Day 242 – Cairo to Aswan
Exploring the Egyptian Museum and journey to the village
Egyptian Museum
Today we once again met up with our tour guide from yesterday, Muhammad for a half day tour of the Egyptian Museum. The basic entrance fee is 160 EGP / $13.73 AUD per person for the Morning Hours (9am to 5pm), but if you go during the Evening Hours (5:30pm to 9pm) the price increases to 220 EGP / $18.88 AUD per person. There are various additional tickets that can be purchased, but we didn’t get any of these.
The museum itself is a massive building, in the heart of Cairo. Due to the location, it is said that some of the artefacts are getting damaged from traffic pollution. There is a new building being constructed near the Pyramids to house the new museum in the future to help preserve the artefacts.
There are a few large statues outside, but the main event is inside of course. Our guide took us to all the important areas in the museum. We were not disappointed with the amount of exhibits. The place is massive and we were only limited by our flight to Aswan. The detail on the artefacts is quite remarkable. Most are in very good condition.
Painted limestone statue of Queen Hatshepsut Akhenaten’s Coffin Lid Limestone family portrait of King Amenophis and his family Yuya’s Inner Coffin and Mummy
We debated coming here with a guide. Personally, if it was just my wife and I, I would not have bothered, and would have just come here at 9am and spent an entire day here. But as time was short and we had our parents with us, a guide was the way to go. Also there isn’t too many descriptions so if you want the additional information, you will need a guide.
This car looks as old as the pyramids. Left in a car park
Our tour included pick up from Mid Town Hostel, a guided tour of the Egyptian Museum and then a drop off at Cairo Airport. It only cost us 550 EGP / $47.20 AUD for 4 people. Muhammad, dropped us off at the airport after several hours, and he was super funny as always.
Aswan
At the airport we had some lunch from the one store at the Domestic Terminal. Our flight was with Egypt Air, and we had no dramas with them. Once we arrived in Aswan, our Nile Cruise technically began. As it included transfers to the hotel, the company’s representative picked us up, and arranged taxi’s to our hotel. It was very well organised and I was super happy with the service.
We stayed at a new Guest house called Abo ORabi Guest House. The location caused some issues, as it was across the river in the Nubian Village part of Aswan, but we had no regrets. Was an amazing homely experience and Abo and his wife Fatima were super friendly. Abo was very funny and made the experience the best stay in Egypt thus far. He was also fluent in English. When we asked about dinner locations near by (which there isn’t any), the family prepared us an amazing dinner on short notice, which was so nice of them.
Views of the Nubian Village Rooms at the Guesthouse Amazing Dinner
Our first change in the tour also happened today, which effected our tour for tomorrow, which I will talk about in the next post.