Despite all the rumors on the ship the Explorer docked in Egypt for the full 5 days. It has been an honor to be one of the first SAS students to set foot on Egyptian soil in a number of years. From what I understand SAS has attempted to go to Egypt in the recent past, but have been diverted because of unrest in the Middle East. I also heard that the last time SAS docked in Egypt was a number of years ago. So it has truly been a unique opportunity to travel in Egypt through SAS.

What did I do with this great opportunity? I traveled to the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, tour Islamic Cairo, played games with local people, and had tea with a local man to discuss issues in the Middle East. I am unsure of my favorite experience from Egypt, but two stick out: causing a small disturbance (because of my hair and skin color, I think) at the Pyramids and playing ping-pong and backgammon with local people on the streets of Alexandria.

I have decided that in the coming ports I am going to walk the local streets to experience more depth rather than covering more sights. While on my way to the catacombs in Alexandria I noticed a neighborhood that looked particularly intriguing. So instead of taking a cab or horse cart back to downtown Alexandria my friend and I walked. As a result, we ran into a group of children playing ping-pong, which we ended up playing and later played a game of backgammon with some older men to escape the dozen children that were following us through the streets. There was a large language barrier during this whole time, but it was great to share friendly competition with someone regardless of language.

Egypt has been interesting in a number of ways, but I cannot go into great detail. Many of the generalizations about the Middle East do not hold true in Egypt, while there are people in Egypt that are seeking an easy dollar (usually by cheating or lying to tourists). There are also genuine people who just want to talk and meet with people from another countries. One major generalization about the Middle East is that most Muslims are okay with the Taliban and terrorism. This is not true. I found out by talking to a local man over tea (as well as through lectures on the ship) that most of the Muslim community does not like the Taliban and the majority of the Muslim community looks upon terrorism negatively. I have learned a lot about Islam while in Egypt, which has definitely changed my views about the Middle East. I just hope that I will be able to cultivate some of this change in others. But for now I need to look forward as I will be in Turkey in on Tuesday, which means I will have another culture to experience and learn about.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 4th, 2006 at 11:32 am and is filed under Default. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Comments are closed.