Hi there, and welcome to my JackiWalksLikeanEgyptian blog!
I booked my ticket. Straight through Jordan, I will fly to Cairo, Egypt on Royal Jordanian on Tuesday, July 9 at 9:30 p.m., arriving in Cairo at 7:15 p.m. That's only 10 hours. Not bad, as things go. Thought I would have to stay overnight in London (uck), but some American travel agent saved me. And with my miles, I only have to pay $680. Saving $1,720 was never a bad thing! And I am planning my whole trip over the internet!
This is the picture I saw on Facebook that compelled me to go to Egypt, a place that had not previously been on my radar:
Can't you just see me staying here?
I don't know how I met the woman (Cornelia Kaufmann) who posted this picture of an Aswan house, but she has since helped me with travel accommodations at a $13.76-a-night hostel and a tour guide (female Muslim) in Cairo ($40/day). Cornelia is a photographer, as well. Only she uses a Hasseblat and I will be using my trusty point-and-shoot (and my phone). This is Cornelia:
She lives in Austria, but travels a lot. Isn't she georgeous?
If you Google "Aswan houses" you will see the reason I am going there to photograph.
Using two internet travelers' sites (Couchsurfing.com and Airbnb), I found a Nubian tour guide named Gassar with a house for rent in Aswan (which is Nubian Egypt, and the furthest south of all cities). And then I came across "Individual Aswan," a site by a woman named Petra Dressler created specifically for people who travel alone.
Here is Gassar (on the left), and the entire house he is renting me for $20/night in Aswan. (It's the one in the middle.) It's on Elephantine Island, located in the Nile River, and is called "Ibiza House." (I don't know what that means, yet.) He runs a tour boat touring company down the Nile, but says tour guide services have been in a slump since the revolution (Mubarak) two years ago.
It has room to sleep 4 and lots of charm in the inside. Bonus: As you can kind of see from the above pic, it has a balcony which faces the Nile! I mean, can you beat cocktails and a hookah on the Nile, for Pete's sake?! You can even see the dunes of the desert from the balcony, just across the river.
I booked my ticket. Straight through Jordan, I will fly to Cairo, Egypt on Royal Jordanian on Tuesday, July 9 at 9:30 p.m., arriving in Cairo at 7:15 p.m. That's only 10 hours. Not bad, as things go. Thought I would have to stay overnight in London (uck), but some American travel agent saved me. And with my miles, I only have to pay $680. Saving $1,720 was never a bad thing! And I am planning my whole trip over the internet!
This is the picture I saw on Facebook that compelled me to go to Egypt, a place that had not previously been on my radar:
Can't you just see me staying here?
I don't know how I met the woman (Cornelia Kaufmann) who posted this picture of an Aswan house, but she has since helped me with travel accommodations at a $13.76-a-night hostel and a tour guide (female Muslim) in Cairo ($40/day). Cornelia is a photographer, as well. Only she uses a Hasseblat and I will be using my trusty point-and-shoot (and my phone). This is Cornelia:
She lives in Austria, but travels a lot. Isn't she georgeous?
If you Google "Aswan houses" you will see the reason I am going there to photograph.
Using two internet travelers' sites (Couchsurfing.com and Airbnb), I found a Nubian tour guide named Gassar with a house for rent in Aswan (which is Nubian Egypt, and the furthest south of all cities). And then I came across "Individual Aswan," a site by a woman named Petra Dressler created specifically for people who travel alone.
Here is Gassar (on the left), and the entire house he is renting me for $20/night in Aswan. (It's the one in the middle.) It's on Elephantine Island, located in the Nile River, and is called "Ibiza House." (I don't know what that means, yet.) He runs a tour boat touring company down the Nile, but says tour guide services have been in a slump since the revolution (Mubarak) two years ago.
Here's a picture of the other side of it:
Here are some pictures of the inside:
Can you believe this? And Gassar says he's not charging me for tour guide services because he is "just proud to be showing tourists the beauty of his country," but I'm paying him like $20/day.
So, I jumped the gun; Aswan is the last 5 days of my 14 day trip...but the part I am most excited about because there I get to go see: Abu Simbel temple, a camel market in the desert, an animal market, a souk (Egyptian bizarre), the Nubian village, Philiae temple, the Tombs of the Nobels, the Botanical Gardn, the Monestary of Simeon, and Crocodile Island. I will also get to RIDE a camel (!!) and a Felucca boat, which has overnight trips down the Nile.
I mean, how cool is this? And did I say I BOOKED MY TICKET TODAY?!
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