Rarely does one get a chance to cover a foreign country with a bunch of motley strangers - rarer still that one gets to the point of missing them when the trip is done.
The trip to Egypt this Christmas was unique in so many aspects that I've lost count. I had not been outside India or UK for a long time. I had not travelled without S and T (A huge thanks to S, for having it in her to manage herself and the baby alone - I owe you one, sweetie). I had not travelled with strangers before. I had not been on a trip where I was not involved in the planning or finances. I had not travelled to a place which had seen recent political tensions.
Like many of us, I was setting foot on the African continent for the first time, did not know the language, was apprehensive of the situation in Egypt, and was wondering on the plane about the company I would get, how S would manage, and how this whole thing would turn out.
It could not have turned out any better. Egypt was awesome - Tahrir Square is phenomenal, the cities of Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan and Cairo are fantastic. The temples leave you in an anachronistic daze. The dusty Pyramids against a clear blue sky leave you dumbstruck.
Then again, the places you visit are hardly an indicator of your journey - its the people you travel with, and some conversations which started on the night I landed worked their way seamlessly throughout until the day I flew out, with warm hugs and promises to keep in touch serving as punctuation marks on the last line of an unfinished poem.
The Egypt Chronicles start tomorrow.
1 comment:
There will be a lot more firsts, but this one, we'll remember most fondly.
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