Thoughts on Cairo

Let's start with Cairo, where we began and ended our time in Egypt.
Cairo, 23 million people in one spot, a megacity, which kept on going on and on and on from the air, even more so once you were in amongst it. All you could see as we were making our descent was a thickly congested jigsaw puzzle of dark brown cubes or varying sizes and heights, almost like the biggest legoland you'd ever seen. A low hanging pall of pollution gave us a hazy view of this sprawling city. The great thing was landing and not dying from the humidity; yes, it was quite warm, but no humidity like that of Dubai, thank goodness. A week of that would've been the straw that broke the camel's back and we would've hoped for an early return home, or more time in Kenya.
The process of progress through the airport was 'organised chaos', the drive into our hotel was surprisingly lovely, especially the Heliopolis quarter, which was ordered, green, plenty of trees and lovely buildings. This is where you find President Mubarak's residence, as well as those for diplomats and the rich. The closer we drew to central Cairo, the more we saw of high rise towers, all with roofs and balconies sprouting satellite dishes in such quantity that it was like a plague of pimples, amazing to see.These towers were squeezed in cheek by jowl; airconditioning units stuck on the sides of each unit, the pipes running from the fan units leading into holes in the walls in whatever way the installer decided would be fastest and easiest; wires for satellite dishes draping the outside of the building like thin black creepers; the buildings grimy, grey and brown, very rarely painted bright colours, like a huge set for a futuristic film. The overpasses and underpasses didn't make sense to us, being a city we didn't know how to navigate; traffic flowing on the opposite side to that of Australia. It seemed like the inner city was decaying as we were speeding to our hotel, the Flamenco. The sheer scale of the city was overwhelming, like nothing we'd ever experienced before.
Cairo, it's not a beautiful city [the bits that we saw, anyway]. The Nile gives it a little breathing space. It felt like Paris or Rome on steroids. Each street choked mainly dusty, scratched and dented parked cars; even the trees lining the narrow footpaths were covered in a layer of grime. It was difficult to work out what the road rules were: beeping of your horn is compulsory, to let the next car next or in front of you know you're coming through; 'give way' [under any circumstances, except for when a police officer directs you to do so] is not a concept these drivers know about; hardly any traffic lights, almost noone uses their indicators; cars looked banged up and bits hanging on with tape, string, luck or sheer grim determination. The cacophony was deafening, the determination of the flow of traffic unknowable for we polite Melbournians. It works, somehow, and we are in absolute admiration for the incredible driving skills of the Cairo drivers, as well as the judgement of the pedestrians attempting to calculate the complex mathematics, probabilities, momentums and injury risks of cars, taxis, buses, minivans, boys on carts pulled by donkeys, men pushing handcarts, stunned tourists trying to know what to do, police in white unforms, etc, all converging or diverging in hundreds of trajectories with split second skill, as determined, cool, calm and casual as you please. Wow, an insane ballet of humanity in front of your eyes.
The streets near our hotel houses upper middle-class people, some of the houses/villas and embassies were lovely. We didn't see too much from the bus as it totted, lurched and budged it's way through the madness. It was hot, even at the early hour we'd arrived; dusty, smoggy and assaulting on the eyes: so many things to see, apartment buildings, small shops underneath, a myriad of signs, a policeman virtually on every corner [one of the things we noticed was the very visible security presence], people walking, driving or just sitting on chairs. And the constant tooting, and with everything seemingly squeezed in with little space to spare, it felt somewhat claustrophobic; we're used to elbow space, space in general, parks, grass, flowers, front gardens, etc.
Another thing we noticed was that people were quick to shout at eachother — they weren't arguing, it's their way! No public display of affection, except for mothers and children, or a greeting between friends. Plenty of modesty; men and women in all forms of dress, but no women or young ladies in mini-skirts, uncovered shoulders, except for tourists [who should've known better]. Minarets of mosques, tall and thin, some exquisitely delicate and beautifully rendered, painted and decorated, shooting up in the sky; beautiful. At night many of these minarets were lit up by brightly coloured neon or light bulbs, pulsating in the darkness. At 6pm, or sunset, an incredibly disjointed choir of 'calls to prayer' rung out, revervebrating through the streets from all directions from 360°. It sounded incredibly exotic, and it meant time to get home, eat and drink as the Ramadan fast for the day is broken. On our last cruise of the Nile night in Luxor [the night before we arrived back in Cairo] we wandered a market, and in many of the side streets as well as the main market street, people had spread out their blankets and rungs, or long trellis tables and chairs, for their feast. It was so very tempting to join in as the food looked and smelt so inviting.
