myTravelPatch Egypt

From our Cairo hotel we see the great Giza pyramids. Breathtaking. Our first night we visit the Pyramids and Sphinx for an evening sound n' light show. With booming speakers and colored lights, the pyramids are illuminated. If you did nothing else in Cairo, this should be it. With several thousand folding chairs available for tourists…we were among maybe 25 witnessing the light show (a little discerning. :) In what became a theme elsewhere on the Nile...no tourists. Our cruise ship is maybe 40% capacity, with dozens of empty ships moored on the Nile banks. Two political revolutions in the last 5 years has crushed Egyptian tourism. Everyone here seems to be holding on until the hoped-for tourism rebound. Politics, Sisi's rise to power, Muslim Brotherhood, Terrorists are all freely discussed topics. From what I observe; they love Sisi. It seems hard to imagine the hard-line Islamists returning to power. Coptic (Christian) churches mixed with Mosques make Egypt appear open to religious tolerance. Woman freely walk about without head-cover, drive automobiles, work the shops. This is not Syria or Iran or Saudi, and the Egyptians are proud of their freedoms.