Day 2: Almost got terminated...

  Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
Sunday, April 15, 2007

Chapter 11: Room Service Breakfast!

Woke up at 8 am. Since it said on the package "breakfast is included.." so naturally I waited for breakfast... but everyone was sleeping, including a young guy at the reception. (I presumed he was the porter on duty) So I woke him up and asked for breakfast. Then I went back and waited in the room for a little while and finally I couldn't wait any longer and got out to look for why. He couldn't understand what I wanted! He woke another guy up (who understood English) and 2 minutes later, a room service style breakfast was served. (You could guess the simplicity of the contents from the time of preparation!) I didn't expect anything grand but this was still too simple: 2 rolls, jam, butter and tea on a cheap metal tray! The reason I got it served as a room service was only because there was no dining room outside! But for HK$ 125 a night for an en suite single room with a room service breakfast, what more do you want?



Left: This is Midan Talaat Harb. i.e. a very busy junction where 6 roads intersected. Like all old cities, Cairo had a lot of these Midan and this made it very difficult to rely on the compass to locate the directions,.. especially when the street signs were nearly non-existant.
Right: The other side of the Midan. If you stood still for 5 minutes waiting to cross the road, some "good Samaritans" would bound to show up to "help" you.


Chapter 12: Sealing the Deal... "Big" Deal?!

My first destination was back to Desert Safary Hostel (the one I was supposed to stay yesterday) to close the deal for the Black & White desert trip. The fat guy Ahmed (who always said "Do not worry, my friend") was not there and instead the owner of the two hostels was. He was a tall guy with a moustache and he wore a suit that made him look like a businessman than a receptionist. So I told him that the old porter in Vienna offered me US$ 70 for the trip while Ahmed charged me US$ 80. The owner (forgot his name) was shocked and said US$ 80 was the best deal. Then he went on saying how much better his tour would be comparing with Vienna's and so on, blah, blah, blah. (Obviously the old porter (his real uncle!) was sub-contracting me to a different tour and got to keep the profit in his own pockets.) Finally the moustache owner decided to give me a "SPECIAL" deal of US$ 70 and told me that I shouldn't tell anyone for this was a "SPECIAL" price and was just for me only!!! (The fact was, if I could get a group of 4 people, I could easily get the tour for US$ 25 each at the oasis; but if I failed to find any buddies by the time I got to the oasis, then I would need to pay for the whole jeep which could be US$ 100 or more!)



Left: My "room service breakfast"! The bread was good, the tea was good, the fig jam was good too.... not sure about the silvery triangular stuff though...
Right: Under the "VERY SPECIAL DEAL", this was the place where I would end up tomorrow! Come as a guest, leave as a friend? or fiend? We would see...


Chapter 13: Arabic numerals?!

So finally have time for some real action of the day! The first stop was Citadel in Islamic Cairo area. Getting there was a piece of cake - TAXI! So for the first time in this country I flagged a taxi (there were just so many on the streets!) and carefully "negotiated" the fare before boarding. The driver, who couldn't speak English scribbled a 1 on his hand.
'Ah 10LE!', I sort of recalled it from my guide book and got in.
At the end It turned out it was 20 LE (no he didn't cheat me, I think) - I realized the Arabic number for 1 and 2 both looked very similar except the "slash" at the top. (actually 2 and 3 looked even more similar!) So from then on, I thought I really had to learn well the true Arabic numbering system. Who told me for all these years we have been using Arabic numerals? Let's for once learn some authentic Arabic numerals!



Left: A Peugot 206 was already a rare scene on the streets of Cairo! A moving Peugot with a folded-up wing mirror was even rarer!
Right: This score card should help me next time. Notice the 2,3 and 6 are all very similar! Just remember to learn some authentic Arabic numerals!


