Egypt Wrap-up

Atbara, Sudan

 

Wow, ok, so it's been awhile since the last update but I've got a pretty damn good excuse... I'm in Sudan baby! I have no idea how to sum up the last week, let alone the last 3 weeks but I'll try....

 

In Cairo, I pretty much just spent each day exploring the city. I actually enjoyed it more then most travelers and found myself "discovering" places that definitely weren't mentioned in Lonely Planet. Cairo is a massive and it just might have taken top honors in my "worst drivers" list. The traffic is insane. It's also the only place that I know of where a donkey cart and a Porsche Cayenne can be seen at the same time on the same street... Go figure. After getting my visas for Sudan and Ethiopia, getting a hair cut and finding some new hiking boots, I just spent the rest of the time exploring the city itself. I hit up all the major areas, such as Islamic Cairo, but found myself having the best time in areas not mentioned in Lonely Planet.

 

At one point, in some souq that seemed to sell only fabric and used car parts, I felt like a politician on a campaign trail as every person wanted to spend some time with me. Rarely did someone try and sell me something and I didn't see another traveler the entire afternoon. Contrast that with the souq in Islamic Cairo where you can't walk 5 feet without hearing a sales pitch and the tour buses drop people off by the dozens all at the same mosque parking lot, crazy! No story of mine would be complete without a mention of my good friends on the "rainbow" team and Cairo did not disappoint. While trying to get from downtown Cairo to Nasr City to visit some huge western shopping center, I got befriended by Ahmed and Mohammed. Mohammed I wasn't so sure about, but I could spot which team Ahmed was batting for a mile away. That said, it was lucky that they befriended me because there's no way I would have found the shopping center, let alone which microbuses I needed to take, without their help. Sadly, I turned down an invitation to attend their New Years Eve party as well as an invitation for Mohammed to cook dinner for me. Probably would have been better then the felafel sandwich I had, but.... In the end, I did get Ahmed's "picture" via e-mail, if you know what I mean... ;)

 

Cairo just amazed me with it's contrast of modern day amenities and old world ways. In the week and a half that I was there, I visited modern shopping centers that could be anywhere back home, saw expensive German automobiles, ate at both McDonalds and Pizza Hut (hey, shoot me, sometimes you need a little "Western" fix) and visited internet cafes that would be right at home in Silicon Valley (assuming we actually had internet cafes in Silicon Valley). But I also saw plenty of the old Cairo, with donkeys pulling carts, blacksmiths making chains one link at a time, wooden tubs and barrels being manufactured on the side of the street and enough raw meat to make even me question my love for steak. I guess it's that contrast that makes Cairo so interesting and allowed me stay a bit longer then most travelers. If you don't look past the pollution, traffic, noise and crowds, then you'll miss so much of what Cairo has to offer.

 

There were some difficulties leaving Cairo as the train ticket that I had was for the wrong time and the wrong date. I thought it was for Friday at 8pm, turns out it was for Saturday at 10pm. First, I was told on the 8pm Friday train that my ticket was for 10pm, so I stuck around only to find out on that train that my ticket was for the following day. Much thanks to a fellow traveler named Adam who happened to speak fluent Arabic as well as perfect English. (Father is Egyptian, mother is American). He tirelessly pleaded with the station manager to work things out and ultimately a solution of allowing me to sleep in the cafeteria car was worked out. I wasn't all that keen on that idea (it's a 9 hour train ride) and frankly we couldn't find the cafeteria so I just decided to return to the hotel and spend another day in Cairo. Much thanks to Adam for helping out though. In the end, I realized that I had forgot some laundry and my towel at the hotel, so that was a blessing in disguise if I've ever seen one... ;)

 

The following day I finally made it down to Luxor and found myself there a week later. I took a tour of the temples and the ruins which reminded me how much I hate taking tours. Sadly, it's really the only way to get around Luxor to see the sights since they are pretty far from the city center. The rest of the week, I just wandered the streets talking to locals. It's amazing how quickly the sales pitch is turned off once they realize you don't want to purchase something but are willing to talk. I met Ali, who spends all day, every day pacing the Corniche along the Nile trying to shine people's shoes for the equivalent of around 40 US cents. I met "Ash", a faluca tout who told me all about the "school of life" and what it's like trying to fill a faluca day in and day out. I spent hours with "Gamal The Tailor", who seemed so intent on passing on wisdom from his "48 years of seeing the world go by". "Many people are clean on the outside, not many people are clean on the inside." as well as "Easy you can buy clean clothes, not easy to buy clean hearts" are just two of the many thoughts that Gamal shared me with. We also talked about politics, Iraq and gays, which now no longer surprises me and I just go with the flow.  

 

Mohamad, the tout from the Sherief Hotel who I blew off at the train station, would turn into my late night backgammon partner as we played backgammon well into the early hours of the morning most nights. I also spent awhile talking with Essam, a well educated local who was frustrated working the night shift at the reception for some 5 star cruise ship (of which there are plenty docked along the Nile). He was so eager to just talk to someone since most people just want their room key from him. Turns out he has big ambitions to be a tour guide and hopes to make the jump from reception in the not so distant future. Best of luck Essam...

