Vignettes of Cairo (Jason)

We stayed in a rustic budget hotel (as we habitually tend to do)-- Pensione Roma. While it may not have lived up to its romantic name, it was certainly a timepiece, and in the aorta of Cairo's throbbing heart. One problem with staying oriented in downtown Cairo is that otherwise perfectly good reference points don't work. Shops with hundreds of freaky mannequins, falafel shops, old men pushing mysterious carts- there seems to be one on every corner. In one instance I got a bit disoriented (unheard of, I assure you) trying to find our hotel as it was located between two identical military vehicles with Egyptian men in machine guns smoking in the open back- a perfect mirror image. Brilliant. We were downtown on a holiday weekend night, and the street was throbbing with entire families of all generations sharing the road- and these aren't pedestrian roads. There seems to be an art or science of survival in Cairo- drivers and pedestrians share the roads and somehow avoid death in all the chaos.


Other scenes of Cairo:

-Sailing north, down the Nile, in a felucca (a traditional sailboat with a tall, flexible mast); waking up to the usual cacophony of prayers emanating from hidden mosques- there is no escape!

-A boy on his rickety bicycle cruising full-speed down a busy street on a with an oversized basket of flatbread on his head, dropping a piece and risking his life to rescue it in traffic (perhaps a window into urban Egyptian poverty)

-Six-year old entrepreneurs (sometimes just con artists) on camels they supposedly named Mickey Mouse and Rambo (the names change of course depending on the tourist) on the Giza Plateau at the Pyramids, asking in unison "Hey mister! Camel ride! I make you a deal! No hassle!"- that promise didn't last long

-Entire families and their groceries on mules or upgrading to the mule-drawn carts

-Ending up on a spontaneous unsolicited "tour" in which a man will approaches, asks with charisma what is one's country of origin, then proceeds to provide questionable and very basic information on something of supposed historical significance; the forced tour terminates abruptly as a tip ("baksheesh!") is demanded of the tourist; after presenting a few Egyptian pounds, they are often thrown back at the tourist with disdain, occasionally followed by the pronouncement of a curse upon the tourist and family vis a vis Allah (That last part only happened once and the pronounced curse hasn't come to pass. yet.)

-The fruity smell of flavored tobacco water pipes (shi sha, among other names) permeating the crowded streets and mixing with the smells of standing water, livestock, sweat, and produce

-Open air markets (Khan Kalili being the most famous, extensive, and congested) selling anything from natural sponges (it's a plant apparently), to cow hearts

-A lone cow tied up to a pillar on a street corner in downtown Cairo waiting to be slaughtered to mark the end of the Haj, the culmination of Muslim holiday Eid al Adha

-Climbing to the top of the minaret of a medieval mosque, dusting off the creaking ladder on the way up and tipping the man with the key on the way down (this was not recommended by Lonely Planet)

-Strolling through the verdant Al Azar park, a former mammoth garbage dump in a particularly gritty part of town turned lush and exclusive paid park (still bordering the gritty part of town); the contrasts in Cairo are at times stark

-Camels and their owners having spitting contests

-Looking out over the rooftops of Cairo across a sea of dust-covered rubble in all directions- perhaps acting as a weight to keep the roofs from blowing away



OK, so this didn't read like a travel agent's promotional on Cairo, but these are just a few scenes which have lingered in my memory. I have a feeling they will be there for a while. Having said all this, Cairo is a lovable city- grit and spit and all- one must simply embrace it (sometimes from a distance).

Egypt, Take 2 (by Camille)

Our early December vacation corresponded with 2-3 million Muslims flying from all over the world to Mecca, Saudi Arabia for their once in a lifetime pilgrimage, the hajj. We saw a special hajj waiting area in the Abu Dhabi airport and large groups of old men in two pieces of white cloth or towels (the prescribed clothing for the event) standing, kneeling, and putting their heads to the ground to pray.

Newspaper articles followed the pilgrims’ progress as we moved through Egypt and Jordan. On our way back to UAE, we stumbled upon a group of at least 60 little old women wearing black robes and fluorescent green head scarves printed with “Hajj Express, Kerala India,” a mobile phone number and an email address. I imagine if an old Indian lady was lost, wandering the streets wearing the bright scarf, someone could easily get her back to Kerala. It was inspiring to see so many people making a religious journey in this day and age and to consider that this may be the last chance an old Indian woman has to get to Mecca.

Since I had visited Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan 10 years ago, I wondered if I would notice any changes. In many ways, Egypt is timeless; the pyramids, King Tut treasures, and Valley of the King tombs were as I remembered them. Not surprising since they have been around for 1,500 to 3,000 years. Subsistence farming with primitive tools and animals along the Nile did not appear different. The street food—falafel, foul, eggplant, fresh squeezed juice and koshari (strangely delicious mix of lentils, chick peas, macaroni, rice, crispy onions, and tomato sauce) —was as tasty and dirt cheap as ever. The quest for “baksheesh” from hoards of tourist touts hassling us for money seemed more annoying than ever. We felt blessed to get out of the country with only one man saying “no salam” (no peace—a play on the phrase for goodbye—ma salama) and another uninvited guide cursing me with sickness in the name of Allah (after which I accidentally said “I hate Egyptians and I’m going to call the police if you don’t leave me alone” both of which were lies but that’s what the curse drove me to).

I noticed for the first time the fairly conservative attire of Muslim women: very colorful head scarves, long sleeve shirts, and long pants or skirts. Perhaps I’m more attuned to that now that I live in a Muslim country. I noted the poverty, the sheer positive energy of crowds shopping for new clothes to celebrate Eid al Adha, the mummies that weren’t on display before, the carvings of the God of the Nile, and the fertility carvings. Our trip was full of sand, mud, geology, ancient pyramids, roman ruins, Nabateun tombs, and Christian sites. Stay tuned to hear about the characters we won’t forget: the Nubian captain, the female Pharaoh, two Egyptian guides (one invited and one uninvited), and a Bedouin oud player.