If we at some points struggled to find the “real” Greece then that is not the problem here in Cairo. We share this place with 20m Egyptians and struggle to find other tourists. This is one chaotic, noisy place that is swarming with people trying to move around. There are no traffic rules except that the guy with the biggest horn wins. They blow their car horns continuously-they seem to love noise, it’s added to by the continuous calls to prayers from competing mosques. (Massive loudspeakers in the Minerets scattered all over town). Our taxi drivers have their Egyptian music going at full volume and then try and chat on their cell phones as well and then offer you a cigarette as they compete for road space. Traffic lights-if they are working-are ignored. Trying to cross the road as a pedestrian is totally frightening, once started you have to keep moving at a constant speed so the cars can judge whether to wizz past in front or behind you. We try and use others as shields and cross with them. I saw a policeman start to write some sort of jay-walking ticket for one man and the man just swore at his silly book of tickets and shoved one Egyptian Pound (about 6 E Pound to one US$) at him and stormed off as the Policeman swore at him.
There are serious looking army guys in full gear with all their guns and bomb shields everywhere as well.
This is one hot, polluted, sweaty city. Imagine LA without smog control and no road rules. At least they don’t chain-smoke like the Greeks.
We join our first ever Tour on October 26th in Aqaba and then visit the sites in Jordan and Egypt with them including two more days in Cairo. Since we know that it will be hard to find today’s Egypt when on the tour and looking at the ancient sites we will use this first week to hang-out with the locals. We do occasionally see the air conditioned tourists buses unloading their guests in the Hilton but we see very few tourists on the street. We are staying at the hotel Windsor, a very run down x British officer’s club. 15’ high ceilings, wood paneled bar/dining room with creaking waiters walking across the old floor boards, whirring ceiling fans and believe it or not a lobby phone switchboard that involves the desk man stuffing knitting needles into holes and connecting in/out calls with rooms and telling the caller to go ahead. To complete the picture we have one of those old elevators that runs up and down the middle of the open staircase well and has those sliding metal concertina doors and an attendant. You have to tip (baksheesh) that guy each ride and everyone else at every turn. Things are cheap here so that helps.
From our room (#25) balcony I can look down on the local café and street action at night. It’s so hot in the day that things don’t get going until about 10.00am and then they stay up past midnight. All the men have black highly polished shoes and that’s because there is a one to one ratio between the men getting their shoes polished and the shoe shine guys doing it. A typical arriving customer for a hookah pipe and coffee will be immediately approached by a shoe-shine man who will ceremoniously take his shoes and place a piece of paper under his customer’s feet.
We go out for a walk, dodging the traffic and the water dripping from overhead air conditioning units. It’s all clothing shops, suits for the men and the most erotic bedroom wear for women. All displayed on life sized mannequins making Victoria (and her secret) look like a Nun. Window space is 50-50 between negligees and the full length face covering black burqa and we see lots of women wearing the latter. Christine and I muse on the savings on cosmetics, clothing and the fact that you don’t have to watch what you eat. I calculate 40 years of marriage x 5 handbags a year = 200 handbags and so we both start to look at burqas and their prices and weigh the advantages.
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