Flashback: Jewels of the Nile

Given the current political unrest there, Egypt seems like an appropriate place to begin writing about some of the places we didn’t have time to cover during our world tour last year. As we learned during our travels there, and as we’re now reading in the news on a daily basis, Egypt (and the Middle East in general) is filled with complexity, contradiction, corruption, and confusion. It’s a difficult place to wrap your head around, especially as a westerner, and we left feeling like we never got a true sense of what the day-to-day life of the average Egyptian is really like. We did, however, see some of the most impressive, ancient monuments and art we’ve seen anywhere in the world, and we got to share the experience with my big brother Dirk, which made the trip all the more memorable.

[Note: We’ve uploaded all of our best photos to the Egypt Photos page, but we’re still working on getting them all captioned. Feel free to browse through them, though!]

First Impressions

To put our time in Egypt in context, you need to consider where Laura and I were coming from. We were about four months into our year-long travel adventure; we’d spent the first couple of months “warming up” our travel engines in the über-laid-back countries of New Zealand and Australia, then three weeks literally warming up (more like overheating) in Vanuatu, followed by a brief descent into the chaos of Kathmandu, two weeks of blissful trekking and cultural sightseeing in the Buddhist country of Bhutan, and finally ten days relaxing on the beach and scuba diving in Thailand. We hadn’t spent our entire four months traveling in the developing world like our friends Clara and Eric, but our time in Kathmandu, Bhutan, and Thailand had gotten us pretty comfortable (or at least resolved) to the challenges of the developing world.

One of the many mosques we saw while walking the streets of CairoWe met my brother Dirk (our first visitor from home!) in Cairo for the ten-day tour we’d booked on Lake Nasser and the Nile river, and it was interesting to see the difference between his first impressions and our own. The three of us took a walk near our hotel on our first full day in Cairo, and I remember Dirk saying how strongly he felt the “foreignness” of the city. Cairo felt noticeably “grittier”, and certainly a lot poorer than even the worst big city in the US. The ubiquitous signs of a predominantly Islamic culture were also hard to miss: there were mosques on every other corner, most of the Egyptian women we saw were covered in some form of head scarf (including some that only had a small slit for the eyes), and we noticed a sticker on the desk in our hotel room with an arrow pointing towards Mecca. Still, to Laura and me Cairo was a busy, modern city, but not nearly as chaotic or jarring as, say, Kathmandu or Bangkok. I don’t think the foreignness of Cairo shocked us quite as much as it did Dirk (although it was still quite different than the Asian cities we’d visited), but fortunately I could also tell that he was as excited as we were to be there and experience it firsthand.

One of my favorite insights into modern Egyptian culture (of which there were far too few on our tour, more on that later) came up as we were riding on our big tour bus (ugh) to visit the Citadel mosque and Egyptian Museum. I noticed that most of the buildings in Cairo looked unfinished: they all had piles of bricks and cement blocks on their roofs, and six-foot hight tentacles of rebar stuck out of pretty much every corner and wall. Our guide told us that in Egypt, the government can only collect property taxes on a completed building. So, to avoid paying taxes, no one ever finishes constructing their building; since the buildings are always works in progress, the owners don’t have to pay taxes on them. It was hard to imagine how anyone could feel justified in complaining about the lack of services that their government provides when they aren’t paying taxes, but when the general view is that the entire government is totally corrupt anyway, you can start to understand how Egyptians resolve the seeming contradiction in their minds. 

ON the Beaten Path

Our ten days seeing Lake Nasser, the Nile, Cairo and Giza were most definitely spent ON the beaten tourist path. We’d booked an organized tour – Insight Vacations’ Jewels of the Nile – mainly because we weren’t prepared to plan an Egypt tour on our own, and we didn’t think Dirk would want to either given the limited amount of time he had to spend there. As you might expect, there were some pros and cons to traveling with an organized tour. Rather than give you the blow-by-blow of our temple sightseeing extravaganza (trust me, you do no want to know how many temples and museums we visited), I thought it might be more interesting to share some thoughts about some of the pros and cons of self-guided travel vs. organized tours.

