I will hopefully catch-up with writing the end of my cycle tour in Rwanda, but for now, I'm on to new adventures. They started with Egypt and are currently in Australia.
I love it when the media blows things out of proportion.
While abc is headlining “Epic Sandstorm Suffocates Middle East”, the reality is
Cairo never blinked an eye. Now I can’t speak for other affected countries,
like Iran, but life could not have been more “normal” in Cairo during the
sandstorm. In fact, I’ve been told by several people now that this is to be
expected at this time of year. Don’t know who’s right, NASA or people that live
here. One thing is for certain, it didn’t stop people from going about their
merry way or me from hitting up some tourist spots!
I had a wonderful tour guide the whole day who not only made
me feel very safe (not that I hadn’t already felt safe, so perhaps the correct
wording here is: maintained my safe sentiments), but he was also very
informative, educated and made me laugh the whole day. First, we visited the
mighty ATM, luckily the second bank worked. Then, we visited the age-old
Citadel in Old Cairo (a.k.a. Coptic Cairo, for it has the largest Coptic
Christian population in Egypt). When I say “age-old” I mean it, and it’s the
truth for most things around these parts. The Citadel was built by Salah al-Din
in 1176 A.D. to ward off the crusaders. Not only is this thing still standing
with little wear and tear, but its other half across the street is so strong
that it is currently used by Egyptian military as a base. The sad thing is,
someone decided to build a highway right through where the Citadel and the
current military base used to connect. Too bad there wasn’t enough
infrastructure, funding and foresight to build a tunnel under a 900-year old
structure built to fortify and has been doing so for, literally, a
millennia. Fascinatingly, Saladin decided
that instead of taking from the stone mountain, Mukattam Hill, on the other side of the valley
(now the other side of the highway) where workers sought stone to construct the
Pyramids in Giza some 10km away, Saladin decided he would deconstruct the
smallest of the pyramids during this era and built his fort lego-style with
pre-made stone blocks. What a guy. The Mosque of Mohammed Ali was built at the
summit of the citadel in the 19th century. It is quite huge and
magnificent. You are supposed to be able to see all of Cairo from the mosque,
but because of the sandstorm, I could barely see directly below it.
Muhammad Ali mosque in the Citadel. Note the lack of sky due to sand!
A well in the mosque.
Muhammad Ali's tomb.
Intricate detail over the tomb.
Where prayers are called out.
A mosque has to stay clean somehow....especially after all that dust!
The mosque is completely made out of marble.
The view from the Citadel onto Cairo. Usually you can see a lot more!
Salah al-Din's castle in the Citadel.
Muhammad self-admiring.
The fortress.
My tour guide asked if I liked mango juice….do I like mango
juice? Ha! What a silly question. He assured me there was no sugar added, no
water, nothing, just pure mango. Yes please! My lovely tour guide treated me to
the best mango juice ever. It was so fresh and pure that strings of mango kept
sliding out of my glass and sticking to my chin. I felt like a little girl
eating a candy apple –sticky and elated. We didn’t even have to get out of the
car! Drive-through pure mango juice; and they say Canada is civilized….Tim
Hortons has nothing on this guy in his wall-less shack on the side of the road
selling orange gold (for nothing, might I add).
