Leaving Egypt

So, last day in Cairo... We spent the last couple of hours having a walk around the hotel, doing some shopping, mostly. I picked up a good book in the AUC (American University of Cairo - the place where the well-off Egyptians and foreigners study, conveniently located in central Cairo next to a McDonald’s ;-). We both tried to get some shoes, as well (they were quite a bit cheaper than over here – some pairs of shoes were like 3 euros!), but failed (some of the shopkeepers would just smile and shake their heads when I mentioned my shoe size). We also had a quick look at Abdeen Palace, which used to be a royal residency and also presidential palace after Nasser took over in 1952. These days it's a museum - doesn't look very special at least from the outside.



And then, off we went to the airport (taxi again – no more buses!), and back to Nice via Vienna.

Well, in spite of the occasional hassle, we really enjoyed our stay (I mean the hassle is all part of the adventure, right? ;-). Especially the weekend spent in the desert was really something unique. And Cairo? Certainly not a place for people who like calm, order and cleanliness. But it’s certainly one of the most interesting cities you’ll ever visit, with loads to see, and so alive somehow.

Trip to the desert

The plan for the weekend was to take the bus to Bawiti, by the Bahariyya osasis, and go for a desert safari. The bus trip, it has to be said, was relatively dull (most of Egypt is desert, and doesn’t always offer very inspiring landscapes). We eventually arrived, and were whisked into a 4x4 (not exactly of the latest model…) and driven down to the hotel from where the trip was leaving. This being Egypt, we still had to wait for about 2 hours before we could leave (which was slightly annoying, because the only entertainment options were non-alcoholic beer, a pool table with 1 broken cue, the ping-pong table being the only viable option ;-).



Eventually our entourage (which also included Mohammed the non-English speaking guide/driver, Carmella the Canadian student, and Sammy the eccentric French desert traveller) managed to leave in the battered yet solid Landcruiser. Our first stop was the black desert, a lunar landscape covered with hills (which looked almost like soot-covered volcanoes). Apparently, the blackish colour comes from some small pieces or basalt which cover the ground. Very impressive!

The white desert was even prettier (especially as the sun was setting). The white desert is covered with weird white rock formations, in all sorts of shapes (I kept seeing the Sphinx all over the place for some reason – most people see mushrooms). A very unusual and beautiful, almost unreal, landscape…



After driving around in the near dark, Mohammed suddenly appeared to be lost, did a U-turn, and after some more driving, stopped and says “we sleep here”. So, time to set up the camp. Admittedly, Mohammed did most of the work (while I kept trying to, without success, take pictures of the starlit sky). We finished off the evening with a delicious chicken dinner (prepared by Mohammed and Carmella). The night was something very special indeed – it really is something to sleep under a completely starlit sky, in the middle of the quite desert. Comfort was another matter – my sleeping bag was definitely made for Egyptians and not for Finns (at least of my size…).




The dawn was as beautiful as the sunset – really made the landscape look surreal. After spending some more time at the campsite (having breakkie, packing up) off we went. After having a look at some flower stones (that’s right, rocks shaped as flowers) we visited a disappointing natural spring (a slightly dodgy-looking swimming pool fed by spring water). And then, after waiting for another couple of hours at the hotel, back on the bus to Cairo!

Old Cairo and dinner in Ma'adi

The plan for today was to visit old Cairo. Getting there was easy, as it’s reachable by metro (which works quite well – and quickly, compared to any means of transport which uses the congested roads).

Old Cairo is, as the name implies, the oldest part of modern Cairo. Apparently there was a settlement here dating to the 6th century BC, upon which the Romans built a fortress called Babylon-in-Egypt, during the 2nd century AD. This part of Cairo is (and was even more so in olden days) actually a bit of Christian stronghold, and is also called Coptic Cairo (Christians in Egypt are called Copts – which is derived from the Greek word for Egypt). Presently there are five churches in Coptic Cairo (at one time there were 20 – quite a lot for an area of less than 1 square kilometre).



