Dalai with DeCastro Tours - Experiences with her ?

[BrianB]

Hi all ... we have booked a one day tour with DeCastro Tours and Dalai as our Guide and were wondering what experiences anyone may have had .... there was poster a while back I believe it was Mountainmare who wrote an experience about her ... could you please reshare that day with me please. or anyone else that has had an experinence Dalai as their Guide.

 

Thank You

 

Brian

[lindaann]

Hi all ... we have booked a one day tour with DeCastro Tours and Dalai as our Guide and were wondering what experiences anyone may have had .... there was poster a while back I believe it was Mountainmare who wrote an experience about her ... could you please reshare that day with me please. or anyone else that has had an experinence Dalai as their Guide.

 

Thank You

 

Brian

 

I think you mean "Dalia". Our group of 4 used her last June for a 2 day tour. We thought she was terrific. Good command of English, a sense of humour, excellent knowledge of Egypt's antiquities and historical sites, energetic etc. What more do you want in a tour guide? We asked for changes to our pre-arranged intinerary and she made them, which, after you tour Egypt and get to understand their tourist system, you will see, is not the easiest thing to do. I'm sure you will enjoy your day with her.

 

.............Stan

[mountainmare]

Yes--I am the one who wrote the report, so I'll try to give you a brief idea of what to expect. For almost a year I e-mailed back and forth with Moustafa of DeCastro "tweeking" our plans.

We decided that since we are history geeks a very short visit to the museum in Cairo would only be frustrating, so decided to go to Giza, Memphis and Saqqara. We are not big shoppers but I did say that we wanted to order cartouche and really wanted a papyrus painting of Bastet. I also wanted a camel ride and asked in advance for our guide to arrange this so that we would not be involved in the bargaining with camel drivers. I was impressed by the pre-trip communication, and even more impressed by the actual tour experience.

 

preplanning and when you arrive tips.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Go to the library and also look here for reports to decide what you want to see and what you want to do. This is a very intense day of touring you will only get a small taste of the wonders of Egypt.

For us the ship collected our passports, then after Cyprus the Egyptian officials stamped the passports with a visa stamp and we got them back the afternoon before Egypt. One member of our group did not have the stamp in his passport--causing us a bit of stress and a slight delay starting our day. When you get your passport back--CHECK AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE IT STAMPED.

GET OFF THE SHIP AS SOON AS YOU CAN. Your company will be waiting for you--this means plan on being ready to go even earlier than the "official" docking time, just in case the ship is early.

 

I had heard of the famous, intelligent and beautiful Dalia from reports here and was thrilled to find that she was our guide. The drive to Cairo was much easier than I thought it would be. This was a Saturday and traffic was light so this may have been a factor. There was a large cooler in the van stocked with bottled water and soda for us to have anytime we wanted.

During the drive to Cairo Dalia gave us an overview of Egypt today and then a history lesson to prepare us for what we were going to see. Then she basically said--I'm yours for the day--ask me anything that comes to mind and went around the group asking for questions. She openly and with good humor answered questions ranging from the pyramids, mummies, the Rosetta Stone and how it ended up in England, to her dress and being a woman in Egypt--back to Moses and then tourism. We had several teenagers in our group and everyone felt comfortable and at ease with her.

When we arrived in Giza she left us with our guard to escort us to the restrooms while she bought our tickets. (If you have students with you see about getting a student ID card, there is a discount for students with ID, but not based on age, if your school doesn't have IDs explain the situation and see if you can get a general universal student ID)

Before leaving the van Dalia gave us the "nothing is free" talk, these people are not your new friend...do not give them money. You know this already, don't take a "free" picture of a camel, don't put a silly thing on your head, don't give anyone a camera so that they can take a picture of you.

Well I came out of the bathroom--see DH with a silly grin on his face, wearing a silly thing on his head, holding a bunch of plastic pyramids with an Egyptian guy with his arm around him saying "take a picture". I yell--what on earth are you doing!!! I look around-everyone in our group has silly things on their heads and are being mobbed by vendors. Our guard has a how did this happen look on his face and tries to collect the group and ward off vendors. One of our group takes a picture of a camel and gives the guy $5 and he asks for more---she unzips her fanny-pack (do we see several mistakes here?) and he reaches in --she yells, the guard steps in and gets some of her money back. DH's new friend takes back the pyramids when I won't give him money.

Back in the van Dalia handles the situation with good humor and tells us to leave all money in the van--only take cameras, the driver and others will never leave the van and things will be safe. All is ok and our friend has quite an adventure story to tell. I mention this because this was our fault, we had been warned by Dalia and I had read about the vendor situation, and the group scattered instead of staying together. Dalia handled the incident very well--and a new joke was, take my picture--only a few dollars.

The pyramids are amazing and we always had our guard or Dalia watching over us. I was glad that I had asked for the camel ride to be arranged in advance, Dalia went and got us "good camels" and we were not hassled for extra tips by the drivers. The camel ride was a blast!!

Even with the incident the experience at Giza was wonderful.

 

At my request we did order cartouce and tee-shirts on the drive to Cairo and Dalia stressed that this was to be a very short, very quick stop, also we watched the papyrus demo (again, at my request) and honestly--after the demo there was no pressure to buy, this could have been a 5 min stop (yes I did get my Bastet)

At that point Dalia asked me if we would mind delaying lunch until after Memphis and Saquara in the interest of time..which was a good idea.

 

I'm glad we chose these sights instead of the museum--it was even clear enough to see the bent pyramid and red pyramid in the distance.

 

For lunch Dalia told us what was safe to eat and mentioned that we should not eat ice cream and should not ask for ice. Also every time we got back in the van she handed out hand wipes for everyone. No one in our group got sick.

 

I was pleased with every aspect of our day--and with the pre-planning portion of the trip and would use DeCastro--and ask if Dalia is available in the future.

 

The drive back was uneventful and we were happy to see that there were vendors set up by the ship so we could pick up some little trinkets.

 

The next two days were well deserved sea days which we needed after such a long and exciting day.

 

I also want to say that we have been looking at itineraries that include an overnight stay, but after reading two of the reviews here about a land/Nile cruise experience that is our next project. Seems we're hooked on Egypt.

[BrianB]

Hello ... Thank You both for answering my post ... I am forever grateful ! :)

 

Brian

[CAT GIRL]

Brian, I believe you got my journal notes. I highly recommend

Dalia. She is actually an independant tour guide and does not

only work with DeCastro. Her full name is in my journal.

[Saga Ruby]

Before I left for Egypt, I read a wonderful book, The Yacoubian Building, written by Alaa Al Aswany. When it was published, it became an instant bestseller, then was made into a major motion picture. The Egyptian government was not happy about the attention the book received.

 

I strive to learn about local cultures before visiting a foreign land and this book was the best I could have picked to learn the current tone and timbre of the country. My guide in Cairo and I discussed the book as we walked around the Great Pyramid.

 

You can read reviews of the book on Amazon which give much more detail about the story than I can. For those of you who want to meet local people on their level and enjoy their culture, this book will give depth to your travel experience.

 

Ruby