In December 2007, my father decided to check off another destination on his “Things to See Before I Die” list. Personally, I have been very fond of this list. It has taken me to countries all over the world such as Japan, India, Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, France, Switzerland, Norway, Czech Republic, and on and on. My trip to Egypt would be my first visit to the continent of Africa. My family has always been fascinated by Egyptian culture. One of our favorite foods is falafel, a Mediterranean dish consisting of a small croquette made with fava-bean flour or ground chickpeas, seasoned with toasted sesame seeds and salt, often served with a salad in pita bread. At the time, I was studying Ancient Egypt in 7th grade. Half of my unit was before the trip, the other half was after. This gave me some pre-existing knowledge about culture, history, and sights of the county, which increased my excitement for the trip.
On my first day of winter break, we boarded Egyptair from the New York John F. Kennedy Airport, a place quite familiar to me. Because of the September 11th tragedy, my experiences with airport security have changed greatly. I was limited in what and how much I could take on the plane, had to wait in long security lines, and received more attention than other people in the airport because of my Indian heritage. After security, my family and I traveled to our boarding gate. As I waited for the unknown lady to announce my flight over the intercom, I watched planes take off and land from the runways. Used to traveling in the air, I just wanted to get the process over with and start exploring Egypt. Finally, we prepared ourselves for the 11-hour journey to the capital of Egypt, Cairo.
Because it is difficult to travel alone in Egypt, due to language barriers and a confusing terrain to navigate, my family traveled with a tour group. We visited the awe-inspiring Giza pyramids, the Sphinx, many ancient temples with beautiful carvings, papyrus making industries, the Valley of Kings, and took a cruise along the Nile River. The Nile River, in Africa, is the longest river in the world, flowing from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea. At one of the stops in Luxor, there was an optional opportunity to take a hot air balloon ride across the Nile and the Valley of Kings. My family thought that this would be a wonderful experience and decided to go for it.
Because it is difficult to travel alone in Egypt, due to language barriers and a confusing terrain to navigate, my family traveled with a tour group. We visited the awe-inspiring Giza pyramids, the Sphinx, many ancient temples with beautiful carvings, papyrus making industries, the Valley of Kings, and took a cruise along the Nile River. The Nile River, in Africa, is the longest river in the world, flowing from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea. At one of the stops in Luxor, there was an optional opportunity to take a hot air balloon ride across the Nile and the Valley of Kings. My family thought that this would be a wonderful experience and decided to go for it.
At the early hour of 4 a.m., my father pounded on the door of the room my brother and I were staying in urging, “Suchir! Suruchi! It’s time to get up! It’s hot air balloon day!!” While my brother was moaning and groaning to get up, I shot out of bed from anticipation, swung opening the door, and said a quiet, but enthusiastic “Yay!” My family, along with other members of our tour, set off with our bagged breakfasts that consisted of a banana, a slice of bread, and an apple juice bottle, to the take-off site.
Upon reaching the site, we noticed that the weather was not as delightful as we would have liked it to be. It was very windy, and the flight crew was having trouble preparing the balloon for take-off. The giant air ball tended to flop over, like a wilting flower, and would not inflate properly. The team finally filled the balloon, and we were ready for takeoff. We looked at each other with nervous faces and climbed into the little basket with the raging fire in the middle. We succeeded the liftoff and started our journey through the early morning winds of Egypt. As “ooh’d” and “ahh’d”, our guide pointed out many visuals such as Queen Hatshepsut’s temple, farms, sugar cane fields, and the Nile River. I looked at him and noticed that he had a very worried look on his face. From time to time, he talked into his walkie talkie in Arabic, the official language of Egypt, in a worried tone. A few minutes later. he had informed us that the weather conditions were worsening, and we had to land as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we had missed our emergency landing area and were now in a crisis mode because we were over the river. The pilot was ordered to land immediately after we crossed it. The balloon crashed in a sugar cane field and slid on its side for about 30 feet at about 20mph. As this was happening, the only thought that went through my head was ‘The flame is on! The sugarcane will catch on fire! I’m dead! I’m dead! I’m dead!’ Fortunately, sugar cane needs plenty of moisture to grow, and the flame was put out before anything caught on fire. The group of us managed to climb out of the tilted basket as we brushed the broken pieces of plant off of our bodies. All of a sudden, young Egyptian boys, probably around the age of 7, flooded us. They took our hands and guided us out of the field, one by one. The small boy holding my hand constantly asked me in an Egyptian accent if I was alright and assisted me in climbing over the tall canes and branches that were lying on the ground. Native to India, my parents grew up eating sugar cane. They were so happy to grab some with them as they were leaving and started chewing on it to pull out the sweet sugar water within it. Mini vans were sent to the crash site and were waiting for us to take us back to takeoff site. A man of Chinese descent, about the age of 20, was in our van and had never tried sugar cane before. My parents taught him how to eat it, and he enjoyed it greatly.
