Publicación en Unusual Egypt - مصر الغير مألوفة - unusual places/nightlife/camping/navigation tips

Hey! I'm travelling with my mother and brother to Egypt in January. Unfortunately we only have 9 days. We are all very used to backpacking around, and have agreed that we would like to try to avoid the tourist meccas of Egypt, but at the same time visit some spectacular historical and natural sites. I am studying middle eastern history and arabic, and would thus really like to have a lot of time with locals. We have talked about either (option 1:) flying to hurghada (since its the cheapest option) and pretty much stay in the south, go to luxor and aswan to see the historical sites and then go around visiting the natural sites around. with this option we would lack just meeting some locals and having a more intimate cultural experience with egypt. Option 2: flying to cairo, where we'd probably be able to both experience historical heritage and the egyptian cultural life, see pyramids and so on, maybe ride a bit along the nile with a boat, going a bit into the desert together. We would then go to alexandria, where i've heard you can experience a much closer encounter with the egyptian culture. But we don't know much about egypt, and would like some tips on how to get a good insight in the country, both historically, culturally and nature-wise.
SO, where are the good oases, the nice music cafés, the raw arabic neighbourhoods of cairo, the good cheap (preferably free) solutions for tours and travelling and so on so on. cheers, jacob