While I was prepping for the trip, my friend Mare gave me the best advice: "Remember to leave a little space in your luggage for kizmet." Allow yourself to have a wonderful experience without having it planned out to the T. So sage.

After spending the morning of my birthday on the Giza Plateau, I headed straight for the airport and caught a domestic flight south to Aswan. One of the funny quirks of Egypt is that the northern half of Egypt is called Lower and the SOUTHERN half is known as Upper Egypt—even though it’s at the bottom of the map. The Nile flows from south to north, so “upper” and “lower” follow the river, not the compass. It's topography in action!

I was so fortunate and had booked something special for my birthday: a night on Hannag Island, a small private island in the middle of the Nile literally next door to Elephantine Island, in Aswan where I had the entire place to myself. The moment I arrived, it felt peaceful, almost like the river wrapped the whole world in quiet just for me.

For the evening, I had arranged a two-hour sunset felucca ride. Two young men arrived to take me out on the water, and from the moment we pushed off, it felt like the perfect way to celebrate another year of life. We moved slowly along the Nile as the sky shifted through oranges and pinks, the air warm and gentle. I had to reach down and feel the water, the Nile River, rush through my fingers.

And then the surprises began.

The young sailors suddenly brought out a small birthday cake and sang “Happy Birthday” to me in Arabic—completely unexpected and completely heart-melting. Not long after that, a pair of Nubian kids, maybe seven to ten years old, paddled up beside us on a little surfboard and flat wooden boat. They joined in, singing their own birthday song with huge smiles on their faces. I couldn’t stop laughing; it was pure joy floating on the Nile.

By the time I returned to the island, the sun had disappeared, and the river was quiet again. I tried to sleep that night thinking that this may very well have been one of the greatest birthdays of my life, simple, kind, unforgettable, and full of the sort of magic you can’t plan for.

Just like Mare said.

I knew the next day would take me to Abu Simbel…it was hard to drift off.