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."