Visiting Abu Simbel And Getting Stranded In Aswan, Egypt, 1984

People often ask me to name my favorite travel destination. This is nearly impossible since each place I've visited is very different, not to mention the fact that many I traveled to a long time ago. Out of all of the places I've been to, though, I definitely have the most number of memorable stories from Egypt. The following tale counts among one of the most bizarre stories of my life, period. It's going to sound like I'm going off on tangents, but everything comes together. Because my parents always traveled in the summer (this is when we all had off since they were school teachers), we often saw places during the off season -- including Egypt, where it was about 90 billion degrees outside. However, one advantage to traveling during this time was that we were often upgraded to fancier hotel rooms. This happened when we stayed in Aswan, Egypt. The hotel itself was lovely to begin with; it was very modern (for the '80s, anyway) and had a gift shop and huge outdoor pool. We checked in and were told to walk down the hall to our suite. We figured that this was just an expression until we actually entered the room and discovered that it was a duplex. A duplex! Our room had two floors and I had my own private space. After settling in, we relaxed for a while and I went for a swim. On the way, I passed through the book shop and was pleased to see that they had some books in English. I've always loved horror movies and especially liked gory films at that time, so my attention was caught by a book that had a severed head floating on the cover. It was titled Truly Muderous and cost $5 USD. I asked if we could purchase it and my parents refused -- not because they thought that I was too young to read it, but because they wanted me to get souvenirs that were relevant to Egypt. Anyway, I soon forgot about the book and looked forward to the next day's activities. We were going to see Abu Simbel, one of the most impressive ruins in Egypt. Not only that, we'd be flying there so we'd get a really cool view of the structures. The next day we awoke around 3 a.m. to make our flight. The idea was to fly in before sunrise so we could be there as the sun rose over Abu Simbel. My dad, of course, planned to take a photo as we flew in over it. When we reached the airport we learned that our seats weren't assigned so we came up with a game plan to snag a window seat for my father. Meantime, we sat in the waiting room with a bunch of young adults from Europe. For whatever reason, they decided that they hated us. They kept making faces at our family and my mom overheard them calling us "American pigs." My dad managed to get his window seat and picture and the ruins were awesome -- but these 20somethings kept bugging us. Wherever we turned, they seemed to be and they always had a nasty comment. I couldn't understand them, but when someone sticks her tongue out at you, it's never nice. They eventually shut up when my dad flipped them the middle finger. Things got even weirder when one of the guys propositioned my mom -- in front of my dad. Though I guess that was sort of flattering, at least... After dealing with all of this craziness, my mom suggested that we do something relaxing once we were back on the mainland. We'd seen many horse and buggies being led around so she chose that as our afternoon activity. She wanted to a visit a nearby village and thought it would be nice to just walk around and chill out for a while. We climbed into a buggy that was led by two kids who were maybe 13 or 14, a few years older than I was at the time. They promised to get us to the village in a short while and my parents negotiated on a price. However, it soon became evident that these boys had no idea where they were going because we were in the middle of nowehere. It was hot, I was tired and we all wanted to go home. Things quickly went from bad to worse when the buggy broke down. My parents refused to pay them in full and they angrily dragged their cart away, leaving us stranded on this dirt road. Now we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no known way of getting back. Plus, it was midday so the sun was beating down on us. I began to panic. I'd say that it was because I was a kid, but truth be told, I'd probably panic now, too. Happily, luck was on our side and a few minutes later, a car came by. The driver stopped to offer us a lift and it turned out that he was an American expat. He drove us back to our hotel and warned us to be careful when getting around by ourselves. But did my mom learn her lesson? No! After relaxing for a while, we went back out. This time, she suggested that we take a ride on a felucca boat. I thought that she was nuts but my dad agreed. I guess they were determined to try every type of Egyptian transportation available. Fortunately, the felucca ride was delightful. It was early evening so there was a breeze. Also, the driver, a Nubian man, took us to his village and showed us around his home. We met his family and got to see how some of the locals lived. Later, when we returned to the hotel, we went for a swim. I'm not a great swimmer but used to be able to stay underwater for long periods of time. I also like to make little bets with my dad, so I bet him $5 that I could swim across the entire length of the pool underwater without coming up for air. "Fine," he said, "but you'll never be able to do it." I jumped in began swimming. I guess the other people heard us discussing our bet because they all cleared out of the pool for me and I had an audience. Everyone was cheering me on as if I were an Olympian. I swam until I thought my lungs would burst, but I made it! Everyone applauded and my dad promised me my money. I then enjoyed the pool for real and commented, "This ended up being such a nice day, so much better than when those girls were bothering us this morning." I then turned around ... and they were sitting right there! One of them gave me a little smile and wave, and I sunk back under the water. But I think that my swimming feat earned me some of their respect. After, my parents gave me my money and I'll bet you can guess what I purchased: Truly Murderous by John Dunning. It turned out to be a great book about real-life crime stories, including one that involved a wannabe vampire. But that book -- which I still have -- symbolizes more to me than my victory. It always reminds me of this crazy day in Egypt and how you just never know what's going to happen when you travel.

