Egypt — fulfilling a date with destiny

by Nili Olay, New York, NY

I believe I was always meant to go to Egypt...

I received my undergraduate degree in ancient Near Eastern Studies (Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, etc.) from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. I was married to an Egyptologist who, for a while, worked at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC.

But while he made frequent trips to Egypt, I was barred from entering the country — I had been born in Israel and the two countries were at war. Peace (of a sort) came, but life interfered in the guise of small children and a divorce.

So now, many years later, adding Egypt to my winter trip to Israel (to visit family and friends) seemed the logical thing to do.

Making arrangements

My husband, Jerry, and I like to be away from New York for a while in the winter, but we were warned that Egypt might be chilly in February. We had temperatures ranging from the high 40s at night to the mid-80s during a warm spell. Mostly, the weather was a comfortable mid-60s with bright, sunny skies.

I have traveled enough to know that I prefer to plan my own tour with a local company that will provide guides (and/or drivers), hotel transfers, etc., rather than take a prearranged tour that most often moves from site to site at lightning speed.

I always start my trip planning with ITN. For this trip, I looked up all articles printed in the last few years that mentioned Egypt and then wrote e-mails to three possible tour providers mentioned by ITN travelers.

I chose GAT Tours because Kim Hampton-Elkabbany, their representative, came up with an itinerary that most inspired me.

She suggested the Royal Cleopatra for our Nile cruise plus the overnight train between Cairo and Luxor/Aswan ($110 per person, round trip, with dinner and breakfast). Both were just perfect for us. She was even able to find flights into Cairo and out of Tel Aviv on two airlines; a search on the Internet and calls to El Al had drawn complete blanks.

After a few weeks of back-and-forth e-mails, the Egypt trip was set for Jan. 24-Feb. 10, ’05. We made our flight arrangements — New York to Cairo, then Tel Aviv to New York — with Air France because it is one of the few airlines that fly to both cities. Air France also gave us a bonus option of ending the trip with a few days in Paris.

I can honestly say it was the perfect trip, except for being too short!

Getting there

The trip started with the winter nightmare of a major snowstorm on Jan. 22, which caused our New York-to-Paris flight on Jan. 24 to be delayed about 1½ hours. We missed our Paris-to-Cairo connection, but luckily there was a flight three hours later and Air France was very efficient about rebooking us.

Warning — if traveling into CDG airport in Paris, leave at least three hours between flights. It took us about an hour to get off the plane and get to our new departure gate. And since there is a 20-minute bus ride from the departure gate to the plane, boarding closes one-half hour before takeoff. By my calculation, we would have missed our connection even if our original flight had arrived in Paris on time.

We arrived in Cairo at 7 p.m. and were met inside Customs by Ahmed Omar, the GAT Tours representative. He took care of our visas and whipped us through passport control, and in just a few minutes we were sitting in a van on our way to the Nile Hilton ($170 per night for two, including breakfast).

Cairo

Cairo is a crazy, busy city. Crossing streets is an adventure, and traffic lights seem to be advisory only.

We had chosen the Nile Hilton, next to the Egyptian Museum, rather than Mena House because we like to be right in town. It was a comfortable hotel with a nearby inexpensive Internet café. This was a good choice, especially on our last day when we were on our own. We were able to walk to the subway station and visit Coptic Egypt easily.

Cairo has a wealth of Islamic mosques, old Coptic churches and an ancient synagogue. It is also a short drive away from the pyramids of Saqqara and Giza and the ancient town of Memphis, the first capital of Egypt.

The walkway to the Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara is lined by a row of cobras that is still amazingly impressive, even after millenniums of decay.

One evening, we took a Nile dinner cruise arranged by GAT Tours (who also provided the transportation). The food was Lebanese and excellent. The entertainment varied from hokey to fantastic.

The highlight was the whirling dervish, who spun around for about 20 minutes nonstop. He was wearing full skirts that he unfastened while whirling, ending up twirling them above his head. It was colorful and fun to watch.

On our own, we decided to tour Coptic Cairo. The easiest way to get to that part of town was by pleasant, easy-to-navigate metro. We saw the old Roman towers that were built in A.D. 98 by Emperor Trajan and visited a number of churches with their lovely paintings. One church was all in wood — just fantastic.

We also saw the Ben Ezra Synagogue, built in the ninth century. The synagogue was amazingly beautiful, with wood and lovely candleholders.

Luxor

Luxor is a small town with a small souk and a lovely riverfront. Its attractions are the two amazing temples on the East Bank — the Karnak and Luxor temples — and the tombs and temples on the West Bank.

The West Bank sites get very crowded. They open at 6 a.m., so if you are an early riser and find a willing guide and driver, go super early. You will avoid the crowds and, in the summer, the heat.

Luxor Temple is an overwhelm­ingly amazing place. It is about 10 times larger than I had imagined. A whole series of kings built temples there, one inside the other. The pillars, the carvings, the statues and the colors are all just wonderful.

We had scheduled only a couple of hours for visiting the Luxor and Karnak temples, but I would recommend scheduling more time. We felt that we had only scratched the surface.

