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Published: April 8th 2008
Egypt is a crazy place. And perhaps I am a crazy person for coming here. Not that I regret it, mind you - it's had it's moments, and I've gotten to see some amazing sights. But I'm worn out, and I won't be too broken up about getting on a plane on Thursday on my way to Casablanca - I think I'll be ready to move on.
It's difficult to summarize my first impressions of Egypt. It's an overwhelming country, especially for someone coming in for only a few days. The traffic is fantastically crazy, and Egypt now wins hands down in my ranking of worst drivers, with Mexico and Malaysia vying for for a distant second place. The lanes are actually just suggestions, any traffic signals that function even less than that, and the traffic cops stand around only to watch you leap between cars; yet the cars usually do slow down as you approach, as if the drivers don't actually intend to run you down. The hotel and taxi touts will pester you at the railway station or airport but then, if you explain patiently and consistently that you are waiting for someone, will use their own phones
to call and make sure you get picked up safely. It's as if everyone you meet - all of them men, of course - wants to squeeze as much out of you as possible but then looks out for you at the same time.
I've been wearing my black headscarf but with little success, as guys keep stopping me on the street to ask if it's helping me in getting hassled less (apparently not) and if I am Muslim; do I feel compelled to wear it? And by the way, where am I from and what is my name? Would I like a business card? No? How about a tour? It's a good price, and if you already have a tour how about stopping by for a tea sometime? Everyone here appears to own a shop, run a tour, teach Arabic or English, or drive a taxi on the side, or if they don't they know someone who does. And it's always for a good price. Come on, what are you willing to pay? Give me your best offer.
It's even more difficult to summarize my last few days, both because I've done so much and because I've
slept so little. I arrived by plane on Friday and got picked up at the airport through my hotel, although the taxi touts weren't as bad as I thought they would be and the barely-serviceable ride that got me to downtown Cairo wasn't anything to brag about. Although people have been decent, I can't help but feel like a walking pocketbook, and any excuse will be made in order to get me to pay more. It's a constant struggle to not be cheated, and even then sometimes there's no way around it. Like when the person when your train ticket to Luxor shows up late with an earlier train ticket than you asked for, but luckily has a car waiting downstairs - it's a very good deal, he assures you, half off, which turns out to be nearly the same price as you paid to get to the hotel from the airport. The ride to the airport took nearly an hour; the ride to the train station is only a few blocks away. But in the dark in a new city it can take more than the 45 minutes you now have to find and figure out the metro which
stops right outside the train station. And so you get in the car, complicit in your own swindling. This experience will be repeated as long as you're in this friendly land. Welcome to Egypt.
So I paid handsomely to get the grand tour of Luxor in one day, a mighty feat, and although my tour guide tried his best to do a good job, I'm afraid I'm just not much of a tour person. It feels incredibly disempowering for someone else to buy your ticket and take you here and there, telling you where to go and why you're here. Surely I could do this on my own? Even the guide thought I was relying a bit too much on my guidebook - after all, that's what he was here for - but in all honesty what I was really paying for was a driver who spoke English and would take me where I wanted to go without hassle: no alabaster shops, no carpet shops, no jewelry shops. And although that's saying a lot in Egypt, it was the most expensive taxi ride I have ever taken, and hopefully the most expensive one I'll ever take.
I can't
Luxor Temple carving
A carving at Luxor Temple symbolizing the connection of Upper and Lower Egypt.say I missed anything major in Luxor, despite my lack of time. In one day I saw the Colossi of Memnon; the Valley of the Kings; Deir al-Bahri and the Temple of Hatshepsut; the Valley of the Queens; Medinat Habu; Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple, with a nice lunch right by the Nile in the afternoon. There was so much to take in I felt I needed a degree in ancient Egyptian history to wade through it all, but I did see some beautiful images and amazing statues and learned a few new interesting tidbits. Apparently all those tomb carvings and hieroglyphics were actually brightly colored at one time, and in many of the tombs they still are. Amazing how little some things can change in thousands of years. And of course, one of the highlights of the day was the herd of goats in Karnak Temple, nibbling away at some weeds among the ruins.
I took another train to Aswan in the evening and booked a tour to Abu Simbel for the following morning, the only way to go, requiring me to get up at 3:00 am. I guess I don't need to sleep in Egypt. The two
temples built by Ramses II were very impressive, carved as they were out of the mountain on the west bank of the Nile over 3,000 years ago. The colossal statues and descriptive carvings inside were intriguing, as was the story of the temples being moved in the 1960s to avoid their submersion during the creation of Lake Nasser. I also met the resourceful Mr. Kim from South Korea, who makes balloon animals for children on his travel as a way to make friends out of strangers. Upon returning to Aswan in the afternoon I wandered around the town, drank fresh fruit juices and took a short felucca sail on the Nile, another highlight of my trip. It is a pretty peaceful place compared to Cairo and even Luxor, and it felt much more accessible to me. Plus it was good to get some fresh air and sunshine before my 16-hour train ride back to Cairo last night.
Today I did little other than explore the Egyptian Museum and figure out how to use the only metro system in Africa, clearly a valuable use of my time. Again, there's really too much to cover here, and no photos were allowed
in the museum, but some of my favorites included the royal mummies, the death mask of Tutankhamun, some really snazzy ancient Egyptian jewelry - which I heard two women discussing as though they were prepared to purchase some for the trip home - and the animal mummies, including one small limestone coffin with a relief suggesting that it could have contained a tiny lizard mummy!
Tomorrow it's off to the Pyramids with some other young women from my hotel. I'm sure to have more stories and photos, if only I can get some sleep!
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Dad
non-member comment
Egypt sounds exciting
Remember, you can sleep when you get home. Or maybe when you meet Clem. Hope your visit to the Pyramids goes well. We're doing the same old stuff. Get up, go to work, eat supper, watch TV, sleep, get up.... We love your pictures. Be careful, take care. Hope to hear from you soon, Love, Dad