Egypt as they call it in Arabic ‘Em El Donya’ which translates to ‘The Mother of the World’. is the third African country we travelled together.
During the UAE National Day holiday, we both decided to travel to Egypt. The main reason we travelled to Egypt was because the visa was easy to obtain (LO). Tim managed to get a visa on arrival while it took me 4 working days to obtain a visa from the Egyptian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Since we could only travel for 3 days, we narrowed our trip down to Cairo.
We heard from a lot of people how Cairo can be chaotic so we booked our tour with Fly Travel. 3 Days and 2 Nights in Egypt and we managed to have a blast. Our tour guide Karam, is very well educated and also has a sense of humour. He cracks jokes when explaining the history of the Pharaohs and Egyptian Civilisation which makes it fun and I guess it’s the best method to make people listen.
So below is our Cairo Weekend Itinerary 🙂
Day 1:
We visited the Pyramids, Sphinx and Papyrus Institute and a Cotton Store.
Try to avoid the Cotton Store, it was a major waste of time but we bought cushion covers which you can find in any market. Anyway the highlight of that day was seeing the Pyramids. OMG! GIZA indeed has some supernatural vibes. We highly recommend you enter the Pyramids, it is worth it. Although it’s narrow and could be annoying, it is worth the visit. Unless you are claustrophobic, so yeaaaahhh don’t go in. We also visited the Khufu Ship which is walking distance from the Pyramids.
After lunch, we did a quick stop at the Papyrus Institute and attended a workshop on how they make the paper. Tim and I bought a small art work to hang in our place. We have a habit of collecting artworks from all around the world and whats cool about the papyrus paper is that it’s waterproof.
At night, Tim and I scheduled an uber to take us to the Nile River. We decided to go on a boat ride along the Nile and they played Egyptian music. The locals were having a great time singing and dancing. The funny part, Tim and I were the only non-Egyptians on that boat and being half Middle Eastern I had to join and dance.
Day 2 of the Tour:
The historical tour that made us go OH WOOOW!!!
The tour began at the Egyptian Museum where we learned a lot about the Egyptian History and if ever you visit, I recommend you take a guide with you because you will learn a lot more.
The Museum preserves the mummies in a very cold room and we were not allowed to take pictures. I actually didn’t feel comfortable and I believe that the mummies should be put back in their tomb.
We later visited Citadel, Muhammad Ali Mosque and Sultan Hassan Mosque. We sat with our tour guide in the mosque to listen to the ‘Call for Prayer’ and had a deep discussion about Abrahamic Religions.
Before heading to the famous Khal El Khalili market, we went to the Perfume and Jewellery stores and bought a box of perfumes. After that we requested our driver to drop us to Khan El Khalili where we spent the night exploring the market and smoked shisha at a Sha’abi (Local) Coffee Shop just like what we see in Egyptian movies hehehehe.
Day 3:
WE FLEW BACK TO ABU DHABI
Our trip to Egypt was indeed very short and we would love to visit again and explore other areas of the country. If you are visiting Cairo, I highly recommend you either have an Arab friend or an Arab guide. It’s difficult for a non-Arabic speakers to navigate around the city.
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