Egypt: More than the Pyramids

 

A cinematic, documentary-style journey through Cairo, Saqqara, Alexandria, Siwa, and Luxor. Told in a raw, poetic, and gritty travel style. This film explores not just ancient ruins, but the food, the people, the desert silence, and the living culture that makes Egypt timeless and gives it a heartbeat today.

For many, Egypt is just the pyramids. But travel here reveals a country layered with stories: shawarma, koshari, seafood, the Nile carving life through the desert, sugarcane juice in Alexandria, floating like a cloud in the surreal saltwater pools of Siwa, drifting above Luxor & the Temple of Hatshepsut in a hot air balloon, the vast columns of Karnak that rise like a forest of stone, the call to prayer threading through Cairo’s chaos and standing in the hushed brilliance of the Valley of the Kings where eternity still feels close.

This is a film about life, death, food, faith and the stories carved into stone. Egypt remembers its afterlife in vivid detail… history and present blur together in the streets… but it’s the living people today, their kindness and generosity, who remind you what really matters.

Watch this not as a tour guide but as a traveler’s invitation: to go deeper, to taste, to listen, to wonder, and to see Egypt for what it truly is… alive.

One Step at a Time

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” - Lao Tzu

Defeated Climber - Dall·e AI

I fall to my knees, tears stream down my face, I look up at the last 100 feet to go and cannot fathom making it to the top. It might as well be 100 miles away. I can't do this. I shouldn't be here. I'm at 20,495 feet - the highest I've ever been - climbing on the mountain Salkantay in Peru, the summit is right there.

It's day two on this mountain, we've been climbing since midnight, it's currently 11 a.m. I didn't sleep at all in the tent, I'm beyond exhausted, I'm cold, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, my head hurts, I'm definitely hypoxic, I cannot feel my big toe on my right foot and I cannot deal with another false summit. I've already pushed myself beyond my limits, there's nothing left. If this ends up being another false summit, it will break me. I know it's not a false summit but that's where my mind jumps. We're off ropes, each free climbing this last bit, there is no danger here, that's all behind us - awaiting our return for the descent. The mountain has been showing us the entire climb why this mountain was revered by the Incas, why many people have perished on it and that we'll be very lucky to even be allowed to have the opportunity for a summit.

Practice: How to Get Better at Anything

"The trees on the mountain can be used to build and so are cut down. When fat is added to the fire it consumes itself. Cinnamon can be eaten and so is harvested. The lacquer tree can be used and so is slashed. Everyone knows the usefulness of the useful. But no one knows the usefulness of the useless!" - Chuang Tzu

19 Year Old Pilot James - Feeling Pretty Cool - Somewhere Over the US 

A great thought experiment to run your mind through to help you on goals you are currently working towards is to analyze your prior successes, take what has previously worked for you and apply it to your present situation.

For myself, the best example of this is becoming a pilot. The reason I was able to become a great pilot at a very young age is quite simply because: nobody told me it wasn't possible. My mindset was, "I will do this, no matter what."

State of Mind

"If one is true to one's self and follows its teachings, who need be without a teacher?" - Chuang Tzu

How do you respond to chaos? - Dall·e AI

Your internal state is just as important as the external inputs into your body.  You can eat all the healthy food you want but if your internal state is chaos, you will not be healthy.  Conversely, you can do all of the meditation, yoga, etc. you want but if you're only putting junk food into your body, you will also not be healthy.  The type of food that is eaten is important to the health of your body.  Taking care of your mind and spirit is equally important.  They go hand in hand with each other, yin and yang.

The world we live in is chaos, it always has been and always will be.  You cannot control the chaos that happens in the world.  All you can do is control how you react to it.  The chaos is necessary.  Light cannot exist without the dark, that contrast is needed.  Our world is full of contrast, always has been and always will be.  Trying to control that external chaos is a recipe for misery.  Noticing how that chaos affects you and alchemizing it into something good and something beautiful is something you can control.

