Cairo and the Modern Egyptians

A view from the road near my Hotel, showing the proximity of the Pyramids to Cairo's population and pollution.

Travel Date 25th March-2 April 2008
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Egypt was interesting. I use the word in the same way as the ancient Chinese who cursed their worst enemies with: "may you live in interesting times".

I'll try to be positive and stick to the good things I saw in Egypt. Those included, of course, the ancient sites but also the Nile, Aswan Dam and a few of the people. But I will have to be honest and also refer to some of the negatives.

Egypt is the only country in all my travels where I have used a local tour operator to arrange things. Never, ever again. I did a lot of research and it seemed sensible to use locals who could access good hotels, good cruise boats and good local guides as a package. After some research and many emails I chose Osoris Travel.

Just in case anyone reading this ever considers using them, read my report on Tripadvisor. By leaving the report there I can reduce the negative here. Suffice to say they turned the visit to Egypt that I had dreamed about for a year into a nightmare. To use another ancient and appropriate curse, may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their armpits for all eternity.

Noting that my impressions of Egypt are coloured by that experience, I'll clear the decks with the rest of the negatives now. That way I can concentrate on the positives for the remaining posts. But first, one nice experience.

One of the few nice Egyptians I encountered was a representative of a different tour company who helped me when I arrived at the airport. After an hour, when my own tour representative failed to appear this man helped me, reducing my stress levels enormously. My Egyptian SIM card was arriving with my missing tour representative so I had no working phone. In addition to making several calls to Osoris to try to find out what was happening, he convinced the airport police to allow me to return to the secure side so that I could use the ATM. That's a point worth remembering if you visit Cairo - get your cash out before you go to immigration. There were no ATMs on the other side of those barriers.

An odd thing happened as I returned to the security barrier, manned by police, after collecting my cash. One of the police stood in front of me and said "baksheesh". I was surprised, but I realised that he wanted money. I looked to my good Samaritan to get an idea of the usual payment. He looked embarrassed and had some sharp words with the cop, who then grumbled a bit and turned away allowing me through. When my own tour representative arrived I gratefully thanked my helper. He shook hands, wished me well and never asked for money.

Later I realised how rare he was. Unfortunately he didn't give me a business card and I have forgotten his name. I am forever grateful for that good Samaritan; I never met another like him in Egypt. Nor did I meet many other Egyptians who did not demand baksheesh for a service, no matter how trivial the service was, and who did not aggressively pursue that baksheesh if they felt it was due.

Egypt is the land of baksheesh. Absolutely nothing is done for free. Bear in mind that I have travelled now in many different cultures including the "tipping" culture of the USA, which is such a shock for Aussies, and the poverty and beggars of India and the poverty of Cambodia. But the baksheesh culture of Egypt takes institutionalised tipping and begging to quite different levels. I'll give a couple examples of many.



The traffic in Cairo is incredibly bad and, when it is busy on wide city streets, very dangerous for pedestrians. To cross a road - even at lights - is a death-defying experience for a pedestrian the first few times until you learn the rhythm of the traffic flow. But never fear. Any non-Egyptian who pauses momentarily at a kerb will instantly attract a helpful local who will unhesitatingly guide them across the road. In one case I had a guy try to drag me over when I had no intention of crossing. But as soon as you reach the other side one of two things will occur; either your helper will instantly put their hand out and say "baksheesh" or they will invite you to visit the art gallery (or shop or perfumery or cafe or clothing store or other business) of their relative or friend. If you decline to visit, patient persistence will be applied with sometimes increasingly angry insistence if you continue to decline. More than once I had to pull my arm forcefully out of the clutches of my friendly unsolicited "helper". And sometimes I just gave in and bought some perfume or an overpriced child's gallabiyeh or similar for the sake of peace.

With time and experience I learned how to decline before crossing or, occasionally to accept the help on dangerous crossings and pay the baksheesh. Once, to a cop. After more than a year I've forgotten the going rate for an assisted road crossing.

