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Writer's pictureLauren Thyme

EGYPT – A PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Updated: Jan 25, 2021


Lauren in her Iseum / Temple of Hathor, Sekhmet and Anubis

I had wanted to travel to Egypt for the last 42 years, but somehow never managed to get there. Then two years ago, an Egyptian goddess dressed all in gold appeared to me while I was in a meditation, who encouraged me to go to Egypt as soon as possible. My boyfriend Paul and I had planned a three-month trip of sacred sites to Italy, Greece and Crete this year, so I thought it would be a wonderful idea to include Egypt in the itinerary.

I signed up for a metaphysical tour in March, which was abruptly cancelled after an attack on tourists. I thought to myself, "Somehow this must be perfect." Then one of our timeshare weeks in Italy was also cancelled suddenly. Again I thought, "This must be perfect, too."

Then my dear friend Lynn Maurine from Mystical Journeys contacted me with an amazing offer -- the "Ambassadors of Peace" tour -- 8 days in Egypt, including round-trip airfare from New York to Cairo, staying in 5-star hotels, all breakfasts, land transportation and air travel within Egypt – all for only $1,390!! "What a great deal," I thought and reserved my space immediately. It turns out this particular tour coincided with the cancelled timeshare week. Hmmm. Interesting creation.

Once I had signed up for the tour, I hardly thought about it. I mostly live in present time, so it’s hard for me to get excited about a future that doesn’t exist yet. However, an inner part of myself relaxed, knowing I was finally visiting the place I had yearned to see for so long, but had only traveled to in my dreams and meditations. I would later realize that no matter how much I could have imagined this mystical place, I could never have anticipated the unprecedented miracles, wonderment, beauty, synchronicities and memories I experienced on this trip of a lifetime.

Pardon me while I digress for a moment to cover a subject that has concerned many people I’ve talked to. My friends and relatives cautioned me about going to Egypt, because of the terrorist attack on some tourists last November. However, I felt perfectly safe both before and during my sojourn in Egypt. In fact, I walked through back streets of Cairo at 1:00 am with a new Egyptian friend and felt completely secure. I couldn’t say the same about Los Angeles!

Part of our tour included meeting with His Excellency, the Minister of Tourism. He told us the Egyptian government had taken extra precautions and commissioned special police and army personnel at all monuments and temples. He professed sadness that so many tourists were afraid to come to Egypt because of the media’s coverage. I think it would be similar to people being afraid to visit New York City because of the bombing of the World Trade Center, or Oklahoma because of the terrible tragedy in Oklahoma City. The Minister further indicated that many State Departments, including the USA, had come to Egypt after the incident and within a very few weeks had given Egypt a complete bill of health for tourism. Is Egypt safe? Absolutely! (The same is true years later in 2018 after the Egyptian Spring as spiritual tour groups can attest to)