We started our exploration by visiting the church of St. Mary – also known as the Hanging Church (since it was built on top of the water gate of the fortress of Babylon). It was very pretty indeed – rather different from European churches (unsurprisingly, most similar to Orthodox churches). It was also very busy, as there was a mass in progress. After visiting the Coptic Museum (very fascinating – I learnt for example that Egypt was the first country in the world to accept Christianity and also that the oldest monasteries can be found in Egypt).



We then proceeded to visit the main old Coptic Cairo, with its winding, narrow lanes (very similar to Jerusalem, apparently). Quite fascinating, and again, very different from the other parts of Cairo we had seen. Pity about all the tourists and trinket salesmen… We visited some more churches (including St. Sergus, which was apparently built on the spot where the Holy Family rested after fleeing King Herod), as well as the oldest Synagogue in Egypt (Ben Ezra – dating back to the 9th century).



In the evening, we headed down to Ma’adi again to meet up with Pablo and Olga (as well as Olga’s brother’s family, who were also visiting). We went for a very nice meal to a local Egyptian restaurant – with very nice interiors and great food (for a very reasonable price). I must admit it was the first really nice Egyptian meal so far. After the meal I shared a Sheesha (water pipe) with Olga (made me feel totally Egyptian, honest!).

Egyptian musem & Islamic Cairo

The plan for today was to first visit the Egyptian museum, and then Islamic Cairo. So we got up early again, and off we went to famous Egyptian museum. We had a cunning plan to be there right when the museum opened – unfortunately; loads of other people had the same cunning plan! Once inside, Mathilde had the very good idea that we should visit the highlight of the museum – the Tutankhamun galleries – first. This turned out to be an excellent idea – we were almost alone to visit them. Very impressive stuff – hard to imagine what treasures the famous pharaohs must’ve had in their graves, if a relatively minor ruler like Tutankhamun had such riches… I really loved this museum, so much to see. It’s all a bit chaotic (with inconsistent explanations, not always in the same language. In fact, we found one plaque, which was only in Braille!), which is in fact part of the charm.



Having spent a couple of hours there, we got a bit saturated with mummies and other relics, so decided it was time to move on to Islamic Cairo. Disheartened by the previous days’ experiences with public transportation, we humbly resorted to taking a taxi (mind you, taking a taxi in Cairo is not exactly a boring experience either, especially when it comes to agreeing the price with the driver…). We started our exploration in Khan Al-Khalili, which is a complex of tiny streets filled with shops and sellers (basically a bazaar). It really is very fascinating, at the same time extremely touristy, and so typically Cairo. There are of course loads of tourist shops about, but you don’t have to walk very far to find places where the locals do their shopping. I imagine that parts of Khan Al-Khalili hasn’t changed much over the last 50 years (that would be the non-touristy bits).


We managed to not actually buy anything during our visit, but did have to make the mandatory stop at Fishawii’s, which is the oldest coffee shop in Cairo (and fortunately hasn’t been turned into a tourist trap). The lunch in the tourist trap by the main square didn’t impress though… (Islamic Cairo isn’t blessed with very many restaurants).



After lunch, we visited what is possibly the most famous mosque in Cairo – Al-Azhar. It was founded 970AD, and is not only one of the oldest mosques in Cairo, but also (apparently) the oldest surviving university in the world. It was very impressive (and peaceful – which is quite rare in Cairo!) it has to be said – we even had a self-appointed guide showing us around (who made it very clear he was not happy with the Baksheesh I gave him). After visiting the mosque, we walked around a bit more, heading towards the citadel (visiting the Blue mosque on the way – which was nice if a bit run-down).Unfortunately it was too late to visit the citadel, so we decided to head back to the hotel.




In the evening we decided to go for a nice dinner, so we headed to the Zamalek area (which is popular with expats), to a French restaurant called “Le Steack”. Not very original, but at least the food was the best we’d had so far! (needless to say, it probably cost about as much as all the other meals we’d had so far put together, though…). Afterwards we had a couple of drinks in L’Aubergine, a supposedly trendy bar. Nice place, but not very Egyptian (I suppose that makes it trendy?)…

The pyramids at Giza

After a good night's sleep, we decided to start our exploration with the most famous of attractions - the pyramids at Giza. None the wiser for our experiences last night, we once more decided to brave the Cairo public transport system, and take a bus.

