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After spending six weeks in the Netherlands, Germany and Indonesia, we are finally getting our Egypt observations posted!  We left Egypt on March 4^th. 

• WHAT TIME IS IT???  Our body clocks were really messed up the first several days after we arrived in Egypt.  We had traveled to Cairo from the United States. 
• Egypt is considered African and Middle Eastern.  It is located in northeastern Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula extending into Western Asia, making it a true transcontinental nation.  The Mediterranean Sea borders the north.  Israel, Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea border the east.  Sudan is to the south and Libya to the west.  Egypt’s position has historically made it a bridge between Africa and the Middle East, shaping trade, culture, and geopolitics for thousands of years. Egypt is larger than Texas and smaller than Alaska. The Nile River (which flows south to north), runs the length of the country.  The Nile River is the lifeline of Egypt, flowing north 4,135 miles through 11 countries from Uganda to the Mediterranean, making it the longest river in the world (according to many sources) and it creates the fertile Nile Delta in the north. Without it, Egypt would be almost entirely desert.  About 95% of Egyptians live in the Nile Valley and Delta because it’s the only large area suitable for agriculture.  The Western Desert covers roughly two-thirds of Egypt’s total land area.  The Eastern Desert lies between the Nile and the Red Sea and has rugged hills, mountain ranges, and rocky wadis (dry riverbeds).  The Sinai Peninsula is a triangular landmass extending into Asia and it is mostly barren with dramatic mountain ranges in Mount Catherine, Egypt’s highest point 8,627 feet.  In addition to the historical tourist areas of Giza, Luxor, Aswan and Alexandria, many tourists go to the famous Sharm El Sheik and Hurghada resort areas. 
• Egyptians generally accept that Egypt is African, but their felt identity often blends African, Arab, Middle Eastern, and uniquely Egyptian elements.
• Ancient Egypt emerged around 3100 BCE with the unification of Upper (which is actually the southern land in the country) and Lower (which is the northern land in the country), developing monumental architecture, hieroglyphic writing, and a powerful pharaonic state that lasted for millennia.  It later came under the control of major empires including the Persians, Greeks (under Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies), and Romans.  After the 7th century CE, Egypt became a center of the Islamic world, ruled by dynasties such as the Fatimids and Mamluks.  It entered the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, then experienced British occupation before gaining full independence in 1956.  Modern Egypt is a republic shaped by its strategic location, cultural heritage, and pivotal role in Middle Eastern and African affairs.
• Cairo’s annual temperatures range from 48 – 97 degrees.  Aswan’s annual temperatures range from 50 – 107 degrees.  The temps for us ranged from 45 – 85 in January and February.  Cairo and the Nile Valley are affected by heatwaves, occasional dust storms, and mild earthquakes. The Sinai and Red Sea regions are prone to flash floods and rare snow events.  Alexandria and the Mediterranean coast are vulnerable to strong winter storms and coastal flooding.  There is a small risk of tsunamis.  Egypt’s overall disaster risk is moderate to low with most events being manageable and infrequent.
• Alexandria is at a similar latitude as Savannah.  Cairo with Jacksonville. Luxor with Miami. Aswan with Key West.
• Approximately 120 million people live in Egypt.  Of those, about 26 million live in the Cairo and Giza areas.  Alexandria has about 6 million people living in the area.  About 700,000 people live in the Luxor Governate.  About 400,000 people live in the Aswan area.
• Egypt hosts a significant number of refugees, asylum seekers, and labor migrants, especially from nearby conflict zones in Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Yemen.  Egypt is a major transit route for migrants from North Africa and the Horn of Africa who attempt to reach Europe.  Policies have tightened in recent years, reducing irregular departures but increasing the number of migrants who remain temporarily in Egypt.  Millions of Egyptians work abroad in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Libya, Jordan, and Europe. 99.7% of the country’s population is Egyptian, with only a small percentage of foreign nationals.  Egypt’s policies balance humanitarian commitments with economic and security concerns, so immigration rules can be strict but stable.
• Egypt is officially known as the Arab Republic of Egypt and operates as a semi-presidential republic. There is an Executive Branch led by the President (who is head of state, head of government, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and appoints the Prime Minister), a Legislative Branch with a house of representatives and senate both elected by citizens or appointed by the president, a Judicial Branch with the highest court being the Supreme Constitutional Court (courts operate under a civil law system influenced by French law and Islamic law (Sharia), especially in personal status matters).  Egypt’s current constitution was adopted in 2014 and amended in 2019 to expand presidential powers and term limits.  The voting age in Egypt is 18 years old. Egyptian citizens can vote in presidential and parliamentary elections, along with referendums. 
