Category: Photographs

Just finished culling and editing. Post to follow. (Eventually)

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Today, being Tuesday, I have an Arabic lesson at the AUC main campus.

So, I go out to hail a taxi to get there.

I begin the taxi hailing process:

Stand in street, stick hand out into street, positioned at about 7:30. As the taxi slows down, yell in the window where you want to go. If the taxi driver wants to go there he’ll stop. If not, he will keep going.

To get a taxi from where I live (Zamalek) to campus (Midan Tahrir) at the time of day that I normally want to get there (around 1-2pm), can be difficult because the traffic can be very very bad. I have had as many as 8 taxis refuse to take me there.

I see a taxi approach, I put out my hand. I notice that there is a small boy sitting in the front seat. Now, it is not uncommon to share taxis here. If there is an empty seat, the taxi driver will slow down to hear where you want to go, and if it is on the way or nearby to his current destination, he will pick you up.

Both passengers still pay “full fare”, you get no discount.

But, I prefer not to get into a taxi that already has a passenger, cause the taxi driver’s definition of “on the way” and my definition of “on the way” do not match.

So, I drop my hand to wait for the next taxi, but he stops and asks where I want to go. (It probably helps that I am obviously a foreigner and standing outside the AUC hostel, so he figures:

• I am obviously “rich”
• I probably won’t know how much I should pay
• and I am probably going to AUC campus.

I tell him, he agrees and I get in the back seat.

He takes an ill-advised route to get there [one pays a “well known” rate. it doesn’t matter how long it takes or how far out of your way he goes, the rate is the same]. I assume it is because he has to drop off the boy, so he chose the most congested, crowded route possible.

A few minutes of silence go by, and the man turns to the kid and says something about “bokra, insh’allah” and “khallas” which mean “tomorrow, god willing” and “enough!”.

The boys starts crying. sobbing and pleading. I got enough of the conversation that this has been an ongoing argument for sometime (days?) and that the taxi driver (who I realize is the kid’s father, based on the kid’s use of “baba”) has had “enough” and whatever it is will happen or get dealt with tomorrow.

More silence.

But that doesn’t last for long, because neither one of them is smart enough to let it go.

The boy will break the silence, begging to which the father will answer abruptly and again use “khallas”.

The boy will shut up.

After a few minutes of silence, the father will bring it up again and the boy will sob and plead.

Silencfe.

The boy will sob and plead again.

lather, rinse, repeat.

It isn’t entirely unpleasant and I spend the time trying to pick out what few words I can of the Arabic. It isn’t easy when one of the parties is sobbing while talking.

So, we reach the far side (from campus) of Midan Tahrir. The end of my time with the quarrelling father son team is nearing an end.

Traffic is stopped. We are stopped for a while. I decide to take out my cell phone (sorry: “mobile” here) and try to call Kaddee to see if she has time to meet me for lunch when:

WHAM

what the hell was..

WHAM

My taxi got rear-ended by another taxi. And then the taxi that rear-ended us, got rear-ended.

We pull over and the arguing begins. There is gesticulating, yelling and a crowd forms.

I get out of the taxi to snap a couple of photos.

I decide to vacate when the cops, who have been sitting not 5 meters away watching the whole thing, decide to come over and start taking notes.

Time to beat feet to campus.

If the taxi adventures continue, we may need a “taxi” category to keep track of these.

So, we have made a list of places we want to see/visit.

One of these is the Nilometer. It is on the sub-list of “stuff to do when you don’t want to spend all day touristing”.

Short taxi ride, a hour tops at the site. Should be done by lunch time.

Heh.

We never made it. We had some communication problems with the taxi driver. The Nilometer is on an island transliterated to “Roda”. We were trying to pronounce it like the name “Rhoda”, with a long “o”. We learned later that it is pronounced more like “Rawda”.

So we passed the last bridge to the island of Roda, and continued south. “Uhh, turn around.” We got him to turn around but were unable to convey to him our desired destination. As we were wandering around I saw a landmark that I had seen on the map.

“henna kwayyiz!”: (Here is ok). He let us out and we pulled out the map. Figured out where we were and make a new tactical plan: The Nilometer is out, Coptic Cairo is in!

