When we realised we could fit in a side trip to Jordan to see the ancient rock city of Petra, we were really excited. We decided to do it independently – we later learned that this probably didn’t actually save us any money as you can do it as a trip from Dahab, but it…
Month: May 2013
The ancient sites of Luxor
We arrived in Luxor after visiting Kom Ombo and Edfu, and headed out to visit Luxor Temple that afternoon. This temple is right on the banks of the Nile, and is interesting as it has been used as an Egyptian temple, an early Christian church and a mosque (they built it on top without realising…
Sailing down the Nile on a felucca
After arriving back from Abu Simbel, we transferred onto our felucca. A felucca is a small, traditional sailboat, where by day you can laze about the deck and by night you sleep on the same deck. We were really keen to cruise on the Nile – but we were not at all keen to go on…
Amazing Aswan and Abu Simbel
We decided to travel by train to get to Aswan, where we would start a 5 day tour. We don’t normally travel by tours, but we had a short time frame and wanted to make the most of our time. We booked with Eye of Horus tours as they were the cheapest option and gave…
How to deal with touts and hassles in Egypt
We had been pre-warned that we would experience some hassles from touts in Egypt (we appreciated Mike and Ashley’s honest account here). We developed some different ways to deal with people in Egypt (note, I am not talking about people we asked for help, hostel staff etc but people that approached us unsolicited to offer…
The Pyramids
We were excited about seeing the pyramids and decided to go there by ourselves, which was really easy. We jumped on the metro, getting off at the Giza station. From here we took a mini van (the one where the driver was calling out “Haram”) and were dropped off at the back entrance to the…
Experiencing a traditional Moroccan Hammam
I had heard of hammams (traditional bathing houses) while we were in Turkey but didn’t get around to trying one. While we were in Essasouira, I decided to do something that scared me and took myself off for a hammam. Why was that scary? Well, I didn’t want to go to a tourist hammam or…
Chilling in Essaouira
We spent four days in Essaouira, a little town on the coast of Morocco. After the busy crowds of Marrakech, Essaouira was a literal and figurative breath of fresh air. (The temperature was about 10 degrees cooler than we had been having in Marrakech!) It’s actually known for its windsurfing but we managed to get…
Riding camels in the Sahara desert
We really wanted to ride camels in the desert! We had originally planned to go to a different part of the Sahara, but we found out that this was one occasion where travelling independently was actually going to be more expensive than taking a tour. We changed our plans accordingly and joined a group tour…
Meandering Kiwis 