From the sands of the Sahara & banks of the Nile
My flight to Egypt took me first to Cairo and then after a long lay-over on to Luxor where I had arranged another Workaway volunteer assignment at the Bob Marley Peace/Boomerang Hotel. What a change in absolutely everything!! The lush greenery of Uganda with moderate climate & the familiarity of the more southern African nations gave way to the hot, dry desert and the Egyptian & Arab culture. But - it was comfortable & exciting in its own way.
I became totally immersed in life at the hotel where my
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| Mansoor, Amr, Sala, & Linda from Scotland |
volunteer assignment that included room & board, was fully devoted to the reception tasks of managing reservation requests coming from emails or booking websites such as booking.com & hostalworld.com as well as the hotel's own websites. It was really a challenge to come in to a place that, though functioning perfectly well on its own, seemed convoluted to someone like me who prefers tighter organization and structure in the workplace. But, I kept my calm and it was fun. My days were filled with meeting travelers from all over the world and working with the Egyptian staff who were always so kind to me. Over time I went on just about all of the local tours & explored the sites of Luxor and then, with firsthand experience, I was able to help new hotel guests plan their own tours. It was great work & helped me feel a part of the local community in my own small way.
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| My Luxor Neighborhood |
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| Neighborhood |
Luxor is a busy city but not too big. Its super easy & safe to walk around at just about any time of day or night. The traffic is crazy and sure, the vendors in the bazaar are aggressive, but the city is vibrant & never dull. Kids run here and there, women shop for eggplant & pomegranates, men smoke shisha & play Backgammon in the local tea cafés; there is no alcohol here. Falafel vendors & bakers peddle their wares on every street, and of course there is the constant barrage of the horse cart drivers: "Only 5 pounds, Only 5 pounds". Luxor comes to life as the hot afternoon sun wanes & a light breeze from the River Nile begins to cool the city. No matter where you are, you are within range of the competing carriage drivers and shop vendors.
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| Hot Air Balloon over Valley of the Kings & Nile |
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| Desert of the West Bank & Fertile Nile Riverbank |
Tourism fell to almost zero after the 2011 Revolution (Spring Revolution), as many Egyptians call the military coup prompted by millions protesting in Cairo to oust Morsi. The recovery has been extremely slow and an area like Luxor is hit particularly badly since they have relied on tourism to the historical sites for so long. Hardy tourists are now trickling in but most of the once-packed tombs & temples are still a breeze to visit - no crowds, no lines, plenty of tour offers. The government is still struggling and there is a lot of frustration that the recovery is too slow. When I arrived on the first of November the exchange was $1USD=8LE (Egyptian Pounds). Trading for dollars on the black market at double this rate was the norm. To stabilize the economy, the official rate was changed about a week later and now fluctuates around $1USD=16LE.
Downtown Luxor is the hub for travelers wanting to see the major historical sites within town. I lived on the East Bank of the Nile River and just a 15-minute walk from the Luxor Temple and a 15-minute mini-bus ride from the Karnack Temple. On the West Bank of the Nile, just a short drive from the city center, are many tombs and temples. The first historical site I visited in Egypt was Medinet Habu, the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III, and that first site makes a huge impression - it was hard to believe I was actually in Egypt seeing such an ancient temple. The architecture and craftsmanship is so impressive and so much more beautiful and immense than I expected. Also on the West Bank is the Valley of the Kings, where for over 500 years (1539 BC to 1075 BC) the great pharaoh's tombs, such as the various Ramesses & Tutankhamun, were dug deep into the limestone mountains. Sometimes the tomb tunnels were so deep and tortuous that when new tombs were dug their tunnels collided with older tombs. Only a few tombs are open at any given time to reduce exposure.
The amazing thing about all the historical sites is how rich they are with hieroglyphics and reliefs, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and rising up from top to bottom of immense pillars. They all seem to share the same highly structured and consistent style - as if not much changed in religious symbols such as the ankh, the key of life & the lotus symbol of love; and depictions of the gods, Horus, Isis, Osiris, over the 2-3,000 years of the pharaoh's rule. Even the clothes seem to remain the same over the hundreds and hundreds of years.
