After too many years of succumbing to the emphatic dissuasion of my parents (Terrorism... White Slave Trade... something called Muti...) I finally booked myself in for that Egyptian Nile Cruise I have wanted to go on ever since I played Isis in a school play, in a beaded leggings and crop-top set borrowed from my mother, who still appears to own every outfit she ever bought back in the 70's.
In an unwavering display of paternal support, my father frogmarches me to get comprehensive life insurance before I even consider booking my flights, but within 3 months I am sitting in a hotel lobby in Cairo at 4am wondering how to kill time without looking like some kind of a dealer or hooker until my tour starts at 7am (Spoiler alert. There is no way to not look suspicious in these situations. Just book better flights)
DAY 1 - Food Market Tour, Cultural Tour, Dance Troup
My taxi driver from last night (who kindly unburdened me of 600 egyptian pounds saying this was the standard rate and really not that much money at all. The liar) arrives again to take me to the next hotel where I have breakfast against a spectacular view of all 3 main pyramids of Giza. I always imagined them wholly inaccessible in the middle of the desert, however unrealistic that may well have been. In actual fact they are practically next to the main road. They might as well be the centrepiece of a very large roundabout. A roundabout that you are just as likely to see camels as well as cars circling.
The breakfast is expansive. A myriad of plates of food are put in front of me - some I recognise, some I approach with trepidation - and they just keep coming until I am physically unable to keep eating. It is unfortunate, then, that my very first tour happens to be an Egyptian Food tour.
My Guide Kafir drives me to an Egyptian Market. If I was expecting it to be remarkably dissimilar to any other market I see in my own country, then I would have been disappointed. Realistically, there is only so much variation stalls of apples and bananas can provide.
Kafir does however introduce me to a very flavourful dish called Koshary, which is made from chickpeas and served with hot tomato sauce and a spicy condiment. Very enjoyable, but be careful with the distribution of the spicy condiment. More careful than I was.
He also buys me some Egyptian bread (which is ostensibly just a hollow 'balloon' made out of paper-thin crusty bread and surely must have about as much nutritional value as a Rizla paper) and treats me to a Turkish coffee. This is served in shot glasses, is very strong, and leaves an inch of grainy, sticky sediment in the bottom of the glass. I wouldn't want to be the one to have to wash it out, but I am equally glad to not have it in me.
From there we drive through Monshaat Nasser - an area colloquially known as Garbage City. You can see why. The government has provided no system for dealing with refuse, so the locals stepped up and took it upon themselves to sort through and recycle the countries rubbish. Kafir assures me that despite the impressions, these people make quite a lucrative career from this, to the point of some of them driving expensive cars home after a day of wading through the garbage.
Right next to the Garbage city sits an impressive Coptic (christian) church - The Monastary of St Simon - which resides within an existing shallow cave. The statues around it are carved from the cave walls themselves in just one piece.
Next we pass through Al-Qarafa - The City of the Dead - Where people who cannot afford an alternative have moved into the graveyard of monuments to their dead with a view to cheaper rent.
Khafir takes me to a nobles tomb then leaves me there for a bit. It's beautifully creepy and I take some very atmospheric photos.
I have paid probably around £250-£300 to make today a day of back-to-back tours, but Kafir finishes early and drops me back to the hotel (not my own hotel, mind) to await my next tour in 3 hours time. I am dog-tired and have nowhere to go but to sit in reception and wait. A phonecall between the tour operator and the hotel buys me a 3 hour power-nap in one of the available rooms. I don't remember reaching the bed, I just remember waking up on it. Exhaustion is the new Rohypnol.
In the evening a second guide, Imman, takes me to an entertainment show, which ostensibly consists of the guys in the background singing about god and the guys in the foreground spinning.
On the way out Imman treats me to a snack off a passing cart. Its called an Asalia and it tastes like sand would if rocks were made out of honey. I can already feel an almighty sugar rush coming on.
I'm back at my own hotel for 9pm and my tour group for the holiday are still together for the induction I felt certain I was going to miss. It's a very pleasant group of 9 people. 4 Sri Lankans, 2 Canadians, 2 China men and 1 Australian-wannabe from England (Hello!)
By 10pm I see my hotel room(s) for the first time. It's a ginormous tower suite with a huge living area, 3 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, 1 Kitchen, 1 laundry room and 1... just... room. It's eearily vast to the extent that I actually find myself closing all the doors and huddling myself away in the smallest bedroom furthest away from the front door.
