An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

OK, Serge, you can take it as you choose. This is meant to be honest with no bs.....so here it goes...

You asked about advice on Egypt. I will tell you a few things I know that will make your trip successful and way more enjoyable than any tour.
You get your ass to Cairo. You stay at the Mena House hotel in Gizeh and tour the Pyramids. Hopefully they will be open while you are there. The food in Egypt sucks but the Mena house is ok. If you stay in Cairo, the Sheraton or the Nile Hilton are just fine but boring. If the food drives you nuts, there is a food court in the hilton that is ok. Take a few tours around, but get a private guide and insist he not take you to any papyrus or alabaster museums unless you really want to go. Beware of the touts at the Egyptian museum. After the tour,they will try and get you straight in to a perfume shop. Do not bother. You will get ripped off.
Don't fly to Aswan. Take the overnight sleeper train. You shouldn't miss Cairo station at night. Beware of the shoe shine boys. They quote you a price and only shine one shoe. Snarl at them and they will do the other.
Before you leave book a very high end Nile Cruise. The cheaper ones are awful and avoid faluccas at all cost. Moevenpick I hear does a great cruise. Try and pick up a personal guide at all the stops along the way especially the Valley of the Kings and Queens.
When in Aswan, stay at the Catarac hotel. Its a grand old african hotel like the Mena house. Spend a couple of days and take the early morning flight to Abu Simbal. It is amazing and not to be missed.
When you get to Luxor, have a bite at the best restaurant in town. McDonalds and it is air conditioned. Book the luxury coach...be sure to get the luxury coach...to the boat to take you to Sharm el Shek. Do not stay in Sharm, but take a taxi to Dahab. It is a quiet kind of hippy town on the Red Sea with diving, outdoor movies and pretty good food. Tons of Israeli kids. Do not stay at the luxury hotels here. They are dead as tombs. Get a nice hotel on the beach for no money. This is the kind of place where the less you spend, the more fun you will have. Go visit Santa Katarina if you feel like it otherwise go up to Taba, cross into Eilat....but keep going to Jordan and visit Petra. Book the hotel just at the entrance to the canyon. It is well worth it. Rent a car, go up to Wadi Rum where Laurence travelled and took Aquaba. Head up the Kings Hiway and check out the crusader castles along the way. Drop down to the Dead Sea and stay at the moevenpick hotel for a couple of nights. The finest spa on the dead sea with mud baths, infinity pools, and American steaks. You can go up to Amman and if you do, go to the local museum and see some of the original dead sea scrolls. You can cross over the Allenby bridge across the Jordan to the west bank and take a taxi to Jerusalem. Then I am sure you know what to do.

You can believe it or not, but I hope this helps in your plans.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

http://www.museum-tours.com/tours/exten_001.htm
(extensions you mentioned)
http://www.museum-tours.com/tours/odyssey_001.htm

tour itself.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

The second one looks better to me. But seriously, I wouldn't do either. You don't need to. You can book tours locally. You will meet some interesting folks to travel with. Especially on the boat. And that overnight train ride to Aswan is amazing. I have not been to Alexandrian so can't comment.
You can also stay a night or two at the Windsor House if you want to experience Cairo. It was the british officers club during the war. Its old, funky, noisy,cool bar and far from luxurious but it is in a real neighbourhood with guys smoking hubbly bubblies everywhere. I love Cairo. Many don't because it is so huge and dirty. But it has history and character. Try riding the subway. That is a trip and a half.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Thanks, but I kinda preffer some luxury in the developing countries when they are available. Nile cruise I am skipping, not my cup of tea. I accept your olive branch, as there are not too many people on Oprano I can talk about travels - the subject I am VERY MUCH interested in.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Cool. I love to talk travel. It is why I am a pornographer. It gives me the free time to pursue my first love. I had a job that paid me to travel the world, but I also had to work. With this "new" line of work, I do what I like.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

100, 99 ...

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Serge you surprised me. I was sure you'd take that olive branch, trod on it, and make olive oil...

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Lisa, you travel much?

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

I have done...as a teenager with my family. A couple of trips as an adult, but right now I'm a single mum of 3, so travelling extensively is out of the question (apart from threatening to run away from home).

