"Wadi El Natrun" Madinat Wadi an Natrun by June.b

It may not be on the top list of must-see sights in Egypt but we were amazed by the kindness of the monks in the monastery of St. Pishoy there.

The most popular one was founded by Saint Pishoy in the 4th century AD. The bodies of the two saints - St. Pishoy and St. Paul of Tammah - were at the monastery of Saint Pishoy lying in the main church of the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Pishoy.

We took a taxi to the main turgoman terminal in Cairo early morning but unfortunately the bus to wadi el natrun no longer run from there. The man at the ticket window wasn't helpful, or maybe because he doesn't speak english. The kidn policeman at the gate of the Turgoman station talked to the guy at the window and without further ado, he came back to us and scribbled something on a small piece of paper and instructed us to take a taxi and give the small paper to the driver. So we took another taxi to a smaller station that was written on the paper by the police.

Paid the driver about EGP10 or 12. Arriving at the small bus station, we bought the EGP11 ticket for the old aircon bus and went on to a 2-hour trip to the wadi. We were dropped along a highway where a smaller bus/van were waiting and we crammed inside it for EGP2 along with local families and dropped us off the main town square and we then hired a tuktuk (tricycle) for EGP15 for the whole tricycle to the monastery of St. Pishoy.

The monks at the Monastery of St. Pishoy

We reached the monastery of St. Pishoy and there are a lot of big buses and cars parked in front of the monastery entrance. I did not see any foreign tourists though, most of them are local tourists.

I don't know what came over me but I felt like I was so dumbed like in my brain there were those two thoughts when I first saw a monk near the entrance of the monastery. I thought he was a man in a costume, sort of a mascot (sorry about my honesty) like it inhabited me for 20 seconds. This wasn't disney I thought and when my friend requested to take a pic with the monk, still my dumb brain was battling between those two thoughts though the "real monk" thought was stronger.

And yes, he was a real monk. We entered and we saw 2 monks sitting on a chair and the people are kissing their hands or putting their hand on their forehead, as a sign of respect.

We followed the crowd and were about to ascend on the steps on the tower when one of the monk asked us where we're going. I thought we were not supposed to go there and there's a discrimination of sort as people just freely go up there. Again, my dumb brain was totally wrong. The monk told us to wait for awhile and let us go after a couple of minutes and walking around, one monk again came our way and introduced himself and offered a tour of the place.

It was then that I've realized, we were the only foreign tourists and maybe they wanted to give us a courtesy tour. And it was! Father Joakim - our monk tour guide of the place was very informative and accorded us a nice tour of the place. He has keys and opened up to us some of the chambers not generally open to the public and he let us see it and talked us about its history. The tour lasted for a couple of hours and he treated us for a small snack of fuul and bread at the monastery cafeteria.

Snacktime with Father Joakim

We wouldn't have that nice experience if not for Father Joakim who accompanied us around the monastery. It was an amazing experience.

And when we were about to go back to Cairo, we passed by the souvenir shop near the parking lot and even before we start looking for transportation, a guy inside his car motioned us to come near. And when I poked my head on the window of the car I noticed he's wearing the monk's habit, and he asked us where we're going, I said back to Cairo. And he immediately said that he's going to give us a ride. Thought it was a joke, or my dumb brain again acting but this time in a split second -- I thought maybe he was just an ordinary guy with a costume. Just a split second.

I was astounded by the kindness of the monks at the monastery of St. Pishoy. The very kind Father Cherubim drove us for 2 hours or so trip to Cairo, and not just Cairo but right in front of our hostel! Isn't that amazing? Door to door delivery. We enjoyed his company albeit only for 2 hours or so.

I would consider our trip to Wadi El Natrun as the highlight of our trip to Egypt.

• Pros:Egyptian hospitality at its best!
• Cons:Off-the-beaten path
• In a nutshell:Egyptian hospitality at best.