Month: December 2008

We are having a great time. The food is fabulous and our hotel *very* nice.

We have no computer with us, so we have sporadic access.

This is just a quick note to let you know we are alive.

This article claims that the Egyptian government has lifted the restrictions on tourist travel.

For those of you that don’t know, traveling almost anywhere outside Cairo by car or bus involves a convoy. The 2 places where most people encounter this is

• on the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. There are many temples there, and most people can only get to them on a cruise or a bus tour.
• between Abu Simbel and Aswan

All the buses and cars have to meet at a checkpoint, and they all travel together. So they all arrive, more or less, together. Which means hundreds of tourists hitting the temple all at once. Such joy.

If the article is true, it means that it is should now be much easier to travel within Egypt.

It means, insh’allah, no hurtling death rides from Aswan to Abu Simbel.

It also means, insh’allah, that it will be possible to rent a car and travel alone at one owns pace down the nile and tour the temples when *I* want to, instead of arriving on a bus with 50 of my closest friends.

I am skeptical, because I have had to wait for a police escort when traveling even in areas that don’t require convoys…