Nile: Americans find treasures in modern-day Egypt
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Small boats piled high with men and goods skittered across the water in pursuit of Esadora. She gracefully eased her way down the Nile, oblivious of them, but they would not relent. They hunted her like treasure, because her cargo was as good as gold.
The riverboat MS Esadora carried Western tourists, pockets bursting with money to spend on Egyptian trinkets.
I was snoozing to the sound of whirring engines in my second-floor cabin, just above water level, when I suddenly awoke to shouting outside my window. I could only assume that we must have docked early for people to be right outside the ship.
When I pulled back the curtains to look, however, I was greeted nearly eye-to-eye with a frenzy of weather-worn river hagglers. Galabeyas (traditional Egyptian clothing that look like night gowns), carpets, scarves and more were tossed through my window in plastic bags, followed by shouts of, “Baksheesh!” which meant “money,” or, more to the point, “How much you pay?”
Was it the smart way to shop? I don’t know, but in my grogginess I figured it was even easier than shopping on the Internet, because I could haggle the price and not have to wait for my goods. So for 50 Egyptian pounds, or about $10, I went back to bed a few minutes later with three beautiful new carpets in my suitcase.
This, like everything else I had experienced in Egypt, seemed so surreal that I wondered if I had, in fact, awakened at all. Maybe I was still in Italy and just having an amazing dream …
It was cold and rainy when we left Milan in April. The cab navigated through early-morning twilight toward the airport, and I wondered whether this was a flight I should miss.
I had watched CNN the night before and read the stacks of newspaper reports. Protests continued outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and violence was feared. Tensions continued to mount between Palestinians and Israelis. Old wounds between the United States and Iraq, left to fester since the Gulf War, were tearing open again. There was no reason for an American to go to the Middle East right now, especially an active-duty one, unless duty called, right?
But not far down the dial from CNN was The Discovery Channel, where I had watched hours of specials about the mysteries of the Middle East, and especially the treasures of Egypt. I remembered eagerly leafing through National Geographic as a child to find exotic tales about pharaohs and pyramids and forgotten dynasties. I watched movies about enigmas buried beneath distant sands.
There hadn’t been peace in the Middle East for thousands of years. Would waiting a couple more give me any more safety? Now was my chance to explore a world where myths mattered and gods governed.
The doors of the chartered aircraft opened and the city of Luxor poured in like a sauna on me and the 24 other Americans who chose to make the journey. After thorough security checks, a bus took us to our riverboat, where we were welcomed with a nice dinner and comfortable, air-conditioned rooms to rest in.
As we boarded the bus the next morning for the Valley of the Kings, I noticed something I had not been aware of in my jet-lagged state the day prior — we were accompanied by an armed guard. Tourists were sparse commodities in Egypt since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and their absence was deeply felt. In fact, Egypt’s tourism industry, which makes up more than 30 percent of its gross national income, plummeted 90 percent after the attacks and was only now beginning a feeble recovery.
After the highly publicized terrorist killings of tourists in 1997, Egypt’s government responded strongly and swiftly with increased security measures, and now intensified them to maintain its foothold on tourism. Armed police patrol all high tourist traffic areas day and night, and armed guards escort tour groups around the country as an additional security measure.
In fact, there were few places in any city or town we saw, even passing through, that weren’t dotted with patrols. Though we all remained very aware of our surroundings, seeing the situation with our own eyes rather than on a television screen calmed our nerves a lot, and it began to feel like a vacation.
After tramping through temples, we were given some time in the afternoon to visit the local markets and search for special outfits for that evening’s galabeya party. That night I donned my burgundy cotton pants and matching shirt, with woven designs, along with a headscarf, and met my fellow transformed tourists in the lounge. It was fascinating to see what everyone had chosen and how each of us looked as “locals,” and we played games and danced the night away under MS Esadora’s disco ball.
We started the next day by trading our large riverboat for a smaller Egyptian sailboat, known as a felucca. We used the craft to navigate some of the Nile’s more intricate waterways and, eventually, to get to what was ultimately my favorite part of the trip — a visit to a Nubian village.
Elephantine Island is the largest of the Aswan area islands, and is one of the most ancient sites in Egypt, with artifacts dating to pre-dynastic periods. This is probably due to its location at the first cataract, or steep rapids, of the Nile, which provided a natural boundary between Egypt and ancient Nubia. Years of coexistence between Egyptians and Nubians made the people of this island a rare and special breed. They are neither African nor Egyptian, rather a beautiful, mystical mix of the two.
The people were as warm as their climate and their houses and clothes were alive with color. The houses often had paintings or carved crocodiles at the bottom, a fish in the middle and a man on top, with a woman’s hand made of brass as a door-knocker between the fish and man. Others had a sacred black cube of Mecca, with a painting depicting the means of the owner’s pilgrimage there.
Although the temples, pyramids, mosques and markets were marvelous, our visit to the Nubian village provided a genuine snapshot of Egyptian life. We were still aware of being outsiders, but it felt as if someone let us peer into a secret garden.
