April 2012 Archives - Roamancing

Falling in Love with Egypt, Thanks to it’s People

April 25, 2012 by Erica Hargreave 9 Comments

Travelling through the Hurghada Food Market

When asked why travel? My answer may include things like having new experiences, tasting new flavours, and seeing beautiful places, but in my heart of hearts, travel is about the people for me. Meeting local people and gaining understanding from them by learning more about their cultures.

A young girl helping her family out in the market.

Egypt is no different. I have fallen in love with Egypt, thanks to the people, who have welcomed me, been patient with me and taken the time to share their culture and their stories with me.

A young lady I met that was fascinated by the pigeons.

I am especially reminded of this whenever I visit the local food markets of a destination, like this one in Hurghada.

Taking a moment from selling his onions to talk to us.

I can lie on a beach and swim anywhere in the World. For my travels, I want to be whisked away to a new land where I can connect with the people that live there. There is often no better place to do this, then the local market, where many find both food and companionship.

A young fellow happily helping out in the market.

A thank you to the Egyptian people for welcoming me.

PS. In Full Disclosure: As always, the opinions and thoughts shared here are our own and honest ones. We are bought out by no one. In the spirit of disclosure, it should be noted that on this trip, our expenses were paid by Egyptian Tourism, as a guest to the country and the UNWTO Media and Tourism Conference.

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, Egypt, Erica Hargreave, Middle East, Our Travelers Tagged With: Egypt, food markets, Hurghada, local markets, travel is about people

‘Anthro… What?’ from the Road to Fayoum

April 22, 2012 by Erica Hargreave 5 Comments

*Updated with the answer. Congratulations to Giulia Cimarosti of Travel Reportage and Kathlyn Clore for figuring it out.*

Was booting down the road to Fayoum, Egypt today (love that I can say that) and I saw these structures. I was curious as to what these were, as their architecture wasn’t quite like anything I’d seen from the Egyptian homes. So we hopped out of the landrover and a closer look.

So do you know what these are, if not homes? Any guesses? We will post hints on facebook, twitter and google+, until someone guesses their actual purpose.

Your first hint? These structures go on for miles and miles.

The Answer:

So what are these communities of seemingly empty structures, sitting in the desert like a ghost town? Well, the term ‘ghost town’ is quite fitting for them, as this is Fayoum’s City of the Dead. In essence it is a great big cemetery of family plots, set up in a dense grid of tomb and mausoleum structures. Our guide was unsure if people of Muslim, Christian or Jewish decent were buried here, or if the cementery was multi-denominational, although we suspect it was.

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, Contests, Egypt, Erica Hargreave, Middle East, Our Travelers Tagged With: anthro ... what?, City of the Dead, Egypt, Fayoum, Fayoum City of the Dead

Enjoying Egyptian Breakfast Favourites in Cairo

April 21, 2012 by Erica Hargreave 6 Comments

Waking up in Cairo after my first true nights sleep here this trip, to the sounds of Cairo, a view of the Nile and exciting visions of what today’s Egyptian breakfast might entail!

Through a foggy jet lagged brain, after a 4 am arrival in Cairo yesterday, I was kindly looked after by the team at the Fairmont Cairo Nile City, who charmingly taught me about a few Egyptian breakfast favourites – both healthy and delicious, and exactly what I needed for my sleep deprived body. I enjoyed myself so much so that I admittedly whiled away a peaceful 2-hours at breakfast.

Best beans I've ever tasted!

The first I was somewhat leary about, as it basically translated to beans for breakfast and I have never really been a bean person. That all changed with one deliciously tasty bite.

So what was the bean and what did they do to it? It was the fava bean steamed, which doesn’t really sound like much, but they mix in a bit of olive oil, ground red pepper, cumin, salt and lemon juice to taste. And taste it did … delicious!

The second dish was Egyptian porridge and I am already a porridge girl, so this didn’t take much selling.

http://www.facebook.com/FairmontNC

The porridge is a wheat, and what seems to make it truly Egyptian is what they added to it ~ chopped pistachio nuts, raisins, and I have to double check on this one this morning at breakfast, but I believe, cinnamon. Most enjoyable!

I’d go back for more of both of these this morning, but I have been promised a new Egyptian delicacy. Can’t wait!

Filed Under: All Aboard!, Around the World, Egypt, Erica Hargreave, Events, Middle East, Our Travelers, Tasty Morsels Tagged With: Cairo, Egypt, Egyptian Breakfast, Egyptian food, Egyptian Porridge, Fairmont Cairo Nile City, fava beans

Discovering Little Woo in India

April 16, 2012 by Emme Rogers Leave a Comment

One of the things that I have been loving about Roamancing (aside from all our wonderful adventures, exploring cultures and meeting interesting people around the World) is all the great storytellers I have been discovering elsewhere on the web. That is exactly how I started my day today, by opening up my ‘inbox’ to find a suggestion from one of our travellers, Alyzee Lakhani, on a site I should check out.

The site, is that of a Vancouver spiritual activist, burlesque performer, artist and blogger, Little Woo, who is off exploring India at the moment. Alyzee sent it to me, as her travel videos are beautiful, and she wasn’t kidding, they conjure up the sights, sounds and magic that I imagined from my storybooks of India, as a small child. I enjoyed them so much that I am going to share them here.

Journey in Jaipur