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Articles Tagged ‘TRAVELS 2008’

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I think I am allergic to Egypt

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

As an aside to the usual chronological adventures….I have decided I must be allergic to Egypt. Since I arrived I have been getting bites everywhere despite the absence of bugs anywhere. Not too much of a problem, just very itchy. Then last week while on a 9 hour bus ride back up to Cairo I watched the bites on my right hand grow and my hand swell up until it had at least an extra 3 or 4 cm around it, my wrist grew as well and I could hardly move my hand. Also my left upper arm had a bite that ended up the size of my hand and sticking out in this huge lump. I got some antihistamines in Cairo which seemed to help and the swelling went down. Then a couple of days later while waiting for a bus to Dahab my eye felt itchy and but the end of the day my whole had swelled up so I couldn’t even see out of it! totally weird…


I looked like a crazy person and had to wear sunglasses all the time for 2 days until it mysteriously went down again

The only thing I can work out is that I must be allergic to the country, now thatĀ  have left the bites have gone…very strange!

Up the Nile

Monday, July 21st, 2008

To go from Aswan up to Luxor you can drive, train or go up the Nile, depending on your budget this means a big fancy cruise ship, or a very basic felucca- nothing much in between. But to be honest, I would rather a felucca any way as it seems more romantic and authentic, plus it is cheap, very cheap. I kind of expected it to be pretty basic, and it was. Just a big mattress with a shade sail and a tiny cabin type thing where the crew slept. We has 13 of usĀ  on the boat and I am fairly certain that some of them did not expect it to be so simple. Two American girls looked shocked when they arrived, “Is this it?” and went to get McDonalds to make themselves feel better. We did have a good group, myself and Hugh (English) and 2 older and very strange french people and the rest American, a guy called Brian a cool older couple, a group of 4 friends and 2 girls. The last 6 people were only staying one night so left the next morning which left us a bit more space on the boat.

So we pretty much just lay around reading, talking and watching the coast go by. Despite warnings about swimming in the Nile, the water looked too good to resist so me and Brian spent a lot of time swimming. We stopped for lunch and then went up river a bit to camp for the night. Our big mattress area was a bed, table and seats all in one. Basically it was a lot of lying around doing nothing and after Aswan this was perfect, no one to hassle you and staying out of the heat.


We went for a bit of a walk around the local village and then after tea it was bedtime. Surprisingly it got cold, very cold during the night and so not much sleep. Around 6am someone said they were cold and blankets appeared which meant I got a good couple of hours sleep during which time half our boat team left to continue on to Luxor by car while the rest of us, now which more room spread out for another tough day. It took a bit to convince the crew to actually keep moving, not so easy to get any information out of them about when we were leaving or where we would go but eventually we sailed on and stopped for another long lunch break and some more swimming where we got the American couple in the water, Hugh though was far too sensible and wouldn’t go in….I am sure he would have secretly laughed at us all if we got sick from it!

After more sailing and talking trash we pulled up with a few more feluccas to watch the sun set and eat some tea, later that night we moved up the river a bit more to where we would get picked up from. Sailing at night was amazing, the moon was big and bright and reflected on the water, the stars were out and a mosque was playing its call to prayer in the distance. There was something slightly surreal about moving quickly and quietly through the water that night. Very cool.

A night close to a main road and traffic and a lot of bugs was not so great however, so not a lot of sleep again. Then it was up early to be bundled off in some sort of pick-up to see some temples on route to Luxor. Generally the trip was great, cool people and good to see rural Egypt, however it would have been nice to do a bit more moving and get closer to Luxor as we didn’t even make it half way and drove the rest of the way, but good times, good people.

temples and mini vans in Aswan

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Some people seem to deal with heat OK, despite being 45 degrees they look fine, make-up and hair still in place and charging around the streets without seeming to notice the crazy heat. I am not one of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Cairo 101

Monday, July 14th, 2008
Don't stop and talk to anyone Just cross the road, even if there are 100 cars coming towards you Ignore every second guy saying "hello lovely" to you Find a good felafel shop Cairo is a pretty intense city, when flying in, our plane ... [Continue reading this entry]

walk like an Egyptian

Thursday, July 10th, 2008
this will be a very short post as internet is expensive where I am, and when I say expense I mean $2.50 an hour...which may not seem expensive but it should be 50 cents an hour...so all relative I guess. Anyway ... [Continue reading this entry]

getting in the tourist mode…

Monday, July 7th, 2008
It feels easy to slip back into the tourist thing, spending days looking at things and eating lots. My first full day in Singapore I went for a walk around the little India district with Rula and Hannah, we stumbled ... [Continue reading this entry]

Getting into the Sling of things

Sunday, July 6th, 2008
The Singapore Sling is the famous cocktail of Singapore, so what better way to kick off the trip than with a Singapore Sling on board the plane at 11am, as I wouldn't be able to afford one in Singapore. Singapore ... [Continue reading this entry]

getting out is harder than you think…last day at home

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Today is my last day at home and I have been running round trying to tie up loose ends, mostly things I should have done ages ago but never got round to it. I have been finishing up with life at ... [Continue reading this entry]

I’m going to Russia…

Friday, June 20th, 2008
Hurray, I have my passport back! Complete with a big Russian Visa sticker. Its scary not having your passport, its like my key to freedom and without it I am useless...so its nice to back safely in my hands ... [Continue reading this entry]

the last stretch

Thursday, April 24th, 2008
I'm about to begin my last term at uni on Monday, how exciting, that means in 6 weeks classes will be over and I only have one exam, then I will be qualified! Not qualified enough to actually do something ... [Continue reading this entry]