Country #27: Egypt. As a child, I was obsessed with ancient Egyptian culture: the royalty, the art, the jewelry; and later once I learned more, my fascination grew with understanding the importance of their contributions to then-modern technology, its famous monuments, and Queen Hatshepsut all on her own.
Twenty-seven has always been a very special number to me. You may have heard of the #30by30 challenge where people travel to 30 countries by the time they are 30 years old. A friend of mine mentioned this to me when I had just turned 26 in 2018, and at the time I had been to 19 countries – which, by the way, was a surprise to me, because it was the first time I had actually counted. I already had plans to travel to six or seven more countries in 2018, so I figured I was on track to achieve #27by27. I knew the 27th country had to be epic… it had to have significance and importance to me and my journey. Egypt was a no-brainer. I determined it’d be Egypt in July 2018 when I was on my way back from Jamaica, the 23rd country, and had countries 24 through 26 lined up. Low and behold, in August 2018, there was a flight deal to Cairo, and it was available for the time period just before my 28th birthday. It was written.
Cairo is a very big, busy city. Every 10 seconds you can hear a horn blaring, see people walking inches in front of the cars, and bumper-to-bumper traffic. But as much as it’s full of traffic, it’s full of life. My Birthday Crew and I stayed at a Hilton right off of the Nile River in a two-bedroom suite with a balcony, which ended up being a very convenient location for all of the activities we had planned. We did all of the essentials. We hopped off of the plane, to the shower, and into Cairo Jazz Club, a nightclub playing house music. We walked the Khan El Khalili market, where you could find any and every souvenir you could imagine from hookah pipes to to fine jewelry paired with some mint tea and Egyptian pancakes. We roamed the Egyptian Museum, that appeared to have every possible artifact and tomb related to Ancient Egypt. We tasted the best Egyptian food we’d had thus far at Abou Tarek. We partook in a swanky dinner cruise on the Nile River to celebrate my birthday, complete with entertainment and an all-you-can-eat buffet. We shared a peaceful experience at the Cairo Citadel with its beautiful exterior and interior, including the people.
We went just outside of Cairo to Giza to marvel and quad bike, and marvel while quad biking, the Great Pyramids – Cheops being the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – in all their mysterious glory, including going inside, which was an exhilarating, claustrophobia-inducing experience. We also made a stop to see the Sphinx, which is pretty close to the pyramids, and much bigger than I imagined. Later that night, we stayed for the sound and light show where we learned a bit more about the history through an array of lights, colors and an anecdote.
We took a quick flight to Sharm el Sheikh (nearly missed the flight, because traffic, so that was a whole thing) for the greatest adventure I’ve had to date: we hiked the legendary Mount Sinai, towering at 7,497 feet overnight (2am start time) to catch the sunrise at the peak. This was the most physically challenging yet rewarding experience, and it was much more than I imagined. It was teamwork, perseverance, positivity, laughs, handwarmers, camel beefs, injuries, hike sweats that turned into chills in the 30-degree-weather, curiosity, fear, uncertainty, but most of all, a whole lot of love. Even as I look back, I continue to gain more from that hike. The fact that it’s where Moses received and delivered the Ten Commandments made the spirituality of the journey even more intense. We topped off the trip with a full-body massage near the Red Sea in Sharm, which was 75 degrees. Perfection.
I have a feeling I’ll be back to Egypt, and when I do, I will have to see Luxor and Alexandria.
All photos taken with Nikon D5100.
Jenai M. Davis 