Thanks for the tip..I'll give it a shot.
Ahh the trip was incredible. We left on April 19th and stayed in London 2 days...nice place but everything is twice as much and you get half of what you get in the US. I would never want to go back to London to be honest.
We arrived in Egypt on may 2. The first day we spent time checking out the Egyptian museum and the rest of Cairo, such as Khan El Khaleely, the market area.
Day 2 was spent in Giza at the pyramids...we enjoyed that quite a bit needless to say.
Day 3 we went to Saqqara to see the step pyramid and on to Memphis to see the ancient capital. Not much in Memphis other than an enormous statue of Ramsis II. This night we went back to Giza and did a sunset camel ride with some Bedouin folks in the Sahara desert. This was incredible.
Day 4 we drove to Alexandria on the Med. Alex is a city of about 2 million, unfortunately many of the ancient sites such as the Alex library and the lighthouse no longer exist. We checked out some catacombs and ate at a cafe on the Med. The food in Alex is some of the best in the world.
Also in day 4 we went back to Cairo and I walked around the area where my dad grew up, and bought kilos of spices from a market my grandmother used to shop from.
Day 5 we left for Luxor...had to see Luxor but when we go back there is no need to go to Luxor any more. People are relentless in the hassle..."you want this, I guive you good price..." and they follow you until you start talking about the police or demonstrate you know a little arabic by asking them to beat it.
Day 6 we toured Karnak and Luxor Temples...very extensive archeological sites, Karnak Temple puts the Acropolis to shame as it is 7 times the size and is wall to wall hieroglyphics.
Day 7 we spent our time in a Felucca on the Nile, at the Temple of Queen Hatchetseup and at the Valley of the Kings. The temps in Luxor were about 110 degrees.
Day 8 - 11 we spent at the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The diving in this area of the world is about as good as it gets. The marine park there is known as Ras Mohammed, and many revere this reef as the best diving in the world. I would have to say, asthetically it is the best, however, from the standpoint of crowding this place stinks. There are Russians everywhere and they are not very friendly...oh well we can discuss this another time.
From Sharm we went to Dahab. Dahab was desolate due to last months incident (which was domestic in nature contrary to what our media says) but the diving there was incredible. I wish I had spent all of my diving time in Dahab...we actually plan to go back next year, perhaps even stay there for 6mos to a year after I finish school. All of this is subject to a few things but I think we will do our best to go. I pretty much have a divemaster position lined up when we go...nevertheless, that is another discussion all together.
After Dahab we took a cab to Taba, crossed the Israeli border and rented a car to drive to Jerusalem. Along the way we stopped at the dead sea and soaked in the theraputic waters, then on to Jerusalem for the duration of our adventure. Not much to say about Jerusalem other than it has incredible energy and was an eye opening experience.
Murf, there is no doubt that perception in the US is skewed of the middle east. At no time did I feel endangered, or hated. Everyone talked highly of Americans (although they are not happy with the war) I met Saudis, Iraqis, the full gamet and all were very open about talking about the political world. I will say this about Egyptians...they are very peaceful people. Their primary concern is what happens in Egypt.
I believe Americans see fundamentalism and attribute it to everyone, I could not find a fundamentalist anywhere (99.9% of all Egyptians are just like us)...this is not the case at all. There is definitely a perception in this country that there are many people who want to make war in the Mid East and with America...I met no such person while I was there. I think some of us make a terrible mistake by lumping everyone into a specific catagorey, unfortunately the way the mid east is percieved is inaccurate and we have our media to thank for pushing this mindset forward. I would encourage anyone thinking of going to Egypt to go without hesitation.
I will post more pics when I get through all of them. I'll also try the sites you reccomended Murf.