I was finally able to fulfill one of my dreams….. to visit the most exciting country in the world…… Egypt. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

Starting off at the Egyptian Museum taking us back to ancient Egypt and the time of the Pharaohs, we saw many artifacts, paintings and mummies, hyping ourselves up before traveling to Giza to visit the Great Pyramids; Cheops, Chepren & Mycerinus. I was able to enter Cheops and walk up a ramp to visit one of the burial chambers, where I was quite disappointed to learn that this was the only room I was able to visit out of the whole pyramid. Apparently 10 years ago or so they had stopped letting people enter the pyramids from the main entrance as they feared that due to many visitors it would soon deteriorate. I enjoyed a camel ride around the Great Pyramids which ended at the Sphinx. We then ended the day by boarding an overnight train to Aswan.

When we reached Aswan we visited the unfinished obelisk and the high dam. We later sailed on a felucca to the Botanical Gardens before joining our cruise ship on the Nile. We sailed for 3 days covering Kom Ombo, Edfu until disembarking at Luxor.

On the final night of the cruise we enjoyed an Arabian night where we ate typical Egyptian food and had a dress up party, which consisted of many games, belly dancing and mummy wrapping competitions, finishing up on top deck where we had a swim in the pool enjoying soft music to end the night.

The next morning we stayed at Le Meridian Luxor, which had a name change to the Nile Palace. Beautiful hotel, with a great selection of restaurants. The pool was a great size; however the water was approx 27 degrees, which was quite pointless to swim to freshen yourself. The cocktails by the pool were a bit of a disaster. There was a group of us who ordered drinks and they all had the wrong ingredients. I think they need to have proper bar staff trained since this is an international 5 star property. The first room I checked into had problems with the plumbing, the fridge did not work and neither did the air conditioning. I later changed rooms and after moving noticed the air conditioning wasn’t working there either. Since it was only one night, I couldn’t be bothered moving again.

The next day we traveled to the Valley of the Kings and here I visited a hand full of tombs, ending with my favorite, Tut-ankh-Amun. Later finished the day by visiting the magnificent Colossos of Memnon.

Last but not least, I enjoyed a hot air balloon ride at 4am in the morning to travel across the villages in Luxor. I noticed that these houses do not have roofs as it is very hot. They usually sleep on hay stacks, unless they have some money, you may see some sleeping on some rags.

The next morning we flew with Egypt Air from Luxor to Cairo where we headed for the fascinating bazaar Khan El Khaili and had the opportunity to do some last minute bargaining, where I picked up a Shisha for AUD6. The last 2 nights we stayed at The Oasis Hotel where we started the pre accommodation at the beginning of the tour.

The last day we visited Sakkara to see the oldest pyramid in the world, the Step Pyramid. We couldn’t enter this pyramid, however we were able to walk around it and take a picture of a statue of a Pharaoh through a peep hole. Continuing on, we went to Alabaster Mosque and the Sultan Husan Mosque.

We completed the last night with a farewell dinner at The Oasis Hotel, farewell drinks and shisha around the pool.


In all these are the places I covered:

- The Egyptian Museum
- The Royal Mummies Hall
- The Great Pyramids
- The Sphinx
- Colossos of Memnon
- Citadel
- Alabaster Mosque
- Sultan Husan Mosque
- Temple of Horus
- Temple of two gods
- The Giza Pyramids
- The Valley of the Kings
- Karnak Temple
- Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple
- Edfu Temple
- Luxor Temple
- Imhotep & Sakkara
- Kom-Ombo Temple
- Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amum

In all the Contiki Tour was fantastic, the group consisted of approx 16 girls and 6 guys, mixed with people from USA, Canada and Australia. I had an awesome time and highly recommend the trip to anyone who has wanted to travel to Egypt. We had a great tour guide, called Sherif, who was both a comedian and extremely knowledgeable. I think that the tour was cost-effective but there were some things that we had to pay for additional to the tour price, which I believe that could have been included, such as additional temples. The tomb of Tut-ankh-Amun, camel and donkey rides, hot air ballooning and an Egypt History book. Even so I had a great time and enjoyed Egypt; I don’t believe I will be returning for a long time. After trying to adapt to the standard of living, it was interesting and at the same time an eye opener. I realized how good I have it here in Australia and felt sorry for the Egyptians with the way they live and the lack of money there is in this country. My heart really went out to the children who don’t have choices. They usually do not have both parents and have many siblings for whom they have to support. The only money they usually depend on are the tips from the foreigners. I met a 13 year old boy who escorted my donkey around the village of Luxor, who was telling me how he had 2 younger brothers and 1 younger sister and only a very old mother who was too old to work. He lost his dad when he was 7 from a disease which was not curable due to the lack of medicines and hospital standards. He said that his dreams were to one day own a donkey or camel of his own so that he was able escort a foreign traveler and pocket the money himself instead of working for a boss, who doesn’t pay them anything but tells them it is up to them to receive tips. This is all they had to live on it was quite sad. Through the villages there were many children running up to the donkeys and camels begging for lollies and pens which they love. It was heartbreaking.

I am glad to of traveled to Egypt, however a few words of advice……. Bring lots of hand sanitiser, do not eat anything but potatoes and rice, and always wear a seat belt…… they don’t have any speed limits and share the roads with donkeys.