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Egypt PTR - Part 9: Hurghada (with cred)
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
FarleyFlavors
Mega Poster
Excellent pictures again!
The Chinese president visited Luxor three years back and the tourists started arriving en masse shortly afterwards. They're not particularly popular with the locals as they never leave their cruise boat or hotel except in large tour groups. They won't even venture out to buy a bottle of water - they apparently get the tour guide to do that sort of thing for them.
That's the tomb of Merenptah (KV8). If memory serves, it's the second largest tomb in the valley by volume, only beaten by the extraordinary KV5 with its well over a hundred chambers.
It's a problem with Luxor tour guides - they point you to three tombs which are near the entrance to the valley so that they don't have to hang around waiting while you explore the farther reaches.
It's generally getting better I think. I saw a lot of Chinese tourists on the trip, but that was the first time I'd seen them in huge groups. There were a lot of couples, families, smaller groups etc. A lot of Chinese people, as they get more experience, are getting a lot more comfortable/confident in travelling outside of the organised tours these days, especially younger people and/or those who speak English to a competent enough level to at least get by.
Gonna whack another bit in. There’s more park stuff coming. Honest.
On the boat for the late afternoon/evening then, which was all pleasant enough. The cruise boats are all mostly the same size (length, width, number of floors etc.), which makes sense given that they’re all using similar docks and are often docked a few deep, meaning that you might have to walk through the lobbies of a few boats to get to yours.
Anyway, the top decks of all of them are lounge areas, usually with a small swimming pool, bar etc. It’s a good place to watch the view from, but I also had a great view from just lazing on the bed in my room, which also made it infinitely easier to avoid small talk with other dreadful Brits.
The boat stopped a few hours later at Edfu, staying there overnight, and it was another early morning to go and see another temple. Not a bad view to wake up to:
Back on the boat and continuing south, with a quick stopover at Kom Ombo for, you guessed it, another f**king temple. Obviously, I knew what the cruise entailed, so I'm not really complaining but I was getting a bit templed-out by this point. The cruise was definitely the way forward to see all this s**t though since it required no effort and I had planned to take in most of this stuff anyway. This next one was right on the river though, so just a couple of minutes to walk from the boat itself.
Spot the Chinese tourists:
Then it was back on the boat and down to the final stop, Aswan, arriving there in the evening for two nights.
On the boat for the late afternoon/evening then, which was all pleasant enough. The cruise boats are all mostly the same size (length, width, number of floors etc.), which makes sense given that they’re all using similar docks and are often docked a few deep, meaning that you might have to walk through the lobbies of a few boats to get to yours.
Anyway, the top decks of all of them are lounge areas, usually with a small swimming pool, bar etc. It’s a good place to watch the view from, but I also had a great view from just lazing on the bed in my room, which also made it infinitely easier to avoid small talk with other dreadful Brits.
The boat stopped a few hours later at Edfu, staying there overnight, and it was another early morning to go and see another temple. Not a bad view to wake up to:
Back on the boat and continuing south, with a quick stopover at Kom Ombo for, you guessed it, another f**king temple. Obviously, I knew what the cruise entailed, so I'm not really complaining but I was getting a bit templed-out by this point. The cruise was definitely the way forward to see all this s**t though since it required no effort and I had planned to take in most of this stuff anyway. This next one was right on the river though, so just a couple of minutes to walk from the boat itself.
Spot the Chinese tourists:
Then it was back on the boat and down to the final stop, Aswan, arriving there in the evening for two nights.
The next bit was an add-on to the main cruise, which had technically finished since we were just moored in Aswan for two nights. It was around three hours’ drive through the desert each way from Aswan, and by that point I wasn’t in the mood for yet more temples.
The people on this bus realised they were on the way to yet another f**king temple, and just decided to torch the bus, with themselves in it, instead.
It was worth the effort though. Well, sitting in a comfortable, air-conditioned car listening to music for 3 hours isn’t exactly an effort, but you know what I mean.
Abu Simbel
There are two temples here, right next to a huge lake. What’s impressive about them is that they were built around 1264BC, but relocated in the 1960s when a damn was being built, so they’re now 200m back and 65m higher than their original positions.
The first one then:
The inside was impressive as well.
The second temple was decent as well.
So yeah, a bit of a mission, but worth the effort.
