The Arab Spring Break: Egypt Edition
“I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it…My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”
— Langston Hughes
This promises to be a long post. I’ve tried hard to condense it, but this experience is resistant to brevity. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t attempt to encapsulate a trip of this length or magnitude in a single post, but the exhaustive, thrillingly hectic pace of this particular sojourn left me little time for daily contemplation and on-the-spot writing.
In his parable, “Half a Day,” Egypt’s Literary Nobel Laureate, Naguib Mahfouz, surrealistically reduces the entirety of one boy’s bittersweet formal schooling to just that– half a day. Suddenly, I find I can now relate to the protagonist, an old man by the end of the story, when he exclaims: “Good Lord!…How could all this have happened in half a day, between morning and sunset?” In many ways, visiting Egypt was less vacation than education, and that “half a day” will stay with me forever.
“I walked alongside my father, clutching his right hand. All my clothes were new: the black shoes, the green school uniform, and the red cap. They did not make me happy, however, as this was the day I was to be cast into school for the first time.”
Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel sits in slightly faded five-star splendor across from the Pyramids at Giza. Entering the lobby from the nearly hour-long ride from the airport, my first impression was that I’d landed in a latter-day Bogey movie replete with Western expats hiding out from the law, and about to unleash their mischief on an unsuspecting North African crossroads. The lobby is huge, busy, buzzy, and emanates an occasional waft of the second-hand smoke I’m no longer impervious to thanks to decades of successful American re-conditioning. Check-in is mercifully pain free, as one of our assigned tour leaders has already collected our passports to facilitate things.
“I took a few steps. Then the faces of the boys and girls came into view. I did not know a single one of them, and none of them knew me. I felt I was a stranger who had lost his way. But then some boys began to glance at me in curiosity… .”
With our wonderful traveling companions at Edfu Temple. (Photo courtesy of Russell Wasden)
Our time in Egypt is an organized tour with Encounters Travel which we purchased via Living Social. This is the first such tour T and I have done since China, so we know to expect certain benefits (lots of bang for your buck), as well as potential pitfalls (a horrible group? endless forced shopping excursions?). We meet our fellow travelers early the next morning, and I’m immediately thankful, at the very least, that we look like (Obama’s) America. The thirteen of us are black, white, Hispanic, Asian, gay, straight, married, single, and are made up of both younger, and more seasoned travelers. Our guide and soon-to-be guardian angel, Maged, or “Magz,” dubs us his latest group of “Babaghanoush,” and we begin.
“From the first moments I made many friends and fell in love with many girls. I had never imagined school would have this rich variety of experiences.”
The first stop, of course is the Pyramids, where T is game for every optional add-on, from climbing inside the Cheops, the largest of the three major ones, to riding a camel, even though we both swore we’d left our camel riding days back in Jordan. Apparently this time he wants to gallop. I stand by obediently recording this latest fascination until my Lawrence of Arabia gallops right out of the view finder, astride a camel aptly named Dennis the Menace.
It’s an incredibly busy day, and as we go from the Pyramids, to the Sphinx, to a quick lunch stop at the shawarma stand, to an all too brief, yet wonder-full visit to the Egyptian Museum, our little community begins to form, the pace is set, and the race is on. Starting with an eye-opening drive through Cairo’s busy and colorful streets (one lingering memory is the man I see on camel back, reins and plastic satchel in one hand, and a cell phone held to his ear in the other), we set off on an exhaustive and seemingly nonstop trajectory of discovery.
“Our path, however, was not totally sweet and unclouded…”
This day, however is also Palm Sunday, and halfway between the museum and a (thankfully not-so-forced and ultimately fruitful) shopping excursion at the papyrus shop, one of our tour mates checks his phone and reads of the lives lost senselessly in the bombings of two Coptic Christian churches earlier that day. We are all fine, and as far removed from the bombings as anyone can imagine, but the tension and silence on our little white bus become almost tangible, as we simultaneously reach for our devices to reassure all those back home who told us not to come. The irony though is that we all hail from either the greater New York or Washington D.C. areas, arguably the top two terrorist targets in the world. But Egypt, as our guide intimated earlier at the museum, struggles from poor marketing, and when that happens, the bad news tends to hold sway.
“We played all sorts of games…we sang our first songs. We also had our first introduction to language. We saw a globe of the Earth, which revolved and showed the various continents and countries. We started learning numbers, and we were told the story of the Creator of the universe. We ate delicious food, took a little nap, and woke up to go on with friendship and love, playing and learning.”