First stop was the gate to the Nunnery of St George. We did not go in, because the Synagogue was about to close and we wanted to see it. Seems that the Egyptian government has decreed that the Synagogue will close at 3pm during Ramadan.

So we went into to visit the Ben Ezra Synagogue. On the way to it, I was stopped by someone I thought was hawking stuff. (This is a constant state of affairs. I usually just ignore them and keep walking). But he was an older gentlemen, maybe 60-65 and he was different.

Turns out he is an Egyptian Jew who was there to tell people about the Synagogue. There are, apparently, only 300 Jews left in Cairo, according to him. Egypt used to have a rather large jewish community, even in “modern” times.

The Synagogue is in pretty good shape. They do not allow photos there. In fact I put my camera to my eye to use the telephoto lens to examine something that was roped off, and the guide put his griy hand all over my lens. Words were exchanged.

I am probably going to go back. All my jewish friends are getting yarmulke’s embroided with “Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo” on them for Hanukkah 🙂

Off we went to visit the Hanging Church. A major church (where the Coptic Pope gets consecrated) that might be from the 4th, 7th or 9th century, depending on which sources you believe.

It is still in active use today, and is undergoing restoration again. I took a few photos inside. They allowed flash which surprised me.

You can buy videos and dvds of the Pope preaching and praying. They have a room dedicated to this along with holographic images of the Pope and the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus.

Now, I was raised Catholic (nominally) and I was always slightly disturbed by the “icon” worship of it. Lots of photographs and paintings of saints and popes. (and JFK).

But this place was something else entirely. Kind of a combo of Catholic gift shops and the gas station with the velvet Elvis paintings for sale, if you know what I mean.

So, from there we got overly ambitious and decided to head to Roda Island and try to visit the Nil-ometer anyway.

The problem is: we are on the wrong side of the wall and the metro tracks. We have to get west from where we are.

We walk. And we walk. And we walk some more.

We finally find a street/ally that looks likely enough to get us in the general direction we want to go. This alley goes through an older part of the city, that is apparently panel beater ally and muffler shop ally. Lots of holks up on blocks being stripped or rebuilt. A lot of hand tools and manual labor used here.

We finally get to the island of Roda and realize we are in the middle of Roda. It is 4PM , we are still a considerable walk from the Nilometer. It is hot, we have not eaten since a late breakfast, everything is now closed so people can get home for Iftar.

A new tactical plan is made. We head for the north end of Roda (the south end is where the Nilometer is) and the Grand Hyatt complex. Stuff will be open there, we can get food and a beer.

So after a very long, hot and dry walk through mostly a residential area that had no place open to even buy a bottle of water., we arrive at the Hyatt.

After much vaccillation caused by exhaustion and low blood sugar, we finally decide to sit outside and join one of the restaurants Iftar buffet along the Nile.

The food was exquisite, the sunset was beautiful and the company was extremely pleasureable, as always.

My photos are here.

We toured the Mosque of Ahmad ibn Tulun and the Gayer Anderson Museum.

It was nice trip. I learned quite a bit about mosques in general and this one in particular.

My photos are here.

We went to the pyramids today.

It is an interesting experience.

The pyramids (at giza) are on the outskirts of Cairo. About a half hour drive from downtown, depending on traffic.

Cairo is in a canyon of sorts. Centuries of the Nile flooding and changing course has dug a canyon through the limestone. Cairo sits by the river bank at the bottom of that canyon.

The pyramids are on the ledge at the top of that canyon. All you really have to do is climb out of the canyon to reach them.

They are actually visible from town on a clear day. For the record: a clear day comes about once a year after a rainstorm washes all the pollution and dust from the air.

I only mention the canyon/ledge thing because it was something I never quite realized until someone pointed out that, I quote, “Cairo sits at the bottom of the grand canyon of egypt.”

I took some shots. Some of them are here .

Visiting the pyramids is surreal in some ways. I mean, these are some 4500 years old. It is hard to wrap your head around. Our guide described it as “every childs dream is to visit the pyramids”.

I am learning that the AUC bus tours should be treated as scouting missions. They give you just enough time to get the lay of the land, a sense of location and a clear plan on what to do when you come back on your own.

