The Nile is the Longest River in Africa

Trip Start May 07, 2005

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Trip End Ongoing

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Flag of Egypt Cairo, Egypt
Friday, November 4, 2005

Cairo
(Dave)

Egypt is a difficult place to get to. A popular FAQ is "how do I get to Egypt by boat from Europe?" The answer is you don't. I'm not sure why but there are no ferries. Even by land is difficult. The adjacent African countries are hard to get to themselves so Isreal is the only other option. We plan to make that trip later but the Egyptians and the Isrealis don't care for each other very much so I have some concerns. There is also a ferry from Jordan.

Even the flights to Egypt are inconvenient. Rome seems so close but there are no direct flights -- you have to connect in Athens. Apparently a lot of Greeks visit Egypt and we would see a menu in Greek from time to time. To make matters worse our flight arrived at 4am.

Security was very light, at least for Westerners. It was the easiest airport customs that I have been through. But once you get out the hassles begin.

Actually the hassles begin before you get luggage. Right after passport control a man with a badge asked if we had anything to declare. We told him no and he explained where the tourist information office was and to come to him with any questions. How nice! An official meets you to make you feel welcome. On second look the tourist office was closed and he knew it. I am not convinced that it was just a ploy to gain our confidence so he could recommend a hotel or taxi and get his cut. In exchange for following certain rules (telling us about the tourist office and not pestering us much) he gets to wear a badge and stand inside the luggage area.

But once outside the luggage area you become property of the taxi drivers.

Blocks

It's like they line up to wait their turn to be told "no". And you have to tell them "no" hundreds of times. With the tourist police around (yes, they are actually called the tourist police and their job is to protect tourists from agressive taxi drivers) they give up after a while but when the police aren't watching they are extremely annoying.

There seem to be four types of hassles: The best is moving taxi drivers (including caliches (horse drawn carriages), felucca (sailboat), and sometimes microbus). They usually just pull up beside you and go away when you say no, shake your head, or walk faster. Next best are shopkeepers and parked taxis. They pester you as long as you are near them but don't chase you very far. After that are the touts who try to get you to visit their "brother's" shop or hotel or travel agency. They will chase you for quite a way if the police aren't watching and your best bet with them is to ignore them. The worst are the "friends". After an opening line like "where are you from" they give you a story about how they want to practice their English or just got a visa to America and want information. They are nice and infteresting to talk to. Then they start askng for favors. Could you change money for them (banks don't take coins and a 2 Euro coin could feed 10 or more people fast food)? Could you help them buy alcohol (you can visit the duty free shope 48 hours after entering)? Would you like to visit their brother's shop or hotel or travel agency? Sadly the common wisdom is to just ignore anybody who asks "where are you from".

Bored Camel Police

It's a shame because most travellers are very friendly and don't want to be seens as rude or haughty and I'm sure it promotes some sterotype that Westerns are rude.

Our worst hassle was a "friend". I really enjoyed chatting with an Egyptian until he started the sales pitches. In the end he simply wouldn't leave us alone and we had to raise our voice (which is a very strong signal to them) to get him to leave while we tried to make a phone call. Afterward another Egyptian gave a brief apology for him. The apology was very well timed. We had not had many interactions with the common man and were starting to form some very negative opinions about all Egyptians but that simple apology for his country man reminded us that all countries have good people and bad people. Here the good people are mostly quiet and let you go about your business. The bad people come up to hassle you so that's all you see.

Our plan was to spend our first night in a nice hotel next to the airport. It was close enough to walk so we wouldn't have to deal with taxis or shoddy management at 5am in a third world country. Unfortuantely it wasn't so easy. It was close enough to walk but still a long way with backpacks (almost 2 miles) so we thought we would call to see if they had an airport shuttle. We got our first lesson that nothing in Egypt is easy. The phones required a phone card so we had to go back inside the airport. When we found the quick shop he explained the card had 15 pounds of credit but would cost us 18 pounds.

Dave Kissing Sphinx

I asked why it didn't cost 15 pounds. He smiled said, "just because it does." Bleh. Welcome to Egypt.

Finally we got the card and figured out how to use the phone but the microphone didn't work. I tried another phone but it was the wrong type of payphone. Two different payphone systems? Like I said, nothing in Egypt is easy. Finally I got a phone and was able to call the hotel which sent a shuttle so we finally were able to get away from the hordes of 5am taxi drivers, who by the way were eager and pushy to help us at every stage and were delighted at our every setback because it was an opportunity for them to help and therefore perhaps get our business.

