Day 34, 7 August 2012, Aswan to Abu Simbel (Road Trip!), Kom Ombo Temple, Egyptian Party - The day started early. Very Early. 3 am (in the morning!) early. Nevertheless, time, tide and government bus convoys wait for no tourists. We're off to Abu Simbel. As I write, the sun is rising over the Sahara, and we are speeding along an excellent road smack bang in the middle of the desert. The convoy necessitates the early start, but more importantly temperatures re...

Day 33, 6 August 2012, Train arrival at Aswan, Transfer to the ship for the Nile Cruise, Visits to Aswan's High Dam and the Temple of Philae - We arrived at the Isis Hotel Aswan for a brief freshen up and at that point did the twain divide - to meet again in a few days. We paid our upgrade money and checked into the 5 star Nile Cruise ship the MS Nile Style - our first cruise ever and on waters so smooth even I couldn't get ship-sick. Gorgeous room, big bed and ...

Day 32, 5 August 2012, The Pyramids of Giza, The Sphinx and The Pyramids of Saqquara and on to Aswan by overnight sleeper train - Our guide, like 80% of the male population in Egypt is called Mohammed. To avoid stampedes at tourist sites if one of us calls out for assistance, he goes by Momo - and our group is his family for the next week. Just like every family, there are probably one or two from the shallow end of the gene pool - but that remains to be seen. ...

Day 31, 4 August 2012, Cairo to Giza - Downtown Cairo, US$27/night including breakfast & wifi... Giza, The Oasis Hotel, US$180/night... Yup, the ridiculous to the sublime via one of Egypt's new, swish, black & white metered taxis. Now it wasn't the near punchup with an opposing cabbie when we jumped in and yelled Yella Yella! (go go!), it wasn't the almost complete lack of English - once he figured out we were heading to Giza, we got on the right road a...

Day 30, 3 August 2012, Day Trip to Alexandria - Established 321 BC by Alexander the Great (no modesty issues there then dude...) We had no prior intentions of visiting Alexandria but our driver from the airport reckoned it was definitely a day trip and 2-3 hours each way in an air-conditioned car seemed like nothing after Africa. Now not being particularly "seat of the pants" type folks, it was completely out of character for us to be reading the guidebook en r...