In further conversations I found that not only did the Sri Lankans do the same, but they all huddled together in the same room. Such grandeur was excessive. I would rather they had taken the money and booked another tour with it.
DAY 2 - Pyramids of Giza, Egyptian Museum, Papyrus workshop, Flight to Luxor
The next morning I leave behind the continent of 'My hotel suite' and join my official cruise tour group for a day out in Cairo. Local guide Ahmed walks us around the Egyptian museum, then it's off to visit the Pyramids of Giza, which of course I ride around on a camel and take a variety of gimmicky photographs I will proceed to never show anyone out of embarrassment.
Next Ahmed takes us to a Papyrus shop where a lovely smiley lady shows us how papyrus paper is made before we are let loose in the store to peruse and purchase. No hard sell is made. Neither is a purchase at this time since to have the wall space for another hanging I would have to forgo windows.
Then it's off to the airport. After 2 hours in customs, At least 3 security checks and a very awkward interaction with a cleaner who 'found' my passport then demanded money in exchange for it to be returned (And then demanded more for the female attendant who randomly showed up a short time later who also claimed to have found the passport) and 1 hour in the air, we fly over to Luxor and reach the hotel for Midnight. I am up until 2am trying to get internet reception working enough to email home and smugly inform them I am still alive. Mostly I just want to make sure they don't rent out my room in the absolute certainty that I have already been forcibly 'moved on'.
I crawl into bed exhausted. So much travel. No enough Wi-fi. This is no way to relax.
DAY 3 - Luxor and Karnak Temples
The next morning we are up bright and early to explore Karnak Temple. It is a huge 65km expanse of temples and columns dedicated to the King of Ancient Egyptian gods - Amun-Ra.
There are multiple examples of half polished and carved columns. Karnak was a prime example of a constantly evolving 'living temple' which unfortunately became abandoned when the Greeks invaded.
A vast extending path of sphinxes once led from Karnak to Luxor - a 3km distance. These are mostly lost now. Historically, once a year, the lifesize golden statue of Amen-Ra would be taking from the most sacred room in his temple (The Holy of Holys) and carried across to Luxor for a period of 4 weeks so that Amun-Ra and the goddess Mut might enjoy something of an anniversary 'conugal' visit. This festival would be celebrated with vast amounts of tribute of food and wine, which the priests would consume themselves, as the vessel of their respective deities. They made off well from this.
Back out to Luxor temple in the evening. Initial construction started approx 1400 BC by Amenhotep III.
It was tradition for pharaohs to continue on the build of these temples, which started with the smallest (and most sacred room) at the very back - The Holy of Holys - and expanded upwards, outwards and onwards as new extensions were added. This very front façade was built by Rameses II and was decorated with scenes of his military triumphs.
The 25ft obelisk was also built by Rameses II. There used to be 2 of them, but one was gifted to France. In return France bequeathed Egypt a clock, which embarrassingly stopped working (It appears to be true what they say about French engineering)
According to my guide it is primarily dedicated to the Goddess Mut - wife of Amun-Ra. His golden statue would be bought from Karnak to Luxor temple for 4 weeks every year so that the 2 could enjoy something of a 'conjugal visit'.
Google does not necessarily agree that this temple primarily worships the temple Mut, but she is of relevance to it.
Around 800 years a mosque was installed inside the temple of Luxor. The colourful section near the roof used to be the main door when the temple was mostly buried in sand.
It is still actively used as a Mosque, and at 800 years old it is considered as relevant to ancient history as the temple itself.
We return to the boat for the buffet lunch (there is always identifiable food and plenty of healthy salad options) and general 'getting in the way of staff' before we return to Luxor in the evening for the Sound and Light Show (It is distinctly underwhelming. Do not part with any money for this experience. I wouldn't part with syphilis to repeat this experience)
DAY 4 - Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings, Architects workshop, Collosus of Memnon
The next day we visit the temple of Queen Hatshepsut (of all the phrases offered to help remember her name, Hot Cheap Suit was the most effective)
Hatshepsut was the first Queen of Egypt. She became queen when her King husband died leaving the throne to her 6 year old step son. She decided that not only was he too young to rule but that he was old enough to join the military school.