Once the fast is broken for the day cafes, shops and restaurants open for the rush of hungry people. Ramadan posed a bit of a problem for we westerners, especially in Dubai. Cairo was a bit more relaxed for us. At least we could visit the local McDonald's or Pizza Hut for an eat-in or takeaway meal in our room. As in Rome 4 years ago [our honeymoon] McDonald's was a 'saviour' for us: you know there's a toilet you can use without hassle, and they have a really tasty, big burger called 'The Royale', which is about twice the size of a Big Mac; their large fries are about twice the size our ours as well. I [Pier] want to start a petition to get the Royale into Australia: much better value than the not-so-Big Mac! Yum! And I'm not a big fan of Maccas at the best of times.
Back to Cairo. On our first morning in Egypt we flew in from Dar-Eas Salaam, drove straight into central Cairo to the Hilton, then walked a short distance to the Cairo Museum, which is a must-do. If you're into Tutankanamen, heiroglyphics, statuary, sacrophraguses, anything 5000+ years old, then go check this place out. It was busy when we were there, even though it wasn't high season. Lots of tour groups being led by loud guides in many languages; the rooms varying in size, quite warm and uncomfortable, with heaps to see. You really do need a full day here if you're a keen Egyptologist, so get there early in the morning, and have plenty of rests in the shaded park in front or in the cafe, where the food is pretty basic but the drinks are cold.
After the Museum, a night in our hotel before an early morning flight to Aswan, to get to our Nile cruise ship, the Nile Ritz. The name pretty much says it all! I'll get on to the 'cruise' later on in another post.
Our second last night in Egypt was spent of an overnight train, leaving from Luxor at 8:20pm, arriving in Giza at the ungodly hour of 5:30am. It was probably the worst night of our lives, as the train looked like it hadn't changed in appearance since the 1970s, grotty and dusty on the outside, and a little grimy and tattered on the inside. We had an overnight sleeper, which looked pretty much the same as the ones I [Pier] used to use when I was a poor student in Adelaide, returning home for term breaks from Adelaide, to Melbourne. So, it felt familiar, but that's where the 'romance of the past' ended. Once we left Luxor and were handed our meal -- rice, chicken, and some meat in 3 separate warm aluminium lined cardboard containers, s small container of some fruit pieces, a small breall roll, and a drink: the containers looked as if they'd been re-used. Erk! We were very hungry [especially after having seen what the locals were eating a couple of hours earlier in the market streets], so took the chance of not getting food-poisoning.
After dinner, the carriage steward put our beds in place, and for the next 7 hours or so, tried to catch at least some little sleep as the carriage machine-gun rattled, rolled, lurched, bounced and jigged it's way north. In my desperate attempt to catch 40 winks, there was not only the noise of the carriage, but the squeaking and rattling of our carriage doors, people talking noisily in Arabic outside our compartment, etc. Whoever at Thomas Cook [from whom the Nile tour package was purchased] and at Traveljoy [our travel company] thought it was a 'good' idea to do so, knowing we'd had a really early night before [for a balloon flight], and knowing we'd have a big day on arrival in Giza, needs to be told emphatically, "IDIOTS, what were you thinking?!" Our group, including by now some of our number ill, also 2 elderly travellers, were almost DOA: extremely grumpy, tired and flabbergasted at what we'd had to endure. Grrrrrrr, shame on you Thomas Cook!
Looking more dead than alive, after only touching our 4:30am 'breakfast', we alighted at the not-so-delightful Giza station, especially the litter-strewn approach to the station. After some delay with the luggage, we boarded a bus to take us to our hotel, again the Flamenco, where we were able to freshen up with a shower and a delicious breakfast, attended to by indifferent wait staff. Then a bus ride across the city to the enormously impressive Citadel, with a mosque in the middle of it, perched on top of a hill overlooking the city. Located next to a quarry used by the Pharoahs to build the pyramids. A multi-storey carpark with mall is currently being built in the quarry. Tacky? Noooooo!