In the Valley of the Kings, on the West Bank, only three of the kings’ tombs — those of Ramses III, IV and IX — were open. The tombs have multiple rooms with unbelievable decorations on the walls and ceilings. The colors are vibrant still.

The Luxor Museum is small but wonderful. The displays are clean and have good explanations, unlike at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Check the hours of operation; while we were there, they closed from 2 to 4 p.m.

We stayed at the Sheraton Luxor ($160 per night for two, including breakfast) for three nights. It is a lovely hotel in a very quiet spot at the edge of town, yet it’s only five minutes from the center of town — less than $2 by taxi. It has a large swimming pool with lots of lounge chairs and a poolside restaurant.

There was a large veranda for relaxing and watching the sun go down over the Nile. I suggest spending enough time in Luxor to both see the sights and relax in the resort-like atmosphere.

We ate most dinners at the hotel because it was so pleasant and we were tired after a day of site visits, but one evening, on our way to the sound-and-light show in Karnak, we hired a taxi to take us into town. Since we had no specific restaurant in mind, our driver suggested that he drop us at a good restaurant in Karnak, wait for us, take us to the show and then pick us up after the show — all for $5. Although originally we were a bit wary, this arrangement worked out great.

The restaurant’s clientele was mostly Egyptian, the food was fabulous — and our driver was exactly where he said he would be after the show.

On to Aswan

GAT Tours had arranged for a van to drive us and our guide, Mohamed, to Esna, where we would board the Royal Cleopatra for our cruise to Aswan.

The Royal Cleopatra was the perfect boat for us. A modified felucca, it was charming and comfortable, with two private rooms with bathrooms en suite plus a living/dining/kitchen area. The upper deck had tables, chairs and four lounge chairs, and there was an awning to keep out the sun.

The boat features a front and back sail and, in case there is no wind, a towboat. The guests have total privacy since the crew sleeps on the towboat. On our trip we were the only guests, but the boat could have accommodated another couple, which would have cut our cost in half.

The only quirk on the boat was the shower: a hose that came out of the sink and had to be hand held. The tiny bathroom had a hole in the corner for the water to drain.

The 5-day sail was fantastic. We glided through the water in peace and quiet, sitting on deck and reading or watching the scenery.

In the evening, after watching the sun go down, we played Rummikub with Mohamed or played solitaire. It was simple living, simple food and absolutely delightful.

We were able to dock along the way to visit villages, small temples and sites, but mostly it was the perfect peace of sailing that was so wonderful.

We had other options for getting to Aswan by means of the Nile. We could have traveled on one of the large cruise boats, but those boats have noisy motors and cruise only two days. The rest of the time they are docked either in Luxor or Aswan — sometimes six across at their mooring — and they land at Edfu and Kom Ombo (the two main sites along the way) all at the same time. Our captain was able to time our visits for when the cruise ships were not there and we had those sites practically to ourselves.

We also could have signed up to be on one of the much smaller felucca sailboats. We saw three of these boats at one of our moorings. There were 10 people on each boat in the space of a small room. They slept in sleeping bags on board and in the daytime could only sit or recline in place. There was really no room to move around. It looked a bit too rustic for me.

Aswan accommodations

In Aswan we stayed at the Sofitel Old Cataract Hotel ($180 per night for two, including breakfast) for four nights. Built in 1898, the hotel is all plush red cushions, wood and lovely chandeliers. It even has an old-fashioned elevator with a latticed door and an attendant, like in the movies.

A very large veranda overlooks a small Nile harbor, and we often sat there and watched the feluccas and motorboats while we had lunch, tea or drinks.

The hotel runs the beautiful restaurant 1902, reputedly the best and most expensive in Aswan (3-course price-fixed menu at $30). It is situated in a beautiful large room that looks a bit like a sumptuous mosque. We had dinner there one night. The food was a bit disappointing, but the ambiance with the dim lights and the colors was worth it. The hotel also served its breakfast in this restaurant.

Incidentally, Agatha Christie stayed at this hotel, and some scenes from “Death on the Nile” were shot here.

Nubian influence

Aswan is not as big as Cairo and not as small as Luxor. We found it very easy to tour on our own. The Nubian Museum (excellent) and unfinished obelisk were within walking distance of the hotel (or an inexpensive taxi ride away).

Elephantine Island, with its Aswan museum, ruins of Abu, Nubian villages and the tombs, can be reached very cheaply by means of two different public ferries (if you are adventurous and want to do what the locals do) or by a slightly more expensive private felucca ride.

Aswan has an extensive souk featuring the usual junk but also high-quality jewelry and fabrics. We spent a lot of time just walking around the town — especially along its lovely riverfront, which is dotted with great, inexpensive restaurants (Aug. ’05, pg 73).

We also wandered into one of the Nubian villages on Elephantine Island. The chief saw us walking on our own and proceeded to guide us — for a fee, of course. We saw the mosque, the fields and his house.

The details

The total cost for our trip was $5,000, including hotels, tours, transfers and our Royal Cleopatra 5-day sail ($2,340, full board). For more information, see your travel agent, contact Kim at GAT Tours (5 Mohamed Ibrahim St., Dokki, Giza, Egypt; cell 20 12 717 8225) or visit www.gattours.com.