The picture says it all. The camel ride was a little scary and Gail showed every bit of her fear in her body language.

They are all the same everywhere- just different outfits

We had to leave the front 2 seats free on the bus (one for our guide and one for the quard) because we ALWAYS had an armed guard with us. They always wore some type of jacket to hide the gun but every once in while it would poke out.... Many guards and many guns but no trouble except for a couple of guys short changing me.

Our Sofitel Hotel was a 5 star but location sort of left you isolated since you would have had to cross a couple a really busy streets or a bridge to get anywhere. Security was tight everywhere in Egypt with metal detectors, scanners and guards at every hotel and museum entrance. This hotel even had our bus sniffed by a bomb dog every time we entered the compound.