If we had to sum up our past month into one word, it would be “chaotic.”

After visiting Finland, a country where no one ever approached us, we hopped down to Egypt, a country where just about everyone approached us.

We began our time in Egypt with an unfortunate start. We got a bad case of food poisoning from something we ate before we flew to Egypt, perhaps the airline food, and we were throwing up rivers for two days. Thankfully, our immune systems kicked in real good, and we downed a couple packets of Emergen-C and Liquid I.V. (gifted to us from our Amazon Wishlist) that got us back up and running.

We started our journey in Cairo, where we woke up to a view of the Pyramids of Giza every morning, rode the sweetest camels for three hours across the desert, and ate our body’s weight in traditional Egyptian foods. Streets raced with cars, ATVs, camels, horses, donkeys, and pedestrians, and there truly wasn’t a quiet moment throughout the day. Smells of all kinds loomed in the air, and the powerful Egyptian sun never failed to make a striking entrance every morning at 6 AM. This, all, is what we like to call “chaos, in the greatest way.”

An overnight train brought us down to Luxor, where we rode a hot air balloon over the city at sunrise and visited ancient temples of magnificent grandeur. The amount of history we learned was (honestly) more than our little brains could hold!

From Luxor, we transported over to Esna, where we boarded a stunning dahabiya boat and began our five day expedition down the Nile River. Upon our arrival, we were surprised with an upgrade into their panoramic suite, which made our journey all the more sweeter, and we wore the biggest smiles on our faces for the whole ride. We had the opportunity to swim in the Nile, visit local islands with endless plots of farmland, and tour temples and quarries off the banks of the river.

The dahabiya boat brought us down to Aswan, our final destination in Egypt, and we visited a Nubian village that provided a henna tattoo for my left hand and a bag of fine spices for our home kitchen. As we were saying our farewells to our time in Egypt, we were pulled aside by a policeman in the Aswan airport, furious at us for filming b-roll shots of us walking into the airport. He got incredibly close (we’re talking one inch away from Chad’s face) and yelled at us, before grabbing our camera and deleting all of our footage. Before letting us free, he threatened to take us, and keep us, in his “special room” if he ever saw us even touch our camera, and he made it very clear that he had thousands of security cameras around the airport watching us closely. A bit of a shocking end to Egypt, but nothing that could top all of our wonderful moments in the country!

Travel hack of the month—

Using a VPN for security and convenience! Ever since the July of 2021, when we departed the States for full-time travel, we have been using a VPN on all our devices. We haven’t traveled to any country where we didn’t have our VPN on, and this is why:

1. Safety and security on our laptops and phones when we use public wifi. (For example– it gives us peace of mind when we’re accessing our bank accounts, or other private pages, in public spaces. We don’t have to worry about our information getting stolen or our accounts getting hacked.)

2. Ability to change our device location. (When in another country, we can change our location to the US, allowing us to access our Patreon account or watch Netflix shows only available in the States.)

We have been using NordVPN, and we highly recommend their services, not because they sponsor us, but because we genuinely use them every single day on every device we own. Whether you travel the world, or simply just visit a coffee shop once a week, NordVPN will keep your information safe and away from hackers. I know they are currently giving a 30-day money-back trial– so, try it out, and see if you like it yourself!

If you’re interesting in using NordVPN, and you’d also like to support us, you can use our code “CHADANDCLAIRE” at checkout, and we will be paid a small commission for bringing them a happy customer!

Our exact route for the month—

Cairo, Egypt: March 1-7

Luxor, Egypt: March 7-14

Nile River, Egypt: March 14-18

Aswan, Egypt: March 18-21

Cairo, Egypt: March 21-22

Istanbul, Turkey: March 22 (layover)

Atlanta, GA, USA: March 22-26

Chattanooga, TN, USA: March 26-31

Some “foods-to-try” (Egypt edition)—

Ful: A paste of mashed fava beans with garlic and olive oil.

Ta’meya: Crispy disks of mashed fava beans and parsley.

Koshari: A mix of rice, brown lentils, and macaroni, topped with fried onions and a spicy tomato sauce.

Shawarma: Flatbread roll of tomato, onion, parsley, and sliced meat from a rotating flame grill.

Kebab: Flame-grilled chunks of lamb.

Kofta: Spiced minced meat, formed into a sausage and grilled on a skewer.

Baba Ganoush: Smoky cream of roasted eggplant, olive oil, garlic, sesame paste, and lemon.

Mulukhiyah: Thick, green soup, made from mallow leaves.

Hamaam: Traditional Egyptian delicacy of baked pigeon, stuffed with seasoned rice.

Kunafa: Semolina noodle cake with butter and creamy cheese, soaked in sweet syrup.

Mahshi: Baked or steamed vegetables stuffed with seasoned rice.

DEMOLISHING OUR HOME (fixer upper renovations)

Our house was cheap for a reason– it needs a ton of work. After deep cleaning the living life out of our home, we began the demolition process. Here is a link to the video.

24 HOURS in CAIRO, EGYPT (our first impressions)

We literally did every single touristy thing in Cairo, and we have no regrets. Watch us experience the hustling chaos of Egypt for the very first time. Here is a link to the video.

TRYING EGYPTIAN FOOD for the FIRST TIME (our first impressions)

We spent two days eating over 20 items from our Egyptian “foods-to-try” list, including pigeon! Here is a link to the video.

FIRST CLASS OVERNIGHT TRAIN in EGYPT (Cairo to Luxor)

We took Egypt’s overnight train and stayed in what’s supposed to be their “first class” room. Would you spend the night in there? Here is a link to the video.

HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE and ANCIENT TEMPLES in LUXOR, EGYPT (so much history)

We finally got to experience a hot air balloon ride, and it definitely lived up to the hype. After floating over the city, we stepped into it and got an up close and personal look at all of its most famous temples. Here is a link to the video.

WE SLEPT ON EGYPT’S NILE RIVER FOR FOUR NIGHTS (Luxor to Aswan)

We decided to sleep on the Nile River for four nights, and after boarding our dazzling dahabiya boat, the crew surprised us with an upgrade into their luxurious panoramic suite. Here is a link to the video.

If you’re interested—

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Claire (and Chad)