Craziness in Cairo, Pyramids in Giza, and a Huge Stone Cat

First impressions and hasty generalizations often lead a person to form misguided opinions with regards to a country and its people. As has been the case with so many people I have met throughout my travels, people I meet are often shocked that I don’t fit their general stereotype of the “average American”. My usually response to such comments is that I happen to be 1 of nearly 300,000,000 people, the US is a nation of immigrants with practically every nationality on earth living in some part of the country or another, with hundreds of languages, cultures, opinions, and ideas all smashed into one place. My point being is that whatever pre-conceived notions people may have of Americans, or any other nationality for that matter, they usually tend to be wrong.

And such has been my experience with Egypt and the Egyptians that inhabit this chaotic nation. I like to think…and take pride in the fact that I’m very good at taking things at face value when it comes to traveling in other countries. A constant comparison of this place to that place, how this particular city stacks up to…say San Francisco, or California-in-general, etc… only leads one to see the world more stratified, focusing on its differences, rather than experiencing and admiring the underlying, unifying fabric that interlinks and ties together humanity. It is fair to say that someone could be easily put-off by the aggressive and sneaky nature of the Egyptian shopkeepers, touts, taxi drivers, and the like, but once you look past the superficial madness of Egypt, the place actually has the ability to become instantly delightful. I had imagined that Cairo would be the worst of the worst, but I can reasonably conclude now that I was clearly mistaken. We must have been asked nearly 100 times in two and half days where we were from, and the response was nearly always the same, “welcome to my country”. While this might appear to be remedial, day-to-day banter, there’s something more to be said. From my experiences in back alley-ways, grand bazaars, restaurants, and fancy hotels, the people are actually quite warm, inviting, and make you genuinely feel welcome to be in this land of such ancient wonders.

With my transformed attitude of the people in Egypt, Dad, Mat, and I ventured into the Islamic Cairo district with its vast craft markets, ancient cafes and sheesha bars. We spent the better part of the day wandering through this part of the city before finally parking ourselves in one of the oldest coffee shops in the world. "Fishawl" was built in 1753 is run by the same family, and offers a fantastic way to observe the bedlam of Islamic Cairo while sipping tasty coffee and puffing away on some sheesha. I really, really enjoyed myself there. Prior to our arrival in that district of Egypt’s 20 million+ capitol city, we spent a few hours at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. We spent most of our time wandering throughout the incredible King Tut exhibit and marveling at the elaborate gold jewelry and coffins that accompanied the young king in his tomb.

We dedicated our final day in Egypt strictly to viewing the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and the more ancient pyramids of Saqqara. I’ll let the photos do the talking for this portion of the journey, as hardly anyone needs a detailed description of the sole remaining wonder of the ancient world. While visiting Saqqara’s largest and most impressive pyramid, we were shocked to learn that we were standing in front of the oldest man-made structure on the planet. Pre-dating Giza, the main Saqqara pyramid was built around the year 2800 B.C. which makes it nearly 5000 years old. It was remarkably well preserved for being such an old relic of the ancient empire. To get our weary bodies back into Cairo and to avoid the mad traffic of late-afternoon Cairo, the three of us hopped on the Cairo Metro, the first and only subway transit system in the Arab world, and without a doubt the most organized, efficient, functional, and well-run transportation system in the whole of Egypt. Interestingly they have separate train cars for women to keep them apart from men, and by the end of our trip with the car jammed packed from end to end it wasn’t difficult to see why the keep the women separate. We finished off the day with a massive meal at a Lebanese restaurant nearby our hotel, had some final drinks, and said our farewell to Mr. Zalk.

I’m writing this entry for the exit-row seat of Royal Air Maroc flight# 271 from Cairo to Casablanca. Dad and I will be spending the next 6 nights in Morocco before heading north to London to meet up with Mom. Finally after nearly 15 months of travel, Mother and Son will be reunited. Mat’s in the process of trying to make visa arrangements to get himself into Jordan and Syria in the coming month. So that’s all from Egypt, time now for a new Arab-culture experience in a new nation, with new people, new sights, new tastes, smells and every other mind-expanding joy that comes from leaving the comforts of home and setting out on the open road.

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