In November we traveled to Egypt and Jordan, finally realizing a trip cancelled by the Arab Spring in 2011.
When we talked about this trip, friends and family asked about safety. Happily for us, we stayed safe and felt safe. Our edgiest time was going to dinner, when we crossed a Cairo street with four lanes of traffic in both directions, with no stop signs or signals to stop or slow down traffic. Cairo traffic is very heavy, and we had no problems, using our experience crossing streets in Hanoi.
Highlights for us were Egyptian antiquities, Islamic art, the pyramids, Luxor temples, and Petra.
Our trip had three parts: Cairo, a Nile cruise, and Jordan. Flights are shown with dashed lines.
We started with five nights in Cairo, where we saw antiquities, art, and pyramids. In this photo of our camel ride at the pyramids, I’m on the camel in the bottom-left corner, turning around and holding the camera with both hands to take this photo with my camel’s silhouette, camels, and the pyramids. Compare the height of the men walking to the camels to see that sitting on a camel’s hump is higher than a person.
Our four-night Nile cruise started at Luxor, where the Karnak and Luxor temples are amazingly huge.
The highlight of our week in Jordan was Petra. On our first night we walked through a long, narrow gorge for the Petra by Night program. Using only candlelight, this photo took a 30-second exposure with the lens wide open. Notice all the people and how still each person sat for the 30 seconds, listening to the two guys facing us on the right. Click on the photo for an enlargement showing the stars in the sky.
The Best 5 Years 
I’ve not been to Egypt, but loved Jordan. We went to a night concert, too, such a magical experience!
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