Next stop was the “Hanging Church”, a Coptic Christian
church. They call it the “Hanging Church” because it was built on top of
another fort! Apparently not just any fort, but the southern gate of the Roman
Fortress: Babylon. There are stairs leading to the fort below as well as
cut-outs in the floor with thick glass panes to see right through to the fort. This
church was built somewhere between the 3rd and 8th century
and is still used by Coptic Christians today. Although there were hoards of
screaming children frolicking around on a field trip while I was there, I’m
sure the little old ladies who come there to receive a blessing every once in a
while find ancient peace somehow. For those of you who do not know (as I did
not until watching a 60 minutes episode last year thanks to Mom and Dad,
and reading Wikipedia right now), Coptic Christianity is the largest Christian
denomination in Egypt and maintained a Christian majority in Egypt even after
Muslim conquest during the 6th century. Most notably, I think, is
Copts invented monasticism (I.e. Anthony the Great did). Monasteries, cells and
caves popped up all around Egypt and people came from the Middle East and other
parts of Asia to fulfill their monastic callings, such as forming rules for the
Eastern Orthodox Church (Saint Basil the Great) or translating the Bible into
latin (Saint Jerome). Small chores really; you could equate them to doing the
dishes. Communities formed and monks were then and are now referred to as
“Desert Fathers” and nuns “Desert Mothers”.
Babylon fortress.
Ground elevated 6m since Roman
times, hence doesn’t look all that “hanging” now.
Lots of art, marble and wood on the inside. The ceilings are said to mimic Noah's arc with wooden arches that look like a ship upside down.
Staircase to the fort.
Occasional glass floor panels to reveal the fort underneath.
Also went to a Greek Coptic church next door.
The Greek church is built on top of the same fort.
My best friend Ashley joined me a couple of days after my
arrival and we did some hard-core touristy things for a few days. Rode some
camels around the pyramids and sphinx, bought some papyrus paper and Egyptian
oils/perfumes and visited the King Tutankhamun mask at the Egyptian museum.
Despite resisting, our tour guides insisted we take cheesy photos of us jumping
over the pyramids and “squeezing” them with our hands, among others. It was
almost an insult to refuse. Funny the expectations tourists have given the
locals and vise versa over the decades these historical wonders have been
visited by countless people from all over the globe. The stereotypes Westerners
give their fellow travelers seems like an endless list of tragedies. I do my
best to avoid tainting the white traveler’s name, but this is often out of my
control, albeit I do conform to such stereotypes from time to time. Who am I to
judge.
 |
| Couldn't refuse, I would insult the guide...felt pretty silly. But notice the limestone on the top of the left pyramid. This is the only pyramid with evidence that there was at some point a limestone casing on each pyramid. |
 |
| Part of the tourist "fun photo" gimmick. |
Regardless of how touristy the pyramids -as a destination- are, there’s no denying the awe that they bring. They are so ancient and there is so much history, it’s overpowering. The sad thing though is that tourists and locals alike completely disregard any kind of rules. People, including myself and Ash, were climbing the pyramids, you can touch anything you want and there is etched-in graffiti all over tombs and ancient hieroglyphics writings. Apparently the graffiti did not show up until after the revolution in 2011 and enforcing rules to respect ancient relics was more prevalent before the revolution in general. We’re told it’s the younger generation of locals who carve-in the graffiti. It’s true, we only saw these sad etches in Arabic, no English, no German or French, only Arabic. Terrible how a young people can disrespect thousands of years of history so obliviously.
 |
Ash and I on a pyramid.
|
 |
An ignored sign.
|
 |
An ignored fence.
|
I must say, approaching the pyramids by camel was a real experience. It seemed like we were the only ones in the whole of the desert, just Ash, myself, our 15-year-old camel leader and our history guide. The desert is so vast and the dunes high enough that there is barely sign of human existence right up until you approach the pyramids. Even then, all you can see are horses and camels running around at the base of the pyramids. You feel like you’re on some kind of Arabian expedition, like you are one of few who have seen these triangular giants. There is a road when you approach the furthest of the three large pyramids (there are also 6? Or 9? Small pyramids for the queens) to allow easier access for tourists, but this goes unnoticed until the last minute when you are within a few meters of the road. It took 30 years to build these pyramids. The stone came from Mukattam Hill, where the Coptic cathedral in the cave is and the Garbage City (or Zabbaleen) is. We had the luxury of going to see the pyramids by day and then again during sunset. The sunset tour was rather remarkable as it is technically not allowed for tour companies to take tourists on camels to the pyramids at sunset, so we were the only tourists around at this time. It was Friday night, (their Saturday-like night), so there were lots of locals out on their horses and camels. Lots of the Egyptian men who own horses like to go out there to run their horses fast in the wide open desert. Some people were out in what looked like temporary tents or shelters. Music was playing and people seemed to be enjoying themselves. What a way to spend your Friday night. Watch the sunset by the pyramids with your friends and ride out there on your horse or camel. What a life to lead.
