Enjoying her own private sunspot.

Just returned from two weeks in Egypt. Awesome tour!

another one with flash

Ground squirrel who was about to raid the flower pots. He ducked behind the pots when he saw me and thinks that I can't see him:

Jodi - I traveled to Egypt in 1994. We spent 11 days there and saw so much, a whirlwind tour for sure tho. I love your photo. Isn't it amazing that such ancient structures are nearly a stone's throw from the hustle and bustle of a city? I wasn't expecting that. Did you take the very touristy camel ride? We did. I had to pay the man leading the camel to let me off! The tour bus guide found out and told him a thing or two. Didn't get my bakeesh back tho.

We did two camel rides in Egypt and were supposed to do one in Dubai but I opted out to take photos of a sweet couple we met on the ride there. I wanted to take their photos on a camel for the first time.

My first ride was more of a photo op and really no ride at all. And yes it was pretty much if you want to get off, pay ... and a buck wouldn't cut it. We ended up paying a total of $15 (American) for the two of us. However, the photo they took of us was priceless (see below)

The second ride was a real, honest to goodness ride with the reins (heavy rope) in my hands and a camel at my command. We rode up a sandy dune to the San Simeon monastery in Aswan (central Egypt), toured the current monastery and the ruins of the old monastery and then rode back down the hill. Got a nice video of that ride which I couldn't safely take until I handed the rope back to a local while I filmed.

Hey, there you go! A great shot. I immediately went to find the photo of my camel ride but it wasn't where I thought it, and the other photos, were; maybe I'll search around tomorrow to try and find them. My aunt had to ride double with someone and she nearly slid off the back of the camel on more than one occasion. : ) I never got to take the reins, how exciting that ride must have been. And I suppose your camel's name was "Mickey Mouse" too? It seemed every camel was named Mickey Mouse.

A small group of nine of us opted for a trip across the desert to Abu Simbel by bus. It took three hours there and three hours back. An incredible place, and we were the only people there (plus the bus driver and mechanic - both of whom spoke no English!). And oh what a sight on that dark eerie drive back across the desert. The stars - seemed so low and big you might touch them.

How funny!!! Yes, my camel's name (the one in the photo above) was named Mickey! My travel friend was never told the name of her camel but I guess we can assume it was Mickey. :-)

We got up at 3:30am and were driven to Abu Simbel by small van. 3.5 hours from Aswan. There was us, two drivers and our Egyptologist. It took three men to get two old women to see the Abu Simbel. We are told that the road is dangerous and requires two drivers in the van. We found out later that two days after our early morning (3.5 hour) drive, the entire stretch of road was closed due to protests from the Nubians who were being forced out of their villages to live in brand new concrete apartment buildings along the highway. I actually took photos of the ugly, impersonal, new Nubian "village". I can't blame them for protesting.

Jodi, I love your pictures! And am so glad that you were able to go safely now, considering Egypt's terrible troubles since 2011. I visited the country decades ago, when DH, who was then DL, was living there for a year, and totally fell in love with it. I hope that the economy is getting back on its feet. Tourism plays such an important role!

DH is wondering at which hotel you stayed, and how was the service.

Jodi and Schoolhouse, I love hearing about your adventures in Egypt. I've been following your pictures on FB as well.

Today I had help decorating for Christmas.

We rode a camel named Marie at the Birmingham zoo. In World War 2 my dad was in the Air Force & his unit rode camels across the Sahara Desert.

lol, janey! Good one. :) :)

I wish I could remember the name of the village at the entrance to Abul Simbel. At least I remember it as a village. The "gate" was closed when we got there as it was late afternoon. We had to summon the gate keeper who lived in the village to come open it for us but only if we gave him extra bakeesh because it was after hours.

I remember as we walked up the rise and turned the corner - there was temple, breathtaking. Here is one photo of me feeding a peanutbutter cracker to a dog there. I only found this pic because I have it framed and sitting on a table in the library.

