Rejoinder to "Plans for a great Egyptian circuit" and "Some predicament, this"

Only those who will risk going too far; can possibly find out how far one can go-
T.S. Eliot

For quite sometime… I was facing this predicament. Turkey was off the list because around this time it would have been very cold… this would have forced me to keep myself holed up in Istanbul. I did not like the idea, and vowed to visit Turkey somewhere in the distant future… with my family.

Israel was high on my list, but was ultimately ticked off because of pressing reasons. I again said I will be there, some day.

I am thus left with a lone choice… to wander in Egypt. Visit all those places which I could not in last two years of stay, or even those places that I visited and loved being there. My predicament met its logical solution with my plans for a great Egyptian circuit.

I will be taking some 12 days break… sprinkle it with a budget that is truly shoestring. And then try to rediscover this country again, from the eyes of a pondering vagabond.

Many questions arise out of my plan…

• Can I reach Siwa in a whirlwind fashion, without stopping at either Alexandria or Marsa Matrouh? Does it make any sense to go to the Libyan border at Sollum, just for the heck of it?

• Can I reach Qara without spending a fortune to get in there? Can I reach Bahariyya from Siwa without needing to be a rich adventurer?

• How do I reach Baris? How do I reach Dush?

• Is there any place to stay in Baris, spend a night over there? Or the vastness of desert, a corner of solitude and my sleeping bag will be my only refuge?

• There seems to be a metalled road from Baris to Luxor… does any vehicle ply on them… can I take any public transport?

• Will Egyptian Security let me stay over in Assiyut or Sohag or Qena for a night… and are there places to stay, who will take a foreigner as a customer?

• Where do I go, to Aswan…? Take a felucca there to reach back Luxor, and sleep on a small boat plying over the Nile in the nights? Or proceed to Safaga or Al Quseir, on the route taken by ancient Pharaohs to reach Red Sea?

• How will be the journey over the sea from Hurgadha to Sharm… what do I do after reaching Dahab?

• Would I find a place to stay in the overbooked holiday season of Christmas in Basata?

• How do I reach El Arish from Basata… can I use the road from Nakhl to El Arish, a road that is prohibited for foreigners?

• Do I have to necessarily come to Ismailiya to reach Port Said… or can I take the route on which crow flies?

• What do I do in the Delta- Dameitta, Baltim, Zagazig, and Tanta?

• Above all, Can all this be done within 12 days…?

Yesterday I read these lines of T.S.Eliot… it answered at once all the above questions…. "Only those who will risk going too far; can possibly find out how far one can go"

I will find all my answers, when I set my foot out.

Before setting my foot out, I wondered if I will ever reach Goa on foot and through local transport for a measle 2000 rupees. I did not reach Goa, reached Amboli… and yet saw some most beautiful places on the earth, in Konkan. I still dream of being amidst of golden brown fields when going from Dabhol to Guhagar, I still dream of being submerged by the roaring waves in Harihareshwar… I still dream of being sitting on the edges of Mahadeo point in Amboli. I could have just stayed back in the confines of my comfortable hostel and prepared for pre-placement interviews.

Before setting my foot out, I wondered what I can do in a small duration of a three day leave. I wondered if reaching Diu and seeing the sea is all what I want. Or if I will be thrown out of my job for breaching a three day leave. I did reach Diu… and yet I came back as a changed person… I saw a place with an incredible vintage car collection in Gondal; I became a believer in Somnath…. I saw the world's largest ship breaking yard in Alang, and thought aloud- even if I am thrown out, I will find a job out here. And yes they did not throw me out for breaching the three days leave period. I could have just stayed back to stay in the good books of my boss.

Before setting my foot out, I wondered if I will be able to see Syria and Jordan within 11 days or if 1000 USD will be able to suffice. And what if I overspend, in an alien land. Not only I did it all for less than 500 USD… I did a lot more. I saw Jerusalem; I slept on roofs and 3 star hotels on consecutive days. I made friends; I understood them, their histories, and their milieus. I became a better human being.

Mark Moxon wrote something very prophetic in his website, on why he travels… (I will reprint it, although I know that in a sense it’s a copyright violation… but somebody rightly said- Imitation is the best form of flattery).

"In early 1995 I visited a friend who had just bought a new house. I remember it quite clearly: at the top of the stairs he had a perfectly formed bathroom in which I had what can only be described as a religious experience.

The bathroom was one hundred per cent peach. It had a peach-coloured bath, a peach toilet, peach tiles on the wall and a peach basin on which sat a bar of peach-scented soap. Hanging on the racks were fluffy peach hand towels that neatly matched the peach carpet below, and sitting on the windowsill was a bowl full of peach-coloured potpourri. I realised then and there that if I didn't do something pretty radical, I was going to end up with a peach bathroom all of my own, and the thought filled me with dread.

I never wanted to travel; I just fell into it one day as I was looking for an escape from the seemingly unavoidable world of peach bathrooms, Sundays spent cleaning the car and taking the kids shopping at the weekend."

I too have seen a lot of peach bathrooms in life… I don’t want to own one.