Aswan
I was back in Aswan by early afternoon, so had lunch on the boat and headed out by myself to see a bit of stuff and find a cred. I was heading to the Unfinished Obelisk since it was near the cred and decided to walk it. The area next to the river, while nice, was a massive pain in the arse since you were getting hassled every 30 seconds by people offering boat trips, so I got off that road and walked through the town itself, which, like most of Egypt once you’re off the tourist bits, a f**king dump.
The Unfinished Obelisk was probably the most underwhelming “major” tourist attraction I’ve ever been to. Waste of bloody time.
The park was nearby, and was about 15 minutes off opening. I would’ve just waited, but I was getting hassled by some bloke to go into his crappy shop next to the entrance, so just wandered aimlessly for a bit.
Bakkar Land
The park itself was almost worth the 20p entrance charge.
It was a taxi back to the boat. For some reason, every taxi/Uber driver in Egypt seems to think that because you’re British, you must know, or give a s**t about, some Egyptian bloke who plays football for Liverpool. Not a clue.
More Aswan
I’ll just chuck a bit more in. I had a flight out the following afternoon, but still had a morning left and a couple of bits left of the tour itinerary. I could have done them the afternoon before, but I wanted the cred, so got it rearranged for that final morning. First up was some dam, which I guess was sort of impressive, but I was finding it very difficult to find a s**t to give. Then it was another temple. Luckily the last one of the trip.
I can’t be f**ked anymore…
The cruise then. Definitely worth doing for the ease of seeing loads with minimal effort, and at a decent price. There are loads of different options depending on how long you want to take, which direction you want to travel in, start and finishing points, class of boat etc.
Mine was:
Collection and drop off from Luxor Station and to Aswan Airport
4 nights on the boat, including all meals (12 meals in all)
Transportation to/from the boat and all entrance fees to Karnak, Luxor Temple, Karnak again (light show), Colossi of Memnon,
Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, Edfu Temple, Kom Ombo Temple, Aswan High Dam, Philae Temple
Extra charges for the hot air balloon and Abu Sibel “add ons” (both quite overpriced and could've been done cheaper independently)
Private tour guide/drivers for the whole thing – no group crap
Total cost? Around US$900.
I had four nights at a beach resort area to finish off with, so will chuck that in as a final bit tomorrow.
The people on this bus realised they were on the way to yet another f**king temple, and just decided to torch the bus, with themselves in it, instead.
It was worth the effort though. Well, sitting in a comfortable, air-conditioned car listening to music for 3 hours isn’t exactly an effort, but you know what I mean.
Abu Simbel
There are two temples here, right next to a huge lake. What’s impressive about them is that they were built around 1264BC, but relocated in the 1960s when a damn was being built, so they’re now 200m back and 65m higher than their original positions.
The first one then:
The inside was impressive as well.
The second temple was decent as well.
So yeah, a bit of a mission, but worth the effort.
Aswan
I was back in Aswan by early afternoon, so had lunch on the boat and headed out by myself to see a bit of stuff and find a cred. I was heading to the Unfinished Obelisk since it was near the cred and decided to walk it. The area next to the river, while nice, was a massive pain in the arse since you were getting hassled every 30 seconds by people offering boat trips, so I got off that road and walked through the town itself, which, like most of Egypt once you’re off the tourist bits, a f**king dump.
The Unfinished Obelisk was probably the most underwhelming “major” tourist attraction I’ve ever been to. Waste of bloody time.
The park was nearby, and was about 15 minutes off opening. I would’ve just waited, but I was getting hassled by some bloke to go into his crappy shop next to the entrance, so just wandered aimlessly for a bit.
Bakkar Land
The park itself was almost worth the 20p entrance charge.
It was a taxi back to the boat. For some reason, every taxi/Uber driver in Egypt seems to think that because you’re British, you must know, or give a s**t about, some Egyptian bloke who plays football for Liverpool. Not a clue.
More Aswan
I’ll just chuck a bit more in. I had a flight out the following afternoon, but still had a morning left and a couple of bits left of the tour itinerary. I could have done them the afternoon before, but I wanted the cred, so got it rearranged for that final morning. First up was some dam, which I guess was sort of impressive, but I was finding it very difficult to find a s**t to give. Then it was another temple. Luckily the last one of the trip.
I can’t be f**ked anymore…
The cruise then. Definitely worth doing for the ease of seeing loads with minimal effort, and at a decent price. There are loads of different options depending on how long you want to take, which direction you want to travel in, start and finishing points, class of boat etc.