A different example. In Aswan I decided to buy a few cans of beer to store in the fridge in my cabin. I had not realised how difficult that could be in a Muslim city, not knowing where the bars and liquor outlets were. So I went exploring. Eventually I found a sign saying "Bar" but it appeared to be closed. A local was dozing in front of the door, looked at me, asked "beer?" and grabbed me by the hand. I followed him up some dark stairs beside the entrance. After three flights the stairs got lower and darker and I had to hunch over to avoid banging my head; I started to get a bit nervous wondering what I was doing following this guy into an unknown place in the dark, but I kept going. By now his hand was like a vice anyway. Eventually we emerged into a dimly lit room with a concrete floor covered in several inches of sand. We crossed that and a bar appeared with a couple of bored patrons and a barman. I bought my beer, but I was no longer surprised when my guide of the moment demanded baksheesh. I eventually negotiated down to 12 Egyptian pounds (about $2.50) for the service. It's not a lot of money to us, although it probably was to him, and you eventually get used to it. In this case I probably would not have found the place without him. But you do get tired of the system.

Nothing is for nothing in Egypt.

Incidentally, if you are brave enough to drive in Cairo, you need to be even braver to park.



As I mention in my report on Osoris the Oasis Hotel is close to the Pyramids but over an hour out of the centre of Cairo. The rooms and facilities are excellent, my only real problem with the hotel was the location.




They have a free shuttle into town so I hopped on that as soon as I had settled in and took the hour and a quarter ride back to town.

Cairo is a city of contradictions. There is an old town of Mosques and Churches, I'll write more on that later. Downtown Cairo is like any major modern city; a mix of modern and old, bustling and quiet, busy and sleepy. It was much less crowded and frantic than Delhi but still very different in character and style to European, Australian or American cities. Some sections could have been downtown Paris, obviously catering for the wealthy and for tourists.



Others were for the locals with tiny specialist shops and lots of cafes with men smoking Shisha pipes, with smoke bubbling through the water bowl. This was a little fast-food shop that served a decent lunch; not a Maccas. I did have a wrap at a Maccas later, but that was to "pay" for using the facilities. You start to look for the Golden Arches when you find too many of the facilities at other "good" restaurants look like the ones in the next picture.



I took this picture, through the window at McD's, of the local Police hard at work controlling traffic at the intersection. Every so often one of the many cops would wander into the middle of the road and direct traffic for a minute or two, but mostly they chatted with their mates there, or on the phone, and left the drivers to sort it out themselves. The other picture is of an unenthusiastic pedestrian who was told to "assist police in the course of their transportation".



You may have gathered by now that I was fairly unimpressed with Cairo's Police Force. I didn't have any problems with them personally, something I am very grateful for. I was just surprised at the petty corruption I encountered and the obvious lack of interest in their duties.

This is a local butcher's shop, with carcasses hanging in the sun over the foot-path. Shops like this for various meats were common; this one was typical. Despite getting a dose of the traveller's curse after my first night in Cairo (probably from fruit or veges) I still ate meat dishes in Egypt and never had a recurrence of the problem. I'm not sure if this guy was selling tea or coffee; he looked very similar to the tea-sellers I saw in Istanbul on a previous trip.



In my Osoris report I mention the crowd at the museum in the mornings; this was taken as I waited outside. I have no pictures from inside the museum. In some rooms photos are forbidden and in others the crush was so intense it was impossible to take photos anyway.

The population of Cairo is somewhere between 25 and 30 million depending on who you ask and where they set the city boundaries and whether they count the homeless. A significant proportion of that population lives in tenements like these. Nearly all have an unfinished look to them, as though they are allowing for additional floors to be added as needed, but some of those unfinished buildings are decades old. Possibly they have tax laws like Italy or Greece, where buildings are deliberately left unfinished so that final taxes are not paid. I asked my drivers and guide, but none seemed to know and all seemed surprised that I asked the question. The attitude seemed to be "surely all the world is like Cairo?"



All of Egypt is dominated by the Nile, including Cairo. I'll write later about the river, because Egypt would quite literally not exist if not for that river. This is the mighty Nile as seen from the heart of the city.



Next, the Cairo-Aswan train.

Cheers, Alan

Petra, the Jewel of Jordan.

Travel Date 24th March 2008.
Click on any picture to see a larger version.

As I mentioned earlier, Jordan was a serendipitous inclusion on my itinerary. It was a fortunate accident where the coincidental addition of Royal Jordanian Airlines to the One-World group met my need for a way to fly from Delhi to Cairo without having to go the long way around via London.

I decided to add a few days in Jordan after rearranging the itinerary. In hindsight I am so glad I did. Unfortunately, after I had done that, I found that some bright spark had held a competition on the world wide web to list the greatest surviving wonders of the Ancient World and Petra was on the new list. Suddenly all the prices went up and so did the crowds. Ah, well, everything has a price.

