Boldly Go Solo

Travel blog, Boldly Go Solo, reaches milestone. Sort of.

"Friends tell me I'm brave to travel solo. C'mon, now. Neil Armstrong was brave. Ulysses S. Grant was brave. The guy who invented bungee jumping and decided to be the first off the bridge was brave. Me? I just like to travel."

That's what I wrote on the very first post on this blog back in November 2007. This post is now my 200th entry on a blog I was willing to give one year of my time to see what it would bring me. Fame? Fortune? A book deal? A permanent travel partner...as in, the blog would therefore die?

None of these things have happened. But every time I thought about stopping this rather time-intensive endeavor, some kind reader would send in a nice comment about how they just landed on my blog and [fill in flattering observation here]. Each time, it provided a warm and fuzzy feeling and kept me going a few more weeks.

On the disappointing side (besides still lacking the aforementioned fame and fortune), I've gotten less participation and interaction than I'd hoped. But nevermind. People are busy. They lurk. They scan quickly. At least I can see by the numbers that people are still clicking on the site and the numbers grow, little by little, as time goes on.

I've been pleased to learn how to do things like add a slide show of travel photos, or a twitter widget that enabled me to post daily via BlackBerry from Egypt. The blog has painlessly (okay, not completely painlessly) helped me update my technology skills as I struggled to post stories with video, photos and the like.

To my loyal readers, as well as my new ones, thanks for reading. Now, tell your friends and other solo travelers about the site. I could use the clicks!

Much appreciated.

Photo: Ellen Perlman. Sunset over the Nile, from Luxor Hilton's infinity pool.

Egypt: Go solo or go solo with a tour?

 The Pyramids at Giza, the Sphinx and the Nile are generally what come to mind when people imagine Egypt. Fewer people know much about the temples at Abydos, Dendara, Edfu and Kom Ombo, to name a few of the ancient sites. A slide show below, once you continue reading on the next page, gives a small taste of the beauty and mystery of some of the antiquities.

Egypt seems a relatively safe place to visit solo, due to high security and a major police presence, but not necessarily an easy one. (See comments below re: safety) Vendors are aggressive and men likely will stare at women on the streets who aren't dressed modestly.

Few temples are labeled well, so if you go alone, you would benefit from hiring an English-speaking guide or getting a very detailed book about what you're seeing. The same is true of much of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was handy to have our guide explaining what we were seeing and its importance to Egyptian life and culture.

On the other hand, the Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum in Luxor, were well labeled and interesting and you could do those on your own easily. 

Now that I know the lay of the land at, for example, Kom Ombo, I could see how it would be easy to book your own Nile cruise, hop onto a horse and buggy at the dock where the carriages pile up waiting for tourists, and head for the temple.

Let Twitter be your companion, when you're missing the real thing

For solo travelers, twitter.com can be a beautiful thing.

Many people who hesitate to travel alone complain that they have no one to share the experience with. I found that downloading random thoughts about my travels in Egypt was hugely satisfying as a sharing technique. I sent off mini-blog posts just about anywhere I was.

I did it via a BlackBerry set to operate in Egypt. I realize not everyone is going to have this brilliant little piece of technology (are they for rent anywhere?) But Internet cafes can also work.

With twitter, all you do is sign up and start typing an answer to the question, "What are you doing?" People can go to your site and read your pithy answers.

Why twitter rather than email friends and family? It's six of one, half dozen of the other to some degree... but with twitter, you don't have to type in a lot of email addresses. You just jot your thoughts and they're available for anyone to read.

Since you're only allowed 140 characters or less (about 20-25 words) you need to be short and sweet. But you can write more than one post, so the limit isn't that limiting. I could write about ancient ruins one moment, and about the beautiful dessert at the luxury hotel the next.

My friends and family members remarked that they felt like they were right there on the trip with me. And that they enjoyed reading about it as it was happening. And I liked not having to buy stamps!

Photos: Ellen Perlman.

Rug factory shop, Sakkara, Egypt.

Dessert at poolside restaurant,

Luxor Hilton Resort and Spa

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Photos of Egyptians from many walks of life

Nubians with their dark skin and galabeyas. Women in colorful head scarves or abayas. Children shouting "hello" and "Obama, Obama" to Americans. Egyptian families visiting the Pyramids during school vacation. Vendors at Khan El Khalili, the Cairo souk.

If you've been to Egypt you can imagine the colorful chaos of the place. If you haven't, the slide show below offers a look at the faces of Egypt.

