Egypt

Our two weeks in Egypt have been nothing short of amazing; it is hard to capture the essence of our experiences with a simple chronological account, so for this post we have chosen to write about some of the key aspects of Egypt that have struck us as we have travelled through…

People & Politics

If we tried to sum up the Egyptian people in one word, it would have to be ‘proud’.  Overwhelmingly as we have travelled through this country, every person’s pride in being Egyptian – or in some areas their pride in their regional identity – has really stood out.  This pride manifests in so many ways. 

Firstly, almost every person we met in Egypt greeted us with a big (often toothless!) smile and a “Welcome to Egypt!”  Similarly to Jordan, we felt that these welcomes really came from the heart, and are rooted in a deeply-seated pride in their country.  Even the touts at the major sights such as the Pyramids or Abu Simbel would, once they realised they weren’t going to convince us to ride a camel/buy a fake-soapstone trinket/pay them to take a photo for us would smile broadly, ask where we are from and wish us an enjoyable time in Egypt, “in ‘shallah”.  We found this such a lovely surprise, as we had been warned by many other travellers that the constant touting grew tiring – and while we admit that it did, we found that a firm “La shukran” (no, thank you) and a big smile were the best ways to deal with the demands.  As we navigated the public transport systems across the country we were also a source of much fascination for children - including this group of schoolkids who were on the ferry with us in Luxor...

Tess being shown how to eat dried sunflower seeds in Luxor

Schoolkids in Luxor

Secondly, being in Egypt during such a complex and fraught socio-political time really highlighted to us the passion that people here feel for their country.  We spoke with many people about the political situation and the diversity of views, as well as the strength with which these views were held, was striking.  From the taxi driver in Alexandria who was adamant that “Morsi is a good man, and good for this country; his constitution will strengthen our culture” to the hotelier in Upper Egypt who expressed strong concern that the new rulers of Egypt planned to implement strong Islamic laws reminiscent of Afghanistan under the Taliban; everyone has an opinion.  We were also surprised to hear quite a number of people say how much better things were under Murbarak, particularly tourism.  It seems that while he was tyrannical and dictatorial, many feel that at least there was relative stability under his rule, and for some of the people we spoke to the date of the revolution is the date at which they mark the downturn in their business, which has still not picked up.  We will be watching with interest what unfolds in the referendum, and simply hope that whatever happens it remains peaceful.  One thing seems certain through it all, is that Egypt is going through a time of profound change as the people look hopefully toward a future characterised by stability, democracy and self-determination.

History

In another manifestation of national pride, as we walked through the airport on our way to the gate to fly out, we saw a poster quoting a world leader (presumably quoted at the time of the 2011 revolution), which stated “There is nothing new in Egypt.  The Egyptians have been making history for millennia; what is happening now is simply another example.”  This quote rings very true for our time in Egypt.  The people who have inhabited this land over the past 4 ½-thousand years (or more) have left behind some of the most incredible examples of history-making that we have ever seen.  From the ubiquitous Ramses II, whose narcissism resulted in so many monuments we lost count (from Abu Simbel in the south to Cairo in the north), to Nasser and Murbarak who indelibly left their mark with the dams and cataracts on the Nile, the people of Egypt seem to have forever been ruled by determined, innovative and often ruthless leaders.

The Temple of Hatshepsut

Abu Simbel

As we walked around the various Pharaonic monuments across Egypt, we found ourselves time and again marvelling at the seemingly unwavering self-obsession that seems to have characterised the existence of the ancient Egyptians.  We had to acknowledge how successful they were in their exploit.  Take Ramses II as an example; he built the mighty temples at Abu Simbel as a way to immortalise the deified image of himself and his favourite wife Nefertari and provide a spectacle for his people to witness his ascension to God-King.  Not only was this successful in the 13^th century BC, but there we were, 3,500 years later, marvelling at the images on the wall describing his ascension to the level of the gods.

Similarly at the Pyramids around Cairo, the experience of climbing inside a 4,500-year-old tomb and marvelling at the precision and accuracy of the construction was evidence of the determination of the ancient Egyptians to realise their dream of everlasting life.  Indeed, if everlasting life is conceived as a person’s continued presence within the common consciousness, through building these breathtaking structures that have survived so many millennia, the Pharaohs appear to have achieved this better than any civilisation to date.  Let’s hope that the Egyptian people are able to continue to preserve these treasures for future generations to continue to marvel at.

