Egypt: Should you travel there?
I'm sitting in Dubai airport in transit waiting for my flight home typing this out on my Facebook that by the time I was done, I realised it is a blog post on its own. So if you haven't seen my thoughts on my Egypt three weeks trip. Here it is. It's brief and only partial of what I have to say about the country, but this should suffice, for now.
"So apparently some egyptians friends I've made while travelling in Egypt got so offended about my shedding the dimmer lights on Egypt that one of them unfriended me and the other decided to shoot me a message with a semi confrontation. (The others I have successfully blocked to have access to posts like this simply because they are nice people and what I say do no represent them but I also know what I say will hurt them for a lot of Egyptians share a love hate relationship with their country and can get very defensive when prodded)
Look. Egypt is great because of its history, would I recommend it to people to travel there? Absolutely. It's unlike anywhere else in the world. I was awe struck many times this trip by how old and grand the ancient civilisations were and how much have remained; it took my breath endlessly. The magnitude of greatness when I stood on the Great Pyramid of Giza. The intelligence and wealth when I walked through the Valley of the Kings. The wisdom and knowledge when learning about the measuring instruments of the stars, of architecture and of art. All happening some 4000 years ago, when there were rarely any known civilisation on earth.
But... I also never visited a country that I have felt more harassed, stressed, frustrated and troubled by the lack of honesty and sincerity in, not all, most of the the people I had the unfortunate event to come across. My three weeks across the entire country has left me a bitter aftertaste that when I received the stamp to leave the country, I let out an audible sigh, partially from a long tiresome trip, but mostly out of relief.
I wouldn't say I have a lot of travelling experience as compared to some of the friends I have, but 43 countries and 12 years on, spending an average of 3 weeks to 3 months in each of these countries, Egypt took me by surprise to both extremes.
It made Nepal felt like a walk in the park.
It made India felt like paradise.
It made Japan felt like a parallel universe.
It made India felt like paradise.
It made Japan felt like a parallel universe.
And I say this without a hint of exaggeration. Will I ever return to Egypt? I don't know. But it will take a lot of persuasion."
0 kissed Nicole