"tnaegypt": T&A in Egypt

Our Egypt Trip

So it figures that as we leave England, the temperature is 30°C (85°F) - finally hot after a really yucky spring and early summer. Anyway, it is just a tad hotter than that as we land in Taba. We flew in at 9:30pm and night - especially dark as we looked out of the window of the plane - there were barely any lights on the ground. The darkness thickened as the runway lights were turned off just moments after we hit the ground. I suppse ground control felt our plane's headlights were strong enough. That's an Egyptian thing - as we drove the 45mins from the airport to the coast, we noted no-one drives with their lights on. At best, they use parking lights and then flash their brights just as they pass one another in the narrow mountain passes.

Anyway, back to heat, the next morning we woke up to 46°C/115°F sunshine, lovely pool water and crystal-clear Red Sea to snorkel in.

ENJOY THE PICTURES!

Mmmm, Warrrmmm...

This is the sign that we woke up to on our first day at the Taba Heights Marriott. You really could feel the amazing 10° difference in temperature sun-shade. This was NOT the sort of place you could walk around barefoot (without burning your feet that is).

View of the Marriott

A nice view of the resort from the Red Sea - I'm standing out in the water at low tide - note it's crystal clear - looking back at the resort amidst the palm trees with the mountains behind.

Rooms at the resort were great - varied architecture, and blocks of 2-3 storey buildings made it feel more like you were walking around a town rather than a hotel.

Flowers

There were some gorgeous flowers planted around the resort

Trying to Grow Grass

And what was so interesting was that all this was in the middle of the desert, every single thing they grew had to have extensive irrigation. Heaven knows what the golf course cost!

Sunset at the Pool

My Birthday!

Buffet at the Resort - Eat Eat Eat !!

My Favourite, "Karish Cheese"

First Town

Tuesday 21st June: we woke up at 4am and were on the minibus by 4:30am with a French couple (living in Greenwhich) and a Sudanese man (living in Notting Hill) a driver, and two security guards. On the drive across the Sinai desert from Taba to Cairo - this was the first town we saw after 2 hours of nothing. I think it's name was "Nakhl". Cairo was still 3 more hours away!

Shisha Pipes

Cairo Skyline

We arrived in Cairo at about 10am

Crossing the Nile in Cairo

Cairo Streetscene

Another Cairo Streetscene

Cairo Man

At the "Papyrus Museum"

(where we were, of course, expected to buy something - note price tags on all pictures behind)

T&A Outside the Egypt National Museum

Timothy the TV Star!

And of course, what would be a T&A trip without something totally random happening - Timothy being interviewed by 'Nile TV' on his feelings as a tourist in Cairo/Egypt.

Tim & Mountain Dew!

T&A At Giza

In front of "the big one"

Looking Back at Cairo

Sitting at the foot of the Pyramid, looking back at Cairo

T&A at Giza

At the corner of the "big one", with the "medium one" behind. The "medium" one used to be covered in red granite.

Police on Camels

And even they wanted "baksheesh" (tips) for letting us take pictures of them!

The Great Sphynx

With the great pyramid behind, you can even see a little dust storm (we endured several just in our time walking around)

T&A with the Sphynx

T&A At Spynx

Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, Cairo

Our Guard

And of course, we had to stay with our "guard" - the 12-year-old looking boy in the dark blue suit with an MP15 slung under his jacket - (those are more police behind in the white).

His Gun

"This one 'ta...........ta............ta', this one, 'ta-ta....ta-ta....ta-ta', this one, 'brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' !!!!

Sinai Group

The group with which we climbed mount Sinai. We started climbing around 2am Thursday 23rd June. This picture was taken at the 'rest stop' before the last 700 steps to the summit - we'd climbed 3,000 by then. (Group: Afifa, Emine, Stephanie, Loic, Timbo)