What makes a long tour of Egypt special, even for someone who has notched up eighty-seven countries and more travel miles than one likes to remember? It is the attention to detail that a country that has dedicated itself to tourism can provide with every place designed to delight
Ganesh at GizaFor many of us growing up in small towns in India in the sixties and seventies, travel abroad had many destination symbols – the Big Ben in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt would surely have featured in every person’s list of top ten tourist must-dos!
In my case after multiple business visits to Europe, an opportunity to do a quick visit to Cairo ten years ago with a delegation of other technology CEOs for a strategy offsite gave me the Pyramids and Sphinx for a tick in the box but a couple of days in a country with such a rich history and cultural heritage hardly did justice and I was left wanting for more. And finally, the real opportunity came this year to do a relaxed ten day holiday in Egypt which must surely rank among the top travel experiences of our lives.
Our group landed in Alexandria as the first stop and after getting our first taste of Egyptian hospitality and capturing the sights, sounds and taste of the country, drove to Cairo for an evening cruise on the Nile and then a day and evening at the spectacular Pyramids with a cultural immersion at the fabulous Egyptian museum thrown in. The next day took us by air to Aswan with its bustling evening markets and the extraordinary High Dam on Lake Nasser followed by one of the high points of the tour, an early morning three-hour dash to Abu Simbel, the magnificent temple created by Ramses II in honor of himself. Boarding a two-day Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor with stops at various scenic points, our cultural immersion concluded with the wonderful temples of Luxor. Finally, a relaxed day at the Red Sea in Hurgada and all too soon, a great holiday had ended.
What makes a long tour of Egypt special, even for someone who has notched up eighty-seven countries and more travel miles than one likes to remember? It is the attention to detail that a country that has dedicated itself to tourism can provide with every place designed to delight and tourist guides (thank you Omar and Essam) who are well trained and passionate about their history and culture.
Egypt must surely rank among the top travel experiences of our lives
Super guide Essam with the groupAn incident with Essam particularly stands out when he responded to a random query about a stone which had two figures etched in it and gave us the entire folk lore about Alexander the Great who was so besotted with Egypt that he got the God Amonmin to give him a sperm that gave him Egyptian status. It was also amusing to note the slight scorn that most Egyptians have towards the boy king Tutankhamen who became Pharaoh at the age of nine and died of malaria at nineteen. The discovery of over 40,000 objects from his tomb which are now displayed in museums all over the world is probably one reason where this particular Pharaoh gets so much mention while his deeds may not match up to the hype!
It is rather sad that Egypt’s position at the center of all the Middle East conflicts and the impact of Arab Spring have brought tourism down to less than half of its earlier levels, though even today it contributes a healthy eleven percent to the country’s GDP. The devaluation of currency would otherwise have made this one of the world’s best places to travel. Our last destination Hurgada offered us the Cleopatra Beach Resort, a five star deluxe experience with all drinks and food covered at an incredible double room tariff of less than ninety dollars a day. And the friendship towards Indians from India with frequent chants of Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan make this country a must visit for all Indians in 2019. Don’t forget to take Essan Ali Mahmoud’s number from me when you decide to travel for a truly rewarding experience.
One depressing reality of Egypt is the level of unemployment and poverty that prevails in the country. Imagine the sight of multiple rowing boats surrounding our cruise liner at one of the stops before Luxor with eager salesmen in Egyptian costume throwing up shawls wrapped in plastic to the fourth-floor top deck and requesting travelers to throw down seven or eight dollars if they liked any of the merchandise.
The haggling in the markets, the eagerness to sell something or anything to tourists barely conceals a sense of desperation that seems to pervade many Egyptians. In such a lovely country with such warm and friendly people, one can only hope that there will be less terrorism incidents like the bombing of the Vietnamese tourist bus or the shooting down of a Russian plane that throws the tourism numbers out of gear. Love you Egypt and yes, we will be back!
by Dr Ganesh Natarajan
