ON EGYPT
If you’ve been a long time patron of this blog then you’ll remember that when Quintin and I touched down in South Africa on September 10, 2023 we knew we’d be in South Africa for 5 weeks. We also knew we’d be heading to Argentina at the start of January. We had no plan for the 9 weeks in between. We had nothing but dreams….
One of those dreams was to visit Egypt. That dream was thwarted when we realized we couldn’t enjoy Egypt how we wanted to on the budget we had (shoestring, I would say).
Fast forward to January 16, 2025 and me (Molly), my sister (Bean) and 4 of our closest friends (Caila, Carolyn, Leni, Tina) were giggling our way through DIA – hangry on the tube in London, severely misjudging how much time we had on our layover – and then finally confirming with our driver that yes! we were indeed a group of 6 young women traveling in Cairo all by ourselves (everybody was very confused by this).
As I reflect on the trip (10 months later, more on that to come…) I have perhaps the hottest of takes. I think the pyramids were the least impressive thing we saw while in Egypt?!
The pyramids are incomprehensible (literally) and yet still, I think they were the least impressive thing we saw?
As I did on my reflections while on the Radical Sabbatical, I’m going to walk you all through my ROSE, BUD & THORN of the trip.
ROSE:
The whole trip was a bouquet of incredible moments. So, instead of one, I’m giving you an arrangement of the standouts.
First, I would be remiss to not mention the places that housed our weary, and oftentimes, dust-covered bodies. These weren't just hotels; they were sanctuaries.
In Cairo, we stayed at Villa Belle Epoque, a true escape from the city's chaos. While the breakfast was worth writing home about, (we love an upscale buffet) the real MVP was our room's patio. Sitting on the patio, sipping an early morning espresso, listening to the city wake up from a peaceful distance, was bar-none the perfect start to each day.
In Aswan, we stayed at Kato Dool Wellness Resort and this place was divine. Aswan is the heart of Nubia, and the hotel’s design, with its vibrant blues, domes, and geometric patterns, is a beautiful homage to Nubian culture. Sitting by the pool, enjoying a leisurely breakfast (not a buffet but we did have water glass, coffee glass, juice glass…all signs of a good time to come) while overlooking the wide expanse of the Nile River, was pure, unadulterated luxury.
And for the granddaddy of them all, we have Al Moudira Hotel, hands down, the most exquisite place I’ve ever stayed. The moment you walk in, Al Moudira stops you in your tracks, forcing you to take a second to relish in your good fortune. It’s a sprawling, hand-painted palace, hidden behind high walls that open into courtyards overflowing with jasmine and bougainvillea. It’s a pity Quintin wasn’t there because my camera skills could never do it justice.
A second standout was the incredible guides we had. Across Cairo, Aswan, and Luxor, each guide was full of personality, with totally different backgrounds, ages, and beliefs. Through our interactions with them, we got a comprehensive, human-sized overview of the incredible diversity within Egypt.
For the roses per city, I’ll keep it simple:
Cairo: seeing my first hieroglyph
Aswan: swimming in the Nile
Luxor: Luxor Temple at dusk
In Cairo, we showed up to the pyramids, got a history lesson, and walked around. It’s not a stunning landscape but the pyramids are iconic and the only remaining wonder of the world. After the obligatory gasping, head scratching (how DID they construct the pyramids?!) and photos, Ahmed took us on a little walk to show us some tombs.
As we walked, the crowds thinned, the silhouette of the pyramids became more exquisite and we were treated to a show of some young boys blowing darts at stray dogs so they could collect and neuter them (never a dull moment). When finally I’m feeling like “OK but where are we going my patent leather ruby red shoes are getting DUSTY DUSTY” we round the corner and Anna is like “wait is that a hieroglyph? LIKE AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPH?!.”
We all shriek, whip out our phones, whip out our camera and collapse into a puddle of giggles. Who the fuck gets to see a hieroglyph on a random January Tuesday? (us, thanks to Ahmed). Ahmed just looked at us, utterly deadpan, and was like, "...Ladies. Please. Save it for the actual tomb we are about to visit." He had a point. But that first, unexpected hieroglyph felt like a secret handshake from history.
In Aswan, swimming in the Nile was extraordinary because how many times did we collectively learn about the Nile river growing up?! It’s always a treat to be somewhere you’ve heard about for so long.