Mine was:
Collection and drop off from Luxor Station and to Aswan Airport
4 nights on the boat, including all meals (12 meals in all)
Transportation to/from the boat and all entrance fees to Karnak, Luxor Temple, Karnak again (light show), Colossi of Memnon,
Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, Edfu Temple, Kom Ombo Temple, Aswan High Dam, Philae Temple
Extra charges for the hot air balloon and Abu Sibel “add ons” (both quite overpriced and could've been done cheaper independently)
Private tour guide/drivers for the whole thing – no group crap
Total cost? Around US$900.
I had four nights at a beach resort area to finish off with, so will chuck that in as a final bit tomorrow.
davidm
Strata Poster
I’ll just finish this off then. I had a few days left after the cruise, so just decided to do a beach thing to finish off. I usually get quite bored with that kind of thing, but the trip up to this point had been pretty full-on, with very early mornings almost every day, so it was quite appealing by the end.
My two options were either Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada. I opted for Hurghada since Sharm seemed a bit basic, but to be honest I don’t think there’s much between them. They’re both pretty much just full of all-inclusive resorts.
In Hurghada, there’s a massive stretch of beach full of huge all inclusives and a bunch of water parks to the south, but I opted to stay more central, partly because I was arriving late (no direct flight from Aswan, so had to fly up to Cairo and back down) and wanted to get to a hotel quickly, and partly so that I was better located to get around and do stuff, not that I ended up doing much.
Anyway, I got this view from my room when I woke up the next morning:
The hotel had its own private beach/island, so I had a day of doing f**k all. I’m officially getting old since I actually really enjoyed it. I had breakfast included in the room price, but added on a lunch/dinner package on that first morning. I hated myself for it, but there’s not a lot around apart from hotels/resorts, so it made no sense to bother going out for food just to come back again.
On the next day, I got a taxi up to El Gouna, which was just weird and kind of a waste of time. It’s just a bunch of artificial lagoons with a few shops and cafes where a bunch of rich people live. It was a total ghost town as well. I almost booked a hotel there, but so glad I didn’t.
I had another day on the hotel beach the next day, then headed out in the late afternoon.
One of the huge resorts to the south has a small amusement park. It’s only open in the evenings for resort guests, but I abused the CF name (as well as a bunch of other coaster websites) to get the cred. They have a day pass for their water park for non-guests, and the amusement park opens right after that closes (which is exactly when I got there), so I think it’s possible that you could do that, but if you wanted to just go to the amusement park at night, you wouldn’t be able to do it.
All of those huge resorts, from what I saw, have security gates way before you get close, which are pretty much on lockdown after dark, and you need your key cards/reservations to get in. Like I said though, if you’d been at their water park during the day, you’d be on site anyway (you’d probably be able to get to it even without using the water park thinking about it), but you’d be f**ked if you rocked up later and tried to get onto the site.
Anyway, there’s the advice for all of you about to book your flight to Hurghada for the cred.
I’d stupidly left my camera to charge in the hotel room, so just took a quick few photos on my phone, but felt a bit awkward even doing that. I don’t usually care, but some manager/receptionist had taken me in. They’d literally just opened and there was nobody there. Apparently, the resort guests tend to filter in for a bit after dinner, but it’s never exactly crowded.
Anyway, with that, I’d completed Egypt. Such an achievement.
I had an evening flight the next day, so filled the afternoon by booking onto some submarine thing.
Meh. It was cool to be in an actual submarine, but there wasn’t much to see. The coral reef if went to was dead, with some fake statues/shipwreck shoved into it, and some scuba diver was swimming around the outside feeding fish so that they’d come up. Whatever, worth it for the 15 quid I suppose.
Egypt was fab then. I’d been fascinated with the place as a kid, but had gone off the idea of going as I got older, but I ended up really enjoying it. All the old s**t is amazing even if I was getting a bit “over it” towards the end. And yeah, you are having to constantly brush off/ignore scammers and people selling s**te - though it was better when I was with that private tour guide - which was getting pretty exhausting near the end. Well, before the beach resort at least where none of that happens.