This experience was educational, adventurous, and awe-inspiring all at once. I loved learning about Egyptian history and religion. The temples were amazing, and the mythology was very incredibly interesting. I was very appreciative of the small village families that came to help my tour group. They did not seem to be upset that we left a mark, almost a mini crop circle, in their source of income. My trip to Egypt will be one that I will always remember. In future years, I hope to take my family back and share with them the experiences I had, except, of course, the hot air balloon crash in Luxor.
Upon reaching the site, we noticed that the weather was not as delightful as we would have liked it to be. It was very windy, and the flight crew was having trouble preparing the balloon for take-off. The giant air ball tended to flop over, like a wilting flower, and would not inflate properly. The team finally filled the balloon, and we were ready for takeoff. We looked at each other with nervous faces and climbed into the little basket with the raging fire in the middle. We succeeded the liftoff and started our journey through the early morning winds of Egypt. As “ooh’d” and “ahh’d”, our guide pointed out many visuals such as Queen Hatshepsut’s temple, farms, sugar cane fields, and the Nile River. I looked at him and noticed that he had a very worried look on his face. From time to time, he talked into his walkie talkie in Arabic, the official language of Egypt, in a worried tone. A few minutes later. he had informed us that the weather conditions were worsening, and we had to land as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we had missed our emergency landing area and were now in a crisis mode because we were over the river. The pilot was ordered to land immediately after we crossed it. The balloon crashed in a sugar cane field and slid on its side for about 30 feet at about 20mph. As this was happening, the only thought that went through my head was ‘The flame is on! The sugarcane will catch on fire! I’m dead! I’m dead! I’m dead!’ Fortunately, sugar cane needs plenty of moisture to grow, and the flame was put out before anything caught on fire. The group of us managed to climb out of the tilted basket as we brushed the broken pieces of plant off of our bodies. All of a sudden, young Egyptian boys, probably around the age of 7, flooded us. They took our hands and guided us out of the field, one by one. The small boy holding my hand constantly asked me in an Egyptian accent if I was alright and assisted me in climbing over the tall canes and branches that were lying on the ground. Native to India, my parents grew up eating sugar cane. They were so happy to grab some with them as they were leaving and started chewing on it to pull out the sweet sugar water within it. Mini vans were sent to the crash site and were waiting for us to take us back to takeoff site. A man of Chinese descent, about the age of 20, was in our van and had never tried sugar cane before. My parents taught him how to eat it, and he enjoyed it greatly.
This experience was educational, adventurous, and awe-inspiring all at once. I loved learning about Egyptian history and religion. The temples were amazing, and the mythology was very incredibly interesting. I was very appreciative of the small village families that came to help my tour group. They did not seem to be upset that we left a mark, almost a mini crop circle, in their source of income. My trip to Egypt will be one that I will always remember. In future years, I hope to take my family back and share with them the experiences I had, except, of course, the hot air balloon crash in Luxor.
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| This is the only picture I have from after the crash. The lens is a little wet from the sugar cane, but you can see my mom is in the back smiling. |
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