musings......: DON'T START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME!

EYEWITNESS REPORT: THE REVOLT IN EGYPT - 2011

We had been planning the trip to Egypt and Jordan for 6 months or more --two weeks in Egypt, to cover Cairo, the pyramids, the Sphinx, Abu Simbel, Luxor, Karnak Temple; included were cruises on Lake Nasser and the Nile. We bought the extra addition also: 4 days in Jordan at the conclusion of the Egyptian trip, to see Petra and Jerash, and to compare the small Jordan (6 million population) to the larger (80 million), more historic Egypt. We considered two travel companies: Vantage, which we used several times before and liked the experience, and Odyssey, which we used only once, in Turkey, but which impressed us a lot. We finally decided on Odyssey, because the itinerary was slightly more interesting, and because some friends in church did a similar trip with them during the past year, and recommended both the company and the tour highly.

We considered a January 16 departure date (in retrospect, it would have changed things quite a bit) but by the time we opted for it, it was closed, so we signed up for the January 23 departure date. We had a long, but uneventful Egypt Air flight from New York to Cairo; we checked into a very modern InterContinental Hotel in the downtown area. From our 11th floor balcony we could see Tahrir Square (we didn't know it then what significance the square will have later on), the Egyptian Museum, and other landmarks.

We had our usual orientation meeting during the first night, and a welcome dinner at a floating boat restaurant, the meal was very good, reminiscent of Turkish or Lebanese food. There were 24 in our group, our guide was Amin, a 46 year old Egyptologist, married to an English woman, father to two girls, 7 and 5. Most in our group were aware that demonstrations were planned for that week, Amin reassured us that the focus was economics, not politics, and we shouldn't worry.

The next morning, Tuesday, we toured some of old Cairo (saw the bazaar, the "hanging church," and Ben Ezra synagogue) and spent most of the day at the large Egyptian Museum. We saw fabulous treasures, Tutenkamen's head weighed over 10 lbs. in gold; the body weighed over 100 lbs. in gold. At around 4:15 we heard noises and the popping sound of guns from the outside, we could smell tear gas, and pretty soon we were ushered out of the museum -- we were told it was closing. We were milling around in the courtyard, and were given conflicting instructions -- move here; no, move over there; no, move back to the front again. Amin explained that there were at least 4 intelligence organizations at the site, and, par for the course, they didn't coordinate with each other, and each had different sets of instructions. Finally, our tour bus arrived, and with some nuanced maneuvering, we made it back to the hotel. Our room happened to be on the "right side," it overlooked the museum and Tahrir Square, so we could sit on the balcony, watch the demonstrators --several thousand by this time-- and take pictures. From the 11th floor we were close enough to see what was happening.

[I was joking with the members of our group: "We arrived in Cairo Monday, and immediately demonstrations broke out all over town..."]

Contrary to the predictions, the demonstrators did not disperse during the night, and we could hear gunfire, loud noises, police and fire truck sirens -- lots of noise. Theda accused me of sleeping through it -- she watched it for several hours around midnight.

The next day Amin still seemed unconcerned; we went to see the Citadel of Saladin; the Mohamed Ali Mosque (a close cousin of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul); we climbed inside a pyramid, to see a tomb and extremely well preserved hieroglyphics. The third day in Cairo we went to the Memphis Open Air Museum (large statues of Ramses II and a smaller sphinx); we saw the Giza pyramids (and rode camels); and finally, in the afternoon, we saw the sphinx. We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 2 am, to catch a 4:30 flight to Aswan; we made it on time, and the demonstrators were still at Tahrir Square. By this time it was clear that this was not a economic-related demonstration, this was a revolution. We watched CNN International non-stop; the coverage kept focusing on Tahrir Square. Sometimes we would look at the square from our balcony, and then glance back at the television set, and the picture was identical. Friday is the Muslim holiday, the best day to plan large events, such as a demonstration. For this Friday, they were planning to hold a "million-man demonstration."

We arrived at Aswan; spent most of the afternoon at Abu Simbel; checked in at the boat; came back at night to Abu Simbel, to watch the sound-and-light show (the best in Egypt, they said), and we fell to bed, exhausted. It was clear that by this time Amin was increasingly worried -- about our safety, about the trip, about the future of Egypt. We spent the next 3 days on the ship; every day we made a stop at some temple, burial ground, architectural oddity. We rode camels again, we saw baby crocodiles (they said the Nile is full of crocodiles again, after crocodiles faced extinction some 100 years ago); and we kept watching the revolution unfold; by this time moving to Alexandria, Aswan, and other places. On our last day on the boat, Amin told us, obviously upset, that our trip will be cut short and we will be evacuated to the United States. He said he hoped we won't have to go back to Cairo, because by this time there were 50,000 people at the Cairo airport, trying to get out. Several countries, Turkey, France, etc., sent chartered planes to evacuate their nationals. Nobody wanted to go back to Cairo, of course. We were teased with several options: "They will take you to Qatar, and from there, to Europe..." "Tel Aviv is another possibility..." Finally, after several of these teasers, we were told that a chartered plane is coming for us (two different groups of Odyssey travelers) to take us to Jordan. The timing of the flight kept changing, however, so they took us to a beautiful resort hotel on Elephantine Island and we checked into a Swiss hotel, Movenpick. It was a true resort, beautiful landscaping, full of flowers, palm trees, overlooking the mausoleum of the Aga Khan. It felt like being in Hawaii.

Finally, on Tuesday, the second week of our trip, we took off for Jordan, on Royal Jordanian Air charter flight. We checked in at an elegant Kempinski Hotel. The next day we were given the choice of visiting Petra or Jerash; we choose Petra. It's a beautiful place (this is not my usual travelogue, I will write that later, and will give more details), and one of the reasons we wanted to spend time in Jordan, in our original tour plan. Thursday afternoon we took off from Amman on Royal Jordanian (one of the stewardesses was a Hungarian girl from Slovakia) and after a 13 hour flight we arrived in New York at 11 pm.

We spent the night at an airport Sheraton, and Friday morning we flew back to Washington. Our shuttle driver was a Tunisian, who, obviously, was interested in hearing our Egypt report. He was involved in anti-government activities in the late 90's, and he is going back to visit in 2 weeks -- after the embassy assured him that he, now a US citizen, will not be jailed.

We are home, we are in one piece, we are not injured. We saw a lot, learned a lot, worried a lot -- more than on a usual trip. And we can say that we were eyewitnesses to history, we saw the revolution unfold, from day one. One of our group members said : "If I were given a choice prior to the trip whether to have a smooth, uneventful trip, or the one we are having, I would have opted for the one we are having..." Most within earshot agreed, including me.

Our original plan was to spend 21 days on this trip. We ended up spending only 13, but those 13 days were more exciting, more eventful, and more memorable than the original plan.What next? Refunds? Giving us discounts on another trip? Redoing parts of the Egypt trip we missed? We don't know at this point. But whatever it will be, it won't be able to match the revolutionary days" of 2011.By Zoltan Bagdy