And then it was a ridiculous trek to get home, flying back up to Cairo first. I hadn’t paid much attention to my flight bookings, assuming that my return leg was the same (Cairo – Bangkok – Hong Kong), but it turns out that this time I had a 7-hour layover in Guangzhou, which is ridiculous. The Guangzhou - Hong Kong bit was with a different airline though, so I just got the check-in staff in Hurghada to send my luggage to Guangzhou, got a taxi from the airport to the high-speed train station (stupidly an hour away at completely opposite ends of the enormous city) and got a train back to Hong Kong.
So yeah, it added a layer of faff, but the new high-speed station in Hong Kong is literally a five-minute walk from my flat, so I was home 6 hours earlier than if I’d stuck with the original flight.
Done.
My two options were either Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada. I opted for Hurghada since Sharm seemed a bit basic, but to be honest I don’t think there’s much between them. They’re both pretty much just full of all-inclusive resorts.
In Hurghada, there’s a massive stretch of beach full of huge all inclusives and a bunch of water parks to the south, but I opted to stay more central, partly because I was arriving late (no direct flight from Aswan, so had to fly up to Cairo and back down) and wanted to get to a hotel quickly, and partly so that I was better located to get around and do stuff, not that I ended up doing much.
Anyway, I got this view from my room when I woke up the next morning:
The hotel had its own private beach/island, so I had a day of doing f**k all. I’m officially getting old since I actually really enjoyed it. I had breakfast included in the room price, but added on a lunch/dinner package on that first morning. I hated myself for it, but there’s not a lot around apart from hotels/resorts, so it made no sense to bother going out for food just to come back again.
On the next day, I got a taxi up to El Gouna, which was just weird and kind of a waste of time. It’s just a bunch of artificial lagoons with a few shops and cafes where a bunch of rich people live. It was a total ghost town as well. I almost booked a hotel there, but so glad I didn’t.
I had another day on the hotel beach the next day, then headed out in the late afternoon.
One of the huge resorts to the south has a small amusement park. It’s only open in the evenings for resort guests, but I abused the CF name (as well as a bunch of other coaster websites) to get the cred. They have a day pass for their water park for non-guests, and the amusement park opens right after that closes (which is exactly when I got there), so I think it’s possible that you could do that, but if you wanted to just go to the amusement park at night, you wouldn’t be able to do it.
All of those huge resorts, from what I saw, have security gates way before you get close, which are pretty much on lockdown after dark, and you need your key cards/reservations to get in. Like I said though, if you’d been at their water park during the day, you’d be on site anyway (you’d probably be able to get to it even without using the water park thinking about it), but you’d be f**ked if you rocked up later and tried to get onto the site.
Anyway, there’s the advice for all of you about to book your flight to Hurghada for the cred.
I’d stupidly left my camera to charge in the hotel room, so just took a quick few photos on my phone, but felt a bit awkward even doing that. I don’t usually care, but some manager/receptionist had taken me in. They’d literally just opened and there was nobody there. Apparently, the resort guests tend to filter in for a bit after dinner, but it’s never exactly crowded.
Anyway, with that, I’d completed Egypt. Such an achievement.
I had an evening flight the next day, so filled the afternoon by booking onto some submarine thing.
Meh. It was cool to be in an actual submarine, but there wasn’t much to see. The coral reef if went to was dead, with some fake statues/shipwreck shoved into it, and some scuba diver was swimming around the outside feeding fish so that they’d come up. Whatever, worth it for the 15 quid I suppose.
Egypt was fab then. I’d been fascinated with the place as a kid, but had gone off the idea of going as I got older, but I ended up really enjoying it. All the old s**t is amazing even if I was getting a bit “over it” towards the end. And yeah, you are having to constantly brush off/ignore scammers and people selling s**te - though it was better when I was with that private tour guide - which was getting pretty exhausting near the end. Well, before the beach resort at least where none of that happens.
And then it was a ridiculous trek to get home, flying back up to Cairo first. I hadn’t paid much attention to my flight bookings, assuming that my return leg was the same (Cairo – Bangkok – Hong Kong), but it turns out that this time I had a 7-hour layover in Guangzhou, which is ridiculous. The Guangzhou - Hong Kong bit was with a different airline though, so I just got the check-in staff in Hurghada to send my luggage to Guangzhou, got a taxi from the airport to the high-speed train station (stupidly an hour away at completely opposite ends of the enormous city) and got a train back to Hong Kong.
So yeah, it added a layer of faff, but the new high-speed station in Hong Kong is literally a five-minute walk from my flat, so I was home 6 hours earlier than if I’d stuck with the original flight.
Done.