A photo op in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza lead to quite the amusing moment between Carol and her group’s local escort.
By Carol Bratman, 15-time traveler from Teaneck, NJ
In June of 2010 I took an exceptional trip to Egypt. It was my fourth trip with O.A.T. Egypt had been on my bucket list for a while, but it took the invitation of three travel buddies from a 2006 trip to Guatemala to make me decide to join them. That is one of the advantages of traveling with O.A.T.—you meet like-minded adventurers and make new friends.
One of the first places we visited was Giza where the pyramids and the Sphinx are located. When we disembarked our van to view the Sphinx, our local escort and "protector" joined us. We had nicknamed him "Rambo" due to his physique and the Uzi he carried with him. He was a handsome man with an unexpressive face. I was not sure he even spoke English. He followed us to the viewing area where we had a wonderful view of the Sphinx.
I was so excited to be actually seeing the Sphinx. It was massive and very imposing. While I was snapping away with my camera, a voice behind me said, "Give me your camera." I turned to see Rambo. He was serious, and he was big. And he had a gun. So I did what he asked. As soon as he was holding it in his hand, he indicated where he wanted me to stand and showed me how I should hold my right hand—open and facing upward. Then he knelt and snapped the shot. Aha! I got it! He was positioning me so that it looked like I was holding up the head of the lion. "Very cool," I thought. Then he indicated that I should hold my hand open and facing down. Again he snapped the shot. I smiled and thanked him. Thinking he was finished, I started walking towards him to retrieve my camera. But he stopped me and said, "And now a kiss."
OMG! This is what was going through my mind. How can this be happening? Had I given him any reason to think that he could ask me to kiss him—and in public no less?? How could I say "no" politely? Remember, he was big and had a GUN!! I looked around to see if my guide was anywhere nearby, but he was nowhere to be seen. OK, I said to myself, I will just give him a little peck on his cheek, grab my camera and make a clean getaway. Keep this in mind. I am Jewish and we, like the Italians, kiss people all the time to say hello, goodbye, feel better, congratulations, etc. So how bad could this be? But as I started approaching him with my arms outstretched, he began to back away in horror with his arms outstretched to block my "advances". "No," he cried excitedly, pointing to the Sphinx and saying over and over—"the Sphinx, the Sphinx!"
When I finally realized what was happening, I started laughing (he wasn’t) and shyly apologized. I do have a picture of me kissing the Sphinx instead of Rambo. However, I was a bit embarrassed by this incident and felt I had to tell our guide before Rambo got to him. I told him that I had almost caused the first international incident on this trip. We laughed about it a lot. And from that day until the rest of the trip, whenever I caught Rambo’s eye, I would laugh and blow him a kiss. This is why I love to travel.
Sometimes the lost-in-translation moments make for the best travel memories—perhaps you’ll have your own during Egypt & the Eternal Nile by Private, Classic River-Yacht.
