Almost there!
We’re getting close to T-minus liftoff for our first international trip since the world abruptly shut down in 2020. Ok we did sneak across the border to visit our close friend Canada for a few days, but…Canada. International Lite for Seattle types, although we did have the sticks-in-noses PCR tests in order to cross the Maine-Canada border. So not Casual Canada any more these days.
And our rusty travel prep skills still work! So far we’ve learned that:
GOOGLE TRANSLATE HELPS US SHOW RESPECT
We taught ourselves to say ‘Do you speak English, please?” in Arabic, with the help of Google Translate. تتكلم الانجليزية من فضل Also how to say please and thank you, like we taught the kids to do. Challenging task for us both, since we are, shall we say, ‘hearing compromised’ and even a little thing like too much background noise can turn the spoken word into an indecipherable muddle.
I want to nominate the phrase, Do you speak English, please? as the most helpful phrase a traveler can learn in another country’s language. The first time I tried using it was in France many years ago. When I said ‘Parlez-vous anglais s’il vous plaît?’ to the shopkeeper, he laughed. Obviously some wretched French had just come out of my mouth. But here’s the thing: Then he was nice to me, and very helpful. This happened over and over in France, while other Americans on our trip reported surly encounters with shopkeepers. Seems that the French appreciate when Americans at least make the effort, even if we’re butchering their language.
In Italy, I tried out my awful Italian on an Assisi shopkeeper when I attempted to purchase a small St. Francis/St. Clare icon painting. ‘Parli inglese, per favore?’ I inquired, in my halting Italian, and she shook her head ‘no’. But then she snatched the lira out of my hand, thrust the bills in my face, and scolded me in rapid Italian for something, I didn’t know what.
Turns out I was trying to give her the equivalent of $100 in lira, instead of $10, and she was teaching me the difference. She could have pocketed that money, but no. She tried to help me.
That icon souvenir sits on my nightstand to this day, as a reminder of the kindness of strangers. We probably don’t have to learn a word of Arabic to have a good trip since we are travelling with English-speaking guides. But when we TRY, even badly, even when we don’t need to, we show respect for Egyptians and Egyptian culture.
Same reason we’ll wear long pants, cover our elbows, and I’ll toss a scarf around my neck as soon as we land. We can show our new Egyptian friends respect in these simple, visible ways. I’m confident that if we do so, we’ll be treated with respect and kindness in return.
EVERYONE LOVES LUGGAGE HACKS
We have packed and repacked, since this is another one of our multi-destination, multi-month journeys, where we’ll head straight to Key West after the Egypt trip. It’s just crazy, trying to pack for several months of multi-climate travel! Trying out a neat new trick this year, though, which may solve the shoe problem – always too many shoes.
The trick is called “Stuff entire suitcase in a UPS box and mail the whole thing to your final destination.” Seriously. We’re giving it a go this time, since we don’t need Key West essentials like snorkel gear and the pool ducky to climb inside the Pyramids.
UPS for the win, we hope, and thank you very much brutal airline restrictions. Also doesn’t help that carryon luggage must contain enough supplies to survive cancelled flights, disappeared luggage (both of which we survived last August) and maybe the zombie apocalypse. And good luck squeezing your stuff under the seats in front of you. Evil airplane moneymakers have even reduced the size of the book pockets on the back of the seats – lucky to fit a twinkie in there, let alone a substantial novel, which I always seem to be lugging around.
VACCINATION QR CODES ARE THE NEXT BIG THING!
The hardest part of prep for this trip? Figuring out what Covid documentation we need to 1) board our JFK flight and 2) land in Cairo, when these tired, nervous travelers will stand before Egyptian officials to be judged worthy of entry. I’ve scoured travel forum boards, and found the answer to two burning questions: 1) What is a vaccine QR code, and why might you need one even if you’re not travelling internationally? 2) Do we need to fork out $400 for a PCR Covid test, or not?