If you're a solo traveler, taking photos like these breaks the wall between tourist and local and often leads to conversations and connections. It's a good reason to take photos, even if you're not the best photographer.

But always ask first. Not everyone wants his or her photo taken. And in Egypt it's quite common, at tourist sites in particular, for locals to hang out all day for the express purpose of being in a photo and then pressing you for baksheesh (a tip) for the privilege.

Luxor, Egypt. The last of the tweets. Hibiscus, cartouches and eye of Horus

Many people bring cartouches home from Egypt. When you see them on the walls at temples they are oblong carvings filled with hieroglyphics giving information about the luminaries.

Some people buy cartouche necklaces with their names in hieroglyphics. Others buy imitations of the temple walls. I bought a key chain just for the memory. I wasn't much into buying things on this trip. Seeing the antiquities satisfied.

Read the last of the tweets from Egypt to the right. (At this point you should go to twitter.com/boldlygosolo and scroll down to the first two weeks of February to read about Egypt.)

Coming soon, photos of the people of Egypt and the temples and tombs and feluccas and the Nile and more. Just as soon as I go through some of my 1,500-plus photos. Yikes!

Photo: Ellen Perlman. Queen/pharoah Hatshepsut, Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Another few days of tweets from Egypt: Luxor. No, not the one in Vegas

Nile Cruise is over. Now we have several days in Luxor before returning to crazy Cairo.

Keep reading updates to the right! (unless there's somewhere I haven't been able to connect.) (At this point you should go to twitter.com/boldlygosolo and scroll down to the first two weeks of February to read about Egypt.)

Our hotel is the Luxor Hilton on the Eastern bank of the Nile. The dinner buffet has a gorgeous array of salads, breads and dishes, in addition to a pasta station. And in the afternoon, we got a delivery of sweets on a glass tray. Several choices of baklava type desserts. Yum!

Tweets from Egypt: Abu Simbel, Aswan, Edfu, Valley of the Kings

Keep reading updates on travel around Egypt. To your right. (At this point you should go to twitter.com/boldlygosolo and scroll down to the first two weeks of February to read about Egypt.)

Tweets from Egypt: the souk, feluccas on the Nile, the Jewish Quarter and Coptic Cairo .

Okay, twitter is working here in Egypt so I will continue to send short updates, as you can see on the right. (At this point you should go to twitter.com/boldlygosolo and scroll down to the first two weeks of February to read about Egypt.)

On the itinerary for Thursday: Visits to the Giza Pyramids, Sphinx and Saqqara. Also, visits to a papyrus shop and a carpet factory. (Sounds like a lot for one day!)

Today, in addition to a sunrise felucca cruise on the Nile, we toured toured the Egyptian Museum and visited Khan El Khalili Old Market. We also visited a church in Old Coptic Cairo and the Ben Ezra Jewish Synagogue, built in 882. Tweets on right.

I wish I could post photos but they will have to wait.

Egypt. A civilization dating back to Third Millennium BCE (before the common era)

I want to say that I'm winging my way to Egypt as we speak. But we're not speaking and I don't know when exactly you're reading this. So I'll say this: I'm headed to Egypt Monday night, where I will be for two weeks.

Yes, Egypt. Land of pyramids and papyrus shops, Memphis and museums, falafel and feluccas, Cairo and camels. I'm hoping beyond hope to twitter daily to the Web site (look up to your right and you will see twitter feeds.) So keep checking in to the site.

As for the solo part...I am going with a bunch of other travel writers but I haven't met most of them and I don't know who I'll hit it off with or who I'll be eating dinner with each night.

So it's like any other group trip I go on. I'm going alone, letting someone else do the planning and hoping that I will make friends. And, ideally, laugh my head off with them. Barring that, find reasonable people to pass the time with.

But if not, as my friend Stuart says, I have books, an iPod and my imagination to entertain me in between sightseeing. Egypt most definitely is not the type of place I'd tour on my own. Many of my readers are much braver souls than I. To repeat, I'm your average Jane, a working stiff who does travel writing on the side and takes vacation time in spurts, where and when I can get it.

That is, I'm like most people who go to work somewhere five days a week, and haven't set aside months or years to travel the world.

Anyway, I hope I can keep you posted during the two weeks. Let you know about the people I've met. Tell you about what I'm seeing. Fill you in on any tips for solo travelers. I've heard there's no Internet service on our three-day Nile cruise so there will definitely be a gap in reporting then.

So far the extent of my language skills: "Fein hammam." Or, "Where, toilet?"
And, "shokram." "Thank you." 

Caio for now.

Photo: Crashsystems