Egypt/Jordan part 1: Cairo
This is a throwback post due to the Dayre exodus
Egypt — Day 1 (18 Oct, 2014)
So here I am in Cairo. Giza, to be exact. Or to be even more exact, I’m staying at an Airbnb place directly opposite the pyramids.
There is a certain weirdness involved with knowing you are staying next door to some of the oldest buildings in the world. It’s humbling.
My host Thomas has made the most of this place. The rooftop has been done up into a cozy den where people can sit back and enjoy the view.
There is a sound and light show nearby every evening, but staying here means you get to listen in for free.
The building and neighbourhood itself is pretty run down though. Its located right next to two stables, so everything smells like horses. In this part of Giza most apartments are worn and shabby too. Facilities are spartan.
The view more than makes up for it though and at RM65/night on Airbnb you get what you pay for.
Thomas has been a helpful host so far. Experienced too — he’s been doing this for ten years and was on Airbnb for six, way before it got popular. He took some time to introduce me to the other guests and took some of us out to find cheap food. He also asked us all about our plans for the next few days and gave pointers.
It was a long drive to where I’m staying from the airport. Had plenty of time to form some first impressions of Cairo.
Everything seems well worn. Its a bit jarring to be driving around and suddenly see silhouettes of buildings that are centuries or even thousands of years old. Most apartments have those distinct square roofs. It was a bit funny to see tv dishes dot the roofs of these old buildings.
Most of the vehicles on the road seemed battered and everyone had their windows wound down.
Traffic is rubbish, as you can expect. I wasnt surprised to see tuktuks here, but was a bit taken aback to see quite a few horse- and donkey-carts nonchalantly pottering around. I guess their feed is cheaper than petrol or something.
Egypt — Day 2: The Museum and a view (19 Oct, 2014)
This is the entrance to where I’m staying. @rebekatee and gang if you guys came here confirm can use any wall for your ootd
This is what the stables next to my place look like. All manner of camels and horses. Host told us early on to scuttle out of the way if you heard the sound of horseshoes on the road behind you.
A daytime shot of the Pyramids. Today museums were on the agenda though. I’m leaving the Pyramids for another day since they are next door any way.
I’m realizing now that the price to pay for this spectacular view and great host is that the majority of my costs in Cairo is going to go into cabs. Giza where the Pyramids are is half an hour from downtown Cairo, without traffic. And Cairo has traffic so bad it makes Cheras seem like an F1 track @seryesserrr
The Cairo Museum of Egyptian Antiquities is the biggest collection of Egyptian artifacts in the world (more than 100k items).
A stone’s throw from the infamous Tahrir Square, it had seen some looting in the 2013 protests so there is now a military presence there.
This is me with our guide Asrouf and my housemate William.
Asrouf is one of the guides my host recommended. Most visitors hire a guide that you pay an extra fee for (80LE an hour, on top of the entrance fee of 75LE). We decided to get one for an hour to show us the highlights of the place.
Here we are doing the “left foot forward” pose that you see in many pharaonic statues. Apparently it represents a march forward.
Digressing a bit here but I realized the people I’m staying with in Cairo are much older than the young travellers I normally encounter. William is 64 and Jean (she went ahead of us) around the same.
William’s story is that he has been travelling on his pension ever since he retired in LA. He doesn’t travel with his wife because she “prefers luxury cruise ships”.
So far older people tend to be more experienced andknow what they want. But they tire a lot faster…
This charred structure next to the Museum is Mubarak’s NDP building. It was damaged beyond repair in the protests. Heard the new government plans to give the land to the museum.
For more information on this grand museum, email… egyptianmuseum@hotmail.com? Wtf. Then again a lot of people seem to use hotmail here.
There is a strict no-camera policy at the Museum. I dutifully tried to check in my iPhone but the lady shook her head and said “phone ok. Check in camera!” Yes ma’am 😏😁
The Egyptians mummified animals as well. Sometimes it was to allow Puss to move on into the afterlife, while in other cases they used animals expressly bred to be sacrificed.
Had a quick look online and apparently some people still do it today. Huh.
“Among these were ‘autobiographies’ which were accounts of the life of the deceased showing them in the best possible light”
TIL the Egyptians invented blogging and did it on early iPad prototypes.
