Hi Farzanah, 
 
As promised, herewith a short report of our trip to Egypt. 
 
Firstly, thank you to African Encounters for making all the bookings and arrangements – we had a fantastic holiday. 
 
Your Ground Handler in Egypt were wonderful – right from the minute we stepped off the plane in Cairo up until they put us on the plane 
back to South Africa. Abdul and his team, Eman (our tour guide) and Mena (the driver of the mini bus), 
 
were always professional and courteous, always on time. They really spoiled us and made us feel very special. Nothing was 
too much effort for them, and they really made us feel so welcome in their country.  
 
We enjoyed our first two days in Cairo, visiting Memphis, Saccra, The Pyramids, Solar Boar Museun, Egyptian Museum, Alabaster Mosque, 
a jewellery store, papyrus store, cotton shops, a perfumery and a store where carpets are hand knotted. Needless to say, we shopped till we dropped on our first 2 days. We stayed overnight in the Oasis Hotel which was very comfortable with good food. 
 
We then spent 4 days and 4 nights on the Nile Admiral river boat which was superb. Accommodation and meals on board were excellent. Tour Guide on for sightseeing whilst on the cruise was Maged, who was excellent and had an extensive knowledge of Egyptology and Archaeology. Very interesting man. Made some lovely new friends on the boat and also enjoyed the evening entertainment offered. Disembarked at Aswan and from there by overnight train back to Cairo.  
 
From Cairo we travelled by combi to Alexandria with Eman and Mena. This was the only disappointing part of the trip. Ground Operator had booked us into the Kaoud Sport Hotel, which was a really disgusting hotel. We phoned the Manager of the ground handler who told us that it was a rated as a 4 star hotel, but, it was really a very tatty, dirty place. In South Africa it would probably rate as a 1* or even as no star. We did consider changing hotels, but given the time it would take to get the combi back to the Kaoud and get our luggage loaded and then to look for a better hotel, we decided to just stay put and make the best of a bad situation, as we rather wanted to spend the time sightseeing. The Ground Handler really need to do a personal check on the Kaoud Hotel before they book any other clients in there – the bathroom was filthy – grouting between the tiles was black, the toilet seat was broken, the toilet cistern was cracked and patched, spider webs in the corners – just in general not a nice place – but we survived.  
 
Thanks once again for everything – we thoroughly enjoyed Egypt.  
Kind regards