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Tarnlee's Life
Ok, if you've checked out my BEBO site you've already read this... but I want this site to be my up-to-date travel site so I'm repeating myself with this entry!
I WILL be adding a couple of pics and journal entries from each of my trips, in the near future.
In September 2004, I quit my job assistant managing a pub/hostel on the Isle of Skye, and embarked on a 2 month mammoth tour of Europe before heading home to NZ.
First stop was a three week tour of Egypt - 15 days of which was spent on a Geckos-run tour - VERY GOOD.
Dave & I were alone for the first 5 days and decided to head up to Alexandria. Arriving in Cairo then trying to find a bus depot in an extremely dodgy part of the city was pretty close to terrifying. Riding a bus for a hundred hours with 100% local passengers all staring at the strange white people was also an experience!
We survived, and during those first few days we met a random American traveller and together we bar hopped, got ripped off massively and shared sheesha pipes with locals. Very cool.
Eventually we headed back to Cairo and met up with the tour group. Our first day was spent doing all the tourist stuff - pyramids, sphinx, Cairo museum, visiting papyrus makers, and during our "free time' getting accosted and led through dodgy backstreets by strange little Egyptians, taken to their family store, plied with tea, and almost forced to buy their wares.... Also very cool (in retrospect - after getting over the fear that we would be mugged and left for dead in Africa).
We all spent 5 days camping in the Sahara (desert), with a group of Beduoin as tour guides. It was absolutely amazing - I have never in my life seen the sky lit up by as many stars as there were in the desert skies. We traveled through Oases (small villages), visited dodgy cafés, swam in sulphur springs, rode camels, visited ancient settlements, even had lunch at Beduoin's own home.
The rest of the trip was spread between Luxor and Aswan. We spent 3 days on a felucca cruising the Nile, rode donkeys to the Valley of the Kings (I fell off mine!), had a VERY early start to visit Abu Simbel, visited SOOO many temples, wandered through markets, got targeted by pick-pocketing kids (they got NOTHING) - I even ate pigeon at a restaurant on the banks of the Nile.
Eventually we headed back to Cairo where we wandered the bazaars and caught a FREE sufi dancing show at the Citadel one night - incredible!
Egypt was a fantastic country to visit - so very foreign which left you feeling like a real traveller. I recommend everyone goes once in their life - but beware; don't romanticize the country before visit, the reality is that it's a dirty, poor country. And while a lot of the people are genuinely friendly and helpful, almost all are willing to make a quick pound from the white guys! Keep your wits about you!
So next will be photos of Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Hungary..... without such long winded explanations!
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