👉 Italiano
Egyptian cats, Egyptian frogs
The reasoning and thoughts of this article are only limited to its content and should be taken as a theoretical and cogitative view of life’s opportunities. These words are not intended to deal with a complex topic as human migration. If you would like to give to my thoughts a broader application, you’re very welcome to, but please keep in mind that this will be only your own inference and not my original intent..
A few years ago, I had the laziest trip in my life. Maybe I cannot be defined as a backpacker, somebody told me that my style is more like the one of a flashpacker: anyway, I’m not sure if this other portrait is the right one. Actually, my travel style is very mixed and this is usually due to time constraints before and during a trip or to the fact that I avoid driving as much as possible. Sometimes I just take advantage of travel opportunities as most people do.
For a few of these reasons, I went to Egypt with a booked tour package, which is something I usually try to stay away from. The tour was supposed to be a group tour, but due to the lack of Italian tourists willing to visit classical Egypt in recent years, and also to the low season period, it ended up becoming a private one. My wife and I were guided and taken around during the whole trip. So, my preparation work has been just limited to choose the places we wanted to visit, without worrying at all about accommodation and logistics. To be fair, I didn’t even have to search too much for the preferred destinations, I only had to pick them from a catalog of options.
How was the trip like, then? Classical Egypt is astonishing for sure; if enriched by explanations it’s even better: I could understand a bit more the history of ancient Egypt and changes in artistic style through centuries. I have even had the chance to see a few colored parts of ancient architecture, a glimpse of how they used to be in the beginnings. We’ve even reached the southern spot of Abu Simbel, which is close to the Sudan border and it’s another stunning structure (would you believe it has been relocated?). Finally, I can say that Horus has become my favorite ancient Egyptian God: yes, I think his falcon head and his eye are pretty cool.
Anyway, you can find all the information about pyramids, Sphinx, tombs, temples and so on wherever you want on the internet. Other bloggers already covered the topic in a better and more extensive way than I will address here.
Since this Egypt trip was all planned, with many breaks and a quite slow pace (partially a Nile cruise), you can imagine that I couldn’t simply enjoy the holiday and rest. Yes, I’ve slept a lot those days, much more than I’m used to while I travel, but I’ve always had the feeling that I was lacking something: and probably that something can be called “authenticity”. Basically, I needed some contact with local people, to see the country how it really is now and not how it was millenniums ago. We didn’t have many chances to do it, but we exploited all of them.
My first contact out of the prearranged route was in Cairo outskirts, where our hotel was located. Please let me clarify this: our hotel was a very good one, but it was essentially an island in the middle of big roads, outside what you would call a city. Then why did we go out? For a simple reason: we needed to eat and we were determined to not do it at a very touristic, high-end restaurant inside the hotel. I’ve searched online for an alternative and I’ve found one not very far from where we were staying. We didn’t even need to cross the road, we only had to keep walking along “the island”. The streets in the evening were almost deserted: honestly, this hasn’t been much an incentive to keep going around. We ate a regular, non-unforgettable dinner and we went back to our room. First attempt’s outcome: failed!
Once arrived in Luxor, we had a second chance to venture out in a real city. Close to where our small cruise ship was docked, there was a market. We thought that it could be a good chance to buy some overpriced souvenirs. I say “overpriced” because I was prepared to the fact that, bargaining or not, my tourist face could not be hidden. The bargaining process only differentiates the tourist who likes to waste some time and save a small amount of money from the one who doesn’t care. Furthermore, I enjoy bargaining, many people I know don’t. Anyway, going to a market in Egypt represents a different level of doing travel shopping. Vendors are really pushy, even for somebody coming from a Latin country like me (I’m Italian). It’s truly a real-life experience, but still tourist-sided. That’s probably the Egypt that tour operators want to hide, but it’s not the one for Egyptians, in any case. Satisfied? Just halfway.
My last but good chance has been in Aswan. In the middle of the Nile, facing the most densely populated area in Aswan, there is an island called Elephantine. Our accommodation was situated exactly on there: another good level hotel of course, as expected in such a tour package. As usual in that lazy holiday, they left us plenty of time before dinner. So, we felt like going out of the building and decided to explore that small island.
As soon as we got out, we confirmed that the space managed by the hotel was well maintained, with nice gardening and a very pleasing appearance. Chubby cats and well-feathered birds were also enjoying the environment. But we didn’t go out just to admire the hotel premises, so we asked how could we get out and walk around the rest of the island.
We reached a small iron gate that was left ajar (if I remember correctly). Just a few steps and we finally could enter the real Egypt, the one which usually remains hidden to tourists. Many of them are happy like that. I’m not a very intrusive one, but I admit I am an observer. I just try to avoid observing people too much and consequently I’m shy of taking (and publishing) photos of them. But I have no problem if it’s about buildings, roads or items they use. I think it’s enough to get a first impression of how people live, but I know this doesn’t give any clue about the complexity and the inner richness of them.
Well, I encountered a small village whose appearance was totally in contrast with the magnificence of the ancient temples, but also with the modernity of my accommodation located just around one hundred meters away. And I’ve noticed another thing: the cats. Do you remember about the other chubby ones? Conversely, the new ones were quite emaciated, again perfectly matched with the surrounding environment. I could not help asking myself “Why?”
Why, my little cat, don’t you move a little further and find a better life? Probably because you cannot imagine a different one, just like the Chinese frog.
A famous Chinese tale tells about a frog that was happily living inside a well. It thought that there wasn’t any other better place in the whole world, just because it never went out to see how the world looked like. Those cats immediately reminded me of that story.
Out of the metaphor, that situation made me meditate about people, including myself. Instead of thinking about spatial changes, I started reasoning about life changes in general: the material and emotional ones. I wondered if I was attentively sifting through all the opportunities around my life, and I realized that, just like the frog, just like the cats, I was maybe unaware of many of them.
I’ll be honest, this experience didn’t change my life, the narration will not conclude in such a predictable way. But it surely strengthened my exploratory approach to it. Of course, the journey will go on, like for anybody else. But I keep my gaze higher now, trying to embrace the whole horizon. And if I don’t like it, I can always close my eyes.
The well will always be there, my dear frog. Opportunistic, if you want, but weren’t we talking about opportunities from the start?
Some additional information:
as I mentioned, I went to Egypt through a tour package and enjoyed a very classic tour. I will leave here some details: if you like, you can get inspired by them.
- The itinerary started in Cairo, which is the capital city. Besides the pyramids, the Sphinx, museums and other ancient sites that everybody visits, I found the Islamic Cairo and the Coptic quarter to be very interesting and a little out of the touristic beaten path. And you can merge (a bit) with local people.
- Luxor, where I started the Nile Cruise down to Aswan. Around Luxor, we visited both the West and East banks. The most famous locations here are the Karnak Temple, the Luxor Temple, the Valley of the Kings, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. If you have more time, there are other important landmarks.
- Edfu Temple and Kom Ombo Temple during the navigation towards Aswan
- Aswan, where we visited the Philae temple complex and the Unfinished obelisk. This city has other important sites and it’s also famous for its High Dam.
- Abu Simbel, as a day trip from Aswan (approximately, a three-hour drive), which is another wonderful archaeological site. Besides being awesome itself, another jaw-dropping feature of the complex is the fact that it has been relocated, due to the construction of the High Dam, to prevent it from being submerged.
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