I read it again and again. To enter Egypt, “you’ll need a Covid test that is stamped and signed on original paper, not a copy. This test must be taken within 96 hours of the departure of your last flight to Egypt.” That was the clear directive from the Egyptian government.
The Plan(s)
Fall 2020 brought a new school year but a strange one. Kids could go to school and wear masks, or they could do the “online option.” They could sit in front of a computer for 8 hours and watch school. My oldest daughter, an extremely outgoing and social senior, opted for the online option. She hated it. So, she decided she wanted to do “homeschool” instead. This would also allow her to work first shift once she had turned 18, relatively early in the school year.
One thing that was disappointing about her not going to school was that she would not have any senior trips. So, I said to her one day, “Why don’t we do a senior trip and go somewhere in the world. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?”
She replied, “Scotland.”
I said, “Let’s do it.”
Now, I had not travelled outside the country in 25 years, other than Canada, which, with all due respect to my Canadian friends, was not that different than driving somewhere within the United States. So, I had a lot to learn.
That fall, it was my great pleasure to research the ins and outs of travel to Scotland. I planned the trip day by day and even made cancelable reservations for hotels. We were going to spend two weeks in Scotland and explore it from one end to the other.
There was only one really big problem. Covid. Now, I am not saying that Covid itself was the problem, even though I do think it is a problem. The problem was the reaction of the Scottish government to Covid. Scotland’s reaction to Covid made the strictest state in the U.S. look virtually unconcerned about Covid. So, that was the problem.
Our plan was to travel to Scotland in May 2021. I thought, surely by then, this will all be over, and we will be able to travel to Scotland. By January, I was pretty sure that this would not be all over. I remember one headline that said, Scotland plans to begin coming out of lockdown by the end of April. The truth is that Scotland would have allowed us to come. BUT, we would have had to quarantine for two weeks. After that, we’d be free to enter the country and do . . . nothing. Nothing was open. No parades. No bagpipes. No rugby. No concerts. Everyone wearing masks. Not very fun.
But I did not want to give up on the idea of an international trip for my daughter. We’ve got to find another option! I thought. I talked to my daughter and told her the situation. We agreed to look elsewhere. I looked up a list of countries that would allow Americans to enter without quarantine. The list was actually quite long! Indeed, a long list of countries that I had never thought about visiting before.
After much research, we narrowed it down to two: Turkey and Egypt. We thought about visiting both of them. However, we ultimately decided on Egypt. For relatively low cost, comparable to what we were going to pay in Scotland, we would stay in first class hotels, see the pyramids, cruise the Nile, and snorkel in the Red Sea. Pretty amazing deal. We began to get excited.
The Test(s)
All we needed to do to enter Egypt was take a Covid test. Simple, right? Except for two problems. One, you had to have it 96 hours before your last flight. This was a problem because you never knew for sure when you would get the results back. I could find no place that would guarantee the return of the results within that time period. All the places that did the tests, sent them off to labs, and they had no control over when the results would come back! In spite of all this, I was relatively confident that the results would come back in time. Relatively confident but by no means 100% confident.
The other problem was harder to figure out. The Egyptian government required a test that was an original stamped and signed document from the laboratory conducting the test. Apparently, this was relatively common in Egypt but extremely uncommon in American. Most places sent their tests off to various labs. I researched the various labs. I tried to figure out if I could go directly to them. There was nothing like that. It seemed that perhaps in New York City (many, many hours from my home), there might be something like that, but even that wasn’t clear.
What became clear was this: I would not be able to get a signed and stamped test that was an original copy. So, I started to research whether or not this was really that important. I did find some anecdotal evidence that this might be OK. People had gone to Egypt. No one said anything about being turned back because of a lack of a stamped and signed test. My tour company didn’t even know that much about it. It did not seem like a big deal, but I wanted certainty!
So, I worried about it, but, in the end, I was pretty confident the simple test from CVS would work.
The week of our departure, I had to carry out the Covid test. As soon as I could schedule the test, I did so. I set it for two o’ clock on Thursday afternoon, which would work well for our Sunday departure, timed perfectly with a little bit of margin and maximum opportunity for the test to return before we left.
Then, two things happened. First, I checked United’s Travel Ready Center for the 10th time. It turned out that we would need another Covid test! Earlier in my research, nations were allowing people to pass through their airports to other destinations without any conditions. So, I didn’t think much about it. However, Germany had changed their policy. They were now going to require a negative test within 48 hours of departure to Germany.