Wild Camel Ride In Cairo, Egypt, 1984

Once I'd survived my summer in Europe, my parents decided to take me on a more adventurous journey. So when I was 10, we took a five-week trip to Israel and Egypt. When we arrived in Cairo, I wasn't doing so well. I'd spent a considerable amount of time at the pool while we were in staying in Tel Aviv -- and my parents hadn't made me use sunblock (to be fair, people were less concerned about using sunscreen in the '80s). I ended up getting sun sick and was so out of it that I fell asleep in the cab from the airport to the hotel. I mean, we were passing by ornate mosques and other buildings unlike anything I'd ever seen, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Once we reached the very nice hotel, my parents put me to bed and I watched the 1984 Olympics in Arabic. Meanwhile, my dad went to take a walk so he could photograph the famous pyramids, which were nearby. He returned home a few hours later with this crazy story: on his way to the pyramids, he was stopped by a man who asked if he wanted to take a camel ride. My dad said, "Why not?" since he'd never ridden one before and got on the camel. The guy then offered to take his picture and my dad agreed, though he did have it in the back of his mind that the guy could just run off with his camera. Still, he reasoned that the camel was as valuable to the man as his camera was to him so he was willing to take the risk. Before my dad could protest, the man whacked the camel with a stick -- and then the camel took off, running down the streets of Cairo. My dad hung on for dear life and could hear the click, click, click as the man rapidly took photos from behind. As all of this was happening, my dad thought, "Oh, well, if I get killed, at least it will be an interesting death." Soon, the man shouted a command and the camel came to a halt. My dad was fine -- and ended up with some great shots of his wild ride. I don't know if it was the heat or if the camel ride had rattled my father's brain, but he and the man talked and my dad promised to introduce him to my mother and me when I was feeling better. The man said that he's always working in the same spot. The next day I was feeling loads better so we walked to the pyramids that evening. Along the way, we passed my dad's new "friend," and he was surprised that my dad had actually brought us to meet him. He offered to give my mom and me a camel ride. We agreed, but my dad made him promise that this would be a gentle ride with no running. The man promised and true to his word, held on to the camel's reigns so he could lead us on the trek without incident. A few minutes later, we were riding through the Sahara, past the pyramids, as the sun set. It was surreal and I could hardly believe that this was happening to me. I felt as if I were in an Indiana Jones movie! We soon went past that area, though, and kept going. And going. And GOING. By now, it was getting dark and the desert was getting pretty empty. And yet this man kept leading us. We were wondering what was going on, if he was kidnapping us or just completely insane. Finally, we pleaded with him to let us off of this thing. It took some begging -- and threatening from my dad -- but he eventually led us back past the pyramids and to that spot that was near our hotel. I'm still not sure what his motivation was, but I really don't think he was trying to scam us or hurt us or anything like that. I just think that he was enthusiastic about his work and wanted us to have a memorable experience in Egypt. He certainly did provide that for us!

Welcome To Naomi The Traveler!

The title for this blog is pretty simple -- my name is Naomi and I'm an avid traveler. I guess you can say that I come from a family full of wanderlust. My childhood wasn't like most kids'; since both of my parents were teachers, they had summers off and would take me all over the place. So by the time I was 15, I'd been to China, Japan, Israel, Egypt, Russia, Mexico, and all over Europe and the United States. The other kids thought I was a little weird ... but I always had interesting slide shows for projects. Now that my parents are retired, they travel more than ever. They've been pretty much everywhere you can think of: India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea... okay, they haven't yet been to Australia or New Zealand, or most of the Pacific, actually, but still, they've so far been to an impressive 90-something countries. Meantime, I've gotten my husband into traveling. In the 12 years we've been married, we've visited Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, England, France, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, Canada, Greece, Hawaii, Puerto Rico -- and just returned from a trip to the Netherlands/Nigeria. So we're doing pretty well! My goal is to set foot on every continent before my parents. They're missing Australia and Antarctica. I'm still missing South America and Antarctica. So it's anybody's game at this point, though we could fly from the tip of Chile to Antarctica. You go via a military plane and stay there for about three hours, but hey -- it's Antarctica! There are ice caps! Penguins! What more can you want? I kid, but in all seriousness, I think it's important to see the world and learn about the people and places with whom your share your Earth. We're fortunate because we live in New York City, which is a very international place, but while I love eating Chinese food, there's nothing quite like actually going to the real country. So welcome aboard my blog as we take a trip around the world! I'll be sharing travel stories from when I was a child and an adult, as well as travel tips and recommendations. And if you have any stories or tips of your own, feel free to add to the comments. To whet your appetite, here are some photos from last year's trip to Greece:

Safe journeys, Naomi