Cairo, Egypt

Before you read my blog you should know some context and the kind of orientation that I’ve received before arriving in Egypt. There are the do’s and don’ts:
DON’T:
-shirts that have sleeves above your elbow
-Wear pants or skirts that go above the calf
-Go out with your hair wet
-Sit in the front of the cab

Ps--doing any of the above “don’ts” makes you scandalous and possibly a prostitute. Since I’m white, it will be assumed I’m not a prostitute…just scandalous.

-Let anyone (especially a taxi driver) convince you to go to another market or another museum…or ANY other place that you weren’t planning on going to because most likely the other museum or market is owned by his friend and he’s receiving a commission for bringing you there …most likely the place is shit.

DO:
-Dress conservatively
-Negotiate…everything. In fact, in the market you can pretty much assume that they’ve increased YOUR price by 100% Related to that…
-Break all your large bills because it will negate your negotiated price when the vendor or taxi driver realizes he doesn’t have to break your large bill—then he just gives you the amount of change that he wants
-Start smoking…”at least that way you’re breathing through a filter” The air pollution in Cairo is quite bad.
-Ride a camel

After a long day of travel (and hating Charles deGaule airport), I arrived in Cairo safe and sound. What had been worrying me most of the trip was thinking about getting a taxi to my hotel; in everything that I read and from those I spoke with, I was told that I may have to negotiate prices with cab drivers—negotiation is definitely not my forte. So to avoid some of the madness, I went to the information desk to get a taxi once I bought my Egyptian visa and passed through customs. I realized two things:

1. Many of Egyptians working in the airport, though proficient in spoken English, cannot read it.
2. You can’t really ask a question and get a straight answer. They will always turn to their co-workers and discuss the matter in Arabic…this also happens pretty much everywhere else you go. All you can do is be aware of the situation.

I waited for the men as they deliberated where my hotel was and then I watched as two men fought over who have the pleasure of overcharging me for his services. Finally an older man walks over to me, bids me to follow him, and takes me out to a taxi driver that works for him. All I know is that the ride from the hotel will cost approximately $10 - $30 USD, which changes to 50-150 Egyptian pounds (LE).

The man who guides me to the taxi says the ride will be 75LE, which seems fairly reasonable considering my range. I hand him my 100LE bill and he gives me back 10…basically, rewarding himself with a 15 LE tip. He’s not even the driver! Anyway, that’s an example of why you need smaller bills. It’s all about control.

I got in the taxi with a young man name Ahmed and we forged through the awful traffic of Cairo. He was very quiet for most of the ride and then started to ask me questions in very broken English. He actually apologized for his English, to which I responded that he spoke WAY more English than I spoke of Arabic and I appreciated that he spoke some at all; he probably didn’t understand most of that statement, but whatever.

By the end of our trip I knew that Ahmed was 34 years old; works 12 hour days, 5 days a week; he will get 10 vacation days after a year at his job; he has a wife and an 18 month old daughter named Ro’a; he has 6 brothers and sisters; he only wants two or three children; he likes to chat over the internet in the evenings; and his phone—should I need anything while in Cairo…..he also knew most of my demographic information, although due to the language barrier, I’m not sure how much he understood. He was very nice, but at some point asked for my email address. I figured that since I can’t even wear short sleeves, that it was probably inappropriate so I just mentioned something about only have a work email address and kept on going with another conversation.

From Tuesday until Friday, I could have practically been anywhere in the world. I was barely able to step outside because I was either working, sleeping, or eating. Luckily, I was in an amazing hotel. I’m not actually sure how we got the NGO rate at this 5 star hotel, but I was grateful none the less. My hotel room was so luxurious that I honestly thought they had made a mistake! It turns out that our entire group had received upgrades…so Tuesday and Wednesday night I watched TV FROM MY BATHTUB…and I’ll just leave it at that.

On Friday work was officially over so my co-worker and two SEEP Board Members went to the Giza Pyramids for our first adventure of the week. We arrived to the little town outside of the Giza pyramids and were taken to a vendor who sells tours—we had our choice of walking, riding a camel or riding a horse. I know I’m in Egypt and may never get another chance to ride a camel…but after seeing those nasty animals, I decided I could go my entire life without sitting between the two humps. We rented 4 horses, met our guide and then were taken around to the back entrance of the pyramids (I assume it was the entrance for horses). On our way to the entrance we also received a not-so-scenic look at the town around the pyramids. It’s amazing how poor Egypt is and how unkempt the town and the pyramids are. I would assume that for many people, tourism to the pyramids is their livelihood and yet there is trash littering the streets and the sands around the pyramids. Our guide said that he had been working in that town and doing tours for 18 years—he was only 26.

Anyway, getting into the national park involved some negotiating on our guide’s part. I have no idea what the issue was or if someone needed to be paid, but it took us 30 minutes to get into the gate. There’s not much more to say from there. The pyramids were unreal. When I looked at the pictures I had taken, it seemed as if I was in front of a green screen. We rode our horses around several pyramids and saw the sphinx. Our guide told us stories about the Pharaohs and the slaves that built the pyramids . I didn’t actually go into any of the pyramids—some of them cost more money to enter, but also they’re very small and there’s not much to see. Most of the artifacts are in the Egyptian Museum and my next trip to Luxor would allow me to see more interesting burial sites. The entrances into the pyramids require most people to bend over. They say the Pharaoh of that time designed the entrance that way so that even after he died people would have to bow to him…talk about a complex.

After the horses, pyramids, and bargaining our price down for the tour; we had agreed to a 90 minute tour and found it quite coincidental that it took us 30 minutes to get in, therefore causing our tour to last 2 hours instead. The man selling the tours tried to charge us an extra 40LE per person, so we bargained down to 20LE.

Next Nisha and I went to Khan al-Khalili for some shopping and a late lunch. For lunch I had a typical Egyptian dish called Koushry. It’s a mixture of chick peas, pasta, lentils, vermicelli, and a spicy spaghetti sauce with fried onions on top. I think it’s sort of considered poor mans food; probably because it keeps you full with all the carbs. It was tasty and cheap. I paid about $3 for it.

Shopping is intense in Egypt and I must say I don’t like it much. The streets are crammed with stores, people, and smells. You rarely even deal with women in the markets—it’s almost always men and they will call out to you or step out in front of you to get you into their store—“best price!, English?, Hello Sister!, You like scarf? I give you best price! Where are you from?” We went into several stores but didn’t buy much of anything. I ended up getting a pendant and that was it.

On our way walking out of the market a young boy called out to me from a shot “You drop, you drop!” I turned around scared, thinking I might have dropped money or my wallet, when he put his hand on his heart and said to me “you drop….my heart.” All of his friends giggled and I couldn’t help but smile as I rolled my eyes and continued down the street. If he hadn’t been 10 years old I would have probably been disgusted. I obviously stick out here, but I’ve really tried to stay as covered as possible and be respectful in their country; I was hopeful that this would keep me from being harassed and unfortunately I can’t say that it will.

I would say that besides the women working in the airports and hotels, 75% of them have their heads covered and a small percentage of them are only showing their eyes. The range goes from the women that only show a slit for their eyes to the women that cover their heads, but wear normal looking clothing for the most part (although again, they are fully covered from wrist to ankle). One woman I saw was a wearing strapless dress, but had what looked like a lace turtle neck underneath it and black tights and boots. I guess technically she was abiding by the dress code…

Tonight we go to Luxor…