The hotel was lovely but I don't remember it much. It had a small tray of cookies waiting for us in the room. We slept late. In the morning we got some cash and walked to the bus stop. A nice Jordanian who was learning English helped us find the bus and pay and such. I think we were very lucky that he was Jordanian and not an Egyptian who really wanted to take us to his "brother's" shop or hotel or travel agency.

We decided to go straight to the next hotel, a luxury hotel near the pyramids. We knew we had to switch to a different bus so we asked the driver to take us to the main bus station. I'm not sure there is a main bus station. He found out we were going to Giza so he stopped on the road told us to cross two busy streets and wait for bus 357. "Where do we wait? Where is the bus stop?" I asked. He indicated a spot where a small group was waiting.

Mosque

I later learned that there are no bus stops in Egypt. You just stand along the route and wave down the bus. If you congregate with other people the driver is more likely to stop.

So we waited and used this opportunity to learn Arabic numbers. Our Egypt book (by Lonely Planet -- a very good book but even the 2005 edition is out of date, especially with prices) had a translation for numbers so every bus that went by we practiced. By the time 357 showed up we basically knew all of the numbers.

I wasn't sure where to get off the bus (a common problem that we have had) but I was able to somewhat follow our route on our map which is quite surprising since there were few street signs and they were all in Arabic. Eventually the bus driver told us we were at our stop. Huh? How did he know where we wanted to go? It was the Giza bus and we were Westerners with backpacks so we obviously wanted to see the pyramids so that's where he stopped. I explained that we wanted the Meridian hotel. He tried to convince us to get out by eventually started driving again and took us right to the Meridian. I later learned that the Meridian isn't on the bus route.

The Meridian is a very nice hotel. Like most hotels it had a guardpost at the driveway and cement barricades. You have to go through a metal detector in the front door but if you are Western they wave you through. The room was nice but the best part was the pool. It had lounge chairs, grassy areas, bars, a juice bar and a wonderful view of the pyramids.

Pyramids at night

Kim took a brief nap staring at the pyramids while I had one of the best lemonades ever.

We decided to see the light show at the Sphinx. Like our book said, it was kinda cheesy but worth it just to see the pyramids lit up at night. The walk to the Sphinx was quite an adventure! At first we were solicited by taxi drivers who knew where we were going. Later we were on a road that taxis weren't allowed on and the solicitors were caliches. All along there were children and lots of pedestrians. All of the children would shout "Hallo" at us in strange robotic way like they didn't understand what the word meant and certainly didn't expect a response. Some would ask, "how are you?" in the same way. Every so often a tout would try to distract us. There were many helpful people who pointed the right way for us to go, which was nice but it made it harder for us to avoid the touts. All along the road were people, horses, carriages, donkeys, and camels. Yes camels. I had never seen a camel outside of a zoo so it was very strange to have them periodically brushing past me. They are very silly creatures. Finally we made it to the Sphinx. The show was a bit long but the weather was nice and we had chairs and we were still impressed with the pyramids. We learned a lot about Pharonic history. On the way back we tried to take a cab (for the first time). We had already gotten out of the throng at the show's exit so we flagged one down. I said we wanted to go to the Oberoi (one of the nicest hotels in town and where we planned to have dinner) and steeled myself for a haggle. The driver said, "no" and drove off. I was stunned. After turning down possibly a hundred offers over the previous 18 hours I was amazed. Later I learned that cab drivers often refuse if they aren't going the right way but how could he turn down a Western tourist asking to go to the nicest hotel in town? Now experts at navigating the back roads of Cairo we walked back.

At the Oberoi we needed reservations for the restaurant so we walked back to the hotel. We decided to get some falafel fast food. The cashier thought it very odd that we asked for a single serving of falafel (six patties) with no bread or anything. It cost 2 pounds (40 cents). While waiting the server suggested we might want to tip him. I told him (a bit cheekily) that the service was good and put 1 pound in the tip basket. We had to wait a long time for the falafel. I'm not sure if they were pulling some sort of "annoy the American" game but I moved from out of the way to in the way of all of the other customers who had an average wait of 13 seconds and next to the tip jar. He moved the tip basket behind the counter afraid that I might take my tip back but we quickly got our food. It was actually very good. We watched some movie on cable and went to bed after a long day.