#8021 Drinking Tea With a View at the Old Cataract in Aswan, Egypt

From the Nile, the Old Cataract Hotel looks grand, perched on the granite bluff above. If you’ve seen Death on the Nile, it also looks familiar. My oldest daughter likes sipping tea in old world hotels, preferably looking mysterious while wearing a big hat. Uniformed gate guards inform us we have to pay 85 Egyptian pounds to enter. They obviously don’t want any riff-raff hanging about. However, the entrance fee can be applied to anything you buy while here, and we’re having tea. To spend it all, we even have Royal Tea. We’re shown to the lower terraces. The grand terrace where there’s a band, a roof and plush, comfortable chairs is for residents only. Do I ever want to be one? A resident, that is? With this attitude, I’m not so sure. Even if Agatha Christie was inspired here.