So he went off to be turned into a killer and she ruled until 17 years later when he came back and - somewhat inevitably - killed her. He took back the rule of Egypt for the next 50-60 years and commanded all depictions of her to be destroyed or defaced.
In fact, back in Luxor temple there is an Obelisk dedicated to Amun-Ra by Queen Hatshepsut. Her stepson Tutmoses III destroyed all statues dedicated to her but dared not mess with those dedicated to the gods. Instead he built walls around it in order to hide it from view.
The irony of this is that these walls preserved the condition of this obelisk better than any other.
From a distance the temple is pretty to look at, but actually not so interesting to walk around as some of the others, so we soon move on the to Valley of the Kings.
The Valley of the Kings were basically the Pyramids 2.0. Reinvented when the pyramids started being ransacked for the gold. The digging of a tomb would commence upon a new pharoahs ascension to the throne and complete upon their death. Therefore, the longer a pharaohs reign, the deeper into the mountain their tomb would go.
The inside of the tombs were brighly coloured and intricately hieroglyphed against a white plaster background, often depicting fantastical scenes of the afterlife and the imagined 12 hour ordeal of the deceased's journey to the afterlife, where at the end they would meet Osiris for their final judgement (ie, the heart against the feather)
You can purchase tickets to enter select tombs, and a further ticket if you wish to take photographs inside them. Do not attempt to take photographs without the latter ticket. They are watching. They take it very seriously. Things will turn awkward (No, it didnt happen to me. But it happened to someone I was already very keen of pointing-and-laughing at by that time, so all's well...)
The minibus next takes us to the work house of a family of architects who showed us the main types of stone found in this part of Egypt - namely, alabastar. granite and basalt - and how an item such as a vase is chipped and shaped out of the solid rock.
I select a Bast for my Father and an Anubis for my mother and after a great deal of time pouting at one then t'other the store owner eventually allows me to buy both for the price of one on the unspoken condition that I bugger off and never come back. They are well packed in copious amounts of bubblewrap and I am sent on my merry way, knowing full well that I have still been overcharged, but not as overcharged as all the others (#Winner!)
And then we have just enough time to slip off the bus and click off a couple of snaps of the collosus of Memnon. I dont know much about these yet since he pretty much left us to our own devices here. (Well, I say 'he'.... 'I' wandered off. Tom-ay-to Tom-ar-to)
Because 'someone' wandered off at the last stop, If we want to catch the cruiser before it sets off we're going to have to ditch the bus and take a short cut across the Nile in a motorboat, which adds bit of adventure/trauma to a nice daytrip out...!
DAY 5 - Edfu, Kom Ombo
Overnight we have docked in Esna, and horse and carts await outside to take us the short distance to Edfu temple.
Edfu temple is dedicated to Horus - The hawk-headed god of the sky, son of Isis and Osiris. It is the best preserved temple from Ancient Egypt. There is a small maze of towering walls covered in hieroglyphs and depictions of horus. They are all still fantastically clear.
In many of them Horus is depicted as slaying a hippopotamus - the animal incarnation of Ancient Egypts only evil god, Seti. Weirdly, the hippopotomus is shown as smaller when it is in the water (as identified by Horus standing atop of a boat) than on land where it is depicted as being much larger.
It is felt that this is because of the Ancient Egyptians recognition of the fact that water distorts images and makes them appear smaller.
Im personally not sure... From what I know of the Ancients they favoured symbolism and metaphors over depctions of actual physics but... It'll do.
When I return to my room on the cruise ship, Mahmood (The genius behind the towel-origami) has made a crocodile out of my bathroom towels. An apt choice. Our next temple visit is going to be to Kom Ombo. The temple dedicated to two deities - Horus again, and also Sorbek, the crocodile headed god of fertility and new creation
Kom Ombo is a fascinating temple
It has one of the oldest nile-o-meters. A well-shaped hole in the ground used for predicting flood and drought levels. Namely for the use of taxation of the natives. If they were predicted to grow higher crops due to higher water availability then they will be able to tax more.
There are also early surgical equipment depicted among its wall hieroglyphs - some of it still in use today in little changed form. It also shows medical treatments. A seated woman to the side of the instruments depicts a labour. Women gave birth on small birthing seats.
There are even cock pics in the footnotes of the hieroglyphs here.
Seriously! They describe the successful treatment of a man with impotence.