• One of our Uber drivers shared that things have improved since the revolution in 2011 and with the new government in place.  He said things are good for the younger generations. 
• The Egyptian Armed Forces (Army, Air Force, Navy, Air Defense Forces) is one of the largest and most powerful armed forces in Africa and the Middle East. It plays a major role not only in defense, but also in politics and the economy.  Military service is mandatory for men, usually lasting 1–3 years depending on education level.  Women are not required to serve.  Since 1952, almost all Egyptian presidents have had military backgrounds.  The military plays a significant role in large national projects such as roads, housing, and new cities.  It controls or owns parts of construction companies, factories, infrastructure projects, food production and distribution and receives significant military aid from the United States. Egypt maintains peace with Israel under the 1979 peace treaty. 
• The police in Egypt are responsible for law enforcement, public security, and internal stability.  The police have faced criticism from human rights organizations for the use of force during protests, arbitrary arrests, harsh prison conditions.  Police actions were a major issue during the 2011 uprising that led to the resignation of former president Hosni Mubarak.
• Overall, Egypt’s crime rate is moderate, and violent street crime is generally lower than in many countries in the Americas or parts of Africa. Estimates generally suggest roughly 110,000–120,000 people are in prison or detention in Egypt.
• The official language of Egypt is Modern Standard Arabic.  They use Egyptian Arabic for everyday speech.  Church liturgy for Copts is Coptic language.  English is widely understood in cities and tourist areas.  French is sometimes used in schools and by older generations.  Nubian languages are spoken by some communities near Aswan.
• Around 85–90% of Egyptians are Muslim.  Most belong to Sunni Islam.  Islam strongly influences daily rhythms.  The call to prayer from mosques is heard five times a day.  Roughly 10–15% of the population is Christian with most belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church.  Muslims and Christians get along peacefully.  A Muslim man is allowed to marry a non-Muslim woman if she belongs to a recognized “People of the Book” religion (Christianity and Judaism).  A Muslim woman generally cannot legally marry a non-Muslim man in Egypt unless he converts to Islam.
• Mohammed (or Muhammad) is the most common male name in Egypt.  I can’t even remember all of the Mohammeds we met!
• Popular sports include football (soccer), squash, basketball, handball, martial arts, equestrianism – popular in desert areas and among wealthier clubs, camel racing – traditional in desert regions and table tennis – widely played recreationally.
• Agriculture has been central to Egypt for thousands of years because of the Nile River.  Major crops include cotton (historically very famous Egyptian cotton), wheat, rice, sugarcane, fruits (oranges, lemons, limes, mandarins, grapes, dates, guava, mango, melons and pomegranate), and vegetables (tomatoes, onions, garlic, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, leafy greens, beans and peas). 
• Manufacturing is one of Egypt’s largest modern industries.  Major sectors include textiles and clothing, food processing, chemicals and fertilizers, cement and construction materials.
• Egypt produces oil and natural gas, especially in the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Suez.
• The Suez Canal is one of Egypt’s most valuable economic assets. It connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.  Thousands of ships pass through every year.  Egypt earns billions of dollars annually from canal transit fees.
• Tourism provides thousands of jobs because of visitors coming to see the Great Pyramid of Giza and temples in Luxor, taking Nile River cruises, and vacationing at the Red Sea resorts in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada.  Our Nile River cruise tour guide, Mahmoud, went to school for four years to be the type of tour guide he is. 
• The average Egyptian earns less than $4,000 USD per year.  Skilled professionals and managers can earn much more, sometimes several times the national average. Highly specialized jobs or jobs with foreign companies may pay well above the average, but they’re not typical for most Egyptians.  Egypt’s minimum wage was recently raised to about 7,000 EGP per month (about $135 USD) for formal sector workers.
• Rent averages $200 – $400 per month.  Small apartments (1–2 bedrooms) often house 2–4 wage earners in order to cover expenses.
• We saw KFC, Starbucks, Circle K, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Dominos, Dunkin Donuts, Hardee’s, Krispy Crème, Caribou Coffee, Papa John’s, Happy Joe’s, TGIF, Cinnabon, Applebee’s, Chili’s and IHOP. 
• The country celebrates Islamic, Christian, national and cultural holidays:

