Introduction

This is a retrospective of the Egypt holiday from March 14 to April 19, 2023. It is a text that is based on free association of things that come to mind. For the photos click here

Lots of different people

It all started with Athea, official Arabic translator. I needed a translator and called an agency in Amsterdam that didn't answer the phone. Then I searched some more and found Athea who, like me, has an Egyptian father and Dutch mother, and who happened to live "just around the corner", a 3-minute walk from home! She ended up taking the same flight as we did.

After that we obviously visited our own family again, for a week. Then we met all kinds of interesting passers-by in Alexandria. After that Western tourists in the “all-inclusive resort” Hurghada, such as the German couple with daughter who were in a tour group with us who went to a Bedouin village in the desert. There was also the insane Egyptian driver who took us on an extra rude ride “for the kick” of the group. And the Egyptian interpreter of the starry sky who let us look through telescopes at Venus and the moon. In the resort we had very little contact with the tourists, more with the staff, such as the massage gentleman who tried to sell me a massage for a “dollar price”, and the boss of the dining room to whom we explained why we were participating in the Iftar .

In Luxor we first met the boss of the hotel Bob Marley, who explained how we could save dollars by canceling the booking with booking.com. He directed us to restaurant Sofra, a few hundred meters down the street. This is where the biggest surprise awaited us when we met the owner on our last evening and he suddenly switched from English to Dutch! He turned out to be living in the town of Voorburg in Holland, and to be married to a Dutch lady named Marieke. What I particularly enjoyed was the group tour to the “West Bank” (Thebes) where we met a nice Italian couple, an Austrian single backpacker lady, a Korean couple, a Spanish mathematician, and others. The next day we had dinner with the Italian couple in a fancy restaurant on the Nile. We are welcome to visit them in Rimini.

During the Nile cruise we were again mainly among the tourists. We were linked to 3 Belgian ladies at the breakfast, lunch and dinner table. A mother with daughter plus mother-in-law of the mother. They were quite negative about the quality of “the 5 star boat we were promised”… We also met some friendly Egyptian staff members, and I spent a whole evening chatting with an Australian man who had emigrated from England to Australia at the age of 17, and now wanted to show his sister and other relatives the England of his childhood in a 5 week holiday consisting of 3 weeks in Egypt and 2 weeks in England. We also had a very nice time with a slightly older couple from Nijmegen and their adventurous son. Marlies and Frank and son Luuk. Real world travelers who had been all over the world, it seemed, except in Egypt (“yes, but it was different in Cambodia”). I tipped the son to use Careem as an alternative to Uber in Aswan, and he gave us a link to a website to book flights quickly, easily and cheaply. They talked a lot about their other holidays, but the conversations with Marlies in particular were very nice. She enjoyed the "restrictions" and "craziness" you encounter in other countries and thought it was better to have an "adventurous" attitude than to criticize the facilities.

In Aswan we first had a guided tour to the Unfinished Obelisk, the Isis Temple on Philae Island, and the High Dam. Then we settled in our “hotel” in the Nubian village on Elephantine Island. The owner, a lady in her 60s, was very intelligent and sharp (“you must promise to give us five stars”). Her grandson promised me, a day before departure, that he would take us to the mainland with a small boat. We had a tight appointment there because we didn’t want to miss our scheduled train to Cairo. He was not there at the appointed time! “No, he is at school having his exam”, the lady told us the next day. When the owner wanted to make me promise to give her 5 stars, I asked her: “Who are you asking? Are you asking me the Egyptian or me the European?” Answer: “the European of course, Egyptians never keep their promises.” That turned out to be exactly the case with her grandson. My conclusion: the Egyptians who do not keep their beautiful promises want to give you a pleasant feeling in the present foremost when they make their promises to you. It's all about the now. It is something to take into account in your planning, and to be aware of. The woman said she would arrange someone else and disappeared without a trace. Our best contact on the island, Mohamed, who “we could always call”, was completely unreachable. So we quickly went ourselves taking our heavy stuff through the narrow sandy streets as fast as possible to the public ferry, and luckily we made it in time for the train.

It goes without saying that the finest people we met were our family. Both before and after the Alexandria trip, and also during the final two days before flying back. One of my best memories is the birthday party that they surprised me with, conspiring with Ramzi. We are very lucky to have such a lovely family!

Many different places

We started in our own 3 room apartment in Nasr City. Stayed there and often went to visit the family a few blocks down the road in Nasr City, during the day. We visited many places to make arrangements for all kinds of things, such as the National Bank of Egypt office in Attaba (twice), the office in Nasr City (once), the government office (in City Star Mall) etc. We also visited Mido's “family bar” Club Hawaii where he introduced us to his friends, including the “family lawyer” Talat. And then there were many places with different surroundings and “roles” (Western tourist, Egyptian tourist) such as Hotel Steigenberger in Alexandria, resort Bel Azur in Hurghada, hotel Bob Marley in Luxor, the cruise boat between Luxor and Aswan, hotel Baba Dool on Elephantine Island in Aswan, the night train on the way back to Cairo. We also stayed at a compound far outside Cairo visiting cousin Hisham and his wife Anja and children.

The trips we made included the Giza pyramids, the Saqqara pyramids, the Aswan High Dam, the Valley of the Kings, the sites of Alexandria, and many many temples.