Let's talk about a country in the Middle East that gets a bad rep mostly because of its neighbor Syria. Its borders are touching and shits going down in Syria so of course people are scared to visit anywhere in the area. But I'll tell you something. I've been to Egypt and it's absolutely remarkable. Never once in my two weeks there did I feel threatened. Never once was I scared. Once I was a little irritated but that was kinda my fault. But the country, with all its history and all of its people, is absolutely amazing.
So I was in Egypt not too long ago and before I even left, my friends, my coworkers, people I just met who I told I was going to Egypt in the near future were all terrified. Terrified for my health, my well being, my state of mind. They thought I was insane because of where I was choosing to go and spend my hard earned money, where I wanted to go on my own free will. They were terrified because of what they've seen on tv. Now, I don't watch much tv personally, but my thinking on the whole idea was that if the country was scary, they wouldn't run tours. Simply put, if it wasn't safe big companies wouldn't host tours through the country. So I figured fuck it and I went.
Prior to committing to Egypt I had figured that for my next birthday I wanted to go to Africa. I wanted to be warm. I wanted to see somethings I wouldn't see possibly ever again, and I wanted to do it then. To be honest, I was thinking South Africa, maybe J-burg or Cape Town and some Victoria Falls. At the time, the girlfriend wanted to join me for a birthday adventure because I took her on one for her more recent birthday. We went to Vegas. It was fine. It was Vegas. Anyway, a good friend who is a travel agent made a post one day about Egypt and as soon as I read it, I was convinced. Over time I had forgotten that the Egyptian culture always fascinated me, the architecture, the way of life, the desert itself. So after a wee bit of thinking about it, I said fuck it and booked a flight.
After mentioning it to a few friends and clients I ended up going with 6 others. Our layover was in Amsterdam for 3 days and of course we dabbed in the local scene a bit. Amsterdam is something else! A few days later we landed in Cairo at 1am. The next morning we went to the Pyramids of Giza. Man oh man, those were truly remarkable. They're in Cairo, literally the city is built around them. That shocked me. You get there and think to all the pictures you've ever seen, that the pyramids are in the middle of the desert. Well, I guess they kinda of are but not really. The city is built around them. I mean, there's sand for a fair distance around them in any direction, but behind them in any direction you see city. It was really something to see.
Now, they only time I felt irritated was this day. My fault. I let a local take a picture for us. Surprise. He wanted money after. Money for him, money for his friend, money for his camel. He was very persistent and annoying. Whatever, my fault. I should have been more aware but I gave him some cash and that was that.
A few days later we were in Luxor. We went to some ancient temples. We saw some hieroglyphics. We had some tours. It was neat. Definitely something to see.
We then hopped a sailboat or felucca and sailed down the Nile for two days. Just floating, without a care in the world Occasionally stopping for a washroom break or to swim and just enjoying where we were. It was amazing. After that was done, we rode a camel into a small Nubian village and ate Nubian food cooked by the locals. We hung out with them for a bit, heard some stories, lived and enjoyed ourselves. We spent some money in their markets. Never feeling threatened!
The next day we were off to Dahab, a small little resort village on the Red Sea. This little village was surreal. We snorkelled, we drank, we paddle boarded, we went quad ding through the Sahara, we did some scuba. Late one night we went to Mt Sinai and watched the sunrise. We debated going to Jordan to see the lost city of Petra. This little village had everything. It was open amazing little place. However, because people are terrified of Egypt, this little village is dying. They aren't getting tourism money into the country to help places like this survive. Everyone we met was so friendly towards us because of the fact we were bringing money into their country. We were helping them! So many times locals said thank you for coming to Egypt, thank you for choosing Egypt as a destination.
This place, Egypt itself, was one of the best trips I've been on and I've been on many. I've been to 20 different countries, 4 continents, many cities, provinces and states. I've traveled a fair bit. I've felt threatened in places I've went, but I did not once feel threatened in Egypt.
I urge you, if you've ever thought about going to Egypt, do it now. They treat you so kind. You can walk right up to the pyramids without crowds. You are one of few others proving that what you see in the news can be blown way out of proportion, that Egypt isn't scary, it's just a hot, historical, beautiful place.
I hope you go, change your world!
TFehr