Egypt is a poor country, and poverty is a phenomena that hits you from the very first moments in which you make contact with their civilization.

It’s incredible how a country with such resources, with such a past,  such an opulent history and an ancient civilization that was so advanced, now struggles in a abject poverty… hard to imagine.

On the other hand there’s an “Egypt” for tourists that sells very well, an opulent “Egypt”, idyllic and without worries, and there’s another “Egypt”, the one that belongs to the workers, which struggle to buy a bowl of cheap food… This comparison is scary.

I’ve been marked by the difference in livelihood. Amongst the tourists there were some that seemed unhappy with certain services, of course … there’s always the “unhappy-tourist” category … and there were some negative comments.

But seeing in what poverty the people struggled, I was becoming terrified… I couldn’t be unhappy with anything, even though some of my friends had some commentaries to make about certain services!! God, for those people our hotel was probably a opulent “palace”, where they served chosen goods, at which they wouldn’t even dream of!!!

Thus going on a trip, in a poor country, with extremely poor and simple people you have to be content with what’s given to you, because for them it’s enormous.

That is the risk here, once you leave the hotel you get hit by poverty, misery, the struggle to survive… At least that’s how I saw Egypt:  extreme luxury combined with degrading poverty.