Egypt/Jordan part 3: Alexandria and Cario
Part 2: https://medium.com/@timothyteoh/egypt-part-2-siwa-oasis-b94aff042e98
Egypt — Day 7 (24 Oct, 2014)
The bus station at Siwa.
Random fact: I realize that Eygptians tend to be tall. How do I know this? At rest stop toilets far from Cairo, I need to tiptoe to pee properly #tmi
Arrived at Alexandria after an 8-hour bus ride at about 6am. As this was an unplanned stop, I’d decided to try not using Airbnb and get a normal hotel room. Queen Transit hotel looked to have decent reviews on Tripadvisor so I headed there in a cab. Was overcharged a little (50LE) but I was too sleepy to argue and forgot to negotiate the price before getting in. Taxis in Alex don’t have meters like they do in Cairo.
The building was really run down even by my standards and to top it off the elevator was a rickety old cast-iron one. The rooms seemed a bit dirty too.
I walked down the street looking for something better. Found the Paradise Inn Windsor Palace which looked nice. The price was a bit more expensive than I usually go for on trips but it was only for one night and hey I am worth it.
Right?
But lo and behold after making the arrangements, I found that this hotel uses the same kind of open, old school cast iron elevator as the one in Queen Transit. Only that in this more atas setting it now seemed hipster and photoworthy.
It’s creaky and you need a elevator operator to help you use it the first time but it feels cool now! Like the Otis elevators you see in old movies.
This hotel was built in 1906 so it does have an air of history about it. More on this later though. Checkin time was 2pm and so I was way too early for that. I decided to walk around and explore although I still felt quite sleepy.
Windsor Palace faces the promenade which made for great views of the sea.
If you’re up in your history you’ll know that Alexander the great established this city, named after him, because of its strategic location between Greece and Egypt. He then left for Siwa and never came back again wtf.
In its heyday (day here meaning about a thousand years) Alexandria was the second most important city in the world after Rome.
Alexander was said to have been buried here, but the exact location of his resting place is still a mystery.
I have never been so happy to see this sign!
After breakfast and coffee and washing I felt much better and ready to go. Decided to walk my way to the places I planned to visit in Alexandria instead of cabbing to take in the city better.
Many of the buildings near the promenade, while dilapidated, have a distinct colonial feel. Very different from the unfinished brick buildings of Cairo.
I was searching quizzically around this monument for a plaque that would tell me who this was but didn’t find one. An old man nearby noticed and told me this is a sculpture by the famous artist Mahmoud Mokhtar of Saad Zaghloul, an Egyptian nationalist.
My first stop was at the National Museum of Alexandria. It was a lot smaller and harder to find than the one in Cairo, but there were many interesting pieces that had clearer explanations on each. Every floor was dedicated to a specific time period in Alexandria’s rich history: pharaonic, greco-roman and modern.
This sculpture alone was worth the price of admission I think. You can see the upper body is in a distinct Hellenistic style with a tunic, but the lower body with the food forward is in a Pharaonic style that symbolizes a march forward. The Greeks were receptive to Egyptian ideas, especially regarding the afterlife.
Hello Hadrian!
Statue of Isis that was recovered from the seabed off Alexandria.
Some streets actually reminded me of Penang. But generally anything colonial beside the sea does.
Passed by the train station and bought my ticket to Cairo tomorrow.
Was relieved when the teller handed me a bunch of small notes as change. It can be a really hit or miss thing. Some vendors will refuse to make change while others will just pocket it and assume you tipped. So you learn to keep all the small change you can get.
Started to make my way out of the tourist part of the city. Stood out like a sore thumb but Egyptians are usually just very friendly. I mist have given out a hundred “hellos” and smiles wtf.
What I like about Alex compared to Cairo though is no one really bothers you to buy anything or invite you into their art gallery.
Here I passed by some kind of bird market(?) Haven’t looked it up but everyone was busy trading pigeons and budgerigars.