Jordan was expensive and seemed even more so when arriving from India. I think three nights in Jordan cost me more than double my week in India. But it was worth it. In planning the trip I used several web-sites, but this one was the most useful: http://www.go2petra.com/



We arrived late in the day in Wadi Musa after wandering down the King's Highway. I had booked the Crowne Plaza via Agoda. At the time of booking I thought US$139 for the night was a bit steep. However, on arrival I found that to be very reasonable when compared with the alternatives. The hotel was first-class and could not have been closer to the entrance to the ruins. If you decide to book it, be aware that the lowest two floors use stairs with no lift but they are closest to the old caves. In the hotel room I found a complimentary pack which included, among other things, a water bottle and a cap for the next day's outing. It's a nice touch; I had chosen the right time of year but even in late March it is a hot, dusty place.

I ate at an acceptable restaurant “downtown” (or tourist central) which was a pleasant walk of a few hundred meters from the hotel. I needed to transfer a full XD camera card to disc; that turned out to be very expensive indeed at about $8 per disc.

The next morning I started out bright and early to see Petra.



There are many myths about Petra, some with a basis in fact, most not. Partly for that reason I won't attach labels to the pictures because there is still argument about the appropriate names and whether they are tombs, living areas, treasuries or palaces. I'm just fascinated by their age, architecture (is it still architecture if it's carved out of the rock?) and design.

Each section is interesting. The ancient site starts with the Siq. This is a long winding path, about 1200m or 3/4 mile long, naturally slashed through a ragged cleft in the surrounding sandstone mountains




When in the Siq it is easy to see what a great defensive entrance it was for the ancient Nabateans. The Siq is a natural geological formation resulting from the frequent earthquake activity in the region for millennia. The Nabateans cunningly used it for a defensive entry and also to be part of their hydraulic and plumbing system to divert every drop of water that fell near the city to supply their needs. Notice the channel on the left in the last photo of that set and the detail in this photo.



The shape of the Siq and the hydraulic system may be the reason for one of the myths or legends. People from the mists of time believed this was where Moses struck the rock to secure water for his wandering people after the flight from Egypt (see Exodus 17:6 or Numbers 20:8). Thus the Jordanian town which now services the Petra tourism industry is Wadi Musa, the Valley of Moses. Apparently the valley was named by Baldwin, the Crusader King.



After the Siq you come quite suddenly on the opening to Petra itself; see the photo at the top of the page. That is the astonishing first glimpse of Petra as seen by every arriving traveller for the past two millennia. The scene was made famous more recently in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark".



Petra has not always been just the remains we see now, carved out of the rock. In the past there were also many free standing buildings but, over time, they have been lost to earthquakes. Many were lost in a major earthquake in 363; the few standing ruins that remain from that time have suffered severely from weather, pillagers and antiquity robbers.

The origins of the Nabateans are a bit vague. Some believe they were the descendants of the Edomites mentioned in the Bible, others that they were nomads from Arabia in the south who defeated and supplanted the Edomites.

They first appeared in historical records around the sixth century BC. Their influence grew over the next few centuries until the Romans arrived in the region in the first century BC. At their peak they controlled all of the land between Yemen in the south and Damascus in the north. They profited greatly from all the trading caravans that moved through their district and the associated merchants who used their cities, including Petra, to trade. Their own traders travelled too, as far as India, China and Rome, but most of their wealth came from closer regions. Their government was a monarchy but with a strong democratic flavour and they did not keep slaves; unusual at that time.



Rome became their nemesis. They initially repulsed the Romans in 63 BC but had to accept their nearby presence and slowly came to hate them. The rulers made a mistake by becoming Parthian allies when the Parthians warred against the Romans. They paid dearly for that and eventually Herod, as a puppet of Rome - yes, that Herod - occupied their territory. Roman trade routes slowly moved away from Petra and the city declined slowly from that time on.

Eventually, over the following two millennia, the city was claimed by the desert and the nomadic Bedouins until it was “discovered” in 1812 by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

I made the mistake of trying to save a few dinars by ignoring the various transportation options along the way and walked all day. If I go again, I'll spend the money. There are really four long sections for footslogging. The walk starts at the entrance gate, with an option of a pony ride or buggy ride. Then there is the Siq, with the same options, then the long and dusty site itself with camels available and finally, if you have the energy (I didn't) the climb to the Byzantine Church. Then you retrace all that and walk home again, mostly uphill. I saved about $70 and my poor feet regretted that for a week.