We did not go into either of the 2 major pyramids. The pyramid of Khufu(aka Cheops) only allows about 100 tourists/day. The ticket booth opens at 8am. If you are not already in line, chances are you are not going to get a ticket to go in.
The other pyramid that allows entrace is the pyramid of Khafre. (This Pharoah is the one “depicted” on the face of the Sphinx). This one has a seperate ticket booth and allows unlimited tourists to visit. However, by the time we were done with the Solar Boat museum, we didn’t feel we had enough time to do it justice, though some of our tourmates did it.

We will return for these 2.

The Solar Boat museum. Apparently the pharoah was taken up the Nile to his tomb by this boat. After he was entombed, the boat was buried along side the pyramid. After the judgement, the pharoah would sail the boat to eternity.

It was discovered by accident (like most tombs, pyramids and other artifacts. I have heard that if there was truth in advertising most tourist sites in Egypt would have plaques that say “Found by burro, ca xxxx”). They were cleaning up the site for a presidential visit and found it.

It was in 160-something pieces at the bottom of a trench, covered with huge limestock blocks. There were no nails or screws holding it together, all of the pieces were held together with rope.

They pieced it all together and it is hanging in the solar boat museum. (see the pics mentioned above). Nothing in the museum is a replica. It is all the actual articles. Pretty impressive stuff.

Today we visited the Khan al-Khalili, also know as the Turkish bazaar.

It is a combination tourist trap and marketplace.

The main “streets” through the Khan are full of tourist crap and ENTHUSIASTIC hawking. Calling out to obivous tourists in several languages until you respond. Stepping in front of you in an attempt to direct you into the store.

One humours exchange I had was:
Hello sir, good prices come see.

La, shukran. (no, thank you)
What are you looking for?

Nothing

Sir! I have nothing! come see…

Answering to any of these questions or comments will result in lots more questions:

Where you from?

What are you looking for?

Come see. Totally free!

To answer any of these will result in further high pressure tactics.

However, if one ducks down an side street, it is more for the locals. One gets away from the constant hucksterism. It is stil there, but they won’t actually follow you down the street trying to get you to turn around and come in. It is more of a

“hey, look sir! come in”

Ignoring then works.

I seem to gather a LOT of attention, looks, smiles and even laughter and pointing. It is a combo of the hat and the pony tail that seems to draw the attention.

Today I was addressed as:

Cowboy! where is your horse? no horse?
John Wayne

Hulk Hogan (?)

Ali Baba and Alexander (while making beard motions with their hands)

Women seem intrigued by the hair, mostly giggling about it.

The bazaar is divided into sections. We stumbed from one to another.
We went through

• fabrics
• clothing
• shoes
• industrial metal working: spools of wire, blacksmiths, men completely covered in coal dust working the furnaces
• art/decorative metal working: cupolas with the crescent etc, wall hanging
• rugs
• crystal
• furniture
• pots and pans
• jewelry
• food, prepared and groceries

The crush of humanity in some of these areas was intense. There were men and boys pushing carts through the tight alley ways, rolling over the feet of people that were not quick enough to get out of their way.

Today was a reconnaisance mission. We did not buy anything.

We will go back.

There are a handful of photos taken today here.

Since the weekend in this part of the world is Friday and Saturday, Thursday night is the “yea! it’s the end of the week” night. (Well at least for western-style employees. Most egyptians work 6 days a week, with their day off either Friday, is they are Muslim, or Sunday if they are Christian)

Anyway, one of the faculty members organizes a moving TGIT(Thank God It’s Thursday!) happy hour.

Last night was the first of the semester. It was at the roof top bar at the Nile Hilton.

It was a gorgeous sunset.

From the rooftop you can see the pyramids. I did not bother taking a photo, because they would be practically undetectable because of the haze. They might be visible if I had the big camera with the UV and polarizing filter, but I doubt it.

It was a lovely couple of hours sitting high above the Nile, looking out at the Cairo Tower (shown in the photo above) and The Citadel, and down on all the felucca’s and floating restaurants and pleasure craft on the nile. There is a nice breeze up there that nicely moderates the heat.

The beer is overpriced and really not that good, but it is worth the trip for a sunset every now and then.