Roaming perceptions

I find that I’m always taken aback by people’s perceptions of travel. When I told my family a few years ago that I was planning a trip to Egypt, my aunts gasped and started trying to talk me out of it. “It’s so dangerous ... Why do you want to go THERE? ... Why can’t you just go somewhere else, the world’s so big?”

Our fabulous group overlooking the pyramids of Giza

First of all, I never felt safer riding in the first-class seating train from Cairo to Luxor with our tour guide who could have been a bouncer and our “bus driver,” who was armed at all times. The tour companies aren’t stupid ... they don’t want anything to happen to you and take every precaution to make that the reality. Trouble is bad for business. Secondly, I hate that objection to a destination: “It’s dangerous.” Where in the world ISN’T dangerous nowadays? Walking in Times Square is dangerous!

Why did I want to go there? Oh, I don’t know, thousands of years of history, maybe? Actually seeing the place, culture and mythology that I’m obsessed with learning about (ever since I can remember, one of the first rooms I visit in any museum is the Egyptian room)? Seeing with my own eyes, and not through a book, the pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and Valley of the Kings? Perhaps just one of those?

A group of Egyptian girls in Luxor
who were very excited to practice
their English and be photographed.

And yes, the world is big — and I want to see as much of it as I possibly can. My aunts continued to prompt me to go to Israel instead.
A) Yes, Israel is clearly safer ... pause ... NOT!
B) I want to go to Israel, as well, but why do I have to choose? I can do both and be a better person for it.

A delicious traditional Nubian meal.

Anyway, my trip to Egypt was one of the greatest I’ve taken. I often describe my experience of first seeing the pyramids as, you know when you see something in books so much and it’s amazing and then when you see it in person and it’s really not all that magnificent? This was the exact opposite. Those triangular structures are awe-inspiring and they are just grazing the surface of what I experienced in Egypt.

When I said I wanted to go to India, it was like déjà vu all over again ;-). Many also warned me about the poverty and how, especially in Nepal, I should prepare to be shocked. Mind you, these are people that have never stepped foot in India or Nepal, or anywhere near them. Yes, there is poverty — India houses the world’s richest and poorest people — and it’s heart breaking to have to turn your back on a child begging on the street, but, honestly, that’s part of the experience. It opens your eyes to the world. Sure, it’s easy to sit at home and tsk-tsk at the impoverished people living an ocean away, and it’s even easier to pretend that they don’t exist — I’m not one to do either.

This Nepalese man was very excited to show off his family
when we passed by on the way to our accommodations.

Where we stayed in Nepal certainly was a culture shock, but not in the way everyone had warned me about. In Nepal I saw people who were poor by Western standards. True, they didn’t have many tangible assets, their houses had roofs made out of hay, but they seemed happy. They lived with their entire families; they had their chickens and goats so they didn’t go hungry; some had elephants that were used to chauffeur tourists around the national park, so they made a living, be it modest or not. Maybe they were poor from a monetary standpoint, but they seemed much happier than a lot of the people I know working 60-plus hour weeks to make the big bucks so they can buy another expensive suit or car or home.

Pinky took us on a wonderful safari ride through
Chitwan National Park.

Sure, traveling is a culture shock, but that’s the point isn’t it? Sure, traveling can be dangerous, but so is crossing the street. Just be smart about it — I figured being a young, American white woman in Egypt or India by myself wouldn’t have been the safest bet, so I booked through a tour company, which actually allows you to see more of the country than you probably would on your own and allows you actually to enjoy the experience instead of worrying about how to book your train ticket to the next destination in a language you can’t understand on any level. And sure, there’s always someplace else you can go instead ... but drop the “instead” and you’ll broaden your horizons even more, and perhaps be surprised by what you find.