Tellico Village resident Ray Scott has wanted to travel to Egypt ever since he was a boy growing up interested in archaeology.
“I’d been a member of the (Archaeological Institute of America) since I was in my 20s, and I got National Geographic when I was a boy, and I didn’t just look at the naked pictures,” Scott said, laughing. “I was interested in the archaeology.”
He finally got his wish in November after originally planning the trip with his wife, Carol, in 2011. The Egyptian revolution delayed their traveling plans for fear of being in danger.
Ray and Carol have been traveling to places around the world for the past 10 years, averaging three or four trips per year to places like the Caribbean, Greece, Rome, Scandinavia and Russia. Before their trek to Egypt, they visited Turkey in September. Ray estimated the married couple of 57 years has gone to about 30 locations. Ray said Carol agreed to go with him to Egypt despite not sharing an interest in archaeology.
“She really got into it. She was not that interested in archeology,” Ray said. “I mean she jokes about the reason I married her because I like old stuff, and she’s nine months older than I am, and she really wasn’t interested, and then I’m going through the AIA magazine ... and there’s this article or this ad for Dr. Zahi Hawass showing his picture with a 14-day trip and this incredible hotel ... but we were going to go there on a standard cruise at the time of the revolution.”
Carol said she was a little hesitant to go at first but eventually warmed up to the idea once she knew her safety was assured.
“It was much more strenuous than I had expected physically, but it was very, very interesting,” Carol said. “I found out there is so much that I don’t know and haven’t even scratched the surface.”
Ray said going to Egypt for two weeks was “the most fantastic trip” of his life.
“It is just so spectacular,” he said. “You can’t sum it up. And then the Cairo museum, of course, is where you see King Tut’s mask, and it’s just to describe it, you can’t describe the great pyramid or understand it in a picture anymore than you could describe or understand the Grand Canyon. I mean it’s just so massive. It’s 500 and some feet high and how in heavens name — and they’re still arguing on how they did it.”
Ray and Carol, as part of a group of about 35 people, toured the nation with famous Egyptian archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass, and the tourists saw numerous historical locations like the Abu Simbel temple, Kom Ombo temple and the Valley of the Kings.
“We were going into one of these tombs of the pyramid builders, and he (an ancient Egyptian) had written in his description that if you enter my tomb you will be eaten by a crocodile, a hippopotamus and I don’t know what, three things, and I was having a struggle to get up the hill because there’s no steps,” Ray said. “I mean this is something that they don’t allow the public to go to, and so I got up there a little late and Dr. Hawass had already taken people in there.
“So I was the last one,” he added. “Oh, he says ‘Come with me.’ He stops this whole tour taking me in to show me the inscription. You know, this is a guy, he wasn’t looking for glory. He was just an ordinary guy that had taken this tour.”
Hawass even gave a speech between the paws of the Great Sphinx, Ray said.
“I mean, how many get that?” Ray said. “You can’t even touch the Sphinx. It’s like a lot of things they put a rail around it to keep the tourists from damaging it. But it would be almost impossible to tell you what was the best. There are five, maybe six things that stand out as the most amazing, but unlike Rome where you just say, ‘Oh, it was the coliseum, of course,’ you don’t — it’s not like that.”
Next in the couple’s sights is a cruise from Venice to Barcelona in November 2015, Carol said.
They had planned to visit Australia and New Zealand in February but had to reschedule for a later date, Ray said.
“It’s an amazing culture,” Ray said about Egypt. “Egypt, I’ve been studying it all my life. I mean this was the trip of my lifetime. It’s hard. I mean you cover a lot of ground in two weeks.”
Before taking the trip, Ray said people expressed concerns that the nation wasn’t safe for tourists to visit.
“What they’ve done is they’ve divided the country into tourist zones, forbidden zones and the tourist zones — well, first off they know exactly who’s there and you should travel with a group,” Ray said.
Ray said the nation, with a budget that at one point relied 60 percent on tourism, needs more visitors, and safety should not be a concern for those who are thinking about going.
“The reason very simply is they make damn sure you’re safe and because they can’t afford to have someone hurt or killed,” Ray said.
Carol agreed with Ray, saying the trip was secure for tourists.
“It’s very, very important to go with an organized group,” Carol said. “Probably you can’t even get in without an organized group. But a group that — we had armed guards everywhere we went ensuring our safety.”