 

From Luxor, I continued south to Aswan, which doesn't really offer all that much other then just a peaceful and relaxing setting along the Nile. That is unless it's the end of the Muslim New Year and school isn't in session. In which case the town is packed with Egyptians, along with the tourists, all trying to have a good time. Aswan also proved to be the best place in Egypt to get ripped off. I'll write an entry about haggling and prices some other time, but suffice to say that while in Aswan, you better know how much things are supposed to cost otherwise you'll be paying anywhere from 2 to 10 times as much, yes, 10 times people. However, once you do learn the proper prices, it's kind of fun to play "stump the salesperson" when you hand them just enough money (in exact change) to cover the "locals price" for said good.

 

The small amount of exploring I did in Aswan included taking the ferry across the Nile to visit some tombs and a peak on the west bank, which was rather uninspiring but did provide nice views of the Nile and Aswan as the sun set. I also met a few other travelers in the hotel, including a few Canadians and one American, so several of us explored Elephantine Island, which is in the middle of the Nile and home to a group of Nubians. The island feels like an oasis from the hustle and bustle of Aswan, even though Aswan is supposed to be relaxed the restaurant owners and shop keepers are out in full force trying to sell you something. On Elephantine Island, we spent some time with Ragap, a local who looks to be in his later years. He was eager to show us his small house/room as well as pictures and postcards that fellow travelers have sent him from around the world. It's great to see that some people really do follow up with the "I'll send you a copy" line that gets echoed so many times after taking a photo. I've got a great group photo with Ragap so hopefully I'll be able to send him a copy as well.

 

Probably one of my most memorable conversations to date was in Aswan with Ahmed Omar, a local who spends his days walking the streets trying to sell leather belts to tourists. He's got probably 100 belts draped over his shoulders and tries to sell them to anyone that will give him 2 seconds. I didn't want a belt, but I did stop to say hello and that quickly turned into a 2+ hour conversation at the local tea house that covered everything including cigarettes, magic, pyramids, ghosts, other life forms, some Turkish sailor, marriage, hell, heaven, virgins, divorce and of course man versus women. Heavy subjects to cover with someone in a second language but we managed and for the most part (and I know many of you will find this hard to believe) but I just sat there and listened to what he had to say. Oh, and I also found out how much the belts cost, how much he sells them to Egyptians for and how much he sales them to tourists for. When it's all said and done, an amazing day for him is 100 Egyptian pounds (18 US$) but most days it's more like 30-50 Egyptian Pounds, of which he sends most of it back to his valley to take care of them. His reason for not being married? He can't afford a private flat, so he's on the street selling belts to save up for one.

 

One interesting side story is that while having tea with him, some local Egyptians approached him to purchase a belt. Nothing special there expect for the fact that it was a group of deaf Egyptians. It was interesting to see the interaction take place between two locals who couldn't commute easily. For all intents, the deaf Egyptians could have been tourists talking in a foreign language about the quality and price, trying to get a better deal, but here were genuine Egyptians trying to get the "locals price" but unable to speak Arabic. In the end, Ahmed gave them the better price, which is basically cost to him, but it lead to an interesting part of our conversation dealing with people who don't speak Arabic.  

 

Aswan also proved to be the place where I had my first piece of clothing stolen. I was watching a late night movie in the hotel lobby one night and around 2am I got up to go to bed and accidentally left my black North Face vest on the chair. I realized the mistake in the morning, but of course no one from the hotel staff knew anything or had seen anything. Each day I would ask them, but I wasn't really getting anywhere and was sure that by now the vest was gone, which sucked because it's a rather important element in my "layering" system for warmth... I'm traveling pretty light in that department and the vest is pretty critical, not to mention there's no way I'm going to be able to find a vest like that in Africa. Anyways, after being convinced it was gone, on the last night, just as a big group of us had returned from dinner and were mingling in the lobby, some guy walks down the stairs and out the door wearing my vest! I grab him, haul him to the reception and point out that he's wearing the vest I've been looking for. He's clearly aware he just got caught because he's not putting up much of a fight other then to say "It's my wife's..." Right, mens-large, sure. Anyways, long story short I get my vest back on the day before I leave Aswan... Between that and the laundry/towel in Cairo, I'd say someone is looking over me... ;)

 

Monday morning, Mark, an American who I had met in the hotel lobby and I headed to the Aswan train station to catch the 9am train to High Dam, where is where you catch the ferry to Sudan. Turns out, the train was at 8am and the next train wouldn't be until 11:30am, so we had to do some fierce taxi haggling with the taxi drivers to get us to High Dam for a reasonable price. (Never a good position to be in when they know the next train is too late and a taxi is the only option.../sigh). This train schedule mix-up would prove to be foreshadowing for things to come in Sudan and the Arabic term "In Shallah", which means "God Willing" would be echoed as frequently as Canadians say "eh".

 

Kenny