Welcome, Post Flight Thoughts, and Cairo - Day 1

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Introduction

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to Egypt I go. Another year, another part of the world to explore…four continents down, three to go. After the success of my trip to China, I decided to sign up for a tour to explore another of the world’s great civilizations. Ever since one of my friends from college decided to go AWOL during a Spring Break trip to a Model UN conference in Cairo to explore the rest of Egypt, I have wanted to go. I’ve packed up my computer, Milkshake (my stuffed cow), 2 liters of Duty Free liquor (since it is hard to find in Egypt), a bunch of cheesy Hawaiian/Caribbean shirts, and Team America (to help me with my understanding of Arab culture). I’m ready to go.

Flight/Immigration

The flight over the Atlantic wasn’t too bad. Although I had to ride cattle class (coach), the 7 hour flight over to Paris didn’t seem too long, and the food was fine. The gentleman who sat next to me was an Indian technology journalist who was coming back from a conference in San Jose…on a short 30 hour flight back to India. He mentioned that he wanted to change careers and do some studies on the intersection of Philosophy and Psychology. He then launched into a monologue of how religion is bad, belief systems make us crazy, there is not such thing as morality or universal truths, and that happiness is defined as the absence of thought. I told him to take his anarchist beliefs and move to France (not really, but I was tempted). Luckily, I was saved by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Our flight to Paris was a little late in departing from the US, so we ended up landing 30 minutes late in Paris. Since I only had a 70 minute layover without the delay, I was a little worried I would miss my connection to Cairo. Luckily, the thoughtful folks from Air France had a van waiting to wisk us through security and to our plane. While we were in the van, we asked three times if our luggage would make it to Cairo…to which we were assured three times that is definitely would. You probably see where this is going…but I’ll let the suspense build.

Although a certain ex-Deloitte employee was a little leery about me flying Air France, I have to say it was a very nice flight. Each seat had its own monitor with video on demand (watched Jarhead), the seats were comfortable, and the flight attendants very beautiful. And they served brie and red wine with the meal.

We landed at a basically empty Cairo International Airport. We were literally the only plane at the international terminal. I met up with Aladdin, a somewhat helpful greeter the tour company sent to pick me up at the airport. The first thing he asked me for was my Passport and $15US (so he could buy me a visa). The thought of my “greeter” running off laughing with my Passport flashed through my mind, but I ultimately decided to give it to him. Off he disappeared while I filled out my immigration forms.

When he returned he directed me to the Diplomats immigration lane (obviously, after taking one look at me, he realized I was a person of importance). One would naturally think that being in the Diplomats line would mean quick and efficient passage through immigration. In actuality, the wait was just like the opening scene of Office Space. Everyone who was in the normal lanes got through before I did. Worse yet, Aladdin let two other groups of people cut in front of us, without even putting up a fight.

After clearing immigration, I discovered that although I made it to Cairo, my luggage hadn’t (same for the other people that were in the van that Air France sent to pick us up with in Paris). Luckily, I decided to pack most of my clothes and toiletry items in my carry on bag. It seems 15-20 others were in the same situation, and they didn’t have nearly the same level of skeptical foresight I had when packing their luggage, which meant another long wait in line while I listened to stories of ruined vacations. Aladdin, being the ever helpful greeter, got in the absolute worse line to file my luggage report. It didn’t help that he once again let someone cut in front of us…at least he put up a fight this time, arguing with the man, but lost. I decided to take the situation into my own hands and got in another line. Of course I got to an airline agent before he did. After filling out some paperwork, I got a complimentary toiletry bag and a vague promise that Air France would try to find my luggage and send it to the hotel.

Cairo

I had read that the traffic in Cairo was “interesting”…something that I can say from first-hand experience that I agree with. Although I didn’t personally fear for my life, unlike China, the drive from the airport to the hotel allowed me to make the following observations:

• Lane markers are purely suggestionary. Leaving the airport, the road was a two lane road; however we were driving three cars wide. As we got closer to the city, the highway went to three lanes; however most of the traffic was four cars wide. Once we got into the city, lane markers disappeared altogether and the driving situation turned into something just short of complete anarchy.
  
• I believe the makers of the classic Atari game Frogger got the idea from pedestrians trying to cross the highway in Egypt. People literally run from one lane to the next, waiting for an opening to be able to cross the next lane. Our van almost took out a couple of guys who had to get on their tip toes in order to not get hit while they were waiting to cross the fourth lane of traffic. And they were laughing about the situation. I almost crapped my pants for them.
  
• It seems that it is perfectly OK for taxis to pickup and drop off fares on the highway.
  
• There are no traffic lights…in fact I haven’t even seen any Stop or Yield signs. Drivers use a mixture of horns, blinking lights, and a little yelling to figure out how to make it through an intersection.

Finally I got to my hotel, the “palatial” Zayed Hotel. I believe the rooms we stayed in at the YMCA in NYC (once again, for Model UN in college) were larger than my hotel room in Cairo. In my defense, I did ask what the price would be to upgrade to a 4 or 5 star hotel but reasoned that a 3 star was probably a nice Egyptian hotel, while a 4 or 5 star was an overprice American hotel. I won’t make that mistake again. I went to take a shower, and within 2 minutes, the hot water was hot no more. After my shower, I met with Shadi, the gentlemen who helped me book my tour, to go over things. The first question he asked was how did I like my room...I told him it was OK. I am such a wuss.

During our discussions, Shadi asked what I liked to eat…I told him I was all about trying local cuisines…and that I am not one of those Americans who travels around the world just to eat McDonalds and KFC. He eyes lit up and he jotted down a whole list of different dishes I needed to try. Armed with that information, I decided to go for a walk to get acquainted with the neighborhood and to get some dinner. I figured I would actually be able to find a restaurant that served Egyptian food…but once again, I was wrong. After passing McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Hardies (I don’t know what the heck this is doing in Cairo), Subway, and Little Caesars, and still not finding an Egyptian restaurant, I finally stumbled upon Café Mo’s, a nice Italian restaurant. The food there was phenomenal….right up there with the quality of food you could get at a nice Italian restaurant in the North End in Boston.

While walking around I also had three other interesting experiences:

• Right around the corner from the hotel there was an art gallery putting on an exhibition. The Nude Exhibition. Of course I went right in to check the situation out. Just as advertised, there were many pieces of art feature featuring the nude human body. I can say I wasn’t expecting to find something like this in Egypt.
  
• That night the top two soccer teams in Egypt were playing one another in Cairo. One of the squares I walked through was set up with a bunch of chairs and water pipes (for smoking sheesha, a flavored tobacco) …all of them filled with folks watching the game. In fact, at every store front I passed that had a TV, they were all watching the game. Walking around you could here folks cheering and aw’ing throughout the night.
  
• Although I had seen a fair amount of women with burkas…I ran into a pair of women who didn’t even have the slit for their eyes to see through. Their faces were completely covered, as well as the rest of their body’s, with a black burka. I was walking towards them, and it was kind of funny watching them turn their heads to talk to each other…but I couldn’t see them actually look at one another. Maybe you needed to be there to appreciate it.

When I got back to the hotel, Shadi was still there welcoming other members of our tour group. Since I brought back leftovers, I needed to sneak by him so that he wouldn’t notice that I hadn’t actually gotten Egyptian cuisine for dinner, but Italian. I went up to my room, turned on the TV, and fell asleep watching/listening to Broken Arrow dubbed in German.

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