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My words won't do justice to describing Cairo but I'll at least attempt to sum up what we've experienced today. This is a city of chaos, mayhem, extremes, eclectic architecture, smog, dust and stifling heat. The traffic is manic; I can't perceive any real road rules - even red lights aren't adhered to. We've been in a half dozen taxis and in every one of them we've feared for our lives! After one near-crash, Dan said 'I guess we should be wearing seat belts' to which I replied 'there aren't any'.
We arrived in the early hours of the morning after our plane landed at about 1am. The flight from Heathrow took five hours, and I spent two hours of it chatting to the girl sitting next to me. She was an Egyptian who has been living in California, teaching journalism, for ten years. We talked about everything from life in Australia, Egypt, England and the U.S., to celebrities, family, finding love, modesty in dress, and cultural traditions. The thing that struck me was how much we had in common, but how we're worlds away geographically - she has friends and family in Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia and I don't even know anyone who has been to those places!
Our hotel is in a crumbling colonial building with yellow peeling paint, a wrought-iron balustrade, hanging lanterns and a wood-panelled lift, which looks like it should be in a 1920s New York or Shanghai gangster film. The hotel itself, The Talisman, is richly furnished with lots of plush red cushions, carpets, wall hangings and Venetian-looking glass chandeliers. Our bed-head is in the shape of an Arabian pointed-arch and it's all very lovely.
We had intended to get a taxi from our hotel straight to a museum this morning, but in true Barker style we ended up walking for hours. Of course the inevitable happened and we were cornered into someone's shop to drink mint tea because 'it's disrespectful to refuse Egyptian hospitality, my friend'! The shop turned out to be a lovely little fragrance and hand-blown glass bottle shop with comfy couches and hundreds of exquisite finely-turned bottles. We had to humour the salesman and buy something so I bought a small vial of Egyptian rose perfume and two small bottles, which are quite beautiful. I bargained hard but he was obviously pleased because he kissed us both on the top of our heads as we left the shop!
After our sojourn smelling fragrances, we wandered for ages way out of touristy Cairo. We stumbled down alleys with local markets where women carried bundles on their heads, fish rotted in baskets in the sun, whole lamb carcasses hung outside and men dried flat breads on the bonnets of dusty cars. Women we saw were dressed very conservatively, but we did notice that they're much more a part of public life than in Morocco.
After being lost in the labyrinth of streets, we hailed a taxi and went to the Ibn Tulun mosque. The mosque was built in the 9th century and is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the bustle. It's essentially a huge courtyard built of yellow-coloured stone, framed by a columned, covered walkway with Arabian pointed-arch doorways and windows. Much to Dan's delight, we got to climb the minaret and see a spectacular view over the city. The view was a sea of brown apartment buildings with satellite dishes and washing hung across windows, a hazy murky vista, but fascinating.
We eventually got to the Gayer Anderson Museum, which belonged to a British Army Major in WWII. The house had lots of little alcoves and courtyards and window-seats and a great library of old travelogues, which I would have loved to have been able to sit down and read.
Another taxi ride and we were in the Khan Al-Khalil souk, where Dan got offered 15,000 camels for me and was told numerous times 'You very lucky man'. Aside from some baklava, we didn't buy anything.
Tonight we went to a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet and I had a delicious selection of dolmades, and Dan had lamb and dolmades. We then followed another Lonely Planet recommendation and walked along the Corniche next to the Nile. It's supposedly a romantic thing to do but we were choked by the smog and didn't enjoy the traffic speeding along the road by the river - hardly peaceful or romantic. Seeing the Nile was pretty spectacular though, given it's been the source of Egyptian civilisation for thousands of years. The high-rise global chain hotels hardly added to its charm, though!
Tomorrow we begin our tour - with trepidation as we've never done a tour before!
And just as an aside, Cairo is a wonderful place for photography. I took two photos today which I'm thrilled with - one of a man smoking a shisha pipe and the other of a donkey and cart with an old man driving and the cart full of children with their legs swinging over the edges. Unfortunately we didn't bring our camera leads so we won't be uploading pics to our blog for now.
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Sam
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Wha!?
15000 CAMELS!!!?? That's really too good to refuse Dan! haha! I kid Alice. You could definitely haggle for a few hundred more. What a great first day guys! We miss yaz already.