14 days in Egypt
Now, I can’t even remember why Egypt wasn’t a top destination for me. Maybe it was the travel — 10 hours there from New York, 12 hours back. But too many positive experiences have washed the Egypt Air plane ride from my memory, leaving the country’s color, smiles, tastes and a camel ride in its place.
Smoking strawberry-flavored tobacco out of a water pipe in a carpet walled sheesha café, a camel ride to a Nubian village for falafel and henna hand painting, a frank discussion with a religious professor about Islam and the war in Iraq, and a visit to a school for handicapped children were only a few of the experiences awaiting us.
Barreling along the Cairo highway following the 10-hour flight from New York, the fog-shrouded pyramids appeared on the horizon — an awe-inspiring, surreal image, like a movie set — and that’s when it truly hit my rowdy band of travelers that we were in the land of the eternal Nile.
My favorite monument was the colorful and towering temple of Kom-Ombo, built for the crocodile god Sobek and the falcon god Horus. It was one of the stops we made as we glided down the Nile on a relaxing four-day cruise in a 30-passenger riverboat.
Shopping gave us a chance to interact with locals and our group agreed some of the best and most interesting experiences we had were the everyday observations of life in Egypt and the conversations with people we met.
Although a guard accompanied us on most tours, at no time did I feel in danger in Egypt. The majority of Egyptians, except for some of the more aggressive vendors, were friendly and accommodating, and often spoke English.
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