The sleeper train from Cairo to Aswan is comfortable, but about as no frills as our tour accommodations get. We bond over this with good humor, from making the best of the airplane-style meals–I try, and fail, to transform my nondescript beef dish into boeuf bourguignon by pouring wine into it– to the impromptu slumber party that begins just as introverted morning people like me have called it a night.
Aswan is a sweltering contrast to Cairo’s comfortably cool temperatures; the heat envelops you the moment you step onto the train platform. Everyone here, at this Egyptian/Nubian intersection, is likewise noticeably darker. After a brief visit to the Aswan Dam, we take a boat to and from Philae Temple, a love gift to the goddess Isis, before checking into our hotel, the Movenpick Aswan, which with its incredible 360 degree view of the Nile, is also accessible only by boat.
Later on, at the market, T and I are immediately adopted by dozens of overzealous Nubian merchants whose cousins we’ve suddenly become. With my now pretty highly developed immunity to over-shopping on overseas trips, I’m only drawn to the spice shops with their intense fragrances and colorful displays. Dinner–ranging from mixed grill plates of beef, chicken, and lamb, to liver and pigeon, all served with lentil soup, rice, and vegetables –is at a local restaurant. And in true old-school fashion, dessert is a tour mate’s birthday cake, served at a party to which the whole class is invited.
Spice market in Aswan
The next day begins with an early wake-up call for the trip to Abu Simbel, which is at once a testament to Ramses II’s assertion of power over Nubian lands, and his devotion to his queen, Nefertari. With its picturesque location on the banks of Lake Nasser, as well as its imposing and majestic beauty, Abu Simbel is one of the visual high points of the tour for me.
In the afternoon, we board Captain Tarek’s Nubian felucca sailboat, where most of us have opted to spend the night. We are also given the honor of being invited into his family’s home. This is a unique and singularly picturesque experience that’s difficult to sum up in words, but so too is the fellowship we develop by playing “Heads-Up” and a low-tech version of “Name that Tune” while docked on the Nile for the night.
From the incredible peace on the felucca, we head to Edfu and Kom Ombo Temples, where, apart from seeing some pretty neat alligator mummies, I recall feeling hot, and, to a certain extent, hounded. Everything is for sale here, and understandably so, especially in light of the much-diminished tourist market. On the whole however, the touts aren’t as bad as I’d experienced in some parts of India, for example, and tended to pay heed to a polite yet firm “la shukran” (no thank you).
It’s late afternoon when we arrive in Luxor after a five-hour drive. Luxor is vibrant, as hot, if not hotter than Aswan, and apparently, we’re warned, rather short on honest taxi or horse-drawn carriage drivers. Another interesting note is its attractiveness to retired expats from the U.K., looking for lives of ease and luxury courtesy of the depleted Egyptian pound.
A scheduled evening tour of Luxor Temple leaves us just enough time to shower, change, and grab a bite at our latest hotel, the Steigenberger Nile Palace, before we head out. The atmosphere at Luxor Temple that evening is another awesome experience that I would do more justice by showing rather than telling:
The next morning ushers in yet another pre-dawn wake up call for a hot air balloon ride that’s eventually canceled due to weather conditions. This lily-livered blogger is secretly thrilled. That only leaves the Valley of the Kings and two more major temples before Hurghada, and the hedonistic promise of unlimited food, hard and soft drinks, and best of all, two full nights of sleep. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Valley of the Kings, a series of pharaohs’ tombs buried deep (or high) into some pretty formidable rock formations, leaves me little to share, since any visual evidence that I’d actually been there is strictly forbidden. I opt to enter two of the three free tombs, and while I’m less than impressed with the first, especially not for the physical effort it took to get into it, the other turns out to be a celebration of the kaleidoscopic brilliance and longevity of Ancient Egyptian art.
The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, however is another matter. Here, at the feet of Egypt’s greatest female pharaoh (one of only three, and Cleopatra’s predecessor by 1400 years), and at what should be known worldwide as the ultimate shrine to girl power, pictures are encouraged and invited. Here are my favorites:
Girls bounding out of Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple
The amazing Karnak Temple’s ornate gargantuan columns and remaining multi-ton obelisks also testify to Hatshepsut’s legacy, as well as the miracles of Ancient Egyptian ingenuity and architecture.
“The bell rang, announcing the passing of the day and the end of work.”
As the day comes to a close, Hurghada shines ahead of us like a beacon as we pile into the little white bus for another three to four hour drive. We are trying to make the dinner buffet before it shuts down at 9pm. I take advantage of the ride to update our family on our whereabouts –and yes–to sleep, if only in spurts. We make it to the Jaz Makadi Oasis in time for dinner, its expansive yet quiet Mediterranean style lobby offers the first hint of a slower pace, and at this point, a welcome departure from the briskness of the previous few days. The full day and two evenings we spend here are unexpectedly cool, limiting our beach time in the Red Sea, but they also provide necessary down time for serious fun.
