From: Reid, Iain
Sent: 16-May-2001 10:45
To: Whatley, Marci; Bruff, David; Hamilton, Nicola; Javier, Carmela; Gustin, Denise; Dicklich, Diana; Bauer, Sabine; Kind, Marie-Ursula; Graham, Rebecca; Vatter, Andres; Stewart, Janet; Keith, Kirsten; Butler, Gina
Subject: Cairo Pictures

Importance: High

Hallo all!

Thanks to the wonders of the digital camera (and my own tendency to babble endlessly) I am now pleased to offer you a lengthy (and boring) recap of my short little trip to Cairo. Anyway, this is the Email that I wrote to my friends last night from home and I thought maybe some of you might want to see it as well. But please, spare yourself the pain and skip down to the pictures.

Ok? Are ya ready?

A Week in The Hague, A Day in Cairo

I am not sure this is an appropriate forum to disclose the details of my "Week in The Hague", suffice it to say that for at least a couple of nights it was pretty psychotic. However, that said I would now like to tell everyone about my little trip to Cairo (and for myself leave a permanent record of my trip, rather like a diary except that everyone else has to read it).

Iain's Observations On Cairo

It seems to me that if someone whom is not too keen on air travel is going to fly to Cairo then KLM is probably a pretty good way to go, or at least better than Egypt Air or some similar type airline. This is not to impugn the service and capabilities of Egypt Air, of course, but think about it... "EGYPT AIR FLIGHT 204 CRASHES EN ROUTE TO CAIRO" sounds a LOT more like a news headline than "KLM FLIGHT 553 CRASHES EN ROUTE TO CAIRO". Don't you think?

("You see? When we're alone we all think and do the same stupid crap. Kind of like that trick when your sock has a hole near the toe so you stretch the sock out a bit and tuck it underneath and grab it with your toes and then put your shoes on. Voila! A brand new sock!")

So anyway, I think it was rather nice to have a weekend split between "doing something" and "doing nothing". Since my flight didn't leave The Netherlands until 1930h on Saturday that left me Friday night AND almost the entire day next day to sit around watching Seinfeld and Simpsons, playing computer games, eating lasagne and Doritos. You know, all the important stuff.

And so, into the skies I went early Saturday evening. I took the time to read a little bit from my new travel guide to Cairo and didn't watch the in-flight movie (Ms Congeniality). I then had the turkey dinner (I wonder if I should have had the pasta?) and got some sleep before arriving in Cairo at one in the morning on Sunday.

Now let's face it. Any country that sells visas right before you step through passport control is clearly doing it for financial reasons as opposed to actual security ones. (For example: Turkey, except that as a Canadian I was exempt from that... But Americans not. Hmmmm.)

But it seems that Egypt has its own take on this particular concept. Instead of some government type facility vending these so call "visas" there was instead a large sign announcing that visitors were to purchase a visa from any of the banks before entering the country for 15 pounds. Behind this was a row of stalls run by various banks (Bank of Cairo, Bank of Egypt, Thomas Cook, etc.) each calling out to you and vying for your business. I eventually got my "visa" at Thomas Cook, which amounted to a couple of postage stamp looking things that you lick and glue into your passport yourself.

(By the way... It was Thomas Cook, the world's first tour operator travel agent, who used to organise the first mass tourist type trips to Cairo and the Pyramids way back in the 19th century.)

Weird system. And why have the visas announced on the sign as 15 pounds (British ones) instead of in Egyptian pounds? On top of which the dudes were telling everyone the price in American dollars anyway, but we'll get to that later. In a way I guess this visa thing was a bit of foreshadowing for my overall Egyptian experience.

But anyway. Off through passport control I went. The guard stamped the wrong entry date into my passport but didn't care too much. Immediately following that I was accosted by even more entrepreneurial types (this being before clearing customs I might add). One of them was extra persistent and stuck with me and directed me to the "Nothing to Declare" queue that I was already heading for anyway before he stepped in front of me. Actually, I shouldn't complain too much because he apparently had a deal going with one of the customs guards and I skipped to the head of the line and went through without anyone even looking at me.

Having already arranged a hotel for myself I soon found myself in a taxi headed south through the city of Cairo. One of the dominating features of the night skyline was the imposing Muhamed Ali Mosque, a gigantic mosque built in the 19th century and the Citadel, which is, well, exactly what it sounds like actually.

Cairo appeared to be a city of mosques. It seemed to me as though there were many many more of them than I had seen on visits to other Islamic areas of the world (Istanbul, for example). I suppose this is testament to the incredibly high population density of Cairo. Sixteen million people in such a small geographic are need places to worship, after all. Right?

