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Published: June 11th 2017
See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask for no guarantees, ask for no security. - Ray Bradbury I can't believe we will soon be in Egypt! I have wanted to travel to Egypt since I was a child, so this trip is really a dream come true for me. We have been busy with pre-trip preparation, and now the departure day is almost here. My copies of the Lonely Planet guides to Egypt and to Jordan have been read, highlighted, post it noted, and coffee spilled-on. I've googled endlessly. Now all the planning can stop and the adventure can finally begin.
Susan and I are flying to Cairo, via Frankfurt, and spending three extra days there before we join fellow travellers on Peregrine Adventures' 17 day "Classical Egypt & Jordan" trip. We will take an overnight train from Cairo to Luxor, spend 4 nights on a river boat cruising the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, spend a night in Wadi Rum at a Bedouin camp, see Petra, and lots of other wonderful things. After the trip ends in Amman, Jordan, we fly back to Cairo, then onto Dahab (via
Sharm el Sheikh) for 4 nights at this Red Sea resort town. Then it's on to London for 5 nights, to visit Susan's family and to see some sights.
Our friend Dominica will join us for the Peregrine trip, along with the extra days in Cairo, so it will be fun to already know one of our fellow travellers.
When we told people where we were going, we got different reactions. Some people were as enthusiastic as we were, and others were much more concerned about the perceived lack of safety in Egypt. Obviously people all have their own levels of risk tolerance, and many people probably would not want to go to Egypt (or perhaps anywhere in the Middle East) now. But we have made the decision to go on this trip after considerable thought. We are going with a reputable travel company, and we will be very careful. But we are not going to let fear (of terrorism or anything else) stop us from travelling. We want to travel to different places so we can learn a bit about the country and the people who live there. I want to learn all I can about Egyptian history, and life in modern Egypt and Jordan. I want to learn about Islam and the effect it has on the day to day lives of Egyptians and Jordanians.
If we were afraid we would never be able to go anywhere. There are no guarantees of safety any place in the world.
And, Susan and I both feel, if we die travelling, then we died happy. (Please look after our cat Ella) 😊
Travel enables you to see the world differently. We all see the world from our own, comfortable little corners, and when you go somewhere entirely different, you leave enriched. You are more concerned about a country and its people after you have travelled there. You become more of a world citizen, I think. As the writer Anita Desai said "wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow."
So, welcome to our blog! If you subscribe to the blog, you will receive email notification when I update it (click on "get email updates"). Feel free to share our blog (and check out our Southeast Asia trip from 2014 if you haven't already).
The next entry will likely be from the Frankfurt airport ...
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Mich
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May you live this experience to the fullest with your guardian angels!