Dahab, Egypt bombing - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**goyincognito** · 04-26-2006, 08:03 AM

As you probably know, there was a pretty large scale attack at a hotel in the Sinai pennisula a few days ago in Dahab, which is one of the larger tourist destinations. Dozens were killed and many were wounded...Americans, Israelis, Europeans and local Egyptians.

The Egyptian police are cracking down similarly to their response to the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, but Sinai has been unstable historically since the Israeli pullout in 1982.

So, what's this about worry from the US? I'm not worried, of course.

It's my family and friends.

<begin rant...skip if you don't feel like reading something I'm writing from my admittedly negative and angry feelings at the moment>

Similar to the response I got before I went to Jordan, many people back home--especially family--are hearing the news of the attack, and apparently after seeing spot after spot on CNN or Fox, are only processing the words "Bomb" "Egypt" "targeted" and "tourists," and thus deducing that the Sphinx is going to morph into Osama and stab me to death with a clicker pen or something.

I went to Jordan and came back unscathed, less than three weeks after Al-Qaeda did a major attack in the capital, and even stayed in one of the hotels that Al-Qaeda blew up!! The greatest risk to me was from the bus and the disorganization of the shady tour I booked, not from terrorism!!

So why my gripe? Because it has been less than four months since they freaked out about me going to Jordan, and my Stateside friends and family, pumped full of apparently even greater levels of fear from the media and their own apparent lack of understanding about or experience from the real dangers and threats that terrorism presents, are projecting all this irrationality and fear onto me with full force at every chance they get, and refuse to engage me in a discussion as if they know everything about the world from watching it on the television.

And it's driving me batshit. :greenguy:

I'll go, have a fantastic time, come back with a ton of stories and experiences, and then they'll just repeat the same ridiculous process again when I'm getting prepared to travel to my next destination.

I sincerely appreciate their concern, but the way they're going about it is just ridiculous, ethnocentric and ignorant. I'm not even responding and they still won't stop with the emails and phone conversations.

It makes me want to just not tell anyone anything about what I'm doing, not share any of my feelings of excitement and anticipation, and if ANYTHING just wait until after the fact to tell them where I was briefly.

And maybe not even that.

<end rant...I feel better now.

>

Ok. Now that all that bile is out of my system, I'm really stoked!

Only 8 more days, and I have all my stuff ready, including my new pack!

...and I have a clicker pen in case the Sphinx really does morph and try to stab me...I'll show that bastard who has the real black belt in clickerpen-fu

xanthuos · 04-26-2006, 08:07 AM

Just don't go topless in the Sinai, man. Your man-boobs will get you killed.

Seriously, you know you can always share your excitement and stuff with me! We won't let the war on terra get us down...

**worldwidemike** · 04-26-2006, 08:37 AM

Devon, I feel your pain. Here I sit, 43 years old, having been to 60+ countries including the Middle East, SE Asia, Latin America -- all kinds the news considers hot spots and the average, sheltered American considers "dodgy" or unsafe.

I STILL hear it from my family, coworkers and so on. So, I hate to say it, but you'll just have to get used to it. Just learn to let it be part of your personality, part of you (ha!) mystique...

Your colleagues here at Travelpunk won't question your choice of destinations (within reason, of course, you decide to go to Iraq...well)...we'll salute them, support you, and demand a report and pics on your return!

It's all part of being the world traveler, my friend...

worldwidemike

**beergal** · 04-26-2006, 08:51 AM

Devon, definately make it part of your personality!

My philosophy is we all have to die at one point and i would rather be a matyr of travel then a victim of terror!

**florencia9699** · 04-26-2006, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by goyincognito@Apr 26 2006, 01:03 PM
and refuse to engage me in a discussion as if they know everything about the world from watching it on the television.

[snapback]115234[/snapback]

And from the US CNN which is sooo different to World CNN (and even them arent very...."objective") I feel ur pain.... but oh well, they can't really do much about it when you're on your own half way across the world, right?

PS: say the sphynx HI! from me!! (if you've got contacts you wont get stabbed by it... it's like the mafia!)

