Egypt - A Summary
So I figure that a good way to start a travel blog is with a post about travel and not just random thoughts I had over a year ago. So since my adventures this year began in Egypt, I will begin there. I wrote this post on one of my last days there.....
"So I've been meaning to post some comments on Egypt but the Internet here has been scarce at best - wifi is almost none existant. We are staying at a hotel on the red sea (in a town called nuewiba) which has wifi. It's only the second place I have found in the entire country with free wifi. And I have been looking - even at mcdonalds (which is supposed to have free wifi worldwide) it "wasn't working"
Anyway I am on a bus in Jordan right now typing this out- when I get back to the hotel I can hit send. We went to Petra today which was pretty spectacular. It was an optional trip so I had to pay extra for it but I'm really glad I did. It's a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Long trip from Egypt though. First it was a 45 minute drive to the ferry, then a one hour ferry ride and then (what was supposed to be a 2 hour bus ride) 3 hour bus ride.
We have gotten used to everything not being on time. They call it "Egyptian time" I guess it applies to Jordan too. Egypt is the most messed up country I have ever been to. For a country which relies so heavily on tourism it's incredible how unprepared they are to handle it. Nothing works, nothing is clean, nothing is on time and everyone tries to screw you out of money; shop keepers, tour guides, even the police (it is illegal to take a photo of the police (probably because then the rest of the world would see how crappy they are) but if you grease their palms a bit then taking pictures is suddenly ok).
Every hotel and tourist attraction we go to has metal detectors and police officers at the door. This is a facade to make the foreign tourists feel safe. Every person who walks through beeps and the police barely look up. I could have a gun in my pocket and they wouldn't know.
Oddly enough however I feel safe here. Despite the fact that the police officers machine guns are often held together by elastic bands, and the officers spend most of their days sleeping, petty crime is very low. Especially for tourists. Tourism is the one positive thing this country has and the government knows it so there are very harsh penalties if you are caught stealing from tourists.
Although petty crine seems to be low, The country has an infinite number of other problems. I won't go into all of them but the ones that have bothered me the most have been the garbage, the air quality, the way they treat animals, the constant harrassment from everyone for money, and the lack of change (they often can't make change for a 10 pound egyptian note - which is the equivalent of $2 cad. You pull out a 100 pound note ($20) and they are angry and shocked that you would try to pay with that)
I knew before coming here that things would be different but until you visit a third world country (and that's what Egypt is - 58% of the population is below the poverty line) you can't really prepare for it. What makes it all bareable is the sights. The places we have visited have been absolutely spectacular.
I have seen the pyramids at Giza and Petra (2 of the new 7 wonders). We went to abu simbel and rode camels through the desert. We took donkeys to valley of the kings and explored 3000 year old tombs (which still have paint on the walls). We cruised down the Nile on a felucca and spent the night on it. We visited karnak temple where one little area is big enough to house the entire building of notre dame.
The sights here really cannot be paralled by any over county in the world. The city of Luxor alone has 25% of the entire worlds ancient sights. The blocks from one pyramid at Giza could build a 10 foot wall around the entire country of France. We have seen temples built 4000 years ago that are still standing in relatively good shape.
This trip has been a once in a lifetime experience.... Not because it would be difficult to come back, but because 2 weeks in this country is more than enough for any westerner to experience in a lifetime."
Luxor temple at night. One of my favourite shots!
- Siobhan
"So I've been meaning to post some comments on Egypt but the Internet here has been scarce at best - wifi is almost none existant. We are staying at a hotel on the red sea (in a town called nuewiba) which has wifi. It's only the second place I have found in the entire country with free wifi. And I have been looking - even at mcdonalds (which is supposed to have free wifi worldwide) it "wasn't working"
Anyway I am on a bus in Jordan right now typing this out- when I get back to the hotel I can hit send. We went to Petra today which was pretty spectacular. It was an optional trip so I had to pay extra for it but I'm really glad I did. It's a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Long trip from Egypt though. First it was a 45 minute drive to the ferry, then a one hour ferry ride and then (what was supposed to be a 2 hour bus ride) 3 hour bus ride.
We have gotten used to everything not being on time. They call it "Egyptian time" I guess it applies to Jordan too. Egypt is the most messed up country I have ever been to. For a country which relies so heavily on tourism it's incredible how unprepared they are to handle it. Nothing works, nothing is clean, nothing is on time and everyone tries to screw you out of money; shop keepers, tour guides, even the police (it is illegal to take a photo of the police (probably because then the rest of the world would see how crappy they are) but if you grease their palms a bit then taking pictures is suddenly ok).
Every hotel and tourist attraction we go to has metal detectors and police officers at the door. This is a facade to make the foreign tourists feel safe. Every person who walks through beeps and the police barely look up. I could have a gun in my pocket and they wouldn't know.
Oddly enough however I feel safe here. Despite the fact that the police officers machine guns are often held together by elastic bands, and the officers spend most of their days sleeping, petty crime is very low. Especially for tourists. Tourism is the one positive thing this country has and the government knows it so there are very harsh penalties if you are caught stealing from tourists.
Although petty crine seems to be low, The country has an infinite number of other problems. I won't go into all of them but the ones that have bothered me the most have been the garbage, the air quality, the way they treat animals, the constant harrassment from everyone for money, and the lack of change (they often can't make change for a 10 pound egyptian note - which is the equivalent of $2 cad. You pull out a 100 pound note ($20) and they are angry and shocked that you would try to pay with that)
I knew before coming here that things would be different but until you visit a third world country (and that's what Egypt is - 58% of the population is below the poverty line) you can't really prepare for it. What makes it all bareable is the sights. The places we have visited have been absolutely spectacular.
I have seen the pyramids at Giza and Petra (2 of the new 7 wonders). We went to abu simbel and rode camels through the desert. We took donkeys to valley of the kings and explored 3000 year old tombs (which still have paint on the walls). We cruised down the Nile on a felucca and spent the night on it. We visited karnak temple where one little area is big enough to house the entire building of notre dame.
The sights here really cannot be paralled by any over county in the world. The city of Luxor alone has 25% of the entire worlds ancient sights. The blocks from one pyramid at Giza could build a 10 foot wall around the entire country of France. We have seen temples built 4000 years ago that are still standing in relatively good shape.
This trip has been a once in a lifetime experience.... Not because it would be difficult to come back, but because 2 weeks in this country is more than enough for any westerner to experience in a lifetime."
Luxor temple at night. One of my favourite shots!
- Siobhan
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