The only hotel I can recall us staying at was in Cairo. Otherwise we were on the cruise ship (up the nile, or down I should say) and also in a sleeper car on the train to Aswan.

Pretty much culture shock for those of us from a small town in Ohio. When we were there in July, 1994, it was common to see men with machine guns at the railroad depots "for our safety". Did you go to the Kalid Bazaar Jodi? A few of us decided to go at night with our guide, who basically disappeared and left us to find our way around. One of our group was lured to a building with the promise of a certain glass figurine she wanted, we couldn't find her, she finally appeared quite shaken realizing how foolish she had been. There was no figurine, turns out a group of men were trying to convince her to marry a relative and take him back to the USA with her!

We stayed in several hotels while in Egypt. In Cairo we stayed at the Barcelo. Luxor was the Sonesta St. George Hotel Luxor. Four nights on the Amarco Nile river cruise and then three nights at the Pyramisa Isis Island Resort in Aswan which was gorgeous! We took the overnight train to Cairo and drove to Alexandria where we stayed three nights at the Plaza Hotel. All hotels were 4-5 star with fairly good service but the Pyramisa in Aswan was exceptional.

We were well taken care and watched by our drivers and Egyptologists. So much so we needed to sneak away a couple times just to feel some freedom. We did this in Aswan when we hired a horse and carriage to take us to the Cataract Hotel where Agatha Christy wrote Death on the Nile and again in Alexandria after a day of having a security agent (black suit, machine gun toting secret service-type guy) chaperone us all day. The Egyptologist told us they never know when a security guy will simply meet them at a hotel one morning when they come to pick up their tourist charges for a day of sight seeing.

Having an Egyptologist along would have been ideal. We had a group of high school students and their English teacher and his wife, the latter two being more interested in shopping than history! Speaking of sneaking away, I did the very same at the Cairo museum. We were promised two hours, but when we got there we were told we had only 30 minutes. Whaaa?? So I left the group, not smart, and tried to see as much as I could on my own. I was the only one who got to enter the "Mummy Room" because I found it by accident and paid the extra $10 USA.

We too did the Cairo museum but we were there probably two hours and the Mummy Room was part of the itinerary. I paid extra though at the entrance to be able to take photos inside the museum. Everywhere except the Mummy Room.

If anyone wants to see photos and videos of my trip, feel free to friend me on Facebook. facebook.com/jodinewell

Thank you for the extra details and stories of your trips. So exciting! I was there in 1980, when Anwar Sadat was president, and things were very calm. There were few concerns about terrorism or civilian unrest. When DL/BF was at work and in class I explored Cairo by myself in perfect safety, although Egyptian men do tend to be extra "friendly" with women who are not accompanied by men.

I wish more people could go. Egypt is indeed one of the trips of a lifetime!

Sorry for the deflection of this thread -- blame the photos!

sableincal, don't be sorry about deflecting a thread. I love reading the story behind any picture.

I have really enjoyed the photos and stories of Egypt. That would be an amazing place to visit. Did any of you ever have concerns about your safety or was that not an issue?

As I said, to smalltowners the presence of guards with machine guns and big German Shepherds was a bit unnerving. The people were friendly for the most part, especially if they were trying to sell you something. I was wary of eating the food on the street and even drinking the water, but that makes traveling not as enjoyable. In general I didn't feel afraid. This was in 1994, not sure how the atmosphere is now. Jodi probably could relate that better seeing how she was there more recently.

So, as you can see by schoolhouse_gw's comment regarding her 1994 trip, that Egypt has taken safety very seriously since long before the 2011 revolution. We mistakenly thought that all the checkpoints were because of the revolution but were told that they have been in place for many, many years.

We lost track early on of the number of checkpoints and airline type scanners we walked and sent our bags through during our two weeks in Egypt. It's probably just common sense stuff in a middle Eastern country I guess.My friend and I traveled the entire length of the country and felt perfectly safe.