I am in Cairo
I have only been here for just over 24 hours, but I feel like I have aged a year. I'm sure that's part jetlag and part that I haven't traveled like this recently, but most of it is because Cairo is a pretty intense and overwhelming place.
A few impressions of how so:
1) First, the cars. I thought I'd seen it all with crazy driving, but they've really taken it to the next level. No real use of lanes or signals. No speed limits. NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS. I think I have seen two lights since I've been here, but even at huge intersections, it's primarily a yellow blinker. Forget about pedestrians, you cross into moving traffic. I had to take a video to try and capture it with all the horns going and the ancient and decrepit vehicles. It's unlike anything I have really seen, even in Southeast Asia. I read a great line in a guidebook that the government has tried to put in streetlights here but they have yet to acquire "credibility" with the locals.
2) It's insanely crowded. There are about 18 million people living here apparently. I think most of them are on the sidewalks near my hotel.
3) It's hot. Like, Africa hot. Literally. That said, thanks to jetlag i was out at 5am this morning and it's extremely mild and pleasant with a light breeze. The evenings are also reasonably comfortable too.
4) I'm here during Ramadan, so a majority of people are fasting during the day. This doesn't mean I can't eat, but it does mean food is harder to get. What's most amazing though is that those fasting don't drink water during the day, which is just unimaginable to me though they claim you get used to it.
5) It's not a clean city by any stretch. Garbage cans are kind of hard to come by and there is definitely a mentality of throwing trash on the street without thinking twice, no matter what it is. Also, no street cleaning of any sort that I've seen. There was quite a lot of trash floating on the banks of the Nile as well.
6) Brutal homelessness. On the one hand, I didn't see that much of it, but on the other hand, I saw one women wearing the full muslim dress that I would call a burkha which may or may not be accurate, but she was sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the packs of tissues she sells, more or less covered in black flies. I tried to tell if she was breathing, but the nearby people seemed unconcerned so I guess she's a regular. Incidentally, I read that 1/3rd of the homes in Cairo don't have running water and some don't even have sewage.
7) Scams are a little overwhelming, though isolated to specific areas. At certain squares, people approach and want to talk and pretend to be your friend, and then try to sell you something or take you to their shop to buy something and so on. By the Pyramids of course where I went today, this was at its most brutal. Even getting there, there are people directing you not to the entrance you are looking for, but to some store or other street. Once inside the gate, there are people who approach every few minutes and try to give you a "gift" which then you will have to pay them for, or they start a tour without asking and then ask you for money at the end, or try to give you a ride on a camel. Apparently it is not uncommon that they offer you a camel ride for $1 into the desert, then charge you an exorbitant sum to return. I did not find out if that would happen to me, but I was offered a camel ride for $1. A bit more about all this later.
So those are a few basic gripes that come to mind. Here are a few adventures of the last day or so, and a few things I have enjoyed.
1) The Pyramids were indeed incredible. It was every bit as impressive as I thought it would be to stand underneath them and walk around. Getting there was interesting. I walked for a few hours in that direction since it was 5:30am and I don't think the gate opens til 8, and then I ultimately ended up getting a minibus which is certainly among the most insane modes of transport I have experienced. There is a guy driving and a guy who hangs out the door of the moving vehicle yelling the destination at people on the sidewalk repeatedly. They sort of stop when they are picking people up, but just like the bigger buses, the just sort of slow down enough that you can jump on. Thankfully for foreigners, they slow down a bit more than that and it was pretty interesting and insanely cheap. I also experienced the pyramids as a crash course in Arabic, which I started learning on the plane. I found that in general speaking Arabic to all the hustlers dissuaded them from hassling me further and I even managed to be friendly with a bunch of them.
On the way to the Pyramids, I had found the right bus successfully and was on my way when two Japanese people got on with an Egyptian guy who I initially and incorrectly assumed they knew. I went to talk to them to see where they were from and before I realized that he had picked them up to scam them, he said we had to switch to another bus, so I went with them. We took another bus towards the back entrance of the pyramids and then he wanted to go buy a ticket in a special place for a special price, which is when I realized what was going on, so I excused myself and no harm was done. In fact I had wanted to go to the rear entrance anyway since it was reported to me correctly that if you show up there early which I had, you would have the Sphinx pretty much all to yourself, which I did. In general, it was not very crowded at all at the Pyramids, there were times where I was more or less by myself at the base of either of the two larger structures. Did you know that originally the Pyramids at Giza were originally covered with smooth, white limestone?