Kim Il-Sung aint got nothing on the pharaoh’s swag. The collection here is both massive and impressive.
These colossal limestone statues are of King Amenophis and Queen Tyi.
Say hi to King Ramses II! He’s not feeling well though he suffered from arthritis.
What, you feel squeamish? Well I paid an extra 100LE to enter this exhibit so you’ll look at this and like it.
He struck up a convo with me about what I was going to do in Egypt and complimented my plans *proud*. I asked what he did and he said he was an student of Persian art.
It’s a famous line hustlers use and sure enough I was soon ushered into a “papyrus” shop a few metres away.
Truth be told if the “art” on display had looked decent or authentic I would have probably bought something just for his 10 minutes or so of chatting me up, but everything looked decidedly fake.
He did add me on FB. Seems the part about him being divorced and his ex-wife being American were true. I was actually quite pleased to have “experienced” this hallmark of the Cairo experience.
There weren’t actually any traffic lights at the end of the road though -_-
Quite an effort getting this picture. I’d read that the Mokattam Cliff was somewhere near the Saladin Citadel so I paid a cab to take me there (Not that I was going to go inside but it would have been nice if the cabbie had told me it was closed).
But it is actually a couple km away so I had to scramble to have another cab take me to the lookout point, Mokattam Corniche. It is a decidedly more upscale part of Cairo. Managed to get here just in time for sunset.
Had a small dispute with the driver whom I had offered 120LE (to bring me to the lookout point and back home). He thought I meant “ten twenties” not “hundred and twenty”.
A random guy nearby came up to “help” me settle the dispute (I ended up paying 150LE) and quickly asked for 20LE baksheesh 😡. I handed him 10 and walked away.
It’s wise not to let these bakSHEESH instances get to you though and not take it personally. Its very much part of their culture and Egypt has fallen on bad times.
Egypt — Day 3: The Pyramids! (Oct 20, 2014)
Wall mounted routers Egypt-style
Guess what the agenda was this morning?
You walk past the Sphinx on the way to the Pyramids. It is a bit smaller than I thought it would be but no less impressive. It’s currently undergoing “maintenance” though
My host Airbnb Thomas decided to take us around personally today. He set us up with a camel ride to start. Say hi to Minnie Mouse.
Mounting a camel is actually easier than a horse since they obligingly kneel on command. You need to lean back so you don’t fall off as they get up rear first.
We were led to a lookout point some distance away from the pyramids.
We were on camels but Thomas and the camel handler were on horses. Horses are faster in case you need to chase down a runaway.
From the lookout point we could see all the pyramids overlooking Cairo. It was breathtaking!
A little boy came up to me while I was distractedly admiring the view. He pressed a Sprite bottle into my hands while deftly uncapping it. Wtf damn smooth right, that cost me 5 LE!
This is a hut that the guards (who also ride camels) use.
The guards can be bribed so easily they make Malaysian ones look like saints. We climbed up one of the minor pyramids for the photo before this one, and they came by smiling because they knew our host would give them their baksheesh wtf.
Sorry I climbed it though guys I feel really guilty and I promise I didn’t climb any of the major ones
Ok I can’t believe it but I got scammed while walking to the Keops pyramid. Will was being complimented on his “Lawrence of Arabia” getup (some stupid cloth and headband combo) and was being hustled for stuff.
Then the guy suddenly turns his attention to me and insists I buy a getup like that too. Obviously I say no and walk away, but he pulls me to him, presses the thing into my hand and says “no worries friend this is free”.
When Chinese hear the word free sure let down guard right? He then put two tiny cheapo ankhs that are supposed to be for luck into my pocket and says “take this too”.
How to react right? Chinese people very paiseh get free stuff what. I thought ok lah I’ll pull out my wallet and give you 10LE, but the instant he saw that he said its ok friend, you can give me some money .. For my children. He plucks out a 50LE note and gave me 5LE back wtf.
“For my children. Thank you” he says and waves.
Thomas was shaking his head at me “I thought you guys were smart”. T_T
I tell you these Egyptian hustlers study psychology one they know how to bait you and pull all the right strings! It’s like being hypnotized!
