I like to discover new places whenever I can. These discoveries are especially more enjoyable if they are abroad. Because it is a completely different order, culture, life that you are not used to... I really enjoy being ignorant of the life there and I think observing what is going on, chatting with it, and immortalizing it with photographs is one of my greatest pleasures.
We visited the Balkan countries in May of this year. I didn't have much difficulty when I went there, but I can say that I had a lot of difficulty in Egypt, our stop this time. We left behind a trip that lasted about 10 days and I am here with 2 series of articles. For now, you are reading the first of this series, enjoy reading!
Day 1
After getting off the plane, we first got into a huge mess to get a visa. That’s where we got our first scam. We had to get a visa at the gate for Cairo. We didn’t even realize what was going on because it was so crowded. We wanted to go to an empty place and start the process. When we asked the officer, he said it would be $25 if you do it from a bank, but $30 if you do it here. We said there was nothing we could do and got it. But after getting it, we realized that it said “only $25” in other places. We made a good start :)
After leaving the airport, while looking for a taxi to go to the hotel, a few people kept trying to tell us the price, but the prices were too high. After getting ripped off, we were able to get the price we wanted by bargaining. Maybe we were scammed this way, but at least we got the price we wanted by bargaining :)
We arrived at the hotel at almost 3 o'clock at night and we went to bed right after arriving. In the morning, we had breakfast and went to a beautiful beach in Sharm El Sheikh. It was so beautiful that we had the opportunity to see schools of several fish species when we entered. As my wife said, it was like we were in an aquarium.
After returning to the hotel and getting ready, we went to the city center and Farsha cafe and enjoyed watching the illumination of those lights. It is really a must-do. It would be beneficial to choose your seat well here :)
After returning to the hotel, we came across a beautiful local dance here. We are trying to understand even more that we are in Egypt.
Day 2
Today, we started the day early to go scuba diving in the Red Sea. Normally, we don't like to go on tours, but doing such activities with a tour is both better and more convenient. So today, we will be in the Red Sea all day and will stop at a few stops and do a few activities.
The first stop is the diving point. Before coming to this stop, we received a short training from the instructors. Thanks to this training, we saw what we need to do underwater and a few communications underwater. Thus, we were able to dive easily and comfortably underwater. We literally felt like we were in an aquarium and saw many fish. It's like a completely different world...
At our second stop, it was time to snorkel, but we missed it because we were busy eating. I think this is the downside of going on tours. That's why I don't like going on tours.
At our third stop, we stopped at White Island and did some swimming and swimming/walking to the island. I can't say it was very productive. The only thing I have to say is that the water is clear.
Day 3
Today we discovered a beautiful beach to swim from the beginning. Here we had the opportunity to swim underwater and watch the fish. If we had more time, we would definitely come here every day and swim. We took some underwater shots here.
We returned to the hotel and prepared for the ATV safari and Bedouin night. I had previously wanted to ride the ATV in Cappadocia, but we had preferred the horse safari there. Today was our destiny. Drifting and speeding on the ATV in the desert was really fun. I wish there were fewer people and we could ride as we wanted. Other than that, it was a great activity. After the ATV ride was over, we attended the Bedouin night and were not happy at all. Because what is Samba dancing doing at a Bedouin night?
Before finishing today's plan and setting the sun, we discovered a beautiful Bedouin themed venue near our hotel. We chatted here while smoking hookah and drinking something. Many factors such as the reasonable prices, the atmosphere of the venue and the niceness of the guys working there impressed us a lot. We also wanted to have the same place in Turkey.
Day 4
Today is our last day in Sharm El Sheikh. Before leaving here, we decided to go to a canyon near Dahab (Colored Canyon). But it didn't turn out as we expected. It was much further away from Dahab and we couldn't go to the place we planned. We went to a canyon-like place nearby and saw it, we just saw it 😄.
Afterwards we went to the bus station to go to Cairo. We spent about 9 hours on the road. We saw very beautiful views. We probably saw one end of the canyon we wanted to go to. We reached Cairo at the end of the day.
Since we were tourists, the police made us wait a long time every time we entered a different city and we just waited. Every time we changed cities, the same procedures were repeated. This is why we lost a lot of time and it was one of the biggest factors in our fatigue.
Day 5
We arrived at the hotel we had booked for the night, but it was a hotel with no rooms as we had seen in the images and as they said. So we started with a setback from the very first minute. We cancelled the reservation and booked a hotel nearby that was empty.
We had breakfast on the hotel terrace with a view of the pyramids. When we saw the pyramid while climbing the stairs, we were shocked by its size. We had breakfast with a magnificent view and got ready to start the day.
Today, we were normally planning to visit the pyramids and then the museum, but we spent too much time at the pyramids. Because otherwise, we would never have finished the pyramids. We toured around the pyramids with a camel and horse safari and saw the pyramids panoramically and in many ways.
The streets were really dirty and there was animal droppings, you can imagine the smell. There were no traffic rules and there was very chaotic traffic. We still haven’t gotten used to it, even crossing the street is very difficult… Anyway, we went to a place called Tree Trunk to have dinner in the evening. It was authentic and had good food. Since we were very hungry, we thought the portions would be small so we ordered too much. We couldn’t even finish it all. The prices were just as cheap. We paid around 1,400₺ for 4 people. Of course, we had to have a hookah right after 😄
The first 5 days of our Egypt trip were like this. I will mention the next 5 days in the next article and end the Egypt trip. If you are interested, it would be more interesting to read both articles at the same time.
