Cruise: Valley of the Kings &

Temple of Hatshepsut

I’ve been an “interested party, due to heritage” for all my life. I knew about the pyramids, tombs and temples. I knew intellectually, that is.

Nothing, no watching TV, no reading of high gloss and large fancy table top books would ever replace the in person experience by an appreciative adult. When I was a child, we visited the Pyramids often. To me, the ten year old, it was the same pile of rocks that we’d visited on numerous occassions. In fact, as a child, I took my most valued possession, my bag of marbles, to the pyramids, in case I was bored.

This trip, was and is different - viewed with a more mature set of eyes, ones that have grown over 71 years and learned to appreciate things differently. One isn’t more right than the other. It just is!

So dear friends, family and readers - this is a long preamble to saying. ‘Ya gotta” see, touch (when allowed) feel, smell, and be actually here to get the trues sense of the land and its people as well as history.

The Ramses burial sites.

It is very easy to get saturated and overwhelmed. I will only share a few of the images now. The valley of the kings has 68 discovered tombs, it is believed that there may be as many as another 60 still hidden.

Hatshepsut Temple

Hatshepsut was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty in the New Kingdom. This was a female Pharo, who’s face was defaced in this male oriented world. Details to follow.

The temple is considered to be a masterpiece of ancient architecture. It is also known by archeologists as KV20

A note on sales tactics

If you are offended by the various sales tactics - learn how to cope, be aware of them, or don’t come to Egypt. My daughter, Tara, is famous for reframing a perspective. I will do my best here.

No one is doing these various methods to offend you, they’re trying to survive in a very competitive world. I came form a commission sales background and worked on a sales floor that was in many ways very sedate by comparison. However, in many ways it was a very competitive world - where attitude, disposition and even the slightest eye contact could assist in the competition for the next sale. I had to do that to make the next sale to pay my mortgage for over 25 years.

When I came to Egypt, it was a given that I am blessed to be one of those that are in the small percentage on a global basis of being one of the haves. The shear fact that I could afford this trip, by flying business class and eating at fancy restaurants. Taking a cruise down the Nile, says I am one of the lucky ones. I was able by circumstances to be on the tourist versus merchant side.

Let us for a moment go to the other side of the equation: you’re in a race to attract, the next gaze, conversation and make a sale. Very rarely are these the cushy job I had, very often, the work is long, arduous and thankless. The potential candidates are people that have been exhausted by countless approaches. What can you do in the same circumstances? Come up with creative, sneaky, devious, methods to make that engagement - oftentimes it’s an offer to take your pictures or say it’s free, that is until you are entrapped. Then they’ll say, he was free, but the camel wasn’t.

Imagine trying to make sales, in thirty five, forty and sometimes fifty five degrees and under an oppressive sun. Think of how many books, bookmarks, statues you have to sell to make a wage so far below subsistence that you have no choice but to use these tactics to make the next sale. Imagine that it’s not even your business, that the dollar trinket is really supplied by some rich dude who takes the first 80, 90 or 95 cents of that dollar.

Imagine a world where the cost of living increase within the last ten years was so high that you were falling backwards in your ability to provide the basic necessities in life. Imagine a world where you can’t read and write because your circumstances were so dire that you needed to work to help the family survive instead of go to school.

So please do not be offended by the person doing their best, be firm, be polite and respectful as circumstances may have potentially put you in their shoes and not yours.

Finally a note from my mom, if you don’t like it, go somewhere else.

The Sonesta Moongoddess Experience

One constant to any travelling - you choose your experience, expectation and method of travelling. Some people choose a frugal and a self guided approach. Others choose high luxury. There is no right or wrong here, what’s important, is that you truly understand and do your homework to control the outcome. I normally love to do the research , but, this trip would be different. I piggybacked onto Monique’s research. That’s a very hard thing to do, but we have been so in tune with each other that I could send her a text at four A.M. about some obscure issue, only to discover that Monique’s research uncovered the same issue and she’s got an opinion or answer.

As a result of my circumstance, starting the retiring process and selling my business, I could not be an equal partner in the effort. I would hazard a guess that she did at least 90 percent of the work in getting this trip together. One of the biggest successes was finding Memphis tours and Sonesta Moon Goddess cruise liner. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

As nice as the boat is, it’s the people that are making this trip, so special. It seems that no request is too much.