Chapter 14: The Citadel

The citadel had a remarkable outline when viewed from afar. The silver domes and minarets of the mosque of Mohammed-Ali situated on the summit of the citadel completely dominated the skyline of Islamic Cairo. Home to Egypt's rulers for almost 700 years, the citadel was built by the ruler Salah al-Din (Saladin) between 1176 and 1183 AD, to protect it from the Crusaders. Today it was one of the most popular tourist sites in Cairo though Hong Kong tours would seldom come because their itineraries were too packed with other stuff! (Shame!) This place contained various mosques, museums and battlements that reflected a diverse heritage.




Top Left: The map of the citadel. You can all see the area coverage is huge... let's see how we could break into the stronghold... Alpha and Bravo team would enter from the north, we Charlie would disguise as visitors and enter from the front gate...over!
Top Right: This is the front entrance (Bab al-Gebel), I'd wish I could get inside the huge tower!
Bottom Left: Landmark of the citadel - The Mosque of Mohammed-Ali. The silverish domes sparkled under the bright sunlight.
Bottom Right: These Statues of Lions were found everywhere around.


My first stop was the gem of the whole citadel - the Mosque of Mohammed-Ali, also known as the Alabaster mosque because the lower storey and the forecourt were tiled with alabaster for up to 11.3 metres. It was built by Mohammed Ali who was regarded as the founder of Modern Egypt between 1830-1848. The style was in an Ottoman style (only in Egypt did I realize there were so many different styles of mosques.. and usually the minarets gave them away), and it was this Ottoman style with the many domes that looked by far the grandest if you ask me.

Another feature about the mosque was the ornate clock in the courtyard. It was a gift given by King Louis-Philippe of France in exchange for the obelisk given by Egypt. (That 23m obelisk is now standing in Place de la Concorde in Paris) In fact, it seems that the Egyptian government really liked to give away obelisks as a way of diplomacy, just like the Chinese have their pandas...

The interior of the mosque was similar to what I have seen in Istanbul. Groups of tourists sat down and listened to the guide for stories of the past. Some people were praying. I was taking photos of the marvelous Islamic paintings of the interior of the dome. I didn't have a tripod so I placed the camera on the carpeted floor... and the carpets were quite dusty! @_@




Top Left: The outer cloister of the mosque! This looks European so far...
Top Right: Inner courtyard of the mosque. In the middle was the French ornate clock, so now all the pilgrims could look up to see how long they would have to "go on" until their praying finished.
Bottom Left: The inside of the mosque. There were more visitors than Muslims. Most people just sat there and listened to their tour guides.
Bottom Right: Like most Ottoman-style mosques, their ceilings were very beautifully decorated.


After the mosque, I went to check out other parts of citadel including the very primitive prison museum and also the not-so-interesting police museum. (especially if you couldn't understand a thing on what's written there... obviously it wasn't intended for foreigners) Finally it was the military museum that caught my interest. The first thing that caught my eyes was the statue of Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mohammed Ali. Once a mighty military general, now he was just a bronze statue standing in the middle of the square. I am not sure how impressive he was at the battles in his days but the posture now as a statue surely was quite impressive!



From left to right:
Bab al-Qullah, the gate that took you into the military museum.
This place, just outside the square of where the mosque was, offered a superb view of the Cairo's streets, minarets and domes.
Beware! The security guard is watching you!... Or is he just slacking off?
One of the cells inside the prison museum. Enjoy your stay, mate!


The military museum used to be the Harem Palace of Mohammed-Ali. It now housed the weapons, uniforms and decorations of the Egyptian arm forces. It also had models of scenes of the Arab-Israeli wars. For the firearms on display, the most impressive inside the museum were the ancient artillery guns (aka cannons). But the most interesting things were outside the museum: In the courtyard was a display of real, Egyptian tanks and jets (mostly Russian) used in the Arab-Israeli wars. You got to see an arsenal of various Egyptian tanks used in the previous wars. Something interesting caught my eye: In the line of tanks displayed, all the tank guns were pointing up except the last two at the far end. Why? The answer was written on the name plaque below - they were captured Israel tanks! These two were painted in green and their tank guns were put down, a bit humiliating if you ask me. As I have studied the Arab-Israel wars before in the history class, it was now quite astonishing to re-read the history from an Arabic country's perspective. (Who was right and who was wrong in those Middle East conflicts? Who knows?!)



