Adventures in the Cairo - Day 4 (Pyramids!)

15 Feb 2007, Cairo

Today’s the day! Yes today was the day we visited the Great Pryamids of Giza… one of the most famous and most studied ancient structures of all time, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, one of those places you have to visit before you can leave the world in peace..

Ok so I exaggerate.. but you get my point… we took a cab down to the Pyramids (was about 20 mins from where we stayed) and upon getting out of the cab, we were stopped by some guys asking if we wanted a horse ride, horse carriage ride or camel ride into the pyramids.. Tabbee wasn’t up for the camel so we settled for horse carriage instead… wasn’t too bad except for the occasional bumpy roads, and the occasional farting and shitting from the horse (since the carriage was behind the horse, we could pretty much see everything)…

Anyway, we traveled the Pyramids… they looked quite small until you see the tour buses parked near it… and then when you see the tiny human figures around it, you get a sense of how huge they really are… unfortunately, due to robbers and erosion, the exteriors of the pyramids are no longer as grand as in the days they were built but to be able to stand there and see them was quite something… imagine the thousands of people who would have died in constructing these structures.. did they really love their kinds that much?

We took quite some photos of and with the Pyramids on our ride and some photos involved a camel and a camel guide… I think we were ripped off (paid 100 Egyptian pounds for 3 photos on a camel with the Pyramid in the background) but we seriously thought it was part of the package… well... tourists always fall for such stuff… we couldn’t (and didn’t know how) to refuse and cut it down… at least I was at the Pyramids, even if I was ripped off there..

So anyhow, we continued on… I stopped to get a ticket to enter the 2^nd Pyramid… the guide said it’s a waste of money cos there’s nothing to see in there but I figured I would be quite stupid to pay S$1074 to fly to Egypt, pay 10 LE for a cab to the area, pay 50 LE for entry into the compound, pay 60 LE for the carriage ride and not fork out 25 LE to go inside the Pyramids… so I did just that.. had to climb down a passage (while bent 90 degree because it was that low) which they modified with wooden pieces so you climb it like steps, and then climb up a similar passage to get to a room, which still held a sarcophagus.. it was dark, musty, warm and definitely not for the claustrophobic.. but an interesting experience nonetheless…

After that, we headed on to visit the Sphinx… I missed it at first, because I was expecting something a lot bigger and was looking too far in the distance… the Sphinx was less than 100 metres long and about the height of 2 or 2.5 floors in our Singapore HDB… it was carved out of the rock structures in the area and houses a Temple within… due to time and weather, parts of it is deteriorating, with most of its nose already gone… perhaps it was due to that, its size and the fact that there were about 500 tourists swarming around it that it just didn’t look that grand or magnificent..

Tabbee was commenting after that that she didn’t feel that much in awe when looking at the Pyramids, which is kind of true… perhaps if we could have spent more quiet time there, without people bugging us to get back to the carriage or tour bus, without people bugging us to buy souvenirs, without seeing so many people who obviously weren’t Egyptian… then the effect would have been better…

But then again, it’s hard to blame, because without the Pyramids, so many more people and the neighbouring towns wouldn’t be able to survive today… so how do we find the balance I wonder… will we find it?

(to get a sense of how dependent on tourism the area is, we visited a Papyrus Arts shop nearby… we saw a piece selling for 280 LE… and I was quoted 80 LE for a similar sized piece yesterday.. after I bought that piece, I got a free accompany piece with that purchase so it’s almost like 80 LE for 2 pieces… in comparison, that’s almost a 600% difference in price!!)

Adventures in Cairo - Day 3

14 Feb 2007, Cairo

Today is Valentine’s Day! And what better way to spend it than to be wandering in the streets of Cairo with ur buddy and enjoying the amazing hospitality of the Egyptians?

No I’m not trying to be sarcastic.. what really struck me today was the warmth and sincerity and hospitable nature of the Egyptians…

Tabbee and I started the day hitching a ride with Yasmine’s friend to the Citadel. This is within the area of Islamic Cairo, where the many beautiful mosques and structures are attributed to the Ottoman Empire, which brought Islam as a religion into Egypt and saw one of the most prosperous period for Muslims in terms of science, riches and intellect to name a few….