The view to the incredibly massive, sprawling city was breathtaking, literally: the smog was terrible, and the views limited by the low-hanging brown pall. But, it's vast, a dreary legoland broken up by mosques and minarets and some high towers. The carpet of 2, 3, 4 or so levelled housing was depressing to see: up close they are reinforced concrete cubed shells, the spaces filled in with brick, small windows, rare balconies, you could see the edges of concrete stairs in some of the spaces; with the roofs dotted with satellite dishes, and again outsides draped with wiring, and tubing for airconditioners, etc. It appeared to be the cheapest and quickest form of housing has been erected, with little care for aesthetics, humanness, comfort; each building jammed into the next, with the height of the rooms of each building at various heights. Ugly, and lots of them, as far as the eye could see. We wondered where the parks, shops and schools were. Yet, every now and then a major surprise: a few acres of beautifully green and healthy-looking crop land, breaking up this virus of concrete and brick squalor. We guessed there were a few farmers that hadn't sold their land to developers. It was a welcome relief to see these oases of green, planted in the beautiful brown soil. Perhaps Cairo has grown too quickly, with lax development laws, so the people and culture that had created such exquisite beauty of the temples we'd seen had come to this. Apologies if this sounds scathing or condescending in any way, but this is what we saw and how we felt.
Back to the Citadel. This monumental fort complex was commenced in the late 12th century. On top of the hill, the Mohammed Ali Mosque grubby on the outside -- the beautiful alabaster walls, columns and arches need a good scrubbing -- the forecourt, and the interior of the mosque is gorgeous, decorated like a Faberge egg [according to our Rough Guide]. Having seen many examples of grand mosques in various TV documentaries, it was wonderful to be in one, being in awe of the spaces, the vastness, and the gorgeousness of the decorations and coloured glass windows. The forecourt, in white alabaster, is simply beautiful. Classic curved arches, like that of Renaissance churches; beautiful windows with intricate ironwork, and amazing clock tower and an centrally placed Turkish ablutions fountain. It felt quite familiar to be here, and at the same time, an out-of-this-world feeling as it was such an exotically beautiful building. Hopefully it will get a good washdown and sparkle again in the near future. Again, lots of tourists being led around by guides crowded the views.
After a good hour or two, it was time to leave, as we were heading for the grande finale for the day, and of our time in Egypt, the Pyramids and Sphinx. We travelled through the suburbs once more, gradually advancing to the edge of the city, and via a grotty, litter-strewn back way [and also a short stop at another 'government approved' souvenir shop], filled with slow, chaotic, loud, honking and shouting traffic, we caught glimpses of the pyramids in the narrow spaces between buildings. We would've thought there would have been a far more 'grand' way of respectfully approaching these 4000+ years old wonders of the world. But no, more madness, the back streets looked like a garbage dump. Once out of the throng there was a curved, upwards approach to the first of the pyramids, and it was then that the true scale of it hit you, like a tonne of finely chipped limestone, ouch. Wow, amazing; BIG! Yes, seen them a zillion times in books, tv, movies, etc, but, as like seeing the Eiffel Tower, or the Rift Valley Walls in real life, it really does take your breath away to appreciate the sheer scale of it all. And people built this. A long time ago. With limited technology. Wow, wow, wow!
Built on a plateau that has grand, smoggy views of the city, these babies are imposing, with a presence about them that is inspiring and moving. We had a big, blue sky and a hot sun above; the pyramids shimmered before us. Thankfully not covered in grey grime, the limestone had a creamy yellow colour to them. Lots of little people-ants at their base, posing, taking photos, some stepping back a far as they could to take the scene in and make sense of it all [if possible]. Our guide gave us some statistics that were mind boggling: the first pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Cheops originally stood at 140m high, and 230m along its base, estimated to weigh 6 million tonnes, containing some 2.3 million blocks weighing between 2.5 to 15 tonnes each. The second pyramid, the Pyramid of Chephren, is built on higher ground, and is the one with the intact summit casing. It's base is 215m, and weighs about 4.9 million tonnes. We bought tickets to enter the inner chamber of this second pyramid, some of the passages sloping, we had to bend over to advance. There was a short connecting passage in which we could stand upright [it pays to be short!]. We reached Chepren's burial chamber, which was like being in a small bare stone cottage house with no windows, rectangular in shape, with a high triangular pitched roof. Dark and, surprisingly, it was rather warm here. We were sweating a goo deal by the time we returned outside. More wow!