Traditions that were thousands of years old were still very active in the villagers’ daily lives, but they had also embraced current cultures and technologies. When we visited the local school we were shown a computer room, where two computers with much-needed dust covers were neatly set among the back rows of desks, all upon a dirt floor. The children, dressed in their tidy blue-and-white uniforms, spied at us through windows and around corners, and smiled when we looked at them.
As we walked through the dusty, narrow streets, our guide, Sameh, knocked at someone’s door. Within a few minutes we were all seated in a strange young woman’s living room and she and her husband were fixing us tea and a special hot hibiscus drink. Sameh translated questions and answers between us, and she passed around her wedding pictures for us to admire. It was the greatest hospitality I had ever experienced.
Finally we headed off to Cairo. Our hotel was just outside the city center and had a superb view overlooking the Pyramids of Giza. We were given a brief bus tour as we drove through Cairo from the airport to our hotel, but as I watched the sun sink beneath the city’s smoggy haze, I felt a little relieved at being outside the throbbing metropolis. With 15 million residents, Cairo is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East.
As ingenious as the ancient Egyptians were in architecture, so they were in many other sciences. We witnessed one of these age-old talents at the Cairo Papyrus Institute. The first use of papyrus is believed to have been 4,000 B.C. The papyrus plant grew along the banks of the Nile and provided the Egyptians with the necessary raw materials for paper, boats, rope and baskets.
Papyrus was not only ancient Egypt’s greatest export, but it revolutionized the way people kept valuable information. No substitution for papyrus as a writing material could be found that was as durable and lightweight until the development of pulp paper by the Arabs.
I had to shift a lot of my thinking throughout my visit to Egypt, including when I saw what most Westerners would deem “child labor” at a carpet school and factory we visited. When I thought of that term, I automatically envisioned children working in mines like slaves, but this was not what we found at the carpet school.
Most children actually compete to get into these schools because they’re taught a marketable trade and are paid for their time, and many families depend on the children’s income for sustenance. Children are limited to working four hours a day and their employers are required to provide basic education for one hour as well.
The secret skill of weaving is often handed down through generations, and we watched one mother as she taught her art to her little boy. A quality carpet generally is distinguished by its pile material, such as silk or wool, and construction, design and color composition, border design, foundation threads and knot density. Egyptian carpets, kilims and tapestries have been world-reknowned for ages, and the woven treasures on the looms and walls of the factory told countless tales of a rich past.
For our final night, a few of us chose to eat at the Nubian restaurant by the pool behind our hotel. I can’t pronounce, much less spell, most of what I ate, but every bite was delicious and a true taste of Middle Eastern cuisine. They superbly seasoned and seared every kind of flesh imaginable — the scent of the grill wafting into the hotel is actually what lured us there — but they also had fantastic falafels and other vegetarian delights. For drinks, appetizers and main courses too large to finish, it cost less that $20 for two people, and while a bargain, it was more expensive than most of the meals we had in Egypt.
Capt. Erin E. Bradley is a public affairs officer at Headquarters Third Air Force, RAF Mildenhall, England. If you are enjoying her stories, E-mail her at Erin.Bradley@mildenhall.af.mil.
Nile cruise makes Egypt trip flow easily
Egyptians have been making good use of the Nile for thousands of years, and I recommend that the modern traveler do the same.
The majority of Egypt’s famous sights follow the Nile’s flow because the limited fertility it gave to an otherwise desolate landscape allowed civilizations to blossom. So there is no need to trek through the desert or spend hours on end on stuffy buses.
If you want to see as much as possible during your holiday but still be able to relax and have it feel like a vacation, a Nile cruise is the way to go.
Our tour was with Turisanda, an Italian company, arranged through a travel agency, Viaggi Travel. Both are Italian, since the friend who arranged the trip is stationed at Aviano Air Base in Italy.
This particular tour package was geared specifically to Americans — for example, they had history books and brochures in English for us once we were in Egypt, though we were the minority in the group. The company has started doing this regularly for Americans since the trip was a success (everyone had a GREAT time).
Although prices and package deals vary depending on where you are coming from and which agency you go through, you should be able to find an all-inclusive deal like mine for less than $1,500 per person.
I’ve also checked into Egypt packages with companies in the States and in the United Kingdom, and you can get pretty similar packages for about the same price almost anywhere. However, if you want to use the companies we did, here’s the contact info:
¶ VIAGGI TRAVEL: Phone (+39) (0) 434-660300. Web site: www.viaggiunlimited.com.
¶ TURISANDA: Web address (in Italian): www.turisanda.it/offerte/offerte.php3; e-mail turisanda@turisanda.it.
Though $1,100 for my tour sounded like a serious chunk of change to me at first, I found it to be a bargain because the weeklong tour included all airfare and transportation, lodging both on the boat and in a four-star hotel in Cairo, my travel visa, meals, guides, security, and entrance fees to all tourist sites.
All eight days we spent in Egypt were bright, sunny and in the 90s, and this was in mid-April, so unless you’re a camel or a masochist, I would avoid the summer months. Spring or fall are the best times to visit, and when the sun goes down in the evening, the temperature drops several degrees, so a light jacket might be useful.
— Erin Bradley
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