Hi everyone,

Thought I'd introduce myself with a bit of my modern egypt travel trivia. I've been to Egypt quite a few times, as my sister was your typical diplomats wife living the life in Zamalek Cairo and spending her days at the Nadi Al Gazira club. I've had quite a few interesting experiences in this mystical country. One was a cab driver (yes, they're notorious there), who truly believed he was Ramses II reincarnate. What Ramses was doing as a cab driver is beyond me. Maybe to shake off all that bad karma. Another trip I was a VIP guest on one of those 5-star nile cruises. No one had dinner though, as the hallmark of the evening was a dead donkey floating alongside the boat. I wasn't very lucky with the pyramids, as when I was there only one shaft was open to the public, and it didn't go very far. But the 8-year old Gizan boy standing outside to pickpocket the tourists was a very interesting attraction, as not only was he enterprising (forming a line to enter the pyramid so visitors would swelter in the sun for a while and buy his bottled water), but also he could tell jokes in Egyptian Arabic, Lebanese Arabic, Gulf Arabic, English, French, German, and Italian. I grew up fond of ancient Egypt since school, where we were inspired by these illustrated color textbooks of what life was like there. That said, I am not an egyptologist nor an academic, just another admirer of this great empire.