A grid covers a chamber in the floor inwhich it is suspected a priest would stand in order to utilise acoustics to make his voice sound 'god-like'. It is behind where a large staue would have stood, enabling the 'god' to speak to whoever was praying on the other side.
I havent seen this at any of temple and I dont like it much. However much hokum the ancient Egyptian religion might been, I like to think the people who endorsed it at least believed in it themselves.
We move on the the High Dam. An important more modern structure in Egypt. It was necessary to regulate the water in egypt and keep the population sustained, but it's creation also flooded no less than 17 ancient monuments. UNESCO stepped in and relocated a few of the more major ones including Abu Simbel.
If we cross the road and look to the other side we see what is now the Nasser Lake. The largest man-made lake in Europe. Here is where I would find my crocodiles. I do look. Hard. None yet.
It is of relevance to the tour, certainly, but I am mostly here for the Gods and Temples, so I am glad when we move on to Philae temple.
Philae temple is dedicated to Isis, the goddess of Love and Magic - is one of the temples that was relocated out of the path of Nasser Lake. It is on an island, so we have to travel there by boat.
As with most of the temples, a makeshift market is a gauntlet tourists must work their way through from the drop-off point to the attraction. The retailers are pushy but the products are cheap. IF you dont accept the first price. NEVER accept the first price. You're not even meant to.
Further down the road we visit a shop for distilling Egyptian essential oils.
I truly do want the one that is supposedly the base for Davidoff Cool Water but the money they ask for and the money I have do not even begin to match anymore. I have been overtipping (Robbed blind!) for the last few days and I am literally on the brink of having to offer sexual favours for food, so I sit back trying not to look mournful while the Sri Lankans flock into an ecstatic buying frenzy.
Around the time I realise that my requirement to pee is becoming a medical emergency we are advised that we are next visiting a granite quarry the ancient egyptian architects used for their projects.
In the middle of the slabs of remaining stone is a small pool of water which was once a full-size canal used for transporting these loads down the nile. There were currently known to be 6 vessels for this purposes.
I try to find the dignity to rise above 'Mission-Impossible-esque' plans to find a way to pee in it without anyone noticing me.
On one of the walls are some not-so-clear drawings of ostriches. These were not birds native to egypt, so this indicates that slaves from other nations worked this quarry.
The centrepiece of the quarry is The Unfinished Obelisk. Queen Hatshepsut ordered its creation, but a giant crack appeared in it, so it was abandoned.
We return to the ship. I pee. Relief, thy name is bathroom.
That evening Ayman takes us for a wander along Aswan market. The Sri Lankans want to stop at more market stalls and Ayman doesn't want to stop at any at all. Ayman wins. Kind of. The Sri Lankans go missing for a bit. Noone really minds that much.
We stop to try an apple flavoured Hookah before heading back to the boat for our last night.
Day 6 - Abu Simbel, Sleeper train to Cairo
Next day, an 04:15am start to visit Abu Simbel. It is a 3 hour drive out into the desert. At that hour the stars looked amazing. There were thousands of them visible to the naked eye and they looked like they came right down to the ground in the near distance. I spend the journey with my nose pressed up against the glass of the car like one of those 80's Garfield car toys, while the Canadians look at me and then each other with the kind of bemusement reserved for people who live in.... well... Canada.
Abu Simbel. The Temple that gloryhound Rameses II inevitably built in honour of himself. All four famous statues at the front are of Rameses II. Inside, to the rear, the holy of holys features 3 god's and Rameses II sitting among them. He is placed so that the light of the sun, when the door was opened at dawn, would light upon him first, before even the other gods. The arms of the statues are missing because back in the day they were made of gold in order to reflect the sun and that gold apparently opted not to stick around.
Just around the corner from Abu Simbel is the Temple of Hathor and Nefertari - Rameses II's chief wife. The giant statues of Rameses II still take precedence by the doorway, but it's the thought that counts.
A 2 hour walkaround preceeds a 3 hour drive through the desert back to Aswan.
As suspected... Sandy.
The Chinese left the night before. The Sri Lankans opted out of the Abu Simbel excursion and went directly to the airport this morning. The Canadians are dropped off at the airport on our way back to the ship. Now it's just me. I'm allowed to lurk but I no longer have a room, table number nor food pass. Ayman kindly accompanies me to the McDonalds just down the road (as it always is) He knows I am running out of money, so refuses to accept my tip. I meagrely buy him lunch. The tip is a massive saving for me which transpired to be critical over the following 24 hours
Ayman then waits with me outside the ship and hands me over to my driver, with strict instructions to take me to the train station and actually see me onto the train. Which he does. He also furnishes me with a selection of soft drinks and fruit juices for the trip.
