Closing out the year of 2024, is our final dispatch, Part II of our time in Egypt. In the prior dispatch, we showcased the hot air balloon, the sights of the pyramids, and the beginnings of Upper Egypt at Luxor. This time we go even further. What made this journey back to Egypt so special was that it was more emotional than any in the past. It was my first visit back, without my father, to a place I have been going to since I was a teenager. Egypt was the second destination Big Five started, having been there 40 of our 51 years. The fact that my second-father Gamal lives in Cairo with my second-mother and my chosen sisters meant even more. We finally were able to reflect on my father’s life together, as a family. And in true fashion, this part of the journey pushed the envelope even further.
This part of the dispatch started normally as we headed overland from Luxor to Aswan as we do every year. I wasn’t sure what we were in store for as the first part of the drive, which is normally quick, took longer due to the main road being closed as a new pass was being built. Once we cleared Edfu, we hit the highway to Aswan. It was somewhere between Edfu and Kom Ombo that an epiphany happened, an idea for a new tour, that has never been done before in Egypt. I cannot talk about it yet, so stay tuned.
In Kom Ombo, there was a slight chuckle as one of the vendors outside the temple thought I was Egyptian and decided to try his Arabic. Now, I had a few words in my vocabulary my mother and aunt taught me, since they are natives of Sudan. Yet, those words didn’t come out the way I had envisioned, my cover was blown! Next thing you know the vendor and I are laughing as he is rattling off Bollywood actors asking if I know. I had to channel my inner Adam Sandler at certain names and wag my finger, saying, “Not an Indian!” The drive was well worth it as we got to my favorite hotel in Egypt, the Old Cataract. Seeing all the familiar faces was great and even keeping my etiquette in form coming face to face with a certain royal family who was also in residence made the stay all worthwhile.
It was after we got back to Cairo that I told the group, the day before our last day, this was where Egypt stopped, and Big Five began. Boy is that an understatement! Heading out to Dashur, where I love visiting since it is so quiet and serene compared to the famous pyramid complex, we started #bigfivin. Oh, did we ever! First came a local breakfast in a local community no foreigner knows about, dishes that included my favorite cheese, all being served. It brought back memories of the food I had when visiting my family in Sudan as a child, making me homesick for the food my mother still makes today.
Carrying on from there was the experience I mentioned earlier that I can only talk about but cannot show footage. As part of our commitment to supporting local archaeologists who don’t get the TV time and fame they deserve, we visited the virtually unknown Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III, which dates back to the late Middle Kingdom, around 2000 BC. Not since 1983, had any non-researcher set foot into the maze under the mud-thatch pyramid, which looks like no other pyramid. It was here that my father started talking to me. I am pretty sure he heard me say “holy %$#t “as we entered the maze. This was a vision I told him about two years ago that we were fulfilling; opening a new chapter in how Egypt is visited and where those who do the real work are seen and heard.
The end of the day was complete with a visit like no other. We visited a women’s cooperative that has been on our radar that helps support women from difficult home-life situations. The work being done here is inspirational as this community does all the embroidery work on the Pashmina scarfs we give our Big Five guests. I can’t wait to show you what develops here.
Walking back to the bus, my limbs went weak, the adrenalin finally left my body. It was here, that I finally missed my father, and took a moment to myself.
What ya think Dad?
Back In 2014, I was in shock when Big Five won the first of what would later be three of the Virtuoso sustainable tourism awards. At the time I was recovering in my hotel room after being under the weather when the phone rang over and over again. When I noticed the missed calls and heard the voicemails, each one started with the same message. “Where are you? you won!” honestly, I was stunned and overcome with emotion as I really didn’t expect to win, considering the great work others were doing. It was an affirmation that the journey we had embarked on 10 years before was indeed the right one, moving all in on sustainable tourism, a bold move that many years ago. We knew we were ahead of the curve and that the travel world was heading this way, and we would not waiver no matter what. It was in 2004 when we made this shift and knew this would define us as a company going forward as it was the foundation of Big Five. The notion of social responsibility was the entire reason I left a Fortune 500 financial firm to come back to the family business in 2002.
Once I made my way to the room, fashionably late of course, and received my award, I walked over to my mentor, who was sitting in the audience and asked him the same question I ask after receiving any award. “Did we earn this?” I was fully prepared to surrender the award, our first Virtuoso Sustainable Tourism Leadership award, if we didn’t earn it. I felt that strongly about the belief in giving a voice to the voiceless. Once I was comfortable receiving the award, I left the room quietly and called my parents, waking my father back in Florida. I exclaimed. We won with whatever voice I had left before crumbling into tears of joy. I heard my mother cry, and I heard my father clearly say, “We are not supposed to be here, but we dared to believe. Your mother and I are so proud of you.” He was emotional, too, though he was half asleep, so it was hard to hear a discernible difference. That moment was etched into my memory.
Fast forward to 2016, our second nomination. This time, my mother was home, recovering from a health scare earlier in the year while visiting family in India. My father was with me. He sat at a cheery table with friends from Direct Travel, and I sat at a table with friends from different adventure companies. I didn’t realize it but the last time we were both together like this was my college graduation! Big Five is called as the winner again, and I go racing up to the stage excited to meet my father up there, again overcome with emotion, this time because the images of my mother entered my thoughts immediately. You see, I watched my parents struggle from nothing when we arrived in America. They watched me struggle. At 17, I was told by many that I would never amount to what I believed I could be and that I should lower my expectations. It was the same when my father started hearing that about his future. It made our presence on that stage even more of a special occurrence. I didn’t know it yet; that would be the last time my father and I were ever in the same place again to receive an earned accolade.
In March of 2024, as many of you know, I lost my father to a head injury. This year’s VTW was my first without him, and we were nominated again for the Sustainable Tourism Leadership Award. To this day, I have to share all the drawers of trophies I have, academic and sports, which meant nothing because my father wasn’t there to watch them being received. The only award I cared about, and still care about, is this one. As our name was called for a rare third-time winner, all I could think about was my father. A jolt of energy like I had never felt before ran through me, and I just knew! my father was in the room. Overcome by emotions, all I could see was my father’s eyes, filled with pride. You may see a photo of me accepting, and yes, I was ugly crying. Those of you who have lost a parent know that they are always with you and likely know this energy I am talking about. I had never felt it to this degree like I did on this day. As I walked back to the table, award in hand, I looked up and said one thing… “What ya think Dad.” It was a day I will never forget.
The foundation project that allowed us this honor and put us in rare company funds the delivery of robots named mini Kipi to remote, underserved communities in Peru, providing education and preserving Indigenous languages in danger of being lost. Mini Kipi speaks 13 of the over 40 dialects in Peru and is growing. We brought her to Las Vegas to demonstrate a fraction of her capabilities for our advisor partners. This week’s video shares that experience.
