Up Close and Personal in Cairo  

I admit that I was a little apprehensive when leaving our safe haven of the pristine and comforting Greek Islands to fly to an overcrowded, heavily polluted and dirty city of 22 million people in a country that is 94% desert! OK, I admit that I reached my travel capacity after 3 ½ months on the road and 10 countries so had a less than positive attitude when we arrived.

We were fortunate, however, that we booked our Cairo hotel in advance. After settling in and later meeting up with a good friend’s son who is an exchange student studying in Cairo and getting some first hand tips, we ventured out the next day to explore Cairo.

As we walked from our hotel we noted quite a few armed policemen standing besides and behind steel barricades. We later learned that there were demonstrations occurring because of protests about high food prices in Egypt. Perhaps it was common place to see them, but it was still unsettling since they were armed.

For some additional perspective, Egypt had been ruled by a king until just 53 years ago. It is a very recent democracy, 90% Muslim, and 50% of the people live on less than $2.00 per day. Many women are illiterate and dress in all black. The men are of course the dominant sex so a small 5’ 3” fair skinned blonde could easily feel uncomfortable and intimidated. However, to be fair, it is perfectly safe to walk around the streets of Cairo even in the evening although I didn’t even consider doing this during the day without Mike. Tourists stick out like a sore thumb. Egypt is a country where many men (entrepreneurs) will comment and ask you where do you want to go and you initially think they are being helpful, but they want to make a quick “buck”. Tips are all too commonplace, and you get tired of having to pay everyone, including the person handing you a towel at the pool!

Needless to say, hiring a local taxi can be an experience in itself in any city but imagine one that is poor, extremely congested, extremely overcrowded with 5 million automobiles and very few decent roadways! We had several cab “experiences” while in Cairo! The local taxis are at least 10 years old and are usually a basic Fiat which spits out dangerous fumes. They are so beat up and dirty that they look like they will die at any moment. In fact, during our 45 minute drive to the airport, we saw 2 cabs that had done just that. After telling another cab driver that we wanted to go to a particular restaurant recommended by “The Lonely Planet” Egypt Guidebook (our bible) one evening, we ended up being taken to our cab driver’s restaurant of choice, had the most awful meal and paid way too much for it. Oh well, this was part of our travel experiences after all!

We were however, rewarded by seeing the massive Pyramids and the incredible Egyptian Museum with over 5,000 years of history. We thought we had seen remnants of the oldest civilization in Greece while touring the Parthenon, but Egypt had Greece beat. The well preserved tombs and mummies of the Great Pharaohs from 3-4,000 years ago and remnants of civilization from 5,000 years ago was so impressive.

The little that we saw of Egypt had so much to offer! Yes, I would go back again but perhaps with dark hair.

Where’s Pat and Mike?