The rest of Egypt

I have been back from Egypt for two weeks, but I couldn't quite face writing this blog.  That isn't quite true, I actually wrote a version of it while I was still there.  It was called "Traveling alone sucks."  I was having a bad day and the text was very pessimistic. I was hoping some perspective would help, but what started as a quest for distance turned in to procrastination.  Now I am sitting down to write because there are more important things I need to procrastinate for like writing a new calendar for one class and a quiz for the other.  Perhaps it should be the 5th law of thermodynamics, "everything will be accomplished as long as something bigger needs to be procrastinated."

Traveling alone still sucks, two weeks perspective didn't change that, but I am not quite as bitter as I was the night I wrote this:

Traveling alone sucks.

I try to make myself feel better by saying things like:

“I get to make all the decisions about where we eat and when we go to bed, without frustrating negotiations.”

“I get to pick what to see and where to go.”

“I don’t have to worry about anyone else’s budget or comfort.” 

I say these things to myself, of course, since there is no one else here to say them to.  I say these things because things like:

“Hey look at that!” and

“Wow, isn’t that cool?” and

“What was your favorite part about today?” and

“Did you remember what he said about …?” and

“Do you like this one or that one?”

not to mention the not saying things, aka the listening part of a conversation, where I might hear a question I didn’t think to ask or get a different perspective or a new suggestion or an interesting story aren’t available when you travel alone. 

In the past I have traveled as part of a group.  Often there would be couples or even families as part of the group, but mostly they were strangers together for a couple of weeks to see and do the same things.  It was ok to be alone in this setting.  There was always someone to eat dinner with, to gaze at the sights with, to exchange stories with.  I could then go back to my single room (if I couldn’t get out of paying the single supplement) or to my roommate and have some solitary-ish time. 

Even when I have extended my travels at the end of a tour, ostensibly on my own, there were always people around, at least during the day.  We got on the same bus to the tiger temple or the elephant ride or the vanilla bean plantation.  People were friendly, they chatted over lunch.  The evenings were tough.  I am not a bar scene sort of person for all sorts of reasons and once the tour ended or the museums closed, I was basically in for the night, hoping there was an English language station on the TV, or maybe taking the time to write some postcards or work on my trip book. 

On this trip to Egypt, I am more alone than I have been on any of my travels.  I have a guide who picks me up shows me something and brings me back.  They (two hes and a she so far) have done all of these touristy things a hundred times, they have their spiel memorized, they may (or may not) be very knowledgeable of the canned speech, but they don’t have the amazement of looking at something for the first time and they certainly won’t offer an opinion about whether you should by something.   “Take your time, look all you want, I’ll wait for you here.”  Even when the guides have been friendly and engage in conversation, there is always that feeling – are you just being nice to me because it is your job?  With the best tour guides, I think you can forget that they are being paid to show you around, they can recreate the sense of wonder even when they are seeing Macchu Piccu for the 237^th time.  Of course there are only a few 'best guides' out there. 

Ok, end of pity party and back to the present, but consider this an open invititation to any of the folks reading this blog to travel together. 

I guess I need another blog to actually talk about the rest of Egypt...