Travel, Egypt, Cairo, Vacations

Hello! I’m back in case I was missed.

Whew, what a trip to Egypt we had! B & I left New York on February 14 (the passenger sitting next to me on Egypt Air was also from the town where I live and we had common friends; what really are the odds of this happening?) and returned on February 28. Just getting away from New York in the dead of winter is a welcome relief not to mention a blessing (this is when I can truly relate to migratory birds) but on top of it to walk the land the Pharaohs, Nefretiti, King Tut, and Alexander, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII and Napoleon walked! This was truly awesome. Among the places I visited (Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, and Edfu and Esna briefly and Luxor) Luxor was my favorite and turns out it was a lot of people’s. Watch out for my Egypt videos to be posted shortly.

Two books that I bought cover it all for me and make it easier for me to keep my blog short. Here are the titles:
Egypt, History and Civilization—Text: Dr. R. Ventura, Chief Photographer: Garo Nalbandian (I overpaid for this book; I bought mine at Abu Simbel tourist shop for 100 Egyptian pounds at 5.5 ponds to a US dollar and later on the ship---only 16 cabins total and two decks---I found it being sold for 13 US $; there was just one cop and I told a fellow passenger about it and they bought it). I saw a total of three copies one at each of three locations—Aswan Airport, Abu Simbel and the ship. Apparently, it’s a best seller.
2. Traveling through Egypt: From 450 B.C. to the 20th Century, Edited by Deborah Manley and Shara Abdel-Hakim.

The first leg of our trip was spent at the Le Meridian Pyramids in Giza (the Oberoi-owned and run Mena House Hotel on the other side of the street is a must see). I’d have preferred a hotel in Cairo where access to street life and shopping would have been much easier. Then again, I might be dead by now (the bombing in Cairo occurred three days after we left the area). There is no point in my echoing what everybody says about the pyramids like how awesome it was! So I won’t. All that we 21st century denizens have got are much more awesome! So, there. Let’s move on.

We had an amazing tour guide (Ahmed Anwar), young, jubilant and very knowledgeable with a four-year accredited college degree in tourism, and we were 14 of us in our group. B & I were mistaken for Egyptians by many locals. I guess with the ease and alacrity with which I greeted them pronouncing my Salaam Alekkum like a native made me pass for one. I also say shukran (thank you, which I mastered when I went o Morocco many years ago and it is a cousin of Hindi shukriya) and gameel("good" in Arabic) like a native. I could have mastered a lot more words but did not have much time to do this beforehand. Only now, the Spanish words I tried mastering when I went to south America two years ago are gelling. So I used my fledgling Spanish in Egypt. Just kidding.

In Cairo, B& I decided to discover things on our own, which we enjoy doing on our trips before we chose to do many of the group activities. Not knowing Arabic is not a problem in Egypt. Many speak English and even those who don’t give the impression they do. Their inability comes to light only at the end of a conversation because the results are totally disconnected to what you thought was going to happen.

In Cairo, one gets the feeling one is in Delhi, that is, until one sees the galabeya-clad (the long neck to knee robe) men and women. Women wear so much black that it feels like one is in a land of perpetual mourning or in Manhattan, New York, USA.

B & I went to see the Citadel (http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/citadel.htm) after walking along the River Nile in Cairo for a few miles and then taking a taxi as we were told by a well-dressed woman with a scarf around her head whose car had broken down and was being fixed that it was not that close. But the taxi from the point where we took it brought us to the Citadel within three minutes and we paid him 10 E.pounds. It looked like if we didn’t volunteer to pay, we’d have got a free ride. I think I was mistaken for a Bollywood star as Bollywood looms large in many Egyptians’ minds. Anytime we were recognized as Indians, names like Amitabh Bacchan and Hema Malini sprang off their tongues at us like water shoots from a water gun.

Their thumb upright, a glint in their eyes and much glee in their voice the name Obama tumbled out at other times. I get such a kick when I am mistaken for so many different nationalities. In south America I was Spanish, in Portugal I was Portuguese and in Greece I was Greek. Go figure. I’m waiting to be called the Queen of England one of these days.

After visiting the Citadel we took a cab driven by a smart looking cabbie very comfortable with English to the famous Khan el Khalili market, which is where a bomb exploded a few days later. Here, once we got off the cab, we were greeted by a very cheerful and pleasant young man (mid-30’s?) named Riba. In Egypt, men (sometimes even children of both genders) you have just met and will never meet again in life ask you your name and then introducing themselves extend their hand to shake yours.

The first thing Riba said to us the moment he saw us, was for us us to go to the mosque that was just a few yards away. We were in search of lunch more than God at that point, so we declined. He spoke very good English, and looked educated. I asked him, "Who are you?" He said he was an accountant. I asked why he was not at work. He said that the accountants were on strike that day. I translated this to mean "unemployed." Toward the end of my trip I came to know that a few days earlier accountants were indeed on strike. Anyway, after Riba introduced himself, animatedly he also went on to explain his name to us. It meant satisfied. It had something to do with when he was born, his mother told God, no more kids, please, I’m satisfied now. At least this is what I understood from that hurried conversation.

More tomorrow! Stay tuned. An interesting episode follows.

Ciao!
Ro.