1st row: Entrance of the Military Museum, outside it was a statue of Ibrahim Pasha
2nd row: The Egyptian (Russian) tanks in display. All of them had the turrets pointing up except the green ones at the end - which were the Israeli tanks captured from the wars. Quite humiliating if you ask me.
3rd row: The most advanced jets in display. Sadly speaking they were the old Russian models (MIGs) of the 50's and 60's.
4th row: Exhibits displayed inside the museum. An Arab catapult (left) and a scene of the Arabic Israeli war (right)


Perhaps I played around too much with these jets and tanks that I didn't have my lunch until very late in the afternoon. So I satisfied my hunger in a cafeteria just outside the courtyard of the Military Museum and I was the only customer there! In fact besides the lady standing near the ice-cream stall there were no other human beings in sight; including the waitress, the cook nor anyone! Once I sat down, people began to appear from nowhere and started serving me. I had a chicken kofta (I must say the looks were not too appealing) and coke, and the chips and buns came as an extra (not to mention about the "specifically-for-me" flies hovering around the food)

After lunch it was already 4 o'clock so I quickly popped in to see the Carriage Museum, which Lonely Planet (LP) said I would be out by 5 minutes! (Wrong! I was out within 2!) and I went to an old non-functioning Mosque of Suleiman Pasha, an old but beautiful Ottoman Mosque built in 1528. On my way back I passed by the Garden Museum (calling it a garden was already pushing it... museum? Please!) and the Mosque of an-Nasr Mohammed. (Nothing interesting except of the Persian-style minaret. It looked like a pepper pot.)



Top Left: The garden museum... The name speaks of itself... what garden?
Top Right: The carriage museum... Don't let the horse heads fool you... even the most horse loving gamblers would find it boring inside!
Bottom Left: The Persian-style Mosque of an-Nasr Mohammed, with the pepper pot minaret!
Bottom Right: The Ottoman-style Mosque of Suleiman Pasha, as recognized by the dome and the rocket-like minaret!


Near the entrance outside the office where the tourist police dossed off (aka police station) was a place where you could hire some "local" costumes for photography. These include dresses for Cleopatra, belly dancer, Roman generals, sultans, etc... looked kind of fun but it really wasn't time for any role-play as it was already late afternoon and I had only visited one place for the day! (Besides, why did all the male costumes need to show off the belly muscles... err I mean fat actually?!)



Left: The police station at the Citadel... if you want to find the police to help you, don't bother!
Right: My lunch. I was the only guest in the whole restaurant(?) Lamb kofta (yes those brown things), coke, bread, fries and flies(!) (37 LE)


Chapter 15: It's only the 2nd day and I nearly got terminated

The next stop was.. Ibn Tulun. So I went back out to the main road where I came from and tried to flag a taxi. Ok I got the first one's attention.

Me: 'Ibn Tulun?'

Driver: 'Yes!'

Having learnt the lesson just now, I asked for the price.

Driver: '30 LE' - Wow, even more expensive than when I came. Goodbye mate.

2nd One: '20 LE!' - Bye Bye Darling...

3rd One: The taxi stopped by the side of the road, Egypt's traffic was left-hand drive and I was on the right side of the road. I leaned forward and talked to the driver inside.

Me: '10 LE!'

Driver: 'OK'

As I was so excited (and tired) and was about to pull open the door, suddenly I heard a loud noise from behind and before I realized what had happened, in front of me was no longer the front door but the rear door of the cab! A motorcycle from behind couldn't brake and slammed right into the boot of the cab! Luckily I was not leaning on the car otherwise I would have been thrown away from the impact.

