I first went out there in May 2000 taking up a holiday for 2 at 80% off normal price. Me and the Mrs got two weeks in the Isis Hotel, Luxor (4 stars - but more like 5*) for £312 including airport transfer in Egypt (left my car at the airport at Gatwick and that cost of £25 for the fortnight’s parking was nearly 10% of the whole holiday cost!!)
Got to know the neighborhood on that first trip, and eventually decided upon a more DIY approach for my second trip, where I stayed with a family on the other side of town.
Employed a local to be my Arab voice, doubling up as Guide and he got his cousin (no English) to drive us all about to wherever we wanted to go. Got Ali to buy our tickets, and haggle the best prices for us on everything, so we ended up doing “Excursions” on a Bespoke (by me) layout, costing us £20 per day for the pair of us rather than the £60 per person for sweating it out on a tourist coach during the heat of the day…
No comparison…
I’m keen to get back out there again, and might even retire there, seeing as the cost of living is about £25pw for accommodation and £20pw for food… Electricity is practically free, since it comes from the Aswan Dam, and everything down the south of Egypt - is lit up like a Christmas tree, so the only poor aspect to our desert trip was the lack of dark skies for me to do a bit of stargazing as well - another of my hobbies…
I dislike the National Geographic bent on Egypt, as they seek to sensationalize and monetize Egypt as if it were their Tourist Trap…
My understanding is that President Sisi has sent them packing, and has made Egypt for the Egyptians now in our time…
And why the hell not?
This woman seems to have a better way of seeing stuff “off the beaten track” than most, but when I was out there - I was offered (for a fee of £10-20) tombs to be opened for our perusal, and I turned down an offer to see the Tomb of Nefertari for £20, which I’ve now yet to see… It is the best decorated tomb in Egypt…
Tutankhamun’s tomb - has the Pharaoh himself lying in state in there, and the tomb of Seti II had the mummy of Nebseni, a court official - lying at the entrance in his own hermatically sealed glass case as well… Fitting, seeing as he was originally found blocking the entrance to the now famous Deir El Bahri cache found in 1881 which had 36 royal mummies in there, another 14 found a few years later in 1898 in the newly discovered tomb of Amenhotep II - the first pharaoh ever to be found still in his own sarcophagus at that time…
Back in 2000, Egypt was recovering it’s reputation knock it took from the 1997 Hatshepsut Temple massacre, meaning tourism was down 90% - just fine and dandy for an antisocial git like me, even back then…
Following the spectacular parade last weekend, I would have to agree with this lady’s verdict that “Now is a great time to go” - still quiet, after the lockdown, but before the huge crowds of tourists turn up to spoil it all again…
I also spent a weekend at Hurgada coastal resort, travelling the 4 hours across the Eastern Desert in local’s vehicles, rather than any fancy coaches… Went snorkelling in the Red Sea doing that, and almost come a cropper from the severe sunburn I got on my back legs, which put me into some kind of shock at the time… I don’t remember the trip across the desert back to Luxor, put it that way…
If I were to retire there, I would probably buy up something like Castle Carter on the West Bank…
Zoopla - eat your heart out!