Continuing through the city we finally crossed over the Nile river and into the city of Giza. Essentially the two cities are just one big city with Cairo on one side and Giza on the other, with no other apparent divisions (although, in fairness, the Nile river itself is obviously more than adequate to serve as a line of demarcation).

My hotel lay at the very outskirts of the city on the main road leading to the Pyramids (aptly named Pyramid Road). The Mena House Oberoi Hotel is built around a former palace that was built in the 1860s by Khedive Ismail (who was ruling Egypt at the time) to serve as a hunting lodge. In 1869 it was bought by an English couple and turned into a hotel but nowadays it is owned by the Egyptian government and rented to the Oberoi Hotel chain. As far as hotels go, if I may speak from somewhat limited experience, that this one was truly one of the best hotels in the world, if for no reason other than the fact that it is LITERALLY set at the foot of the great pyramids. The great pyramid of Cheops and behind it the pyramid of Chephren dominate the view from virtually everywhere on the hotel grounds. And walking out the front gates one must only make a right turn and walk about 10 metres before reaching the point where city becomes desert and the entrance to the pyramid site itself.

But, of course, I didn't see any of this when I first arrived. It was almost three in the morning by that point and the lights illuminating the pyramids had already been switched off, not to mention that there had been a sand storm that day and the air was hazy with sand dust. The concierge showed me to my room and pointed out the outlines of the pyramids in the darkness from my balcony but I couldn't make it out at all. The next morning I discovered that this was probably because the outline I was looking for simply wasn't big enough. I didn't expect them to be so close, I guess.

And so, with that, I climbed into bed and fell asleep.

I woke up sometime later as the sun was starting to rise and went out on the balcony to see what I could see but the dusty fog had worsened and I still couldn't make out the shape of the pyramids in the haze. Too bad, I would have liked to see the sun rise over the pyramids. Instead I went back to sleep.

Waking for good a few hours later I again rushed out onto my balcony to see if there was anything visible and finally there was. My first glimpse of the pyramids! I could see the shape of the great pyramid in the still dusty haze.

Yay! So off I went (Don't worry, I put pants on first... there's a pleasant mental image) downstairs and across the lush gardens of the hotel and onto the hot dusty streets of Giza to take a brief walk up the street and to get a better look. Satisfied for the moment I returned back to the hotel for a breakfast of fruit and eucalyptus juice before showering (another pleasant mental image) and getting ready to go for a REAL hike amongst the pyramids. I noticed in the bathroom, as I was shaving, that there was a can of insect killer spray in a nice wicker holder in the corner. This was a good idea, I guess, since I woke up with mosquito bites (I probably have malaria now... damm... too bad I didn't notice that there were mosquitoes the night before and use the spray).

Ok. Pulling on another pair of pants (yet another wonderful mental image), this time a nice cool white linen pair, I slung my bag over my shoulder and set off for a hike around the pyramids.

In Cairo it doesn't take long for the local entrepreneurs to lock onto a white tourist looking sort of person and try to convince them to part with a little bit of cash. Rather like hookers and drug pushers in Amsterdam (to use a local example) who are always constantly annoying me whenever I go there. "Come on Big Boy." They say, as though calling me "Big Boy" will make me interested in doing business with them. Yah, well I'm working on it. Ok?

But anyway, although the experience of persistent and annoying local "businessmen" is nothing unique to Cairo there was, however, some interesting aspects to it. Interesting to me, anyway.

Firstly was their ability to speak English. Although I would say that overall the level of ability in speaking English was not even remotely fluent it did seem that just about everyone I came into contact with could speak it fairly well. It's hard sometimes around Europe to find someone who speaks English as well as any of the Cairo locals did, even if they are in the tourist trade. Which brings me to the next thing...

Second, it seemed to me that the Egyptian peddlers had an advantage of sorts because they were able to genuinely communicate in English (as opposed to, say, in China where the pitch might consist simply of something like "You buy, I make you good price."). Since they were able to actually communicate in English(as opposed to just saying words) they were therefore able to engage you in conversation as a means to getting some money off you. Pretty smart.

"Hello. Where are you from?" was a typical opening. Which brings me to my next observation about these fellows.

Third was their ability to speak OTHER languages than English. Where am I from? The Netherlands? "Hoe gaat het?" they would say. "Alles goed?" I also heard similar type things in French and German as well. Now, I didn't exactly go into conversation with any of these people so I don't know how far their knowledge of Dutch (or French or German) went, but I was fairly impressed that they knew how to say anything. But maybe that's just me?

