Maybe the second thing we were told when we got to Egypt was that we were completely safe in Egypt. We didn’t need to worry about our personal safety or any other security issues. We were quite simply - very safe.

When we got on our travel bus the first day, we were sitting in the front passenger row. A guy we didn’t know got into the ‘shotgun’ seat across from the bus driver. As he sat down, I couldn’t help but notice an AK-47 with a banana clip tucked into his back side. He was introduced as our security guy. He never said anything, but he followed our group everywhere we went – except inside our hotels. Vicky got a picture of him at one of our stops. He’s the guy in the center of the picture and the left one of the two security guys in suits. Our personal security guards always wore suits.

At every ‘antiquities’ stop that we made, there were members of the Egyptian Tourist and Antiquities Police. Sometimes there were a few, some times, there were dozens of them. You can see two of those gentlemen in the next two photos.

In addition to those guys, there were others who we weren’t quite sure who they were or who they worked for. We had security guys on our boat with us (at least 3 armed men), and many other places. In the last picture (which isn’t very good, taken before sunrise in the morning), this guy was hanging out behind a sheet at breakfast at a farm on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor.

Sometimes we had police cars escort us with a police car in front and a police car behind or just a police car behind. We never knew exactly why or why sometimes and not others, but they were frequently present.

I would say that I mostly just tried to pay attention to my surroundings. In doing that, I would say that I always felt safe. I never at any time felt like I was in any danger. Then again, we were not out on our own very frequently. The guards somewhat made me feel a bit more self-conscious or a bit more of a target than when they weren’t with us, but at any rate, we had no security issues on our trip.