RWB Tour to Egypt 2010 Imagine visiting a country for 2 weeks and seeing wonder after wonder and absolutely no duds in a country on the upswing. It’s called Egypt. From photos of the pyramids and the sphinx you envision a scene of antiquity and a degree of serenity. In reality it is bustling with camels, horses and carts, stalls of wares and multitudes of hawkers. You come to accept the hawkers because this is their livelihood and you are just thankful it isn’t your livelihood. Debris including hateful plastic bottles littered this site in Giza. Everyone knows the desert is cold at night so when attending the Sound and Light show I wore my long underwear. Smart move. Want to start a business in Egypt? Three safe bets:
1. Tourism - essential to Egypt
2. Bottled water - essential to Egypt
3. Tobacco - SO many people smoke Flying from Cairo to Luxor where we boarded our ship, fittingly named MS Giselle. The flight showed a thin green ribbon bordering each side of the Nile River (it is quite clean and clear in the south) and where irrigation abruptly ends the desert takes command. We visited Karnak, Luxor, Edfu, Dendera, and Kom Ombu temples. In Cairo we toured 2 mosques and a Coptic Christian church. Of all the many wondrous temples and sites toured Abu Simbel was the highlight. Ramses11 in his 66 year reign built more monuments to his glory than any other pharaoh but he outdid himself with Abu Simbel. Built 3200 years ago this 15,000 ton treasure was dismantled piece by piece into 20 to 30 ton chunks and moved almost 200 feet higher under the guidance of UNESCO rescuing it from the water created by the new Aswan high dam. Nothing equals this treasure. Observations of Egypt: 1.The biggest surprise in Egypt! The Egyptians great sense of humour demonstrated many times in various situations 2. Security: Everyone entering an airport goes through security and the same arrangement applies upon entering most locales including hotels. All airports we saw were first class with manicured grounds comparable to what I hope Winnipeg’s new airport will be. 3. Traffic: It’s exciting, entertaining and dangerous. Stop sign are not always obeyed. Car insurance is not mandatory. In Cairo a city of 20 million, people prefer to walk on the road even when there is a sidewalk Picture Portage and Main with no lights, no barriers cars, trucks, pedestrians, carts and the odd camel sometimes going against the traffic! Driver licences are easy to obtain and some vehicles don’t use lights at night.. AND we were told there is no road rage! 4. Roof tops of homes and buildings seem to be the preferred place for disposal of old furniture, lumber bicycles or trash. We also saw some totally derelict cars no doors or windows abandoned on streets in Cairo. 5. Very high majority of women wore the hijab in Cairo and rurally. A few women were veiled and only two were veiled and had black chiffon covering their eyes, while most in tourism wore western clothes. Some women are in government.
It seems being Egyptian was as important as being Moslem. They are Sunni Muslims in Egypt. Our compatible group numbered eighteen and hailed from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Waleed Allam with a Masters Degree in Egyptology was our guide and he was first class. Rheo Catt, RWB Director of Major Gifts was our capable and thoughtful host, so my husband proposed a toast at dinner one night. “This toast is not to the River Nile it is to the Rheo grand”. The world has many wondrous sights Britain, France, Italy and China are something. Egypt is something else! Elsie Hignell
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