The problem with Germany’s requirement was that our Egypt test would not work. It was too early. We also could not wait and do our Egypt Covid test later because we needed to make sure we had the results from the lab. So, there was no way around it. We would have to do two tests. Fortunately, Germany allowed the rapid test. Egypt demanded a lab test.
The second thing was that a dear friend and member of our church passed away the week before we were to depart for Egypt. As their pastor, I wanted to care for this family and do what I needed to do to accommodate them in any way I could. So, I talked to the wife and asked her when she was thinking about having the funeral. She replied, “Thursday at 2:00.” I thought, Uh oh. That is the time of the Covid test. Fortunately, we worked it all out, and I got the test that Thursday without any problem. I ended up going to the viewing, then going to get the test, and then going to do the funeral. On Saturday, we got the test to go to Germany. I also had received the results of our lab tests on Friday. All negative! So, I had two Covid tests in my hand, and I was confident, but not certain, that this would get us into Egypt.
The Departure(s)
We flew from Knoxville to Houston. From Houston, we would fly to Germany. We got onto the plane in Houston, and it all looked good. Then, over the speaker, we heard the bad news, the flight would be delayed. There was a maintenance issue with the electronics, and it had to be checked out.
The problem with this delay is that we only had a one and a half hour layover in Germany. No problem, I thought. We can just get a later flight into Cairo. That’ll be fine. However, being the person that I am, I wanted to check what flights were available from Germany to Cairo. Ok. There was a problem. There were no other flights from Germany to Cairo that night. What that meant was that our Covid test for Egypt would be too late. We would not have a valid Covid test and so could not get on the plane! We could be stuck perpetually in the German airport because Americans could not actually evem enter Germany at that time. We might end up like Tom Hanks in The Terminal.
I got up and went to speak with one of the flight attendants to explain the issue. He said, “This is going to take a while. We will have you talk to one of our representatives, and they will arrange new flights for you.”
A few moments after that, I went outside to talk to one of United’s representatives. I explained to him my situation. He clicked away at his keyboard for a few seconds and then said to me. “OK. Here’s what you can do. You can fly into Istanbul, Turkey. Your Covid test will still be good to enter Turkey. Then, you can get a ride to the hospital downtown and get a new Covid test. You can stay at a hotel in Istanbul and then get a flight to Cairo the next day.”
I looked at him with disbelief. “Uhhh . . . that is way, way outside my comfort zone.” I said.
He didn’t miss a beat. “Alright.” He said. “We can put you up in a hotel for tonight and give you meal vouchers. Then, you can go to the Kingswood Emergency Hospital and get a test. You can expedite it, and they will get it back to you within an hour or so. It will cost you $500 a piece, but, remember, United can only reimburse $200 per person. Then, you can get the same flight tomorrow. That test will be good for Germany and Egypt.”
At this point, there was no turning back. We were going to go to Egypt. So, if 2 $500 tests was what we had to do to get there, then that’s what we were going to do. One more benefit. He moved us to first class for our trouble. My father looked it up on Priceline the next day. A first class ticket to Germany would have cost about $9,000 that day. So, in terms of assets, we were way ahead, even if we had less money in our bank account.
We went to Kingswood, and we had a wonderful experience. This was a really great hospital. If you are in Houston and need an emergency hospital, I highly recommend it. They also have great coffee, and it is free! We went back for our tests. In less than a hour, they gave us a folder with our results. I opened them. There was a paper copy, and at the bottom there was a stamp! And it was signed! This is what I had been wanting for months! And now, I had it! Exactly what the Egyptian government wanted.
The Triumph
The flights that day went really well. We slept really well in our first class seats/beds. When we got to customs, we arrived at the table where an official would examine our Covid test. With great pride, expecting everyone in the airport to applaud, I handed him my stamped and signed Covid test on original paper. The official asked where the date was. I showed it to him. He wrote it in his little book and said, “Welcome to Egypt.” Wait, I thought. What about the stamp and the signature? Don’t you want to see that? I actually have it! Nope. He didn’t care at all. It made absolutely no difference. I was a little disappointed after all that effort.
My disappointment was short-lived and quickly replaced by exhilaration. We were through customs. We had done it! We had made it! We had triumphed! We had made it into Egypt in the time of coronavirus.
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First photo by Mufid Majnun on Unsplash