Finding the right bus took us a good while again, as only the third bus station turned out to be the right one! But we eventually managed to get the right one, so off we went to Giza (the pyramids are located at the outskirts of greater Cairo, about 10 kilometres from the centre).



We met a helpful chap called Mahmoud on the bus, who told us we should not go to the main entrance, rather we should go to an alternative “official ticket booth for travellers and students”. This turned out to be his friend Mahmoud (II), who offered camel services! Having been to the pyramids before, I figured it might not actually be a bad idea to go by camel, since the touts around the pyramids can be a real pain in the backside. And, according to Mahmoud II, he was even recommended in Lonely planet (actually, Lonely Planet recommends MG stables, whereas Mahmoud II’s outfit was called FG stables – but according to Mahmoud II the “G” means they are from the same family ;-).



The camel ride was good fun actually, although I have to say Moses (my camel) wasn’t very co-operative. He seemed to go exactly where he wanted, and when he wanted (on the whole, Mickey Mouse, Mathilde’s beast, seemed more genial, or maybe Mathilde was just the better rider). The pyramids were very impressive, of course. Most people say the same thing about the Sphinx – it’s a lot smaller than expected (also, it came as a revelation to me that the sphinx is actually male – he just lost his beard over the years).

The trip back was quite an adventure as well. As we were trying to decipher the numbers of the buses passing by, a helpful chap called Mahmoud III (I kid you not!) suddenly showed up, and told us we could take a mini-bus with him to the main road, and then take the big bus to Cairo. We though: “why not”. Quite quickly the bus turned onto a side road, and suddenly Mahmoud III told us that we would first go and see his sister’s new born baby! We thought, “OK, let’s see what happens”. So eventually, we ended up in a small Bedouin village god knows where. After following Mahmoud III for a while, we decided we’d wasted enough time and asked him to take us to the bus stop. We did eventually (after meeting his family!) manage to get a bus, which surprise, took us back to where we started near the pyramids!

Later in the evening, we booked a trip to the desert for the weekend. Guess what the name of the travel agent was?



After this we took the metro down to Maadi, to meet up with my friends from Edinburgh (Pablo and Olga). Maadi was certainly different from downtown Cairo, a lot less chaotic (even the driving is nearly civilised). Maadi is where the well-offs of Cairo live (including the expats). I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many SUV’s in one area… We had a very nice Thai takeaway at their place (felt almost like being back in the UK), and talked about the good old days…

Arriving in Cairo

After not enough hours of sleep, we got up at 4:30 and headed for the airport (my head was still a bit sore after the Schnapps from last night), to catch our flight to Cairo. The flight went OK, with a stopover in Vienna. After the formalities at Cairo airport, we decided to be brave and take the local bus to downtown Cairo. We eventually found the bus stop, and the bus also eventually arrived (identifying it wasn’t easy, as everything was written in Arabic!).

Getting from the bus station in Cairo to our hotel turned out to be a more daunting task, even if it was only about 3 blocks away. The traffic in Cairo is really something (not sure how to describe it exactly, words like “murderous”, “lethal” come to mind) – with cars completely ignoring traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and rules (well, there are some rules, but I don’t think you’ll find them in any law book!). Put it like this, crossing the street was quite a scary experience (strangely enough though, you do get used to even that after a while…).

We eventually reached our hotel, and checked in. The hotel had 2 stars – obviously the Egyptian stars have a somewhat different meaning to Europe (I would expect a reliable hot water supply and a decent shower to be requirements to get 2 stars, at least ;-). But we didn’t complain, the place was clean enough, had its own charm, and was very central.



In the evening we had a walk downtown. Quite fascinating, the city actually seems to come alive in the late evening (more alive – I don’t think Cairo could be considered quiet any time of the day!). We strolled around the street sellers, had a very so-and-so dinner, and of course tried the local beer (called Stella, funnily enough – without the Artois) at the very cosy Windsor hotel bar (Michael Palin, who staid here in 1991 whilst filming “Around the world in 80 days”, apparently said that the place enjoyed an “almost unreal individuality”).