Our guide in Aswan, Batsma, was witchy. She was funny as hell, had an opinion on everything, and the goddess Isis was her personal hero. When we tentatively suggested skipping the Temple of Philae (Isis’ temple), she balked, told us it was a monumental mistake, and took us, our preferences be damned.
Part of our all-day tour with her included a mud bath and swim in the Nile. Anna and I had done something similar in Jordan with the Dead Sea. That was a cramped, uncomfortable roadside stop with a lot of leering. I was expecting a repeat.
Thank god, I was so wrong (Batsma would never offer something so common)
We were led to a private little cove, left completely alone with a bucket of mud, the reeds, and the cold-but-not-freezing Nile, with the warm Egyptian sun beating down on us. It was glorious. Caila caught the giggles, Christine was overjoyed by the opportunity to swim in cold water (freak), and I was happy the camel drivers from earlier in the day were nowhere to be seen.
The whole of Luxor is extraordinary. Preposterously so, really. And while my initial rose was the freakishly preserved tombs in the Valley of the Kings, my actual highlight was an accident of timing.
We visited the Luxor Temple at sunset, specifically as the evening call to prayer rang out from the Abu Haggag Mosque, which is built right on top of part of the temple ruins. This is where Luxor Temple slapped me across the face with the entirety of human history. This site isn't just Ancient Egyptian. It's a layer cake of empires: you can literally see the Romans, Greeks, and early Christians all adding their own additions and graffiti as you walk through. It’s a living history museum, and standing there as the Islamic call to prayer echoed over the Pharaonic columns was a moment of powerful, beautiful continuity that I will not soon forget.
BUD:
A new travel tradition was born in Egypt. It’s the simple, yet profoundly revealing question I now ask every guide: ”who would you say is the most famous person from your country?”
Since Egypt, I’ve taken this question on the road to Peru, Turkey, Greece, Malta, and Ecuador, and the answers never fail to surprise me, shatter my assumptions, and giving real insight into what a culture truly values.
In Egypt, I was so confident people were going to say Mo Salah or King Tut.
Spoiler alert: Not a single person said Mo Salah or King Tut. My expectations were as off-target as a stray dart at the Pyramids. Here’s what we got instead…
Sara, Cairo: Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, a world-renowned cardiac surgeon who I had never heard of
Ahmed, Cairo: Sir Magdi Habib Yacoub, again, the heart surgeon!
Basma, Aswan: Isis, the goddess of magic, motherhood, and healing
Hamdy, Luxor: Amun-Ra, the king of the gods and sun god.
***blog posts on Peru, Turkey, Greece, Malta & Ecuador pending. Who you got?
THORN:
The thorn of this trip occurred exactly one day before we departed for home, while I was lounging in bed, sipping an espresso at the aforementioned Al Moudira Hotel.
I didn’t have Slack or Outlook on my phone because….vacation…but I did have Gmail and I got an email to my personal account notifying me I’d received a LinkedIn message from one of my colleagues. The message said something like “I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this on vacation”
At first, I didn’t think anything of it because I’m in a client facing role so I presumed one of my clients was popping off. I brushed it off like “why tf is this man bothering me on LINKEDIN while I’m on vacation?” (That sentiment still stands)
And then I was like….wait….why IS he messaging me on LinkedIn and not Slack? Not email? So I clicked on the message, and clicked into LinkedIn, where, long story short I find out my whole department had been terminated. So there I am, trying to enjoy breakfast at a palace in Luxor, finding out I’d been terminated.
Another long story short, I hadn’t been terminated. I had been “re-homed” within the organization to a home I wanted more than unemployment but to a home that DID NOT SUIT. This spiraled into a months-long, unhinged, uninspiring, difficult job hunt.
After 6 months of exhaustive, unnecessary and oftentimes unprofessional interview cycles, I have FINALLY landed where I know I was meant to. But during that six months I often joked (was I joking? Did I have it in me to be a joker?) that the last good night I had was in Luxor.
Before we booked our tickets, I fell down the internet rabbit hole of reading countless blog posts and reviews filled with stories about relentless "scammers" and pushy vendors, painting a picture of a destination that could be more exhausting than enchanting.
I literally think people add this riff raff to their blog posts because they feel like they have to? I see it all over the place but nowhere do people exaggerate more than Morocco & Egypt (……).
Nothing could be further from our actual experience. People were warm, proud, and genuinely eager to share the magic of their home. Egypt totally exceeded my expectations and I’m so glad we went!
