[theweatherman]

I have been in egypt for 5 weeks and will be so for the rest of the semester at AUC in Cairo. What I have come up with to go to is Cairo, Alexandria, Sinai, Western Oasises, Luxor/Karnak, and Aswan. I will be heading to Alex tomorrow for the weekend and I will let you know what its like if you want.

As for the rest of egypt i have seen a lot (too much?) of Cairo. Huge city, dirty as hell, and full of annoyances. But hell this is Egypt after all.

Sharm is for pussies who want to dance all night with girls who have no intention of laying them. Go to Dahab, as the poster above said. Much, much sicker. My current retirement plan is to make 40K and move to dahab for the rest of my life. If Cairo is considered cheap, dahab is like a charity.

However, DO NOT come to egypt if you want to get laid/ drink in more than the 7 bars around, or witness a functioning state. Cairo at least has none of these things. Although right now is ramadan so it is especially brutal on these fronts. Ramadan is barely half over and we have already drank the closest bar out of beer (which they cannot buy more of until ramadan is over) and have been banned from another (the Odeon palace, not that great of a story). Things should improve once this ramadan BS ends in two weeks.

One other thing, dont be afraid of the language barrier. I took Arabic for two years before coming here. Totally usless. not that I cant speak it, just that the egyptians dont. they speak egyptian arabic which is so far removed from MSA that it is not even close. Unless you want to talk about things like medicine or politics, MSA will get you no where. You are better off speaking in english.

I could write lots on this as I live it every day. Write back with specifics or PM me for more if you like.

Salam allekum