The last of the interesting things about these fellows was the standard tactic that they used when finally (and I mean FINALLY) giving up on you and moving on to annoy someone else. They would always say something like how maybe I would come back and do business with them later before telling me their name so I could ask for them. "Remember me, Abdul." They might say. Or "Remember Mustafa."

Now seriously... just how many camel driving dudes around the pyramids are likely to be named Abdul or Muhammed? I'm guessing a lot of them. Although one Abdul was very smart and distinguished himself as "Abdul and his camel Moses".

Something also occurred to me regarding these fellows and the flies that were around everywhere. It seemed to me that even the flies in Cairo were persistent. The flies I am used to in my life are an antsy bunch that buzz off at the slightest movement. Egyptian flies, on the other hand, stuck to me like glue and would only reluctantly fly off when I physically pried them off with my fingers. Maybe it's the heat? Perhaps it makes them unmotivated? And they didn't seem to interested in food either. They just seemed perfectly happy to sit around on your arm and stare into space. Kind of like they were just hanging out and being your friend. Hmmmmm. This, too, is perhaps rather like the Egyptian entrepreneurial types themselves. Persistent to the point of being annoying?

But anyway... moving right along... The Pyramids.

Well? What can one say about The Pyramids? I admit that it's difficult to properly bask in the cosmic spiritualistic splendour of The Pyramids when camel dudes named Abdul won't leave you alone but if you hike out into the desert a bit away from where most of the other tourists are then you can get away from them.

The Pyramids are, simply, awesome. I guess that's the best way to put it. But everyone knows that much so I will refrain from attempts to describe them and stick, instead, to what I do best. Inane and sarcastic observations.

Along side of the Great Pyramid of Cheops are some pits which were once used to hold the Pharaoh's boats (called Solar Barques). These boats may have been used to convey the body of the deceased Pharaoh from the Nile to its final resting place in the Pyramid. In 1954 they unearthed one of these boats and it is now housed in a nice little museum at the southern side of the Great Pyramid.

It is kind of interesting how they put these boats together. This boat in the museum has been reconstructed in the traditional way by stitching the beams together. No nails or anything like that, you know? If you look really closely you can see the ropes in the spots where the beams have come apart.

As I wandered around the desert for a long while it seemed like every time I turned a corner I was confronted with yet another one of those "wish you were here" postcard kinds of views. You know, like a perfect picture. And yet, you could STILL buy postcards with crappy pictures of the Pyramids on them. Those photographers must have gone out of their way to take such bad pictures, I think, because it seemed to me like you could point your camera blindly and still get a pretty good shot as a result. This is a picture from the The Pyramid of Mycerinus (and smallest of the three main Pyramids) showing the Pyramid of Chephren (my favourite) in the background. You can also see the ruins of one of the smaller "Queen's Pyramids", of which there are two pairs of three on the site. These are apparently where the wives of the respective Pharaohs were buried.

Here's another good little shot taken from the ruins of the Tomb of Kwenthawes. Cool statues huh? Too bad there's so much garbage lying around on the ground. Not only garbage in the form of fast food packages and beer cans but also more ancient kinds of refuse like shards of marble strewn all over the place in the sand. Nice pretty marble at that in fact. It's very strange.

Here's another cool shot showing the three main pyramids in a row. I should work for National Geographic huh? (Like they need more pictures of the Pyramids...) Mycerinus in the foreground, Chephren in the middle and Cheops in the background. The three Pyramids apparently represent the tombs of three successive Pharaohs who were Father, Son and Grandson. And of course there are also other Pyramids up and down the Nile at various locations. What is interesting about these three for me is something I saw on Discovery Channel that showed the layout of certain Pyramids that were arranged to create an image of the constellation Orion in the desert and deduced that these three Pyramids formed the three stars that form his belt. Ever hear of that theory?

I couldn't help but think about the concert Sting did here a couple weeks back. He was initially booed at for taking precedence over a lesser known (globally) but popular local artist. But then he played Desert Rose with that guy singing in Arabic and apparently the crowd liked that. That would have been a great concert with the Pyramids being lit up in the background with coloured lights and stuff. Except that Sting wouldn't have been able to see it from the stage of the pavilion. That kind of sucks, huh?

As you can see I made my own little archaeological find whilst in Egypt. I deduced from this that it was not, in fact, aliens who built the Pyramids but instead that it was the Dutch who did. Then again... maybe the Dutch ARE the aliens and they've been living among us all this time. That would explain a lot, don't you think?

