Arrival in Egypt

I’ve missed writing on this blog, although I realize the last time was just earlier this year. In any case, it’s time for a new adventure, as I am typing these words from an airplane on its way to Luxor, Egypt.

It will be my first time in Egypt, my first time in Africa, and also my first time going on an organized trip. I will admit it hurt my pride a little to join a premade trip; I have been traveling by myself for so long now that I am confident I could have organized a great itinerary of my own, but I felt that Egypt is a more difficult destination to travel alone than, say, India: the historic sites are all spread out over remote locations and one has to be driven everywhere, so in the end the realistic options for me were to either travel to Egypt by myself and then join multiple tours once there, or book the whole thing at once.

Naturally, because I am a planner, I took it upon myself to research and compare literal dozens of tours and travel agencies and packages and itineraries and and my grand conclusion to impart to you is… they are all the same! Unless you are looking for a longer vacation or a beach holiday, pretty much all the general packages consist of a seven-day itinerary made up of a Nile cruise and a stay in Cairo, and they all hit exactly the same sites in exactly the same order; the one variation I found was that some itineraries do not include Abu Simbel, but even the ones who don’t often offer it as optional (I got one that includes it as baseline).

I am on my way to Luxor, where we are to be taken straight to our cruise ship. Tomorrow we are scheduled to visit the many ruins around Luxor before setting sail down the Nile for three days, to Aswan, from where we will fly up to Cairo for three nights/two days.

Even though it is apparently very hot in Luxor and Aswan (with forecasts of up to 37ºC) and I have no frame of reference for the reality of moving around Egypt any closer than my travels around India (which you can read about on this very blog), I am so excited to experience the incredible history and culture of the country that I am in fact more nervous about the organized trip component of it: will it be well organized? Will they run us rugged from very early in the morning? Will I have time to write properly? Will the people be obnoxious? Will I hate being on a cruise? (My only other experience was my cruise to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, also documented on this blog, and I think that was just one night) Will I find myself thinking “I would have planned this more efficiently”?

But also… what will it feel like to see the Valley of Kings and admire obelisks erected more than three thousand years ago? Will seeing the Pyramids in person fill me with the same overwhelming sense of awe as the Taj Mahal or the temples of Angkor? Will I set foot on stones trodden by Cleopatra or Julius Caesar?

Let’s find out!