Cairo is NUTS

CAIRO IS NUTS! Was my first thought when i stepped out from my hostel the next morning!
I hadn't even crossed the road yet, wasn't even 10m from the doorstep of my hostel when i was approached by multiple Ali Baba's (ill refer to the touts and annoyee's with the name Ali Baba. Throughout my travels within the middle east, everyone i spoke to who i mentioned i was going to Cairo warned me to be careful of Ali Baba! "Ze people in Cairo are ALL Ali Baba") Sorry for the generalisation, im sure it isnt a representation of greater Cairo and is probably restricted to the tourists areas, but i was just starting my day and was swarmed with "MY FRIEND! HELLO! MISTER! YOU LOST? YOU WANT SOUVENIR? FRIEND! COME!" i kept walking and in the end just ignored them.



The first day i went to Cairo Museum, im really not a fan of ancient history but did appreciate the ancient statues, artefacts and tombs within the Museum. It pissed me off that you couldn't take photos inside, so i don't have much to show for the Museum. After lunch i wandered around and observed some pretty crazy shit for my first day in Cairo. I watched a woman slap the shit out of a female beggar on the street, who was fighting back with her wooden broom stick! Local men had to brake it up! It was hilarious! Only a few blocks up, as i was crossing the round about (im seriously the best middle eastern street crosser out, you want to hear the best advice as how to cross a street in the middle east? Don't look, just walk! No seriously it works. If you just walk with your head high, the cars do stop, as crazy as it is on the roads i haven't seen someone get run over or cars screeching to a stop for a pedestrian) Anyway, as i was crossing the round about, this, what i assume was, husband and wife, where having a full blown domestic on the street. In typical middle eastern fashion, the whole street including the shop owners stopped to watch. The argument got really heated, the woman was disobeying her husbands orders to come with her, he held on tight to her handbag and was trying to drag her somewhere (home im assuming?) She was screaming and yelling for help to the crowds gathered but no one was doing anything! At one stage it looked like he was trying to snatch her bag, they where tugging back and forth real hard! THEN her silver bag strap broke and she ran free across the street! DARTED away! The husband chased after her with this cool calmness, and then whole street chased after them! I got so caught up in the action that i too began running with the crowd! It was now like a scene from that shitty early 90's movie, "Not without my daughter" (though in Egypt, not Iran) The wife almost made it into a cab but the husband pulled her out and began to pull her along the street. At this point she became hysterical! The crowd tried to brake it up now, the traffic police got involved and calmed both of them down. The couple began to chill, then it just got boring... so i moved on!



I walked to the Bazaar district and the surrounding area was nothing like i have seen before. It was like Bourj Hammoud on crack! Wait i need to think, not everyone has been to Bourj Hammoud... It was like... ahh i cant describe the chaos of it all! Women walking around with baskets full of goods on their heads, fumes and traffic intoxicating, the call to prayer blaring from loud speakers, mass crowds barging around their way through it all, store sellers screaming on the top of their lungs, kids running around selling junk, stray animals wandering about, the smell of food wafting into the air, and me, stopping in the middle of the street, removing my sun glasses to try and take it all in! Photos dont do the streets justice! But it was great! It had a fantastic buzz!



After dinner i wandered along the Nile River and i got to thinking, people have been living along this river for centuries, 5000 years before christ people settled here, and now, it has sky rise buildings and hotels! And funky looking neon felucca boats offering a ride up and down stream with arabic music pumping from its distorted speakers! It was great! I wish i could discover more of Ciaro, like the underground club and bar district, im sure it exists, somewhere, just im not sure where!



Today i did the pyramids, the Giza pyramids, Saqqara and Memphis! I took a day trip with a private taxi organised by the hostel, again, the joys of travelling alone cost triple on tours, though with the dollar being 5 to 1 it really wasn't that bad and was worth the day of sight seeing! I did flash my 'student card' from my Tafe small business course and it worked! HA! half price entry! Again, there was lots of Ali Babas in and around the Pyramids. When you stop and watch it all, it really becomes sad. Its a pathetic attempt to get money off tourists, its even more sad when you see tourists succumbing to their shit. This one scam i thought was rather clever. There was a good view point from the top of these old ruins, which tourists could climb. Once ontop these guys with whistles would come out blowing and telling everyone to get down, (plain clothed and not site guards either) those left ontop where re assured by the fake guards that infact it was okay for those selected few to stay up, infact, why not give me your camera and i can take photos for you? Well how nice, thought the tourists, okay heres the camera. Pose like this, says the guard, now one hand here and pinch the air like this, see look , it looks like your pinching the pyramids! HE HE yes funny isnt it?... You what? ...You want your camera back? ... Give me 10 pounds! (ahaha dickheads) The other less inventive scams involved Ali Baba's following you begging for 1 EURO! 1 EURO! GIVE ME TIP! for what? you ask...no response...you ask, again, they respond looking dumb founded! LASH!!!?? i asked again, then they leave you alone. In all the Pyramids was a great experience, i really don't know where they got all those big lime stones from, nor how they carried them into the desert and created perfect pyramids all those years ago! The sphinx was fantastic, i didn't know it was carved out of one massive limestone left over from the pyramids! Seeing the pyramid and sphynix multiple times in movies and advertising, it kind of has a pre numbing affect when you view it in real life, a kinda of, "yeahh i seen that already affect...." Oh the joys of multimedia!

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