The Egyptian museum is an interesting place. There are hundreds of thousands of artifacts and probably 100 written words. You need a guide in order to know what anything is. A lot of the things in the museum are simply of unknown origin. Those who collected these objects clearly know where they were found, but might not know what their purpose was. There is very little in the way of regulating touching anything in the museum. The best kept artifacts are those belonging to King Tut. Nonetheless, you can walk by mummies that are hundreds and thousands of years old nonchalantly and see mummified cheese, fruits, and organs -or what's left of them.
 |
| The front door to the Egyptian museum, built around 1900, the only place you can take a picture is outside. |
In addition to seeing the pyramids in Giza, we saw the oldest of all the pyramids in Saqqara. This pyramid was designed and executed by the engineer Imhotep (sound familiar? If you've watched any of the Mummy movies, you will recognize that Imhotep was the mummy that came back to life). The Imhotep museum was actually more impressive than the Egyptian museum in Cairo in that it was far more organized, well kept (helps that it is a much newer building) and more informative.
 |
| Entrance way to Imhotep's pyramid. |
 |
| The oldest pyramid in the world. Not nearly as large as those in Giza. |
 |
| The city of Cairo in the background. |
 |
| A meditation structure to pray for the sun. |
 |
| A lot of ancient rubble you can just walk on. |
 |
| A secret tunnel to enter the tomb. |
 |
| Complete with stairs. |
 |
| Ash made a friend. Note the Giza pyramids in the background. |
 |
| A series of tombs. |
 |
| King Una's Dynasty. |
 |
| Sometimes there was colour in the carvings, but no one really knows what the ancient Egyptians used as pigment. |
 |
| Someone reading out a scroll. |
 |
| A boat on the Nile showing plenty of fish to be caught. |
 |
| Another false door. |
 |
| Note the blue and greens in this carving, rare to see these colours. |
 |
| Entrance to some of the tombs are covered by sand. |
We also went to the “Garbage City” to see the Coptic
Cathedral built into a cave; a very fascinating place and the largest church in
the middle east, seating 15,000 people (10,000 every Thursday night). About 70,
000 locals live in this village, a.k.a. Zabballeen, at the base of Mukattam Hill, where their main source of
income is collecting garbage and turning it into something new. The locals
recycle anything they can and use it themselves or sell it. The church is
impressive in size and architecture. There are several smaller churches in
smaller caves in the area that have different purposes, for example one is more
enclosed and, therefore, used when it is raining outside. The church was
designed by a Polish-Egyptian architect who was clearly very passionate about
the project. After the community came together and cleaned out the historic
cave (said to be where a minister was spoken to by God to teach the holy word),
which took 16 years, the cave was further excavated to make bigger. The
architect had many holy images carved into the cave and surrounding walls. The Zabballeen
people needed a place to practice their faith since they were ordered to move
to the Garbage City from Cairo by the government back in 1969 and had no where
to worship.
Ashley and I went to the infamous Khan el-Khalili market, a large collection of souks in Islamic
Cairo. Unfortunately, our tour guides marketed this place as the “New
International Khan Khalili market”, but
really this means that half is Made in China and the other half is
authentically made in Egypt by Egyptians….or so I was told by a random local.