Holiday	Type	Timeframe
Eid al-Fitr	Islamic	End of Ramadan
Eid al-Adha	Islamic	Sacrifice feast
Islamic New Year	Islamic	Lunar calendar
Mawlid al-Nabi	Islamic	Prophet Muhammad’s birth
Coptic Christmas	Christian	January 7
Coptic Easter	Christian	Dates vary
Revolution Day	National	January 25
Sinai Liberation Day	National	April 25
Labor Day	National	May 1
Revolution Day	National	July 23
Armed Forces Day	National	October 6
Sham El-Nessim	Cultural	Ancient spring festival

• Ramadan is the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic calendar, marked by mandatory daily fasting from dawn to sunset for adult Muslims and extended evening prayers.  It is a time for spiritual reflection, prayer, increased charity, and communal bonding, commemorating the revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad.  From dawn (Fajr) to sunset (Maghrib), Muslims abstain from eating, drinking (including water), smoking, and sexual activity to turn people back to faith and away from daily impulses.  It is a time for self-discipline, purifying the soul, and empathizing with those less fortunate.  We were in Egypt at the start of Ramadan.  There are lots of neon lights and colored tinsel streamer decorations and traditions.  Since they fast from predawn to sunset, most local restaurants and cafes are closed.  We needed to go to tourist areas or hotel restaurants if we wanted to eat a meal out.  We took a tour to tombs in Luxor on the first day of Ramadan.  Our tour guide invited us to his house to eat their family’s traditional meal to break the fast after sunset. He shared a lot with us about his beliefs.

• During the month of Ramadan, the government restricts alcohol sales, especially to Egyptian citizens. Restaurants, bars, and liquor stores generally cannot sell alcohol to Egyptians during Ramadan and can face penalties if they do. Many liquor stores close for the month.  Regular cafés and bars stop serving alcohol.  Some international hotels and tourist venues still serve alcohol, usually aimed at foreign visitors. Private drinking isn’t usually prosecuted, but it’s socially discouraged during Ramadan.  Note:  Public drinking is illegal year-round in Egypt and can lead to fines or arrest.
• Egypt has a rich culinary tradition that blends Pharaonic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and African influences. Egyptian cuisine is hearty, flavorful, and relies heavily on legumes, rice, bread, and seasonal vegetables, with meat often served on special occasions. Popular dishes like koshari, ful medames, and molokhia are eaten daily, while fattah, mahshi, and seafood are often for celebrations. All of the rice we ate was delicious – it was fluffy, moist, and flavorful.
• In Egypt, the legal drinking age is 21 years old for purchasing and consuming alcoholic beverages.
• Tourism in Egypt has historically been heavily dependent on Europeans and Middle Easterners, though there’s been growth in Asian and North American visitors in recent years. In 2023, there were approximately 15 million international arrivals (2.15 million from Russia, 1.92 million from Germany, 1.5 million from the United Kingdom, 1.8 million from Saudi Arabia, 1.1 million from Poland, 950,000 from Czech Republic, 850,000 from Italy, 720,000 from France, 650,000 from the United States, and 450,000 from Libya).  Many Americans come to Egypt on group tours versus independent travel.
• Egyptians vacation within their own country, going to beaches, cultural sites, and visiting family.  They also travel to neighboring countries for short vacations, religious visits, or shopping:  Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya.  Higher-income Egyptians often travel to Italy, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Canada, United States, Thailand, Malaysia and China.
• The currency of Egypt is the Egyptian Pound, abbreviated as EGP.  1,000 EGP ≈ $18.18 USD.
• Credit cards are accepted most places.  Sometimes you have to pay tips with cash in restaurants. 
• 92 octane gasoline was about $1.60 USD per gallon.
• The roads we traveled on across Egypt were good and well maintained.  Mini buses & vans are means of public transportation.  They have designated pick up locations and will also pick you up (if there is room) if you wave your hand.  We used them several times. 

