Tour guides make sure travelers are safe!

It’s lonely amid the Pyramids

From Anders Meanders on the Ins and Outs of Travel (Austin, Texas)

By Helen Anders | Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 09:18 AM

I know five people who just got back from a trip to Egypt — which means I probably know most of the tourists who’ve been in Cairo recently. News reports from the BBC indicate that the city’s hotel rooms that are occupied right now are largely occupied by journalists.


My friends, a family from California, had promised this trip to their high school senior daughter, so they took it despite the hang-wringing of their friends over the political turmoil.


They’re back home. The report: They had the restaurants to themselves. They had the camels to themselves. They had the Pyramids to themselves. Their tour guide carried an automatic rifle.


They had a blast.

COMMENTS

By egypt

December 6, 2011 12:15 PM

Tour guides in Egypt carried machine guns prior to the uprising too. I’m not surprised there aren’t more people there. Would you go to a country that has no government for vacation? I’m sure they got some good deals too.

By egypt too

December 6, 2011 12:37 PM 

I want to double up on the first egypt’s post, I’ve been to Egypt several times too and groups are always escorted by an armed police/military/security person. Pointing this out in the blog makes it sound like an unusually dangerous time when this is routine and has been going on for decades.

     By Helen Anders

     December 6, 2011 2:01 PM 

     Egypt, too — Thanks for that info. I’ve never been to Egypt, and neither had my friends, so they    
     didn’t know that machines guns are plain ol’ everyday accessories for tour guides.

By egypt too

December 6, 2011 4:08 PM 

It is odd at first, but so common in those countries it’s no big deal. On one trip, the tour guide mentioned it was done in part as a job creation mechanism since (according to him) the armed guards were required by their Government for tourists. In some ways it’s comforting to see all the guns as opposed to Texas where they all have to be concealed (that’s somewhere in between a joke and not a joke).