Who is Mara?

Marie Vaughan – Known in Egypt as Mara

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The story below is the human story told in my own words.

The Question Everybody Asks Me: “How Did You Decide to Move to Egypt?”

So, here’s my story: I was 44, separated and living in Cork, Ireland with my two sons in their late teens/early 20s. I gathered a group of people to go to Egypt because it was the cheapest holiday abroad that offered more than sun, sea, sand and nightclubs at the time. I knew nothing about Egypt but I did have some romantic notions at the back of my mind of men in turbans, belly dancers in floating veils, geni (remember “I Dream of Jeannie“?), Cleopatra, Caesar and Mark Antony – all from TV and the movies. But there was also something else that I could not put a name to and still can’t today. It’s something intangible but you know it’s there, you can feel it – some reading this will know what I mean. I can’t really explain it.

I’m Home!

As the plane landed in Luxor Airport in May 2000, the first sight that met my eyes was the canopied roofs of what looked like several very, very large tents which appeared to be part of the airport arrivals hall. Aladdin and his flying carpet immediately sprung to mind! Once the plane door opened and the warm air hit my face I distinctly remember a voice in my head saying “I’m home!” And that feeling continued for the week I was there. We went on a fantastic Nile Cruise – best food I’d ever tasted, friendly staff, everyone smiling, no street drinking, no drugs, no fighting. It was heavenly. Yes, there was street hassle from vendors but our guide took excellent care of us.

The Let Down!

The disappointment, for me, was that after several guided tours to the temples and lots of time spent on the boat with the guide answering our questions and entertaining us, I had heard no information that would give solid form to that intangible aura just out of reach. So, finally I just asked the guide straight out “where is the magic? what happened in the temples? what was it all about?” His answer was “It’s not there. It’s gone. That was then and this is now.” I will always remember the words “That was then and this is now”. It was akin to a slap in the face for me. I pressed him a bit on the subject but he had no more to say. Later I realised there is no place in Egyptology that the guides are taught, for “that stuff”.

The Permanent Move and the Journey that Continues

Even without “that stuff” Egypt had caught me and in 2003 my divorce was finalised, I sold my house in Cork and moved to Egypt. I had no clear, definite plan. But that was not unusual for me. And from here on every decision I made, was much the same as it had always been in my life. I continued to simply always take the next obvious step. That way there were no seemingly BIG decisions, just a continuous series of small steps. I didn’t weigh the pros and cons. I just lived and dealt with things as they happened or came my way.

The consequences of those small steps were not always pain free or easy. In fact some of the consequences were downright awful, painful and stressful. That was the period in my life where I learned there are no wrong decisions. If you find yourself in doo-dah make another decision. The important thing is to keep moving.

Later in life I could look back at all the “wrong” decisions and see that it was exactly those steps that would lead to situations, maybe years later, where the big reward came in. Life is a series of cycles not endings and beginnings, but a never-ending story and it is not until you get to the end of it that you can look back and see how everything fitted together. Now, whether it is an event that someone terms a blessing or a disaster, my answer is “we’ll see!”

The Creation of Mara House

Soon, I had bought a piece of land and was building Mara House. I never intended this. I didn’t go looking for land. The land came to me, just the one piece, over and over, each time the price dropped. Until it was so cheap I could not say “no” anymore. Seems I had become an expert at bargaining without even knowing I was bargaining! At the time, I only intended to build the ground floor but Mara House took on a life of its own even back then.

How Life’s Lessons Are Never Wasted

Prior to moving to Egypt my life was a series of ups and downs, filled with more failure than success. But the weird “coincidences” were that:

• Everything I had learned in every failure up to moving to Egypt was a skill I needed and used in Egypt.
• The street that Mara House is built on is called after Saladin (Salah Al Din Al Ayoubbi) – the warrior who united the countries against the medieval crusaders.
• Little did I know that I would go on to incorporate a restaurant into Mara House that was the brainchild of my son Stephen and his wife Sara – and that it would be called the “Salahadeen”.
• Nor did I know that I would go on to discover that I was related through marriage to the family of the last king of Egypt, the descendants of Muhammad Ali.
• Nor did I know that I would end up with the largest collection of photos of that dynasty on the walls of Mara House and be hit with a passion for collecting and writing their life stories.

There is no such thing as a wrong decision. All decisions just bring you to where you must make another and another and another choice. Life is a succession of choices.

Time is Precious and We Don’t Know Until It’s All Used Up!

I believe that time is a precious commodity and that our holidays, especially those with family are particularly important for our wellbeing. There is something in me that drives me to do whatever I can to make life better for others or help make a happy memory whenever I can. That is the guiding force of everything I do and I am fortunate to have gathered a few people around me at Mara House who share those beliefs.

I also believe that what we give out is what we get back and that is why Mara House became such a success and so well-known. My mission is to help everyone who comes my way to experience the very best of Egypt and to have an extraordinary time in this magical country – yes, I did find the places and the magic for myself and am always eager to share it 🙂

I was lucky at Mara House, my instinct and my decisions proved fruitful and Mara House has hosted lovely people, some well-known at the time and others whose careers I have watched hit the heights of success over the years. I like to think that their visit to Egypt and Mara House added a little magic to their lives and in some way helped them on their life journey.

Trials and Set-backs

In 2011, the revolution that was more in the minds of the outside world than it was in Egypt, the political disaster that followed and was rescued by the 2013 so-called army coup that was only a coup in the minds of the outside world. Those were the days that I truly understood the ways of the world and stopped waiting. Waiting for the right time for anything because there is never a right time – every time I make a decision and every time I make a move is the right time.

Then 2020 brought the outside world to a stop in 2020/21. And in 2023 the war in Gaza once again has people afraid to go to Egypt – again, while the war is real in Gaza, the danger in Egypt is only in the minds of the outside world. It would be akin to the people throughout the USA being afraid to go to Pennsylvania because the street gangs in New York declared an all-out war on each other. Intrepid Explorers, adventurers, the rich and famous – they know the time to travel is when everyone else is clinging to home.