So the driver got out of the car and started arguing with the bike driver. I quickly (and subtly) took a picture and decided to get off the scene (yeah I wasn't too helpful, but after all, both drivers looked like they were in a better shape than I were (they were arguing fiercely) so I quickly concluded that help on them wasn't necessary.)

To my surprise, after just a few steps the taxi driver yelled at me. I turned back and saw the bike driver drove away and the taxi driver just wanted to finish off the deal with me! What? His boot was half-dented and he left the guy off just for my 10 LE? Anyway it was immoral to refuse him so I took his cab to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun.

The mosque of Ibn Tulun was only 5 minutes drive away (both the citadel and this mosque was in the Islamic Cairo area), no wonder why he was so keen to get my 10 LE. When I got off, he told me if he wanted me to wait here to take me to another mosque. As I didn't know how long I would spend inside I politely refused him. Just before he drove off, he "kindly" reminded me this part was the old Islamic Cairo and no taxi would go through. So I thanked him for his "reminder" (which unfortunately turned out to be true) and headed towards the mosque.



Left: People were "negotiating" after the crash. The bike was behind the cab.
Right: The tower of Ibn Tulun. It is characterised by its symbolic Iraqi-style minaret.


Chapter 16: Mosque of Ibn Tulun

Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun, is arguably the oldest mosque in the city surviving in its original form, and is the largest mosque in Cairo in terms of land area. Unlike the other mosques in Cairo that were constructed in the Ottoman or the Persian style, this one was constructed in the Iraqi style, and was characterized by the minaret with the outer staircase similar to that of the famous minaret in Samarra. Legend has it that Ibn Tulun himself was accidentally responsible for the design of the structure: While sitting with his officials, he absent-mindedly wound a piece of parchment around his finger. When asked what he was doing, he responded, embarrassed, that he was designing his minaret.

The moment I got in, the distinctive silhouette of the minaret and the sense of space of the courtyard got hold of me. The minaret was situated at the back outside the courtyard. One of the "staff" there took out the keys and offered me access to the minaret for 20 LE (he would open up the doors leading to the minaret). Somehow my instinct told me to turn him down so I only visited the courtyard and the fountain. The fountain was sheltered inside a high domed roof at the centre of the courtyard and there was already a girl student sitting there alone, sketching the minaret. (Actually I always bumped into students doing sketches of mosques during my journey to the mosques in Egypt but how come I never saw any students doing sketches outside the classroom in Hong Kong?)



Left: The centre courtyard of the mosque. You can see the sheer size of the mosque judging by the size of the courtyard.
Right: Inside the fountain. A girl was doing painting of the minaret.


With nothing else to see inside and around the courtyard I decided to leave. Again the "staff" asked me to "contribute involuntary" for the upkeep of the mosque and so I paid 10 LE as I thought it was still a mosque with style after all. When I got back my shoes (not sure if I would get them back if I didn't "voluntarily contribute") the staff kindly told me that I could get to the minaret from around the courtyard outside! Free of Charge! So the previous 20 LE was really a "service fee" for opening a shortcut?... @_@

Once outside, I walked around the wall of the courtyard and quickly arrived at the other side of the courtyard where the minaret stood standing. Wow, no gates, no fences and no security guards so anyone could climb the stairs to the top, free of charge!

In fact another thing famous about this mosque is really because it has only one minaret and it is climbable. The stairs are built on the outside and spiral up to the top. You could enjoy the city view while climbing...

So I started to climb up the stairs towards the top... the stairs were well-built and not too steep, the climb was easy but if you looked out or looked back it could be quite scary as the stairs were not fully enclosed. (i.e. you could easily lean over to do what you want) If you had a death wish it couldn't be easier. Once at the top you could get a magnificent view of the old Islamic Cairo, with dozens of mosques in the surrounding area. Only when you were high up above could you really appreciate the different shapes and styles of different mosques that dominated the skyline of Islamic Cairo.