Once the kids are off my hands, I'll still be well young enough to take off and see the world. :)

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

egypt is one of the few places i haven't been that is at the top of my list. been to about 18-20 countries so far. lived most of the last 10 years outside of the country. i grew up in alaska and always HATED the fact that there was no interesting history (apart from serges forefathers hacking up the natives for not killing enough sea otters for them) or culture or architecture. i love history. i can go to really old cities and spend days just looking at and touching every brick in every building just imagining all that they have seen. for me, life is about experience and exploration. i have seen more and had more excitement in my 35 years than almost everyone else on the planet would hope to experience in 10 lifetimes and i am confident that when i lay dying somewhere, someday, i will have zero regrets about the life i lived.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones." -- Anne Sophie Swetchine

I wish I had said that.

But here is the inspiration for all the travelling I have done. A marianne faithful song written by Shel Silverstein....I never wanted to wind up like this....



The morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of lucy jordan
In a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban town
As she lay there ’neath the covers dreaming of a thousand lovers
Till the world turned to orange and the room went spinning round.

At the age of thirty-seven she realised she’d never
Ride through paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair.
So she let the phone keep ringing and she sat there softly singing
Little nursery rhymes she’d memorised in her daddy’s easy chair.

Her husband, he’s off to work and the kids are off to school,
And there are, oh, so many ways for her to spend the day.
She could clean the house for hours or rearrange the flowers
Or run naked through the shady street screaming all the way.

At the age of thirty-seven she realised she’d never
Ride through paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair
So she let the phone keep ringing as she sat there softly singing
Pretty nursery rhymes she’d memorised in her daddy’s easy chair.

The evening sun touched gently on the eyes of lucy jordan
On the roof top where she climbed when all the laughter grew too loud
And she bowed and curtsied to the man who reached and offered her his hand,
And he led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd.

At the age of thirty-seven she knew she’d found forever
As she rode along through paris with the warm wind in her hair ...

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

I hear you....I recall good ole days when I could travel care free....not anymore. Since I was employed by Winetalk.com, Inc,
I have to work while travel,
the work contract calls for me drinking 2-3 wines a day and writing reports on them. It's a tought job, but somebody gotta do it.
:)

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

J, you and me have different idea what "luxory" is. I don't care much about hotels and it's amenities, really. What I do care is TIME and leg work I have to put into travel. I don't wanna come into place and do all the leg work while there, and this is the reason why packaged tours which cost more and save me TIME is my preffered way of exploring the new places.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

You will have a tough time fulfilling that committment in Egypt LOL. Funny, we have flip flopped. I gave up travelling for work. Well once in awhile I shoot some girls, buy some wardrobe, write the trip off for business. But its not like real work. Wouldn't do that in Egypt either.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

I am flying to Egypt with Russian group...

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/09/...rsrefuse.shtml

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Can't beat it with a stick. A few hard boiled eggs, cold chicken soup, bad russian rock and roll on the cheap Tanoys and a flight out of Domodedva on a DC10ski with a chechen woman. Life is good in Russia.

Oh I almost forgot....the highlight of the trip...unlimited supplies of gasvoda.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

J, today's Russians can buy you and 1/2 the Canada with their pocket change, like they do it with UK football clubs. I bet you never seen "New Russians", as they don't let anybody suspiciously looking get anywhere near them. Their private security is not just for the show.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Surprisingly I have met quite a few Russians lately. My guess is there are some that could buy and sell small countries. The majority of Russian, however, are in the crapper and most are more poorly off than they were before the wall came down. Moscow has become a dangerous city. Remember what happened to the Tsars, who also needed security and could buy and sell small countries. You know the old saw about history repeating itself.
Oh yeah, and Toronto is full of "new russians" extorting hockey players etc. Since the KGB took over that country, all bets are off.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Toronto is NOT full of "new russians", they have nests at the French Riviera. Whomever you've met are not "new russians"

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Sure they are Serge. You don't think new russians are everywhere? Or is new russians code for Mafia?
No one makes as much money as that oligarchy did, that fast, honestly. If they are the new russians, pity the narod.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Dude, you don't know what you are talking about....but, you are not the first and not the last. You simply don't know what "new russian" is.

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

Okay I'm intrigued, wtf is a new russian ?

Re: An Olive Branch to Serge....
 

OK, is that like the new 7/11 or what? Is it a branding thing?
'cause if you mean "rich" Russian, that is not a big deal. If you mean "powerful" Russian, that just means a crook. So what exactly is the New Russian?