If I were still blogging regularly, I definitely would’ve written a few on Egypt and my experience here over the last few days. 

Never have I been so conflicted about a place before as I have been about Egypt. Obviously the historical significance and remnants of ancient civilisations we still have yet to understand are incredibly special and amazing, but what stands in its place now as modern-day Egypt leaves shockingly little to be desired.

I will first say that my time in Cairo and Aswan assuaged my feelings quite a bit, after having a culture shock of an introduction in El Gouna and an unpleasant follow-up in Luxor. Still, it’s not enough to change my mind about my new stance as of today and thanks largely to this trip: I think I’m done with traveling. 

What a privileged thing to say. I know. It doesn’t mean I’m not grateful and painfully aware of my circumstance and fortunes over the last years. It also doesn’t mean I will immediately find a place to go and never leave again. It just means that I think it’s time to call frequent leisurely travel quits before it becomes something I’m doing just because it’s what I’ve been doing, and not because I actually enjoy it. 

I’m just exhausted.

I feel that traveling has been ruined by traveling, all around the world. As much as I support and encourage people to leave their comfort zones, I think the rise of cheap air travel and the significant increase in tourism in places unprepared for it has destroyed a lot of them literally, socially, and culturally. 

I’m not sure for how long it’s been like this, but Egypt nickle-and-dimed me to absolute death and it feels like the first place I’ve been where the locals don’t care one bit about each other and will happily argue with their peers just as they would with a tourist who refuses their haggling. No one seems to be exempt from an outstretched hand; everyone has their hand in someone else’s pocket, and even when you feel like you’ve paid for everything you can possibly pay for—there will be more. 

The roads between the big destinations are closed after 6 pm to tourists, sometimes? To some people? So if you have to travel from one major city to another, make sure you’re not traveling before 6 am or after 6 pm. Locals also aren’t allowed to carry foreigners in their cars without paying off the police—much more than what taxis have to pay, even though it’s their job to carry foreigners around (because no one gets away with not paying). Oh and this is after the taxi drivers have to pay their “pimps” aka the people who actually own the cars 85% of whatever the taxi fare is.

Checkpoints line the high streets, where men with rifles check inside every car, including the trunk, ask where you’re from, and then decide how much they want to make from you (and the driver) before they let you through. Entire towns are gated off and require QR codes for entry. Even if you’re just wanting to go to a restaurant, no one is allowed into these towns unless they have prior permission. Nobody really knows what the laws are or what the entrance fees for the popular destinations will be from one month to the next. But they do know that foreigners are not allowed to pay for it in local currency, even though ATMs only give out local currency, and everyone tells you prices for everything in Euros. Also there’s no such thing as enough information because you’re likely to get screwed over regardless. 

But oh, how incredible are the tombs in the Valley of Kings, where your entrance ticket only gives you free access to 3 out of 65, and not to the trolley cart that takes you to them. Neither does the tour you’ve paid 80 USD for include the entrance fees to any of the places you’re meant to go to on the tour. 

And don’t forget the tip! They expect small money but not small money that can buy them 10 meals in Egypt. Small money that can buy them 5 if they lived in the U.S., which they don’t. 

For the first time I really had to take pause and reflect upon how certain people and places really have come to see tourists and foreigners as just walking ATMs and not human beings. For some reason, even though travel is so cheap, they seem to think everyone visiting is wealthy and can afford $15 entrance fees to 3 sites a day and fee after fee over the course of a week, and still have room for $100 tips and for paying literally 1000% more than they do for absolutely everything including food. 

When I tell you I’m exhausted. Even writing this was tiring. I feel as if our Egypt trip has gone on for forever and we’ve only been here a week. I’ve never been so keen for a trip to end except the time I was robbed in South America. If I were still flying for free (and solo) I probably would’ve cut this trip short and skipped the pyramids and Cairo entirely because Luxor absolutely finished me. 

I’m glad I didn’t, of course. Because somehow Cairo was actually a better experience and we finally met people who seemed to be fair and honest. Yet we were already so jaded by then that at every moment we were prepared for war. Leaving the Airbnb meant putting on our armour every morning and deciding to be pleasantly surprised by people not being licky-licky rather than the other way around. 

Yet as incredible as the pyramids are, they still were not the most amazing ruins we’ve seen in Egypt. The Karnak temple is an absolutely worthy mention and I must address the Valley of the Kings again too. The level of detail in the tombs and temples is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And the clear opposition between the level of society they reflect and the one we had the displeasure of experiencing is so stark it’s almost disorienting. Even from a religious standpoint it was hard for me to connect the ancient Egyptians in any way with the people who prayed every 5 hours and in between prayer made time to scam and hustle others to death. 

Never has “what has happened to us” been so clear as it is now that I’ve been to Egypt. 

We’ve really lost our way as humans.