Our fabulous guide Mohammed making the best of our layover in AswanThe pros of an organized tour are especially apparent in a very foreign country like Egypt. For better or worse (but mostly for the better), we were insulated from dealing with local tour operators, bus drivers, taxi drivers, airline reps, boat captains, porters, etc. It’s hard enough to travel as a tourist in your own country and feel confident that you’re not getting screwed by a local driver or guide; we could only imagine how hard that might be in Egypt, where the cultural norms and social cues are completely different than what we’re used to, and where we felt very conspicuous as non-Arabs and quite obviously tourists. The flip side of the convenience of organized tours, though, is that you don’t control your own itinerary. This wouldn’t have been a big deal in Egypt, except for one day when we had a 3AM (!) wake-up call at our hotel in Cairo in order to catch a 6AM flight to Aswan, only to have to wait there for a few hours before catching another flight down to Abu Simbel. We wouldn’t have complained, except it turns out that there are numerous other, later flights to Aswan, and there are direct flights to Abu Simbel that we could have taken instead. It was a long, exhausting day, and it certainly wasn’t the schedule we would have created if we had made our own travel plans.

Dirk in his own personal hell, navigating the toutsWe may have been insulated from the logistics of our tour of Egypt, but we were not insulated from the constant, sometimes aggressive, barrage of capitalism that came our way. There were large groups of touts at every stop trying to sell us all varieties of “cultural” keepsakes. It was maddening after a while, and it also made us sad to see the livelihoods of so many people dependent on selling what was essentially junk to unsuspecting tourists. Fortunately, our guide would usually tell us the fair price for things, and he warned us not to be taken in by touts that would start the bidding at 50 or 100 times the real cost of an item, hoping that the customer would bargain him down and feel great about getting something for “half price”. To his credit, Mohammed firmly believed that his fellow Egyptians should work hard all day selling goods at a fair price, rather than screwing one or two ignorant tourists and taking the rest of the day off. It was another interesting insight into an aspect of Egyptian culture that was also hard to come to terms with. It took us a while to get used to the feeling of having to have our guard up all the time, a distinct change from our travels in Asia. Also, given the current events in Egypt and the inevitable drop in tourist traffic there, we worry about how these people are going to make a living for themselves and their families.

The true essence of capitalism is alive and well in Egypt (sorry)Surprisingly, it wasn’t just the touts who were trying to sell us things. Even some of the “cultural stops” that were part of our tour turned out to be nothing more than thinly-veiled shopping trips. The rug-making “school” was actually more of a rug showroom and factory, complete with children (“students on break from their studies, with their parents’ permission”, we were told) running the looms at blindingly fast speeds. The tour of a local shop that makes pure floral essences that are in turn used to make name-brand perfumes like Chanel and DKNY was interesting, but sure enough, at the end of the lecture, we were offered the “rare opportunity” to purchase some of these essences for ourselves, with “deep discounts” given for larger purchases (yes, we bought a few). The alabaster factory also conveniently sold their wares, the papyrus museum was more like an art gallery (with very “attentive” salesmen), and the quaint felucca ride to the Nubian village (and the village itself) involved numerous unsubtle attempts to sell us things. It was a constant theme when we weren’t visiting temples, and after so many examples, it just felt slimy.

Other than the near constant capitalism, our day-to-day experience traveling with Insight was pretty much what you might expect from a big organized tour: a mostly older crowd of fellow tourists (we were the youngest by probably ten years), air-conditioned tour buses; comfortable (but not fancy) boats along Lake Nasser and the Nile; buffet breakfasts, lunches, and dinners; and a lot of “follow the leader” tours of museums, temples, and other sights. The whole thing felt very packaged, and that’s because it was. It was a whirlwind tour of many (most?) of the “tourist checklist” sights in Egypt, but it didn’t leave much room for getting off the beaten path and talking to locals or experiencing true local cuisine. Still, it was pretty cool to see so much in a limited amount of time, so it wasn’t all bad (not by a long shot).

