{"id":92,"date":"2014-05-27T08:25:37","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T12:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/?p=92"},"modified":"2014-05-27T08:46:45","modified_gmt":"2014-05-27T12:46:45","slug":"egypt-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"The Egypt Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kelley Ferro<\/em><\/p>\n

When the travel bug hits and I daydream about about traveling to far off lands, one of the first images to pop in my head has always been the temples and pyramids of Egypt<\/a>. Ancient Egypt was not only intricate, advanced, and impressive, it\u2019s one of the few historic cultures that still has such a global presence even today. I am willing to bet that the majority of \u201cbucket lists\u201d in the world list a visit to Egypt.<\/p>\n

\"Meeting<\/a>
Saying hello to one of the local ‘taxis’. Image: Kelley Ferro<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luckily, Egypt was our first destination for our Living Local, Traveling Global<\/i> series, and flying over, I had all sorts of ideas about what Egypt would be like from classes, movies, news and stories–but it was nothing like what I had imagined.<\/p>\n

\"Photographing<\/a>
Photographing the Great Sphinx of Giza. Image: Justin Weiler<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I felt like I had entered a lucid dream. One minute I was dozing in plane seat and the next I was mouth agape, staring at the MASSIVE Pyramids of Giza. I wasn\u2019t sure if it was my jetlag but I almost thought these world renowned sites were mirages. This complete wonderment only continued throughout the trip–from the glittering treasures of King Tut\u2019s tomb at the Egyptian museum to the perfectly preserved hieroglyphs deep in the underground chambers. But something else amazed me that I hadn\u2019t anticipated.<\/p>\n

\"Meeting<\/a>
Meeting Local Egyptian Women. Image: Kelley Ferro<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The people of Egypt were so gracious and eager to share their country with us. Everyone met us with smiles and warmth. From the moment I landed, I felt like I was taken in by Egypt, under its hospitable arm. The guides on our Abercrombie & Kent<\/a> tour were great ambassadors as well, they treated us like family and were so open about their daily lives.<\/p>\n

\"Making<\/a>
Making lots of new friends. Image: Justin Weiler<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, I looked obviously like a tourist and had a camera on me, but that only made the locals want to chat with me more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you from?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you like Egypt?\u201d<\/p>\n

These phrases were common no matter what street corner, temple or restaurant we visited.<\/p>\n

But most of all, \u201cthank you for coming to our country.\u201d This one truly got me. Egypt is more than just its ancient wonders. Those are truly spectacular, don\u2019t get me wrong, but there\u2019s an even richer beauty found within the locals.<\/p>\n

\"Sampling<\/a>
Sampling some of the local cuisine. Image: Kelley Ferro<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our purpose was to travel deeper, experience a destination through its people. In this case, it was to see the Egyptians living their day-to-day lives. Because we had a reason to go deeper, ask more questions and get more involved with the locals, we were able to capture these little golden moments of connection. The Sphinx is great, but learning about spices from a shopkeeper in the Luxor market or joking with a young girl speedily weaving a rug made an even more lasting impression on me.<\/p>\n

Kelley Ferro is a travel expert & video journalist living in NYC. She films her show, Get Lost<\/a>, around the world–hopping on a plane at least twice a month She is also the executive producer for Tripfilms.com<\/a>. For more on her travels, follow Kelley’s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kelley Ferro When the travel bug hits and I daydream about about traveling to far off lands, one of the first images to pop in my head has always been the temples and pyramids of Egypt. Ancient Egypt was not only intricate, advanced, and impressive, it\u2019s one of the few historic cultures that still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":98,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[12,9,10,86],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-egypt-2","tag-abercrombie-kent","tag-egypt","tag-travel-together-2","tag-tripfilms"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Egypt Experience - USTOA Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Egypt experience of seeing temples and pyramids is one of the first images that comes to mind when daydreaming about traveling to far off lands.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Egypt Experience - USTOA Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Egypt experience of seeing temples and pyramids is one of the first images that comes to mind when daydreaming about traveling to far off lands.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USTOA Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-27T12:25:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-27T12:46:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/kelley_camel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ross Evans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ross Evans\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/\",\"name\":\"The Egypt Experience - USTOA Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/kelley_camel.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-27T12:25:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-27T12:46:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/fff6937cee3a195443a71c364d3b1b67\"},\"description\":\"The Egypt experience of seeing temples and pyramids is one of the first images that comes to mind when daydreaming about traveling to far off lands.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/egypt-experience\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/kelley_camel.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ustoa.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/kelley_camel.jpg\",\"width\":536,\"height\":536,\"caption\":\"Meeting with a local taxi. 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