Anyway we found a loose chunk of granite (cross my heart I didn’t get it off the pyramids) and Thomas said it could be from the real thing and I should take it home.
It’s free at least :)
This is the equivalent of our Dilarang Membuang Sampah Denda RM500 sign I believe
We went into some of the enclaves near the pyramids which Thomas says belonged to its engineers. They were pretty impressive in their own right as they were not so much built as cut out from rock. No signs of joints anywhere and they had only one try to get their intricate carvings right.
We took photos at the entrance to the largest pyramid, the Cheops pyramid which stands 150m tall. We didn’t buy tickets to go inside though. It didn’t seem worth it at 100LE which is what I had read too.
Thomas could see we were sick of the vendors so he took us around the back way to the Khafre pyramid, which is the second largest (135m) and costs only 40LE to enter.
You have to bend really low to descend the stairs leading into the pyramid.
The air started to feel musty as we stepped into the antechamber.
The signature on the left wall was left behind by explorer Giovanni Belzoni who discovered it in 1818.
It felt.. Weird. Knowing that you were at the center of such a huge and enigmatic structure.
Nope no one home.
Oh and the reason all these pictures are here are because as usual they don’t consider smartphones as cameras ;)
It had been a long morning so we stepped out for a quick lunch — spiced liver and cow feet. Forgot to take pictures. Not normally what I would eat but when in Rome… conquer Egypt!
Then it was back to the apartment for a nap.
In the evening a larger group of us went out to catch the tanoura dance performance at the beautiful medieval caravanserai, the Wikala Al Ghauri.
I was getting annoyed at Jean’s persistence in having us leave two hours early for the show but she turned out to be right: traffic was so bad we only arrived with 10 minutes to spare (!)
Duno where the sound went. Anyway I got dizzy just watching them perform. They would spin continuously through their whole 20 minute performances!
As we milled around after the show a street vendor walked past carrying a big jar of some black liquid.
William being the Chinese uncle he is wants some even though we have no idea what it is so he gives it a try and loves it. He gives me some and I nearly spit it out it tastes like those bitter chinese herbal concoctions your grandma gave you to prevent cancer.
I noticed the vendor didn’t wipe, much less wash, the glass as he walked away…
Egypt — Day 4: Coptic and Islamic Cairo (21st Oct, 2014)
One pound notes that the exchange teller at the airport gave to me. Now I’m finding out that no one uses these and they are only used “in government”. Go figure
Another glance at the view before we head out today. Was just thinking of what a feat of engineering the pyramids are.
Who would have thought that Egyptians 5000 years ago would have known how to construct such massive structures with the sun behind them so tourists of today could take awesome photos?
Started our day by walking around Coptic Cairo. This area of Cairo is where the Holy Family was believed to have visited.
This picture is from the Ben Ezra synagogue which was built in 1115.
The alleyway leading to it is lined with bookshelves and stores.
St George’s church, or “the dragon slaying badass”.
There is a light police presence in the area because of recent clashes here.
The Coptic Museum here houses many artifacts, among them this book which is the oldest known copy of the book of Psalms dating from the 4–5th century.
At the Hanging Church next door, so named because it was built over a gatehouse of a Roman fortress. It is one of the oldest churches in Egypt dating back to the third century.
Man the Egyptians sure had more epic Sunday School trips than I did.
Right next to Coptic Cairo was the oldest mosque in Egypt, the mosque of Amr ibn al-As. It had a beautiful, rustic feel and the open spaces was calming.
Got mobbed by a gaggle of schoolgirls outside. Wonder why. Maybe I’m just a yellowskin who can pronounce their names properly.
Happened again with a group of friends who were visiting the Citadel of Saladin. What can I say 😁
Seriously though my host kept yelling “TIM” because I would lag behind the group when I was getting asked for selfies. Maybe they haven’t seen many people with magic yellow skin, the kind that makes lots of money.
The Citadel of Saladin is a prominent mark on the Cairo landscape. It houses a couple of mosques and museums and used to be the centre of Cairo government until the 19th century. In medieval times it was used to defend against the Crusaders.
The mosque here is apparently a clone of the blue mosque in Istanbul.
