28 09, 2019

Buying Guide for Egyptian Papyrus Art

By |September 28th, 2019|Categories: Buying Guide, Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |2 Comments

Papyrus is the ancient symbol of Lower Egypt and you'll see it everywhere in Egypt. Touts will wave bookmarks and small art at you on the streets. Sellers at historical sites will have them displayed prominently. And you'll pass dozens of "Papyrus Museums" aka showrooms of the stuff. But you have to be very careful, as you could end up with cheap banana leave replicas, or artwork simply printed off a printer. Real papyrus (as any of the "Museums" will show you) no longer grows wild on the banks of the Nile, and are made from Cyperus papyrus stems. These stems

2 03, 2019

Souvenir Saturday: Little Moons Bracelet

By |March 2nd, 2019|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

I wrote about the time I was in Aswan, I got shown around by a local to "his family's stores" but ended up finding a wonderful shop that had everything I needed. One of those items was this beautiful bracelet with little moons all over it. I love it! Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.

1 11, 2017

Egypt Travelogue: Day 11, Part 3 – Luxor Stroll

By |November 1st, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Sunday November 1, 2015 Egypt: Day 11, Part 3 – Luxor Stroll In Aswan and Kom Ombo our cruise ship had been tied up in a row with another ship, so we actually left our lobby and entered directly into another ship's lobby before getting to a gangplank to go ashore. However, in Luxor, hundreds of ships were tied up along the shore, sometimes 10 deep. But this time they weren't fancy other cruise ships, but the decaying unused ones.

29 08, 2017

Egypt Travelogue: Day 11, Part 2 – Unexpected Nile Shopping

By |August 29th, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Sunday November 1, 2015 Egypt: Day 11, Part 2 – Unexpected Nile Shopping When we got back to the cruise ship, we had breakfast and talked about people's jobs. After this fortification, we had a group meeting to remind us of the time we should be near the Esna Lock. After a full morning, I decided to go back to the room and rest a bit. I found a towel elephant awaiting us! After resting for a while I thought

22 05, 2017

Travel Missteps: Shop Till You Drop

By |May 22nd, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Like most of my travel mistakes, this one is due to trying to do too much in too little time. Last year when I had a business trip in Disney World, I decided to try to do as much Disney and Universal in just 2 days. On Saturday, I did a whirlwind visit to Disney Hollywood Studios and Walt Disney World until I could bearly walk. I also did a lot of shopping, and had it sent the next day to my hotel's store for pickup. The problem was, you could only pick it up when the hotel's store was

1 04, 2017

Souvenir Saturday: Suckered into Buying Papyrus

By |April 1st, 2017|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |1 Comment

One thing I didn't think I'd get in Egypt was Papyrus. I didn't think I'd find anything I'd want to display, and I had always seen cast-off papyrus at second-hand stores like Goodwill. But, when you are there in the moment you get caught up...and guilted. You see, our group stopped at a "Papyrus Museum" (aka showroom) on our way to Alexandria. They showed us how Papyrus is made, and then each one of us were allowed to look around. Except in Egypt, "looking around" means you get adopted by one of the many employees eager for a sell. An

21 06, 2016

Egypt Travelogue: Day 9, Part 3 – Aswan at Night

By |June 21st, 2016|Categories: Museums, Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Friday October 30, 2015 Egypt: Day 9, Part 3 – Aswan at Night It wasn't that long of a walk to the Nubian Museum. When we went the museum actually opened in the morning, then closed around lunchtime, and then opened up again at 4PM and into the night. This is actually rare nowadays in Egypt, as most other sites and museums close around 4-5. Which is actually a bummer as I was still ready to site see around that

12 05, 2016

Las Vegas 2016 Cost Analysis

By |May 12th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Budget|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Wynn Carousel made of flowers. Opulence in Vegas is expected. The last time I was in Las Vegas for a vacation was in 2011. I tracked my budget back then and shared it in this post. I wanted to do the same with my most recent trip to Las Vegas as a comparison. This trip is a little different though. The bulk of my time was for a client event, and so I won't share those numbers here. So while I was in Vegas for 6 days I'll just focus on my free-time activities which accounts for a

8 03, 2016

Egypt Travelogue: Day 5, Part 4 – Papyrus Trap & Alexandria

By |March 8th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Memories, Travelogue|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw. Monday October 26, 2015 Egypt: Day 5, Part 4 – Papyrus Trap & Road to Alexandria We then headed to a "Papyrus Museum", or a store that has been licensed in making real authentic papyrus (fake/cheaper ones are made with banana leaves). The store showed us how the papyrus is cut, left to age in the water, and then how to make it by alternating layers in different directions and pounding out all the water. She showed how it

6 02, 2016

Shopping via Boat in Esna, Egypt

By |February 6th, 2016|Categories: Souvenirs, Travel|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments

As the first small boat made its way towards our cruise ship, bumping up against the bow, people gasped. "Oh no! They crashed into us! Are they okay!" People asked while craning over the railing to get a better look. And then a second boat crashed up against us, and a third, and a forth. They just kept coming. As more and more small boats tied up against us, it became clear what they were doing. They unfurled towels, scarves, large table clothes, shouting at us to look. And then, they rolled it up, and chucked it clear up to