<b>Egypt in “Transit” </b>

A news photo showing protesters and army soldiers clash in Cairo December 16, 2011. Source: Reuters

My luggage is packed, my ipad loaded with e-guide and maps of Egypt; I am set to fly to Cairo in a few hours, yet my mind is still murky over what to expect from the journey ahead.

Until two days ago, Cairo doesn’t feature in my year-end travel plan, it was supposed to be a transit point en-route to Morocco (which I failed to obtain a visa), but now, Cairo has become THE destination.

With little time to research and plan our month-long trip in Egypt, my sister and I are scrambling to gather information online and download whatever relevant APPs onto our mobile devices, hoping that will help to cushion our unpreparedness.

I comb my memories for history and geography lessons I had years ago on this ancient country, calling up images of pyramids and sphinx that awed me since childhood, and the gigantic Nile River that I once associated with “time tunnel”, as depicted by a Japanese Manga series that offered a girlish version of the” Back to the Future” kind of story.   

Yet over the past days, when I type “Egypt” in Google search, most of the returned results are related to revolution and aftermath, about clashes between the military and protesters, and of the smoke-filled Tahrir Square. This is a country in transition.  

If one read the travel advices on Egypt issued by some western governments, one would probably reconsider making a trip there. The list of caution is extra-long, starting from the volatile political situation, demonstrations, and the escalated violence in crashing street protest; then the list moves on to sub-heading on terrorism, giving a string of incidents in the past years, justifying the country has a history of attacks on tourists. Also on the caution list are street crimes, high traffic accident rate, sexual harassment, and the list goes on and on…….

But then again, if anyone takes news and government travel advices at face value, they will probably think that there’s no safe haven on earth. Get mentally prepared for the worst, but also stock up on optimism, that’s what my sister and I will do, so, here we come, Egypt!