“I said goodbye to friends and sweethearts and passed through the gate.”
The tour begins and ends in Cairo; so too does the dream of two full nights of sleep when I find out the time of our flight back from Hurghada. Since rest remains elusive at best, upon our arrival, we opt into a tour of Old Islamic Cairo, with its 11th Century gates and vibrant souk at Khan El Kahlili. I quickly realize that I would not have wanted to sleep through this; while I’m not as much into shopping overseas as I may have once been, I remain fascinated by markets.
A walk through a real (as opposed to an exclusively touristic) local market reveals the spirit and energy of a place and its people. While there, I manage to track down some papyrus bookmarks for my students, which for many, may be their first, if not only, tangible token of Africa; I connect with a young Sudanese woman who gives me my first henna tattoo, and we communicate well enough with her broken English and the universal language of smiles; our group stands for a while in the main square, facing the enormous speakers of an imposing mosque, as the call to prayer is broadcast for all to hear and to heed–or not. Most significantly, however, we stop for lunch.
I tend not to post many food pictures on this blog, not because I don’t love food, but because I’m still working through my tendency to eat more quickly than I can photograph it. In this case that works out just fine, since the restaurant in question, the Naguib Mahfouz Cafe, named for the selfsame literary inspiration for this post, doesn’t allow pictures anyway. For the record, I have a delicious liver sandwich (Tommy, our guide for the day, seems genuinely impressed by my choice) and some excellent falafel, while T orders the legendary Egyptian koshari and his umpteenth chicken shawarma. We wash all of this down with tall glasses of excellent lemonade with mint.
The whole time, however, I’m also geeking out about having stumbled into this unexpected literary excursion. Mahfouz’s books and pictures adorn the inlaid wood walls, and rumor has it, he used to dine here daily. As a Literature major and World Literature teacher, it doesn’t get better than this for me, except for the nagging feeling that I cannot remember which of his stories I’ve taught. That is, until I sit down to write this post.
“How could all this have happened in half a day, between morning and sunset? I would find the answer at home… But where was my home? I hurried towards the crossroads…”
Like the boy’s experience in Mahfouz’s story, my half a day of learning in Egypt is suddenly over, when it feels like it had just begun, and our little troupe disperses affectionately at the airport. I had to go home to make sense of it all.
WHAT I LEARNED ON THIS SOJOURN:
1. I’ll be paying heed to those travel deals from Living Social, Groupon etc. This tour was a tremendous value for what we paid.
2. Great companions make for great tours. T and I REALLY lucked out, both with our lovely group and with our exceptional guide.
3. Despite the aforementioned temperature fluctuations in different regions, spring felt like an ideal time to be in Egypt. My packing wasn’t perfect, but in the end, I’m glad I brought 1) older thick-soled, comfortable shoes that I was okay with dumping after they’d served their purpose 2) clothing I could wear in layers, and 3) scarves and a sun hat.
4. Egypt awakened in me a kindred feeling. Like me, she is still digging, learning, and growing. The ancient artifacts continue to be unearthed, even as the 21st Century moves along at top speed. This explains the feeling I often got while there that I was living in the distant past and in the present all at once.
5. I loved every moment of Egypt. Period. Despite the tragic events on Palm Sunday, I never felt unsafe, and would not have wanted to miss going. What I learned in books or saw in movies did nothing to prepare me for the real-life magnificence of a civilization that goes back much further in millennia than the U.S. does in centuries. This is an incredibly humbling and necessary consideration.
Learner Sojourner 
I wish I could be as eloquent as you. My thoughts exactly!!! So wonderful to have shared the journey with you.
Hi Sharon, Thanks for following and for being my first official reader. I’ve actually added/edited a couple things since this morning (though I’m trying to contain myself:)). I’m glad you think I’ve done our adventure justice.
Wow, this is the best day by day account I have read on this tour, well done learnersojourner! I look after the marketing at Encounters Travel and will definitely post this everywhere I can, many thanks and happy travels!
Hi Dan,
Thank you! Encounters Travel made it so very easy to fall in love with Egypt. Congrats to your whole team!
Hi I am going to Egypt with two other ladies for the first time. Thank you for your feed back. We were trying to choose between going to Aswan or Abu Simbel.
Hi Robin,
Thanks for reading. Glad you found the post helpful. Abu Simbel was definitely on of Egypt’s high points; I would not have wanted to miss it. Enjoy your trip!