• We saw a lot of cars in Cairo that had German (and other European countries) license plates with Egyptian license plates installed on top.  Street vendors in Cairo sell real and replica European plates, making them accessible for anyone who wants to add them as a decoration.  Some see it as a type of status symbol.  We also saw trucks with US state license plates in the back window. 

• Common car makes included:  Renault, Chevy, Kia, Mitsubishi, BMW, Hyundai, Skoda, Toyota, VW, Nissan, Suzuki, Fiat, Lada, Byd (China), Opel (German), Geely (China), Chery (China) and Peugeot.  We saw lots of cars from the 1970s.  We read that they like the older cars because they can fix them and find parts easily. 

• Most cars were banged up.  Motorbike drivers and passengers rarely wear helmets.
• We saw few speed limit signs and many drivers would go extremely fast.  Many people try to catch a ride by putting out their hand on the street/road.   
• Drivers do not care about pedestrians.  There are very few crosswalks and drivers basically ignore them.  Crossing streets is like the video game “Frogger”.  My central nervous system was always hypervigilant when we were trying to cross streets – it was truly stressful!
• Driving and hearing all of the car horns drains everyone’s energy.  Drivers use horns with multiple short beeps to signal someone to move over or watch out to signal “I’m coming through”, one beep indicates “I’m here” so don’t hit me. Some car horns are used to “curse” (the long, never-ending beep).  It is loud and chaotic! 
• The legal minimum age to obtain a driver’s license is 18 years.  We heard about corruption networks for obtaining completely forged licenses and licenses issued through bribery without completing required tests.
• Egypt has public, private and international schools for Kindergarten/Pre-school (ages 3 – 5), Primary/Elementary (ages 6 – 11), Preparatory/Middle (ages 12 – 14), and Secondary/High (ages 15 – 18). Higher education includes Public and Private Universities.  The school year is from September to June.  Islamic studies for Muslims and Coptic studies for Christians are mandatory in public schools.  Arabic is taught.  English and/or French are also taught in private and international schools.
• Health care in Egypt is a mix of public, private, and semi-private services, with large differences in quality depending on location, income, and type of facility. Egypt has a dual health care system: public (low-cost, crowded, uneven quality) and private (higher quality, more expensive).  Urban residents have better access to advanced medical services than rural populations.  Many medications are available over the counter, while some require a prescription.  We met an international teacher from Canada who recently had heart surgery.  He said his care was incredible and inexpensive (with his insurance).
• The average life expectancy in Egypt is 74 years of age.
• A few Egypt DON’TS:
  • Drink Alcohol in Public; drinking outside licensed venues is frowned upon and can lead to fines, especially during Ramadan.
  • Show Public Affection; avoid kissing or hugging in public; it may be considered inappropriate in conservative areas.
  • Criticize Religion or Politics; avoid public criticism of Islam, the government, or the president; it can have serious legal consequences.
  • Wear Revealing Clothing; shorts, tank tops, or short skirts may attract unwanted attention, especially outside tourist areas.
  • Touch Strangers’ Heads; avoid touching people’s heads, including children—it’s considered rude in Egyptian culture.
  • Expect Everything to Follow Western Timelines; punctuality is more relaxed; delays in services, traffic, or appointments are common.
  • Fall for Street Scams; be cautious of overly friendly strangers offering tours or goods; politely decline if unsure.
• Workdays are Sunday – Thursday.
• Hours listed for businesses in Google are often inaccurate.  We learned we needed to be very specific when asking about hours.  We would have to literally ask for the hours for each specific day of the week.  Many places would tell us, “we are open every day, and the hours are the same every day”.  However, many businesses were closed on Friday mornings.      
• Smoking is allowed in restaurants. Lots of men smoke. 
• Many businesses and museums have bag and body scanning security to pass through.  Cars often have to open their trunks to enter business and museum parking lots to be checked by security personnel. 
• Most tourist locations have local Egyptian pricing (which is typically minimal entry fees).  Tourists pay higher entry fees. 
• Some groceries were about the same price, with many less than what we normally pay in the United States.
• We went to a “VIP” seating movie (it had recliners) and paid $6.45 a ticket.  A medium popcorn was $3.
• Tissues are readily available.  We found them in most Uber cars and our apartment had a bag of tissues in every room.
• Toilets have a handle on the side to turn on bidet water versus using a handheld hose. 
• Children were very interested in us and would ask us our names.  We were both asked to take photos with locals. 
• Everyone wants tip money.  Locals at temples will rope off an area and motion for you to come see the area and will expect you to pay them for showing you the area.  Or they offer to take your photo and then ask for money for taking the picture. We experienced a handful of shysters.  In Cairo, we were at the Sadat & unknown soldier tombs.  We asked a guard if we could take photos.  He asked to see our passports and said he would keep one until we were done.  When we were done, he asked us to give him money.  We said no and he gave my passport back to me.  I was so frustrated that I gave it to him to begin with!  In Cairo we were out for a walk exploring and a man walked next to us and made small talk with us.  He told us he was going where we were going and told us to follow him (and we did – dumb, dumb, dumb!).  On the way to our destination, he told us he was an artist and wanted to show us his work.  He told us to wait on the street and he brought a picture out and told me I could have it.  He went back inside and got a picture for Mike.  Then he wanted money.  We said no and gave him both pictures back.  At airports people would come and carry your bags for you and expect payment.  In Aswan, on our way to the market, a man acted like he recognized us from our Nile River cruise ship (he said he was the chef) and told us he was going to the market and to follow him.  He took us to a spice shop where he and the shop owner obviously had a standard presentation.  We didn’t buy anything.  He asked for a tip.