For the rest, just wander through the pictures and click on those you find interesting. I had a long, fascinating, dusty, footsore day and enjoyed every minute of it. We drove back to Amman in the late afternoon and dusk via the faster, but less interesting, Desert Highway.




One of the modern conveniences lacking in the long valley of Petra is, er, conveniences. I met these two beasts of burden while searching for one, or at least for some privacy. There was sufficient evidence of their, or their masters, past presence in the cave that I was not embarrassed to follow their lead. I later found a restaurant at the far end of the valley; much too far at the time.



The following day I departed to Cairo.

Cheers, Alan

The King's Highway, Jordan

From Amman to Wadi Musa via Madaba, Kerak and Mount Nebo.


A chamber in the Kerak Crusader Castle

Travel Date 23rd-24th March 2008.
Click on any picture to see a larger version.

Many things surprised me during my short sojourn in Jordan. Of course, they should not have if I had thought about it before arrival; but they did.

Jordan is strategically located on the cross-roads of the world. It is traversed by the trade routes of major civilisations from before the beginning of recorded history. There are remnants of all of those eras but it had not really occurred to me how much history would remain in the form of stone, bricks, mortar and mosaics. In sequence I saw modern Amman, Roman Jerash, early Christian Madaba, Crusader Kerak, ancient Mount Nebo and Nabatean Petra.

Jerash was settled in ancient times but the predominant ruins are from the Roman era of the 1st to the 3rd century AD. The following day I followed the King’s Highway to Wadi Musa and Petra; along the way each of the places I visited was ancient, nearly all had been settled since the dawn of mankind, but each had preserved very different eras for posterity for us to see today.

Madaba, the first town I visited after leaving Amman, also dates back to those ancient eras but the most notable site is the 6th century AD map mosaic in the Greek Orthodox Basilica of Saint George; a rather imposing title for a rather small but very, very old church.



I found later that St George is also an important saint in the Egyptian Coptic Church; something that would probably surprise many Britons who think of him as the patron saint of England.



The mosaic represents a map of the world as it was known at that time. Although I have tried to adjust it for easier viewing, my picture does not do it justice. If you are interested in further information there is an excellent description and history here: A Virtual Travel Through the Madaba map Holy Places.

The town of Kerak is as ancient as the others and also went through Moabite, Nabatean, Greek, Roman, Ottoman and other eras but the Crusader Castle of the 12th and 13th centuries dominates the city. During that period it ruled the district and was effectively the capital of the Crusader region. It was built in the 1140s and despite its size, position and apparent impregnability eventually fell to the Muslims under Saladin around 1189.





Kerak's story at that time was full of blood and treachery, mainly by the Crusaders. It also had occasional quirky moments of chivalry such as the time about five years before it was taken when Saladin was besieging Kerak and he became aware that a wedding was happening in the castle, so he kept his siege engines off the bridal tower.



One of the final rulers, Reynald de Chatillon, became famous for his treachery and brutality before he was deservedly beheaded personally by Saladin. Sometimes I'm very grateful that the "good old days" can never return...

Mount Nebo is most famous from mythical pre-history as the burial place of Moses. The theological scholars can argue about the date for that. However, the re-constructed church on the site dates mainly from the 4th and 5th centuries AD.



The picture is a glimpse of the Dead Sea from Mount Nebo. The model shows a layout of the old churches and sanctuary of Moses on the site. Archaeological and reconstruction work has been continuing since the mid-1930s. As in Madaba there are significant mosaic finds being reconstructed on site; the work is slow and painstaking.






My next post will be on Petra. The wonderful temples and structures carved into the rock at Petra generally date from the late 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD.

There may be other countries in which such a range of excellent sites representing so many different ancient civilisations could be found strung along a 250km stretch of road, but I doubt there are many. Or maybe that just means I haven’t been to them yet; possibly Israel, or the Lebanon. However, I may wait until those two are on friendly terms with each other before I visit them.

Along the route we covered some surprisingly rugged country including deep ravines. In one of these we crossed a major dam providing power and water. We also saw several nomadic herders' tents beside their flocks.




I arranged my driver through the tour agency in the Commodore Hotel. He got me there and back safely; as a stranger in a strange land you can't ask much more than that.

Cheers, Alan