If Not Now, When? Your Dream Vacation to Egypt Awaits
April 2007
By Bob Gani

On Thursday, May 10, a small group of American Tourists will depart for a comprehensive tour of Egypt. I will have arrived a day before to greet them as they arrive and we all meet for dinner at the Cairo Marriott Hotel. The central part of the hotel is in fact the old Prince Mohammed Ali Palace built in late 1800 as a temporary residence for the Princess Eugenie then attending the festivities for the opening of the Suez Canal. So starts a memorable experience.

If not now when. This group decided that traveling to Egypt at this time was something they were prepared to do and were no longer going to delay their participation.

I have escorted groups traveling to Egypt and more recently have focused on a smallish group (not more than 12 to 16 persons), which makes it possible for the participants to get personal attention. Although I was born and raised in Egypt I could not possibly take the place of the trained and licensed guide who will spend the 10 days exclusively with our group and will try to make sense out of the monuments and sites we will visit that span more than 5000 years of history.

Unlike many tour programs this one is absolutely packed with activities. The group is warned that there will be almost no free time to wander on their own. Even the two occasions where we go shopping is scheduled within the program.

The visit begins in Cairo with a tour to the Pyramids, Sphinx and Memphis and Sakkara with a lunch at the fabled Mena House Hotel. In my teen years I was able to climb the pyramid any time I chose. Regrettably this has changed and permission is rarely granted to climb today. But you can come up close and touch the blocks of stone that have survived so long. You can even climb inside and see the Pharaoh's burial chamber.

The next day is an excursion to Alexandria, which includes a visit to Pompey's Pillar, The Catacombs and the Alexandria National Museum. Traveling back by the desert road may give you a feeling of what it was like when the battle of El Alamein took place.

Entrance to the Temple of Abu Simbel

A short flight south brings us to the monument and the Temple of Abu Simbel, a brilliant monument and an even more incredible modern feat in moving the mountain. These monuments survived these thousands of years because of the skill and work-manship of the people. But they also survived because of the dry climate. But this dry climate is now being changed by the closeness of the new High Dam and an occasional sprinkle has been experienced. How long do we have before the climate affects these marvelous works?

We then stay at the Old Cataract Hotel located directly on the Nile in Aswan and reminiscent of Agatha Christie who actually stayed at that hotel often during the mild Egyptian winters. Her suite is now no longer available for occupancy but can be visited.

Listing all of the sights in Aswan would consume the rest of this article. Among those sights are the Temple of Philae, a boat ride on a felucca, and a visit to the High Dam. And so we look forward to boarding our luxury cruise ship the next morning which will be our hotel for the next four nights. Cabins have private balconies and an overall ambience of luxury to match the sights we will see. The ship calls at Kom Ombo and Edfu and in each case the Temples visited are close by. Then in Luxor, we see the Temples of Luxor and Karnak as well as the Temple of Hatshepsut, the Colossi of Memnon and visit one of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

One of the sights that lasted thousands of years is the farmer working on the river bank using a screw or a shadouf to haul water from the river to irrigate his fields, a typical subject for a snapshot to show the folks back home. You would be hard pressed to see any of those any more because a small electric pump using inexpensive power from the dam has replaced the backbreaking labor. The changes in our lifetime have erased literally thousands of years of experience.

Back in Cairo we have yet to visit the Egyptian Museum and the treasures of Tut Ankh Amun. We also have a complete day to visit Old Cairo with a Church & Synagogue over a thousand years old and the Citadel with its mosques reminiscent of the glory days of Saladin. The famous bazaar is nearby. The population explosion is encroaching on these magnificent structures and will surely affect their future.

Preserving these ancient wonders in Egypt gets some attention from officialdom but growth and progress of the modern kind will most assuredly change what we are able to see and experience.

Travel abroad is often enhanced and more enjoyable when one uses the services of a knowledgeable tour guide. Using an experienced travel professional in planning and executing your arrangements will help you navigate through the complexities of foreign travel requirements as well as the confusion of bookings, deposits, and scheduling. Group travel is a good way to see new places while having the camaraderie of your peers.

Submitted by Bob Gani, owner of Travel Experts of Cary, www.travelexpertscary.com

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