UPDATED
As mentioned before, I had postponed going to Egypt because of the attacks on tourists over the years. And just as those attacks looked to have reduced, there are the riots.
As mentioned before, I had postponed going to Egypt because of the attacks on tourists over the years. And just as those attacks looked to have reduced, there are the riots.
I
have always wondered why the Egyptians struggle economically when they are
descendants of the ancient Egyptians who built the wonderful gigantic
monuments, who mastered medicine, mathematics and astronomy, who were great and
skilled artists and architects and decorators. Admittedly, the ancient
Egyptians were a different breed of people altogether. How could any one group
of people be so disciplined and committed towards building the ancient
civilisation that we now enjoy from what remain? How did they manage to carve
out and build up those monuments, what skills did they possess and where did
they learn how to construct their temples and pyramids? They were so gifted,
intelligent and clever, inventing their own alphabets and adorning their
temples with stories for us to decipher and learn from. I marvel at their
wisdom, intelligence, discipline and grit. So you can understand why it’s hard
for me to reconcile the Egyptians with their mighty great ancestors. I once
remarked to Lin of how strange it is that the ancient Egyptians and ancient
Greeks could be so advanced and ahead of their times, yet their descendants,
the present day Egyptians and Greeks struggle. And how advanced the two
countries which were most devastated in the World War II: Germany and Japan. Nevertheless,
most of the Egyptians we met (when they were not dying to make money from us)
were friendly and cheerful people, despite the economic hardship they face.
Cairo
is a mega-huge city – well, it needs to be when it is home to some 19 million
residents – so huge that it’s easily a dozen times larger than KL. It’s so huge
that even with the ongoing demonstrations, we were not only caught in any but
we didn’t even hear, feel or experience any (thank God) save for those we saw
on TV (oh and while CNN was full of the riots, there was hardly anything on BBC
leading us to wonder the truth and if there was just some propaganda). The huge
scale of the city probably explains why it’s difficult for the city to keep
itself clean (or rather, for the citizens to keep the city clean). We saw a lot
of rubbish hills in the middle of the roads – either they don’t have any local
authority to clear those rubbish or the locals produce so much rubbish that the
local authority can’t keep up. It’s such a shame that a Muslim country can
appear so poor and dirty and it reminded me of India (and I imagine Pakistan
and Bangladesh are not any better). It’s bad enough that it’s dusty but for
this we can’t blame the city, not when it is defenceless to protect itself
against the pollution and dust blowing from the desert. This dust envelops the
city, choking it and turning its buildings into dusty brown. And the city is
near the desert so it doesn’t get the rain it needs to wash the dust off its
surface. In fact, the dust and sand completely buried the ancient temples
before they were discovered and it took years, even decades, to clean out those
buried sites.
The
Muslims there do not need prayer rooms to perform prayers. They are not
conscious of performing their obligation to God in the open. We on the other
hand have mosques and prayer rooms at hotels, malls and bus terminals yet some
of us choose not to perform prayers...
You
need to pay when using most public WC. Conditions vary.
There
are many tall buildings in Cairo to cater for its ever-expanding population.
Some buildings are still works-in-progress and some look to have been completed
and occupied yet have structures on top as if to support expansion. Indeed,
this is a common sight in other towns because Egyptians live in large families
and as the family expands, so does the house – upwards instead of sideways.
Watch
out for the cheating traders. One minute they would tell you an item cost X
pounds and when you return back to the stall, they would claim they never said
that, X pounds could buy something else but not that item and asked if you are
crazy to suggest that that item would only cost X pounds. Also beware from
falling for their scams. A seller may tell you he’s selling genuine papyrus
bookmarks when they are actually made from banana fibre...
Egyptians
love their tea (chai) black and sweet. I’m English, I drink tea, correction, I drink
milk tea.
There
are soo many Chinese tourists in Egypt (I don’t recall noticing them in
Turkey). Too many in fact. The guides don’t like them much and I doubt the
traders do either because the Chinese don’t really shop the local things (they splurge
in Paris instead). They are noisy, greedy and inconsiderate. I’m sorry if this
sounds racist but the majority of them are really all that and worse.
Winter
is a good time to get married in Egypt. The hotel we stayed at had wedding
receptions for different couples every night.
There
are many crazy drivers there who drive maniacally at illegal speed limits
(wait, was there even any speed limit?). They weave in and out of the traffic,
squeeze closely to the next vehicle and just follow the vehicle in front. The
road lines are barely discernible (if they exist in the first place) and
drivers are free to form their own lane. Amazingly, we saw only one accident
and that was in Alex. I don’t think it costs much to get a driving licence
there and judging by the way the locals drive, I wouldn’t be surprised if one
can obtain a licence within a day. It doesn’t help that the roads are bad in
some areas, even on the highway linking Cairo and Alex. We suffered many
headaches particularly towards the end of our visit and at times, I even felt
like vomiting in the vehicle. Yes, even Wikitravel confirms this particular
observation: ‘Road accidents are very common in Egypt, mainly due to poor
roads, dangerous driving and non-enforcement of traffic laws.’
No
matter where you dine, the food is more or less the same. The salad selection
is similar (beetroot, tomatoes, potatoes, pasta, cucumber) and the soup too (we
encountered the ubiquitous clear (fava?) bean soup almost everywhere). For the main
dish, there’s usually pasta offered alongside rice and the usual chicken, meat,
fish and vegetable dishes. I skipped dessert most of the time so I can’t tell
you what’s good there.
Water
at meals is not free. You need to pay for it. So what we did was to bring our
own bottles of mineral water along. We brought some over with us and bought
bottles of mineral water over there. it’s between 3 - 5 pounds per bottle
compared to 12 pounds at the restaurant.
Egyptians
love being tipped. Carry loose change.
Will
I visit again? I would love to visit Cairo again and explore Coptic Cairo, the
ruins in Alexandria and other temples in Luxor. But I don’t think this visit
will be anytime soon.
The end
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