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Published: December 2nd 2010
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Mothers & babies in Cairo souqFYI: this blog is long and has 3 pages of photos. You will need to click through to the next pages at the end... sorry!
Our flight from Casablanca to Cairo was uneventful. However, Cairo is anything but uneventful! We have both spent considerable time in Mexico City (where Sabrina's mother hails from) and can honestly say that Cairo 'beats' Mexico City as the craziest city we've ever visited. The traffic is off the charts, the air pollution suffocating and the city is teeming with people (20 million).
The Egyptian government heavily subsidizes fuel (we figured it was about $0.20/litre), and not surprisingly, there are cars and taxis everywhere and taxis are quite inexpensive. As an example, we took a 1 hour taxi ride (probably only 10 kilometers) to the pyramids at Giza (more on this below) and it cost $8. We took a metered ride to the post office (30 minutes... again, probably only 7 kilometers) and it cost $3! The taxi meters only turn over for distance and not waiting time.
Much like Morocco, there appears to be no rules to the road. A three-lane road is really 6 and the 'passing' lanes are in fact
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Car part heaven... 5 x 5 blocks of car part dealers... Benz parts anyone? spaces between lanes. Drivers in Cairo love their horns, and are honking constantly to let others know all kinds of things: Honk – I'm passing you on the left! Beep – I'm coming up behind you! Honk – Hi!, Beep, Beep – I'm having a great day! Honk – Get out of my way! It's a symphony you get used to hearing everywhere in Cairo. Interestingly there are only 3 stop lights (yes, 3!) in all of Cairo. How is this possible?... well one doesn't actually go through intersections... if you want to go through an intersection you do as follows: (might be tough to follow, but try)... turn right... go down the road, then pull a u-turn and then take a right at the original intersection (got it?!). We played a fun game: spot the car without dents or scratches... we figured about 10% of cars were 'clean.' We had two 'bumps' (well actually one was a side swipe) and it's funny because the 'bumpee' will get out and stare down the bumper... they puff their chests... usually a bit of yelling (right in the middle of traffic of course with cars honking and moving on either side of
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Pyramid in Giza (near Cairo) this dance)... and then they get back in and keep going. One last tip should you ever be in Cairo, DO NOT put your arm out the window of a moving car... there is a good chance you bump your hand or elbow on a passing car... that's how close they drive and speed of traffic has no bearing on the proximity of vehicles. Suffice to say that with all these vehicles comes air pollution and it's pretty bad in Cairo. A heavy cloud of brown smog lies over the city and it is impossible to escape car fumes. The stats on asthma and respiratory disease must be not be good.
We spent the first day walking on either side of the Nile in the center of the city. We did this because when we arrived at the Egyptian Museum (a must see in Cairo as it's a good jumping point for exploring the various historical sites in the country) we found it closes at 1:30 on Wednesdays (go figure). Anyhow, the Nile is of course one of the major rivers of the world and the reason Egypt actually exists. Egypt receives very little rain and without this lifeblood, it
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Sphynx in Giza would simply be a continuation of the vast Saharan desert. Since taking photos in Cairo was challenging (due to the air pollution) we started taking photos of the garbage in the Nile. It is appalling... plastic bottles and other rubbish everywhere. The garbage we have witnessed in North Africa is very depressing because it really is avoidable. It is very difficult to come to grips with the fact that people simply either don't care or don't have the basic education to know that throwing something out the window (we saw this everywhere) or down a river is bad. To be sure, the challenges in the developing world are massive, but this omnipresence of garbage seems to be one that can be won and is worth tackling.
One a brighter note, Egypt is home to 10 of the top 20 squash players in the world. Of these 10, a good half dozen hail from one club on the banks of the Nile. We sought out the club and were informed that we'd have to pay $20 to be a guest... seemed ridiculous so we negotiated a free escorted tour of the facilities. The club was pretty bare bones but it was
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Security guards in Giza inspiring to be in a place where greatness is so consistently bred.
We did manage to wade our way out to Giza to see the pyramids and Sphynx. Being there is quite special; so much has been written about the preciseness of the design and scale of the projects; but standing next to them is amazing. We were lucky enough to be one of the 150 people they let (for a fee of course) climb up inside one of them. Our legs hurt for the next 2 days... imagine walking up a square passage that is 4 feet by 4 feet... so hunched... our quads killed!
We finally did make it to the Egyptian Museum on our second attempt, and it was well worth the hassle. Housing one of the most important collections of antiquities of the world, we were worried that the museum would be overwhelming. We arrived bright and early, just before opening, which was perfect timing to stroll through the exhibit rooms before it got too busy. Even though this world class collection is cramped and poorly displayed, it was still very exciting to see the numerous artifacts it held such as Tutankhamun's treasures and the mummified
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Famous squash club in Cairo remains of pharaohs and queens (and in some cases, their pets too!). Fortunately, a new museum is currently under construction near the Giza pyramids. Let's hope this new facility will do these treasures justice.
