Ancient Egypt

[Katharine]

It must be amazing to see Egypt and the pyramids and different cultures etc, and their history, but I'm a dull stay in this country person. The desire to travel abroad doesn't seem to be in me at all.

Nothing dull about wanting to stay in this country Julie, we have some amazing places to see.

Having said that, although I'm not much of an overseas traveller myself, the pyramids in Egypt are something that I might consider visiting one day, if/when travel is a bit safer.

[Bertie]

My mum has always had a love of Egypt, and I grew up with plenty of ornaments of pyramids, obelisks, camels, Egyptian figures, etc, in the house that she - and I in recent years - have regularly added to.
She managed to go once, and absolutely loved it. I've developed an appreciation for the ornaments, and the history / mythology, but I don't cope well with extreme heat and don't really fancy going there myself (although I imagine standing so close to the pyramids must be awe inspiring).

[tix]

I think in this day and age one can obtain a degree of satisfaction by immersing oneself in some of the high quality videos and pictures depicting world marvels; although if one is moving around and conveniently close to an attraction, a look-see would surely be of high priority.

On a trip to the pyramids I managed to snap a picture of the timeless edifices, but our most vivid memory would have to be that of the camel owners asking us for more money as we rode to our destination.

[Lucky Star]

I visited the Pyramids many years ago. They are actually in the outskirts of Cairo and if you turn your back to the Pyramids you can see the sky scrapers and apartment blocks in the distance which somewhat detracts from the mystical experience. And, as tix has just said, my most abiding memories are of the clouds of touts and guides continually hassling me for money or to buy their services. And when we did finally give in and buy a horseback ride the guy took us far out into the desert and then demanded more money to bring us back!!! I'm glad I went but have little urge to go again.

[Boodi 2]

I have never been to Egypt or the Middle East, but always wanted to go there (perhaps that is why I like "The River of Adventure" so much!!!). However, the above descriptions of guides hassling tourists for money is quite off-putting and not something that I would fancy. As far as I can remember, the only somewhat unpleasant holiday experience I had was about 11 years ago while on an Easter visit to Prague with my son, where we have friends. One of our friends brought us to an Easter market in one of the main squares and treated us to traditional Czech sausages from a stand there. My son was not impressed with the sausage and only ate some of it and threw the remains into a litter bin, whereupon a man in shabby clothes appeared, removed the remains of the sausage from the bin and proceeded to eat it, which we found sad and somewhat shocking. However, what really made the incident stick in my mind was the fact that when my son returned to school after the Easter holidays one of the teachers asked his class what they had done during the holidays and he related that he had been in Prague and described the incident with the sausage. She immediately asked him "And what could you have done to make the situation better?" to which he replied without batting an eyelid "I could have wished the man "Dobrou chut' "(Czech for "Enjoy your meal"), at which the entire class burst out laughing! I have always wondered what the teacher expected him to say, as I have no idea what we could have done, other than offering to purchase another sausage for the man or given him some money. I suppose the principle of "waste not, want not" also applies and while I do not condone throwing food away, I have to admit that the sausages were not very tasty, at least to our Irish-German taste buds!!! Apologies for the digression .