To Cairo
The great pyramids of Giza
The journey from Lisbon to Cairo via Casablanca was supposed to be simple. At check-in we were cheerfully informed that the Casablanca to Cairo flight had been canceled, and would Sir like his bags checked right through to Cairo?
No thank you, just check the bags through to Casablanca please.
After landing in Casablanca we find that our Cairo flight is on schedule. Now, we are in the airport and our luggage is on the carousel in Morocco. It's a good thing that we didn't need visas to enter Morocco because we had to pass immigration to collect our bags and then customs and passport control to catch our flight. In all we maybe spent 20 minutes in Morocco.
chaotic Cairo rooftopsArrive Cairo; change some money, buy some whiskey (the usual stuff) then head for the door. Through the glass airport walls we can see the touts circling, the omni-present police keeping them out of the airport proper. After a brief circus we find a taxi to Giza for 70 Egyptian pounds (LE), way more than the guide book suggests, but we need some sleep and it's hot standing around in the airport parking lot.
The ride to Giza is insane. We were caught in morning rush-hour which starts at 6am and ends at 12am (no joke). Traffic was bumper-to-bumper for the 20 km trip. Drivers pay no attention to: lines, lights, street signs, pedestrians, police, and other vehicles. The right of way goes to the pushiest driver. Without a doubt, these are taxi drivers; their cars are old Ladas that are beat to hell so they really have nothing to lose if they get hit. Nobody can gather enough momentum from within the gridlock to inflict any serious damage to neighboring vehicles in a collision. So those that can withstand the greatest amount of denting push through the scrum the fastest. Throughout this slow river of cars, trucks and buses, pedestrians try their luck at crossing the street by racing into the empty spaces left by the preceding vehicles. Adding to the general traffic chaos were broken down buses, and strange traffic calming mechanisms made the trip take over 90 minutes.
Our hotel was a soulless 5 star dump. I had high hopes for the place: it offered a commanding view of the Pyramids from our room. It turned out that the hotel staff couldn't boil an egg.
Chaste mannequins just off of Talat HaarbAfter a couple of nights we moved from Giza to downtown Cairo. Our room overlooked Sharia Talat Haarb; the Toronto or San Francisco equivalents of Yonge or Market Streets. Our first night there was Thursday, and we found out that Thursday night is party night (Muslims go to mosque on Friday). So everybody was out window shopping, eating or having a sheesha and people watching. The young men dress up in freshly ironed Diesel t-shirts and acid-wash blue jeans, while the girls assimilate western fashion into what becomes marginally more modest, but seemingly acceptable outfits with carefully co-ordinated headscarfs accesorized with the latest decorative pins.
We did manage to get out into the old city to see the very beautiful 8th century mosque of Ibn Tulun, and the not so impressive mosque of Mohammed Ali. Once you walked out beyond the hustling tourist areas it was just what we imagined it would be. Narrow unlit streets, where donkey carts are still used, and children work and play late into the evening. The shopkeepers we passed were friendly and a watchman, for a little baksheesh, let us into a mosque for a quick look around.
After this we're heading up the Nile to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.
view from the minaret at Ibn Tulun mosque