Food

We had expected Jordan and Egypt to be great food destinations, and we weren’t wrong.  Egypt followed up a great week in Jordan, and indeed gave Jordanian food a run for its money!  Breakfast of fuul (stewed broad beans) and tammiya (falafels) each morning was amazing, and was often followed by a glass of mango, pomegranate or sugar cane juice.  Lunch (when we found the time to have it!) was more often than not a fresh salad of tomatoes and cucumber, washed down with fresh lemon juice and mint.  Dinner was equally delicious on most occasions; in Aswan on our arrival at our hotel they prepared us fresh Nile river fish with ‘all the trimmings’; in Luxor we had amazing moussaka and shakshouka; and the highlight (for Alick at least) was an amazing BBQ chicken from a street-stall in Siwa – delicious!

Meals were often a great time for conversation with other travellers, hotel managers and locals, and again were an opportunity for the fiercely-proud restaurateurs to assure us that their version of an Egyptian staple was the best!  One of these memorable moments was in Siwa Oasis, when after a stall-holder in the street had helped us with directions, he offered to close up his shop and take us out to his desert camp and have some tea around the fire.  Given our recent scam experience in Alexandria (when we’d been lucky to get away with only ‘losing’ around 400 Egyptian Pounds to a couple who claimed they spent the day with us ‘for friendship’) we were a little suspicious, but after he assured us that we didn’t need to pay him anything, and gave us his tour-guide card, we thought we would trust our intuition and go out with him.  After a cold 30-minute at-times hairy ride in his tuk-tuk, we were relieved when we arrived at his camp and he lit the fire and prepared tea.  The next two hours were spent drinking strong sweet tea, playing cards and talking with our new friend Osman about life in Siwa.  It was a wonderful experience, and that evening spent under the stars will certainly stay in our memories for years to come.  We were also both relieved that we had not completely lost our capacity to trust people after our Alexandria experience!  Experiences such as this really typified our time in Egypt, and there were so many others that we simply can’t fit in this blog post – but we have tried by summarising a few of them below….

Other highlights, lowlights, and memorable moments!

• Feeling like we were in a computer game as we swerved, dodged and whizzed through Cairo’s traffic at 100km/h with our slightly crazy driver, who insisted he ‘needed to drive like this to stay awake’.
• Shivering our way through a night without proper duvets in Siwa Oasis as they experienced some of the coldest weather for ten or so years – we had to pull out our Kilimanjaro gear!
• Marvelling at the longevity of monuments such as the Collosi of Memnon, which have been attracting tourists for around 3,400 years.

The Colossi of Memnon

• Being once again horrified at the treatment of horses at the Pyramids of Giza.  We won’t go into it so much this time, but suffice to say that everything we said about Petra holds true for Giza also, sadly….
• Finding ourselves warmed by the caring relationships between young men and their donkeys in Siwa Oasis as we rode a donkey cart from the bus to our hotel (there are no ‘taxis’ in Siwa, although donkey carts are increasingly being replaced by motorbike tuk-tuks).

Siwa Oasis

• Sharing tea and discussing Myers-Briggs and Jung with a fascinating fellow-Australian who had moved to Siwa as an escape from her high-flying corporate career.
• Drinking mint tea, tea with lemongrass, strong Siwan tea, hibiscus tea, and good old Lipton tea – all heavily laced with sugar – in markets, shops, restaurants, houses, deserts and train stations.  Tea certainly drives Egypt!
• Being perpetually laughed at whenever we tried to cross the road in Cairo – we often had to use locals as human shields, which they thought was hilarious!
• Alick changing his name to ‘Ali’ and Tess using Tessa (and at times wondering if she should adopt a completely new name) when people we met struggled to get their tongues around our usual names.
• Seeing cats (and quite a few dogs) at every turn wherever we were in Egypt, all of which Tess insisted on giving water and/or food to whenever possible!

Contemporary resident at Abu Simbel

An Alexandrian cat

• Being asked for baksheesh (tips) for everything from being given hand-towel in public toilets, to having blatantly-obvious monuments pointed out to us, to having our tickets checked at the entrance to a pyramid!  It certainly made us appreciate the advantages of having plenty of small change handy…
• Rushing to get to Luxor railway station for our 10 am train, then being told that our train was the ‘next one’ until 1pm, when we finally boarded and made our way to Aswan.
• Crossing the River Nile in a tiny motor-boat in the pitch dark at 3am en route to the mighty temples at Abu Simbel.

A Nile taxi...

• Perfecting the art of crying ‘You break my heart with your prices’ as we played the game of haggling with stall-holders in souks all across Egypt.

A souq in Alexandria