CAIRO

• The population is about 26 million (including the Gaza area).
• Although I wanted to see the pyramids, my main reason for including Egypt as one of my top 10 countries was because I was intrigued by Cairo since it is one of the largest urban centers in Africa and the Middle East.  I typically don’t read about the places we plan to visit in advance. I found Cairo’s contrasts interesting – ancient yet modern, local yet international, chaotic yet full of community life.  It’s a city where a medieval mosque can sit next to a high-rise apartment, and rooftop pigeon towers coexist with cafés serving espresso to university students. Overall, I think I anticipated it would be more cosmopolitan than it is.  I thought I would see far more ethnicities and less conservativism. 
• Riding in a car was intense.  Driving a car must be even more intense.  People rarely use blinkers.  You must be constantly alert or you will hit a pedestrian or a car.  The rule seems to be “if there is space, fill it”.  There are some angry drivers, yelling and laying on their horns.  I saw many drivers living on the edge by having their window down and their arm outside the window (there is usually 2 inches between the side of one car and the side of another car).  I would always breathe a sigh of relief when the Uber car that picked us up was free of dents and scrapes as people with nice cars seemed to be more careful when driving. 
• There were very few traffic lights – we saw a total of four.  Few stop signs.  Horses and carts, tour buses, motor bikes, tuk tuks, bicycles, microbuses, and pedestrians all share highways (sometimes with nine lanes of traffic moving in the same direction).  The government could save money by not painting lines on the road as drivers don’t stay in lanes.  
• In Cairo, car accidents—especially minor ones like fender-benders are common due to dense traffic, narrow streets, and aggressive driving styles.  Leaving the scene quickly (“hit-and-run”) happens, especially for very minor bumps. The typical process if you have an accident is to stop the car and exchange a few words.  Assess the damage.  Agree on a small cash payment to cover repairs.  Traffic police can take hours to arrive, and minor accidents are considered a bureaucratic hassle. If there is injury or significant damage, drivers are expected to call the police. Police will arrive at the scene, record statements from both parties, issue a formal accident report, which is required for insurance claims.  Many Egyptians do not rely on insurance for minor accidents, but insurance companies are involved in larger collisions.  Car owners often carry compulsory liability insurance, but full coverage (including repairs) is less common.  Thankfully we were never involved in an accident.
• On Saturdays, three blocks of streets became a huge open air mechanic shop.  Lots of people were working on cars and fixing them.  We saw a lot of coffee and wares being sold out of the back of car trunks.

• They drive grocery carts like they drive cars.  You have to be careful to not get run over by carts in stores.
• Some car owners pay people to wipe down their car every day to clear the dust from it. 
• Amazon is widely used in Cairo. 
• Gardens, parks, and the corniche along Gezira Island all charge a small fee (up to $1 USD) to enter.  We think this is being done to keep the areas clean and free of homeless people.
• We did not see many Muslim women wearing niqabs (which allows you to only see their eyes).  Some women wear colored full body abayas.  Some wear only a hajib on their head.  Most women wore secular clothes – no sleeveless or tank tops or shorts or short skirts though. 
• The air quality was often listed as hazardous in our weather app. And we could feel and see the poor air quality numerous days.