I have taken the money saved from my cancelled Balloon trip over Luxor and used it to upgrade my train ticket from Aswan to Cairo to a sleeper cabin. It costs me £110 and includes an air-flight-esque lunch and breakfast. There is a foldaway wash basin and the bed is surprisingly warm and comfortable.
It's a new experience AND a dose of luxury over the original plan. I am happy with this choice.
DAY 7 - Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis
When I emerge from the train 10 hours later a man bee-lines for me cheerily and greets me with unnerving certainty while he attempts to wrestle my case off me. I am on the cusp of pushing him onto the rails and simultaneously reaching for my pocket Arabic dictionary for the words "Help, Rape!" when he identifies himself as the the taxi driver who originally transferred (*robbed) me. I am no further from pushing him onto the rails.
I have downgraded my cairo hotel in a bid to save the last of my rapidly diminishing money and when the Taxi driver finally finds his way there, the £12 room is cold and grey and the bed linen feels like it is sewn together out of poison ivy and fire ants. The staff however are polite and helpful and the hotel manager goes out of his way to introduce himself personally and be available for anything I require.
3 hours later I head down to reception to meet Mervat, my tour guide for the day out to Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis.
Mervat is very kind. When I foolishly fail to realise that the tour which has sucked up the very last of my funds also requires me to pay entrance fees, she buys my last ticket with her tip.
I am super embarrassed, but very grateful. She reassuringly refers to me as 'Sister' henceforth (I can only assume that this is a woman who deeply loathes her sister)
We first head to the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara. It is the oldest known pyramid ever built, at around 2648 BC. It was completed a full 100 years before work on the Giza pyramids even started.
Initially, Egyptian burial sites were more more basic rectangular shaped flat roofed structures called mastabas. This Step pyramid simply consists of 6 stacked mastabas (I childishly hope that the plural for Mastabas is a Mastabasian. It isn't.)
I am then driven a short distance across the Saqqara to the tomb of Kagemni.
It is the tomb of Kagemni-Memi, who was the Chief Justice, Vizier and son-in-law to the Reigning monarch Pharoah Teti - who was the first king of the 6th Dynasty of Egypt (c. 2321-2290 BC)
Now. Visit this tomb, if your itinerary allows for it. Daily the masses go flocking to the generic tombs of ancient egyptian royalty, but this lesser known tomb was - to me - more interesting by far.
The walls depict crystal clear embossed depictions of egyptians in various throes of daily life, including dancing, farm and fishing. Casting aside the simplistic art that ancient egypt is famous for, the depictions are actually very detailed. Among the wide variety of fish shown in the fishing images are what a clearly catfish, and in one is a hippo swallowing a crocodile. In one room to the rear the brown-skin coloured hues are still fresh on the wall.
Mervat suggests we take a break en-route, which usually means that you're going to swing by some manufacturing house where they will show you how the merchandise is made, then try to sell it to you.
Yup. This time it's carpet. Mervat leaves me in the care of the factory-owner while she takes off for a coffee. He describes the process. The public school kids work in shifts between school and the carpet factory. Some go to school in the AM and work in the PM. Others the other way around. There are around 300 of them in total, but today is Saturday and is their day off (Fridays and Saturdays are the weekends in Egypt)
They work in the factory as mandatory until they are 16 years old, making meagre profits from the commission of sales of their specific work. Most don't stick around after that because its not nearly enough to make a living from. The trade is failing dismally at the moment.
Watching the two young boys dexterously working the loom is fascinating. I am invited to try it myself. I find myself not even remotely inclined to fuck up their work and politely refuse.
I am then taken upstairs to the vast, gleaming showroom piled floor to ceiling with handmade carpets and completely bereft of anyone but myself.
Considering how slow business clearly is, the sale really isn't so aggressively hard. I think he can smell that I have no money. Literally smell it. This outfit has seem its third day now. I will not meet any future husbands while packing light.