Left: After climbing for a while This was the view of Cairo at the top of the minaret.
Right: Another view of the old city, notice how many satelite dishes there are at the roofs of the houses!


After finished playing around in Ibn Tulun it was nearly 5 pm. As I was in a hurry to see more mosques, I missed Gayer Anderson Museum which was just around the corner. (Anyway it turned out that the closing time was also 5 pm) There were supposed to be many antiques and collections inside, but to me the only interesting thing was the association of "The Spy who loved me (James Bond film)" that was shot inside.

Chapter 17: Streets of Old Cairo

As my taxi driver had previously "predicted", you would never get a taxi here... and he was right! There were not a single taxi on the old streets of Islamic Cairo... So I had to walk back out alive. Because of this, I could actually enjoy the scenes of old Cairo. The shops and the houses were so old that you felt you were flashed back to the 60's. I saw a scene of a donkey eating hay having pulled the cart for a hard, long day; and another of a boy lowering a roped bucket from the 3rd floor trying to buy something. The merchant took the money and put the goods inside the bucket, and the boy just pulled the rope back up. All these scenes were further enhanced by the continuous chanting of Islamic prayers from the mosques... This was just the side of Egypt that was not easily seen or felt in the main tourist areas.

So after walking for about 10 minutes, and with the help of my treasure map and LP (lonely planet), I came back out to a giant roundabout called Midan Salah ad-din (used to be the Hippodrome). Next to the roundabout were two gigantic mosques of Sultan Hassan and Ar-Rifai. Besides the grand architecture, it was the dark history of the mosque that interested me (...funded by money from the black death, one of the minarets fell down and the owner was murdered before its completion, etc...) Gosh, doesn't it sound excited? However, my enthusiasm quickly came to an end with a single statement of "Sorry we are closed, Come back tomorrow!"... like a prisoner behind bars, I could only hold the bars and admired the grand outlook from outside the gate.




Top Left: The streets of old Cairo. Look at the stores on the left. Yes most of them were as classic as those. I like the feel!
Top Right: James Bond Movie: "The spy who loved me" was shot in Gayer Anderson museum. However the only part I remembered about that film was the white Lotus submariner... and of course the bond girl!
Bottom Left: A boy was making purchase with his hanging basket.
Bottom Right: A donkey was happily having its meal.


Chapter 18: Who was the Good Samaritan?!

I retreated back to the centre of the roundabout to formulate on what to do next. The centre of this roundabout was actually a small park with some benches for visitors to sit on. Not long after I sat there a guy approached me.

His English was good, he looked and sounded really different from those local conning merchants so we chatted for a while. Thinking that he was a good Samaritan, I told him that I tried to get to the mosques but they were closed for visitors after 17:00. He told me that he knew one local and beautiful mosque where it would open and he could take make inside. He told me he was an English teacher and he had just finished his school. So I accepted his offer and then started to follow him. At first he took me along the big streets, then we turned into small alleys and now the sun started to set and the streets became darker and quieter as we walked along. Then he told me that I should put the donation money into the box and not to give to those people at the entrance, and I should donate 25 LE to the mosque and 25 LE to the minaret.

Wait a minute! Why was he setting me prices for me on donation? Suddenly I felt uncomfortable by the location and his suggestion. The risk was a bit too high for the curiosity. So I stopped in middle of the street and told him I would not go. He was surprised and asked me why. Seeing that I was determined to leave, he had to go to the main point: He said his wife was very sick in the hospital and he now needed money to buy blood. (That's an original story!) and asked me if I could help.

