An Egyptian Wrap-up, Minus the Embalming of Course

We've finished up our travels in Egypt, so before we get too far removed I wanted to relay some of our favorite observations of Egyptian idiosyncrasies.

Enjoying dinner with a new friend

There are metal detectors everywhere, hotels, tourist attractions, malls, etc. But the interesting thing is that you routinely walk through them, set them off, and keep on going. The "guards" are busy talking and not paying attention. They are obviously just for show, some pathetic attempt to make tourists feel safe in the wake of the bombings of the 1990's.

A church in Cairo's small Christian area

Everyone smokes, everywhere. About 80% of our taxi drivers smoked at least one cigarette while we were driving.

A busy touristy market street

Gas is very cheap, much cheaper than southern and eastern Afrıca. In Uganda and Kenya gas was about 6-7 dollars per gallon--closer to 1.50 in Egypt. As a result, there are many more people driving their own cars around the city and far fewer minibuses. The taxis in Africa (since I've stopped thinking of Egypt as Africa) never drive around without passengers and almost never have more and two liters of fuel. But here, they drive around all day with empty seats and full tanks. So for the first time in our trip taxis became our primary means of transportation.


Many of the men here have large callouses on their foreheads. I'm sure you can guess why. We both thought of it as a well-earned outward show of piety!

Cairo, and Egypt in general, is very safe. We got lost one night in Cairo for about 45 minutes, never felt scared--quite a contrast to Nairobi where we couldn't walk half a mile after dark!

Reading about İstanbul in a Cairo park

Many people leave Egypt feeling like their trip was ruined by all the hassling tourists get. It's a little overwhelming. Everywhere you go along the main tourist streets men (and sometimes women) give you the same old lines, "Come see my shop, very cheap, looking is free." "You want a carriage ride? You know how much?" "You from Australia? G'day mate! No? England? Germany? China?" "You want boat ride? One hour 15 pounds. Why no?" "Maybe I give you some information for trip to Abu Simbel?" "Lucky man." "Where you from? Which state? Oh! I have a brother in faketown, made-up state. Maybe you come see my shop?" It gets old, so old in fact there are some stores whose signboards read "NO HASSLE SHOP. FIXED PRICES."

A final Egyptian sunset

Every price of every item is negotiable. You can buy a can of Sprite for 15 pounds or 2, depending on your patience.

It was also clear that after six months on the road Kim and I were starting to miss some of the comforts of the western world. We may not like to admit it, but while in Egypt we:

-Ate McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC, Chili's, Hardee's, TGIFriday's, and Cinnabon.
-Drank Starbucks coffee.
-Went to 4 American movies, including one in a VIP theater with leather reclining Lay-Z boys for seats.
-Used the internet almost every day--I'm caught up on The Daily Show, and I have Facebook now.
-Spent the better part of three days in Cairo at a fancy western-style shopping mall--shopping. eating, and watching movies.

We have arrived safely in İstanbul, and typing this entry on a Turkish keyboard has been challenging to say the least. All these ıIİşöçğü keys keep getting in the way and I have to type shift-2 to make an apostrophe, CTRL-ALT-Q to make @, and some other interesting combinations that have spawned some interesting language! İt also meanş that İ,m goıng to be lookıng for an ınternet çafe wıth an Enğlısh keyboard next tıme!

ps...Let the cheesy jokes offcially begin. We will be in Turkey for Thanksgiving!