First, you would think the US Egyptian Embassy (where I started), CDC, and your own travel agency would be the best places to look for this information. You would be wrong. They’re getting better, but requirements sometimes change overnight, and tracking them can be a full-time job, even for government official types. So the people who know what’s really happening at the ticket gates, the boarding door, and the passport control desks in each country are……travelers, who have to deal with the requirements in real-time.
That said, the official ‘travel requirement’ setters are always the government, either US or EGYPT’s (or whatever country you hope to enter). The best ‘interpreters’ of government requirements that I’ve found are IATA and SHERPA.
And here’s where the firehouse of online information plays its part, especially Facebook travel groups and Tripadvisor forums.
On these, I’ve read current trip reports from people who have actually faced a stern passport control agent in Egypt, or argued with an airline gate official who didn’t know the regulations, or used the CLEAR app’s QR code to enter Egypt. Now that’s useful information: What actually happened to you, when you showed them (name of document)?
Sure, one must beware of disinformation. Yet travel forum participants aren’t usually there to push a political agenda; rather, they’re seeking accurate information (which you can’t get from advertisements or companies selling stuff). It’s true that some of the people on forums are tour guides posing as tourists to sell you a camel ride, but you can spot those guys pretty easily.
In the last week or two, things have become much more consistent in terms of what’s happening on the ground, as reported on the forums, as more American tourists enter Egypt. ‘Consistent’ to me, means ‘probably true’ and it confirms that we need: 1) vaccine cards with QR codes, and our real CDC vaccine paper card. We do not need expensive PCR tests, although we would need them if we weren’t vaccinated, or if we didn’t have a vaccine card QR code. (note: This is just for Egypt. Other countries may be different.)
Whew! That’s so confusing. The forums have been absolutely lit up about QR codes, because it is not that easy to actually get a QR code in the good old US of A. That’s because the common CDC card doesn’t link you to one (thanks to a 1998 law prohibiting any national database of…oh never mind. No politics today).
So a QR code is that thing you point your phone camera at to make a menu pop up on your screen. Vaccine QR codes link your phone to an online record of your vaccine information. That’s it. Tourists report that Egyptian officials in Cairo never actually scan your QR code, and don’t even seem to have the machines to do so; they just want to see that you have one. Ok then, we have one. Actually, we have three. And paper copies.
So how do you get one? Some US states provide them; our state does not. You can create one with the free CLEAR Health Pass* app, which is what we did (*don’t pay for the full Clear app. The Health Pass is free). Riteaid, where we got our vaccines, also gave us one, as do several other vaccine providers. Best part is that all these apps are free.
We also created another one with a new CDC app called V-safe, since tourists reported that Egypt likes that one. By the way, CDC’s V-safe IS a national database, but it’s voluntary and they state EXPLICITLY that it’s not an official record (think that 1998 law…). and for those who might be concerned that the government is tracking your every move? What’s that in your hand, a cell phone, you say? Ha. So no, we aren’t worried about being tracked. Have at it, trackers.
If I’m wrong I’ll come back and revise this (and I’ll be at home in the recliner or quarantined in Cairo) but I’m 97% sure I’m right.
And you just may want get your very own QR code, even if you’re not going to Egypt next week. More entities in the US are accepting them as proof of vaccination, even the NFL. We spend a few days in New York before our trip, and we’ll flash our QR codes to enter a Broadway show, eat in restaurants, and attend a live taping of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday, November 15th! (We’ll wave to everyone!).
OFF TO THE BIG APPLE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK!
Well, it looks as if my 24-year old travel dream to ‘get to Egypt someday is actually going to happen. So this trip is for my 24-year old self, and also for my grandpa and all those ancestor sea captains, who yearned to know what was around the next headland, just like I do.
Grandpa used to say something like, “If you can’t do it, do it any way. Just figure it out.” This was the guy who, when his stroke made walking difficult, made Dad deliver an adult tricycle to the nursing home so he could ride it in the basement. (Planning another escape, I’m sure.) So he figured it out. And travelers everywhere today are figuring it out, us included. And we are so, so excited to have this chance to travel once again.
So off we go!
Thanks as always, for following along.