Haikus and Good Bye, Egypt

Some wrap-up thoughts from Egypt: We are sitting in the airport at 12:30 am, waiting on our flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then to Johannesburg.  I’m still angry an hour later. We hung out with the guys we’d been couchsurfing with in Cairo until it was time to take a cab to the airport. 

Cairo – the short version

When we extended our stay in Dahab, we knew we’d be making some sacrifices in other parts of Egypt.  We cut Alexandria and Aswan altogether and narrowed Luxor and Cairo down as far as possible.  We spent 2 days, total, in Luxor and traveled by horrible overnight train to Cairo on Wednesday.  We ended up

What’s worse than a 20 hour busride?

Two days ago, I would have said “Nothing.” But amazingly, the answer is “An 11 hour train ride.”  And it wasn’t even close. There are basically two ways to get from Luxor to Cairo, our last stop in Egypt: the bus and the train.  They cost about the same, they take about the same amount

Thanksgiving in Cairo

Happy Thanksgiving! One of the hardest parts of our trip is missing family holidays, and this is the first biggie. With that in mind, we were determined (okay, mostly me) to find something festive. We met an American guy in the airport in Latvia who had lived in Cairo on study abroad. He had an

Luxor, Egypt

If you thought the Luxor in Vegas was commercial, you haven’t seen anything. Luxor is home to some of Egypt’s most famous ancient sites. Along with this distinction, Luxor is home to the most aggressive sellers of the world (I sincerely hope!). As you walk down the street, as a tourist, you are constantly accosted

Survival Guide to a 20 Hour Bus Ride

I know – Thanksgiving is almost here, and perhaps you are moaning the difficulties of travel. How busy the airports are, or the traffic on the highway on the way to Grandmother’s house, or wherever you go. Since Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks, I thought I would give you something for comparison, so you

“There better be dolphins in bikinis swimming around the boat…”

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in I’m writing this on Saturday, 3 days after writing the previous post, from the restaurant at Seven Heaven.  That’s right – I wrote that we were ready to leave and I’m writing again from the same table, 3 days later.  This is not

Dahab – a diver’s paradise

We had so many experiences to write about in Israel that we were able to write ahead for 5 or 6 days, just scheduling posts for later.  Which is good, because there’s just not that much to write about in Dahab, Egypt – a welcome change. When we arrived in Egypt, we’d been seeing sites

Snapshot of a Day – Traveling from Israel to Jordan

We usually focus the blog on a unique site or an activity, but this time, I decided to just give you a snapshot of what turned out to be a pretty interesting day of travel. Starting out in Eilat, Israel, we got up early and went to get our Egyptian visa at the Egyptian consulate

The Best Place You’ve Never Heard of

Perhaps that got your attention. When traveling for a long time, we have the advantage of changing our itinerary as we hear from other travelers about places that are awesome. Petra is one of those places. We did not intend to visit initially, knew nothing about it, and yet here we are. If you are