Mohammed delivering one of his excellent lectures on ancient Egypt using the latest modern technologiesThe one local we did meet was our guide Mohammed, and let me tell you, he was a piece of work. He had a lot of positive qualities: he was a young guy, and it was obvious from the reactions of the women in our group (my wife included) that he was very handsome and charming; he spoke very good English; he was patient and had a great sense of humor; and he was an excellent Egyptologist (we’ve included a short video of one of his lectures at the end of this post). His memory for names, dates, and other facts about the temples we visited was truly stunning. I only wish I’d had a chance to read more about the ancient history of Egypt before our tour, because it was hard take in the huge amount of information he shared and integrate it into a coherent whole.

Unfortunately, Mohammed had some shortcomings that added quite a bit of stress to our trip. His biggest failure was a complete lack of understanding of basic human needs like food and toilets. There were multiple days where we had LONG gaps between breakfast and lunch without any kind of snacks; one was more than seven hours (Sarah and Ilan and Laura’s mom will probably laugh at this, but I think most people need food a little more often than that!). We also often had to fend for ourselves and find bathrooms, which believe me, isn’t always easy in a foreign country when you’re trying to stay with a group.

Our other big complaint was a near-total lack of information about modern Egypt. Mohammed proved himself to be a learned Egyptologist, but any questions about current politics, education, poverty, women’s rights, etc. were either ignored or glossed over. Even after we’d turned in our tour evaluations near the end of the trip (which he read right in front of us – so wrong), and it finally sunk in that we were interested in more than just ancient temples and artifacts, the information he provided was limited and white-washed. When someone asked him whether there were any issues with women having fewer rights than men in Egypt, his response was “Absolutely not. Women are equal to men now in Egypt.” The ubiquitous presence of women wearing hijabs, khimars, nijabs and (especially) full burqas suggested otherwise, though.

Ancient History

Laura and I lost in the immensity of the pyramids in Giza (we’re the tiny blue and red dots in the middle)But the tour was called Jewels of the Nile, and we did see some of the most spectacular sights of the ancient world. The scale of the monuments the pharaohs built, especially given when they were built and the technology they had to work with, is mind-boggling. Seeing Abu Simbel and the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Isis and Edfu and Luxor and Karnak and of course the pyramids of Giza up close and personal is hard to describe. You feel like you’ve been transported back in time about 4,000 years, except perhaps for the amplified musical soundtrack and coordinated light show. :) It was a very cool experience, even if we did get a little “templed out”, and we couldn’t help but wonder how things in present-day Egypt could have gotten so messed up after such a long reign of powerful rulers. We also pondered how many temples are still buried under the sands there, just waiting to be discovered.

Modern Egypt

Having been to Egypt even for a short visit, it’s especially hard to watch the current situation unfold. We didn’t get the opportunity to meet many everyday Egyptians, but we could see the signs of poverty and corruption everywhere we went. Modern-day Egypt stands in stark contrast to the power and influence of the ancient civilizations there, and I imagine the awareness of that contrast has at least something to do with the frustrations that led to the current wave of protests. We hope real change comes to Egypt; not just a token changing of the guard, but fundamental change that brings prosperity and stability to its people.

Comments

[Laura Maestrelli]

We just heard the news that Mubarak has stepped down. Still a long road ahead for this country, but what an incredible result for a movement that refused to engage in violence and stayed true to its ideals even when it seemed like it couldn't possibly win. Congratulations to all of the protesters for showing the world how it can be done. We wish you all the best in the coming months (and years) and hope to return someday to a freer Egypt than the one we found last year.

[Nancy]

Loved reading this about Egypt. Very interesting perspective and very educational. thanks