**joanofarc** · 04-26-2006, 09:26 AM

yeah, fuck all that propaganda!

my best friend is heading out on may 5th for a quick tour of cairo and everyone is trippin on her too. i told her to ignore everyone though and have a great time. my point is only that people wouldn't think twice if she were heading to london, madrid or new york... and things happen/have happened there too. good for you, goy! have a great time!

**LiveFreeorDie** · 04-26-2006, 09:43 AM

It's unfortunate that our U.S. society has evolved into such a state of fear mongering. The news media and the government seem to conspire to keep people in a constant state of feeling threatened. Terrorists, global warming, bird flu, SARS, hurricanes, Tsunamis....since we are all in eminent danger of death 24/7, maybe everyone should just commit suicide now and get it over with.

This topic has frustrated me for a long time. More people are killed in highway crashes then from terrorists. If people used even one ounce of their brains to think, they would realize that every day they are in much greater danger just getting on the road in a car, then they are of being killed by a terrorist, an infectious super virus, or a Tsunami or hurricane - no matter where in the world you happen to be. Don't let the media tell you how to live your life or what you should or should not be afraid of. Go experience things for yourself. As to your friends and family who do not understand, they will live the life they deserve, boring and colorless.

**goyincognito** · 04-26-2006, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by worldwidemike@Apr 26 2006, 05:37 PM
Your colleagues here at Travelpunk won't question your choice of destinations (within reason, of course, you decide to go to Iraq...well)...we'll salute them, support you, and demand a report and pics on your return!

[snapback]115245[/snapback]

aw come on, you're not down for a little soujourn through Iraq with me in a couple months? Sissy!

You're right though - it's something I just have to get used to...although the worst is when I'm traveling IN ISRAEL and they try to pipe up and say something (like I shouldn't go to Tel Aviv, for example, because a bombing happened a few days ago or something); it's like...come on guys, I live here, for chrissakes!!! Leave me alone!

But yeah...just gotta keep telling myself "part of the mystique, part of the mystique, don't explode at the silly scared americans back home, part of the mystique."

deep breath.

calm.

**space virgin** · 04-26-2006, 11:44 AM

It sucks dealing with anyone's ignorance, let alone people we care about and would like support from.

But yes-- go anyway (duh), keep having a fabulous time and don't let the bastards grind you down!!!

**joanofarc** · 04-26-2006, 11:56 AM

hey, those thumbs in you sig. are pretty funny, goy! haha... stupid.

**goyincognito** · 04-26-2006, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by joanofarc@Apr 26 2006, 08:56 PM
hey, those thumbs in you sig. are pretty funny, goy!* haha... stupid.

[snapback]115304[/snapback]

hey now, careful making fun of david lopan.

his thumbs are quite deadly, you know.

**benna2** · 04-26-2006, 01:26 PM

I understand your frustration Devon. But at the same time, you have to just keep in mind that anyone who is showing concern for you is doing it because they (gasp!) CARE about you.

Sometimes it isn't ignorance that is steering their comments, it is simply fear for your safety.

I got sooo annoyed at my family and friends that urged me to move away from NYC after the World Trade Center attack...trying to explain to them that "shit" happens anywhere. Yet at the same time, I did understand where they were coming from.

We can't all live in the bubble that some pretend to live in...

**goyincognito** · 04-26-2006, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by benna2@Apr 26 2006, 10:26 PM
I understand your frustration Devon. But at the same time, you have to just keep in mind that anyone who is showing concern for you is doing it because they (gasp!) CARE about you.

Sometimes it isn't ignorance that is steering their comments, it is simply fear for your safety.

[snapback]115311[/snapback]

I understand that, and that's why I specifically noted that I appreciate their concern...

It's when they keep at it, constantly, over and over again in the days and weeks leading up to a trip, and sometimes even argue about it that it gets to be too much. It's completely irrational.

It's like saying I'm not going to Wyoming because there was an attack in New York City...and hey it's all America so I'm not safe.

They can have a healthy concern for my safety without it becoming argumentative, ethnocentric and lacking a foundation in personal experience or fact, like it always seems to end up.