Islamic Cairo is located quite some distance from the main town area, and the Citadel was on the edge of Islamic Cairo. It was a huge area, complete with fortified castle walls and towers… from the Mosque of Mohamad Ali, one can see the entire skyline of Cairo… it struck us how crowded Cairo was as a city, with houses being so close to each other and with people and traffic everywhere as well.. most of the houses within the vicinity of the Citadel were also the old form of houses (not so much apartments) and with a bit of imagination, one can imagine how things weren’t too different hundreds of years ago, where Egyptians lives in similar houses and went about their busy schedules everyday…

We walked quite a bit in the Citadel, looking at mosques and museums… along the way, we met two “very friendly” guys… one was some random guy who thought we looked lost (I think we did because we were following directions from Lonely Planet but had ended up in a place which looked quite deserted.. so anyhow, he brought us to the towers along the walls of the Citadel… it was quite dark, musty smelling and one can get an unobstructed view of the area around the Citadel… anyway, the guy was quite interested in where we were from (he kept talking to Tabbee cos I think I looked quite unfriendly, since I was reading from the guidebook most of the time), how old were we, were we single… and of course he wished us Happy Valentines… that’s guy no. 1.

After that, Tabbee and I took a break at the seats near the National Military Museum to decide where we were heading to next… the guy manning the stall beside us kept trying to strike up conversation with us about where we were from and such… in the end he asked if we could take a photo with him at his stall… too bad he didn’t give us some free souvenirs along the way… so that’s guy no. 2

After guy no. 2, we decided we wanted to go to the Khan Al Khalili bazaar, which is a touristy place where you find everything to buy… so we took a cab (Yasmine’s mom later said we should have walked but oh well) there… the cab driver didn’t really know english so we got off when he said we were there… it looked like a bazaar all right so we walked into the crowded streets… 10 mins of walking brought us past stores selling clothes, cloth, spices and some other stuff… when we got to this gate near the end of the street, we were thinking something wasn’t quite right.. because we didn’t see any tourists at all… at that point, guy no. 3 appeared… again he asked where we were from, where we were heading, and then he invited us to have Egyptian Tea in his house, which was just beside us… seeing how he looked quite harmful and his house was just in front of a busy street where if anything happened, we could be heard, we accepted his invitation… it was a great decision… turns out the guy’s family has been doing patchwork for generations after generations and he showed us some of the most beautiful pieces we’ve ever seen… now he travels the world a lot, going to embassies and such to showcase the patch works at exhibitions and from there, draw customers and clients… the guy was only 24 years old but had been to USA, Asia and many countries because of the job… he studied Islamic history but now he’s kind of in charge of the business, especially the marketing side of it… he served us Hibiscus tea, which looked like normal tea with a slight tinge of red but was really really sour… but still it was an interesting experience and amazing to see how hospitable Egyptians were...

Anyway, we also found out from him that we were in the local’s market and not the tourist market, which was across the street where we alighted from the cab… so we headed back down that same street with the hope of getting to a money changer as well (I was still carrying USD then)… just when we were about to cross the overhead bridge (you don’t know how rare it is to see one), Tabbee got stopped by this guy who looked 30 something years old asking where she is from.. so the conversation started and he asked quite some stuff about our countries, whether we needed visas, what the market was like etc… then he so kindly took us to the money changer (which was 10 mins away)… he helped me with my USD, spoke to the changer, got my money changed and counted clearly… so nice.. we thought that was it… but no.. he offered to show us around the local market to see some proper Egyptian handicrafts.. so into the narrow streets we went, with him explaining now and then about the culture here… our 1^st stop was a Papyrus Arts shop, featuring very beautiful hand drawn paintings on Papyrus… the owner was a really young guy, who showed us also how some stalls outside sell fake drawings which are actually pictures printed on banana leaves… we found some paintings we liked and bought some, after like almost 50% discount as well…

After that, we went to a woods craft shop where we saw how the carpenter decorated a dull wooden box with pieces of ivory, shell, camel bone and other types of stone into a beautifully polished jewel box. We also saw how another one built a chess board set from the same kinds of materials… while these craftsmen didn’t speak English, they were really warm and smiling to us tourists and our unusual guide..