It’s hard to know what the market really is and where things are from because
it’s hard to know who to trust. The first day I went to the market I didn’t
even know there was a section across the highway that had authentic Egyptian
merchandise. Unfortunately, the second day I went to Khan Khalili, was a
Sunday, the first day of the week and a rest day for shop owners/workers. The
Egyptian side had very few shops open, but the Chinese side was still just as
bustling as the day before. I didn’t see a single tourist on the Egyptian side,
whereas I saw more white people on the Chinese side of the market than I had
the entire 6 days in Egypt. Some merchants on the Chinese side claim their
products are not Chinese made (like the lamp guy I bought a hanging candle
holder from), but there’s no guarantee. I would love to be able to know what is
from where and who to believe. I think this would take some time. Wikipedia is
an OK source for the history of the Khan Khalili site, but says nothing about
what is being sold. I’m not sure what would be a reliable source for this sort
of information at this point in time. Entering the Egyptian side of the market,
you walk through giant, spectacular gates.
It’s truly remarkable that a place with such rich and ancient
history is so simply a place of buying and selling, and in the case of the
Chinese side, a tourist attraction. The buildings themselves are beautiful,
with intricate detail, something you would never find in the “Western World”,
and if you did, it certainly wouldn’t be integrated into the local community as
it is in Khan Khalili. It would likely be locked up and made into a museum,
something that would benefit a handful of folks. I met a local who had grown up
on the Egyptian side of the market and new the history of every building. He
showed me where Muhammed Ali (the same one who built the mosque in the Citadel,
see above) was hung on “Blood Street”. This local man makes jewelry boxes and portable
game boards made of precious stones, metals and camel bone. He showed me his
factory, a hole in the wall, behind doors only the suicidally curious would
open without knowing what was behind them first. The conditions under which him
and his friends work in would of course never be heard of in the privileged
world, but this is how he provides for his family because, since the Revolution
in 2011, he cannot find a government job teaching English –what he studied to
do. I could not buy any of his products because I was running out of room in my
bags and I had to buy another carry-on bag as it was. I did, however, buy some
spices from the oldest spice market in Egypt (perhaps the world?) and
shamelessly went back to the Chinese side as I was curious to see what it was
like on a Sunday. As I said, just as busy as the day before. There is a
bookstore on the Chinese side that claims to have been leaders in binding books
for the past 70 years and claim that they are authentically Egyptian. Looking
at the website, I must say I have to believe them:
http://www.hussamabdelzaher.com/.
So, this is what I’m trying to portray, that it is difficult to know what
really exists in this market. This bookstore seems more authentic than
anything, yet it is located on the side of the market that seems to be
saturated with Chinese-made items. I most certainly want to go back to the Khan
el-Khalili market and find out where things come from. It is a wonderful place
to walk around, so visually stimulating. So colourful, lots of things to look
at that you will likely not see anywhere else in the world (unless, I suppose, you wonder into a Chinese sweat-shop). You can wind in and
out of narrow alley ways, find random mosques (that you can step into even if
you’re a woman, as long as you cover your head), or find yourself in large open
squares. No matter where you are in this large market, you are walking through ancient history.
