I am traveling to Egypt - Cario for 2 days and then river cruise down Nile - then on to Jerusalem for 4 days in December. Have been to Israel several times before but never to Egypt. Looking for suggestions on books to read on Egypt as well as suggestions for photography sites in Cario and on river cruise.
Harris
Just found stever's post from January and the replies which were helpful.
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I have not experienced this first hand, but depending on how each country feels about one another you may not be able to enter if they see a stamp in your passport from Egypt or Isreal (depending on which direction you are going) Politics stink.
As far as your trip, all of Egypt is amazing. (unfortunately for me I photographed it using film and no easy way to digitize them) Your guides will handle all the photogenic locations, so I will cover some things that the books probably do not cover. You will become very familiar with baksheesh. Basically it is tipping for everything. My favorite example was we found that our room did not have any toilet paper. We flagged someone down to get us some. When the man came with the paper... he stood there waiting for baksheesh. So if you come from a country that does not tip as a custom well you may be in for an aggravating time.
I felt very safe in most parts of Egypt. The only place that I felt a little uncomfortable was in Alexandria, there was a real air of them not liking Americans, and the Tourist Police followed us everywhere while in the city, and frowned on anyone going off by themselves.
Merchants and peddlers will try to sell you touristy things like post cards maps etc. and they are very persistent. If you tell them "la shukran" (no thank you) they moved along. If you tell them in English they will continue to get you buy something.
Enjoy the trip.
