Dobleve

We traveled to Egypt just after Christmas this year. It would likely take a lifetime to really absorb and learn from everything we saw and experienced while there but the first thing we noticed coming in to Cairo from the airport was the sheer size of the city – 22 million people live there and we were immediately overwhelmed by the crowding, pollution and noise. But, in the end we loved Egypt and in no particular order, here are some of the things we found most interesting…

The cab driver who delighted that we were from “Amereeka, country number one!!” but kept saying “George Bush, Crazy!!” while wildly gesticulating (something) – with both hands – as we bolted down the highway at 120km/h. (This was one of our tamer and saner taxi rides). The grin on a little girl’s face – Habibah – as she rattled off every English word she knew after introducing herself while passing us on the street. The constant refrain from people everywhere: “you are welcome in Egypt”… The 3 lane highways continually being taken to six lanes with seeming absolute disregard for safety… (There were almost no lane markers anywhere but even if there had been the custom is clearly to travel forward along whatever path doesn’t currently have a car in it so that cars are jammed wheel well to wheel well in every inch of space and everybody’s honking at everybody else)… Pedestrians crossing six lanes of traffic when and where they wanted to… (The best advice our guide book gave us was to look for a local when we wanted to cross the street and follow them — because to the untrained crosser it looked as if pedestrians simply alighted from the curb completely irrespective of the hundreds of cars hurtling by. This advice may have literally saved our lives and after just a day or so there we were hurtling ourselves into traffic with the best of them)… Hundreds upon hundreds of old beat up black and white taxis that run on compressed natural gas… Seeing reverent faces, praying faces, in public, all the time… Hauntingly beautiful a capella songs blasted along the beach in the early morning hours… The sound of Camel feet padding on the sand in the endless silence on the trek up Mt. Sinai…

There were places and entire days where we never once saw an Arab woman… Our Bedouin guide who travels by camel and lives without running water or electricity kept text messaging and talking on his cell phone on the trek up Mt. Sinai. (Brian wanted to call his mom from the top and tell her there was someone who wanted to talk to her but thought the others assembled there might not find that funny). People got on and off the buses (in Major Traffic) without the buses even stopping or even slowing down much. Countless times there was suddenly a man jumping out of the (moving) bus next to us and darting in front of our taxi or someone else running though traffic trying to jump on to the moving bus… There were ubiquitous metal detectors (especially on the Sinai Peninsula) – presumably in place after bombings in the last few years – that sat idly as people walked right around them. There are prayer mats everywhere – including one we saw big enough to fit 40 men, at the car wash… There are calls to prayer broadcast throughout every part of every city all day long… And finally, we could never have understood the breathtaking size and accomplishment of the pyramids without having stood next to them. Photos here.