We had been advised to take the fast ferry from Nuweiba, Egypt to Aqaba, Jordan. The problem was it didn't run on Saturdays, the intended day of our departure from Dahab. Dahab's seductive nature had us already behind schedule, meaning that we were losing some precious time in Jordan. Spending the night in the small beach town of Nuweiba would not only peel us off Dahab's giant lounge pillows, it would give us the opportunity to see another part of Egypt and get ...

Our trip to Mount Sinai began with a small 15-passenger minibus picking us up at 11:00pm from our hostel. We were joined by a group of Swedish students and two Japanese men. The two and a half hour drive was quite cramped and uncomfortable making it impossible to sleep; thankfully we had taken an evening nap prior to our late night departure. We had heard about the sunrise trek to Mount Sinai's summit (2,285 meters high) by another Canadian traveler that we met...

Our 14-hour bus trip turned into a 20-hour marathon that had our foursome quite agitated and uncomfortable. The bus seats barely reclined and were very tight with little leg room, we had flashbacks of Nepal. Lucky for us we had our happy pills to help the time pass.On the plus side, we traveled through some of the most spectacular rocky desert landscapes we've ever seen. Although Egypt is a heavily tracked tourist destination, there is still unrest and recent...

Although the Great Pyramids of Giza get most of Egypt's international attention, Luxor is also a must-see destination due to its many ancient royal tombs and magnificent temples. Luxor, considered to be the world largest outdoor museum, is divided amongst the East and West Banks of the river Nile. The East Bank is believed to be the "Life" side of the Nile River and the West Bank is referred to as the "Dead" side. Immediately after arriving i...

Our next task was to organize our 12-hour overnight train from Cairo to Luxor. Upper Egypt is actually south of Cairo. It seems backwards but its based on the Nile River, which flows downhill from the highlands of middle Africa to the Nile Delta (Mediterranean Sea). So Luxor is Upper Egypt and Alexandria is Lower Egypt. Purchasing the train tickets seemed like a fairly simple task. We jumped on the underground metro, an experience on its own, and arrived at th...