Dance like an Egyptian...

I'm back!! LOL Did ya miss me? Did ya? Nah? PMSLing...

Mum, Chris and I in front the Great Pyramid.


We had a fabulous trip to Egypt, stopped in Cairo for 3 days and saw the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids, went to the Cairo Museum and drooled over the treasures of Tutenkamun and visited The Mohamed Ali Mosque and had a quick scout round the Kalili Bazaar. Now, I live in an Arab country and have lived in Arab countries before but I have never witnessed the sheer pushiness of sellers to the degree of those in Egypt... you are attacked on all sides by people shoving stuff in your face and demanding you buy it at outrageous prices... its very offputting and I think I bought the least amount of stuff I have ever bought on a holiday just because of the sheer aggressiveness of the sellers and I am used to bartering for stuff and dealing with the occasional beggar, so I cannot imagine what it would be like for the average tourist off the plane.

Looking for treasure... Kalili Bazaar, Cairo

The Great Pyramids

Chris....pppick up a pyramid!!

We also visited Sakkara and Memphis and saw the huge step pyramid and popped into a tomb, before travelling onto Aswan where we stayed in a beautiful hotel on a island in the River Nile.

Giza, the Pyramids.

Then it was a visit to Lake Nassa, the Aswan Dam and the Philae Temple and a really early morning start (2 a.m. get up) to make our way by bus to Abu Simbel.

Chris and the Sphinx

Mum, Chris and I at the Memphis Sphinx

Off on a 3 day cruise down the Nile visiting Edfu and Esna and onto Luxor to do the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Chris got sick so we missed those but Mum managed to do them and Chris and I returned to the hotel by taxi... the taxi was an ancient 1970's model something with no working speedometer or any other gauge come to mention it, the seat covers were old badly cured sheepskin and the suspension was a distant memory if it had any at all!!

Chris and I went for a balloon ride over Luxor and viewed the temples from the sky... it was BRILLIANT!! I have always wanted a ride in a hot air balloon so we couldn't miss the opportunity when it came up... sunrise in a hot air balloon is magic....

Its so quiet and the view is amazing... and I wasn't scared at all!

In Luxor we visited Karnak and Luxor Temples before returning back to the UK... for a 3 day stint at home in Scotland - where British Airways managed to lose our luggage... luckily it turned up the next day so I had time to wash everything before re-packing it to fly back to Saudi.

So, here I am, back with lots of new stash to play with and hundreds of photos to scrap!!

Update on Gypsy... so many people have asked about little Gypsy. We left her in the compound at Murjan when we moved and my next door neighbour is feeding her. She has only ever known life in Murjan Village and I wasn't sure she would want to move with us, plus, if we moved her here before we went on holiday there would be no one to feed her and she would have been in a strange place. Now we are back I am informed that she misses us, turns up at our old house every night at 5 pm for her food and chats to Odelia. So, Chris and I are off tomorrow to find a pet store where I can buy a litter tray and cat cage and we can then go over to Murjan for a bit of catnapping... I hope she settles here in the new house, she just wants to belong to us and be an indoor cat with occasional ventures outside... so wish me luck that she comes to me and lets me put her in a cage!!