Now here's a sad thing. Ancient Egyptian art on an obelisk that has since been defaced with graffiti. Then again, maybe the Egyptians should be happy that there's any stuff like this left behind to begin with after the French and British carted everything off. Greece is like that too. The buildings (or what's left of them) are still there but all the art has been carted off to the British Museum.

There is so much here that is just buried under the sand. It's like the Nazi bunkers at Hoek van Holland which are half buried in sand. It's too bad that they can't somehow sweep all this sand away so you can walk around through these ancient temples and stuff. Then again they'd have to sweep twenty four hours a day to keep up with the sand blowing in from the desert.

It did appear that there was some degree of restoration under way. There was a group of workers fitting some polished and new looking marble slabs into some uncovered parts of one of the temples. But it was slow going with ten of them sitting around discussing who knows what in the shade all day.

And of course the Sphinx. I read somewhere once that people who went to see the Sphinx were disappointed by its size. Like they had expected it to be much bigger because of the pictures they had seen. I'd have to say personally that it was exactly as big as I'd expected it. But I am still not sure why people make such a big deal about it. I mean, it's like all busted up (by the Turks, apparently, not Napoleon) and the head is too small (there's theories about that too). But of course it was breathtaking all the same. And once again... another slick picture huh? I'll have to call National Geographic.

As expected you can also crawl up inside the various pyramids. And here's a picture that should be familiar to anyone who's watched Discovery Channel. This is the burial chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Cheops. To get here you have to crawl up through a painfully small tunnel to a larger chamber where the roof opens up. This leads upward further to the burial chamber itself. It's rather interesting to do this with all the other tourists trying to do the same thing, but I'd say it was worth it for sure.

Another Discovery Channel picture here. This is one of those air shafts that lead up through the Pyramid to the outside and which are apparently aligned onto the stars in the constellation Orion (another Orion connection). I was kind of expecting some serious air conditioning action from these things but there wasn't much breeze at all actually. In fact, it was rather warm in there being inside a gigantic block of stones. Then again with hundreds of sweaty tourists crawling around the fact that it wasn't deathly stifling in there probably means that those shafts are doing their job pretty well.

After all that tramping around the desert I was ready to head back to my hotel again for a nice swim. And I'll tell you, hitting that cold water was a pretty great feeling. I was thirsty too and had to drink a lot of water. I relearned the lesson of breathing through your nose in the desert, I am sure.

The only problem with swimming was that I got stuck in the pool for a while as I waited for the good looking chick who came in after me to leave. I probably don't have to call upon many of your imagination brain cells to visualise the possible dangers of her seeing me in a bathing suit. I'd hate to be the source of trauma to anyone like that.

Isn't that a nice place to go for a swim?

In addition to taking a swim I also went across the street to the hotel's golf course to play some golf. Imagine golfing with the Pyramids looming over you. I blame their imposing presence for my terrible golf skills; skills so lacking that one of the caddy dudes had to take some action and show me how to play.

How about some more inane and random observations?

Toilets

The toilets I saw in Egypt were pretty good (bearing in mind that I was in a nice hotel, of course and nice places elsewhere). They had a rubber spray hose in lieu of a bidet next to the toilet like you sometimes see in Europe. I wasn't quite in the mood for that, however.

The Secret of Life

I was struck by something that one of the annoying peddler type dudes said because it seemed to me that even he had the secret of life. He said that money wasn't important but rather that happiness was the important thing. Then again, he was trying to sell me stuff at the time so....

Tipping

Tipping. This is a rather insane thing in Egypt. A constant requirement in every situation it seemed. I was reminded of China where there were a lot of similar type things as I encountered in Egypt except that I couldn't tip if I wanted to when I was there. Then again, the practise does also lead to the benefit of being able to buy anything, anytime, anywhere as long as you grease the wheels sufficiently. Ask your cab driver if he can help you find such and such an item at three in the morning and he'll know someone who knows someone else who'll get out of bed to come down and sell it to you. It's kind of sad, actually now that I think about it. I mean, where's the quality of life if you're so obsessed with money? Then again, it's like that everywhere, isn't it?

