Blogs from Middle Egypt, Egypt, Africa

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home. - James A. Michener We woke up this morning to find us docked in Edfu. We are on the side of the boat that is moored to the dock, and there was a guy sitting in a chair seemingly a few feet away, so I closed the drapes pretty fast! We were up ready to leave at 6:30 but Amr said we did have time for breakfast after all, since the boat wasn't leaving until 10 am. We left the boat at 7:30 for our horse drawn carriage ride to the Temple of Horus, about a 10 minute ride. Edfu is a dusty town from what we've seen of it. Amr told us that the carriage ... read more

5 dni temu opuscilismy Kair, dzierzac w reku wizy do Sudamu i Etiopii:-) Minelismy Gize z jej wspanialymi piramidami i skierowalismy sie wzdluz Nilu na poludnie. Po synajskiej pustyni, jestesmy oczarowani zielenia i bujnoscia zycia wzdluz rzeki. Jest to magiczna kraina osiolka. Czas sie tu zatrzymal. Ludzie zyja jak zyli ich dziadowie i pra pra x 100 dziadowie. Nic sie nie zmienilo - stroje, obyczaje, menatalnosc no i wszechobecny osiolek ktory jest glowna sila robocza i srodkierm transportu. Jedynymi oznakami tego ze XXI wiek sie tu zakradl sa komorki, motory i samochody ( w tym bardzo polularny nasz PLONEZ:-) Dzis dotarlismy do Asyut. Niestety juz nie sami a w eskorcie policji:-( Niestety taki tu zwyczaj ze dla "dobra" i "bezpieczenstwa" turysty, jedzie sie w konwoju. Jakos do tej pory przemieszczajac sie wzdluz mniejszych kanalow, udalo nam ... read more

“All the good for the American image that was done by Obama’s speech has been undone by Swine Flu” - my roommate’s boss While I’ve been fortunate enough not to fall victim to earth’s trendiest new pandemic, swine flu has taken on a special new importance in my life. For those of you not voraciously following Egyptian news, there have been 7 cases of swine flu diagnosed in Cairo (actually, now it's up to 26, but it started with 7) - all of them foreign students newly arrived at the AUC dorms near downtown, in Zamalek (an upper-class island neighborhood in the Nile, in the middle of Cairo) to take summer courses. This, predictably, ignited a sort of latent frenzy that is so ill-conceived it borders on the hilarious. There is no rioting in the streets, ... read more

Bahariyya Oasis is a teardrop-shaped cluster of date palms, rock, hot springs and flowers about 400 kilometers southwest of Cairo. It’s linked by a slender little wedge of green to Farafra Oasis, and surrounding all of this are massive sheets of desert stretching for hours on all sides. The main “city” in Bahariyya is called Bawiti, a bright, ancient, eerily peaceful little town, which is the place towards which, several weeks ago, my friends and I found ourselves barreling on a rickety Egyptian bus, to go camping and hiking in the desert for 4 days. The ride took 5 dusty hours, which wasn’t actually so bad. Once we arrived, we met a Bedouin man called Gareeb who had agreed to take us into the desert. He was pretty young, as it turned out. I had him ... read more

The Ladies' Car I just went on the ladies' car in the subway for the first time, and what a place it is! I can’t believe I haven’t gone into it before, having generally opted to subject myself to the more convenient yet significantly more degrading mixed car where my buns almost get a free massage from all of the squeezing from unclaimed hands they receive. Never again, though. From now on, I’m a metro elitist. Girl power. The subways, by the way, are the cleanest and most efficient I’ve ever seen. Which is saying something, considering Egypt is the most disorganized, inefficient, dirty place I’ve ever been. But these subways are well-run, well-staffed, come every 5 minutes, and have no dirt or trash (let alone the smell of urine). That’s another perk of living in ... read more