Preparation and Purpose for Made in Egypt Cultural Tour
Exploring the Egyptian Souvenir Trade
I should explain that this trip is somewhat different than the 2007 trip. Firstly, I am coming to Egypt alone, and have asked Hossam Rashwan and Eman Hemida, two of my guides from 2007, to organize the trip for me and to join me in exploring the Egyptian souvenir trade. They have been preparing since last July. Eman has covered the Khan el Kalili in Cairo and Hossam has explored the markets of Luxor and the West Bank factories and artisans. I have taken an interest in practical economics and want to see how the whole Egypt tourism business fits togther. While I can experience the hotel and restaurants and Hossam and Eman can give me insight into how the tours work, we will all learn something on this trip about the other place tourists spend money, the souvenir markets! Secondly, I want to explore traveling in Egypt as a woman alone.
A Tour Designed for a Woman Traveling Alone
Women traveling alone can always join a guided bus tour or small group, but I really prefer to have full control of my trip, so I have made arrangements to come alone. Now, this has meant that I have had to consider the desires of my husband and mother as to propriety, personal safety and daily communication.
Here is the system I have put together, and I will go into more detail on my tour description page. I have the same car and driver for each day -- car complete with seat belts. A reasonable hotel. A male tour organizer and a female traveling companion/guide, both English speaking. Hossam Rashwan, the tour organizer and Eman Hemida the traveling companion and Guide are both former guides and now personal friends, but this combination would work for anyone.
I have paid for accomodation for all of them when out of their home city, and both will acompany me for the whole trip. It is not the cheapest way to do it, but by arranging it directly in Egypt, the cost is reasonable and the security, companionship and service is excellent!
And and I am carrying two phones. One is an ordanary GPS phone that works on the Egypt bandwidth with a local sim card with Vodafone Egypt. This phone enabled me to receive calls from Australia cheaply, call others in Egypt at the best rates, and--as it turned out--was the only way I could dial internationally.
I am also carrying a Palm Treo 650. An older model, but it is a quad band phone, with a small keyboard. This allows me to easily send text mails. I have this phone on global roaming from Australia, however, I must confess, something went wrong and I can't dial international, only send text messages. But it has been very reliable and convenient to send messages.
As an aside--this trip continued on around the world when I met my husband in Dubai, and the global roaming thing was very erratic. Never did get the international phone calls and even the texting didn't always work in Dubai and the USA. I would recommend that you obtain a phone in the US (cheap and available at most stores) and in Dubai, I am not sure what the answer is. I would still carry the Palm treo, however, as it was easy to text and it has a convenient slide in sim card slot on the outside, so you could change the sim card easily to local ones.
I will spend some time revisting favorite places such as the Egyptian museum and the Pyramids and Sphinx. But much of my time in Cairo will be spent in the Legendary Khan el Kalilli and Islamic Cairo. Also, this time I will be staying at 3 star hotels, rather than 4 or 5 star. The 3 star hotel is the backbone of the Egyptian tourist industry as they accommodate the budget tours.
Stopovers in Dubai
I went straight through Dubai on my way over as my 'round the world ticket' would have been violated by a stopover at the beginning and when I hopped back from Egypt. The Egypt ticket was separate.
While in Dubai I had 10 hours to wander through Terminal 1. I took lots of pictures and notes and you can see just what is in Terminal 1 on Day 2. By the time I was back in Dubai for the stopover with my husband, we departed from Terminal 3, the newest one. But I am sure that Terminal 1 will still be used, but not sure for what flights.
We stayed at the Ibis Hotel in Dubai when I met my husband. We attended the GITEX convention there.
Ibis Hotel in Dubai
What I packed
Well packing is always a project. The benefit of a 'round the world ticket through the US is that you are allowed 2 bags on all legs of the trip. This made packing easier. I packed one large bag and one small one for Egypt, all with hot weather clothing. I had my husband bring a few cold weather things in his bag when he came to Dubai. However, I did carry on my cold weather jacket when I began the trip(you'd be surprised how many useful things you can tuck into the pockets and I had the same draconian carry on restrictions as everyone else in economy.
I also carried on my laptop computer, the phones, my cameras (I took an emergency camera), my noise cancelling earphones and essentials such as extra underwear, tolietries and my sleeping kit for the plane. Formerly we were not supplied with sleeping masks on Emirates. But this time I flew direct to Dubai, not via Singapore, and got a nice little sleeping pack, But I didn't know in advance. That was about all I could get in the carry on bag under the weight allowance.
Of course I had tickets, documents, passports and travelers cheques, etc. on my person--not in my bag or in the coat--you don't want to lose those.
My itinerary was 11 days in Cairo and 8 days in Luxor, and that was just about right for everything. I hadn't scheduled any days off, but I ended up taking one or two.
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