I actually care very much about them too, believe it or not, and am deeply concerned for their safety - from the ludicrously high crime in numerous parts of the US (far higher and more frequent than where I'm living now in the "dangerous" Middle East), from health problems, from lack of access to adequate health care, from my inability to help them if they need me because of my distance from them, etc., but that doesn't mean I am going to be irrational and confrontive about it.

Who knows, maybe they'll calm down the more I travel. I can only hope.

**benna2** · 04-26-2006, 02:12 PM

shit yeah...stay away from Wyoming dude! lol.

xanthuos · 04-26-2006, 02:16 PM

Hmm...

Sometimes, the "fear" for someone's safety IS borne out of ignorance. It's irrational fear, further stoked by the news media, especially in this country. The very fact that they "fear" for goy's safety is at odds, as he pointed out, with the fact that nobody thinks twice about hopping into their vehicle and driving down the street...but yet they are all freaked out about the 1 in a million or more chance that something's going to happen? It's akin to being deathly afraid of flying because of the chance of crashing. I am no statistician, but I'd reckon that the chances of being the victim (just being injured, much less dying) of a terrorist attack are even less than the chance of being injured in a plane crash.

I am still planning on traveling throughout the middle east at some point with my friend Scott...that includes Syria, Lebanon, Iran...often places that most Americans haven't heard of (with the exception of Iran with all the bullshit going on right now), much less would consider going to...the chances of being a victim of ANY sort during my trip will be less for the time that I'm on the ground in the middle east than the time I'm in the air on the airplane.

**TheJake** · 04-26-2006, 02:29 PM

Dev - My parents like it when i go to dangerous places. They think it's funny that i "want to get shot and killed"

So from my parents to you.

More power to ya!

futboller · 04-26-2006, 10:40 PM

But remember, maybe, just maybe if people like you (like all the TPunks and travelers) keep telling your poor American relations where you've been and where you're going, they'll slowly start to realize they're wrong about the Middle East. Travel is fatal to ignorance, right?

**TheJake** · 04-26-2006, 10:51 PM

Truer words have never been spoken!

**tumblezweedz** · 04-27-2006, 12:46 AM

We got flak for going to DC a few months after 9/11, and then for moving there. (Hello, it's a military assignment - we have any choice?) We were there during the sniper shootings, and watched people literally living in fear, skulking behind concrete barriers INSIDE buildings, not letting their kids play outside during the most beautiful fall weather... and during the dirty bomb scare. Remember duct tape and plastic sheets on the window?

For the record, we took our daughter to school BY PUBLIC BUS (horror!) and waited for said bus at a busy intersection, every day. And rode the metro, often right into DC, almost every day. And didn't buy duct tape. Then we horrified family and friends by taking a long weekend trip to NYC and checking out major tourist attractions - inviting disaster, no? We actually got chastised by a grandparent for exposing her grandchildren to danger. Oi.

We got told off again when we announced our plans to travel to Madrid, shortly after the bombings there, AND we rode the subway. A lady on the train actually approached us and thanked us for having faith in her city. How humbling is that?

The scariest thing about all the flak we have received over the years, is that it comes not from some ignorant soul that has never left their hometown, but from intelligent adults who travel widely (including to such places as India and Sri Lanka). I think it's natural for people to worry about their loved ones far away, and I know in this instance they are getting panicky calls about our safety from others, which doesn't help their peace of mind.

When the pressure started getting to be too much, we pulled out the auto safety stats: this was particularly effective with my mother-in-law, who is a sensible woman and understood our point when we countered her, "You're going to SPAIN! They just had bombings there!" with "You're getting in your car? And driving to Texas? Do you have ANY idea how dangerous that is?" And then threw in a few stats...

The people who love you will get your point, but there's really nothing you can do about the ignorant, except prove them wrong. It's not their fault the news focusses entirely on the negative. Tell your loved ones to turn off their TVs for a week or two, see if their attitude improves.

**bluepea** · 04-27-2006, 08:01 AM

People will always be concerned. But terrorist attacks happen everywhere. Look at London, Madrid, Columbine and the Oklahoma City bombing. You still have a better chance of getting into a car accident on your way there.

Anyhow, my biggest concern personally is that I would experience a terrorist attack. Just think of how much those people would gloat.