After the crafts street, we headed past some stalls selling camel meat (HUGE!!), baking bread etc until we got to a spices shop… our guide (Ehab is his name by the way) showed us where it was stored and told us that even in ancient Egyptian times, they used such rooms and till today things have not changed much… we then went into the shop where we met a very sincere shopkeeper… he was so proud of his spices and perfumes (100% natural) and showed us bottles of spices to see and smell, he showed us his perfumes (didn’t realise that lotus smells that good) and I guess at the end of it, everyone was happy cos Tabbee bought a small bottle of Lotus perfume from him…

So that was pretty much our mini guided tour of the local’s market (I have to go find the name… for now all I know is that it’s beside Khan Al Khalili bazaar)…

Since it was nearing dinner time, we asked Ehab where we could go for some Egyptian cuisine.. he suggested downtown where the food would be much cleaner so off we went… we thought it was quite nearby but in the end I think we walked for almost 30 or 40 minutes before we got there.. along the way, it was interesting to see the very local culture.. for example, people riding bicycles with mountains of stuff balanced on their heads, pedestrians walking everywhere and on the roads, cars honking at each other, pedestrians crossing the streets wherever they can, children staring at us as we passed by… we also learnt about their working hours, their eating hours (lunch at 4pm and dinner at 10pm!), the daily calls for prayers that are broadcasted across the city 5 times a day, the divorce rate of couples in Egypt… it was really amazing to hear all that from a local… we also found out that Ehab worked at the hospital, in the department dealing with natural medicines (kind of like traditional chinese herbs and medicine but based on Egyptian history).. he was single and lived with his mother, he’s a Muslim who doesn’t pray all the time but believes in integrity, mercy and kindness…

So although it was a long walk, we enjoyed it quite a bit… when we got to downtown, he brought us to a food court in a shopping mall and we ordered kebab sandwich for dinner… it was a pity he couldn’t join us for long as he had to head back to work at the hospital (night shift) so we said goodbye, exchanged contacts and hoped that perhaps he would come by our Global Village…

That pretty much rounded up our Valentine’s Day in Cairo and I daresay it’s so amazing… I am quite sure that we will never find such hospitality in Singapore (even though we get so many tourists every year)… if you find a Singaporean who will smile back at you in the streets or initiate a conversation with you, you’re considered very lucky… in just one day here in Cairo, we met so many people who smiled at us, who asked where we were from, who welcome us to Egypt… we met some amazing strangers who invited us into their homes to share a bit of their culture and history with us, who would spend an entire afternoon bringing us around and showing us the side of Cairo a usual tourist would rarely see…

All in all, Cairo is quite an amazing place.. and Egyptians, simply an amazing bunch of people J

Places visited in the Citadel

- Mosque of Mohammed Ali

- Mosque of an-Nasir Mohammed

- Police Museum

- Gawhara Palace & Museum

- Carriage Museum

- National Military Museum

- Mosque of Suleiman Pasha

- Burg al-Haddad (Blacksmith’s Tower)

- Burg al-Ramla (Sand Tower)

Adventures in Cairo - Day 2

Hi everyone... Just to say I'm safely in Cairo... was posting the previous post on Bahrain in Cairo actually... but was too exhausted to post an update on Cairo itself... I was so majorly jetlagged after landing...

anyhow, things are quite amazing here in Cairo... it's really crowded here, and traffic always seems to be busy... it takes guts and great skill to drive here... and also to cross the roads... I haven't mastered that bit yet... I get scared looking at the cars zooming all over by and honking now and then... so I end up having to walk more by taking the underpass.. haha.. well of course if I'm with Yasmine or someone Egyptian then I just take cue from them... I consider this a major weakness of being Singaporean… we’re so used to orderly queues and traffic that we lose our survival skills outside of Singapore..