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| Felluca ride on the Nile, Aswan |
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| Abu Simbel Temple, near border of Sudan, Nile River |
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| Abu Simbel, Ramesses with Horus |
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| Nubian Village, Aswan |
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| Karnak Temple, East Bank Luxor |
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| King Tut - Karnak Temple, East Bank Luxor |
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| Karnak Temple |
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| Luxor Temple, East Bank Luxor |
I can go and on about all the temples and tombs - I think I
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| Abu Simbel & reconstructed mountain |
saw all the most significant ones from just north of Luxor all way down to Aswan but I will spare you. Well, except for Abu Simbel which is just 25 miles (40KM) from the border of Sudan. You may remember that this huge temple in honor of Ramesses II and the smaller temple for his wife Nefertari next to it, carved into the side of a mountain along the Nile, were going to be flooded by the Aswan High Dam to create Lake Nasser. The entire temple complex was painstakingly removed from the mountain and in a race against time was moved uphill into a new artificial hill piece by piece. Both the engineering effort and the tombs are awesome. It is quite a journey to get out to Abu Simbel - tourists are picked up from their hotels at 3:30am and then the transport vans meet up to create a caravan to make the 3-hour drive south across the desert toward Sudan. It all seemed pretty safe but the vans travel this way to avoid any potential border issues.
After 3-weeks of living at the Bob Marley Peace Hotel and being immersed in both the hotel business and the ancient sites, it was time to move on. I had wanted to get to the Red Sea to do a little diving while the weather was still ok as the water starts cooling in November and winds pick up for a couple of months. I ended up at the comfy little Rihana Guesthouse right off the beach in Marsa-Alam where I stayed for 4-nights, Ibrihim, the owner, set me with up a great divemaster, Ahmed from Monkey Diving to do a little diving and spend a day snorkeling with dolphins in a natural lagoon. The water was not too bad with the water temperature about 78-79F and I had one day of 2 shore dives in very calm water. I saw some great fish that were new to me as about 20% of the fish are endemic to the Red Sea, a beautiful huge green
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| Green Turtle of the Red Sea |
turtle, lots of skates, and vast stretches of drop-dead gorgeous coral. The variety of the hard coral was super impressive - every square inch of a huge reef was covered. The next day was a long trip out to see the dolphins at Shaab Samsdai (Dolphin House). The lagoon is a within a circular reef, it's relatively shallow with gorgeous white sand below. The water is super clear so it makes spotting & following the dolphins easy and all the more beautiful. We had plenty of time in the water to watch the dolphins swim about, play, nuzzle each other, and come up to the surface for a little "air time". The great thing about this experience was that it was in the dolphin's natural habitat & the marine preserve has tight guidelines for protecting the dolphins from boats that the tour operators all seem to follow closely as illegal activity has stiff penalties.
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| Coast of Red Sea near Marsa Alam |
While in Marsa Alam I was able to make another Workaway volunteer connection, this time in the Bahariya Oasis so I moved on quickly; 10-hours traveling north by bus, following the coast of the Red Sea to Cairo. I arrived at midnight and since I had to take the 7am bus west to the Bahariya Oasis in Bawiti and the traffic in Cairo even at that hour is horrific, I decided just to wait the 7-hours in the bus station - nodding off as well as I could. Then on to another bus for the 5 hour drive across the desert to Bawiti, a village in the Bahariya Oasis. Sometimes travel like this is just worth it get from point A to B with the least hassle. It helps so much to learn from others how to maneuver the transportation & what to expect in a new place. Ibrahim recommended that I use Uber in Cairo and, being my first experience, it turned out to be just perfect. Not only is the Uber app easy to use, there is no language issue driver knows exactly where to go and you know exactly how much to pay.
Along the road from Cairo to the Bhariya Desert is desert,
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| Desert just past the Bahariya Oasis |
desert, DESERT! There is absolutely no sign of life until reaching the basin where the oasis sits, an unexpected find in the middle of nowhere. Fed by natural hot mineral springs the community living in Bahariya uses simple techniques for irrigation to farm veggies and grow lots and lots and lots of palm dates.
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| Glimpse of the Bahariya Oasis in the Desert |
My new job is helping a Loly, a young 30-something husband & father of 3, owner & manager of the Egypt Western Desert Tour company (http://egyptwesterndeserttours.com/) expand a new venture, Desert Oasis Dates, into an international export business. Here is the simple WIX website I built for him http://desertoasisdates.wixsite.com/desertoasisdates.
