In case you hadn’t heard, me and Tamara were supposed to go Egypt this November. But given all of the political crap that’s been going on there, we were a bit unsure as to how things were going to play out.
I had booked us a tour to see most of Egypt. We were going to finish our trip with a jaunt over to Jordan to see the Dead Sea and Petra. But when the political situation over there got bad, I started hearing that the tours in Egypt by GAdventures were being cancelled.
Several calls later and they still haven’t cancelled November’s tours but everything up to the end of October has been cancelled. They basically said I will know one way or the other within the next week or so.
Me and Tamara had sort of decided that if they cancelled the tour, we might simply extend our stays in some of the places we would be connecting through. Cairo would actually be one of those spots so we thought maybe we could just spend a night there, go see the pyramids the following day, then fly out again. This was what we were planning until last night.
Last night, I did my daily search of Egyptian news and came across this article. It indicated that police had raided a village beside the pyramids. This was basically a giant huge sign in the sky to me and Tamara that basically said, “You need to stay the hell away from here and figure out something else to do”.
I have been literally waiting 30 years to see the pyramids. It’s actually a lifelong dream I have had since I was in grade school. It’s one of those things that has been on my mind for three decades and I was really looking forward to finally being able to go. Oddly enough, I have sort of settled with the fact this isn’t going to happen this year and for some reason, it’s not as bad as I thought.
I think the worst part is I haven’t been sleeping well and I think this trip and the stress of knowing that it’s kind of a mess is seriously playing games with my head. I can’t remember the last time I had a good night’s sleep and felt good the next day and I’m pretty sure all of this thinking about my trip is a big part of my problem.
So, I am now somewhat expecting that GAdventures will be calling/emailing me within a week or so to let me know this tour has been cancelled and want to know if I want to switch tours, or take a refund. They offer Jordan tours but unfortunately the tour they have that I would like to take is actually full the week we are supposed to be in that area.
Thankfully, after doing enough digging, I found this tour which I think pretty much covers all the great stuff about Jordan. Dead Sea, Red Sea, Petra, and plenty of other cool stuff.
I could opt to simply go somewhere else but our flights to that area are already paid for and cancelling them to book somewhere else would result in about $1,000 worth of penalties. A change in schedule is a lot cheaper so I think the option to do Jordan alone is our best and most economical option.
I haven’t completely lost hope that the Egypt part may still happen but after reading what I read last night, I’m pretty sure it’s a goner.
I am sort of feeling a little confused about the fact that something I wanted for so long slipping away from me doesn’t seem to be bothering me as much as I thought it would. Perhaps its the fact that I still will get to go somewhere cool, and I get to share it with Tamara who is probably the best travel companion ever.
Let’s see what the next two weeks bring.