A local beckoned to me and pointed out this hanging decoration. I haven’t managed to find out what it is yet.
Noticed another one. Maybe they tell you what happens on the street?
Pompeii’s Pillar which stands at 25m. It is one of the tallest monolithic columns ever built. It looks even more impressive up close.
A short distance away was what I really wanted to see: The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa or Necropolis, one of the wonders of the Middle Ages.
Apparently it was accidentally discovered when a donkey fell down the access shaft. Poor thing.
This place definitely lives up to the name. It felt exactly like playing Tomb Raider or Skyrim!
It had been three hours of walking since I started and I had been lugging around my daypack as well so I was getting tired. I’d planned to go to the Bibiliotecha, the spiritual successor to the fabled Library of Alexandria, but unfortunately it closes on Fridays. Planned to go to the Jewelry Museum as well but is has been shut ever since the revolution.
So I decided to take a cab to my natural habitat.. A mall! It felt weird to be visiting a centuries old catacomb and go to a mall 15 minutes later.
Even the mall has metal detectors here!
Had philly cheesesteak for lunch. The dude was carefully tapping the cup on a surface to let the foam settle so he could put in more Coke. He repeated this a few times before I told him to just hand it to me I’m thirsty dude.
Anyway I bought some provisions, had lunch and headed back to the hotel.
Eh this hotel is actually damn nice and feels a bit like the E&O in Penang. Very colonial. Tassels on the curtains and high ceilings.
Realized it’s been quite a while since I have slept in a proper bed. With a nice shower. And tv. And aircon wtf. Glad I splurged a bit here.
Even the key looks heritagey. It has your room number embossed and weighs like 500 grams.
It also sets off the metal detector in the lobby so I’m not sure why they even have one.
Anyway feeling quite tired. Feels like I haven’t seen a lot of Alexandria but this was an unplanned stop and I have to head back to Cairo tomorrow. The rest of the day needs to be spent swimming in sheets and reading.
Ironically, this was the only day I haven’t had ANY street or local food but I feel the runs coming 😡
Dinner taim #cantcook #couldntifiwantedto
Egypt — Day 8 (25 Oct, 2014)
Took the 10am train out of Alexandria to Cairo today.
Foreigners can only either travel 1st or 2nd class which is still very cheap a first class ticket was only 75LE. The WC definitely wasnt first class though thank goodness I didn’t have to use it.
The journey was three hours and stopped at a few stations in smaller towns on the way. Unlike their buses, the trains run very much on time. We left at exactly 10am and arrived at exactly 1pm.
The two men in front of me who looked like students were playing a football game on their huge laptop. Egyptians seem to love football. On my bus back from Siwa the young man beside me was watching an old football match on his (also huge) laptop.
The Cairo Ramses station has nice architecture. Unmistakably differently themed from Alex.
I had to catch a night flight to Aswan in south Eygpt (or as the locals prefer to say, upper Egypt because the Nile flows north). But decided to spend some more time at the Khan El-Khalili markets because I was really rushed the last time I was here.
Arranged with the cab to pick me up in a couple hours and left my big rucksack him after getting his number.
As he was driving off I remembered I’d best take a picture of his number plate. Not that I really thought I would need it. Egyptians will go any lengths to convince you to give them money, but would not dream of taking it from you by force.
And I didn’t have anything but clothes inside la.
A friend of mine had given me a list of exotic spices to hunt down in Egypt.
Not three minutes after I got out of the cab I was trying to figure out where it was on Google Maps when someone came up to me and asked me what I was looking for in perfect English. When I told him I needed to buy some spices he told me he knew exactly where to go.
To be honest I knew that I would end up paying something somehow but I wanted to see what would happen. After all can’t be that he owns the spice shop
He took me to a section of the markets that were housed right under the Al-Ghouri mosque. Lots of locals were here so I think I found the right place.
Taufiq my “guide” gave a detailed explanation on most of the spices I had in my list plus a few more.