Berry Preserves

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." - Maya Angelou

Freshly made berry preserves

Have you ever gone to the store or farmers market and attempted to track down either a no or low sugar berry jam of some sorts?  They don't exist anywhere.  Even at the farmers markets, bounce around to the different fruit stands and ask if they make any no or low sugar berry concoctions and you'll always get the same answer of, "We make that for ourselves and that's what we eat at home but we don't sell it, the sugar preserves it."

Alas, now you can stop hunting and just make it yourself.  Spoiler alert:  It's super easy to make.  Literally anyone can make this in a very short amount of time.  Without further ado, here's how you go about this:

What You Need:

-Edible Berries

-Water

-Saucepan

-Honey or Maple Syrup (optional)

The Desert Teaches

"On your journey to your dream, be ready to face oasis and deserts. In both cases, don't stop." - Paulo Coelho

First time in 20 years this lake has existed - Merzouga, Morocco - November 2024

The poem below was written amongst the Sahara desert of both Egypt and Morocco in November of 2024.  The desert is a very intriguing place and is a lot different from what one envisions.  The majority of it looks like you were flung off Earth and landed on Mars.  The landscape is not endless sand dunes.  The dunes certainly exist but they are in patches, not swathing swarms.  It's mostly, flat, hard, dry, cracked ground just like what is found in parts of Arizona and New Mexico with random herds of wild camels sauntering about.  The desert has its own sound to it, a wispy crack of the wind blowing sand around complete with a low reverberating hum that can only be heard when one really listens.

The perception of the desert is that life cannot exist here, no way, no how.  However, all of the building blocks of life are there, just sitting, waiting for the conditions to be right.  All that is needed is for water to be added and suddenly life springs forth every which way, butterflies emerge, flamingos suddenly appear, birds swoop in, grass grows immensely fast which the camels then devour.  Once the water dries up then poof, the landscape chameleons back into appearing to not be capable of hosting life.  In reality, it's just resting, waiting for the next rains that will once again create the perfect conditions for life.

Squash Soup

"You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together."

- Anthony Bourdain

Squash Soup Topped with Roasted Squash Seeds

Squash soup is easy to make and very delicious.  A five star soup at home can be accomplished with minimal hands-on time and supplies.  All you need is a winter squash of some kind an oven, a blender and some spices.

What You Need:

-1 Winter Squash (Acorn, Butternut, Pumpkin, etc.)

-Garlic

-Salt

-Pepper

-Olive Oil

-Coconut Milk (optional)

Nature: The Only Perfect Church

"If I am not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

- John 10:37-38 (Bible)

"And when it is said to them, 'Follow what Allah has revealed,' they say, 'Rather, we will follow that which we found our fathers doing.' Even though their fathers understood nothing, nor were they guided?"

- Surah Al-Baqarah 2:170 (Quran)

"Do not believe in something just because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in something because it is rumored by many. Do not believe in the written scriptures alone. Do not believe in conjecture or logic alone. Do not believe in something because it appears acceptable. Do not believe in something because it aligns with your preconceived notions. Do not believe in something out of respect for a teacher. But when you know for yourselves that these things are wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise, and lead to benefit and happiness, then you should practice and abide in them."

- Anguttara Nikaya 3.65 (Kalama Sutta)

Ruins in Nature - Dall·e AI

All churches and religious institutions around the world have one big flaw in common: Humans.

Each one, despite their best of intentions, has a very human interpretation and along with that comes pushing very specific agendas and deliberate misinterpretations that uphold a specific status quo.

The Universe

"We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us." - Albert Einstein

Earth as an Atom in a Pumpkin Vine - Dall·e AI

The universe is willing to teach you anything you want to know about it - all you have to do is listen.  This is my current understanding of the universe as learned through the garden.  As with anything in life, it is subject to change upon new (and constant) learning.  A mind should be like sand - constantly shifting and morphing as the tides roll in and out, always dynamic, never static.