Last year, many Belarusians have forced to travel for themselves through their native country. However, despite periodic protracted universal locomotion and closure of borders, even citizens who are accustomed to the annual rest by the sea were able to find good vacation options in the summer. Albania, Montenegro, Turkey with certain restrictions, but accepted our tourists. Closer to winter, the alternative was dressed, and the most affordable was the traditional direction for these cold months - Egypt. Tours are sold freely, charters fly daily, at the entrance of a fairly negative PCR test. Even quarantine on return is not necessary. Most of the guests are limited to tourist reservations from the Red Sea, allowing themselves only organized excursion trips to Luxor or Cairo. But what if you deliberately refuse a beach holiday? What is Egypt outside the All Inclusive zone? Is it reasonable to travel on it yourself and how safe is it? In short: everything is possible. Details - in our guide first-hand.
Idea
With the arrival of the second wave of a pandemic, the possibility of free leaving abroad was significantly reduced. This in this case goes not only (and not so much) about the new rules from the Belarusian authorities. In the end, through the National Airport, Minsk from Belarus is still published freely, and the remaining relevant ROUTE network "Belavia" is still quite wide. The problem lies in other restrictions, massively introduced in the fall. Somewhere (for example, in Russia) requires an actual PCR test, which we are not so simple. Somewhere (in Poland) upon arrival it is required to serve the required 10-day quarantine, which in the context of the short-term trip makes it inappropriate. In many cases, quarantine is required to leave in Belarus upon return, although actual experience suggests that now it is very selective for control over its observance. Against this background, Egypt looks like the easiest and most logical choice: direct flights, a visa-free regime, the lack of any quarantines and beautiful even at this time of year. What else is needed for happiness, except for the cherished print Negative in the actual PCR test? Suppose nothing.
Logistics
However, it is necessary to somehow get to the charter, because the regular flights of the Belavia airline does not offer its passengers. The carrier flies into two Egyptian cities located on the Red Sea. Sharm el-Sheikh is a strider. In addition to the beaches and diving, cognitive entertainment on the Sinai Peninsula, militarized because of the proximity of Israel, are exhausted by the monastery of St. Catherine. Therefore, the natural choice is the opposite bank and Hurghada.
To hit the cherished "Boeing", and at the same time, and to pass the very PCR testing, which organizes the tour operator, has to buy a tour of the cheapest. The hotel on the second line is predictable terrible, meeting the guides at the airport shocked by a similar choice and ask if we want to stop here. Well, a total of ten nights, expeditionary spent only one in it, so the experience was tolerant. But people who decided to make it their only database remains only to sympathize. Hysteria at the reception desk demanding the replace number even after a day of stay was observed, alas, repeatedly.
Visa
An important nuance, somewhat worried about the trip. Formally, the visa for the Belarusians is free, but not everywhere. In Sharm, the default is given it for a month, because to get somewhere with a blue - then still troublesome Delz. When arriving in Hurghada, the visa is also free, but already subject to the availability of return tickets and a tour package. In fact, our presence outside the tourson (actually all Egypt from the Sudanese border to the Mediterranean was sent) without a paid visa, no one interested, although, taking into account the specifics of the country, communication with representatives of law enforcement agencies happened regularly.
Buses
Almost all a reasonable life in Egypt is concentrated in the valley and the Nile Delta, as well as on the Red Sea coast. Communications are based on the use of bus transport of various formats. Along the Nile also has the railway. Buses naturally enjoy greater popularity: they are fast and frequent. The local population prefers minibuses, but this is not our choice. There are also quite comfortable European-type buses between major Egypt cities, where even Suplek is relied on the night crossing. Flights (not counting directions between Cairir and Alexandria) are relatively few, but there were no problems with tickets, a few hours before departure, they calmly bought at the checkout. The question was in the other. There are many bus companies in Egypt, they often have their own businesses, and at large bus stations, each carrier is necessarily its own. There is no single schedule, and the actual better clarify each time in its window. Unfortunately, it is impossible to rely on sites in this sense. By experience, you can safely advise GO BUS, the only large drawback of which was the absence on board Wi-Fi.
Railways
Surprisingly, the railways in Egypt are also quite popular. At least in the evenings, the stations of major Egyptian cities are overflowing, sometimes citizens take the wagons with storm. Especially popular is the third class looking as the option of our suburban trains. The second class is also most often filled, but in the first (the same soft "sediment", but with a smaller number of seats in a row) is already free. There are sleeping wagons, logical for Transvelop (Cairo-Aswan) routes, but they are by local standards of ultra-ends (a double coupe can cost more than $ 100) and probably intended mainly for European, American and Chinese comrades.
Although the main problem of the Egyptian railways is not at all in their cost or comfort, but in systematic and protracted delays caused by, apparently, the state of paths and rolling stock. In fact on the Luxor site - Aswan delay amounted to about three hours, and on the Aswan - Cairo route exceeded four hours. This introduces into frustration, especially since rare declarations of the delay and its duration in Arabic will remain incomprehensible tourist, they do not own. Because great and the risk is not pleased with its train: the composition approached to the platform seems to be on the schedule it may well be late for a couple of hours.
Abu Simbel
Of all the attractions of Egypt, which are members of the mandatory top of any civilized person, the most inaccessible now - Abu Simbel, two rocky temple of Ramses II. The place is located in the south of the country, 300 kilometers from Aswan, almost on the border with Sudan. Around only the desert, Bedouins and a lot of security officials. In the "Covered" time with a regular bus service there are problems (tourists just missing it), so the most convenient, although a fairly expensive option is to remove your minibus in the topics of the Aswan tour merchandises, which continues to work out of despair. About $ 150, you will be given a minibus (in fact for a whole day), two drivers and a whole security guard who will follow you in this difficult region. The main thing, the tour company will also take on all the necessary permits for entry into the border junction, and they will be required to be built along the road of blocks.
