#business travel
I’m in Cairo, Egypt and I’ll be here for the next four days, and next week for four days, then four more the week after that, and so on and so forth for 12 weeks. With so much time you must be making mental lists of all of the things I can do and see: pyramids, Egyptian Museum, Sphinx, the Library at Alexandria, Luxor, etc. However, I’ll be lucky if I see two or three of them! That’s because, I’m here on business. Business travel in many ways is a black hole of all things touristy. Sure, you get to go to restaurants, you see the city a bit as you are driven from client site to office to hotel to the airport, but, especially in my industry where 12-16 hour days are common, there isn’t much time to take in the sites.
Now don’t get me wrong- it would naive to think that experiencing a place is only possible through it’s tourist sites, in fact it would be sad to think that. When I travel on my own accord I usually like to sit at cafes and watch the city go by, go to look out points and get a bird’s eye view, or walk around a local neighborhood- I like to get the feel for a place. Learning it’s history in a museum and seeing a place in person that I’ve already seen a thousand times in photos are mainly complementary to that feeling, but similarly beneficial to the time spent somewhere. In business travel you do get some of that- you see the people, feel their attitudes, but you don’t feel ‘among’ them. You’re there for a reason- for business, not for the location.
It’s a strange and somewhat obscure distinction, but strong in its own way. I feel odd to be in Cairo and not see the pyramids- it changes the idea of being 'in’ a city. For all intents and purposes, I could be anywhere right now, at any nice hotel, in any posh office. Sure, the menu changes, the bills have different colors and names, and people look / dress a little different- but I feel like my recent wanderings (in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and now Egypt) have been so separate from the travel I’m used to.
It isn’t the same travel to learn and see new things, it’s more utilitarian than that- there is a purpose, a client to see, it isn’t the atmosphere that needs to be thought through, it is a problem and the recommended answer my team will give. I’m not saying it is bad, just different- I have nothing to complain about, in fact I love this life- I just took a bath in a huge tub while drinking a glass of wine and watching a huge TV- and I’m not paying for any of it.
What I am saying, is that the joys I look for in trips like this are altered from the ones I’ve become accustomed to when meandering around the globe. My definition of 'traveling’ has been expanded, and with it, the means, goals, and insights that accompany it as well.
In the end, I’m aware and happy that one doesn’t replace the other- on weekends I do have time to see some sites (if I stay here and don’t go home to Abu Dhabi) and I think I’ll see the pyramids this Thursday. But when Sunday comes, it will be back in the office- back to work- back to experiencing Egypt the business way.
