a tour of aswan on thursday, drop off to aswan airport and pickup at cairo airport to the juliana, a tour of giza, saqaara and memphis
on saturday and a drop off to the airport for our flight back sunday at midnight(ahhhh! I'll be back just in time(645am) for work on monday morning and classes tuesday). AND A WHOLE LOT OF PEACE OF MIND! Money could definitely be saved but I learned by bother trying to setup everything indivdually? It just means you need to keep track of more things and make sure everything goes as planned and the people you have contracted with for certain things come thru. In our case we are so far happy that everything is centralized thru one person that means things are set, wheels are turning and no more moves need to be made on our end. We want to relax on this trip and not get overly stressed out thinking oh man what is tomorrow? will that person come thru for us for this part of our trip. I say eff it and just pay the money, bargain if you need to and have it all set up for you cause in the end it will be well worth it.
On a side note, I love walking around cairo (cause everywhere we go people want to know what we are and where we're from? They guess egyptian we say no! They say what? And we say indian and they go I like!) it is so much like india, cars don't stop for you, you make them stop by crossing the street and taking your chances -it is beautiful! As a New Yorker we are already used to this, so on Monday when we went for a walk we were dodging cars left and right like if I was playing frogger. We also found a little grocery store(there are tons) where for 5LE(less than 1USD) we got a .60litre bottle of
water and a 1litre bottle of Miranda(yea thats right, its that eastern stuff most of ya people don't know about, it is the good stuff!)
Our main man Essmat up in the aswan set us up with a ride to Abu Simbel and a felucca ride for 196LE(~35$). I don't know much about good deals but pre-trip I tried to set something up and it was pretty much the same price give or take a dollar but this way we have something that is set in stone in person which at times here is clutch because while they have email here things do not always get correctly translated and understood.
essmat(),
-Nilay, under construct.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
And so it begins...
Thank you all for visiting my blog. Please bookmark nilayshah.com, right now it is being hosted by blogspot which is fine with me.
I think I'll keep the title nilay under construction as it makes alot of sense. I'd like to point out that this will be an grammar free and speling free zone. So all you guys that want to correct my mistakes - DON'T!
I have alot to write about and will try to update this blog when I can.
I am leaving for a 10-day trip to Egypt, today, and yet I have time to start a blog...so this will turn into a travel blogs for the upcoming days. I should be packing or doing laundry or something instead of just sitting around and put-putting till I leave for JFK airport at 6-7PM for my 10pm flight.
I think it will be a beginning to a great weekend. My week started off well coming back from Pittsburgh and it ended well with my buddy coming in from Pittsburgh and us just hanging out from 330-12 just doing what random future professionals do. Everytime me and him get together we pretty much have a blast, people love us, people want to be us and people get jealous of us, I guess it is all about dynamics and the way you can interact with other people. Some people have the charm, the smile, the voice to win anyone ever(ahem ahem, joking), so do you?
One last thought, I was watching a documentary that said children without any siblings are more social people since they don't have any peers to talk to at home than people that do have siblings. To a point, I agree with that but I guess to any observation there is always an exception.
Hopefully my next post will be from EGYPT about EGYPT! Ambien(and bad flight food), here I come.
-Nilay, under construction.
I think I'll keep the title nilay under construction as it makes alot of sense. I'd like to point out that this will be an grammar free and speling free zone. So all you guys that want to correct my mistakes - DON'T!
I have alot to write about and will try to update this blog when I can.
I am leaving for a 10-day trip to Egypt, today, and yet I have time to start a blog...so this will turn into a travel blogs for the upcoming days. I should be packing or doing laundry or something instead of just sitting around and put-putting till I leave for JFK airport at 6-7PM for my 10pm flight.
I think it will be a beginning to a great weekend. My week started off well coming back from Pittsburgh and it ended well with my buddy coming in from Pittsburgh and us just hanging out from 330-12 just doing what random future professionals do. Everytime me and him get together we pretty much have a blast, people love us, people want to be us and people get jealous of us, I guess it is all about dynamics and the way you can interact with other people. Some people have the charm, the smile, the voice to win anyone ever(ahem ahem, joking), so do you?
One last thought, I was watching a documentary that said children without any siblings are more social people since they don't have any peers to talk to at home than people that do have siblings. To a point, I agree with that but I guess to any observation there is always an exception.
Hopefully my next post will be from EGYPT about EGYPT! Ambien(and bad flight food), here I come.
-Nilay, under construction.
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