Frank and Robyn in the Land of the Pharaohs

We leave our hotel at 5am, 0500 ie.in the morning in order to enplane from Cairo to Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, now referred to as the acronym THKOJ. We are given breakfast bags which we generously donate to our driver. At Cairo we have the usual 23 XRay checks of our luggage(the suitcases are now starting to glow in the dark) plus the 35 stimulating, though ultimately unsatisfying, pat downs. Surprisingly we arrive safely in Amman and our heads are hooded, hands are tied and we are whisked away to the (not so) Grand Palace Hotel. Fortunately we have magnificent views from our "suite". We catch a taxi to the Hamesh restaurant reputed to make the best falafel in town; certainly the best we have ever eaten. At 6pm we meet our tour group and after a brief briefing we are off to dinner at a local kebab joint.

We leave our hotel bright and early to fly back to Cairo. The highlight of flying in Egypt is the multiple patting downs one gets by some really quite attractive security agents, though females would probably be more appropriate. Our first stop in Cairo is the big Mosque where we are deafened by a very enthusiastic call to prayer. We then move on to the Gayer museum to see the collection of looted artefacts owned by some rich pom. We spend the afternoon hanging around the big bizarre where one can buy any number of useless trinkets and tacky souvenirs. In the evening we are driven to a Cairowegian family's apartment where we are fed with traditional Egyptian morsels. The boss goes full native

Today we are off to see Abu Simbel. We catch an Air Egypt flight which takes about 40 minutes; our return flight goes back in about 2 hours, so we are expecting an in depth visit. The Abu Simbel was built by Rameses 2 as a vanity project for him and his queen, Nefeteri. This temple was also dragged out of Lake Nasser; there is no swimming in Lake Nasser as it is full of crocs(not the sandals). Not pyramids, just molehills A lot bigger than a banana Maybe not? This evening we go boating on the Nile again and then have a fine dinner with a Nubian family. It turns out that not all Nubians are slaves. After dinner certain members of our group are decorated with Henna tattoos.

This morning we wake up in Aswan and we are now in the land of Nubians. Our morning excursion is to the Philae temple of Isis which is 2700 years  old, though it doesn't look a day over 2500. This temple had to be pulled out of Lake Nasser and relocated onto an island. We then are treated to  a visit to a scent outlet where we are demonstrated fragrances and essential oils, some of which can cure cancer and MRSA! Later in the day we take an all to brief felluca(yacht) trip on the Nile.