Today, I went to Coptic Cairo... ok before I go on, let me attempt to explain… Because Egypt has such a looong history and they got colonised by pretty much lots of people, you can essentially split their history into 3 parts: pharonic (which is linked to the Pharoahs and pyramids), Copthic (which is when the Romans were around bringing Christianity into Egypt) and Islamic (with the Ottoman Empire having it’s base hub in Cairo before shifting to Turkey).. So Copthic Cairo was about a lot of churches and synagogues… it was also called Old Cairo, with the old “fort” walls and the kind of houses you see in the Prince of Egypt movie… it was quite amazing, and definitely humbling to see the architectures and paintings depicting Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary and the various Saints… it felt quite strange as well because today, we know Egypt as an Islamic state and yet, there I was looking at all these Christian monuments... it’s hard to imagine how history has evolved…

I was traveling alone with my trusty Lonely Planet guide (thanks to Yasmine’s mom) so at least I got some explanations off the book…at the same time, I managed to leech off some of the tour groups there. The place was crawling with tour groups… I saw tourists from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, USA and more which I couldn’t really identify. It was quite amusing also in that many of the locals around the area simply assumed that I’m Japanese or Korean. So they greet me with “Konichiwa” and a few said “Gamsa Hamidas”. When I simply smile, they ask where I am from… so I say Singapore and they usually smile back and say “Welcome!” I’m quite sure they don’t know where or what Singapore is but nevertheless, I guess the hospitality and warmth is definitely impressive…

Anyhow, I spent the whole morning there in Coptic Cairo, before heading to downtown… I traveled by Metro, which is another interesting experience because the moment I board, everyone just looks at me… being Asian is so exotic here in Egypt… haha.. oh and about the metro here, the 1st one or two carriages are actually all-women carriages… females can travel in the same carriages as males just that like Yasmine said, when it gets packed during peak hours, it’s better to be squashed with females then with some weird guy you don’t know.. so yeah…

Downtown was quite an experience, simply because it was so so crowded.. did I mention already that there are 22 million people in Cairo itself? Yeah so imagine how much vehicle and human traffic that translates into.. I had to keep going down into the underpass because I simply couldn’t cross the roads with so many cars… I managed to get lunch on my own in a café-like place.. had a chicken panne and it was quite uneventful except for the fact that I messed up the order of getting food… I went straight to the food counter and placed an order, and attempted to pay there as well.. what I should have done was to order at the cashier, pay there and bring the receipt to the food counter to get my food.. oh well…

After lunch, I headed down to the Egyptian Museum, which as expected was swarming with tourists as well… so yes I managed to leech off some tour groups again… the stuff in there varies from huge statues and building structures to tiny, exquisitely handcrafted jewellery, from gold plated sarcophagus (Tutankhamen’s) to plain wooden play dolls… unfortunately not all exhibits had an explanation and there was so many things in the entire museum (which wasn’t placed in any particular order of Egypt history) making the whole experience somewhat educational yes but overwhelming and confusing also… oh and things are quite pricey here when it comes to tourist stuff… I didn’t know that entry to see the actual mummies cost money (100 Egyptian Pounds or about 35 SGD) and I didn’t have enough cash on me… so I had to give that a miss… settled for looking at animal mummies, which is still not something you get to do all the time… hahah

Well after an eventful day of Coptic Cairo and the Egypt Museum, I went to meet Yasmine and we headed home to pick up the car so we could pick up Tabbee (MCP Philippines)… she was supposed to arrive 12th Feb but her flight from Manila to Doha got delayed and she missed her connecting flight from Doha to Cairo… which explains why I was buddy-less for a day… but anyhow she arrived alright (aside from being slightly jetlagged) and excited about Cairo…

And that pretty much rounds up Day 2 in Cairo for me… tomorrow, we’re planning to go to Islamic Cairo and then to the Khan Al Khalili market, which is a HUGE bazaar… so I’ll post updates on that soon

p.s. it’s awfully slow to upload photos within the text so I’m going to do just text, and then just photos…

Places visited in Coptic Cairo

Coptic Museum

Roman Towers

Hanging Church

Convent of St George

Monastery & Church of St George

Churches of St Sergius & St Barbara

Ben Ezra Synagogue