2) As I am here during Ramadan, at about 6:30pm everyone eats a meal to break their fast. Last night I had this meal with the hotel staff which sounds a lot more formal than it really is. The streets quiet down for an hour while people eat, and then completely fill up with people who socialize and go shopping. People seem to be out for a long time doing this, I'm told up until 4am but with my jetlag I didn't get to see that with my own eyes. The consumerism in general in my neighborhood of downtown Cairo is pretty extreme. It reminds me somewhat of China in that respect, and from what I've been told so far, shopping for things during Ramadan is quite common and several people even related it to Christmas. I have also heard the calls to prayer and seen many people lay mats down on the sidewalk en masse. I haven't been the Islamic Quarter of Cairo yet where I imagine I will see a lot more of that.
3) Men walk arm in arm here the way Chinese women do.
4) One guy approached me on the street just to talk. Another guy at the Pyramids spoke with me for about 30-40 minutes about his life in Egypt. He's bedouin and he invited me to his home for dinner, which I haven't decided if I will do yet. After being approached by 40 people trying to take advantage of me, it was difficult to trust people, but I asked him how much he'd ask me if I came and ate at his house and he seemed to be genuinely taken aback. He said work is separate, this is just hospitality and he wants me to leave Egypt with a better impression. He knows that many foreigners experience these things and wants to give a better impression. He said I should judge people individually, and open my heart but guard my pocket.
5) Another guy approached me in the city and said I cross the street like an Egyptian. I talked to him for a few minutes and he works at a diving school at a resort in Hurghada and seemed to just be friendly, but again, being so overwhelmed by the majority who want to take advantage, it's difficult to trust, but at least we had a nice chat and his intentions seemed innocent.
Alright, probably nobody read this but at least a few things have been documented about this insane 24 hours. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?
A few impressions of how so:
1) First, the cars. I thought I'd seen it all with crazy driving, but they've really taken it to the next level. No real use of lanes or signals. No speed limits. NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS. I think I have seen two lights since I've been here, but even at huge intersections, it's primarily a yellow blinker. Forget about pedestrians, you cross into moving traffic. I had to take a video to try and capture it with all the horns going and the ancient and decrepit vehicles. It's unlike anything I have really seen, even in Southeast Asia. I read a great line in a guidebook that the government has tried to put in streetlights here but they have yet to acquire "credibility" with the locals.
2) It's insanely crowded. There are about 18 million people living here apparently. I think most of them are on the sidewalks near my hotel.
3) It's hot. Like, Africa hot. Literally. That said, thanks to jetlag i was out at 5am this morning and it's extremely mild and pleasant with a light breeze. The evenings are also reasonably comfortable too.
4) I'm here during Ramadan, so a majority of people are fasting during the day. This doesn't mean I can't eat, but it does mean food is harder to get. What's most amazing though is that those fasting don't drink water during the day, which is just unimaginable to me though they claim you get used to it.
5) It's not a clean city by any stretch. Garbage cans are kind of hard to come by and there is definitely a mentality of throwing trash on the street without thinking twice, no matter what it is. Also, no street cleaning of any sort that I've seen. There was quite a lot of trash floating on the banks of the Nile as well.
6) Brutal homelessness. On the one hand, I didn't see that much of it, but on the other hand, I saw one women wearing the full muslim dress that I would call a burkha which may or may not be accurate, but she was sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the packs of tissues she sells, more or less covered in black flies. I tried to tell if she was breathing, but the nearby people seemed unconcerned so I guess she's a regular. Incidentally, I read that 1/3rd of the homes in Cairo don't have running water and some don't even have sewage.