We meet Mervat in reception and continue on to Dahshur where we find both the Red pyramid and Bent Pyramid, both ofwhich were built around 50 years after the Djoser Step Pyramid by Pharaoh Sneferu who reigned over Egypt from approximately 2613 BC to 2589 BC (He was the father of Pharaoh Khufu, who commissioned the Pyramids of Giza)
The Bent pyramid, as the name implies, was the result of a rare miscalculation by the ancient egyptian architects.
The Red Pyramid is the largest of the three main pyramids in the Dashur complex. You can actually go inside it. The not-inconsequential zigzagging staircase leading up to the entrance should be enough to warn a sensible person that the walk isn't going to be an easy one. Regrettably I am not a sensible person and I proceeded through the entrance and back down into the pyramids depths. There isn't a staircase inside so much as a (very) long, steep slope interspersed with metal sleepers. There is room for a body and a half, which means if you encounter someone coming the other way or aren't moving fast enough for anyone coming up behind you, things are going to get awkward. So you feel obliged to move as quickly as possibly to minimise this complication. By the time I found a narrow, dark, thoroughly underwhelming room with a triangular roof at the bottom of the staircase I couldn't feel my legs and my chest was burning with pain. My first move was to collapse in a corner while I regulated my breathing to something less reminiscent of a cat wheezing up... frankly... another cat.
When I find the strength to force myself back onto my feet I look around and make an effort to put into words what the inside of a pyramid looks like. Brace yourself for mind-blowingly descriptive skills here... Its sorta like the inside of the outside of a pyramid, but its narrower.
Disproportionately so in fact. Where did the rest of the walls go??
There isn't so much as a Costa Coffee down here (which, to be honest with you, verges on surprising really...!) so in a heart-sinkingly short amount of time I'm shooting back up the slope to the exit is quickly as my numb legs will allow for.
Mervat meets me in the car at the base of the pyramid. The feeling comes back in my legs sometime in the car on our way to our next port of call, and this doesn't improve things for me.
By the time we reach the city of Memphis - the very first capital of ancient Egypt - there isn't a muscle in my body that isn't aching.
Memphis is now an open-air egyptian museum of statues and artifacts. The centrepiece is the 34ft long statue of (you guessed it) Ramese II. As I hobble around with Mervat I hear 'My friend' called and turn to find Ahmed who was our tour guide at the Egyptian Museum. I did like that man. We hug hello and I introduce him to Mervat and choose to ignore the slightly hostile indifference that passes between these two people who seemed otherwise very amiable. I guess as tour guides they are technically rivals in a place where money means so much more than whether you can afford a coffee on the way home from work.
Speaking ofwhich, I check with Ahmed that the tip that I left with the tour guide at the start of the trip to pass on to him has reached him. He looks at me blankly for a long moment before falling back into his easy cheer and stating that it had probably just slipped the mind of the tour guide.
That tour guide was a dick. And I have nothing else to give to Ahmed. We exchange emails and part ways so that we can continue on our respective tours.
On the way back to the hotel Mervat kindly arranges my airport cab later that night.
Day 8 - CAIRO, unanimously voted 'Most likely place to be murdered' by all the voices in my head.
My £12 hotel is in a particularly quiet part of Cairo. A mixed blessing. There are no loud, frightening hordes of tourist-hating locals but at the same time I am in exactly the kind of back-alley area people just like me are last seen before they are never seen again. Even I am starting to see the value of my powdered spleen as some kind of black-market cure for herpes in Cairo. So I stay in, wash with cold water and sleep under my 100% poison-ivy and fire ants duvet for the remaining 10 hours until my 3am taxi arrives (thank you Mervat) to chauffeur me back to the airport.
The driver is the driver from yesterdays tour. He must have had next to no sleep at all, bless him, and it's not an easy drive for him also. The route is riddled with Egyptian military check stops, the police of whom take one look at me in the back and command him to pull aside in order to have an aggressive thoroughly uninterpretatable conversation with him outside the car while I sit in the back and wait to be ultimately executed. This happens twice in our short journey. When we finally reach the airport I give him my remaining £5 coins I had been holding back for breakfast at the airport. He seems genuinely grateful, for however meagre that tip was.
If there is one thing I will take from my experience of spending time alone in Cairo as a foreigner, it is a deep appreciation of being literally anyplace else in the world. I don't feel truly safe until my plane touches back down in London.
The Egyptian Nile cruise is lovely. But I thoroughly encourage anyone who can do it in a way that avoids Cairo, to do so.
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