Cairo is chaos. Miles of low brown decrepit buildings, clothes hanging on wash lines across alleyways, a mass of taxis, children, animals, buses. The smell of sewage, sheesha smoke, exhaust, and body odor permeate everything. It is overwhelming and beautiful. I arrived in Cairo close to 10pm. Immediately I was accosted by aggressive taxi drivers frantically begging me to get into their taxi. I eventually found one who claimed to know where “Arabian Nights hotel” was near Midan Hussein. The drive was chaotic and perhaps one of the most exhilarating things I have done in a long time; there are no rules, no lanes, nobody uses their lights even at night unless to signal other drivers. The taxi bumped a car in front of it for apparently no reason. There are no traffic lights and i
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