I haven’t really written anything since I’ve arrived in Egypt. Usually when I arrive in a new place it takes a while to adjust to things. That adjustment period can be as short as an hour or as long as a few days. Egypt has taken a lot longer than normal.
While it is ostensibly an Arab country like Gulf countries where I’ve spent the last month, it feels like a totally different culture. For starters, there is no oil money in Egypt. This alone makes it a much poorer country than the small states of the Gulf. Second, there are no guest workers. One could confuse most of the many of the Gulf nations as being ruled by Indian Rajahs if they didn’t know any better, but Egypt is full of just Egyptians.
The first thing most visitors to Cairo will describe to you is the traffic. I’ve seen crazy traffic before, but Cairo might be the worst. The difference between Cairo and someplace like Saigon is that everyone in Cairo drives a car, not a motorbike. This makes things exceptionally crowded. Also, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of parking rules. I’ve not only seen a lot of double parking, but triple and quadruple parking as well. Anywhere there is not a car is a potential parking spot.
The cars here are much older than I’ve seen anywhere else. The average taxi seems to be a Fiat made in the 1970’s and the taxi meter are all non-functioning and about 40-50 years old.
Since I arrived, I’ve been to the Egyptian Museum, the Cairo Citadel and Mohammed Ali Mosque (not the boxer), and the pyramids. I’ll probably be writing more on the pyramids later on, but what I saw at the Egyptian Museum is pretty indicative what I’ve seen all over Cairo.
The Egyptian Museum is both the best and worst museum I’ve been to on my trip. It is the best in terms of the items and artifacts on display. This is the permanent home of the King Tut exhibit, and has every manner of item you’d expect for a museum on Egypt. However, it sort of seems like a warehouse. The building is falling apart and doesn’t seem to have been painted or repaired in decades. The display of items is poorly done and there doesn’t appear to be any money reinvested back into the museum. You can’t help but wonder where it all goes.
There are police everywhere. Everyone seems to smoke. I haven’t seen a building in Cairo built within the last 30 years.
It is a very different place from what I’ve experience so far on my trip. Very different.
I don’t forsee uploading photos soon. The bandwidth where I’m staying is pretty poor. My current plan is to leave Cairo tomorrow for Alexandria, and I’ll see how things go there.