7) Scams are a little overwhelming, though isolated to specific areas. At certain squares, people approach and want to talk and pretend to be your friend, and then try to sell you something or take you to their shop to buy something and so on. By the Pyramids of course where I went today, this was at its most brutal. Even getting there, there are people directing you not to the entrance you are looking for, but to some store or other street. Once inside the gate, there are people who approach every few minutes and try to give you a "gift" which then you will have to pay them for, or they start a tour without asking and then ask you for money at the end, or try to give you a ride on a camel. Apparently it is not uncommon that they offer you a camel ride for $1 into the desert, then charge you an exorbitant sum to return. I did not find out if that would happen to me, but I was offered a camel ride for $1. A bit more about all this later.
So those are a few basic gripes that come to mind. Here are a few adventures of the last day or so, and a few things I have enjoyed.
1) The Pyramids were indeed incredible. It was every bit as impressive as I thought it would be to stand underneath them and walk around. Getting there was interesting. I walked for a few hours in that direction since it was 5:30am and I don't think the gate opens til 8, and then I ultimately ended up getting a minibus which is certainly among the most insane modes of transport I have experienced. There is a guy driving and a guy who hangs out the door of the moving vehicle yelling the destination at people on the sidewalk repeatedly. They sort of stop when they are picking people up, but just like the bigger buses, the just sort of slow down enough that you can jump on. Thankfully for foreigners, they slow down a bit more than that and it was pretty interesting and insanely cheap. I also experienced the pyramids as a crash course in Arabic, which I started learning on the plane. I found that in general speaking Arabic to all the hustlers dissuaded them from hassling me further and I even managed to be friendly with a bunch of them.
On the way to the Pyramids, I had found the right bus successfully and was on my way when two Japanese people got on with an Egyptian guy who I initially and incorrectly assumed they knew. I went to talk to them to see where they were from and before I realized that he had picked them up to scam them, he said we had to switch to another bus, so I went with them. We took another bus towards the back entrance of the pyramids and then he wanted to go buy a ticket in a special place for a special price, which is when I realized what was going on, so I excused myself and no harm was done. In fact I had wanted to go to the rear entrance anyway since it was reported to me correctly that if you show up there early which I had, you would have the Sphinx pretty much all to yourself, which I did. In general, it was not very crowded at all at the Pyramids, there were times where I was more or less by myself at the base of either of the two larger structures. Did you know that originally the Pyramids at Giza were originally covered with smooth, white limestone?
2) As I am here during Ramadan, at about 6:30pm everyone eats a meal to break their fast. Last night I had this meal with the hotel staff which sounds a lot more formal than it really is. The streets quiet down for an hour while people eat, and then completely fill up with people who socialize and go shopping. People seem to be out for a long time doing this, I'm told up until 4am but with my jetlag I didn't get to see that with my own eyes. The consumerism in general in my neighborhood of downtown Cairo is pretty extreme. It reminds me somewhat of China in that respect, and from what I've been told so far, shopping for things during Ramadan is quite common and several people even related it to Christmas. I have also heard the calls to prayer and seen many people lay mats down on the sidewalk en masse. I haven't been the Islamic Quarter of Cairo yet where I imagine I will see a lot more of that.
3) Men walk arm in arm here the way Chinese women do.
4) One guy approached me on the street just to talk. Another guy at the Pyramids spoke with me for about 30-40 minutes about his life in Egypt. He's bedouin and he invited me to his home for dinner, which I haven't decided if I will do yet. After being approached by 40 people trying to take advantage of me, it was difficult to trust people, but I asked him how much he'd ask me if I came and ate at his house and he seemed to be genuinely taken aback. He said work is separate, this is just hospitality and he wants me to leave Egypt with a better impression. He knows that many foreigners experience these things and wants to give a better impression. He said I should judge people individually, and open my heart but guard my pocket.
5) Another guy approached me in the city and said I cross the street like an Egyptian. I talked to him for a few minutes and he works at a diving school at a resort in Hurghada and seemed to just be friendly, but again, being so overwhelmed by the majority who want to take advantage, it's difficult to trust, but at least we had a nice chat and his intentions seemed innocent.
Alright, probably nobody read this but at least a few things have been documented about this insane 24 hours. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?
posted by Dan at 12:11 PM
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