- Getting ready to hit the road!
- Some thoughts on Hong Kong…
- A day in Danang and Hue, Vietnam
- Saigon River and Saigon, Vietnam
- Siem Reap and Temples, Cambodia
- The Floating Village — Kompong Phluk, Cambodia
- Phnom Penh and the road to Sihanoukville, Cambodia
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Day 2 in Bangkok — Ayutthaya, Thailand
- Singapore
- Langkawi Island, Malaysia
- Phuket, Thailand — or sort of…
- New Delhi, India
- Agra and the Taj Mahal
- The road to — and Jaipur, India
- India — a few closing thoughts.
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Oman (The Sultanate of)
- Luxor, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, Egypt
- Petra, Jordan
- Sharm el Sheik and St. Catherine’s Monastery, Egypt
- Cairo and Giza, Egypt
- Egypt — Some final thoughts…
- Zooming around Israel
- Bodrum, Kusadasi, and Ephesus, Turkey
- Corfu, Greece
- Dubrovnik and Zadar, Croatia
- Venice, Italy — the last hurrah!
I write this as we are cruising up the Suez Canal – our first “sea day” in the past five days. Busy, busy, busy! We made three stops in Egypt (Sohkna, Sharm al Sheik, and Safaga), but these were only convenient ports to depart on amazingly long bus trips to see Luxor (an “overnight”), St. Catherine’s, and Cairo. I will talk about each in subsequent posts, but I will start with some thoughts about Egypt and where things currently stand.
In a word, I would say “disaster.” The situation here is quite grim, but Egypt’s history has been a series of ups-and-downs – all the way back to ancient times. Egypt can be considered one of the world’s oldest civilizations and many of the world’s great steps forward have come from here. But it seems that each time Egypt reached a zenith, it cannibalized itself – whether by civil war or by foreign conquest. Today, that situation seems to be continuing. The country’s illiteracy rate is at 37%. The current unemployment rate is nearly 30%. There is no welfare system, nor is there any concept of things like a minimum wage. Given the historical level of graft within the government, the gap between rich and poor has continued to grow. Needless to say, the general public has had a great deal of rage over this, resulting in the revolution a few years ago. But rather than improve things, the Morsi government has actually made things worse. They went from a corrupt government to an incompetent government. This has left the people in a tough situation. While supporting (or being part of) the revolution, many people actually regret their actions and long for the days of Mubarek. There doesn’t appear to be anyone competent and willing enough to run the country (including the Muslim Brotherhood).
Many locals are predicting another revolution, but don’t know what it will lead to. Most don’t believe that it would lead to a fundamentalist Islamist regime. Frankly, people here identify themselves as Egyptian, rather than Arab. The Arabs came fairly late in their history and the Egyptians are fiercely proud of their heritage. But in the meantime, things are getting worse. Tourism is way down and traffic on the Suez Canal is also down (interestingly enough, it is more due to the threat of piracy in the approaches to the Red Sea rather than any unrest in Egypt). But these two categories represent about 2/3 of the country’s income. No es bueno! The Morsi government appears to have taken little notice about either of these. So, the whole situation is pretty bad and the outlook is grim. Are there any benevolent dictators out there who would like to step up??
By the way, a straw poll of the other passengers suggests that people are glad to have left Egypt – especially Cairo. We are now off to Israel!
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