Haven’t been to the Blue Mosque yet though so this is the most magnificent building I’ve ever been in. Well the monuments in DPRK were more lavish but there is an aura of history about this place. They must have used a hill of marble to build this too.
Had some date juice. It was 3pm and we had been walking around since 9am without lunch (this is what happens when you have an overly ambitious host, not that I am complaining) so this tasted especially good.
Next we visited the “Garbage City”, home of the Zabaleen people. Most of them grew up as garbage collectors — they are known for being very efficient recyclers.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen more flies per square meter than I saw in Mokattam.
Interesting is that there is an enclave in Mokattam nearby (where I took the panoramic shot of Cairo on Day 2) that is an upscale Kenny Hills kind of neighbourhood.
Anyway we werent here just to look at garbage.
Many Zabaleen are Christians and worship in churches carved out of the caves found in Mokattam.
Here you can see a cliff face carved with verses and famous gospel scenes.
The amphitheater carved out from the cave seats 22k and is the largest church in the Middle East.
Some in our group were getting angsty out of hunger so Thomas our host brought us to (finally) eat.
Not a big fan of the local food.. meat is relatively scarce so they prefer liver — I must have had more liver so far than I have had in a lifetime. But I generally just eat anyway.
I gotta feelin~
Normally my trips are drama-free but a couple of factors caused a bit of drama today.
My host Thomas is an awesome one and genuinely enjoys playing adhoc tour guide — he tends to come up with elaborate plans though without always telling us everything beforehand. And like nearly everyone here he tends to be a bit “flexible” with timing.
One of the housemates we have now is an American lady Jean who wants her own way a lot and doesnt like to cover too much in one day (to be fair she is 60+)
Thomas still wanted to take us on a felucca trip and after that to the market. On top of that William and I needed to go to the bus station to buy tickets for our next stops.
Jean was having none of it though and wanted to go home.
Thomas decided to bring William and me to the Al-Khalifa market anyway to quickly shop for some stuff while Jean was at an ATM.
We had a secret signal to use when bargaining — if Thomas thought it was a good deal he would say it a certain way and if not he would say it another.
ButI promptly forgot when we entered our first shop and spent a bit more than I should have (like 20LE or something come on dude).
I got scolded after that and he insisted I hand him my wallet for safekeeping T_T
When we got back into the van Jean was now strongly insisting we go home and not do the 2–3 km detour to the bus station.
Thomas was getting quite angry at this point and pointed out that I had waited for her an hour or so at the museum on Day 2 and temaned her to Carrefour bcos she doesnt like local food, before heading out to do my own stuff (which is true but I didn’t know he had noticed). He was also unhappy that she had never said so much as a “thank you” for anything so far.
So… She insisted we stop the van then and there and stormed off.
Aiyaiyai.
Anyway travelling protip: always be as flexible as possible!!
Otherwise don’t travel or take a normal tour.
Anyway moving on. At the bus station I realized that the bus to my next destination wasnt at 7pm as stated online but 845pm. Night buses are much better for travel because over long distances you avoid the morning heat and you save time.
It was 7pm when we realized this. We decided to have me rush home, pack and rush back to the station. I was actually quite dubious as according to what I knew of Cairo traffic, it would take 2 hours minimum. But Thomas was optimistic so ok.
Let me digress a bit here to say that the definitive experience in Cairo is not the food or shopping or even the pyramids. Its the traffic! It is probably worse than Bangkok only that Cairo is much bigger. The kicker is Waze and Google Maps don’t work well here for traffic information since no one uses them.
Back to the story. This is Kareem the driver we use. Doesnt speak much English but he was tasked with making sure I got that bus.
Well done Kareem you truly unleashed the demon within you on the roads and I will always remember my heart skipping over the close calls.
Sadly.. We could only make 915pm. Not even close!
But this is Egypt!
Kareem conversed animatedly with the ticketing agent and rushed me out of the station.
We found the bus which was parked some distance away from the station, still picking up passengers. It left a couple minutes after I got in so I barely made it! Thank god for Egyptian time.
Only problem is I haven’t showered or eaten and I am now on a ten hour bus ride to westernmost Egypt. Oh well! The next leg of my trip starts now.
