1987-1988 Rothberg Yearbook

Travel Abroad
What to do for February break? Hmm. Europe...nah, too expensive. Israel? Nah, I need to get
away. Egypt? Hey—that’s where I’ll go, but I want to see it with a minimum of travel hassles and
with a large group of friends. An organized tour? Definitely. And so it came to pass that my
friends and I secured spots on an eight-day Neot Hakikar tour of Egypt.
The sun had not yet risen as my fellow travellers and I trundled out of Resnick and made our way
to the Neot Hakikar office. Bleary eyed and tired, yet excited, we impatiently awaited the coach
that would whisk us to the Land of the Pharaohs. Falling immediately into traveller’s torpor, that
semi-conscious state one easily achieves on buses, we soon found ourselves at the border. What
now?
The interminable process of queuing in lines on both sides of the border eventually cleared us of
suspicion and we were soon on our way across the Sinai Penninsula. The pattern for public
relations had been established at the border, and I was concerned that Egypt would be no Garden
of Eden. From Israeli air-conditioning, public facilities, and legible exit forms, Egypt greeted us
with heat, dirt, washrooms the Huns would have been ashamed of, and entrance forms illegibly
printed on cardboard. It’s amazing that a country with one of the world’s largest standing armies
can provide such luxuries for its citizens and foreign travellers.
Sleep. How it easily comes when in the middle of the day there’s nothing to look at. I believe even
Israeli agriculturalists would be hard pressed to make anything grow in the North Sinai.
Then we were on it, that world-famous waterway, revolutionary symbol and front line—The
Suez Canal. Crossing techniques have not improved one iota since Anwar Sadat sent 150,000
soldiers across on Yom Kippur 1973. Our bus was driven onto a small ferry and across we sailed.
By nighttime we had arrived in Cairo, our first stop. Home to at least 8 million—teeming,
festering Cairo! Sequestered in the extremely pleasant Marwa Hotel, the next two days were
spent conquering the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara, the Sphinx, and the statues of Memphis.
Next stop: Luxor. The overnight train was simply fantastic. It was a great feeling rolling along
the Nile Valley into Upper Egypt. The sunrise was magnificent. The sights flew by in a blur: the
Valley of the Kings, Temple of Luxor, and the incomparable Karnak Temple.
Now it’s a bus to Aswan, and on the way we take in the magnificent Temples of Kom Ombo and
Edfu. Finally, the High Dam. Aswan is rich with Nubian culture, Soviet technological might, and
the beautiful Nile River. We walk the streets, shop in the shuk, and take a felucca ride on the
river.
A quick flight back to Cairo and we have one more day to enjoy shopping in the Grand Bazaar and
gambling in the Marriot casino. The trip over, and our cravings for hieroglyphics and papyrus
artwork satiated, we climb into the bus for another long journey back to Eretz Yisrael.
Jim Colbert