Bartering

Here's a skill I picked up and perfected in China. I was told by both the essence vendor dude AND the perfume bottle dude that I was pretty good at it. Or maybe they were just stroking my ego as they ripped me off. But there is a moral dilemma to it as well, isn't there? I mean I personally make more in one day than the average person in Cairo does in a month (actual pay I mean, not with all that tipping going on... Baksheesh they call it). And I don't really make that much. The point is that I can afford to pay two extra guilders for a dozen and a half perfume bottles instead of bartering it down to the very last cent. And yet I did it anyway. Maybe it's a macho thing? Or a mutual respect thing? I don't know. Anyway, I noticed that bartering was different in Cairo than in China. In China I would take the price they were asking and immediately divide it by four to make my opening offer. Usually the agreed price would end up around the halfway mark, or sometimes less. In Cairo, I noticed that this tactic was greeted with astonishment. Apparently they don't inflate their prices as much as the Chinese do. I was generally getting stuff for 75 to 80 percent of what they were asking. I find myself wondering if this was a "good deal" or not. But just like when I was in China the simple fact is that the price they asked initially was ALREADY a good deal and didn't have to go down from there to get any better. And another thing... why is bartering still around in "less developed" countries whereas here in "the West" we just pay whatever people ask us to pay? Maybe it's better this way, maybe not. But it does make shopping less tiring (but less adventurous I suppose).

The Concept of Zero

Apparently the Egyptian word for "zero" is "zero". I find this ironic since it was the ancient Egyptians who were one of the first inventors of the concept to begin with (but did suppress the knowledge of it, I seem to remember).

Fruit Juices

One of the great things about Egypt is the fruit juices. They have dudes selling the stuff all over the place. And cheap too. It is juice SOOO thick you literally have to chew it. Mango and Guava were in season, apparently, since everyone was selling it in addition to Lemon and a mixture type flavour with Orange. Good stuff.

Traffic

I didn't see a lot of traffic lights while I was in Egypt. In fact, I don't remember seeing any at all. There was always a dude directing traffic at the intersections. Usually a couple or three dudes actually. Driving is an adventure in Egypt, you can tell. But a strange thing is the use of the car horn and headlights. The Egyptians use them as a means of letting drivers ahead of them (who are probably taking up two lanes anyway) that they are behind them. In Holland by comparison these two devices are used for the same reason but in a more malicious way. Instead of "careful, I'm passing you" like I saw in Egypt it is more like "get the hell out of my way you stupid moron" in Holland.

Ladas

Many of the cars on the road in Egypt are old Russian Ladas. Why is that?

Scams

Whilst tramping around the Pyramid I encountered a nice scam that two dudes had going. One was a Antiquities Police person in uniform who came up to me and started jabbering in Egyptian. Another man then came up and offered to translate for me, which of course was funny because this was the first Egyptian person I had thus far encountered who didn't speak at least a little English. Anyway, apparently the Tourist Police dude was telling me that it wasn't allowed to walk around where I was by myself and that I required a guide to go with me. Give me a break. So, I responded to this with a tactic I picked up in China. "I live Holland. I no speak English."

Taxis

I discovered something disturbing about taxis in Cairo. Well actually a couple of things. Firstly that then never use their meters (apparently the meters are calibrated to archaic gas prices) and that one is supposed to know how much it costs to go somewhere and be able to avoid getting ripped off. But that is probably to be expected, I guess. What I was surprised at was the fact that once you get IN a cab to go somewhere that the taxi will still stop and pick other people up and take them along with you to wherever they are going. It's very bizarre. I guess in this case it's a good thing to have set and agreed prices to go somewhere.

In closing a few more pictures.

I've seen a lot of Belly Dancers in my life. Both in Turkey and Egypt and elsewhere. And I have to say that I think it's good practise for girls to go see them because I think that it would probably make them feel kind of thin since I can't ever remember seeing a particularly thin Belly Dancer. Not that I should talk, but then again I don't ever dance around with my... well, let's avoid another disturbing mental image and just leave it at that, shall we?

Perfume and perfume bottles. Here's the store in the market where I bought that lovely perfume that I spilled everywhere yesterday.

Here's the view from the balcony of my hotel room overlooking pool and gardens below with the Pyramids in the background. Cool huh?

And from there I sat at the end of my day in Cairo and watched the Pyramids lit up at by night whilst sipping slowly at the last of my fruit juices before I returned home again. At one in the morning the lights on the Pyramids went out and I reluctantly made my way out of my room and caught a taxi back to the airport for my 4 AM flight back to Amsterdam and back to work again in the morning.

And with that I shall bid you farewell. Yes, it's been a long linguistic journey for you, I sympathise. But if you were dumb enough to read it then I can hardly feel sorry for you. Personally I would have just stuck to the pictures I think. Maybe you did?