Accommodation
It makes sense to be extremely gently approaching the independent choice of carrier housing in the economy class segment (primarily guesthouses and mini-hotels) and soberly assess the combination of prices and promised amenities. The hotel offering a five-star resort's services for $ 12 per day, including a spa, restaurant, bar, a nightclub and a sightseeing platform overlooking the Great Pyramid Giza, most likely, will be unfinished house with an unobed apartment and the complete lack of described pleasures, except maybe species. The basic handling skills of the offer of the same Booking.com resource in this case should be swept as much as possible. Unfortunately, on the whole well-known site in his Egyptian segment, simply an excavating number of frankly fraudulent proposals with maximum ratings and a bunch of one-type reviews. After spending a long period without traveling and softening from memories of European travel, in Egypt in this sense, you have to train vigilant in every way. Awards can be beautiful houses in the B & B format in ethnic style and with personal service.
Patience
In an independent trip to Egypt, you must be prepared for universal attention. Even in places, where a collective immunity to tourists should have been developed for a long time, over the past year they were hungry. The lack of the pyramids or in the valley of the kings, or in Abu-Simbel the usual multilingual crowd leads to the fact that your appearance there produces a shocking effect. Camels, camel traffickers, souvenir traders, self-coated guides who spend you to the tomb and will require an indispensable Bakshish, - all this is an integral element of the landscape. Conductors will show you your place in the car and ask a couple of pounds, you will bring a menu in English in a tourist restaurant or even in Russian, where prices will double from a similar price list in Arabic. There is now difficult to be a tourist in Egypt, and the surroundingness quickly begins to cause irritation.
Compensation
But there is a whole thing and a wonderful positive side. Most likely, subject to self-trips in places that you first read only in the history textbooks, the attractions of the Top of The Top format now you will be alone, sometimes even in full: Some in the tomb of Tutankhamon, alone at Tutankhamon's mask in the Cairo Museum, Some in Abu Simbel, one in the Khatselsut temple, one in the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid. This is an incomparable pleasure that will ever end, and all these key points of world history will have to raise a long queue. Alas, the Egyptians, probably, would not be the Egyptians, if in this case they did not try to compensate for their lost profits at your expense. The cost of entry into all the most important objects of the country has recently increased seriously, sometimes more than twice. Tickets generally turned into one of the most significant costs of expenses in the current Egypt.
Absolutely empty valley of kings
The very pharaoh
Temple Hatsepsut Prices
The remaining basic costs are unlikely to surprise you. In the catering establishments for local residents, for $ 4-5, you will most likely bring several food basins, which is enough for a long time. For tired of the frequency oriental flavor, there is also a European-type cafe, and a network fast food. Water in Egypt is subsidized by the state, therefore it is worth a penny, and it will be needed a lot. With alcohol more difficult. At the urbanized north, in the cities of the Red Sea and in the tourist Luxor, to buy it in specialized alkoshops or find in the labor bar will not be. For a much more fundamentalist, in the sense of attitudes to the life of the south of the country, alcohol, most likely, will persistently offer suspicious personalities or taxi drivers, inspired by your frankly non-phase appearance. But the smoking of the Egyptians are much more liberally, and the paintings have long been unthinkable with us or even more so in Western Europe, such as smoking men right in the waiting room of the station here are still considered the norm.
Safety
Relax in Egypt should not under any circumstances. The population is abundant concentrated mainly on a narrow lane along the Nile, crowds are crowded, and you will stand out in them. In addition to the Red Sea, the inturists in an amount other than the number of fingers of one hand were found only in the Fan Temples and Necropoluses of Luxor Yes, the pyramids of Giza. The population at the same time is friendly, although sometimes, as mentioned above, it is annoying, and the kids will become your indispensable companions who will require a photo with a foreign guest to their smartphone. It is extremely carefully to behave with potential fraudsters. Be prepared for the fact that for some Egyptians you are an obvious victim. This applies to any purchases for cash (and the cards in the country are well taken, especially in large stores and hotels), money exchange and such operations.
By cities you will move at your own risk and risk, but on the tour bugs with the protection of everything seriously. After the 1997 terrorist attack, the country's leadership pays special attention to this. Tourist police, even in the absence of tourists omsepress, together with their blocks, armoredirs and machine guns.
Separately, it is worth noting "Cakes" - security. The south of the Egyptian city, the wider there is the distribution of dissident sentiments in relation to coronavirus. If you are simply not allowed in Cairo Carrefour, then in Luxor the control will not be so universal. A similar situation in public transport and other places of cluster of the masses.
Country of contrasts
Nicramorny Egypt leaves a paradoxical impression. On the one hand, due to the accumulated historical heritage, the country is definitely in the list of goodwill obligatory for visiting all people. On the other hand, a constant voltage from a fair color and no disreshable quickly exhausts. Located by garbage of gateway Aswan, dusty alleys Giza, smelled camel dung, get along with the parade embankment of Alexandria, ten-facular arc envelope the Mediterranean bay. The eternal sufferer was able to Cairo with his clogged motorways at the level of the eighth floors of houses, adjacent to the modern metro, oriental cafe - with Starbucks, and obsessive taxi drivers on the Soviet Auto industry - with Uber on Korean-Japanese hybrids. To see all this with its own eyes, it is certainly necessary, but the return looks doubtful. This, however, does not cancel that each Egypt may have its own. Especially now, when a special choice in the Belarusian who was keen in the country and not.
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