I had probably the most interesting journey to the airport I
have ever had when traveling from Cairo to Doha on Qatar airways. I have been
on hundreds of airplanes and never have I ever been so flustered on my way to
catch a flight. First it started with my driver not showing up –the first time
this had happened the entire time I was in Cairo, this lead to much stress as
we crawled through typical and expected Cairo traffic for about an hour and 15
minutes. By the time we got to the airport I had only an hour and 20 minutes
before my flight took off. This is not a lot of time when you have a huge
bicycle and a giant backpack, but it is especially not a long time when your
taxi drives into the parking lot instead of the drop-off and drives around in
circles for a little while. By the time I reach the airport doors, I had about
an hour until my flight took off. Then, something that I have never seen before
appeared before my eyes: a giant crowd of people outside the airport
doors, trying to get in. Picture this if you can: one white girl, a hundred
arabs, one 1.3 meter wide bike box. It was not pretty. I might have been
overwhelmed had I not had experience with large foreign crowds thanks to my
childhood. I wiggled my way through the crowd and into the shorter “line” where
people were going through security. By the time it was my turn to go through
security the guards told me I was in the wrong line, that Qatar airways is the
huge line and I would have to go back outside. No way Jose! I begged and
pleaded and for some reason because they were letting me in the “wrong” doors,
this meant I didn’t have to put my luggage on the x-ray belt nor walk through
the magical archway…I’m used to this kind of logic and, in this case, the logic
worked in my favour. So I weaved inch by inch arooouuund the security machines
running into restrictive doorways here and there, taking my bike off the
trolley, putting it back on, etc. It took me probably 5 whole minutes just to
get across a distance of maybe 5 meters. Once I got inside the airport, I knew
I had to veer left to get to Qatar Airways check-in counter (yup, still haven’t
checked-in, it’s now less than an hour until my flight leaves), which meant another
security area. The guards told me the same thing, to go back outside and get in
the other line. I don’t think so. I begged and I pleaded while throwing my bike
and bags onto the x-ray belt, so there wasn’t much choice. (Being a lone white
female really pays off in these situations I think). I finally squeezed my way
through there. Once speeding around several corners with my overloaded trolley
I reached the check-in counter. No line, but who needs one when one employee
can deal with several family’s problems at once. No worries, or “Mafi mushkila”
as they say in Arabic. I ask the man helping me, “Am I going to make my
flight?” “No worries, no worries.” Typical response. After about half an hour
of looking at me, looking at my bags, looking at how much they weigh,
consulting everyone working that day, making a few phone calls, looking at me
again, looking at my bags again, consulting some more dudes, looking at me
again, they finally decided that my bags were A-Okay, they were going to put
them on the plane and I wasn’t going to get charged extra for them (I think
another product of the magical white girl power). Shukrun! Thank you! I proceed
to run to the next step: passport check. With only 30 minutes until my flight
leaves, I am really not interested in yet another massive line-up, but such is
life in a country of 90 million not including visitors. So I wait again for at
least 10 minutes, spend another few minutes in the post-passport check line
(What the ****) only to look at the next line to the gates and decide that I
wasn’t going to make it. The line was so long you couldn’t see where it began
and where it ended. Thankfully there were some whities in the line, so I asked
if they knew what the line was for. They didn’t know, but they were going to
Dubai. Fantastic! I’m not going to Dubai, I’m going to Doha! So I wiggle my way
in and out of this line to find the front of it and discover a totally
different and much shorter line to my gate. Thank goodness! I pass this last
security nonsense (I don’t know what the point of going through four security
areas was when I beeped every time I went through those magical arches,
probably because I’m wearing safety boots, they never asked me to remove my
laptop and there’s no way they took a proper look at all the other electronics
I had in my bags) and then, there was just one more thing: a bus. Of course this
bus was full and I had to wait until the next one came. At least at this point
I was pretty sure all the people around me waiting for the next bus to leave
were on my same flight, so if it took off, then Qatar Airways was going to get
a mouthful from a lot of people. The bus did not
lead us astray, we got to the airplane and it felt like seconds after I sat
down that we started on our way. Something in the powers that be wanted me to
make that flight. I have no idea how I made it. It was damn near a miracle.
Missing the first in a series of three flights is never good, so I was
extremely grateful to be sitting on that plane. However, I was going to miss Egypt. I was only there a total of 6 days, but it left a great impression on me. I'll be back!
I started with pointing a figure at bad media and I’ll end
on the same note. Despite the only news we’re hearing on the other side of the
world about Cairo, I could not have felt safer. Oh yeah, did I mention my
hostel was a block or two from Tahirir square? Drove/walked through the
infamous danger area several times, life seems to be going on as usual, perhaps
with a couple of extra tanks, but such is life in the Middle East and I think a
few other places in the world. GO TO EGYPT! Don't let the media fool you!