So seeing his true intention finally, I decided to leave. But then if there is a 0.001% truth in it, should I not help him? So I took out 5 LE but he said it was nothing. So I finally gave him 20 LE and I looked determined that this was what he could get. So he thanked me with an embrace and a peck on the cheek! What a "warm" greeting! (Well, even if it was a 99.999% lie, all I lost was just HK$ 30 to buy the 0.001% hope that he was not lying... anyway it turned out that at the end he "saved" my life, well sort of)

So after saying good-bye I decided to head towards Khan el-Khalili (the bazaar) on foot. But as soon as I started walking, he told me I should not go this way as it would lead to Necropolis (The City of the Dead) where the cemeteries, the poor and the homeless now lived. He said Necropolis after dark should not be visited as you would never know what those people would do to visitors. (Actually I have heard about bad things about Necropolis before but I just didn't aware that I was walking on that path!) See, on a roundabout even the compass could not give a definite reading... and not to mention the clueless treasure map I had. So the moral of the story? Help others and they would help you back!



Left: The gigantic mosques of Sultan Hassan and Ar-Rifai.
Right: Midan Salah ad-din - in the centre of this roundabout was a park where I got picked up by the "Good Samaritan"


Chapter 19: The real heroes!

I took the other exit from the roundabout and started to head north towards Khan el-Khalili. On the way I passed through a small market, where they sold lots of food, meat and vegetables, cooked and raw. It was interesting to see how the local wet market was like - except that I probably had to stay away from those chickens, since Egypt was quite "hot" in the outbreak of the bird flu.

After 10 minutes of walking I still couldn't see any signs of Khan el-Khalili and I started to lose faith in the map. Then I saw two white guys coming from the opposite side. As they were the first tourists I saw in this street I immediately tried to get some directions from them (or at least a better map!) Luckily they just came from Khan el-Khalili and were heading to Citadel. So we exchanged information (I told them the citadel was closed anyway) and we parted for on our own journeys.

Finally I reached Khan el-Khalili. It was already dark and I was hungry. So I tried to find the famous El-fishwal tea house to have a cup of the famous tea before heading back to Talaat Harb for dinner. However, I forgot one thing: if my map could not lead me to Khan el-Khalili from the main roads, how could it possibly lead me to a tiny shop amongst the maze of Khan el-Khalili?

I wandered around and around and soon I was lost. Now even getting out of the maze to get a taxi was not easy. Luckily the two white guys I met earlier just turned up! (They were Swiss, btw.) They decided to head back because everything around the citadel was closed. More surprisingly, they came from the nearest metro station and so knew the way back to the metro station, and what's more, now they were heading back there and could take me along too! (Wow! My heroes! Just what I needed! )

So the three of us left the maze and went towards the nearest metro station. On the way we had to cross a huge road where there was a fence in the middle separating the opposite traffic. The road had many lanes on both sides and the traffic was fast. (It was even faster than what I saw yesterday in front of the Egyptian Museum, and now I had to add the time needed of climbing the fence in the middle too!) I hesitated for a moment, but seeing the two had already went and climbed over (true rebels!); I bit my lips and decided that backing out was no longer an option! So in just 2 days I had already broken the jaywalking law (if any in Egypt) so many times that I couldn't remember... and after this experience, crossing the roads in Cairo was no longer any challenge!

Having said good-bye to my heroes I descended into the metro station of Attaba and 10 minutes later I surfaced on the familiar street of Talaat Harb. As I was walking a guy approached me again and this time offered to lead me to his perfume shop. After been through all these I decided that "blending in with the locals" was impossible in the streets of Cairo - So I firmly said no and left him. (Besides, why on earth would he think a guy would be interested in buying perfume?!)

Dinner was at the famous Felfela restaurant's takeaway shop. The grilled chicken sandwich and the eggplant were really good! Yummy and Cheap!



Left: Khan el-Khalili at night time. Lots of hustles and bustles. Right now I had to fix my stomach first... I'll be back!
Right: My takeaway dinner included a grilled chicken sandwich and an eggplant with naan(?), greasy, yummy and cheap! (6.25 LE)