Day One in Cairo

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1306 (GMT +2)
Giza, Egypt

To pay off something I said before, technically I am in Giza, not Cairo. What we think of as Cairo is actually two different cities separated by the Nile. Cairo proper occupies the east bank of the river, and Giza the west. Though they are both considered part of Greater Cairo, from what I understand they each have their own city government and different governors. Think of Los Angeles, and the many different individual municipalities that make up what we consider to be one big city. You may also note that the Giza Pyramids are located on the west bank, in Giza. To be even more specific, I am currently located in the northern area of Giza, a neighborhood (if you can call it that) called Mohandeseen. Nevertheless, I will probably use the terms 'Giza' and 'Cairo' interchangably, as I don't think it matters all that much any for all practical purposes.

In any event, last night was a terribly sleepless night. I made a determined effort not to sleep on the airplane ride over, so as to be tired and ready for bed upon arrival in Cairo on Friday night. Unfortunately, my body had other ideas. My situation was not helped much by my surroundings. The ever-present traffic and honking continued through the night, and only started to dicipate at around 0400. Add to that the pedestrian chatter from outside, the telephone ringing at the front desk, people going up and down the stairs who obviously didn't own a watch, the drip of the faucet in the bathroom, and the dog down the street who passed gas, and it all made for one very sleepless night indeed. I have heard Cairo described as a "city that never sleeps," and I can now personally identify with that statement, and verify its validity.

Sometime after 0600 I must have finally drifted off, as the next thing I remember my 0800 alarm was going off. As tired as I was, what I did not want to do was sleep all day and have another restless night. So, I got up, got dressed, and made my way down to the hotel restaurant, where they have a breakfast buffet, which is included in the price of the room. I got a plate with some bread, cheese, fuul (cooked and partially mashed fava beans), a hard boiled egg, some juice and some coffee. Fuul is a popular dish in the Middle East, and was pretty tasty. It is normally scooped and eaten with some form of flat bread. While it was good, whoever said that it sits like a bag of quarters on your gut was right.

After breakfast I decided that it was time to get out and see something, so I went out on foot for a walk around the block. I did not take my camera on this trip, as I wanted to get a good reconnissance, and not stand out as a tourist from the get go. I was out for a little over an hour, and kept to fairly simple straight lines. Mohandeseen is a fairly middle class district, with lots of shopping. Along my route, there were many banks, clothing stores of several different persuasions, as well as the classic Egyptian standard bearers Pizza Hut, Hardees, and KFC. After all, nothing says Egypt like The Colonel.

Even in these larger consumer districts, though, the streets are dirty, chaotic and noisy. Litter is everywhere, and it does not seem to bother anyone.

Whatever you may have heard about traffic in Cairo, it's probably worse. I've seen no street lights since I've been here, and I'm not sure if there's a speed limit. I do know that many streets do not have any marked lanes, and those markings that do exist are mostly ignored. This makes driving in the city very sporting, and walking an even greater sport. You will be ok if you just stick to one block, and try not to cross any major intersections, although it is preferable just to not cross any street. Watching Cairenes cross the street is always fun. Much like the cars find the smallest hole in the traffic and jump in, native pedestrians will move into the smallest break in traffic, not making any attempt to increase their speed from mosey to saunter, yet somehow they make it across. This is not advisable, as the cars do not swerve much and I am not convinced that they will stop at all for the guy on foot. They will honk, though, and I'll get into my observations on the various uses of the horn in a future post.

In the meantime, I think it's time to lie down for a bit.

Still no word on my lost bag.

-MG

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