• In many neighborhoods of Cairo and Giza, trash is collected directly from homes by independent collectors known as the Zabbaleen.  Residents usually leave garbage outside their door or building.  Collectors pick it up door-to-door, often daily or several times a week.  Households typically pay a small monthly fee directly to the collector.  This system has existed for decades and still handles a large share of Cairo’s waste.  The Zabbaleen bring the trash to neighborhoods like Manshiyat Naser, sometimes called “Garbage City” (about 2 square miles in size). There, waste is sorted manually by families: plastics, paper and cardboard, metals, glass, organic waste.  Historically, organic waste was fed to pigs, though that system changed during the H1N1 Swine Flu response.  Despite being informal, this network has been extremely efficient, recycling an estimated 70–80% of collected waste, far higher than many formal city systems.  Many experts consider Cairo’s informal recycling network one of the most efficient grassroots recycling systems in the world and it provides livelihoods for tens of thousands of people.  It is estimated that 60,000 to over 200,000 people live in “Garbage City”.  We went past it on the highway and you can smell it. 
• They refer to graves as “people’s last house”.  There are two large cemeteries, where approximately 500,000 living people reside in “City of the Dead”.  Several factors led to this unusual situation:  housing shortages in Cairo during the 20th century, families of tomb caretakers lived permanently on site, rural migrants moved to the city and settled in unused spaces, mausoleum courtyards providing shelter and water access, many tomb complexes were built like small houses with courtyards, so they were relatively easy to convert into living spaces.  Despite the name, the City of the Dead is not just a graveyard with squatters. It functions more like a low-income urban neighborhood.  It has shops and cafés, schools and mosques, paved streets and electricity in many areas.  Families have been living there for generations.  The tombs and homes are often side-by-side, creating a unique urban landscape where daily life happens among centuries-old mausoleums.  Many residents live in rooms built inside mausoleum complexes, small houses constructed between tombs and caretaker dwellings originally meant for grave guardians.
• Raising pigeons is both a hobby and a social activity for thousands of people in Cairo.  The pigeon hobby in Cairo is a very visible and long-standing urban tradition. Many neighborhoods have distinctive pigeon towers on rooftops.  The hobby includes breeding special varieties, training birds to fly in groups, releasing flocks and watching their patterns.  They also trade and sell birds.  Many keepers spend hours on rooftops calling or whistling to their birds to guide them back. 
• Uber was one of our preferred methods of transportation.  We took rides that were 45 minutes in length and cost $5 (including the tip). Our total Uber expenses for our four weeks in Cairo were $183 and the average ride cost was $4.25 with rides usually ranging from 20 minutes to 45 minutes.
• We bought a Metro card for $10, that we shared.  We used it frequently and didn’t even use half of the funds on the card (most rides were about .17 – .35 USD).  There was bag & body screening to get into many of the Metro stations. People on the Metro were always giving us their seats.  We were the only non-locals we saw riding the Metro.  It is a clean, safe, inexpensive way to travel with thousands of local commuters.  There are cars for ladies only on some of the trains.  We liked the wording on the Cairo metro sign – “people of determination”. 

