Luxor Diary
21:45
Since Uja and I arrived in Luxor on October, we have explored the busy streets of the infamous Pharaoh land, as well as the sweeping panoramas of Aswan. Excited to be completely immersed in "land of the dead experience", we made the most of our ten days adventure in these places.
"It's surreal that after thousand of years later, the temples and the palaces were still intact piece by piece. Totally amazing."
As soon as we settled in a hostel that is owned by an Australian, Mia - it was time for us to swap the view from the rail for the city at the bank of Nile River and the history concealed within.
"I've been really enjoying our journey here, Nash."
It was only my second time in Luxor after three years ago. Some people would say that I was not quite eligible to be sort-of guide for Uja but hey, I did my job with flying colours.
The key to everything in travelling is confidence. Even if people said something nasty behind your back, just held your head high and be confident. Show how confident you are. Ignore negative thinking and those unpleasant people.
"I've been really enjoying our journey here, Nash."
It was only my second time in Luxor after three years ago. Some people would say that I was not quite eligible to be sort-of guide for Uja but hey, I did my job with flying colours.
The key to everything in travelling is confidence. Even if people said something nasty behind your back, just held your head high and be confident. Show how confident you are. Ignore negative thinking and those unpleasant people.
Our first stop was the Colossal of Mormon. We spent fifteen-minutes admiring the two giant statues, and exploring Madinat Hebu temple while withstanding the forty-degrees heat.
Uja and I later met up with Jie and Asa, adventurous duo Chinese traveller that has been travelling together since they were in Armenia. We were in Hatshepsut Temple when we're having a discussion to go into Wadi Haifa together.
Throughout our journey, we've shown who we are underneath the scarfs appearances to the people that we meet along the way. We've shown kindness, compassion even when they were in need of Arabic-English translators. I've helped translated every single words in Ammiyah Arabic just because the wandering guide didn't speak English. We even helped some tourists from being cheated of paying the clearly overpriced mineral water and three can of Coca-Colas.
Still, we've got enough amount of nasty eyes just because we are clearly Muslim. They expressed such a terrified look whenever they saw us. The stigma of saying that all Muslim is bad people is affecting us all, but Uja and I marched on. We need to set a good example to these people, letting they know that we are plain normal, just like the rest of the people of the world. We're living our daily life just like yours.
I even experienced the prejudice against Muslims when I was in Europe few months back.
It's okay.
Despite of all that, I've made a lot of new friends. New friends that are not judging us based on our appearances only. They bothered about us, they were curious, they asked anything that they wanted to ask and we were happy to answer.
When you set out to see the world, I promise that you will see many incredible people that will see you and treat you for who you really are.
Faith in humanity restored.
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