Confessions of a Cruise Director

After you’ve been in Egypt for a little while, even a week, you start to realize that a basic understanding of Arabic must start with the following conversation:
“Saba al khir?” (There are three ways to say Good Morning in Arabic, and this is the most common one. It means “Morning the Good.”)

“Saba al ful!” (This is the second most common, and the most typical response. “Ful” is the way the scent of morning jasmine fills your nostrils, so roughly translated, this means “Morning the Nose Hit.”
The third way to say Good Morning is “Saba al [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: arabic, conversational Arabic, Egypt, Egypt travel, Mohamed Nazmy, speaking arabic, talking arabic, travel memoir, travel stories, travel writing

Travel to Egypt is a marvelous thing. There are many ways to facilitate Egypt travel, from flights that go straight from New York to Cairo, to stops in Amsterdam or London, where you can lay over for the day and enjoy another city and culture while getting over jet lag faster (being in the noon-day sun in your new time zone really helps). A lot of the flights arrive late at night - really, early in the morning, so by the time you reach your hotel, if you can stay up an hour or so, you can [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: Cairo Egypt travel, Egypt travel, Travel to Egypt

Once upon a time in 1634, there was a plague.  A plague so bad it was threatening to wipe out the little town of Oberammergau, about 60 miles outside of Münich.  The villagers prayed and prayed for a miracle to save their little town, and then someone had a bright idea: if God spared them, they would thank Him by performing a play about the teachings and life of His Son, Jesus.  And He did.  And they did.  And every decade since then, without fail, Oberammergau has put on the Passion Play to thank God for showing them mercy. [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: Austria, Catholic play, Catholic travel, Catholic trip, Europe summer, Europe Tour, Europe travel, Europe vacation, European tour, European travel, European vacation, Germany tour, Germany travel, Germany trip, Italian tour, Italian trip, Italy tour, Italy trip, Jesus Play, life Luther, Lutheran play, Munch trip, Munich trip, Oberammergau, Passion Play, Protestant play, Protestant travel, Protestant trip, Salzburg, Vienna tour, Vienna trip

This is an excerpt from the book I am writing, working title: Travels Through Egypt (and yes, I am taking suggestions for names!!):
The next stop is one of the carpet schools near Sakkhara.  The idea behind them is that they take these little Egyptian kids, who would otherwise be roaming the streets, and they teach them a trade.  They train them to weave carpets of wool or silk, and then the carpets are sold in the next door factory, to the tourists who come by the busload, as we do.  The guides get a cut, for bringing their groups [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: carpet school, Egypt tour, Egypt travel, Egyptian carpet, persian rug, silk carpet, silk rug, wool rug

Most of the pieces you can buy in Egypt are dirt cheap – it has to do with the economy, the cost of materials, the average salary being so low, etc. and everyone takes advantage of the low prices and buys a lot of things when they visit. But out in the Sinai desert, one woman is changing all that.
[...] Continue Reading…

Tags: Bedouin, Bedouin bead, Bedouin beading, Bedouin beadwork, Bedouin handicrafts, Fansina, Selema, Selema Gabaly, Sinai art, Sinai Bedouin, Sinai travel, Sinai trip, spiritual travel

After lunch, I wanted to smoke a hookah.  Mohamed, our other guide, laughed.  “You mean a shisha, my sister.  What kind of flavor do you want?”  Shisha (called a hookah in places like Turkey), is tobacco is soaked in molasses.  Often, the molasses is flavored, I guess so it’s a little like dessert when you smoke it after dinner.  It turns out there are a lot of shisha flavors.  Apple, mint, and coffee are the most popular in Egypt, but I have also tried honey, cantaloupe, mango, raspberry, strawberry and new car smell (I’m kidding about that last one).  It’s also fun to mix two or more [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: ancient egypt, Emil Shaker, flavored tobacco, hookah, Mohamed Nazmy, Quest Travel, shisha, shisha flavors, shisha tobacco, smoke hookah, smoke shisha, spiritual tour, spiritual travel, travel memoir, travel writing, water pipe

This is the next installment of my book, tentatively titled, “Travels through Egypt.” After visiting the Temple of Sakkhara, we always go to the same restaurant, one of everyone’s favorites on the trip…
In the afternoon, after Sakkhara, we stopped a desert oasis for lunch.  On our way down the steps to the open air restaurant, a tiny crew of musicians and dancers serenaded us with drums and homemade instruments.  On the left, in a covered area about 20 feet square, two women sat on their haunches, busy working fist-sized balls of dough into flat circles.  One by one, they [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: ancient egypt, appetizers, Danish chicken, Egyptian food, Emil Shaker, mezzes, Mohamed Nazmy, Quest Travel, Sakkara, Sakkhara, Sakqara, spiritual tour, spiritual travel, spiritual travel blog, travel blog, travel memoir, travel writing

Today we drove to Alexandria. It’s about 3 hours from Cairo by bus (with a 20 minute rest stop at the largest souvenir mall we can find), through desert being largely claimed by homesteaders, and - increasingly frequently -  builders creating communities out in the middle of nowhere. This is distance it once would have taken days to cover by horse or donkey, but now it’s an easy day trip.

Alexandria is home to the Library, opened in 2002. An amazing building with soaring ceilings and a planetarium that looks like the Death Star, the library is one of [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: Alexandria, bus tour, Egypt, Egypt tour, Egypt travel, group tour, group travel, spiritual tour, travel with group

The price tag was kind of hefty.  I mean, $110 a person, for one night, one meal?  This is Luxor, Egypt, not Luxor, Las Vegas.  We had checked into the hotel that morning, and we weren’t really sure what to expect.  Boy, were we in for a surprise.  It was, after all, the Sonesta St. George, one of the premiere hotels in Luxor, which carries a 5 star rating with rooms and service to match. http://www.sonesta.com/Luxor/

The evening didn’t even kick off until 8pm, giving us a chance to lie down after a long day visiting the temples at Karnak & [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: Egypt, Luxor, sonesta hotel, sonesta st. george, spirit quest, spiritual tour, spiritual travel, st. george hotel

Following is an excerpt from my travel memoir, “Travels Through Egypt,” which I am currently working on.  Comments are welcome…
Our first day in Egypt, we all got on a bus and went to Lake Moeris, a sacred site to Rosicrucians.  The group, all Rosicrucians except for me and one other spouse, were having a ceremony there, which my husband Greg could participate in, but I could not. (Aside: I later became one on the trip, because of the trip and the things I experienced there, and it was my first spiritual home, for which I will be forever grateful).
Our [...] Continue Reading…

Tags: ancient egypt, King Zoser, Lake Moeris, Lake Mueris, pyramids, Sakkhara, spiritual tour, spiritual travel, step pyramid, travel memoir, travel writing, Zoser