Travels to Egypt / U.A.E

I spent the holidays travelling in U.A.E (Dubai, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi) and new years in Egypt (Luxor, Aswan, Cairo) visting my mother who is there teaching English. It was my second experience in the middle-east as I had visited my mother in Al Ain the previous Christmas so I knew what I was to expect, but my good friend Kathryn whom came with on the trip was in for her first time.

The days prior to leaving I was swamped with work and preparations for leaving my business and team behind, It’s always a lot harder preparing for a trip to the other side of the world than expect, funny how that works, typing that seems pretty stupid. It wasn’t until the middle of our 11 hour plane-ride did things really begin to sink in, between catching up with Kathryn, In-Flight movies, and work on my laptop time began to come to a slowing halt-Sometimes doing nothing can be the most difficult thing to do. Though the young woman next to us managed to sleep every single hour of the flight, my bet was drugs (cheater).

Arriving to the Abu Dhabi Airport was an experience in its self, previously I had landed in Dubai and was greeted with an amazing airport filled with 3D advertisments, grand columns, and beautiful architecture. Not here, off the plane  at 2AM (Mind you felt like 2PM PST) we walked into a large, less than inspiring, green, circular room. The feeling of standing out like a sore-thumb began to return to me, you’d think in an international airport you’d get less stares and looks, after all I’m only a white kid. We fumbled around attempting to read arabic signs piecing together where to go next, customs, where I was quickly reminded that lines do not exist in the middle east.

After spending a week in U.A.E Visting Dubai, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi touring with my mother we boarded a Qaran Air flight from Dubai to Luxor, Egypt. From Luxor we would take Nile Cruise north to our final destination of Cairo.

Contrasting U.A.E from Egypt was an interesting as I now had a solid grip of experience in two very differing arab worlds. Dubai, and U.A.E feels like it has invited western culture to come play and has to show off to prove its self, where as Egypt knows it has the Pyramids and Tourists will come, but fails to provide additional value. Though to give Egypt the benefit of the doubt they were just in the process of recovering from a revolution (note: we visited Tahir Square).

The difference in cultures, specifically what I could take from family structure and values were inherently different.

U.A.E seems to treat women as the head of the household, placing value on family structure and dating. Cities, streets, shops, and people are clean-the Sheikh pays for everything to ensure the experience is better, plus they’re on a super track to building a new super power (hell they’re only 40 years old).

Egypt is far more rough around the edges-Feeling clean, or safe is something to remain thankful for where ever you sit reading this. Thanks to our guide we were led through a variety of tours, unique places, restaurants and experiences. The bombardment of beggars at every stop was at times overwhelming, thankfully we learned the arabic word ‘filmishmish’ (which means ‘never’ or ‘in a thousand years’) and would have the beggars quickly turn their sales pitch into a laugh and walk away.

I took around 1400 photos as it was the first long trip I had taken with my new camera. I spent so much time soaking things in I always seemed to forget my camera or miss taking photos all together. Won’t take too much more practice, capturing and enjoying can be one in the same.