Traveling to Egypt during Coronavirus

Travel blogger, Mark C O’Flaherty shared Wednesday in an article his experience with traveling during coronavirus.

O’Flaherty opened up about his feeling after learning that the UK government was adding to its red list of forbidden destinations: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, and Egypt.

The blogger noted that he was about to travel to Cairo on BA400 when he learned the news.

He pointed out that the coronavirus cases were declining and had numerous assignments lined up, adding that he had another flight booked from London to New York a few weeks later, by which time surely the Transatlantic corridor would be open.

Plans

O’Flaherty stated that he had a cat-sitter confirmed, perversely, a friend flying in from Manhattan for the duration, ready to quarantine with his beloved Beamish.

The blogger described that he was in denial and angry, as well as tried bargaining, skipped depression, and hurled himself into acceptance.

O’Flaherty noted that he looked at a map and secured himself a writing gig in Bolivia and choose instead of being disappointed, to enjoy 10 days of transcendental wonder amidst the salt flats in the Andes and the beauty of the flamingos in the blood-red Laguna Colorada.

He pointed out that he still needed to go to Egypt as well as New York, noting that he can’t work without traveling.

The blogger noted that he felt safe in the knowledge that a BA refund was imminent if they canceled the flight, which they did.

O’Flaherty rebooked with Egyptair en route to London-Cairo-New York, did a double-vaccinated and brandishing ruinously expensive negative PCR tests.

Still a crisis

The larger question was: Was this okay? The world is still facing a crisis. Whole American states are populated with vaccine refuseniks. A lot of it is, of course, political.

John O’Ceallaigh, director of luxury travel consultancy LUTE, noted that a lot of the travel restrictions have become a smokescreen for governments’ failings at home. The consequences are more severe than simply postponing a nice holiday. These measures are destroying trade, severing families, and obliterating livelihoods in tourism-dependent economies the world over.

O’Flaherty stated that when he was in Egypt, circuitously en route to New York, a friend was in the Bahamas for 14 days for the same reason. He pointed out that travel to Mexico has boomed, partly because it has offered an easy holiday for Americans, but also because it is a useful two-week decompression chamber for Europeans heading Stateside.

The blogger stated that Americans had Dubai as a travel destination,  an efficient hub served by the most glittering of airlines, however, he noted that it was in the wrong direction and devoid of Mayan ruins and yoga retreats to keep you busy while you tread water.

Sightseeing

O’Flaherty shared that he hired an Egyptologist during his visit to Cairo to show him around the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, which is slowly but surely being mothballed ahead of the opening of the shiny new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

He stated that he walked around the room containing the priceless golden treasures of Tutankhamun, there were just three other people in there, and one of them was a security guard. The blogger pointed out that he spent hours entranced by everything he was told, as well as by the weathered Victorian wooden cabinets and signage within the halls.

O’Flaherty noted that he had never been to Egypt before, noting that work took him there, then he spent longer than originally anticipated, killing the necessary time off UK soil to be allowed entry to the US.

He expressed that he lucked out, noting he was never again going to have the privilege of 5,000 years of glory in front of him without 10,000 people in the queue behind him.

The blogger expressed that walking into the tomb of Ramesses IV in the Valley of Kings, with its cobalt star-covered ceiling and dense, luminescent hieroglyphics, was one of his life’s greater experiences, as well as chasing a litter of kittens around in the shade of the Temple of Isis on the island of Philae.