Egypt

My ten days in Egypt is about to come to an end and now I find myself about to embark on the final stop in my journey, Morocco. I know it sounds cliche, but my time traveling has literally flown by, and although I feel I am ready to come home, I still wish I had another few months to enjoy myself "off the grid". As I have done with all my countries I have visited, this blog will be about my feelings about my time spent in Egypt over the last ten days. My first blog may have seemed somewhat negative, and while my feelings about Egypt really have not changed since that first blog, I do believe that Egypt has a few redeeming qualities that make up for some of the more negative aspects. Egypt is a country that relies on tourism. With some of the most amazing monuments, relics, and temples all in one place with thousands of travelers arriving each week, Egyptians know that without tourists, they would be in trouble. That is why this country was hit so hard with the recent deadly protests that plagued the nation. Tourism plummeted. Over the last few months the tourism industry has slowly picked back up, but from I have been told, the number of tourists coming to Egypt is a small percentage of what it was this time last year. As a result, instead of experiencing hostility from Egyptians as a result of recent events of violence, I was met by jubilation that I, an American tourist (one of the few Americans here) was finally returning to stimulate the fledgling Egyptian economy. I was treated to overtly nice people everywhere I went and not to mention bargains in shops where business was slow. While at first I complained of the hassle of scammers and people on the street, after a while I began to accept it because it was simply Egyptians attempting to make a living in this hard time. As long as you treated people attempting to sell you trinkets or solicit their services as a "guide" with respect when you decline their advances, everyone was happy. Although, there are some areas of the country that are still affected by the revolutions with a lack of police force and general order, the people of Egypt have made sure that tourists avoid said areas of unrest, because everyone knows that if tourists feel unsafe or harassed, that will mean no more money coming into their country. Egypt was also a very different place than anywhere I have been. I spent the majority of my time on tours or site seeing, something that I tried to avoid in other countries on a daily basis. I felt more like a tourist in Egypt than I had in other countries (if that makes sense). Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing things like the Pyramids and Abu Simbel, but spending all day in the sun and 100 degree weather in the desert looking at temples can get a little "old". And not to mention the lack of nightlife present in all of Egypt, but from what I gather, that is true in almost all predominately Muslim countries where drinking is forbidden as part of the religion. I am glad that I came to Egypt during this turbulent time in their history and am happy to be a part of getting their economy back on track. It may have not been my favorite stop on my travels (probably my least favorite to be honest), but it was definitely a good experience for me. I am now on to Morocco, the final stop on my journey, and another Muslim country that has recently been plagued with political and social unrest (a terrorist bomb killed 20 tourists in Marrakesh last week), so we will see how this goes. Crazy that I will be home in such a short amount of time. Better make this last stop count.