• We paid $20 each for a monthly gym membership that had very basic and limited equipment.
• We saw people selling inflatable balloons in the middle of six-lane traffic.   Not sure how they do it as there was no room to walk – you can easily touch the person in the car next to you through open windows.
• Many of the stray dogs we saw had ear tags.  Some tags are used by animal welfare groups to mark dogs that have been spayed or neutered.  This is part of Egypt’s efforts to manage the stray dog population humanely.  Many tags indicate that a dog has been vaccinated against rabies, which is mandatory in Egypt.
• My biggest fear and stress point in Cairo was crossing the street. As mentioned before there are few traffic lights or crosswalks.  You get strategic and go to intersections where traffic is moving slower and then cross 8 lanes of traffic (4 lanes going in each direction) – one lane at a time. 
• The Opera House has excellent performances.  We went to the symphony and ballet and loved it.  The dress code is strict.  Since we don’t travel with dress clothes we got Mike outfitted with a $90 suit, tie, shirt and shoes and a $44 suit and shoes for me.  The tickets were $9 each for the symphony and $4 for the ballet.  Averaging our clothes, it cost us about $45 per person to attend each event.  A great value for the entertainment.  The bathroom has attendants that you tip.    

LUXOR

• The city has a population of around 285,000 and it is the 7^th largest city in Egypt.
• It felt touristy.
• We stayed on the west bank of the Nile.  It was beautiful to see the night lights of the east bank.
• Watching the hot air balloons at sunrise was incredible!  I have always been fascinated by hot air balloons (Mike surprised me with a ride for my 40th birthday in the Smokey Mountains).  I was in heaven watching them.  There were 15 – 20 in sight for 40 minutes straight.  It didn’t matter that I was in my pj’s and cold watching from the rooftop of our villa. The birds were singing.  I could feel the warmth of the sun rising.  The donkeys were talking, the roosters were crowing, and the field workers were starting their days. 

• It is desert and dusty.  The vehicle emissions and seasonal burning of agricultural waste add to unclean air.  Our weather app often indicated hazardous air quality.  Cairo & Luxor air sure doesn’t help someone who has dust allergies and is congested from a viral cold!
• They produce sun dried tomatoes by hand (for export – mostly to Italy).  It smelled so good!

• There are alabaster shops everywhere. 
• Lots of old Peugeot cars

• Taxi and boat vendors follow you and continually ask you to use their services. 
• Hibiscus juice is popular in this area. 
• Favorite memories: the entire experience related to the ballet – getting our clothes, the performance, and the steak dinner afterward; seeing the pyramids at Giza for the first time; the Grand Egyptian Museum; meeting Salma and mom in Alexandria; the Nile River cruise experience.