Like many Egyptians struggling to make a living in tourism, Loly intends to make this new business a way to replace if not supplement his desert tour business. To paraphrase him, "I am a Bedouin and dates are a way of life not just a business". As I ask a thousand questions to try to understand this business he teaches me so much - most importantly though is that the date one of the first foods eaten in the evening after the day's fast during Ramadan - it is rich in flavor & high in calories and was also a favorite of the Prophet Mohamed. Dates are so important that during Ramadan, the shops can even run out of dates!
To teach me the business, he has taken me to a family orchard. Ahmed, one of his uncles, climbed up a date palm to pick both fresh and naturally dried dates for me to try. These are the dates Loly will export as they are the best of the best - and wow - they have an amazing rich flavor & soft, thick texture. It only took a couple to feel satisfied.
Of course very little time passes in Egypt without a stop for sweet tea. I sat for tea with the fellows and then joined Ahmed's wife & mother in a private enclosure for tea with them. Men and women don't mingle in this traditional community. And when engaged or married/adult women are out, they always wear their burka.
The next stop was to visit several of the local shops that sell dates to see just how they can be packaged:
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| A Bedouin and his dates - Loly! |
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| Date vendor in Bawiti |
So for the first several days here we spent time chatting about his dreams for his business. One important option is to export to Muslim countries such as Indonesia. Here, he expects there will be the same appreciation for dates that Egypt has. In just a couple days of pretty intense work - I took a lot of photos, created a logo, set up a Facebook page, created a very simple Wix website, and did a lot of searching on the internet for dried fruit importers. I will be sending as many inquiry letters as possible while continuing to search for more importers and wholesalers. We are hoping for the best - that at least we'll get a response or two to get the ball rolling. Of course I have lots of questions about exporting licenses, quality control, health certification, etc. etc. - but for now he is satisfied to begin the search and deal with the details as they arise.
I had planned on staying only one week to work and maybe a couple days to catch one of his tours to the Black Desert and the White Desert. But now Loly is asking me to stay a little longer as a friend from Indonesia has arrived with a couple of folks who, among other things, are interested in coming out to the Bahariya Oasis to see Loly's palm dates & discuss business. Loly thinks I have something to offer and so I'll stay a bit longer.
I have discovered that with a basic "just do it" approach - the businesses I have come across with Workaway have been surviving. Perhaps our Western thinking around product development, marketing and sales management (even what a non-professional like me can offer) seems to impress the folks I work with. Loly in particular appreciates what he calls thinking out of the box which just means the Egyptian box. They just all have this sense, though not sure how right, that the Western way of thinking offers more. Maybe they will change their minds when they actually see what our efforts actually provide - maybe the Western approach will just take them down the rabbit hole of excessive work hours and endless preoccupation with work. The one consistent message I hear though is that, in spite of being incredibly industrious and motivated they really don't want to sacrifice peace of mind and a life rich in time spent with family and friends.
For those who keep asking - where am I going next? I'll give the same answer - I don't know where or when exactly. Of course I still need to visit crazy Cairo & the pyramids and from there … probably follow the Sinai coast to Dahab and then on to Jordan and Israel.
Interested in a few comparisons with the USA
Egypt… a few stats from the 2014 Census, INDEX Mundi
Population (of 242 countries): ranks 15, almost 86,895 million (USA ranks 3, almost 320 million)
Population density (of 242 countries): ranks 115, 86,77 people per sq. km; (USA ranks 176, 33 people per sq. km),
Poverty (of 215 countries): ranks 95, 22% (USA ranks 127, 15%), population below poverty line
Literacy (of 215 countries): ranks 166, 73.9% (USA ranks 45, 99%).
HIV adult prevalence (of 169 countries) ranks 123, 0.1% (USA ranks 62, 0.6% )
Life Expectancy at birth (of 221 countries): ranks 120, 73 yrs. (USA ranks 41, 79 yrs.)
Until the next time!!
Hope all is well in your world!!
Love - Stephanie
Walk Like an Egyptian!
Did you know there is a Bent Pyramid of
Dashur? This design signified an
important transition in the evolution of the now classic triangle shape we are
most familiar with. The ancients were learning from design & structural
flaws as early as 2,600 BC.
