I am so glad that we made the trek to visit Abu Simbel, but the truth is that we were all suffering from temple fatigue. It takes a lot of endurance for adults, not to mention kids, to visit ancient sites for days at a time. No matter how impressive and amazing the temples are, you can only visit so many temples and monuments before they start to blur together. I knew we all needed something different.
It was a long drive of over 7 hours from Aswan to Hurghada. But we had a comfy van and after a quick stop to pick up some falafel for breakfast in the morning, we were off. We arrived in Hurghada in the late afternoon and everything about it felt different from every other place we had been to in Egypt. We weren’t surrounded by desert, we saw the vast ocean. And, apart from the odd tourist shop, there was no trace of pharaohs, gods or temples. Hurghada started off as a small fishing village and with an influx of investment, grew into a resort destination in the 1980s.
We arrived at our Airbnb and felt like we had arrived at an Egyptian relative’s house. It was easy to imagine that the home might be a summer home for the host and his family, who might live overseas for most of the year. It felt lived-in and loved with every amenity and comfort that if we were Egyptian, we might have chosen ourselves.
When we arrived, the caretaker told us apologetically that the previous guest had checked out late and he needed a few more hours to clean the upstairs. We didn’t mind too much because the downstairs was comfortable enough. We could see the luggage of the previous guests who had gone to lunch and deposited the luggage at the front of the house. The caretaker explained that they had a night flight and had a few hours to kill. We have been in that situation many times so we could empathize. Before the caretaker headed upstairs to finish cleaning, he gave us a quick tour of the downstairs.
The long drive-way led to a covered area with a pool table. The living room was humongous with plenty of comfy seating for a large family. The dining table was surrounded by windows that filled the room with natural light. The French doors led out to a grassy lawn where EY loved jumping on the trampoline. In the living room, there was even an air hockey table that provided fun entertainment. I could imagine this house had hosted many big family gatherings with kids chasing each other between the lawn and the house while adults gossiped late into the night.
The living room led to another small seating area beside the staircase with a toy corner that was one of the kids’ favorite parts of the house. AY and EY set up their own dolls and accessories inside the play area so they could have an even bigger doll world. DY found a toy bow and arrow set that has been his dream toy since he was very young. RY and DY shot those arrows all over the house and drove us all crazy.
Just ahead was the kitchen and then the magnificent backyard that looked like it could have been part of a resort, not a single-family home. The huge pool was surrounded by pool chairs that were shaded by sun umbrellas. At the side of the yard, there was a professional-looking outdoor kitchen and grill area. Toward the back, we could see a traditional Egyptian sitting area where the host said we could smoke hookah pipes (water pipes) and a jacuzzi where the water temperature is always kept at 36-38 degrees. Wow! It was like staying in a resort, but better.
This house could have slept more than ten or 12 people. There were more than enough beds for our family. My parents slept in the downstairs bedroom so they wouldn’t have to climb the stairs. The upstairs area was self-contained with another living area, which to RY and DY’s delight, had a Sony Playstation. The three upstairs bedrooms were comfortable with much more space than we needed.
While the kids were playing with Jiu Jiu and enjoying the entertainment areas of the house, Leo, I and my mom decided to make a quick run to the grocery store. When we got back, there was a group of three or four young guys hanging out in our front yard. They were the previous guests who were waiting for a taxi to the airport. One of the guys was Chinese. Ze introduced himself and began chatting with us. They were a group of friends and colleagues from London. They had just spent a week at the Airbnb, using it as a base to visit several other cities in Egypt. The special thing about this group was that they were multi-ethnic and multi-national. This group of young guys looked like the United Nations as they were from all over the world. There was Ze, the Chinese guy that we were talking to who was originally from Beijing but moved to London about 9 years ago. There was an Egyptian-British guy who, together with the Chinese guy, helped to organize the trip. The other guys all lived and worked in London but came from Uganda, Jamaica, Nigeria and Canada.
I’ll admit that my memory is a little foggy as to the exact countries where the guys were from, so those that I listed might not be entirely accurate. But I do remember the feeling of curiosity and hope that I felt when Ze described his group of friends. They couldn’t have been more than 25 years old and they already embraced diversity, globalism, open-mindedness and adventure. They not just embraced it, they lived it. This is the future that I wish for my kids.
