Cairo Diary

[This is actually an old post written during my Cairo visit in February as a note on fb, I did not have this blog then. Just thought it would be a good idea to have all the travel notes on the blog.]

28th February,2009

I thought I would write down a diary on my Cairo visit since I had nothing better to do sitting in my hotel room on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The Cairo trip was on the cards since December ever since our client in Cairo wanted us to come down on a project but kept postponing till February end when he finally told me “we are ready for you now”(err???) . So I got my visa and tickets done and flew down to Cairo (the only sad part -I miss my flatmate’s most awaited big fat wedding in Delhi which is today).

My initial itinerary was to cover the pyramids and as much as I could of Cairo on the weekend since I was flying to Dubai the week after. But I would now probably be in Cairo longer , which means I can even hopefully try and plug in Alexandria/Luxor as well.For the trip to the pyramids I decided to use the hotel concierge services, something I normally do not do when I am traveling since I prefer working out the logistics myself using the public transportation system as it lends a lot of flexibility and I normally avoid guides. But a language barrier (now I regret not being more diligent about learning Arabic as a kid) and the fact that the pyramids were away from the city made it a good idea to use the hotel services for transportation.

My first halt was at Saqqara, the site for Egypt’s oldest pyramids, which lies south of Cairo. The most famous feature here is the Step pyramid for King Djoser which was overseen by his architect Imhotep. A lot of the site is still under excavation. Although Egyptians are, genuinely very friendly and hospitable people, it helps to be a be a tad careful of the friendly smiles in these tourist spots which may be mostly motivated by prospects of money (almost in the same way that foreign tourists are fleeced in India). Near Saqqara,, there are also a lot of carpet weaving schools which teach the children staying in the villages to weave Egyptian wool and silk carpets. It makes for an interesting visit and the carpets woven are truly beautiful although very very expensive. The proprietor tried hard to convince me to buy one (with a 30% discount especially for special Indian “friends”) , unfortunately without any success.After the carpet weaving school , I noticed my guide would non chalantly drop every now and then into a series of shops selling papyrus paintings , Egyptian essences , Egyptian cotton on the way. Sadly for him, I was an Indian , and no amount of convincing would help (although I did buy a papyrus painting for my parents, one of the few things which I thought was worth a purchase:)).

My guide and I also had several intellectually stimulating conversations on the way to Giza:
Conversation Sample 1 (note high level of deductive reasoning):
Guide:” You know why India and Egypt are friends…you know?”
Me: “ Umm..no well.. why?”
Guide: “Because Egypt has camels and India has elephants. Camel and elephant – friends ,so Egypt and India – friends”
Me: “I see “

Conversation Sample 2 (note high level of cultural awareness and guide’s never ending curiosity for elephants):
Guide: "Are elephants expensive in India?"
Me: "Not sure, I have never bought one."
Guide: "But will they be more expensive than camels?"
Me: "Yea, maybe"
Guide: "So elephants are roaming around on the roads?"
Me: "Yea , part of the traffic problem is because of them."

Giza is magnificent , especially when you are driving down the roads with the pyramids on the sides. I was not awed in the same way as I remember when I had first seen the Taj , but there is something about the fact of so much history being buried all around in the sands that makes it very thrilling. I would love to go to Giza after sundown, maybe I will catch the light and sound show if I am here longer. The sphinx on the other hand is disappointing , much less magnificent than what I imagined.

Today I decided to see old Cairo. Cairo is a chaotic city , especially the traffic. There are also areas of downtown Cairo which reminded me of North Calcutta:). Old Cairo is well…very very old! It has some of the oldest mosques, churches and also a very old Jewish synagogue. If you want to see old Cairo, take along someone who knows about the history of the area. I managed to get a very interesting guide , a bright, young lady named Maie , who is an Egyptologist currently doing her Phd at the Cairo university. Thanks to Maie, I would rate my Old Cairo visit one of my most interesting tours.

If you are interested in history/architecture/religion/symobology, do make a trip to this area. The hitch here is you cannot shoot much since photography is not allowed inside most of the oldest buildings in the interest of preservation. The area is a hotpot of culture and religion - Ottoman mosques built around 1400 A.D, Coptic Churches , ruins of Roman fortifications and one of the oldest synagogues. Coptic Cairo was the stronghold of Christianity in Egypt till the Islamic era. A must visit here is Abu Serga – the church built on the spot where Mary and Jesus were hiding from the Romans, the hanging Church and the Coptic museum – relatively lesser known compared to the more famous Egyptian museum but worth a visit. You can also stop by for breakfast at one of the street shops selling falafel:).
My trip to old Cairo in the morning made me realize I need a refresher in Egyptian history. So I ditched my intial plans of going to the Egyptian museum to see King Tut’s antiquities and got down to read up on Egyptian history instead. So my rest of the day will be spent reading Egyptian history (any references on the net would be very helpful:)) , and a walk down the Nile in front of the hotel around sunset. Maybe I will get some good shots unless it stays as cloudy!