We have arrived in Jordan, and its just what the doctor ordered. Already we are feeling refreshed and ready to get out and see the sights again! Some advice and more thoughts on Egypt are outlined below. Kind of a long post, hope we don't bore you!

Many tourists visit Egypt on package tours that include meals, accomodations and sight-seeing. Although this option is not usually for us, there are benefits to this mode of travel especially in Egypt. Firstly, we found restaurants a bit tricky to find in downtown Cairo and the streets can be quite an ordeal to cross on foot. Streets are polluted, hectic, and congested, with drivers ignoring traffic lights and cross walks, all while blasting their horns. In other words, it could be a bit too intense for many to stroll around the neighbourhood looking for shops/resturants. Also, in our experience about 80% of taxi drivers will drive up the price if you are a tourist. Be prepared to haggle and haggle hard. If you dont like the price say no and move onto the next cab or ask your hotel to get you a cab or ask them a reasonable price to pay per destination. If you are staying in a nicer hotel, walk down the street a bit before flagging a cab. You will pay more being a tourist, but it is up to you how much more you will pay. Being in a group tour helps to avoid many of these issues.

Package tourism may make some things easier, but seeing the sights with a bus load of people looked inefficient, rushed, and just down right impractical at times from our outside point of view. Especially the Egyptian museum, it was nearly impossible for the groups to see things in the 2 hours they had when 30 of them were standing looking at something with another 30 on the other side of the hall.

As for the pyramids, we opted to see the sights by a private driver and an English speaking tour guide which was arranged through our hotel. A whole day tour cost 60 USD for 9 hours and was well worth it. Our guide was TERRIFIC, he spoke perfect English, studied Egyptian history in University, could read heiroglyphs. Bonus - he was actually getting ready to move to Vancouver! From our experience at the sights, here are a few tips.

Egyptian Museum - Arrive early as the later the time, the more tour groups crowd the interior. Leave your camera at the stall opposite the ticket booth as it is not allowed in the museum and start your exploration on the second floor, it houses the most interesting objects. FYI, museum is open everyday until 6pm except Wednesday when it closes at 1pm.
Pyramids - There are three major pyramid sights popular among tourists including the Step pyramid in Sacara (sp), Giza pyramids and a Ramses statue at Memphis (no actual pyramids here). Avoid the touts and if you want a picture of somebody riding a camel, use your zoom, otherwise even the cops will make you pay for it.
Nile Cruise - These are tourist traps, over priced and depending on your boat down right terrible. You don't get to see much of the city and what you do is mostly dark, in hindsight we wish we spent the money and time elsewhere or even better saved it entirely!

We can recommend the hotel we stayed in, City View hotel. It was a low-to-mid range but it was located right across the street from the Egyptian Museum and the Nile. The staff was terrific and the food was tasty and extremely cheap. In fact, the hotel food was sooooo cheap we thought we got the conversion factor wrong between Canadian dollars and Egyptian pounds as two club sandwiches and fries cost $3!

Best of: Pyramids, Sphinx, Egyptian Museum
Worst of: Food, air, "no outside food or drink for your safety"at hotels

Pictures will follow later today or early tomorrow.
Ciao