After a short pause we drove on to a higher part of the plateau from which you had the classic 3 pyramids views, with heaps of tourists taking photos, some with the bedouins that decided to be part of your picture. Like those photos people take at the leaning tower of Pisa where they hold out their hand as if their supporting the tower, here people cupped their hands under the pyramid, or pinched their fingers, as if they were dangling the pyramid. OK then! Again, you have seen this view so many times in books and tv, but again being there in real life the enormity of the pryamids hit home, and the fantastic view laid out before you can't really be conveyed by a photograph.
We didn't have a great deal of time here as we would have wanted -- one of the things we didn't like, being in a package group situation. Being a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it would've been great had we arrived there much earlier in the day [hopefully cooler], and had the chance to take our time, walking along the bases of the pyramids, taking in the views and perspectives from different angles and distances. If you ever get the chance to visit the pyramids, we recommend that you try to spend as much time as you can with them, at least half a day.
Following the pyramids, we then took a short drive lower down the plateau to Chephren's Funerary Complex, and [of course] the Sphinx. It seemed to me [Pier] smaller than I'd imagined, but still, it was one of those 'oh wow, I'm here, I can't believe I'm here' moments when you saw the full thing in front of you. Again, something very old, some 4000+ years old. Depending on where you stood, you caught the classic Sphinx before the Pyramid view, and you couldn't do anything else but take that photo regardless. Wow. Shame about the Pizza Hut in the shops a few hundred meters in front. It was like that moment when we were standing with jaws dropped in front of the Pantheon in Rome, to turn 180° to see a McDonald's at the far end of the piazza. Oh dear!
Again maybe 30 minutes here before the now almost obligatory stop at a 'government approved' carpet factory, for yet another chance for souvenir shopping. Again, Thomas Cook, this is something to delete from your itinerary; it's maddening, and mostly a rip-off, and takes away valuable time from the things we were here to see.
We returned to our hotel for our last afternoon and night in Cairo. Maccas for lunch, followed by relaxing in our lovely hotel room, with views across the Nile to a mosque and the backdrop of countless buildings covered in satellite dishes and smog. Room service for dinner and an early night. Time to try to charge the batteries for the next couple of days ahead.
The following morning was a 'free morning', meaning nothing was organised by either Thomas Cook or our travel leader, Lawrence. What a pity, what a waste of valuable travel time. After a slow start, Sheryl and I ventured into the surrounding area, discovering lots of wonderful local shops in the narrow streets, selling homewares, curios, souvenirs, Egyptian cotton, manchester, fashion, etc. Some of the shops had fantastic tiled floors. We picked up some presents, enjoying not being hassled, not having limited time, and not having to bargain; the prices were better than the so-called 'government approved' stores we'd been forced to visit during our time in Egypt. Pizza Hut for lunch, returning back to the hotel to pack our goodies away, to meet up with the group in the foyer before leaving for the airport at 2pm. Why so very early [as our flight departed at 6:30pm] we didn't know, the traffic was quite bad. Upon arriving at the airport we found out that the flight was delayed 1:15, so we didn't leave till 7:45pm. The flight was not much longer than 3:20, arriving in Dubai 2:30am [Dubai time]. We didn't get to say goodbye to 4 of our group, who were in transit at the airport for their flight to WA, leaving 6 of us to go onwards. We were delayed going to our hotel as a couple from our group had left their camera on the plane. By the time we arrived at the hotel, the 4 that had to fly on to Qld had a bit over 2 hours sleep before returning to the airport. Why Traveljoy didn't book rooms at the airport hotel, we don't know, but it was extremely annoying that we only had the chance of 4 hours sleep before we had to return to Dubai airport! We should have had 5+ hours as we were there way too early, having to wait around for a couple of hours before our 10:10am fllght to Melbourne. We took the opportunity to spoil ourselves, enjoying a lavish breakfast, like the ones we were getting used to in Kenya and Tanzania.
We tired wee bunnies arrived 5:30am local time, Wednesday 24/9. We wished we could've had a couple more days in Cairo in which we could've explored much more of the city, especially the central part and Islamic quarter of the city. What a shame. Oh well, we feel we had a good, little taste of Cairo, and if we ever get the chance to visit again, then we'll know what to do.
Next post will about our 'cruise' on the Nile. Sorry this is out of order, but then I'm jetlagged!