He showed me some saffron as well “This is the real thing, but cheaper. I used to sell this in London and make lots of money.”
He also showed me some Pharaonic oil which I gathered from his description was Egypt’s version of bb cream.
I gather that Taufiq helps friends out by upselling customers. I upsold myself on some mixed spices which he insisted that I should buy “Za’atar is from Morrocco, but THIS you only find in Egypt”. And some Bedouin tea as well.
After that we continued walking into the market.
Heard the same story from Taufiq that I had from nearly everyone else: he used to be able to take a holiday every year but after the revolution things got really tight.
He studied and lived overseas for 12 years before coming back to settle down and get married (this sounded really familiar). He is trying to put his kids through private school but it’s really expensive.
He also complained that his children werent doing homework because they were glued to their computers playing games so he banned computers except on weekends.
Also told me stories of all the chicks he had banged overseas “the Italian girl was best, she was a javelin thrower you know? Very strong. So when I did her I had to do it like Rambo.”
Took me to a friend’s shop selling handwoven Coptic and Islamic pieces but I wasnt very interested.
Passed by a bread shop with workers busy manning the furnace. There are shops like these all over Egypt as the government subsidizes bread at 0.05LE compared to the 0.35LE market price.
Finally came the hook (honestly by this time I was just relieved to find out what the hook was. Its scary not knowing whats at the end of the rabbit hole).
Taufiq runs a business he inherited from his grandfather that makes crafts out of camel bone, mother-of-pearl and lebanese wood.
Here he tried to show me how it was different from the mass-produced stuff. His handiwork has much more mother of pearl and uses bone instead of plastic (he scratched a competitor’s work to show how it peeled because it was plastic).
They came in Coptic, Islamic and even Jewish themes “something for everyone”, he grinned.
I bought a couple pieces (they did look quite nice) and we set off again.
This is a shop that makes red fezzes and distributes them to other shops. Its the only one now because no one wears them any more.
Next we went up a dilapidated flight of stairs and down a dark corridor.
To a papyrus shop run by Said — I’d actually seen this in guidebooks but couldnt be bothered to figure out how to find the place.
There was indeed some nice stuff here. After going through all the “he’s my brother, but I was born at night and he was born in the day, give him a good price” shenanigans (seriously I find this very tiring) we settled on a price. I think I let him know too early I liked a particular piece. Anyway @bossming there is your advance wedding gift!
Passed by a coffee place on the way out. Maybe someone should do one like this, way too many Penang-themed hipster cafes now.
And that was that. He told me more stories about his life as we walked around but I didnt buy anythin more. Maybe I could have saved some more if I went on my own but I doubt I would have found the nicer places to go to. But I felt it was an interesting hour or two. Only in Egypt can you have a guy pick you off the street and bring you off like that.
I guess a more cynical person would call him a tout but to me it was part of the experience.
Maybe I should change my handle to @notstreetsmarttravels though I am damn soft hearted wtf.
topped back at my old digs in Cairo near the pyramids to pick up some stuff I had left there.
This is Greg who was keeping it for me. He has been here for quite a while.
First thing I saw when I went into his apartment was a bunch of stuff on the table with labels
The furniture too.
“I’m being an English teacher now”
“Oh part time work?”
“No I met this Iraqi girl when I was down at immigration…”
So apparently Thomas winged for him at, of all places, the immigration office and he picked up a girl there.
“Yeah she knows ‘bedroom’ now” *wink*
After that I was off to Cairo Airport to catch my flight to Aswan.
Tried to draw money from the ATM but it didn’t seem to work. Then I tried the “fast cash” option then it suddenly did wtf.
Will be at the other end of Egypt soon!
The last leg of my trip after Aswan will be in the Jordan. Hadn’t heard back from my host in a month so I had been getting quite worried. Gave them a call yesterday but the husband didn’t know where his wife who handles these things is. Finally got a message from them today.
Managed to get their neighbours to put me up tho so all good.
