Month: January 2019

Grand Central Station today at 9:00 am

January 25, 2019. 5PM from New York

Dear Friends and Family,

I reached Manattan last evening around 9:30 having landed at 6:30 at JFK.  Needless to say the process of security is alive and well in the USA. However, it pales in comparison to what we experienced in Egypt and Turkey.

To enter any historical site or museum, the bus had to travel a long detour to enter the parking lot which passed through at least two security check points. I watched a vehicle in from of the bus when the officers used mirrors on “selfie” like sticks to check under that car.

Now that the bus was approved, each of us had to take off coats, vests, and any back backs or purses to put through an X-ray scanner  then we had to walk through a metal detector which seemed to beep every time we went through. The process was repeated as you would leave a site. The same entry procedure was used every time you entered each  hotel where we stayed. The only places that appeared exempted from this procedure were the local restaurants.

Airport security was even tighter. Airplanes parked about 100+ meters from the airport to take passengers  to the gate by bus. Then in the airports, security was super tight.  Even when making a transfer from one plane to another, carry on luggage, coats and your person were hand checked.  In the Istanbul airport alone, we had 6 checks including three passport checks before we could board our plane for JFK. Our hour an 30 minute layover was a 2 km speed walk following entry security to your next gate then checked and reckeched before boarding the plane. Our 90 minute wait was reduced to only 2 minute wait!

A new security measure in Cairo and in Istanbul were sniffer dogs with specific talents, one was an agricultural dog, along with the usual explosive expert dog and a drug dog. I’d never seen an agricultural sniffer dog before.  A small beagle wore a special coat identifying his speciality as he proudly walked by our carry on luggage.

Road Scholar made sure that we felt safe on this trip.  In Cairo, a city of over 10 million people and 11 million  cars (LOL) we had security in the bus along with one or two police cars in from or in back of the motor coach. This was necessary in the traffic as the police car could pull in front of traffic so we could turn left or right turn safely.  On our trip on the Nile in Aswan we had two police and one military police officer on the boat.

For anyone thinking about international travel, I can highly recommend that you consider it.  American tourists are welcomed in Egypt and we are treated royally!

Ellen

from the ASU Manhattan Loft

PS I am planning at least one more reflection blog.