After two nights in Cairo, we flew south to Aswan. From Aswan, we made the day trip to Abu Simbel where Ramses II had two great temples carved out of the mountainside. The site has a decent exhibit which illustrates how the temples were relocated in the 60's,necessary due to the construction of a new dam that would flood the original location. Philae is another temple that was also resited.
We then set sail for a 2 night a felucca trip with our captain, Abdulah (aka Captain Felucca). There isn't too much to the Feluccas – a giant sail and a single deck where you eat, sleep and watch the scenery as you float down the Nile. Not a quick mode of transportation by any means, but so calm and relaxing. Now we're in Luxor for our last days in Egypt.
Luxor is perhaps the world's largest and most impressive outdoor museum (Angkwor Wat in Cambodia notwithstanding). We spent a great day viewing the tombs in
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Hummous... yum! the Valley of the Kings as well as numerous temples. We unfortunately were not permitted to photograph any of the tombs but the art work inside is absolutely stunning. The detail and colour literally make the frescoes appear as if they were painted 10 years ago... to think they were done 2-4000 years ago is difficult to grasp. We were able to take some photos of other sites which you will find below.
A few final notes on our general impressions of Egypt:
1)The country is not a democracy. Mubarak has been president for nearly 30 years and is 83 years old. Their elections are a sham and everyone knows it. They just held a first round of elections on November 27th and we were quite nervous and happy to be out of Cairo. While we were in Cairo, there were protests, violence and at least 2 deaths. The deaths were actually attributed to strife between the Christians (~8% of Egypt's population) and Muslims. The army and riot police were quite visible. Consequently, Egypt has fallen behind on many metrics. Their economy is border line 3rd world (whereas we would describe Morocco as 2nd world). 20% of the population lives
in abject poverty. Tourism is a bit of a sham... tourists are not allowed to rent cars. Travel is monitored (we had to get permission for our felucca trip as an example). Their tourist sites (many of which are considered crème de la crème in terms of historical significance) are unkept and only preserved because the weather is ideal (hot and dry). This country is in bad need of change.
2)The people are friendly; however, they can be quite aggressive in tourist areas (as we were warned). The credit crisis has hurt tourism and there is a general sense of desperation in the touts. Some people don't take 'no' for an answer and this can create strife between tourists and hawkers. There are tourist police everywhere (holding semi-automatic weapons) but they are as much part of the problem than the solution. As an example, these police will allow you to take photos where you're not supposed to (for a bribe) or hassle tourists to let them take their photo (for a bribe). When they aren't trying to making a buck or two, they are more often than not either sleeping or playing on their cell phones.
3)This addiction to cell
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Floating Plastic bottles in Nile... phones is a whole other blog, but we have seen it everywhere on our travels (Europe and Africa alike). Security people at airports (yes, AIRPORTS) on their phones (texting and talking), same with police, drivers, restauranteurs, post office employees, train employees etc... etc... etc... It is out of control we are amazed that no one puts a clamp on usage while one is working. No doubt some terrorist attach or massive breach in security is soon enough going to be attributed to someone or some people simply texting their friends while a bomb was passed right beneath their noses; body scans are great but if the body scan operator is busy playing Tetris, it can't be that useful!!
While it doesn't sound like we have much good to say about Egypt, we are glad we came and don't regret it for a second. Seeing monuments that date back thousands of years is amazing. Our felucca trip down the Nile was relaxing and an experience unto its own. It's a shame the country is so poorly run. The Egyptians deserve better and we strongly believe the country has a tremendous amount of potential.
On a side note, we have just been
editing the blog and learned that Russia has won the 2018 FIFA World Cup and Qatar (who have never qualified to compete in a world cup) the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The conspiracy theorist in me (Jason) wishes to point out that the awards went to the two richest countries in terms of energy and oil reserves. Russia is notoriously a corrupt country and it wouldn't be a shock if the sheikhs of Qatar have also lined the FIFA bid committee members' pockets. Conspiracy aside, it's obvious that FIFA wishes to push the World Cup into uncharted lands. I feel for England but I believe in the end they only have themselves to blame as their bid process was bungled from the start. I personally wished Portugal/Spain (they submitted a joint bid) and Australia would have won, but congrats are in order to Russia & Qatar. Brazil will host the 2014 tournament.
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Duncan
non-member comment
yo, Dahab is good. let me know if you go, have friends there. see you in a few weeks. Dunc