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So excited!! Check out how *gorgeous* this game is. I promise the gameplay lives up to it, too.

Super interesting thread! Worth a read if you're in the industry

Yeah. I grew up with a lot of people who never traveled - Disney word was acceptable. NYC was *dangerous.* Never want to take it for granted because not everyone can do it - time or money

Growing up circa 9/11, I learned fear. This week I walked to a small town. A truck drove up with a loudspeaker blaring Arabic. It sounded so sinister. In reality? It was a grocery truck, announcing what food they had. It's a silly anecdote, but the underlying message is critical. Check your biases

But even if it leads to discomfort, travel - if you're privileged enough to be able to afford it, is important. Seeing how other people live & other parts of the world means we understand more (if only a little) and fear less

And yet, very little of the money we spent went to the people who needed it most. We saw hundreds of skinny ponies attached to carriages, waiting for passengers that never came, as we - and most other tourists - drove by in pre-arranged, air conditioned mini vans. It was, and is, heartbreaking

Which brings me to the part of our trip that gives me the most disquiet: wealth inequality. We had a dozen people (at least!) hauling our American behinds around the country, catering to our every whim. At prices that felt far too cheap. It felt uncomfortable

I don't think safety is an issue, but even if you wanted to manage on your own, many sites require a licensed guide to enter. It's just not a system designed to do on your own

We don't usually go the guided route, but it's mandatory here for all but the most intrepid adventurers. Driving would take years to master, and public transit has been largely outsourced to an informal network of vans & sign language (with seemingly random stops along the literal highway)

Changing topics, one thing that struck me about our trip was how constrained it was - we went from one driver & guide to another, with an experience carefully curated by our Egyptian travel agency

Even more restrictive - we had a Bedouin driver one day & learned that women in their community can't work outside the home at all; doing so is shameful for the men of the family

The same guide looked aghast when someone asked if women ever served on sailing boats - women can't be away from home overnight. He also shared some mind-numbingly archaic views about sex, which he used to explain why polygamy is legal in Egypt but not polyandry

Outside Cairo is a different story. Our rural guide bragged lovingly about his educated & smart wife, who had been trying & failing to get a job for a decade. Her options seemed limited to bank teller or teacher in her home village

In and around Cairo, a lot of women had salaried jobs, without huge gender restrictions. Our guide for 3 days was a woman, who had been serving as a guide for almost 20 years

In Cairo, there was a huge variety of women's clothing - from hijab & niqab (eye slit) to Western clothes with a colorful head scarf. There is a minority group of Christians too (side note: Egyptians seem proud of their tolerance, but I doubt it extends to other religions)

Equally fascinating is present-day Egypt. Like everywhere It's complicated. Let's discuss