Cairo Re-visited

Well it's been a hectic week, including a trip to Cairo and a visit to Hurghada from my friend LeAnne. It's been quite some time since I've been back in Cairo, I think the last time I was back was in the end of April. Surprising, how quickly you can forget parts of the city, and aspects of life that defined Cairo living.

I was staying in Maadi, and immediately realised that I missed living there. I even asked Karim if he ever had regrets about moving away, or if he thought he would ever move back. My feelings of reminiscence however were quickly replaced by those of frustration, and albeit a short trip back to Cairo, I was reminded of why I left the city in the first place.

Firstly, Smart Village is ready for its grand opening in Maadi. This in itself has changed the dynamics of the once quiet, green, suburb. Now, driving around Maadi there are road signs newly erected, giant billboards that you pray will not topple over and crush an unsuspecting car, actual road blocks and roundabouts that almost appear to be working, and traffic. Oh good god, the traffic. Maadi is beginning to resemble parts of Zamalek during the day when it comes to the amount of cars that are going in and out, and unfortunately, adding a few whistles and bells does little to ease the chaos caused by the massive spike in the number of people entering the suburb everyday. Not only that, but driving around my old neighbourhoods, I see new grocery stores next to the old pet shops, new fashion designers displaying their ware where there was once a small bedouin crafts store. Maadi, once so charming and quiet, is beginning to look like its urban brothers Zamalek and Mohandessin. 

Making the trek downtown is always an adventure in itself, but with the cars on the roads in Cairo multiplying at an exponential rate on a virtual daily basis, the dodge-em traffic style really wears on you after a while. I don't really see very many donkey and horse carts in Hurghada, so although it was nice to see those on the streets again, it reminds you of the abject poverty that runs rampant throughout this country. The people attempting to commit suicide by running across the autostrad, the microbus drivers that have never had a day of driving lessons in their life. Ah yes, the hustle and bustle of Cairo.

I had my first taste of what it really feels like to be a part of an Egyptian family while I was in Cairo though, and that's an experience I can treasure. Karim's family took me wholeheartedly under their wing, and I was immediately adopted in as one of them. Women trying to teach me how to belly dance, and honestly I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of these women have electricity running through their veins the way they can shake. The atmosphere of eating in an Egyptian family gathering, everyone bringing dishes, the amounts of food endless, reminding you that should you come with anything but an empty stomach, you will have to leave by rolling yourself out of the door. This was definitely the highlight of my trip back to Cairo.

I was also reminded of how difficult getting around the city can be. Not only do you have to deal with mountains of traffic, but the taxi drivers that will go out of their way to rip you off! Don't get me wrong, we have those in Hurghada too, but at least here I'm fully aware of the prices to get places! I actually had a taxi driver try to ask me for 50 LE to get from Maadi to Zamalek, (which shouldn't cost more than 30 LE at NIGHTTIME!), who then volunteered to go and "ask" other taxi drivers coming back how much they would charge. He even promised I would be surprised to hear 60 LE from these drivers. Listen buddy...I've lived in this city before, I know how your agenda works. Take your 30 LE, and be done with it. I'm not that stupid.

So after a long week, it's finally the weekend. And I am ready to hit the sack, and let the hustle and bustle of the outside world be one thing that I don't have to worry about!

A little piece of paradise, and the road to Hell

Cairo, with all its hustle and bustle, makes for a fantastic city to live in. There's never a dull moment, and I still see new things everyday, it never ceases to amaze me. The crowds however, result in traffic, which makes the air downtown unbreathable at times, and the noise from the cars constantly beeping their horns giving you a never ending pulsation in the back of your brain. Should you reach this point, it is time to get out of the city limits, even if only for a day. And for this, there is only one destination that I prefer to go to. Ain el-Sokhna is a little piece of paradise located just under 2 hours away from Cairo (well...it should be 2 hours, i'll get to that point in a bit :p). Sokhna is located on the Red Sea, and offers a few beaches that you can go to, I prefer the Stella del Mar, but for that you'll either need to have rented a villa, have a friend who owns a villa there and can give you a beach pass, or (as i witnessed this weekend) be a very smooth talker and throw a couple pounds here and there.

Ultimate result, we ended up on the beach, and spent a lovely afternoon in the sun, next to what started off as cheesy elevator music, and morphed into trance-like beach hits. Course we forgot our cooler, so the challenge was to drink your beer before it got too warm, giving you, oh, 30 minutes to polish off 5 beers? I failed, and attempted to resolve the problem by throwing a couple ice cubes in a cup to cool the beer that way. I ended up drinking the semi-warm beer, as adding ice to beer is possible the most insulting thing you can do to it, and it tastes foul! Sokhna provides the perfect reprieve from Cairo, fresh air, fewer crowds, and of course the sea right in front of you. It doesn't get much better than that. Really makes you appreciate how lucky you are living in this part of the world, now if there was only skiing here...hmm..

So the trip to Sokhna is roughly an hour and a half from the first toll booth to driving into Sokhna. I say 1.5 hours under the assumption that you are not travelling at break neck speeds, and doing the posted 120 km an hour speed limit, so we can include, oh, 15 % of the cars driving on this road. For some reason, insert car and driver onto that sokhna road, and the long stretches of tarmac prove too tempting for many, who end up doing 200 + flying down this road. Now, were you on the autobahn in Germany, 200 wouldn't be a big deal. Here however, you have to factor in very large lorries, also doing break neck speeds, microbuses that are jam packed with people, often times being so packed that people are hanging on to the side, or over-loaded with packages on top. I've always wonder how they manage to stack them, as having watched people pack the backs of their trucks, there's only one thing that crosses your mind, "I hope to God I'm not behind that thing when its load goes flying." It's unbelievable to see packages, furniture, clothing, and all sorts of other oddities, packed 2 meters high on top of these microbuses. Oftentimes I can't help but wonder how they don't topple over. Combine all this, with the few patches of road that either are in dire need of repair, or simply don't have sufficient lighting, and you've got yourself the Sokhna road. It's like living in a game of Gran Turismo, drive as fast as I possibly can, and dodge the cars like some perverted form of frogger. What baffles me more, is the wrecks that are left on the side of the road, where the car is visibly totaled, do not provide a deterrent to people driving like a bat out of hell. Driving is a privilege, not a right, WHY do people seem to forget this? Suppose I prove to be a pain in the ass passenger, as I have no qualms in telling people to slow the eff down, my life is worth the extra half hour drive to the beach. So for those who sit there and boast about being able to make it to Sokhna in 30 minutes, I ask of you, is it worth the possible price?!